If anything on this Earth has been important to me my entire life, music would be up on top of that list pretty high. As far back as I can recall my earliest memory, I can recall music. It’s always been there.

I guess I can thank my father, who knows more about music than anyone I’ve ever known, and more about 60s music than most so-called experts who write books and give commentary on the subject. I guess I can thank him for the thousands of records he’s owned over the years, and the 1,200 or so music CDs I have sitting down in the “vault.”

Blood, Sweat & Tears

After having converted out entire CD collection to digital, in the form of MP3s, I now have almost 17,000 songs at my fingertips. No more searching ten minutes for a two minute song. Those days are over. The problem now is figuring out what song you want to hear.

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My grandmother died this week. Going through decades of memories in a few hours, you stop and think where the time went.

I guess I’m lucky my grandmother didn’t throw anything away– from her high school diploma of 1938, to the pictures of her first born in 1950, to just about anything. She kept it.

In that archive of pictures are myself and my sister, tucked away with just about everyone else who ever sent her anything. Going through everything will be a challenge, but it’s nice to see that the last 60+ years have not been forgotten.

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Enough! George W. Bush is a moron. Doesn’t he get sick of giving the same terrorism speech over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over?

Having been snowed in today, and my satellite reception knocked off for a few hours, I was sickened, but not surprised to hear Bush giving a speech about terrorism when the signal finally came back on. What the hell is his problem? Why is this nut a one-trick pony? Does he just use the same speech, changing phrases here and there to suit the day’s events?

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Artist: The Beach Boys
Album: Pet Sounds (1966)
Song: God Only Knows

This song file will only be available for the week of 01.23.2006.
Learn more about The Beach Boys.

TOKYO - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one’s a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a four-foot rat snake. Zookeepers at Tokyo’s Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster, whose name means “meal” in Japanese, to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice.

But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the furry rodent, according to keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a cage since.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Gohan sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back,” Yamamoto said.

Aochan, a 2-year-old male Japanese rat snake, eventually developed an appetite for frozen rodents but has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan, despite her name.

“We named her Gohan as a joke,” Yamamoto chuckled. “But I don’t think there’s any danger. Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan’s company very much.”

The Tokyo zoo also keeps a range of mostly livestock animals, and promotes “cross-breed interaction,” according to Yamamoto.

But Gohan and Aochan’s case was “was a complete accident,” Yamamoto said.

A new primary seat belt law was passed by the Massachusetts state House this week, and will be signed by the Governor, Mitt Romney. The law passed 76 to 74. This is nothing more than insurance companies finding a way to boost profits by not having to pay auto injury claims.

Buy Me A Vote Daddy

By only two votes, the state House of Representatives narrowly passed a law to allow police to stop vehicles if the occupants are not wearing seat belts, following an impassioned debate that centered on civil liberties and the role of government in the safety of its citizens.

Under current state law, adults are already required to wear seat belts. But police cannot use seat belts as the reason for pulling someone over, unless a passenger under 12 years old is not buckled up.

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Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Take a gander at some of these ASSinine laws from North Carolina. I hear it’s the safest state in the country by some. After all, fights between cats and dogs are prohibited– it must be safe!

These are actual laws that are on the books in various North Carolina cities and towns.

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After more than a decade of legal battles over assisted suicide, a Supreme Court ruling affirming that states have the authority to regulate medical treatment of the terminally ill may help turn an Oregon law into a national model.

At least six other states have proposed, or are considering, some form of an assisted suicide law, with bills currently in the legislatures of California and Vermont.

The Shot Heard ‘Round The World

The 6-3 ruling Tuesday was considered a rebuke to the Bush administration and former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The court said they improperly threatened to use a federal drug law against Oregon doctors who prescribe lethal doses of medicine to dying patients who request it.

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Having just sold my Gateway PC recently on eBay (well, actually the parts of it), I’d like to think back at all the pleasure it gave me. There were good days. However, there were too many bad days; too many even to count.

Aside from the fact that I got sick and tired of viruses, spyware, malware, and adware, my ears couldn’t take the sound of my PC any longer. I mean, this thing was a beast in size, and didn’t disappoint when it came to bark vs. bite. At the breaking point in February of 2005, I decided to buy a Mac mini, which I’ve since upgraded to an iMac.

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Thanks to rikkel, I have some super-secret pictures of Apple Computer’s next Intel machine. Dubbed the “FreshMac,” this new computer is due out sometime in the Fall, with a MSRP of $2.99/dozen. Rumor has it that this new unit will be able to run OS X, Windows Vista, as well as Linux; something Apple is calling the Tri-Boot.

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