STCrowley.com

The Crowley Chronicles: Crowleys in Dresden!
 
header image

Some Thoughts on Podcasting

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Toby Comment (Published for 19 days)

I’ve approached podcasts, until now, entirely as a listener.  And, I suppose, that’s how most people–or, at least, most of us who listen to podcasts–think about them.  (I have to say, I find non-podcast people increasingly difficult to understand.)

I, on the other hand, have so much self-confidence and am so certain that I can do anything I want, that I find it hard to hear a podcast without thinking to myself “You know, I could do that.”

And, before I even get around to trying to start a podcast, I wanted to take this opportunity–and this space–to formalize my thoughts on podcasts as a listener.  Listeners are, after all, the people who decide if a podcast is good. . . or not.

So, let me say I listen to a lot of podcasts that are professionally produced radio shows from NPR or PRI, but balance them with completely amateur productions.  (One that I’ve just recently started enjoying, The Extra Mile, is moderated by a guy who makes his recordings while he jogs and consists just of recordings that listeners make and send in.)  So, we’re not talking only about radio shows here.

Here’s what I think I’ve figured out about what makes a podcast good:

  • A podcaster who knows how to stay in the background.  I still don’t even know the name of the guy who does My History Can Beat Up Your Politics, and love the show.  In contrast, the guy who does Run, Run, Live isn’t able to interview notable personalities without talking about himself.  Guess which of the two podcasts I’m still subscribed to?
  • A healthy dose of personality.  There’s something intimate about having a person’s disembodied voice in your ears, or in your car.  So, while I’m generally not too interested in what’s happening in your life, I want you to let your personality come through.  The History of Rome does a genius job of blending dry, objective history with enough personality to make you welcome his voice back. . . without knowing anything about him at all.
  • A real sense of focus.  I’m a topical podcast listener.  I listen to podcasts because I’m interested in whatever it is that they’re going to tell me.  That’s part of why I want the podcast host to keep him or herself in the background.  And that’s why I’m still angry that the geeks of the Geeks in Running Shoes podcast have quit running for the winter, apparently.  Not because they’ve quit, but because they continue podcasting. . . but inevitably about other things.  I did not invite them into my head to discuss their personal lives, and I think it’s rude of them to do it.  (The guys from The Sporkful are also guilty of ranting off-topic.)
  • A sense of what they know. . . and what they don’t.  I don’t have the ‘negative examples’ that seem to pepper the other items for this, because, so far, I’ve been lucky.  I really enjoy, though, when people say “I suppose” or “I don’t know, but I think. . .”  Because I’d rather have a BS answer that’s clearly recognizable as one than a BS ‘fact.’  Tom and Ray of CarTalk are great for this.  ”We don’t know anything about this, but that won’t stop us from giving an answer. . .”
  • A sense of fun, a positive feeling.  I’m only adding this because I still listen to Common Sense with Dan Carlin. . . but get frustrated at the feeling of pessimism that pervades the show.  After most episodes–unless I listen while jogging, because that burns stress faster than the show produces it–my personal level of stress is higher than at the beginning of the show.  Really exemplary in this category are CarTalk and The Sporkful.  I’d love for any podcast I do to have as much fun as theirs do.

So, as I think about starting a podcast–and I have a number of ideas–I at least seem to have a recipe for what would make me the perfect podcast.  Does anyone have any factors to add?  Have I forgotten or overrated anything?

This entry was posted in writing. Bookmark the permalink.

My 2012 Goals!

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 27 days)

I’m a recent convert to New Year’s Resolutions. . . and have been known to make resolutions in the middle of the year, as well.  Further, I think it’s ridiculous to say “I’m going to start that in the New Year and not to at least begin prepping in the current one.  I mean, if you can’t motivate yourself now, what makes you think that changing a calendar page will make it easier?

Still, I believe in goals, and I believe in accountability.  So, I thought that this year I’d make my goals public and ask you to feel free to periodically ask me “Hey, how are you doing with your creative projects?”

Professional Goals
Believe it or not, I’m only close to perfect as a teacher, and I’d like to be even closer by the close of this year.  Something I’ve started doing and want to expand on is using hand-outs to give students a sense of structure in my ‘so, let’s chat’ style lessons.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll find something else.  The over-arching goal is this: to leave students with the concrete feeling that their English is improving.  Because, apparently, it’s not enough if I’m the only one to recognize it.

Personal Goals
There are tons of things that I could put here.  But, well, I think I’m going to limit myself to a few goals and focus on reaching them, rather than dreaming of a lot of different goals.  So, in 2012 I will. . .

  • Make a more sincere effort to build up my own ‘network’ here in Dresden, rather than (or in addition to) always bitching about things here.
  • Complete three creative projects.  Sure, I could have said one, but I don’t think that’d inspire me to really get going.  So, I’m committing myself to getting three projects to a ‘mature’ state.  These could include: making a start on the piano, writing the kids’ book I have inside of me, getting the podcast ideas I have recorded and tested out, or something else altogether.

Fitness Goals
There was a time–and that time was, maybe, six months ago–when I would have never even considered a fitness goal beyond not gaining weight.  But, I’ve really started to enjoy running and thinking of myself as a ‘runner.’  So, it wasn’t hard for me to come up with some fitness goals for this year:

  • Make a respectable start in ‘core fitness’ (Sparticus Workout? P90X?  Something else?)
  • Run a full marathon.  A full, stinking marathon.
  • Keep my weekly running mileage above 42.195km/week (that’s a marathon a week, if you were wondering about the decimal point there)
  • Make a foray–perhaps even ‘tiptoe’–into the realm of barefoot running.  Baby steps!
  • Run injury free in 2012!  This is the most important goal of all of them, for obvious reasons.  But, yeah, lots of runners get hurt and I never have.  I want to keep this streak unbroken.  Wish me luck!
I guess you can see that I’ve made the most progress now on my fitness goals. . . that’s what made it easy to think of so many ‘where could I go from here’ goals for next year.
Whatever happens, I hope that the goals I make for 2013 will reflect me growing.  Wish me luck!
This entry was posted in Life and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

What I Learned Doing NaNoWriMo

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 55 days)

That’s what ‘almost finished’ looks like.  Its a lot like ‘didn’t finish.’  And, to be honest, I’m okay with that.  Dont get me wrong, I’m not so mature about my loss that I don’t want you to see the week or so in the beginning where I was sick and overworked and didn’t write at all.  I’m super-proud of two things there: first, that I didn’t quit like I really wanted to and, second, of the come-back that I made.

To be honest, I probably could have completed the challenge, but I didn’t make many sacrifices for it.  After all, I feel like my family sacrifices time with me (if they see it as a sacrifice or a break is another question) often enough, and I want to see them again.

But, I wrote.  A lot.  More, I think, than I’ve ever written in the same time span.  And, with that, came a few lessons for me:

Writing About Anything Helps Me Think About It.  Back when I had free time, or, when I prioritized my free time differently, I was a huge fan of journaling.  I really think that everybody should write a page per day about whatever they feel like: it’s therapeutic for me, and it helps you focus.  For me, writing about something helps me to think about it: my thoughts are most clear in written form.

I went ahead and applied that to my NaNoWriMo Project.  Every day I’d begin by formatting the text a little differently and simply writing a paragraph about whatever was currently blocking my thoughts–just get it out, and then focus on what’s important–and then I’d free write my reactions to what I’d written the day before and my goals for what I was about to write.

I found that really helped to alleviate writer’s block.  Or, rather, it helped me to avoid it all together.  I knew what I was trying to do with that segment, I knew where I was going.  I wrote.

Accepting Imperfection Makes Progress Possible.  This is one of those lessons that, I think, can easily be applied to other things, from running to cooking and parenting.  Basically, knowing that I was going to try and improve on what I was doing, but that I had to first get a rough draft out.  So, accepting that it doesn’t have to be perfect made it possible for me to do it at all.  I don’t know how many of the footnotes that I put into the text say things like “Really?  This is the best I can come up with here?  Let’s hope that it gets better with the rewrite.”

For Once, It’s Okay To Be Verbose.  Yeah, my NaNo Project File includes all of what I called my ‘meta-writing,’ the writing I did about my writing.  It included the footnotes in which I just told myself I was an idiot.  And all of that counted towards my total word-count.

It was very liberating, not just because it made getting to my daily word count goal easier, but because it was something to do with my writing time when I knew that I wasn’t making progress.  I’d just do a bit about about a character and I learned a lot about my characters doing that.

All in all, I think I made a great start on a good writing project, even if I didn’t finish the way I’d like to.

What I Want To Do Different Next Year:  Basically, I wish I’d spent more time on the planning beforehand.  It’s not a natural strength of mine, but it’s what really made the attempt possible: knowing in advance who the people were in the action, having an idea of what direction things were going in.

I don’t think it’d be a good idea to lock yourself into a pre-written synopsis of the plot from the get-go.  But, I did know my conflict and who the bad guys were.  What made the biggest different was the character profiles I’d prepared in advance.  They made character reactions a bit easier to write and, I think, will be the backbone of the finished project.

Look for more on the project, soon.  It is, after all, ongoing!

 

 

This entry was posted in Life, writing and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

On The Road Again!

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 71 days)


From 2011-11-04


That’s not a photo from today, though it’d be cool if it were.  That’s from the half marathon.  I did wind up paying an exorbitant price to download the image.  But, hey, I look so good there!  And I’m about to set a personal record in that photo!  (Not so difficult, considering what my PR on a half marathon was before that run.)

Today’s big news was this: I got back onto the road!  I’ve been benched by my coach. . . who is also my wife and said I had to wait until the family stopped having a cold before I could go and start pushing myself running again.  The funny thing is this: when I started running, I’d have rejoiced in an excuse not to run.  Benched, I realized how much I enjoyed it, how much I missed it, and how much I identified myself with it.

So, I spent that time hanging out on the Runner’s World Forums and telling myself just how hard I’d work when I got back onto the pavement.  And today was that day, and it really did feel great.

If I learned anything from the forums, though, it was the value gently pushing yourself (I’d love to train completely injury-free) and so I started today with a 10k run with no pace goals.  Sunday, I’ll try for a longer run at a slow pace.  Maybe next week I’ll look into re-starting the training runs I’d set up for myself.

Now, though, I’ve got to focus on catching up with my NaNoWriMo Project.  I’m about eight thousand words behind.

This entry was posted in Life and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Writing in the Pediatric Ward

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 79 days)

I’m not really in a pediatric ward.  Nobody’s in the hospital.  But, yeah, we all got sick and, wow, has that killed our time.

If you’re really following the site, you may have noticed that I got all fancy with a status bar for my NaNoWriMo writing and then only updated it once.  I had time on the weekend, but spent it playing xbox with Joel and Bishop (Yup, time with friends should always be more important.  At least, until I get the chance to play all the time.)  And then, we got sick.

Christine has had ear problems, and a fever.  The kids have had coughs that would make you think that we’d been forcing them to smoke since they were born.  (All the smoking our kids have done has been voluntary, I promise)  And, yeah, I’ve been going to work.

So, I had to make a decision today (well, I decided yesterday) that I’m going to finish NaNoWriMo the best I can.  I’m behind, but I want this story written, anyway, and, hey, we’ll see if I can’t make up the lost time.

The bigger problem is this: I can’t chase the feeling that what I’m writing is crap.  Let’s just hope that revision can be as powerful as it is going to need to be.

This entry was posted in Life and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

NaNoWriMo One: I’m a faster runner than I knew

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 86 days)

It’s day two of NaNoWriMo.  (That’s national novel writing month, I’m not going to say it again.)  And this is just a fast update, so that my stalkers know how I’m fairing under the pressure.

I suppose it was inevitable that the first two days of the month would have also been my busiest two days of the week.  So, yeah, I’m just under my target word count for today, but I think I’ll be able to make it up and have a buffer before next week gets crazy.

Before I get into my NaNoWriMo dreams, there’s something I have to connect it to: this idea I’ve had for a while, this urge to start writing a self-help book titled something like ‘Everything’s the Same, Just Different’ in which I’d say that it’s important to take everything you’ve learned in one area of your life and apply it in another.  Take, for example, running and writing.

Today I made time for my first run since the half-marathon.  It felt great and I’ve recently been able to really start thinking of myself as a runner.  What’s more, I’m a faster runner than I knew.  In the race, I realized that I was running at a ‘Fast Jog’ as measured by my GPS watch much longer than I ever did in my training.  Chalk that up to the atmosphere and the social setting. . . blah, blah.

In today’s run, I figured I’d start with a shorter run (6km) and wondered if I could do it all at the ‘fast jog’ pace.  The result: not quite the whole six kilometers.  From time to time, I let myself slide some, but the vast majority of the run I had no problem.  And I felt great for it.  Before the marathon, the furthest I’d pushed myself to run that fast was three kilometers.  So, I set a sort of training record.

Let’s bring this back to NaNoWriMo: it’s hard.  I’d really forgotten how hard writing is and I’m starting with the equivalent of a marathon.  But, the very marathon-ness of it has me working harder than I even thought I could and I’m really hoping to come out of the experience with (very) rough draft and a few insights into the ways that I right.  If finishing a writing project is running a marathon, then daily writing is as important as weekly mileage, right?

I’m looking forward to this.  (Just so you know: my wordcount to date is 2840 of 50,000.  My goal for today should be 3334.)

This entry was posted in Life, writing and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

The Family in Fall!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Toby Comment (Published for 88 days)

Originally, I was thinking of this as a ‘look at how cool my kids are’ photo post–and they are cool–but, I figured I wasn’t going to be making any photos posts soon, so why not just include everyone?

The album is available online here.  It includes a bunch of photos that haven’t been sorted or captioned.  I’m wondering if I should caption the photos. . . and they seem to be the best ones I have, and maybe I’ll be grateful years from now.

Any thoughts?

Also, check out how cool my kids are!

This entry was posted in Life, Living with Children. Bookmark the permalink.