1. My longest internet loyalty has unquestionably been to Yahoo, which I have been regularly browsing for 20+ years. My first online experiences (other than pre-Internet work communications through ARPANet and other early precursors) were through the moderated portals at CompuServe in 1993, but when I ventured forth on my own into the wild and wooly early World Wide Web in 1994, Yahoo was my portal of choice. My first personal e-mail address was “gnhn@yahoo.com,” and that’s still my Yahoo ID for fantasy sports and other such log-in required activities. I also viewed the Yahoo Sports Portal as the greatest evolution in the genre since the early days of the USA Today Sports Page, and it has been my go-to site for basketball scores, hockey standings, football stats and other jock-related nerd stuff since the mid-1990s. But this is all over now: in recent years, I’ve grown increasingly sick of having to wade through endless meaningless articles and photos and click bait pieces about Kardashians and Miley Cyrus and the like, but the clincher for me has been Yahoo’s more recent (and disturbing) practice of putting fake science news into the mix of idiocy, which I cannot abide. I’ve used LeechBlock to put all Yahoo domains on 24/7/365 shutdown on all my computers, and have sought alternatives for the things I really need and want to see. The last time I did this was for a major commercial site was for the Weather Channel’s awful portal, which also combines pop culture nonsense, bad science and click bait with a dangerous proclivity for generating weather-related hysteria — and that decision led me to regularly use the far superior, “just the facts, ma’am” National Weather Service site at weather.gov. I look forward to finding similar new and high-quality portals for sports, entertainment, political and science news in the months ahead, as I am no longer distracted by Yahoo’s rampant idiocy. Farewell, old friend. You betrayed us all for money.

2. The weather has been generally hideous out here in the heartland of late, but just before we went to Florida, I did get the chance to take a long drive out to Iowa’s northwest corner. As has been my practice for the three-plus years we’ve lived in Iowa, I always look for new ways to get to old places, as I continue trying to experience and see the state at the most granular level possible. And as also been my practice, I notate the roads I’ve driven on the increasingly battered paper map that I purchased when I first crossed the Mississippi River at the Quad Cities with two angry cats in November 2011. Here’s what it looks like these days. I’m pretty sure that 99% of native Iowans haven’t driven as much of the State as I have at this point.

Vroom! Vroom! (Click to Enlarge).

3. And, of course, it’s really not an Iowa road trip unless there are dirt roads involved, so I enjoyed roaring down this one just east of Beebeetown for a half hour or so, generating towering plumes of dust in my wake. It’s hard to believe how different this and so many similar Iowa scenes look in summertime when the crops are tall and green, or in autumn when tall brown husks define the horizon as far as the eye can see, or in spring, when tilling reveals the rich, dark soil that lies beneath these quiescent winter fields. I’m ready for the dead season to end.

Winter driving, east of Beebeetown, Iowa.

4. Speaking of quiescent winter states, I recently made one final set of updates and put Indie Moines into permanent sleep mode. The end.

5. And which Napalm Death should you listen to first? Why, their extraordinary new album, Apex Predator — Easy Meat. I think it’s one of the best albums ever, with the usual grindcore elements being leavened by the increasingly frequent and effective use of massed vocals, slower tempos, and early Swans-like sludge. The title and opening track of the album is one of the most harrowing songs in their catalog in this regard, a roaring, clanking dirge about the emotional and social perils of human debasement. “Heirarchies,” “Cesspits” and “Dear Slum Landlord” stand as equal highlights, with the blastbeats anchoring some really innovative modern metal arrangements. I think it’s one of their best albums ever — but, of course, I probably would, because I count Napalm Death as my favorite band, and hardcore fans aren’t usually self-aware enough to be disappointed by their faves. So I’m pleased to see that the response to album has pretty much been one of universal praise in the print and digital musical communities as well. I’ll be driving down to Lawrence, Kansas next week to see them live, though I was sorry to see that stalwart guitarist-singer-songwriter Mitch Harris is taking time away from the band for family reasons, so I will miss seeing and hearing him. I hope whatever life is throwing at him is resolvable, and that he returns to the fold soon. Both singer Mark “Barney” Harris and bassist Shane Embury took sabbaticals in years past and returned stronger than ever, so maybe that’s what will happen here. Fingers crossed.