Podcasts

I need to get some of the writings I've got in my notebooks out there - not all of them, but I've got a few things that I'm hanging on to that I think people would like to read.  This one is ratings and reviews of podcasts I've listened to over the last week.  I'm keeping tabs on what I'm listening to on a daily basis and writing things down (giving them a rating out of 5) so this kind of thing will pop up again to be sure.

I think the next thing I'll put up here will be relating to web comics.  On to the podcasts for now.  I'll try to group episodes under the same podcast title where I can to reduce the size of the list.  Notes in italics are notes I've added after writing it in my notebook.

External Monologues Episode 05: World Series Memory + Storage Unit

Another episode of External Monologues!  There's not much of note in this episode, except that I created a pretty  cool (I think) audio production of a short story I wrote back in 2010.  You can read along with the story here, because I also decided to record it using an older tape recorder.  Because I can.

The music used underneath the story production was Small Hours by Alasdair Cooper, and I got it from www.freemusicarchive.org.

iTunes
Direct Download

Thanks to Zencast.fm for hosting the podcast!

External Monologues Episode 4: The Most Rambling

In today's episode, I ramble on a little bit about a few different topics, ranging from my upcoming podcast project, to Alternative Airwaves, to Spotify.  Some links below.

Direct download | iTunes

Beirut Album - "No No No"
Spotify

Edit: Helps if I include the link to the podcast!

X Minus Blog

How do you like that for a witty blog post title?  OK, so I mentioned in my last podcast (link here) that I want to do a show about radio dramas that have been shared on archive.org, specifically starting with X Minus One.  Each different show would constitute a season on the podcast.

Originally the plan started out just being to cover X Minus One by itself - and call it the X Minus Cast.  I thought that was pretty clever?  Maybe it's just me.  Since I've expanded my focus, I've been struggling with a broader show title.  Since The Old Time Radio Hour is taken by a podcast that's still updating, here's what I've come up with:

• Old Time Radio Review Show (or OTRRS)
• Old Time Radio Show Review (or OTRSR)
• Old Time Radio Review (or OTRR)
• Old Time Radio Review Podcast (or OTRRP)

(The acronyms in the brackets would be for the URL - otrrp.tumblr.com or whatever)

What do you like the best?  I think for simplicity's sake, I like Old Time Radio Review, because you know it's a show already.  And presumably, you know it's a podcast - so you don't need that at the end.  Still, there's a certain naming aesthetic with podcasts that including "podcast" or "cast" just seems to work.  

Please leave a comment (or tweet at me or something) to let me know your opinion!

External Monologues Episode 3: Max Hug Raiders

In today's episode, I finally implement a theme (Kyle Cox's Life Is Good)!  I talk about nosy grocery store cashiers, Clash of Clans, Reddit Gold, and X-Minus One.  Links are below!  

The podcast is for sure on iTunes now!

Full download link

- Clash of Clans

- Reddit

- X Minus One

- Backwards Compatible Podcast

- Anthology Podcast

Want to support my other shows? Check out Alternative Airwaves or Futurama Pedia; or consider signing up at Swagbucks or Perk using my referral links.

New podcast: Electronic Monologues Episode 2: Kilobyte

In this week's episode, I keep it short and to the point and drop the music from the show, resulting in an ultimate savings of 3 minutes. Not as short as I thought it would be in the end! Other things talked about: stuff I learned since episode 1; some new notebooks I picked up from Dollarama; my weight loss struggles; the Ottawa Champions; Pokemon Sapphire; and the nerdiest of all, Tasker for Android. Enjoy!

Direct MP3 Download

RSS Feed (It works this time, I promise!)

Fixing the Podcast Info

Alright!  So when I mentioned on Monday that I put out a new podcast, I listed the RSS feed...but apparently I have to hit "publish" on Zencast.fm for anybody to make any use of it.  Well, it's there now.  And it has a name.

I thought of a few names and came up with External Monologues.  Not that it really needs a name, but I thought it would be good in case anyone stumbled across it.  I'll stick to a Monday release date so if you were somehow hoping for a new episode with this post, you're out of luck!  I haven't recorded anything.

Until Monday, check out the link above for the MP3 link or plug this RSS feed into your favourite Podcast app: http://media.zencast.fm/steves-electroniccast/rss 

It's not in iTunes yet - waiting until I have a few episodes recorded before I submit it.

A New Podcast! Sort of.

So I got excited about a Thing and I decided to Make It Happen.  Recently I released a podcast entirely done on my cell phone using Spreaker - that got me really excited for possibilities with podcasts from my phone in general, and I started looking into things.

Well, it turns out that to do it for free, the mobile solutions are not very practical.  However I wanted to do an audio version of this blog (sort of) and doing it with my cell phone seemed like a very low-barrier-to-entry way of doing it.

tl;dr: I wanted to be able to just record & release as quickly as possible without worrying about setting up my recording studio and putting in tons of research, etc. so that I could just release something.

The end result is hopefully something akin to Radio Free Burrito, but probably not as good as what Wil Wheaton can do.  The first episode sort of introduces the concept (hence the title, The Concept) and gives you a taste of what's to come!  Link to the podcast is below, and below THAT, you'll find my write-up of what I think of TitansGrave so far.

Oh, it's not in iTunes yet.  It will be, once I get a title.  So you'll have to either play it here, or use the RSS feed.  Which will probably change once I get a proper title.

Episode 1: The Concept: http://media.zencast.fm/steves-electroniccast/1.mp3
RSS: http://media.zencast.fm/steves-electroniccast/rss

---

TitansGrave Thoughts - "Five Gold & A Party"

TitansGrave: The Ashes of Valkana is a YouTube web series hosted by Wil Wheaton on the Geek & Sundry channel.

The basics: It's Wil Wheaton GMing an RPG with four actor friends.

What's cool about it:  All of the associated artwork and detailed story behind the series.

I've never played a tabletop / die-based RPG game before.  The show is letting me play vicariously through the players on the screen.

Actually, I'm more interested in the story than the gameplay mechanics.  That's good because I feel if there's a downside to the series, it's in the dice rolling and the battle sequences.

The battles are entertaining, but I feel like I can tell the game is benefitting from support staff helping to keep track of everything going on.

Still, it helps me to see how one might go about playing one of these games.  I never really understood how all of that worked (even though I sort of did some role playing online in high school).  It's probably something I would try sometime.

Vacation'd

I'm stealing this thread title from my podcast, because I can and who are you to stop me anyway??

Basically, as I start writing this, I have nothing productive to say; so I'm going to allow myself to just write what comes naturally.  Actually, I have some notes in a notebook that I could probably transcribe, but I think I'll do that on the weekend from the comfort of home.  So, bonus - you'll get some more stuff from me on the weekend.

Before I let my mind wander and forget to talk about it, the significance of the title is that for the last several weeks, I've been doing a combination of travelling up north to see Vanessa or her travelling to see me (if you don't know, she is working on a contract temporarily and is ~8 hours away).  As a result I haven't worried about sticking to any self-imposed schedules or doing anything creative.  I've sort of just...done things as I felt like it.  A little freeing!

Having said that, I think I'm going to not worry about my "schedule" I wrote about several weeks ago.  I think I've kind of reset my laziness and I'm not just sitting in front of the TV every night.  It doesn't feel as important to keep up with magazines, comic books, or TV shows right now.  I just want to have fun, and have fun creating things.  If there's something I want to do, and it doesn't get done...it's not a big deal (as long as it's not something actually important).

In my last podcast I released, I recorded it entirely from my cell phone.  It was pretty cool.  Which has led me to the notion of releasing a different podcast using just my cell phone.  I'm currently exploring methods of doing that; once I figure out a way that works to my satisfaction I will probably start doing that instead of writing here.  I just find it fun to do podcasts, and it comes easier than writing.

I think that's it for now.  Til the weekend!

ReBoot - Season 3 + Podcast Review

I binged through ReBoot season 3 last weekend to finish it off, and prepare for sitting through season 4 (which is actually two movies but was split into episodes for TV).  I probably would have taken longer to get through the season, but the third season is actually quite compelling.  I can't remember the last time I watched the season in full, from start to finish (let alone watching the series start to finish!); I feel like the last time this happened, I was 13 and watching it week-to-week when it was freshly released.

I remember that the third season was highly serialized, but I forgot how much it veered into this direction.  A few of the episodes could be watched on their own, but you'd lose out on so much of the story (which, I suppose, is a good reason to have the musical recap).  The season is broken down into three very well-defined arcs: Enzo's struggles to become a Guardian; Matrix and AndrAIa's search for Bob and Mainframe; and the final fight to save Mainframe.  Each arc is 4 episodes long, and are identified via the episode number (for example, 3.1.3 or 3.2.1 - Season 3, Arc 1, Episode 3, etc).

By far my favourite episode is "The Episode With No Name", mainly for the stand-off between AndrAIa and the female guardian.  A close second would be "Showdown", for the extended fight sequence between Matrix and Megabyte.  The whole season was very cinematic, and had parody-after-parody.  I mentioned that season 2 shed the cartoon quality of season 1, but season 3 takes that to another level entirely.

Lastly, I'm glad I stuck with the Mainframe Chronicle podcast and gave them a chance to get better.  The chemistry between the hosts improved a lot, and they both feel a little looser.  There is still a lot of recitation of wikipedia factoids, but the hosts actually bring some personality to the episodes and relate some of their own stories.  Their best episode was Episode 10 - The Visitor, where they had a guest from another podcast join them.  I think it helped to loosen up the regular hosts quite a bit and made an impact for the following episodes.

As I said, I've still got season 4 to watch, but I've started working my way through Beast Wars (or Beasties, as it's better known in Canada).  There's another podcast running that I'll be listening to as well - it's called the Transformers Beast Wars Podcast.   It looks like they're still releasing new episodes, as the latest was out June 2nd.  So far after listening to 1 episode, they're doing what I hoped a ReBoot podcast would have done.

A Few Reviews

In the last week, I got a lot of show watching done, plus some reading.  Read as for some reviews...

Specifically, I binged through two seasons of ReBoot, which sounds like a lot, but actually the first two seasons are each only 10 episodes long.  At roughly 22 minutes per episode, that's 3 hours and 40 minutes. It didn't feel that long though, and was quite enjoyable to watch through.  

It's amazing to note the vast differences between seasons 1 and 2; at the most basic, season 1 was purely a cartoon with some references for the older viewers.  Season 2 took on a more serial nature and expanded the universe, and did away with some of the more cartoon-y aspects (zany sound effects and the like).

After watching, I then listened to a podcast called Mainframe Chronicle. The podcast has long since ended so I don't feel too bad giving it a bad review; but still a little bad, because I could tell the hosts were trying hard to make something enjoyable.

I find it's very similar to Futurama Pedia in terms of basic structure - the hosts (Daniel and Joey) would watch episodes and talk about them.  Unfortunately, this is where the show fell flat.

While Joey sounds a little more loose and comfortable, host Daniel just sounds very boring and monotonous.  It also sounds like they're reading straight from the ReBoot wiki, which I will admit, I might not have noticed had I not gone in and read a few articles before hearing about the podcast.  They don't really offer anything new to the discussion (granted, I'm only 7 episodes in), though they did receive feedback at some point that asked them to do some more research.  I have noticed that they've loosened up quite a bit compared to their first episode, so it's possible they'll get better for season 3 and the movies.  There are points where I've found them hard to relate to but it could be because they're both at least 6 years younger than me and don't quite remember what the world was like in 1994-1995.

I'll give a final review when I finish the series, to be fair.

---

I finally got some comic books read; first up is ChronoNauts #1, by Mark Millar and Sean Murphy.  I bought a re-issued edition that had a comic paying homage to the Back to the Future poster, thinking that there might be some sort of tie-in.  I was wrong, but definitely NOT disappointed.  The basic premise is a couple of scientists invent a time machine, and something goes horribly wrong at the end to kick off the story.  The art is beautiful, and although I found the pacing to be a little off, I really enjoyed it.  I'll probably give it another read, and try to track down more issues.  

I also re-read some old Star Trek comics, most of them missing their covers.  I had a TNG comic which featured Q turning the Enterprise D crew into Klingons, which was fun, ends on a "to be continued" note.  As I don't have the cover, I don't know if I'll ever be able to find the follow-up books to find out how it ends.

I then read two TOS era books, called The Modala Imperative.  These ones were fresh to me, because I never really got into them as a kid.  Another case where I'm missing the conclusion to these books, because I really enjoyed them and want to see the outcome.  Apparently the story line is continued in the TNG era, so there's another set of books to look for.  I guess I have some specific books to look out for at the next ComicCon!

---

Lastly, I've been watching a lot more Dark Matter, setting Killjoys aside for the time being.  Initially I felt that Dark Matter was a little predictable - and it still is, in some ways - but in the last couple of episodes, I feel that its tone has changed to something a little more mature.  It's still trying very hard to be the next Firefly, but it is at least standing on its own.  The latest episode I watched - Episode Four - was set on a space station and it looked fantastic.  Without blatantly telegraphing everything, you get a good feel for how this universe operates.  Also, TIL that the episode names are given numbers, akin to how the crew refer to themselves by numbers.

I'm Back (not to be confused with Bach)

I haven't posted in a while.  In that last post, I mentioned a few things I had on the go in 2015.  I'll address those topics shortly; first though, I had to get an idea out of my head that was generated while on my lunch time walk (which is the worst time for ideas - I can't write them down, and they compete for my attention against podcasts.  Unfair to the podcasts, because then I don't listen to them).

I have an ever-growing list of media I wish to consume, coupled with an ever-growing list of media I wish to produce.  To that end, I think I need to structure my weeks.  You see, I'm on my own for the summer (inquire further in the comments if interested in the full story), and it's been that way since May 25th.  I had all these grandiose plans to catch up on PVR recordings (movies & TV shows), get podcasts recorded, etc. etc. to fill my time between softball games.

I've watched some TV, but mostly have sucked my time with playing video games and not being very productive, aside from some household chores.  This is why I need structure.  The last couple of days, I actually accomplished some to-do list items because I actually made a to-do list and followed it.  So obviously, I need to tighten my schedule.  Here it is.

• Magazine Mondays - Something I've been meaning to start for a while.  I subscribe digitally to a bunch of magazines from the Ottawa Public Library via Zinio, and I have a backlog.
• Book Tuesdays - The alliteration stops at Mondays.  I will find time to read books outside of Tuesdays, but some weeks I find I don't read at all.  So at least once a week my evenings will be spent behind the pages (digital or analog) of a book.
• Comic Book Wednesdays - I have some comic books backlogged, plus a few older ones I wouldn't mind re-visiting.  Also, there is a specific purpose to this day - will get to that.
• Television Thursdays - Yay, alliteration is back!  Thursdays are for catching up on recorded items on my PVR, YouTube series (think: TitansGrave, RCVR, other stuff)
• Free Music Fridays - Because I needed more alliteration; specifically though I need to stay on top of Creative Commons music for Alternative Airwaves.
• The Weekend - The weekend is multi-purpose.  Record a podcast (or two), listen to music, read, whatever.

What is all of this for?  Why give titles for everything?  I'll answer the second question first: because I can.  As to what it's all for - and why the title of this post is, "I'm Back" - because I want to flex my writing muscles a bit more, and get more use out of this silly blog.  I'm going to try to get back into the swing of weekly writing over here, using any one of those days as a starting block.  Which day I'll post I haven't decided yet - but that's not important.

The other purpose is for the media I wish to produce, as I alluded to above.  I already have Alternative Airwaves to work on - hence the music listening on Fridays - but I'm trying to finish working on Star Trek: The "X" Generation and turn that into a podcast.  I recorded an "Episode 0" for it to get feedback (ask for it in the comments, if you like!), but I need to do more writing first.  It's a project where I can easily record episodes ahead of time and keep up with a consistent schedule, but if I get too far ahead recording, I won't have any material to work with anymore!

That ties in to the whole comic book Wednesdays - the new podcast idea will involve comic books as well, and I want to release it when comic books are released - Wednesdays.  I guess that's the only tie-in.  Carry on.

Alright, back to my 2015 Update post - here's where I am as of today...

- Podcasts / 2015 comeback: I'm doing...OK with this.  I've got updates coming mostly monthly.  I missed the month of April only, so that means for 2015 I've released an episode in Jan/Feb/Mar/May/June - that's much better than I thought!  Working with my friend Mike for the Futurama Podcast...we at least released a mini episode in May!

- TV Shows: I have too many shows to "catch up" with.  I think I may binge watch a bunch of things. Or I may not.

- Project 365/52/26 - I started this...and then stopped.  Not my cup of tea.

- Weight Loss - I have not yet lost 38 pounds, and in fact missed my goal for May.  But since the end of May, I've gotten back on track with things and the weight's going down.  Work in progress.

That's it!  Sorry for the length of the post, but that's my fault for not writing anything in a billion years.*

* by "a billion years" I mean 6 months.

What's going on?

It's 2015 and also has been a long time since I updated anything on this blog. The short version for why I haven't: I haven't felt the urge to write / haven't thought of any topics. So you get this catch-all post for what's going on in 2015 so far.

- Serial Podcast - Yes I know, everyone and their mother has already consumed the first season. This is why I've started to listen, because it's so highly recommended. I've listened to the first 6 episodes and am enjoying it. However, I find that host Sarah Koenig seems to be very intent on proving Adnan's innocence. I've seen similar comments that say the same thing. It doesn't bother me too much, but I'd like to see a bit more objectivity while examining the facts of the case.

- Podcasts, you say? - I hope that 2015 will prove to be my "comeback" to podcasts. I've been very lax in updates and would like to get back to regular updates. So far I'm committing myself to monthly updates with the goal of returning to a bi-weekly show.

- TV Shows - Rogers introduced shomi late in 2014. It's basically a Netflix type service that offers movies and TV shows. The great thing is that they have The Next Generation in HD, but they also have some shows I missed like 30 Rock. There are others, most especially Black Mirror and The Booth At the End (online only) that I'd like to watch.

- Project 365/52/26 - sometime in January or February I will start a photo project wherein I will take either a daily/weekly/biweekly photo. I posted about this on my Google+ profile.

- Weight Loss - I'm trying to lose ~38 pounds by early May. It's going slowly so far, but that's why I'm aiming for early May. I'll largely be doing the same things I was doing before that worked.

Hmm, I think that's it for now. Obviously much more going on but that's all that I can force out of my head right now.

Podcasts

Project 52: 4/52 (Yikes, I'm way behind!)

So, Podcasts are pretty much my thing - I talk about them a lot as a result; it should be no surprise that one of my weekly writing topics is about Podcasts.  I'm sure I've mentioned them before in some capacity on this blog, but I've been thinking about podcasts in general this week.  (As a complete aside: Sarah, how the heck do you consistently write something every week?)

Why do I like podcasts so much?  I think it's primarily because the content that I can get from podcasts I can't get anywhere else.  There are some exceptions to this rule, when traditional radio stations release popular on-air shows as podcasts (such as one of my favourites, CBC's Under The Influence or KFAI's Crap From the Past).  Sometimes podcasts even cross over to the radio realm (usually through syndication). Either way, my favourite podcasts combine to provide me with the ultimate programmable, personal radio station.

The other thing that's neat about them is that they are usually amateur in nature / quality (the above examples of professional podcasts notwithstanding).  Anybody can make a podcast.  Not everybody can make a successful podcast, but it doesn't matter.  If you can find a way to record your voice, and upload a file to the web, you can create your own podcast.  Why go through the legal hassle of pirate radio when you can broadcast without regulation (okay...not completely without regulation - that's one reason why Creative Commons exists)?

Hence why I podcast.  I've always loved playing around with recording my voice, especially when I was younger.  I remember having my own tape recorder that I played with when I was growing up.  I had a lot of fun being on the air when I took Radio Broadcasting, but that line of work is not a career interest for me.  It's just a hobby - which makes podcasting the perfect avenue to keep working on that hobby.

But I've hit a wall lately; part of podcasting is creating a sense of community with your listeners.  I've been doing Alternative Airwaves for years now, and I feel like I'm sending the podcast out to nobody.  I keep wanting to change things up and try something new, but it never sticks because I don't get any reaction, or I get bored of one idea and move to another.  I'm toying with the idea of hanging it up for that podcast, but I hate the idea of quitting on something I've worked so hard on.

I haven't released a podcast in over a month now, and the last one was admittedly half-assed.  I'm at a point right now where I don't want to release another one until I feel energized about the idea and put in a solid effort and make it sound GOOD.  I hope I can do that before too long, but for right now, I'm just taking it easy and finding good music in the meantime.

That's all I can pound out on this tiny keyboard right now; I hope that in reading all of this, I've sparked some previously unheld interest in Podcasts and that you go listen to either Alternative Airwaves or Futurama Pedia (or both!).  Thus ends my brief shameless plug.

Thursday Musing - Using Fairy Tales to Craft New Stories

You may or may not be aware that I am an avid podcast subscriber.  More often than not, I can be found at work listening to a podcast on my iPod Touch rather than a specific album (although, I also often listen to new artists to post about over at Alternative Airwaves - but that's serving to discredit my intro here).  I listen to both music podcasts, and spoken word podcasts.  One of those spoken word programmes is Writing Excuses.

tl;dr: Writing Excuses is basically a panel of writers offering tips and advice to aspiring writers and is short and sweet and informative.  Check it out if you're at all interested.

In their most recent episode, "6.10 Scott Card's M.I.C.E. Quotient", they use the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff as a base to provide fun examples of the M.I.C.E. Quotient.  No, I won't describe the MICE Quotient, you'll have to listen to the episode (and seriously, it's only 15 minutes, so it won't take that long to dive into).  The result was a fairly entertaining series of stories based on a simple fairy tale, and a neat writing prompt to go with it:

"Apply the M.I.C.E. quotient to Red Riding Hood, and write at least one page of story per element."

One of the elements the panel espoused about using fairy tales was that once you have your basic story established, change everything.  Maybe instead of a Wolf, we're dealing with a slimy, green, oozing mess with teeth.  The point is, you start with something familiar, and you create something unfamiliar from it.
This is not an unfamiliar process - Hollywood has done this plenty of times, using various sources of inspiration to give us things like Easy A, 10 Things I Hate About You, and She's The Man*.  Granted, those are fairly blatant adaptations and don't try to hide the source material.  What Writing Excuses suggests is not to adapt a familiar work, but to use the building blocks provided to make something new.  (I feel redundant, suddenly.)

I feel like this is a Good Idea, and something I'm willing to do, or at least try.  However, I think you can only do this so many times before somebody is going to start recognizing some similarities between your "original" stories and fairy tales.  Of course, I'm not suggesting on using this "technique" as a means of cheating your way into a creative work.  The requirement to build a comprehensive set of characters and a unique world is still there - you're just borrowing basic story structure.

I think it's worth trying out for a few stories; my specific idea in this case is to try my best to mask the original fairy tale and make a game out of it.  Can you identify the story I've used as a base?  This would be sort of a challenge to see how creative you can get to make a new story, while retaining just enough of the source material to allow readers to make an educated guess.  The goal is to fool, but give them just enough that someone paying close attention can identify the building blocks.

This is something I'll have to work on come September.

Oh, on a related note, through all of this I found a book I'd really like to read: Snow White, Blood Red.  And I really think I'm going to have to pull out all my mythology books and borrow some good old Joseph Campbell from the library.


* - I was thinking about going with O Brother, Where Art Thou? but I wasn't sure if that was really a blatant adaptation of The Odyssey - however, it does support my idea of taking a source material and drastically changing it.

Shameless Cross-Promotion

I run a podcast called Alternative Airwaves - maybe you've heard of it?

Anyway, just last week I put up a new episode, and I finally wrote a blog post for it.  Check it out at http://alternativeairwaves.blogspot.com/.

Also there's a link to it above this page if for some reason you don't want to click the link I just typed out.