Rdio Review: iTunes, I think we should just be friends

I love music.  In my younger years, I carried two booklets of CDs and my Discman with me regularly.  Once I was a little older, I eagerly jumped into the world of the iPod and entered the digital music arena.  Since then, a combination of iPods and computers have been my primary method of managing and listening to music.

While this has been undoubtedly more convenient than the CD booklets of yesteryear, I still find my current setup to be a bit of a hassle.  On more than one occasion I've lost music while moving from one computer to another.  There's also the constant struggle to keep music organized, as well as within a reasonable size so not to engulf my entire hard drive (it may not sound like a problem, but the new Macbook Air base model has only 64GB of storage... so my moderately sized library would eat about 20% of the available space).

With this in mind, I've been trying out the online music service, Rdio.  Rdio is not Pandora.  It's not a radio replacement.  Rather, think Netflix for music.  Think recreating your iTunes library on the web.  The selection and quality are good.  Moreover, the site offers a 7-day trial.  So as the tag says, from here on out iTunes and I are just friends.  Rdio is my new music provider.  Let's take a little tour.


Rdio Home

Home is where the heart is.

Nothing too out of the ordinary with the home screen.  You can see that your account name is at the top with a photo, the player is on the left side.  Regardless of where you navigate within Rdio, you can continue to manage your music with the player.  Like most home screens, it's a combination of your own personal music and a display of other content.

Rdio Collection

Now who's the Reaper!?

Here's where the magic begins.  In the pic above, those circles represent your artists (you can set it to album or song as well) and the size of the circle represents the number of plays (which can also be changed to fluctuate based on number of songs).  There's really nothing too flashy about this setup, but it works well.

On selection, I've yet to have an artist that I couldn't find and add, and I have a pretty damn eclectic taste in music. For reference, I heard an artist named "Kishi Bashi" at a concert in June, and yeah, Rdio had all four of his songs (seriously, listen to "Bright Whites"). Here's some of the other stuff I've grabbed:  Ben Folds, The Rolling Stones, Beck, the Counting Crows, Aerosmith, and Weezer (just to name a few).

Recommendations

My favorite part about Rdio is the recommendations.  I love discovering new music, but finding a new artists is a bit of a challenge.  Moreover, if a friend recommends an artist, I'm still hesitant to spend money on an unproven artist.  Even in the best possible situation, where I like the artist, I find that the artist has 5 to 10 albums and I'm not prepared to drop $100 to acquire it all (even if I'd like to).  In the past, I've resorted to listening to the short versions on iTunes or pirating the stuff, neither of which I'm particularly happy doing.  Rdio fills this void by creating a location for users to discover music and test out that music at no significant cost.

Other Devices


Most of your Rdio time will be spent in the web browser, but the service also offers applications for a variety of devices (Android, iOS, and Roku to name a few).  They've even thought of the fact that streaming music takes a toll on a person's data, so there is an option to sync songs to your device.  A nice touch.

Wrap Up


In some way, Rdio is my way of lashing back at my own history of pirating.  Recently, I've been trying to change my ways and often purchase my music off of Amazon.  Yet, I still listen to a lot of stuff that I did not acquire legally.  Rdio is a way to remedy that situation and an offer of so much more.  Better yet, the service doesn't feel like its struggling in any way.  Even Netflix at times feels limited in content.  I don't get that from Rdio.  Give it a try.  That's my advice.

SCORE:  I will very likely be purchasing the service and hopefully deleting some shit out of iTunes.  Also, Rdio and I will spoon on the couch.

Cross-faded Wednesday: Review of the Reviews

Every Wednesday, I'm going to have a frank, honest discussion about a topic with... my own mind.  So for clarification, ED is myself, while EM is my mind's response.  Enjoy an exercise in dialogue that confuses self definition.

ED:  Well brain, here we are at the first edition of cross-faded Wednesday.  Thoughts?

EM:  You stole the phrase "cross-faded."

ED:  Okay, that isn't the point of today.  We're talking about reviews.  In fact, that's the point of the week.

EM:  I'm reviewing the reviews.  0 out of 10.  Done.

ED:  Constructive criticism?

EM:  Okay.  You've reviewed two movies only to inform your readers that you hated both of them.  That isn't "reviewing," that's bitching.

ED:  I really really tried to like them.  But damn it, they were so bad.

EM:  I don't buy it.  You hate all movies.

ED:  I liked Tron!

EM:  Shush.  Tron sucked and you suck.  I give your reviews a C-.

ED:  This was a nice discussion.

EM:  You're a nice discussion.  Zing.

The end.

Transformers 3 Adventure: Part 3: This Time Lincoln is Discussed

Okay.  The Movie is beginning.  Begin robot fights now!

Either activity would have been more entertaining.

BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE

I think three things happened.
1.  The movie mixed the U.S./Soviet space race into the Transformers' fiction.  My life isn't any better for it, but it was done relatively well.
2.  Of course a girl's ass is involved.  When your cast can't act, you need to resort to a little sex.
3.  Optimus Prime, explaining how his war is over (I guess the decepticons, or the bad robots, were defeated in the prior movie.  I can't remember because I fell asleep.), goes on to describe how the autobots are helping the humans maintain peace.  And by maintain peace, he means that the robots roll into Arab countries and destroy military bases.

THE MIDDLISH PART OF THE MOVIE

Okay, the middlish part was extremely confusing because the director, Michael Bay, could never decide if he wanted the audience to feel a.) sad/emotional; b.) excited about military porn; or c.) amused by slapstick comedy.  In one such instance, there's a character who is very clearly written to be funny.  He continues acting funny all the way through the scene where he is thrown out a window and presumably smashed against the concrete below.  This wouldn't be so weird, except a kid in the theater laughed a very prolonged laugh about the whole situation.  It was quite disturbing and awkward.

Here's some other stuff that happened:

1.  For some reason Megatron wears a cloak.  He's a robot.  What the hell is going on?
2.  So, the villains spend most of the movie trying to create some kind of teleport system to get a bunch of bad robots to earth.  Upon completion of this, a bunch of the bad robots come out from under the moon's surface.  This made absolutely no sense.  Why are they in the moon?  Do robots grow in the moon? Also, a lot of the robots can fly, so what was the point of the teleport system?
3.  A noticeable absence of robot fighting.  :(
4.  Okay, okay, okay.  Megatron and the beard robot are in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  Megatron, who basically has not done a single thing for the majority of the movie, shoots Lincoln and sits on the chair.  My jaw dropped, my eyes bulged, and a gaping hole was left in the place where my mind takes in the movie's plot.  I guess the decepticons have a deep understanding of American symbolism.
5.  Umm, I guess there are animal transformers now, a snake and a bird.  There's probably a fish, but we never go underwater.  I don't approve.  I am not 7 years old and this is not Beast Wars.

THE END (?)

Optimus Prime declares how much he loves freedom.  The funny part is he says this as Chicago is burning, he just murdered two robots, and he still doesn't have a home.  Frankly Optimus, your version of freedom sucks.

The best character in the film was Megatron.  First, he doesn't say very much.  This is good because every line of dialogue in the movie is terrible.  Second, he is the only consistent character.  He's evil.  That's it.  He's no deeper than that, but he fucking sticks to that principle like a champ.  Bravo Megatron.

The worst character was Shia LaBeouf for the reason iterated above: he speaks the most.  And as far as I can tell, his motivation is somewhere between saving the world and finding a job.  On occasion, he also strives to be a dedicated boyfriend as well as a solider.  I'm not really sure what is going on, but a majority of his time is spent being a little whiner.  Boo.

SCORE:  Not only would I never watch this movie again, but I have also vowed that in two years I will not be tricked into going to another one of these shitty films.

Harry Potter and the Triange-Circle-Line Necklace!: Part 1

Okay, wrong movie poster, but that's the triangle/circle/line thing!  I would tell you what it means, but I wouldn't want to ruin the only plot point of Part 1.  

I want to establish that I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books.  When Voldemort returned due to the ineptitude of all the main characters, I was still figuratively screaming at the top of my lungs that this shit is on.  (I was actually in marching band practice at the U of M.  The conductor was working with the woodwinds.  I don't really know what I was supposed to be doing.)  So, hell yeah to Harry Potter.

However, I must add that my own personal reception to the movies has been reserved at best, cold to disappointed at worst.  However, for most of the movies, I've been willing to simply shove this off as the fallout from a person who read all the books and enjoyed them.  Movies just can't compare with the excitement a person's own imagination can conjure.  

All that on the table, I finished the First Part of the 7th Movie last night, turned to my roommate and said, "I didn't think this was very good."  And you know what, I still don't think it's very good.

Harry Potter on the whole is a simple hero story wrapped in a complex and interesting universe.  Surrounding Harry, the red head, and the girl is a setting filled with political strife, undercover rebellion, romance, and thick backstory for most, if not all, characters.  All of which this movie pays lip service to, but otherwise pretty much ignores.  

What's in the movie instead?  Well, a nice, formulaic structure based around Harry and his friends being scared and a myriad of chase sequences.  To be honest, I would be less judgmental if they had cut some of the junk from the movie.  But hey, of course I needed a chase sequence on a motorcycle, a chase sequence through the ministry of magic, and a chase sequence through a forest.

Cap this all off with Harry stroking an elf as it dies, and you have one of the weirdest, least climactic endings to a movie I've seen  in a while.  Here's the ending: Voldemort gets a wand and an elf dies.  Wow.  What will happen next?  I think I'm most excited to see how they transition from being on the beach to another chase sequence.  I'd ask JK Rowling, but she's too busy bathing in money to answer.  

SCORE:  I would not watch it again.

It's Review Week!

Wow, due to forces out of my control (way in my control), I'm hoping that I'll be able to drop some reviews on:

1.  The Trek 1.2 Road Bike

2.  Rdio online music service

3.  Harry Potter and the Triangle-Circle-Line: Part 1

4.  Some local attractions

So Enjoy!

Michael Scott: Ugh... who's ahead in points?
Pam Beesly: Well, I think they're even. At various times you gave Jim 10 points, Dwight a gold star, and Stanley a thumbs up. And I don't really know how to compare those to...
Michael Scott: Check to see if there's a conversion chart.
Pam Beesly: ...I really doubt it Michael.
Michael Scott: Please just check. 

Transformers 3 Adventure: Part Two: Mustaches and Lincoln

Wow.  We're back again through my T3 journey.  Now we cover the most exciting part!  To set the stage, I am seeing this movie with three other friends.  Autobots, transform!

IN THE THEATER/DURING THE MOVIE

Why wouldn't a robot have a mustache?

Lobby
-  Chose not to go to the 3D version, ticket salesman looks broken inside.  I already have to live in 3D, why would I want to watch  a movie in it.
-  I want snacks, but they are so damn expensive.  I really should just sneak some in.  If the usher tries to pat me down, I'll just tell him not to be such a sour patch kid.  In his hysteria after the joke, I will slink away with the actual sour patch kids in my pocket.
-  Okay, for some reason we had to go up an escalator and down an elevator to get to our theater.  I am very confused, but being so close to the theater, I put it behind me.

In Theater: "pre" previews
-  We found seats.  What's the deal with the front row of seats?  It must be punishment for anyone showing up late.  If you show up late, you deserve scoliosis.  That's AMC's policy.
-  You know, I don't care how they make ketchup look like blood in Dexter or how Mariah Carey is opening an animal shelter under the Sydney Opera House.  I hate the "pre" previews, the C- previews really.  To be honest, considering I'm going to be given a face full of sound and video for the next two hours, a little silence prior to that would be nice.

In Theater: "actual" previews
-  This is my favorite part.  All the promise of a new film with no chance of the movie ruining everything for me with bad acting or plot.  Really there's just not enough time for it to do so.
-  Some guy showed up late and he's having a discussion with his friend about where to sit.  You know what dude, go to the front row and suffer from incurable back spasms for the rest of your life like all the other late low lives out there.
-  Wow!  Cowboys vs. Aliens!  Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and no George Lucas to ruin the entire movie.

TO BE CONTINUED

OS X Lion: Top 5 New Features from a PC User

Also available in a special "Disney Princess" edition.

Apple has finally released its new OS, Mac OS X Lion.  While I no longer tote around a Mac, I definitely wanted to take the time to lay out my top five favorite new features included in the OS, pulled directly from apple.com.  Is it worth $30?  Who knows?  Read on to see the wonderful world of Lion!

1. Multi-touch Gestures

If you've ever used a Mac's two-finger scroll, there's not much more I can tell you.  Windows hardware is plagued by low quality at best, non-existent at worst, multi-touch gestures.  While I won't say that touch is the future of laptop and desktop interaction, it can be damn useful in certain situations.  I love you two-finger scroll.

2.  Auto Save

Alright, so I am admitting that this post is going to radically decay into features that are totally underwhelming.  This feature falls somewhere in the middle.  Apple is touting a new auto save feature that saves in the background so you're not interrupted, saves everything in a single file, and allows you to return to old versions.  Now, I admit this is fantastic... except I'm not sure what applications don't already perform this very same task.  As it turns out, I'm pretty sure Microsoft Word has auto saved for maybe a decade and I know for a fact that Google Docs has done the same for quite some time.  So way to advertise something that's been around for years.  But really, that's what Apple does best.

3.  Full Screen Apps

Oh thank goodness.  While I will concede that full screen applications can be useful on an 11" screen, the benefit outside of that situation is limited.  However, even in that situation, is my life really improved considerably by removing a menu bar at the top of the screen that occupies maybe 1/20 of my screen?  I'm so relieved that I can read one more line of text in emails or web pages.  PS.  Apple includes full screen Calender, Mail, Photo Booth, Preview, Quick Time, Safari, etc., as well as the ability to exit full screen mode as part of its 250 new features.  Bravo Apple.  Bravo.

4.  Launch Pad

Launch Pad is a single location where you can launch any of your applications.  If only there had been a way to launch applications prior to this!?  As I recall, the only way to accomplish this was to 1.) launch from the desktop; 2.) launch from the dock; 3.) launch from Spotlight; 4.) launch from the applications folder.  Really, four ways was too few.  Often, I myself was lost when faced with the agonizing task of opening iTunes.  In addition, Launch Pad allows you to organize your apps any way you like and delete apps.  Again, if only this was possible prior to Lion!?  Um, it was.

5.  Finder

And finally, the last upgrade impressed upon me is Finder's ability to let you view all your files in a single window. For the record, a quick view of the total files in my "Program Files" folder on my computer yielded a total of nearly 80,000 files.  I can't tell you how relieved I am that Mac OS X Lion is finally allowing me to view all of those in a single window.  Because, many of my computing problems have certainly resulted from me not being able to view thousands of files at once.  Again, Apple pushes the boundary of computing.


I hope you were informed.  Rock on $30.  Unless you haven't upgraded to the version prior to Lion, in which case that will cost you $30 first, then Lion will cost another $30.  Another one of the 250 upgrades I presume.

Take that you Rich, Snobby Schools

Also, a teacher told me today that she has a window AC unit.  Seriously?!   No wonder we have a budget problem when teachers are paid that kind of salary.

The budget battle of Minnesota has ended, and thank god we borrowed money from those rich, snobby schools to fix our problems.  The education budget bill, passed after the longest shutdown in state history and through a compromise between Dayton and the no-new-spending GOP, delays $700 million in order to balance the state budget.  That's 40 percent of their total budget that will be delayed, and it couldn't come a minute sooner.  In fact, we should have come up with this idea earlier, since every time I go to a school, I see students with champagne flutes and monocles frolicking through the halls.  But wait, we did think of this already.  Last year, 30 percent of payments were on hold.  It's a relief to me that we've bumped it to 40 percent this year.

Although, I will say that I'm a bit disappointed in those generous, socialist Republicans.  Can you believe that in this year's budget they upped the amount the State gives schools per student by $50?  That is disgusting.  I'm sick of these teachers, students, custodians, you name the school employee, rolling up to the school, or "palace" as I call it,  in BMWs and Maseratis.  The only solace I have is that 40 percent of the $50 will be delayed, setting the payment at a cool $20 per student.

Now that's how you manage a budget.  You see, it's like we're not spending the money as long as we're not paying it right away.  It's called being responsible.  It's something you bleeding heart liberals wouldn't understand.  Sometimes daddy just needs to say no to the kids.  So to you spoiled, oversupplied, too well fed, too many after school program offered students, I say boohoo, too bad.  Our state is finally being responsible, refusing to tax the richest 0.3 percent of Minnesotans, and borrowing money to balance the budget.

Transformers 3 Adventure: Part One: Robots are Mad... again!

This is the log of my journey through Transformers 3.  Beginning to end.  For better or worse.

BEFORE THE MOVIE

I hate most movies, but I will...

Okay.  So I'm a Transformers fan.  Not of the movie, TV show, or the potentially existing comics, but of the concept.  Robots fighting.  I can get on board with that.  This is my mind set going to the movie.  I watched the previews.  Some robots fired some missiles.  They talked some robo smack.  I was in.

I've watched 1.5 of the previous 2 movies.  Not too bad in my opinion.  Here's the plot:  Apparently some robots got mad at each other on another planet, and now they're mad at each other here on earth.  Beyond that, I'm not sure why humans are consulted or considered in the robots' wheelings and dealings, but apparently we are.  For the most part, that's the plot.  As iterated in the previous paragraph, I'm still on board.

Here's my aspirations for the movie: please let robots fight.  The previews looked promising.  I can't really remember if the previous movies had a lot of robot fighting.  Oh what the hell, look at all those robots.  The whole fucking movie must be only robot fighting.  Fingers crossed.

Name Chosen, Achievement Unlocked, Participation Award

Two-Wheel Observer.  That's the name.  Erictalk is a fine title, but I've never liked using my own name in the title of my blog.  Imagine if the main character of every Steven King title was, "Steve, Steven, or Stevie."  Not cool man.

Minnesota GOP: WTF?

Minnesota has been a chasm of political fighting for the past year.  Month in and month out, before the session even started, Dayton and the GOP have been hammering their positions.  Each were fully aware of the budget scenario and each had very clear goal:

Dayton:  Wanted to raise taxes to fill the budget deficit, avoiding cuts to current programs as they existed.

GOP:  Wanted to spend exactly what the State would bring in, which would result in a need to cut funding in certain areas of the budget due to the projected increase in costs.

Okay, so we've go two relatively clear goals.  'New spending to continue programs as they are' and 'no new spending; modify programs as needed.'

Now, I'll admit that I'm a liberal and I supported Dayton.  I just flat out would rather the government provide more help to citizens if they need it.  That's me.  No hard feelings.  However, I can respect and understand the opposing argument if it is logical. My problem is that the GOP was illogical for a majority of the session and illogical in its resolution.  Here's why:

Go back to Dayton's goal as I laid it out.  He wanted to keep full funding for programs as they existed.  Despite that the revenue came from a shift and a loan against tobacco settlement payments, the resolution was consistent with his goal: to fund the current programs as much as possible.  Taxes were the means to this end.

However, the GOP goal was essentially that spending not increase.  Sure the resolution didn't involve any new taxes, but they still authorized a spending increase.  Moreover, the GOP regularly touted how the State needs to be responsible and live within its means.  Yet, the resolution was solved by borrowing and a one time source of money.  While that rhetoric isn't necessarily contradicted by the chosen solution, I an inconsistency is present.

Ultimately, my problem with the GOP is that they did exactly what they've been so damn insistent on not doing.  Not only that, but they did it in the worst possible way, through debt and one time money.  Whether you believe government should be smaller or larger, whether taxes should increase or decrease, it should at least be done in a responsible way.  But that should have been fucking obvious.

GOP to Dayton: "You talking is a non-starter"

As the shutdown continues, it seems that budget negotiations between the GOP House leader Kurt Zeller, GOP Senate leader Amy Koch, and DFL Governor Mark Dayton continue to deteriorate.  While past debates between the two sides were marked by the Republican assertion that any increase in taxes would be a "non-starter," the GOP has upped the tension by stating that any attempt by Dayton to speak would be a "non-starter" as well.

Dayton, disappointed by this turn of events, responded that "we had already taken a step back in progress, but this is like taking five more steps back.  And we had only gone two steps forward to begin with.  We're not even on the Earth anymore."

Dayton has already sent a counteroffer to the Republicans, offering to use typed letters, sign language, or a series of pictures to help move the process forward.

Rumors coming from cone-of-silence talks between the two parties indicated that the GOP may be willing to allow Dayton to communicate with them through a series of other people performing sign language for him.  However, Koch and Zellers stated in a press conference today that any type of speech, whether it's written, drawn, signed, or done through another is a non-starter.

Dayton is reportedly hopeful that the GOP will change its attitude as the shutdown continues, but he states that his optimism is, "non-started."

Supreme Court Rules that it can do "pretty much anything."

"We're like a bunch of fucking supervillains."

Today, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in SCOTUS v. United States.  The case, brought up and decided by the Supreme Court without any prompting by anyone, followed a long string of precedent beginning with Marbury v. Madison affirming that the Supreme Court can do pretty much whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

Written Per Curiam, the Court cited Marbury's famous language, "it is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is, " clarifying that this basically means that "we make the god damn rules."

Many are critical of the decision, stating that the Constitution does not give the judiciary the power to do whatever it wants, to which the Court responded, "Judicial review bitch."  The Supreme Court particularly called out critics charging the Court with being too active in the past, stating that "if they don't like it, they can vote us out.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha."

While some scholars believe this represents a radical shift in the Court's policy, many are stating that this is nothing new to the United States.  Former Justice Stevens gave his opinion, explaining that, "in the past, if we wanted school's desegregated, you better believe they were desegregated.  If we wanted some tapes from the president, likewise, he did it with a smile.  And, if the current Court wants every U.S. citizen to marry a person of the same sex while buying state offered health care, you'll all fucking do it."

President Obama and Congress have responded by passing a law stating that it is "emphatically the province and duty of all branches but the Judicial Department to say what the law is," but the Court is expected to strike the law down on the basis of the rule of the school yard: we got here first.