When I was very young, I was really into this show called Eureeka’s Castle. It’s somewhat similar to what I imagine Sesame Street to be like, but I’ve never seen that show, so I can’t compare. All of my friends were into Barney or some knock off, but I wasn’t. It was all about Eureeka to me. I was the only one I knew who knew what it was. It was exclusive to me, and it was mine.

I eventually came to understand that I wasn’t the only person in the world who was lucky enough to have a television; I wasn’t the only one who saw that show. But I realized the exclusivity I was once in love with came from the way I saw that show, and not from the show itself. No one who saw it liked it in the way I did. No one appreciated some of the jokes the way I did. This is how I feel about Miami.

I’ve lived almost all of my life in Miami. I was born and raised here. I fell in love here. I’ve been hurt here. I’ve made my best friends here. For (quite literally) as long as I can remember, I’ve lived and breathed Miami. That said, I don’t go clubbing, I rarely go to the beach, and I don’t revel in the latest Pitbull song. I share Miami with over five million other people, but I’d be hard pressed to find someone who likes its quirks the way I do.

In a few days, I’m moving to California. Not just for the summer, but for good. Or maybe I’m already there, depending on when you read this. I’m starting a whole new phase of my life (hence the title). As much as I love Miami, the decision to move to San Francisco was a no-brainer. But this post isn’t about that; it’s about the people I’m leaving behind. And it’s about you.

I’m really stoked about getting to work at a cool company and seeing some awesome people again, but I’ll miss a lot of you here. These past weeks have been really interesting to me; saying goodbye to certain people and whatnot. It’s very bittersweet. I’d like to share some things with some people now.

To my friends still in school: Good luck. A few years ago I realized I was “over” school. I began to hate a lot of things about it. Ultimately, I don’t really think it is for me. At least not yet. This is a weird thing to say considering I’m graduating in a few days, but it’s true. I would like to add that I love college. It’s really just the school aspects of it that annoy and frustrate me. It’s not the learning - I love that. It’s the tests. I’m not even a bad test taker. In fact, I’m pretty good at them. It has a lot to do with the way we constantly compete with each other. One of the things I love most about programming is the amount of peer resources there are out there. Anyway, I digress. You should be proud of everything you’re doing, and you probably don’t hear how great you are as much as you should. I’m proud of you all, and I hope everything works out for you.

To my friends I don’t talk to anymore: There’s probably a reason I don’t. Haha, in all seriousness, I probably don’t have anything against you, and I’ve just been very busy being boring. If you think we should catch up, this is as good a time as any to do so. In which case:

To Frank/Juan/Andy/Lugo/Tyler/MAΘ peeps: Thanks for helping me like math. I mean, really like it. Love it. Be passionate about it. And thanks for putting up with me enough to be kinda decent at it. The trophies were nice and all, but the trips with all of you were what was really fun. I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard at something before I joined MAΘ. Never looked back.

To Armando: Remember when we thought this was the greatest thing ever? (fun fact: This is the first video I ever downloaded willingly waaaaay back when I was an internet noob). We’ve definitely come a long way since then. It’s pretty exciting that we’re still friends. I mean, the constant years of proximity to each other helped, but if it was just that then we probably would have lost contact during college. So I guess that means we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Glad to say we’re stuck with each other, dude. Here’s to another 15 years of knowing you.

To Fiorella: At this point in your life, you should start slooowwwiiinnggg down. Just relax. Why not learn how to whistle? Watch better movies - maybe one that doesn’t involve Nicholas Sparks. No matter what you choose to do, I hope you feel better afterwards. Thanks for being my friend; you rock. Take care of yourself, buddy. (Oh, and I really hope we find out who the mother is soon).

To friends I’ve made while in college: Thanks for making my college experience great. I’ve never regretted coming to UM, and I’m lucky I’ve met you guys to make my decision all the sweeter. Danny and Steph I’m looking at you. Steph was the first friend I made in college :], Danny’s the first person I met who I instantly hated. I kid. You two are awesome. TO the rest of you, I’m sorry for skipping class so often. Which reminds me…

To my professors: I apologize for not going to class more often (and in a couple of cases, ever). It’s not you, it’s me. Really. Read above for why. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from you. Well, some of you anyway. Sorry for being such a bad student, but thanks for always giving me the benefit of a doubt, and I hope I live up to the whole ‘graduate’ status.

To all my other friends who didn’t fit in another box: I hope this doesn’t seem like I don’t care about you enough to give you your own section. It’s just that I’m already running this longer than it should be. In short, I will miss you. Thank you for being my friends. I only hope I have been able to give you something in return in terms of our friendship. I probably still talk to you. And I probably still want to see you, so if you’re ever in the bay area, let me know so we can catch up.

To my past girlfriends: Thank you for helping me fine tune this what-kind-of-girl-is-right-for-me process. At some point, we may have taken turns being jerks to each other. Or maybe we were too busy for each other. Or maybe we didn’t think we were going in the right direction. Maybe I was more into the idea of going out than actually noticing you weren’t. Or maybe I was too indifferent to notice yours. Regardless what it may have been to break us, I appreciate every second spent with you. I can honestly say I learned a lot.

To any future girlfriend(s):

To my mom and dad: I love you guys. I don’t think you’ll ever read this, but I guess that doesn’t matter so much. This past week has been very difficult in the sense that I am finally understanding the fact I won’t see you as much anymore. I’ll miss you guys dearly, and I appreciate everything you’ve done so far. Anyway, after 22 years of being spoiled when it comes to doing my laundry or not having to cook, let’s see how the next year works out for me.

Finally, I’d like to say thank you for reading this. It’s not necessarily for anyone, nor is it for naught. This just sort of… is. It’s a bunch of things I wanted to say. And there are even more I didn’t get a chance to put in here. I’ll miss Miami a lot, but I’m extremely excited to be moving away and starting level 2 of my life. To my SF friends, see you all soon!

Spacebound

Something I made to keep track of this in real time.

thedailywhat:

Look at This Cat of the Day

YouTuber Thr1lla115 makes his cat perform an air drum solo to the death metal song “Remove This Poison” by Thy Art is Murder.

Happy 20th Birthday, SMS :]

The new Myspace

A couple of days ago, I was invited to test out the new Myspace. While I deleted my Myspace account when I made the big Facebook switch in 2009, seeing this video in September surprisingly got me interested in their new vision. And after spending a few days playing around with it, I can say that my overall experience is positive, but that isn’t to say everything about it is great. Myspace has to change a few things.

I should mention that they are in an early preview, so they will probably fix some of the things I have problems with before the public gets access. That said, I must first commend the hundreds of employees at Myspace who seem to have created a pretty cool product, even if I can’t really tell how successful it will be. None of the new Myspace’s new features are really “killer.” They’re also not even that great on their own. But the new Myspace is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s something about how cohesive all its elements are that really add to your experience using it. And while my time with it has been short, it’s been fun so far.

Starting Out

When you first create your account on the new Myspace (you can’t log in with Facebook/Twitter just yet), you’ll be given the option to choose what type of profile you want. I’m not entirely sure how different your profiles will look by choosing different options, but it seems interesting that you can pick. I wish they would tell you what site features you get from what you check, though. As pictured above, I selected Musician and Designer. I wish they had more options, since none of these really pertain to me. Essentially, it seems like you’ll see things based on your mixes. In the new Myspace, everything is a “mix.” A playlist is a mix along with photo albums and more. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of mixes actually is. That is, besides a catch-all name for a list.

If you’re a musician, your profile must be public. Similar to band pages, you can upload music, have top songs, fans, and more. It seems like the ability to upload your own music is tied to your musician title, so you can see certain things others may not. In a general note, profiles have a nice feel to them. Myspace has always known how to do music well, and it seems like it is taking an artistic spin on everything you know and love on social networks.

Connections

Google has +1s. Facebook has likes. Myspace has connections. It is their go-to keyword on their website, and it is used to cement the idea in your head that this music and you share something more than the occasional “jam session.” Death Cab for Cutie has been my favorite band (by far) for the past 8 years. They are the first band I look up when using a new service; the first band whose songs I like or thumbs up; they were the first thing I connected to when trying out the new Myspace. I suspect everyone has a band like that. Or a song. Or an album. Or a picture. Or a person. Myspace really has the opportunity here to curate itself into a better experience for its users by making it more meaningful. In fact, weren’t they the ones who would let you choose a mood for your profile back in the day?

However, I have a big problem with the word “connection.” Off the bat, it is a stronger word than “like” or “kudos” and definitely a bigger deal to me than a “thumbs-up” action. I fear that they will oversaturate the word almost to the point where it will lose its meaning. Currently, connecting to something (or forming a connection, as they say) is the only way they have of accepting feedback. If you like a song playing on radio and would like to hear more things like it, you would have to connect to it. I think “connections” is a strong word that Myspace should use in its favor. It will make people think twice when using it and hopefully help it diversify itself from every other social site. It means more, I think, as a user to be connected to something than it is to just like it. But if Myspace will continue this trend, they need to add another word (or thumbs) to improve your radio listening.

Music and Myspace

Don’t be fooled. Everything about Myspace revolves around music in one way or another. Even if you’re not a musician, those aspects will literally follow you around the site. Your profiles are nothing but a vinyl cover to your life. Myspace asks you to submit a cover picture which will adorn the sleeve of your profile to those who choose to visit it. You can even choose a specific profile song that suits you. You can then go ahead and upload pictures and videos and “connect” them to other nouns. Does this song make you think of this picture? Connect them! You can create and discover new mixes made from people you connect with, or total strangers. I regularly use a site called 8Tracks because I love the playlists created there; they’re easy to discover by genres, and I hope Myspace makes this feature more prevalent.

Connecting items is a pretty neat feature and makes for a quick slideshow or visualization while music is playing. One of the nicer features of this is connecting songs to videos. If you go to a band’s page and view a music video, it will take over your browser and show you a beautifully fast video playing fullscreen. This is great, and I love how fast it is. However, to reach those speeds they gave up quality. I don’t know if video quality is so bad because Myspace hasn’t fully launched yet but I do hope that they allow an option to see a hi-res version of videos because it’s almost painful to see them the way they are now.

Remember the days when we had our top 8 friends proudly displaying on our profile page? Well, that’s back. But it’s a hidden feature that you have to enable while editing your profile. Smart move, Myspace. I didn’t want this to come back, but at least making it an unimportant and optional addition is the right way to go. Best of all, you don’t have to limit your top 8 to friends. Instead of showcasing which friends you want to show off the most, you can showcase your favorite 8 bands instead!

When visiting a band’s page, you see the usual stuff: their top songs, discography, similar artists, and even artists who inspired them. However, all those fail in comparison to a new section: Top Fans. This is a big deal, and I want to go on the record of saying this might have huge positive consequences for Myspace as a music player. You see, everything on Myspace has an “affinity” to you. This number tries to measure how similar your tastes are to something. The higher the affinity, the more likely it is that you’ll like it - bands, songs, videos and more. If you play a band’s music a lot, your affinity to them grows and Myspace will consider you a bigger “fan” of theirs. And I must say, there’s something incredibly rewarding about going to one of your band’s profiles and seeing your own picture there - proving that you are, in fact, their biggest fan :]

The reason I think this is a huge feature, is because if done right, Myspace will be the go-to listening app instead of Pandora and the like. They way they do it right is by implementing a reward system. If you saw that Myspace video I linked to above, there was a 5 second part where Justin Timberlake sent his top fans exclusive pictures of something. I’m surprised they didn’t make a bigger deal about this in the video or the website itself - probably because they aren’t ready to implement it yet - because it would be more beneficial to me to hear a song on Myspace than anything else if I get rewards for being a top fan. It can be something simple like hearing a new single before the rest of the world does, or a free download of a song, or the ability to purchase tickets early to one of their shows. They could even allow the ability for contests. Honestly, this seems like the obvious place to take this “top fans” thing, and I’ll be disappointed if they don’t. But in their defense, I may be getting ahead of myself, and this might be something they will not focus on for a while. Nonetheless, it’s something to think about, and something to take advantage of now because once the public gets the chance to fight they way to the top fans list, it’ll be harder to get in.

UI

Myspace doesn’t have any ads. Not yet, anyway. This is great for now, since I can listen to music nonstop. It makes me wonder whether they will eventually charge a premium to get rid of ads one day. But they’ll be smart to keep ads off if they want to stay relevant this time. It’s no secret they’re now competing with other music services, and ads will only hinder their opportunity to steal members from Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora.

The website itself looks sleek and relatively simple. However, it is hard to find a few things. All your important settings, your music library, and your connection management options have to go through the home page. It’d be nice to have the menu be a dropdown so I can access them easier.

Finding out what you can do in the beginning can be daunting. I wish that Myspace had a more intuitive design. In hindsight, everything seems to be in the correct “place,” but that’s only because I now know how to get anywhere. They offer tours so you can learn to navigate through, but it is almost necessary at first so you can learn what relationships mean. Again, once you learn them, you’ll be fine. But I found myself struggling to find things for the first hour. This is not to say it is due to a lack of documentation. On the contrary, if you go to the new Myspace’s help page, you’ll see a ton of guides, faqs, news. Since they’re in beta, they also have a very nice idea submission forum where users can tell Myspace directly what they would like to see added or changed. I’ve even submitted my own few tweaks to it. There are a bunch of little UI problems I won’t take too long to mention here - such as the scrolling hiccups, horrible button placements, and general empty spaces.

But my BIGGEST COMPLAINT is the lack of a mobile presence. I understand that they’re in beta, but the site is not responsive enough. I’m not asking for an Android app or anything, I just want to be able to log in from my phone. You can resize the window in your browser, and you can see that it is, in fact, responsive. So why are they masking this feature? Once they let you listen to music from your phone (the real reason I wanted to log in), it could be a game changer.

Final Thoughts

The new Myspace is promising. It’s a music app first, social network second. It’s exactly what I want it to be. I don’t want to use Myspace for blogging, I have Tumblr for that. I don’t need it to share images, since Imgur has my back. I want Myspace to succeed, and if it incentivizes music playing with great rewards and features, then I can’t see it failing. That said, I’ll hold my judgement until it goes live and its full feature set is known, but if you have access to the beta, try it out and let me know if your experience is different than mine.

Developer Note: It’d be nice to see a Myspace sdk or some sort of app store like that of Spotify. As far as I know, they haven’t mentioned anything about developer tools yet.