These days I listen to fewer podcasts than I used to. Unless I’m doing dishes or chores around the RV, my podcasts pile up and I don’t listen to them. Not that I miss driving or commuting all the time, mind you. My job keeps me close to home—I believe I have the shortest commute of my colleagues, even Sam and Rush, both of whom work at home. I walk all of three feet to get to my desk; about enough time to hear the intro and opening theme music…
The main reason for less podcast listening is that I can’t just sit and listen to a podcast. If I try to, my mind wanders, or I start doing something else and stop listening. Like Dean Allen mentioned in Podswollop:
Tim Bray twat something the other day which I think goes to a core problem with podcasts: they’re useless unless you’re driving, or cooking, or exercising, or doing anything at all other than thinking.
When I do have time to listen, here is what’s on my subscription list1 (from iTunes):
- Groove Salad Taste of the Week “A weekly appetizer of new, rare and favorite music from NPR’s Groove Salad, presented by SomaFM’s Rusty Hodge.”
- Apple Quick Tip of the Week Tips and tricks for getting the most out of Mac OS X—geared towards small business owners.
- KXCI’s Mini-Programs I especially love “Growing Native” hosted by Petey Mesquitey, that was one of the highlights of my week when living in Tucson and listening to KXCI live on the air.
- The Maniacal Rage Podcast “We Put the ‘Funny’ in ‘Podcast’.” Truly a knee-slapping adventure each time. I especially work out the laugh muscles at the out-takes at the end of each program.
- Nature Stories Podcast “Weekly tales of people’s connections with the natural world” from The Nature Conservancy.
- Latino USA This is my news podcast—lots of current events coverage and commentary, primarily focused on Latino issues2. One of my favorite parts is the music reviews; I’ve found five or six great bands from this show in the last six months.
- The Talk Show Dan Benjamin and John Gruber bring you the latest in Mac, technology, movies, and a variety of other topics.
- The Word Nerds Still one of my all-time favorite shows! Dave, Howard, and Howard’s podcast about language, words, and why we say the things we do.
For fun, compare this list to my October 2005 list of podcasts. This current list has more variety and less web/technology topics.
1 Though the Stephen Fry podcast is in the iTunes list, I just added it today, so it’s not described here.
2 Though I may not look like it, I am a Mexican citizen and greatly interested in issues affecting the Latino community. ¡Si se puede!
Officially the world’s cutest use of a bike rack as seen in Solvang, California.
Now if the bike rack just wasn’t on a minivan…
Not that long ago I cut off my short relationship with MySpace and switched to Facebook. I’m glad I did; my experience was much better.
I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon without really knowing how I would use it. Everyone was buzzing about it—so I joined for no better reason than to see what the fuss was all about, and to have an excuse to cancel the MySpace account.
A few weeks into it, I realized what it was good for. I could follow closely as friends and family went about their everyday lives—which was especially important for those without blogs or Twitter accounts (or those who don’t update them… ahem). It was also a great way to get back in touch with old friends from high school and college.
I used Facebook applications to import all my non-Facebook content: photos from Flickr, updates from Twitter (“What are you doing right now?”), links from del.icio.us (work and personal), blog posts as “Notes”, and events from Upcoming. It really seemed kind of silly at that point—anyone can get that data directly from those other places, so why repeat it?
A few more weeks into Facebook another pattern emerged: the people whose updates I was most interested in weren’t active enough to show on my radar. In contrast, those friends who weren’t high on my interest list updated incessantly, which got annoying fast—even with the custom News feed settings.
As for those old friends that had come back into my life… well, I like you guys and want to keep in touch, but maybe I don’t need to know all the daily details? I copied all your contact details and won’t lose them this time (I promise!).
I decided to cancel my account even before news of the Beacon catastrophe hit the interwebs, though that exposure certainly helped sealed the deal. As Jeremy Keith pointed out in Facebooked up, “the Beacon ickiness has added to my overall discomfort with Facebook.” My thoughts exactly.
Deleting the account was simple—I just followed the instructions on WikiHow. The key is to register a new Facebook account with the same email address that you used for the first one.
What did I learn from this experience? Facebook allowed me to connect with old friends, but it didn’t do enough that I couldn’t live without it. If you are on Twitter, Upcoming, Flickr, del.icio.us, or have a blog—I’ll find you and follow you. If you aren’t, drop me a line and I’ll help you get started.
A great band Erin and I discovered in Austin, Texas, “The Mother Truckers”, are coming to Tucson next week for a free show. (Yes, it’s free). The show is a 9pm at the Club Congress. More details on Upcoming and on the Hotel Congress website.
The Mother Truckers are a high-energy roots-rock band with a country twist. Definitely worth a listen. If you are free next Friday, we hope to see you there.
Happy 2008!
I traveled a lot in 2007, so as a tribute to the people and places visited this year, here is a sampling of photographs from the past 12 months (most recent first).
December: At the Tucson Presidio with my parents (Tom and Libby).
September: Pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
August: Sea kayaking in beautiful Acadia National Park, Maine.
August: Riding the Carriage Roads in Acadia.
June: Watching a “crit” race in downtown Providence, Rhode Island.
May: Visiting with family in Rhode Island. (L to r: Lance, Grandma Edna, my mother Libby, my wife Erin.)
May: Visiting Grandpa Norman’s grave in Rhode Island with my sister Adria.
May: My favorite building in Washington, D.C.: the Library of Congress.
April: Riding on the beach at sunset on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
April: Visiting my Grandma Ruth in Gainesville, Georgia.
March: Pilgrimage to Waco, Texas to visit the Dr. Pepper Museum.
January: Carving up the beach on a cold winter day along the Texas Gulf coast, near Port Aransas.
Flickr’s new Places shows off all the geotagging done by Flickr members:
The Places project is our way of saying thank you to all our members who’ve taken the time to put their gorgeous photos on a map. Browse the whole globe, from your hometown to your favorite place, or places you’ve never even heard of…
Places of interest to me:
Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
—James Thurber
Overheard on a local radio station:
This commercial-free hour is brought to you by (company name).
It is not really free of commercials, now, is it? It might just be me, but that statement seems ludicrous. Isn’t mentioning the hour’s sponsor a type of commercial?
I love to see how people play with words and meaning—especially in media and advertising. This reminds me of the slogan for shoes made of “genuine imitation leather.” At first glance you are thinking, “Wow, what a great deal.” Then, “Wait a minute. That’s not right!”
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
This statement from e.e. cummings goes up as one of my favorite of all time. Laughter is a great medicine, as every copy of Reader’s Digest will tell you.
You may have noticed that as you browse here on LanceWillett.com various sayings or jokes appear in the header below the title. This is my way of giving you a small laugh whenever you visit my site. (Refresh the page to see another one.)
My laughs come from all sorts of places. My wife, my cats, other people, funny stories, cartoons, songs—the list goes on. Here are several cartoons that I follow:
- xkcd.com – A daily cartoon, usually geeky in nature.
- LOLcats – Hilarious cartoon that simulates old-time cartoon art with 2000’s era humor.
- Strongbad Email – This animated cartoon series is creative, witty, and funny (but sometimes obscure and geeky like xkcd above).
I know Erin follows Bucky Katt, Satchel Pooch, and their human, Rob, on the dailyu Get Fuzzy cartoon, and we both get on YouTube every so often to watch funny commercials and videos.
If you need a laugh right now, go watch some of the videos published by Coudal and friends, like Hobbies or Copy Goes Here. Hilarious, and even more so if you can identify with it! (See the entire listing).
If your sides are hurting afterwards, then you know you’ve got a good dose of laughter.
Mark Twain said:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
That sums up my outlook on life, and I am living the adventure. Of course, the “bowlines” in my case are the “typical” nine-to-five jobs, two-point-five kids, and two-car-garages that tend to keep people tied to a place, employer, or family situation. Though sailing away from the safe harbor has not been easy, it has been rewarding in so many ways. It is worth it!
Related: a recent xckd cartoon about adventures speaks to this same outlook. (Warning: the cartoon has an “R” rating for language.)
