I remember the time when I was firmly against streaming services. Monthly costs. A need to be connected. Music going away if I stop paying. And: I still do not listen all that much to all the music I actually own, so how could this possibly be worth attaching another eel to myself?
I held out for a long time, too. A trial period here, a run of putting up with ads there. No matter how much I may want to appear the grumpy old man, I did see the point of streaming services a lot sooner than I started using them. The one and only question was whether I would use one enough to motivate attaching that monthly eel. It occurs to me now that the answer had I tried would have been very likely to be no until very recently. I think the recent flourishing of playlists and recommendations both human curated and machine created are what make the difference. Super-simple ways to make use of all that music without requiring me to choose too much. Back when a streaming service looked and felt pretty much like my own music collection, only vast and online, I would have felt overwhelmed by choice just like when I look at my own collection, and usually not be able to think of anything to listen to. I only discovered the good of playlists during my trial of Apple music, flipping the bit which previously prevented me from trusting someone else with providing my music.
I still do not listen a lot, and it will probably keep going in waves like most of my media consumption. But there is enough new and unknown music in my ears that the eel seems completely worth it.
Late binding
I finished Bound last night, and I so want more games of this kind of scope, ambition and daring. Different games. By reading the version information for its latest update, I also realized Playstation VR is landing in the real world. Bound in VR sounds like a fantastic idea, I can not think of another game I have played which feels so at once natural and exciting to experience in that way.
Mind you, the thought is not run-in-circles-until-hands-can-be-laid-on-a-VR-unit-fascinating. I do not itch to be allowed to spend money.
Yet.