September, already?!
Such a long time between entries here on the blogÖ.
So much going on, so little time to finalize and then post the entries that gather dust in the Blogerrel and Blogress folders. And there are quite a bunch in that category, covering subjects ranging from rants about the Telecom Biz (actually, rants mostly about Qwest and WorldCom), rants about CARP and how the RIAA and the NAB have managed to successfully lobby the hobbyist and the entrepreneur out of the amateur or small-time audio presentation business. Gee, I was even thinking of going back to my programmer roots (thatís RADIO Programmer, not writer of code and such) and running a ìMusic Dean Likesî channel.
I think it would advance and promote the sale of music. But the RIAA apparently feels a lack of the normal clutches and controls, and the NAB seemingly perceives everything as a threat, and as just one guy, it was easy to decide not to take these behemoths on as opponents. The costs of defending myself would do me in. So why bother?
Work has kept me v-e-r-y busy of late. My industry is going through a strange time. Although there is greater-than-ever demand, interest and need in the services offered, the bloom is light years off the rose from the Wall Street viewpoint.
So times are getting tough, industry-wise. In some ways, for the capable and financially foresighted players, this is a good thing. Planning and proper budgeting, and not getting foolish when things were good is paying off in some cases. Survival of the fittest and the fattest. Except, of course, the fattest who juggled their books, never sent out a correct bill, or just plain got greedy to the max, to mix metaphors and Valley-Girl slang.
Oops, those last paragraphs look a great deal like the rants gathering dust in the two blogs-in-progress folders mentioned above.
There are other items, unfinished or just unpublished, in the folders: essays on various topics. Life In New York; My Summer with The Kids; The Pending (now solved and avoided) Baseball Labor Action; Visits to Yankee Stadium (even a nice long essay about how much more well-behaved the visiting Red Sox fans have been this year when they come to Yankee Stadium); All About My Cat (with a few zillion pictures of her, taken by my son); lots of stuff about movies and a little bit about TV, including one tentatively entitled,îWHY I REALLY LIKE DIRECTV,î and how much I enjoy two shows that compete at the same scheduled run time: HBOís The Wire [1] and SHOWTIMEís Street Time [2].
You see, with Directv [3],I can watch one at the run time, and catch the other on the West Coast run time. Sadly, I have yet to figure out how to make the VCR tape a show when I am not thereÖsince the VCR seems to rely on the satellite set-top box for channel selection. Hmmm. One long rainy afternoon, maybe I will figure this out.
Reading Daveís [4] Scripting News [5] I was prompted to compose a whole treatise on quitting smoking, and the oddities of the habit, even years and years later. But that one is too long, too bizarre, and seems more like a private e-mail to Dave, as opposed to a blog entry.
Thereís been an essay in that Blogress folder for almost as long as this blog has existed, under the title of Doc Searls Is A Man Of His Word. It has to do with the Tip Jar concept [6] and how he and I automatically tipped the counterman at Katzís Deli [7], like a reflex action, when we ate there. Since then Doc and I have been back there a few more times. The topic and the whole thing seem like old news to me at this point.
Speaking of Doc, as part of a vacation we took, Susan and I spent a couple of days as a houseguest at Docís place. We drove all around and about Santa Barbara, took some neat pictures, ate according to the Atkins Diet [8] together (Susan was the lucky one, getting all the starches and carbs we Atkinsers must forego) and generally had a wonderful time.
More is coming, I promise.
Like a nice photo from Susan's impromptu birthday party with our friends from Germany. And oodles of stories and photos from the vacation.
And more posts, some in progress, some in my head, some suggested by others. But by all means, more posts, more often.
Especially since there is a really cool link showing up on my referrer page, which makes me feel like it is imperative to be posting again, and more regularly. More about that is coming, too. Soon. I promise.