I've mentioned before how I'm on a constant quest to find a smooth jazz radio station that survives longer than six months after I start listening to it. Well, I think I've found my next victim.

WGRV-LP The Groove is a small community-run station broadcasting from Melbourne, Florida. Despite the fact that it's a community-run low-powered station, apparently it's won a whole bunch of awards. I gave it a listen, and it's just like WLOQ (the last smooth jazz station that went off air because I started listening)! It's perfect! Happy happy happy.

But, alas, no smooth jazz station can survive once I start listening to it. It's bound to go out of business somehow now. Better enjoy it while I can.

I give it four months.

Washed Out is officially one of my favorite bands now:

I'm not ashamed to admit that I think My Little Pony is the cutest thing ever:

Been here seven days. Had four fire alarms. This better not be like last year. Also, the alarms are so much louder in this building. My ears are literally still ringing from the alarm we had an hour ago.

Musing: If I can prove my hearing has been damaged by the end of the year, can I sue Rowan?

I'm all moved in back at school, and now that I finally have electricity (both at my dorm and it came on at home this morning too, exactly one week after it went off), I'll update on some things, in no particular order:

I went into NYC with my brother on Friday. I'd like to mention that I successfully navigated the subway and all the streets on my own for the very first time ever. I feel proud of myself. We wandered all over. South Street Seaport, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, the new World Trade Center building, Time Square, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, The Met, Central Park, Museum of Natural History... It was a tiring day, but we had fun. Maybe I'll post some pictures in a bit, if I don't feel lazy.

MY DORM BEDROOM IS AMAZING. And it's all mine. All. mine. No roommates this year, just suitemates. The room is huge. And the door is so incredibly thick, when I close it, it blocks out every. single. noise. Yessss. I'll take some pictures or make a video once I finish setting it up.

Checked how many Japanese flashcards I have to do since my computer hasn't had power this entire week: over seven hundred. This will be fun to catch up with.

This song:

Six. days.

Got a call from JCP&L this morning: "We're calling to confirm that your power has been restored!" *clicks light switch* Nope, still not on. Sigh.

Still no lights

Five days without electricity. Really, Jersey Central Power & Light? We got a call from them today: "Your power will probably be restored by tomorrow [Friday] night. If not by then, then most likely over the weekend." So basically, that phone call told us nothing.

Generators are magical

Thanks, Hurricane Irene, for knocking out our power. In just a few hours, we will begin day five of no electricity. This is not okay.

Hurricane coming, better stock up

The supermarket was packed today. Total chaos. There is literally nothing on the shelves. I understand there's going to be a hurricane, but it's not going to be World War III or the apocalypse. Calm down, people. Usually, we have three or four cash registers open, and that's more than enough. Today we had all eighteen open and there were still giant lines at each one. Holy crap. They asked me to work a double shift. I didn't want to say yes because it was crazy there, but then I thought about how me not staying would mean even more work for my coworkers, most of whom were already working double shifts too. So I ended up staying. Now it's one in the morning and I'm finally getting home. Tomorrow's going to be even worse. Ugh.

I'M A RAVENCLAW!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even explain how happy I am! Ahhhh!

POTTERMORE.

Books books books

NPR held a survey that 60,000 people participated in to rank the 100 best science fiction and fantasy books. They just released the results. I'm totally reading every book on this list, no matter how long it takes me. I've already read a lot of them, but there are a bunch I've never even heard of too.


I'm so glad to see The Thrawn Trilogy made the list. Definitely the best Star Wars EU books out there.

What is this magic?

I just tried limeade (lemonade but with limes instead of lemons) today. I'm in love.

Harry Potter EU

You know what I think needs to happen? The Harry Potter universe has to be opened up for writers to create their own stories within. I'm not talking fan fiction, I'm talking officially licensed books that stay true to the originals while adding their own stories. Like how the Star Wars expanded universe has been opened up for others besides George Lucas to write. George Lucas created the original background, then set it free for others to expand. Some of those books are actually almost as good as the original trilogy, and most are better than the prequel trilogy. I mean, there have been entire books written about Han Solo's children, Jacen and Jaina Solo, and their names were never even mentioned in the films. I think it would be cool for this to happen for the Harry Potter universe too. This magical world is just too ...well, magical to end after only seven books, even with Pottermore coming up. There are so many more stories that could be written about this these witches and wizards.

"After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story—however many films it took to tell—was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories that I was destined to tell. Instead, they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided. Today, it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga."
-George Lucas

Does this sound like a good idea? Or am I just crazy?

"You are magical"


I am magical.
Oh my god.
I'm going to Hogwarts.
Oh my god.

So long, smooth jazz

I just can't win with smooth jazz radio stations.


So, a while ago, I found WLOQ Orlando. It was amazing. It was basically CD 101.9 (the NYC smooth jazz station that went off the air). It's been broadcasting smooth jazz for thirty-four years. And now, five months after I discovered it, it's being sold because the owners need money for a medical emergency.



I've really gotten attached to the radio djs, after listening to the station for pretty much every day since I've found it. I'm really going to miss the LOQ Café with Robyn Austin, Smooth Ride Home with Brian Morgan, Lites Out Orlando with Alicia Kaye, the Concerts Under the Stars live from Baldwin Park. It probably sounds pathetic, but it's like I actually knew these people. It's like getting emotional when something happens to the characters on How I Met Your Mother. They're always there for you.


They say there's a possibility that they may continue broadcasting the music online, sans the djs, but it just wouldn't be the same. I've already got all the songs on my iTunes. The djs make the package.
 I'm recording their entire last week on air. Must archive all the things!


Let it be known:

That at 2:10am on July 15th, 2011, as the credits to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 rolled up the screen, my childhood officially ended.

Oh my god, it's over.

I don't think I could have asked for anything more.

WJF7

I'm watching the World Juggling Federation championships on ESPN3 right now (it's still going on, if you have any desire to watch), and I realized I can totally do all the individual tricks these guys are doing. The only thing I can't do is string the tricks together into one continuous two-minute routine. I don't plan on ever performing, but it's cool to know that I don't have too far to go until I'm as good as the pros :D

DTS *fistpump*

I'm down in Cape May with my family and our friend's family.

I had my shirt on all yesterday, and my stomach still got sunburned. How does that happen? Really, how is that possible? Am I really that white?

The friends and I went to the Wildwood boardwalk to go on rides today. The rollercoasters were meh, but the log flume was really good. And there were no lines, since it looked like it might rain all day so I guess most people stayed away. So when the log flume was over, we asked the attendant if we could just stay in the boat and go around again. She said yes, awesome. Then when we got back, we asked again. And again. And again. Eight times in a row, oh yea! Completely soaked by the end of the day, but so worth it.

Lightning storms are great. Lightning storms over the ocean are the greatest.

And yup, I'm still terrified of swimming in the ocean. I just can't do it.

So much Bollywood

Just realized I can make a station devoted to Bollywood musicals on Pandora. Pretty sure I don't need to listen to anything else ever again.

Also, I saw the first firefly of the summer the other day. Life is good.

This seems bright and beautiful

The new Owl City album just came out. I've only been counting down to this for the past few months. So happy. So so happy.

HOLY. CRUD.

WHY HAVE I NEVER LISTENED TO DUBSTEP BEFORE TODAY OMG MY EARS THEY ARE IN HEAVEN

New SWTOR trailer!

The team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic (the new mmorpg coming out soon) just released another trailer! I'm not actually into video games, but this trailer is a work of art. Some darn good lightsaber battling going on here. Also, blue double-bladed lightsaber (the mark of a Jedi Consular)? Best type of Jedi, in my opinion. Not that I know enough about Star Wars to know the distinctions between the Jedi types or anything...



link (You should totally watch it fullscreen instead of just in this little window. It's got amazing graphics.)

Also, if you haven't seen the earlier trailer, here it is. Favorite lightsaber battle of all time!

So much rain

It's been raining for almost two weeks now. And weather.com says it's going to rain for at least ten more days. Oh well. So much for spending spring outdoors.

Welcome to Alcatraz

Lost was one of my most favorite tv shows of all time. Since it ended, there's been a void in my life. No more spending hours thinking about the latest plot twist and what the next episode has in store. No more reading theories on internet message boards and discussing the craziest ones. No more hearing Sawyer's "son of a bitch." No more island. No more going back.

I think I might have found a replacement for Lost.

Well, not a real replacement. Nothing will ever completely fill that hole. But this show might ease the pain a bit.


link

Alcatraz. Another island. Mystery. Prisoners. Time travel(?). Jorge Garcia (Hurley!!). This looks promising. I think this could satisfy my need for another scifi thiller. It starts in 2012. Can't wait!

And please, for the love of all things sacred, please don't cancel it after three episodes, Fox.

I listen to too much music

Let it be known: My 20,000th song that I listened to since I started using Last.fm to record my listening habits was Israel Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World! I totally didn't plan it that way (okay I totally did).

Another year down

I just finished my sophomore year of college. I'm halfway done with school. Oh mah gah. Half of my brain can't wait for college to be over, while the other half of my brain is completely terrified of what's going to happen once I graduate. But whatever. That's future Ryan's problem. Now it's summer! Nothing to do but stay up late, listen to music, hang out with friends, ...and work. Lots and lots of work. Fun!

Things that have happened in my sophomore year:

• Officially declared my majors to be communication studies and advertising.


• Decided that public relations would be a better major than advertising because I can get an advertising job with a pr degree but I can't get a pr job with an advertising degree. Officially switched my majors to comm studies and pr.


• Joined the intramural bowling league. Bowled a friggin' 207. WHAT UP.


• Decided I don't like having roommates. (If any of my roommates find this: nothing against you! I just prefer to not have people making noise while I'm trying to sleep.)


• Got my radio license.


• Finally got a job.


• Made it onto the honor roll. Good grades, oh yea!

Things that will happen next year:

• I'll have a radio show once a week. Y'all should listen to it online. I'll post the link to the radio streaming website once it gets closer.


• I'll be living in the brand spanking new honors dorm! ...If it's finished on time. It's still being built now. I have no clue what's going to happen if it isn't finished on time.


• Hopefully a bunch more awesome grades. Yep.

78 MORE DAYS.

I'm done with classes for this year. Now I just have one more paper that's due on Tuesday, and four final exams next week, none of which I'm worried about. And then this year is completely over! Coasting coasting coasting.

And now the big news: the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two trailer just came out! Feast your eyes upon this glorious video:



Let the countdown begin!

I've always wondered this...

If  you don't read XKCD, you totally should. Here's a recent comic from it:


(click to see larger!)

Semi-related to the comic, I've always been confused as to why the Star Wars universe used words like Y-wing and X-wing when their language is written in aurebesh [which I may or may not have memorized...]. Aurebesh isn't based on the Roman alphabet, so how did they know that their ships were shaped like Y's and X's and should be named accordingly? Oh, the things I think about.

So serene

Look at this picture. Just look at it. Is this perfect? Or is this perfect?


via From Me to You

Crank that saxophone up to 11

My roommate is currently blasting ...big band music? What? I'm actually enjoying the fact that he's blasting his music. So much better than the usual rap he cranks up all the way!

This was in my advertising textbook: "Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love, and got married. The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was brilliant." Hehehe

Dune: attempt number two

I'm going to try reading Dune again. I tried during my freshman year of high school but just couldn't understand it and gave up half way. I need to give it another shot because I can't call myself a full-fledged science fiction buff until I do. Nerd mode: commence!

Wasting time and Google Mapping

I spent a good part of tonight Google Mapping around Disney World. I always get a kick out of seeing the behind-the-scenes parts of it that the company never meant you to see. There's so much going on back there!

Here is a link to Disney World on Google Maps, if you'd like to try it out for yourself (be careful, it's addicting). And I don't usually advocate using Bing, but it's Bird's Eye map view is actually pretty spectacular. Here's Disney World on Bing Maps. Have fun and enjoy procrastinating!

I'm enjoying homework?

I'm writing a research paper on whether Japan is handling its nuclear crisis correctly. It's the first paper I've enjoyed writing in years. Whoa!

I have the radio license!

Guess who passed his radio license exam? This guy! I shadowed the show of a more experienced station member this morning. I just watched everything she did during it this time, but next time I'm going to start reading some of the on-air scripts. And the following weeks, I'm going to start taking over the board. By the end of the semester, I should be running her entire show on my own.

This college radio station is a whole lot different from the high school radio station I did before. This is just like a professional radio station. This is the real deal. It's so cool!

Next semester's schedule!

I picked out my schedule for next semester, and it is amazing. I can't believe I got all the classes I wanted. Seriously, there was only one seat open in quite a few of them, and I got those single seats. Here's what I'll be taking:

public relations/advertising research
communication theory
basic public relations writing
publication layout and design
intro to communication studies
ethical issues in human communication

It'll be a tough semester, but I don't have a single class before 12:15! And no classes on Fridays again! And I'll be in basic PR writing with the same teacher that I have for intro to PR this semester. That's a good thing. He's great. I'm content.

More smooth jazz

I just found a smooth jazz radio station based in Orlando that's even better than WJZW (the one I found in Washington, DC)! WLOQ is amazing! It's pretty much the same music, but this one still has on-air djs instead of just a computer playing music. Radio personalities will always be better than an automated system. Only problem is there's no way to stream the station through iTunes. But the web player is good enough, so I'm not complaining :)

My computer sounds like a jet engine whenever I play a flash video. Dumb fan that doesn't cool my computer when I watch Youtube grumble grumble grumble.

Stress overload

Registering for classes and taking the radio license exam in the morning. Could a day get any more stressful?

A trip to advising

I went to see my adviser today... He was my interpersonal communication teacher last semester. I'm really happy I got assigned him. He looked over the classes that I had picked out, and he said he wouldn't change a thing. Shweet. Also, one of the requirements for communication studies is three classes in related electives, but he said that since I'm double majoring with public relations, which is part of the school of communication, he should be able to sign off that I don't need the related electives. Three less classes until graduation, huzzah!

My whole future hinges on Monday...

Holy crud, I just realized that whether or not I graduate on time comes down to picking classes on Monday. All the classes I need are prerequisites for later courses and if I don't get them it delays everything and ahhhh oh my gahd dfskhgfdjhfas.

A place to live!

Guess what I just got? A single bedroom in the brand spanking new honors dorm next year! It's just being finished being built now and I'm seriously going to be the first person to ever live in the bedroom I get. I can't find any pictures of the rooms yet, but I'm going to go ahead and assume it's nicer than the bug infested building that I'm in now. And now I don't have to worry about finding someone else to live with off campus.

Things have been going in my favor lately. This is nice.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

GASP. dskfjhfljhagkdjshfgd

Of course, you're the Father of PR!

We had a test last week in my public relations class. There were only a few questions, so each question was worth a lot. One of the questions was "who is known as 'the father of public relations' and why?" This one was worth twenty percent of the test. I couldn't remember the name at the time (it's Edward Bernays, I still have no clue what he did), so I put my professor's name and the reason I gave was "because he is awesome and is the best ever at public relations." I figured, hey, I can't be any more wrong than a blank answer, why not give it a shot?

Got it back today.

Full credit.

Oh yea.

Splash Mountain adds lap bars

After a month long refurbishment, Splash Mountain recently reopened, with lap bars installed onto all the boats. Apparently, some guests felt they could get up and wander around during the ride, causing the entire ride to be shut down while cast members look for the guest. A few people always have to ruin it for everyone.


I'm not sure how much I like this new institution. I always thought it made the ride more exciting without them; the final drop down Chickapin Hill into the briar patch below felt so much more risky, as if you were going to fall out of the boat. Hopefully the new lap bar doesn't affect this feeling.

Another concern: load times. Now the cast members have to check every row before the boats leave. Shouldn't take too long each time, but added up over the course of the day? That could cause some longer lines. Disney says it won't affect the wait times, so I guess we'll just have to wait to see how it all works out. Fingers crossed for the best.

Now, there's the snow

I escaped the rain of South Jersey for an excursion back home in North Jersey... Now, there was some serious snow there!







This was a gift given to us by a friend. It's an outdoor heater. Supposedly it blows hot air down onto people standing around it. Perfect for outdoor parties in the spring and fall! ...We've never used it. I've always thought it looks like something else...

It's a moisture vaporator from Star Wars! There's a whole lot more moisture around here than on Tatooine, though.

Bet you never noticed this on the Pirates of the Caribbean

At the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Disney World, there's one of those moving ramp escalators that brings you up to the exit. Throughout the rest of the park, when there's a moving ramp, there are usually footprints painted on them so you can tell it's moving. But to fit in better with the theme of the attraction, the Pirates ramp has one foot and one peg leg painted on it! It's the attention to little details like this that make me love everything Disney does so much.

Advertising is fun!

I'm really enjoying my advertising class. The way it works is a whole bunch of professors rotate doing a lecture once a week, and then we're all assigned a professor and we go to that same professor each week for a discussion. Today's professor was incredible. I wish I had her for my discussion group. She was this little old lady that's spent pretty much her whole life traveling and advising advertising agencies all over the world. She really knew her stuff. I hope she does another lecture sometime.

I could totally see myself going into the advertising field. It's so interesting. The professor today was telling us about where most of the big advertising agencies are located, and basically, all of them are in New York City, Chicago, Tokyo, and Sydney. It'll probably be difficult, but maybe it might actually be possible to get a job in Japan doing this? Or maybe I'll just stay here on the east coast. Or even Sydney would be cool. But living in Japan would be amazing. Time to really step it up with my Japanese studies. 日本語はＯＫです！

Rainpocalypse 2011

While most of the northeastern United States is getting pounded by snow, here in South Jersey we're not getting a bit of it. It's just been raining. Not pleasant. But tomorrow I'll be heading back home to North Jersey for the weekend, so I'll be able to experience the massive amounts of snow first hand [assuming the roads are drivable, of course!].

Smooth jazz!

My week just got infinitely better.

Backstory: You probably don't remember this, but there used to be a radio station in New York City called CD101.9 WQCD. It played smooth jazz. Basically, I grew up listening to only this station, and never listened to any genre but smooth jazz until about eighth grade. It was amazing. Then, about five years ago, the format was changed to top 40 (Now it's called WRXP: The Rock Experience, blerg) and the station went completely downhill since it's kind of impossible to compete with PLJ and Z100. I guess that could have been a good thing, because it got me to start listening to other genres, but it was also bad because, duh, then I didn't have any smooth jazz (this was before I actually started collecting music, so I didn't have any songs saved). Last year I found SmoothJazz.com, which was okay, but it pretty much only played newer smooth jazz, not the amazing classic 90's stuff. It's nice, but not quite the same.

Flashforward to now. I don't know why it took me this long to realize it, but last night I remembered that CD101.9 had a sister station down in Washington, DC that was owned by the same company. I found it while I was flipping through the stations when I went to visit my cousins down there years ago. I have no clue why that fact popped into my head after so long. But anyway, I went to search for it, and it still exists! It's 105.9 WJZW and turns out it doesn't play over terrestrial radio any more, but it's still broadcasted over HD radio and online through the website (It's also in iTunes in that Radio tab in the jazz section if you look for WJZW-HD2, in case any of you are interested. You probably aren't, but just in case). Works for me, and it still plays the 90's music along with some newer stuff! It's like my childhood all over again. I'm listening to songs I haven't heard in way too many years. Even some of the bumpers (those jingles in between songs that say the name of the station) are the same exact thing, except for saying 105.9 instead of 101.9.

Only thing I'm disappointed with is the fact that they don't play a Stevie Wonder song at least once every couple of hours. It's not that I particularly like his music, it's just that since he was on so often, my family always had contests to see who could shout "Stevie!" first whenever he came on. It was intense.

I know this doesn't sound important, but it really made me so much happier after these unenjoyable past few days. I am content.