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