Author: John Bollwitt

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Remembering veterans on both sides

I’ve always grown up with Memorial Day[wiki] being the one day of the year where we take a moment to remember those who have fallen in various conflicts. Believe it or not, it was marching band in high school that taught me the impact of observing that day. It wasn’t the marching in the parade we had to do. It was the one football game where a handful of us started playing Taps when our team was blowing out the opposition in the second half of the game. A stupid thing to do, but we were young. That didn’t stop Mr. Russel from, politely, chewing a few of us out. Thankfully I got this information second hand.

Here in B.C., November 11th isn’t just a bank holiday. The mail still doesn’t arrive, much like Veterans Day[wiki] in the states. However, there is heart felt observance of what is called Remembrance Day[wiki] here. Most of the province gets the day off work, and there are numerous events that take notice for those who this day is reserved for.

Other than the standards I already mentioned, there isn’t much more that observes veterans from conflicts past in the states. I think that’s why I find the observance here somewhat intriguing. That’s not to say that the political debate doesn’t get in the way of everything, and trying to do something to this extent would get the stiff arm in today’s contentious climate for the U.S., at least on a national scale.

I know I’m late to the post here, but Rebecca has been so busy lately that we just did our best to enjoy her down time over the weekend. I will say that I have a lot of veterans of various conflicts in my family. My grandfather, uncle, great uncle, cousins, and even my brother, and some of them are still active(two extended family members caught up in Iraq right now). You always remember.

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RadioZoom Episode #118 – Interview with Jim Ward of Sparta at Richards on Richards

I realize that I never blogged about this night, but listen to episode #118 and you’ll get exactly what I thought about this show. This was also a great test of Levelator, and the entire episode was edited together using Ubercaster.

Another adventure with the podcasting project, RadioZoom gets the opportunity to hang out with Jim Ward, front man for the band Sparta, during their one night visit on their current tour. Richards on Richards was the venue for this evening, and both Rebecca and I had a really great time.

We discuss a variety of topics, ranging from what life on the road is like, the making of the latest album, Jim’s prior experiences with Vancouver, a little bit of politics, and we discover a little more of what life is like in Jim’s hometown of El Paso, Texas. (Note: explicit language)

It was an amazing opportunity for the interview, and the performance that night was nothing short of being absolutely stellar. We take a moment back in “the studio” to reflect on the overall experience and review what we saw on stage that night.

59:48 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Comes with very little surprise

In my head, I think Tom Vilsack[wiki] should have been the VP nominee in the last election to John Edwards. I knew it was over for the Democrats when Kerry got the nod, and let it be the last time that happens.

Iowa Democrat jumps in presidential race

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa jumped into the 2008 U.S. presidential race on Thursday, saying voters want a new direction for the country “and that’s what I intend to do as president.”

Vilsack, a two-term governor who is leaving office this year to concentrate on his White House bid, stressed his moderate record and a bipartisan approach on education, economic development and health care as governor of Iowa.

“Americans sent a clear message on Tuesday. They want leaders who will take this country in a new direction,” Vilsack said. “They want leaders who share their values, understand their needs and respect their intelligence.

"That's what I've done as governor of Iowa, and that's what I intend to do as president," he said." [reuters]

Another surprise is that Iowa will remain under Democratic control with Chet Culver[wiki] becoming the 41st governor of the state. Additionally, this is only the second time in the history of the state that there has been members of the Democratic party elected back to back for the office of governor. I would have thought Nussle[wiki] would win on name recognition alone, but maybe Chet's good looks accounted for something more at the polls.

Something about that name gets to me. Governor Culver? No. I don't think so. It's "Governor Chet" all the way. With a title like that, he can be everyone's buddy!

Political leanings of the state tend to vary with every election, and I would go as far to say that it really depends on the area and voter turn out. Last presidental election went to the Republicans, and 2000 saw the Democrats get the majority of the state to vote for them. It's always difficult to say what the feeling is year to year. It's not as clear cut as one would imagine.

Regardless, the world needs more people from Iowa running things. That's my initial thought. Do I think Vilsack is up to the task? I'd like to think so, but he has a lot to prove until the first primaries. A lot of people wanted him to be somewhere in the last election, so he has that going for him.

Update: An article in the Des Moines Register points out that Vilsack has his own MySpace page. I don't know if it's legit, but this might be a prelude of what to expect from the '08 election march.

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Here comes more YouTubes

Seth Godin pointed out that there might be more than one YouTubes in the world, especially after NBC Universal launched their own form of video sharing. Instead of it being user generated content, this stuff is actually coming from the corporate folks themselves.

DotComedy is full of various clips of NBC programming, but I believe there are clips from other networks as well. For the most part, it operates a lot like YouTube. There is an embed function that is not working yet, and the “coming soon” doesn’t give much of a time line for when that will be operational. Still, it creates some competition for fans of YouTube, as long as the content is fresh.

Just looking around the site on my first time through, a Late Night with Conan O’Brian clip of “Satellite TV”, and this Double Dragon short was highly enlightening. Lord knows I wasted time on that game in my youth.

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Tips of the podcasting tricks

I’ve been a long time reader of PodcastingTricks.com, and the site is very resourceful for those looking for ways to get into podcasting. At the same time, there are folks, such as myself, who like to stay up to date with other things going on in the medium. Trust me, you are never a true professional, no matter how much you’ve seen and done. If you are not constantly learning and trying new things, especially in podcasting, then you are bound to have a rude awakening at some point.

Everyone has tips for doing things, and podcasting has about a million of them. PodcastingTricks.com just posted “Seven Steps to Successful Podcasting” that, for the most part, are very useful to anyone new to all of this. You can check it out for yourself, but the part I want to highlight is step number seven.

7) The only piece of gear advice in this post – get a great microphone. I know some of you were hoping this was an article describing the seven pieces of gear you need to buy in order to be successful at podcasting. If only that it were just a question of gear. Unfortunately, just as buying the same golf clubs used by Tiger Woods won’t help you shoot under par, using the same gear as Howard Stern won’t make you a star. But there is one piece of gear that can make or break a podcast, and that’s the mic. There’s no undo button for the microphone. It’s the most important part in your audio chain. If the sound coming into your computer is bad from the start, you’re swimming upstream the rest of the show. That’s why this is the place to spend the lion’s share of your budget. Buy the best mic you can afford first. Then everything else can follow over time. If you’re miserly here, you’ll regret it later. [podcastingtricks]

To all newbie podcasters, tread lightly on this point. I have heard so many people in podcasting say that if you are going to do this, then go buy the most expensive mic that you can. Based on my experience of buying equipment for radio stations, price does not account for quality products. Let me say that again. Expensive does not mean that you are buying a great microphone.

There is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo that can make your head spin when you get into the gritty details of how a microphone is engineered. Omni-directional versus uni-directional, and so on. If you are uncomfortable with all of that and don’t know where to start, think about it on a consumer level.

Where ever you buy something from, find out their return policy. Can you buy it, try it out, and then get a refund if you don’t like it? Worst comes to worst, you can always try to sell it on eBay or Craigslist. However, getting your money back might make you feel a little less like you’re going all in on an unsure hand.

There are a lot of things that you can do to aid in your disadvantage of not having great equipment. If you are big on post-production, meaning editing your audio after recording it, learn the software that is available to you. Applying filters and effects can change the quality of your audio dramatically. You might not be able to get it broadcast booth quality, but in podcasting, does that really matter? Just get it to where it sounds good to you.

Mixers can also do a lot for a mic. Adjusting the gain and messing with the EQ’s can make the cheapest microphones sound just as good as, if not better than, the most expensive stuff. Additionally, mixers can also do a lot for your space, reducing background noise and room echoes. Think about that before you start stapling egg crate foam to your walls.

The point is, be careful, do your homework, and see what other people are doing. Chances are, if you email a podcaster about their setup, they’re going to get back to you. At the same time, get started on your own project, with a bare bones setup, and just get used to it. No one is perfect out of the gate.

When it comes to equipment, you want to make sure that this is something you want to stick with over the long term. Think about that before anything else. If you lose focus and stop doing this after your third episode, you’ll have a $600 mic sitting around and a story you’ll share from time to time of, “Yeah, I had a podcast once.”

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So long, Mr. Rumsfeld

Even though it’s made up and satirical, The Onion barely misses the mark with what they do. Sometimes the headline is the best part, but this article is well worth it. At least I know I had a good laugh.

The Onion

Rumsfeld: ‘My Half-Assed Job Here Is Done’

WASHINGTON, DC—After nearly six years of much-publicized service as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld announced his resignation…

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The Crazy Canucks #6 – Hanging in there

This one was a doozy. Problems during the recording almost lost the whole thing. Putting together everything that remained wasn’t the easiest thing. I stuck with it and got episode #6 published this morning.

This episode had a lot of bumps to work through before it was published, and this might be a good comparison to what the Canucks are going through right now. Unlike the Canucks, everyone was here for this one. That couldn’t stop a few problems from creeping up, but, much like the Canucks, we worked our way towards a stellar finish.

Record as of this podcast: 8-7-1 (2nd in the Northwest Division)

There were a variety things to cover, including the two losses against Minnesota and Colorado, a hard fought win in Dallas, injuries and changes to the defence, and we can’t seem to keep away from the goalie debate. There’s a lot here, so listen in to check out the latest brouhaha that The Crazy Canucks has to offer.

Also, be sure to check out the recently redesigned Canucks.com website. Looking good, guys!

The Crazy Canucks

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Get rich through voting

I’m not talking about getting rich by intellectual leaps and bounds either. This comes from a CNN article about various items that people were on the ballots across the U.S.

Voters weren’t keen about another, more quirky Arizona measure: They defeated a proposal that would have awarded $1 million to a randomly selected voter in each general election. [cnn]

That’s the one item that gets me the most. How sad is it that you have to lure people out to vote by dangling a crap load of cash in front of them? Forget paying attention to the issues because you can be sure as hell that anyone will run to the voting booth to fill in the dot, check the box, complete the arrow, punch the card, hit the button on the touch screen, do the hokey pokey, or however the hell you actually vote in your state, just so they can say that they were close to being a millionaire in the last election.

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The deer that couldn’t

While making their way to visit some of our family in Kansas City, MO nearly a week ago, my parents did not plan on making an unexpected stop in southern Iowa, almost near the Missouri border. My mom says she had no idea what was going on and didn’t see a thing. She must have been looking down or not paying attention to the road from the passenger seat.

Dad said that it all happened in a matter of seconds. From the pictures, you can see that the weather was near perfect. This time of year, you never know if it might snow or if you should put on your shorts and enjoy a nice dose of indian summer. My dad always has his camera with him, so as soon as the initial rush of everything subsided, he snapped a series of pictures that I’m posting here. You can see all the photos in this Flickr set.

One thing you can bank on is that it’s mating season for deer. Night time driving is far more concerning, always looking out for those eyes reflecting your headlights as it bounds towards the highway. That sounds stupid, but it’s no different than knowing that, in the lower mainland, when you see a bear cub, move away as quick as possible because the mother bear is near by.

Apparently, the growth on the side of the interstate shielded this buck from my dad’s vision. When you’re traveling 65 MPH, nearly 100 KPH for those keeping score in metric, there’s not much room to react when a buck leaps out of nowhere and decides that it’s crossing the highway, no matter what’s barreling down at it.

Both of my parents walked away from it with relatively little injury. Dad said that the strangest thing was the air bags going off. Both got some soreness from those things inflating, but no medical attention was needed. Dad was able to keep the car under relative control when the impact happened, but any further across the median would have put them into oncoming traffic.

The final outcome? The deer is dead, the car is basically totaled, and my parents are alive and well. The red station wagon will no longer be a family staple. I drove it a lot during my high school days, often being made fun of for driving “the grocery getter” around town. Of course, the situation could be much worse, but now my folks have the headache of finding a replacement. I think it’s causing them more pain to do that than the actual accident itself.

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Use new media for action, not just voice

I’m taking a cue from Adam Curry, and you can bet that he’s not the first person to be saying this. It’s just something that I heard recently on his podcast, and the sentiment is echoed in an article posted on MacNewsWorld recently.

Kenton Ngo is a policy wonk. He dissects election data using mapping software and reads transportation bills. He hosts a video podcast on his blog, one that draws as many as 2,000 readers a week.

Ngo is recognized at political rallies and has joined conference calls with Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, but he has never voted in a primary or general election. He has never paid property taxes. He is not registered for Selective Service.

Ngo is 15 years old, has a driver’s permit and braces, and is a member of the West Springfield High School debate team in Northern Virginia. [macnewsworld]

Blogs and podcasts are the new way for disseminating your thoughts and opinions about politics. I am all for that. Speak you mind, shout for the truth, and encourage people to bind together in an effort to change things.

I’m kind of sick of it. The reason being, nothing has really changed. We write away on the web only to see not much for results. This kid in Virginia has a great thing going, but there has to be more.

The methods are there. We have all sorts of ways to send out messages to the masses, so why not use it to actually do something? Less talking, more action, so to say. Use these technologies to make a run for public office. This is what I would like to see.

I admit to being a hypocrite with my own post here, but the idea is something I’m a fan of. I’m also far from being a good candidate for the effort. However, I’m all about new media and helping out.