The DJ Rollie D Story

How often do you feel wanted, valued, and appreciated?  Your answer may range from "all the time" to something more like "almost never".  Is it a requirement to feel these things in order to feel like you're having a successful life?  I'd say no unless we're looking at things purely from a social standpoint, such as being involved in a circle of friends.  Sometimes, we can still have happiness being alone and not with people, though I personally find those instances to be few and far between when taking a broad look. I sometimes struggle with feelings of being any of these three things, but lately I've often pondered the thought of whether or not I really need to feel this way about my life.  Is being wanted always a good thing?  I'd say not exactly, for it could be for the wrong reasons, as some of us have ill intent on why we want to see/pay/use a person's skill set or services offered.  Our intentions are not always of the best intention

We're just now finally kinda sorta getting around to Spring here in the Western Minnesota/Eastern North Dakota Area, after several late-season snow storms and temperatures remaining below average for quite a while.  There was also the flood in the Red River Valley, and the after effects that the flood brings each and every year.  However, this was the first major flood that I experienced in Fargo-Moorhead since I moved here in 2016.  I remember seeing the first news reports and then the State of Emergency and wondering what really laid ahead and how bad the flooding would get.  The answer to that is that it never got too bad in the communities of Fargo and Moorhead, but upon leaving the Metro, you really started to see the affects, with small Northern Minnesota towns such as Oslo blocked off and marooned for weeks on end with no way out, and I have to say that the residents of towns closed off by flooding are amazing people for dealing remarkably well with the weather-related tra

Last Fall, I decided to pick up a wax warmer for the heck of it, and picked up some scents that truly reminded me of home, one of them being Fall Leaves.  Yes, we do have Fall Leaves here in Fargo-Moorhead, but you don't really get the authentic outdoor scent that you get back where I'm from in Northeastern Minnesota.  I came home and plugged it in and turned it on for the first time, and it was wonderful.  It was so nice to be able to smell the scents that reminded me of back home while watching television, playing the drums, or even working on homework (I did all three of these in my bed room at that time), and the calming effect was definitely there. Per  this article  from Happy Wax, there are many reasons you could choose to melt wax in a wax warmer over burning candles.  For example, it's cheaper.  At Walmart, I am able to pick up a package of wax melts for anywhere from $0.93 to $3 depending on the brand.  At that price, you can truly choose any scent that sta

It was October of 1999, and the world was getting ready to either turn a new millennium and century, or freaking out thinking that Y2K was going to shut down all of our computers and drop planes from the sky.  I wasn't really thinking about either of those, as I was a carefree two-year old who had no idea of how cruel and unpredictable the world was just yet. But one thing was for sure, and that was that I had a little sister just entering the world.  Though I was originally supposed to stay with the cabin neighbors when Lydia was born, I ended up coming down with my parents, and being at St. Mary's in Duluth when it all happened.  Somewhere around my childhood home (not handy for this post sorry), one of us has a picture of all four of us together with my mother holding Lydia as she came into the world and me just sitting there all happy and smiling, my father standing off to the side with a calculating look as my sister was just getting acclimated to the world.  &q

It's getting close to Prom season here in the Midwest, and soon guys and gals will be getting glammed up to go out to some restaurant or ski chalet.  Hearts will be broken, the punch may or may not be spiked, and the decorations will look amazing. For me, I've personally DJed more proms than I have attended.  Being front and center for multiple dances like that gives you an opportunity to see what works and what doesn't when it comes to music.  Back when I was still DJing proms, the crowd hits seemed to be anything from the newest rappers to the Top 40 hits of the time, which came from artists like Taylor Swift (Shake It Off), Mike Posner (I Took A Pill In Ibiza), DJ Coolsnake and Lil Jon (Turn Down For What), and even Maroon 5 (Animals or Sugar).  Listing off all these songs that were hot three to four years ago makes me feel old in comparison to my actual age.  The attendees would always run to the dance floor when any of these songs were played. There were a

A while back, I had to stop and ask myself if I was the toxic person ruining my own friendships.  In some ways I think I am toxic if we're being completely honest based on my own personal experience with those who have toxic attitudes.  Just to give a few examples, I find myself to be seeking attention more than I should, letting things get stuck inside my head for longer than they need to be (especially my past experiences with people I no longer speak to), and I am almost always looking at the empty side of the glass.  To me, all three of these behaviors speak to the toxicity of me as an individual.  None of these things are ending easily with the mental health problems I unfortunately continue to endure, but I feel that I must do my best to try and hide them as often as I possibly can.  I must be a person who is always happy and smiling and looking at the positive side of the glass.  It seems really easy to do this doesn't it?  Those of you reading this who suffer from dep

I get three consecutive days off most weeks unless my schedule changes slightly to allow for a four day stretch or just a two day to accommodate the extra days off.  When my days off roll around, I always have the perfect envisioning of how they will go.  Ideally, I'll have time for my favorite activities, enough time to watch a few episodes of my favorite shows on Netflix and Hulu, maybe cook something, publish a new blog post or two, and of course the weekly episode of Untitled.  Most weeks on Wednesday, I will also make time to watch Riverdale as it airs on The CW if I am home at the time and will eat at home instead of going somewhere before Untitled. My days off come, and I am ready for these plans.  But then I have to do other things, these things being.... Homework Extra sleep to accommodate missed sleep during my work days Housework Trips to the laundromat Grocery shopping Unexpected errands Doctor's appointments and meetings Before you know it, it&

Ah... Spring!  Or wait, perhaps it's still Winter?  Weren't we supposed to get a major blizzard this week?  I'm so lost and have no idea what our weather systems are doing anymore.  Anyways, we all know what Spring means.  People will soon be boxing up stuff that they no longer feel they need and  removing old furniture from their homes, either to take it off to the dump or send it out onto the sidewalks for their city's annual Cleanup Week, which can be a really good way to find things you need in your home free of charge, assuming you might be willing to do a little bit of fix-it work. Personally, I've never been one to Spring Clean.  I will make sure my spaces get cleaned when they need to, but I find that things such as window washing, floor scrubbing, carpet shampooing, and so on can be done at any time of the year, not just the first few weeks of the season when we want everything clean all of a sudden for seemingly no reason.  Basically, I clean on my t

Passenger is many things musically.  It has been both a band and a solo act with a backing band, and it has also explored a few different genres of music from the quieter side of the folk to full on rock, and also some bold Americana.  Though it has only spawned one song to the major radio charts ("Let Her Go"),  Michael Rosenberg (as he's known in real life) has a lot to be proud of and has pulled in multiple listeners in many different ways through the ten studio albums he's released over the last twelve years as well as massive concerts with a backing band and even some street and subway busking.  There's enough fans for both sides of the music (acoustic and full backing track) that Passenger's 2018 album "Runaway" was recorded with both versions for each track.  How cool is that?  I could go on and on about "Let Her Go" for ages, but that's the song everyone has heard off All The Little Lights , and there's a total of twe

Back when I was younger, I had aspirations to be a voice actor.  In some ways I still do, but those have been mostly superseded by the thrill that is being on the radio.  I would practice different voices everyday, trying to get into accents and certain dialects.  Some would work and others would not, as is expected when you're trying to gain exposure in this industry or even just simply get a start.  How voice actors and actresses such as Frank Welker, Seth McFarlane, and even Nancy Cartwright can do it so easily floors me to no end. When I was on my high school's Speech Team Senior Year, it was mentioned to be by one of the coaches that not just one, but all of my voices sounded like, or at least had a little bit of my announcer's tone in there.  I had to stop and think for a split second.  Had the announcer's tone that I developed over the preceding four years crept up into my work as a Speech Team member?  I went back and forth with the coach for a little b

Every so often I'll go somewhere out here that I haven't been in a long time, or in my travels I'll run into a person that I haven't seen in a considerable amount of time except in passing.  There's usually not a specific reason as to why I haven't gone to these places or ran into these people, rather one or both of us have simply been busy beyond measure and haven't had time to contact each other or take time out to spend time with each other.  The human interaction component is missing so to speak, and so it goes for a while that we don't see each other or I don't frequent that location. The words that most often get uttered during these meetups with folks I haven't seen in some time is the phrase "So good to see you."  I always feel good when I hear that phrase because it makes me feel like I'm not just a distant after thought in the lives of those I know.  It lets me know that I have purpose and that I am cared about and/

Do you ever just take a second to let your creative spark fly?  I'm not talking about fully separated from surroundings day dreaming, but do you ever just sit down at the computer, the canvas, or in front of an instrument, and just let your ideas come to fruition in front of you?  Do your designs tend to fall flat on the paper, or are they everything you expected them to be, maybe even more?  Did you end up with a finished product that you didn't expect to have when you began? I am fully against the stifling of an individual's creativity.  I find that too often we tend to get stuck in the same rut doing the same things over and over again, almost as if our artwork is coming off the assembly line at a factory or if it's regular day to day process like at your job.  We've settled into a molded routine, and it's hard to break out from it and do something new fun and exciting.  As artists, musicians, authors, and even gamers, we must let our creative juices f