Chris 
Now that the iTunes store has over 100,000 apps, what is the one that you cannot live without? Is it a productivity tool? Social media app? Maybe you are a gamer and can’t live without it. Share your faves in the comments section. Who knows, maybe we’ll all discover one we haven’t heard of yet.
I’m Outta Here, originally uploaded by Photo Denbow.
Enjoy your weekend!
Scouring the internet for the good stuff and sharing it with you in case you missed it.
There you go for this week’s links. I’ve shown you mine, now show me yours!
ChrisDenbow.com is now open for business. Pardon the dust as I am still trying to clean things up around here, move the furniture around and re-organize. The website will still get a makeover but this will do for now (better than a boring template). The transfer from MojoDenbow.info was not as painful as I expected thanks to the insights of some great friends and WordPress ninjas: Donald Harper Stephen Alexander Linda MacPhee-Cobb and Brandon Oelling at X-Equals . Of course a special thanks to WonderWife who is way smarter than I am. Thanks, amigos!
This website is designed to be interactive through comments, video, voice and more. Let me encourage you to speak your mind and turn my monologue into our dialog. You can do this by visiting the website frequently or by subscribing to the RSS feed and/or get the articles by email subscription (no spam!).
Mobile access is now provided as well for those of us who cannot get enough of our mobile devices. You know who you are!
Anywhoo… I’d appreciate a comment to test this thing out. Be kind, won’t you? Thanks for sticking with me during this transition. You won’t be disappointed.
Chris Denbow
As promised, the Mojo deconstruction project is coming along nicely. I’m in the process of dropping that brand into one that reflects myself and whatever projects I choose to endure. The new website is waiting on me to back up the WordPress database, switch over the servers and reinstall. I imagine I will add a few more bells & whistles this time around too. If you come to the Mojo address after the conversion, it will redirect you to the new address. As for now, I want to alert everyone to some contact information changes.
Website: http://chrisdenbow.website (coming soon)
Email: chrisdenbow@gmail.com or chris@chrisdenbow.website
Skype: chrisdenbow
GTalk IM: chrisdenbow Yahoo: chris.denbow
Twitter: @chrisdenbow (coming soon)
GVoice: New number! 281.206.4253
I am still considering what to do with my photography business, Photo Mojo and that re-branding effort. I am heavily invested there and to change that now would take some extra time and revenue. If you have any suggestions for a new name, I’d love to review it. I’ve already killed any notion of using “Chris Denbow Photography” due to it’s boring, uninspired, de-creative, full-of-suck title. I need creative, anti-suck branding here!
Thank You!
PS: you people are the anti-suck
*No, this is not a reference to the ridiculous Austin Powers movie.
These past 2-3 years have been difficult on myself and my family thanks to layoffs and an economy that went south real fast. To be even more honest, the situation here is degrading, not improving. I’ve been struggling inwardly while I am Mr..-Anything-Is-Possible on the outside. It is becoming real difficult to maintain that position too.
I’m not the man I used to be a few years ago and I don’t like it. I’ve said before that I used to be a lot happier and it is truer today than when I first said it.
Almost eight years ago I was asked to create a user name for a new mail and internet account (MSN dial-up, what was I thinking?) and I chose “mojodenbow”. I’ve always loved the Blues music which uses that term a lot. It rhymed with my last name so that was the beginning of an era.
After a few weeks of thought, I have decided to put an end to that era. Slowly. I have built an entire brand and websites around the “Mojo” theme and am still very proud of it too. Audio Mojo, Techno Mojo, Photo Mojo and Video Mojo have been fun. I will still pursue these things but not with that brand name.
Why am I putting the Mojo behind me? The term itself is African for dark magic. It was brought to America and became very popular in the south, especially with Creole and voodoo. The Blues music was born there and calls upon this term frequently in the older, classic songs. One of the more popular songs says “I got my mojo workin’ but it just won’t work on you…”
I honestly believe that while Mojo has been fun, it has not been productive. In fact, because of the reference, it may have been destructive. It wasn’t who I am and that is the point.
I want to be myself again
Over the next month or two I’ll be in the process of converting everything over to something that reflects this. I’ve already secured two domain names for this website and others. The email, social media accounts will be next. if you’re interested in sticking with me, I will be posting notifications, new addresses, etc. I’ll probably lose some friends and followers in the process. I hope not. If so, then maybe they were following the wrong person.
I’m starting to feel like myself again.
I shared with you some of the software tools in my digital toolbox recently and today I will share how you and I can communicate with each other.
I’ll go over some tools that you may or may not ever heard of yet as well as a new twist on some you have been using.
Google Wave is a communications tool that it is being distributed very slowly while being tested. Wave is a way to communicate & collaborate that makes real-time interactions more seamless. You can share waves using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is a conversation with multiple participants added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.
However, because of it’s new release, we’re all trying to figure out just how this works effectively. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with waves, and new contacts while attempting to figure out how to respond properly. More to come as I work this out.
Think you can work it out? Add a comment with your best use scenario and I’ll send you an invitation to join the Wave. I only have 5 invites so them good, people!
Google Voice gives you a separate phone number which you can give out as if it is your regular phone number. You can then change your settings to have calls forward to any of your phones. My number is 281.769.2809
You can forward to one group of phones during the day and another at night. You can have calls from certain numbers forward differently than calls to other numbers. You can block spamming callers and send some calls straight to voice mail.
You can send yourself an SMS message or an email whenever you get a voice mail message, and you can check your voice mail from the Web or from your phone. GVoice will even transcribe voice mail into written text in your inbox. Neato. I have two invitations for Google Voice. Again, leave a comment describing your best use scenario! 
Instant Messenger clients have been around forever. Which one do you use? Like many of us you have multiple accounts. MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc. Like many of us you probably have their software downloaded too. Why not combine them all so you don’t have to have them open at the same time and not miss an IM? I use a desktop application called Pidgin that does just that. I have multiple accounts but only one software to use. Now I have no excuse for missing your IM. Not that I’d want to! The only drawback to this is there is no video chat available like the others use.
Skype has a lot of features like video conferencing, SMS, voicemail, call forwarding, contact list, integration with MS Outlook, public chats, business control panel, sketch pad, desktop sharing and many others. I can even make calls anywhere in the world with the Skype app on my iPod Touch. 
E-mail is an obvious one. I’ve been using Gmail for five years because it is flawless, expandable and easy to use. I have it connected to MS Outlook as well. Email me mojodenbow AT gmail.com
Mobile is another obvious tool that has increased it’s functionality over the past two years. Now if only we can stop the wireless carriers from ripping us off and offer more choices!
As always, I’d appreciate your feedback as to what tools work for you and how you use them. Don’t forget to add your comments for those invitations!
I’m a big fan of having the right tools for the job and I wanted to take a moment to share what I have in my toolbox. Like every tool we use, it has to be comfortable and it has to be used as intended. the tools I use may or may not work for you.
When I installed Windows 7 on my laptop a few weeks ago, I added a lot of my software back on and omitted the ones I thought were no longer needed. It was a fresh start not unlike cleaning out your closet. Keep what you use, discard what you won’t. The first thing I installed was my favorite browser, Firefox. I cannot stand Internet Explorer and it’s limitations. With Firefox, I can extend and add tools to make my browsing experience functional.
Other tools I added and use frequently:
See something you’d like and use? You are more than welcome to borrow from my list and use for yourself. In fact, I insist. What tools do you use that you’d be willing to share with?
"Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express."
Will today’s release of Microsoft’s latest operating system make you think about upgrading from Vista or XP?
What features are you looking for or forward to?
I need to relax and de-stress myself. I miss the old me where I would not only laugh, but crack a joke too. I’m not myself but all that will change and here is how I want to do it. Join along if you’d like.
Ahhh… much better!
