It has been just over a month since I have made the plunge into eBook Self-Publishing and I thought I would take a look at my progress so far and let you know all the gritty details. Spoilers: It’s been a wild ride, and Solyent Green is People.

On April 8th, 2011 with a bit of inspiration from my good friend and Writing Mentor Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, I finally got off my butt and decided to take my writing to the next level.  When I first started writing, self publishing or POD (Print On Demand) was fairly new and exciting.  So was Podcasting Novels.  I never really expected the eBook Market would be as huge as it is now.  I kind of half expected it to be, but nothing to this large extent as it is now.  That was 4 years ago.  Cut to today and indie authors who work hard not only can publish their works on multiple platforms relatively easily, but they can put it on the largest online book market: Amazon.  Plus, make a very decent living off of it.  I’m no where near that state yet, however that blip on the horizon just became a bit more clearer than before.

So with mouse in hand I uploaded The 39 Book #1: Haven, The 39 Book #2: Packet Loss, The Legend of Blackwater Cove, and Got West? to the Amazon Kinde store, and boy did I not expect the reception it did.  The first two 39 stories went up first and three days before I even announced to anyone the books were on Amazon I had made three sales on Haven.  How is that even possible?  I got excited.  I mean really excited.  After announcing the books, I started to see some more sales come in.  I started to see my Book rankings go up.  I made it to #55 of the top 100 in Sci-Fi Anthologies at Haven’s peak.  (I wish I grabbed a screenshot of that).

Before I move on, I wanted to mention the discussion that is happening online in regards to eBook pricing.  Should a novel be $0.99?  Should it be $9.99 or more?  Authors, publishers and even friends have been going back and forth as to what is working or hurting the market.  My thoughts are there will still be an uncertain period of price adjustment for the time being, but I don’t think we’ll all get the $0.99 pricing scheme  Apple enforces, because Amazon doesn’t.  The pricing structure I’m going for, for my books is simple:  Short Stories $0.99, Short Story Collections $2.99, Novellas $2.99 – $4.99 and Novels $4.99 – $9.99.  Seems reasonable for all my stories and is easier for my potential audience to get behind.

Moving on, I then set up an Amazon Author Page to collect all of my books and everything about me in one place.  I have to give a major compliment to Amazon for making it really easy to set up everything from uploading books to setting up my author page.  Within minutes I had my own slice of the Amazon Marketplace.

Slowly my books showed up on Amazon UK and even was launched on Amazon DE (Germany).  Speaking of the UK I even made it to the top #100 of Sci-Fi Short Stories, which I did get a screenshot of:

As of the writing of this blog post I have sold almost 60 books in just over a month and I couldn’t be happier!  This has given me new vigour and inspiration to keep going with my writing and put out more material for you all to read.  I want to personally thank you all if you are reading this and have purchased one of my books.  It means a lot to me that you have done so, and you’ve given this author the push to keep filling your Kindles, iPhones, iPads or any other eBook readers with more content from me.  So thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you!

I’ll have another report in a month to see how this experiment is going.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Amazon.com.  It’s the big behemoth right now in the Book industry.  With it’s Kindle Reader pretty much dominating the eBook market (with the iPad coming up in second), it is definitely a place people are paying a lot of attention to.  That being said I don’t know why I have never done this before, but I am here to announce today, I am officially on Amazon.com!

As you can see from the book covers above (Just look at them!  The covers look oh so awesome).  I have 4 short stories listed on the Amazon Kindle store all at $0.99 each!  It can be downloaded directly to your Kindle, or if you download them onto your computer the eBook can be read on the iPhone, iPad, the Sony eReader (my own eReader of choice), as well as many other eBook readers on the market.  It’s funny actually, before I even announced that they were online, I already have had 3 sales of The 39 – Book #1 – Haven which has already put me in the top 30,000′s of all eBooks (and there is a lot!).

If you go to http://read.stevesaylor.net you will go to my Amazon Author Page which lists all my books

Now not only have I released my books on Amazon, I have also gone ahead and made available the audio versions of those stories over at http://listen.stevesaylor.net.  The audio for the two “The 39″ stories are available for high quality download at $1.99 each as well as “Blackwater Cove” and “Got West?” are available for $0.99 each.  But that is just the minimum amount, if you feel like those stories are more of a greater value to you, you can put in your own amount.  It’s kind of like a “Pay-What-You-Want” kind of deal.

So what’s this I hear about a deal?

But anywho as the title suggests, yes there is a special Buy 1 Get 1 FREE thing I am starting up for a Limited Time only! For the next 2 weeks, if you buy any of my books from Amazon, you will get the audio version for FREE!  But if you decide to buy any of the audiobooks, you will get the eBook for FREE!  Now if you decide to go all nuts and buy both the audio and eBooks of those stories, you will get the eBook and Audiobook of my short story collection called “The Caffeine Collection” for FREE!

How do I get in on this fantastic deal?

Well, the easiest way is for you to email me your receipt (don’t worry your emails are protected) indicating you have purchased either the eBooks or Audiobooks and I will then email you the audio or eBook directly to you!  Sound simple?

And that email address is: mail@stevesaylor.net

That’s it!

I am really excited for getting this off the ground.  It has given me a creative push to write again.  Speaking of which, after a very long hiatus, yes I am writing again!  That’s right, it has been over 2 years since I have released any stories written by yours truly into your very patient hands.  So I am letting you know now that my commitment to getting back in the seat of my writing pants is firmly in place and you can expect to see new stories coming from me within the next few months.

In conclusion, buy my books if you like and you won’t be disappointed!

You can buy the books directly by using the links/widget below!

eBooks (via Amazon or go here:  http://read.stevesaylor.net)

Audiobooks (http://listen.stevesaylor.net)

Why do you watch videos on YouTube? Is it for entertainment? Creative inspiration?

I’m a big fan of Holiday tradition.  Growing up there were several things I loved about the Holidays and even though things have changed throughout the years, there are some traditions that stay the same.  One of them being, is on Christmas Eve my family and I would watch the movie “A Christmas Story.”  It’s hilarious, poignant, and because I honestly looked like Ralphie Parker growing up (almost).  There are so many great moments in this film:  The tongue to the flagpole, Frag-ee-lay, the Leg Lamp, Santa Claus, The Furnace, and of course the quest for the Red Ryder BB Gun.  However, one of my favourites was the Narrator, Jean Shepherd.  That voice carried such a tone that I gravitated to that kind of storytelling.

Well, here’s an interesting fact about that movie.  Our beloved narrator was the author of the short stories that the movie is based on!  Not only is the screenplay  written by him, but some of the lines themselves are taken directly from Jean’s written work.  The short stories were in a collection called “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” or as it’s now being reprinted everywhere as “A Christmas Story”.  I was given the book by my mom for Christmas one year and I loved reading it every Christmas.

So this year inspiration struck me and I decided to take one of the stories from this book and narrate it myself to give to you as an audio Christmas present!  I took the longest story of the book called “Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails The Cleveland Street Kid” which focuses on Ralphie’s quest to get the Red Ryder BB Gun and record it for you to enjoy.  I will warn you though, it doesn’t have the Skut Farcus episode, the Bumpus dogs, or the Flagpole debacle, but it’s a great story for those who love the movie.

I release this under a:

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd – Read by Steve Saylor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at stevesaylor.net.

If you want to download the audio file, click here.

Share it, like it, tweet it, and enjoy it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

So I was working with an online radio station called Radio Free Zion that eventually turned into Awakened Radio for the Matrix Online Game. I did a little commercial for it via my character in game and my DJ persona DJ Snowball. Video quality isn’t great (I don’t have the original file anymore, so I found this via The Internet Archive). Hope you enjoy

Being a Web Content Editor Rocks! – Myself with Alice Cooper

As I’m writing this it is just before midnight on December 1st 2010.  This day has a lot of significance to me at least within the past 3 years because on December 1st 2007 I released my first podcast novel ever online.  That day led to a lot of really cool things in my life and really solidified a turning point which led to a career that I didn’t ever think would be possible.  However, December 1st 2007 wasn’t the beginning of my journey.  No, no in order to do that I would have to go back a little bit further….

Winter 2005

I sat at home, a little bit discouraged about what to do with my life.  It had been 5 years since High School, and after 2 failed attempts at a career I had a right to be discouraged.  At first I thought Computers was the way to go.  I was just about to start a Computer Engineering course in 2003, but days before I was to start my first day, I decided against it.  I then thought being a Pastor would be the way to go and I did have a semester of Bible College under my belt, but that didn’t really go as planned either.  So I did what any young guy in his early twenties would do, play video games.  Specifically The Matrix Online.  Yeah I know World of Warcraft would’ve been a better choice, but I tried it, couldn’t get into it.  Besides, at the time The Matrix Online was in it’s beta release and I had gotten in via an invite.

So one night, as I did many nights, I was in the Mega City doing my best Neo Matrix Jump when in my guild chat room I heard about a party happening in one of the warehouses in the city.  I went and wasn’t entirely impressed, but there was one thing that kept coming up in the public channel and that was a url to “Radio Free Zion”.  It was an online radio station specifically for the game and was close to being an officially sanctioned part of the game.  At the time they were looking for anyone who had access to a microphone and music to apply to be a DJ and just on a whim I decided, “Why not.” So I applied.  A day or two later after talking with the Program Directors for the station I was an official (unpaid) DJ for Radio Free Zion.

The Zion that was Radio Free

After a few very nervous shifts, I started to get into a groove of doing a regular broadcast that was starting to get an audience.  We as DJ’s never went by our actual names, so we chose a nickname.  Since I had the nickname “Snowball” when I was a kid I went as DJ Snowball and called my Show “Snowballs.pc”  (Which stood for Snowballs podcast as Podcasting was just beginning at the time, and Pods / casting sort of worked in The Matrix World).  I slowly moved up the ranks as a featured DJ and even became a producer of all the imaging for the station.  I was even a Producer/Host of several actual podcasts for the station.  I was the original host of “SWGack” (which stood for Star Wars Galaxies Attack) with Alex Albrecht (of Diggnation and Totally Rad Show fame), and I was a Producer for “The War Room” hosted by Hak.5′s Darren Kitchen and Open Alpha Host Jenn Cutter.  I had fun not only behind the mic but also working as a producer for a show that was getting a bigger audience on each episode we released.  Eventually when Darren and Jenn decided to leave the station, because I was having so much fun, I decided to leave at the same time.  It didn’t feel right continuing on without Darren and Jenn and also I wanted to work towards it as a career, instead of doing it on my own in my parents basement.  Shortly after I applied to a Broadcasting course at Niagara College.

Lower Your Shields and Surrender Your Listenership

Sean Schemmel with Steve "Snowball" Saylor, Pierce "The Punk" Derks and Mike "The Birdman" Dodd

It was the beginning of 2007, Jan 31st 2007 to be exact.  I was about to go on air for the first time as a Talk show host at my College Radio Station with a guy named Mike “The Birdman” Dodd, whom I just met only a few short days previous.  The show was called This Week in Geek and it was a show talking about the geek news that happened that week and discussing one geek topic per show.  The first show was a smashing success and we received comments shortly afterwards that it sounded as if Mike and I were friends for years.  Our intention for the show was to do this on a weekly basis while releasing the whole show as a podcast on our website.  With the experience I had producing podcasts for Radio Free Zion, and with the help of a certain Tech Guy that I got to work with for a whole year in Toronto, I was fairly confident that the podcast was going to go really well.  It did.  It got big.  I got big enough to the point where we were getting several thousands of downloads per episode within the first week of the episode’s release and it was growing so much that it took Mike and I having to bring on several other friends to help host the shows that we kept branching off of to keep up with the demand.  We were eventually releasing an episode almost every 2 or 3 days.  We were all having tons of fun talking about geek stuff, doing our own versions of DVD Commentaries, and including my favourites was talking to Celebrities such as Wil Wheaton, Laurell K. Hamilton, Bear McCreary, Morena Baccarin, Sean Schemmel, and countless others.  The podcast became more than just the radio show, it became a way for us geeks and friends to talk about what we loved and turned it into a podcast that essentially a global audience could enjoy more than just the 4 km radius the College Station’s signal had.  Before I left Niagara College to focus solely on radio (Niagara had Film and Television parts of the broadcasting program), we received an award for “Best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM The New Heat”  Even though I have been on a somewhat permanent hiatus from TWiG, I still remain a close part of the show and I pop up here and there from time to time.

I’m not an expert, I just “Specialize”

Myself with my friend Kelly Doran On Air at 96.9 Radio Humber. Moments before I found out I had the Web Content Editor job

So now let’s jump ahead, I had released Black Shadow as not only my first book, but my first podcast solely on my own in 2007.  It became a bigger success than I planned, and a lot of what I do here on this site for the past 3 years has been to build on that.  I have made a lot more friends in the podcast novel community and I slowly started to specialize in New Media Content.  All from the comfort of Toronto where I was at Humber College at the Radio Broadcasting program.  I started speaking at Podcamps and other conferences about Creative Content, Podcast Novels and even did a live reading of my second podcast novel “The Caffeine Collection.”  Also at those Toronto Podcamps I was interviewed several times about Podcasting, Social Media and Creative Content.  I never thought it was possible, but I was being considered an “expert” in this field.  I don’t like the term expert because I don’t know everything, hence why I’m a Specialist.  However, that being said, I was pushing myself not only in school to be an On-Air Announcer, but as a New breed of On-Air Announcers.  One that knows and understands the Social Web and can utilize it working in the traditionally “Old” Medium of Radio.  What I also found out was that anyone can have the ability to turn being a Media Specialist into any profession.  I chose Radio as my profession and the New Media aspect as my way in the door.  Which has led me to my current job as a Web Content Editor for 3 radio stations.

I GET PAID TO CREATE CONTENT!

Myself and Scott Anderson of Finger Eleven

In the early part of this year, 2010, I had stopped working on podcasting because I was working towards finishing school and getting my first job in Radio.  I pushed harder than I did before, and was sending out Resumes like crazy.  All at the same time, there was a position that was being developed in Midwestern Ontario for a Web Content Editor at CKNX Radio.  My Program Director at Humber College used to work at CKNX so he was contacted by the Stations to see if anyone fitted the bill they were looking for.  He and another professor had a meeting as they wanted to figure out whom among this years graduating students they could recommend.  From what I was told, I was the first person they thought of.  All because they knew that I was involved in the Online Community and knew I could do the job.  So they talked to me and I immediately applied.  Jump to May of 2010, I got the job and am now living comfortably (as one would in a small town haha) and working in a job where I get paid to be creative, and work with 3 radio stations producing Content in any form.  Whether it’s text, audio, or video I do it all.

In conclusion

It’s taken 5 years, a lot of hard work, sometimes a lot of money, and a lot of patience, but I am here.  I took a passion of creating media online and turned that into a viable career that has a future and I can only build on from here.  So if I could offer any advice, it would be this.  If you love producing content, if you love doing it and currently not being paid.  Don’t worry about the money part.  If you keep with it and find a career you want to be in, you’d be surprised that all that hard work of producing a show, creating a community via your online brand and social media, even building your own voice, it can work in your favour.  I got to where I am because I soaked in everything I could, and was better qualified for my position because of the breadth of knowledge I learned.  I am proof that Podcasting can turn into a career, and you can too.  Just be patient, soak up everything, and keep working hard.  It will pay off.

Let’s bring on the future!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

This guy was intense!!!

Here’s a quick video of the sunset after day one of an iMedia Conference I was at.

Backstage for Thornley (Hanover)

Episode 5 – A long time ago in an audiobook far far away….

Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy this fifth episode as my gift to you!

Here is the fifth episode of “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection” My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks.php Pick up your copy today!

This fifth episode features the short story “The 39″ featuring a large voice cast of myself, Lisa Paivel, Brent Wilkinson, Ryan McLeod, Brennon Thompson, Aleida Conradson, Peter Brinn, Kelly Doran, and Matt Gargula. This is my first foray into sci-fi with this story, and the best way I can describe it is a cop drama set on Earth’s first colony ship in space. I really did enjoy writing this story, and it’s one of my proudest moments as an author. Several people have heard this story already and are telling me they enjoy it a lot, so I’m super excited to share that same story to you.

For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net

Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net

Promos:
No promos this week, if you are a podcaster, forward me your promos to mail@stevesaylor.net

Music:
Geoff Smith – “We Could Change The World This Christmas” – http://thegeoffsmith.com

Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by:
Pronobozo – http://pronobozo.com
and Brent Wilkinson

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
or
Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents
or
Download the episode – TCC-Episode005.mp3

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Episode 4 – It’s not personal, it’s just an audiobook.

Here is the fourth episode of “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection” My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks Pick up your copy today!

This fourth episode features the short story “The Godson Part 01001″. It features the voices of Brent Wilkinson and Ryan McLeod. If you like The Godfather with a modern twist, you’ll enjoy this story! I am actually proud of this one because this was other story of the original short stories I wrote in 2007 that survived to this collection. I remember writing this literally the day after I watched The Godfather for the first time, so of course I was inspired to write a story with that same feel. Hope you enjoy it!

For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net

Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net

Promos:
Mike Blanchard’s Twists of Faith and Fate Poetry Collection – email tfg1podcast@gmail.com for more details on how to get this poetry collection.

Also if you are a podcaster feel free to email me any podcast promos you have at the email address above.

Music:
Geoff Smith – “Sunshine/Moonlight” – http://thegeoffsmith.com

Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by:
Pronobozo – http://pronobozo.com
and Brent Wilkinson

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
or
Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents
or
Download the episode – TCC-Episode004.mp3

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Episode 3 – Sometimes you just can’t get rid of a bomb!

Here is the third episode of “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection” My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks Pick up your copy today!

This third episode features the short story “Got West?”. It features the voice of just me this time around. As you probably have heard me say ad nauseum is I’m a fan of Wil Wheaton and his narrative non-fiction stories. Well this is my own narrative non-fiction story, and it’s all true! You have to listen, it features Adam West, DragonCon, and Bishop from Aliens. Oh yes, it’s that good!

For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net

SPECIAL CONTEST!
The contest for submitting reviews to iTunes and subscribing to the podcast is finished, and the winner is Mike Blanchard of Geek Cast Radio Network. He received a free audio copy of The Caffeine Collection. Congrats Mike!

Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net

Promos:
No promos this week. Feel free to email them to me at the email address above.

Music:
Geoff Smith – “Foot in Your Door” – http://thegeoffsmith.com

Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by:
Pronobozo – http://pronobozo.com
and Brent Wilkinson

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
or
Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents
or
Download the episode – TCC-Episode003.mp3

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Episode 2, Electric Boogaloo!

Here is the second episode of “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection” My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks Pick up your copy today!

This second episode features the short story “Diary of The Antichrist”. It features the voice of Brent Wilkinson as none other than The Devil. Oh yes, and it’s creepy! This story was one of my favorite stories that took a while to get it right. I wanted to capture what it might be like if you came home to find out you were destined to be the Antichrist.

For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net

SPECIAL CONTEST!
For those of you who subscribe to The Caffeine Collection Podcast and leaves a review on iTunes one random entrant will receive a free copy of the dynamic audiobook! To prove that you have subscribed take a screenshot of your podcatcher that you subscribed to the podcast (whether in iTunes or which ever podcatcher you use) and also send me a link to your review in iTunes, email me at mail@stevesaylor.net with the subject line “I subscribed!” and attach the screenshot and link. One of those entrants I will choose to be announced next week in Episode 003 on November 11th. I know I mentioned the winner will be announced this week, but I thought I would give those who actually have listened to the episode to get a chance, other than those who may have only read the previous blog post. You can subscribe using the links at the bottom of this post. Good luck!

Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net

Intro:
Dr. Tiki – http://tikibartv.com

Promos:
Steve Riekeberg – Geek Cred – http://geekcred.net

Music:
Geoff Smith – “I Call That Life” – http://thegeoffsmith.com

Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by:
Pronobozo – http://pronobozo.com
and Brent Wilkinson

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
or
Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents
or
Download the episode – TCC-Episode002.mp3

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Here is a little “spooky” treat for you this October 31st. If you enjoyed this week’s episode of the Caffeine Collection podcast well here is the PDF of the story for you to enjoy.

You can read it to your friends at your upcoming Halloween party tonight or just read it on your own. Completely up to you.

Also as a bonus treat, if you would like to hear more of “The Caffeine Collection” then tonight from 10pm to Midnight on 96.9 FM Radio Humber here in Toronto (if you click the link you can listen live online) you can hear not 1, not 2, but THREE STORIES of The Caffeine Collection!! These are stories you definitely don’t want to miss!

Click the Book Cover to download the PDF!

Anyway, enjoy your day today, and as always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-legend-of-blackwater-cove-pdf/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-podcast-episode-001 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-podcast-episode-001#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:16:03 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=915 Tweet

As Michael Jackson said, “This is It!”

For the first time in my life, I have a book that you can actually buy! Seriously!

To celebrate the launch of my dynamic audiobook, take a listen to the brand new podcast called “The Caffeine Collection Podcast”

The very first episode of “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection” My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks Pick up your copy today!

This first episode features the short story “The Legend of Blackwater Cove”. In time for Halloween hear a tale of a ghost captain and his ship.

For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net

SPECIAL CONTEST!
For those of you who subscribe to The Caffeine Collection Podcast and leaves a review on iTunes one random entrant will receive a free copy of the dynamic audiobook! To prove that you have subscribed take a screenshot of your podcatcher that you subscribed to the podcast (whether in iTunes or which ever podcatcher you use) and also send me a link to your review in iTunes, email me at mail@stevesaylor.net with the subject line “I subscribed!” and attach the screenshot and link. One of those entrants I will choose next Wednesday on Episode 002 which will be released on Nov 4th 2009. You can subscribe using the links at the bottom of this post. Good luck!

Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net

Promos:
J.C. Hutchins 7th Son: Descent – http://jchutchins.net

Music:
Geoff Smith – “I Wanna Dance” – http://thegeoffsmith.com

Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by:
Pronobozo – http://pronobozo.com
and Brent Wilkinson

Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes
or
Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents
or
Download the episode – TCC-Episode001.mp3

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-podcast-episode-001/feed 1 00:01:01 As Michael Jackson said, "This is It!" For the first time in my life, I have a book that you can actually buy! Seriously! To ... As Michael Jackson said, "This is It!" For the first time in my life, I have a book that you can actually buy! Seriously! To celebrate the launch of my dynamic audiobook, take a listen to the brand new podcast called "The Caffeine Collection Podcast" The very first episode of "Steve Saylor presents - The Caffeine Collection" My very first published short story collection is available as a dynamic audiobook at http://ringtonefeeder.com/audiobooks Pick up your copy today! This first episode features the short story "The Legend of Blackwater Cove". In time for Halloween hear a tale of a ghost captain and his ship. For more info on The Caffeine Collection, head to http://stevesaylor.net SPECIAL CONTEST! For those of you who subscribe to The Caffeine Collection Podcast and leaves a review on iTunes one random entrant will receive a free copy of the dynamic audiobook! To prove that you have subscribed take a screenshot of your podcatcher that you subscribed to the podcast (whether in iTunes or which ever podcatcher you use) and also send me a link to your review in iTunes, email me at mail@stevesaylor.net with the subject line "I subscribed!" and attach the screenshot and link. One of those entrants I will choose next Wednesday on Episode 002 which will be released on Nov 4th 2009. You can subscribe using the links at the bottom of this post. Good luck! Email Steve: mail@stevesaylor.net Promos: J.C. Hutchins 7th Son: Descent - http://jchutchins.net Music: Geoff Smith - "I Wanna Dance" - http://thegeoffsmith.com Music for this podcast and dynamic audiobook generously provided by: Pronobozo - http://pronobozo.com and Brent Wilkinson Subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes or Through any podcatcher at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylorpresents or Download the episode - TCC-Episode001.mp3 As always I remain, obediently yours. Steve Blog, The Caffeine Collection Podcast mail@stevesaylor.net no no http://stevesaylor.net/blog/i-comply-7th-son-descent-releases-today http://stevesaylor.net/blog/i-comply-7th-son-descent-releases-today#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:41:05 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=896 Tweet

I am going to be honest with you (aren’t I always? lol) even though I wasn’t the first few people who started listening to J.C. Hutchins’ 7th Son Podcast Novel when it came out. I did however catch on from the second book Deceit. It is a fantastic sci-fi thriller novel that goes right at the top of my list when it comes to quality entertainment.

Since listening to 7th Son, I have become really good friends with J.C. and I am so happy to say that his book is released today in bookstores everywhere! This is a major achievement for Hutch, and as I gear up for my own book release tomorrow, I wanted to acknowledge those who have come before me, and celebrate the awesomeness of 7th Son.

So in return, here is a special PDF for you to nom over that contains the first 10 chapters of the print edition of 7th Son!

Enjoy, and lets have some fun for the next two days!

As always, I remain, obediently yours

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/i-comply-7th-son-descent-releases-today/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-cover-audio-promo http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-cover-audio-promo#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:01:39 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=894 Tweet

Want to see the cover for “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection”? I bet you do! Come on, I know you wanna.

Okay well consider your wish granted!

Fetch me my uploading thinger-bobber!

Ah there it is:

That’s right not only will this be an audibook, but there will be a print edition too being launched with lulu.com on the same day! I literally just got this yesterday and it looks sooo fantastic! I can’t wait for you to see it in person!

Here it is in higher quality:

I know cool eh? Woot!

Well there is more, if you have a podcast or just want to help out with promoting the book, here is a Dr. Seuss inspired audio promo for you to nom over!

Click here to download “The Caffeine Collection – Dr. Seuss Promo”

I so can’t wait until the 28th!

As always I remain obediently yours!

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-caffeine-collection-cover-audio-promo/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/in-which-i-announce-steve-saylor-presents-the-caffeine-collection-the-dynamic-audiobook http://stevesaylor.net/blog/in-which-i-announce-steve-saylor-presents-the-caffeine-collection-the-dynamic-audiobook#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:07:07 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/blog/in-which-i-announce-steve-saylor-presents-the-caffeine-collection-the-dynamic-audiobook Tweet

I honestly can’t tell you how hawesome this is to write this.  For me this project has been a long journey, even dating back to before Black Shadow was even released.  I started writing because I was a fan of the creative process.  I eventually released my first podcast novel, warts and all, as a giant experiment to see if I could take an idea in my head, make a story out of it, and follow through with actually putting it out there for people to enjoy.  I feel I have succeeded in that regard.

Now I sit here in my room writing this post, and I’m about to embark on another creative experiment that I feel will change my life forever.

Enough with the shenanigans, let’s get to some announcin’.

This summer, I had the opportunity to interview Geoff Smith, co-founder of RingtoneFeeder.com, about his career and his creative process.  I was fascinated with how he released his own album online with a new way that hadn’t been done before.  He called it a dynamic album.  He put his album out as a paid podcast feed where you get all the songs of the album, then over the course of a year, he released bonus content such as demos of songs, music videos, and so on.  I was one of his earlier purchasers, and was excited to speak with him for the first time.  Afterwards him and I started talking, still about the creative process, and an idea popped into my head, “Would audio stories work the same way?”  Needless to say, I started talking with Geoff and his business partner/co-founder Klaus Lovgreen, and the three of us hit it off.  I am honestly telling you within a few weeks we came up with an idea and that’s what I’m announcing to you now.

Next Wednesday, October 28th, 2009, I am releasing a dynamic audiobook called “Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection”  through my site (stevesaylor.net) and RingtoneFeeder.com!  It’s a collection of short stories that I have written, and produced in audio form, covering a wide variety of genres for you to nom over; such as sci-fi, comedy, fantasy, narrative non-fiction, supernatural, it’s all there!
 
It will be released the same way Geoff put his dynamic album out, except instead of songs, you get short stories!

Included in the dynamic audiobook will be 10 short stories, plus a PDF of the whole collection, a full length audio version that will work in your audiobook playlist in iTunes, several ringtones, I call “Ringtone Stories”; and you will also get bonus material released over time such as behind-the-scenes video blogs of me putting the book together, bonus stories, and whatever I decide to put in the feed for you all!

I believe, this will add a whole new idea to self-publishing that hasn’t really been done before. Sure we have novels released through podcasts, and that is fantastic, but this adds a whole new element to it that I believe gives the creator a whole new way of thinking in regards to book content.

More details to come over the next week, but I thought I would include the introduction of the collection here for you that explains what the collection is about:

Introduction to Steve Saylor presents – The Caffeine Collection

In the summer of 2007, I was walking with my friends on Welland Avenue in my hometown of St. Catharines Ontario Canada at around midnight.  I can never quite remember exactly what we were talking about, but I do remember this one particular moment in the conversation.  We had just crossed the street underneath the QEW bridge when I said out loud, “We should write a book!”

Of course all three of us thought it was an awesome idea.  So over time we got together about once a week to write and share ideas.  At first the sessions were at each other’s houses, but we eventually ended moving our sessions to our local Starbucks.

The Starbucks we frequented was in a Chapters Bookstore at the Fairview Mall.  At first we tried different things, my friend Shane would write poems, Brian would write Daily Devotionals, and I would write short stories.  I loved creating my own worlds and characters.  The whole story-making process appealed to me, and made me look forward to each writing session.  Of course as time grew on, I moved on from short stories to writing my first podcast novel “Black Shadow” which was later released in December of 2007 through my website.  However, every single word of that story was written at that same Starbucks.

Fast forward to 2009, I was home for the summer after spending a year in Toronto Ontario for school.  I had several writing projects on the go, but didn’t have that same motivation to keep going.  I looked through some of my old short stories that I wrote in 2007, and thought, “Hey, some of these are actually quite good.  Why not put them into a short story collection?”  At that moment a spark was lit and I focused my time on writing.  I was excited to go back to Starbucks every other day.  I would drink a lot of caffeine and my imagination began to play out the stories in my head.  It felt like I was watching a movie and furiously writing down what I saw.  

No one really understood why I “needed” to write at Starbucks, I sometimes didn’t understand it.  However, anytime I told my family I was going to Starbucks, they knew I was there to write.  There is something about that environment that appeals to me.  Whether it’s the friendly baristas behind the counter; the people working at the long table with their laptops; or even the regulars like Mark who was friendly with everyone including me; whatever it is, I love that place.  Through it all though, there I sat, laptop out, a cup of Tazo Chai Latte beside me, and through the buzz of caffeine the stories you are about to read were born.  

I hope you enjoy this little collection, and I hope you’ll share it with your friends.  It’s totally cool, just tell them I sent ya.  If you want to see more of what I do including other podcasts, or other writings, please feel free to visit me online at stevesaylor.net

As always, I remain obediently yours.

Steve Saylor

September 2009

This is going to be hawesome!!!!

I can’t wait to tell you more.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/in-which-i-announce-steve-saylor-presents-the-caffeine-collection-the-dynamic-audiobook/feed 1 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-state-of-the-steverse http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-state-of-the-steverse#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:53:56 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=876 Tweet

It has definitely been a long time since I have talked to you all, and I didn’t want to leave any of you in the dark no more. So if you are subscribed to the Black Shadow feed or the 12th Disciple feed, you don’t need to worry about getting new updates, because I have merged you all together. Don’t worry you don’t have to unsubscribe, you’ll be fine. If you are subscribed to both feeds feel free to remove those feeds from your podcatcher and subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylor

So here it is folks, after over a year long hiatus, I have come back, and this upcoming ride is going to be awesome!

Intro provided by:  Jeff Macpherson – http://tikibartv.com
Music provided by:  Geoff Smith – http://thegeoffsmith.com

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-state-of-the-steverse/feed 0 00:01:01 It has definitely been a long time since I have talked to you all, and I didn't want to leave any of you in the ... It has definitely been a long time since I have talked to you all, and I didn't want to leave any of you in the dark no more. So if you are subscribed to the Black Shadow feed or the 12th Disciple feed, you don't need to worry about getting new updates, because I have merged you all together. Don't worry you don't have to unsubscribe, you'll be fine. If you are subscribed to both feeds feel free to remove those feeds from your podcatcher and subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevesaylor So here it is folks, after over a year long hiatus, I have come back, and this upcoming ride is going to be awesome! Intro provided by:  Jeff Macpherson - http://tikibartv.com Music provided by:  Geoff Smith - http://thegeoffsmith.com As always I remain obediently yours. Steve Blog mail@stevesaylor.net no no http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-thunderstorm-kills-kittens-and-puppies-nah-just-kidding http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-thunderstorm-kills-kittens-and-puppies-nah-just-kidding#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:52:03 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/blog/873 Tweet

THUNDERSTORM KILLS KITTENS AND PUPPIES! …. nah just kidding

You know the phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs”? Well I would say that this storm that happened tonight just killed them.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-thunderstorm-kills-kittens-and-puppies-nah-just-kidding/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/twilight-imperium-a-battlestar-galactica-tribute http://stevesaylor.net/blog/twilight-imperium-a-battlestar-galactica-tribute#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:29:46 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=851 Tweet

I recently got a Flip Mino for review while I was in Hamilton, and I wanted to record some stuff.  I was invited to join in a playing of Fantasy Flight Games’ Twilight Imperium.  A board game that has a sci-fi galatic domination flair, but has a Battlestar Galactica kind of feel to it too.  So I thought with the footage I recorded I would make a small video as a nod to my favorite modern sci-fi franchise.

Hope you find it entertaining.

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/twilight-imperium-a-battlestar-galactica-tribute/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-thoughts-on-self-publishing http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-thoughts-on-self-publishing#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:29:06 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=846 Tweet

If you are an author, whether starting out or a seasoned veteran, you hear it all the time; it is really tough for new authors to get into the publishing industry.  That’s a fact.  A new author gets rejections upon rejections from not only Book Publishers, but also from Literary Agents.  And once you get an Agent or into a Publishing house, if your first book bombs with miniscule sales, good luck getting another contract with a publisher after that.  The once huge marketing machine that is the Book Publishing Industry now only flexes their marketing muscle on brand name authors and can barely scrape together a campaign for new authors.  There are exceptions to every rule, and this is not the way it happens all the time, but for the majority this is all true.

Recently I listened to C.C. Chapman‘s interview with Chris Anderson on the Managing the Gray podcast.  Chris is the Editor of Wired Magazine, published his first book “Long Tail” and just released his newest book “Free: The Future of a Radical Price“.  You can not only get it in Hardcover at Amazon and Barnes and Nobel but you can download the digital versions for free.  This interview got me thinking about the Self Published Author.  We see many success stories of Self Publishing from different sources.  In the interview C.C. mentions my friends J.C. Hutchins and Scott Sigler who received book publishing deals from self publishing their free audiobooks online.  Wil Wheaton is also a self publishing success story with his recent book “Sunken Treasure” which you can buy through LuLu in digital or print format.

But is Self Publishing a better way to get started as a first time author?

Short answer, Yes absolutely!

Now for the long answer….

There are many misconceptions of Self Publishing in a digital marketplace, especially for new authors.  I’m going to break down my thoughts on Self Publishing below and hopefully this can help you understand it a bit better and why it may be a better option for those wannabe authors out there, such as myself.

1) The Rejection Slip.

I hear this all the time, “You can’t call yourself an author until you get a lot of rejection letters”.  Why?  Why do you have to be rejected from publishers and agents multiple times to call yourself an author?  This doesn’t make sense!  I have friends who have received their share of rejection letters, and from what I can tell they don’t give you a lot of feedback, they don’t tell you how to improve, all they say is “Sorry, your book that you worked long hours for won’t fit with us here”.  I’m paraphrasing but you get the idea.  I find this system ridiculous.  I’m not saying this because I’m afraid of rejection, I’m not.  But how am I supposed to improve as an author, and having being forced to suffer for my art when I receive Rejection notices in the mail?  I realize I may be coming off as a whiner with this, but I may have found a much better solution, and that’s Self Publishing.

I Self Published my first book Black Shadow as a free audiobook that in all intents and purposes wasn’t a great book, but it wasn’t a bad one either.  I’m willing to admit that.  I didn’t go through the ridiculousness of sending it out to agents and publishers to get rejected before I went with Self Publishing, I wrote the book with the intention of publishing it on my own.  I gave it my own spin in combining an audio drama format with a vocal narrative and it worked.  I received many comments saying that people loved the voices, the effects, the music, and it drew them into the story.  With the help of friends I started to gain an audience for not only just Black Shadow but my work in general, and to me it was a personal success.  Along the way though, I received negative feedback about the story saying it was too cliched, and I had complete rip-offs of other characters/stories(you will rarely get this kind of feedback from a rejection slip).  Honestly I put those in there as nods to my favorite geek icons, but I can see their point.  So as I received those comments I learned from that, and take that in mind when I am writing.

This form of feedback is much better than receiving rejection slips in the mail.  By Self Publishing I received direct feedback from my audience which allows me to grow as an author.  The business of rejection slips in the mail doesn’t allow the author to grow, it just forces the author to either put those stories in a drawer never to be seen again, or forces them to work harder to get into the industry.  This can be a good thing but for the most part you are mindlessly walking around in the dark trying to find that one speck of light that is your shot at publishing your work.  So why not take that story you are writing, put it out there and let the audience give you direct feedback on what you can do to improve.

2) Free vs. Pay

The stigma that is on the Net right now is the Free concept.  Everything has to be for free.  Free Free Free!  See how silly that sounds?  Now let me ask you, how is an author supposed to potentially make a living out of Self Publishing when they have to release stuff for free?  Some say “Give it all away” “It promotes the openness of the web” Bullcrap.  Free isn’t a business model, it’s a distribution method.  There are ways to give something away and still have a pay version.  Think about the example of software.  Developers release a demo version of their software so people can try the program to see if it’s right for them, and if the user likes it, he/she can purchase the full or unlocked version from the developer.  Also think about iTunes.  The program itself is released for free, you can catalog your music, use your iPod with it, and so on, but to get the full benefits of iTunes you can purchase content to be downloaded to your computer and put on your iPod or iPhone.  Plus this drives sales for the iPod/iPhone for Apple.  All this from releasing a program for free, and you can’t tell me Apple isn’t profitable.  I call this model the Free-mium model.  You can have stuff for free, but make sure you figure out a way so that you can make money off of your hard work.  Whether it’s through donations, or releasing the first few chapters for free, there are many different methods to choose from.  Find one that best suits you and your audience.

I do have other thoughts about Self Publishing that I would like to go more in depth with in this post, such as piracy, no editing in self published works, but I need to sit down and gather my thoughts about it before I can talk more.

So as a call to action on this post, I want to know your thoughts on Self Publishing on the web?  Is this something, that with the right ideas, can allow authors to grow and flourish in this digital marketplace?  Or am I just completely full of it.  LOL

Let me know in the comments.

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-thoughts-on-self-publishing/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio-part-2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio-part-2#comments Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:34:29 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/blog/833 Tweet

Writing on the Patio – Part 2

Writing on the patio while I discuss the pressure of writing, good and bad.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio-part-2/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio#comments Sun, 24 May 2009 22:51:00 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/blog/831 Tweet

Writing on the patio

A few thoughts on writing in different environments.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/writing-on-the-patio/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-status-update-1 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-status-update-1#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 16:17:11 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=822 Tweet

It has been a while, but I wanted to give everyone an update as to how the Voice Over challenge for myself is going.

Voices.com

I have to say that the auditioning process for Voices.com is probably the easiest process.  I love just logging in and seeing what jobs are open and opening up my audio editor and just going to town on these on auditions.  Literally within minutes I could have an audition done and sent all while sitting in my room!  It’s fantastic!

I haven’t received any offers as of yet, which is to be expected.  Like I said before, auditions in voice over is a numbers game, and generally on average I see minimum 20 people or more auditioning for the job.  So I just have to keep auditioning until something comes my way.  I still remain optimistic.

Star Wars Fan Audio Drama Casting!

In other voice acting news, I received an email from a friend (who has listened to my podcast novel Black Shadow) and really liked that voice I did for Black Shadow.  He wanted me to audition for an upcoming audio drama he’s working on as a Star Wars Fan fiction.  I auditioned for the lead role of Zander Vorros, but ultimately it went to someone else.  Which was fine, however, I did receive the part of Lt. Torrez.  It’s a small role, but the character may show up in a prequel series that may be worked on.  It’s a volunteer gig, and not a paid one, but hey this get’s me work and I can gain experience by it.

Cool thing is that I get to do my Black Shadow voice which I haven’t done in a while.  And let me tell you, I definitely need to drink a lot of water on this one.  The gruff voice really takes it’s toll on the vocal cords, and it’s definitely been a while since I’ve done that voice, so it’ll take me a bit to get used to again.

At either rate, the first episode, as far as I’m told will be coming out in June(It says 2010, but the deadlines for sending in lines for me is in June).  I’m not in the first episode, I start in the second, but I’ll let you know when it comes online.  Check out http://creativeaudioscape.com for more details.

That’s it for now.  I’ll keep you updated as things come up.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-status-update-1/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-introduction http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-introduction#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 18:17:30 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=813 Tweet

Orson Welles was a Master of Voice Acting.  His voice is so recognizable even today that you can’t help but be entranced with his deep and calming voice.  He is foreboding a narrator but subtle.  Welles once said, “I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you….it becomes a social act.”  This can be said about anything regards to the art of performance.

I remember growing up in the Niagara Region of Ontario Canada where every Sunday night at 11pm there was a one hour show on the radio called “Theatre of the Mind.”  They would play Old-Time Radio Serials from the 1930′s up until the 1950′s.  I tuned in faithfully each week to hear “Amos and Andy”, “The Shadow”, “Flash Gordon”, and of course “The Third Man” and “The Black Museum” narrated and starring Orson Welles(as you can tell, I am a huge Orson Welles fan).  I listened to those shows and my imagination ran wild.  Stories came to life through voice and sound, which gave me the passion for Radio, Storytelling, and of course Voice Acting.

So to begin this journey into Voice Acting, I thought I would chronicle my attempts to become a Professional Voice Actor here at stevesaylor.net.  I will chronicle my failures, my success, and hopefully showcase my passion for the art of Voice Acting.

My first challenge for myself is this:  To start I have signed up for a one month account at Voices.com.  My goal for the month of May, up until June 5th 2009 is to book at  minimum 1 Voice Acting job through voices.com.

I have created two voice over demos that you can listen to here on my site at http://stevesaylor.net/voice-over

There are several other challenges in the works such as getting an agent, booking a recurring role on an animated cartoon series, and more to come.

So I hope you will join me in my quest to become a professional paid voice actor, and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them and let me know.

If you are an audio producer and would like to get in contact with me for any voice over project you think I would be good for, please feel free to email me at mail@stevesaylor.net

Thank you all, and as Orson Welles likes to end all his broadcasts; as always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-voice-over-chronicles-introduction/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-theresa-andersson-one-woman-band http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-theresa-andersson-one-woman-band#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:55:52 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=807 Tweet

I love it when someone who is creatively inclined takes pieces of technology and makes something super creative.  Theresa Andersson is that super creative.  What she does is uses music effects pedals normally used for guitarists and other musicians to get a certain sound that they need or need to loop while they play something else.  My brother does the same sort of thing(minus looping sounds) with the effects pedals he uses for his band Arcadia. This technology had only been perfected with great quality within the past decade or so, but Theresa takes this one step further and creates her own band with full instruments, all by herself!   Just think about this for a second, without this kind of technology today she would not have found her voice or sound!  That’s incredible!  She has such a creative mind that I’ve literally soaked up all her music that’s online for the past hour!  I love this!

Her myspace page is over at www.myspace.com/theresaanderssonmusic where you can hear her music, but you really have to watch the videos she has of her performing her music to really get the hawesomeness of what she does.  I have a video below of what I assume was a live concert she did.  It’s a long video over 22 minutes, but if you are creative like me, you will soak up those 22 minutes to watch something really hawesome!

My question to you is after watching that video, what kind of technology do you use to be creative?  Are you creative with that technology?  Leave a comment and let me know.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-theresa-andersson-one-woman-band/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-video-battlestar-galactica-finale-part-2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-video-battlestar-galactica-finale-part-2#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:17:43 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=805 Tweet

Hello all once again. Didn’t I tell ya that I had a BSG surprise for you all? Well one of them is after the Battlestar Finale party on Friday night, my good friends Matt and Nat from BSGCast.com were there to shoot an episode of fan reactions to the series finale; which just happen to have yours truly as well as other awesome guests including, Melissa TheTelevixen, (Friend of the Show)Rambling Russel Hale, Tamika, and Tim.

Thanks to Melissa for putting on an amazing event which made my day that much better, and thanks to Matt and Nat for letting me be a part of the show!

So say we all!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

-Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-video-battlestar-galactica-finale-part-2/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-battlestar-galactica-finale http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-battlestar-galactica-finale#comments Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:14:57 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=803 Tweet

[Posted originally @ http://thisweekingeek.net]

This marks the first of what I hope will be of many posts bringing you the latest and coolest in TV.  The name “Jump The Shark” obviously is a Television staple in history, look it up on google to find out it’s meaning.  Let’s just say it literally involves a shark, the Fonz, and Water-skiing.  I wish I was kidding.  LOL  This blog will be hosted by Steve “Snowball” Saylor and possibly others of the TWiG Crew.  We are planning some roundtable shows, some weekly updates on the newest episodes of TV, and some cool interviews, and so much more!  So stay tuned!

So say we all folks, so say we all.

Tonight (Friday Mar 20th 2009 to be exact), marked an end of a “Five Year Journey” (four seasons over five years) for myself personally and in regards to one of my favorite shows on Television.  I’m talking about the series finale of Sci-Fi(now Syfy)’s Battlestar Galactica.

I have been a fan of this series since it began as a mini-series, however I only got into the show when it was first released as a miniseries/1st Season DVD set.  I remember getting it for Christmas/Birthday one year (can’t remember which, my birthday is so close to Christmas anyways), and I couldn’t stop watching it.  At first the miniseries didn’t impress me to say “OMG THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVAR” but it did prompt me to really want to watch more, and as soon as I watched the “pilot” episode “33″ I was hooked line and sinker.

Tonight marked the end of the series, in a two hour(three hours if you count “Daybreak Part 1″ last week) finale.  I have to say, without going into spoilers, the finale had everything I was looking for;  action, drama, character closure, and a great story to answer most of the remaining questions left to answer.  Of course there were a few surprises and a few “huh?’ moments, however overall, this was the best finale I could expect from the talents of Ronald D. Moore and crew.

As I sat and watched with friends in Toronto at a finale “Frak Party” I had fun just sitting there watching a show that we all loved and enjoyed as the mood of the whole place was fantastic.  We were all speechless at times, cheered at the great stuff, laughed at the funny stuff, and I think there might have been a tear shed or two(hey, I had salt in my eye! …  Shut up!).

At any rate, overall great finale.  I have a few nitpicks (Pigeons?!  Really?!), but nothing to cry to Caprica about.  I give the series finale an A-

Now for those who can’t get enough BSG, I have two surprises in store for you all soon.  One should be posted in a day or two, the other you will have to wait until April, but if this works out, you fans of BSG will definitely want to stay tuned.

Take care, and SO SAY WE ALL!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/jump-the-shark-battlestar-galactica-finale/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-whir-tv-video-about-podcamp-toronto-2009 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-whir-tv-video-about-podcamp-toronto-2009#comments Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:24:23 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=801 Tweet

One of the great things about Podcamp, especially about the one in Toronto, is that even though it’s a free event, it takes sponsors to make it run.  Podcamp Toronto has grown thanks to the help of the organizers able to put on an awesome event, but it’s the Sponsors that help them make that event awesome.  I know the one that I always go to in Toronto since it’s inception couldn’t have come close to the awesome event that it was without them.  So first of all for all the companies that sponsored Podcamp Toronto 1 2 and 3, you rock, and I like rocks!

At any rate, one of those sponsors was WHIR, Web Host Industry Review, and they are an awesome company that I hear good things about all the time.  One of those great things is WHIR TV, which interviews people in the Web space and finds out what makes them, or their companies tick.  It’s fascinating!  Now granted, I have two friends who work with WHIR TV, but that doesn’t stop me from saying they run an awesome show, and I hope they don’t stop.

So to say it was an honour (that’s the Canadian version of honor, which is far more awesome), to be interviewed on my thoughts about Podcamp Toronto 2009, it is a huge deal for me.

They recently posted the video of the event over at http://thewhir.com/tv, but I have embeded the video for you below.  What’s cool about this video is I get the last word about Podcamp Toronto, so watch until the very end!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-whir-tv-video-about-podcamp-toronto-2009/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-twitter-thoughts http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-twitter-thoughts#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:02:50 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=796 Tweet

Hello all,

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for the past week, but haven’t been able to wrap my thoughts on the subject matter until now.

There was a post made by a prominent radio show host here in Toronto at Q107 FM which he talks about Twitter.  If you would like to read the post, you can go to http://bit.ly/q107twitter.  This host is not a fan of twitter and doesn’t quite understand it as much as myself, not as an expert, but as a Twitter veteran.  Sometimes it’s hard for those of us on Twitter to understand as well that there are people who don’t understand it and sometimes can mock the site as well as those of us on it.

At any rate, read the post, then watch this quick video I made to get my thoughts out there.

Now what do you think?  What do you use Twitter for?  What is it about Twitter that you like the most?  Comment on the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c1TLvYYKnc or by posting your comment below.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-twitter-thoughts/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/direction-and-focus http://stevesaylor.net/blog/direction-and-focus#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:03:49 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=794 Tweet

Hello all once again in Snowball-Land where we don’t need a government bailout. 

Things are moving into place lately in my life that are not only life changing, but possibly career changing.  I have always had a passion for being creative, and working in media.  I know that is my long-term goal, but situations have changed that I didn’t expect.  I originally thought this was a bad thing, however with the help of a really good friend, I have learned to take what I thought was a bad thing, and turn it into a good thing.

I know I’m being super vague about all this, and I’m doing it on purpose.  Some more will be explained soon, but for now I just needed to get an idea out there that I’ve been learning alot about.

Direction and focus.

The trouble with being creative is that you have all these ideas and creative projects that you start, but somewhere down the line, you either loose focus, or you have another idea that is much better and you move towards that.  I will admit, I have had this problem many times.  I can’t help it.  it’s not that I don’t want to finish what I started, it’s just I have so many creative passions, that sometimes it’s hard to choose one direction and focus in on it.

It is hard.  I’m beiong completely honest.

I have had focus on long-term, but sometimes my short term goals change so rapidly that I can’t seem to focus on what I wanted to do in the first place.  It’s like you see a loved one across a large crowd that is moving in one direction, and you must go through that crowd to reach the other side.  The current wants you to move one way while you struggle to fight it to go across.  The crowd is the creative mind at work, it’s flowing in a general direction, but not exactly where you want it to go.  As well each individual person is an idea you have that wants to draw you away from you goal. What you need to do is fight the crowd and focus on that goal to get you out of that crowd.  Because then you can take a look at your ideas that are moving and see where they can go.  You have, in a way, a view from where the crowd started to where it’s finished and you can tell what is something you should lead into next, or just let the idea move along.

Now I’m not saying to abandon all your creative ideas.  You can save them for later, it just doesn’t work exactly with the analogy I described.

What is holding you back creatively in your life?  What is your longterm goal and what are you trying to do to focus on getting to that goal?

Let me know your thoughts.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/direction-and-focus/feed 4 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/blogging-is-that-what-i-was-supposed-to-do http://stevesaylor.net/blog/blogging-is-that-what-i-was-supposed-to-do#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:30:55 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=744 Tweet

I am willing to admit, that neglecting blogging is something that a lot of bloggers have admitted to doing, including myself from time to time. However, what I find interesting is the thought of not having blogged as much as I’m supposed to is what strikes me as odd.

As someone who lives on the internet, you would think that it would prompt me to blog more. Does that mean blogging is becoming just a fad now? Everyone is on so many different networks(I’m looking at you Twitter), that the joy of blogging on your own site seems irrelevant. Case in point, you want to tell your internet friends/followers that you just found a new video on YouTube. What are you more than likely to do:

a) Blog about it
or
b) Post it on Twitter, Facebook, myspace, friendfeed, etc.

I know the easiest way is (b). Again, why is that? Is it because it’s short and sweet? I don’t think so, because it’s just as easy to setup a plugin on your blog or just make a quick post on your site to post your video.

Okay, so it can’t be of ease of use, so how about audience. Well now this can be tricky, obviously you would say, “I have a larger audience on Twitter, so why would I post it to my blog?” But think about it this way, if you spent half the time  getting followers on Twitter on time promoting your blog; you would have roughly about the same amount of followers to your blog. So that theory is out the window.

So what’s next? Quite frankly, I don’t know. It could be like I said before that blogging is becoming a passing fad, but if it was, then there wouldn’t be so many blogs and bloggers still out there.

Now granted, I’m not saying I’m an expert in any of this, I’m just showcasing my opinions and asking some questions here.

I would like to know your thoughts on this. Is blogging fading into the background, or being replaced by social networks? Or is there something I’m missing?

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/blogging-is-that-what-i-was-supposed-to-do/feed 3 http://stevesaylor.net/books/codename-portal http://stevesaylor.net/books/codename-portal#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:58:50 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=508 Tweet

Coming soon…This project is so secret, this isn’t even the name of the book.

Stay tuned.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/books/codename-portal/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/this-week-in-geek http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/this-week-in-geek#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:46:11 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=434 Tweet

A show about geeks, by geeks, for geeks. This Week in Geek covers everything you need, from comics, games, movies, music and TV! Join the TWiG crew as they walk you through the latest happenings in the world of geekdom.

Give the guys some feedback at feedback@thisweekingeek.net and check out their website for more exclusive content, including reviews, interviews, giveaways and more! Catch the geeks hacking the frequency at CRNC 90.1FM ‘The Heat’ every Friday morning from 9:30am to 10:30am EST. www.thisweekingeek.net

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/this-week-in-geek/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/inklings-20 http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/inklings-20#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:45:31 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=453 Tweet

In 1939 the greatest authors of the 20th Century gathered every Tuesday to discuss their latest writing projects. Early works of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and C.S. Lewis’ “Out of the Silent Planet” were first read at inklings meetings.

The group has disbanded, but the spirit lives on in Inklings 2.0, the place on the web where Creative Minds can gather and hang out.

An old idea, upgraded.

Whether you’rean author, a painter, a musician; this show we hope to inspire, showcase, and create awesome works to share them on there internet tubes we call home.  http://inklings20.com

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/inklings-20/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/commandntv-community-videos-by-steve-saylor http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/commandntv-community-videos-by-steve-saylor#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:44:51 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=469 Tweet

About commandN.tv

commandN is a weekly tech news video show with hosts/producers Amber MacArthur, Will Pate, Jeff MacArthur, and Christopher Dick

Community Videos by Steve Saylor:

As part of the commandN team, I have the awesome privilege to be the Community Manager for the show.  This page will showcase any of the commandN videos I do, such as the one listed below, as well as a way for the commandN fans to get involved with the show.  This is an ongoing and evolving project, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Behind the Scenes at commandN.tv

Community Question of the week:

Coming soon…..

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/podcasts/commandntv-community-videos-by-steve-saylor/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/guitar-hero-world-tour-launch-event-cherry-beach-sound-studio http://stevesaylor.net/blog/guitar-hero-world-tour-launch-event-cherry-beach-sound-studio#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:13:23 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

This is a video recapping an awesome event here in Toronto for the launch of Guitar Hero: World Tour put on at Cherry Beach Sound Recording Studio! http://cherrybeachsound.com Check it out!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/guitar-hero-world-tour-launch-event-cherry-beach-sound-studio/feed 1 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/hes-probably-just-busyhell-have-to-adjust-being-emperor http://stevesaylor.net/blog/hes-probably-just-busyhell-have-to-adjust-being-emperor#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:52:06 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Okay, so maybe I'm not emperor, but who knows, maybe someday.

Anyway, after a long hiatus of actual blogging instead of posting videos and such, I felt the need to actually sit my ass down and write something. Now bear in mind this post is written at midnight, so anything I try to say that's at least the slightest bit humoristic, it's Laugh Out Loud funny to me.

Now that the warning is done, let's get to business, updates, updates, updates!

Update #1 – Move to Toronto

The move to Toronto was interesting to say the least. It took a while to adjust to the surroundings, however, about a month in, I'm feeling okay now. The room is small but adequate, classes are going well, I'm not super grades, but I'm just the lower class of super, and for me that's awesome! Work is work, speaking of work, I'll get to that in a second.

So all and all, I give the move not an A, but a very strong B+

Update #2 – Work

Obviously after my last job, anything can be an improvement. However, being in Toronto has opened up many opportunities for me that I never would have back home. Speaking of which, my new job has to be the coolest job I could think of. I just started working again with Amber MacArthur with her podcast commandN.tv as the Community Manager! This is exactly what I was hoping to do with podcasting and social media when I started creating my podcast projects. Amber is fantastic, as always, and the people she works with such as Chris Dick, and Will Pate are just as awesome. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with the community of commandN, and I have some cool content stuff that I'm working on, which I'm really excited about.

Speaking of which, here is a quick sample of what I'll be doing on commandN:

Trust me, there is plenty more where that came from.

Update #3 – New Online Projects

Of course, I can't really sit still long enough with all the creative stuff, I have to do more. I'm just odd like that. With that said, I've been experimenting with video lately, and it prompted me to launch a new video project called snowballTV.com.

Now, don't worry I'll still be blogging and updating this site here, but I'm just separating my video content and putting it somewhere else. Any cool videos I'm doing, I'll post on http://snowballtv.com and some of the best, I'll post here as well.

Oh, and obviously, Inklings 2.0 is starting back up again, and I'll be posting more episodes more frequently as well. Just as soon as Shane and I could sit down and record a bunch.

Update #4 – Writing

Ah yes, the thing that a lot of you have been asking for. “Is Steve ever going to launch The 12th Disciple?” Well the short answer is, yes. The long answer is that yes, I am going to be launching The 12th Disciple before the year is up. I have made promises to people about this, so I'm under the gun to get it done. With that said, the reason for the delay is that the story I had originally, and was going to launch in June, had changed drastically as I was writing in May. I had to make a decision whether to follow my gut with a new direction, or keep with the same one to release the story on time. I chose the former, and the story has immensely improved over the original. I'm proud of it, and I can't wait to show it to you all. Trust me, it will be soon!

Anyway, that's about it for this update. Follow me up on Twitter if you feel like you need to know what I'm doing on a daily basis, and are missing my regular awesome, funny, fantastic, and cool posts here to my blog.

I told you, LOL for me, for you, It's at least a L, I'm assuming.

So that's it. Take care, and I'll talk to you all soon.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/hes-probably-just-busyhell-have-to-adjust-being-emperor/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballtv-dd-and-icandy-sing-i-feel-like-a-woman http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballtv-dd-and-icandy-sing-i-feel-like-a-woman#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:10:32 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Dave “Double D” Denis and Ashley “iCandy” Pawliw of http://thisweekingeek.net have a fun night at karaoke singing Shania Twain's “I Feel Like a Woman”

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballtv-dd-and-icandy-sing-i-feel-like-a-woman/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/rogers-is-clueless http://stevesaylor.net/blog/rogers-is-clueless#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:58:20 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Hey all, long time no blog. Sorry have been really busy lately. Going to try to update on what’s going on, but I had to post this right now, because it’s too good not to post.

So I receive this call today from Rogers Cable, welcoming me, and thanking me for using their service. That’s fine and all. I know it’s policy, but I like it when a company calls me and gives me a welcome call. However, I was not expecting the result. Watch the video to find out.

Oh, and literally 30 seconds after I recorded that video, the call was disconnected. *insert sarcasm here*Thanks Rogers for a great customer experience!*end insert*

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/rogers-is-clueless/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-episode-000-beginnings http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-episode-000-beginnings#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:51:24 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

We apologize for the long delay in posting our first episode, that's more Steve's fault. We are still working out the audio kinks, so please creatively ignore the audio issues as we figure it out. But without further ado we present to you our very first episode of Inklings 2.0!

Today Shane and Steve talk about Beginnings of New Creative Projects.

So download and enjoy!

Want to send us feedback?
email: feedback@inklings20.com
website: http://inklings20.com

Inklings:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor
Shane “Yonderman” Shennan

Subscribe to us using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/inklings20
or
Download i2.0-000.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-episode-000-beginnings/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/dragoncon-2008-in-pictures http://stevesaylor.net/blog/dragoncon-2008-in-pictures#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:15:15 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

So with Dragon*Con 2008 behind me, I miss it immensely already. I got to meet all my friends in Podcast Fiction for the first time, and they are even awesomer in person! Yes that’s right I said awesomer! Anyway, here is a Flickr Slideshow of the pictures I took at Dragon*Con. Sorry for some of them being blurry or hard to see. I realized I need a better camera while I was at Atlanta, so couldn’t be avoided. Maybe next time.

So here we go:

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/dragoncon-2008-in-pictures/feed 1 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballs-heading-to-dragoncon-2008 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballs-heading-to-dragoncon-2008#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:38:54 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Here's a quick intro video the night before I head to Atlanta GA, to Dragon*Con 2008! Hope to see you there! Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stevesaylor for live updates from the floor. Plus check out http://stevesaylor.net or http://thisweekingeek.net for hopefully a lot of video updates throughout the weekend.

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowballs-heading-to-dragoncon-2008/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/tour-of-snowballs-college-dorm http://stevesaylor.net/blog/tour-of-snowballs-college-dorm#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:49:11 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

I have several things to catch everyone up on as of late. One of which is I have officially made the move to Toronto! (yay).

I will have more on that later. In the meantime, check out a quick tour of my new room.

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/tour-of-snowballs-college-dorm/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-launch-double-trouble-interview-with-pip-ballantine-and-tee-morris http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-launch-double-trouble-interview-with-pip-ballantine-and-tee-morris#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:11:24 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Today I launch a new podcast with my good friend Shane Shennan called Inklings 2.0!

This is going to be a podcast for Creative Thinkers to discuss everything about the Creative Arts.

Now for the first episode:

[via http://inklings20.com]

To launch this podcast with a very large bang, Steve gets a chance to talk to Pip Ballantine author of “Whispers at the Edge” and “Chasing the Bard” and Tee Morris author of “Morevi” and “The Billibub Baddings Series”.

They are at the end of an awesome promotion for Aug 8th 2008 at 8am PST called “Double Trouble”. On Aug 8th, both Pip's sequal to Chasing the Bard, Digital Magic, and Tee's sequal to the Billi Series, The Case of the Pitchers Pendant; launches on Amazon.com! Both on the same day!

In this special interview Steve, Pip, and Tee, talk over Skype about their books, their writing styles, writing techniques, and of course a little bit of Dragon*Con, and some other fun to be had.

Make sure to check out both Tee and Pips books at the links below on Aug 8th 2008 at 8am PST!

Digital Magic
The Case of the Pitchers Pendant – A Billibub Baddings Mystery

So download and enjoy!

Subscribe to us using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/inklings20
or
Download Inklings20-DoubleTrouble.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/inklings-20-launch-double-trouble-interview-with-pip-ballantine-and-tee-morris/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/august-rush http://stevesaylor.net/blog/august-rush#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:07:54 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Okay, so obviously I'm not talking about the movie here, but I hope you get my drift.

So August is finally here *Yay!*

….

Don't all clap and yell at once. Jeesh!

Anyway, with the month that is ought eight of ought eight this is probably going to be the busiest month I will have all summer, if not the whole year. I don't know how much I will get done on writing a certain project you've all been patiently waiting for *ahem 12th Disciple ahem* but rest assured that writing is indeed scheduled.

First of all I have to apologize for the lack of updates recently. I really wanted to talk about the Dark Knight, which of course was awesome *if you have a chance see it in IMAX, much better. Trust me, all you have to remember is Fuzzy Slippers*

Anyway, I also wanted to do a few shout outs to people too, however that will have to wait. In the meantime, here is a quick and dirty version of what I will be doing this month. Oh, and if you are going to be in and around these areas that I'm in, please feel free to find me and be all fanboy and fangirlish. I'm totally okay with that. Except if you're creepy, that's just….creepy.

So here goes:

August 9th:
Pure Pwnage Double Feature Screening
Bloor St. Cinema – Toronto ON
2:00pm – 6:00pm

I'll be hanging out with my friends from the Pure Pwnage Crew there.

August 16-17th:
Niagara On The Lake 2008 Social Media Meetup
Prince of Wales Hotel – NOTL

This is really exciting! I'll actually be speaking at this conference! This is so cool. I'll be talking about Podcast Novels, how to write them, record/edit them, then market them. Please, please, please, please sign up for this if you're in the area. I would love to meet all of you.

August 23rd:
Toronto Fan Expo 2008
Metro Convention Centre – Toronto ON

As I have for the past few years, I will be attending the Fan Expo as Press, I'm really excited about some of the guests this year, and I hope I get to talk to them.

August 25th (TBD)
Moving to Toronto – Humber North Campus
Toronto ON

That's right I'll be moving to the big teedot, by the end of this month, so if you're in Toronto, send me an email I would love to hang out. Maybe see if I can get a Twitter meetup out of this.

August 28th – Sep 1st
Dragon*Con 2008
Atlanta GA

This hasn't been 100 percent confirmed, it's like 85.654% though that I will be attending Dragon*Con this year! This will be my first year going, so I'm really nervous, but excited. I will have more on this as soon as I get 100% confirmation, but let's just say I have a HUGE Public Shout Out for this one.

Anyway, that's it for now. If details change, I will post on the blog. Once again if you are in and around those areas at the times I mentioned, please email me at mail at stevesaylor dot net letting me know you'll be around, and we should totally hang out and stuff! LOL

That's it for me, for now.

So as always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/august-rush/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsdr-horribles-sing-along-blog-acts-1-3-complete http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsdr-horribles-sing-along-blog-acts-1-3-complete#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:01:29 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

So it's finally here, the first act of the long (well at least a year…wait okay maybe less then a year…you know what I mean) awaited arrival of Joss Whedon's foray into the world we call web by releasing his Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser), Nathan Fillion (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly), and Felicia Day (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Guild).

Sorry long sentence.

Anyways, this project created by Joss himself along with his brothers Zach, Jed, and Jed’s Fiancé Maurissa Tancharoen was a cool project about “…a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.” according to Joss himself. Plus it's a musical!

With that, I would post the video of Act 1, 2, or 3 on this post, however the Internet version will only be available for at least until the end of July, so I'll just link you to http://drhorrible.com for all the details.

I will be updating this post specifically when I see Acts 2 and Act 3 so you can read each review.

Click “Read More” to read my review.

Every time I watch a Joss Whedon penned/directed/created project, I am always astounded at the concepts Joss comes up with. Teenage girls slaying vampires, A Western set in Space, or a wannabe super villain who is shy to talk to the girl of his dreams. Of course his flair for humor, storytelling, and unique ideas for the format he works in, all comes in the big package we call Joss.

Can you tell I'm a fanboy yet? Of course you can. I'm such a fanboy that I want to join his Dollhouse (pun intended) of Actors, knowing full well he pulls each one of his dolls out to play when the time comes.

However, I will be objective and leave my journalistic integrity intact to review the below Acts.

So let's put on the reviewer pants.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

Act 1:
Okay you know in the title that this is supposed to be a blog of a villain right? I don't know why, but that concept was lost on me until I saw the first opening minutes. With greater video and audio quality of a YouTube video Dr. Horrible records his, let's say daily video blog (because being a low-rent villain he may have quite a bit of time on his hands)and answers his emails on webcam. This was one of those moments where I thought “Why didn't I think of that?” But soon I realized, oh yeah Joss did. I really enjoyed this, and if this was an actual YouTube or Video Blog, I would subscribe to it because it's actually quite enticing.

I won't get into the story of it just in case people haven't seen it yet, but let's just say the acting is spot on by all those involved, and you can tell that Neil, Nathan, and Felicia were having fun, and it shows on screen.

There are four musical numbers in this Act and each one in it's own is perfect Joss style. Much like the musical episode of Buffy, Joss should be writing a full on musical by now. He should definitely watch Evil Dead: The Musical just to see how great a medium it is. Honestly, when I saw Evil Dead, thinking back on it now, I could have sworn Joss wrote it. It had his style. At any rate, I can't get the laundromat song, and the “Man's gotta do” song out of my head all day, so that's saying how good the music is and doesn't slow or stall the story at all.

Act 2:

I can't believe it, but I'm seriously conflicted. Not with the second Act, the second act was great, but with Dr. Horrible! Maybe it's Neil Patrick Harris' great performance, or maybe it's the awesome writing by the Whedon clan, but I don't know who to root for! I mean I want “Billy” to get the girl of his dreams, Penny. And I want Dr. Horrible to get the best of Captain Hammer to prove he can achieve also his dream to rule the world. But I guess that's the complexities of rooting for a villain.

This is new to me, so bare with me.

Anyway, this Act I have to say really steps up the conflict than the first Act. We see the true deep ideals of Billy/Dr. Horrible and see his view of the world, which when you think about it, you kind of get on board with it. Much like the classic 3 Act Structure in a story, Act 2 is where we see the conflict climb to the climax and the third act is going to be just a downhill spiral into awesomeness.

Comedy wise, this act had me laughing out loud more than the first act. Which is embarrassing, especially when watching it at work.

Yeah, I can't go into the cafeteria anymore…….

Moving on, favorite comedy moments, the “Freeze Ray needs work.” and “These are not the hammer…..The hammer is my *you know*” LOL Classic!!!

Musically, this act has again 4 pieces that are lyrically creative and the melodies are seriously catchy. NPH and Felicia really stretch the vocal muscles in this, and you can see why that NPH does broadway and Felicia is also vocally trained. I loved their duet at the beginning of the act, and I'm amazed at how well in sync they both are.

Great act, and now I can't wait to see Act 3, just so I can see how they are going to top 2 great acts already!!

Act 3:

….Um…….
….yeah…..

WHY JOSS WHY?!

To be honest I should have seen the ending coming. It's completely Joss and didn't think of anything but what a great series this is forgetting that this is Joss; and he should be ashamed at putting me through these emotions!!!

If you have seen this act then you know what I'm talking about, but it definitely is a happy ending of sorts. Dr. Horrible did get exactly what he wanted. Even in the music you hear the harmonious choir in the background repeat “Everything you ever…” Meaning, he got what he wanted, but not what he needed.

That being said, I thought the second act was darker than the first, well the third act takes the cake! The music, the comedy, everything!

It still has classic Joss funny moments, but we really see a journey end with these characters, and this opened up a lot of possibilities for sequel material. Which is what Joss likes to do. Man, I would love to sit in a room with him for like a year and just pick his brain. But then again being in a room with him for a year would mean I would have to kidnap Joss, and that's just not a good idea, unless I was Dr. Horrible.

Which gets me thinking, hey does Joss need a Johnny Snow? I could pull that off perfectly! I mean come on, albino Superhero named Johnny Snow! Someone please get me in touch with Joss so I could pitch that to him!

At any rate, this has been a fantastic series that I am so glad I was able to participate in watching as an early adopter. I felt I came into the Whedonverse late in the game when I caught Firefly on DVD, then Serenity, then went back to watch Buffy. But this feels great that I could be a part of the audience that is Dr. Horrible, and thank you Joss and team for an amazing web series.

I cannot say anything bad about this at all. Really top notch storytelling, production, music, comedy, performances, everything.

I already bought all three Acts from iTunes, and I will definitely buy the soundtrack, and the DVD, and the T-Shirts(when Jinx gets more in, apparently they sold out). I will do whatever it takes to help make this series not only a hit, but fiscally as well. I want this web series to prove to the Entertainment Industry that we on the web are a viable audience, and with great talent and creativity, independent media will thrive and take the industry by force.

Today it feels good to be on the web.

Anyway, that's it for Act 1 and 2 and 3. I hope you enjoy these reviews. Please pass this along to anyone of your friends. I would love to hear what you think of the series.

So please comment below.

So as always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsdr-horribles-sing-along-blog-acts-1-3-complete/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-first-trip-to-frys http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-first-trip-to-frys#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:55:06 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Okay, so I know it's been at least a week since I have returned from the great state that is Texas, but I only just saw this video today, thanks to Google Alerts.

At any rate, if you saw only the first Qik video Neal and Cali did from outside of Fry's you never got the end part, basically my reaction afterwords.

Special Thanks to Dave Curlee of RealcookN.tv, Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell of Geekbrief.tv, and Nick McKinney of thisweekinpodcast.com for letting me have a fun time.

So here is the video for you. Enjoy!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor Goes To Fry's from Dave Curlee on Vimeo.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/my-first-trip-to-frys/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/everything-is-cooler-in-texas http://stevesaylor.net/blog/everything-is-cooler-in-texas#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:07:15 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Hey geeks, geekettes, and cousin its!

Snowball here from our hotel room in Grapevine TX. This entire trip has been soooo cool! I can't believe how much fun I'm having! I'm so disappointed that I'm heading back on Monday morning. I've met some awesome people, reconnected with old friends, and just having a good ol' texas time!

Here are a few videos that were recorded by my friends Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell from http://geekbrief.tv

First one is the Live On Location video interview I did on Thursday night with Cali. It was too bad that the after show wasn't recorded because that was sooo much fun, but the interview was to me the coolest part because it was my first video interview!

Web TV provided by Ustream

Plus here is some of the Qik Live videos from the DFW Twitter Meetup that was earlier today.

Plus also here is a Qik video of me going into a Frys for the first time!!

This trip has been sooo awesome, and I have one more day left here and we leave on Monday morning, so I probably won't be updating the blog until later next week, but if you want to follow my updates on Twitter, I'll be twittering all week at http://twitter.com/stevesaylor

Take care, and as always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/everything-is-cooler-in-texas/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-goes-to-dallas http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-goes-to-dallas#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:16:37 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Things are gearing up at Snowball Central. Tests are being conducted, Scientists are scooping Snowballs from Mars, and the BBQ's are heating up. Today is a day for updates, this is update 4 of 4 for June 16th 2008.

Watch the video for details on our trip to Dallas Texas for the Iron Man of Gaming Tournament at http://ironmanogfaming.com

Here is the details for the whole trip:

Dates: June 19-22
Hotel: Super 8 Hotel in Dallas/Fort Worth
Grapevine, TX
http://tinyurl.com/3q7xzm

Events:
On Location with Cali Lewis
Thurs June 19th 8pm *Dallas Time
http://calilive.tv

Iron Man of Gaming 2008
Thurs June 19th – 22nd
Grapevine Convention Center
Grapevine, TX
http://ironmanofgaming.com

Dallas Meets Canada – Twitter Meetup
Sat June 21st 1:00pm to 3:30pm
Spring Creek Barbeque
315 State Highway 114W
Grapevine, Texas 76051
(Google Maps)

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/780600/?ps=2

Twitter Updates:
http://twitter.com/stevesaylor
http://twitter.com/birdmandodd

So that's all I could think of at any rate. Follow along with us as we go on this trip. Follow our Twitter accounts, keep an eye on our blogs http://thisweekingeek.net as well as http://stevesaylor.net and http://birdmanofsteel.com for video and blog updates from the road!

See ya'll in Dallas!

Yee-Haw!

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-goes-to-dallas/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsthe-incredible-hulk http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsthe-incredible-hulk#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:03:17 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Things are gearing up at Snowball Central. Tests are being conducted, Scientists are scooping Snowballs from Mars, and the BBQ's are heating up. Today is a day for updates, this is update 3 of 4 for June 16th 2008.

The Incredible Hulk – Theatrical Trailer

That's right the not so jolly green giant is back on the big screen, hopefully to HULK SMASH the previous boring version to smithereens.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

Click “Read More” To Read the entire review.

Summary:

Marvel Studios, this summer, is hoping to bring back the glory of The Incredible Hulk to the big screen. After the studios glorious debut of Iron Man, a lot was to be expected and a lot to be weary about this version of the Hulk.

We all remember the first Hulk movie. The one where the director of Brokeback Mountain decided to not show any of the Hulk until the end of the film, and it took 2 hours of boring story to see it. Yeah we all remember “that version”. Well Edward Norton and his team over at Marvel wanted to do something better, bigger, meaner, and again, better, than the original. They decided to call this a requal, by not negating the first film, but allowing us to see how the Hulk should have been presented.

Did they succeed? Sort of.

Read on dear reader.

Here is how this review is going to smash up. First Story, then Characters/Actors, Special Effects, Geek/Fun Factor, then Overall review.

Story:

First of all, the story of the Hulk could be summarized in one sentence. Scientist, Bruce Banner gets exposed to Gamma Radiation, and when he gets mad, turns into a giant green monster. So how can you extract a 2 hour story from that? Letter by Letter? Well, Marvel Studios tried, and didn't do that bad of a job. You have to remember, even though the Hulk has a large history, there really isn't anything to his story other than Banner trying to get rid of the monster inside him. Which is literally the plot of this movie. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner as he tries to get rid of the Hulk.

The great thing about the start of this movie is before the opening credits are finished, we see the entire origin of the Hulk in flashback form. We see Banner get exposed to Gamma Radiation, goes nuts, almost kills General Ross and his daughter/love interest for Bruce, Betty Ross, and then disappears…for 5 years! That's a long time for hide and seek.

Perfect way to tell the origins without re-treading already been done material.

Either way, I don't want to give away too much of the story, lets just say the Abomination shows up in the form of a soldier who is determined to take down the Hulk by making himself an uglier version of one. Let's just say there isn't a lot of story here. It's a good try, but no real depth to anything. Not as much as Iron Man had anyway.

I wish that Marvel Studios would've allowed Norton to make the movie he wanted to make, which according to him gave the story much more character and depth; but we'll have to wait until the eventual Blue Ray disc to see what was cut.

Either way, I wasn't entirely impressed, but I wasn't disappointed either.

Story = 3/5 Snowballs

Characters/Acting:

There really isn't much to say about this one other than Edward Norton is the one carrying this movie, much like Downey Jr. did with Iron Man. Norton does a good job at playing a troubled Banner, and definitely is careful in making sure he stays out of sight of the US Government. Norton still did a good performance, but not a great one. It's still Edward Norton, so you can't say anything bad about his acting.

Liv Tyler should have had more. I know the filmmakers tried to make her seem smart, but she came off as the “damsel in distress”. At least with Paltrow as Pepper Potts, she proved her smarts that she could do well on her own. But Betty Ross, although she was supposed to be a scientist, she didn't do any sciencey stuff other than wear a lab coat and wear smart people glasses. Great Actress, but under utilized.

William Hurt as General Ross is actually pretty good in this movie. He plays a war torn General quite well.

Tim Roth as the Abomination? I saw the drive, but nothing in depth.

After all is said and done, Norton is the only character that I wanted to see throughout the whole thing, and I wasn't disappointed either.

Characters/Actors = 3/5 Snowballs

Special Effects:

Okay now this is where I go and love whoever did the CG for this movie. The Hulk looked fantastic! He definitely got more screen time than the movies predecessor, and looked more believable. The fight scene between the Hulk and the Abomination was fantastic and I enjoyed every smashing moment of it.

I even liked the scene at the University when the army tries to stop the Hulk and the Hulk takes an armored jeep apart and uses it's doors as his own personal shields and smashing tools!

Great job!

Special Effects = 4/5 Snowballs

Geek/Fun Factor:

OMG, this movie is jam packed of Geek References to the Marvel Universe and the history of the Hulk franchise! Here is a run down of the geeky moments that I really enjoyed.

- Stan Lee Cameo (Definitely not as cool as Hef, but still memorable)
- You wouldn't like me when I'm…hungry? Oh yeah Norton tries to say that classic line in Spanish, but since he's still learning Spanish it comes out all wrong.
- Lou Ferrigno as a Security Guard
- Purple Stretchy pants
- HULK SMASH! – The Hulk actually says that line!
- WWII Super Soldiers – This totally sets up for a Captain America movie as General Ross tells the history of the project and that Banner's experiment was supposed to be an extension of that project! Woah way to tie two franchises together!
- Tony Stark Cameo – Robert Downey Jr.!!! I knew he was in the flick to tie in Iron Man, but man oh man did Downey deliver! Same charm, same humour, same hawesomeness! It's right at the end of the film, so you don't have to wait until the end of the credits to see this one.

All in all it was the geeky parts in this movie that I enjoyed the most. Fun Fun Fun all around for the Comic Book Geek in me.

Geek/Fun Factor = 5/5 Snowballs

Overall:

Okay, so overall I would have to say that the movie definitely leaves me wanting more, but still it is the Hulk and it's a much better movie than the last one.

Suffice it to say, Good, but not Great.

Overall = 3/5 Snowballs

So what did you think of the Incredible Hulk? Leave a comment, let me know what you think.

Now excuse me while I HULK SMASH something.

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsthe-incredible-hulk/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podiobookscom-black-shadow-finale-update http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podiobookscom-black-shadow-finale-update#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:00:41 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Things are gearing up at Snowball Central. Tests are being conducted, Scientists are scooping Snowballs from Mars, and the BBQ's are heating up. Today is a day for updates, this is update 2 of 4 for June 16th 2008.

…

It's been a while since Black Shadow has finished it's run here at SSdN (That's short for http://stevesaylor.net), but for some of you, roughly about 524 of you have been left in the dark as to the final moments of Black Shadows fate. Does he die? Does he defeat the Demons from taking over the world?

It's been a rough ride for our beloved blind technologically advanced hero, and it's an even rougher ride for those who are listening.

Suffice it to say that is my fault and then it wasn't.

Let me explain, I released Episode 14 of Black Shadow about a month ago and it's been hard letting this story go. I have lived and breathed this story for over a year now and updating the Podiobooks.com version of the book is literally the last part left in this year long journey. As soon as the final episode goes live, that's it. The book is finally finished. Part of me doesn't want this to finish, and yet I know it must.

So I am here to tell you all that the final episode of the Podiobooks version of Black Shadow has been sent to the great team at podiobooks.com and soon (hopefully before mid-week)you shall hear the final chapters of my very first book.

Thank you all for being patient, thank you all for listening, and as always I remain obediently yours!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podiobookscom-black-shadow-finale-update/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-status-update http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-status-update#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:46:24 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Things are gearing up at Snowball Central. Tests are being conducted, Scientists are scooping Snowballs from Mars, and the BBQ's are heating up. Today is a day for updates, this is update 1 of 4 for June 16th 2008.

…

The 12th Disciple – A Status Update.

As I mentioned in the Sneak Preview June 15th was going to be the day for the first official episode of The 12th Disciple, well unfortunately due to some unforseen circumstances, the first episode is going to be delayed.

Want more info? Listen to the episode to find out more.

Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/the12thdisciple
or
Download The12thDisciple-Update.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-status-update/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsflip-video-ultra http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsflip-video-ultra#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:55:52 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

I have been waiting anxiously to be able to review this for you guys and gals for the past week or so. This is by far the coolest thing I have ever received to review for you my friends. Thanks to Miranda for getting this to me.

Good news is, if you are in Canada, today is the official launch of The Flip Video Family to the Great White North! You can buy the Flip Video's at WalMart's now and in Futureshop stores in mid June!

First of all, a Summary of the Flip Video. I did this as a Geek Gadgets Review for This Week in Geek. This was recorded on the Flip Video Ultra, as well as edited using the built in Software.

Click “Read More” for the full review…

Since it's a tech gadget review, I'm going to review this in several different categories. Ease of Use, Positives, Negatives, Geek/Fun Factor, and then Overall Summary.

So let's review!

Ease of Use:

You can't get any easier with this thing. Literally like the video above said, all you do is turn it on, push the big red button and that's it, You're recording! This little camcorder is not only for the Point and Shoot Crowd, but it is a perfect gift for your parents, your grandparents, or anyone that's not necessarily tech savvy.

Even the software is easy to use. All you have to do is plug it in to your computer using the built in USB Dongle and the software automatically loads up, and you can edit, or share your videos online!

There is nothing more simple than that. Pure Digital Technologies really got the simplicity with this one. They are the Apple Computers of the Camcorder World.

Ease of Use – 5/5 Snowballs

Okay so this is something I'm doing different with the reviews, mainly because it's harder to categorize a Tech Gadget review into simple categories. So no 5 out of 5 Snowballs here. Just simple Facts.

Positives:

1) Good Quality – Does 640×480, 30 Frames per second, mpeg quality video. This is perfect quality if you are on the go.

2) Size – Compact, light weight, fits in your pocket. As for the built in memory, you can get from 30 minutes up to 60 minutes of video footage. No need to worry about how much hard drive space you have left.

3) Software – Simple, Easy to Use. With the ability to upload video clips to YouTube, AOL Video, Myspace, and any other video sharing site, this is a bonus that you can do it right in the software itself. Runs on PC or Mac. For PC users, the Magic Mix gives you several Video Styles to edit your movies in. Plus, you can add music to the video using the built in music or you can add your own mp3.

Negatives:

1) Low light – This can have issues in regards to low light situations, but it still is a far better choice and a much cheaper choice than what you would get in this category.

2) Software – Now granted, the positives on the software are great, but on the Mac, it can be troublesome. You can't edit and splice together clips into one movie on the Mac, you can only view them and upload them. This may be fixed with a new software update, but for the current version (v.3.1) that's the only problem on that end. For PC users, the Magic Mix feature is great, but when adding music, the music does sometimes drown out the video and is a bit too loud, which you can't adjust. And the compressing quality of the video is not as great either. Like I said before, this can easily be fixed with a software update.

Geek/Fun Factor:

This thing is sooo fun to use, I want to do more video blog posts with this thing. It's perfectly suited for that! I can't say anything more than that.

As for Geek Factor, this is perfect for if you are at a tech conference or just a con in general and want to record a quick video of anything. Plus it's great for quick interviews if you are a podcaster, or just to do videoblogging.

Geek/Fun Factor – 5/5 Snowballs

Overall Summary:

With the negatives in mind, the positives still out weigh the negatives. This is a great video camera. Like I said in the video, don't expect to make a Hollywood Blockbuster Movie with the flip, but for those that want to shoot video on the go, it's perfect.

You can pick up the Flip Video at http://theflip.com or if you are in Canada you can now buy them at Walmart now for around $159 or you can pick them up at Futureshop stores in mid June.

Overall- 4/5 Snowballs

Make sure to check out this blog on June 17th to 23rd as I am going to be posting videos using the Flip Video Ultra while Mike and I are heading to Dallas Texas for the Ironman of Gaming Competition put on by the folks at http://screwattack.com.

If you are in Dallas or in that area, email me or contact me through Twitter http://twitter.com/stevesaylor and we will see about meeting up!

Anyway, if you would like to share your thoughts on this review or the Flip Video Ultra, by all means leave a comment below.

So that's it for this weeks edition of Snowball's Reviews, tune in next time, Same Snowball Time, Same Snowball Channel!!!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsflip-video-ultra/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsindiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsindiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull#comments Mon, 26 May 2008 19:14:08 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Throw the idol, and I'll throw you the whip, it's that time again folks, time to put back on our fedoras and our leather jacket and take a wild ride that is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Watch the Trailer above, and click “Read More” to read my review!

Summary:

Indy's back!! Nothing more can be said. The Trilogy by Dynamic Duo Steven Spielberg and George Lucas brings Harrison Ford back as our favourite archaeological professor/Treasure Finder.

If you remember in the last movie we saw Indy ride off into the sunset, well this time we find our where that sunset led to by going over ten years later to 1957. There we find the Nazis are a thing of Indy's past, but the Russians are now starting their Lenin like grip on the Western World. This time around Indy must find a mythical Crystal Skull, or more importantly the lost Kingdom of that Crystal Skull. He is joined by Motorbike riding, Slick haired Greaser, Mutt Williams played by Shia LaBeouf. As well as old flame and Raiders of the Lost Ark star Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood. They all must race to find this kingdom before Russian KGB Agent Irina Spalko played by Cate Blanchett finds it first.

I won't go into too much detail of the movie, only because I don't want to spoil a lot for you, I only stated the story above because all that information you get is from the trailers. If you are reading this and have not seen Indiana Jones, I encourage you to see it first, for there may be possible spoilers for you.

You have been warned.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

You know how this works, this review will be split into categories; Story, Characters/Acting, Special Effects, and Geek/Fun Factor.

Story:

Blasting the John Williams soundtrack in my ears, as I sat in the movie theatre, I knew I was in for a treat. One of the things that the Indy stories does is weave a story based on Earth's mythological past and take Indy on an action packed ride to find out the secrets of that past.

This story while steering away from the supernatural side of what Indy was known for, we take a different approach, this time with a possible X-Files like encounter where Aliens may be involved. Yes you heard that right, aliens. More on that later.

One thing I liked about the story was the whole history of the Mayan/Incan empire that somehow mysteriously disappeared thousands of years ago. Although their disappearance is never explained, it is interesting to see the possibility that that great technologically advanced civilization may have had a little help, and not with human hands. That at least is the theory.

Now even though yes aliens are involved with this story, I was perfectly fine with playing with the idea up until the end of the movie where we see a lot more of these aliens. I won't say much, but if you have seen it, all I have to say is “Space's between Space” But with that said, I am probably the only one who is actually okay with aliens in an Indy movie, just as long as we don't go there again.

Oh and I loved the nice touch of seeing Area 51 where all the large crates of American secrets are, which we did see at the end of Raider's of the Lost Ark when the ark was wheeled into this large warehouse. Yeah, that's where the ark ended up. Which was cool because we saw the ark again this time around. Nice touch.

All in all, I would love to give the story more credit, but the aliens could've been dialed down a bit. If they did an X-Files type thing were you never know and Mulder is left with wanting to believe, or in this case Indy, I would've liked it more. But I guess George and Steven can never really stay away from the little green men.

Story = 3/5 Snowballs

Characters/Acting

The main thing to take away from this movie is the fact that Indy is definitely back in true fighting form. Although much older than he was when he did his first silhouette shadow shot, Ford does prove that his age is never a factor in this movie. You are never felt thinking that Indy was too old. They didn't even really play the cane and walker card that much where every five minutes there would be a joke of Indy's age. Which I was worried they would do, but thankfully they didn't.

So for those naysayers, Indy can still kick your ass at 64.

Now with age, comes remembrance of old friends and introducing new ones. Indy 4 did a nice job of remembering Marcus Brody and Henry Jones Sr. Although now gone and passed, we do get a nice shot of both of their pictures on Indy's desk. It reminded me of how awesome Sean Connery was as Indy's dad, and wish he could've come back out of retirement. But Indy's friends are not all gone, Karen Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood who is great at annoying Indy and arguing with him like there hasn't been two movies between them. Allen is great again and I wished that there was more of her to do this time around. But none the less great job.

At any rate, the new characters, Spalko and Mutt, were awesome additions to the movie. I have come to really admire the talent of Blanchett and LaBeouf lately, and their latest movies were I think the best of their careers. What's great is that LaBeouf is only getting started! If what George is saying for a possible Indy 5 is that LaBeouf may be the main character of choice the next time around, I wouldn't mind that actually. As long as Ford is back, I'll be okay with it.

Either way, great casting, great acting, and what can I say, Indy definitely does not act his age.

Characters/Acting = 5/5 Snowballs

Special Effects:

Okay, so not much going on here, I mean there is obvious special effects in this movie, but what's great is that, like Iron Man, practical effects are definitely in full effect.

Movie looks great in scope and how large the jungles of the Amazon are, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Not else can be said, everything looked like it should be.

Special Effects = 4/5 Snowballs

Geek/Fun Factor:

Dude, what else can I say, it's freakin' Indiana Jones! It's been over twenty years since we have seen him and he looks just as good as he did back then, except with more gray hair.

Either way, this is where my fun factor comes into play because I really really had fun watching this movie! I sat in the theatre enjoying every minute of it. If I could say one thing about this movie is that it is definitely fun to watch. Turn off your brain, grab some popcorn, sit, and just have fun!

Oh and I want the hat.

Geek/Fun Factor = 5/5 Snowballs

Overall:

Well overall even though Indy 4 could've done without the aliens, it still was a fun ride, and is definitely up there as one of my favourite movies of the summer, along with Iron Man and Prince Caspian. I have not been disappointed with any of these blockbuster hits, and 2008 is shaping to be a great year. I mean come on when are you going to get an Iron Man, Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and an Incredible Hulk movie in one summer?! That just doesn't happen!

Great movie, and I can't wait to see it again.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go pick up my leather jacket and hat from the cleaners.

Overall = 4/5 Snowballs

What are your thoughts? Tell me what you think of this review or the movie!

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsindiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-interviews-wil-wheaton http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-interviews-wil-wheaton#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 20:35:31 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

For those who have been following me on Twitter(and if you're not why aren't you?!), you may have noticed I was doing the snoopy dance last week. Reason why was because I had gotten word from my co-host Mike that he was able to arrange an interview with Wil Wheaton!

Problem was though, for him, he was up north and couldn't do the interview, and if I wanted to, I could do it. So I immediately jumped at the chance, because for those who know me, know that I have been insipired by Wil for a long time. You ever have one of those people in your life that you would love to meet someday and you have been following what they do for several years? Well for me one of those people is Wil.

So last week I went over to the TWiG Studios and sat down for almost an hour long chat with Wil. To be honest, I sounded a lot more nervous than I was. Oh don't get me wrong, I was really nervous, but when I got into the interview, I thought I was perfectly fine. It wasn't until I hear it now that I realize how nervous I actually sounded.

Either way, the interview is now live at http://thisweekingeek.net/node/131 So if you want to check it out and see how nervous I was as Wil and I talked geek, then by all means give it a download. Let me know what you think in the comments too, and please, be gentle.

Oh, here's a link directly to the mp3 if you can't be bothered to go to the link directly.

http://thisweekingeek.net/media/audio/TWiG-WilWheaton.mp3

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-interviews-wil-wheaton/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-a-sneak-preview http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-a-sneak-preview#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 07:17:28 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

The 12th Disciple – A Podcast Novella by Steve Saylor

A Sneak Preview

That's right the day has arrived for the big announcement, and here it is, I present to you a Sneak Preview of “The 12th Disciple – A Podcast Novella by Steve Saylor”

“Deep in the heartland of North America, lives a private school where moral values and ideals are kept. However, deep in the shadows, not everything is as it seems. When a student commits suicide, his best friends stumble upon a conspiracy that involves a new friend named Julien, and a secret cult named “The Pentecost”; who will stop at nothing to bring the Antichrist to power, and take over the world. You thought Judas was the greatest traitor of all time? Think again. From the mind of Steve Saylor, author of the Podcast Novel “Black Shadow” comes The 12th Disciple, A Podcast Novella. Betrayal is not what it used to be. Want to learn more? Head to stevesaylor.net for more details.”

Time: 32:55
Music Provided by: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails http://nin.com via a Creative Commons License. For more details head to http://creativecommons.org
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/the12thdisciple
or
Download The12thDisciple-SneakPreview.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/the-12th-disciple-a-sneak-preview/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/books/the-12th-disciple-a-podcast-novella-by-steve-saylor http://stevesaylor.net/books/the-12th-disciple-a-podcast-novella-by-steve-saylor#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 03:18:28 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

*THIS PODCAST NOVELLA HAS BEEN PUT ON HOLD FOR THE TIME BEING.  STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES*

Deep in the heartland of North America, lives a private school where moral values and ideals are kept. However, deep in the shadows, not everything is as it seems. When a student commits suicide, his best friends stumble upon a conspiracy that involves a new friend named Julien, and a secret cult named “The Pentecost”; who will stop at nothing to bring the Antichrist to power, and take over the world. You thought Judas was the greatest traitor of all time? Think again. From the mind of Steve Saylor, author of the Podcast Novel “Black Shadow” comes The 12th Disciple, A Podcast Novella. Betrayal is not what it used to be.

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/books/the-12th-disciple-a-podcast-novella-by-steve-saylor/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsiron-man http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsiron-man#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 05:51:04 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

An All-Star cast, an awesome director, and one of the most believable super heroes in Marvel's Goodie Bag, this past weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the first adaptation of Iron Man for the big screen.

Click “Read More” for the entire review.

Summary:

Okay, maybe not the 1st Tier super heroe that Marvel has to offer, it does bring something to the table however that all the other super heroes do not, fun; more on that in a moment.

The movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges, this Academy Award recognized cast comes together in Jon Favereau's take on Iron Man. Iron Man is the story of Tony Stark of Stark Enterprises. He is Marvel's equivalent of DC Comics Batman, except minus the brooding and the subdued secret love affair with little boys. I'm kidding! I'm kidding!

His story begins when he is taken hostage by middle eastern terrorists who are forcing Tony to make for them one of the most advanced weapon systems Tony has created called “The Jericho”. During the attack to capture Stark, Tony gets severely injured and without the use of a Stark created power cell keeping shrapnel from entering his heart. The power cell, or as it's known in the movie as the Arc Reactor, is what keeps Stark alive, but supplies the power needed to sustain the Iron suits Iron Man is known for. So using the tools at his disposal, Stark creates an Iron Suit so that he can escape.

I won't go into too much detail of the movie, only because I don't want to spoil a lot for you, I only stated the story above because all that information you get is from the trailers. If you are reading this and have not seen Iron Man, I encourage you to see it first, for there may be possible spoilers for you.

You have been warned.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

The way this review and future movie reviews are going to be broken down is by Story, Characters/Acting, Special Effects, and Geek/Fun Factor.

Story:

Ozzy said it best when he ate that poor defenseless bat's head off, “I am Iron Man.” Okay, so maybe he didn't say those words right after that, you never know, he may have said anything in that altered state he calls reality. However, Iron Man's story literally is all about Tony Stark and his journey becoming Iron Man. Yes there is an overarching storyline involving Obidiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges, or as he is AKAed as Ironmonger in the Marvel universe); However, the ultimate story is the awakening of what Stark is doing in the world, and his role in it. He is a weapons manufacturer after all. Obviously with today's political state, that may be a bit on the bad side, but without going over the top political, Iron Man is about a chance of redemption for the wrongs that Stark has committed, and he wants to help the people he has put indirectly in harms way.

This is showcased really well by the first time we see Iron Man helping that middle eastern village. He saw something happening, and realized “Hey, I can do something about this!” So he goes and kicks ass doing it.

This story is extremely well crafted, it's witty as hell, and the one liners are excellently delivered by Robert Downey Jr. More about him in a moment.

I have to say that even though plot may have not have been a major priority in this movie, it is by far the best origin story, but also having a good story altogether.

Story = 4/5 Snowballs

Characters/Acting:

Okay, honestly I think Richard Roeper said it best, “Robert Downey Jr. is this movie.”

This movie without Downey would've been a good movie, but not the over the top great movie as Iron Man is. When I heard that he was cast as Tony Stark, I couldn't have thought of a better actor who could play this role with so much dry humour, that Stark is known for. There may have been people who thought Downey was the wrong choice, but for me, there was no other choice. Even the fact that Stark is an alcoholic, and with Downey's unfortunate past, he can draw on those experiences and add some real depth to the character not seen since Christopher Reeve's Superman; minus the substance abuse part.

I wasn't sure about Paltrow's Pepper Potts, and Terrence Howard's Jimmy Rhodes. I wasn't sure if they both could've played their character's well, but they proved me wrong, and they took it and ran with it. Paltrow actually blew me away with her portrayal of Potts, and she looked liked she had fun with the role. Howard, didn't really have much character to chew into as Paltrow did, however from each moment he is on screen, you can't think of anyone else to play the role. I thought maybe Jamie Fox, but I'm going to go with Howard on this one. I can't wait to see him as War Machine.

Nice reference to it in the movie, by the way, “Next Time Baby.” Brilliant.

Bridges as Stane, was also good as well. Didn't really buy him in the Ironmonger suit, but you know what, he pulled it off. Obviously with any Marvel villain you can never really stay dead, so Stane may have a repeat performance, but Bridges as Stane himself, was great, and definitely up there as the definitive “Jeff Bridges Style”

Oh, and before I finish this section, Stan Lee mistaken as Hugh Hefner, and Jon Favereau himself as Stark's own body guard? Brilliant x2!

Characters/Acting = 4/5 Snowballs

Special Effects:

Hands down the blending of practical effects and Special Effects really sold it for me. You couldn't really tell where practical effects ended and special effects began! Everything just looked real, and man made. Even the suit itself that Downey actually wore, was an actual working suit. Minus the rocket boots and repulsor gloves, but still, awesome suit! I want it for my room. Congrats to Favereau for going that route instead of making everything CGI.

Loved the style, loved the colour, the shots. I couldn't find fault with anything.

One side note though, when the head bag gets taken off of Stark in the cave as he is just captured, doesn't he look a lot like Chuck Norris? Maybe it's just me, but man I could swear it was Walker Texas Ranger, to a certain degree.

Meh, moving on.

Special Effects = Geek/Fun Factor = 5/5 Snowballs

Geek/Fun Factor:

Dude, it's Iron Man! How geeky can you get?! You have a well developed character, a great storyline that fits with a lot of Iron Man fans, (you know you're out there). Plus, the fact that it's made believable as something that could actually happen within the next five years, is amazing!

Oh, and can we talk about fun for a second? Sure we can, it's my damn review! Okay, this movie is sooo much fun to watch! Lagged a bit in patches at the beginning, but the fun only accelerated from there!

I say it again Downey is this movie. He is what makes this fun to watch. I was so pumped after walking out of the theatre, that I wanted to go right back in, pay another 10 bucks to get a ticket and watch it again. That is how fun this is!

Geek/Fun Factor = 5/5 Snowballs

Overall:

Okay, so overall, awesome movie. That's it. It dwells actually on Hawesome. So much so in fact that I almost should make a scale of hawesomeness just so I can put this at Number One with a Bullet of Hawesome!

Go out and see this movie! This is a hawesome start to a blockbuster summer, and I can't wait until the sequel in 2010!

Oh, and watch the end of the credits! You will not be disappointed!

I AM IRON MAN! DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-duh-DA-DA!

So, I'm no Ozzy, so sue me!

Overall = 4/5 Snowballs

What are your thoughts? Tell me what you think of this review or the movie!

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsiron-man/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-14-finale http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-14-finale#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 07:48:31 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

SYNOPSIS: Hell, Hell, The Gang’s All Here. The conclusion of Black Shadow

Thank you all for making this an awesome journey. Tune in to the end of the episode for more acknowledgments and Thanks.

Also stay tuned to http://stevesaylor.net for more details of a new project on May 11, 2008!

Time: 54:55
Episode Recap: Tee Morris – Podcasting For Dummies, MOREVI, Billibub Baddings – http://teemorris.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#14.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-14-finale/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsnetnewswire-for-mac http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsnetnewswire-for-mac#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 20:00:39 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

For those who listen to This Week in Geek you may know already that Mike, Pierce, Stefan, Jordan, and myself have been doing reviews of DVDs, Video Games, and Geek Gadgets since last summer.

Well, I thought I would give it a go on my own with my own reviews of software, hardware, and other geeky gadgets I can get my hands on.

This review is going to be for NewsGator’s now free RSS Reader, NetNewsWire

Click “Read More” for the full review…

So here is how the reviews are going to break down, I will give a rating out of 5 Snowball’s on several different categories, Setup, Ease of Use, Aesthetics, Geek/Fun Factor, and Overall Rating.

So let’s dive into NetNewsWire:

Summary:

A few weeks ago, I was perusing my Twitter stream, and people were talking about their RSS Readers of choice. A lot of people liked Google Reader a lot, and I was thinking of giving it a try. However, I don’t know why, but I like having access to an actual desktop client more-so than accessing a service through my browser. I do agree Google Reader does do everything I would want in an RSS Reader, but I wanted to try something else. Hence, I remembered that one of the best Mac RSS Readers was NetNewsWire. It used to be a shareware application, and you had to pay to use it, but that has recently changed, and now NetNewsWire is completely free to use.

I have been using NetNewsWire for about three weeks now, and so here is my review.

Setup:

Setup couldn’t be more painless. Obviously the benefits of a Mac is the installation is literally drag and drop, so I had no problems there. It did ask for a NewsGator account, which wasn’t that big of a hassle, because I had the ability to turn the NewsGator feeds off, so I didn’t have to worry about getting feeds I don’t want.

It did set me up with several feeds, so I could get started. Feeds such as Wired, MacWorld, and so on. I kept the two I mentioned, and removed the rest.

Setup – 5/5 Snowballs

Ease of Use:

When I started adding RSS feeds on my own, it couldn’t have been easier. With the ability in Firefox to read RSS XML in it’s own format, it allowed me to add NetNewsWire to the Default Application list when reading RSS. Literally within five minutes I had almost 40 feeds ready to go.

It’s setup like a Mail client, so I was able to grasp the usability of the program much easier.

As soon as you open NetNewsWire, if you have a connection to the Internet, it automatically refreshes all your feeds and let’s you know if there are new updates. Like I mentioned the GUI was much like a mail client, so I could go through items in each RSS feed easily and read the ones I wanted to read very quickly. Which I think is the point, because I wanted something I could read quickly without having to go to each site individually.

You can flag items that you can either read later or keep handy just in case you would like to read the post or use it later. What I did was, I would read feeds from my friend’s blogs, and if I comment on the post, I flag the item. That way I can go back later, and check for any new comments on those posts, and be a part of the conversation. I haven’t tried subscribing to comment feeds on some sites, only because the sites I read have a lot of comments, and I don’t want to be bogged down by those comments. Maybe I will try that later, but for now it’s fine without it.

Ease of Use = 5/5 Snowballs

Aesthetics:

One thing I look at when I choose a desktop client for me, is you have to look good. A lot of times, a program may be great, but the Graphical User Interface is lost, or only implemented near the end of the software production cycle. That is mainly the case with Windows programs, but for Mac it’s a bit different. With Mac, I like programs that look good and work great. If it’s attractive but doesn’t work, then to me it’s not a good Mac program.

However, NetNewsWire does look great and works great. The GUI is definitely attractive for the Mac, and looks great on my desktop.

Asthetics = 5/5 Snowballs

Geek/Fun Factor:

Okay, so i decided to take a cue from the TWiG Reviews and talk about the Geek/Fun Factor of NetNewsWire.

The Geek Factor is that I can read RSS feeds from any site that has one, and I can read them extremely quickly.

I guess there is no “real” fun factor other than what I just said, however I do find it cool whenever the program updates it’s feeds, and I can see all the new items in each feed. Maybe that’s just me.

I would give this 5 out of 5, but honestly, how can I have fun with an RSS Reader. It’s not like I jump for joy each time it loads. If I did, I would get weird looks from the people at Starbucks.

Geek/Fun Factor = 4/5 Snowballs

Overall:

So Overall, I am extremely happy with my RSS reader of choice, and I find no reason to look at Google Reader, if this does everything for me. Unless there is some uber noob pwning thing on Google Reader that I don’t know about, please let me know, and I will pwn noobs with the rest of you.

Overall = 5/5 Snowballs

Wow, a glowing recommendation from Snowball! That doesn’t happen very often guys. Just listen to my Review of Spiderman 3 for the PSP and you’ll know why I don’t give glowing reviews all the time. If I find a product I don’t like, I am going to give it a bad review; plain and simple. If for whichever reason I receive products from companies, I will still have my “Journalistic Integrity” and if it sucks, I will say it sucks.

So that’s it for me, please feel free to comment on RSS Readers, and tell me what you like about them; and if you use NetNewsWire, let me know what you think as well.

So that’s it for this weeks edition of Snowball’s Reviews, tune in next time, Same Snowball Time, Same Snowball Channel!!!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-reviewsnetnewswire-for-mac/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-13 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-13#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:03:28 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

SYNOPSIS: Everything comes to a head in this episode as Black Shadow is faced with the ultimate fight to keep Hell’s Armies from breaking through the Portal.

The Second To Last Episode!!!

Stay tuned to May 11th 2008 for a special announcement!

Time: 26:31
Episode Recap: WebGenii – http://webgenii.ca
Promo: Mark Jeffrey – The Two Travellers – http://maxquickseries.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#13.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-13/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/so-say-we-all-all-along-the-watchtower-the-music-of-battlestar-galactica http://stevesaylor.net/blog/so-say-we-all-all-along-the-watchtower-the-music-of-battlestar-galactica#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:37:50 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

For those who remember, back in June of last year, Mike and I interviewed our first major special guest, for This Week in Geek. That guest was composer of Battlestar Galactica, Bear McCreary. Check out the interview here.

This interview was just after Season 3 of BSG (that's short form for Battlestar Galactica for the uninitiated), and we obviously talked about the very hyped “All Along The Watchtower” Caprica cover. So if you were interested to hear from the composer's point of view of how he put that together, check out the interview.

Okay, now on to what I really wanted to talk about in this post. First off, Season 4 of BSG is in full swing, and the music I feel for BSG has kicked up a major notch than the first three seasons. I just love Bear's music in this show, and I've always wanted to know more about how he put the music together, even if I don't know anything about making music.

But instead of having to pore through each episode and wonder how did he do that, have no fear, Bear is doing that for me on his own blog!.

He is going into immense detail for each of the new episodes of Season 4, pretty much as soon as the episode is live. He shows screenshots of what piece is in what part of the show, as well as snippets of his musical composition, for those who are really into sheet music, or just wondered what notes are actually playing.

I highly recommend checking them out. Although I have to warn you, Spoilers are abundant in the posts, so watch the episodes, head to Bear's Blog, and enjoy some awesome behind the scenes action of our favourite Sci-Fi series ever!

So say we all.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/so-say-we-all-all-along-the-watchtower-the-music-of-battlestar-galactica/feed 3 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wrong-guy-wrong-time-an-audio-drama http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wrong-guy-wrong-time-an-audio-drama#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:04:46 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Unfortunately due to studying for exams, and the GRAFITI awards this weekend, Black Shadow Episode #13 will have to be delayed until next week. In the meantime, here is the epic Radio Audio Drama I was involved with, with Mike “The Birdman” Dodd for Niagara College. It’s called Wrong Guy, Wrong Time.

Pile-Driving The Shark Productions presents:
Wrong Guy, Wrong Time – An Audio Drama

SYNOPSIS: Dave, a hapless Bank Employee, is caught in the middle of a French terrorist attack at his bank by a mysterious group called, THE BLACK SHADOWS. With the help of some action heroes of our past, Dave is definitely the wrong guy in a wrong time. Talk about tough luck. With a fortune like this, winning a hefty pot in online gambling sites like pokerstars is probably close to impossible for him. This hilarious Audio Drama is produced by Pile-driving The Shark Productions in association with CRNC 90.1 FM The Heat, Niagara’s New Rock.

Hope you enjoy it.

(Click the “Read More” link to view the credits)

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download Wrongguywrongtime.mp3

Pile-Driving The Shark Productions presents:
Wrong Guy, Wrong Time – An Audio Drama

SYNOPSIS: Dave, a hapless Bank Employee, is caught in the middle of a French terrorist attack at his bank by a mysterious group called, THE BLACK SHADOWS. With the help of some action heroes of our past, Dave is definitely the wrong guy in a wrong time. Talk about tough luck. With a fortune like this, winning a hefty pot in online gambling sites like pokerstars is probably close to impossible for him. This hilarious Audio Drama is produced by Pile-driving The Shark Productions in association with CRNC 90.1 FM The Heat, Niagara’s New Rock.

CREDITS:
Producer, Writer
Mike Dodd

Audio Director, sound design and mixing by
Pierce Derks

Audio Assistant, Production Assistant
Mike Gallo

Voice talent
David Denis
Mike Dodd
Pierce Derks
Kevin MacDonald
AJ Bernard
Ashley Pawliw
Stefan Pelltier
Mike Gallo
Shawn Sheppard
and narrated by Steve Saylor

and a very special thanks to Sean Schemmel and Stan Bush

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wrong-guy-wrong-time-an-audio-drama/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/live-from-the-16th-annual-grafiti-awards http://stevesaylor.net/blog/live-from-the-16th-annual-grafiti-awards#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:07:47 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

I am blogging this from my iPod Touch, however I thought I would at least try to live blog the award ceremony at Niagara College. Today will determine whether This Week in Geek is a two year running award winner.

1:10pm – Waiting for us to be able to go into the auditorium. Right now I'm not feeling really nervous, however the pressure is definitely there. Personally I hope we win, but I won't be too disappointed if we don't. We are up against our best friend and TWiG producer Pierce, but also Erich who if he wins we would be surprised, however all power to him.

1:15pm – Just saw Andy Walker. Mike asked him to be a presenter for the awards. That's really cool.

1:19pm – Still waiting to go in. Not a lot of people here yet.

1:35pm – Still waiting. More people starting to come.

2:14pm – Finally inside. Note to self, don't wear a suit in a room full of television lights.

2:37pm – Still waiting for awards to start. Saw Andy again. He's presenting for 1st year radio award.

3:00pm – Awards going okay. Andy's was the first award. The winners envelope had the wrong winner. Very funny. So Andy got to accept the award.

3:21pm – 18 more awards to go until our award category

3:35pm – 12 more awards to go

3:50pm – 6 more to go

4:09pm – Congratulations to Erich for best Specialty Show. Best quote he beat the geeks

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/live-from-the-16th-annual-grafiti-awards/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-behind-the-scenes http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-behind-the-scenes#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:00:42 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Here is a video of a behind the scenes look at today's last show on 90.1 FM of This Week in Geek.

(Oh and there is a post-roll ad, just to let you know)

For those who tuned in this morning, thank you!

Hope you enjoy!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-behind-the-scenes/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-all-good-things http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-all-good-things#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:37:50 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Today April 18th at 9:30am EST, my co-host Mike Dodd and I are going to be broadcasting our last radio broadcast on 90.1 FM The Heat.

However, this will not be our last podcast episode, we are still going to be podcasting for a few more months, and more great content will be released at http://thisweekingeek.net, however this post is talk about our journey on 90.1 FM.

The station is of course run by Niagara College Broadcasting Students. As being a broadcasting student, I was excited to hear about the ability to create a Specialty Show to feature on the station for extra credit in our Radio Production Class. At first, I wanted to do a Tech oriented show. Similar to Leo's The Tech Guy Radio Show. I also wanted to do it with a co-host.

I've learned from my podcasting experience, that a person to bounce ideas off of each other and having a conversation about the topics at hand is beneficial to making a great show. However, the friend I had in mind as a co-host did not work out. Mainly due to schedules. I had to make a decision on Air Time in a very short notice of 3 days.

So, the pressure was on, not only to come up with a good format for the show, but for a co-host. Well, I decided to focus in the world of geekdom, and the first person I could think of outside of my normal friend circle was Mike Dodd. He had heard that I wanted to do a show about geekdom and he offered his services as a guest expert on Comic Books. To be honest, he was the only one who offered to help out with the show. So, being that I knew Mike was interested, I asked him if he wanted to be a co-host. He said yes right away.

Mind you, you have to remember, this was all decided 3 days before our first On-Air Show!

Mike and I barely knew each other, and we were going to be co-hosts? Doesn't make sense right? It doesn't, but in a way it does.

On Jan 31, 2007, Mike and I went on air for the first time. We had talked before hand about the show, only briefly, but as soon as the mics turned on, and the On Air Sign turned the colour of red as Mike's Hair, and My Superman T-Shirt, we instantly became not co-hosts, but friends.

Even after our first show, we received an email from a friend that told us that it seemed as if Mike and I were best friends for years! We just had that great of a chemistry.

With that said, the chemistry continued on, and showed in our episodes as we continued to broadcast out of what we call the “fishbowl”. This Week in geek later on that April earned us our first Niagara College GRAFITI award for “Best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM” going up against experienced 2nd and 3rd year Broadcasting Students.

When we came back on the air in September, we were pumped and ready to bring our success to the next level. We did not stop, and 33 Radio Broadcasts under our belt, we are not only ending our run on 90.1 FM, we are again nominated for our second GRAFITI award for “Best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM” this Saturday April 19th. Of course Mike and I hope we win, but still the fact that we were nominated again, means that our little show was not just a fluke. We worked hard, and I thank God everyday that this experience changed my life forever. Not only gaining friends, but a career focus, and a once in a life time experience, that I will never forget.

So 90.1 FM, we hardly knew ye, but we always know that you gave us our start.

Tune in live tomorrow if you can by clicking here

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/this-week-in-geek-all-good-things/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/now-this-is-sooooo-cool http://stevesaylor.net/blog/now-this-is-sooooo-cool#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:56:24 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Black Shadow funny -one- by ~Chi-Tenshi1 on deviantART

I'm currently sitting at Starbucks hoping the wi-fi holds out so I can post this. This is so good that I had to share this with you all. A fan/listener of Black Shadow, who shall be named the Hawesome Chi Tenshi sent me this great piece of art to which I immediately did the Snoopy Dance.

This picture is a depiction of a scene in Episode #11 of Black Shadow where Shadow is lying in the hospital bed in the angel's underground facility to which he meets Michael for the first time. This was soo cool, that I had to post it on the website. Check out more of Chi Tenshi's work over at her deviant art page at: http://chi-tenshi1.deviantart.com/

With the bottom of all of my heart, thank you Chi! This means a lot to me that you took the time to make this.

This totally made my week!

I have another piece from her that I will post shortly as soon as I get a good wi-fi signal again at home.

If you have any other fan related content for Black Shadow, please feel free to email them to me at mail at stevesaylor.net and you too can join the Hawesomeness ranks of Chi Tenshi.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/now-this-is-sooooo-cool/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/one-chapter-ends-another-begins http://stevesaylor.net/blog/one-chapter-ends-another-begins#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:32:08 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

After releasing Episode 12 of Black Shadow, I am slowly beginning to realize that my first podiobook adventure is coming to a close. I also realized that as of this month i have been working on Black Shadow for exactly one year. this has probably been one of the longest personal projects that I have ever worked on.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Personally, I'm glad and I'm sad that it's over. I'm glad that a lot of hard work, is finally done. It feels like I accomplished something really fun, and could set me up for the rest of my life. I'm also saddened, because now I have to face the unknown again and see about looking into other projects to work on.

I'm not ready to say anything yet, however, I am going to say I am goiong to continue to write. I am going to continue to podcast what I write. As a matter of fact I have two possibly three other projects I could work on to bring to all of you.

I wish I could say more, but I can tell you that at least one of them will come to fruition around the end of May. So you won't have to wait that long to see what the next project will be.

I have made some awesome friends in this community, have expanded my own personal audience ten fold, and I have you all to thank for that. It means a lot when you send me an email telling me you like my work. I can't tell you how awesome that makes me feel. I'm not anywhere in the Superstar Podcast Author Status yet, but you all make me feel that way. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, a million times Thank you!

So stay tuned to this blog at http://stevesaylor.net and I will keep everyone updated as to what's on the new horizon.

Take care, and as always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/one-chapter-ends-another-begins/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-12 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-12#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:09:37 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

SYNOPSIS: Black Shadow sits, waits, then follows the demons who re-wired the Olympiac Power Facility. Shadow follows the demons to a warehouse where in order to save Rachel from Spectre and the demon army, he needs to do something really drastic.

Time: 30:49
Episode Recap: Geordon VanTassle – http://denevell.com
Promo: Philippa Balantine – Chasing the Bard – http://chasingthebard.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#12.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-12/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/14-year-old-creates-chemistry-trading-card-game http://stevesaylor.net/blog/14-year-old-creates-chemistry-trading-card-game#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:16:07 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Was surfing my RSS feeds today and I came across this awesome story from Wired.com's GeekDad Blog.

I've always found RPG Card Games fascinating. I don't play them that often, only because I don't have a lot of local friends who play them. The only card games that I have played are Munchkins and Super Munckin(which I actually own). However, with that being said, games like Magic The Gathering wildly available, I love it when I see new variants of a genre. Especially from a 14 Year Old.

According to Wired.com:

The game is based on a 121-card deck of chemical elements, compounds and catalysts. Every card has an explanation of the element or compound's uses and chemical properties. For example, the Oxygen card can rust neighboring metal cards and the Copper Conductor card can shock any metals. The oxidation state of an element is used as its attack power, and its physical state determines its movement on the board. The goal of the game is to reduce the opponents electrons to zero through strategic use of each card's chemical properties.

Now this is a genius idea. It only took a $500 grant to make this happen, and then wowed attendees at an entrepreneur's convention.

Not only does this make chemistry fun, it's educational. I always find educational games to be really boring, but this takes it to a whole new level.

Where can I get me a set of these?! I want to rule the world with C3H80!

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/14-year-old-creates-chemistry-trading-card-game/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/is-your-twitter-soapbox-for-sale http://stevesaylor.net/blog/is-your-twitter-soapbox-for-sale#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:13:22 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

(ScreenGrap by Chris Brogan)

I happened upon this by my friend Chris Brogan who happened to catch that Rocketboom Creator Andrew Baron (who I happened to meet in Toronto while working for Call For Help), is selling his Twitter Account on eBay to which I pulled a Chris Griffin impression and went “WhaaaaAAAAAAAA?”

Andrew says that this was an experiment before he deleted his Twitter Account which currently has 1,419 followers. That in it's own self is a feat. Getting over 1000 people to follow you in any online presence maker is impressive. Sure, Andrew does have a very popular video podcast and there is a large community behind Rocketboom. However, this had me thinking. Andrew has had the ear of a large community for several years now. He has his soapbox and it's name is “Andrew Baron's Twitter” He has been preaching (not in a bad way) on his soapbox his ideals, his aspirations, his passion to which has garnered a large crowd to listen to him. Now what he's doing is selling the right for him to step down and allow someone to step up on that soapbox instead and preach their own ideals, aspirations, and passions.

More than likely it might be that a fan or member of Andrew's community buys his Twitter account; and yet a company with something to market might purchase it and for the time being have a built in audience.

No private information is lost, no private information is gained. It's a glorified list of a built in audience that the potential buyer may have not had or can achieve.

I don't know if I could ever sell my soapbox, because I took the time to build my soapbox, craft my message, and I don't know if I could ever let someone else take over that.

I think what gets people up in arms about this issue is the fact that money is exchanging hands.

Now Andrew calls it an experiment, some call it a cash grab. I'm not sure what I call it yet.

I highly encourage anyone who reads this to join in the conversation over at chrisbrogan.com and don't post a comment here.

I will keep an eye on this and see what happens.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/is-your-twitter-soapbox-for-sale/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/do-it-for-sigler http://stevesaylor.net/blog/do-it-for-sigler#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:57:26 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Hey there Geeks, Geekettes, and Cousin Its,

I have an important message to send to you guys. Obviously in regards to my previous post I talked about how I picked up my copy of Infected, well this is something similar.

Since becoming part of the ranks of Podcast Authors, I have looked up to people like J.C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, Tee Morris, Seth Harwood, and so on. However, there is one person who is really on the front lines of this thing that has been beating his balls to make Podcast Fiction a thing to take note in the regular Book Publishing world, and that is Scott Sigler. Scott has helped me in getting Black Shadow off the ground in so many ways, I wanted to help out in anyway I can. Hence why I bought Infected from my local bookstore.

Well it looks like numbers are coming in from the April 1st push to buy Infected. According to Scott, numbers are strong, but not strong enough to have say the New York Times Best Sellers List take notice yet. For those who don't know The New York Times Best Seller List is the big daddy when it comes to getting your book noticed. If you get on that list, you will for life be always known for being a New York Times Best Seller. If that happens with Scott, that means people like me have a chance at someday following in Scott's footsteps. We need to make this happen guys and gals and its.

But don't just take it from me, let's have the Palms Daddy and Alpha Clone tell you what you need to do.

Click here for an important message from J.C. Hutchins and Seth Harwood

So please everyone, let's do this for Sigler. Let's kick down this last door to move Podcast Fiction into the stratosphere.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/do-it-for-sigler/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-has-been-infected http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-has-been-infected#comments Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:36:05 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

So April 1st has come and gone, but not for your ol' pal Snowball. I, like I'm certain many others, pre-ordered my copy of Infected by Scott Sigler at my local Chapters. Unfortunately, I could not take part of the “Sigler Day” as other Original Junkies did in their own respective town stores. I was never able to make it to Chapters to pick it up.

Well today, after anxiously waiting, I finally made the trek to Chapters to pick it up. It honestly looks fantastic. Crown Publishing did an awesome job with this book. I actually asked the clerk when I went to pay my dues to my Dark Overlord if other people have been buying this book. He told me he hasn't seen anyone. This to me means that apparantly Siglerism needs to be evangelized more in the Niagara Area. So I will don my evanglical hat to say if you are in the Niagara area, head to your Coles, or your Chapters, and please pick up a copy of either the book or the audio CD. (Which by the way, the Audio CD was completely sold out at my Chapters, so I may not be alone here in the area).

So after I traded gold pieces for my copy, I wandered around the store to see the shrine they set up for Siglerdome. Well, suffice it to say, no such luck. However, I did find the book prominently displayed in the, wait for it, Manga section? *insert record scratching sound here*

Yes, it is true Infected along with other horror titles were in the Manga section. I found this to be funny, but I also was outraged! This will not stand! So I found the nearest Chapters clerk and chicken-scissored his ass! That's right I cut him open like a sushi chef! After several bloody screams he was able to point out that the horror section was right behind me. So I turned around in the aisle to see Horror was prominently displayed along with the many Stephen King novels in plain view.

So, I let this poor man go, but after I forced him to buy a copy, and not with his Chapters Employee Discount either! It was the best Life or Death choice he could make.

In conclusion, if you have not picked up your copy of Infected. Please do so. Check out your local bookstores, or head to Amazon.com or head to http://infectednovel.com or head to http://scottsigler.com to check out the podcast of the book. I know I will.

cheers, and as always I remain obediently yours….Dark Overlord.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-has-been-infected/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-07 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-07#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:22:54 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=703 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: The demon is finally revealed by Joshua as Legion, a Demon Bounty Killer turned General of a Legion of a Powerful Demon Army. After learning that Rachel was the mysterious person leaving behind the crowbar at the Power Facility, Black Shadow meets with her in her office.

Time: 30:00
Episode Recap: Ricky C. from Belfast, Ireland
Promo: Chasing The Bard by Philippa Ballantine – http://chasingthebard.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#07.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-07/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wide-ocean-shallow-pool http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wide-ocean-shallow-pool#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:11:30 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

So having the internet community as a big part of my life over the past three years, I love consuming and creating content. It's what I love to do. I have so much penned up Creative Energy that I love coming up with ideas to make so many different types of content. Whether it be written, spoken, or viewed, I am a fan of it all.

Sometimes I feel bad for my friend Shane for putting up with me for the eight years we've been friends, because I constantly tell him all kinds of crazy ideas. It gets to the point now where he sees this look in my eye that he knows when I come up with an idea. It's kind of scary in that regards.

Now being Creative is something I love to do, and I'm constantly on the lookout for a way to make a career out of it. I love watching any features on TV Writers, specifically when they are in the “Writer's Room”. In that room a group of writers have to come up with at the most 23 half hour or hour long episodes of creative writing for a show that would keep audiences entertained. Those writers, pitch ideas, discuss them, see how they work, and when an idea is fleshed out as an overall story arc, or a particular episode, a task is formed to one of the writers to go and produce that content. I always picture myself someday in a room like that where a group of like minded individuals come in and say, “What Creative stuff can we come up with today?” And ideas are pitched, discussions are made, and then we go off and produce it.

That to me is what I would picture the perfect moment where those moments would fill up every moment of what I would love to be my career.

The only problem with that idea of the perfect career is we live in a “Niche Market” Like it or not, everyone has a niche as to what they do, and what they are known by.

I am saying this right now, I do not have a niche.

Let me explain.

The one thing that has plagued me since I started creating content three years ago was the thought of “Someone will always know more about this subject than I do” It has happened to me on more than one occasion. I can accept that. There are projects I get involved in that I can't do justice because I don't have that expert knowledge to which to do that project justice.

The problem I have is that I do have a lot of expertise, just in a wider range of areas. The best analogy I could come up with is “A Vast Ocean, but a Shallow Pool” I have a vast knowledge of a lot of things, but in those specific areas I am not an expert. I am an advanced amateur. I do not have a niche.

Some might say it could be I don't have any focus. I can't focus on one thing and stick with it. Well I would disagree. I do have a lot of focus, just in more areas that I like to tap into. That is the problem with being in a society that looks into “Niche Markets” There are people who are successful today, online and offline, because of usually one particular thing they do well. I am not that person.

Sure there are exceptions to that rule. There are people who break out of that niche role and try something completely different and either flop or not. I applaud those people. I become fans of those people. I secretly am envious of those people.

Not envious of their success or not, but because I am stuck trying to figure out what I want to focus and tap onto, and those people have figured that out.

I tried being a geek, a blogger, a podcaster, a tech guy, a writer, an actor, and many other things; to which I have somehow always comes back to finding out that my pool is shallow but as wide as the ocean.

So I sit here in the prime of my life like I just got out of high school, not sure of what I want to do with the rest of my life. The only solace I have and why I'm not pushing the panic button yet is that I do have the goal to being a radio personality to which I feel would be an awesome career. But I can't stick with just that. The creative person in me wants to swim in the large ocean, try other things.

So the question I have before me is, do I focus on one thing? Or do I diversify?

Who knows what will happen. Maybe my niche is to be the vast ocean.

At least my ocean everyone can swim in without fear of drowning.

Just some random thoughts at 2am.

Thanks for listening.

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/wide-ocean-shallow-pool/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/ground-control-to-major-tom http://stevesaylor.net/blog/ground-control-to-major-tom#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:14:44 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Hey there Geeks, Geekettes, and Cousin Its!

I bet you are wondering as to how I have infiltrated your inbox today. Well it's all very simple actually. By using Satellite GPS Triangulation, and some unix haxors skills, I was able to ascertain your email addresses from the CIA database. To which some of you have large files there. You should be ashamed!

Okay time to be serious….

A-wop-ba-baloo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!

Okay for real this time.

…

That's better.

As I was saying, if you are receiving this email, it's because I have created an email newsletter for stevesaylor.net and as being a user of stevesaylor.net I have added you all to it. I created this newsletter for general updates, special news, and so forth for anything going on with stevesaylor.net.

You have the option if you so wish to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter by clicking the link below to remove yourself from the list. It's totally okay, I won't get mad…..much!!

At any rate, I am sending out this email today because stevesaylor.net has had another major overhaul over this past weekend.

For those who may or may not know, there is a podcast run by Adam Curry called “The Daily Source Code.” It is one of the first, if not the first podcast and it is extremely popular. Well I had the pleasure of having a comment of mine played on the latest episode DSC-740. The Good News is, Adam liked my comment so much that I am the official Albino of The Daily Source Code. Which is really cool, and I'm happy to be a part of the show to a certain degree. The only thing is though, when I mentioned stevesaylor.net in the comment, little did I know how big Adam's audience really was. Within 24 hours, the site had become completely unusable and was breaking in places. Some couldn't get access to the site, and some modules were breaking under the bandwidth strain. Don't worry, it didn't affect my web hosting bandwidth costs. I have plenty of bandwidth to go around. However, with that said, I had no idea that the latest version of Drupal, version 6, caused the break down. Apparently version 6 is so new that it still is a bit unstable. So in a last ditch effort I have downgraded to Drupal 5.7 which is now live.

Everything is back to the way they were, for the majority. The only problem with the downgrade was that user pictures are gone, as well as the comments some of you had made on the site. Those were beyond redemption unfortunately. So if you want to login and re-add those pictures and comments, by all means click http://stevesaylor.net/user/login to login.

So to make this longer story short, unfortunately Black Shadow Episode #12 is going to have to be postponed until next week. I am going to try to get the Street Team set up like I promised. It was ready to be launched for the release of Episode 12, but with the site complications, that will be pushed to sometime this week.

At either case, I hope this day treats you well, and as always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/ground-control-to-major-tom/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-11 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-11#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:55:56 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

SYNOPSIS: The fate of Black Shadow is revealed, as well as Old Faces return, as new Faces emerge….

Time: 26:56
Episode Recap: Don Thorp – http://donthorp.net and http://lol.com
Promo: Mur Lafferty’s Wasteland – http://murverse.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#11.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-11/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-10 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-10#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:55:04 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

SYNOPSIS: On the roof of the still burning building of the Olympiac Police Headquarters, Black Shadow faces some old, and yet new foes. The battle for his own and Rachel’s lives begins and ends quickly. We then flashback to Shadow as he buries something in his past.

Time: 29:58
Episode Recap: Mike “The Birdman” Dodd – http://birdmanofsteel.com
Promo: Scott Sigler’s Infected – http://infectednovel.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#10.mp3

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-10/feed 2 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/have-at-it-my-friendsblack-shadow-promo-releases http://stevesaylor.net/blog/have-at-it-my-friendsblack-shadow-promo-releases#comments Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:00:58 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

For those who heard the promo on Black Shadow Episode #10 here is the promo for your downloadable pleasure!

Feel free to distribute, and send to your friends, family, co-workers, favorite podcasters, etc. Send it to anyone who would enjoy this story.

Right-Click and click “Save As” to download the Promo

Thanks, and expect Episode 11 in three days!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/have-at-it-my-friendsblack-shadow-promo-releases/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/according-to-an-albino-issue-01-minority-miscommunication http://stevesaylor.net/blog/according-to-an-albino-issue-01-minority-miscommunication#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:24:32 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/according-to-an-albino-issue-01-minority-miscommunication/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-on-bitstrips http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-on-bitstrips#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:35:40 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-on-bitstrips/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-09 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-09#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:18:20 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=699 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: An inferno blazes the Olympiac Police Headquarters, as Black Shadow races to find Rachel, but struggles with his own duty.

Time: 25:12
Episode Recap and Promo: Seth Harwood – Jack Palms Crime Series – http://sethharwood.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#09.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-09/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/stevesaylornet-website-20 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/stevesaylornet-website-20#comments Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:14:34 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Well, as some of you may have figured out by now, stevesaylor.net has been “unavailable” for the past week. Reason being is what you see here. The main hub for everything relating to me will be on this site. Everything from Podcasts, Blog, My Online Presence, etc.

I highly encourage you to create an account here. It's not so that this is “another one of those sites to sign up to”. This is different. Mainly I would like to get to know everyone who follows me online. I have several things in mind to make things interesting with site members so stay tuned for now. Especially the two “Favorite Genre” questions, I have something really special for that in a little bit.

In the meantime, sign up, and then browse the site. You can post comments, Post on the Forums, download my shows, everything.

Thanks for bearing with me for the past month, March is just the beginning of hawesome things to come!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/stevesaylornet-website-20/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-hits-the-teedot http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-hits-the-teedot#comments Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:37:45 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

(Photo of myself and Pierce “The Punk” Derks taken on February 22nd at Comfort Suites in Toronto Ontario)

So we finally made it to Toronto! I am really excited for this weekend as you could tell from my previous post.

Right now I am sitting in our hotel room with my co-host Mike “The Birdman” Dodd from this Week in Geek and Pierce “The Punk” Derks and Ashley “iCandy” Pawliw. Tonight's agenda included checking in and heading to a free showing of Evil Dead: The Musical which we have front row seats!!!

It's great sometimes to be visually disabled. LOL

Anyway, from what I have heard about Evil Dead, if you sit in the front row you get splattered with blood. Personally, I'm not really looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to the play and having a good time, however I am not a fan of getting anything splattered anywhere. However, Mike and Pierce and Ashley are really excited about it, so I'll tag along. Thank goodness I brought clothes I don't mind getting dirty.

Anyway, tomorrow is the big day, so for those who are reading this and are in Toronto or in the area, head to Toronto now! Sign up for Podcamp Toronto at http://podcamptoronto.org and join in the fun!

I'm off, take care.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/snowball-hits-the-teedot/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podcamp-toronto-ii-electric-boogaloo http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podcamp-toronto-ii-electric-boogaloo#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:56:06 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

 

(Above photo taken at C'est What at the Podcamp Toronto 2007 Meetup where Mike Dodd and myself emceed the event) 

So it's about that time again that I make my monthly blog post.  Okay, so yeah I know I haven't blogged in a while, however when you have school, work, a radio show, and a book podcasting at the same time, those priorities take over.  However, I am determined to blog more so that those people who actually read my blog (by the way, please comment if you are reading), can actually be updated with all things snowball.

 Suffice it to say I am really excited for this weekend.  Mainly for Podcamp Toronto '08.  I went to the first one last year at around this time, and Mike (my TWiG co-host) and I had a major blast, including pretty much being the life of the party.  So to say that we aren't going to try to be the life of the party again, is an understatement.  Oh this time we have a full blown posse, and we're going to take Podcamp by Storm!!  Hellz ya!

 Anyway, like last time, Mike and I, and our intrepid producer Pierce “The Punk” Derks are moderating sessions this time around.  For more details go to the Schedule page over at http://podcamptoronto.org

I won't post the schedule here just in case things need to change.  However I am set for two sessions on Podcast Fiction, and my own session of Podcasting Your Passion:  How to be Creatively Motivated.  That session I'm really excited about because I feel sometimes anyone who is creative loses that creative push to put out anything, whether it be a podcast or not.  So I am going to try to motivate people to encourage that creative push to get stuff done. 

 Anyway, that's it for now.  Stay tuned to this blog for any live coverage from Podcamp Toronto this weekend!!!

As always, I remain, obediently yours….

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/podcamp-toronto-ii-electric-boogaloo/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-08 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-08#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:20:59 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=701 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: Black Shadow pays a visit to the Richest Crime Boss in Olympiac City, Clark Gable. Gable provides information about the portal, and also crisis is always around the next corner…

Time: 24:31
Episode Recap: Philippa Balantine – Chasing the Bard – http://chasingthebard.com
Promo: Podcamp Toronto 2008 – http://podcamptoronto.org
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#08.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-08/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/black-shadow-1-of-todays-top-subscriptions-on-podiobookscom http://stevesaylor.net/blog/black-shadow-1-of-todays-top-subscriptions-on-podiobookscom#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:46:45 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Thank you all for subscribing to the book. This means a lot to me.

If you want just story and no intro or extro banter in each episode, head over to http://podiobooks.com/title/black-shadow and subscribe today!

As always I remain obediently yours…

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/black-shadow-1-of-todays-top-subscriptions-on-podiobookscom/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-06 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-06#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:23:36 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=706 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: All Hell Breaks Loose……

Time: 30:59
Episode Recap: Shane Shennan – http://yonderman.com
Promo: Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty – http://playingforkeepsnovel.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#06.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-06/feed 1 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-05 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-05#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:25:39 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=708 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: Still in Black Shadow’s past we learn more about the connection between Father James and the demonic and angelic forces which ends in a showdown. Back to the present, we are now faced with a demon posessed Clayskin whom Shadow recognizes, in which also ends in a showdown…..

Time: 33:16
Episode Recap: J.C. Hutchins – 7th Son Trilogy – http://jchutchins.net
Promo: Podcamp Toronto 2008 – http://podcamptoronto.pbwiki.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#05.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-05/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/sub-careers http://stevesaylor.net/blog/sub-careers#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:02:31 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Hey there geeks, geekettes, and cousin ITs,

Finally I have the time to actually sit down and blog something. Not to say it's uber important or anything, but hey it's….something right?

Anyway, I wanted to tell you something that happened tonight that is too long to fit into a Twitter Tweet. Hehe, that phrase sounds funny to me, “twitter tweet.” It's funny in a “It's-not-a-sexual-innuendo-joke-but-a-cute-giggle-funny-joke”

Meh, maybe it's just me.

So there I was @ work, minding my own business. Being bored as usual. If you've seen my latest Twitter Tweets (heehee) over the past few days, you would know how crappy the day job has been lately. I really don't like having to work there, which led me to think about writing as a career. Now, I know for me, writing as a career sounds fun for the first fifteen minutes, but I foresee for me that I may not be as successful as I would like to be to sustain a living off of writing, at least to start off. It would be akin to being an actor who has to work at so many different jobs just so they can say they are an actor. I know it's a very gross comparison between the two, but for me starting off, I would like a career path that does not start completely in suckage.

So, I began to think well what if I don't pursue writing as a career all together. But, then I thought about how much fun I had writing Black Shadow, and having fun showing it to you guys/gals/its. So which led me to think that maybe I can be a writer after all.

So here in lies the dilemma. To be or not to be, that is really the question.

Then it hit me. After about half an hour, I had my answer. Who's to say I can't have my cake and eat it too with the cherry on top? Not sure what I mean? Well, what if I pursue writing as a sub-career. One that could provide a really good income later, but has potential to start off okay, but it would not be my full time career. I want to work in radio broadcasting, I know that I could be good at it. So why not do both? I think that may be the key into having a really good and productive life, is find different little things you like doing or accomplishing and create small sub-careers out of them.

So then I thought about the amount of possibilities that can come with having sub-careers. I could work in radio, I could be a writer, I could be a voice actor, I could be working in TV. Does that mean they would be full time jobs? Yeah it might be, but I don't have to be uber successful in all of them. I mean if I wanted to work in TV, I would be happy to be an intern or working with the On-Air Personalities. For radio, I could be a morning, or afternoon DJ, but I don't have to be the next George Stombo (Canadian Radio/TV Personality mainly on CBC here in Canada).

Now, will I be taking out the potential of being more successful in any of those sub-careers, no of course not. If something comes up, that would be beneficial to me, then sure I'll take it. But I don't have to rely on getting ahead in a company if I know I could be happy doing the little sub-careers that I already have going.

I don't know, maybe it's just my odd thinking at midnight when I'm bored at work, but to me they make sense damnit! So there!

Now you can go about whatever it is you do on the Internet. And if you're surfing those porn sites, make sure you wear protection, you never know with all those pop-ups that are going around. Then again that may be your thing.

Let me know what you think. Would love your feedback on the subject. (The sub-careers, not the porn)

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/sub-careers/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-04 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-04#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 09:27:38 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=710 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: We go back again to Black Shadow’s past where he is met with evil itself, and we learn what Father James has to do with it….

Time: 33:30
Episode Recap: Steve Riekeberg – http://geekcred.net
Music: Geoff Smith – Christmas Time All Around the World – http://thegeoffsmith.com
Promo: Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff – Transistor Radio – http://transistorradio.podshow.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#04.mp3

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-04/feed 3 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/according-to-snowballi-can-teach-my-mom-street http://stevesaylor.net/blog/according-to-snowballi-can-teach-my-mom-street#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 07:18:17 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Okay, so she isn't “gansta” yet, but you have to start somewhere.

Formats available: Unknown file type

Tags: steve, saylor, snowball, christmas, holidays

]]>

Oh did you really think it was impossible to eat Jello mixed with Soy Sauce and Maple Syrup? Today, I prove you wrong

]]>

 Hello everyone,

So, uh, yeah blog has now changed once again.  It's funny, this blog feels like a traveling nomad selling tents to anyone who will buy it off him.  It's not that they are bad tents, they just are kind of the K-Mart brand of tents.

So with this new blog, obviously I will try to add more blog posts more often, as well as upload some videos/pictures and stuff.  You know the interactive new media stuff.

Anywho, browse around, you'll find the majority of the posts that I wanted to keep from my Vox.com account so feel free to take a look at the old entries going as far back as June 2006.

Enjoy!

]]>

SYNOPSIS: After learning of Rachel’s first career case as a detective, Rachel and Black Shadow investigate the explosion in Cell Block 22A. As the investigation continues, we flashback to Shadow’s past to a Memorial service like no other. Lastly, after searching all over Olympiac City for any trace of Blackblood, another criminal John “Clayskin” Riley escapes from the Olympiac Mental Health Facility. After catching up to Clayskin at the Power Facility, Shadow recognizes a face he had not seen in a long, long time……

Time: 32:21
Episode Recap: PodcastJunky – http://www.podcastjunky.com
Promos: Yondercast – Shane Shennan – http://yonderman.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#03.mp3

SYNOPSIS: Black Shadow starts his investigation into the Portal by talking to a well informed snitch. As he does so, an explosion at the Olympiac Penitentiary gives Blackblood the opportunity to escape. We are also introduced to Rachel Scott, O.P.D. Detective, and Shadow’s ally…

Time: 23:43
Intro: Benjamin Clifford – http://mdnn.blogspot.com
Episode Recap: Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff – http://www.wordsushi.com
Promos: MOREVI: Remastered – Tee Morris – http://morevi.net
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#02.mp3

In a world where evil walks the earth, where super villains are taken over by demonic beings .  They all want one thing, and one thing only.  To take over the world.  There is only one man who can stop them.  One man with the powers and abilities to kick some serious demon ass.  In a race against time to stop a portal that opens to Hell itself.  One man, one hero, one sonofabitch you don’t want to mess with.   He is faceless, he is fearless, he is Black Shadow.  From the mind of debut podiobook author Steve Saylor comes a story where the super powers meets the Supernatural.

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/books/black-shadow-a-podcast-novel-by-steve-saylor/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-01 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/episodeissue-01#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:35:26 +0000 Steve Saylor http://stevesaylor.net/?p=718 Tweet

SYNOPSIS: A mysterious dark super hero named Black Shadow patrols the streets of Olympiac City. He seeks justice and will kick any ass to make sure it’s served. A confrontation at the docks facing off against one of the evil villains, Blackblood, leaves Black Shadow wondering what is Blood’s motive. This isn’t like him. Something else is at work here. As he ponders this, a memory from his past creeps up on him….
Time: 40:27
Promos: Jack Palms II – Jack Wakes Up – by Seth Harwood
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
Voicemail: (206)984-3671

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#01.mp3

So in reference to my last post, I mentioned that I always had this picture in my mind of when I came up with the nickname Snowball.

Well, my good friend Sean Carruthers, of The Lab with Leo Laporte, and the great podcast Labrats.tv; has made something that is the closest I'll ever get to that actual cartoon image.

What does your name mean and why did your parents choose it for you?
Submitted by mommy2two.

I wanted to actually comment on the news that Whoopi has replaced Rosie O'Donnell on The View, and I have to say it's about time! I'm sorry, I can say I only watch the clips on YouTube about the View, just because I'm never home to watch it live. Now I thought with Rosie on the show it would've been better. I liked her in her days of a Daytime Talk Show host and she had a decent acting career. But with all that was going on with her on the View, I'm glad she's gone.

And Whoopi is the best replacement that could finally bring back some good legitimacy to the show, that has been lacking for quite some time. Why do you think Barbara Walters hasn't been on a lot since Rosie took over?

Anyway, I saw the clip of her announcing on The View that she was taking over today, and as I was doing that, I found a really funny clip from the show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” where she was a guest.

This is really funny, and shows off her comedic talent quite well.

I was going to put the title, “It's good to be the King.” But I'm definitely no king.

At least not yet. mwhahahahaa!

So, I've been wanting to post something for a while now just keeping my Vox readers up to date on what is happening in the life according to snowball. So I'll start off in sections.

Came across this video a few months ago and it keeps popping up everywhere. So when I saw it again today from Jake, I had to post it.

Hey guys and gals.

I've been thinking while surfing online tonight. (I know, I know dangerous combination)

And I was just randomly watching the justin.tv live channels, and I see that they opened up a little to other fans to stream their own lives online, and I was thinking whether I wanted to do the same thing.

Now, being in a city that doesn't have city wide wi-fi is a problem. And EVDO service in Canada is like 60 bucks a month for a crappy connection anyway. So streaming 24/7 is out, however usually when I'm not at work, I'm usually at home, or at starbucks(with it's freely available wi-fi) and at mike's house when we record This Week in Geek.

So I am in areas that have wi-fi capability, but my question is, do I want to jump into that route of live streaming my life, as well as whether anyone would really care. I mean, I want to do something worth while to watch, however why go justin.tv when I could do the same thing with either ustream.tv or stickam(which I believe either starbucks blocks ustream or stickam or both. Not sure)

Anyway, what do you my reader's think? Would you be interested in seeing a bit more of what I do in life, or would you suggest against it.

Let me know in the comments!

As always, I remain obediently yours…

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

Read and post comments |
Send to a friend

]]>

Okay, I have to preface this by saying that I'm not a huge fan of posting something not worthwhile.  Especially just random YouTube Clips like this, because a)it's just a cop out for not actually writing something interesting and b)I usually don't watch the clips anyway.

However that being said, I may go against my two rules of blogging conduct and post something that honestly blew me away.  I'm not talking about something just cool, I mean I saw this and the first words out of my mouth was “Wow, Holy Crap, Cool, Awesome, and Frak yeah!”

Okay maybe just the “Wow” part was true.

Anyway, this clip was something I saw on http://startrek.fanlib.com where there they have a scriptwriting contest where the scenario is that the contestants have to write scenes that would make up a story on the biggest battle of all would take place, Captain James Tiberious Kirk vs. Captain Jean Luc Picard.  Check it out if you're interested.  The whole thing is hosted by George Takei and Wil Wheaton, which is awesome to say the least.

So while I was perusing the blog I came across this video which I show below where it was a fan made trailer of what Star Trek XI could look like.  (For those who don't know J.J. Abrams of Alias, Lost, and Mission Impossible III fame is making the next Star Trek movie and it's about the early years of Kirk and Spock and McCoy as they survive the dangers, tragedies, and drama that is….Starfleet Academy.  So like the O.C. with phasers.)  So this video is a spoof trailer of that concept, which I hope you will enjoy.  I won't go into detail because it would spoil the fun of seeing the clip, but it's worth it.

Enjoy, and comment on what you think.

Star Trek XI The Wrath Of Kirk ( Re cut fan trailer)

As always I remain, obediently yours…

Toodles!

]]>

I have a question for everyone who frequents this blog.  I being a consumer of DVD's love the special features.  My family only buying the standard editions of any movie, which makes me upset, means that I have to purchase my own copy of the same movie with the special edition discs.  One of my favourite features is the DVD Commentaries.  You get to hear the filmmakers, the writers, the producers, and sometimes even the actors themselves get to talk about the process of making the movie which to me is like Movie Trivia Gold.

I loooove learning about the behind the scenes of any show or movie that I enjoy.

I only bring this up because I have since February been making my own Fan DVD Commentaries for Geek movies on my podcast This Week in Geek.  This to me is the best part about our show in that not only we strive to bring you weekly geek content, but we expand by actually watching movies and recording our own commentary for it.  Mike and I along with several special guests get to give our own Trivia of whatever movie we are watching, and even make fun of things that we think are just funny.  Much like MST3K we take apart movies we love and have fun with it.

So if you are a fan of Commentaries like I am, below are links to movies we have recorded Fan Commentaries on, and if you have suggestions for movies you would like to hear Commentaries on email us at feedback@thisweekingeek.net or comment on this post.  Would love to hear your suggestions.

Star Trek: First Contact
Hackers
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977 Edition)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Flight of the Navigator
Back to the Future: Part 1
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
As always, I remain obediently yours…

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Here it is folks.  Here is Part One of Mike and Snowball's Road Trip up north to emcee the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Cape Croker Ontario

TWiG Films – Relay for Life – Part 001

You can watch the video above, or download the video by clicking here

Music:

Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild
Free – All Right Now
The Allman Brothers Band – Ramblin' Man

Singing Live – Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

]]>

Born to Be Wild: Hits & More
Steppenwolf

“Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way!“
Yes thats right as the words of Steppenwolf's classic Born to be Wild blasts through my ear drums, Mike and I are heading out again for another road trip for This Week in Geek.

Where are we going you may ask?  Well, Mike and I have the pleasure of emceeing a Canadian Cancer Society event in Northern Ontario.  The event is called the “Relay for Life” and more info can be found by clicking here.

Why am I telling you this?  Well, I am going to be videoblogging the whole trip, thats why.  Yes thats right, it's about time that I finally dust off the camcorder and give this videoblogging thing another shot.

So stay tuned to this blog as I present to you, TWiG Road Trip – Relay For Life Edition!

Ooooh this is my favourite part…
“Like a true nature's child,
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
Never gonna die!

Born to be Wild!!!
Born to be Wild!!!“
Remaining as always, obediently yours.

Toodles!

Steve “Born to be Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Okay, so I lie a little bit. I'm not really going to fully reveal all the details about said writing project, but at least a few small tid-bits of said writing project.

For those who have been following my Jaiku account you would have noticed a few posts about a “Super Secret Writing Project” that I've been working on. I know, I know, I should have talked about it here on my blog. But before my avid readers get upset, I have had good reason not to mention this sooner. I wanted to get deep into the project so that I have something to write about, instead of just an idea that may not become reality.

Well, I'm here to tell you today, that I have reached the 1/3 mark of the project, and I can now talk about it.

Suffice it to say I am writing a novel. Yes, that's right a novel.

I've been toying with writing a book for some time now, and I have had several good ideas and some great ideas that I have to wait until later to do. However, the novel idea I'm working on is going to be a podcast novel. Yes, much like the Rat Pack of J.C. Hutchins, Scott Sigler, and Tee Morris of podcast novels, I am venturing into that same world, with I hope, an eager and ever growing audience. That is the goal anyway.

The novel idea has only been fully revealed to a few close friends of mine and the feedback I am getting is they love it, and I'm doing a good job. And that is their criticizing comments. At any rate, even Shadow Falls writer Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff has been privy to some details of the story, and he even talks about it on one of his podcasts. It's Word Sushi number 3 or 2 I believe. And he thinks its a really cool idea as well. Mark, if you're reading this, thanks!

Now, since I've been babbling about the said “idea” for several paragraphs now, I feel I must give some details in regards to it. The story is a superhero story. But this story has an interesting angle that I don't think has been looked into before, which even Mark has mentioned. I wish I could give more info than that, but I wanted to tease you all a little about it, and let it simmer in your brains as to what the All Mighty Snowball can come up which that would make you want to listen as a podcast each week.

What I can tell you is that the plan is to have the book finished and hopefully edited by the end of this summer, and ready to be podcasted by the Fall or Winter of this year. That's the plan anyway, if it works, it works. If not, well let's just say my goal is to have this out to you all soon, and by hook or by crook it will be done.

So anyway, stay tuned to this blog for more updates in regards to the Super Secret Writing Project, and how it's coming along.

Take care, and as always, I remain, obediently yours…

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

For those who know me, and know me well. I love Starbucks. It's a given. Sometimes, it's even an obsession. I have tried to curb the addiction, but I don't know whether it's the addictive stimulants talking, but I love the creative atmosphere here. It's something that I can't get enough of. At any rate, I used to be able to blog quite frequently at Starbucks using it's freely available wi-fi access. However, lately, the connection here has some filters that for some reason doesn't load the text field properly when trying to compose a post, and it won't let me enter anything into the Body text field. So I was heartbroken. I was devastated. Why Starbucks?! Why have you forsaken me? Well, no more!!! Ha!! Thanks to MacBreak Weekly, I have since learned of MarsEdit and it's brand new posting to Vox feature! Woootage to the bootage! I can now blog in my most favorite place in the world, besides home…..and Florida. Until I see you again, I remain obediently yours. Toodles! Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

BearMcCreary

….with Bear McCreary, Composer of Battlestar Galactica!

It's here!  The Interview can be heard by clicking on this link!!

Bear was an awesome guy to talk to, and it was a pleasure to actually talk to someone involved with one of the best shows on television!

Send me your questions in the comments of what you would like to ask and Mike and I will ask them.  The interview is tentatively scheduled for sometime today around noon or 3pm PST.  Just waiting for final contact, but the interview is a go none the less whether it be for today or within a couple of days, so whatever questions I get I will ask.

So say we all!!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor
Bear McCreary's work includes:

]]>

I have no idea if the title for this post will actually indicate what I'm writing here, but hey I got a chuckle from thinking of it, so there!  Ha!

Wow, I can't believe I've been lacking in my blogging as of late.  That past sentence I wish I could ignore like that cancerous growth on my neck, but hey it's there and nothing I can do about it (That was random and odd, and this blogger doesn't represent the humour of cancerous growths on anything let alone condoning the suppression of necks).

At any rate, life for me, in the past while since I have made a personal post about myself, has well….moved on.

Life is life and some things happen that you don't expect.  Like failing a film production class!!!  Yay!

So in case if you missed the sarcasm, yes I was, and still am a bit upset that it happened.  It's something I kind of expected, but the reality of said failing grade didn't hit me until I received that fateful sheet of dead tree telling me I failed by four percent.  Yes that's right four percent.  Of course I could immediately come up with excuses about as to why I had failed, and even being a public person on Ted Steven's Tubes it's hard to admit failure, but then I realize that failures in life are not failures but only setbacks.

“But, Steve you're taking the glass is half full approach.”  And, yes I am.  But why is there such a distinction that people who have glasses half full or half empty.  Why categorize life situations as winnings or failures.  If I take into account all the negative things, or failures, that have happened to me this year over the positives I would be in the glass half empty cup.  And yet I don't feel that way.  As I'm writing this I don't know why I feel this way, but I do.

Damnit I should be upset!  I mean it's only a healthy emotion!

And yet the only emotion that can be felt is patience.  I know it isn't an emotion, but I'm patient because yes failing a course means a whole year extra to my studies has just been added.  However, I feel fine about it.  Before I got into the Broadcasting program I would get upset and stressed, and freaked out over a piece of info that financial aid needed that I didn't have to give and it would mean everything was over for me.  And yet now, i don't feel that way anymore.

Does it mean I'm getting older, or wiser, or apathetic?

Maybe a bit of all three.

So as I leave this post and if you have actually read this far, I would encourage you to think of any failure as only a setback.  Minor or major it doesn't matter.  Failure is just another way of saying, okay so your current path has a huge log that crashed down blocking your way.

Let's find a chainsaw.

Toodles!

I have a few trees to disect.

Steve “Lumberjack Snowball” Saylor

P.S.  this blogger does not represent or reflect any harmful act towards the Save the Trees Inc. and in no way condones the cutting down of trees or cutting up trees that have been decaying on roads.  Only if they are used as metaphors for a funny or philosophical joke.

]]>

Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope (1977 & 2004 Versions, 2-Disc Widescreen Edition)

May 25th, 1977, a movie changed the landscape of cinema forever.

Today, 30 years ago what made geeks become cool, and added philosophies such as the Force and Jedi vs. Sith into the pop lexicon that is still seeing it's effect in today's society.

Of course I am talking about Star Wars.  George Lucas's brainchild of a young orphan farmer boy named Luke Skywalker who took on the galaxy at large against an evil personified in Darth Vader.

Today I have the honour of paying tribute to this wonderful franchise by releasing a Star Wars 30 years Anniversary podcast special and also our very own Fan made DVD Commentary of the original Star Wars Film, Star Wars Episode IV:  A New Hope.

You can find both of those podcasts by clicking here to go http://thisweekingeek.net

Also to add to this, what some people call, a holiday, Mike and I are currently live at a Star Wars event in Welland Ontario where fans have gathered together to watch the film that started it all.

Popcorn has been popped, collectables are being purchased, and Mike is taking pictures and interviewing some of the people that made this event here possible.  As soon as they become avilable I will post them online on this blog as well as thisweekingeek.net for everyone's enjoyment.

While of course I am blogging the entire thing.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the time that we are here as I attempt to convey the fun that we are all having.

1:00pm – Princess Leia and a Rebel Pilot has just arrived and Mike is talking with them now.  Expect an audio interview soon.

1:01pm – A raffle of a R2-D2 Pepsi cooler has just started.  Of course you know that Mike and I entered.

1:03pm – Mike had brought over some FX-Lightsabers and some kids have asked to take some pictures with them.  Great kids. 

1:05pm – Movie is about half over.  Obi Wan just took down the forcefields, and our intrepid crew has just escaped the infamous Trash Compactor Monster.

1:07pm – A stormtrooper walked in and the Rebel Pilot did not look happy. 

1:21pm – Lost Wi-Fi signal for a bit, but back online and so far the Rebel Forces are now massing an attack towards the Death Star.  Meanwhile the kids are loving the lightsabers.

1:25pm – Just got free Pizza, Water, and Cake.  Sometimes it pays to be in Media!  hehe

1:27pm – The Dark Lord of the Sith, Vader has just arrived.

1:32pm – Just survived a Sith Death Grip.  I mistakenly said that Vader was short guy wearing platform shoes.  Man that was close!

1:36pm – The Death Star has just been destroyed!!!  The Rebels are victorious!!

1:40pm – Mike is now in a fight to the death with Darth Vader!  Who will be victorious?!

2:00pm – Event is over.  It's been a major blast!  Expect pictures and audio from us soon!

May the Force be with you, today of all days.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Wow, I have been a veteran Internet user for some time now, and I have never seen a revolution like this.

For those not in the know that code that is in my lovely title is not just some random combination of letters and numbers.  That would be dumb.  That is the encryption key for several HD-DVD's that are in the market right now!  You can, if you have an HD-DVD player, hack these little suckers and that's the code that will deactivate the copyright AACS encryption.  Which the MPAA is trying to take down.  I don't think it's going to work now.

Now this whole thing started on Digg where the users flooded the site with tons of stories with this code in it.  But it then went crazy like wildfire clogging up Ted Steven's Tubes like we really don't want Ted Stevens to get his email.

There is already a song on the Woot Podcast about this
There is several photoshopped images of this code
There's a tattoo
There's even a Facebook Group!

It's so cool that users are finally standing up to the big corporations and saying, “We like your content, just quit putting up walls for us to get it”

The Internet is sick of the dumb restrictions that harm users that just want to use content THAT THEY'VE BOUGHT anyway they wish.

So Vive le Revolution people!

I need to get me some HD-DVD's

Toodles!

Steve “Revolutionist # 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0″ Saylor

]]>

Hey everyone,

So summer is here at last, and it is hawesome!!  The weather is finally turning around and to look outside at the gorgeous sun, I can't help but want to go outside like I did when I was a kid and play Street Baseball or Football.

Which brings up an awesome memory that I haven't thought about for quite a while.  I remember growing up in what we call the “West End” of St. Catharines Ontario, my best friend lived two doors down from us and we went to the same school for a while.  The best time of our lives was the summer time.  We spent more time outside than I ever do now that I'm older.  We would play baseball on the street using different objects as the bases.  A cable node box for first base, a large tar filled crack on the street for second, a tree on a neighbor's lawn for third, and another large tar filled crack as home plate.  We never had a pitcher, because we barely had even 5 kids on our street to play, so the person up to bat would throw up the ball in the air and hit it himself.  I was never good at it.  To put it bluntly, I was never really good at sports.  My brother and my best friend Chris were.  I was always jealous of that.

Another game we would play was Street Football, we would play spanning the front lawns on our street using Driveways as the end zones.  Of course I was never good at receiving the ball with my eyesight and all, however I apparently was good at Quarterback.  Go figure huh?  I would love to call plays and throw the ball to whomever I chose.  I was the oldest out of all our group, so it was cool to be good at something athletic, and be a leader.  I remember that I wanted to actually try to play football in an actual league, but my parents wouldn't allow it because of my eyesight.  However, my dad had an old high school football jersey that he wore which had the number 55 and in big block letters SAYLOR written across the back.  I always wanted it, and only a year ago he gave me that jersey and every time I wear it I think of those times playing football in the yard.

I look back at all those memories and sometimes even though it was such a long time ago, it seems like yesterday I would ask my parents if I could go outside and play.

During my teenage years, our family moved on and we lost touch with Chris, which really sucked.  I never really had any good friendships like that for a long time.  Sure I had friends, but never anyone that I could hang out with on a regular basis.  It wasn't until last year that I got a piece of my childhood back where I finally have some new best friends to make new memories with.

Sure I will never get to play those summer games like that again, but things change, people grow up.  The memories will always live on.

Before I end this post, here are two video blog posts I made last year almost around this time.  These are my summer memories that I hope they inspire you to make your own childhood memories come to life.

Enjoy.

Toodles!

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/summer-games-and-summer-memories/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/first-year-down-2-more-to-go http://stevesaylor.net/blog/first-year-down-2-more-to-go#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:31:44 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

Well, it's been eight months since I started my Broadcasting program, and I am glad to say that I have officially finished Year One!!

Wootage!

Even though I have two years left to go, I still think that it's awesome that a third of my college career is done.

I can't believe though what I've done in the past 8 months that is sooo awesome.  I've met some really cool people, started a really fun, award winning, and becoming a popular podcast, also I learned so much about my eventual career.  Wow life can change drastically in eight months.

Yep, I rule.  LOL

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball rules” Saylor

P.S.  I don't know what my final marks are, but they are on par with last term even a little bit better.

]]>

Hey everyone, school has been a bit hectic lately, but I must tell you about what has happened to me in the past few hours.

First of all, Mike and I were nominated at our school for our Broadcasting end of year awards called the GRAFITI's.  We were nominated for best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM The school's radio station.  We thought we had a good chance.  We knew some of the shows that wanted to be nominated and had sent in submissions along with us.  We thought that there would be at least 5 or 6 nominations.  Little did we know it was much more important than that.

First of all, this was the first year the award existed.

Second, apparently the professors were the ones who voted on who won.

Thirdly, there were only three nominations.  The profs chose one show for each of the three years in the Broadcasting course.  So they chose our show as the best first year show, which is awesome.

So today Mike and I got out our Sunday best and attended the 2 and a half hour award ceremony.  It was fun.  I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob.

And we won!  We won!  We Won!  WE WON!!!

Suffice it to say we beat out all the entries and won out of almost 20 shows the best Specialty Show.  Man were we stoked!!  We were told by tons of people that Mike and I deserved it, and even some teachers gave their congrats.  It was sooo surreal.   We beat out Third and Second year shows!  A first year show doing that?  Come on that's just awesome!

I would love to write up a short story about the event, but I am sooo hyper right now that I can't get my thoughts down into a cohesive story that has a beginning middle and end.

I may or may not write about it.  I want to write the story that seems interesting instead of it being, “Then this happened, and then this happened.” kind of deal.  I'll have to figure something out.

Suffice it to say thank you to everyone who listened to our show and supporting Mike and I throughout these past few months.

We did take tons of pictures and a video of our acceptance speech so be prepared for that soon.

At any rate, I'm going to go admire at the trophy that we won.  It looks cool.  LOL

Toodles!

Steve “Award Winning podcaster Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Well, the voting is over, the contest is closed, and there can only be one winner.  My utmost congratulations goes out to Brenna Pierson on winning the G4TechTV Tech Junkie contest.  It came really close, and I'm glad to say that I went up against the best, and I'm glad I'm beaten by the best.

I also want to take the time to thank everyone who voted for me over the past weeks, it really means a lot when I get contacted by someone that I know and say, I voted for you.  I feel bad that it didn't pay off in the end, and I'm sorry that all that hard work didn't get the end result we all wanted, however like I said, I wanted to go up against the best, and the best won.

Am I upset?  Of course, but hey it's what happens.  Much like someone who loses at the Oscars, I will take this experience and learn from it.  It's the only thing I can do.

So in conclusion, anyone want to hire a Broadcasting student for the summer?  LOL

Once again congratulations to Brenna, and I know she is going to have an awesome summer.

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

I have awesome, fantastic, super, great, uber, so-freakin-cool news that I can't wait to share. 

And I will need your help.

I can't say what it is yet, but wait until Monday April 2nd to find out how you can help make my news even better!!!!!!

How's that for vague?

Toodles!

Steve “Super Snowball” Saylor

]]>

There is one thing that I learned never to underestimate when it comes to this blog, and that is audience.

Oh sure, I would love to have a huge audience, I think I've talked about this before, but I never really understood how big of an audience this blog has accumulated.

As an example, I have a podcast called “This Week in Geek” (small plug) and I use Dreamhost.com to host the site.  Great site by the way, use coupon code SNOW if you want to get a discount on signing up.  Now, with dreamhost, and like any other web hosting company, you can keep track of statistics on your site.  Who's come from where, how many hits there is, etcetera, etcetera.  With these stats, I just happened to check the overall stats for the month of February when the podcast first really launched, and guess who was the top referrer? …. Yep this blog.

It was weird seeing that at the top of the list of referrers was my blog!

And, I'm not talking small numbers here.  For the entire month of February I had over 600 hits to thisweekingeek.net.  600 hits?!  Are you kidding me?!

Wow, I never thought that there is that many people out there who are reading what I type.  Now sure I am assuming that it's not 600 individual people who came to TWiG from my blog, and I am expecting several repeat click-throughs.  But, still….wow.

Thank you to everyone that reads what I have to say and cares about what I say and do.  I originally started my blog as a way to keep my writing skills going, and I started a blog on Vox because Leo told me how great Vox was, and I still think Vox is awesome.  I've had my blog for almost a year now here, and I still love this community and this blog, the same as when I started.

So if you're out there and you are reading this….thank you.  Let me know what you like about this blog, let me know what you would like to see more of, more stories, more fun stuff, videos, anything I should do less of?  I'm asking this because I know how powerful a community can be, so I'm reaching out to the According to Snowball community.  let your voices be heard and accounted for!

That is all.

End transmission

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

You know there are times when I wonder why people blog.

Sometimes it's to talk about what people do on a daily basis.
Sometimes it's to report the news.
Sometimes it's to promote things that people are doing.

Trust me I've wondered those things myself on why I blog.

Sometimes it's good for me to get things off my chest.
Sometimes I'm excited to tell other people what I'm doing at that moment.
Sometimes it's I just want to wear my heart on my sleeve and just go straight from the gut.

Sometimes….

Sometimes I want to SCREAM!
Sometimes I want to reflect
Sometimes I am excited, and
Sometimes I am upset

(Wow that rhymed)

Sometimes I want to write
Sometimes I want to goof off
Sometimes I want to evangelize, and
Sometimes I want to do nothing at all

When I started this blog post
A poem this wasn't meant to be.
Because, all I wanted to do was
say sometimes I want to just be me.

(Wow that rhyming stuff is good)

*Insert comic book guy voice here* Worst….poem….ever!

Toodles everyone, Toodles all around.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor
Worst…poet…ever

Comic Book Guy

]]>

You ever feel like people's perceptions of you are so off base that they make you want to do something drastic?

Pray that I don't.

]]>

Me doing TWiG

I signed up for twitter.  Yes, that's right, twitter.

Want to add me?  I need friends.  And lots of them!  I want to be the first one to have the most amount of friends on twitter.  hehehehe

Here's my twitter:  http://twitter.com/stevesaylor

Damn you Web 2.0!!!

Toodles for now.  Going to a pseudo birthday party

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

I don't know where that quote came from, I think I may have made it up.  If I did, wow me!  I patent it right now!!

At any rate, you ever get into those slumps where you have a lot to talk about but everything is so blocked up in your head, you can't actually get things down?

Well thats me lately, especially in my writing.  My original goal was to have a lot of stories written this week for my book, but nothing materialized.  I got a lot done for my show, but beyond that nothing.

It's weird sometimes being a creative person.  You kind of expect that at the right times you are to sit down and develop in your mind this masterpiece.  It may not be a masterpiece to the world, but in your eyes it's just as important as one.

The creative guy inside of me(I call him George) is telling me to “Get off my lazy ass and write!”  Then there is another side of me, the logical side of me(I call him Larry) telling me “Wait, you have to get things done first, you need to rest your body this week.  You will never get a chance to relax until school's out.”  That is true, however to me writing is relaxing.  Arrrgh so frustrating!

Larry and George are not speaking to each other at the moment.  Hence the blockage.

Suffice it to say, I want to write, and who do I look for inspiration?

Wil Wheaton.

Suprise, suprise.  Amazingly enough what he wrote in yesterday's post was exactly what I am feeling, but didn't know what it was until I read it.

That is why, Wil if you are reading this, I am dedicating the book to you.

Wow, I am a geek.  Wait, I am a Geek!!!  Not a bad title!!

……uh I need to go.  Larry and George “need to talk”

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

So we had tons of fun today with all the sessions and the people that we met are freakin fantastic. Right now myself and Mike are sitting in our hotel room lobby working, but before we head off to the Podcamp After Party tonight, I thought I would share some Photos of the day so far.

Check out our Photos section of our website for all the photos. Or click the image below to go to our Flickr Page

Look it's Uncle Seth, myself, Andy Walker, Amber MacArthur, and Mike!

Yeah we rule!

Until next time

Steve “snowball” Saylor
- Host This Week in Geek

]]>

We are here!!!

Podcamp 2007 baby! We'll be posting live updates throughout the day so be prepared!

11:39am – We just finished a session of how to build our own brand which was freakin' awesome.  A guy named Mitch talked about having one to one conversations and one to many conversations.  Talking to people and starting up a conversation you are making a connection and a literally building your brand

Now we are going to know how to be a part of a community.

]]>

You ever have one of those days where everything is coming at you so fast that you all of a sudden slow down enough to realize that everything is coming at you so fast?

Does that even make sense?  Well at 3am, yes, yes it does.

TWiG – Promo Shot 003

Wow what a rollercoaster ride of life I've been on.  And thank God that I'm on the fun going down part.  The radio show This Week in Geek is going so extremely well.  My expectations for this show have far far far far far far surpassed anything I could've imagined.  Not only have we in only just a month launch the show, launch a website, get permission to podcast our show, been featured in our college newspaper, and being told we have the top rated program on the station, but in a few hours I'm heading to Toronto to attend PodCamp where we hope we can expand our audience even more to our podcasting friends.

I can't tell you how happy I am with the show.  The on-air chemistry Mike and I have is incredible.  Honestly I've only known him less than a month and it seems as if we have been friends for years.  People have noticed too.  Even radio professionals have told both of us that we should get into radio full time.  That's how good people are saying we are.  Everyday Mike and I keep telling ourselves that we rule just because we are so happy of the outcome that this show has given us.  We are definitely not ruling out possibly doing this show as a full time paying job.

That's weird for me.  I mean I've been involved with cool projects before, like SWack, and The War Room, and I honestly loved doing those shows, but this is different.  The goals we have on this show seem more attainable than before.

Anyway, I know I keep ranting on just the show, but my life recently is still just as good.  Not as great as I would like, but hey things happen, and I know things are going to change soon. Especially on the front of creative writing.  I want to write more stories.  I've been dying to write more creatively, but when I sit down to do it, life priorities distract me.  I know that's part of life and the things you want to do sometimes take the backburner, but I am going to try within the next week(next week for me is Spring Break) to actually sit down and flesh out the majority of the book I want to write.

Anyway, I will leave you to your web surfings as you ride these tubes, make sure you stop by and comment to me.  Talk to me Internet.  Tell me what your part of the rollercoaster of life you are on.

Toodles!  See you in Toronto!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Well, it's finally here! Teh moment you've all been waiting and requesting for. The official podcast feed of This Week in Geek is finally ready for subscription.

Click here to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes!

This Week in Geek Logo

Well it’s about that time again in the week folks!

Much like when you were a kid and your mom would let you go outside and play Transformers, Mike “The Birdman” Dodd and Steve “Snowball” Saylor are allowed to go outside and just be geeks.  Even if we are never actually outside but inside a little glass booth which doesn’t give us any outside air or really any exercise because as a geek who really exercises at least not us anyways because we’re geeks like that.

*Breath* Anyway….

Make sure to tune in to This Week in Geek this Wednesday February 7th at 4:30pm EST on 90.1 FM The New Heat.  Or you can tune in online using Winamp or iTunes by going to http://72.38.7.118/listen.pls

Tune in, email us any questions you have and make sure to check out our website at thisweekingeek.net for all show notes or join our myspace at myspace.com/thisweekingeek

Your geeky friends

This Week in Geek

P.S.  Make sure to stop by the booth we'll be taking pictures and maybe a video or two to be added to our website.  We would love to hear and see some of you.  Yes we are that brave.  You know if you're in the area.

]]>

A bowl shaped device lowers down onto our hero's head.  Flashing lights and wires cover its outer surface while foam that normally is covering the inside of expensive equipment cases cover the inside to make the device as “comfortable” as possible.  The glowing red light of the big control panel beside our hero is glowing like a Police Siren

Our hero looks up at the LED clock that is above his head.  He can see the numbers tick down second by second while a computerized female voice counts down with him.

T minus 10….9….8….7….

Sweat starts to form on our hero's forehead, already staining the inside foam.

6….5….4…

Our hero grips the arm rests of the metal chair he is strapped to “for his own protection”

3…..2…….

Our hero cringes…..

….1…….Initiate Vox Brain Dump…..Blogging initiated.
So as I sit here on my dad's computer wondering if I'll ever get my main PC back or any other computer for that matter, I begin to think about what has happened to me in the past little bit.  Obviously the Live Lab Rats blogging and the new radio show aside, it has been a busy week.  So much so that I haven't seen my friends in almost 3 weeks now.  It's sad, I know that they want to hang out, and some need help with computer stuff, but I can't be with them as much as I want to.

Granted I am having fun with what I'm doing, but sometimes it feels like what I am doing may not matter much.

That is until this past Wednesday.  The radio show went extremely well.  My co-host Mike “The Birdman” Dodd and I started our first ever Specialty radio show not with a whimper or a “meh” but with a freakin BANG! and a BOOM!

We literally crashed the Internet streaming servers.  It kept buffering throughout the entire hour we were on the air.  We know that it was due to the influx of people tuning in, and if you were one of them, THANK YOU!  It really showed the Program Director here at the station that our show is definitely something that people enjoy.  Now how confident are we that tit was people tuning in to our show that caused the buffering and not some random computer streaming glitch?  Well, we started recording the show firfteen minutes before and after the show and there was no buffering whatsoever during those times.  From the beginning of our show right to the end it started buffering like crazy!

Man I have never been so happy to see technology fail like that.

Suffice it to say we had a great chemistry together.  Which is freakin' cool because my co-host and I talked as if we were friends for years, and yet we only knew each other for a few days.  Isn't that odd?  Even with all that, it made me realize how much fun I have in being on radio and on TV, because it feels so natural to me.  It feels as natural as putting on pants.  Oh yes I said pants.  Anyway, it felt so good to be on air again that I now have a new focus on Broadcasting that I didn't have before, and I think I found my niche in it.  That's freakin' hawesome!

At any rate we are still continuing the show every Wednesday at 4:30pm EST on 90.1 FM The New Heat.  Sof if you want to talk to us email us at feedback@thisweekingeek.net or go to thisweekingeek.net for all the updates.

Hmmm, okay what else has been on my mind lately?

Oh yeah the book writing front.  I have changed my direction for the book.  Ever since the tech support story submissions were pretty much non-existant, I had to re-focus my energy to something that I could write and very easily put together.  Hence why I'm moving into different creative writing outlets for my new book which easily translates from tech support to my new topic which is being a geek.  I admit it, I am a geek and it feels so good to be one, that I want to write about it and then to make me happy to perform it in front of an audience.  I think honestly that is my ultimate “freakin' once in a lifetime” moments.  To be able to travel to different places and perform my material from my book to an audience and get paid to do it.  I think that would be sweet.  Anyway, the book is still in progress and will be tweaked out more sometime in the near future.

What else…..what else…..

I think thats it.  Just loving life and waiting to see what cool thin will happen next.

That's it for me.

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

Blogging terminated…..Vox Brain Dump successful.  100% transfer complete.  

]]>

Hello to everyone out there in geekdom

Here is the official reminder for everyone to tune in to CRNC Radio 90.1 FM The New Heat today at 4:30pm EST.  For me it's literally in exactly 2 hours!

If you are not near Welland Ontario Canada and can't tune your radio dial(who uses dials anymore) to 90.1 FM.  Head on over to the CRNC Radio website and tune in over the Web!

You need either iTunes, Winamp or XMNS to tune into the Online Stream.  The IP address is:   http://72.38.7.118/listen.pls

Tune in, email us any questions you have and make sure to check out our website at thisweekingeek.net for all show notes or join our myspace at myspace.com/thisweekingeek

Tune in!!!!  Please?

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

I'm am sooooo excited for this that I'm giddy at 2am. Hehe

Here is the “official press release”
There are few landmarks in the history of Geekdom, such as Han Solo shooting first, the Atari 2600 and of course, the advent of such wonderful things as the Super Nintendo and the evolution that is the XBOX 360 but we bring something a little different….

We are “This week in Geek”

The hosts are Michael “The Birdman” Dodd, a refugee from some weird place whose name is lost to the mists of time. Joining The Birdman shall be Steve “Snowball” Saylor whose elite skillz make even the most elite weep at his feet…. together these people are the force behind what is destined to become the greatest geek show in history

The show will focus on all aspects of the culture which bubbles just underneath society, the world of the electron and the switch, the roleplaying game and the first person shooter, and well you get the idea.

Week to week, the hosts will entertain, educate and feature a wide variety of topics ranging from the latest comic book releases, Dvd’s, video games, the happenings in the Mac and PC world and of course, what geek show would be complete without the classic Dungeon and Dragons reference….

That’s not all….giveaways and trivia contests galore

So add us at www.myspace.com/thisweekingeek

and vist our website

http://thisweekingeek.net/

Stay tuned for all sorts of cool stuff

till then

Lower your shields and surrender your listenership

Listen to us @
http://broadcasting.niagarac.on.ca/crnc.html
and click the listen link
I really hope everyone will listen in on Wednesday. It's going to be a blast

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Hello from Toronto!

Yes that's right Snowball is in tdot and I'm in the Lab Rats studios or technically Andy's apartment.

So as your trusty Lab Rats blogger, guess what I'm going to do.  I'm going to be Blogging live while I'm here.  So stay tuned to this blog for all your Lab Rats Live Blogging needs.

1:53pm – We are currently setting up the set.  The cats are having fun wandering around and pizza has been ordered.  I just realized that I brought the wrong cable for my digital camera.  D'oh!  Pictures will have to come later.

2:24pm – After a bit of a WiFi issue, I'm back online!  Woot.  pizza is here.  Great timing!  Maybe I might have a video post soon.  As soon as I get my camcorder up and running.

2:27pm – Sean is getting his makeup on

2:30pm – Andy and Sean test their mics

2:33pm – Gary Marriot and Steve Huntriss are discussing Super Users

2:35pm – Sean looks bored as he waits for shooting to begin.

2:39pm – Biff and Boo meows.

2:41pm – Andy is having some problems with the Vista computer.  Ah Vista.   Oh wait it's fixed now

2:45pm – Shooting has begun!

2:50pm – Andy and Sean are talking about helping grandma with computer problems.

2:56pm – I just created a video post.  Video is exporting now.  Will have up in a few minutes.

3:00pm – Video done.  Trying to upload now

3:03pm – And now a commercial break!  Buy Techsmith!

3:07pm – Andy and Sean is doing a wrap up of Show One.  Video is still uploading

3:10pm – Show One completed!

315pm – Video still uploading.

3:19pm – Gary and Steve are now talking about hacking databases.  Ah to be in the presence of geeks.  I love it.

3:21pm – Three..two…one!  Show two has begun.

3:23pm – At total count, Andy has plugged his book 4 times…wait 5 times!  Buy Andy's Book The Absolute Beginners Guide to Security Spam and Spyware

3:29pm – Andy is showing some new security features in Vista

3:34pm – Andy still talking about security stuff.  Pretty easy going episode.

3:38pm – Another commercial break!

3:42pm – Show Two done!  We're rolling now!.

3:44pm – Video uploaded!!!

Lab Rats Behind the Scenes – Whacky Voices

Right click and click “Save As” to download “Lab Rats:  Behind the Scenes – Whacky Voices” video
3:55pm – Small break while we switch tapes in camera

3:59pm – Another mic test, ready to start Show three.  Last one of the day

4:01pm – Show Three has begun!

4:04pm – Andy and Sean are talking about sandboxing with a mac…..mmmmm parallels *Insert Homer Simpson drool here*

4:10pm – Running Vista on a MacBook!  Sean shows all the geeky goodness of parallels.  Andy sings, “Parallels is fun!  Parallels is fun!”

4:12pm – Woot a Snowball mention from Sean!  Sean rules!

4:16pm – Sean is installing a new OS in Parallels.  Andy sings again, “Parallels is fun!  Parallels is nice!  50 bucks its going to cost you.”

4:22pm – Show three done!

4:44pm – I finally have some photos!  Thanks Maurice for the cable and the camera, and him taking the pictures.  Here is just a few, more will come later.

Here's some more for ya:

Well that's it for me!  Thanks for reading!

Let me know what you think of this new live blogging thing.  Did you like it or didn't you like it.  Leave comments below.

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

So uh yeah, yesterday?  Don't get me started on yesterday.  Not a good day for Snowball.

First I missed my first bus in the morning to go to school.  I thought no problem, I'll catch the nest one which would've gotten me to school half hour late for a 3 hour class, but I thought no problem.  Bus issues happen.  I could easily explain that.  But no I missed that bus as well.  Why?  Well, I caught the right bus to go downtown no problem.  I was on my way, everything was going great.  But as soon as we got to the downtown bus terminal so I could transfer to another bus, that bus was leaving.  Suffice it to say I did not catch it.

This is very bad.

I know what you're saying, “Can't you take the next one again?”  Sure I would be a little bit more late than usual, but that would work if only there was another bus going to school.  Oh yes my friends, that bus that drove away was not going to come back until 4 hours later!  Yeah, Welland Transit system, kind of doesn't like me at the moment.

So, I thought might as well come home, no use staying at a bus terminal to wait for a 4 hour bus that would've gotten me to school an hour after class ended, and that was my only class for the day too.

So I wait by the right bus stop at the station for the next bus to go home.  The bus drives up, I get on, surprised that it's early, but didn't think much of it.  The bus leaves, I notice it's going in another direction.  Not opposite to where I was going, but in a different direction.  I scramble around in my brain to figure out which route it was going to take, I conclude that the bus was going still in the sam direction of my house so I thought as soon as it gets close enough I'll get off and walk the rest of the way.  No biggie.

Wrong!  Big BIGGIE!

I notice the bus takes a quick left turn…..onto the HIGHWAY!  Oh crap.  I now figure out where this bus is going.

TO NIAGARA COLLEGE!!

But don't you go there?  Why are you still mad?

Yes, that is true I do go to A Niagara College.  Just not THAT ONE!

So, I'm sitting on the bus, after leaving my house around 6:40 am it is now 9:30am.   This is just not my day.

To make a long story short-er, I talked to the bus driver, he takes me back to the terminal after dropping people off at the College and I wait for the RIGHT bus to get me home.  Keeping always on a closer eye to see the sign on the bus telling me where it's going to go.

I get home around 10:30.

Phew!

Not quite……

As I'm about to sit down on my computer to email the professor letting me know of my absense, I notice the computer is off.  I thought odd, because I didn't turn it off when I left this morning.

So I turn it back on again.

Nothing.

I try again.

NoTHING.

I try again

NOTHING!

The computer turns on!

Woo Hoo!

No Woo Hoo!  Bad Woo Hoo!

Hard Drive won't boot up.  No Signal on Monitor, CD Drives won't open.

Yeah, after talking to Tech Support Services at Best Buy(which is where I got the computer from) that said it might be a power supply issue, but they are not sure.  It's going to cost me 40 bucks + whatever parts need to be replaced to get it fixed.

I don't have that kind of cash.

So I'm now sitting here 36 hours later with no main PC, sitting on my iBook blogging about this, and I'm still not sure what the problem is with my computer, and I can't bring it in until hopefully tomorrow.

Yeah, not a good day.

Steve “Sad Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Smallville – The Complete First Five Seasons

In which fictional world/universe/land/city would you most like to live?
Submitted by glenn is the new chuck.  

DC Comics universe.  No question about it.  I would live in Metropolis, work at the Daily Planet.  Just so I could hang out with Clark, Lois and Jimmy and Perry.  Dude that would be sweet.  Plus also, if anyone from Smallville is reading this blog.  I would love the opportunity to have a small part in the show.  Maybe Freak of the Week, but anything would totally rock!

*End transmission of Snowball PSA*

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Step

….one giant leap for his publishing career.

Oh yes my friends, I am no longer a person who says they want to be a writer and pretends to be a writer and when asked if I am a writer I can say with a coy smile, “Oh yes, I am a writer.”

As my new Editor told me in an email I just received not five minutes ago, today I just lost my publishing virginity..

And before you ask, oh yes it was good for me.

What started as a somewhat New Years Resolution for me to become a paid Published Journalist/Writer is now one step closer to realization.  As Neil Armstrong was stepping onto new territory, new worlds, I so am stepping into new territory and new worlds.  No long I am sitting on the sidelines of life saying “I wonder if.” I can now pick myself up run onto that field and be a part of the game.  I may not be the Quarterback, but hey at least I'm not a Sub sitting on the bench.

How is this feat possible you ask?

Well, for the past few weeks there has been something brewing on the Snowball home front that I've been dying to tell everyone here on Vox, but I didn't want to talk about it, if for whichever reason it was not going to happen.

As I mentioned before I got a volunteer job writing the blog over at labrats.tv.  I love it, so far I have made a total of 10 posts since the 8th of December and I'm happy about that.

Now cut to a few weeks later and I'm thinking about trying to become a Freelance Writer.  After sending emails and applications up the wazoo applying for Writing jobs, no nibbles.  Nothing.  I felt like a lonely fisherman saying he was a fisherman but catching no fish.  There was only one hope and that was my friend Andy Walker.  He owns his own Technology help site called Cyberwalker and he has articles about how to make the technology in your life that much easier.  So, I email him up, seeing if there was some suggestions he could make as to how to go about being a freelance writer.  I even asked if Cyberwalker was needing writers.  He told me that although he could not right now recommend any particular job at the moment he did recommend working for Cyberwalker and then at least that will get me started.  So I took him up on his offer.   It's not paid, however a person has to start somewhere.  Now, I just need to keep on writing so that by the end of this year I can write on this blog that I am an official Paid Published Writer.  Won't that kick a little ass?

Cut to to the present with a flashy Cross Dissolve and as of today, January 17, 2007 my very first article as a Tech Journalist is now online!!!!!!!!

You can check it out here and see for yourself.

Now as my editor Peter just told me in a response to the email he sent me five minutes ago, I must go and write, write and write some more, eh?

Wow, this is a hawesome feeling!

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Mike Mcgee

So I was crusin' the Interweb's time wasters, and I found this post from my friend Amber.  She went to a Poetry Slam event in Toronto where I found about this guy named Mike McGee.  He is a Slam Poet Extraordinare.  Even now I don't really know what Slam Poetry is, but if it is anything like what Mike performs, well I'm definitely interested.

Sometimes I found people like Mike and I am amazed at what a creative people we meat sacks of humans are.  Plus the effect that one creative person has on another is to me really intoxicating.  Oh yes, I get high off of creative minds turning.  The hamsters on the wheels of creative minds spinning round chock full of creative goodness…..I need a moment.

Ok, I'm good now.

Where was I?  Oh yes, Creative people.  It's people like my friends Shane and Brian that I love hanging out with because they have that creative mind too.  As you know Shane, Brian and I are writing our own books(which BTW Shane got his preview copy of his poetry book in the mail the other day.  Woot!), and with that we always get together every week and write stuff.  We throw ideas back and forth, ask for feedback, comments, and help if needed.  It really keeps a creative mind motivated.  This week I really needed that because for the past few weeks with Christmas, Exams, and such I've been lacking in my creative outlets such as writing.

So Thank God for Mike that his stuff is out there on the Tubes that gives me that creative push on the ice to keep my skates moving.

Thanks Mike, if you ever read this.  You have a new fan like two likes three and four likes six (because, five has issues).

Toodles!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

]]>

Do you ever get that time where there was a perfect Kodak moment that you wish you could take a picture or a small video clip and you don't have a camera on you?

Well that's what happened to me today.

Man, I definitely need to get myself a cheap small digital camera that I can carry in my pocket because this was missed Kodak moment was priceless.

Picture this, I'm at school, I'm waiting for a bus to take me home so I avail myself of sitting on some couches that are in the hallways which is close by to a Wi-Fi access point.  So I start to log on not really paying attention to whats around me when all of a sudden I hear this low grating noise.  It starts slow and quiet then starts to get louder and louder.  I look over to my left and sitting in a very comfortable postion is a guy sleeping with his head resting on the back of the couch.  His Sports cap is resting comfortably over his face, obviously he intended to sleep.  Thing is this guy is snoring up the wazzo!  I mean it is so loud that as I'm writing this someone just walked by listening to this and he comments that he could hear it down the hall!!

I couldn't believe it!  I immediately searched for a camera in my bag…nothing.  Camera phone?  Battery dead.  Damnit!  So what do I have?  I have to capture this moment.  So I think of the only thing I can do.  Record his, uh, audio bellowing.

So I did, and I now share this with Vox.  Enjoy.  You can really hear him around the 28 second mark.

Snore

Oh crap he just woke up.

Wait now that I think about it, it's probably a good idea I didn't have a camera.  Just the audio recording alone is worth it.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well, it's officially been more than a week since Christmas, and silly me I didn't even tell anyone about it on Vox.  Man, I'm not living up to the Voxionary name this week.  But granted it was the holidays, so I do have a bit of a good excuse right?

Christmas 2006
3 comments

Well at any rate, the Snowball Family Christmas went off with a bang.  It started with my birthday obviously and it didn't even stop.  The biggest enjoyment I had was being able to spend Christmas Eve with my close friends and family.  Our family had a “Christmas Eve Open House”  Where we invited people over and they can come and go as they please.  Normally our family tradition was to have Christmas Eve dinner, which always consisted of Meatball Subs.  Trust me you have never really had a Christmas dinner without gorging yourself on Meatball Subs.  We only really eat them one time as a family throughout the year and it is usually Christmas Eve.  I don't know why that is, but trust me they are good, and great on the wallet too.  We also usually after dinner would grab a whole bunch of snacks such as Chips, Cheese, Cabassa, Candy Cane Ice Cream, etc, and we would watch either “It's a Wonderfull Life” or “A Christmas Story(which happens to be my favorite Christmas movie, because I seriously look and feel like I'm Ralphie Parker)”

Now that is normally our family tradition, but for the past two years the Open House replaced that.

Matt Devine, Summer 2004

Which brings up a good story.  Last year when we first tried this Open House concept, I had my friend Matt over and he really wanted to play Halo on my XBox in my room.  Well for those of you who haven't been to my house, I literally live in the basement of the house.  I have a Rec-Room(which is where the big Home Entertainment system is hehe) and I have a bathroom, and a laundry room.  So I basically have a basement apartment except no kitchen, and no shower in the bathroom.

So anyway, the night wears on, and it starts to get late.  The majority of the guests have left except for my brother's girlfriend and Matt.  I go upstairs to the Living Room while Matt is still playing Halo.  I'm sitting upstairs talking to my family for nor more than half an hour and all of a sudden the conversation stops for a second, and all you hear coming from the downstairs is this loud, “YESS!”  My Dad then asks who that was, and I said it was Matt.  My family laughed so hard because they forgot that Matt was still down there and didn't even realize it!!!

If that doesn't tickle your funny bone, well I guess you had to be there.  It was funny okay!

Anyway, moving on with my Christmas recap….

So after everyone had gone, and all the guests were accounted for and left.   We all went to bed and woke up around 9:30ish on Christmas morning.  It was really weird for our family to be up at that time because we are up so early Christmas morning that it is usually still dark outside.  This time, bright and sunny.  “Wow, so that's what the sun is like in the morning,” I thought.

So, after all the crinkling of wrapping paper and the obligatory, “How did you know's,” “I love it's,” and “You got what I wanted's,” was said and done, Christmas was done.  But now with the added bonus items we can now store in our rooms and play with for a long time.

IPod

My main gifts this year was:

- 30 GB Black Video iPod – Yes I finally replaced my now dead 3G iPod.  Boo freakin ya!  However, I can still use my old iPod as a 10GB Hard Drive.  That is totally worth it.
-  Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0 (Upset that it is only half the season, but hey that's the Distributor's fault not my parents)
- A 12″ Walking Robosapien
- A Superman Calender
- A Superman remote control Monster Truck
- Plus many more small little things that are too many to mention.

Superman II – The Richard Donner Cut

On a side note though, the gifts that my friends got me I definitely cannot go without mentioning.

- From Brian =  Superman II:  The Richard Donner Cut – This has to be my now all time favourite movie.  Plus one of the best gifts I have received this year
- From Shane – Lewis Black's book called Nothing Sacred, and a book on how to be a Superhero(Which both Brian and I got because we are huge Superhero fans)

So all in all Christmas and a fun New Years Eve with my friends really put a good ending period to a great year.  I will never forget 2006.  That will be the year I will look back on and after telling my Life Story, I can conclude by saying “…and that's when it all started.”  I love those kinds of years.

Well, I hope you all had a good Christmas and a great New Years, and now let's move forward into 2007.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Happy 2007!

Well, it's official 2007 is finally here!!!!!  Well at least for me on the east coast. 

I wanted to say to all my neighbors that it's has been a beautiful year, and the next one will be even better!

The Holidays were awesome, and I'll have a full recap of it later today.

This past year has meant a lot to me more so than any other year.  I mean lets face it, you have Call For Help and getting into a College Broadcasting Program all in the same year, plus being able to hookup with new friends and past friends that have now become my best friends, you can't really top that.  2006 was the beginning of my path into a career and adulthood, and it's not as scary as I thought.

But enough of this sentimental bull hooky of reflections and feelings!  Who needs that?!

*hands out virtual wine glasses and pours wine/apple juice(gotta look out for the kids) to all my Vox neighbors*
Here's to 2007.  May it bring hope, happiness, joy, love, peace, and prosperity to all.
Down the hatch!

*Hickup*

Tood*Hickup*les!

Steve *Hickup* Saylor “Snowball”

*Hickup*

]]>

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!  From Snowball, Shane, Robin, Joanne and Brian!

Christmas 2006
3 comments

]]>

I just wanted to post about something that my friend Andy Walker started.

A non-profit organization called Little Geeks is where a person can donate their old computers to give to underprivileged children.  I am a big proponent to help those children less fortunate than we are.  My dad is a Children's Pastor and has made a living on helping underprivileged children, and I have been helping him for more than 15 years.  So I know what it means to help a child, especially around Christmas time.

So if you have a spare moment I urge you to Vote on the project by clicking this link to go to Givemeaning.com to help Little Geeks get funding.  They only need 90 more votes within 30 days to receive funding.  It's free to vote, and if you want to donate you can as well.   It isn't necessary, but I encourage you to.

If you want more info about Little Geeks go to littlegeeks.org

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

You know what I'm just going to say it, I'm damn lucky.

No really, I am.  I'm so damn lucky I make the short little guy on the Lucky Charms box who has an obsessive compulsive attraction to rainbows and cereal, which could possibly make him a stereotypical gay leprechaun, look like a short midget pedophile.

I'm lucky in the way my life is leading right now, I'm lucky with the amount of friends I surround myself with, I'm just so damn freakin' lucky!  They should put a picture of me on that Lucky Charms box.  But then I would just look like Powder had just traded in his magnetic powers for rainbows and sugar, and all that sugar does not bode well for anyone.

Sure there are problems.  Who wouldn't have them?  But, my problems go away when I think about the positive things that make me smile.  Whether it be when my friends call me up just to hang out, or when my sister is scared of going into High School that I am there to comfort her.  Even when I just sit at home watching DVD's either by myself or with my family, I can't help but smile all the more.

But, there is one sad note to this little heart-wearing-on-sleeve rant, it's that some people may not be that lucky.  I'm here to tell you that you are.  When things are looking so bad that you may not even know how you are going to eat tomorrow, please try to find something positive in you.  There is one.  There is always one, and sometimes one positive thing is all you need.  It can drive away any negative emotion.  It can drive away the worry, the self-doubt, the pity party.

You want to know what that positive lucky thing is?

It's that you are lucky just to be you.

Now go on, get out of here, go eat some Lucky Charms.  You deserve it.

And bring me back a box will ya?  I'm starvin' over here!

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

So, I've been under a lot of pressure lately to find a new job.  Pressure not necessarily from anyone else, but from myself.  The place where I work (A Call Centre none the less) is extremely boring and frustrating at the same time.  I make the same three calls all day everyday.  But anyway thats beside the point, I'm making the effort to find another job and that is what I'm going to do.

With that in mind, I have been intrigued of the idea of being paid to be a professional blogger.  I love blogging(duh, I'm here on Vox aren't I?), and I want to make good use of this as a career.  It works great with my school schedule, as well as it expands my creative writing.  Furthermore I also do love writing.  Case in point my new book project.  So I have been looking online for ways to become a professional blogger.

The best place I came up with is Weblogs Inc.  I read their blogs constantly.  TV Squad and TUAW I read more than three times a day.  I applied using their cool Web 2.0 Ajax-ish application form on Monday.  Still haven't heard back yet, but I'm hopeful.

Which brings me to the point of this post.  Anyone out there that has some pull on people at Weblogs and would like to give a struggling Broadcasting Student a chance, help a Snowball out.

References available upon Request.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

Update:  Okay, so TV Squad just put this post up about wanting bloggers for either Lost, American Idol, and 24.  Wow, that would be great and its perfect timing too, except I'm not that big of a fanatic that they want.  Mainly I can't watch the shows live because of my current job!  That really grinds my gears.  I love those three shows, but I don't get to watch them that often so I'm behind the loop.  I don't know if I should apply or not.  They want three samples of blogs to be seen on TV Squad (which I did when I first applied) but nothing about those shows.  Whats a blogger to do?

Update x2:  Jake made a good comment to just apply then get a TiVo in regards to the TV Squad job posting.  I replied, but I wanted to give my response here as well.  It explains why its hard for me to apply for that specific job.

Here's the comment I posted:
I'm debating it, but like I said, I'm not that big of a fanatic for those shows.  I feel I would cheat the audience for those shows because I don't know as much.  I mean if I had the time I would research more about it, but I just don't.  I've come under the situation before with the podcast I did with Alex Albrecht about Star Wars Galaxies.  I was only into it because I was requested by Alex to do the show.  You could totally tell I wasn't as big of a Galaxies expert as Alex was. 

Like I said I would cheapen the audience.

I could use the same email address they gave to apply directly to TV Squad for something else though.  That might work.
Feedback anyone?

]]>

As soon as I saw this I had to show it.  I remember watching TechTV when I was a young teenager and thinking it would be my dream job to work on that show.  Well 8 years later I'm not working for the Screen Savers but I did get to work for Call For Help.  Thats close enough right?

DellParody Screensavers

Trust me when you watch this, you will miss TechTV even more.  I forgot how funny these commercials were.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

P.S.  Check out Leo in the back.  hahaha

]]>

This was a post I made for the Labrats blog

Merry Christmas from the Labrats Team

T’was a few days before Christmas
And all through Andy’s House
Biff and Boo were stirring
While chasing a mouse

Sean was editing Lab Rats 55 with care
With hopes that the fans would enjoy and stare.
Intro to Linux was what this episode was about
“It’s really easy!” Sean said, while Andy pouts.

Its been a good year for the labrats team
Trips to CES, Macworld and PME
Topics of Vista, Macs and Motherboards too
Was there anything this dynamic duo can’t do?

But before you enjoy this Christmas 2006
We remind you to give a child a Little Geeks Christmas wish.
So as we wrap up this year good and tight
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”
P.S. The picture was made by me.  Just had a little bit of fun in Photoshop

]]>

What the title said.  I hate having to write exams because it feels like I'm regurgitating information that is not needed.  It causes uneeded stress only to somewhat prove you can cram information in your brain that you can barf on the paper.  It makes no sense.

Anyway here are the exams I have this week.

Here are the exams I had on Tuesday:

TV Production – I did really well.  If I didn't ace it I will be really upset

Film Production – Did okay, not great but ok.  Possibly in the 70s or 80s precent range

Computer Applications – Did really good.  Update – Got 57/65 on the Exam 87% baby!  Way better than the midterm.

Here are the three exams I have today:

Radio Production – Exam was okay, there was a bunch of us that studied together and we think we did alright.  Some questions through us for a loop, but overall not too bad.

Writing for the Media – Within hours after taking the exam we got our marks back.  I got 46/60!  Which is 80 percent.  Woot!  Overall in that course I have an 84 percent!  Thats what I like to see.

Broadcast Journalism – Was tough, there was one section that was so confusing that the professor had to explain exactly what she wanted to the entire class.  Overall I think I did okay.  Not the greatest but good enought to at least get in the 75 to 80 percent range.

What I have tomorrow:

Current Events – Took that today and it was okay as well.  Some questions were extremely easy and some made me think, but overall I did okay again.

I'll keep everyone updated soon as to how I did. – Update:  Now with the exams done, I'll keep everyone updated on the marks as they come in.  Heres hopin'

Here's hoping for an 80 percent average overall!

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well, today is my birthday (23rd if you must know)and you know where that will get me, bloated stomach from cake, brain overloaded with birthday wishes(which I don't mind by the way), and lots and lots of freakin presents!  Damn straight, there better be…….lots of……freakin……presents.

Okay, okay.  Maybe one or two would be really nice.

At any rate, I'm going to say Happy Birthday to me!

Thanks me!

]]>

I'm making this post to patent this phrase as mine before it gets out and someone else takes it.

I said it live on Hak5radio.com and XNETRadio.com on the Dank and Chew Show tonight.  It was fun.   Anyway here's the phrase.  It's a gamer phrase.

“Welcome to the noob store, How may I pwn you?”

Boo…..freakin….yah!!!

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well, I guess the analogy if a Snowball calls out into the Web is there anyone to hear him definitely does not apply according to this humble blogger.  Because people definitely heard me.  It seems that within the past two days of posting my thoughts on what I wanted to do online has gotten a big response.  At least for me anyway.  Getting 7 comments in 2 days is pretty darn good in my book.  First of all thank you for caring, and thank you for writing.

I was going to post my thoughts and responses to the feedback I have gotten, however I thought since other people and even myself couldn't explain it any better than what was posted in the comments, I will post the comments here for you.  Every response is something genuine, and special to me that really helped me figure out the chaos that is my life right now online.

So here goes:
Comments
Naamah wrote:
on Dec 6, 2006 at 4:52 AM | Reply | Delete
Everyone wants to be successful. It's normal. And everyone goes through copycat phases….as silly as we feel for it sometimes, it's just us trying to become inspired. One day you'll get it, no worries.

(And sometimes I wish I had a bigger audience too, secretly.)
Steve Saylor replied to Naamah’s comment
on Dec 6, 2006 at 4:55 AM | Reply | Delete
Well I hope I do.  It's starting to get stressful though.
Shinmaryuu wrote:
on Dec 6, 2006 at 6:06 AM | Reply | Delete
When it comes to this new medium i think it's not about success or failure yet. That should be left for commercial media who always have to compete with each other for air time and money. We are more like Woodstock. It don't matter how big the band is that plays etc it just matters everyone is together and fighting for something. What i have decided with my new show is i don't care if i have 5 viewers because i enjoy doing it. That and just trying to be different. I just want to be part of the movement more than making a million or having 100 adoring fan girls….although that would be ok .

When you break it down there really is only 3 things to do to do your best in indy media. 1 be consistent with your releases. All the big boys do this like Hak5, Twit, CommandN, etc all have regular releases to keep people locked in. 2 always be there for your fans. Your pretty much selling yourself so if your there for people they will be there for you. Your actually darn good at this . 3 is just always make sure your having fun doing the show because that is what is going to get you though the times like this where you feel the like tree in the woods that falls, can anyone hear me.
Steve Saylor replied to Shinmaryuu’s comment
on Dec 6, 2006 at 9:20 AM | Reply | Delete
[this is good]
Thanks dude.  I do agree that this medium there is no real competition.  I think I am just feeling that the fun of it is starting to fade away.   Not due to doing the shows I do, but the fact I can't keep a consistent schedule as the rest of the shows do.  It's just frustration on my part.  The only thing that is consistent for me right now is my school and work, and my vox blog.  I am still having fun writing on Vox, and that is what drives me to keep writing. 

I think creatively I am starting to gear towards the writing side more so than the media side, it could be because I am working on the media side at school thats where the fun is going into and my own projects suffer because I already am being creative in media at school. 

I will come back soon with cool stuff, I want to, I need to.  But hopefully I can get to a point where I can be consistent with what I do.  I think that is my biggest problem. 
Eloise wrote:
on Dec 6, 2006 at 12:10 PM | Reply | Delete
I see there is already some good advice here. And I totally agree that you should do it for the fun of it and not for the sake of finding a mass audience. There are times when I wish I had more readers (or more comments) but then when I look at other places where there are large audiences, I take note that what is being presented isn't a fun thing for me to do. So I think if you just do what feels natural to you, then the audience will grow from there. Anyway, I think your doing a good job, so just keep at what is fun for you and eventually you'll get to where you want to be!
Steve Saylor replied to Eloise’s comment
on Dec 6, 2006 at 2:57 PM | Reply | Delete
[this is good]
Thanks Eloise.  That made me start to think of something I heard a while ago about if I'm interrested in something then it will come out interresting which would allow people to grow with you.  that's why I love Vox right now and I feel really good about the audience I have here on Vox.  It's because I'm interested and having fun doing what I'm doing on here.  For my other projects(other than my writing) I feel like I'm not having as much fun as I wanted to.  I don't want to give up on the audience I already have, but I felt I have tried too many times to revive an audience that I feel like everytime I “revive” myself in independent media that the audience gets smaller.  Partly because of my own doing because I'm moving things around in an attempt to simplize what I want to do. 

At any rate thank you all for your advice, it has given me some things to think about.  Keep them coming.  I still have a lot of doubts as to what my next plan of action should be at this point.  Should I give up on what I do and focus on what I like (such as here on Vox) or should I keep going the way I'm going?
Shane Shennan wrote:
on Dec 7, 2006 at 10:07 AM | Reply | Delete
Steve, I really agree with the comment that you ae great at selling/branding yourself.  There is nobody like you, and certainly nobody with your special enthusiasm.  Your podcast is a lot of fun to listen to because you are yourself.

What about having a 15 minute podcast every two weeks?
Now I haven't responded to Shane's comment yet just because there is something I wanted to talk to him in person about, so that response won't appear here.  But like I said, there are things i still need to work out, and obviously more feedback is totally welcome.  I will never refuse any help from anyone if I know I need it.  Which at this particular time, I do need it.

At any rate, some big decisions will have to be made soon, and when I do I will keep everyone posted here.  In the meantime, I need to go study for some exams and work on my new book which can be found here soon.

Take care, and I'll holla at you soon.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

You ever get that feeling that you are missing out on life?

No, I'm not making a subtle attempt to say that I'm so busy at school that I can't do the things I want to do.  I'm actually talking about something that has been plaguing me for sometime now.  It's the feeling that I get when I have friends like these that are doing so much with independent media on the Internet, and I seem to copy what they are doing.  At least that is what it seems to me.  I feel like I am in this creative copycat mode that all I want to do is do the things that my friends are doing but when I try I come off as totally inexperienced, and basically copying what others are doing.

It's tough.  I want to be successful in this independent media, but I can't seem to get that far.  Sure, I've come close, but never anything substantial.  To be quite honest the closest I have come to doing anything remotely successful is my blog here on Vox.  Here I know there are people who read what I do and care about what I say, but anywhere else, I feel like a complete failure.

Am I being too vain or self-centered to say I want to be successful?  It's hard to admit that sometimes I wish I had a bigger audience.  But in a lot of ways compared to others I don't.  I appreciate and thank everyone who actually cares what I do, but there are times where there is this lull that I feel like I'm all over the place trying to create something that people enjoy and never accomplishing that.

I guess the only real benefit and is probably the only thing I cherish the most out of producing content on the web is the people I never would've met before that I can honestly say are my good friends.  It feels good that I can talk to them and chat with them and I love that fact.

I don't know, I just feel like I missed the train and I'm failing trying to keep up.

]]>

I just wanted to publicly congratulate my best friend Shane on making it to the Vox home page with this post.

I remember when Shane got started with Vox a few months ago.  It was sooo cool to have my best friend who literaly is in my neighborhood(a few blocks away from my house) and having him blog stuff that he cares about.  I always get a kick out of what he writes, and he is talented at writing too.  I should know *wink wink*.  LOL  Sorry inside joke.

anyway, congrats Shane!  It couldn't have happened to a better person.

I promised myself I wouldn't cry…..sniff

too*snif*dles!

Steve Saylor “snowball”

]]>

Hello everyone!

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-vox-episode-002/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/what-are-you-supposed-to-be http://stevesaylor.net/blog/what-are-you-supposed-to-be#comments Sat, 28 Oct 2006 12:31:57 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

In about an hour or so I am going to a Halloween Costume party.  Not a big one, just a few of my close friends.

This is just the beginnings of what I am going as tonight.  Can you guess what it is?  I don't think so.  hehehe.

BTW, this is only the second time I died my hair black (It's temporary though, don't worry).  Don't worry though, Snowball will be back to his white self soon enough.

]]>

I am so excited for this, I cant' wait until tomorrow when Vox is released.

Of course I will lose 12 cool points when Vox goes public, but hey, if you haven't figured it out already, I LOVE VOX!

That is all.

Carry on.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Ok, I know it's kind of pointless to actually post something before I post Audio-VOX Episode 006 (which is coming later tonight), and more than likely this post is going to go below the fold(that's the part where the website is cut at the bottom of the screen so you have to scroll to see the rest of the page), but I don't care.  I'm at work and I'm bored.  Plus, I need to get a few things off my chest before I finish up work and go home.

“80 percent of the material…..continued”

Ok, so first off, I'm sorry about the tubes outburst this week.  Honestly, I am still upset.  Even more now because a friend of mine had a competition going to see who got the higher mark.  Sadly I lost by like six marks.  However, I did find something very interesting about that 80 percent.  Apparently, according to our Online college accounts where our marks are inputed, the class average for that midterm exam was 60 percent!  That's a big drop.  So not only am I crushing the class average, I am apparently still near the top of the class!!!

Isn't that odd?

To make it even weirder, I got back another mark for another midterm exam.  This time for the Current Events course I'm taking (Which by the way, the teacher for that course is really cool, and I've had her before in the past, and she definitely makes class fun, and she is more personable than any of my other teachers).  According to our lovely Online accounts again I got a 72 percent on the exam.  Still not my best, and I am upset about that one, however the class average this time is 50 percent!!

So again, not only am I crushing the class average, I'm still near the top of the class!

Add +10 to the oddness!

Anyway, that does make me feel a bit better than I was earlier in the week, but still I'm a bit upset at the marks I did get.

“Robin's Helpful Homework Hint”

I told my friend Robin I would blog about this, so here I am.  Somebody try to stop me!!!

Anyway, I was recounting my midterm story to her today (She is my ride to and from school most days throughout the week which is cool), and she gave me some good advice, which I will share in a minute.

I first need to say I have only recently realized a revelation about myself, more along the lines of my study habits.  I am a Social Studier (Patent pending)

Wait, first before I move on, I just talked to a customer in the states by the name of Adin Ofuk Abung.   Let's just say I got a few stares saying that name.   Hehehehe.  Anyway, moving on….

So yes, I am a social studier.  I love to study with other people.  Because I am an auditory learner I need the social aspect to help me learn and retain information.  So by being with a group of people either quizing me or going through lecture notes out loud really helps me when studying.

When I study alone, it's harder for me to retain the information later.  I go through everything from reading over text books to downloading the power point files of lectures and writing/typing notes from the presentations.

However, when I study alone, I usually put the studying off and other things get in the way.  Also, I will skim other places and read thoroughly in other places.  Which usually for me the times I skim over items I really need are the ones are I need for the test.

Unfortunately with being a social studier, I live in an area outside of the school vicinity so being able to study with people from my class is very limited.

Now, normally for me my studying usually happens, during the week, because I like to keep weekends free for friends.  Now, since I work and go to school during the week, my studying time alone is also very limited.

So you see my dilema, but the beauty of this is, that's where Super Happy, Helpful, Honorable, Holder of Hints that Robin is, I now present to you Robin's Helpful Homework Hint!!!!!

She relayed to me this advice to get my studying done in a social setting.  I study with my friends on the weekends!  Sounds kind of simple and so “duh, why didn't I think about that”, but to be honest I said that exact same thing when she said it.  Because, you see, my friends and I usually get together on Sunday to write.  We love to write stories and poems and such that we like to get together one day out of the week to keep our creative writing juices going.  So Robin suggested to do my studying then.  Which completely makes sense!!!

So that is what I am going to do and it still keeps me happy by a) still spending time with friends b) studying for school c) study in a social setting and d) keep me from getting more 70's on a Current Events exam.

So as I leave you to ponder that helpful hint and the plethora of H's that followed, I bid you adieu until we meet again(which is in like a few hours, so stay tuned)

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I am so pissed off at myself/school/professors/every freakin' thing!!

Wait, I need to calm down….think happy thoughts….Christmas time…..hanging out with friends……..getting better…….working at a TV studio……even better………getting a Mac……ok I'm ok now.

But man, I am still so frustrated. Today I got back my first midterm test mark back from school.

I got an 80%. An 80 freakin' percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To some people 80 is great, and under normal circumstances I would be perfectly fine with an 80. Heck 80 is great for me at times. I'm not saying I'm a poor student. I am pretty decent. Mostly my average is anything in the 80's margin. Sometimes I graduate courses in early 90's. So why the hell am I complaining?!!?!!

It was for Computer Applications. Computer freakin' Applications!!!!!!!!!!!

The most Gosh darn easy course I could ever have in the history of courses for me. I mean come on, I'm supposed to be a whiz kid in computers. I thought I was too. Until today. Apparantly I only know 80 percent of Computers.

Now, I'm not saying that I know everything about computers. I do know a lot, but not everything. Even Massive Computer experts can admit to not knowing everything. But 80?!!!!?!!!!

And I was confident, boy was I confident. Not arrogant to not study. I did study, I honestly did. I had to study about Computer History (which was fun, not happy fun, but fun) and the basics of computers, like RAM, Operating Systems, stuff like that. And we even freakin' use Macs for crying out loud!!! Freakin' Macs!!!!!

So I went into the exam confident, and I even left confident. I was so convinced that I smoked that test, I was afraid the cops would show up wondering what the heck I was smokin' If you know what I mean. I was so convinced!!! So damn freakin' convinced!!!!!

Now my confidence is so freakin' shot that I don't even think I can go into to class today to do another midterm exam. I already took 2 more, confident leaving the test, so who knows what I got now. And this is supposed to be for my future career! I'm supposed to graduate with a really high mark in Broadcasting. I want a really high mark in Broadcasting, and if I can't even get that, what hope is there for me now to even finish with an average grade let alone a good one.

A friend tells me all the time to pray about things if I'm troubled about something, and she's right.

I guess this is where faith comes in huh?

Oh well, it's worth a try.

God, I really need your help right now. You know how I want to excel in this program. You know I want to graduate with a high mark so I could stand out above the crowd, and succeed in Broadcasting. I know there are some study habits that I could change, and I'm sorry if there was anything that I did do wrong, or thought wrong, or be so arrogant enough to believe that I could go in with the knowledge I had and do well in the test. Maybe I was too arrogant to think that the information I was studying was just confirming what I already knew, but when it mattered by actually answering it on a test, I failed. So I'm sorry, and please help me with the rest of my course. I could sure use the help. In Jesus name, Amen.

80 freakin' percent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, sorry, still a bit emotional.

Hope your week is better than mine.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Sometimes there are things in life that can't be explained.  String theory, Intelligent Life in Outer Space, Galactic Space travel, How the Caramel actually gets in a Caramilk bar, where Snowball has been for the past 3 weeks.  Those are just to name a few.  Now I could go into technical explanations as to how “busy” or how “pre-occupied” I was over the past three weeks, but let's chalk it up to the unexplained, unsolved mysteries.

Suffice it to say, I am still here and kicking.  Although there was that time I was holed up in a Cave in Afghanistan for a while.  There was this weird bearded guy there who really creeped me out.  How did I escape?  Well, let's just say I got away using Ask a Ninja moves, combined with Twit-tenacity.  Oh yes, I used Ted Steven's tubes to get me home.

Anyway, in all seriousness, I wanted to let everyone know that I have just finished recording Audio-Vox Episode #006 and it will be realesed on Friday night as usual.  So your net-catchers should receive the netcast by about Saturday morning.

As far as to why I decided to post a blog today is because I just finished my first mid term exam today, and it was for Computer Applications.  Which I think I may know a thing or two about.  All I have to say was it was a bit harder than I thought it would be, however I feel really good about it and I think I totally aced it.  So I am happy.  I have 2 more midterms tomorrow, and I think 2 more on Thursday, so I have to get back to studying, but I just wanted to poke my head through the tubes to let people know that I am still here, and will be posting regularly soon.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

P.S.  Is it weird to have an itching desire to wear a turbin all of a sudden?

]]>

Flickr Photos of Inside the Net Meetup

This was taken at the Inside the Net Meetup at No Regrets Tonight in Toronto Ontario, which was a major blast!  More on that on the next episode of audio-vox.

I'm the happiest geek in the world to have been working with such great people such as these two who have been declared “the two sexiest women in podcasting”  I wouldn't say the only two, but hey I'm not the one who came up with the phrase.

Me with Cali Lewis and Amber Macarthur

P.S.  Just a side note, it felt soooo cool to be the only geek in the room sporting the TWiT hoodie.  Like I said I'm a happy geek.

]]>

So, I sat down last night to try to watch Heroes.  I was really excited.  Sure, I couldn't watch it on TV, but I was planning on watching it through the internets on NBC.com.

Heroes

So I sat down had some popcorn with me, and a nice big glass of pop and loaded up Firefox.  After using my super fast fingers I typed in NBC.com and went to their video section.  Found the “Watch full Pilot episode of Heroes here!” link and clicked on it.

I ate some popcorn with anticipation.  A pop up NBC media player opens up.  A commercial loads and I wait for the first trailer of Heroes to load.

Ok, trailer good, but let's see the real action.

Loading….

Another commercial, this time for a car….

Loading….

Eat some more popcorn and drink some caffinated fizzy drink…

Sorry, but this video is not serviceable in your area

WHAT THE SAM HELL?

I quickly refresh the screen

Loading..

Yeah ok get to the good part….

Loading..

Sorry, but this video is not servicable in your area

YOU SONS OF FRIDGES!

I freak out, I through popcorn at my screen.  Knowing that my computer didn't do anything wrong, but I needed to vent my frustrations on it.  It was the closest thing to me.   I realized that NBC only wanted Americans to see this and leave us in Canada out in the dust.

So, I furiously talked to my friend Google and asked, “Please, tell me there is a free-view of Heroes.”

Google answered with “Would you like to be a hero in bed?”

DAMN YOU TUBES!  DAMN YOU TRUCKS TO HELL!

But I did not despair.  I had my last trick up my computer geek filled sleeve.  I'm sorry to say this, but

I am officialy a pirate.

There I said it.  I'm a pirate.

I BitTorrented the episode.

There you happy now?!  You happy MPAA and RIAA with your FCC!  You ruined my internet experience!  I could have watched Heroes right when I wanted it to.  But you ruined that.

No I do not have a Tivo or a PVR….can't afford it

No I can't watch it on my Satelite….working when I could be watching it

No I can't watch it through the iTunes store…Canadian iTunes store doesn't have it.

No I can't watch it through NBC.com…I'm in Canada I can't watch it.

SO WHAT CHOICE DO I HAVE LEFT?  THAT'S RIGHT PIRATE!  YOU MADE AN HONEST PERSON A PIRATE YOU TUBE CLOGGING WHORES!!

YOU HAPPY NOW?!

…

By the way the episode was good.

Steve Saylor “Cap'n Snowbeard the pirate”

]]>

ow the dust has settled in TV land, what new show do you love?This question was inspired to me by the PopWatch Blog over at Entertainment Weekly where they were debating as to what new TV shows in the fall lineup are the breakout hits, but what really inspired me though was the comments posted by readers.  They posted the shows that they love and don't want to be canceled.  Well I would like to sbmit this as a possible Question of the Day.

To answer this question myself, I must give a disclaimer.  I don't watch a lot of TV.  Don't get me wrong, I love watching TV.  There are shows that I love watching over and over again.  Smallville being one(go figure), Simpsons, Family Guy, Friends, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek(All series), and The O.C.(Yes, I am willing to admit this one, but only as a further disclaimer that I liked the first season, the rest of the seasons are just ok).

Now that is just to name a few.

But the reason why I don't watch a lot of TV is mainly due to my work schedule that keeps me away from my TV all night.  But I do get to watch a few shows here and there.  Mostly what I do watch is podcasts.  Thats what I watch on a daily basis.  But that's another post all together.

Now granted with all the shows I listed above and the fact that I watch Podcasts more than I watch actual TV, I don't usually watch new series premiere shows when the new Fall season comes along.  Main reason, other than time constraints, is because the shows I latch onto usually get cancelled such as Firefly(obviously), and Threshold(Remember that little gem from the Star Trek creators and starred Brent Spiner as a Depressed Scientist?  It was a good show damnit!).  But this season after actually watching all the latest podcasts on my machine I decided to turn on the TV for the first time in weeks and lo and behold an actual new Series premiere was about to start!

What show was that?

It was “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip“

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip promo

A little backstory for the show, this show was created by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame.   It starred Bradley Whitford(also of West Wing fame) as Danny Tripp, and Matthew Perry as Matt Albie.  The show is a fictionalized look at the behind the scenes of a Sketch comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live, but called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I have to say I was very suprised with this show.  I liked the West Wing, but I couldn't understand all the political dialogue.  However, Studio 60 while still keeping the same kind of storytelling and visual style as West Wing had, Sorkin really blew me away with this show.  Not because I love the whole Television enviroment, but it has reinvigorated the passion and the fun of working in Television.  Sure networks can be a pain, with censors, Neilson ratings, advertisors, the FCC, and so on, but this gives a “ballsy” approach to all that, which I like.  It just makes me feel really good knowing the fact that I am working towards working in Television as a career.  And I actually understand the dialogue too!!!  Bonus!

Now granted I will watch Tina Fey's 30 Rock which is technically the same type of show, but from a person who actually worked on SNL.  So I will resevere judgement as far as which one I like the best, but Studio 60 has a slight edge just because I saw it first.

Now after watching this show I started to look into the other new shows that are on the Satelite box, and I am sorry to say I do not have a lot of love for a lot of them as I do have for Studio 60.  Here is a quick rundown of what the ones I have seen.

Circling the results

Shark:  Pretty much House at a Lawfirm, James Woods is ok though.
Justice:  Didn't like it.
The Class:  What the hell is this show about anyway?!
Smith:  Definitely has promise, I like the premise, but predicting that the same plot is going to be used over and over and over and over again.  Ray Liotta is good in it though.

Shows that I can't wait to watch:

30 Rock:   (See above)
Heroes:  I know I missed it last night, but I am going to try to watch it streaming from NBC.com before they take it down.
Ugly Betty:  Looks interresting, but same situation as Smith.  Hoping it doesn't get repetative fast.

Other than that, it seems to be a very decent new series line up this fall.  I think I may just invest in a Tivo or something(now that we can get them in Canada) so I can keep track of them all.

With all that in mind, what are your favorite new shows, and why do you like them?

Comment below and if you know how to get this questions submitted to the QotD, let me know.  I actually really want this one to get picked up.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Hehe, this is cool.

Go here to make one of your own

Snowball in South Park
1 comment

]]>

I'm sorry to report, I have just received some bad news…

My iPod is dying.

Yes that is true, my iPod is dying.

It's really sad for me, because I love my iPod.  It is so hard to see it suffer so much.  One minute we have a synergy between each other where he knows exactly the type of music and podcasts I want to listen to, and the next minute he dies from exhaustion.

We didn't use to have this problem.  He used to last for hours upon hours at a time, but now my iPod can barely scrape 2 and a half hours of life.  I'm only just trying to prolong his life by charging him each night, but I fear I must let him go.  Even after several headphone and battery replacements, I've tried to keep him going, but now I'm just prolonging the inevitable.

We've had such a long life together.  Three years is a long time for an iPod to last.  We've had some health scares in the past, he's had his fair share of bumps and bruises, but he always toughened it up and still played anything on it's hard drive to his life's content.

Now I've talked it over with him and he definitely wants me to see other iPods.  He wants the music to continue on and never stop.  And as his last request I will honor it and will consider getting one of those Video iPods.  It will never replace my original 3G iPod, but I must do what I must do.  So if anyone is out there and willing to help me in this endeavor, and help me through a tough time.  Please respond.

A troubled young Snowball

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Goodbye Blog – The Poem

This poem is dedicated to the blogs we all have left behind.

Hello Blog, how have you been?
Your RSS feed has been lacking lately
And I think that's a real sin.

You used to be so vibrant,
So personal and fun.
But now I sit here wondering
Why no current post has been posted
Not a single one.

From HTML to Ajax
You have grown so much
Its sad that no one updates you
Lacking that personal touch.

I sit here looking.  Watching you fade away
To a distant Google Graveyard
Where Netscape blogs stay

It's sad that no one will update you,
As your blogger has moved on,
But don't worry dear old blog
In my Hard Drive you will always live on.

Don't worry I'm not saying goodbye to this blog, quite the opposite, I just wanted to write something for what will soon to be my defunct blog at http://www.stevesaylor.net and for all those other blogs we have had throughout the years that we have all moved on from to another blog.

Now I know my poem writing skills may not be the greatest, but give me a break, last time I wrote a poem was when I was 16!

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Ok, so I've just finished my very first full week of school this week, and I have to say I'm dog tired.  Now there are different types of tired for those of you not in the know.  There is just plain tired, sick and tired(which has 2 meanings depending on how you use them) there is also effing tired, and there is Dog tired.  I'm at the high end of the spectrum and that is Dog tired.  You would think that effing tired would be at the top of the list, but that is why I can say this without conscience that I know more about tired than you do.

Oh sure you can make wild claims on the fact that “I don't know what tired is,” but we all exaggerate on how tired we actually are.  I'm just the only one who tells the truth.  I never exaggerate on how tired I am.  So to say that I am Dog tired, you better believe me, or I'll have to Triple Dog dare ya to prove me wrong.

At any rate, school was not too bad this week.  I'm really starting to enjoy the classes that i am in.  The good thing is that since Broadcasting has around 100 students in First Year and we are all learning the same things, they break us up to smaller classes based on Alphabetical order.  So since my last name is Saylor I was at the bottom of the Alphabetical list, but at the top of the list in my Lab classes.  That being said since the majority of our work is in labs, our small Lab classes have about anywhere from 15 to 20 people.  Which is good because you start to get to know the people in your class really well, and we are all there having a good time inside and outside of class.  It's pretty cool, because last year in General Arts and Science, our classes were never really the same as each other's.  so each class I had different people for each, and it really started to take a toll on me.  I felt a lot of times that I was alone and had very few friends.  It sucked a lot.  However, this year is great.  Good thing is too is that the people in my class are easy to get along with, and that makes it easier for me to fit in.  I like outgoing people, and being in a Broadcasting course, you definitely need to be outgoing.

Anyway, enough random rants.  I need some sleep.  It's been a Hard day's night

Does that make any sense?

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”  zzzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZ

]]>

It's amazing how used you get to being on the Internet at all times.  Whenever I am home i cannot do anything on the computer without having to use the Internet.  It's so engrained into our Computer/Tech lives.  If I ever lose Internet connection at home, I go bonkers.  Thankfully my ISP has been extremely good to me, and I've only had 1 outage for over the 2 years that I've had Cable in my house.  Furthermore, that outage wasn't even during a peak online time for me.  It happened at like 2 or 3 am, and I was just heading to bed when it happened.  Now granted, I have had times where I had to reset my modem every once in a while, but usually when I reset, the Internet is working perfectly.  Mainly I think that has to do with the Satelite in my house.  I have Bell Express-Vu Satelite TV, and we have 3 TV's in our house that if they are on at the same time, will cause my connection to slow down or disconnect.  Mainly due to the fact that in order to wire each Satelite receiver in the house it uses the existing Coax Cable in the house.

Now I've said all that to say this, when I bought a Router 2 years ago so that my Dad and I could share Internet Access, I never had the need to go Wireless in any way.  All I had was my PC, and I didn't move it anywhere, and Ethernet cables were not that hard to wire.  But since I've gotten my iBook, and my PSP Wi-FI has become more and more and option to use.  I hated having to keep an extra Cat 5 Cable around just so I could plug in my iBook.  I couldn't sit on my bed to use it, because the cable would be too short.  I was literaly bound by a chain that I needed to get out of.  So when I bit the bullet and bought a Wireless router instead of the wired one I had.  I have never looked back at using Cat 5 again.  Having the ability to sit on my couch upstairs and look out the window while I surf the web, is a massive blessing for me.

So to say the least that I am also sitting on a couch at my school writing this post using a freely available school subsidised Wi-Fi Connection brings a massive smile on my face.

I remember last year the school did not have that option.  There was this desk, that was more like a tall counter, that had Ethernet plugs for those Laptop users that didn't want to use the Lab to surf the web or play Video Games.  I was one of those people.  I hated having to tie myself down to a small cable and siting in a very uncomfortable high stool that felt like you were sitting on an unsteady rock.  they said last year that they were supposed to have Wi-Fi, but they lied and didn't add it in.

but liek I said all that changed, and I'm glad to say that at least we are now officially better than Lakehead.  If you know what I mean.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I'm in school.  Yes that is the truth, I have finally after 3 years of working my ass off trying to get into Broadcasting, I am finally in that program.  It is about bloody time!

It's kind of weird.  I got into Broadcasting when I started working for Radio free Zion back around Janurary of last year, and it was only then that I decided that working in Radio and Television is what I wanted to do as a full blown career.  Great thing is I have the support of friends and family behind me 100%.  Even people who I respect and admire the most, and are working in the industry, are always there for me.

Of course sacrificies will need to be made.  Which sucks.  No more free time, less sleep, more work, and less money. Also, there will be other major decisions I will need to make within the next few weeks that I really don't want to make.  It's the first major decision of my life, and I just don't want to make the wrong decision.

I am going to try to keep this blog updated while I am in school, I think I should be able to on a regular basis mainly because I do have quite a few gaps in my timetable that warrent time to update my blog.  They are not by choice mind you, they are just gaps that I had because I took specific classes last year.

Anywyay, I will be doing a Life update soon her on this blog, so stay tuned for that.

You know what?  I can't believe that I just wrote all that crap I wrote above.  This post has to be the most boring post I have ever made!!

I apologize on behalf of Blog readers/Blog creators everywhere.  The opinions expressed above are those of a non caffeine stimulated participant and do not legally speak for Blogs as a whole in any way shape or form.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I'm just about to go out with Shane, to go see Accepted.  I'll let you know how it was.

So I saw Accepted tonight.  All I have to say is, it is Hi-Freakin-Larious!!!  I may get totally chastised from my movie fanatic peers, but I really, really enjoyed this movie.  Justin Long was great in it and sold the part well, but the best performance has to go to Lewis Black who pretty much stole each and every scene he was in!  And the writers seemed like they based his entire dialogue on his act.

Sure it had it's kind of bland moments, but all in all the jokes and the comedy bits were great, and hit each high note in the joke.  Especially the last joke of the movie which was such a side splitting joke that every single person in the theatre were literaly splitting their sides from laughing.  People were still laughing when leaving the theatre.  Even myself!  It was such a good end to a great movie.

Go see it, or download it if you are that kind of person who downloads movies instead of enjoying the Money gauging ticket prices in an air-conditioned, comfortable seats, and a giant 50' screen.  Go right ahead and watch it on your tiny PC (or Mac) monitor.  Enjoy, and let that bare on your conscience!!!!!!

I'm done.

*****************************

Plus Sunday, I'm going to go see Snakes on a Plane.  This is going to be a fun movie-packed weekend!

Ok, so I definitely saw Snakes on a Plane Sunday night, and let me tell you, I freakin' loved it!  Yes, it was a pretty cheesy movie.  I mean, you know what happens, there are these Snakes, and they are on this plane.  And that's it.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I'd have to say it was one of the most entertaining movies I saw all summer.  It's definitely a movie you want to see with your friends at a movie theatre.  Reason why is because you will never get the same experience on DVD as you would within the theatre.  It's almost like an experience you need to share that will entertain you and your friends.

Reasons why you would love this movie are simple, and I break it down to my top five movie requests for anything snakes related below.

5) “Where did all these motherf—— snakes come from?”

Any movie that has more than one monster in it to terrorise us lowly humans is a definite must.  I don't want to see Jaws of a Snake on a Plane.  I want to see Snakessssss on a plane.

4) “Damnit!  This motherf—— snake bit me!”

I just hate it when movies with snakes in it, never show the snake biting someone.  You see it all the time.  Even as far back as old western movies.  The snake always bites off screen.  Or in say Anaconda, you never see a person get bit or swallowed whole.  You just assume that they get bit or eaten.  SoaP has none of that.  You see everything that the snake does to a person.  It's sick, disgusting, and damn right funny at the same time.

3) “How do I kill these motherf—– snakes!”

In movies there is always this one way to kill a snake, and usually only that one way.  You never see how many multiple ways to kill a snake.  But SoaP remedies that by not only showing you multiple ways to kill a snake, but kill them with style!  Including something you all wish you could do, or would do on a drunken bet, and that is take a snake and put it in a microwave to blow…..it……..uuuuUUUUUPPP!  And oh yes you see this in every gory detail in SoaP.

2) “Damnit!  This motherf—– snake bit my (insert body part here)!!!”

Imagine the one body part on a male or a female that you would love to see a snake bite in a snake movie.  And I can guarantee you, it's in SoAP!  Want to see a snake bite an eye?  SoaP's got it.  Want to see a snake bite a tongue?  SoaP's got it.  Want to see a snake bite any private part?  Oh, yes, SoaP's got it.  Let's just say you definitely will think twice guys answering the call of nature when you see this movie.  If you catch my drift.  Ouch!

1) “I'm sick and tired of these motherf—- snakes on this motherf—– plane!”

Just that line alone, makes the hype on the Internet for that line all that worth while.  Booyea!!!!!

So that is my short list of what is good about Snakes on a Plane.  One last thing I should mention, yes it has a cheesy story (not much to it, and it doesn't throw a curve ball plot twist in it to fake a good story), very stereotypical characters (from a flirtatious Flight Attendent, to a Egotistical rapper, and a tough FBI agent partner to Samuel L. Jackson), and some cheesy special effects, (the majority of the snakes are CGI), but all in all it is a very fun entertaining movie.  So go see it with friends, you would enjoy it.

Oh and btw, “All praise to the Playstation!!!!”  LOL  Had to throw that in there.

Toodles!!

Sssssssteve Sssssaylor “Ssssssssnowball”  (couldn't resist)

]]>

As those of you know that are in my neighborhood or read this blog, I love Vox, maybe a bit too much.

You know those people that are addicted to their myspace accounts?  Maybe you are one, but honestly I can't stop logging into my VOX account and just exploring all the people that are here and what they are posting.  Is there like a 12 step program I need to take soon?  Because I'm already past the denial stage, and the admittance stage, so what else is there?

At least this looks better than myspace though.

]]>

Ok, so I lied to you.  Yes, I know I said I would get another audio-VOX out by Monday, but with work, plus me being part lazy, I am recording it tonight and getting out first thing.

But anyway, I just wanted to make a post saying that I have just spent about an hour (would've taken me faster, but I'm at work with a slow connection) moving posts over from my old blog to Vox.  I have finally made the jump.  I'm here on Vox to stay.

The blog entries that I moved over where all blogs I made in an expermient where I forced myself to blog at least once a day for a whole month.  I missed maybe a few days near the end,but I was proud of the fact that it lasted as long as it did.  So,if you want to read them all, clck on any of the tags labeled Blog a Day.

The entries I like are:

Breakfast with the Breafast Club

Entry #005 – Snowball's Mixed Bag of Crap

Entry #006 – Nurse Ratchet vs. Fish Guy

Entry #013 – Opening up? Pshaw

Entry #0024 – Holiday Weekend

Hope you like them, and let me know what you think.
Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Doin' the TWiT II

]]>

When you were younger, were there any game shows that you religiously watched and wanted to be a contestant on?

Where in the World?

I'd have to say the only game show that I watched religiously was on PBS called “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”  If you ever read the books or played the old school PC games of the same name, you would know what I'm talking about.  But for those who don't, WitWiCS is a detective story where you the reader is a junior detective in the ACME Detective Agency, and your main cases were to chase down Carmen Sandiego a mysterious woman mastermind of an elite band of Evil thieves out to steal the world's most famous landmarks and artifacts.

The books were like those choose your own adventure books where you get a case where one of Sandiego's henchmen (which were wild and crazy characters in themselves) stole say the Grand Canyon(yeah the items were that wild) and you went on a goose chase around the world looking for clues as to where that henchmen is, and where the Grand Canyon was.  You would interview people, go to places and get clues as to where the henchmen went next.  It was basically a race to catch up and find the henchmen before he got too far ahead.

Along the way as well you find clues as to which henchmen it was that stole the item.  And if you are lucky you would find and capture the head woman herself Carmen Sandiego.

Now when the game show started it was in the same vein of the books.  Kids would be contestants on the show, get a case from the Chief, and “travel around the world” to catch the henchmen.  They would get questions about the place they were in and they would get points for how many questions they answered correctly.  Then whoever had the most amount of points or whichever(I can't remember exactly, it's been a while) the final contestant would compete in the final round to match capital cities which were on big cards and match them to the country on a big map, and if they got all the cities matched correctly in 60 seconds they would “catch” Carmen Sandiego and win a trip to anywhere they wanted in North America.

It was an awesome show, and also very educational.  They also had “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?”  But it didn't last as long as the first one did.  I remember they had this thing where if you wanted to sign up as an honorary member of ACME Crime Agency mail them a letter and you would receive a newspaper from ACME about the show.  I do have that newspaper somewhere in my room.  I'll have to find it now.

So that's the game show I would've loved to be on.

Does anyone else remember the show?

Toodles

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

]]> http://stevesaylor.net/blog/heighdy-ho-good-neighbor/feed 0 http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-blog-001-cars-in-cars http://stevesaylor.net/blog/video-blog-001-cars-in-cars#comments Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:56:28 +0000 Steve Saylor Tweet

So I thought I would try video blogging on Vox to see how it will work.  As of right now I haven't figured out if there is a way to put the video into an enclosure for an RSS Reader, but still a Video Blog is still a Video blog even without enclosures.

So anyway, this video was something I originally made for SteveSaylor.net, which I am more and more
convinced to just move over to Vox, because well it's Vox.  LOL.  This video was made back at the beginning
of June when Pixar's Cars first released.  My friends Shane, Joanne, Jaime, Margarie, and Kim went to see the movie at a drive-in theatre. Which I have to say is the best way to see Cars, just because you’re in a Car watching Cars. Hence, the title.

Anyway, I took like 39 minutes of footage of the night, that when trying to cut down to around 7 minutes, I had to cut a lot of footage out, so you won’t see Margarie, or Kim, but they are there, and they had a blast.

So without further ado, I present to you Vox bloggers, my first Vox video Blog.

video-VOX001

(If video does not load properly, click here to download)
Music: Rascal Flatts – Cars – Life Is a Highway
Click the Music link above to buy the song directly from iTunes for 99 cents!!
Anyway, enjoy the video! Hope you like it!
Seeya in the fast lane
Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Originally posted by Leo Laporte

Steven Better Have a Good Lawyer

Original photo link

]]>

If you could get someone in your life to start a blog, who would it be and why?
That's actually a good question.  Since being in the Tech World, a lot of my friends already have a blog.  Several of which I'm sending vox invites to at this very moment….well not this moment, but well….you get the picture!

But the person who I would love to start a blog is my good friend Critic Lee.  He's been a friend of mine for a few years now, and he travels quite frequently.  He's a Christian missionary to Indonesia and he has some awesome stories to tell.  The only problem is he would send those stories and pictures as an email newsletter.  That's so 90's.  LOL.

Anyway, that is my answer.

Short, and to the point.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Until I can get some actual good posts going on here, I thought I would post a short story I wrote on my other blog at http://www.stevesaylor.net.   I'm not sure if I want to move my whole blog to here yet, but I really like Vox and what it has to offer.  It is so easy to post anything.  Once again thanks to Leo for turning me to this service.

So until I figure out the move, enjoy the short story.  And let me know what you think.

The Legend of Blackwater Cove – by Steve Saylor

piracy

The winds were howling, the sea was roaring, it was all the crew of the Tyndale could do to keep their ship from being taken into Mother Nature’s fierce control. She had been pounding on this defenseless ship for days now, and there was no end in sight. The crew became weary. Her captain loosing all hope of not only making out of the storm alive, but keeping the morale of his crew up as best as it could be. They had stopped trying to fight the storm a day ago, and just let Mother have her way, until she grew tired of playing with her ship in a bottle and move on.

Seventy-two hours have passed since the Tyndale was making it’s voyage from Port George in what is now south of Nevus in the Southern Caribbean; to it’s final destination in Kingston, Jamaica. Carrying with her cargo that would only benefit a small starving village than to any Pirates that were frequent among these waters. The most well known of legends in these waters was that of a ship called the Wellington. She went down with all hands from a mysterious white covered ship that was waiting in the reefs while the storm blew the Wellington past it’s wake, but it was almost as if the Wellington was drawn to it’s splendor cousin ship, with it’s white shimmering sails, and it’s slender white build. Legend has it, that this “Ghost Ship” as it was commonly called, would fade in and out of reality, that the sailor on the crows nest would have to look very closely to make out it’s sails, and know exactly what to look for. Legend also tells of it’s “Ghost Captain” as well. No one knows the true name of him. To the world he does not exist. No port in all of Eastern India and the rest of the uncivilized Caribbean knew anything about him, but his legend grew on. He is said to have cut out men’s eyes and use them as buttons for his cloak if a sailor under his crew would lust after a shilling more than his share. Also he would rip out a sailor’s hair and force him to weave his own hanging noose, and throw himself off of the highest sail, just for crossing his Captain. And the legends only grew from there. So to say that the crew of the Tyndale were worried of receiving said tortures while the sea bashed at it’s hull would be an understatement.

Seventy-five hours have passed, and still no sign of the storm letting the Tyndale go free.

“This is utterly ridiculous!”, screamed the Captain of the Tyndale throwing maps across his cabin. “How am I supposed to just sit here and let this happen!”

“I don’t know sir,” said his first mate, “We have tried all that we can to free us of this storm, but it is useless.”

“I don’t want mindless stating of the obvious Davies, I want solutions! I want to get out of this bloody drift.”

The ship lunched to port suddenly, while the First Mate Davies, and the captain held on to the support beams of the Captain’s Cabin.

“I’m getting mighty tiresome of that,” said Davies.

“As am I,” said the Captain.

“Sir, may I ask a question?” Davies asked reluctantly.

“You want to know if I think the legends are true?” the Captain replied.

“Aye.”

“It’s just superstition Davies. Legends are mostly built on it. They are overly exaggerated, and have no truth in them at all. This Ghost Ship and it’s Captain are not real.”

“Oh I don’t know, I think I look real to me.” said a deep grisly mysterious voice in the corner of the cabin.

The Captain and Davies shot out of their chairs, and drew their swords trembling and startled. They searched the room. No sign of whoever was making that voice.

The Cabin’s lanterns were then blown out as the doors to the Cabin blew open. A loud howling wind pierced the ears of Davies and the Captain. The wind was so piercing, a loud ringing sound were pounding their ear drums.

Papers, and items that were loose around the Cabin blew all around, with such a force that a small dagger that was laying on the table shortly before shot from the table and darted and struck a picture hanging on the wall, and stuck to the wooden wall behind it.

The sound was becoming deafening, Davies and the Captain were now bleeding from their ears and they were now receiving cuts from being struck by the items that were blowing around the room. They held their ears in their hands and fell to the floor, dropping their swords in the process.

And just as suddenly as it all began, the wind was gone, the doors closed, the lanterns now burst into large flames and illuminated the mysterious stranger.

The Captain looked up from the ground, he saw standing before him a ragged man dressed in dirty white clothes. His cloak would reach the floor, and wore it loosely around his muscular frame. He carried two large cutlasses on both sides, and a revolver stuck barrel in to his belt. He had two belts crossed around his chest of bullets, where the remnants of what was the shirt and vest of the Majesty’s Navy underneath. He had a large White beard that was breaded with shells, and revolver balls. He had a large noticeable red scar across his cheek and when he grinned it would stretch across his left cheek making it bleed. His white hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and was amazingly neat compared to the rest of his appearance. His eyes were that of cold blue steel, and when the Captain’s eyes met his, those steel eyes would change color from Cold blue to fiery red as if his whole body were filled with fire, and his eyes were the only window to what was inside the man. Hist black hat was wide brimmed and had chains of gold looped around it. He stood tall and looked down upon the Captain as he lay prostrated in front of this creature. He grinned an evil grin at the Captain, amused that this once proud Captain was now laying on the ground like a weeping infant.

The Captain tried to reach for his sword on the ground but the white clothed monster pressed his foot against the handle along with the Captains hand. The Captain winced in pain. The pressed boot only pressed harder.

Davies seeing the opportunity of distraction, went to grab his sword, and as quickly as he shot up to grab it, this monster without even looking at Davies, drew his revolver from his belt, cocked it, and shot the hand that grabbed his sword. He then cocked his revolver again, and shot Davies’ leg. Davies fell to the ground in pain clutching his leg with his only free hand.

Without even taking an eye off of the Captain, he grinned even more and knelt down without loosing the Captains gaze.

“Do I look real now, captain?” He said with his grizzly, low deep voice. He laughed a loud menacing laugh, amused at the predicament his two captives were in. “Now where is the hospitality Captain, I’ve been here several minutes and you have not even offered me a drink of Rum. Tsk, Tsk.” He then, released his foot from the Captain’s hand, and taking his own sword pierced the same hand with it, forcing it straight through his hand to pin it to the floor boards.

“Don’t get up, I’ll get it myself.” he said as he walked towards the Wine rack that was hanging on his wall. There were only a few bottles of Rum remaining, so after careful look at each bottle, uncorking each one, and sniffing the liquid inside to decide on which blend and year to choose. After settling on a 10 year old bottle, he then walked over to the Captain’s chair that was behind the desk. He pulled it out, sat in it and rested his feet on top of the desk, while his two battered victims were laying helpless. One pinned to the floor, while the other rested against the wall clutching his leg. The sitting stranger looked down on them both as if they were both dogs begging for scraps at the table.

“Now, Captain, we need to discuss a matter of great importance.” the stranger said while taking a long swig from the bottle of Rum.

“W-who are you, and w-what are you d-doing on my ship?” the Captain said shaking.

“That is not important at this time. You are heading to my Cove. Why?”

“You answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.”

“Don’t try to play games with me Captain, I have taken down far better men than you, and your co-hort over there. Now I say again,” the stranger took his feet off the table and leaned his head down towards the Captain, “why are you sailing to my Cove?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” the Captain said trying to regain his strength.

“Fine then, ” the stranger said as he slapped his hands on his knees and got up. He walked over to Davies, knelt down so his face was face to face with Davies. “Now maybe you can tell me, why are you sailing to my Cove?”

“Don’t tell him any–”, as the Captain was trying to finish his sentence, the stranger drew his other sword and cut off a piece of the Captains tongue. The Captain screamed.

“Quiet! I’m talking to my new friend, what is it?” the Stranger queried

“D-Davies sir, J-John Davies,” Davies said trembling.

“Well, J-John Davies, good solid name, can you tell me the reason why you are sailing to my Cove, and please no lies or tricks. I have no time for said things, and I may be persuaded to leave now, if you answer me that simple question.”

“S-sir, no disrespect, b-but I do not know what you are t-talking about.”

Frustrated, the stranger said, “Fine! Here, I’ll show you.” He grabs Davies by the hair, and drags him across the room to a map that was lying on the ground. He took Davies’ finger and pointed it to a Cove on the map that was listed as 5 leagues dead ahead of the Tyndale’s current position.

“Here. Blackwater Cove. Why are you heading towards Blackwater Cove?!” The stranger yelled in Davies’ ear. “Don’t make me ask again!”

It was then that the doors to the Cabin rattled as the crew could hear the strange noises coming from the cabin, and came to investigate. The doors were locked, and no one could get in. The stranger then grew restless, and continued to yell at Davies. Davie’s then screamed, “We are trying to get out of the storm!!! We are trying to get out of the storm!!!” Now blubbering, tears streaming down Davie’s cheeks dropping down on the map, the Stranger stood up. Adjusted his hat, and his cloak walked towards the port hole of the Cabin. He could see the Cove in the distance.

“Now that is a satisfactory answer.” the Stranger said with a creepy calm demeanor, which only seconds before, there was no trace of. “I must bid you good day Captain, and John Davies. I appreciate your hospitality, and the fine drink. Don’t mind me, I’ll see myself out.”

And with a flash of flames from the Cabin’s lanterns the stranger disappeared. The doors to the Cabin then burst open and the crew came rushing in. They stopped dead in their tracks, seeing their Captain and first mate lying on the floor. One of the crew mates went and gently grabbed the sword that was still pinning the Captain’s hand to the floor, and removed it from the Captain’s hand. He looked at the gold encrusted handle that adorned the bloody sword. He looked closely and saw an engraving on it’s hilt. It read only this, “Captain John Snowbeard, 1696″

At that same moment across the waters at the Cove the stranger stood looking at the Tyndale in his scope grinning. As he looked through the scope he saw suddenly the Tyndale explode in a massive cloud of flames lighting the night stormy sky. As the ship was sinking to the bottom of the sea, the stranger closed his scope and said, “Beware of strangers in stormy waters, lest they cross Captain John Henry Snowbeard.” He then smiled.

The End

]]>

Every time I come here to the city of the blue Jay, and the Raptor, and the Maple Leaf, I feel almost comfortable being in an urban setting. I’m not sure what it is, but when you are in a small town everything is slower, relaxed, no worries. And that does have it’s charm, but the rush of the “Big City” has it’s charm as well.

It’s like your whole mentality changes when you go into a big urban center. You get into the flow and current of the city, and in a way it’s like a very fast dance that you just instinctly know the moves to without even practicing this dance before. You have to be careful though with this dance. If you are not prepared, you could step on someone’s toes, literally.

So while I am taking a quick breather from this dance I have danced for months now, I just wanted to share the feeling I get when I come here to Toronto.

Toodles,

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

So this is vox eh?

…

Cool
Thanks Leo
Toodles

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted anything. However, I must unfold the details of my weekend which was surreal to say the least.
It started as a normal Friday night. I was working. No other way to describe it other than by only saying one word, Boring. A lot can be said from that word. It sums up everything from how a person feels to what they are doing when they say that word. Amazing how the English language will use the same word as an emotion and a descriptive term in one.

Now the thing is about Friday nights at work is what you must understand. While working in downtown St. Catharines on a Friday night is like being an accountant working on a Friday night in Las Vegas. Except for the casinos part, the night life in the downtown area can be busy. So while watching the ant size people having a good old time from the third story of my workplace, I was making calls to people in another country interrupting their own Friday nights. Just so I can make sure that they are having as little of fun as I am.

Well, around 8:30, I was sick and tired of doing that, so I “left early because I was sick” and called a few friends seeing if they wanted to hang out. I told them to meet me at Starbucks and we will move on from there to do whatever we wanted to do.

I got to Starbucks first, and while there the place was buzzing with activity. Some people conducting late night business meetings, other young couples finishing off their dates while drinking expensive coffee which the men paid for. It's expensive to have a girlfriend while enjoying the addictive stimulants at Starbucks. It cuts deep into a man's pocket. At least a gentleman. There were also some people such as me that were waiting for other people to show up so they can watch a movie in the cinema in the same mall that this Starbucks/Chapters Bookstore enclosed.

I bidded my time by hanging out with a friend of mine while he was working on a project with other people who I met that night. We talked tech, we talked stuff, we drink addictive stimulants, all while surfing the net on the freely available Wi-Fi. All the cool things I love about Starbucks.

Eventually my friends started to find their way to me in the crowded Starbucks, and we basically stayed there and talked until Starbucks closed. It was weird because I was in the middle of a massive group of people I knew and I was having multiple conversations with varying friends at once. It felt cool. I can't explain it in any other way other than, “It is so cool to be in this position.”

Around the time that Starbucks was closing we started to head over to a bowling alley that was also enclosed in the mall. Unfortunately it was closed, so no me kicking ass as “Twinkle-Toes Snowball,” but we went across the street to a Kelsey's restaurant and ordered a late night dinner. We talked about everything from girls, to movies, to girls. From that statement you can obviously tell that there was no estrogen in this particular Friday night get together. But even still, i'ts a guys night. And what do guys do when it's late at night on a Friday night? Well we shoot pool at a bar. So after filling out guts, we then went to a local pool hall/bar. There were already other people enjoying a good game of the ol' billiards, so we bought a rack and decided to play while we each took turns monoplizing the jukebox playing such classics as ACDC, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and Styx. I fared well in this endeaver. Being a former Online Radio DJ, I was the favourite song-picker of the night, and it kept the crowd of players in the hall entertained. Now only if I had my music collection, and it would've been a very happenin' place.

In between the song selections, I played a decent game of pool. I didn't do too bad, but I didn't do too good either. Let's say I wouldn't come First place in a Billiards tournament, but I fared well when it counted. And sucked when it didn't.

After last call was declared, our group of friends split up for the night, and went our seperate ways. But the night was not over yet my Online readers. Oh no, the night was too early for that. So while everyone went their seperate ways, there was three of us that didn't want the night to end. So like the partyer who doesn't want the party to end, we droe around looking for something to do. After several stops to 7-11 to get drunk and hyper from slurpees, we went out into the night on a sugar high. We went back to a friends place, and much like stoners that were high on, well whatever they were stoned from, we talked and debated about philosophy and theology. That I am not making up. We literally spent from 2:30am to 9am debating theology with each other. It was surreal, and fun at the same time. It may have been the caffine and the sugar talking, but it was still a fun and passionate debate.

So if you ever want to just discuss theology with your friends, I highly recommend it. Trust me, I think you would enjoy it.

So after we realized, “Oh crap it's 11am”, we went out into the very bright sunlight with our bloodshot eyes, and made our way home to finally let our minds rest to fight again.

Saturday was a complete blur to me. I remember something about going out to a Bar and Grill with more friends, and Brian, who was part of the heated discussions that morning. And I also vaguely remember going to Brian's house to watch a movie, but I would have to rely on video surrvelance to know exactly what happened that day.

After the blur-fest that was Saturday though, Sunday was I thought was going to be a day to just lay on my ass in my bed and watch movies all day. Well little did I know instead of laying on my ass on my bed watching movies, I would lay on my ass on Brian's couch with more friends watching movies all day…

…and all night…..

….and all morning…..

Literally we watched everything from The Faculty, to Rat Race, to even Ferris Bueller's Day Off. All while in between screenings we would tell stories about our childhoods watching those movies. We recalled child hood snowball fights, to even 911 pranks. Which did bring up a funny story that I almost forgot about, but that will have to wait another day.

So after the final credits of Ferris Bueller telling us that if you don't stop to look at life, you're going to miss it, we decieded to do the best thing that you can ever do after staying up for another all-nighter, getting barely any sleep, high on caffine and sugar would do at 5 o'clock in the morning. We made a trip to McDonalds for an obligatory, Student budget cheap, artera filling, Grease covered, Super-sized Egg McMuffin combos to go. Why did we get it to go? Well when you are that sleep deprived, and willing to do just about any crazy thing you could think of. We went back to Brian's and ate breakfast while watching The Breakfast Club.

Pure genius, am I right?

Come on, isn't that like the coolest thing anyone can do early in the morning?

Watching a classic movie which has nothing to do about Breakfast, but eating Breakfast with the Breakfast club.

It's like eating Breakfast at Tiffany's at tiffany's!

Or it's like having a drink at a Cheer's Bar in boston!

Come on, it's freakin' hawesome is what it is.

So after the movie was finished, and we had stuffed ourselves with the third McMuffin each, we gave each other mental-high fives for having the brilliant idea. And much like John Bender, Andrew Clark, Brian Johnson, Claire Standish, and Allison Reynolds back in 1985 walked out of the school on a Saturday to go back to their respective lives, we all left Brians, at 7am not as friends that we had arrived hours earlier, but leaving as really good friends realizing how much fun it was to do something we would all remember for a long time. So as the credits roll on this weekend of mine, I walk on the football field of the Interweb, and pump my Cable modem powered fist into the air. All while Simple Minds plays on my radio,

“Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me”

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

After reading WWdN, and listening to this,

I'm going to write a book through this.

Short, sweet and to the point.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

So the Holidays are over for Canada and the U.S., and it has been an interesting weekend to say the least. It had it's ups and downs, and parts of it I wish didn't happen, but I was talking with Jenn Cutter today, and she said that if it didn't happen to me, “I wouldn't have this great anecdote.” Which is true, so I will try to recall this weekend in detail for you blog readers.

First of all, as you know, I was at Call For Help in Toronto last week, and like I said before, it was a great time. To end the week on Friday, Amber had a Canada Day/End of taping week BBQ at her place, and it was also great. The Crew from Hak.5 Kyle, from Pure Pwnage , and Andy Walker was there. Wess from Hak.5 was even BBQing. All in all, fun was had, and it was a great way to start off the weekend. Now cut to me around 11pm. I didn't want to go, but I had to in order to catch my bus back home. So I said my goodbyes to everyone, caught a cab, and raced to the bus station to catch my bus. Well little did I know it, as the cab was pulling up to the station, the bus was already leaving, and it was packed, so there was no way I could've gotten a seat. A lot of people were upset too, because there was a long line up to catch the bus, and they didn't have enough buses to handle it.

So I had a problem. I was literally stuck in Toronto until the next morning, and I was stuck. Normally this doesn't happen to me, and I was not sure what to do. So I called Amber, told her I missed the bus. She gave me her number because she wanted to make sure I got home OK. So she answers and says to come back and we can work something out instead of me having to stay at the bus station or on the street.

So, I caught a cab back to her place, and the party was still in full swing. I'm a bit pissed for missing the bus, so I tell everyone the horrid tale. Ok, it wasn't that horrid, but it's my story ok?

Anyway, great thing about the people that were there, was that they all wanted to help me out. Luckily, Andy Walker was willing to put me up for the night so I can catch the bus the next morning. Which was greatly appreciated. We both started talking about broadcasting, and what was involved with it. Andy gave me some good advice about what I wanted to get into, and we had a great conversation. After the party was wrapping up, Andy and I went back to his apartment, and he gave me some blankets to sleep on the couch. And if you ever saw Lab Rats

Anyway, I was so tired, I went to sleep right away. After a few restless hours, I got up to the soft purring of Andy's cat Biff laying down on my chest looking at me. It was cute, and a great way to wake up in the morning. Andy was not up yet, so I quietly left him a thank you message for putting me up for the night, and left to catch the bus.

When I got home, it was 8:30 and I was dead tired, but the day was not over yet my friends, oh no. An hour later I was in the car with my brother and my Dad driving to Mississauga to see Superman Returns at the IMAX. Read here if you want to know what I thought, but be forewarned there be spoilers

Even though I was dead tired, I was so excited to see the movie, and it was great that I saw it with my brother and my Dad. It's know that I will always look back at the moments I've spent with my family, and the most memorable moments with my Dad, are the ones where him and I saw movies together at the big screen. If there was a movie we both wanted to see, we would wait until the other was available and see the movie together. I would purposefully make sure I did not see the movie just so I can see it with my Dad. Everytime I think of those moments I smile. And the fact that my brother shared in that moment, makes me smile more.

Anyway, when the movie was finished we went home, and I was supposed to go to Movie Group that night, but I was so tired, I literally crashed on my bed at 7pm and didn't wake up until 9 the next morning. Man it felt good to sleep when you've had none for a whole week.

The next day was my brother's birthday, and to end a long story, it was a good day, I took my brother to a local diner where they sell the best burgers ever! And, we had a good time just hanging out. After that I crashed until today. LOL Just kidding.

Anyway, that was the end of my long, long weekend, and if you have gotten this far and are not bored yet, you should be. LOL I hope you enjoyed my tale, and my long ramblings. I'm not really good at writing stories as they happened. I usually like giving it time and gone into full blown story mode, but it's my story ok? So with it's ups and downs, it was an interesting weekend, and I'm glad I can share it with you.

Anyway, hope your weekend was fun, and enjoyable, and I will talk to you all tomorrow.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I'm going to meet up with an old friend that I've had for a long time.

She is the only one I can tell anything too. And I think I'm going to tell her how I feel about her.

I'll let you know if it works out.

Update: Struck out

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

***SPOILER ALERT****
***If you have not seen this movie do not read this post.****

Like a true Superman fan, I was ready. I had my Superman t-shirt and my Superman ring on. I had tickets for the IMAX theatre in Mississauga for Canada Day, and I was ready for a great movie. Early reviews said it was good, and I was, if you pardon the pun, Super-excited.

Unfortunately that excitement did not match the experience I had watching Superman Returns.

I'm not saying I thought it was terrible. I thought it was freakin' fantastic, but after following this movie for over 2 years, and knowing certain things about this movie that many other people didn't, I didn't feel like they added more to what I thought was an excellent movie. It left me wanting more.

First off though lets disect the characters. Brandon Routh, who looks uncanny as a Christopher Reeves clone, did an excellent job of bringing Clark Kent/Superman to life. Even when deliviring lines from the original 1978 movie, it was as if Routh was channeling Reeves to play this part. Unfortunately due he did not have a lot of lines to say. He was very silent throughout the movie, even as Clark Kent. Which if you watched the original religiously, you would see that Kent had more lines than Superman. Either way though I still think Routh gave a good performance and would like to see him develop this role further.

Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, was good, but not great. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give her a “meh”. She played more as a lawyer than a newspaper reporter, and her performance, like Routh, was trying to channel Margot Kidder for the part, which like I said before, I would like to see her develop the role more.

Lastly Lex Luthor himself, Kevin Spacey. His was actually the performance I liked the most. Yes, he is no Gene Hackman, but Hackman to me was more of a Used Car Salesman, than a multi-billionaire businessman. Which Spacey played well, with a bit of Hackman in him. One thing I did notice in the role that he played was that he did the genius part justice. You ever notice when villians in movies are faced with a situation that could potentially have problems, they don't follow their gut instinct and want to see it play out? Or basically the old addage when you see someone open a door in horror movies and you're yelling at the screen to not open the door because there is a monster behind it? Well this was played well in Superman. In one situation when Lois and her son Jason were kidnapped by Luthor and we find out that Jason has some special powers of his own. When Lex finds this out, his immediate reaction is to run as fast as he can. Which he does. Where normally in Moviedom, Lex would've stayed to see if he could exploit those powers. Spacey did this throughout the movie and it finally gave some smarts to the role. He saw things that were coming and knew how to handle them. He is not the one to open the door in a horror movie. He would've taken a shot gun and shot at the door then opened it. Anyway Spacey gave a good performance, and made me feel better about him as Luthor after he was announced to play the role.

Now in regards to the movie as a whole, the special effects were awesome! Plane sequence, freakin' fantastic. The beat-up of Supes, heart wrenching. The bullet in the eye effect, so kick ass. Story, little bit plain, but good stepping stone to sequals. Music, John Williams is a genius, and he didn't even score this movie! Jor-El, great even without Marlon Brando providing new lines. Scenery, definately deco in style and loved each bit of it.

All in all it is a great movie. One suggestion that I would like to make though is, don't see it in the IMAX theatre. The extra 3D sequences in the movie were good, but kind of took you out of the movie when you had to put on and take off the 3D glasses. And, the movie didn't even fill the whole screen. There wa s a letterbox throughout the entire movie and it would've been better if it took advantage of the 6 story real estate.

Anyway, without those faults I mentioned above, any true Superman fan would still love this movie, and I would highly recommend it. I'm definately going to see it again at a regular theatre so I can get the full on effect, without the 3D distractions, so that should tell you something.

Anyway, like Superman I'm going to fly away to my Fortress of Solitude, and I will emerge again tomorrow.

A friend,

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

The rumours of my death have been extremely exaggerated. After just finishing a week at Call For Help sleep wins over blogging any day. So that is what I have been doing for at least the better part of today (with also seeing Superman Returns, which was good I must say). Anyway, I don't have much to say today other than check out the Flickr Pictures I just uploaded.

And also if you ever wanted to see a lot of podcasters in the same room? Well check out the image below.

Snowballs.pc Episode 3 is on it's way!

Expect it later tonight.

snowballspc.com

Short, sweet and too the point. Plus I'm tired anyways.

Later!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Ok, so corny title I know, but being in Toronto you see stranger things.

Anyway, today was another day at Call For Help where we did a full 4 shows taping as usual. Mike Hogue came in again today, which is good to see him again. For those who don't know Mike, he is the Flash Master for CFH, and he is also a professional animator. He's worked with many famous animators and has worked on many animated movies, such as Titan A.E. as an example.

Anyway, him and I know each other from where we worked last at a Call Center in St. Catharines. We actually worked the same job, but he worked the midnight shift and I worked the day shift. I remember back in March when I first started at CFH, I saw Mike again on set, and at that moment that was when I realized that Mike the Flash Master of CFH is also the guy I knew from work. I had never added the 2 together before.

Weird huh?

Anywho, after CFH Mike and I wondered around Queen St. in Toronto. If you have no idea what Queen St is well let's just say it's the same street that CityTV or MuchMusic is located. So we were walking around and Mike showed me a comic store called Silver Snail. Let me tell you if you are a comic book geek like me, you will die in this place. They had 2 floors of comics, action figures, movies, collectable figures, anything related to comics and that kind of genre this store had. I was even tempted to pick up a few things, but I decided against it due to lack of funds. But let me tell you I wasn't passed begging at that point to get money, but Mike helped to keep that hobo urge down.

Next we went to Chapters at the Paramount Theatre and I never realized how big a Chapters bookstore can be. It was three freakin' levels!!! Again I had to fight the urge to beg for money because I was like a kid in a candy store at that point again. Thankfully Mike was there to help me with the temptation to splurge on books, but man did I want to buy tons of stuff there.

After the mopping up of the drool from my mouth at Chapters, Mike had to catch his train back to St. Catharines. While I went into the Paramount Theatre to see if I could see Superman Returns tonight at the IMAX. No dice. Sold out, of course. Leo Laporte was there, but he said he bought tickets before hand so he was able to get in easily. I felt bad for him when I saw the line up to get into the theatre. I envied him seeing the movie, but did not envy the crowds he was going to be surrounded by. As it is it's good that Superman was sold out tonight, because then I can actually see the movie at the IMAX on Saturday with my dad. Now that I know how busy it was I definately think I will buy my tickets before hand.

After i left the theatre, wearing my Superman shirt I might add(stupid theatre, sold out. Psshhhaw), and I walked down Queen St. again past the MuchMusic building. Now picture the scene as it unfolds, I hear really loud music walking towards the building sounding very familiar, a massive crowd of people cheering and standing outside the building. Well, I walk closer and I see that it is Billy Talent playing an outdoor concert and I was actually able to see everything. Which is saying something because I need to be close to the stage to see everything.

The music wasn't that bad. I'm not a huge fan of Billy Talent, but hey a free concert is a free concert. So I stood there for 10 minutes when they finished their set and went inside the building to be interviewed by the VeeJays.

From there I took the subway back to where my Bus Station was, and I'm again sitting at Stella's Cafe writing this entry for you while I wait for the bus.

Now I know this blog was probably boring to some, but some of you may find what i wrote exciting. And if you do, email me, K?

Talk to ya later from my new version of my Toronto “Starbucks” and I'll blog some more.

Toodles

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

So where did yesterday's entry go?

Well, thats a very interresting story.

I was kidnapped by evil monkeys and was forced to do their evil bidding by peeling bananas for them to consume. But they misunderstood the power of the Snowball, and I was able to make a weapon using 120 banana peels and a stick. I took on those monkeys and not only did I take on them all, I became supreme leader of this Planet of the Apes, and I am now my captor's overlord!

Lazy Stupid Monkeys

Nice story huh? Well, it is obviously false, but wouldn't that be cool? To take on an entire race of Apes Charlton Heston style and become the greatest Monkey Emporer there ever had been!!!!!

Anyway, yes I did miss yesterday as far as posting an entry. And I have a good reason for it too. My computers were unfortunately occupied. They were both rendering video which took an extremely long and painful time. Just see Entry #010 to know what I have to say about rendering. Arrrgh.

But it is all good because I have finally finished editing snowballs.pc episode 3 and it has finished rendering the entire file. So all I have to do is convert the episode into it's individual formats and it will be released at least some time this week. I would like to say tonight, but I can't give an estimate of time at the moment.

Right now I am actually sitting at Stella Cafe in Toronto across the street from my Bus Station waiting to go home. Reason why I am in Toronto is, like I mentioned before, for Call For Help. Today was an awesome day though. It always is with CFH, but today had a fun attitude towards tapping, and everyone had a good time. I'll be here all week and I'll have more updates soon. And hopefully if the Wi-Fi holds out here in Toronto(the Wi-Fi at CFH needs to be clear for guests, and there is no signal at the Bus Station, hence why I am at this cafe), I will be able to blog entries per day. Toronto really is becoming the high-tech capital in the world. There is so much here tech-wise than in St. Catharines, thats for sure.

Anyway, as Ruler of the Planet of Apes, I must leave you now and go forth into the unknown and brave the bus ride yet to come. LOL

Seeya tomorrow.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well hello again.

Not much happened today, but I did have fun. Today was kind of weird at first. I woke up this morning to the sound of my cell phone going off. It was Shane and he was calling to see if I wanted to see Click tonight at the theatres. So I said sure why not. I had nothing else to do today. So I got out of bed and I remembered that I was still alone in the house and it felt cool. I can do anything and not have to worry about disturbing anyone else. So what I did was just sit and vege on food while watching a Superman Movie Marathon. Now yes, that doesn't seem like the healthiest thing to do, but I was having fun.

So after a while I got ready, walked over to Shane's (he was a 5 minute walk away from my house), and we walked to the movie theatres with Joanne (Shane's Sister), and Brian.

We had some time to kill before the movie so Joanne brought a football with her (she wanted to get it pumped up), so we found a park and played a game of catch but like HORSE. We would throw the ball around and whoever dropped got a letter. We used the word FOOTBALL and it was fun. I came in second. It had been a while since I played football, and I remember playing street football when I was a kid, and that was the best time of my life. I never was good enough to play in a league, but a whole bunch of my friends would play together and I was always Quarterback. Amazingly enough, me a half blind guy having to throw a ball to people while trying not to be tackled. I couldn't catch the ball because I couldn't see, yet I was able to throw a ball and I became pretty good at it.

Ah, fun times.

Anyway, so after we played with the ol' pigskin, we went to the movies. Obviously we saw Click, and I have to say I was impressed. Of course it was a Happy Madison movie, and I've seen a few of those movies made by Adam Sandler's Movie company. If you are not sure which ones are his company's movies think The Benchwarmers, Deuce Bigalow, etc.

Anywho, Click has to be my favourite out of the Adam Sandler movies that I've seen lately by him. One thing I always had gripes towards Adam Sandler movies was that it for all intents and purposes was an Adam Sandler movie. Fart and privates jokes were the tricks of the trade in those comedies. But with Click it actually had a really good story behind it. It had heart, and a deep message, but of course had the occasional Adam Sandler movie style stuff.

The movie was about a father of a family of 4 named Michael Newman(Sandler). His life was always stressful and busy with work and family, and when he tries to watch TV one night he gets frustrated because there are too many remotes and he couldn't find the remote to the TV. I think you and I can definately relate. So he goes to a Bed Bath and Beyond store to find a remote because all the electronic stores were closed. So he looks in the store, finds the Bed and the Bath, but he finds an odd section called the “Beyond” hence the name of the store. LOL. Anyway there he finds a guy named Morty (Christopher Walken, one of my favourite actors), and he gives Michael a universal remote control. But this remote control can control anything in his life. Just point and click and everything goes. At any rate without giving out too much about the whole story of the movie he starts to fast forward through time and miss his life. It is here in the story where we really see the heart and the meanings of the story, and it starts to show Adam Sandlers potential for serious dramatic roles instead of a Prat-Fall Comedian.

Suffice it to say I was impressed, and I definitely give it a 4 out of 5 stars on the Snowball Movie scale, or whatever you want to call it. So I would recommend you go see it, and have a good time.

Anywho (x2), I'm going to go, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Laterz

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well it is close to midnight and I have just finished a long day of stuff.

I could've said work, but that was only part of the day. I also could've said partying, but that was the other part of my day.

Suffice it to say that I had to get up at 8am this morning to go help my grandma move to her new place. Luckily for me my two aunts, my uncle and my cousin were there to help with the task, and also luckily, my grandma did not have a lot of stuff to move. Which was great and not so great.

Getting stuff into the trucks and vans was ok. No problems there, but when we moved to the new place, her room was on the third floor, and that was brutal to carry stuff up three flights of stairs to move her into the room. Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “Well Steve, why didn't you take the elevator?” Well let's just say that they only had one elevator for the entire building, no freight elevator, and it was also lunch time. So, multiple hordes of seniors were coming down the elevator to go to the dinning room to have lunch.

We were able to use the elevator once to bring two recliners up, but there was an old lady that did not look quite happy that my uncle, my cousin and I used that elevator. She kept reminding us of the time 'til lunch, as if she was a count down clock. Yeah that was fun. What was I on “24: Seniors Edition?”

Anyway, we moved her in, took about roughly 6 hours to do, and I was beat, sweaty and tired. So when I got home, I went to my friends house to go take a dip in the pool. And man that pool was great. Felt good to just swim in a nice pool of cool refreshing water.

After swimming, I went home and prepared for a party that I was having tonight. My parents were on vacation with my sister, and my brother was out of town, so I had the whole place to myself. And you know what that means…

“PAR-TAY @ SNOWBALL'S!”

Good thing is the house is still in one piece, and not to much damage was done. I would've taken pictures, but my Dad has my camera while on vacation. So no pictures, but let's say if I did have my camera, I would take a picture of the person that is passed out on my futon in my rec-room. He passed out and we drew things on him with permanent marker. Oh shoot! I just remember he has a job interview on Monday, and he may not get the job, well at least if he can't wash off the word “Douchebag” off of his forehead by then.

Meh, oh well such is life. LOL

So I shall leave this entry to a close and I shall see you all tomorrow, same Snowball time, same Snowball channel!!!!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Hello all,

Tonight is going to be a short blog, because I am tired and I need to get up super early in the morning. I just wanted to mention that it was my sister's Grad 8 Graduation today, and let me say I felt really old today, because I still remember the day my parents brought Jenn home from the hospital, and I would feed her, her bottle in a big easy chair in our living room. She was so small, and now she is just about to head into High School.

Man, I'm just speechless right now.

She looks all grown up.My Jenny

Night

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Today is catchup day. For me it's the day before the weekend and it's going to be a busy week ahead. Here is the rundown:

 1) My sister's graduation

Tomorrow I am going to go to my sister's 8th grade graduation along with my parents, and it's going to be great to see her graduate and start her new life as a High School student. At my old High School by the way. It's going to be fun. I'll try to film some of the ceremony and possibly post that as a video blog. Not sure yet. Depends on if I get enough footage to warrant a post.

2) 2 parties in one day!

Come Saturday I'm going to not one but 2 parties on the same day. A pool party in the afternoon, and then another party at nigh. Going to be fun times. But not without having to move my Grandma “Nannie” to her new home. It's only a few things so it's not a lot to move. But anyway, Saturday should be fun.

3) Release snowballs.pc episode 3!

Ok, so snowballs.pc is finally in the final stages of the major overhaul that I have been going through for the past month and a half, and I'm editing the episode this week so I should have the episode out by Monday. What's good about the episode is that everything is new. New graphics, new segments, new co-host, new camera man, new, new new! Did I say that everything is new?

Well anyway, it's going to be good, and I hope you really like it. I'm really happy of how everything turned out. Anyway, look forward to that come Monday.

4) Call for Help

Well it is that time of the month again, and I can't wait. For those who don't know I work as an intern/volunteer at G4TechTV Canada on the show called Call For Help and I absolutely love it. Honestly, it's the thing I look forward to most out of the entire month that I have a major blast. Everyone there is so cool and great, it's a shame I only get to see them only one week out of the month.

Anyway, that starts on Tuesday, so I'll be making the trek up to Toronto again Tuesday morning at 6:20am, and even though the hours for me is long (due to transportation, hours of taping) I really don't mind having to take those hours out of my day to do something I love.

5) That's it.

Well that'ts it for today, lots to do in the next coming days, but I'll be so happy doing them. Sometimes it's good to be busy.

Catchya all on the flip side.

Steve Saylor “snowball”

]]>

So today's entry is a little odd for me. I don't know if I want to cross the threshold or the boundary of the Internet with the inner thoughts of Snowball.

Isn't this what a blog is about though?

Yes it is Inner self, but I don't want this to be a “Wearing-your-heart-on-your-sleeve” blog. It's just supposed to be focused on expanding my writing skills, and having fun with a video blog.

Come on, you're kidding yourself right?

What are you talking about?

Face it, there are things you want to write on your blog that you're afraid if you write you are worried of what people would think of you.

Yes, that is true.

And isn't it also true that you have things you want to get off your chest as of this minute and you can't because of you don't want to sound like a freakin' wuss?

Yes.

God, you are a wuss.

Look who's talking, you're talking to yourself and not even letting things got off your chest!

You're the one writing dude, not me. You have full control of the God damn keyboard, type something will ya?!

…

You can't can you? See, I told you, you are a wuss. You're just writing this entry to pretend to be funny, and not even getting into the “inner thoughts of Snowball” as you call it.

Well what do you want me to do?

I just freakin' told you what to do you moron! I'm not your Mom or Dad, you can't have them around anymore to tell you what to do if you need help. You need to figure out things on your own. Right now it's between you, me, and the keyboard, and the Darth Tater sitting on the stereo, but that is it!

Look who's trying to be funny now?

YOU! YOU JUST TYPED THAT YOU F**KING S.O.B! OH GREAT, YOU HAVE TO EVEN CENSOR YOURSELF ON YOUR BLOG. WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLS**T!

…

Great, now your ashamed you even wrote that didn't you?

Yes.

Like I said you are a wuss!

I have work to do.

Great run away, you just wasted time by writing this crap you know that right?

You tell me.

Just go watch Pure Pwnage you tard. New episode came out. And don't you dare link that, and think that this post was all about creating “imaginary” emotional turmoil so you can say that Pure Pwnage rocks.

Shut up.

You shut up.

Fine

FINE!

…

…

…

Oh just tell them already.

Seeya tomorrow.

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

If I could give one tip in regards to making videos, or making a video podcast, or making your own vlog, the most frustrating thing about the whole process is rendering.

God, I hate rendering.

I have just spent the entire day working on 2 video projects that needed to get done, and it took all day to do it. Not that the capturing the video, editing it, adding effects, or any of that. It's the rendering that takes way to freakin' long!

To render a 4 minute video took an hour and a half to render. And even then the video did not look right, there were tons of artifacting (where all you see is tears in the video), and the video isn't synced up with the audio. Then you have to go back and fix the problem again and do the whole process all over again.

And there are no magic settings when rendering that makes everything perfect. You could use the same settings, and it may look good the first time, or the first few times, but when you try it and it doesn't work, you wonder why. You did the same thing you did before, no changes were made, but it just doesn't work.

Right now I am staring at my computer screen watching a progress bar go by, with a progress time of 15 minutes left….no 20….no 30….no 95 minutes!!

What the %$#^!

Oh wait it's done.

I'm happy now.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I'm sitting here in my room, trying to install Nero. And my brother is sitting here behind me asking if I'm wasting my time with my blog.

He now just threw a quarter at me. He was aiming for my head but missed.

Now he's flicking another coin at me.

He's sitting here waiting for me to burn a DVD for him of a video that I made.

Which he just gave me permission to put the video online. So expect that probably tommorrow.

He just called me a retard.

Aren't brothers great?

Seeya tomorrow

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Well, this is officially the end of the first week of Blog's a Day.  I can't believe I've kept with it for this long.  Normally, I would attempt to do something like this and if I missed one day, that was it, I'm done.

It's much like starting to exercise, or starting a diet, as soon as you try to get into a routine, if you miss one day or splurge on one meal, the diet or the exercise stops and you don't do it again.  But as soon as you get over the initial hump of an exercise or blogging routine, it just becomes natural to you.  And thankfully the routine of blogging at least once a day is working for me.  I like the ability to just sit on a computer wherever I am at and just write.  It keeps my brain going, and not just wasting away at mindless video games and candy that will rot my teeth and my mind.

At any rate I have survived this first week, and I'm happy to say that I think this Blog a Day is here to stay.

So as Ed Robertson would say, I'm “Hot like wasabe when I bust ryhmes.”  I leave this entry with this little gem.

One Week – Barneaked Ladies

Well today I had to skip work all together. I had to go to the hospital. Don't worry Snowball is ok. No damage here. It was my dad. He went under the knife today. He had to get surgery done for his hernia. One of the requirements though was that someone had to be at the hospital just in case. I wasn't expecting anything to happen, because it was hernia surgery, but there was a slight scare. I will regal in as much detail as possible from today.

After not getting much sleep last night I was forced to only allow my body 3 hours of sleep. Although, my pillow was giving quite an arguement to abandon my dad in his time of need for those extra hours of sleep that my body was craving. Even my bed was joining in the chant of more sleep. They were like the devil on my shoulder x2 and all I had was my dad as the angel on my left. Two against one. And let me tell you the angel kicked ass. Oh, it was epic, it was legend making, the battle that took place, but that is another story for another time.

After I woke up from my short slumber and wiping the sleep from my eyes, I hopped in the shower to try to wake up my sleepless body. Lo and behold the shower tap joined in the same sleep chant as the pillow and bed did earlier. What was this a household sleep conspiracy against me? After the Angel in the image of Dad kicked ass again, and being 2 and 0, I got out of the shower and got ready.

My brother was also fighting the same sleep battle as he was also coming to the hospital, he was the only other driver in the house, other than my mom, whom had to work. But it looked like he had the same angel in the image of Dad, because he also got ready to go. Man, the Angel kicks ass today!

We left our home and made the trek to the hospital while listening to Pink Floyd on the way. We arrived at the hospital, while my brother took the car to work, and I stayed with my Dad. When we stepped off the elevator to the 4th Floor Day-Surgery ward, we bumped into a doctor with a fish head. Boy, I wish I was making that up and taking creative license for it, but seriously we saw a doctor that had to be a pediatrician because he wore a had in the image of Nemo from Disney-Pixar's “Finding Nemo” Fish head aside, the first words we heard out of his mouth was not to us, but to the nurse at the Admitting desk.

“So what's new today Nurse Ratchet?”, he said with a smile.

“Fine Joe, you?”, Ratchet said, obviously not annoyed with the demon Nurse association.

“Great!”, was what Joe Fish Head said.

Now we didn't know why this Nurse had this moniker attached to her, nor did we care to find out. So my Dad and I made our way to the waiting room to await someone to take us to the anesthesiologist. Ten minutes went by as several other pairs of people came into the waiting room to meet with the same fate of being knocked out. As we awaited our fate, a nurse came and took us up one floor to what was the surgery ward. Three pairs of people, including my Dad and I, made our way assembly line style to another waiting room as we were “checked in.”

Normally, if anyone was going under the knife, at least my assumption, is that tension in that waiting room would be so thick you could literally cut it with a knife. However, everyone was so light-hearted that small talk ensued.

An elderly couple sitting across from us were discussing vacation plans. I had no idea where specifically they were going, but let's say Hong Kong, and Florida were mentioned. We eventually found out that their cats recently died of old age at 19 and 18 respectively, and they treated it as a second leaving of the kids and were sad that the felines passed, but were happy to take a full vacation.

A younger couple, I would guess newly weds, were sitting to our left and it was the wife that was under going the same medical treatment my Dad was, and she was transparently nervous about said procedure. The husband was trying to calm her down, but the nervousness was beginning to wear down her defenses. The elderly woman assured her everything would be ok.

A nurse came for the young woman. To say that the metaphor of Count Dracula coming for his next victim, came to mind, as she nervously got up and followed Dracula to get into the drab hospital gowns. Before she left, a kiss was shared between the couple and then she disappeared behind a close door.

The elderly woman again assured the husband she was going to be ok. The husband replied that he knew, but his betroved was all worked up.

The same nurse came back minutes later to collect my Dad. My Dad got up and as he went towards the door he said, “Don't worry I won't kiss you goodbye.”

I gave him a thumbs up and said, 'Thanks. Appreciate it.”

That got a laugh out of the remaining people in the waiting room.

Eventually, everyone made their way with their respective loved ones to get officially admitted to the surgery ward. I was the only one that was left behind. I had no idea if this was regular hospital procedure or what.

10 minutes went by, nothing.

More people started to fill the waiting room.

More minutes went by.

As I was about to get up and find a nurse to figure out what was I supposed to do now, Fish Head came to the door asking for me. Before I could give the ol' adage “Aye, Aye Cap'n” he told me my Dad had a fainting spell.

Well now, all those years of countless years of forced spoon fed cough syrup, the countless forced pills I had to take, the “Come on toughen up's” I got from my Dad over the majority of my childhood finally came back. Ha! Finally I can give the old payback. As someone once said, “Payback is a bitch.”

Before I could utter those words as well, I was whisked to the corner of the other side of the room to a gourney where my Dad laid. He looked terrible. Like he literally passed out.

I found out that the nurse had tried to put in his I.V., got the needle in the vein the first time, but started to poke and prod around. My Dad, not a big fan of needles, nor am I for that matter, had warned the nurse that he had better lie down for the needle, but the nurse said that he would be fine. Well, in a few short seconds, he started to pass out, and then was placed on the gourney that was in front of me. To say that the feeling of payback went away, would be an understatement. It was as if the feeling never existed.

Suffice it to say he was alright, just had to lie down for a bit. Soon he was taken in to the anesthesiologist, brought into surgery, and within hours he collapsed on our couch with just enough energy to say, “Ow.”

Thus ends today's tale. Long I know, but I hope you enjoyed it.

And as someone once said, to the person who was afraid of taking medication,

“Just take these pills and see me in six weeks.”

Doctor Snowball, is out

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

So as I start Entry #005 of Blog a Day, I had full intentions of having today be a two blog a day postings, but when you're stuck doing video editing for the past few days, you lose all track of time.

So today I give you the Snowball's Mixed bag of Crap, not to be confused with Patrick Norton's (of DL.TV) mystical TWiT box of crap…

Snowball reaches into his bag, much like Santa Claus handing out gifts, he gleefully pulls out his first item…

Item #01 – PopWatch Blog

Sitting at work doing the same boring job day in and day out, there are times and sites that I am only allowed to go to, and one of them is Entertainment Weekly.  This is definately my guilty pleasure.  Now I'm not there to hear about whether or not Britney Spears is pregnant for the 20th time to some guy who looks like a townsfolk stand in for the Dukes of Hazard.  I'm there for probably the only thing entertaining about Entertainment Weekly, the PopWatch Blog.  This blog is quite entertaining due to it touches on so many different areas of Pop Culture.  From Movies, TV shows, music, comics, video games, etc.  Pretty much anything a geek on a computer, or the couch potato, or the movie buff, will enjoy.  I highly recommend reading it when you have some time to kill.

After handing out his first item, Snowball then gives a hearty chuckle and reaches into his bag again to hand out his next item.  What will he pull out next?

Item #02 – Vloggercon on Blip.tv!

Well as you probably have noticed by now considering I have now started a video blog that I have been watching footage being vlogged about at vloggercon this past weekend.  Now the best thing about this con is that pretty much 99% of all the people attended there (there were around 300 people that were confirmed for the convention.  Not to mention the other parties and venues all around there), they all had video cameras.  Now whats great about this is that Vloggercon has a great relationship with Blip.tv and they both collaberated on providing a special blip.tv section just for Vloggercon.  Where anyone that posts videos on blip.tv and tags their videos with the tag vloggercon they will get listed on this site.  Now the cool part of watching these videos is that they are from vloggers who recorded content from vloggercon, so you get the inside track of what went down, and you get new vlogs from people who were inspired by vloggercon (like me) and who started up their first vlogs while there.

This medium is great.  I'm really enjoying the ability to be able to post a video journal and share it with the rest of the interweb.  So check them out and see what this vlogging thing is about.

As Snowball gives another light-hearted chuckle he goes back to his bag and sees one last item to give away.  He looks disappointed for a moment that the bag is now empty but that disappointment goes away as he gives a big smile and he hands out his last item…

Item #03 – Hope is Emo

In my online video travels, while staying away from the Red Light Online District, I came across this new show that was created by the geniuses of Ask a Ninja fame.  And I love it.

Personally I love Ask a Ninja.  Its a very improvised sense of humour that I enjoy.  Wait I shouldn't say that, the Ninja knows exactly what he is talking about, it's never improvised.  (I had to say that or else he would kill me)

Anyway, Hope is Emo stars Christa Flannigan from MADtv, and she plays an emo/goth chick who is sharing her pearls of wisdom.

It was just released this past Sunday and has only one episode but it already has received more than 34, 000 views on YouTube alone.  Isn't the internet/video revolution wonderful?

Definately check it out, if you haven't already

Now that Snowball has handed out his last item from his mixed bag of crap.  He takes the now empty bag, swings it over his shoulder, and walks towards the door.  He starts to turn the door knob when he looks back, with a twinkle in his eye and a wink, he says “Don't worry I'll be back soon.” He smiles, opens the door and walks off into the sunset, whistling a happy tune.

Toodles!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

I have a headache.

Tried to take an aspirin……didn't work.

Tried to lay down for a while……didn't work.

Tried to take an extra strength aspirin…didn't work.

Tried to listen to calm, soothing music…didn't work.

Tried to take a special brand of Headache Tylenol…I'm high as a kite, but…didn't work.

Don't you just hate it when you get those kinds of headaches? Where nothing you do works? Some people call them migraines, I call them a-pain-in-the-ass-except-it's-in-my-head-which-is-just-as-bad-as-a-pain-in-the-ass-without-the-ass-part.

So as I am trying to get over the APITAEIIMHWIJABAAPITAWTAP, (try pronouncing that one, and three times fast), this blog a day will be short.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will be headache free, and finally able to interact with the world outside my computer box.

Here's a hopin'

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

You know there are few things in life that make you feel really relaxed. Sometimes it is a nice warm summer

evening walking on the beach, sometimes it's reading a good book by a fireplace in a log cabin out in the middle of the woods. For me, the perfect way to relax is at my local Starbucks.

I don't know what it is about this place that makes me feel relaxed. At first thought I'm willing to bet it's whatever they put in the coffee. Damn Capitalists, and their addictive stimulants!

But seriously, it's the fact that I can sit here in a comfortable lounge chair, with my iBook connected to it's freely available Wi-Fi, listening to a special mellow accoustic Starbucks playlist on my iPod, and a nice feeling of peace fills my body, and relaxes my brain. That and the addictive stimulants.

To be all philosophical for a second, it's our duty as human beings to have a place that truly relaxes you. It could be doing something you love, like a hobby, or it could be a place you love to visit and just think. Winnie the Pooh had it right with his Thinking Place. He would go and just sit and relax and just think. For a stuffed bear with a very little brain, he knew how to have a good time. Too bad there was no Starbucks in the Hundred Acre Woods, I would join Winnie and just sit and think, and ponder about life. Just don't stuff me with fluffies, or I will have to go postal.

Sorry, addictive stimulants talking.

Anyway, I want to put a challenge to you out there on the Interweb. I want you to take a day and go and find your relaxing place. The criteria is that it has to be a place you feel comfortable, peaceful, and you can sit for hours and not have to worry about the day-to-day. And if you do find a place or you have one already, leave me a comment and let me know what that place is.

Anywho, the waitress just brought over another Grande Mocha Cappuccino. God, I love this place.

Aloha

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>

Hello everyone out there in Internet land, where its the land of the free and the neutral…or maybe not quite, but meh I live in Canada.

At any rate this is the first entry of my attempt to blog at least once a day. Now doing this is going to be a test for me. Seeing as how I've noticed how lazy I have become in my writing recently that I finally said, “Enough is enough. It's time for me to get off my lazy ass and just blog already.”

So after an embarrsing moment of where the people around me are watching me talk to myself, I have decided to stop talking to myself in quotations and quietly tap away at this keyboard.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, blogging once a day.

Other than the reason to stop being lazy and write it actually has another reason to it. I have read that when you are planning on writing, or are having trouble developing your skill to write, the best thing you can do is try to write at least once a day for a certain period of time. It could be 10 minutes a day or a story a day, a blog a day. It could be a wide variety of things. At any rate, it is meant to stimulate the tiny muscle in your brain that controls that creative writing skill that you possessed when you were in Grade 2; and you had a story folder where you kept all your story webs, rough drafts, and final drafts of creative works. Even though the extent of your creative works was the story of a boy and his magic dog with a hovercraft and rockets!

Hey, I was seven.

Anyway, that actually brings up a fun topic. When were you most happy writing? It was when you were a kid right? When you are sitting in school and your teacher calls out, “Get out your creative writing folders!” For some that would've been boring, but for others like myself, it was always fun, because I had complete control. You had the magic Number 2 pencil that would create magical worlds of imagination. You could create a heroic adventure in Africa uncovering the world's long lost golden treasure; or the dark city streets where the heroic most famous dectective has to save a damsel in distress from the evil bad villans.

Hey I was seven, and I thought big.

So if you are planning on wiritng, it doesn't have to be a big thing or a big struggle, start small and work your way up. Thats' what I'm trying to do. I'll let you know how it works out.

Anyway, so if that memory of school day writing hasn't inspired you, or me yet, I don't know what will. So thus ends blog of the day #001, and hopefully my number 2 keyboard will able to keep up with that dog and his rockets.

Ciao!

Steve Saylor “Snowball”

]]>