The BenSpark

Another IZEA Guest post…

Drew — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:28:46 +0000

I have written another IZEA Guest post, a long rambling thing about what you say and do not say on your blogs. Do you invite comments, controversy or drama. That is what the post is about. I want to know what you think of the post, please leave a comment on it at Oops, I’ve said too much….

Monkey Business… PAD #1202

Drew — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:32:55 +0000

I am in Seattle. Did I go downtown today, no. Why? I was whipped from my flights today. So I opted to hit Bahama Breeze with the team and head to bed. Over our table there was this chandelier that had carved monkeys on it. Pretty much the most interesting thing for me to shoot today.

I had a middle seat for my flight to Seattle, that was long. I finished reading the Iron Man Comic book. Now I can get it back to Ryan. I also watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, again. I liked watching it all over again. It is a tragic story that could only be told by Joss Whedon and in song no less. Neil Patrick Harris was awesome as Dr. Horrible. His mannerisms, facial expressions and delivery of lines was perfect. Nathan Fillion was also very good as Captain Hammer. If you haven’t seen this buy it from iTunes and watch it. It is worth the $4.00.

I also got caught up on Geek Brief.TV episodes and each time I watch those podcasts it makes me want to podcast more and become better at it. I have tons of footage from the kayak trip but haven’t had any means with which to edit the footage. The software is at home and I really want to get it out there.

I’ve also been testing another Nokia phone. This time it is the Nokia 5310. It is a music phone and is packed with great features. A full review is in the works.

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Pet of the Week: Crystal

Drew — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:05:31 +0000

Crystal: I can be Adopted at the North Attleboro Animal Shelter, originally uploaded by BenSpark.

I can be Adopted at the North Attleboro Animal Shelter.

“CRYSTAL”-Neutered Male-Angora-Seal Point Himalayan- Born 3/98- “I was brought to the shelter after my best friend passed away. It has been a big adjustment for me, but, I am settling in pretty fast already. I’m not all that worried about finding a new home-with my awesome looks, and beautiful coat, who can resist me? And, I have the personality to go with the looks!!! I get along great with other cats (it would be nice if I could be placed with one of my friends), and I even like dogs. I’m more used to the small size dogs though. Maybe a laid back big dog would be ok. I also like kids, and I’m pretty out-going. My real dream home though, is with a nice older couple, who can spend their retirement with me. We can be good for each other. I’m used to traveling too, so-how about someone who likes to see the country? Anyway, come along, visit, spend some time, and get to know me, and maybe Rhiannon or Meeshi too! Or, give in to us, and take all three!! We really aren’t a lot of trouble!” Love, handsome and knows it Crystal

Meeting Eddie Christy… PAD #1201

Drew — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:41:10 +0000

Back about 3 years ago I was using myspace to blog as well as to discover new music. I discovered Eddie Christy and his song “I Can’t”. You must go to Eddie’s Myspace page to hear this song, it is beautiful and one of my favorite songs ever. Well, Eddie became a regular commentor on my blog posts and I would post comments on his posts as well. We struck up a friendship through blog after blog. And often he would say that I should look him up if I ever get to Nashville.

In a serendipitous twist of fate, Last Friday I got asked to cover demos in Nashville and Seattle, I was able to go to Nashville. I sent Eddie a message and we made plans. We would meet for diner downtown. I was looking for some decent BBQ grub and conversation. I was not disappointed in either. I’m probably going to make Eddie blush about this but I have to say it. He was the nicest guy. I mean sincerely nice. He was nice to everyone we met on the street, everyone. He took me through the city and told me about the history here and there. He considers himself a fact geek and loves facts about history. He pointed out a building that was not a building but rather a fake building to hide some ugly industrial equipment.

That is something I noticed, Eddie saw things that no one else did or would. He told me about Sam’s Sushi where the owner, Sam is a grumpy guy who doesn’t like new customers, yet he and Eddie talk on all sorts of issues. That doesn’t surprise me. And as we were walking down a hill a man in a powered wheelchair was coming up. Eddie said hello and told me the guy was a retired cop who liked the Nashville Predators. You see Eddie talks to can cares about people.

I notice how much I am in my own little world with my walls up all the time and noticed it more so while walking around with Eddie. While we walked around we caught up with some of my co-workers. I introduced them to Eddie, after we had gotten their attention, and he pointed out all the places to eat that were around. We were going to Rippy’s to sit out on the rooftop and have some BBQ. So we left them and headed up that way.

Along the way Eddie pointed out more history and places to see. We got to Rippy’s and took some photos including this one that I took with my Sanyo and my XShot 2.0 (New contest to win one is coming and I will have some to give away at IZEAFest 2008 and if I win the FuelMyBlog contest I’ll have some for Blog World Expo too.) After we were done taking photos my co-workers caught up to us and the 5 of us had dinner.

Dinner was delicious and we had a great time swapping stories. After dinner I caught a ride with one of my co-workers and Eddie headed off back to home. I had a great evening, awesome ribs and great conversation. Eddie, if you get up to Providence or Boston I’ll show you around there. Here are some photos from the trip around Nashville.

1. The Stage, 2. Broadway at night, 3. Printer’s Alley, 4. 2nd choice for dinner, 5. Robert’s Western World, 6. Ernest Tubb, 7. Giant Guitar, 8. Well the singing may suck…, 9. Me and Mr. Nashville

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

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Underwater Friend… PAD #1200

Drew — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:14:59 +0000

Today I was up early and on the road to get to the airport for an emergency trip. I am covering for a co-worker for the next two weeks and yes, it is official. I am headed to London for a week long trip. Pretty sweet. I do two demos and am there from Sunday to Friday. I’m going to be zonked after these two weeks though. I’ve been out of practice for traveling. I even forgot my deodorant.

The Flight to Tennessee wasn’t that bad I got here no problem. I even took an earlier flight because I was at the airport so early. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get stuck in traffic so I left pretty early. It turns out that I was able to get an earlier flight to DCA. I was leery of the amount of time I had between my scheduled flights and felt much better getting there earlier. I’m glad I did because I had a delicious buffalo chicken sandwich at Fuddruckers and I was able to review some of the video from Saturday’s paddle. I haven’t gotten a chance to get that together yet but I have reviewed about half of it then I will figure out what I want to do with it.

Before my second flight I caught up with a couple of other people from work and come to find out we are all at different hotels so once we got to the rental car agency it was time to split up and go our separate ways.

I went to my hotel and got set up with a few things online, travel arrangements for London and then headed over to the Opry Mills Mall. I hit the movies and saw Hellboy II. I have to admit I liked this movie more than I liked the first one. They fleshed out the characters a bit more including Abe Sapien and Liz.

After the movies I had dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant. This place was really interesting, they had a huge aquarium in the middle of the place that had very large fish and a scuba diver who went in to feed them periodically. I had some Shrimp and Crab Wontons and some Clam Chowder. Dinner was pretty good and I am stuffed.

While I was at the restaurant I talked to Michael from X-Shot and we are working on a new contest and he’ll be providing me with some X-Shot 2.0 samples to give away at IZEAFest 2008 and if I win the FuelMyBlog Contest and get to go to Blog World Expo I might have a few with me there as well.

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