Random thoughts from 2:53AM - 3:30AM

I fell asleep sometime around 10:30AM yesterday morning and didn't wake up till around 8pm. I've been awake since that time and I've been doing a lot of catching up. Not on the things I need to, like laundry or crap like that, but TiVo.

IM listening to the iPod right now. Linda Ronstadt is playing Blue Bayou, but earlier I had sat down and programmed a new playlist. 158 songs long! That was an average of 4 songs per CD I own. According to iPod, that's a lot of damn songs.

[cranks the volume up and looses track of time]

I took a moment or two to listen to some songs. Its 3am.

I've decided to go ahead and buy a motorcycle. The Mustang sadly isn't what I expected. It will take way too much time & money to get it the way I want. For the cost involved, it would work out to my advantage to find a slightly better conditioned vehicle and start from there. For the time being, its going to have to be a motorcycle.

Alison Krauss & Union Station are playing Everytime You Say Goodbye. How appropriate.

Haven't decided yet what I want. Judging by all of the advice given to me by other avid riders, its going to be a cruiser or a sports cruiser. No idea what that would be. IM looking forward to it, actually. I remember the fun times I had with each of my convertibles and how I loved that sense of freedom with the top down. Open air excitement, nearly at one with the environment. Pounding the pavement with the sort of reckless abandon used by Kerouac as he wrote about what he saw when he was on the road.

Pink Floyd is playing You Better Run. How appropriate. 3:07am.

I need to start planning my next vacation. I haven't had a good road trip in quite some time now, and the bug is starting to itch. Corpus Christi sounds good right about now, God knows IM used to the fucking humidity thanks to El Pasos monsoon season.

IM trying to decide whether or not another trip to Magic Landing is in order. With the recent rains, I don't think a trek out there is such a good idea. I would like to see if the rains affected anything, though. Speaking of which, I am in constant talks with some people who have enormous amounts of information about the amusement park and will be sharing all that crud with the public on the Magic Landing site.

[lowers volume, listens to next track]

I still need to hunker down and get some damn info into the Mountain Shadow Lakes site. That thing's just been sitting there (the lake and the site) and I haven't touched either.

I also need to start getting some things ready for other things I have planned. The more I get in order, the closer I will get to revealing what it will be. Lindsey Buckingham is playing I'll Tell You Now, but I don't think now is the right time to say.

This iPod is trying to tell the stories before I can do it. Strange what happens when you program it then set it on SHUFFLE.

Fucking chorus is just saying "TELL TELL TELL TELL".

[pushes forward button to next song: Elton John Rocket Man (I Think Its Going To Be A Long Time)]

There. That should stop now.

Bastard.

No one seems to believe what I want to do, though. The few I have told think its an awesome idea. I guess publishers will have to agree for me to continue.

3:21AM. Time doesn't fly when ideas don't.

I sit here and think about what the layout will look like. Start off with Magic Landing, then end with it. Mix in some movie theaters and some concert halls, some sporting arenas and some sad crying clowns in iron lungs and I think I might have a winner.

Yeah, the insanity is starting to kick in.

Well, I guess I better start getting ready for work. I do need to find my pants. I left them to wash, but I don't know where they ended up. I've been wearing the same one pair for a while now. Maybe I should start a search party for my pants.

[sniff]

I need to shower too.

More soon.

Quelling Boredom

TV is bad for the populace. It has an influence of which acts can be imitated. Often shocking, often dumb, most of the time a waste of time. Others are way too much fun!



Take Amber & I. Itching for mayhem (and mosquito bites) we bought some Diet Coke liters and Mentos candy.



When you add 5 or 6 candies to a freshly opened bottle of coke you get the fountain featured above. I wasn't fast enough with the camera to capture the higher peak of the geyser, but you get the idea.



The aftermath is quite stunning, and really funny. More than half of the bottle was emptied out and the remnants were flatter than a Firestone tire.

If you're bored and got $3.58 in pocket ($2.49 for the 3 liter Diet Coke and $1.19 for the box of Mentos) and have some place to spill one and a half liters of soda all willy-nilly, then by all means, go nuts!

TAGGED

GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU DAMN KIDS!

I was tagged by Torn Shorts and quite honestly, I love these damn things!

1. Four jobs I have held in my life:
Morning show producer, amusement park ride operator, TV assignments editor, media relations for a non-profit

2. Four movies I could watch over and over:
Office Space, Kill Bill 1&2, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Getaway

3. Four places I have lived:
El Paso. IM boring, sue me!

4. Four TV shows I love to watch:
Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, The Venture Brothers, Countdown with Keith Olbermann

5. Four places I've been on vacation:
Las Vegas, San Antonio, Chicago, Corpus Christi

6. Four of my favorite websites:
fark.com, wilwheaton.net, thinkgeek.com, Metafilter.com

7. Four of my favorite foods:
Frisco/ Roscoe Burgers, Pizza, Lasagna, mom's tacos

8. Four friends I will tag:
Evelyn, Joe & Ivette, cause no one else will do it.

9. Right now I would rather be:
taking a long vacation!

It feels like... BURNING...

You know, I would sit on my bed, laptop on the comforter and think to myself "What keeps this black rectangular hodgepodge of plastic and electronics cool enough not to catch fire while resting on a surface that doesn't conduct heat all that well?". Well, apparently Dell is suffering from some battery malfunctions. By malfunction, I mean short circuit. By short circuit I mean they fucking catch fire!


Dude, you're toasting your Dell!

The upper photograph was at an electronics conference. The fucking Dell asploded on the Goddamned table! Look at the fireball, it looks like it was powered by fucking Chernobyl!

Thankfully, my Dell Inspiron 1000 was built using the last parts and pieces from a model line that was eliminated and replaced by the Inspiron 1100 and such forth. The design of the Dell laptop has a strange way of expelling heat from the case and cooling the processor. It draws air from the bottom of the laptop and expels it from the rear of the chassis. It overheats when you sit the laptop on anything other than a slightly raised surface for airflow, and placing it on the bed, carpet or lap is downright suicidal.



My friend John had clued me in to a great product made by Antec. Its a laptop cooling pad. It runs off of the USB port and does a remarkable job at cooling off the laptop and making it perform much better. When using the laptop on your lap, it keeps sensitive parts safe from heat (really, really bad).

Thankfully, my laptop was made around the time where my model was discontinued. My laptop battery is safe from the voluntary recall on certain Dell models. If you have a Dell that you need to have serviced, here's the link to the Dell Battery Return Program.

Fun & funny random crap

American Cities That Best Fit You::

65% Chicago

60% Los Angeles

60% New York City

55% Boston

50% Philadelphia

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money

You've either been really really good this year... Or Santa is trying to pay you off!

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

Your Deadly Sins

Sloth: 80%

Gluttony: 40%

Wrath: 40%

Envy: 20%

Greed: 20%

Lust: 20%

Pride: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 31%

You will die with your hand down your underwear, watching Star Trek.

How Sinful Are You?

Your Rising Sign is Aries

You're full of energy - and people look to you to get the party started. Confident and honest, you'll be the one to say what everyone is thinking. You are easily bored, and you always find unique ways to do things. You don't just dream it, you do it. And that's why you're so successful. Too intense for some, often times people are intimidated by you. But you're usually smart enough to charm them anyway!

What's Your Rising Sign?

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death). Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally! Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Which of the X-Men Are You?

You Are an Iced Coffee

At your best, you are: hyper, modern, and athletic At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you're out with friends Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"I can pass this guy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

You Are The Hanging Man

You represent the seeking of enlightenment and spiritual clarity. You tend to confuse others, but your oddities seem deeply satisfying. Self sacrifice is easy for you, especially if it makes you a better person in the end. You are the type of person who is very in touch with your soul and inner spirit. Your fortune: Right now is a good time for reflection and meditation. You should stop resisting the problems in your life, and let yourself be vulnerable to them. You may need to sacrifice something important to you to move ahead in your life. Accept your destiny with courage, and learn to let go of what you think you need.

What Tarot Card Are You?

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry. And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

Maroon 5 Shares Your Taste in Music

See their whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

30,000 MILES

I had just pulled into the garage at home when I saw that my car just turned 30,000 miles. I haven't seen a car odometer that low since I bought the Cavalier with 31,257 miles on it.

I talk to myself in the car

I do it often enough that I rarely think about it. I was sitting in the parking lot of Sonitrol this morning waiting for my paycheck when I started to talk to myself. Nothing to call the men in white coats and large novelty butterfly nets over, but I do notice I carry small conversations.

Often I talk to my car. Penny is a fickle little car. She has her moments where she's purring like a well tuned machine, then there are days when she feels like she's giving back a little too much attitude.

Today my conversation to myself involved music. Like many other drivers, I sing along to good music. I was blasting Fleetwood Mac as loud as my Neon could mustre. It had been a really long time since I sat down and listened to some good Fleetwood Mac songs and today coming home that's all I kept thinking about. The last time I really did that was when I was heading out to Corpus Christi in the Mustang. I took along with me some 9 hours worth of FM and by the end of that road trip I had my fix.

So today was one of those days where I said "IM just gonna listen to this one song [Gypsy] and that'll be it".

Then The Chain played.

You can't interrupt a good song.

Then Dreams.

Then Silver Springs.

Pretty soon my playlist started to shape into just hitting play on all Fleetwood Mac songs on the iPod. I sat at a stop light and happened to notice there were a few people staring at me as I sung. I stared straight at them and sung louder. I tried to turn the radio even louder and found I was maxxing out the volume on the Neon. It wasn't loud enough. I was in the moment, in the zone with some truly awesome music. I listened to Stevie Nicks belt out Rhiannon, then started thinking about her concert performances back in the 1970s when she was performing like a mad woman possessed by the passion for her lyrics and oblivious to the world beyond the melody. I could hear that version in my head screaming out the lyrics and captivating the audience in what would have been a spectacle of sequins and lace trailing from her black satiny blouse as she hung onto that microphone and painted the concert hall in her soul.

Then the light turned green.

I talk to myself in the car. It helps keep me sane.

One Week Later

The video above is what Doniphan looked like on Wednesday Aug. 2nd as the water in the street just sat there. Now one week later, the water is mostly gone, but a new problem has come about.


*click image for larger version*

The mosquitos are breeding like mad. On my legs alone I can count about 10-15 bites that really really itch. My arms have about 5.



All of this area might not look like this anymore, but the stagnant water left in yards and low lying areas stinks to high heaven. Couple this with the trash that washed away from peoples garbage cans and street runoff, not to mention the malodorous scent of drainage canals and farmland in front of our building, it is absolutely unbearable to breathe any fresh air outside of the building, or for much of the upper valley.

Its one of those times you wish El Paso's windy season would come through and blow out all of the stench and mosquito's somewhere else.

What I hate

I hate my voice.

Yep. I work in radio and I hate my voice.

I don't hear what other people hear. Those of you who are reading this blog should watch the videos posted on my site, the person talking is me. Yeah, that's also me driving a 5 speed and shooting video at 45mph.

But that doesn't change that I hate my voice.

I always have. To me, my voice sounds nasally and crappy. Everyone says I have a radio voice and have been used for commercials and recorded phone messages.

It's also a good reason I don't like talking a lot.

I had this discussion with some co-workers here at Sonitrol the other day. I remember we had mentioned that I knew a co-worker back in the day and she utilized me as the guy who recorded the phone messages for the company. It was around that moment I told her and my co-worker that I have always hated my voice. They were a bit surprised and laughed it off, but I can't stand it at times.

IM strange that way, I know.

This is why I love radio

IM sitting in the talk set watching several TVs and radio reports and trying to gather as much information as possible. Where El Paso isn't as bad as Tuesday's hellish downpour, its still pretty bad. A lot of the roads that were affected by Tuesday storm were clearing yesterday (see videos in last update) but last night the rain hit us again.

So, here I sit gathering information about the El Paso International Airport loosing a good 20 x 20 section of roof due to the rain, parts of the "Upper Valley" of El Paso are flooded, a traffic accident with a semi and construction workers killed one, Las Cruces New Mexico are getting hammered by rain, I am trying to gather what I can and send it on air as fast as I can...

IM busy, IM active and its not the same ol' routine as normal.

This is why I love radio!

Flood 2006

Oooooh, it has such an ominous presence, doesn't it? These are videos taken by my camera.