When I signed into Blogger to write my blog yesterday, an offer to beta test Google's new Gmail service appeared. So, if you're on of my lucky few friends (ha ha) I'll likely send you a message from it just to see how it works....

I spent some time this weekend visiting Kim, and Saturday afternoon we went for a cruise around the Hidden Hills of Western Mass (after researching where we went for this blog entry, I found out that they call it that....)

The first place we visited was Knightville Dam, one of the US Army Corps of Engineers Flood control dams on the Westfield River. My dad had told me that we'd been picnicing there when we were kids. I distinctly remember driving past it on the way up to visit my Grandmother when we were kids. Seemed like a nice place to hang. We walked out on the almost 1/3 mile dam (and almost got blown away..the wind was so strong...)

The second little gem we discovered on our journey was Chesterfield Gorge. The gorge is a little upstream on the Westfield RIver from the dam, and I had no idea that there was such a great place tucked away here. The only unfortunate thing was that I hadn't taken my camera with me, because the water levels and the lighting was just perfect for some amazing pictures.

For more info on the Westfield River Watershed, check out these links:
Field Notes: The Westfield River Corridor
Westfield River Watershed Association

The news media have been flooded with reports about the rioting after the UCONN wins late last month. Personally, I think the rioters are pretty idiotic. I mean, what the hell were they thinking. I guess that's what happens when you mix young, stupid kids with a bunch of alcohol.....

Of course, our esteemed Connecticut State Police have been sworn to protect and serve..(and sometimes play a little Beer Pong??)

...and you wondered where I was going with this post????

NPR had a feature on Google on Morning Edition today. And you know how much I love Google. Hear the story, read about it, and many links are here.
Update- 4/14/04 9:00 PM
While listening to Morning Edition this morning (on the radio, can you believe it), they had another story of Internet Search Engines, and they mentioned that this hate site comes up near the top of the search list when you search on the word Jew. Google says that while they aren't anti-semetic, they will not block the item from coming up in the search. They offer this explanation. I think that though Google has been getting alot of grief about this, they're being fair and unbiased by allowing their search to index the entire web, good and bad. That's also the reason why I included the link to the site mentioned....

There's also a statement by the Anti-Defamation League on this topic as well.

I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind yesterday. I thought it was really good movie!! Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet play two lovers in a bad relationship who decide to have their memories of each other erased by visiting a doctor who does that procedure. The movie does play around with time- it jumps forward and back in time. There are several other movies that I've seen that do the same thing, in particular Memento. I can see why some people don't like this movie though, it can be confusing if you're not into the whole messed-up time thing....but I thought it was good....

A review is here.
Another Review (this one mentions Memento)
Tons of Reviews

Delilah and I were watching Winged Migration this morning (the latest DVD I got from the club). It's a movie which follows the migratory patterns of birds around the globe. It's kind of in the same genre as Baraka, though this movie has limited narration (and I mean limited!) I was really amazed at the movie, but after I watched the "Making of" extra on the DVD, I realized the many of the shots were totally set up using birds that have been "imprinted" to follow humans (flying ultralights or moving vehicles). But it's still an amazing movie nonetheless.

On a related note, check out Operation Migration, a site about ultralight-led bird migration.

The lords of the local cable company (or not so local, as it's Comcast) finally disconnected the cable that I hadn't been paying for. I've been trying to occupy my mind with other things than watching television lately. This is a good thing, yes?? I have survived the world without cable TV before, I guess I can do it again. Delilah isn't too happy about it, but she doesn't have cable at mom's either, so I guess we will get used to it...

I think I really didn't watch that much TV, though. But lately, I've been vegging out more in the evenings with it, so I guess I can think of better things to do with my time. But if anyone out there wants to invite me over to watch American Chopper, Monster Garage and reruns of Third Watch, please let me know, ok??

So instead of watching TV, I have recently been listening to NPR online. It's great, cause you can catch up with their shows, without having to worry about when they are on the air (and they stream them with Windows Media Player, so I don't have to install that pesky RealAudio) My favorites so far:

Morning Edition
All Things Considered
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me
All Songs Considered

Last year (right around this time) Richie from The Daily Column burned me a copy of a disc of rock songs re-done as lounge music. They're done by a group called Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine. Anyway, I found this blog today that has a few MP3's of a few of his songs (some I have, some I don't). Check it out....(ooops, I messed u the URL on the first link, fixed it now!!)

Peep Central

Ok, ok. You know it's that time of year, cause the peeps are EVERYWHERE!
And now, the "Peeps Links List" :
Tracy and Mia's Peep-O-Rama
Peep Research
Peep Art
Peep Research at Staley Library
and last, but not least:
The Marshmallow Peeps Official Website
Happy peeping!!! Note:Sorry, the links weren't working, I fixed them....

I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS today, and they had a profile of Google. A company that started out renting a room in someone's house is now a multi-million dollar company. Now that's a success story if I ever heard one!! Did you know that the company actually serves free meals to their employees?? Wish I could land a job like that!! Or any job at this point for that matter...

While browsing around after watching the Google story, I found the blog of Evan Williams, the co-founder of Blogger (now owned by Google). I find it funny how his archive links don't work!!! I though if anyone knew how to blog, it would be this guy.


Another segment on Sunday Morning today was about the rise of "Turntabalism" (otherwise known to DJ's as "scratching") as a "new music artform". There's so much buzz about this that Berklee College of Music actually has corses devoted to it. Also in reading more about this story, I found out the vibraphonist Gary Burton (who I saw at Tanglewood years ago opening up for Miles Davis) is an Executive Vice President at Berklee. Cool stuff......

I was feeling like I was in a slump yesterday. Although all in all I had a great day. The weather was sort of nice, and Emily and I spent a while down by the pond talking about politics and life over a couple of beers. After that, thoug I had a little trouble getting motivated, and fell into a slump until I got motivated and went to see the Gatekeeper Band (less Mike and Colin) at a bar in East Hampton. Glad I went, it was a good time!!

Thanks to Leanna, we have a new link for you today- The Daily Misleader- a daily chronicle of Bush Administration distortion.

I actually made some money today- I actually got paid to drive from Deep River to Norwalk to deliver a package to a production house for JD from CU Next Tuesday. Hell, I got to drive and listen to the radio...not too bad. On the way down, I caught an interview on WPKN with Peter Schickele. At first I had no idea who he was, but the interview seemed interesting. I later found out that Peter is the mastermind maniac behind P.D.Q. Bach. I had heard of PDQ Bach years ago in High School. I remembered it being kinda weird and funny.

Tonight, I just kinda took it easy, and laid back because this was one of the odd Wednesdays that I didn't have Delilah overnight. I listened to some old vinyl and some radio stations online. I can finally get WPKN online since they switched to the Shoutcast stream, and I can get it with Winamp!!

And now listening to the "worlds longest legal ID" on WAMC. It's gotta go on for about 20 seconds..... Weird, they had an underwriting spot for a Mamoun's Falafel in ALBANY! Right on!

Time for another one of those "love-to-hate-em" Quizzes!:

You are the Low-Fidelity All-Star. You were born
with your cool, and it's totally natural. You
run the gamut from Hipster Supreme (only they
can ingest as much coffee as you) to the geeky
hipster (Mario Kart, anyone?).


What Kind of Hipster Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The World Still says No!!!

On March 20, there will be a worldwide day of protests against our continued occupation of Iraq. Check out the United for Peace website for more information. For those of you who are planning on going to New York from this area, there's a "Peace Train" which will be leaving out of New Haven.

I have yet to touch on anything that's been happening in the broadcast world, especially the new fines that the FCC is levying on indecency. Those of you who know me, allready know that I'm a media nut. First off, It's not about Howard Stern ok!! It's about a knee-jerk reaction to showing a little tittie-slip. Or is it??

I'm sick of people telling me that Clear Channel fired Howard Stern. Get it through your skulls! Clear Channel dosen't employ Howard Stern! Howard was yanked off of 6 Clear Channel owned stations!! They don't want a repeat of the fines levied on them due to the slop that Bubba the Love Sponge was airing. Aparenty this backfired on then, because Friday they were fined $247,500 for allegations of indecency on the "Elliot in the Morning" show based in Washington, DC.

This kind of stuff has been going on for years. Howard's been on the air some 20 years, and he's been doing the same kind of toilet humor all along. Why is the FCC so interested in this all the sudden?? Is it due to it being an election year?? Or will the newest proposed rulemaking by the FCC not only include tougher penalties for indecency, but also provisions to stifle broadcasters speaking out against the government?? Is this just another underhanded attempt to chisel away more of our freedom of speech??

"The time has come for the commission to send a message that it is serious about enforcing the indecency laws of our country."- FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps.

And some people say that it's about protecting our children. Oh, please!! I don't understand why the government feels that they have to parent our children! There is such a thing as being an active parent and overseeing what your children watch. There is such a thing as an off button on any radio. If you know a program might discuss topics you don't want your children listening to, then don't listen to it. It's that simple!!!

Code Monkey

I'm making yet more changes here. Not only have I re-organized the links list, I'm also working on adding a hit counter and comment posting abilities as well. So, if things appear to be acting funky, shoot me an email, ok???

The hit counter code is making the site load unacceptably slow, so I'm just putting in the comments and trackback for now...

I heard this morning that Pete Rose finally got into the Hall of Fame. The World Wrestling Entertainment's Hall of Fame. Next thing you know, Hulk Hogan will be in the Baseball Hall of fame!!!! According to Vince McMahon, maybe the WWE's induction of Rose will prompt Major League Baseball to follow suit.

Just to point out- I'm not a wrestling fan.....so don't even go there! I'm just mentioning this because I think it's kinda funny.

I spent my Saturday morning at a seminar thrown by the Connecticut Broadcaster's Association. Today's topic was audio as it relates to radio and television. Pretty informative, I might add!! Not only did I get a chance to learn something, I got a chance to network with people in the broadcast industry (and hopefully get some contacts about jobs). I ran into a few people who I'd met during my years in the paging industry.

Oh, and free lunch, too!!!

I guess all in all it was worth it!

I finally broke down the other day and bought a copy of Baraka on DVD. I wasn't really planning on buying anything, but aside from mail order, it's a very hard DVD to find. I was browsing at Borders the other day, and what do I find misfiled?? So, I've been looking so long for that DVD, that I had to get it.

For those who don't know what Baraka is all about, check out the website The Spirit of Baraka. It's got to be one of the coolest non-dialogue based movies that I've ever seen!!! The entire movie is told through fantastic photography, location sounds and a great soundtrack. If you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen at an atr house, do so, it's great in 70MM!!