RIP George Harrison

I expect there will be hundreds of LJ entries on this sad subject today. George Harrison finally succumbed to cancer. We knew it was coming, he'd been sick for quite a while, but it's still quite a shock for it to happen.

I was born after the Beatles broke up, and only ever heard their music via the radio, record albums, and the movies. Heck, I only even heard Harrison's more recent music via the radio--though I did like it. "Got My Mind Set on You," "When We Was Fab".

I just don't know what to say about it, really. I feel depressed, but I think it's a little silly (and perhaps a little selfish) to write an obituary for someone you never actually knew personally. Going on about how their death affected you, when you know there had to be people closer to them feeling a whole lot worse over it.

So in the end I'm just going to say he was a great musician and a great talent, and it's always sad when another one of those leaves the world.

Oh brother...

...I'm the villain from my least favorite James Bond movie.

If I was a James Bond villain, I would be Francisco Scaramanga. I enjoy good food, monopolising the world's energy supplies, and sex before assassinating people. I am played by Christopher Lee in The Man with the Golden Gun. Who would you be? James Bond Villain Personality Test

Excitement in the air...

...or at least Excite is up in the air.

Excite@Home, the cablemodem provider that provides cablemodem access through various companies, and to 3.7 million users (of whom I am one) may be shutting down at midnight. The news is related in an article right here; I won't bother reiterating it, but I do like this quote: "The conflict over the bankrupt ExciteAtHome's broadband network is best described as a daring game of chicken between corporate interests -- with the possible victims being not the corporations themselves but their millions of cable-modem subscribers."

It's worrisome is what it is. Unlike some of my friends, I've almost always had excellent service through my cablemodem (with the exception of the annoying 128 kilobit upload cap, but I can understand the necessity of it). I even discontinued my phone service and pulled my modem from my computer, so I have no backup Internet access method. Even if I wanted to go DSL (my cable service has actually been substantially faster than DSL for as long as I've had it), I'm pretty sure there's already a long waiting list now, as everyone else hastens to sign up and switch over. And to top it all off, I'm not sure whether I'm getting my Excite cable service through MediaCom or AT&T, so I don't know who to turn to for backup service in case something goes wrong.

The article says that the cable companies and creditors are in talks to try to prevent a shutdown. I guess I'll know at about midnight tonight (or 11 p.m., if the deadline is midnight _Eastern_ time) whether they were successful or not.

It's not going to be a very pleasant five hours.