My younger sister, Sarah, visited us here in Santa Barbara for the last week and before she headed off (I take her to the train station in a few hours) we wanted to show her the Monarch butterflies that congregate in Ellwood every winter.
It was unbelievable. I’ve never seen so many butterflies clumped together in one place. They were mostly clumped in the trees but when the sun lowered and hit them just right, not only did you really get to see their color but they began to flutter about as if waking from a nap. It really was quite impressive.
You can see a few more pictures I took of the butterflies here. And yes, all those things in the trees that don’t look quite like leaves are, in fact, butterflies. If they had been man-eaters, we would have been goners. Enjoy!
For those of you out there that like music and who actually pay for it legitimately online, I just can’t recommend Amazonmp3.com enough. Amazon’s offering is VASTLY superior to Apple’s iTunes it’s ridiculous. Personally, I like owning something tangible for the most part. Digital music has always seemed to be “less than” to me. In fact, most of my music library is from used CDs (and CDs are starting to really tick me off on how easily they scratch). Apparently, along with being a pack rat I’m also a tight wad. Right. With that aside, when I do purchase music online it has always been with a feeling of incomplete ownership. And this is where my comparison of the two digital music stores comes in.
I am thankful that iTunes helped to break down the boundary of purchasing something digital online for the average person. Kudos to you, Apple. However, iTunes is a flippin’ rip-off at this point as it stands. Seriously, $.99 for EVERY song. Every one? No discounts or special sales? I just admitted I’m a tight wad. Work with me here, Apple. (*UPDATE: Apple has, in fact, decided to “work with me” and the day after I originally made this post, Apple announced they would faze out their DRM and introduce a new pricing structure) You make it super simple to purchase music, you say. Well anyone who sells music online should make that one of their goals. And yes, Apple, has the one up on this category. Purchasing music is unbelievably simple once an account has been set-up. But then you’re not really purchasing the music are you? You’re temporarily borrowing it. It’s called DRM. It supposedly helps prevent piracy but last I checked piracy is rampant. What it really does is tick off the people who actually do purchase the product legitimately.
Case in point: I’ve gone through a few computers and/or hard-drives. Normal wear and tear kind of stuff. Every time I transfer my music library for iTunes I am asked to approve the “new” device. Same goes for replaced iPods. I can put the music on something along the lines of up to 5 devices or computers. This concept works great if I purchase music like I purchase something from the grocery store. But what if I want to own my music for 20+ years (like a good record). Assuming a replaced computer or iPod every… I don’t know… 5 years (X2, one for the computer and one for the mp3 player) then I’m looking at losing full control of my music library in 15 years or less. And that’s being generous. (My argument still stand against DRM in general, regardless if it’s not necessarily going to continue to be an issue specifically with iTunes.) (more…)
Just got back from vacationing in Arizona a few days ago and it’s good to be home. Melissa and I visited her parents in Prescott, AZ for over a week. I love Prescott. It’s so… Western. When you travel around Prescott, especially when driving to where my in-laws live, it really feels like you’re in the Wild West. I’m not sure I’d want to live there just yet (I am a city boy afterall) but maybe someday. Though horses do intimidate me and I don’t like hats (just the occassional beanie) and country music is not something I want to hear on purpose, so I guess I wouldn’t make the best cowboy. Eh. Oh well. Guess I’ll have to move to somewhere with an art and music scene and no horses instead, not that I’m moving anytime soon. Melissa still has a few years left with school and what I call “school follow-up” so we’ll be in Santa Barbara for at least that amount of time – though I’m always on the look-out for cool places to check out for the future.
Check out the rest of the pictures from the Prescott trip here.
I was reading random articles on-line this morning, as I am prone to do, and came acorss a list of foreign aid the U.S. disperses in order of amounts to the top ten countries. The list always includes what that aid is generally used for and though I don’t know of the accuracy of the article, it does bring up some very interesting concepts.
I understand the desire to support Israel but why is the U.S. dumping BILLIONS into that region? I don’t for a second believe that the U.S. government is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts or because of any Judeo-Christian belief that Israel are the chosen people. If that were true then why is so much aid poured into countries that also generally dislike Israel? I think there are two basic reasons that can be derived from the above list. One, the U.S. likes having strong allies in that region. This is clear cut and understandable if we have resouces at stake in the region such as say…. something like oil. Two, the U.S. especially likes strong allies that spend money we give them back on our products (in this case weapons). Speaking of which, where exactly is all this money coming from? Thin air? Or borrowed in the trillions from other countries like China and Japan? The money we borrow and print is then given away to countries who then use much of that money to purchase weapons from us. This is part of the “Military Industrial Complex” and much of our world economy is dependent is on it. Scary.
