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Posts Tagged ‘Sirius XM’
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Normally, I write these blog entries a day or two in advance and then have them scheduled to automatically upload at a certain time of the day (usually around 11:30am). However, since there are a few random subjects that I’d like to hit on which don’t necessarily require a separate, standalone entry, I thought that I might create a quick, impromptu entry covering a bunch of random stuff.
To begin, at the beginning of January I began teaching for a well-known online/distance learning-based university. After doing this for about a month I have to admit that I’m not impressed. I thought the online teaching setting would give instructors a great deal of resources to utilize for their students to learn the course content – I was wrong. Or at least I was wrong with respect to the place where I’m teaching. I was handed a syllabus and told that I had to follow it. Then I was told that I had to utilize the online-based discussion forums and online submission tools in order to receive assignments. That wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t both filled with glitches that render their usage impossible. All in all, it makes the instructor (me) feel that I do not have much control over the class and its direction. That’s not a good feeling for an educator.
On top of it all, my pay rate (which is the least of my concerns with this arrangement) is a couple of hundred dollars per student enrolled in the course with an enrollment cap of 15. Not a bad pay rate really except that less than 5 students are enrolled in the course. Whoopie.
Two weeks ago, though, I began teaching a brand new course that I designed. This course is being taught at the local college and it has been good so far. I do have some concerns about the real-world preparedness level of the students in that at least half of the class chooses to not hand in assignments on time. I also have some concerns about the students comprehending the information that I give them in class. For example, one assignment asked students to identify a specific type of organization. We talked about these organizations for over an hour in class and two short reading assignments went in depth about the typical characteristics of these organizations. Again, more than half of the class chose groups that were not even remotely close to what the ones they were supposed to identify.
That’s somewhat troubling for the future workforce…
Hey – Lost is back on ABC tonight, huh? That’s pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to the final season of this show if only because I have to get it out of my mind! Does anyone think that all of the Lost fans out there will be completely satisfied with the “answers” that are given this season? I tend to think that the Lost writers have set themselves up for a catastrophic failure if they don’t answer every single question that is out there about the show. I guess that judgment should be reserved until after the season really gets into the swing of things. All I know is that a lot of people have invested a lot of time into watching that show and they better not blow it.
I will hopefully have some more encouraging news about my student loans coming up in the next few days. You can guess what that might be…
If you keep an eye on the market, then I’m sure that you’ve seen how Sirius XM is blowing up all over the place! For those of us that purchased this stock at a dime or two per share, we’re doing pretty good with our investment at this point. Last I checked, share prices were at 0.94. Not bad making 1000% return on an investment, huh?
And just think – if you listened to almost every big internet stock market website out there you would have sold this stock when it was down to a nickel per share. Talk about being shortsighted! That’s why I do my own research on the stocks that I purchase – the internet stock market sites have an agenda and I’m not interested in their garbage.
Oh, and I’ve been doing pretty well with Ford (which the internet stock market sites said I should have sold a year ago) and Barnes & Nobles (same story). The lesson learned here is to do your own research and trust your gut!
Eddie has been doing a fine job with running TBLWrestling.com. Hits are up an incredible percentage and I’m proud of his efforts. Good work, Eddie! I’ve been running TNAStars.com now for about a month and I’m pleased that it has already achieved some level of success. Both of these sites are hobby sites for Eddie and I and we only spend a few minutes each day putting up some updates. With such reduced involvement, I’m glad to know that the people out there like what we’re doing!
I guess that’s about it. See you tomorrow!
Posted in Entertainment, Random Entries | No Comments »
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Sometimes I hear a song that I like on Sirius XM ’s Alt Nation and I go home to find out more about the band who sings the song. Generally, I’ll then go to YouTube to hear some more of their songs and, if the band is good and the music is worth listening to, I’ll find a way to download the music either through iTunes or through some other online distribution method.
Such was the way that I wound up downloading MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular album. If you don’t know, MGMT is the band that sings one of the songs that always seems to be on Alt Nation – Kids. It’s a catchy song that mixes a bunch of different styles and sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure that if you haven’t heard it on Alt Nation or whatever your local radio station is, that you’ll enjoy it. In fact, I’ve got a YouTube video for the song embedded below. Maybe you want to scroll down there and listen to it while you read the rest of this post (I take no responsibility for the weirdo video associated with the song).
After downloading the rest of the album, though, I don’t think that most of MGMT’s music is for me. While I’ve had some recent success with listening to (and liking) all of Cartel’s Cycle and Owl City’s Ocean Eyes, my luck ran out with MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.
To MGMT’s credit, though, the album doesn’t have a lot of bad songs on it. In fact, most of the songs are pretty good. However, the general sound – which is a type of electronica and psychedelic blend (some even call it synthpop, but I don’t know what that means) – it just wasn’t for me. However, if you like that sort of stuff, then you’ll absolutely love MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.
Pretty weird video, huh? So if this stuff is for you, then by all means – go and get yourself a copy of this album. But if this isn’t really your thing, then you might want to just download a copy of Kids from iTunes or Amazon.com or some other music service. If anything, that’s a pretty good song. Enjoy!
Posted in Book, DVD, Movie, & Media Reviews | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Usually on my ride to and from work each day I’m listening to Sirius XM. If there is nothing good on Howard 100 or Howard 101, then my next stop is AltNation on channel 21. I like AltNation because it’s a nice mix of standard alternative and contemporary alternative rock mixed together. Makes for nice listening music when you’re driving home after a long day at work or when you’re on your way to work when you’d much rather be asleep.
The other day I heard a song called “Fireflies ” by an artist named Owl City . The song was sort of weird in that the lyrics almost didn’t make any sense. Some guy was singing about catching fireflies and keeping them in a jar – weird. Anyway, aside from lyrics that made me go, “hmmm…” the sound of the song was almost whimsical, if that adjective can be attributed to a song. I was intrigued and added the song to my Sirius XM alerts – meaning that whenever the song was played on any channel, my radio would beep and tell me which channel I could switch to in order to hear the song.
A few days went by and the radio didn’t beep “Fireflies,” but I was able to bring up the video on YouTube. It’s crazy. It’s a guy (who apparently calls himself “Owl City“) sitting in a room with a variety of light-up toys blinking on and off. Weird, but sort of funny.
The video was so crazy that I decided to listen to the entire Ocean Eyes album and I loved it. It’s really a type of electronic/emo sound, but the lyrics in the songs are so out there that I can’t help but enjoy it. The dude sings about going to the dentist! The dentist! Ha! Then there’s another song about him being a worm lowered into the ocean on a hook to have a party with his undersea friends.
What might be most interesting, though, is that I found this album to be incredibly calming when I listened to it. And that’s sort of funny to me because I generally hate the electronic/emo type of music. I don’t know – something about Owl City’s music just seems to calm down the rage a bit. It’s a nice change, actually. I found myself listening to the album as I was designing websites for Usable Web Solutions, LLC and it helped me to focus – very nice indeed.
So if you have a few extra bucks built-up on iTunes or if you have a few minutes and you can get over to YouTube, then I suggest listening to this guy. He’s pretty good and I think you’ll enjoy it.
Posted in Book, DVD, Movie, & Media Reviews | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Some of the most fun that I have with this blog is tracking where the visitors come from; especially when they are coming from a search engine. Yesterday, Sirius XM’s Howard Stern and his crew took the day off (it was Labor Day – we all had the day off). Well, he takes a day off and what do I get on this blog? That’s right – a bunch of hits from people who are Googling the “Howard Stern Vacation Schedule.”
Ha ha! I love it! Talk about having some impact on the internet!
As for the topic itself, no Howard Stern is not on vacation this week. Granted, I can understand why some fans feel the need to have the internet confirm this for them – I mean the man and his crew seem to take off every other week. Show producer Gary Dell’Abate claims that the crew gets 10 weeks of vacation every year. I don’t know about that – it certainly seems like they take off a great deal more time than that each year, especially when you consider that they get off every Friday and holidays in addition to those 10 weeks.
I think that it’s for reasons like this that Sirius XM subscribers and Howard Stern fans get frustrated when Stern talks about how he’s exhausted and he wants to hang it up when his contract is up. Sure, as a stockholder I want to see Howard stick around because I think it helps the brand. However, as a fan of the show I don’t want to hear about how this guy is tired and exhausted all of the time. He is on air at most for 20 hours each week (not including commercial and not-live-content breaks). Some folks out there do that much work in 2 days. Stern and the on-air talent do it in 4. That’s not a bad gig.
Anyway, the point of the post is that while Howard and his team go on vacation way too much as it is, they are not on vacation this week. Labor Day seems to have fooled some people.
Posted in Entertainment | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Sure, the Dow Jones may not be back above five figures yet, but anyone who decided to invest in those stocks that everyone used to criticize like Ford, Sirius XM, and Bank of America…well, let’s say that we’re doing pretty good right now!
Sirius XM closed around 68 cents today. So…for those of us who bought it at 11 cents, that’s not a bad gain, huh? 
One of my roommates and I are somewhat “new” to the investing game and while other people are talking about how bad they are losing money, we’re both up over 100% in our portfolios. In fact, as of today my stock portfolio is up over 150%. I think the reason why we’re up so much is – first and foremost – that we bought when the market was low and everyone thought that the world was going to end. When people are dropping the value of stocks based on fear and paranoia, you have to jump in and buy.
However, I think that one of the reasons why we’re both doing so well is that we’re purchasing stocks with which whose products we are familiar with on a personal level. For example, I invest in Sirius XM because I know that they have a quality product (unless you’re one of these people who have the service for Howard Stern alone, then you might be annoyed at the 10 weeks of vacation that he takes every year). But when it comes to commercial-free music and something to listen to during the work day, no one can deny that Sirius XM is a great product.
Anyway, the reason for writing this post is to tell the everyday people out there that they can invest in the stock market and find success.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Just when you thought the man couldn’t work any less…Howard Stern is on vacation again! This vacation started last week and will last through the end of this week. I understand that he has these types of vacation breaks written into his contract and I think that it’s great for him and his crew.
Sometimes, though, I have to question the wisdom of the powers that be at Sirius XM of allowing him to take the vacation breaks. The case that I have in my mind is from the winter months (might have been December) when XM subscribers were given a free preview of the Howard Stern channels for a week. I thought that was a great promotion, except that the Stern crew was on vacation that week! Good grief!
Anyway, since I’ve been getting a lot of traffic on the blog in the last few days from people Googling what the deal is, I thought I’d add this entry. Howard Stern is on vacation, again, and I believe that he’ll be back on the radio live next Monday morning.
Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »
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