So, I was thinking about how life would be in 50 years; things I’d miss and things I wouldn’t.

Rockstars. I’m going to miss all the rockstars. A lot of the rockers from the 70s and 80s aren’t making music anymore but they’re still around for when we want to rock out and party.

But in 50 years they’ll probably all be dead. We’re going to be stuck with all these pop-rock stars and rappers. I’m going to really miss them, and I feel like when the good rockstars die then the good music will also die.

Because music these days seems to be getting worse and worse.

In the future there may be a resurgence of rock domination but it won’t be the same as the 70s, 80s, and early 90s rock. Kind of like the rock we have today isn’t the same (and for the most part, not as good).

A little bit of my soul will die when all these rockers disappear.

Some other things I’m going to miss:

Less traffic. We have tons of traffic now but in 50 years it’s going to be 50x worse (unless there’s a huge population decline)

Freedom? - Now, our country may remain ‘free’ but it still seems that over the years there’s less individual “freedom” for people. For example, when my parents were in school it was very easy for them to skip class. Very easy.

But now days we have cameras in the halls and teachers take attendance on the computer. It will show if you went to all your classes except one - and if you didn’t get checked out then the administration will know you were skipping.

And in the future I’m sure schools - and every other business - will have even more ways to keep track of everyone. Heck, in 50 years maybe when you call in sick your boss will send a doctor/robot to confirm.

I love technology but the more advanced it gets the less personal freedom we may end up with. I mean, how can I tell my boss that I’m sick and then go hang out with friends if I have a GPS tracking chip installed in the back of my neck? My boss will know where I am.

Being able to get a job without 500 degrees. It seems you need a degree for everything these days. And even if you have a degree you’re not guaranteed to get a good job. In the future, Bachelor’s Degrees will be like high school diplomas- useless. You’ll need several degrees if you want to get a decent job - the more the better.

Some things I will NOT miss:

Reality TV. I pray up and down that in 50 years this reality TV craze will be over. Some reality shows are fine - like on Discovery channel and Animal planet and such. But all these reality game shows and shows where they just follow someone’s family around are annoying. Please be gone in the future!

Houses. Forget the houses we have today. In 50 years my house better be all decked out in crazy awesome technology. I want my dinner cooked and ready to eat when I get home and I want all kinds of cool little gadgets to play around with.

The popstars, rappers, and people that are famous for no reason. Popstars don’t bother me so much, I like their music sometimes. But I love rock and rockstars so I’m not going to miss them too much when they’re gone. Rap I don’t listen to so won’t miss them either. And as for those famous-for-no-reason people… I can’t wait until they’re gone.

Now when I was a child I played outside a lot. We were always out running around playing tag, hide-n-go-seek, whatever else. And one thing we did a lot was ride bikes.

We’d ride bikes up hills and race back down then do it again. We could ride through the entire neighborhood and back again and still have energy to keep going. We could ride all day.

But then we moved (a couple times) to neighborhoods where there weren’t any kids our age. We discovered the internet and moved inside. No more bike riding for a long long time.

Well, yesterday I was feeling the urge to get out for a bit so my sister and I decided to walk through our neighborhood and the one across the street. Well, she walked and I rode the bike.

Easy right? Did this all the time when I was a kid!

First big hill nearly killed me. Part way up I could feel my legs and chest burning. I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as it was when I was younger, but I didn’t think I would get tired so quickly either.

A bit disappointing because riding a bike is still enjoyable but now I’m too out of shape to have fun.

Come spring  (or nice weather) I’m going to have to start riding more often to get back in shape. I can’t believe something as simple as riding a bike has me winded.

Internet as ruined me!

Well, I ruined myself but it feels better to blame something else. 

Hello lovers, any of you listen to Japanese music? No? Well too bad, I’m going to post this anyway.

Jrock Revolution and JaME are forming an alliance. JaME is a popular source worldwide for Japanese music news. Their network has several sites in which they post news in different languages.  This gives them a very large reach.

Jrock Revolution promotes Japanese rock in the U.S and beyond. They work (indirectly?) under Yoshiki - who is a big name Jrocker.

And now JRR and JaME are going to combine their resources to further help support the Japanese music scene.

I think this is great because they are both great websites. With them working together I think it will be a lot easier for them to share information worldwide with fans from various languages. I really hope this helps give Japanese music a boost.

Now, I’m sure this has been around for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve heard of it. This also may be the first time someone else has heard of it - hence this post.

Google may be willing to pay you per hour to help them with product research. I highly doubt you’ll be getting huge checks from this, but every little bit helps. And it seems like relatively easy money.

According to their FAQ there are four different ways to get involved:

• Usability study at a Google office: Typically, you will use a Google product or prototype, and give feedback on it. You could either meet 1-on-1 with a Google researcher, or work as part of a group. Most studies are done at our HQ in Mountain View, California, but we have offices all over the world, so please feel free to sign up for this type of study even if you don’t live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Remote usability study: A Google researcher will call you while you sit at your computer, and ask you to try out a Google product or prototype via your internet connection, and give feedback on it. You can be anywhere in the world, but need to have a high-speed internet connection.
• Field study: Google researchers will come to visit you, and interview you about how you use computers or the Web. We won’t just show up at your door - we will always check with you, and make an appointment. Again, most of our researchers are based at our HQ in Mountain View, California, but we have offices all over the world, so please feel free to sign up for this type of study even if you don’t live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Online survey: you answer questions on the web or in an email, from your own computer.

The online survey is the most convenient option. It also gives pretty much everyone a chance.

So if you’re looking for some easy money, you can try signing up to take part in their research.

One of the things I’ve noticed while jumping around entrecard sites is some people have tons of sidebar junk. Their actual posts might take up a page but then their blog has to stretch for 10 more pages to fit all the garbage they have on their sidebar.

If you want people to keep coming to your blog, then you probably shouldn’t make them wait 20 minutes for your page to load because you have 200 images and 5000 sidebar widgets.

I understand wanting some of that stuff to be seen, but when you have that much junk then nothing gets seen. Each item gets lost in the sea of other items. So in the end the visitor is blind to all those ads, widgets, links, pictures, so on. All they see is one big blur of color.

Honestly, do you have to sign up for every website on the internet and then link to all of them on your sidebar?

Blogs like that make me feel e-claustrophobic. There is so much clutter I feel like the site is suffocating me.

I feel like my sidebar is cluttered every time I add something to it, but some of these people act like they’re competing for a freaking clutter award or something.

All your flashy graphics are very pretty and all your ‘monetize your site with Adbrite/widgetbuck/magic’ ads are….helpful… but please don’t forget that your viewers have eyes. And it’s not very nice to make them bleed with your never ending sidebar.

These people are like… packrat bloggers.

(And sorry for the cluttered post, but I wanted to post examples.)

I’m sure many people have heard about ‘Pay Per Play’ or NetAudioAds. They’re getting advertised left and right by people trying to pimp their affiliate link.

For those who don’t know - PPP is claiming a new sort of advertising where you can monetize 100% of your traffic. Instead of placing banner ads - which take up space - you can instead play a 5 second audio clip to earn money. Everyone who comes to your site will hear the ad - and you will make money.

Some people think this is the going to be the next craze in internet advertising. I’m not so sure.

Personally, I think playing sound randomly on your website will either chase off users or cause them to turn their sound off. For people who listen to music on their computer while surfing the net, this will be especially annoying.

There you are, rocking out to that song on full volume. You click a link and headbang while waiting for the page to load and then - ARE YOU LOOKING FOR CHEAP AUTO INSURANCE? SOANDSO HAS THE BEST RATES WITH THE BEST QUOTES. DON’T WAIT, CALL NOW AND GET A FREE QUOTE!

Talk about a heart attack. Even worse when you don’t have any music on but forgot to turn down the volume. All is silent until boom! Advertisement screaming at you from your computer.

I think PPP ads will be like talking banner ads except more annoying. Why more annoying? Because there is no visible ad so you have no idea where the sound is coming from. If you’re like me, you have multiple tabs/windows open. And if there’s no visible ad then there’s no telling which window/tab it’s coming from.

I also always have my volume turned on because I listen to music and watch videos throughout the day. So if PPP becomes popular then people will be making a ton of money off me.

However, if PPP pays well, and you have a site you don’t really care about, then heck yeah, throw up the ads. Only if it pays well though.

I have a junk site that I don’t really use and I’m going to test PPP on it. Just to see how it does, and maybe leech some easy money. But I won’t use PPP on any of my higher traffic sites because I don’t want to drive visitors away.

Five second ads the first couple of times you hear them might not bother you, but after awhile it starts to rub you raw.