Finding concerts Apr 16, 2025
I'm always kind of surprised how difficult it is to find concerts I might be interested in, and how bad the search engines are at performing this seemingly simple task.  When I go to a website of a concert venue or ticket seller, I can scroll through their list of upcoming events, but it's a total mishmash of every style of music from every generation.  And when I make the unfortunate decision to buy a ticket for a concert I want to attend, I get automatically signed up to receive emails from the ticket seller that say, "Hey, since you're going to a concert, would you be interested in going to a completely unrelated concert simply for the pleasure of experiencing the sensation of live music?"  Like, no.  If I go to death metal concert, I'm not interested in going to a techno concert simply because both things fit neatly into the box of "live music."  That's not how that works, that's not how anything works, and I feel like this issue should've been resolved in like 2002.  How can I not simply select "live music" from a drop-down box, then further select "music that contains a guitar" vs. "music that involves a DJ"?  These are not overlapping Venn diagrams, and I shouldn't have to tell the likes of TicketMaster how to serve me the content I actually want to pay money for.  Use those ticket fees for something good, you dorks. #music
Pumping gas Apr 9, 2025
I moved from one of the few states that don't let you pump your own gas, to one of the many states that do.  I have a lot of strong opinions about a lot of different things, and this is refreshingly not one of them.  I don't know why, I just really don't care whether I pump my own gas or not.  This opinion occupies exactly zero processor cycles in my brain.  And this is quite different than pretty much every other person on earth, who feels extremely strongly about one side or the other.  I guess it's kind of gross to touch a gas pump that thousands of other people touch, while standing outside in the heat or cold, breathing in poisonous gasoline fumes.  But I don't have to interact with anyone, which is nice.  Two sides, essentially equal; opinion weakly held.