But truth, cher ami, is a colossal bore.
- narrator, Camus' The Fall
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    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
     
     
    Wednesday, August 29, 2007  

    For a couple of months now, I've been voluntarily participating in a 'Net radio venture. It's been an interesting project, to say the least; it's a talk radio station run by two fellows, one who comes across as a rather egocentric and cynical fellow (who I'll refer to throughout this post as "The Engineer"), the other gentleman exhibiting a mild-mannered and positive aspect. (I won't be mentioning the latter fellow again in this post, since he's not the subject of this particular rant/venting session.) The Engineer (or cynical fellow) comes across, while "on the air", as a likeably rash though often inconsiderate -- as one listener recently put it -- "asshole". Though the latter moniker may seem rather harsh, I tend to agree with the sentiment. His on-air personality, though often entertaining (and therefore, "likeable"), comes across as assuming, scornful, and intolerant of others. He makes rash assumptions about his guests, his co-hosts (that is, the hosts of other shows on the station, myself included), and -- most surpringly -- about some of his listeners, and then proceeds to deride these folks with sarcastic pronouncements about them. Somewhat like a conservative Howard Stern, but with a less sophisticated comedic manner.



    There are many radio personalities who adopt this manner. Rush Limbaugh himself has mastered the persona of the sarcastic neo-conservative broadcaster, and he's built quite a career out of it. The problem with this fellow I'm "working" with -- besides his sarcasm being more transparently hateful than funny at times -- is that he carries his manner everywhere, inserting it into all aspects of the station he's engineered. In other words, he makes rash assumptions about how the station should be run, without seeming to take into account some of the most fundamental details. His presumptuousness directly affects his relationships with the station's show hosts. When something goes wrong, The Engineer is quick to scorn, blaming others rather than taking time to consider the shortcomings of the technology he's working with (or the way he's engineered the station). While professing on-air that the station is actively being developed by the station's community of show hosts, and that we are all "building this station together", off-air he rarely takes into account his associate's suggestions. While his style may be entertaining on-air, his intolerance of other's opinions introduces a level of instability to the operation of the station.



    I'll give you an example. The Engineer's attitude toward others seems predicated upon their absolute agreement with his views. So if you disagree about a particular way things are handled at the station, or if you make a suggestion about how technology can being used to benefit the station in some manner, or if you state your concern about the station's system for scheduling shows, or if you make just about any attempt to provide some valuable and constructive criticism regarding just about any aspect of the station's engineering, your views will undoubtedly be hastily discarded and scorned. A fellow who is no longer "employed" by the station was unhappy with the lack of appropriate training The Engineer provided him with (a fact I can attest to). The Engineer seemed unwilling to take the time to properly demonstrate how to use the broadcast technology. To most station managers, it would seem fundamental, the need to provide new show hosts with an adequate amount of information about the technologies required to broadcast their programs. It's true that the technologies being used are not all that difficult to employ once you've learned how to repurpose them for broadcast purposes -- yet there are a variety of mishaps that can occur, especially when a technology is not used for its designed purpose. Yet The Engineer seems to assume that all his new show hosts have been using the very same technology for broadcast purposes prior to their stint at the station. This lack of foresight is demonstrative of The Engineer's inability to manage some of the more crucial aspects of running a 'Net radio station.



    As for the former show host mentioned in my example above: he was thoroughly derided after his trial run at the station. (Regrettably, I was involved in much of this contemptuous mirth, which I've detailed in a prior post.) Based on my own personal experience with The Engineer, I would guess that the fellow was also jeered at during his tenure at the station, the lack of support probably exacerbating his frustration with the station. It is difficult for me to know for certain, since I was far-removed from the situation, and not yet a show host on the network. Yet, though I don't know exactly how he was treated during the short time he was broadcasting on the station, I do know that the attitude The Engineer has adopted in regards to the situation is one of "some have what it takes; others don't" -- an attitude he prefers to uphold rather than to realize his own shortcomings in providing adequate information to new show hosts.



    Perhaps, in the related example, The Engineer exhibited more laziness than scorn. It's possible he doesn't understand that being more demonstrative in certain aspects of the station's operation would be helpful to his associates. What's important to note is that our engineer, who would be quick to point out that "we all wear many hats here at the station", fails to recognize his own shortcomings in some of those areas. It's much easier for him to drop a show host or two (or three, or four...) and to insert replays of his own shows in their time slots than it is to accept his own role in failing to provide all the necessary details to assist them. Failing to provide them with adequate preparation in the first place, he adopts an attitude of disappointment in their presentations, shortly followed by scorn which he then uses as material in his own broadcasts. Sadly, the station's hosts (and listeners) suffer, because while The Engineer is able to continue broadcasting his own program, the station's schedule becomes increasingly saturated with either repeats of The Engineer's own daily show or stale podcasts scraped from around the 'Net.



    As I mentioned at the beginning of this post: it's been an interesting project, to say the least.

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    8/29/2007 08:46:00 PM (2) comments





    Tuesday, August 28, 2007  

    Remember FuckedCompany.com, the site documenting company layoffs and such? Many "downsized" workers found the site therapeutic and entertaining, especially during the dot-com implosion. Others -- particularly company PR reps and CEOs -- found the site annoying, mean-spirited, and even horrifying in its examinations of company's internal memos.



    Though they've surely deserved the moniker for past transgressions, Earthlink is now officially and undeniably a Fucked Company, having today announced a corporate restructuring. From their own press release for August 28, 2007:

    EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) today announced a corporate restructuring plan. This plan will reduce operating costs across the company. The restructuring will begin immediately and be completed by the end of the year.


    The beginning of their "restructuring" translates into the layoff of 900 employees, a move which will generate the remainder of the company "$25 - $35 million in cost savings through the remainder of 2007".

    A Really Fucked Company.

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    8/28/2007 02:37:00 PM (2) comments





    Friday, August 24, 2007  

    Astronomers have made a startling discovery: a huge hole has been found in space, and it's neither a black hole nor dark matter. It is nearly a billion light-years across, and it is entirely starless: a dark and empty spot in space, just like in that episode of Battlestar Galactica. (You know the one: Galactica and the fleet encounter a starless area of space, and Apollo plunges into it only to find himself utterly lost in a void; the distant stars, as well as the fleet, have disappeared. This episode is from the original 1978 series, and is fresh in my memory because I'm currently watching it again. As much as I've been enjoying the new series, I've felt the need to reacquaint myself with the "toaster" Cylons and the dog-robot.)



    A huge hole, with nothing in it. Reminds me of that empty space in my mind, that place I return to whenever I feel ready to begin seriously writing again. The moment I find myself with the time and inclination to get artistically productive, my thoughts inevitably return to that dark space where matter neither exists nor is created. Not quite a black hole: even a black hole permits the possibility of renewal, of life (or something) beyond the event horizon. No, the hole in my mind permits no such recompense; it is devoid of inspiration. I would suspect it is a tumor, except that it is matterless; neither dark nor grey matter resides in that space. Perhaps God extracted a piece of my brain so as to render me forever blocked from recklessly pursuing my creative impulses.


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    8/24/2007 03:09:00 PM (2) comments





    Thursday, August 23, 2007  

    Think Before You Blog

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    8/23/2007 08:12:00 PM (2) comments





     

    Somebody should come up with a device which tells you when a local electrical outlet is made available. You know: for when you're wandering a public place, such as your local wifi hotspot, trying to locate a power source. It would work somewhat like a wifi sniffer, one of those keychain gadgets that indicate your proximity to wireless 'Net access points: the AC sniffer would tell you when someone unplugged their laptop or mobile phone from an outlet. Wouldn't that be nice? T-Mobile should market it; that way they'd have happier customers paying for their premium HotSpot services.

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    8/23/2007 07:28:00 PM (2) comments





    Wednesday, August 08, 2007  

    E62, Part Seven: I find myself walking home at 4am, but I'm not drunk, not even tipsy. Nearly 100 days sober, in fact. The only chemicals coursing through these veins are caffeine and nicotine: I'm high from some late-night/early-morning blogging.



    There's a fellow walking just in front of me, swaying down the sidewalk. Clearly intoxicated, he careens left and right, a bag of grub in hand, barely able to keep himself moving progressively forward. It looks like it will take him quite some time to get to his destination.



    I say to myself, "That was me."

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    8/08/2007 04:13:00 AM (0) comments





     
     

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