As an experiment, I’ve decided to pop up a Google AdSense block to see what happens. Since there’s only one per page, I don’t think they’re too intrusive, and hope that maybe in the long term they’ll help defray the cost of hosting. Most pages have already been crawled and show relevant ads, but every once in a while, a single post will show public service ads temporarily which is kind of annoying (tips anyone?)

If you have any thoughts or experience doing so yourself, by all means feel free to comment. If you frequent my blog and have an opinion on the new ads, please let me know.

It appears in essentially one place, which differs based on your view. It is either directly under the first post on any page containing multiple posts, and between the post and the comment box on any page that contains only one post in comment adding mode.

They Might Be Giants is perhaps the first music group to open their own full fledged download site. Instead of relying solely on iTunes, AOL, Real, or any of the numerous download stores, they are taking the onus on themselves to sell music to the masses. I have always been a fan of TMBG and their digital innovation. Emusic.com got a year’s worth of subscription from me because they featured TMBG special albums every month for a year.

Now, TMBG is allowing users to download strgaight from them songs for $0.99 apiece and $9.99 an album. They’ll also have special web only downloads. The mp3 files are not DRM enabled, and are trnasferable to your heart’s content.

This in a word ROCKS. I know that the band gets all my money, and I get quality files that I can do with as I please. Win win for both sides. Kudos to TMBG for yet another magical idea!!!

A special message directly from John Flansburgh is quoted below:

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS CREATE ARTIST OWNED AND OPERATED DOWNLOAD SITE AT THEYMIGHTBEGIANTS.COM

In a move currently uncharted in the electronic downloading game, Brooklyn alt. rock legends They Might Be Giants have created their own artist owned and operated downloading site. TheyMightBeGiants.com offers 99 cent downloads, and exclusive bundles of TMBG albums prorated for $10, along with exclusive songs only available online. TMBG enjoy a unique spot as one of the most downloaded bands online, often popping into top ten download lists on Soundscan thanks to heavy traffic through iTunes and other corporate download sites.

The site’s unique “artist owned” status clears up many ethical issues for users. Guitarist John Flansburgh explains, “Audience habits are changing quickly, especially online. We find their comfort level with dealing directly with the band’s site is actually greater than through a lot of on-line stores. Our fans don’t need a filter, and respect the value of our effort. To be honest, we love having our CDs distributed through the big guys (note: Rounder/Universal distributes TMBG label Idlewild in brick and mortar stores). We couldn’t do it without them, but we’d rather handle the digital side ourselves. The TMBG download site seems like a pretty natural solution for bands trying to deal with the current web sprawl. I think TheyMightBeGiants.com is a pretty good model for the future.”

In another move breaking away from industry practice, TMBG’s MP3s are free of encoding gimmicks and electronic watermarks. They can be transferred from computer to computer effortlessly. The MP3s on the TMBG download site are mastered in extraordinary fidelity (far superior to even last year’s technology).

I’ve been horribly sick and spent last night on the couch whil my wife and friend Rod from VA went out to Greek Festival for a night of festivities dedicated to PJ’s birthday.

Being a fan of the outdoors and a hiker of sorts (though certainly not as much of late as years past) I quickly decided upon the Dateline NBC featuring Aron Ralston. For those unaware, this is the adventurer who got caught in a slot canyon in Utah and escaped only after amputating his own arm just above the wrist. His story told from his mouth, the look in his eyes in returning to the place where he etched his own epitath in the rock, the warble in the audio from the recordings he made on his camcorder while stuck – they are all haunting. Haunting, yet at the same time so very spiritual. He had crises of faith, questions of morality, and faced death like most will never have to.

Was he sacred? By his own admission, yes, adn who would not have been? The thing that got him through was presence of mind. He was able to focus on exactly what he needed to do to survive and was mentally strong enough to ration two burritos, 20 some odd ounces of water, and his own urine over the course of 6 days before finally breaking his own arm, securing a tourniquet, and cutting through flesh, muscle, cartiledge, blood vesseles, arteries, and nerves. And that was before hiking several miles to a 65 foot rappel, which was followed by a 7 mile hike in noon time heat.

Kudos to you Aron, you are truly an inspiration. As for Dateline, thye kept hammering on one point the whole time that ended up being Aron’s biggest mistake. He never told anyone where he was going or when he’d be back.

Please; day hiker or back country, park or parking lot, ALWAYS tell people where you’ll be and when you expect to be back. This is more important than the 10 essentials. It could have saved Aron his arm, and it could save you your life.

ArtByFire.com arranged and executed a treasure hunt last night/this morning whereby they hid 911 hand made glass floats to remember the victims of the awful tragedy of three years ago. For that – BRAVO!

Now, for the unfortunate reprimand. Neither on their site, nor via the news reporters who covered this and enticed the public to descend upon three fairly fragile stretches of Puget Sound beach was it ever mentioned to respect the land being searched.

I was at Golden Gardens at 5:45 this morning and what I saw made me cry as much as I did three years ago. This time it was not for the senseless loss of human life, but for the senseless loss of vegetation life. And the killers in this case were not terrorists; they were Seattle residents searching for baubles of glass.

I saw toddlers running through landscaping, teenagers tramping down 4 foot reed grass to see what may lie in the midst, dogs defecating on the beach, people littering, couples bushwhacking through terrain which clearly had no trail, and on and on. I turned around to go home before going to the tidepools, or who knows what indecncy I may have seen befouling them.

Shame on ArtByFire.com for initiating such a public display without first thinking of the ramifications of their actions; shame on the news for failing to mention this to better sensationalize the angle they wanted; and most of all SHAME ON YOU searchers.

Julie wrote an entry recently about breastfeeding in public (which I fully support.) It had a picture of a parking sign for expectant mothers. I recall having seen one near Southcenter once, but I can’t remember for sure.

Anywho, one place I do recall seeing something similiar is IKEA. In their always full garage, they have a half dozen spots slotted for family parking. Without them, I could never go and visit the store. If you’re looking for them (and have a kid with you…) go into the main garage, go straight, and look for them just left of the entrance along their little metal fence.

Well, someone went and did it. They created a python based distro for using Gmail as a filesystem. You can use this to store files in your Gmail account, but I see it being used for another productive purpose – backing up your Gmail account. If your Gmail account is accessible as a filesystem, then you can get access to the e-mail already in it to be able to back it up. This will finally make it usable for an alternative business e-mail system for small businesses.

Currently only for Linux, but I’m going to try loading it into cygwin to see if I can get it going on Windows. If I get it working, I’ll be posting a follow up marking this tool as a utility of the week.

I’m going to branch off a bit and post something political in nature. I watched Arnold speak at the RNC tonight and was blown away. I knew he was charasmatic, but his speech left me, for lack of a better term, speechless. For all of his accent ridden rhetoric, he can really grab a crowd.

After long thinking I was a Democrat (mostly due to the lack of palatable Republican Presidential candidates) his speech left me wondering, “am I really a Republican?” Granted, it didn’t change my opinion of W much, but it did leave me grappling with my opinions and fundamental beliefs.

Politics leaves me much like a discussion of religion does – befuddled. I need to start doing some serious reading on both sides to re-figure out what it really means to be a Democrat vs. a Republican.

Does anyone have any good links to sites that have in depth history or discussions of fundamental beliefs from each side to jump start me?

Well, I’ve been absent, and I apologize. Sickness and sheer exhasution have been drilling me left and right of late and I just have not been posting. Shame on me.

I got my invite from Dana due to a posting offering up invites. I’ve decide to return the favor to you, my “faithfuls” for continuing to subscribe to my RSS feed, even in my absence.

Comment here, and the first (6 as of now) reqestors will get them. If you don’t want to leave your e-mail, post a comment and then shoot me an e-mail under separate cover (mykoNOSPAM@blueneedle.com; remove the obvious part…) with your email so I can send the invite. The queue is going to be established here though, as I want to make myself come back and post more and having all of this go straight to e-mail defeats that purpose…