The podcast idea is proceeding apace. I've got a plan for how it's going to proceed. I've been using Sound Forge to do my sound effects for years, so I'm quite taken care of in the recording software department.

Looks like I need the following.

1. A cheap microphone and elbowed arm-thingy, so I can shove the mike out of the way for the other 99% of my life.

2. Some kind of software that'll automate the process of making (and uploading hopefully) that XML file that describes the broadcast.


I've decided that the show's going to be exceedingly short, about seven minutes max. I don't like shows that have little to say and take 60-90 minutes to say it. I've got little to say, but it'll only inconvenience you for a couple of minutes. I know you all worship me and live vicariously through me, but I must limit the amount of me that you can experience, lest you decide that you must slay me and consume my heart, thus taking on my life-force.

JohnHattan vows to no longer read Vardis Fisher novels while drinking.

I'll cover my current day's journal entry in the broadcast, and if I say anything notable in the broadcast I'll add it to the next day's entry. That way people can read the text or listen to the broadcast and not feel like they're missing something by not doing both.

I'll try to keep the opinionated pontificating to a minimum, basically limited to what's already in the text. I'll try to make the remaining 4-5 minutes of the show pure entertainment. If I do opine about something, I'll try to keep it creepily entertaining, like my fear of those cartoon bears on those TV commercials who enjoy wiping their butts or my theory (backed by documentary evidence) that the character of "Dr. Phibes" in the namesake movies is based on the late Anton LaVey of the Church of Satan.



Anyway, nonsense aside. It's time for the practicalities.

Now then, I need a microphone, a mike stand, and a way to make that XML-RSS file (and FTP up to the site as a bonus).

I'm certain Mr. MauMan can help me on the software front.

As for the microphone and stand, it'd be really neat if I had a pal who could help me out in that department. The kind of pal who reads this journal from time to time. And who works for a very large Fort Worth-based electronics retailer and could procure such things at a discount. And who had his lunch purchased by me a couple of weeks ago. And who's about to get a nice "Little Tikes" plastic slide that my daughter's about to outgrow.

Of course, I don't know if I know such a person. Hmmmmmmm.

Ahh the internet. Allowing people to be passive-aggressive electronically since 1985!