It’s May Day in Golden Colorado. Big fluffy flakes of snow today, and to think it was 80 degrees yesterday. click here to see some video

The company I work for CleverMedia Inc. is reorganizing and I’ll be jobless as of Thursday, March 13, 2008. “Beware of the Ides of March” to quote Shakespeare. Gary Rosensweig is the owner and principle of CleverMedia, which he founded in 1997. I worked for CleverMedia from 1999-2002 as Technical Director, and did sound design and some web design for CleverMedia’s game sites. I was laid-off during the first Bush recession, as web advertising revenues dried up. CleverMedia struggled on with only Gary programming games and William the artist/illustrator supplying the artwork.
With the advent Of Web 2.0 and a resurgence of Web advertising CleverMedia’s popular free online games site GameScene.com was generating revenue. As a result, Gary was able to rehire me in 2005.
I was rehired as Video Producer, Gary had started Clevermedia.TV to try to exploit video podcasting and other video for Web opportunities. Over the last three years we produced hundreds of Podcast episodes, and became well known in the Podcasting community for our show “Podcast Salad” with Katie Bevard as host. We also produced a Podcast about books and publishing called “BookStories,” a conspiracy theory spoof podcast called “Secrets of Y” and finally we started producing a podcast called “MacMost” about all things related to Apple computers with Molly Stanberry as the host. Over the three year period, While I worked hard writing, directing and editing video, we we’re unable to find any way of monetizing (making money) from video podcasting. However, we were able to generate some traffic and Ad revenue from the MacMost.com website.
With the softening economy, Gary has decided to cut all full time staff, and continue CleverMedia by managing Gamescene.com and MacMost.com by himself, and hire labor on a contract basis.
I don’t blame him, and I feel bad that we were unable to turn podcasting into a viable business. It was a great ride while it lasted.
I will continue on seeking opportunities in video editing and producing, as a freelancer while looking for a full time employment. Any leads or contacts that you may be able to send my way are greatly appreciated.

I teach two classes at Front Range Community College in Westminster, Colorado. I teach a Sound Design class on Tuesday nights and I teach a Music Technology/Production class on Fridays. So the interesting thing is that in the Friday class I have both a profoundly deaf student and a ADHD student. I’m actually reveling in the challenge of trying to impart some some musical knowledge to the deaf student, who says that she is extremely interested in music.

So I found a little speaker for iPods that has a 1/8″ stereo jack on a cable and two small speakers in a box. I cut off the grill so that the deaf student can rest her fingers on the speaker cones and sense the vibration of the music.
I also have a t-shirt that came from ThinkGeek.com that shows sound on a luminescent display on the shirt . I debated whether wearing the shirt and looking somewhat silly, was a good idea. First, the shirt is not as sensitive as I want it to be and secondly I was worried that by wearing the shirt, I would be taking the student’s attention away from the assistive signers in the class. But after asking what she thought, the student said that we should give the t-shirt a try.
I did a little research and found that there are indeed some deaf musicians.. The most famous being the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. And on a somewhat related note when I used to race cars in the SCCA, we had a program where we gave the blind the opportunity to drive on a course that we laid out in a large parking lot.
I think that this is one of the more rewarding of teaching experiences that I’ve had. I do hope it works out.

Apparently the dog, Iggy Pup, found a rat and brought it in the house last night
So when I got home from work this evening, Iggy was scratching under a bookcase, and I looked under and there was an injured rat.
Animal control is closed, so my wife calls the vet and they say capture it and release it outside.
So thats what I did.
Mighty hunter dog and almost dead rat, nature lesson for the evening.

Forgot to take pictures.

Greta Garbone has left this world. She was a 90 pound (big Boned)Weimaraner , which is to say she was the most beautiful of all dogs. A German Bombshell. The story begins when we adopted her. I think it was 2003, Whe had lost our Shar Pei named Truffle to Mast cell cancer. And My wife was looking for a dog to adopt at the Shelters. I went with her a couple times, but for me, it’s difficult to see all the unwanted dogs, usually Pit Bull Terriers. Then one day she called me me and said come meet her at the shelter. I grumbled a bit and went to meet her. when I went into the lobby of the shelter my wife, Annie, was there with the Weim. The dog imeddiately game to me and started licking my hand. A passerby asked if she was my dog? I replied she probably will be.

I had to go home to get our other dog to make sure they got along, and then we had to go through the pet adoption paperwork with a very harassed and overworked volunteer. But eventually we got to bring her home.

Weims are notorious for seperation axiety, So it was good that I was working at home at that time. SHe was always right by my side, if not underfoot.
She was a lovely dog that tended to over eat ,(because we spoiled her. She had a hound dog bark that kept any potential burglars at bay. She a had a short but good life with us and the end came quickly after she was diagnosed with Lymphoma.
Hope her soul is chasing bad guys and rabbits.

If you Google Jay Shaffer,there are three other Jay Shaffers that have some internet notoriety. There’s the chef that owns the Shaffer City Oyster Bar and Grill in New York City, then there is the business consultant, who runs the “Jay Shaffer Speaks Out ” website, and then there is the gay porn author and “actor.” This Jay has wrote such classics as  “Wet Dreams” and “Full service” and is apparently bearish on short films.
Unfortunately, since I also authored a book (on Mac music software,) if you click on my author profile  on Amazon,  it appears that I also authored the afore mentioned fiction novels.
Just to set the record strait (pun intended,)  Jay M. Shaffer (that’s me) has only written one book so far and it has nothing to do with men’s smoldering desires, unless those desires are to make music using Apple’s GarageBand software.
As for the other two Jays, I would love to exchange recipes with the chef and learn how to avoid the poor house from the business consultant.

I haven’t flown in a small aircraft since riding around in helecopters in the Army the 70’s. So i was excited when my uncle Dave who is a pilot and flight instructor suggested that we fly out to eastern Colorado from Denver to meet-up with my parents, who are out there (Wray Colorado) visiting. So after a couple coversations we decided to fly out on December 29th. We met-up and went out to Metro (formally Jeffco) airport where my uncle has several planes. The plane we were going to fly is a Cessna 182 Skylane tail number N71178. I was quite surprised When I heard that the planes was manufactured in 1968 and that it was still worth over a hundred thousand dollars. Guess I wont be buying a plane anytime soon.
We too off on a clear cold day. the temperature on the ground was in the teens and it was zero degrees aloft. With Ice and snow still on the Taxi ways. As soon as we got airborne , it occurred to me that maybe the snowplows had yet to clear Wray’s single runway. Not to worry, Dave assured me. One thing that struck me was amount of communication between Denver Control and our small aircraft, it gave me a renewed respect for air traffic control. We had a nice tail wind and made the 170 Mile rip in just over and hour.
But Dave assured me that the trip back would be a bit slower with a 30 knot head wind. My parents picked us up at the Wray airport and we had a late lunch at the only restaurant in town that was open , The venerable and decrepit Sandhiller Motel and Restaurant. I only had time for a quick visit with my 97 year old Grandmother and then it was time to fly back. We were trying to make it back by dark, but by the time had said our good byes and Got the plane ready, it was almost sundown, being one of those short mid-winter days. We took off and flew at low altitude ( 400 ft. AGL) to avoid the high winds. and then popped up into radar range when we got close to Denver. As it was dark when we got back to Metro airport Dave did a simulated instrument approach. I was all eyes and ears as I had never done a night landing in a small plane. Needless to say Dave performed a perfect landing. After putting the plane away for the night, which was complicated slightly by the icy tarmac, we stopped and had dinner and Caught up on family news.
I had a wonderful time and of course it got me thinking. Maybe I should get that pilot’s license.

First of you’ve got to know I’ve never had a new car in my life. Or even financed a used car in the last thirty years. I buy older used cars and drive the heck out of ‘em, often till they die. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had some great cars over the years, a ‘72 Mercedes 280se, A Mercedes 450 SLC and we still own a ‘91 Miata and a ‘66 Mustang. But these are the fun cars and then there are the grocery getters and commute beaters. Because of this being Colorado and having two dogs and a cabin in the mountains. That means these are usually 4wd SUVs. I’ve had a Blazer, two Explorers and lastly we got a ‘96 Subaru Outback from a friend for a thousand bucks two years ago. with a 150,000 miles on it.

It was a pretty good car , I figure I put another $1500 into it in tires and repairs. Anyway it started running like crap about two months ago, And the brakes and the Struts were shot. And I thought I’d take into the shop and get a final oil change and try to make it last a couple more months. As I was pulling itto the Firestone Shop the power steering failed. I had the technitian come out to look at it and we determined that the CraShaft pully that drove the Alternator and Powersterring had come loose ans was wobbling on the crackshaft bolt which turned out to be complete frozen so that it niether tighten or loosen. So I determined the best course of action was have it towed home. And start looking for a “new” car.

I had my heart set on a Subaru WRX station wagon. At 270HP these bad boys put the Haul in grocery hauling. I set my budget at $7500 and after exhaustive searching on the Internet, I found one listed at a car lot on south Broadway (where most of the Sleazy daelers in Denver are) So my wife and I drive the 30 miles to this lot Only to find That they had Just Sold ” the WRX. I then tried to call another dealer on my cell phone about an AWD 2001 Passat. Couldn’t get through on the phone and so we drove by where th car was. Turns out that this guy brokers lease return cars and only showed by appointment.

Needless to say it was a cold drive home in the Miata, with my wife’s not so silent recriminations as to my car hunting skills.

After a the entire thanks going weekend looking at various cars and not finding a WRX for under $9K I called the guy on the Passat agin and made an Appointment.

Surprisingly he turned out to be a decent young man and didn’t try to sell us the car are answered our questions as honestly as he could. So I went home for twenty four hours to think about it and after more fruitless search, I went and bought the car on Monday, it’s a 2001 VW Passat v6 AWD with 117.000 on it and I picked it up for $6K. it needs tires and allignment but other than that it’s in good shape with the leather interior and heated seats it has a real luxury feel. The car is Identical to the more expensive Audi Avant so I feel I got a bargain.

I have been running two Blogs; MacAudioGuy.com and JayShaffer.com. I was having a problem maintaining both them, so my clever solution? Create yet another Blog! Crazy, you say? Let me explain.
I was having trouble posting my news from my Second life adventures on JayShaffer.com because there’s the whole,” who’s VJ Shojo and why is he posting?” and frankly I want to have some degree of separation between SL and RL postings.
So my new Blog is called SLebs, And it’s at slebs.wordpress.com And it will be my Second Life blog authored by VJ Shojo. It will feature my Second Life journal and observations of people, places and events in SL, maybe even some SLeberty interviews. So if you’re interested in my Second Life read SLebs AND this Blog.
Surprisingly, that makes this Blog easier to write because I can focus on my music, and adventures in Real Life here.

Until my Cool Phase Album is available from the iTunes Music Store you can buy my songs right here. Just Click on the Buy my music page link on the right or this Link