I just heard a great story entitled “Santaland Diaries” by David Sedaris, where he talks about working as an elf at Macy’s Department Store during Christmas. Hilarious. Apparently there’s a drug test to become an elf.
It’s part of a larger hour-long show, but it occurs near the beginning. Only a Real Audio stream, but worth sitting down and listening to.
My webserver went FUBAR a few days ago and my administrator, Bruce, is AWOL. So I found a new hosting solution (which is how you’re reading this message now) and I’m trying to restore the site as soon as I can. Sorry for all the mess. And for those of you who have been paying attention, Mercury is retrograde again. 🙂
The new look is here because I’ve just installed the WordPress blogging system on my website. It’s not much of a website so far since the latest backup of my website is locked behind a bad behaving gateway. Once that gets fixed, I can restore my old stuff. But I want to explore WordPress and I’ll be working on converting my Blogger entries over to this new system. Ya know, make everything seamless.
There’s a great interview featuring Michael Geoghegan of Reel Reviews posted at blogcritics.org that really captures the essence of why podcasting is so cool. If you love movies, but never know what to rent, check out the Reel Reviews podcast. But start with the article:
![[Maple Leaf]](/darren105/maple-leaf.jpg)
My brother-in-law, Wayne Hoover, is helping people process and submit their Canada Income Tax. He’s an accountant by day, super tax-fighting hero by night. If you want him to do your taxes, give him a call. He’s charging $25 for a basic return, and a higher rate for more complex returns. He’s based in Edmonton, but you don’t need to live there for him to work with you. (Hell, I’m in China and he’s doing my taxes.) Call him: (780) 444-8669.
Well, I’m back in China and I love it! It’s currently 14°C and sunny here at noon today. Beautiful! And it’s currently 13°C inside my apartment. Brrr! It will be this way for another month or so.
Immediately after getting off the plane in Beijing, I saw something that made me remember why I love China so much. It started with a baggage handler at the conveyor belt whose job was to upright and straighten all the bags before the passengers grab them. (Nice service, eh?) I saw this guy remove the orange “Heavy” tag off of someone’s suitcase handle. This caught my attention, so I watched to see what he would do next. He then proceeded to take the backing off the orange sticker and touch it repeatedly to his black pants. He was using the discardable sticker to remove the lint. Brilliant. The Chinese are always surprising me with their ingenuity.
![[Edie and Aron]](/darren105/wedding/N0063_edie_aron.jpg)
![[Flower girls]](/darren105/wedding/2496_flowergirls.jpg)
Terra and Trinity were the flower girls. This was a surprise for my Mom—she didn’t plan it, but Darcia did.
![[Edie and Darren]](/darren105/wedding/2506_edie_darren.jpg)
Me and my Mom.
![[The ceremony]](/darren105/wedding/2508_ceremony.jpg)
Our pastor, Wayne Key, led the small ceremony at the chapel of the Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton.
![[Edie and Aron signing]](/darren105/wedding/2509_aron.jpg)
“Look at the camera!”
![[Darcia signing]](/darren105/wedding/2511_darcia.jpg)
Darcia signing the registry.
![[Susan, Darcia, Wayne]](/darren105/wedding/2516_susan_darcia_wayne.jpg)
Susan (Aron’s daughter), and Darcia and Wayne, at the dinner.
![[Edie and Aron with their cake]](/darren105/wedding/2518_cake.jpg)
The happy couple with their cake.
I’ve just finished listening to an interesting interview with the CEO of Magnatune Records, John Buckman. Magnatune is an Internet record label that is quite unique. They allow you to try out any music they offer (via streaming), the customer gets to set the purchase price, and half of the purchase price goes to the artist. (Half!) They even offer genre streams of their music so you can listen all day at work. Another interesting facet of this company is that they are trying to be as transparent as possible, publishing stats and income figures on their website. They sound really cool, and artist- and customer-friendly. Check out the interview:
Well, I’ve got a day and a half left here in Edmonton before I return home, so perhaps I’m a little late with a blog entry about my vacation. It’s been great with only a few glitches. I spent my first week here being sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. Then week two saw me very unproductive with a severe case of fatigue. Fortunately, it went away, so I’ve been able to get things done and to see a few people during this last week without any health problems holding me back.
My mom and Aron got married last week and it was fun and beautiful. They’re now in Spain and I’ve got the house and my mom’s car to myself.
I had a great conversation with my friend Dave Ballantyne about all things copyright and capitalism. I learned some surprising things about how the idea of intellectual property is actually anti-capitalist, and so is 100% of all discussion on either side of the copyright war. But the world has to wait until Dave finishes his Master’s thesis this summer before we can read his ideas on the subject in essay form.
And last night I had a great conversation with my friend Bruce Dean about his life right now, his adventures being the official driver for Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft during the election campaign, and how he got wrongfully fired three weeks ago and is now fighting to get his job back on two fronts. And yes, as he said, he seems more at peace about his life now than he’s ever been before. I wish him well.
Tonight I’ll have dinner at my sister’s. And then tomorrow I’ve got a dance with Swing-Out Edmonton. Sunday morning I fly outta here, in time to catch the dance class in Beijing on Monday night. See y’all there.
I just sent an email to Daryl Richel, program manager of CJSR Radio, the campus/community radio station from the University of Alberta, proposing that the station take up podcasting. Here’s the text of my letter:
Dear Daryl:
Hey, this Darren Griffith. Back in 2001/2002 I used to produce promos for Alternative Radio as a volunteer at CJSR. I’ve since moved to Beijing. I still tune in to Prairie Pickin’ when I can over the web. I love that show. 🙂
Anyway, I’m back in Edmonton on vacation and I’m sorry to say I’m not listening to the station as much because I’ve discovered podcasts on the Internet. As a radio professional, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of this, but just in case I’ll describe it briefly. It’s an aggregation of simple ideas that allows an individual to subscribe to “radio” shows and have them downloaded over the Internet and appear in their personal mp3 player, usually overnight. For a more complete description on what it is and how it works, see this Wikipedia article on podcasting.
Now this pertains to CJSR because many radio lovers are finding that they can now personally construct their own programing and have it on demand and always with them. And once they set up the subscription, they don’t have to think about it. So they are listening less to broadcast radio.
So, perhaps the time is right for CJSR to consider podcasting some of its content. This would consist of producing mp3 files of individual shows and offering them for download, and the further step of producing an RSS feed for each show, which is the main technology of podcasting. (Don’t worry, it’s not very hard.) I realize that you currently offer mp3s of Radio Outpost for download. This show would be an excellent candidate for podcasting. The only extra step would be setting up the RSS feed that would allow podcatching clients to know when a new show appears and download it.
Basically, any content that you are licenced to offer for download could be made into a podcast. CJSR-produced news programming would be perfect for this. Music shows (or news shows that have a music intro, for example) are problematic because the licensing issues of podcasting have not been worked out yet (because it’s downloading and not Internet broadcasting).
To further my case for podcasting, I’ll mention that CBC is now doing a podcasting trial of /Nerd and Quirks & Quarks, which is really cool to think the CBC is forward-thinking enough to try this.
I hope all is well with you and the station, and I hope that you will consider using podcasting as a way to spread the great content produced at CJSR to a wider audience.
I’ll keep you readers informed of what comes of this. CJSR produces very good content, and it would be great to see it available on this new and growing distribution medium.
Here’s a cool idea for the truly lazy. Buy two dishwashers. Put your dirty dishes in one and keep the clean dishes in the other. When the dirty one gets full, run it. Then the dishwashers switch roles. This way, you never have to put the dishes in the cupboard. (I picked this up from Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code for March 14, 2005.)