typewriting

i've just completed the process of making all my music available for purchase via bitpass. the implementation was incredibly easy, and staff member rachel has been more helpful than i could reasonably expect. the only reason i see for them retaining the "beta" label is that the instructions for selling content are still a bit confusing. but i spent more time uploading my full song files than i did setting up bitpass.

of course, the downside of using such a nice sales system is that future sales will increasingly be a reflection of how well my music is recieved. problems with paypal and cashets provided a handy excuse for why no one was buying my music. now if no one buys my songs, it will either be because they don't know about it, or they didn't like it enough to pay fifty cents. and both of those problems are mine to solve.

unpacked boxes and piles of books block the path around our apartment and occupy every available chair. obviously, scott and i aren't ready for visitors, but this hasn't deterred the scores of ladybugs that eagerly clamor at our windows. they even creep inside in apparent eagerness to welcome us, the new tenants, into this old house in this old neighborhood.

i think they're ladybugs. i've been told, because they're orange, that they are japanese beetles. but they just don't look like the pictures i've found of japanese (scarab) beetles.

whatever they are, they don't mind our sparse furniture or clutter. they don't even mind us. why should they? beetles have helped themselves in every autumn and will do so regardless of their human roommates.

it's probably a beautiful metaphor of nature's faithful attempts to perservere through every trial. maybe i'll come back to that when they're gone, but right now i can't say i'll miss them when frost spreads across our windowsill in their place.

last december i wrote if you want to take a more active (and fun) approach to showing your displeasure with the [grocery] card system, make an effort to frequently trade cards with other customers. well now you can do so online at rob's giant bonuscard swap meet. it should be simple enough to expand this to cover other grocery chains, and as soon that's done, i'll be swapping.