DanBailey.net

Photo courtesy of jenn_jenn. Licensed under the Creative Commons.

Finances are coming along. It’s payday and everything’s been paid. I’ve adopted a new policy that I think is going to work wonders for my paying off of everything.

I’m already making more-than-minimum payments on everything. That’s just common sense, right? Right.

In addition to that, I have a new folder full of bookmarks to all the online payment places for my bills. My new policy for credit accounts is to pay something toward them every payday, even when they’ve been paid or there’s nothing due before the following payday. At least an additional $20 each, more if I can swing it.

Really, it’s not that much extra, and it helps get me to my goal that much faster.

So I haven’t anything particular to post about here, so I’m going to break it down into some bullet points and let you wander all over the map with me:

• Every so often, I have one of those moments where I ask myself, “What the fuck is wrong with me?” In this case, it would be while listening to Van Morrison’s Moondance album. This is one of those things that people have been recommending to me for years, knowing of my fondness for early Counting Crows. I’m finally giving this album a listen and am loving it.
   
• Speaking of the Counting Crows, I gave their newest a spin last week, and honestly? I’m still underwhelmed and of the opinion that Recovering the Satellites was their last really, really good album. Everything since has one or two good songs and a lot of filler. Honestly, guys? Your band is getting too large and you’re getting over-produced. Get back to your original five and strip the sound back to what it was with August and Everything After….
   
• Lately, TV shows seem to be a good source for finding music. I think this really started while I was watching Scrubs, and countless other shows have really driven me toward stuff I hadn’t listened to before. I’m not so naïve as to think that this isn’t just a degree of product placement by the record labels, but it’s strange how I’m finding both new artists and deeper tracks from artists I already listen to. I’d be curious to know what other shows are driving your music acquisition…
   
• The RIAA recently came up with a new protectionist idea that they want to institute. They want to use what little clout they have left to institute a system in which ISPs would charge users an extra $x per month, payable directly into RIAA coffers, which would allow users to download all the music they want, and would insulate the ISPs from litigation over the allowing of P2P protocols. This, of course, sounds all well and good in theory. But many things sound good in theory.
   
  What the RIAA has stated, but less publicly, is that these free downloads would all be a DRM’ed format, and that this format would allow the RIAA to ’shut off’ your music if you ever stopped paying the monthly license fee. This is, of course, another case of the RIAA trying to control something that it is utterly impossible to control. (And don’t even get me started on their claims that this $5 would be split among the artists based on the number of downloads.)
   
  What the RIAA doesn’t get is that the only way this shit will fly is if it’s basic, non-watermarked MP3 files, and we can bring back the old Napster. In which case, I’m totally fine with paying $5 a month.
   

Man, remember when Reagan quoted from “Born in the U.S.A.” without realizing what the song was about?

Well, Hillary, bless her shriveled little heart, likened herself to Rocky today. More to the point:

‘Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,’ Clinton said in excerpts of prepared remarks to be given Tuesday to a meeting of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

This, of course, makes me wonder if she’s even seen Rocky?

I mean, really. Rocky loses in the end. To the black guy.

This calls for some serious Photoshopping. I just don’t have the time for such things.

(No, not an April Fools joke, either.)