Chris Tune's Blog

If you click the title above you will be able to dive into the bizzare public announcements and related financial accounting shenanigans (sorry. . .I use that a lot. . .I'm part Irish, you know) in determining whether or not there are LOSSES due to file sharing. Meanwhile testimony is being delivered to THE US SUPREME COURT. So we can pretty much BET that the RIAA is perjuring itself blue in the face in document and in word before the "august" (well. . whatever!) BODY of the US Supremes.

NOTE : Those of you who are clicking over to the homepage and trombone stuff: PLEASE SIGN THE GUESTBOOK! I never use email addresses . . . . . .other than to chat briefly with friends, acquaintances and potential friends and acquaintances. . . it's a smaller world out here now that the net is so pervasive. EVENTS: I've been running around a bit lately doing interviewing for some serious job positions. I've still not fully convinced myself which is the better thing for the long run: COMPLIANCE or ACCOUNTING. You see, I have invested a great deal of time and effort in becoming very knowledgeable about the Securities Industry and its regulations. This is valuable and could be lucrative for me. It's more "text oriented", but then I'm happy to be writing. . as you can see. . . On the other hand, I've seemed to really lightup once put in front of a general ledger. I just love the complexity and yet the sheer "order" that comes from GL work. Kinda...

Musings of an Unlikely Alpaca Here is the blog of the founder of "Demidec". This company provides study materials for persons competing in Academic Decathlon events. If you don't already know what an Academic Decathlon is, you should check out the links at the lower right. There is a link to the California Academic Decathlon. You can also Google on "academic decathlon" and you will get several sites from either participating high schools or hosting entities which provide the state or national forum for these events. [that was a very looong sentence. . . sorry!] Anyway, this fellow Dan Berdichevsky, is running an interesting company. He is also blogging. How cool! Dan was a star academic decathalete and then figured that it would be a good thing to create material for others studying for the decathlon. There is a national organization which establishes the curricula of each year's competition, so the material is standardized. Meanwhile,...

Thou Shalt Not Create (washingtonpost.com) This is interesting. . .Charles Krauthammer is on a board having to do with bio-ethics (a sort of funny thing. . if you know scientists. . .or knew my father, the engineer. . .my view of the typical scientist: amoral) Anyway, CK has interesting things to say about research and stem cells. Apparently, the process to produce a stem cell is the same as cloning. The only difference is that the cloned cells are not allowed to continue to develop, but are torn apart. So, despite the almost universal (except some scientists. . .remember?) hatred of cloning for "spare parts" and so forth, the world just "doesn't get it" enough to understand that they can't have embryonic stem-cells and not kill neo-blastocysts (or whatever the few-celled being is called at that point). I know I'm showing my lack of formal scientific "power" here, but then my science is mostly electronics and physics. Bio scie...

As you can see if you click the link above, the 2005 California Academic Decathlon is over. Final testing occurred in Pauley Pavillion, Saturday March 12. The scores were tabulated into the middle of the night (after 2pm, folks. . ) and the scores were used to release the results in todays two awards sessions. CAD Director, Marvin Cobb sent me a copy of the spreadsheet with the results and I made up the new webpage for the final California State results. You can see the results right here . The pictures did not come out as good as I would have liked. This was due to the 2.1 megapixel size and due to using so much "existing light" photography. I don't like to use a tripod, either. I may have to change to a better camera and to using at least a monopod. Anyway, many of the photos ought to be good enough to place on the web. I'll undoubtedly be doing that in the next few weeks. Chris Tune Valley Village, CA

I will be working heavily at the California Academic Decathlon during Thurs., Fri., Sat. and Sun. March 10, 11, 12 & 13. I will be acting as photographer for this year's event. There should be some very good photo ops. . .We have hundreds of students competing. . .their family and friends will be there. . .there is the whole scene at the venues (Beverly Hills HS, UCLA Pauley Pavillion and the LAX Marriott). This year CAD is having corporate sponsors help defray the costs. . We've got backing from Leonard Green & Partners L.P (a Los Angeles based investment firm specializing in buyouts, restructuring and similar financings), ALL Student Loan , also based in LA., one of the largest originators of student loans. I'm truly excited having worked for several months at CAD, but having never participated in the annual testing, "decathlon" event. I know I will be busy, but that is part of the fun. Being a natural "ham", as are many musicians, I'm c...

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Kerry Urges Congress to Honor Communist by Daniel J. Flynn Mr. Kerry is at it again! Not satisfied with speeding the imminent destruction of the Democratic Party, he now wishes to honor a fellow Massachussett citizen. But this is no ordinary citizen. . .read the article to see how W.E.B. DuBois acted as a political appologist for the evil of communism. More than mere commentator, DuBois renounced American citizenship, claiming hatred toward American ways. DuBois helped found the NAACP, but was twice kicked out for his belief in the benefits of segregation. Facinating. Chris

FrontPage magazine.com :: Calling the Kettle Gay by Ann Coulter Only liberals would somehow figure out that "outing" gays can somehow be justified. . . After all, the ends justifies the means, N'est-ce-pas? Read this great piece by Ann Coulter. . . .NO! It's not "hate speech". In fact, it's really quite funny. Or, it would be totally funny if it weren't true. Chris Tune

BBC - Radio 2 - Big Band Special Home Page This is a link to a great radio show featuring the arrangements (and some composition) by arranger/composer Adrian Drover. Those of us who subscribe to the TROMBONE-L listserver discussion list on things "trombone", know Adrian as a very funny fellow. . . but, in reality Adrian is a really very gifted musician, arranger and composer. Mr. Drover is living in Scotland and here is heard conducting the BBC big band in two forms: With added horn section (as in "french" horn) and tuba AND as a regular big band complement of five trumpet, five trombone, five sax and rhythm section. I'm hearing very good contrapuntal writing and enjoyable music in a modern, yet traditionally grounded big band style. Gotta go to the Academic Decathlon soon. We're gearing up for the 2005 Decathlon, to be done March 11, 12 with registration starting March 10. I'm updating the webpages now to add forms and info docs available over the ...