Comments for Living Behind The Curve

Comment on Looking for students involved in the March flash mob in Center City Philadelphia by Mer

Mer — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:08:50 +0000

Yeah, except I don’t buy it. The mob in february was dangerous and destructive, but I can’t get anyone to say that anyone in this most recent event did anything wrong beyond the comissioner grumbling about those damn kids these days. There’s a lot of rage, but not a lot of evidence or justification. The newspapers are full of righteous indignation, the TV news says “kids were arrested, and nothing much happened”. That’s not good enough.

Comment on Looking for students involved in the March flash mob in Center City Philadelphia by Mom

Mom — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:27:09 +0000

I’m sure you read that a 14 year old kid was hurt in one of the flash mobs in Philadelphia as well as a senior was beaten in another. In addition to that there has been destruction of private property and terrifying local business’ and residents. What was once a geeky fun thing to do has turned ugly and ultimately extremely dangerous. I don’t often frequent Philadelphia but this City has enough to deal with without a bunch of spoiled out of control brats frightening people and causing havoc aside from the criminal behaviour of a few. If the internet is the way they are finding each other that’s a big problem and not a problem with any easy answers.
Ma

Comment on Habitually watching kitten vids on youtube may make me pathetic. I don’t care. by epilonious

epilonious — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:05:57 +0000

http://xkcd.com/231/

Yes you is!!

Comment on Geek vs. Bullshit: I need advice by Mom

Mom — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:14:21 +0000

Epilonious gives good advice.

Comment on Geek vs. Bullshit: I need advice by epilonious

epilonious — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:19:23 +0000

1. Wait for a gap in actual paying work.
2. Spend some time making what you consider to be a good presentation and also spend some time making feedback channels (hey, give people instructions on how to sign-up for twitter/facebook/social-media-hot-thing to be able to comment on your thoughts and even network with other people at the event)
3. Pay to present, gauge feedback both immediate and later through social media channels.
4. Take yourself out for ice cream to celebrate making the graphic designers and slime leeches look like they were the sea of “don’t know what the hell they are talking about” surrounding your island of sublime e-competence
5. Maintain subtle whisper campaign over new tech channels with the people who could be bothered to actually sign up for an account and friend yours.

But those are just my silly thoughts on the matter .

- Cheers!

Comment on Why do podcasts suck? A Primer. by Captain Midnight

Captain Midnight — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:01:57 +0000

Hey Meredith,

Thanks so much for linking to the levelator… I have a background in engineering, but have been in and out of using it over the past 10 years (and am now working with limited time/varying degrees of paranoia, so finding the levelator was nice). Also, I thought that this article was (generally) helpful – provided that the reader is a total fucking tool who would be utterly incapable of putting together a decent podcast to begin with. Perhaps I’m in that number, but I don’t think so, and, since I’m free, I openly invite any and all who don’t like what I do to go fuck themselves (a decade and a half as a pianist makes the whole “don’t like it, turn it off” paradigm very appealing to me). Blah…

I wanted to mention one thing you didn’t address, though: I personally hate podcasts that defy you to subscribe to them or are on really fancy websites (right now, I’m relaunching the cast I’ve done off and on for the last 3 years or so, and relearning all the back-end stuff is difficult). The catastrophe that is our current page (fixing it! I’M FIXING IT! GOOD CHRIST AM I FIXING IT!) is a good example.

The other thing: I like having a format. It gives me the opportunity to tell strangers where they can find us (something that I wish more podcasts did outside of ID3 tags… it reminds me of old radio, as well, and, if you don’t like radio, you probably shouldn’t be in podcasting anyway, IMHO). Format-crushing shows can be interesting (and I agree that shorter is generally better), but a big part of the fun of podcasting for me is saying “fuck it” to everything. If I go long on my intros before dropping the needle (and can’t cut any of it), I don’t worry. I guess it’s more of a problem for people with nothing to say. Also: regular release schedule (I do a weekly music podcast that focuses on booze, early traditional jazz, and other things in my record collection) helps to keep my listeners interested (although since the long hiatus, we no longer have any, but they’ll come back) and me focused on doing the show… Maybe I’m just crazy, but I used to love it when my personal life was more scheduled and, every Sunday I’d spend an hour putting the show together, pulling sound effects and stuff… I guess I’m just old-fashioned.

Ultimately, thanks for all the food for thought, and (considering that this came up pretty high on my search) I imagine it will help a lot of people who are just starting out. Cheers!

Comment on This is a test by Mom

Mom — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:02:56 +0000

All you need it horns on that hat and you’ll be ready to sing with the Valkyries.

Have fun with the phone.

Comment on This is a test by Mer

Mer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:30:08 +0000

I think that’s what happened when I tried to take a new picture by using the “keep pushing buttons till something happens” method.

Comment on This is a test by Dani

Dani — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:14:31 +0000

I’ve gotta ask. What’s the big question mark for?

Comment on Why do podcasts suck? A Primer. by Scott Roche

Scott Roche — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:49:40 +0000

Good stuff Mer!