Friday

The convenience of satellite radio has drawn me into the flames.  A 90-day trial subscription to SiriusXM came with the new Buick in December.  It has been nice to have the many channels for music, news and sports on these trips to Minnesota (or locally to Muscatine or Iowa City).  I had kinda decided that if their "deal" was for no more than $10 a month, I'd consider signing-up.  Well, I got the paperwork in the mail yesterday, and a pre-paid annual subscription is $113, all in.  That's for a year after the first three months which were at no cost.  I called up and did the subscription.

My concern is the second year.  Its auto-renewal, of course.  But you can cancel the renewal before the renewal date.  How reliable will Outlook be for this purpose?

Subsequent to the subscription confirmation, I also received an email from Sirius encouraging me to get their "app" for my smart phone which allows the user to lock or unlock the car from the phone.  There was a list of other services that were available through the app...which immediately raised my concerns about what I had just bought into.  Really.  Below radar I ain't.

(Relatedly, the Buick also came with a trial subscription to OnStar.  I definitely will not be taking that service when the trial period expires.  There's way too much tracking going on for the LtPC.)

I'm not really afraid of Friday the 13th, but I don't like tempting the Fates either.  No bad stories on the 13th from my past, but one should always be careful.

I gotta admit that I have enjoyed a bit the recent calling-out of the now disgraced news-reader, Brian Williams.  There was a time up through about the time of 2008 Presidential campaign where I actually watched NBC evening news with some regularity.  He even had expressed some interest in NASCAR.  But his shtick got to me at that time (as all of the broadcast news people did to some extent), and I have avoided him like the plague now for years.  He has now brought to the current lexicon the term "fabulist"...one who relates fables.

He is also representative of the people in the reporting business who have promoted themselves to being part of the news, or into being news makers themselves.  Almost an off-shoot of reality TV.  Dan Patrick in sports comes to mind.  He came up as an anchor on SportsCenter.  Now he's a sports "personality".  Who thinks his opinions matter.  There's not much that separates these people from Geraldo or the Kardashian's.

OK.  Enough for a Friday afternoon.  It's Wine o'clock.

Have a great weekend.

BCOT