Meteorological spring starts tomorrow. Oregon’s North Willamette Valley has been basking in the sun intermittently for the past two weeks, and today is another clear, bright day. The sun is shining. The ground is dry. I want to hop on my bike, but have promised Kris that we’ll go to the gym together tonight. Maybe I’ll bike to work tomorrow.

As a child I was puzzled that Spring started at the end of March, Summer at the end of June, etc. It was only in college that I learned that the seasonal constructs are based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun; the Vernal Equinox is the traditional delineation between Winter and Spring for astronomical convenience. More recently I’ve learned that the meteorological seasons conform to the observed weather patterns. Meteorological Spring begins March 1st, meteorological Summer on June 1st, etc.

With the departure of Winter, Spring activities are beginning. At this moment, Jeff is out making love to his lawn tractor. Kris and Pam are making a trip to Al’s Fruit and Shrub on Saturday while Mac is at baseball practice and I am digging up arborvitae stumps in the yard. Meanwhile, the professional ball players have started Spring Training and the first games are tomorrow. The warm weather is an invitation to outdoor exercise. I’m ready to bike, maybe to hike. The lawn needs to be mowed. The crocuses and daffodils are up, and the daphne in our front yard can be smelled from a block away.

I’ve always said that Oregon’s weather doesn’t bother me; as a native, I’ve become accustomed to the rain, and often enjoy it. This year, though, Spring is especially welcome.

The phones at Custom Box Service have been quiet during the afternoon all week. The sunny weather must be appealing to other people as well…

Custom Box has been crippled by Big Money. Big Money is a web-based game similar to Tetris or Columns. We don’t play by the rules. We play to achieve the largest “coin combination”. The record so far is 121 coins.

With the demise of Napster, Morpheus had become my primary file-sharing tool. I tried Bearshare and was unimpressed. Morpheus is intuitive and convenient and widely used. The key to a good file-sharing system is many users sharing files.

Morpheus, and the other new file-sharing systems, have claimed that the music industry could not stop them, that they were decentralized by nature and therefore even if they were shut down the users would continue to share files because the decentralized network would persist.

Well.

On Monday night my connection to Morphues’ network vanished. I received an error indicating that my software needed to be upgraded. Trouble is, I already have the latest version of Morpheus.

It seems that Morpheus is not as decentralized as advertised. A software upgrade shut down the network, something that would not happen with true decentralization. If the recording industry can’t shut down Morpheus within a week, I’ll be surprised.

My cold continues to linger. All that remains is congestion, but it’s enough to be frustrating.

What songs make you think of Spring? “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears For Fears both evoke images of Spring in my mind.

We used to have a basketball hoop outside on the concrete pad in front of the shop. It wasn’t used often, but I remember playing basketball in the after school for a couple of weeks during the period in which “Walking on Sunshine” was popular. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” reminds of Future Business Leaders of America, particularly the state convention during the Spring of my sophomore year of high school.

Nick and I were talking about music today, trying to decide what the best songs and albums and groups of each decade have been.

It seems certain that The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” is the best song of the 80s, but it’s hard to decide anything other than that. “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin might be the best song of the 70s, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is probably the best album from that decade, but both could be argued.

Michael Jackson is probably the best artist from the 80s, though it might be Madonna. Personally, we think U2 was the best the 80s had to offer.

The 90s are difficult for us. Was there a stand-out song? Album? Artist? For me, the Indigo Girls were the best artist of the decade. But that’s me. They certainly weren’t the most popular group (though that’s not how we’re basing “best” in this case). We thought that maybe “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana could be considered the best song of the 90s.

From our selections for “best song” you’d never guess that Nick prefers dance and techno music and that I like jazz and folk and bitchrock. (There’s a term that’ll get me into some trouble.)

I’ve been listening to my library of a capella mp3s today, sorting through the covers of 80s tunes so that I can make a mix for Paul. The playlist I have now is pretty darned good: strong performances of good songs.

Middlebury Dissipated Eight – Africa (Toto cover)
Arizona State Pitchforks – Secure Yourself (Indigo Girls cover)
Dartmouth Aires – Take on Me (aha cover)
Tufts University Beelzebubs – Rock This Town (Stray Cats cover)
Calabash – Policy of Truth (Depeche Mode cover)
Bobs – Particle Man (They Might Be Giants cover)
Stairwells- The Longest Time (Billy Joel cover)
UVA Academical Village People – Come On Eileen (Dexy’s Midnight Runners cover)
Dartmouth Cords – Friday I’m In Love (The Cure cover)
Tufts Jackson Jills – Our Lips Are Sealed (Go-Gos cover)
U Penn Off the Beat – Candy Everybody Wants (10,000 Maniacs cover)
BOCA ’99 – Don’t Stand So Close To Me (Police cover)
U of Michigan Amazin’ Blue – Innocent Man (Billy Joel cover)
UC Men’s Octet – Every Breath You Take (Police Cover)
Boca- Best Of College A Cappel – Everything She Wants (Wham cover)
Arizona State Pitchforks – Verdi Cries (10,000 Maniacs cover)
Brown Derbies – Break My Stride (Matthew Wilder cover)
Brown Derbies – Kyrie (Mr. Mister cover)
Brown Derbies – Somebody (Depeche Mode cover)
Brown Derbies – Walk Like an Egyptian (Bangles cover)
Cornell Class Notes – Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics cover)
Dartmouth Aires – Maneater (Hall and Oates cover)
Dartmouth Aires – Tainted Love (Soft Cell cover)
Dartmouth Aires – Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran cover)
Dartmouth Decibelles – Walkin’ On Sunshine (Katrina and the Wave cover)
ASU Pitchforks – Need You Tonight (INXS cover)
Tufts Amalgamates – Just Like Heaven (The Cure cover)
Tufts Beelzebubs – Rio (Duran Duran cover)
Tufts Jackson Jills – We Belong (Pat Benetar cover)
U of Illinois Other Guys – Jesse’s Girl (Rick Sprinfield cover)
Dissipated Eight – Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon cover)
The Flying Pickets – Only You (Yazoo cover)
Flying Pickets – She Drives Me Crazy (Fine Young Cannibal cover)
Flying Pickets – When Doves Cry (Prince cover)
The Flying Pickets – Purple Rain (Prince cover)
Pitchforks – In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel cover)
Duke Out of the Blue – Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel cover)
The Dartmouth Aires – Father Figure (George Michael cover)
Tufts Amalgamates – True Colors (Cyndi Lauper cover)