WebKittyn Warbles

I didn't know for sure until now.

I really feel awful so don't look for much of a show but there will be a show.

9PM-ish!

Forgive my lack of personality in this post, I puked out my charisma right after my charm.

See you in the chat!

The Plan.

A year ago I started making payments on SAM. What SAM is is a wonderful and very extensive program that will override the Live365 settings and run the station. It works in conjunction with Live365 but the music is not coming out of the Live365 playlist. This is a good thing as we are limited to 1000mb of space for music on the Live365 account and we use it all.

The only limit to the amount of songs you can run with SAM is the space where the music is stored. Spiffy.

SAM also generates an accurate playlist of all the songs on the station and gives people the chance to make a request! This is very cool, even when we're not live you can still make the mojo yours by making a request and hearing it played withan an hour (in accordance with Live365 rules).

It's a wonderful program but it's not something you spend all that money on and treat lightly. I started the 5 payment plan a year ago but couldn't pay that last payment until now. So now we're a go.

I have my other computer up here, my first last HP before this one. It's not a super machine but it was great for its time and it's a stable thing. I have lightning-fast business class broadband up here, another plus.

So the plan begins to form. Why not take the other HP and use is solely for SAM? Store all the music there and run SAM off of there. DJs can have remote access to the machine so they can use it for live broadcasting or whatever they want. It's up 24/7 and even if it goes down in a storm we still have the stuff on Live365.

Step one was to order a KVM switchy thing at the suggestion of Mango. I didn't even know such things existed and it was much easier on the wallet than a second monitor.

Today I sucked it up and ordered an internal 500GB hard drive and another RAM stick. It can only handle so much RAM but 1.5GB is enough for one application.

I want to fill up this 500GB hard drive with so much music it's not even funny.

Of course this means a lot of work for Meathe, once again I thank the Lady Fate that he has the patience of a saintly Seal and the knowledge to make this all come together. He's going to have to remotely go into the other computer and do all the setting up of the stuff and the .php end as well. I'm useless, I can add songs and diddle the .php but don't look at me to set up sql from the getgo. Nuh uh.

It's going to be pretty awesome once it's done, I've been waiting for this forever it seems. I love the thought of letting people make requests and I love not having to manually make a default playlist page that needs manual updating. I love the stats it shows you and the funky things it gives you. We've had an upswing in listeners and interest lately, I can't think of anything better to keep the momentum going.

Of course there's the reality end. That's a total of $500 I've spent this month alone on an internet radio station in a world that's chock full of internet radio stations. Do I kid myself or delude myself that this is somehow going to hurl us into the big leagues? No, no I do not. A year ago I would have said yet but not anymore. I'm not doing this to get noticed. I'm doing this because it's really awesome and it will make the listeners happy and maybe attract a few new friends. I can eat filet mignon without thinking I'm anything special, ya know? I'm doing this because I want to. I like it, my co-owners like it, my DJs like it. I have a mont-blanc pen I use for writing everything and ya know what? My handwriting is still left-handed messy. There is no ego involved here.

I'm excited, I can't wait for all the components to arrive and get started. Sorry, Meathe. I love you.

This will certainly keep my mind off kidneys.

I was talking with a friend tonight and he told me I was his 'one that got away.'

I liked that, it's hours later and I'm still smiling over it. There's some romantic notion to knowing that even though someone is happy where they are now, they'll always have that one little corner of their heart for 'the one that got away.'

We've all got them, I imagine. I have two (that would be you, Officer Bald and Frank Bryce McCluskey).

I don't get stuff like that directed my way often and it just felt good.

Made me tingle.

This was a great show. I sucked but the music was great and the chatroom was packed.

Grab it, give it a listen!

Hear Kitty Kitty Radio - August 17, 2008

What a progression of events that past 9 months have been. I've been through so much it's sometimes hard to comprehend. How quickly life can change, I mean seriously change. It's changed me in so many ways. Now it's all changing again and I'm almost afraid to sit back and let the good happen. I know in my heart I deserve a little bit of good after everything but I've become jaded. It's only just starting to turn and already I'm waiting for the boulder to come out of the sky and fall on my head.

Change One: My dad came home on the 12th. The man they said would never eat on his own, never be off the ventilator. The man they told me mother to make funeral arrangements for is home now with no ventilator, no feeding tube and he's even walking without the walker. He left on November 23rd, it's been a long time coming.

Change Two: I want to the kidney doctor today. I have to go to dialysis tomorrow and Saturday but then he's taking me OFF DIALYSIS FOR EIGHT WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My levels are good enough to give it a shot. I'll have to go for weekly blood tests but that's cake after everything else. At the end of the eight weeks he'll either take me off forever or put me on an 'expedited transplant list' because of my age and get me a new kidney within a year. I'm willing to do that but hopefully it won't go that route. In any case, I have eight weeks to have spontaneity back in my life. Eight weeks to be able to live and not puke every day. Eight weeks of not being filtered like iced tea.

Change Three: Follows two. When I go back to the kidney man on September 5th if my first blood levels are good I get the referral to have the catheter removed from my chest. Forever. I've had one shower since March 11th. One. No more sponge baths and shallow tubs. I can SWIM again. I can sweat again without having to worry about serious blood infections.

Change Four: A car is coming. Nothing new but I thought I'd be saving forever and looking for something in the $3000 range. This has recently been upped to the $8000 range which opens up a whole new world of Chevy Trackers. I still have to pay it back but I'd be paying double payments on my mother's credit card instead of overjacked interest from a car place.

Change Five: I'm going back to school for phlebotomy training in January. I couldn't get it together for Fall registration but I'm definitely in for January (providing I'm not prepping for a new kidney). It's only a year if you go full-time and the world needs more good phlebotomists who actually give a damn about people.

I realised today how very lucky I truly am. I had a rare moment of total clarity where it hit me how lucky I am. I skated around death, I was lucky enough to go into seizure when someone was there. I did not stroke out with the 300/290 blood pressure. I'm going to be part of a very small minority who actually gets off dialysis, a tiny minority diagnosed with "endstage renal disease" who actually beats it. My father is alive and doing well.

I have a true second chance. For years I talked talked talked about not liking my life and wanting to go to a new place where I don't know anyone and starting over but I never did it. Now I'm here, up in the middle of a whole new world. Woodstock is only half an hour away, I've got Bard College and all sorts of hokey local stuff. This is my second chance. This is my do-over. How many people are unhappy and never get that shot to walk away and start over?

Not that it's all peaches and pastries. I have to watch what I eat really carefully once I'm off dialysis and I have to accept the fact that this might not work and I might end up with a transplant and three kidneys.

I do know I'm going to make the most out of the next eight weeks. I'm going back to Dobbs to pack the rest of my shit, see friends I love dearly that I ignored for too long, sit by the river and reflect on the past nine months and all that's happened and what it's made me.

The tides have changes and now flow in my favour. I thank the Lady Fate, karma and whatever God or Goddess might be out there looking after dumbasses with kidney disease. I get it. I have no intention of blowing this second chance.

Hello. My name is Heatherlyn and damn it, I beat kidney failure. At least for now.

"now that my life
is so pre-arranged,
I know that it's time
for a cool change.."