My new partner's name is Bill Goodman, and he lives in Chicago. He and I share an immense affection towards stoner rock and keeping up with all of the best bands the genre has to offer. This coupling with Ron being distant and effectively non-existent in helping the station out, it seemed like a good idea to get a new partner. Some of you may remember the post regarding finding someone new a few months ago. At that point, Ron had somewhat resurfaced, and The Soda Shop was slightly redefined at that point, but it didn't take long for talks to stop and The Soda Shop go back in hiding. This time, I was greeted with an opportunity to change things, and I took it. I think this was the obvious decision to make.

This occurrence happened to be just in time for The Soda Shop's first birthday. That's right, The Soda Shop is officially one year-old as of Monday, February 22. Along with this, the stream is back up and running (it should be accessible from the site again tonight), and there will be quite a few changes to The Soda Shop's website and operation, some things you won't see, many things you will. I feel most of these changes are fairly obvious, common sense changes. Things aren't working as they should, or they're lacking in parts, and the changes will fix these issues. Hopefully, they'll start rolling out in the near future. We don't have any timeline set for right now, but we should have one here fairly soon, so we can get things going.

Oh, and we have a temporary blog set up until the web site can support an actual news management system. It's using WordPress, of course. View it here: http://thesodashop.wordpress.com

Since I haven't talked about politics in months, I'll start off with that. First and foremost, I never did approve of Obama, and surprise surprise, that has not changed one bit. He's still pretentious, arrogant, ignorant, and, most importantly, wrong on just about everything. The only things that I do agree with him on (being some social liberties) are things that he has simply put on the back-burners. I would be able to respect him if I thought he actually gives a damn about people rather than his own, reckless agendas. He's not really all that different from Bush, as he attacked McCain on. It's the pot calling the kettle African-American. To further my point that he's no different than Bush, what has he done in Iraq and Afghanistan? Last I heard, Obama was planning on sending MORE troops to Afghanistan. And here I thought that he campaigned on the ideas that he was going to try to LESSEN our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right about now I feel it's the right moment to say, "I told you so" to all of the people that thought he was actually going to follow through with those sorts of promises. He's managed to push his reckless economic stimulus packages through (Bush did the same, though), and he has started the dismantling of Capitalism in healthcare which is bound to help improve things. Hahahaha. Sorry, I thought I could keep a straight face on the last one. So nearly one year later, and I'm still just as cynical towards this fraud.

In other news, I have been given a new position at Anesthesia Business Consultants. After about 7 months of working as a Customer Service representative, I was given a position that I had applied for. I moved out of Customer Service to become the assistant head of a different department. It's now full-time with benefits, a nice increase in pay, and I'm able to prove myself capable of thriving in not just Customer Service but potentially any department, as well as showing that I can lead. If I don't screw this up, then the company will really see me as an asset, and I can't imagine they'd want to lose me. Not to stroke my own ego, but I am far more than just someone's who's easily replaceable. I have substance, loyalty, and ambition. It doesn't hurt that I'm male in a largely female-dominated workplace.

Even though I'm working full-time, I've been getting the itch to start designing a little more. I haven't touched things in almost 3 months, and it's probably time that I hop back in. I could always use some extra cash, and if I could score some freelance work, it'd be nice to have. I just need to get my name out there and convince people that they need my services. This would include actually finishing my website to the point that it's respectable to show, and I really could use my new business cards. As of right now, they're just sitting in an .ai file and not doing anything productive for me. I should probably go out and mingle with people more, too. It's kind of a tall order, but it's completely doable.

Oh! I got a new phone, too. It is the HTC Hero through Sprint. Once I discovered this phone, I immediately fell in love. I got it the day that it was released, and there really isn't much to complain about. At times, it can be a bit sluggish, but I am not in such a hurry that I need everything to load immediately. Though, it's not even that significant to begin with. The battery life is probably my biggest gripe, but I'm never too far away from somewhere that I can charge it, and it usually lasts me 12-24 hours depending on how heavy the usage is. I, definitely, feel that I made the right choice in phones. Even my brother likes my phone. He's due to get a new one and switch to Sprint, as well. As I've become kind of an Android fanboy, I've been pushing him towards the Hero or the Samsung Moment. He says he doesn't want to get the Hero because I already have it, otherwise he would. While I think it's a ridiculous reason to not get a phone that you like, it's probably smart that he doesn't. The Hero is probably too complicated for what he would really use it for. Realistically, then, it's the Moment that I'm going to push him toward. He has been planning on getting the Pre, but I think it really depends on what keyboard he's going to, ultimately, want more. Will he want a full-touchscreen (Hero) or which physical keyboard he'd prefer, the Moment's (with the bigger keys) or the Pre's (tiny ass keys that annoy the piss out of you). We shall see. You know I'll be rooting for Android!

Also, you may have noticed a change in the layout of the blog. No, I didn't create this new theme. I just have gotten so sick and tired of the thin content column that I needed to change it. I do have a new design that needs to be sliced and coded, but with WordPress themes, they can be more of a hassle than they're worth. For right now, I'm content on using a solid design that others have created for me to use, royalty free.

On a final note, I will see about doing more music recommendations. Of course, I cannot stop finding new music to listen to, so I have plenty to share with everyone. I'll have to think of the format of how I want to do this. I don't know. I could just end up being far too lazy to do it, period. We'll have to see what happens.

My House Representative lost to my governor's bitch. It was a very close race, but the outcome didn't exactly happen as any sane person wishes it would have. Just about everybody I voted for didn't win... except for like one or two people and the ones that were only 1 candidate running.

Other than the doomsday feelings I have towards our government, I've found myself starting to become obsessed with some web 2.0 sites. I don't know why, but I am. One would think that as a libertarian, I'd rather distance myself from such sites, but I like the technology, and I like the possibilities. Plus, I consider myself to be fairly progressive in my libertarianism that I actually like the idea of such inter-connectivity between Internet/mobile phone users.

I've become more active on my Twitter account, and I have joined a new site called Brightkite that allows you to "check-in" at locations and post that information on the site and even has the ability to automatically tweet those updates onto your Twitter account. It also has the ability to automatically update your Fire Eagle account, as well. Fire Eagle is essentially Brightkite without any decent features. It's just basic location identification and nothing more.

I'm trying to remember that I have a Pownce account, but it doesn't usually work out too well. I don't really see much of a need for the site, but I like the idea of it. I just don't usually have many links/photos/videos/files to share with people.

For a list of all of the online social sites that I belong to, you can check it out here at thekingsthrone.net/profiles.

Besides that, I am hooked on buying CDs. I am trying to keep it to a minimum, though. I am trying to make sure that I have money to buy a pistol with. All I need is a license to purchase in Michigan if I want a handgun. No CCW is required to purchase a handgun or even to open carry a handgun. That's one of my main concerns now.

Either way, GoDaddy's hosting should be a lot better than what Bluehost could ever hope to be. So far, it looks that way.

Like I said before, I have a couple projects that I need to get done, anyway. I want to redesign my portfolio, so it looks a little better. It looks great now, in my opinion. I guess it's just not what I'm wanting for my portfolio right now. Who knows what I'll come up with. Of course, whatever I come up with better match or surpass this current design. The other project that I have to work on is a nice little design for the Signing Friends of Jackson, a gathering of local deaf people that my mom helps organize. They want something that would provide basic information regarding dates and updates. They want it to look good, too, so they've come to me for that help. I'm happy to oblige, and now I need to put together a design. We'll see what I can come up with, shall we?

One way to fight back isn't to download music illegally. Doing so is stealing, and there's no real way that you can justify stealing. Plus, it's illegal. However, you can support sites that ofter digital downloads for their music. Mostly, you'll find this with independent labels and unsigned bands, and these are the people you need to support the most. All of the money you give to them goes to them, and that's the way it should be. We don't need these unnecessary and greedy record labels hoarding money for doing nothing but marketing the music.

This is why I have spent a while today (and still continue to) searching for these sites I mentioned above. I have found many more sites than I was expecting to. Some smaller than others, but all offering music for digital download in MP3, FLAC, or both formats. The FLAC formats usually cost more, but they're well worth it, as you can burn them directly to CD and have exact CD quality music, or you can re encode them into a smaller, lossy format for listening on your computer or MP3 player.

I have been compiling a list. Some are mainly rock/metal, some are easier listening like Jazz and Classical, and some have several different genres available. This is what I have found so far:

http://www.emeraldcityeg.com/records/ - Rock
http://www.klicktrack.com - Rock/Metal
http://www.bitworksmusic.com - Easy Listening(?)
http://www.zunior.com - Rock (and others?)
http://www.snocap.com - Multiple genres. (MySpace Music)
http://www.linnrecords.com - Classical, Jazz
http://www.c64audio.com - Electronic
http://www.mindawn.com - Multiple genres
http://www.bleep.com - Multiple genres
http://www.musicishere.com - Multiple genres
http://www.magnatune.com - Multiple genres
http://www.somarecords.com - Electronica

I'm sure there are many more sites, but as I said, this is all I have found so far. If you know of any more, PLEASE let me know. I will be happy to put them up here, so we can get the word out.

Sure, I would be mad, too. However, I'd be mad at myself for not being patient enough to get what I want. I guess we just can't expect anybody to take responsibility for their own actions, anymore. Someone else has to be to blame for it, never those who partake in the actions. If it's not the government for letting bad things happen, it's the evil corporations of America who are trying to rip everybody off. If only people realized that they should take responsibility for their actions, and if they did so, they could change the way the world works. They'll never learn.

Anyways, Steve Jobs sent out an apology to Apple users for this price slash. Yes, he apologized for making a smart business move. Of course, that's ridiculous. They shouldn't have to apologize for that action. Regardless, that apology didn't satisfy enough iPhone purchasers, though. Apple decided to then issue $100 rebates to iPhone customers who bought the iPhone within 14 days of the price change. Talk about bending over and taking it in the ass because consumers are nothing but a bunch of arrogant retards. That goes double for Apple snobs. Their egos never cease to amaze me. They belong in San Francisco with the rest of the arrogant assholes of the US.

This world sucks, and it's ever increasingly getting worse. Every day just reminds me of how glad I am to be a Libertarian. I actually hold a respectable position on political issues, and I'm not an extremist. I just wish more people would wake up and stop being so damn selfish. Oh well, it kind of makes me glad that I'm one of the few.