I bought 5 CD’s in the last few days. On Monday evening I bought “Sandstorm” by Darude (CD single) at “The Wiz” which is a consumer electronics place near my Jersey City apartment. I also ordered 4 more online from Tower Records, all CD singles: “Whenever, Wherever” by Shakira, “Omnibus” by Laut Sprecher, “Addicted to Bass” by Puretone, and “The Sound of Goodby” by Perpetuous Dreamer. These all have dance/techno/trance versions which I originally heard on FM93.7 in San Francisco. It’s possible to find mp3’s of most of these using Kazaa.

I bought and have started reading “Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture” by Martin Fowler et. al. – so far it is excellent. It is intelligently written. This is in stark contrast to “Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming” which is written so poorly I can barely stand it. The author, Jeffrey Richter does not seem to have had a very good editor because the persistent tone of the book is incredibly, insultingly condescending. Uck.

I’m seriously considering buying an Alesis RA150 amplifier for my home stereo system. As far as I can tell, it would work with my CD player. But the really great thing about it is its absolutely incredible sound quality! I’m also thinking about selling my Technics electronic piano and getting an Alesis QS8.2synthesizer. Both are weighted 88-key systems, but the sound possibilities with the Alesis are lightyears beyond the Technics… and its cheaper!

About 45 minutes ago I just finished watching my new Star Wars II – Attack of the Clones DVD that my cousin Celine got me. When it came out in the theatres, Melanie and I went to see it in San Francisco. I think our ex-landlord, Kip, babysat for us. Speaking, of DVD’s, they are incredibly cheap in Canada… no more buying DVD’s in the US for us.

Alexei Berteig, my dear Broteig, is going to be going to some big film festival in L.A. (and N.Y.) where his documentary “The Perfect Divorce” is going to be shown. The documentary is about our parent’s divorce and how it affected him. Lots of people have seen it since it has been aired 3 times nationally (Canada) on Global television. “The Perfect Divorce” was produced by WestWind Pictures. I really hope it wins some awards and he makes some good contacts there. Here is a short interview with Alexei about the documentary. Alexei is also working on a film called Identity.