Poor Pandora

Having grown tired of listening to AOL Radio at work, I decided to give Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/) a try. Interesting concept - you advise Pandora of a song or artist that you like, the program suggests songs based on that initial input, and as you rate those choices (thumbs up, "ehhh," or thumbs down) it further develops your profile. Songs that meet with your approval get added to your playlist, and you can manually add songs and artists as well. The site suggests that, for best results, you create multiple channels if you enjoy more than one tyope of music. Nah, that would be WAY too easy. I've opted for one incredibly schizophrenic channel (titled "Purposefully Whimsical," natch!), and sometimes I imagine that I can hear the computer program screaming in frustration as I zigzag back and forth between genres. It's not that I'm intentionally trying to be difficult; it's just the way my mind tracks. An example: The Pretenders' "Don't Get Me Wrong" is one of my all-time favorite songs, so of course I added that to the playlist early in the process. Then the part of my brain that obsessively hoards useless pop culture trivia reminded me that The Pretenders' frontwoman used to be married to the frontman for The Kinks, so I added "Come Dancing" and "Lola." Which, of course, led me to "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets." So now Miss Pandora is trying to process The Pretenders/The Kinks/Dinah Shore. And then, out of nowhere, I remember that I really, REALLY like Tupac's "California Love." The scary thing is that, after a week's worth of listening sessions, Pandora is starting to get me (which is fascinating, since I don't get myself half of the time?) . . . .