Yesterday I played around with my website a little and added another volume to the music RSS feed.

Today I remembered that Jennifer Hudson's album is out and bought it.

I received another notice today that says... after carefully reviewing the applications received for this position, we have determined that other applicants' skills and experience more closely meet our department's needs; therefore, we will not be pursuing your candidacy at this time.


Right now I am headed out the door to Syracuse to help Becky and J move into their new apartment.

I added new music to my RSS feed on my website. I am cranky that the hosting service changed some stuff trying to make it more user friendly. Unfortunately, there are some bugs in their upgrades that prevented me from editing pre-existing files. I had to recreate the RSS feed so those of you subscribed might get files delivered that you already have. Sorry!

Has anyone out there ever had to address the following in an application for a job...

The Department of XYX is committed to building an inclusive and diverse community where the value of equality is embraced, therefore a demonstrable commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity is required. Candidates are expected to address how they would design programs to identify and serve underrepresented communities.

Any pointers you can give me???

I got back from our camping trip to find out that my grandmother went into the hospital last week. First time was due to a fall on Tuesday. She broke her wrist; they fixed her up and sent her home. She fell again and couldn't move to call for help causing her to lie on the bathroom floor all night. My grandmother has another trip to the hospital the next morning. They examine her and there are no additional broken bones. They treat her and send her back home without trying to figure out why she keeps falling. My mother and my aunt try to bath her but end up covered in more water than my grandmother. They have a terrible time getting her in and out of the tub. They notice she has a terrible rattle when she breaths. They set up for a home health nurse. The nurse sees my grandmother the next day and says she cannot believe they sent my grandmother home and she needs to go back to the hospital. They keep her for observation. My family makes arrangements for my grandmother to stay in a nursing home. While trying to stabilize her in the hospital, my grandmother has a respiratory episode. Meanwhile, my aunt takes out my grandmother's trash and finds that all the food that my grandmother has been receiving from meals-on-wheels is in the trash. My grandmother has lost her appetite which has lead to her muscles atrophying, weakness ensues and her appetite further suppressed. My family meets with a representative from hospice and is told that this often happens in the elderly. It is the way the body says it is done with this life. In a week's time, my grandmother has gone from using a walker to not even able to lift her head. No extraordinary measure will be taken. It could be days or weeks at this point and doctors have been told to just make her comfortable. My mother is hoping it will happen rapidly like after another respiratory episode rather than linger on while my grandmother basically starves.

We will be camping for the next week up north. The weather looks a little dryer than it has been for most of this summer, but I have a feeling enjoying the beach and lake will be limited to the cooler temperatures. It looks like they are predicting highs in the mid 70s for most of the week and lows in the mid 50s to 60s.

I am probably late about knowing about this but I was watching Nova last night... They were talking about this phenomenon called global dimming. Basically, because of pollution, we not only have greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere but also a lot of particulate matter as well. This in essence has created more surface area for clouds to form, preventing a significant amount of sunlight from reaching the surface of the earth (but also preventing rainfall). They believe this is counteracting the effects of greenhouse gas causing a global cooling. Here is the kicker, as particulate pollution is reduced by adding scrubbers to smoke stacks and catalytic converters to automobiles, this protective effect will be negated and all models for predicting global warming may not accurately portray the effects greenhouse gases have on the environment. Instead of seeing the predicted increase of one degree Celsius over a century, it could be anywhere from 5-15 degrees which would kill all life on earth. There is an increasing need to change over from fossil fuels within the next decade before there is no return from this catastrophe… but I think this was originally filmed in 2002???

After camping over the weekend, I think I was very tired. Last night I slept almost 11 hours and only forced myself out of bed so I would not screw up my morning routine of breakfast and then an hour on the exercise bike. I finished off some laundry and applied for a couple of jobs today. I also got the grocery list made so that aarhead and I can hit Weghead's this evening. I would have gone earlier but aarhead wants to buy some stuff at Staples.

This morning, our neighbors with the dogs put their trash and recycling out after the truck went by. Do the neighbors really think they will make a special trip back just for them? With our trash haulers, we are lucky to get pick up if the garbage cans are out on the curb. Last week they skipped us because someone parked their truck in front of our can… I digress though. Knowing our neighbors, their recycling will probably sit on the curb until the next pick up in two weeks.
In other neighbor news, their newest canine addition was again barking and whining up a storm, sounding like it was being tortured to death. The owners must have been away for awhile because I can now hear the baby screaming over the dog's cries.

Last night I had to be the sound and light engineer for a special show at the bar. I had to come in for practice around 5:00. On my way in, I almost got hit by three different vehicles. Someone pulled out of their driveway without looking. Where Rt. 366 merges with Rt. 79, someone failed to yield, and when I was going up Rt. 96B, someone who was turning off onto Clinton stopped and decided they too wanted to go up 96B just as I was passing them on the left. Practice went off without a hitch but given my luck on the way to the bar, I decided to sit it out at the bar until I needed to start preshow music at 8:30. In the meantime, my friend R tried to get people together to play volleyball. We played 3 guys on a team. Whenever you get gay men playing sports, hilarity usually is a given. With the wet grass, it made it even more entertaining. The humidity was awful though and I was dripping with sweat by the time we were done. The show went off without much of an effort although I could not see any of it because of the screen blocking my view. Based on talking with aregulardyke and her Boo afterward, it wasn’t that great. Anyway, afterward I decided to stop at P & C to grab a couple of things and on my way out of the store, this guy stops me and tells me he is stranded and has no money to buy gas to get back to Cortland. He proceeds to ask if I could give him $10-20 so he can get gas to get home. Being the schmuck that I am, I went back into the store to get $10 out of the ATM because I only had $1 in my wallet. I gave him my phone number so that he could contact me to return it but if he calls, I think I will just tell him to keep it. Obviously, he needs it more than I do.

Things on my mind…
Why hasn't some car company taken advantage of the high gas prices and put a car into production that runs on alternative fuel? Instead we have to wait until at least 2010… meanwhile GM announces another round of job cuts… someone certainly dropped the ball.

Why isn't more effort being made to alter the infrastructure to promote expansion of alternative fuels/energy? I have a feeling this is going to require local changes because the big GOV moves to slow and is influenced by too much money to make any meaningful changes.

I hate Glad/Ziploc containers. They are a pain in the ass because of the lip that always holds water no matter how hard you try to dry them after you wash them (something made worse when you grab the dish towel and find a big glob of canned dog food on it). I really don’t think these containers are very sanitary after a few uses (saying nothing about all the toxins probably being absorbed by your food while you use them for storage or as aarhead uses them for a cereal bowl… I should probably buy him baby cereal bowls to use instead of the small Glad containers he usually uses).

On another note…
I have changed my website so that people can subscribe to music files by RSS feed. Check out the website for the latest music mixes http://drdjmike.us

This morning I got out into the garden about 7:30 before it got too hot. It seems the ground has finally warmed enough to cause all the weed seeds to sprout and grow… like weeds. I wanted to get them pulled while the ground was still damp which makes pulling easier. I then worked in some fertilizer into the soil. Later I planted a butterfly bush, put in some edging (which took a lot more effort than I thought it would), and finished it off with some mulch. While putting in the edging I had the feeling I was going to pass out. Even though I got an early start, it was already getting to be about 11:00. It was hot and I was sweating buckets. I don’t know if I was dehydrated or what, but I felt better after drinking a liter of water. I have been trying to keep cool ever since finishing that garden project.

Today I found out I didn't even get offered an interview for a faculty position I applied for that I thought I would have a good shot at.

I have come into a lot of music in the last month so decided to make a mongo mix. Unfortunately the file was too big so I had to split it in two.
Detailed track listings are found on my website.

Volume 11

Volume 12

I decided to cut the lawn today. The grass was still pretty wet but I figured with the way the weather is suppose to be this weekend and our schedule of obligations, I might as well get it done before it is a foot tall. We have this sewer vent in the back yard that we have covered with this piece of metal so that no one falls into it. When we mow the lawn, we uncover it to make it easier to cut the grass around it. So what do I find under it today? It took me a few seconds for me to realize what it was and then I freaked, throwing the metal cover and running. It was probably nothing more than a common garter snake but knowing that doesn’t make me any less scared of them. It was coiled up but I would guess it was between 18-24 inches if stretched out. I think it was confused (or maybe just cold) because it really didn't move until I threw the cover down.

I think as they age, Fred looks more and more like our DJ friend J., Keith Strickland is still hot, and Kate and Cindy still have it.

The weather has been so nice lately. It is going to be a shock when we get back into the 40s for highs next week. The plants outside probably will be in for a shock as well. The tulips that queenmabwords gave to aarhead several years ago are again in bloom.



I have also posted a new mix of music that I have been listening to.
Donna Summer, Leona Lewis, Madonna, Mariah Carey, The B-52's, Duffy, and Miley Cyrus

I just was sent this picture from Sundays performance at the bar...

This weekend was pretty full event wise. We hung out with friends Friday night for games and watching Battlestar Galactica. Saturday we met up with queenmabwords and got a late lunch/early dinner before attending Bhangra event on CU campus. Afterward, we dropped in briefly for part of willdevine’s birthday celebration and then headed up to CG for a rather annoying night of djing. The customers were rather cranky for some reason and so made my life miserable for the first couple hours (at which point the cranky ones left). For some reason I was really tired and both aarhead and I slept in past noon. I had aarhead cut my hair and by the time we were both showered and ready to have some lunch, of course it was after 2 PM. We went to Hairy Tony’s. Something I ate didn’t quite agree with me. I felt oogie for the rest of the day (and into this morning). At 4:30 I needed to be back at CG for sound and technical rehearsals for a show featuring Miss Richfield 1981. The premise of the show is that she is from Richfield, MN and she won her hometown pageant by default after an odd set of circumstances. Since then she is being sponsored by her Lutheran women’s church group to travel for her ministries. It was really fun and I would say that half the crowd had seen her before either in Provincetown or on a cruise ship. After shows like this there is always the expectation that I will continue and play music for a while, even though no one is going to be dancing. Anyway, I finally get out of there a little after 10. I am still a little tired today.

I keep waiting for one of the contestants to blow my socks off but it just hasn't happened this year. Other than David Archuleta, it doesn't seem that anyone is bringing anything new to the music. Although last night, David Cook did something great with that Lionel Richie song. I am probably going to agree with aarhead with his predictions this week for the offing of guys... Luke Menard and Michael Johns. I can't get over how Luke sounds like a girl and I really don't see what is making the judges so in love with Michael Johns. I think his performances have fallen rather flat. I think most contestants are playing it really safe with the music and it does make it hard to back one over another. That is probably why two of the better female singers were offed last week... Alaina, the most vocally textured Barbie clones this year and Alexandrea probably one of the top 4 women this year, in my opinion.

Well, I had two pathetic interviews today. One at CU and one phone interview. Luckily, they were both less than 20 minutes so the pain was minimal. In the first one I was caught off guard by a rather poorly asked question about gene cloning (you know if you told me what you wanted to do with the gene after it was cloned, I would have set it up differently). The second, I just lacked the knowledge they needed... I knew that was my weakness but applied for it anyway because the position was so much larger than that and I felt that for the other aspects of it, I was qualified. People always tell me to apply for everything because you never know... maybe this time I should have thought about it more.