Thoughts, Raves & Outright Beatings

Here’s my favorite new song of the moment.  This was actually France’s entry into the Eurovision song contest, this year:

I’ve been a Sébastien Tellier fan since I first heard La Ritournelle several years ago.  His new CD was produced by one of the Daft Punk guys, which makes it kinda sound like Burt Bacharach meets Boards of Canada.  No?

Lots of folks are crying foul because this song won the contest:

It was apparently produced by Timbaland.  Dude needs to take himself out for a while after that.  I don’t normally dump on folks from my ancestral homeland, but BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Lordi, please come back! All is forgiven!

One of my best on / offline buddies (I’m not going to mention her name, so as not to get her any more goon traffic) recently lost a couple of fans (or, uh, “friends”) from her Myspace music page.  Why?  Because she had the gall, the audacity, the insult of indignation, to publicly post in support of the recent 9th Circuit Federal Court decision to allow gay marriage in the state of California.

She posted her frustrations regarding these two dumbasses in her private blog, but, after having viewed it myself, it brought out this question from me on this Memorial Day weekend:

How can some people cry so hard about the current so-called persecution of their own religious and social endeavors, yet are so quick to deny the existence of others that conflict with their own?

Remember folks, when these soldiers go overseas to fight for “freedom and democracy” (BAHAHAHAHAHA!!), per our constitution, it’s not just YOUR rights they’re dying for.

That is all…

I got a comment from one of my older posts about Twitter usage, which led to a question on how I was doing with it. Well…

I’ve actually been using it a lot more than I expected to. In fact ever since this Darren Barefoot blog entry introduced me to it back in January of this year, usage of the application has absolutely exploded on the ‘nets. Even some of my closest non-geek friends are getting in on the action, either starting or updating Twitter accounts and, among other things, “follow” me as I tweeted of our experiences in Ireland, recently.

I’ll admit that it is rather addicting, even if, in the grander scheme of things, it’s nothing more than IM for (mostly) public eyes. And thanks to Twitter’s RSS features, that public isn’t limited to those who find me on Twitter, but even those who hang with me on Myspace, Facebook, THIS blog (via the RSS widget setup), et. al.

Then there’s the following function. Somehow, I’m not a fan of the word “Following”. It gives me the creeps, quite frankly. However, I’ve been using it to track things such as breaking news, Radio PopBitch airplays, the occasional tussles between SG gurus, and other stuff. I suppose I’m supposed to get pissy if I don’t get followed back by some of these yahoos that I track. Meh. Sometimes it’s best to just sit back and enjoy the show. Something tells me that it would probably be best if these peeps didn’t know that I exist.

However, in the past few days, a big question has come up regarding Twitter - is it simply a web application? Or is it a social networking community?

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CD Baby put my CD on their site:

And it is now on Itunes, as well, thanks to them:

And if you hate Itunes, you can also purchase a download from my Soundclick page.

And, OMG! I’M ON AMAZON.COM!!!!!

My little press release that I put out last month is apparently still making the rounds among various press entities, so the free download will still be available on my site until June 1, which is when, hopefully, that runthrough would have run it’s course. After that, I’ll provide a freebie downloadable single here and there, whereas the full on advertising blitz for the CD will be in swing. Google Ads, banner ads, music blog pestering, badgering for reviews (even bad ones), the works. After all, some recouping of expenses would be nice. Hopefully with the benefit of users actually ENJOYING the sounds they are listening to.

In that respect, given that it’s the three day weekend, I’ll also be revamping the revamp of my home site that I started on months ago. The portal is frankly in dire need of a cleanup.

And in case anyone is wondering, I got one donation, and no CD sales. I attribute this to lack of recent trying, on my part. Don’t worry, it will get better. That’s at least what I’m telling my husband, anyway…

I really hated to say this, but Ms. Clinton just swiped defeat from the jaws of victory.

Granted, I’m not ready to pop a vessel about it as Keith Olbermann apparently is:

But her comparison, no matter how innocuous she thought it was at the time, was uncalled for. 

If it wasn’t apparent that Obama’s nomination has been sewn up before, by golly it sure has, now…

We’ve been back for a week.  I’ve got a lot to say, but I don’t want to bore you with too many details, so here’s a list:

1. Ireland was, as the locals say there, grand.
2. Schoolkids in uniforms are the most polite I have ever encountered.
3. Don’t…eat…the…pub food (why in a bit)
4. Saw a bunch of seaside towns, the book of Kells, and Temple Bar.  After that…
5. My husband came down with food poisoning, as a result of either a sandwich or some chicken strips he had at a Galway pub on 5/11.  It didn’t hit for two days, so we initially thought he caught the flu. MISTAKE!!!!
6. As a result, our trip pretty much ended before we left.   On checkout day, we left the hotel staff a massive tip  in our room, because we were such (literal) pains in the asses.  They were so kind!
7. At least the view from our hotel room was nice.
8. There are not a lot of transport options in Ireland, which shocked me.  On the other hand, this country had other priorities until recently.   There IS an awful lot of building going on.
9. As friendly as Dubliners are purported to be, folks are a LOT friendlier outside of the city.  We had fun there, anyway.
10. Despite the hubster’s sickness (he even threw up waiting to get on the plane), we got home without a hitch, BARTed to his mom’s place, drove home the next day, and took him to ER.  By that time, he was so dehydrated, that his kidneys were starting to fail, so he was put in hospital for two days.  Nice.  And even the staff there initially thought he had a bug.
11. Two days after he got out, the hubster got a call from the Washoe Health Department, hellbent on shutting down some local eatery.  He had to convince him that it didn’t happen here.
12. I’m glad to be back, but I’ll be happy to go again.
13. Oh, and while I was out, I got tagged for a meme.  I’ll be posting my response later this weekend.

Sorry for the lack of updates.  The hubster and I have been back in the States since Friday. Those of you following our tweets know that this trip has been a mixed bag, to say the least.

I have lots more to say…I’m just too tired, right now…