Rockstar INXS was awesome last night

Song selection was killer, I'm just amazed with last nights selection of songs and how well they all did. One after the other they seemed to build of each other and put on a great show. The hard part is we are down to six and three will be selected as the bottom three and one will be sent home.

The results show or black Wednesday as Dave Navarro calls it airs tonight and normally someone performs an encore of the song they sang. This is normally considered to be the best performance of the night as well. Towards the end of last nights show, I was thinking, "I'd love to hear them all perform the same songs again". They were all just that good last night and worth a repeat performance.

Tonight three will perform INXS songs and the band will make a decision to send someone home. I think tonight will be one of the hardest votes for them. Not sure what next weeks show will provide and at some point all that are left will need to perform INXS songs and I'd like to see the whole band join them all on stage as well.

Watch tonight if nothing else is on.

Third game and two left

Game over and we lost 10-1, I'm still working on the injured leg and trying to do what I can. Nice thing is we have a bye this week and come back for only two more games. So I plan to take time off and see if I can really rest the leg and see how I'll be in two weeks.

I was able to run and move, I just don't have much power in my right leg. I felt good and still have a few of my old moves on the field. It was fun to hear the other teams bench tell one of their players, "Nutmeged ya!" and then hear the guy I just ran around say, "Shut Up" with a smile to his bench. I enjoy moving and juking a player and trying to set up my players for a shot. Its one of the best parts of the game, setting up a play.

The best part is I'm having fun in the end, sure I want to win, but I want to have fun playing most of all. Oh well, I'm icing the leg now and just wanted to post up. I'm sure I'll post about something between now and then, till then take care all.

Can we Chat?

Alright, I've been around the chat world for sometime I'd say. Back in the early part of 1994, when I first got online, a friend of mine told me about a program called Worlds Chat. This was such a cool program to use and people all over would login and text back and forth. The cool thing was the use of Avatars (a picture image to represent you) and the ability to move around between the lobby and 6 worlds or pods an hang out to chat in countless areas. The program has changed a lot since then and I'm not sure how much it really is used now, but I remember how cool it was.

Next came chats like PoWoW, LoLChat, the Palace; followed by iRC clients like mIRC & Pirch. Then one of the biggest to take the net by storm would be ICQ. I remember talking with the developers of this cool little program and seeing it grow by leaps and bounds. It was one of the earliest IM clients along with Aim from AOL and the up and up incoming MSN Messenger. Text messages and realtime chatting was cool, different from Worlds and had some added features in swapping files back and forth.

Instant Messages kept growing and others like Yahoo would even join into the mix. Then programs like Imici and Trillian came about to allow all IM's to talk with each other. The IM wars began and AIM and MSN would try and block their services from talking with each other.

Voice over IP is one of the latest and greatest things in chat now. So here comes Skype and cool service to allow people to talk with mics over the internet. It gets better, they can call a landline for a small fee or even have a landline call them for a fee. If the person on the other end uses Skype then they can call each other for free. The quality is really great and you can even conference up to 4 people at the same time.

Next comes Google talk, the developers at Google are just awesome and they've rolled out a nice simple text based chat and VoIP. Most of the others are doing the same and its cool that so many options are available to select from. A lot has changed since the Worlds Chat, but one thing is for sure, people love to be connected and love the tools available at their fingertips or the end of their tongue I'd say.

cnet review - Your next phone: new IM tools with VoIP

Happy chatting.

Rob

Time to heal

Ok, it has been awhile since I've been here to post and I thought I should update the masses (You total about 5, I would guess) on my life. Most of you following have heard that I picked up the soccer bug and I'm not as young as I thought I was. Actually, I don't think of myself as being old, but me bones don't listen to what I think.

So last Wednesday I pulled a quadricep muscle like you would not believe at soccer practice. I've never done that before in all my years of play. This past Sunday was game time and I felt pretty good and my first real touch of the ball was to clear it down the wall a bit. The shot of pain that went up my leg was intense. Every action does have a reaction and I was feeling this one. Time to change my play and work things with the left foot now.

I made it through the game and we won with a nice 11-1 victory. I went home and iced the quads and rested it. I've been doing my best to rest and each day it feels a little better than the previous. Practiced last night and still sore and tender and I can't really get much power with the right. I can move alright, but just not like I use to. I iced again after practice and plan on resting as much as I can before Sunday's game.

The next week is a bye week and I'm going to see how things go, I might decide to miss the practice and try and let the leg heal up even more. We only have two games left after the bye and I'm not sure when the next season starts, but I'd like to be better by the end and have my strength and power back in the right leg.

Daughter signed up for soccer.

Well today was the last day for regular registration for Soccer and my little girl wants to play and we got her signed up. I have thrown my hat into the ring to coach her team and will have to see what happens. The season does not start till Mid September, if I'm selected to coach, there will be a September 1st coaches meeting, followed by some training and then uniforms passed out.

In the meantime, we took her down to get those little shoes, shin guards, socks, #3 soccer ball and some soccer shorts. It is really neat to see her with the stuff on and her excitement in wanting to play and at such a very young age. My hope is that she has fun, that is all I really want her to do is have fun playing and I hope she loves it and wants to continue. I'll have to post a picture later and update on her career as a soccer player. Till then, she'll watch me play and we'll work on passing the ball and getting use to the game.

Sinfully entertaining...

Last night I went to my brothers house for a screening of Sin City on DVD. I heard some cool stuff about this movie and wanted to see it on the big screen. It is really cool how they filmed it and how much it looks like a comic book coming to life on the screen. The movie is parts of the first 3 graphic novels and I can say this, they don't call it graphic for nothing. I'm about halfway through the first graphic novel and I've enjoyed what I've read so far and it was really neat to see this and compare the scenes coming to life.

Sin City launched the long-running, critically acclaimed series of comics novels by Frank Miller. Having worked on some of the most important comic books in the 1980s, including Marvel comic's Daredevil and the influential Batman graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, Miller was already a heavy-weight cartoonist, but he hit his stride with Sin City. It gave him the freedom that doesn't come when working on someone else's characters. While the art isn't as polished as in later books, it is in many ways the quintessential Sin City story: tough-guy Marv finds the girl of his dreams, an incredible beauty named Goldie. But when Goldie is murdered on their first night together, Marv scours the bars and back alleys of Sin City to find her killer in hopes of avenging her death.

The story and subject matter can be very adult here. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, you can just imagine what you might see out of this movie. This is not something to leave out for kids or young adults to read and watch. If your someone that loves comics or graphic novels, then you will not be disappointed in the movie version of Frank Miller's Sin City tales.

I'm Older now...

So I went to practice on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to meeting the team again and getting use to playing with them some more. I started with some basic stretches to loosen up some. I then moved to passing the ball back and forth, trying to warm up a little more.

Now this is strange, I've never quite felt like this before and I know its been some years since I've played. My right leg is feeling really tight and the quadricep is beginning to hurt more with each pass and kick. Everyone thinks, I did not stretch and warm up enough. Perhaps I stretched too much?

Great, this is just what I wanted to happen to me. I decided to try and keep working out and deal with the pain. I'm thinking I should have stopped now, but I really wanted to work out and the practice in general was a really good one.

I spent all of yesterday limping like crazy and in pain. Last night was the first night since it happened that I actually felt better. I can now move my knee some what and get around a bit more. I'm still sore and get stiff when I sit for some extended periods of time.

I'll have to see how things go and take each day slowly. The game is at 6:30 pm on Sunday and I'll have to see how I feel come game time. The only thing I can think, is I'm not as young as I use to be and I'll have to watch myself a little closer now.

Lights, Camera, Flash Video...

Streaming Video on the internet has long been dominated by QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player, but Macromedia.Com has started promotion of Flash Video as a viable option to streaming video over the internet. The best part about this, is with a huge share of web users having Flash installed, they are already set to reap the rewards of Flash Video.

Here's a sample, encoded into Flash Video of the slide show we ran for the Final night at the 2005 APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show. This should give you a pretty good idea how FlashVideo will look. Higher Speed connections will provide a better show for the end user.

Hello from the road

Well I thought I'd see how well this works...

Not bad at all, I've made it back home to see the post made from my mobile phone. Nice to know I have the ability to painfully type out on a small keypad a message and have it show up here for all to see.

Just testing out the many features of Blogger.Com I'd say. So the post was started by the phone and I decided to check it out and add more later. I'll have to check out sending pictures from the phone. I think my services wants me to pay more and I'm not sure if I really want to do that.

This test is now over and I'll return you to your thoughts now.

L8R,

Rob

Just for Kicks...

So a buddy at work asks if I'd like to play Indoor Soccer with him. He said they are a little short handed for guys in the sub area on a Co-Ed team. I agree to help out and dust off my shoes to give Indoor Soccer a try again.

Its been over 5 years since I've played Soccer and at that time it had been many years. I came out for one outdoor season and did alright. I even scored a few goals in some games and did alright with assists too. For what ever reason, they did not call me back to play again and I slowly went back into retirement again.

Games over and we lost 6-3 with the last goal or second to the last goal being my fault in letting one slip by. I'm not young as I was and I need to get back into shape again. I'm filling in mainly since someone is hurt and out for the season. I'll have to see if I get asked back, but my goal is to get back into shape and feel better by the last game at least.

I did ok, but I'm beat like crazy right now. Not to bad since its been so long in touching a ball and very long from being on an indoor field. Practice is set for Wednesday and I'll see what I can do to build up stamina between now and then.

Is that really Real?

OK, I have to confess, I like reality shows for the most part. I really got into Survivor when it started and found myself liking shows like Amazing Race, American Idol, Big Brother, and the Mole. So the seasons pass and I keep coming back for more.

This year I found myself watching Rock Star INXS every week and enjoying it. I also like it more than American Idol for the music selections alone. I've always wondered why they called it American Idol and the music they sing tends to be more Popish, R&B, Soulful standards; is that what America really loves over everything else? Don't get me wrong they are talented and can sing and I like watching and seeing them grow, its just not they style of music I love.

So I first thought this is not going to work and what are the members of INXS really thinking here? But I've been hooked and these contestants can really sing and perform. The bonus is they are singing Rock songs and its closer to what I enjoy listening too. So if you tire of listening to the American Idol style of music and long for a Rock Show, give it a look and listen.

Taking time off

Not something I do a lot of, but I decided it would be good to take a few days off to spend with family and friends. So yesterday I took my daughter out to Six Flags for some fun. Ok, I did not get away from work totally, we have a Paint Horse show out at the park called Rangers and Outlaws and I had to swing by and see how it was doing. I'll actually see about running back this weekend I think, since I only saw the behind the scenes tour of the show.

My daughter and I really loved the Amazing Acrobats from China and Kathy Burks World Of Puppets show. We had fun riding the little kid rides, well she had fun and I enjoyed watching. It's amazing at how a little smile can mean so much and I find myself watching her reactions to things more than watching the events myself.

Funny thing about the whole watching the shows, she wanted to just ride the rides and I kept telling her she would love to see the shows. I told her we would have to take some breaks from rides and watching the shows would be good way. Granted we rode most of the rides first and did the shows last, I was right in thinking she would love them.

The Blogs of War

Watching the Daily Show tonight, guest John Hockenberry was on talking about a piece he wrote for Wired Magazine, called "The Blogs of War". It was really interesting to learn about members of the military using technology on the front lines, to keep in touch and present first hand accounts of what is going on in Iraq. Check out the article and see how Milblogs are keeping people informed.

The Blogs of War
By John Hockenberry
On the 21st-century battlefield, the campfire glow comes from a laptop. Military bloggers offer a real-time window into life behind the lines. And they're putting the Pentagon on the defensive.

2005 APHA World ChampionshipPaint Horse Show

15 Days out at Will Rogers, Fort Worth was home for me and one of the largest gatherings of American Paint Horses. During this time I keep the APHAWorldShow.Com web site updated and we streamed live video from start to finish and from all three Arenas. When I had the time I ran around and took photos for publication in various outlets. Here is one of my many favorites from this years show. What happened by chance in being in the right place will be used in the next issue of the APHA Connection and mailed to all of the APHA members. My first magazine cover to be published, I think they plan on using some photos inside the issue too.

Is this thing on...

Podcasting is another one of those areas growing fast on the web. People are setting up online radio stations or audio blogs about anything and everything under the sun. Its pretty amazing the quality of some of these shows available on the web.

Those familiar with the earlier days of MTv may remember Adam Curry, who was one of the original VJs. Adam Curry is currently known as the "Father of Podcasting", a concept Curry developed in the middle of last year in which people produce their own programming and make it available for download to portable players or their computers.

The cool thing about Podcasts is anyone can do it and put together a little show to share. This takes blogging to the next level in my book. People can use their online sites to not only post content for family, friends, and the world to view, but now they can add audio material as well.

For More Information Visit:
http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php
www.podshow.com

OK, I've blogged Now what...

Everybody is doing it...
come on, you know you want too... :)

Looking back to the first time I got online an started learning about the web. I knew that it was an area I wanted to be a part of. It's interesting how things started out and people started making personal web pages and how over the past 10 years for myself the web has changed. Blogging is a lot of ways like the early days of sharring this information with friends, family, and the world. Its really cool how easy that has become for people. Here's a story on blogs from the real creator of the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee on the read/write web
In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight's Mark Lawson how blogging is closer to his original idea about a read/write web.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4132752.stm

Happy Bloggin,

Rob