seeing the glory of God in the ordinary things of life

I just quit emusic. I first signed up in 2005 with a 100 free mp3s offer, and I’ve had an active account ever since. I’ve loved it over the years, and I’ve recommended it strongly to pretty much everyone I’ve talked to music about. And, apparently, people have listened because I’ve gotten many referral bonuses.

But that’s all changed. A few months ago emusic announced it was getting Sony’s back catalogue, and with that announcement came a slew of changes. Chief among them was a drastic price increase. I used to get 50 downloads for $11.99 a month, and they dropped that down to 30 downloads a month. Amazonmp3′s deals rival that, and i’ve often found myself with too much music to give it all a fair listen.

There are some good things that came with the change, but it isn’t enough to make up for all the bad things. I used to use emusic to discover music… songs were so cheap that i could buy an album from a band i’d never heard anything from before, and not feel the least bit guilty about wasting much money. the community was also indie fans, so i could trust the charts for the most part. but both of those things have changed, and so i don’t see the point in keeping the account.

So this morning after using my final downloads i canceled my account. so long emusic, it was good while it lasted!

Earlier in the month Derek Webb‘s fifth studio album, Stockholm Syndrome, was released digitally with much interest and controversy. Posted here is a review of the album by my friend Melanie Seibert. Follow her on Twitter @melanie_seibert.

A Review of Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome is a disease.

Ever since the famous 1973 bank robbery, experts in human psychology accept the fact that hostages sometimes sympathize with their captors. Its surprising frequency does not negate the fact that Stockholm Syndrome is a sickness. This is the pathological backdrop that Webb presents his fifth solo studio album.

Sonically, the album is mature; Webb isn’t afraid to contrast atonal choruses with melodic verses, as in “Black Eye,” or throw a straight-up dance party, like he does in “Cobra Con” and “Jena & Jimmy.” Old-school fans of Webb, who expect to hear him accompanied by acoustic guitar, with an occasional electric guitar track added in, may be taken aback. This is not Caedmon’s Call-era Webb, but a much more reflective, provocative, and confident solo artist.

Surprising as the sonic jolts of Stockholm Syndrome may be, though, they cannot match Webb’s lyrical ability to unsettle his listeners. A minor frenzy has erupted surrounding the song “What Matters More,” in which Webb criticizes Christendom for its intolerance and hypocrisy toward gays. Worse than that, he uses a swear word.

Careful listeners, though, will find much more disturbing fare here. In truth, “What Matters More” is simply one facet in Webb’s depressingly accurate gem, which functions as an extended meditation on human depravity. This album is best viewed as a whole, and it’s designed to be a testament to humanity’s demented affection for everything that robs us, holds us captive, and ultimately destroys us.

Webb is no pharisaical finger-pointer, either. He numbers himself among the depraved — for instance, the album cover is a close-up of him with a black eye. Trackwise, “Black Eye” is the strongest evidence of this, as Webb sets up his theme, making our skin crawl by calling a violent captor his “lover.” He clarifies that a “black eye is all is gonna take for me to love you. It’s written in my constitution.”

And it’s uncomfortably impossible to forget the violence inherent in the album’s theme when you hear “Jena & Jimmy” – probably the most rollicking date rape song ever recorded.

Perhaps most fascinating is the way the theme of sickness invades Webb’s portrayals of human love. In every single instance of the word “love” in this album, the concept bears no resemblance to the biblical standard of sincere care for another individual. Rather, it’s a sick obsession or a selfish act of pride. Case in point: “Freddie, Please,” a scathing ode to Fred Phelps (you know, the “God hates fags” guy) in which Webb, playing the role of Jesus, asks, “How can you tell them you love Me, when you hate Me, Freddie? Please.”

But for all this album’s painful truths about how sick we are, the hope of redemption is not absent. It is subtle, but the light at the end of the tunnel is there. Specifically, Webb declares in the last track that, “in the end, it’ll all be okay… So, if it’s not okay, then it’s not the end… There’s hope for everyone.”

And long after the music has finished playing, when the album’s story of sin and redemption still haunts you, you will cling to that last phrase. It’s a necessary reminder.

It was a month over four years ago that I got my free weather channel laptop. I polled some friends on their computer life expectancies, and I think 4 years was pretty much the end of the line. Which my experience agrees with… the lappy can’t keep up with day to day things anymore… lots of lag and lots of noworkyworky.

So I’m pretty excited about a new computer I ordered on Saturday. I was this close to getting an iMac, but went with the PC instead. Mostly because it was cheaper and had several hundreds of dollars worth of extras that I would have wanted to add to the Mac. What I’m upset most about in not getting the iMac is that they’re having their free iPod Touch promotion now, and I’m not getting one. I guess, though, that’s evidence I made the right choice about the computer.

Here are the specs…

HP Pavilion Elite m9500t customizable Desktop PC
* • Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
* • Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz]
* • 6GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM [2x2048,2x1024]
* • 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
* • 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
* • Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
* • Integrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet, No wireless LAN
* • 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, audio, video (for TV Tuner)
* • TV tuner, dual format ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
* • Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports
* • HP wireless keyboard and HP wireless optical mouse
* • Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
* • HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
HP w2558hc 25.5-inch Vivid Color Full HD Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

So, there we go. The monitor has already shipped, and is scheduled to arrive Wednesday. The Computer is supposed to ship by Wednesday, and will probably get here Friday or (if they deliver) Saturday.

We moved to Verizon DSL just about 4 years ago exactly. Looking back, it was May 3rd 2005 when it was turned on.

Since then there have been various plan changes and price changes. We ended up at the 3Mbps plan for, this past year, $31.99 a month for a one year contract. I never get more than 1.4Mbps, though.

So, fed up, I called today trying to get them to either increase my speed or lower my price or something.

First the lady checked to see if I could upgrade to the 7Mbps plan (which I’d be willing to do if I could actually get those speeds)… I couldn’t. So she offered me a better rate on my current plan. I was very interested in that, I said, because even at the 3Mbps plan, I don’t ever get that speed. She came back with $24.99 a month for a 1 year contract. Hm, that sounds good I say.

Then she asked what my current speeds are, and when I told her she said i might want to just downgrade to the 1Mbps plan for $14.99 a month (for a year contract). So I took her up on it. It’s less than half of what I was paying, and I don’t know that I’ll notice the 400k down so much. My up speed will probably change, because I did get decent up speeds. But i don’t upload a whole lot. I asked if the 1Mbps plan was actually going to be less… since my 3Mbps never lived up to it’s name. She said I should get it since I already get over 1Mbps.

I have 30 days to cancel the account completely if I’m not satisfied… and I can always upgrade again if I feel the need for that 400k of speed. Comcast offers cable around here, and while I’m not excited about a bandwidth cap… I would not be sad to leave Verizon. Although, I must say, the lady I spoke with was polite and gave me a decent deal (after they’ve been fleecing me for four years).

This month’s batch of downloads….

The Power of Love by Early November. A single from the Punk Goes 80′s compilation.

Laura Gibson-Beasts of Seasons

David Bazan-American Flags EP

Ferraby Lionheart-Catch the Brass Ring

The song While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro (from his album Gently Weeps)

Katie Herzig & Matthew Perryman Jones single Where the Road Meets the Sun

The Mountain Goats-The Sunset Tree

Joe Pug-Nation of Heat EP

The Avett Brothers-The Gleam

Sign up for 50 free downloads

Another month, another 50 downloads…

Andrew Bird-emusic exclusive bonus track ‘Take Courage’, to append on Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast (which I got from amazonmp3 for 2.99)

Greg Laswell-Through Toledo

The Nadas-The Ghosts Inside These Halls

Faunts-Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.

Nick Flora & Film at Eleven-Great Escape

Bon Iver-For Emma, Forever Ago

Now if you’re a nitpicky/attention to details sort of person, you might notice that totals 51 downloads. that’s because one of them was free… because emusic offers a free song every day, and they’re often enough really good, which lead me to get the rest of the album. Just another reason to sign up for 50 free downloads.

Despite never having owned a gun or gone hunting ever in my life, last Fall I got it into my head that it was something I wanted to do. I actually know the specific moment when the idea came to me… it was when I read my friend’s facebook status update: David Cooper is hunting a turkey.

I thought it was very exciting, and decided soon after that I was going to hunt our 2009 Thanksgiving turkey. Turns out Mr. Cooper was just being figurative. Oh well, I’m still after the bird.

So, I’ve got a rather unscheduled and thrown together map of what I need to do to reach my goal.

Step 1: Buy a gun. Completed. A few weeks ago I bought a Remington 870 Express Super Magnum shotgun.
Step 2: Complete the VDIF required Hunter Education course. Check… I was certified this morning.

Now I need to a few more very important steps… shoot my gun and learn how to hunt. I’ve decided to forego the spring turkey season… it’s a bit too much to process at this point, and I don’t want to purchase a bear/deer/turkey license that will expire in a couple months. I’ll just wait until July, and then it will be good for a year (they run July 1-June 30). So that gives me some time to learn the ropes.

A friend has talked about building a shooting range on his property, and I really hope he does it, because it would be great to have a place to shoot a bunch to really learn my gun, and know how to shoot it and how it shoots.

I’ll be doing some reading of how to get a turkey, and maybe also some deer and waterfowl hunting in the fall, maybe some upland game birds whenever that season is. Some friends from church do some hunting, so I’m going to beg and plead they drag me along with them to teach me.

If you use Twitter, these are some tools that you might find helpful. None of them require you to enter your Twitter password. Because using those is pretty stupid, IMO. I will probably update this post as i find more/better tools for Twitter.

http://friendorfollow.com/
A quick rundown on who of those you’re following are not reciprocating. Sometimes I’ll get a notice of a random person started following me, and if they’re a real person with updates and a website, I usually follow them back. Often those people will unfollow me after a few days (and you aren’t notified of this). So, unless I find them especially interesting or helpful, I stop following them. This tool helps with those types of people.

http://doesfollow.com/
This is a more specific check if a person is following you.

http://twitoria.com
You can use this tool to check for deadbeat followers. If people haven’t updated recently, you can unfollow them. Unless someone is important for me to follow, I unfollow if they haven’t posted in a month.

http://twittercounter.com
You can see how your follower count goes up or down over time.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter.

Last night for dinner we had biscuits with a variety of toppings. Sausage gravy, but also jams and apple butter and honey.

Geneva asked for honey, and so I poured on, quite heavily. “you’ll have to use your fork, since there’s so much honey”, I said. She explained how she would get terribly sticky if she tried to eat the biscuit with her hands. Then she asked, “What makes honey sticky?”

Being the always helpful father, I answered her question matter of factly… “The same thing that makes water wet.”

Not satisfied, she asked what makes water wet. Then Ashley popped in, “I know! I know!” She was eager to spread her knowledge. “Ice!”

This evening when I came home from work I was greeted with an interesting bit of knowledge. Geneva had peed outside. “Wow”, thought I. I asked her where she went, hoping that it wasn’t an open display to all the neighborhood.

“Next to the garage” she answered. “Whew” thought I. There’s a narrow strip three feet or so wide between our garage and our neighbor’s 7 foot fence. But then came the next tidbit…

“It was a different place than the last time”. “Oh boy”, thought I. She has done this more than once.

But then, to top it all off spectacularly, I learned that this plan was approved of by Mrs. Okimoto. “Needful”, thought I.

Just days after re-initiating my emusic account, and I’ve already used everything up.

Pierce Pettis-That Kind of Love

Bon Iver-Blood Bank

My favorite artists’ tracks from the Dark Was the Night compilation. I intend to get the rest, but didn’t have the downloads for it this month. Here are the songs I got…

• Feist + Ben Gibbard-Train Song
• The National-So Far Around the Bend
• The Decemberists-Sleepless
• Iron & Wine-Die
• Sufjan Stevens-You Are the Blood
• Arcade Fire-Lenin
• Beirut-Mimizan
• Stuart Murdoch-Another Saturday

So that polishes off my 50 downloads. Sign up to get 50 free downloads yourself!