This is All That!

So you know when life flies by in a whirl...

2010-05-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

That is how I feel the past year has been. Ever since September, I have been running around doing things for work and school, hanging out with friends, and much more. I guess that I am in a point in my life where everything goes fast and will slow down eventually, but not yet. Yes, there are probably things that I could do to slow down, but I don't know if that is what I want to do.

I guess it doesn't matter, I am having fun, so I guess that is all that matters. :)

SO, the semester is over (Thank goodness!!!) and now it is time for summer. I am taking one class in June, which will be Education Statistics, so hopefully it won't be as painful as it sounds. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to it.

Things that are coming up soon:

I am going to a conference in Kentucky with a side trip to Cincinnati, so I am excited about that.

Also, I am planning a visit to Houston to see my sister and Mom in June, so that will be fun too.

I want to plan a time to go camping, but I there are so many weekends that are taken up by prior engagements, I don't know if it will work out. Maybe if I can't travel during my vacation (hopefully I get all the days that I ask for) then I can try to go then.

That's about it...

El Paso, Day 2

2009-09-09T13:47:00.001-05:00

Day 2 in El Paso is was eye opening. I could actually see the city and the mountains. Oh, and the big fence that denotes the border between the US and Mexico. It was interesting to see the shanty towns just yards from the freeway of which across was a typical American neighborhood.

The fairs weren't bad. Lots of questions about criminal justice. In talking with other recruiters, it is due to the border and all of the crime that happens in El Paso and across the border.

On the way to El Paso HS, I found a few good To over look the city into El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Got few shots of the two cities but nothing too good. Need a zoom camera for that.

Before ending the night, Audra and I went to Cincinnati Street, which is a bar/restaurant for dinner and drinks. Had a good time, as well as some banana pancakes.

We will see what tomorow brings...

Sent from my iPhone

El Paso first impressions

2009-09-08T00:42:00.001-05:00

Well I just arrived in El Paso this evening. It feels like a different
place although it has been dark the whole time so I can't quite see
much. However it is really easy to see Mexico from I-10.

It feels like I am not in Texas. Were in a different time zone, there
are lots of mountains, the English radio stations still have Spanish
commericals and the list goes on. It also is apparent that I am in the
minority here. Which is not a problem, but is a little bit of a
culture shock.

I am really excited to be here. This is a new part of the state and
after this week and a trip to midland/odessa, I will have been across
the whole state of Texas.

Tomorrow, I will have a better view of things since it will actually
be light out and I will be able to see things. I can also get a good
look at the Mazda 6 that I am driving.
Sent from my iPhone

Lazy days

2009-08-30T17:24:00.003-05:00

Well, I wrote this nice long post via email to test out the post by email option on the iPhone, but it did not work! I had inserted this picture and then wrote text around it and all that it posted was this picture. That sucks! I like to include pictures with my postings because it makes them more interesting... Well, I guess that won't be happening. Somebody needs to develop an app for the iPhone so this will be easier. Although, it will have to be free before I download it...

I love Austin!

2009-03-29T22:24:00.003-05:00

I love Austin! It is just a great city. It is very pedestrian friendly and safe. I have come to Austin many times and driven around, but I have never really walked the city. You just get a better feel for a town once you have walked around to scope it out. There aren't many cities that you can do this in, but Austin just happens to be one of those cities.

I had to come for a visit due to work. We are attending the National Hispanic College Fairs here in Austin and San Antonio. We had another counselor that was supposed to come, but it fell through and I was chosen to make the trip. I was totally ok with that because I was ready to get out of dodge for a little bit anyways.

So I got into town around 6:45pm and checked into the Embassy Suites south of Downtown. I always try to stay here when I come to Austin because they have a kick ass breakfast. They have ready to order omelettes and other goodies, and it is a nice property too.

After I dropped off my bag, I went exploring. I walked over to the Whole Foods on the corner of 5th and Lamar. It was about a mile walk and it was a good way to make myself hungry for dinner. As I was getting closer to the Whole Foods, I was encountering these new developments that I saw last time that I was in town. They were just steel structures, so I didn't really know what they were to become. Well, it turns out that they are lofts. And beautiful lofts they are! They are in a part of town called the "Warehouse district" and they really reflected that. They all had balconies and whatnot and I really envy the people who live there. I am sure that they pay a pretty penny for them and that I cannot afford it, but one can hope.

When I walked into Whole Foods, it was great. I have been inside before, so I knew what it looked like, but this time, I had a pedestrian perspective and could see what it was like shopping there as a local from the neighborhood. As I walked over to the cafe, I fit right in as a patron looking around for dinner. I ended up having the London Broil with mashed sweet potatoes and a squash mix. It was very good, and only $10. Not bad.

After the adventures in Whole Foods, I walked across the street to a new shopping center where there was a REI and a bookstore. The bookstore was the only thing open, so I went in and walked around. I purchased a magazine and started to make my way back to Congress Ave. and to the Hotel (or so I thought).

At this point, I was on 6th Street. I remembered the Dizzy Rooster from the Austin season of the Real World, so I went to find that. Many blocks later, I found it around the corner of 6th and Lavaca; only 3 or so blocks away from the Real World House. It was pretty small, but cool looking nonetheless. I wanted to go in for a drink, but I really didn't want to go in solo. It would just be weird.

After peeking into the Dizzy Rooster, I walked back towards Congress Ave. and when I got there, I decided that I would walk up to the Capitol. I was half way there, so I figured why not.

The Capitol is beautiful at night, all lit up. When I got there, I found that the gates were surprisingly still open, so I walked on through. As I walked up to the stairs leading to the door, I noticed a family walking around as well. This was comforting at 9:30pm on a Sunday night.

I made my way around the building and took some pictures and made my way once again back towards Congress Ave.

When I got to 11th and Congress, I noticed that I was near the KTBC (Fox 7) studios, so I went over and snapped a few shots of one of their live trucks and the cover over their front door. Its not everyday that you walk right past a TV station!

And from there I made my way back to the Hotel, about 11 blocks away. I stopped on the Congress Ave. bridge to see if I could see any bats (I did.. they were out looking for food) and then went back to the Hotel.

It was dark for most of my trip and I felt safe the entire 4.2 miles of my trip. Again, you could make a walking trip like this in every city. I enjoy the fact that Austin is a very young city and that UT and the young, working professionals keep this city young. They also care about the environment and are also very laid back. It would be great to live here and grow a family here. Austinites have the right attitude to do so. They are a medium sized city with the big town amenities and the small town charm. These are the perfect elements for a great city!

(Pictures will be uploaded when I get home)

Gustav is making waves

2008-08-28T10:54:00.004-05:00

With only 24 hours away from the third anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, New Orleans is watching the Gulf for another storm; Gustav. As of now, the projected track will take it just to the west of New Orleans near Houma, LA which would not be good for the Crescent City. This potential track will mean that New Orleans will get hit with the "dirty side" of the storm, where the worst winds and rains reside. In addition, the storm surge is bad on this side as well, and with Katrina, we know what a storm surge can do to a city that is at some points 6 to 20 feet below sea level.

In what I call the Katrina affect, the local news stations are already providing some major coverage of Gustav's possible tracks. Starting yesterday, the Meteorologists have been hosting 3 daily live chats online by video giving viewers the opportunity to ask questions about the storm and its possible impact. I think that if the Democratic National Convention was not going on right now, this would be a big national story. It may become one as the days go on. The storm is projected to hit the Gulf Coast sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Governor Jindal of Louisiana has already declared a State of Emergency and WWL-TV has reported that Gov. Jindal may start contra-flow evacuations Saturday if the storm keeps its current track towards the Louisiana coastline.

It will be interesting to see what sort of hype will follow this storm as it gets closer to the United States. As of now, the system has been pretty fickle, so there is no telling what will happen. There is another storm in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Hannah and two other storms, one off of the coast of Africa and another one behind Hannah that have some favor of developing into storms.

It seems that this season will be a little busier than last season. We will hope for the best and pray that we will not have another disaster like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, or Wilma of 2005.

Denton Public Works Office, you SUCK!

2008-08-27T13:39:00.004-05:00

The you have been working on Maple street in front of Kerr Hall for almost 2 months now, since the end of Spring 2008. It is now the 2nd day of classes and you are still working on the road and closing it down with no notice.

WHY IS IT THAT YOU COULD NOT HURRY TO FINISH THIS BEFORE CLASSES? DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IT MAKES IT HARD TO NAVIGATE CAMPUS WHEN ROADS HAVE 5 INCH POTHOLES AND ROADS ARE CLOSED RANDOMLY?

Please, please finish this soon and do better planning next time.

Thank you, your friends at UNT.

Quick Note to Big Brother's Dan

2008-08-27T11:20:00.004-05:00

Dan,

This week, you have had my stomach in knots. I cannot watch various parts of the episodes this week because of the craziness of your Head of Household. With that said though, you have been able to weasel your way out of difficult situations, and for that, I have to tip my hat to you. You have played a great game this season. I cannot think of anybody else in recent seasons that has performed as well as you. I hope that your game play does not come back to bite you Thursday night, because, you may be caught up in the surprise double eviction night tomorrow. I hope that your side of the house keeps the HOH and you send either Jerry or Ollie packing (really Ollie because he is the next one that needs to go after Michelle, Jerry will be easy to get rid of next week).

You are a true Renegade.

Good luck and God Speed,

Dustin

Want to know what is going on, see the recaps here : http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_brother/recaps/1019/?season=10

and

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_brother/recaps/1020/?season=10

What's the Haps?

2008-08-26T12:20:00.004-05:00

So nothing is really going on at work. We are in the second day of class and this starts the slow period before the recruiting season begins. I am enjoying this slowness, but I hate it at the same time because it gives me time to worry about things, and that is never good. I am scheduled to take the GRE on September 13th, so I am preparing for it and worrying about not making the score that I need to get into my program.

I don't know if I have posted this or not, but I have decided to pursue a Masters of Higher Education. It seems like I will be at UNT for a while, so I figured that I might as well settle in for the long haul. As a part of that, I need to earn a Masters degree in something, so I figured why not learn more about the field that I am in. A couple of my co-workers have been talking to me about the program and I have finally been recruited. I am hoping to being in Spring 2009, but I have to get a few things in order, such as GRE scores and letters of recommendation.

For the letters of recommendation, I have to get a recommendation from a professor. It would figure that the one professor that I actually met with more than once and somewhat established a relationship has moved on to another college. I emailed her almost 2 weeks ago to see if she would do it and she has not responded. Now, I think that I am going to ask my professor that I had this summer at Collin County. I am a little nervous about that because I never met her in person (as the course was a WebCT class) so I don't know if she has enough to go on to feel like she can give me a recommendation. Also, some of the writing that I gave her during the semester wasn't my absolute best, and she does not know that I already have a Bachelors degree, so I hope that will not count against me. (For those keeping count, I took Introduction to Mass Communications this summer because I was bored and didn't have anything else better to do. Also it is because I am a nerd and I am intrigued by the TV industry right now.) So we will see how that goes..

Travel season this year begins on September 15th with Dallas I. My travel schedule is as follows:

Sept 15 - 19: Dallas I

Sept 22 - 26: Dallas II

Sept 29 - Oct 3: Gulf Coast

Oct 6 - 10: Houston I

Oct 27 - 31: San Antonio

Nov 3-6: Professional Conference in Corpus Christi

Nov 10 - 13: Panhandle

Nov 17 - 21: Fort Worth

Dec 1 - 5: Austin

I am excited to get out of the office right now. Traveling is fun, draining, but fun. We will see what crazy things I can encounter this year..

When you thought that it could not get any worse

2008-06-25T13:04:00.005-05:00

They do it. VH1 that is. They have created a new show. A show that questions their judgement. They have added to the American re-make of a British show.. The I Love the (decade here) series. However, they have gone out and made a "I Love the New Millennium". I'm sorry, but is this decade over yet? I thought that we had a year and a half more to go before the next decade, but I guess that I am mistaken. It started on Monday and the series goes through the year 2007. IT JUST HAPPENED! I watched years 2001-2003 last night and it was interesting. I knew exactly everything that they talked about oddly enough.

I love these shows, it is a great resource for people who like to study culture. It is also great to look back and see what was going on during those days and how style and thought has change from there to here. However, this is absurd. I guess that I am not helping my argument because I am watching the episodes, but still. What are they going to do for 2008 and 2009? Wait until the year is over and make a new episode to accompany this series? I think that in order to do a "best of (x) decade" show, that the WHOLE decade be completed for a few years. This would have been more appropriate to appear in say 2014 or so. It is just way too soon.

But I will still watch and reminisce. Ohh the 2000's!

Photo Credits : VH1.com

Yay for holidays!

2008-06-18T10:54:00.004-05:00

So there have been some talks around campus that we may not get the usual week surrounding Christmas and New Years off. I looked on the Human Resource calendar today and I found out that he do get the week off! I would have been really mad if I could not have the week off for Christmas. We are an educational institution and there is no reason for us to be on campus. Yes, technically, we do get backed up during the holidays in processing files, but we need a break sometime. Plus, how is one expected to visit family members on a few days?

In other news, not much is going on. At work, we have begun a calling campaign to help remind students to sign up for orientation. After work last night, I hung out with Jessica, Jennifer, and Jaqueline and I could barely talk. It was not pleasant. I was still glad to hang out with the girls because I have not seen them in a long time, especially Jax and Jessica.

Pretty soon, I will know my recruiting schedule, so I can start making travel plans for the fall. I am excited. I know that I have only been in the office for a handful of weeks now, but I am ready to get back out on the road and get away from the telephone. I do not like to talk on the phone, especially when it is the same question over and over and over and over again. It just starts to get annoying after a while. Today I get to escape for the afternoon because there is a program at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I just hope that the rain holds off until after the event. I don't want to carry viewbooks through the rain. That will be no bueno. We shall see how it goes though..

Homework

2008-06-12T10:12:00.004-05:00

Last night, I did my first section of homework since I left school in May 2007. I have to say it has been quite a while. My keyboard at home is much different than my keyboard at work, so needless to say, I made quite a bit of spelling errors that I had to go back and correct. Maybe my computer is trying to say that I need a natural keyboard at home... For fun, I am taking a course at the local community college about the Media. It is COMM 1307, Introduction to Mass Communications. It is a 10 week course and my first assignment is due next Tuesday.

Last night I studied all there is to know about advertising. We had to read a chapter in the book and then answer some questions that went along with the book and also involved me checking out some ad agencies and choosing one that I would prefer to use to advertise my imaginary product. One company that I looked at was Fallon. I chose them to do my ad. They have produced many of the ads that we have seen on TV, specifically the Citi card commercials where you have the victim of credit card theft and there is a voice over of the criminal talking about what they are going to buy with the credit card. It is one of my favorites.

I also learned that advertising is a billion dollar industry. I read that and was shocked. I guess that we just don't think about how much money it is to purchase time on the air waves.

So far I am enjoying the class. It is what I have been reading about in my spare time, so it is worth it. How I am going to use this credit, I am not sure, but it can just support my habit for off the wall knowledge.

Before I started homework, I finished up a series that I borrowed from the UNT Media Library. It is a BBC show called "The Robinsons". It stars Martin Freeman (Tim from BBC's The Office). It is about the youngest son (Freeman) in a family of 3 who is struggling to find out what his purpose in life is. His family is highly dysfunctional and it is a really good show. It only lasted for 6 episodes, so there is not much to it, but by British standards, it had a full run. Lately, I have been watching all that Martin Freeman has performed in. On Sunday, I watched "The Good Night" where Martin Freeman played someone similar to his character in "The Robinsons". For some reason, these roles are really intriguing to me right now.

On tap for tonight, Public Relations!

P.S. I feel about how he looks right now.... :)

Summer showers combined with a cold front = perfection

2008-06-10T09:31:00.004-05:00

It was so beautiful last night! I had to drop off books at the library so they would be counted on-time so I made a little trip to the Lewisville Library around 10 pm. The temperature was 72 degrees so I drove with the windows down. And I am glad that I did. It was so relaxing! I had the windows down, radio up and nothing in the world could be wrong. It was great!

Before my excursion to the library, I watched a mocumentry called "Chalk". It is about new teachers who have between 1 hour and 3 years of experience. It was really good. It was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the "Supersize Me" guy. "Chalk" give you an idea what first year teachers experience and some of the frustrations that they can encounter. From un-ruly students to administrators who are not as helpful as they can be. They had a couple PSA's in the special features section. One was really funny, it had this teacher and all you could see is his shirt and tie. He is walking down the hallway, waving to people. He walks into the classroom and starts his lesson. He suddenly drops his chalk. He bends down to pick it up and he is wearing short shorts. A sign on the screen says "That's just wrong. Students, please respect the dress code". It was funny. Unfortunately it is not on Youtube to share, but something to investigate if you watch the DVD.

The season finale of ABC Family's Greek was great also. Of course it was a roller coaster ride of "will they, won't they" but it ended how it should have. Now I will have to wait a whole summer to know what will happen between the Casey-Cappy-Rebecca love triangle.

With all of that excitement, I guess I should start working on my class now...

Making News : Savannah Style

2008-06-04T11:31:00.006-05:00

Tonight is the premiere of the TV Guide channel's reality program "Making News : Savannah Style" series that follows a local TV station (usually during the Spring season) to see what they are doing and usually see how they are trying to beat their competition. Last season, they focused on KOSA in the Midland/Odessa market. They were undergoing some changes in management and also they were trying to beat the their competitor KWES (NewsWest 9). It was really cool to see the behind the scenes action at a local news station.

This season it is based in Savannah, GA at ABC Affiliate WJCL. They have faced some problems of their own : They have a new owner, their General Manager of the station was sent to prison, they are the lowest ranked ABC affiliate. They have a lot of problems they they need to work on. Their current General Manager wrote about why they wanted to be on the "Making News" series here. Basically, they have all of these issues and are the worst station ever and how could it go wrong by having somebody come and document their struggle to become a better news station.

They are in the 97th largest TV market, which is a bit of change from the Midland/Odessa market which is #157. If you notice in the picture above, it says the 198th best local news station, this is referring to overall ABC affiliates nationwide.

I watched Making News : Texas Style last summer and it was very entertaining. You get to learn about what happens behind the scenes at a TV station and which is something that the average viewer does not get to see. It is definitely worth checking out if you have digital cable.

The Mole

2008-06-03T13:32:00.004-05:00

So I watched the premier of the new season of ABC's "The Mole" last night. It was the first time that I saw a full episode. I remember watching a little bit of an episode back in 2003 when it was last on.

"The Mole" is a game-show/reality show which follows 12 people who are given missions to find out who the mole is and also to win money. It is a 10 week venture and this season they are in Chile. Basically, they do all of these missions to gain clues. At the end of each week, they will take a quiz to see who knows who the mole is. The person with the lowest score on the quiz is immediately sent home.

This season has a variety of characters, most are in their 20's, but there are a few contestants who are a little older. The first mission was to "bungee" off of a waterfall in order to grab a bag that may or may not have cash in it. Only 5 people out of 11 grabbed bags and only 2 had cash in the bag (which upset some contestants).

With any game show/reality show, there are characters, people who whine, etc. One contestant, Nicole, threw a fit about having to sleep outside. She was named the person who whines the most and on the next mission, she was the lead, but she paid for her whining because she was stranded on an island for a night.

Overall, I am luke warm to the show. I am not jumping up and down excited about it, but it was not bad either. I am going to watch again next week and see how that goes. It comes on ABC Monday nights at 9pm CT.

Happenings of the past few days

2008-06-03T10:15:00.004-05:00

So I have finished moving my stuff to my new apartment. Now that everything is settled for the most part and 90% of the boxes are gone, it is starting to feel like home. There are some things that I still need to do: hang pictures, fold clothes, finish unpacking boxes in my room. It is not too bad.

Now that I have my stuff in there, it is not as small anymore. It is just the right size. I am still trying to find a place to put the lids to my Tupperware containers. I have no more drawers or cabinet space available, so I guess for now I am going to keep them in a box on the floor next to the kitchen. Mostly everything else, if I am do not use the item everyday is going in my massive storage closet. It is so big, it could be an extra room!

Since I do not have cable or Internet yet, I have been watching a lot of DVD's. I just finished a documentary that I borrowed from the library about West Point. It was very interesting. It was filmed in the Fall of 2001/Spring 2002, so it was interesting to see how the cadets responded to the 9/11 tragedy. Most were nervous, but many were ready to leave and go fight.

While I was at Wal-Mart this weekend, I bought season 6 of Roseanne. I used to watch this as a kid and I thought that it would be cool to remind myself of what I watched during childhood. Believe it or not, this season aired in 1993. From the different fashions, you could tell that it was the early 90's. I just could not process the fact that season 6 was in 1993. I would have thought that it was a lot later. As I watched, I remembered the different episodes from the first time that I watched them and where I was when I watched it. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Especially important to this season is that this was the first season that Sarah Chalke plays the role of Becky. I really like Sarah Chalke (and prefer her over the other Becky) so that is why I am starting in the middle of the series.

On tap for tonight is Disc 2 of Roseanne. I am excited. It is cool to flash back and watch shows from the past.

Above is a before picture of my living room. Tomorrow, an after picture.

New Apartment

2008-05-29T10:09:00.003-05:00

So I got keys for my new apartment yesterday. It is nice, although definitely smaller than what I am in right now. It is over 500 square feet, so it is not minuscule, but going from 1100 square feet to 500 is a big change. One thing that I really notice is the kitchen. My cabinet space is greatly reduced, so I will have to develop a new strategy for dish placement as well as find a new home for my foodstuffs as I do not have a pantry. My creative juices have yet to flow on this one.

I am still excited though. I moved quite a bit of stuff into it last night, so I have a good start for the impending big-move this weekend. Now I just have to start packing the last minute stuff and also finish packing the kitchen.

This apartment has new carpet. It is really soft and I really like it, but it is brown. I have never seen brown carpet before. I guess that it is good though, because it should be able to hide stains and won't look as dirty. It is very nice though.

I also have to decide what is going to go into my apartment (and where) in the respect of furniture. My former roommate and I have 3 couches, so I think that I will take one and send the other 2 to storage. We have a recliner and I am still uncertain as to whether I will take it or not. Also, I need to figure out which wall my bed will be going on. I really want it on the same side of the door, but there is not enough space. I guess that my best option is for it to go under the window, which is not exactly where I want it, but guess it will have to do.

I am really excited though and ready to get everything settled so life can return to some sort of normalcy.

I will have pictures of the new place up soon..

A true sign of boredom

2008-05-28T10:42:00.004-05:00

Did you know that toilet paper has been around since 589 AD? According to Wikipedia, there have been documents written that include talk about the use of paper for toilet purposes.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) a Muslim traveler made this remark,

"They (the Chinese) are not careful about cleanliness, and they do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper."[2]

The first rolls of toilet paper and dispensers that we know of today were invented by Seth Wheeler of Albany, NY in 1871. He was granted several patents for the actual roll and the dispensers that accompanied them. He sold the product under the name of the "Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Co."

From Wikipedia :

"It is sold "by all the leading druggists" and is not medicated. It is marketed as being free of "all deleterious substances" which includes printed materials and chemicals "incident to the ordinary process of manufacture (which is) a cause of hemorrhoids." In addition, medicated toilet paper which is "heavily charged with ointment" was offered for "sufferers of hemorrhoids."

From there, toilet paper has evolved. Today, it comes in various forms : Quilted, containing Aloe, "Earth Friendly", and so on. You used to only be able to buy it at a drug store, but now it is practically everywhere.

The advertising of toilet paper has also evolved. Mr. Whipple taught us in a 1970's commercial to "Not squeeze the Charmin." Charmin is teaching us today that there are 2 different types of toilet roll for your needs, as demonstrated by cartoon bears. I wonder which one sold more rolls?

And just in case you go to another country, here are some common names for toilet paper : toilet roll (UK), TP (US Slang), Loo Roll (UK), Dunny Roll (unknown).

Now you can go and impress your friends with your new knowledge about toilet paper! :)

Photo Credit : Chris73 via Wikimedia. This is a picture of Ancient Japanese toilet paper. They were sticks found from a stream. Aren't we lucky that these have evolved?

Good luck with that...

2008-05-27T16:59:00.004-05:00

So I am going to try something new on here. I am going to blog about my daily life. I know that I am a boring person, but it will give me something to do. I am starting a new adventure by living alone. I am excited, but also aprehensive at the same time. I have never lived alone for a long period of time, so it is definitely going to be a new experience. And to kill time, I will document it here. I have been reading a blog from a friend that I know from High School. She lives in Chicago and it is interesting reading about her daily adventures living in a busy, "happening" city. If you want to read about her adventures, you can go here : http://cbhoff.blogspot.com/. I am going to borrow her style and try to document my own experiences of living in the 'burbs.

Random Quote for the day

2008-03-05T14:11:00.003-06:00

I thought that this was funny... I don't have anybody in mind, but sometimes it could be me...

"There are grammatical errors even in his silence." - Stanislaw J. Lec

Caucusing

2008-03-04T23:33:00.003-06:00

So I went to caucus tonight. It was an experience to say the least. I got there right at 7pm and had to wait until 830-9pm to even get inside the building to caucus. Once we got in, we had to stand there to wait for some forms to fill out to establish which candidate we wanted to caucus for. We waited there for about 15 minutes to figure out what to do and there was a lot of confusion. Nobody knew what they were doing. After filling out the form, we had to wait and vote for the precinct captain. Again, it was very confusing. There was one guy in a red shirt who acted like he knew what was going on and another with a white shirt who had no idea what was going on. There was one lady who was going around yelling "If you want Obama, vote for the guy in the white shirt." So, when we went to vote for precinct captain by separating into two different lines, the guy with the white shirt won. This is due to the fact that most people thought by going to that one side meant that they were voting for Obama. I wish that I would have yelled at that woman because she was making a confusing process even more confusing.

Overall, it was a real cool process. I now can say that I waited 2 hours to caucus in the 2008 Primary. I got to meet some people from my community and just listen to some like minded people. It also gave me a sense of pride that I never really felt before. It was just a great night to be an American and get to take part in our government. Despite the annoyance of waiting outside for 2 hours in the cold and all of the confusion that went on inside, I am glad that I got to take part of this process. I am also really glad that there were about 1,000 people at my polling place and several hundred people who took time to take part of the caucus.

Only In Texas...

2008-03-03T21:52:00.006-06:00

Can it be warm one day and then have snow accumulations the next. It is nice to have snow. It only happens every once and a while and you totally have to take advantage of it when it does come. Good ole fashion snow fights would be fun too, but you just have to be around the right people. If only I was on campus right now, I would be able to go sledding. I am sure that all on-campus residents are taking full advantage of that. I totally would.

In Lewisville, we got about 2 inches. I think that this will be a new one for the record books. If not, it definitely makes for a good memory..

It may snow!

2008-03-03T15:40:00.003-06:00

This weekend was gorgeous and now we have a possibility of snow. Saturday made it all the way up to like 78 and Sunday was a high of 70. Today it currently is 39 degrees and is dropping. As the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait a day and it will change."

It is possible that we will get 2-3 inches of snow. Points near the Red River are expecting 4 inches of snow. It will not affect driving, but we will have accumulations on the grass. I am super excited!

Conversations with students

2008-02-21T16:32:00.002-06:00

I went to a High School today to talk with students and this is the conversation that I had with one :

Me -"Hey what's up."

Student - "Yeah, I am here to see what majors you have."

Me - "We have many."

Student - "Yeah, but you don't have one for pimps and ho's."

Me - (blank stare)

Campaign 2008

2008-02-20T22:00:00.000-06:00

So yesterday I got to experience 2 rally's for the presidential nomination. It started off with Chelsea Clinton when she came to speak on her mother's behalf on campus in the Union and ended with going to Plano to hear Mike Huckabee speak. It was awesome! It was the first time that I ever participated in anything like this before.

It was really cool to see Chelsea because I remember seeing her as a child when I was younger and wondering what it would be like to be in her shoes in the White House. She was set up on the first floor of the Union where many faculty, staff and students gathered to ask questions and to hear her response. It was basically all of the things that her mother already said and nothing new was really pointed out. It was just a cool event to go to. We also saw her Secret Service detail.

Mike Huckabee spoke at Collin College-Spring Creek Campus and he filled up the entire room. They initially had a small room for him and they ended up pulling out the walls so it could expand into the other adjoining rooms (it has the collapsible walls). This was also another great event. He is a great speaker and really went out of his way to connect with Texas voters by sharing his stories of the times that he lived in Texas and also his close proximity when he lived in Texarkana, AR. You could hear the classic call-and-response form which is essential to the Southern Charm.

AND to top off the night, I caught the end of the lunar eclipse too! All in all, I think that it was a very productive night.

Don't forget that Early Voting goes through Monday night and Election night is Tuesday, Mar 4th!

New/Old show : 10 Items or less

2008-02-01T16:32:00.000-06:00

In the subsequent months of the Writers Strike, American's have had to resort to watching re-runs or to actually try to find new shows. In an effort to broaden my scope, I have found a new show. It has been around for a few years (since 2006) and may make a come back due to the strike.

It is TBS's 10 Items or Less.

It is very similar to NBC's The Office, with similar type characters, but in other ways, is not like The Office. It takes place in a grocery store and revolves around the manager (John Lehr) and his employees. The situations and how Leslie (the manager/Lehr) acts is very similar to Michael Scott and some of the antics that he would encounter in Scranton. Despite being in a grocery store, they come up with some good story lines and situations : a water-mark that looks like Jesus and helps boost sales during a lackluster time, start feuds with the competing grocery chain manager, etc.

I really like the show. It is really funny. The characters are great and they have a great group of actors. They are not really know, nobody big is on the show, but it is still very well done. John Lehr helped create the show and also does some writing for the episodes, so I think that makes the show more genuine. (It seems that there are a lot of comedies that are going in that direction, using the writers/creators as actors in the show. It makes since as nobody knows the character better than the writer.)

There are new episodes that are being shown along with older episodes, so hopefully TBS can keep at it for a while with new episodes. If you have not seen it, I would definitely check it out! As TBS claims, "Very Funny."

The wind is blowing

2008-01-29T14:20:00.001-06:00

And blowing it is. Wind gusts have been up to 50 miles an hour. I went out to visit a school today in Denton and was blown all over the road. I approached the corner of Carroll Boulevard and Eagle and found the the traffic lights were out along with the electricity at QuikTrip. Before I left the office, our power in the building flickered several times.

When I returned to the office, I encountered a lot of smoke. Come to find out that there was a fire north of Denton up near 380. It jumped the freeway and closed down 35 in both directions. I looked out the window and the trees were still blowing in the wind. Needless to say all of the dirt that has settled due to the low amounts of rain combined with the leaves and made some nice dust storms. Oh how I love the taste of leaves in the Spring :)

The winds should die down later tonight around sundown. But be prepared, this weather will be consistent for the next few days and the winds will return in 48 hours...

Politics

2008-01-28T16:39:00.000-06:00

Tonight, the President will be giving his annual "State of the Union" speech. It will be interesting to see what he says due to the fact that this is his last year in office and there is much strife in the good 'ole USA these days. We have economic troubles, of which, Mr. Bush is trying to take care of by giving Americans money to spend (which most will go to foreign made goods or saved due to the instability, thus not really helping the problem) which is suggested that it will be a day late and a dollar short because it will be June before the rebates come due to the Tax season. It has been suggested that the economy will already be returning to normal by that point.

Also in the news, Barack Obama has won the Democratic Primary in South Carolina, which was a shock to the Clinton camp as they thought that they would fare well. Even John Edwards, a South Carolinian, came in 3rd place. Today, Obama has also secured a nod from Edward Kennedy, one of the long standing Democrats to this day. As Super Tuesday looms in the fore ground, it will be exciting to see who is in the lead by the end of Super Tuesday. It may be the foreshadow of the nod of the Democratic Convention. Will Edwards give up before then or will he stick it out to the end? Only time will tell...

Photo Credit : http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2008/01/28/4798531.html

All eyes on the Granite State

2008-01-08T10:59:00.000-06:00

Today is Primary Day in New Hampshire. All eyes will be here again tonight to see what happens and who is selected by delegates of NH. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were the winners in the Iowa Caucus. The polls are indicating that John McCain will win the Republican vote and there is a tie between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see what happens between the 2 Democrats vying for the vote. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton got emotional when responding to a question from a resident regarding campaigning. She choked up and her voice wavered as she said that it was hard and that she cared for this country so much.

I am curious if this show of emotion hurt her or not. It is definitely nice to see that she can show emotion and to know that she truly cares and wants to better this country. However, with all of the debate about a woman candidate, some may see that and apply it to other situations and make it negative.

An interesting tidbit about New Hampshire... They only have 2 network affiliates that are based in NH: PBS (operated by the University of New Hampshire) and ABC (via WMUR). NBC coverage comes from either Boston (WHDH) or Portland, Maine for Northern NH via WCSH. CBS coverage comes from Boston via WBZ. Being that the state is so small, coverage comes from the larger markets surrounding the state. I think that it would be really weird to get local news from a TV station outside of the state..

Walmart takes over!... in Houston that is..

2008-01-03T19:02:00.000-06:00

Walmart now has the majority market share in the greater Houston area. They have had the majority market share in the Dallas-Fort Worth for at least the last 2 years. It is not a great majority, but good enough to do the job. This year, Walmart, with its 50 stores in the Houston area, had 28.5% of the market share. Second is Kroger with 101 stores, had 25.6% of the market share. Third was HEB, 45 stores with 14.7% of the market share.

This time last year, Kroger was in the lead and Walmart was a close second.

This year in the Metroplex, Walmart's market share was 32.3% with Kroger at a distant second at 15.3%. That is a HUGE difference!

In both markets, the grocery industry is really competitive, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth where the market is extremely saturated with many different grocery retailers.

I guess with the gas prices and the current perceived instability in the economy, it has driven people to Walmart where they can find low prices on food stuffs. In addition to the economy, recent weather patterns have not helped some crops forcing those prices to rise. I know that I have shopped more frequently at Walmart than in the past, but that is because I recently moved close to one. It is just an necessary evil. For frequent grocery shopping, I do take my business to Kroger or another major grocery retailer where I know where I will get quality food. Personally, I do not like to buy meat from Walmart because I can tell a difference between what I get at Walmart and what I can get at Kroger.

No matter where you go, it is not going to matter. It will take a great majority to bump these numbers. However, remember where your dollars go and the quality of goods that you receive before you spend your all important dollars on grocery needs.

Caucusing

2008-01-03T16:02:00.001-06:00

You know, I think that this is the first time that I have ever heard the word "Caucus" used as a verb. "Caucusing" is the act of choosing a candidate for a "caucus". This is Iowa's version of a primary. Basically, this vote is supposed to indicate who will be chosen by the different parties (mainly Democrats and Republicans) to lead their party in the Presidential race.

This is one of the most heated races in a long time. According to WCBS 880 AM, the news media has focused on this primary longer than any other caucus/primary season in the last 10-15 years. I think that this is due to the increased reliance on the television news media for news as opposed to the use of newspapers to receive news. In addition, there has been a great movement for change in political policies, so I am sure that has caused this presidential season to be more heated than the ones in the past.

Iowans may set the trend for who may possibly be up to lead our country. It will be very interesting to see what Iowans think of the candidates. The whole country will be tuning in to watch the "caucusing" in action. Will you?

Late Night is back

2008-01-03T11:31:00.000-06:00

Well the late night talk shows are back. I watched Jay Leno and it actually was the same as if he had writers who were not striking. He started out with the monologue (of which he blamed the success/failure on his wife, who moderated it for him) and then moved on to the interviews just as usual. From what I have read this morning, that is what happened on the other shows. David Letterman and Conan O'Brien both came out with facial hair instead of their usual clean cut look. I guess that is a way for them to show support for their writers. We will have to see if they will still have this look tonight.

There was a lot of speculation about what would be talked about on the shows; what would be said about the strike. Jay Leno made light of it, claiming that he was not as funny without them and blaming his wife if he was not funny. He did say that he supports the writers, but beyond that, he did not say much else about the strike. There was some talk in the blogs yesterday as to whether the networks would allow them to say anything in support or against the strikers. I guess that at least NBC did not restrict Leno from saying anything about it. I will have to see tonight about the others..

What do you think about this strike?

Oh Brian Williams...

2007-12-21T15:11:00.000-06:00

Did you see him on SNL back in November? I did. I loved every single minute of it. It is the first SNL episode that I have saved on the TiVo and have watched repeatedly. It is just awesome that a major news anchor did something like this. You would never see Peter Jennings (although legend goes he was quite a funny man), Tom Brokaw, Ed Bradley, Edward R Murrow or any other newsman on a comedy show like this. They all seem to stiff and proper to do such a show. Also, it is just not what they do. Newsmen do not show their real personality. They are to just read the news and go on with it. However, maybe things are changing. As the Baby Boomers, Generation X'ers and Millenials get older, the news industry has to adjust to these populations. As a Millenial myself, personally, I like to see the personality of the people that are telling me the news. It is nice to get the impression that the person you see on TV in the suit and tie is a real person and not just some robot who is paid some large sum to read news from a TV screen. I want some personality. I think that all 3 of the major network anchors, Williams, Katie Couric, and Charles Gibson, have the personality and we all have seen it in action.

Couric and Gibson are products of network morning shows. Couric from NBC's Today Show and Gibson from ABC's Good Morning America. With these types of shows, you have to have a personality and also be really good at what you do. You have to be able to go from extremely serious by interviewing the President of the Free World and in the next minute, go to light hearted when you interview some kid who won a worm eating contest. There are also segments that involve cooking and sometimes during the holidays, you will have to participate in some kind of activity. On NBC's Today Show, the main personalities would participate in a costume contest each year on Halloween in which one year Katie Couric dressed up as Donald Trump.

While Williams does not have the experience with the morning format, his appearance on SNL was a good opportunity for him to show his personality. He even made fun of himself several times. My favorite skit is the Digital Short that he did which showed a "behind the scenes view of NBC Nightly News". It is hilarious! He also shows a little bit of himself in his newscasts when he reads letters from the public and issues a response.

Others are starting to like him more too. And it may be in connection with his appearance on SNL. According to the Quick and Entertainment Weekly, Williams' NBC Nightly News won the November ratings sweeps. His viewership was an average 9.3 million viewers, 438,000 more than Charles Gibson's World News Tonight on ABC. Was it his stint on SNL that helped him or are viewers geniunely turning the dial just because they prefer his style of reporting? We may never know, but I like to think that it is due to his stint on SNL.

P.S. Williams' hosting gig was not his first appearance on SNL. He made an appearance on Weekend Update when he first got the gig at NBC Nightly News. I cannot find a clip, but here is a story about it.. http://www.indy.com/posts/1114

Attention DFW Rock Fans!

2007-12-21T14:27:00.000-06:00

The Eagle is back! 97.1FM KEGL is now a hard rock station again. I say again because in 2004, Clear Channel in its infinite wisdom chose to change the format from Rock to ACH (Adult Contemporary Hits) called Sunny 97.1. I welcomed this as I really enjoy the Sunny station in Houston (Sunny 99.1/KODA-FM), however, the year range spanned from 1960-1980 and they played a lot of stuff that I did not know and it was really different from Sunny 99.1 in Houston. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there is a really strong hold on the Adult Contemporary Hits format via 103.7 KVIL and 98.7 KLUV. With these 2 CBS O&O stations, the format is extremely competitive and there was no room for another station.

After the trial with the Sunny format, Clear Channel execs moved to an All-Spanish format, similar to what happened in Houston to 101.1 KLOL (a Rock station that converted to All-Spanish format that resulted in rage from listeners). Obviously that did not work out because now they have converted back to the old format of Rock music.

I know that there are a lot of people who are excited that the Eagle is back. I have listened to it for a little bit and it is not necessarily my cup of tea, but I am glad that I have another choice available if I am in a Rock mood. Currently, they are running a DJ-less, commercial-less operation, so if you are in a continuous Rock mood, definitely check out the Eagle.

Listen Online : http://www.kegl.com/pages/kegl.html

On-Air : 97.1 FM

CAW!

Cali Day 2 and wrapup

2007-12-12T21:56:00.000-06:00

Day 2 consisted of going to Disneyland. And that was a day onto itself. You really need the whole day to see everything. We went to all of the major parks within the park and went to almost all of the rides that you could possibly ride. And I actually rode some rides. I rode the Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Train ride, and a car ride. On the car ride, it was pretty sad. It was not scary, but it did a bunch of stopping and going and it did get petty high. There was a small drop and I screamed. I think that I was the only one who screamed on that ride. Even the little kids in front of me didn't scream. I felt like a looser afterwards, but it was still fun. The Train ride went pretty high and it did go fairly fast, but it did not have any big drops, so I really liked it.

We ate at some good places while at Disney. One was an Italian place inside the park dedicated to the future. I had some pasta with sausage tomato sauce and it was great. It was a big plate but it was $8.99. I thought that was a little much, but it is an amusement park. For dinner, we went to an American themed food venue and it was great as well. I had Pot Roast and it was delectable. A big slab of meat and some potatoes and wax green beans. Needless to say, I left that place full, and again, $15 dollars lighter.

The day was pretty nice, but as the sun went down, around 4:30pm, it started to get cold. It was manageable though and not windy, so that helped. The rides and the buildings helped too.

We returned to our hotel at 12:30 am, so needless to say, I was dead by the end of the night. I passed out right as we walked into the door.

The next day, we had to get ready early, so I had to get up at 8 am to pack and whatnot. Amazingly, I woke up and was not tired. We took the rental car back to Advantage and rode to LAX. I don't know why, but LAX made me really anxious and I was kinda nervous while going through security. There was no need for me to be nervous, but there was a really long line, and it was a new airport, so I don't know what happened. Once I got through, I was ok. It was just going through the process that was a little nerve wracking.

The flight was a little bumpy as we were crossing over weather as we came back, but not a bad flight over all. This was my first time to take a Southwest flight outside of the state of Texas, so that was pretty cool. On the way, we stopped at Albuquerque, NM, and it was really dusty. The airport was pink! I hear that it takes the southwestern theme to the extreme. It would be nice to go back and actually see the city, although, from the sky, it didn't look like there was much to see.

All in all, it was a good trip. I can now cross Los Angeles and #2 DMA off of my "Must go to" list. Next is Chicago....

A Fresh and Easy Trip

2007-12-09T10:05:00.000-06:00

So yesterday while I was in California, I put on my "tourist to-do list" a visit at a Fresh and Easy store. This is the US version of the UK's Tesco store. I shopped at Tesco's while I was on my Field School and I was really excited to hear that Tesco was going to enter the US market. As we started to drive up, I was really excited. I started taking pictures, and people were probably thinking that I was crazy. I just wanted to have photographic proof that I was there.

We walked in and immediately I was reminded of the Tesco. They had all of these cold cases up at the front and it was laid out similarly to a Tesco. One thing that I did notice that was different was that they did not have any cashiers. They just had the U-Scan machines, which was ok because it is not that big of a store, and the average consumer of Fresh and Easy will only be picking up a few things, not usually doing their whole weeks worth of shopping.

They had many of the national brands that we are all familiar with, so that was great, but they also had many Fresh and Easy labeled items. Most of these items were organic or had attributes about them that were either guaranteed to be fresh or from products that had no extra fillers or crap in it. This is something that is carried down from mother Tesco because Tesco has a policy about providing the most natural foods possible.

The prices were amazing! Boxes of tea were $2.00, a small bottle of Fiji water was only $0.99. Many of the food stuffs had great prices. Fresh catfish was $2.99 a pound and ground beef was about $1.99 a pound. Fresh and Easy would definitely be a store that I would shop frequently.

I was hoping to see some Tesco branded items or other items that they could import from the UK, but unfortunately they did not have any. It totally makes since because it would just confuse the consumer and it would also increase the prices of the goods and would be an additional cost to the company.

One great thing about Tesco and Fresh and Easy is that they are extremely environmentally friendly. One thing that I noticed about this store is that everything was spaced out appropriately and there was no space that was not unused. This is good because it reduces energy consumption. In addition, I did not see any product on their shelves that had was over packaged, thus reducing waste.

I had a great experience at Fresh and Easy and I hope their ventures in the American Southwest are successful so they can explore outside of this region and make their way to Texas. It would be AWESOME!

You can find out more about Fresh and Easy on their website at www.freshandeasy.com. They also have a great blog from one of the Execs at www.freshandeasy.com/blog

California Day 1

2007-12-08T23:50:00.000-06:00

Last night, I flew from Austin to meet up with some friends in Los Angeles, CA. It was a very long day to begin with because it started out by waking up at 4:30 in the morning to fly from Houston to Austin to meet up with some co-workers for a meeting. After the meeting was over, they took me back to the airport where I sat around for a few hours as I waited for my plane to take me to San Jose, CA where I would catch another plane (much smaller) to Los Angeles's LAX.

When I got into San Jose, I was not really impressed with the airport. It was older and it had a small area for the gate that I was at, which I thought was weird as most gates are pretty big. There also was not much in the way of shops that were open either for me to get something to drink as I waited an hour for my next flight.

When I got to LAX, it was an interesting experience. First off, I had to take an American Eagle jet from San Jose to Los Angeles due to the rather short distance between the 2 cities and how American Airlines does thing. I sat in a seat that was next to the window and I was all by my self because the whole plane was only 3 seats wide. Then when we got in, we exited the plane in a small building that was disconnected from a terminal and was actually on the tarmac. We had to load onto a bus that then took us over to the AA terminal. On this bus, we actually drove on the runway and had to dodge some airplanes here and there. Then I had to make my way to the hotel shuttles.

When I got to the appropriate island for the shuttle buses to take me to my hotel, I had to wait for about 15 minutes. While I waited there, I got to look all around me and watch the traffic as it went by. It was a partial culture shock to see the way that some of these bus drivers were driving. There was a lot of honking of horns, fast paced driving and stopping, congestion, and overall chaos. It was crazy. It was just really weird for me to see these drivers acting this way.

When we got up this morning to start sightseeing, we encountered the same type of attitudes towards driving, but it was not just from professional motorists, it came from the average motorist too. The second that the light turned green, people behind us started honking and we hadn't even had the chance to go before we were "reminded" to go. It was just obscene.

I guess that a part of the chaos comes from the crazy roadway situation out in these parts. There are on ramps from other freeways that run into the existing freeways which makes driving almost impossible. There are a lot of cars on the road too, so that is hard to deal with also.

One thing that was really annoying was that there were no left turn green light to help make turns in the intersections. After watching others do this for a bit, we learned that it was required to sit in the middle of the intersection and wait for the light to turn red in order to make the left hand turn. We all were in agreement that Californians have the wrong idea about this and should consider the Texan way about left turns.

When we got to Hollywood, it was a lot smaller than I imagined. The area with all of the movie star's hand-prints and the Hollywood Walk of Fame was in a small area. The Walk of Fame extended all the way down Hollywood Boulevard, but who wants to walk all the way down just to see a name in the cement that the movie star had to pay for just to have that star.

It was also interesting to find out that the Kodak Theater, where they usually host the Oscars, is inside of a mall type building. The Chinese Theater was attached to that same building down from the Kodak Theater.

We also saw USC today, which was a beautiful campus. I had to go to the bookstore to get a t-shirt. In addition, we went to Fresh and Easy (more about that later), Santa Monica Pier, and Century City (where all of the TV/movie studios area). The Santa Monica Pier was beautiful. It reminded me of Kemah. The beach was also beautiful. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and there was a strong gust of wind coming off of the Pacific Ocean (yeah, that's right, I saw the Pacific) so we did not stay out long, just long enough to take pictures and leave. The sand was beautiful and I am sure if we were there earlier in the day, I would probably have seen blue water. I will definitely have come back again to see it in the full daylight (and also a warmer time to be able to stay out longer) to see it in its full beauty.

Over all this was a good first day in Los Angeles. I managed to take about 130 pictures, and with Anaheim and Disneyland on the itinerary tomorrow, I think that I may be able to double that number.

Sittin at the airport

2007-12-07T15:14:00.001-06:00

While I am sitting at the airport, waiting on a flight, I figured that I would write a little on the blog since it has been a while since I last posted. This past week, I have been in Houston working on the "Gulf Coast" week TACRAO schedule of College Night programs at local high schools. This week, I visited Deer Park, Victoria, Dickinson, Texas City, Alvin and my home district of Clear Creek ISD. The programs for this week were pretty slow, in that I didn't have nearly the amount of students to speak to that my team had last year.

It was fun to come back though because I know this area quite well, so I did not have to rely on maps a great deal. It was quite nice. What was not quite nice was the smelly Ford Taurus that I had to drive this week. It smelled like somebody smoked in it and then Enterprise tried to cover up the scent with a heavy perfume that over powered the car. It took a while for the 'ole nose to get used to that fragrance.. Now that I think about it, it may have been part of the reason why I had a headache for most of the week.

It was a group travel week because a few co-workers and I were giving presentations to the local area high school counselors updating them on the new things that are going on at UNT. We basically wine-d and dine-d them (except for the whole wine thing) and gave them a presentation while they ate. It was pretty fun. I did my first counselor update presentation in Austin today (where I sit now as I am waiting on my friends at AA to come pick me up) and it was a success. I basically did the presentation and added a little bit of personal experience in it and most of the counselors enjoyed it. We got lots of complements. It was nice.

The recruiting season is now over. That does not mean that the job is done with by any means. Next semester, I will be concentrating on my assigned high schools in the DFW area, giving presentations to them and going to visit during lunch. Also I will have a new responsibility of reviewing files and making the decision of whether a student can join us at UNT or if they will have to be deferred for a period of time.

I just know that I cannot wait until the Christmas holiday break so I can take some extra time sleeping.. For some reason, it is a favorite past-time of mine... :)

A test of the FCC

2007-12-01T15:48:00.000-06:00

In the days where the FCC is only known for enforcing rules against obscenities on network TV, they are facing an issue which is not commonly heard from the average viewer. Residents in New Jersey are complaining that one of the local affiliates, WWOR-TV, the My Network affiliate from Secaucus, NJ, does not include New Jersey issues in the local newscasts. WWOR is in the New York City DMA, which includes portions of Southern New York State, the Northern Half of New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut and only focuses on news about New York. (For a map, see here.) However, in it's city of license, essentially the place where the station originates from, is in Secaucus, New Jersey.

WWOR is in Secaucus because of some financial difficulties that one of the owners had and to over come the problem, they moved the city of license from New York City to Secaucus. The FCC allowed this, but they added an amendment to the approval stating that by WWOR moving to New Jersey, it was required to focus on New Jersey issues and not just issues in NYC or New York state. This is important because besides WWOR, New Jersey does not have any other local affiliates from the other major networks. The southern part of New Jersey is covered by the Philadelphia media market. So you can see why this would be important to the residents of New Jersey.

On Wednesday, the FCC held a hearing to discuss the issues with WWOR. The session hosted 100 people and the concerns were heard.

From the New York Times :

“I’ve been watching Channel 9 for years, and I was surprised to know that WWOR wasn’t a New York City station,” said Patrick V. Adams, a 19-year-old Rutgers student.

WWOR responded to the critics by showing a video of news stories about New Jersey. However, they were still flawed because their slogan is "My9NY" standing for : My 9 New York. While they were at the meeting, their cameraman had put masking take over the NY on the logo sticker on his camera. The NY Times also reports that they changed the picture on their homepage (http://www.my9ny.com/) from the New York Skyline to the George Washington Bridge which connects New York with New Jersey.

If WWOR does not fix the problem of focusing on New Jersey, then they may loose their license to broadcast from the FCC. If this happens, (the likeliness of this happening is slim) it would be definitely unique and also a first in a long time for a station to loose their broadcasting license. Not many stations these days have problems renewing their license, and if WWOR cannot renew theirs, it would be a wake up call to stations who have such agreements and also would show that the FCC actually does more than just fine stations for obscenities.

I know that this may be boring, but it is not everyday that a TV station is faced with possibly loosing their broadcasting license...

Romo vs. Favre

2007-11-29T21:08:00.000-06:00

They aren't on the field at the same time! That is all that I heard yesterday and today vis-a-vi Jerry Jones and his NFL Network on the radio : "Don't forget to watch Romo face Favre on the field on Thursday night when the Cowboys face the Packers at Texas Stadium." It is so retarded.. It is Romo vs. the Packer Defense and vice-versa. The person who put together that ad must be shot.

The half just ended and the Cowboys are up 10 points over the Packers. Mr. Favre has been hurt, something about his elbow.

I know that the management at KDFI-TV, CH. 27 is loving this. They are the only local station that is carrying the game. Besides 27, it is being shown on the NFL Network and only a select few have that channel due to the fact that only satellite companies carry the station over cable systems. This will probably give them (Ch 27) the biggest ratings that their station has ever had. Nobody ever watches My 27 except for the random episodes of Scrubs that they play every so often. It is not like they are a real network. I mean, UPN, its predecessor was not a real network either and had very little to offer in the way of network programming.

In any event, this is the ultimate game of the season because both of these teams are 10 and 1 for their season and supposedly 2 teams with this record have not played each other since the early 1990's. It is a fight to the death at Texas Stadium tonight. We shall see who can pull it off.

Is Thanksgiving near?

2007-11-19T14:40:00.000-06:00

It is really hard to tell as it is only a grand total of 80 degrees outside. Normally this time of year, it is only 64 degrees. I am not sure what is happening this year, I guess it may be some effect of El Nino or La Nina, but who knows. I am sure the media is attributing it to Global Warming, which has not been entirely proven yet. It is a big controversial topic. However, we will get some cooler temperatures. Thursday, a Blue Norther is supposed to come through and bring down the temperatures on Thursday about 20 degrees to a nice, crisp 48 degrees.

It is a little easier to see that Thanksgiving is near because of the amount of traffic and phone calls the we are receiving in the office. It is crazy! Some of the tours that have this morning had about 30 people in them.

I am excited for tonight because on TV this evening, we will have a little we will have some pre- Thanksgiving fun with How I Met Your Mother's "Slapsgiving" in which we get to enjoy a continuing story line from "Slapbet" in which Barney is dreading his slaps from Marshall. We have to savor it now, because it will probably be one of the last new episodes for a while.

Shame 106.1 Kiss-FM, shame....

2007-11-16T11:34:00.000-06:00

Did anybody else see the billboards around town says "106.1 Kiss FM will be Flipping on Nov. 15th"? I did. I saw it on IH-635 in Dallas on the way home from a program Monday night. When I saw this, I thought that the radio station was switching formats. Whenever I got home, I immediately went to the Internet to try to see if anybody knew what was going on and which format they would be switching to, but my search came up with no leads.

I got to work yesterday, and went to 106.1's webpage to see what happened because that was supposed to be the big day, and it turns out that it was just a promotion that the were running to give away money. And I don't even understand where the "flipping" part comes into play. It doesn't matter though. It's not that important. I do not even listen to 106.1 much anyways, just only when there is nothing else on. It is hard for me to listen to a station that employs Atom Smasher.

Stupid Clear Channel...

A Beautiful Disaster

2007-11-16T11:18:00.000-06:00

Oh thank you to all of those at iTunes who pick the free songs of the week. I happened to download one, and I love it. Every time that I listen to it, I have to listen to it a minimum of twice. It has a nice tune and great lyrics. I haven't quite figured out why I like it, beyond the fact that it is a good song. And it is not even played on the radio yet (to my knowledge)!

The song is "Beautiful Disaster" by Jon Mclaughlin. It is a song about a girl who is sensitive and who is willing to do anything to find a guy who wants her. "She just needs someone to take her home." Check out the music video here on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww0kqkX4vXQ

It is an awesome song. I have not downloaded anything else by Mclaughlin, but I am really tempted due to this song.

Mclaughlin only has one CD, "Indiana" which contains the song, "Beautiful Disaster".

New Fights against Immigration

2007-11-01T18:02:00.000-05:00

Today in Oklahoma, House Bill 1804 goes into effect. What is that you may ask? Well, it is a new law that the Oklahoma legislature placed on the books to take care of the illegal immigration within their state. They are now making it a crime for American citizens to help transport, harbor, or conceal illegal residents. The law also denies illegal residents within the state of Oklahoma to receive a drivers license and requires proof of citizenship before state aid is issued.

There is a lot of uproar from people who favor immigration saying that the law is too strict. There are reports already that people are moving out of the state. KRLD-AM and CBS Radio are reporting that an estimated 20,000 illegal residents have already moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma's second largest city.

What does this mean for Texans? Get ready to encounter more illegal residents here in our state. Also get ready to hear more griping and complaining from both sides of the aisle over this law. Texas one of the closest states to Oklahoma so that would be an easy transition and also we are somewhat friendly to illegal residents. Texas does have a large population of Spanish speakers, which in some cases, is native tongue to these peoples. In addition, the State of Texas makes it easy for illegal residents to attend college with the Senate Bill 1528 which allows students who have resided in Texas for 3 years and attended a Texas high school to attend a Texas University or College.

Is this a good Bill? I think that it is. I mean, it is basically upholding the laws that are already on the books concerning this matter. Lets put it this way : If you were caught helping a bank robber hide in the closet or take him to a hotel, you would face the same prosecution. Yes, these people have left their respective homes for a "better life" here in the states. Yes, they do need help with their endeavour. But, is it fair that they are starting their trek by going down the wrong path that happens to be illegal in accordance to the laws that have been written to keep tranquility in the US? I think not. We need to welcome our new members to the American Family, but we also need to encourage them to get started on the right foot and not the wrong foot. If we were to do the same in their respective countries, we would be detained and kicked out quicker than we can say "hello".

Photo Credit :

Stats for Central Texas, San Antonio and Houston

2007-10-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

Central Texas:

Miles Driven : 474

Gallons of Gas used : 20.189

Days gone : 5

Hotels stayed in : 3

Times eaten out : 2

San Antonio :

Miles Driven : 417

Gallons of Gas Used : 17.025

Days Gone : 5

Hotels Stayed in : 1

Times eaten out : 5

Houston :

Miles Driven : 554

Gallons of Gas Used : 24.463

Days Gone : 7

Hotels Stayed in : 1

Times eaten out : 5

Photo Credit

Travel Recaps

2007-10-30T15:09:00.001-05:00

Ok... so this traveling thing takes up more time that I thought that it would. It has been forever since I have been on the treadmill and forever since I have been on blogger.

For the past 3-4 travel weeks, I have been to Central Texas, San Antonio and Houston. Next week, I will begin Fort Worth week of travel which will consist of programs outside of Tarrant County. Wichita Falls, Stephenville, Weatherford, Graham and others are eagerly anticipating my arrival. Just kidding...

Austin was fun. I always enjoy Central Texas. I had a bunch of good food, great barbecue and many students who were truly interested in attending North Texas. This week, I had a PT Cruiser, so it was a new car to the inventory of cars that I have driven. Austin Bergstrom International Airport is cool. Right as you get off of the plane, you encounter many stereotypical Texan murals. It was very colorful and bright and also seemed like they had some good restaurants inside the security area (or at least that is what my nose was telling me).

San Antonio was mediocre. I stayed at a Hampton Inn off of IH Loop 410 and they had some good food for breakfast. Also, I was next door to a Marie Calendars. In addition, I drove a Pontiac G-6, so that was pretty awesome. My first Pontiac experience. Those things were it about the good things. The traffic and construction sucked. It was worse than Houston. On every major interstate highway that I got on, there was construction. It was also freaking HOT! I went to 2 programs in a row where there was no air-conditioning in the room where they had the reps and it was ridiculous especially with the amount of people in the room. Needless to say, that day was one in which I had to go back and change my shirt and take a shower before my evening program. I had some good food here too. I also met some cool counselors too.

Houston this past week was good. I stayed in the Galleria area for the week. Before it started though, I got to spend time with my family. That was pretty cool. This week was a little messed up due to state testing (TAKS) so I had a bit of free time. I took that and walked a lot. I walked around the Galleria, contemplated Ice Skating at the Ice Rink but did not have appropriate socks for the job, and walked around Memorial Park, the infamous runners park of Houston. I also met up with a friend while I was down there, so that was pretty cool. The only thing that sucked about this week was that my flight was delayed on the way home, so I got home at 11pm. This week I drove a Pontiac Grand Prix and determined that I am not that fond of Pontiacs. They are nice cars, but their buttons and knobs for the windows are confusing. They do love to get up and go and I really do like that (it is especially needed in Houston).

This week is a little break. I am actually home and get to eat my own cooking for a change. Which is really good if I do say so myself :) I can actually sleep in my own bed and take a shower in my own tub. Who knew that such things were so valuable? This week, I am hosting kids on campus and visiting Irving tomorrow for a presentation to Seniors who are interested in UNT. This weekend will be one of relaxation and nothingness.

Have a good week!

Photo Credit

Panhandle Week Stats

2007-09-29T11:02:00.000-05:00

Total Miles driven : 864.5

Total sit down meals eaten : 2

Total Fast Food meals eaten : 4

Total trips to Gas station for fuel : 4

Total Schools visited : 7

The Amarillo Wrap Up

2007-09-29T10:41:00.000-05:00

Days 3 and 4 were busy ones. Obviously, I did not have too much access to Internet nor time to really do anything. On day 3, I did a little triangle drawing starting my day driving to Borger, TX to Frank Phillips College to do some recruiting. For those who do not know, Frank Phillips is the same Phillips of the Phillips 66 gasoline company. There were quite a bit of oil rigs and refineries in Borger, so knowing that Phillips was from this area helped make since of all of the oil machinery.

From Borger, I ran north to Perryton, TX. This is about 15 minutes from the Oklahoma Panhandle border. I met a girl (who happened to be my hostess) who was really interested in UNT. She really wanted to come join our Photojournalism program. That was really cool. In the past, we have had some great interest come from Perryton. From Perryton, I shot down SH 70 to Pampa. That was a beautiful drive because it went through a few canyons and I got to see the "Grand Canyon of Texas." It was beautiful. There were also so many colors too.. I wish that I had brought my camera so I could take some pictures, but next time though.

Pampa was a slow program due to church and "Saw you at the pole" activities (this is what the program's host called it, but it is actually "See you at the pole".

I then drove through the rain from Pampa to Childress, stopping in between at this odd gas station to devour a sandwich at the obscure Subway shop inside. The lady inside peered all through my cup to make sure that it did not have a hole in it. Fortunately it did not have a hole, but it did pick up a few germs as she put the cup open side down on her counter that she probably hadn't wiped down in a few hours.

I continued on to Childress where I was hit with the powerful mixture of smells of cow patties and petroleum. It was AWESOME! I stayed in a podunk Best Western who has a history of screwing people (they charged me for a stay before I even made it to Childress) and left immediately first thing in the morning.

After my Childress program where the TX Army National Guard guys held a concert playing the rock music so loud that I had to yell to talk to students, I made a pit stop at a Kettle restaurant, ate me some vegetable soup and Salisbury steak and drove the 4 hours back to the Metroplex.

The Panhandle was a good trip. It was pretty cool because it was my first long term (more than just driving through) trip to this region of Texas. There was a lot of cool scenery. I definitely want to go visit the Palo Duro Canyon State Park sometime so I can see more of this beautiful scenery.

Photo Credit: This is a picture from Palo Duro State Park.. A small sample of what I saw while driving around the Panhandle.

Day 2: "More Cattle per capita than people"

2007-09-25T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today I visited Hereford, TX, the county seat of Deaf Smith County. It was a cool little country town, lots of farm land, they actually had a few restaurants, and a Wal-Mart. Oh, and they have cows. And LOTS of COWS. As the title says, more cattle than people. On the farm lands, there were lots of cows. There were even cows on the "Welcome to Hereford" signs.. Nice.. And the sign for the water system.. It was "Acceptable". In most North Texas and Gulf Coast cities, this sign usually says "Superior". This means that the public water system meets certain requirements based on the TCEQ or the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality states. Needless to say, I tried to stay clear of their water and ice. I guess I shouldn't have had that slushie after all.. Oops.. The most likely reason that the water system was not up to par probably stems from the cows and the run off that they produce. All of that ammonia and fecal matter that they produce, including all of the medicines that the cows ingest from their meal to keep them strong and ready to eat that do not automatically disappear like everybody seems to think.

Upon returning from Hereford, I tried to eat at this Health Food store / restaurant that Nathan suggested to me from his cross country trio, but by time I drove around the block 5 times trying to find it, the lady told me that the restaurant closed at 4pm (I got there at 4:15) and that all they had left over was sandwiches. That made me a little frustrated. I was curious about this place and what they served because they are a specialty health food place, but I guess that I will never know. Instead, I ate at Whataburger out of frustration of not finding any place else that I could sit down and eat at.... I should have waited like I really wanted to because upon arriving at the Civic Center for the next program, I found out that they had food.. It was sandwiches, but they still smelled good..

My night time program was at the Amarillo Civic Center and it went well. It was actually more busy than I anticipated. After talking to the citizenry here, there are a lot of cousins, brothers and sisters that attend North Texas from the Panhandle region than I thought.

Tomorrow, I will be doing a northern tour of the panhandle with stops in Borger (with the hard "g" like bor-guh-er, not bor-g-er as I have been pronouncing it all this time), Perryton (about 10 minutes away from the OK border) and Pampa. From Pampa, I will be making my final pit stop in Childress where I will stay the night, do my program Thursday morning and head back to DFW Thursday afternoon..

Now it is time to code cards and do reports.. YAY!! :)

P.S. Hereford has a population of 14,531 as of 2006, so it is not like it is a really small town or something like that...

P.S.S. WTAMU, has an awesome college radio station that totally gets me.. They tout themselves at the "Station for your generation" and it totally fits. They play alternative music and good stuff like Oasis, Chelsea Dagger and Kaisers and so much more.. It is now my #1 favorite Amarillo/Canyon station!

Adventures in recruiting : Panhandle Day 1

2007-09-24T19:41:00.000-05:00

Well it all started out with a delayed flight. I was supposed to leave DFW at 815, but we did not end up leaving until 9. And the plane was really cramped... This will teach me to fly a regional jet with American Eagle. It was literally a sardine can.

However, when we got to Amarillo, the weather made up for it because it was nice and crisp which is something that I cannot say about the weather in the Metroplex.

I picked up my car from the rental company and it was a Kia Rondo. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned, but it works. I didn't think that Enterprise would carry foreign cars (although Kia's are pretty cheap which may be the reason that they have it). So after getting my car, I went to the OTHER Hampton Inn in town because I had inadvertently given the front office staff the wrong address to ship my materials to. I had to wait in line for 10 minutes to get my stuff because the receptionist was booking some major party or event of some kind.

After I grabbed my 8 boxes of stuff, I headed to the big town of Dalhart. This is in the northern part of the TX Panhandle and it approximately 15 minutes away from New Mexico. (Side note : I totally wanted to go to NM, but I told the dude at the car place that I would not take the car out of state and I only got about 2 hours of sleep last night, so I figured that I would go back to my hotel so I can just relax because this will be the only day like this that I will get to hangout for the night and not have any night programs.)

On the way to Dalhart I encountered a lot of hills and red dirt. Supposedly this area is hilly and contains plateaus... It was very nice.. Very picturesque of a desert. I think that I did more 'sightseeing' than actual road watching.

There were 3 schools in attendance at the program. The genius staff at Dalhart High School, the host school, thought that it would be a 'good idea' to have their kids have the recruiters sign a piece of paper saying that the student 'visited' with a recruiter and gained some knowledge about the college admissions process. Well they were wrong. Students just came up to me and said, "Would you sign this?" I replied with "Do you have any questions about UNT that I can help you with?" and they replied, "I don't know" or "No." This was frustrating because it was waisting my time and the time of the other recruiters who were talking with students who really cared about college and weren't just "trying to get the grade."

So after I left the program, I decided to take a different way back to Amarillo to see some other places and I got to drive through Dumas. This is a small to medium size town and it actually had stoplights. It was the only one that I encountered besides Amarillo with stop lights. It was cool seeing Dumas because my roommate for Orientation at UNT was from Dumas and now I have an appreciation of where he was coming from.

Upon arriving back to my hotel, I watched the local NBC station's 5 PM newscast. It was definitely different than a large market newscast. They did the whole weather cast within the first 5 minutes of the show, whereas others will save it for 15 minutes in the show. And the weatherperson had no flow. She was about as bad as me when it comes to speaking. She kept stumbling across her words and would loose track of what she was trying to convey. **There is going to be a cold front coming through tonight so it will get even cooler. Tomorrow, it is not supposed to get any warmer than the low 80's and will be in the high 50's at night time!! Can you say "sweater weather?"

Following the newscast, I went over to Cracker Barrel by myself for dinner. It was tasty. I had meat loaf. It just kinda sucked because I didn't have anybody to talk to, but I don't know the other recruiters here and I haven't seen any of my friends from last week, but maybe I will run into somebody tomorrow.

I then checked out the local grocery store. Here they are called United. It is a locally owned chain similar to HEB. I bought some "Dr. U" and some Root Beer. I just had a root beer and it was pretty good. Not as good as HEB, but it can have a spot up there.. It is cool to go into a grocery store because it can tell you a lot about a community. It tells who lives in the area and what the income range is. This store had a lot of Hispanic fares which I did not expect from this area because it is so far away from the border. They also had good prices on produce. A head of cabbage was $0.49 a pound, whereas that would be $1.69 a pound in the Metroplex. Milk prices were comparable to the Metroplex, $3.89 a gallon. I think that will be a constant trend as milk prices everywhere are expected to rise.

Tonight I will do my report and probably go to bed after the News at 10 to try to catch up on some lost sleep.

Tomorrow, I will be heading south to Hereford and I have to run by Amarillo College and then hangout at the Amarillo Conference Center for another program tomorrow night.

Off to the ironing board.. Literally, I have to iron my clothes for tomorrow.. :)

Photo Credit: This is from the Cadillac Ranch to the West of town. I passed this today on my way to Dalhart.. It was pretty cool. Just random cars sticking out from the ground.

Running Update: It's going...

2007-09-06T14:06:00.000-05:00

So the running thing has been ok.. I have been running for about a week now, but I have not made much progress. My body is doing a bit of resisting, but I think that I can work through that. On Monday and Tuesday, I ran a total of 2.75 miles, so I think that is a nice start. I took yesterday off because I was really tired and had to sit in meetings all afternoon. Today, I am still a little tired, but I still plan to run tonight. (Only after the LIVE DOUBLE Eviction on Big Brother 8, I am sorry to say this, but goodbye Eric and Jessica) After all of that drama, I probably will need to run off some sorrow for my 2 favorite players in the Big Brother game.. I am aiming to run at least 4 days a week, so with tonight and one more day this week (most likely Friday or Sunday) I can meet that goal..

I bought the September edition of RunnersWorld Magazine and I enjoyed reading it. It was very inspiring and had a lot of good tips in it. It also has a lot of dates for competitions and races which will be helpful in the future. I just sent out my postcard requesting a subscription, so I will be eagerly awaiting the next edition.

But anyways, it has been good so far. It has been a good opportunity to get back to my iPod and the great music that it has stored on it. It is also a good excuse to buy more music from iTunes to put on the iPod. ;)

Side note: The new iPod has been announced, and it is just like an iPhone, but without the phone. This is really cool, especially with all of the future traveling I will be doing :)

Welcome Jack, Welcome Jack, Welcome Jack

2007-09-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

Houston now has its own Jack Station! He booted out the Classic Rock station and moved into his new headquarters at 103.7 on the FM dial. This has some Houstonians concerned because they are down to one classic rock station now (KKRW, Clear Channel's The Arrow 93.7FM). They may not have to worry long though because according to Mike McGuff 95.7 The Wave is on "life support due to low PPM ratings".

This new Jack station is a great addition to the Houston airwaves. The DJ-less format will be a nice welcome to Houstonians who just want to listen to good music during the long drive home. There has not been another station like it on the non-HD airwaves before (106.9 the Point which was similar to Jack format but with just 90's music).

A little oddity though is that this station is owned by Cumulus Communications (same as 104.1 KRBE). Most Jack stations are owned by CBS Radio, especially big markets (especially Houston). The Jack station in Dallas is owned by CBS Radio.

I listened to the new 103.7 Jack-FM online yesterday and it was just like I was listening to my DFW Jack station but with Houston commercials. Even Jack's voice was the same, which is cool. They are using the main logo, so it blends in well with all of the other Jack Stations.

So when in Houston, lend Jack your ear. Just be sure to not tell him what to play 'cause he plays what HE wants...

And so I begin.. the first goal = a 5K...

2007-08-23T11:15:00.001-05:00

Last night, after watching Anchorwoman and blogging about it (I couldn't help it, I was too excited about it) I went to the little gym that is at my apartment complex. It is nothing compared to the Rec Center at UNT as the gym equipment is a bit older, but it gets the job done. I did 20 minutes on a slider stair type machine (I have no idea what it is called) and then did about 20 minutes on the treadmill. After that, I stretched and remembered that I did not do that before all of that running. It is ok though because as I read more today about beginning running and whatnot, I have found that it is just suggested that you do some brisk walking prior to your workout opposed to formal stretching as a warm up. That is fine with me because when I was in High School, the warm up would take up all of my free energy. I think that it is still a good idea to stretch during some point because it is good for the body and also improves flexibility, and that can never hurt.

Today, I brought my 3 liter bottle of water to work because the water in Denton is nasty because the lake is turning and tastes like dirt. I have learned in the past that hydration is key, so it is my goal to drink as much water as possible during the day in order to properly hydrate my body. Usually, I would not have a problem with this, but getting up every 20 minutes to run to the bathroom is not pleasant. :)

Tonight, after the Big Brother eviction (most likely Jen), I will probably hit the gym again for another 40 minute session.. Maybe focusing more on the treadmill because I really enjoyed that part last night.

My first running goal is to complete a 5K run. This is should be an easily obtainable goal. Right now, I am just going to focus on getting my body in shape and ready to do all of this work. I think that there is a Turkey Trot on campus around Thanksgiving and if I am ready, I may try that... But for now, I am just going to start working on establishing a routine.

Anchorwoman - Season Premiere review

2007-08-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

Wow.. What a show. After watching the first episode, I am excited to see the rest of the season. I laughed the whole way through the show. I love it.. I can't believe that I am about to say this, but way to go FOX! Who knew that the show was going to be this entertaining?

Anchorwoman takes place in Tyler, TX at CBS 19 KYTX. At first I was a little skeptical I still am a little skeptical. I don't know how this type of show and stunt by this station cannot affect its reputation in the community and also their journalistic credibility. They have only been in the Tyler/Longview market for only 3 years, so they have a lot going against them as it is. The station and its General Manager claim that they are using Lauren to boost their ratings.

Many of the other employees at KYTX made the claim at the beginning of the show before Lauren Jones, our Anchorwoman, arrived that this was a bad move and bad for the station. I agree with them 100%. It damages their credibility and also, she does not have that much experience, so there will be a lot learning that Lauren will have to do before she is ready to take this gig on full time. I bet that the people from the competitors are having a field day(KLTV-ABC 7 and KETK-NBC 56) with all of this. KLTV has been having a field day with this situation before the show ever hit the pages of the TV Guide.

Entertainment wise though, it was knee slapping good. Give me more!

This is also pretty cool because you get to see the in and outs of a broadcast news operation. Its awesome because not many people get to do so. That is unless you know people who will give you some inside info or find stuff online like Mike McGuff, the Insite or others....

Here is a review from Newsday... They didn't like it.. But they are media, so they are a little biased...

So I have been thinking...

2007-08-22T17:57:00.001-05:00

Wouldn't it be cool to run in a competition? Something like a marathon or a mini-marathon. I have stumbled across a couple of blogs that I have been reading here lately, mainly PinkGuruGal, who participates in Triathlons. That consists of swimming, biking and running and is about 70 miles in total distance. There is no possible way that I could do something like that. Maybe if I follow through with training and running, maybe in the future, but right now, not so much. I think that it would be cool. It has been interesting just reading about all of the training that she does for the competitions and I am wondering how she is training, working a full time job and having a life too. It is just crazy. But I think that it could be fun.

I have had an interest in running. I ran track in Intermediate school and during my freshman year in High School. I was not a wonderful athlete, but I did not quite hold up the end. Running is also something that can be easily done by a beginner with no athleticism whatsoever. You are not required to have a special skill to run. As long as you don't trip over your feet, you will be fine.

It is just a thought. I think that it would be a cool way to meet people and get out and about and to try something different. It is time that I did something like that. I am too dull, so this is something that I could add to my radar.

We shall see what happens...

She has finally made it..

2007-08-08T17:45:00.000-05:00

Our second teacher in space has finally made it. At of 5:45 pm CST, Endeavour has seperated from the fuel tank meaning that the Astronauts are safely in space. This is a bittersweet moment for the NASA community and those who were alive when the first attempt to put a teacher in space faced a great tragedy with the loss of the Challenger and her 7 person crew, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space. Our teacher now, Barbara Morgan, was Christa's backup for the Challenger mission.

Barbara and Christa were chosen for the Teacher In Space Program by NASA in the 1980's. This was a program initiated by NASA to get America's attention back to space exploration and to excite young students to go into the fields of study that relate to Space travel, including math and science.

As I stated earlier, it is bittersweet. It is happy in the fact that the Teacher In Space program can now get off the ground and students can now interact with a teacher in space. This is something that will excite many science students around the country. It is sad though to think about the program as it was 20 years ago and those that were lost inthe Challenger disaster. The tragedy was not in vein however because NASA learned a lot from that incident and made policy changes to prevent something like that happening again in the future.

Many people across the country will be watching this event and remembering that fateful day in 1986 and looking forward to the reports from Barbara Morgan and her fellow crew on STS-118.

Way to go Dow Jones!

2007-08-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

They caved in. Yes they were already distanced from the company, but they caved into a property hungry media mogul who does not care about "fair and balanced" news as one of his flagships claim. He is actually more interested in promoting his own personal views. Yes, this media mogul that I am speaking about is Rupert Murdoch, the crazed conservative Aussie who is out to take over the media world as we know it.

Yesterday, the Bancroft family, which held the majority of the voting power of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones agreed to be bought out by Murdoch's News Corp for a large sum of money. Now everybody is wondering what he will do with the paper? Will he turn it into a propaganda mouth piece? Will he just leave it alone and un-touched? Who knows. It is definite that he wants to use it as a source of content for his new business channel that he wants to launch later this year that will rival CNBC and the Bloomberg Channel.

The big thing in this is that the Wall Street Journal has a 200 year of history of being owned by the Bancroft family, so that in itself is a big thing. Another thing is that it has the largest readership among the business papers. It has been called the "required reading" of the business class. How will they react to this change?

Me, I think that it was a bad move. Once again, why does a big corporation have to go and buy another one. Why can't there be lots of different corporations out there owning a couple of things opposed to one corporation owning millions of things? I guess that is life.. Maybe we all can soon be owned by News Corp or Wal-Mart. I can't wait!

Geek trys out Frat Life in ABC Family's Greek

2007-07-31T15:31:00.000-05:00

ABC Family has a new series and they are taking college life by storm. It is called Greek. It is about Rusty who is a new Freshman from Chicago who is trying to "start over" and stray away from the geek community and to do that he wants to join the Greeks. (Did you see how I did that, it just shows that I am still a geek) His overly religious roommate thinks that Rusty is not making the right choice, but Rusty does not care, he is bound and determined to succeed.

It is only 3 weeks in, but I have been hooked since episode 1. I don't know why I like shows like this. Maybe it shows me what I missed out on, but I know that it definitely reminds me of the good times that I did have in college, especially while I was living in the residence halls.

There are a lot of twists and turns, so if you watch, you will definitely need to back track to catch up. Some of these include Rusty's sister, who is in a sorority (Zeta Beta Zeta) and at first denied Rusty's existence. Rusty is currently dating the president of another frat (Omega something) and her first love is the president of the competing frat (Kappa Tau). Lots of other things happen, but my brain is a little fried right now, so I can't think clearly.

There are a couple of Metroplex connections to this show. The guy who plays Casey's (Rusty's sister) boyfriend is from Dallas, his name is Jake McDorman and the guy who plays Cappy (Casey's first love), Scott Michael Foster is from Collin county and performed at the Quad C Theatre.

Greek is on Monday nights at 8pm on ABC Family.

Feeling Lighter at 103.7 Lite FM

2007-07-31T14:00:00.000-05:00

I am loving this station! I have it programmed into my car radio, but I have not really listened to this station. They play a great mix; a little bit of everything, which is funny because you would think that the Mix Station would do this, but it seems like I keep hearing the same things over and over. Anyways, I needed something to listen to yesterday, and I was trying to think of local stations that I could listen to. With all of the events that were happening yesterday with the Fox 4 helicopter (which contained the traffic reporter for KRLD and KVIL) I was checking out their website to get information to see if Julie DeHarty was ok and I just took a chance and clicked the "listen now" button and I am glad that I did. I have heard a lot of songs that I have not heard in years like Bryan Adams' song from Robin Hood and many others that I cannot think of right now. They even mixed a bit of MercyMe into the repertoire and that was awesome.

This is kinda weird because it is NOT a Clear Channel station, it is actually a CBS owned and operated station. I was thinking about it yesterday on a slow drive to work and I found that I have an even amount of Clear Channel/CBS stations in my radio presets. 3 are Clear Channel (102.1 FM, 102.9FM, and 106.1FM) and the other 3 are CBS (100.3 FM, 103.7 FM and 107.5FM). First off, how does that happen? Secondly, who thinks that way? If I were in Houston, it would be filled with 60% of Clear Channel stations (96.5FM, 94.5FM, 99.1FM) and Cox Radio owned 106.9FM and Cumulus owned 104.1FM (I only had 5 presets in my old car).

I have grown up with Clear Channel stations (and 104KRBE) and that was what I was used to. When I moved to the Metroplex, I immediately sought out the Clear Channel because as we all know, Clear Channel stations are all "formatted" and are virtually the same in the major markets so it would be easy to find.

Anyways, if you are in the 'plex or need a good radio stream, check 103.7 LiteFM out. If you don't like one song, just wait 3 minutes for the next.

Summer session is dangerous

2007-07-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

Summer sessions suck at work. Why is that you may ask? Because I HAVE NOTHING TO DO! I have only done 6 applications today, which has allowed me to surf the web, research random things that pop into my head and maintain this blog (although I have been sucking at that). I have 2 folders full of links in my favorites in Internet Explorer, but I have only 5 or 6 that I check daily and those are my blogs that I like to read. All of my other links are blogs that are not updated daily or just random web pages that I would like to hold on to. I read the newspaper online, The Houston Chronicle because you do not have to login to it like other newspapers *coughs: Dallas Morning News*. After reading the daily blogs and newspaper/local news sites, I try to then come up with something to blog about. I try to find something that is interesting, as you can tell, most times it is not. My research topics are only interesting to me, so for those of you who read this are thinking, "So what?" "What does this have to do with me?" Most times it doesn't, it is just random things that I come up with or just stupid stuff that I research on wikipedia and then produce some paragraphs to try to make it interesting. But when there are no creative juices flowing, like now, I come up with crap like this or nothing at all. I even try to think of interesting websites that I would like to investigate, but I cannot even do that. I have a radio station streaming at most times, and yes, sometimes that does retard thinking, but even pulling it out of my ear does not help. I do work occasionally, but it usually does not take me very long to complete, which them allows me to go back to whatever I was doing.

What do you do when you are bored at work? I know that some of us do not have as much downtime as I do, but it does occasionally happen for some.

Fall session starts soon with the opening of the Fall 2008 application.. That will be an exciting time for Processing...

Exercise and Big Brother

2007-07-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

I was bored this Saturday and I have been wanting to get back to exercising regularly. I really need to so I can get healthy and maybe get off some of my pills. Well, last Sunday, Dustin from the Big Brother House led a ab workout with some of the other house guests. Guess what I did, I did the workout with them. It was a non traditional way of working out, in terms of the source of the workout, but it was still good. I still sore from it, so obviously it worked something. It was hard when ever they switched the feeds back inside the house to the other house guests, but fortunately, they did not stay with them long as they were just munching on cookies. It was funny because one of the house guests said that there were probably watching them and doing the workout with them. I was probably one of a couple hundred of those people. Afterwards, I tried one of the more "traditional" workout videos from the Time Warner on demand option, but it was too hard, and I was already pooped from the other work out, so I abandoned it for another time.

Who knew that you could combine reality tv and exercise?

Just nod and shake your head yes..

2007-07-23T14:47:00.000-05:00

This is a quick moment of venting.. I just got off the phone with a student who was not satisfied with their situation. They are a major flip flopper about which term they want to start and are mad at me because they have to pay their application fee again. Then the student had the audacity to ask me who I was. I replied with my name. She then was like, "Are you one of those federal work study students?" I calmly replied, "No, I am a full time employee." She then starting asking questions about financial aid and when I said "I don't think that you will have a problem" with that situation, she said "Well I need a definite answer" I replied with, "Then you need to contact financial aid. I do not handle that and I cannot be positive." I then asked her if she wanted to be transferred to finaid and she said yes which was good for her because by that point, I was about to loose it.

The thing that really set me off was her asking me about my job status. I know that my voice is not deep and it doesn't have that "manly-man" ring to it, but that does not give anybody the right to call me out and question my ability to do my job. I gave her all of the right answers. There was no reason for her to question my authority. Even if I was a student, she was transferred to me for a reason, the reason being that I was the best person to help her with her situation. Age does not dictate an ability to do a job. I am 22 years old, why do I still have to deal with this? I have encountered this before, so it is not entirely new to me, but I have the same blood boiling reaction every time. The last time that I really had this I worked at a grocery store and was 16/17 and was young for my managerial position, so that was a little more understanding, but it still hurt a bit. Still yet, it is not an excuse to assume that if someone if younger that they do not know how to do their job.

Sorry, had to get it off the chest. The blood is not back down to 140 degrees from 212, so it helped..

Photo Credit

Big Business vs. the American Dream

2007-07-17T10:22:00.000-05:00

Everyday when I get into my car to go to work, it is always time for "Business News with David Johnson" on 1080 AM KRLD. I enjoy this segment because I like to know what is going on in the business world, who is doing well, what sector of business is starting to sag, etc. Lately, everyday David has been talking about mergers. It seems like somebody is always buying somebody else. AlCan and ALCOA USA, IHOP and Applebee's, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp and The Wall Street Journal and many others.

It is necessary for all companies to be affiliated or stem from a major conglomerate? I was in my closet this morning getting ready for work when I saw one of my boardgames, "Dallas in a Box". It has a Six Flags logo for Six Flags over Texas and under the logo, it said, "A Time Warner amusement park," or something similar. I never knew that. I knew that Six Flags and Time Warner had some sort of relationship with each other because they use Warner Brother's characters in the park. I researched them just now, and found that this was old, but at one time, Six Flags properties were once a Time Warner property (incidentally, I found out that Time Warner has 50% control of one radio station, one that I used to listen to in Houston a long time ago...werid..).

Just think of the companies that you interact with everyday.. Walmart (a major worldwide chain), Target (Nationwide chain), Old Navy (division of Gap Inc., nationwide chain), McDonalds (worldwide chain), UNT Bookstore (division of Follett Corporation, serving in many educational outlets), Voertman's (owned by Nebraska Book Company), KXAS NBC-5 in Dallas (owned by NBC/Universal, major network) all are a part of a major corporation. Approximately 99.5% of the stores that we shop or the companies that we deal with on a daily basis are a part of a major corporation. Nobody goes deals with small family owned stores or local companies.

A part of the "American Dream" is the ability to own your own business and participate in the capitalist society that we live in. It is getting harder and harder to do that these days because of these major chains and major corporations that divert customers and saturate markets. What about the little guy? Does the "American Dream" today still include the hopes of owning a business? It seems that the only industry where the small businessman can prevail over big chains is in the convenience industry including gas stations and mini-marts, but even that gap is closing in. Yes, many are franchised, but with petrol prices rising and profits soaring, it is just a matter of time when the big oil companies will start turning some stores into company owned & operated stores.

Are all of these mergers in the best interest of consumers? It is definitely in the best interest of the purchasing business (most of the time), but what about the merger's effects on consumers? The Federal Trade Commission is the governmental entity that is supposed to keep that in mind when approving or disapproving mergers, but there are still some that slip through. In addition, they do not regulate where stores go to prevent saturation, that is up to the local city/county council, but those guys only care about the tax revenue that the new business will generate.

I know that in our society today, we do not want the government to be watching over what we do with our businesses and some will say that they are too involved as it is. However, there needs to be somebody to protect the consumers from big business. It is not fair to those who are uneducated and also unfair to those hard working Americans who are trying to take part in the so-called "American Dream" and own their own business and put their hand in the capitalist economy. Many who do this do not come out successful and end up closing shop within a year. Here in Denton, there was a burger restaurant called "Big Time Bob's". They served some great hamburgers, but I was informed recently that they were closed. Why did they close? It is not known for sure, but in front of their store was a Chili's, Black Eyed Pea and across the street was a Jack in the Box. Could this have played a part in Bob's demise? It is definitely possible.

What can we do about all of this? Nothing. I would say boycott by not shopping a big box store, but it is virtually impossible. If one store does not have it, the big box does and they are probably the only one in town that does have that one needed item. There are not enough Mom & Pops out there with all of the goods that one may need. Something that we can do is go to a Mom & Pop shop when you can. We all have seen a locally owned business as we drive around town. Next time that you need something that they may offer, stop on in and see what they have. You never know, they may have it. Making a purchase at that store will give you a good feeling knowing that your dollars are staying in the community. Big Boxes say that most of their money goes back into the community, and some of it does through good deeds projects, but most goes back to the corporate office, most of which are outside of Texas. I know for sure that the local entrepreneur will appreciate your purchase. Your purchase can mean the difference between closing and staying open for that store.

Photo Credit : Boston.com

Why do we love reality?

2007-07-17T08:55:00.000-05:00

What is it about watching people living their lives do we find fascinating? We live similar lives as them, eat mostly the same foods, encounter the same problems, have friends or ourselves act the same way as these people "picked to live in a house," what is it?

The reason that I did not blog yesterday was that I was totally consumed with this year's newest season of Big Brother. This is my first season to watch Big Brother and I cannot seem to get enough. The production company gives us unlimited access to the "house guests" via video streams online and also limited access through Viacom's Showtime 2 Monday through Friday from 12am - 3 am, which means 9pm - 12pm Big Brother time. With all of this access, you can see much more than what is shown on the regularly scheduled programs on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Because I was not satisfied with Sunday's episode, I went on a search for more video and more content and found a plethora of videos on You tube. Now I am content with hearing stories and knowing what has already happened in the BB house that will be airing on CBS tonight.

It was so weird because I could not pull myself away from it yesterday. Even when I went to lunch, I could not stop thinking about it. I am almost at the end of a really good book and the whole time I was reading it, I was still thinking about what I had just learned from the Big Brother house. Once I had finished watching all of the videos available, I asked several co-workers if they watched BB so I could have somebody to talk to about it, and could not find a soul who did. By the end of the day, I was still wanting more.

The whole thing about this is that I watch other reality programming and have not really acted this way before. I watch the Real World and Road Rules and other similar shows. There is information on the Internet about these shows, but I don't find myself searching all over the Internet for information about their newest seasons. Maybe this is because they are really tight lipped about their new seasons and they are not "as live" as Big Brother, where BB airs a live House guest eviction on Sunday nights.

Overall, do I relate somewhat with the characters? Definitely. And the thing is that if I were ever to meet any of these people, it would be such an awkward encounter because I would know so much about these people and they would know nothing about me. I would ask them specific questions about their life that I learned from the show and they would give me a look of "you don't know me" and be really hesitant to respond. The moral is, we cannot make friends from TV. It is hard to invest time in a show and get to know about people and receive nothing but a passage of time and some entertainment in return. Maybe this is the psychological response to Reality TV.

I guess that it also speaks a lot about the person. If you can watch the show and just live your life ok without watching it one day, then you are ok. There are no. You are not crazy. If you find yourself not being able to function without knowing what happened on the latest episode of your favorite reality show or how a character responded or need that daily dose of your favorite character, then I would think that some life changes would need to be changed. Go outside and play. Go meet up with some friends. Make your own reality show.

With that said, do I need to make some life changes? Yes. Is it going to happen immediately? No. Will it be easy? Definitely not.

Photo Credit : CBS

The countdown for Troy has begun

2007-07-13T10:33:00.001-05:00

Troy Dungan, our faithful News 8 weathercaster will be stepping down for good this Wednesday, July 18th. He has been with Channel 8 for 31 years, informing Metroplex viewers about the weather and calming us down in those severe weather events. He has had a great run with the station and other events, including the Santa's Helpers Toy Drive at Christmas time. Channel 8 is giving him a great sendoff with providing us with memories of Troy from the past 31 years each night at 6pm. Pete Delkus, who has been gradually taking over the weather center with the 5pm and 10pm weathercasts will now take over the 6pm as well on Thursday, July 19th.

When I first came into town, I did not watch WFAA much in the beginning. My loyalty was with another station. After a while, I did make the switch from that station to Channel 8 because I could not take the hype from their news department anymore. I came to like the way that Troy presented the weather because it was very clear, slow and precise. There was no fluff, just the essentials. He also showed a lot of confidence in his forecast and relayed that confidence to the viewer so you could actually "Trust Troy" as Channel 8 wanted you too. Troy will be missed in this market. He has provided a great service to this area and he has definitely made his mark.

Troy will still be around. He is contracted to have at least 25 days on-air (most likely when Pete needs a vacation) at Channel 8 and will be helping out with Santa's Helpers. He has mentioned writing a book (not about weather) and maybe putting together some pieces for the station.

You can watch some goodbyes from Troy's on-air co-workers at his website. It is cool to hear some of the stories that his fellow staff have about him "behind the scenes".

Picture from WFAA

KTBZ and KLDE did a flip too...

2007-07-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

Last night as I was thinking about other things to write about, I remembered that I could write about another radio change that I vaguely remember. Back in 2000 in Houston, 2 radio stations swapped frequencies due to a merger between Clear Channel Radio and AMFM, Inc. Both 107.5 KTBZ (The Buzz/same as the Edge) and 94.5 KLDE (Oldies) were owned by Clear Channel and with the merger, the FCC said that Clear Channel had to dump a station. They chose to get rid of 94.5 KLDE and sell it to Cox Radio. Included in the sale was the frequencies. So they started to advertise the swap. I remember commercials all over the radio and on tv. It was pretty cool. Initially, it was said that KTBZ (The Buzz) was going off the air. This caused outrage by the public because there were a lot of new alternative listeners out there and there was/is not another station like it in Houston. Clear Channel even held a press conference about it and started a campaign to "Save the Buzz". It was later leaked that the swap was going to happen and the campaign sizzled away with the Houston heat.

On July 18th, 2000 at 8 pm, the swap happened. Each station was unique with their transfer. KLDE chose as "space" theme where the DJ's took a space ship up the dial from Oldies 94.5 to Oldies 107.5. KTBZ took a different approach and threw a party to celebrate their new frequency. They enlisted the help of the Stone Temple Pilots at the Ariel Theatre (Now Verizon Wireless Theatre) and just played countdown music as they faded away from 107.5 to 94.5. They broadcasted the enitre concert as their introduction to the new frequency.

You can find some cool audio with all of this action at FormatChange. I found these earlier and downloaded them from another website, but this one includes a statement from KTBZ's general manager from the period where they were still campaigning to "Save the Buzz". It is pretty cool and like I said yesterday, it is not everyday when radio station change formats, so take a listen.

Today, things still are the same over at 94.5. The Buzz still lives there and is as strong as ever. Over at 106.9, they have changed things up a little bit and are now 107.5 KHTC, K-Hits playing 60's and 70's music. The old KLDE staff is gone and is now staffed by old friends in Houston radio including Scott Sparks formerly of KRBE (104.1), Dave E Crockett of KKBQ (92.9) and KIKK (95.7) and Paul Christy of KHMX (96.5).

More terrorism in the states?

2007-07-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

Today on Good Morning America, they reported that the possibility for more terror attack within the United States is possible and that this may be the calm before the storm. The Department of Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff says that he has a "gut feeling" about possible terrorism in our nations future. There has not been any reports of any specifics, but with the recent events in the UK with the attempted car bombings, they are definitely on alert.

My question is : As a nation, are we ready for another attack? I know that it is not something that you can necessarily prepare for, but unfortunately in this day in age, we have to know that it is possible anywhere. Our police force and military are doing a great job to protect its citizens from terror, but sometimes somethings slip through the cracks. Can we, as citizens, react in a way that will not give into the terrorists desires or can we have an attitude that some of the British have adopted where they just take things day by day and live vigilantly without letting terror run their lives. I know that with the way that our media treats us, there will be some who totally freak out and say that the sky is falling, but can we as a whole react with vigilance and not let it affect our everyday practices?

What do you think? Can we be like the British and not let it affect our daily life or will it be another nationwide attack of daily practices?

Image : Department of Homeland Security

Oldies radio is returning to NYC

2007-07-11T11:23:00.001-05:00

CBS-FM is returning to the airwaves in New York City and it is replacing the Jack-FM format. This change will be taking place at 1:01 pm EDT (12:01 PM CDT). For those who are not in the know, CBS-FM is an oldies format radio station that was replaced in NYC abruptly by the Jack-FM format back in June of 2005. CBS-FM was a hit amongst listeners as it played "good time" music from the 60's and 70's. After the switch, listeners had to log on to the Internet or have a HD radio to tune into the station. Recently, the station staff made the decision to return to its Oldies roots and has made a quiet decision to change formats. Jack will still be around, but it will now be found on the web or on the HD station.

It will be cool to listen in as the station makes the switch. It is not everyday that a radio station makes a format change. Usually, close to the time of the switch, there are songs that "define" the station or goodbyes from DJ's (in this case, there will be no goodbyes, because there are only 2 DJ's for the Jack format and they only do traffic and news for the station). When CBS-FM converted to Jack, the last song played before the intro to Jack was Fontella Bass' "Rescure Me" and the DJ maid a comment that he may need rescuing because of a meeting that he had to go to after his show (which ended up being one that informed them that they did not have a job anymore due to the change..)

To listen in, go to http://www.ilikejack.com/ prior to 1pm EDT or 12pm CDT tomorrow morning. After the switch, you may need to change tuners and load the player for CBS-FM at http://www.wcbsfm.com/. I would load both just to be on the safe side and just mute one. If you are in the New York City DMA, just tune the radio dial to 101.1 FM and enjoy!

Image: www.ilikejack.com - WCBS-FM

So I have obviously made some changes...

2007-07-11T11:17:00.000-05:00

What do you think? I have been thinking about making some changes to the good 'ole blog. I was not quite liking the old face. I love the background, but they layout was just not working out.. Sometimes the titles would not show and the text was not aligned properly.. Now everything looks pretty normal..

I am also trying to come up with more ideas for content.. I am not sure what, but something.. I am sure that it will be totally random like everything else has.. :)

Let me know what you think...

Will a reality show compromise journalistic integrity?

2007-07-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

This summer, a reality show was filmed in Tyler, TX at CBS affiliate KYTX called "Anchorwoman". It was about an actress from Los Angeles trying to make it as a reporter and anchor at a local television affiliate. She had no journalistic abilities or training and has been trained buy the television station as she worked at the station. It has caused all kinds of a fuss with the people within the television industry and in East Texas itself. One thing to point out about the East Texas region is that this region is an extremely conservative area. I am talking about deeep in the heart of the bible belt.

In an effort to advertise her arrival in the region, the production company for the reality show purchased ad space on billboards with her picture in a swimsuit inviting viewers to watch CBS 19 news at 5pm where she would be participating in that broadcast. That received a lot of backlash from viewers because she was only wearing a swimsuit (however, all you could really see was her face). The television station received many phone calls and emails. The station management did not avoid viewer's complaints and the General Manager did face the music per-se on one of their morning news broadcasts (of which, you can watch at KYTX's website) Even other Tyler affiliates joined in with the complaints. Local ABC affiliate, KLTV, which has been vocal with other events (see Rosie vs. KLTV), jumped in criticizing KYTX :

"One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I'm disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity," said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler. (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

The national media has also attacked them with reports on this new show. ABC's Good Morning America has done several reports as has Fox News Channel.

Does this show compromise journalistic integrity? Must somebody have a degree in Journalism just to report the news? What about those people just starting out in TV journalism? If television stations require experience before they hire people, how will anybody be hired in the first place? Where does anybody start?

Regarding KYTX..What will this do to their ratings? Will their ratings decline now that that "Anchorwoman" has now left the station? KYTX has only been operating since 2004, are they strong enough to survive the strife or will Dallas CBS affiliate KTVT be making a return to the Tyler/Longview DMA?

I guess only time will tell...

"Anchorwoman" will be airing on Fox this Fall beginning in August. It will be interesting to see what they show and what kind of local reaction they present to the "Anchorwoman" audience.

Photo Credit: (KYTX Website)

Update: Here is a clip of a news cast with the "Anchorwoman" from the Dallas Morning News

A Houston Legend's Battle with Cancer

2007-07-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

It is rare for a whole city to support a local television reporter, especially in the nation's 4th largest city. These days, some reporters are seen as people who are just fighting to get the story, not ones that you would generally call friends or truly trust. This is also a day in age where TV news is over hyped and filled with drama. However, in Houston, viewers will be supporting a local TV personality in a battle for his life. Consumer reporter for local ABC affiliate, KTRK-TV, Marvin Zindler announced yesterday that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This comes from a man who has battled prostate cancer, has had open heart surgery and his gall bladder removed, along with many cosmetic procedures that he has shared with the viewers for many years.

For those of us who have grown up or lived in Houston, Marvin is a character that we all know and love. We can all mimic his legendary tag-line, "Maaaaaaarrvin Zindler, Eyyyeewitness News.." We know him for his Slime in the Ice Machine and can sing that goes along with that. We know him for his work helping out the little guy against companies who try to cheat their customers. We also know him for his charitable work connecting doctors who want to do pro-bono work for children in foreign countries: cleft palates, heart transplants, the whole lot.

Nationally, he is is know for being the only person with a lifetime contract with ABC/Disney for his reporting where he brings in $1 million each year. Also he is well known as being the reporter who broke the news about the Chicken Ranch in La Grange, TX, also known as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. There have been several movies and a musical made about the event.

Already on KTRK's and the Houston Chronicle's websites, there are messages of well wishes and love for this reporter who has been on the air in Houston since 1973. He is a great reporter and good man. The whole whole city will be pulling for him.

Photo Credit: The Houston Chronicle

To Victory and Beyond!

2007-06-14T13:53:00.000-05:00

So last night, some friends and I went to Victory Park to watch a broadcast of WFAA's 10 newscast. It was pretty cool.. We did not hear what they were saying, but we could see all of the behind the scene's actions. There was a cop outside of the studio doors, making sure that no deranged lunatic tried to get into the station.

Inside, the floor crew was preparing, getting cameras where they needed to be and then the talent started to appear and get themselves ready. Brett Shipp, a reporter, walked up and into the building while we were waiting. We saw him go inside, put on his tie and then start memorizing his lines for his (virtually) 2-second talk-up to his taped story. Then Macie Jepson and John McCaa took their places at the anchor desk. Macie Jepson is really tall! Despite the 3 inch heels that she was wearing, she is a tall lady. She seemed really nice. As she was walking out to their van, she waved to goodbye to us.

Pete Delkus appeared and walked over to the weather center to start prepping for his segment. He even came outside and did a little stand up giving the viewers a tease for weather. He told us all to come closer so we could be on TV. I did not choose to do so, but still managed to make it on TV. You could see my arm in the background as they went to break. He was pretty nice.

Watching the weather segment was pretty interesting. As Pete was talking, he walked over to the computers and started to manipulate the radars to try to demonstrate what he was talking about and after that, he walked over to the green screen. He then did his thing and then walked back over to the desk. This was as I expected, nothing out of the ordinary in my opinion. It was just cool to see it in person.

If you are in the Metroplex and are somewhat curious about how a TV newscast works/happens, I would suggest checking it out.. If not for that, just for the whole plaza because it is just pretty cool..the TVs and all of the colors that come from that square.. and just looking at the skyline at night...I could spend many hours just staring at the AAC...it is just an awesome style... but I digress...

An Ode to HEB

2007-05-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

So I heard a rumor that my favorite grocery chain is looking at joining the North Texas market. In response, I let them know how I really feel about them:

I just wanted to tell you what a great shopping experience that you provide and how sad I was when I came to North Texas for college and how I miss HEB. Every time that I walk into an HEB when I am at home (my hometown HEB is the Clear Lake store) I am always greeted with friendly smiles and a pleasant shopping experience. I also enjoy the quality of goods that I find there and excellent prices. When I go home for a visit, there are a few things that I stock up on to hold me out until my next visit; HEB Contact Solution and HEB Root Beer and Dr. B. I have been to the Central Market in Plano and was disappointed when I did not find these items, but was not too shocked because I understand that these items do not "fit" the Central Market scheme. I just want to let you know that I think that the HEB brand can work here in North Texas. Walmart is #1 in this market, but with the type of products, service and prices, you can sure give the nasty Wallyworld a run for their money. I have heard a rumor that ya'll may be interested in starting in small towns in this area, and if that is true, I will be really excited. I was on an HEB high for 30 minutes after I heard of the rumor. I am not kidding, I have references if you need to check. I am just asking that you please enter our market and bring me a little taste of home, the taste of HEB Rootbeer and Dr. B, the taste of a pleasant shopping experience and the taste of an awesome company that I am proud to be a customer of.

Here is what HEB had to say in response:

Dear Mr. Mayfield:

Hello and thank you for contacting us at our H-E-B Web Site. We always appreciate hearing from our Friends and Customers.

Thank you for requesting a store in North Texas. We will share your suggestion and comments with our Real Estate Department for their information and consideration. We are continually evaluating where to build new stores and where to expand. Unfortunately, we can't give you an exact answer as to when something might be done in this area. Thank you for your feedback.

H-E-B is proud to serve you as our Customer and we will look forward to all future opportunities we may have to serve you. We genuinely value your comments and your business. As we strive to deliver superior Customer Service, we encourage you to continue letting us know how we can serve you better.

Sincerely,

Cathy

Customer Relations Specialist

H-E-B Grocery Company

She was quite vague, which is standard for any company, but there is still hope! Next step will be a petition drive. I know that the South Texans for an HEB in Denton group on Facebook will be a good base to start with. Let's start the fight. The fight for our right to an HEB. Our motto will be "Give me HEB or give me death!"

Quote of the Day...(Awesome!)

2007-05-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

AP questions to the 2008 Presidential Candidates:

"What is the last work of fiction you've read?"

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson: " The administration's energy plan."

Its almost that time again!

2007-05-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, that most exciting time for a hunter of sorts is almost here. Can you guess what it is? Hurricane Season! Oh yeah! This past year was a quiet one, which was fine with the people of the United States after a busy season in 2005 with the total destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The reminder of the Hurricane season comes today as a sub-tropical system forms off of the southeastern coast of the United States. The Hurricane Season does not start until June 1st, so this is quite out of the ordinary. Meteorologists are calling this a subtropical storm, meaning that it is not quite tropical storm, and not quite a frontal storm. The National Hurricane Center in Miami sent out a Hurricane Hunter plane today and verified that it does have the qualities of a "sub topical cyclone" and that if it continues to develop and stay on track with "subtropical" trends, they will start issuing advisories on "Subtropical Storm Andrea." And this is with 22 days still left before Hurricane season starts!

The reason that it is not an outright tropical storm is because the highest wind speeds are away from the center of the storm, whereas in a tropical storm, the highest wind speeds are found in the center near the "eye" (if it has one).

If it does "hit" the coast, it would be good because GA and FL are having some fire issues because they are experiencing a drought right now. It is moving 5 mph in a westward direction, but as far as it making an impact on that situation, I do not think it is favorable.

Is this a sign of what is to come this Hurricane season? It may or it may not. Only time will tell. Remember, if we do run out of names for this season, we go GREEK! "Party on Wayne, Party on Garth!"

Yeah, I know.. they were not Greek nor was that very funny.. I have to try sometimes though..

Grr....

2007-04-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

I am so tired of hearing about people with guns and buildings! Right now, some idiot is holed up at JSC (Johnson Space Center in Houston) with a gun. Due to all of this, Clear Creek ISD had to lock down Space Center Intermediate because they are on the JSC grounds, practically right across the street from the building where all of this mess is happening.

Why can't we use our words? Why is it that people choose guns? Why is it that we are the only country in the world that has these types of problems?

If you go back and look at the United States Constitution, at the 2nd Amendment, and read the true content of the amendment, it was only written to allow states to have militias. It was not written for the intent of people having guns. Just for the ability to have guns to arm the militias. Unless you are a part of your local state guard, military or public safety, nobody else really needs a gun. They only ask for trouble. If a student was packing heat at VA Tech when the crazy dude came in, would it really have helped or stopped him earlier? No. There probably would have been more injured, or even dead.

Do we need more gun control? Yes. Is it ever going to happen? No. Why not? Because it is too controversial and nobody would ever agree on a single piece of legislation. How did the Brady Bill get passed? I have no idea. I wish that it was not allowed to expire, because now that it has expired, assault weapons are more readily available than before the Brady Bill. If the Brady Bill were still in effect, the gunman from VA Tech would not have had the gun that he used and also it would have slowed him down and possibly preventing him from harming others. What's going to happen in the future? Who knows....

Virginia Tech Tragedy

2007-04-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

Another school was under attack today. School shootings have now migrated to higher education. As of now (130 pm CDT) 31 students have been either wounded or perished, including the shooter. It is just a sad day. The last time that there have been a great tragedy at a school was Columbine in 1999. The last incident like this at an institution of higher education was in the 60's at the University of Texas with the bell tower shooter with approximately 90 minnutes of terror and 16 students dead. It is now the deadliest shooting incident in US History.

This is the second incident at Virginia Tech in the past 6 months. In August, on their first day of class, classes were cancelled and buildings put on lock-down because an escaped inmate came on campus and killed a sheriff's deputy. What would it be like to be a beginning freshman through all of this? This would be a hard introduction to independent living.

Why do we have to face this in our society? Why are people going against others in mass casualties like this?

It is sad because many students are part of Generation Y and have already experienced school shootings at the terror that it can cause at school. After hearing things like this, it makes you a little uneasy and makes you re-evaluate the safety situation at your respective homes and campus.

Here is a first hand prospective of the situation: http://icantread01.livejournal.com/103060.html

It is also interesting how technology has affected this situation. When the phone systems failed, people turned to websites, blogs and social networks like Facebook and Myspace to find news about their friends and about what was going on around them. The link above is a prime example of this. Here is another link with information and other blogs : http://www.cybersoc.com/2007/04/virginia_tech_s.html

This situation is quite unfortunate and our prayers are with the students and families of this situation.

Is change really good?

2007-03-23T15:30:00.000-05:00

I was surfing on my favorite radio station's website, and I encountered a piece of news that I did not know about. Virgin Radio has a morning show called the Breakfast Show. I usually listen to it via podcast because I don't really want to stay up all night so I can listen to it as it comes on at 12 am here in Denton. Well, one of the DJ's (Chris Smith) took a leave of absence so he could attend to his wife while she had a baby. This was like 2 weeks ago. Well, while he was gone, the station played around with having Christian O'Connell (the main DJ) go solo and then they added a producer to the mike and tried that. They tested around and found out that they liked the show better without Chris Smith (the new daddy) who was out on leave. Now, Chris was an awesome sidekick. The main DJ is a little childish and is really evened out by Chris. They have worked together for a while and even switched radio stations this past year.

The news that I read last night was that he was canned. The main DJ never made any mention of the demise of Chris Smith. There was no statement and they deleted all of his pictures and anything that had to deal with Chris. The team was now broken up.

I just think that was a bad move. It would have also been nice for them to give him a proper send off and explain everything to the listeners. Not to mention, he was on a leave of absence to attend to a new member of his family. Is that a kick in the balls or what?

Why is radio so fickle like that? They did the same exact thing here in the Metroplex at Mix 102.9; canned Cappy from the Morning Mix with Tony and Cappy. Which is better? Running away old listeners from a radio show or trying to gain new ones? I know that it is easier and cheaper to gain new customers for a business, but shouldn't they work harder to keep old customers around?

Picture: To the left, Brian The Producer, to the right: Newly canned Chris Smith

Joel Osteen: Is it all necessary?

2007-03-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, so if you are from Houston, know somebody from Houston, watch Christian TV, read Christian Books, anything besides live under a rock (and maybe not even then), you have definitely heard of Joel Osteen. He is the pastor of a little church called Lakewood Church. You can catch his sermons on TV on Sunday mornings and he is that guy on the cover of that book that everybody is reading, according to the NYT best seller list: Your Best Life Now. Now, according to fellow Blogger Mike McGuff and Christian Today, Joel Osteen has the #9 most listened to podcast online. In addition, he also has a board game based on his book.

My question is: "Is all of this necessary?" Yes, one of the points of Christianity is to spread the word. I am not against that. Not at all. However, I think that there is a point in which you can take things too far. I can understand the podcast thing and maybe localized distribution of his weekly sermons; Lakewood is a big church (so big that they had to take over the old home of the Houston Rockets) and these methods are a good chance to keep the local congregation in touch with their massive church. I can even understand the book. I have not read it myself, but from what I understand, it is a self-help book; with all that is going on in our world, why not? But is there a point of over saturation? TV, podcast, book, board game, all kinds of interviews.. That is a little much. Simplicity is enough to spread the word. What happened to just talking to your local parishioners or people in the community? That is what God would have done, not gone national or even global. One big issue is that I have a problem with the game. I don't understand the need of the game. There is just no need. If it were one of those games that was like a bible quiz game, I would understand it a little more, but I don't think that is it. It just makes me wonder...

Now don't get me wrong. Lakewood has done great things for the people of the City of Houston and worldwide. Back in 2001, they organized a huge food and clothing drive to help those who lost all in the horrible 100 year floods from Tropical Storm Allison. I just sometimes wonder if John Osteen, Joel's father, would be satisfied with how the church has evolved and what Joel is doing with it since his death. I remember the day that he passed away in 1999, The whole City of Houston mourned is death.

But a game about the book? I just don't know about that.

Photo Credit: Houston Chronicle

Random Thoughts (sorry its boring)

2007-03-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

So I have been thinking about going abroad and taking classes in the UK. I've got a bug and something has to kill it. However, there are a lot of factors that come into play if I were to do this.

Cost is key, but if you read a previous posting, there are some possibilities. Another thing would be what would I study? The only subjects that make since is Education and American Studies. If I were to do Education, I would still have to take some certification tests once I came back here to start teaching.

However, I am already starting classes and preparing to take my subject test at the beginning of next month. With the American Studies degree, my first instinct says "Why study America in the UK? It doesn't make since." The only logical thing that I can pull from it would be that I could study it and see how foreigners construe the US while teaching about it. Also, it would be a good chance to live abroad (something that I have always wanted to do) and to take in some UK culture (no, it is not too different from ours, but there are some differences). I just think that it would be awesome. I know that I just came back from a study abroad trip, but that is not the same. We did not stay in one place for more than 3 days and it was not like a typical study abroad experience (it was still awesome!).

Additionally, I have bills here that I have to pay, take care of my new car that has a 3 year lease on it, stuff like that. I just don't know what to do. Should I continue what I am working on and forget about it? Should I just do this after I get my Masters and then go and study abroad?

I think that I will still investigate the options, but I don't know what I would do.

What would you do?

Why mess with a good thing?

2007-03-18T22:25:00.000-05:00

I know that I have probably told all of y'all about the recent 'news' with Grey's Anatomy... The business about how they are going to have a spin off with Addison Montgomery as the lead character. Personally, I think that this is a bad move. The show is great as it is. There is a great dynamic as it is with all of the characters. If they remove one, I think that it will mess up the dynamic and take away from the show. This is a really popular show, it does not make since. I don't think that Addison is strong enough to actually be on her own. They are bringing in all kinds of people who had shows that eventually failed so who knows how that will pan out.. A lot of shows have had spin offs: Friends had Joey (which only lasted a season and a half) the Cosby's had A Different World (I'm sure that did not last long..) etc. You get the picture. They rarely work. Maybe ABC is trying to give these actors a second chance, or maybe they had contracts with some of them. I just call it a bad move. They will figure it out this fall when they see a decline overall ratings with Grey's Anatomy.

Scholarship Opportunities

2007-03-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

This is a good tidbit of information if you are interested in continuing your education beyond a bachelors degree. Personally, I should have investigated this more before I started my course work, but I may still be eligible. I will have to see. There are several opportunities for Study Abroad and stateside study as well. These are highly competitive and world renown scholarships, so they are pretty cool and extensive. A couple that I am investigating are the Rotary Ambassador Scholarship, the James Madison Scholarship and the Marshall Scholarship. Dr. Duban from the office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships is holding a workshop on March 28th from 3-4pm in the Lyceum if you are interested. You can get more information about the different types of scholarships available at this website : http://www.opgf.unt.edu/ You can also contact Dr Duban with specific questions at jduban@unt.edu.

The James Madison Scholarship is for those who are interested in teaching Secondary American History. They will pay for your Masters degree and all you have to do is teach for the amount of years that you receive scholarship money from them (which you would be doing anyways). The deadline has already passed, but worth looking into for the next go around.

The Marshall Scholarship allows you to study in the UK for 2 years at most UK universities. It will pay for room and board, books, round fare ticket from here to there and a Masters Degree. There is no obligation with this one except for completing your program.

The Rotary Ambassador Scholarship allows you to study almost anywhere on the globe and they will pay for tuition and housing. All you have to do is be an ambassador for your country in the place that you choose to study. for Rotary International.

If you are interested, check out the website to get more details on the programs.

Is it child abuse?

2007-02-28T09:11:00.000-06:00

Connor McCreaddie of Wallsend, England, is 8 years old. He is also 218 pounds. On Tuesday, Connor and his mother had to meet with the County Council (equivalent to our court system) to determine if Connor was facing harm at home due to his diet. Ms McCreaddie was worried about loosing custody of Connor. However, the North Tyneside County Council determined that Connor could stay with his mum but they all needed to watch over him to ensure that this situation does not get out of hand.

Recently, ITV, a British televison network, followed Connor around for a month watching his every move. He would eat snack every 20 minutes, usually comprising of chips and cookies (or in British, crisps and biscuits). He can put away 8 lunch sized bags of chips and 3 packages of cookies a day. For dinner, his mother would prepare french fries, buttered bread and other bad things. She tells Connor to stay out of the fridge between meals, (which he ignores) and refuses to put a lock on the fridge. She admits that he was a big baby. At age 2 1/2, she could not pick him up anymore and at age 5, he was 126 pounds.

Is this abuse? I think that it can be if the mother is not doing anything about this situation. She is not forcing him to exercise and it is aparent that she is not changing the diet. I am sure that she is not deliberately trying to fatten him up like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, but in this age, it is necessary to be more cognizant of diet and weight. It is all just sad. I can understand that she is a single parent of 2 kids and that it is hard, but if she were to put a little bit of effort into it, it could go a long way. Maybe take the kids to the park every other day. Throw in some salad instead of bread. Try some vegetarian dishes. GET A LOCK FOR THE FRIDGE! He will not starve to death, he will just gripe until the next meal time.

I think that the County Council made a good move in not removing him from his mothers custody. That probably would have been detrimental to him and caused depression which leads to even more eating. They should just help his mother construct a diet and exercise plan for him. That is all that he can do for now. Maybe they should also check him for a disease that may be causing him to be obease.... Whatever happens, a change needs to be made immediately before it causes long lasting effects that will be with him for rest of his life..

Denton Apartments Suck!

2007-02-27T10:16:00.000-06:00

Recently, my roommate and I have been shopping around for a new apartment. That is just something that you do around the time that you lease is up. We were interested in looking for a new place, some place that was more modern and had a few specific features that we were looking for. As we were driving around on Saturday to these newer apartment complexes in town, we quickly discovered that we could not move into any of them. Why you may ask? They are all Federally subsidized and subject to income restrictions. WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?! I was livid, especially after the 3rd place that we went to told us that. These are all brand new apartments, all built within the past few years and are the nicest apartment complexes in town and they are out of reach because our incomes equal over $31,000. The only choices that we have remaining to us are some dumpy apartment complexes or ones that we cannot afford altogether. Where is the logic in this? One apartment manager put it eloquently, "You are being penalized for actually having a job."

My question in all of this is why is there such a need for low income housing in the City of Denton? Denton is not that poor in my opinion. Yes there are some parts of town that seem poorer than others, but over all, we as a city are not doing that bad economically.

So I thought.... Then I checked with the Census Bureau. According to the 2000 Census the median household income was $35,422 for the City of Denton, comparing to 63K for McKinney, 54K for Lewisville, 62K for Carrollton and 78K for Plano. I just cannot believe this. I don't understand why the median household income is so small for Denton. We have a lot of industries here, Peterbilt, national headquarters for Sally Beauty Supply, UNT, TWU, Denton ISD (it is a big school district) and other big employers. I guess what this number shows is that a lot of people are not making that much money from these employers (I know that I'm not) or that they are living in other communities outside of Denton.

Maybe the fact that we have a large population of college students living in Denton has something to do with how low our median income numbers are. I don't know. You would think that the Census Bureau would account for this though. Who knows? It is just a major shock to me and my roommate. Now we have to decide if we want to stay in our current complex or possibly pay more and live in another complex a little more out of the price range. I just seems a little unfair for those who are actually starting off in their adult lives and want to continue to live in Denton.

Maybe I should be complaining more to the City of Denton for not enticing other complexes that could cater to a customer such as myself. Yes, we have a lot of complexes already in Denton, but if you really look at a lot of them, nobody would really want to live in them. Ah, and that is another thing. Maybe I should complain to all of the management companies for not keeping up with their properties and making them appealing to people. Curb appeal says a lot. If it does not look good on the outside, that is definitely an indicator of what you will find on the inside.

I am still boggled by the income numbers for Denton. I just don't understand. Even if these incomes were for 2 people, they would still be too high for these low income complexes. There are a lot of variables and would be a good topic of study for somebody who needs an economic or business project...

What do you think of all of this? Post your thoughts below...

They JUST changed the rate!

2007-02-27T09:40:00.000-06:00

Is it just me or didn't the Postal Service just raise the rates for the 1st class stamp? I can remember when it was a quarter to send a letter in the mail. My mom remembers when it was a dime to send a letter. What is the deal? The postal service has just announced that it wants to raise rates for a stamp from 39 cents to 41 cents, a 2 cent increase. I know that it is needed because of the increase in cost of gas and labor, but it is just crazy! This will be another reason for people to start paying their bills online and stray away from the paper and pencil method of paying bills. Our generation is starting to abandon this old method and I think that this will force others to abandon this method as well.

The postal service is talking about implementing a "forever stamp" which would lock in prices at the time of purchase, but you will still have to buy those stamps at the 41 cent price. It is a good concept, because it will save money over a period of 10 or more years, but then you will have stamps coming out of your ear for that period of time. It will save a trip to the Post Office or Kroger to get stamps, though, which is good too..

My plan to help the Postal Service earn more money, charge those advertisers who send junk mail that nobody ever reads a dollar or more just for being annoying..

What do you think?

WTWO Fights back!

2007-02-06T15:59:00.000-06:00

This is a follow up to a blog that I wrote a looong time a go.. http://dlm0078.blogspot.com/2006/05/thats-right-biotch.html

Basically, WTWO, local NBC affiliate in Terre Haute, IN, made a promo talking about the greatness of their weather department and how their CBS competitor sucks. Here is the video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJH-nvnCqLI

John Stewart got wind of this and called WTWO out on making fun of their competitor and he made fun of them.. Supposedly, (I say that because this happened quite some time ago and I am now just reading about it..) there was a bunch of controversy between WTWO and Stewart. In response to Jon Stewart, they made this great gem: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2753363. Obviously, it is probably safe to assume that this was never aired on WTWO. Supposedly it was an internal film.

It is all just freaking hilarious! I would love to see some of this kind of action between WFAA (ABC-8) and KXAS (NBC-5) in Dallas or KTRK (ABC-13) vs KHOU (CBS-11) in Houston.

Sign of the times?

2007-02-01T12:20:00.000-06:00

Is it a sign of the times that Americans depend too much on Fast Food and a high fat diet? I have an interesting example for you...

I am 22 years old. I am a good weight for my stature. I am not bouncing off the walls with activity, but I am not totally stagnant either. I am moderately healthy. I am a semi-moderate consumer of fast food or dining out (about 2-3 times a week), but I do not do it all of the time. I would rather cook at home most of the time. With all of that said, I have recently been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol. When I learned of this, I was shocked. I am pretty healthy. My previous physical showed great results. And now I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol and the medications that accompany such conditions.

Now granted, my doctor said that alot of this had to deal with family history, and yes, I do have some history. But still, is this an indicator of what will happen to others in my generation who h ave grown up in the age of Fast Food and high fat diets?

Are there others out there from our generation who are experiencing this? It would be interesting to see the numbers on this.

I could be blowing all of this out of proportion, but I think that there could be an interesting correlation. What about others out there from my generation who are heavy eaters and eat out at least once to twice a day?

Abolition of the N Word in A Southeast TX Community

2007-01-23T09:41:00.000-06:00

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Brazoria, the county seat of Brazoria County, is working on outlawing the "N-Word". The law is not on the books yet, but they mayor is going to hold a few public sessions about this law and try to get a consensus of what the public thinks of this proposed law. If they agree with it, he will take it to the city council and if they agree with it, then they will pass the law.

It will not prevent you from saying the word, but makes it a criminal offense if the word is used in a derogatory way. The fine will be around $500.

When asked why he wanted to implement this new law, the mayor said :

Corley said he got the idea while watching two black ministers talking on television about how offensive that word is. "I just think it would be great if this little town of Brazoria, with 2,800 people, leads the way in fighting against this offensive language," said Corley. "It's not a particular problem in Brazoria," Corley said, "but it's a national problem."

There are questions about the legality of this new law. Usage of the word is protected by the First Amendment and the law maybe over turned if it is ever questioned.

I think that this is a good idea. There is no need for ANYONE to use that word, Black or not. There is so much history with that word and all of it leads to many years of oppression. If the true connotations of the word were understood by all, I think that some would think twice about using it. There are other ways that we can address each other.

What do you think? Would this be a good law to have on the books? Post a comment below....

Do You live in a foreign country? They Do!

2007-01-22T09:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Work has been crazy busy and I have not really had much time to do anything but my actual work... weird huh?

I do want to share 2 blogs that I have been reading lately.. They are pretty cool. They are written by Americans living in Africa. One is a Peace Corps volunteer and the other one is a former Peace Corps volunteer working for a non-profit organization.

It is interesting to read about their lives in these foreign countries and about how things are much different in their respective countries : Togo and Angola.

They are good things to read if you have been or are interested in the Peace Corps or living in a foreign country, which both of these are things that I have contemplated..

So here are the websites as promised:
Aaron in Africa (Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo)
and
Back in One Piece (Non-Profit)

More Fry Street Evictions

2007-01-08T11:34:00.000-06:00

This is from the Save Fry Street Organization....

"Yesterday, members of SFS confirmed with business owners on Fry Street that yes, they have received eviction notices. The Tomatoe, Bagheri’s, and other businesses have been given until Jan. 31 to vacate their homes.

While we understand that even with renovation, this would be part of the process, we wish the tenants had been given more notice. We are sad to see such great businesses leave and hope that no matter what the outcome, they can and will come back to Fry Street.

Also, this is not over. We are still planning to meet with the developers again to discuss options. The developers still need variances to make plans and changes. We still have input so do not give up on Fry Street."

(More updates to come…)
SFS - Save Fry Street

Happy 150 City of Denton!!

2007-01-02T21:44:00.000-06:00

This year, the City of Denton is celebrating its 150th Birthday! The City is celebrating by hosting exhibits, workshops and lectures that pertain to the City of Denton. This month, there will be talks about how the city was created, what life was like during the frontier days in Denton, and how the 1st Methodist church has affected the City.

A kick off celebration was held tonight at the Emily Fowler Central Library to get it all started. The next will be a lecture presented by Nita Thurman called "Going, Going, Gone! The Auction that Created Denton." It is Tuesday, Jan. 9th at 7pm at the Emily Fowler Library. I am excited to go listen to this (hopefully I will be off work in time...)

To find out about all of the events, go to www.denton150.com and click on Calendar. There are also pictures and videos about Denton and also some cool facts and timelines.

An interesting fact about Denton is that back in the late 1800's, there was a small community that is where the Civic Center resides today that was called Quakertown. It was named for the Quakers who helped the freedmen in the early years of the Reconstruction. In 1922, the City of Denton bought out the land and annexed it into the city limits and turned it into a park and later a Civic Center, as it is today. (Some information from Texas State Handbook Online)

A New Year, A New Semester

2007-01-02T21:32:00.000-06:00

Well all of the tests have been taken, gifts unwrapped, and champagne has been consumed. We are now in the newest year of the Millennium and it is definitely different. The new semester is about to start and I will be a Grad Student. It is so weird to think about it. I have to keep reminding myself that I have graduated and that I am an Alumnus. Maybe it is because I am I will still be at UNT taking classes and working just like I have been for the past 3.5 years. It is crazy...

I am kinda excited about the new semester because I will only be taking 2 classes and one of them will be my very first education class. I have not taken one before, so it will be interesting to see how it works out. I will also be continuing my African American history class. I am excited for that because it is modern history and I really enjoy that period. It will also be a little hard because it will be for Grad credit, which means doing more work that the rest of the class. I still have to meet up with my professor and see what I will have to do. I am thinking of suggesting an additional paper. Maybe writing about Barbara Jordan, Jim Crow effects in Texas or desegregation in Texas. If you have any cool ideas, let me know!!!

Kudos to WFAA and KDFW

2006-12-29T16:06:00.000-06:00

As we speak, there are areas that are under Tornado Warnings. Johnson County currently has a severe thunderstorm that is attacking the county and has a history of spawning tornadoes. It spun off a tornado in Hill and Bosque Counties.

What do citizens need in this dire time? Late breaking news about the storm. This is important because some places do not have storm sirens and they need to know if something is coming their way. Since 3pm today, Pete Delkus has been on-air giving viewers the latest information that they need. I have been flipping around the different local affiliates to evaluate the coverage and I have been happy with some and disappointed with others.

WFAA Ch-8 and KDFW Ch-4 has stepped up and have been providing great coverage. KXAS Ch-5 has been doing a great job as well. They finally broke into regular programming after a while. Even KTXA Ch-21, the station that is as Independent as Texas has even broken into their regular programming to provide weather coverage.

However, KTVT, CBS Ch-11, has provided very little coverage. They feel that the football game is more important than the severe weather. They have done the split screen business, but they have not taken on the full fledged coverage as they should.

I know that some these storms have been in areas that have not been in the immediate DFW viewing area but they have moved into our area and some of those people can pick up our signal and pickup the major market tv stations on satellite tv. I feel that KTVT has failed their viewers, on the other hand, the viewers of the immediate area that have not been affected and their shows being pre-empted feel that the stations have failed them. But to each their own. This will allow viewers to see how the stations really feel about viewer safety to choose the "Coverage that they can count on.."

I am just glad that I got back to the Metroplex before all hell broke loose.. I would have been upset having to watch this from my car or from Houston....

Christmas Panto

2006-12-22T10:47:00.000-06:00

On Virgin Radio yesterday, they did a Christmas Panto. For those who are unfamiliar, a Christmas Panto is performance that is specific to the UK. It is a very interactive show between the audience and the actors and also the show has a lot of current topics/people in it. For example, they take Cinderella and put a Virgin Radio spin on it by talking about things from the radio show and using DJ's in the Panto. Also included in this version is Thandi Newton and David Tennant. Thandi was in Crash and David Tennant is on BBC1's Dr. Who TV show.

As I said before, the Virgin Radio Panto is Cinderella. It is very funny. A little obscene, but hilarious nonetheless. It is definitely worth a listen.

There is a podcast version here : http://podcast.smgradio.com/oconnellweekly/061221_Christmas_panto_special.mp3

or, even better is the video version : http://www.virginradio.co.uk/djs_shows/shows/breakfast/features/christmas_panto.html

Even though you may not know who the DJ's or actors are, it is still worth watching/listening to. It is a good chance to experience another country's traditions at this time of the year.

Panto's are big business in the UK at this time of the year. Patrick Duffy from TV's Dallas is even performing on the West End (London's version of Broadway) in a Christmas Panto, ironically, the same as the Virgin Radio's Panto, Cinderella.

Just check it out. It is awesome!

Merry Christmas to all of you out there in the World Wide Web!

Does the Metroplex need another passenger airport?

2006-12-13T14:11:00.000-06:00

It has been in the talks and now they are doing a study on it. WFAA's Dan Ronan reported that the officials at the McKinney Regional Airport are considering opening the airport to regional passenger traffic. If they did this, that would mean that in addition to flying out of D/FW International and Love Field, you would also be able to fly from McKinney to certain places that would be determined by the airline and FAA officials.

This would be great for those citizens living in McKinney or Collin County who do not want to make the commute to DFW or Love, but I don't feel that it is really necessary. It is an expensive job to begin with, you have to build a terminal, hire security, make it Homeland Security approved and such and that takes a lot of time and effort. In addition, it would add to the neighborhoods who already complain about the noise near their homes; IE: Love Field (my case for this is, DONT LIVE NEXT TO A MAJOR AIRPORT!) Ahem, sorry.

So what do you think? Is it worth all of the effort? Who would come in? Southwest is already stationed at Love Field and will not move its operations. Would this be something that American Eagle can handle or another small regional carrier? It will be interesting to see how all of this pans out..

The Dutch are Digital!

2006-12-11T13:58:00.000-06:00

The Houston Chronicle had an article about the big switch in the Netherlands. They switched from an analog TV signal (bunny ear type signal) to a digital signal (like our HDTV signal where you need a special box and tv antenna to receive the signal). The US will be making this switch in 2009, meaning that all of us will have to get new tv's that are able to handle this, subscribe to cable or satellite tv, or we will have to get equipment to 'retrofit' our tvs to be able to read this new signal.

Many of our local tv stations already have the capability to broadcast in the digital signal, you can notice those station when they say to check them out on their channel on x.1 or x.2, for example, here in the 'Plex, we can watch NBC on 5.1 and we can watch their Weather Plus on 5.2. Same with Channel 8, regular tv on 8.1 and on 8.2, you get their Doppler radar and the NOAA weather channel audio.

What do you think about this change that will be occurring in 2 years?

There are many pros... Clearer pictures and audio, no need to adjust the bunny ears for a clearer signal and picture, ability to watch additional channels (8.1,8.2) (some smaller markets use this to bring other stations to the market, ie: Sherman/Denison, KXII, a CBS station uses their digital signal to bring those viewers the MYTV network along with a FOX Network)..

The only cons that I can think of would be the cost of retrofitting the tv to make it able to receive the new signal. Stations would have to foot up the money to convert, but many of them already have, so it is not that big of a deal. My concern is about the people in smaller markets who cannot necessarily afford to convert their tv's or to purchase a new tv. Will their screens go blank?

Let me know your thoughts....

And off they go!

2006-12-11T10:44:00.000-06:00

It is that time again, time for #2 pencils, scantrons and blue books. Blue books will be my enemy this semester because that is all that history professors use. They have abandoned the scantron a long time ago. For some reason, all of the upper level professors want you to write essays.. I am not quite sure why...

For some of us, this will be our last time to combat our enemies mentioned above, and for some of us, we still have some opportunities to combat these foes.

To all of those out there with final enemies, good luck to you in your battles! Make it Legendary!

Fruit Pizza!

2006-12-11T09:27:00.000-06:00

This weekend, I had a most interesting and delightful mixture of dough, cream cheese and fruit... Can you guess what it was? Fruit Pizza!

The crust was crusty and sugar cookie like and there was a nice layer of cream cheesy goodness that acted as glue to "glue" the fruit to the pizza. Among our fruity friends were grapes, blueberries, bananas, kiwi, and strawberries.

It was very good. I have heard about this for a while now and it was the first time for me to have it, so needless to say, I was very pleased!

Mad props to Laura who made this yummy yummy goodness...

Pictured above is an example of what it looked like...

So I Have a New Show Favorite

2006-12-08T11:20:00.000-06:00

It is called How I Met Your Mother. It is on Monday nights on CBS, for those of us in the 'Plex and H-Town it is on Ch. 11 at 7pm. The basic premise is that it is a story about this father who is telling his kids how he met his mother, and he started from the very beginning, even before he met his wife. The voice over is done by Bob Saget, aka Danny Tanner for those of us Gen Yers, who is the voice of Ted, played by a great actor named Josh Radnor. It is a hilarious show. Also included in the cast is NPH or Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan who we all know and love as Michelle from the American Pie Trilogy.

The one thing that I love about this show is that there is a lot of opportunities to relate with the characters. Everybody that I know who watches the show can easily identify with one of the characters. If you can emotionally invest in a character, it makes the show that much better. It is probably not too much of a good thing, because you should be living life and not watching tv, but that is just how the ball rolls sometimes.

It is also really funny. It seems to have a lot of smart comedy and the writing is just great. I watched the first season on DVD and I was left wanting to watch the beginning of the first season again so everything could make sense.

I wish that I started watching it from the beginning because I started watching it at the beginning of the 2nd season and I really didn't have any idea of what was going on. After watching the DVD of the 1st season, it all made sense.

If you have free time on Monday nights, I suggest that you check it out. It is definitely worth the time.

You can check out for weekly updates at my favorite TV website, www.givememyremote.com and you can also check them out directly at CBS's website at : http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/ .. you can also watch the latest episodes for free on the Intertube feature, just find it and click!

Thanks to Nathan for introducing me to this new AWESOME show....

BTW... its Legen...dary... (Watch the show and you will get it...)

The Preliminary Plans are here...

2006-12-08T11:15:00.000-06:00

United Equity has released preliminary plans for their new property here in Denton. Amoung the new things that they want to do is bring in a drugstore (they are talking with CVS, as if we dont have any in town), a 3 story parking garage, and 2 restaurant along with some leased space and a new road to go through the property to connect Hickory and Oak. They are wanting to make it like a village with plenty of trees and walking space and benches. It sounds nice in theory, but it will not be the same and those of us who know and love the REAL Fry Street will not be so quick to warm up to these new businesses and areas.

Click here for the story from the Denton Record Chronicle and the PDF of the plans

As always, you can go to www.savefrystreet.com for the most up to date information