Michael Jackson dies

No this isn't another one of a thousand posts reflecting on Michael Jackson's life. Rather it's about the process surrounding how I/we found out the news.

At work about 2 PM Pacific, someone shouted the first news about Michael Jackson. I forget if it was that he'd had a cardiac arrest, was rushed to the hospital or something else. Shortly thereafter someone yelled that he had died. As a group we spent the next 20 minutes using the power of the internet to get the latest and greatest news. We used out local IRC chat to sent around the latest news link. I found Crowd Eye incredibly useful as I could see what other people we're tweeting. We all found TMZ breaking the news first and for 15 minutes it was the only source aside from those quoting TMZ. While we knew it was 99% likely true, none of us believed it until we saw got confirmation in the LA Times blog. Meanwhile I was getting breaking news email updates from CNN which we're all "old news".

The thing I've found most interesting about his death is how open people are about their hatred of the man just minutes or hours after he died. I.e., their feeling are so intense, or perhaps their tact so lacking, that they can't wait a day to share their negative thoughts. I'm no fan of the Michael Jackson of the last 15 years but for God sakes, the man just died and people lost their father, brother, and son.

Woo hoo, softball

Our softball team finally won a game this weekend to move up to 1-7. Funny thing is unlike all of my brother's teams, this team isn't bad at all. We've played even with the top teams in the league. Seems like our good games are against good teams and our bad games -- missing people or didn't play well -- are against the teams we should beat. Good news is every team makes the playoffs as we'll be ready.

Our house is coming along. We're replacing the carpet downstairs with a tile floor. Should increase cleanliness and reduce allergens. Time to think about painting/staining outside now that it's warm.