But truth, cher ami, is a colossal bore.
- narrator, Camus' The Fall
...



...

LEST I AM JUDGED FOR THIS
[disclaimer and message]

MINI POSTS
[brief and frequently-posted messages]

AUDIO AND VIDEO
[audio and video streams and downloads]

MOBILE POSTS
[content posted from a mobile phone]

PODCAST FEED
[for podcasts only -- no text]

RSS FEED
[for text and podcasts]

ARCHIVE
[past posts]

E-MAIL
[me]
 

mini updates:
    follow me on Twitter

    dear reader/listener/viewer/enjoyer/co-conspirator:
    lest i be judged for it, i inform you now that this project continues to be a scratch pad, a space for experimentation

    in other words, enjoy what you find here, and feel free to participate, but try not to take anything personal, and don't believe that this project presents an accurate view of me or my life

    this is a window, certainly, but one that hasn't been cleaned in quite some time

    your view may be foggy, obscure...you may see things that aren't really there...

    --harold

    want some background music?
    please consider downloading my most recent music podcast.

    and yes, i love my mom and my dad;
    they've always been good to me, no matter what impression you may have received here

    they never locked me in a cellar or anything
     
    highlighted post from the archives: me rambling about a new job (from two years ago)
    i recently messed with the archives, so they may not work correctly, but you may take your chances:
    December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 November 2007 February 2008 March 2008 May 2008

    i once was an active member of the

    association of music podcasting

    musicpodcasting.org

    along with these fine music podcasters:

    all florida indies - bing futch
    audio gumshoe - rich palmer
    audio popcorn - krash coarse
    aural icebergs music cast - tiffany rapplean
    capital rock show - bucket aka jason
    darkhorse radio - alan carr
    ears to hear - jill lawton
    eclectic mix - george l smyth
    homegrown podcast - nic treadwell
    indiefeed - chris macdonald
    le jazz affair - sal calfa
    rubyfruit radio - heather smith
    sober cafe podcast - gracie hollombe
    sundown lounge - larry winfield
    tempo of the down - harold (that's me!)
    the darkcompass podcast - rowland cutler
    the fabrications podcast - matt macfarlane
    the phill(er) - phill ramey
    the radiozoom podcast - john bollwitt
    thepillarcast.com - jon tucker
    uc radio podshow - michael yusi
    zaldor's world - les zaldor

    ¡the text on this blog wants to leap out of its borders!

    this is...

    something that happened

    somethingthathappened.com
    		stories by harold j. johnson, in various formats - including text, audio, video, and podcasts
     
     
    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 05:24:00 PM (0) comments





    Saturday, October 30, 2004  

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/30/2004 08:28:00 PM (0) comments





    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 09:50:00 AM (0) comments





    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 08:27:00 PM (0) comments





    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 06:33:00 PM (0) comments





    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 09:48:00 PM (0) comments





     

    "Dream Job pt.2" (mp3 audio post; stream or 5.7MB download) 10/25/2004 01:54:00 AM (0) comments





    Sunday, October 24, 2004  

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/24/2004 11:10:00 AM (0) comments





    Friday, October 22, 2004  

    "Dream Job" (mp3 audio post; stream or 2.3MB download) 10/22/2004 11:46:00 PM (0) comments





    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 02:26:00 PM (0) comments





     

    "Vent" (mp3 audio post; stream or 5.8MB download) 10/19/2004 01:46:00 PM (0) comments





    Wednesday, October 13, 2004  

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/13/2004 04:44:00 PM (0) comments





     

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/13/2004 04:38:00 PM (0) comments





     

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/13/2004 04:21:00 PM (0) comments





     

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/13/2004 04:14:00 PM (0) comments





     

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/13/2004 04:01:00 PM (0) comments





    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. 10/07/2004 07:14:00 PM (0) comments





     

    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...     10/07/2004 07:45:00 AM (0) comments





     

    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. 10/07/2004 07:37:00 AM (0) comments





    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.     10/06/2004 01:38:00 PM (0) comments





    Tuesday, October 05, 2004  

    this is an audio post - click to play
     10/05/2004 11:14:00 PM (0) comments





     
     

    powdered fresh and frequently by blogger.
    D-List Blogger