The Anti-Rant Podcast is Live

http://antirant.libsyn.com/

Yeah, I actually did it. You thought I was full of it, didn't you? Well, I have an honest-to-goodness podcast now. I actually have a good deal of stuff previously recorded that will gradually migrate there, but for now there is some new content to listen to there. You can either listen directly on the Anti-Rant blog thing, download the mp3s, or use the RSS feed to subscribe with your favorite podcast aggregate app.

The podcast is not listed yet on iTunes because my destestation of Apple is both passionate and undying. However, I know it'll get more exposure there so I'll try to get it in their directory eventually.

If you're wondering at all why I am doing this, the short answer is that I want more practice speaking and reading aloud so I can hopefully become a better orator. My writing skills are decent enough at this point, and when I do write I generally want to work on fiction. Anything more tied to real life tends to either be condensed into a tweet or morphed into a spoken piece of this podcast.

I could see continuing to write here for certain things, but for the most part I think we can call this the end of an era, and joyously the start of a new one. If anyone is genuinely disappointed to see me writing less here, I'm sorry to disappoint but I hope you'll at least give my other endeavors a try. (I say endeavors plural because there's still a novel I'm working on, plus that one other thing that's still too far from completion to hype at this point)

That's it. I don't know when I'll have more updates here, but just in case, I'd better go out with one more well-wishing sign-off. Peace and love, dear readers. I hope you'll become listeners as well.

Another one of these rants

For whatever reason, I felt like rambling about the terrible situation in the town of Ferguson, the poor young man who was shot and the whirlwind of drama surrounding the event. I threw this together and made a token attempt to edit some of the noise out. My points are a bit meandering, and it's not very funny, but here you go.

This is not a reflection of what the actual podcast will be like, it's just something I did for fun. The actual podcast will be of higher production quality and better arranged.

(If you're unable to play the audio from the widget above, follow this link instead: https://soundcloud.com/fourthirteen/82714-ferguson-rant)

Non-Update Update

Not much to say here, but I feel a little bad that I don't have something new and exciting to surprise you with yet, so I'm going to spoil the surprise and just say what's up.

I actually have been working on the podcast I first mentioned months ago, but I'm kind of bad at making time for things like this. If this were the kind of podcast that is recorded in one sitting and quickly thrown up on the web, I'd have it for you already, but I intended to put some kind of production value into the pilot episode, and would want the same to be true of later episodes if there are any. If this becomes more of a regular thing, I might produce a few mini-episodes in between just to keep to some kind of update schedule. These would likely be on topics I'd normally put in blog posts.

This would probably mean even fewer blog posts written here, but I want more practice with a different medium, and as much as I enjoy spending a few hours trying to write an interesting post here, I have to admit that rambling like a fool into a microphone can be more fun, and will usually take less time.

Plus, let's be honest, not many people read this stuff. With the cast, I'd potentially be introducing a new audience to my nonsense. Even if that just means more people getting to hear how stupid my voice sounds, I want to give it a shot.

So, look forward to that soon. Whenever I finish editing the audio and recording the couple of unscripted segments I have left, I'll let you know. I referred to the forthcoming Episode One as a pilot because I intend to release it on its own on Soundcloud, then share that around on social media a bit. Depending on the temperature of the response I get, and depending how I feel after having a finished product to look at, I'll consider pulling the trigger on dedicated syndication and producing (somewhat) regular episodes.

Oh, and holy crap, where did the summer go all of a sudden?

Okay, that's all. Peace and love, you crazy kids.

Some updates

Just a few things regarding me, and things I may or may not make for the Internet.

Real Life^TM

I can report that work hasn't killed me yet, and I still kind of enjoy it most of the time.

I've saved up enough money to completely pay off my remaining student loan balance from one of the two services I've used, and possibly close out one of the loan groups from the other one. The larger of the two providers shows a balance that is still largely unchanged, but the point is I'll be able to whittle my sizable debt down to just one manageable monthly payment, rather than having it spread across three.

Speaking of that, I'm not sure why the larger one wants me to pay one of the loans on a different day of the month. I assume they're trying to make it harder for me to keep track of the due dates and stay current on my payments, because they're a miserable band of sadistic psychopaths who derive a sick pleasure from human suffering.

Anyway, once I've reigned in that loan debt a bit, the next step is to look at apartments in the city. I'm not too picky; a studio is fine if it's got heat in the winter and Internet access year round. Living within walking distance of my workplace would be ideal, and is probably one of the biggest deciding factors at this point. Why? Because hell is a 45 minute commute on a busy highway where people will spontaneously crash their vehicles and create massive delays simply because their level of driving skill has not adequately prepared them to be able to drive safely when it's fucking sunny out and there's not one cloud in the god damn sky.

Gun to my head, I might be willing to take a bus to work. And given I'm talking about living in downtown Albany, I can only assume there will in fact be a gun to my head at some point. It's a shame because I don't really carry cash on me anymore, and I have an old phone that isn't worth anything. It's just a waste of time for them, really.

This might be a podcast:

Being pretty busy at work and easily distracted in my free time, I haven't made much progress on the podcast I promised a little while ago. However, I have written up most of my monologue for the first (possibly only) episode, having changed the topic at least once. I've downloaded some software to facilitate discussions over Skype/Tinychat/whatever if need be. At this point I just need to record the monologue, get a few people with less obnoxious voices than mine to sit down for the discussion portion, write up and record a final segment, and edit it all together.

So basically, just 90% of the actual work remains to be done. I'm obviously not foolish enough to offer you a projected release date at this time, but I think I can say with some reasonable certainty that this will happen at some point.

Regarding the extended cut I was promising, that may not happen since Soundcloud places limits on their free accounts and I can't really justify paying for a subscription to a service I barely use. I will keep the extended cut on hand, though, and if there happens to be a massive demand for it from my adoring fans, I'll somehow make it work, presumably by selling the tears from my unicorn to get money to hire Bigfoot to maintain a web server for me. These are all things of equal likelihood, after all.

Things to do with Dark Souls:

I've continued to slack off on the Dark Souls challenge thing. I've technically stuck to the parameters of the challenge, and even kept up the daily mini-workouts more than I ever would have expected, but the number of play sessions I've had is embarrassingly low, to the point that even a monthly highlight reel isn't much to talk about, and even when it is, there's just something lost in translation going from the original experience to a written chronicle, and as much as I was enjoying the direction I tried to take it recently, I'm not sure I'm talented enough to consistently find the funny side of Dark Souls lore.

To my mind, the most noteworthy thing that's happened recently on that front involved falling off the catwalks in Blightown and landing on the water wheel, then trying frantically to run on top of the spinning wooden wheel while being shot at with toxin darts and realizing to my great dismay that there was absolutely nowhere safe to land. This would be one of those events that lends itself so much better to a Let's Play video than to written word, because the humor there stems largely from the visual of my grisly wanderer being turned into a hamster on a wheel, and partly from the stream of panicked nonsense that sputtered out of my mouth while trying to extricate myself from the situation.

All this is to say that while I'll keep my personal challenge going in private, I won't keep logging it or doing write-ups here. If time allows, I will see about getting some decent video capture hardware for a real Let's Play. It'll have to be live commentary or not at all. As much as I like my dry wit that comes with revisiting the events, I think there is a lot more comedy gold to be found in my less calm and collected moments.

Also, I have bought Dark Souls II, and by pure luck got a hold of one of the day-one special editions in the bad-ass looking tin case. If I do get the necessary accouterments for a Let's Play, I may skip recording my completion of Dark Souls and go straight to the sequel. We'll see how I feel. I kind of doubt anyone wants to see just the latter part of a game that's been out several years, and I don't really want to start another play-through at this point.

Okay, I guess that's all for tonight. I should really be sleeping now. Peace and love, you crazy kids.

Podcast?

Podcast. This pretty much speaks for itself, because it's a recording of me speaking. Enjoy.