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…

I was informed this morning that my father died in an automobile accident. My family and I am leaving Honolulu for Michigan this afternoon. My connectivity will be spotty at best and I will likely be very consumed over the next week with the details. One of my Niece’s was with him and she is not doing well either so prayers for her are appreciated. Regardless my cell will be best way to contact me at 808-741-4923

My dad was a hard worker and great father he would not want me to halt everything so I will connect when I can

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]

My team at RawVoice worked some long nights to get the site ready and we were able to launch it in front of about 400 people at Gnomedex, really cool to actually be able to cut a site loose during a mainstream conference. [Flickr Pics] Thanks to Derek Miller for taking the Pics

Things have been beyond out of control. I was in Vegas in early June to speak to some educators, then I was home a few weeks and then off to Gnomedex for a great weekend. At the same time as Gnomedex we launched our newest flagship social podcasting site called Blubrry at Blubrry.com to top it off I have had college class finals and all of the other craziness that normally accompanies summer.

Anyway all is fun here in Hawaii and I am actually going to take a mini vacation in a few weeks 10 days off or so to unplug and recharge the batteries. Here is a picture of me and a great music artist at Gnomedex. Be sure to check out our new site as well.

Oh yea and I still have a day Job 🙂

A month or so ago Tim Bourquin of TNC Media asked me if I would be willing to be on a panel during Podcast Expo. He asked me to be on the Panel titled “Monetize with Ads and Sponsorship: Use An Advertising Service or Sell Your Own?” being that I have sold my own, and actually run a advertising service for over 500 podcasters this was a good fit. The panel is made up of some other firms that represent podcasters and should be a lively discussion as all of our models are a little different.

I have been taking a couple of weeks of vacation after having some surgery done, and had but all forgotten about this years promotion cycle. When my CMC called me this afternoon I assumed there was something that needed to be tended to at work. Well he surprised me with some great news. Effective tomorrow morning I will be promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer (E8) to say I am humbled and overjoyed at the same time is a understatement.

Obtaining the rank of Chief is very difficult, but getting promoted to SCPO is even more difficult as the percentages are very small. For those that are Navy Chief’s you will understand what I am felling in that I am greatly honored and yet deeply humbled at the same time. Navy Chief Navy Pride.

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.

“Guess Who Taught Amazon to Podcast?”

My team at RawVoice launched Podcast Promos last tonight and so far the traffic is through the roof details here and or course check out the site. [PodcastPromos.com]