Buzz

I’m still here

Has anyone wondered what I’ve been up to for the past two weeks?  I’ve barely had a free moment to myself since I got back from vacation this week.  I went home for spring break and did absolutely nothing.  I don’t have any amazing stories to tell about going home because I literally did nothing. 
When I got back in to town last Friday I had to pack up the FM 102 cruiser and drive to Ruston for the Michelle Branch concert.  I talked my way into pulling the cruiser up next to the doors of the Thomas Assembly Center.  It was nice (look for pics on the 102 site this weekend).  After the promotion, Fast Eddie and I took our seats (front row).  The concert was substandard.  Joe Firstman ROCKED!  Go pick up his album NOW.  I have my copy (and it’s autographed by the band!) Rooney wasn’t all that great even though the lead singer, Robert Carmine, acknowledged me during one of the songs.  I had bought their album a few weeks back and really enjoyed the song PopStars.  When he introduced the song the audience went quiet except for me yelling out “HELL YEA!  ROCK!” Robert looks at me and says “so you’ve heard it? ... alright!” During their set, Robert’s guitar quit working on him and it was swiftly taken off stage by a roadie only to be returned later in the set. 
At 10pm on the dot, Michelle Branch takes the stage.  I was surprised to see that she has a female backup singer with her on tour.  I was also surprised to see how raw and wet she was.  She sat down to play the keyboard and quickly realized that the sustain pedals weren’t working.  She attempts to play the song anyway but her bass guitarist cringes at her.  She give up on it and gives the keyboard an evil eye for the rest of the night.  Later on she’s singing away and stops suddenly.  She giggles and turns her back to the audience.  Branch turns to the audience and says “I’m real sorry guys but if anyone knows the next line of the song, I’ll pay you five bucks.” Someone in the crowd yells out the lyric and she tells them that they get the money and continues on.  I thought it was a gag until after the song she asks the band members for the money.  When they refuse to cough it up, Branch walks backstage, gets her purse, and produces a ten dollar bill.  What she does next is crazy.  She asks the audience to change a ten.  Some wacko throws a five on stage and Branch says “oh we’re throwing money now?” She then asks who threw it and the crowd goes wild for it.  She turns her back and throws it like a bouquet.  Later on she apologizes for the crappy show and says that she’s going to surprise everyone, even the band.  She said that she wanted to do something that they’ve never done before on tour and the band looks at her worriedly.  She starts playing a chord and looks at the band and says “come on guys you know this one...” They look at her confused and she walks to each one and whispers what she has planned.  The next thing I know they’re rocking out to the Santana/Branch song Game of Love complete with the Santana guitar solo (to which Branch’s guitarist covered quite well).  It was an interesting night full of surprises to say the least.

Monday we went live with Sean Hannity on AM 540 (sorta).  There were some satellite problems on our end.  You can now enjoy Sam Donaldson, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage weekdays on AM 540.  Dare I say we’ve got the best AM radio station in north Louisiana?  I’ve got one more surprise up my sleeve and that’s going to have to wait a few weeks before I can reveal it.  It’s exciting news of a new program that is coming exclusively to KNOE radio.  I cannot reveal more for pain of death!

Yesterday was my birthday....big woop...today was the official observance of my birthday.  A few people at work decided to bring lunch for me today.  I thought it was going to be no big deal.  I walk into the radio lobby and nearly everyone I know from KNOE are seated waiting for me.  I’m treated to a wonderful pot luck buffet of food.  They really went all out for me.  I hadn’t seen this sort of celebration at KNOE radio since I have been there.  I was sort of down on my birthday because none of my friends wanted to hang out and some didn’t even wish me a happy birthday (some still haven’t....*cough*Amanda*cough*).  Today showed me that people really do care about me and it felt good.

Fast forward to tonight.  If I hadn’t mentioned it already, I’ve joined the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) at ULM.  I’ve been going to the meetings every month (mainly to socialize and get free pizza).  It turns out all of the current officers are graduating so tonight elections were held.  Heath nominated me for Webmaster and I was unopposed.  I’m now the Webmaster for the ULM chapter of AITP.  It’s going to be interesting.  The website hasn’t been updated in two years and the organization doesn’t even have access to update it if they wanted to.  I’m going to have a fun time getting everything straightened out.  This isn’t the first time I’ve had to bring a student organization’s website back from the dead.  I’ve faced these same hurdles with Tech’s campus radio station, KLPI.  Oh, Heath is the Vice President for External Affairs for AITP.  He’s in charge of planning tours of businesses and getting guest speakers.  As of now, I have even less free time.

One final thing; I had to replace my cell phone today.  Apparently the original phone was defective.  Unfortunately I’ve lost my address book with all of my numbers in it.  If I don’t call you, that’s why.  So call me if I’ve given you my number in the past and I’ll add you back in the book.  So far this new phone works so much better.  It’s a Sanyo VM 4500 if anyone’s interested.  It’s the camera phone that I use for my MoBlog.  Look for more pics from the MoBlog soon.

Wow, over 1000 words.  This is nearly an essay.  Happy reading, I’ll leave you to it.

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