Musings and Meanderings

I saw this blurb on Yahoo America Online said it plans to launch its new Netscape Web browser on Thursday, marking its latest effort to challenge the dominance of Microsoft Explorer as the standard tool for surfing the Internet. The software, which has been in user tests since May, promises faster and easier navigation of the Web, although surveys show its market share has been dwarfed by Microsoft. Research firm WebSideStory issued a study that says that Netscape's global usage share has dropped to 3.4 percent. Ok time to mail Aol/Netscape a dollar so they can rent a clue. We were using this at home for Liza and we discovered one remarkable thing! Their browser sux. Big time. It is bulky and unwieldy and has major problems reading basic HTML code. Now that Netscape is not an independent company no one really cares anymore. Can anyone have sympathy for the "little guy" anymore when they are a part of the Time Warner Conglomerate. Microsoft vs. TWC. YAWN. Sp...

Ok so what happened to daily postings? 1) I don't have something to say every day? (not likely if you know me). 2) I'm already bored with this blogging thing (not likely as my attention span is a bit better than that) NO it is 3) NO bloody time!!. More later today. Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. -- Jerry Garcia, (of the Grateful Dead)

I don't know what it is about grass tops cut to a unified elevation but after not mowing for three weeks it looks REALLY NICE now!

Cars, can't live with them, can't live without them So did I ever tell you my "Yes Believer" story? Well I will tell you then. I had written off seeing the new Yes tour because the band decided not to visit my hometown this tour. Out of the blue a month before the band was to come to the East Coast I got an e-mail from a perfect stranger who said that he had gotten my name off of a Yes Fan database and if I would drive him to Mass then he would provide the ticket! KaChing. Great show by the way. So what does this have to do with cars other than the obvious: i.e. we didn't take the train to the show you ask (Yes you in the back there, I heard you asking.) In the middle of a maniacal rain storm my windshield wipers went "thump" and stopped working. Thump is a bad noise to hear in a thunderstorm on the Mass Pike with tons of big trucks near you. So you can imagine my panic. I ended up driving with a long handled squeegee out the driver si...

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity. -- Bill Vaughan

Life as a Soccer coach Is quite fun.. I have the 10 and under's this year and it is very nice having kids predisposed to having soccer skills as opposed to previous years where at least a third of the team had never played at all. We end up playing every weekend (except Labor Day) till the end of October and practice once a week as well. So it is an investment in time for the kids and myself but it is tons of fun. Our opposing team for the first game of the year today was able to field only 5 players. So instead of forfeiting which they should have done Lansingburg Soccer in their infinite wisdom decided that they should fill the team with players from other teams. Now in of itself this is a good thing, the kids get to play. But practically speaking the kids who volunteer to play an extra game are by their very nature better than average. The practical upshot was we played what was the equivalent of an all star team this week and held our own 2-3. Over half of our ...

Ok I fixed the spelling and such on earlier posts. Well some of them.

Sleeve brushes with semi-famous people In my capacity as co moderator for some very interesting Yahoo groups oriented around progressive rock I have found that how amazingly approachable rock musicians can be who are not famous. I suppose within their group of friends and acquaintances some prog rock stars are very amiable too, but I wouldn't know, as I am definitely not that connected in the prog world. But I have had the opportunity to share emails with some musicians that I really admire such as Richard Chadwick of Hawkwind and Mick Brockett of Nektar. Richard is the drummer for the 'wind and Mick is Nektar's lighting specialist. I have found them to be incredibly interesting people as well as helpful and friendly. In fact meeting the two bands of Caravan and Nektar was quite a revelation to me when I went to the North East Art Rock Festival (NEARfest) in June. I have been listening to these bands for literally decades (scary thought) and frankly they never made ...

Now that is a long drive Had to do a 4.5 hour drive for a training class today to beautiful midstate PA. I have to say that I-78 is certainly full of very dangerous truck drivers trying to make their deadlines on tiny bad two lane roads. I am not a delicate driver by any means but these guys gave me the willies! Never have I seen so many trucks cutting in front of people, trying to weave through traffic, and all going around 75mph. Ever seen a truck weave through traffic? Not a pretty sight if you are the poor vehicle that they decide to cut in front of leaving maybe a quarter of a car length behind you. Luckily for me I seem to have some foresight or maybe it is hindsight and I stayed clear of the ones who were obviously too dangerous to drive near. So I am down here for a training session to learn how to install and sell the PC Hughes internet connection. Now to each his own and I can sell anything with fervor that I need to in order to put bread on my table but anyon...

The boob tube Monk Running on ABC on Tuesdays. Tony Shalhoub plays a obsesive neat freak private detective. If you are familiar with Tony's work you know he can play some very quirky characters! This one looks like it has a lot of potential Besides it is set in San Francisco. If you like mysteries where all the seemingly disperate jigsaw pieces come together at the end in suprising ways then this is the show for you. This is stand alone series in that each episode contains a new mystery. No massive arc's here. If you want that see the next musing. Odyssey 5 Part of Showtime's Sci Fridays. This is where Peter Weller has resurfaced. I know I know another actor who do does quirky roles. Well the pretty boy from Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension is a tough astronaut named Taggert. Honestly in the light of day the set up for this series seems a bit absurd but with a bit of suspension of belief (a necessary skill in today's TV world) it works ok i...

A pacifist's call for war In my youth I used to believe categorically that there was no reason that humans should take up weapons against other humans to solve their problems. Whether those conflicts were generated by disagreements over Philosophy, Religion, Land use, Water use or any other reasons. As I have gotten older I have come to believe that there are times in the life of Nations that certain leaders or regimes have become anathema to world peace. See I was raised in the milieu of the Cold War. There was nothing more absurd to me as a youth than the decision by our leaders to create enough nuclear arms to obliterate the world several times over, or to arm small nationalistic groups in order to support the "western" or "communist" viewpoint. Decisions as to who to support were seemingly never made with the future in mind. Recent history has shown recent American Administrations supporting these groups ONLY because they resisted the "commun...

Blog blog blog I gotta weblog. Gotta be hip and gotta be cool. Fact of the matter is that old guys rule. I'm 40 yrs young and getting younger all the time. Speaking of old guys who rule I saw a ton of old musicians this summer: Santana; Rush and Yes. There is not a itty bitty little alternative, punk, skunk or grunge band that have or will have the skills that these musicians have. I'm reading the Ender saga by Orson Scott Card at the recommendation of my dear freind Scackmgack. First book was cute.. Ender's Game.. but the second was WOW.. Speaker for the Dead. Yea ok fine time to see what this looks like.