Ericast.com Podcast - DWEEB THOUGHTS

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The Masonic Temple in St. Paul is one block away from the house I grew up in. So what did I do last week? That's right!  It was time to go see a magician illusionist who was giving a fundraising performance to support its renovation.  To say more would be to spoil this week's episode, so listen now and hear the story!

Question? Comment? Similar story to share? Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com and let me know!

As promised, here's a Google Maps embed of the building, to give you an idea of how truly residential the neighborhood is...

View Larger Map

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Well, this week discusses the sad news of the passing of Ruth's 95-year-old grandmother -- yes, my daughters' great-grandmother.  That, as I note, is an age span with which I'm unfamiliar.

If you've got any family-related memories (or stories of remarkable lifespans) to share, feel free to call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com and let me know.

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This week's title commemorates the fact that I celebrated Easter by staying home with Candela as she fights the fever and headache that Chloe overcame a few days ago... so it's not exactly the Easter tradition that we're used to.  ("He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed! She's, on the other hand, is in bed fighting a cold...)

But, what better time to buckle down, have some "quality family time," and bang out a podcast?

The Steve Moore interviews that I reference can be found at MusicRadar, City Pages, plus I came across a NSFW video on YouTube that you might want to listen to if you want to hear Steve in-the-flesh.

As promised, it's listener feedback week.  Add your own thoughts and comments by calling 206-339-3742, known alphabetically as 206-339-ERIC, or email me (eric) at ericast.com

Random technical note on this week's podcast:  I did no compression/limiting on any of the files during the show assembly, but because Tom's call was a little hot (not in the personal sense) I decided to run the final .WAV through the old Levelator app from the Conversations Network, then save that result as the MP3 for the show.  Maybe, just maybe, I've found the perfect workflow?

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This week I'm talking about a MOOC entitled "Surviving Disruptive Technologies," and the fact that I was emotionally derailed as thanks to an exchange on one of the course videos.

I do worry that my 2013 reflections on MOOCs are going to look like Bryant Gumel's 1994 reflections on the Internet:

So, do you MOOC? Would you like to MOOC one day?  Let me know!  206-339-3742 (also dial-able as 206-339-ERIC) or send an email to me (eric) at ericast.com.  Or, Twitter or Facebook or snail-mail letter to my home address.  Whatever works for you.

P.S.  Yes, the eHarmony Marriage support site really did exist... years ago...  But not anymore.

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Not only do we have what might be the longest Ericast title ever (I could probably figure that out, couldn't I?) but we have yet another experiment in the world of Audacity.  Good luck!

(This time, I didn't compress/limit/normalize my audio at all.  No digital processing whatsoever.  But because of that, I cranked the volume of the intro and outro way down so I didn't blow out your eardrums when those came in.)

For this TV sitcom fan, I have the best Tweet of 2013 so far.  Very cool.

And, to the topic at hand, I need to reference the Archive.org version of the "North Star Highways" site because that site is as dead as the roadways it documented.  Fortunately, EarthLink hasn't used a robots.txt file to block Archive.org like some domain squatters have.

Questions?  Ideas?  Inspirations?  Call the listener feedback line at 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742 for the numerically inclined) or email me (eric) at ericast.com.

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Ready... Set... Know your meme!  Remember this video?

Well...Guess who I saw last Wednesday?

Yes, it was cool.

(For those who want the information here in the notes rather than the podcast itself, including the search engines that are indexing this, I'm talking about driving 90 minutes north to Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota to see a performance in the temporary home of Silver Seven lounge by the group "Rick K and the Allnighters," which is a great group in general made even more special by the drumming of Steve Moore, who's known as "The Mad Drummer"...)

Personally, my favorite number was "Old Time Rock and Roll" (YouTube video)

"On a podcast technology" note, I'm still using Audacity but tried some "way too heavily compressed" settings, which sounds pretty good, except for one weird artifact in the audio.  Can you detect it?

Anyway, do you have your own YouTube brush-with-fame to share? Or other "I know this shouldn't be considered cool, but IT WAS SO COOL!" kinds of experiences that you're willing to discuss with others?  Let me know:  206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com...

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Looks like I'm back in the groove with two episodes, in a row, just one week apart!  Wow!  Let me know what you think of this week's audio, because I've totally changed my recording model and have switched over to Audacity rather than the usual Adobe Audition, inspired by TheAudacityToPodcast.com.

So, am I so bent on podcasting as an art and science that I'm really chasing the "high" of new recording software?  Well... yes.  But, more importantly, I'm also thinking back on this experience:

Chloe at the base of a windmill in Iowa , 2012

Intrigued? Listen to the podcast, then call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com.  Share your thoughts!

Referenced stuff:

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The only link you really need from this week's episode is www.drinkchoffy.com/choffy4me, which will give you some information on the "chocolate coffee thing" that Digital Dan wanted to know about.  (Thanks for the comment, Dan!)  Other than that, it's just a bunch of rambling about everything from basements to Podango ShowBuilder Lite with everything in-between.

Intrigued? Listen! Want to comment? Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC, which is slightly easier to remember) or email me (eric) at ericast.com... or find me via other Internet venues.

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We're discussing an interesting journal project from a random student named Gabe, who has sent a journal traveling across the world.  Something like a note in a bottle, except with more detail and the USPS behind it.

It's an interesting way of weaving together Ericast listeners, past and present... though that really wasn't Gabe's intent, I'm sure.

In the spirit of "listener feedback week" (an old Ericast tradition that had a brief life -- I might bring it back...) there are two calls from Matt touching on past episodes.  So if this happens to be your first Ericast, Matt provides a great summary of the past couple weeks.

On a completely different note, I also talk about face-to-face meetings as a revived supplement or replacement to online or technology-mediated ones.  Sounds interesting, doesn't it?  It all started with a passing reference I found in a Sunset Magazine article about the Las Vegas downtown revitalization:

At a company-wide meeting in fall 2012, Hsieh took the stage with

four other jeans-wearing Zappos execs. During an open question

period, a young woman stood and praised the company for

embracing Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest before other online

retailers.

“What’s the next big social media platform we should

watch for?” she asked.

Hsieh paused for a moment, then answered. “Well, there’s this thing called downtown. It gets people together. It may seem

crazy,” he said, “but five years from now it won’t.”

Thoughts on that, or any other? Let me know with a voicemail to 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) which really, truly should be working even if it doesn't work for you.  Or, send me (eric) an old-fashioned email to ericast.com.  Or, find me on Twitter or Facebook or whatever; start with about.me/emlarson if you can't find me otherwise.

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Last week at a local higher-ed IT conference I gave a presentation entitled "In Loco Parentis: Our Children are Growing Up!"

Want to hear it?  Sure, you do!  And here it is.  This week's podcast is a recording of that presentation as it was given live on Friday, January 18, 2013.

Questions? Comments? Related thoughts?  Call the listener feedback line at 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and let me know what you think!