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Welcome to my link parade. Today's extra special url: ranprieur.pitas.com.

In this fairly depressing, yet well made film, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law star as lovers separated by the trauma of the Civil War. It's a tragedy, with some amusing parts, and some gripping parts. I'm glad I saw it, but once was enough.

This evening, I went to a business meeting, where business-type things were discussed. No further comment on that.

A musical journey. The author describes his own evolution in musical tastes -- from growing up with classical until age 20, at which point he got into the punk scene, and eventually went on to soak in acts ranging from Radiohead to Missy Elliot. Along the way, he dispenses a lot of interesting insights about the history of music in general. It's rather long, but worth the read.

Touching accounts about the historic weddings just keep pouring in.

Hacking Society tonight was fun. I was the second person to arrive, so I sat and talked with Kevin about kernels, his router, and random stuff. Predictions about horrible weather and slippery roads were greatly exaggerated. (Well, San Antonio might consider a few flurries like we had tonight to be a catastrophy warranting emergency federal relief funds, but it's no biggie here.)

I was originally just going to post this as a comment, but I decided it deserves its own article.

During my term as a King Soopers deli clerk, there were many, many occassions when I heard the horror stories about Wal Mart's poor treatment of its workforce. The news was coming from everywhere: coworkers, union brochures, managers, and official company newsletters all talked about the Wal Mart menace.

I'm watching the recorded video of Howard Dean's concession speech today. He is no longer running for president.

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard about the weddings in San Francisco by now. This article talks about the personal significance to those involved. I also enjoyed gaijin's first hand account.

We toil in obscurity. It is our fate. From now until forever more. It is the way of things. Though we may occassionally delude ourselves into believing otherwise, this is the way it has always been, and so shall it always be. Yet still, we persist. Life goes on.

Life sucks today.

Being a person who finds language and its evolution fascinating, I naturally enjoyed this article about the use of the word "bitch".

With Kerry winning both primaries today, it begins to looks more and more like hope is lost. Meanwhile, a fascinating debate among those unaffiliated with the democratic party rages on. Assuming Kerry's trend continues, how should we vote in November? The puppet on the right, or the puppet on the left?

Tonight while I was driving over, Uncle Nasty and his formerly penis-loving producer Jen Jen were on the radio. I say "formerly penis-loving producer" because apparently, according to a new FCC edict, they're not supposed to say the word "penis" on the air anymore.

At the Temple of Castor and Pollux, while Jaeger was on the phone, I took a minute to browse through a batch of library books that happened to be on the shelf. One of them was an NPR guide to building a classical music collection. It featured chapters on 50 or so classical pieces that are considered the greatest ever created. Intrigued, I picked it up and started reading.

Last night (er... this morning), I went to the store at 2am and procured supplies for making bean dip. Left the beans to soak while I went to bed. Watched a couple episodes of Beavis and Butthead before going to sleep, which made me feel sufficiently dumbed down for the year. (MTV2 -- the channel that was ostensibly created for the purpose of playing music after the original MTV decided to become a general purpose crap channel -- was running a Beavis and Butthead marathon. I succumbed.)

Problem of Primaries.

Let's see if my brain is together enough to make a coherent post.

Don't worry, this is not going to be another long winded explication babbling about every song on an album, or anything like that. No, today we have a wee little tale about a p2p adventure, a web search or two, and random associated goodness. Oh yes, there's also a mystery, yet to be solved.

[This is a repost of what I just said on kenkinder.com, with a few minor tweaks and added background info.]

Jitter jitter. You know your body has been thoroughly resensitized to caffeine when, 4 hours after drinking a cup of cappuccino, all the muscles in your body still feel very... jittery. Like Kramer in the latte episode. I think next time I'll go decaf.

As the nation continues its seemingly single-minded focus on one second of revealed skin on television, this seems like an appropriate time to talk about another of Janet Jackson's notable features: The music she has created.

The Linux fanatics are attacking! Wow, I haven't seen FUD this bad in quite a while. First, a choice quote or two:

Last night, scott msgd me, and I spent several hours working on bmas type stuff into the morning daylight hours. That actually felt good, after so much time spent feeling like I was drowning in my own uselessness.

It's a sad day when even Salon concludes that Dean is done as a serious candidate. However, the article asks a worthwhile question: Even though Dean himself says he will support the democratic nominee (provided he doesn't win), will his supporters?

John Kerry is the David Drumlin of American politics. Think about it.

Surprisingly enough, I actually watched most of the first half of the Superbowl yesterday. It was enough to remind me of why I quit watching football years ago. Boooring. Even the commercials, supposedly the "cream of the crop" in advertising, were stupid. Is that the best they can do?