The DJ Rollie D Story

2014 is pretty much over.  In just 25 hours we'll be watching the ball drop or whatever the custom is where you live to ring in 2015.  A new year, with resolutions to boot that usually only end up lasting about a week or two.  I quit making them several years ago as they never seem to pan out compared to some of the other decisions I make when I need to make them.   I was supposed to celebrate by seeing the annual New Year's Dinner Theater that the local acting company in Virginia puts on, but a case of mumps prevented that.  Let's just say hospitals are quite interesting in the wee hours of a Monday.  I should probably be glad that it wasn't something more serious like an infection that would need surgery. Other than the recent fever/mumps episode I've had to close out the year, the year has been pretty spectacular.  These were my favorite things about the year 2014. Walmart: In August a new Walmart Supercenter opened up in Mountain Iron, and I got a

Another year in good, meh, and horrible music has come and gone.  Being a DJ and having a lot of preferences to genre I generally listen to and enjoy a lot of music.  Of course there's always songs that don't catch my eye right away, or songs that I hate right smack out of the starting gate.  And so, with that being said we have three Top 10's today, one each for the best, mediocre, and worst songs of the year.  These go in no particular order. The 10 Worst Songs of 2014 Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX: Fancy  Iggy Azalea & Rita Ora: Black Widow  Ariana Grande: Break Free Ariana Grande: Love Me Harder Brett Eldredge: Beat of the Music- An interesting choice really, as this just won the country countdown's top spot for the year as a whole. Frankie Ballard: Sunshine & Whiskey Jesse J, Ariana Grande, & Nicki Minaj: Bang Bang! Jeremiah feat. YG: Don't Tell Em'  Christina Perri: Human Pharrell Williams: Happy.  Oh the rants I could go on abou

Today is the Christmas holiday.  This holiday is so great!  The lights, the atmosphere, the hostile shopping environments, the family stuff, the list goes on and on.  Of course, sometimes in our flurry to celebrate the season we lose sight of the holiday's true meaning, and the meaning involves part of the reason we can go to sleep at night knowing we'll ascend to Heaven upon our departure from our current bodies. Yes that's right, today is Jesus' birthday, and as Chris Rock said in a stand-up bit of his..... "We have an entire shopping season based around Jesus' birthday.  As a matter of fact, after the season is over, people will come out and say how horrible the Jesus' birthday season sales were this year"  This quote is so true unfortunately.  People will swarm the stores as early as October now in order to put those presents away as early as possible for people who probably don't even deserve them!  Then, it's about the decorations a

2014 saw a lot of great movies roll through the box office.  I had the opportunity to see quite a few of these either in the theater, the value cinema in Superior about three months after they were in the theater, or right after they came on DVD.  So, with that being said, here are my Top 10 movies of 2014 in no particular order with a short description. A Million Ways to Die In the West: A lowly sheep farmer gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to participate in a duel with the man who stole his girl, who coincidentally is very into mustaches.  A satire of the Old West itself.   22 Jump Street: 2 cops go undercover at a local college and try to break all the stereotypes of your typical movie sequel. The Giver: A teenager living in a dystopian future is selected to be the receiver of memory for his community, and the previous receiver shows him that there's more to live for in this world than what's provided in the community. Based on the famous children's n

Some of you might have heard of the Rifftrax franchise before, or possibly the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (which I'll abbreviate to MST3K from this point on), that aired on Comedy Central and Sci-Fi from 1988-1999.  MST3K actually got it's start in Minnesota on a small cable TV station in the Twin Cities area.  It was cancelled after one year due to poor funding from the station before Comedy Central picked it up and things really got going for the next 10. From L-R: Crow, Joel Robinson, Mike Nelson, and Tom Servo For those of you who have never heard of the shows the premise is relatively simple.  MST3K is about a guy trapped on a spaceship with 4 robots forced to watch extremely horrible movies involving anything from teenagers going crazy to cursed toy monkeys.  During the movies the guy (Joel Robinson or Mike Nelson depending on which episode you pick), and 2/4 robots (Crow and Tom Servo), sit at the bottom right of the screen in silhouette form and actively m

Today marks the end of my first year on Blogger.  It's been a fun ride writing posts from the very serious to the extremely amusing.  I would like to thank all of you who have checked this thing out at one point or another in the past 365 days. I would also like to thank those who have commented on my posts at one point or another, or those who have talked to me in public and over the internet.  Your support keeps this blog going as I know I'm actually attracting readers from various points of the country and world and all those page views aren't just from me checking to see if any new comments have been made. And with that being said, these are the Top 10 posts from the past year in order of pageviews.  They are linked so that if you wish to read them you can click and be transported. #10  What I Think About When Pushing Carts at Walmart : Views: 18 Original Publish Date: 10/23/14  #9  Tagging Books With Chocolate Flavors : Views: 19 OPD: 11/6/14  #8  Oh Happy Day!

Almost four centuries ago, a group of British folk desperate for a fresh start in life sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Plymouth Massachusetts to begin the Plymouth Colony led by several brave men. This group was a religious group, and had a real sense of family. Unfortunately, the very first Winter they were here hit them hard as a large number died and were eaten so that the remaining Colonists could have food.  They were also feigning off Indians that they thought were the enemy. The next Spring the Indians came and offered to show the colonists the many tricks of the trade they had learned over the years, and behold the colony fared a little better from then on.   Around Harvest Time the next year everyone gathered for a large feast and they absolutely stuffed themselves full of food, and were thankful for what they had. This feast has lasted through the ages, eventually getting it's own day on the third Thursday of November before former President Franklin Roosevelt m

Does music tend to seemingly flow through you sometimes?  Like you'll just be sitting there working on your math homework or driving back home after a long day, and BAM! there's the tune out of nowhere that you just start humming to yourself, or in some cases, sing out loud.  Or maybe there's that song that you just cannot get out of your head no matter how hard you try?  Or there's also that song that you can't wait to get a chance to listen to again. Music is awesome for many reasons.  It calms us down after a long day, sometimes matches hard times and trials and triumphs in our lives, pumps us up for sporting events, helps us through the hard times, allows us to show our love for others.  There are many more but those are the ones coming to me right now. I have listened to many varieties of music over the years, only just this Summer getting into the Christian genre officially.  I absolutely love Country, Pop, some 80's Rock N' Roll, Techno Funk here

Yesterday was our first Prom Committee meeting of the year. Our committee is a mix of several different groups of people who all have different ideas to bring to the table as evidenced in my last prom post. It's going to be interesting seeing where this goes. A new idea yesterday was to have it at the guidance counselors farm and go for a hayride, which a lot of people liked but still went down the tubes anyways when our class advisor came in and said that we need to have most or all of the event at the school site. We also have a date set, so mark your calendars for Saturday April 18th 2015 ladies and gentlemen and get ready to dance the night away after you're paraded in front of about 1-200 people then enjoy a wonderful dinner by whoever caters the event (some have said Chipotle) and go home at the end of the night thinking that was the best or worst night of my high school career. It's a pretty flip-flop evening if I do say so myself. We're meeting again Wedne

Well we're nearing the true Holiday season with Thanksgiving in 10 days (yee yee), followed by Trampling Everybody Around You Day ( or as the retail world calls it "Black Friday" ), and then Small Business Saturday.  After that it's officially Christmas time, and oh the wonderful, sometimes almost magical things that happen between December 1st and 25th. Lights, decorations, happy people, delicious food.  It's all so amazing that seemingly for this time of the year most or all of the world can come together. The 2014 Holiday Season looks to be quite interesting in terms of new movies opening.  Here are the ones that look interesting to me.  Release dates are noted as some have come out already.  The Theory Of Everything (11/7) This film stars Eddie Redmayne as the great scientist Stephen Hawking. The film mostly compiles the courtship of Hawking and his first wife Jane while also giving quite the accurate description of Hawking slowly losing mobility and t

So yesterday was my campus visit to North Dakota State University.  We got a campus tour, a chance to sit down with a admissions counselor and a former communications student, and we toured the Bison Information Network.  Needless to say it was so exciting, intriguing, and busy that I completely forgot to take any pictures.  Oh well! NDSU has a very welcoming campus where students are pretty much allowed to function on their own in a little community type deal.  As a matter of fact it has it's own postal zipcode, so you could technically live in NDSU, ND if you went to college here.  A pile of rocks also claims to be the highest point of elevation in Fargo, so when the floods come, you'll know where to go before you keep panicking. But anyways.. back to the independent living situation.  College students have many ways to fend for themselves, including paying jobs, dining facilities that you get a free pass to if you pay for it with your admission, dorms that are both single

November 11th has become a celebrated day for many members of the armed forces of the United States.  On this day, some of us will stop for a moment and remember our friends, family members, or co-workers who had to go off to war to serve and fight for our country.  Others will visit the grave sites of those beloved people who unfortunately were killed in the line of battle, giving the ultimate sacrifice for those back home. Others, mostly teenagers and little kids who don't know any better, will just see the day as an  excuse to get out of class to watch the school's program that remembers and celebrates the service of those in the military, at which they're more than likely to sit on their phones,  act extremely tired and bored (I'm actually guilty of this one), or talk loudly over the program and get dragged out of the gym or auditorium by their teacher.  It's sad seeing people who view this day as described in this paragraph, but in their defense, maybe they&#

This happens...... Oh the joys of running around the Duluth mall with this one in tow!

You can read the first post of this type by finding it from when it was published in August in the sidebar.  Happy reading Post Link Play the Daddy Warbucks role in "Annie": I've never really enjoyed the hero type roles all too much, but here's one I could pull off I think.  It would be so much fun to put all my energy into this snazzy politician that falls for his personal assistant.  Voice TV Commercials: Occasionally I watch the PBS station in my area, mostly on Saturday nights when I watch The Red Green Show During that time you can catch commercials announcing the sponsors of the programs, and the voice on that has been the same for so many years.  I wonder if they need any new ones recorded.......?  Host a Talk Show: Those of you who attended yesterday's division meeting will understand this one.  I want a show were I could give comedic monolouges, walk up into the audience, and act as the straight man in sketches.  I'd also bring my friends Caleb a

INSERT RANDOM PICTURE OF CHOCOLATE HERE.  My friend Lily, as well as her sister Sarah, both have recently done an activity that bloggers refer to as the "Chocolate Book Tag", in which we assign books to a certain type of chocolately flavor.  First, a little bit of back story.  I have enjoyed reading books for many years, having been able to read fluently since age 3.  I have not enjoyed chocolate all that much though except for the little candy-like things such as Kit Kat and Twix, which I've only really been eating since age 11 (2008).  So, with that out of the way, here you go!  Dark chocolate (a book that covers a dark topic): " East of Eden" by John Steinbeck (Read Fall 2014).  This book covers the absolute nitty gritty of life, discussing everything from women locking their families inside houses and setting them alight, life and death, and lots of other things that I'd probably be shouted at for mentioning on this blog.  If you ever have CEP

Recent events have led to me making the decision to write another one of these posts.  The last one that I did like this was posted in July-ish if you're still a fairly new reader and would like to see the inspiration behind both of the posts.  And with that, here we go..... If you see me glaring when walking past you, that's because I'm doing one of the following things 1) You've done something to hurt me (least likely) 2) I'm not quite sure what to say to you and a glare is quite unfortunately one of my normal facial expressions when I'm not doing anything all too specific (most likely) 3) Something has just happened that upset me (middle of the road).  So in short, about 50-75% of the time I wouldn't take it personally.  Always feel free to say hi when you pass me, I will be more than happy to talk with any of you who are my friends or that I haven't quite met yet.  I am not a fan of being sent completely random text messages that don't even

Well, today's the day.  That day when children and adults like will go up to the doorsteps of families in their neighborhoods and immediately demand candy, but in a cute way.  Yes it's hard to believe that the simple cry of "Trick or Treat!" could be so....well.....rude in a sense, but since it's the holiday we put up with it right? Of course this day has a name, even though the premise is that people dress up in costumes (one of my classmates is dressed up as a dog, collar included!) and that kids get candy.  It's Halloween! One of my favorite holidays, and the official midpoint of my favorite time of the year (9/1-12/31).  I remember being a little munchkin, always throwing on costumes and going trick-or-treating at the mall or dancing around at my old school's Halloween Carnival that the PTSO put on.  We'd roam the halls together and show off the costumes that either our parents created or we bought from the store.  Man I miss my old school! But

Today was a very happy day for me.... and that's weird being it's a Monday (my least favorite day of the week during the school year). Here's what happened. 1. I finally got the ball rolling with Iowa State 2. I have a place to stay when I visit NDSU in a few weeks here. 3. Got my first Cotton Chronicle article sent off, and it looks great :) 4. Got new shoes. My other ones were looking extremely ratty. 5. I AM GOING TO PROM!!!!! Start the happy dance guys! I can't wait! I was never expecting a yes 24 days after the fact! My first "yes" from a girl too. Oh man I'm bubbling over now! So yeah, lots to be happy about at the end of the day. I wonder what'll happen tomorrow....?

My "serious" college search is starting off relatively well.  After several e-mails back and forth with a broadcast journalism program director at NDSU, I have a tentative campus visit set for Friday, November 14th, which will include a full campus tour, admissions appointment, and a look at the Bison Information Network studio, which is again, where I would hope to get on at some point during my four years there.  I also plan to visit one of the Walmarts to get a hint of the area atmosphere, as I plan to continue with Walmart through college to attempt to keep up with fees for the dorms such as cable and wifi if I have to pay for them as well as slowly starting to work off what will be a huge debt from tutition fees. Man I hope these guys offer up scholarships to MN kids. ISU on the other hand, has not responded to any of my e-mails.  I'm starting to think they want me there on one of their campus visit days, which are Mondays coming up in November, and Monday is liter

There comes to be a time at Walmart where there is either no cart attendant on duty or the attendant isn't feeling the best.  Then because I'm usually the only minor male associate, basically the only guy who won't hurt himself doing it, I get sent outside to clear the corrals.  This is why you see me out in the parking lot more often than in the store now.  Now of course, pushing carts gives you a lot of time to think about life and it's various adventures.  So, here is what I think about when I'm doing one of the heaviest labor jobs in the entire Walmart store. I can't wait to go college! Where am I going to go to college? I wonder what's on TV tonight? Oh no! Don't tell me that's due tomorrow morning! When am I going to get that done?!!! I hope things are going well at home! I remember that one time at Storybook.... I can't wait to get out of here! I can't wait to go back inside! Aw rats! There goes another long line of c

So, today I was looking at colleges. For me, the ideal college includes the following..... 1. A TV station that lets students on air 2. Reasonable distance away from home and camp (12 hours or less) 3. Friendly staff 4. Higher chance of getting a job after commencement. That being said, I've found three colleges with highly regarded stations and good atmospheres. They are.... 1. Iowa State University 2. North Dakota State University 3. Drake University I like ISU the best currently, as they have a diverse program lineup that runs throughout the whole day, including a half hour newscast and a fifteen minute express news. It'd be a great school to launch me into broadcast journalism! My friend also tells me they have one of the best journalism programs in the country! I also heard today that I can start sending in registration papers (yay). I think I finally have this narrowed down!  Start the happy dance! 

Things are going quite swell with the Northeast Division so far this year.  I got the Twitter password changed and now myself and the other four executive board members can tweet on there as we wish.  For the first month I've been doing the bulk of the tweeting but there's nothing to say that can't change. We've also reached out to the division for their input on new cheers to use at State, in an attempt to hopefully change things up a little bit from the moose face, which is in most of our cheers (and with good reason).  A school already has one they want to show us at the division meeting, so that's good. Homecoming weeks are pretty much over and done with for the year now, and I've been getting pictures right and left to put up on the Twitter feed and on our website.  I am just loving the way technology has been being used by us so far this year! The week of November 2nd looks to be a busy one.  Sunday and Monday will see my friend DJ and I traveling to

Since the last time I talked about prom last month, ideas have started to swell in my class from the simple to the wildly absurd that will never happen.  Here are some of them for you to agree or disagree with in the comments Fire and Ice: Pretty self-explanatory  African Jungle: As described by one of my classmates " We fry up the chicken and serve the pink lemonade and watermelon.  It's basically like a barbecue! " The $500 Prom (my idea): Have someone's parents cook the food, take pictures outside with a poorer quality camera, and dance the night away to someone's boombox.  Also use paper and plastic so it's disposable at the end of the night. Masquerade: Mask your true identity from everyone besides your date and have no regrets by the end of the night right? Well when you're built like me.... WRONG! The "Acid" Prom: This one comes from my friend Issac, or as we like to call him, Pablo. " All but one of us would take a dose of ac

Overt the last month, the Ebola virus has surged to become a thing Americans worry about every day.  It's on the news, it's parodied on SNL, and it's always brought up in jokes by teenagers and college students. It's been known until now that Ebola is contagious and can be caught by anyone who's around an infected patient. Hazmat suits seem to be the norm when dealing with Ebola patients as well as gloves. But then on Thursday, this image surfaced on the internet...... .......and Americans went ballistic.  Who was this man not wearing a hazmat suit and carrying a clipboard walking so close to an Ebola infected patient?  Wouldn't he be infected with the disease too?   And then probably the biggest question of all: Is the American media lying to us about Ebola?  Now, the media has been known to lie to us before.  CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and countless others constantly fabricate the news stories to get their opinions out to viewers, especially with

Me dressed up for Gender Swap Day during our school's Homecoming week.  It feels so weird dressing as a member of the opposite sex. 

Every once in a while, we gain that one friend of the opposite sex that we tend to take a liking to.  This leads to one of the following..... A friendship that lasts throughout the years without any relationship A relationship that continues through marriage A relationship that has a marriage followed by divorce A relationship that doesn't even hit the marriage stage A friendship that ends once the girl is finally creeped out enough that she no longer wants anything to do with you and would rather file a restraining order than talk to you again. I've fallen into two categories on this list, the top and the bottom.  Yes that means I have never had a serious relationship.  Does that matter?  Of course not!  I've survived through my elementary and high school years just fine without a special someone hanging around me at times. But does that mean I haven't tried?  No.  As a matter of fact I've asked girls out on several occasions, and some have even gotten g

Summer I think more or less officially ended last weekend.  Since then, it's dropped to being anywhere between forty-fifty degrees at night, either being rainy or cloudy most days, and extremely cold nights.  I think it's safe to say we're transferring into our next season.... Fall! Trees changing color and lots of pumpkins and apples and pecans, all in pies!  Halloween and Thanksgiving!  The temperatures that are just perfect for doing just about anything!  It's such a beautiful season, and it showcases God's great creation in the best way possible! For some people hunting has already gotten underway as well.  I'll be honest in saying that hunting and fishing are not my thing.  It just never interested me in growing up as a kid.  I haven't taken a gun safety class either as I prefer non-violent resolutions to conflicts. This is one of the shortest seasons we have where I live, and I hope we get some nicer days outside then what we're having right

Just a little humor for your Monday. "Creeping is fun!"- Lily Wanninger "Sleep tight British children, your nightlights are lit by ghosts!"-Seth Meyers "I'm a man, but I can change.  If I have to, I guess."- Red Green "This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the pop tart.  It's the breakfast of kids who's parents are in WAY over their heads!"- Colin Jost Hope these made you smile!

Doctor Who returned on August 23rd after an almost nine-month absence.  And with it came a new Doctor, new adventure, and new emotions.  The new doctor, Peter Capaldi, is a Scottish man in his fifties who becomes the oldest man to play The Doctor since the show returned in 2005.  His doctor is a little bit detached from reality, and is trying to come to his senses once again.  He also looks to be more of a friend towards his companion than a love partner, which is ten times better anyways because who wants to see a show as magnificent as Doctor Who clogged up by relationships?  This is why I dislike David Tennant so much from what I've seen so far of his work. Here are the things I liked about the premiere episode Deep Breath, which is the only episode I've seen so far.....  I have the other five recorded to watch at some point in the near future (hopefully) In the opening minutes of the episode, we don't go straight back into the TARDIS like in the last few moments o

The fortieth season of NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live kicks off tomorrow with host Chris Pratt, who I haven't seen in any movies yet, and musical guest Ariana Grande, who I'm not a fan of, which is really is the story with most of the show's musical guests.  What really excites me about this season though is the number of changes coming.  We have a new announcer in the form of former cast member Darrell Hammond, who regularly subbed in for the late Don Pardo when he was sick.  Word as of now is that Hammond will be announcing the cast member's names complete with a new title sequence to honor Pardo.  I'm always open to change so this should be interesting. Next, we have two male Weekend Update co-anchors in Colin Jost and Michael Che.  I've always wondered what this segment would be like with two male anchors, and as of tomorrow at about 11:15 pm Central Time we will know.  Lastly, the cast is smaller.  There were too many people last

As of today I'm the official announcer for the Cherry football team! My debut will be at tomorrow night's game and I'm hyper with excitement. I have done announcing work in the school before, introducing Cherry audiences to basketball teams, but football always has a larger audience, especially here. Thank you to whoever made the decision to pass this job to me. I promise to make it my own,  and not copy those I've heard before me. On that note it seems that every time I lose out on something interesting, something better comes along. I lost out on Blood Drive Planning and then I got to sign up for IRYA's volunteer DJ service and then this came as a complete surprise to me this morning. Work has started on the story again as well. Still looking for more characters. Drop me a comment if you're in!

I am a drummer.  Not necessarily a professional one as there's still lots of practice I can get, but I am quite a bit better than what I sounded like around say... 4 years ago when I started dinking around with them in 2010 at my school, and of course way better than when I got my first set from First Act as a Christmas present from my parents in 2004 or 2005.  It's like a transformation going from a kit that can only make 8 sounds or so to one that can easily make 200+ I've had this kit for about a year now, and I'm loving it!  Some of you may ask why I chose the drums over something more conventional like piano or guitar. The reason being I just enjoy all the different sounds drums make because you can play at different speeds and with many different methods.   Of course most of you haven't seen me drum ever, and that's because of a few reasons I usually played other percussion instruments at school concerts due to the fact that the other

Thirteen years ago today tragedy struck the lives of many in New York City and across the United States. I still don't understand how a large terrorist organization such as Al Qaeda decided that killing 3K people would be the best way to instill fear in our hearts. What followed however also killed many people, and led to George W. Bush becoming one of the least liked Presidents ever. The War on Terror in my opinion was a complete waste of time and I think this different approach President Obama is taking with ISIS will have a much better impact. We will never forget 9/11 until the day we die.

My birthday is on Tuesday, and as I'm writing this post I'm thinking about the year I just had, and saying "WOW!"  So much has changed in my life, and I've met lots of new people.  I now have a full part-time job as well as the basketball and football managing and DJing.  I got behind a microphone in more places besides at somebody's wedding reception, and deepened my public speaking skills and spiritual knowledge.  I've also been to several places and did things I've never done before.  Lastly, I was invited onto Generation W's staff today so that's another plus! Turning seventeen doesn't really bring any significant priveledges with it except for that I can now get into and buy R-Rated Movies, but that's ok.  The priveleges 18-year olds get don't thrill me all too much anyways sans the fact that I'll legally be able to live on my own, which means I can go anywhere for college! YAY! As for the awesome people I've me