This year has brought great change for me. My girlfriend Molly and I moved to Richmond, Virgina in January. Molly got a “promotion” with Jetblue and is now management. This is the first time living out of Colorado in more than ten years and it has indeed been an adventure.

Over the last year I have been traveling back and forth to Colorado for work. I was able to keep a few of my clients in Colorado which was really nice. Most of my work is done remotely which allows me to work from so far away. I spend about two weeks a month in Colorado which means I have spent more time on a plane than ever before. Let me just say, I am a fan of Jetblue. They always take care of me. (except for a few unmentioned Boston gate agents) I enjoy flying and treat the back and forth as a mini adventure. I have lots of great stories.

I am not one for New Years resolutions but I really want to get back to my blog this coming year. I really enjoyed posting links and making comment on the things I read and watch. With the advent of Facebook, Google + and Twitter, I find myself posting there instead of here. This is my first attempt at rebooting my blogging self.

The South (yes Richmond is in the South, US)

I was born in the Mid-west and raised in the West so moving East always seemed like something I would get around to at some point. When Molly excepted the job in Richmond last December, I am not sure it sunk into to either of us what it mean to live in the south. Most people I talked to gave the small smile and said things like, “wow Virgina you are going to love DC”. We have found out that most people including the media think if you are in Virgina you are in DC. Which is really funny because Virgina is such a big state and is vastly different from DC and Northern Virgina. The DC area feels like a mini version of LA/NYC. Urban, trendy and sometimes very scary. My friend Deb lives in DC and we have had the chance to visit her on occasion. It is one of the pluses of living out this way. Over the last couple of years Deb and I have not had much time together. Being this close has been nice. We also got to do some site seeing in the Capital, always a good time.

Let me say this, America is America (with Texas accent). The difference between Colorado and Virgina is small. They got all the same stuff here that they have everywhere else (excluding a Trader Joe’s). America has become so homogenized that I sometimes forget where I am. Sure there are some scenery differences. It is greener here and a bit more temperate. The tunnel vision effect with all the trees is a bit displacing. I never understood the saying, “wide open spaces”. The West is wide and open. Truthfully though, I am not sure Richmond is at the top of the places I would like to call home permanently, but it has been a nice time so far.

Friends and Family

My parents are still in Colorado. My father has been working out of Tampa, FL for the last year and has had his ups and downs. I know he likes his job. I think he is really wanted to get back West. My mother has been doing the insurance thing for the last couple of years with Allstate. When I am in Colorado I spend my time with her and let me tell you, she is a busy women. If I had as much going on as her I would be Mayor of a major city. Very happen lady. My bro and his lovely kid are both in Denver and living large. I have had a chance to hang with my niece Madds and it has been very educational. Not sure who she going to end up being when she is all growed up. But heck if she isn’t fun to be with most of the time. (when she is not being a little brat ;P)

My friends situation is a fucking disaster. I made some really bad choices this year and it has left me disappointed in myself. I am not going to get into here. Let me just say if you are still my friend right now, thanks! You are a brave and understanding few. I will try to do better in 2012.

2012 Next Year

What is in store for the coming year you ask? Great question. Molly and I are very happy together. I just couldn’t be a luckier guy. She is truly the right girl for me. Never had a lady in my life that I fit so perfectly with. She is my best friend and life mate. Love that girl.

We are looking at options for a move this year. Molly has new opportunity with Jetblue and is on the hunt. Which means we get to pack again, really looking forward to that process.(not at all)

I would like to find some more work. Whether it be in Colorado or elsewhere. I have been quite busy with a number special projects. I would really like to find some new opportunity as well. I have been itching to start some kind of new Web/Video project but nothing has clicked yet. Really enjoyed working on the Clip Show and such and wanted to get back at. I think something in the gaming or political category would fit nice. Just cant figure out what.

Going to elect a new President this year. As most of you know I am very political. I have been following all the happenings with a close eye. Many debates have happened here at home between Molly and I. Love talking politics with her, she get so fired up. Really looking forward to the political year ahead. It is my super bowl.

Thanks for a great 2011 all. Those of you that have helped and supported me this year, I owe you big time. To the people in my life that I have wronged or let down, let me again say I am sorry and I will try harder. Have a happy and safe New Year and will see you in 2012.

Jim-

So what can you expect to hear on this podcast?  Me and me and a lot more of me.  It will cover my views and opinions on a wide range of topics.  I am hoping to have guests join me and listeners participate  as the show progresses.

The show will record live on Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific on my tinychat channel – www.tinychat.com/jimkirks please join me so you can heckle me live.  Check the rhetoricnation.com site for upcoming topics.  You will be able to listen/download the show on Mondays on the main site and through iTunes.

Please take a listen to the first show and tell me what you think.  I know, I talk a lot.

http://www.rhetoricnation.com

I have installed the cool Qik live streaming App on my iPhone. What does this mean for you? Well you will get to watch me live from time to time. Most likely though you will be able to watch video I took live, days or hours ago. It is a really cool service and if you happen to catch me live you can chat in real time. See the new link on the right side of the page to see whats new.

Look for my live twitter notifications. Follow me on twitter –> twitter.com/jimkirks

VinVin asked me last week if I would be the first guest on his new show the Seemic Cafe. Of course I said yes, I love to see myself on camera. Let me know what you think. Thanks to the gang at Seesmic for making me look so good!

Chuck, Phill and I have launched a new audio podcast.  It is a super geeky show about the online game lord of the rings online.   Listen at your own risk.

Men of the Rings Podcast

It is a new year and that can only mean one thing. Time to stop doing one of the many bad things you started doing last year, make a couple hundred lists and promise yourself that you will stay away from your crazy Aunt June. That last part of course can be replaced by anything, like chocolate, booze, kids, jim kirks, McDonald’s, lard or whatever you have decided to stave off in 2008. The new year for most, me included, means turning over a new leaf, or making it appear as though you have or are trying to.

In this new year for me I am seeking a new direction. I am taking 2008 to find a new source of income. In the last month of 2007 I spun most of my client base and put my business on the rocks. I am looking for new opportunity in this great big world of ours. I have spent the last couple of weeks putting the feelers out, contacting the people close to me and hunting for new ideas for what is next. I know that I need some time away from the tech field. It has burnt me out to the point where the gray in my hair is scaring small children. Where this leaves me as of right now? Jobless and a bit on the poor side. But the plussed out way the negatives for now and I have lost the desire to kill someone every time the phone rings. I am optimistic that I will come upon something good/positive/exciting/challenging in the next few weeks. Otherwise maybe just a greater at Wal-Mart?

Podcasting is still going to play an important role in my life in 08. Chuck and I have committed to another year of both shows and have started work on a few side projects. I know we both would love the chance to work with other podcasters in the field and still dream of making a dollar off our passion. Dreams!

Finally, drop me a line and let me know what you have planned for the new year. Leave me a comment or send an email my way. Would love to hear what is in store for you!

Happy New Year!!

Yesterday I posted my first picture to Flickr in nearly three weeks. This is the first step back for me to my social media world. Over the last couple of weeks Flickr is the one service that I have really missedl. I love the ability to post a picture directly to the web so that everyone can see my them instantly.  Over the last year I have found this ability to document my life with pictures really fulfilling.

So how was nearly three weeks away from social networking and how has it effected me? These are two questions I have been asking myself over the last couple of days. To tell you the truth, I am not sure if I have answer to either yet. I do know that after the first couple of days the need to be a apart of twitter, seesmic and the rest faded. I still plan a post later on this week to talk about how it effected my everyday and what has changed since the start. For now though, I want to give everyone a heads up that I will be returning X-mas eve day with a bunch of video, mostly seemic. I am going to turn the Twitter back on that day also.

Thanks to everyone that stayed in touch while I was disconnected.

Yesterday I attempted to remove myself from my computer and my phone. These two things tie me into my world in more ways than one. I belong to and I am apart of many different social networking sites. Twitter and the new Seesmic keep me in touch and up to date with most of my friends from around the globe. These two sites along with Facebook and the every evil Myspace also keep me socially connected. It has become increasingly apparent that I have a small addiction to these new web 2.0 social networking sites. I am not going to say that this addiction has been all bad, it just has consumed me to the point where some of my focus is a bit off.

My experiment yesterday, 24 hours with no tech, has given me some clarity into my minor addiction. It has brought me to this conclusion. It is time to remove myself from this world for awhile and focus back in on the things that matter to me. Which is to say, my business and my current podcasting projects. I also need to spend more time here in the Real World with the people in my life. I am not saying that I am done or that I will never come back, I just think it is time for me to take a long break.

I will still be blogging and I will continue to do the weekly podcasts. Please drop me an email or a phone call and keep me up to date with what you are doing.

Started a little beer drinking club on seesmic this week.

Thanks to the guys and gals at seesmic.com for giving us a little love. Really digging the world right now!!

Just got me a new iRake and totally kicks butt!

This Thanksgiving I decided to take a little video throughout the day to give the rest of my family and friends who would not be attending a feel for our holiday.

Instead of shooting straight video, editing it and uploading to the internet. I used a new service which allows you to post your videos directly to the internet in real time. Over the past three weeks I have had the pleasure of using this new micro video service called Seesmic to document my life. I thought this would be the perfect medium to capture this Holiday and share it. Below are the the videos in order.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holiday!

Today is my fathers 23 birthday. He is a man of great worth and wisdom and I would not be the man I am today without him.  He continues to give me the support and the love I need to get through this crazy thing we called life.  As he would say, “giving me tools for my toolbox”  We have been through the thick and thin and yet he still has all of his hair.  So Pop,  Happy Birthday and drinks are on me, this time. May the year a  head be as good and maybe even better than the year that has past.

So I am suppose to be working at this moment but I wanted to give you the heads up on a new service coming out of Alpha soon. It is called Seesmic and some are saying it is going to change the micro blogging space forever. Where twitter is just a quick 140 character txt blog. Seesmic uses the same basic format but with video. I started using it yesterday and it is the coolest thing ever! I am hooked. Right now I am stopping myself from taking a Seesmic video of me typing. Check out my first post from yesterday.

Chuck our friend Eve and I just spent the last 8 hours filming two Clip Shows and a Cinema Psychic. It was the perfect end to a roller coaster week. Happy we are done with it and I am looking forward to the week ahead.

This week we go to Phoenix to attend the first annual Podcamp AZ which is being held in Tempe on Saturday the 3rd. Chuck and I are really excited and I cant wait to get the next couple of days done so we can meet up with old friends in the PHX and enjoy some great food.

What does the week, or the three days before jetting off to Phoenix hold. Work and a quite a lot of it. Chuck and I set a schedule last week that included producing both shows and extra content for the next two weeks. This allowed us to take the week off while in Phoenix, which is great! This leads to a big crunch right before we leave that combined with my “work a day job” brings the stress! Someone said to me last week, “you could skip a week” I laughed. Chuck has yet to miss a week since we started the Psychic and we are quickly approaching a year. It is always hectic and sometimes rushed but I enjoy the race to the finish.

This week is also the celebration of that pagan holiday, Halloween. Over the last couple of years I have paired down my excitement over this time of year. I know I have written a couple times as to why, but I think this year might just be different. I have been thinking that maybe my head is been in the wrong hole which has lead to my removal of feeling and or overall excitement in the holidays that I once loved. This year I would like you to know, I am back. Which is to say, I will be dressed as a masked murder, watching scary movies and handing out candy to the kids this Wednesday night. You should stop by and say “boo!”

This weekend is done. I spent the whole week waiting for it to get here and in a blink of an eye here it is Monday. Why is it when you want the time to slow it speeds up and the reverse for when you just want it to be over. Spent quite a bit of time this weekend soul searching. I want to report, I might be a little more screwed that I had originally thought. I guess time will tell.

One last thing, I spent last night at a Halloween party. I dressed as Geek Guy of Clip Show fame. Chuck and his lady friend were along for the ride with a couple of their friends. For the most part I spent the night solo talking to randoms about any number of things. Quite a few friendly people and it turned out to be a decent party all and all. It is the first party I have been to in, well I cant remember when? Got me thinking about the parties we use to throw and how much fun we all had. Maybe it is time for another party. I guess what i might be saying is, New Years 2007?

If you are going to be in Phoenix this week. Drop me a line. Lets get together and have a drink or two. If you are not, why not? We could have a drink and talk new media. Fun times!

I spent the better part of my day today, talking. I know that might sound crazy, because we all talk all day long. I guess that is true. Though, I was not just talking to talk. (That is a lot of talk?) I had some meaningful conversations that got me to thinking. Jim thinking, equals dangerous.

Over the last year I have been hitting around in my head some ideas for a political type podcast. I am a passionate person. I was quoting my father right there. He was saying some really nice things about me at our lunch. It is always good to hear these kinds of things from the man that raised you. Anyway, it made me think that I need to take this passion I have for politics and harness it into something constructive.

Those of you who know me, know that when it comes to the politico, I can sometimes become a bit of a blow hard. Which is to say, I can go on and on and on until someone gets up and leaves or falls asleep. The later is always funny. Politics has always been something I love to talk about with people. I especially love hearing new ideas from both left, right and far right. So given my love for politics and my knowledge of the podcasting world you would think I could have figured something out? Not the case.

Then it came to me. I think the problem is that I have been over thinking the whole idea. What are two things I have always wanted to do? No not that Chuck, that is your dream and a sick one at that you pervert. Wait i guess there are a lot more than two, I would have to include singing in that list. Ok so there are many things I want to do. Two of them, I have talked about in the past, my love for politics and my love for my own voice (come on you like to hear it too). Are you seeing the logical progression of this? No?

So the whole time I have been thinking about doing some kind of video project. Which is crazy as Chuck and I are already over burdened each week with our current shows. Another video podcast would surely kill us or lead to one of us killing the other. As that thought went through my head, while chomping on a chip, I thought why not just do a weekly audio call in show. I already have the technology in place. It is easy to produce. I can put almost the whole thing together by myself. Leaving Chuck to do whatever it is he does when he is not slaving away on our other shows. The end game, I think I would really enjoy it! Even if my Mother was the only caller and or listener.

I am going to put some more thought to this in the next couple of days. I know there are like a million of these things on the Internet already. I am not looking to stand out and or make some kind of political statement. I just miss good mind numbing political conversation. I have been saying for years this is the constant that seems to be lacking in my life. Maybe this is the easy solution?

What you think? Leave me a comment.

It became aware to me over the weekend that I was going to need to get out town. I am lucky at this moment in time as I have very little pressing responsibility. I can do my work from just about anywhere in the world. However, I am at this point in my existence not the kind of guy who can take you to all the best clubs in the NYC. So my travel budget is somewhat limited. That and I am suppose to travel to both Boston and Phoenix in the next couple of weeks. Which leaves me in somewhat of a money crunch. So, Denver is were I ended up. For a couple of reasons. One being, my younger brother is currently residing here and is lonely for some older brother love. The other, I am sure we will get at later.

I know you are thinking right now, wait, didnt this guy just come back from some time away. You are right, I spent a week in California. Who am I kidding almost two weeks. Now if there is anything that week taught me, and you, if you were paying attention. Time away from your every day helps to keep your head from become mush. Or at best it helps you to maintain a fresh look at the things going on around you. Justifying and rationalizing should be a Jim Kirks past time.

Hey, now I dont want you to think I have come to Denver for nothing more than time away from the super exciting COS lifestyle. Where the big city can be a lure for the younger crowd, men of my age and stature. Age and stature, really full of it in that last sentence. Ok seriously there is a podcast get together tomorrow that I and the 2 other people that have signed up on meetup.com will be attending. Should be interesting at best or at least a way to pass the time. That time between.

I think there is more, but I don’t know what. It has been a long time since I didn’t have a point, not writing about robots and or linking to some obscene youtube clip.

Ok so, where do you go when you want to get away on the cheap for a short time? You know when you need to either clear the old head or add so much haze and cloud you cant see out.

Today ends eight years of routine for me. Way back in 1999, yep before you were born, I took a job with a small real estate firm to help them with a hardware/software conversion.  Today ends that long journey.

Over the course of that first year I worked for them, we completed the conversion and it looked as if I would be moving on. When the job was completed, the head of one of the departments asked if I could stay on and oversee all up coming special projects. This was to include the companies first website along with some internal marketing. I agreed.

Time passed and my contract with the company was renewed, altered, laughed at and re-evaluated, but I kept on working learning new job skills and making new friends.

My experiences with this company gave me the know how and courage to to start my own computer/tech consulting business.  Using the contacts I made through the company to get my new business off the ground. All the while keeping them as my first and biggest client.

The road over the last eight years has been bumpy. The market has gone up and down and back again. In the last year the company has fallen on some harder times. They have lost some key business and assets, which has lead to some down sizing.

Last month, I was asked by the President to change my capacity with the company and to draw up new terms and a new contract in 30 days. Which I did.  Many things changed, less time, money for me and some much needed savings for them.  It comes out as a wash in the end for me.  I have freed up more time to seek more business, if I so desire, and I get to keep a client I really enjoy.

Over the years I have had many conversations with my good friends about starting new chapters in our lives.   How it can be helpful to start new and to take a new approach.  I am hoping that this is the case with this shift in my life.  Who knows what the future has in store.  I know that the last eight years have been good to me.   I am looking forward to the next eight years being even better!

It is Thursday. It is not as hot as it was yesterday, in fact I think I saw a rain drop on the way into the office. I have nothing exciting going today and as of this moment, I am drooling board. The stock market was taking a digger, that is fun. I have caught up on my regular work a day work. Blogged a bit this morning. But otherwise, slow day. Fact in point CNN, MSNBC and FOXNEWS were all talking about that Atlanta Football player. You know, the one who likes to kill dogs. Slow news day.

Speaking of american football, why is it called this? I think we should change the name. Ideas?

From Wikipedia:

While it is widely believed that the word “football” (or “foot ball”) originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, there is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.^[1] These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.

Foot ball