083 – Another Snowy Night in Chicago

Posted on December 24, 2008
Filed Under Miscellaneous, Podcast | Leave a Comment

Recorded 23 December 2008

4-AM

News You Can Use
Thanks to the Podsafe Music Network, here are the shows that played my music:

Surprise, Live Music
Okay, I tired something that required a little post production because of technical issues, I sang two of my Christmas songs live. And told a story or two and those were:

If you liked that, I’m planning to do a live streaming concert of 5 of the six songs on the album live tonight on Ustream.tv. Let me know if you want to see this happen tonight.

Comments From the Podcast Gallery
A thought or two from LaSal, the winner of the autographed copy of With A Voice Like This Christmas

Want to be a part of the show, call the Comments from the Podcast Gallery Voicemail line at 206.350.8955 or send an email along. you never know when it will pop up in the show.

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A Veterans Day Story

Posted on November 11, 2008
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Today marks the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I and the reason Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States, so I thought it appropriate to write about it. Now I never served in the Armed Forces, but two of my Uncles did and my Nephew and his Fiance currently serve in the Navy. Out of the four of them, one I haven’t met yet and one I never will. That’s who this story is about.

I’ll tell what I know of him, which isn’t much, but more than I knew most of my life because it just wasn’t a subject the family talked about. His name was Burdett, but they called him Bubs or Bubsy. He flew a P-38 Lightning for the 459th Squadron of the Army Air Force in WWII in Burma or Myanmar (that’s my Uncle with the pointer in his hand).

 

Army Air Force 459th Squadron during WWII

The 459th Army Air Force Squadron in Burma (or Myanmar) during WWII

 

 

Unit Patch of my Uncle's unit in WWII

Unit Patch of my Uncle's Unit

 

He was shot down and captured and was taken to a prisoner of war camp. He died there from dysentery and other digestive system issues within weeks of the camp being liberated. But the hardest, most life changing event for the family was that the plane that carried his remains crashed in Burma and haven’t been found to this day, though the search goes on through the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).

What I knew most was there was a machete in a black leather sheath with a smaller knife that fit on top of the sheath in my parent’s bedroom closet and a huge silver ring with this insignia on it in blue and red glass on the dresser that were my Uncle’s. The insignia reminded me of Captain America, even though it wasn’t round. The ring was a big, heavy kind of ring that would leave a mark on the jaw of the bad guy who got hit by it and meant power to boy and his daydreams. That was cool and that’s what I knew…That and the fact we rarely, if ever talked about him. Being the youngest child of the youngest child, and my Dad was over a decade younger than his nearest sibling, I never gave it a second thought. That’s just how it was.

A few years ago, that changed.  Some family survivors of others on that same plane went to the DPMO and started getting attention about the situation. And in the long run more information came out, including the pictures you see here and a lot of clarification of information. But more than that, I got a scan of a letter my Uncle wrote his wife the night before his first mission, in his own hand. It speaks far more eloquently and with a sense of urgency to a soldier’s plight than anything I could write. You can click to enlarge it and see the insignia that’s the same as the ring I mentioned earlier, but I’ve transcribed it below as well.

 

My Uncle's letter to his wife before his first mission in his own hand

Letter to my Uncle's wife in his own hand

 

Nov. 19, 1942
India

My Beloved Wife -

Tomorrow I am going on my first mission and if by some quirk of fate, I fail to return, I want you to know that I have never regretted one minute I have spent with you darling. Your coming into my life has brought the reason to me why I was born into this world – to live with and be loved by you and to love and care for you.
Honey, though I may never return to you in body – my soul will always be with you until we meet again in God’s Kingdom up there.
I love you terribly much, darling. May God help me utilize what I have been taught to help defeat our enemies so I may soon return to you in peace everlasting.
Darling, knowing you and having the great privilege of being your husband is something only He could grant such a person as I. May he see fit that I should continue to enjoy such a wonderful grant.

With all my body and soul,
Always your devoted lover
Bubs

 

If you see a veteran today, thank them. If you know of a veteran who is no longer with us, remember them. And if you know of a veteran that never made it back in either spirit or body, know that there are people dedicated to looking for them and bringing them home again.

062 – A Tool and A Launch

Posted on July 25, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous, Podcast, Release | Leave a Comment

recorded 24 July 2008

At Any Rate (00:00:32)
This episode takes a look at a tool I had seen trumpeted as a “copyright infringement assessment tool” PDTool, why I think it’s not a good tool and some much better alternatives for dealing with copyright infringement assessment as a new media person, Public Domain Music and the Podcasting Legal Guide.

4-AM (00:11:37)
This episode was also the official launch announcement of for http://4-AM.net, the official website for our a cappella group. A quick trip through the site, which took until the last minute before the show to get loaded (Ah the joys of downloading program patches when an app fails and conversion times) and it was ready to go by show time. Take a look, see what you think and let us know. Yay for it being launched!

Comments From the Podcast Gallery
Fellow Podcaster Kim Fenolio of the Girls NIght In Podcast shared comments in the show among the rest of the Podcast Gallery.

If you’d like to share your Comments from the Podcast Gallery, you can leave a voicemail at 206.350.8955 or send an e-mail to contact@WithAVoiceLikeThis.com and it will be shared on the show. Your viewpoint is always appreciated.

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And on the Fifth Day…

Posted on June 10, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Miscellaneous, News | 3 Comments

I finally got around to writing about last Thursday’s Tweetup in Geneva, IL. We were less than a quarter of a mile away from a section of town that they used to film part of the movie Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks.

Now this was my first Tweetup, so I only knew one person prior to the meetup. I wouldn’t have even known about it if it weren’t for Wendy setting it up and going the extra step of finding me through TwitterLocal and inviting me, among others. Anyway, Kim told me I was very high energy (I think that’s a kind way of saying I was talking the whole time). So I’m going to just give you a quick sentence or two about everyone that was there from my perspective so you see how much fun these things are.

(l - r) Wendy, Derek, Brad, Barbara and Jerome

(l – r) Wendy, Derek, Brad, Barbara and Jerome

Wendy is a great host and one of those people who is comfortable in any situation, whether it’s a business suit or jeans. She also wrote about the tweetup and has great pictures in this post.

Derek has three blogs, two of which update daily and the third weekly. We talked about consistency with the blogs and its hurdles and I have to I was impressed with his.

I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Brad, but I did find out that we live near each other, so there’s a good chance that we’ll run into each other at future tweetups so I’ll have another chance or two.

Barbara and I have a mutual friend, which lead us to discuss a lot of music and performance and its role in our lives and the mountains of Montana. She also does some work with (through? at?) the College of DuPage.

No matter what else, I’ll remember that Jerome rode his bicycle to the Tweetup from his job in Elmhurst. For those not familiar with the area, that’s about a 20-25 mile (32-40 kilometer) ride in traffic during rush hour. Wow, that’s all I can say.

I’ll try to keep Kim‘s short since I already know her and there’s too much to say here. A podcaster extraordinaire and unsung New/Social Media maven and Graphic Artist. Oh and my ride too.

Katie and Jeff
Katie and Jeff

Katie was the sole civilian (Non-Twitterer) at the Tweetup that night.

Jeff, among other things, has a startup called Edmodo and a really great camera that had me drooling as well.

Unfortunately, there were two people I never got the chance to say more than hello to:

Carolyn and Karen, who wrote and has pictures about the Tweetup on her blog in this post. I hope I get the chance to change that at the next Tweetup.

So I learned more than I thought in a short amount of time about people I knew nothing of previously and that’s what’s great about the Tweetups. People with a wide vareity of interests and a common tool for communicating those interests. Putting faces on Twitter names and finding out what’s behind them. If you have the chance, catch a Tweetup in your area or the next one in this area. Sounds like we’ll be doing them at least on a quarterly basis.

Thank you Wendy for organizing and inviting and making it all happen, I had a great time.

055 – Forward Momentum

Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under Marketing, Miscellaneous, News, Podcast | 2 Comments

With A Voice Like This Episode 055 Topics:

4-AM rehearsal

Testing Streaming Video

The must have WordPress plugin for gigging bands

A brief word about a Talkshoe announcement

Listener’s Choice

Teach Me by Ben Parsons comes from Lynn, host of Lynn in the PM and Living in a Chemical Soup

Links from this episode:

Blogs for Bands site of the Gigs Calendar Plugin for WordPress

With A Voice Like This Facebook Group

My Twitter account

Talkshoe blog entry about cash program suspension

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