Oh Brian Williams...

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!

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

or

On-Air : 97.1 FM

CAW!

Cali Day 2 and wrapup

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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...

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

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...