Tomorrow is February 17, the day that has been advertised (for forever) as the day that the switchover from analog to digital for TV signals. For the last several months (I would say 3 or more) there were constant reminders to be prepared for the switchover.
Get a converter box or buy new digital TV or get cable or satellite service to avoid this interruption in your TV service. The reminders increased in frequency as the days have gotten closer to February 17 then Congress decided they were going to move the transition back to sometime in June. “People aren’t ready and it is not fair to them.” For all of the people who didn’t prepare I imagine that they will now relax thinking they have plenty of time and then will run into the same problem as they had now. I sure hope that Congress doesn’t decide to extend it again.
Now I have to listen to change messages on all of the channels all over again, right? Wrong! Apparently there are some stations that are going to turn off their analog signal after all. So now I am hoping that they don’t have to advertise about the switchover.
To me I can’t wait until this whole thing is over, at least after that they won’t be selling analog sets anymore and after a little bit (about a year) the prices on most of this stuff should come down.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Gotta SING, gotta DAN… well… Gotta SING
Work this past week seemed to have taken forever to get through. It seems like there were a lot of distractions that took up way more time than they really should have.
Thursday and Friday were a couple of bad days for Karma at work. She feels like they are picking on her and from the way she was telling me about it would seem that they are.
Tuesday night I went out the Backyard Bar to compete to advance in this week karaoke competition. This was the last weekly contest that they were having where the winner gets $100. Indi and Malinda were going to go out on Tuesday night as well but cancelled due to the storms that were going through the area. I qualified that night with 3 others. Indi and Malinda went out the next night and competed but did not advance (it is done by crowd response and there were a bunch of people there that only cheered for 1 guy who was bad).
I told people about the competition and was hoping that I could get a good crowd out on Friday night for me. There were quite a few that showed up to cheer me on (and I really appreciate it). I almost didn’t want to go due to Karma’s mood but I knew there were going to be people that wouldn’t be too happy that I didn’t go.
The bar owner told me that 10 people qualified for the contest throughout the week however there were only 3 of those that showed up (me included). He wanted more people to compete so he through open a competition for that night. There were 11 people that competed that night and only 2 people would make it to the finals. Indi and Malinda both got up and sang. Indi was able to advance.
So there were 5 people that were competing for the $100 prize, Stev (bar owner) was saying that he figured it would come down to me and Indi. Indi started joking around and asked if we could just split the prize. Indi did a really good job and some pretty good applause. I sang last and sang Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. I got a really great crowd reaction. Even though Indi was joking about the prize money I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to split it (Indi is a really great singer and people always hate to follow us in singing karaoke).
Stev announced me as the winner. After he made the announcement I asked to speak and then told everyone in the bar that I was splitting the prize money with Indi (I figure $50 on the other side of the planet will go further than it will here). The way I looked at it, I was still walking away a winner and $50 is more than I have ever won in a karaoke contest before. Stev gave me the money to where I could give Indi her $50 before she left. I felt pretty good about it.
In a previous post I talked about going and trying out for a band out of Claremore. Billy called me on Wednesday and asked me if I would be their lead singer. I am pretty happy about it. I told some people at work and they don’t quite know what to think of that. Being in a band that doesn’t really plan to go out and play much (anytime soon or possibly ever), doesn’t make much since to them. I just want to have a place to go and hang, have some fun and sing. Karma understands. I know that if later on down the line that I want more than they are willing to give then we would all be able to part ways with no hard feelings. It is like Billy was saying, “All the fun part of being in a band without the hassles.”. Right now I don’t really have any time to devote to a band that would be gigging, it wouldn’t be fair to me or that band so I am happy being in front of live music again.
My folks made it over yesterday to visit some on their way to Tunica MS. The only bad part was that Saturday was Valentine’s Day and Karma already had plans for us. It was nice to visit with them but we didn’t have a lot of time before we had to get ready to get ready for our plans.
We went to a restaurant called the Green Onion. I hadn’t heard of it before but Karma had gotten a $30 gift card for them from work at Christmas. It was a pretty nice place. I decided to order the jumbo fried shrimp, Karma ordered the rack of lamb that was one of the specials they were having that evening. The shrimp was $20 and I only got 4 (with a baked potato, salad and glazed baby carrots) and Karma’s meal was $35 (OUCH!!!!). The food was good but this is not a place that we will go back to anytime soon (perhaps if I made a LOT more money). I guess I am just too much of a bargain hunter for food and not as much into that swanky stuff.
After that we went out to the comedy club and got to watch a couple of really good comedians. I don’t remember the name of the MC but he really needed to work on his timing, he had some good material but it would have been a lot better with the right timing. The first comedian toured with Ron White for 2 years and it showed that he was really good. The last guy’s name was Jason Russell and he was fantastic. The only thing that I didn’t like about him was he would go from really quiet to screaming in the mic at the drop of a hat. Toward the end of his set he was looking for a guy with long hair to do a hair stylist bit. Karma was raising my hand. I had my hair pulled back so he really couldn’t see it and asked the guy at the next table it I had long hair to which that guy replied, “YEAH”. Karma pulled my hair off to the side and he responded, “Whoa, I think that is too long”. It was a really good night overall..
Well, I had better wrap this up. Got to get some sleep, the morning will be here before I know it.
Later peeps….
Thursday and Friday were a couple of bad days for Karma at work. She feels like they are picking on her and from the way she was telling me about it would seem that they are.
Tuesday night I went out the Backyard Bar to compete to advance in this week karaoke competition. This was the last weekly contest that they were having where the winner gets $100. Indi and Malinda were going to go out on Tuesday night as well but cancelled due to the storms that were going through the area. I qualified that night with 3 others. Indi and Malinda went out the next night and competed but did not advance (it is done by crowd response and there were a bunch of people there that only cheered for 1 guy who was bad).
I told people about the competition and was hoping that I could get a good crowd out on Friday night for me. There were quite a few that showed up to cheer me on (and I really appreciate it). I almost didn’t want to go due to Karma’s mood but I knew there were going to be people that wouldn’t be too happy that I didn’t go.
The bar owner told me that 10 people qualified for the contest throughout the week however there were only 3 of those that showed up (me included). He wanted more people to compete so he through open a competition for that night. There were 11 people that competed that night and only 2 people would make it to the finals. Indi and Malinda both got up and sang. Indi was able to advance.
So there were 5 people that were competing for the $100 prize, Stev (bar owner) was saying that he figured it would come down to me and Indi. Indi started joking around and asked if we could just split the prize. Indi did a really good job and some pretty good applause. I sang last and sang Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. I got a really great crowd reaction. Even though Indi was joking about the prize money I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to split it (Indi is a really great singer and people always hate to follow us in singing karaoke).
Stev announced me as the winner. After he made the announcement I asked to speak and then told everyone in the bar that I was splitting the prize money with Indi (I figure $50 on the other side of the planet will go further than it will here). The way I looked at it, I was still walking away a winner and $50 is more than I have ever won in a karaoke contest before. Stev gave me the money to where I could give Indi her $50 before she left. I felt pretty good about it.
In a previous post I talked about going and trying out for a band out of Claremore. Billy called me on Wednesday and asked me if I would be their lead singer. I am pretty happy about it. I told some people at work and they don’t quite know what to think of that. Being in a band that doesn’t really plan to go out and play much (anytime soon or possibly ever), doesn’t make much since to them. I just want to have a place to go and hang, have some fun and sing. Karma understands. I know that if later on down the line that I want more than they are willing to give then we would all be able to part ways with no hard feelings. It is like Billy was saying, “All the fun part of being in a band without the hassles.”. Right now I don’t really have any time to devote to a band that would be gigging, it wouldn’t be fair to me or that band so I am happy being in front of live music again.
My folks made it over yesterday to visit some on their way to Tunica MS. The only bad part was that Saturday was Valentine’s Day and Karma already had plans for us. It was nice to visit with them but we didn’t have a lot of time before we had to get ready to get ready for our plans.
We went to a restaurant called the Green Onion. I hadn’t heard of it before but Karma had gotten a $30 gift card for them from work at Christmas. It was a pretty nice place. I decided to order the jumbo fried shrimp, Karma ordered the rack of lamb that was one of the specials they were having that evening. The shrimp was $20 and I only got 4 (with a baked potato, salad and glazed baby carrots) and Karma’s meal was $35 (OUCH!!!!). The food was good but this is not a place that we will go back to anytime soon (perhaps if I made a LOT more money). I guess I am just too much of a bargain hunter for food and not as much into that swanky stuff.
After that we went out to the comedy club and got to watch a couple of really good comedians. I don’t remember the name of the MC but he really needed to work on his timing, he had some good material but it would have been a lot better with the right timing. The first comedian toured with Ron White for 2 years and it showed that he was really good. The last guy’s name was Jason Russell and he was fantastic. The only thing that I didn’t like about him was he would go from really quiet to screaming in the mic at the drop of a hat. Toward the end of his set he was looking for a guy with long hair to do a hair stylist bit. Karma was raising my hand. I had my hair pulled back so he really couldn’t see it and asked the guy at the next table it I had long hair to which that guy replied, “YEAH”. Karma pulled my hair off to the side and he responded, “Whoa, I think that is too long”. It was a really good night overall..
Well, I had better wrap this up. Got to get some sleep, the morning will be here before I know it.
Later peeps….
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Time to post
Well, looking at my blog page I see that I that I haven’t posted anything in quite some time.
Things have been super busy at work. I am moving over to Indi’s position, over the next couple of month’s I will be learning from her. I have been trying to learn how to do her job (poorly thus far), doing my job (to it’s usual level) and then also teaching how to do my job to 2 others. My head has been reeling.
I think that the 2 others are ready to take over my position for the most part. I have told them that they are on their own for the most part. I think they understand that I have to step away to learn my new position. I think I have trained them about as well as they can be trained for this position. The rest is up to them.
With all this stuff going on I have been putting in more hours (at home, at least) and getting a little bit of burn out. I am sure that this all will pass.
A couple of weeks ago I replied to an ad that was placed in Craigslist looking for lead singer of a rock band. They don’t want someone who is wanting to gigs or make tons of money just hang and sing and have some fun. I went and tried out for them on Saturday night. I had quite a bit of fun. It was fun singing in front of live music again, karaoke is fun but this just can’t replace live music though.
I told them that I wouldn’t mind playing a couple of places sometime in the future. I am not looking at this as a money making proposition but would like to be able to perform in front of a crowd. I thought that I did fairly well even though I am only about 70 to 80% on my vocals right now as I am still trying to get over some congestion. I think the guy organizing it was fairly impressed with me but they still have one more person to try out. The way the guys in band are talking is they don’t want to go out and gig all the time which is cool with me. Billy indicated that they just wanted to hang and have fun (all the fun parts of being in a band without all the hassles of pressure from getting ready for gigs). This sounds pretty cool to me. We will see how it goes.
Today was okay. I decided to hang with Karma today and we went out and bought 4 new fluorescent bulbs for the kitchen lights. Now it is so bright in the kitchen that I am thinking about bringing in a lounge chair to get a golden tan in the kitchen. LOL
Well, I had better go. Need to get some sleep and gotta catch something to eat first.
Later peeps…
Things have been super busy at work. I am moving over to Indi’s position, over the next couple of month’s I will be learning from her. I have been trying to learn how to do her job (poorly thus far), doing my job (to it’s usual level) and then also teaching how to do my job to 2 others. My head has been reeling.
I think that the 2 others are ready to take over my position for the most part. I have told them that they are on their own for the most part. I think they understand that I have to step away to learn my new position. I think I have trained them about as well as they can be trained for this position. The rest is up to them.
With all this stuff going on I have been putting in more hours (at home, at least) and getting a little bit of burn out. I am sure that this all will pass.
A couple of weeks ago I replied to an ad that was placed in Craigslist looking for lead singer of a rock band. They don’t want someone who is wanting to gigs or make tons of money just hang and sing and have some fun. I went and tried out for them on Saturday night. I had quite a bit of fun. It was fun singing in front of live music again, karaoke is fun but this just can’t replace live music though.
I told them that I wouldn’t mind playing a couple of places sometime in the future. I am not looking at this as a money making proposition but would like to be able to perform in front of a crowd. I thought that I did fairly well even though I am only about 70 to 80% on my vocals right now as I am still trying to get over some congestion. I think the guy organizing it was fairly impressed with me but they still have one more person to try out. The way the guys in band are talking is they don’t want to go out and gig all the time which is cool with me. Billy indicated that they just wanted to hang and have fun (all the fun parts of being in a band without all the hassles of pressure from getting ready for gigs). This sounds pretty cool to me. We will see how it goes.
Today was okay. I decided to hang with Karma today and we went out and bought 4 new fluorescent bulbs for the kitchen lights. Now it is so bright in the kitchen that I am thinking about bringing in a lounge chair to get a golden tan in the kitchen. LOL
Well, I had better go. Need to get some sleep and gotta catch something to eat first.
Later peeps…
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