Basement Flooding --AGAIN! What is This, Part Three?

I posted this on Facebook, but I also wanted to record it here.

Back in early November, I was one of many Florissant / north STL county residents that got a majorly flooded basement due to the ridiculous amount of rain. This happened once before back in ...2014?

It was really a lot worse than simple rain water for us, as the sewer system became "overcharged" (that is MSD's word for it 😒) and backed up into our house. To the extent of 5-7" of... sludge. The damage was... bad. My homeowner's insurance didn't cover anything. MSD gave us a small check for the damages while still maintaining it wasn't their fault. I had a company show up and quote us for the cleanup and restoration and it was ~4x what MSD was going to give us. That wouldn't have covered replacing anything lost, only cleanup and restoring drywall, etc.. I took the money, paid the company for the cleanup they'd done so far and that was it.

You can see that Florissant residents showed up at a city meeting that MSD hosted... If you watch closely you can spot me there. I left that meeting unsatisfied... As did almost everyone that I spoke to there. A lot of customer service and PR folks to explain gently how this wasn't their fault.

I've been slowly and surely cleaning things up myself over the past several months, whenever I can get to it. Progress had been slow.

Well... now it's happening again. A "once in a hundred years" rain storm is happening again this weekend. Because of course it is. This time I was a little better prepared, and I think I'm going to stay on top of it hopefully. How?

First, after November I bought a little drain plug. It was relatively cheap (<$10) at my local hardware store. They come in a few different sizes (3", 4", and such) so measure before you buy. This screws tightly into place and keeps MOST but not all of the water from coming up from a basement drain. You don't want to leave something like this in place 100% of the time, as a burst pipe OR water from the basement walls needs a place to go. But when water begins to come UP you can slow that down.

As I am currently getting water from the walls AND some coming up from the drain. I needed a way to get pump out the water that is pooling there. A shop vac worked for a little while, but I'd have to empty it by carrying it up the stairs and dumping into the backyard. After 15 or more trips this way, while barely keeping up with the water, I decided that was not going to cut it. I have to sleep eventually. So another trip to the hardware store and I now the owner of a small 1/6 horsepower sump pump that attaches to a standard garden hose. A 100' hose goes out my basement window and empties into the drainage ditch at the end of my yard.

Now I just need to turn it off every once in a while when the water is low, so it can cool off and let enough of a puddle form for suction. So that's where I'm at now. Wish me luck on keeping up with the rain. This is NOT what I planned to do this weekend, but we can't always get what we want. Stay safe everyone.

Karaoke @ Murphy's Bar & Grill

I've been hosting a new karaoke night every Tuesday at Murphy's Bar & Grill in Creve Coeur. I was referred to them through Zyi, and it came together pretty quickly after I reached out. This place had a regular karaoke night prior to the pandemic, but it fell apart and they needed a reboot. Here's my invite description.

𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸, 𝗯𝗮𝗯𝘆! Welcome old friends and new friends of 🍀 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘺'𝘴 𝘉𝘢𝘳 & 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭.

My name is Jim and I'm the new host for 🎵 Karaoke Tuesday nights from 8:30-11:30pm. I grew up in Creve Coeur and I can't wait to get this started. We are going to have a good time.

I'm an experienced musician and karaoke host, and it's my goal to provide great entertainment for your evening. Some people are not sure about karaoke and I get that. What should you expect? If you'd like to sing, I'll give you every opportunity to take your turn with the mic. 🎤 Or you can sit back, have a few drinks and enjoy the music with live singers of every possible skill level.

Don't forget, it's also $𝟐.𝟎𝟎 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 all day, so all domestics 🍻 are available for $2 each as well as all night happy hour well drinks. This is a smoker-friendly bar.

Enjoying the description and cheeky emojis, but will probably update this as time goes on. Right now, I'm looking at the rest of the month. We will have karaoke this week for the 17^th but the bar will be closing early on the 24^th for Christmas Eve. However, there will be a special night on NEW YEAR'S EVE, December 31^st where we will have karaoke up to almost midnight and then I'll lead us all in a countdown. I hope you join us!

Wheel of Lunch - another casualty in the death of the Web as we knew it...

A moment of silence please...

I like fun single-use websites. I've written about The Useless Web and other sites like it a few times, and they are fun and goofy. But there have also been a number of effectively useful single-use websites over the years that I've frequented. And right now I find it hard to believe that I've never written about my absolute favorite.

The Wheel of Lunch

Imagine you are with your coworkers or a group of friends and it's getting close to lunchtime. "Where should we go?" you might ask. And then a long discussion begins.

And here's what you should know about me. I am pretty open to most restaurant options, and don't have a strong preference. Basically, once we've decided to eat, I'm pretty agnostic as to the where. When the conversation goes on longer than 2 minutes, I'm politely ready to pick something at random. And for this exact reason exists the Wheel of Lunch.

The screen shot I've saved here does not do this justice. This website has existed since at least 2009. The original version that I was familiar with used Flash (R.I.P.) as a technology. It was later remade with <canvas>. But that was just the front end. The backend technology was pretty genius.

Loading the site at default would give a wheel with ~20 generic options for what to do for lunch (or dinner). You could spin it and get a generic result (like "hamburgers"). But optimally, the site had a connection to YELP, and if you gave it your local ZIP code, the best feature was triggered. Results for the top 20 local restaurants got loaded onto the wheel and then it would get a spin. If you were interested in a specific type of restaurant --for example, BBQ-- you could enter that as a search query and get a list of thosrestaurant types on your wheel.

This was great! Of course, you weren't forced to eat at the first random option. You can always spin again. In coworker groups, the list at least facilitated inspiration and quicker discussion on available options. It was fun for "hey, have you heard of this place?" New adventures could be had.

My wife and kids? Funny enough, they were not fans. They didn't want to trust the wheel for dinner, and they didn't like the clicking sound the wheel makes. And probably didn't want to hear me suggest the WHEEL. OF. LUNCH. one more time. But they are spoilsports who hate fun! 😝

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I guess all good things must come to an end. Tonight, I went to try it again when we were discussing dinner options and was greeted with the familiar wheel, missing the search options. On the left column was this note:

July 22, 2024

I am sad to report that after 15 years of The Wheel of Lunch, Yelp has decided to no longer provide free API services to the wheel. Yelp’s cheapest API plan is $230 a month! I can't afford that.

The Wheel of Lunch has always been a labor of ♥, and provides zero $ to me (I stopped running ads a while ago). I have no desire to “monetize” the Wheel.

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the Wheel, while it existed. It was from an older, friendlier version of the World Wide Web that was not exclusively about commerce. Many of these sites are shuttered now, and the Wheel of Lunch is just another casualty in the long march to the death of the Web as we knew it.

Have a nice day! :)

Oof. I felt that viscerally. And it triggers a nostalgic feeling for the early web 2.0 peak of the 2010s or thenabouts. I guess the Useless Web is still around, but I'd suggest we all appreciate it before it fades entirely.

Upcoming Music Events

In the last paragraph of a recent post, I mentioned that I'm back on Facebook. And considering my level of dislike and vitriol for the dumpster fire that is FB, it's probably best if I explain why. In a few sentences, I've returned to Facebook in an attempt to promote myself as an entertainer a little more. It's quick and easy and I can reach a lot of my friends and family with some immediacy. Time will tell if I keep that up or if the good outweighs the bad for my mental health.

That aside, there are a bunch of my upcoming performance events that I thought I'd share here also. Oh. I've neglected to mention that I'm in a ska band now, called Free Champagne Band. This is in addition to the brass party band MO ECHO. Last but not least I should update regarding my weekly karaoke events.

• 7/4 - The CWEA Fourth of July Parade - MO ECHO Brass Band will be performing at the parade in the morning, starting at 10am. We march down Euclid towards Maryland Plaza, and perform in place at SuitSupply there by the fountain. #NewOrleansBrassBand [Here's the CWEA event page.]
• 7/5 - FREE CHAMPAGNE @Llywelyn’s Webster, come see the Free Champagne Band perform on stage, 9pm to midnight. #Ska #Reggae #Blues
• 7/6 - < 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 private event >
• 7/25 - Hosting Open Mic / Karaoke at Padrinos Mexican Restaurant from 6pm until 9pm. Subbing for Michael Marciano. #karaoke
• 8/16 - The 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 returns to Llywelyn's Pub Webster Groves, starting at 9pm.
• 8/25 - The 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 performs at Ferguson Farmers Market starting tentatively at 10am.
• 9/7 - The 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 performs at South County Block Party, TBD
• 9/11 - 𝗠𝗢 𝗘𝗖𝗛𝗢 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 performs at Overland Concert in the Park - MO ECHO Brass Band at 6pm to 8pm.
• 9/14 - The 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱 performs at Overland Farmers Market, TBD
• 10/24 - Hosting Open Mic / Karaoke at 𝖯𝖺𝖽𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗈𝗌 again from 6pm until 9pm.

My regular Karaoke Fridays (3rd and 4th Fridays of the Month) at Padrinos are currently on hold, although Karaoke is still happening every Friday, just with a different awesome host named Victor who you should check out. I'll be there as a surprise participant every once in a while, so I'll talk about that too.

So that's a quick update. It does appear that I may be losing my regular karaoke gig, but that is yet to be confirmed at this time. In the meantime, I'm still singing and playing trombone out and about whenever I get the chance.

No Child Left Behind - Broken From the Beginning (Facebook)

Back in 2010 or so, I created a Facebook Group specifically for bitching about and spreading information on the negative effects of the No Child Left Behind Act. This was a terrible policy and law brought to us by the George W. Bush White House, and it needed to be repealed or heavily overhauled. This did happen in 2015, when NCLB was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

My main complaint about the NCLB was that while it had a laudable goal of improving schools, the actual method seemed to be draconian in nature. For any schools or school systems that struggled, the method seemed to be to restrict or narrow their budget. Reduce federal or state funding for any school that didn't improve. But that's not really how education works. If a school system is struggling, they need MORE money and support instead of less.

I had forgotten about the group I created, as it didn't really go very far. I'm archiving some of the links I posted here just for my recollection. Most of them were to similar groups with similar goals.

• Missouri Assessment Program - this was likely an unofficial local business page automatically created by FB and managed by no one.
• President Obama's 'No Child Left Behind' Overhaul Plan - Associated Content - www.associatedcontent.com/article/5728900/president_obamas_no_child_left_behind.html - domain down - but here's a more official page.
• And for this one, I said "Oh, yay. Your children's private information is being shared with the military thanks to the NCLB Act. This site deserves a page / group of it's own. Read more:" - Leave My Child Alone
• I posted: "Quote posted May 2007:
  With support for NCLB/Helter-Skelter faltering in Congress as the country wakes up to the stupidity of the change strategies and the damage being done to its schools, No Child Left has accompished its goal, the repeal or drastic amendment of the law. Publication of the journal stopped with the May 2007 issue but the site will remain as an archive of articles exploring the distortions, simple-minded thinking and fraudulent notions hidden within this dangerous experiment."
• I posted: "This site was active prior to 2007/05 and was dedicated to revision of NCLB. In that month, they posted an update that they had reached their goal of bringing attention to the issue. I'm not sure I agree, but this looks like a good place for more information." No Child Left - Committed to Repeal of NCLB/Helter-Skelter - nochildleft.com - domain down
• I posted: "There are three groups on Facebook called No Teacher Left Behind:" and only one of which was still live at this point.
• I posted: "A well-established group with shared goals." - Leave No Child Behind?? - and then I commented that I wished I'd found that group first before creating my own.
• And I posted a link to another group: Abolish NCLB (No Child Left Behind)

That was fun, if I recall. It was short-lived and I closed the group shortly thereafter. This probably marked my first foray into getting heavily political on Facebook. Perhaps I just needed to do something more than rant.

Hey wait... Why am I back on Facebook? More about this later...

Hosting Karaoke

So, I'm hosting a weekly karaoke night now. And getting paid for it! Let me explain.

Through working with Zyi Li, I've met a whole network of musicians, venues and new friends. One of the places that MO ECHO played last year was a Mexican place called Padrinos. I think the story was that Zyi knew the owners and hosted a regular weekly open mic / karaoke night there. After a few months of establishing that, Zyi gave it over to some friends from MO BRAVO, two of the folks I knew the best from that band. They were singer Erica Soulstice who handled karaoke on Fridays and guitarist Michael Marciano, who handled open mic on Thursdays and sometimes booked bands for Saturdays. Well, at the time that was going well, Zyi made sure to pass my name along as someone that could substitute for them at various times.

Erica showed me the works with the karaoke set up at Padrinos first. They have their own PA system and all the mics and stands needed. All I needed was to show up with a laptop and a subscription to Karafun. And I started substituting for her whenever that was possible. And I really loved it. I've also subbed for Mike on a Thursday once and that was a great time too.

Fast forward to this past month. Erica has gotten an opportunity for something out in California, so 7/21 was her last event. I took over permanently on 7/28 and will be hosting karaoke at Padrinos every Friday from 9pm until midnight. It's my own weekly musical event and it's such a great time every time.

Anyhow, if you are reading this then you are invited to come on out and enjoy a fun evening. Sign up and sing or just sit back, enjoy a margarita and listen to the music.

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Bonus: Check out MO BRAVO in this video from last year, playing a variety from Padrino's humble stage.

And here's MO ECHO from a different night.