Happy Saturday morning:

” The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past” ~ Sir Tim Berners-Lee (aka TimBL) father of the World Wide Web

Happy 25th birthday to the web. Are you like me that it seems like the web has been around forever?

Maybe now is a good time to pay heed to TimBL’s recent urging that the public re-engage with its original design rather than allow ourselves to be placed on a path where politicians, bureaucrats, and multi-national corporations dictate its direction.

The WWWs birthday also hones in on the fact that these past handful of decades have seen more massive changes than seemed possible in an equal number of decades prior. Having said that I don’t believe that people have improved much if any during this time, in fact I am of the firm belief that critical thinking has actually declined. No proof mind you, just a gut feeling.

Bombshell – Yesterday I turned my taxes in! A full day shy of being exactly one month early. None of this driving to the all-night mail box at 11:30 pm the evening of April the 15th for me – at least not this year.

Marcia still whines about her dining room table having been taken over with stacks of paper, legal pads, and calculator along with regular office supplies such as a red ‘edit’ pen, etc. That will all be cleaned up today.

Marcia also whines about how I ‘discuss’ my feelings regarding the convolutions and personal information encroachment of our tax code and thus by the IRS and the government to the forms in front of me. Apparently I carry on with my ‘discussions’ at full volume. Personally I am barely aware that this is happening. What I am aware of is that every year there is an ongoing information creep as more and more personal details are demanded. It’s now at a point where I am seriously questioning the veracity of the lyrics in songs such as, “America” especially lines such as. “Sweet Land of Liberty…….Let Freedom ring.”

A Marvellous Party – It’s the Noël Coward poem/song; “I’ve Been to a Marvellous Party” as performed by The Divine Comedy which comes to mind. The party was a celebration of Dinah’s birthday and aside from tripping over many little bodies (and Bloo the dog) the best time was had by all. As in the song, it was a costume affair. As in the song, the young ladies were breathless with all the excitement – and Vili was too.

Here are a few photos of how it all looked. Click each picture for a full-sized version:

Animal Planet – without boring everyone with details, let’s just say we turned the corner and with one or two little dips Spring is here. Early in the week Marcia and I walked to the condo for a bit-of-painting. The front yard next door had bright patches of crocuses, a few differing yellows and some purple. What a sight after several months of winter.

Our resident Hawks are active again. They’ve moved a yard or two further away and this means that we are now on the glide path to their nest.

Fini – Now, I best get ready to head out to our annual St. Patrick’s Day parade – can’t miss the opening Bagpipe band now can we? It was a toss-up between the Parade or taking in one of the Arts Sampler events running today. I made an offer to the parental units offering them a break. It turns out that the parade won out and I’ll get adult company. Great news.

Make it a great week everyone, stay safe.

And now that the world’s Irish population has multiplies ten-fold; Erin go Bragh

Cheers.
Dirk

From the Archives
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Morning all:

Last weekend it was seventy degrees outside; this morning it’s twenty degrees. Cincinnati normally sits almost underneath where the prevailing west to east Jet Stream flows and depending whether it moves slightly north or south of us creates major changes in our temperature. All of this makes for lovely ‘roller coaster’ winter weather, and makes us a hotbed for testing any type of new cold medicine. There really is a reason Procter & Gamble is headquartered in our town. Having said all of that, I better warm up my mug of coffee.

Temperature notwithstanding this place is caught up in the throes of March Madness. Both our NCAA teams have had good seasons and are in the tournament finals. Little Xavier University next door, unranked, is a giant killer. This week caused 1st ranked St. Joseph their first defeat in 27 games – winning 67-47. Down the road sits University of Cincinnati, home to alums Jason, Cathy, and Adrianne. The Bearcats, ranked number thirteen, blew by U of Louisville (my Alma Mater) and St. Louis to get a championship shot at De Paul tonight. Both UC and Xavier are almost guaranteed a berth in the NCAA Division I final 64.

Talking about our town, most of you who have spent time here know our place as a bit of a sleepy river town. In fact, Mark Twain once said that when the end of the world came he would want to be in Cincinnati since he’d have another two years before the effects of the event would be felt.
Wrong!

This week Cincinnati placed 7th on the new Esquire Magazine list of the nations top ten “Rockin’ Cities”; even ahead of San Francisco which came in at number ten. The town, aside from a wide array of venues has quite a music undercurrent dating back to being a major recording and entertainment capitol between the thirties and the fifties. Being a train town we became a ’must do’ stop for any name entertainer of that era traveling between the coasts. Everything from Symphony, Pops (more recordings than the Boston Pops), Jazz, Folk, Blue Grass, Country, and Rock makes up the music scene.

I know that Mel Gibson has been making the news for the past few weeks. But even with all that hype and press I happened to spot a small review written by my third or fourth, possibly even fifth cousin – Ebert Pastoor. It would appear that there is a new ‘hot’ movie making the rounds in select locations. The review was a two-thumbs up, gushing with accolades, piece describing a magnificent performance by a small band of heretofore unknowns. Critically acclaimed, look for the title “Derek’s First Steps” playing near you – it is a must see!

Have a great week.

Erin go Bragh,

Dirk

3/13/2004 07:42:00 AM