You know those "iPad-on-a-stick" robots like the one Sheldon was driving in "The Big Bang Theory"? Ever wonder what it would be like to drive one of those?  I did.  Here's your show.

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Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

Everyone: Call 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) and comment!

This past week has been a really strange blip in the personal and professional schedule.  (See "Gus T. Guppy" as an example, though you have to listen to the episode to find out how that's even relevant to anything.)

Note to non-Ericast-fans: The core of the Beam discussion starts at the 8:00 minute mark.  If you want to skip the context on who I am and what I think of remote conference attendance, you can jump to that point.  But if you can spare eight minutes, I'd suggest listening to the whole thing...

So... the primary focus of this episode is my driving a Beam Pro robot from Suitable Technologies.  (Which is quite a bit more elegant than Sheldon's "Mobile Virtual Presence Device")

The venue?  The EduCAUSE ELI 2015 conference in Anaheim, California (which generated a lot of Tweets with the #eli2015 hashtag...)

How'd I get picked?  I said "Yes".  I'm not sure if having met Malcolm Brown had anything to do with it, but I had indeed met him in Madison, Wisconsin at the 2008 EduCAUSE "Learning Technology Leadership" program.

If you don't say anything to anyone, you won't hear many complaints. But is that a good way to live? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

Everyone: Call 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) and comment!

This week: A week-in-the-life. (And, my studio chair squeaks. FYI)

Years ago we asked a post-event review question of "Is there anything that could've made this better?"   Someone's answer?  "Get rid of Eric Larson as a presenter. He uses too much self-deprecating humor."

It's at that point I decided to stop doing that, and to start deprecating others.

That weird bitter shot gave me my best self-deprecating joke ever! It's awesome!  I would've done just fine without that feedback, and I do just fine with it.  So don't fear feedback.

"With all those windows on the west side, in the afternoon, that side of the 4th floor just gets baked"

"Yeah, I've heard.  But what about the sunshine?"

Panel Discussion on tips/tricks/experiences with "synchronous online learning," where I was facilitating (vs. moderating).

Say you want to buy a car.  Ford vs. Toyota.  How not to get ripped off at the dealership.

"Wait!  I don't buy into this whole 'car' thing"

That could be outdated bias -- "My uncle sells buggy-whips and he thinks sales are picking up!"

Or that could be wise insight -- "Have you seen light rail and the bike-share programs?"

But that's not the right world -- not the right direction or set of questions -- for the people who've decided they need a car and are going to walk in a dealership and need some tips on negotiating or brand comparison.

Did we miss-market the event?  Well, if we'd been really specific and targeted really well, we could've had a quarter of the numbers in the room and they'd have all said we were awesome. And that would've eliminated the bottom 10 percent who made some really snide complaints

But what about that extra 50, 60, 70% in the middle?  Who got exposed to some new stuff and thought it was pretty good and have some new stuff to think about?

This isn't a call to be sloppy or unclear.

But if you've got a message you believe in; if you think you're doing good work, if you think you have something to offer to the right people... be willing to expose yourself to the wrong people, because that's what it's going to take if you speak up and seek out the right people.

Reflection:  I've got my stuff together and want to do _____.  Maybe you do, maybe you don't. "Humble learner" is a difficult position.  Coaching someone into humility doesn't work; that's basically seen as the definition of arrogance (and maybe it is).

What happens when your friends lose, and then find, someone they love? Find out. Here's your show.

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Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

Everyone: Call 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) and comment!

Coming in under the wire for this week, but still on the calendar!

Full disclosure:  I don't like this episode.  It's bumbling.  It's awkward.  But it's a topic that ought to be discussed, and I'm not going to let my lack of eloquence keep us from starting the conversation.

That's what I mean by "Find out." Period.  Find out how these things unfold now, before you need to know.

This week's topic began with a tweet from Kate-Madonna Hines.  While we disagree pretty passionately on abortion and the work of Planned Parenthood, I trust her judgment and ethics. She'd fall into the category of one of my personal "thought leaders" over the years.

In the process, I Twitter-met Alison Feigh.  (Word-of-the-week transforms into Name-of-the-week:  Would it be "FEE," or "f-EYE"?)  Alison Feigh serves as the program coordinator at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, a program of the National Child Protection Training Center.

When dealing with a missing person, where do you go?  Twitter.  Facebook.  Whisper (where, it turns out, someone said he used to know her).  And then, go back to spread the good news that she's been found.

Whether this is your first episode or you’ve been listening

through the ups and downs of the past 10 years, you’ll like this recap on

what’s new and what’s changing in the Ericast’s tenth year. Here’s your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

Everyone: Call 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) and comment!

Yes, the "Tradition and Tweaks" Ericast really did show up this week!

This week's question:  Does it hurt when your fancy gets struck?  (No, that's not really a question...)

iPodder, Juice, Lemon... I just use (and love!) Downcast these days.  K7.net is still alive and well and I still love them.  Almost as much as I love my fluffy new Costco body pillow.  Yes, this is random.

What’s changing:  Not much.  The pre-intro summary is new – it’s a common “best practice”.  What do you think?

Three-word titles.  A tradition since my undergraduate paper-writing days; unless there was an external mandate imposed by the faculty, I always used a three-word title.  Celebrating constrains per Joseph Rueter.

Better show notes...  Because I find myself referring back to them when I listen to other people's podcasts.  And structure is good.

More batching, so I can keep a regular schedule.  What’s contemporary and what’s batched?  You might never know.

More Chesterton:  If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.

Reviving the Dweeb Thoughts feed, and I need help for that; Posterous was so awesome that I can’t cope without it.

DailyMugShot.com is now gone and has turned into a Thai dating site.  Really.

Are you looking for some new podcasts to try in a new year, or you’re

just curious about what I’m listening to while you’re listening to me?  Here's your show!

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

The "Tradition and Tweaks" Ericast is coming up next week.  And, yes, I’m promising an episode next week.  We’ll talk about that promise… next week.

Favorite pod-catching application in iOS (for the iPhone of iPad): Downcast  (Other apps also mentioned: Cyber Dust and Loot)

Three broad categories: Technology, religion/spirituality/Christianity/etc., and personal-development

Formerly-listened-to podcasts: 

New for my 2015:

Other - Entertainment or "Guy and a Mic" (like mine):

Click here to listen to this week's podcast!

Wrapping up 2014 with the question of "what is 'faith' and when is it okay for 'people of faith' to act confidently with their fellow humans rather than 'relying on God' for direct intervention with a solution?"

I'm not sure if it's as deep as that makes it sound... but, check it out, then let me know what you think by calling 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and leaving a voice message with your comment.

What triggered this conversation was the heart attack of pastor Rob Ketterling of River Valley Church in the Twin Cities.  If you want to know the back-story ("Why is Eric talking about someone Tweeting a heart attack?") here's a great video where he summarizes his whole experience:

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

I

spend a lot of time in this episode apologizing for it sounding

depressing.  It's really not.  At least, I don't think so.  That said,

we'll see if my rant about the fact that the "Rodney King Trial" wasn't a

trial of Rodney King (but, instead, was a trial of the police officers

who beat him) gets me in any trouble.

I include a brief quote from Randy Cantrell's Leaning Toward Wisdom episode 4043

and I'd recommend adding him to your podcatching software if you like

the pontifications of the Ericast.  His is similar, with more/better

experience and a bit of a Texas twang.

I also extensively quote Henry Cloud on Hopelessness:

your future. To give up hope that something is going to change when it

is not going to gets you unstuck immediately and brings energy. It

brings life to the sickness of hope deferred.

But how do you

know if entering into that process of change with someone is even worth

it? How do you know that it is going to help? Haven't you wondered

that sometimes? "Are they ever going to change? Are they ever going to

get better? Should I really keep working with them, thinking they are

going to improve? Are my efforts to get them to change going to help

anything at all?"

Or on the personal side of life, how do you

know when to invest the effort with someone to work on making things

better and when you should tell them that you are done talking about it?

With whom do you try, and with whom do you say, "I'm done talking"?

That is a question that, if properly answered, can save much time and

heartache.

And it is the question: how to diagnose a person to know whether working on the issue is likely to help or not.

Questions?  Comments?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and leave a message right now...

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Every so often I come across a podcast where I think, "My 'tribe' needs to hear that!"  And then I realize that I've begun to use social media buzzwords like 'tribe' and then I go repent and then I come back and do what I had originally planned to do.  So, courtesy of Billy Murphy and the Forever Jobless podcast, this week's episode features an introduction to Hal Elrod.

I'm doing much better with his "Can't Change It" philosophy than I am with the "Miracle Morning," which is in a similar vein to Jeff Sanders' "5 a.m. Miracle" -- and both are hard for me to do more than verbally assent to.  But, assent is probably the first step...?

(No, the Ericast isn't going to become something worse than a clip-show where we just take clips from other people's podcasts... but Billy's interview with Hal is worth your time.  If you want to hear the rest of the interview, head to his Forever Jobless site and fill in the gaps for yourself.)

Questions?  Comments?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and let me know what you think!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

This week we take a look at the loss of the historic Peace Lutheran Church building in Baldwin, Wisconsin.  But we look at it in the context of iconoclasm, which is the kind of atypical take that you've come to expect from the Ericast!

There's also a highlight from the Dweeb Thoughts feed ("meeting people where they're at" vs. "build it and they will come"); remember that you can subscribe to those off-the-cuff technological thoughts at http://feeds.ericast.com/dweebthoughts

Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) with any questions or comments!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

There's quite a meandering path to this week's final topic, from the now-gone Island Station in St. Paul to Mill Ruins of Southeast Minnesota (that link will take you to the exact trip that I took the girls on last week) to yesterday's visit to Dells Mill in Augusta, Wisconsin (which is famous in the "photos of mills" world).

There's also a random reference to John and Sam Eldredge's new book and the fact that Sam doesn't like the mosquitoes in Minnesota.

And I even throw in the Arcola High Bridge north of Stillwater.  Yeah, this episode is a bit random.  You like it that way, right?

Share your own thoughts and opinions with a quick and easy call to the listener feedback line at 206-339-3742 (easy to remember at 206-339-ERIC) or with an email to me (eric) at ericast.com

By the way, did you know about the Dweeb Thoughts feed?  For my random technology-themed thoughts (which, when important enough and remembered, get rolled into the regular Ericast episode... but that didn't happen this week) add this URL to your podcatching software:  feeds.ericast.com/DweebThoughts