CABLE TV FLUX Woke up this morning to find C-Span disappeared during the night. Looks like my cable company is realigning channels again, and it's a mess. Just called them, and was told that it should be fixed by this afternoon. The tech I spoke with seemed about as confused as I am, and was asking me questions. I had to punch many numbers, and listen to a litany of possibilities before I was able to speak with a live, breathing human being, but at least he was not in India or Jamaica like many people I've spoken about technical problems with my computers.

Luckily I can also get all C-Span channels, BBC, Air America Radio and many, many other media outlets on the internet, and from my XM satellite radio. I like the redundancy and opportunity in the media rich environment I have created. It's hard to read my area newspaper anymore with all the electronic access. Besides watching C-Span from 7 AM, I go to my internet start page which has AP news and to the New York Times to read headlines, op-ed, editorials, and any interesting articles of the day. Then, there's always NPR's morning programming. It long ago became a matter of making constant qualitative, media choices as there are also educational and informational programs on the History and Discovery Channels. Last, but not least, WMNF (88.5) has excellent programming from 10 AM until 2 PM, every day beginning with NPR's Fresh Air at 10 AM.

There are many ways to get specific, filtered news from the internet now with podcast RSS feeds, and other methods, but I'm a generalist and like to explore a lot. Media access will certainly get better and better, but if it never does, I'll still be satisfied and, hopefully, well informed.  ¶ 1:24 AM