Dis an dat...

What kind of crap is this? I don't have to work and it's cloudy? Yesterday was golden, today is dross. I hope, at least, tomorrow is nice.

Okay, I feel better.

Just a few thoughts...

My job is pretty boring. There's not a lot to it, that's for sure. Okay, that's not entirely true. There is a lot to it, but the basic day-to-day is pretty easy. So, I have long chunks of time that I now fill with Boris (my little black iPod).

Boris and I have a bit of an arrangement. He plays me what I want to hear and I do my best not to scratch his face. It's not as easy as it sounds, by the way.

I'm not sure how Boris feels about my listening habits, but I usually listen to whole albums instead of shuffling tunes. It's just easier to put something on and not worry about fiddling with buttons. Since, I have too weird a collection of music - everything from ABBA to George Strait, Gang of Four to The Clash, Black Flag to Mahler - I wouldn't even want to deal with the mix that would hit my ears. I know, I could make some playlists, but I'm too lazy for that.

Anyway, big chunks of music it is. Last night, it was Nouvelle Vague and Mark Knopfler...I was in a mellow mood.

The best part isn't the music, even though that's pretty awesome. The best part is that Boris can be a bit of a professor. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I have to say that I love this technology. It can be an incredible learning tool and it can be entertaining. I've been through lectures on most of the early Byzantine emperors, for example. I also listen to a weekly surfing podcast, chock full of stoke, dudes, and Bettys.

A couple of nights ago, I listened to a discourse on the Diamond Cutter Sutra by a well-know Buddhist monk, Lama Zopa. Before that, the Dalai Lama tried to teach me to deal with feelings of anger...it's taking some time to sink in.

Today I found some more that I liked. Useful Sounds is a podcast done by a German girl, Nicole Simon. Useful Sounds is in English. It's fun to hear a European take on things and her accent is great. She's got another one that she does in German, gnak.de.

In the cast I just heard she talks about how un-Continental the American continental breakfast is and laughs at herself for mispronouncing soccer as sucker.

Another German one is Sushiradio.de. I just found a crazy good accapela group through this podcast, U-Bahn Kontrollore, and that made me happy.

Of course, I'm still a fan of Annik Rubens and her Schlaflos in Munchen podcast, but hers are all pretty short ones - usually about three minutes. Sometimes short is nice, but other times only a big, long one will do. What? No need to perv out now...

Seeing this on the screen, I'm confronted with my utter love of commas. I can't, it seems, get enough of them. It's possible I've even used some of them properly. Only a copy editor can tell for sure.