babbling blue

“Is that an earthquake? No, it’s Rrrrramone!” Actually, no… it really was an earthquake. I felt my first earthquake ever last night! It was a bit surreal. I honestly thought I had dreamed it until I got to work and someone else asked if I had felt the earthquake. So I looked it up, and sho’ nuff, there was a magnitude 5.2 quake in southern Illinois, more than 200 miles away from here. I woke up around 4:40am. . it felt a bit like someone jumping on my bed next to me. Very odd. I’m not sure how long it lasted. . . maybe 10 seconds or so.

This quake apparently occurred along the New Madrid fault line, which was also responsible for one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded in the contiguous US, in 1812. There were no measurements then, but experts estimate it was around a magnitude 8.0.

There was also an earthquake in the central Illnois area somewhere in the 3-4 years ago range. I remember hearing about it, but I slept through it that time. Some family in Madison, WI said they felt it.

If I’m going to live in an earthquake zone, I should just move to California where at least there is better weather!

This poor person ended up paying $106 for three $13 tickets to Three Doors Down.

The charges aren’t all from Ticketmaster though. The “facility charge” is apparently levied by the concert organizers to recoup their cost of using the venue. That sure sounds like it should be something that is included in the face value of the ticket price. All of these fees are tacked on afterward to make the tickets sound cheap until you’re ready to check out. Bait & switch? It’s borderline fraud and Ticketmaster is the worst offender, though they’re hardly the only one. The whole live performance (concerts, theater, sports) ticketing is a real racket. Everyone has their hands in the pot and in the end the consumer gets screwed over every which way you can imagine.

More Ticketmaster rants.