The Bird and the Bee

I first started working at the radio station this past summer where I did everybody’s job who didn’t start until September. One of those was a diluted version of the music director. Basically, I got to open all of the CDs everybody sent to the station and fiddle through the press releases. I got to listen to the CDs if I liked, but most of the time it was up to our programming director, James to decide what went in.

It was really cool because I got all of this great new music delivered right to my door. After starting on as Sports Director, newer music has been somewhat harder to find. Mike Chen, who is also a hockey blogger told me about The Bird and the Bee today and I am officially addicted to them.

the bird and the bee player

visit inara and greg on myspace or get this player

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He is Franz Kafka!

I’ve always wanted a cat but I’ve never actually owned any pets before. I had a hamster when I was really young but he died an untimely death, as they’re prone to do. Suffice it to say, that did traumatize me for a bit. MamaS doesn’t like cats so much; she thinks they’re too snooty and have a bad attitude.

Our neighbourhood has a lot of cats that just like to wander around outside aimlessly. I guess they’re pretty smart creatures since they always seem to find their way back home and I rarely see any “MISSING PET” posters around. Then again, this might just be having no idea about how owning a pet works.

We first met Kafka a couple of years ago. It was around reading week and our friends Ian and Amanda were up to visit in Hamilton. We came back from a night out one evening and saw him wandering up and down the streets. He came up to us and we petted him for a bit before heading home. While we were in the kitchen talking, Ian randomly pointed to the window and yelled “CAT!”. After first thinking that he officially lost it, we noticed that the cat had indeed followed us home and was spying on us through our kitchen window.

We let him in, he ran around the house for awhile and almost electrocuted himself on some power bars before we finally decided to confine him to the living room so we wouldn’t have to chase him all over the place. We named him Kafka because we had just spent the weekend watching this episode of “Home Movies” and we were singing the song all weekend, randomly…even on several crowded buses.

We ran into Kafka a lot around the neighbourhood and he’d follow us home every time. Sometimes he’d even show up randomly on our doorstep. We’d let him in and he’d hang out in the living room with us, take a nap and then go home. Sometimes we’d feed him but we didn’t want him getting testy or anything if we didn’t happen to have any food for him.The thing is, Kafka hasn’t been around for a couple of months now. While I was heading to work, I ran into him sitting on the steps of another house up the road. I went over to say hi to him and he came over but promptly turned up his tail and went the other way. I think he’s forgotten about all of those fun times we had where we either a) confined him to the living room or b) chased him all over the house to get him to stop going into places he shouldn’t be in and having him bite and scratch us as a result.I think I miss Kafka because I missed having a pet without any of the commitment. Sure, I enjoyed having him chase around a piece of string and sleeping on our couch. But at the end of the day, we’d always send him home to somebody else who got to feed him and clean up after him.

We did figure out his real name was Doomers and which house he actually lived in. Apparently, over the summer Laenne saw missing posters for him and it turns out he was quite the adventurous cat. He had been living in somebody else’s house all summer while they weren’t there. What a devious little bugger.

Penguin Grooming 101

This handsome fellow here is Mini. He’s one of 15 stuffed penguins my housemate Laenne owns. Mini’s the largest one of all of them, of course and he’s the one that gets hugged most often. As a result, he’s also the most filthy. Laenne’s had him for a couple of years now and that’s a lot of hugs from a lot different people carrying all sorts of germs until now. Since today was a rather lazy Sunday for all of us, we decided (well, I sort of forced them) to take up the task of giving Mini a much-needed bath.

Right now he’s drying in between an Ab-Chair and some hockey sticks. I just might have a future in stuffed penguin grooming.

Basketball Nights

My job at the radio station  means I get to produce all of the McMaster basketball broadcasts. The games are usually on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons, but this week they were on Friday and Saturday at night since the team was traveling to Lakehead University all the way in Thunder Bay. Apparently the Lakehead games are a big draw there. Nothing against Thunder Bay, since I’ve never been there but it doesn’t sound like there’s much to do there.

The radio station is in the same complex as Quarter’s, our on-campus bar. On the weekends, it’s club nights and that’s where most of the student population congregate. I’m not usually on campus that late into the evening on weekends, so as I was leaving last night it was the weirdest thing to see all of these students dressed to the nines sitting around waiting in the Student Centre. Our student centre resembles a shopping mall, so seeing a bunch of 20-somethings sitting in their club wear in what is essentially a food court sort of throws you for a loop. There I was, in my business casual (I went to a lecture earlier in the evening), trying my best not to snicker at how ridiculous I thought they looked. Not that I had any right to do so, I have the personality of a 60-year-old. (It is COLD outside, would it kill you to cover up? I bet you a shiny penny it wouldn’t).

The station is surprisingly quite lively late into the evening. Most of our hosts fight for production room time so they sometimes have to come in at odd hours. It’s not too full though so I don’t feel like an idiot running from one end to the next. I’ve never missed a cue although there’s been a few close calls. It’s a bit of a lonesome job, but it’s always nice because all of our play-by-play guys give me shoutout after every game and ensure me I’m doing a great job. I’m quite flattered and a little embarrassed by it all because all my job consists of is clicking a couple of buttons.

But boy, do I click those buttons well. Really, I have superior technique. It’s from years of being annoying in elevators.

Scattergories

I haven’t quite yet decided where this blog will go, but we’ll see what happens. Thanks for your interest, or perhaps finding this place by accident.