Getting There

A few days break occurred in my new regime due to a combination of sick family and a very busy weekend schedule.  It's crazy how the days just get away from you.  Yes, yes...I should be well more than aware of this based on the fact I have a five and AND a three year old child but it just needed to be said.  Once again, just a short linking post tonight as I'm worn out.  I just finished hauling the components of our snazzy new BBQ to our back deck.  The sucker weighs about 200lb altogether in the box, so I moved it piece by piece. 
We bought it this weekend from Ontario Gas BBQ...it's a Broil King Sovereign XLS 90.  We were originally thinking of getting a Weber, but this had all the options we wanted, including a rotisserie.  Plus the price gave us a bigger bang for our buck.  I will finish putting it together on the weekend, and can't wait to break it in with a nice steak dinner.   

Another toy I received just today was the Microphone I've been waiting to get for a long time.  It's funny, I've been recommending it to people for about a year now, based on the sound alone, but haven't owned one myself until now.  Being really into podcasts, I focus on the quality of the sound and try to find out what equipment is being used on the better produced shows.  The Blue Snowball mic seems to keep popping up time and time again.
So why did I wait so long?  Well, it comes down to money.  For those of you who have known me awhile, I used to spend money on electronic equipment like it was going out of style.  I'd spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on computers, audio equipment and movies/music...truly spending beyond my means.  Well, I had the means...I was making a fantastic salary, but I wasn't keeping a safety net afloat.  My 20's was a decade of feeling immortal...I bought myself, my friends and my family lavish gifts and felt like it would never end.  Well, it did.  The dot-com bubble burst, jobs became scarce and my arrogance faced a very ugly reality.  It took a long time to recover financially from this.
Now these days I not only put my wife and kids first when it comes to making financial decisions, I will also think a LONG time about buying anything for myself that isn't a houseware.  Not a bad habit really.
So, now that I have the right tool for the job, I'm working on some project ideas for recording that should hopefully start appearing within the month.
And with that, I bid you Auf Wiedersehen.

Podcast of the day: The Nerdist (Episode 68)
TV Show of the day: Mythbusters

Push Through

Eugh.  I'm fighting a bit of a cold tonight.  Six hours in a car today; three in the morning followed by the same on the way home kind of got to me, I guess.  I shouldn't be that surprised that it hit me as poor Kyle has been fighting some kind of bug for the last couple of weeks and it was just a matter of time before it smacked me in the head.  It's just funny that I felt fine when I left work and just needed to lay down when I got home.  A few hours later...here I am, forcing myself to do a bit of writing because I hate when I make a promise to myself that I don't keep.  Hopefully this burns itself out quickly.

Its very possible that this actually started itself out yesterday without the ugly sneezing and pains associated with it.  I was at Toastmasters last night and really just felt completely off my game.  Thankfully I was not officially speaking or chairing the meeting, as I just felt like I was rambling everytime I did get up to discuss anything.  I ran the Table Topics component of the meeting based around many famous book titles (sans author), and when I chose to discuss what I imagined the book based around a title was about I just couldn't stay focused.  I am planning to do a technical speech next week on easy-speak.org so I need to get healthy and refocused by this weekend.
Health permitting, I am going to Keswick tomorrow night to say goodbye to a good friend of mine who passed away last week, so I'm not sure if I'll get a post in or not...if not I'll be back on Friday.

Favourite Podcast of the day: Two Minute Timelord

Renewal

I've been experiencing some nostalgia over the last week or so, largely brought upon by the unfortunate deaths of a couple of my older friends.  This brought me to take a look at the old blog and I realized just how much time had passed since I added an entry.  Almost eleven months....{smack}...BAD TIM, BAD!

I've actually been formulating a couple major topics...some of which were inspired by the aforementioned passings, and others inspired by a speech I delivered for the International Speech Contest called 'Refine Your Anger'.  Additionally, I've been working on getting the technical side ready so that I could begin doing some podcasting.  I love to speak, and feel that I could put on a really good show with assistance of a bunch of good friends of mine.  It pays to have a long background in theatre, improv and Toastmasters...you never run out of content and/or people willing to speak with you.

Expect to see cool things coming soon.

Favourite podcast listened to today: Stuff You Missed in History Class