Ericast.com Podcast - DWEEB THOUGHTS

I talked to a longtime Ericast listener a couple weeks ago and he said he was waiting for "the quarterly Ericast." Ha, ha, very funny! I know it's been awhile, but it hasn't been... oh. Want the quick update on my life?  Here's your show.

Among other things, this is the premiere of Studio D! I might sound louder or more enthusiastic than normal because Studio D is a shed.

• Pandemic (it continues)
  
• Sciatic flare-up for no good reason
• Life as faculty
• Candela animating the last podcast episode

You know, the Ericast has a long history of disappearing for awhile, usually in the summertime, usually because I'm busy with fun stuff. But when historians look back at this gap in the schedule they're going to say, "Ohhhhhh..."  Want a quick check-in? Here's your show.

Nobody here is covid-affected, and if you want to know about that part of the world, read any other messaging about it, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff.
I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't record a profound thought from a dream last night, not because it was probably that profound but because I'd like to look back at what I thought was profound. Or, maybe it was.  Who knows?  Oh, well.

The Electrified Mind podcast disappeared.  A "Daily Empowerment Podcast" that was weekly, and now there's no sign of it.  It was a fun podcast and they always closed with the same song, which turns out was a royalty free one... and it seems appropriate to cap this return with what I used to do in the early years of the podcast.  I'll put it after the close in case you don't want a musical interlude... but I think it's worth a listen in this age.

Help You Out (ft. Jonathon Robins) by Leonell Cassio
https://soundcloud.com/leonellcassio
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2JiBzMv
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/hDCwRot8NWs.

Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I've not lost my voice and this is an actual episode, but it's a bit of a throwback while locked in our pandemic-sheltered world. Wondering about where this voice came from? Here's your show.

This is normally where I'd put a summary... but you just have to listen to this one for yourself. It's only 10 minutes; you'll do fine.

Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I thought about calling this episode "What a Month!" but I already did that two years ago so I'm picking a particular topic for this episode. Wondering what it is?  Here's your show.

Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

"I ask that everyone treat each other kindly, show gratitude for the work that’s being done, and forgive any mistakes."

Questions? Reflections on leadership? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I hope that title didn't scare you because, no, I'm not planning on ending the Ericast. But I have changed my personal podcast listening habits. Wonder what they are? Here's your show...

You know the drill - I'd love to hear from you!

I'm down to the wire on the end of the year and the end of a decade, depending on how you count. Want a quick update on how this fall went? Here's your show.

There's really no topic for this episode -- it's truly a "Yeah, life has happened the past couple months.  Here I am."  Still there?

Questions? Comments? Objections? Interjections? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and contribute.

Where did October go? Well, I was busy jetting off to a location literally dozens and dozens of miles from home. Let's recap the EDUCAUSE Conference.  Here's your show.

I'm trying to get better at flying.

This year's EDUCAUSE focus was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  Last time, seven years ago, it was on student retention analytics.  Seven years before that was lecture capture.  And eight years before that I had a focus on "computer competency" because that's where I started my career, so I don't really know what the other key themes were at the time.

I try to make the most of whatever opportunity I'm given. I don't always succeed, but if I'm conscious about preserving "an attitude of positive regard" then I can watch out for living in negative space.

Do I want to be a CIO?  (Hint: No.)  That's best explained by a clip of Tony Wrighton on the Zestology podcast and his interview with Chris Ryan, author of Civilized to Death.

Questions? Comments? Observations? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and share.

Sometimes you hear things that weren't said. And sometimes you don't hear things that were said.  Confused? Curious?  Here's your show.

Spoiler alert: I made it 10 seconds into this episode without making a mistake. Can you hear it?

Are crickets good luck? I don't think so, but I have to live with it.

I listen back to my podcasts after they're published, not for vanity's sake but to make sure that everything is as I intended it to be, that it sounds okay, that I didn't misspeak, etc.  And from the last episode, I caught myself saying something that sounds like something I didn't actually say...

(I have a common phrase -- "the God of the Universe".  That probably dates back to a record that I had when I was a little, little kid -- a really cool transparent red acetate record that discussed the nature of the universe.)

So, what did Neil Armstrong actually say?  (No, that's not a non sequitur; listen to the episode.)

There are at least three distinct topics in this episode, so share your thoughts on one or more of them at 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742)

Every once in awhile, someone -- like an old friend -- says something

really profound that pivots your life. Want an example? Here's your

show.

It's still "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month" but I'm bringing back the "listener feedback at the end of the month" theme... because I couldn't sleep.

I did get some feedback way back in June. Every so often I think, there's got to be a better way to automate these podcasts and stitch files together and maybe we could just take the feedback and push it straight into a feed...

...okay, so maybe that's not a good idea, and maybe automation isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  But we do get calls from reliable longtime listeners, like the one Matt made right after I was talking about informercial giants...

How long will be it before spelling things out with the phone keypad makes no sense?  I'm glad my car dashboard still includes it because I only know our main office number based on how it's spelled.

Anyway, that brings is to the final call of this month's show, which came right after the last episode about my Tall Mike Stand.

I called and talked to Mike after he left this message, which was great, and we didn't get to dive into the church-naming conversation.  Some other time!  As an aside, Gimlet Media has a podcast on "startups" and the series from a year ago was on "church planting"... where one of the things they mention is competition for attendance numbers so that the math works out to become financially self-sustaining.  That's also a topic for another day.  But during that call with Mike (after I mentioned how wonderfully amazing it is that we can pick right up in the conversation after being away from each other for years) he said, "You can't make old friends.  You can make new friends, and they might become old friends, but you can't make old friends."

And it's funny that he mentioned the church-naming thing, because we actually visited our old Berean Baptist stomping ground a couple weeks back thanks to a break in our Oak Hills Church schedule.  We walked into our small-group classroom and picked right up where we left off three years ago.  Jonzer was at the coffee cart upstairs (and apologized for being behind on listening to the podcasts; I pointed out I was behind on recording them, so he was probably fine). It was really strange to drop into an environment like that and get another living example of the value of "old friends".

So, if there's any advice in this podcast, I guess it's to go out and make some old friends... and you do that by either strengthening the old friendships you have, or make some new friendships and keep them strong enough to become old.

Let me know what you think!  701-645-3742 (which, while you're using a device that can spell something out, spells out 701-645-ERIC).

I got a tall mic stand, so it sits on the floor and doesn't pick up table vibration. But if I do a podcast on that topic, nobody's going to listen.  Maybe it'll sound better if I just move the words around?  Here's your show.

I'm not kidding.  That's really what this episode is about.  I'm still trying to streamline the recording process because that's the only thing that's keeping me from coming down here to Studio A (which is comfortably cool in Minnesota summers) and getting an episode recorded.  In this case, it's going to take three or four times longer to post this than it did to record it.

Thanks to Matt from California for the feedback -- in Northern California, which I assume was earthquake free this month.  One of my colleagues experienced a 3 a.m. aftershock while at a conference in Long Beach, which is south of L.A., and I realized that "experience an earthquake" might be on the bucket list that I don't keep.