News By Tom Brownsword

I purchase a lot of training materials (and as a recent budget scrub revealed, WAY too much!) as I work on my online business. Yesterday two new training packages arrived. One came from a colleague in Australia (I won’t mention any more because I’m not ready to reveal my involvement in that particular industry just yet). The other came from Amazon and that’s the one I want to briefly discuss.

The first item in the package was a book I’m going to use to further expand my knowledge of JavaScript and something called AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML). The book is called “JavaScript and Ajax for the Web, Sixth Edition“. While scripting and such are things that I could outsource (and I probably will start doing so real soon), I simply enjoy writing scripts — and a big part of wanting to have a Freedom Business is to free up time to do the things you enjoy doing, isn’t it?

The other item in the package? Another DVD that I’m going to call a “training DVD”. The name of it is “Get Ready: Definitive Performances 1965-1972 [DVD] - The Temptations“. I’ve loved their music since I discovered them in 1999.

No, that’s not a misprint. I discovered them in 1999!

OK, some explanation. I was born in 1958 but pretty much missed the 60s. Only Christian music and a bit of country was allowed in our home when I was a child so I sadly missed this great group the first time around. When I purchased my first laptop computer back in 1999, I ended up with the display model, which had a copy of that made-for-TV movie about the Temptations that played back in the late 1990s. Not knowing who they were, I started watching it — and was simply stunned by the great musical and showmanship talent shown by this group.

Lesson learned? Closed minds don’t allow you to grow (and religion can also keep you from God, but that’s a lesson for another time — and perhaps another blog!).

Anyway, this DVD has given me the opportunity to really see the original, classical lineup for the first time. Granted, by modern standards, the videos don’t look all that great, but who cares? Another nice feature is a bonus feature that plays several of the tracks without the instrumental accompaniment, allowing you to really hear the harmonies and vocalizations. If you know anything at all about music, you will appreciate this feature.

So thanks, Universal, for finally giving us a taste of some of those classic Motown groups of the 1960s. Now give us some more, please!

Thanks for listening (and check out that DVD!),
Tom