Music Service

iTunes, Walkman, iPod, Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify... my music device/service history has been all over the place. 

Vaccinations and other updates!

This will be one of those 'lots of little updates' posts.  Let's see... I want to talk about taxes, computer upgrades, car dreams, vaccinations, work future, weather, music and music services, new meds, and maybe some more.  Let's start with filing my 2020 taxes. 

You (I) should be sad

I've talked about being sad before.  I've talked about having a Caitlyn side and how that affects me before.  I don't think I've ever talked about my Caitlyn side effecting or being affected by my sadness before.  Now, before I get to far into this I need to clear up how I think of myself.  I now accept that my feminine 'side' is a journey.  From 10 years ago when I started my Caitlyn's Masks blog and was an avowed heterosexual man with a fetish fantasy to now where I consider myself queer with a masculine side and a feminine side.  It's not static.  I don't think I'll consider myself in the same way 10 years from now.  But I no longer consider 'Caitlyn' a side or separate part of my conciousness... its just me under this skin.  Sometimes I'm feminine.  Sometimes I'm masculine.  Sometimes I'm both, sometimes I'm neither.  Language just doesn't quite cover how I feel and know I am, so forgive me if I stumble over words.  

Apple wins again

As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up for a 3 month trial of Apple Music and have been working on it since then.  But before I go into that experience, let me talk a bit about using the iPhone and my thoughts on Apple as a whole.

The Frustration of Music in Nina has Returned

I had it.   I had the solution.  After years of mild to moderate to massive frustration solved.  Screw with iPods or Walkmans, I'd just go with the limitations of bluetooth and accept a bit of lost fidelity.  Honestly after doing it for almost a month I only found the loss of quality to be annoying on a handful of songs.  But that goodness lasted all of a month and now I'm at a loss again.

Covid and other updates

None of these subjects are long or in depth enough to warrant their own post, so here's another famous update riddled entry!  I hope to talk about my recently deceased aunt, my thoughts on Covid-19, my specific thoughts about working as a nurse through this viral outbreak, sharing some new music, and my final solution to getting music in the car.

Dungeons & Dragons & More

I know I've mentioned playing Dungeons and Dragons before.  Both in the vague sense that I've played as a kid and enjoyed it thoroughly and in the vague sense that I'm showing my nephews how to play it now.  But as I've been playing the part of Dungeon Master again for several months now and spent last night playing with the group, I figured I could take a deeper dive and talk about it.  If I have time, I'll go further into this post and talk about my 'normal' weekend plans, explaining pain as my dental work is attacking me again, and maybe even about owning a dog or politics.  We'll get all crazy on this post!

Updates all over the place!

Nothing really big has been happening since my last pair of Calvin/Caitlyn updates.  Before I get into the new, let's cover updates from those updates.  First up, Calvin:

Caitlyn Updates

So, I started writing this out as one post but realized it quickly and easily breaks down into two.  One of them is from the every day me.  The one not concerned with my sexual identity.  The one concerned with family and my car and my phone and my job.  One of them is from my femme side.  The one that IS focused on his/her sexual identity and seeks out things that enhance her femininity especially because she can't experience those feelings in the "real" world.  So, this second part is about my femme life.  The previous post is about my 'normal' life.

Music, Mustang, My Friends, and Me

I wanted to catch up on a few things and ended up focusing on getting music into Nina, Nina herself, a planned trip with some friends to San Fran, me not being at D+X, and a few other small things.  So, basically just a catch up thread with a cool header graphic!

Fuck Apple and the iPod they rode in on

I last updated you on my music back in December.  It was then that I started to explore Google Music.  And I have to tell you, I ADORE Google Music.  It seems to be just about the perfect service.  As I mentioned, I already pay for it every month so that I get the additional benefit of advertising free videos on YouTube Red.  So while it's technically $10 a month, it's not like it's an extra $10 a month.  It's like saying Amazon video is $8 a month... but I already pay for Amazon Prime, so I get Amazon Video included whether I use it or not.  So I was already paying for Google Music whether I used it or not.  I'm just now using it.

Music Conversion

I've gone and done it... I'm changing the way I listen to music.

This actually started a couple years ago.  In 2015 I wrote about me dipping my toes into the streaming music system.  A quick summary of that post is that I had heard a podcast with some techy guys talking about streaming music services... specifically spotify.  I mused a bit about some of the services I knew and even mentioned the new elephant in the room; Apple Music.

My conclusion was that I couldn't justify the cost.  Most of those services go for $10 a month and I don't spend $10 a month on new music.  Fast forward to about a year go (late 2016) and I bought my Google Pixel XL.  Google in it's infinite AI wisdom included a 3 month subscription to Google Music.  I am quite the sucker for free trials and I signed up for it.  It only took me a few days to realize I don't like it.  For one, on the computer Google Music only plays through a web browser.  I actually like things being more portable like that, but not my music.  I'm so accustomed to having iTunes be my music world that the replacement would have to at least START with a stand alone desktop app.   Plus iTunes integrates well within windows.  I had it set so that whenever I minimized it, it wouldn't go down to the task bar like any other program.  Instead, it would minimize as a toolbar with the play/fast-forward/rewind/ect buttons.

She set's me free

So over at D+X I have an ongoing thread that I titled my "Playlist Diary".  I share music there that touches me.  Sometimes it's just how it touches the 'me' that's Caitlyn over there, while other times it's music that touches 'me' as in the person writing those posts out.  And even then, sometimes that author 'me' is male and sometimes it's 'female'.

But the underlying current in that thread is that I"m sharing music.  I'll sometimes write out a scene with me in character, and sometimes explaining how that particular song is affecting me in real life.

So today after I wrote up the previous post about going to New Orleans I wasn't feeling particularly 'Caitlynesque'.  I've been thinking recently that I might be slipping out of her mentality, so I wasn't too surprised.  Instead of moping about it, I just continued to focus on New Orleans.  I went to youtube and watched videos about the plane I'm going to take (MD-88), about checking luggage in at the airport, about both Detroit's and New Orleans's airports, and then on to watching videos about New Orleans itself.  I started watching one that was in a Video Log (Vlog?) format and had a musical montage in the beginning with a song that I hadn't heard before.

At first, it was just one of those songs that I don't particularly like.  It's chill.  Chill music normally doesn't do anything for me.  I think slower songs are fine for that mood, or even more upbeat songs that are kept quiet enough to be background music.  But this one... well, it changed me.  It washed over me in a way that left me feeling very feminine.  I started hearing bits of the lyrics and one in particular caught my ear...

Musak Blues

I’ve had trouble as of late getting into new music.  At the very same time, I’m having trouble enjoying my own collection of music.  I WANT new music, but none of it is making me happy.  I’ve been using iTunes for my music since late 2003 and have purchased 875 pieces of music from them.  Here’s how that breaks down by year:

2003 – 8 (My first purchase was November 24^th of that year!), 2004 – 87, 2005 – 125, 2006 – 104, 2007 – 102, 2008 – 65, 2009 – 47, 2010 – 56, 2011 – 42, 2012 – 60, 2013 – 57, 2014 – 36, 2015 – 37, 2016 – 31

2017 – 16

Obviously the first few years I went a little crazy on purchasing music.  And simply by the numbers, this year is on track to be average for the last few years.  But here’s the rub.  This year PI purchased one song in January, one song in February, 11 songs on May 25^th, and 3 songs in the past couple days.  Most years I have a steady stream of new music.  I might go a month or two without something new, but not this long.  And that big burst of new music in May?  8 of them were from artists that I already knew and was simply exploring their back catalog. 

Autumnal Musak

I'd love to say that since the last time I posted about my music I've gathered up an amazing collection of songs that will blow your heart away.

I mean... it's been since October 8th!  Surely in 102 days I can come up with something grand, or spectacular or wonderful!  Right?

Umm...  no.  Unfortunatly including the three songs that I just now purchased, I have only accumulated 10 new songs.  And one of those is a Christmas song.

It's just been a dry few months for me and music.  I thought starting the new job in November would be a boon to my music collection.  A whole new crew of co-workers to bounce music ideas off of, several radio stations including a 'Classic' rock station that also plays new rock music.

But I swear, I think I ended up in some kind of music purgatory at work.  The first problem is that a majority (maybe 60%?) of the nurses there prefer to have NO music playing at all.  NONE!  Many of those nurses are at least on the early shift, so by 3pm they're all but cleared out.  But the nurses that remain for the rest of my shift?  There's the nurse that prefers christian music.  I have no problem with Christianity, but just as I don't look to the Vatican to make a good dramatic movie, I don't look to the Christian media companies to put out good music.  Even if I could get past the singular nature of the music subjects (there's the one about praising God, and then the one about how we're all horrible people until we take God into our hearts... that's it.  Variations on those two subjects.)  their music tends to focus on hearing the message.  Meaning that it's clearly spoken lyrics with some sort of musical accompanyment.  It's not about good music, it's about spreading a message.  I'm sure I said this before, but I look at the singer as merely one piece of the music and it shouldn't be the sole focal point.

Late Summer Musak

Well I've finally got enough songs that it's worth putting them up here again.  Beyond one great song, I'm not sure any of these are real winners.  One is just damned funny in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with the song itself, one is another postmodern take on a good song, one is a bad cover, and two are blasts from the past that should have been on my playlist years ago.

I think one reason I haven't got as much 'winning' new music lately is that they've really come down hard on us at work.  Technically nothing has changed, they've just started to enforce a rule that has always been in effect.

Here's the laydown.  The software we use to document on our patients is huge.  I mean that in just about every way imaginable.  I'm pretty good at it, but I still think I only know about 50% of it's capabilities.  Some of it's capabilities are beyond me as they are intended for medical providers.  Doctors, Physician's Assistants, Nurse Practitioners.  But I'll still occasionally find something new (to me) that seems like an obvious improvement.

Anywho, the software is also ran completely over the network.  Sure, there is a large local file that runs, but all of it's data comes from a server farm.  And when I say 'all' of it's data, I mean all the data from the entire department of corrections.  All of the patients past and present.  All of the facilities.  All of the LPNs, RNs, RDs, Pharm Techs, NPs, PAs, and Doctors.  Naturally with that much data moving in and out, it's incredibly temperamental of network availability.  Unfortunately this makes the network a key area for the 'techs' to point at whenever we complain that it's slow.

Musak for July

I've complained before about music discovery.  Sometimes the best music just falls into my lap.  I hear it on the radio (internet) at work.  I hear it on a TV show or in a movie.  I hear it on a game video or someone posts it in a forum I frequent.

Well this month has been a bad one for that free discovery.  It might be the TV, or more specifically the lack of TV.  I watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight on HBO, but that's about it.  The rest of my TV time is currently spent re-watching The West Wing on Netflix.  I'm sure once the fall season starts back up and I start watching Fear The Walking Dead (just a couple weeks for that!), The Walking Dead, Person of Interest, and a few others, I'll get back into some good discovery.  But for now, it's just a wasteland of pop and songs that I already have/like.

Even iTunes has started to let me down.  The first few years I was using iTunes I could rely on them to get me some good music.  I just had to look at their 'recent' music, or better yet their recommendations specifically for me.  Eventually the 'recent' just turned into more and more major label stuff (i.e. pop), and the recommendations broke down.  They recommend songs that I already have (that I didn't purchase from them), or they are so close to what I already have that I've already heard it, considered it, and decided not to add it to my collection.

That's about the time I started looking at their 'top songs' lists.  I couldn't use the main one as they more or less listed the bilboard top ten lists (more pop). So I would hit up the genre specific lists... but even those are getting screwed over.  When I go over to the classical top ten it's all the 'pop' classical.  Five guys on a piano, or whatever was last played on America's Got Talent.  The Alternative list varies so much as the Alternative genre is, by definition, simply 'not mainstream'.  So sometimes it's pop (ick) and sometimes it's rock.  Occasionally an artist will break in with an alternative take on bluegrass or country, but that's rare.  The Rock stuff.... well damn it Journey is still on the list.  JOURNEY!

Bastards.

Streaming Music?

I've talked about how I get my music (mostly iTunes).  How I explore for new music (movies, television, commercials, rarely online radio at work...), and in my last music post I talked about how I play music (my iPod and my phone).

For the most part, I assumed I was being high tech.  I know people that still get CDs.  I have a friend who's introduction to digital music was getting a car with an internal hard drive.  He would rent CDs from the library and rip them right into his car... leaving him with a good selection of music that will go away whenever he ditches that particular car!  So sharing my music between the computer, the iPod, and my phone was still rather cutting edge... at least I thought so until I listened to a podcast from Wired magazine.

It seems that the new 'it' thing in music is streaming services.  Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime, and of course the new gorilla in the line up... Apple Music.  Here's what I 'knew' about these services before the podcast:

• You could use them for free.  You would have limited selections to start from and there would occasionally be commercials.  You could skip a song or two, but eventually you'd be prevented from skipping.  
• On the Free tier you could select a particular song to start from, but it wouldn't play that actual song. 
• If you paid for the service, you could get more skips, you would get no (or at least less) commercials.  You could also be more specific or general in your streaming... say you want chill 70's singer-song-writer guitar heavy songs.  
• And.... that's about all I knew.

April/May music & my iPod journey

After a couple really good months of getting new (or at least 'new to my collection') music, April and May were mostly a big bust.

I've only downloaded three songs since my last music post and none of them are real winners.  The last one I just added a few days ago and is likely going to be a spring fling... loved and then forgotten by the time summer rolls around.

Since I don't have much to share, I'm also going to talk about iPods, speakers, and music while traveling.

First up is the iPod.  I decided upon this title graphic because I purchased another iPod this past week.   I believe a quick history is in order to understand where I'm coming from and why I continue to pay Apple so much money for music and technology.  I started using MP3s as my main music system (overtaking tapes and CDs) sometime around 1996.  I was already heavily invested in my computer and the more time I spent at it, the more I liked having my music available there.  For the longest time I used WinAmp as my music player of choice.  It was... limiting.  When I started playing with MP3s it was easily the best option out there (I think there were two other choices), but when 2003 rolled around it was getting a little long in the tooth.  It just didn't have the options I wanted.

Music from March

I got some good songs and have found two good 'radio' stations to listen to at work this past month.

Before I share what I've found, I thought of something at work.  I use music, at least a little, as a privilege.  While I'm working I love having music in the background.  It doesn't have to be music that I particularly love... just something that can make my head bob a bit or my toes tap on the floor.  Something that gets into me and gives me a rhythm.

This isn't unique to work.  While I'm sitting at the computer I have music playing almost all the time.  I actually am getting to the point where I don't like visiting facebook as so many people are sharing videos... to watch a video I have to pause my music.  The pausing itself isn't what bothers me.  What gets me is having the music fall away from the background.  It's not there as my primary focus you see.  It's there to have something tickle the back of my brain.  I will generally start up on one of my more recent songs, let it help set my mood, and then all songs that follow are just in the background.  Songs can flow from genre to genre without me even noticing.  NIN follows Brittney Spears, which followed Brooks and Dunn, which played after a Bach concerto, which played after Herb Alpert.