(no subject)

[toddini]

Sheesh, I really wanna update, there's stuff I feel I'd like to get off my chest but it's hard to find the time. Haven't even been to Livejournal for a few days. Gonna hafta see how far I dare go back before I realize I am delving too far into the past and I have more important things to do, hee hee.

Anyway, in no particular order, some shit goin' on right now:

• Baseball is back. Yay. Go BLUE! Don't know how the Dodgers will do this year, but they beat the Giants last night, put a royal hurtin' on them and that always improves my mood immensely. Nothin' like a 10-4 win over the Giants in SBC Park (whatever it's called, up there in SF) to improve a Dodger fan's mood. I might go to a minor league game on Friday. That'll be good. Fun watchin' kids really trying to make their mark. Not to mention it's cheaper than going to big league parks and there are no bad seats at a minor league game.


• I'm kinda pissed about Arrow FM going off the air. It's a big classic rock station here in LA. Dunno how long it's been operating as such, maybe only 10 years or something, as I can't remember listening to it when I went to college. I can only remember KLOS from back then (they were celebrating their 25th anniversary back then, now they're past their 35th anniversary, aiieeee, I'm feelin' old) and KLSX (RIP) which we never got all that clearly out here. Anyway, Arrow has been taken over by something called Jack FM whose credo is "We play what we want". Well, that's all fine and well but it's very irritating when a radio station is just uprooted from right beneath your nose. (Hmm...mixing metaphors there; for the record, there are no (other) radio stations growing beneath my nose) The other rock station in LA has taken to playing their new tagline "We Play What We Want" by someone in a very questioning tone and then playing a clip like Madonna's "Holiday" (a song that I actually kinda like, hee hee) and then saying we play what you want.....anyway, I just did a search and yes, Arrow had been playing classic rock for about 11 years. And I must admit, I'm not so limited in my musical tastes that there aren't other stations out there that I don't like, still, the suddenness of it is strange. I was driving to Riverside, about 35 min. or so away, I guess for class and was thinking, hmmm...maybe they're doing what the alternative station out here, X103.9 did when they came on the air back in the "early days of alternative" (cough cough 1995 cough cough) (yes, I'm dating myself). But I remember when they were auditioning DJs, for, well it seemed like the first couple of months, but maybe it was more like the first few weeks and it was nicne. No annoying DJ chit-chat. Just music. And that was nice. Just music. None of us seemed to know what was going on (Well, on second thoughts, it was probably me and I was so clueless that I thought everyone thought the same thing) and just enjoyed the music. Maybe we thought that's all it would be. And then one day, a DJ, wow. So yeah, they were just auditioning DJs. I guess that's not what Jack FM does. They basically don't have DJs. And they really do play a lot of cool stuff I guess, they really do play a wide variety of music, but I do miss hearing Led Zeppelin every 14 minutes and all the bad cheesy '70s bands like Styx and Boston and Bad Company and Yes who seem to be on every other song it seems. Well, not that much, but you know. Obviously some music mogul is getting rich by not having to pay DJs or the expenses of a studio or anything. Google JACK FM and you'll find there are tons of stations in the US. So obviously someone's making money hand over fist on this one. Now I get to pick my multimedia conglomerate. Who do I prefer? (Clearchannel (?) owned JACK or MOUSEHOUSE owned KLOS). Pick your poison. Oh well. I think I should probably listen to KPFK a bit more. They've got the right idea by and large.


• I promised pictures and pictures you shall have. Here is my little nephew, Jonathan, in the first one being held by proud auntie joelle96 and with the most pointed emotional reaction a 23 day old human can have, and in the second, an adorable shot of the little guy over his mommy's shoulder.
  
  
  
  
  
  I've got tons more. Maybe I'll post a few more, but don't want to drown you in baby pix of someone you don't even know at all. But if ya want more, I got way cuter ones :D Those are all with the camera phone and I finally got my regular ones thru the scanner today. Now just to get them onto my computer and uploaded. Yeesh.


• I became what seems like the last person in the civilized world to get a DVD player. I guess I'm not, I saw some bum at the freeway entrance without one today, but I think he just needed a few more cents to get one. Anyway, nah, the last few years I've been sort of hand-to-mouth so it's really nice to be able to get a few more things that you.....well, want. Anyway, gotta get that set up which will be fun. And my entertainment center, the glass broke on it, actually the day I bought it (second hand). I can't even remember exactly how I did it, but suffice it to say, it involved a hammer and glass and I thought something had to be hammered in better or something had to be tighter and so I tapped on the glass and all I remember is: damn, what are you thinking...as the glass shattered into many piece. So word to the wise: do not employ a hammer near glass in any way shape or form. Replacing the glass on the entertainment center has been way down on my list of priorities coz quite frankly, it's much easier to store stuff when you don't have to open the entertainment center door, and it's just obviously not a high priority.....but I need to get it fixed. And I'm sure glad to have a DVD player too. I have a laptop that plays them, but I've been wanting to get a real one for a long time now. I still have this old receiver that a good friend of some of my friends know, DB, gave me too, so I'll hook it up as well when I get some new speakers soon also. I was pretty impressed by his receiver-it really turned out the sound, so I'm quite hopeful about this one.


• School seems real good. I'm taking a couple undergrad classes and it's amazing, after reading some really involved books like The Black Atlantic and The Content of the Form, reading through these survey books is like the New York Yankees going from playing the Red Sox to playing the minor league team I'll see on Friday. So I'm trying to do a lot more work actually so that I can finally get rid, or at least cut seriously into, a credit card bill. Y'all know what I'm talkin' about. Well, hopefully not, but probably. Anyway, yeah, that's something I'm hopeful about doing. Also thinking about possibly getting a job teaching this summer at an English language school in Korea. Not sure if will do this, but certainly thinking about it. Anyway, we'll see on that, but I really don't wanna be doing the temp work I've been doing to scrape by the last couple summers. Too hot out in an Inland Empire summer and...well, anyway, we'll see 'bout that. Still the possibility of being financially solvent this summer is nice. Hopefully gonna go out to Chicago and meet this girl I've been chatting with for a while too, maybe in May. She spent Spring Break in Paris and the Euro is still killing the dollar. I found this out seriously last summer-indeed had to cut my vacation short in part coz of it. Still, she had a great time...makes me really wanna go to. Any of ya been there? Thoughts, recommendations?


• Hmm, what else. Oh yeah, been reading Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass for this class I'm taking. I've read the book before but it's one of those books you just can't read enough. I doubt there is a more gripping account of a man's experiences as a slave and his journey to freedom. Douglass learned to read when he was sold to a man named Mr. Auld. His wife was not experienced in treating slaves as they had not had one before and so she taught young Frederick his ABCs and some more literacy before her husband realized what she was doing and explained that if he was to remain servile (he was about 10 at the time) he had to be ignorant. Anyway, the seed has been planted and Frederick was very enterprising. Anyway, this is just a book everyone should read. His confrontation with Mr. Covey is absolutely heart-stopping stuff. And the cruelty on the plantation and in some of the homes where he lives is...well, unspeakable. Anyway, not a long book, in my edition only 120 pages and the first time I read it was on a bus from Mexico City down to southern Mexico a couple years ago to see the same friend, DB a while back. I read it in a few hours and I don't think you can put it down if you start reading. He's very thoughtful and decent and it's just one of those stories where there's at least to the degree that he is freed and helps others gain their freedom and then makes a decent life for himself, a nice conclusion. And this second time reading it, it's been even more powerful. I may just read it again in a couple months coz it's such an amazing book. Highly recommended.

Can't think of much more than that and it's well past my bedtime. No work this week, spring break for the little gits (just kidding, well....yeah, kidding....pretty much, cough cough) so it'll be the only week I can afford to really be lax with when I get to bed. Anyway...3:30 is too late for me these days regardless!!! Night!