Listen Up!

Well it looks like I'm going... Sorry, sounds like I'm going to start podcasting shows next year. Just another adventure I keep telling myself in being apart of this huge thing called the Internet.

I've been blogging for a few years know and writing about what ever comes to mind. In fact I've got two blogs, the one hear and then my Gaming/Techie style blog. Yup, I'll actually attempt two Podcasts, one for each of the blogs.

How will it go, I have no clue really, but I plan to jump right in and just go with it. I don't want to really write out a bunch of stuff or script the shows so much, but I'll try to at least put some notes together for each show and then wing it live more or less. Disaster about to happen? Perhaps, you'll need to tune in a listen.

I hope to try and do one a week. Wow, 104 shows in 2008... I must be crazy. I actually plan on keeping them short for now. Really short... short shows at about 10 minutes only to start with. Why so short? I want to make sure I can fill that time for starters. I'd like it to be an addition to my blogs only. Plus I haven't paid for the full version of the software and I'm limited to only 10 minute shows for now. Later in the year I'll see about extending them to a full 30 minute show. Yes after I can afford the full price on the software.

There you have it... I've blogged about it and now I have to do it. I need to be careful about the things I write about and say I'm going to do. Somebody stop me if I say I'm going to go Bungie Jumping... Please somebody stop me if I ever do that. See you all later and yes, you will hear more from me soon.

Once you go Digital, You'll never go Back

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour Starting on February 17, 2009, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind TV Networks to the Outer Limits your homes.

The count down has begun alright and our analog, over the air, TV signals are going away, only to be replaced by digital signals. To learn more about making the switch over you can visit DTVAnswers.Com and find out what is involved. But my first question was, do we need to buy a new TV and like the theme from outer limits says, "There is nothing wrong with your television set."

Actually if you have a Cable provider or Satellite service, you'll be fine and they will send the digital signals to you. The boxes you have in place should already convert the signals for what your needing. Now if you have a new HDtv, then your more and likely going to need an upgrade to get HD signals. But the fact is, you don't have to upgrade to an HDtv, if you don't want to.

Now if you get some programs using an antenna or rabbit ears as some like to call them, then your going to be in trouble and will need a converter box. The boxes are going to cost about $50 to $70 to convert the signal over to your existing TV. Ouch you say? Check out the web address above, they have links on getting a coupon for $40 off, up to two TVs, to help with the cost of making the switch. So if you shop around, then you'll be out about $10, but once again, most of us are on Cable or Satellite and fine.

Now if you want to use this as a reason to go to HDtv... well sorry, its not an option and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'd like an HDtv in the future and its nice to know that I can get one on my terms and that I'm not forced into. They might control the signals, but I control what I'm going to buy in the end and when I buy.

Merry Techmas

Wow, talk about the ultimate in Xmas gifts this year. So I love tech toys and electronic thingies and anyone that really knows me, knows about my past as a DJ and my love of LPs. What's an LP? Do a search on wikipedia and you should find it right away. Back to my story... a cool item found this year was a USB turntable, one that allows you to hook it up to a regular stereo if you like or use the USB plug to connect it to a computer and capture the music and save as an MP3.

This is what I thought I was about to receive, when I peaked inside the box. I should have known though, I mean why would this item not be in its original box. Then I noticed the words on the turntable... Technics 1200... the top of the line in turntables, used by DJ's worldwide and it was the ultra cool black model. I was speechless and never thought I'd own one of these. My wife and my mother & father in-law gave me an awesome gift and it was only the beginning of things to come.

Actually you could say that my Zune30 really started things off. An awesome gift for my anniversary and a real surprise too, my wife is full of surprises. So I set the turntable up and pull out the old dance albums and its great to hear that music again and it feels like forever since I've played them. I've got a lot of tunes to catch up on, with three huge crates of LPs to pick through. But all of those will have to wait, it's time to head to my side of the family for Techmas.

Ever had one of those Christmases that take you totally by surprise? That is what I felt when I opened the gift from my Dad. The UB802, 8 Channel mixer was a pleasant surprise and something I had on my list as a cool item for making Podcasts with my daughter. I really wasn't expecting this at all. So I tell my Dad thanks and said, "I guess you decided to purchase something off the Internet at last?"

"Something?" was his reply, "Have you opened the big box yet?" Not only did he get me the cool mixer, but the really cool MXL 990 microphone as well. I have the perfect setup for a mini podcast studio now. Granted the turntable is huge and not something I'll carry around as easy, but the rest is perfect and I look forward to learning more about Podcasts and doing some shows with my daughter next year.

It was truly a Merry Techmas for me this year. Check back in 2008 when I launch my various Podshows and we'll see how cool the new toys perform. Til then, Happy New Year to you all.

A Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all, well all that will accept my wishes that is. Wow 2007 has finally come and gone. We've ran from place to place and passed out gifts to the family and friends.

So as I look at everything, I can't help but feel its truly a Wonderful Life for me. I'm blessed with the best wife and two loving daughters. I'm wealthy in family relations too and couldn't ask for anything more.

Year after year I'm asked what I'd like for Christmas and I've really got everything I could ever want. It's my favorite time of the year and time with family is priceless and the best gift I could imagine.

So I'm thankful and blessed... its all I could ever want really. Merry Christmas once again and have a very Happy New Year to you all.

The Darkside of MySpace

After less than 24 hours of setting up the MySpace account I got my first message from someone and I asked my wife if Ms. J (as I'll call her) was one of her friends. My wife had sent out a blast to her friends to add me as a friend. She replied NO! and we looked to see what was sent to me. How and where Ms J's friend had found me, I have no clue. The fact remains, this is the type of thing that happens on sites like this. So I post it just as it was written for you to see. The claim is someone is using a friends MySpace account. So here goes the message from Ms J's friend.

Hey do you come here often? I really don't, but couldn't resist checking things out. I'm glad I did. I liked your profile and decided to write you. I'm looking for a nice guy to be friends with at first. Yeah, I want to take it slow. I like being single. I hope you're fine with that. If you want to know more about me, here goes. I'm easy-going, curious and smart. I love reading, watching TV and biking. I'm also darn pretty and love wearing sexy clothes.

I hope you'll want to hook up but if you do, don't reply directly to this message. I'm using my best friend's account, and I don't want her to think you're writing to her. Please use my own e-mail instead: ? at yahoo.

Bye bye and thanks!

Now Ms. J is not suppose to know what is going on. Right! Let's just jump right to it, I really don't know any women that would say, "I'm also darn pretty and love wearing sexy clothes." followed by "I hope you'll want to hook up..." and I'm happy with that and not saying I'm looking for that. I just think its plain sad... I stated I'm married in my profile. I need to go back and add proudly & very happily married, not looking for Hook ups!

Thankfully some of my wife's friends have added me and I'm starting to find a few of my own friends online. It just seems odd that someone would message like that. It's also sad to hear the stories of husbands and wives looking for so called Love here, only to stumble across each others pages. Hello, they wrote a song that applies here, "Looking For Love in all the Wrong Places."

I'd like to think this is the last message I'll get like this, but I'm afraid to say that more & likely this is not the case. My wife and I forming a joint page could be an option to stop this, but I think having our own pages is fine and I like to share stuff like this. Facebook looks better and better every day. I haven't event touched on the real issues I have with MySpace.

Back on topic... Ms. J, I'm sorry your friend is using your account without your knowledge. Now as to the friend, I'm happily married and not looking to hookup, you might think about looking for people that are single. I guess listing I'm married is not enough. Oh and one more thing, the guy Tom that e-mails first at sign up and is added to your friends is real person and the one who built MySpace. Sorry I deleted you at first, I thought you were a bot and didn't want to look like a sap who only has the bot for a friend. No hard feelings I hope.

Social Networking Thang

Everyone is doing it these days... and you can't turn around with out hearing one of the big three it seems. So I've decided to give them all try and see what its all about. My little experiment in social networking on the web or off. Over the next year I'll have my very own Facebook site to keep up with, MySpace page just like everyone and will even use the Twitter site, as best as I can, for someone to know everything I'm doing. So we'll see how well they and I do through out the year with managing and keeping them updated.

Facebook is one that I've started to see more of in the tech circle. It appears to be similar to MySpace, but I'm finding my way around and liking what I've seen so far. In the end, it comes down to friends and contacts. So I have three on that site so far and I'm still learning all the ins and outs of the site. It appears really clean, but I haven't found an easy way to tell someone how to visit my Facebook page.

MySpace, well I've got it now... my wife has told me for the longest time that I should get one and that people will look for me or I can look for people. As of now I have one friend, my wife and I looked for her. How silly this sounds as I write, I looked for my wife on MySpace. She's really not that hard to find, I know where she lives after all. The best thing I can say is the friendly URL is available. But a ton of people must use it, I couldn't even find something close to my name and had to use one of my net user names instead. Take a look at my MySpace page if you like, it will be a slow process as I learn stuff here.

That brings us to Twitter. You know I can't really think that I'm someone that needs to be tracked really. Maybe I got it all wrong, but its a mini blog of sorts and allows you to post tiny messages about things your doing and you can do this from the web or cell phone posts. With twitter you can watch others that Twit or be watched as you Twit. It's tied into my Facebook and MySpace pages already, I've even posted it to the left hand side here. Here's a direct link to my Twitter page.

That's all for now, don't forget to check out my Gaming/Tech blog as well and have fun watching me and all my friends on the Net.

Well I did it!

Well I did it! I wrote a novel... a total of 50,000 plus words to be exact and in 30 days I might add. What to do next... I need to decide on a cover for the book, find and agent, sign with a publisher and make millions in sales and the next two books.


Come on! You didn't think I was serious about all of that, right? Actually now I'm going to take a little break and then I'll crack it open and look at what I've done. It's just a rough draft, but still I'm not going to toss it away. I plan to edit, tweak, rewrite, and even add to it.

I want to finish it out as best as I can and would like to have it all wrapped up by next November and write a sequel to the story. I need to work on the 30 day's of World building exercises, before I start the rewrites too. These will be easier and only take about 20 or 30 minutes out of the day.

The whole thing was a blast and I felt great at what I accomplished. Crazy thing, now that it's over, I feel like I missing something and should be writing more. I do feel that this is the best way, at least for me to approach something like this. You write like mad and just let things flow and and then you can come back and really tweak and fine tune stuff.

Will you anything on the bookshelves, not anytime soon, perhaps a sample at some point. I'd like that, but it will be sometime next year. I'll see what things look like around January, about the time I decide to give it a read and start jotting down some notes. For now, I just want to smile and keep saying, "Dude, you just finished writing your first novel... well at least the first draft."

McD's Wi-Fi via ATT

So I'm trying to catch up on my writing for the book and we needed to Eat as well. My wife checked into Mc Donalds and their Wi-Fi and as part of our service with ATT, we are allowed to connect at their locations via Wi-Fi. Cool!

So we brought a laptop with us and I was able to connect, check on some facts and write away. All at the same time with the family. The girls had a blast running and playing and I could still get a little bit of work done. At this stage, any extra time I can get some writing done, then all the better for me.

I'm about 4079 words off and looking at a day or two of some Hard Core writing. I know with the Holidays coming up, I'll have a little time from work and will have to see what writing I can get in.

Falling behind...

I'm not real worried right now... I'm only nearing the halfway point, but I am about 2 days off on my daily word goal. If you haven't noticed the bright yellow box in the upper right of this page, then you might need to get your eyes checked out.

For those that have noticed, its my total word count so far in the NaNoWriMo contest. Each day I need to get at least 1667 words down on paper. I'm actually needing to shoot for 1725 and finishing a day early. So if you know the day of the month and a little math, you can see where I'm at and should be each day.

I fell behind this past weekend and have been doing anything I can to maintain and catch up is all. My hope is this weekend will allow me to kick some serious words out and bring me closer to where I should be. My goal is to be at 31,050 by the end of the day on Sunday. That's only 9772 words between now and then. Wish me luck now.

Wall to Wall Moto!

Finally, it's been years in the works and I finally made it to the International Motorcycle Show here in Fort Worth. It never fails, I've wanted to go and something would come up and keep me from going. This was my year, in fact the show snuck up on me, I hadn't even looked or thought about it and then with about a week or two before it arrived, I came across a post about the show being here.

It's nice to see so many bikes all in one location and you can go from Bike to Bike and sit on them to see how they feel. I'm a Sportbike kind of guy, so its odd to sit on a cruiser, but I get to at a show like this. I also know that my current ride is so much heavier than the newer bikes being made as well.

Lots of cool stuff from custom paint and mods were all on hand for the viewing. On the extreme, they had an MV Agusta F4CC, very limited all hand made, from the top to bottom. With only 100 being made and a sticker price of $120,000, which includes a jacket and watch to match. You get to see it all at a show like this.

Well with a price tag like that, it makes my BMW K1200S an affordable purchase at some point and I don't need a matching jacket and watch. At least I could sit on the BMW. I was lucky I could even touch the MV Agusta.

Hot Babe of the Day

Ok, this is not something you'll see on a regular basis here. I was helping out a buddy with his site and installing a new look and blew up the old site to make way for the new. So I was going to test out my work and he does this Hot Pic of the Day thing and I thought, Wow, its my chance to make the first pic. Little did I know, he was still near and came across the site changes and beat me to it. Now I spent some of my morning looking for a selection and as near as I can tell, this girl ranks high on the radar for many sites out there. Here's what you would have seen on the BobNewhouse.Com site if I'd been a little faster and he would have already been on the road.

Jessica Alba first showed up on my radar with a a show called Dark Angel and my buddy Bob, always told me that Buffy would take Dark Angel any day of the week.

Well I'm sorry, but I don't see Sarah Michelle Gellar on any of the lists I looked at today. Now back to Jessica, the next thing I really watched her in was Sin City and she looked good in Black & White too. I've also found out that she'll be in Sin City 2 due out around 2009.

Well enjoy the pic for those of you that stumble across the site. This will be the last time I post one of these. Take a look at BobNewhouse.Com for more Pic's of the Day if you like. Sorry Bob, you could have seen this when you first logged in. :)

Let's do this, I pledge...

I hereby pledge my intent to write a 50,000-word novel in one month's time. By invoking an absurd, month-long deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of "craft," "brilliance," and "competency" are to be chucked right out of the window, where they will remain, ignored until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of the next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realize that I will produce clunky dialogue, cliched characters, and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected and/or excised at a later point. I understand my right to withhold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it completed. I also acknowledge my right as author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect and attention, or freedom from participation in onerous household chores.

I acknowledge that the month-long, 50,000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the deadline once the adventure has begun, will invite well deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration of which may preclude me for participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterward.

Signed,
Robert

31st October 2007
Novel start date: 1st November 2007
Novel deadline: 30th November 2007

The Magna Carta I & II, the fork in the Novel

They are really just my Likes & Dislikes, to help point me in the right direction and they come in the form of two lists called the Magna Cartas I & II.

Chris Baty's No Plot, No Problem book introduced the twin lists as a guide and after I created them I could review the lists during next months NaNoWriMo, through out the writing process.

This is just a reminder of things I enjoy to read and things I try to avoid and in doing this, I'll try and use some of the same items from Magna Carta I and steer clear of Magana Carta II this month. So let me start off with my Magna Carta I and some of the things I like in books.

Magna Carta I (Likes)

1. Fantasy


2. Magic


3. Sci-Fi


4. Complex Characters


5. Humor


6. Witty Banter


7. Emotional situations


8. Fast paced stories


9. Lots of twists


10. Surprises

Now for the things I really don't care for in books or the types of books in general I avoid all together.

Magna Carta II (Dislikes)

1. Romance Novels


2. Westerns Novels


3. Extreme Gore


4. Sexual Violence


5. Racism or Sexism


6. Very limited to hardly any dialog at all


7. Flat & boring Characters


8. Bad Stereotypes


9. Slow paced stories

I have my general path to work on and the things I would like to try and include in my novel, as well as the things I should really avoid. I'm not saying that things on list one are always right or things on list two are always wrong. It's a choice I need to make and the things I need to remember and include or exclude. I'm sure Romance & Westerns are great, just not my kind of thing.

Things are starting to fall in place and I only have one last item to take care of. I'm sure he's watching and eager to speak his mind and try and put his twist on my story this month. I know he means well, but I'll need to sit him down and ask him for a favor and to really wait till I'm done. I'll let you know how that all goes next time... other than that, I'm ready to rock and roll this crazy thing.

Only Seven days til NaNoWriMo

I just finished reading Chris Baty's, No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days and I did this just in time, as I head into my first NaNoWriMo. Why on earth would someone think about doing such a thing? How about the high numbers of people thinking and wanting to write, only getting side tracked, stuck, and abandoning their child on the doorstep of things left unfinished.

So this exercise in creativity and sticking to a deadline, while writing a novel, is the answer to the problem. This month we will not leave our stories on the doorstep, we will push ourselves to complete the tasks, have fun along the way, and let our characters reveal the world inside and tell their stories.

Write fast and leave your Inner Editor behind, take a chance and let your characters try things and see what happens. In the end, you might be surprised at what you have and after a little break you can turn around and make changes and polish things up. Sounds like a crazy plan, but a plan for success if you ask me. With out the goals and deadlines, to many things will creep up and get in the way. Your imagination will fall into a slumber and the stories will die. Just like eating & drinking, you have to feed your stories on a regular basis and in truth its only a couple hours out of each day.

I had fun during Script Frenzy and reached the 20,000 words goal for a movie. I feel good about this project and I'm ready to take it head on. It's not about quality as much as quantity, but at the same time I think I'm capable of creating something fairly decent and look forward to completion and having something to edit afterwards.

Everything has its place

It's a good way to look at things and will hopefully help things feel right and make sense as I write my Novel next month. Were talking about the back story here. What? That's right just like it helps to have a feel of the world around us, its no different in writing a story to have an idea of the world and the characters the story will take place in.

So I came across a site with exercises to help with the creation of a fantasy world. It's a collection of 30 days and an exercise for each day. Upon completion, you should have a really firm grasp of what makes things tick in the land of your characters.

Here's my problem, I don't have 30 days here to do this. Sure, people will say our World was created in 7 days (actually 6 with a day of rest) or it was just a big bang. The exercises actually let me rest on day 30, but I still need to cram 29 exercises into 20 days or less. The world I make needs to be ready by the first of next month, I can't have it stewing and cooling off, I need to hit the ground running at the start and write. Otherwise my novel could just be a Big Bang.

If I really wanted to be impressive, I could spend a solid 7 hours and 15 minutes and have my world created all in one day. I think I'll try and shoot for 6 days and spend about an hour and 15 minutes and work on at least 5 exercises a day. Yes, this is all for fun too.

Free Your Mind

So the chorus goes... "Free your mind and the rest will follow" as sung by En Vouge on their March 24, 1992 Funky Divas album. This is the idea, more or less behind the free software download called Freemind.

It's known as Mind-mapping software and allows you to make a flow chart of your ideas for just about every project you can think of. Leonardo DaVinci pretty much developed this process to help him visually plan out things and make things easier.

I'm always a huge fan of stuff that is free an I hope to use this tool to plan my Novel out for this years NaNoWriMo event. I'm also looking at using a product called yWriter to help with the organization of my Novel as well.

NaNo Oh No!

It's almost that time, time for me to start the great novel. My first novel, the one that will sell half a million copies and become the next Harry Potter and lead me down the path way of fame and fortune.

OK, not even close to half a million copies, not the next Harry Potter and no where near a path to fame and fortune. But it will be an adventure of sorts and a challenge to say the least.

From November 1st thorough the 30th, I'll slave away and let all of my creative thoughts take shape and build a world in the form of a Novel. The goal by the end of the month, to complete the 50,000 words required to win. What do you win, absolutely nothing... just the satisfaction of reaching the goal.

It's an exercise in meeting a deadline and trying to be creative and just write your heart out. It is no where near quality, but all about quantity. It's a rough draft at best and nothing more that that. In fact its not even really meant for someones eyes to read in this stage.

To learn more, visit the NaNoWriMo web site, but they have had their share of trouble so far. I just hope they'll figure it all out before the start. I can really use the support of all the other NaNoer's out there and don't want to deal with a slow sluggish web site. Here's hoping they'll get things fixed soon and wish me luck on my latest journey, heading down the path of a Novel Writer.

2, 4, 6, 8... Who do we appreciate

So today I over heard two moms talking about something and one of them said, "do they even wear skirts any more for cheering?" The mom replied, "no its all Hoochie outfits now!" :o Just like the High School Cheerleader pictured here it's shocking and true it seems. So being the father of a young daughter, I'm happy she's not wanting to be a cheerleader... at least so far she hasn't mentioned it at this young age. I also have a younger daughter following her older sisters footsteps, talk about double trouble. The High School Cheerleaders didn't look like that when I was going to school.

This crazy sport that starts out with very young girls and costs tons of money for these Lil darlings to cheer for a small peewee football team, where they more and likely don't even know someone on the football team. When I was growing up, I didn't even see a cheer leader until Junior High School. Cheering back then was the basic chants and claps of Fire Up! Now days its more about music and dance, all spurred on by the whole Bring It On movies.

Its funny how times have changed and how the normal Barbie dolls for girls are not enough. Now you have the Bratz and Flavas giving Barbie a run for the money and forcing her to lower her standards and sexy up her image. Not to mention the shows and music videos as well, its getting harder and harder to watch or listen to anything these days.

Don't get me wrong I'll be the first to say at a professional game, the girls on the sidelines are attractive to look at and fun to watch, but I'm not sure how much they really help my team win the game. OK, they keep the crowd fired up during breaks and time outs and perhaps that helps. But do we have to start our young ladies down this road?

Who will ever see it

So it was 1967 when the Navy Barracks were built and for what ever reason, the plans turned out to be the symbol of a swastika. Whoops!
















The response was, nobody will ever notice and see it from above. They never thought about a Satellite image from above or the fact that people from all over would access these images for free over the Internet.

What most people don't know is that the symbol itself has been around for ages and represents a lot of good things. It wasn't until the Nazi party took the symbol and it would for ever be tied to the negative association here after.

The Navy is about to spend $600,000 dollars to change the layout of the Coronado, California facility in order to make sure people can't see it from above. It's ironic that it was built and perhaps nobody noticed or thought about it or perhaps it was just bad luck. Perhaps it was just bad luck the Nazi party selected the image in the first place to begin with.

It's a gamble

I was playing small and taking tiny risks is all. I like betting on red or black most of the time. I'll play odd or even and some of the other areas like 1-12 and so on. The table was a $25 to $1000 table and I had just started.

So I'd build up a bit and then lose and build up and lose. Then I started winning and managed to be up a few thousand and it was time to make my move. You got to bet big, to win big and I was going to capture my corner with my next bet.

I placed $1000 on 5-6-8-9 and it was time for the ball to make is way around. No going back from here, the deed was done. The ball drops and starts bouncing around, hip on hop all over the place and it final lands. I'm watching the wheel move around and looking for the number.

It was 8 and my loan chip was no longer lonely, paying out a nice 8-1 odds. I'd jump up an extra $8,000 to add to my wins. I was my single chance at placing a big bet, none of this $1 to $5 bets, I was playing large. All in all it was a fun night at the 911 Appreciation event and the winning chips would be converted to tickets for door prize drawings. If only I could have been lucky in that area. Better yet, I wish it was real money. Real money I could afford to risk and better yet, real money I could stand to win.