Ericast.com Podcasts - DWEEB THOUGHTS

What's a few weeks among friends, right? But this is a very special time of year around the Ericast, so I've got reason to put out an episode. Wondering what it is? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment!

This is not the promised "Follow-up on Hope" episode that I have sitting in fragments on my hard drive. Instead, here are some life updates.  If you don't want those, skip this episode, but if you do

then you'll miss the hamster-themed song after the outro.

It's our birthday! The Ericast was created in March of 2005 as I had switched jobs and was wrapping up my Master of Arts in Human Resource Development. Nineteen isn't all that special a number, unless you're Paul Hardcastle, and if you get that reference then you are my people!

But, I did indeed follow up on what I may or may not have mentioned in a previous episode or two - what's just a click away for you is months ago for me - and right now I'm taking two classes in the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program.  Yup, why not pick up a second Master's degree, right?  This semester it's "Python" (which I got into early) plus "Data Analytics and Visualization" which I didn't get into until after the first class had passed so that's been a bit of a trip. If you're interested in that stuff, I'm happy to talk about it. If not, I won't bore you.

It wouldn't be the Ericast without talking about the weather. In late February it was 65 degrees, which is very, very unusual for Minnesota. You can do your own research on how warm it's been here but, trust me, it was warm. Then people started saying "Winter is over!" and of course we got a March snowstorm because that's how Murphy's Law works, but it wasn't that bad - less than a foot of snow here in the Twin Cities, and it's basically melted clear.

I might have mentioned that Dad picked up RSV in December which isn't great when you can see "90" on the horizon, but after a couple months in a care center for rehab he's back in his home.

In February we observed a year since Mom passed away.  That "is what it is'' as they say.  Still lots of stuff to go through and decisions to be made. It's not quite so morbid as "dust in the wind" but I was telling Dad tonight that there are things like boxes of letters she sent home from college.  That's interesting. I have some of those myself kicking around somewhere.  But who cares?  We tell ourselves that "the next generation" will but they're busy making their own memories, not reading through someone else’s.

Almost a year to the day, Chloe had a second ear surgery - a "tympanoplasty" to repair her ear drum. Last year things went great with the left ear so, hey, why not do the right one?

Candela is the opposite end of the spectrum for family surgeries and when she got her wisdom teeth out last week it was her first IV, first anesthesia, first prescription medications even.

A couple weeks ago I was able to go to a talk by a name I'm sure long-time Ericast listeners must recognize because he's someone I did quite a bit of work with years ago. That was a weird feeling to flash back to events and conversations from 20 years ago...

So, that's where things are at.  And the website Suno.ai is bringing me joy.  So, we'll wrap up with something from that.

Have you ever encountered a circumstance where you think, "That's a great point, but I'm not sure that's what that word means." Or, "I'm not sure that's what that says." Wondering how to untangle that? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment!

Why write my own summary when I can have AI do it for me. What does ChatGPT think I talked about?

Why write my own summary when I can have AI do it for me. What does ChatGPT think I talked about? In this podcast episode, I discuss listener feedback about the show's intro song and delve into the theme of hope. Reflecting on advice received at a recent conference, I explore the concept of avoiding negativity in one's brand and how "hope" can be a solution. I share a definition of hope I found on a card that reads, "Hope believes boldly, decides daringly, speaks firmly, and perseveres passionately. See Romans 15:13." Curious about the origin, I discover that it's a quote from Joyce Meyer Ministries and explore the biblical context in Romans 15:13. I discuss the layers of engagement and the tension between focusing on positive aspects while acknowledging and addressing problematic issues. The episode concludes with a teaser for more thoughts on hope from an unlikely source.

As we close out 2023, one caller has me wondering just what the Ericast is all about. Wondering what I'm wondering? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment!

This entire episode and a miniature existential crisis is courtesy of Listener Abby. I'm not including Abby's call itself because she was on a walk at the time she called 701-645-3742 so she seems a lot more enthused or invigorated by the topic than most people should, but let me summarize: "Your intro and outro music does not reflect the whimsy that is you."

Abby is a coworker of mine and has known me for six months... and, she's absolutely right.  So, today is the world-premiere of the new Ericast intro music. Ready?

"From Ericast.com! Ready for your Weekly Whimsy? It's Eric Larson's Wacky Wonderings! Welcome... to the Ericast!"  (Featuring "If I Had A Chicken" by Kevin MacLeod )

No? Really? That doesn't work for you?

(It would've been even more exciting had I used something from the old Dimension music library !)

19 years ago when I was trying to get my mind around this "podcasting" concept of subscription audio... I was wrapping up my master's degree, I had a one-year-old at home, and I had just made a career pivot that ended up being a great opportunity but one that I wasn't always in the driver's seat for.

So, "whimsy" wasn't something I would embrace as an identity.

It's not that it's new. It's not that I've changed. I think I'm just comfortable enough with that side of myself to let it show, or maybe even lead with it rather than hide it... but all the other aspects of my personality -- the geek-tech driving industrial side -- are still in here.

Plus, I love history and having audio branding that's now 20 years out of date is kinda cool.

I could be convinced... but I don't think the Ericast is going to change its sound. At least not anytime soon.

Let me know what you think!

You knew I wouldn't be able to just leave a "missing song" sitting somewhere in my brain, right?. Wondering if I found it? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment!

As you might imagine, I'm not recording this on Christmas Eve, but I'm approaching the concept of teasing the notion of going back to an old Ericast plan of "batching" episodes -- something I never really did, particularly because I like these to be "timely," but in this case I want to capture my enthusiasm because... wait for it... I found the song!

I still love AI more than any healthy human should and I'm still playing with it. You might have noticed that last week's show notes included a summary of what the show was about. That was AI generated and edited in tiny ways by me. This week, I got to wondering what the ElevenLabs default voices are like.

I put in the show notes and it said, "This is a lot - you might want to do it as a 'Project' instead!" ...and when I clicked on that, of course it costs money. So I figured, "how confused can it get?"  You have to realize that, when it went viral that the default TikTok voice "Jessie" (based on Kat Callaghan , a Canadian radio host) decided to pronounce "Beyoncé" as "Bee-YONK," it brought me a deep hysterical joy... so this rendition of last week's show notes is just perfect. I love every second of it, including my "enthushiazm" for "aqueering" books that remain "untowch-ed". 

I have to admit I absolutely love that voice. There's a hint of "Boston Brahmin" combined with "bored valleygirl" - "Recently, Eric attended a conference in Las Vegas..." I love it. That reminds me that I need to get around to watching the movie "Her," I guess?

Anyway, that was last week, and I only spent a day or two spinning on that and trying to figure out the song before I hit on the magic phrase of searching the Ericast.com website for the phrase "closed with a song" because I knew I had mentioned it and I knew that was one of the things that was noteworthy.

The podcast was "The Electrified Mind " from Philip Isaac. It disappeared in the middle of 2020, in peak pandemic, and I have no idea where he went. I think the podcaster I knew in Florida was a different one... so, maybe a goal for 2024 is to track him down?

But we're not here for a former podcaster. We're here for his song, which was "Help You Out" by Leonell Cassio and sung by Jonothon Robins. Since the lyrics might be a bit hard for you to make out, and since you know I love a chance to use an AI voice, I include a reading of them courtesy of "Adam" from ElevenLabs.

I can help you out

I can help you out

Here we go, here we go again

Trying hard but you wanna be my friend

In a place to hide and no one to run to

Here we go, here we go again

Call my bluff imma be until the end

Im the one you ride, im the one you ride to

If you don't wanna change

In a place to hide and no one to run to

If you don't wanna change

I can help you out [repeats]

Here we go, here we go again

Time is up and im calling up my friends

And no one to ride and no one to ride to

Here we go, here we go again

Call me up and you wanna be my friend

Im the one you ride, im the one you ride to

If you don't wanna change

In a place to hide and no one to run to

If you don't wanna change

I can help you out [repeat]

Song Credits:

Help You Out (ft. Jonathon Robins) by Leonell Cassio / leonellcassio
Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download/Stream: http://bit.ly/2JiBzMv

I wonder how long I can go before we officially consider that I've "podfaded" but this is something I love to do and I'd like to get better at that. Wondering what I might be able to do to pursue that goal? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment!

I've got a bit of an excuse for not doing an episode last week, because I was in Las Vegas for a conference. Its new name was "AI Con," focusing on Artificial Intelligense, which is a topic I'm absolutely fascinateg by.

But the actual name of the conference was the "Ultimate Wealth Camp" which has been around for a few years and is... well, it's a thing.

And the same thing that gets me wound up in those is what keeps me from getting these podcasts out. It's not that I don't have enough ideas: It's that I have too many ideas, and I follow them to the point I get derailed.

So, you get a 10-minute episode, and eventually you'll get Darcy's followup story of the muskrat that joins the Navy... sometime later.

Speaking of, what does AI think I said in this episode? Here's its summary of the transcript:

I love podcasting, and I've been wondering how long it'll be before I officially "pod-fade." I want to improve and pursue this passion further. In episode 336, titled "Shelf Help Advice," I discuss my inclination towards self-help interests, ranging from business ventures to personal development. Despite my enthusiasm for acquiring books and PDFs on these topics, they often end up untouched on my shelf or hard drive.

I admit to having a cluttered physical space, exacerbated by dealing with my mom's belongings. The organizational challenges extend to my thoughts, and I speculate that I might have ADHD based on familiar symptoms. This mental tendency prevents me from structuring and organizing my podcast content, even though generating ideas isn't an issue.

Recently, I attended a conference in Las Vegas, initially named AICon but known as the "Ultimate Wealth Camp." Despite its marketing allure, my experience there was more interesting in unexpected ways. While leaving the hospital tonight where my dad is recovering from RSV (not COVID or flu but a severe cold) I tried to download a PDF offering life advice for 2024, emphasizing organization, yet that didn't work.

As I navigate through life's complexities, I express my struggle to find the right framework or mental model to declutter my mind. My penchant for diving deep into topics, illustrated by today's search for a previous royalty-free song, sometimes hinders my podcasting productivity. I share my inner struggle with finding the right balance between perfectionism and completion, acknowledging that "done is better than 'maybe slightly better'." Despite my recent lapses in podcasting, I express a commitment to improving not just for my audience but also for personal growth and discipline...

I've looked over the Ericast archives and wondered, "Why didn't I do any shows that one summer?" This summer explains it. Wondering what I've been up to? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

It's been awhile but I've been enjoying summertime in Minnesota. I've got notes on episodes I'd like to do - one on proximity-based ethics, maybe leading into one on a theology of empathy, and a different but related episode on the book "Leadership and Self Deception" from the Arbinger Institute... but first I need to do a simple reset and explain that I'm here and alive and well and just haven't gotten around to doing an episode.

The big "Stephen Covey Rock" that I was working around this summer was a quick trip to Denver for the first Canvas conference since the pandemic.

After such a long delay I don't want to leave you feeling unsatisfied, so let's close with a special treat: another Storytime with Darcy!

I've been dabbling with new technology during the past couple weeks to the point where I got downright giddy... and a bit disturbed. Wondering what I've been working on? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

In the last episode, a listener from California gave me a great tip to improve the stability of my voice recording tool from Eleven Labs. By turning down the "stability" slider, I was able to sound more like myself. This episode includes some fun throwbacks to when I used to include sweepers between segments.

I also share a personal story about an accident I had while woodworking. I learned a hard lesson about the importance of safety equipment and basic practices. Luckily, my friend was there to help me and I'm grateful for his support. From that day forward, I always use push sticks and other safety equipment when working with my tools.

If you're tired of hearing the same old stories, you're in luck! It's time for Storytime with Darcy! She shares a heartwarming tale about a curious squirrel named Nutmeg who witnessed Jesus performing miracles in the forest. Nutmeg was grateful for the experience and knew that the world was a better place because of Jesus.

I was a little surprised at how depressed I sounded in my first experimentation with AI-constructed voices. Think we can brighten its day? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

This episode speaks for itself... kinda. In a way.

Wondering if our new robot overlords are going to provide a better future for us? Let's give it a spin. Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

As you probably figured out by now, this episode is artificially generated based off short voice sample from the last episode. I made sure to not include any of the parodies of the Marines content or else my presentation would sound a lot more dramatic than it usually does.

However, what I'm finding is instead I sound incredibly depressed. I'm really not. My friend Eeyore says I sound fine to him. But, maybe I shouldn't be listening to a donkey. This also gives me the opportunity to try out some Steven Wright jokes: I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.  I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. So I said, "Got any shoes you're not using?" It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.

I have no idea if those are really jokes from Steven Wright but a page on the Internet said they were.

I also realized that a simple typo - did you catch the one a minute ago? - makes me say things that I'd never actually say. But, you'll also notice that there isn't a single "um" or "ah" or misspoken thing, which I think is a first for the Ericast in its 18 years. Happy Birthday to us, by the way. As I joked with Candela when she turned 18, "this means that now you can be tried as an adult". Otherwise, age is just a number... which is, like, literally, yeah, that's what it is. Like, by design.  That's how it works.  Anyway, we've been doing this show non-stop (except for extended delays) for 18 year and I never thought that this kind of technology would be a click or two away. Maybe 18 years from now I'll finally have my flying car.

Oops. Another typo. Or maybe I meant to say "18 year". You'll never know. Except you do, because that makes no sense.

I think this is my chance to experience my lifelong dream of being on National Public Radio.  "You’re listening to... The Delicious Dish, on National Public Radio. It’s Christmas season again, our favorite time of the year. I got real freaky this year. I’m asking Kris Kringle for a wooden bowl, some oversized index cards, and a funnel. I like to leave Santa some tap water and rice. If Santa’s anything like me, Christmas foods really reek havoc on the ol’ digestive system."

As you've probably figured out, I'm running these paragraphs in chunks and playing them back as I go to make sure this hasn't gone totally off the rails. And I just realized that's a terrible cliche to use, considering some of the disasters the nation's rail system has experienced so far this year. Anyway, this is a tool from a company called "Eleven Labs" and I'm having fun with it but frankly it's really pretty disturbing how good it is. My cadence is off, sure, but if I threw a statement in here that I recorded myself, I don't think you'd spot the difference. Unless I was REALLY enthusiastic!!! That might do the trick.

But, apparently, if I capitalize something it just becomes dramatic and breathy instead of enthusiastic. I wonder if that would help with my N P R career. "Sitting in for Terry Gross I'm Eric Larson and this is FRESH AIR." Hmmmmm.

Anyway, longtime Ericast listeners will remember the "Ericast from the keyboard" episodes where I would bounce an email, probably one from my Blackberry - remember those? - through a couple blog and email services until it would do a text to MP3 service and then drop into the Ericast feed. This could basically do that, except it's my voice, except that it's not quite "normal". However, this is based on a single training file grabbed from last episode, so maybe I can make it better.

I'm going to put this experiment to an end for now because frankly it's getting a little disturbing to listen to myself say things that I never actually said. I'd love to hear what you think - 701-645-3742 is the listener feedback line as always. Or, go out to Eleven Labs and sign up and generate a fake speech file with some of your feedback and email it to me... but calling is probably simpler.

I don't really want this to become a show about misheard lyrics, but I was really confident about this one. Want to find out how wrong I was? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

We're learning that my confidence regarding what a particular lyric says has very little correlation to what the lyric actual is, like my understanding of "Gone" by Lasgo.

Here's the video, where you can listen to the whole song (it's good!) and hear its lyrics in context:

This year has not started out the way I expected. Want some family updates and a couple calls? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

I'm down to the last few minutes of January and would like to wrap up my day, so here's how things have gone. And if you've got things to share, 701-645-3742 still works (as this episode will prove!) We had "great expectations" kicking off on the very first day of January. Then my birthday came, when we got a bunch of snow and Dad went into the hospital with what turned out to be pneumonia. He bounced back pretty well but was left with some muscle weakness so he's in a rehab care center for that. But the person you don't want getting pneumonia is my mom, because she's had lung issues for years so that's the thing that's going to get her. Well, spoiler alert, she went into the hospital last week with "severe pneumonia" and is now on comfort care with hours -- maybe days, definitely not weeks -- left. So, wow, that was a wild swing of events and means that I don't know how we'll I'm going to be maintaining the Ericast schedule in the months ahead. Maybe I'll be a lot more regular as a place to reset and connect with all of you, and maybe I'll be juggling way too many other things. We'll see.

I'll tell more stories about Mom another time, but for now I'm going to see if I can return to the tradition of the last week of the month being "listener feedback"... like the call from Chad that seems like it might be referencing our last episode. And we can always count on Matt in California.

If you've got your own feedback to share, you know what to do! 701-645-3742 or email or catch me on the flipside  socials.

Bonus: Here's someone's compilation of the AT&T commercials that I mentioned at the end of this episode:

I don't want to turn into a crotchety old man sitting on my porch yelling "Get off my lawn!" Instead, I'll be yelling "Stay on the street!" Wonder why? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

This was inspired by my visit to a local megachurch which sang the song "He Won't". If you're not familiar with what a church service is like in these kinds of churches, it's basically a concert in a TV studio. They've got a dolly track so they can truck a camera in front of the booth. Now they have a scissor jib. That's an environment I'm very comfortable in because I did TV production work in college, but I admit it's weird for me to pair that with a church.

These concerts are expected to be participatory - you're not there to watch the performers (though it is a performance) but to sing along. But if you don't know the song well, you're going to be singing along with the second part of each line as they put it up on the screen and your eyes catch up and you know where they're at.

Let's pair that with the understanding that "the brain doesn't process negatives ".

So, let's look at the lyrics of "Firm Foundation (He Won't)". It's a very pretty song. But what is it doing to our brains?

(Here's an example of how this is sung in a congregational context - not the church I went to, but the same kind of performance)

Thoughts on someone overthinking the psychology of straightforward statements? Share them! Call, text, email, whatever you're comfortable with!

Let's kick off the new year with rundown of what's in my podcatcher and a couple tips for organizing the next 365 days. Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

Who's out there? I don't want to be the weekly podcast that comes out once a month (or once a quarter) - let's see if we can make it weekly! Listener Matt has already engaged and inspired me - anyone else left? Digital Dan? Jonzer? Chad? Rob?

This is a "personal podcast" which is a phrase I use not as a patent-troll dodge but because this is a bit of communication with me, as a person. I wish all my friends did something like this. If you do, let me know and I'll listen!

A bit of housekeeping: I found our missing episodes from 2005. I'll be updating the blog and they might pop back into the feed depending on how Feedburner handles that. Yes, Feedburner is still working!  Also, at some point (maybe for our birthday in March?) I should switch things over to "https" because even though we're not really passing interesting hackable stuff around, today's web browsing environment likes that. In fact, Google complains with "Your site is not mobile friendly!" and I should consider a different Blogger template... but there's only so much I want to do to break the site (and, frankly, the "mobile" perspective on a podcast homepage is a weird world because podcasting is happening through directories and podcatchers...)

Tech tip of the day: If a website behaves in goofy fashion, take a look at "http" vs. "https" and see if that makes a difference.

Those organizational tips I promised. 1) I'm going to read "The 12 Week Year ". 2) Cut up a calendar and tape it to your wall with blue-tape (which is a particular kind of masking tape that doesn't dry out or tear off paint) so you can see the year laid out visually. Mine is in the hallway outside Studio A because it's dead space (can't hang a picture or a whiteboard) but very visible.

What am I listening to right now as we start off 2023?

Marketplace Tech - I've been listening to this for years and years, ever since it was on the radio as "Future Tense" with Jon Gordon as host. This is basically the "Ship of Theseus" of podcasts because not a single thing about it is the same as it was 20 years ago yet I still think of it as the same one. https://blogs.publicradio.org//futuretense/2010/04 Techmeme Ride Home (Matt in California gets full credit for turning me on to this one and it's terrific) The Jordan Harbinger Show - I come and go with this one and it's back in the rotation The New Evangelicals Podcast - nobody will listen to this because the non-religious will think it's a church-thing and the religious people will think it's WAY too irreverent. That makes it exactly right. Plus or minus 10% if you hear something from that host I probably agree with it, quite possibly with a hearty passionate agreement Daily Boost Motivation and Coaching - heard about it on the Jordan Harbinger Show. Great if you want a smooth, 10-ish minute daily musing

My own church doesn't have a podcast (their sermon videos are online) but I do listen to podcasts from:

Our former church The new church of the former pastor of our former church, which he started after he was caught in a scandal and resigned and promised he wouldn't start another church The "competing" church which opened a satellite campus just a couple miles away That church's "leadership podcast" because the hip thing to do if you're a megachurch is start a "leadership network"
I really don't mean to sound cynical here; there are good folks in these communities, but there's also some flawed stuff -- sometimes to the level of "toxic" -- and I think it's important to know what's going on with the people you're connected to, both good and bad.

The Fairly Spiritual Show - Doug Bursch hasn't put out an episode since May of 2022 and I keep hoping that he'll come back, just like the Ericast has time and time again. You're never really done until you declare that you're done, like... The Reply All Podcast -  I don't listen anymore, because in June they announced that they were done and that their episode 189 would be their last. Zestology: "Energy, Vitality and Motivation" - this is another one that comes and goes from my feed. Social Media Secrets with Rachel Pedersen - nationally known in social marketing circles but happens to be based here in the Twin Cities, and I listen to her more for the random "life advice" insights than the professional marketing tips since I'm not doing professional marketing.
What's missing from last year? Hal Elrod, Jeff Sanders, Mark Mason, Ray Edwards, Brian Hardin, Michael Hyatt.  Great content, good people, not always 100% correct about everything, nobody ever is. But there's only so much "intake" I can do before I need to focus on some "output".

But, all of those people have content that I can download and stream on demand. I just did with Ray Edwards, and got the update on him and his Parkinsons and the "deep brain stimulator" that he had implanted and is doing terrific things for him. So, just because there's not a "constant automatic subscription" doesn't mean I can't check in once in awhile.

And you can do the same. The key is, I really do want to hear from you.  Call 701-645-3742. "Oh, I don't want to bother him with a call!" Really, it's no bother at all! "Okay, but I don't want to try to verbalize a message!" That's okay - shoot me an email, or a text, or whatever. Just let me know how you're doing. If things are good, that's good. If they're not, I'll take the conversation wherever you like, including just leaving things sit at a place where life is rough. That's okay to.

I've got a growing list of podcast topics that I'm looking forward to working on... so, until next week, take care!

I'm not sure how long I can take an unannounced hiatus from the podcast before you think I've pod-faded, but I haven't. However, 2022 is a year I don't mind saying goodbye to. Ready to send it off? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

I really don't like the idea of this podcast becoming nothing but a self-referential commentary on the existence of this podcast, but sometimes that happens.

2022 was "fine" but in Minnesota "fine" isn't usually "good".  In my use it might mean "terrific!" which is something that we used to teach our debate students years ago - until you're on the bus ride home and you know that there aren't any opposing debaters or coaches or judges within earshot, every round went "fine". Not "awesome and I totally crushed that loser!" and not "terrible and I probably got negative points in it!" but "fine".

Fall semester flew by, and December flew by even faster.  I spotted an "Advent Beer Calendar" at Sam's Club - the reviews were correct that it wasn't very good, and that's saying a lot coming from me, but it was on sale even cheaper than Miller Lite so it was worth a shot -- and the best part about that is it helped me keep track of what day it was and how long it would take to get through December.

Candela is home for break. It's great to see her and Chloe playing the nostalgic Wii games - apparently they "won" Active Life Explorer? - and as usual my break is filled with attempts to declutter and clean and re-organize parts of the house.

No, I didn't pod-fade... but after a busy summer of life-events, I'm just checking in to let you know I'm alive and well. Well, there's one piece of bicycle-related news. Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!
Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!
Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

Questions? Comments? Life updates? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels including the old-fashioned email of me (eric) at ericast.com.

I don't want to sound sappy but the Ericast is now 17 years old. What's that mean for us? I'm not sure. Want to help figure it out? Here's your show.

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The Ericast was born on March 6, 2005 and somehow the way math works, calendars line up every so often, so this really is numerologically the same week as when the Ericast started.

So, now what?

A lot has changed in 17 years and a lot is exactly the same.

I had a 128MB iRiver. I now have a 128GB iPhone which, in addition to holding podcasts, is a magic piece of glass streaming video from the planet. 

Here's my newly slimmed-down list of podcasts for 2022 that I'm listening to on that magic piece of podcatching glass:

Marketplace Tech Techmeme Ride Home Reply All The Fairly Spiritual Show
Questions? Comments? Celebratory remarks? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels including the old-fashioned email of me (eric) at ericast.com.

After last week's fairly dark episode, we need something to lighten up the podcast, so I'm talking about a question that bothered me for ages. Here's your show.

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I spent my "formative teen years" in a little town called Cornucopia, Wisconsin. That's a long story but among its mere 50 year-round residents was a kind but somewhat mysterious old man named Albon Overgard who moved there after we did. Cornucopia was founded in 1902, although after we left they celebrated its centennial in 2003 and I have a feeling that's because they forgot about it in 2002 and so they just changed the year. But, anyway, Dr. Overgard was born a year or two later in 1904, so when I refer to him as an "old man" that's just a fact - he was closing in on 90, lived to age 92, and with the advent of the Internet we can find that he was a doctor who specialized in the digestive system...

Everyone has a story.

So that's why I was wondering who Khalid was singing about in Benny Blanco's song Eastside. It didn't seem to make much sense, but maybe Mr. Old Erzman was a really memorable, lovable figure in the narrator's life, like Dr. Overgard was?

The more I listened to it, the more endearing it became... but, it really didn't make sense.

Then a few months ago I looked up the lyrics...

I had a great plan for a series in August... and then September... and then October. Want to know about a series you're not going to hear? Here's your show.

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This episode isn't lighthearted. Here's a key takeaway for you: If you're in a community, organization, business, family, or political fellowship that you value and appreciate... and someone has an objection to it... you should listen to that objection.  You don't need to agree with it.  But if you dismiss it out of hand, you do that at your own peril.

If you know anything about me, and if you don't then you're about to learn, you'll realize that in college I came to identify as "Christian" and that my particular denomination or "flavor" was "Evangelical". In the past couple years, I've realized more and more that there are some things that are extremely broken in the "Evangelical church".

I've got friends who say, "Yeah, obviously, that's why I'm not a Christian!" I've got friends who say, "Yeah, it's really sad, and I do what I can to make the church a better representation of what Jesus told us to do." And I've got friends who have now chosen to leave my life and make themselves former friends who say, "Nuh-huh! No, there aren't problems! That's just what Satan wants you to believe. We are SO persecuted!"

That's what I was going to talk about.  But, I'm not going to -- at least not in the four-part series I had in mind -- because it's just too depressing a place to put myself into.

But I am, on occasion, going to use this podcast to do a little bit of "awareness raising".  Because I've got friends somewhere between that second and third category who are truly, sincerely, oblivious to the harm that's happening inside their churches.  Because I'm not in their church, I can see it. They can't. Jesus is known for a phrase that has always sounded odd to me "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" Like, who doesn't have ears? Well, I guess we all have ears... but I've found that not everybody hears with them.

I'll close with an example. And I have to give a trigger warning to my listeners with a heart for the LGBT community, that this clip is painful and hurtful to them. But that's not why I'm sharing it, because that's no surprise - if you know anything about "evangelical theology" you know that "tolerance" is a stretch, let alone love and affirmation. (And I know that there are some who, with a few extra words to make it flowery, would say that intolerance is actually loving, and we're not going to go there right now.)

Instead, I want you to listen very, very carefully to this clip from a youth ministry program. Remember it's not a random, off-the-cuff conversation -- these are prepared remarks which were then edited and produced and distributed. This is intentional doctrine, recorded in 2021 and shared with teenagers as part of a program answering the question "Is it a sin to be gay?" Trust me, this is an accurate representation of what you'll hear talking to the average person in this church. Put yourself in the shoes of a typical teenager as they list off examples of the "sins" that people struggle with.

And hence the title of the podcast episode that I'm not going to do: "Is Depression Sinful."  If you weren't listening carefully, replay the last few seconds.  We've established that in this worldview, it's a sin to be attracted to someone of the same sex. Now, it's not a sin to be "attracted" to someone of the opposite sex because that's God's design, but if it's "lustful" attraction, that's sinful. And deceit is a sin. But what's tucked in the middle of that list.  Depression.

If forced to confront it, you can say, "No, Eric, they don't mean that depression is sinful, just that it's a challenge that teenagers face?"  And if you truly, sincerely insist on believing that, there's nothing I can do to change your mind. All I can tell you is... No.  That's not what they're teaching. They're teaching that "depression" is a sin -- maybe it's self-indulgence, maybe it's for attention, maybe it's because you've been deceived by the world, but the solution is to "get right with God."

I have a problem with that.  In fact, teaching that depression is a sin might bump up against that other sin of "deceit" that they mentioned.

I don't have any power to change the hearts and minds of people who believe things like this. But I do have a chance at pointing it out to people who deny it happens in their church.  Trust me, it happens. And when it does, and you hear someone like me point it out, and you see the response that people like me get in return... maybe say, "hey, should we listen to what he has to say?"

Have you ever used a phrase for years and then one day you looked at it and realized it could mean something totally different?

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I've listened to an old episode or two with the "life updates" at the front and I've thought to myself, "self, just get to the point!" so I'll keep things short to explain how I don't even think I'm on a "quarterly" schedule anymore.

Does the listener feedback line work still work? How do you  say "root" and "bag"...?  Do I have Windows 11?  What great questions!

per·for·mance

/pərˈfôrməns/

1. an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment.

"Don Giovanni had its first performance in 1787"

Similar: show, production, showing, presentation, entertainment, staging, act, concert, recital, house, gig

2. the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.

"the continual performance of a single task reduces a man to the level of a machine"

Similar: carrying out, execution, discharge, conducting, conduct, effecting, accomplishment, achievement, completion, fulfillment, dispatch, implementation, effectuation

Definitions from Oxford Languages

I'm kicking off my 2021 podcasting with a brain-dump of random things, tied to the most random yet chronologically relevant title I could think of. Here's your show.

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What do we cover in this episode? Well...

Recording in Studio D where it's 27 degrees (and 12 degrees outside) The year is about 13% over I got a new computer and while pandemics are bad it was convenient thanks to Best Buy curbside pickup There's a pastoral transition at our old church My parents are mid-vaccine My sciatic issues are greatly improved and I should do a podcast episode on what "okay" and "fine" mean in Minnesota Shout-outs to longtime listeners. Thank you for your years of support! I'm on Clubhouse now and we'll see where that goes. Zinnias, artificial wood, geraniums, and cilantro. It makes sense in the episode Techmeme Ride Home and Kottke Ride Home, along with episode #167 of Reply All and "America's Hottest Talkline"

I warned you that it was random! I'm eager to stay in touch and will take feedback in all forms but if we want to keep it formal and official-like, give 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) a call!

2020 has been a really rough year in lots of ways for lots of people. So, let's close it out with something completely different, because I was listening to a song and thought, "She's singing about what?!?" Want to know what it actually was? Here's your show.

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In the last few hours of 2020... We just need a break with something light.  Call 701-645-3742 if you've got your own contribution.

I've got a Pandora station based on The Weeknd (Blinding Lights in particular) and the song "Ocean Drive" by Pia Mia comes up occasionally. It was released in 2017 but seems to be in circulation now.  It's got a great beat, happy and bouncy.  In keeping this a work-safe, child-safe podcast, let's use a euphemism and say she's talking about having a "picnic" on the beach.  That idea has never appealed to me because it seems that sand would get everywhere.  I like fluffy blankets. Sand isn't fluffy.

Anyway, coming out of the chorus, she explains that they've got a couple of haters.  I get that -- as I said, this sounds awkward and uncomfortable.  And then she explains that she's got... well, take a listen.

She's got a couple potatoes.  That's it.  It has to be.

Once you Google the lyrics you discover that they apparently have "a couple spectators."

But I say it's "potatoes."  And among everything else, that's what we can remember 2020 for.

An Ericast listener wrote, "Awesome episode this morning. Wow!" And I'm going to turn that comment into an entire new episoide. Wondering how? Here's your show.

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Highlights: Squeezing this episode out so it's dated in November. Still doing "weekly episodes about once a month". Still talking about the back flareup.  Losing track of what letter studio I'm in  - this might be "Studio E" for Eric's Space.  "Honest critical feedback." Old joke - "If Vivaldi were alive today he'd be turning over in his grave!" Throwaway line that was criticized later because of the "or something like that" tacked on.  (I have plenty of malapropisms but that wasn't one, and so what if it was?)

Got a kind word to share? You know how. And share one with someone else today, too.

I didn't mean to predict things a year ago. I really didn't. Here's your show.

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What was I thinking about pandemics and travel?

Got your own comments about what things might look like a year from now? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I talked to a longtime Ericast listener a couple weeks ago and he said he was waiting for "the quarterly Ericast." Ha, ha, very funny! I know it's been awhile, but it hasn't been... oh. Want the quick update on my life?  Here's your show.

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Among other things, this is the premiere of Studio D! I might sound louder or more enthusiastic than normal because Studio D is a shed.

Pandemic (it continues)
Sciatic flare-up for no good reason Life as faculty Candela animating the last podcast episode

And I wasn't kidding about robins in the yard:

 

Questions? Observations about early snowfalls? Need shed advice? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

You know, the Ericast has a long history of disappearing for awhile, usually in the summertime, usually because I'm busy with fun stuff. But when historians look back at this gap in the schedule they're going to say, "Ohhhhhh..."  Want a quick check-in? Here's your show.

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Nobody here is covid-affected, and if you want to know about that part of the world, read any other messaging about it, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff.

I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't record a profound thought from a dream last night, not because it was probably that profound but because I'd like to look back at what I thought was profound. Or, maybe it was.  Who knows?  Oh, well.

The Electrified Mind podcast disappeared.  A "Daily Empowerment Podcast" that was weekly, and now there's no sign of it.  It was a fun podcast and they always closed with the same song, which turns out was a royalty free one... and it seems appropriate to cap this return with what I used to do in the early years of the podcast.  I'll put it after the close in case you don't want a musical interlude... but I think it's worth a listen in this age.

Help You Out (ft. Jonathon Robins) by Leonell Cassio
https://soundcloud.com/leonellcassio
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/2JiBzMv
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/hDCwRot8NWs .

Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I've not lost my voice and this is an actual episode, but it's a bit of a throwback while locked in our pandemic-sheltered world. Wondering about where this voice came from? Here's your show.

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This is normally where I'd put a summary... but you just have to listen to this one for yourself. It's only 10 minutes; you'll do fine.

Questions? Memories from your childhood that you want to share? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I thought about calling this episode "What a Month!" but I already did that two years ago so I'm picking a particular topic for this episode. Wondering what it is?  Here's your show.

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"I ask that everyone treat each other kindly, show gratitude for the work that’s being done, and forgive any mistakes."

Questions? Reflections on leadership? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or reach out to me through any variety of social media channels.

I hope that title didn't scare you because, no, I'm not planning on ending the Ericast. But I have changed my personal podcast listening habits. Wonder what they are? Here's your show...

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You know the drill - I'd love to hear from you!

I'm down to the wire on the end of the year and the end of a decade, depending on how you count. Want a quick update on how this fall went? Here's your show.

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There's really no topic for this episode -- it's truly a "Yeah, life has happened the past couple months.  Here I am."  Still there?

Questions? Comments? Objections? Interjections? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and contribute.

Where did October go? Well, I was busy jetting off to a location literally dozens and dozens of miles from home. Let's recap the EDUCAUSE Conference.  Here's your show.

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I'm trying to get better at flying.

This year's EDUCAUSE focus was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  Last time, seven years ago, it was on student retention analytics.  Seven years before that was lecture capture.  And eight years before that I had a focus on "computer competency" because that's where I started my career, so I don't really know what the other key themes were at the time.

I try to make the most of whatever opportunity I'm given. I don't always succeed, but if I'm conscious about preserving "an attitude of positive regard" then I can watch out for living in negative space.

Do I want to be a CIO?  (Hint: No.)  That's best explained by a clip of Tony Wrighton on the Zestology podcast and his interview with Chris Ryan, author of Civilized to Death .

Questions? Comments? Observations? Give a call to 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and share.

Sometimes you hear things that weren't said. And sometimes you don't hear things that were said.  Confused? Curious?  Here's your show.

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Spoiler alert: I made it 10 seconds into this episode without making a mistake. Can you hear it?

Are crickets good luck? I don't think so, but I have to live with it.

I listen back to my podcasts after they're published, not for vanity's sake but to make sure that everything is as I intended it to be, that it sounds okay, that I didn't misspeak, etc.  And from the last episode, I caught myself saying something that sounds like something I didn't actually say...

(I have a common phrase -- "the God of the Universe".  That probably dates back to a record that I had when I was a little, little kid -- a really cool transparent red acetate record that discussed the nature of the universe.)

So, what did Neil Armstrong actually say ?  (No, that's not a non sequitur; listen to the episode.)

There are at least three distinct topics in this episode, so share your thoughts on one or more of them at 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742)

Every once in awhile, someone -- like an old friend -- says something
really profound that pivots your life. Want an example? Here's your
show.

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It's still "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month" but I'm bringing back the "listener feedback at the end of the month" theme... because I couldn't sleep.

I did get some feedback way back in June. Every so often I think, there's got to be a better way to automate these podcasts and stitch files together and maybe we could just take the feedback and push it straight into a feed...

...okay, so maybe that's not a good idea, and maybe automation isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  But we do get calls from reliable longtime listeners, like the one Matt made right after I was talking about informercial giants...

How long will be it before spelling things out with the phone keypad makes no sense?  I'm glad my car dashboard still includes it because I only know our main office number based on how it's spelled.

Anyway, that brings is to the final call of this month's show, which came right after the last episode about my Tall Mike Stand.

I called and talked to Mike after he left this message, which was great, and we didn't get to dive into the church-naming conversation.  Some other time!  As an aside, Gimlet Media has a podcast on "startups" and the series from a year ago was on "church planting"... where one of the things they mention is competition for attendance numbers so that the math works out to become financially self-sustaining.  That's also a topic for another day.  But during that call with Mike (after I mentioned how wonderfully amazing it is that we can pick right up in the conversation after being away from each other for years) he said, "You can't make old friends.  You can make new friends, and they might become old friends, but you can't make old friends."

And it's funny that he mentioned the church-naming thing, because we actually visited our old Berean Baptist stomping ground a couple weeks back thanks to a break in our Oak Hills Church schedule.  We walked into our small-group classroom and picked right up where we left off three years ago.  Jonzer was at the coffee cart upstairs (and apologized for being behind on listening to the podcasts; I pointed out I was behind on recording them, so he was probably fine). It was really strange to drop into an environment like that and get another living example of the value of "old friends".

So, if there's any advice in this podcast, I guess it's to go out and make some old friends... and you do that by either strengthening the old friendships you have, or make some new friendships and keep them strong enough to become old.

Let me know what you think!  701-645-3742 (which, while you're using a device that can spell something out, spells out 701-645-ERIC).

I got a tall mic stand, so it sits on the floor and doesn't pick up table vibration. But if I do a podcast on that topic, nobody's going to listen.  Maybe it'll sound better if I just move the words around?  Here's your show.

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I'm not kidding.  That's really what this episode is about.  I'm still trying to streamline the recording process because that's the only thing that's keeping me from coming down here to Studio A (which is comfortably cool in Minnesota summers) and getting an episode recorded.  In this case, it's going to take three or four times longer to post this than it did to record it.

Thanks to Matt from California for the feedback -- in Northern California, which I assume was earthquake free this month.  One of my colleagues experienced a 3 a.m. aftershock while at a conference in Long Beach, which is south of L.A., and I realized that "experience an earthquake" might be on the bucket list that I don't keep.

People live. People die. I get that. But sometimes things line up in a way you didn't quite expect. If you ever wanted a peek inside my fascination with get-rich-quick celebrities, here's your show.

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We're continuing with "the weekly podcast that comes out about once a month."  And while I'd much rather be upstairs sleeping right now, I came down to Studio A because the chances of me getting a podcast out on a Friday night are slim, and then we're in June already!

Growing up reading magazine ads but having no money to send the $9.95 and the SASE.  The famous "What is this woman doing?" ad that I can't find any sign up; that might be my summer research project.  (Anyone know what it was?)

Whether they knew it or not, people know the kind of world I'm talking about because Don Lapre was popular, and popular enough to be parodied by David Spade on SNL.  He'd set up a half-hour informercial where he'd stand someplace exotic like a beach and tell you the magic of "placing tiny classified ads..."

Well, that didn't end well.  "Lapre died on October 2, 2011, while in jail awaiting his trial, which was scheduled to begin on October 4, 2011."

The other infomercial king at the time was Carleton Sheets. His informercial theme was real estate, and his videos usually featured palm trees between him and the ocean.  In search for more information years and years ago, I came across the website of John T. Reed.

John T. Reed maintains a website of "real-estate-invesement gurus " and in addition to discussing Carleton Sheets, he spent a realy long time documenting his lawsuit with a guru named Russ Whitney .  Those lawsuits were settled in 2005 and that information is gone now... but it stuck in my head.

So, fast-forward to the fall of 2017.  I had signed up for some sort of "internet investing" seminar that was being held at the new Radisson Blu hotel attached to the Mall of America .  If nothing else, it'd be cool to see the hotel.  So I went, and the speaker introduced himself as "Russe ll Whitney".  That sounded realy familiar.  Long story short, this was Russell Whitney Jr., who's the spitting-image son of Russ Whitney of 1980s real estate marketing fame. The seminar was for MOBE, which was an internet-marketing Ponzi scheme (which then got shut down by the FTC last summer ).

Prior to that shutdown, Russell gave an interview on a marketing podcast talking about overcoming his (major, dangerous) drug addictions and staying 100% clean because of his addictive personality (NSFW language in the podcast, but it's a really great interview: https://www.droppingbombs.com/russ-whitney-be-rich/ )

Last September, he posted an Instagram photo with a touching note that concluded: "I love my wife and son with all my heart. They have made my life complete. # success # familymatters"

(You're right; this story doesn't end well.)

Miami-Dade is an open-records county and less than 24 hours after I requested it I got a copy of the coroner's report: Russel Whitney Jr. died on November 20th, 2018 of "Acute Combined Drug Toxicity (Heroin, Fentanyl, Acetyl Fentanyl, Oxycodone and Cocaine)"

What do you do when you have a "comeback story" and the comeback doesn't stick?

People, businesses, faith communities - they all have names. But do they really mean anything? Yeah, I think they do. Here's your show.

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I had intended to batch some shows, but we see how that went.  So this is live-to-harddrive on April 29th, after an amazingly strange past few weeks.  Many of us had to take a detour from things like podcasting, because we were shoveling.

So, I'd intended to get this show out before Easter, when it would've made sense, but I didn't.

Better than last year's Minnebar blizzard, I have to say...

The Ericast Studio A is slightly less cluttered now and we'll see what summer brings.

Questions?  Comments?  701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or drop a note to me (eric) at ericast.com, or find me on the social medias.

A few weeks back, listener Digital Dan pointed out it had been 45 days since that last Ericast. Want an update? Here's your show.

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The weekly podcast that now comes out about once a quarter. That's not good. Amber googles, smart bulbs, etc. Tuya bulbs. Winter was hard! This is one of the most scatter-shot, thrown-together Ericast episodes in a long time.

But you can still reach out! 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC), or via your social media method of choice.

It's a new year and time for resolutions of sorts. Wondering about my top priority for 2019? Here's your show.

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You know, "2019" seems to roll off the tongue pretty well. My wife was trying to get our Alexato play the podcast and she discovered that it's hard to find this "Ericast" but there's at least one other "Eric Cast" out there.  But I'm pretty sure I'm the original.  I know at least one other person listens to the Dweeb Thoughts feed, so in 2019 I might try to be more regular about that.

But the real thing I'm focusing on is getting rid of saying "ummmm" because I'm realizing it's really distracting!  Maybe I'll make that an official 2019 goal, or at least a quartly one.  (Mark Mason mentioned "The 12 Week Year" in his Late Night Internet Marketing podcast, episode 159: Keys to Achieving Your Goals in 2019)

Also, I'll do fewer personal details (I think, maybe?) because I noticed when going through the back-catalog that it's hard to get to the meat of a podcast topic while slogging through the basics of my life.  That won't change for the nearly 14 years of back-catalog on the podcast, but maybe it'll be better in the next 14 years.

Listener feedback will still be key to the Ericast.  It's one of the best features of Seth Godin's "Akimbo" podcast so I'd like to keep that up here.

Closing with the life updates rather than opening with them (because you didn't think they'd disappear entirely, would you?) I have a weird problem where something is syncing old photo collections into my Photos directory, which causes my fairly small SSD drive to fill up, which causes Windows 10 to turn on automatic compression so it can function.  Very odd. So I'm declaring auto-syncing bankruptcy right now and am uninstalling Google Drive (that was easy) and iCloud (which is taking forever... leading me to wonder if that's what was causing the syncing problem).  Stay tuned to find out more.

As always, share your thoughts. Next week I think I might talk about what's on my podcast roster for 2019 -- I did that before but it's been a few years now, and tastes change.  Questions?  Problems?  Worries?  Call 701-645-3742, email me (eric) at ericast.com, or reach out on social media.

I've always promised to mix in a bit of theology into the Ericast, and this is one of those episodes. Regular listeners will love it. Some in the "silent majority" might not. But I really, really believe in this message. Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

No, that episode title isn't a typo; this episode is focused around a three-word quote from Paul Prins, who I first met when he demoed Freshvine at Minnedemo in July 2013 .  (In fact, I just realized that I mentioned it on an Ericast at the time, entitled MinneDemo 2013 Hipsters ...)

Anyway, this episode talks about the importance of Grace and Forgiveness. Sure, sure, we know it's important.  No, it's really important.

Agree?  Disagree?  Comments in general?  You know what to do.  I'd love to hear from you.

Sometimes a book really affects you... and here's one example, with the twist of a really strange timeline. Curious? Here's your show.

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

It's been awhile. And it's was quite a summer, and quite a fall. Thanks for sticking with me... Or for joining the Ericast family for the first time.  Sorry I still haven't figured out my room noise. Maybe that's what kept me away from the mic.  I'll try to change that.

Starting when I was 11, I spent my summers in Cornucopia, Wisconsin -- and lived up there year-round from age 16 to 18. Had I not been homeschooled, I would have turned the graduating class of the consolidated school district from 13 to 14 people.  Lots of stories there.

But early on -- maybe before we even bought the house and were just passing through -- I spotted a book exchange at the tiny post office.  And in that book exchange was a paperback with the gleaming foil title: WARDAY

By the time Warday had come out in 1984, I had started a club called "Kids For Peace".  I knew about the issue of nuclear proliferation before Special Bulletin and The Day After and Threads.  And I don't think that the following generation -- the "late Gen-X" born in the early 80s -- really understand what it was like to live under the thread of a Soviet nuclear attack.

Anyway, I had never heard of the book, but with some trepidation (simply because it was spooky) I watched Warday pass on October 28, 1988.  And that, was exactly 30 years go.

If this timeline starts to sound messed up, it's because it is.  And it's explained in a Warday review I found thanks to Google, from Mitch Edgeworth .  He does a better job than I could, so I read it.

Thoughts? Reflections?  Reach out at 701-645-3742 or any of the usual Ericast venues.

Huh. It's been 300 episodes since the Ericast started in March of 2005. Want me to say something about that? Here's your show.

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I'm still here, so are you, and I think we both appreciate both of those facts! 701-645-3742 is the listener feedback line even though I don't put much of that feedback in the show anymore, but we'll see how we do.

Can't find my July episode on the computer but it apparently happened. I said it was in "Studio A" so it should be on this computer.  And the theme was "Everyone is quitting..." but I'm not.

I promised that I had nothing special planned for this episode, and I keep my promises!

Since the July 1st episode that apparently happened, I went to Colorado and I have plans for Studio D.  It's been a good, full Summer, with more ahead for Fall.

Questions?  Ideas?  Give a call at 701-645-3742 or reach out any other number of ways.

I'm back with a short (?) reflection on the fact that not everyone is. It's been a great spring and early summer, but without some of the things I thought would be around this year. Want the update? Here's your show.

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Remember that the Ericast is a "personal podcast"... and I've got an explanation of that phrase late in this episode.  June was a month of stay-cation time. (Back to work tomorrow!)

Technical note: Our old web server, circa 1997, has been decommissioned.  The logo was held on that template and as some point I got a login prompt instead of just an empty graphic.

Other features of this episode: Vocal Fry and some a low-level background hum in Studio A which I think is from my CPU fan (and which I bashed down with a noise reduction filter, which creates issues of its own...)

Ignite Minneapolis

Patrick Griffith

Remodeling Clay podcast

Possible highlight of the summer: Meeting Matt from California in person.  Pro: I introduced him to the Juicy Lucy .  Con: I gave myself a Chris Farley show moment of not driving him up past some of the Minneapolis lakes .

See you in Episode 300!

P.S.  That "header graphic" I mentioned? The one you've seen so many times you probably don't even think about it?  Here it is:

It's my annual review of Minnesota's technology un-conference, and this time Candela joins me. Interested in a special double-length stereophonic episode? Here's your show.

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Technical note: This week's episode was recorded with my trusty old Olympus WS-320M with two lav mics and a "dual-mono to stereo" adapter plug.  It's the quick, easy, and super-cheap way to record two people and split them on the left and right channels. Let me know if you like the sound and interview style; I don't think most interviews are separated on L and R channels to this extreme, but it works for me

So, I said last week that Dan's April Fool's episode saved the show. Wondering what I meant by that and what the plan was?  Here's your show.

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I'm recording this early (which is unusual) and it's an incredibly cold April. But the sun now is the same as it is during the "State Fair" (which is a big deal here in Minnesota; it closes Labor Day weekend) so it's melting off. Recent mornings it's been 10 to 15 degrees, and remember that we do degrees in Fahrenheit around here.

So, I missed March entirely, which is the birthday of the Ericast. We're officially a teenager now!

Anyway, the April Fools show had been in mind since late last year, and what it was going to be was a parody of a radio morning show.  It's Rick and Karen in the mornings, on KZ10! Karen, tell us what kind of traffic we're seeing from Chopper 10 and the KZ Action News team live over Fargo!  ("We don't have a helicopter, Rick.")  Okay, then we'll assume there isn't any traffic, because there never is.  Remember that when you hear the new Bruce Springsteen song, be the tenth caller to the studio line with the 'phrase that pays': Nobody plays more music than Fargo's powerhouse for today's top hits from Bismark to Moorhead to put the rattle in your cattle, 99 1/2 FM KZ10.

It was going to be great.

So, to flesh it out I went out to YouTube to grab some audio from old Duluth TV commercials that I'd put up years ago...  And they were gone.

The entire account was gone.

The way my brain works is I get some sort of whimsical idea, and then I buy a domain name that goes with it, and then I build a site around it, and then nothing happens with it but I hang onto it forever because I can't let it go.  Welcome to my brain.

We bought our first VCR in 1985 and I'm a packrat, so I have all sorts of things taped off-air, and that means that there are snippets of news shows and commercials in boxes and boxes of tapes.  The thing that marked that era was the gigantic hairspray-based hairstyles -- Google "Faith Daniels" if you want to see the epitome of "the look".  So, I bought a .TV domain and "Big Hair TV" was born!  And I never did much with it, except for uploading about a half-dozen clips of mostly Duluth television to its YouTube account, and threw a Wordpress-based video indexer onto the domain.

Now there's no sign of it.  I never got an email saying it was going to be shut down.  It was originally part of a free "Google for Business" account (so it had the "admin@bighair.tv" email address) and that was tied to a Gmail address.  And all of that got deleted.  (Like, completely deleted -- I have all the credentials and things cached on my computer and it comes up as deleted.)  And when that got deleted, the YouTube account got deleted.  And when that got deleted, all the videos disappeared.

So, those videos and their comments are gone.  They original encoded files for upload are still sitting on my hard drive, but the world will never see them.

That obviously distracted me from getting the radio parody done, and really got me thinking about how our digital content is or isn't managed.

I doubt it was a DMCA take-down, because that should've triggered some sort of notice... and nobody cares about old videos.  In fact, one of the anchors is PR and marketing executive in the Twin Cities and used the screenshot from my video in his presentations (which was fun to see -- he'd been one of my father's journalism students so it was one of those "small world!" things to introduce myself and make that connection).  Point being, it was a weird thing to get a reminder that everything on the Internet is permanent... except when it isn't, and might disappear without warning.  If Kevin ever wants to find that old clip of himself at the news desk with Stacie... he can't.

Oh, well.  At least I can drop the domains and save about $35 a year.  Because any time you buy a .TV domain, you really need the .COM to back it up.  :)

Speaking of... as I was putting these notes together, I wondered what was at "bighair.com" -- because, who knows; if they want to start a television show, I've got the perfect domain for them!  And this is even more interesting (to us geeks):  Their registrar has gone under.  So, their domain (which has never had anything at it) lapsed a year ago, but the registrar hasn't released it for repurchasing, because the registrar doesn't exist.

So even when you think things are completely safe because you've branded everything under your own domain rather than YouTube or Gmail or something you don't control... it's still not completely safe because if your domain registrar ceases operations, you can't get to the place that owns your name.

All of the Big Hair excitement was right before my trip to Utah with Chloe, which was the main focus for March, so those two things are my excuse for not getting some sort of birthday acknowledgement into the feed.

The Ericast continues to be what it always has been:  A peek inside by brain.  In audio form, so is it still a "peek" or does "peek" mean it's visual?  See, that's the kind of observation (another visual term!) that you find only on the Ericast!  Or maybe you find elsewhere, but it's randomly imposed on you only on the Ericast!

One last note:  A listener request.  We have someone who alleges (with good intent!) that I once did an episode about telephone prefixes and the invention of the naming scheme that led to things like swing-era songs named "Pennsylvania 6-5000!"  Do any of my dedicated listeners remember anything like that?  I don't... but I have almost 300 of these behind me.  There's no secret stash of show notes -- what's written is what's published, so you've got access to the same back-catalog of notes that I do.  It would take some sort of memory of "Oh, that came up when you were talking about such-and-such..." and I don't have that.

Remember, your feedback really matters. Let me know you're out there! 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or any other means of tracking me down and letting me know what you think.

 

This episode comes to you thanks to one listener, but that means something different than what it meant last time.  I'll explain next week.  In the meantime... Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

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Questions? Comments? Call the Comment Line mentioned in the show!

This episode comes to you thanks to one listener. Wondering where I've been? Here's your show.

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

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Everyone: Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

When "money is no object" I don't get a self-driving Tesla or a... what else is a hip car?  No, I get a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited.  Why?  Listen and find out. 

 

We're kicking off a brand new calendar year for the Ericast, and it's already a week into it.  (I did the math!) You know what that means?  Here's your show.

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Reminder that you're listening to a "personal podcast".  It's a bit like reading a lifestyle blogger, except I don't have a niche lifestyle that I podcast about.  And that's okay.  What I hope is that it's interesting -- maybe useful, maybe entertaining, maybe profoundly life changing, maybe just an intriguing diversion. But interesting. Thanks for listening.

I figured I could kick off the podcast by doing a "what's Eric listening to?" like I did last year.  And then I went looking, and discovered that I did "My Podcast List" in January 2015 .  And, ironically, that realization -- that I was two years off in my memory -- fits right in with the theme I chose this week: time sure is speeding by!

One week of a brand new year has already flown by in a blink.  I'll get back to that in a couple minutes...

I narrowed down my podcast list recently, so this is actually pretty current for what I truly listen to:

Marketplace Tech with Molly Wood - has "changed hands" over the years and changed formats, but a consistent favorite since Jon Gordon ran it as "Future Tense" years ago.

Get-It-Done Guy, Stever Robbins .  Short, entertaining, good concepts; if you’re fairly straight-laced, don’t be put off by the quirky persona).  Hasn't changed since 2015!

Remodeling Clay with Clay Shaver.   Every Thursday.  Can't miss it.  It's not "self help."

The Order of Man from Ryan Michler . Framed as guys' issues but not necessarily for men only.  I smile my way through the intro, but the content is usually excellent and always interesting.

The One You Feed from Eric Zimmer .  Named after the wolf metaphor.  I'm getting used to this one.

The New Man (NSFW language) – interview podcast good exposure to new people/ideas.  I keep it in the feed but don't listen regularly and its schedule is almost as bad as the Ericast.

Reply All .  I really, really love this show.  Think of it as an edgier version of NPR by people who left NPR but have all the talent of NPR producers.

Late Night Internet Marketing with Mark Mason (perpetually on the border of podfading so I really should give up on him particularly since I'm not doin internet marketing work... but I'm still emotionally rooting him on to succeed.)

The $100 MBA Show .  This one I listen to and then skip past the irrelevant episodes.

Smart and Simple Matters with Joel Zaslofsky . "Creating Community, Simplicity, and Authenticity with You."  Someday I'll do a whole show on my relationship to/with Joel.

And wrapping up with three that have stayed in my feed for years:

Ray Edwards Show

Achieve Your Goals podcast with Hal Elrod

5 A.M. Miracle with Jeff Sanders

And in catching up on those, I heard something interesting from Hal Elrod.  It's a great podcast and episode 201 is particularly interesting because you hear him on the episode, which has been rare as he's been fighting cancer.  If you want to hear more about that, listen to this episode, as he and co-host Jon Berghoff discuss their "top three tips for achieving your goals in 2018".  It reminds me of my "Goals vs. Desires" realization that dates back to 2008 and I don't think I've ever done an episode on it... maybe that'll be the next Ericast...

Always eager for your feedback!  Getting a video clip from Matt in sunny California while he was on a 60-some-degree bike ride and I was sitting inside in sub-zero temperatures (not sub-freezing... sub-zero. Fahrenheit) was one of the most soul-refreshing experiences I've had in a while.  So, your feedback really matters.  Let me know you're out there!  701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or any other means of tracking me down and letting me know what you think.

Wrapping up 2017 by revisiting an old theme as we move into 2018.  Here's your show.

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This is a throwback or review of a topic I addressed back in February 2017: how to better cope with (and perhaps even embrace) your "inner critic " that wants to cut you down.  I always liked that episode, so i was pleasantly surprised when I heard Chandler Bolt's Episode 26 of the Self-Publishing School .  Don't be scared away by the topic (if you're not into the idea of publishing a book) -- his guest was T. Harv Eker and the entire episode was great... but one part in particular stuck out.

Take a listen to this shorter-than-average episode and let me know what you think (of both the content and the timing; I'm thinking that 10 to 12 minutes might be a better length than 20?).  As always, 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com -- or find my wherever finer social media is found.

When an interesting opportunity comes along... what should you say?  Here's your show.

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When unintentional caffeine induces insomnia, you get an unusual episode... but the thought still carries through.  This week, inspired by advice from PR strategist Arik Hanson , I juxtapose the advice from Jenna McCarthy on Modern Ontrapreneur (and, yes, their brand spells it "Ontrapreneur") with advice from Natalie Janji on the Achieve Your Goals podcast with Hal Elrod (and Jon Berghoff, who's filling in for Hal while Hal is undergoing cancer treatments).

These are both episodes from 2017, but the conversation really goes back to 2015 and even 2012 (and to the beginning of human history, I suppose) with podcaster-bloggers like Michael Hyatt:

How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty [Podcast S06E04] - Michael Hyatt

#027: How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty [Podcast] - Michael Hyatt

5 Reasons Why You Need to Get Better at Saying “No” - Michael Hyatt

Note (and this is bonus show-notes material not discussed in the podcast) that this isn't about dealing with rejection and being told "No," like Jia Jiang discusses.  This is you (or me) saying "No" to yourself or to other people.  Or, per Jenna McCarthy and Arik Hansen, saying "Yes".

Thoughts?  Want to say "Yes!" to me?  Cal 701-645-3724 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and let me know.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make an Ericast episode?  Here's your show.

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In what might possibly be the dullest Ericast ever (and one of the longer episodes, though it's only about a half-hour -- hang in there!) this is a narration of the entire episode-creation process, from logging in and plugging in the microphone (which was harder than it should be!) to hitting "publish" (and then coming back to tweak the posting).

In some ways I really hate to put this into the Ericast archive (especially right before the Minnesota Blogger Convention, since this will be the episode that any new friends will encounter if they rush out to listen and learn more about me) but I wanted to bond with longtime listeners and true friends-of-the-Ericast who might wonder why I disappear for long stretches of time.  No, it's not rocket surgery, but it isn't trivial.

Better episodes are ahead, but I'd love your feedback on this one.  Questions?  Ideas?  Call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know!

Yes, I've been gone awhile. But it's not like I don't have things to talk about. Maybe that's why I've been gone awhile. Want the scoop?  Here's your show.

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Thanks, anonymous person, for the text message of encouragement!  This episode is a list/discussion/monologue of some potential future episodes (proving that I really do have topics in store... "the list of episodes is strong but the podcasting motivation is weak"?)

Questions?  Ideas?  Call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know!

What's it all about?  No, not the deep meaning-of-life stuff, but the purpose of this podcast?

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I was pondering how I was going to frame this show and then heard something from Clay Shaver at Remodeling Clay podcast.

"Everytime I meet someone face to face from a Podcast I listen to... my first thought is 'did he have a stroke?' I'm a 1.8x Guy."  @RemodlingClay | 9:17 AM - 6 Oct 2016

Clay's perspective on the reason behind podcasting.  (I adopted this without even realizing it:  "Here's your show.")

Joe Rogan. Background pocast?  The exception to the rule?

We don't say "the" in front of freeways in the Twin Cities, and that would sound weird.  They're just numbers. "This morning, I'll take 35E to work. I exit before I hit 94 so traffic isn't bad. It slows down around 494, though."  (494 and 694 form the "beltway" around the downtowns that 94 runs through on its way up to North Dakota)

“For Southern Californians in particular, hella represents a crucial shibboleth separating the two major regions of the state"   Bonus points if you know where the term "shibboleth" comes from without Googling.

Hella reminds me a line from a TV commercial:  "Just say Stella!"  Or is it Pella?  Or is it "use" and not "say"?  And what's it for?  What a horrible jingle if I can't remember any of that?

Seasons as a podcast structure.  They can be good.  They provide natural breaks and entry/exit points.  But they only work with a themed show.  If I get into batching the Ericast, I might do it "silently" and do themes that amount to seasons.  My fear in that is setting an awful tone because the pre-recorded episodes don't take national (or personal) events into account.

Keep that feedback coming!  701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) or email me (eric) at ericast.com

For most people, summer is a chance to relax and unwind. Maybe it will be.

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This episode features a new Audio-Technica microphone!  Let me know if you like how it sounds.

The Ericast, which in 2005 was a weekly 20 minute podcast, is now "several times a year." That's a nod and a tease to Vince Miller's podcast.

What's the Spring 2017 summary?  Moab in March.  April - Warren Nelson.  Then back-to-back "Men's Conferences".  May - Hot air balloon ride for Candela and the Small Business Expo (like Get Motivated).   We've been at our new church for exactly a year, give or take a few days, and every few weeks I bump into someone who realizes that and says, "I had no idea you'd left Berean!"

What would you like to hear next on the Ericast?  701-645-3742 and let me know!

This is going to be a bit of a travelogue. So when you ask, "Where did you go with your daughter?" ... here's your show.

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I'm a little tired.  And, podcasts are just too hard.  I'm going to
be talking for about 20 minutes, so that's 20 minutes. But there's about
a half-hour of show-prep before that, typing up some notes and figuring
out what I'm talking about. And then there's at least a half hour,
probably closer to 45 minutes, of copying and pasting code to putz with
the feed.

Maybe I'm just reeling a bit from the loss of the Minnov8 podcast, which closed after 400 episodes.

And if I had an income stream, I'd hire out the podcast production, but I think my time is cheaper than that.

So,
I'm looking for some feedback on the future of the show.  As you can
tell, it's not very regular.  I love doing it, and I have plenty of
content to make it weekly, but I'm starting to think that an erratic
podcast is worse than none at all.

One good excuse for the delay, though, was a little family getaway.  Highlights:

Every-other-year schedule.
Western Utah in 2015, then Eastern Utah this year
Where to fly?
Flying United in leggings
Grand Junction
Utah Highway 128
Arches National Park
Canyonlands (Island in the Sky) and Dead Horse State Park
View of Castle Valley from I-70
Colorado National Monument
Flying home

Questions? Comments? Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and let me know what you think (and where I should take the show)

When you can't find the podcast that talks about the topic you want, you recreate it and hope that someone points out the source material to you. Let's see if that works! Here's your show.

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Well, it's been awhile, and there's a reason I was called back to the show.  Want a personal episode?  Here's your show.

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Let's reduce the show notes down to some links...

360-degree video of Duluth's Canal Park in February (with Chloe throwing rocks)
Tangent about whether God uses sickness and death as punishment, or discipline
Julia Brennan (local artist) and her song "Inner Demons"
Reboot.io podcast Episode #52 - "Feast On Your Life"

You never quite know what's going to drive me back to do a podcast
episode, and this week it's a profound throwaway comment from my boss. 
Curious?  Here's your show.

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"Not since 2011 has the Ericast been confronted with a five-syllabale year! How will we survive 2017?!?"

Remember when the world was going to end in 2012?  (or 2000? or 1999?)

Exciting task over break: We cleaned up Studio A.  Now featuring "a desk on a desk"

"Between the extremes of 'arrogance' and 'self-loathing,' kindness forms a healthy range of 'confidence with humility.'"

In
the context of conservative religious positions, or some extreme
political positions (not necessarily politically conservative)

We
decided that the right "balance" is to be confident in what you believe
you know, but humble enough to know you might be wrong, and that the
driving force behind that balance is kindness to keep an open heart and
listen to others.

Roger Thompson defined balance as something
you're always "moving through" -- you never "achieve it".  As a person,
that's true -- try standing on one foot.  You're not a pile of rocks on a
beach, that are stacked to be balanced and then stay there.

The extremes you have to guard against are arrogance on the confidence side, and self-loathing on the humility side.

And I'll admit that I'm sufficiently in touch with myself that I've been able to identify both in myself.

One of the benefits when you pursue experiences is that, sometimes, you learn something profound in a genuine, visceral way. Want an example? Here's your show.

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Everyone : Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

John 3 passage about the wind .

The Albuquerque Box explained .

Albuquerque Box time-lapse .

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I think I'm back in the iTunes Directory right now. Want to know what it took for that to happen? Here's your show.

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Everyone : Call 701-645-ERIC (701-645-3742) and comment

I've got a long history of episodes with a cold.  Some of that is the voicework tie-in, some is just mere convenience in the schedule.  Right now I'm faking my way through for the vice-provost and others; if I work hard, I can sound somewhat healthy.

It's Listener Feedback week, because the Ericast is about the listeners.  Back in July, I got a call from listener Steve saying that there were real people who cared that I wasn't in the iTunes Directory.  So, I fought to get back into the store.  I was been resetting the feed all last week; apologies if multiple copies came through!

(I'd would love to know what state the feed is in on your side, and you can tell your friends to just search the store!)

The "Dweeb Thoughts" name may or may not stick around, or come back. Thoughts?

We did get other listener feedback, and while no name was left I recognize this as the voice of listener Chad. Take care!

And do keep listening; I've got some actual episode topics on deck.  Let me know what you think -- 701-645-3742 a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC.

We've got an election coming up, and I'm going to say very little about it, except for one little clip from an old documentary movie. Here's your show.

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I've missed you. Maybe you've missed me? Putting this show together is so hard. It shouldn't be that hard, and that's what I'm finding at work, too. Straightforward things are hard.

So, I didn't talk about SimpleREV 2016 , but I will. And I didn't talk about my hot air balloon ride, but I will. And I haven't even played Steve's call. But I will But not today.

In the midst of that, Ruth was talking about showing The Atomic Cafe to her classes. I haven't watched it in years. Now that we're out of the Cold War and maybe into a new Cold War, it's interesting to watch.

And one clip stuck out. I wish I could find the reference, but here's the text from a transcript . It comes out of a nuclear explosion and leads into an Eisenhower
clip, but I don't think it's part of either one. It features a line-
drawing animation, but the narration is pretty haunting:

“In times of social crisis and tension. In times when changes come so
thick and fast that the individual can no longer place himself in his
group, when he knows something is wrong but doesn’t know what, when he
feels himself a pawn, in times like these most men become highly
suggestible. They listen eagerly for any voice which sounds
authoritative. They listen eagerly for anyone who can tell them what is
wrong, and what to do to right it – who can diagnose their troubles and
prescribe a cure.”

Let me know what you think. Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or drop an email to me (eric) at ericast.com.

Every so often I go on a bit of a theological rant. This is one of those episodes.  But whether you like talking about God or you don't, I think you like this one. Here's your show.

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Today's date has a lot of meaning, and maybe we'll cover it another time.

A theological joke is, "I feel like Job!"  Because nothing compares to Job. #FirstDraftSineadSongs.

But some bad luck starting with a now-dead cricket, culminating with weird GoDaddy domain experiences. And I realized, "a) It's not about the money, and b) I don't need to deal with this."

That's relevant because a) the feed is still changing (how's it going?), and the Ericast is a personal podcast, and this week is a personal topic.

Ray Edwards is a copy-writer.  He writes advertising copy.  Very good at it. He now shares the podcast with his son Sean as he battles Parkinson's Disease.

They have a "Spiritual Foundations" segment that I really like.

If you don't know, there's a lot of discussion, sometimes debate, even dissension in the Christian community. And you'd think, "Can't they all just get along?"  But the topic is important, and not everyone agrees on everything. And this is documented in the Bible, though while some might be the result of "sin," not everything is. It's just that we don't have the full picture.

Episodes 245 and 246 of the Ray Edwards show had a discussion to which I said, "YES!"  So I share it here, in the spirit of, "Hey, it's not just me!  At least two other guys agree with me."  Take a listen... Then consider my observations on 1st Peter 2 and 1st Thessalonians 4.

Questions?  Ideas?  Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) or try emailing me (eric) at ericast.com and see if that email address still works after my GoDaddy excitement...

The girls are at an age where we do at least one roadtrip adventure a year. This year, it was Memphis, Tennessee.  Wondering why?

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I almost named this "Walking in Memphis" but I'm in the middle of changing the feed and don't want a bunch of Marc Cohn fans flocking to the podcast and then getting confused and annoyed.

Topics this week:

Retired Navy Command Master Chief Evelyn (Vonn) Banks
Iowa City and Cyber Science 3D
ReUnion Brewery, featuring the "Grilled Salmon Salad" ($15 gets you mixed greens, lemon caper vinaigrette, caramelized onions, feta, and cucumbers)
Nauvoo temple, Mormon village and giant lilypads (American Lotus)
Peabody Duck March
Eating Catfish on Beale Street
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
Kudzu in Mississippi
Country Music on the drive north

Questions? Comments? Points of additional curiosity? Call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know what you think!

Some things become a habit or pattern, and sometimes that's good. Have you ever noticed that I've closed the podcast with the exact same pair or words for the past 277 episodes?  Here's your show.

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A month and a half after the last episode... again, it's (almost) early morning and raining here in the beautiful Minneapolis/St.
Paul metro area.  My biggest notice regarding this casual episode (you'll have to listen to learn the thinking behind my admonition to "take care") is that I'm going to be switching podcast hosts in the next week or two , so if your feed gets a bit strange, that's why.

Also, for the first time in forever, we've bumped up the quality of the Ericast file format and we're now at a whopping 64kbps -- still mono, though if a special stereo episode comes along it'll end up at 128kbps.  So, this file is double the "usual" size (sorry!) but it should sound slightly better if you listen through headphones or in a quiet environment.  If you were listening on the car/bus or while jogging/biking, you probably won't notice an improvement... but I'm curious if you do.  (Unfortunately, it might also make the background noise and microphone pops more clear...)

Do let me know how things are coming across on your side -- 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC)

"Listener Feedback" has been a part of the Ericast since the very first episode more than 11 years ago. So, let's celebrate one listener in particular. It might not be your show... but, here's your show.

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It's early morning and raining here in the beautiful Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.  So far, the July excitement has been cleaning and tidying and selling on eBay.  Thunderstorms , split-level homes , cars vs. semis . If the topics weren't somewhat random, it wouldn't be the Ericast!

This episode might sound like a swan song and it's not.  I'm still here.

What's the meaning of the ping ?  It asks if anyone is out there.  (Are you?)

Matt Beckwith - early caller after "Chloe's Lip Repair "

If you go back in the archives, he's the only one of those early callers left. Rob , Paul , Dan are all gone.  Sure, I still stay in contact with them occasionally, but the days of copying files over to the iRiver MP3 player are gone.

After all that... Matt still calls.

Roger Thompson references "guys you can toss the keys of your life to." Matt is one of those people, even though we've never met in person. (Though I know he's been through the MSP airport, which is the closest we've been because I've never been to California.)

His last call to our now-dead K7.net line was in February. Then, he did an e-mail interview with me for a series on his High Demand, Low Supply website , called "My Job Story".

I was honor that he asked me, and it was probably because he knew I could reflect.  That was a good experience. Hard, and healthy, and good.

Then, this spring, Matt's father passed away.  I wouldn't normally talk about someone else's personal life but he's published an outstanding tribute to his dad, Mel Beckwith .

Then, we switched numbers, and Matt knows the value of podcasting and calling in, so we have a new generation of calls.

Questions?  Problems? Worries? Concerns?  Comments?  Do you like sand? Do you know what that joke means?  Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and let me know.

If you're like I am, you say things like, "Someday, I need to..."  Last week, someday came for me and my daughter. What's your "someday"?

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Technical note: I still haven't gotten the iTunes podcast feed working yet, so if you're listening to this via a podcatcher, you've persevered and have manually added http://feeds.ericast.com/ericast to your application.  Thank you!  I'll let you know when that's working again.

Long story short, I took Candela to the Get Motivated seminar when they came back to Minneapolis this year.

Danny Allen hosted (and there's not a lot about him on the Internet ... unless I'm spelling his name wrong...) 
Javen Campbell served as the singing and entertainment for the day.  KJ-52 hosted the dance-off at lunchtime, which looks something like this dance-off in Indianapolis last year . 
John Morgan as George W. Bush  
Willie Jolley  
Les Brown  
April Osteen Simons  
Bob Kittell  
Amy Roloff was the headliner, so she was after lunch. 
Allan Arbus from M*A*S*H isn't Alan Andrus from the investment company.  But he (Mr. Andrus) gave the same speech as Phil Town and Bob Kittell before him. 
Adam Ginsberg (selling on eBay and Amazon) 
Brian Nieves selling the idea of selling books

Curious about my last Get Motivated experience(s)?  Check out my Iowa Gets Motivated episode from 2012 . In fact, I apparently mentioned my first experience during the first year of the Ericast (October 2005 ) but the audio file is missing from the server; I'll need to go hunting for that somewhere.  Everything old is new again, right?

You hear a lot of different things on the Ericast. This week's episode is really just random connections from Eric's brain.

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INTP Personality - weaving things together

Voice artists, including Casey Defranco from the Country Crock commercial.  (The Ericast exists today because of her!)

SNL in the 1980s.  Ad Council ad parody. Art Bell, late night radio, conspiracy theories. Lots of PSAs...  Including "At the Beach." I love the Mom voice in this one

I just love that voice. Not to lead a board meeting, maybe. But there's so much personality that carries through.

So, Ruth binge-watches TV shows. One was White Collar, which, it turns out, was based on Frank Abagnale.  If you don't know why that's interesting, listen to last week's episode.

Lately, it's been Person of Interest. And after lots of joking about it staring Jesus, and watching Finch so I could have hope that we geeks could have a life (even though I know they're just fake characters), they introduce... Root.

"Samantha Groves is a highly intelligent computer hacker and former contract killer known by her hacker name "Root". She has a special relationship with The Machine and is the only one to be in frequent and direct contact, acting as The Machine's 'Analog Interface'."
Root is played by Amy Acker.

1) I love my wife more than anything else.  2) I have two daughters, so I truly do understand the dangers of a society "objectifying" people and diminishing their full personhood over something that might even be complimentary. 3)  Amy Acker strikes me as the most beautiful human being on the planet.  (This leads to a tangent on the "Ginger vs. Mary Ann" application.  Because, why do I think this?)

This might have been just a passing interest, until I heard her speak.

I'm sure she's not... but she IS the "this is sand!" mom.

I now tease Ruth because whenever there's a dramatic moment in Person of Interest, I repeat her lines' inflection, but I say, "This is sand."  "This is sand, Finch. I like sand."

Do you like sand? Do you like Amy Acker?  Call 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and let me know.

Sometimes you hear wisdom from the least expected place. Or, at least, of the least expected kind. Like marriage and parenting advice from a criminal turned security expert.

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Life lesson: Say "Yes" when offered things.  (I had to grow into that philosophy.)

This episode's topic: Frank Abagnale .  But not for the reason you might expect. More information about his security consulting is at www.abagnale.com .

Here's the full 2013 talk that I referenced in this show, via YouTube (http://youtu.be/iJIc16aqpO8 )

Questions? Comments? Objections? Call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know what you think!

Lately I've taken to saying, "Diversity is inherently good". Which you either respond with "Duh, Eric!" or you're... not quite sure you agree. Curious?  Here's your show.

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Yes, indeed, after 11 years we're switching over to our new feedback line, so call 701-645-3742, which conveniently spells out 701-645-ERIC.  Thanks to you who called, so we know it works!  So, let's go with that.

I'm sitting on a hiring committee at work, and we had this conversation, and I fell into the "Duh!" camp, but I couldn't point to why -- some sort of background info. I'd collected over the years in my degree program or whatever.

A colleague pointed out the Reply All podcast, Episode #52 , and I listened to that and couldn't agree more.  Fascinating.  And we'll get to that.

And I thought, I should do a podcast on that!  And then life got in the way, including the K7 crisis that wasn't much of a crisis.  And then, while listening to MarketplaceTech (formerly Future Tense) on American Public Radio, I heard the March 24th episode .

So I decided that was spooky enough that I'd actually take a lesson from the Universe or God or the Hundredth Monkey or coincidence and I'd share the episode I'd planned to.  What follows is a clip from a spectacular piece by Alex Goldman .

Questions? Comments? Objections? call 701-645-ERIC (a.k.a. 701-645-3742) and let me know what you think!

All good things must come to an end. No, no, not this podcast! But a key part of it. What it is, you ask?  Here's your show.

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Things change!  But I'm still here.  Not quite "reeling," but definitely "dealing" with an email (which wasn't appealing, and not worth concealing)...

Kall8 Customer Service (k7cs@itltd.net) to ericast.com

Dear K7 User,

Thank you for being a valued K7 customer. We appreciate your business.  Unfortunately we regret to inform we will be discontinuing K7 service as of May 1st 2016.

On May 1st the website and all messages on it will be unavailable. We wanted to let you know as soon as possible so you can make other arrangements for your service and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Thank you again for being a loyal customer of K7.

Sincerely,

International Telcom LTD.

NOOOOO!  But, K7.net has been an outstanding company to me (and many other podcasters) for many years, so there are no hard feelings.  But I need a hand making sure that our brand new voicemail solution will work...

So... Let me know what you think, but in a slightly different way.  Leave a message at 701-645-3742 (a.k.a. 701-645-ERIC) and then get in touch by some other means -- Twitter, Facebook, carrier pidgeon, or email me (eric) at ericast.com -- and let me know you gave the new line a try.

P.S.  I think this episode wins the award for "most punctuation in a show title"....?

Where'd February go?!? Or, more accurately, where'd I go in February? It was kinda a big deal. Curious? Here's your show.

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Welcome to the Ericast: The weekly podcast that comes out once a month if I'm lucky. (Half-kidding there.) Is anyone listening? (Besides Matt and Chad?)

Discussing my trip to Texas for the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) conference.  (Anyone remember the Driving the Beam episode?)

The conference was in San Antonio this year. Frankly, didn't want to go and leave the family behind; Minnesota gets snow in February! What are the chances? Turns out they were 100%.

In the meantime, I was in San Antonio for the first time.  (First time in Texas, in fact.)

Background: We ended up doing a poster session on a doctoral program , originally designed as a regular presentation.  The proposal reviews were split: "There's no market for this because everyone is doing it it already; it's old hat." ...and "There's no market for this because it's so unusual and radical that nobody wants to do it."

Hmmm..

So, it became a poster session.  And there are pragmatic elements of dealing with a poster.  (Flights, shipping, etc.)  More than a month later, I can still remember the experience like it was yesterday.

San Antonio:  The riverwalk is beautiful.  I didn't understand it; now I do.
Key topics:  OER (open educational resources) and digital analytics.
There's a challenge of using analytics, even for good; some people are freaked out by them.
And I was glad to come home, too.  So, here I am.  No longer Far From Home .

Let me know what you think.  206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC)

Kkmd at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

2016 is one twelfth of the way finished already. I'm such a failure as a podcaster! But wait... is that bad? I have the answer. Here's your show.

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On the heels of a trip to Texas for the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) conference, here's an episode based on a monologue from Adam Savage.  An earlier version appeared on the web; it's quoted in the podcast, but here's the full clip (which helps because, amazingly, juggling is a visual art and an audio podcast doesn't do it full justice):

Adam Savage, Mythbuster (EG9) from e.g. on Vimeo .

I'm really tired.  And that's not an excuse; it's just a fact... Because I just got in from a 3.5 mile walk, in Minnesota, in December.  Want to know what I've been up to the past couple months?  Here's your show.

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This episode is not intended to be fatalistic; I assume I'll be walking outside next year. But I've been planning this episode since October, when there were nice fall days.  I love walking on nice fall days.  And I assumed that we'd get snow and be immersed in winter by now.

Tonight?  It's December 8, and after 10:00 at night, it was still 37 degrees.  (That's not normal!)  No ice on the sidewalks and trails, just little piles of snow here and there.

So, this becomes a catch-up episode.

Technical snippet for those of you inclined that way:  I had some hard drive issues.  A new 5TB under Windows 10 doesn't work well.  FYI.

November featured "Mythbusters: Adam and Jamie UNLEASHED " which was really cool (and a chance for the girls to see the TV stars they've grown up with).

"Guy's Retreat" up by Lake Mille Lacs. Stepping next door brought me back 15 months instantly, to when Utah and South Dakota adventures weren't even a glimmer of a concept. Memory is an odd thing.

Calls!  Been saving them up.  I know at least one is legit and we'll hear from Chad at the end.  I literally don't know what the others are.  Let's find out.   (They ended up being from Steve, Gerald and Chad)

Ideas? Input?  You know the drill!  Call

206-339-3742 a.k.a 206-339-ERIC

I've talked off an on for a long time about a how a thing worth doing is worth doing badly (that's Chesterton) and how you just need to get up and act.  Looking for more detail on what that actually means? Here's your show.

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I've entered an era of lasts.  From the girls' first steps, to "last time together on the bus," etc. And this episode was recorded after the last summer walk of 2015.  (Or maybe not, but probably... this time of year with the sun as it is, it's hard for the earth to stay warm.  And it's getting dark early! That reminds me of the "Dark October Skies" episode...)

So, I was a little tired from three miles of walking on top of two hiking the day before... But, as I heard on a wise podcast the other day, "You... must act"

Randy Cantrell reminds us, "Don't confuse motion with action."

Michael Port is the author who was on Ray Edwards ' podcast

I also discuss the concept of the "Minimum Viable Product" as outlined by Jussi Pasanen .  It's akin to Maslow's Hierarchy: Functional, Reliable, Usable, "Emotional Design"... and the idea of a minimum viable product is that you take a slice off the side, not across the bottom

That takes a bit more reflection, because it's hard to do; "covering the basics" is easier... I think?

https://twitter.com/jopas/status/515301088660959233

If you've ever had one of those moments where someone tells you something that radically snaps your brain around into a different way of thinking.. here's your show.

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"So, Eric, what have you learned from this?"

"Yeah, I know I need to be less attached to things, let the past go, live in the present, value people over things..."

"No.  You have learned...  That you, must act!"

"...Okay?"

"If you had done this project of yours, when you first decided it was a good idea... would we be having this conversation right now?"

Wow.

I didn’t expect this past weekend to have as much activity
as it did… but thanks to one little re-tweet, I found myself in the middle of a
protest I wasn’t at and a controversy I didn’t start thanks to a media that
doesn’t understand how Twitter works. Looking for what’s probably my most
controversial episode ever?  Here’s your
show.

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I really don’t want to do this show, but I really need
to.  This is a rare episode where it’s
scripted; we’ll see if I stick with that. 
But writing this has been really cathartic.  Hang in there, give me a little extra grace,
and make sure you call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) with your thoughts
and reactions.   The conversation isn’t
over.

This, by the way, is not
a “work-safe, child-safe” podcast episode, unless you want to be explaining a
lot to your kids and colleagues.  So, put
on your headphones.

First, a little background. 
What you don’t know about me is that, as a kid, I was a huge anti-war protester.  At least, as huge as you can
get as a scrawny 11-year-old.  And if you’re
younger than I am, this will sound strange, because you don’t understand what
it was like to live under the very real threat of nuclear annihilation by the
Soviet Union triggered by selfish war-mongering hawk of a Republican like
Ronald Reagan.  At least, that’s how I
would’ve summarized it at the time.  So,
I’m no stranger to protests, and to protests of the same political wing as
Black Lives Matter.

And, today I hold a politically impossible philosophy
position of a “universal life ethic” – I don’t think people should intentionally
kill people.  Not via abortion, not via
the death penalty.  I think there are
cases where it’s excused, and that’s different from calling it justified.  And that’s a topic for another podcast
episode.

So, I understand the slogan and the hashtag of “Black Lives
Matter” and I don’t think it’s helpful to be belligerent and say, “No, all
lives matter.”  Yes, all lives
matter.  But in the same way, when I talk
about the effects of legalized abortion on demand in this country, I don’t
think it’s a reasonable counter-argument to say, “Don’t you care about the
children who are already born?”  Yes, I
do care.  But it’s not legal to kill
them.  So the more pressing discussion at
hand is abortion.  I think that’s a fair
distinction.  And in the same way, since
there’s a concern in this country over crime and punishment and police response
to people of color, I have no problem with “Black Lives Matter” and I don’t
hear that as saying, “To the exclusion of every other life.”

In Minnesota, we have the Minnesota State Fair, and if you’re
not from around here, it’s a really really really big deal.  We’ve joked about the few days of summer we
have, but “the great Minnesota get-together” is sort of the “last hurrah” of
Summer.  Local Black Lives Matters
leaders – and we could argue about who “leads” what, but let’s go with it –
announced that they were going to have a march and protest down the main traffic
artery around the fairgrounds on Saturday the 29th , which is a
really big day for the Fair.

So, we’re not going to talk about whether that protest
timing is good, bad or indifferent – just that it’s a fact, and it was a big
deal.  Plenty of news stories covered it,
if you’re not from around here and want to dig up the details.

I’m working around the house last Saturday when Twitter
starts lighting up about the protest, and I love the concept of “citizen
journalism” – getting a different picture of an event.  Not necessarily more accurate or more
complete than what might be represented in the traditional “mainstream media”
but another piece of the puzzle.

The first thing I saw was a video clip of protesters
chanting, “Turn up! Don’t turn down! We’re doing this for Mike Brown!”  Now, with a wife who’s a high-school teacher,
I’ve heard that the phrase “turn up” is used. 
And in every context I’ve ever heard, it doesn’t simply mean, “Let’s
appear! Let’s show up at an event!”  But
I honestly had no idea if the “getting turned up” drug reference is a common
one or intended by the protesters – it caught my ear, so I tweeted that out,
and nobody said anything.  That was 1:38
p.m. on Saturday, August 29.

About an hour later, I was looking through the #BlackFair
hash tag, and I caught a phrase that seemed pretty shocking.  It was a tweet from MrNikoG, and it read “Pigs
in a blanket, Fry em like bacon” Hashtags BlackFair, BlackLivesMatter, FTP,
ACAB.  I have no idea what ACAB is and I
haven’t looked it up.  FTP doesn’t stand
for File Transfer Protocol, nor does it stand for “Friend the Police”.

The video clip showed protesters standing behind a banner,
just like I did in my Kids for Peace days. 
And I thought, “Are they really saying that?  What’s the context?”  So I played the video.  They’re marching.  They’re yelling.  And the camera pans left to show… that they’re
at the front of the march, and it’s being led by squad cars – and a weird
little golf cart truck thing.  I played
it back from the beginning to make sure it really was from our State Fair, and
it sure was – the fair buildings are in the background (there are a couple identifiable
towers) and I immediately knew that they were walking south on Snelling Avenue.

I thought the story wasn’t the chant itself, but that they’re
chanting it directly at the police officers in front of them who are escorting
down a pretty major road – it’s four lanes plus on/off ramps in that vicinity.

So rather than just a re-tweet, I did an “MT” – modified tweet.  I removed all but the “BlackFair” tag to give
room to comment (and because I figured that was the most relevant tag… but that
made it “modified” rather than a pure “RT”) and I added four words that I
thought very, very carefully about.

As .  Like, “while.” At the time.  Emphasizing that the video, if anyone
bothered to watch, shows “this is being said right now”

Police .  I thought about “St. Paul police” but I don’t
know if they’re from St. Paul or brought in from another jurisdiction.  And maybe they’re sheriffs or something.  But “police” is generic enough; “cops” is
shorter but carries an informal connotation.

Escort .  Like “lead” but they’re not leading or directing
it.  And they’re not just present by
happenstance; they’re clearly there in a coordinated effort, which also
indicates that this isn’t a random collection of yelling people but an
organized group.  And it’s present tense –
I was tweeting it as it happened, so it wasn’t “escorted”.  The escort is happening right now.

Protest .  I thought about “protesters” but that implies
they’re escorting individual protesters, maybe against their will.  They weren’t directing individuals; they were
at the front of a group event.

“As police escort protest”

As of this recording, that tweet has gotten 107 re-tweets and
29 favorites.  And lots and lots of
replies.

First four reactions: A re-tweet with “Make it stop”.  A re-tweet with “chant to kill police along
the march led by white people”.  (Which I
think the people of color leading the march would take offense to; they’re
pretty identifiable and, no, they don’t consider themselves “white” according
to their twitter accounts.)  Then Kate
replied with “Oh. My. God.”  Then “Win
The War On Math” tweeted, “This chant is obviously anti-cop and islamophobic!
Delicious pork imagery is Hate Speech!”

I figured it would end right about there.  It didn’t.

At some point the flood of commentary got more intense and I
realizes I must’ve been picked up by somewhere. 
That was the DailyCaller.com on Saturday evening.  So, then, people started re-posting that
story.

Breitbart went back to the original source , since all I did
was retweet the video.  Nobody else did .

Nobody, including WCCO television. 
So when my Dad sent me a message on Sunday night at 10:12 pm that said, “I
am watching Channel 4’s 10 p.m. newscast and several times as a video was being
show, I saw: Credit Eric M. Larson”… 
well, I harked back to the famous words of Kate.  Oh.   My. God..

I went to the WCCO website and, yup, there it was.  Interesting news story, covered both angles,
police are upset, protest leaders are unapologetic, and there in the corner
every time they play the video is “Credit: Eric M. Larson”

You’ll find in my twitter history that I spent a good chunk
of the evening tweeting (and directly reaching out via Facebook messaging to a
producer I know there) to explain that “MT” is a modified re-tweet; the video
isn’t mine.

And before you think I regret that the video went viral, I totally
don’t – news is news, facts are facts, and 19 seconds of footage (where the
videographer was good enough to turn around and give the context) tells a
story. But I don’t get credit for capturing the story.  It wasn’t my story.  It was someone else’s story.  He or she – I assume it’s a he – shared
it.  I pointed out that he shared it, and
put some pretty useful text on the front to clarify what story was being told
(because you wouldn’t know that from the thumbnail of the video.)  That’s it.

So, what have we learned here?

1) Citizen Journalism is powerful.

2) As I tell my girls, always think about what’s around and
behind the camera lens, outside of the frame.

3) Words have power.

4) Context is everything. 
The way this video was shot gave some context that the other
dramatically framed photographs of the march didn’t.  Yet this video didn’t get the whole context
of a four-hour march.  In philosophical
terms, I think that understanding this rhetoric and scene is necessary but not
sufficient for understanding what this march and this movement is about.

5) In the court of public opinion, these protesters can’t
win, and neither can the police.

Here’s the deal.  The
cops on the scene are quoted as having said two things:  “This is what democracy looks like”.  And, “Everybody likes bacon. We can all get
behind that!”  One is serious and, we
assume, was said with a since tone (not an incredulous or exasperated
one).  The other is funny – maybe offensive
to those who don’t eat pork, but probably not. 
Cops are trained to deescalate situations, and good cops do that.  That’s what you see here.  Whipping out your weapon of choice because
someone insults you is wrong, and it’s bad PR, and I suspect these guys hear
much, much worse on a typical beat.

But then you have WCCO seeking a comment.  And what are they supposed to say?  “Well, these kids, they get whipped up about
stuff and they don’t know what they’re saying? 
Let ‘em mature a bit and they’re realize that the world isn’t as
clear-cut as they think it is now.”  That’s
not going to work.

So they say it’s offensive. 
Because it’s offensive!  It
is!  This isn’t a chant of “Most cops are
good; let’s make sure the bad ones are brought to justice!”  First of all, that has no rhyme or cadence,
and second, that’s not the protesters’ point!

Now you have the protesters saying, “Look, it was just one
chant.  It’s no big deal.  It’s just words.”  But the entire foundation of civilized
society is that words have meaning.  Yes,
you have the right to free speech and free expression.  But when you freely express an idea, you need
to be prepared for people to say, “I think that idea is wrong.”

So you have protesters who are either naive kids who don’t
know what they’re saying, or evil people trying to undermine society and murder
police (apparently bankrolled by George Soros, according to the tweets I was
getting.)

This isn’t a happy situation.

So, where does society go from here?  Is there a “white privilege”?  I’m sure there is.  Will I ever know? Probably not; I’m not going
to be the next John Howard Griffin and if you don’t know him, you need to read
his book like I did when I was 12 or 13. 
Why was I re-tweeted, when “MrNikoG” whose full Twitter name is “EMPATHY”
with the anarchist circle-A in the middle, wasn’t?  Part of it was those four words of context – “As
police escort protest.”  Part of it
probably was that I had a name, a face, a website. (I haven’t looked at the
stats, and good luck to anyone who dug around in it, since it’s really out of
date.)  And do I have those things out
there because I “know the system” or because I have “nothing to fear”?  I don’t know. 
It’s just who I am.  If I have a
problem with my front door and my neighbors see me and a stranger trying to
break it open… well, they know me, so they probably wouldn’t call the
police.  But if they did, and the police
came to the door and told me they were investigating a break-in, my response
wouldn’t be, “Why, because I'm a black man in America?” …because I’m not.  And, because I don’t have any experiences that
would cause me to think of responding with belligerence toward police.  Maybe if I did, I would.  And if they asked for proof that this really
was my house, I’d say, “Hang on; let me grab my license.  Even without the beard it still looks like
me.”  And if I got belligerent and
argumentative, which the 9-1-1 tapes of the Henry Lewis Gates arrest document, I
might expect to be arrested.  And if I
were arrested, I don’t think any president would bother to comment, let alone
say “The police acted stupidly.”

What I do know is that our race issues in this country didn’t
start with the current presidential administration and ended with a beer summit
at the White House.  But at the time,
Gates said,

“My entire academic career has been based on improving race
relations, not exacerbating them. I am hopeful that my experience will lead to
greater sensitivity to issues of racial profiling in the criminal justice
system."

And then he called the cop a pig and said he should fry like
bacon.

No! No!  He didn’t do
that.  Because that’s not the kind of
dialog we want to encourage.  Is it?

Let me know what you think. 
Call 206-339-3742 and leave a message.

My 11th birthday featuring a "Kids for Peace" cake with my KFP logo

Trial run of the KFP banner (Medium: Sharpie on cotton)

Leading the "Mother's Day March for Peace and Justice" (Minneapolis, 1985)

End of the march. (I'm in the purple Vikings jacket)

 

Post-march interview with WTCN-11 (now KARE-11)

It's not really "podfading" if you come back, right? Let's see what I can publish tonight. Here's your show.

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I love Mark Mason and his Late Night Internet Marketing ... but I don't want to be him.  His last episode was in April.  If it were an "I'm finishing the show" episode, that would be one thing... but it wasn't .

Want to share a comment of your own?  Call 206-339-3724 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and let me know what you think.  Or tell me why my prescription hasn't been delivered.

I was on vacation - a good old fashioned American roadtrip. So this podcast episode is basically a travelog of the random highlights. Curious? Here's your show.

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Growing up, I didn't travel outside of Minnesota and Wisconsin. I did "Study Abroad" in Iowa and crossed to Illinois while visiting Dubuque, and did a side-trip to Thunder Bay, Canada while on a ski trip with Ruth and some of her friends. That is, until the RV road trip to Yellowstone through South Dakota, Wyoming, and touched just a bit of Montana.

So, that's what the family road trip was this year.  On the way out to Rapid City we encountered Rushmore Shadows - $39.95 for two nights in a "cabin" (single-wide 1/2 length).  Bear in mind that when we were first married, Ruth and I did time-share presentations for sport.  90 minutes was actually two hours, which threw a kink in our schedule, but that's part of the game.  Their offer is a great deal for someone; just not us.

Highlights:

Lead, SD (with impromptu tourguide Sky)
Devil's Tower
Wind Cave
Hot Springs and Evans Plunge
Badlands
Minuteman missile tour (at Ellsworth AFB) and museum

Is there a difference between recognition that you did something, and recognition that you're equipped to do something?  Here's your show.

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Yes, I realize I have lots of "vs" episodes, but "differentiation is good".  However, lawyers speak of a "distinction without a difference " so we have to make sure that we're not doing that.  And I don't think that's the case here.

We were talking about faculty motivation.  Tangent: I don't view "motivation" as having connotations of a deficit, but some do.

Badges vs. Awards.  In Eric's world...

An award is for a past act; a medal or a ribbon
A badge - think a sheriff in the Wild West - is something you actively wear in order to give authority to act moving into the future

Badging is a hot topic in academic technology:

http://www.techlearning.com/news/0002/theres-a-badge-for-that/63725

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/value-problem-digital-badging

Jeff Sanders had a great blog post entitled "How Playing an iPhone Game Made Me More Productive " and in it he summarized the key points of the Bunchball article, "What Is Gamification?"

Fast Feedback: receiving immediate feedback or response to actions towards a goal.
Transparency: always knowing where you stand in relationship to the desired end result.
Goals: having short- and long-term goals to achieve.
Badges: showing evidence of accomplishments through visual awards.
Leveling Up: always knowing your status within your community.
Onboarding: getting up to speed through engaging and compelling methods.
Competition: knowing how you are doing compared to others.
Collaboration: working with a group to accomplish a goal.
Community: sharing the achievements of others to build group rapport.
Points: using tangible and measurable evidence of accomplishments.

Even here, note that "Badges" are equivocated with "Awards" and I think there's a difference.  The Bunchball summary is:

Badges: Evidence of accomplishments
An indicator of accomplishment or mastery of a skill is especially
meaningful within a community that understands its value. Often used to
identify skills and expertise within a group.

Again, while "mastery of a skill" is more "beneficial" to the community than merely commemorating an accomplishment, I think that we need to be clear that a "badge" means that you can and should act to improve your community with the skills you've acquired, and should be respected for those actions -- not merely for your accomplishments in the past.

Thoughts?  Call 206-339-3742 and let me know what you think.

"My purpose is to provide for my family!"  That sounds good.  But I'm not sure it's right. Intrigued?  Here's your show.

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Yes, I'm way behind each week, but I'm putting this in last week's queue, under-the-wire. Hang in there with me!

So....  What's my "purpose"?  Here's a quote:  "My purpose isn't to provide for my family. Insurance can do that. "

(That was stolen from someone.  I hope you can tell me who!)

Here's the point: What are you uniquely qualified or positioned to do?

And... How do you evaluate that?

Could you just as easily say, "My purpose isn't to be a role model for my kids; the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization can do that!"

Sure, the question/framework isn't perfect.  But it's useful to break out of the mold.

By the way, I have an Evernote process.  But it failed me here.  I felt bad about this kind of thing until P. Desmond Adams said the same thing happened to him.  So, nobody's note-taking or memory is perfect.  Moving on...

Speaking of, check out "Hours " for time-tracking on iOS.  Free for a limited time!

Have you ever run in to a situation where you know something really important, and you're trying to convince someone - boss, family member, whatever -- that they really need to step up and pay attention to that issue?  Here's your show.

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Aside:  I love doing this show.  Studio A moved over the years… but the feeling of sitting down in front of the computer and recording an episode?  I love it.  It's work, but I'm a happier person every time I do it.

Despite the show title, people do care; we close this show with a call from listener Chad, renewing the old tradition of "listener feedback in the last episode of the month".

But that didn't motivate me; it was the thought that P. Desmond Adams from the once weekly Mental Mastery Moment , now daily podcast series might listen.

May has been a busy month - when you work in higher-ed and your spouse teaches High School, that kind of thing happens.  There’s been a transition at work with a new CIO (the vice president of technology; Chief Information Officer is our industry term) which is why I kept running into "Listener Chad".

And it was there that I was talking to another colleague, explaining this upcoming episode and noting it had nothing to do with work.

Those who know me know that if I have an example, it's coming from Work or Church. Those are my two “leadership circles".  And this one doesn't come from work. Draw your own conclusions from that.

Caveat: Pondering this episode is like parenting, in that I can't dump 30 years’ worth of knowledge into the girls' heads.  And I've told Candela and Chloe that directly, because that's how I roll.  I know what I know because I learned it by personal experience.  Learning from others' personal experience is great -- it's what all "education" is based on.  But I worry that it might short-circuit the learning process.

So I say now that I wish someone had explained this to me -- that podcasts had been invented 15 years ago and I had listened to this one from someone else.  But now I'm that someone else, giving this message having learned it personally, and that might not have happened otherwise.

The topic:  Not everyone has your passionate about an organization’s need.

That's reality.

Reasons: They don't understand. Or, they understand but don't care as much as you do. Throwing more data won't solve issue #2

Caveat: Is it a moral or safety issue? (Be honest; is it really?)  If so, then you need to keep working ad making sure the right thing happens.  But is it, really?  Really?

So, this is an episode encouraging mental stability, and letting go of the fight when you need to.  But if everyone in the your organization jumps to the casual acceptance, that's bad too.  Fight, but fight while accepting reality... maybe?

There's living in the past. Then there's living for the future. Somewhere between those is living in the moment.  But I think they all weave together. Wonder how?  So do I.  Here's your show.

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Part of me wants to live in the past.  Part of me wants to archive everything for the future.  Part of me wants to celebrate the concept of "mindfulness" and live in the moment.  How do we hold all those things together?

As a tangent off an already disjointed collection of reflections, how do we embrace/explore the concept of people outside of a particular generation adopting it as their own passion?  I think the late 1930s (epitomized by the New York World's Fair) is a fascinating example of the U.S. coming out of the Great Depression, on the brink of another world war, but (apparently) optimistic for the future.  Yet I wasn't alive in the 1930s. (My parents barely were.) In this episode we mention a young woman (I consider her "young," perhaps in part because I'm getting old) who has adopted the 1980s cyberpunk persona even though she was in single-digits at the time. My 1980s reminiscing, at least, is based in a reality I personally experienced. There's nothing wrong with either one, but they're different from each other.

More than usual, I'd love your commentary on this one.  Call 206-339-3742 and give me some thoughts, and we'll work off of those in upcoming episodes.

"I wanna know what you're thinking."  That's not just a reminder that we're doing a collaborative podcast here. For a certain generation - mine - that's a kind of anthem.  And 30 years later it's just as real as it was in the 1980s.  Recognize it? Here's your show.

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I'm not much of a concert person... but when the chance to re-live key 1980s memories comes along, you take it.  ("When you see a chance, take it.."  Wait.  Wrong artist.)  So this podcast touches on the experience of seeing Information Society back in their hometown this year .  Can you relate?  Or not?  Give a call (or reach out in other ways - I'm easy to find) and let me know what you think.

I'm back!  Where'd I go? I was fulfilling a near-lifelong dream. Wonder what it was? Here's your show.

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So much for the good regular show-habit... but there's a good reason.

When I was a kid I was a huge Road Runner cartoon fan; I loved the background scenery. So, for years, I've wanted to get down to the desert southwest and see if for myself. I decided this was the year: Stop dreaming and start doing!

Ruth is back to teaching, in our same school district, so she and the girls have the same break. But, "break" for teachers doesn't mean "do nothing."

So, how about a June road-trip, rather than to do Duluth?  But "Desert in Late March" is different from "Desert in Late June"

So, how about I hop a cheap flight to Vegas and drive north to scout it out?  Good idea... and once you get a hotel and rent a car and are buying meals... for just the cost of one more plane ticket I could add Candela.

So that's what I did.  It was spectacular.

Sunday night it snowed in St. Paul -- 6" or 7".  (We needed the moisture in the ground!)

Monday: Take off around 7:45 a.m., land at 9:00-something, get a car, stop at McDonalds, and head north!

Virgin River gorge at the Arizona border - wow!

Zion - shuttle buses because it's already the start of the busy season there

Tuesday: Back into Zion, then out of Zion, north to Bryce Canyon

Tuesday night: Astronomy!

Wednesday: Bryce Canyon itself. The surrounding area looks like northern Minnesota.  (It's here that Candela goes "splat" on her knee while admiring the view like I told her to.)

Thursday: Out through Red Canyon, north end of Zion, St. George (tabernacle, temple, petroglyphs)

Thursday night: Mesquite (and big comfy waterproof band-aids). Outdoor hot tub

Friday: Out through Valley of Fire, a depressing Lake Mead, a few blocks of the strip

Early to the airport thanks to quick rental car return and TSA-pre treatment for some reason

Rented a locker and wandered the terminal to kill time

Flight home at 11:55 p.m.  Candela managed to sleep a bit, but was asleep for the initial descent and hosed her ears

Picked up around 5:30 a.m. Saturday

Home to sleep, then off to the circus at 2:30 p.m.

Conclusions: Utah and Nevada (and Arizona) are beautiful.  But so is Minnesota, in a different way.

Want to see the photos?  Here's the entire vacation album of Eric and Candela's 2015 Utah Trip...

Have you ever misheard a song lyric? Sure you have. Can you turn that into an entire podcast episode? Let's find out.  Here's your show.

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When is our birthday?  The first Ericast episode was March 7, 2005. So it's this week, or next. When you're this old, forgetting when your birthday is could be a "theme."  Next week might be a fairly deep-ish topic on "arrogance" lining up with Episode 2; we'll see.

Background:  I like "dance music" -- e.g. Ace of Base. (On Pandora, it's epitomized in my "Ace of Base Radio ")  But my current Pandora favorite is Basshunter .  (Note that it's pronounced Base-hunter; it's not music related to fishing.)

"Tweets do not imply endorsement"...?  Pandora stations are somewhat the same for me.  But I can endorse these: My oldest is "Eric's Dance Radio " and you can also enjoy "Eric's WI Memories " from "the golden age of dance music - 1990, give or take a year or two."

So, that explains the music part.  You also need to know that when my wife and I were first married, we had a pet hamster.  (More than one, actually. But not at once.)

This episode topic crossed my mind.  And then I mentioned our hamster piterest in Jeff Goins' MOOC.  And then Paul Debeddings mentioned hamsters:

Paul DeBettignies | February 28 at 10:13pm · Minneapolis, MN

For the next 36 hours I am going to stay away from any topic that can turn into a debate. So I am only going to post hamster videos and Kenny Chesney videos. If you don't like hamster & Chesney videos, well... that's on you ‪#‎36HoursOfHamsterChesneyVideos‬

That clinches it.  I needed to do a podcast episode about this.

So, that brings us to "Paradise " by Sam La More , originally from Sydney Austraila. (He's almost exactly one year younger than I am, which means he's old.)

I know he's not talking about hamsters... but, you have to admit, it sure sounds like he's talking about hamsters!

Reminiscing is fine... but how 'bout we bring the next generation along for the ride down memory lane? In a modern way?  Here's your show.

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Featuring The Choosatron , which I fell in love with at the August 2013 MinneDemo in Minneapolis.

The Choosatron Deluxe Adventure Matrix is a Wi-Fi connected Choose Your
Own Adventure®-inspired story printer, blending digital and analogue
storytelling. It is designed to be easily assembled by kids into a small
interactive fiction game box, and encourage social reading, learning,
and play.

And I have one.  Now.

Also... I have to admit, it's really weird seeing "256" as an episode number on the Ericast...

You know those "iPad-on-a-stick" robots like the one Sheldon was driving in "The Big Bang Theory"? Ever wonder what it would be like to drive one of those?  I did.  Here's your show.

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This past week has been a really strange blip in the personal and professional schedule.  (See "Gus T. Guppy " as an example, though you have to listen to the episode to find out how that's even relevant to anything.)

Note to non-Ericast-fans: The core of the Beam discussion starts at the 8:00 minute mark.  If you want to skip the context on who I am and what I think of remote conference attendance, you can jump to that point.  But if you can spare eight minutes, I'd suggest listening to the whole thing...

So... the primary focus of this episode is my driving a Beam Pro robot from Suitable Technologies .  (Which is quite a bit more elegant than Sheldon's "Mobile Virtual Presence Device ")

The venue?  The EduCAUSE ELI 2015 conference in Anaheim, California (which generated a lot of Tweets with the #eli2015 hashtag ...)

How'd I get picked?  I said "Yes".  I'm not sure if having met Malcolm Brown had anything to do with it, but I had indeed met him in Madison, Wisconsin at the 2008 EduCAUSE "Learning Technology Leadership" program .

Driver's Education memories.  Scary, unfamiliar.
Robocop reboot movie mirror "reveal" moment.  Clip below (not for young kids!)
Paparazzi. Now I know exactly how the stars feel, except that I totally don't.  Being a Beam driver was a privilege, and I'm not complaining, but it's still distracting to have "fans"
Accessibility.  Being dependent on a technology-mediated experience and human "handlers;"

I knew I was being awkward/embarrassing to those around me -- trying to have the experience but also trying to be out of the way.

Cool to encounter people. "Felt" like making connections Malcolm Brown and Veronica Diaz when I saw them in front of me.
Might not be terribly practical, but most F2F stuff isn't.

If you don't say anything to anyone, you won't hear many complaints. But is that a good way to live? Here's your show.

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This week: A week-in-the-life. (And, my studio chair squeaks. FYI)

Years ago we asked a post-event review question of "Is there anything that could've made this better?"   Someone's answer?  "Get rid of Eric Larson as a presenter. He uses too much self-deprecating humor."

It's at that point I decided to stop doing that, and to start deprecating others.

That weird bitter shot gave me my best self-deprecating joke ever! It's awesome!  I would've done just fine without that feedback, and I do just fine with it.  So don't fear feedback.

"With all those windows on the west side, in the afternoon, that side of the 4th floor just gets baked"

"Yeah, I've heard.  But what about the sunshine?"

Panel Discussion on tips/tricks/experiences with "synchronous online learning," where I was facilitating (vs. moderating).

Say you want to buy a car.  Ford vs. Toyota.  How not to get ripped off at the dealership.

"Wait!  I don't buy into this whole 'car' thing"

That could be outdated bias -- "My uncle sells buggy-whips and he thinks sales are picking up!"

Or that could be wise insight -- "Have you seen light rail and the bike-share programs?"

But that's not the right world -- not the right direction or set of questions -- for the people who've decided they need a car and are going to walk in a dealership and need some tips on negotiating or brand comparison.

Did we miss-market the event?  Well, if we'd been really specific and targeted really well, we could've had a quarter of the numbers in the room and they'd have all said we were awesome. And that would've eliminated the bottom 10 percent who made some really snide complaints

But what about that extra 50, 60, 70% in the middle?  Who got exposed to some new stuff and thought it was pretty good and have some new stuff to think about?

This isn't a call to be sloppy or unclear.

But if you've got a message you believe in; if you think you're doing good work, if you think you have something to offer to the right people... be willing to expose yourself to the wrong people, because that's what it's going to take if you speak up and seek out the right people.

Reflection:  I've got my stuff together and want to do _____.  Maybe you do, maybe you don't. "Humble learner" is a difficult position.  Coaching someone into humility doesn't work; that's basically seen as the definition of arrogance (and maybe it is).

What happens when your friends lose, and then find, someone they love? Find out. Here's your show.

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Coming in under the wire for this week, but still on the calendar!

Full disclosure:  I don't like this episode.  It's bumbling.  It's awkward.  But it's a topic that ought to be discussed, and I'm not going to let my lack of eloquence keep us from starting the conversation.

That's what I mean by "Find out." Period.  Find out how these things unfold now, before you need to know.

This week's topic began with a tweet from Kate-Madonna Hines .  While we disagree pretty passionately on abortion and the work of Planned Parenthood , I trust her judgment and ethics. She'd fall into the category of one of my personal "thought leaders" over the years.

In the process, I Twitter-met Alison Feigh .  (Word-of-the-week transforms into Name-of-the-week:  Would it be "FEE," or "f-EYE"?)  Alison Feigh serves as the program coordinator at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, a program of the National Child Protection Training Center.

When dealing with a missing person, where do you go?  Twitter.  Facebook.  Whisper (where, it turns out, someone said he used to know her).  And then, go back to spread the good news that she's been found.

Whether this is your first episode or you’ve been listening
through the ups and downs of the past 10 years, you’ll like this recap on
what’s new and what’s changing in the Ericast’s tenth year. Here’s your show.

Website viewers : Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners : Click here for a link to the show notes page!

Everyone : Call 206-339-ERIC (206-339-3742) and comment!

Yes, the "Tradition and Tweaks " Ericast really did show up this week!

This week's question:  Does it hurt when your fancy gets struck?  (No, that's not really a question...)

iPodder , Juice , Lemon ... I just use (and love!) Downcast these days.  K7.net is still alive and well and I still love them.  Almost as much as I love my fluffy new Costco body pillow .  Yes, this is random.

What’s changing:  Not much.  The pre-intro summary is new – it’s a common “best practice”.  What do you think?

Three-word titles.  A tradition since my undergraduate paper-writing days; unless there was an external mandate imposed by the faculty, I always used a three-word title.  Celebrating constrains per Joseph Rueter .

Better show notes...  Because I find myself referring back to them when I listen to other people's podcasts.  And structure is good.

More batching, so I can keep a regular schedule.  What’s contemporary and what’s batched?  You might never know.

More Chesterton:  If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.

Reviving the Dweeb Thoughts feed , and I need help for that; Posterous was so awesome that I can’t cope without it.

DailyMugShot.com is now gone and has turned into a Thai dating site.  Really.

Are you looking for some new podcasts to try in a new year, or you’re
just curious about what I’m listening to while you’re listening to me?  Here's your show!

Website viewers: Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Podcast listeners: Click here for a link to the show notes page!

The "Tradition and Tweaks " Ericast is coming up next week.  And, yes, I’m promising an episode next week.  We’ll talk about that promise… next week.

Favorite pod-catching application in iOS (for the iPhone of iPad): Downcast   (Other apps also mentioned: Cyber Dust and Loot )

Three broad categories: Technology, religion/spirituality/Christianity/etc., and personal-development

Formerly-listened-to podcasts : 

Daily Audio Bible
Better Conversations with Derek and Carrie Olsen . (maybe I’ll bring this back in 2015?)
Instant Sales Podcast with Steve Kloyda
Late Night Internet Marketing with Mark Mason (podfaded? Last episode October 2014)
Mental Mastery Moment with P. Desmond Adams (also podfaded at episode 91)

New for my 2015 :

Remodeling Clay podcast (I like this one! Fun former-radio-guy persona)
The World Changer Show with Matt McWilliams (I like this one too, so far)
Tim Ferriss (NSFW language)
The New Man (NSFW language) – interview podcast good exposure to new people/ideas
Ask Pat (Pat Flynn’s near-daily short-form podcast)
The Makeover Mentor with Danna Demetre (targeted at women so I might drop it)
Coach Comeback (can’t figure out if it’s episodic or random on-the-spot or both; sounds like some of my years of the Ericast)
Live Life Aggressively with Sincere Hogan and Mike Mahler (found via Cyber Dust which was found via Loot )

Technology:

APM Marketplace Tech (formerly Future Tense with Jon Gordon )
EDUCAUSE (had to drop them because of a repetitive file problem)

Spirituality:

The Meeting House AudioCast with Bruxy Cavey .   If you check it out, make sure it’s one of Bruxy’s episodes.  Anabaptist movement, which is tied to pacifism.  Not what you’d expect.
John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart
Phil Vischer podcast (yes, the creator of Veggie Tales… but he’s much more than that)

Subset of "faith communities I’m connected to":
River Valley (Apple Valley, Minnesota)
Berean Baptist (Burnsville, Minnesota)
IronWorks (ministry of/at Berean)
Awaken Community (Mendota Heights / St. Paul, Minnesota)

Joel Osteen (transitioning to Self Help concepts here…)

Self-Help/Productivity:

Ray Edwards Show
Dan Miller’s 48 Days Podcast
Achieve Your Goals podcast with Hal Elrod
5 A.M. Miracle with Jeff Sanders
This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt
Forever Jobless with Billy Murphy (disappeared after I mentioned him! He does have a good recent post on his site .  Great back-catalog of content)
Get-It-Done Guy, Stever Robbins .  Short, entertaining, good concepts; if you’re fairly straight-laced, don’t be put off by the quirky persona).
Reinventure Me
Smart Passive Income podcast with Pat Flynn
EntreLeadership (Dave Ramsey)
Chris LoCurto show (formerly with Dave Ramsey)
Dose of Leadershi p with Richard Rierson
Leadership Answerman with Hans Finzel (though I don’t quite trust his judgment in editing audiobooks per my twitter conversation with Hans …)

Other - Entertainment or "Guy and a Mic" (like mine):

Flashback Twin Cities
Higher Human Performance and Leaning Toward Wisdom with with Randy Cantrell
The Tobolowsky Files (actor Stephen Tobolowsky , irregular schedule)

Click here to listen to this week's podcast!

Wrapping up 2014 with the question of "what is 'faith' and when is it okay for 'people of faith' to act confidently with their fellow humans rather than 'relying on God' for direct intervention with a solution?"

I'm not sure if it's as deep as that makes it sound... but, check it out, then let me know what you think by calling 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and leaving a voice message with your comment.

What triggered this conversation was the heart attack of pastor Rob Ketterling of River Valley Church in the Twin Cities .  If you want to know the back-story ("Why is Eric talking about someone Tweeting a heart attack?") here's a great video where he summarizes his whole experience:

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

I
spend a lot of time in this episode apologizing for it sounding
depressing.  It's really not.  At least, I don't think so.  That said,
we'll see if my rant about the fact that the "Rodney King Trial" wasn't a
trial of Rodney King (but, instead, was a trial of the police officers
who beat him) gets me in any trouble.

I include a brief quote from Randy Cantrell's Leaning Toward Wisdom episode 4043
and I'd recommend adding him to your podcatching software if you like
the pontifications of the Ericast.  His is similar, with more/better
experience and a bit of a Texas twang.

I also extensively quote Henry Cloud on Hopelessness:

The time when you get to hopelessness can be one of the best moments for
your future. To give up hope that something is going to change when it
is not going to gets you unstuck immediately and brings energy. It
brings life to the sickness of hope deferred.

But how do you
know if entering into that process of change with someone is even worth
it? How do you know that it is going to help? Haven't you wondered
that sometimes? "Are they ever going to change? Are they ever going to
get better? Should I really keep working with them, thinking they are
going to improve? Are my efforts to get them to change going to help
anything at all?"

Or on the personal side of life, how do you
know when to invest the effort with someone to work on making things
better and when you should tell them that you are done talking about it?
With whom do you try, and with whom do you say, "I'm done talking"?
That is a question that, if properly answered, can save much time and
heartache.

And it is the question: how to diagnose a person to know whether working on the issue is likely to help or not.

Questions?  Comments?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and leave a message right now...

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Every so often I come across a podcast where I think, "My 'tribe' needs to hear that!"  And then I realize that I've begun to use social media buzzwords like 'tribe' and then I go repent and then I come back and do what I had originally planned to do.  So, courtesy of Billy Murphy and the Forever Jobless podcast , this week's episode features an introduction to Hal Elrod .

I'm doing much better with his "Can't Change It" philosophy than I am with the "Miracle Morning ," which is in a similar vein to Jeff Sanders' "5 a.m. Miracle" -- and both are hard for me to do more than verbally assent to.  But, assent is probably the first step...?

(No, the Ericast isn't going to become something worse than a clip-show where we just take clips from other people's podcasts... but Billy's interview with Hal is worth your time.  If you want to hear the rest of the interview, head to his Forever Jobless site and fill in the gaps for yourself.)

Questions?  Comments?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and let me know what you think!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

This week we take a look at the loss of the historic Peace Lutheran Church building in Baldwin, Wisconsin .  But we look at it in the context of iconoclasm , which is the kind of atypical take that you've come to expect from the Ericast!

There's also a highlight from the Dweeb Thoughts feed ("meeting people where they're at" vs. "build it and they will come"); remember that you can subscribe to those off-the-cuff technological thoughts at http://feeds.ericast.com/dweebthoughts

Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) with any questions or comments!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

There's quite a meandering path to this week's final topic, from the now-gone Island Station in St. Paul to Mill Ruins of Southeast Minnesota (that link will take you to the exact trip that I took the girls on last week) to yesterday's visit to Dells Mill in Augusta, Wisconsin (which is famous in the "photos of mills " world).

There's also a random reference to John and Sam Eldredge's new book and the fact that Sam doesn't like the mosquitoes in Minnesota.

And I even throw in the Arcola High Bridge north of Stillwater .  Yeah, this episode is a bit random.  You like it that way, right?

Share your own thoughts and opinions with a quick and easy call to the listener feedback line at 206-339-3742 (easy to remember at 206-339-ERIC) or with an email to me (eric) at ericast.com

By the way, did you know about the Dweeb Thoughts feed?  For my random technology-themed thoughts (which, when important enough and remembered, get rolled into the regular Ericast episode... but that didn't happen this week) add this URL to your podcatching software:  feeds.ericast.com/DweebThoughts

Click here to listen to this week's episode

Oh, my goodness, does time fly!  Two tasks for you this week:  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a 206-339-ERIC) and let me know that you're still out there listening, and check out the YouTube videos of the PGI 2014 convention (like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAA7wf5BNs ) to get an idea of what was going on during my road-trips to Iowa.

(Favorite "I've never seen fireworks like that before" moment?  Red parachute flares.  There's an older example at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0aXpUVuUZY   Enjoy!)

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Last week I gave a presentation at the 2014 MiNiT symposium, entitled "Developing Faculty Enthusiasm for Technology ".  What did I say?  What did I sound like?  What audio would accompany the slide deck?  Here it is!

Faculty Enthusiasm for Technology from Eric Larson

Technical notes:  This was recorded on an old Olympus WS-320M, no lavalier (built-in mic with the recorder sitting on the podium) with some post-production noise-reduction in Adobe Audition 1.0 to reduce the hiss, which ended up enhancing the echo side-effect of having a recorder running in an open room. In hindsight I could've dabbled with less noise reduction (e.g. 50% rather than the 80% I used) but it's an issue of picking your poison at this point.  The whole episode was run through the Conversations Network "Levelator" appliction, which I've been using on the past several episodes; I'd hoped it would boost the few audience comments that I left in, but most are still pretty hard to make out.

Point being, you can't get a "simpler recording method" than this one... and, while it's not perfect, I'd put it in the "solidly adequate" camp.  But I'd love to know your opinion of it, since you're listening to it with untainted ears.

Favorite random moment to listen for:  The comments from the leader of a camp-group on campus last week, as he was standing near the restrooms by the open back-door in our presentation space.  A helpful audience member then closed the door.  Good times.  Summer in Minnesota means your rooms get warm, but open doors mean that you overhear what you don't expect.

Let me know what you think -- 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or drop an email to me (eric) at ericast.com

And one more thing.  What's in my den...?  Here's a peek, from the Vine post of my fiber-optic lamp :

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

It's listener feedback week!  And that comes on the heels of my going to the Social Media Breakfast last week (for the first time in a really long time) to hear "Minnesota Headhunter " Paul DeBettignies talk about Personal Branding .

So, so many fun topics in this week's episode.  You'll just have to listen for yourself and find out what fellow listeners like you called in to discuss.

I love doing this, and you guys -- you listeners in general, and Matt and Jonzer this week in particular -- are what keep me going.  Thank you!

Want to join in the voicemail extravaganza?  It's easy!  Just pick up the phone and dial 206-339-3742, which conveniently spells out 206-339-ERIC.  Or, if you want to do some sort of text-based response, I'll accept that when you email me (eric) at ericast.com.

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

What's a half-mile deep and made of solid rock?  Sounds like the start of a poorly-conceived joke, but it's actually "The Soudan Underground Mine State Park in Northern Minnesota's Iron Range ".  Which is where we went when we took our annual Spring vacation to Duluth this year.  Other interesting (albeit obscure) sights on that trip were the Laurentian Divide , plus some hidden gems in the Duluth city limits:  Waterfalls at Chester Creek , Tischer Creek and Lester River / Amnity Creek .

By the way, the post mentioned in this episode where Steve Borsch reminisces about the "old days" of podcasting can be found at his Connecting the Dots blog .  Other mentions include the height of the Radisson hotel in Duluth (which, it turns out, isn't as tall as the Alworth Building ... but Duluth is so hilly it's really hard to tell what's taller than what when you look at downtown), Grandma's Marathon , the IDS center in Minneapolis ,  and some other stuff that you can document for yourself in the comments area of this episode's blog post and help future listeners who follow in your auditory footsteps.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Suggestions?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or email me (eric) at ericast.com.  Of all my email addresses that had hiccups during the hosting transition, that one has been safe.  Email at will!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

This week it was my privilege to have "interviewed" musician Michael Monroe... but "interviewed" is set off on quotation marks here because the method of interviewing wasn't exactly traditional.  And I think there are some fun opportunities that come from this idea.

The question at hand?

“Do you consider yourself a musician who sees technology as a means to the end of creating your art, or a technologist who embraces technology as a ‘medium’ that’s integral to (or perhaps even more fundamental than) your music?”

To learn more about Michael and his music, visit www.MichaelMonroeMusic.com   and check out his YouTube channel (MichaelMonroeMinn ).  In particular, I'd recommend his MIDI looping demo from a Mayo Clinic concert several years ago.

Questions?  Ideas?  Comments?  (Concerns, even?)  We'd love to hear from you!  Call and leave a message at 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) or send an email to me (eric) at ericast.com.

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

So, so much going on the past couple months.  What do you want to hear about?  Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) like Matt, Dan and Steve have done in response to the last episode, and give me a topic.  Maybe Chloe's ear surgery, painting and lighting the kitchen, planting seeds, my new nike battery, iPad revamping and photo retreival, the new monitor excitement, my Quality Matters class, or coordinating the TurningPoint vendor luncheon.  Or my one-man road-trip to Mason City, Iowa to see Frank Warren's one-man-show about PostSecret.  They're all fair game!

Or, suggest something else!  Incoming Tweets, Facebook messages and emails are accepted as well... but we love voicemail most of all.

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Over the years you've heard me refer GusDay, the local higher-ed IT technology conference (originally created/sponsored by Gustavus Adolphus College ).  This year, the organizers invited former presenters to return and give a repeat/revised version of a previous talk.

So I polled my colleagues about my past offerings and the one mentioned most often was my "Love Languages in the Workplace" presentation from 2008.  So, that's what I gave yesterday , and here's the audio! The slide deck is at emlarson.com/gusday so you can follow along.

GUSDAY REPRISE TRACK

How do They See/Hear/Feel That You Care?
Eric M. Larson

Have you ever gone the extra mile to help people who just don't "get
it"? Do you really care about your customers, coworkers or loved ones…
yet they don't seem to "feel" that you do? Maybe you're speaking
different languages! In this eye-opening presentation for those in
customer service and for anyone who is (or has) a supervisor, you'll
learn how a simple framework of "love languages" will help you to
connect with those around you. Based on Dr. Gary Chapman's best-selling
book "The Five Love Languages," this presentation examines the different
ways that we feel supported, appreciated, understood or "loved". If
you're frustrated when the boss gives you a pat on the back but keeps
canceling your weekly meetings, or wonder why users expect you to sit
down and watch them follow your instructions, this presentation is for
you. You'll see how everyday work – from answering calls about broken
printers, to recognizing (or reprimanding) employees – can be more
positive and effective when you learn about the different languages
hidden around you!
I joke in the podcast that my "presentation persona" will drive some people crazy. And my "podcast persona" will as well, given that this isn't my "best-organized, most-coherent" podcast episode ever.  But, here's the thing (said to myself as well as to anyone who wants to listen to my counsel): This presentation and podcast is infinitely better than a podcast that isn't made about a presentation that isn't given.

Put another way, I'm a huge proponent of what Clay Shirky describes as Cognitive Surplus .  And while I can do better, I'd rather do something "okay" than not do anything at all.  So here it is

I'd encourage you to adopt the same attitude.  Do something.  And here's a self-serving first step:  Call the Ericast Listener Feedback line at 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and leave a comment -- good, bad, whatever.  Share your thoughts, and let's build the conversation.

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

"Back in the day," computer users built a community -- or, built multiple communities depending on their platform of choice.  Today, we can carry on the tradition by reminiscing about those computers and the communities they fostered.  It's circular, but in a totally good way!

Today, TRS-80 and Commodore lovers can live in harmony.  I love Chad's reference to Jim Butterfield , by the way.  Rest in peace, Jim.

Share your own computing or packrat stories (or a combination of the two) with a call to 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC).

By the way, I briefly mentioned three podcasters you should be listening to.  Those were Ray Edwards , Michael Hyatt and Hans Finzel .  In that order.  Then, put the Ericast fourth on your list.  I'll do a podcast on those guys sometime in the future -- they're great additions to your podcatcher subscriptions.  Throw Dan Miller in there, too, if you have lots of extra time -- his podcast is good but tends to run 45+ minutes a week and that adds up.

Enjoy!

BONUS CONTEST:  Call in with the time-stamp of when you can hear my wife step out the front door (which is located right above Ericast Studio A) and win a fabulous prize.  I don't know what that prize will be, but since there's no fee for entering this non-contest I don't think I have to worry about disclosing that.  Closest time wins and in the event of a tie the winner will be chosen randomly, all rights reserved, contest void where prohibited by law, contents may have settled in shipping.

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

What better way to celebrate the coming of Christmas than by watching a train-based concert in the cold?  Well, actually, I suppose there are lots of different ways and some of them might be better (or, at least, more theologically relevant to the season) but nonetheless we had a spectacular time in Hastings, Minnesota watching The Claytones perform this month.

Someone else was in the crowd recording the performance, so if you want some context of what I'm talking about, you can find some videos on YouTube:

Canadian Pacific 2013 Holiday Train Hastings, MN 12/12/13 HD

(arrival and departure)

Willy Porter Canadian Pacific Holiday Train Hastings, MN 12/12/13 HD

(concert)

And one more that gives an idea of what it looks like as it travels across the countryside:

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train 2013

(scenes from Canada)
Questions? Comments? Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and share!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

Got any old 1980s-vintage classic 8-bit computing memories of your own to share?  Call the listener feedback line (206-339-ERIC) or drop a note to me (eric) at ericast.com -- or via any number of other social media channels that 30 years ago we couldn't have dreamed would exist in the future.  We live in amazing times; let's take advantage of them as a medium to reminisce about times that were amazing in a different way for different reasons!

Click here to listen to this week's episode!

No, we're not talking about a beer commercial from 20 years ago.  Instead, after a long-winded summary of the past couple months of daily life in the Ericast world, we question whether it's helpful to ask "why" a technological problem happened.

No, we don't ask "Why do people do that?!?" ...Because that would be hypocritical, right?

Insights? Call 206-339-3742 (a.k.a. 206-339-ERIC) and share them!