I love music. If you have spent much time here at all, you’ve probably figured out I’ve always loved it. It’s part of my life every day. I’m very lucky to be able to promote Live independent music in virtual worlds. If you follow me on Facebook at all, you probably wondered what that was about. Well the short version is, there are unsigned artists playing music for people all over the world. I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the online music scene for more than five years. I just spent the last few hours of my evening listening to 2 fabulous artists who played concerts, to virtual clubs full of real people. One of them is a friend of mine from Nashville named Barbie ( yes that’s really her name) the picture at the top of this post this her avatar on the stage. If you had been there or had been listening on radio stream you would have heard her singing and playing guitar Live from Nashville. You can find out more about her and her band, who you can see play live if you’re in the Nashville area right here
The other person that I heard just before typing this post is the lovely Evie Marie ( AKA Singergirl if you go see her live) . She has been in music since the mid 1980s ( 1986 to be exact). She has played all over the world. Over the last year she has become a Part of my life on a daily basis. She is the one who drives me. The one who made posts to the site so easy that even I could do it. You can find out more about her right here
Virtual Evie
Both of these women have voices that make me forget my own name when they sing. Getting out and going to a live venue takes a lot of for a man on wheels. You have to worry about parking, accessibility of clubs, seating accessible restrooms, and it’s all different at every venue. So it’s extremely convenient for me to be able to log onto my computer and go to a concert in a virtual world anytime I want. For more information check out this article
This post will most likely keep expanding as I show you more of what I do on the Internet. Check the blog often for more of my adventures in the virtual world.
I made this video to be funny, but in all seriousness, the names really are fairly stupid. My standing frame is called an EZ Stand. Believe me ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing easy about it. I guess if I had a marketing degree, it would all make sense to me. I wonder how many of these companies actually employ the kinds of people that use their products? My guess is very few. If you ask me to name a standing frame I’d come up with something like ” The Enduro Stand. It’s going to hurt, what’s your physical fitness worth?” At least it’s honest.
It’s Monday and I should be in the standing frame right now. I’m not because I woke up this morning, and everything hurts. it sounds like a really old man thing to say, but in the last couple years I really notice when the weather changes because it affects my body. Most of the time when I wake up like this. I fight through it. If I’ve got lazy every time I hurt I’d never do anything. Today was different. I got out of bed and just didn’t have the energy to deal with the added pain of the standing frame.
When I was a kid I had no problem taking time off. Snow days were a blast. I had no issues spending an entire day playing video games or watching movies. As I’ve gotten older however, it’s getting really hard take my brain out of work mode. Even though I skipped out on the standing frame, I feel like I need to be doing something work related. I guess that’s why I am writing this. It bothers me that I feel this way, because time off is a good. The human body needs rest, your brain needs time to down. I think this is something that Americans struggle with. I feel I have to work all the time because I’m not where I want to be in my life. Until I get there, taking a day off seems like a waste of very valuable time that I should use to get myself closer to where I want be.
As I was typing that, I realize that’s how people get burnt out. With that in mind, carve some time out for yourself this week. In the long run, I think it will be much more beneficial to your success then either you or I have any concept of. I’m going to get a massage in about 10 minutes, and then I’m going to take time off and watch some Netflix or play video games. I’m pretty sure my body will thank me later.
I got a semi full-time personal assistant in October. since then I’ve been making a to-do list. This list has to do with getting things done, that I never really have had the mobility or the help to do before.
One big thing on this list, is getting an agent. I’ve been speaking whenever I can for a very long time, but I’ve never had someone to represent me. Someone to work toward my interest. If you talk to anyone in show business, one of the first things they say to you is get an agent. I decided that it was time.
I’ve never had experience with this sort of thing. I wasn’t even sure where to start so I called an agency here in town and told them that I was interested in seeking representation. To my surprise, they told me I should come in and see them. We set appointment for the afternoon, and I begin putting things together to give to them. The main piece is the PDF you can find by going to the link below.
It has everything you need to know about me all at a glance. (well except for this blog I need to fix that) the second was a glowing recommendation letter from the last place that I spoke. I was ready, I was going to take these people by storm.
I showed up a half hour early to look the building over for the best way in and such. As I’ve said before, you have to do a little extra prep being in wheelchair then a normal person would. As Jane ( that’s the semi full-time personal assistant’s name) and I drove around the building. we realized that there was no accessible entry.
Before you get upset, let me just mention that this sometimes happens, and is just part of Life in wheelchair. We park in the parking lot adjacent to the building, so close that I can actually see the people inside. I call them and say that I have a 4 o’clock appointment but there is a small problem, I can’t get into the building.
First, the woman on the phone says to me. How wide of a door do you need? I say at minimum 28 inches. For the next five minutes people inside frantically measure every door. Finally the woman on the phone says we think we can get you in the back but there’s a step. They have two men in the building that are willing to pick me up. To this I reply that my wheelchair is electric and it weighs about 600 pounds with me in it. I could just see these two men hurting themselves trying to pick the chair up and me somehow being responsible for that. After some thought she agreed. She asked me to hold and I saw the people in the building meeting again trying to figure out what to do.
After a few minutes the voice comes back to me and says that the woman I was scheduled to meet with, will come outside and meet with me.
Remember when I said that I showed up early? Even with all this confusion, it was two minutes until 4 o’clock, our scheduled meeting time.
The woman comes out, I can immediately see that she’s flustered and embarrassed and doesn’t really know what to do. At this point I decide that I need to do my best to make her feel comfortable. I get out of my car shake her hand, give her the stuff I brought and begin to tell her about myself.
The whole time she seems completely out of her element, she tells me that an agent is not an manager and that she sits in our office and waits for her phone to ring. If someone needs a service like a motivational speaker, she matches the person on the phone with her clients skills. She was very clear that she was not a manager. She said she wouldn’t actively spend the time seeking out work for me. Agents didn’t do that. This may be true, but I have met some agents not in my area that did seek out work for their clients. The way she said it, almost immediately after I got out of the car, felt like her best effort to send me somewhere else. I felt she was so uncomfortable from that point on, that she was just trying to get me out of the parking lot. I said what I had to say, and asked her to look over my stuff. She said she would, and then she said it was so hot outside that she couldn’t focus. I’m sitting there, having no problems focusing. I shook her hand again, and she began to walk away, saying it was hot, and she needed to get inside. I let her walk a couple steps and then said ” aren’t you going to need a way to get in touch with me?”
She hadn’t taken my number at that point and I could see she wasn’t going to. I had provided other ways to get in touch with me in the paperwork I gave her. My point was to give her the best way to get in touch with me. I would think that would be a first priority for an agent.
Now think back to the beginning of this post. The fact that I couldn’t get into her building was a minor problem. That’s just something that comes up when you’re me. What I want you guys to see in this story, Is her reaction to me.
Our 4 o’clock meeting lasted less then five minutes. I was pulling out of the parking lot at 4:05. Why? The answer is, I made her uncomfortable.
I’m not upset with her. I’m just trying to make the point that I believe this is the way that 98% of population reacts to someone like me. It’s why I do everything I do. No offense to Howard Stern, but I want to be the king of all media. I want to be on radio and TV. I want to write blogs, do interviews, and basically make a living being me. The reason for this, is that I want to show people that my issue, called a wheelchair. Is no different from issues that normal people deal with every day. I’m just a guy. Extraordinarily funny and gifted maybe, but still just a guy. The next time you see a person who is different from you don’t be uncomfortable, if you are not they won’t be either. It’s just a difference, be open, ask questions. You maybe shocked. because they’re actually willing to answer them. Life is too short to be uncomfortable.
It occurred to me that before finding this blog you may have never heard of me. So it would make sense to talk to you about other projects that are near and dear to my heart.
One of those projects is Gaming Uncensored. A podcast of mine that has been on the air for more than 10 years. It started as a college radio show at West Texas A&M. To learn how I got started there, check out This post. When we started, the idea of a radio talkshow that was centered around videogames scared a lot of people who were in charge at the time, We heard things like “you can’t talk about video games for two hours with no music, no one will listen to that. Even the morning show has music. It only works for the sports show because people love sports” the scary thing about these comments, was that the radio station known as 91.1 “The One” was a student run radio station.
The station for your generation
These comments came from people our own age. Thanks to Dr. Leigh and Randy Ray ( he’ll get some love in a later post) we got on the air. I remember having a conversation with the program director at time, who is still known to this day as Mad Dog ( he has a real name but mad dog is much cooler, so where going with that). The conversation went something like this. Mad Dog: :this will never work you have to play music. Me: ” dude, we won’t suck, just give me six weeks. If you don’t like it take us off the air” after that conversation, the show ran for two years, we won numerous awards and ended up in the local papers several times. When my cohost Tommy graduated from school and moved to Memphis Tennessee to start his new life, we didn’t want to stop so we decided to do the show as a podcast from that point on. We had been running the podcast side-by-side with the radio show from day one. (we didn’t think a two hour radio show was enough, we may have an unhealthy need for attention) when he moved we went to podcasting full time. We didn’t know it then, but according to some of our listeners, we were the first podcast out there devoted to videogames. There were literally, 12 podcasts at that time, and iTunes didn’t have a directory like they do now so, it’s not hard to believe.
We are still doing our thing 10 years and over 450 shows later. We don’t do it as often as we would like, but we’re still here. You can get to the website by clicking on our logo above, or you can stream us on stitcher radio right Here.
Gaming Uncensored it Is one of the most worthwhile things I do with my life, I have a great friend and partner in crime in Tommy. No matter how busy we get… Or how much time passes between each show. We continue to do it because we love it, and probably always will
A man on the wheels has to take a vacation every once in a while. I really like to travel. Obviously being in a wheelchair makes things a bit more interesting than your average person. I recently spent the weekend in Austin Texas seeing my sister. I had both minions with me as usual. A guy in a wheel chair has to do things a bit differently everywhere he goes. On vacation even more so. Here’s an audio recap of my vacation. I work really hard to stay positive on this blog. If I seem a little down in this audio, it’s because sometimes you want to do something and you just can’t.
No matter what your issue is, no matter how long you have it, sometimes you just want something you can’t have it at that particular time. That’s hard but you can’t dwell on it. In this audio I wanted something I couldn’t have, and I wanted to share with you guys. It’s great to be me, But this is a reminder that I have struggles just like you.
My life isn’t what I want it to be right now. I get frustrated some days because I live with my parents, and have been struggling to accomplish my goals in this life – like finishing this book. I have to remind myself that most people are in this same situation.
People have been asking me what my goal is with using the standing frame. I don’t know what the “goal” is, it just seems like a step in the right direction. It’s not been an easy step. It’s been really hard. As a matter of fact it’s been the most painful and mentally challenging things I’ve ever done. Painful to the point that more than once I’ve thought that I might black out because my body didn’t want to do what I wanted. People have asked what the benefits to this kind of training are. If you asked me if getting up in the standing frame twice a week was something I wanted to do, the answer would be, “no”.
But there are some things that we do because it makes us a better person. I’ve taken a lot of physical pain during this training. It may make me mentally stronger, it may make me physically stronger, but either way it will make me stronger, and that is worth the pain.
A lot of people in this day in age get hung up on their struggles. They look at their own situation and say, “Look at how tough MY life is!” They are willing to tell anyone who will listen about their personal struggles. Someone is always complaining about their childhood or their bad day from last week or how their cat threw up on the carpet this morning, which ruined their whole day, etc etc.. We all have stuff that’s happened. There’s nothing wrong with sharing your personal stories with others. Personal stories help to connect us and open us up to others emotionally, but the people that are constantly complaining about woes on a day to day basis need to re-evaluate what is happening in the life around them and either make some positive changes or look at things in a different way, so that the positive can be found no matter what the situation.
So when I’m in that standing frame suffering pain just from standing that most people would feel after running 10 miles or so, I get pissed off upset too.
My physical therapist says I am much harder on myself than he is on me. He deals with a lot of people who come in complaining of pain and if they have to endure pain to make the pain better, he says most people aren’t willing to do that. Most people aren’t willing to deal with pain management or soreness to self-improve.
I didn’t get to the point I wanted to get to in the standing frame this week. I was still too sore to sleep last night because of my efforts, but I wanted more success still.
There are a lot of people willing to complain, but are they willing to make the changes and do what they need to do in order to make their lives better?
The standing frame is not going to allow me to get a job or magically allow me to become more independent, but it is something I can do to make my life better. I feel that if I do this, there are other doors that will open if I take the initiative. This is something available to me and within my power that I can do as I wait for those opportunities to open up. I have no clue what those opportunities are and I still spend too much time on a daily basis worrying about where I need to be, but I can’t just dwell on that. I have to be doing something to improve myself.
Update
Most of this was written a couple years ago and I still feel the same way. If you are not happy with the direction of your life, then you have to do something to change it. I’m not saying quit your job, or leave your spouse. I’m saying that every small step in the direction that you want to go gets you closer to your desired destination. I’m not ashamed to admit that there is a donate button on this blog. It’s there because I’d like to be able to pay Evie what she’s worth, as well as get myself in a better financial situation.
I don’t expect, millions of dollars. The donate button is really an illustration of what I’m talking about here. I’d like to get paid for motivating and entertaining you, so I’ve put up a donate button. It’s a small step but it gets me closer to what I want. I’ve also decided that I want to speak more often professionally. To help with that process, I’ve started working on getting an agent. Again, it’s a small step toward getting me closer to my ultimate goal. Are you ready to take a step?
When I’m writing for this blog, I try and find a cool picture to go along with it. I learned long ago people pay much better attention when there are pictures. I was looking for a picture of a wheelchair that the Terminator might use, and I found this.
Yes please
I talk about inspiration a lot. Things like this are what inspire me, Do me a favor and check out the full story right here. It is well worth your time.
I would also like to thank Corporal Joshua Hoffman for his service to the United States. You earned that ride sir. That’s true inspiration folks.
I’m old enough to admit that when I was a little kid I watched Sesame Street almost every day.. We had three channels, and characters like Dora and little Einsteins didn’t exist. Even today sesame Street still affects me. I found this and decided it was great for a Monday Post. Monday sucks for a lot of people, I thought this video might start you off on the right foot I’ll talk about my love of all things Dave Matthews in a future post. For now happy Monday everybody.
I’ve noticed every time I’m out in public that people seem to have a real fear that I’m going to run them down. Parents discreetly guard their children when I’m around. The kid has absolutely no fear of me, but the parent apparently sees me as death on wheels. As a person in a wheelchair you learn at a very young age that if you want to be well-liked, it’s probably a good idea to refrain for mowing people down.
I’ll admit, I’ve met some people that probably deserved it. I may have even wanted to, but I never have, (on purpose anyway). Driving a wheelchair is kind of like driving a car. I have had serval people back to me because they didn’t realize I was behind them. I can’t be held responsible for that right? If I were a bit more hard core as a person I might be able to make my chair into a money making machine. How would this? By renting myself out for hire. I talk more about it right here
