the pod bay door

1. How many TVs do you have in your home? – two, but one is unplugged and in storage
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? – my guess: 20-25 hrs, way too much
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? – not if it’s turned off
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken? – mmm…Sopranos, L&O (all three), OZ, Six Feet Under, West Wing (though it’s fading fast). I don’t fret over missing an tv episode like I used to do. Life is short, get over it.
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? – shows with creativity, ones that would survive w/o having to worry about ratings. Past examples: My so-called Life, EZ Streets, Gideon’s Crossing, Big Apple, Max Headroom…shows that were interesting but died too soon because ratings didn’t impress The Suits. Mix in some educational PBS-type stuff, bring back Tom Snyder to do a Late, Late Show, hire Charlie Rose away from PBS, bring back Dennis Miller and Bill Maher. Feature Michael Moore. Comedy with an edge, like MAD-TV, SNL (for old time’s sake), Monty Python, SCTV. Some baseball. Live music.

Then go turn off the tv and read a book or go for a bike ride or have coffee with friends.

The world of search engines is ever-changing. Check out KartOO SA, a meta-search engine that returns results graphically, presenting a map of links to the user. It reminds me a bit of WebBrain. I don’t know much about KartOO, so don’t know how its coverage compares to the Big Engines, like Google or AltaVista.

Common Dreams “is a national non-profit citizens’ organization working to bring progressive Americans together to promote progressive visions for America’s future. Founded in 1997, we are committed to being on the cutting-edge of using the internet as a political organizing tool – and creating new models for internet activism.” Lots of stuff here applicable to us in Canada too.

Behind the Beat is an online magazine (no, not a “zine”, dammit!) that provides links to musicians talking about their latest works. They call it “audio portraits”. You can hear Steve Earle talk about his controversial tune, John Walker’s Blues.

Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is currently leading a constitutional challenge of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which when passed, extended existing and future copyrights in the USA by 20 years. The campaign is called Free the Mouse, after Mickey Mouse – Disney’s original copyright on Mickey Mouse expires in 2003. Lessig is arguing against the continual extension of copyright in the USA, which has happened 11 times in the past 40 years. The argument is that it prevents the flow of creative material into the public domain. There is much more to it, and the essential details are here.

Lessig has lost this case twice, and is now presenting to the US Supreme Court. The October 10th Economist features an update on Lessig’s fight to reduce copyright protection.

The copyright issue is a tough one – as a librarian and musician, I can see both sides. When I copy an article 135 times for a class I’m teaching, I complete a log so that proper payment gets made (often not to the author, however). As a musician, I support downloading of music, but not for resale. I don’t believe this makes me a hypocrite – musicians like Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, who led the charge that brought down Napster, have not suffered greatly from downloading. Those that have suffered need to look in the mirror, and question the quality of their product before blaming the web.
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Thanks to Jennifer (a Scriptygoddess) and Zuchris for continued encouragement and suggestions on implimenting the collapse and expand code. What I did in the end was this: I rebuilt the Main Index from the BLOG template, carefully inserted Jennifer’s code, and it’s working. So far. Now I need to rid myself of the “More… ” link, so that the “continued >>” one remains only.

The Minnesota Twins, my original favorite team when I was a kid in Winnipeg in the 60s, collapsed this afternoon, losing the ALCS to Anaheim. Such is life. I will now cheer for Anaheim to win the World Series, which I think would be wonderful. Love to see underdog teams in the MLB playoffs this year, rather than the Yankees, Braves, etc. Makes it more interesting. Good luck Anaheim. As for the Twins, thanks for a great season, and for making the MLB Commissioner look like the ass that he is for suggesting your team be contracted.

Please forgive the look of the entries at this time. I’m working towards adding code from the Scriptygoddess site that allows for expansion and collapsing comments and additional text. When I input the code and rebuild the index page, it looks like what you are seeing. What’s weird is that I also input the code into my test site, podbaydoor.com/test1, and it seems to work there fine. So the main site will look like this for a little while until this problem is solved.

In Canada, it is Thanksgiving today. Earlier this summer, I read Dennis Prager’s book, Happiness is a Serious Problem. Gratitude is discussed in some detail, and he suggests taking an inventory of the things for which you are grateful, and can give thanks. Here is my list: great family and fantastic friends, food on my table, kindness and smiles from others, a great job with great colleagues, good health, the laughter and love of children, love of music and movies, kind and loving parents, living in a great city in a great country, the opportunity to travel in my job and to meet new and interesting people and see new cities, living in a democratic country, a great boss, freedom to move about without fear, freedom to change and to ask questions without fear of reprisal, the ability to play guitar, having had good teachers, a brother who is kind and a caring friend, a good health care system, neighbours who are decent and responsible, the deep satisfaction felt on my job when I help students with their research, my Mom’s butterscotch pie…

There are so many more entries I can make for such a list. Even having the chance to write about this in my blog is a gift. Someone out there (the Trotts in this case) wrote code that I use to write this – amazing. And to you reading this: Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving to you, and my sincere thanks for reading my entry! 🙂
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