In 2012, the internet has an abundance of music streaming options. Rdio, Pandora, Spotify, and Grooveshark are some of the more popular options for streaming music. The idea is simple, you pay a monthly fee (or put up with ads + limits) and stream music by whatever artist you like, for as long as you like. I’m not a huge fan of this approach though. I listen to music on the subway a lot, where there’s no internet connection. Yes, some services offer offline options, but that usually only comes with a paid plan. Plus if you happen to end up underground without any music stored offline, then you’ve got nothing to listen to. I like having my music available 24/7/365, and in full 320kbps quality. And streaming tends to eat up data plans pretty quickly. Also, most streaming services don’t have the more obscure metalcore I listen to. They’ll have a couple popular bands but nothing too new or unknown. Flash memory is pretty cheap, so I think I’ll stick to having my music on my mp3 player instead of streaming it.

Plus, if the streaming site of your choice has a server issue or shuts down, you’re left with nothing but the money you wasted on the subscription.

Gasoline-independence, complete silence, instant acceleration, super-cheap to refuel. Those are just a couple of the advantages electric cars have over their internal combustion counterparts. On paper, they’re a great idea, and they’re becoming increasingly practical for the real world as well. The only caveats they have is range, price, and marketing. Range and price will improve over the years without a doubt, but the marketing is what’s killing them before they even get too popular. Continue reading →

Yesterday was my two-year anniversary with my lovely girlfriend, as well as Valentine’s Day. Pretty convenient, two days rolled into one. We went to The Cheesecake Factory in Long Island, the food was pretty awesome, as expected. Then we went to go see Star Wars Episode I in 3D.

The movie itself was exactly the same, except seeing it now I noticed all of the terribly cheesy lines. The “3D” part of it added a little extra dimension, but nothing was that insane, probably because the movie wasn’t shot as a 3D movie, just converted to one. Some scenes were left as is, it was mostly the battle/race scenes that got the 3D treatment. Essentially, it’s just George Lucas milking more money out of the series, but I still enjoyed it. The fact that I saw it for free with an Optimum Rewards card made me feel less ripped off, haha. Overall it was a pretty good day.

With all the readership (or lack of it) on this blog, one might wonder: “Why the hell are you still blogging here? You write these long articles but nobody ever reads them, nor are you making any money from them.” Well the answer to that is this: you’re missing the point. I never started this blog up with the intention of popularity or making any money from it, I started it for other reasons. Continue reading →

If you’re just starting out as a producer, or you just want to have some drums for riff ideas and such, you’ll probably go for programming drums with software such as EZ Drummer. It’s a great solution for those who don’t have the money, space, or ability to mic up a full acoustic set. Or maybe your drummer just flat-out sucks, that’s also a problem sometimes, haha.

Trouble is, even after you spend so much time programming a drum track, it still screams “fake.” I’ve recently had to program drums for one of my band’s songs because our drummer wasn’t able to track them that day, and I learned a couple of new things about working with computer drums. Continue reading →

After toying with the idea for a couple years, I finally went and got my learner’s permit earlier this month. A bit late, as I could have had it when I was 16 (I’m 19 now) but hey, better late than never right? Plus being over 18, I no longer have to deal with all the restrictions of a class “DJ” license, I have a normal class “D” one. Read on for some thoughts on my first weeks of driving. Continue reading →