2005 February

Last night I had a blast with Jake and Chris working the phones on THE CHRIS PIRILLO SHOW  - who would have “thunk” it. Me answering the phones (er - phone) on a “something like radio for the internet” show. I still like to call it “Better than Radio” because  - well.. it is. Let's go over the reasons why…

1.) You choose who to listen to.

2.) You choose when to listen to them.

3.)You take it with you so you can listen to it where ever you want.

4.) You can choose to fast forward any commericials - although I haven't heard any full on commercials on any podcasts I've listened to. (I think some of the ad execs are getting that we don't want to hear 2.2 minutes of them glorifying a product/business)

5.) It's more fun when it's not “too” produced.

You may say - what? Radio offers those things. In my opinion it doesn't - at least not the way I listen to radio.

1.) I can choose who to listen to but- that's tied ultimately to when I  listen to the radio (usually only when I'm in the car -so I usually don't get to pick who because of when)

2.) Hmmm again - with radio I usually don't get to choose when to listen to who I like because it's contingent on “car time” - which ends up usually being morning rush or evening rush (other than that I usually get to where I need to go in 10 minutes or so). Radio stations know that and they ultimately pick who you listen to because of the when (statistically morning and evening rush).

3.) Yeah - I take it with me. Personally I do like an FM tuner built into my mp3 player/ device. (This is one reason I don't have an IPOD - I heard it has an extra piece for the tuner — hmm I think they've fixed that now though… I should look that up before writing about it - but I'm not.)

4.) I just hate it when I get into the car for a short trip to the market and all I hear is stupid commercials. UGH! Not one freakin song in my  7 minute ride to Safeway… that is a problem.

5.) Is it just me,  it's not as funny when you hear the jokes on the radio if you know they have been fighting for weeks about what they can or can't say. Come on people - we are human -let some of that be. If you have kids don't listen to grown -up morning shows with them in the car if you're going to get mad at the adult talk. Or, give them an MP3 player of their own with “KID STUFF” to listen to and quit barking about a DJ saying “shit” on the radio.

Anyway - just thought I'd share my two cents. Even though I'm not a geek I too like technology and I have my own ideas as to what is good and what is crap  oops… shit. (lol, just had to.) 

Last night, I could see for the first time why podcasting (ugh the name still irks me) is trully “Better than Radio”

It was cool to hear Steve Gillmor's thoughts on what's current and Sean Alexanders view on what's up in their neck of the woods at MS. I can't say I wholly know these guys or why geeks love 'em but I'm slowly learning.

I also had  fun with the Gnomie's in the chatroom being silly and looking at pics of Tom's  youngest  blogging at 5 weeks old! Hee Hee Hee  What a cutie pie!

Next week should be even more fun! Hopefully we'll have most of the bugs fixed by then. And, I'll be able to better articulate why I am listening to podcasts.

Are your people trained? My two puppies Wicket and Pixie are forcing us to get people trained. I found a clicker training expert… now hopefully no more dogs taking us for a walk, no more Chris looking at me and saying “SIT, WAIT, DOWN…” in his sleep. lol - I'll keep ya'll posted on how that goes.

Here's the trainers website:

www.lupadog.com

Has anyone in the Seattle Area met Emily or acquired her services? Have any of you clicker trained your dogs? How did that work for you - if so?

I went from a blond to brunette (blue black) - it's so cool to see how people react when you decide to change your hair. I love it. It's black with blue streaks… why you ask… just because I wanted to. Who knows what it will be like next month. One of the great things about being of interacial heritage is the chameleon like qualities one acquires from such a loving union.

Angel hair with a bolognese sauce that includes roasted garlic and sweet mayan onion… mmmm.