November 29, 2004

Best books

My top 5 favourite books at the moment are:

Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler

Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear

The Fresco by Sheri S. Tepper

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated Motorcycle-Girl Road Novel Thing by Erika Lopez

Posted by songdawg at 06:26 PM | Comments (0) | My Life

November 23, 2004

Webcasts are the cat's meow

Currently my favourite webpage: http://www.microsoft.com/seminar

Microsoft has offered webinars for quite awhile and I mostly try to catch them live if possible because the demo portions of the presentation never quite seemed to work when played on demand. Over the last while they have fixed this and the demos work smoothly. Great way to keep up to date - geek movies :)

Posted by songdawg at 06:02 PM | My Life

November 21, 2004

Bluegrass is Alive and Kicking in E-town

Friday I went down and caught a couple of good bluegrass sets of Down to the Wood and Saturday caught the Riverdale Bluegrass Band and the Dry River Boys performing. It was great to see and hear so much Canadian talent.

Posted by songdawg at 12:41 PM | Music

November 20, 2004

Did you hear about the two Republicans...

Did you hear about the two Republicans who got onto a commercial plane and were sitting in the window and middle seats when a Democrat came and sat down in the isle seat with them and kicked off his shoes to relax.

Once the flight was underway the Republican in the window seat asked if he could get out to go get a Coke. The Democrat said to stay there and he would go get a Coke for him. While he was gone, one of the Republicans picked up one of the Democrat's shoes and spit into it. When the Democrat got back the other Republican said he'd like to go get a coke and the Democrat went to get him one, too. The Republicans then spit in his other shoe.

When the plane came in for a landing, the Democrat put his shoes on and immediately knew what had happened. He said "why must we go on like this fighting with each other all the time? When will it all end, this spitting in shoes and pissing in Cokes?"

- From Charlie on the Northwest Bluegrass List

Posted by songdawg at 06:40 PM | Funny and/or Cool

November 11, 2004

Lest We Forget

This about sums up my feelings around Remembrance Day: I'll Be Wearing A Poppy This Year.

History of the Poppy and Remembrance Day: http://www.canoe.ca/RemembranceDay/poppy.html

The new Poppy Coin: http://www.mint.ca/poppy/home.asp

Posted by songdawg at 10:08 AM | My Life

November 07, 2004

New Edmonton Bluegrass Room

This weekend was the opening of a new Edmonton venue for live Bluegrass. The Continental Inn (16625 Stony Plain Rd) will be hosting live bluegrass every Friday and Saturday evening from 8-11pm.

Maple Creek - Nov 5, 2004
Homefire CD Release Party - Nov 6, 2004
Black Lightning Bluegrass Band - Nov 12-13, 2004
Down to the Wood - Nov 19-20, 2004
Jerusalem Ridge - Nov 26-27, 2004
The Swell Fellas - Dec 3-4, 2004

(All listings are unofficial and gleaned from the web - contact the Continental Inn to be sure)

Posted by songdawg at 02:35 PM | Music

Station Ripper

I am playing around with Station Ripper which allows you to rip online streaming radio to your computer as mp3 files. Each song is its own mp3 file and is well tagged.

Currently listening to Inetprogramming Bluegrass Fredericton NB Canada - Northern End of the Appalachian Mts.

Very cool

Posted by songdawg at 01:48 PM | Music

November 02, 2004

Nerd Folksongs

Hilarious folksongs: Jonathan Coulton

I am up at 5:30 am to pay bills. Listening to Maceo Parker's Chicken to get me through. I am all done and off to get ready for work.

Posted by songdawg at 06:06 AM | Funny and/or Cool