My Thursday-Friday

What have I been up to?

- On Friday I took a drive down to a site where they supposedly piled several tons of rock along 500 feet of the Kansas River.  I say 'supposedly' because I couldn't find the site.  Or at least, I couldn't find 500 feet of rock.  I drove to this site by taking a street called Lakeview (there was no lake) and then turned onto the 'Scenic River Drive' (the river was visible once, through some trees).  We had a cold snap hit the night before, so it was about 65 degrees, and this turned out to be some of the most beautiful farmland I have ever seen.  I ended up taking a ton of pictures.  

-  Ever since I spent two years driving around obscure forest service roads in Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, I've had an intrinsic faith in Gazetteers.  I mean, some of those roads were more like horse-trails!  Well, that faith is pretty much gone after three straight weeks of getting lost and/or confused in Kansas.  I don't know if this is happening because I'm going to places that are just being built (and so the maps aren't new enough) or if I just got lucky up in the UP.  Who knows.  All I know is that I've started using Google Maps, the Gazetteer, AND ArcGIS in combination.  Usually I get where I want to go.

-  I don't know if everyone is aware of it or not, but the music being played on the radio sucks.  Really awful.  I'm not sure what can be done about it, but this is the strongest argument ever made for XM radio.

-  Finally:  Elton John versus Billy Joel.  I know the sexy, conventional, obvious choice is Elton John, but aside from Tiny Dancer, Elton John sucks.  My mom and dad and mother-in-law actually suggested that Elton John was a more talented piano player.  Hello!  Billy Joel is the Piano Man!  I consulted with my musically brilliant uncle, and he totally agrees with me:  Billy Joel is better than Elton John.  That's just a fact.  That's science.  From now on these are the kind of conversations I'm going to have on this issue:

Someone:  Elton John is so awesome!
Me:  (The sound of someone laughing while drinking milk...or, if appropriate, making a snickering sound.  I may even 'snort)
Someone (in disbelief):  You don't like Elton John?
Me:  Elton John is a less enduring, less reserved, less talented, and infinitely more annoying version of Billy Joel. 
Someone:  But Elton John is so talented.
Me:  Did you not read my blog-post on this subject?  I think my logic was pretty flawless.
Someone:  But Elton John...
Me:  I can't talk to you about this if you're just going to ignore logic.