The DJ Rollie D Story

In late April of this year I began searching out volunteer radio opportunities for the Summer in the hopes of building some career experience before heading off to college.  Through a Google search I stumbled upon Northern Community Radio, a station out of Grand Rapids/Bemidji that had volunteers at the forefront.  As I naturally do when trying to get involved with things, I sent an email and before I knew it I was signed up for a volunteer training session and all ready to get started. The volunteer training is really cool.  You meet a lot of people who will help you out with stuff later down the road and you get to see one of the studios depending on where the class is (for me it was Bemidji).  You also get to get a playlist ready and after that's reviewed you're all set for volunteer shadowing.  I got that done as well in late July, and was on the air by the end of that week, and the next three weeks before I left for Fargo.  It was a nice wa...

I will never be able to process a linear equation or complete a scientific notation problem without a bunch of struggling first.  That's the kind of thing I'm talking about today when I say "things we're not great at".  It could range from anything though.  Perhaps we're not too stellar at cooking, or our cleaning skills leave a lot to be desired.  Whatever it is, let's not focus on that for a few minutes.... Today, I'm here to pump you up, and I hope you'll take this to your friends and neighbors.  The basic message I hope to share with you is that there is something you're awesome at doing, and we can all share our "special skills" with others.  For example. let's say Bob is not good with reading, but instead he is an absolute whiz in the automotive shop and will have your brakes repaired in no time for prices so low you'd only dream of them.  Or perhaps Liza can't drive too well but in return she can whip up a m...

You can read the article that inspired me to write this week's blog post right  here .  Happy Reading! ~ DJ Rollie D At a City Council Meeting in Virginia, MN on Monday, a plan was re-introduced to "re-vitalize" the town's mall.  For those of you who don't know, the town has a really tiny mall called the Thunderbird Mall.  It only has about 20-30 spaces and is currently sitting at a 33% vacancy rate due to many recent store leavings, including Kmart, Payless Shoe Source, Z Wireless (Verizon Retailer), and a little mom and pop jeweler named Suzanne's.  Even the Hallmark store has left, and this was all within the past ten months, meaning the vacancy rate has spiked. Now, several things have moved in to replace old stores over the years.  The area's local gymnastics shop moved into a space where Fashion Bug once stood last year, and a dog training academy has been sitting in a space near Kmart for around ten years.  That being said though,...

Believe it or not, it won't be too long (8 months) before we're saying goodbye to the Class of 2017.  I feel so old already, even though I'm only a year older than this group.  Before the whole sadness of graduation sets in, and for some other classes, the fun night that is your Senior Prom, you'll sit down to pick a few things that will get printed in your Yearbook and possibly put on display at your commencement ceremony.  Those things are of course, your class flower, class song, class motto, and class quote, plus your class colors.  It can lead to quite the spirited discussion in a lot of classrooms, when one section wants one thing, and another section wants the opposite.  It's how my class wound up choosing the Moon Orchid as our class flower (I still don't really know what that is or looks like), and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (dubbed "Flap Bird" by my class President that day) as our class song.  It definitely was a strange...

I am a giant fan of Christian band Rend Collective.  When I first stumbled upon them late last year I really took a liking to the backwoods down-home feel of the songs from their albums Homemade Worship By Handmade People and The Art Of Celebration .  It wasn't much longer in my music searching journey before I discovered several songs off their live album Campfire , and it's safe to say those songs have become my favorites by the group.  You listen to the original versions of their songs from the first two albums (Alabaster, Second Chance, Movements) and while they're pretty decent in their own right, I find the acoustic arrangements on Campfire to be far superior in terms of sound quality and a little bit easier to listen to. So naturally, when I found out in August that the group planned to release a second album of acoustic arrangements of their songs, I was overjoyed and really looking forward to what we might see on this new album.  The original rele...

Sad news from back home earlier this week.  According to an article by Jerry Burnes from the Mesabi Daily News, the Northland Building in Virginia, a building that has seen several different uses, most recently as a government services center, will face the wrecking ball next year and be replaced by a brand new building the following year, similar to the brand new Sheriff's Office and Courthouse just a few blocks down.  It joins a long list of buildings in Virginia that are either being remodeled or replaced as time goes on, and it makes me feel a little sad. The Northland Building was not necessarily my absolute favorite place to go as a child, as it was, just like the clinic, a place where you'd sit and wait in a waiting room and play with toys or read a book until it was time to go home.  That never stopped me from being in awe at the building's wonderful design, which is truly something to appreciate.  For those who haven't been in there before, it's tr...