Farewell To Apple’s iPod - Why I'm Sad To See You Go - Part 2

 

The Music Lives On (Apple Photo Link) 

In my previous post, I talked about iPods — past and present. In this post, I will talk about storage issues I've experienced with iPhone compared to iPod, plus my wrap-up.

When you have a mobile device that’s portable, one that “does it all” like smartphones and tablets, that’s great! However, there’s one thing people forget — storage shared between apps. Your music library has to share storage space with a Photo library, various saved/downloaded Documents, a Calendar, Reminders, Emails, iMessages or SMS messages, Web browsing data and History. It all adds up, along with the system data that those apps may need or create. On a laptop or desktop computer, this made sense as they were designed with a lot of storage and, until the last decade depending who makes your computer, are mostly upgrade-able.

If you're an iTunes/Apple Music user and you store your music in iCloud Music Library and you don’t download, even if you stream via Spotify, those songs you listen to are still most likely being downloaded in the background as you’re listening to them. Otherwise you’d probably get a lot of buffering - stopping and starting. When you finish listening, you’d hope that the system would clear out those temporary files from your device.

In iOS 15, Apple renamed in the iOS/iPadOS storage area's Other as System Data - system caches, logs and other things currently needed. I’m fine with that but, how can that be taking up almost half the device storage which it was doing on my iPhone 8 Plus? I now have a 256GB iPhone 12 Pro that I’ve had for a year and I hope I don’t see the Storage Full message for another four or five years at least because I use my iPod for listening to music.

At the moment, the only thing I know that can clear that clutter is a Factory Restore.  Who wants to go through that every time they run out of storage? I certainly don’t fancy it. That's also a temporary solution as it starts building up all over again and quite quickly. A way for the user to clear out unnecessary caches, logs and other things would save a lot of headaches.

That is why I feel Apple should bring back a dedicated hardware audio/video player, so that those of us who want to keep our music & video collections separate from our multi-purpose mobile devices can do so. I'm not saying they should take music/video playback from their other products as they're still good for people who don't constantly utilise music or video libraries.

The Musis Lives On (Apple Photo Link)

I think Apple could do the following, if they launched an iPod replacement audio/video player: 

• Re-program the iPod nano 7th Gen’s operating system for today’s usage and rename it musicOS or mediaOS or any other name they fancy (the 7th Generation iPod nano was the only dedicated music/video player that had a multi-touch touchscreen like iPod touch).
• Incorporate Siri (for music, TV, Podcasts search only), Apple Music and Apple TV+ while still keeping the flow and design of that system.
• Keeping Photos support like the old iPod would be okay,
  
• Add Wi-Fi and hotspot capabilities so you could add music in the vicinity of Wi-Fi networks. Cellular would need a plan so that wouldn't be ideal - why pay out for a plan when you can use Wi-Fi or hotspot to your phone/tablet?
  
• Make the screen over 5” and give it 256GB or 512GB storage.
  
• At least bring it up to the CPU power of iPhone 11 or 12 - the current and outgoing iPod touch has the power of iPhone 7 and feels very sluggish and under-powered.
  

That’d be great! The benefit of that, over iOS, is you wouldn't need a security login as the only data that should be on the device would be your music, videos or chosen photos. There'd be no need for cards or passes. I guess the only private thing you'd really have a passcode on an iPod nano based OS is your Apple ID and password, which would be in Settings. This would be so the built-in apps could access iCloud and purchases. However, I realise that Apple of the past and current decade focuses heavily on the App Store, so I think that even if they could just:

• Slim down iOS to just audio/video apps — maybe rename it as mentioned above.
  
• Filter the App Store to just focus music and/or video apps (this would also appease those who enjoy 3rd party music apps like Spotify, Tidal or other players),
• If the device just contains downloaded/purchased content and streaming content, you shouldn't have to worry about security or privacy as there wouldn't really be anything to protect other than music or other content.
  

I think it'd be just as good because they'd also be able to keep all the accessibility features, which mostly weren't in the iPod nano operating system (you had a few, but not as much as iOS). I do think that people like me would be a niche market and Apple want to get their popular devices into as many hands as possible. I can keep dreaming but I doubt that product will ever exist — unless Apple don't mind at least one niche product.

The way I look at it, iPhone and iPad are both great communication and productivity devices. It's great that they — along with Apple's other products — also play music and video but, why not just have a device similar to iPod for today’s world? Why not call it something like Apple Media Player or Apple Music Player? At least it’d give Apple something to compete against Spotify’s hardware players they appear to be coming out with.

Other Apple products I love to use for music are HomePod (original 2018 version), my iMac and Airpods Pro. I will miss my iPod when it eventually stops. My only other thing when that day comes would be to buy the current cheapest 256GB iPhone and just use that for music only. I doubt Apple would have wanted people to do that. That's why I feel there's a need for a dedicated iPod replacement from Apple. 

Farewell iPod brand. I'm sure there'll be people who are sad like me but I know there are also people who are glad to see it end which also makes me sad. Those people tend to be the ones who have given up on iPod the day the iPhone was launched. It's not about nostalgia to me — it's a device I use and love.

Sorry for yet another multi-part post. Hopefully next one will be short. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Take care. 

Farewell To Apple’s iPod - Why I'm Sad To See You Go - Part 1

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I had a nice week. Some days were spent working on some music while other days just doing various computer things. 

Speaking of music

Apple officially announced on May 11 that their iPod touch - the last of their great iPod music player range - will only be available while supplies last. This means they’re discontinuing their iPod brand after it changed the way a lot of people listened to music back in 2001 when the first iPod was released. In a lot of ways, iPod and iTunes both changed how music was enjoyed and in a legal way and to stop piracy.

When the iPod touch sells out, there will be no more dedicated music player from Apple.  No doubt with this news, there will be people who will buy up as many as they can and sell them at higher prices when the iPod touch is no longer sold by Apple. I think it’s ridiculous that there’s people out there would do such a thing, but that’s the way it is.

I sadly wasn’t an early iPod adopter at all as I was still very much into my beloved CD collection. If I had been, maybe I wouldn’t find the transition to digital so sad and hard now. After all, I still love reading the booklets and sleeves of CDs and vinyl albums, even using a magnifying glass to do so.  One of my Uncles introduced me to the click wheel iPod probably around 2007. He showed me how it worked — how to go back and forth between songs and how to use the click wheel to navigate the menus. It even had photos stored on it. I was hooked from then on and couldn’t wait to get one of my very own.

I bought my first iPod, an 80GB iPod Classic in 2009, which I put my own music on using iTunes. I didn’t even start buying music from the iTunes Store until 2012. Early 2012 was when that iPod stopped working. I’ve had a few iPods over the years since then, some were even with smaller storage right up to a 160GB iPod Classic. It lasted until early 2020. 

  My iPod Touch on the left and my iPod Classic on the right

When Apple released the iPod touch in 2007, that was the beginning of the music player’s decline in sales and popularity as too many people - Steve Jobs included - wanted a device that did more than just play music. They were minimalists and wanted to cut down on dedicated tools. That was the idea behind the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad later on. The iPod touch was the first and only iPod that connected to Wi-Fi networks. It allowed music and other things to be transferred to and from the device wirelessly. You could also download directly from iTunes Store and iCloud Music Library.

I have to admit, as much as I love my iPhone and iPad, I’m a fan of the dedicated single use device. If you love to read, you probably have a dedicated ebook reader like Amazon’s Kindle. I’m not talking about the Kindle Fire, as that’s basically a multi-purpose tablet. With any of the other Kindle devices, you can read and read and have that storage dedicated to your book collection. Not only that, you can read without getting pesky notifications every 5 or more minutes.  Photographers probably prefer a dedicated camera too.

This is why I’m a fan of the iPod and use my 256GB iPod touch that I purchased in 2020 as a music and audio only device — sometimes even music videos via Apple Music. Apart from the native Music app, other apps I use are Shazam, Signia app (for my hearing aids) and the Boom app for UE (Ultimate Ears) MegaBoom portable speaker. With my 256GB iPod touch, I have notifications for other apps, except those ones I've disabled.

Two other apps that I’d use if I had the iPod nano 7th Gen would be Podcasts and Audiobooks — because the screen is ridiculously too small to read print.

The thing that makes my iPhone and iPad more superior and better than my iPod touch is they both support Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio.

The reason I got my iPod touch is because I kept running out of storage space on my iPhone 8 Plus. Even when I didn’t have much on it, it felt like storage was always an issue. It is a 64GB iPhone. When I go into the iPhone’s storage section, the part of the graph that says Other would be quite large, but yet I couldn’t find a way to shrink it.

More on that in part 2 which I will post this Friday.

Fears Of A Deafblind Musician - Part 3

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a great week and looking forward to the weekend as I am! Shall we continue with Part 3 of my fears?

Obviously if I do lose my remaining hearing and vision, whether together or separate, I guess my days of creating music could possibly be over. A lot of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations - complicated words to describe a music making/producing program) such as Ableton Live — my personal favourite — are currently not very screen reader friendly (this is going by what I’ve read, not personal experience). They are also very graphical, although I’ve heard that Apple’s Logic Pro X is a lot more screenreader friendly, especially with their own VoiceOver screenreader. Still, this wouldn’t matter if I lost both senses together rapidly. As for listening to music, I fear that I’d end up falling into a well of depression - I just wouldn’t be able to enjoy music as much as I do now. Are there ways around this??

I know that Deaf people can still enjoy music by feeling the rhythmic vibrations, and I’m very happy for them. However, that way of enjoying music means having the volume cranked to the max and would probably annoy housemates and neighbours alike. There are 2 movies that I watched last year, Amazon’s movie Sound Of Metal and Apple TV+’s award-winning movie CODA! 

The first one, Sound Of Metal scared me. I won’t go into the movie here in case anyone watches it, but Ruben a drummer loses his hearing and wants to hear. He goes to a place that helps with coping with Deafness, hears about Cochlear Implants, eventually goes through surgery to get the implant. When he gets it, he doesn’t like what he hears, and everything is just too loud and he ends up not using the implant in the end. I think I can relate a lot to this movie as it’s dealing with my fears of hearing loss later in life. 

 

Below, is a trailer for Sound of Metal. If the embedded video doesn't work, you can check it out HERE.

About 10 years ago, I had an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist appointment at Mater Hospital. At that time, I was suffering with constant high-pitched Tinnitus in my right ear which had become unbearable. I also saw the Occupational Therapist at the Mater to help deal with it. The ENT specialist suggested that I’d probably be a candidate for a Cochlear Implant. Check this page if you want to know more about Cochlear Implants. He said that he had a lot of positive feedback that Tinnitus became less of a problem for people who had the implants. It sounded really promising and I was starting to get excited at the prospect of ridding myself of a high pitched Tinnitus sound in that ear.

My big question was would I still be able to enjoy music? He pretty much said that I could still listen to music through my left ear because that ear wouldn’t get the implant. In other words, music I enjoy through headphones would be mono. My Apple devices have an option that allows music to be listened to in mono, but I noticed that rather than playing the stereo channels, it favoured one channel over the other. 

For example, with Joe South’s “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”, I was frustrated that I couldn’t hear the vocals of the verses, only the chorus. When I play the song through my big Apple HomePod, it was the same effect, proving that the HomePod is a mono, not stereo speaker unless you pair two together. You can only hear the voice very faintly, so I gave up on Mono mode on iOS. Since that appointment, Mum and I have done research on Cochlear Implants and I haven’t been happy with what we found.

Because Cochlear Implants are designed to bypass the hairs in the auditory canal (as they’d all be damaged anyway), they have to to do the job of those hairs, and there’s currently not enough electrodes in the implant that can fit the range I’d want to enjoy music. As it is, speech sounds very robotic from what I’ve heard, and music sounds terrible. I’ve heard that some hearing professionals are working with musicians to make music that is specifically in the Cochlear Implants’ range, and that is great... for those who don’t want to share the love of music with their friends and loved ones.

The video above shows how Cochlear Implants work. All Cochlear Implants generally work like this.

If I end up needing the implant (whether or not I’ll ever need the left ear done too for whatever reason I don't know), I want to enjoy the music that the rest of my family love. I want to be able to say to people “Have you heard the new Ed Sheeran album”, or “I love the song that is playing in this movie, I wonder who it is?”. It currently seems that if you use Cochlear Implants, you can only enjoy music if it has a strong, rhythmic beat (Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”) or classical music. I’m someone who loves a vast array of music, and Classical is low on that list. I suppose if I was born totally deaf and needed Cochlear Implants, I wouldn’t know what I’m missing out on, and I’d adapt. That’s a lot harder to do when you lose your hearing after 30+ years, even with my hearing being impaired. Kudos to the people who invented the implants because they definitely work great for speech. I know it’s a lot to ask, but hopefully in 30 years, people with Cochlear Implants will be able to enjoy music almost as good as their music loving peers.

The other movie I haven’t talked about yet is CODA. If you have an Apple TV+ subscription, I highly recommend you check it out! CODA is short for Child (or Children) Of Deaf Adults, meaning the child can hear, but the parents are Deaf. In this movie, Ruby Rossi (played by Emilia Jones) wants to pursue a career in music, but her parents want her to help with their family business of selling fish, translating what customers say to the parents into sign language and also be on board the boat for critical operations. Her parents get frustrated with her for wanting to do music. In one part, you see the family going to see Ruby’s school performance. They realised by the audience’s reaction that Ruby is great! After that, you see her family change toward her, being more supportive. I won’t say any more than that.

Below is a trailer of the CODA movie. If the embedded video doesn't work, you can check it out HERE.

 

While CODA is a beautiful movie and I’ll always love it, I think I can relate more to Ruben’s situation in Sound Of Metal. That movie leaves me feeling like there’s no hope after hearing loss. However, I’d like to think that Ruben will eventually get used to being Deaf and still find ways to enjoy music. That is the hope that CODA gives to me. As for my future, should I lose both sight and sound, a lot of people who are deafblind merge the tools of the Deaf alongside the tools of the Blind anyway, so I don’t think that’ll change. I’ll just need to learn Braille and tactile sign language when that time comes.

When that time comes, I will most definitely have to give up my love of creating music, but I think I’d prefer to enjoy music the way most deaf people do. If you are deaf, blind, deafblind and have your fears, I’d love to hear from you. I think if I do lose hearing, I’ll grieve what I lose, but I’ve seen proof that there’s hope, even if you don’t rely on Cochlear implants. I just feel, why put yourself through the surgery process when you may end up not using it in the end anyway? I’d like to believe I’d get over losing my vision easier than I would with my hearing. Personally, I want to enjoy my world of choice of Stereo music, as well as the new Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio options that are out for as long as I possibly can! Also, it’s great that there’s Audio Described movies out there too and I want to enjoy them too! 

Well, there you have it! A multi-part post on my feelings about my future fears.

Fears Of A Deafblind Musician - Part 2

Mum and I were talking one day in September last year about books we were reading. We were talking about the differences in audiobooks and standard eBooks. I said something like “I’ll probably have to rely on audiobooks if my vision goes as I get older”, but then it dawned on me a few minutes later “Hang on… as I get older, both my vision and my hearing will likely get worse like everyone else’s with age. Audiobooks would be useless for me just like printed books will be useless.” 

My legal blindness is due to my optic nerves never developing normally in the womb and, unfortunately, glasses can't help me.

I then started worrying about “What will happen if I were to lose my hearing or vision rapidly, or worse, what if something happened where I would lose BOTH sight and hearing?” (There have been accidents where people have lost one or both senses. Sometimes, even our own bodies implement defence mechanisms that can make us deaf or blind in order to protect us after a trauma, but I’d like to think in the latter case, the senses can come back after a period).

This all weighed on my mind for a few hours that day and it actually made me feel anxious. I wondered if I should be preparing myself just in case? When I expressed my worry to Mum later that day, she pretty much told me that there’s nothing we can really do about it until it happens. That it was better not to worry about something that might not happen and to live each day as it comes. Thanks for the advice, Mum, it helped ease my mind, even if nor completely.

 

This is how large I have to set the Zoom feature to on my Mac.

 

I remember back in the early 2010s, I had the same fear about losing my vision. I used to think “I should learn Braille in case I ever need it”. I guess I wanted to prepare myself so that being totally blind would be a little easier. Unfortunately, the Queensland Braille Writing Association pretty much doesn’t teach Braille unless you really need it - in other words, you have to be totally blind, otherwise your vision makes it harder to understand and learn Braille. I didn’t understand that, because when I was in my last year of high school, one of my friends who is blind, took time to teach me a small bit of Braille music. I didn’t use my eyes to read it, I used my fingers as she did and I thought I did pretty decent. I didn’t find it hard. However, after years of not reading it, that small bit of Braille has slipped away. That fear eventually left me and here I am a decade later still with legal blindness. Totally blind in my left eye with a very small amount of vision in my right eye. So, Mum does have a point. 

 

My Mac has a 27" screen.

 

However, that was when I was heading into my 30s. As I’ll be turning forty next year, I’ve heard that a lot of people seem to start having issues with their vision in their 40s due to the normal aging process. Now I’ll tell you of my recent scare that has made me even more worried. 

 

This is how close I have to get to the screen to be able to see the text.

 

 In November 2021, I was talking to Mum and my brothers about music streaming services vs buying music on CD/Vinyl and digital purchases. I decided that I would delete a lot of my personal music library that I’d imported from my purchased CDs, and replace those albums with the streamed version, whenever I can.  My reason for doing this is because, as Copyright laws stand here in Australia, if you buy and import a CD into your music library and you want to get rid of the CD a few years later, you’ll also need to delete the imported album/compilation because you no longer own the original copy. My future plan is to convert any streamed albums and songs into digitally purchased versions.

 

At least having a streamed or purchased version of the album/compilation in my library (if available) would diminish the need for that extra copy. I’ve been having to downsize my CD collection as I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis a couple years ago (quite rare for my age) due to taking Hydrocortisone tablets from a young age for my life-threatening condition. I can’t keep carting around huge boxes of CDs whenever we move (CDs are heavy when you have a lot). So I thought, why not embrace music streaming and purchase music digitally from now on when I’m supporting artists?

Note: I use Apple Music, which allows me to combine my personal music library with their streaming service, so my library is now a hybrid featuring saved streamed songs and albums alongside my personal library (Apple Music’s matching service matches what it can with their catalogue, while uploading songs it can’t match to iCloud Music Library). 

 

 Working with some music files

 

From late November to early January 2022, I set about deleting my personal music and replacing it where I could. This meant long hours at my Mac computer, sometimes late into the night. I wanted to get it done before the new year. Around the 3rd week of December, I felt tired and had dry eyes, at times I had tears streaming from my eyes. I eventually got to the point where it was not only hard to keep my good eye open, but I was very sensitive to light, whether natural or reading a screen. Mum fears  that I have done some permanent damage. Mum booked an appointment for me at the local Optometrist to get my eyes checked. They scanned my eyes with a machine and said that all looked okay (my normal) in the back of my eyes, but said that my brain might be having a harder time in processing light after all that time I spent looking at a computer screen for hours on end.

Whenever my eyes feel strained, I get Mum to put drops in and wipe my eyelids with Blephadex wipes whenever they’re needed to help avoid any bacterial infection. Because of my fear and trying to save my eyes from straining, I’ve been trying to teach myself how to use VoiceOver on iOS and iPadOS. On my 27’ iMac, I go between VoiceOver (still learning it as it is different to VoiceOver on iOS) and Zoom magnification a lot more than I’ve ever done, especially VoiceOver. 

 

I now have to be careful how long I’m reading or looking at a screen. I have my good and bad days, but the strain comes a lot easier now. Maybe when I see my Opthalmologist for my next appointment, they’ll make suggestions that’ll help. In some ways, I think Queensland Braille Writing Association were right. The only way I’d probably appreciate VoiceOver on my devices is if I permanently leave Screen Curtain turned on in iOS or wear a blindfold, otherwise I’ll always be trying to view what I’m doing. At least I know that if I end up totally blind, I can rely on screen readers, dictation and Braille (either the real paper or Braille Displays).

I know, this is long, but stay tuned for Part 3...

Fears Of A Deafblind Musician - Part 1

Time to dust off the cobwebs and do another post!

First of all, I want to say I hope everyone is well. Hopefully you haven't been hit too badly with any of the COVID-19 variants. I also want to say my thoughts are with those in Ukraine, fighting for their country. It is a shame that Russia has caused so much death and destruction. I can only hope that one day, the World will be united and at Peace!

Okay, I have something that I want to get off my chest right now. The thing is, as someone who is deafblind with significant sight and hearing impairments, I have my fears that one day these will deteriorate. As it stands, I still has a little bit of vision in one eye only, and some hearing which is a different degree in each ear, so I am grateful for that. I know my vision and hearing will be affected as per the normal aging process, but I also worry about any life events that may happen to me in future. I’ll tell you about a scary situation that happened to me over the Christmas period later. To help with my hearing impairment, I have Signia Pure Charge&Go 5Nx hearing aids that help me to hear not only the world around me, but also to enjoy listening to music and watching TV. Most importantly, they’re great for making or receiving phone calls on my iPhone!

 

Me on a phone appointment with my Audiologist

 

I want to make it clear here that I call myself deafblind. I wasn’t diagnosed or registered with that because my vision loss and hearing impairment were discovered at different times. I don’t have Usher’s Syndrome. My legal blindness was discovered in my first year of life but my hearing loss wasn't discovered until I was around 9 years old. In hindsight, my hearing impairment was obvious but family put a lot of my actions down to my blindness.  Though discovered separately, my vision and hearing impairments are both classified as congenital, meaning present since birth.

I can use my hearing aids alone to listen to music through normal speakers in a room like everyone else, or I can connect them via Bluetooth to my iOS devices and stream music to them like they are headphones. I love being able to listen to music through speakers, but it’s always great to have the option to listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks privately through my hearing aids with ear moulds made specifically for my ears. Most of the time, the quality is great, but sometimes, for about 30 seconds or so, one hearing aid or the other will have some kind of issue that causes the sound to become garbled which I don't like. When that happens too frequently, I take them out and change to other headphones.

 

My Signia Pure Charge&Go hearing aids on charge

 

When I’m making my music, I use proper over-the-ear closed back headphones (AKG K182, for those interested) that plug into my iMac or a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface. I think wireless headphones, and my hearing aids with the right connecting device, would cause too much latency (the time it takes for sound coming from a keyboard or microphone to travel through the computer and get to the connected speakers or headphones). I sometimes use VoiceOver, macOS’s built in screen reader, and I do utilise the Zoom magnifying feature to make the screen bigger (not to be confused with the Zoom video conferencing app). Sadly, this also means that I can only keep my eye on one part of the screen at a time. Unfortunately, with magnification on, I can't turn an on-screen knob or even tweak a fader using the mouse because this causes the screen to jump all over the place and it may bring undesired effects to the music or my ears.

When it comes to the TV, I can watch it and listen like everyone else, though with some difficulty, through the TV’s speaker or sound bar. Or I can connect my hearing aids, again via Bluetooth, to a TV audio streaming box designed to work with hearing aids. The latter also gives me the power to have the volume up to my preferred level if the TV volume is too low or even muted. Since I’ve been able to watch TV with my hearing aids through that box, it has made watching TV so much more enjoyable for me. If I have to deal without my hearing aids for whatever reason (eg, if sent away for repair), watching TV just isn’t the same, as I then have to struggle to listen. I can’t lip-read or read sign language due to my blindness. I would love to learn ways that deafblind people use to communicate at some point which I think involves being more tactile. I do rely on sound a lot, for speech and music.

 

 The Signia StreamLine TV box which enables me to the TV directly through my hearing aids.

Apart from magnification and screen readers on my devices, I do have other visual helping aids, such as 2 10x magnifying glasses, which come in handy if I don’t have my phone on me, which I can use as a magnifying tool also. I have a white cane to help me get around when I’m out and about. When I forget to take it with me, I feel lost and uncertain, even if I’m with family who can guide and tell me when a step is coming. My white cane has very much become a tool I rely heavily on.

This brings me to the reason I wanted to do this post. 

 

More to follow so stay tuned for Part 2...

Farewell 2016... Hello 2017!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my fellow bloggers and readers!

May 2017 be a better year for all! May you all have a happy, positive and peaceful year, no matter what happens.

Remember how I said I had big plans for 2016? Well, sadly, that kind of fell through because I had several distractions throughout the year. For one thing, I'm a terribly slow reader. I've got multiple books on the go, that includes novels, music, musician biographies, etc. I think 2017 will be the year I start reading one book at a time and I might have a better chance at getting them all finished. With multiple books on the go, I tend to forget certain things I've read, mainly in the music education books, so those particular books I'll have to re-read to take them in. 

For me, 2017 will be the year I throw myself into things I want to do.  This will include more practice on the guitar as I still feel like a beginner.  I was given the guitar close to one year ago by my brother, Beau. It wasn't a gift but rather, he passed on to me as he no longer wanted it.  I LOVE it but I do need to be more disciplined at playing it on a regular basis.

I purchased a couple of MIDI controllers made by Novation throughout 2016. With them came Ableton Live 9 Lite, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), which pretty much turns your computer into a home recording studio.  It can create MIDI music and audio music also. I'll tell you more about those products in a future post.  I will be learning more about all these products as I put them through their paces this year. I want to be able to actually finish music that I've created and know that it's worth it.

On top of that, I look forward to singing again with the Mater Hospital's Sing For Health Choir and also hopefully joining a local choir earlier in the year.

I also want to lose more weight as I've still got a fair bit to go before I get down to my goal weight of 71kg. I'll talk more about what's given me the push in a future post.

Well, that's it from me, I hope to keep you up-to-date each week with what I'm up to, voice my opinions on any music related issues and other things that I care about. You can expect some reviews of albums too by artists I enjoy listening to.

Take care all, and may you have a happy, peaceful, prosperous 2017!

Love and peace to you all!

Choir Performances And Outings

Hi everyone! 

I'm really sorry it's taken me a while to do another blog post. So much for trying to keep you all up-to-date regularly, but I'll try to improve on that score. I do enjoy posting on my blog and I am determined to get into a habit of more regular posting. The last thing I want to do is wait until the beginning of next year to start again.

Anyway, all has been going fine for me since my last blog post with a few specialist appointments, including an ophthalmologist appointment back in early March. All is good as my eye sight is pretty much static. I do worry about the future though, especially when I get older, when eyesight tends to deteriorate as you age. I'm told this will happen with me too and, when that happens, I'll have to become more reliant on screen readers and audiobooks. I shall cross that bridge when I come to it, so I shouldn't let it worry me now. I want to fill my days with as much music as I can, be it creating music, singing in choirs, jamming with family and friends or anything else that may take my fancy. I have, in recent weeks, been dealing with severe Tinnitus in my left ear. It's been frustrating, but I'm dealing with it as best I can with techniques my Occupational Therapist  told me to use after I had a bad Tinnitus bout 3 years ago before the Mater Choir started.

You all may remember my last few posts of 2015, where I was talking about being part of a choir run by my friend Alyssa. Well, this year, I've joined her other choir, which is called Let's Get Singing! I've been having a lot of fun learning songs like Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror", Moving Pictures' "What About Me", Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours" among others.  However, I had to temporarily put attending Let's Get Singing on hold from mid-May, as Mum and I had also started back with the Mater Sing For Health Choir for our 3rd year. Unfortunately both choirs were on the same day so it wasn't doable.

Our June performance with the Mater Mother's Sing for Health choir

Photo courtesy of Mater Mothers Facebook page.

One of the songs we did with the Mater choir is called "You Raise Me Up", which has been sung numerous times over the years.  The ones I mostly know of are Josh Groban and Westlife. We also performed a song written by Pete Churchill called "Dig Deep" plus a few shorter songs I'd never heard before. The performance day on June 15 went very well. We had a great time, as always. We actually had a specially requested performance date after that, which fell on my Birthday, August 15. All went pretty good, though not all our choir showed up, but we still sounded great! Now that's done, we're be on break until mid-November when we start preparing for the Christmas season and I'm looking forward to it.  

I've recently rejoined Let's Get Singing, all good as we've also been doing other songs!

Apart from choir performances, Mum, my brother Aaron and I, have been on a few nice day outings to our regular relaxation spots we often go to. We often go to a place out country called Burgess Park. People can camp there if they want, or spend through the day. We went there back in June. The great thing there is we can take our two much-loved dogs, Cody and Jack, when we go. We often get KFC chips on the way, stop at the nearby park for a little while, then go to Burgess Park to relax. Mum would sketch, I'd read. 

Burgess Park

We all also went to Wellington Point, our favourite bayside area. We had a wonderful time, Mum sketched (check out her blog to see what great sketches she has done), and I read more of my songwriting book. It was a beautiful day out, perfect weather! We took along a nice picnic lunch. In the old days, we used to enjoy fish & chips when going to Wellington Point, but nowadays, it's a nice healthy picnic if we don't feel like chips.  

Wellington Point - view of the jetty

Wellington Point - the beach side

Me on the walking trail at Wellington Point

We've also recently gone for a nice walk around the lake at Forest Lake, where we've seen different birds, swans, lizards and Mum and Aaron even see turtles in the water. I sadly can't see them very well.

Black swans with cygnets

Partial view of Forest Lake

Back briefly on the subject of music and choirs, August was special to me as it has been a year ago since my performance as part of Under This Sky - Logan's Musical Celebration. I was part of a mass choir of at least 300 voices singing 3 songs at the end of the show. I thought I'd share with you some footage from the show. For those interested, I'm in "Pachelbel's Chanson", "I Have A Dream" and "Get There From Here"! That show, done for 2 nights in a row to the public, was a massive highlight of 2015 for me and still brings a smile to my face and excitement! I'd do it all again if I could.

A part video from the Under This Sky celebration

Well, that'll be it from me for now, I hope to be posting again very, very soon! 

Until then, take care and stay safe wherever you are in the world.

Big Plans Are Coming For Me In 2016

Hi everyone!

WOW! 2016 is here and do I have a lot I want to get done this year. For those who brought in the New Year, I hope you all had a wonderful time, however you spent it. I'm the type of person who loves to party when it comes to New Year's Eve or birthday parties, etc. Even if everyone is just sitting around and no one intends to dance, if music is playing and a great, upbeat song comes over the speakers, I'll either be moving in my seat or (if it's OK with everyone there) up dancing. If the song is good, I just can't help myself! I brought in the New Year with Mum and Aaron (my brother). Mum and I played Yahtzee that evening before putting on party music and dancing until the Countdown. Aaron came and joined us for the Countdown. I was having radio problems, so thankfully Mum was able to save the day by getting a clock app for her phone that showed the seconds! We cheered in the New Year and then played Yahtzee again, one of our favourite games. As Mum and I intended on staying up to greet the dawn (I usually do that each year, it's a bit of a tradition to me), we even watched a DVD. I think it was after 6am that I went to bed for a few hours.

All my life, I've always been drawn to music, whether upbeat or slow, it just draws me. Even now, if I go to a gathering and music is playing, if I find it hard to jump into a conversation, I'll often just sit and focus on the music for a little bit. I'm usually quiet when people converse, however, I'll listen and try to involve myself when I can. If I can't join the conversation, I will let the music take over. I view music as my saviour when those situations happen.

While my last post of 2015 was reflecting on the year gone by, I'd like to focus now on what I hope lies ahead for 2016. My plans for this year have me motivated and excited for what is to come! I mentioned in my last post about the Mater Hospital Sing For Health Choir that Mum and I are a part of. We'll be looking forward to reconvening with that great group of people mid-year.  On top of that, I feel I want to get other things happening and, no surprise, it's all music-based. I'm actually quite excited about it!

I'm breaking away from doing web design as I'm done with trying to build one. Around 2003, when I got into web design, I was into MIDI music, which is basically music made by a keyboard/synth stored in .mid files as Note On/Note Off signals, and those are played back either through the computer sound card's built-in Soft-Synthesiser or a keyboard attached to the computer. I wanted to make a MIDI website featuring MIDI files to download. Some time later, I'd created a website that I thought was ready to publish, then my computer of that time failed, so I lost everything. I've been trying since then to still make websites, having even paid for a HTML editor, but never had the same spark, I can't even think of what to make a website about anymore. The enthusiasm is totally gone, not to mention the ever-changing web technologies I'd have to re-learn. I learned HTML 4, then there was XHTML, now HTML 5, and trying to make websites suitable for screens of all sizes. When I got into web-design, the only things you could view a website on was a desktop computer or a laptop. My website developing days are over and I'm about to start on a new venture...

Songwriting and music creation!

Yes, I'm finally trying my hand at something I wish I'd tried to do back in 2002.  I wish I'd shown more of an interest in music creation and songwriting back then but maybe I wasn't meant to at the time. I feel nowadays, technology is giving me the resources at my fingertips to help me out. Back then, there were probably only a few books about songwriting, but nowadays, there's probably more books and e-books on the subject, not to mention websites dedicated to songwriting tips, and podcasts to listen to on the subject and dedicated computer programs/mobile apps specifically designed for songwriting.  As far as the music creation is concerned, there's books, websites and podcasts dedicated to it. Also, YouTube is a great help if you want to learn quickly on how to use your recently purchased music composing/creating software.

I feel quite motivated to do it and I can't wait! I may let you all know each week how I'm progressing. Depending on how things go, I may share something with you of the progress, depending on how I feel I'm doing at the time. When I go on outings with Mum, while she's sketching, I'll be trying to find inspiration and writing thoughts down or using Garageband on my iPad to capture any music that comes to mind. I feel I'd much rather make use of that time doing things like that rather than reading or playing games on the iPad. I'll share with you all whatever books I may read, either novels or on the subject. I recently purchased a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Art of Songwriting.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what advice it may give!

I'd like to get myself into a local choir that runs in the evenings if I can too. I love being part of a choir for the singing and also the happy feeling I get, along with the health benefits.  So as you can see, I have a big year ahead! As long as I practice the art of songwriting every day, along with practicing on the guitar and bongos, I know I'll get much better. So stay tuned for next week and see what I have to say then! Until then, I hope you all have a great week.

2015 - A Bag Of Mixed Emotions

WOW! Where has the year gone? It seems like, even though the year went quite fast, I felt a mixed bag of emotions throughout the year. I've had a few down moments and crazy moments, but there were happy times too, probably not as many as I would have liked. However, life goes on and hopefully 2016 will be a much better year! I thought I'd share with you some of those moments as I do consider them to be worthy to talk about:

First of all, my dear Granddad passed away back in April. Mum did a very beautiful tribute to Granddad over on her blog back in April. I have many fond memories of Granddad over the years and I'll treasure those memories forever. Even when we used to visit him in the Aged Care Home, we had some good times that I'll never forget, and we visited him quite often. Even though we knew his time was coming, nothing would prepare us for the grief we all felt that day. I still think of Granddad and miss him everyday.

In November 2014, I'd gotten back in touch on Facebook with a friend whom I haven't seen since I graduated from high school back in 2002. Alyssa told me that she was running a couple of choirs and invited me to join one of them if I wanted to. In June, I really wanted to join a local choir, so I asked Alyssa if I could still join one of her choirs.  She told me that her choirs were preparing to sing in a major event as part of the Queensland Music Festival in August, so there wasn't much time left. When I joined, we went straight into rehearsing mode for the Queensland Music Festival songs. The event was called "Under This Sky - Logan's Musical Celebration", written and performed by the Logan community. I was told it was going to be filmed and broadcast nationwide across Australia, I was quite excited to take part in such a huge event.

Our choir would perform with the 300-voice Massed Choir (made up of several choirs around Logan, community choirs, school choirs, etc). The rehearsals took a lot of commitment and dedication, and I was mighty happy to be part of it all! "Under This Sky" took place at the Logan Brothers Rugby League Field on August 1 and 2, with a preview night on July 31 for the sponsors of the event! Mum and Grandma both came to the Preview and the first night opened to the public, my brothers came along with Mum on the Sunday night, August 2! Being the middle of Winter, we were all rugged up warmly as it was very cold. The show's theme was based around a day in the life of the people of Logan City. The show was a huge success! The Massed Choir was in the Finale, performing 3 songs; "Pachelbel's Chanson", "I Have A Dream" (no, not the ABBA song, this was totally original) and "Get There From Here". On both nights, I left the stage on a high. It was an awesome experience that will remain with me forever and I'm very grateful to Alyssa for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it all.

After "Under This Sky", the next big thing was my sister Michelle gave birth to another baby girl named Mackenzie Eve Hallmond! That makes me a proud uncle of her 3 girls! I always have fun with Mikayla & Maddy and look forward to many more happy times with all 3 girls as they grow up!

And to round off the year, Mum and I performed in the Mater Hospital 'Sing For Health' Choir. We come together twice a year and practice for 5 weeks performing on the 6th week, usually in the Mater Mothers Hospital foyer. Our Christmas performance entailed 7 carols; "Star Of Bethlehem", "Angel Carol", "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", "Jingle Bells", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", "Night Of Silence" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". We performed at 5 different venues around the Mater Hospital in the last week and they were all a great success! It's always a pleasure to sing with a great group of people! I look forward to hopefully doing more performances with the Sing For Health choir next year.

Photo courtesy of Mater Queensland

A couple of weeks ago, my brother Beau gave me his classical guitar that he's had for a while. Though I've dabbled in guitar playing in the past, I was a little scared of strings snapping, but I'm trying again and hopefully will get better as I keep going. So far, I've been enjoying playing it and have already tried playing a couple of songs! Thanks for the guitar, Beau!

I still love playing my Bongos though, so they will still get a regular workout.

As 2015 draws to a close, I have big plans for 2016, but I'll tell you about them in future posts. Until next time, please stay safe and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
May 2016 be a great year!

Merry Christmas - More Frequent Blogging In Future!

Hi everybody!

Look who has decided to make another all-too-rare appearance in the blogosphere. Yep, it's me and I'm hoping to change that rarity to more frequent in 2016. The thing is, I'm always trying to think of what to write for my blog. However, I seem to do long status updates on Facebook about how my weeks have been. Obviously, Social websites like Facebook and Twitter really shouldn't be used for such long posts. After all, people just want to glance at their News Feed on Facebook to see what is going on with their friends and family, and the majority of the time, I'm sure a lot of them won't have time to read long updates.

I think I understand the reason of Twitter's character limit at last. If people like me did lengthy posts on Twitter, it probably wouldn't be as popular, after all, that is what blogging is for. Yes, people will probably still want to skim through your blog to read the essentials, but if you want to pour your heart out into it, you can!

Anyway, earlier this year, Mum came up with this great idea that, rather than posting long posts on Facebook,  I should do it on my blog, which has been around for some time now, but feeling very neglected. As I told people on Facebook what I did throughout the week, she suggested that I just do it on here and put links on Facebook/Twitter when I do post. At first, I just wanted my family/friends to see it, but I realised that I pretty much share my frustrations and weekly thoughts on Facebook like I do on here, so why not merge them. Let's see if I can give my blog the love I give people on my Facebook posts.

In future, I'm going to try and post once a week or fortnightly. It is time to try and put a stop to this posting once or twice a year. This blog post was originally going to be about how this year has been for me, but I figured that I'll write that one throughout the week and will finalise and post it before the New Year. I will post each weekend, if I can. I really want to get this to work as I feel bad that my blog has been sitting online and getting stale with old information.

I want to keep my readers happy, both those who come to my blog and those who come from Facebook and Twitter links. If you're anyone I follow on Twitter and you've read this and would like to talk about my topic when I'm on Twitter, feel free! I'm always happy to converse. If you follow me on Facebook, feel free to comment on there also. Also, just letting people know, I don't use the Facebook chat feature, but if you want to leave me messages, feel free!

By the way, I hope you enjoy the new look of my blog. I thought the new look would make the text easier to read and it pays more attention to the photos in the post, not the big background. Please feel free to let me know what you think. We'll see if I stick with it, but I'm sure I will.

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I had a great Christmas Day with my family! Mum, my brothers Beau and Aaron, and I went over to my sister Michelle's place and spent the morning there, having a very nice Christmas Brunch. We had a little rain which kept things reasonably cool and we all had a really nice time! I had fun dancing with my nieces, Mikayla (5) and Maddy (3), to the music of Taylor Swift!  When we got back home in the afternoon, Mum and I watched an episode of the Smallville TV series I have on DVD, then we watched, Love Actually, a Christmas-themed movie.

For Christmas Dinner, Mum made a very delicious Vegan Roast with roast veggies, drizzled in Mint Sauce, along with a Vegan stuffing Mum made (picture above). I enjoyed every bit, it's definitely one of my favourite meals.

Also, Mum prepared a very delicious Christmas Dessert of Mango & Nutmeg Cheesecake sprinkled with crumbled Ginger Biscuits (picture above). It was very delicious and dairy-free! See, Vegans don't miss out at all and the bonus is that it is all cruelty-free! We ate dessert while watching another Christmas movie, Jingle All The Way.

A cheerful Christmas song for you all  - "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John

Until next time, take care, stay safe,
and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

New Updated And Expanded ABBA Book In The Works By Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Revised & Expanded)

Hi everyone!

As this is my first post for 2015, I just want to wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope the year goes well for you all!  I just want to try and keep this brief this time around because there's something I want to share with you all, especially if you're a big fan of ABBA, or even interested in music details.

Do you want to know the story behind ABBA's recordings, and how they came about, including recording secrets, unreleased songs and other things? Carl Magnus Palm, a notable ABBA historian, is planning to re-write his book "ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions"! Those fans and anyone else who know about the original book will know it was released back in 1994 and has sadly been out of print for several years. The new book will be called "ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Revised & Expanded)". As the  title says, the book is going to contain so much more information than what was featured in the original book. I've read a lot of high praises for the 1994 edition of the book by ABBA fans who have it and enjoy it!

If you would like to see this book come to fruition, please click here to go to the Kickstarter page and find out more about the book.  Anyone who has any of ABBA's CD/DVD releases over the past 20 years will know that Carl Magnus Palm has been quite active at providing very informative liner notes, even getting interviews with the ABBA members and providing interesting facts about each ABBA album. I'm pretty sure this book will be totally worth the money he is asking for, especially for quite detailed info that I'm sure any ABBA fan/music historian will want to read about! This will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to own this book, as far as I know, it's limited edition and is only available through the Kickstarter page above. If the funds aren't raised, the book will not be written.  Carl Magnus Palm is doing this because he is passionate and wants to do it for us fans alike!

If you want to know about Carl Magnus Palm and everything he has done over the years, mainly ABBA-related, you can go to his official website. Trust me, I go there regularly and always find it a joy to go through all ABBA related stuff he has!

I'm sorry I've left this so late, I only just discovered it myself.

I'll be back soon with another post.  Until then, I wish you all the best for the upcoming week, and take care, whatever you do and wherever you live. Stay safe and well!

A New Item Added To My Music Collection!

Hi everyone, 

I thought I'd share with you all my most recent purchase, which arrived in the post last week. For people who don't know, Elton John, my most favourite singer, released a brand new studio album in September.  The album is called "The Diving Board" and I bought the 15 track Standard Edition of the album on release day.  However, I had to wait a while to get what I'm going to show you now.....are you ready for it?! 

"The Diving Board - Super Deluxe Edition"! 

I'm very excited!

"The Diving Board - Super Deluxe Edition" comes in a nice size box that feels like it was done on canvas. 

It is a Limited Edition, only 5000 (I'm unsure if that's per country or all up), it even shows you on the back what number it is. I have 2653/5000! 

When you open the box, there's a black ribbon there to help lift the box contents out. The box contains the 15-track double vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve, a print of the picture used for the album cover and a nice hard-cover book, which has the 19-track extended CD and bonus DVD, featuring Elton live at Capitol Studios in the back.

I feel it is nicely packaged together, I actually thought that the CD and DVD would be in the digipack version you see at the stores labelled as the Deluxe Edition but I was proven wrong. Had they done what I thought, the CD/DVD case would have been sliding loosely around the inside of the box.  

If you're an Elton fan and you don't have the album yet, I suggest you get this as soon as you can. 

Stay tuned for my review of "The Diving Board".

R.I.P. Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy's first novel. Picture coutesy of www.qbd.com.au.

Hi everyone! 

Sorry for the length of time it has been since my last post. I'll try to post more regularly.

A few weeks ago, I thought I'd visit the website of Maeve Binchy, an author who's books I've enjoyed for the last 10 years.  I was shocked to find on the home page of that site that Maeve had passed away back in July 2012. I instantly felt sad as I've read quite a few of Maeve's books and have really enjoyed them! It also brought back the memories of when I first heard of Maeve Binchy and her great stories.

I first became interested in Maeve Binchy's novels back in 2002 while I was in my final year of high school. I somehow heard of a Brisbane radio station called 4RPH, which is a radio station for the print handicapped. When I tried the station for the first time one night, I discovered that at 9 o'clock every weeknight, they had a book reading segment for half an hour called Late Night Story, where they do unabridged serialised bookreading. That night, the story was Maeve Binchy's Light A Penny Candle, read by Kate Binchy, Maeve's cousin. Sadly, I missed the beginning of the story, which must have been many nights before. When I heard the story, I was hooked, and kept listening every night! A couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd tune into 4RPH again and I heard they were reading Maeve's book "Silver Wedding"! Sadly, I keep missing it each night, now they're no longer reading that one.

Since that first night listening to 4RPH, I've read many of Maeve Binchy's books: Firefly Summer, Circle Of Friends, The Copper Beech, Evening Class, Tara Road and Minding Frankie, just to name a few. I would recommend all the books I have read. Maeve's final book, A Week In Winter, will be released in November 2012 for some countries or sometime in 2013 for others. I am looking forward to reading it and telling you what I think, though I won't spoil the story for you!

If you'd like to find out more about Maeve Binchy and all her books and other works, I recommend you explore her official website (link above and in the side under Sites I Like to Visit). You may also want to read more about her on Wikipedia's Maeve Binchy page. You can also read a nice obituary about Maeve.  I thought I'd also share with you 2 videos I just found on YouTube, part 1 (above) and part 2 (below) of Maeve Binchy's life story.

R.I.P. Maeve. You will be sorely missed by your family, friends and fans, but your stories will live on forever!