u/noyoudont_oprah

Goddamn this riffffff

I'm listening to the new album (didn't listen to any of the new singles because I wanted it to all be fresh) and this guy just releases banger after banger. Every song is so catchy and emotional and hits me right in the "feels", as a cringe millennial like myself would say. Lean Into Life, USA, The Yips, and now oooo: Petey, my dude, I'll follow you anywhere.

I've always been an Apple user and have never owned an Android tablet. Recently I've been working hard to battle my phone addiction and find ways to give myself a reprieve from the constant stream of notifications and temptations to mindlessly scroll. Do Not Disturb mode and turning off certain notifications work in a pinch, but I'm always a swipe or a setting away from turning it back on and they keep flooding in. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max, a M2 MacBook Air, and a several years old M1 iPad Pro (that basically just collects dust. It's too heavy and big to be used for light tasks, and while I appreciate that they've continued to make it more computer replacement-like, it just ain't there yet for me.

Long story short, I decided a device that is completely outside the Apple Ecosystem was my best bet. On a whim, I decided to buy the ONN 8.1" tablet (mocha) to see if it would fit my admittedly basic needs, since if I needed something more powerful, my MacBook is right there.

I decided to set it up like so: while I did log into my Google account to be able to use the Google Play store, I hid/stopped most of the Google apps and for those I didn't (Play, Gmail, and Chrome), I turned off all notifications. I silenced all sounds except for media, and uninstalled everything I possible could. So far, I've only got the Kindle app, YouTube, Chrome, Gmail (no notifications and no push updating), Spotify, and Apple Music. I may install a streaming video app or two, but I generally only watch on my TV.

Long story short, I'm blown away by this little guy. The aluminum body makes it feel premium, Android 16 is snappy and responsive, and the form factor fits my needs perfectly. The battery life is also really impressive. I read for about an hour and a half today at about 50% brightness, and I'm at 96% remaining. I really have no complaints, and knowing it's only doing what I want it to do is at least one step towards spending less time with stimulation overdrive via my phone.

If you're looking for a daily driver for non-pro needs, this feels like a really solid choice.

Anyone else loving this thing?

TSOPTC and STFTFOD will always have my heart, but I think there are some great songs on Freedom and War Music. Blasphemy, I'm sure, but as a pure rock effort, this absolutely rules.

I had my Worship and Tribute cd stolen out of my car years ago, and have been slowly rebuilding my collection. I decided to look into purchasing W&T and was shocked at how low the availability is, and how expensive they are. On discogs, there doesn't seem to be a single copy for sale in the US (and any overseas have crazy import fees), and in the US they either go for at least $50 or are missing either the jewel case or the album art.

$50 feels steep for a cd, and I generally don't see high prices on cds unless it's rare, signed, etc.

Anyway, does anyone have any leads on a place to purchase the cd that isn't exorbitant?