illusionofjoy | Mirrored TSWP Entry - Friday, January 10, 2003

I would have liked to get up before noon today, however it didn't happen. For the past week, I've had trouble getting to sleep before 7:00AM, despite climbing into bed around 2:00AM. On a whim, I decided to Google the term "insomnia" and I came up with this. I didn't know that pointing one's head to the north was considered a potential insomnia remedy. Considering that is the orientation in which I lay at home, one would think I'd be able to sleep better.

A couple of nights ago I was at WAIH, tweaking the tracks in automation. Since the transmitter has been putting out about as much wattage as a hairdryer for several weeks now and there is no telling when the engineer contacted to repair it will actually show, I decided to take advantage of the downtime to make the station sound better when it finally is back up to full power. This means that I have been running through all 10,000+ MP3s in the automation software suite and adjusting their cue points. By default, whenever a track is imported into the program, it is set to start from the exact beginning of the MP3, and the next track will not begin until ten seconds before the current track ends. When the next track starts, it takes five seconds to fade out the previous track.

This particular set-up would be great if every single song ever recorded ended by fading out. Thankfully, music has more variety than that. Being as such, the files have to have their cue points adjusted so that a song that cuts (ends suddenly) doesn't end up sounding like a train wreck with the other song starting before the current song has come even close to finishing. In radio time, ten seconds may as well be an eternity. Of course, these sorts of adjustments can't be effectively applied while the automation system is running its broadcast program. So, in a way, the transmitter malfunction is a bit of a blessing in that I can do this without having to pop in an album, since no one can really hear the station anyhow.

Much like when I was ripping the MP3 files into the system last summer, I find myself entering a Zen-like state. I've made it halfway through J at this point. It's actually been going faster than I expected, which is not a complaint in the least. I just wonder when the system is going to crash, erasing all of my hard work. It would be nice if there were some diskettes in the station for me to backup the data files onto, but that would be asking too much, now wouldn't it?

The night I was at the station I actually stayed until a little after 2:00AM. I generally don't like leaving exactly at that hour, seeing as how that is when the bars all close. This night it was snowing fairly heavily outside and most sane people had opted to stay in for the night - tipplers included.

I ventured out into the storm, knowing that the walk back would be less than pleasant with the winds coming in from the north - exactly the direction I would be walking in. The plows were already out on the roads, clearing away large drifts. Usually such trucks weren't out until 5:00AM. I was walking down one street when a plow came by on my side. I knew what was about to happen since the snow falling was light and dry; as the plow drove by me, I turned my back to it, watching a massive spray of flakes fly by on either side of my body. I knew the crap was all over my back, but it was better than getting a face-full of the cold.

I continued walking. At one point someone came up behind me from one of the side streets. They followed about 30 feet behind me for several blocks. The individual always kept pace with me, staying in the same relative position. If I sped up, he would speed up and likewise if I slowed down. It made me wonder what his motives were. I didn't really feel scared, but I did start to get annoyed - a bit angry even. What was this person doing? If they were just trying to get someplace, fine...but why imitate my movements? Eventually a pickup truck swung by and my doppelganger jumped into the passenger seat. Good riddance, I thought.

Had I been in a city, I could have disappeared into the crowd and lost the random individual who seemed to be tailing me. In the frozen north, in the midst of a snowstorm, that doesn't seem to be an option. Sometimes I just want to disappear and not have to deal with the shadows in the snowdrifts. Sometimes I just want to face the cold without a demons.