Ok! Cheesy title I know. But hey. It takes you back doesn't it. Nothing like copying a copier. But A-N-Y-WAYS, I know it has been forever since I blogged. I am pretty sure that is going to change as I have a bit more time on my hands these days, but I have enjoyed being away that's for sure.

We have made a lot of changes to allenhuntshow.com and I wanted to brief you on some of them. So, feel free to watch this short video on about 6 or 7 additions to the site. Feel free to email me at andy@allenhuntshow.com if you have any other suggestions on how to improve allenhuntshow.com

And if you went away, be looking back more often as I will probably be writing once or twice a week. With out further ado, here's the video...

One of the largest affronts on our relationships, families, and happiness is "keeping up with the Joneses". It invokes pride and vanity, and it is subtle. I say this knowing full well that I am the worst of all.

More on that in a second.

After arriving in Hilton Head last weekend a high school friend who married a baseball player commented on my Facebook saying:

Honestly, I used to think there couldn't be anyone who travels more than athletes and sports wives...but I think the amount of traveling you do is pretty comparable to mine.

I certainly have been living up to my New Years Resolution that's for sure.

• February: Denver Ski Trip
• March: Hilton Head
• March: San Diego Visiting Sarah & Adam
• April: Orlando Visiting the Letters To God Movie Set
• April: Miami Visiting Erika & Patrick
• May: Key West w/CJ & Andrea
• June: Nashville Visiting Pat
• June/July: Indiana
• July: Hilton Head

On top of that, August is going to be Weekenders gone wild because soon I'll be working 6-days a week. The remaining travel is:

• Aug 6-8: Hilton Head
• Aug 13-15: Louisville Visiting Ashley
• Aug 20-23: Oregon for Lissa's Wedding
• Aug 27-29: Kentucky Lake Visiting Angela
• Sep 26-28: Chicago Watching Mike's Play
• Oct: Maybe DC Visiting Nathan
• Nov: Maybe Denver Visiting Mom & Cassie
• Dec: Maybe Indiana for Christmas

Or in interactive map form:

View a larger map

But what does this have to do with keeping up with the Joneses and Facebook? Simple: 170.

211 is the number of days from January 1st to today. Of those 211 days, I have "been on the road" 41 of them. Leaving 170 days that are just like everyone else's days.

Wake up. Shower. Go to work. Eat Lunch. Work Again. Come home. Eat Dinner. Watch TV. Sleep.

80% of my days are "boring" normal days.

But no matter how much I travel, I am still just as envious the friend backpacking through Europe, or spending the day at the lake. And I know about all of this becuase of Facebook.

I do know most people don't care about traveling like I do. But you could replace traveling with anything, and Facebook provides a 24/7 comparison of lives.

But wasn't that what class reunions were for?

Once every 10 years, you had one night where you were bombarded with the question: "how do I compare?" It was vain. It was stupid. But nevertheless it happened 3 times in life - and that was if you went.

But with Facebook, I am lucky if I go 3 hours with out seeing what everyone, and I mean everyone, is up to. Constantly comparing what they are doing to what I am doing (or buying, or living in, or driving, or marrying, or kids are doing, etc...etc...).

And even though most likely 80% of their days are "boring" just like mine, I still find myself comparing against the entire culmination of everyone's days.

This is not healthy. Constantly being bombarded in this fashion forces one to constantly pursue the next high: albeit trip, purchase, or (fill in the blank). This constant pursuit just took keeping up with the Joneses and gave it a steroid injection right in the quad.

If we know three things about be they are:

1. I am ridiculously anal retentive
2. I would live on a plane, and travel to a different city everyday if I could afford it
3. I am a little nerdy

Below is a scanned image of 116 boarding passes of the 152 flights I have taken on an airline in my 210,167 miles in the sky. You can verify these stats at my flight log if you'd like (told you I was anal, and I am thinking you are changing the "little nerdy" to "a lot nerdy" right about now).


You know what I love about boarding passes? They each have a story behind them of a great adventure. In the picture above there is...

...moving out to college
...the flight I took right after 9/11/01
...going to my study abroad in Israel and the Middle East
...mission work in South Africa and Venezuela
...my job interview in Atlanta
...taking US Military Kids based in Germany and Japan to camps
...adventuring to Australia by myself
...countless weekenders visiting friends and loved ones

Above there are boarding passes in English, German, Dutch, Japanese, Greek, & Hebrew.

But never before have I had a boarding pass like this.

Hello to the new digital mobile boarding pass Delta is now offering to its passengers when flying out of certain airports.

The check-in process was so easy. I did it from my iPhone while sitting at a Gwinnett Braves game. Then showed up to the airport where TSA has a special box that reads the phone. Unfortunately, for this trip that's where the fun ended.

Upon trying to board my flight to Fort Lauderdale, I handed the gate agent my phone.

He looked at me and said, "I need your boarding pass, not your phone."

I responded, "this is my boarding pass."

He took a gradual look at it and said, "I can't use that. It will mess up the computer. What's your name?"

So alas, this wasn't my last non-digital boarding pass as the gate agent printed me a paper boarding pass and moved me along.

But that only slightly hampered the coolness factor, and hey for all I know, maybe there was something going wrong that day and it really would have messed up the computer.

If you fly Delta out of Atlanta, LaGuardia, Memphis, Minneapolis or Las Vegas you should see if you have better luck.

Also here's a tip: take a picture of the pass when you check in by pressing the Power button on the top and the Home button at the same time. You'll hear a clicking sound and then your boarding pass will be in your Photos "Camera Roll." This way you won't have to reload the boarding pass everytime you go to use it.

I always fly mainline airlines, but I have to say, Delta is really rising* to the top of the US mainlines. Their improvements in technology - including WiFi on planes and the Mobile boarding pass - not to mention in-flight trivia and live television on many planes really helps them soar* above the competition in my book.

*Puns intended

P.S. Remember everybody that I am in Key West starting tomorrow, but I have the new iPhone / Email blogging capability so check back often for photos and small blog posts. And in light of this post, to answer your question, no we aren't flying. CJ and Andrea and the kids are driving from Indiana to Atlanta. And then I am driving them from Atlanta to Key West. Although I love a road trip almost as much as I love being in the sky.

If you listen to Allen's Real Life and Faith Moments you will know that Allen jumped on the Is Twitter Evil bandwagon this week.

Here's the basic gist of the USC findings: Twitter is bad becuase supposedly quick thoughts stunt brain development and we become less emotionally connected and empathetic to people in our lives.

USC needs to go back to doing what they do best (being overrated in college football) and leave serious medical study to the real professionals (those at Duke).

I have been on many mission trips, and a study abroad in a war torn area. One of the key things I have learned from these trips is that it is hard to inspire compassion and empathy with the average person unless they a.) experience the problems outside of the USA first hand, and b.) are reminded of problems often upon their return.

So what does this have to do with Twitter / Facebook updates? Simple.

There is no way before Twitter / Facebook people could stay connected the way they do now.

Take for example Lissa in the above graphic. My cheeseburger-hilariousness made her day. I have no idea if this is true or not. But I do know there is no way I could even have attempted to make her day if it weren't for Twitter / Facebook given that she lives on the other side of the US from me and I am not going to call her and tell her about my cheeseburger insight.

But this goes beyond my hilariousness.

Lissa is a phenomenal attorney no doubt about it, but the other day Lissa didn't have a particularly good day in court. We all have those days where we just aren't firing on all cylinders. And as my dad always said, your first year out of law school is more of a learning experience than your previous three in law school. If you aren't making mistakes, you aren't doing it right. But I digress...

So she posted on her Facebook status that she didn't have a good day and within a few hours she got encouragement from friends all over the country reaffirming that she was in fact a phenomenal attorney and to keep her head up.

My worst professional day since graduating college was November 16, 2005 - it was so horrendous I still think about the mistakes I made on that day. But I wish I had Twitter / Facebook then because I could have lamented and friends would have picked me up.

Most of the people in our lives are a huge source of encouragement when we need them, but they can't be empathetic if they don't know what is going on. And frankly, who is going to call every single of one of their friends and tell them about the awful day they had?

So I am taking on USC because they aren't just inadequate at college football; they are also inept at studying the brain. Now, how can I condense this post into 140 characters or less?


P.S. Join the immorality: follow me on Twitter

Many of you are on Facebook and know about the "fad" going around with the 25 things tag. So I figured I'd bring it to the blog since I know some of you aren't on Facebook. Enjoy!

First of all... My friends make fun of me for using first of all, second of all, third of all, etc... way too much in conversation. I do this when on air too.

Second of all... I consumed more alcohol before I was 15 then I have since turning 21. I know for a fact I would be an alcoholic. I compensate by drinking too much Pepsi.

Third of all... I make to-do lists like crazy. If I do something that isn't on the list, I add it to the list just to check it off. I currently have 8 pages of to-do list and as "digital" as I am, I only use paper for to-do lists.

Fourth of all... I am ridiculously anal about my finances. I can tell you to a cent (and I mean that) what I have spent in over 50 categories of spending since I was the age of 18. I staple every credit card receipt to the back of my credit card statements in chronological order. I have had a credit card in my name since I was 16.

Fifth of all... I hate things being on my body. I don't wear watches, rings, necklaces. I wouldn't wear clothes if I didn't have to.

Sixth of all... I love Avril Lavigne music. What? I said it. You wanna fight?

Seventh of all... I have gotten 9 speeding tickets in 6 states and 2 countries. I have been pulled over at least 20 times in my life.

Eighth of all... As of today I have flown 202,011 miles in my lifetime. I would live on a plane and be in a different city every night if I could afford it.

Ninth of all... Despite the fact that I am über-logical in every area of my life - when it comes to love I really am a romantic and believe deeply that amor vincit omnia

Tenth of all... I have season tickets for the Atlanta Braves. If I could responsibly afford it, I would have season tickets to the Atlanta Thrashers, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Fox Theatre series, and the Atlanta Alliance Theatre

Eleventh of all... I have visited 47 states and 20 countries

Twelveth of all... I absolutely love driving. When I get stressed out I like nothing better than to blast music from the iPod and drive as fast as I can

Thirteenth of all... I love racquetball and it bums me out I can't find any courts in Atlanta

Fourteenth of all... I cried in the movie Armageddon when I saw it in 1998 - and have everytime since

Fifteenth of all... I have more pieces of luggage than pairs of pants - this is more a critique of the amount of pants I have than the amount of luggage

Sixteenth of all... I am a huge aviation nerd and waste way too much time on airliners.net

Seventeenth of all... I have climbed a Fourteener (a mountain with the summit above 14,000 feet in Colorado). The top was pretty awesome.

Eighteenth of all... I have taught myself how to edit videos in Final Cut, web program in PHP, graphic design with Photoshop. Currently I am teaching myself how to fly.

Nineteenth of all... Despite being awarded the most outstanding student in my major, I failed pretty much every test I took in college and had one of the lowest GPAs in my major.

Twentieth of all... I have done some crazy road trips. The most fanatic was Los Angeles to Denver to Chicago to Fort Wayne to New York and then all the way back to Los Angeles. The NYC-LA leg took 39 hours - of which I drove all but 6 hours of it - and we didn't stop except for gas.

Twenty-first of all... I make up words fairly often because I still feel they communicate a point and that is all that matters

Twenty-second of all... The only place I can relax is on a lake. I try to go to the beach every other weekend in the summer, and it helps to relax, but nothing is better than a lake house.

Twenty-third of all... I have skied since the age of 3. In that time I have skied 11 of the 28 ski resorts in Colorado.

Twenty-fourth of all... I have used Mac computers since 1990 - that's 19 years - I was 8 years old.

Twenty-fifth of all... My three greatest clinical fears are claustrophobia, heights, and lack of control. Yet, my greatest fear in life is that I will bust my ass day in and day out, only to look back at it and ask the question: why?

I don't know why it has been so hard for me to blog recently. I have like a billion topics in the can, but I just can't seem to sit in front of the computer to do any of them. So this shall be quick.

I haven't watched the SuperBowl in its entirety for the past four years. This makes me very sad everytime I think about it, so let's not bring it up again.

I did however see the pregame show (including the botched Obama interview). I saw this ad while importing stuff for the show at WSB and I about died laughing.



Just for the record, I am going to start calling everyone I see in the Fort Wayne Country Club locker room Shankopotamus.

And that name might just replace "Scuba Steve" as the name I call people when I can't remember who they are - if you've hung out with me for more than 10 minutes, you know what I am talking about.

If I get motivated I'll do a a couple of blogs in the next couple of days on my favorite and least favorite commercials from the SuperBowl. Hulu is kind enough to put them all online for sorry saps like me who didn't get to see them live.

But then again, the question will be, will I be motivated enough this week to do so.

I had the greatest middle school math teacher. His name was Mr. Panning. He was a great teacher. He was a great cross country coach. And especially at that point in my life - he was a great role model.

I remember sitting in Geometry my 8th grade year and numerous times hearing students (*cough* myself) saying, "when the heck am I going to need to know this in the real world."

More on that later...

We decided at last week's creative strategy meeting that one thing we wanted to do with the website was to "localize" it to the market we are in. So, for example, if someone from Tucson visits the website, the design reflects the fact we are on KQTH in Tucson. Or if in Fort Wayne, it reflects WOWO. You get the idea.

Pretty unique, huh? Problem is: this is not an easy thing to do.


Crazy I know. But what does this have to do with math?

Taking someone's lat/lon coordinates and figuring out what zipcode that coordinates to (and therefore what radio market) incorporates some crazy math. Mainly using the Great Circle Formula to determine proximity:


Take that formula, incorporate with a MySQL database schema, sort by distance from nearest to furthest, limit your results to 1 (the nearest) and bam! You've figured out figured out the radio market a web visitor is in.

I guess my punk-8th grade self has his answer 12 years later.

There was a lot I learned back then I never knew how I would use.

I think about the only web programming class I have ever taken was in 7th grade. And the only video editing class I ever took was in 8th grade. The only design class I took was Sophomore year of high school. All while I thought I was going to be a doctor or an attorney.

On top of that, my last math class was pre-calculus my Junior year of high school.

10 years later, and with out a single college class in any of those fields, I find those classes were a great foundation.

What do you think you are learning today that you will utilize 10 years down the road?

I know as I get older I have become less teachable. We become "experts." We think we know what we need to know and ignore the rest. But like 8th graders in math class, just because we can't foresee what we need down the road, it never hurts to learn new things.

As my Uncle once told me, "you are either learning or you are dying." It's your choice.

I spend way too much time analyzing my web stats...although it is apart of my job. Every once in a while, the results of these analyzations are quite interesting.

I found this one quite funny. Google thinks I was a star high school football player for Homestead. If you do a Google search for Homestead High School Fort Wayne Football - a picture of me at Talladega is the second one that comes up. Take that Mike Rhinehart!¹

Of course those who know me - especially in High School - will also find this quite hilarious as I am the least likely football player ever. I should thank Fort Wayne Attorney and City Council Member Mitch Harper who is also the Editor of Fort Wayne Observed for the honor since Google pulls the image from his site.

Also, the number 1 photo in that result, as well as the number 1 photo for the Google search Homestead High School is a photo I took my senior year of high school of the "painted guys" - I selected it as one of the front page photos of the yearbook.

So what's the lesson here to all you high school kids out there? Who cares if you actually are a high school football star, just work really hard on your Google ratings and one day you will be. ;)

Anyways, nothing serious with this post. It has been too long of a weekend for something serious. Just found it humorous and thought I'd share.

I am down at Hilton Head this week with CJ, Andrea and Jadyn. We are having a blast. But Jadyn is 2 and goes to bed at like 9 pm. Andrea is 7-months pregnant, and she goes to bed at like 10pm. And CJ and I don't really like each other, and refuse to talk once the girls go to bed. So what's a boy to do on vacation? That's right, work...

I have good news if you are an iPhone user and an Allen Hunt Show fan. Tonight I have created a specific iPhone page for the allenhuntshow.com.

Currently it includes four sections: past shows, Allen's blog, daily real life and faith moment, and caller of the week. You can also use it to e-mail Allen.

To access, all you have to do is go to allenhuntshow.com on your iPhone and it should take care of the rest.

P.S. For those of you who aren't nerdy out there like me, and are more interested in my actual vacation time. You can view photos of the trip here. I'll be sure to post something about the vacation time later this week.

Ok, so I am thinking to myself. You know, I have this whole website (I am refering to my 2timothy42.org site all you allenhuntshow.com people) dedicated to me, but frankly, that just isn't enough. Take this blog for instance. On any given page, there are, at most, 2 pictures of me. If this blog needs anything, it needs more photos of me, no?

But then you say, you can't just put more pictures of yourself because that would just be conceited and arrogant...right? So what's a boy to do? Enter Twitter...

Twitter is like "Status" on Facebook, but you can embed it on your site and update it by text messaging. My friend CJ has been using it and after bugging me enough, I finally gave in like a girl on prom night.

Take a look to your left ------------------------------------------------------------------------->
and there you go. Now, even between my blogging days, you can catch up on what I am doing.

The irony of course is, if my premise was to validate a reason to put more pictures of me on the site and not be self-centered, I think I have done the opposite because it takes a pretty self-centered premise to assume others actually care about what I am doing during the day.

C'est la nouvelle vie...non? Isn't that what the internet is all about: me...and of course, you!