...his eyes are too close together...

What I'm Listening To:

Artist: Beep Beep
Song: The Threat of Nature
Album: Business Casual


Wow. So much for timely updates...

Between the scandal surrounding Detroit's Mayor, the auto industry losing jobs, and Orchard Lake road having the worst potholes in the country, there has been a lot happening in southeast Michigan. Since most of you don't live near here (sad face), I'll just keep this entry about the Robertson clan (myself, Janae, and the three [cats]'children'). But if you want to talk about the auto industry, car-devouring potholes, or would like to know what TextGate is all about - just let me know.

To start out, I began my fourth quarter at Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts this week. I'm very proud to report a cumulative GPA of 3.89 for quarters one through three. This quarter is focused primarily on honing on-air skills and producing a demo tape, which is typically required for job interviews in the broadcasting world. I think it'll be a very busy quarter. Each set of eight weeks goes by more quickly than the last. When I am able to get my demo completed, I'll do my best to post it here for all to hear (hooray for homophones!)

I'm one month into my internship at a local radio station, which has been very cool. It is the only all-news station in Michigan, WWJ NewsRadio 950AM. I already listened to that station prior to my internship there, so it's been neat to participate in what happens on the other side of the broadcast. So much so, in fact, that I am strongly considering a focus on news rather than trying to be a DJ at a typical radio station. If the internship goes well and if they have an opening when school is finished, I might be able to start working there right away. I say 'might' because getting a job in a large market (like Detroit - 10th largest radio market in the country) is practically unheard of without having worked at least one small-to-medium market for a few years. For a little perspective, Lebanon would be considered small market and Springfield a medium market.

Anyhoo... as an intern, I'm not able to say or write anything that goes on the air. However, I can write news stories and have one of the producers copy and paste it into the broadcast schedule for one of the anchors to read. Weird, I know - it has to do with 'union rules' or something. It's been pretty cool to write stories and then hear them on the air later. Other than writing news, I also make phone calls, find interesting stories we aren't already talking about, looking for updates to previous reports, and helping cut audio. As I said, due to the intern title, I can't be on the air. But you can hear some great news and maybe something I wrote on the 24-hour live stream at http://www.wwj.com

This last bit of news is bittersweet, you'll understand why as I tell you. Janae and I made one of the biggest decisions we've had to make since we got married (not including the getting married part, hence the word 'since'). We have decided to make Michigan our home, at least for the next few years. Janae loves her job and there are many opportunities for me to begin my career in this area as well. That's not to say we won't ever be back in Missouri, but at this point it may be at least a few years before we have the chance to do so. Why? Well, you'll notice I said 'one of the biggest decisions'... that's because the biggest decision we have had to make thus far, is purchasing our first home.

Yes, we are homeowners now. Well, we close on the 29th. We are both excited and sad. Hence the bittersweet. We are very happy to enter this new chapter of our lives, but we are sad that it has to be so far away from the friends and family we hold dear. This just means that you will need to come up and visit us. I want to upload some photos of our new place, but first I'll have to take some :) Since the housing market for sellers is so awful, especially in our neck of the woods, we got quite a deal. Even at current market value, our house appraised for about $25,000 more than what we paid for it. We are very fortunate to have gotten about twice the house we normally would be able to afford as first-time home buyers. It's a ranch, about 3700 square feet, including the finished walk-out basement. The house has three bedrooms, so plenty of space for guests to spend a weekend, hint-hint. Structurally, the house is pretty sound. However, all of the flooring, bathroom tile, kitchen cabinets, appliances, and fixtures will eventually need to be updated as they've been unchanged since the house was built in 1989. Needless to say, we won't be able to renovate/update everything right away. We do hope to tackle at least a good chunk of the flooring before we actually move in. As I said, I want to upload some photos and will do so as soon as I take some. I want to do it soon, as the before/after shots would be quite dramatic :)

All-in-all things are going well for us. We may have finally found a church we like that doesn't speak in tongues, has plenty of other people our age, and has a great worship band. I want to thank those of who have been praying for us. We've definitely noticed. I would rather keep typing, but my day starts somewhat early when I have to be at the station - and today is one of those days. Hopefully this update will get around to everyone soon.

By the way, Elbow's fourth amazing album will be released on March 17th. It won't be available in U.S. stores, but you can either get it from amazon.co.uk or I think it will be on iTunes as well. Do your ears a favor and get a copy however you can (legally, of course).

Cheers.


What I'm Listening To:

Artist: Paul Simon
Song: That Was Your Mother
Album: Graceland