“I’m tired…”
“I’m hungry…”
“I can’t think it’s too late/too early in the day”
“Is it Friday?…”
“It’s almost the end of the month already…”

Don’t get me wrong, because I too am guilty of saying those things, but I try and change what and how I phrase everything. If you take life for granted and just go with the flow, you’re going to run into road blocks and you’ll just stand there, looking stupid, scratching your head, and you’ll turn around and not do anything because you can’t think outside the box you’ve put yourself into.

I try looking at my daily routine as a sitcom, a jazz musician improvising, musicians releasing new albums, a GOOD comedian’s set, and if you see them again, they’ll never do, play, or say the same thing twice. Granted there are times stories need to be re-told, but if it’s to the same audience, they could almost tell the story for you. Try and add something new, throw people for a loop, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! If you start saying and doing the same things over, mirroring what’s already been done, you’ll lose viewers, fans, and friends!

When you step out of your house, and if it’s always with your left foot first, try going out with the right one instead. Yup, stupid idea, but it’s a change, and you’re still going on with your normal routine.

When I was a manager in pro-wrestling, I was running around the ring like a dumbass, shouting at the crowd, and I had a routine. Every week, I tried to add to whatever I had done the previous show. As soon as I walked back to the locker room, I’d start thinking about the next show and what I could do. The next show could be the next day, week or month, but my mind was always thinking on what to do. I challenged myself day in and day out to make everything better, and yeah, there were times that some ideas bombed, but I tried them. Those failing moments made me work harder!

The same goes with ITRadio and my status updates on Twitter (and other social networking sites). With ITRadio, I have 270+ shows in the bag, well over 500 hours of content, and granted over 5 years, I’ve brought up and told the same story, but I hope I added something new to it! When Frosty and I first started ITRadio, that was one thing we strived on doing week in and week out. What story can we tell, make up, talk about that differs from what we’ve already talked about. Now as a solo host to my show, IT’s a whole hell of a lot harder to do on a weekly basis, but it keeps me going.

Twitter is the same way. In 2 years, I’ve almost posted 14,000 tweets. Granted 50% of them are about the same subjects (twooping, Taco Johns, sushi fish, Mtn Dew, my H8s), but I challenge myself to update with something different from before, make it entertaining, and hopefully make people want more.

The nice thing for the people who choose to follow me or listen to my show, is the simple fact they have the option of ignoring my updates, blocking me, not downloading my show, or hitting mute/stop. In real life, you can’t do that, but how phucking sweet would it be to have a mute button. Sometimes, I want to record people talking, play it back to them, and see if they can tell that they can be annoying. With that said, I know a lot of what I talk about is annoying as soon as someone sees my mouth open or name show up on their screen, and they’d want the same mute button for me.

The next time you wake up, are about to tweet, or say something, start thinking on how you can make it different for yourself, but the others around you.

Do IT, do IT now!

This is my first d.e.m.o track I’ve written using Ableton Live 8 and the APC40 controller. Hosted on bln.kr.

Every few minutes I’m supposed to squeeze this balloon gimmick for the next hour or so.  I could go for some orange juice, but I’m to lazy to call over a staff member to bring me one.

So, other than ITRadio, what have I been up to lately?  NOTHING… I’m a loser and I have no life!  I sit in front of my computer every night looking for inspiration, but I don’t think my brain lets that happen.

SWEET! I have an orange pineapple beverage coming my way!

Anyway, this post will be very  different post.  Not by much, but more of a “what am I thinking at this moment type of a gimmick.

So, for real, I’ve been busy working on WordPress theme mods.  I’ve been working on SuzenJuel.com now for about 2 months and the theme is coming along nicely, and Suzen has been very patient with me and my updates.  She knows I picked a theme that I could use as a learning experience, and for the most part, the theme is done, but there is a lot I still want to do.  I keep pitching her ideas, because I want it to be the best site she can have to promote herself.  One thing that drew me to that theme was the Sidebar.  The image at the top of the sidebar uses jQuery, which I’ve never used before, and other than switching the images, I don’t really touch the code itself, but I peak at it every so often.

If you don’t know of Suzen Juel (@juel), she’s a an awesome local Twin Cities acoustic blues/folk/rock guitarist and has a voice to match.  She performs local shows on occasion, but has almost daily performances in SecondLife.  Oh, you don’t have SecondLife, but want to check out her live performances? Then fear not my friend.  There is a streaming audio player on the sidebar of her site.  She also has 2 albums available on iTunes (the 2nd one was recorded by Ian Schwartz / @StudioZeroSeven )

If you don’t know what Second Life is, check IT out. It’s a virtual world where you can meet people all over the world.  There are live performances, conferences, press releases, and more you can do once inside.

I really want one of these screen/keyboard set-ups for my room.  Sitting is over-rated and my arm is going numb… so IT didn’t fall off I guess.

Also, I’ve been working on a WordPress layout for TourettesRadio.com.  It’s going to be more of a portal site for things I’m currently working on, unlike FeedThisBlog which is more of a personal site, as well as archiving.  The theme I picked will look nothing (graphics wise) like the original, as I’ve done with the others.  The original layout is still there, but even that changes a great amount.  I’ve never learned how to code HTML freehand, yet I’ve been making websites for years.  The same goes for CSS.  I can read it, move it around, understand where things fit, but I’ll never be able to create a theme from scratch.

I’m proud of myself in 2009 for kicking major butt on creative theme mod designs.  Who knew I’d start AND FINISH 6 different layouts.  FeedThisBlog, ITRadio, Social Media, What? and SuzenJuel.com.  I did mode a site for a friend in regards to that New Moon movie. I do not endorse New Moon or Twilight, but the original theme designer flaked out on her and only created a CSS stylesheet, but not the WordPress theme (which she requested and he fell through on).

Do you know how hard it is to type one handed and remember what your typing is even about? What if you have ADD/ADHD.  I’m 2 min from a sushi joint.  I think I’m having that for dinner and I don’t think I’m going to get IntaJuice this week, despite my once a week idea, unless I get IT tomorrow.  There is no way I’m even going to attempt to venture near the Eden Prairie Mall on Black Friday.

I have an hour left… I should take a nap.

In fact, I’m going to end this because I’m losing concentration points.  Also, unlike my other posts, this was not proof read by JenJenFukker.  If IT wasn’t for her awesome reading skills, who knows what my posts would really look like. Wait, that’s what this is.

Now on with the post:

ITRadio

IT’s been a couple of months now that Frosty has retired as co-host from ITRadio, and I’m showing no signs of stopping the show.  ITRadio’s my baby, my outlet, my way of forgetting about work and the stupid shit going on in my life.  I’ve been brainstorming ideas left and right with friends, and even throwing ideas to Frosty to get his opinion. He may be done co-hosting, but I know he still cares about the show, and will give me an honest opinion on an idea.

I’ve been running with the “2 Mics, 1 Graeme” idea for a few shows now and I’m enjoying talking to myself, I mean my brain. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out at first, but I think it has some serious potential.  Some think it might be hard to hold a conversation with yourself, but that’s me. People wanted to know what it was like to “get inside Graeme’s/Weird Cookie’s” head, and this is it.  I trash talk myself.  Oh yeah, and Weird Cookie may have left wrestling, but there’s no difference between the two names. Graeme is Weird Cookie and Weird Cookie is Graeme. (sorry for the mini WC tangent there).

I love that ITRadio is still an underground show, but I would love to sell out. As much as I am/was against a structured show, I need to create that for the show. I’ve been having brainstorm sessions with friends for months now, and I feel bad because we come up with great ideas, but I never utilize them. I want to play promos/commercials for sponsors. I want to (and am) bringing back the ITRadio Rock Paper Scissors Intercontinental Championship Challenge. I want to bring my music to the show that I create (which will also work for FeedThisBlog). With all this said, I want to do it in such a way that I still enjoy what I’m doing.  Even if I lose every fan, friend, and listener of ITRadio, I would still do the show if I enjoyed it as my outlet!

FeedThisBlog.com

As you may know, FeedThisBlog.com came out of the code name for a new ITRadio WordPress layout earlier this year, and once I decided to roll with the idea of a new website I had a picture in my head of where I wanted it to go. The only thing I lacked was the drive, motivation, and time.  Sure, IT should be easy to write my thoughts. Hell, I spout shit from my mouth on a weekly basis with ITRadio, how hard should IT really be?  Hell #2, I used to LiveJournal/blog like crazy while I was still in school & wrestling (http://weirdcookie.livejournal.com) and I had no problem writing down my daily thoughts and actions. I don’t need to question why I stopped writing, but instead I need to set a game plan for the site.

I want this site to be very “Graeme driven”, not that ITRadio isn’t “Graeme driven,” but the behind the scenes thoughts and ideas from me and more of a “check out what I’ve done” type of site.

I’ve created hundreds of song ideas  using Ableton Live in the past 7 years, and I keep meaning to post them, but I never do.  I write/compose/create tracks using royalty-free samples, as well as my own ideas using MIDI, my keyboards and soft synths.  I should just start turning them in to MP3′s and have them be released on a weekly basis.

I’ve created HTML (not freehand by any means, thanks Dreamweaver) websites before Geocities was even around for my own enjoyment and I want to post the sites that I’ve done, as well as the WordPress themes that I’ve created over the past 4 years. Both with the original layout image and what I used as the final design.
All in all, everything comes down to MOTIVATION and PROCRASTINATION.  The motivation is there, and I don’t think it’s a matter of procrastination that is limiting me in what I do, but I get overwhelmed with even the smallest of challenges.  If you don’t believe me, you should hang out with me when I’m trying to clean my room/studio.

Thanks for reading this, and please, if you have any ideas that can help me with any of my projects, or you would like to lend your help and support, let me know.  I use ITRadio and FeedThisBlog as outlets for what is inside my head.  I know not everything I do will spark the interest of everyone, but I hope there are some things you can enjoy, even if it’s a 30 second track of “noise,” or seeing how many times I can say “fuck” (or “phuck” depending on my mood).

I didn’t expect starting two more projects in the following months, but it happened. In May/June, the “Social Media, What?” podcast started, followed by the Nususa Live streaming online concerts.  I didn’t feel that I had too much on my plate, but instead, I had the right amount of things to tide me over.  I needed every one of these projects to drive me to the next episode of ITRadio, the newest post on FeedThisBlog, learning more about social/new media, and how to pull a streaming online concert series off.  Some people thought there’s too much on my plate, yet I thought I had enough projects to keep myself motivated, which is what I needed to keep myself busy.

Then came the news from Frosty that he was going to “hang up the podcasting gimmick” and leave ITRadio as a co-host.  In the back of my mind, I knew the day was coming, but when he finally said he was calling it quits, it made me take a step back and look at where I was, and where I wanted to go with everything.  Do I quit ITRadio? What do I do with “SMW?,” FeedThisBlog, and the live streaming concerts? What am I going to eat next to twoop about later?

That’s when the idea for this blog post popped into my head, yet it took 3 weeks to write.  I needed a place to put my thoughts on the future of everything, and I wanted others to see the ideas, too.  In case I fell behind or didn’t know what to try next, I could always come back to this post.

Where does IT go from here?  I’m starting from the most current project, and working my way back… because as Hot Donna would say, IT always comes back to poop… on ITRadio.

Nususa Live – Live concerts streamed to your computer.

I’ll admit it, the live concert idea was simply that… an idea.  I have seen a few bands do live concerts via the internet, but the websites promoting the concerts never followed through after a few shows, or the band doing the concerts lost interest. So, when I threw the idea out to Ian of StudioZeroSeven, he took the idea and ran with it.

Sure, we’ve only done one broadcast so far, but we already have two more concerts, for sure, lined up.

Where I see Nususa Live going:  I want to see artists perform in an intimate setting, but where the whole world can tune in.  I want to have local and national talent performing in a new medium, and hopefully a new audience. I may have limited video skills, but I want to get better. I want to be able to produce something special that not everyone is able to see everyday, and also come back for more.

Nususa Live is something I couldn’t do on my own, and I’m glad Ian liked the idea, ran with it, and also was willing to use StudioZeroSeven as the venue.

Social Media, What?

SMW? is the project that almost didn’t happen.  A great social media/new media friend of mine and idea man, WW3/Goldbar.TV thought I should do a social media podcast, talking about all things social media, but from a non-expert point of view.  I happened to meet my co-host, Ian, at a local TweetUp.  We both have the same mentality to learn everything social media, and the best way to learn is to help others learn as well.

I wanted, and believe I’ve managed to create a show for the people just getting in to social media, and also people who want to learn more about social media, but don’t understand the so called “experts.”  I want the show to be a laid back show about anything that seems to be relevant at the time, because who knows what medium will be a thing of the past when you wake up in the morning.

So, what would I like to see happen?  Interviews with anyone that involves themselves in some form of social/new media, more media content, may it be blogs, links, pictures dealing with social media and make the website/blog a “go to site” for all things social/new media.  I want to ride every wave of this form of media to see where it takes not only me, but everyone else who’s involved in some way, shape, or form.

Part 2 coming to you next week!

Here is my video of Blink-182 playing from inside my Dorito’s Late Night bag. I tested the “augmented reality” technology to it’s max & how twisted you can get the bag, aka stage.

Check out www.blink182.com and www.doritoslatenight.com for more details

Sorry for the delay in posts… all that care to read my ramblings! Thank you.

Graeme

p.s. Not sure why I made this look like some kind of letter, but I’m not hitting the delete key anymore for the night!

My Focusrite Saffire is almost 4 years old, and I thought it was starting to die on me, but I didn’t have the funds to purchase a new audio input device.  I finally bit the bullet and went to Guitar Center after a few weeks of research for something new.  When I was talking with the sales associate, explaining my issue, he said contact Focusrite to see if they have any solutions, but I can still take something new to test my issue.

Before I even thought of getting something new, I did look on forums for anyone experiencing the same issue, but I found nothing.  I did find some solutions I did use as temporary fixes.  I tried replacing the firmware, the drivers, reinstalling Audio Hijack Pro, and the quickest fix was to stop ‘hijacking’ the Saffire’s audio and restart it.  If worse came to worse, I’d unplug & re-plug in the Saffire from the computer, but the Saffire isn’t under warranty and it might be easier to simply replace it.

For the record, this issue happened on multiple machines running the same exact setup.

I tried the Native Instrument’s Audio Kontrol 1, a USB audio interface.  Everything worked fine as far as Skype calls and my audio coming in to the AK1, until I would turn on my MacBook Pro’s internal webcam. The audio going to my headphones would start giving me a weird hiss/record skipping sound, but the audio being recorded, which was also being sent to a live streaming website, sounded just fine.  For whatever reason, when the webcam turned on, it messed up the headphones. I took it back to Guitar Center, tested another AK1 and the same issue happened.  However, it wasn’t my computer that caused that issue, because a M-Audio USB device we tried didn’t have any issues with the same set up.

The assistant manager helping me let me know of PreSonus’s FireBox, another firewire interface, which was ten dollars more than the Audio Kontrol 1, so I did the exchange and tested it out the next night during my show.

FIVE MINTUES INTO RECORDING, my audio starts to do the same issue as the FireBox.  Was it something from Skype that was causing this to happen? Was my computer doing too much for it to run the Saffire? Or, was it an issue with Audio Hijack Pro’s software?

When this issue came up again, I was worried it may be my firewire input itself, because my Apple Care warranty is up tomorrow, June 16th, 2009.

I thought I was screwed, but I had one last resort, and that would be Ambrosia’s WireTap Anywhere.  “WireTap Anywhere is a suite of components that lets you take the audio output from any Mac application or hardware input device and bring it into your favorite audio recording application.”  I received a copy of it in September, a friend won a copy at the New Media Expo, but didn’t have a Mac, so she let me use it, but I never got around to really testing it.

Well, after re-watching the video tutorials, I figured out how to route my audio for everything to work.  Over the weekend, I tested the new set up quite a few times and didn’t have any audio hiccups with the Saffire, what so ever.  With that said, I was still under my return warranty and returned the FireBox yesterday.

Now this isn’t a slam against Audio Hijack Pro, because the program is a wicked program, but it hates firewire.  I did see some websites that included mentions of firewire not being supported, but that was when the program was first released.  Will I use it again? Probably, depending on what it’s needed for, and the fact it records each audio source individually, but I wish I figured this out sooner and didn’t assume that my Saffire was on it’s way to audio device heaven.

These three places are times during your day you stop concentrating, start to daydream and your mind works in the background as your thoughts go on autopilot. I’ve realized this and I’ve also come up with the solution on harvesting the ideas.

While you’re driving, have a voice recorder nearby, call your own voicemail or Twitterfone your idea. If you do use Twitterfone as a source of recording, be sure you want the public to hear your ideas or use/steal them for themselves.

When you’re showering, your options are limited, but you can use a voice recorder. If you don’t have a voice recorder, check your phone, because most new phone models have a voice record function and don’t forget, you can always dry yourself off so you can write down your idea.

The easiest (and best) place to get and record your ideas is while you’re sitting down on the crapper. You are able to text a message on your phone, call your voicemail/Twitterfone, use a laptop or you can go old school and bring in a pen and paper.

I know these places aren’t everybody’s choice place for ideas, butt (pun intended) if you have ideas, write them down! Even if they are the worst idea when you look back at them, it never hurts to write them down. If you know someone who might be able to put your idea into motion, make that connection. Getting the idea is the first step, but to see that idea realized, you need to move the idea forward!

Also, don’t try and force the ideas, because usually those are the ones you want to flush!

———————————————————————————-

If you’ve been using Twitter and are staying current with the trends of Web 2.0 and social media/networking, you would know you can have your Twitter or Ping.fm account to update all of your social networking site’s status messages at once and you update your status anywhere and everywhere you possibly can.  You let people know you woke up, that you’re about to drive to work, that you’re at a sporting event or concert or your foot itches, butt (pun intended) have you ever updated your status to say you are dropping friends off at the pool and admitted IT?

Wait, what did I just ask you? Do I update my status messages where?

Just admit IT, you’ve done IT… You’ve taken your cellphone/smartphone or laptop into the bathroom and you’ve updated your status.

You might as well tell everyone what you’re doing because you tell them everything else in your status messages.  Simply tell them you’re ‘taking a twoop,’ ‘twooping, ‘sitting on the twooper’ or let them know that you just ‘twooped.’  OR, if you are an anti-twitter user like my co-host of ITRadio, Frosty, a ‘fake twoop’ is the term to use for anti-twitter users that still update their social networking status messages from the toilet! (I know, why is an anti-twitter user using twitter words? Frosty supports my shit, that’s why!)

Where did the terms ‘twoop’ and ‘twooping’ come from?  IT generated from Twitter user’s ‘tweet speak.’ Tweet speak would be changing the the first letters of the verb or noun you are writing and using “tw” instead. An easy example would be pooping turning in to twooping.

I wasn’t the first to use twoop and twooping in spring of 2008, but I was the one who started using the terms on a daily basis. Once I started telling people I was twooping the twoop, I couldn’t stop. I’m not afraid to tell people where I am or that I’m going to the bathroom and you shouldn’t be afraid either. You buy toilet paper don’t you or are you too scared to do that in fear someone might see you buying it (IT’s a true story. A friend of mine didn’t want to buy TP in case a pretty girl walked past him and it would ruin his chances with her.)

Try doing a search for ‘twoop’ or ‘twooping’ on Twitter and you’ll see @itradio all over the place as well as family, friends and fans of ITRadio | tourettesradio.com.

You can add @twoop and @twooping for retweets of other Twitter users using twoop and twooping!

I’m so proud of my twooping skills and thanks to @BeerBear for saying he would buy a “I’d rather be twooping, LOT” hoodie if I made Twooping Gear on CafePress (http://cafepress.com/twooping_gear) and I did.  So, do yourself a favor, let people know you’re twooping the twoop right out of your butt and when you’re not twooping, let the world know what you’d rather be doing!

I think I need a T.A support group. Yes, that’s right Twoopers Anonymous, LOT.

AND if you don’t know what LOT means or you haven’t figured it out yet while I’m giving you time before telling you the answer… IT’s ‘Laughing on Twitter.’