At 28 stories, Watterson ranks as the tallest dorm in the United States, and is the tallest building between Chicago and St. Louis. Wow. So much confusion, and so much BS.
As you’ve probably heard, 2/17 brings an end to analog free over-the-air television. Stations will continue to offer free programming, but will now broadcast a digital signal. Something your old sets can’t see unless you either:
1. Subscribe to cable or satellite
2. Get a converter box.
Oops…the government ran out of money. They were running a program that would give you a $40 coupon towards the cost of those boxes, bringing the price down to around $10 for most.
Then Obama takes office and decides that television should be a right as an American citizen. He urged Congress to pass legislation that would push the switch back to June. Nevermind that for years television stations have been planning for 2/17 and have been educating consumers appropriately. Pushing it back would have done nothing but confuse the bejezus out of consumers.
The Senate passed it. The House voted it down.
Only 20 House Republicans voted for the bill. You think this was a partisan issue?
At least the government is going to fund more coupons. Gotta be able to watch that television!
Posted by kevin @ 4:24 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffPosted by kevin @ 10:12 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffThe rumors are true. People in Wisconsin really are nuts about beer. For a good reason, though. It’s all delicious.
Fish fry’s on Friday are popular in Illinois. However, you are almost required to attend them by law here.
It’s cold.
It snows a lot.
Ice fishing is HUGE. Drive by a frozen lake any given Saturday and observe a sea of tents.
DUI’s are OWI’s (Operating while intoxicated). Specifically to embrace anything you could be operating while intoxicated. Because the snowmobile paths don’t lead to the bars for nothing…
People are wicked friendly.
Many do carry accents. And it’s awesome. The letter “t” is officially replaced by “d” in most words.
I have more observations and updates to share at a later date.
Posted by kevin @ 11:53 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?Setting up utilities in the new place here in Madison.
Why do I go through endless phone menus only to be greeted with a customer service agent asking me why I’ve called today?
Isn’t that the reason for the phone menus…so they know what I’m going to ask?
Posted by kevin @ 10:48 am
Filed under: General
Comments OffOur offer was accepted today.
We should be able to move in next weekend.
Holla!
Posted by kevin @ 9:08 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?Quick side notes:
Salt and vinegar chips are awesome.
I remember last year it was not long after Thanksgiving the temperatures plunged below 40 degrees, it snowed or we had an ice storm every couple of days it seemed.
That seems to be the case already. It’s freakin’ cold. It is snowing a lot. Sheesh.
Alright, so to the topic at hand.
First, the new job is awesome. It’s a great company with some great people. It’s also without a doubt the best facility I have ever worked in. The engineers throughout the last few years since the building was built have literally thought of everything. Every last detail was accounted for and addressed.
That said, there definitely still a lot to do. I have a lot to learn here and I am very much up to the task.
I am getting a new phone tomorrow. More than likely a BlackBerry…and possibly a BlackBerry Storm if they are in stock. Those phones are sweeeeeeet. It will also be 608 area code. South Wisconsin representin!
Jess and I put down an offer on our first house today. It’s an awesome 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom place on the southwest side of Madison. It’s pretty close to where I work and has plenty of space for a home office for Jess.
Oh yeah, I can say it now. Jess is able to keep her job and work from home in Madison. How awesome is that?
Anyway, the house has a good sized yard, a brand new kitchen, a huge living room downstairs, and is pretty close to shopping and whatnot. It’s also at the end of a cul de sac so it’s very quiet.
Today after work I drove through the neighborhood again and it just so happened that two of the neighbors across the street were out shoveling their driveways. I stopped and talked to them for a minute and found out the neighborhood is full of good people.
If everything works out we’ll be able to move in next weekend and close at the end of the month.
How about that for a Christmas present?
So far the Extended Stay is alright. It is what it is: A hotel room with a small kitchen. But it’s comfortable and mostly quiet so not much to complain about.
Except that tonight someone did something to the in-house cable system and reset two of the channels to the Dish Network help channel. Oops…
Bennie is hilarious in the snow. Because of his short legs he feels compelled to literally hop through the snow, and he loves every minute of it. He also is able to track footprints much easier and stops to sniff more intensely.
So, yeah, things are going pretty good…
Posted by kevin @ 11:40 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?The big 3 automakers are in Washington as we speak pleading their case to Congress.
They want the government to give them loans and financial backing to continue operating in this tough economic time.
Except all the executives who flew to Washington flew private jets, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
oops…
Honestly I’m a little torn about this issue. As with the $700 billion bailout this could be something that’s awful, but sadly may be necessary.
In the free market system that America operates under, let’s face it, the big 3 automakers have lost. International manufacturers have figured out how to do it better.
However, the automotive industry has deep roots. They go out of business and theres a huge ripple. Auto supply shops lose. Dealerships lose. Media loses (my paycheck!).
Truth is, that’s a pretty unlikely scenario. They’ll declare bankruptcy and be forced to refinance. Some people will lose their jobs. They have to go back to the drawing board. Things will suck for a while, but eventually will improve.
Give me some more time with this one…
Posted by kevin @ 8:53 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffLONDON – At least someone is excited about “meh.”
The expression of indifference or boredom has gained a place in the Collins English Dictionary after generating a surprising amount of enthusiasm among lexicographers.
Publisher HarperCollins announced Monday the word had been chosen from terms suggested by the public for inclusion in the dictionary’s 30th anniversary edition, to be published next year.
The origins of “meh” are murky, but the term grew in popularity after being used in a 2001 episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer suggests a day trip to his children Bart and Lisa.
“They both just reply ‘meh’ and keep watching TV,” said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.
The dictionary defines “meh” as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include “the Canadian election was so meh.”
The dictionary’s compilers said the word originated in North America, spread through the Internet and was now entering British spoken English.
“This is a new interjection from the U.S. that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here,” McKeown said. “Internet forums and e-mail are playing a big part in formalizing the spellings of vocal interjections like these. A couple of other examples would be ‘hmm’ and ‘heh.’
“Meh” was selected by Collins after it asked people to submit words they use in conversation that are not in the dictionary. Other suggestions included jargonaut, a fan of jargon; frenemy, an enemy disguised as a friend; and huggles, a hybrid of hugs and snuggles.
Posted by kevin @ 9:21 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffThe move is in progress. We’ve started packing, getting things cleaned and sorted, and ready to move. We’ve got our apartment until December 15th. While my new job starts December 1st, Jess will stay here two more weeks. It will be the extended stay hotel life for me hopefully for only a few weeks while we get a place and get moved in up there.
Speaking of Jess, she’s got some pretty exciting news on the job front. I don’t think I can publicly say what it is yet, but most of you know and if you don’t you’ll know soon…
We’re going up this weekend to look at houses. Ah, yes, that big leap young people take in becoming homeowners. We’re definitely done with living in apartments. No more elephants upstairs. No more curry. It will be glorious.
One great thing about moving to Wisconsin / interesting twist of fate: I have grown a strong disliking of light beer. Talk about watered down! I now find myself drinking more Ambers and Ales. I can’t wait to try the wide selection of micro-brews in Madison.
My Illinois friends: I’ll be accepting orders in December for Spotted Cow deliveries when I come to visit…
24 returnsish Sunday. After what ended up being a crappy season in season 6, I have mixed emotions for Sunday. I really, really hope it doesn’t suck. They’ve had a changing of the guard of sorts in the creative staff behind the show and have promised to re-tool it. I hope it works.
I am getting a cold. Blech
One of my last doings at GLT is I am helping install our “Big Pipe” This is a device that will link our audio from the studio to our transmitter site. It is being connected at the top of Watterson Hall on ISU’s campus. Not familiar with Watterson Hall? At 28 stories, Watterson ranks as the tallest dorm in the United States, and is the tallest building between Chicago and St. Louis.
Yep, we’re working at the very tippy top on the roof. To say it’s awesome up there is an understatement.
And don’t worry, it’s safe up there.
Really.
Google introduced video on their chat software. It. Is. AWESOME. Lindsay introduced me to it today. The quality is pretty good. I’m going to plug the camera in when I get home and try it out.
That is all.
Posted by kevin @ 4:57 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffWhile I always am surprised to who reads this blog, I’m pretty sure that by now most of you know:
Earlier this week I accepted an awesome job in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s back into commercial radio, but with a good company and a beautiful facility.
Everybody I talks to mentions how beautiful the city is and even my boss commented when I told him I was leaving “I would kill to live in Madison.”
In the couple of times I’ve now been in the city, I’ve definitely noticed a very progressive mindset. The road leading up to the station has a bike lane, as does many major roads through town. That’s on top of numerous bike paths that criss-cross the town. On top of that is a shower just outside of where my office will be, and that means Kevin is riding his bike to work everyday!
This is a BIG step up for my career. It wasn’t long ago that I decided to pursue engineering full-time. While I accomplished and learned a lot during my time at WGLT, I wasn’t doing everything I wanted to do. Now I’ll be taking care of 8 stations in a state of the art facility, a much bigger market, and have a good budget to work with.
Have I mentioned that Jess is the best? She will be giving up her job here in Bloomington to move with me. She has been more than supportive in this decision and is every bit as excited as I am to make this move. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
(This is the part where I mention she’s originally from Wisconsin, and has some family not far from Madison)
To say leaving my current job and Bloomington/Normal was a tough decision is an understatement. It literally took me a week from the time I got the job offer to accept it. I kept weighing the options in my head and for every reason I had to take the job I’d come up with one to not. I burned holes in the floor from all the pacing. It came down to just trusting my gut and taking a leap of faith.
Jess and I have made this community our home. We met here, got married, and shared our first year together as husband and wife. We have friends that have become like family to us. We’re extremely sad to have to leave them, but look forward to meeting new people up north.
Do you know how long it’s going to take to find another Schooners?
Most of you know my disdain for winter. I’ve been thinking if I make any move, I want to try and move further south.
So why am I moving three hours in the wrong direction??!!
I guess I just have to go where the opportunity takes me 
Right now we’re planning on being up there in early December. We’re taking the next couple of weekends to find a place to live up there. In the meantime try and pack! Thankfully we have a lot of stuff that’s still packed from the last time we moved.
So there that is.
Posted by kevin @ 3:30 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?I spent the evening helping the GLT Newsroom with the election returns.
By 8pm it was over when Pennsylvania and Ohio were declared for Obama.
As I said a few weeks ago, Obama would win.
He was smart. Marketed himself right. Spoke well. Looked good. He was the calm, collected one against the angry old man. People listened to what he said because he told them what they wanted to hear. He empowered them. He made them feel good.
So while I’m disappointed how the night went, I am not surprised.
I am, however, elated at the voter turnout. On ISU’s campus last night when I was leaving there were groups of kids running around screaming and celebrating the Obama victory.
That is what I’m talking about. I couldn’t be happier that countless college students turned out to vote. To make their voices heard. Over 100 million Americans did the same.
We also, for the first time in history, elected an African American as our next President in an overwhelming majority vote. This couldn’t be a better example of how far we’ve come: just 50 years ago the only opportunity he would have had in the White House would have been working in the kitchen.
Whether or not he’ll make a good President and live up to his claims, only time will tell.
Posted by kevin @ 9:22 am
Filed under: General
comments ?I’ve been selling a lot of stuff lately on eBay. I’m trying to get rid of a lot of stuff.
I put an item up for auction. In under a day, I have 6 watchers.
The Buy It Now price is $5.
Really?
Are you trying that hard to find a bargain?
Posted by kevin @ 7:28 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffIt’s kind of weird that I would sit here and complain that it’s 73 outside. However, inside it’s like 90 or so. Silly building.
Big week this week. Get out the vote, eh?
An article I found online. Seems anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Ya think?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/03/166229&from=rss
Posted by kevin @ 1:19 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffGot a new look. The old one didn’t support widgets.
New to the right below the Twitter feed is a feed from Google Reader. This will highlight some articles and blogs I’ve found.
Also a more expansive blog archive list.
Only thing I haven’t figured out yet is what happened to the login link. I’m working on that. It’s supposed to be there!
Posted by kevin @ 7:49 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?Found a great blog with more videos, making a case against Barack Obama
Posted by kevin @ 2:47 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffAbout a month ago, I made my decision for President.
This past week has only reaffirmed my decision. Why?
Joe The Plumber
Yep, that guy.
Here’s the deal. A guy who is literally Joe nobody in BFE Ohio asks the man who most likely will be the next leader of the United States a legitimate question. Obama answered it the best he could…and apparently answered it a little too honestly with a reference to “Spread the wealth around”
That sounds kinda familiar. Where have I heard a statement like that before…
Robin Hood? Well, yeah…
Oh, that’s right. It’s another phrase for Socialism!
Rather than focus on Obama’s words, the media and Obama’s camp have done an outstanding job of destroying Joe the Plumber. They have analyzed his life, by pulling out revelations that he is unlicensed, doesn’t plan on buying the business, skipped paying taxes. Joe Biden went on NBC saying “I don’t know any Joe Plumber’s in my neighborhood making $250,000 a year.”
What everyone has done is more or less said that Joe had no right to ask that question. They are focusing on demeaning Joe and not focusing on what the point of his question was. It wasn’t whether or not Joe has or will make $250,000 a year as a plumber. The point was that he has a dream to own a plumbing business and become successful. Obama’s plan will tax him further once he earns more money to “Spread the wealth around” in Obama’s exact words.
Barack Obama became a U.S. Senator in a landslide election in 2004. I voted for him. Why? He was running against Alan Keyes. Alan was an out-of-state Republican brought in because the party had nobody else who wanted to run. Alan was downright crazy. His ideas and beliefs were just off-the-map ridiculous. I’m pretty sure had Obama run against anybody else, he most likely would have lost like he did in the race for a seat in the U.S. House a few years prior.
During Obama’s time as an Illinois Senator, he voted almost 1/3 of the time as “present.” Mostly on the hottest and controversial of bills. Voting “present” is a long political trick to avoid controversy.
Obama promises to bring change to and to clean up Washington.
Except he comes from, and has ties to, arguably one of the most corrupt state governments in the United States. Remember Tony Rezko? He was convicted back in May of this year for wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, and attempted extortion as a result of a federal investigation known as “Operation Board Games.” He succeeded in getting many business associates into state government jobs when Gov Blagojevich was elected in 2002. Rezko’s ties to Obama involve financing his campaign for US Senate and Real Estate deals that did great favors for Obama as recently as 2 years ago.
Obama’s friends also kinda scare me. You’ve got Revered Wright, Pastor of Obama’s former church, who Obama only condemned and disassociated with after pressure from the media, despite referring to Wright “as family.”
Then there is William Ayers, a former radical and leader of a group who bombed the Pentagon. Yes, Obama was a child when that happened. Fast forward 30 years when Obama was an adult, Ayers was stating that “They didn’t do enough” and didn’t rule out the possibility for more bombings.
Obama’s camp to this day claims they have few ties between them and don’t associate anymore. That may be true, but you’ve had a past with the guy…and that’s enough.
There are the reasons I am terrified of the guy and don’t buy his idea of “Change” for Washington. He comes from a corrupt state government, a strong political machine in Chicago, and has done nothing to change anything in either. We’ll become a more socialist state and all of us will end up paying way higher taxes because of it.
I also disagree with his stand on the war. If you put an end date on the war, you will have chaos. Insurgents and terrorists will hang out until the US leaves and then take over. You have to stay in it to win…and we’re slowly doing that with the troop surge. The Iraq war needed to happen: not for oil, not for securing political interests, but because sooner or later that area will fall apart and become WWIII. Best to get ready now…
For the record, I am getting really sick of all this discussion about who is qualified for President. Fact is, there is no real job description for the job. The only qualifications for the office are that you have to be a natural born citizen and 35 years old. That’s pretty much it.
When it comes down to it, you have to look at what they have stood for, who they have worked with, and what they have accomplished in their career.
I look at Obama and see someone with questionable ties that has accomplished very little in his career thus far. McCain at least has a history of accomplishments, even if some were not popular, but he’s at least taken a side and stuck by it.
I’m not saying McCain’s a saint. Palin has her flaws too. Fact is everybody in this election sucks…just like in 2004.
This is the first time I have ever voted Republican.
I never liked Bush and I never voted for him. For the record, it’s easy to say everything is Bush’s fault, but let’s not forget for the last 2 years the Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress.
I’m not alone in feeling like I have to choose between two crappy people. I could say “Vote for Third Party…” but that’s a pipe dream.
If I have to choose: I choose McCain.
Sadly, though, Obama will win. Enough people have heard Obama tell them exactly what they want to hear. We’ll see how that all plays out.
See you at the polls November 4th.
Posted by kevin @ 1:40 pm
Filed under: General
Comments OffJess and I stopped by Schnuck’s last week (local grocery store).
On a table outside of the pharmacy was this sign:
Posted by kevin @ 1:54 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?Waking up early on the weekends is the bees knees, man. I was up at 6 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Since then, Bennie and I took a long walk, Jess and I went out to breakfast, Jess went to the doctor, I got the grocery shopping done, and am working on reformatting a hard drive here at home.
…and it’s only noon.
Posted by kevin @ 12:23 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?I think I am going to try and update Twitter. The stuff looks kinda cool.
Anyway, updates can now be found to the right of this post 
Posted by kevin @ 4:07 pm
Filed under: General
Comments Off13 years to the day OJ Simpsons was acquitted in his infamous murder trial, OJ was found guilty on 12 counts following an incident two years ago in Las Vegas.
There’s a pretty good possibility OJ will spend the rest of his life in the big house. Kind of a nonchalant ending, right? I mean, come on, OJ has been a criminal since he committed the murders years ago. Only reason he got out of it is because he had the Michael Phelps equivalent of a legal team. He then writes a book with the hypothetical statement “IF I did it…and I stress IF here’s how it would have gone down.”
OJ, you were a great athlete in college. Your part in Naked Gun 33 1/3 was classic. Enjoy your stay in the clink. You’ve earned it.
Posted by kevin @ 2:07 pm
Filed under: General
comments ?