Well, I thought if I couldn't sublet my room in time, I'd be able to take the prerequisite classes for the radiology technologist program here in Boston, then transfer the credits out to California when my lease is up. Guess what? I can't find a single place in all of Eastern Massachusetts that offers the classes I need.

I think I'm out of options at this point. Here's where I start pulling my hair out.

In other news, I'm not quite sure I like the look of the new iMac. It looks like a desklamp.

Well, I thought if I couldn't sublet my room in time, I'd be able to take the prerequisite classes for the radiology technologist program here in Boston, then transfer the credits out to California when my lease is up. Guess what? I can't find a single place in all of Eastern Massachusetts that offers the classes I need.

I think I'm out of options at this point. Here's where I start pulling my hair out.

In other news, I'm not quite sure I like the look of the new iMac. It looks like a desklamp.

"I will never underestimate the power of show prep. I will always appreciate the work of radio interns, especially for morning shows, for doing a complete show by oneself is damned hard and even harder when you have to pick your own music and figure out what stories you're reading for the news on the air. Thank the Lord for small favors and seven-minute songs that allow for bathroom breaks."

So I stumbled in at around 7:58 for an 8AM show, uttered the Shepard's prayer (not the Shepherd's Prayer, but this one from Alan Shepard, which he said just before they launched him into space: "Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up") and launched into my first live radio show in almost five years. Once I got into my groove, it was going okay, although I definitely made some interns' mistakes like starting the wrong CD player -- even though it didn't really matter because the playlist was at my discretion, but I still had a flow I wanted to keep -- and stumbling over a few words here and there.

As I said over the air, I was giving/getting electric shocks to everything in the studio. Every time I touched the control board, the CD players or the computers, I got a shock. One was so bad, it made the CD player stop for a second. I was not pleased, not just because the damn machine stopped, but also if the shock was powerful enough to interrupt the CD player, imagine how it felt to me.

All in all, though, I had fun and enjoyed it, which was the main point of the exercise, and I even got to do an extra two hours because they didn't get anyone to cover 10AM to noon, so I had myself a four-hour shift. Plus, I was able to make myself an updated aircheck tape (it's like a demo tape of me talking on the air and segueing between songs) so if I decide to try for an on-air spot in the near future, I have something to send to stations. My old one was sorely outdated, plus I lost it in my last move. I listened to it on the way home to critique myself and I honestly don't think I did as bad as I thought I did when I was actually running the show. I still sound halfway decent, even when I'm exhausted from less than 4 hours of sleep. [wry smile]

So this afternoon I have some tasks to take care of here, then I'll veg out and rest my brain. The adrenaline is no longer running through my system and now that I've finally eaten, I'm starting to crash. And then tomorrow, I get to do it all over again.

"I will never underestimate the power of show prep. I will always appreciate the work of radio interns, especially for morning shows, for doing a complete show by oneself is damned hard and even harder when you have to pick your own music and figure out what stories you're reading for the news on the air. Thank the Lord for small favors and seven-minute songs that allow for bathroom breaks."

So I stumbled in at around 7:58 for an 8AM show, uttered the Shepard's prayer (not the Shepherd's Prayer, but this one from Alan Shepard, which he said just before they launched him into space: "Dear Lord, please don't let me fuck up") and launched into my first live radio show in almost five years. Once I got into my groove, it was going okay, although I definitely made some interns' mistakes like starting the wrong CD player -- even though it didn't really matter because the playlist was at my discretion, but I still had a flow I wanted to keep -- and stumbling over a few words here and there.

As I said over the air, I was giving/getting electric shocks to everything in the studio. Every time I touched the control board, the CD players or the computers, I got a shock. One was so bad, it made the CD player stop for a second. I was not pleased, not just because the damn machine stopped, but also if the shock was powerful enough to interrupt the CD player, imagine how it felt to me.

All in all, though, I had fun and enjoyed it, which was the main point of the exercise, and I even got to do an extra two hours because they didn't get anyone to cover 10AM to noon, so I had myself a four-hour shift. Plus, I was able to make myself an updated aircheck tape (it's like a demo tape of me talking on the air and segueing between songs) so if I decide to try for an on-air spot in the near future, I have something to send to stations. My old one was sorely outdated, plus I lost it in my last move. I listened to it on the way home to critique myself and I honestly don't think I did as bad as I thought I did when I was actually running the show. I still sound halfway decent, even when I'm exhausted from less than 4 hours of sleep. [wry smile]

So this afternoon I have some tasks to take care of here, then I'll veg out and rest my brain. The adrenaline is no longer running through my system and now that I've finally eaten, I'm starting to crash. And then tomorrow, I get to do it all over again.

Dear Lord, it's damn early. The last few times I was awake at this hour, it was because I couldn't get to sleep the night before.

Either way, I'm off to do my airshift, and I'm thankful that it rained last night and didn't snow. Although I was kind of looking forward to a snowstorm, we haven't had one yet. I wanted at least one this winter before I left for a perpetual warmer climate.

Dear Lord, it's damn early. The last few times I was awake at this hour, it was because I couldn't get to sleep the night before.

Either way, I'm off to do my airshift, and I'm thankful that it rained last night and didn't snow. Although I was kind of looking forward to a snowstorm, we haven't had one yet. I wanted at least one this winter before I left for a perpetual warmer climate.

The day has been fraught with different activities, from show prep to editing a friend's grad school entrance essay to grocery shopping to meeting up with a couple old friends who I haven't seen in months. In addition to all that, I still have to do this round's assignments for Blogger Insider.

I think I've found another definition for a good actor. A good actor has to be able to convincingly make it look like they're bad at something they're actually very good at.

The day has been fraught with different activities, from show prep to editing a friend's grad school entrance essay to grocery shopping to meeting up with a couple old friends who I haven't seen in months. In addition to all that, I still have to do this round's assignments for Blogger Insider.

I think I've found another definition for a good actor. A good actor has to be able to convincingly make it look like they're bad at something they're actually very good at.

Barring weather problems (such as the impending 4 to 8 inches of snow we're supposed to get tonight), I will be behind the microphone and CD players at Brandeis' radio station tomorrow and Tuesday mornings from 8-10AM Eastern with the possibility of an extended shift if the next block isn't filled. For those of you in the Boston area, you can try to tune in on 100.1 FM, though the signal isn't great. Outside the Boston area, you can listen to the online stream, which can be found on their website.

I'll be starting the station's broadcast day, so if you tune in and there's dead air, it means I'm not there yet. And it's freeform, which means I basically get to play whatever the hell I want. Wooooo hooooo!

Barring weather problems (such as the impending 4 to 8 inches of snow we're supposed to get tonight), I will be behind the microphone and CD players at Brandeis' radio station tomorrow and Tuesday mornings from 8-10AM Eastern with the possibility of an extended shift if the next block isn't filled. For those of you in the Boston area, you can try to tune in on 100.1 FM, though the signal isn't great. Outside the Boston area, you can listen to the online stream, which can be found on their website.

I'll be starting the station's broadcast day, so if you tune in and there's dead air, it means I'm not there yet. And it's freeform, which means I basically get to play whatever the hell I want. Wooooo hooooo!

Urinating Passenger Charged with Threatening Plane. This guy was on a United Airlines flight from New York to Buenos Aires on Christmas Day, pissed on the row of seats he was sitting in, threatened that he had placed something onboard the aircraft that would bring down the plane in a fireball and caused them to divert to Miami, where he was arrested. Yet how come I only hear about this a week and a half later in the "weird news" section of Reuters, and not in my newspaper the day after it happened like all the other cases? Maybe because the guy was Hispanic and not Arabic, so he "didn't pose a viable threat" as a potential terrorist? You tell me...

Urinating Passenger Charged with Threatening Plane. This guy was on a United Airlines flight from New York to Buenos Aires on Christmas Day, pissed on the row of seats he was sitting in, threatened that he had placed something onboard the aircraft that would bring down the plane in a fireball and caused them to divert to Miami, where he was arrested. Yet how come I only hear about this a week and a half later in the "weird news" section of Reuters, and not in my newspaper the day after it happened like all the other cases? Maybe because the guy was Hispanic and not Arabic, so he "didn't pose a viable threat" as a potential terrorist? You tell me...

While I still think it's not good that a human life was lost, I still think it says something that a single American soldier dying in Afghanistan makes nationwide headlines. How many Afghanis died during our several-week-long bombing escapade? I'm sure several hundred, but I didn't see any figures and I didn't see stories about it except "we're kickin' ass an' takin' names over there." A single solitary guy on our side dies, and his name is splashed coast-to-coast on the cover of every newspaper. How lucky we are that our technology and their lack of it can keep the numbers so lopsided in our favor.

While I still think it's not good that a human life was lost, I still think it says something that a single American soldier dying in Afghanistan makes nationwide headlines. How many Afghanis died during our several-week-long bombing escapade? I'm sure several hundred, but I didn't see any figures and I didn't see stories about it except "we're kickin' ass an' takin' names over there." A single solitary guy on our side dies, and his name is splashed coast-to-coast on the cover of every newspaper. How lucky we are that our technology and their lack of it can keep the numbers so lopsided in our favor.

"This is the kind of honesty that only beer can bring." Such was the frankness of the discussion that I held tonight with a very old friend of mine. I got it all off my chest, almost like a confession. I told him about my dad's health problems, I told him about the weight on my mind about career choices (and was relieved to hear that he was going through the same type of indecision), I related my belief that depression was imminent due to my current situation, I filled him in on the abusive relationship I had been in while we were both in college (I was on the receiving end). He told me about his concerns with the relationship he's currently in, his career choices, his belief that maybe L.A. wouldn't hold everything that I was looking for since Boston didn't hold everything he was looking for, and a decent amount of reciprocation in terms of what I was feeling. I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in this confusion.

The Royal Tenenbaums was good, though. I enjoyed it, despite its absurdity and abject satire of itself. I particularly enjoyed the acting, especially Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston and Gwyneth Paltrow's. For once, I actually saw Gwyneth's appeal and realized how people might think that she's incredibly attractive, though I'm not sure why.