Archive for the ‘DJ Business’ Category

Today’s Business: 2011-01-20

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower. DONE.
  • Cat duty. DONE.

Log

06:30 AM: I’m up for a little while anyhow.  Today I plan on finishing up nephew Grant’s laptop.

07:00 AM: Facebooked a bit.  Friend count: 365.  Fan count: 91.

10:55 AM: Added details of the Wal Mart visit to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-30   post.

11:35 AM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-10-31   piece.

12:25 PM: Added the 2009-08 issue of   Promo Only’s Dance Radio music series to my DJ music library (20 songs).

02:20 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

03:00 PM: Gathered up the fixings for a batch of 15 bean and ham soup.  I’ll get the meat and chili powder tomorrow during our weekly shopping trip.

03:40 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-03   piece.

04:00 PM: Finished going through all 2010 receipts to figure out who owes what between Mom and myself.  Hmmm, I really must not allow myself to fall so far behind on this in 2011.  :-)

05:45 PM: Nap time.  Back later.

06:30 PM: I’m awake and up and about again.

07:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   The CBS Evening News,   to hear about the phase-in of the various parts of   the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010.

07:45 PM: Watched today’s episodes of   Dr. Phil   and   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.

08:10 PM: Added the 2009-09 issue of   Promo Only’s Dance Radio music series to my DJ music library (20 non duplicate songs added).

08:30 PM: Added the Kodaly Quartet’s performances of Haydn’s String Quartets Op. 33, Nos. 1, 2 And 5, to satiate my appetite for Classical music.

10:15 PM: Listened to the Penguins hockey game with   [Emmy]   this evening.  The lost 2 to 0 to the Devils.

10:30 PM: Downloaded the 2011-01-03 edition of Promo Only’s EA DFF music series.  40 new songs in this batch.  Processing it now.

11:20 PM: Well, my heavy eyelids indicate that another day has come to end and that it’s time for bed.  So I’m off to sleepyland but will return with more tomorrow.  So sleep tight and good night to all.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Whole life insurance offer from Mom’s bank.  Not at this time, thanks.
  • Balance transfer offer.  Again, not now, thanks.

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Today’s Business: 2011-01-17

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower. DONE.
  • Cat duty. DONE.

Log

07:15 AM: I’m up.  Today I plan to gather up another bag of rubbish in the cellar, and finish figuring out how much Mom owes me.

10:00 AM: Went through my old clothes in the attic and rounded up some of them to give to Good Will. 

11:30 AM: Registered all my web sites with the Alexa search engine in an effort to get more visitors to them. 

01:00 PM: Played with Mom’s HD TV a bit, watched a segment of the   Rain Man   movie, and ran a new scan of the available channels.  Looks like a few more digital channels have appeared (10 today, up from 6 at the last scan this past November). 

02:45 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

04:00 PM: Upgraded and registered my new copy of UltraCompare to version 8 from version 7.  I love this program because not only is it great for finding differences between two files, but it also can find duplicate files.  I found many dups in my music library and should be able to save roughly a gigabyte of space by getting rid of them. 

05:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   Dr. Phil   on the DVR. 

05:20 PM: Heard from Mom.  She’s been moved from the hospital to the nursing facility for some extensive physical therapy.  Hopefully, they can build her strength back up to the point where she can transfer herself with fair ease between wheelchair, bed, toilet, and easy chair. 

07:30 PM: Finished watching the   Rain Man   movie from Netflix on Mom’s HD TV. 

08:20 PM: Cooked some catfish for supper.  I’m full, hopefully, for the rest of the night. 

09:15 PM: Added the 2009-06 edition of Promo Only’s Dance Radio music series to the DJ music library.

11:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   Hawaii Five-0   with   [Emmy]   over the phone. 

11:25 PM: Worked on updating my DJ software to accurately record track numbers in my library for EADFF files from Promo Only.  Currently this works correctly for regular CDs but not for the EADFF DVD format m4a files.  I’ve changed the software.  Now tomorrow, I must remove the resulting compilation errors.   After that, this mini project will be done.

11:30 PM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  So good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail delivered on this holiday:   Dr. Martin Luther King   day. 

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Today’s Business: 2011-01-11

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower. DONE.
  • Cat duty. DONE.

Log

08:40 AM: I’m up.  Today, I hope to watch and clear off some of the older TV shows on the DVR, balance all checking accounts, and clear a path in the cellar to our old washing machine to allow the deliveries easy access to this area when they deliver our new clothes washer.

09:30 AM: GE Delivery called.  They’re postponing the delivery of our new clothes washer a day, due to the harsh weather that’s supposed to be active tomorrow.  They’ll now deliver sometime on Thursday. 

11:00 AM: Added Promo Only’s Country Radio music series; the 2011-02 edition to my music library.  Don’t know why I bothered though, because I already had all the songs on that disc.  Looks like there was lots of overlap between this edition and the EADFF editions I’ve received previously.  If it keeps up like this, I may decide to discontinue my Country Radio subscription and just rely on EADFF to supply the latest country songs. 

11:40 AM: Cancelled Mom’s upcoming PCP appointment, as she’s still in the hospital and so, won’t be able to make it on that date. 

01:30 PM: Balanced all three of the checking accounts that I manage.  No problems discovered. 

01:50 PM: Mom had a heart test scheduled as an outpatient for next week.  However, since she’s currently in the hospital, I had to cancel the outpatient version of the test, and I have a call in to her PCP about rescheduling this test as an inpatient.  Peculiar that we’d need to reschedule, since Mom is currently a patient at the place where the original test was supposed to be conducted.  Go figure. 

02:30 PM: Cooked up five pounds of ground turkey for sloppy Joes for meals this week.

03:00 PM: Gathered up and took out all of this week’s garbage because our garbage collection day is tomorrow, weather permitting. 

04:20 PM: Watched the 2010-12-27, 2010-12-28, 2010-12-29, and 2010-12-30 episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   news show on the DVR.  Nap time.  Back later.

05:05 PM: I’m awake again, and the snow is falling. 

06:15 PM: Added Promo Only’s   Dance Radio   music series (the 2009-05 edition) to the music library on the computer. 

06:20 PM: Heading out to sweep the walks. The snow is coming. Heck, the snow is HERE! :-)   Looks like at least two inches have fallen already. 

07:15 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

07:25 PM: Just shoveled again. At lest two to three inches fell during the past hour since the last time I cleaned off the sidewalks. Wow!

08:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   news show on the DVR, skipping ahead to today so I could see about this latest storm that’s pounding us here in PA. 

09:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of    Dr. Phil,   titled:  From Homeless to Hollywood.  Dr. Phil talks with Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice that has been given a second chance at success.  McGraw wanted to make sure that Williams, now that he has the job offers and money coming in again, does not revert to his old ways of crime and deadbeat fatherhood, so that Williams can sustain his new-found success.  Interesting episode. 

10:30 PM: Talked with   [Emmy]   on the phone.  I told her about my day, and she told me about here, and we talked of the snowy weather gripping central and western PA.  Nothing earth-shattering.  Just simple and pleasant conversation. 

10:45 PM: Disconnected all hoses and power from old washer in preps for delivery of new one in the next two days. 

11:05 PM: Bed time.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Weekly coupon mailer.
  • Get-well card for Mom. 

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Today’s Business: 2010-12-31

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

10:00 AM: We’re all up.   Today, now that I’ve got all the new music I have in my music library, I’m syncing all hard drives and performing final computer tests to make sure that the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31  gig tonight goes without any glitches.      

01:00 PM: I went over to Sheetz and bought us all foot-long steak subs and hot chocolate for lunch.  We thought we’d fill up on some relatively decent food before going to the party tonight, so that we’re less apt to eat a lot of junk there.

03:30 PM: All music hard drives have now been populated with the new music except for one.  This drive, upon connection, started this rhythmic clicking noise, and my computer would not read it.  I think this Seagate unit is still under warranty.  But I’ll check on that next week.  Hopefully, they’ll send me a new one for free. 

05:30 PM: We’re leaving now with nephew Grant for the New Years party.  Back later.

07:00 PM:  The    DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   gig is under way.  I experienced some Winamp Media Library configuration issues that scared me a little.  When double-clicking on single songs in the library, instead of just one song being copied to the play list editor, all the songs in the library view were copied.  This made it difficult to manage the play list and to find the song I wanted to play next, as I had to scroll through lots of “noise” songs in the play list first.  But fortunately, close examination of Winamp’s Media Library settings revealed some values that had changed when I installed the latest version of Winamp a couple days ago.  I changed these back to my preferred settings and the above problem disappeared.  *Phew!*

09:00 PM: The dance floor began to fill with mostly younger folk, but curiously, they did not request as much music this year as last.  Still though, there was plenty of dancing by all.  The adults hung out in the kitchen for the most part, and it seemed that everyone had a camera.  All my sisters stopped by the “DJ Booth” to make sure that [Emmy] and [Mentat} had plenty to eat and drink, and to chat a little.  Very nice. 

10:00 PM: Noticed that music searches take noticeably longer at this gig than at previous ones; probably due to all the extra audio files I have in my collection these days.   I now have just over 92040 files, and the Winamp Media Library search engine appears to be bogging down.  Searches now take several to ten seconds to complete.  I'm used to them taking  less than a second on this computer.  Oh well, I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet in the new year and switch from Media Library over to Windows Search.  That seems much faster.  However doing this will involve writing an updated search filter DLL file that follows Windows Search communication protocols.  Unfortunately, the filter I wrote several years back for the Windows Indexing Service is not compatible with Windows Search.  The bigger my media collection becomes, the more necessary will be this effort to complete.  In the meantime however, I'll narrow the selection of watch folders I include in my Media Library index so as to exclude my old time radio shows or audio books.  I never play these at gigs anyhow, and this should shrink the number of indexed files considerably and therefore, reduce search times commensurately.   This will be especially helpful on my older and thus, slower laptop computers that I use at the gigs. 

11:50 PM: I ended the formal part of the gig with a couple slow dances and finished up with Hanson's Silent Night Medley piece.  This drew many onto the dance floor that had not been there before, although I can't take all the credit for this as people had started to gather in the dance area to watch the ball fall in Times Square. 

12:00 AM: 2011 is here! 

12:20 AM: I began an informal music session, where I took requests from mostly the adults in the room.  These mostly consisted of classic and modern rock tunes.  No more dancing though. 

01:35 AM: Mom called from the hospital to wish us all a happy new year.  She sounds better than yesterday but we still don't know much about how long they'll keep her, or if she's even going to be able to come right home after discharge.  She may have to return to the nursing facility to build back up her upper body strength. 

01:45 AM: We're all running out of steam.  So I ended all music and packed up my equipment and headed to the kitchen to socialize a little and to get one last bite of holiday food. 

02:15 AM: Well, the New Year celebration is over and we're back home.  Sister Christine and her husband drove the three of us  ([Mentat],  [Emmy],   and myself) back home.  I am very tired.   

02:45 AM: We talked fondly of the celebration that just ended.  But sleepiness is getting the best of us.  So we’re off to bed.  Happy New Year to all, and check back often, as I hope to write much more into these blogs in 2011.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

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Today’s Business: 2010-12-30

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

09:00 AM: I’m up.   Again today, I’ll work final push on the preparations for the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   event and finish tagging the EADFF music  files and adding them to my music library. 

01:15 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

02:10 PM: Finished with the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project for today.  I’ve added all remaining months of Promo Only’s EA DFF music series for 2010 to the library. 

03:15 PM: [Mentat] arrived.  His sister drove him here.  He’s brought some eggnog with him which, I think I’ll try, as I’ve had none yet this holiday season. 

06:00 PM: [Mentat] and I had a chance to catch up while [Emmy] napped upstairs.  Things are going well for him in Ohio; aside from some settling in adjustments and compromises, over all, he’s enjoying the experience of living with his girlfriend. 

06:45 PM: [Mentat], [Emmy], and I sat at the kitchen table or in the front den for the past couple hours, catching up.  We’ve decided to order a pizza for supper. 

07:30 PM: We hung out at my book shelf in the front room, talking about our favorite books and how [Emmy] and I had just finished reading Frankenstein. 

07:45 PM: The pizza just arrived.  So we’re digging in right now.  Yum!

08:30 PM: The pizza, topped off with a cup or two of eggnog, was quite delicious.  Now, we’re heading up to the office to sync all my music drives and to choose some tunes for tomorrow night. 

11:00 PM: [Mentat] and [Emmy] picked out some songs that they’d like to hear at tomorrow’s New Year’s DJ gig, and I wrote them down. 

01:00 AM: Then, we listened to some Eric Clapton songs that featured Marcy Levy (Detroit).  To this point, I’d only ever known well her background vocal work with Clapton in his hits: Lay Down Sally,   Promises,   Wonderful Tonight, and   Hello Old Friend.  But we found some lead vocals she performed with the group Shakespear’s Sister in a 1992 song called   Stay.  I’d heard this chillingly memorable piece before, but never realized that it was Levy who sang it.  Beautiful.

01:05 AM: [Mentat] also informed me that R&B vocalist   Teena Marie   passed away last week on Christmas Day.  So we read an article or two about her on the Internet and added her song   Sucker For Your Love   to the play list for tomorrow night.  She died unexpectedly and wasn’t that old either.  Sad. 

01:15 AM: Bed time.  Back in less than twelve hours to write more.   Good night now. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

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Today’s Business: 2010-12-29

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:20 AM: I’m up.  Mom requires assistance, and actually, I feel very refreshed.  So I think I’ll stay up at least until nap time this afternoon. Again today, I’ll work the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project and continue tagging the EADFF music  files and adding them to my music library. Hopefully, I’ll get three more months of 2010 music finished before bedtime tonight. 

09:20 AM: I got Mom up and at ‘em, gave her her morning meds, and helped her get into her easy chair.  She’s noticeably weaker than she was on Christmas Eve, when she was rushed to the hospital.  I’m eager for her to regain that strength she appears to have lost over the days since then.

10:15 AM: Picked up a couple prescriptions for Mom at our pharmacy on a mini   shopping trip.

11:00 AM: Arranged transport for Mom, to her echo test next week. 

12:00 PM: Extended all my Promo Only music subscriptions for another year; my tenth year with them.  Hey, what can I say?  I love music! 

01:00 PM: Had to cancel the transport I just arranged for Mom a couple hours ago, because her cardiologist had something come up during the entire week of that appointment, and could not keep it.  She’s been rescheduled for two weeks later, but I cannot schedule the ride until we hear from the hosital about when precisely they’d like her to arrive. 

02:00 PM: Dispensed Mom’s lunch time meds and helped her into her wheelchair. 

02:45 PM: I heated up lunch for us all, which consisted of a couple containers of beef grain soup.  Delicious! 

04:00 PM: Assisted Mom with her afternoon business.  She’s back in her wheelchair.

05:00 PM: Mom has become significantly weaker since the beginning of her last hospitalization on Christmas Eve, and she’s experiencing severe pain in her abdomen.  So she’s going back to the hospital this evening until they get all this figured out. 

06:00 PM: Mom left for the hospital.  Sister Jojo will follow her there later and check up on her.

07:20 PM: Fixed   [Emmy]   some low-salt vegetable beef soup for supper.  She’s listening to the Penguins hockey game now while I continue working the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project. 

09:00 PM: Sister Jojo called to say that they’ve admitted Mom.  They weren’t going to at first, but Jojo spoke up and said that Mom needs to build up her strength again before we can effectively manage her here at home.  So, over the next few days, they’ll evaluate Mom and hopefully get her over this UTI infection that’s plagued her for weeks now. 

11:10 PM: Finished with the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project for tonight.  Today, I added three more months of Promo Only’s EA DFF music series for 2010 to the library. 

11:55 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

01:05 AM: Skipped today’s rerun episode of   Dr. Phil,   but watched his 2010-12-16 episode, called   Tough Choices

01:15 AM: Bed time.  Back in less than twelve hours to write more.   Good night now. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Movie from Netflix: It’s A Wonderful Life.
  • Offer for membership in AARP.  Not sure yet.
  • 1 Christmas card for Mom.
  • Gas bill.
  • Credit card offer from Bank of America.  Not at this time, thanks.
  • New telephone book.
  • Misc bill.
  • Promo Only subscriptions bill.
  • Disney Rewards credit card offer.  Not at this time, thanks.
  • Prescription benefit update notice for Mom.
  • $15 gift card from   The Shoe Fly.
  • An insurance claim summary for when Mom was hospitalized in Pittsburgh over the summer.

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Today’s Business: 2010-12-27

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.
  • Do all (2) pending loads of laundry.  IN PROGRESS.

Log

11:00 AM: We’re up.  I’ll likely spend the entire day today working the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project.  I’ve almost finished converting all remaining 2010 music to MP4 format, and should hopefully finish the rest today, and then begin tagging it all and actually adding it to my music library. 

02:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

05:00 PM: Per the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project, I’ve finished converting all music to MP4.  Now, tagging of it all begins. 

07:00 PM: [Emmy]   watched a couple of her   Pittsburgh Today Live   shows throughout the evening while I continued working the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project. 

07:30 PM: Mom still in hospital.  She’s still on target to come home in the next day or two.  However, she experienced some pain in her mid section this afternoon until they discovered that some tubing was pinched or twisted or something.  She’s also experiencing some sight problems.  So they’re taking her to an eye doctor for a thorough exam before she comes home.   

12:15 AM: I worked the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project throughout my free moments this evening, tagging the converted music and adding it to the library. 

12:20 AM: [Emmy] informed me that she’s running very low on clean clothes.  So I combined her laundry with some of mine and we got two complete loads.  Washing them now. 

02:00 AM: Bed time.  Check back for more later.  So long. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Promo Only’s Mainstream Radio music series; the 2011-01 edition.
  • Telephone + cable + Internet bill.
  • 5% cash back offer from Chase bank. 
  • Enticement-to-buy-more letter from Mom’s diabetic testing supplies provider.
  • Consumer Reports magazine for 2010-12.
  • Credit card offer from BankAmerica.  Not at this time, thanks. 

Related Posts

Today’s Business: 2010-12-26

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

10:30 AM: We’re up.

05:00 PM: [Emmy]   watched some of her   Pittsburgh Today Live   shows throughout the afternoon while I worked the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project.

05:05 PM: Mom still in hospital but says she’s doing much better today.  Abdominal pressure is much reduced from Christmas Eve afternoon, when she was taken by ambulance from here.  She’ll likely come home sometime in the next couple days.

05:45 PM: Headed to a family friend’s day-after Christmas party that she hosts every year.  Back later.

07:50 PM: I’m back home.  The party was nice.  But I knew few, and people didn’t seem too interested in talking.   So I regret not, coming home early.  I mostly just listened to my iPod while other fellows watched various football games on television.  I said hi to the people I knew, and a few of them complimented me on the newspaper article about my decorative lights here.

07:55 PM: [Emmy] is listening to tonight’s Penguins hockey game on the Internet radio.  We also set up a laptop for her, so she can do her Facebooking from here as well as from her home. Both the radio and laptop are sitting on my desk in the downstairs office so that she can report the happenings in the game on Facebook while she listens.

10:00 PM: The Penguins lost their game to the Senators.

10:15 PM: During the hockey game, I also worked the   Christmas Lighting: 2010   project.  sister Mary Ann gave me a string of blue lights that unfortunately, did not work.  I found that perhaps 20 of the 100 bulbs were burned out.  Must have been some sort of power surge.  However, I have no blue replacement bulbs.  But I think I’ll hold onto the string for when I find cheap LED bulbs.  I’ll populate the string with them.  The string could easily be modified for LED operation by adding a couple resistors. I will not determine the values of said resistors however, until I have the bulbs in hand.

12:00 AM: I worked the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project throughout my free moments today, converting still more music for addition to the library.

12:30 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow. Good night and take care.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • No mail or other deliveries on Sunday.

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Today’s Business: 2010-12-25

Saturday, December 25th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

09:30 AM: We’re up. 

10:00 AM: Thought we’d watch the movie: Big  via Internet download to Mom’s television, from Netflix. 

12:00 PM: We finished watching the   Big   movie.  The viewing and listening quality for this streaming equaled DVD.  I’m impressed.  But, I wish they had more of the really popular movies available for download. 

04:30 PM:  Worked the   Christmas Lighting: 2010   project.  Replaced some failed LED bulbs outside and repaired one string that had bad resistors.  Replaced them, and all lights worked again. 

05:30 PM: Sisters Christine and Diane are visiting Mom shortly, and   [Emmy]   and I are accompanying them.  So, we’ll return here later. 

07:00 PM: Mom was much better today.  She says though that she’ll probably stay at the hospital for a few more days at least, just to make sure she’s fully hydrated again.  We’re leaving her now, and heading to sister Christine’s for some ham and leftover lasagna.

11:00 PM: We’re back home.

12:00 AM: I worked the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project, just converting more music for addition to the library. 

12:30 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow, and Merry Christmas!  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • No mail or other deliveries on this holiday. 

Related Posts

DJ Gig: 2010-12-31

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

This year, as I’ve done every year since 2002-12-31, I’m DJing a New Years celebration party at Richard and Christine’s garage, in Sinking Valley.  I do not charge them, because this is my way of paying them back some, for all they do for me during the rest of the year.  Besides, it’s my way of ringing in the New Year, Hesley-style, with lots and lots of great-sounding   Tommy’s Tunes. 

In this post and the attached comments, I’ll mention all that I do over the next several weeks to prepare for this gig; everything from getting the computers ready and testing the sound and lighting equipment, to assuring that my hard drive-based library contains all the latest hits I’ve purchased this year. 

This will show that there’s a lot more involved with DJing a party than just sitting down, turning on the lights, and playing music when the get-together begins.  It’s not as simple as it looks.

So, enjoy. 

Tom Hesley

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