I finally had the opportunity recently to meet Marie Angell, the lead vocalist, keyboard and songwriter for the Houston, Texas blues band, The Snake Charmers. We were at a social media event and knowing that the Mojo is a huge blues fan, gifted me their latest album “Been Gone Too Long”.
Well of course I slid the CD in immediately after putting my seat belt on for the commute home and was not disappointed. The vocals are strong, feminine and applicable to our own emotions. The music leans toward blues rock and of course Texas blues and is very rewarding. I’d suggest downloading the album from your favorite digital store when you are ready for some audio mojo.
Wonderwife and I are celebrating our 13th year of marriage and 18th year together overall. She has made me into a better man and I will always be grateful for her love and support.
Our first date was a complete disaster. She wanted to go see “Silence of the Lambs” to which I had no desire to see but agreed out of fear of missing out on her. It was gross, and it felt like I was sitting 3 chairs away from her because of my squeamishness. Hard to believe it won the 1991 Oscar award. Dinner was absolutely tasteless. I suggested going to a dance club but she was turned away for not being 18. I could have gone in but would have felt bad leaving her by herself. Imagine my surprise when she agreed to a second date. A year after college we were married on May 4, 1996 and had our honeymoon in San Francisco.
Thirteen years later, I am still amazed that she stuck it out with me for this long. I am not deserving. No one else could have been my best friend, be the strengths to my weakness, or love me like she does. She is wise beyond her age, an excellent cook, a creative soul and has always been attractive to me. On top of everything else, she is a brilliant mother to our 2 year old daughter. How did I manage to win her heart? I am nothing without her.
I love you, Jenny. Thank you.
1996
1991
Web 2.0: What Survived?
2009-05-10 22:03:31
As an early adapter of web applications and operating systems from 2005 to today, I’ve seen a lot of innovation. The trends and tools we use in our online lives have empowered us to communicate and produce content like nothing else before it. The trend is slowing down now. It was a fun ride but for now, we can take a look at what tools have survived and which have become mainstream. The following is a list of applications I use on an almost daily basis and have earned their place.
Audio
iTunes store, Last.fm
Email
Gmail, Xobni
Chat
Instant Messenger: Trillian Astra
Voice: Skype
Other: Twitter
RSS
Feed Demon, Newsgator
Social Bookmarking
Delicious
Web Browser
Firefox (with Greasemonkey extension)
Storage
Carbonite, Amazon Web Services
Sync
DropBox, Box.net
Location-based
Google Earth, FireEagle
Photo
Flickr, SmugMug
Video
YouTube, Hulu
Productivity
Basecamp, Google Docs
Search/Reference
Yahoo search, Wikipedia
Social
Facebook, LinkedIn
Publishing tools
Wordpress, Tumblr
My overall winner would be GMail because there are so many different ways to extend it’s use in other applications, storage capacity and continuing innovation. This deserves a blog post of it’s own. Hmmm.
So what is next? What will we see with web 3.0? Can you imagine some of the up and coming apps we’ll use in the near future? A merger of web applications in desktop functionality? Mobile web?
Fire Ant Brain Eaters & Zombies
2009-05-15 12:03:35
Mad scientists from the University of Texas are experimenting with fire ant-brain-eating flies to help control the fire ant infestation here. Phorid flies attack and inject their larvae inside the ant’s head. The larvae then feed on the ant’s brains, which cause their heads to fall off. The ants can still walk around for a couple of weeks but no longer pose a threat. Finally, they die.
Video is courtesy of KXAN out of Austin, Texas
One has to wonder when phorid flies will turn on their captors and eat our brains…
Enhance Your Calm
2009-05-19 23:17:38
Mellow greetings! It has been exactly one year ago today that I found out I was being laid off from a good job in Birmingham. A lot has changed since then including putting the house up for sale, moving out of Alabama and into Texas (July). We moved further south as did the economy after we got here. The house is still up for sale with no prospects. The job prospects are dwindling.
WonderWife can tell you how all of this has affected me better than I can but the truth is, it hasn’t made me a very pleasant person to be around. The stress was eating away at who I am and replaced it with someone else. I didn’t like this person, so I chose to show him out the door.
I can not and will not allow circumstances beyond my control to take control of my life. I choose happiness and joy. I will learn to appreciate what I have instead of lamenting what I do not. So yes, I could choose the negative path but I’ll go down a different road.
Regardless of your position on war and the military, you have the freedom to express it. This is only possible through the service and sacrifice of the U.S. military throughout our history. Please take a moment today and think about that. Memorial Day is more than time off of work or school. So much more than a sales event.
Thank you soldiers, sailors and pilots!
thanks to Kris Klop for the amazing photo and post-processing
Can You Hear Me Now?
2009-05-24 21:01:04
I love micro blogging (Twitter) and instant messaging but sometimes conversations need to be had with voice and video to put into context what is being communicated. Let me share these tools with you so we can communicate just a wee bit better.
Skype- If you use Skype then you know that voice/video calling to other Skype members are free. You can also buy time and call mobile/land line phones as well. Add me to your contact list (mojodenbow) or click the button below to call me!
Skype vid
Google Voice- Formerly known as Grand Central, this product supplies you with a unique telephone number that can be used anywhere. The beauty of this tool allows you to screen calls or to get voicemail into your inbox. You can play the message from your inbox. Supposedly very soon this will be integrated with your GMail account. Awesome.
Skydeck- A new mobile tool that I use with Google Voice. Skydeck will offer me a written transcript of what callers are saying that is sent to my GVoice inbox. It helps if the caller enunciates clearly!
A recent sample:
hey there this is chris justin (just doing a) little test of skied deck(SkyDeck) and doable (Google) voice and hopefully this is the fifth house on the fourteen test talk to you later.
Dial2Do- I love this mobile app. Sign up for free, register your programs such as Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, GMail, Evernote and much much more. Dial the number they provide you and get things done. Need to leave a note for yourself? Call your assigned number, say “Evernote” and leave a voice note. Send an email or SMS text message with your voice. Write a blog post, add a date to your calendar and even add a tweet to Twitter.
I’m always looking for the next/best web, voice and mobile applications. If you know of tools we can use, add them to the comments, won’t you?
I finally had the opportunity recently to meet Marie Angell, the lead vocalist, keyboard and songwriter for the Houston, Texas blues band, The Snake Charmers. We were at a social media event and knowing that the Mojo is a huge blues fan, gifted me their latest album “Been Gone Too Long”.
Well of course I slid the CD in immediately after putting my seat belt on for the commute home and was not disappointed. The vocals are strong, feminine and applicable to our own emotions. The music leans toward blues rock and of course Texas blues and is very rewarding. I’d suggest downloading the album from your favorite digital store when you are ready for some audio mojo.
Wonderwife and I are celebrating our 13th year of marriage and 18th year together overall. She has made me into a better man and I will always be grateful for her love and support.
Our first date was a complete disaster. She wanted to go see “Silence of the Lambs” to which I had no desire to see but agreed out of fear of missing out on her. It was gross, and it felt like I was sitting 3 chairs away from her because of my squeamishness. Hard to believe it won the 1991 Oscar award. Dinner was absolutely tasteless. I suggested going to a dance club but she was turned away for not being 18. I could have gone in but would have felt bad leaving her by herself. Imagine my surprise when she agreed to a second date. A year after college we were married on May 4, 1996 and had our honeymoon in San Francisco.
Thirteen years later, I am still amazed that she stuck it out with me for this long. I am not deserving. No one else could have been my best friend, be the strengths to my weakness, or love me like she does. She is wise beyond her age, an excellent cook, a creative soul and has always been attractive to me. On top of everything else, she is a brilliant mother to our 2 year old daughter. How did I manage to win her heart? I am nothing without her.
I love you, Jenny. Thank you.
1996
1991
Web 2.0: What Survived?
2009-05-10 22:03:31
As an early adapter of web applications and operating systems from 2005 to today, I’ve seen a lot of innovation. The trends and tools we use in our online lives have empowered us to communicate and produce content like nothing else before it. The trend is slowing down now. It was a fun ride but for now, we can take a look at what tools have survived and which have become mainstream. The following is a list of applications I use on an almost daily basis and have earned their place.
Audio
iTunes store, Last.fm
Email
Gmail, Xobni
Chat
Instant Messenger: Trillian Astra
Voice: Skype
Other: Twitter
RSS
Feed Demon, Newsgator
Social Bookmarking
Delicious
Web Browser
Firefox (with Greasemonkey extension)
Storage
Carbonite, Amazon Web Services
Sync
DropBox, Box.net
Location-based
Google Earth, FireEagle
Photo
Flickr, SmugMug
Video
YouTube, Hulu
Productivity
Basecamp, Google Docs
Search/Reference
Yahoo search, Wikipedia
Social
Facebook, LinkedIn
Publishing tools
Wordpress, Tumblr
My overall winner would be GMail because there are so many different ways to extend it’s use in other applications, storage capacity and continuing innovation. This deserves a blog post of it’s own. Hmmm.
So what is next? What will we see with web 3.0? Can you imagine some of the up and coming apps we’ll use in the near future? A merger of web applications in desktop functionality? Mobile web?
Fire Ant Brain Eaters & Zombies
2009-05-15 12:03:35
Mad scientists from the University of Texas are experimenting with fire ant-brain-eating flies to help control the fire ant infestation here. Phorid flies attack and inject their larvae inside the ant’s head. The larvae then feed on the ant’s brains, which cause their heads to fall off. The ants can still walk around for a couple of weeks but no longer pose a threat. Finally, they die.
Video is courtesy of KXAN out of Austin, Texas
One has to wonder when phorid flies will turn on their captors and eat our brains…
Enhance Your Calm
2009-05-19 23:17:38
Mellow greetings! It has been exactly one year ago today that I found out I was being laid off from a good job in Birmingham. A lot has changed since then including putting the house up for sale, moving out of Alabama and into Texas (July). We moved further south as did the economy after we got here. The house is still up for sale with no prospects. The job prospects are dwindling.
WonderWife can tell you how all of this has affected me better than I can but the truth is, it hasn’t made me a very pleasant person to be around. The stress was eating away at who I am and replaced it with someone else. I didn’t like this person, so I chose to show him out the door.
I can not and will not allow circumstances beyond my control to take control of my life. I choose happiness and joy. I will learn to appreciate what I have instead of lamenting what I do not. So yes, I could choose the negative path but I’ll go down a different road.
Regardless of your position on war and the military, you have the freedom to express it. This is only possible through the service and sacrifice of the U.S. military throughout our history. Please take a moment today and think about that. Memorial Day is more than time off of work or school. So much more than a sales event.
Thank you soldiers, sailors and pilots!
thanks to Kris Klop for the amazing photo and post-processing
Can You Hear Me Now?
2009-05-24 21:01:04
I love micro blogging (Twitter) and instant messaging but sometimes conversations need to be had with voice and video to put into context what is being communicated. Let me share these tools with you so we can communicate just a wee bit better.
Skype- If you use Skype then you know that voice/video calling to other Skype members are free. You can also buy time and call mobile/land line phones as well. Add me to your contact list (mojodenbow) or click the button below to call me!
Skype vid
Google Voice- Formerly known as Grand Central, this product supplies you with a unique telephone number that can be used anywhere. The beauty of this tool allows you to screen calls or to get voicemail into your inbox. You can play the message from your inbox. Supposedly very soon this will be integrated with your GMail account. Awesome.
Skydeck- A new mobile tool that I use with Google Voice. Skydeck will offer me a written transcript of what callers are saying that is sent to my GVoice inbox. It helps if the caller enunciates clearly!
A recent sample:
hey there this is chris justin (just doing a) little test of skied deck(SkyDeck) and doable (Google) voice and hopefully this is the fifth house on the fourteen test talk to you later.
Dial2Do- I love this mobile app. Sign up for free, register your programs such as Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, GMail, Evernote and much much more. Dial the number they provide you and get things done. Need to leave a note for yourself? Call your assigned number, say “Evernote” and leave a voice note. Send an email or SMS text message with your voice. Write a blog post, add a date to your calendar and even add a tweet to Twitter.
I’m always looking for the next/best web, voice and mobile applications. If you know of tools we can use, add them to the comments, won’t you?
I finally had the opportunity recently to meet Marie Angell, the lead vocalist, keyboard and songwriter for the Houston, Texas blues band, The Snake Charmers. We were at a social media event and knowing that the Mojo is a huge blues fan, gifted me their latest album “Been Gone Too Long”.
Well of course I slid the CD in immediately after putting my seat belt on for the commute home and was not disappointed. The vocals are strong, feminine and applicable to our own emotions. The music leans toward blues rock and of course Texas blues and is very rewarding. I’d suggest downloading the album from your favorite digital store when you are ready for some audio mojo.
Wonderwife and I are celebrating our 13th year of marriage and 18th year together overall. She has made me into a better man and I will always be grateful for her love and support.
Our first date was a complete disaster. She wanted to go see “Silence of the Lambs” to which I had no desire to see but agreed out of fear of missing out on her. It was gross, and it felt like I was sitting 3 chairs away from her because of my squeamishness. Hard to believe it won the 1991 Oscar award. Dinner was absolutely tasteless. I suggested going to a dance club but she was turned away for not being 18. I could have gone in but would have felt bad leaving her by herself. Imagine my surprise when she agreed to a second date. A year after college we were married on May 4, 1996 and had our honeymoon in San Francisco.
Thirteen years later, I am still amazed that she stuck it out with me for this long. I am not deserving. No one else could have been my best friend, be the strengths to my weakness, or love me like she does. She is wise beyond her age, an excellent cook, a creative soul and has always been attractive to me. On top of everything else, she is a brilliant mother to our 2 year old daughter. How did I manage to win her heart? I am nothing without her.
I love you, Jenny. Thank you.
1996
1991
Web 2.0: What Survived?
2009-05-10 22:03:31
As an early adapter of web applications and operating systems from 2005 to today, I’ve seen a lot of innovation. The trends and tools we use in our online lives have empowered us to communicate and produce content like nothing else before it. The trend is slowing down now. It was a fun ride but for now, we can take a look at what tools have survived and which have become mainstream. The following is a list of applications I use on an almost daily basis and have earned their place.
Audio
iTunes store, Last.fm
Email
Gmail, Xobni
Chat
Instant Messenger: Trillian Astra
Voice: Skype
Other: Twitter
RSS
Feed Demon, Newsgator
Social Bookmarking
Delicious
Web Browser
Firefox (with Greasemonkey extension)
Storage
Carbonite, Amazon Web Services
Sync
DropBox, Box.net
Location-based
Google Earth, FireEagle
Photo
Flickr, SmugMug
Video
YouTube, Hulu
Productivity
Basecamp, Google Docs
Search/Reference
Yahoo search, Wikipedia
Social
Facebook, LinkedIn
Publishing tools
Wordpress, Tumblr
My overall winner would be GMail because there are so many different ways to extend it’s use in other applications, storage capacity and continuing innovation. This deserves a blog post of it’s own. Hmmm.
So what is next? What will we see with web 3.0? Can you imagine some of the up and coming apps we’ll use in the near future? A merger of web applications in desktop functionality? Mobile web?
Fire Ant Brain Eaters & Zombies
2009-05-15 12:03:35
Mad scientists from the University of Texas are experimenting with fire ant-brain-eating flies to help control the fire ant infestation here. Phorid flies attack and inject their larvae inside the ant’s head. The larvae then feed on the ant’s brains, which cause their heads to fall off. The ants can still walk around for a couple of weeks but no longer pose a threat. Finally, they die.
Video is courtesy of KXAN out of Austin, Texas
One has to wonder when phorid flies will turn on their captors and eat our brains…
Enhance Your Calm
2009-05-19 23:17:38
Mellow greetings! It has been exactly one year ago today that I found out I was being laid off from a good job in Birmingham. A lot has changed since then including putting the house up for sale, moving out of Alabama and into Texas (July). We moved further south as did the economy after we got here. The house is still up for sale with no prospects. The job prospects are dwindling.
WonderWife can tell you how all of this has affected me better than I can but the truth is, it hasn’t made me a very pleasant person to be around. The stress was eating away at who I am and replaced it with someone else. I didn’t like this person, so I chose to show him out the door.
I can not and will not allow circumstances beyond my control to take control of my life. I choose happiness and joy. I will learn to appreciate what I have instead of lamenting what I do not. So yes, I could choose the negative path but I’ll go down a different road.
Regardless of your position on war and the military, you have the freedom to express it. This is only possible through the service and sacrifice of the U.S. military throughout our history. Please take a moment today and think about that. Memorial Day is more than time off of work or school. So much more than a sales event.
Thank you soldiers, sailors and pilots!
thanks to Kris Klop for the amazing photo and post-processing
Can You Hear Me Now?
2009-05-24 21:01:04
I love micro blogging (Twitter) and instant messaging but sometimes conversations need to be had with voice and video to put into context what is being communicated. Let me share these tools with you so we can communicate just a wee bit better.
Skype- If you use Skype then you know that voice/video calling to other Skype members are free. You can also buy time and call mobile/land line phones as well. Add me to your contact list (mojodenbow) or click the button below to call me!
Skype vid
Google Voice- Formerly known as Grand Central, this product supplies you with a unique telephone number that can be used anywhere. The beauty of this tool allows you to screen calls or to get voicemail into your inbox. You can play the message from your inbox. Supposedly very soon this will be integrated with your GMail account. Awesome.
Skydeck- A new mobile tool that I use with Google Voice. Skydeck will offer me a written transcript of what callers are saying that is sent to my GVoice inbox. It helps if the caller enunciates clearly!
A recent sample:
hey there this is chris justin (just doing a) little test of skied deck(SkyDeck) and doable (Google) voice and hopefully this is the fifth house on the fourteen test talk to you later.
Dial2Do- I love this mobile app. Sign up for free, register your programs such as Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, GMail, Evernote and much much more. Dial the number they provide you and get things done. Need to leave a note for yourself? Call your assigned number, say “Evernote” and leave a voice note. Send an email or SMS text message with your voice. Write a blog post, add a date to your calendar and even add a tweet to Twitter.
I’m always looking for the next/best web, voice and mobile applications. If you know of tools we can use, add them to the comments, won’t you?
