Save Internet Radio

Time is running out for US based independent web radio streams. From the savenetradio.org website:

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio’s royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry?s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 ? that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters? royalties will grow exponentially!

These exorbitant rates go into effect on May 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). Without Congressional action the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. We need your help. Please take a moment to send a letter to your member of Congress to keep Net radio from being silenced.

Go to the Act Now! page on the Savenetradio.org and fill out the form to email your legislators and ask them to stop this huge rate increase on webcasters. Don’t know who your representatives are? Neither did I, but by filling out your address information you will get their names and a mugshot so you can recognize them on the street or CSPAN.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 122

Princess Leia Gets Hers Too

Red Sox NationPrincess Leia’s Red Sox Nation membership card came in the mail a day after Chewbacca’s. She’s not sure where she will put her bumper sticker yet, but right now she is leaning towards placing it on C3PO’s back just out of his reach in hopes of sending him into an infinite feedback loop of fastidiousness.

It is supposed to be a glorious spring weekend here and we are not exactly sure what to do with it:

Option #1, and the most unlikely, is to drive 250 miles to Columbus, GA and do one last BMW Ultimate Drive before they are entirely out of reach. (+) it sure is fun to drive BMWs. (–) 3 times a charm, but 4 is slightly obsessive. (–) it would mean another hotel room and another mediocre breakfast buffet.

Option #2, and slightly more probable, would be a drive of 125 miles to go to Beaufort, SC to see the Blue Angels. (+) air shows are cool. (+) there would be the chance to get a picture of the Post Office on the Marine Corp Air Station where the show is. (–) big crowds of people and we just left that party in NJ. (–) we really don’t want to go anywhere having been traveling the last two weekends. (+) a meal of crab cakes at Barbara Jean’s might be just the enticement to tip the scales towards going down there.

Option #3, and most likely, is dinner out in Augusta with friends on Friday and staying around the house. I really need to to clean all the pine pollen off the tables and floors on the screen porch. The furniture cushions need vacuuming too. It is spring and this is the best time to enjoy our meals, etc out there, but the porch needs some sprucing up first. And if we get restless we could always drive to Columbia on Sunday morning and take some Post Office pictures.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 120

I Know Why He Did It

Red Sox NationChewie is so excited he wants to blast something. His Red Sox Nation membership card came in the mail today. There is a small bumper sticker that goes along with it and he’s going to put it on the Millennium Falcon when Han isn’t looking.

While in DC the other week, after we walked to a lot of the war memorials in West Potomac Park we headed over to the Tidal Basin to see if we could find any cherry trees that still had blossoms on it. Unfortunately there were only a few. There are about three or four varieties of cherry trees planted around the basin so that some of them bloom at different times, but during our walk we only came across about three trees that looked like they were at their peak. Because of the great distances between bloomed trees, my dream of a sweeping panorama of blooming trees with the Jefferson Memorial in the background (very postcard-like) was squashed. I did take a couple of close ups of one blooming tree. As we strolled along I was looking down reviewing my last pictures when – SMACK -my head hit a low hanging branch. I know now why George Washington chopped down that cherry tree. It wasn’t bad enough to make me see stars, but I did decide from then forward that I would wait until I was stopped to look down at the camera’s LCD.

Our free Chargrilled sandwich from Chick-Fil-A cost us $8.09. We used the coupon from the Chick-Fil-A calendar, but to get the sandwich you had to buy a small fruit cup and a medium soda. We sometimes split a meal when we go out, but that amount wouldn’t be enought so we added a Chicken Strip Salad to the tray.

Meal Cost: $8.09
Tip: None
Spent Today: $8.09
Year to Date: $859.45

I’ve added a forwarded email joke to the Joke Page.

Also added 8 photos from the Sterling, VA BMW Ultimate Drive. No captions yet, probably tomorrow.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 118

Max and Ralph

Two very elderly friends, Max and Ralph met in the park every day to feed the pigeons, watch the squirrels and discuss world problems. One day Ralph didn’t show up. Max didn’t think much about it, figuring maybe he had a cold or something.

But after Ralph hadn’t shown up for a week or so, Max really got worried. However, the only time they ever got together anymore was at the park, and Max could not remember where Ralph lived so he was unable to find out what had happened to him.

A month passed and Max figured old Ralph had gone to his heavenly reward. But one day Max went to the park and, lo and behold, there sat Ralph. Max was very excited and happy to see him and told him so. Then he said, “For crying out loud Ralph, what happened to you???”

Ralph replied, “I have been in jail.”

Jail???,” cried max! “What in the world for???”

“Well,” Ralph said, “you know Sue, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where we get coffee sometimes?”

“Yeah,” said Max, “I remember her. What about her?”

“Well, one day last month she got mad at me and to get even, she charged me with rape. I was so proud of what everyone would think an old fart like me could still do, that when I got into court, I pled ‘guilty’.”

“The judge then took a good look at me and gave me 30 days for perjury.”

Easing Back Into It

Today at work wasn’t too bad, managed to get one thing off my desk that popped up hot. Tomorrow I’ll see if any others showed like it in the week I was gone and if not, it’ll be reaching in to the pile and picking something.

Washington's "Falsie"Catching up on our household chores tonight and by Wednesday it will probably be like we never left. But I have about 4 or 5 little vacation stories to tell over the next few days. Then there is the weeding out of the 132 photos I took last week into at least one gallery page of 24. It may be more but not by much. There are 17 BMW Ultimate Drive photos that will come out of that 132 for sorting and thinning to be added to that gallery. This one won’t make the cut in either gallery.

I always have one of those “one day at a time” desk calendars at work as a conversation starter. Last year it was a Jeopardy! and this year it is Spot the Big Fat Lie. You are giving two different statements and it is your job to pick the false one. I’m usually pretty good at it, but today’s was easy because I knew the true one right off: One of P.T. Barnum’s famous “oddities” on display was the Fiji Mermaid, which was really the top half of a monkey sewn to the bottom half of a fish.

And how did I know? Episode 20 of Season 2: Humbug.

MULDER: Mister Helm, I wanted to ask you about this menu illustration. I recognized most of the historical portraits you’ve drawn here, but what’s this here?

(Scully rolls her eyes at the words “historical portraits.”)

HEPCAT HELM: It’s the Fiji Mermaid.

(He walks back to his desk carrying the menu.)

HAMILTON: Is that what that thing is?

SCULLY: What’s the Fiji Mermaid?

HEPCAT HELM: The Fiji Mermaid. It’s, it’s the Fiji Mermaid!

HAMILTON: It’s a bit of, uh… humbug Barnum pulled in the last century.

HEPCAT HELM: Barnum billed it as a real live mermaid but when people went into see it, all they saw was a real dead monkey sewn on the tail of a fish.

Who said watching the X-Files wasn’t educational.

The lie: P.T. Barnum owned more than 200 famous pairs of dentures, including the falsies worn by George Washington, Marie Antoinette and Robespierre.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 118

Just Flew In From Washington DC

Terminal C at DullesAnd boy are my arms tired. Bada-boom.

Good to be home. On the 60 mile drive home from the airport this evening we saw maybe a couple dozen cars, in the northeast if you go 6 miles you see a couple thousand cars.

Just realized that last Sunday I forgot to change the the top count, I didn’t leave the top down all week while the car was at the airport, it actually went up before last Sunday’s drive to Columbia. Tonight when we landed back in South Carolina it was just about as cold as it was when we left Jersey this morning, so although we wanted to ride home with the top down, we didn’t want to that bad. It stayed up.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 117

Good Morning Sunshine

SunriseThis is the sun coming up over Manhattan as seen from the 8th floor of the Newark Airport Marriot was pretty much the bright spot of the day (if you don’t count the fact that the guest laundry is free.)

The church service for Donna’s Aunt Mary was today, but the interment had to be canceled. Cousin Laurie (the one in SC that we visit) was bringing the ashes, but her husband had some medical issues and had to be rushed to the hospital in Harrisburg, PA. The repast still went on, just with two empty chairs.

I would love to write some more, but this internet connection keeps dropping and it is very frustrating. The only way to restart it is to crawl under the desk and “reboot” the modem/router by unplugging it, counting backwards from 100 by sixteens and replugging it back in.