Because I'm easy come, easy go
Two things here, and I've managed to link them both to the title lyric/song.
I was thinking recently about how not-materialistic I am, and how that's kind of weird considering how much of a pack rat I am. I think I've figured out what it is: I'm not materialistic because I'm lazy. Now, when I say I'm lazy, I'm not speaking about lethargy. I'm talking about spending effort in efficient ways. A large part of this is that many things are just not worth the effort.
For example, I managed to screw up my desktop computer recently and now it won't boot. The Master Boot Record is probably corrupted. Now, I could spend some time fixing it, but that would be a lot of effort. I generally only use my desktop machine because it's hooked up to my speakers, so I'll play music on that while I'm on my laptop. And I've mitigated that reason by using my USB laptop dock to easily hook up my laptop to the speakers when I'm using the laptop at my desk - which recently has been most of the time, because I'm working on my graduate school essays and watching less TV. So it's not worth the effort right now to fix my desktop machine.
Ok, so the application of this to materialism: I'm not materialistic because I'm generally fine with my living situation. I don't mean "content with" or "happy with" necessarily, but "fine with". Obtaining new things is a way to improve one's living situation. So the effort - and money - to get something new is usually not worth it. For example, because of a mix-up with my debit card, I was unable to get a double-size mattress when I got my double-size bed frame. However, I have a twin-size mattress. So I've been using that mattress on my bed frame for the last 5 months. And I'm fine with that. And Laura was fine with it, so that didn't prompt me to go get a new mattress (although it probably would have at some point). Same with my cell phone - the vibration broke, but it still works, so spending a bunch of money on a new phone is just..meh.
So, I really like Rhapsody. Even better than Musicmatch at this point. The lack of allmusic integration is sad, as is the response time of the UI. But other than that, it's way better. The player displays trivia about the artist currently playing. You can rate tracks, artists, and albums. That goes into Rhapsody's recommendation engine, which has several really cool features. It recommends new artists for you. But it is integrated into two other neat things in Rhapsody:
First, channels. Channels are like internet radio: you can't pause, and you can't go back. They have specific themes, and also for any artist, there's an artist channel that plays them and music like them. And then there's "My Rhapsody Channel", which plays music based on what you play and what you rate - a great way to hear new music, and it's been quite good so far (and getting better as I rate more stuff). I hear barely anything I've ever heard of, which is the way I like it.
Second, playlists. They have a "Playlist Central" where you can view and save playlists produced by Rhapsody, celebrities (e.g., Joaquin Phoenix, the Dandy Warhols), and users (you can share your playlists). But then they have this quite neat new feature called dynamic playlists. They are playlists that are regenerated every time you sign on. They have genre playlists, but then more like "dinner music" and "makeout mix". And then of course, "My Dynamic Playlist", that you can refresh whenever you want.
The playlist generator in Rhapsody has some advantages over Musicmatch: you can specify up to 10 criteria, but what's neat is that it gets saved to your playlist, uh, list. So it's like a query, and you can edit the criteria afterwards to change it. For example, I've got one that consists of all my unrated music, so that I can go through all of it and rate them - and when I rate it (which is possible from the "now playing" area), it immediately disappears from the playlist. The only thing that it doesn't have is the ability to pull similar artists from the On Demand service, but I think the channels and dynamic playlists make up for that.
And! I'm going to get this mp3 player, which has super sweet integration with Rhapsody - you can load channels on to it. And of course the dynamic playlists. But the channels is what I think is really cool. I'm looking forward to playing the "My Channel" on my commute, since I don't have the Current down here.
I was thinking recently about how not-materialistic I am, and how that's kind of weird considering how much of a pack rat I am. I think I've figured out what it is: I'm not materialistic because I'm lazy. Now, when I say I'm lazy, I'm not speaking about lethargy. I'm talking about spending effort in efficient ways. A large part of this is that many things are just not worth the effort.
For example, I managed to screw up my desktop computer recently and now it won't boot. The Master Boot Record is probably corrupted. Now, I could spend some time fixing it, but that would be a lot of effort. I generally only use my desktop machine because it's hooked up to my speakers, so I'll play music on that while I'm on my laptop. And I've mitigated that reason by using my USB laptop dock to easily hook up my laptop to the speakers when I'm using the laptop at my desk - which recently has been most of the time, because I'm working on my graduate school essays and watching less TV. So it's not worth the effort right now to fix my desktop machine.
Ok, so the application of this to materialism: I'm not materialistic because I'm generally fine with my living situation. I don't mean "content with" or "happy with" necessarily, but "fine with". Obtaining new things is a way to improve one's living situation. So the effort - and money - to get something new is usually not worth it. For example, because of a mix-up with my debit card, I was unable to get a double-size mattress when I got my double-size bed frame. However, I have a twin-size mattress. So I've been using that mattress on my bed frame for the last 5 months. And I'm fine with that. And Laura was fine with it, so that didn't prompt me to go get a new mattress (although it probably would have at some point). Same with my cell phone - the vibration broke, but it still works, so spending a bunch of money on a new phone is just..meh.
So, I really like Rhapsody. Even better than Musicmatch at this point. The lack of allmusic integration is sad, as is the response time of the UI. But other than that, it's way better. The player displays trivia about the artist currently playing. You can rate tracks, artists, and albums. That goes into Rhapsody's recommendation engine, which has several really cool features. It recommends new artists for you. But it is integrated into two other neat things in Rhapsody:
First, channels. Channels are like internet radio: you can't pause, and you can't go back. They have specific themes, and also for any artist, there's an artist channel that plays them and music like them. And then there's "My Rhapsody Channel", which plays music based on what you play and what you rate - a great way to hear new music, and it's been quite good so far (and getting better as I rate more stuff). I hear barely anything I've ever heard of, which is the way I like it.
Second, playlists. They have a "Playlist Central" where you can view and save playlists produced by Rhapsody, celebrities (e.g., Joaquin Phoenix, the Dandy Warhols), and users (you can share your playlists). But then they have this quite neat new feature called dynamic playlists. They are playlists that are regenerated every time you sign on. They have genre playlists, but then more like "dinner music" and "makeout mix". And then of course, "My Dynamic Playlist", that you can refresh whenever you want.
The playlist generator in Rhapsody has some advantages over Musicmatch: you can specify up to 10 criteria, but what's neat is that it gets saved to your playlist, uh, list. So it's like a query, and you can edit the criteria afterwards to change it. For example, I've got one that consists of all my unrated music, so that I can go through all of it and rate them - and when I rate it (which is possible from the "now playing" area), it immediately disappears from the playlist. The only thing that it doesn't have is the ability to pull similar artists from the On Demand service, but I think the channels and dynamic playlists make up for that.
And! I'm going to get this mp3 player, which has super sweet integration with Rhapsody - you can load channels on to it. And of course the dynamic playlists. But the channels is what I think is really cool. I'm looking forward to playing the "My Channel" on my commute, since I don't have the Current down here.