Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

AI Top 9

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I really like Dolly Parton.  And I think her songs went over well.  In fact, I think this has been my favorite week.  Maybe because we’re down to some real talent, who knows.  Nah, the second Beatles week was torture, I don’t care who sang it.

Anyway, here are my thoughts:

Brooke – I love her voice and think she is just so genuine and cute.  To me, she’s like a mini Faith Hill.  I liked her song although it wasn’t my favorite from her, she did well.

Ramiele- Her heart just doesn’t seem into it anymore or something.  I didn’t see that powerhouse of a singer I know she is.  I really think she just needs to go home 🙁

Jason – I thought the song was great although he seemed to be barely singing at parts of the song.

David C – He’s growing on me but I just can’t get over the Chris Daughtry-ness of him.  He was good tonight and I liked his song.

David A – The old David is back and I was wowed when he almost had Dolly in tears in rehearsal.

Syesha – That was nice but it’s I Will Always Love You.  Come on, it’s just an AI don’t.

Kristy – Seemed in her element.  Don’t want her to go quite yet.  She seems to be gaining confidence and sounding better.

Michael Johns – another strong week for him.  I liked it.

Carly – I absolutely loved her performance tonight and I think she’s my favorite in fact.

I think Ramiele should go but seeing she wasn’t even in bottom 3 last week has me worried she won’t go.  Maybe Syesha going?  Maybe Kristy?

Filed Under: tv

The venture – scratch that.

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This is going to sound very weird and probably way too serious after the previous post but I’ve backed out of the show on streamocracy.  To make a long story short, I just feel like God is not giving me His blessing on it.  Not that there is a thang wrong with it in the least it’s just I think He’s got something different coming down the line.

Now here’s the long story of it…

I always say God is in the little things and a few things have been brought to my attention that leads me to believe this is the right decision for now.

One, Beth Moore talked about on her LPM blog that we should quit trying to explain away when God does things as coincidences.  I think this post prepared me for two more incidences.

On Sunday we had a very Spirit filled service mostly about our church being so dead and how we wanted to see revival and us young couples are the future.  I know we all have a burden to be active for God and do what needs to be done for Him.  I felt an impression then that I didn’t need to do the streamocracy show so I would have time to do whatever He had planned for the future of our church.  But of course I tried to explain that away.   Of course I had time.

The second was on Sunday afternoon.  I picked up a devotional at Mom’s house and I wish I could recall the entire thing but I believe it was about Eli and Samuel and the minute we know when God asks us to do something and we go to someone else for advice, that’s the minute we are siding with Satan and agreeing with what he wants instead of what God wants.

Yesterday I had even made the call to say I wasn’t going to do it but then I got really excited about it again and explained away the time and even shared another audition of the show that we got really excited about and I was just excited so I said I’d do it even with the compromised schedule.

But then last night I couldn’t sleep.  I’ve felt no peace about this at all.  And then today I even was bargaining with God on the way home from taking the girls.  Let me just forget about this and I’ll turn the music on and praise you this morning!  Wrong!  All He wanted me to do was OBEY Him. But of course He used this as an opportunity too.  No music was on and the host told a story of her son asking to spend the night with a friend and she didn’t have a good feeling about it. Her son said, Mom just think about it and let me know.  Well, she still didn’t feel good about it and called him back to tell him and he told her That’s fine, Mom, I know you’re always right about these things and I’m fine with not going.  She said how great it was that her son trusted her instinct (and surely the pressing of the Holy Spirit) and how that parallels to what God would like to see.

It brought me to tears and solidified my decision.  I have no idea why I can’t do this.  It seems so innocent and fun and I simply can not explain why I can’t do it.  I just have to be God’s daughter right now and quit bargaining and say OK.  I trust you.

I’m praying that God is very clear on the reason why I can’t do this so I can give Him glory on why it’s great to obey but the truth is I may never know until eternity why I can’t do this.  And that’s ok.  If I learned anything from reading the Bible, all He wants is obedience.

The new venture

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OK, so I guess I can talk about this new venture I’ve signed up for. First off, everyone, I realize I am already very busy and probably don’t have time for this. But I’ve thought and thought about it and Scott and I have talked about and actually almost backed out today but I think I can do it. Before I go farther, here’s the lowdown.

A good friend of mine along with a group of people have started a new web site, Streamocracy.com that actually launches for real tomorrow. I like to describe the site like a youtube for tech videos.  Not sure if the creators would appreciate that but without seeing it, that’s the easiest way I’ve found to describe it.  So what does it have to do with me?  I was asked to host an online show.

Now that is harder to describe.  Basically it’s going to be me chatting/reporting about different tech-related…things.  Maybe a news story or a product review or new websites to check out.  And me hopefully being a little funny and entertaining.  Honestly, we’re not clear exactly what the content of the show will be.   The best thing is to point you to something like http://epicfu.com/ or WebbAlert.  I expect much less news-y than Morgan Webb though.

So I spent the weekend doing a sort of audition type video.  It did take a lot of time and really being in front of the camera is not easy.  But I did get one video that I felt comfortable showing them and they were very excited about it.  And really, the best one was me just being goofy and talking like I would with my friends or family..he actually called it rambling.  I would never, ever ramble!!  OK, maybe I would and apparently that’s a good thing.  Especially when I’m talking about stuff I really like like my iPhone.

So the trick right now is finding the right vibe/content for me to make this successful.  I know watching just me isn’t that interesting but once they add the special effects and edit it all I have full faith it will be great and I know my friend is a perfectionist just like me so he won’t let anything subpar out for public viewing.  Or at least I hope not.  Do you think I should worry the site is getting launched on April Fool’s Day??? 

So back to the time involved in this.  Well, I think this is going to be like OTH was.  It’s going to take a whole lot of time upfront and I’m going to be clumsy at first.  But after I really figure out “my voice” and we figure out exactly what content to fish for, I think it will come more easily. They wanted something weekly but I knew there was NO WAY I could do what I just did this weekend every single week so I said once a month for now.  I have a few weeks in April to get the first one filmed and hopefully it will be put on the site in May.

At this point I’m getting no monetary compensation but I completely understand a start-up and hopefully part of making this a successful site for everyone is providing unique content.  I think it has huge possibilities and I hope the site is successful even minus any part I have in it.  So for now, my “compensation” is knowing I may be a part of something bigger later on and I’m doing something new and I get to gab about techie stuff which obviously I have no problem doing (see all 7 paragraphs above).

March OTH Blog Report

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I’ve been really excited about how well the One Tree Hill Blog did this month.  They had a huge episode (100th one) and season finale of sorts since we’re now in a writer’s strike induced break until we have 6 more episodes starting April 14.  So for that reason, I think numbers skyrocketed.  Especially since they sort of plummeted since then.  I expected the lull but still hate it nonetheless.

So we had more records set this month.  A high of 43,000 page views the day after the 100th episode.  Before that, we were averaging in the 20-30K range.  Since the last episode aired, we have been averaging 15,000 a day.  We had a monthly total of almost 600K page views.

But let me tell you the shock and awe I experienced when I read another very well established OTH fan site has 22 MILLION hits in a month.  Holy Cow!  I thought we were doing well but we are just eating the crumbs.  I know it’s only been 3 months and they’ve had 4 years but still.  It definitely put things into perspective.

That being said, I’m still ecstatic about the financial numbers for the month.

I know today is not over, but this is what is expected at the close of today:

  • BlogHerAds: $760
  • Adsense: $170
  • Kontera: $48
  • Linkshare: $18
  • Total: Right under 1K at $996

That ROCKS!  Trust me, I’m not complaining about having an extra 1K in my pocket but I still see more potential (just do some multiplying and there’s potential for making thousands of dollars)!  Although really, you could never have convinced me that in 3 months time, we’d be this far so I really have been quite happy how March has turned out.

On Twittering

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I’ve been on Twitter for several months now but recently just “got it”.  And I love it.  Something else to update on the web when I have absolutely nothing to do!

If you read here and you twitter and you’re not on my following list, let me know.

I’m here – just tired

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Wow, something has wiped me off my feet today. Not sick just really tired. Let me give you a quick update from the weekend…

Friday was spent working. I worked until 12:30 in the morning. That was fun….Not. (when’s the last time you heard that??)

Saturday we didn’t wake up until 10:30. I then went to get a hair cut. Then we spent the afternoon at home and evening at J&J’s house for dinner.

Today we had church and a very. very. long youth council meeting. I’ve spent the rest of the evening at Mom’s napping and spending some time with Mom and Dad since they are headed to sunny Jamaica tomorrow for the week.

I’m not sure how this week will turn out. Our hardwoods are *supposed* to come Wednesday and if so we’ll have quite a crazy week. If not, I’m not seeing any major plans popping up.

Feel the love

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I’m cleaning the sunroom, Scott is sitting on the recliner watching TV.

Scott: Honey, thanks for cleaning.

Amy: No problem, you just sit right there, I’ll take care of it all.

Scott: I’m tired.

Amy: Really? I feel great, I think I could clean for 20 more hours.

Brain Dump

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Honestly, I’m not in a blogging mood. I feel like I have so much going on so let me just get it all out:

  • I stayed up until 1:30 last night working on my latest venture.  I’ll be updating you guys on that soon I suppose.  Let’s just say it involves me, the Internet and a video camera.  Yikes!
  • I went with one of the youth members to pick out a new book for another Bible Study. Somehow they talked me into doing another one. The book is “Dateable.  Are you? Are they?”  That will be fun. I bet I get to say fun words that make me blush again.
  • All this busyness at work is coming to a close tonight with an implementation so I’ll be working tonight.
  • Scott is doing lots of yard work.  It rocks.
  • We’re expecting our hardwoods this Wednesday.  Riigghht.
  • I simply can not wait to share how well OTH has done this month.  I want the final numbers though before I tell all.
  • I bought Beth Moore’s book about John the Beloved.  That’s what I’ve been reading since I finished the Bible (I love saying that).  I missed reading the Bible though and started the New Testament again today.
  • I went to the dentist today and no cavities.  Yay!
  • We have a youth council meeting on Sunday after church.