Got the Interview!

I got the face-to-face interview! Wow. 2 more steps left as I see it. Do the interview, which, by the way, is 5 hours long. Then the negociations for pay after they decide to hire me. I'll do my best to let you all know how the interview went and all that stuff when I can. How the hell do you prepare for a 5 hour long interview anyway? The "Knock 'em Dead" book that Victor had suggested to me helped me out a great deal for the telephone interview but there is nothing in it about extended interviews.

All in all things are good and have been motorcycling a much as I can. Elise is a great passenger too. Yeehaw!

Brother in-law Terry @ Christmas

Life and How to Live It

When someone close to you dies, it really puts "life" in a new perspective. Kind of like having a near death experience. You know like crossing the street and only seeing that car barreling down at you just before you take that first step? Or being in a car accident? The difference is that now I see how death is a natural progression and to get the heck out there and live. For example I have been eating the things I enjoy like pizza, bacon, eggs, toast with butter, peanut butter, corn chips, coffee, beer (mmm beer), etc. It gives me a different perspective in what I'm doing while I'm alive.

I know that I am on the right track with my career. I just need to get that big break in broadcasting. Maybe I need to start my own station or maybe I need to do that Podcast I've been thinking about. What I do know is that I have been jonesin' for a microphone and some radio frequencies.

Lately too I've been viewing T.V. broadcasts, listening to radio broadcasts, and a lot of the time it all seems so damned contrite. These people, especially "news" people all give me this feeling that they know what's going on and you don't so listen to me because my hair looks good, and I ask stupid questions and I say things that are completely inaccurate, and you don't know either way so I'm just going to say it like it is the truth. Like yesterday I was watching MSNBC and Tucker Carlson is on, who I only know from when John Stewart tore him a new one on Carlson's own show! Anyway, this Tucker Carlson guy was talking to some "expert" or the Meat Cutter at Albertsons, it's just some dude in a suit called and "expert", and Carlson is in an uproar about the recent shootings at Virginia Tech. and he says, am I'm paraphrasing, "Why isn't security tighter on college campuses? I mean, someone could be high on L.S.D. and go Schizophrenic." Really. There is absolutely no correlation between Schizophrenia, a mental condition, and the use of L.S.D. It is the "I said it therefore it must be true" syndrome within the talking heads out there that I despise.

Where I choose to be a broadcaster is very important to me. Integrity is not something that is just handed to you, it must be earned. That is one of the major reasons I want to work for a public broadcaster. These people can't say the most stupid thing and get away with it. Have you ever listened to Morning Edition or Weekend Edition when they read letters from listeners? NPR gets grilled all the time on what they say and how they represent stories. I like that.

Though I do not always like the presenters on NPR, some of them sound like they should be working somewhere else. I'm sure that they are fine journalists but when they speak they sound almost demeaning. I hear it a lot on commercial radio. I do not want to be one of those types of people. I am a great communicator. I know this. It is my best skill. Communicating is not just speaking but also listening and I am, honestly, a great listener. Ask anyone who knows me. When I get to doing what I am meant to be doing in broadcasting, whatever that might be, as opposed to how I wish things to be, in the back of my mind will be that "this" is not about me. It's about the listener, the viewer, the reader. Make the best attempt to take my (ever vast and growing) ego out of it. It won't be easy, but when it happens that, to me, is when broadcasting i.e. communication is the most compelling and engaging. That is what I want to be.


When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
- Oscar Wilde

Rest In Peace

Anna Siekawitch

August 18, 1917 - April 16, 2007

My Auntie Anna died at about 11:15 A.M.
She was the daughter of Roy and Emma Andreas in Park Grove County Kansas.

Once again I will quote my friend Steve.
"You see headstones and it has the one day we all know, and that is the day we were born and then there is the dash, and then the day they died. What did those people do during their time? That dash means a lot Thom.
Live for the dash."

Bigger Than NPR

I am a huge fan of public radio. To me this is how radio should be; open, informative and entertaining. There is one program that continually draws me in. Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Her last show was one of the best that I have ever heard. She interviewed 2 guys who did a documentary call Baghdad ER and also replayed an old interview she had with Kurt Vonnegut. Go and listen to it now. It made me think, it made me sad, it made me realize that once again I want to be in radio. I am using Terry Gross as my inspiration because she is so good that I can only hope to have a portion of the talent she does.

An ancient Japanese castle wall

I know I have the talent and the desire to be in radio, if I can only get that big break. I am thinking of what Steve told me when I saw him a couple weeks ago: "Thom you are bigger than NPR." Talk about a mind bender. If I am in fact bigger than NPR then how the hell do I get to that level of respectability and vastness?

I just talked with David Stephen Ball Romney and he said, "Well this is the second time you have tried to grasp the brass ring, so to speak." Selling my house and then traveling the
world and now trying to get that dream job. Although these are just the couple things that he has seen go on in my life in the last couple of years it may be a personality trait to just go for what I desire regardless of a safety net.

Feeling a bit lost today and pondering where and what to do next if I do not get the Weekend Host/Producer job at NWPR. I know I will land of my feet wherever I am, but I still need to make some type of contingency plans.

The NWPR Telephone Interview

The telephone interview with NWPR went really well. I think that if I do not get a face-to-face interview it was not due to this interview. I answered all of their questions with confidence and was straight forward. I know that I can do that job, now just getting the hiring committee to see that too and get that face to face interview where I will really shine. Then to oust the guy who is currently in the position, whose contract is up or will be up, and put me in that spot. But it went well and I should be hearing if I get another interview by Monday the 16th. Don't stop prayin' or whatever for me just yet. There are still a couple more walls to climb. Thanks for all your support.

One Year Ago Today


Holy shit. I can't believe that it was a full year ago that I left the main land for Hawaii to begin a grand journey. I'm all full of memories and nostalgia and a little bit teary eyed. I sacrificed so much to do what I did and here I am sacrificing some more to do what I think is the right thing for me. It sounds selfish, and I guess it really is but if you ever have the chance to toss everything to the wind and go on, as the Aboriginals of Australia call it, a walkabout. GO FOR IT! Just grab life by the horns and hold on. Life and the world are both good things. Carpe Diem. Seize The Day.

YES!

Today I got very good news. I called up the program director of NWPR (Hi Mary Hawkins) to ask about the status of my resume. We chatted for a bit about the recent NWPR pledge drive, which went well in many ways but they did not get to their monetary goal. Dang. But she says I guess you've called regarding the Weekend Edition Host job? Yes. Yes I am. Well they want to interview me! You read that correctly. I will be interviewed by telephone for Northwest Public Radio! I am so excited that, I, I, I... *sigh* I really want that job. You have no idea, or maybe you do, but it would be huge for me. But not just for me but also for my family and friends. I like to think that all of you who read this blog are rooting for me to get a radio job and that when I do get a full time job in radio that you are there with me. Or, in this case, you are with me to not only do the best interview that I possibly can and hopefully they like me well enough to HIRE ME.

If you are reading this I could really use your positive energy, prayers, or whatever it takes to help me get this job. Not only will you be helping me to get a full time job, you will be helping me start on a lifelong career serving the public and to have a job that I literally dream of having. Crap. Now I'm getting nervous.

On to other things, I saw my very good and lifelong friend i10d2bs, aka Steve, aka Cathy Lakey.

Jake (Steve's son), i10d2bs (Steve) & Thom at a hotel in Richland WA.

I hadn't seen Steve in about 10 or more years. Much has changed in those years, but we call each other periodically to keep in touch. Some times the call lasts a few minutes, but mostly they last an hour or more. That night when I arrived we had some fun.

We started out drinking a few beers, then we went to dinner and had a few drinks, then we went back to the hotel suite and had a whole-oh-my-god-how-much-did-I-drink bunch of drinks. I don't remember (ha) the last time I drank that much. Steve was still drunk until about noon the next day.


That next morning Jake was telling us how he couldn't sleep because we were acting like a couple of Junior High kids. Steve had called his girlfriend (?) at about 3 in the morning, and he kept putting the phone in front of my mouth wanting to say something to her. So I came up with "a finger there, and a little pinch here, and then a little oooh yeah. " We must of done that 10 times. It was funny. Steve couldn't hold his laugh in, he was snickering or outloud laughing the whole time. Good times Lakey. Always good to see you my friend. We need to keep our meetings shorter than every decade. Okay?