Changeling Turkey -- The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity

Image making

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:58:00 +0000

Just Googled "Grizzly Smith." Very fashionable to Google one's self, isn't it?

Found something amusing/ironic/funny/something like that. The pro wrestler Grizzly Smith just passed in June, and much of what Google gives you is about him. But in "Images for Grizzly Smith," The first three are him, the 4th is me, and the 5th and 6th are him again. I suppose there is something of a resemblance.

Google. Gotta love it.

Talking at cross purposes...

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:38:00 +0000

Fell asleep with SL on again today. I end up DJing till very late, then working all night trying to get the whole tour balloon thing working. Hard to do on the Mainland, since the land is all owned by dozens or hundreds of different people. While I was asleep, I got an IM from the guy who did the visual design of the tour balloons I'm using, or at least I -think- that's who it was. He seems upset, and he was Offline by the time I woke up.

Tried to type him a notecard, but I'm a bit lagged, so typing in SL is hard. Also, my eyes are getting worse, and it's hard to read the type in SL. Took a while to get it typed. Anyway, thought I might be saying something important to more people in SL, so I copied it here. Easier to type here, so I'm revising and expanding a bit in this version.

I XX'ed out his name, since he might take offense, but I left his brand in. He does -very- nice designs, and his work is worth plugging. :-)

[13:54:52] Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx: AR'd for Unwanted Advert spam. You know, if enough people find it as annoying as me, you will know about it.
[13:56:38] Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx: It also appears you're using my brand to sell land.. now I realize youre nothing but a leach and my annoyance has turned to pitty. GL kid.
[15:37:05] Grizzly Silversmith: I don't have any land to sell, really. Got time to hear some details?

Remarkable how much of a pain in the butt SL is for trying to actualy communicate... Anyway, sorry you caught me falling asleep with SL running, again.

So, first of all, what unwanted advert spam? Not sure what you're referring to. I've been working my self to sleep getting these tour balloons working right. If there's something I need to fix, it'd help if you'd tell me what it is.

Using your brand to sell land? First of all, even looking at your profile, I'm not sure what your brand is. Secondly, I'm a DJ who's also trying to promote my little dance club out in the middle of the mainland, or that's where I started, anyway. I'm trying to-dump- land in mass quantities. I wanted to buy some -little- lots on the road to put the balloons, and I ended up buying -big- pieces, filling up my tier. One patch of PG land I bought for 2 lindens per meter, and had to sell to a speculator for .55 lindens per meter. Yes, -point-five-five. Can't afford more tier. And I want more land here in "my" sim of Pavane, so I can turn it into Something. (And as the vast amounts of abandoned land in Pavane finally are available, I want -those-.

I deeded the land in the largest remaining roadside patch to one of my groups, so some young friends of mine could open a club called Hat Trick. There's three of us working on it, and Hat Trick is a sports term for hockey in the US as well as Cricket in their country, as it turns out. Still considering moving Ours out to the road and getting rid of all this profoundly ugly land in Pavane. The whole middle of this continent is bare rock. What the hell were the Lindens thinking there?

I'm guessing you have something to do with the balloons, maybe that Antiuque Artistry thing? Then I'm sorry I left your brand on; I wanted to make sure folks know I didn't build the things, just modded them. They're pretty cool balloons. I would have done better with those eight-passenger ones, but my girlfriend wanted the cuddly one. :-)

I started out trying to have balloons from patches on the roadside in to my club, Ours. You'll note that's the main "brand" on the balloon, the name of my club. The express-to-the-club balloon idea doesn't work; too many parcels to cross in between, with too many permissions set. A couple -almost- work. Not well suited to mainland.

Ended up building the circle tour, first because it seems kinda fun, and second because I think the Mainland is the Last Best Hope for SL overall. Everyone's isolated out on their islands, and all the people who checked "explore" in their profile can't explore. Search sucks for exploration. You can explore mainland, you can stumble across stuff, there's actual Serendipity here. And there can be community, too. Biggest weakness in SL, nobody really talks to anyone else. Not with too many people scattered across too many islands.

You can really -explore- on the mainland. You can stumble across stuff. The imaginations of hundreds of people are on display here. And no one sees them -- because Nobody Goes to the Mainland. Nobody Goes to the Mainland, because it's supposed to be laggy, but it -isn't- laggy -- because Nobody Goes to the Mainland.

I've been talking about this in my Blog, and I've been talking about this on my podcasts. You should listen sometime, if you're not too busy jumping to conclusions.

I did mention to the one passenger I've had that the balloons are a great way to find land to buy, and there's a lot for sale -- mainly because it's true. I used the balloons, in fact, to help find the land that I've used for Waystations for the balloons. I'm trying to promote the use of the balloons, too, but I don't really know where to start with that. And I'm trying to get people behind the idea over all, including the folks who are trying to sell land here, because it benefits everybody for more folks to see the mainland, including them -- maybe especially them.

I was hoping at first to just have -one- balloon on a long route clear around the continent. Way too hard. If I wander off the track a little bit, I hit someone's no-object-entry setting on their roadside land and the balloon is deleted. So I ended up with a lot of land I didn't much want to buy, and broke the route into six 100-waypoint-or-so stretches. Probably better that way. Would take a -very- long time to go clear around the mainland, and probably no one would want to take the whole ride.

A side dream, if you will. I've kept the balloons announcing waypoint numbers, so that people who like the Circle Tour idea could even advertise their builds as "near waypoint X on the Circuit La Corse Balloon Tour!" Probably won't happen, but A Boy Can Dream.

So, that's my Evil Plan for World Domination and getting rich on SL land speculation. I'm mostly trying to not get more poor, play with some fun technology, and give folks something neat to play with themselves. If that's Evil, they've changed the definition since I was a kid.

As for trying to sell off the overpriced roadside land I got stuck with in mass quantities trying to build this thing, without dumping it and losing all the money I had to put in, yeah, I'm trying to do that. Better than abandoning it. I hate abandoning land. Got a bunch of land I want to buy in Pavane that I can't cause someone got in a hurry and abandoned vast swaths of it. You should look elsewhere in the blog for the story of the adult land I got screwed while trying to sell off. I recently abandoned the sizeable remainder -- it cost me 6.5 lindens per meter to buy Back When -- because I was tired of the bad memories, and because I needed to buy all that land for the balloon project.

Next time you want to know what I'm doing, try asking me. And next time you think I'm doing something wrong, try asking me to fix it. I learn how to do things that way. And I like to learn.

Good luck in your future endeavors in SL,

== Griz

http://grizzlysgrowls.com
http://blog.grizzlysgrowls.com

FURTHER NOTE! It struck me much later that the guy just might have been IMing the wrong person, and got me by mistake. I note that when I tried a search for -him-, I got an error back from Search.

A sad story in The Emerald City

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:24:00 +0000

Recently, some of the coders on the Open Source third-party viewer for Second Life, called Emerald, put in code to allow it to be used for a Distributed Denial of Service. Initially Linden Labs took Emerald off the approved list, then gave the Emerald Dev Team a list of demands for changes in Emerald. One of the demands was that the Dev Team not disclose the contents of the list of demands.

http://blog.modularsystems.sl/2010/08/25/ll-requirements-for-emerald/

Emerald's trust-credibility was shot by the folks who put in the malicious code. Linden Labs' was shot by... oh, make your own list. I don't see that the Emerald team has a choice on this, there is essentially only one market for what they make. Emerald -has- been transparent, it just happens they can only be transparent on why they can't be transparent on this.

I think the people to demand transparency from are the Labs. They won't do it, but they're the people to tell.

Blame the idiots who put in the malicious code for the start of all this. I wonder what happened to that whole "Open Source means so many people see the code so nothing bad can happen" expectation that's supposed to make Open Source work?

And I wonder how the hell the Labs can expect credibility when they won't speak openly about their demands on this. Or, at least, explain why they won't allow disclosure. It's bad business all around. It doesn't need to be made worse.

Emerald is part of why I stay in SL. If that's gone, I'll be stuck with the second-rate viewer the Labs provide. Will I quit SL over this? Doubtful, but I'm already tending that direction anyway. So we'll see.

The end of "a Minor Local Celebrity"

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000

Went across the bay to Superior to stop in my favorite bar for a beer in my usual large mug. Looked around -- no ashtrays. I remembered some mention of the laws in Wisconsin eventually following Minnesota in banning smoking in most public places. And after a Google search I find that's what happened on July 5. Anyplace where people might work, any public place, smoking is banned. So as a smoker, I'm a 3rd class citizen.

I originally took on the "Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity" subtitle because I'd been singing so much karaoke people actually -recognized- me, people who were otherwise strangers to me. But karaoke happens in bars, and I"m not welcome in bars anymore. I actually continued to go to bars in Wisconsin, even though I live in Minnesota, because I was allowed to be myself there. Now I'm no longer worthy, apparently. Now I'm an evil sinner to be shunned.

I've read a disproportionate fraction of smokers are older people, lower income people, and people of color. I qualify as the first two. Ironically, if the government passed any law attacking those groups as such, they'd get burned at the stake. "But they're smokers! Everybody hates smokers!"

So I guess that's okay then. Enjoy your beer. I'll be going now. Glad drinking your beer without a cigarette makes you happy. It makes me unhappy. Too bad, huh?

No, please keep the preaching to yourself. I'm old, I earned this. You don't want me there, then I"m not there.

New subtitle: "Life and Times of a New Media Celebrity." New Media I can do from my own home, where I can be myself. Never was a very public guy, anyway.

Welcome to Second Life -- here's your Accordion.

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:06:00 +0000

PISO'S JUSTICE: The story goes that Piso was a Tribune in ancient Rome. (I gather they don't have Tribunes in modern Rome.) One day he tried and convicted a man for murder, and sent him off with a Centurion to be executed.

On the way to the execution, the Centurion spotted the supposed murder victim walking by. So he grabbed the guy, and went back to Piso with both.

Piso sentenced all three to death:

The convict because he'd already been convicted;

The Centurion, for violating the lawful order of a Tribune;

And the supposed victim -- for causing an innocent man to be executed.

I owned a 9008 sq m here in Fuson, one big parcel. marked it for sale 54096 lindens, then decided to subdivide it. Divided out a bunch of 512-meter parcels, then had one 256 meter parcel. Marked it for sale 6 lindens per meter. The server decided this parcel was connected to the remaining, not yet subdivided parcel (it isn't), and marked -all- of it for sale for the price of the 256 meter parcel. Somebody's land-buying bot bought it immediately, of course. So I got screwed for over 50K lindens.

Me

Total size of the original parcel before I started subdividing it was 8190 sq m. I still own the 6 512-meter parcels I'd finished subdividing out. The new "owner" showed up, and wanted to sell me the land back. (sigh) Attached image shows my remaining land in green, that stupid 256-meter parcel in the green patch, and that big-ass unsubdivided parcel in brown (I think it's brown, I'm part colorblind).

2010-08-03 18:49:49

Me

I'm told that what -probably- happened, I subdivided out all the -surrounding- parcels, but didn't -separately- subdivide out the 256 meter parcel. The Server didn't recognize that it was now physically separate, treated it as part of the larger parcel. (sigh) And of course, somebody's land bot jumped right on that...

2010-08-03 18:51:59

Me

Further note. The original 8190 meter parcel was owned by my group, Hiber-Nation Residences. I had the Group sell it back to me for L$0, at which point the system decided I now owned too much land, and my Tier went from half-tier to full-tier. So over all, I ended up losing about $200 US in maybe a half-hour. Not my best day.

2. CORRECTION AGAIN: Actually, I had 8190 allocated to the group, but there's that, what, 10 % discount when you own land through a group?

8190 X 1.10 = 9009 sq m.

The patch that Linden Labs sold in error was 5680 sq m.

Linden Labs contention is that they don't interfere in person-to-person land deals. That is exactly what they did here.

My Offer was 256 sq m for 256 X 6 lindens = 1536 Lindens. Linden Labs modified my Offer to 256 + 5680 sq m = 5936 sq m for 1536 lindens, and then sold the land for that, directly contravening their policy of not interfering in land deals.

With out Linden Labs modification of the deal, what do we have? Offer: sell 256 sq m for 1536 lindens. Counteroffer: buy 5936 sq m for 1536 lindens. No Mutual Meeting of the Minds. No contract, under real world contract law.

I expect the counter-argument that the -apparent- error was caused by misinformation provided by the visual interface, since the visuals clearly indicate the 256 meter parcel was entirely separate. I will provide the response; Linden Labs' -product- is the 3D visual interface that you're now claiming is not Linden Labs' responsibility?

This sale was created by Linden Labs themselves, and Linden Labs intervened in the sale and sold my land for a price they set themselves. Linden Labs response, I expect will be, "That's not a bug, that's a Feature."

NOTE: If you're wondering about the title of the post, here's a link that might help: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~kaminsmj/welcome.jpg

UPDATE: Linden Labs' response has been --- no response at all. "If we ignore him long enough, he's sure to go away." Uh huh. Right. This is really surprising.

Well, Duh!

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:40:00 +0000

Dunno why I didn't think of this before. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

I've had a nice yellow "Listen" button at the top of my Podcast page for a year or two now. It points to my main Grizzly's Growls RSS feed, which has practically everything I do. I've also known that the Default Feed for each of my books from Podiobooks.com has all the chapters for that book, from first to last (that's the important part). But just now it finally struck me, I could put a Listen button next to each book on the Grizzly's Growls website, linked to that books feed... and a casual browser to the website can go ahead and listen to the book. From beginning to end. With one click.

Only took me three years to figure that out.

Duh.

Where am I at now?

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:49:00 +0000

I just noticed that there are now 185 people following my blog. That is a bit embarrassing, because I haven't actually done much with the blog in a very long time. Sorry about that.

A lot of my time lately has been taken up with DJing on Second Life. I am actually a pretty popular DJ there, which is nice. But it's an ephemeral accomplishment. It's not about having done a nice job as a DJ ten, a hundred or a thousand times. Am I being a good DJ right now, or will I be tonight? When it's done, it stops mattering. "What have you done for us lately?"

I have three major podcasts, Grizzly's Growls, Stories from the Hiber-Nation, and The IDSL. It seems The IDSL is done with. I was doing that five days a week before I started school, and I stopped doing it when school began. Never started again when school finished. Yet it seems to have the most ongoing popularity, and the most potential to do something to help me with my hoped-for career in broadcasting. It has a built-in structure to it; There's a specific list of songs in a particular order, and the next song on the list is already determined till I run out. And being unemployed, it sure seems like one I ought to crank up again. But it's time-consuming to do, and the primary resource, the list itself, is derived from a search I did on Garageband -- and Garageband.com is closing down. So the basic plan is kinda screwed.

Grizzly's Growls doesn't really have a topic, a format, a schedule, or much of anything else to define it. It's just me -- as Evo Terra terms this style of podcast, "Some dork with a microphone." Not a bad description. Unlike The IDSL, it really doesn't have a structure, and there's no way to know inherently what comes next. So it's easier to do in some ways. All I need to do is Record Something and post it and I have done Grizzly's Growls -- not well, but it's done. But it's harder, too, because every time I have to Decide what to talk about.

Stories from the Hiber-Nation has is like both. It doesn't have a structure till I find a book I want to record. Then, when I pick a book, the show is structured till I finish the book. Then I have to Decide again. Right now that one is "hanging fire," because I know several I really ought to record, but once I start I have a whole stack of chapters I have committed to do for that book, of course. That can feel daunting, looking at that whole pile of chapters to record.

And of course I end up taking those books and posting them to Podiobooks. That is and isn't a separate project. The book content is already there by the time I get to the point of producing the Podiobook. In fact, these days, I usually process each chapter for Podiobooks chapter by chapter while producing it for Hiber-Nation. I put together standardized intros and outros, take off the HN intro and put on the Podiobook intro and so on, save all the prepared Podiobooks chapters in a separate directory, all -while- doing chapter-by-chapter for HN.

I have a remarkably small amount of spare time for a guy without a Day Job, though. Again, the DJing stuff. Second Life adds an extra motivator, in that I get tips from the audience. Sure, it's just a few Lindens, the SL equivalent of money. But it's something -- and at the moment, no one in RL (Real Life) is paying me to do much of anything. The places I DJ for expect me to show up on schedule. There isn't an RL employer who even cares I"m out here, far as I can tell.

Ditto for the podcasting, really. In the three years I've been podcasting, I've gotten one donation. And that was a couple years back. It's flattering to have people listen, an honor, really. It's still remarkable to me that a couple hundred people actually care to listen to what I have to say. That doesn't happen for me in Real Life. But if there were a "tipping" system for podcasting, I suspect I'd feel more motivated. An average tip in SL might be L$100, one hundred Lindens, the equivalent of maybe 40 cents. In a huge evening, I might get a couple thousand Lindens -- maybe eight bucks US equivalent, for five or six hours of work. But it's something from there, as compared to nothing from anywhere else. It's a motivator.

If there were such a system in podcasting, I'd likely do more of it. It's not an expectation; podcasting has traditionally been done for free and the content offered for free. But if there were a mechanism to simply give a micropayment for appreciation, like tipping in SL, now that might help keep me motivated. No multiple clicks, no logging into your Paypal account, just click, here's 40 cents, thanks, nice work.

If I can find a practical way to do it, I should record my podcasts -in- SL. That way tipping in SL would provide a motivator for getting the podcasts recorded. And if I can get all that lovely technology to work together, it would be possible to record from Voice Chat in SL into the podcast, -and- stream the show into my Shoutcast stream, so that it would be hearable around SL... Lots of stuff has to work together for that, though. Another perk, it'd be Something Happening in SL, which is the kind of attraction that one doesn't find often in SL.

I'm not saying it's the only way, complaining it doesn't exist, or demanding that it must. I'm just saying that if there were such a thing, I suspect I'd get more work done. Cause I'm really not doing enough podcasting, not anymore.

(sigh)

Recent Email from Qwest

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0000

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This is kinda sucky...

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:19:00 +0000

Okay, today I got a letter from the nice Unemployment folks that my Unemployment benefits just ran out. The well is dry. Yikes. Basically the programs are still there, extension after extension, but my new benefit year is based on after I was laid off "temporarily" by my former employers, so my benefits would be based on essentially no income.

I did graduate from school, and I am theoretically prepared for an entry-level job in broadcasting. Last word I had from school, there are no entry-level jobs available in broadcasting at the moment. So I went to school to go back and get that half-baked job I went to school to avoid. Assuming -that- entry-level job is available, with the 100,000 other people looking for it.

Blah, blah, blah, yeah, right, sucks to be me.

So, if you want to help, send donations to....

Pointless

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:00:00 +0000

I've been unemployed for more than a year; depending on when you start counting, maybe a year and a half to two years. Prior to that I was already underemployed. I've been in school for almost six months at the local community college, specifically directed to getting a job in broadcasting. And it looks like that isn't going to happen. The jobs just aren't there, it seems.

This is something I've wanted to do for much of my life. Till my senior year, when I finally learned basic social and speaking skills, it was impossible. Asperger thing. But taking a Public Speaking class in that year made a huge change for me. And I turned out to be good at it. Depending on who you ask, it is very common and highly unlikely for an Aspie to be a good public speaker. There are reasons it's a good option for an Aspie. I think I've explained them before, and if not, I'll explain them later.

And people keep telling me "you have a great voice, you should be on the radio," and so on. I believe that. I think so myself, and other people agree, so it's not just me. When my employers packed up and left the state, I became a Displaced Worker and I figured I had a very special opportunity, a shot at this work I've wanted to do for most of my life. And I figured by not choosing the jobs that everyone else would be going for, I'd have a better chance.

What often happens with these programs is that some study decides there will be 100,000 new Registered Nurse jobs. So they train 300,000 people, and 200,000 are trained but there are no jobs for them. I figured going for a different job -- which happens also to be my dream job -- would keep me out of that mess.

But...

It doesn't seem like I've learned anything new that'll make me more capable of the work. Perhaps I came into this with too many capabilities and it just hasn't had the impact it should have had if I didn't. I did spend more than 3 years podcasting, so I'm comfortable with a lot of audio stuff. Video isn't a big strength for me, but I don't particularly want to do video. Aspies simply aren't particularly visual, or at least I'm not.

Anyway, I'm looking at broadcasting work and wondering if they'd really want to hire me. I still have the voice and the talent. Do they want that? I might have learned new stuff in an Internship, except I didn't get an Internship. So I'm stuck where I am.

And if they do want me, how do I let them know that they want me?

And what do I do if they want me, but can't afford me? What if there simply -isn't- a broadcasting job for me?

Then six months in school were unproductive, and over a year of unemployment becomes ... more unemployment? Don't my benefits run out sometime in here?

I think I will somehow manage to graduate. And then what?

Stardance

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:25:00 +0000

Stardance

Update on Jeanne

Posted: 05 Apr 2010 06:39 PM PDT

From Spider (relayed through Jim.)

Dear friends,

This will be hard to read; it is certainly hard to write.

Jeanne's doctors have ended her chemotherapy. There's nothing more chemistry can do for/to her. Radiation was never an option. She is therefore now in Palliative Care Phase. We asked roughly how long this stage might last—repeatedly—and the only answer we got was, "somewhere between a month and a year—more or less."

Some good news: the Palliative Care doctor she's been assigned is considered one of the world's best. His name, I swear, is Dr. Sugar. Dr. Paul Sugar. Jeanne and I both liked him on sight. Her best friend Anya has been a patient of his for many years, and gives him top marks. So do all his patient-reviewers online.

Jeanne has been in Lion's Gate Hospital for the past week with digestive troubles, and may be there for as long as another week. She is extremely weak and tired, but not in pain. She is being well cared for. And today they finally diagnosed her problem, which should be easily fixable. It is hoped she will soon return home, and rally, now that the chemo is no longer battering at her system. We all know her strength and determination. Our pharmacist tells us she has many customers who've been in palliative stage for more than four years and are feeling fine.

Right now Jeanne welcomes prayers, good thoughts, short emails of love and support that don't require an answer, flowers, letters, or cards. (NO FLOWERS, PLEASE!) Address the latter to Jeanne Robinson, Palliative Care Section, 7th floor, Lion's Gate Hospital, 231 15th Street East, North Vancouver, BC V7L 2L7; her email is stardance@shaw.ca..

But please: NO VISITORS. NONE. THIS MEANS YOU. I'm serious: don't even "pop in for a quick second." She has blood family with her every day: me, her sister Laurie, her daughter and son-in-law and little 10-month-old Marisa. Her mom and her sister Dori is on the way. That's all the fun she (or her immune system, or the nursing staff) can stand, at the moment.

And please, DON'T PHONE HER UNLESS/UNTIL YOU HEAR FROM ME THAT SHE'S BACK HOME AGAIN AND READY TO YAK. Right now talking on the phone exhausts her, especially with concerned friends. And no matter when you phone, you're liable to wake her up. She needs to nap. Thanks for understanding; I know it's frustrating.

Paypal donations for Jeanne and Spider are still being gratefully accepted at http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/ you'll find a hotlink halfway down that page.

I hope I'll have better news to report next time. Meanwhile your loving thoughts are much appreciated.

Spider

A Broadcasting Internship?

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:42:00 +0000

I'm scheduled to graduate from Media Studies at LSC this spring semester. And it might even happen.

I'm doing okay on the various classes. But one of the requirements of the course is an Internship with a local radio or TV station, probably. Some other media-related business might well be fine. Unfortunately, such companies locally are not taking many Interns. And when an old guy like me is one of the options, and the rest are younger (if less experienced) people, well...

I've already got almost 4 years of podcasting experience, live streaming experience, DJing experience, audiobook production and voice experience. I am far more comfortable behind a microphone than I have any business to be, and this can all be confirmed from my podcasting website. Some of this ought to be valuable to someone.

My instructor might have a solution, but that's still a Maybe. So if you happen to know (or own) a company that could use a Media Studies intern, let me know.

Thanks.

Griz

Meh. Just, Meh. (was Wow. Just, wow.) UPDATE

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:55:00 +0000

UPDATE:

I just now read a post on the Libsyn Support Blog. It begins:

"Thu, 25 February 2010

Inflated Stats Issues

We have been alerted to issues with inflated stats that began 2/24. We are looking into these issue and will post updates here when the fix is in. Please direct concerns to support@libsyn.com."

And so on. As it turns out, not only aren't my stats massively better than last month, they're about half of last month. Still better than any month prior to October 2009, true. It's a Good Thing. But disappointing, because it's not as good as I'd thought. Oh, well.

POSTING WAS:

I was checking the Stats for my podcasts early this morning, and I noticed something.

So far this month, I've had over 9600 downloads of episodes. That's on top of over 6500 last month. So 16000 downloads in two months. And as it turns out, over 20,000 downloads over the past 4 months. Prior to that, my biggest month might have almost been 1000 downloads.

That's as if 100 people heard one recording liked it, and promptly went and downloaded all the past episodes of Grizzly's Growls -and- all the past episodes of Stories from the Hiber-Nation. How many times does an average guy like me have 100 people care that much what I say, or how it sounds when I say it? Sure, if mine were a really big-deal podcast, I'd be getting 10,000 downloads of each episode. But even so...

Awesome. Wow. Just, wow.

Thanks, guys.

Wonder if I'll break 10,000 for this month?

Education and Second Life

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:42:00 +0000

Here's a video I put together for Cosmic Surrounding Technology, for a presentation in another country. The video, the best I could do with the tools at hand and starting with Second Life's 20 FPS cartoon-like visuals, frankly isn't at all good, and I over-edited the audio, trying to get it down to 30 minutes.

The interview, though, with Dr Carolyn Lowe, PhD, of the University of Northern Michigan, actually went very well and is worth a listen. Hope you enjoy it.

Griz

Live in Second Life

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:55:00 +0000

I'm sitting at the moment in Second Life, listening to and watching Emerian Rich talk about her book on Podiobooks, "Night's Knights." Second Life opens up all sorts of options for conferences and lectures and such. There's plenty of other stuff to do there, and people do most of what you can think of. But this is nice. It's even being recorded for Treet.TV, SL's version of network television.

I'm still thinking about recording a podcast from within SL, but haven't quite done it yet. I even have my Hiber-Nation Theatre space set up for exactly that. My original idea was to get a group together and record everybody live via SL's own Voice Chat mechanism. But since I've had no visitors to speak of, I haven't seen the point. Not yet, anyway. The flipside is that if I'm -not- doing shows, why would anybody be showing up?

I'm a little hesitant to think anyone would want to come just to hear me. On the other hand, a few hundred have come to hear the Podiobooks versions of some of my books, so I suppose I must be doing something right.

National Blog Posting Month -- Day 1

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:24:00 +0000

I'm going to give NaBloPoMo another shot this year. I completed it last December, the month after The Big One. Didn't find it all that hard, but this year I'm lots more busy, with school and whatnot. Not that much whatnot -- like work & such, no job -- but school is plenty.

Heck, I may even manage to have something to say, rather than just rambling incoherently -- which might leave you wondering if you are reading the right blog. So I better avoid that.

JC Hutchins, I Knew Him When -- sorta

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:56:00 +0000

If you've been listening to my podcasts from the beginning, you might remember my reviews of JC Hutchins "7th Son" books. Largely due to the great popularity of the books on Podiobooks.com, Hutch managed to get the book published by a real-deal publisher, St. Martin's Press. And you can order it now!

If you liked the books as much as I have -- and I'm also listening to the new edition of the Podiobook -- I hope you'll want to own your very own, shiny new copy! You can click on this link to order the book 7th Son: Descent from Amazon.com, if you'd like.

You could also go to Hutch's own site to order. Up to you.

And to think, I reviewed his book back when he was just Some Guy. Mostly. :)

Promo for "The IDSL" - Take 3

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:55:00 +0000

I put this together this weekend for my Video Graphics class at LSC. It's not perfect; there's a spot in the audio I should fix, and that white bar where the URL appears is a bit unsubtle. But it's still pretty cool for a beginner. And I had fun making it! UPDATE: Fixed the audio. Decided to not change the one tiny thing that bothered me in the video. Just as well. ANOTHER UPDATE: Finally decided running my voice audio through Levelator wasn't cheating. Glad I did.

Natalie Brown

LeVar Thomas

Chris Kirby

What should I look for in a laptop?

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:58:00 +0000

My sister's XP laptop died. It was kinda old, and she got it used.

About a year and a half ago, she'd bought me a brand-new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop for Christmas and by birthday, and I've been quite satisfied with it till recently. Now, for my Media Studies class, I've been doing and will be doing a lot of video editing, which is hard work for any computer and (they tell me) requires serious hardware to do reasonably quickly. My current laptop is adequate for this, sort of, mostly. The machine's been upgraded to 3 gig memory and a 360 gig hd both which seem adequate. I haven't discovered any way to upgrade -only- the Video hardware, and I suppose it's built into the motherboard and can't be upgraded.

My sister, who is an email-and-web person mostly, has suggested buying me another brand-new laptop, and taking over my "old" laptop for her own use. This would be wonderful, of course. She has more money than I do. But she's asked me to just tell her what sort of computer to buy, and she'll see about buying it. Thing is, I have no idea what specifically to look for, other than "larger" and "faster" and "better video" and other vague generalities. Twenty years ago I coulda told her, now, not so much.

Any suggestions or hints? I have heard for years that Macs are generally "better" for video editing. True, somewhat true, not true anymore? There is a premium to pay for Mac hardware. How does the price for a Macbook Pro compare with the price for a PC laptop "adequate" for video editing in particular? I've been using Windows since 3.1, DOS before that. I know Macs only by reputation.

What would be considered big or fast these days? I know what the numbers mean, to the extent they're larger versions of the old numbers. I don't want her spending the cost of a new car, though, for example. What would you say is a "reasonable" price for a laptop for "reasonable" video editing functionality and speed?

I pre-ordered a copy of Windows 7 a few months back, which I gather will help this old laptop somewhat. I doubt it would help enough. Am I wrong?

Thanks for your input.

Griz

The IDSL 09/08/2009 (Comment line 218-234-CALL)

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:05:00 +0000

You can directly download the file from Archive.org here.

On "The IDSL" today:

"Chandeliers, Scientists, Freaks and Aliens" from Dallas Orbiter

"Change Again" from Midriff

"We Dream For Jeanne" for Spider Robinson

"Change is in Season" from Matthew Anderson

"Change" from Schiek

"Feedback PSA" from Nobilis

"Chap My Pride" from Static Captain

"Golden Year" from Chris Kirby

"In My Dreams" from Natalie Brown

Thanks for listening!

Theme: "140 Times" from RockOn

Want to hear it all better? Try here!

This program sponsored by You, our loyal listeners! Want to help? Go to our Donate page!

Now, ain't that a hell of a thing

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:12:00 +0000

I'm in school, now, studying Media Production. There's a lot I need to learn there. I'm pretty confident with audio, though I find Adobe Audition quite daunting. Video, well, I just don't get that. I suppose if I'd grown up with access to video recorders and such, like some of these kids did, it'd be another story. Never could afford video hardware, never had the option to simply fiddle and try things, so I never developed the sort of confidence these younger folks have. That's okay; I'll get there eventually. I haven't grown stupid in my old age.

Only one obstacle is utterly beyond me. I'm required to take a course in "College writing." I know I'm not a brilliant writer. I know a number of brilliant writers, and I've read their work, and I pale in comparison. I'm fine with that. I am a good writer, and certainly a practiced one. I spent a significant part of the last thirty years in jobs where my writing skills were vital to my work.

And now I'm taking a mandatory course that is apparently designed to turn an incompetent writer into a barely adequate one. The course requires following a very strict format, word by word, sentence by sentence, resulting in writing that shows every seam, crease, and scotch-taped-together phrase. And to pass the course, I need to spend the next four months writing down to this standard, rather than up to my own standards. This lock-step blather is better suited to a computer program than an actual writer. And it's presented as "College writing."

I don't want to do that. I doubt I can do that. I sure as hell can't do that for four straight months. To quote Truman Capote, "That's not writing at all, that's typing."

I certainly understand the necessity of the course for students who have never really been expected to write. Coming into this straight out of high school, some of my fellow students might have no idea how to write a simple declarative sentence. I can. I can't write like someone who doesn't know how.

But to be able to graduate from the Media Studies program, I am required to write badly for four months straight. Even now, I'm wondering what they'd do if I dropped the class. Probably kick me out.

Now ain't that a hell of a thing?

Griz

Merchandize Me

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:35:00 +0000

I have a whole lot of reading and writing to do for school. Which explains why I spent the last couple hours fiddling with the Merchandise on my Cafepress Store.

I decided the logo for The IDSL looks much better than the logo for Grizzly's Growls, so I switched everything over to using that logo. Had to resize a bit for some items. Came out okay, if not to my satisfaction in all cases.

One minor niggle with CafePress. What I want for myself is a nice black mug with the nice black-background logo from The IDSL on that. Turns out CafePress doesn't offer any black mugs, only white mugs. What were they thinkin'?

Another thing their product design software should allow is to resize the selected image up to whatever size the product allows. If I find a graphic simply doesn't resize well enough to suit that item, then I can create a new graphic reaching that size. But their software only allows resizing up to a given size, and doesn't provide sufficient info as to what the largest possible sizes are. So I have to create graphics by-guess-and-by-golly, upload them, try them, and if they don't work, go through the whole process again.

They also have some decidedly weird items in their product selection. I could, for example, offer a thong with The IDSL logo on it. A thong. Huh?

I don't know why I worry about it. No one has ever bought anything from the Grizzly's Growls CafePress Store, not so far, not even me. So what does it matter what merch I do or don't have, or what color it is?

Hmmm... Wonder if they'd have a thong in my size? :)

The IDSL 09/04/2009 (Comment line 218-234-CALL)

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:39:00 +0000

You could download direct from Archive.org, if you'd like.

On "The IDSL" today:

SPECIAL!!! Interview with R&B artist Chris Kirby, with music and discussion of his new album, "Vampire Hotel." Listen in, call in, join in!

Thanks for listening!

Theme: "140 Times" from RockOn

Want to hear it all better? Try here!

This program sponsored by You, our loyal listeners! Want to help? Go to our Donate page!

The IDSL 09/03/2009 (Comment line 218-234-CALL)

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:00:00 +0000

You can download a copy directly from Archive.org, if you'd like.

On "The IDSL" today:

"cephalopoda of the desert" from Frowning Trees

"chainlink" from melisma

"Feedback PSA" from Nobilis

"Chalkboard Fingernails" from sombertown

"Podcast Bailout" from John Bell

"Chance Life" from Anoran

"We Dream for Jeanne" from Spider Robinson

"Chance" from Morrisson

"Lift This Fog" from Chris Kirby

Thanks for listening!

Theme: "140 Times" from RockOn

Want to hear it all better? Try here!

This program sponsored by You, our loyal listeners! Want to help? Go to our Donate page!

Really Rather Graceful, Mainly

grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com (grizzlysgrowls@gmail.com) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:36:00 +0000

Something I wrote for College Comp I class the other day.

“Do you even ride that thing anymore,” my sister asked me, pointing to my bicycle in a corner of the garage. She seems convinced, now that I walk with a cane, I'm not likely to ride a bicycle. “Why yes, of course I do,” I answered. This is entirely true. If it weren't, I'd still keep my bike. Bicycles have always meant freedom to me.

I was never well coordinated as a kid, much less graceful. I grew up in the 1960s in a fair-sized family, one older brother, three sisters, lots of pets. What we had wasn't new, usually hand-me-downs, but still usable and in good repair, cause my Dad could fix things. All my siblings had bikes, that was a given back in those days on Trinity Road, the outskirts of town. My first bike was a one-speed, kinda beat-up, roughly the right size for me, mostly mine because the three older kids had newer bikes.

And those three knew how to ride, cause kids just did. I was born clumsy and uncoordinated. I tried to figure out bicycling by looking at what they did: sit on the seat, balance, pedal to go forward. Looked easy. I sat on the seat, tried to balance, and tried to get my feet on the pedals, by which time the bike was tipping over. Back to step one. No luck there. And my Dad wasn't that guy from the TV shows, running along side your bike, pushing and encouraging.

Eventually, the Abbotts from down the street somehow got all the neighborhood kids down to their front yard, a long, grassy slope. We lowered the seats on the bikes and coasted, feet easily reaching the ground. Coasting made balancing easy, and once I was coasting and balancing, pedalling was pretty straightforward. In later years, I read books by cycling professionals who taught kids to ride bikes. That turned out to be The Right Way to Teach Biking, as much as there is one.

Now I could ride all the way up to the Abbots and the Petersons, across to the Fosles, and down to the Stewarts, even all the way to Paul's Texaco. We'd ride along the dirt shoulders of Trinity Road, back when it was still a narrow, two-lane road with no great amount of traffic. And when my birthday came and I got my fancier, newer, more stylish five-speed with the big banana seat and the sissy bar and the high handlebars, my freedom of the neighborhood was nearly complete. The house where we went to get my new, used bike is still there, by the way – just to the right as you come in the main entrance of Lake Superior College.

I've had bikes ever since. Due to various sensory problems, I've never had a driver's license, and my basic transportation always had two wheels and pedals. But there was something perfect about that particular five speed. I could travel as fast as I needed to, come within a hair of a dead stop and stay balanced, even coast a bit backwards and downhill with no worries of falling over. I could ride it on the little foot trails through the woods, along the paths by Miller Creek, Chicken Pond, Coffee Pond. Our whole family would ride along the dusty and desolate shoulder of Miller Trunk Highway up to the Target store for groceries, past the abandoned miniature golf place on the corner, and the big billboard that was there in that empty, open field for much of my childhood it seemed: “Coming Soon: The Miller Hill Mall!” I wondered what a Mall was.

If I still had that big purple five-speed, I'd still ride it, not worrying about appearances. And I could go anywhere anyone else could go, and I'd get there eventually. On that five speed, nowhere else, on no other bike, just that one – I was graceful.