For your Consideration

So, yesterday I ordered my podcasting equipment. Rather than spend the money on rifles, a giant TV, or a tiger, I decided to use the small loan of $1200 from Uncle Donnie to try to do something creative and maybe even something I can use for a little bit of money on the side as I venture into self-employment.

I’m going to start off small. A couple mics, my ancient MacBook Pro, and maybe begin by reading some posts from here that people seemed to enjoy. I plan on having guests too, so if you are in the area, hit me up and I will get something going for a conversation when we can stop hiding in our homes like voles. I would love to do that. Sit around, have a couple drinks, maybe smoke some cigars, and just visit.

For now, my format is going to be kinda all over the place. Maybe like my blog is now. I’m going to try to not be too political, but this is the world we live in, so I’m sure it will come up. I have a few guests in mind that I would love to discuss their politics and activism on the show. There will be stories. There will be cake. My son has already stated that he wants to help, so I’m sure there will be hours of content about Nerf guns and why he is irritated he can’t call his friends “Dude” or “Bro” at school. The kid is a podcast all on his own every day.

One thing I don’t want to do is have that awkward first podcast I hear everyone do. I mean, I’m sure it will be awkward AF, but if you have listened to podcasts, you’ll see how many spend the first one or two episodes talking about how weird it is to be podcasting and then…well, usually they don’t get any further than the first three or four before they stop.

I’ve been blogging since 2007. Yes, I have an old LiveJournal that I stopped using last year and now I have this wordpress site. The LJ represents years of experience and connections I made. Most of them in the SF community. It also documents some of the hardest struggles I have faced in my adult life, and sometimes I delve into the past to remind myself how far I have come.

I know I might be worried that the second I hit Record to start my first podcast, I’m going to choke. I remember that was how my first blog posts went too. Back then, I thought blogs were self-aggrandizing. Paramasturbatory. But today, I don’t see them that way. I see them as a way people express themselves and make connections. Unfortunately these days, nobody reads anything, so other than the dozen or so views I get on my blogs, there isn’t a lot of readership and almost no interaction. It’s a common factor to why Hemingway used to say, “Writing is the loneliest profession.”

By the time you deliver content, there is a lag anyway, and it could be months down the road before you hear anything about it. Writing is also a relationship between you and the reader. I’m not saying pander to a reader, because if they knew what they wanted, they would be writing their own stories. Readers are willing recipients of the stories we pluck out of the Aether. They are fans of the way we string sentences together to resonate with the truth inside of themselves they might not know how to articulate.

I think blogging has dropped off in much the same way reading has. For one part, it is reading, and for another, people might not have the time to read what you have written. We have work, kids, school, errands, meetings, and a whole constellation of other bullshit to contend with first. Throw in the scant hours we get for freetime on a weekend or an evening, and who the hell wants to sit down with a book? Much less a blog?

But, as I do with podcasts at my desk at work, I put in my earbuds and I let them drone on as background noise. I pick things up as I listen, and I drown out my coworkers who don’t know how to shut up.

Back when I was in HS, I visited with my math teacher about starting a radio station. He was excited because he was a HAM Radio operator. He told me about so many legalities and FCC regulations that regulate how stations run that honestly, it kinda ruined any aspirations I had to work in radio. I just wanted to be Chris for Northern Exposure. To wax philosophically, to play obscure old blues albums, and talk about the goings on of town through a window on a Main Street shop.

Well, in a weird way, maybe I still get to do that. And I can cuss if I want. Though the old albums probably won’t happen either (unless I can find some stuff that is 75 years old or older and nobody owns the rights to it).

Anyway, I’m just talking about my plans here so I don’t ramble on about them in my first podcast. The equipment will be here next week, so that gives me a little time to get some other things prepped too.

Who knows? It could be the beginning of a great opportunity. Or it could never get off the ground. But you miss every shot you never take, so there is that.

Question though…any ideas what I should call it? I’m currently shortlisting the name of this blog or my travel blog. Any suggestions?

Advertisement