Early birthday present 

My kids got me new computer speakers. Philips with a subwoofer. Nice! So much better for music. I'm listening to the Talking Heads right now, and I can hear the bass! "Don't you want to make him stay up late?" No, but it makes me want to dance.

My birthday isn't until Monday, but the guys bought the present and couldn't wait to give it to me. Don't you do the same thing when you think you have the gift/recipient fit just right, and you didn't even need any hints? You want to get that appreciation juice right now.

Dave is in the company of crazy yoops 

Dave says he's driving across the U.P. today. I'm a native of Michigan. We call people who live in the upper penninsula "yoops." I guess some people call them "yoopers," and refer to the U.P. as "da yoop." But when I was in college, where I first made their acquaintance, we called the people yoops. In fact, two words very often spoken in the same breath were "crazy yoops." Think: wilderness. Think: people who shoot bears at the dump for entertainment. Watch yourself, Dave.

At school, they (the guys anyway) had a reputation for being wild, drinking, getting into fights. Some of the girls were pretty wild, too, but I never saw one get in a fight. Every yoop I ever met was all about having fun. And talking loud.

My sister-in-law just got her PhD from Michigan Tech in Houghton. Stayed up there maybe 3 or 4 years. Lived in a cabin. Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it?

I thought Dave ought to have checked out Mackinac Island as long as he was in the neighborhood. It shouldn't be missed. Ever see "Somewhere in Time?" It was filmed there, at the Grand Hotel.

In the movie, you see Christopher Reeve driving up to the hotel in a little sports car. That couldn't happen on the real island, because no cars are allowed there. You walk, or you can hire a bike or horse.

But, when you're driving -- even if you're doing it at a leisurely pace -- you do have to make choices. I always try to tell myself that I'll be back someday, anywhere I am, even if I think it might not be true. That way, a decision not to stop doesn't have to include any regret.

Nice way to sum up the bloggers versus pro journalists face-off 

Wikipedia's founder said to his audience, "Everybody tells jokes but we still have professional comedians."

It applies to podcasting, too. There's room for both amateurs and pros, isn't there? Doesn't have to be one or tother, as my grandma used to say. See Business Week's version of the now standard MSM-is-crowding-out-indies-podcasts story.

Wasting my life 

Don't you hate it when you fritter away an hour of your life doing something completely useless, like nudging the cable modem a tad, or trying it upside down, or tapping or slamming it, or changing the electrical outlet, or redoing the connection, or trying to send brainwaves to repair it?

I keep thinking of changing back to DSL, but I don't have a land line anymore, so it's a much bigger hassle.

Did you know the word "hassle" was added to at least one of the American dictionaries, about 10 years ago? I remember reading that the editors thought it was needed in the language, that it has a precise meaning not covered by older words.