'All Quiet On The Baby Front'

I just returned from the 2005 Portable Media Expo for Podcasting in Ontario, California and was blown away by what's happening in this movement.

Basically, I learned that I'm right in the pocket with my podcast idea and should be able to launch it soon.

I'm linking with the Los Angeles Podcaster's group and also with an amazing young woman who thinks my idea is BBC worthy.

This inspirational lady, who reminds me of my oldest daughter, currently works for MTV in the UK, previously worked for the BBC, and prior to that worked as an environmental law attorney in Washington D.C. for the Humane Society (she passed both the California and Washington D.C. bar exams - not an easy thing to do!). She's a dynamic example of the 21st century female. Smart, sexy, articulate and utterly successful in a challenging male-dominated media-driven world.

As for my part, I was pleased to have coined a phrase at the conference, which she and others want to use in their work.

GGR=Global Grass Roots

GGR stands for the global grass roots audio and video podcasting movement that is shaping the face of communications in the early part of the 21st century.

Media delivery systems are changing at such a rapid pace that scarely anyone can keep up with them.

SingBabySing^TM intends to be an integral player in this GGR movement.

Stay tuned.

Joybug out

United Airlines and Vision 47

It's pretty great. I heard tonight from Michael that our Vision 47 piece of music is being featured on United Airlines Ted Flights.

I'm happy sleepy and as I dream tonight, my prayer is that many people will be soothed by it.

I'm grateful to Ronny S. for placing it for us.

Joybug

Bein' Human

This is an audio editorial comment to a blog that's being featured on the Los Angeles Times during the week of October 24-28, 2005. The blog, "101 Days at Sea," is written by Janet Eastman, a teacher who blogs from a ship that travels around the world as part of an educational program called Semester at Sea. My daughter, Arianna, is on that ship too, and her life is being changed even as I write. The title of this audio editorial is "Bein' Human." Here are the words:

There's a narrow window op'ning
Just a diff'rent point of view
Time to look around you
Gotta lot of work to do

Called bein' human
Called won't you lend a helpin' hand?
And maybe it's old-fashioned
But people, people, people

They got boobs hangin' out in Hollywood
They're a dime a dozen there
But ain't no tents in Pakistan
Just the cold night winter's air

Tsunami came and went I'm told
Rita, Wilma, Katrina too
Iran wants to blow the Jews away
Iraq's like a Viet Nam zoo

Called bein' human
Called won't you lend a helpin' hand?
And maybe it's old-fashioned
But people, people, people

They got a little food in Africa
And some aid for lots of Aids
China's comin' on strong they say
But the piper's gotta be paid

The Christians hate the Muslims
The Muslims hate the Jews
The White Sox beat the Astros
But we gotta pay our dues

Called bein' human
Called won't you lend a helpin' hand?
And maybe it's old-fashioned
But people, people, people

The cruise ships sail to ev'ry port
An' their folks feast on more than bread
Well maybe it's time for a Gandhi
Time to fast instead

And I hear the cry of the children
And I can't shut out their pain
Time take the blind fold off
Be human once again

Called bein' human
Called won't you lend a helpin' hand?
And maybe it's old-fashioned
Yeah, maybe it's old-fashioned
But people, people, people
Maybe it's time to be human once again

(Copyright 2005, Joy Sikorski. All World Rights Reserved.)

Interview on Wild Child Publishing

Read an online interview of me by Wild Child Publishing then come on back and visit me again.

Joybug

Store Open

It's done. People can order from my singbabysing.com site now.

I stayed the course and against all odds, completed the task. Hurrah for me!

Now comes the arduous work of getting the word out about what I have to offer, and the more I consider what that is, the more impassioned I become about reaching people with it.

However, at the moment, the amount of energy I have had to expend to get up and operating is so enormous that I need to sleep....for a long time!

Joybug out

Blow Off the Roof!

Here's a story that needs to be told.

To my utter surprise, a Yahoo tech person in Houston answered the phone today when I called for help to get my storefront operational.

Now, you might say, "So what?"

Ah-ha. Here's the amazing part.

She never left the city when thousands were evacuating and getting stuck on the roads.

So?

She stayed home in an old farmhouse she's lived in for many years.

Uh-huh (yawn).

She's weathered at least 2 other hurricanes successfully and wasn't about to leave the city for Rita.

Yeah, yeah, come on.

We chatted cheerily for a short time and then I asked her how it was to be in Houston when Rita hit.

She casually mentioned that her roof had blown off and then immediately wanted to get back to helping me with my tech questions.

Whaaaa.....?

Exactly.

But what's the point?

Hey! She's the kind of person that makes this country great and her story should be on every news cast in every city across this country!

It's the perfect example of the kind of integrity and grit we need.

I didn't get my storefront operational because the Yahoo engineers were working their kabooties off to solve other problems caused by the hurricane.

But I did get the roof blown off of whatever might keep me from boosting my own operational grit.

Which is to say that I'm going to keep singing baby.

Which is to say that I'll rise above this present storefront tech storm.

Finally!

I sold my first SingBabySing^TM CD yesterday to a dear grandmother whose grandson has some learning challenges. I will be eager to see how the the Puccini Effect principles used in SingBabySing^TM Interactive Calming Music helps him, for I am confident that they shall.

Meanwhile, the storefront is still not operational because of technical difficulties, which is to say that the Yahoo consultant who is supposed to help me for 60 days for free has fled Houston because of Hurricane Rita. The tech support person who waited until the very last minute to leave town couldn't help. The coding issues were too difficult for him. This makes me wonder what in the world I will do with all the coding needs...now and in the future.

Thank God for Marci.

Another grandmother told me today that her grandson is starting to mimic the sounds on the CD, particularly the high baby squeals and when I do the 'scoopy siren' sound.

I'm quite excited about the future and the potential for children and mothers to benefit from the hard work that went into making SingBabySing^TM possible.

This week will be great.

Joy

Singing is a miracle

I'm still singing today even after so much hard work and no pay. No pay yet.

And that's a miracle, my friend.

And that's all I have to say tonight.

Joybug bugging out. Signing off? No. Bugging out.

Pretty amazing!

Okay. I realize that it's no big deal for most people to have a blog or a website or an online store.

But I'm talking about me here.

I'm a composer, a performer, an artist, poet, you name it.

html? css? pocasts? accounting? me?

YES!

I have 1.5 hours left to meet my deadline for getting my site up and operational. There are only a few things left.....oh, like important stuff....you know....legal language to protect everyone in the whole wide bloomin' world.

SoonBabySoon.

Marci........is.........the.......best!

And my first product shipment arrived safely today!!!

I'm gonna take half a day off tomorrow. What a concept.

Joy

Urgh, Argh, Seeds and Artichokes

Urgh.

Argh.

Headache.

Huge.

Too much work.

No fun.

Except playing with Aurora today (you too, Marci).

She was SO happy to see me that she walked me right down the street in her socks! Not until after we had played the blue pen game though. And you might wonder what that is?

Ah, that's simple. I put the blue pen between her toes and she takes it out and hands it back to me so that I can do it again.

Then there was her lunch. That was fun too. Marci is a great mom who feeds her baby the BEST food. Great bread from Trader Joe's, avocados and smoked turkey. What a feast.

Marci and I had a great salad with fresh chard and basil from her neighbor's garden, lots of other veggies and my famous seeds recipe! Those seeds (pumpkin, sesame, chia, flax and sunflower) are filled with protein and produce lots of energy.

Once, a dear friend of mine, asked me what kind of drug I was taking the first time he saw me cut loose with Impropera (my unique improvisational 'music of the moment'). I just looked at him as if to say, "Huh? You think I'd be doing drugs? No way!" Then I told him it was the seeds. I was flying high on the seeds. I'm not sure if he believed me, but he soon grew to realize that I was pretty much flying high like that most of the time.

Musta been all that salmon in Alaska. Or the fact that I finally have all the sunlight I need after years of darkness in the Great Land.

Tonight I cooked artichokes and my original recipe for tuna/kidney bean/egg/pasta salad.
They are for lunch tomorrow. I wonder if Aurora will like them?

What fun is there in life if you have no one to eat artichokes with?

Joy

Joybug ready to sing

Yes! It's working! I even changed some of the html on this blog to make sure that the colors begin to coordinate with the SingBabySing^TM website.

Today I had the best day because I got to play with Aurora, my first Joybug baby! What an amazing little girl she is.

Marci, her marvelous mommy, is helping me build SingBabySing^TM and today we published all the files we had already created. Marci is the best!

Well, except for Aurora, that is.

Aurora and her mommy have been playing the SingBabySing^TM Interactive Calming Music CD and today when I was playing with Aurora (this was work?) I listened really really carefully to her, tuning into her baby pitches and sing-songy voice, which is super soft right now so it's not that easy to hear.

To my absolute surprise and delight, she paused for a moment and got this far-away look on her face, as though she was inwardly focused and had tuned out everything around her. Then she cooed? she hummed? she sang? ever-so-faintly, the first line from the song: "sing baby."

I got chills and must confess that I thought I might be imagining it. But then I listened even more carefully and just a few seconds later, I could hear her saying? singing? cooing? "we will sing......"

Granted, these words were not sharply or clearly articulated. The vowels seemed to flow into one another and the consonants were not super distinct, but I have very good ears (partially because I lived many years in the isolated quiet of Alaska's wilderness) and I know that I heard her say/coo/sing these things.

However, someone else will have to hear her before anyone will believe me because it's so amazing.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow when I get to work with Marci, er, play with Aurora again.

Now for sleep...........ahhhhh.

Joy

Dreams Coming True?

I wouldn't say that I really dreamed about creating a business.

I didn't really think that what I learned about singing and babies over the years would develop into a business.

But I did dream in Alaska about reaching people in remote areas where they might not have access to a voice teacher for their children or themselves. I wanted to make it possible for anyone to have voice lessons, not just a chosen few.

And I am turning that into a reality.

Finally.

But I never imagined how hard it would be to get to this point.

How can anyone foresee the lack of sleep, the money going out but not coming in, the countless hours of startup prep time, the delays, disappointments, computer crashes, criticisms, fears self-doubts, weariness and sacrifice of a personal life that all define the word 'business?'

As I prepare to launch my online storefront in less than 2 weeks, finalizing website design, setting up merchant accounts, creating audio files, waiting for my merchandise to arrive and attending to asundry other stress-inducing deadline tasks, I figure that the knot in my belly is just part of the definition for doing business.

What a far cry from my log cabin in Alaska but thank God I'm here!

Joy in the morning