First, the offer I made on the house was accepted. Now I just have to get twenty million loose ends tied up. Hopefully most of them this week. Because...
...next week I'm going to be in Longview. Or on the way there, or back. And stuff. Anyway, the plan is to arrive at LU sometime on the 5th of April. Spend a few days goofing off, taking in Hootenanny and the Longview Symphony, head to Tyler to see family on the 9th, and then head home.
Lotsa driving, but that's ok. I like to drive.
And that's the plan. Thus, I shall be going crazy this week, getting everything ready.
Hah. Today I took another step towards having More Debt Than Ever. I made an offer on a house.
I should know if they've accepted on Monday, and then as long as the home inspection doesn't reveal anything extremely horrible, I can go ahead and get everything else taken care of to take possession on the 19th of May.
Jolly good, I say.
Here in Cedar Rapids, "first full day of spring" means "wake up to an inch of snow." Good thing I haven't taken my winter snow tires off yet. There's still snow on my balcony, although it's mostly melted everywhere else.
In much better news, I got home from work and saw this:
Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Twenty-four pages on why the DMCA is evil, courtesy of the Cato Institute. They managed to make almost all the right arguments, and reminded me again why I hate the DMCA.
See, under the DMCA, I cannot, legally:
1) Play any DVDs on any of my computers, since I finally got rid of Windows, and I don't own any Macs. This includes, say, taking a DVD and my laptop on the plane to kill some flight time.
2) Buy any music or video from the iTunes store, for the same reasons.
3) Use Linux as the operating system for a home theater PC which plays DVDs or DRM'ed music CDs.
Any one of those is a federal crime.
And, as the paper points out so well, had the DMCA been around earlier, it would have effectively killed the PC industry in its infancy. We would all be running IBM machines. Likely, they would be 10x as expensive as they are now. And I highly doubt this whole mysterious 'Internet' thing would exist as it does today.
Yay for stupid laws, stupid Congressmen who write them, and stupid Presidents who sign them. Just let me play the movies that I spend my hard-earned money on in peace, without having to follow some ludicrously expensive industry standard first.
Went and saw some houses today; saw a couple that I liked. More houses and more looking to come on Saturday. So much fun! I'm now full of grand visions of the future.
Oh, and:
To: The Administration
Invading Iran would be a bad idea. Please don't do this. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Ardith Hoyt
Ardith, in a fit of creative inspiration, begins notes on the Academy Awards.
Opera, in a fit of petulance, dies unexpectedly.
Ardith, gaining some small amount of intelligence, opens up a text editor.
Charlize Theron wins award for Giant Floppy Bow On Shoulder.
President of the Academy: "Actors don't make movies for DVDs, they make them for movie theaters. So go spend that $8 on the next movie that comes out. It's better that way, we promise. Honest. Really. Besides, if you don't, we all go broke."
Ahh, the almost visible emanations of desperation. So much fun...
King Kong wins best Sound Mixing. Ardith learns there is an award for best Sound Mixing.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin win award for Stupidest Introduction Ever. Until the next one.
Nice commercial with M. Night Shamalyan.
Hustle And Flow wins award for Song Writers On Stage With Most Bling.
Awesome skit on Lobbying in Sound Editing Nominations.
George Clooney wins award for Being George Clooney.
Dense Fog advisory is announced, which seems to center around Cedar Rapids. Jolly good thing I'm not planning on going anywhere tonight.
Winner of Best Foreign Language Film: "We may not make films in English, but we're just as good as you. Nyahhh."
John Travolta wins award for Bravely Wearing A Double-Breasted Jacket.
As a side note, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon both rock for, you know, actually being able to sing and act at the same time.
Local Weatherman: "After the Academy Awards, the world will resume having weather. Thank you for your patience."
The Dense Fog Advisory Beep wins the award for Keeping Ardith From Having To Hear All Of Larry McMurtry's Speech.
Jack Nicholson wins award for Showing Up In Sunglasses.
Brokeback Mountain wins award for Not Winning Best Picture.
And, once again, the Academy Awards wins award for Taking Themselves Waaaay Too Seriously.