I do hate January. I hate the short, cold gray days. I hate that everything is dead. It’s a stupid time of year. One of these years, I’m gonna say, fuck it and move somewhere that is warm and bright. Florida, Arizona, Somewhere.

I get depressed. I don’t want to, but it seems to be out of my control. I’m sure this has to do with the general deadness of everything. And the lack of sunlight. Every year, I struggle through it.

On the bright side. I have a new toy.

After two and a half years and 100 plus episodes of Shitty Blog Radio, it seemed like it was time for some better equipment. It took me a few hours to get it all working, but after a good test drive tonight, I think I’ve got it.

Of course, new mic or not, Shitty Blog Radio will still suck. You can increase the sound fidelity but it won’t fix the content. You can (of course) tune in Thursdays at 10 PM EST to decide for yourself.

Work has been a drag. Budget cuts and bullshit politics have ground my project to halt. I am beginning to wonder if I am working in the right place.

So, to amuse myself, I follow the Ravens hunt for head coach and watch as the Patriots march on to history. And the good news is… by the time they get there, this god forsaken month will be over.

We had two massive thunderstorms today. One around lunch time and the other was just a few minutes ago.

I love thunderstorms. All that power and fury shows up out of nowhere. It’s awesome.

With any luck, it will cool things down for this weekend.

Have you noticed the effort to blog daily? It won’t last. My streak will be broken by my backpacking trip tomorrow. Still, I’ll try to post on a very regular basis. Why? I don’t know. I don’t know where these compulsions ideas come from, I just try to run with them.

I should be preparing for SBR right now. Oh fucking well, it’s not like it’s a real radio show.

Okay. The show is over now, I guess I can finish this post. Like I was saying, the show isn’t very good. Listen for yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, there may be an tiny bit of profanity.

I really shouldn’t get so caffeinated during the show… It will be another sleepless night for me.

I’ll see you losers on Sunday.

My sinuses are still bothering me. I feel much better than I did the weekend of the blogathon, but I’m nowhere near %100. I can’t breathe. Which makes everything difficult. Especially the gym.

On the flipside, I’ve found a podcast that doesn’t suck. It’s called Podrunner and it’s an hour long mix of techo-ish music all set at a constant beat rate. It’s awesome for running or whatever.

I’ve been told that if I want Shitty Blog Radio to be successful, I have to promote it. It sounds like good advice, but I really suck at self promotion. It seems like bragging or something. Regardless, you should check out Shitty Blog Radio tomorrow night at 10 PM EST. It is the ‘Worst Show on the Internet’ or at least that’s what I’ve dubbed it. What is is mostly is some rage filled nonsense. Or something. Actually, it’s kind of hard to explain. You’d have to hear it.

Thanks to the magic of DVR I’ve seen 3 episode of Star Trek in the last 36 hours. I hadn’t watched good old original Star Trek in years. In my minds eye I had reduced it to not much more than Kirk… speaking in.. intervals that. Make. No. Sense. And paper mache sets, Red Shirted Ensigns and special two handed future punches. It, of course, has all those things, but in spite of that it’s pretty good show. It’s been fun to discover these episode all over again.

Right now I should be packing to go backpacking on Friday. I’m just throwing that out there.

… having a blog no one reads.

Okay, okay. A few people read the blog. Fewer yet listen to the radio show. Which begs the question, why bother?

I’m being serious here. Why should I even bother. I bet that the half dozen people who have sponsored me would donate the money, if I just asked.

Which makes me wonder what the point of being part of this whole thing is.

I’ll be adding a button to link to listen to this radio nonsense to the rest of my posts. I’m sure you’ll ignore it.

I guess I’m feeling sorry for myself, a bit, but it bugs me.

Also I don’t know what the fuck to write about right now.
It’s too early to be this lame.

Most of the readers that will cross this space today, don’t know me. (I’m not one of the popular kids.) So I guess maybe I should start by telling you a little about me.

I’m a 35 year old Network Engineer by trade. I’m into Sci Fi, Comic Books and music.

And I’m a bit grumpy. (Okay more than a bit, but I don’t want to scare any one off.)

Once again, I’m blogging for Freedom from Hunger in this blogathon. Sponsor me. It will make you feel good. On every post I’ll have a convenient button to make it easy sponsor me. IN addition, at the end of this thing, I will pledge 10% of the total amount of pledges that I have.

During the duration of the blogathon, I will be broadcasting on Mango Radio. Nothing special, just sharing the music that I’m listening to to keep me going. If you want to listen use one of these links: Winamp, WMP, RealPlayer Quicktime.

I guess that will do for now. There is no rush, we have all day and all night together.

An inaccurate and incomplete history of Mango Radio according to me.

I’m going to start my own Radio Station. It’s going to be great!

That was the announcement that Marc made. It’s been two years now, I guess. I don’t even know this guy. Just some dude on the Internet. He does start it. Mango Radio, he calls it. That’s his nickname, Mango. It’s a play on his last name. It’s long story. I’m beginning to learn this about Marc. It’s usually a long story.

The station is up. It plays music 24 hours a day. But that alone wouldn’t make it worth writing about.

“Hey man.” Marc IM’s me. “I’m live on the air. Come check it out.”

And I do. I listen as he talks about other people on the Internet. And his job. And growing up in Buffalo. It’s captivating. Listening to this dude just talk about shit. While I listen. Not just me. There is a couple from Ohio. And a chick from Vegas. And Karl.

“Hey Jeck. I’d like to dedicate this song to Finslippy.” He says. And he plays “Somebody Hates Me” by Reel Big Fish. I find myself laughing out loud. It’s funny. An inside joke. I love it.

But after a few months of this it gets stale. I mean, how many times can I tune in and listen to the same songs. Maybe he’s running out of stories. Hell, I could be watching TV. Okay, I couldn’t do that. But you get my point.

“I’m making Big Changes at Mango Radio.” Marc announces. “I’m bringing in other DJ’s to do their own shows. To mix it up.”

A good idea. He announces the DJs. Monogodo. Will Thrasher. Joe. Crash. And Webkittyn. Will Thrasher and WebKittyn have real radio experience and Monogodo has thousands of songs in his library. Crash is Karl in disguise and Joe… Well I don’t know. They will pre-record their shows and Marc will play them at pre-designated times.

“You can do a show if you want, Jeck.”
“No thanks.”

I mean… hell. I’m out classed here. But…

But I want to do a show. I know I can do it. But I don’t want to be laughed off the Internet. I read discussions on the Mango Radio Forum board. The DJ’s are having Technical trouble. Trouble Organizing their music just right. Trouble finding free time. Trouble making their shows just right.

The thought nags in my head. I can do this. But what to do for a show. I don’t know what the fuck to talk about.

An audio companion to the Shitty Blogs Club. That’s it. I recorded 30-some minutes of me babbling. I edited the worst of it out and threw in some music. I mixed it into an mp3 and sent it to Marc.

Ironically, it was the First show to get submitted. And the First to get played. I cringe as I hear my voice on the Internet. Marc says he loves it.

“I had no idea what to expect.” He keeps telling me.

Other Shows follow. Webkittyn Wednesdays, an 80’s music Show. Monogodo’s show. Will Thrasher. They all have some degree of popularity. Some more than others. Some lasted. Some did not. New names were added to the line up. Doom, Utopia, Riss, Chaos Radio. Some lasted. Some didn’t.

The ironic thing, to me, was that almost all of this shows had that same format, talk about this or that and play some music. Sure we each put own stamp on it, but it was variations on a theme.

The thing is Mango still wasn’t happy. He was hoping for the big time. Maybe even get picked up by XM or something. Oh, I’m sure that deep down he knew that was a pipe dream, but still he hoped.

He quit doing a show. And the station kept trucking with out him. He started his show again and nothing much changed.

But in the end, when it came time to renew the contract on the station and to renew the domains, he decided it wasn’t worth the money. And, of course he’s right.

So it’s over. As of Thursday.

But I think that someday, that format will catch on. That psuedo-audioblogging combined with music. I hope when it does, they call it Mango Radio.

In case you don’t know… I have been doing this dumbass ‘Internet Radio Show’ for the last year or so. The imaginary Internet Radio Station that it aired on is going off the ‘air.’ If you want more information go here.

I guess all of this has me thinking about the nature the Internet, as I know it, and the nature of blogging. Which has been an ongoing theme for me. Who knows, maybe I’ll write something about this soon.

The Family and I went on road trip to the Lehigh Gap in Pennsylvania. We climbed the mountain and I took a couple hundred pictures. Maybe someday, I’ll find the time to organize and do something with all of these pictures I keep taking.

I still like my truck. It isn’t very fuel efficient and I guess that makes me a bad person, but I don’t drive far on any given day and I’ll gladly pay more to drive the vehicle I want to drive.

On a related note, I passed an SUV with a bumper sticker that said “High Gas Prices Stink!” I hate them.

I think I will carve a few pumpkins this year. I’m not half bad at it. I was going to link to the photos of last year’s attempts. But it looks like they were lost when BlogCafe went down. I’m sure I have them on this computer somewhere, but… Anyhow. I’ll find ‘em and include them.

I had no idea I liked the Grateful Dead so much. I’ve recently got a bunch of Dead to listen to. I like it. I wish I would have realized that while Jerry Garcia was still alive.

I have a headache.

I used to think that maybe I could be a writer. I got over it.

I am still struggling to figure out how I am supposed to do all the things I want to to do, in the time that I have to do them.

I think that North Korea possessing Nuclear technology may be the single greatest threat to the stability of our world.

I am glad I discovered the Sleuth Channel. Miami Vice is better than anything that the networks are offering these days. Between that, M*A*S*H on Hallmark, and Star Trek on G4; I have all the TV I need.

And as they say on M*A*S*H…

That is all.

DJing on MAngo Radio…
Posting there too.

And of course I’m still here.

Rumor has it that I’ve offended at least a few people. (on the Internet Radio)
Good.

At least I’m getting a response.

Anything is better than silence.
But you guys know that.

Anyone who blogs knows about that.
Nothing is worse (in blogging) than posting something and getting…

nothing but tumbleweeds.

It hasn’t gotten any better.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about… be glad.

I didn’t realize how much I wanted to do this radio thing.
I can’t wait until Shutter leaves.

It can’t happen soon enough.

I’m wired!

I’ve lost my mind.
and to make it worse…

Shutter is egging me on.

If you want listen go here.
Join the rest of the losers in the chatroom.

It’s not much of a post… but at least it is more than one sentence.

For the next three hours, I am pulling triple duty.

I’ll be blogging here.
I’ll be Blogging there.
And I’ll be on the air.

Christ, that rhymes.

Feel free to check out the show.
But if you are easily offended, don’t bother.

I’m still not sure how I let myself get roped into this…

I’ll be on the air in 30 minutes.
Like you didn’t know that already.

Here’s the skinny:

Tune in to listen here.
Go to the chatroom here.
And see me post here as well as … here.

Of course with all of this build up… you are bound to be disappointed.

Oh well… you’ll find that life is full of little disappointments.

I’m reading the Chatroom over at Mango Radio.

This is a bad sign.
I hate chatrooms.

I’m also clock watching.
Another bad sign.

But I can’t help it.
Mostly I’m waiting to go on Mango Radio.
Then I can Yell and cuss and make an ass of myself.
It’s as good a way to pass the time as anything else I can think of.

I’ll give you the details of me on Mango Radio next half hour.

In the meantime I need to get some more coffee.

Did I mention that I’ve been doing the Internet Radio DJ thing for almost a year now?
I think I did.
You would that that after a year, I’d be pretty good at it, but you’d be wrong.
I think I might be the worst DJ on the station.
Hell, I could easily be the worst DJ on Internet Radio.

Do be sure to tune in.

I apologize in advance for the whole fiasco.

I really feel like I missed a post.

Or my numbers are off. Or something.

If so… ooops! If not, well … whatever.

I’ve been listening to Mango radio for hours. Not the Blogathon Radio but but the one that us DJ’s are doing to raise money for Autism Awareness. (Yes it is confusing as hell. But for today there are kind of 2 mango Radios… sometimes.)

So if you have a buck or two and it is burning a hole in your pocket. And you’re already pledged to sponsor my blog or you just don’t want to… go check out the Mango Radio Blogathon Blog or tune in and listen. Or Both.

I’ll be air on the air (on both feeds, I think) at 3 AM EDT. I promise to cuss and yell a lot, in between songs. I doubt anyone would want to hear that, but it’s just what I do. I’ll also be posting on that blog at the same time. In addition to posting here!

I didn’t plan to be double booked like that, but that is the way it turned out. So I’ll make the most of it.

Man this coffee is good. I just need to drink it nice and slow.

Niiiiice and sloooow.

I’ve been a ‘DJ’ on Mango Radio for almost a year.

I put DJ in quotes because being a DJ on Internet Radio is hardly a real DJ.
I do a show every week. On Thursdays.

You aren’t missing anything. It’s the Worst Show on Mango Radio. It really is.

I just ramble. And swear. And play Shitty Music.

I bring it up, only because I’m going to being my Mango Radio Shtick tonight. At 3 am EST time. I think

The whole thing has been very confusing for me. I believe that I will be also be posting there at the same time. That should suck.

Why would you volunteer to do that?

Um. I didn’t.

But it will be fine. I’ll get on the air and scream and cuss and rant. And type fluff posts on 2 blogs. Nice. I’m looking forward to it. No. I’m not.

DJ’ing has always been a pain. It’s a lot of work. It’s time consuming. And it’s barely worth it for the 4 or 5 listeners I get every week.

But I keep doing it. Why? I don’t know. But I guess it is the same reason I keep blogging.

Probably it’s just that I don’t have a life.

And I still didn’t get any goddammed lunch. I only had time to make my kid a sandwich. Maybe this time.

If Could write a post with out going on and on about whatever it is that I think I have to say, this would be easier.

Luckily, this post has no point.

I think I just got a pledge for 5 pounds.
British Pounds.

Thanks.

I have no idea how much money that is. But that’s ok. I could go look it up, but like I have time for that.

Ravens Camp is going on right now. I could be there. But I’m here blogging. Dammit. I’ll just have to skip work one day next week to head over there.

I’m curios to see Steve McNair in action. We haven’t had a real quarter back in Baltimore since the Colts were here.
I’d love to be very optimistic about the Ravens this year, but first of all that’s not me and secondly, the AFC North is going to be very tough this year.

Are you listening to Mango Radio?

We (the DJs) will be on the air all day.

You can hear us here. Or not.

I want some lunch. I’ll be back. Of course.

Yep, my wife left me.

Of course, she’ll be back Wednesday. I guess I better not let the place turn in to too much of a bachelor pad. She’s just off to visit a friend for a few days.

And its just us guys hanging out. Which isn’t too bad really.

It has left me busier than usual, so getting these new sites together has been a challenge. I will move all of my archives over here, sooner or later. In all likelihood, no one cares… but I do. So I’ll move them.

My podcast/radio show thingy won the popular vote for the BoB awards. Now the rest of it is up to the judges. I wonder what I get if I win. (I’m sure that it says somewhere on the site, but I’m too lazy go look it up.)

Given the way that the playoffs have been going, I could learn to hate football. I can’t believe the Steelers are going to the SuperBowl. There is only one thing that I can really say about it.

GO SEAHAWKS!!!!

Is it just me or are there a lot of bad podcasts out there?

Remember that you can hear my really bad podcast, LIVE, on Mango Radio Thursdays at 9 PM EST.

I won’t even bother you with how bad my week has been.

I think getting kicked out Blog Explosion might have been one of the high points.

For a lot of the week I was unable to update any of my blogs, due to some technical problems over at blogcafe.

If had been able to update, I might have insisted that you de-lurk. (Or maybe I wouldn’t have.)

My silly little podcast has made it as a finalist over at the Best of Blogs Awards. Go vote for it, you’ll have to scroll down the page a bit. (And do me a favor; listen to it before you vote. I’d rather gain listeners, than votes.)

At least I have a three day weekend to try to get myself together. And playoff football to drown my sorrows on.

I went backpacking again this weekend. I know I just went a week or two ago.  When I’m not so dead tired I’ll tell you about it.  

Right now, it’s the middle of the night.  And I’m still up.  Why? Well mostly because I’m dumb.  I do have the rest of the week off, so it’s cool.  The thing that has me up, however, is Mango Radio.  

I wanted to do a live Broadcast of Shitty Blog Radio for Thanksgiving.  But, on account of me being an uptight control freak, I had to make sure that I knew how I was gonna handle it.  So I went out for coffee with a buddy, he agreed to tune in and give me feedback.  So I’ve been playing classic rock and rambling.

It’s fun. I like this live thing.  I should have been a DJ.  Well, I guess I am.  Of course, no one is listening.  But that’s ok.  I may have to do this again… now that I know how.