John Kenneth Galbraith, dead at 97.

Areba Koala needs a cult following.

[Adult Swim]'s two-week experiment of showing classic episodes of Saved By the Bell every day at midnight has ended, and the midnight time slot will apparently be next filled by Small Wonder, followed by Mr. Belvedere. I found the whole idea of live-action sitcoms on the Cartoon Network rather weird, and figured it was a joke, but the angry conjecture on the internet is that live-action will continue to intrude on the cartoons, due to money. But as stupid as this new programming strategy seems, I'm pretty psyched to be seeing Small Wonder again. I loved that show as a kid. In fact, I remember having a friend over, and insisting that we watch Small Wonder, which he had never seen (he was the son of two college professors and didn't watch much TV). I think he thought I was mildly retarded after that.

I got to my evening class a bit early yesterday, and was lounging about outside on the second floor of the building, waiting for the previous class to adjourn. I was looking out towards the handicapped parking lot, when I saw a big black SUV pull in, and park in the x-ed off section set aside for those needing a ramp to get into their vans. I was already mad because someone almost ran me over on the way to class, so this made me even more angry. I noticed that one car was parked legitimately, but that another did not have any visible handicapped placard visible from my vantage point. My attention shifted to the third car parked in the lot, and again I saw no placard or anything else suggesting they were parked legally. But as I looked, I noticed someone lying in the reclined passenger seat. No sooner had I noticed her then, as if on cue, she rolled over and proceeded to mount someone in the drivers-side seat. So apparently, the handicapped parking spots on campus are the new hot make-out spot. For people who can only get off while being an unbelievable asshole, apparently. I found myself wishing I had a cinderblock to heave over the railing, but sadly I was empty-handed. I should start carrying one in my backpack--I might end up with some fused vertebrae, but I'll always be able to express my anger in wildly inappropriate ways.

Rush Limbaugh arrested, makes deal. If he keeps receiving drug treatment, they'll drop the charges in 2 1/2 years. It's tough to be a rich white guy in trouble, let me tell you.

I do wonder if his legal woes are over, though. This sweetheart deal, as I understand it, only covers state charges. Limbaugh allegedly used structured withdrawals to get the cash for his drugs, while avoiding reporting guidelines designed to catch money launderers. Taking money out of the bank in a series of smaller withdrawals, to avoid the $10,000 reporting threshold for cash transactions, is a crime. It doesn't matter why you did it. No criminal intent needs to be proven, beyond the desire to avoid the filing of a CTR by the bank. And it is a crime that in the past has been vigorously enforced. So I don't know if Limbaugh has a deal that would cover any federal crimes, but if not, he might have more problems down the line.

Inside the Disney Vault. That's a "T.V. Funhouse" scetch from Saturday Night Live, as is this clip, "Conspiracy Theory Rock," which only aired once before NBC realized they don't like to laught at themselves, and edited it out of re-runs.

Las Vegas Police refuse to release location of beating. Another reminder of who the LVPD work for.

You have to love a public access preacher that has to have his video labeled "NSFW."

The Village People and Average Homeboy.

News flash: I'm still alive. Just lazy. Decided to take a spring vacation from the blogging biz, I suppose. I'm sure you've all missed me terribly, and I promise never again will I leave you, my loyal reader(s), in the lurch.

Not that I had much to say, had I posted here. School is school. I'm running out of classes to take (I suppose I could graduate, but that's crazy talk), and am finding rather odd things to fill the void as I try to get the final classes I need to leave the hallowed halls of academia behind (and take up the cyber-halls of distance learning grad school, if that is indeed the path I choose). I did stumble upon a class on information technology and computer literacy, which I am taking this quarter, and which I think will teach me some basic skills that might be useful in grad school, pursuing a degree in library science, as is currently the plan (either that, or be a cowboy). And I have found the class useful at times, as I pick up some random computer skills I've previously lacked. And I had to learn how to use PowerPoint, which I was mad about, because my basic copy of Microsoft Office didn't include PowerPoint, so I had to buy a new copy ($100 with the school's site license) in order to get PowerPoint. But it actually is a pretty good program for people like myself with no skills vis-a-vis graphic design. I doubt I'll use it for presentations, but for real basic visual projects, I might take advantage of it from time to time. In any event, the class seems pretty basic, but I think it will have some value.

Beyond that, not a hell of a lot to report here. Just doing school and wasting time. Went to some concerts, most recently Ronny Cox. He's better known as an actor (Deliverance, notable guest appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation), but is also a gifted folk singer. You can download most of his songs from his web site. I saw some other shows, I've forgotten to mention (not just since my last post, but in the last couple months, several have slipped through the cracks). George Jones, Elana James, and Arlo Guthrie are probably the most worthy of note, seen at Pechanga, Acoustic Music San Diego, and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, respectively. I'll try to pass along my opinions on fine shows I've seen, since I'm sure you all care. The Adams Avenue Roots Festival is this weekend, I'm sure there'll be a few quality acts to tell you all about. And if not, I can tell you about how much funnel cake I had to eat before getting sick.

Actually, I'm a bit under the weather, so I'll probably lay off the carnival food. I thought I was feeling better today, but my lunch wasn't sitting well. I think it's the constantly-changing weather, and interrupted sleeping patterns. And the weight gain couldn't help--I got lazy as far as exercise was concerned the last two months or so, and am back where I started the year. So hitting my end-of-year goal of 200 pounds will be more difficult. But I was getting back in a decent fitness routine these last two weeks, until I got sick, and hope to pick back up where I left off tomorrow, if I still feel well in the morning. I'm relatively confident I will reach my goal.

I'm also trying to get more stuff done. I have a side project, I hinted at a while back, which completely fell by the wayside with school burdens, but I hope to get back to working on that. I've also fallen somewhat behind in school this quarter, but not very far, and I should be caught up by next week. I've decided that from 2-5 every day (when I'm not at work or in class) is my work time. No television, no e-mail, no web surfing, just getting stuff done. In the past, I've tried just setting a goal for the day, and getting it done whenever. Which usually meant late evening, which is a good time for me to get distracted. Afternoons, on the other hand, are a time I often waste, but if I really focus, I tend to stay on task and actually get things done. So I'm going for a time-based system, rather than goal-based. Three hours isn't a really long time to get everything done, but if I make a habit of it, I think my productivity will skyrocket. I'll do better in school, and Mike's Mysterious Web-Based Side Project might see the light of day eventually. Maybe I'll even post here on occasion (which probably falls into the category of time wasted, but whatever). We'll see how it goes.

From the creator of the wildly inappropriate trailer Shining, we now have Something Blue.

Franz Ferdinand frontman shot by Gavrilo Princip Bassist.

Buddy Blue, aka Bernard Seigal, dead at 48.

Well, this was a rather tiring weekend. I had tickets to Carmen on Saturday, at the Civic Center. Pretty good opera, I'd never seen before. I thought the story was a bit weak, and Don Jose was a bit of a doufus, but the music was good, and it was fun hearing so many songs I've heard so many times without knowing their context. The opera got out around 11:30, but it took me about a half-hour just to get out of the parking garage. My car did not move for about ten minutes, which was frustrating, though fortunately I had reading material. So I didn't get to bed until close to one, and then had to get up at 5:00 AM to go line up in Humphrey's parking lot.

Waiting in line was far more pleasant than I anticipated. Last time, I hadn't expected nearly the line I encountered, when I arrived around 9:00. I didn't even bring something on which to sit that time. This time, I brought coffee, water, a sandwich, donuts, cookies, a chair, magazines, my Gameboy, and most importantly, my iPod. And when I arrived, at a quarter to six, the line wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. When they handed out numbers later, I was number 31. And despite the threat of rain from the weatherman, the weather was beautiful, warm even before dawn, with a nice gentle breeze to keep things from getting too hot. I listened to music and caught up on my reading (I was a bit embarrased when an article in Outside magazine about the Himalayan Cataract Project made me misty-eyed), and 10:00 came sooner that I could have hoped. It took me about 45 minutes to reach the front of the line, and I was able to get good tickets for myself. I got fantastic seats for Robert Earl Keen and Pink Martini, and pretty good seats for Randy Newman, back a bit because I requested aisle seating, due to Mom's bum knee. I did feel bad that I couldn't get three seats together for the friend I was buying tickets for, and instead had to get her three seats in a column, over three rows. But overall, I was very glad I waited in line, and didn't give ticketmaster the $60 or so I would have been hit with in Ticketmaster fees.

Sacco and Vanzetti documentary. An internet aquaintance is involved, so I am doing them the courtesy of a link. I still need to see her documentary on the Internationale.

Reading about the Simpsons movie trailer let me to the news that Fururama was returning to television for another season, exciting news that I almost immediately was able to refute at the site linked above. Billy West raised my hopes and dashed them admirably. Still, the DVD movie should be pretty sweet.

Simpsons teaser trailer reveals movie coming July 27, 2007. Also, in case you missed last Sunday's Simpsons, hyped so incessantly for showing the live-action credits that everyone's already seen on the internet, it also just happened to be the episode written by Ricky Gervais. That's what they sould have been advertising ad nauseum. It was pretty good, overall. Actually started out pretty weak, though about average for recent episodes, but things picked up with Gervais' character showed up. And he sang, which is always great. A solid B+ episode, methinks.