Let me pass this email along before I do anything:

To everyone who follows Bob’s on-line journal,

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who are making donations on justgiving.com. My family appreciates all the donations and the money will help further organ donation awareness through the University of Michigan Transplant Center where my mom received her transplant and my aunt is awaiting her transplant. I know we are strangers, but through Bob we have a found a connection, and my family appreciates it.

100% of your donation is going to the cause and you will receive per mail a tax donation sheet from the University of Michigan Transplant Center for your donations. On behalf of myself, my family and Bob, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the message Shelly…I’m happy to pass this along

Another email:

Hi Bob:)
I did not see the Tonight Show but since you wrote the song don’t touch me perhaps you can enlighten us by telling us what it’s all about;)

Agree with you about pop idol. As I have told you before you are SO much better than any of them……..But I think Bo should win;)

Thanks for the nice tribute to Rod on his birthday.
Hugs!!
Mary:)

Hi Mary,
I think Bo should win it too. Maybe all the voters who would have normally voted for Constantine will now cast it for Bo? I guess we’ll see what happens. I think he’s got the best tonal voice of the bunch but he could easily pick a crappy song to sing and lose. It’s still anyone’s game

My pleasure to shout out a Happy Birthday to Rod. I’m still shocked that A&E has not done a “Biography” on him yet…He’s had a much more interesting life than most of the people who they do Bio’s about. Perhaps they’re waiting for him to die? Like many artists, people don’t realize their true impact until they’re no longer with us. I’m honored to have written songs and performed with him.

As for the “Don’t Touch Me” song story…
I started out writing it about a girl I knew when I was about 19 named Jenny [she played bass in one of my old Detroit bands]. The short version is…I said something in a jokingly manner and she took it the wrong way. She ran off and screamed “Don’t Touch Me!” and then locked herself in the bathroom. For about and hour of passing little “I’m sorry” notes under the door she finally came out and all was well. Silly I know….But I remember thinking about the event and was going to write about it but never did.

Years later, I remember feeling a little of what she must have been feeling back then and found myself in the “Don’t Touch Me” zone I did change the story though but that’s where it stemmed from.

Basically, the song’s about feeling betrayed by people. There’s a line in the song I’m most proud of that pretty much says it all:

“I don’t have much time for a shake, from a love-lineless palm”

In other words, I was so bored with one-night stands and the “pretenders” who say they want more than just a @#$%%. [I know, it sounds like a song that a woman should be singing since I think more women feel that way more than men] That’s pretty much the idea of the song though
Here’s the MP3 link for people wanting to have a listed (it’s the 2nd song down)…Or
a link to the lyrics in PDF format[and of course for people on a high speed connection [there's a video too].

Thanks for the emails
Happy Saturday!!

Let me start out by saying Happy Birthday to a very talented writer/poet Rod McKuen. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rod or his work… Consider yourself linked.

Rod had always encouraged me to write–not just songs but just to write in general…About anything and everything. I’m very thankful and grateful to have worked with him. I learned quite a bit from the man–considering how stubborn I can be, I’m surprised I learned anything ;). And so…Thanks Rod and I hope your birthday is a pleasant one. [Pass a Birthday wish to Edward as well]
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It’s Friday here in Hollyweird. I should be out doing "rock star" things this weekend [grin]

Oh, before I go…Did anything see the Tonight Show last night with Jane Fonda as a guest? She looked incredible (specially for pushing 70). Anyway…The reason I ask is because there was a weird second there just before they were about to show a clip of Jane’s new movie/show and Jay reached over and she screamed "Don’t Touch Me!"…it struck me as odd! I guess there are some people who just don’t like to be touched in general–I’m probably reading too much into it…But it did strike me as strange. Did anyone else read anything weird into that as well or is it just me?

The best email that came yesterday:

I looked at the website about your friend’s aunt. Didn’t see a “snail mail” address… If Shelly has an available mailing address, let me know and I will send a contribution.

http://www.secondchanceatlife.org/
Shelly Morell
Event Coordinator
32591 Judy Drive
Westland, Michigan 48185
E-Mail: smorell@wowway.com
And don’t forget to those who wish to donate by credit card, here’s the URL for that.
http://www.justgiving.com/pfp/secondchanceatelife
Thanks again to those who’ve helped or who plan to.

I was disappointment(but not too shocked), that Constantine was voted off Idol last night. He’ll go on to have a nice career regardless. I agree that the song he sang was ear-bleeding but to see him go before Scott and Anthony? How should I put this? Um…that’s fucked up. The only thing I was right about in yesterday’s Idol guesses was that Scott would still be around. I guess people like the underdog.

American Idol picks to come… But 1st…I received an email asking more about what XML and RSS is.

I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers on this but, basically if you haven’t noticed it already, you’re going to start noticing more and more websites with this image on it. USAToday.com has the best example. On their home page if you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see our friend . If you click it you’ll then be taken to a page with each XML separated by category. Basically, this is just an easy way of Syndication:

What is RSS?
RSS, sometimes known as Really Simple Syndication, is a popular means of sharing content (such as news headlines) without requiring readers to constantly visit a Web site to see what’s new. RSS feeds contain headlines and hyperlinks to longer articles or Web pages. USATODAY.com’s feeds are free of charge.

Basically…All the websites that have XML and RSS feeds are on top of the game. It just so happens that Blogs and most online journals already have these XMLs built in. Hope that didn’t sound too geeky.

One last thing before my American Idol picks. My friend Shelly and her family could use any donation you can spare. Her aunt is in need of a heart transplant. I can barely afford to feed myself at the moment but I can certainly spare $25.00. To read more or donate, here’s the link:
http://www.justgiving.com/pfp/secondchanceatelife No amount is too little. Thanks!

And now, on to the American Idol picks…..[drum roll please]….

MY GOD, THEY ALL SUCKED! I’m really at a loss for words. In fact, I’d never even heard any of those songs before. Were those hits? I think last night’s show will not be based on talent by any means… Rather…I thinks it’ll come down to a popularity contest. EVERYONE sang badly last night and none of the performances were memorable to me. Hell, I can’t even remember who sang what song. It was just that bad and everyone was out of tune it seemed. Are the songs that were released from 2000 to 2005 really that bad? From what I heard last night, I’d have to say YES.

I know I’d like to see Scott go… I have a strange feeling he’ll stay another week though. I really hope I’m wrong. Bo should be voted off just for wearing that shirt. Constantine’s vocal performance and kung-fu kicks [what the hell was that about?]last night was pretty painful. Painful enough to see him leave? I doubt it. He’s got quite a few fans out there but I hear his band [Pray for the Soul of Betty] already signed a recording deal just recently so he’s safe either way. Carrie? I thought she was just as painful to listen to but she’s got the cow-tipping “IILF.” factor going on. For a definition of IILF… It’s something like MILF ‘cept the M for Mom, is substituted for I for Idol.

And so…This is tough… Top 3?… Bo, Vonzell, Carrie….Bottom 3?… Constantine, Scott, Anthony… My guess is Anothony’s going to leave us even though his performance was better than both Constantine’s and Scott’s. Of course, I really hope I’m wrong. We’ll see tonight :-\

I’ve just started using this thing called bloglines.com

Without sounding too much like a commercial for it, I’m really enjoying the features.

Some of the nice things about it is you can keep all your and RSS feeds all neatly packed in a nice easy to use reader. Any time you see a page like Livejournal.com, Blogger.com or basically anything with an atom XML or RSS feed, you can just click a little button that automatically adds it to your bloglines account. –which is FREE by the way. Also, it lets you create your own online blog/journal.

Since more and more businesses are all going or already gone “Feed Crazy” like CNN.com, I think it’s a useful tool rather than having everything bookmarked to a “favorites”.

I downloaded “FeedDemon” which is a nice program… But after the 30 day trial, they ask you to purchase it and it doesn’t seem to do half the things Bloglines does. Anyway…That’s the end of my sales pitch for something that’s free

Speaking of Feeds…[rim shot] I just returned from the Thai Food place. MAN, I just love their food! I’ve been really getting into their yellow curry chicken meals. A person can only eat so many microwavable pizza’s, ya know

Last night we were supposed to have a nice hockey practice with our team. Well, it was actually a really good turnout of people who showed up. Only thing, the ice arena decided to MELT THE ICE….And so, the only thing we practiced was driving there.

This Ice arena we play and practice at has 3 rinks. It’s really a huge place. Well, the one rink that’s usually open for “stick time” is the one they decided to melt! The other 2 are still frozen and we’ll be playing tonight’s game on one of those I’m guessing I look at the humorous side of this but I’m sure some people were pretty annoyed that they had to make the long drive for nothing. Spilled milk…Or Steamed Milk

Like the rest of the people who showed up, I was also looking forward to getting on the ice last night. I’m just thankful we have a game tonight so I can get my hockey “fix“. I’m still sore from last week so I won’t be 100% but if I start feeling too bad, I’ll pull myself out of the game.

Well, it’s going on 6pm here in Hollywood, CA and I’m feeling a little tired. Perhaps I’ll nap a little.

I’m the one with the puck in front of me. I’m not sure who the guys in white are but Rufus is the other fellow is red behind me. This shot was taken before my number “88″ jersey arrived.

I got some really cool email yesterday about the photos I posted, but this one made me smile the most:

BOB!
I LOVE the pics you posted! I like the second one better than the first but only because you look pretty damn “buff” looking in the t-shirt. Don’t take this the wrong way, but when exactly did you get all “buff” on us? Or have you always been that way and we finally get to see you with a layer of clothes off?

HAHAHAHHA…I’m sorry but this is funny. NEVER in my life have I been called “Buff”… I’ve always been the scrawny kid who was one of the shortest kids in my class. I didn’t grow until about 11th grade…Of course, now I’m almost about 6′2. Perhaps it’s all the hockey and tennis I’ve been playing this last year that’s helping …Perhaps I need to play more!!! Either way, thanks for the “buff” comment! It really made my day

The next couple night’s I’ll be helping attribute to my buffness. [you've now created a buff-monster ...Kidding] Hockey practice tonight and a game on Monday night. I’m still a little sore from last week so I’ll take it easy tonight.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

… Here’s my favorite picture from last night’s photo shoot with Val’s super camera.

There’s a couple more I’ll post at the end of the blog that I really like as well but the above is my favorite so far.

I really look much worse in person, by the way. The photographer is really the one who deserves recognition here. It also helps that I feel extremely comfortable having Val take the shots. If you’re not relaxed with any photographer, I think it’ll show in the photo. Also, and it doesn’t really show here because the photo resolution is so small, but the new camera really helps with skin tones. Sometimes you might hear people complain about digital photos and that actual “film” is better—I’d have to disagree. BUT…I will say there is a trick to making digital photos good and Val is pretty close to being the Merlin of digital photography. Thanks Val!

Hey Bob, where did you get that cool Beatle’s “Let It Be” T-Shirt?

Well…Being the Beatle fan that I am, I saw this same shirt in a designer shop but it was in red. I don’t wear red….And so, I went in and asked them if they could have one specially made in blue. I’d rather not say how much I paid for the shirt but I do like the shirt-paint drippings and all

I’ll have to look through the rest of the shots but for now I’ll end with the dark background one that’s a little more serious looking.

Yesterday I was accused of having a journal entry about as dull as butter knife. Yeah, ok, it was a “filler entry“…Truth is, It’s not that I’m running out of things to say [as if that'll ever happen], rather… Sometimes I don’t know what to say. Not sure if that makes sense.

These last few months have been exciting with news of great possible things in the works but since nothing has yet to be signed in blood or written in stone, I’m fearful to even talk about it. I do feel pretty good that everything is still moving along though–just at a slower pace is all. My life is starting to feel like the night before Christmas–but I know I’ve been good so I don’t think there will be any lumps of coal in my stocking

Tonight I’m supposed to be getting more photos taken so perhaps I’ll have more updated images over the weekend. My friend Val who takes all my shots just purchased this SUPER CAMERA. Something like a 1,000,00,000,000,000 Mega Pixel Nikon. Actually, I don’t know much about the digital camera but he says it’s “the top of the line”. Cool!

Hope you all are having a great Friday!

Hmm… Well it looks like my American Idol guesses are 2 for 2 (not really a hard guess though). I was wrong about Carrie being in the bottom 3 though. I’ll be curious to hear what the theme is next week. I’m actually learning quite a bit by watching and dissecting the show. I fought watching for so long but this season really hooked me. [I sort of liked the group song they sang last night].

Along the music subject, I watched Smallville last night as well… The band “Lifehouse” was on it. They played a few songs…I don’t know the name of the tracks, but I plan on iTuning at least one of ‘em. I think it’s called “You and Me”. I remember their 1st single[ "Hanging By a Moment" ] and the video for it—it looks like the singer’s still the same but the other two guys in the band where exposed to meteor rock and transformed into other people?

Not too much else to report here. Lotza stuff on my mind but nothing that’s wanting to be blogged