Today is the release of Radio Equinoxe 3.0, a French compilation album that is dedicated to the music of artists who are influenced by the French composer, Jean Michel Jarre.

Since I probably wouldn’t be as involved with music as I am today if it were not for him, I am honored to have my track, The View to Eternity, appearing on the album.

They even put together a short video featuring everyone’s music! I can’t wait for my copy to arrive.

Click on the link above, enjoy some music, and perhaps buy a copy if you like it. And if you’re a fan of my music, help me out with a review on iTunes or Amazon for my latest album, ‘The Passage To Eternity’.

I have a goal, and it’s a big one. My goal, musically, is to score a major motion picture. The first big step I took towards that was releasing an album. Today is the next big step. Help me reach my goal.

You see, a big part of this is the fact that I’ve got a song appearing on a French compilation album, today. My next post will be about this. It got me to thinking that I really need to promote my latest album and get some fans and reviews — but to what end?

That’s the point of this post, and it’s time for me to get much more serious about what the goal is, here.

Some time ago I was exposed to a marketing concept, known as SMART goals. Here is a link to Wikipedia’s definition. Those who know me know that I can’t STAND most project management/marketing types of buzzwords, because I think they are trash. No one in my experience ever made any of this tripe work, and so I tend to ignore it.

Besides, I really feel as if some of this should be innate. You have a goal; why the heck do you need to put it down according to some spreadsheet that some ‘guru’ who is likely charging a LOT of money for said spreadsheet came up with after a round of drinking? (Note: I feel the same way about ISO9001, and XML namespaces — beer had to be involved.)

Nevertheless, there are some points about SMART goals that do resonate. The key idea that I don’t think I have been good about is expressing specificity. What’s my goal? To write music is simply not specific enough IF I have something in mind. And to that end, I do. So I have decided to start tracking several items in a specific manner.

It’s time to start putting a name to the things I want, and directing my efforts to those ends.

Here are my overall goals, starting with my non-musical ones first:

* Complete, by the end of the year, my business plan draft Keynote presentation. I need to know what my company is about and what it is going to do.

* Complete, by the end of the year, two or three project plans as Keynote presentations, detailing what my software projects are about. I don’t intend to detail the implementations, but at least several bullet points indicating what my software will do, and the concept that can drive building out iterations (yes, I am an Agile developer) is required.

* Unify, or at least properly manage, my online identity(identities). I need to do this for my musical goals, listed below. It’s far too confusing, what with all the distribution points and websites available. So here is the specificity: iTunes and Amazon are my major distribution points; those need to be leveraged. I must select a streaming provider as well. Facebook, Ping, Twitter, and perhaps one other major site must serve as my outlets for information. I am currently using iLike to publish information to some of them; we shall see if I continue using it.

* Get at least 50 reviews of my album, The View To Eternity, up on both iTunes and Amazon. Shortly I will be emailing some friends with details of what I need… and I hope to generate more of a fan base. Those reviews will serve my much more long-term goal, which is below:

* Score a major motion picture. That’s what I want. That’s where I want to go with my music.

Big goals. The next thing I have to do after that is to ask people to help me meet them, and that’s a different post.

I got very busy with establishing my software company, and doing a few musical things to get ready for my more expanded musical presence.

I have had a busy summer. Many things I did were finance related, and I won’t say too much about that as they are private things. Big thing though, is the new 2011 Ford Mustang I purchased. Such a pretty car.

I’m going to get back on the blogging bandwagon, though. I need to, because I will need help accomplishing some rather big goals. See next post.

Yeah, I have the cold that won’t go away. Feels like it’s been a couple of weeks. Ugh.

I am planning on finishing up the booklet for my album this weekend. Hope to have that up here soon.

No new projects that I’m actively working on yet, though planning for the new stuff is always in process. A friend of mine wants to brew beer. Guess I need to read up. Most of my other projects involve cleaning and programming.

I need a few hours to get some posts up here, especially the music series on the new album, The Passage To Eternity, and some political rants I have along with a plan to fix the entire world. Yes, I think in those terms.

However, I’m suffering some burnout from February and it has been a busy couple of weeks, so downtime hasn’t really happened just yet. Of course, it might rain this weekend so I might actually get to do the decompress I want to do, and then I’ll be back to boring you with my words.

Here’s a PayPal link for those to donate to the fund via PayPal. I’ll understand if you’d rather not use PayPal, but for me it’s the preferred method.

Thank you to anyone who chooses to contribute.

UPDATE:

I got a comment from someone I don’t know. I decided not to approve it. This comment suggested that I am being tacky for requesting that my birthday present be an iPad.

Ever hear of a frakking gift registry? Well, since APPLE WON’T PUT ONE UP, AND I CAN’T GIVE THAT OUT, YOU WANNA MAKE A MORE SANE, RESPECTFUL SUGGESTION?

Oh, I’m sorry, you think registries are for weddings and births only? Do some research on the net.

By the way, it’s MY blog. Don’t like it? Don’t like who I am? Go away. One more point: I have pretty good evidence that the people who read this blog ARE ONLY my friends. Since I’m not worried about the rest of the masses….

UPDATE 2:
Apple Gift Cards

UPDATE 3: I approved the comment anyway.