Day: August 21, 2004

Last week I had some work done on my car that involved removing the battery, so I lost the programming for my radio buttons. Rather than trying to remember or look up all of the frequencies, I’m experimenting with a new system – natural selection.

Here’s how it works:

There are six buttons. The last button never changes because I’m too aware that 107.9 “The End” is the best station in Sacramento for a compromise between my tastes, what I can tolerate, and the crap that actually gets played, and since it’s really the last station before it cycles around, it makes sense to keep it the last button. It’s been there for years, and it just feels like “home.”

The other five buttons are completely flexible – if they play something I hate, or they talk too long, or too many DJ’s are talking at once, I just hit scan until I hear something I like and I reprogram that button. I don’t even try to determine what the station is or whether it already exists on another button.

Using this system, I’ve already been pleasantly surprised a couple of times by what came up. One day in a freak accident, I actually programmed a button for the local Christian Rock station, but that was quickly corrected by stations higher up the food chain. By the way, I don’t think “Christian Rock” is an oxymoron. People like Phil Keaggy and Larry Norman have done some really fantastic stuff.

This is a quick update on my campaign for a seat as a Governing Board Member for the local elementary school district. I’m really doing this. My name will be on the same ballot as Bush and Kerry when we go to the polls here in Auburn this November. It cost $330 to give myself a “shout-out” in the back of the sample ballot, and I had to swear before a notary public that I’d uphold the constitutions of the United States and the state of California, forsaking all enemies.

As it happens, there are seven people vying for two seats in this race, which is pretty much unprecedented. You can read all about it in this article from the local paper that appeared yesterday: Financial Issues Key in Auburn Union Race. In this article, I play the part of Christopher Benson.