Monday night home alone
December 7th, 2009
A rare evening, home by myself. Talking about the usual, boring stuff. Please join the Phantom Power Media Facebook Fan Page.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 17:47 — 12.3MB)
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Future projects
November 9th, 2009
My NaPodPoMo interview
November 3rd, 2009
“Halloween Is Awesome”
October 30th, 2009
A couple days before Halloween/2006, I recorded this song called “Halloween Is Awesome.” I did it for fun, but also as a way to try and get some promotion for Hyper Nonsense. Since Hyper Nonsense has ended, I’ve decided to make this page the official home of “Halloween Is Awesome.” You can see a (mostly) complete list of all of the places that the song had been played on the Hyper Nonsense site. I’ll keep track of any future plays on this page.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03 — 1.7MB)
On narcissism (or – why in the hell am I even typing this?)
October 4th, 2009
During a recent episode of the Ourobouros podcast, Colin, the show’s host, posed a simple question: Is podcasting narcissistic? I sent him an audio comment in reply to this question. And my thoughts pretty much boiled down to this: Yes, podcasting is narcissistic but it’s not necessarily bad, as the process of podcasting at least leads to something that could be consumed by others, and that provides opportunities for connection. He rebutted my comment in his next podcast, saying that in his case, his audience is so small he’s really NOT connecting with others, and in turn is just really doing it completely for himself. And to him, that seems extremely narcissistic. I thought that was an interesting way to look at it. And I then applied that same filter to myself and to my own activities. Colin mentioned that he gets about 40 to 50 downloads on average for his podcast. By far, the hottest iron I have in the fire is Hyper Nonsense, and that show gets about 150 downloads per episode. So while the overall audience of that podcast seems to be larger than Colin’s, by no means is it setting the Internet on fire. Yet, I’ve kept it going (with the help of Jen, of course) for over three years. Odds are, if Hyper Nonsense hasn’t become a “hit” by now, it’s not likely to. So why keep going, then? Am I just that much in love with the sound of my own voice or is it something else? To be honest, I’m not really sure. I do know that, if nothing else, it is an enjoyable hobby and it’s allowed me to keep my audio production skills sharp. I’ve also found that, in lieu of having a massive audience, these online efforts (not just Hyper Nonsense, but Shawnogram as well as other endeavors) have built a community. It’s a very loose-knit community that seems to be roughly intertwined with many others. But I think it’s pretty cool, and it should count for something. I realize that this doesn’t do much to actually answer the question of whether or not podcasting is narcissistic (or even whether or not I’m narcissistic) but I think the deeper concept at work here isn’t really about narcissism. It’s about value. What’s the value or doing something like creating a podcast? And that’s a question with a wide variety of possible answers. And in my case, the reasons I continue to do it have definitely changed over time. Or at least, some of them have. I mean, I was in love with the sound of my own voice long before podcasting came around.
Where's Hyper Nonsense?
November 21st, 2008
In today’s podcast, I provide a brief update on that other podcast I do with Jen. For more on the “new” mixer I refer to in the recording, go here. This is my twenty-first podcast for NaPodPoMo 2008. And here’s a few of those photos I talked about:
Podcast: Download (5.7MB)
2008 Podcast Awards nominations
September 27th, 2008
It’s that time of the year again. Time to nominate your favorite shows for the Podcast Awards. In the past, I’ve regarded these awards as a waste of time. But I’ve caved. It’s either due to social media peer pressure, or I’m just getting soft in my old age. Below is my list of nominees. I don’t listen to shows that properly fit into all awards categories. But I didn’t want to just leave those categories blank, so I put in the names of shows that I felt could at least sorta fit those categories. Furthermore, I subscribe to a lot of podcasts. There’s no way I could nominate all of them. So, don’t feel bad if your show doesn’t show up on the list.
Peoples Choice: Erk Pod
Best Produced: Wasting Time Podcast
Best Video Podcast: Shawnogram
Best Mobile Phone Formatted Podcast: Inside My Head
Business: Democracy Now
Comedy: Hyper Nonsense
Cultural/Arts: Outside The Loop Radio
Education: Podcast Junky
Entertainmentt: The Media Burnout
Food and Drink: Andy Not Andrew
Gaming: All Things Azeroth
General: DarkCompass
GLBT: Yeast Radio
Health: Being Healthy For Busy People
Mature: Nobody Likes Onions
Movies/Films: Rental Reviews
Podsafe Music: Ourobouros Podcast
Political: No Agenda
Religion Inspiration: Enlighten Up
Sports: Some Guys In A Car
Tech/Science: podCast411
Travel: Grizzly’s Growls Podcast
When stuff breaks… or it doesn't
June 8th, 2008
On the train ride home from last week’s trip to Monterey, I noticed some problems with my headphones. Specifically, the right earphone would cut out unless the in-line volume control was turned all the way up. No big deal, I figured. I had purchased a two-year replacement plan for the headphones. I’d just take ‘em back to Radio Shack and make an exchange. Then, after going through the rather tedious process of getting the exchange all ready to go (I won’t bore you with all of the details, but it had to be done through the mail, not in-store), the headphones began working again. They’re not perfect. There’s still a little cutting in/out, but it’s not major. I decided to cancel the return. I figured if the Radio Shack people tested ‘em, and disproved my original claim, they’d just send ‘em back to me as-is. Besides, I still have the warranty and can arrange for another exchange if they really do die in the future. Read the rest of this page »
Was the Hyper Nonsense website hacked?
June 3rd, 2008
Last week, the Hyper Nonsense website disappeared. Not sure for how long. Don’t think it was any longer than a day. But, somehow, the entire site had been deleted from the server. I didn’t do it. Jen didn’t do it. And we’re the only ones who have FTP access to the site. I checked with tech support at my web hosting company. But tech support didn’t have an explanation for the deletion. Tech support did restore the site rather quickly from the company’s backups, which was nice. Aside from one minor addition to the blogroll, the entire site returned just as it was. Regardless, this incident makes me wonder if the site could’ve been hacked. There’s been plenty of news lately about WordPress sites getting hacked. But those hack jobs were usually done by spammers. In this case, the site was simply nuked into non-existence. It’s always possible too that it was some random fluke caused by the server that made the site vanish. I’ll probably never know for sure. And considering how easy it was to get the site back to its former state, I’m not that worried about it happening again. I guess the lesson to be learned here is, MAKE BACKUPS. Or make sure someone is doing it for you!