It’s that magic time of year again where my DSL contract is up. Meaning I could switch to another broadband provider.

My setup is a little funky: we don’t have cable (more by choice than cost), so getting bundle deals isn’t always too important. On the other hand, if a bundle deal was the same as I’m paying for SBC/Yahoo! DSL (my current provider), then we’d probably be for it.

Also, I found out that SBC/Yahoo! DSL blocks port 25 so that you have to use their SMTP server(s). This caused me no end of grief and email trouble shooting when I switched over to the new job (because of this fucking chaod-suckingly stupid “feature” in GMail). Any provider that’s going to start blocking ports is surely going to cause me more problems down the road.

In summary: anyone have good, consumer-grade broadband recommendations?

As mentioned on t’ other blog, I’ve been going to SXSW this year for the first time. Here’s shows I’ve seen that I liked alotsa:

• Peelander-z – Mad Tiger! Medium Rare!
• Art Brut – I bought their album on eMusic, so I must like them, huh? Nonethless, I am not considering a move to L.A.
• Princess Superstar – Kim likes her alotsa too.
• Soul Position – this was an unexpected treat. Kim and went to Emo’s to see what was happening there. And BAAM! It was RJD2 and Blueprint. “Things Go Better With RJ and AL” indeed! It was fucking awesome. Come April 4th I’ll have to get their album.
• Neko Case – I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I sure found out. Neko Case is great!

Today we’re going to Home Slice for something, and I’m sure we’ll take in more day stuff too. The key to late night SXSW enjoyment, once the good music is taken care of, is a 6-8PM nap and a cup of coffee.

Originally uploaded by whurleyvision.

It looks like I just got out of the shower.

It’s not often that I find a band that I like, so I thought I’d point out that I’ve been enjoying the band What Made Milwaukee Famous a lot over the past few days (perhaps I could jam some more I’s into that sentence…I think I can). The lovely Ms. Kim Skotak bought their album, Trying to Never Catch Up, in iTunes after we saw them last Friday night with The Giffy. (Yeah, yeah, I realize this contradicts past iTunes Music Store commentary on my part…. Suck it!).

And I can’t get enough of it. In fact, I’m going to switch from the “3+ Not Played” playlist list to that right now.

Once again, thanks to Kim, I have some great music to listen to.

Thankfully, we don’t get too many door-to-doors here on Piedmont. Today we got hit by the magazine salesman. You know, the guy from Office Space.

The dogs held him at the end of the sidewalk for a long time. “Whao! Those are some big dogs! I want to talk to you, but I’m not coming close to that dog!” Stupidly, I got on the porch and kept the dogs at bay.

I guess I’m too nice. I outta get some copies of Permission Marketing to hand out to all the door-to-doors.