Greg Rose's Blog

Why I am gonna like Google Music.

I just read a TechCrunch post on this Google Music Locker thing that is supposed to launch tomorrow.

For me, personally, this is very exciting news! I have always thought it would be a neat thing to have, all your songs somewhere in the cloud and be able to access them from multiple devices (vs. carrying your iPod around everywhere). So now that I see this Google service is about to launch, I am excited about it!

Why am I exicted?

I am excited about this for the same reason that I really, really like my iPod.

Capacity.

Yep, I love having my entire music collection accessible and not stuck on my desktop at home. Hey, It took me a long time and a bunch of effort to digitize my music collection to MP3s! I want to be able to enjoy them far and wide! If there was suddenly a way to play all my music over a variety of devices (computer and mobile), I would be really stoked. It sounds like this new service will be exactly that.

But the most important thing is I will be able to load all my music onto the service! It is reported that each Google Music account will be able to store 20,000 songs! I have a ton of music, but not that many songs! This means, my ENTIRE music collection will be in the cloud. Seriously, this is so cool!

Capacity is also also the reason I did not like the Amazon Cloud Player. I did not like it because of the 5 MB limits. I have way more music than 5MB, and honestly, it is not worth it to upload the full 5 MB. Yes, I have uploaded a couple of albums just to test the service, but I don’t find it very practical to use at this time.

So, yeah, I am excited! I think this is going to be big! I predict that this might be the foundation for Google to “get social right”, as music is all about being social!

There you have it! A blog post! Yeah, it has been awhile, but I thought this would be a good topic to write about and to get my thoughts out there before this bad boy actually launches tomorrow as all the rumors say!

Santa Cruz tsunami video footage compilation.

A tsunami hit Santa Cruz, CA today. Lots of my local friends have been posting to Facebook various video clips they have found on YouTube. I thought I would collect a few of them and post them here, as some of them you might have not seen yet.

Some pretty major damage was done, but luckily nobody was killed or anything. Definitely made for an exciting day in and around Santa Cruz! I heard with all the road closures the traffic was insane.

Anyway, check out the crazy video from today!

5 Classic Rock songs.

Ok, here is another in a series of music videos I found on YouTube. It really is amazing what is on YouTube. I mean seriously. Back in my day we had to visit the actual record stores looking for the rare gems. Now, you just fire up the YouTube and it is all there. So, let’s take advantage of this fact and post some songs for you to check out. Oh, by the way, these are all live and quite amazing performances, so check them out.

1) The Kinks “Days”

2) Jethro Tull “My God”

3) Ten Years After “I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes”

4) Donovan : Catch The Wind

5) The Velvet Undergound &Nico – Femme Fatale

How to Keep Your Goals in Focus.

In 2007, after working at my previous place of employment for 10 years, I decided to look for a new job. This process ended up taking up much longer than I had initially thought. Not only that, it turned out to be much harder than I thought and was full of setbacks. I would make it all the way to the interview (no easy task!) just to not get the job and have to start all over again. This ended up being quite a frustrating process and it was hard to “keep on keepin on” as the saying goes, and it was harder still to keep focused on the final outcome… Getting a job. Considering I actually had a job at the time, it really was difficult at times not to throw in the towel and stay at my current job. It was not a bad job at all, but I just wanted a better one.

Looking back on everything, I really think there was one little “trick” that helped me. The trick was in keeping this goal in the forefront of my mind EVERY DAY. Remember, this process took over a year, and I had to keep focused on the goal for the entire time. So how did I do this anyway? I picked something that would remind me of my goal and how I needed to not to “rest on my laurels”, but needed to “go, go, go”.

The thing I picked was a building. “The 88” to be exact.

So, how did this work exactly? Everyday, I would take the bus home from work. The bus stop was across the street from a large building that was under construction (The 88). Everyday, while I would wait for the Hwy 17 Express bus to pick me up, I would look at that building and watch the construction guys slowly build this thing. Then I would tell myself….

“I WILL get a new job before that building is finished and has tenants who have moved in”

The race was on.

It seemed like a simple thing at the time, watching the building being built. Looking back on it now, I realize that of all the things I did, that one daily exercise was really the most important. It was the most important because it kept me focused and installed a sense of urgency on my quest. You see, watching the building being built, I could see progress. This progress on the building reminded me that I had to get my butt in gear if I wanted to reach my goal before the building was finished.

I have to say, it worked!

It was a close call, but I did end up getting that new job before the building was done. For awhile there, it looked like I was not going to make it, but that just motivated me even more!

I got my new job just as the building was being finished. One month later, the first tenants moved in. However, I was not at the bus stop to see this, but I was already gone!

Autobots are some cool toys.

2010-12-30-17.44.50 — Autobots in Car Mode

2010-12-30-17.54.59 — Autobots in Robot Mode

Transformers Autobots are some really cool toys. I predict that they will be one of the toys that the kids today will one day say…”Those were cool, I remember those”. Why do I think this? It is because of their puzzle-like characteristics as well as their precise engineering and construction. They are quite fun to change from robot mode to car mode. Yes, this is truly the coolest thing about this toy… That it actually transforms. It goes from a cool robot to a cool car. Each of these ( the robot or car) in themselves would be an awesome toy, but the fact that they switch between each other is awesome!

They really can be quite a challenge to go from one form to another. On the box they have the “difficulty” level. Both of these autobots are rated a “3”. If that is the case, I can’t even imagine what a “5” would be like! These things are so cool, I just had to take a couple of pictures of them!

As you can see, the car mode looks quite realistic. Once they are all put together, they are actualy cars that roll around and everything. If someone was handed this toy in Car Mode, I think it would take them a bit to figure out it could turn into a robot also. I really that that if someone handed you this and it was already in Robot Mode, you would not even know that it turned into the neat-o car.

This is why I predict that these toys will be remembered in the future.

Christmas Lights

We went to the Los Gatos Festival of Lights saw some christmas lights. It was a lot of fun and there were some really cool lights.

Our dog is a Italian Greyhuahua

We figured out last night that our dog, Luke is actually an Italian Greyhuahua. A what now? Well, it seems that an Italian Greyhuahua is a mix between an Italian Greyhound and a Chihuahua. We had kind of thought this was true when we first got the dog, but last night we did a bit of dog research and can confirm it!

Luke the Dog — This is Luke. He is a Italian Greyhuahua

The first thing that makes us know Luke is an Italian Greyhuahua is that he looks like one! These dogs have kind of a strange, unique look, and our dog fits that look pretty nicely. The second thing that made us know he was a Italian Greyhuahua is that the dog loves to run…. Fast! This little dog is one serious runner! I have not seen a faster dog of this size. He can keep up with all the large dogs at the dog park, and is even faster than some of them. Some of the other traits Luke shares with this mix is that he likes to bury into the covers on the bed and likes to sleep next to the heater vent. He is a big fan of body warmth and will snuggle up to any person or dog that is around. Another trait of the Italian Greyhound that our dog has is that they “do not exactly throw themselves into training with great excitement”. Unfortunately, this describes Luke far too much! I will admit that he is getting better and better.

The one trait of Luke that I can’t seem to find a reference anywhere to is his love of herding the big dogs. He loves to herd them at the dog park. He just jumps right in and takes over where we go there. The other dog owners always notice when he runs around and plays with the other big dogs. Sometime there are so many of them gathered around him, you can’t even see him, but he always breaks out of the pack and then herds the dogs and chases them around. It is very fun to watch, but I am not sure where he gets this from. I don’t think this is either a Chihuahua trait or an Italian Greyhound trait, so I think there is something else in his genetic makeup that drives him to do this.

We are very glad to know more about our dog who came from the streets of LA

Thanksgiving, the true American holiday.

Happy day after Thanksgiving everyone! Yes, it is Friday, and most people had the day off, including me. Well, that is unless you work in retail, then you have been at work since 3am! But for the rest of us, the Friday after Thanksgiving is for… Going to buy stuff at the retail stores that have been open since 3am! Ok, honestly, we did not go shopping today, but lots of people do.

IMG_20101125_165049 — Salmon and Halibut on the grill!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We went over to some friends house and then saw some other friends that we don’t get to see often enough, so it was really great. Not only that, but we had lots of Salmon and Halibut on the grill! Considering I am not a big fan of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing and all the fixins, this was really a bonus! The fish was really tasty, as was all the other food. But yeah, the fresh fish was really, really good! Check out the picture. Yum!

Usually we travel 8 hours on Thanksgiving to see our relatives, but this year we did not travel. I think we are going to make this the new tradition, not to travel on Thanksgiving! Oh, and to have fish on the grill instead of turkey in the oven! So, yes, new traditions: fish for dinner and no travel. When you don’t have to travel, it really makes the Thanksgiving day weekend much more relaxing! Also, you end up saving quite a bit of money when you don’t have to travel, which these days seems to becoming more and more popular.

So far, staying at home in Santa Cruz, CA has been really nice. It is cool seeing all the other folks’ family in town, strolling West Cliff or at the local park. It is great to stay home with my own family and spend some time together in a nice relaxed manner. For example, today we all went to the park and my 4 year old son leaned how to ride his bike without his training wheels. If we had been away from home, that sure would not have happened!

Well, hope all your old and new Thanksgiving traditions have been fun and you are enjoying your time off !

The Dog Update.

Well, you know we have some dogs, because you read the original blog post about them, right? Yes, we have two of them, both small Chihuahua mixes. I have been taking them to the dog park lately. The one dog, Luke really loves going in the big dog part of the dog park. He really gets up in these dogs faces and then runs around and has a great time. The big dogs love to play with Luke and Luke is a seriously fast dog.

Every time we go to the dog park, we get some comments about Luke, as he is quite a character to watch. Maela on the other hand, does not really like the big dog zone and usually just follows me around and tries to stay out of trouble. However, that Luke dog loves to run and run and run! It is pretty fun to watch.

Luke also likes to sleep with our 4 year old son, which is pretty cute. Maela likes to hang around the adults however, and usually sleeps in her bed over by the dinning room table. That is until everyone else goes to bed, then the dogs go in their crate to sleep.