Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

Happy Friday! I think I’m coming down with a cold.

I have a daily Dilbert tear-off calendar at work, and I pass them around the office almost every day. Every day it occurs to me that Scott Adams is a genius of the corporate world. I don’t even work in an extremely corprate environment – I mean, I can wear jeans and my black t-shirt with a big yellow Star Wars logo on it if I want. I love many of my co-workers, but there are a couple who drive me batty on occasion or all the time.

I recently learned about Scott’s problem speaking (Spasmodic Dysphonia) and the ironic fact that Dilbert is never drawn with a mouth. Then I did a quick search and came up with a post on his blog last October that, if you haven’t read, I would recommend: here. For those of you who listen to NPR, it’s the same condition that Diane Rehm has. In fact, when I first tuned in to the Diane Rehm Show when I discovered streaming radio, I thought she must have been as old as Mama Jazz from the local NPR station in Oxford, Ohio… who, incidentally, I presumed to be a large black woman (given her extensive Jazz knowledge and gravely, drawled speech). I was totally wrong. Mama Jazz is a little old white woman who’s been on the show for over 20 years and just turned 75.

Just goes to show that perceptions of Radio voices can be totally wrong.  Speaking of NPR, if you didn’t already know, the weekly This American Life broadcast was recently made available as a free podcast.  W00t, for sure!

I put my name, my husband’s name and my dad’s name into the lottery to get tickets to the Antiques Roadshow when they come to Salt Lake City on June 24.  The date passed for hearing if I got them, so I moved on.

A couple weeks ago, I found out from my co-worker that Garrison Keillor was coming to SLC to record a "Prairie Home Companion" radio episode, which struck me as an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.  Hubby agreed, and we shelled out the cash for not cheap, but not too expensive tickets to go.

Two days later, my dad called me to tell me that he got two Antiques Roadshow tickets with an entry time of 3:30.

Garrison Keillor’s show starts at 3:45.

I could go to both if the entry time to the Roadshow were earlier, and I’ve been trying to trade them with a posting on Craigslist and telling everyone I know out here.  No takers.  I could try selling them on eBay and purchasing tickets for an earlier time, which is what I should probably do if I really want to go.  Of course the tickets "are not for resale," so everybody on eBay has, for example, "a fancy white envelope, with bonus two Roadshow tickets" for sale.  Nice trick.

Anyway, I look at my situation and wonder how many people under age 30 have this kind of problem with two conflicting events when the events are Public Television vs. Public Radio. I don’t care about being on television with my antiques (in fact I sort of hope that I’m not… unless the tv will shave off 20 pounds, I’m definitely not fit enough for a video documentation of any sort). 

I really hope that I can experience both.  It may be a long day, and my friends and future children may think I’m batty, but by golly I’m psyched.  

P.S. I would have said "by golly" before I ever moved to Utah. I am swearing less here, though.