On Complacency and Mercy

     The church has grown complacent as we've passed through the ages,
     Abandoning their stations, calling false doctrines "phases,"
     Not recognizing enemies for the things that they can do,
     Looking at their weaknesses, saying "Yes, but they are few."

     But I have seen a threat, and it comes not from without:
     Why, it's the very thing I just spoke about --
     Christians ignoring doctrines that sound so very wrong,
     Covering their inner silence with empty, barren song.

      But still their rests a hope to recover from our fall:
      To turn, face our Savior, ask Him to forgive it all.
      With Him our pleas for help shall never fall upon deaf ears,
      He hears even when we whimper, cowed by crippling fears.

      With our sins we build a prison, with hateful, poisoned walls,
      But God is always waiting to make our prison fall.
      He's always there to take us back, release us from our cells,
      Even when we're far off track, and on our way to Hell.

      He guides us when we lose our way, He finds us when we stray,
      Until we reach our goal: to stay with Him forever and a day.
      So remember when you've fallen just as far as you can fall,
      God will always carry you when you've lost the strength to crawl.

Ca-Teh-Goh-Ree? What's That?

       Okay, you know everyone tries to put everything in boxes, color code it, and make sure it touches nothing else, ever? That's stupid. No matter what you're talking about, it WILL be connected to something else. "But, Philippe," you say: "surely there is some concept completely devoid of connections to another, right?" Eh. Not really. Just look at the (singular) human race: we try to categorize people, be it Caucasian, African, or Arabic. But if you were to put all of the characteristics we use to define these categories -- let's call them "sub-races" -- into a database, along with a picture of every person alive riiiight... NOW! and tell it to sort them by sub-race, it wouldn't be able to. There is simply too much overlap.

     Now, if you apply the same concept to other things (books, movies, music, blogs), the results are similar. Sure, these things are more categorical, but there's still a ton of overlap. That's why Pandora will occasionally throw a song you hate at you.
 
     This being said, just because something doesn't fit in a category with other things you like does not mean you won't like it; the best way to stop being picky is to expand your tastes.

    I'm done ranting about why racism is a false concept and why my blog can be whatever I want it to be, so I'll leave you with this: Go. Try something new - you might end up finding a new favorite band, an author you just love, or a food you get hooked on... like sushi.

My Review of Google Music Beta

Interface
   


     Personally, I feel that the Google team could, should, and likely will make the fonts and scrolling smoother. This is my main gripe about the interface. The controls are a bit out-of-the-way, and the lack of right-click functionality throws me off a bit, but Google's method of choice for fixing this (a small button at the bottom-right corner of each track) is tactful and well-executed. The control issues can be fixed with several Chrome apps, but I do not use Firefox , Opera, Safari, or IE, so I cannot recommend help to those of you who do. All in all, Google Music Beta's interface is good, especially for something still in beta. My numerical score of the interface: 8.7/10


Adding Music to the Library


    Like, ten clicks and a few hours of waiting, and my entire iTunes library (small as it may be) was available far quicker than even iTunes itself could present it. The fact that Google gives users a few free tracks based on which boxes they checked during setup does nothing but good for my opinion of this service. I have no issues with the music adding process other than the lack of in-service purchasing and duplicate track prevention. Numerical score: 9.4/10


The Listening Experience


    At first, songs tended to skip if other tabs were open. Somewhere along the line, Google has improved this. As there have been no other problems so far, my review ends here. Numerical score: 10/10


Overall Numerical Score:  9.2/10

Favorites

Favorite band: Ratatat, at the moment, but just about anything without words is great.

Favorite book that is not the Bible: The Return of the King.

Favorite series longer than three books: The Inheritance Cycle.

Favorite hobbies: Computer geekery and writing.

Favorite website: For the moment, Google Music Beta.

I have run out of favorites to share. Until I post again (most likely a few minutes), goodbye.