The preferred television in the household these days is a British comedy called “Doc Martin” that plays on KCTS. The doctor, played by Martin Clunes, is one of the most likable characters I have ever come across in television. If I lived in Portwenn, I’d have to hold back the urge to try and be this man’s best friend, to avoid the inevitable rejection and ridicule. But I’d definitely admire from afar. Some random highlights. A small part of me, and possibly a small part of you, wishes you could behave this way towards many of the people you come across in the day. If anything I know Clint Wattenberg would also enjoy him.

*****

A couple weeks ago it was announced Apple had bought out lala.com, the best site I’ve found to stream full albums on the ‘net. On May 31, 2010, lala will be no more and any/all “credits” you have will be transferred to your iTunes account or whatever. Makes sense from a business perspective for Apple, but a dick move is a dick move. They basically bought something with, as far as I can tell, the sole intention of simply taking it away from us. I do not think lala should be lumped in with the other methods of getting “free” music. The model was more along the lines of a preview site. You could listen to each song/album one time, after which you could only hear 30 second previews. So if a new album came out, you could basically preview it once through on lala before determining whether it deserved your money. It allowed you to easily and quickly get a taste of music you’d otherwise never think to purchase or waste time/disk space downloading.

May 31 is 11 days away, or passed 11 days ago depending on when you read this, and I will try to savor these final 11 days. As I may have stated here earlier, I prefer listening to full albums than randomly choosing singles or suffering through whatever set a particular DJ thinks I should listen to on the radio, especially while at work. So lala was a godsend in that respect. I will miss it…until July when the next streaming music site pops up. A friend recommended grooveshark.com but its interface, while copying lala.com in many ways, is very clunky and its library not nearly as extensive. It took me a few hours to figure out how to even get to full album listings, and when you do, chances are fair that the user that uploaded the tracks either omitted the track numbers or put them in incorrectly, negating the whole point to the “full album” experience. Also, the fact that users are able to upload tracks gives me the feeling this site will be shut down in due time. Lala had a sense of legitimacy to it. Now even moreso, I suppose. Thanks Apple!

*****

I love being on Wordpress over that old setup I had before. The work and pain and misery of the transfer may all have been worth it only for the clear reduction in spam. Every time I visited my site back in the day it seemed there was someone selling “sexytim furnirture viaggra vicodin” or some similar product and I’d have to manually remove each one. And don’t get me wrong, they still come. But now when YOU visit my site every other hour day week, you don’t have to see them. Nor does your wife girlfriend friend mom nevermind forget I said anything. And if you *are* a legitimate person with something coherent to offer in the form of a comment, or you’re Patrick, Wordpress seems to recognize you and allow you in! Which means I have to log in less in order to moderate the comments. Which means I post less. (cough)

*****

Yesterday I had a running day off, so I rode my bike to work for the first time in 2010. It’s a not-entirely pleasant 9ish mile ride through, at times, some real shitty barely-paved roads and unappealing traffic. But it took only about 40 minutes to get to work, a mere 5-10 more minutes than it’s taken recently to drive. Obviously while I’m “in shape”, I’m definitely not in “bike shape” so I was huffing and puffing up the final hill climb to the office, and my butt felt really uncomfortable in the seat as I continually adjusted with little success. Eight hours later I was climbing onto the bike to head home and was horrified by how sore I was, most noticeably where the seat holds me up. The uncomfortable ride home was made more so by a steady rain and a bruising feeling on my butt that made every goddamn pothole on Jackson St. and E. Marginal Way utter torture. Instead of 40 minutes, the ride home took 56.

This is all a leadup to tell you I’ve spent the past 24 hours walking around looking for excuses to make the “it’s ok, over the years my ass has taken a pounding” joke, sadly to no avail. So, I’m posting it here.

(Anyone?)

*****

XBL gamertag “jayaresea”. Come get some. Just so you know though I only play Tecmo Bowl: Throwback, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, and Sea Life Safari. That having been said…come get some.