Music Players

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

There’s always room for more. That’s my moto. Actually it’s not. There’s a story behind each mp3 player purchase, and each player has it’s own specific use. Yes, of course, one could probably do it all, but at the time of purchase, that one just might not have been available. That’s the true story behind why I own 5 ipods and two other players. Now that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

I came out when I was 28. That was in 1993. Yes, I was a late bloomer – very confused in my youth to say the least. But anyway, this is not about that. When I came out I fell in what I thought was love for the first time in my life. It was simply amazing. Little did I know then that I was only in love with the idea of being in love with a woman instead of being in love with that first woman. Sad but true. I got my little heart broken anyway.

There was this band back then that I really loved, and they were called Soul for Real. And one song in particular really touched me. It was Candy Rain.

Soul for Real is a R&B group from Wheatley Heights, NY that experienced significant popularity during the 1990s, made up of brothers Andre, Brian, Christopher, and Jason Dalyrimple. Something of an urban 1990s version of the Jackson 5 crossed with Boyz II Men and Jodeci, the act has specialized in “hip-hop soul” numbers such as “Candy Rain” and “Every Little Thing I Do” (U.S. number 1 hit), both hit singles from their 1995 LP Candy Rain (Wikipedia).

In my sadness, I listened to that song non-stop. You can hear the song here or watch the video below. I loved this song because the words meant so much to me. It had a catchy chorus and the first verse went like this:

Have you ever loved someone
So much you thought you’d die?
Giving so much of yourself
It seems the only way
Tell me what you want, and I
And I will give it to you
‘Cause you are

OMG. I am cracking myself up with this. I was so pathetic. Here’s some more:

My love
Did you ever dream that it could be so right
I never thought that I would find
All that I need in life
All I want, all I need now I know
I know I found it in you
I found it in you
’cause you are

Well, she didn’t feel the same way, and all I had was the song. So I made my email and IM names soul4real to keep the memory alive. Gosh, I’m so glad I’m having to recall all of this because if it were a daily memory I might have to just smack myself. I’m all grown up now and realize how silly I was back then, but I still continue my online identity as soul4real. Every social networking site I sign up for has soul4real as my username, and now you ALL know why. It has been 13 years and still going. Enjoy the video:

This past week flew by. I was extremely busy with adding working out back into my schedule. Yeah, and you know me, I don’t do it half ass by any means. I just jump right in to the fire. You can read about my aching muscles on my fitness blog. Click the Fitness tab above.

I hate spam. Thought I’d share that on my blog today. I have a bunch of my hurdle videos up on YouTube for my track team, and they just got hit by a wave of spam this past week. I just spent about 10 minutes cleaning it all up. I don’t know why these people bother. Bug off! If you want to watch a spam free hurdle video, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiOvFYZLFq0

Speaking of YouTube, I was trying to figure out what the Crank That Soulja Boy Superman dance was all about last week, so of course I went to YouTube to see if there were any videos. Yeah, only about 500! Incredible collection. Incredible in size, but not necessarily in talent. Apparently anybody and everybody who can do this dance felt the need to video tape themselves doing it. It’s kind of cool, but I’m a little too old to be learning line dances. Not that old people shouldn’t dance, but the only place anyone would be doing that dance I’m sure I would not want to spend time in. I get enough teenie bopper hiphop culture at work. But if you would like to learn to do the Crank That Soulja Boy Superman dance, watch up:

Soulja Boy himself is teaching this one. Skip all the way to the end to see the dance with the music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLGLum5SyKQ

MP3tunes is a MSP (Music Service Provider), providing individuals a personal music locker with unlimited storage online, making it possible to access one’s music collection from any device. MP3tunes.com is the home of the Oboe Locker. MP3tunes also has an independent music store with music available for purchase at MP3tunes.com/store/.

I think Mashable had a post about online storage sites, ONLINE STORAGE: 80+ File Hosting and Sharing Sites. Anyway, I’ve been looking for something to help me control my out of control music collection. I have 4 computers I use pretty regularly: iMac, Macbook Pro, two Windows PCs, one at home and one at school. To add to this music collection mess, I have two kids and a partner who also love music. Cam has a laptop, but the boys have their on log ins on my home PC. So even though they are on the same computer, they have their own music files. So we have a total of 7 iTunes libraries and tons of music.

I know there are other methods for controlling this mess, and I’ve read several good articles about file servers and shared folders, but it was all too confusing to me. Now the way mp3tunes.com works sounds simple enough once it’s all set up. Getting to that point is a test of my patience however. It’s been about 2 1/2 hours just uploading 2Pac, and that’s only the first artist in my list of many. That’s slow, but it could be my computer and wireless connection. I’m sure it will be worth the wait. I can upload unlimited amounts of music and sync it with 3 computers for free. If it works, I can pay for an upgrade ($40 a year) to sync unlimited computers. The good thing about mp3tunes.com is once my music is uploaded, I can listen from any computer no matter where I am. You can even listen to your music on other devices:

A growing family of popular devices are already connected to the Music Locker: TiVo, Nokia phones and Internet tablets, the Logitech Squeezebox, and more.

I think this is great if you want to unlock your music from your computer. You can even download plugins to play your music on traditional media players like Winamp and iTunes. Not to mention this is a great backup solution for keeping your music safe. I can’t wait until I get it all uploaded. I may have to switch to a wired connection to get it all done. But when it is, no more wondering which computer to use to sync my iPod, looking for the most recent music downloads. They’ll all be the same! WooHoo!