Today on PMN - March 8th 2010

Today's my birthday. I'm 259 years old. I still have all my teeth.

Today on The Prog Rock Blog:
Peter Frampton and Yes are going to be touring this summer together. Do you feel like all good people?

Also, apparently Canada denied two former members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Inventions into the country. Nobody knows why. On behalf of all Canadians, we're sorry.

Today also marked yet another entry in the ongoing series on Frank Zappa. Today's post focused on the 1969 classic Uncle Meat.

I also tried to explain why I think Mike Oldfield's Amarok is one of the best instrumental albums of all time

Today on Parliament Shmarliament:
A short but slightly critical post on the government's plan to cut almost 300 public sector jobs

Today on Tech's Dumb:
I saw the PBS documentary on the Digital Nation. I didn't agree with it though. Find out why by reading my lengthy diatribe.

Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday. Hope you all had a decent but insightful Monday.

Blogging for a Reason: A Personal Manifesto for Purposeful Writing

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before on one of my half attempts to start conversation on this blog. I hate blogs. Hate them. The notion of the online personal journal, the online regurgitation of what already exists and the self congratulatory egotistical ramblings that make up most blog posts are all ruining the internet. Have you ever done a Google search to discover that the majority of the results are simply blog posts consisting of a two line summary and a link to a Wikipedia article or a Youtube clip? What's the point?

Now before you accuse me of gross hypocritical behavior hear me out. I am aware that I have, in the past, practiced the very behavior that I am currently condoning. Trust me, I do cringe whenever I look back at those earlier posts. I acknowledge my errors and ask for forgiveness. Let's move on. A(nother) fresh start.

The most important factor, I believe, in causing me to create my two blogs is my urge to place my inner monologue in a venue where it can serve a purpose.

Allow me to (try to) explain.

I, like you, spend the vast bulk of my day thinking. I think and I think and I...ponder. These thoughts swim around in my head, bouncing off the walls of my skull, echoing around my cranial chamber to the point of driving me to the point of insanity. Well, maybe not insanity. I'm still fairly sane by anyone's standards. It's just that if I don't put these thoughts to use they either cancel each other out or swim around to the point of exhaustion. Most human beings deal with this by exercising certain social behavior. Basically they talk to their friends and get whatever they have on their minds out. I, for whatever reason, tend to not voice my opinion publicly. By and large I tend to keep my mouth shut.

This is why I blog. My Progressive Rock blog (the one in collaboration with Mr. C0ops) serves as an outlet to share my enthusiasm for the genre. With Prog Rock being as unpopular as it is, the internet is often the only way to connect with like-minded people.

Then why this blog? This blog, and I'm almost ashamed to admit this, lacks direction. It lacks focus. It lacks a reason for being. This bugs the heck out of me. I never wanted this thing to be a journal about what I ate for dinner. I never wanted this to become a vacuum of crappy Youtube embedded videos.

I want to make my mark. I want to add an authentic voice to the general white noise of the interwebs. I want to take those swimming thoughts, work them into cohesive and organized paragraphs and share them with the world. I want to contribute in a worthwhile way.

This here then is my promise to you. I will not click on the 'New Post' button unless I have a reason to do so. At the same time I will not hold back an important thought, opinion or idea that happens to find its why into the stream that is my inner monologue. I will post more often, but I will not post for the sake of pinging your RSS reader. I will not point you to a link without taking the time to spell out why I think it is important. I will not embed a video without adding my personal observations and opinions.

I do plan to place advertising here. This isn't simply for the sake of making easy money. I could easily do this by spamming the internet with self-linking lies and propogate this blog post with the same crud I complained about earlier. That would make me the easy money but earn me zero respect points and ultimately lead to more self-loathing. I am simply using the ads as a means to help pay for the proper hosting I intend to use. If I do end up making a profit, and I don't count on it, I will hope you think I earned it. I will try to earn your respect and loyal readership by working hard and trying to make you think. There are plenty of people who are earning a decent wage simply cluttering the web with mind numbing crap. I hope you end up considering my blog to be a worthwhile use of your time.

Well, here goes nothing. Here starts the beggining of what I hope is a longstanding relationship between my brain and yours. I hope we can use this blog and its comment section as a place to exchange inteligent thought. I hope you'll subscribe to my RSS feed and bookmark the site. I hope that I'm not just wasting everyones time. I'm going to do my best to not waste a second.

A Quest for Fufillment Better Left Unwritten or: How to stop procrastinating and love the blog

I've had this blog for a while. It's a blog that has gone through many different incarnations.

It started out as a sort of diary. The idea that my inner most thoughts should be placed on such a visible and easily accessible platform as the internet eventually struck me as a foolish notion, and in retrospect I might even regret ever writing those early posts. I moved on...

I then used it as a medium for sharing the various silly and random things found in my daily shuffle across cyberspace. This proved of little value since I never really added anything to what I was finding. It became a wasteland of links and embedded Youtube videos. This trash did eventually cease. Thankfully.

I once decided to start posting actual essays and long-form thoughts on things that could be of actual worth. This was rather successful until one day I decided to write about my difficulties switching from Windows to OS X. For the first time I had actual traffic! Unfortunately this traffic consisted mainly of Mac bigots trying to tell me off as being a Windows bigot. I never put down Macs or question the operating system's value in any way. (I actually use my Macbook as my primary computer to this day) That, however, did not stop a barrage of harshly worded comments and emails. This unfortunate situation frightened me to stop posting all together.

So what? Why all the nostalgia of blogposts past?

I have so much to say. So many thoughts, so many opinions. I leave this here blog alone, rotting away as I ignore it. It may be criminal to hold my ideas hostage any longer. I should start blogging again!

Well, this is easier said then done.

If you were to look back over the archives, an activity I don't necessarily recommend, you will find that most of the long-form posts are similar to this one. They explain what I plan to do with the site. I tend to be very good at this. I lay out my plan to post twice a week about various issues relating to music, technology, politics... you name it. I never fail to...well... fail. I fail to bring myself around to actually following through with my plans. I stop posting for months at a time, only to post yet another post about how I plan to start posting again.

It's a vicious cycle, no end in sight.

Enough is enough I say. I'm going to lay out the steps needed to turn me from a never-blogger to a blogsalot.

1. Stop Using Blogger! While the free hosting of Google's blogging platform has served me well over the past few years, enough is enough! If I'm going to start taking this thing seriously I have to put some money into it. I have to pay for real hosting and start a new wordpress blog.

2. Don't Fear Critics! If I'm really going to start writing meaningful essays I have to inject some editorial opinion. What value is a blog that simply recycles material available elsewhere? The world wide web is already littered with these kind of faux-blogs and I should not add to the clutter. I need to be aware that if I do state my opinions there will be plenty who disagree. Some will use hurtful language to express this disagreement. That's fine. Bring it on. I can take it. I hope.

3. Start Using Ads! If I'm going to be taking time from my already busy schedule to put effort into writing, I might as well attempt to earn some cash from it. Inittially enough to pay for the monthly hosting fees, and then, maybe a little profit. I don't really expect to earn money for this, but trying is the first step towards failure. God knows I love failing.

There you have it. My fool proof plan to turn myself into a part time unpaid writter. I don't quite know my motivations for doing this other than I have so much in my head that it's starting to get crowded in there. I enjoy writting. Seriously I do! I loath writting lengthy papers at school on subjects I care little about, but I love to compose prose when the subject tickles my facination.

I should partly thank productivity guru Merlin Mann for this post. It inspired me enough to write the post you are currently reading. If it inspires me enough in the long term to the point where I am actually making money doing this, then I owe him a beer.

How to make your voice heard and fight the new copyright bill

Michael Geist has posted an excellent list of things you can do to make a difference and have your voice heard. His blog is an excellent source of information concerning this bill and how ordinary Candians like you and me can make an impact. Here is the list:

1. Write to your MP, the Industry Minister, the Canadian Heritage Minister, and the Prime Minister. If you send an email, be sure to print it out and drop a copy in the mail (no stamp is needed - c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A0A6). If you are looking for a sample letter, visit Copyright for Canadians.
2. Take 30 minutes from your summer, to meet directly with your MP. From late June through much of the summer, your MP will be back in your local community attending local events and making themselves available to meet with constituents. Give them a call and ask for a meeting. Every MP in the country should return to Ottawa in the fall having heard from their constituents on this issue.
3. If you are not a member of the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group, join. If you are, consider joining or starting a local chapter and be sure to educate your friends and colleagues about the issue and starting working through the list of 30 things you can do.

New Copyright Bill Tabled: You will be fined!

Today is a sad day for Canada. The Conservative government has tabled a bill that will make Canada far worse than the USA when it comes to your digital rights. What this could mean is that you will no longer be able to take a DVD you purchased and copy the movie to your iPod without being fined. You will no longer be able to take a CD you purchased and copy that music to iTunes for your own personal use. Canada will become a land of lawsuits and a place where ordinary consumers will be faced with criminal prosecution for simply doing what they would normally do with with their digital content.

The minister who has tabled this bill, Jim Prentice (Minsiter of Industry), has been very cagey about the whole deal. This bill was meant to be introduced last December before the holiday break. It was held back due to public outcry. Mr. Prentice was taken by surprise by how many people actually cared about this. He naturally assumed that you and I, the lowly proletariat, were too uneducated to bother with something as complicated as copyright law. How wrong he was.

Michael Geist has lead the campaign in this country to fight Mr. Prentice and his efforts to turn Canada into America's little clone. I urge each and every one of you to visit his blog to find out the details.

I received an email today form the Industry Minister trying to persuade me to believe that this bill is somehow different than what has been put into law down south. This pandering message was sent out to everyone who has voiced there complaint to Prentice in the past. I was not terribly amused by this attempt to avert my attention from the real facts of the bill. After you read Mr. Geist's blog please do what I have done and email Mr. Prentice and express your displeasure. Also I suggest that you contact your local MP to urge them to vote against this bill.

I will attach my email to the bottom of this post. The time is now Canada. Take a stand and make a difference. I really don't usually like to blog about something so political but I really feel that enough is enough. Here are the email addresses you will require:

Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca

prentice.j@parl.gc.ca

The one thing that frightens me the most about the bill you introduced is that it is not a mirror of the American version, but in many ways worse. Not only will I never vote for a Conservative party member ever again, I will make sure that I will discourage my friends and relatives to do the same. While you lie to us in this email, I will spread the truth by forwarding Michael Geist's analysis of the bill to every single member of my contact list.



Shame on you Mr. Prentice. Shame on you for lying to the Canadian people. Shame on you for turning Canada into a far worse place than it was before. You defaced this great nation with your US pandering and we will all suffer because of it. Electing a Conservative government, even in its minority form, was the biggest mistake this country has made. You and your leader Mr. Harper clearly have your priorities set and will do anything, including misleading, obscuring and plain out lying to cover it up. If you think passing this bill will help you achieve a majority in the next election think again. You have failed this country and your name shall go down in history as destroying the freedom that Canadians so deeply cherish. And no, editing your wikipedia entry will do nothing to fix your tarnished reputation.



I can not even begin to express how disappointed I am right now. Not only am I disappointed in you and the rest of your ministry, but I am disappointed with the state of democracy in this country. You clearly took the concerns of myself and many other Canadians and simply brushed them off with lies. The branding "made in Canada" does not change the fact that you largely went ahead and passed the bill as it was going to be from day one. Do you really believe that Canadians are so idiotic? Do you really believe that you can walk all over us? You are treating us like we are brainless sheep ready to eat any garbage you throw at us.



Mark my words Jim Prentice. You will not get away with this. Canadians from across this country will stand up and fight your attempts to walk all over us and make us look like fools. You will not get away with this.



Thank you for your time, but no thanks for tabling this bill.



Sincerely,

Paul Di Meglio

New URL: weblog.pauldimeglio.com

Just to inform you that I have changed the url of my blog. I was able to recently get the domain pauldimeglio.com. My hope for the future is to have an online resume at www.pauldimeglio.com and my blog at weblog.pauldimeglio.com. I'm going to spend the rest of this week working on that and trying to get back into blogging. By past experience I'm much better at blogging about what I plan to do with my blog rather than actually blog. Blog blog blog. I'm still not a fan of the word, but it has become the standard so there is nothing I can do about it.

Either way, this is hopefully the first post in my grand return to the interwebs. While you wait for my first post, please enjoy the wild world of wonder that is Robert Fripp of King Crimson and his magical giant tea cup. That's right! GIANT TEA CUP! YAY!

Canoe Trip Teaser Trailer 2007