What Will You Learn From Ed's Journal?

[Ed]

I'm sick, and feel like crap.  I still put out a podcast, it's less than 2 minutes, it's terrible but it's out there.

[Ed]

7 Days of podcasts have been recorded.  I'm not happy with the quality of any of them, especially when I know that I'm capable of producing content that is much better.  However, better content takes more time and at the moment I don't have a lot of free time.  They're serving their purpose but it isn't content that I'm proud of.

[Cam Adair]

You're 7 episodes closer to the quality you want. Good job dude.

[Ed]

I smashed my phone.

The screen is cracked and only about half an inch at the top shows anything.

As I was heading out, I picked up my phone and spun it in the air.  The plan was to catch it, unfortunately I missed and sent it hurtling towards the ground at an even greater speed.  That wouldn't have been too bad, it has a protective case.  But the protective case can't do much when it's hurled into the one piece of metal in the room.

I tell this story to my girlfriend.  "Why are you grinning about it?"

"Because it's funny"

She wonders why I'm not upset about it.  I'd much rather my phone wasn't broken, but is getting upset about it going to improve my life in any way?  Obviously, if I could go back in time and not break my phone I would do that.  Unfortunately my time machine app was on that phone....

 

In other news, my podcast streak was broken, I didn't get an episode out for day 8.  Rather than give up I made sure that I got back into it on day 9.  I also recorded the day 10 podcast.  It's not quite at the quality I want, but the day 10 recording is a lot closer than all the other ones.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Ed
added direct link to day 10 podcast

[Ed]

Just released day 12 of the 30 days of podcasts.  This one might be a little more controversial than my other episodes.  I don't mind if people disagree with me but I worry that my points and reasoning might not be clear enough.

Regardless of whether people agree, I believe the quality of the podcast is getting better.  It's still a long way from where I want it to be but it's a few tiny steps closer.

[Cam Adair]

By episode 90 you'll be way closer to the quality you want.

[Ed]

Podcast production is going well, yesterday I asked the question: "Am I an Asshole?"  I'm sure the answer would be a resounding yes for some people, while others would think I'm reasonable.

And today I talked a bit more about the hassles I'm having with my phone company (right-click to download)

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Ed
There's an option to add HTML code but it appears that all it does is display that code...

[Ed]

One more day of podcasting done.  Weirdly, I've found it so much easier to do it every day rather than weekly.  Today I talked about my ongoing troubles with my phone company, and why I'm grateful that's one of my biggest problems at the moment.

I've listed all my podcasts at edtrigger.com/30-day-podcasting-challenge-day-01/ They're all available from Libsyn, I haven't put any of the recent ones on Youtube.  In the future I'm considering adding the podcast track to video footage of me riding my bike.  Like this, but better footage. Surely that would be more entertaining than watching someone play video games while they rant.

Had a skype coaching call with Cam this morning and one of his suggestions was to add an intro to the podcast.  The technical side of doing that is incredibly easy, choosing the music/intro that sounds good and suits me will be more of a challenge.

[Ed]

Day 16 Podcast done.  http://edtrigger.com/dont-move-girlfriend-considering-two-things-podcast/

Some of my opinions in this one might anger some people.  Or maybe not, it's really hard to tell what is going to offend people these days.

[Marquess]

Day 16 Podcast done.  http://edtrigger.com/dont-move-girlfriend-considering-two-things-podcast/

Some of my opinions in this one might anger some people.  Or maybe not, it's really hard to tell what is going to offend people these days.

Well, I'm not sure how controversial this is.

[Ed]

It shouldn't be that controversial.

But we live in a time when people talk about micro-aggressions and they're being serious.  So if I say that people under 40 who are in relationships, have serious problems if they have sex less than once a month, I can think of a few groups who would not like hearing that.  Hint: they're not having a lot of sex

[Ed]

Day 17 podcast has been recorded, I'll edit it and post it later today or possibly tomorrow.

 

I've been posting gifs on Twitter in response to my phone company not sending the phone when they originally promised.  Yeah, it's kind of juvenile and there is some risk to myself, but I want to see if I can have an effect on the situation.  The goal is also making it amusing for anyone observing. I don't think my phone company likes me all that much at the moment.  Here's a portion of an email I was sent:

While posting Simpson pics might look cool it really isn't going to speed up the process any quicker for you.

I have doubts about how cool it actually is, but yesterday they were ignoring my email.  Today they responded, and the phone went from being sent on the 21st to "Your order is being prepared for delivery"

Is it possible that this would have happened anyway without my input?  Maybe.  Or did posting Simpsons gifs speed up the process?

I told them I would refrain from posting any more Simpsons gifs, fortunately there are millions of other non-Simpsons gifs   It's not over yet.

 

Ps. I won't post any more Simpsons gifs, but I do have a Futurama one coming up if this goes on long enough.

[WorkInProgress]

lol

[Ed]

My phone company sent me an email today offering $4 off my bill every month, over the 24 month contract, it adds up to $96.  So it appears that shitposting on Twitter got their attention.  I know we're not talking about large sums of money, but I believe companies should honor the promises they make.  So fighting them on Twitter was partly due to principle and the other part was to satisfy my curiosity.  Can one person change the actions of a large impersonal company?  Would I get banned from Twitter?

I have no idea if any of my actions influenced the outcome, but from one day to the next, they went from ignoring me to responding and offering me a better deal.  Maybe it was the cookie monster gif...

[Cam Adair]

Definitely the cookie monster gif. Ramit Sethi has a ton of good content on how to call up corporations and get fees reduced etc.

[Ed]

I've read some of Ramit's techniques, however I didn't have a lot of power in this situation.  Ramit's ideas are good, but they aren't foolproof.  

I made the mistake of agreeing to a contract before I had the phone, they had assured me that particular phone was in stock.  So they had my money and nothing I said or did made any difference.  The other idea with posting gifs was that I didn't want to do anything that would cost me a lot of effort.  There's not much point in saving $100 when it costs me $200 worth of effort.  Fortunately my plan appeared to work.

Podcasts: I've recorded day 17, still haven't published it.  I missed day 18 and 19.  Day 20 has been recorded.

[Ed]

I'm fast running out of storage space on Libsyn, I get 50Mb per month.  So some of the podcasts might have to wait before they're posted.

Day 21 podcast recorded.  Title: I punched an 8 year old in the face.

It's slightly clickbaity, but I think it falls within acceptable levels.  I was 8 at the time, it's not like I did this as an adult.  

[Ed]

I've been making recordings consistently, but I've been slack with editing and uploading them.

Btw, here's the link for I punched an 8 year old in the face

[Cam Adair]

Btw, here's the link for I punched an 8 year old in the face

Great episode. 

[Ed]

I'm still being a little slack when it comes to editing and uploading my podcasts.  But I have been recording them every day.  (Except for 3 days).

Today I really didn't feel like recording one.  So I recorded one.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/edtrigger/Dont_feel_like_doing_a_podcast.mp3

[Cam Adair]

When you don't feel like doing one, what is the conversation that happens in your head?

[Ed]

When you don't feel like doing one, what is the conversation that happens in your head?

I'm not sure that I would call it a conversation but there are a few thoughts that will often pop up:

"I don't have many people listening, so it doesn't matter if I don't record" - rationalizing

"I'll just do it later" - denial

"I'm not exactly politically correct, there is some risk in publishing a podcast"  - rationalizing, it's true but extremely low probability.

"If I get just a tiny bit better at public speaking it will be worth it"

"Just start up Audacity and start recording, start talking, the beginning can be edited out" - Like a lot of things in life, once you start actually doing something the resistance just goes away.

There's also weighing up the fact that this podcast does not make me any money and quite likely never will, at least not directly.  However the skills that I'm improving by doing the podcast will enable me to earn more money.

 

 

I finished recording day 32 of the 30 days of podcasting challenge.  I missed 3 days so tomorrow's one will be the last in this project.  After that I'm going to go back to doing a weekly one.  Instead of trying to do it all in one day I'm going to split the tasks up over a period of a week.

On Monday I'll finishing editing them and decide which ones will be posted this month, my Libsyn 50Mb upload quota doesn't have much left.

Here's the one I recorded today:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/edtrigger/being_anonymous_on_the_internet.mp3

I'm reasonably happy with it, some of my points could have been a bit clearer.  That will become less of a problem now that I'm going back to a weekly podcast.

[Piotr]

Good podcast. Lot's of people think they are anonymous in the internet but this is very illusive thought. It's good that you bringing it up.

[Ed]

Thanks. Glad you liked it.

For most people it shouldn't be a huge concern.  Unless you're writing stuff that's as inflammatory as Matt Forney's material, it's unlikely people are going to put a lot of effort into finding out who you are.  Obscurity protects people more than anonymity does.  Just need to be mindful about what you put online.

 

[Ed]

I recorded 30 podcasts, I haven't uploaded them all because for once I used up almost all my allocated data on Libsyn.  I missed 3 days so it was finished in 33 days rather than 30 but overall I'm happy with the project.  Though I am seriously considering where I'm going to go with my internet presence.

I would like to be more focused on a single topic, at the moment the general theme of my podcasts has been, "stuff I've learned throughout my life".  Which is a little too broad.  What I'm thinking of doing is concentrating on a more narrow focus of electronics theory, not necessarily with podcasting, but actually making some YouTube videos and building up my other website.