Ericast.com Podcast - DWEEB THOUGHTS

No, I didn't pod-fade... but after a busy summer of life-events, I'm just checking in to let you know I'm alive and well. Well, there's one piece of bicycle-related news. 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 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

I don't want to sound sappy but the Ericast is now 17 years old. What's that mean for us? I'm not sure. Want to help figure it out? Here's your show.

The Ericast was born on March 6, 2005 and somehow the way math works, calendars line up every so often, so this really is numerologically the same week as when the Ericast started.

A lot has changed in 17 years and a lot is exactly the same.

Here's my newly slimmed-down list of podcasts for 2022 that I'm listening to on that magic piece of podcatching glass:

• Marketplace Tech
• Techmeme Ride Home
• Reply All
• The Fairly Spiritual Show

After last week's fairly dark episode, we need something to lighten up the podcast, so I'm talking about a question that bothered me for ages. Here's your show.

I spent my "formative teen years" in a little town called Cornucopia, Wisconsin. That's a long story but among its mere 50 year-round residents was a kind but somewhat mysterious old man named Albon Overgard who moved there after we did. Cornucopia was founded in 1902, although after we left they celebrated its centennial in 2003 and I have a feeling that's because they forgot about it in 2002 and so they just changed the year. But, anyway, Dr. Overgard was born a year or two later in 1904, so when I refer to him as an "old man" that's just a fact - he was closing in on 90, lived to age 92, and with the advent of the Internet we can find that he was a doctor who specialized in the digestive system...

Everyone has a story.

So that's why I was wondering who Khalid was singing about in Benny Blanco's song Eastside. It didn't seem to make much sense, but maybe Mr. Old Erzman was a really memorable, lovable figure in the narrator's life, like Dr. Overgard was?

The more I listened to it, the more endearing it became... but, it really didn't make sense.

Then a few months ago I looked up the lyrics...

I had a great plan for a series in August... and then September... and then October. Want to know about a series you're not going to hear? Here's your show.

• I've got friends who say, "Yeah, obviously, that's why I'm not a Christian!"
• I've got friends who say, "Yeah, it's really sad, and I do what I can to make the church a better representation of what Jesus told us to do."
• And I've got friends who have now chosen to leave my life and make themselves former friends who say, "Nuh-huh! No, there aren't problems! That's just what Satan wants you to believe. We are SO persecuted!"

Have you ever used a phrase for years and then one day you looked at it and realized it could mean something totally different?

Let's try a notes-free, link-free version for our 16th birthday?

I'm kicking off my 2021 podcasting with a brain-dump of random things, tied to the most random yet chronologically relevant title I could think of. Here's your show.

What do we cover in this episode? Well...

• Recording in Studio D where it's 27 degrees (and 12 degrees outside)
• The year is about 13% over
• I got a new computer and while pandemics are bad it was convenient thanks to Best Buy curbside pickup
• There's a pastoral transition at our old church
• My parents are mid-vaccine
• My sciatic issues are greatly improved and I should do a podcast episode on what "okay" and "fine" mean in Minnesota
• Shout-outs to longtime listeners. Thank you for your years of support!
• I'm on Clubhouse now and we'll see where that goes.
• Zinnias, artificial wood, geraniums, and cilantro. It makes sense in the episode
• Techmeme Ride Home and Kottke Ride Home, along with episode #167 of Reply All and "America's Hottest Talkline"

I warned you that it was random! I'm eager to stay in touch and will take feedback in all forms but if we want to keep it formal and official-like, give 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) a call!

2020 has been a really rough year in lots of ways for lots of people. So, let's close it out with something completely different, because I was listening to a song and thought, "She's singing about what?!?" Want to know what it actually was? Here's your show.

In the last few hours of 2020... We just need a break with something light.  Call 701-645-3742 if you've got your own contribution.

I've got a Pandora station based on The Weeknd (Blinding Lights in particular) and the song "Ocean Drive" by Pia Mia comes up occasionally. It was released in 2017 but seems to be in circulation now.  It's got a great beat, happy and bouncy.  In keeping this a work-safe, child-safe podcast, let's use a euphemism and say she's talking about having a "picnic" on the beach.  That idea has never appealed to me because it seems that sand would get everywhere.  I like fluffy blankets. Sand isn't fluffy.

Anyway, coming out of the chorus, she explains that they've got a couple of haters.  I get that -- as I said, this sounds awkward and uncomfortable.  And then she explains that she's got... well, take a listen.

She's got a couple potatoes.  That's it.  It has to be.

Once you Google the lyrics you discover that they apparently have "a couple spectators."

But I say it's "potatoes."  And among everything else, that's what we can remember 2020 for.

An Ericast listener wrote, "Awesome episode this morning. Wow!" And I'm going to turn that comment into an entire new episoide. Wondering how? Here's your show.

Highlights: Squeezing this episode out so it's dated in November. Still doing "weekly episodes about once a month". Still talking about the back flareup.  Losing track of what letter studio I'm in  - this might be "Studio E" for Eric's Space.  "Honest critical feedback." Old joke - "If Vivaldi were alive today he'd be turning over in his grave!" Throwaway line that was criticized later because of the "or something like that" tacked on.  (I have plenty of malapropisms but that wasn't one, and so what if it was?)

Got a kind word to share? You know how. And share one with someone else today, too.

I didn't mean to predict things a year ago. I really didn't. Here's your show.

What was I thinking about pandemics and travel?

Got your own comments about what things might look like a year from now? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.