For each channel, I’ve included a link to its home page on XM’s site; I’ve also predicted the grade I’ll give to each channel; I updated each channel’s listing after I visited it with my actual grade and with a link to my discussion of the channel in my blog. I’ve also written a Bootcamp Retrospective, complete with awards.

Date	Channel	Channel Name and Home Page	Category	Expected Grade	Actual Grade and Blog Link
1/6/2004	4	The 40s	Decades	C	B
1/7/2004	5	The 50s	Decades	B-	C
1/8/2004	6	The 60s	Decades	B-	A
1/9/2004	151	Laugh USA	Comedy	B	B
1/10/2004	121	Fox News	News
1/12/2004	28	On Broadway	Hits	B-	B
1/13/2004	7	The 70s	Decades	B	C
1/14/2004	22	The Mix	Hits	D-	C
1/15/2004	9	The 90s	Decades	D-	F
1/16/2004	21	KISS XM	Hits	F	F
1/17/2004	122	CNN	News
1/18/2004		Aguila (90)/Vibra(92)/Tejano (93)**	Latin
1/19/2004	169	The Power	Talk & Variety	D	D
1/20/2004	74	Bluesville	Jazz & Blues	C	B+
1/21/2004	65	The Rhyme	Urban	F	F
1/22/2004	48	SquiZZ	Rock	C	C+
1/23/2004	10	America	Country	C	B+
1/24/2004	123	CNN Headline	News
1/25/2004	30**	Special X	Hits		B
1/26/2004	161	Discovery Radio	Talk & Variety	C	B
1/27/2004	70	Real Jazz	Jazz & Blues	B	A-
1/28/2004	40	Deep Tracks	Rock	A	A
1/29/2004	113	XM Pops	Classical	A	A
1/30/2004	115	Radio Disney	Kids	C	D
1/31/2004	124	ABC News & Talk	News
2/2/2004	16	Highway 16	Country	C	C
2/3/2004	25	The Blend	Hits	C	B-
2/4/2004	53	Fungus	Rock	C+	C
2/5/2004	54	Lucy	Rock	C+	B-
2/6/2004	101	The Joint	World	C	C+
2/7/2004	125	Weather Channel	News
2/9/2004	162	E!	Talk & Variety	D	F
2/10/2004	13	Hank’s Place	Country	C	B+
2/11/2004	73	Frank’s Place	Jazz & Blues	C+	B+
2/12/2004	91	Caricia	Latin	C	C
2/13/2004	23	The Heart	Hits	C	C
2/14/2004	127	CNBC	News
2/16/2004	52	Unsigned	Rock	C-	C+
2/17/2004	61	The Flow	Urban	D	C
2/18/2004	8	The 80s	Decades	C-	B+
2/19/2004	82	The System	Dance	D	B-
2/20/2004	20	Top 20 On 20	Hits	F	F
2/21/2004	129	Bloomberg News	News
2/23/2004	165	Ask!	Talk & Variety	D	F
2/24/2004	50	The Loft	Rock	B	B+
2/25/2004	31	The Torch	Christian	F	F
2/26/2004	60	Soul Street	Urban	C	B
2/27/2004	51	XM Music Lab	Rock	C	B-
2/28/2004	130	MSNBC	News
3/1/2004	166	Buzz XM	Talk & Variety	D	F
3/2/2004	14	Bluegrass Junction	Country	C	A-
3/3/2004	67	The City	Urban	D	D
3/4/2004	80	The Move	Dance	D	D+
3/5/2004	156	VH-1 Radio	Talk & Variety	D	C-
3/6/2004	131	BBC World Service	News
3/8/2004	163	Sonic Theater	Talk & Variety	C	I
3/9/2004	44	Fred	Rock	C	B-
3/10/2004	64	The Groove	Urban	D	C-
3/11/2004	12	X Country	Country	C	B-
3/12/2004	32	The Fish	Christian	F	F
3/13/2004	132	C-Span	News
3/15/2004	27	Cinemagic	Hits	B	B
3/16/2004	72	Beyond Jazz	Jazz & Blues	B	B-
3/17/2004	15	The Village	Country	A	A
3/18/2004	116	XM Kids	Kids	C	C+
3/19/2004	24	Sunny	Hits	C	D
3/20/2004	134	CNN en Espanol	News
3/22/2004	164	Radio Classics	Talk & Variety	C	I
3/23/2004	110	XM Classics	Classical	A	A
3/24/2004	49	Fine Tuning	Rock	A	A
3/25/2004	83	Chrome	Dance	D	C+
3/26/2004	45	XM Cafe	Rock	C+	B
3/27/2004	140	ESPN Radio	Sports
3/29/2004	152	Extreme XM	Talk & Variety	D	F
3/30/2004	47	Ethel	Rock	C	C-
3/31/2004	66	Raw	Urban	F	F
4/1/2004	150	XM Comedy	Comedy	C	D
4/2/2004	42	XM Liquid Metal	Rock	D	F
4/3/2004	141	ESPNews	Sports
4/5/2004	171	Open Road	Talk & Variety	D	D-
4/6/2004	41	Boneyard	Rock	C	C-
4/7/2004	71	Watercolors	Jazz & Blues	B	B
4/8/2004	94	Caliente	Latin	C	C+
4/9/2004	170	Family Talk	Talk & Variety	D	F
4/10/2004	142	Fox Sports	Sports
4/12/2004	33	Spirit	Urban	F	C-
4/13/2004	102	Ngoma	World	D	C
4/14/2004	76	On The Rocks	Jazz & Blues	C+	B+
4/15/2004	46	Top Tracks	Rock	B+	B+
4/16/2004	11	Nashville!	Country	C	C
4/17/2004	143	Sporting News	Sports
4/19/2004	103	Audio Visions	World	B	B-
4/20/2004	81	BPM	Dance	D	B-
4/21/2004	29	U-Pop	Hits	C	C-
4/22/2004	100	World Zone	World	C	A-
4/23/2004	112	Vox!	Classical	B-	C
4/24/2004	144	NASCAR	Sports
4/26/2004	155	MTV Radio	Talk & Variety	D	D
4/27/2004	62	Suite 62	Urban	D	B-
4/28/2004	75	Luna	Jazz & Blues	C	A
4/29/2004	43	XMU	Rock	C	B-
4/30/2004	26	XM Live	Hits	C+	B-

** Channels removed 1 February 2004

When Shibby set up the bootcamp, he gave us advice:

How can I listen to a channel I know already I won’t be able to stand?

Well, of course, you can simply avoid the channel. Short of that, here’s some tips that may help you survive a day you think is going to be hell:

• Go in with a good attitude, or at least no attitude. If you are convinced that you absolutely cannot stand a certain type of music, there’s not going to be much room for discovery. Keep an open mind.
• Turn the volume down. Sometimes, allowing the music to fade into the background brought me good results. If you focus on something other than the music that’s playing, you just might find yourself tapping your foot to the beat to a type of music you thought you couldn’t stand. For me, this was particularly useful during the Country and Urban categories.

When I read that advice, I knew that it would apply very directly to today’s channel, The Rhyme.

I tried. I listened in my hotel room, with the volume down and the air conditioning up. And, if I couldn’t hear any of the words, it wasn’t totally intolerable most of the time. But when I got close to the speakers, or when the air conditioning stopped, and the words became clear, I was not a happy camper.

I think I’ll listen to other channels when I get back to the hotel.

Bluesville is one of the channels I thought I’d enjoy, but that I hadn’t gotten around to actually spending time with — a perfect candidate for Bootcamp.

I took advantage of timezone slippage again, and started listening soon after midnight Eastern (which was late last night, Arizona time). I’d had a good evening visiting with family, but nonetheless, I was sitting in a hotel room, 700 miles away from home, so it was a good environment for the blues. And I liked the music, even though it suffered from the laptop speaker blues.

I kept on listening this morning, but I didn’t find the music as compelling or suited to my mood (I like upbeat music in the morning, and “upbeat blues” is not a phrase which comes trippingly to the tongue). When I get back to the hotel, I’ll give it another shot, but it’s pretty clear to me that this is a channel that I’ll want to listen to more at some times than others. I might give this channel a preset at home or work, but probably not in the car.

And now I’m back in the hotel after dinner, listening to Bluesville again — the more I listen, the more I enjoy it. I don’t know if that’s because blues fit my evening mood better than my morning mood, if the selection’s different, or just because — but I’ll definitely come back for more.

I’m in Tucson, Arizona, at the IBM Academy of Technology‘s Technology Council meeting. They selected the Hilton Tucson East as the hotel, even though it’s 20 minutes away from the meeting site.

I think they made a good choice; the hotel has been very accomodating and friendly, and there’s a reasonable choice of restaurants in the area. They add lots of nice amenities for Gold members (including cookies and water delivered to the room, as well as chocolate on arrival and bonus Hilton points), too. And they even gave me a room with a southern exposure, so I can listen to XM (though that was a random deal — I didn’t ask for it).

I would happily stay there again, though given my rate of visits to Tucson, that may not happen for a long time (my last visit was 20 years ago).

I have a 1:25pm flight today to Tucson. I’m paranoid, so I left the house at 10:25am. There wasn’t much traffic on the roads, so it didn’t take me very long to get to the airport; in fact, I had returned the car and was in the terminal at 11:25.

That gave me plenty of time for a leisurely lunch (I hit Burger Joint in the International Terminal — it’s good, but I could have found something healthier). Then I walked over to Terminal 1 and the line for security screening.

I usually fly American; I’m an AAdvantage Platinum customer, so I get to use the express entry to the security line. Every time I fly another airline, I remember how much time being an elite member saves me, so I wasn’t looking forward to the long line here. I was pleasantly surprised when they looked at my boarding pass and ushered me over to a shorter line — I thought that the Alaska/American frequent flyer deal was paying off for me.

The pleasantness of the surprise didn’t last long. The TSA agent asked me if I was familiar with the secondary screening process; I wasn’t. So he explained it; I had to take off my shoes, jacket, empty my pockets, and wait for an agent who could wand me down and do a hand-check of my baggage. Fortunately, I hadn’t over-packed, so I wasn’t worried about being unable to get my stuff back into the bag without extreme measures. And I still had plenty of time, so I wasn’t worrying about missing my flight.

The process didn’t take much longer than normal screening — I was finished in less than ten minutes, and I’m pretty sure I missed at least five minutes of standing in line. But on the whole, I’d be happy not to be given this kind of special treatment.