down and out

If there's been a lack of posting recently, its because a wave of illness has hit our household. The weather changed pretty dramatically here in SoCal over the weekend, suddenly jumping up into the 80's, and that may have contributed to the awful headcold I was fighting Sunday and yesterday. Krysta's down today with a slight fever and general ickiness, which sounds like its been going around.

Read this little blurb today about Netflix dropping HD-DVD by the end of the year. That's pretty much the nail in the coffin for that format, with most of the studios dropping it as well. I didn't really have a horse in the race, but I'm glad it looks to be settling. The question now is whether its at all worth it to bother with a High-Def DVD format, when we can't be that far away from an all-digital delivery format that doesn't require physical media.

Also found out recently that Yahoo Music is going away. I've been a subscriber for a couple years now at least, and while it certainly wasn't the prettiest subscription music service out there, it was the cheapest. I'm currently weighing my options between Rhapsody and Napster, and my first impression is that the former is a more friendly interface.

The WGA is expected to vote to end the strike today while the ratification process proceeds regarding the tenative deal reached this past weekend. Hopefully this means I'll be going back to work soon, although the big question on everybody's minds now is: What TV shows are even going to bother starting up again this season? It is also uncertain what sort of Pilots for new shows will be ordered this year, as those would have been up and filming in the next 4-6 weeks had it not been for the strike. In any case, it sounds like the writer's got an OK deal, and at least some people can get back to work soon.

Pitchers and catchers report on Thursday, at which point I'm sure I'll have something to say on the Cardinals. Sometime this week I'll talk about some good music I'm listening to these days.