While I Am Working …. I listen to Music

I posted this article on my other blog … I listen to music during the day because (1) I like it and (2) to distract my dogs!

http://1800hart.com/blog/2005/08/while-i-am-working-i-listen-to-music/

Take care.
HART
PetLvr.com

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The busiest time for me is between the second week of February until June 30th every year. This year, I bought a cheap T.V. at Best Buy — it’s a “Konka” Model #K1373UM .. in finding a link for this T.V. to get the specs, I noticed FutureShop is now selling it for $69.97 CDN …. That’s okay! I bought mine for $84.95 CDN .. This was the first time – EVER – that I decided to answer “yes” to their question … Would You Like To Buy Our Extended Warranty?

I never buy extended warranty. But, I did that day .. in fact, I bought the 3-Year extended warranty, opposed to the 1-Year extended warranty, or nothing – leaving the 30 day off-the-shelf warranty. The total price with the warranty, was $129.95 CDN plus GST and PST … Was it worth it? For me it was. There were cheaper TV’s out there that I probably wouldn’t have spent the extra money for warranty, because about $150.00 in total was my budget. Somehow, if anything goes wrong with this T.V., all I have to do is bring it in and they will replace it with a similar or better model. It just doesn’t pay for them to fix it. Also, the options for a 13″ T.V. are slim, in my opinion, because most of the models in my price range were either too small (8″) or too large (20″)

This is how it looks in my office

My view on my right

Now, I don’t watch T.V. while I’m working … but, my two Papillon dogs Maxxie and Sophie , will bark and be restless if it is too quiet in my office .. because they lie at my feet or close by while I’m working, and have Super-Hearing. If someone is out dropping a bag of garbage in the bins, they hear that .. and bark. It’s very aggravating while you are talking to a client (or customer) and your dogs start to bark MADLY in the middle of your conversation … Usually, to save face, I might say … “Ooops, my courier is here … Can I call you back in 5 minutes?” That’s why I usually have it on the Weather Channel, because they play classic rock music as their interlude.

I just can’t concentrate on work while watching T.V. The reason I bought it, was because of my wife. It was HER, yes .. SHE is responsible … Uh Huh it’s all HER fault …. that I am a semi-addict of Reality Shows! My hours are flexible, but if I got a late start, or I had lots of work to do – I would stop to eat supper, watch a few reality shows and vegetate on the couch and I wouldn’t feel like going back to work. I figured, if I had a T.V., I can go upstairs on the computer, maybe play Solitaire or Spiders, or OnLine Poker, or do adminstrative work while I watch the reality shows, then when it was over – I could go back to work. You know, that’s a good topic (Reality Shows) and I might discuss my favorites in another post .. Hmmmm.

So .. back to the topic of this blog entry, I listen to music all day while I am working.

I haven’t done much in the past year or so .. but I when I first found the Napster and Kazaa software, most of my online time was concurrently downloading MP3’s. I have over 3,000 MP3 files on my computer. My desktop speakers have great sounds including stereo. They are not the newer ones, with the sub-woofer, but I can crank the music and annoy the neighborhood .. if I wanted to!

Then, when I finally gave up the expensive leased vehicles in 2003 with the expensive monthly payments and went to “Beater-Mode” (I drive a 1993 Chev Lumina car now) … I purchased a great CD player .. that will plays MP3’s. It’s very interesting. I can burn a CD with about 185 songs on it, and never take it out of the CD player because I will never listen to it all. It’s very rare that I travel more than 1/2 hour at a time in my car. It’s good for vacations I suppose. The downside was that all the “fun” of downloading MP3’s were to burn CD’s for my car – which I only needed one CD to keep me happy.

So, I started to make play lists of stuff I like to listen to while I am working. Song lists maybe albums, all one artist, fast songs, swing songs, random songs, punk songs, Elvis songs, medieval and classical songs, oldies and the list goes on. Some of these song playlists can play for days, while others will be over in an hour.

When I want variety, I have been listening to either of the following Internet Radio stations. They are both great, and commercial free. If I’m really busy, I would prefer the lighter side of the second link Radio Paradise. If I am not rushed, I actually like Egg Radio’s music choice and the ability to comment on each song in a forum style, and promote my website on my signature (hey! I link them!) ..

You should give them a try … Listen to While You Work!