Musical tastes just broadened by spontaneous generation...

In my teens, I had to start defining my musical tastes by what I didn't like, rather than what I liked. Of course, the list had about 20 styles in it, but out of thousands, that's not too bad.
I just realized that my disdain for Contemporary Christian Music ended. I mean, it just ended, five minutes ago. No, I did not go out and order DC Talk or Newsboys CDs, but I won't cringe anymore when I hear it. I think I stopped disliking that too-white (sorry) over-compressed praise music as well.

Now I am down to disliking only two musical styles. So, that just leaves me with New-Age-Euro music and Death Metal. In short, if it sounds like Enya or Cannibal Corpse, I still don't like it. But believe me, I like EVERYTHING ELSE.

There's a combination for ya...

--gh

World Music does not sound like Reggae

Thanks to the blues-like styles of Ali Farke Toure and Habib Koite, the World can now know that reggae is not universal.

Not that I have anything against Reggae, but music from Mali has the edge recently.

--gh

Putting Microsoft in their place... a decade late.

Okay, the people at FreeDOS.org are true net patriots still carving out a world for DOS. It just occured to me that people searching for Mexican lyrics (letras) and friends of Terra might not even know what DOS is!

Of course, since the footprint of DOS is so small, you can actually download it to a floppy disk and run a little DOS to bring back the good old days. However, my computer, purchased last month, doesn't even have a floppy drive...

Seriously, a DOS kernal is probably small enough to burn onto a coffee maker's circuitry, so this may not be so silly a conquest.

Comment if you like, but DOS really was cool. I am no more efficient now with WinXP/Linux/OSX than I ever was with DOS and a few utilities. (PC-Tools let you multi-task.)

Man, DOS...

--gh

Finding this page

Okay, according to NedStat, my post titled "Mesa Que Mas Aplauda" is responsible for the highest search hits leading to this page. This is proof that this song is catchy, and if you add this to your blog, you are guaranteed 5 random folks trying to find out more about this addictive pop merengue...

Strangers...

Oh yeah, if you want ONE random hit to your blog from a search, my recomendation is "+0x7d3". I have no idea where that is in this blog, and don't feel like looking for it. But in a few weeks, if someone searches for "+0x7d3," maybe this page will be even higher in the search (489 pages have this text...)
--gh

The world's biggest IF

I have wondered about doing this myself, check out the GPS Drawing Website. To get a sense, click on the image below for the world's biggest "IF," drawn across SE England...



--gh

actually found this link from a very confusing www.haddock.org ...

Uh, this means something, I just don't know what it is...

--gh

FOX Special Report: When Friends go bad...

Okay, last week I was searching for an old college friend online, and came across this extremely weird newsgroup entry. It seems that he has decided to engage in some kind of intramarital situation. I am totally perplexed. I mean, he liked Star Trek and stuff, but I didn't know he was that far off the deep end.

I also found him in a cached google search which means the real link died, and is slowly working its way out of the internet. He is claiming to be a part cat/part skunk:

This has something to do with being "furry" and from the limited exposure that I sought, it too is of a perverted sexual nature. Other posts involved having parties going with other furry people, which I can't even guess if they show up dressed up, or if it is some kind of Dungeons and Dragons thing. I am certain that I feel fine about not knowing what this is all about.

He is still playing guitar, which was one thing we had in common in college. (I would never had made his acquaintence, though, if we did not live in the same dorm.) He has a band called Chaotica, but please don't download the mp3s, they suck. Sorry Keith. Not saying I can do any better, but "you can't polish a turd, Beavis." Oh, and it appears that Chaotica/Chaotika is a very popular band name, from goth-to-metal-to-sucks, the latter being a very popular part of the spectrum.

Which leads me to another friend, this one from graduate school. Another colleage wrote to me in the last few weeks that one of my best friends in grad school got another woman pregnant (already had a daughter of his own), moved out from his own wife and child, and re-married, or was about to remarry (not sure) when he choked on a piece of ham and died. I am not kidding, and this image has haunted me for two weeks. Out of respect, I don't even want to post his name, he was such a good friend in Idaho.

--gh

Just had to share...

Visual poetry:

--gh

SOR = Sexual Offender's Registry

Okay, I was searching the SOR for Missouri, which is NOT as friendly as the SOR for some states, like Virginia (HUGE mugshots), or Kansas. (Note that you see the pictures, and get instant access to a map!)

However, Missouri just lists this astronomical list for the entire state. No mug shots, but at least the addresses are listed. You have to use a mapping agent like Mapquest.com to get the full effect. (95% of my town's offenders are on the EAST side of town...)

So, upon inspection, I notice a Mr. John Rice, whose only address is "NODAWAY NURSING H." In case you are wondering, the "H" does indeed stand for "HOME." So, it makes me wonder, is this creep someone who was charged with "SODOMY; SEX ASSLT," and then happened to end up in a care facility with age? Or is this someone offending as a resident?


Now that is one sad story.


To check your state's SOR, look here.
--gh

New Format

I thought I would take advantage of the blogger re-launch and incorporate comments powered by blogspot. Then I changed my template, then an hour drifted past. I almost forgot to re-incorporate the Nedstat Counter. (Still trying to beat 38 page downloads, December 8, 2003!)

I think I am okay with it. But for some reason, the imposed banner stands out more. Why is that? Maybe because it has some weird words in it, as I write this it says: "Related Searches: Bozo, Bozo the Clown." It may be different when you (6 people) read this.

Of course, you can pay $15 a year to google and remove that banner. That is hardly tempting. However, if it were only $5, I would think 10x more people would go for it. Reminds me of shareware. I don't mind paying for someone else's work, but a lot of shareware authors think they can get $20 or more for their neat utility. I either pay for it, or don't use it. Which is why I am also a fan of completely free software or games. A decent freeware site is No Nags which offers a huge collection of freeware software (not even shareware, and no nag-ware). Of course, many of the links get outdated, but if you join the premium club ($$$), then you have no more broken links. Right. Also, to search for free games, search for "Abandoned Games." Plenty of crap-ish abandoned software out there...

So, I can stick with the banner, even a bozo banner. Maybe if I change the background color to make it blend in...

--gh