Podcast #2

In case you're interested, the second Decoy podcast that I did is up here. If you'd like, please subscribe to the podcast feed in your podcatcher of choice (usually iTunes). I'd really like to see this thing take off. We'll see, though.

In doing the podcast for Decoy I've noticed a lot of things, some about technology and some about people. Frankly, I didn't think I'd need to put in as much work on making a podcast as I do. There's a lot to do beyond hooking up a mic and talking for 45 minutes. If I flub something, I try to re-record it. When making transitions, I try to segregate the sections to individual tracks in Audacity to splice in music. All the music that I add in has to be imported, truncated to fit, level adjusted, and faded in/out so that it's not so jarring of a transition.

Then there's the issue of getting the tracks to begin with. Since it is a music podcast, I like to include clips of the stuff being talked about so I have to track down the music, usually just hitting up a band's MySpace page to use what they have freely available for listening to. Unfortunately, MySpace doesn't allow you to download tracks that they have up for streaming without buying them, so I have to find alternative ways of getting songs. It's kind of a hassle, really.

During the week I try to flag stuff that would be fun to talk about and jot down some notes or make a quick outline to go off of because, as I found out firsthand, it's pretty haphazard and tough to do a podcast or show without some type of outline. I can only imagine how complicated it'll be when I get some co-contributors on the show.

It's also been a wakeup call to remind me about the inherently possessive nature of humans. I don't want to go into specifics, but I will say that this had been something talked about being done at Decoy for a long time but no one ever did it, so when I actually stepped up and took it on instead of cheers and support, it became a very divisive topic. I'm sure everything will work out in the end, but it still frustrates me to no end that no matter what project I work on (be it for Decoy, my real world job, other volunteer activities) it's really rare to have co-workers or co-volunteers get behind you without wanting a piece of the pie or to do something their way. It's frustrating, but it's the nature of the game. Everyone wants to get ahead, wants to do things their way, and thinks that they can always do something better. I'm the same way and don't think I'm any better than the rest of the crowd, but I try to be aware of it and minimize negative input I may have on things since I realize how detrimental negative support can be.

Anyhow, I still am enjoying working on getting the Decoy podcast off the ground and will hopefully be able to continue doing it, as well as get a strong group of contributors involved. If you haven't listened, please do and let me know what you think.