A couple of years ago I wrote this:

What I’ve noticed happening just in the past month though is that not only do there seem to be more ads, but the ads themselves are getting longer. Much longer. Much, much longer. Ads that run for a minute and a half are now not uncommon. But I’ve also seen them run 4 and 5 minutes, and (this was the record) one a couple of days ago that was 8 minutes and 30 seconds! That’s not an ad, it’s a full infomercial. This goes beyond being annoying, to the point where it actually has had the effect of driving me away.

It’s no secret why they’re doing this. They want you to pay for a premium service where you don’t have to see ads. Or so they say. I don’t know how true that is (sponsored ads, I assume, are still included), or how long it’s likely to last. I can remember when cable TV became a big thing and it was known as Pay-TV and the deal was you paid a subscription and you got to watch everything with no ads. That’s not cable TV today.

Still, I’m scratching my head at advertising that’s so deliberately alienating. Who wants to watch an eight-and-a-half-minute ad? Absolutely no one. That isn’t an irritant, it’s a nuclear bomb being dropped on the platform. It’s a message to everyone that if you’re not paying for a subscription they don’t want you there at all. That seems self-defeating to me. But Amazon is still going strong despite its enshittification and I suspect YouTube will still be in business even after it’s become so overwhelmed with advertising it’s barely functional. There’s a lot of room for things to get shittier yet.

And boy did they! Given my shock and amazement at ads that were 8 minutes long I had to revisit this post today as I just watched a podcast where, right in the middle, they dropped an 18-minute advertisement! What gives?

Yep, we’re really getting down to the coffee grinds stage of snow mountain. Heavy rain yesterday and everything warming up. But it’s still holding on.

The hounds of spring may be on winter’s traces, but this isn’t the prettiest time of the year. As the snow retreats it leaves behind wreckage like this in the Wal-Mart parking lot. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

And here’s the latest update on the shrinking (and browning) snow mountain. Still with us!

So the house just behind me, which was a very nice home, was recently sold and the buyer (a developer) just finished tearing it down. He’s going to build two or three units on the lot for student housing. This doesn’t bother me too much, as I’ve noticed that students aren’t the rowdy, noisy types they used to be. They don’t drink or party as much. But it does mean that I’m going to have to listen to the noise of construction all summer, as they want the units ready to rent by September. I’ll keep you up to date.

Today they were just in with chainsaws cutting the last of the trees down. (You an click on the pic to make it bigger.)

Feels like – 35? C’mon man, that’s not fair. This is the back end of March.

That’s quite a wind chill isn’t it? I’ll have to dress in layers.

We got about 10 cm of snow yesterday, so the snow pile in the parking lot got a nice whitening. It’s not as big as it used to be, but it’s looking a lot cleaner.

Very warm this weekend and the snow mountain is definitely on the decline. We need some more snow to brighten it up. For earlier posts see here and here.

On days like this you can forget about picking up your mail. Even if you can get your key in the slot the doors are iced shut.

Not that we had any mail delivery anyway!

A bit of a warm snap for a couple of days here so  the snow mountains in the parking lots are starting to melt a bit. I’ll keep with the updates. I’ve reposted the original pic with today’s update below.