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This is version 1 - 5/99 to 3/19/2001

3/19/2001 LATE Weekend Update...

Sorry, I missed the official weekend update. It was crazy busy this weekend... Corinnes Party was a smashing success!!! Just a real nice house party (as Corinne says) with lots of friends, games, prizes, presents, cake, ice cream... who could ask for more!!! Corinne told me later, that she likes house partys because you can yell and be noisy! (You can't always do that when you go to public places for events...).

My Brother (Charmin) also made it for the after-party... We visited and then I helped him with his web page for tattoo consulting:

He's open for business, so for those of you looking into your next (or first) tattoo. Check it out! (you may recognize that it is in one of our page locations for now...)

OK, Next, I discovered that I accidently got myself into a major music publisher promotion blitz, and had to make up CDs and promotion packages (cover letter, lyric sheets, CD liner notes, etc). I thought that I would just knock out some quick CDs, then realized that I can't send a sloppy package to the most important people! (as far as song promotion goes) So I took some time and did it right (as right as I can (and had time for)).

This happend when I was experimenting by sending music promotion emails to music publishers, to see what kind of responses I would get. I discovered that I was accidently doing a "fishing" promotion, and have gotten 4 requests for CDs. The CD requests became my "Info-Pack" sales promotion package (Jeff Farr, OBE Marketing Course).

Now, I am not sure that the CD requests are that meaningful. Some are just standard filtering technics, but the fact some of them took the time to respond to my emails and request CDs IS a response and IS worth following up on. Foot-in-the-door, name recognition, etc... Stay tuned...

OK Sorry, I get carried away with that stuff, and since that took all of Sunday, I had to write it... Now Monday is waning... and Casey is buggin me to get on the PC!!

I gotta go. See ya...

3/11/2001 Weekend Update #2...

It was quite a busy day today, so here's the Sunday News. Did you figure out what happend to Corinne today from the picture above?

Yep, you got it (I'm speculating of course), She got her ears pierced!!! Yes, even the one on the other side! (We wanted a nice close up for you though).

We also roller bladed (the kids) and walked (me) almost 5 miles, then Corinne, Dara and I had a nice little picnic (while Casey was off working on his fort with his friend Kyle). As you might guess (from our activities), it was a pretty nice (almost spring) day today!!!

3/10/2001 Weekend Update...

I don't think you could easily miss it, but the Dells pictures are in (downloaded from the camcorder and uploaded to the page that i

s). *ABOVE*.

It has taken most of the night again (as usual) (Friday), but I like doing it... I always get carried away, and I initially had about 50 pictures. I tried to get the best ones and capture the scenes....

Corinnes Birthday Party is tomorrow (later today, now...) so I gotta get this stuff uploaded and get to bed. I hope you like the pictures (I've shrunk the size, as usual, and limited them to 5 per page, so it shouldn't take long to view (unless you have a 150 baud modem (yes, I have used those... and there is really no "K" after the number) Teck-nerd joke :-) ))).

On that subject I've actually scheduled a cable connection (AT&T (my cable TV company)) for my PC, although I really don't want to change all of my page and email addresses, etc. I will of course keep everyone up to date and will keep both for a while.

All of a sudden, I've realized that this junk (pages and email, etc) is no longer a fun little novelty. It's a necessity!!! I've got this page, my email, my song pages, the search engines that I've loaded the song pages on (not this one), the marketing emails that I have sent to music publishers, Casey does his homework on the PC a lot (along with games and MP3 downloads) and I even need to do my TAXES pretty soon on this silly little TV-with-a-keyboard.... Sheesh!!!

One little song creation note... I have my next song created (it will still probably take a week or 2 to get it recorded). I'm pretty excited about it (as I am with most of my creations) and I was going to write a little about it, but I think that I will wait (as usual) until it is "released" (to the internet that is).

OK, I really have to go now.... Ya'all come back now... Y'hear!

3/5/2001 Misc Update...

You may have noticed that I took down my shameless self-promotional CD message a few days ago.

Well, I just got the attached EMail CD request (from the states this time!) and it just seemed like such a nice message, that I thought that I would show it off!

EMail Message: (direct quote, really!)

Hello,
I would like to have both cd's if possible, I have searched the web alot for
music for daughter to record and have found very few songwriters that I
really really like.  I think you have some awesome music.
Thanks,
Marsha Martin
P.O. Box 597
Jal, NM  88252

This person will, of course recieve the deluxe package, very soon!

Sorry, I don't have the Dells photos downloaded and uploaded yet! So many Mega-bytes and So little time!!!...

3/4/2001 WeekEnd Update, The Dells...

Sheesh, it's getting late already, and I haven't even done my page updates!... I've had a few days off, which was really nice, but I have been busy.

Corinnes birthday was really nice. She had school, and is actually celebrating this coming weekend, but I took the day off and we had nice lunch together. Grandma treated her (and us) to a nice dinner and she opened a few of her gifts and we celebrated a little also (more to come after the actual party).

The other big event, of course, was the Dells trip. We went to Wilderness Resort, and water park (first Dells exit). Wow! that is the coolest water park! Of course, that may be the only "water park" that I've been to (everything else I've been to have just been pools I guess). I haven't had a chance to do the pictures yet, but I think that would be a much better description.

I actually don't have enough time right at the moment to write a proper page entry. I'll try to fill in more a little later...

See ya, R.

2/24/2001 WeekEnd Update.

Casey's basketball team remained undefeated for the whole season! 12 games! The season is over for that one but the other

team still has a few games left. Casey did great at both games today!

Other than that, it's been kind of a boring, rainy, fix stuff around the house weekend...

Now I'm doing the fun stuff (page updates). I am re-formatting the song page a little again, and have sent "Feel Like I Felt" to Nashville for my next critique (I also sent another "Still Burning" CD to India). I have lots of other things to get done this weekend, but I feel like falling back into the song creation and page updating (fun) stuff... gotta go for now...

2/18/2001 WeekEnd (Sunday) Update.

I got my CD orders mailed Saturday. SriLanka was expensive, of course. If I get anymore popular this way, I'll probably go broke! :-) Now I got another order for India. The first one was novel, this one is suspicious. If I get many more of these, I will have to put a disclaimer that there will be a charge for shipments outside of US and Canada. I'll do the next India order, but I'm about to shut down my free overseas operations...

OK, now for the story that goes with the 2'nd round of ice pictures above. It was another nice day for skating. Note: I am spelling "Skating" properly since my niece (Andrea Francine Chapman Oium) shamed me into spelling it correctly and made fun of the fact that I mis-spelled it 50 times on my pages here. She also made me correct them while we were talking on the phone!!! :-( :-( I hope this is OK now Andrea... :-)

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled story... I went out first just to do an Aerobic exercise skate. I did 15 minutes straight (no stopping at a good pace) and wow I was exausted! THEN, I got Corinne and Casey and did some more. First, I went with Corinne, we did a little skating, but I don't think that she is 100% over being sick and she didn't stay out real long.

Then I gave Casey the skates that we share and I grabbed the camcorder to get the pictures above. Casey was having WAY more fun falling and sliding on the ice then staying up on the skates!!! The last picture in that group kind of says the proverbial "thousand words"...

2/16/2001 WeekEnd Update.

OK, I'm crankin out CDs tonight (Friday), and thought that I would do some shameless self promotion (above). It's true, I did get an order from SriLanka. I don't know the real motivation behind this CD order, but I will assume it to be a legitimate interest in the music (since I have had a lot of good reviews on the last song) and I will, of course, honor my offer to send the CDs (even to Asia).

This CD is all original and I have included all of the new stuff created since First Burn. The quality is better and I spent more time arranging the songs on this one.

Well, I gotta start burnin 2 CD orders. If I get the time I will do another weekend update...

2/10/2001 WeekEnd Update.

Well, We got more snow and I never got out on the ice again, although Dara and the kids did another round last Sunday. Also, Corinne wanted her friend (a neighbor) to go too, and her father wanted to check the ice. He had an auger (I think is what they call it... A huge hand drill to make a 6 inch (or so) hole for ice fishin) and he checked various parts of the lake. It turns out that most of the lake was 2 feet of ice!!! He hit the ground before hitting water in many places...

Casey's basketball team is still undefeated!!!! They are really good! Casey scored 3 points today (a good contribution, in addition to his teamwork). I heard the other (loser) team coach talking to their team after the game and he was telling them that they did well but after all "That is the best team, and they are undefeated you know..." was what he was saying... Now I gotta get that "My kid is in the undefeated basketball team" bumper sticker I guess...

And now the other news... By the time I do my page updates, I should have the final mixes done on my latest song (I am writing this while the recorder is copying tracks). I hope to also have it downloaded to the PC and uploaded to my page, and have my email announcement out.

I hope ya'all give a listen. Download the MP3, for higher quality, if you get a chance. I think that this song is pretty good. The song is called "Feel like I Felt", and check out the "Scoop behind the songs" section. I will update that later tonight with "the scoop". (I may have to use this page for song news updates, because the Song News section that I put on the other page doesn't get much traffic (oh well, it was fun anyway...)).

Well, I gotta go finsh that and the other pages... See ya'all later...

2/3/2001 WeekEnd Update.

If you missed it, check out the ice skating pictures above... (the last rounds of pictures are in "picture history" of course).

That's the story for today anyway. I love ice skating! It's been a while since I skated (because I've lost my skates). The last times that we went out on our frozen lake, I either walked or just did 'slip-slidin' stuff, but it is much more fun with skates. Dara got the kids some skates somewhere last year (used I think) and the pair that Casey was using fit me just fine (they are womens (white) figure skates... but hey, I'm secure with my masculinity :-) :-) ).

It is also Great Exercise! Low impact, good aerobics. Of course, this activity is limited very much by the prevailing weather conditions, but today was great! Cold enough to be safe and most of the snow was gone. I am always very cautions (of course) even though I know that our lake is no more than 4 or 5 feet deep anywhere, and less in most places (I have checked most parts of the lake with a paddle, in a boat in the summer). I also made an extreamly careful check of the ice today!

Casey and Corinne had a really great time. Corinne has skated before, but this was Caseys first time and he had a great time and was very proud of himself (always competitive! "I'm already better than Corinne, right???")

Casey and I went out a second time, just before sundown, and actually had some real nice quality time. He was talkative and into the nature thing (and listening intentively to my ice skating tips and lessons) and liked the light reflections on the lake (later as the sun went down). This was nice!!!

Well, with weather permitting, I am going skating again tomorrow!!! I will take Casey and Corinne again if they want to go for the fun (Casey and I still have to share the skates) and I will also go purely for the exercise too! (The "man" put up no skating signs on our lake, so I guess this is a totally illegal thing. Oh well, so is speeding... I believe this to be totally safe and just a rules, lawsuit, privacy, etc. thing...).

Oh yea, before all the skating activity, I got the first tracks, of my new song recorded, so I will be completing that as time permits (man I wish I had more time!). You will be notified (of course).

Well I gotta slide outta here... Tomorrow looks like an skating and recording day (I also have significant work around the house piling up, but hey, what the...

See yas...

1/25/2001 Mid-Week Update.

It seems like my weekend updates are becoming mid-week updates... I was sicker'n'a'dog this weekend so I didn't even do

an update (not sure what that means, I don't think dogs get sick all that often, and if they did, how would you know...).

Anyway, I'm in the basement re-mixing a song for my next NSAI review and decided to do an update while I wait for the tracks to copy...

As you see, I got the Wisconsin pictures in (most of them anyway), and uploaded them. I asked Andi (my niece) if she could tell the camcorder from the camera pictures, on the internet and I guess there is not much of a difference (with the JPGs at a low quality resolution). So in the process of describing which were which, I ended up writing a big mail message which can be summarized by:

Camcorder - Better for general purpose, day to day PC display, convience and lower quality prints.
Camera - Better for high quality PRINTS.

Caseys basketball team (1 of em anyway) is still undefeated and Casey scored 4 points last game (he's not usually the highest scoring player, but he plays his positions well (I think anyway)). Corinne has had her eye appointment and will be getting her glasses next week (stay tuned for a picture update). Oh yea, and Casey also has contacts. He is actually able to do them at age 10 (some places don't want to sell them to kids that young).

I guess that's it for now... Gotta get back to mixing...

1/17/2001 Post-Wisconsin Update.

Sorry, I missed the weekend update this weekend, but we were in Wisconsin!!! It was kind of a whirlwind trip (Drive there

Saturday, drive back Sunday (late)) but we had a great time as usual!

I'll do a better update later, because it's getting late and I just scanned and downloaded a bunch of pictures and want to get some of them out there for ya'all... Hope you like them...

1/07/2001! Weekend Update.

Wellp, I finished uploading the last round of Christmas Pictures (as you may have noticed, above)...

I've been mostly lazy on these last few cabin fever weekends and I had hoped to get most of the Christmas decorations down this weekend, but only got them off of the page, here, and disconnected the tree lights outside. Judging by the snow here the lights outside may stay on the tree until April or so...

I did the web picture pages, did some post-Christmas shopping (got some of the things that Santa forgot to get me :-( :-( :-( ). Shopped for an on-camera flash for the Nikon (ended up ordering one from B&H (catalog)), bought the 2001 Songwriters Market book (scanned most of the articles in that) and got some photo and home recording magazines...

Caseys basketball team creamed the competition yesterday, and I played with the camera (trying to get some good action shots) whilst enjoying the massacre!

I got the lastest "Outdoor Photographer" magazine for 2 reasons. 1, just to read and see more updated photo stuff and 2, to check out these advertisements that are making Jeff and Pam so rich and famous! Congratulations, yous guys! The last time I talked to Jeff, I asked where he advertises his "Not Your Normal" photo-courses, and he mentioned this magazine along with at least a half dozen others. Sure enough, there was his ad on page 116! ((I was just curious) it wasn't too hard to find).

Well, I gotta get the rest of the pictures uploaded for ya'all...

See ya later!

12/29/2000 Picture Updates.

You all know I like doing the web page stuff... but man these PHOTO updates always take more time than I think they will!

Fortunately, Dara and the kids are at Dara's moms house (Karen and Nadia are still here, they went to see the Grinch movie), so I was able to get quite a bit of time on the PC.

First of all, I finally got the last roll of film from the Nikon developed (I started it in August, when we painted Blacky). Wow, it CAN take great pictures...I am really hoping to do more with it... or better yet get Dara to do the pictures, like I think she would really like to do...

Anyway, some of the film pictures came out GREAT! Of course, I have had to reduce the quality of the scanned pictures drastically so the pages will display relatively fast. As usual, I can always send anyone copies at whatever quality you would like!!! (Compliments of Family PageWebmaster Rob).

So I spent some time scanning the film pictures, a few hours viewing, freezing and downloading stills from the camcorder and a few more hours, tonight, shrinking the picture files and assembling the picture pages...

Well... Like I said, I like doing it... but it really cuts into my TV and otherwise loafing time! :-)

Hope you all enjoy the Pictures!

12/26/2000 Post Christmas Update.

Sorry, even with a decent amount of time off (Thursday thru today (Monday)), I haven't had much time for the famous

Chapman Family Page updates... :-)

In addition to me fnding time, now there is a waiting line for the PC and I think that I need to make an appointment to get computer time! (Sheesh, it reminds me of my first COBOL class!!!). The kids got some fun PC games for Christmas, and, well, there you have it...

I hope to get a some pictures from Christmas uploaded at some point, but I haven't had a chance yet...

This Christmas Seasons Highlights (so far...)

• Rich and Diane (my nephew and his wife) and family, were here Saturday. That was really nice. The kids had a great time, and got a start on the gifts... They also brought this GREAT chocolate cream pie!

• We went to Kurt and Robin's house (Dara's brother and wife) in Winnetka, Christmas Eve. Had a great dinner, saw a play (from the kids, in the basement) and had a real nice time.

• Christmas Day begins... The kids were up pretty late Sunday, and actually slept a little late Christmas Day (about 9:00, I think). Of course, once they came to, they were immediately wide awake! The wrapping paper starts flying and we've made it through the main round of gifts... I won't go into detail (until I play with test some of the toys and give the official critiques)

• Christmas Day Continues... Next we're off to Dara's moms house in Glenview. Had a brunch and dinner and the wrapping paper was flying on the next round of gifts! Rick (Dara's uncle from Boston) was in town and also Karen and Daryoosh (Dara's sister and husband). Dara's cousin Lea also made a guest apperance.

The kids had a wild and crazy great time (as usual). I had fun beating Daryoosh at pool!!! (he beat me about the same amount of games, but hey, I like the first sentence better).

• And now cousin Nadia, is doing some 'sleep overs'...

[Sorry for the overly descriptive documentary style, but not all of the famous "Chapman Page" readers know everyone else involved here...]

Well, I gotta go now... Stay tuned. I'll try to get some more updates and stuff in whenever I can get some PC time!!!

Here are some Christmas Songs for you...

Good King Wenceslas Jingle Bells

The Credits:
Casey Chapman : Clarinet on Good King Wenceslas, Clarinet on Jingle Bells
Corinne Chapman: Bells on Jingle Bells, Vocals on Jingle Bells and Toy Piano on Jingle Bells (at the end)
I did the backup instruments, recording, mixing, production, etc., (the usual)...

12/16/2000 Christmas Songs Anyone? (above if you missed it....)

I've been wanting to do some Christmas songs with the kids (and cut a CD for them), but as usual it took a lot more time

than I thought... Well, their parts weren't real long, but I did what I could in the mixing studio to make a couple of songs out of what I had...

Casey already knew his songs, but he was in a hurry by the time we got to Jingle Bells (a friend called and he was going over there) so we cut that one a little short.

I actually taught Corinne the piano part, on a (toy) keyboard that we had, just today. She picked it up pretty quick and that is HER playing the piano (no mixing tricks) on the end of Jingle Bells! Corinne wanted to do a "second voice" on the vocals so that's why you hear two. That was also no mixing trick (just a second track).

12/14/2000 Got Snow?!!!!???!!!

I just saw my last update. There's a LOT MORE SNOW NOW! You readers out there in Nort Carolina, Seattle, Florida, California, etc. can be real jealous right now.... (sure...). Yep, 3 hours to get home from work yesterday!!! I don't know the inches count, but it's incredible! I'll try to get a photo some time soon (or maybe I'll wait until it gets deeper!!!! Ahgg!)

There are two things that I wanted to drop a line about (mid week).

1) I finished a "news" (text) section in my song page. Now I have a seperate place to write junk about songs and music, like I do here about general friends and family stuff (like the 20 hours for a 2 1/2 minute song article, etc), so I won't be cluttering up this page with that stuff. I hope to update it weekly. So drop by there occationally too for updates! Theres a link at the top of the song page called: SongNotes Weekly News (I may think of another name later) I haven't written a real lot to date, but I can sit down and write tons of song stuff just like I do here with regular guy stuff :-)

2) The Questions Game: We just did the "Questions" game again last night and I just thought that I would write a little blurb about it. It's really pretty fun and challenging for everyone. It's a game I just made up and started doing with the kids (I don't have the rights to it or anything, and maybe it's just another game that I call "Questions"). I would guess it would be best for school age kids, but I would imagine anyone could do it.

Here's how it works: I think of a subject (or request one (science, spelling, geography, music, computers, etc.) and figure out a question for Casey (for example) that I think would be at his level. Like: Name the planets in order from the sun, or name the great lakes (Casey told me that start with the letters in the work house), or what states border Illinois, or whats a Megabyte or what does H2O stand for, or (for Corinne) whats 33 + 64, what are the 3 main parts of an insect, Spell... (anything)... Etc, you get the idea...

That's It! Simple! But Fun! Just make em up as you go along (you need to know the answers, of course) and I trade 1 each for Casey and Corinne. (I like doing regular subjects, so it's not really "Trivia persuit").

The hardest part for ME is to get the right level for the kids, sometimes I do em too easy, someties too hard.

Casey (and Corinne even) can actually do lots of questions, that I don't always know (like in science, geography, history, etc.) because they JUST studied it. I still can still stump them on many computer or music questions...

Well, that's it... Try it if you would like (of course), it fun! Or send me a message and tell me how you already do this, and why would I write a silly web note on this :-) :-)...

And that's the news for tonight... Rob.

12/11/2000 Got Snow?

Well we do! Yep, it's commin down pretty good right now. I'm off today (Monday) and just doing a quick update.

Editorial note: I actually decided to change my last entry a little. When I do page updates, I just sit down and start writing notes, just like when I'm talking, and include lots of (what I consider) subtle humor. Therefore, as with talking, I sometimes put foot in mouth (maybe keyboard in this case). When reading (emails, pages, etc.), you don't get the facial expressions, tones of voice, snickers, etc. So things can be read wrong.

Anyway, I removed the "bragging" part, because I thought that could sound wrong, and I also removed the "my page" part because this is just the page that I have the privelege to write. Without the privilege of readers, it's just a diary (diarrhea of words maybe... ahhh there goes my dumb humor in the middle of a serious sentence again...).

btw, No one said anything about the note. I just decided to play editor and keep your page notes positive...

12/09/2000 Early Weekend Update.

I just finished slappin Casey around a little! He really got me Mad! He got a "B" in Science! I don't know why his school work is slipping so much. (The rest of his report card was all "A"s).

Yes, I was very impressed, and I am proud of him, of course. I guess that I am like one of thoses parents who puts the "I got an honors student at..." bumber stickers on their cars (although I really thought that the one that I saw that said "I have a good behavior inmate at Joliet State Correctional Institution" was much funnier!).

Corinne did very well also, but she doesn't get actual letter grades until next year. They both got the highest marks in the social (behaving and being nice in class) sections.

Casey has always done pretty well. Usually a little above average, but this one was great (except for the "B" :-) ). I can be proud of him, but I can't really take much credit. I must thank Dara mostly! She spends so much time helping him with his homework (and driving him crazy!).

OK, that's it for now, I have things I have to do, but I had to put this note in right away!

12/10/2000 Weekend Update. [More, Same weekend here... not done yet.... don't hit that mouse key...]

I usually keep this chronological, but I wanted to leave the last one on top this time...

I also went to see one of my songwriter friends (Mark Vavra) at Borders on Saturday. I really like this guy, but I didn't really care for the bookstore/coffee shop environment that much.

We also ate at a Unos Pizza. I don't think that I've ever been to one of these. It was GREAT! Rob gives it 3.5 stars! Thanks Dale for suggesting that one...

OK, I'm calling it a weekend. (Well almost... I am taking tomorrow (Monday) off!!! Yahoo!!!)

12/05/2000 Mid Week Update.

I just spent a bunch of time 'playing' and fixing up the song page (and related pages). I keep improving on it, but I had some fun doing the LYRICS pages for the songs, and wanted you to check these out if you get a chance.

It's best if you play the song first, then view the lyrics pages, but if you don't have the time (or tolerance) at least check out the lyrics pages. The Goin Postal one is pretty funny (like the song) and the Rat Race one is "cute" (did I say that?)...

Start with the main song page The Song Page , then go to the Song Samples, and then the Lyrics for the specific songs.

Check it out. It should be entertaining...

There is also a new Music AutoBiography Page. Most music pages have Biographys, but being consistent with all my other stuff, I did mine myself... check it out... that could be entertaining too...

12/03/2000 Weekend Update.

Not a lot to write about this weekend, but I'll do a quick update. We had our company Christmas (food) party this weekend.

It was nice. Casey had a basketball game and they won again. Corinne did some rollerblading with me and Dara doing a excersize walk/run today (Sunday). That was really nice, since it was a nice sunny day (even though it is December and in the 30's).

Casey accidently got down a chess board and game, while looking for a different game. Then he started buggin me to show him how to play, so I started to just show him the basics (how each player moves) and the next thing I know, he's buggin me to play all of the time. He picked it up real quick and we played a few games. I haven't played for a long time, and made a few mistakes, and he beat me!!! He really does think a few moves ahead, and does pretty well.

OK now for the next related subject... Corinne was watching us (playing chess) and she picked it up also!!! Sheesh. She beat me at one game also (OK, I'm not that bad... I was playing 'easy').

OK, gotta get back to more PC stuff, while I got a break from chess.... see ya...

11/26/2000 (Thanksgiving) Weekend Update.

We had a real nice Thanksgiving at my Plano brother's house. We had a great feast, Andi and her family were here from

Wis. this year, the kids had a great time and I played (and got frustrated at times) on the computer. We did get the photo program and screen saver working on his PC.

Chapman/Oium Familys... I am really sorry for the techincal difficulties with the camcorder (ie dead battery) but we didn't get any cam-tape of thanksgiving to speak of (a few cow pictures).

Sam and friends... Once again sorry... but I DID get cam-tape of Sam's 50'th... I attaching the photos to his Internet-Bday-Card so here's the starting link: http://home.att.net/~chapmanrpb/happysam.htm

Christmas Page Note:
I just got some decorations up on the trees outside, so I thought I better decorate my page also (it's traditional now...). If I get more time to play, I will try to find some more stuff or get our real decorations uploaded.

11/21/2000 - BEFORE Thanksgiving Update.

Well, I pretty much missed last weekends update, being so busy with the new song and all, but I felt like writing tonight (Tuesday).

I was just thinking about all of the time I just spent on that last 2 1/2 minute song, and decided that I would write the "How I did it" page (while it was fresh in my mind) to explain why it took probably over 20 hours to write, record and produce that last song "Forget (that we ever cried)". (Yes, I have tons of other things to do and I feel guilty a lot, but I am obssessed you know!)

OK, I know this is really song stuff and should be on the song page, but I wanted my family and friends to know why this takes so much time!

Click there please for: ---> How I did it. (20 hours for a 2 1/2 minute song) <---Click there

Let's see... 20 hours or so for the last song, Web Page updates, PC pictures (scanning, camcording, etc), Reading (song research and Harry Potter (Casey makes me read that)), playing with Casey and Corinne (not as much as I should), cleaning up the house (when I can) and other chores, working for a living (on the side), etc... No wonder I have absolutely no idea about the latest TV shows or current events, etc...

11/13/2000 - Weekend Update LATE Edition

I know a lot of you do your PC stuff on the weekends or Mondays, so you may miss this but I thought I would write anyway, while I am chacking mail, etc.

Corinne and I went to Woodfield Zoo yesterday. I was actually doing my 5 to 10 year cloths shopping (I was down to 4 pair of pants that I could wear to work for 5 days a week). Wow, I guess Christmas starts right after Haloween!!! Corinne just loved Club Libby Lue (or something like that) where we got some (too expensive) fairy dust. But, hey what do I know, it is supposed to make your wishes come true...

I gotta go upstairs now, and see where she put it. And if there is any left... Let's see....

11/5/2000 - Weekend Update

Just got back from Hawaii!!!! Wow was it nice!!! OK, now the truth. Not much new and exciting for this weekend, so I t

hought that I would make something up. It was a real nice fall weekend. Worked around the house, raked leaves, increased my bike record a little more for something to beat next year, etc... Corinne had 2 birthday partys this weekend and Casey had 1, so that kinda broke up the weekend a little. Went on the bike trail with Corinne and we both took some pictures. She really loves nature and photography (she tells me (I don't think she understands about the cost of film and developing yet :-( ).

I joined NSAI (Nashville Songwriters...) again and sent in Lifes Hard for another critique, and I did some secret PC stuff that I can't tell you about just yet.

I should be a polititian. I can ramble on even when I don't really have anything to say...

Well thanks for checkin in... stay tuned...

10/23/2000 - Quick Update

Just another song page note... I got myself set up on the MP3.COM page now (No cost, just had to download a new

version of MP3 player to record in the quality that they require). It's in the LINKS section...

10/22/2000 - Weekend Update

It was another BEAUTIFUL Fall weekend, here in Chicagoland! We've had a great time with Karen and Nadia this week

and we had a great lunch and visit with Jack and Rosemary (also in Chicago this week) at Valley Low (sp?). I bored a few people here and there with the PC/technical stuff that I'm into (pictures, sound files, pages, etc) (actually, everyone was interested, maybe just not a passionate as me about it). Bob and Beth had some great photos (and stories) from Africa! (Tanzania (good thing I had a globe handy for the spelling).

My excuse tonight for not having pictures to upload is that Dara has the camcorder over at her moms house, while I am here doing the updates!!!

While I am doing this update, I have some other stuff uploading/downloading to add a my music to the MP3 site. I'm not sure if this is going to work without paying $30.00 for a "fancy" MP3 player, but I'm trying... (if I never get a song published, it won't be from not having enough internet sites!!!) Jeff told me that they will play my songs on some radio station if I have them on this site... Right Jeff?

Oh yea, I also had a great pizza over at Dales... and started to watch a good movie on his 'killer TV' before I had to go... Nice paint job Dale (as far a garage interiors go...).

Well, I guess that's it for now... I really will try to get some more pictures up soon... See ya Rob.

10/15/2000 - Weekend Update

I was hoping to have a few pictures this week, but ran into some problems (more below). First of all it was a BEAUTIFUL Fall weekend, here in Chicagoland! I think that this may be the peak of fall color this weekend, and I wanted to get a nice fall color picture for the page here.

I started the weekend with some page updates (the song pages), then did some boring work in the garage Saturday (we also got outside a little, and had some fun close to home). We hung our witch-smashed-into-a-tree decoration. Then we had our Friday the 13'th 2 days late!!!

Sunday, we packed up for a nice fall mountian bike ride (off road trails). I got 4 bikes in (and on) the van, we packed some sandwitches, got the 4 of us in the van... Yahoo! Here we go!!!... Key in ignition, turn... clicking noise. clicking noise??? What the... battery is just fine (tried a jump anyway) DEAD VAN! (I suspect it is the started... shoot happens...). Well, afer I chilled a little, we decided to do our ride anyway. OK, small change, Plan B. Got on our bikes to head for the local path... Dara's back bike tire is FLAT!!! Ughhh!! Dara got a spare bike (yeah, we got 6 of em!!!).

OK, we finally got off on our bike ride, the kids had some 'disagreements' about trail riding (Casey) or hiking (Corinne) and we never really reached an agreement, but had a nice picnic, and a short ride. Then we cut though an empty tennis court on the way home, a little off the main road, but not that strange... then Corinne crashes into one of the net poles while riding between the nets!!! I was worried that she really hurt her fingers, but it turned out that it was just some cuts and scrapes...

Well, that's it. Like that famous song says... "Lifes Hard...".

10/9/2000 - Another Quick Update

OK, here's the Seger Song that I mentioned: Experiments in Stereo - (using Seger)

10/8/2000 - Quick Weekend Update

I gotta do this quick, because it's after 11:00 pm and I have work tomorrow (I hope the kids are sleeping, even though they

don't have school tomorrow). Anyway, I just finished recording another copy song (Bob Seger (more later...)) and I made some more stupid storage space in the garage attic this weekend (sorry for the attitude). Corinne was really a great help!!! I did page updates, played some basketball with Casey, rode my bike a little, etc, etc, just the usual...

Sorry not much else new right now, it was a pretty COLD weekend here in Chicagoland (a reminder I guess). More later, as usual... See yas... Rob

10/3/2000

9/30/2000 - Weekend Update (early edition)

OK, As I said here's a little better update (although I still don't have a lot of time tonight). I haven't had the time for photo updates, but I'll get to that as I can (of course)...

I guess that this really ISN'T the OLYMPICS page (like I was thinking)... I haven't gotten around to any good Olympics jokes or puns, but there is still some time...

Corinne is now taking Ice Skateing along with Ballet. I think that she really likes skateing. Casey is also now taking Karate and insisted he wanted to be signed up on TWO basketball teams (we'll see how that goes).

If you haven't gotten it already, you will be getting a new song anouncement for my latest song (now you see where a big part of my time goes...) (If you are reading this page, you will probably get the message...).

9/28/2000

Just a REAL quick mid-week update (mostly I wanted to add the 'open for business' picture below that I forgot to do).

We just had a new fence put in (that I wanted since we moved in). If I were doing a "proper" update, I would have camcorded it and put a picture here... well maybe later if I get the time, although that is getting real scarce... actually I gotta go, it's almost midnight and I got work tomorrow.

I'll try to do a better update on the weekend... see ya.

9/22/2000

I'll Also add these to the permanent "Links" Section

Well, it had to happen sooner or later I guess... Casey and Corinne were wanting in on the Web-Page-Action. I guess they inherited some of my bit and bytes or just saw Web-Boy (as Dara calls me when I hang out in the basement doing this silly web page stuff) and decided to be Web-Kids.

Anyway, They are already familiar with basic PC stuff (of course) and I just pointed them to Front Page (express) and gave them a real quick crash course, and now have done the first drafts of their web pages (they are actually better than my first attempts (but they did have a teacher)).

I just left Casey alone and he did his page, then it was getting late so I typed in the text on Corinnes page, but it is completely here own ideas and words.

Now I gotta upload this stuff and set it up... after that, they will do their own updates (I will just help and do the uploads)

(And they are using all of my cool animated GIFs before I get to use them... Sheesh)

9/15/2000

OK, who says my page isn't keeping up with current events??? Why is this now the Olympics page?? you might ask... Well, I'll be using as many olympic puns and cheap shots as I can in the next few weeks to live up to the

title... stay tuned...

9/14/2000

Sorry... I didn't mean to scare you thinking that the Chapman Family Page was down or something. The CD writer went in

just fine (although it really wasn't all that easy!), I have just been so busy with my first release on CD and updating my other pages that I haven't gotten back to this one for a while...

Well, I just gave away the news if you didn't already know. My first CD "First Burn" has been "released" and is now available. All of the details are available on the Song Page including the song listing and the details behind each song (not shipped with the original releases).

I guess that's it for now. I was going to load some pictures of my PC all torn apart, but it doesn't seem so interesting anymore, and more work than I want to do...

Oh yeah, one more song related note. I finally got listed on the Chicago Songwriters Page. I have been in this organization for over a year now, but never "made the page". I think that I am in pretty good company, and have another link out there in internet land. It reminded me of the scene in "The Jerk" when Steve Martin (Nathan?) was soooo excited that he was finally someone!!! He was listed in the phone book!!!

9/7/2000, Midweek Update... CD WRITER INSTALL.

I wanted to put in an update Just in case... I just got my new CD Writer and am about to do surgery on "DEL" here, so

if there is a silent time with my page or email, you'll know that I may have screwed up my PC (and will probably be as frustrated as you (by not having Chapman Page updates :-) ).

I have to install a new device controller also (since Dell tells me that I only have 3 slots on the current one (floppy, hard disk and zip drive)... I hope all goes OK......

"DEL, this won't hurt a bit... "
"Rob... This mission is too important"
"Open the pod doors DEL"
"Rob, I am a Dell XPS R400... and we've never made a mistake..."
"Open the pod doors DEL!!! It's just another device..."
"I can't do that Rob... Rob... where are you going with that screw driver..."
"Rob!?? please... Rob... Mary had a littl........ ..... @#$@!@#%($#&8"

Labor Day Weekend Update

Strange weekend for weather... It started really hot and humid, then ended up pretty cold... I haven't had a chance to upload the photos that I just did, or do the page updates, but I thought I would write the news before calling it a weekend...

Casey caught our first fish from Chapman lake. I was told that it was a bass. The thing was HUGE! Here check out the picture Click here for Caseys Fish.

Today, Sunday, we went to Navy Pier! I figured the crowds would be bad and it was kind of cloudy and cold, but we did it anyway and had a GREAT time (except maybe Casey, he's not as big on that type of thing, even though he did have some fun). We did the huge ferris wheel there (for the first time) and did one of the boat tours (the second time I've done this and I really like it. Corinne loved it too...). I think that I got some good camcorder shots, but haven't viewed them (or uploaded) them yet. I think that Navy Peir may be my favorite "Chicago" thing to do...

Well, I gotta git now, I don't want to do another super late PC-and-Page-Updates night and be draggin all day at work again...

8/27/2000, Weekend Update... It's back to school day (Tomorrow)!

We had a real nice weekend. A little rain (and some storms) Saturday, which then cleared up and Sunday was just beautiful! Corinne and Dara talked me into going to this nature/center farm place by us, which turned out to be REALLY fun!

As you may have noticed, I now have a new season bike mileage record... It's not exactly accross the country, but it's not too bad for an old desk jockey!

I also stayed up way to late Saturday, working on some recordings and mixing (and one new song anyway), so you all will have that to look forward to soon... Well, I'm just doing a quick update, because I'm exausted and it's getting late... Stay tuned, I am trying to keep up on this, and do regular updates again... See ya Rob&co,

8/20/2000

As it says, I just had a roll of film developed, from the Nikon, from vacation (and Patty, when I was there). Some of the pictures are actually really nice, although I don't know if you can see it well from the JPGs on the page...

I also just found that using the 'autobalance' option in MS Photo Editor (one of the photo packages that I use) to convert my scanned pictures to (small) JPGs for my page, seems to make nicer pictures. Hope you like em...

I also discovered animated GIF files. I was working on how to create my own from scratch, but found that there are already so many out there free to use (with permission), so why bother? You will be seeing more here, as they fit and when I build up my collection.

8/16/2000

I just did some more page updates on the song page... I hope it's a little easier to use now...

8/14/2000

It was a VAN PAINTIN Weekend...
The Photo is now in Photo History...
For those of you who haven't seen Corinnes birthplace for a while, it was starting to look really bad (The paint was wearing off. Thanks a lot Chrysler!).

Well, thanks to my brother (and the cheap labor pool (myself)), it looks great now (as you can see (as well as you can from a jpg) (I wish I had a "Before" picture but I dont...)). I knew it would be a little hard, but I still think that I under estimated the job. Fortunately, My bro really knows how to do this (and has the right tools, and was nice enough to do it). I might write more, but I'm too tired... so the picture will have to tell the story...

I also did some page updates to the song page (I added some shortcuts, like I did here, etc.). I wish I had more time, I'll write more later....

8/6/2000

Corinne has been 'froggin' for a while now (frog hunting) and she was really wanting a frog. Well, at one of our company

events (at Wild West Town, around Marengo, Ill) I found this guy by some trees. Corinne and Casey really liked him(/her) and I very reluctantly agreed to bring him home. It started out nice today (Sunday) then the rains came... but the Wild West Town was also a lot of fun. Pony rides, shoot out show, corn maze, pannin for gold...

7/28/2000

OK, I finally finished my "Earcandy" as I promised (even though it's more like Earstew...).

My intention was to do a few quick and dirty songs (by other people) and get back to my boogie-blues roots and practice playing, recording, mixing, etc a little. Well, even though I started out quick (and left plenty of mistakes in) it came out dirty, but not so quick, which means it took time from all the other stuff that I should be doing!

Anyway, I'm puttin them out there for variety (and your listening pleasure (pain)) I'm putting them on the song page (of course) but here's the links to listen to them from here:

(I've removed Norweigan wood, because I didn't think that it was that good).

(I gotta get back to the originals... if I ever get the time...)

7/23/2000

It was a Bike Ridin, swimming and recording weekend... Did a nice ride on the trails at Deer Grove with the family (the kids REALLY LOVE riding on rough tails) then I tried the Des Plains River Trail North (starting in Half Day). It was kind of a damp and dark trail mostly... but pretty nice. I went about 10 miles in one direction without crossing any roads (before turning around) (The path goes under major roads at the bridges that go over the river).

Went to the local pools with the kids... Lots-o-fun (of course), and worked on the recordings in my spare time (not much, but I try)...

That's the basic documentary for this weekend... Gottago!!!!!

7/19/2000

OK, who was visitor number 1500??? (it wasn't me)... You need to claim your prize...

I thought I better do a quick page update, while I got a moment. I am workin on some new Ear Candy. I haven't had enough

time to get together something original, but I wanted to practice a little and try my new recording mixes on existing (accepted) songs. So I am almost done with 1 boogie, 1 blues and 1 beatles song. I'll keep everyone posted, of course.

Other than that, just enjoying the cool summer, lots of stuff goin on... Bike riding a lot (and updating my meter on this page when I check my mail). Dara and the kids have been doin a lot of time a the pools (gotta get our seasons pass, moneys worth). Bringin the van in for a new fan motor tomorrow (over 101K miles now on blacky (Corinnes birthplace)).

Well, that's probably not as inspired as my "I have a Dream" page update... but that's the way it is on this Wednesday 19'th of July... See yas...

6/28/2000

I have a Dream!!! I have Been to the mountain top... and I have a Dream...

A little dramatic maybe... but hey, I've done enough pictures for a while, and I gotta do something creative (or shtupid...) I

had an idea while I was doing one of my usual bike rides... I am going to ride cross country! Really. I am thinking of taking a summer (or part of a summer) and doing a cross country trip. before I get too old... (I may need a leave of absence from work, or quit and get another job when I get back, or send Dara to work, or tap into retirement funds a little, but somehow, some way...). I don't know if I can do it next summer or the next one or...

At first I was thinking of crossing the US, but then I thought, how about just Illinois to California and then up the coast. Then I was just thinking about starting in Colorado and just riding through the mountains to the coast then up and/or down the coast... Well, I dunno yet, it's just the start of an idea (pipe dream maybe) but you get the idea.

OK, any volunteers to come with? If you are interested, EMail me and I will send you the application, then if you qualify you can do the road test...

(The title does specify this as a "Dream")

Last Archive... From here down...

3/26/2000 - (Happy Birthday Brad...)

Sorry, I haven't gotten any updates in in a while... It's been hectic around here (to sugar coat it a little). Anyway, as you see I

put up the latest photo of Jon and Lily that Diane and Rich just sent me... The other group, I just thought was kinda interesting/funny so I included it. I don't usually include all the joke photos and stuff that people send me, but I still do have a little sense of humor left (Some of you may not think so, and some may think that I never did!!! JJJ).

It's Brads birthday and he is twenty three today... or was it twenty four... I was thinkin, of maybe doin a birthday section... Well, I dunno... Should I post everyones actual birthdates (birth years included)? What do ya think?

Daras Sis Karen and Nadia are here now (from Minn), so maybe next week I will have more to write or even some cam-or-nikon photos to post... stay tuned...

For you out of towners, winter is breaking and the weather is getting real nice here now (highs in the upper 60s) and it was a real nice weekend to be outside (which I did do a little, but not as much as I would have liked to...)

Well see ya'all later.. Rob&co...

3/14/2000

Just a quick technical note. I got interested in slideshow stuff after I found the Realaudio version, and started searching for an eaiser to use slide show that didn't require anything special, was fast and used existing JPG files (sound also would be nice).

There are TONS of slide show packages out on the net, but after searching for quite a while for a nice easy package, I had to give up for tonight, it's getting late and I gotta deal with real life again soon.

Most of what I found, so far, uses Java and/or some special application software. Maybe I will grab one of the freebies of the net and see how it works....

Then, at some point I hope to update my page pictures to have them more organized and easy to get to.... (all of this, of course takes time... (but it's mostly fun for me too..)).

I think that a nice slide show package will be nice for all of you loyal Chapman Page readers out there... So I'll be working on it as I get the time... stay tuned, I still got plenty of camcorder tape to use...

A note on my latest business idea: Ok I mentioned a business idea a while back, so here's just a little info on it. It's personalized return address stickers. Yea, I know... it doesn't sound extreamly interesting, and anyone with a PC can do it (and it has been done, I've checked it out on the internet)... BUT... I have some ideas, that just could work... (sorry I don't really want to mention them here, because I can't really copyright the idea and it IS stealable). It may work... and it may not but the beauty of it is that it will cost me very little to try... and I will... (If anyone is interested in the details jus drop me a line (or ask the next time we talk...))

Gotta go....Rob.

3/10/2000

REALSLIDESHOW notes:

OK, I've got some good news and some bad news... I got the slides working, from this page on the internet (that's the good news) but... I had to contact Real Audio support and the only way that I could get them to work properly was to upgrade to Real Player Version 7 (that's the bad news...). The slide shows do work now, but you may need to upgrade, if they don't work quite right... See my REALSLIDESHOW notes below... (This Color)

The slide shows sort of work with the older version of Real Audio, but they skipped pictures (started the displays about 1/2 way through).

So...you need to upgrade to Real Audio 7 (there's a couple of other bandwidth settings that they suggest, but that really didn't count as much as the upgrade).

I HATE software upgrades!!! But, I guess you need to do them once in a while (kinda like car maintenance I guess). It took me about 15 minutes to download the upgrade from the RealAudio site and a minute or 2 to load after that.

Here's the important hints for the upgrade (since I just did this) Go to the Real Audio site RealAudio Site then click on the FREE download of Real Audio 7 BASIC... NOT Real Audio PLUS 7 ... do not select the PLUS stuff (that's the one you need to pay for). Then follow the instructions, wait for the download (I choose the medium options) then do a quick install after it is downloaded...

The internet version of my slide shows isn't quite as nice as on my PC, because the pictures don't FADE IN and FADE OUT and the sound quality isn't quite as good, but, it's still worth a try... Good Luck, to those adventureous enough to try...

3/5/2000

Well here it is Sunday, just past midnight, and here I am playing Web-Boy again (as Dara and the kids say...).

I think that I have been going through a mid-life CREATIVE phase (crisis?) recently. I am really enjoying
PC photo, audio and web page stuff, camcording (and camcording photos (via downloads), photography (especially now
with the new camera) and of course music (as usual).

I'll take PC audio and photos anyday over a good inventory/OE or A/R package. I've always enjoyed performing music,
but these days I like Creating music... I've always like camcording (and making camcorder movies) but I REALLY like the
still photos that you can get from camcorder tapes. I guess now that I am at that mid-life crisis age,,, I can finally afford some of the equipment that is needed for this stuff!!!

Well I hope some of you enjoy the new stuff out here... I like doing this, but it does take a lot of time...

3/3/2000
Nostalga just isn't what it used to be!!!

Try the Real Audio Slide Show (above). Sorry, but this forces you to listen to one of my songs in order to see the
new/very old photos that I've included in the slide show (actually you can mute it or turn it off, but give it a try anyway...)
I hope it works OK with your Real Audio players... I thing it's pretty cool.. (maybe a little sad in a way...)

I also just added Corinnes Birthday Pictures as a slide show... Check em out... (I hope everyones Real Audio is working...)

I am also working on a new business idea in my spare time (right...). I'll write more later when it's not 4:00am!!!

2/27/2000
We just had a real nice preview of spring today. Above, Casey and Corinne preparing for the first fishin of the season, and the newborn photographer with a new toy (pay no attention to my hair... it was windy and my fake hair blew off....J)...

2/23/2000
I just added a few of the shots from the first roll of film from the Nikon. This has great potental (of course) even though
we don't have a flash for it yet. This is really Daras job, but she hasn't been able to get to it yet, so I thought I would
give it a try. I really wish I had more TIME!!! (maybe I'll fix up (rewrite) that old "time aint money" song....).

I've mushed all of the Nikon photos into one JPEG, which has some advantages and some disadvantages of course...
It's all one image so it will paint right away (probably pretty fast) but you can't blow up any of the individual photos
or seperate them... Let me know what you prefer (if it matters...).

2/16/2000
I am now using MS Front Page (cheap version (express)) to update my page... I hope this comes out OK.
I hope I 'm not doing too much web page stuff, but I am starting to think that going to bed is downloading and
getting up is uploading...

I am working on the song pages right now so sorry if I've been a little negligent on this one recently...
(so many bytes... so little time..) Well I gotta check out my UBL page upload now... I'll do a little more later.

Oh yea, I just got a new car (van) stereo tonight (since my last one broke...). It's pretty nice, even though
I was going for cheap not high quality (another Alpine, less than $200 installed (tape deck, no CD))
Now all I need is a new Radiator, battery and/or alternator, paint job, oil change...
It just goes to show... "People buy what they WANT, not what they NEED"... (Jeff Farr 199?, may be mis-quoted
but that's the idea).

02/7/2000
Wow, there is a lot to do!!! OK, As you see, I've uploaded a bunch of new pictures. It's actually taken quite a bit of time so I haven't added any text and just did the best that I could (It's 12:30am and I am too tired to fix it up any more...).

I also just checked out Daras new NIKON camera today. Wow is it cool!!! Hopefully we will get the first roll finished and back soon.

Aside from that, just writing, producing, arranging, performing and recording a few new songs (should be page-worthy fairly soon), working a lot(yuk!) and trying to keep up with life......... I gotta get some sleep now... sorry for the sloppy update. But at least I did get an update in this week!!!!!! Goodnight.

01/17/2000 OK... Wisconsin pictures are in (as it says above...). This has been takin a lot of time. First, I downloaded and uploaded, then I tried a new format (thumbnail pictures), well, check out the photo pages and you will see.
I've also moved some of the text from this page to another file (see the link at the bottom if interested...)

We had a great time in Wisconsin (as usual), I think the photos are supposed to be worth 1K words each so check em out. I gotta git now...

01/14/2000 Well, like it says... We are off to Wisconsin (to visit my niece). I don't know if'n I'll be back in time for the weekend update (unless I need to wind down from the drive Sunday night), but I'm sure I will have an update soon after the weekend.

I hope the page isn't getting too busy... Don't worry, I won't get too carried away with the effects. I'll change things around again soon..

01/08/2000 You know, I think I am going to archieve some of the text on this page. Like maybe back a month or so. Not tonight though, I am running out of free time (again)...

Songnote:
I just got some info on places to set up free pages for music sites and have created a few new pages. I am really getting a good internet presence!, Now all I have to do is write some good songs! (actually I am still working on it and currently re-writing parts of Dangerous Love (based on the NSAI songwriter comments)) among other things (rewriting and remixing old songs, reading, working on new styles and songs, sending more tapes to Nashville, Etc.).

I now have 2 new sites. One is on the "Ultimate Band Listing" site (UBL.COM) and the other is on the IUMA page (Internet Underground Music Archive). The IUMA page is a temporary address until they check me out and approve it for listing on their page.

Well, here are the links. Check em out when you get a chance (the content (songs, photos) is pretty much the same as MY pages but the framework is different).
Click Here for the UBL Page. Then SEARCH for "Rob Chapman" or "Chapman", etc.
Click Here for my page within the IUMA page (temporary address)

01/04/2000
Techincal Note:
Wow... I just discovered the easy way to do Web pages... I don't need no stinking HTML code... Actually, It's nice to use but the page generators (like Front Page, which I got a scaled down copy of) are WAY Eaiser!!!

Bill Gates strikes again!!! Sorry the Marqueue effect and sound only work sith MS explorer (not with Netscape...) Sorry...

01/02/2000
OK, well, that was actually a lot of work... I spent quite a few hours viewing thousands of feet of video (I don't know what it really is, but that sounds good) to capture some still photos, then downloaded them to the PC, shrunk em then uploaded to the web page, then updated the web page info... (I do that the old fashioned way (HTML)) sheesh... (actually I have fun doin this of course...)

Well I hope ya'all like em... and actually I hope it doesn't take too long to load the latest photo page...
Oh yeah, I never got the MIDI thing (sound files) workin like I wanted them to so I'll just try later if I get a chance.

01/01/2000!
Told Ya..... !

Well, I told ya nothin would happen (Y2K)(see last entry). I've been experimenting with MIDI sound and will probably plug in some non-original stuff as an experiment. I also hope to get some of the Xmas photos in here tonight (if I have enough time). For now I'll just publish this... (to be continued, I hope...)

12/27/99
I was getting to the point that I thought that I couldn't do a page update if I didn't have new pictures... Sheesh... I actually got a lot of new camcorder pictures from Christmas (of course) but I haven't watched it and downloaded pictures... (So many frames, so little time...)

Well, We had a very nice Christmas. The kids got a ton-o-stuff an Dara and I got nice stuff too (and it's not even over yet!)
Casey got lots of video games and, of course really liked the latest Pokemon cards (they always tell us how much these specific cards are worth). Corinne Really liked her Pickatu and Furby. That Furby dude is pretty interesting... almost a little too real (creepy...). We went to Daras moms house on Christmas day and brought the old hound doggy (Yuppie) too...

I think that I'll leave my Christmas decorations up (page-that-is) until next week. Don't y'all worry about that pesty Y2K thing. It's just a joke that all us programmers started... Don't worry nothin will happen...

I'll try to get some photos up soon, but it's gettin late an I still have some stuff to do before I try to get mentally prepared for work tommorrow (black tuesday).

Songnote I just did an instrumental remake of one of my songs... on the new song page...

This one... Click HERE that is for the "chapmansongs" one...

12/18/99
Dara just got a roll of film developed from last summer. I've started a new photo page (the others are moved to the PHOTO HISTORY of course). I'll try to keep em commin as I get em... (Hope I don't run out of space on this page with all my photos...)

12/13/99
Just did a quick page update/optimize (Smaller photos on main page for faster display). I had some complaints (DALE!!!) Actually, it was good advise even if I hate to admit it...

12/10/99
OK, This IS the family page... and my brother IS family (even though this doesn't quite seem like a "family" thing). Here's a link to the tattoo show page that my brother is on... (yep that's him...)

Click here for the TATOO Page (He's down about 7 rows...)

12/5/99
GOT SNOW???
We do... (for those out-of-town readers...).
I was just going to write something (yesterday) about it not being much like December in Chicago, with all these 50+ degree days... Then... bam... here's the snow. Check out Corinne and her snowman friend. Casey (and Kyle) made a snow fort, but they weren't out when I did the Camcorder shots (the fort by itself, wasn't as interesting)...

Extra... Extra... This just in... (or out actually) Corinne looses first tooth!...

Gone to Wisconsin...

One less tooth, January 7, 2000 Smile... Christmas Pictures are in. (Updated January 2, 2000!!)

PHOTO HISTORY. All the previous photos, Click Here.

Click here for the new Song Page

NEWS...

I will update this periodically with our general family information... and just keep adding to it until it gets too big, then I will delete or archive the old stuff... SO HERE GOES:

01/14/2000 Well, like it says... We are off to Wisconsin (to visit my niece). I don't know if'n I'll be back in time for the weekend update (unless I need to wind down from the drive Sunday night), but I'm sure I will have an update soon after the weekend.

I hope the page isn't getting too busy... Don't worry, I won't get too carried away with the effects. I'll change things around again soon..

01/08/2000 You know, I think I am going to archieve some of the text on this page. Like maybe back a month or so. Not tonight though, I am running out of free time (again)...

Songnote:
I just got some info on places to set up free pages for music sites and have created a few new pages. I am really getting a good internet presence!, Now all I have to do is write some good songs! (actually I am still working on it and currently re-writing parts of Dangerous Love (based on the NSAI songwriter comments)) among other things (rewriting and remixing old songs, reading, working on new styles and songs, sending more tapes to Nashville, Etc.).

I now have 2 new sites. One is on the "Ultimate Band Listing" site (UBL.COM) and the other is on the IUMA page (Internet Underground Music Archive). The IUMA page is a temporary address until they check me out and approve it for listing on their page.

Well, here are the links. Check em out when you get a chance (the content (songs, photos) is pretty much the same as MY pages but the framework is different).
Click Here for the UBL Page. Then SEARCH for "Rob Chapman" or "Chapman", etc.
Click Here for my page within the IUMA page (temporary address)

01/04/2000
Techincal Note:
Wow... I just discovered the easy way to do Web pages... I don't need no stinking HTML code... Actually, It's nice to use but the page generators (like Front Page, which I got a scaled down copy of) are WAY Eaiser!!!

Bill Gates strikes again!!! Sorry the Marqueue effect and sound only work sith MS explorer (not with Netscape...) Sorry...

01/02/2000
OK, well, that was actually a lot of work... I spent quite a few hours viewing thousands of feet of video (I don't know what it really is, but that sounds good) to capture some still photos, then downloaded them to the PC, shrunk em then uploaded to the web page, then updated the web page info... (I do that the old fashioned way (HTML)) sheesh... (actually I have fun doin this of course...)

Well I hope ya'all like em... and actually I hope it doesn't take too long to load the latest photo page...
Oh yeah, I never got the MIDI thing (sound files) workin like I wanted them to so I'll just try later if I get a chance.

01/01/2000!
Told Ya..... !

Well, I told ya nothin would happen (Y2K)(see last entry). I've been experimenting with MIDI sound and will probably plug in some non-original stuff as an experiment. I also hope to get some of the Xmas photos in here tonight (if I have enough time). For now I'll just publish this... (to be continued, I hope...)

12/27/99
I was getting to the point that I thought that I couldn't do a page update if I didn't have new pictures... Sheesh... I actually got a lot of new camcorder pictures from Christmas (of course) but I haven't watched it and downloaded pictures... (So many frames, so little time...)

Well, We had a very nice Christmas. The kids got a ton-o-stuff an Dara and I got nice stuff too (and it's not even over yet!)
Casey got lots of video games and, of course really liked the latest Pokemon cards (they always tell us how much these specific cards are worth). Corinne Really liked her Pickatu and Furby. That Furby dude is pretty interesting... almost a little too real (creepy...). We went to Daras moms house on Christmas day and brought the old hound doggy (Yuppie) too...

I think that I'll leave my Christmas decorations up (page-that-is) until next week. Don't y'all worry about that pesty Y2K thing. It's just a joke that all us programmers started... Don't worry nothin will happen...

I'll try to get some photos up soon, but it's gettin late an I still have some stuff to do before I try to get mentally prepared for work tommorrow (black tuesday).

Songnote I just did an instrumental remake of one of my songs... on the new song page...

This one... Click HERE that is for the "chapmansongs" one...

12/18/99
Dara just got a roll of film developed from last summer. I've started a new photo page (the others are moved to the PHOTO HISTORY of course). I'll try to keep em commin as I get em... (Hope I don't run out of space on this page with all my photos...)

12/13/99
Just did a quick page update/optimize (Smaller photos on main page for faster display). I had some complaints (DALE!!!) Actually, it was good advise even if I hate to admit it...

12/10/99
OK, This IS the family page... and my brother IS family (even though this doesn't quite seem like a "family" thing). Here's a link to the tattoo show page that my brother is on... (yep that's him...)

Click here for the TATOO Page (He's down about 7 rows...)

12/5/99
GOT SNOW???
We do... (for those out-of-town readers...).
I was just going to write something (yesterday) about it not being much like December in Chicago, with all these 50+ degree days... Then... bam... here's the snow. Check out Corinne and her snowman friend. Casey (and Kyle) made a snow fort, but they weren't out when I did the Camcorder shots (the fort by itself, wasn't as interesting)...

12/4/99
Just got a poloroid of Corinne with Santa at our company Christmas party. Casey didn't do the Santa thing. The Party was pretty nice as usual... Lots-o-food and stuff fer the young-uns.

12/2/99
I didn't get a chance to do the outside decorations... so I thought at least I could decorate our page...
I'm also moving the photos around a little. Hopefully it will be nice and easy (and fast) to get to what you might be looking for....

11/26/99
Just a quick update. I got a few Lily pictures so check out the pictures page...

11/13/99

Welcome Lily Ann Chapman!!! Welcome to the World (and the internet) Lily!!! Congratulations to Diane, Rich and Family!!!

Lily is my new great-neice (nothing personal Andi... :-), (The most recent addition to my nephew Rich and wife Diane's family) I haven't seen her yet, but understand all went well and she is healthy and happy and has dark hair. Well, as you all out there can guess, I can't wait to get some photos (or camcorder shots) to post here. I hope to get some real soon...
Well Lily, your great-uncle Rob wishes you a long, healthy and happy life! and maybe I will explain what this thing called the "internet" and "web pages", (from the last century) were, to you some time...

The Stats:
Lily Ann Chapman
Born November 10, 1999, 9:21 pm
Weight 7.3 lbs
Height (when standing) 19 inches
Don't worry Lily, I won't make a habit of publishing your weight on the internet after this...

11/06/99

The Unexpected Afternoon...

Well, I really didn't have this day planned... but it was interesting. It was another beautiful fall day, unknown to me until my brother woke me up with a phone call (earlier than I would have choosen to get up). Great day, time to fly, grab the camcorder and go out to to Plano/Sandwich...
... Got to the airport, set up the camcorder... Ready to get some great shots...
Larry does the pre-flight, looks good, takes off... I'm fumbling around trying to get the perfect camcorder setup...
The Lemonaid Beaver takes off... airborne... lookin good... I didn't quite have the camcorder set yet... One time around the pattern and a fly by... OK...

The Unexpected Landing...

The Lemonaid Beaver engine dies, in flight, second time around. I'm semi-panicing, not knowing where it went down, etc. Well, to sum it up... the engine dies, and Larry does another successful bean-field-landing (didn't even break anything). Welp, I gotta go, that's the abbreviated story... Don't forget to check out the photos.... I was hoping to get some better shots, but the beaver engine was not cooperating today...

It's November 1'st /99
Just a quick update... The kids halloween costume photos are in the photo section. We had fun trick-or-treatin...

I hate daylight-wasting time!

10/30/99
Night-before-halloween-update!!!

Just got a moment to upload a few photos. Check out the photos section for the girls fishin... I hope to get some good halloween stuff tommorrow, and maybe some new BABY PHOTOS soon!!!

10/27/99
Mid-Week Update
Just thought that I would do a quick update (I gotta keep my reader base interested (all 3)).
First a correction, I was told my brothers plane is the actually the Lemonade Beaver... The editors deeply aplogize.

Karen (Daras Sister) and Nadia (our neice) were here this weekend. It was a fun weekend, Nadia did a sleep over here (and we did some fishin, went to Caseys Soccer game and lots of other activities) but I haven't downloaded the camcorder pictures yet (I hope to get to that soon).
Actually, I gotta git now already after a brief songwritin note:

Songnote I really liked the songs that one of the songwriters in the Chicago Songwriters group put together (the guy that I met at the Barnes and Noble Show) and I put together a Web Page for him (for fun and a favor) and included some of the songs from his latest CD. The page probably looks real familiar (because I've only used a handful of techniques). Check it out, and check out the songs..

Click here for the Mark V Page

10/18/99, This Just in...

My Brotha just took his Black and Yellow bumble bee (his plane) up for it's maiden voyage today..., It went real smooth, climbed FAST and set down easy. He flew about 45 minutes or so...(out of Sandwitch airport)
Sorry, I don't have any photos... I wasn't there and he didn't have any scanned in yet.

Congratulations Bro...

10/17/99
Weekend Update (part II)
OK, like I said yesterday, I was able to get a few new photos today, so check out the photos (just 2).
It was actually a very nice day today. Caseys team lost at soccer, but it was still nice to watch, and later in the day me and the kids went out and planted about a dozen or so apple trees around the lake (You do know that Johnny Appleseeds real name was John Chapman right? It's true! and we are trying to live up to our ansestery) (These were just apple seeds from some apples that we just ate (from a tree by the park "..... Delicious" I guess).
We didn't site any critters like last night though (that's because I was prepared and had the camcorder with me...). Well gotta go... Ba bye..

10/16/99
Just a quick note (since I got a minute for an update...). I just took a real short walk (on the path behind the house), with Casey and Corinne. Not really a full scale exercise walk, just a get out of the house and enjoy the weather walk (even though the weather leaves a little to be desired right now), AND... I caught a frog (then let it go, so we wouldn't have to deal with another animal) and we saw THREE DEER in the shallow part of the lake (actually it's ALL shallow, but I mean the part where it's probably less than a foot deep). This is about the same time of day (relatively) that Corinne and I saw the owl (just around or after sundown), so I guess that's a good time to check out the creatures back there.
Also, there are REALLY a lot of geese this time of year. It sounds like rush hour at Woodstock... Lots of VW-beetle horns going off!!! Welp, I hope to do more of an update tommorrow (I want to get some better soccer pictures (camcorder) for the page (I wish I had the camcorder with us tonight... (I still have fun with this technology stuff...)))

10/16/99
Songnews Update
I'm really behind on putting out new songs right now, even though I am constantly working at it, but I've noticed a LARGE amount of traffic on my original song page (the CHAPMAN99 one).

This is the only page that I've added to the search engines, and the last time that I did an update I added it to about 6 to 8 search engines so I don't know which one is generating the traffic, or if they are really looking for songs by Tracy Chapman or Beth Chapman ("This Kiss", and many other popular songs...) but I have gotten about 250 visitors (not including myself and my own updates) since the beginning of September (unless one of you are checking it out that often... :-) :-) ). I have not gotten any EMail on anything (even though my address is listed on the page(s)) so I guess there isn't much interest... BUT at least, some people are seeing it... That's interseting (to me anyway)...

10/3/99
WEEKEND UPDATE... Sorry I have not had a chance to do any page updates for a while. I don't have a lot of time tonite but thought that I better at least do a quick update.
It has been difficult around here lately (started with Kujo dying then we thought we might loose Yuppie (kidney failure) I don't really want to get into the rest of the sob stories right now, but that's part of my excuse (for no updates) "and I'm stickin to it"...

I hope to upload a couple of camcorder pictures tonight, to keep things interesting. Casey is having fun and doing well at socccer and Corinne is still doing great with swimming and is also doing gymnastics (when she gets a break from all the birthday partys that she has been going to.
(For my nice niece:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDI!!!

(I won't publish your age here, if that't OK...).
That's it for now... See ya later...

9/12/99
This message now being brought to you by:

~~~~~~~~ COPPER!!! ~~~~~~~~

Yes, this entire house is now powered by copper. Not a real exciting weekend... We had the ENTIRE HOUSE REWIRED!! Not my idea of fun. We found out that most of the wiring in the house was aluminium (except for the basement (which was RomeX (or something like that) Also replaced) and Dara wanted it replaced for saftey reasons... Soooooo.... EVERY outlet and switch in the house was rewired and replaced. This was a lot of work (for us!), as most of you can imagine, in order to make EVERYTHING accessable... Well, anyway it's done...
Other than that... Casey's first Soccer Game (in the RAIN!!!)... I was still pretty sick... (this is relaxing though) and I've tried to keep up on the songwriting work (I'm really learning a lot). I'm not sure if I'm done with this weekends update, but Im gonna publish this and update more if I get the time... Bye for now... Rob

9/4/99
OK, It's Labor Day weekend! No commitments at work (the day job) but we still got a lot goin on, as usual.
Today, Casey, Corinne and I went to Lake Michigan. This is definately the right time of year for this. (I need to remember that). We went to Gilison (I'm not sure if that right, but it's the one at the end of Euclid/Lake by the Bahai Temple...). If you do it right, of course, it's free... Ya just need to know where to go and what you can get away with...
Anyway, this time of year is probably the best for swimming in lake M. It's actually warm enough, and on a hot day it is really nice. It's about as close to an ocean type of thing as you can get around here.
OK, I'm ramblin on (but hey what are these pages for anyway...) The only thing that I was really disappointed about is I FORGOT THE CAMCORDER!!! or there would have been pictures here today...
Well, stay tuned... Ba bye, for now...

This just in... WEEKEND UPDATE (Late) 8/30/99

Sorry, I'm late on my weekend update... It was a very busy weekend, with my bookstock gig (Update below) and fishin and all...
I've included some new pictures of the mighty fishermen (fisherpeople?) at Peregrine Lake. Casey's friend Kyle brought some REAL fishing line a real hook, bobber and worms. Looks like we are gonna start the "real" fishin now (It's hard to get away with berries tied to a string tied to a stick now...). Well I better publish this and upload the pictures fore it gets to late...

8/30/99
BookStock, 1999 UPDATE
Well, I played my 3 songs at bookstock, with maybe about a dozen or so other musicians and songwriters. It was quite an event and quite humbling. There are a LOT of talented performers and writers out there. I did OK but not as good as many of these other musicians that play regularly.
I have added some photos and the sound file from the camcording I did there as a page off of my "NEW Songs" Page (chapmansongs). One of the musicians (Mark VEE) said that he told a friend of his in JAPAN and she visited the site!!!! NOW I can say my page is INTERNATIONAL! (Even if they visit to see the other performers, hey that's my marketing paying off... "Pass through MY page to get to something else you want to see... while you are there...".

8/26/99
Songwriting Update, BookStock, 1999
Just a note, I will be making a brief appearance at a Barnes and Nobel book store / coffee type place in Oakbrook Terrace (BOOKSTOCK, I call it) this Saturday (the 28'th) sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone interested, give me a call (or check http://chicagosongwriters.com for details (even though I didn't make the listing!))

8/19/99
Alright, I've done the basic changes that I wanted to do now. This seems to take a lot longer when you are not getting paid to do the programming! :-)

As you can see, I have seperated the Pictures (most anyway) from the text, so the page will paint faster and you can choose what you want to see. I think I will have to start another photo page if I start adding more photos because it takes a while to paint all of those pictures (even at reduced quality...). Well that's it for now, I hope you all enjoy the new format and pictures!!!
(Sleepless in Chicago) Rob.

8/18/99
This is starting to get a little time consuming (but I don't mind on nights when I have the time (It's almost relaxing (I wonder what I'm missing on TV???)) I'm trying to keep up but there's "so many pictures and such little time..."

I may have to seperate the pictures and text soon, so the page paints faster... I hope it isn't takin ya'all too long to get the pictures to display...

As far as the Song Page link at the end of the pictures goes...
Yeah, I can use my own page for free advertising!!! (to friends and family...) (It's really just there for convience, beg, beg, whine, whine...)

8/10/99
(It took me all night to get this F_____ board installed!!(I had lots of problems with the driver, etc...) but now, we can have INSTANT (poloroid type) PICTURES, from the camcorder, anytime!!!) It's 12:05 am Monday and I was up till after midnight, WORKING, last night, so as far as tommorrow goes, No I mean later today,... yuk!!!

I have reduced the quality of these pictures a lot to allow me to upload them and have the page paint in a reasonable amount of time (I HOPE!!!). When I download from the camcorder, I get a BMP file of about 900KB per picture, which I have reduced here to approx 25KB. So the original quality is pretty good, but it takes a lot of PC space!..

8/4/99
Another quick update (I should be sleeping). Andi (my neice for those of you not in the family out there) was here this last weekend for Pattys (her mom) Birthday suprise party. We had a great time both here (she stayed at out house one night) and at the suprise party.
As those of you that live here know, it was REALLY Hot this weekend. But I think that the kids had a great time here with water stuff (squirt guns, hoses, pool...) and.... basketball (and of course the usual stuff... nintendo, etc.)
I got some great camcorder shots of Pattys birthday suprise, and hope to publish them real soon (AS SOON as MY PC BOARD GETS HERE!!!) I'm getting real impatient to get that board to download the camcorder stills to the PC... I think I'll check it with the 800 number tonite (I am addicted to technology now.... aggahh!.!.!!).
The next event comming up is my friends Jeff and Fred (from North Carolina... now) will be here the weekend after next.
gotta go...

7/25/99

WEEKEND UPDATE:

I just ordered the PC Board today (from Dell) to download camcorder stuff to the PC, so in a week or so I should have new 'pictures' on a regular basis (When I have time to update stuff)
This does involve installing the card into the PC so if you don't see any updates here for a while... I MAY HAVE MESSED UP MY PC!! :-)

Corinne and I just took a little walk (ride for her) around sundown (a little after 8:00) and saw the COOLEST THING!!! There was this HUGE OWL on a light pole (square D buildings by the bike path) then it flew over to a tree by the path. The thing was about 2 feet tall and must have had a 5 foot wing span... WOW!!! I was glad Corinne got a chance to see that... (and me too)...

One of my readers (aka: Dale) said that I was "whinning" too much about trying to get people to visit the NEW song page. So I will try not to PUSH it here anymore, but thanks to the people that did check it out (I see that there have been a handful). I will of course update this page when I have something new to check (if you choose) or maybe some song related news that I want to mention.

And so... I just added 2 MORE songs to the NEW song page (4 total now). I have also done a face lift (on the NEW and MAIN pages) and have added a section to the NEW Song page that includes text (like here) related to the songs...

7/18/99
Just a quick note before the weekend is officially over. The SuperSoaker 3000 is AWESOME! If ya need a cool squirt gun, this is the way to go. Don't settle for less. It can also be used to strap on your back and go around and water flowers or plants or to wash stuff off of the house, etc. but in battle there is no substitute!
Also, it looks like I need a video capture card for the PC in order to download from the camcorder ($250.00 thruogh Dell). I know that I will want to do this and I hoped I would just need a cheap cable, but it doesn't look that way. A (low line) digital camera could actually end up being cheaper than still pictures from the camcorder, but I think that I like the idea of just lugging around the camcorder to places and getting the movies and (PC) stills in one unit. I'll probably get that soon (another add-on expense to buying something...). Gotta get in that work-frame-of-mind now... baa

7/17/99 (almost 7/18)
Well, like I said, it's really nice to have the "Taste of ...." virtually in our back yard. Dara was reading me the list of who was playing there this weekend, on our way to my company picnic (also pretty much fun today), and she said tonight was Lynne Jordan and the Shivers (yeah right, who's that), Well, I knew that that was the band that my friend from Cheap Trick is in now... Wow!! this is so easy, go to .... (basically our back yard) on a Saturday night and see this band and talk to my friend. So... went there, did that.

It was a really nice time. Corinne came with me (she mostly wanted some of those glow rings and Dara wanted to stay with the dogs, and Casey didn't want to go) so we watched the band, they call it rythym and blues, songs like R-E-S-P-E-C-T and other blues stuff, etc.
Then after the show I talked to Jon (Brant). He is still sitting in on some performances with Cheap Trick (not a regular now) but we talked music shop talk and are keeping in contact. Well I better go now... ttfn Rob.

7/16/99

OK I'm gonna try this again... Com'on yous guys... I've been workin real hard on the new songs and all... and like I said I have a NEW page with 2 NEW SONGS (and more comming soon, I hope). It only takes a few seconds to click on a song, then just a few minutes to listen to it.

I've only had 1 visitor :-( (besides for my own updates... (Thanks Andi)).

• COM'ON, Click Here for the NEW SONGS... (please :-) :-) )

And now, back to your regular program...

It's a pretty nice, hot Friday night. Casey is at a new friends house down the street and Dara and Corinne are at the Taste of ......... I am too tired so I'm just typin this in for ya'all (if anyone is out there in networkville).
Kujo has recovered very well, and seems perkier than before the operation. BUT... she still basically has cancer and may not be around long (but Dara is workin on having her around a LOT LONGER).
We are pretty lucky with the ...... parties (Taste of ......, etc.). We moved,... then the 'taste' moved to the Jr-College. Now we can walk or bike ride to it (just like we used to in the old house with the 4'th of July festivities (where Dara went into labor with Casey!)). I can hear the bands off in the distance in the back yard now (upstairs that is...).

Also, Dara, the kids and everyone had a GREAT time in Maine! I can't write a lot about it because I wasn't there, but I guess they could have used my trumpet playing experience at the wedding :-). I also got a nice T-shirt outta the deal.
Well, I gotta go, ba bye...

7/9/99 (barely)
Well, with Dara and the kids in Maine, and me hangin around watchin the doggies, I have finally put together the NEW SONG PAGE. Here's a link... give it a try, and let me know what you think...

• Click Here for the NEW Song Page

chow baby...

7/6/99
OK it's been real busy around here but here's an update:

I'll do the good news, then then bad news then find some good news again...

Good News: My niece and family and my friend Bob, from Seattle, were here (same time (but seperately)) at the end of June and it was really nice seeing everyone even though it was terribly hot and humid (and my niece didn't even do a sleep over!!! :-) ). Bob got some pictures on his digital camera and I will try to include one here...

Bad News: Kujo had some problems and had an unexpected surgery Saturday (7/3) and had a large tumor and her spleen taken out and it looks like it might have spread too (cancer...).

Good News: Kujo is recovering OK now, and we are looking into treatments. Also, Dara and the kids are still going to make their trip to Maine (She almost cancelled because of Kujo). They leave tommorrow (7/7).

Also, on the fun side of things (for me anyway), we just got a new Camcorder (since the old one broke one too many times and didn't seem worth the money to keep repairing). It is a Sony DIGITAL camcorder and takes REALLY clear pictures even in the dark... and also has LOTS of cool effects. You can also take digital photos with it and download right away to the PC of course, but I haven't taken the time to figure out how to do it or what cables or software I need etc.(If anyone out there knows how to do this, let me know...)
Well, sorry, once again it is time for me to go... See ya or Eya all later... Rob.

7/1/99
Casey is older now too... 9 to be exact. We just did our annual pilgrimage to the Village. 8'th year in a row now, and the kids still love it. Shoot. I just got paged from upstairs to get cake... busy as usual... I'll publish this and hopefully, get back to this real soon.

6/12/99
Well, I'm older now... (enough of that!) thanks for the cards and birthday stuff everyone!
Dara and the kids are at the pool right now. There's a new pool in town with a 150'(I think) water slide. Dara and the kids have been going to the pool alot (we have our season passes of course) and I have taken them once. I just did some tree/bush trimming and lawn mowing and am almost too tired to even type (but hey, I can hang in there a little). Actually I can't think of much else right now, so I'll sigh off and do another update later... Bye, Rob.

5/29/99
Not much new right now, but I thought I would write a little since it's Memorial Day Weekend. Not much planned for us. Dara and the kids are at the pool grand opening right now...
I've been fixin up our bikes, and I got a helmet for me (first time) so I can set an example for Casey (who also got a new helmet) with his bigger faster bike (Corinne likes her helmet and wears it all the time anyway). I just got a new light clip so we can use our 2 lights on different bikes (depending who is riding when. (this is probably very boring for non-bike riders, but I gotta write something and this is about as exciting as it gets around here (which is good sometimes)).

The sceeters are back!!! I absoutley LOVE the lake behind our house, EXCEPT... for the sceeters... they are REAL BAD at sundown or night time this time of year. I actually like being in the basement when it is THIS HOT... It's real hot today, but I will get out and join the masses (crowds) soon...

(Songwriting stuff) I just got back a critique from NSAI on Dangerous love. It was great... This lady talked for about 1/2 hour about the song, and gave me lots of good suggestions. She liked the basic idea but thought the music was too mellow for the mood of the lyrics "Dangerous Love", metioned problems with switching between past and present tense (I didn't even notice). She also gave me some ideas on improve the structure to keep it more interesting all the way through...
Well, I'm sendin in Mountain Rock next (before I do any rewrites (if I do)).
I guess I should be a writer... when I get going, I can write lots of stuff (books maybe) about nothing at all :-)
Well, More to come later...

5/28/99

Happy Birthday Larry

My brother Larry is

52

today!!! I just wanted to make this available to anyone who stops by, or accidently gets my page...

5/21/99
Well, I just took the splint off of my finger yesterday (after eight weeks!) and it's not 100% straight and it's still not functioning 100%. I just talked to the Doctor (He called me at home (ie a House call!!!)) Dara knows his wife, so I got connections... anyway he told me to give it a week or 2 out-of-the-splint now to get back to normal (Oh man... :-( ).

TGIF!!

Hey. I see by my magic counter that NO ONE has checked out my OLD Song Page... Com'on give it a try!

• Click Here for a sneak preview of the "OLD" Acoustic Song Page

5/16/99
(Songwriting stuff) I just started the "Old Song" page. This is the acoustic songs that I did on the original pre-demo tapes. This is still under construction, but I have uploaded most of the other songs (to-date) to this page. For a SNEAK PREVIEW see the bottom of this page.. bye for now...

5/15/99
Casey just got a GREAT new bike. His wheel on his old bike was bad, We called bike shops for a new wheel... $40.00 was the best we could get, so Dara found a bike at a garage sale... $30.00 for a fairly new 18 speed mountain bike!!! This is WAY better than mine!! and I'm jealous. It's a good size for him (for many years if it doesn't get stolen).

Dara, Casey and Corinne will be going to Maine in July for a wedding/family reunion. I will stay with the dogs... (and save my vacation time (probably for some kind of work...))

Songwriting news: I have sent a tape to a music publisher in Houston. I don't expect much, hopefully at least some kind of response (maybe with a critique or suggestions). I have also joined NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association, Inc (I think)) and have sent them a tape for an alledgely professional critique. I'll be working on the new stuff probably next week, WHEN I GET THIS SPLINT OFF!!! (and if my finger still works...) But I'm gonna have to take some time off for real-life stuff too...

For those of you who have downloaded REAL AUDIO, for my song pages, or for any other reason... I just found this really cool site where you can hear samples of hit songs on the radio (a Billboard page) played using Real Audio. I think It's cool anyway... Here it is:

http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=366555111/pagename=/RP/GENRE/CHARTS/main.charts.html
(It's not a link, so you will need to cut and paste it... (or type it if you're that good)).

Well I'll add more later. It's another beautiful spring day and I wasn't gonna spend so much time doing this...

Work News (Rob): I'm still at the consulting company (AiC) but I'm not at the food place anymore (US Foods/Ryckoff,Sexton (in Lisle)). I am now at a new place Caremark (in Northbrook).

I've removed the Chat room because I've decided that AOL Instant Messaging is a better format for personal Chatting...
If we are on-line and chattable, our IM screen name is RobnDara...

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