What is that in the heck?

Hope you had a nice weekend. No, really.

Here behind the Orange Curtain this weekend, temperatures were mildly cool, ~62 degrees, under a series of passing clouds. One or two of these clouds actually dropped a wee spittle of rain drops. Nothing that would drive me indoors from playing some ball with Thing1 and Thing2.

So imagine my surprise when I turn on the local EyeWitless Evening News Weekend Edition, that all of their newsreporting technological resources were devoted to "STORM WATCH 7000". Huh? A few drops? Storm Watch? And I think my job got slow from time to time. As my recently turned 4-year-old Thing 2 would ask, well, see the title of this post.

Apparently viewers living in the far north of the broadcast region had a slight sprinkle or two as well, enough to count for a passing shower. And since we're well behind average in rainfall so far this year (1" vs a regular 6"), some roads got a bit slippery.

So they have the obligatory Southern Californian, who is always from somewhere else originally, declare to a live reporter "People here just don't know how to drive in the rain!"

First off, as an aside, as I've gotten older I've come to realize that I am in a very small minority of people who live in the greater Los Angeles area (and yes, Orange County IS in the greater Los Angeles area) that were actually born here and have lived here all of my life.

Every time a couple of clouds get together and precipitate a drop or two, there's always some moron on the TV news declaring that these people out here just don't know how to drive in these conditions.

Attention Mr. Driving Critic: Instead of telling us how badly we drive in the rain, why don't you a) let us in on exactly HOW to drive, b) shut the fuck up, and c) move back to whereever your kind know how to operate a motor vehicle in less than optimal climatologic conditions.

Really, how does one drive in the rain? People here, who rely on their cars more than their oxygen, drive slower - much, much slower. Does Mr. Safer-Than-Thou advocate driving faster, at a normal pace, as if the rain were not slickening the road? Or even slower still, backwards almost. Please enlighten me. Because the idiots on the TV news don't give two shits about raising the awareness of their moronic viewer base (that's me in there too!), they just want their ratings to remain high by scaring the living shit out of you with every possible threat to your happiness and sense of well-being.

That's about all I've got to say about that. Feh.

Tad Annoyed Fails to Land on the Moon Today

It's been a while since I posted. Nothing much seems to be annoying ol' Tad these days. And any of the stuff that occurs to me usually happens during my commmute and evaporates from my miniscule psyche by the time I gets me to my computer. So a couple of random thoughts on current events, just to loosen the joints...

Yesterday Apple Computer announced their new I-Phone. At least that's what they were hoping to call it. They were in last-minute talks with Cisco Systems, whose Linksys unit apparently already has a product called I-Phone. No agreement was reached before Steve Jobs announced Apple's I-Phone, so now Cisco is suing Apple for trying to use the name without permission.

Bad move in my opinion. Just think of all the sales Cisco will miss out on by mistaken consumers. Perhaps in exchange, Cisco can get permission to call their latest routers "IPods".


Switching gears, yesterday the Baseball Writers of America announced the results of their Hall of Fame balloting. The headline I read on my newspapers shamefullly read "McGwire Fails to Get Elected to Hall".

I have a number of problems with this headline. First, it unnecessarily bags on Mark McGwire. Was he actively pursuing election? Did he lobby or campaign? I don't know, but I would hate to be accused of failing to do something that I never set out to accomplish in the first place. The headline should rather state "Baseball Writers Fail to Elect McGwire" at the very least.

Even better - the headline should proclaim that Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were easily elected, and deservedly so. But there is no question, no controversy, no juicy story behind that.

I think that Mark McGwire has a place in baseball infamy. He did nothing to cheat, technically, as far as I am aware. The Andro he reportedly took was not against the rules when he played. So more power to him.

For players that took supplements after they were outlawed, too bad. Rafael Palmeiro continued, and got busted. Sammy Sosa retired, and is contemplating a comeback as I understand, a year after his system, er, mind is clear. And Barry Bonds... let's just say that his body does not recover from injuries as quickly, he is now on pace with the rest of us.

Should Barry get elected? Probably, in my view. Being a nice guy was never a criteria. I've never met Mark McGwire, but he always seemed media friendly (and was good on TV) when he played. Bonds is not. I've briefly come across Bonds once in person, and making a good impression or appearing affable was not one of his priorities.

My bottom line is that Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Pete Rose, and Joe Jackson each have contributed significantly to the game of baseball, and are pretty darn famous. They should be in the Hall of Fame.

But who the hell am I. Ah yes, just a casual blogger.