If you need any help setting up our stream to play in your home or at your office/store, please email me: studio@kxrtonline.com and I can give you some tips.

If you are a musical person and have some Christmas music recorded, I will consider any submissions! Please send a link or an attachment with a high quality (192 kb/s or better) MP3 or a WAV file to holiday@kxrtonline.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

America’s Country – Listen NOW!

-Timmy

First, let me give an update on what I mention has taken over my life in a lot of ways, some regrettably, my radio station. I’ll go into the regret part later here. As in my previous post, KXRT was a music station that played a variety of music genres; Country, Rock, Pop, R&B, Alternative and others. I always focused more on Country as it’s my favorite kind of music and it’s what I have most of in my personal library. I also like a lot of music from the 80′s and 90′s too so I played them along with the Country. Doing this was great for folks like me, who like a mixture of music. Research and experience shows that I’m in a vast minority and radio stations can only really do well when they stay with one flavor of music. Yes, there are variety stations that mix different versions of Rock or Pop and maybe throw in some crossover Country that still matches that station’s general flavor of music. But they are still Pop stations or Rock stations, really. To that end, I decided to make to full switch to Country. I also changed the name of the station from KXRT to America’s Country. I still refer to KXRT in some ways but it will be minimal. The main thrust of the music will be all of today’s biggest hits from acts like Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Toby Keith and Reba McEntire. We will also mix in a few big hits from the 90′s like Wade Hayes, Clint Black and Garth Brooks. It should be a great mix and our biggest difference from most traditional FM music stations is we don’t have commercials. The best thing I’ve seen from making this change is that the major record labels from Nashville, New York and Hollywood have all been very supportive of my little operation! I’m getting music now just like radio stations either on CDs in the mail or through online digital downloads. It’s been incredible for the most part.

Unfortunately, this has a flip-side. Along with all the excitement and progress and support I’ve gotten from the industry and friends, I let something more important fall to the wayside. I was spending so much energy and effort on getting America’s Country prepared and launched that I had nothing left for the ones I hold most dear, my sweet family. It all started coming to light when my sweet wife said in a quiet moment one recent night, “Honey, I’ve really felt disconnected from you lately.” At first, I was concerned but didn’t really put too much thought into it. It wasn’t until a day or two later that it dawned on me, I’ve created a major imbalance in my life. After some more thought and self-bashing, I spoke to Rachel about my discovery. Of course, she was understanding and things really started turning around. Coincidentally, this all happened on New Year’s Eve and I launched America’s Country that midnight. I promised that since things were now in motion and moving along with that, I would start reconnecting. I guess I lucked out, kinda. I would have probably fought back and been more reluctant to get back in line if she’d approached me with it a week or two earlier. I know that Rachel doesn’t always fully grasp the reasons I do what I do, especially with the station, but she is very flexible and willing to make things work. I love her for that!

Sunday, after church, we sat down as a family and made our yearly goals. It was a very productive discussion and they were recorded and had all the details to make the goals realistic and measurable. I’ll make a new post in a few days about our goals that are fit to publish. We also had a really good follow-up discussion with Wyatt about his upcoming baptism. He’s getting baptized this coming Saturday at 10am. Details are at our Facebook Event. Wyatt’s Grandma is coming from Washington to be part of it and spend the week. We are very excited to have her. It should be a wonderful experience!

We have just about 360 days to look forward to! I’m really excited about all the opportunities we have before us. New Year’s is a great time to “reboot” and give life a fresh start again. I look forward to posting more here. I also invite you to join the America’s Country party HERE and HERE.

Thanks!

-Timmy

You may know that I am an owner and operator of a full-service 24 hour internet radio station. KXRT is one of my passions and if you ask my wife or son, they might use stronger language. I love all things radio and am always looking for the next opportunity to get involved. In the mid-90′s I got a teenager’s dream of working part-time at a real radio station. Sure, the station was a joke and had no direction and died shortly. But I LOVED every minute of it! Being behind that microphone and not knowing how many people might hear my voice was completely intoxicating. Soon, I was faced with reality when I had to actually make some money. Since then, it’s been a dream. I can now realize this dream from my house and have complete control over how it’s done.

KXRT means nothing as far as an acronym or abbreviation. I just put the letters together in my mind and they sounded exciting and dynamic. At the time, I did an internet search to find out if there already was a KXRT, I couldn’t find any. That was that, KXRT was born. Previously, I’ve used other names but they were temporary and pretty weak, really. I set about getting things started. I created a website, a Facebook Page, getting a radio buddy of mine to make some station IDs and promos, and tons of other stuff. The first computer that ran KXRT was a Pentium 3, 1ghz with 256mb ram and a 30gb drive. Through time, we went to a Pentium 4 1.8ghz with 512mb ram, a P4 2.6ghz with 512mb ram, a P4 2.8ghz (with hyperthreading!) with 768mb ram, and is now on a Pentium D 2.8ghz server with 4gb Ram and 500gb drive!

For most of its life, KXRT was running along with the risk of getting fined for playing music that isn’t covered by royalties and other fees. Last month, we finally licensed it and now is totally covered! The fact that it wasn’t totally covered kept me from really promoting it. Now I’m beginning to work on setting up promotional partnerships with small businesses. I’m not really focused on making money at this point. What I’d like to accomplish is having these partnerships benefit both parties. I can gain listeners by offering incentives and the business gets people in their doors and name exposure. If you would be interested in being a promotional partner, email me at advertise@kxrtonline.com.

Recently, we’ve added a new themed music day, Nuclear 90′s. It features all the pop, rock, hip-hop and grunge from the decade that brought us dot coms and Lewinsky’s! As always, commercial-free and NO REPEATS! We hope you enjoy!

-Timmy

On one occasion a group of us were talking about a person we all knew who had a particularly difficult personality problem. Suddenly Dr. Eyring changed the tone of the talk with his comment, “I hope I will always be tolerant of those who sin differently from me.”
Oh, Dr. Eyring wasn’t talking only about those blatant cardinal wrongdoings we all try to avoid. He was suggesting the importance of keeping the second great commandment and oft-repeated counsel from God to love each other-imperfect though we might be. And that goes for loving our enemies, too “Those who sin differently….” what a revelation into a man’s motivation! What a secret to the implementation for good relationships in our own lives!
But Dr. Eyring didn’t merely tolerate others, remember. He sought to know them better. With knowledge comes understanding, and the miracle of love comes next.

Inception

I’ve waited until I saw Inception three times and a few weeks to really take it in. I spoke with many friends about the movie and got their takes on it, after I watched it. Going into it, I knew that I was in for a mental whirlwind. Leonardo DiCaprio plays our lead, Cobb. He is joined by his friend and partner, Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In this film, these two and several others have developed a way to get into people’s dreams and by doing so, can steal their thoughts and ideas. This is used for corporate espionage and other such crimes. There’s the architect who builds the physical aspect of the dream, it would replicate the victim’s typical environment and provide a platform for the theft to take place. The others are essentially cast members who facilitate and in some cases hamper the progress of the job at hand.

Cobb has one big obstacle: his former wife, Mal. She is played by Marion Cotillard. She was heavily involved in this activity, called extraction. She helped him in many cases. She, in the midst of all the going back and forth began to lose touch with her true reality. In these dreams you can create anything you want to and have a lot of freedom to basically play God. In her loss of her grip on reality, she couldn’t keep track and wanted to return to her reality. In these dreams, to get out of the dream, you have to be killed or woken up. She knew this and when she didn’t believe Cobb telling her that she was in reality, she took her own life. Throughout the movie, she returns in the form of Cobb’s guilty conscience as he blamed himself for her confusion and death (oh yeah, the authorities also believe he killed her). This is very harmful as she is there haunting him and disrupting the plans and turning him in to the victims.

Due to this issue, Cobb cannot build these dreams as he is afraid that if he knows how they are made, she will be there and ruin things. He teams up with Ariadne, played by Ellen Page. She has a masterful imagination and can build mazes that are incredible. After an initial test and then a surprise visit to her dreams, she’s convinced that this is an outstanding way to express her creativity.

While performing an extraction on a corporate executive, Saito, performed by Ken Watanabe, the plan fails. However, Saito hears about another way that invading dreams can be used. Instead of extracting plans and ideas from the victim, they plant an idea into their minds. This is called Inception. It’s very risky and hasn’t been entirely proven successful. Or we think. Saito hires Cobb and crew to plant an idea into Robert Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy, the son of a worldwide power company’s CEO who is nearing death. This idea would say that his father wanted him to break up the company. This would allow competition with Saito’s company and prevent a monopoly.

In order to successfully do inception you have to go deep enough into the victim’s subconscious mind. This involves multiple layers of dreams. A dream in a dream in a dream. This poses great risk as dreams at his depth and complexity are very unstable and very risky for the victim and the team. They work out this plan and are ultimately successful at inception. The company is broken up and all is happy for all. In all of this, Ariadne becomes very suspicious of issues Cobb is having and hiding from the others. She sneaks into one of his dreams and finds out about Cobb’s kids and his wife. She pushes and pushes and he describes what her problem is. She also eventually uncovers why Cobb is so guilty of his wife’s death. He knew inception was impossible because he did it to his wife. They were living together for 50 years in this place called limbo. In limbo, you can create your own world. They did and lived happily for years. Cobb knew this wasn’t reality and wanted to get back. Mal, his wife, didn’t. She loved it there and was convinced this was her reality. He planted an idea deep in her mind that had her questioning her reality. He convinced her to get killed with him to return back to real life. They laid down in a train track and we both hit by the train and woke up in reality. This was all fine and dandy but because of the planted idea in her mind, Mal was still not totally convinced they were really in reality. She was very distraught and confused. He tried to convince her and comfort her but it wasn’t working. You find out pretty early that to help them keep track of reality, they fashion a totem. Some object that will do something only they know in reality that it will not do in a dream. For example, Cobb’s totem is a spinning top. In reality, it will spin normally and eventually fall. In a dream, it will continue to spin and spin. You see him using it from time to time in the movie when he needs to know for sure. While Mal and Cobb were in their limbo, you see that Mal, in her decision to not return to reality, hides and locks away her totem. In reality, with Mal’s struggling, she decides she needs to die again so she can truly return to reality. Cobb meets her at their hotel room where they spend their anniversaries. The room is a mess and he looks around to see her sitting out the window on a ledge. She tries to convince Cobb that this is the only way to return to their true reality. He knows better and frantically tries to talk her out of jumping. She is firm and ends up jumping to her final death. She says that she’s already told lawyers that he’s threatened her and her children’s lives and left the hotel room like that to further convince them of his intentions. He escapes and then is away from his home and children and cannot return as he is a fugitive.

As part of the deal with Saito, he offers Cobb a clean record. This is ultimately what motivates him to do the job. The rest of the film follows the crew through the son’s dreams and we see excellent effects filter down from level to level. They meet the son on a plane and initiate the dream with him there. Strong sedative is used and we’re now in the first dream level. It’s a city and they kidnap the son and threatened to kill him if he doesn’t provide his dad’s safe combination. They put him in a big van and put him to sleep. The second level of dreams is in a hotel. When the van from the first level gets into trouble and does a flip, gravity in the hotel is affected and there’s some awesome effects as they have fight scenes and such in the shifting gravity. You see that what happens in the level above affects the level below. In the hotel, they have the son and convince him that he needs to go into a dream to fight off the people that are trying to steal his ideas. Here comes level three. It’s a snowy mountain with a heavily guarded military style base. All of this is very well done and director/writer Christopher Nolan is a master at tugging on your brain cells. Eventually, he gets to his dying father inside the base. His father said instead of just “disappointed”, he clarifies by saying he was disappointed that his son tried to be like him. This is the idea that grows in his mind and finds a pin wheel in the safe that let him know his dad loved him.

At this point, they all wake up through the layers and you see Saito pick up the plane phone and make his call. You then see Cobb walking through customs at the airport with no problems and then to his home and his children. Before he walks out to see them, he starts to spin his top on the table. The camera zooms from him walking to his kids down to the spinning top. It seems like it keeps spinning, it wobbles slightly but recovers. Then the movie suddenly ends. We never know if the top stops spinning. Perfect ending to a very mentally involved and challenging movie.

I saw it three times. Each time was better and more enlightening than the last. Each time I picked up on something different. Each time I spoke with someone who’d seen it, we asked each other questions to see if we noticed something else. I fully plan to try to see it once more on the big screen and then buy the Blu-Ray. I recommend you see this! See it before it leaves the theaters! See it more than once! We took Wyatt and while he wasn’t bored, we had to help keep him on track with the layers and how it was moving. It affected him a bit as for the next couple weeks he would ask questions like if how can we really know we’re in a dream or not. Very cool.

My rating 5 Stars out of 5: *****

Soon my Uncle’s interest was revealed to be some real excitement as he continued to call me back to suggest ways to get her up there. We discussed flying her up there, meeting halfway, Charlie’s friend who drives a truck and other options. It turns out that my Aunt, who lives here, in Utah, not Charlie’s wife, was very near to passing away from a horrible fight with cancer. I heard the news in the middle of the week that she had indeed passed away. On Friday, I get a call from my Uncle that they were in Idaho and would soon be in Utah for the funeral that weekend.

While we were saddened by losing our Aunt Sarah, we were elated that we were going to be able to give Lexie to family members and get her out of our garage so she can be a fun-loving, energetic puppy she should be. We met with them at my Aunt Sarah’s home and found that they had driven their Chevy Aveo! I immediately had visions of Lexie causing a hideous accident. They took most of her supplies and toys we had. They had no room or use for her kennel and we gave our brand new bag of dog food to my cousin who was also there and could use it. Fortunately, they made it back home without incident.

The funeral was pushed back another week and while that was frustrating to Charlie for making a trip, it’s cool that we’ll be able to see them again after a week of having her and find out how she’s done. My Mom went to their farm to see her sweet Lexie and found her playing in the fields with the cows. She looks like she was having a blast.

We’re pretty happy for her now and thankful to our good relatives for taking her. We’re sad and I still expect to see her grin and feel her massive tail whip me when she’s so excited to see me. Whenever we make it up there, Enumclaw will certainly be a priority stop!

-Timmy

We discussed all the above and we agreed that it was the right time. Now, I am not at all a fan of small breed dogs. To me, they are not dogs but more of a lap or couch ornament. I mean no offence to any small breed dog owners, that is just my feeling on them. We decided we would do like the movie and get a Yellow Lab. We started researching things like how they behave, training, diet, and other needs. We both understood that Labs need a lot of people time. They are very social dogs and have loads of energy. This wouldn’t be the ideal situation, but due to some detailed conversations with trainers and other owners, we felt like we could really make it work.

We found Lexie after responding to an ad in the local paper’s website. We saw the litter of yellows, blacks and a brown Lab. We wanted yellow and found one that was just darling. After a few weeks, we were able to pick her up and take her home. Lexie was a name that we were throwing around with several other options but when we really saw her, it just had to be her name. She was so cute! Perfect nose, great coat, and some brilliant, yellow eyes. That feature alone garnered the most attention and continues still. We bought her a full-size kennel and had her in there overnight and while Rachel and I were working. We played with her as much as possible and loved her to bits.

It’s simply amazing how that cute little baby dog really stayed little for about 15 minutes. Then she was suddenly full-grown and a monster of a dog! Soon, Wyatt began having a hard time playing with her as much as her tail alone would beat him down! He still loved her to death and liked to play around with her for short spurts of time. I would play fetch with her for 30 – 45 minutes at a time until she just wore out and plop down panting her tongue off. We really loved our Lexie. This love would soon turn to love-hate as she displayed some questionable behavior.

Her first big offence, besides some digging and chewing on the swing set, was when she chewed up our main internet service cable. The access box is on the side of the house and locked up. It’s about 4 foot from the ground and there’s several other boxes nearby, including telephone and other cabling for the satellite and electrical. Somehow she knew what target would elicit the most anger and frustration from me. The repair bill for this instance was $20. Over the year or so we’ve had Lexie, she’s cost us over $120 in just internet repairs! We bought Lexie for $100… A few times she left the cables themselves alone and chewed the little coupler that lets the two cables connect. Those “only” cost $3 each.

Lexie’s next crime was that she scratched through the drywall next to her kennel in the kitchen. Through the drywall, through the insulation and reaching the outside boards. This is a hole about 6-8″ around. This has not yet been repaired, however we’ve since moved the kennel away from any walls. Throughout the year, Lexie had chewed and tore through the thick plastic flooring of her kennel. Now she gets to rest on the bars and the cold floor. To preserve our hardwood floors, we had to move the kennel out of the kitchen and onto the front door landing that has tiling. In doing so, since that floor is somewhat slippery, she managed to nudge the kennel over far enough to have access to the carpet. Need I go on here?

Now Lexie, our sweet doggie, lives in the garage. We let her out to run and relieve herself from time to time, but she is in no way allowed out and about without supervision.

I reached out to several folks to find out if they could make a better home for Lexie. Since most of them are familiar with her hijinks, I wasn’t surprised when no one was too excited about it. My Uncle Charlie, who lives on a farm in Washington State, agreed to take her. He’s been pretty excited about it and we’re currently trying to work out her transportation. I think she will have so much more fun with them! She will have tons of space and be able to really be a good dog. It will be a transition to go from being mostly an inside dog to an outside, but I think she’ll be fine.

I feel kind of bad. I think that had we really considered things, we might have made another choice for a pet. I really love Lexie. She has a piece of my heart. She always will. I wish it would’ve been a better situation. Perhaps, in the future we will give the dog thing another chance and choose a more appropriate breed. I think Wyatt and Rachel will agree that Lexie has really made some great memories with us and she will be missed.

My first experience with Chick-fil-A was in the Jacksonville, FL area. I was serving my two-year LDS mission and had the opportunity to sample some great food that until only recently were available only in the Southeast. Krispy Kreme was one. Chick-fil-A was another. If you’ve not tried one, they are very simple and really good. They have a lightly breaded chicken breast they put a couple of pickles on the bottom bun and, I think, they put a small amount of mayo to glue it all together. You can order different variations like with lettuce and tomato. They also sell chicken nuggets, which are the same breaded chicken just in small chunks.

Since living in Utah these past 4 or 5 years, I’ve noticed that the area, in general, is a hotbed for restaurants. You can find almost every chain and tons of local places in most bigger towns. I’m not sure why that is, but I know that I like it! (my wallet probably isn’t as big of a fan…)

Head to http://www.chick-fil-a.com to see where there’s a location near you. They also talk up new openings fairly early to let you know if there’s a new one coming soon.

-Timmy