So, I got a Gmail account because I blog here, and I must say that it rocks. Their spam filtering still seems kind of weak, and it could use little features like adding an address from a received message to your address book, but otherwise I am very impressed. I even sort of like the text ads for some reason.

For lack of another place to post to, let me say again here that The Sopranos is just amazing. Through 5 episodes, this season feels up to the level of quality I don't think the show has really had since Season 2 (although there were plenty of great episodes in Seasons 3 and 4). And the show is definitely getting darker; there are still the funny moments to lighten things up, but in context you're almost afraid to laugh because something horrible might be coming up. If only demand-driven pointer analysis fascinated me as much as this show...

The top 500 albums of all time, indirectly via Abstract Factory. Way too much stuff to listen to...

The Random Personal Picture Finder, pointed out to me by Keunwoo. What a great time waster.

Check out what kind of political contributions people in your neighborhood have been making.

For those fellow Sopranos nuts out there, be sure to check out Slate's TV Club every week. They've got mob reporters writing about the episodes now instead of psychiatrists, which I personally find less interesting, but it's still worth a read. Also, super-detailed summaries of the episodes that I have to admit are pretty funny after you read a few.

I have no plans to see The Passion of the Christ, but I still found this coverage of the film to be very interesting. I especially enjoyed the Scholarly Smackdown on various theological issues related to the film.

This post over at Abstract Factory got my thinking about font settings in browsers again. The minimum font size setting in Mozilla solves most of the problems I had in IE with pages with tiny fonts. But, that setting breaks some sites like ESPN, whose layout is apparently very dependent on font size. If someone has a solution to this problem that doesn't involve adjusting font sizes on a page-by-page basis, I'd love to hear it.

I was just pleasantly surprised to find a free wireless network here at the Pittsburgh Airport. Let's hope that enough of these free networks pop up to make charging for wireless access seem like a silly idea.

I found these two columns on gay marriage in The Tech to be pretty thought-provoking: The Secular Case Against Gay Marriage and the response, The Economic and Social Case for Homosexual Marriage. It's nice to see some writing that is somewhat distanced from the emotions of the issue. Also, from a while ago, a Michael Kinsley column that takes a different point of view.

AJ wrote about memory associations with music, specifically about remembering when you listened to a certain song a lot. I feel the same way, but I have even deeper associations with pieces I've played. I was feeling kind of tired and grumpy this morning, and then Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue came on the radio. It's a piece I love dearly, as I spent my entire junior year of high school working on it and performed the two-piano version with my teacher at a school concert. I still have some of the really nasty parts in my hands, and I can almost physically feel how they go as I hear them (btw, it's interesting how some of those parts are completely overwhelmed by the orchestra). Anyway, it really cheered me up. Now if I could only get some work done...

A look at the comments in the leaked Win2K source; some pretty funny stuff.

A fascinating article on Mahler's "retouchings" of the Beethoven symphonies. I think that if you're performing with an orchestra configured far differently from those of a composer's time, these kind of changes make perfect sense. I wish I could hear recordings of these reworked scores.

Looks like a software bug contributed to last summer's blackout in the Northeast (via Ars). Not very surprising, but disturbing nonetheless.

Sometimes, I'll listen to a "great" piece of music many times, thinking that it's nice but not really seeing what all the fuss is about. Then, for no obvious reason, on some listening the piece will come together for me in a whole new way, and I'll be completely blown away. I can distinctly remember having this experience with Mahler's 2nd Symphony as I was riding a train across India a couple of years ago. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, it's been happening with Wagner's Parsifal; it's like I was listening to a completely different work before. Why does this happen? Maybe my brain had to be reconfigured in some way by the first few listenings to really be able to absorb the piece? Anyway, it's very cool when it does happen.

For a true measure of the devotion (insanity?) of some Big Lebowski fans: Lebowski Fest. In spite of how many times I've seen the movie, I think I'd truly be out of my element there.

Looks like there are a bunch of good concerts this month in the Bay Area. If only I could be a professional concert attender; I'd love to check out all of these shows.

I just got a new Rio Karma MP3 player to replace my Nomad Jukebox 3, which I unfortunately broke recently. I've been very impressed by the Karma's size, functionality, sound, and battery life. There's also a nice user community on the web to tip you off to firmware updates, tips and tricks, etc. If you're looking for a large capacity MP3 player and don't want to pay the premium for an iPod, I highly recommend the Karma. I found a good deal on PriceGrabber.

Another unfortunate thing about my old Jukebox is the software for transferring files from it doesn't write back the ID3 tags when you move an MP3 to your computer. Luckily, others have had to deal with this problem; this command-line tool looks like it will fix things up nicely.

A nice collection of short reviews of restaurants in Berkeley. Looks like there are a bunch of promising places I have yet to try.

While it's up, check out some of the articles in the State of the Union section of the current issue of The Atlantic. I've read a few of them, and they've all been thought-provoking. Too bad I left my print copy of the issue on a plane; I think those pockets in front of plane seats are designed to make you leave stuff in them.

Oh, and check out David's account of one of the most ridiculous restaurant experiences I've ever witnessed.

My trip to Boston was a lot of fun, in spite of the unbelievable cold. It was weird to be looking back on MIT. On the one hand, it was nice to see the place again and relive some great memories. On the other hand, I knew more than ever that staying there for a Ph.D. would have been a mistake. The only real downers of the weekend were not being able to see a couple of good friends and the Eagles' pathetic effort on Sunday.

I finished reading East of Eden on the plane ride to Boston. It was a great book that really got me thinking about some fundamental philosophical issues. Anyway, this review matched my interpretation of the book pretty closely, and this gives a bit more information on the Hebrew word timshol central to the moral issues of the book.