Happy summer solstice y'all!

I TOTALLY DIG the summer!

I've been on (for me) a music spree lately. For me, 3 CDs within 2 weeks was enough to call a spree. The goods......



I've wholeheartedly enjoyed Enigma since MCMXC A.D.. This was the latest of my purchases. First impressions? This should be a classic! Nice ambience and beats......

The CDs by The Offspring and Disturbed are not my typical genre (various electronic stuff). But, I've listened on and off to The Offspring since Smash and even had a fun time at a show of theirs in Albany about 10 years ago.

Disturbed is a new one for me. Very good stuff with a harder edge....

Disturbed @ MySpace

Enigma @ MySpace

The Offspring @ MySpace

The Offspring has had a free download of the first single released from Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace available for a little while. The sweet thing about it is that the mp3 is DRM-free AND high quality. More details.....

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I can't forget to say .....

Happy Father's Day!

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To all you moms out there, but to mine especially........

Happy Mother's Day!

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Whewwww, I'm whipped so this will be short..........

Other things musical? Check out (specifically QNTAL) this remix contest from acidplanet.com. They even provide (limited capability) the software to do it. Pretty slick! If QNTAL isn't your speed, check out one of the other contests.

Last but not least...

Huntsville's homegrown arts festival is going on this weekend. It's been a while since I went, but that's OK. The Huntsville Arts Council's Concerts in the Park series begins at the end of May.

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It's not often that I frequent the ice cream aisle at any store....

When we lived up in Illinois, one of our frequent haunts (especially during the summer) was Whitey's Ice Cream. That's one of a few things I miss about living up there (not enough to ever move back, mind you). Anyway, during some of my most recent forays into the netherworld of Wal-Mart at 4 A.M. I noticed that Ben & Jerry's had little single size servings of several of their most popular flavors. I happened to stop by the local House that Walton Built this morning and my curiosity got the better of me. I must say that I kinda dig these little cups. One 3.6 fluid ounce serving was of course loaded with calories (particularly from fats) but only about as many as you'd find in an average candy bar.

Hey, if you're lookin' for something interesting to do on Sunday night (April 20th this coming weekend), consider checking out the Dixie Derby Girls vs. the Nashville Roller Girls. I think that would be highly entertaining but I'll be working.......

In parting....

I download the Department of Homeland Security's Daily Open Source newsletter. They used to send it via e-mail, but they have since ceased doing so. Now I use a nifty little batch file (that invokes wget for Windows) to download it via Windows Scheduled Tasks. For those who have any interest in that type of thing, here's the batch file that I use:

@echo off
echo %%date%% = %date%

for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=/ " %%i in ("%date%") do (
set dow=%%i
set month=%%j
set day=%%k
set year=%%l
)

wget http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/DHS_Daily_Report_%year%-%month%-%day%.pdf -O dhs/DHS_Daily_Report_%year%-%month%-%day%.pdf


Well, I'd better run along. Time to catch as many ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZs as I can! Peace, y'all!

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Woohoo, it's Tax Day......

Speaking for myself, I'm much hipper on THIS IDEA.....

'Twas a VERY slow day off for me. I did get the chance to do my standard early morning run to the local branch of the Bentonville behemoth. Plus, there was a great dinner at Red Lobster (well before Wally-world). Topping it off with the "Warm Chocolate Chip Lava Cookie" made dinner wonderful.....

I just read that one of the bands (backandtotheleft) from the Metropolis Records label called it quits. They were working on a new album prior to dissolving. The songs they had been working on are available for download via their MySpace page....

Speaking of things musical...

The latest issue of Improvijazzation Nation is up in the aether! Check it out!

One nifty thing I found at the Wally-world was Sarah Brightman's latest album Symphony. I looked last week but only skimmed the racks. I looked a little closer this morning and was somewhat surprised to find it....



I have to listen to this CD some more to figure out my faves and such but it seems good so far!

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Been off the scope for a while, I guess.........

Around this day last year, I was in roughly the same situation that I'm in now. I was in the middle of training for work and we were in the middle of an outage at my nuclear plant. It's too bad that I didn't have a VNV Nation show to catch in Atlanta this year. That happened on April 7th last year. Just to say it again, that show was excellent. I was completely stoked to have picked up Judgement in support of their tour of the same name! I had new music for the ride home (though I suppose it might have been excessive to have listened to it for the 3-1/2 hour drive). I would have had more of a difficult time making a show like that this year because of the hours. Besides, I had more mundane things to do. I think this was the first time I've ever browned up 10 pounds of meat at 5:30 in the morning. Tomorrow's meal at work will be chili. I'm hoping for a great batch!

Last night was fun! We ate dinner (first time) at P.F. Chang's for a friend's birthday and then visited one of the maternal units. I also got to chat with the daddy-o via webcam. I still think it's cool that I was viewing (and chatting up) a person and a room over 4,000 miles away in near real-time. Thanks for the internets, Al Gore!

All you women out there might find this interesting.....

BTW, my paternal unit pointed out some music of his. Checkit....

Well, you folks have a fine time now! Sleep is calling........

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