You can check out the recent changes in the ongoing Pointless Redesign here. When it's done I'll have a lot to say about the reasoning behind it.
And I'm still working my way through Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It is mesmerizing - not what I would call a light read. There are some gruesome moments and some fairly explicit scenes. Fortunately he never goes so far with them that they become tawdry or excessive. Mostly it's filled with striking imagery and atmosphere, which is fascinating to me from a technical literary standpoint.
In any event, here are a few sites and stories that I have been accumulating. Apropos of nothing.
- The music industry continues on it's long road to self-destruction, having been found guilty of anti-trust behavior by price-fixing CDs. Upon the announcement, all the folks in the music section of Border's let out a collective "Duh." 67.4 million in cash and a further 75.7 million in free CDs. A drop in the bucket as far as these guys go, but the big hope is that this will alter future behavior. More commentary on the topic over at Blogcritics
- In a more interesting CD development, you can have your name etched into a CD that will be sent to Mars for safe keeping. Let's hope the Martians don't inundate us with junk mail.
- The 2002 Ig Nobel Prizes have been given out, and have generally received more press than their more serious brethren. Of course, anyone who has ever purchased a used textbook will appreciate the Literature prize winner's research on highlighting.
- These guys finally invented a machine that can see through things without emitting X-rays. As if they haven't been working on this since they got caught sneaking in the girls locker room in junior high. My only question is, how long until we have X-RAY SPEX?
- "Gosh, how can we increase attendance at this small Pennsylvania school? We need something to stop all these high-schoolers from heading West. Wait! I've got it!" Then later, "OK, we've suckered a bunch of fools who fell for the whole "California" caper, but now we've got a reputation for being a bunch of fools. We need some smart people. We need real nerds. Wait! I've got it!" Leonard Nimoy was unavailable for comment.
- I always like an aisle seat for easy entry and exit and access to the overhead. As close to the front as possible please, I don't like that annoying wait to get off the lousy plane. Of course there are exceptions, sometimes the extra room or solitude of an exit row is worth it. For folks like me, who put WAY too much thought into this, Seat Guru is your good friend. Your BEST friend, however, is a first class upgrade.
- Well I got my wish. In my HBO essay I prayed that they would re-run the Larry Sanders Show. And Lo! Bravo is doing just that. They have to edit it a bit naturally, but it remains one of the two finest comedy series ever (along with Seinfeld). If you don't get Bravo, this is worth the price of the upgrade.
