There was a series of DVDs called Noodlebug that was created a few years back, designed for young children (ages 2 and up). It incorporated music, movement, animation and live video to teach kids about healthy brains, bodies, activities, animals, bugs and more.

I did the music for the entire series of DVDs…and in addition to the DVDs themselves, the music from each volume is broken out on a separate music CD within each package…so it was a pretty nice value to begin with. My 3-year-old grandson has been telling me lately that he prefers Noodlebug to The Wiggles, so I decided to buy him a set to keep at home rather than loaning him my copies. I went to the publisher’s web site, and was amazed to find that they had been discounted to $2.49 each! So I bought all 6 of the volumes they had for sale, and even with shipping, the whole purchase was under 19 bucks…for SIX DVDs!

So if you have a young kid that you care about, you might want to consider it as a very affordable gift! Here’s a nice video sample, so you can see that the quality is rock-solid. These were originally $15-20 apiece, I think…so these drastic discounts indicate that the products are being cut out of active stock from the existing publisher, and won’t be available long.

Here’s the link to the product page: Noodlebug

This time, I’m going to focus on catching up with a few things that I’ve discovered recently and which I want to recommend to those who might be interested:

1. Dan Miller

I had heard Dan’s book (“48 Days to the Work You Love”) recommended on Dave Ramsey’s radio show a few months back. Then I found out a couple weeks ago that he had a podcast as well. I listened to the most recent one and liked what I heard…so I’ve downloaded about 100 hours from his podcast archive (going back to 2006) and am working my way thru them as I work on other things.
Dan is a plain-spoken guy with a gentle manner and a wealth of knowledge. His main topic is finding satisfaction in your career, and for those so inclined, how to develop a career working from home. He gives out a great deal of free advice as part of his personal philosophy, but he’s also an author, a busy career/life coach and runs at least one business selling inspirational/motivational books.
He’s a guy who knows whereof he speaks. He lost everything he had (home, cars, etc) when he was in his 40s, and took years repaying creditors and the IRS. He’s not given to wild claims…he just offers wisdom and advice about what’s legit and what’s not…and encourage folks to pursue their passion. At the very least, I’d recommend that you consider listening to a podcast or two (free on iTunes…search for ‘48 days’), and consider sharing this info with a friend who is struggling in their career direction.

2. Dennis Miller

And now, for the OTHER Miller Brother…Dennis. Yep, this is the same Dennis Miller who you laughed at on SNL 20 years ago, and who helmed a successful HBO talk show for 9 years. He was the smirking, sardonic standup comedian with an endless supply of hysterical allegories, and I read somewhere recently that he’d been voted the 21st best standup comedian of all time by viewers of Comedy Central.
Dennis is in his mid-50s now, and in addition to his standup career and his weekly appearances with Bill O’Reilly, he hosts a 3-hour daily talk radio show. After 9/11, Miller moved from his formerly liberal leanings to a moderate-conservative worldview. He’s not the angry young man of years ago. He’s been married to a beautiful former model for 20 years, has two great sons, and a successful career. What’s not to love?
His show is very funny, and unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, and I’ve been a long-time listener of the talk genre. He blends comedy, commentary, guests from the political and entertainment worlds, and he takes a lot of listener calls. His repartee is still witty, but without the hard edge. The show is occasionally uneven (unlike the slick or angry alternatives out there), but it’s well-done and very human.
If your local station doesn’t carry the show, you can listen live on the web site for free (10-1pm ET). I pay a little every year to get access to the commercial-free podcast, so I can listen anytime. If you like to laugh, chances are you’ll enjoy the show.

3. YourFonts.com

One of the things about computers that can be frustrating is the lack of personality in communications. Unless you’re an emoticons expert, you’re not always sure whether someone is joking with you or angry with you.
I stumbled across YourFonts.com a couple months ago, and found it to be a lot of fun. It’s a way to bring your own handwriting to your desktop by allowing you to create your own personal font.
It’s simple enough to use for letters and cards, etc. But you can also share the font with close friends so they can read your words in your own handwriting on their computer screen.
It took a bit of tweaking to get things the way I wanted them, but I came up with a font of my own, and I like it!

4. Linking Press

Dave Wooding has created a really nice way of automating an exchange of links with related blog sites with this sweet little WP plugin. You simply install it and fill out the fields for your own site, and it will create a links page for you that results in an instant linking structure that you don’t have to maintain at all. It’s perfect for people who understand the value of backlinks in search engine optimization, but who don’t have the time or desire to approach other people about link exchanges. Convenient, helpful…and, for the time being, FREE.

Also, I released an album of my original songs for kids a few years back under the name Chuck Brown & The Chuckleberries. As of today, I’ve decided to make the whole album available for free download. If you have young kids or know of some kids who love music, give it a listen. You’ll find all 13 free kids songs from the album… plus a never-heard-before BONUS song download called “Bunny Baby”.

Thanks…now back to your regular Saturday programming!

All this is fairly old news to internet marketing types. Also old news, but with new relevance, is that Google’s terms of service forbids the use of automated rank-checking tools. I didn’t know anything about this until a couple weeks ago…when I was BANNED by Google for using Aaron Wall’s delightful little Rank Checker tool (a Firefox plugin). And, yes….I’m aware that part of the key is to delay time between searches in order to emulate human searching. The simple fact is…Google has clamped down HARD on these tools…so they are no longer working well…or in some cases, working at all.

So, hey, you ask…what does it look like when you get banned by Google? Well, it’s bascially just a CAPTCHA screen that stands between you and Google’s search results pages. And it informs you that it looks like “your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application” and that you need to confirm that you’re human to continue using their service. However, the CAPTCHA is not always very readable by human eyes, in which case, you’re screwed. And, when things get really bad, you don’t even get the CAPTCHA…you’re just out of luck until you’re reinstated (I’ve only seen that one time). There’s no appeal process…no nothing.

Now, the interesting this is…once I discovered the problem…I completely stopped using automated rank checkers for about a week. Google apparently prefers that you use a standard browser to do ranking searches. OK…it’s a HUGE waste of time, but I can do that. So I switched my browser preferences to display 100 results at a time, and started using Firefox’s Find feature to search for my site rankings by hands. Guess what? I still keep getting banned. Now, that’s just WRONG. All I can assume is that my name/IP has been added to some sort of Rank-Checking Terrorist Watchlist somewhere.

But the larger question is this: If Google is going to go to all this trouble to shut down a normal webmaster function, WHY IN THE WORLD wouldn’t they provide a legitimate option for acquiring this ALREADY-PUBLICLY-AVAILABLE information? Isn’t this the same stupid logic that has earned the RIAA the reputation of “world’s worst business model”? Why don’t they Just MONETIZE it and offer it as a feature? It could be a premium add-on for Google Analytics or Google Webmaster Tools. Charge me $15-20 a month to monitor, say, 300 keywords across 50 web sites. Update them 3 times a day (if they can’t always be completely accurate up-to-the-minute…just trying to protect their server resources) and then everybody is happy, right?

Of course, I’m sure they have some defense about “potential for abuse”…since that seems to be their favorite excuse for everything they don’t do well or don’t want to deal with. But, really…this seems like a lost opportunity for additional income for them…and it’s really starting to get under my skin. BOTTOM LINE: When people WANT to comply with your policies as you’ve requested, but you provide no good options for doing so….something is wrong with your business model.

But that’s not what I’m writing about this time. I am a busy guy. I won’t go into all the reasons, but they involve family, friends, vocation and many other priorities. If I’m awake and not engaged in other entanglements, I’m working. Thus, it’s very difficult for me to carve out time to read and respond to the blogs of others. And yet, it’s something I really love to do. I enjoy the heck out of sharing my perspective, memories, personal experiences or knowledge of relevant resources (i.e., where possible, I like to help people!).

And, as a part of link building for my own web sites (made possible by the Do-Follow philosophy), I have committed to setting aside some time as the day winds down to visit some blogs and comment a bit. I am STRONGLY opposed to spam in all its forms…and that includes “Great post!” and other lame blog comments along those lines. If I don’t have something to say…something of value and something that is uniquely me…I won’t comment at all. I’m not there just to build my own business…which would require me to lower my standards. I’m there as “me” (why is why I don’t farm this task out to someone else!), contributing what I have to share. I’ve been doing this for a couple days now…and I’m really enjoying it. It’s pleasurable…and profitable, too! No, I’m not there to subscribe to their feed. I just want to leave a little piece of me for the benefit of the blog owner and other visitors.

What about you? Have you considered setting aside some time to contribute to some web sites, and benefit a bit yourself? If so, here’s are a couple nice resources for finding Do-Follow Blogs: Tricia’s Musings and Court’s D-List. Don’t worry about PageRank and all that. Every link counts for something. Instead, focus on contributing something worth everyone’s time. Bring some humanity back to the web…don’t let those Grinch-y Internet Marketing spammers win!

UPDATE: As a result of my frustration in looking for good do-follow blogs on which to comment (many of the lists out there are woefully out-of-date), I’ve started a new directory of do-follow blogs:

Rise Above Directory

What that means is this: When you are ready to comment, enter Your Name@Your Anchor Text in the Name field of the comment form. Then, fill out the rest of the form (email and URL) as usual. Then, when your comment is approved (assuming you’ve said something of value and not just “great post, Chuck…you’re a freakin’ genius!!”…it will read this way: Your Name from Your Anchor Text says:…followed by the comment.

THIS is sweet. And it’s SO much better for community. It gives back to the commenter without restricting communication because we have to call the commenter “Nasal Sneeze Powder”.

Kudos to Stephen Cronin (who is currently living in China, of all places!) for coming up with this!

Of course, the waters are always muddied somehow. Many songs are not available online yet (inexcusable) and many people still steal just because they can (inexcusable). But, though these problems are inexcusable…at least, there’s SOME kind of twisted logic involved. I can’t say the same for my most recent experience with a record company…a company apparently determined to cut off its own nose to spite its face.

I recently went to see the second Narnia movie, Price Caspian. I enjoyed it a great deal. In fact, it was better than I expected…far superior to the first one. And another nice surprise came at the end of the movie. A sweet little pop song performed by Regina Spektor, titled The Call. It’s fresh and sweet…a perfect ending to the movie, but also just a great little song all on its own. This is the kind of thing that I would want on my iPod to listen to again and again.

So, being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I went to iTunes to buy it…only to discover that the geniuses at Disney (a company for whom I lost my last shred of respect long ago) had done it again…they had made the album’s three “singles”…in other words, the only three cuts that weren’t typical soundtrack instrumental filler-music…available for purchase not as individual tracks, but only with the purchase of the entire album…for 10 bucks.

Now, I like the song. I’d gladly pay $1.50…even $1.99. But, there’s no way I’m shelling out 10 bucks for it. So, let me ask: Who’s the loser here? Well, certainly I am. And so is anyone else who wanted to buy this song…or the Switchfoot song (while I like them a lot as a band, this particular song didn’t catch my attention). But I still won’t go steal the song via Limewire (and yes, it’s on there), as a matter of principle. Nor will I bow to the record company’s unreasonable demands for those who want to buy the song (that’s a matter of principle, too). And I’m hardly alone…as of this writing, the soundtrack has 952 comments posted…and without reading more than the first few, I can predict that most of them are regarding this lame policy. That’s a LOT of lost sales.

But here’s what’s much, MUCH worse. Instead of making whatever portion of 99 cents or $1.29 a record company makes from an iTunes track download, they make ZERO on a no-sale…AND they go out of their way to show me that they don’t want my business (that my dollar is so worthless that they’d rather I keep it)…and that the smartest path to get what I want is to go steal it. In addition to creating ill will, they have also reinforced the very lifestyle from which the RIAA is spending tens of millions trying to steer people away.

This is inexusible, indefensible, manipulative greed. And it’s bad business. And despite the fact that record companies have rights…even the right to be stupid…and despite the fact that they’ve played a vital role for good in the music business over the last 50 years (and plenty of bad as well…you don’t have that kind of power without it leading to frequent abuse)…I’m slowly being dragged over to the side of the crowd that eagerly anticipates the death of all major labels within the next few years.

I’m not sure exactly what will replace the major labels. But it’s hard to believe that anyone can be much denser than the Disney company has been in this matter.

Jason Castro was pretty embarrassing…too much playing around with his range. Better to have gone down the middle and worried more about communicating the song.

David Cook…not that special. Pretty much the “standard Cook treatment”. It may not have been a song anyone knew before…but it’s not going to be remembered a week from now, either.

Brooke White. Whew…at the halfway point, this is her night to leave. What a goofy performance. I can’t find one nice thing to say about it. Simply, a huge misstep.

David Archuleta. Well, he has that great voice…and it’s a great song. But he completely violated the melody right out of the gate. Amateur mistake. He’s got confidence in the wrong part of who he is. He’s really slipping.

Syesha Mercado. Simon was right that it was an old-fashioned arrangement and performance, but it was beautiful. It felt a bit rushed, because of the time-compressed arrangement. It was gorgeous, though. I’d buy it. Best performance of the night at the halfway point.

Jason Castro (Song #2) – September Morn is a real pretty melody, but Jason totally forgot to “sell it”. I just don’t think he’s got the sophistication to pull off story songs like that.

David Cook (Song #2) – Much better. Lots of dynamics…nice handling of a strong verse melody. Really good stuff. Tastefully done.

Brooke White (Song #2) – Much, much, much better on “I Am, I Said” than the joke rendition of “I’m a Believer” she did earlier. She came really close to making this one her own. She handled the melody deftly and brought some nice dynamics here. She may be around next week. She’s put Jason on the hot seat with that performance.

David Archuleta (Song #2) – “America” is a strong song…plenty of power built right into the melody…and this was such a tragedy. He just butchered it. Brought all kinds of oversinging flourishes (none of them interesting, by the way) and just totally missed the point of what he was singing about. Ugh. And incredibly, the judges was apparently asleep thru the entire catastrophe.

Syesha Mercado (Song #2) – “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” was a goofy choice, and to hear a black girl deliver such a white-bread rendition…well, it’s hard to know what she was thinking. Very forgettable. Simon came close to saying it well…she’s a very competent musical actress. She does not have the soul of a singer. She belongs in musical theatre.

Cook’s second song was the strongest of the night, Brooke’s second song was next best, but hot on her heels was Syesha’s first song. Everything else…simply forgettable.

Obviously…Brooke, Jason or Syesha leave tomorrow. I don’t really care which one. And David Archuleta needs someone to kick him in the butt to make this a more interesting competition. His game is WAY off at this point. It’s like he’s sleepwalking or something.

While this year’s cast has been interesting, I don’t know that I’d buy into the “strongest field ever” claims. And, the loss of Chikeze weeks ago was a joke. I know…that’s the way the cookie crumbles, but that kid had the talent to be in the top 3. Anyway…enough of the griping for now.

Here’s my take on the remaining five. David Cook is the clear winner. David Archuleta is second. Then Syesha or Jason, and Brooke is last. Here’s a blow-by-blow:

Brooke White: She may well have a career as a singer-songwriter. I find her to be sweet and attractive, if a bit overly fragile. But she is simply not that unique. There are a thousand girl singer-songwriters around the country with as much talent. She’s where she is because she’s where she is. I’ll certainly be open to listening to her post-Idol output, and I might well buy it, if it’s good. But I lost interest in her some time back. She has just not brought anything special to the competition.

Syesha Mercado: She’s a lovely girl. A born entertainer. Energetic and sexy. She could be a lead in musical theatre, etc. But, again…where is she unique? Would you put her up against Fantasia, LaToya London, Mandisa or a dozen other young black girls who have been around in the past few years? Not me. I just don’t see her as having a great depth of soul (in the “depth, passion, heat, groove” sense, not necessarily the “black” sense) as compared to those others. She does have an impressive voice…nice moves…looks great. But I wouldn’t be shocked if I didn’t remember her name a year from now.

Jason Castro: Special and unique is what he’s all about…and not in a Sanjaya-like way. You may not smell what Jason is cookin’…but I do. I love the sweetness of his vocals. And there’s something else I find very appealing (no, not the dreads or the eyes): It’s the fact that he doesn’t “need this”. He just shows up and does his thing. Most people thought his performance on Andrew Lloyd Webber night was lame. Not me. He’s not cut out to sing that stuff. But he gave it all he had, and if you’d never heard it before by others (sung full voice, etc), you’d have been impressed by his delivery of that beautiful melody. Simon used a word to describe him on Wednesday and I can’t remember what it was, but it was accurate. Bascially, he just conducts himself well and brings what he has. I think he’s got a solid little career ahead of him. No, he won’t be headlining on Broadway. No, he’s not an American Idol. But he’s a seemingly-sweet (and slightly oblivious) young kid who girls will love to listen to as he sings love ballads. Nothing wrong with that.

David Archuleta: Speaking of sweet, this young guy is every teen girl’s dream…or maybe pre-teens…well, at least until they reach a certain age and start falling for “bad boys”. He has a gorgeous voice. I’ll be very interested in seeing what he does post-Idol. He could sell a lot of product to the right audience if he can learn to pick songs (he has not demonstrated this skill to date. Frankly, as the newness of his voice has worn thin, I’ve found him increasingly boring. But…he DOES have all the tools to make beautiful music. It all boils down to what he does with it. He could also be a real bust.

David Cook: This is no longer even a competition. Barring major mistakes on Cook’s part, I don’t see how they’ll spin this as a close race. David appeals to a nice segment of girls and to a lot of guys as well (Archuleta doesn’t have this going for him). Cook is smart, and he’s really benefitted from the constructive crticism he’s been given. He’s become more humble (on the surface, at least), and his song choices have been terrific. I’m anxious to see what he does for Neil Diamond week. My first guess would be Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show…but he could do almost anything and have fun with it (Diamond has written some great stuff). He’s got a terrific voice…range, power, texture (with the exception of his lower register, which shouldn’t be much of a hindrance). My only criticism of him at this point is that his facial expressions can tend to be a bit…err, smarmy at times. But once he wins and gets some “handlers” working with him, they’ll get that figured out. This guy is likely to sell a ton of music over the next few years. It will be interesting to see where he lands in the market. But I suspect he’ll come across as credible to a wide range of fans, from pop rock to modern rock. Should be fun to watch.

Ramiele Malubay – I think this was Ramiele’s swan song. She’s been hanging on by her fingernails for awhile now, and she just didn’t deliver. She’s too staccato in her delivery (although she has improved in this area since the beginning) and simply lacks the power to really deliver the big payoff (critical in the style in which she chooses to sing)…plus, her song choices are mediocre at best. Simon’s comment about her surviving was goofy. There were 9 more performances to know…how could he assume that she’d survive without hearing them first?

Jason Castro – I love this kid. Sure, in part its his endearing “stoner” personality or his dreads and his eyes…but he’s got a very sweet voice and what seems to be a gentle spirit. He doesn’t seem to take “all of this” too seriously. I get the feeling that if he was voted off, he’d just shrug and say “thanks for having me”. That being said, tonite he chose a poor song (it was pretty, but was neither recognizable not special in any way). He’s fine this week, but he needs to get back to better song choices.

Syesha Mercado – She’s cute, she’s got a great voice and she’s a pretty doggone good performer. Overall, I feel like she could select better songs. She should be better positioned in the competition…but I doubt she’ll last into the Top 5.

Chikeze Eze – He could have chosen much better tonite. Brenda Russell is a hell of a songwriter (check out “Piano in the Dark” and “So Good, So Right”), but that just wasn’t an especially strong song…and his performance wasn’t special. The guy has the talent to simply blow me away (he’s done it before)…I’d probably buy anything he put out…but he’s got to be more consistent in picking songs that he can really deliver, instead of just songs he loves (the same mistake most of these folks make).

Brooke White – She’s got a delightful personality and she’s certainly easy on the eyes. I like her singing, but I don’t share the same passion for her that the judges seem to. I’d LIKE to like her more. I guess I’m waiting for a breakout performance. I’m just not that impressed so far with what she brings to the table. If she was a really terrific songwriter, she might grow to be really popular. But this probably isn’t the competition to find that out.

Michael Johns – Sorry, but this guy should have been gone weeks ago. He’s got some power in his voice…but not the consistent power to sell the songs he wants to sing. I have yet to see a great performance from him. He just doesn’t have it. I think the voting audience is finally seeing past the judges’ gushing on his behalf…but he really deserves to leave. He might be great with some vocal training…his voice is interesting, but he’s currently not deserving of the opportunity.

Carly Smithson – I don’t dislike her…and she certainly can sing…but I have NEVER been impressed with this girl. Part of it is song choice…part of it may the be the Irish thing (her voice has a bit of pinched-ness to it at times, as is common with Celtic/Gaelic singers). But I just can’t buy into her. She may be around for awhile, but I’m still waiting to be sold on her as well.

David Archuleta – Good grief, this kid is something else…he may be as close to a perfect pop voice as I’ve ever heard. Amazing vocal control, and a really interesting character to his voice (I heard recently that it actually comes from a disabling condition that he suffered some time back). What Paula said is true…he could pretty much sing the Phone Book and I’d listen. I love his personality. That being said, this was a weak song choice…unknown in the states, and Simon’s description was rather apt…it was kind of a “theme park” thing…sort of like “Up With People”. Far from his best week.

Kristy Lee Cook – I’ve enjoyed this girl thru most of the competition. She’s attractive and personable, and she can really sing. But week after week, she’s picked godawful songs (inasfar as they don’t suit her voice or vocal style). Tonight was the closest she’s ever hit to a home run. Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA” is an incredibly powerful song…and it was nearly perfect for her. Her style of “sliding into the note” (which can be very legitimate in certain country music styles) robbed the performance of some of its potential power…but still, it was very strong. She’s safe for at least another week.

David Cook – If anyone has a chance of stealing Archuleta’s claim to the crown this year, it’s this kid. It’s true…other than his early unnecessarily smug attitude and some uncomfortable facial expressions (which have gotten better in recent weeks), he is consistently the most interesting performer, and his song choices have been truly inspired. Tonight, he chose Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”…a great song, but nowhere near Cook’s native style. I believe Ryan said this was Chris Cornell’s arrangement (former lead singer for Soundgarden)…and Cook simply knocked it out of the park. In my mind, THIS is what a rock singer should sound like…and Chris Daughtry notwithstanding (IMHO, he can write, but he still doesn’t sing that well), I’d say Cook is the most legitimate rock singer the competition has seen in the years I’ve been watching.

This turned out to be a rather poor week. Unfortunately (and as usual), it seems to boil down to poor song choices once again. This is one of the true weaknesses of American Idol. The judges know it…so WHY don’t the producers DO something about it? It’s been the same for years…and it really hurts the momentum of the show.

Speaking of songs, I received an email from American Idol today inviting me to submit a song to this year’s songwriting competition (as I did last year). I probably won’t do it, because my fear is that they’re really looking for pieces of crap like those selected in previous years. Those godawful “anthemic” pop pieces are as far from anything I’d ever want to write as is a rap piece. If they were really seeking strong material, I’d jump on it in a minute. While I was a proponent of a songwriting component to the show for a good two years before they introduced it, I’m really disappointed that they don’t do a better job with it. It could significantly improve the show and make them even more money (not like they need it!).