Clock is ticking

Still haven't recorded a new podcast.  Not sure why.  Number of possible reasons.

Day job leaves me exhausted. As in, I finish a day of work, maybe eat a sandwich, and go lie down and sleep.  Otherwise, I accomplish nothing whatsoever.

Did a bit of fiddling with some new Android recording software, called Parrot Voice Recorder.  Has all kinda lovely features.  Paid for the Pro version, assuming I'd be using it on my Fire to record from my Bluetooth headset.  Turns out, can't record from a Bluetooth mike on the Fire.  Records from the internal mike.  Works fine on the phone, but of course it sounds like I'm recording from a Bluetooth headset.

I think it doesn't work on the Fire because the app expects to capture the audio from the phone Bluetooth in.  The Fire isn't a phone, so it just doesn't have that Bluetooth in channel.  Decent sounding audio on the headset, I guess.  I use that headset for the Dayjob, so it's just as well.

Perhaps one reason I don't feel motivated about podcasting anymore is that I didn't start with Something To Say.  I started wanting to play with the tech, and struggled to find things to say so I had something to record on the podcasts.  It was fun trying new stuff.

But now that new stuff is old stuff, and what is new, mostly live streaming and video, has interesting hardware, but isn't something I much care to do.  I'm not a video guy.  I may or may not have a "face for radio."  I'm comfortable with the good quality of my voice, but I don't feel I have a particularly impressive on-camera presence.  So I have three webcams, sometimes all connected at once.  But I don't care to use them.

I have found some okay content I could record.  But nothing at the moment that is both freely available to record and sufficiently interesting to me.  I could produce a pretty good podcast for, say, the Duluth Art Institute, or the Library, but I've asked, they're not interested.  Even have a rather cool idea for a Duluth Playhouse podcast, but I wouldn't even know who to ask about that.

I podcast for 10 years.  That just might be enough..

Episode 20170219 - The Federalist Papers?

Think I'll record all 85 essays in The Federalist Papers. But I'm not sure I should.

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Episode 20170220 - On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Chapter 5

Chapter 5, The final (hour-long) Chapter.  Mill provides some sample applications for the principles from previous chapters.  And points out that though society could restrict liberty when others experience loss, that doesn't mean they always should.  Some losses aren't as important as preserving Liberty.

Hope you enjoyed the book. 

 

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Episode 20170216 - On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Aren't there limits on liberty and individuality?  Certainly.  But there are also limits on society, and both are to preserve.  And sometimes, liberty has costs.  But liberty is worth the costs.

 

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Episode 20170213 - On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Chapter 3 Part 2

 Chapter 3 Part 2 - It's important to be an individual, and to allow others to be individuals in thought and act.  And it's important to preserve that liberty, even for individuals you don't like.  Because they come up with good new ways of doing things.  Bad new ways, too -- and then you learn what doesn't work...  Something like that.  Mill explains it better, just listen!

 

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Episode 20170209 - On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Chapter 3 Part 1

Chapter 3 Part 1 - Mill speaks about the importance of not just thinking and talking but acting as an individual (as long as you don't harm others) and preserving the right to act as an individual.  One of the strengths of his arguments is that though he might well not approve of some of our new sorts of individuality, his truths about liberty are still true.  And will drive some folks crazy.  Which is why I do this!

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As good as it gets

Got my tax refund. Could buy some fairly heavy duty hardware. One little problem, I'm not sure I want to podcast anymore. Right now I don't, anyway. After ten years of doing this stuff... ten years, think about that... maybe 500-some podcasts... I've concluded I have nothing interesting to say. At least nothing of my own. I've recorded other people's books and essays and books of essays for a while. Ten of those, at least ten that went to Podiobooks. A few short stories and such. Even with doing that for ten years, where am I? It's part about President Bully. I was bullied as a kid. We're talking kindergarten. And after all these years, I'm in a merely okay job. And a bully is President. A nice intelligent fella like me, here I am with this job. And an ignorant jackass is President. So I'm wondering what the hell happened the past almost 60 years. And I'm wondering what the hell happened the past 10 years. An awful lot of what has kept me going has been an apparently unrealistic dream. I always thought that if I was good someone would notice, and say "Hey, we gotta get this guy to do this for us," or something like it, anyway. On at least five occasions I thought "These guys, they'll be the ones who'll get it!" Nope. Over and over again. Maybe I just need to catch my breath. Maybe I'll start again. Anyway, can't convince myself to buy that swell new recording hardware, because I don't much care to record anymore. I get to the end of the day, making a living talking to people, and I really don't want to talk anymore. Kinda figures, guy on the Spectrum, only got so much talking I can do before I'm used up. With the dream, recording might lead someday to something better. Without it, it's just another night in front of a microphone. Which is nice. I guess. I've enjoyed it. On the good days, I'm utterly flabbergasted that there are so many people who listen. Thank you if you are one of them. On the bad days, I think there ought to be more. More what is a damn good question. "Maybe this is as good as it gets?"