h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After I moved out of my one-room apartment into this, one-bedroom, place, I was faced with a problem - I only have one radio, and it's a radio alarm. In the other apartment that wasn't a problem. My bed was also my sofa, so the radio woke me up in the morning, I got up, turned the bed back into a sofa and continued listening.

Now though, the radio is in the bedroom and the sofa... isn't.

These days, thankfully, we have the internet, and most radio stations stream, so I can listen to Morning Edition and All Things Considered with the aid of the PC.

But, oh calamity, it's election time, and despite NPR being free of ads, they will insist on playing examples of campaign ads, as well as extracts from political stump speeches and interviews with unpleasant politicians.

So thank heavens for that button on my keyboard - the one that mutes the PC's soundcard The moment I hear the beginning of a report about the election - or anything at all I don't want to listen to - I can just press that button, and it's gone Of course, I was able to reach across and turn off the radio before, but this is so much easier and quicker, and there's far less chance of me spilling my

But I do occasionally forget to turn the sound back on

Heh... When I get up, my alarm is NPR.

I walk to the main living area (kitchen living room and unused dining area all in one large room) and turn on the main stereo then walk into the bathroom and turn on the clock radio in there so I can hear while I shower. I turn off the bathroom clock radio when I'm done in there, then turn off the main stereo. The bedroom clock radio will turn itself off shortly after I leave, one hour after the alarm. If I'm driving to work, I listen to NPR on the way in. If on the motorcycle, not. At work, I have a cheap clock radio to listen to NPR. I used to stream it, but because of an audit of computer usage it was discovered that many people on site at JSC have been streaming things like HBO and Netflix. So, because of a few eedjits (and I suspect civil servant eedjits) we've been warned not to stream video or audio because it slows down the network servers. (Yes, I know and you know that streaming audio is not a big bandwidth hog, but management doesn't differentiate things based on rational thought.)

Anyway, because my project at work has changed, I now split my time between my main office area and a smaller adjacent room where the scanner currently stands. So far I've been moving my cheap clock radio between rooms, but I think I should either get another cheap clock radio or move the large scanner to the main room. The main room was filled with 5 computer workstations, 4 of which did the bulk of image processing on my previous project, but now that that's ended (after 5+ years) I don't need the extra workstations freeing up a lot of room and it would be nice to relocate the scanner. I just need to figure out if the old compressed air lines in that room are still connected so I can blow dust out off the film and glass.


Diane Rehm is about to start so I'll be turning the radio off now. I don't need a mute button. The off button works fine.

Yeah, my alarm is set to NPR too, except when I listen to the classical station in bed at night and forget to retune before I switch out the light.

One other solution, if you're moving from one room to another, is an mp3 player with a radio. The former Mrs Gosho gave me one of those for my birthday and I love it. If I happen to be on the bus while ME or ATC is on I can listen to them now. If not, I'll listen to a radio documentary/comedy that I've downloaded from the BBC, and very occasionally, some music. In fact, I'm about to take a 15-minute walk to the supermarket with the player.

I was a bit reticent about using it on the bus at first. I often used to see all those folks with earbuds, fiddling around with their phone or player, oblivious to the outside world and their fellow passengers, and think it all a bit sad (and there's always those pillocks who have it so loud that the rest of the bus has little choice in whether they listen to it or not).

So when I first started using one myself I felt a bit of a turncoat. But it does help to stop the crazies talking to you. It does also stop very ordinary and no doubt quite pleasant striking up a conversation too though.

If you're listening on the internet, why not tune to the BBC or your ex-local radio station in the UK? There won't be any election news there.

Sometimes I do. Sometimes I stream The World Tonight on Radio 4 between 4pm and 4.45. I used to stream John Peel between 4pm and 6pm

But I live in the US and US news is my news now, I reckon. Plus there's also the local news that gets added in to the broadcast too.

Having just looked at a rundown of the stories on All Things Considered for this afternoon, there aren't actually that many election stories covered, but I'll give it a miss all the same. And I'll definitely be leaving both Morning Edition and ATC alone tomorrow. The last thing I want to hear is Republicans crowing over their victories and claiming that they've taken the country back.

Texas is about to get exponentially dumber.

That's quite an achievement given that one of our senators is Ted Cruz, Rick Perry is Governor and Greg Abbott is Attorney General.

At least for now.

Dan Patrick is the poster boy for stupid, religious right wing nuts.



(Although, Ben Stein is making a good example for intellectual, religious right wing nut by claiming Obama is the most racist president in history.)

Ugh... definitely a very depressing Morning Edition. I've switched it to a local college music station. I'll briefly switch back to the local NPR at 7:35 for The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Then I'll wait until noon for Houston Matters (a local program), Fresh Air, Here & Now and BBC, then it's off again.