March 7, 2005
Podcasting and Easter Eggs
I am slowing discovering the emerging world of podcasting. If you haven't figured it out or haven't even heard about it, you must. It's such a totally cool new way to listen to the world. Our company just moved to a new building in the other part of Palo Alto (the 94304 zip code part of Palo Alto, "West" Palo Alto, that is), and the radio reception is no better there than it was in the other building. So I've been looking for alternative audio to occupy my time at work. Though I just shouted my praise for my iPod and the thousands of songs at my fingertips from the tops of this blog recently, I am loving the whole concept of podcasting and what the world is providing us. It totally reminds me of wanting to be a DJ and producing my own radio shows. Don't worry, though, I'm not about to take this on for myself; although it's totally tempting. If I do, I'll just start another blog. When my father first showed me how to record my 45s on to cassette tapes, I was hooked into audio recording and have wanted to explore it in depth ever since. I love the whole idea.
To take this topic a little further, I was doing some pre-spring cleaning this weekend, and I found a mess of old cassette tapes that I had made during my stint in the navy. This is a completely different cache from what I found in my tacky old storage unit a while ago, a cache that included a bunch of tapes that I made for other people, complete with my own verbal commentary about the songs I played or the state of the world at that time. As with the CDs I make today, I liked them so much, I copied them for myself so I could enjoy them, too. How fucking narcissistic already. Whatever, I love them, and they still crack me up.
I woke up on Sunday morning and listened to a tape that I made of myself, my former roommate Steven, and our dear friend Olah. We were all teenagers, 18 and 19, in the navy and just killing time. (In a total digression, these were the same two to which I first came out as a homo. It was a Friday night, we were in the "billiard room" of the detachment barracks, and they said they had a question to ask me. I remember turning bright red, knowing exactly what they wanted to ask, and somehow managed to crawl under the pool table, in my working whites and everything, before they asked their question, to say the words "I am gay" out loud to them. I started laughing so hard after that. I guess, though I knew what they were going to ask, since I had never said this even to myself, it was a scary deal for me. I'll never forget that. Thanks!) I listen to this tape now and wonder if I've made any progress whatsoever in maturing and becoming an adult. I still have some of the same reactions to people, and I can recognize some of the same insecurities. Do we ever really grow up fully? Anyway, this tape sparked or rekindled my interest in audioblogs, as we can call them today.
I mean, it's not like I haven't been doing this already. For the last ten years, at least, I've had a hand-held tape recorder with its simple, built-in microphone available to record any thought or rant whenever I wanted or needed to record it. The first time I did this, I was driving across the country in my Golf, back to my hometown, for a three-week vacation (that was about two weeks too long, I might add, but which is clearly irrelevant here). On the two-and-a-half day trip, I talked almost incessantly into this tape recorder. I recently transferred the cassette audio to a digital format so I could preserve the recording. I listen to this, too, and just have a ball laughing at myself. I talk about anything into this recorder, and on my frequent road trips around our lovely reddish-pink state, the recording is often the official transcript of the journey.
That's enough of that.
Now for something completely different:
’Tis the season for Easter candy, the best time of the year for candy. What? What do you mean, Easter? Sure Halloween is when all of the candy comes out by the ton, but nowadays we can get the bite-sized Snickers and Butterfingers any time, any where. It's only during Easter that I can find those specialty items like the decadent, 100% pure sugar Cadbury eggs, Hershey's peanut butter eggs, Peeps, giant chocolate rabbits, and those malted milk eggs with the color coating that rubs off on your face and lips if you're not careful, or if you're being creative, as illustrated by another very dear navy friend of mine.
I love Easter candy. And I love Easter eggs. In fact, this year I might just go ahead and make some Easter eggs for myself.
