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Labels: New Site For Eransworld

Me And Paul

Embarrassing moments…everyone has them now and again. Usually harmless but nonetheless they leave a shiny mark upon the person who had the moment. I recently discovered that I had one about 4 years ago but didn’t discover it until a few days ago. 

In the fall of 2004 I was working at Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort as an IT person. Willie Nelson had agreed to come to the resort and perform a concert for Bob’s North Fork Preservation Alliance. They needed a couple of people to help with the set up. It was a chance to be Willie’s roadie for a day.  I of course volunteered and was chosen. 

I am not a huge country music fan.  I knew a small selection of Willie’s catalog of music. I had a CD with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson singing together on VH1’s StoryTellers. The CD had the song “Me and Paul” written by Willie Nelson. The song quickly became one of my favorites.

The day came to be roadie for a day. I spent the day with Willie’s crew setting up and stuff. During lunch with these guys we got to talking about the show and set list.  I asked the guy who was doing most of the talking about my favorite Willie song.  “Is Willie going to play ‘Me and Paul’?  I asked.  The guy just kind of looked at me strangely and ignored the question.  I thought that was weird. I didn’t really think much about it and the day and concert continued on.

 Fast forward until last week, while at the library looking through CD’s I found a Waylon Jennings album that featured the song, “Me and Paul”. I looked to see if I could find the guitar tab to the song.  I googled and found a website that had an interview with Paul English, Willie’s long time drummer.  “Willie and his friend Paul on the road again” I learned that the song “Me and Paul” was about Paul English.  Then I started thinking back to my roadie for a day experience… What does Paul look like?  Again I googled and wow it’s the guy from that day… Its Paul English. It quickly clicked that the reason he looked at me kind of funny when I asked if they were going to play “Me and Paul” was because he was Paul.  He probably thought I was being a smartass not a fan.  The embarrassing moment appears years later.

 Paul English has been the drummer for Willie Nelson since 1956 when at the request of his brother he took off work to keep a beat for him and his co-host on a radio show in Fort Worth TX that included live music. And that co-host was the not-yet-famous Willie Nelson.

.Me and Paul

It's been rough and rocky travelin',

But I'm finally standing upright on the ground.

And after takin' several readings,

I'm surprised to find my mind’s still fairly sound.

I thought Nashville was the roughest,

But I know I said the same about them all.

We received our education

In the cities of the nation, me and Paul.

 

Almost busted in Laredo,

But for reasons that I'd rather not disclose,

But if you're stayin' in a motel there and leave,

Just don't leave nothin' in your clothes.

And at the airport in Milwaukee,

They refused to let us board the plane at all,

They said we looked suspicious,

But I believe they like to pick on me and Paul.

 

And on a package show in Buffalo

With us and Kitty Wells and Charlie Pride.

The show was long and we was just sittin’ there

And we’d come to play and not just for the ride.

And we drank a lot of whiskey,

So I don’t know if we went on that night at all.

But I don’t think they even missed us

I guess Buffalo ain’t geared for me and Paul.

 

It's been rough and rocky traveling

But I'm finally standin' upright on the ground.

And after takin' several readings,

I'm surprised to find my mind’s still fairly sound.

I thought Nashville was the roughest,

But I know I said the same about them all.

We received our education

In the cities of the nation, me and Paul.

Labels: Me and Paul, Paul English, Willie Nelson

Over the summer I have been so busy with so many projects that a lot of my pet projects have suffered. I wish I could spend a couple of hours each day blogging, taking photos or just organizing my ideas. It seems to never happen though. I have been doing a lot of web work lately however.  I thought I would shamelessly plug my projects.

The Jon Dansie Band
The Jon Dansie band is “All Original” Blues based Classic Rock band. Jon Dansie is also my guitar teacher. Jon is one of the coolest people I know. He is Mr. Positive and music is his life. I love that every Friday I get to go and spend some time learning and playing guitar. Over the last 2 years Jon and I have become good friends and I am happy I could build him a website for his band.  www.thejondansieband.com

Utah NENA
Utah-NENA is the Utah Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association. www.utah-nena.org

PartylandUtah
Partyland is a party supply and rental store that is quickly growing across Utah. After several years of trying we finally convinced them to redo their website. www.partylandutah.com The new site is almost complete and you can see it here.  www.partylandutah.com/newsite/index_halloween.htm

The Acoustic Musician
My next project is to help out the website of a small music store called The Acoustic Musician. The store is run and owned by Mike Taylor.  The store specializes in Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Banjos  both Resonator Banjos and  Open-back Banjo and Mandolins. The store has regular weekly jam sessions where everyone is invited no matter your skill level. The store also offers lessons.  My favorite part about the store is the fact that the owner and his employees are regular down to earth guys who love to play music. If you are looking for an instrument to purchase, have repaired or just need some advice I recommend visiting The Acoustic Musician at.  9437 South Union Square Sandy, Utah or call them Toll Free: 866.751.6040  or local phone: 801.748.2616

I must also pimp Webnovate.net and Brannon Carter… Saleman, Project manager and friend.

Webnovate
Webnovate is a Utah Web Design firm that specializes in Web Design, SEM (Search Engine Marketing), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)! Our team consists of creative graphic designers, talented web programmers, exceptional web hosting servers, and remarkable project managers. www.webnovate.net

Labels: Partyland Utah, The Acoustic Musician, The Jon Dansie Band, Utah NENA, Webnovate

Google stuns the world and releases its own web browser called Chrome.

Why would Google enter the fray that has been one of the little darlings of Microsoft?

Google has grown up to become the dragon slayer. It has done what other companies only dreamed of and that is put a serious nick in the beast. Netscape failed.. Apple hasn’t done it. Linux hasn’t done it. IBM couldn’t do it. Google has grown up to be a formidable force.

Google’s core business has been search. Selling Search as in AdWords, Buying Search as in AdSense. Google has been a true hi-tech company since day one. The founders have understood that information is a key to our lives. The brilliance of Google is to attract the best and the brightest. Google then created a method of innovation by allowing its employees to use part of their day to pursue their pet projects. Enter the next phase of Google.

Google expanded to mapping Google Earth and Google Maps and making rival Mapqwest look antiquated. I think from day one the founders of Google have had an eye on the prize, Microsoft. All the while as Google advanced technology it has been meddling with Microsoft by cutting inroads into different portions of Microsoft’s business. . And then the shot heard round the world… Google Docs comes online pushing into the Microsoft inner sanctum stream of profit. What a free albeit with ads legitimate Office platform? Microsoft has been caught off guard by thinking they could continue growing by keeping all the apps tied closely with the Windows Operating system. The past 20 years of anti-trust litigation has taken a toll on Windows and what possible may be the chink in the armor of Bill Gates’ juggernaut; for Microsoft was once a Google where the stock had no downside. Google has the vision to be a focused company that embraces new technology. Google is not Windows centric, Mac centric or even Linux centric and its not even device centric but user centric. This means that Google has made itself a universal application for computers, thin clients, PDA’s, Mobile Devices etc. If Google can keep the user the focus then it will be successful.

All of Google’s forays into different areas of the end user experience have been a method to build and nurture the core business of search engine. Knowledge is power according to Sir Francis Baconin Religious Meditations, Of Heresies 1597. What better way to learn the habits of search then by creating a network of metric gathering methods. Learn about the people you serve through surveillance. Google uses its search engine to gather metrics about searching habits of people. Later they invested in Urchin software, a company who developed a very good website metrics system and creates Google Analytics as metric gathering piece gathering information from the web server side of the internet. These tools are free and are used to help refine the core business of Google that being of course data search.

In recent years Google has supported Firefox and the Mozilla group. Google understands that competition is good for the consumer especially if you believe the PR that Google is spinning. I think this is true but that said Google is also being self-serving. Google is looking out and beyond what the likes of Apple and Microsoft are seeing. It sees a future with a variety of devices that need content everything from mobile devices like phones, pdas and gps units to computers and cars etc. The Google business model is simple but yet has many facets including the management of mountains of data public and private. Google has invented something that is very important: finding the gems in the large massive rocks of data flowing around in the digital universe.

Now if Google’s launch of Chrome goes well it shall be an exciting day for web browsing for competition brings out the best products. I will review Chrome in the next few weeks but if it can deliver on one of its promises of only crashing a tab and not the whole browser I will be truly impressed.

Labels: Google Chrome, Microsoft Killer App

I wish I was allowed to release all the retarded calls my center takes. People call 911 for the most ridiculous reasons. Here are a few that were released to KSL recently. Link

Labels: Silly 911 Calls

This should be read with great sarcasm and cynisism.

Like most people I have been interested in the Olympics as of late. Who isn’t excited by nations competing with nations? “The thrill of Victory or the Agony of Defeat” I thought since this blog is a journal of sorts I would post my thoughts.

Is it just me or is this the 2008 Summer Olympics of Swimming?
With my direct TV I am able to see several channels of the Olympics… I get NBC, MSNBC and USA showing the Olympics. My question is why the hell does NBC have to show us 87% swimming, and 12% gymnastics and 1% woman’s softball.

Over the last week I have watched over 10 hours and tuned in during prime time, day time, night time and oh gosh what time is it time and every time its usually a swimming event and not always with the over achiever Michael Phelps (Whose resume says something like I am not a professional athlete I just have people that donated a hell-a-nice website available in English or Chinese).

I can understand that NBC must pay the bills by broadcasting the money sports but must they broadcast the same stuff on both channels? Maybe the male swimmers are eye candy I don’t know. I am sure there are ladies who are hot for the swimmers but do woman audiences dominate your ad dollar? Maybe!!! The woman swimmers are not very attractive so easy with those close-ups as they should be used sparingly. (Send hate male to idon’tcare@eransworld.com). They ain’t Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit models ok?? Get the picture??? For those keeping score with the eye candy… the female weight lifters doing the clean and jerk has been the least appetizing thus far.

And then must NBC replay the same event at different times? According to the Official Olympic Website there are 28 sports with 302 medals. That’s a lot of variety. NBC should maybe dedicate some time to those gasp other sports. I have seen a few things I wish I could see more of like Fencing and Archery however for just a few minutes at a time. The communist NBC has blocked almost all attempts freely distributing Olympic content via the web outside of NBC.com.

Shawn Johnson: the next Olympian Gone Bad!!!
Last night as I watched the floor routine and saw Shawn Johnson’s score busted by the last woman to perform I had this thought. Isn’t she pissed? Let’s recap the scenario… The USA woman’s team gets the silver. Ok nice job and what a great surprise but Shawn gets a 2nd place ribbon. The next night Shawn gets beat by her alleged best friend and room mate Nastia Liukin in the woman’s all around. (Side note: Nastia, Nasty I keep getting them confused. I know its Russian and her dad is a former Russian Star.. use the above email for more hate mail or use the comment portions to tell me you hate me.). Then after the floor debacle and the cameras and reporters and etc all in her face I was expecting Shawn Johnson to go all Tanya Harding and just blow a gasket. I was expecting Johnson to go Postal… Start beating people i.e. Nasty and screaming you blankety blank I worked x amount of years to come in second you no good Harlot!!!! Think of it as Jerry Springer at the Olympics. Of course this didn’t happen… Shawn Johnson I thought showed the greatest sportsmanship that I have seen in a while in sports. She has appeared to be kind and gracious even while coming up short. Kudos!!! What a Great role model for kids.

Labels: 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson

This totally made me laugh...

Labels: John McCain, Paris Hilton For President