We recorded our 11th episode of Eagles FanCast last night. The show was a good one, and we had fun. The three of us are definitely getting better with timing, working off each other, and not talking over each other too much. I still have to work more on reeling in the longer-discussed topics, but I'm still learning.
I want to do some work on the website when time allows... more is needed, and a new design is needed as well. I want to get a pictures section up there, as well as a better look and feel. Maybe after vacation in a few weeks. Prior to that there's a kids Halloween party, the Eagles-Bears game with a big tailgate planned, Halloween party (sans kids), Halloween itself and my high school reunion! Yeah, so no time for that updates type of stuff in the meantime.
When the hell am I going to have time to play Halo 3, Portal, Half Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2??? sigh
Oct 17, 2007
Oct 9, 2007
About Time Things are Changing
I've written briefly about the music industry from a consumer standpoint a couple times on here, mainly about the RIAA's idiocracy here and here. There's been a lot going on, including some setbacks where one Minnesota woman lost her case and now owes $220,000 "in damages" for sharing 24 songs online. By the way, a Sony executive in that case also decided to redefine theft and piracy, and calls backing up our purchased CD's or copying our CD's to our iPods, Rios, Zunes, etc., piracy. Interesting... I really thought I owned that CD I overpaid for. Apparently not in Sony's eyes. Well, I guess I won't be buying any more of Sony artists' music (Sony, Columbia, Epic, Arista and more). I'm sure what's next is we will be called pirates (arrrr!!) for copying our purchased digital music to our media players as well.
Personally I don't want to take that chance of potentially being singled out for piracy, do you know what I mean? Sorry AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Korn, Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Aerosmith, Good Charlotte, Bob Dylan, Soul Asylum and Joe Satriani... you've all rocked. I'll really miss Pearl Jam and Live. Maire Brennan, your voice is amazing. No more Tenacious D, System of a Down or Cake on my purchase list. James Taylor, take it easy. Who I'll miss the most is Bruce, and of course the E Street Band.
I'll listen to you all, illegally in Sony's cataract-covered eyes, through my purchased music (but I don't OWN it!! Right?!)... but I won't take the chance on breaking laws. It'll be safer to just NOT buy anything more from you.
Hey, what's that out there... Nine Inch Nails is now label-free? So is Oasis, Madonna and Jamiroquai? Hmm, they're recognized artists. Others are letting people decide how much to pay for a new album? Still others have given away their latest? What the hell is going on? Wait a damn minute, one of the online music distributors is now finally standing up to the music industry? Something is wrong... no wait, I take that back. Something has been wrong, and maybe is finally starting to be corrected.
Well I hope to see more of this correction, and see more sites support the artists like the Podshow Music Network, PodSafe Audio and The Beat Suite.
You hear that record industry? It's the sound of change, the sound of frustration being released... and it's the sound of you catching up, instead of leading.
Personally I don't want to take that chance of potentially being singled out for piracy, do you know what I mean? Sorry AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Korn, Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Aerosmith, Good Charlotte, Bob Dylan, Soul Asylum and Joe Satriani... you've all rocked. I'll really miss Pearl Jam and Live. Maire Brennan, your voice is amazing. No more Tenacious D, System of a Down or Cake on my purchase list. James Taylor, take it easy. Who I'll miss the most is Bruce, and of course the E Street Band.
I'll listen to you all, illegally in Sony's cataract-covered eyes, through my purchased music (but I don't OWN it!! Right?!)... but I won't take the chance on breaking laws. It'll be safer to just NOT buy anything more from you.
Hey, what's that out there... Nine Inch Nails is now label-free? So is Oasis, Madonna and Jamiroquai? Hmm, they're recognized artists. Others are letting people decide how much to pay for a new album? Still others have given away their latest? What the hell is going on? Wait a damn minute, one of the online music distributors is now finally standing up to the music industry? Something is wrong... no wait, I take that back. Something has been wrong, and maybe is finally starting to be corrected.
Well I hope to see more of this correction, and see more sites support the artists like the Podshow Music Network, PodSafe Audio and The Beat Suite.
You hear that record industry? It's the sound of change, the sound of frustration being released... and it's the sound of you catching up, instead of leading.
Oct 3, 2007
Eagles FanCast Episode 9 online!
I haven't had much time to post here lately at all. Things have been busy, and we're trying to catch our breath. Hopefully I'll be able to get back here on a semi-regular basis.
Still been doing the Eagles FanCast though, and we recorded our painful 9th episode last night. Painful only because the Eagles are killing us at this point. Boy we need this BYE week at this point. Anyway, lots to talk about, but not much time... hopefully a new, real, post coming soon.
Still been doing the Eagles FanCast though, and we recorded our painful 9th episode last night. Painful only because the Eagles are killing us at this point. Boy we need this BYE week at this point. Anyway, lots to talk about, but not much time... hopefully a new, real, post coming soon.
Sep 13, 2007
Sep 11, 2007
Six Years
Six years ago, life was much different for the world. Terrorism, for the most part in America, was a thing of foreign matters. It hit home in a most dramatic, and horrific, way six years ago today.
Once again, today on the anniversary, there will be many articles written by the media outlets regarding September 11, 2001. They'll obviously do a better job than I can, and I won't try.
Six years ago was a completely different time for us, and it feels like a different lifetime. We lived in a different part of New Jersey, in a different house. We were pregnant with our first child. We both worked completely different jobs than we do now.
On that day, life changed. But how cliche has that phrase become?
The following day, as no planes flew overhead (which we saw a lot of, considering we were right between Philadelphia and Newark airports), life was scary. No longer did we just have the normal fears of having a child, but we questioned raising a child in a new world. If terrorists could hit there, then where else? Was it wise to hope? A war was inevitable at that point.
Life moved on for us. The planes began to fly again. I had a birthday, then we celebrated our "last Christmas as just husband and wife." Maureen had a birthday, then we had our very precious daughter on a lightly-snowing magical day. Life was better. Maureen resigned her job to raise our daughter, I found a much better job, possibly my dream job. We learned that the world was a good place to raise kids, and we had our second child, a boy. We moved into a bigger house, leaving the area that I spent over 36 years of my life, and relocating an hour from central Jersey to south Jersey. We brought our kids to Disney World. I was able to go to see the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl (although with a loss.) I quit my "dream job" after the president of the company essentially became paranoid and delusional, and started my own consulting company. Our daughter just started Kindergarten last week, and I started a podcast last month.
There were also some negative times in this time as well. Shortly after 9/11, anthrax came to town, literally. The huge post office in our town, Hamilton Township, was shut down when it was discovered that it became contaminated by the anthrax letters, as Hamilton served as a regional sorting hub. We have also endured two wars, both of which are ongoing, and with rumors swirling of a third to start soon. Maureen developed celiac disease. And this year we lost a beloved member of our family, who is very much missed by us all.
Six years.
Amazing how a life can change so much in what seems to be such a short amount of time.
It was wise to hope, and I won't ever stop again.
Once again, today on the anniversary, there will be many articles written by the media outlets regarding September 11, 2001. They'll obviously do a better job than I can, and I won't try.
Six years ago was a completely different time for us, and it feels like a different lifetime. We lived in a different part of New Jersey, in a different house. We were pregnant with our first child. We both worked completely different jobs than we do now.
On that day, life changed. But how cliche has that phrase become?
The following day, as no planes flew overhead (which we saw a lot of, considering we were right between Philadelphia and Newark airports), life was scary. No longer did we just have the normal fears of having a child, but we questioned raising a child in a new world. If terrorists could hit there, then where else? Was it wise to hope? A war was inevitable at that point.
Life moved on for us. The planes began to fly again. I had a birthday, then we celebrated our "last Christmas as just husband and wife." Maureen had a birthday, then we had our very precious daughter on a lightly-snowing magical day. Life was better. Maureen resigned her job to raise our daughter, I found a much better job, possibly my dream job. We learned that the world was a good place to raise kids, and we had our second child, a boy. We moved into a bigger house, leaving the area that I spent over 36 years of my life, and relocating an hour from central Jersey to south Jersey. We brought our kids to Disney World. I was able to go to see the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl (although with a loss.) I quit my "dream job" after the president of the company essentially became paranoid and delusional, and started my own consulting company. Our daughter just started Kindergarten last week, and I started a podcast last month.
There were also some negative times in this time as well. Shortly after 9/11, anthrax came to town, literally. The huge post office in our town, Hamilton Township, was shut down when it was discovered that it became contaminated by the anthrax letters, as Hamilton served as a regional sorting hub. We have also endured two wars, both of which are ongoing, and with rumors swirling of a third to start soon. Maureen developed celiac disease. And this year we lost a beloved member of our family, who is very much missed by us all.
Six years.
Amazing how a life can change so much in what seems to be such a short amount of time.
It was wise to hope, and I won't ever stop again.
Sep 7, 2007
The week in review
What a week... our daughter (who's the oldest), started Kindergarten on Wednesday morning. Talk about stresses! She's gone to preschool the past few years, but this is all day. So far, after two days, we're not impressed with the substitute teacher (her regular teacher is out on maternity leave until January), as she's pretty much just babysitting them so far, shows up after most of the kids are already there, and isn't organized at all. Not a confidence booster in the whole "teach our kids" department. Our daughter's played with a lot of Play-Doh, which she likes, but she's been playing with it for three years and is already bored.
Also, recorded the fifth episode of Eagles FanCast last night. Another decent show, and the Eagles' first game is Sunday against Green Bay. All three of us are just jonesin' for the season to start... can't wait!! After five shows, most of the technical issues are out of the way, and I'm thinking about how to start spicing it up a little bit. We have a repeat audience now, too, so that's nice... just have to keep them around. lol
Sure glad I drafted Joseph Addai as my top running back in my fantasy league Wednesday night... a few points out of him, and he stomped my opponent's Marvin Harrison, which is nice.
A kids party on Saturday, a podcasting expo in Philly (PodCamp Philly), also on Saturday, and the game on Sunday... it's going to be busy yet again.
Also, recorded the fifth episode of Eagles FanCast last night. Another decent show, and the Eagles' first game is Sunday against Green Bay. All three of us are just jonesin' for the season to start... can't wait!! After five shows, most of the technical issues are out of the way, and I'm thinking about how to start spicing it up a little bit. We have a repeat audience now, too, so that's nice... just have to keep them around. lol
Sure glad I drafted Joseph Addai as my top running back in my fantasy league Wednesday night... a few points out of him, and he stomped my opponent's Marvin Harrison, which is nice.
A kids party on Saturday, a podcasting expo in Philly (PodCamp Philly), also on Saturday, and the game on Sunday... it's going to be busy yet again.
Aug 30, 2007
Episode 4 of Eagles FanCast is online
I know, I skipped telling people about Episode 3, but at least I'm telling you about Episode 4! We've been so busy with things, I haven't had the time to post to this blog lately. Stinks, but it's the way it is. I'll try to post more things, more often, but getting this podcast off the ground took a lot of work, so I've been trying to spend more time on things around the house and especially with the family.
Well that's about it for now, another boring post, but a post regardless.
Well that's about it for now, another boring post, but a post regardless.
Aug 17, 2007
EFC Episode 2 is live
Just had to put it out there, that the second episode was recorded Tuesday night, and posted on Wednesday.
The family was hit with the monkey pox (our pet name for when some kind of heinous virus infiltrates our health), and hit hard. Days of high fevers and swampy fever-breaks, sore ears, throats, messed up sinuses and pink eyes galore. Sounds like fun, yes? Three of us were down, as Emma was recovered from the week before and finishing up her meds, so it seems like she survived the hard hit we all took.
Still cloudy and tired, and only back to work for three days... no more of this sickness, please!
The family was hit with the monkey pox (our pet name for when some kind of heinous virus infiltrates our health), and hit hard. Days of high fevers and swampy fever-breaks, sore ears, throats, messed up sinuses and pink eyes galore. Sounds like fun, yes? Three of us were down, as Emma was recovered from the week before and finishing up her meds, so it seems like she survived the hard hit we all took.
Still cloudy and tired, and only back to work for three days... no more of this sickness, please!
Aug 8, 2007
EaglesFanCast Podcast is LIVE!
Well last night started the brand new podcast, EaglesFanCast.
For the past couple months, I've been learning things in an area that I know very little... audio.
People that know me know that I have absolutely no musical talent. Other than being forced in grade school by the music teacher, Mrs. Spisak, to sing in every "production" that was put on, I'm musically inept.
I've never played an instrument, have no idea how to read sheet music and you have to ask Maureen about my very interesting rhythmic dancing when we go out.
So in the past couple months, I've taught myself things like the audio waveform, compression, limiting, normalizing, the mixdown and who knew that "gain" is actually "volume"?
With that brand new knowledge, and learning RSS feeds, online syndication, etc. the thing finally came together. Eric, Todd and myself sat down and talked about the Eagles for almost an hour... it was casual and smooth, like we were doing it for 50 shows already. Great fun. Eric and Todd definitely know more of the ins and outs of the team and sports in general, so they were able to carry the conversation throughout, and I was thrilled.
We ended it, and that's where the rest of the show came in for me. I saved the file, then edited out a lot of the dead space (long pauses between topics, etc.), then did some of those things I learned about (compression, normalizing). Then I had to record and mix in the music for the intro and outro. Then I had to put it all into one file. Then I had to convert it to the MP3 format (like any songs you download through iTunes and such). Then I had to update the file's "tags" which are things inside the file like Title, Artist, Year, Comments, Track, etc. etc.
Then I uploaded the final file to the file server online, updated the show's settings, updated the show notes, and made it available for the various sites that list podcasts.
Once that was done, I updated our website / blog with the info on the new podcast, and listed the show notes in a post.
Then I went to bed.
Well the good thing is, half of those things ONLY have to happen on the first episode, and can just be mixed in for the rest of the shows, and a few settings updated with the new info. In theory, I won't have to go to bed at 2:00am on the night of a show anymore. :)
So the website is http://www.eaglesfancast.net
And if you know what RSS feeds are and want to subscribe to the shows, the feed is
http://eaglesfancast.libsyn.com/rss
It was fun, and I learned a lot... and there is a LOT of polishing to be done on my end for the post-production work. Plus I have a bunch of things to do on the website as well. I'm tired.
Aug 1, 2007
New project coming...
I'm working on something new, and will reveal it officially in the next week. It's just something that's been an interest of mine for a couple years, and now I'm jumping onto the other side of it after much "observation". A few buddies of mine will be helping me out as well, so that will make it work the way it's supposed to.
In the meantime, I just have to do some more learning, practicing and tweaking to make it come to fruition.
In the meantime, I just have to do some more learning, practicing and tweaking to make it come to fruition.
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