Zune: The Alternative to the iPod?

After graduating college, I received quite a wealthy bounty of cash from friends and family. Most of it I saved for the vacation Sabrina and I were going to with our friends Topher and Mary to the Outer Banks. And I bought her an iPod Nano as an anniversary gift.

Well, most of that money lasted the greater part of a month because the Science Center didn't need me until June 14th, the first day of vacation for kids in the area. I thought I lost my original mp3 player a 2 gigabyte Creative MuVo thumbdrive/music player, that I've had for about 2 years. So I was musicless. I also was amused by the features of Sabrina's iPod, such as the capacity and the ability to play back VIDEO.

So I bought a Zune. Not just a 4, 8, or 16 GB Zune. If you know me, I go for the long-haul with music. I bought the 120 GB Zune player. And I didn't buy it because I hate iPods/Apples. I actually did my homework on this. It has a larger screen than the iPod Classic, and it's cost is relatively the same. It also has a wireless feature to connect to your computer via wireless router; you can even share music through other local Zunes wirelessly as well. Its controls are rather simple. Also, the program is rather simple and easy to play with: it arranges your albums either by bands, by release date, by the date added, or by alphabetical order.

But what I love about it is the video. You know how you're sitting on the porcelain throne and you think, Hmm...I hadn't watched Forrest Gump in a while. Bam, now you can sit on the pot while watching movie classics. And it's such a large screen that viewing it isn't hard at all!

However, there are drawbacks to it. First, the battery life is nowhere near the capacity of the iPod. Also, the program can be slow to load sometimes. And the very most important thing: No one else has a Zune. Rarely will you find someone playing a Zune. At least that's what it feels like to me. But also, I haven't seen that many people around this summer. But nonetheless, it's still hard to find accessories. I find that Amazon is the best place to search for them. And now, you can get accessories 50% cheaper now, since they are coming out with the Zune HD soon. Tight.

But I love the Zune. Most of my music is on it now, and I've only got up to around 30 GB, with movies, music and pictures added on there! As long as I don't leave it in my car in an obvious place, I should have it for a looooong time.

Music These Days...

I want to start off first with a musical update. Yes, I haven't done one of these in forever, but really there has been little to no good music out with the exception of NOFX, Taking Back Sunday (first half of the album), and New Found Glory. And yes, I know Green Day came out with a new album to. I don't want to talk about it. But anyway, here are some record dates:

Farewell, "Run It Up the Flagpole" 9/1

The Used, "Artwork" 9/1

Thrice, "Beggars" 9/15

Brand New, "Daisy" 9/22

AFI, "Crash Love" 9/29

Bowling for Soup, "Sorry for Partying" 9/29

Weezer, "Raditude" 10/27

Fun stuff.

So anyway, I get a text message from my dad (weird) and he asks me if I listen to Lifehouse (weirder). I asked him what the hell is Lifehouse. He says to "you tube" [sic] it. I listened to it for 15 seconds before a thought popped in my head: Creed. And Creed also sounds like another group of bad bands, so I Googled "bad bands sound like Creed", where this comes up. Now, this link doesn't label this as bad music, but for everyone else who lives outside of their radio station in this world it does.

As I read down the list, I saw the list of bands: Nickelback, Creed, 3 Doors Down, Staind, Puddle of Mudd...as I got down here, I receive another text message from my father. It says, "How about Puddle of Mudd."

...

Generally, I'm welcoming to when people say, "You should check out this band." But I expect the music to actually come from a genre that I appreciate. And if you've read my blog/listened to my radio station back in the day/checked out my Last.fm or Zune accounts/looked under the "Music I Like" segment on my profile on The Facebook, you'll realize what I listen to. And anything that either sounds like Creed/Nickelback/3 Doors Down/Staind/Puddle of Mudd or Dave Matthews Band/Hootie & The Blowfish/John Mayer/Jack Johnson/OAR shouldn't be anywhere around me. Possibly because I have a restraining order against any of these bands.

But in another direction, I am looking for new bands. Right now, I'm mainly listening to Bad Religion, NOFX, Offspring, Senses Fail, and New Found Glory. I went to Warped Tour this year--shocker, since I didn't post anything about it. Mainly because there I listened to Bad Religion and Senses Fail, and NOFX played the day before but not the day of the show, and we missed Scary Kids Scaring Kids because my sisters, Sarah, and I were pregaming in the parking lot with mimosas. However, if we went to the show first, found the band, told them we've got mimosas, they've probably would've gotten hammered afterward.

But the main point of this is that I'm usually into more bands. However, I found that of the ones I passed, they weren't amusing at all. Whatever happened to all the fun shit years ago? I need some new ear candy. What I've got now is not much of candy anymore, but just earwash from all the other horrible shit I hear from everyone else.

It's All Gone

Do you know how good I had it? It wasn't more than two months ago, everything was fine. I had two parents who supported me, a loving girlfriend, and a plethora of brothers, both Alpha Chi Sigma and Hampden-Sydney, that enjoyed my company. I even had a great, competitive resume to gain a foothold of my future.

I've graduated. It hit me as I kissed the girl for one of the last times. It hit like a ton of bricks. The place that I've spent four glorious years is now behind me. I don't have a refuge anymore. All those guys I've made friends with are now scattered over the country. 

My parents are leaving each other. That's a whole other ordeal. The awkwardness, the tension, it's unbearable. Home is no longer a haven; it's a warzone. 

I didn't get into graduate school. Somehow, I didn't get into one. Even though I've worked at the two schools I applied to, I was rejected outright. Somehow, foreign nationals can get into graduate schools, but good, hardworking Americans can't. This I can't believe. 

My girlfriend is six hours away. She used to be a few hills west, just about an hour's drive from where I went to school. Now it's a journey, a long stretch of highway from western North Carolina to northern Virginia. 

All the comforts are gone. I'm just a turtle without its shell: exposed to the world and weak. It's the complete opposite of where I was four years ago, from hopeful to doomed. It's a Greek tragedy. There's a spectrum of emotion that I'm rediscovering through the last two months. Emotions like rage, hate, and despair.

Now I've got to rebuild my life. I must find where I fit in the world. New friends. New home. New future. 

I'm going crazy

Please help me, God. I need guidance.

Or else, I will smite my roommate for being a dick.

And yell at each one of my professors.

And suffocate the kid I work with with a dirty, B&G pillow.

Earth Day!

Here are a few ways you can piss off your local hippies and/or activists:

1) Those with a garden can do marvelous things to screw with the environment! Use plenty of fertilizers and pesticides on your plants--it's been proven that, while the use of DDT in Africa has been detrimental to the environment, it has also restricted the amount of cases of malaria spread!
2) Plowing against the elevation (i.e., plow from the top to the bottom of the hill) helps send sediment and soil deposits to the river basins. This clogs up the river with dirt and leaves bare hills where you live! Thus you have less plants to take care of!
3) Get an old beat-up piece of shit car, preferably a domestic model with a V-8 engine. The bigger, the better. And start living in town, too, so you can go around in stop-and-go traffic.
4) The world is covered in water. You should be able to waste as much as you want! Gonna brush your teeth? Gotta wait for the shower to get warm? Leave them on!
5) Recycled paper is flawed. Plus, you don't know what the former owner used it for. By brand new paper!
6) Leave your lights on at night. Fool burglers and other riffraff by thinking you stay up at night waiting for them to pillage.
7) Burn your leaves. No one wants to deal with your leaves. You rake them, you put them on the curb. Someone comes picks them up and shreds them. Someone else picks up the shreads and burns them or places them in a compost heap. If you burn them, you only pick them up once, rather than 3 times!
8) Use paper plates and napkins and plastic utensils. Who wants to clean them?
9) Dump your unwanted chemicals in the sewer drainage. Most of the time, the local government doesn't even know where those sewers go.

So there you have it, nine things to do this Earth Day! Go out and make a difference!

Facebook is a Retard Dumpster.

Facebook pisses me off. People on Facebook pisses me off. I found this laying limp across my screen, and it just pissed me off:

"That was the most freakin [sic] awesome worship ever! Can't wait for the 1030 service! Jesus actually came back to life after 3 days! Amazing!!!"

Who describes worship as 'freakin awesome?' The Holy Eucharist is a sacred event, especially during Easter. Don't proclaim that it has some 'freakish' nature to it. Have some dignity and give some respect towards the Eucharist.

And you can't wait until 10:30 for the next Eucharist? You should be exhausted from the first service. And you're going back for seconds? What are you, a preacher? You're in college. You should be sinning your ass off.

That's okay, because I have enough sin to pass around for all of you.

And you're amazed that the Lord was resurrected in three days? Hell, if someone is resurrected in a week or a year that is a profound event. But seriously, don't be amazed over the basis of Christian theology. If you do that, you might as well say you have a chubby for small children. And that makes you sick.

It's Easter. Give some damn respect. 

Fates Unknown

This time four years ago, I was confronted with choices for four different colleges that I could attend: University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, Colorado School of Mines, and Hampden-Sydney College. The one dream school I wanted to, the United States Air Force Academy, rejected me outright. But four choices were still good.

The one I picked couldn't have been any better. Best decision of my life.

Presently, I'm caught in a different dilemma. After applying to the two schools that I committed entire summers of research--UNC and NC State University--I've received null results. UNC waitlisted me, while NCSU rejected me outright. The cat's out of the bag.

So what's my backup now? Where do I go?

I've got some choices. Right now, a good option would be obtaining a commission for the Air Force. Kinda backward, I know. The perks are all good. Some commitment. And I'd be serving my country.

I could teach too. More flexibility.

But I don't know where I'm going. Then again, I was never a person who knew where I was going until the last minute. The girlfriend said she's follow me whereever I go, which is also good. I love her. She deserves alot. And I mean alot.

Realities on a cold, snowy day

So over the last few weeks, I've come to realize quite a number of things:

-Life is scary. It's okay, we all go through the same thing.
-Research sucks. If I had to do it for a job, I would do it. But not for a degree.
-Ocean Avenue is Yellowcard's only good album. Suck it if you think otherwise.
-Facebook is the best way to get information fast. Okay, next to Wikipedia.
-Nothing ends a good day like a 6-pack of beer. Not Natty Light, not Natty Ice. Glass-bottled beer is delicious.
-The fraternity has been the best thing for me next to scouts.
-All the good bands either suck with new material, disbanded, or are on hiatus. The only exception to this are MSI, Gogol, MCS, and The Faint.
-Those bands listed above are always in Europe.
-Harry Turtledove, author of The Great War series and How Few Remain, is full of win. Willa Cather isn't. Best, and only, recreational read in college for me.
-Graduate schools can suck it. Please tell me if I got in or not so I can continue scheming what I'm doing with my life here.
-I never see enough of my folks. I spent four years complaining about my hometown, and as soon as I'm bat outta hell I wish I could see more of them.
-Mexican food gets worse and sparse as you travel up north.
-It doesn't matter how old you are, Transformers are fun to play with.
-Pandora has a great 80s dance party channel. Like, fraternity-party grade music.
-I never get to see snow enough.

And the girlfriend? I'm very fortunate to be with her now.