Author: John Bollwitt

The on ramp is for acceleration.

Most cars can go from zero to sixty miles a hour in about five to twelve seconds, on average. A standard on ramp has about one thousand feet of distance from start to finish. Well, at least around here this fact reigns true. The further south you get, where it’s typically warmer year round, the lengths get shorter.

Do the math. In fact, you don’t even have to do the math. A vehicle that is rated to hit sixty in fifteen seconds should only take a few hundred feet or so to hit a nice merging speed to join the flow of traffic. It’s easy to assume that a vehicle should have the potential of being very close to matching the speed of the posted speed limit. There lies the problem. You’re assuming, and that car ahead of you is freaking out about the semi that just passed over or under the bridge, even though it’s traveling in the right lane, blinker on to indicate that this massive about of metal and machinery will get over to let everyone join in the fun.

You’re stuck. Nowhere to go. Will this person merge, pull of to the side of the road in a panic, or just slam on the brakes? All you want to do is drive your car. Suddenly, you’re life is not exactly in your own hands.

The on ramp is for acceleration.

Normally I’m not one to get into things such as forwards, but The Reverend Don Deeley sent me a good one. So instead of emailing it on to the rest of the world, why not post it here? So, here goes the happy fun music survey.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:
3,712 songs (20.39 GB)

2. The last CD you bought was:
The Life and Times, “Flat End of the Earth”

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
“Heaven or the Highway Out of Town” – The Refreshments

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
“Hallelujah” – Jeff Buckley
“Passenger Seat” – Death Cab for Cutie
“Come Home” – The Dismemberment Plan
“Brand New Colony” – The Postal Service
“Like a Friend” – Pulp
“Paint by Numbers” – Self

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?
I’m passing this on to everyone that reads this. That’s way more than three, but I think that’s fair. Hence the reason why I upped number four to six songs versus five. Do you have any idea how difficult that selection was? Doesn’t even scratch the surface. For this, I put the blame purely on Don Deeley.

That was fun.

Hunter S. Thompson left the world yesterday. There’s nothing more depressing I can think of to say today other than just that. For those who believe that his suicide was a “fitting end,” you have some serious issues. To say that Thompson was a troubled human being or anything is only something he’ll ever know. Granted the guy was a bit on the outlandish side, his writings were an incredibly interesting read. No topic or detail was ever too taboo. He was a great writer. I’ll miss him dearly, but at least we still have what he has left behind.

Let’s just leave it at that for today.

When you make a mistake, learn from what went wrong and make sure you can do everything you can to not let it happen again.

It’s a tough lesson, especially when an entire program doesn’t get aired and there’s nothing you can do after you’ve tried everything possible.

I had a good weekend. It was much needed recreation that has long been missed in the recent months. Dick Prall came to town on Friday, did the Java House thing, and then played Gabes. Somehow, the guy remembers me. We’ve brushed paths, but if it weren’t for me giving Ben his CD, he would have never been on the show. Paul and I had a good time hanging out with the guy after the show on Friday night. I got some cards, so we’ll be in touch. Pictures to come in the gallery.

Let’s talk about the grocery store, shall we?

Are you the type who completely blocks the isles when you go shopping? I know that the stores in the greater area of where I call home have isles that are at least two carts wide. Enough for traffic to flow in opposite directions as you would on any city street. However, I find it very unlikely that any sane person would get in the way of an oncoming car, so why do people do this at the store? Some one will pull their cart to one side of the isle, stand on the other side, completely blocking the whole pathway to everything I need. But they don’t budge. They read the labels. They ignore you. These people are everywhere, and you cannot escape them.

At the check out counter tonight, the woman is scanning and bagging my groceries. “Are you cooking dinner tonight?” Of course, I was… for myself. “Oh, that’s good too.”

I get the flu, and it cranks up to about fifty degrees outside. I get healthy and it drops down below freezing again. I can’t win. There is a conspiracy against me, and I will find out who is responsible. When I do, my baseball bat will be ready.

To this point, I have been pretty quiet about something I have been really getting into as of late. Podcasting. Heard of it? Ok, good, that will save us some time. I’ve done a lot of work to keep that interest separate from what it is that goes on in the text portion of what you are reading right now.

There are things developing that I’ll pass on this way once they happen. Press, conferences, and lots of amazing things that confound my brain in the way the world works. RadioZoom is a lot of fun, and I’m just glad people enjoy it, even if they live on the other side of the globe and can’t speak english. Rock on.

When you start a project that interrupts the program feed of two radio stations, you don’t stop working on that project until you get both program streams back on the air. It should go without saying that you should also have a very solid understanding about what you are doing with you attempt things such as this. If you don’t, you find yourself running around in panic, mumbling the words, “Why doesn’t this work?”

Expect to repeat this phrase a few times. Don’t forget the swearing… never forget the swearing.

At least it works now.

The amount of projects going on right now are getting out of hand. There’s just so much going on for me alone, but I won’t get into the details. It’s not very exciting, and you would probably start just nodding your head in agreement as I listed them all off, just to be nice.

Warm weather. Holiday. Travel. Now that’s what I’m begging for.

Inadvertant three day weekend of the most unenjoyable proportions. Within the time span of a few hours, I felt it come on. It’s not unusual to feel tired as the day wears on, but around five, I knew what was going on. I didn’t want to believe, but I thought it would be better to head home. I crawled into bed only to wake up a short time later with a stomach ache.

It didn’t stop for about the next six hours. The flu is going around. It found me, and the experience wasn’t fun. As soon as the fun started, it stopped. The effects have been lasting and recovery has taken a little time. More importantly, I’ve given it a little time for my body to regain full composure. It could have been the stress that I have previously mentioned that allowed this to take over, so it’s been good to just take it easy.

Tomorrow starts another week with lots of projects going on. There’s more going on, but for now, time to get ready for the week.

I got an email today. It was a short, quick email of thanks and gratitude about the simple work I do with the billing database we use at the station.

When people ask me why I like working where I do, I would have to say that this is probably one of the best examples I could give.

Tired and stressed out. That’s what it comes down to. Somehow I let my stress levels overtake me, ghosting images and memories from a few years past. Aches and pains that I knew were signals from my body telling me that it’s time to take it easy for a little while. I was burning it pretty hard from both ends with projects inside and outside the normal realm of things no one really understands except radio geeks like me. I would have to say dedication is another thing I suffer from; when you believe in something so much, you also have to remember that there is a world outside of life.

My great Uncle Richard passed away late last week. It’s been difficult to wrap my thoughts about the loss. I don’t remember a lot about the man except that he is another precious human being that the world will sorely miss. He fought on the front lines in World War II, was captured by the enemy, put into a prison camp, but was spared a lot of suffering as it was the very end of the war. The stories would send chills up your spine, but he was always ready to talk about them and happy to share his memories.

When Saving Private Ryan came out and everyone was talking about the “reality of war” that was portrayed on screen, Uncle Richard’s stories already taught me everything I needed to know. The one thing I can remember the most about listening to him was how sick I felt to my stomach hearing about all these things he saw. It still gets me more than any movie ever will.