Category: Scarred Brain murmurings

One of my various news sites I follow had something about a Chapter 11 filing for one of the various news sources. Audacy filed for Chapter 11

Reading about this brought back more memories of my days back in radio. Some of the details brought memories flooding back. Obviously, i had some friends and acquaintances at Entercom in Norfolk. I listened to a lot of programming out of WW1/CBS in DC. I actually pursued a job at WRVA in probably about 1999.

I don’t remember much about that. Richmond was really nasty in 1999. I don’t recall whether they didn’t make an offer, or if I turned it down. While WRVA seemed like a better fit for me than where I was at the time, I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of driving from the 804 from Bad Newz several days a week.

Obviously, I’d end up doing that later, but for significantly more money.

My distaste for Richmond stems from my time in Ashland, and some of the stupid stuff that’s come from there in the intervening years.

I really don’t think that I made a mistake by not going for what. But that was the first time when I really felt underpaid. I think I was making seven bucks an hour. And going to school.

But I think about the decisions to stay where I was, and stay in school. And finish a Science degree. Even if my alma mater still makes people say, “huh?”

I would tell my dad that he was right about some of those things, but, well….

Saints didn’t make the playoffs, but they looked good the last few games. Too little, too late, but they’re right where they should be to make big strides next year. See: this year’s Lions. But, of course, they could fall had.

I watched the College Football game last night. Jim Harbaugh has bothered me for a long time I was rooting for Michigan. Of course, President Ford played there, so…..

I was working through with my college football friend. I’m a double-legacy at Southern LandmassMississippi. My recently-mentioned alma mater is Division III, and didn’t have football until my final ywar there.

College football isn’t something I’ve really followed.

My wife follows Georgia, and has since before she attended a D1 school. They only went D1 towards the end of her time there.

But I was kind of rooting for Georgia for her benefit. Lewis Grizzard would write about Georgia football.

So. Whatever. You want to follow a big college football program, that’s as good as any, I guess.

I used to run Virginia and Virginia A&MTech games on the radio back in the day. But really not so much my thing. The game, too, really doesn’t even resemble the pro game anymore. And this is why you see guys like Josh Allen coming out of football powerhouses like Wyoming.

But I guess the reason I was slightly interested in the game was that the game this year wasn’t with an SEC or ACC participant.

Um.

I went to bed about five minutes into to the second half. The first quarter was kind of entertaining, but it really wasn’t holding my interest.

Congratulations to Michigan, I guess?

The fight sing repetition reminds me of a band instructor I had in high school who’d gone there.

We practiced that song so much.

Along with On Wisconsin for some reason.

Speaking of music…..

---

Random aside — she opened for Liz Phair at the show I saw back in November. The show didn’t sound great where I was sitting, but I heard a few things that made me go look her up on Apple Music later. Then I saw that President Obama put one of her tracks in her Top Songs of 2023 list. Listen a few more times, and, yeah, there’s things that stick in my scarred brain. Salad by Blondeshell.

---

Going to post this to FB, but I can almost guarantee nobody will read this, or listen to the song above. shrug*

More than half the day finished here on the right coast.

I would say that 2023 has been a bit less-eve3ntful than the few before it.

Going month-by-month would be difficult.

Generally, though, the first half of the year was really unsettled; I didn’t know what was going to happen going forward.

I ended up heading to see my mother in March, as my grandfather was worried about her after a few trips to the hospital.

Message the Fantasy Football league where I finished dead last. Aaron Rodgers’s injury on the first drive of the damn season kinda iced it for me very early.

Oh well.

Work, after half the year being in doubt, has been incredibly stressful before December. I’ve checked out a bit the second-half of the month since the HR geniuses stole the equity (read: unused leave) I’d bargained for when I took the gig. Whatever.

Time to figure out what to do for the first bit of the year. Dreading the MRI results in a few weeks.

At the same time, whatever. I’ve done the things I need to do to get us in a good place.

Time to take a break?

But I’m really never going to do that as long as I can type.

This is what I do. Even if I don’t get paid. (And if you’ve been on the Intertubes as long as I have, you’d understand that a .org is for non-commercial endeavors…)

I have a bit of work left do to pay my EBG!# protection racket. (Hint)

I hate it. Nearly every second.

But I got a few things out of it so far, I suppose. The audit tools available in modern Linux systems are kinda neat. I will think, however, that a Defense-In-Depth strategy is more effective, but I guess I get it.

I do still think it’s absolutely criminal that I have to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of continuing to work.

What.

Still trying to figure out how to align newer software development methodologies with Infosec procedures.

It’s worse in DoD, where often silly old guides have been grafted onto NIST standards.

I’m hungry; I should probably go eat something. All I’ve had today was a scone with my coffee.

For All Mankind

I tried hard, but this discussion kept running through my head as I watched Ep. 1. While I was going to give it at least one episode, I just couldn’t.

The speech about Chicago 1968 finally prompted the stop.

But I could have done it before…

When Ted Kennedy cancelled his trip to Chappaquiddick to deal with the news that the Soviets had gotten there first.

Or when the controlling Navy wife was upset that her husband wasn’t going to go after drunkenly shooting his mouth off to a reporter, and the prospect of him going to Pax River or to Vietnam.

Or the fact that her name was “Karen.”

Yeah, I’m not wasting much more time.

I’m really bad at giving up on things that just aren’t working for me. See: my work history from 2013-2017.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t bring myself to try on that anymore.

Maybe I’m progressing.

Writing on Saturday mornings i sone of them.

Longish week, but I did make it through. Circling in on the things that I need to do for the rest of the year.

I’m tired, but think I will be able to relax some towards the end of the month.

November was really the busy month, and I did get through it.

Still listening to too much Exile In Guyville. I don’t think I actually had that on CD back in the day. I did have Whip Smart, and Whitechocolatespacegg, the latter of which got significant listens going back to and from Carlisle to visit the Form(er)skins training camp in about 2002.

I had one of my vivid disturbing dreams about the vehicle I drove back then. The dream was probably sparked by something I was dealing with health-wise.

I was angry about how I was being treated. Or not, depending on how you look at it.

I revert to my default position of just removing myself the situation, completely. You Can Leave.

It’s probably not healthy, but it’s how I operate. Along with randomly writing things that few people will read.

Sort of getting back into the podcast queue.

So many meetings.

Ugh.

---

EDIT

I forgot to link the story I saw coming on early today.

It’s about Lake Meade. Shortened version, so you don’t have to try to read that absolutely awful article — it’s not completely barren, as we’d expected, but CLIMATE CHANGE scary, and you should be really, really, seriously, truly worried about it.

You say that when your previous proclamations were incorrect.

Admit You’re Wrong/Oh, no, not yet

So you missed on something. Okay, and?

I guess any self-reflection is a sign of weakness.

.

Okay, then.

I barely worked yesterday, and didn’t succumb to the temptation to do so.

I didn’t completely avoid work, even though I “took the day” off.

What’s an hourlong meeting, really?

Rumors on the Internets that I nodded off towards the end of it are untrue. I did manage to close the close out the app; I couldn’t be that far out of it, right?

Oh well. I’m engaged, even when I’m not supposed to be.

But the extra sleep helped me out.

I should spend time rearranging things here in my office space, but I’m really not finding the motivation to do that.

Thursday night, I watched both the football game, and debate between Newsome, and Ronnie De.

Whoever lost proved my hypothesis — you give up forty points, serve up the Fortyburger, you lose. I still haven’t seen it disproven. Yes, there’s been instances where teams have come back, sent the game to overtime, etc., but I’ve yet to see one come back and win. You serve up the fortyburger, you lose.

Then the debate. Newsome said, maybe in his opening remarks, even, that he and Ronnie De were going to be their parties’ nominees. Agreed.

But I was watching, really, with my own weird political confirmations. With the utter destruction of the Libertarians Party, I’m kind of to the point of where I am really only concerned about voting against someone I don’t like.

But that’s where I am.

It opens me up to live pretty much anywhere. Whatever. I’m going to vote against the worst candidate only in situations where my vote might make a little bit of a difference.

Hm.

Little dog needs to go outside, I think, but I’m going to do my late charitable donation first.

Slight apology for the truncated NoJoMo post earlier. I was kind of distracted trying to find a photo of my dad from late in his time in the Army. I did find it squirreled away in social media I’d hidden from public view back during the great de-monetizing of about summer 2019.

That is really the only photo I have of him kind of as I remember him from his time on active duty. He retired from the Army maybe six weeks after I’d finished high school, and, really before the ubiquity of digital photographs.

Attempts at on-line dating in about 1999 were difficult with things like the QuickCam.

Let’s do a camera over the parallel port with power coming from the PS/2 mouse port…

So there’s not lots of photos.

With a good, modern scanner, I might be able to import some things, but that’d require access to the photos (and books) where they reside. Unfortunately, those are split among various boxes at my mother’s house, and various relatives’ houses after they’d scooped up what they could in amongst moving her to assisted living.

Doing much of anything is difficult from nearly a thousand miles away.

But I eventually did find it, and sent it to the coordinator at the facility where she is now.

I’ve also been distracted by various news things that are popping up.

I guess the woke contingent are upset at John Fetterman for supporting Ismael. So, too, I saw something on X that Elizabeth Warren was trending because people came and bothered her at dinner for her support of Israel.

While my initial reaction was, “you reap what you sow,” I’m not going to go there.

It was bad when the BLM protestors were doing it to diners at Le Diplomat.

It’s bad when they’re doing to to Senator Warren wherever the hell she was.

Don’t do that.

Don’t ever tolerate those who do.

Even if your blessed DEI training tells you otherwise.

Leave people alone. If you don’t like what they stand for, you can always leave.