Oh me, so modest right? Well that's neither here nor there. Well in the recent weeks myself and my good amigo Kevin have been going to the UMass radio station WMUA 91.1 Amherst, and have been going through DJ training. I decided I wanted to do this over the summer, when the only reprieve I had through the monotony that was working at the Marblehead Garden Center was listening to podcasts, specifically The Adam Carolla Podcast, and The Sandbox podcast.
Now the Sandbox podcast is a shortened down version of the radio show The Sandbox on WFNX 101.7 Lynn/Boston. Listening to this show every day (for the most part) got me to thinking. What do I do for the most part? Talk. What do these guys do all morning? Talk. The gears were turning. So I figured, hey why not give it a shot right? So I looked up the info, shot off an email, and forgot about it. A couple weeks went by, and I got a response. All the info about training, when they would be having meetings etc. So I my mind was set.
A month or so later, school started, and the time came for the first meeting. I was pretty much on my way out the door when I saw Kevin. In what I could only assume was out of suspicion of some murderous plot against him, Kevin asked me what I was doing. As I told him, he nodded and said "OK, I'll go with you." I was awestruck. Someone else wants to do the radio? How did I not pick this up all last year? But as I soon learned Kevin was no novice when it came to radio.
Kevin's small town, where we just recently learned they do indeed have cable TV, (A shocker, I know,) also had it's own little radio station run by the high school. Kevin was a DJ there and pretty much had free reign. Their version of giveaways was giving away the class books that were property of the school. That right there's sticking it to the man. But eventually after getting a new antenna the FCC, who had previously ignored their small 1 mile radius station, started taking notice, and made them actually start doing things the "right" way. Lame.
So then Kevin went to college and forgot about it. But then I rekindled it! Whooo! So now we're training and having fun and all that good stuff. We've got our test to see if we get to be DJ's in two weeks I believe. You can wish us luck. If all goes we'll get a show next semester. We don't have a format, and we don't have any idea what genre we want to play, but we figure we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
In the meantime however, we've got access to the production studio and we got a chance to get in there two weeks ago and take it for a test run. So if you feel like wasting an hour and would like to hear me talk about nothing, instead of just reading me write about nothing, give it a download. And if you do please, please, please let me know what you think. Okay? Thanks.
Wow that was a pretty long post for me just to ask you to oblige me. Oh well. :D
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Boss of the Week: Dr. Tuck
So the other day in my Greek Mythology class, we were talking about Dionysus, drinking, alcohol, and how in the ancient world it was seen as some sort of divine force, and allowed one to transform into someone else. It was interesting, but then my teacher busted out this story:
Back in the 80's, he was out on a date with some girl (who in retrospect wasn't all that hot) and due to the fact he didn't have a car, he ended up being out on the date with this girl and his three friends. He talked about how they loved tequila, got drunk then went to Burger King, (some of you may know it as the B.K. Lounge,) and were standing in line when these three HUGE guys walked in. Not only were they ripped but they also were wearing Gold's Gym wife beaters to prove it. He then told us about his friend Guido, a small guy, with a big personality. Standing at the back of the line, our teacher and this girl were right in front of the three amigos, so Guido goes up to him and whispers loudly enough so that everyone can hear, "Hey, Tony, don't steroids make your nuts shrink?" Immediately our teacher tried to brush it off as he looked around nervously, but it was too late; One of the big boys had overheard.
He looked down at Guido, "Excuse me? What did you just say?"
Guido coyly responded, "I was just wondering if Steroids made your nuts shrink."
With a look of sheer anger, the Big guy asked if Guido would like to take this outside.
Guido obviously said yes, but then to take things further he said, "Tony, back me up."
Now with this on him, he looked at Guido, and then to the girl who obviously said, "Well, what're you going to do?" with that look that said you better get your ass out there. Begrudgingly he went out to the parking lot.
Shortly after, as he was laying on the sidewalk bleeding and bruised, he saw the girl get into the car with the three muscleheads and drive off.
Moral of the story: My Greek Mythology teacher is a Boss. As if being a walking encyclopedia on Greek Mythology, and sharing my views of making fun of those Jesus Lovers who walk around and hand out pamphlets all around campus wasn't enough, he's got hilarious stories like this one. I've probably learned the most in his class so far this year. Plus, it's one of those things where I actually like going to class. And so to you, Dr. Tuck, I award my first Boss of the Week award. Here's to you.
Back in the 80's, he was out on a date with some girl (who in retrospect wasn't all that hot) and due to the fact he didn't have a car, he ended up being out on the date with this girl and his three friends. He talked about how they loved tequila, got drunk then went to Burger King, (some of you may know it as the B.K. Lounge,) and were standing in line when these three HUGE guys walked in. Not only were they ripped but they also were wearing Gold's Gym wife beaters to prove it. He then told us about his friend Guido, a small guy, with a big personality. Standing at the back of the line, our teacher and this girl were right in front of the three amigos, so Guido goes up to him and whispers loudly enough so that everyone can hear, "Hey, Tony, don't steroids make your nuts shrink?" Immediately our teacher tried to brush it off as he looked around nervously, but it was too late; One of the big boys had overheard.
He looked down at Guido, "Excuse me? What did you just say?"
Guido coyly responded, "I was just wondering if Steroids made your nuts shrink."
With a look of sheer anger, the Big guy asked if Guido would like to take this outside.
Guido obviously said yes, but then to take things further he said, "Tony, back me up."
Now with this on him, he looked at Guido, and then to the girl who obviously said, "Well, what're you going to do?" with that look that said you better get your ass out there. Begrudgingly he went out to the parking lot.
Shortly after, as he was laying on the sidewalk bleeding and bruised, he saw the girl get into the car with the three muscleheads and drive off.
Moral of the story: My Greek Mythology teacher is a Boss. As if being a walking encyclopedia on Greek Mythology, and sharing my views of making fun of those Jesus Lovers who walk around and hand out pamphlets all around campus wasn't enough, he's got hilarious stories like this one. I've probably learned the most in his class so far this year. Plus, it's one of those things where I actually like going to class. And so to you, Dr. Tuck, I award my first Boss of the Week award. Here's to you.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Multi-Tasking: Friend or Foe?
I embark on this post, with neither a direction, nor a purpose. Except maybe to alleviate my boredom. As I sit here in class, my professor talking about something regarding Japanese internment camps, and constitutional law, I can not help but turn my attention away. Not because I don't feel as if this topic deserves my full attention, is unimportant, or the professor is unintelligent, but instead because that is what I do.
Now I wouldn't say I have ADD. In fact if I really get into the zone with something it is hard to pull me away. *coughvideogamesandcomicbookscough* I think instead what it is, is that I've almost become dependent on multi-tasking. A self-proclaimed multi-tasking master, more than once this summer, I sat in my room reading a book, watching SportsCenter, and talking to people online. Good times right? But now when I'm stuck in class, listening to my professor talk, I just can't do it. I have to do something else. More often than not I don't have my computer, so I just end up doodling all over my notebook. But with a computer in my hands, I've bounced back and forth between my Facebook, Twitter, and iGoogle about a million times, looking for something to keep me distracted. The only reason I've settled on writing a post is because from my teacher's perspective it probably looks like I'm taking notes very, very adamantly. The fact that I can look up and pretend to nod in agreement while I type does well to enhance this illusion.
But now, I ask for your feedback. As I would very much like some input on this topic. Is it a bad thing that I can't put my full attention on my teacher? Don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, hearing, thinking, but at the same time I've also got a part of my brain working on writing down this entire situation that I'm in. Is it bad that I can't feel my right foot, as it fell asleep a long time ago, and I felt like letting it take a nap? Do you do this same thing? What classes does this happen to you most in? Or can you just walk in to class and enter in to a trance-like state when the professor begins talking, and become some sort of note-taking machine? I'm bored, and I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this matter of utmost importance.
Starting.....Now!
Psych! Now!
Now I wouldn't say I have ADD. In fact if I really get into the zone with something it is hard to pull me away. *coughvideogamesandcomicbookscough* I think instead what it is, is that I've almost become dependent on multi-tasking. A self-proclaimed multi-tasking master, more than once this summer, I sat in my room reading a book, watching SportsCenter, and talking to people online. Good times right? But now when I'm stuck in class, listening to my professor talk, I just can't do it. I have to do something else. More often than not I don't have my computer, so I just end up doodling all over my notebook. But with a computer in my hands, I've bounced back and forth between my Facebook, Twitter, and iGoogle about a million times, looking for something to keep me distracted. The only reason I've settled on writing a post is because from my teacher's perspective it probably looks like I'm taking notes very, very adamantly. The fact that I can look up and pretend to nod in agreement while I type does well to enhance this illusion.
But now, I ask for your feedback. As I would very much like some input on this topic. Is it a bad thing that I can't put my full attention on my teacher? Don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, hearing, thinking, but at the same time I've also got a part of my brain working on writing down this entire situation that I'm in. Is it bad that I can't feel my right foot, as it fell asleep a long time ago, and I felt like letting it take a nap? Do you do this same thing? What classes does this happen to you most in? Or can you just walk in to class and enter in to a trance-like state when the professor begins talking, and become some sort of note-taking machine? I'm bored, and I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this matter of utmost importance.
Starting.....Now!
Psych! Now!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Food Toxicology: Everything you eat will kill you. Sorry.
So as I mentioned in my last post, one of the classes I am taking this semester is Food Science. Now this class is unique in that it is split up into three separate sections. I am not going to bother looking up the other two, but the first section is Food Toxicology.
Now, first things first, this professor literally looks like he's going to keel over at any second, if not that he should already have keeled over. While pacing and postulating back and forth across the lecture hall, pausing at points to change the transparency on the projector ( I don't think he knows what a computer is, but I do believe he fears it is but one of many signs of the upcoming apocalypse,) I consistently believe that there is no possible way he will be able to turn around an make it back to the projector before he falls to the ground dead. Yes he is that old. So as he tries to "teach" the class, I am constantly distracted by the thought that if he doesn't die of old age, he will die of some form of cancer, or one of the many "carcinogens" he is teaching us about.
That being said, from what I can grasp from this class so far, absolutely every food you've ever eaten, yes, even that super healthy protein shake you just had as part of that new diet you're trying, contains "carcinogens", or toxins that will give you cancer and you will die. Or at least that's what the Professor keeps saying. It's only under questioning, or as a brief side-statement, will he drop the fact that in fact these "carcinogens" are pretty much omnipresent in everything, but in fact require huge, almost nonsensical amounts, in order to actually give you the cancer he describes.
He also has talked previously about food adulteration, and how every food you've ever been eaten was most likely at one point in time tampered with by the company that produced it, in order to aid their money making agenda. He then mentioned briefly that this was mainly in the early 1900's and our food now is watched to make sure that it isn't tampered with. For the most part.
This man clearly strikes me as a cynic, and I believe it is this quality that has kept him out of the grave for so long. He has perhaps sworn off all food, and merely now drinks the blood of the purest unicorns in order to keep his flesh alive. But that is neither here nor there. The reason I am writing this post in particular is due to the grim scenario he displayed in class today.
Today's topic for the most part was teratogenesis, or birth defects. After showing a few slides, with some studies that I couldn't really copy down in detail (which I brought upon myself, due to not buying the course packet. Fight the power,) he then proceeded to show about 20 different pictures of rats and monkeys with birth defects. Really.... just..... great stuff.... I really, and I mean, really appreciated teratogenesis after I saw that one deformed rat fetus, that looked more like a chicken nugget, and reminded me of one of those chicken tenders I had for lunch today. Really, an eye opener.
It's probably just me, but I like to look at the upside of things. I am an optimist, and prefer to live in blissful ignorance or at least blissful ignoring things that I know I don't have any control of. So when this professor comes up and starts talking about carcinogens and teratogenesis and about how some carcinogens aren't actually carcinogens, but the second you have something else along with that carcinogen, you're basically going to be a walking tumor, I can't help but get annoyed. I don't want to hear about this. I just want to go grab a cheeseburger, maybe a double cheeseburger, no, probably a double cheeseburger, and go about my business. It's classes like this, and movies like Super Size Me that just annoy me. I mean, don't get me wrong, knowledge is power and all that, but I also believe that there are somethings that the general public is just better off not knowing.
For example, what happens to cows in processing factories is enough to turn any red blooded American steak eating male into a vegetarian. Best thing to do is to just turn a blind eye in my opinion. I mean sure, if someone really wants to know what exactly is in their Happy Meal, let 'em have it. They're asking. But for me? Just put it in the wrapper, put the wrapper in the bag, give me the bag, and let me eat it. I think now-a-days people put too much stock in knowing everything, and being healthy. Being fortunate by having good genes and a quick metabolism, I can pretty much eat whatever I want and be fine. I'm often referred to as the "skinny fat kid" by at least one of my friends. Bully for me, but I also believe in balance. You've got to work out, or at least go for a run if you're gonna eat fast food. It's that simple. And it really grinds my gears when someone comes along with yet another 400 page study detailing the horrific side effects that will come to dominate your daily life, by driving to your nearest burger joint and picking up some food on the go.
WE GET IT. FAST FOOD = BAD.
Everywhere I go someone is telling me, or has posted a nifty sign, about what constitutes a "good" diet. Bite me. If I want a burger, I'm gonna eat a god damn burger. And if I don't go for a run to make up for it, I'll accept the consequences. NOW SHUT UP. I can go on and on. But I fear I've already rambled too far from my original point, being that gross pictures of fetuses and telling you everything you eat is going to give you cancer, is a pretty dumb way to teach a class. Maybe soon I'll give you a rather long rant about how they don't give us full sized cheeseburgers at the Dining Commons anymore, and instead force little Sliders upon us. If you're lucky right?
Jim. Out.
Now, first things first, this professor literally looks like he's going to keel over at any second, if not that he should already have keeled over. While pacing and postulating back and forth across the lecture hall, pausing at points to change the transparency on the projector ( I don't think he knows what a computer is, but I do believe he fears it is but one of many signs of the upcoming apocalypse,) I consistently believe that there is no possible way he will be able to turn around an make it back to the projector before he falls to the ground dead. Yes he is that old. So as he tries to "teach" the class, I am constantly distracted by the thought that if he doesn't die of old age, he will die of some form of cancer, or one of the many "carcinogens" he is teaching us about.
That being said, from what I can grasp from this class so far, absolutely every food you've ever eaten, yes, even that super healthy protein shake you just had as part of that new diet you're trying, contains "carcinogens", or toxins that will give you cancer and you will die. Or at least that's what the Professor keeps saying. It's only under questioning, or as a brief side-statement, will he drop the fact that in fact these "carcinogens" are pretty much omnipresent in everything, but in fact require huge, almost nonsensical amounts, in order to actually give you the cancer he describes.
He also has talked previously about food adulteration, and how every food you've ever been eaten was most likely at one point in time tampered with by the company that produced it, in order to aid their money making agenda. He then mentioned briefly that this was mainly in the early 1900's and our food now is watched to make sure that it isn't tampered with. For the most part.
This man clearly strikes me as a cynic, and I believe it is this quality that has kept him out of the grave for so long. He has perhaps sworn off all food, and merely now drinks the blood of the purest unicorns in order to keep his flesh alive. But that is neither here nor there. The reason I am writing this post in particular is due to the grim scenario he displayed in class today.
Today's topic for the most part was teratogenesis, or birth defects. After showing a few slides, with some studies that I couldn't really copy down in detail (which I brought upon myself, due to not buying the course packet. Fight the power,) he then proceeded to show about 20 different pictures of rats and monkeys with birth defects. Really.... just..... great stuff.... I really, and I mean, really appreciated teratogenesis after I saw that one deformed rat fetus, that looked more like a chicken nugget, and reminded me of one of those chicken tenders I had for lunch today. Really, an eye opener.
It's probably just me, but I like to look at the upside of things. I am an optimist, and prefer to live in blissful ignorance or at least blissful ignoring things that I know I don't have any control of. So when this professor comes up and starts talking about carcinogens and teratogenesis and about how some carcinogens aren't actually carcinogens, but the second you have something else along with that carcinogen, you're basically going to be a walking tumor, I can't help but get annoyed. I don't want to hear about this. I just want to go grab a cheeseburger, maybe a double cheeseburger, no, probably a double cheeseburger, and go about my business. It's classes like this, and movies like Super Size Me that just annoy me. I mean, don't get me wrong, knowledge is power and all that, but I also believe that there are somethings that the general public is just better off not knowing.
For example, what happens to cows in processing factories is enough to turn any red blooded American steak eating male into a vegetarian. Best thing to do is to just turn a blind eye in my opinion. I mean sure, if someone really wants to know what exactly is in their Happy Meal, let 'em have it. They're asking. But for me? Just put it in the wrapper, put the wrapper in the bag, give me the bag, and let me eat it. I think now-a-days people put too much stock in knowing everything, and being healthy. Being fortunate by having good genes and a quick metabolism, I can pretty much eat whatever I want and be fine. I'm often referred to as the "skinny fat kid" by at least one of my friends. Bully for me, but I also believe in balance. You've got to work out, or at least go for a run if you're gonna eat fast food. It's that simple. And it really grinds my gears when someone comes along with yet another 400 page study detailing the horrific side effects that will come to dominate your daily life, by driving to your nearest burger joint and picking up some food on the go.
WE GET IT. FAST FOOD = BAD.
Everywhere I go someone is telling me, or has posted a nifty sign, about what constitutes a "good" diet. Bite me. If I want a burger, I'm gonna eat a god damn burger. And if I don't go for a run to make up for it, I'll accept the consequences. NOW SHUT UP. I can go on and on. But I fear I've already rambled too far from my original point, being that gross pictures of fetuses and telling you everything you eat is going to give you cancer, is a pretty dumb way to teach a class. Maybe soon I'll give you a rather long rant about how they don't give us full sized cheeseburgers at the Dining Commons anymore, and instead force little Sliders upon us. If you're lucky right?
Jim. Out.
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