Chapman Text History V7

Of course, Amazon is THE place to get books and stuff on-line. I've used it and it is great. You don't even have to drive to the store... If you are going to buy a book (or something else they offer, here's a handy link right on the old family page... Use it please. ... and tell 'em "Rob Sent Ya"! (just kidding they will already know that...)

Did you ever think you would see the day when the old family page went commercial!!! Hey, I have to pay for my ISP, webspace (mortgage, etc) somehow... J. Like I said, don't worry, I wont make my commercial messages too obnoxious... I'll put Amazon at the bottom of the page a little later and I do think that they are a really good on-line place to buy from. I'll probably only add my other sponsors for informational purposes or if I think it is something that the family page readers may find useful.

Of course, I am not doing this specifically for the family pages... I am working on my other "content" sites where I hope to eventually get some traffic (and spare change...).

If you use the links on my page I will get a commision on anything that you buy (that't the affiliate programs). It will not cost you anymore so if you are going to get something from Amazon (for example) directly, go ahead and get there from here... (please)... Wow, am I a high pressure sales guy or what?

BTW: I will NOT be doing any kind of spam (un solicited junk email). It is obnoxious, annoying and I don't think that it works!!! So don't worry I am not selling my soul to capitalism.... J Just trying to make a living (tred water, or whatever)...

I got some news on the music scene. First of all, I have actually "sold" my first CD! This was nice for the old ego and confidence level... My song recordings were always intended to be demos for the purpose of showcasing my original songs (not for the purpose of selling CDs).

As you may remember, I used to GIVE my CDs away for free, for quite a while, and sent out quite a few all over the world. Although, most of the people were very polite and appreciative (some sent very nice comments) there were also quite a few that I believe just wanted something free because it was free and that got a little old so I decided to charge a small amount but still keep the CD option available. I really wasn't sure if I would actually sell any...

Anyway, my first (paying) customer is from Switzerland. I have been planning on figuring out and setting up some on line credit card processing for the other things that I am working on (and figured that I could use the option for CDs too) but since I do not have that yet, I'm not sure how we will work the transaction. He said he would send the payment (not sure what form of currency he planned to use) but I told him that I would also be happy to accept an equivalent amount of swiss chocolate if that was eaiser JJJ

And in a related story... One of my internet sales ideas involved selling independent musician CDs, so I did a little research and signed myself up for CD sales on the CDBaby site as part of my research. I have actually learned quite a bit from this process. I think that just making my personal CD sale page more interesting may have contributed to my CD sale (who knows?). Anyway, I mailed them the 5 required CDs a few weeks ago and I am now officially listed on their site as of today... Here is my personalized CDBaby page! http://www.cdbaby.com/robchapman

Well, this is very encouraging to actually get my internet sales going! Now, all I have to do is increase the volume (by about 800%) and make it consistent (do that every day) and ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom... Cha-Ching... I'm in business... JJJ

1/25/2003 - Bumper (or web site) Stickers, Deep Freeze, Reality-based (and dream) jobs...

You know, I think that a lot of people make way too much out of the public school system and "making the grade" and all that junk! And those silly little "Honor Roll" bumper stickers... What a bunch of... OK, now that I got that out of the way...

:-) again... No, I didn't stick on the bumper sticker! :-) (At least I have a web page for this kind of stuff :-) ) (Actually my favorite has always been "I have a good behavior inmate at Joliet State Correctional facility" :-) (I'm glad to have the one above though...)

We've been having a real Deep Freeze here... Which has not been too much fun, except for the ice skating! The ice on the lake is thicker than I have ever seen it. One part, where it was clear, I could see that it was frozen about 8 inches (all the way to the bottom there... Dara, Corinne and I have actually had a lot of fun ice skating. This is great practice for Corinne too, since she is also taking skating lessons and is signed up for an ice show (some time in the spring...)

The job scene has been totally dead for me (still sending out lots of resumes), but I have been really busy (as usual) working on my next "project". OK, I did my Java classes during my last round of unemployement, and worked on freelance web site design and development before that (I still enjoy doing web sites, but I have not been successful at generating enough business to do it as any kind of reality based job).

My next "project"... Internet Marketing (to keep it very short and simple). I have been working very hard at this and have nothing tangible to show at this point! :-( And I probably won't have anything profitable to show for months now. I do believe that there is very good potential here though, I am committed to doing this and I have been learning a lot and talking to my (marketing guru) friend Jeff about some ideas also... I mention this mostly to let ya'all know what's going on with me (you know jobs and stuff...).

I don't plan on writing a lot about this here on a regular basis, but I did want to mention that I am doing this. I am basically working on 2 areas right now. The first is to set up some new content web sites to be used primarilary with affiliate programs, and the second is to market a product (or products). At this point, I believe that my first product attempt will be an information product of my own (book, ebook (more on the details later)) but there is some trial and error involved in the process.

Although, I still really like the idea of promoting and selling independent musician CDs (and my product is related to that process), I don't believe that I will be attempting that one. BTW: The WebSite www.CDBaby.com is a great example of this (the best one actually) and I have submitted my own CD to them to sell (although my recordings were intended to be demos of the songs for songwriting purposes (not CD sales), I wanted to go through the process to see how it worked).

Well, you may see some commercial links on the old sites soon, but don't worry, I won't make them too obnoxious! :-) :-)

We have been having a nice time ice skating this year. Yesterday, we even brought out the boom box to have some skating music (Corinne likes Avril Levigne ("skater boy" was pretty good on ice and so was that one "It's a dang cold night..." :-) nice skating music... beautiful full moon last night too!)

Bad news on the basketball front... Caseys team got beat by a bunch of GIANTS. The team they played is undefeated this year and I have never seen so many huge 7'th graders! Casey is one of the tallest on his team and he looked short next to these guys... (they should try to balance the teams better). Yes, they were good players too. On the positive side, Casey did really well and did some real nice plays...

1/12/2003 - Getting it together (settling in to January)... The Game/Skating and Regular Family News...

I am just settling in to January and trying to get my employement/financial act together mostly... My last programming contract ended right on schedule, as expected. As usual, I have still been really busy (maybe I should take a time management course or something... :-) ).

I'll try to keep this part short (if possible)... At this point, I am convinced that jobs that require my previous programming experience (vms and digital products) has pretty much become extinct... there may be a few odd jobs here and there, but that's about it... The prospects are not looking good for a technology switch right now either (although I am trying in that area also). So...

I am really pretty serious about getting into a different line of work now... That is actually a big pain on one side and a great opportunity on the optimistic side! I have been talking to my entrepreneurial, marketing guru friend, Jeff ( www.ArtByFarr.com ) about concepts and possibilities and I think that I may actually have a good (and realistic) idea!!! I won't get into the details here (it usually takes a while to find the holes in the idea (but I haven't yet)) but if I follow through, I will obviously be writing some updates...

So... Only time will tell... I may get into another line of programming or technology, follow through on my latest business/sales/marketing idea, work at a computer helpdesk, drive a cab or bag groceries at the SuperMarket! :-) I am just trying very hard to make a smooth transition into the best possible alternative while keeping an eye on the finances before settling for the bottom line alternatives...

OK, enough of that (sorry that got so long, but it's been a major focus of mine recently...)... back to the regularly scheduled family news...

Casey's basketball team won another one this week... It was a pretty close (and therefore exciting) game, although Casey's team had the lead through most of the game... Casey, himself played a really great game this week. He scored 6 points and did a great "in your face" block/turnover (in addition to his normal teamwork (rebounds and stuff)).

Corinne, Dara and I did some animal tracking in the snow the other day... Footprint analysis, etc. I actually thought this was fun... Corinne looked up the footrpints that we found in the snow when we got back... I checked the ice out on our lake yesterday, and it was not thick enough for skating, but it was really cold again last night and I will be checking it again today to see if we'll be able to head out for some ICE SKATING! (Hey, maybe I'll bring the digital camera... and do another update as soon as I get to it).

Oh yea, BTW: I also found a bunch of cheap places on the internet that develop and print digital pictures (very high quality (print like), I imagine) and just mail them to you... I am going to try that and see how that works out... I let cha all know...

1/1/2003! - Happy New Year Everyone!, Got Some Pictures from the new digital cameras...

It's been a fairly layed back New Years day and I took a little time to format and upload some pictures from Corinne's and Nadias new digital cameras... (Nadia and Corinne got the exact same cameras). The quality is actually much better than you will see here of course, because I always reduce the quality/file sizes for the web page downloads... I did keep 2 only slightly reduced quality (and size) pictures out there (the photographers) so check out the photographer enlargements (the 1'st 2) for a slightly better sample of the digital pictures...

12/28/02 - Out with the Old, In with the New, Stereos and Digital Cameras and The Reunion

I just did some major updates to the ol www.SONGPUPPY.com site. It may not look real different at first, but I've kept the keyboard links (on the left side) fixed most of the time so I believe it will be MUCH easier to navigate... Now that I've been a user on the internet for a few years I've decided that I really prefer when the index or links stay in a fixed position, (I usually prefer this to new windows on links also). Check it out when you get a chance and let me know if you catch any errors (there were actually quite a few pages to update (I also did some minor cosmetic upgrades too). Unfortunately. I lost my good old page hit counter (because of the new counter location) and I guess I have to start over after about 3,735 hits... :-(

OK, now for the kids Christmas gifts... Casey and I picked out a stereo for him at Best Buy before Christmas, but it was not in stock at that store (or most of the others as I later found out). I called around (Best Buys are terrible to try to call. Half the time I would wait a ridiculous amount of time and then give up) and went to a few different stores, until I finally ended up driving to a Best Buy in Chicago on my lunch hour!!! Fortunately, they still had a few... It sounds good, but Casey hasn't been around much since Christmas to make me regret buying it yet... :-) :-)... Dara and the kids have been camping out at her moms house since here sisters family and uncle have been in town all week... (giving me a little time for page updates...)

I think I did really well on Corinnes gift too. I got the idea of a digital camera for her and went shopping with her a few times to see if she had some other ideas or liked the camera idea... well, to keep this fairly short, she did eventually come around and decide that she did want a digital camera. I had intended to get a bottom of the line (cheap) one, but after talking to a few people with experience in this area I decided to try for a step up... So I learned a little about digital cameras and ended up getting what I believe was a really good price at WallMart on a Kodak Digital camera with 3.2 Mega Pixels and 16Mb of memory!!! Not bad for a 9 year old! Corinne really like taking pictures and I think this will make it more practical and economical (no film or developing). The biggest problem with this is that I wanted it!!!! Oh well, I'm sure I will get to use it occationally... so look out for some new photos here soon...

I also got together with 5 of my friends and co-workers from digital for a reunion brunch yesterday! Kim and her family (from Ma.) were in town which was the catalyst for the get together. It was really great seeing everyone. I haven't seen most of them for almost 10 years and after working there for 13 years (23 years of history and some pretty long term relationships) there was a lot to catch up on... Unfortunately, you can't cover much ground with 6 people in a few hours time... Work reunions are quite different than high school reunions (thankfully) but I was amazed at how everyone looked about the same and we just had brunch like it was another lunch hour at digital... (I still miss that company... ah well, the company is gone, but some of it lives on within us... sheesh, there I go again with the too-heavy-for-prime-time-web-site stuff again... :-) )

Well, I really have to go (this is getting long)... but I also wanted to mention that I am really glad that I have been working (and getting paid) through the Christmas season... Even though, I know we need to really watch the budget, until things stabilize, I felt much better buying the kids gifts when you know you can pay for them... :-)

I appreciate all of the Christmas cards and letters that we've gotten this year. I've gotten to like the Christmas letters and emails quite a bit. The family updates are kind of similar to my web page stuff here, except they are yearly updates and nice positive holiday messages (without as much junk, as I write here, of course).

I've also gotten a handful of Christmas emails. Not usually from people that I am real close to, but nice (non-spamish) emails from various email contacts.

Since we haven't sent hard copy cards for a few years, I was thinking of sending an email card this year. Then I just decided to write another web page article and call it my Christmas message... :-) :-) :-)

This year hasn't exactly been perfect, but then again that doesn't usually happen anyway. I am just very grateful that things are going so much better than last year... and even though the future is very uncertain, there is still hope and a lot of good things going on in our lives. (how about with you?)

I guess that my theme here is kind of a "count your blessings" type of thing... I've learned that no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse... :-) :-( which sounds negative, but on the positive side, it means that you still always have something positive going on even in the worst of times...

The other thing that I have tried to keep in mind recently is to "Enjoy the Ride" (as per the theme of my song with that name). The idea here is that the Journey IS the Destination. OK, maybe this is too heavy for just a Christmas message, but it is a nice thing to keep in mind sometimes and it can actually help things go better when you can apply the concept...

Actually, I'm not sure if this is the type of thing that I had in mind for a Christmas Message, but hey, you all get the family updates all year (if you stop by here) so rather than rewrite about the stuff that has been going on with us I guess this is my message... So...

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to you all!!!!
Count your blessings and enjoy the ride!!!
(and to all, a good night... ? :-) )

Actually, I'm sure I'll be doing some updates before the New Year anyway (since I hope to have some page update time soon). So stop by again... soon...

Hey, for those of you who know our friends Jeff and Pam (of North Carlonia, formerly of Wheeling, Rolling Meadows, and other parts of the world) (or even those of you who don't know them), check out this web site that the Farr family (I would say clan, but since they are in NC, well, you know...) put together... www.ArtByFarr.com .

Caseys tem is still undefeated. the last game was a blow out. It was nice that they won, but it wasn't as exciting as that last game (12/7 story)

Caseys Basketball team is Undefeated! (3 games) It was a really exciting game today fans. Caseys team started out way behind... (8 to 0)... It was looking pretty bad for the home town team. They started to catch up, but were behind most of the game.. tied it up, then got behind again...

With less than a minute to go, they were behind 23/22... with about 15 seconds left, we had the ball and it was about to go out of bounds with a bad pass... Octopus boy (Casey) shoots out an arm and saves it!!! Flings it to a team member... clock running out... one more pass... One second to go... (Dara is freakin out (of course)... and Corinne is even goin crazy about it...) The Shot...! The buzzer goes off..!!! Ball's in the air... Swoosh! Bam! Score!!!! FINAL SCORE 24/23! We Win! the I love writing stories like this... Yes, I make it sound a little dramitic, but it really was an exciting game! (especially critical last few seconds!)

They did tie the previous game but they still qualify as undefeated... so far...

11/30/02 - I Almost Killed Her... After a Great Thanksgiving... Decorating time...

We had a great Thanksgiving up in the north country this year... (at my niece Andis house)... It was a shorter trip than our usual... (one night) and since it's not exactly camping weather we stayed at the local Inn rather than at Broken Pines Campground (Aka: The camper in my nieces yard)... I brought the camera but I was sluffing off a little and didn't click off as many photos as I would have liked to so I'll have to shoot some more before I get the film in... (and pictures uploaded (given I have the time). It is so nice up in that part of Wisconsin... I wish we could have stayed a little longer...(like about 5 to 10 years! :-) )

Oh yea, back to that attention getting headline!!! (I'll use any cheap trick to keep our readers comming back for more :-) ). We had an interesting ride back home. Shortly after getting on Route 90 (just past Sparta, Wi) I came across what I believe was a drunk driver. He (she) was behind me at first and I thought he was driving a little erratic, then I believe that he was trying to pass me on the shoulder... (he was doing over 60 on the shoulder with me in the right lane and not another car in site!!!) I think that he woke up and realized he was on the shoulder, slowed up then passed the regular way (in the left lane) and seemed to be swerving... sheesh! I didn't see him after that... I hope he got caught before someone got hurt!

Anyway, that was just the beginning... This got my attention then I see a different car in front of me hit the breaks and move into the left lane with no other cars anywhere in site... I didn't know what that was about but tapped the breaks to kick off the cruise and slowed down a little... Then in a split second... Bam! this deer jumps into the road right in front of me! I hit the breaks, skidded a little, swerved a little, hit the horn (almost instinctively. This scared her and got her to jump out of the way) and missed her by no more than a foot!!! I almost killed her! (finally the headline)... OK, I think it was a "her"... (no horns and I think she had a blonde mane!!! :-) :-) ) and she had some buddies hangin out on the side of the road also...

OK, that deer lives another day to dodge the hunters (hunting season lasts another day or two up there) and we all made it back safe and sound, of course, and with no damage to the van (other than some extra wear on the tires and breaks).

Everyone was awake (for a change) and got to witness this too, which I thought was a good experience and helps so I don't have to explain all of this to them too (and a nice time for a driving safety, stay alert type of speech/lesson :-) yea, it wont be long before the kids are driving...). The horn actually works well for critters in the road. I don't know if they say anything about that in driving schools these days, but I like to scare the S--- out of critters that get in the road (so they don't do it again (a little fear beats being roadkill... Hey, another famous "Rob" saying :-) )).

Other than that I am hangin out takin it kind of easy this weekend (as you see by my page update). It's Decorating time... as you see... I got some page decorations up... The house ones are harder but I hope to get to that tomorrow... I also got some of the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" worked out but I don't think rap is gonna work for me! :-) :-) (this was more of an experiment for educational purposes).

OK, I guess that's enough reporting for tonight... I gotta go... catch ya later... and stay safe out there...

11/19/02 - Major Harry Potter Weekend, Bye Bye Java Hello Visual Basic, New Pictures (the film kind)

It started with an unexpected invitation for Corinne to see the new Harry Potter movie with the neighbors... That was actually very nice that the neighbors offered to take her and she loved the movie... Next, the first Harry Potter movie was on TV (HBO) so I ended up watching that one with Casey (we used to read the books together too). Now... Corinne gets home and insists that I watch the first Harry Potter (that we taped) with her since I watched it with Casey! sheesh... Next... (Sunday) Casey is very upset that Corinne saw the second one at the theater and he hadn't seen it yet... So I'm off to the theater to see the second one with Casey... I actually really like these movies... and the books!!! (I still have to finish the 4'th though).

I've learned most of the stuff that I really wanted to learn from the Java class and the assignments and mid-term were making the ROI for the class unacceptable (the benefit was not worth the effort). Even though I had a solid A going on the assignments, they were taking about 20 hours each to complete (with 3 still left to do) and I got a terrible grade on the mid-term. I just can't justify all that additional work for just an average grade in the course... so I'm moving on... I've loaded Visual Basic onto my PC and have written my first VB program and am putting some of my effort into that now...

I'm still not sure if I will be able to stay in the programming world (for jobs) after my 3 month contract is done, but I will at least know a little more about some of this stuff and it may be handy knowing how to write PC programs anyway...

New Pictures... There are still more in the camera, but I guess these are worth a few thousand words, so I'm outta here... later..

Happy Birthday Lily! (I don't think she can read this yet though (since she's only 3!)) I played photographer a little bit today (the old fashioned way... with a film camera) at my great nieces birthday party. We had a great time. I've gotten used to using the old camcorder freeze-frame pictures as a crutch and I need a little practice at taking regular still pictures. Fortunately we have a great camera so I am hoping that will make up for some of my lack of skill with photography. I would actually like to do more photography, but the film version is so expensive... Maybe I'll be a photographer for a retirement job... Like when you don't actually need to make money at it! :-)

Two of Dara's uncles (Rick and Fred, from the east and west coasts were) were in town also this weekend and we had a nice dinner and some fun at Dara's moms house yesterday and a nice follow-up dinner tonight too. It has been another really busy weekend, so I have been successfully avoiding my java homework (which is still there waiting for me!).

Yep, I gotta get back to it and also prepare for work again tomorrow (set up a van repair, continue to look for permanent work, do some shopping, laundry, dishes etc., etc., etc.) OK, you get the idea... I gotta go. check in again later...

I hate daylight wasting time! (It's a slow news weekend so I have to fill in with a commentary on the time change...) I hate having it get dark so early. I guess the extra hour on the weekend is OK, but it's a hight price to pay the rest of the winter. Also, now that we are all on a little earlier schedule (school and work and stuff) it will be nice to have a little light in the morning... ah well, some things you just can't change... Although I do remember one guy that I used to work with that refused to change so he just went in and left an hour earlier durring this time frame... (it's still not the same, of course)...

OK, really I just wanted to add some halloween decorations to my page and update my bike milage gif. It was a low key weekend. I just did my Java assignment (this one was way easier), a short bike ride and some work around the house.

I think I've made my last bike goal for the season, so any riding that I do now is just for fun or excersize... (of course, that's the ultimate goal anyway). It sure was a nice and eventful bike riding season though. The trips to Wisconsin (first with Casey (both ways) then the whole family one way), the ride to Lake Michigan with Dale and we all made new records and had a great time.

10/20/02 - A Great Fox River Encore... and 4 Digits!!!, A different kind of Election

We headed out to the old Fox River bike trail today and squeezed in another great family (+1) bike ride. It was a little on the cool side, but really a beautiful fall day! OK, I made my recent goal of over 1000 miles in one bike riding season!!!

We brought Caseys friend Kyle with us too. Somehow I squeezed 5 people and 5 bikes into Blacky (the van). 4 bikes in the back (with a shoe horn!) and one on top on the roof rack. It was a little bit of a trick, but it worked!

We had to be back in a few hours so we didn't do any major records or anything, but it was just a great day to ride... and a quick stop at the Dairy Fairy...

One other little note that I meant to mention is that Casey was one of the kids elected, by his classmates, as one of the "most trusted" and "helpful" type of people in the class (which allowed him to participate in some ecological program). I don't think that he will participate in the program, but I think that it is great that his peers think so much of him. :-) We've also got a bunch of good reports from the teachers... Of, course, I just had to mention that... :-)

Text Archive Version 7 10/20/2002 to 2/1/2003

Text Archive Version 7
10/20/2002 to 2/1/2003