Yee Haw!! My Survivor tickets are in hand

My Survivor tickets arrived this week. The wife and I will be attending the Aug 13 show at the Mable House Barnes Amphitheater in Mableton, GA. Looking forward to it; haven't seen Frankie and the boys since 2002.

Tiger has a serious decision to make...and it won't be easy!

OK, he's taken a few months off from golf to get his personal life straightened out, and while he's far from done on that front, Tiger Woods also has some serious professional decisions to make. Tiger has done some amazing things on the golf course...truly amazing things, but if he is going to pass Jack's record of 18 professional majors and be considered the greatest player of all time (goals he has made no bones about setting), he needs to learn how to drive the ball consistently. He may eventually pass Jack without fixing his tee ball issues, but considering how he can dominate a course from the short grass, he could win 24 or 5 majors if he could just FIND THE DAMN FAIRWAY!!!

He needs to present Hank Haney with an ultimatum : Fix my driver swing or YOU'RE FIRED!!!

It isn't any more complicated than that. Phil has added SIGNIFICANT yardage and accuracy in recent years, and there is really no reason Tiger can't do the same thing, especially given his fitness level and work ethic. If he ever does manage to combine those two consistently, everyone else truly will be playing for 2nd place (and they all know it, believe me!). He placed T4 at The Masters and hit less than 50% of the fairways; had he hit 75%, he would have likely shot nearly 20 under par and blown the field away (Phil would have NEVER shot 67 on Sunday if he had started the day 3 shots behind Tiger).

Tapecity - RIP!

It is with much sadness that live concert recording trading site Tapecity calls it quits as of today, 3/31. No explanation given, just that it's 'Adios'! There are others, thank goodness, and they all go to painstaking efforts to keep the site legal by disallowing any material that can be bought commercially and by allowing any artist or venue to opt out of their material being traded.

Survivor's New Album to be titled "Re-Entry"... what a year it's going to be!

I just read that Frankie Sullivan of Survivor has confirmed via Facebook that the title of their new album is "Re-Entry". This is going to be some kind of year, as several of my favorite bands (including some that have been silent as of recently) will be releasing new music, with Survivor and The Outfield topping the list. I'm also looking forward to new stuff from my new BritPop favorites....Keane, The Feeling, and McFly.

Additionally, Survivor will be playing the Mable House Amphitheatre in Mableton, GA in August, and it's only 20 minutes from my house. I will certainly be picking up tickets for me and the wife just as soon as they are available. There are several acts coming to Atlanta that I would love to see this year (Heart, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Bon Jovi, etc), but I have to be selective, as funds for entertainment are not unlimited.

Always on the lookout for live shows by The Corrs, audio or video

I'm always on the lookout for live recordings (bootlegs) of The Corrs. I have the following audio shows (as you can see, I'm not picky about lossless (flac) vs. lossy (mp3)format, although I do prefer lossless format, as it's easier to find traders). The folder name format is:
(yyyy-mm-dd) [Bootleg Name] Venue, City, STATE/COUNTRY (SOURCE flac/mp3@bitrate)

(1996-05-25) El Gran Musical, Bilbao, SPA (TVrip mp3@192)
(1996-07-11) Club Quattro, Tokyo, JAP (SBD mp3@160)
(1996-07-27) Live (Almenia portion) (Langelands Festival, Odensee, DEN) (AUD mp3@320)
(1996-07-27) Secret Oceans (Langelands Festival, Odensee, DEN) (part) (AUD mp3@160)
(1996-08-04) Millstreet Music Fair, Cork, IRE (VidRip mp3@192)
(1996-12-11) You Will Not Forget (Hamburg Docks, Hamburg, GER) (AUD flac)
(1997-11-18) De Melkweg, Amsterdam, HOL (AUD mp3@128)
(1997-11-18) Love in the Milky Way (De Melkweg, Amsterdam, HOL) (AUD mp3@192)
(1997-11-21) Dreams (Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg, GER) (AUD mp3@128)
(1997-12-06) Whitla Hall, Belfast, NI (AUD mp3@128)
(1997-12-08) Olympia, Dublin IRE (AUD mp3@128)
(1998-03-07) Ohne Filter TV, Baden Baden, GER (DVDrip flac)
(1998-03-22) City Hall, Sheffield, England, UK (AUD flac)
(1998-07-03) Ohne Filter, Baden Baden, GER (TVrip mp3@320)
(1998-07-12) Dr. Music Festival, Escalarre, SPA (VidRip mp3@192)
(1998-07-15) Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, SWIZ (VidRip mp3@192)
(1998-08-21) Sopot Festival, POL (TVrip mp3@192)
(1998-09-21) Stadium Utama Bukit Jahil, Kuala Lumpur, MAL (DVDrip flac)
(1999-01-01) Dreams Of The East (compilation) (TVrip flac)
(1999-02-22) Wembley Arena, London, UK (FM flac)
(1999-05-30) City in the Park, Woolaton Park, Nottingham, UK (SBD flac)
(1999-06-27) Glatonbury Festival, Glastonbury, UK (VidRip mp3@192)
(1999-07-10) Solidays Festival, Longchamp, Paris, FRA (AUD mp3@128)
(1999-08-02) Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Hamburg, GER (AUD flac)
(2000-08-04) Taipei, Taiwan (VidRip mp3@256)
(2000-11-03) It's Like a Dream (The Ahoy, Rotterdam, HOL) (AUD mp3@128)
(2000-11-06) Hallenstadion, Zurich, SWI (AUD flac)
(2000-11-12) Festhalle, Frankfurt, GER (DVDrip flac)
(2000-11-18) Globen Arena, Stockholm, SWE (from silver) (AUD flac)
(2001-01-18) SECC, Glasgow, UK (FM flac)
(2001-04-01) Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, ENG, UK (AUD flac)
(2001-04-03) Heart FM Concert, London, UK (FM mp3@160)
(2001-09-23) Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, JAP (AUD flac)
(2001-10-03) Plenery Hall, Jakarta, IND (VidRip mp3@192)
(2001-10-16) Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, AUST (AUD mp3@320)
(2001-10-17) Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, AUST (AUD mp3@320)
(2001-11-15) VIP Club, Paris, FRA (partial) (AUD mp3@128)
(2001-11-29) BBC Radio2, Riverside Studios, London, UK (FM flac)
(2001-11-29) BBC Radio2, Riverside Studios, London, UK (VidRip mp3@224)
(2001-12-07) Live38, Amsterdam, HOL (DVDRip flac)
(2002-01-06) Musica Si, SPA (VidRip mp3@192)
(2004-05-03) Stage 40, Madrid, SPA (VidRip mp3@192)
(2004-05-27) The Helix, Dulbin, IRE (VidRip mp3@192)
(2004-06-01) Alte Bahndirektion, Cologne, GER (FM mp3@160)
(2004-06-19) Museumsmeile, Bonn, GER (alt source) (AUD mp3@128)
(2004-06-19) Museumsmeile, Bonn, GER (Falo matrix) (AUD flac)
(2004-06-21) Hammersmith Apolo, London, UK (AUD mp3@192)
(2004-07-08) Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, SWI (DVDRip flac)
(2004-07-10) The Zenith, Paris, FRA (AUD mp3@96)
(2004-07-19) Plaza de Toros, Benidorm, SPA (AUD mp3@192)
(2004-08-06) Chateau Ste Michelle, Woodinville, WA (AUD flac)
(2004-08-19) Ravinia Festival Pavilion, Highland Park, IL (AUD mp3@192)
(2004-08-27) Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY (AUD mp3@192)
(2004-10-11) Bercy, Paris, FRA (AUD mp3@320)
(2004-10-12) Hall Tony Garnier, Lyon, FRA (AUD mp3@160)
(2004-10-22) Color Line Arena, Hamburg, GER (AUD mp3@128)
(2004-11-19) Plaza de Toros de Murcia, Murcia, SPA (VidRip mp3@192)
(2004-11-27) Silvretta-S Parkplatz, Ischgl, AUS (AUD flac)
(2005-06-24) Olympia Club, Paris, FRA (FM mp3@192)

If you are interested in a trade (audio or video), just leave a comment or email me, and I will eventually get back to you and see if we can work something out. I need to get in the habit of checking my gmail a bit more often anyway. I'm open to trading by any method, including CD/HDD/USB-flash via snail-mail, uploading via Rapidshare and Megaupload, or direct torrent transfer via DHT. I'm adding new shows as often as I find them, so even if you don't see anything new, check with me, as I may have added some.

Is it really surprising that there's water ice on the moon?

I personally don't find it surprising at all that there is water ice on the moon. Having recently seen a National Geographic or Discovery Channel program on the origins of water on Earth and the creation of our own moon, it seems rather obvious that there would be water ice on the moon. After all, if the moon was created when a smaller object collided with Earth during their formative years, it only stands to reason that the material ejected from Earth during that massive collision would contain some water (considering how much water is left on Earth), and that the cohension of all that debris that formed what we now see as the moon, would yield water (ice in fact, because it's so damned cold). Finding and retrieving the water would always be a challenge, of course.

The U-verse is falling...still...oh my achin'head...holy crap!

It seems like ever since we enabled HD on our AT&T U-verse account, the picture has been stuttering, stammering, hanging, etc. I called tier 2 support (yes, I have their direct number because the front line flowchart morons are worthless!), and they checked it out, and there was definitely a problem. The technician came out and replaced the outside splitter as well as a couple other connectors. The picture was no different.

As an experiment, I ran a 100-ft length CAT5 cable from the RG to the DVR and removed the coax connection. Instantly the picture was better...and perfect! Obviously there is a problem with the coax connection. It just so happens that the coax to the DVR is a RG6 shielded line, dedicated to the DVR, and only splits at the outset, for household distribution:

RG -> AT&T splitter -> 3 way house splitter -> 1) DVR 2) living room 3) floor 2

My suspicion was the home 3-way splitter, since the tech had replaced the AT&T splitter. I called to get another tech to come out. When he arrived, I gave him the rundown of what was going on and what had been done, so he set out to replace the home splitter, and he discovered a lot of interference on the line coming from the floor 2 line. I showed him the attic access to that line and splitter, where he replaced a couple of the end connectors. In all, he replaced the 3-way splitter and also some end connectors, as well as the end connectors at the splitter in the attic on floor 2. After all that, he could detect no interference on the line, and the picture has been perfect ever since.