What A Year It's Been!

On April 12, 2011, no KUPL listener had started rambling on KUPL's website.  There was nothing from listeners about shows in the Bing Lounge, birthdays, bears, sandwiches, or anything else imaginable.

That all changed the next day, on April 13, 2011.  On that day, one year ago today, "Ramblings from a KUPL Listener" was unleashed to the internet.

Before that fateful day, I'd never posted to a blog.  Being the non-technical person I am, I needed all the help I could get on how to get started, etc.  Fortunately, for me at least, (I don't know how he'd see it), I had someone I could turn to with all my questions and concerns; Earthquake Jake, the brains behind the whole "listener blog".  The man has to have the patience of a saint for all the questions, and insecurities I've bombarded him with in the past year!

 What a year it's been though!  From day one I've been able to post as much, or as little as I want; about anything I want to write about.  I love that, because it gives me a chance to be creative, which is a big part of who I am. 

Over the past year, I've been to several performances in the Bing Lounge, and blogged about each one.  I feel very lucky to have seen such a wide range of musical talent, from newcomers, like Jaida Dreyer and Glen Templeton,to living legends, such as Vince Gill. 

Often times my posts were inspired by what I'd hear on KUPL's "Simon in the Morning" show.  One in particular I remember was when they had the person who does the voice of Winnie the Pooh on the show.

That interview lead to Scott, Jolynn and Jake talking about various voices they could do, which then lead to having listeners call in to do their best cartoon voices.  Somewhere in the mix the Muppets were mentioned.  My brain being the way it is, combined all of this into one bright idea, which I acted on, resulting in a post about the following picture.

 For the record, Scott Simon actually is as tall as Jolynn Winter; for some reason I thought he wasn't, so his caricature is shorter.  I could fix it easily, but it's been way more fun letting Scott kid about it.

Not all my posts have been happy ones.  I remember being angered by the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial.  I wrote a post in honor of Caylee Anthony, to get the anger out.

One post that turned out to possibly be my most important one to date was titled, "The Magic of Music".

I don't know how I learned about a blogging contest sponsored by the organization, MusiCares, though I remember thinking it would be fun to enter, so I did.  That was in October 2011, six months in to having my blog on KUPL's website.

The point of the contest was to bring awareness to MusiCares, which helps musicians, and artists with medical, dental, and other issues, since most don't have insurance.

The winner would be on the red carpet for MusiCares at the "Grammy Honors Paul McCartney", to blog about the event.

To my utter surprise and amazement, I was actually one of the finalists chosen!  Though I didn't win, and don't know where I ended in ranking, I still feel like I was a winner.  I mean, there were only SIX finalists in the entire U.S., and I was one of them!  It's one of those amazing times that become a milestone in one's memory; and something I would never have been able to do, had I not had this blog.

There are so many other posts I could mention here, however, as I usually do, I'm rambling again, so I won't.  Let's just say, in the past 366 days, (it's leap year), I probably could have/should have had more posts out.  Of the ones I did write, were all of them great?  No. To be honest, there were a few times when I wrote something for the sake of writing; because it was for a Tuesday or Thursday post, which are the days KUPL listeners can earn 5000 points for finding the blog word of the day.  Those are days I HAD to have something posted.

And lately, I've been in a dry spell; though just a few days ago, the ideas started happening again.

My goal for the year ahead is to continue posting blogs about anything and everything I can think of; and post more than I have been.  And of course hopefully improve with time!

Thank you to anyone and everyone who's been reading my blog this past year.  Though I may not know you, do know that I definitely appreciate you taking time to do so.  Again, thank you!

Cartoons-Voices-Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too!

Friday’s “Simon in the Morning” show featured an interview with Jim Cummings.  Mr. Cummings is the voice of both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger in the new movie, “Winnie the Pooh”. 

 When the interview was over, Scott, Jolynn and Jake were talking about cartoon voices they could do.  They also had listeners call in and do their best cartoon voices. 

At some point, one of the morning team mentioned something about the Muppets, and it gave me an idea.  I had this vision in my head of the “Simon in the Morning” team as cartoon characters; kind of like the Muppets. The idea stuck with me until I finally tried to create the characters. 

 While I was making each character, I was thinking what kind of background they had.  I decided the “Simon in the Morning” team do radio by morning and fight for justice at night.  I never fleshed out any real story line, just bits and pieces about the characters.  Somewhere along the line I added chipmunks also.  It’s because I thought of how Scott likes corn nuts, and how there are these chipmunks at Starvation Creek rest area in the gorge, (going east), that also love corn nuts. Following is what came to mind.

 Scott is the leader of the group; the one to hunt down trouble.  His only weakness is chipmunks.  The furry little creatures have an affinity for corn nuts, and we all know Scott does too.  When chipmunks see Scott, they come running, knowing they’ll find corn nuts.  This makes Scott laugh and laugh, rendering him weak and unable to work sometimes.  At the least, all the laughing makes his tummy hurt.

 Much like her day job, Jolynn covers all the details of any case the team is on.  She makes sure to get all the facts, and get them right, so inquiring listeners will have the full scoop of what’s going on in their fair city.  The only thing Jolynn doesn’t cover when on a case is the times chipmunks show up.  It was cute the first five or ten times; now it’s just routine.

 That leaves Earthquake Jake, a true defender of rules.  While Scott looks for trouble, Jake makes sure everything turns out the way it should at the end of the day, (or night as the case may be).  The only drawback to Jake’s job is when he has to bust his own team members.  A true stickler for rules, Jake has been known to call foul on anyone walking on a “don’t walk” light, even at 4 am, when there’s no one else around. The only thing Jake hasn’t been able to do is stop chipmunks from going after Scott.  He did try at first, with no luck; so he gave up.  Besides, the chipmunks are just so darned cute!

While I never got farther than brief little synopsis’ of the morning team, I did manage to create a cartoon character of each.  If only I could figure out how to animate them!  That’ll have to wait for another time though; too technical for me!