Deliverance

Let's just get the discalimer out of the way right now, this is going to be a long blog entry. Not like I really had to say that, by now anyone that has frequented the page knows that I have a tendency to ramble on and on and on and on. See, I just used four ons where obviously two would have sufficed. Anyway lots of ground to cover here so it's best to get cracking already.

I will not say I am a fan of the US Postal service, but going to the mailbox has certainly been more enjoyable these last few days. It all started last Saturday when I opened my mailbox to find my first delivery from WalMart.com in the box. As I mentioned before, I used part of the gift card I received for Christmas and went on the WalMart website to do some shopping, rather than braving the elements to actually shop in the store. I picked out two items, a fleece Starter jacket and Iron Man on DVD. Well, apparently WalMart.com doesn't ship orders in their entirity, maybe the objects were found in different locations, I am not sure, but the DVD and the jacket came on two different days. Saturday was DVD day, which is fine with me, I needed something to break the monotany of bad television that seems to run rampant on the networks these days and DVDs work as well as anything in doing just that. I also got a phone call from Rich, who asked if I would be interested in shooting some pool on Sunday afternoon. That is an easy answer, yes, yes and yes. Again, three yesses where one would have been fine. So my plans for Sunday were set.

For those that don't kknow who Rich is, take a look back at the Asshat thread on Pat Robertson, he is the one doing most of the arguing with me. That is cool, if there is one thing I learned after doing talk radio for 12+ years it is that you don't value friendships based on the opinions on any one particular issue. I would argue it is one of the few successes to my blog page. Had it been based solely on ideological grounds, then the fact I am a Democrat, albeit a socially liberal, fiscally conservative one, a large swath of my acquaintances here would have left many moons ago, because I know a significant number do not come from the same political leanings as moi. Which to me is cool because I get to learn from them through their own blog entries and hopefully they get to learn through mine. Lesson one to be learned here is obviously don't say in one or two words what you can say in ten or twenty.

Before I trudge forward and while I am still on a semi political bent, I might as well hand out an Asshat award. This one is kind of close to me, because way back in the day I was a supporter of his, so I have to admit I was wrong and not in a small way. You guessed it, my Asshat this week is Senator John Edwards. Back in 2004 when George Bush won his second term as President over John Kerry, I was a supporter of Edwards during the Democratic primary race. I thought, correctly I might add, that despite the negatives that Bush was carrying in that race, John Kerry just didn't have the "it" factor that would make him a compelling candidate for office. Not that Edwards would have beat Bush either, that race never happened so I will not assume one way or the other how it might or might not have turned out, but Senator Kerry just came off to me as too aloof to connect with the American public. His idea that the Swift Boat campaign wouldn't harm him (it did, regardless of its actual accuracy regarding Kerry's service record) and his inability to connect with the general populace during campaign stops (note to future candidates stumping in Pennsylvania for votes, do not put Swiss cheese on a Philly cheesesteak), Kerry just didn't have that "oomph" factor that would compel people to vote for him.

Okay, I am getting sidetracked here. Back to the Asshat at hand. Anyway in 2008 Edwards again sought the Democratic nomination, and silly old me said on the air that I thought he would win it. To be fair to my political ignorance, I also thought Guliani would win the Republican nomination, neither of which happened, instead they both dropped out of the race on the same day. I would like to say that I am the political kiss of death, but factors far beyond my prognosticating came into play into both of their demises. During the early days of the Democratic primaries I would sit in the radio studio working on the Lynn Cullen Show. She also being a Democrat meant that a large quantity of our callers were of the left of the aisle variety and during the primary it was amazing to watch to what lengths supporters of one candidate would go to savage another candidate from their own party. I tended to stay middle of the road, save for suggesting Edwards would win, because by and large I liked most of the field of entrants for the Democratic party in that race. At the time I viewed it as a abundance of riches and would have been happy voting for most of them in a Presidential election (save for Gravel and Kucinich, who were at best comic relief and at worst nutbags). But as the savaging began I mentioned that there is plenty in the whisper stream that could savage any of the candidates, my own pick, Edwards, included where it was in the very early stages but there was murmuring out there that he had an affair. After Edwards fell out of the race, those whipserings became substantiated, Edwards did indeed have an affair with Rielle Hunter, a videographer that was part of the campaign. It was a blessing in disguise for Democrats, had Edwards actually won the nomination, or even been selected as the Vice Presidential candidate, the idea of a man cheating on his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, who has incurable breast cancer, running for one of the highest offices in the land, would surely have been a body blow to the campaign.

Surely by now you would like me to shut up, after all, what do the comings and goings of what happened years ago have to do with this week's Asshat. I am sure some of you know, but for those that don't (or even if you do), read on. During the affair, Reille Hunter would give birth to a baby girl, a girl that Edwards said couldn't be his because the timing was all wrong. He even said that he would be willing to take a paternity test to prove he wasn't the father. The name of the father on the birth certificate was, in fact, a man by the name of Andrew Young, who was serving as an aide to the Senator at the time. While that reeks of improbability, it didn't reek of impossibility. Some people are attracted to that political power set, so maybe Young and Edwards did in fact sleep with the same woman.

Of course we now know that that isn't the case. Whether it be because Young is about to come out with a tell all book about the Edwards campaign, including how he signed the birth certificate in order to save Edwards political embarassment and was asked to procure a used diaper to test the baby's DNA, or the current best seller "Game Change" which savages a number of the campaigns in the 2008 race, Edwards's included, the real story behind Reille Hunter's baby was going to come out. And so it did this past week, with Senator Edwards finally admitting that he is in fact the father, after denying paternity of the baby for the first two years of her life. Then to make matters better or worse, Edwards hops a plane to help with the efforts in Haiti. The noble minded would suggest he did this to help out in time of tragedy, the more cynical minded, myself included, would say he is using the tragedy to avoid answering questions about why he denied his daughter for the last two years. Whether either of those notions is correct, the underlying fact is that Edwards first lied about the affair, then lied about the paternity of his own daughter and for that he wins this week's Asshat award.

See what I mean, why use two words when you can use twenty, or in this case, much more. I could simply have said "Edwards lied" but what fun would that have been? Far better to draw the whole thing out and make you ask yourself "Why the hell am I sitting through all of this?"

Now where were we in our story. Oh yes, the opportunity to shoot pool. Rich and I are fairly evenly matched when it comes to pool, so it is fun to shoot him because I never know how it is going to turn out, Sure we talk a little smack back and forth, but unlike some of the people in the bar, who consistently kick my ass, I never really have a feel for how a match between Rich and myself will turn out. Sunday was no different, as after 15 games Rich had a lead, 8 games to 7, when we finally decided to call it a day. I walked back to his place with him so I could do some visiting, it is always nice to get out of the apartment once in a while, so I hung out and chatted with his family for a bit and made my way back home, though not with my tail between my legs, as I am sure Rich would have liked (just seeing if you are paying attention Rich).

Anyway Monday comes along and again I find joy in the mail. First at work, where I have been jokingly putting together an "Employee Lounge". See, we have a decent amount of room in our basement, but it wasn't always the case, as lots of stuff that can best be classified as junk littered the basement. Before Ed left for Florida, we actually had a guy come along with a truck and haul three truck loads of just junk out of the basement, things that we would never use and were far to big to be disposed of via a normal trash pickup. Unused shelves and displays all found their way into the back of the truck, clearing up a decent amount of room, but not enough to create a lounge as it were. One section of the basement was these large plastic totes, each one full of old porn magazines (yes, we sell those, it is a newstand after all, and what could be newsier than tits and ass). We are talking magazines that are 10 to 12 years old at least. Ed wanted to sell them at a discounted rate, three mags for $3.99. Since most of them were still in their original plastic it didn't seem like a half bad idea, so we went about starting the process of taking the books, putting them three to a bag and then putting them on the floor as needed. It is a process that is still in the works, we had that many books. It would not be beyond belief to say that we had at least 50 totes of these books. So we started the process and an amazing thing happened, some of the books sold and we were able to pack up more and put them out. All told we have probably moved 20 or so totes of porn to this point, which creates a significant amount of space in the basement. So much so that when John, one of our managers, got himself a new office chair because his old one was missing a wheel, I took the chair, removed all of the wheels so it would be semi level at least, and placed it in the area where the porn mags used to be and declared that it was now officially the employee lounge. Nothing more than a joke by me, but the joke caught on and now as we clear out more totes of porn and more space becomes available the "employee lounge" is starting to grow.

Enter Muscle Milk. This is a beverage for those body builder types, certainly I wouldn't drink it, the idea of a "milk" beverage that doesn't need to be refridgerated when stored strikes me as yucky. But we sell it, not in great numbers, but decent numbers. It comes from our Pepsi supplier and during one of his visits to the store he mentioned that there was a giveaway. Apparently Muscle Milk was giving away stuff to those stores that purchased a set number of cases of the product, starting in the beginning of September and running till just before Christmas. The prize tiers were in groups of 10, three prizes to choose from if you bought ten cases, three to choose from at 20, and three to choose from at 30. The prizes went from a windbreaker (10 cases) all the way to a 4 GB video MP3 player (30 cases). While I knew enough about our sales to know we would never get a 30 case prize, there was a good chance we could get to the twenty case level and I was convinced we could at least get to the ten case level. As the promotion drew to a close, we had enough to get to the twenty case level if we wanted it, but at the ten case level was a directors chair and thoughts of the employee lounge again danced in my head, so I filled out the appropriate paperwork and xeroxed the necessary invoices and sent out for the second piece of lounge furiniture. Sure enough on Monday it arrived.

Also on Monday I came home and the second half of my WalMart.com order came in, the fleece jacket. It is a little brightish on the blue side, but it is actually pretty warm, comfy enough that when the temps are in the 30s or so I can wear it and not be freezing my ass off. If it gets colder then I can always go back to a heavier coat, but this fills a nice springtime need, and springtime is just around the corner for those not paying attention.

Tuesday the mailbox and the inbox was filled with goodies as well. In the mailbox I had a couple of things I signed up for on the internet. One was 10 $1 off coupons for Marlboros. I realize this isn't everyone's idea of a good thing, but to a smoker who prefers Marlboro Lights but has been going the Pall Mall route because of the increased taxes on smokes, coupons are a good thing. Pall Malls are still cheaper, but this at least puts the Marlboros in play now, where as before they would be as much as $2 a pack more. Over the course of a week, since I smoke one pack a day, that works out to $14-$15 just to upgrade, or $728-$780 a year. That is a month and a half of rent right there kids. Also in the mail was an assortment of Nescafe flavored instant coffees. I think I signed up for this on Facebook, I am really not sure, but there were packets for 6 different instant coffees in there. I tried one, wasn't all that impressed, I will not be giving up brewed coffee anytime soon, but free is free, so who am I to complain. When I logged onto the computer I found that my code for my most recent $5 Amazon gift card had arrived, making that 6 gift cards I have gotten so far. That is $30 free dollars to spend, not including the change I had redeemed at Coinstar for use on Amazon.com. Even with me purchasing a book I still have over $30 on the site to play with and I am getting very close to being able to add another gift card to the tally.

Wednesday was hoagie day. My cousin Sarah was selling hoagies to help her school fund a band trip to Florida. I found out about this through my aunt, who posted something on Facebook and I said I would purchase a couple sammiches (as the locals sometimes say). Of course picking them up could be a problem, they live in Natrona Heights, which is on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. City buses do go to that area, but I wasn't sure exactly where they lived, so I didn't know where I would be getting off of the bus and how far I would have to walk. After a few messages back and forth with Amy (my aunt) and a little hopscotching between the Port Authority website and Mapquest, I had devised a plan that would get me there. The bus would leave me off about 8 blocks from their house, and better yet, it would be an express bus, which would cut down travel time somewhat. For those not in the know, there are basically two types of buses in Pittsburgh, there are your city buses that run fairly regularly but make a ton of stops along the way. Then there are express buses, those tend to run to the suburbs during the rush hours, in the morning they will run into town, stop running during the afternoon, then as the work day ends, they run back out of town. The express buses tend to not have as many stops in the city, maybe some stops downtown, but then will not stop (save for a couple of stops on the busway) until they are outside the city proper. As I was looking at the schedules I saw that I could take one of two buses, I could take a 1A New Kensington, which is a city bus, which means it runs more frequently but would be making a ton of stops. The estimated time of that route would be about an hour and 25 minutes. Or I could hop an AV (Allegheny Flyer) which would take about an hour and 5 minutes. As an added bonus, since I get off of work at 3pm, I could catch the first AV bus downtown in about 30 minutes, if I could manage the length of Smithfield Street in that time.

Time out here kids, something very, very, very (three verys where I could have used one) just came up and I need to address it as soon as possible. I'll be back soon, I promise.

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Okay, I am back. Just put the hockey game on, though that is not why I had to step away from the computer. Far bigger things have come to bear than simply a hockey game. It involves checking the messages on my phone and I promise I will get to that story in due time. But allow me to get back to the original story that I left off on.

Amy asked if I wanted her to wait for me at the bus stop so I didn't have to walk up to the house, but I had a good idea of where I was going and Amy was supposed to go to the school to help with getting all of the orders organized and out to their respective sellers and I wasn't sure exactly what time I would be arriving, so far better to just go about things and let me fend for myself. Amy told me her two sons, Christopher and Ethan would be home in case I got there after she had left. The thing is, I haven't seen them in a while, I had missed the Christmas Eve party, and Amy had a broken ankle during the birthday party my family had thrown me last summer, so I hadn't seen them in better than a year. While I am sure that Christopher would know me, the same can't be said for Ethan, who is much younger. Anyway, I go to catch the bus. Based on the bus schedule I had all I had to do was walk down to the other end of the street I work and stand there and all would be good. I escaped work in ample time and made it to the bus stop in about 10 minutes, leaving me plenty of time to catch the bus. I double checked the bus stop sign and it did list the AV as being a bus that stopped there, so I settled in with my book and waited. And waited. And waited. And for good measure, waited some more. No bus. There were a couple of 1A buses that rolled by, buses that I could have taken but would have taken far longer to get to my destination, but given how long I was waiting, I was beginning to think maybe I should have taken one of those instead. So now I go looking for a clock and I see that my bus is running 25 minutes late. That isn't the best part though, I look underneath the bus stop sign to see that the stop has been discontinued for the AV bus, because of the BIg Dig that is taking place downtown. The Big Dig, not to be confused with Boston's Big Dig, is just as much a taxpayer waste as the Boston version. Basically it is a tunnel that will go from downtown under the Allegheny River and come up on the other side on Pittsburgh's North Side. The fact that there are already three bridges that go there from downtown (6th, 7th and 9th Street bridges) would make one think we have ample connection to the the North Side, but what is a half a billion dollars for a dig that goes to the very same location. As a result a number of streets downtown are closed and some bus routes have been detoured, including the one I wished to board. Instead, I could have just crossed the street at work and I would have been at the bus stop I needed, instead I walked out 6 or 7 blocks out of my way and missed the bus I wanted. The next one was due in about ten or so minutes, so I made the necessary correction to which bus stop I should be standing and after waiting a little bit more (the second bus was 15 minutes late) I managed to head out to my destination.

Finding the house wasn't a problem, proving my mastery of all things Mapquest and I arrived a little after 5:30 pm. Not too shabby I thought, I still might be able to visit for a while, I could catch a 1A back into town a little after 9pm, giving me 4 hours and change to play with (yes I could catch an earlier 1A, but I am dealing with the last possible bus to leave here before I am stranded).so after locating the house I ring the doorbell and Ethan answers. Of course I ask if Amy is home, though I am positive by now she has indeed left for hoagie distribution, so next I ask if Christopher is there and again I get a no. And it seems that Ethan has no idea who I am because he tells me to come back in an hour. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not upset by this development, I actually understand it. A guy Ethan doesn't recognize comes to the door, he shouldn't let me in. I figure the best thing I can do is go find a place to kill an hour and then come back. The problem is finding a place, first I start in one direction on the main drag and after about 5 minutes of walking I don't see anything, and I remember that I passed a Dunkin Donut the other way when I first arrived and guess that a coffee and a couple of donuts could easily occupy my time, so I head back the other way when I see Ethan running down the sidewalk trying to catch up to me. Apparently he called his mom and learned that in fact I am related to him and therefore can be trusted with going inside the house. Fred, my uncle, was the first to arrive that might know who I am, and we sat around laughing about what happened. Amy got there a little before 7pm and more laughing ensued. I got to do some family visiting, something I really need to do more of, and it was a pretty fun evening by Matt standards. And Fred offered me a ride home, which he really didn't have to do but was much appreciated as it was far quicker than relying on public transportation. Of course when we got to Oakland we ran into traffic because the Pitt-Georgetown game was letting out, a game that Fred was going to ask me to, but he was just offered the tickets that day and didn't have anyone to go with, and I was at work which made me relatively unreachable. Technically someone could call work and I would be allowed on the phone, but I don't give out my work number and I am still of the not willing to buy cell phone set, and a call to reach me at home would have went unanswered, since I left for his place directly from work.

Actually, missed messages are going to bring us to our next story, but first a little background. When I left 1360 AM last December, one of the first places I applied was to was KDKA 1020 AM. It is one of, if not the oldest radio station in America and the #1 station in the Pittsburgh market. At the time they were looking for a radio producer, something I had just a little bit of experience in doing. They are also owned by CBS Radio, which owns a handful of stations in the Pittsburgh market, one AM station as well as three FM stations 93.7 (CHR), 100.7 (Adult Standards) and 107.1 (country). I was in touch with Marshall Adams, the program director for KDKA and while the job I was applying for was filled, he asked for a demo of some of my work on those occasions where I guest hosted in Lynn's absense. I sent him a couple of CDs of my work and he was complimentary and said that they would keep my information on file. The thing about the business of radio, you never really know when someone is being polite because polite is good, or being polite because they actually like what you did. So it is hard to put any amount of weight to something like that, you hope for the best but are realistic that nothing may come of it.

It was recently annouced that one of CBS's FM stations, 93.7, was going to be flipping formats, going from CHR to sports talk, becoming the first FM sports talk station in the market (there are two on AM). Pittsburgh is a big time sports market, esepcially when it comes to the Steelers, and to a lesser extent, the Penguins and there are also plenty of people that follow the Pirates and the sports teams of the University of Pittsburgh, so an FM station devoted to sports has the possibility of working. And from a cost perspective, depending on how it is done, a sports talk format could be cheaper than a music format. You instantly lose the cost of paying music royalties and the salaries for DJs needed to man the daypart shifts (usually most stations these days will run jockless overnight) and save for whatever talent you are going to bring in that isn't satellite programming (which can usually be had for free via a barter agreement) the bottom line is somewhat lower. It also allows you the ability to stream cheaper, as the music royalty fees get doubled for those stations that also stream on the net and are a music format.

What does this have to do with missed messages you may ask? Well, even if you don't ask I am going to answer. As I mentioned I picked up the hoagies on Wednesday but I missed a phone call from Fred. Not for the basketball game, which while he thought of me for the game, he didn't think I'd be available, after all I was going to his house that night. But he did call to see if I needed a ride to his place, since he works in McKees Rocks, he passes by, albeit indirectly, both where I work and where I live on his way home. Because I was working I missed the phone call. Anyway, while getting this blog entry started I figured I could multitask and remove the old messages off of my phone. I knew Fred's message was still there, but I really hadn't checked them in almost a week. If the phone rings and I am home I may answer it, but usually if the phone rings there is a better than average chance I am in fact not home.

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Sorry, another break in the blog. While I am writing this I am also on and off a few different websites and during my bouncing around I managed to pick up another Swagbuck, which makes 45, so I had to head over to the website and pick up another $5 Amazon gift card. I am all about free stuff and if people want to hand me money for more books and stuff (there is plenty on Amazon besides books after all) who am I to argue?

Again we get back to our story. So I am sitting here, working on the blog and checking phone messages and who should be on there but Marshall Adams, program director of KDKA. Apparently he kept my info on file, which in and of itself is surprising since I submitted it a year ago, and he wants to talk to me. Now I don't want to get my hopes up too much here, but unlike previously when I was out seeking employment, this is a different animal, I really have barely been dipping my toes in the radio pool. spending most of my hours worried about my current job than exploring other possibilities. I dropped him a quick Facebook message today and will be calling tomorrow and maybe I will have some more information about what the phone call was all about. It could be something to do with KDKA, or it could be something to do with the new sports talk station, I really don't know at this point, though my curiosity is definitely piqued.

OKay, I have rambled more than enough, just a couple of odds and ends updates to get out of the way. First, I did pick up a couple of additional tokens in Scratchix this week, one for the DVD of the month, which I am sure will be relatively useless, you need to collect 10 of them in a month and I have 1 and only 7 days to get the other nine. The other was for the $30 Amazon gift card and it was the second of 10 needed, again I am not close to cashing that in, but at least I don't lose it in a week. And lastly the change meter moves a little again, another .26 and the new total is 139.78. The numbers are definitely down to start this year, but that is okay, I didn't expect it to be like last year, just hope it isn't an embarassing year for ye olde meter. And that kids is all.