Well, not really. As some of you Star listeners may have noticed, about a month ago, the station with an identity crisis, let go of many of their DJ’s, moved Valentine over to my104.3 (formerly K-Big), has adopted a lot of grungy-rock into their rotation, and now sports an even “edgier” feel. Now believe me when I say I don’t miss the days of Lara Scott pumping out John-Cougar-Mellencamp-Whatever’s Jack and Diane every other hour but I must say that i don’t like the direction the station is going. Trying to be known now simply as Ninety-eight Seven but hurdled with the problem of not being able to drop the Star name from the website (because lets face it, 987.com is probably taken), whoever thought of this new name was thinking with all his/her/their lights on. if anything, this re-brand is pretty confusing. They recently changed k-frog to Jack and KBig to My, so why not just completely change Star’s name too? There’s not much confusing with a programming shift when the name is completely different but damn, whoever they got working at star is retarded. I swear Clear Channel Communication is about the worst thing to have ever happened to radio.

Anyway, so why don’t I like the new (but not new) Ninety-eight Seven? Well, is it possible to have their commercial sound bytes or still remaining DJ’s come off as less bitter? I personally thing bitter is great word to describe the vibe of the new station but I supposed “Jaded” would be a better hollywood buzz word. Bitter implies the sour emotions of someone that may or may not be responsible for how they feel, though chances are it’s that person’s own fault for becoming bitter. Jaded however has more of the feel of “poor kid has just had a rough time and doesn’t know what to believe anymore.” Awww, doesn’t that just tug at some heart strings? While Jaded is a hairline less negative than bitter, both are probably bad names to be given to a radio station but hell if it doesn’t fit the tone of the station now. And as a bitter and jaded person, even I’m sick of Star or Ninety-eight Seven or whatever’s horrible programming and overall brand.

I’ve now switched over to 93.1 Jack FM. While Jack FM has had its share of drawing grumblings from listeners who have since lost their country stations or oldies stations in NY, I’m not condoning the abrupt ways in which large companies switch their radio programming but with what we’re left with, I’m just saying that Jack FM is the least of all evils out there. With playlists of around a 1,000 songs vs the traditional Clear Channel stations’ 10 songs, you’ll hear songs you like and not get sick of too much repetition. Why am I complaining about this, because I finally get fed up with Star whatevers point seven and and deleting them from my pre-sets selection after over 10 years. That’s a big deal to me because I don’t listen to KIIS anymore either but they’ll still be on my pre-sets.

On a side note, in case you readers didn’t already know, I used to really enjoy listening to Jamie White in the mornings wether it was with Frosty & Frank, Danny, or Jack & Stench. I know she’s a crazy bitch and her voice makes Josh’s ears bleed, I still think she’s hilarious. Anyway, if you miss her, you can now pay $5 a month to subscribe to the Jamie, Jack & Stench week-daily podcast. I don’t know how long they’ll last and it’s still not quite the same as their old radio show (because there aren’t really any psychotic loser listener-callers anymore), you can still get your guilty fix of Jamie White at JackandStench.com. Why isn’t it JamieJackandStench.com? probably because of all this Clear Channel drama. It’s some fun drama reading actually to discover all the crap that went down behind the scenes at Star during the Jamie White years. There’s a hilarious recording on Frosty & Frank’s show when they interview Danny Bonaduce not soon after is departure last year from star to join Adam Carolla’s morning show.

My next purchase will probably be an HD radio for the car… but not my current car, my next car. I can wait until then to get new stations but for now, I’m going to make a conscious effort not to listen to Clear Channel… except for the Fish I guess…

Yay. That means I get to wear my black trench today. :)

It never fails. Anytime I get a little bonus in the financial arena, something always comes along to zap me back down to where I was before. I know Josh knows what I’m talking about. So recently I gained a little extra income in the form of a very generous 30th birthday gift from my folks. Needless to say, I knew something was going to happen. You know the saying “God has a plan for you?” It’s actually a truncated phrase. The original phrase actually reads: “God has a plan for youR MONEY.”

Not to sound bitter, because most of the time, my money ends up being sucked into an unavoidable pit where I would have had to fork over money regardless. In this case, the money pit is my car. My 2002 CR-V has been pretty good but I knew I was in need of some major work on it, everything just likes to come at once, you know? I took my car into Honda this morning after hearing some weird noises last night that resulted in the loss of my AC. Turns out, my compressor is shot. On top of that, I was already due for a routine maintenance so I figured I’d get both fixed at the same time. What I didn’t expect (but should have now that i think about it) was that I needed my front brakes replaced and some major fluid replacement/flushing… oh and new blades since its going to rain soon… and my tires re-aligned because CostCo did a shotty job… and a frontal lobotomy. Anyway, luckily the compressor is covered by the extended warranty my Mom told me not to buy as was my car rental. So alas, I won’t put down what the final bill is going to be to get everything fixed, but suffice it to say, it’s a good thing I got cash from my folks or else I’d be crying right now. Well, I am crying but not as hard as I could be. That money was supposed to go to Vegas! Well, in light of history, if I wasn’t crying now, I’d just be crying later on but with a $1 cocktail next to a giant Wheel of Fortune machine at Bally’s.

I do find all this to be a bit, hmm, not ironic, but strange. As I said before, I know that when money comes my way, so does “stuff” that will ultimately take away the money and set the universe into balance again. For this reason, i try to make it a point not to spend that money… but I broke that rule yesterday. While at CostCo, getting my usual box of Chicken Bakes (or as i call them, Chicken Nukes), on a half whim, I picked up a silver 160 GB iPod classic to replace my buggy white 30 GB one. I knew it wasn’t necessary but I wanted to upgrade ever since I reached my iPod’s capacity last April. I also figured I could splurge a little on myself. After I leave CostCo, I start driving home and I call up Lyndon to see what he’s up to. Turns out his car broke down in the MDR area and he was waiting for his brother to arrive with his AAA card so a tow truck could be called. So I go up there to keep him company since it’s going to be a while before his brother arrives or a tow truck gets there. While we wait, we pass the time by going to get some Jamba Juice. Not 5 minutes into the drive, my cars starts making this weird clicking noise (the AC problem I mentioned earlier). After getting smoothies and getting his car towed, I return home. Why do I mention this? Because in some way, I believe I transfered Lyndon’s bad car luck onto mine when he got into my car. That is why I titled this entry Carma… I shouldn’t have bought myself a new iPod and I shouldn’t have ever let Lyndon into my car. If he reads this, he’ll probably get upset but I’ll assume he knows I’m joking… half joking… sorta joking…

Moral of the story is this: if you have bad luck with your car, you can’t ride in mine… you can ride on the roof though if you want… Once again, Josh knows what I’m talking about. :)