I was preparing to write a big long post about music (and not just to be like everyone else). I was going to tell you how last.fm has allowed me to explore my affinity for Pop Punk/Punk Rock/Emo/Screamo/Post Hardcore and Britpop. I was going to tell you about how cool the new playlist feature at last.fm is. I was going to tell you that it allows you to listen to (and share) full tracks of you choice, admittedly only in shuffle mode and only if you have enough different artists in it. I was going to tell you that it is interesting that almost all the bands that Gareth excludes from his list in this year old article are on my playlist, and yet none of the ones that are actually on his list are on mine. But then I caught this story on Digg.

(Edit: One thing to note about the playlist is that on occasion music that's not on the list gets played as well. I think it's something to keep the record companies happy. Also, it occasionally runs out of content. I think that might be a copyright issue. Give it time and it will work again.)

So CBS, of all people, bought last.fm. I know that it's not a for certain death sentence for last.fm, but I'm hard-pressed to think of an example in which a buy-out by old media didn't mean death to something like this. The previous owners claim that they will be sticking around, and that this means they will be able to do more, but I think you have to be blind to believe that's likely to happen. Then again, $280 million can blind you to a lot of things. Well, here's hoping they don't trash it.

In a side note, Richard of the horrifying musical taste, turned me on to a couple of good bands this last winter. He put both The Killers and Angels and Airwaves on his Christmas list and I got a chance to listen to them while I was down there. The Killers seems like a throwback to a rock era gone by, which isn't bad, isn't bad at all. Angels and Airwaves is headed up by Tom Delonge of Blink-182 fame, so there was a good chance I was going to like it. Yeah, I'm surprised too. Richard can like good music after listening to that?!

Lastly, here's an artist's interpretation of Dad's Hell:

Run-Balked-In that is.

This season has seen some pretty strange game-enders for the Mets. There was Endy Chavez's walk-off bunt against the Rockies. The walk-off walk against the Cubs. And now, this. Well, technically the second balk didn't end the game, Delgado's home run seconds later did, but it did bring the tying run in.

A win like this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, as at least one of the balk calls seemed kind of bogus. I know that if Benitez were still pitching for us, I would have been furious at the call. I also would have been furious that he was still pitching for us. He just does not belong on the mound. He has good stuff… sometimes. He just doesn't seem able to handle high-pressure situations, and you can't have that in a closer.

This all, of course, brings up the fact that umpires are simply incapable of calling a good game. In a game of not only inches (cm?) but also high speeds, you need to be able to see far better than they do. From all the replays, it's obvious the umps are frequently making the wrong calls. It's time MLB stepped up to the plate (heh) and solved this problem. The technology has to be there, at least for calling balls and strikes. I know some people didn't like the system used a few years back, but I'm betting that's because it was getting it right.

Everything except for the massive cavity in the one tooth and the fact that you'll have to have all of your wisdom teeth removed. But, yeah, everything else looks OK.

I love visits to the dentist…

Oh well, at least I had an excuse to get a pizza sub from Big Daddy's.

The Official Star Wars Website has a trailer for the new Clone Wars series.

A while back I had been searching for something and happened upon a gaming group in Syracuse, but it wasn't until recently that I actually scoped out the Syracuse Board Game Society. They meet in the Play the Game, Read the Story (formerly Altered States) store in Carousel Mall. The first time I went, there certainly was an interesting group of players, but what was scary was how well I fit in. We played Hex Hex (not much better than Uno, at least the way we played it), Power Grid and Puerto Rico. All of which I lost. The second time around I took Pete and thankfully there was a tamer group of players. We played Modern Art and Puerto Rico (PR is the “Game of the Month”). Lost both games, but I only fell two points shy in PR, which made me feel good. We mentioned that we play Caylus, and it turns out that it is the favorite game of the guy who runs the society, so it looks like we'll get some games of that in.

Even though we only played Modern Art the one time, it quickly became a favorite of both Pete and I. I tried to buy a copy from the store we play in, but I couldn't find one. What is the point of a brick and mortar if you can't buy what you want?

Oh, you thought I meant modern art? Silly you.

The only difference that I see

Is you are exactly the same as you used to be