Already Missed a Day

Third day in… and I’ve already broken my commitment to post every day.  Dang it!  But you know what?  I’m not going to apologize or feel guilt for it.  Yesterday was a pretty good day.

Saturday started out pretty much like a regular work day for me.  I had to get up and be at the radio station by 8AM to finish up some stuff I didn’t get done Friday, then I had a remote from 10AM to Noon.  So at least it was a half day if anything.  And the remote itself was pretty cool.  I was hanging out at a car dealership with 3 classic dragsters, a new Shelby GT500 and a new Dodge Challenger or two.  So as far as working goes, it wasn’t too bad.

After that I headed home, and really didn’t accomplish a whole lot.  Took a nap.  Watch a storm roll in.  We were expecting some hail, but it turned out just to be a nice good soaking rain, free water for the yard!  Then it was pretty much time to eat, played with Luke.  Luke went to bed and then… I actually got to play some Guild Wars 2!  It’s been about as long since I’ve played that game as it has since I had posted on the blog.

So even though I didn’t get a post made yesterday, I had a very enjoyable today.  I’m hoping for today to be equally as good, but a bit more productive.  As soon as Andrea gets up and around, I’m going to see if she can watch Luke and I’m going to get some work done on the cars (all four of them, ugh) that I’ve been putting off.

I can finally talk about it

We just launched a new radio station at work on Wednesday.  I’ve been working on it for quite a while, but haven’t been able to say anything.  It’s pretty cool because they kinda just left it up to me to go make a radio station.  Not that I’m really qualified to do such things, but I gave it a shot, and it’s at least a radio station by definition.  Whether it’s a good radio station will remain to be seen.

I had a lot of freedom.  Infact I designed the logo for the station myself.  I hope I don’t come across as much of a bragger on here, but I am pretty proud of it.  The logo, and the station itself.  And for probably the second time ever, my artwork is on display somewhere in real life, not just the interwebs!  I designed the the banner for the electronic billboard we’re leasing for the next few months.

I have a show on the station 3pm – 8pm Monday through Saturday, so feel free to tune in if you are around.  We aren’t streaming yet, but we will be next month.

Another Project Radio

These seem to gravitate towards me.  Jamie and Bryan got this for me for my birthday this year.  Man is it cool!  It has a phonograph, cassette deck AND an 8 track!  All the good stuff!

I hooked it up to Andrea’s speakers, we plugged it in and it seems to work fine.  Other than the selection switch is pretty finnickey so I need to get some electronics cleaner and clean all the contacts there.

It needs a good cleaning, but it should be a trusty radio!

Good Greif

I hate to complain (never seems to change anything anway).  But it’s been an exhausting last few weeks.  So much work and travel.  I think I went 3 or 4 days without seeing what my house looks like in the sunlight.  Luckily I get to see Andrea once in a while when her and Luke stop by the radio station to hang out.  Lately I’ve been so busy thought that even then it’s tough to spend any quality time.

Well yesterday my schedule was pretty clear, so I made huge strides in getting caught up!  Felt good to not only be productive, but to be productive in the areas that I chose!  I have a little checklist at work that I use to make sure I don’t forget anything, and I finally got back to where I need to be on that.  Still some long term stuff that I need to get done, but I finally feel like I’m making progress again.

I actually left work a little early yesterday.  It felt almost like a vacation day!  I used my extra time to re-plant some peppers and corn in the garden, and start digging out the old pole that a satellite dish used to sit on.  Eventually that will become my new fire pit!  That’s gonna be a lot of work though for sure.

I actually sat down the other day and played some Guild Wars.  The original.  Actually had a lot of fun.  Since all the main story is done, I now have to make sure I just pick a direction or goal I want to work on and go at it.  Because it’s so easy now to sit in an outpost and just wonder what to do.  So I decided I was going to go work on my Asura reputation so I can get another title and some Asura armor to add to my Hall of Monuments.  When GW2 comes out, the more progress you’ve made in your HoM the better rewards you will get in GW2.

So there’s a little recap.  Sorry I’ve been so absent.  I really hope that it slows down soon because I don’t enjoy such a frantic pace to life.  So from henceforth I’m dialing it back!

Catch-up Post

Okay, well, here we go.  I’m running a remote today so I have a little time where I’m tied to the studio here and can’t go anywhere so figured I’d try to get a post cranked out.

Starting middle of the week BEFORE last week, we started streaming coverage of a murder trial here in town.  We were going to do video, but couldn’t get the equipment together, so we were at least going to stream audio on our website.  Well after the trial was scheduled to start, apparently they were running behind, however someone flipped on the microphone before they were supposed to and the name of a juror went out over our internet stream.  So the judge flipped out and banned us from the trial.  So that day sucked.

Then, feeling like we got the raw deal on something that wasn’t our fault, got our lawyer involved.  That moved about as fast as anything you can expect to move in the legal system.  So right about the time I’d given up hope, we were let back in.  And by now we’d finally got our video equipment.

So I spent about a week with half of every day sitting in an van by the courthouse monitoring our stream to make sure that nothing like that happened again.  Sufficed to say, I was WAY behind on all my work for the week, which included updating about 500 items for our radio auction, and getting audio edited for upcoming charity radio-thon fund raiser.  I ended up working 15 hours on Friday to get all the stuff done I HAD to do because we were hitting the road for the weekend.

I did a lot of relaxing at the in-laws’ house over the weekend.  That was much needed.  And we got to see Titanic in 3D.  I’m still not a huge fan of 3D movies, but they did pretty good converting a movie that was originally shot in 2D, I thought.  But still, it was the same old movie I remember.  For some reason I thought the ship looked smaller in 3D… oh well.

So that brings things up to this week.  Not as hectic as last week for sure and I’m thankful for that.  Still a lot to do, but I’ve been fairly productive.  I would have been more so, but I got really sick Monday night.  Terrible sore throat and the chills. I told myself if I didn’t feel any better when I woke up, I’d stay home.  Luckily I felt quite a bit better by morning and headed in.  One of the nice things about my job is I was able to go take a nap on the couch downstairs when I wasn’t feeling too swell.  I’m glad Andrea and Luke didn’t catch what I had… at least not yet.

And now it’s today.  I’m waiting for my paycheck to come in.  Not something I usually “wait” for, but I got a small bonus on this check which I’m going to use to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2 which went on sale yesterday.  I don’t want to wait too long because I don’t want the collector’s edition to sell out.  Supposedly very limited supply.

So there ya go.  That’s why I’ve been absent from the blog recently and I should be back to posting more regularly now!

Starting a Busy Stretch

Wednesday kicked off what is going to be a long busy week and a half.  I suppose I should say late Tuesday night.  It began at about 10:30pm when my phone got a text message from a co-worker saying that a station was off the air.  Of course I was asleep early getting ready for the morning show shift at 5am the next day.  But I rarely sleep for a long period of time at night and happened to wake up about an hour after that and saw the message.  Usually its not too big a deal.  Either log-in remotely to the studio and fire the programming back up, or the transmitter is down and the engineer will take care of it.

This time though the transmitter was on, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get the satellite to come back on.  So I had to drive into town and physically “unplug it and plug it back in”.  Which is always at the top of the trouble shooting list no matter what you’re working on!  Haha.  That did the trick.  But by the time it was all said and done it was 12:30am, and rather than drive back home.  Sleep a couple hours, get up and drive back in I just crashed on the couch in the basement.  It was some pretty crappy sleep, but better than none.

If a station goes off the air in the forest, and no one is around...

I woke up at 5am and threw on a hat and got ready prepping for the morning show.  It actually wasn’t too bad of a show.  But as soon as it was over I got the heck out of there and went home at about 8:45 am.

I kicked back and relaxed for a while, but didn’t take long for the tiredness to creep up on me.  I zonked out and slept for about 2 hours.  I should have gotten up then, but I was so comfortable that I decided… “I’ve got some more time… I’ll sleep a couple more hours before going back to work.”  That was a mistake.  I woke up rested, but somehow had an awful headache that bothered me for the rest of the day.  By the time I got off work for the second time at 7:30pm, it was to the point I almost couldn’t think straight.  So I did something I hardly ever do.  Popped a couple pills, and within an hour or so the headache was gone.  Guess my stubborn ass should have done that when I woke up…

Yesterday wasn’t too bad, though I feel like I could have gotten more accomplished.  Some of that was waiting on other people, but I surely could have had better use of my waiting around time.  So we’ll see how today goes.  It shouldn’t be too bad at all.  A lot to do, but there’s not much on my calendar that will keep me from doing it.

I’ve found that I have to keep track of everything, and I mean darn near EVERYTHING in my personal life and my work life organized on Google Calendar.  Otherwise I just plain forget stuff.  So next week’s schedule looks like a friggin mess.  But since I’ve started using Google Calendar to organize it all, it’s a lot less intimidating because I can look at that and answer just about any question from anyone as to whether I’m available to help, or what’s going on with a particular station, or who is working when.

Next week's schedule.

Next week is a big week for High School basketball tournaments.  And that’s what takes up alot of my calendar next week.  It usually doesn’t look that crazy, and not all of that requires my presence at work.  So I guess you could say it’s not as bad at it looks.

I’m hoping to have some free time in there somewhere.  Take some naps with Luke, play some games, and watch Andrea watch football.  She’s pretty excited that the 49ers are in the playoffs this year.  So she’s been pretty fanatical about all things football as her team continues to do well.  My team was in a fierce battle for last since the beginning of the season, so my interest in football really waned this year.  Hopefully the Vikings will make a rebound next year and I can get into it again.  I just didn’t watch much this season, because I didn’t want to sit around pissed off for three hours every Sunday.

In other news, I beat all the 150cc Cups in Mario Kart 7 last night.  Now they have the Mirror Class which I never enjoy the mirror classes.  I usually just hurry to beat them then never play again.  Online play is still fun.  I dunno if I would say it’s challenging, or just hard to win because of the way the game is.  You can’t just ride around in 1st place all race because you’ll just get pounded on.  So the best strategy is try to hang in a close 2nd or 3rd until the very end and jet your way to the front.  Of course everyone else is trying to do the same.  I’ve finished several matches in 7th place after being in 1st going around the last corner.  It’s crazy, but it’s sure as heck fun!

Progress in Zelda is more slow and steady.  It is a game that does take a good chunk of time to make any meaningful progress in, but it’s such an amazing experience so far, and one that I’m trying to savor every moment.  There’s nothing like playing through a Zelda game for the first time and having a brand new experience.  After that, every time you replay it isn’t the same.  I wish I could go back and experience so many of my games for the first time all over again.  After all, it’s that first lasting experience with a game that truly makes it memorable.  So playing through Skyward Sword feels like a privilege every time I turn it on.  And for that reason I am truly in no hurry to finish because the long it will take, the longer it will last.

So that’s that.  I’ll try to keep blogging more through out this busy stretch.  And I’ve been trying to hit Twitter a little more too since that doesn’t take much time out of my day.  But if I go missing, know that I’m okay.

Phoenix Down’d

Well I successfully revived the case I had destroyed in my last post.  The restored case is the one on the right, and the one that is all original is on the left.

The clear plastic doors on these 4 disc cases are exactly the same as the larger half of a standard CD jewel case.  So I swiped a couple old cases from work which were being used to store old station imaging discs from 1993.  So now this copy of Final Fantasy VIII is actually in a case that is in part over five years older than the game itself!  Kinda ironic.

So all is right in the gaming world again.  I’ll move forward with the plans of selling one of them on eBay and maybe put that money towards a Vectrex… or something like that.

Lots of work on a day off

I don’t want to come across as complaining, but rather just reflect on a day that didn’t turn out anything like I had expected.

I really only had one thing to get done today which was get the oil changed on both cars.

I woke up about 8:30 and noticed I’d missed a text on my phone.  It was one of our part timers informing me that they forgot to inform me that they were out of town and were scheduled to work today… well that’s nice.  So I’m filling in for that now today.

As I’m checking that message (I haven’t even got out of bed yet) I get another message from another co-worker saying we’re having issues with one of our Saturday morning shows.  So the next 45 minutes are spent getting that around.  After fixing that I suddenly realize I haven’t made any coffee yet!  Better get on that before this day becomes a complete disaster!

I grab a cup of coffee and head down to the computer to make the morning internet rounds.  Figure I’ve got quite a bit of time since I don’t have to be to work until 5PM so I decide to fire up some Minecraft and played for a good hour or so.

I embark on the oil change of both cars which goes pretty un-eventful until I realize… I got the wrong filter for my car.  I dunno how I did… I’ve been changing the oil on that car for 5 years now.  So even an oil change can’t go flawless today!

The good news is, since I went to work, the rest of the day has been pretty smooth!  It’s almost over now and the good news is I only have one thing planned to get done tomorrow… oh no.

Most Stressful Time of the Year

I like to think I’m pretty versatile and can handle just about anything.  But the last couple weeks have been mentally tough.  I’ve been spending some extra time at work trying to get all my stuff done.  Doesn’t help that I haven’t really worked a full week since Thanksgiving.  But now that basketball season is here, and we’re following four teams instead of two, it’s more than my brain can handle at times.  Plus we had one of our board operators quit, so that’s more stuff that we need to find fill in’s for.

When things are going smoothly, it all goes really well, but lately all it’s taken is one little thing to send my whole world out of whack.

Today was nice though.  I didn’t have anything work related to do.  I slept in until 8:00am and then got up and eased into the day.  Crazy… I remember thinking my 10AM classes at K-State were SO early… and I remember being out and about in the mornings thinking… wow so much goes on while I’m sleeping… haha.  Of course I used to stay up until 3am or 4am in those days.  Now a days my bedtime is a strict 10:30pm.

Went and saw a radio play version of “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  It was pretty good.  I found myself somewhat confused as it started though since each actor played several characters.  Took me a while to feel out who was who.  But the local Community Theater did a really good job, and it was a fun way to spend part of the afternoon.

Then I got to play some Zelda!  It’s been several days for sure.  And man it is just such a cool game.  I could sit and play the game all night, but I wanted to get a short blog written, and get to bed.

So that’s what I did.  Onward into next week.  I have a new starter coming in for the Toronado tomorrow so I need to get that swapped out.  The starter hasn’t been engaging every time, and it’s starting to get less reliable.  But $50 for a rebuilt starter isn’t too bad.  Should last a few more years.  So that’s my project for tomorrow night.  Shouldn’t be too bad… and I’ve got a garage to do it in!

My day is never what I expect

I was totally looking forward to today at work.  I had been so slammed last week that I was looking forward to getting caught up.

Before I get my coat off, there’s a note on my desk, “Business line on the phone doesn’t work”.  Great.  So I spent the first hour and a half of my day troubleshooting that and calling the phone company and the place that sold us our phone system as they passed the buck back and forth.

Next our midday person calls in sick, so I have to fill in not one, but both of the shows they record for the day.

Then the boss says, Oh… sorry for the late notice, but we have a meeting at 10am today that we need you to attend.

After lunch I got an e-mail asking me to write some scripts to automate the download of some shows for another market.

And finally, I got asked to fill in for ANOTHER show before the day was over.

Wisely I said “no” to the last two.  Heck I didn’t have time anyway.

Maybe tomorrow will be easy?