I was reading this article in the NYTimes this morning and it was fairly stupid. Not aggressively stupid but clearly a waste of time. It was supposed to be about the fact that there's a limit of 5000 on the number of friends you can have on Facebook and how some people are dealing with that. And that's about all the story. Repeated the fact from the headline. Told us that Facebook wouldn't say why there was a limit. Included lots of quips from celebrity types who are at or near the friends limit. And allowed the writer to make lots of snarky comments about the sort of people who waste time on Facebook (obviously meant to remind us that she was not the sort of person who wastes time on Facebook "updating" her "status" for her "friends.") Yeah, it was just that good.
Which raises the question: why did I read it? A perfectly reasonable question and one I'm not sure I've got the answer to just yet. I mean, I've spent enough time reading the NYTimes by now that I can spot what's likely to be a pretty stupid article just from the headline and blurb. Sure, you can say that by starting to read, I'm refusing to make a pre-judgement based on limited information. I'm being open to the possibility that something good might happen. Yeah, right. But, no... It might be the triumph of hope over experience. But I suspect it's more likely some sort of literary masochism. I read these things knowing they'll suck so that I can confirm my opinion of the debased state of journalism and newspaper writing in the early 21st century.

Yes, I will get to my actual recap of Kinetic Sculpture Race weekend but first some complaining about cars. I mentioned already that I rented a bloatmobile so there'd be more room in the backseat. Ended up w/ a Mercury Grand Marquis and I gotta say I was pretty unimpressed. It had decent enough backseat space (or at least no sitting back there complained about it so that I could hear) but not much else going for it. No satellite radio. Only 1 extra power outlet/cigarette lighter. Suspension frankly wasn't as good as my 15 year old Camry. I also wasn't knocked out by the acceleration. Oh yeah, also no On-Star. Handled pretty well for a massive bloatmobile. Now I realize that some of these missing features might be because it was a rental. OTOH, I've rented smaller cars that had XM. When I got upgraded to a Caddy, it had On-Star included. I don't think the rental company had the Grand Marquis classed as a luxury vehicle like the Caddys, etc. But it was still a pretty weak attempt at a premium level driving experience. Other than the fun of causing cognitive dissonance in some friends by rolling up in a car that's easily mistaken for a Crown Vic (aka the cop ride of choice), this beast didn't have much to recommend it. I certainly wouldn't ever buy one and I'll go out of my way not to get stuck having to rent one again either.
In other auto hijinks, when I went out to the aforementioned Camry this AM, my turning of the key was greeted only by some clicky-clicky noises. Fortunately I was able to get a jump off the pickup (once I got it thru my not-yet-caffeinated brain that the truck's engine was not going to turn over until I stepped on the clutch) and drive to the Tire King across the street from work. Fortunately it only needed a new battery (everything else checked out) and they got done in time that I still was able to get to the polls and vote on my way home.
Completely unrelated but a definite winner from the "are we SURE this is a good idea" dept: bacon syrup.

Sometimes I feel like the reason I got into DJing at XDU was to gain one more measure of control of the audio environment. I know that in today's webstreaming, iPod world, the notion of radio as a public audio space can seem a bit quaint. But I was reminded today that, quaint thought it may be, it's still a part of life. Had a dose of 80s classics over breakfast. Determined that Hall & Oates are less annoying than "Sussudio" and that it's a toss-up between "Paradise City" and "Who Can It Be Now?" Got another shot of dance hits at work later in the morning and determined that I don't really mind hearing "Like a Prayer" twice in one day, altho I would be just as happy not hearing it. Alas, while I was out of the room control of the audio space changed and when I returned it was no longer dance/pop hits radio but boomer classics. And I was reminded that I hate (hate!hate!!hate!!!) "American Pie." Srsly. It's on a short list of songs that seriously make me think about stabbing a pencil into my ear drum. That list would include "Stairway to Heaven" and anything from THE WALL. Probably other stuff too but those are the ones that come immediately to mind.

Time elapsed in 2010 before I encountered the first asshole of the year: about 9.5 hours. Which ain't so good, esp. seeing as how I was asleep for about 6.5 of those. I had to drive over to XDU to drop off a CD to replace one that was missing from the 2009 top 100 countdown we're doing today on air. Probably just misfiled somewhere -- I love my fellow DJs but I have to acknowledge that some of them seem to have issues with the alphabet; on Thursday AM I found all of the Nanci Griffith CDs filed between JE and JI.
Anyway, I'm driving down Broad St. Probably going the speed limit or maybe just a bit slower to check and see if Joe Van Gogh was open (they were; hooray for good coffee to start the year). In case it isn't obvious, Durham's not known for its busy traffic. So there was hardly anyone out on the roads this morning. But no matter, some car comes roaring up behind me and rides my ass for several blocks. I don't know where the hell they were in such a hurry to get to at 9.30 in the AM on New Year's but I'm glad to have done my part to make sure they got there just a little bit later than they wanted.

Top Chef finale! Yukon Cornelius vs. the Miser Brothers. I was planning to live blog the show but we managed to miracle into tonight's community dinner at Panciuto so I ended up overfull and unable to do any more than watch the show. Spoilers below

Things I do not like (part infinity + 2): Whatever idiot was using a leaf blower earlier this morning. Actually, what really gives it that special flavor of stupid is that they were only using it for about 15 min. tops. Srsly? You've got 15 min. of leaf blowing to do and 8am on a Saturday strikes you as the best time to do that? It's one thing if my dog wakes me up a 7am on a Saturday. She doesn't have a wrist watch. Or a calendar. I hold those with opposable thumbs to a slightly higher standard.

(part infinity +3): Aiya! Cut Xmas trees at the TROSA lot and at Kroger yesterday. And in case you're keeping score at home, that's almost a week before they showed up last year. And the depressing thing is, we apparently have no one to blame but ourselves. According to a story I read in the N&O yesterday, about two local radio stations going to an all Xmas music format this week (which I suppose I should give them credit for restraint, since the cable seasonal music channel has been on it since Nov. 1), both of the stations reported that they'd been getting complaints wondering why they hadn't started playing Xmas music yet.

Last week, TWC-bastardos messed w/ all the cable music channels. And, basically, screwed up two of my faves. The merged the 2 classic pop channels so now instead of all my Ella Fitzgerald, Django Reinhardt and Benny Goodman is being interrupted by Rod Frikkin' Stewart and other contemporary takes on the Great American Songbook. And the retro/new wave channel is now Classic Alternative and seems to include way too much Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis. At least they haven't screwed around with the mix on the downtempo electronica station where tonight seems to be "stuff Georg has played on XDU" night. Including a Funkstorung remix of Björk, a DJ Cam remix of Miles Davis, and a Groove Corp. remix of Big Youth.

like fun

Not only has TS Hannah messed w/ my travel plans for the weekend but it also washed out the Durm Bulls game we were planning to go to tonight. So, feh on that. Also my fave oldschool barber has moved. They used to be by Northgate and I know that when I was in there earlier this summer, they said something about moving but I don't remember where and there didn't seem to be a sign on the door saying.
At least my computer has stopped randomly locking up for no apparent reason. I doubt that whatever was wrong has magically fixed itself but it's working now and hopefully will continue to do so until I have time to deal with it. In other positive news, we went back to Rockwood tonight and altho the service was a bit spotty (friendly but inattentive, like maybe they were short a person or two) the food was outstanding. Sarah had the meatball sandwich and reported that it was excellent. I had a pizza with sausage (house-made), mushrooms and roasted red pepper. I'd say the crust was the best of the 4 pizzas I've had there. It seems that they're beginning to master their ovens. For dessert, we shared the praline-caramel ice cream (also house-made) which was spectacularly good.

It hasn't been an across-the-board trainwreck of a week. There was some good pizza. And I've enjoyed watching the Democratic convention (way more than I'd expected to). But on several fronts, this week has felt like a bucket that all the dregs of August have drained into. Mostly that's just the 40+ hours I worked, even though I came home at noon today. Well, and the fact that I have to go back in on Sunday. Feh! Plus a lot of bad craziness at the radio station. And some unsettled and hard-to-pin-down travel plans. Too much up in the air, not enough facts on the ground. And I should be taking advantage of the afternoon off and napping instead of reading emails and blogging.

One last thing. Governor of Alaska? That's the best he can do? Sheesh!