{"id":84126,"date":"2022-12-27T11:05:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T17:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84126"},"modified":"2022-12-27T11:05:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T17:05:01","slug":"in-the-abstract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84126","title":{"rendered":"In The Abstract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\u201cIt’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.\u201d
\u2013 Elwood Blues<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know that I laughed any harder than anyone else at that classic line from \u201cThe Blues Brothers\u201c when I first saw it, back in high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if I had known how important the idea of \u201cTaking absurd, improbable chances that, in retrospect, seem completely crazy\u201c would be in my life, I might\u2019ve laughed even harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no plan for my life when I got out of college<\/a> – so I moved to the Twin Cities<\/a> on a drunken whim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I got here? Nobody gets a job in major market radio<\/a> by just walking up and asking for one<\/a>. I \u2018d been in radio for six years by the time I was 22 \u2013 even I knew it was delusional. I hadn\u2019t even moved to the Twin Cities with getting back into radio in the back of my mind. But I did it anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No 23 year old gets a talk show on a 50,000 watt station by nagging his boss into putting them on the air. But I did it \u2013 and he did<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody builds a career by teaching themself something that (at least at the time) most people had a masters degree in psychology to get into. But I didn\u2019t know any better \u2013 so I did, and it worked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody gets a major market talk show by gathering a bunch of bloggers together, walking into a radio station and saying \u201c mind if we do a show on your station?\u201c. But here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t always work \u2013 that\u2019s kind of what my marriage was, too; \u201cwhat the heck, who says it couldn\u2019t work out ok?\u201c. But that\u2019s where my kids came from, so I can\u2019t say it didn\u2019t work, either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No question about it \u2013 I\u2019ve been blessed, and lucky, to turn a pattern of scatterbrained opportunism into a career and a life I enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And every once in a while, I hit one of those restless moments when I think \u201cwhat\u2019s my next opportunity to grab half a pack of cigarettes, put on my sunglasses, and drive off into the darkness looking for my next questionable decision?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m kind of having one of those moments now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.\u201d\u2013 Elwood Blues I don\u2019t know that I laughed any harder than anyone else at that classic line from \u201cThe Blues Brothers\u201c when I first saw it, back in high school. But if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mitch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84135,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84126\/revisions\/84135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}