Ontario Empoblog

Political Party Business Referrals I've heard of the Christian Business & Professional Directory , but the following item is new to me - a political party using a referral network. Of course it's a smaller political party, the Libertarian Party , but it's intesting nonetheless. If you go to http://www.bambiland.com/NetWork.html (note that the "N" and "W" are capitalized), you'll end up at the "Real Estate Network for California Libertarians." From the website: If a Libertarian wishes to buy, sell or exchange real estate, they contact a Libertarian Network Realtor. The Network Realtor will donate 20% of commission received to the Libertarian cause as directed by the client in the client's name. This also applies to referral fees received. These referral fees are customary in the industry and range 20 - 25% of the listing or selling side. This means that local non-Libertarian Realtors, who may be best for the client due t...

Boggus Ford? I got some spam in one of my mail accounts from an outfit called "Boggus Ford." Sounds like a commercial for the KOER blog ...

New, Improved Digital Judge For My Ears Only Well, I had a rather hectic evening after finding the article below. Most of the Ontario Emperor songs that are (as of now) available at http://www.mp3.com/oemperor/ were created on a Macintosh that has long since bit the dust. Rather than trying to find all the CDs with the copies of the mp3s, I downloaded the entire lot from my mp3.com account, to ensure that I don't lose them after December. Once I had them downloaded, I decided to try MusicMatch's audio CD creation capability, which I had never tried before. My goal: an expanded version of the Digital Judge CD. For those who are not familiar with the original CD, it consists of three song groups with five songs each: "Finding My Anonymity." "Or a Little Faster." "Winter at Halfway House." "Marooned with Mary Ann." "Down the Pyro Lawn." "Finding My Serenity." "Gonna Walk." "Deep...

Only Five More Presidents After This One? I have discovered a pattern in our U.S. presidents that appears to indicate that George W. Bush, our 43rd president, will only be succeeded by five other individuals. First a look back at some of our presidents in history. Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was the first (and for many years the only) president who was the son of a former president (in this case, his father John Adams). He was followed by Andrew Jackson, a charismatic, controversial Democrat . He was succeeded by New Yorker Martin Van Buren, Jackson's former vice president (and, for many years, the only vice president who was elected to the presidential office immediately after serving as vice president). Our next president? The old William Henry Harrison. Our tenth president was the southerner John Tyler, who was not re-elected . Fast forward over a century, and meet some of our more recent presidents: Number 39: Jimmy Carter, a southerner...

Generic Title For the next couple of weeks, the following songs will continue to be available at http://www.mp3.com/oemperor/ : Digital Judge November 1999 $14.98 CD Finding My Anonymity. Or a Little Faster. Winter at Halfway House. Marooned with Mary Ann. Down the Pyro Lawn. Finding My Serenity. Gonna Walk. Deeper in Debt. November. Trashed Your Room. Finding My Tax Return. Run to the Snare. Football You Bet (preview available). I Demand a Japanese Car. Side of the Grove. Surround March 2000 $10.98 CD Latent Image. Surround. So Long I Sold You. Urban Plowman. Deeper in Debt (Jerry). You Want to Fly. Driving Two. Road Array June 2000 $10.98 CD Road Array. Facial. More Tea For Me. Tireless. Green Stream. Lost. Armsley Square. Flies. Rudy Left September 2000 $10.98 CD Rudy Left. Windy Ridge. Bush League. Besieged by Reality. Transmission. Calculus Two. Veggie Stew. Besieged October 2000 $10.98 CD Rudy Left. Surround. Road Array. Nixon Landsl...

Gonna Need Another Update... (article) Dow Jones Business News CNET to Acquire MP3.com From Vivendi's U.S. Unit Friday November 14, 1:27 pm ET NEW YORK -- CNET Networks Inc. (NasdaqNM:CNET - News) said it has signed a deal to acquire the assets of MP3.com Inc. from Vivendi Universal (NYSE:V - News) SA's U.S. Internet unit. The deal is scheduled to close next month, according to a statement from CNET, the San Francisco-based online technology publisher. A spokeswoman said the company wouldn't disclose transaction terms.... The deal marks the end of a storied name in online music, at least in its current incarnation. Founded in 1997, the music Web portal MP3.com took its name from a popular format for digital music. The company rode the Internet stock frenzy to a $7 billion market capitalization at its peak valuation in 1999, then was hit with a barrage of lawsuits for illegal downloading, including one from Vivendi. In 2001, Vivendi agreed to acquire MP3.c...

Tripod Site Updated My site at http://ontarioemperor.tripod.com/ has been updated. Among other things, it now includes a link to the Ontario Empoblog . Among other things, I've corrected the discography to reflect the fact that only three of my mp3s are now downloadable at http://www.mp3.com/oemperor/ (due to changes in mp3.com policies).

Salam Pax The blog hero of the Iraq War is still around at http://www.dearraed.blogspot.com/ . Come to think of it, so is the Scud Stud . Yes, this generation has its own war celebrities. Interesting reading in the Salam Pax blog. Follow this link and scroll down to August 29 for an account of a "visit" from us 'Mercans.

Nez Younger people: this involves the Monkee that wore the cap. Decades ago (early 1980s), an advertisement used to run in the classifieds section of Rolling Stone which posed the all-important question: Whatever happened to Michael Nesmith? The ad included an 800 number (this was before 888, 877, etc. numbers), which I dutifully called. After hearing a snippet from some song about Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam , the callers were informed that Michael Nesmith was involved in something called video . By this time I had already seen a video. My friend Alan had HBO, and one day we saw a film in which Raydio was singing "You Can't Change That" - except that they weren't singing! They were lip-syncing! They were dancing around all over the place while supposedly singing! Wow, video sure looked funny. Anyway, next I hear Michael Nesmith is an Important Pioneer, and Elephant Parts is winning awards. After that I didn't hear anything new about Michael ag...

Auntie Trust Has Been Berry Berry Good To Me Got my letter from the State of California today regarding the Microsoft settlement . I am eligible for a grand total of $21 for the Windows ME and Works that was bundled on my computer a few years back. Don't think that Bill Gates will need to apply for food stamps, though.

I can't get it out of my head Song running through my brain for the last couple of days - "Strange Magic" by Electric Light Orchestra . In my worldview, this song falls in the second half of ELO's history, which I divide into (a) Electric Light Orchestra II , and (b) everything after that. I've never heard the earlier albums, but I used to own Electric Light Orchestra II on cassette. Audiophonically, it consists of this guy screaming vocals over a electro-neo-classical band - very rough in all respects. By the time they hit the big time, most of the rough edges had been removed, although Jeff never gave Smokey Robinson any competition as a vocalist. Although "Strange Magic" didn't have a disco beat, it fit nicely into disco-era radio programming. The strings that were once so menacing had become light background.

Non Sequiturization of the Media As I drove home this evening, I heard a news report that stated that enough people have died in the recent Iraq war "to fill Dodger Stadium." Then I wondered - what does Dodger Stadium have to do with this? I mean, I know they're (currently) owned by the same people that run Fox News Channel , but that doesn't mean that Rupert (Murdoch) wants to load the stadium with corpses. (Insert joke about Dodger front office here.) Two non sequiturish comparisons are often used: _______ is enough to fill the city of _______. _______ is enough to fill the building _______. These comparisons can perhaps lead to bizarre correlations like this (note that these comparisons may not be numerically accurate; the research department for this blog is out chasing cats): The number of people who voted for George McGovern in 1972 would fill the country of Taiwan. The number of major league baseball players, their spouses, their parents, ...

Wiccan Thought of the Day If you live in Coventry, do you have to join a coven?

Library of Congress From http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov11.html - go to loc.gov page for extensive links and full text. "The Allied powers a signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France on November 11, 1918, bringing World War I to a close. Between the wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both world wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars...." ... "On November 11, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison declared Washington the forty-second state in the Union. Less than fifty years after pioneers began entering the Pacific Northwest via the Oregon Trail, the United States met expectations its borders would extend across the continent. "Until 1846, Washington was part of 'Oregon Country,' a region jointly o...

Woman who resigned from union From 11/7/2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch I am writing to represent the rather unpopular and little-heard viewpoint of a minority of individuals in the recent grocery strike: people who, like me, a grocery store employee originally bound by the union, chose to follow their hearts in a different direction, which led to a breaking from opinion with the union, and ultimate resignation. This was a decision I did not take lightly. I did not force my views on anyone else, yet am now being penalized and even shunned by colleagues and former "friends" for exercising my free will and upholding my beliefs. I have not disrespected the mighty union majority during this grocery fiasco, unless their definition of respect is a blind, sheep-like unity at all costs, even to the abandonment of my beliefs. That doesn't sound like the democracy we are supposed to be living in here in this country, does it? The "mighty" Bob Kelley claimed i...

Health Care During the Southern California grocery strike, both the pro-union and pro-management people agree that something should be done about health care. In that context, the following spam is rather surprising: "Did you know that your family's healthcare is in jeopardy and it's up to you to ProtectYourHealthcare. "Right now, Congress is creating a 'new' kind of health insurance - with no protections, no guarantees and no limits on prices. Under Washington's plan, insurers won't be required to keep money in the bank to pay your claims, but they will be able to raise your rates when you get sick or whenever they want. Worst of all, insurers will also take away every single health protection you have in your state, from direct access to your OB/GYN to your right to appeal. " The spam included a link which I have not reproduced here; for all I know it goes to a Bog Slime website or something like that.

How I got to Michael Hanscom's blog in the first place Mr. Hanscomb made Robert X. Cringely's column in InfoWorld. Here's why . And here's what started it all . By the way, he does have a new job.

Openly Episcopal Man Joins Village People In Michael Hanscom's blog .

My radio parody blog is up! Check my http://www.koer.blogspot.com/ .

Taco organizations! A blog that references the Doctor Orange song "Taco Taco Taco." Check out http://jefflog.everybody.org/ . Specifically see the May 1 2000 entry (and my comment). The artist's website is at http://www.mp3.com/doctororange/ ; although "Taco Taco Taco" is no longer downloadable, you can check out "Buried Alive."