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.

Constitutional Questions

Happy Independence Day!

Yeah Yeah... I'm posting this on the 5th, but I was doing the whole 'family' thing on the 4th and this is the first opportunity to post.

Before I get into constitutional or political quandaries, lemme go over the holiday.  It was a rare holiday as both of my brothers and I had the day off.  R gets every weekend off, I get every other weekend off, but B normally works on Saturdays.  So having a Saturday holiday with all of us is quite rare.

We spent the day and grilled at my Aunt's house.  I'm sure I've said before, but my Mother and my Aunt always make too much food for the holiday meals.  I don't think they can quite come to terms that they make a LOT of great food and that it's just not reasonable for them to make everybody's favorite dishes.  Nor can they come to the conclusion that they aren't feeding the 15 people that we had before.  This year was large... 10 of us... but they still cooked as if feeding a small army.  We had burgers and dogs on the grill (this included my brother's chicken burgers), corn fresh off the cob, fried potatoes, baked beans, potato salad, taco salad, and tortilla chips and queso.  They really reigned it in for desert as we 'only' had strawberry cake, preacher's cake, and blueberry desert (more or less blueberry and whipped topping no-bake cheesecake).

Dumb it down

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  I explained in the previous post that my Pebble smart watch was banned from the prison.  I wasn't about to let this go as I really love my Pebble smart watch.  Not just because of the features that work with a cell phone, but because it's faces are perfect for work.

So I emailed the inspector and explained my position.  It was a long email, but this is the gist of it:  The watch only connects via blue tooth.  The watch does not connect to computers.  The watch is a valuable tool for me.  The watch has no microphone, camera, or cellular technology.

I suggested I bring him the watch so that I could show him first hand what it can and cannot do.  He agreed and yesterday morning I met with the Inspector, watch on wrist.  My first impression of the inspector was... well technophobe is probably a bit to far, but he wasn't loving technology like I do.  He had a phone (he works outside of the secured perimeter), but it was a dumb phone.  A flip phone.  Just the way he had his desk set up made it clear that he didn't even like his computer.  It was pushed off to the back corner where the front of his desk had room for papers, pens, and pencils.  This didn't bode well.

He also seemed to immediately take this as a "Me Vs Him" conversation.   He had a stack of papers that included a photocopy of my watch and a print out from the Pebble website explaining all the features of a watch.  Specifically they were talking about the new Pebble Time.  While I have a Pebble Time (Steel) on order, I do not currently have one.  He turned the papers around and tapped his finger accusingly on a highlighted passage and said "This is why I don't want you to have this watch."

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday...

So Tuesday at work was one of those days that I enjoy and dread in equal measure.  It was Busy.

The busyness came mainly from scheduling.  Our clinic generally schedules between 20 and 40 appointments a day.  Those appointments are spread between many nurses, and my share is often a bit less as they have to leave room for the various transfers that invariably come in.

On Tuesday we had 64 scheduled appointments.  Even with reducing my 'share' of appointments and leaving me room for transfers I still had 10 appointments.  So once the day started, I got running and never slowed down.  There were only four transfers, but I didn't even START getting them ready until around 7 PM.  And of course there were a few urgent cases.  By the end of the shift I had taken care of 16 appointments.

That number alone doesn't convey just how busy I was.  Sometimes appointments are things like taking a blood pressure, or reading a test result.  Most of my appointments that day were full on assessments.  An inmate has a complaint, and I get to start from scratch.  "Oh, your back hurts, well let's talk about it for 20 minutes while I try to figure out what the hell is wrong with you (probably mental) and what I am going to do about it (or NOT do about it)".  I've had more appointments in a day, but Tuesday was one of the busiest non stop days I've ever had.

Happy Father's Day

Dad.  Happy Fathers Day.

I wrote yesterday about how I don't think I'll ever be a father.  One thing I thought about but didn't explore at all was missing the pride a father can feel for his children.  I've talked a bit before how I try to make my father proud even beyond his years on earth.... but am I?  Are my brothers?  I guess that depends on what would make my father proud.  Would he value financial success?  Would he value personal relationships?  Would he value personal growth?  Would he value the caring for others?  Would he value the continuation of family?  Would he value being right?  How about righteous?

Lemme just explore this a bit.   Let's take my brothers first.

R.

Financially R is in a tough spot.  He has a decent job now and is coming up on having that job for a year.  By R's own estimation he is close to having 'enough'.  While B and I almost constantly dream about having more... about being millionaires, R dreams about having a nice little home, a car that runs, and enough money to maintain those things.  He doesn't quite make enough money for those things, but through years of living with almost nothing R also has almost no debt.  I was surprised to learn that his savings are more than my own.  But then again while I have about $2800 a month in bills, R has around $400 a month in bills.

Fatherhood?

On my last day off I took some time to myself and played a bit of GTA V.  First, that is a damned fine game.  Fun, good story, over the top violence... it can really pull you in and keep you in the "I just have to do this one last thing and THEN I'll stop".

As you probably know, when I game I use my headset.  That way I can have the volume up enough to block out the rest of the world and not bother everybody else in the house.

I had blocked out the rest of the world enough that when my brother R came in to tell me supper was ready he actually had to grab my shoulder to pull my attention away.  I hadn't heard  him knock.  I hadn't heard him open the door.  I hadn't heard him step in.  I hadn't heard him call my name several times.

I also hadn't heard my brother B stop by with his kids for a visit.  That really sucked as I was just thinking that day that I hadn't talked to B in quite a while.  I've been under the weather or had other plans set on my last few days off, so I hadn't gone over for a visit.  So missing him and the boys just kinda sucked.

Thankfully he recognized that I WAS home (saw my car there), and he called later that night.  He was setting up a game of RISK with his boys and invited me over to join in.  I actually really enjoy playing board games.  Risk isn't exactly one of my favorites, but it's a game his kids can more or less play and doesn't consume an entire weekend in the same way that Axis and Allies can.   So I drove on over and joined in.

I kind of miss my brother

Friday I woke up at 8 AM.  I did my morning coffee/internet thing for a while before taking a shower and then watching some television.  I eventually drove off to work, did my work thing, then drove home.  I arrived at 11:05 PM and watched some more television until around 1 AM and then went to bed.

That was roughly my same schedule on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Today is different only because it's my regular day off.

My brother R's day starts around 6 AM.  He does his coffee/internet/tv thing for about an hour before driving away to work at 7 AM.  He works until 4 PM, then comes home.  He has dinner, plays on the computer, and then goes to bed around 10:30 PM.

Yeah... we don't see each other.  Not on days that both of us are working.  And you know what.. that really kidna sucks.  It's not like we hang out from dawn to dusk when we have the available time together.  In fact, we rarely do anything together.  Our friends and hobbies don't really over lap except for playing games on the computer... and we don't do that together.  At least not for a decade or two.  But I still miss him.  I miss the opportunity to just comment on the day's news.  "Hey, did you know that JEB Bush's name is actually John Ellis Bush?  J E B =  Jeb?"  or "Hey, Fallout 4 is coming out in November!"  or "Did you see that new Doom trailer?"

New Job?

I talked briefly here about the new job opportunity.  Well it seems to be moving forward.  I got an email from the supervisor yesterday saying that she has a position opening up and wanted to make sure I was on the transfer list and still interested.

We went back and forth a few times via email once I got to work and she ended up offering me a tour.  So this morning I'm heading over there before going into work.  I can't help but smile at the mere offer.  I figure it HAS to be a good sign.  I mean, why offer a tour to someone if you aren't interested in them coming to work for you.  I know it can be a two way street... it's a chance for them to show off a bit to me, but it's also a chance for them to check me out in a non-interview setting.

I'm very excited by this.  I can picture this happening very quickly from here on out.  In fact with the union transfer rules, I'm not sure I'd even HAVE to interview.  They already have a glowing review from my supervisors, and now they'll get a chance to see me up close and personal.  I'll also get to pepper them with questions without trying to appear all self important and 'confident' during an interview.

YAY!

Hopefully I'll have something more detailed to write tomorrow!

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Tomorrow has come and yes I do have something more detailed.  Read on for the actual tour and a possible glimpse into my future.

I might be dying

One of the things about nursing is that whenever presented with an issue, we need to look at the worst possible outcome first.  We focus on that until we can eliminate it.

For example, when someone at works falls and hurts their leg at work, my first thought is to eliminate a broken bone.  If they broke their leg, it requires fairly swift action to avoid a long term disability.

With all the possible 'broken bones', probably around 50, I've experienced exactly one.  And that one wasn't from a fall on the basketball court or baseball field, it was the result of an assault.  It wasn't even a major broken bone, although it was in the interior of the skull so it had it's own issues.

But until I can eliminate those worst case scenarios, I have to keep it at least in the back of my mind.  Sadly, that means that whenever I have a personal health problem, I'm constantly worried about a major health crisis.  And right now, I have myself scared shitless.  You see, I've had a cold for the past week and a half.  Last Thursday (my day off) I woke up with a burning in my chest.  It extended up to my throat and was worse when I breathed deeply.  This pain was accompanied by a lot of phlegm, some body aches, and a feverish feeling (although no actual fever).  The phlegm lead to a lough of coughing and sneezing which only made the burning in my chest and body aches worse.

Upgrades

I think everybody likes an upgrade.  I know I do.  I like new, but at the same time I like the familiar.  It seems like lately I've been doing a lot of upgrades... sometimes big, sometimes small.  Android 5.1.1 for my Nexus, Windows 10 for my computer, my iPod Nano to an iPod Touch, Fiona to Ginger, possibly my job.

I remember having a conversation with my friend A, and one thing we discussed was the constant desire for improvement.  We were talking about how we admired that desire in others and sought it out in friends and colleagues.  It's not just the big things... looking to improve your job, your pay, your life... but the small things.  Can you improve the way you fold your socks?  Can  you improve the way you make your morning coffee?

Here's a pretty good example of that constant improvement mentality.  When I get up in the morning to take a shower I stand in front of my wardrobe.  I used to grab my shirt and jeans in one hand and a pair of underwear in the other.  Now I pull out a pair of underwear, pull out a pair of jeans, and grab a shirt off it's hanger.  I'll fold all of these items over my left arm and then walk from my bedroom into the bathroom.  Pulling my shirt off with my right hand I'm able to lay out my jeans and underwear in one motion, then place the shirt on it'a hook (letting it get a steam from the shower) by simply pivoting around toward it.  It's a stupid silly thing to even consider, but it's made me happier that I found a way to improve this single action that I take every single day.