Well, the first tropical depression of the season has formed just southwest of Florida, and of course the media has siezed upon this event as A) the first sign of the apocalypse, B) an excuse to once again bring up the global warming debate, C) the perfect reason to show us pictures of New Orleans being laid waste for the umpteenth time. And we Florida residents just roll our eyes at the gibbering of the uninformed masses at CNN and MSNBC who think they’re all regular Max Mayfields.
In reality, this TD is expected to become nothing more serious than a tropical storm, bringing moderate winds and heavy rains to an area of the country that is badly in need of the latter (if not the former). You’d never know that from listening to the weather wonks on your typical national news channel, though, whose every sentence roils with thick peals of “I told you so” and “Look, it’s happening again” as they try, in vain, to report the facts without spreading on thick gobs of their own uninformed taint. Seriously, have you ever seen Wolf Blitzer interview a National Hurricane Center spokesman? I think kindergarteners could come up with more informed questions just from reading the NHC’s website.
Frankly, the typical hooting and hollering of the know-nothing talking heads is the last thing I need in my life right now. With my typical day looking something like “work, eat, work, sleep, work” for the last several months and for the forseeable future, plus the usual chores and chasing people around on the phone to try to get things done, the absolute, proof-positive, totally last thing I want to hear is the media telling us all to run for the hills because there’s a storm cloud in the sky. I absolutely cannot take any more of the mainstream’s media’s rush to instill fear and loathing in all of us because they say that’s how we should feel.
Anyway, I shouldn’t even be here wasting the ten minutes it’s taken me to write this. I have two projects for two different clients to work on during my limited hours today. One of whom wants weekly updates from me, so I better have something done to tell the guy about come Monday, because I didn’t last weekend since my day job boss gave me an emergency project that filled up my Saturday. The other client is running short on his budget (thanks to his inability to give me complete instructions up front, I spent additional hours and am therefore charging him more than his original expectations, whatever those were because he didn’t communicate them, either) and wants me to implement revision #4 in as little time as possible, with a prototype available for review by Monday.
Have a great weekend, folks.
