Scattershot Monday
The Superbowl was just yesterday, and despite my not being a sports fan I find that there was something of interest in there for a change… though, as per usual, it involves the commercials.
CBS displays its gutlessness once more. Hey, can’t have any of that dissent now, can we? (Maybe it’s just me, but I find it impossible to pull off a proper salute while bending over with my pants down around my ankles.) Yet another reason to not bother with the network. Come to think of it, I can’t recall the last thing I watched on it. Letterman, most likely.
To those who defend it as purely a business decision, CBS would have made the same $/second rate for the public information spot. As for it being their airwaves, it’s important to recall that all broadcasting frequencies are supposed to belong to the public, though the FCC seems to think that it’s all just shorthand for them owning the airwaves. Most of us simply aren’t wealthy enough to be important. It’s all very democratic, though, I’m assured, it’s just that focus groups and Nielson families take care of that pesky voting on our behalf.
Where does the rental money for all this go, anyway?
One nice thing about the push towards cable and (especially) Internet broadcasting is that we’re moving towards microcasting and the creation of tailored, finely-targeted information and entertainment media that will hopefully soon outgrow the efforts of media nazis and corporate parasites to, respectively, control and feed off them.
It’s Groundhog Day, which has an extra significance for me, since it was on this day in 1979 that I went out on a first date with the person I ended up marrying roughly six years later. Twenty five years. (We saw Halloween, btw.) A flood of memories and a mix of emotions, as one would expect for any quarter-century span. No, I’m not going to get into specifics, nor am I alluding to trouble in paradise. Anyone who can look back over more than two decades of life and not have misgivings is either dim-witted, psychotic, and/or under the influence of strong medication and/or religious fervor.
One, related point I will mention is that the bulk of my big screen movie watching was done pre-1985, and I realized a few years ago that all of the Eric, Fox, etc. chains of theaters – along with the local Town Theatre – where I saw all those movies have been bulldozed during the intervening years. So many places I’ve been that simply don’t exist anymore.
The chicken soup I made last night (starting with all the leftover chicken from yesterday’s dinner) has prompted an email from my wife’s handheld: “Your soup rules! Best ever!” Fortunately it’s a big pot, so it can survive a lunchtime hit and there should still be enough there to be the main course for tonight’s dinner, as I’d intended.
I’m chagrined to see that no matter how crippled our manned space program appears to be now, it’s going to be getting much worse before it gets better. There's a projection of some four years where we'll be dependent upon the Russians (and possibly European or, for all we know, Chinese) if we want to get any people up in space. As the push towards completing the international space station is the primary focus of manned missions for the rest of this decade, we apparently won't be the ones taking any replacement crews to the station during those years.
The only propositions the Shrub’s put forth during his years in office that I found any resonance in was a recent one concerning a renewed, manned push into space. Two heartbeats later I realized that this was more in the series of throw anything at the wall and see what sticks moves, and that like all presidents he has the luxury of making broad proposals since he knows most of them will never get far, and those that last will still have to go through the House and Senate mills. It sounded good for a moment, though, even coming from him. The only truly good thing to come out of the Cold War era was the space race.
While still cold out (though it’s finally soaring into the middle 30’s) today’s likely the best field work weather for this week. A “wintry mix” rolling in overnight, expected to turn to all rain by tomorrow afternoon, will help kill most outdoor work for a few days. Then there’s more of it due by Friday.
I want a solid, substantial, stay off the roads unless it’s an emergency snowfall. Winter rain is abysmal. Are you listening, Thor?
The Superbowl was just yesterday, and despite my not being a sports fan I find that there was something of interest in there for a change… though, as per usual, it involves the commercials.
CBS displays its gutlessness once more. Hey, can’t have any of that dissent now, can we? (Maybe it’s just me, but I find it impossible to pull off a proper salute while bending over with my pants down around my ankles.) Yet another reason to not bother with the network. Come to think of it, I can’t recall the last thing I watched on it. Letterman, most likely.
To those who defend it as purely a business decision, CBS would have made the same $/second rate for the public information spot. As for it being their airwaves, it’s important to recall that all broadcasting frequencies are supposed to belong to the public, though the FCC seems to think that it’s all just shorthand for them owning the airwaves. Most of us simply aren’t wealthy enough to be important. It’s all very democratic, though, I’m assured, it’s just that focus groups and Nielson families take care of that pesky voting on our behalf.
Where does the rental money for all this go, anyway?
One nice thing about the push towards cable and (especially) Internet broadcasting is that we’re moving towards microcasting and the creation of tailored, finely-targeted information and entertainment media that will hopefully soon outgrow the efforts of media nazis and corporate parasites to, respectively, control and feed off them.
It’s Groundhog Day, which has an extra significance for me, since it was on this day in 1979 that I went out on a first date with the person I ended up marrying roughly six years later. Twenty five years. (We saw Halloween, btw.) A flood of memories and a mix of emotions, as one would expect for any quarter-century span. No, I’m not going to get into specifics, nor am I alluding to trouble in paradise. Anyone who can look back over more than two decades of life and not have misgivings is either dim-witted, psychotic, and/or under the influence of strong medication and/or religious fervor.
One, related point I will mention is that the bulk of my big screen movie watching was done pre-1985, and I realized a few years ago that all of the Eric, Fox, etc. chains of theaters – along with the local Town Theatre – where I saw all those movies have been bulldozed during the intervening years. So many places I’ve been that simply don’t exist anymore.
The chicken soup I made last night (starting with all the leftover chicken from yesterday’s dinner) has prompted an email from my wife’s handheld: “Your soup rules! Best ever!” Fortunately it’s a big pot, so it can survive a lunchtime hit and there should still be enough there to be the main course for tonight’s dinner, as I’d intended.
I’m chagrined to see that no matter how crippled our manned space program appears to be now, it’s going to be getting much worse before it gets better. There's a projection of some four years where we'll be dependent upon the Russians (and possibly European or, for all we know, Chinese) if we want to get any people up in space. As the push towards completing the international space station is the primary focus of manned missions for the rest of this decade, we apparently won't be the ones taking any replacement crews to the station during those years.
The only propositions the Shrub’s put forth during his years in office that I found any resonance in was a recent one concerning a renewed, manned push into space. Two heartbeats later I realized that this was more in the series of throw anything at the wall and see what sticks moves, and that like all presidents he has the luxury of making broad proposals since he knows most of them will never get far, and those that last will still have to go through the House and Senate mills. It sounded good for a moment, though, even coming from him. The only truly good thing to come out of the Cold War era was the space race.
While still cold out (though it’s finally soaring into the middle 30’s) today’s likely the best field work weather for this week. A “wintry mix” rolling in overnight, expected to turn to all rain by tomorrow afternoon, will help kill most outdoor work for a few days. Then there’s more of it due by Friday.
I want a solid, substantial, stay off the roads unless it’s an emergency snowfall. Winter rain is abysmal. Are you listening, Thor?
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