While driving to work, home, or elsewhere, you turn on the radio, only to find a very played-out song airing on one of your favorite stations. In the mood for something newer, you tune into a different station and, to your dismay, the same song is playing on that station as well. At this point you're thinking, "Third time must be the charm." You opt for another radio station and gasp at hearing that very song yet again. This has actually happened to me multiple times over the last couple of years, and boy, is it annoying. I think it's indicative of the fact that radio stations are becoming more homogeneous by the day. Their playlists seem anything but unique. Everyone is trying to play the same Billboard chart-toppers in rotation. I think these companies have to do a much better job of varying their music. Why only play the biggest hits from the past 3 or 6 months? It would serve them well to juxtapose today's hits with those from 5, 10, even 20 years ...

There are certainly many perks to using our smart phones. How convenient is it to be able to check the weather, our email, or our home (remotely via our home security app) through these small yet highly sophisticated devices while on the go? However, cell phone use has infiltrated our lives in a way most of the phone manufacturers probably never imagined. We take the phones with us to the bathroom, use them while eating dinner and conversing with people and -- worst of all -- while driving. Cell phones have made our lives easier in myriad ways while making society far more impersonal. These days, wishing people a Happy Birthday via Facebook has supplanted the more traditional methods of calling by phone or sending someone a card in the mail. But when phones become so intrusive as to disrupt family time, that's when you know we've taken our usage of them to a whole new level. My wife often uses her while we're watching movies in the living room, resulting in my admon...