the frig blig

Peak Park was officially opened this afternoon. Your intrepid bligger enjoyed the sunshine, vista and music, including a kids’ marimba band with all sizes of locally-made marimbas! (The band pictured above is different, of the oompah variety.)

Hundreds of citizens signed up to speak at last night’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) public hearing on proposed relaxation of regulations on corporate media ownership. This was the last of six public hearings scheduled by the FCC on this issue.

One speaker, a reporter who claimed to have researched the public record for the prior five hearings, said that public comments were 99 percent opposed to the proposed changes.

Many speakers suggested that regulations were too lax already and the commission should strengthen, rather than weaken, the existing rules. A professor got a round of applause when he said that considering the short notice for the hearing, he assumed the decision to approve was already a done deal and the hearings were purely cosmetic.

When I signed up to speak I was number 227 on the list; we left before that number came up. But I was satisfied that my position had been eloquently and diversely represented.

You can examine the rules under discussion on the FCC’s website, here.

This afternoon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) holds a public meeting in Seattle to discuss a proposal to loosen media ownership rules. There will be an open mic to provide an opportunity for citizens to personally address this issue. I think it’s important to oppose this proposal; greater corporate ownership means fewer independent news sources, less diversity of opinions, and greater potential for censorship and propoganda. Regardless of your view, if you want to show up to listen and/or speak to this issue, the hearing is at:

When: 4 - 11 pm Friday Nov 9 (today; signups for speaking start at 3)
Where: Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave between Spring & Seneca

Hope to see ya there!

It’s that time of year again. I shot this video with my phone on Lewis & Clark campus.

Here’s the youtube link:

And here’s the blig link — much higher quality but it’s a huge mp4 file; consider downloading before viewing it:

The Portland Open Go Tournament was hosted at Lewis and Clark College this past weekend. This frog took third place in the single-digit kyu division (my record was 3-2 but I was 3-1 going into the last round, which I lost to M. Malveaux). Here are the complete results as posted by TD Peter Drake:

Dan, 1: Jang Bi
2: Chang Yu
3: Zhao Yan

Youth: Mike Tobias
Female: Akane Negishi
New: Chang Yu

Making the weekend complete, I spent the evenings socializing with S and our good friends C, C, C’s new beau R, and the J/T/M/G unit. I enjoyed playing C’s mandolin and made a short video of leaves falling from a tree. An awesome weekend for sure.