I really want this awesome shower curtain.

There has been some concern that large ISPs could throttle (slow down) traffic to/from certain sites. For example say you buy internet access from a cable company like Time-Warner or Comcast, the thought is that they might see Netflix streaming as a competitor to their Cable TV service and they could therefore throttle netflix traffic to make the user experience less than stellar. Internet service from AT&T might throttle VOIP (internet phone) traffic since it's competes with their phone service.

I'm not sure there's any evidence of this actually ever happening but that is the fear. And of course this fear is driving people to demand that the government fix the problem that doesn't even exist yet by using their benevolent might to regulate the internet. Let's say, by some miracle, the government decides not to grab more power and the ISP's actually do throttle traffic, what could be done?

Well obviously if one ISP starts throttling traffic from some source there will likely be a competing ISP that doesn't throttle traffic from that source, that just seems logical, (even more logical would be an ISP that doesn't throttle any traffic out-competing the throttlers) anyway, if a person was determined they could buy multiple connections and between them all would have one completely unthrottled connection. Using a router they could then send traffic for certain services down a line that doesn't throttle that traffic.

Okay so that's what one fairly smart person could do on their own at a pretty high expense (paying for multiple lines), that doesn't help poverty stricken non-nerds. Well, what if the nerd in the above example were to purchase the highest speed versions of the ISP lines and then using WI-MAX (high speed wi-fi) or something he could easily sell unthrottled internet to his neighbors, possibly (depending on how many of his neighbors sign up) for a price lower than what a given ISP would charge for a throttled line. The nerd covers the cost of his multiple lines and maybe even makes a bit of profit, and the throttling ISPs lose a bunch of business...

I discovered this band called Bond through my Takenobu station on Pandora. Bond is a band of four hot chicks that play stringed instruments over programmed beats. Some of their songs are really good and some of them are way too saccharine techno pop for my taste. Also the fact that they push the hot chick angle makes me want to not like them even more; though that really has no bearing on the quality of their music. So I'm kinda torn in my opinion of this group.

Anyway, have a listen below and let me know what you think of them.

I want one.

As you probably know, Anne and I went to Japan for a week in September. I've been a miserable slacker in getting all the photos off the camera and up online; though I do have some.

The trip was awesome. We are definitely going to be going back. We've already been thinking about that. Anyway, I wanted to get down some random thoughts about our previous trip:

• Everything was really clean. I don't know if there are huge fines for littering or if there are ninja clean up crews that take care of everything but it was a very clean country in general.
• People were very polite and friendly. On more than one occasion while consulting a map random Japanese people stopped and asked us if we needed help or directions. One lady came out of a department store where she worked, across the street to us and helped us, she even gave us a better map!
• The countryside of Japan is beautiful. The islands are on the edge of the ring of fire and thus have lots of steep mountains and hills thrust up from plains. Everything was very green.
• Japanese culture is obsessed with cute (kawaii!). Every TV station/news show seemed to have their own cute fuzzy mascot. Hello Kitty was, obviously, everywhere.
• The news shows also had a daily horoscope segment, that was kinda weird.
• The guy sitting next to us on the train back from Kyoto was reading porn. He later showed us pictures of his kitten on his cellphone.
• You should exchange some of your cash at the airport, even though it is a rip off. Not having money sucks.
• You can buy Sake in a juice box. That's pretty hilarious/awesome.
• Department stores sell awesome food.
• Crepe stands are awesome, I don't get why these aren't huge in the US.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'll have more later and I'll also post an update when I finally get around to load up the rest of the photos.

From the Tenth Amendment Center:

Will Florida Ban National Health Care?

In response to what some opponents see as a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests, State Legislators are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington.

...

HJR37 would deny the ability of any new law to impose demands, restrictions or penalties on health care choices on Floridians. Versions of proposed federal health care reform legislation have included insurance coverage mandates, and certain penalties on employers who fail to provide employee health insurance.

...

A similar measure, called the Health Care Freedom Act, has already passed in Arizona, and residents of that state will have the opportunity to vote on it in 2010. Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say that more than ten other states may see such proposals introduced in the coming session.

This is pretty interesting to me. I wonder if the states will be successful in nullifying national health care or the public option or whatever newspeak name it has. If the states can break away from the federal government in this way, in what other ways might they exercise their sovereignty?

How about a state passing a law that says no resident of that state has to pay federal income taxes, social security, or medicare taxes? That would be a very interesting development.

The only constant is change? This too shall pass.

It's been far far too long since I've posted anything here. This site was created to fulfill my need to communicate things about my life and my thoughts to my friends; sites like facebook have slowly taken over that role. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I don't want to let this place die. I built this with my own two hands (ten fingers really) and I don't want to let it fade away so easily.

Anyway, I think this site will be changing or perhaps just becoming less tended as other things in my life change, priorities change, etc.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think I just realized that just about everything I love to do is essentially the same; it's all creating or learning, and learning is basically creating knowledge.

• Making beer and wine: creating, learning
• Making cheese: creating, learning
• Cooking and etc: creating, learning
• Home improvement projects: creating, learning
• Gardening/growing food: creating, learning
• Web design: creating, learning

My life sort of seemed like it was all over the place but really it's always been one thing encompassed by many many sub-things. A missing the forest for the trees sort of situation perhaps?

Anne and I have been busy with the yard lately. We've been moving some plants and adding a few here and there and also trying to grow some food plants. We moved a lot of the peonies and tulips last fall and they seem to be doing well in their new location. A few tulips we missed and moved early this spring, they didn't like that so much, we'll see if they come back next year I guess.

We got a ton of hostas from a lady selling them on craigslist and planted those along the fence in between a lot of the tulips that we moved last fall, then we put down mulch around them, it looks pretty nice!

We also went to home depot and got some yews to plant in the front of the house. That area was looking pretty bad, part of it was sort of being overrun by irises, but none of them were flowering, probably because they're almost always in shade. We dug up and moved some of the larger irises and just kind of turned the rest into the soil and planted our yews and then mulched the area. It looks a million times better.

Next to the rain barrel you can see one of my vines. Speaking of, my vines are doing really well, lots of new shoots and leaves. They also all have produced a number of clusters. However, since they are young and in their new home this year, I want them to concentrate on growing strong roots and good cordons, so I removed the clusters from all of my vines. I did leave one, I just couldn't bring myself to remove them all, I want to taste my grapes!

Four years ago today Anne and I got married. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it also seems like it's been longer? Does that make any sense? It sort of feels like we've always been together, possibly because we will always be together. Either way today is the 4th anniversary of the day of our marriage if you're living in the dimension of time.

I love you Anne!

Earlier this week my Marquette grape vines arrived on our doorstep. I'm currently soaking their roots and will be planting them tonight. That's exciting! What's not exciting is that I won't really have a decent crop of grapes for another few years.

Wine making is a great way to teach patience.