NPR Music app

I joke that I haven’t bought any new music since 1994. That’s not true, but I haven’t bought (much) music since, oh, 2004 or so. At least not music by anyone I didn’t already enjoy. I’ve been getting back into things lately–I resubscribed to Magnet, and have also come to realize how nice the NPR Music app is for discovering new music. Stream entire albums before their release, for free. I checked out a few while working in a noisy library yesterday morning (when did libraries get so loud?). A great alternative to commercial music discovery services, especially if you still appreciate the album as a format. Probably also available on Android, or just go to the NPR Music site to listen.

Lydia Loveless

One of the albums I listened to yesterday is Lydia Loveless’ forthcoming Somewhere Else, due out this coming Tuesday. So bad-ass. For those of you in the Lawrence/Kansas City area, she’ll be at the Czar Bar on March 6. It’s a school night, but I’m going to do my damnedest to make it.

“Writing without Knowing”

Without knowing it, O’Reilly’s Simon St. Laurent wrote this relatively spot-on summary of the process I took to write my own technical book (that’s Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec, cough cough). Seriously, not being the world’s foremost expert in a technology is no reason to not write about it–in fact, your beginner’s mind may do you a great service in eventually helping others get up-to-speed. Being interested is the key. Read this, then start writing (or screencasting, or whatever)!