From:
http://www.imaginationsimmons.com/gtkog/2011/2/1/the-gift-cards-that-kee...

The Gift (Cards) That Keep On Givin' Campaign!

UPDATE: Picks are now on sale on Etsy!
The Gifts That Keep On Givin' Store!

Recycle your used gift cards for a good cause! There are billions of gift cards purchased and exchanged each year. Ryan Simmons and (MC)² Productions have joined forces to pay-it-forward and help reduce, reuse and recycle a major amount of consumer waste. All recycled gift cards are repurposed into guitar picks then resold with 100% of proceeds benefiting music education.

Here is what you need to do:
Step 1: Collect your used cards.
Step 2: Send to the address below or find a drop-off location near you!

My FAWM.org friends Chris Adams and Tim Wille were playing a li'l game on Facebook that mingled the great bard with the great band. Here are the ones they came up with. Can YOU do better? (Imagine a pointing finger Uncle Sam here)

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, and I'll try not to sing out of key.

To be, or not to be good-looking cos he's so hard to see, that is the question.

Messers K. and H. assure the public
their production will be second to none, and of course, Henry the horse, the horse, my kingdom for a horse!

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow never knows.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool on the hill.

Shall I compare thee to a hard summer's day night?

Coming up this month is our third anniversary of moving to Fremont Michigan. I've been thinking about our move. It was an adventure. We rented a U-Haul truck and a tow along 12-ft trailer as well, so we were assured of an adventure in moving.

There was throwing up involved, scrubbing tile on my knees, 1000 miles of driving, a trailer popping off the trailer hitch (several times), an angel, dogs in the front seat, the shearing off of a trailer hitch 10 miles from our destination, and much more.

Back soon to tell you more.

I'm starting a cool new weekly radio call-in show at 8pm Eastern time at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charliecheney and I need you and your music on my show!

"Charlie Cheney's Music Exam" will host a spirited discussion on current musical hot-topics such as social networking, digital distribution, touring, self-promotion, and beyond. I'd love you to join in the conversation, so call-in won't you?

Last night we discussed the theory of "Tribes" and how tribes affect our success with music. Joel D Canfield author of "The Commonsense Entrepreneur" (http://www.indieseminars.com) joined me and I would love it if YOU, yes YOU, would call in to the next episode too. The call-in number is (914) 338-0421 and the show is free.

To kick off the series I featured some songs from a fun Portland artist named Josh Belville (http://www.zornog.net) and the band Arden of Eden (www.maryardencollins.com)

If you'd like to submit your music for future episodes or want to suggest a specific topic for discussion please send me an email with your ideas and links to mp3s and I'll take it from there. Look forward to hearing from you tonight and every Monday at 8pm!

-Charlie

Charlie Cheney's "We Can Have Pie!" song in mp3 format

All right kids and kiddens... it's time to make great pie crust. Why? Because we love pie! So, here is the ultimate instructional tutorial to help you make home made pie crust right there in the comfort of your own... home. Hooray! OK, let's begin.

Start with the basic ingredients and tools. Flour, shortening, salt, ice water, mixing bowl, tablespoon, and two knives to cut the dough.

Oooh look, I have a shiny new Facebook badge.

Come be my friend. Yay. I've become addicted to scrolling through Status Updates and leaving comments lately, lol.
:-)

I'm addicted to Twitter and it is ruining my blog. I've lost interest in writing more than 140 characters at a time. But at last I'm back in order to write a longer missive. About Twitter, of course.

Here's what I just discovered... the Twitter search feature has been disabled due to abuse... so as I searched around I found these handy work arounds, enjoy! (p.s. I found these here: http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/people_search_has_been_disabled)

Alternatives for User Search that might help in the meantime:

1. To search by topic, try http://search.twitter.com

2. To find friends through the address book of your webmail account, try http://twitter.com/invitations

The above are Twitter features. There are also third-party services that may help:

3. To search by name or bio, try http://twitdir.com or http://tweetscan.com/usersearch.php or http://twellow.com

4. To search by location, try http://twitterlocal.net

5. To search by profession, try http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com

6. To search for companies that use Twitter, try http://www.socialbrandindex.com/twitter

Last night I was flipping channels, back and forth between the usual "guy talk and drama" channels of ESPN, Golf Channel, some movie channels, when I happened on WGVU the local public station and Bill Moyer's program.

This guy Michael Zweig was on:
http://www.sunysb.edu/workingclass/

Have you seen Google's page today where you can search their 2001 index?

I searched for "Charlie Cheney" and this came up from the Lumina Americas site lol...

Charlie Cheney is Lumina Americas' Chief Technology Officer. Charlie has spent the past 13 years building a wide variety of technology-related companies. Most recently, Charlie was the Vice President of Technology at Rocketboard.com Inc., where he led and managed technology initiatives to launch this Internet start-up.

From 1996 to 1999, Charlie was the President and CEO of Cheney Inc., a Wisconsin-based computer and media consulting firm. There, he focused on cross-platform database programming, as well as computer system needs analysis, installation, training and troubleshooting for large and small businesses.

Prior to Cheney, Inc., Charlie spent six years at Get Creative Technologies, Inc. in Chicago. As President and CEO, Charlie was responsible for managing this computer consulting and media production company which focused on high-end printing, multimedia projects, as well as Internet and database development work. Clients included Ameritech, Motorola, Leo Burnett, Quaker Oats, Apple Computer and others.

Before joining Get Creative Technologies, Charlie was an assistant project leader at Apple Computer, Inc.

Charlie has a BA in Communications, Arts, Radio, TV & Film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Yes, I've started a radio show on the amazing new web site: www.blogtalkradio.com/charliecheney

Take a listen. And next time, call in, won't you?

I found this article here:
http://www.diigo.com/annotated/573ce3c601c68bf9e405909c8210334f

I wanted to save it for later...

How To Concentrate

( Originally Published 1930 )

"Concentration is the Most Important Intellectual Habit of Man."

Not one person in ten thousand can really concentrate. Some realize that they do not know how—others drift along the line of least resistance and let their minds vegetate, apparently never suspecting their weakness or realizing that they are an utter failure at concentration. To Cori-centre—bringing all your mental force and faculties to bear steadily on a given center with-out deviation from that exact point—whipping into line all wandering fancies—stray ideas or thoughts that go off on a tangent—to hold steadily all your power on the central thing under consideration without an instant of wavering—that is Concentration.

This ONE THING I Do

A difficult thing to do, and very few minds can do it. St. Paul gives us the shortest definition of concentration on record when he says, " This one thing I do," short, but tremendously significant. Another Bible definition is excellent: " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it withthy might ." Some men work that way, intense fellows--brilliant professional men—big business men—executives—leaders in the world of finance—science—invention—literature—education—it matters not what kind of work, the point is that when these men pitch hay, they pitch hay —when they write a book, they write a book—when they manage a sales campaign, they man-age a sales campaign. That one thing they do at that one time, and nothing else, and every ounce they have goes into the doing. But back of all this has been a lot of mental discipline, a lot of habit-forming, a lot of brain-building. Let us consider some of the steps by which they have climbed. To the ambitious student, I offer five practical aids to concentration, planned to meet the needs of one who wishes to build from the ground up. We must assume as prerequisites, interest and attention, which have already been discussed.

AIDS TO CONCENTRATION

These aids will do more than help you to follow a memory course; they deal with your daily work. Concentration applies to all the activities of life. It should be established as a life habit. To all who think, I bring this message, Think it with thy might. Make a business of doing one thing at a time with all your soul. Chesterfield was right when he said, " There is time enough for everything in the course of a day if we do but one thing at a time, but there is not time enough in a year if we try to do two things at a time."

PERIODICAL RELAXATION

It may seem paradoxical that the first aid to better concentration refers to relaxation. But I have observed that some of the most intense intellects fail in their concentration because they never relax. Failure to let go between efforts is their chief stumbling block. They keep them-selves tense, nervous, " keyed-up " all the time, even when there is no need for it, thereby wasting nervous energy. They find it very difficult to " let go "—to relieve the high-tension by a little natural, wholesome relaxation. Possibly they feel like the Irishman who was trapped on the fourth floor of a burning building. He fought his way to the window but was afraid to jump. The flames drove him on until he was hanging to the window ledge with his hands. His friends, in the street below, seeing the walls were about to fall, kept shouting at him to " let go." Finally, he growled back at them between set teeth—" How kin I let go when it's all I can do to hang on? " But we must learn to let go—to relax completely—before each period of in-tense concentration. Here is the working principle: Relaxation precedes perfect concentration. A delightful illustration of this point is given by Elizabeth Towne.

Six puppies were playing in the barn. The barn door was closed and with the world shut out, they were giving themselves up completely to the; spirit of play. Two of them were staging a mock battle over a feather, while the others were rolling over and over in the loose straw on the barn floor in utter enjoyment.

Suddenly the barn door softly creaked. 'Instantly every puppy came to attention; heads up —tails up—bodies rigid—bright eyes fixed in intense concentration on that door, as it slowly swung open. A moment before they had been in a state of complete relaxation. Now, they offered a perfect example of concentration as they stood at attention, waiting and watching for the unknown danger that Might be coming from the other. Side of the barn door.

All great mental achievement has been preceded by periods of absolute rest or relaxtion! During.this time fatigue disappears the nervous forces. recuperate and the minds-stores up fresh energy axed establishes a reserve to draw upon during" the hours of intense concentration demanded by the. big task high lies must ahead.

Very often this preparation period of relaxation determines. the success or failure of the uder taking.-Herbert -Spencer, once made, a speech on.," The Gospel "of Relaxation will, which he pointed ,out that continual tress and strain high tension without periods relaxation were responsible for much chronic fatigue and many a nervous breakdown. is far better to indulge. It in an voluntary let down than: to Offer an involuntary breakdown, Different .people take their relaxation best in different ways, but, whether in complete rest, of play or wholesome laughter, it must come before any sustained effort of concentration. Nature itself requires cycles of growth and rest. Take your breathing spell before the battle.

MENTAL FREEDOM

The next step is to free the mind. Nothing is of greater aid to concentration. In fact, unless you are able to do this, concentration is impossible. When. harassed by the three devils, hurry, worry, and f ear, the mind never has a fair chance to center on anything. " Worry generates a poison at the roots of memory." But in your period of relaxation, you have an excellent opportunity to free the mind—now is your chance to eliminate all mental handicaps and get ready for the race. Not only hurry, worry, and fear must be thrown overboard, but anything and everything that troubles you and disturbs your serenity and your peace of mind. Out they go ! You should not indulge in day-dreaming, either, or mental drifting. Clear the mental horizon; give yourself a clean slate to write upon when your hour of concentration comes. And when it comes, if you have availed yourself of these first two aids I have given, you will be, possessed of that rare thing, mental poise.

THE PROPER ENVIRONMENT

In order to keep it, utilize the third aid: right conditions. Now, it is true that a trained mind can concentrate under any conditions—in the roar and din of .crowded cities or the busy hum of traffic—in the midst of telephone calls or a thousand and one other interruptions. Some men can concentrate on a mental problem while walking down a Chicago street and never hear the roar of the elevated or see the hurrying throngs. I have seen men write on a crowded street car perfectly oblivious to the people about them, not even hearing their own stations when called. But these men were already masters of concentration, and I am addressing my remarks to those who have not yet learned how to concentrate. Therefore, it is only a matter of common-sense to make conditions as favorable as possible. Give your mind a fair chance. Concentration is difficult enough, even under the best conditions. I would suggest that you seek a quiet place free from all distractions (and noise is a terrible distractor), a place free from all interruptions which may break your train of thought (and a telephone is a terrible interruptor), a place where you can be alone, free from all outside influences (and a friend who " must drops in " is a terrible outside influence), and a place of pleasing environment, beautiful or otherwise, where the atmosphere is right for you. I mean atmosphere in its fuller sense, although an abundance of sweet, fresh air is necessary. A well-poised mind can create its own atmosphere which inspires the individual, puts him at his best, is strongly conducive to good mental work, and has much to do with his success in concentrating. Not alone for the beginner, but I may safely say for the majority, is this true. In fact, some of our greatest creative thinkers absolutely insist on right conditions and the right kind of a place in which to produce their master-pieces. True, good books have been written in mail—great poems written in the trenches—masterly speeches conceived on an express train. But in every case there was a degree of concentration strong enough to rise triumphant above the environment.

Atmosphere--environment—these things differ with the individual—it's all in the mind. One man may do his best work seated in a luxurious chair in his beautiful and artistic study--another may reach his highest plane of creative thinking while sitting under a lone pine-tree on the crest of a hill. Choose your own place for concentration, but remember that solitude has always been, in all the history of mental achievement, a requisite for great work.

Solitude calls forth the mood of receptivity. Only then do we get the best. Great things are worked out in silence. Then come the flashes of inspiration—the new visions. Emerson tells us that " Solitude is to genius the stern friend—the cold, obscure shelter, where mould the wings which will bear it farther than suns or stars," and we have this thought from Carlyle: " Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together—that at length they may emerge full-formed and mamestic into the delight of life—which they are henceforth to rule."

The great poems written in lonely garrets—the masterpiece paintings conceived by the artist amid the fields—the divine harmonies first heard by the musician communing with the stars—the sublime oration which first stirred the soul of the orator as he tramped in the forest—all attest that the best comes to man when he is alone.

Witness Burns—the Scotch peasant among the daisies pouring out the lyric songs which to- day touch sympathetic hearts the " warld o'er."

Witness Emerson—bidding good-bye to the proud world and retiring to that Sylvan Home, " bosomed in yon green hills "—and there creating his incomparable essays.

Witness Demosthenes—on the seashore—building to the big music of the waves his match-less oration on the Crown.

Witness Byron—alone on the Alps—writing by the glare of the lightning flash his magnificent description of the Thunderstorm.

And today right in this practical present—thousands of our most successful business men have learned this secret—that by getting alone—they can gain new efficiency—and think out better plans for managing their daily affairs.

History will bear me out in the statement that to bear Solitude well is a mark of greatness. Look at Lincoln—back there in the country for the first thirty years of his life, nourishing his own soul and disciplining his own mind.

Hillis has well said, " What a college and a crowd could not do for thousands of young men —Solitude did for the rail-splitter's son. Alone he sailed the seas of thought with God for his only companion, till at last he stood forth, a mountain-minded man."

A DEFINITE SCHEDULE

The fourth aid to concentration, is a very practical one: make a daily schedule. In the first place, such a schedule saves an inconceivable amount of time. Harrington Emerson, in his noted book, Twelve Principles of Efficiency, lays great stress upon the necessity and value of a written daily schedule. But what has this to do with concentration as applied to memory, you may ask? Simply this—your daily schedule helps to focus the mind, holds it steadily to one thing at a time and in the right order. Following a logical sequence tends to eliminate con-fusion.

It has been demonstrated in efficiency tests over and over again that time and energy are lost not so much on the operation itself as in passing from one operation to another. So in our mental operations, failure to move smoothly from one thing to another results in confusion. And when confusion comes, concentration goes. A definite daily schedule is a wonderful aid in keeping the mind on the right track. It often proves to be the salvation of those who have been unable to concentrate. Try it.

I saw on Facebook's cool chat pop-up list that my friend Julia Brown was going to be in Michigan for her brother's wedding over the weekend (she lives in NYC). I quickly messaged her "Where in Michigan?" and she responded "Holland, I think it's miles from civilization." to which I responded "60 miles from me, can I come see you? Maybe give you a ride to the airport?"

Worked out perfectly for both of us.

So on Sunday I showed up in Holland at 1pm and discovered she had 5 hours to kill before her flight so we went to the closest beach so she could see Lake Michigan. There was a perfect westerly breeze so the kites were flying. One enormous parachute kite looked like this one:

It was really cool, they had it tied to a post. and it spun round and round like an enormous bicycle wheel.

Anyways, Julia and I walked down the beach a ways and sat down close enough so I could build a drip sand castle (my favorite beach activity) but far enough away to stay dry. Talked a long time about music and being an artist, recording and touring. Julia has a new album coming out shortly, she actually has the pressed discs in hand and is starting a promotion campaign asap with a radio promoter in Boston. I was stunned to find out that Chris Stamey from The dBs is one of the producers, as well as Anton Fier from the Golden Palominos, way to go Jules!

Julia Brown http://www.juliabrown.com

We had some cool discussions about being "social" as an artist and what it means... the whole idea of moving out of the sequestered life of writing and recording and out into the world of booking, touring, and spreading the word about the record. It was cool to hear she had almost exactly the same issues and concerns I have. It was so weird to hear her say that she thought I did it better than she did, because I think the exact opposite! :-) But I think the point is... we're both learning how to do it as we go along.

I found myself giving her a bunch of the tips I learned at Bob Baker's Indie Buzz Bootcamp like Derek Sivers concept that persistence is polite. People are so busy, only mentioning a thing once is almost impolite because it may not stick in their mind. What if they really want to learn more about that thing? Or more about you? But they get distracted by everyday life and forget. A cool way to look at marketing really... that it's polite to be persistent.

Of course we talked about booking and networking and I said I'd like to help her book a short tour through Michigan next June in conjunction with Steel Bridge SongFest so she could get involved there as well. She's such a great songwriter (as many of you may have seen for yourselves during the last two FAWMs) and she's a joy to be around, super smart, well-read, well spoken, and of course beautiful as all get out .

A wonderful wonderful day. At the end we both enjoyed fabulous burgers together at a restaurant in the GRR Airport. Yummy. Sorry I don't have any pictures, Tory has the camera at camp! Julia looked fabulous too. :-)

If you enjoyed this blog, please tell your friends and feel free to pass it along. You're always welcome to come back to http://www.charliecheney.com/node/264 to leave comments and feedback too. Thanks.

I feel truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to be involved with a great seminar yesterday in southwest Chicago put on by the energetic and gracious Tracy Worth at the Grand Prairie Public Library. A great list of speakers and a packed room! I was really impressed by the whole event, especially the audience turnout. Tracy did a great job putting this event together.

There were four local area speakers and then I finished up the seminar. Mark Thayme from Chicago Recording Studio started off the event with a quickie overview of Engineering in the studio process. Felton Offard from Chicago State University followed with a session on songwriting, copyright, and publishing. Michael Witherspoon was next with his insightful perspective on Producing, running a label, the roles of a producer and label in today's changing market, and the importance of gigging gigging gigging. Next up was probably the most entertaining speaker of the day, (fantastic comedic delivery, the audience was roaring) Marc Taylor from Groovequest Productions who spoke about the industry from a Hip Hop perspective. They were all great guys, and the questions from the audience showed that audience was "getting it" and actively involved in each session. My session on booking and promotion went really well too with lots of positive response and interaction. At the end Michael and Felton both asked me to come speak again for their artists and students. A great great day. Tracy jumped up between each speaker to make introductions and added some great insights too on how success can mean different things to different people. She was the glue for the whole event, a wonderful host, inspiration, and motivator... I was so impressed by the whole event. Congratulations all around, especially for Tracy.

Tracy Worth http://www.tracyworth.com/
L3 Project Website http://projectl3.org
Felton Offard http://feltonoffard.com/
Marc Taylor http://www.myspace.com/groovequestproductions
Michael Witherspoon http://www.kingdomrecordsinc.com/
Mark Thayme (no web site available, sorry)

If you enjoyed this blog, please pass it on to others, and come back to http://www.charliecheney.com/node/263 to post comments or questions.

Spent a long weekend in St. Louis MO at the Indie Buzz Boot Camp (http://www.indiebuzzbootcamp.com) getting schooled by Bob Baker, Ariel Hyatt, Derek Sivers, Tom Jackson, Nancy Moran, John Taglieri, and a great group of attendees as well. It was a killer weekend and I came home so amped up and ready to rock I can hardly describe it.

Bob Baker kicked off the seminar on Saturday with an intro on goals and intention that was great, and something I consistently try to put off. The one time I wrote down all my goals (Jan 1999 by the way) I accomplished them all within a year and didn't know what else to do with my life afterward. I think I have a vague and deep fear of doing that again lol.

Anyway, here's a pic with me and Bob Baker:

http://www.bob-baker.com

I'd heard about the IndieBuzzBootCamp from Bob back in October at the Taxi Road Rally... but it was my friend Ariel Hyatt who convinced me last week in her newsletter to go. Ariel kicked off the seminars by detailing a brilliant implementation strategy for musicians to take advantage of the Web 2.0 social network tools on Saturday morning. She made it very clear how to use Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Utterz, MySpace, and blogging to drive revenue.

Here are some pics with me and Ariel:

http://www.arielpublicity.com

In the last photo above Ariel was whispering "Try to be serious" and I could barely stop myself from breaking out into wild fits of laughter. Man, I love Ariel, she's so fun. A great friend.

The early afternoon was mind-boggling... as Tom Jackson took the stage and fulfilled his personal mission of "Changing Lives" by completely changing mine. If you EVER have a chance to see him in person, you simply have to go. Don't wait. Don't put it off. Just go see him.

Anyway, here's a pic with me and Tom Jackson:

http://www.tomjacksonproductions.com

Late afternoon was plenty good... because it was one of my all time favorite people in the world... Derek Sivers (President and Programmer of CD Baby). I'd seen Derek's presentations many times before, so I was already familiar... and in some ways I was just so blown away by Tom Jackson that I almost felt sorry for Derek... it was like when The Who had to follow Jimi Hendrix after Hendrix lit his guitar on fire, know what I mean? :O)

Anyway, here's a pic with me and Derek Sivers:

I'll come around with another blog post later about this conference... I learned so many things, but for now I just wanted to post some of the photos and get a start. More soon.

In the past few weeks I've become a Twitter junkie. It's funny because for the first six months I didn't really get it, but suddenly it all made sense. It may very well have been the CommonCraft Show video "Twitter in Plain English" which is of course ( most of their videos) short, simple genius...

But today and yesterday... suddenly... Twitter is overloaded.

What is a poor tweeter to do? Join Plurk?

So I was invited to a restaurant in St Louis Saturday night called Revival and had a drink there with one of the stars from Fox TV's Hell's Kitchen TV Show. Her name is Christina Machamer and she was really fun actually, like a young Reese Witherspoon, and whip smart too. Here's a pic. You can tell by the lighting that she's from Hell!

She came out to our table before we ordered and suggested we get the scallops and the hush puppies. So we did. They were quite yummy.

Here's my friend Nick Daugherty with the meal:

After her shift around 11:15pm she came out dressed in normal clothes (a rather smoking black tank top actually) and had a glass of red wine with Nick and me. She said there was a stipulation in her contract with Fox TV that if she told us the outcome of the show she'd get fined $5 meeliion dollars.

Nice!

I'm writing a song about all this I swear. She said it was so weird to be in the kitchen cutting onions and doing phone interviews, very surreal.

Turns out she knew my friend T-Bone from St John VI too when she worked at Keneally Bay Resort there for 6 months. What a tiny world. T-Bone and I were both on the St John Songfest compilation CD together.

Some people go to see the arch in St Louis, I go have a glass of wine with a reality show star. Go Christina Go!

And don't forget... Please login to leave your comments and thoughts!

I'm driving off to St. Louis in about 2 hours to go to http://www.indiebuzzbootcamp.com for the weekend, very excited. Slept so well last night, first time in awhile, I can feel the change coming on in my life already, a new perspective.

Poured $700 into my "new" 1990 Honda I've named "Lola" to get her highway ready, so keep your fingers crossed for me as I angle my way down and back through the heart of the midwest over the next few days. She burns a little oil the old girl, she's a bit hotblooded, so I've thrown a few extra quarts in the back for the trip. We decided she has a bit of the fiery latina in her, with her bronze color and her partly souped up engine and electric work. A cross between the song "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees and "Lola" by the Kinks... I think she has a little macho cross dresser in her too, lol.

Well, that's it for today really. See you on Twitter over the weekend!
http://www.twitter.com/charliecheney

Oh, here's a pic from the weekend at SB4 with Jackson Browne. I made him laugh. :-)

Hey folks, here's a tutorial video on how to set up multi-user access for your Indie Band Manager files over the intenet, pretty cool stuff!

I've separated the tutorial into three quicktime mp4 movies... steps one, two, and three. Each movie is only a couple minutes long.

In a nutshell, you need to install FileMaker Pro (a 30 day trial version is available for free download), open the Indie Band Manager 1Menu5 file with FileMaker, and it pretty much runs on its own, it's awesome. You do need to configure your router's forwarding ports too, but I detailed that in video three.

Video one: Opening the files using FileMaker Pro
Video two: Accessing the files from another computer over the internet
Video three: Configuring your router

That's it!

The links to each video are here, you can download them to your computer if you want:
http://www.indiebandmanager.com/video/ibm_multiuser_step1.mov
http://www.indiebandmanager.com/video/ibm_multiuser_step2.mov
http://www.indiebandmanager.com/video/ibm_multiuser_step3.mov

Tell me what you think!

You can also click the play button on each video below to watch. Cool eh?

Video 1: Opening Indie Band Manager with FileMaker Pro:

Video 2: Accessing Indie Band Manager from another computer over the internet:

Video 3: Configuring your router for remote access over the internet:

For the past few days I've been just kicking myself for making huge bold choices and small bold choices... and then questioning them. Then just now I was sitting in the bathroom reading this week's Entertainment Weekly interview with Angelina Jolie and she had this quote:

"I don't believe in regrets. It's a dangerous habit to get into–it makes you pause in your life if you start thinking back and questioning yourself." -Angelina Jolie

Well, this hit a bit close to home, Angelina, thank you baby! Clearly something I needed to read right then. I've done so many amazing, wonderful, stupid things in my life it's mind-boggling. One day in Fairbanks Alaska I had $225 to my name, bought the cheapest flight I could get to the mainland ($176) landed at Sea-Tac and hitchhiked home to Madison WI (over 2000 miles). How crazy is that? I even had to spend $42 of my remaining $50 to ship most of my gear home because it was too heavy to hitch with. Basically I made it home from Seattle on about $8. And that's just one example... I could give you dozens of those, I've got a lot of stories, lol.

The thing is... I've been feeling an enormous change coming on... hard to put into words... but I can feel my whole perspective in life and what is important to me is about to change radically in the next few months or even weeks or days. My friend Ariel Hyatt sent a killer email newsletter out the other night and it may have been one of the straws that tipped the scales I guess because I committed to going to her next seminar in St. Louis tomorrow as part of the http://www.indiebuzzbootcamp.com with Bob Baker, Derek Sivers, and (perhaps most exciting to me because I've heard such great things about him and never seen him) Tom Jackson, among others.

The humorous or horrible part of this (depending how you look at it) is the cavalcade of events that have erupted since I made this decision 40 hours ago or so. I basically don't have the money to fly down there, so I decided to drive. Recently my long time road warrior 91 Honda Civic who I lovingly named "Henrietta" broke down and I decided instead of fixing her up (about $800 I figured) I'd buy another instead, and proceeded to find "Lola" on eBay for $1000 in Holland MI (about 60 miles away). Lola has some fire in her, some growl, and some other things I didn't know about, lol. I had to get the passenger side window fixed, a rear wheel stabilizer clamp, and an oil change for the trip. That's when I found out I also needed a new front axle. I also decided to pop to fix her muffler.

This morning as they started putting on the axle, they discovered the wheel bearing was shot as well. Another $350. Pot committed at this point to the gamble of driving down to St. Louis rather than flying, I threw in the stringer bet hoping the long shot straight flush will come through on the river.
:-)

What else can I do? Kick myself forever? Yes Lola is pretty high maintenance so far and it looks like maybe fixing up Henrietta instead might have been the more fiscally prudent choice at the time, but I didn't know that then, you know? Leave it to Angelina Jolie to put that into perspective for me.

But back to my thoughts on life-changing. Ariel mentioned in her newsletter that she'd doubled her income in the past 18 months after going to a free three day seminar called Millionaire Mind Intensive (use this code to get 2 free tickets: 404050) and 6 or 7 seminars after that initial one. I've been searching for that life-changing catalyst for quite sometime and my first step towards that same type of change in my life is starting this weekend in St. Louis. Will everything change for me? I committed, I chose to play, I'm in the hand, I'm seeing it out. I'll keep you posted on whether I'm a winner or a bust in my next few installments. Stay tuned.

My beloved Henrietta:

My new Lola:

We've been planting and weeding all spring... here are a few of the early summer flowers from our garden out back.

We're loaded up on vegetable plants too, lots of squash, zucchini, pumpkin, tomato, onion, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, parsley, basil, sage.

Transplanted a ton of day lilies, purple cone flowers, daisies... all looking great after the rains, should bloom soon, all in buds.

Other flowers from seeds will bloom later in the year... lots of marigolds, sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias.. I'll post more photos when the time comes.

Fun!