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NaBloPoMo #4 – Lazy Sundays and Football

Like most folks I enjoy a nice lazy Sunday. A day to rest, enjoy, chill, relax, kick-back….you get the drift. However during the Fall I also enjoy watching football.

What?! A girl who likes watching football?!

Yep, and I even understand the plays, penalties and can discuss play clock management. I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. A place steeped in Dallas Cowboy football. This was when they were America’s Team back in the glory days of the ’70’s.

I was what you might call a tomboy and had plenty of boy cousins to play cops and robbers with or was that cowboys and indians? I could play a mean game of marbles and the boys didn’t count me out in chess or any game for that matter. So football or the understanding of football was a given.

Let’s fast forward a few years.  Our family moved to a different city where football or conversations about football weren’t as common. I grew up and my tomboy days were but distant memories. I married a man who could care less about the sport and that was fine by me. One year we were given tickets to a game and had such a great time! My husband was amazed I knew so much about the sport. It was the beginning of what is now a fun thing we do together. Watch football on Sundays.

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NaBloPoMo Post #3

Today, I had the opportunity to hang out with my fellow Podcasters at our monthly gathering. Topics covered included PodCamp SA, January State of the Podcasting Union, New Online Web Tools and some general chatter.

As much as I hang out with my fellow podcasters online, it’s always great to connect with them in person. If you’re in the San Antonio/Central Texas area feel free to connect with us on the message boards  or check out some of our past shows on SA Podcasters.

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NaPodPoMo Day 3 – Community

With Podcamp AZ happening today I talk about Community online and in real life

*UPDATE* 11.04.07  I realized today that in my haste to post day 3 before heading out of town for my sons football game, I posted a repeat of the day 2 audio. I’ll get you were wondering why my post titled “Community” was talking about my nano. Goes to show that mistakes can and will happen when things are done in a rush. I’ve now posted the correct audio for your amusement.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

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NaBloPoMo Post #2

So there was this time at PodCamp…….

Yeah, it’s time for some PodCamp goodness in the fair state of Arizona. The good folks a couple of states over are having their 1st Podcamp and interestingly enough it’s called PodCampAZ

They’ve got a sweet logo

They’ve got T-Shirts:

They’ve got a schedule

They’ve got a location: The University of Advanced Technology

Now all they need is YOU!

If you are anywhere near PodCamp Arizona and are intrested in Podcasting, New Media, Social Media and want to get to know the Movers & Shakers in your neck of the woods be sure and attend this Inaugural event. I can guarantee you’ll not only learn cool stuff but you’ll meet cool people and most of all you’ll have FUN! You’ll kick yourself if you don’t go and be so glad you did.

It’s not too late to participate in the fun that is PodCamp.

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NBPM #1 – NaPodPoMo & NaBloPoMo

You may be wondering, “Just what the heck are NaPodPoMo & NaBloPoMo?”

A foreign language? Like say….Pig Latin?

No. Nothing as fancy as that.

NaPodPoMo stands for National Podcast Post Month and NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Post Month.

Both of these are based off of the very popular NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month which kicks off today, November 1st. It lasts for 30 days and ends at 11:59pm on November 30th. The premise is to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the 30 days. It doesn’t have to be pretty or even good. As a matter of fact FAQ Reason #2 states, “Aiming low is the best way to succeed.” I do have a few books I’d like to belt out, but they all happen to be non-fiction so that counted me out.

In my continued search I found out there was also a NaBloPoMo happening at the same time. Post every day to your blog for 30 days. Once again the idea is to just get it out there.

So I said to myself, “Hey, I have a blog.

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to post to it more.”

“Hey, I think I’m gonna do it!”

So I signed up. I figure it’ll be a great way to find my blogging voice and by participating I’ll also end up with what I hope will be some kick ass blog posts. Whereas now I’ve only got a handful. Who knows after all is said and done maybe I’ll keep up the daily postings. And THAT would be great!

When I find something cool I tell my online buddies about it, too. I posted it to the SA Podcasters message board. The conversation continued on Twitter
with a joke that it would be too hard to do something like that in the Pod-O-Sphere.  The more I thought about it the more I wanted to do a podcast version. I wondered if there was already a group that I could join. My search turned up empty for podcasts but I did come across a NaVloPoMo or National Video Blog Post Month event. Wow! Vloggers were in on the fun, too? That clinched it for me. On Monday afternoon I jumped in and created the NaPodPoMo site on Ning.com

You see although I have a couple of podcasts in existance, there is a part of me that would like to post more shows more often. Due to the nature of the existing shows it’s not possible to do at this time. So what better way to get into practice of creating shows on a daily basis than NaPodPoMo? Since it doesn’t have to be pretty or amazing I’m free to experiment, be as creative as I want to be and use new tools to make this happen. I plan on using Utterz, BTR, my iRiver, my Phone, Jott to help augment my microphone and keyboard.

Since the premise of both events is focused on the DOING of a blog post and the DOING of a podcast, I think they go hand in hand.  So I’m diving in with both feet DOING both NaBloPoMo & NaPodPoMo.

Personally I’m looking forward to the challenge.

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Blog Action Day: The Environment

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic of choice is The Environment. The idea is for folks to discuss the environment as it relates to our current blog topic. Since my blog topic is….well….me this is going to be easy.

After some thoughtful discussion with John, I’ve decided to share where I think we, as a home-based business owners and a homeschool family, do in our daily lives to reduce our impact on the environment.

During the morning news we hear all about the traffic jams for those commuting to their place of work. In our business we commute from our downstairs bedroom to our upstairs offices. The only traffic jam you’ll find in our home is at the coffee pot. Just try putting your coffee cup in before mine and you’ll get an earful. Same as you would if you tried to cut me off on the freeway.

All kidding aside, because we don’t participate in the mad dash to an office outside of our home we as a single family are doing our part to help the environment. This is not to say that we never leave the house. Of course we do. We have outside appointments and our kids have outside activities. However when we travel is entirely up to us. It’s not often that you find us in rush hour traffic. We try to schedule morning appointments after 9am and afternoon appointments before 4:30pm.

I know that working from home is not an option for everyone. But there is an alternative to everyone traveling to work at the same time. Companies could stagger their employee arrival/exit times to alleviate traffic. Some folks are naturally early birds and others not so much. Those who are chirpy in the a.m. could work the 7am-3pm schedule and then others from 8am-4pm and lastly the night owls could wander in from 9am-6pm.

Scheduling employees into their natural productive time would be an additional bonus. I for example am the night owl in the group. While my sister Jackie is chirpy in the early a.m. hours. It would make sense to slot us into different work schedules since we are both productive at different times of the day.

What does this have to do with the environment? With less folks stuck in traffic at the same time there would be less smog, less stress and happier people overall. So I would be interested to hear what you are doing in your family to help with the environment.

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“Let me explain….No….Let me sum up…”

Those of us familiar with The Princess Bride will remember these words uttered by Inigo Montoya. So much had happened and there was just not enough time to share the details. So began the “summing up”. In my case there is no Prince Humperdinck scheming and plotting to ruin things. If anything, I’ve got “Miracle Max” in my corner giving me a magical and tasty chocolate-covered nut to bring me through.

SUM-UP #1: The last we chatted, I was embarking on the 30 Day Challenge. I’ll sum up my challenge by stating that by day 16 the real world had stepped up some challenges and that was the end of that. It so happens that was right about the time that Web 2.0 put a little hiccup in the project. I won’t elaborate further except to reiterate an earlier message board post, ” Spam is spam no matter what platform you are using.” That’s not to say folks weren’t successful. On the contrary there were a few folks who did quite well.

To me the amazing thing was that the folks who were the most successful at it used the 30DC & the Web 2.0 tools they learned about to enhance their existing businesses. The reason I think it was amazing to me was due to the fact that I have an existing business and have been using Web 2.0 tools for some time. Yet, I had never put the two things together. It was a bit of a V-8 moment for me.

SUM-UP #2: This Texas Gal has been busy with all the New Media/Social Media/Tech opportunities. From Co-Working to BarCamps to Blogtoberfest to a Halo3 Pre-Launch at Microsoft. I’m here to tell you there is a growing interest in what we’ve been doing for the last 2 years. I only wish I could participate in all the new and exciting events that are happening in Dallas, Houston, Austin. I get to as many events as I can and love it! I’ll admit I’ve drunk the kool-aid and being able to hang out with others in the New/Social Media arena is just grand! The folks I’ve met continue to amaze and motivate me. I’m looking forward to meeting the folks I haven’t met yet. If that’s you, then send me a line or better yet find me on Twitter.

SUM-UP #3: During this time of the year our family & business rotates around football. Our oldest son plays in a 6-Man Football team, the San Antonio FEAST Patriots and has since it’s inception 3 years ago. With practice 4-5 days a week plus weekly games, half of which are anywhere from a 1-3 hour drive. Well you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that equals up to a lot of time. It seems like the season is so very long but when it’s over we are always sad to see it end. We really are blessed to have the opportunity to fellowship with the other FEAST families thru football. I call it “Football & Felllowship” We see our families grow and change with each season. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

SUM-UP#4: The Morning BrewCast has been through a slow period while Jackie and I were otherwise engaged. We tried our best to produce at least one show each month during this time. You all were patient and supportive. We think we have some of the best listeners in the Pod-O-Sphere. We’re back in the swing and are back to producing shows on a more frequent basis. If you’ve got a topic you’ve been dying to hear, then send us a comment at the Morning BrewCast. We’d love to hear from you!

This concludes the “Summing Up”. Feel free to drop me a line jennifer AT jennifernavarrete.com Yeah, I know it’s long, but hey it’s my name and that’s that. Or you can send me a voice mail by using the CALL ME button on the left side of the site. Until next time…… remember, “I have spent the last few years building an immunity to iocane powder and am not someone to be trifled with.”