It's nearly time to start planting this year. I'll probably get around to planting seed indoors this weekend, to get a jump on the growing season. We still have a few weeks of cold nights ahead, so putting frost-sensitive plants outside isn't possible.

We'll try to put in quite a few tomatoes and peppers, along with the usual herb crop. We made it through the winter with fresh basil indoors; we'll try that again this winter.

The Apprentice. The formula has thinned out considerably. Lee has got to go. Lenny appears to be quite a character, but he's approaching his "fresh by" date. There's the usual cast of "lurkers" -- which is probably as much a function of the editing process as it is the "job applicants" / contestants.

The tasks are as silly as ever -- we've seen the "create an ad" routine many times. I can't quite figure out the "safe filled with diamonds" "reward" this week. The diamond people shared the plug with the good folks from Brinks. What's with that? Brinks didn't give up anything more than a tour -- the diamond people at least gave up the "ice".

The tease for next week didn't electrify -- this franchise may be running down, and out of fresh ideas.

National Cherry Blossom Festival

Lorraine's folks were in town over the weekend, so we headed into town yesterday afternoon for the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The two-week festival began with a 90-minute ceremony at the National Building Museum (one of my favorite places to bring out-of-towners). We got to see Gordon Peterson (local news anchor and host of Inside Washington, a weekly talking-head television show), Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives), and D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.

Eleanor Holmes Norton is quite a public speaker -- she did this appearance "off-the-cuff".

RIM pays up, taking 'one for the team' - BlackBerry Battle - MSNBC.com

Disclaimer: I'm a happy BlackBerry user, one of the tools that comes with my job.

I'm firmly in the anti-"software" patent camp. "Software" patents stifle innovation and do little more than enrich an intellectual property rights litigation community. The irony of this situation will be if the USPTO decides against NTP on all five patents: will NTP face extortion charges?

RIM pays up, taking 'one for the team' - BlackBerry Battle - MSNBC.com

The "vast wasteland"

I ran across this item on the web, this evening. It's well written. It's particularly interesting when one considers the year in which it was written: 1961. Commissioner Minow was remarkably prescient. If you spend any time in front of the tube, this is well worth perusing:

American Rhetoric: Newton Minow -- "Television and the Public Interest"