Notes:

I wonder if we will really get a government shut down in the next couple months. It is simply an annoyance to most people. The military, post office and other services will stay open. Parks and a large number of other services will be shut down. It sucks that so many people have to take time off without pay. I would not survive that sort of thing. What if people decide they like the shut down? The last time this happened was 1995. We are looking at a one week extension. This will let the military run for the rest of the year. This extension would let the Congress go on Spring break.

Malls exist because of the automobile. Wal-Mart exists because of the automobile. California is trying to ban cars in down town areas and put in pedestrian malls. This will not work. People will have to drive 50 miles to walk around a damn mall. What is the point?

Some friends of mine went to a place in Galveston for a long weekend. They do it every year or so. There is a bird festival of some kind going on. People show up on some po-dunk island and watch birds. It sounds like a great way to get bit by mosquitoes to me, but they seem to enjoy it.

Dish Network will buy Blockbuster. Interesting. This means Disk will use existing contracts from Blockbuster to stream movies online. I'm all for competition. NetFlicks just paid a fortune for Mad Men. The idea of letting someone stream your show online is getting more expensive. Dish networks has some kind of internet offering with their TV offerings. Will they charge you extra to use NetFlicks on their internet connection?

It's funny listening to podcasts of radio shows. They cut out the music for the podcasts in many cases. This cracks me up. Some of the shows in the U. S. play music, but it is independent band music that I'm used to hearing. Not a single show that I've heard out of Australia plays music. Not a note. I'm not sure, but the laws must be more strict there.