I got my first taste of what awaits me in graduate school today when I received an email from a professor notifying the class that, in fact, our class will not begin at 8:05 a.m., but rather 7:40 a.m. Although it's only a difference of 25 minutes, any college student can tell you how important every minute truly is in the morning. To make matters worse, I am very much a "burnin the midnight oil" kind of worker, meaning I am most productive on the wrong side of 11 p.m. to be waking up for a 7:40 a.m. class.

The only upside to this whole situation is that it means no class on Fridays. I'll tell you that every semester I spent hours trying to arrange my schedule for 3-4 day weekends, with an 80-90% success rate. But believe me when I say this is not, at all, how it's supposed to happen.

Yesterday was the last day of the Arbitron ratings survey, here's the data:

My Radio Ratings Diary
[X] I did not listen to the radio today.

I hope you enjoyed following along as I listened the radio for almost an hour total during the last week. Everyone have a special Thursday!

When Dan moved out, I was afraid it meant I would finally have to breakdown and buy my own can of shaving cream/gel. Luckily, though, Eric keeps his on his bathroom counter in plain view ... easy for goin in and grabbin a dollop.

Yep, just in time ...

My Radio Ratings Diary
[X] I did not listen to the radio today.

I didn't really get to know him until the end of our senior year in high school, but in the confines of our dungeon in Kensington Park, Dan and I became the best of friends by the end of our freshman year of college.

Separated by the happenstance of circumstance for the next two years, our friendship survived by the grace of pizza Fridays at That's Amore. Now, after a year of living in the posh comforts of Mo'ville USA, Dan and I are once again parting ways, both eager to grab life by the horns and say "can't we wait just a little bit longer?".

In a way, I'd say our friendship has come full circle, and that brings to mind the immortal words of Steven Tyler (and supposedly somebody named Taylor Rhodes)

Time
Don't let it slip away
Raise yo' drinkin' glass
Here's to yesterday

I just realized today how stupid it was that I was giving an update on my "radio listening" habits, when my habit is that I don't listen to the radio. Anyway, since I've never been one to let stupidity stop me from anything, here's today's update:

My Radio Ratings Diary
[X] I did not listen to the radio today.

I return to full-time internet access tomorrow evening. But first, I will try to make more of a dent in my reading pile and, sadly, I'll have to help Dan move out tomorrow *sniff sniff*. The Golden Era of Apt. 3234 is officially coming to an end (no offense to the new guys Eric and T-Rav).

Well I had a splendid day helping J1 and LL move into their new home. It's been a while since I've seen them (their wedding, in fact, which was almost one year ago), so it was great to get a chance to catch up with J and see how married life is treating him.

Unfortunately, I had to rush home to tend to the 4 K9's staying at L'Hotel de Garris, who were all doing wonderfully. I took a swim, caught up on some reading (JDawg, I need more pages, feed my obsession! He was one step ahead of me, revisions and new chapters await!), and continued my dynasty in NCAA 2004 (Wolfpack are currenly #4 in the land, with both T.A. and Philip on the Heisman Watch). And now, what you've all be waiting for ...

My Radio Ratings Diary
[X] I did not listen to the radio today.

Boy, they're gonna love my diary.

Live from my satellite location in the deep country parts of Wake County, it's my Radio Diary update ...

[X] I did not listen to radio today

There it is folks, I hope you enjoyed ... JohnnyH, you are a trip!!

I will be caretaking at the house of my mother this weekend. Should be a lot of time for relaxin by the pool, reading, and doing some work on ScribNotes ... maybe. Anyway, my presence on the internet will be a fraction of what it normally is due to my intolerance of dial-up connections. I will, of course, try to make it online to check email, messages regarding ScribNotes and to update you on my radio listening habits. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and if you're not already, start Scribbing!

About a week ago I got a phone call from a woman requesting my participation in a radio survey by Arbitron (you know, the ads when you're favorite radio station has the tag-line "Arbitron rated Number 1"). I don't know if it was the mood I was in or if I really knew what I was doing, but I agreed.

They called again a couple of days ago and I started to get really irritated because I had already agreed to do the stupid thing, but they wanted to confirm my participation and that I had received the diaries. That's a little more persistence than I can really tolerate so I was almost ready to can the whole idea and just ignore the stupid thing.

Well, today when I checked my mail, sure enough the 3 diaries that I had requested were there (one for each member of the household over the age of 12). I was still a little iffy as to whether or not I was gonna do it, until I opened the package and saw four crisp George Washingtons awaiting me in each and every diary packet. My initial reaction was "Whoa, 12 bucks!!!". Then I realized that for the greater good of radio land and out of the kindness of my heart, I should share the wealth with my roommates. I have to say, the annoying little buggers (the folks at arbitron, not my roommates) really redeemed themselves with the "cash prize" that is just a "small token of their appreciation". $4 may not seem like much to a lot of people, but to a guy who's embarking on a career as a college student, $4 is like the lottery my friend.

Oh, and just because I think it's kinda interesting, I'm gonna share my diary with everyone each day. I think I'm done listening to the radio for today (I only listen in my car), so here's today's entry.

My Radio Ratings Diary
5:40 - 5:45pm 105.1 FM (Car)
5:45 - 6:00pm 94.7 FM (car)

(Does that ruin the integrity of the survey, me sharing my diary? I hope not. Sorry if it does)

There are things that I haven't done but want to do, places I haven't been but want to be, people I don't know that I want to know.

I have dreams that I haven't fulfilled and never will, dreams that I haven't fulfilled but still can, dreams that I can't believe were even mine that I've left behind, dreams that I am living.

There are horrors in my life that I will face but don't want to, things I'm doing right now that I wish I wasn't, mistakes that I've made that I can't take back.

There are words that I want to speak but I don't know how; pages that I want to write, but not right now.

There was yesterday, there is today, there will be tomorrow. Won't there?

After almost 24 hours of going through my usual "Should I or Shouldn't I?", I have once again failed in my journey toward a more responsible personal fiscal policy ...

NCAA 2004 is in da HIZZZOUSE!

I know it's long overdue, but Issue No. 2 of TheDustin Daily is out (only 2 new articles right now, though, more to come)

ScribNotes gets mentioned in TheDustin Daily!!!

I forgot to mention John ... John, I think ScribNotes will be the best way for us to get your "experiences" online. And hopefully very soon you'll be able to upload pictures ...

I don't know if I should admit to how dedicated I've been to getting this up and running, but the very first, feature hungry release of ScribNotes has finally arrived. I must admit, I'm pretty proud of it so far, but there still remains a lot of work to be done. JDawg, A-Train, Beth and anyone else who wants to join in, I'm depending on you to help me make it really really awesome!

It's easy to make fun of dorks, but because they're so accustomed to ridicule it might be hard to really infuriate them ... That's why you must pit dork against dork ... Check out David Bradley, inventor of "ctrl-alt-del" getting a rise outta Bill Gates (Scroll down to video highlights and click on the link).

It's always great when web-enabled people can put their know-how to good use ... The Bewitching Hour.

Visit the site, take a look around, and read the guestbook. Then come back here and read the comments for this post before you brand me a sick loser.

Thanks to my lazy eagerness when I moved from my old room to the room formerly known as BJ's, my newly clean room has returned to its original cluttered state. I had to move all of the "just in case stuff breaks and I have to take it back though I'd never put it back in the box and half the boxes are ripped anyway" boxes out of the room now known as Eric's into my room. Is it possible for me to write a cohesive sentence?

I used to play basketball everyday and, forgive me if this sounds cocky, I wasn't half bad. I was an especially good shooter as every white guy that lacks tremendous speed or a 52" vertical leap should be. The thing I liked most about my jump shot was my follow-through. I don't know if it was from watching too many Jordan highlight movies or what, but my follow-through was very natural ... the ball rolled off of my fingers, my wrist snapped, and as the ball would go "swoosh", my hand would hang in the air, celebrating its perfection.

My follow-through isn't so great anymore. I've let the busyness of life, the distractions of new people with different interests, the jobs, the ability to drive away from boredom and everything else tear me away from the game that I love so much. But my jumpshot isn't the only thing that's missing a good "follow-through" these days: so is my life. Not in the grandiose way that most people talk about dreams unfulfilled and regret. I haven't reached the stage in my life when I feel it's relevant to look back and assess how close or how far away I've come from my dreams. That's another post for another day.

No, for me it's in the everyday mundane things that I lack a good "follow-through". Suggesting to my aunt that I mow her lawn every week, rather than her paying someone $40/week to do it; Promising my "puppies" a good raw hide bone to chew on and then forgetting to get it for weeks; Making a mix 'tape' for my girlfriend; Washing my car; cleaning my bike; talking to God. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's in the Bible somewhere (somebody help me out here) that it's the little things that destroy us. Constantly overlooking the small things in our daily tasks, they begin to eat at us, take away our assertiveness, our will, not just to do good, but to do something.

I love my friends, all of them, but I have a hard time staying caught up with some of them. I'm not a hyperbusy person. My job allows me to work when I want. I don't fill my day with errands and tasks and a checklist. I'm not necessarily a lazy person either. I get distracted by things that I want to do, things that I let consume me, things that sometimes merely keep me entertained just enough to discourage me from getting up and "following-through".

This weekend I reopened discussions with my aunt about mowing her lawn. I got my dogs some rawhide bones to chew on. I made a mix 'tape' for my girlfriend. I washed her car (mine's next), and I had a few nice chats with God. And at 9 p.m. on a rainy Sunday evening, I washed my bike so I can ride to the courts tomorrow and work on my follow-through.

Everybody jump for joy, I'm back!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm out of town until Wednesday. I know you're going to miss me, but I won't be gone long. I apologize to the faithful readers of TheDustin Daily for the lack of updates lately. The writers I enlisted have not been very productive (plus I'm not sure I told them how to log in) and my creativity has been focused elsewhere. I'm sure Thunder, Johnny H, Kid, and possibly Beki will keep the convo flowing on JohnnyConvo, so don't hesitate to stop by and check out the goings-on while I'm away. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

- thedustin

I thought it would be simple ... just an upload function here, a viewing function there ... but when you start to add up all the ways someone can screw up a moderately well done image gallery script, you end up with hundreds of lines of code and several more daunting hours of work ahead of you. It's too bad I love doing this stuff, and it's too bad I can't stop myself. More on my obsession to come later.

"Let Freedom Ring!"



Happy Indpendence Independence Day! (I've had problems typing all day!)

Great post from dan the man today!

Why I like to carry my digital camera with me where ever I go ...

You didn't ask for it, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway ... It's my Monday Music Mumblings (Brought to you on Wednesday)...

Does Jay-Z require every song he rhymes on to have that big-band trumpet sound ... Has anyone else noticed this? And for pete's sake, what the heck does HOVA mean? How do you get a nickname like that?

I loved Nick Cannon in drumline, and I hear his show on Nickelodeon is pretty good too ... but Nick, you are not gangsta, and doin a song with Burger King - oops, I mean B2K ain't gonna make you gangsta. I guess it will get you a spot on TRL and 106 & Park though.

Lil' Kim had her bling bling snatched from her and promptly returned. Now if only someone would give her back her clothes ... PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, GIRL, YOU UGLY!!

Apparently, Clay's domination at the stores has caused J Records to call off the "record store" duel between Aiken and Studdard ... Their albums will drop separately in September.

Mandy Moore is dating Andy Roddick. "Now introducing, Andy and Mandy"

Is it me, or are hip hop artists smack dab in the middle of a feud to see who can come up with the best song using the fewest words?

That's all for now. I know it seems like I poked a lot of fun at hip hop, but let's be honest, it deserved it. Besides, there are plenty of quips to go around for other genres ... as long as there are the Fred Dursts, the Axl Roses and the Osbournes' dogs .. until next time.

Please excuse the mess around here. I decided to switch things up a bit and change my webhosting provider. It may take a few days for me to make sure everything is working properly. I apologize for brokenness. Anyway, I think the change will allow me to add some neat stuff around here, so please check back often. Oh, and I really appreciate the fact that you're here in the first place. Thanks for wanting to keep up with my life or at least laugh at me!