Back again

Greetings kids!!! Long time no see, as I am sure you are most aware. I'd like to say that real life was so exciting that couldn't pull myself away from it to be bothered with blogging, but it is more like, being hampered with illness is so exciting that I can't be bothered with blogging.

As I write this I am working on my second consecutive week of being ill, in all I have been sick for about the last 12 days now. What started as achy, flu like symptoms, switched to chest congestion, to a sore throat and a lack of voice, which is a big plus when working in talk radio I might add. In any event, I have been getting by on a diet of cold medicines and cough drops, which from a lazy man perspective, is at least a meal that I don't have to cook. I have managed to keep my social calendar semi intact, missing only one work shift and one week of volleyball, though if I had taken more time off, maybe I would feel better at this point. I tend to go through different phases of how I should treat this, some days I feel like maybe a day under blankets will be the best cure, other days I feel I need to just get up and sweat the disease out of me.

This week doesn't look to be one from which I can expect much recovery time either, I have to do overnights at the radio station starting this evening, which is where I am right now. On the bright side, I should be able to sneak a nap in here, and I did grab some lunch to snack on to the tune of egg salad sandwiches and oreo cookies (I still have my cough syrup should I get a craving) and I have some hockey on TV to keep me occupied. It's not the Pittsburgh Penguins mind you, but it is hockey, which is better than what usually passes for TV these days which is Couples Fat Camp, I'm sorry, I guess they call it Biggest Loser Couples, but really it is the same thing, Fat Camp for adults.

Other than hockey recently, my TV viewing is all but nonexistent. I have just been watching what I like on the web instead, so it is episodes of The Office, Family Guy, Newsradio, West Wing and most recently, Mythbusters, whenever I can fit them into my schedule and not be bed ridden with this illness.

I will add another .15 to the change meter, so as to get it back up to date. The new total is $34.61. There, that is one thing out of the way, too bad I have lots others and I haven't even started here yet today.

I posted the Pens Youtube video from their first playoff game, I will continue to post the Pens videos as the NHL makes them available. technically the Penguins lead the series now 2-0 after beating Ottawa 5-3 on Friday night, but at last check, that highlight video wasn't available. When they post it, I will go ahead and do the import thing.

I should do an update on my fantasy hockey team, since the season is now officially over. For the record, I finished in 4th place in the 12 team league, I had a shot at third place, with just two days remaining I was leading slightly 5-4-1, but my opponent got a shutout from Manny Legace, which cost me three categories I was leading in (wins, goals against average, save percentage) and one I was tied in (shutouts) and took that slight lead and turned it into a resounding 2-7-1 defeat. I am now relegated to fantasy baseball, where I am in second place right now, but we are very early in the season there. Certainly nothing to get too excited about just yet.

I believe I am once again a couple of Asshats behind, though I am wondering how cool or not cool that feature is, as no one seems to miss it when I don't pop it in ye olde blog. In any event, the first of our two Asshat winners goes to the fine students at the University of Texas - San Antonio who were ascribed the project of coming up with the school's honor code regarding plagarism. Those who understand the ways of the Asshat know exactly where this is going, the students came up with a code by, you guessed it, plagarizing it.

That takes care of one, but what about the other? Enter Max Mosley. For those uninformed, Mosley is the president of the international body that governs Formula One auto racing. As a side note of particular interest, he is also the son of Oswald Mosley, the founder of the pro Nazi British Union of Fascists of the 1930s. Still just being the son of a pro Nazi guy isn't enough to get you into the list of Asshats, unless of course you act on it. Enter Max's 5 hour bondage orgy with 5 women where it is argued they acted out Nazi death camp fetishes, including speaking in German and wearing German uniforms, forced shaving of body hair, head lice inspections,and references on the tape (yes it is on tape kids) to inmates being housed in "facilities". Hey, I have done some freaky stuff, perhaps we all have, but the Sieg Heil orgy is a little over the top and certainly worthy of an Asshat award.

Well, while putting together this blog entry and putzing around with some other stuff, I managed to get three of my commercial feeds done for this week, and one of the radio shows in for next Sunday. I would like to get more done on next Sunday's programming, but the new shows I need haven't been posted on the web as of yet. I would go home and relax and come back into work later, but there is really no point in it, I would either no more than get home than have to turn around and come right back, or I could wait and come in later, but because the buses are on a Sunday schedule, I would have to walk up Greentree Hill, and that is something I have no desire to do, so I will just hang out here in the studios instead. I have plenty of things I can do, catch up on podcasts, I brought my taxes I can finish, a DVD to watch, and of course, I can always eat. Plus, I am about two weeks behind in getting caught up in blogs. I will never understand how people can do it with a couple hundred friends on their list, my list is small by comparison and I can barely manage it.

Well, I am getting another project done while I work on this blog entry, I am running Adaware on the production room computer. I try to do this every Sunday if I get a chance, usually I empty out all of the excess stuff in my file on the production computer, then I empty the trash bin and run Adaware. Right now I am reading 27 critical elements, most of which I am sure are tracking cookies from people surfing the web on it. The problem is that when there is too much junk on it, playing back audio can result in slight catches, which would mean nothing if I were just listening to something at home, but when it comes to recording stuff for broadcast, those glitches stick out like a sore thumb.

Since I have some time here while I blog, don't mind me if I work on my launchcast station while I type. I am just a mere 19 ratings form getting to 7000, another meaningless milestone I know, but one of those things I actually like working on. Right now I have "Town Called Malice" playing by The Jam, which I have already rated but I like it, so I am going to leave it play. Often I will just come in here and forward through a bunch of songs, do a quick rating if I haven't already rated the song and go to the next one. A couple of songs later (compliments of the fast forward option) and we are up to "Queer" by Garbage, which I think I can sit through and just 17 ratings to go to the dreaded 7000. Actually they were pretty easy ones, a Stevie Wonder song and one by DJ Kool, neither of which I liked so I just selected the "Never Play Again" option. It is harder when I sort of like a song or artist, but not enough to want to hear every single time I am on here.

I should be getting back into the Joe Random updates in the near future, I just broke my baseball game back out this past week, it was one of the things I could do while having a blanket around my shoulders drinking cough syrup.

I have to stop fast forwarding my music again, "Strawberry Letter #23" came on, and that is just the coolest song ever. Okay, one of the coolest songs ever, but I'd rather listen to a song like that versus the crap that is out there now and really, there is just no comparison that song writing was so much better back in the day. Sure there are some exceptions to the rule, but they are so few and far between anymore that I have all but given up hope on most modern music. Now it is just someone sampling someone else's music, or rhyming lyrics with one syllable words, which is the equivalent of a musical Dr. Suess. Usually what I look for in a song are a few simple things, first the music should sound decent, not some ripped off sample of a Lionel Ritchie tune that wasn't all that cool when it was popular, second the lyrics have to tell a good story, lyrics that make no sense or have the educational equivalent of finding a bunch of words that rhyme with "you" passing as good song writing need not apply. As far as I am concerned, I would rather have the lyrics not rhyme if the song is well written than to dumb down the song with simple words that are "catchy". And lastly, I don't want to hear it on the radio every 5 minutes, nothing kills a song like overkill, and given how little I listen to the actual radio, that would seem to be an almost impossible task, yet it still occurs far to often for my tastes.

Oh well, enough of me griping for one day, I think I will go make a sandwich or two and watch some TV then get about podcasting.