I'm only streaming

I can't sleep to music. Well, that's not true. I can't sleep to music that is uptempo or has vocals. The rest? Fair game. My favorite album to drift away to dreamland to is Jason Falkner's exquisite Bedtime with the Beatles. (FYI: Volume One is much, much better than Volume Two.) But sometimes you just need a little more variety, you know?

So last month I created a playlist in Spotify that's chock full of instrumental lullaby versions of pop, rock, hip-hop, and alternative songs:



At 390 songs (Almost 23 hours' worth!) the novelty value was off the charts. I gave it three nights before abandoning it because the playlist was terribly ineffective. If my brain wasn't actively trying to figure out which song was being covered, the higher pitched toy piano playing the melodies on most of the songs was keeping me up.

So I moved on to... what's the opposite of classical thunder? Classical light breeze? Anyway, I gave some of Spotify's pre-made "Sleep" playlists a spin for a week or so. Specifically, the piano, classical, jazz, ambient music, and various meteorological ones. Not bad, though none of them were terribly deep. That's not much of a concern, though, when the objective is to only hear a few songs before losing consciousness.

With my brain now on the same wavelength as the music, a new problem was brought to the fore: advertisements. While I absolutely love Spotify Premium, I did not renew after my three month trial ran out. Uninterrupted music on demand is an unnecessary expense and I've eliminated all of those that I reasonably can. (See, I'm currently unemployed.) So that means I have to hear ads every few songs. It's no big deal really. Except when I'm trying to sleep. Every time one would come on it would momentarily snap me out of it and I'd go all Admiral Stockdale - WHO AM I? WHY AM I HERE? - before I managed to make my way back into dreamland. Clearly this wasn't working.

Then Google Play Music suddenly offered a free version of their subscription service.

I was *this close* to putting Pandora on my phone when Google made the announcement. Figuring that Google Play Music was already installed on my phone and storage space there is a precious commodity, I nixed my plans. It was time to see what Google brought to the increasingly crowded streaming music market.

Like Spotify, it also has a section of curated playlists for sleeping. Unlike Spotify, it doesn't tell you which tracks or how many songs are in them. Intrigued by its air of mystery, I put two of Google Play's classical and jazz stations to the somnolent test. Guess what? I freakin' loved it. While this new free tier is ad supported, those come in the form of banners and pop ups. There was nothing audible to jar me out of sleep. For that reason alone, Google Play Music radio is a keeper.



I've put many hours into the service during my waking hours, too, and have been quite enjoying it. There are a whole lot of stations to choose from. There was one weird occurance early on when I booted up the '90s Alternative Rock Radio, possibly the genre I'm most into. (Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.) The first song it played was by the Gin Blossoms, followed... the Gin Blossoms. Odd. That's only happened once. Other than that I haven't notice too much repetition so far.

I'm particularly loving the Indie R&B station, which has exposed me to a bunch of new artists and songs. My current favorite discovery is AlunaGeorge's "Your Drums, Your Love". For the past several years I've tried to make it a point each summer to delve into a genre I'm not overly familiar with, like classic reggae or Memphis soul. I hadn't planned on do that this year, but indie R&B - or *snicker* PBR&B - found me. I've been a fan of The Weeknd for years, but now it's time to take it further. Welcome, new soundtrack to the remainder of my summer.

But I digress. In the end, each streaming service has its strengths and I'll use both accordingly. Spotify will be for when I want something familiar via the many playlists I've make there. Google Play Music will come in handy for night time listening and when I want to discover something new. Ain't technology grand? This is a marvelous time to be alive.

Well, unless you make your living solely through creating music, I guess. I'll let David Lowery sort that out.

Gonna kick it root down.

Entering the world of smart phones early last year changed my life. Now wherever I go, I have a little computer in my pocket. Need to check movie times or sports scores? No problem. Kill time by surfing the web? Can do! Need directions? Fire up the ol' GPS. Listen to European pop stations? There's an app for that.

While I love my LG Optimus V, I can't truthfully say a world of productivity and entertainment possibilities opened up to me. You see, while the phone is a great starter Android in many respects, there is one major drawback to it: a paltry 140 mb of internal that leaves little room for apps. Sure, a lot of apps out there can be moved to the SD card, but not all of them, by any means. With so many apps out there begging me to give them a spin, there was only one solution. I would have to root my phone.

When it comes to electronics, I'm a straight arrow that plays by the rules. (Well, I did complete the arduous task of punching a sequence of numbers on my remote control to make my DVD player region-free. Yar!) I don't cotton to voiding warranties should anything malfunction. Combine that with my limited technical knowledge and I didn't think I'd ever be able to unleash the full capabilities of my phone by myself. That is, until I found out about Gingerbreak.

With Gingerbreak, the process couldn't have been easier. I installed it on my Optimus and pressed one button. Boom. Rooted. It couldn't be simpler.

Of course, this was just the first step. With my phone "free", so to speak, I was now able to install apps that require rooting. One such app would solve my internal storage problem: Link2SD. This app moves any non-system app to the SD card and create a link to it on the phone, tricking it into thinking it is in the phone's memory. Installation of Link2SD was easy. It just required a partitioning of the card. (The first partition is for the moved apps. The second's for everything else.)

The one-two punch of Gingerbreak and Link2SD finally unlocked all of my phone's potential. I could now download many of the daily free paid apps from Amazon that I had been banking. Paper Camera for cool pictures. Lightning Bug to relax me! Flight Control to occupy all of my free time! And much, much more! Really, I am so glad that I rooted my phone and wish I would've done it sooner.

And here's one funny moment from my rooting experience:



We speak the same language, yet are worlds apart. I love my phone, but not that much. Sicko.

Super tweet me

My usage of Twitter waxes and wanes for no apparent reason, but one thing that I am pretty anal about is tweeting the stuff I put on my iPod. I don't know why I do it, but no one reads my tweets, so who cares, right?

Well, before leaving for work this morning, I sent this this tweet:



Imagine my surprise when I got this direct message later on in the day:



How cool is that? (Especially considering I didn't use a hashtag or link to his account and he doesn't follow me.)

So, professional humoredian Doug Benson, for taking two seconds out of your busy day to thank a fan, as well as providing me with countless hours of entertainment over the years, I am adding you to the Micah World Cool People List. I urge everyone reading this to follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your "Doug Loves Movies" podcast*, and grab your stand up albums. Now, how about doing a show in Richmond?

It's only a matter of time before Kenny Rogers reaches out to me. C'mon, man! I ironically bought your shirt.

*I listen to way more podcasts than any normal person should - thank you, brain dead job! - and his is my favorite. Are you a comedy geek and a film buff? Then you'll like it.

Playin' at the auto show. Hop a ride. Here we go.

I have driven the future. Or at least the now.


The above will no doubt drive my pappy to drinkin'.

Yesterday, through the kindness of the fine folks at Ford, I attended the Motor Trend Virginia International Auto Show and got to test drive a 2010 Lincoln MKS. Let me tell you, it was one sweet ride. Though, admittedly, anything would be compared to my decrepit Jetta. But the MKS was really smooth, cruising Richmond's side streets like a pat of butter oozing down a short stack. Mmmm...pancakes. Damn this low carbohydrate diet!

But I digress. In addition to offering a nice drive, it's also loaded with amenities, like blind spot mirrors, a back-up camera, heated/cooling seats, and a driver's seat that automatically reclines when one is ready to exit the vehicle. But I was most impressed with the SYNC system.


Micah-tested, George Lucas-approved.

The SYNC system allows you to control several things with your voice: music, phone, GPS, climate, traffic information, audible text messages and on and on. It really was impressive what Ford did there. Now, I'm not really one to multitask when driving, given the obvious dangers, but this new technology takes a lot of the risk out of doing those activities while on the road. Unfortunately, ladies, it will not apply your make up. Maybe they will offer a patch for that sometime in the future.


Not pictured: optional piñata add-on

Though I didn't get to drive it, the 2011 Ford Fiesta was on display at the show. Getting up to 40 mpg for just a shade over $13,000, I have a feeling that this car will be pretty popular. Heck, I may get one when Der Jetta dies.


A belated tie-in with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

But it wasn't just Ford at the show. Also there was Mini Cooper. I've always liked these and, if money were no object, would probably get one just to tool around town in.


Almost as rugged as a Canyonero.

And I've been pining over Toyota's FJ Cruiser for years now, but have let those dreams fall by the wayside as of late. I was delighted to find out that now offer it in green! It's about time.


Now let's see what we can do about welding those doors shut.

All in all, it was a fun time to spend an afternoon, despite the lack of the General Lee, Batmobile, or Hitler's Death Car.

For another, more in-depth take on the show, see this post by my colleague spydrz.

Get some perspective, people

So, you think these are dark times? Wrong. These are great times!

No region can contain me

A few weeks ago I decided to spice things up in the bedroom and buy a cheapy DVD player. No, not for that. Who watches that on DVD anymore? It's all about the internet nowadays. Seriously, I just wanted to be able to watch an episode or two of "NewsRadio" before I turn in each night (it's comfort comedy), reading books be damned. Plus, it'd be nice to have on those sick days when I'm bedridden. But I digress.

I ended up getting this Philips player from Target. It turns out that by entering a simple code via the remote, it becomes region free and can play DVDs from across the globe. (Cue "A Whole New World.")

So where do I go from here? There are only a handful international titles that have ever piqued my interest: the UK's "Spaced" and Japan's Grindhouse set. But I already have the superior Region 1 version of the former and I don't really want to drop 100 large on the latter. Plus, a complete Grindhouse DVD is supposed to be released Stateside...sometime. But then again, I'm still waiting for the long-promised Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

I'm sure at some point I'll pick up a Pulp concert DVD. And maybe the Special Edition of the Fratellis' Here We Stand. But those are the only interesting things currently on my radar.

What else is out there? Any kick-butt special editions that we're neglected over here? Great movies and TV shows unavailable to us Yanks? Awesome concerts or video collections by cool bands that aren't quite mainstream in the US?

And what online vendors would you recommend a budget-conscious person shop at?

Note: I tried my damnedest to have the DVD display in the picture above read "80085," to no avail.

School me on Flickr and Picasa

For years I used Sony's Imagestation to store my photos online and they met my needs. You couldn't really beat free unlimited storage. That's probably why they closed up shop. After they went out of business I had my pictures automatically transferred to Shutterfly, but I don't really care for that service. I have taken many pictures since joining that site, but haven't uploaded any of them. I've been investigating my options and have narrowed it down to Flickr and Picasa.

Right now I am leaning towards Flickr, mainly because it seems more "fun," for lack of a better term. The community aspect and some of the bells and whistles appeal to me. But then, Picasa seems like it will seamlessly integrate with all things Google, which is also plus. Neither service offers free unlimited storage so it looks like I'll have to go the premium route no matter what I choose. I had at least a gigabyte of pics on Imagestation and I plan on re-uploading all of them over time.

What do y'all use? What are the pros and cons of each of these sites? Is there some viable third option that I've completely overlooked?

The beat was weak.

So the new iPods were announced today at Apple's "The Beat Goes On" event. Since my current iPod's storage capacity will be hitting critical mass soon, I was particularly interested. Well, color me a bit underwhelmed. The phone-less iPhone (a.k.a. the Touch) seems cool, what with the wifi and all, but the 16GB storage is a joke. It looks like the 160GB "iPod Classic" just may be a Christmas present to myself in a few months.

Oh, and for those that bought an iPhone within the last couple of months (before the announcement of today's $200 price drop): that's what you get for being rabid members of the Cult of Mac.

To all of my BFFs

Over the past couple of days, two friends text messaged me (one of which was sending dinner plans). And I don't text. I've managed to hang onto the same cell phone for 4 years now and its text capabilities are cumbersome, in that when I receive a message I don't simply have to look at the screen to read it. No, I have to connect to the internet (or whatever) and go through several pages, which takes way too much time for any message other than "come over for booty call"* to be worth it. Not to mention that I don't have texting built into my cell phone plan, so it costs me extra to just receive messages.

So, folks, I implore you, don't text me until I get a new phone (maybe this autumn). Thanks.

I'll spare you my rant about how much I find texting language and the related abbreviations annoying and a cultural regression. I'll just say that in 40 years, the State of the Union address is going to resemble something out of Idiocracy.

*I've never received said message.