Something that Happened

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Dear Reader/Listener:

Lest I be judged for it, I inform you now that this web space is a scratch pad, a space for experimentation. Have fun, enjoy, and read much of it, but try not to read too much into it!

--Harold

Want some background music? Please consider tuning in to my Internet radio station VoyagerRadio while you're reading this blog.

Want more blogging fun? You may also be interested in reading my other blog, Transmitting to Earth.

These blogs/sites are also happening:

Joe Frank
Web Feed Central
Anne...Straight from the Hip
Momentshowing
Theory of Everything
Slowmotionlandscape
Netizen News

Something that Happened to your ears (AKA Podcasts, or audio downloads):

"Goodwill Hunting"
"Sampled"
"The Fir Tree, by Hans Christian Andersen
"Sundae Silence"
"iRiver Test"
"Subscription Special"
"From Jay Dedman"
"The Big Sleep"
"Walking Man"
"Resolution"
"It's Gotten Out of Band (Part 3)"
"It's Gotten Out of Band (Part 2)"
"It's Gotten Out of Band (Part 1)"
"Create Your Own Podcast Station"
"Echo"
"Tinkering"
"Explanation/Send Me Audio"
"Neighbors"
"Percentages"
untitled audio post 11/05/04
"Post-Election Blues"
"Audio Commentary (with audio commentary)"
"Open Source Schizo"
"(Somewhat) Traditional Radio Program"
"Not Poor Enough"
"Junk Mail"
"Everybody Has Something to Say About Podcasting"
"Dream Job (Part 2)"
"Dream Job (Part 1)"
"Vent"

Something that Happened in the past (AKA Archive):

12/01/2002 - 12/31/2002 01/01/2003 - 01/31/2003 02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003 04/01/2003 - 04/30/2003 05/01/2003 - 05/31/2003 06/01/2003 - 06/30/2003 07/01/2003 - 07/31/2003 08/01/2003 - 08/31/2003 09/01/2003 - 09/30/2003 10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003 11/01/2003 - 11/30/2003 12/01/2003 - 12/31/2003 01/01/2004 - 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/29/2004 03/01/2004 - 03/31/2004 04/01/2004 - 04/30/2004 05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004 06/01/2004 - 06/30/2004 07/01/2004 - 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/31/2004 09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004 10/01/2004 - 10/31/2004 11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004 12/01/2004 - 12/31/2004 01/01/2005 - 01/31/2005

Need more blog? Read Transmitting to Earth, my other blog.

A narrative experiment by Harold J. Johnson, Master Architect of VoyagerRadio and Humble Operator of The Great Glass Elevator (currently out of commission).

Just remember, not everything you read or hear is true. Everything else is - or can be, depending on your perspective.

Sunday, October 31, 2004
It's Halloween, very nearly my favorite holiday. I won't be doing a whole lot this year--no Halloween parties, no trip to Knott's Scary Farm or Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, no spending the night in an abandoned graveyard--just a quiet night watching horror movies rented from the video store. That's all right with me, though--I took the journey to visit mom yesterday and today I've just wanted to relax. I also drank some prune juice and started a high-fiber diet today, so it probably wouldn't be a great idea for me to go anywhere anyway. I imagine the other people on the bus wouldn't appreciate that too much.
10/31/2004 05:24:38 PM

Saturday, October 30, 2004

10/30/2004 08:28:32 PM

Friday, October 29, 2004
"Open Source Schizo" (mp3 audio post; stream or 15.2MB download)

Failing to exhibit showmanship in a monologue about open source, I am interrupted and harassed by someone intimately familiar...
10/29/2004 09:50:20 AM

Wednesday, October 27, 2004
"(Somewhat) Traditional Radio Program" (mp3 audio post; stream or 23.3MB download)

So I recorded a longer audio piece tonight, live and on-the-fly. Somewhat along the lines of a traditional radio program. Somewhat.
10/27/2004 08:27:48 PM

Tuesday, October 26, 2004
There's only so much a person can do. There's only so much a person can possibly do - there's only so much time and so much energy - and then the day is done or you fall asleep or drop dead from exhaustion or something. So you've gotta give it up for this guy, who is spending much of his time recording, editing and posting a fresh video every single day on his blogsite, Momentshowing.

His name is Jay Dedman, and he's on a self-inflicted challenge of posting 90 videos in 90 days. That's more difficult than it sounds - it's not nearly as easy to post video (or audio, for that matter) to your website as it is to open up your blog manager and type a daily entry, which can take all of 30 seconds. Posting video, at least at this stage of the game, takes a variety of steps to perform, some of which can be extremely complicated. You have to record the video, first of all, which is perhaps the easiest step unless you are trying to outdo Vittorio Storaro or something. Then you have to import the video to your favorite editing program and make it presentable. Then you have to encode it for the web, upload it to your server and make it available to the world so they can watch it. The process is time-consuming and can be extremely difficult.

So why does he do it? If I asked Jay, I imagine the man would say because it's fun. Read his bio and you'll find evidence to support this. Jay Dedman is genuinely enthusiastic about videoblogging, using his background working at a community television station to take his experiences to the web. His passion for web video and its potential is nearly as intense as my passion for web audio - nearly, I say, because I'm not certain anyone is as passionate about web audio's potential as I am. Still, you can see how dedicated the man is - just watch a few minutes of Momentshowing and I'm sure you'll agree.
10/26/2004 06:33:57 PM

Monday, October 25, 2004
I hope nobody took offense at my latest podcast (audio webcast); it included some racy material near the end of part two. The piece is based on a recorded telephone conversation between my friend and I regarding his current occupation. The piece, entitled "Dream Job" and currently in two parts, is available here (pt.1) and here (pt.2).

Nobody has complained or anything; I'm just trying to drum up some controversy here. Still, you may truly be offended by the piece, and you have every right to be - but don't think for a second that I'm going to take the fuckin' thing down!
10/25/2004 09:48:54 PM

"Dream Job pt.2" (mp3 audio post; stream or 5.7MB download)
10/25/2004 01:54:15 AM

Sunday, October 24, 2004

10/24/2004 11:10:11 AM

Friday, October 22, 2004
"Dream Job" (mp3 audio post; stream or 2.3MB download)
10/22/2004 11:46:43 PM

Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Recently my uncle was watching a segment on 60 Minutes about a relatively little-known disorder called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, and he realized that my mom's condition vividly presented all the symptoms of this disorder. Remarkably, people with this disorder sometimes fully recover from their illness. On October 13 I spoke about my reaction to this news in a pair of audio posts.

In case you missed them, here are links to the posts:

I live down the street from the UCLA Medical Center, and having found out that the hospital houses a doctor with experience working with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, I attempted to contact this doctor to find out about getting mom tested for the disorder. I didn't get very far, however; the receptionist/assistant I spoke with rejected us on the grounds that mom's medical insurance wouldn't cover the test. (Mom has Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicare.) That's the bad news. The good news is that the receptionist/assistant referred us to Harbor-UCLA, the county medical center, where apparently the same doctor does some time. So if we can get mom in there, we'd eventually be able to see the same doctor...

...so I immediately contacted mom's social work and doctor to get mom referred to Harbor-UCLA. That's our current course of action. I'll keep you posted.
10/19/2004 02:26:30 PM

"Vent" (mp3 audio post; stream or 5.8MB download)
10/19/2004 01:46:39 PM

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

10/13/2004 04:44:59 PM

10/13/2004 04:38:26 PM

10/13/2004 04:21:25 PM

10/13/2004 04:14:56 PM

10/13/2004 04:01:38 PM

Thursday, October 07, 2004
I had a good run followed by a tasty plate of Korean food, and now I feel a bit better. With all the Red Rooster hot sauce I had, though, I'll probably get a good case of The Runs later. Still, I feel better than I did earlier today--probably, in part, to the girl being home from work now. Funny how I'm even considering the possibility that I was lonely today; I rarely have a problem being alone. I don't need to be surrounded by lots of people. I was an only child, so I grew up appreciating my time alone. I love my time alone--and though sometimes I love being with lots of people (big parties come to mind, Disneyland, concerts), most of the time I prefer my privacy.
10/7/2004 07:14:09 PM

Yesterday when I arrived at the ATM machine and began digging around for a deposit envelope I realized there was someone close behind me--a couple of men, as it turned out, in uniform, one carrying a gun in hand in front of an armoured van and instantly I knew who they were but still, I was flustered, and I turned back toward the machine but it seemed that they were in a hurry to get on with what they were about to do and so I turned back toward them--cautiously and trying not to make any quick, jerky movements because I had a heightened awareness of that gun poised just within my line of vision, hanging there in a tight grip--and before I could say anything the uniform closest to me exhorted gruffly (or perhaps not gruffly but toughly), "What do you want to do?" and I walked away without using the ATM.

I wasn't sure I wanted to use the machine right then anyway, since I still had to make a trip into a branch and then would probably be returning to the ATM to make another deposit anyway, but I'm certain what really stopped me from going through with that transaction was the gun. It's not everyday that someone with a tensely-held handgun is hovering close behind you while you have money in your hands. Though the men are simply doing their jobs, and protecting that very money that I'm depositing, it's scary when you think that any number of things can go wrong: I make a quick and uncertain movement that catches the guard off-guard and he reactively raises the gun to my chest and...sure, they're trained for this stuff, and we like to think they're trained well, but you know how easily things can go wrong...
10/7/2004 07:45:17 AM

I don't feel so well. Just kind of down, dragging myself around, going through the motions...I feel heavy, literally and figuratively. I've been eating too much junk food and now I've got gas. I stink and I don't feel like exercising. I don't like it when I'm this way; I feel like I'm sitting in a pile of my own shit.
10/7/2004 07:37:37 AM

Wednesday, October 06, 2004
(Continued from audio post)

Then, we went to the bus stop, mom and I, and we waited for the bus as I called her nursing home to let them know we were running late. It was nearly 7:30, and the administrator I spoke with told me that it would be a good idea to have mom home by 8; the doors would be locked after that. I debated whether to continue waiting for the bus or to attempt walking mom home. Mom was noticeably exhausted; I hadn't kept her out this late for a very long time--at least since last year. Though we only had a mile left, I wasn't sure how much strength she had left in her. Her head was nodding, and her footing was beginning to get more unstable than usual.

I had no idea how long the bus would take to arrive, though, and didn't want to take the chance that we'd arrive at her home after the doors had been locked. So, after a few more minutes of deliberation, I finally took mom's hand and helped her to her feet, and we began to walk home.

We didn't get far, however, not walking--for once we reached the railroad tracks about a hundred yards down the road, I took a chance and flagged a passing bus. The bus had an "Out of Service" sign lit up above its windshield, but the driver stopped the bus for us anyway. The bus operator opened the door and asked us how far were going. "Down the street a bit," I said, "About a mile." The driver beckoned for us to climb aboard, and she drove us home.
10/6/2004 01:38:02 PM

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

10/5/2004 11:14:22 PM