More PSAs

Well, I finally saw Brokeback Mountain this weekend, after months of wanting to see it and then for some reason or another never quite getting around to it. It was worth the wait. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (or whatever, too lazy to look up how to spell his name), were excellent. Superb. Delicious. I've never been a fan of Heath's acting or looks, but I was completely turned around on both counts after seeing this movie. (Of course, the cinematography made even Wyoming look pretty.)

So anyway. Back here in Reality Land there have been some interesting developments in my life, some of which I am not at liberty to divulge just yet (but no, I'm neither engaged nor pregnant). I can tell you, however, that I get the dubious pleasure of doing a library instruction class next week, which I'm not exactly looking forward to but which will look good on the resume. I just hope I don't end up looking and/or sounding like a retard, both of which are real possibilities for me when it comes to public speaking. If you went to library school with me, you know what I'm talking about.

But neither of the above things are the point of this post. The point of this post is to get the word out about some new FREE web services that are coolio (brought to my attention by BF.)

Last Fm
This thing is really cool - it lets you type in the name of a singer or band that you like and gives you a list of similar singers/bands. If you download the appropriate doo-hickeys (which I am aware are actually called plug-ins), you can then listen to a bunch of free music! How do they get away with that? You don't actually download any of the music to your computer. Also, near as I can figure, which isn't very near, you can't actually request any certain songs - you listen to "stations" whose content you don't have much control over other than by choosing a general genre. Eventually, the idea is that you build up a personal profile of music and then the smart little program will play songs in your station that you like. I haven't quite figured out how to make this all work yet, but it seems like a neat idea.

Del.icio.us
Lets you build you own little personal web space, with XML feeds, photos, etc. I haven't tried this one out yet, but it seems intriguing.

Furl
Called "communal bookmarking" - lets you share bookmarks with others, see what other people are bookmarking, look at most popular bookmarks, and search bookmarks on certain topics (I think).

Bloglines
This one lets you host your own blog, plus search other blogs and also acts as a "personal web space" typey thing. This kind of thing appears to be gaining popularity.

Vsocial
A video sharing site. Has some good stuff on it, including clips from SNL skits. I had fun with the Schweaty Balls one.

That's it for today, people. Hopefully I will be able to update you by the end of the week about things which may or may not be going on in my life.