MNXMFan's Blog

OK, so I’m a huge fan of XM Satelite Radio, well not as big as I used to be, but still better than anything else I can find.

But today, XM announced a revision to their end of year subscriber numbers, that will put it about 1.3 million subs short of it’s original estimate of 9 Million by years end.  This same estimate says that they will only grow the business by 1.7 million subscribers this year, which is MUCH slower than last years growth.

My question is as follows.  Is this a sign of what the industry has to look forward to, or are the lawsuits and pulled products (due to FCC incompliance), or is this a sign of the industry fading?  Was this all just a fad, that is slowing down,  and coming to an end,  or is the market just soft?

And for those of you on the Sirius bandwagon that want to just bash XM,  I challenge you this.  Sirius is exactly one year behind XM as far as sub growth AND churn.  Could Sirius see this same downturn next year, or will both bounce back?

One thing is for sure, I’m glad that I did not invest in the stock.  As an fan of the service, it would have simply killed me to watch all my money disappear with this stock slide, and I would have started to really hate XM.

Not that I don’t have my complaints with the service, but I’ll save that for another day.

So, its that time again, and I’m actually excited for this.  The summer session is winding down, and I will be getting a few weeks to recouperate before fall starts up again on August 21.

Hmmmm, what will I do with myself after next Wednesday?  I think I’ll start by sleeping.  This class took alot out of me!

Sorry about the downtime the past few days.  Evidently my webhost had an old Credit Card on file that I had to cancel, and the timing was just right so that most of it took place while I was out of town.

 As is such, I guess the turn off/on process for nonpayment is a manual process, so it took a few days to get things back up and running.  Yup, I am back from KC, and I will have a complete summary later today or tomorrow.  That one summer class I’m taking is keeping me rather busy at the moment, but I wanted to let everyone know about the downtime.

Hey all, I’m going down to Kansas City for the weekend with a friend to see some friends, and hopefully family, although my planning sucks, so I still haven’t told my relatives I’ll be in town.

At any rate, I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, so there won’t be any updates for a few days.

And before you ask, no there will not be pictures.  Unfortunately, I cannot find my digital camera, and as this is a fixed budget trip, I won’t be getting a new camera for this trip either.  Such is life when your a poor college student!

So, apperantly, yesterday’s explosion in New York was related to someone destroying his house/office so he wouldn’t have to sell it in a nasty divorce, and it was also intended to be a suicide.

My thoughts?  Another illustration of changes needed in the divorce law.  If it was a case of needing to split assets, good thats ok.  If it was a case of her getting alimony — no, I’m not OK with that.  Although, to side with her, I heard he wasn’t exactly the best person in the bunch either, so I guess I can’t really have a good opinion. 

But if he wanted to kill himself,  he had no business putting other’s lives in jeopardy.  Killing yourself is not a good option,  and I certainly would not condone such an action, but I still understand that to some, that doesnt matter.  My problem is that he chose a way that put other people in harms way.  The guy was a bit nuts, I would think.

Now, why does the news feel a need when covering such events to induce fear into other people by making it sound like 9/11?  I was listening to Opie and Anthony, and they put it perfectly.  They are trying to drum up these memories, and tie it in with the WTC attacks.  I know, they were terrible things, but why use that cheap trick to keep people tuned in?

Ever since I quit smoking, my sleeping schedule has been out of wack.  Can anyone out there who has quit reassure me that this is temproary?  What happens is I have a hard time falling asleep, sometimes staying up until 5 or 6AM, and then I am sleeping until 2, 3, or 4 in the afternoon. 

The problem is that I always feel like I’m missing something by sleeping most of the day away.  I’m sure its going to pass, but its been 3 weeks, and it hasn’t passed yet, so I’m getting a bit concerned.

It has now been THREE weeks since I quit smoking, and every day continues to get easier, although I still miss it.  I am saving a ton of money, which is good because I have had a bit of unexpected bills to pay these past few months, including over $500 in medical bills that will be here shortly.

Well, I decided to try Napsters way of “renting” music, being that I am on a fixed income and all, and really don’t have that much money to spend on music.  This isn’t the first time I have tried it, but the last time they only had a million songs.

Well, I must say that they have definitely made some improvements.  Through their new playlists, and compilations features, I have been able to find music that I had completely forgotten about.  I must say that if alll you have in your music budget is 10 bucks a month, definitely worth the investment.  The downside of course is that as soon as you leave the service, your songs stop working.  Sure beats Itunes and their 99 cent a song deal.

With Napster 2 Go, you pay 15 bucks a month and can load your MP3 player up with songs, but it doesnt work with Itunes, as Apple has made it a proprietary technology.