Getting a new job and taking on more projects at home means occasionally having to say you're too busy to continue another weblog.

The BBC World Service discontinued its broadcasts to North America as of July 1, 2001. I am still not happy.

@Home cut off 850,000 subscribers the first weekend in December, 2001, but forgot to change their home page. Me thinks they needdc to clear their minds. So, apparently, did the stock markets.

Brave Combo are not only the best nuclear polka band to ever come out of Denton, Texas, they're downright considerate, too.

I had the oddest sensation while reading a book some years back.

Pictures! We've got pictures! (Okay, so there's only two, but hey, you take what you can get, and that's one more than the one that I used to link to.)

Oh, no, The Dog Ate my Home Page!; this was my (non-winning) entry in 24 Hours in Cyberspace.

I had a moderately odd dream the other night. Other people have big collections of odd dreams, but at the moment, I've only got this one.

Salon Magazine ran a contest to write haiku for telemarketers to use. I had a different idea.

I collect music. Most people collect by genre or band. I collect on a slightly different basis.

I have a lot of radios, but I think my favorite is an old Polish tube set from the mid-50s.

Photographs

I was getting bored with this site, and it was getting stagnant, but couldn't think of what I wanted to do to redesign it. I settled instead for committing photography, in much the same way my sister commits poetry. I've been really getting into photographing sunsets the past year or so. We get some pretty spectacular ones. The latest shots are (gee, what a surprise) more sunset shots from our home office. (New photos posted January 10, 2002.)

This is The Ghost, The Host, The Most Holy-O

There is a page that I keep here for historical reasons.

• Dehanced for Notscape (or the readable version)

This is something I keep somewhere else.

• anarc.org, The Home Page of the Association of North American Radio Clubs

This is something I used to keep in a different place, but is now the same place as the other thing that's somewhere else.

• NASWA (North American Shortwave Association) home page

This one goes in the "tilting at windmills" category.

• Coalition to Save the BBC World Service

Just for kicks, I decide to put my logbook of shortwave stations I've heard online. It contains loggings back to late 1994, when I first computerized my logbook, and is searchable by frequency, station, and country. It also automatically lists my most recent logs.

• Ralph Brandi's Shortwave Radio Loggings Database

I participated in 24 Hours of Democracy, a collective exercise in Internet civics, on February 22, 1996.

My essay for the day is entitled Kitchen Table Democracy. I don't much like the title, but inspiration deserted me at that point, and I was left with what I was left with.

Great New Opportunity! Don't Miss This!

After creating web pages for over seven years with little to show for it except continued employment at my large corporate behemoth (not any more!), I've decided to finally make a play for the big money! Welcome to Ralphoo!, the next big thing on the net. I've declared Ralphoo! a portal site, with links to all the sites I think are important. I personally guarantee that I regularly visit at least a third of the sites in Ralphoo! on a semi-regular basis. Most of the rest I intend to, but never quite get around to. But hey, you might be interested in them.

Any venture capitalists interested in getting in on the ground floor of the greatest pure Internet play since Jerry and David moved their hotlist off akebono should feel free to contact me at the address below. IPO city, here I come! (A buyout would be perfectly acceptable as well. Feel free to give me a call, Steve.)

Epinions

I've become epinionated.

Shortwave Radios

• Sony ICF-SW100S - Tiny but Strong (24-Oct-1999)

Movies

• Topsy-Turvy - Songs! More songs! And then, for a change, some songs! (23-Dec-1999)
• Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. - Morris' Least Good Film (23-Dec-1999)
• Man of the Century - Frothy as an Egg Cream (24-Oct-1999)
• Music of the Heart - Moving and Inspiring and Not Boring (24-Oct-1999)
• The Story of Us - Chick Flick, Bruce Willis Cries (21-Oct-1999)

Here's the crass bit: if you use this link to join epinions, I get some money. I promise I won't spend it all in one place.