Throwing Quarters Podcast Season 3 Episode 1

As promised, we did it.  Episode 1 is in the can.  Hope you enjoy it.  It was certainly a ton of fun.

Take a listen.  It should be up in iTunes shortly.  If you are impatient you can just listen below!

Important Dates that were mentioned.
Video Shoot for Vendetta Point.  February 21, 2010 @ 2:30pm at Peabody's. Free to public.  Just show up and look good

CD Release Show for Vendetta Point.  April 3, 2010 @ 7:00pm at Peabody's.  $6.00 at the door, free if you contact Jim or Ken or Me. 

I want to thank Vendetta Point for stopping by, and as promised in the podcast, here are all the links you need to know.

Vendetta Point  and Vendetta Point Twitter
Jim Skirtch
Ken Obloy
Kasey Crabtree and Kasey's Twitter
Dan Ryan
Mrs. Throwing Quarters 


During the Plugs I mentioned a community theater in Avon Lake, Ohio.  You can find them here.

Here is the hour of mayhem!

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You can also find us on Stitcher Podcast Radio from your iPhone, BlackBerry, or Droid.

Mark you calendars.  Our next Episode is February 21, 2010.

The 'OFF' day

I woke up this morning with a certain daze one could only get by sleeping next to an uncomfortable pregnant woman. I don't hold that against her, and I can't wait for her torture of pregnancy to end so we can enjoy the life that comes at the end of it, but for now, sound sleeping is not something I have been coming by. It could be a good thing. It's like my training camp for fathering an infant.

This morning I woke up to the same noise I have been waking up to since I was in grade school; the alarm clock. The dreaded piece of machinery that keeps the American work force on time. I got out of bed after hitting snooze a few [5] times and after a while got out of bed and started to get ready for work. I was wiping the sleep from my eyes with the use of a warm shower. I casually walked down the stairs to the kitchen. I had almost an hour to finish getting ready. I was feeling good. I grabbed the coffee and filters and started to put together my reprieve from lethargy.

I noticed my work blackberry on the counter. It was flashing at me with it's red LED indicator letting me know that there was a message waiting. I grabbed it up. It was unusual to get a message this early in the day from a boss.

Well it turns out this message was from the night before. They changed the time of the meeting to 7:30am. I panicked. I glance at the clock. I am still wet from the shower and only in my boxers and under shirt. It was 7:30am. Holy hell. I'm late.

I slammed the reply button on the phone so hard I thought I might break the screen. I punched out a text message to my boss and started to gather my shirt and tie for the day. I was in 'hurry the fuck up mode'.

I ironed the shirt, brushed my teeth, did the hair, and after hurriedly getting my clothes on, was out the door after a quick peck on my sleeping wife's cheek. Time seems to move in fast forward when you are late. It is just father time letting you know you messed up. He is further punctuating the fact that you are late.

I finally got to work, 28 minutes late. I hate being late. It throws off the rest of your day.

After the meeting [abbreviated for me] I realized I had over 90 minutes before the start of my shift. So I reached to grab my moleskine from my pocket to write down some thoughts on my up coming interview with Adam Taylor. I dug into my pocket and grabbed nothing but lint. The moleskine was not there. Where the hell was it?

As I start to panic even more, I realized that in my hast out the door this morning I left it in my work bag, with my laptop, with my book, with my life really. I just have my two blackberrys [work, personal] and my mind. For a writer with a certain MO [method of operation] this is cause for almost mini shut down. I am ready to blow a gasket.

Lucky for me, surrounded by the technology at my finger tips, I DO have a back up plan in place to get all my thoughts written down and recorded. My Blackberry. Voice recorders and notepads on these devices are great tools, but it is not my prefered method. It's great in a pinch, but there is a certin catharsis in physically writing down an idea. You can tell by the way you wrote the idea what kind of mood you were in. There is much more to writing an idea that capturing the words. The pen also can tell you how you were feeling. The slant on your 's' and heavy period at the end of a sentence. You know that when you go back and explore that idea, what kind of words you need to put in with it, to get the point across later.

I feel like a fish out of water today. Wednesday and Thursdays were my days off. Today is my off day.

The Power of a BlackBerry

It is no secret that I talk about BlackBerry's a lot. I sell these things all day long. It's hard not to fall in love with something that is so simple to use, yet it can do so much.

The in 'biz' the BlackBerry has gained a moniker that is synonymous with drug addiction. The 'Crack' Berry. Crack is the most addictive drug in the world. After one hit, I am told, you can't wait to get another. You would take a dollar from a dude just to watch you jerk off to get enough scratch to get another hit.

Using a BlackBerry is nothing different. Once you unleash the fury of organization and communication this device can do for you, putting it down becomes an impossibility. With the advent of mp3 players, video players, ringtones, and voice recorders, the BlackBerry becomes an all in one stop for not only you personal productivity [read: e-mail and internet access] but also the hub of your life for entertainment.

My best friend Pat decided that after almost a year of having the world at his finger tips, he needed to put it down. Like me, he used his BlackBerry for everything. After moving out of his rental agreement with some roommates, he finds himself homeless, but employed. In an effort to save money faster he is couch hopping with friends he activated an old phone that wasn't a BlackBerry to save the $30 a month he was paying to have that device.

After about 2 weeks without his BlackBerry, Pat would call and ask if his old phone can do [insert any feature he loved about his BlackBerry] and the answer would be, every time, no. Everyday I would text Pat, he would tell me how much he was missing his BlackBerry. He missed the BlackBerry messenger conversations, plethora of custom ringtones, and everything else that went along with his days. He didn't like the plainness of just text messaging someone, and last night when he came over, he missed 30 important e-mails from family members who have become accustomed to communicating via e-mail. In less than 2 weeks, Pat went from being completely in touch and mobile, to tethered to a computer on my couch. With him not having a set place to stay right now, he can't go a week without e-mail and still be in touch with his family and friends.

Today, after much deliberation, Pat decided to come see me at the store and re-activate he BlackBerry. He made the comment to me. Quitting drinking is easier to do than putting down a BlackBerry.

There is a reason BlackBerry, unit for unit sells 10x faster than any other Smart phone or iPhone. They are that awesome.

My BlackBerry made it possible to keep tabs on my blog today. Turns out Jules over at Just Jules was inspired by a recent blog posting of mine, so too commented on the media's over exaggeration of the financial crisis. I was able to read her comments to me about my post, and then check out her blog to read her post on the subject. I was completely flattered to see that she quoted me in her post and deeply appreciate that she linked back! Again, being connected is everything. I have used my BlackBerry for work, and I have used it for personal use. I much prefer it for personal use. I often post entire blogs from my BlackBerry. Not this one today. I decided to use a full computer. My BlackBerry is worn out from our busy day.

Why I Hate the iPhone!

There are those of you out there who are excited to see the title of this post. Some of you, maybe not so much.

To all those iPhone users out there let me say this.

I hate your phone and everything it stands for.

I have had a BlackBerry for quite some time now. It does everything.

Let me take you through a typical day with my BlackBerry.

7am: My BlackBerry's alarm wakes me up. I hit snooze for about 20 minutes.

7:30am: 1 of the 4 different e-mail addresses alerts me to today's headlines delivered from the New York Times mobile site.

8:30am: I am in the car to work. My BlackBerry's charging and it resting for the long day ahead. If inspiration hits me, the voice recorder is there to capture my thoughts.

9:00am: Work e-mails start to trickle in. By 9:30am I have 42 unread e-mails in my Corporate e-mail box. I delete the stupid ones and the forwards of forwards and respond to 3 important e-mails. New product launches, sales updates, and action plans. All of this before I step foot into the office.

10:30am: My BB messenger wakes up. My wife is telling me she is on her way to work and to have a nice day. I respond back.

12pm: I have answered 30 e-mails already and I haven't logged into my computer at work yet. I have sold 2 BlackBerrys in the morning just by using it at work.

1pm: Lunch. I sit down at lunch, turn on some tunes and log into my RSS reader [Viigo] and check for blog updates. 3 new blogs to read. I read them all. Then check on the headlines on CNN mobile and New York Times Mobile. Both have BlackBerry quick launchers

2pm: 3 facebook messages come in. 1 myspace message. I ignore them and wait to get off to answer those.

3pm: My BlackBerry calander tells me that I have a conference call in 30 minutes.

5pm: I hang up my BlackBerry after the conference call. I get more e-mails from my personal e-mail accounts [3 total on my BlackBerry], and countless e-mail from my work e-mail account.

6pm: Time to go home. I text my wife and see where she is. On her way home, so am I.

6:15pm: Call from my daughter's Mom. There is a cheer thing I need to be at on Thursday. She sends me the calander invite and I accept it into my BlackBerry.

7pm: Arrive home. I get hourly updates on sales numbers from my BlackBerry. I check in on my team and make sure all is well still.

8pm: I write a blog. I can't get to a computer so I write it from my BlackBerry.

8:30pm: The wife and I decided to go to dinner. What's close? I Pull out the BlackBerry. I boot up the GPS system. I search for Eating and Drinking Places around my location. 10 places show up. I get the numbers from the GPS program. I call ahead, see how busy they are, and the wife and I are out the door. This is a new place in a part of town I'm not familiar with. I hit navigate on the GPS program on my BlackBerry and it gives me directions [like a Garmin would] from my phone.

9pm: Go home, set the alarm, and go to bed.

Now, my BlackBerry can do more than what I described, but that's how I use it on a daily basis. Keep in mind, between every major task I do with it, I also use it for small tasks like phone calls, and I text message all day. My customers now text me with their issues, so I can address them, but not stop what I am doing and take their call.

My all time texting record. 7500 in one month. My daily e-mail traffic is about 100 e-mails total between work and personal e-mails.

The BlackBerry can do a ton of things.

Here is a comprehensive list.

• Phone
• Calander
• Address Book
  
• Text and Picture Message [SMS and MMS]
• Assisted GPS [check your mobile carrier for availability]
• E-mail Box [up to 10 different e-mail addresses at once]
• Task Manager [Think virtual post it notes]
  
• Internet
• MP3 player
• Video Player [plays most video formats]
• 2.0 mega pixel camera [not great for photography, but great at clicking and sending in a pinch]
• Voice Recorder
  
• Expandable memory card up to 8GB [16 GB when it becomes available]-This is important for the Camera, MP3 player, and Video Player
• Documents to Go [can translate most word processor files, spreadsheet files, and slide show presentations like all the Microsoft Office products]
• Tethering [It can interface with your laptop or desktop computer and turn into a modem to gain access to the internet from your PC or Mac---think WiFi hotspot just for you, where ever you feel like]
• Downloadable Quick Launch Buttons like ESPN mobile, NYT Mobile, CNN Mobile, Fox News Mobile, NBC Mobile, Weather Bug Mobile, White Trash Bingo Mobile [sorry shameless plug for my website], I can go on......oh yeah, best thing about all of these is that they are free
• Downloadable Programs like FaceBook Mobile, MySpace Mobile, Yahoo to Go, Google Apps, Weather Bug App, RSS Feed Programs like Viigo, Slacker Mobile [Streaming Radio] and these too are mostly all free too

The funny thing is, the iPhone can do mostly all of these things too. Except MMS messaging, Tethering, Downloading Quick Launch Apps, and expandable memory.

It's not the phone that bothers me. It's the snobbery that it's users have. I can be showing a smart phone and an iPhone user will come by and say, the iPhone is better. Or an iPhone user will come by and ask to see a phone. I will go through what it does and how awesome it is and then they will say, well my iPhone can do more. Against a BlackBerry? You wish!

I don't give a shit about you or your iPhone. Truth be told the iPhone cannot even take its battery out. It can't even send a simple picture message. It has WiFi capabilities because the carrier they chose to use for distribution has the smallest 3G network in the industry, it needs WiFi to work because chances are, you're not going to be able to use the internet otherwise. If I run out of memory I have to start deleting crap off it to cram more stuff into it. 8GB or 16GB, 2 options.

The world doesn't revolve around the iPhone. I hate you and your catchy advertising. I hate you and your slick design. I hate you and your 1 button. I hate all[Most] your snobish users! My iPhone this and my iPhone that!

I'm tired of the iPhone being the new 'Gold Standard' for smart phones.

The BlackBerry has been around longer, and it does everything the iPhone can do[Everything you can do, BlackBerry does better], but oh yeah, the ruler of the free world carrys a BlackBerry. Sorry iPhone. You're slick, but not secure enough to be used by the President of the United States! The BlackBerry just might save the world!

I guess I am just annoyed that out of nowhere a product comes out that completely catches America's attention and because Steve Jobs tells them its new, they eat it up. The iPhone isn't new, its just hip. The iPhone isn't breaking any barriers in the cellphone world. It's just riding on the coat tales of the iPod which is another useless piece of garbage if you have a BlackBerry. If you want an iPod with a phone on it, great, get the iPhone, but other than that, its just a BlackBerry in tight jeans.

If you, Mr iPhone, were dropped on the tarmac of an airfield your glossy glass screen would crack and thus make you useless. Not the BlackBerry. Drop it, Kick it, and Abuse it. It'll keep working. If it doesn't, I can insure it through my wireless carrier. That's something else you can't do with the iPhone!

Coming Soon to a Blog Reader near you!

I am sitting here after a long day recalling notes from my day. I find things to write about all the time, so I keep a one subject spiral notebook with me to jot down ideas, and when I am in the car I use my voice recorder on my BlackBerry.

I basically say lines, write observations, and write subjects down that I would like to blog about.

Today I have so many things that I want to write about, but to put in all in one blog is too much. It would seriously be 15 pages printed. So I have decided to write them all at the same time and release them as I get them done. I figured I would give you a little preview on them, just so you check back. Consider this the hanging teaser in American Idol, and if you think that show sucks, then think of another show where they are about to give you that climax of the show and then shoot to commercial. That is what this blog is.

Its the previews before the movie.
Its the Sunday Paper ads.

Without further delay, here is what is on my mind.

*Why I hate the iPhone. A comprehensive study* [could go on for days and days and I feel there may be sequels to this blog when I eventually get it finished]
*Obama is coming. Will he shut down Guantanamo Bay like he said?*[requires more research, but would like to have this out by tomorrow afternoon]
*Nu Pregnancy, how knocking my wife up has changed my life*[you'll love this!]
********i also have an interview coming from another blogger from Blogland, Tangobaby. Go visit her, she is neat!! Not sure when, I know she is a popular blogger and many people asked to be interviewed and she is pretty diligent in asking different questions. I can't wait**********


PS>>>>>>>if you haven't noticed I have a blog list. They are a list of blogs I follow. I have added a few more that I enjoy. They are all worth reading, and I find interest in all of them. Either I know them personally, or found their blog through stumbling on it, but I like them, I follow them and you should stop by and read them. Enlightening, humble, and most are filled with fabulous photography, which my blog lacks.

What's the temperature outside? I don't know, ask Jeremy Piven

I started writing this blog at 6:30am today. I rolled over in bed and had to let go of my wife to silence the alarm from my phone.

I wiped the sleepys from my eyes only to see I had 3 emails. 1 was from a local TV station telling me my daughter's school was closed, again, and the 2nd was a warning from my weather bug telling me there was a wind chill warning today until 2pm, and the 3rd was an email from the New York Times giving me the headlines for the morning so far.

6:30 in the morning comes way too early anymore. I used to be able to wake up no problem, but like I stated in my previous post, I have been a bit lazy.

As I roll out of bed and trek the 3 steps to the master bath, I scroll down on my home screen of the BlackBerry and see my weather bug application said it was -12 degrees. For those of you from other [read: warmer] parts of the country, that's minus 12 degrees. Not sure if you know this or not, but water freezes at 32 degrees. It was 44 degrees colder than that. Its so cold, if you took a cup of boiling water and threw it in the air, it would instantly vaporize and never hit the ground. Yeah, its that cold. If someone was here to video tape the experiment, I would demonstrate.

The dog didn't want to be out there too long. His morning pee was less than complete when he turned around to come back inside. The trail of yellow snow, like some sick and twisted paved road in the land of Oz told me so. I was only clad in my boxers and T-shirt and the cold air blowing in from the door froze the boogers in my nose instantly. I wouldn't want to be out there taking a leak either.

I got ready for work and left out the front door. To tell you what -12 feels like is something that cannot be described. My best stab at it is, take a shower without the hot water on, then get out into an air conditioned house, and then stand in front of an open refrigerator. Even still that is, by all comparisons, warmer than -12. I got out to my car, brushed off the snow that accumulated on it overnight, and tried to start it. Yeah, that was a joke.

My car groaned to life after 2 turns. You could hear every moving part of my car screaming in protest. Seems my car didn't want to wake up as much as I didn't. Once the spark plugs had enough spark to ignite the gasoline in the engine block the car made a funny noise. It was the sound of complete agony. The oil in the engine at this point is the consistency of cold syrup. It took about 3 minutes for the car to quite down and run normally. It stopped its temper tantrum. At that precise moment in the day, around 7am, I pulled out the BlackBerry and spoke some lines of today's blog into the voice recorder. Al Gore is full of shit I muttered between the chattering of my teeth.

Now why was I up so damn early? Sales meetings. Yeah, they are about as exciting as a root canal. Unless you are a freak for dentistry, you know what I am talking about.

Now, after the meetings were over I go back to the New York Times e-mail. I use that email as a morning paper of sorts. I read it with the coffee in the morning, but I don't have the actual paper. I get the morning news quick and easy. Yesterday was family game day. Audrey had a snow day because of the weather so we played board games and Wii all day. So yesterday's news was all news to me.

Story 1, 'Miracle on the Hudson.' Not interested, probably some weirdo telling us how they saw God in New York, not interested.
Story 2, Something about Obama and his inauguration, Again, who cares. You are costing me money in security to keep you safe, so who really cares.
Story 3, 'Piven to be sued by producers' What? Ari Gold is being sued? Damn.

I read Story #3. It was quick easy, and I get to see why one of my favorite actors is being sued.

I long and short of the story, Jeremy Piven was doing a play called "Speed-the-Plow". He left the show in December because his doctor said he was suffering from elevated mercury levels because of all the fish in his diet. Interesting.

As I get into the office someone has the newspaper and on the front page was the same story, "Miracle on the Hudson" but I can see a picture. In this picture there was an airplane in the water and people standing on the wing. My reaction was, holy shit, what happened? I read the paper and read about how this pilot flew a dead stick airplane to a safe landing in the Hudson River. I was totally impressed. This guy must have nerves of steel.

How many of us talk about how great we are. I have blogged about how awesome I was at work, and how I got it done. This pilot can trump anyone's story about how great they were with one line, "I landed an AirBus airplane in the Hudson River with no power. Oh yeah, and everyone lived."


This guy is a hero. I wish I could say one day that I saved 155 people's lives in one day. This guy did it. I am totally impressed.


After I was done reading the story I could help but think that, damn that water must be cold. I know what it feels like here in Ohio, I can only imagine how cold it was in a river, in cold water, on the wing of an airplane, with probably no jacket on, waiting for a ferry boat to come rescue me. I shiver just at the though of that.

Everyone at work told me about all the news coverage on the TV yesterday, and how all their cell phones were blowing up with all the CNN news alerts. I didn't even look at the BlackBerry yesterday, so I missed it all. It sounded like the news story I would have been glued to the TV all day watching unfold. In a way, I am glad the BlackBerry wasn't at the top of my mind yesterday.

At one point in the day, someone asked me what the temperature was outside, and I said, I don't know ask Jeremy Piven, he is apparently turning into a thermometer.

That was able enough to spark a conversation regarding the enlightening story I read in the Times, and not the same stuff everyone else was reading.

In other news, another blogger from my neck of the woods posted a post that I found hilarious. Check it out here.