Since AIM Radio/AOL Radio and Yahoo Launchcast don't want to work on this computer at all for me, I've taken to searching for a new thing. I tried MSN's Pandora and it doesn't work when I login, it just sits there and (if it had eyes) looks at me stupid-like.

I gave up on ever having music (unless I wanted to load a bunch on the computer from cds, which I didn't) because AIM will completely freeze up, it's ridiculous! Launchcast will completely quit working audio-wise, it keeps showing the songs it's playing, but there's no sound, and then it stops showing what songs altogether.

So finally I gave up on all of those and I really needed some music so I started searching for free internet radio (hoping I'd find something that worked!) and found Slacker. Yes, you read right, Slacker!

Slacker.Com has free internet radio and while listening to it I only experienced one error, there was possibly something wrong with a song file while I was doing dishes, but in order to get everything working again all I had to do was skip the song.

The best part about Slacker is that I am able to choose the bands that I want to hear and they play that music! Yep, they play what *I* want to hear. Launchcast throws in a bunch of nobodies and songs that I have no interest in hearing in between songs that I want to hear. And I literally have to block and skip anywhere from 3 to 10 songs before hearing something I want to hear. Then after that song is done, I have to go through it again. That's a real waste of time for me.

AIM/AOL Radio doesn't give you the option to skip, period. You can switch to another station which then takes forever to load, and then AIM freezes.

Slacker let me create my login and name the bands that I wanted to hear. The site brought up a list of bands in the same genre of the ones I entered so I could click on other bands that I wanted to hear.

The entire time I was listening to Slacker yesterday I didn't have to skip any songs, unless I wanted to. I could listen to my station that I created commercial free and without having to deal with a ton of songs I didn't want to hear.

Anyway, I think I found the new place where I'll be listening to music. For Free. Laters!

My friend Shana is someone I've known for over 10 years, mainly online, with meetings in person over that time. She currently lives in New York and may eventually move to San Francisco, which would be closer to me and we could do stuff together. Anyway, I got to talk to her today and she linked me to her current blog and I had her other blog already. I have relinked the older blog and linked the new one. The first one listed, Shana (1) is the new blog, the older one is the 2nd.

She's given me some ideas on job hunting and I am going to take her advice and see what happens. Doing so means a quick resume update, but other than that, shouldn't be anything major.

So visit Shana and give her love, send her warmth and some energy as she has a class to go to.

So I finally got to finish watching Season 1 of October Road. I've been trying to watch the episodes on ABC.com but they tend to freeze or simply stop playing altogether. So I found another place to watch them at. I have always liked Donna on That 70s Show, so when I found out she was in this show, I knew I had to watch it.

The show takes off really quick and dirty. You find out all the dirt right away and find out what these people are really made of. You know how dramas work, but this one pulls you in and introduces you to the families of the neighborhood. You learn weaknesses and strengths of everyone. You see people trying to simply live their daily life with a little happiness and it doesn't always work that way because sometimes a monkey wrench gets thrown in.

Anyway, I love this show for the twists and turns and because of a timing issue with the scheduling of another show I never got to watch more than a half an hour of it when it was on tv. I'm finally to have gotten caught up now and hope to catch it when it starts airing again.

Laters.

So I was off and running with a possible layout for the new blog I'm going to make. No, I won't give out any more info than that. I popped around the internet for awhile looking for ideas and I can't remember what triggered the thought about Dusk Angel, but something did.

I knew this lovely woman who has a geocities website and her name on there was Dusk Angel. I was hoping she'd still have a page over there (she always had a paid site = no ads) and I loved going there to visit. She had the greatest artwork and writing and more. I knew she wouldn't have faded into nothingness and so I tried the geocities url, 'lo and behold there she was, with a redirect!

So please check out the art gallery of Maryann Nolan. Please keep your mits (and your right clicks or save as's) off her artwork. She's gone a long way since I last spoke with her and I hope she continues to do amazing things. And if you are looking for a unique christmas card or gift, she's sure to have something you'll like at her Zazzle Gallery: MANolan @ Zazzle.com.

I always loved her layouts. They were always beautiful and she was always helpful.

Lately I've been wanting to do layouts like they have over at Aethereality.net but they don't have tutorials over there on how to do them. I know that the lovely woman that runs the site is also a professional designer so I can understand that while she shares the tools of her trade why she wouldn't give out all of her secrets. I found Celestial Star from Aethereality. I have to say she's got a pretty cool tutorial on how to make a great layout. I made one, albeit not that great. I shouldn't have put something along the side that was going to streak once it was added as a background.

Anyway, I've been perusing the other tutorials that she has and they are all pretty cool. So perhaps I'll find some inspiration in making the layout for the new blog. I like what I have here at disillusioned, but since I am finding new and exciting ways of doing things don't freak if there are changes now and then to enhance what I have.

Ok, go do some tutorials already!