I know my taste in music is pretty bad...but come on!

So, I am wandering through iTunes, waiting for my offspring to finish tooth brushing so I can get into the bathroom this morning. I spot something interesting entitled Just For You (beta version, thankfully) and I think " oh, iTunes is going to see if they can get into my head and tell me what music I like." I take a peak. Image my horror when I find they are recommending the SPICE GIRLS! What...I...just...what kind of musical retard do they think I am???

Inspecting further, I find they are basing this recommendation on the fact that I purchased some songs off No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom. Now, I feel a little better. Clearly this is a flaw in their new system and not a proper judgement of my musical tastes. There is even a place to let them know that A) I own it or B) I hate it. Hopefully this will help them get to know me a little better and not insult me quite as often with god knows what else.

All the same, I do a quick search through my musical library and breath a sigh of relief. There are no errant Spice Girls hiding there. I'll grant you, there ARE some seriously embarrassing tunes in my collection, but even I have a floor in the basement of my musical taste. Come on.

Coming up for air...cuz I feel like bitchin'

I've been quite neglectful of the blogging. Been crazy busy with life, work, love etc. What brings me here this morning is a random visit to Yahoo chat. Imagine my surprise to find they have done away with Java chat, therefore leaving me bereft of any way into chat save switching to the PC platform.

Truthfully, I'm not shedding tears or anything. I rarely, if EVER log into chat anymore. It's just an annoyance. It's an irritating reminder of Yahoo's inexplicable neglect of the Mac platform. When I first started using Yahoo services like email, messenger and chat, the features offered on the Mac versions of their software were equal to PC versions. They updated them at about the same time and considering the small percentage of Mac users in existance, things were quite equal.

Flash forward to today, with the Mac OS more popular than ever and yet Yahoo gives it's users a piece of shit, outdated messenger with no support for practically ancient technologies like voice and chat. They continue to add feature upon feature, as fast as their little fingers can type, to Y!Messenger for the PC. Instead of following the rest of the computer world, Yahoo seems to treat the Mac OS with less attention instead of more as its user-base grows.

In the all important quest for more smileys, audibles and dress-your-own-avatars, they have spent years ignoring Mac versions, refusing to integrate the more useful features PC users have been enjoying since the turn of the century!!!

*mutters* And before you decide to respond to this blog. I understand why. It makes perfect business sense to ignore the platform. Or at least, they can expect little in the way of repercussions, other than to have the one or two of us out there pissed off. I get it.

Until now, I happily existed without all those things PC users enjoy. I've even started using 3rd party toys like Adium and much prefer it to my weak, watered-down Y!Messenger.

I don't get voice chat. That's fine. I don't get audibles. THANKFULLY. I don't get an avatar. That's ok too. And I don't get a host of other small, varying in usefullness, features and I've grown accustom to being a 2nd class citizen of Yahoo.

But now they have completely elimated my ability to use one of their major services. If I were a paying customer, you can be sure, I would no longer be today.

Water, Water Everywhere....

This is the park area where my art festival is located. That obelisk sticking out of the water is the marker for levels of the worst floods of the past. The very top is where the water was in 1997. We have already surpassed two of the worst floods in the past 100 years.
Below is a water-free shot of the same location last year during the festival with the current water level marked for comparison.

This is the bridge down the street from where I work. Normally the water is about 25 feet below the bridge.

This is photo of the city shutting down and walling off the bridge.
This is the view from behind my office.

Standing on the banks, watching the water rise.

So, yesterday we got the stuff emptied out of the basement storage area. I sort paid for the things I was lifting. I tried to just let my intern do all the work, but I felt lazy just sitting there pointing and telling him what to do. In alot of pain today and still waiting to know when my appointment will be.

They walled up the bridge yesterday and dumped a bit pile of dirt infront of the holes in the flood wall, so I feel a little more relaxed. Two days until the river crests though, you never really know what's gonna happen. It occurs to me that if I was required to evacuate my home, I wouldn't be prepared at all.

I should be more prepared for such things, have a plan, list of things to bring with me, emergency stuff, that kinda thing. I need to make an effort to be more boyscout-like.

Well, I'm feeling kinda drowsy (Percoset kicking in) so either its time to get up and get out and do something or im gonna end up napping away the day.


Peace.

The river rises...anxiety ensues

(This photo is of the bridge near my office in 1997, not today, hopefully.)
Last week wasn't particularly productive, unless you count the progress I made on GTA. I waited, fruitlessly, for notification of my appointment with the neurosurgeon and watched the river rise slowly. This weekend it really came up fast. So much so, that Sunday, when I went to meet Andy to pick up Megan, it took me 2 hours of driving to find a passable road! I finally got through at a spot which was dry when i passed going east and covered with 2 inches of water when i returned not 30 minutes later. That's right folks, it's flood season in the Red River Valley. If I'd tried to get through just 30 minutes later, I wouldn't have made it and Megan would have been stuck in Minnesota until the flood water receeded (She thought this was cool, by the way, cuz she would have been out of school for the better part of week). This morning they are closing the bridge downtown, about 3 blocks from my office. The river is supposed to crest at 47.something feet. My source of anxiety is the flood wall system. In 1997, we had a fuck-all flood that flooded the entire city (among others) and caused a fire that burned several buildings downtown to the ground. Some 60,000 people had to be evacuated (which is nothing compared to New Orleans, but was impressive at the time) and in the end, the Army Corps of Engineers decided we needed a newer, higher flood protection system. Flash forward to 2006, 9 years later. There is still a section, about ..oh...100 feet long, of flood wall that is not completed. It happens to be RIGHT behind MY office. And my feeling is that a flood wall with a hole in it is pretty much useless. So, this morning, when I finish this blog, I will be heading downtown, into the basement of my building, into the damp moldy darkness to get the stuff we have in storage out and up to the 2nd flood. All of our Art Festival junk is down there so it should take me quite awhile. I am taking a stokepile of Coffee, Percoset (for my back) and Benedryll (for my mold allergies) and should be quite miserable by day's end.
(The photo below shows the location of my office, incase you need to send help. :) )