what is keeping me occupied at the moment

So thanks Sam for the email and the nudge nudge, I need to start doing this regularly and I'm actually a bit excited about a couple things so in reality I have a bit more to blabber about these days.

First the bad news, recently I've fallen off the wagon about smoking and I also took a plunge a couple weeks ago on my bike when my front tire got caught in some train tracks but these events are unrelated. My shoulder should be back up to speed in a few more days. As far as the smoking, well, let me just say I'm a bit more pleasant person to be around these days and I'm willing to bet that Keiko would agree. Anyway, she fought the good fight as I cheated here and there because the stress was getting to me. She didn't want me to start again, we both knew it was a slippery slope but the failure is entirely mine. The time will come, in the mean time, on with life.

So anyone who has talked to me that much recently (this includes very few to nil largely because of my own errors) may have heard about a couple ideas. One involves this bicycle obsession and a possible business model that I've yet to get off my lazy butt and really begin to research. The other is a very recent idea and I don't think I've told anyone stateside about it. Anyway, it's already on the move.

Keiko got me a new iPod as a belated birthday gift after mine went kaplui on the flight back from the states (I have no idea). I now have a still-shiny black 30 GB iPod to tote around and back up all my stuff. Because it has video I've also started to become very interested in podcasting and video podcasts. One thing led to another recently and I knew a friend here with a video cam so I thought why not run the idea by him and give it a shot. It's not a ground breaking idea but so far I don't see anyone else who's jumped on this particular podcast idea. So, I mentioned it over lunch on Friday by the end of the day we had potentially scheduled a second episode and the following night we were off to begin filming the first.

So it's real simple. I go see bands, get some video of them playing live. Do a short interview and pass on the contact info. Eventually there will be a website that gives additional info, possibly a free MP3 or so and anything else of interest about the band, or I might just help the band set up a myspace page and let them run with it. Simple, right?

This is my first foray into anything video and I'm already realizing just how much is involved. Don't get me wrong, I expected a lot of it but it's just going to take me a while until I get the tools under control. In the past couple days I've spliced together a few clips as sort of a preview here for anyone who wants to check it out. It has no titles, talking, info or me. It's just some clips with some music as of right now. I'm hoping to get the whole 6-8 minutes finished in the next couple weeks but I have to film the show intro and the interview which is not easy to schedule in the city of two week advance appointments for pizza delivery.

In the mean time here is the link and please, anyone with any feed back or suggestions please send them on.

this is only a test