Can't wait to be there

So, we're moving to Washington. Hopefully for the last time this time.
We've sort of been in denial about the move, so we really haven't gotten as far in to the packing thing as we should have. That means we have a shit load of things to do before Tuesday. I'm starting to think that not only will we make it, but all of our stuff just might fit on the truck. I am not at all happy about selling our house and becoming a renter again, but there are two things that are making that a little easier to deal with. First, this is not where we intended to stay long term. I fact, we've tried getting out of here a couple of times, once going so far as to actually build a new house...our buyers screwed us, we lost the house we built, I'm still bitter. Second, our new land lady seems like she ia a very nice person who will leave us to our own business. Not all landlords are like that. Besides that, we expect to only be renting for the next one to three years while we figure out where we want to plant our next roots, so we won't have to do this for long.
Once we get there, sure we'll have to unpack, but we won't be on a deadline. We'll be able to do what we need when we need, and get our daughter and our dog back to a somewhat normal life.
Anyway, moving sucks.

#GoogleMusicBeta and Ratings?

I'm still trying to get used to the ratings feature.
On the surface it seems to do what it's supposed to do. You can give a track a thumbs up or thumbs down. Once this is set, the track is added to the Thumbs Up auto playlist. Cool, I guess I can get all the songs I like in to one list. The downside is that I share this library with my wife, and what I consider a good tune does not always match up with what she considers a good tune. I can live with that.
Once rated, you can also sort. It looks like you can either sort on rated songs, where thumbs up are sorted first, then thumbs down, or you sort based on unrated. I guess another way to order and view my collection, but still trying to figure out a practical use for this feature.

What threw me, though, was I started building a playlist this morning. I went through, added a few albums, and started playing. A song came up that I didn't want in the list, because not all albums are winners all the way through, and instead of removing the song from the list I gave it a thumbs down rating. The song stayed in the list, but stopped playing, and skipped to the next.
I don't really know what's going on here, if the song will be played again, or just sit there in the list ignored because it's got a thumbs down. The help docs didn't shed any light on what's happened. I guess I'll just have to keep playing the list and see what happens.

#GoogleMusicBeta and #iTunes playlists

When I initially installed, due to an installation bug, I was unable to choose a custom folder from which to upload. I chose iTunes Library for the purposes of installation, and after the installation was complete, I went back and chose custom folders. After an hour or so, I decided to go switch back to iTunes for the first upload pass because, although my music collection exists inside and outside of iTunes, I wanted to import my iTunes playlists. After about a week of uploading, and within the last 1,300 files in my iTunes library, I've noticed something a little annoying. I'm missing all of the playlists that I actually cared to have imported.
There are a small number of playlists imported. Mostly "On The Go" playlists, a couple of lists that I created for the purpose of burning CDs, and the "Party Shuffle" list. I've spent alot of time building custom rules for smart playlists based on ratings, others based on genre, and others based on custom details, and all of these lists are quite large.
There are other static playlists that I've created that are not quite so large, but they are missing.
Initially I thought that maybe Google Music couldn't import smart playlists, but that idea was proven wrong by the fact that I do have the Party Shuffle smart playlist. I then thought that maybe size was an issue, and Google Music couldn't import playlists beyond a certain size, but I believe that is proven wrong by a handful of small playlists that didn't get imported.
I don't really have the time or interest do really investigate why some playlists got imported while others got left behind. All I know is that the playlists that I really actually use did not show up.
Another point for AudioGalaxy. AudioGalaxy has given me full and complete access to all of my iTunes playlists while on the go, and without the need to sync anything.
In the end, it probably won't matter. Android, in general, is giving me a way to get away from iTunes while building a media collection that is portable across nearly any device, which means I'm working towards a world without iTunes, and likely works in a manner different from iTunes. Any iTunes integration is just a shim that keeps me in touch while the transition is taking place, but it's a feature that is a "nice to have" while making that transition.

Time to get back to work.