Florida picks a new state song

Recently I reviewed the 3 choices for Florida's new state them song. I choose Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky) by Hinton and that is the song that won.

After jokingly suggesting "Please nobody suggest Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville" for months (June 26, 07 Post Florida's State Theme Song) and writing a review of the 3 songs (Dec 13, 07 Post Florida's New State Song Vote. My review and "as is" vote)...

I decided not to vote as there was no option for "none of the above". 8,020 people did vote and Hinton's song was favored by about 4,600 of them. I did not get a final count on how many votes were cast and disqualified. In order to vote you needed to double confirm via email and then cell phone. At one point I read a news article stating over 5,000 votes had been cast but over half were disqualified because they were not confirmed via cell phone.

Source of info:
Pick for state song tells of gators, rockets
FLORIDA TODAY

Private Sunburst Convention Webcast Rerun

Sorry I told some of you this would be a public showing but on January 8th and 9th I will be rerunning a private broadcast of the Sunburst Showcases for attendees of Sunburst only.

Poll for Marc becoming a US Citizen is done and..

... sometime this year I will become a US Citizen depending on how long the wait is in Orlando.

I can only wild guess who voted. I have no clue who voted which way. The "no" votes all happened within the 1st day of the poll.

I'm off to learn the pledge of allegiance and memorize a bunch of facts for the civics test.

As I write this blog entry I am looking up what I have to do. If you are a US citizen or other I challenge you to look at the following links and post in the comments how you did.

• This one has only 20 questions but they are the more difficult ones:
  Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?
  
  
• Here is the full 100 questions for the current civics test:
  A Typical 100 Question Citizenship Test

Making this more complicated for me, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is now revising the civics test for 2008. Depending on how long of a wait I have, I may have to take current test or the redesigned version. I waited over 3 years for my green card interview.

Happy New Year - End Year Summary

Let me wish you a Happy New Year with some quotes.

"He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool." F. M. Knowles

"Your Merry Christmas may depend on what others do for you. But your Happy New Year depends on what you do for others." Anonymous

"Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. A majority of people revert back to how they were before and feel like failures. This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself." Aisha Elderwyn

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End Year Summary

2007 is a land mark year for me in changes to the way I gig and do bussiness.

In 2007 I:

• made a decision to utilize the internet much more then I previously had.
• joined MySpace.
• started a Newsletter.
  
• joined FaceBook which led to reconnecting with many old Canadian friends.
• was inspired by the old friends who were throwing a "ReOnion Party" to make a video How to pitch a TV of a roof for Dummies
• joined Stickam.
• started to webcast my gigs and gained title of only musician/entertainer to webcast gigs interactively from a stage.
  
• made my 1st online tip.
• produced a webcast of The 2007 Sunburst Convention of Celebrity Impersonators and Tribute Acts. "Marc Rocs Sunburst" LIVE WEBCAST - September 6, 7 & 8
• got an award for Sunburst, Entertainment Network names MarcRocs Producer of the Month
  
• revamped Newsletter into this blog.
• got Sprint Wireless broadband service to webcast all my gigs.
  
• got many high rankings on Stickams Daily Popular show chart. Best was #1 On Stickam with 60,512 Views
• seem to be the only person reviewing choices for Florida's new state theme song Florida's New State Song Vote. My review and "as is"
• added a complete Christmas set to my repertoire and webcast a Xmas Eve show Recording Shout Out Requests & XmasEve Follow Up
• posted a poll to my blog to let the web decide Should Marc become an American Citizen?
• realized with most of the above I'm using "Web 2.0" meaning I'm using web based applications instead of applications on my computer.
• realized I'm not a wanna be geek, I am a geek and geeks are cool.
• did what any self respecting geek would do and moved as much of my computer activity to Google: iGoogle, Gmail, GCalendar, Blogger, YouTube, Analytics, GGroups, GMaps, GReader, etc... Most important I now use GMobile to access almost all of Google in my spare time on my WM6 HTC Tilt Cell. Moving to Google with Google Mobile is my #1 productivity improvement of the year.
  

Recording Shout Out Requests & XmasEve Follow Up

The Christmas Eve Show was a success. About 10 guests in the driveway, 100's of cars drove by and about 20 viewers online. My biggest worry was keeping the chat room G rated and we succeeded.

The kids had a blast and my one year old daughter even got some spotlight. I recorded 17 mins of the performance. It's been auto playing on my Stickam Profile page and my website since Christmas Eve. It's also at the end of this blog entry.

I had enough positive feedback from everyone, I have to do this again next year. It will be an annual event.

I had no way to connect people driving by in cars to people online. I was going to put a sign up but it was raining. This got me thinking about..

Recording Shout Outs & Requests

Next Christmas Eve with the help of some volunteers I hope to hand out cards to people driving by which will say something like:

1. Don't hold up traffic.
2. Send anybody to MarcDobson.com to view a live webcast of this show.
3. Marc will make a Xmas Shout Out to anybody, write there name down as you drive around the block. Bring it back the shout out video will be recorded available for viewing from MarcDobson.com on your time.

Now why have I not been doing this at my gigs already? Never thought of it. Stickam is a bit glitchy recording live video via wireless broadband but this is a new element I am adding to my shows.

Guests at venue will now be able to request a song for anybody and send them to my website later to view, they won't have to be there live. I'm not the biggest fan of publishing anything without producing it 1st but oh well, I am looking to build my audience. Of other Stickam entertainers I know the ones who record and publish their shows for later viewing do better. Some even say 90% of there audience views the shows afterward, not live. Makes sense, the internet happens for most people on their time, not the content provider.

Do something to Protect Free Speech.

My friend Yamagoo recently posted to his blog DO SOMETHING! PROTECT FREE SPEECH!

The following is Yamagoo's words. I took the time to click through read and sign the letter. I believe this is worthy of a couple minutes of your time if you live in the US or anywhere US media reaches.

I cannot begin to explain my disdain for big media. Most everything that we fear as a society has it's genesis in a big media story that's sole purpose was to get you to watch the commercials that preceded and followed it or the ads that surrounded it. Remember these hits of the past....
FLESH EATING BACTERIA
COFFEE CAUSES CANCER
ASIAN BIRD
FLU PANDEMICWINTER/SUMMER/SPRING/FALL
STORM WORST EVER

These stories are usually followed on TV by "We'll tell you all about it at eleven!"

Luckily for some there are alternatives. Small, local station, magazines and newspapers that refuse to stoop to this practice. They hang on...barely....because in the United States we have taken steps to ensure that even small voices have a chance to get heard.

Well the FCC has had enough of that...(Mostly cause big media has DEEP pockets and lobbyist like to dump MASSIVE amounts of cash on folks who can change things)So today you "may" have heard..The FCC approved new rules that will unleash a flood of media consolidation across America. The new rules will further consolidate local media markets -- taking away independent voices in cities already woefully short on local news and investigative journalism. Congress has the power to throw out these rules -- and if 100,000 people demand it, they'll have to listen. Sign the open letter to Congress urging them to stop the FCC and stand with the public interest.

Help us reach our goal of 100,000 Signatures CLICK HERE and sign our letter.
This consolidation of media will not benefit YOU or I. It ONLY benefits the bottom line of BIG MEDIA COMPANIES and will allow them to spoon feed us their version of the news virtually unchecked! Again I ask you to take action NOW! Help us reach our goal of 100,000 Signatures CLICK HERE and sign our letter.

NOTE: The goal is now 250,000 Signatures. As of this post they have 199,460 signatures.

Christmas Eve Full Moon

I was glancing through my GCalendar and just noticed Christmas Eve will have a Full Moon this year. If you've worked in the service industry at all or if you spend to much time in bars you know a full moon night is when wackos are bound to be wacky and normal folk are not at there best. I've decided to play Christmas songs for free, in front of my house to passing cars, neighbors and to a random audience via a webcast. Also I'm asking for you to vote on my Blog Poll whether or not I should become a US Citizen.


After a quick Google search I also just found out:

And not far from the beautiful moon glows fireplace-red Mars. This Christmas Eve, Mars is at its closest to Earth for the next nine years. Mars is also "at opposition." That's astronomy-lingo for "directly opposite the sun." It means Mars is up whenever the sun is down: on Christmas Eve, the Red Planet will be visible all night long.
Source: Christmas Eve Sky Show - NASA * A good read, click the link!

Couple more links on the topic of Christmas Eve Full Moon:
Flying High or Escaping Reality - the Cancer Full Moon by Lynda Hill
With bright Mars, full moon Christmas Eve, Santa could give Rudolph night off By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS