Branson!! I mean, Branson??

I've been meaning to post a blog about this, but as this was my first concert week (blog soon to come) I was pretty busy all week. That aside, I went to Branson last weekend for Memorial Day. Whats actually interesting about it is I had a really good time. I know, right? I found out a couple weeks ago that one of my good friends from college just recently moved down to Springfield, MO so he invited me up for Memorial Day. We went to a great piano bar Saturday night and enjoyed some good music (although I prefer the tiny, homey space in Omaha).



After church on Sunday, we drove down to Branson. Sean had a friend that was a dancer in one of the shows so she was able to get some tickets for us. We walked around the downtown district a little bit then went to a show called Country Tonight. So not only did I see a show in Branson, but it was a country show. And I still had a really fun time. It didn't hurt that Sean's dancer friend was both hot and a GREAT dancer, and we were surrounded by blue-hairs that weren't getting into the show so we clapped loudly anyway. It was good to see the performers light up when they heard us getting into it.

We took her out to dinner afterwards and walked around the Landing a little more and enjoyed the cooled off weather. There was a really cool fountain show with fire. I like fire. It turned out to be a great weekend!

Sites with long names are always the best

Thanks to Anna for this great site that has replaced menwholooklikekennyrogers.com as my favorite site. (Although still a great site)

thingsyoungerthanmccain.com. Did you have any idea there were so many things younger than McCain? I knew every other president in history was on that list. But Mount Rushmore? Yep, its younger. How about Plutonium? The freaking state of Alaska, has not been around as long as John McCain! Israel turns 60 this year. It’s a whole country. And it’s younger than the guy who wants to be in charge of ours! (Kenny Rogers by the way is also younger than John McCain).

Can't get enough of sites with long URLs? Try http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/

This may be my most pointless post :)

I'm a Sports Animal

I did my first real remote today. The company I work for also owns a sports station, and every now and then I'll have to go out on remotes with them if their guy can't make it. It was quite a bit of fun. There is a neighboring town called Muskogee thats about 45 minutes from Tulsa and they were having a charity golf tournament with some Heisman Trophy winners so we were there promoting that. What was cool was the Heisman winners that were going to be playing in this tournament were Mike Rozier, Eric Crouch, and Johnny Rodgers from the Huskers (and George Rogers of the South Carolina Gamecocks, but who cares about him, right?)

So the sports show that was broadcasting live at this event was all about Nebraska... sorta. I'm used to sports talk radio talking about the Huskers, but remember, I'm in Sooner country! (For those of my collegiate football challenged friends, there is a long time rival between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Okalhoma Sooners in college football. If you've ever seen any college football clips, you've probably seen the "Play of the Century" where Rodgers returns a punt 72 yards for a touchdown against OU. Also, a few years ago, Eric Crouch ran a trick play against OU which I believe he called a "41 Flash Pass Reverse" where he threw [and caught] at 62-yard touchdown pass to beat OU who were at the time the defending National Champions.) Sorry to get off on a football tangent, but this gives you some perspective at the type of rivalry I'm in the middle of down here. So, back to the sports talk radio. Sample question: "Who of these three Nebraska players was the biggest thorn in OU's side?" "If you had the opportunity to play against these guys in the golf outing, who would you most want to kick the tar out of?" It was a good time. Oh, and I found out one of my co-works is Pat Jones, famed head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys where he coached guys like Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders. He was also later assistant coach for the Dolphins and Raiders.

Anyways, that was my day yesterday. I spent the rest of the time catching up from all the work lost from being gone all day, but managed to still get out around 6.

I'm alive!

As some of you know, this is the second time for me living in Tulsa. The first was only for a couple months over the summer of '04 and within a week of me arriving in town, we had a tornado hit the area. There was rain, lighting and sirens going off until about 4 in the morning.

It would seem, my travels to Tulsa bring bad weather. Last night, we were hit with another bad storm. The sirens went off and me and my roommate went to where anyone would go when the tornado sirens go off; to look out the front door. As we are watching the storm roll through, we heard a pretty loud noise and saw sparks and fire shoot up in the air from about 3 blocks away. I could see the debris begin to be picked up in the air with somewhat of a circular motion. It wasn't a full-on tornado, but it was definitely more than just a little wind. We lost power very shortly after that and spent the rest of the evening playing cards by candlelight.

The next morning, I drove by the site on my way to work and saw a missing building and a news crew.

http://www.newson6.com/Global/category.asp?C=121535&nav=menu682_4
{look for video "Storm Leaves Destruction Near Broken Arrow"}

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectID=11&articleID=20080507_1__Highw40734

Ho-hum

Its raining today. Blah. I walked into work and this is what I saw. Can't see the ground from my office either. I'm pretty sure the lightning is right outside my window too. Literally. Oh well. I like the rain so whatever, right?

Oh, I saw Iron Man last night. Stellar. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you stay past the credits. If you have seen it, go back. That's all for today. Things are going great btw

Chili Cookoff

I'm at a chili cookoff in Muskogee and i'm listening to myself broadcast "live". It's weird. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to try out mobile blogging.

I tried 12 different types of chili and got to judge and give out the KXOJ Family Favorite award to the best chili. It was a delicious time.

First Days

So yesterday was my first official day working. It was a long day. My boss had e-mailed me the night before and had to go out of town last minute so the guy I replaced came back for a day to run the concert/train me. He said right off the bat that concert days were typically pretty easy and laid back, but long days. I started just before 9am that morning and got off around 11pm, so a long day indeed. But a lot of fun. I honestly didn't watch much of the concert, but from what I heard, it was pretty good. It was 2 bands I had never heard of, Daniel Doss Band and Cadia; and 2 i had heard of, Michael English and Avalon. Minus a little snaphoo with ticket prices, the show went well from a production standpoint. Oh, I also got tons of free gear from RHEMA, the church the concert was held at. Its a huge church (main sanctuary seats somewhere around 5000) and they have a huge youth program that has made these shirts called "I believe". Apparently I'm now the spokesperson for www.ibelievethemovement.com with all the stuff he gave me. Anyway, made some good contacts, got some business cards, shook babies, kissed hands, the usual.

Today was my first day in the office. Since I worked a long day yesterday, I went in at 11. I got introduced around the office, filled out my paperwork, and got set up in my office. I've got a window office, and I'd like to tell you this is the view from my window, but its not. The office windows all have shade type things in front of them so if I took a picture, it would be a shot between the shades, so I took this one out of the window just next to my office. So basically, this is what I would see if i didn't have the bars on the window. Its a 60 story building and the KXOJ offices are on the 55th floor. I got my parking pass, and proximity card (allows me into the parking lot, and after hours, the elevators don't work without a proximity card.) Oh, and the elevators are super fast. it takes 48 seconds to go from the 1st to the 55th floor. Your ears pop on the way up and down. Pretty sweet. I also found out today, that I will get some pseudo on-air time. I voice track the weekend middays for one of their sister stations. Its actually the same station with the same playlist as KXOJ in Tulsa, but they've got a different frequency and tower in a small town called Meskogee so they have different on-air people with different commercials and sponsers. Voice tracking by the way is basically pre-recording a show. I have a four hour shift on Saturday and Sundays that (once I get used the equipment) will take me about 10 minutes a piece to pre-record. I'm lookin forward to everything. This job seems right up my alley. Everyone at the station seems really cool as well. I was a little worried my sense of humor wouldn't fit in well here (sarcastic and a little twisted), but I've been proven wrong multiple times in just the last two days so I'm a little more comfortable. I hung out with the morning show guy a bit last night, as well as the Assistant Program Director, and also the evening gal/production director, Caryn, who also goes to my sister's church (which may be where I end up if I can get involved as much as I want to.)

I start in full force Monday, actually doing the job I was hired to do, so there's still one more hurdle to get over (if you even want to call it that). Thanks for keeping in touch, all that have. Shame on the people who haven't!