First I want to thank the 3000 plus people who sent condolences e-mail, voice mail and private phone calls. The outpouring of support has been unbelievable. There will be no way I will ever be able to answer all the e-mails but I do want to say Thank You, your support has been incredible.

As an update we arrived at my mothers home on Tuesday morning. The number of people that were their supporting her was awe inspiring. We all quickly got to work taking care of arrangements, not only did we have a funeral to plan with the myriad of details that need to be dealt with we also had a surviving niece in Intensive Care 3 plus hours away that even tonight is not out of the woods with significant spine, head and abdominal injuries. So your thoughts and prayers towards her recovery is appreciated.

This tragic event happened at the busiest time of the year for of my parents business, (they are produce brokers) with two coolers full of produce. The largest cooler is 64ft by 32ft and 18ft high and is nearly full of peaches, apples and pears which were all scheduled for delivery this week. With the largest delivery truck destroyed in the accident and with their operation having been a 2 man show, we now have a monumental task ahead of us in the coming days as we try to get the product delivered before it spoils in the bins and get cooler cleared before a 1000 bushels of fresh picked peaches arrive Tuesday.

As we have dealt with this loss as so many others have I must say I was nearly brought to my knees on Thursday when we had almost a 1000 friends, family, customers and of course family show up during the visitation period, it was an experience that I will never forget everyone waited for hours to talk to immediate family members. It really helped in the grieving process and reaffirmed what I already knew about my father.

As I close this out for now as we have a very long weekend ahead of us I again want to say thanks again for all the support and kind words. Hold your children tight and make sure that you make the best of every day that is given to you.

Todd…

If the guy depicted in the linked video is indeed a Marine trying to escape duty in Afghanistan he needs to be brought up under charges under the UCMJ. This makes me really angry. The military is a volunteer force, and I have proudly served for 23 years, to see this makes my stomach turn. This is a insult to the 100’s of thousands of service members that live by the motto, Honor, Courage, Commitment. I hope the Marine Corps finds this guy and throws the book at him. [video.google.com]

Life is beyond busy with all the things I have going on in the podcasting space, I really need an assistant hopefully that will possible soon. We have added to our team at RawVoice and that group has become a well oiled machine. Everything is still ship shape at Podcast Connect and between the two companies I am on track to do a significant amount of business this year. Sponsorships for the Podcast Awards fell in place early and we are moving that site to better hardware to make sure we can handle the load. This is all the while still doing my day job in the Navy. Retirement is about a year away and I am also going to school again to refresh the old skills. As I have said for many years Sleep is for the Weak.

Today my book on Podcasting was presented to some of the most influential media buyers in the United States, in a exclusive media presentation in New York. I was happy to forward copies to those in attendance, and hope that it helps the education process in the realizing the potential of this new media evolution we are experiencing.

If you are a media buyer and represent a major firm you can send me a e-mail at podcast@podcastconnect.com with your name, agency and companies you represent along with and address and contact number and I will send you a free copy of my book to help you understand the power of the medium.

Amazon has named my book Podcasting the Do it Yourseld guide a “Best book of 2005” as chosen by the editors of Amazon.com Called a Editor’s Pick, In talking with an Amazon Representative yesterday I am honored in having my book picked as a “Best Book of 2005” [Amazon]

I am at the Consumer Electronics show or better known as CES and am bringing daily podcast to the masses on the coverage their at my main site Geek News Central

I am pretty proud that my book Podcasting The Do It Yourself Guide made the New York Times list of most blogged books of 2005. Was on the list at number 19, if you look at the other books in the list I would say that it faired pretty well. Big thanks to all those bloggers and podcasters that did reviews and talked about the book on their blogs.
[Most Blogged-About Books of 2005 New York Times]

I am trying to collect as many pictures as I can of the Podcast Awards Ceremony if you have any please point me at them as the photographers had trouble as the crowd was so close to the podium.. Please e-mail to podcast@podcastconnect.com

Thanks Todd

The Microphone we awarded to Adam Curry and Leo Laporte was the Heil PR40, both Adam and Leo have praised the sound quality. This microphone won a cool stuff award at the NAB

I wanted to pick something really special and my friend Paul Figgiani over at Podcastrigs.com sold me on the purchase. It is a great dynamic mike for under $400.00 we purchased the mount for them also which was another $75.00

Podcast Connect Inc my company was the organizer for the 2005 People’s Choice Podcast Awards. Our Platinum Sponsor StreetIQ.com representative Andrew Coffey was on hand to present.

Other sponsors included KYOURadio.com, Wiley Publishing, TNC Media and host of other companies that gave prizes and cash.