Tvindy

Podcast Update

Just a couple of updates about my podcast endeavor. First, I'm now listed in iTunes. Just do a search for "tvindy" in the iTunes music store. Second, I've set up a separate website for the podcast at tvindytime.com.

Podcast Liftoff

It's finally done! I managed to produce and publish the first episode of my podcast. It's not yet up on iTunes, but you can download it through PodcastPickle.com or PodcastAlley.com. It's very bare bones. There is no intro music or fancy effects. I was just focusing on having the best possible sound quality. I also did no editing. This episode contains the complete uncut Skype interview with Will. All in all, I think I'm off to a pretty good start. Let me know what you think.

Of course, there are still a lot of refinements to be made. My next challenges are coming up with a theme song and a website. Next week I'll be interviewing Jenny and Geoff. Stay tuned.

[Addendum: I've just become aware that there is a serious audio synching issue in the second half of the program which is quite distracting. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to repair at this point, but the first half sounds fine. My apologies to Will for the oversight.]

The Lightweight Podcaster

I'm thrilled to say that my podcasting endeavor has started to make significant headway. Yesterday, following a slew of technical difficulties, I managed to have my first interview. It was with Will of Youngest of One. I'm quite happy with it. Considering that this was my very first attempt at a podcast, I think it went extremely well. Most astonishing to me is that it went slightly over an hour, and I had been afraid it would peter out after the first ten minutes (not because of Will, but rather because of my lack of experience at conducting an interview).

So when will it be released? Actually, I was hoping to put it out today, but even more technical problems have caused a slight delay. It's nothing serious, and since the purpose of my initial podcasting program is to work out the all the bugs before starting a second slightly more professional one, it's no big deal. I'm just a bit surprised at all the obstacles I've encountered so far. Apparently this medium is still in its infancy. Currently I'm shooting for tomorrow evening for the premiere. After that, I'll release one new episode every week.

In other news, I've finally overcome my weight-loss plateau. Strangely, I'm finding that I actually lose weight whenever I go off my diet. I've heard of this happening to others but didn't actually think it would work for me. Apparently when fat intake is overly restricted, the body starts holding onto it and even adding to it. Last week I gave myself a non-diet day in which, instead of consuming 20 grams of fat, I ingested 200. Less than a week later I was down another two pounds. I'm now at 167. When I started dieting in June, I weighed 197. My goal was to reach 165, so I'm just two pounds away. I'm now lighter than I've been in well over a decade, and I'm seven pounds light than I was when I ran a marathon in 2002. I can even see my ribs.

Future Podcaster

I'm really getting into this new podcast phenomenon. And I've reached the point where I now spend far more time each day catching up on podcasts than I do on my daily blog reading. It's just so much easier. I can listen to them as I go about my daily routine. I plug into my iPod whenever I am cooking, eating, cleaning, driving and even bathing, so I go through at least a good three hours of audio every day. I wish everyone on my blogroll would switch over to podcasting.

Now I'm planning on creating my own podcast. It's definitely a lot more daunting than just starting up a blog, so I'll try to ease into it gradually with baby steps. I'll start with a sort of beta podcast to work out the process and develop a technique. This will just be a series of interviews with interesting people. (By the way, if you want to be interviewed, just let me know.) Then I'll eventually switch over to a more professional-sounding podcast with a specific theme. As I said, this will take awhile. So far, all I've done is purchase a good headset.

Sketchpad

While sorting through the contents of old boxes, I came across a very old sketchpad of mine. Carbon dating reveals that it was used when I was twelve. The following are two of the more intriguing images:

Serenity

I made a point of seeing the first showing of "Serenity" yesterday. Amazingly, other than myself and my parents, whom I forced into going, there were only nine other people in attendance. I certainly hope that Muncie, Indiana is not representative of the rest of the country's reception of the film. Not only were there no crowds, but the cinema had chosen that morning to paint a guardrail inside the theatre, and the patrons were advised individually not to touch it.

My expectations were pretty much met. I thought it would be an extremely good movie but not an excellent one, which is the same way I felt about the series, that should never have been canceled. Joss did an amazing job of establishing the context without an overabundance of exposition. Unfortunately, wonderful as it was, the movie just couldn't tell the story as well as a television series. Whedon's storytelling strength lies primarily in character development and continuity, things which require far more time than a two-hour movie can provide. The events of "Serenity" would easily fit into one or even more additional seasons of "Firefly".

WARNING: minor spoilers ahead

The movie completely wraps up the story of River. Actually, a lot of it is just a glorified version of the final "Firefly" episode "Objects in Space". But I liked "Objects in Space" more. And of course, there are other interesting story lines. We learn quite a bit about the reavers (although I still wonder about their day-to-day lives when they're not running around pillaging). Also, one or more main characters die.

I've just read the comics, which weren't all that interesting. Basically they explained that Shepherd and Inara left the crew before the start of the movie. And they revealed something interesting about the hands-of-blue guys without actually revealing the purpose of the blue. I really expected to see Mr. Universe, since Mal seems quite familiar with him in the movie. But no; he just seemed to come out of nowhere.

To summarize: Great movie, bad comics.