Too gone too long

I’m going on a limb that everyone hates blogs that start “sorry I haven’ t written much lately”, so I won’t do that, even though that sums up how I feel.

I have been writing, but that writing isn’t ready for mass consumption yet.  I have been keeping to my MySpace/Fanwitch blog on a weekly basis, but my Sunday South Dakota blogs will be on break for a while yet.  I don’t want South Dakota to think I’ve stopped caring.  I’ve been sneaking peaks at goings on, and I plan to resume blogging about the fairest of states once I finish the project I’m currently working on.

Speaking of said project, the wee one is asleep.  Time to get my typing on.

Sick friends and rethinking ideas

In case you hadn’t heard or read, my eMac is in the shop.  The other night I went into my office to work on a 52 Cards blog, but all I could get was a blue screen with a spinning wheel near the bottom.  After a frustrating night and early morning with the wife’s laptop dialed in to the Apple support page, I gave up and called the one place in town that works on Macs.  I took her in Friday, but they can’t get her in to the shop until Wednesday.  There are two things I hate being without, in terms of inanimate objects: my computer and my car.  If both are running well, I can face pretty much anything.  If one is in the shop, I’m just a bit off.  I’ve had my car in the shop a lot more than my computer, so this is a different kind of “feeling off”.  It isn’t so bad, as my wife’s computer works fine (albeit w/Windows Vista…ugh) and my old PowerMac tower is still a non-internet option.  I won’t lose my music collection, because that’s on a backup drive.  I may lose my collection of over 1,000 wallpapers, which actually makes me wish I’d backed them up now.  I’m holding out hope they can fix her, or at least recover my wallpapers and some other pictures and documents.

I had to post a quick “sorry, computer’s broken” message on my 52 cards blog, but lately I’ve been thinking about abandoning that project.  When I came up with the idea to do a blog a week involving each card in the deck, I thought it would be easier than my daily story project Cliffhanger Theater.  It turned out to be a lot harder than I was expecting.  Cliffhanger Theater was actually a breeze compared to this, because it was just one long story.  Thinking of a new direction each week has been challenging and at times frustrating.  Some of what I’ve written there I really didn’t want to publish, because I thought it wasn’t up to my meager standards.  I do have a few multi-part stories I’d like to finish, but for the most part I’m ready to ditch 52 cards for a while.  I’d like to devote more of my free writing time to finishing the novel I started a few months ago.  I’m almost three chapters into it, but I haven’t written anything for it in almost three weeks.  That, combined with a ton of other ideas I’d like to get to sooner as opposed to later, and 52 cards is starting to look expendable at best, and a self-adorned albatross at worst. 

The reason I don’t think I can quit 52 cards?  I hate quitting things.  A good chunk of my younger days I was quite a quitter.  I’d like to think as the years have gone by, I’ve become less of a quitter.  I made it through a year of Cliffhanger Theater, which was important to me more as a big project I finished as opposed to an exercise in a practice run as a writer.  Either way, I’ll still be writing.  I just have to decide where to focus my resources and energy right now.

I hope to decide by Thursday.  Either way, I’ll try and do more with this blog on Sundays.

Funny story…but not really

So…I had to skip most of work on Friday, and I’ve spent most of tonight catching up. 

I enjoyed G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra.  I’ll probably go again this week.  My disclaimer on that statement involves my first figure being the first Zartan, and my first issue being about #34 of the Marvel run.  My fandom really started on a day when I found “The Revenge of Cobra” airing as one long movie on WGN.  Yes, they changed several characters…a lot.  That didn’t bother me because a live-action G.I. Joe movie is something I’ve wanted since #34, Zartan, and ”The Revenge of Cobra”. 

Early word from the producer is that the sequel, if greenlit, might have Flint.  Throw in Lady Jaye and we have a deal for a minimum three trips to the theater.

Thunderstricken

Due to severe weather putting me behind tonight, I don’t have time for a proper blog.  If you’d like to read about my little health scare, head over to Verbiage Dump or my MySpace blog for an update.

Unposted

Since about 2000 or so (maybe even sooner), there’s been a war of words that has spanned at least three (maybe four) message boards.  The back and forth is basically between where I work and a station in Sioux Falls.  The argument has evolved (de-evolved) over the years into a running rant about how everything we do is “wrong” or “stupid” and how I’m “brain dead”.  Others have risen up to defend our virtual honor, but I’ve tried to stay out of it all.  I have a registered name, and my identity is no big secret.  Actually, that’s what has pulled me back into actually thinking about the board wars again.  Somebody actually impersonated me.  Me?  I’ve never thought of myself as worthy of impersonation.

One of the popular arguments against how we do things relies on an argument that CHR radio is like McDonalds.  The argument goes that, while subtle differences might pop up, every McDonalds has a core menu and does the same thing.  Therefore, we’re doing it wrong because we have a slant that goes a bit alt-rock (maybe Rock 40 is a better format name?), and we’re doing it wrong because we spin more currents than some stations.  We also get it wrong because we tend to jump on some songs before they’re in the top 40 of the chart, and “making hits” is a right reserved for bigger stations.  On the basis of those criteria, we’d be guilty on all we’re accused of (with the exception of the Scissor Sisters…we’re continually accused of playing them even though we never have).

If they insist on running with the restaurant theme, I’ll meet them there.  Larger radio companies have strategies and consultants that give their stations a quality of sameness that is akin to a large, franchised burger joint.  Clear Channel might be your McDonalds, Cumulus might be your Burger King.  Us?  We’re consultant free, and we aren’t owned by a big time radio company.  If CHRs are audio burger joints, we’re like Marshall’s very own Mike’s Cafe.  They have some really nice burgers, but they also offer turkey commercials, a shrimp burger, and a variety of lunch items just to name a few things.  I’m not saying we’re better, but we’re just a different place with a different philosophy.

We’re also attacked for having no “direction” with our music.  For the better part of the last eight years we’ve had more of a direction than the station had before.  I’m not trying to knock KKCK’s “golden era”.  We had some great personalities, and some fun shows.  The music was a mishmash of rock, 80s, and AC-leaning CHR hits.  At one point our library had over 2,000 titles, where most CHRs have maybe a few hundred.  My predecessor came in and we trimmed the station down by almost 3/4ths.  Over the years, our gold library has grown a bit, but soon we’ll start weeding out the 90s music in chunks, leaving it to rest on our 90s noon show.  When new music is considered, the first thing checked is the current CHR chart.  After that, the alternative chart, rhythmic chart, mainstream rock chart, and urban charts are looked over for songs that are blowing up big and wouldn’t sound out of place on KKCK.  Notice I didn’t say a CHR.  KKCK has long been a station that wasn’t afraid to take a chance on a song, and that’s not something I was given this job to change.  My boss wants KKCK to be *the* new music source among our stations, and that means a more proactive than reactive approach to adding songs.  Do we occasionally add something that doesn’t pan out?  I’d be lying if I said no.  More often than not, we just end up adding a song that is a few weeks (months) from being a big crossover hit.

I’m not trying to rewrite the CHR manual with this job.  If a tight playlist and 70-80 spins a week work most places, that’s great.  What we do is what we do, and it works for us.  Our numbers are really good in our home area, and we have plenty of advertisers to pay the bills.  This leads me to the next part of the arguments involving us.  Apparently, after we get ourselves sounding like a McCHR, we should target Sioux Falls and take on their CHR.  We already reach Sioux Falls, and for a time they were a target during a four year stretch when there was no CHR station in Sioux Falls besides us.  Is Sioux Falls a tempting target?  Consider we’re a good 90 minute drive away, which means we’d probably have to hire salespeople in Sioux Falls and practically open up a branch office there.  We’re licensed as a Marshall station, and the bulk of what we do is in Marshall, for our listeners and advertisers in Marshall.  Sure, we have plenty of accounts in nearby towns, and even a few in South Dakota (mostly Brookings).  Maybe one of these days we’ll see about getting a few more Sioux Falls businesses on the air, but Marshall and the surrounding area is very good to us.  A side rant on these boards involves the Sioux Falls station sending salespeople to Marshall.  In theory, that might not be a bad idea.  Well, except that their station doesn’t come in very well at all (if at all) in Marshall, and there aren’t many people in a town over 100,000 that like to travel to a town of 12,000 because of a great sale (unless it’s a really great sale).  I think this argument probably comes from radio people in Sioux Falls who might be frustrated that our signal hits them, but their signals are cut off from us thanks to the Buffalo Ridge (our tower sits atop the ridge, hence our far reaching signal).

In the end, it’s an online argument that just isn’t worth it.  Back when this started, I’d stay late at work and type out the snarkiest comments I could to either put out a fire, or to stoke some flames.  I had the time and energy for it.  Now, I’d rather use my time and energy working on the station and my blogging, at least when I’m not spending time with my beautiful wife and super-happy-fun-time son.  Perhaps somebody I know who reads this will take the side of McCHR (and I do know one person who is quite a fan of arguing and fairly good at it) and a rational discussion can happen here.  Or, I’ll just let this one sit and call it like I called the subject line.

Unposted.

Still no direction

All because Mike threw the map in the river.

Can you believe the Blair Witch Project is ten years old this year?  I was in the camp of “scared of every noise at night for a good week” side of that argument.  I still want to know what the hell was happening in the ending.  Why was Mike just standing in the corner?

The weekend was nice.  I found a few keen G.I. Joe shirts at ShopKo of all places.  One is a nice black number that incorporates the cover of Marvel’s #22.  The only thing I’d never noticed about the cover was the Joe on the far left.  He has the arm and leg pads of Flash or Grand Slam, but the visor and torso of Short Fuse.  The issue is no help at all, as the main push of the cover/story is the funeral of General Flagg, and all the Joes are there.  I’ll just assume it’s Grand Slam, as he’s the 13th banana of the 13 original Joes.

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a quick little kitchen recipe of sorts that has turned out to be a hit with the Mrs. and myself.  First off, get yourself some frozen chicken nuggets, but not ones that are pre-flavored.  You’ll also want to pick up some spaghetti or pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese if you don’t have any.  Next, follow the instructions for preparing the nuggets in the oven, and when they’re done take them out of said oven, but don’t turn the oven off.  Get a spoon and put a healthy dollop of pizza sauce (that’s what I use, but spaghetti sauce would work as well) on each nugget (I’d also recommend using parchment paper on the cookie sheet you baked the nuggets on, especially if you really healthily dollop).  Once dolloped, you put a good pinch of mozzarella cheese on each nugget.  Take the sheet of nuggets and put them back in the oven for about three or four minutes, or until the cheese is melted.  Once done, you’ll have a cookie sheet of mini chicken parmigianas.  I’m not sure why I thought to do this, but it works rather slick.

Is it possible to have a recurring villian in one’s dreams?  I’ve had the same mysterious villain twice now, in dreams about a week apart.  The only things I remember about him/her is that they have a large army, have never been defeated, and their advance is sounded by a pounding drum beat that can be heard hundreds of miles away.  I thought of a framework around a very ambitious novel that takes a lot from this, but I need to stop thinking of ideas for books and just start finishing books.  I’ve started three in my life, and I really need to finish one.

A few days ago I found some jeans by Ecko that retailed for $88 that were on clearance for about $20, and in my size.  I’ve never owned a pair of jeans that were worth that much, and many times I’ve scoffed at people who would pay that much for a pair of jeans.  In the past I’ve paid around $45 for Levi’s, but that was the extent of my jean spending.  Wrangler and whatever Target sells have been good enough for me for years.  While I’m not about to get all fashion crazy, I have to admit these might be the most comfortable jeans I’ve ever owned.  Here I thought people paid brand name prices for pants that were just pants.  I don’t know what the hell they do differently at Ecko, but I’m officially a fan.  Granted, wearing a Cobra hoodie probably negated any positive fashion impact.

I’m not going to say what inspired me to say it, but I had a reminder recently of my longstanding policy on blogging when it comes to blogging about other people.  I’ll type about me and my family and other random junk until my fingers hurt, but I have a policy about not saying anything online I wouldn’t say to someone’s face.  Sure, there are a few people I’d love to go off about, but most sleeping dogs are best left to rest.  I’m pretty sure there are a few blogs about me out there that aren’t friendly in the least, but that’s the writer’s right to write about.  There’s also a lot of jive talk about where I work on a message board, but it just isn’t worth getting into a verbal slap-fight with anonymous people who can’t even get some of the facts in the criticism right. 

I’ll keep my head up if you all will.  After all, the G.I. Joe movie is out in less than a month.

Losing the other half of the battle?

Among some of my friends, it’s a secret.  Among others, it’s well known. 

Some think it’s neat.  Others think it’s a waste of money.

Some days I feel like quitting cold turkey.  Other days I want to sell plasma to feed the habit.

I’m talkin’ about collecting G.I. Joe figures.  Those of you looking for a blog version of “Intervention” should use the WordPress search feature now.

If you’re still reading…I should write more, huh?

Today I spent a few hours in a room in the basement called “the G.I. Joe room”.  Granted, it isn’t just G.I. Joes in the room.  It also holds a good chunk of my baseball cards, Transformers, Construx, and bristle blocks, along with a few other odds and ends.  It’s called the G.I. Joe room because my Joe collection dominates it.  I was hoping to catch up  on a few things that had been sitting for a year or more.  Since Kate and I found out we were having Braeden, I’ve spent barely any time in that room, but I haven’t stopped buying stuff.  I have a table in the room, and it took me several minutes to move various comics, figure boxes, figures, and a few vehicles to find the table surface.  Once I was ready to start, I found myself just sitting there, staring at everything in the room.  Part of me felt overwhelmed about how much of that stuff I had accumulated.  Part of me felt like I’d wasted a lot of money and time with a toy-line, and that at my age it was time to just let it go.  An unexpected wave of depression washed over me as well, which was unexpected.  Just the day before I had bought a few of the figures from the movie line, and they were very impressive and well put together (for the record, I open them…they’re worth more in the package but they’re more fun out of the package).  I was feeling more into G.I. Joe than I had been in a long time, at least until I went downstairs.  Now I’m not so sure.  Kate seems to think I’ll spend more time down there once Braeden is older and doesn’t need constant supervision.  The thought of selling it all on eBay crossed my mind for a few minutes.  The option to let Braeden play when he’s older isn’t looking so good.  Early indications are that he’s taking his mom’s “destructo-child” personality, and a rough playing kid would pretty much total the brittle plastic of a twenty-five year old Skystriker in a few minutes. 

Overall, it was another great weekend, but there was that bit of weirdness. 

See, I told you I’d write something tonight.  As far as post #101, we’ll see.

Tonight’s link round-up…

…is like getting excited to light fireworks that turn out to be a box of last year’s sparklers.

Will Thune be Daschle’d?  Nah, he’ll get three terms in before getting voted out.  No S.D. senator has ever won a 4th term.

Mount Rushmore gets scanned for the ages.

Only two bucks per gopher in Brookings County?  The Brookings Register’s photo makes me think that’s a bit low.

Yeah, I’ll pass.  Thanks.

Either this guy is tough or that was one slow train.

Miller is getting a new sign.

South Dakota’s rattlesnake population is growing and gaining attention.

The smoking ban challenge is being challenged. 

Has it already been seven years since the Grizzly Gulch fires?

This story reminded me of some great ice cream I had in Rapid City several years ago.  I wish I could remember what that place was called.

This is my 99th post to this blog.  I’ve been doing the South Dakota news link thing for most of them, but I’m thinking this might be the last one.  There are plenty of good South Dakota news blogs already, and my weekly search for amusing stories and material to expound on usually ends up being a bunch of links from the Brookings Register, and little to no expounding.  What will I write about instead?  Will I continue to update it?  Those are good questions, but I don’t have an answer right now.  The ball is really rolling on some other writing adventures I’m taking, and I don’t have infinite time on an infinite typewriter.

Stay tuned?  One way or another, I’ll post something next Sunday.

I need a link bailout

Slow news day in SoDakia…

Two more South Daktoa churches are calling it a career.  One is in Orient, and the other in Rockham.

Not many stories get this reaction from me, but eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Can you name the “opera capital of South Dakota”?  Click here for the answer.

Good news for all the crazy cat ladies in Yankton.

Governor Rounds is costing the state millions?  That’s what this guy said.

No word if mountain lions are being invited to this meeting.

The only states more free than South Dakota are New Hampshire and Colorado?

The weekend was a calm one on my end.  Most of it was spent with Kate and Braeden, which is just fine with me.  I’m looking forward to next weekend, as Kate won’t be at work at all thanks to Independence Day.  The week is looking good overall.  I’ll be going to the new Transformers movie (finally), and I’m only three per cent done on Boom Blox for Wii.  Just in case I’m not the last person to try that game, I’m telling you to try it if you have a Wii and haven’t at this point.  The Wii is rekindling my love of video games.  I know it doesn’t have the power of PS3 or the Xbox 360, but super fast games and great graphics aren’t where I’m at right now.  I’ve slipped into the casual, pick up and play market. 

I’ve had a weird mood the last week.  Actually, it’s been several moods.  A few brief highs mixed in with some unusual lows.  I’m not sad or depressed, but my self-esteem has been really low.  I can’t really explain it.  I’m not going to go full blown woe-is-me or anything, but even for my usual low self-esteem things have been low. 

Braeden is up to ten steps before falling.  How many steps does he need to take before he’s actually walking?  I’m thinking the clincher is when he’s walking more than crawling, and he’s not there  yet.  He is really finding his voice, just not any words close to English.  He seems to know what he’s saying, as he’ll rattle off some gibberish, and then when we don’t understand he repeats it but louder, just like an obnoxious tourist in a foreign country.  It’s quite funny.

I’m really missing running a campaign.  I’m thinking of scenario after scenario.  The problem is that they’re all for Star Trek: the RPG.  I’ll be lucky if I get to run that even once more in the next year.  I floated the idea of our old group starting to game again, even though we’re in different cities.  My idea was to use Skype to pull it off, and once that’s in place the only juggling will be with time-zones and schedules.  That could be tougher than hooking up the equipment.

I think that’s enough for tonight.

I had a great weekend, but a few things got stuck in my craw

First up, a potentially big story is developing in Pierre.  This is one to watch over the next few days.

The FCC is coming to South Dakota to discuss updating the info-infrastucture on reservations.

South Dakota’s DNA rules will not be changing.

One demographic that’s growing in South Dakota: rattlesnakes.

Balloons are going up to complain about how expensive clean air and water are, or something like that.

It’s always sad to read about another small town church closing down.

This is total late-night joke material: the town was so small the high speed chase was only two blocks.

Wind farms are about to start growing around Miller.

John Thune rises in the GOP ranks.

Rapid City students aren’t reading like they used to.

While discussing the need for security cameras, some vandals made it seem like an obvious decision.

All hail the new Miss South Dakota.

Tourists are still flocking to South Dakota.

Brookings is looking for help in finding a way to market the city.

Hey, let’s all protest something because it might be like something Europe or Canada has.  The insurance companies of America will probably print your signs for you if you ask them.  For frak’s sake, the system we have isn’t working properly.  If you’re going to bitch, come to the table with some ideas besides “whatever the Dems are doing is wrong”. 

I’m just going to lay it out here and now.  I was a Republican back in the early 90s.  I suppored Bob Dole in 1996.  However, somewhere along the line the Republican Party went off the rails hardcore.  I’m not a declared Democrat, but I might as well be.  These tea party fests and the crowd they attract sum up why I left. 

I don’t like to get too political on the web, since it usually leads to way too much arguing, but damn.  I can only take so much white noise these days.  I’ve already had my fill, thanks to spending a few hours with my mom, who I love dearly.  That being said, she’s always trying to steer a conversation towards something she saw on Fox News. 

On a non political and happier note, the Mrs. hit the ball out of the yard for my Father’s Day.  I’m now the owner of a Wii.  The weekend was so busy (and great) that I don’t even have it hooked up yet.  Hopefully I’ll be Wii-ing by Monday or Tuesday.