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     Boo hoo Google bought a site I liked called Songza and broke it.  Broke it with a vengeance!
Songza was a music streaming site where the creators would curate themed playlists for you to choose from depending on your mood. The song lists had names like "Driving late at night after an argument" and would have a variety of tunes that fit that theme.  Others would be titled things like "Calling in sick from work", "Studying", "Cleaning the house", "Angsty Scandinavian sirens", "Riding the late bus" and hundreds of others.  It was great, quirky and weird.   So now Google has bought it and shoved in advertising..those annoying ones that say oh this advertisement will close in 25 seconds.. 24 .. 23.. and so on.  It is seriously the longest 25 seconds of any annoying thing I can think of.  Forcing me to watch advertising when really I came to see something else doesn't endear me to the product they are selling.  It makes me want to punch that product in the face.  So Google then made a subscribers version which is $10 a month and with it you don't have to watch adverts.  Really does everything has to be monetized?  Songza didn't monetize their site or if they did then I didn't even notice.
     Next topic.  So I was nominated for an AVI choice award which is nice.  It is for Favorite SL Videographer.   I went to see the favorite artist category this time around and.. well.. I know just two of those nominated.  Am I really that out of it?  I googled some of the nominees and found some flickr sites which were underwhelming.  I was kind of thinking to see people like Cica Ghost maybe as she is quite prolific and popular, or perhaps Romy Nayar  and Ux whose latest work I think really was their best so far over the years I have watched them.  Jo Ellsmere and her bot performances or Nessuno Myoo, Mikati Slade or maybe even some LEA artists?  I think they have to advertise the nomination period better.  From what I understand people need three nominations, so if you gather a few of your friends you can be nominated.  If on the other hand the AVI choice committee pick the nominees then they should perhaps ask the art bloggers to suggest some names.  How can there be only 6 favorite artists and 51 nominated for favorite female host?  Maybe it's just me though,  I am somewhat of a hermit and so its possible that really I don't know who is popular right now.  I thought I was fairly in the know but perhaps not.  Anyway overall I like the AVI choice event as it's important for the community to have things to debate etc.  Favorite particle artist?... no Colemarie Soleil or venus adored?  Whaat?! 
     Why so many venues for music country, rock, etc and a category for favorite stream provider yet no category for favorite sim?  I am guessing, but I would imagine the majority of sl residents would be more interested to find out what is the favorite sim over such a specialized category as favorite music stream provider.  Or people would like a favorite clothing designer category.  I read these AVI choice lists because I kind of want to discover new things I am unaware of.. like a really interactive sim or just awesome unique virtual clothing maker.  I don't even know what a host is.. what is a host??  Are they the ones who say hi to you when you enter a virtual club?  Oh I know whats happening to me.  Doctor am I reverting to a noob?  I don't know whats going on anymore, I am all confused and noobifying.  Oh god my shoes are growing bling with clicking sounds and I have a tag above my head saying that people can change it if they want to.  Anyway enough fun.  It's all good.  Here is where you can vote http://avichoiceawards.com/vote-here-the-arts/
     So Occulus Rift.  The consumer version came out a month ago with a price tag of $599 dollars of
Gah there is a brick on my face!
the USA denomination.  Now my Canadian money is pretty stinky at the moment, so it converts to $834 for me!  That's like a lot of money when just a year ago your money was on par.  (This also goes for tier btw linden lab cough cough) But wait! you also need to have the top of the line graphics cards for your computer (meaning first you have to have a desktop rather than laptop).  So these are the specs.  The resolution is 2160x1200 which is a great improvement over my DK2.

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
2x USB 3.0 ports
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

     My computer is pretty good but, yeah, I have to update it to run the occulus.  The GTX 970 is about $500 Canadian.  So that's like $1300 total now.  So I might be a nerd.  Actually I am fairly certain that I am a nerd.  I find technology like this interesting and I want to have it, I do, I do! so maybe I will spend this much money on it though I would feel kind of stupid in doing so.  Seems kind of decadent.  But will other people spend this much who are more sensible than me?  Is it on par with the giant tv and theatre system that a lot of people spend their money on now? (disclosure I have no tv)  If you get the giant tv and all that stuff then you at least have all the movies and endless tv to put on it.  I think the occulus comes with a few games but I don't know.  I just don't KNOW!   Someone tell me what to think! Ahhhhhhhh.

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