I received an email today from someone wanting to know about the music I use as a bed when I do the arts round-up segment for CBC. This was my reply:
Hi (name),
Andrew here.
The music that I use is an instrumental version of the Wu-Tang Clan song “C.R.E.A.M.”
I would warn you before you go finding it that it does contain language consistent with rap music from the ’90s. An instrumental version can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE9gYn205ow
It’s also worth noting that the Wu-Tang Clan sampled their music from the song “As Long As I’ve Got You” by the Charmels. National Public Radio in the United States actually has the full story of the song’s evolution on this website, where you can hear it in different iterations:
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/103319951/c-r-e-a-m-the-story-of-a-sample
Thanks for listening, and have a good day!
Yesterday, my wife received a text message. Someone had found two ferrets locked in a cage in an abandoned apartment. The owner had moved out two days earlier. They hadn’t bothered taking the ferrets with them. Today, they were rescued, assessed, and put into the care of a volunteer.
In spring of this year, she drove halfway to Quesnel. She was picking up a ferret who was underweight, partially blind, unable to walk, and had a burn on her. At the vet, it was discovered that the ferret had likely ingested rat poison. The burn? Probably from a cigarette.
We recently lost one of our fosters. When we got him, he wasn’t very well adjusted. He had a fear of dogs— one that previous owners had tried to counteract by tying him to a dog. He acted out when things changed. By giving him a stable environment and lots of attention, he had worked out most of these personality issues and was a happy, healthy guy until the last weeks of his life.
It is these sorts of situations that my wife and her small group of volunteers are trying to help out in. While I goof around on the computer, she’s coordinating rescue efforts. Yes, there’s lots of other problems out there. But these are problems, too. It sucks when animals are poisoned, kicked, starved, and abandoned. And I’m glad they’re doing something about it.
Believe it or not, there’s not a lot of money to be made rescuing ferrets. It’s less than a dozen people, donating time, resources, food, and vet bills.
You don’t have to— but if you’d like to support these efforts, in a small way, there’s this calendar. It’s twelve months of fuzz and fur with all proceeds going to helping animals who can’t help themselves. I know there are a lot of other charitable organizations out there, and it’s up to you which ones you support. But if you’d like to choose this one, I know a few fuzzy little guys who’d certainly be grateful.
Note: if you’d rather donate without purchasing a calendar, you can do so here.
I’m writing this as a tutorial for volunteers at CFUR Radio, but I figured I may as well publish it here, too, for anyone who’s interested. Bear in mind this is only my set-up, and I am by no means a pro podcaster. My method is designed to be a) free and b) relatively easy. If that sounds like something you may enjoy, read on.
Note: I also submit my show to Mixcloud, which is free and unlimited. I really like it, but it doesn’t have downloads/go into iTunes, etc. Still, it’s an easy extra way to share your show.
1. Add the meta-data
I’m assuming you’ve already got your podcast made and ready to go, sitting on your computer as an mp3 file. But wait! You know how some podcasts have kewl album art and descriptions and all that? Yeah, you probably want to do that to.
So here’s how I do that. It involves iTunes. Open your podcast in iTunes. Then click on File >> Get Info, and go to the “Info” tab.
Pretty straightforward set-up here. Under “name” the name of this particular episode. Under artist, you’ll want to put whomever you’d like to show up under the artist tab– I put the name of my show, other people put their name or their production company. Same with album artist and album– it’s up to you to decide how you’d like this information to be presented, I just like every field to show up with the name of my show. Comments is a good place to put in an show or episode description, or some copyright information.
The next tab to worry about is “Video”. Again, you know how some podcasts will give you a nice description of what this episode is about. I don’t know why, but the video tab is the place to put that– under description. Again, this can be a generic description of your show, but you may be better served to give some more specific information about this episode– it helps people figure out what this episode has to offer as opposed to the show as a whole.
After this, go to the “Options” tab. Under media kind, drag down to podcast. The other field to play with is “Remember playback position.” When someone is listening to your podcast and stops partway through, having this checked off will make it so their iPod or iTunes or whatever remembers where they were and picks up where they left off. Otherwise, they’re back to the start. I always check it off.
Last is “Artwork”. If your show has some artwork– and it should, even if it’s just the name of the show in big bold letters– you can drag and drop the .jpg or .png file here. I understand that iTunes prefers 600×600 .jpg files, so there you go.
Now you’ve got it ready to be published, but where do you publish it?
2. Host your file
There are a myriad of options for file hosting, which I’m not going in to here. When it comes to my podcast, I just use Dropbox. I’ve got over 30 hour-long episodes stored in my free account, and I’m not close to running out of room yet. So yeah, if you want to copy me exactly, get a dropbox account and upload your file to the “public” directory (so it’s accessible by other people). Update: Dropbox has eliminated public files. I’ve since switched to archive.org, which has been working nicely. Once you add a file, you can find a direct link to the mp3 on the item’s archive page, which you can link to on your website.
3. Publish it somewhere
To publish your podcast, all you need is a free blog account powered by something like Tumblr or Blogger. If you don’t know how to use these, there are no shortage of online tutorials, including a couple I’ve written if you Google around. They are pretty darn simple, so I’m not going to go into how to use them.
I use Tumblr, so that’s what these screenshots are going to show, but it’s pretty much the same with Blogger. Here goes– when you want to publish a new episode make a new post. Throw in the episode title in the title field, and whatever message you want to go with it in the description. At the bottom, put a word that will be the link for the mp3 file (I do download, but you could put “listen” “stream” “mp3” or “turkey sandwich”).
(note: for Tumblr, make sure this is a text post, even though a music post might seem the obvious way to go. You’re wrong).
Now, go back to your Dropbox folder and get the public link for the podcast you are publishing. You do that by hovering just to the right of the date and scrolling down once the options appear:
Using archive.org, head over to the download page and right click on the mp3 to get the link.
Then, highlight that word (in my case, download) and make that into a link.
Publish, and step 3 is complete.
4. Burn that feed.
Go to Feedburner. If you don’t have an account you can log-in using your Google credentials. Once you do that, it’s time to burn your RSS feed.
What’s an RSS feed you ask? Here’s Wikipedia. All you really need to know is this is what you’ll be using to make it so people can subscribe to your podcast in iTunes (or whatever) instead of manually downloading new episodes whenever they are published.
So, in Feedburner go to where it says “Burn a feed right this instant” and paste your blog’s RSS feed in the field. Also, since you are a pocaster, check off “I am a podcaster.” If you don’t know your blog’s RSS feed it is is http://yourblogname.tumblr.com/rss in Tumblr and in Blogger it’s http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.
Now click “Next.”
Pretty straightforward– choose your feed title, and the exact address for your feed (I just go with feeds.feedburner.com/thenameofmyblog everytime– easy to remember.
Next is the smartcast link. I’m just going to show you mine to have an idea of what you can do here:
The one element here that may be confusing is where to get the “podcast image location.” I host my image on my site, but you could just use the public dropbox folder, once again.
5. Replace existing feed with super-awesome feedburner feed
Now you have to replace your existing RSS feed with your new, supercharged feedburner feed. To do this, go to your blog settings page, This is at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/yourblogshortname/settings– for example, if you made your blog at http://www.ohawesomeblog.tumblr.com, the settings are at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/ohawesomeblog.tumblr.com.
Scroll down to where it says RSS feeds, check “Redirect this blog’s RSS to a Feedburner URL” and paste your feedburner url right there. Scroll down, hit save, and it’s done.
6. Let people subscribe
So you’re all set. Now you just need to let people know how to subscribe to the podcast. All you need to do is share the url with them, and they can add it to their media player. For example, mine is right here. And if you want to provide a link that let’s people subscribe in iTunes automatically, all you do is replace “http://” with “itpc://” like right here.
Further: Submit to iTunes
This is an optional step. Getting into iTunes means that your podcast will be found when people in iTunes go for a search. There’s exactly one company that controls this, and it’s Apple, so I’m just to provide the link to their tutorial.
Done:
So hopefully that does it. This is my method. I don’t know if it’s the best, I don’t know about other services out there, this is just the method I use. If you have any questions, feel free to ask (comments below, @akurjata on Twitter, andrew[at]kurjata.ca via email). And if you want to know anything outside of my realm of knowledge, well, Google is your friend.
I’ve written before about the Mr. PG fanpage. For a quick recap, Mr. PG is Prince George’s roadside mascot, a tall, faux-wood lumberjack character that has been a symbol of the city since 1960. Some years ago, I made a Facebook fan page for the guy, and it’s become pretty popular. As far as I can tell, it’s the most popular page in Prince George by a substantial margin.
Because of the size of the audience, a new trend has popped up with people posting general questions, comments, and promotions related to the Prince George area on the page. Stuff like concerts, fundraisers, and awareness campaigns. All things I generally like. But I’ve been deleting them. Back in June I wrote:
“Quick admin note: please do not use this page to promote unrelated events or businesses. Repeat offenders will be banned.”
This got six likes, and one happy comment. Time went on, and I deleted a few things. Then, someone started reposting the things I deleted. So I wrote:
“Unfortunately, clarification on this point is needed. Posts unrelated to Mr. PG will be taken down. That is not a judgement on whatever is being posted. It is simply a matter of volume. This page is one of the most popular Facebook pages in northern B.C. It is simply too easy for it to be overrun by people posting links to any number of worthy or unworthy causes, events, etc. There are plenty of other forums to share general news about Prince George. This is not one.”
And this caused some controversy. People wondered why they shouldn’t be allowed to post stuff about Prince George on the page. Why did the page exist if not a forum for just that?
I attempted to answer there, and I’m writing it out here, too, so I can have easy access whenever it comes up again.
***
Why you can’t post things unrelated to Mr. PG
With the Mr. PG page, I’m not trying to make money, I’m not trying to grow a brand, I’m just providing a way for people to say they like Mr. PG in the language of our times, the internet and, more specifically, Facebook.
That being the case, I don’t want the page to have people regret their decision to “like.” I don’t post status updates every day, because that would pollute thousands of stranger’s news feeds. I post when something related to Mr. PG comes about– he changes costume, a news article is written about him, or he is incorporated into a mural or museum exhibit. I’m happy for others to do the same, as well as share their thoughts on him– good and bad. It’s a fun forum to look at as people swap stories, questions, and photos.
If I were to open up posting on unrelated events, it could quickly get out of hand. You’d have to wade through a pile of concert listings, business promos and fundraising drives to get to what you wanted. It would be a general message board. At the moment, it’s only a few posts here and there, so maybe wouldn’t be that problematic. But even now it dilutes what is there, and sets a bad precedent. The quickest way to make people ignore the page is to have it present irrelevant information (and I do realize I’m griping about irrelevant information in a blog post about a Facebook page for a kitschy roadside attraction). The reason I’ve decided on a blanket policy is it’s a heck of a lot easier than having to decide turn-by-turn which unrelated post is maybe good enough to stay and which is just spammy.
***
Being “Mr. PG”
Also out of this discussion came people addressing “Mr. PG” directly and asking him (me) why he/I was being such a killjoy. One person even posted helpful tips on how I could grow my business by speaking in the friendly voice she imagines Mr. PG would have.
Something else I’ve tried to do, and perhaps not consistently enough, is to NOT give Mr. PG a voice. This page is not my interpretive art project. What I think Mr. PG would sound like and what you think he would sound like are completely different. I would hate it if someone else had made the Mr. PG fan page and was using that to post “lol whut?” status updates on a regular basis. So while I post news, I try to do it in a way that sounds like an administrator, not “Mr. PG.” Sometimes it can be fun to reply with a “sure” when someone asks Mr. PG if he’ll be their friend, but beyond that I don’t want to mess it up.
***
I’ll admit, this is a pretty silly subject to write about. And I don’t give it more weight than it has. This is a side project that takes a few minutes every month and is pretty much always fun. But there is a method to it, or at least an attempted one. I’m fascinated by community management, and this is the biggest community I’ve had to manage, even if it is just by luck. And what I just wrote is what I do to try to do justice to the online home of everyone’s favourite civic mascot.
***
EDIT: In the comments, Tyler Neilson brings up a good and ery fair point about Facebook pages having the implication of being run “officially” and the fact that I haven’t effectively placed a disclaimer on the site. That is something I am looking at how to best address (unfortunately, I’m not seeing a great way to incorporate the disclaimer so it’s noticeable without being overwhelming and ugly).
I’m up at UNBC today as part of my job at CFUR Radio. It’s pretty weird to realize how far removed I am from that first day on campus. I’ve spent almost as many years out of post-secondary school as I did in it.
It was a good experience for me. And I think I’ve been reasonably successful since. I’m happy with where I am in life, career-wise, financially, and personally. And I’ve had a few– very few– people ask me about strategies for getting the most out of university. And since I’m never one to let a lack of demand stop me from sharing my opinions, I’d like to now share some of the things I learned over the course of my academic career and in the years since.
This is not an extensive list. You will not hear anything about studying hard, making friends, or savouring the experiences, because you hear those things everywhere. That doesn’t mean they aren’t true, just irrelevant to my purposes. Instead, I’m going to focus in on things that I learned only by luck or accident.
Also, this not a tried and tested list. This is just my own opinion, based on my own experiences as someone who took a BA in political science and international studies and used it to have a short stint in political work and is now working in media. Take it as you will.
1. VOLUNTEER.
I cannot emphasize this one enough. I know lots of people will tell you volunteering is good for a variety of reasons, and it is, but when you’re in university there is one key reason it’s important: it will probably help you get a job.
The reason I want to focus in on this selfish, self-motivated use of volunteering is because when you’re a student, you don’t have a lot of time. You have classes, you probably have a job, and you’ll want some semblance of a social life. It can be easy to defer volunteering until later. Don’t.
I volunteered for the school paper and radio station. I can guarantee you that I would not have the jobs I have now if it weren’t for this experience. In fact, if you could put take away a full point off of my GPA or take away my volunteer experience, I would keep the volunteer experience.
Grades are good to have. But no matter how good your grades are, there’s someone else whose grades are just as good. Probably better. And let’s face it– when you’re getting a BA in something with no defined outcome like political science or history, the real, tangible skills you can develop and DEMONSTRATE through volunteering get pretty darn important when it comes to filling out that resume.
Which brings me to…
2. Don’t fall into the “but what is it good for?” trap.
This goes out to those of you getting the non-concrete degrees. I know what it’s like. I got my degree in political science and international studies. Towards the end you start wondering what you’re going to do with it. Not a lot of people have “international studier” or “political scientist” on their business card. And those who do have at least a masters.
So you’ll probably start to question what you’re doing. Don’t worry about it. Or let’s put it this way: don’t worry about the idea that what you’re doing is useless. It’s not. You’ll have to be smart about pursuing opportunities, learning how to translate your skills into the “real world” and whether or not you actually like what you’re learning. But if you do those things, you should be OK.
3. Apply for stuff. Do it early.
This is one that I probably should have done more. I didn’t spend much time going after scholarships and bursaries. I know people who did, and it paid off in dividends.
I applied for and got some really cool opportunities for travel, learning, and networking. There’s a lot of other opportunities I probably never heard of. My internship in provincial government– a position that had huge learning opportunities, great networking experiences and an enviable pay rate– I barely found out about and applied for on time. In the years since, I’ve heard that no one from UNBC has applied for the same experience, despite the university being one of the founding members of the program.
It’s worth it to spend some time looking at books and talking to professors to find out what’s available. Start right away, and do it every few months.
4. Don’t take all your first-year courses in your first year.
Where possible, save a few of your electives for your last year. You’ll be taking intense fourth-year courses with massive essays and complex concepts. Having a first-year introduction to film or Canadian fiction with assignments that cap out at five pages will be a welcome relief.
5. Branch out.
Some of my most rewarding courses were the ones that I didn’t think had much to do with what I would be doing in life. That includes that first year course on Canadian fiction. And it helps to have a more holistic view about the world. I wish I’d taken more statistics classes, for example.
6. Talk to people in other disciplines.
You may just find out you want to switch, or at least dabble. I had no idea how awesome planning was until my fourth year. I just didn’t know what it was. Had I known earlier, I definitely would have taken a couple of introductory courses. They also make good contacts later in life.
7. Get good/interesting/different summer jobs.
I didn’t stick with the co-op work experience program, and I’m not positive that was a good move. I liked the jobs I did instead, but I feel like I might have had more breadth of knowledge had I gone for that interpretive guide position in a hatchery somewhere or other. Maybe not. But at the very least, I’m glad I switched jobs up from ESL teacher to mill worker to barista-in-training.
(sidenote: I know of people who’ve had their long-term minimum wage jobs turn into actual careers, so be aware that there can be benefits to sticking with these things, too).
8. Take a break.
University is not a race. Aside from your credits expiring if you do it for too long, there’s no harm in taking some time off. Maybe you want to make some money so you don’t have to go in debt. Maybe you want to travel. Maybe both. If you can afford it (however you define the word ‘afford’) it’s worth thinking about if you find yourself burning out or just feeling like you need to switch things up for a while.
9. Treat your assignments as dry-runs for the real world.
This is something I learned in my last year. Prior to this, when doing a research assignment I would go to the obvious academic and journal sources. But at some point I realized that I could use primary sources to do original surveys. I wrote one paper using primary sources available from the local school board, and another using data on student enrollment at UNBC. There are all sorts of things in your community that could be studied that no one else has ever studied before. There are countless community groups that could use some data or a report or an academic survey about them. Just look around. It’s interesting, it sets your paper apart, and it can be used as a launch point to actual jobs actually studying things. I didn’t take a straight path in that direction, but I know people who did.
10. Start sending out resumes before you graduate, and get ready for some rejection
This is related to points 2. and 3. At some point you’re going to realize you’re close to graduating with no clue what you’re going to do.
First of all, you should start looking two semesters prior graduation. That’s not to say that you’ll get a job by the time you graduate, but you’re DEFINITELY not going to have a job if you haven’t even tried.
Be liberal with what you’re looking for. You’re more qualified than you think for a lot of things, it’s just a matter of figuring out how.
This is also where you can start getting into programs aimed at recent graduates, both in public and private sectors. Talk to professors. Look for research opportunities. Chances are your going to spend some time actively looking for a job while you’re unemployed. You may as well make as much of that time correspond with being in school.
***
So that’s it. Like I said, this is no ways comprehensive. It’s also not at all guaranteed to work for you. But I think it’s important that you be exposed to a variety of ideas. That being the case, I’d welcome anybody else who has their own 2 cents to add to do so in the comments below or by sending me a message on Twitter.
Last week, I was down in Vancouver and Squamish. Vancouver while my partner worked, and Squamish for a wedding.
In Vancouver, I had the day to myself in Kitsilano. It was a sunny day, so at one point I went to the beach. It was nice and close by, but it was also covered with people.
In Squamish, the same thing. We had some time and were told about a great lake. It was fun– you could dive off rocks and into the lake. But once again, it was covered with people. So much so that when we tried going out a second time, we had to park on the highway and hike our way in because there was no room in the parking lot.
This weekend, we’ve been going out around Prince George. On Saturday, we went out to a well-marked, well-mapped lake about twenty minutes away. It was one of the nicest Saturdays we’ve had all summer. No one else was there. You could hear the occasional piece of traffic, but other than that we were completely alone (aside from a couple of loons).
Yesterday, we decided to go see Hixon Falls. There were a few people at the main falls when we arrived, but they left soon. Further down, in the chutes, there was no one around.
I don’t mind people. I get a charge out of having them around me in the city. And I like the lakes and ocean around Vancouver and Squamish very much. I think it’s great there’s so many people who want to get outdoors, and that’s there’s so many places they have access to. I would never begrudge anyone access to the wilderness.
But I find it far more relaxing to explore lakes and woods when there aren’t dozens or hundreds of other people around me. Even better is when there isn’t an extremely busy highway just a few metres away. I think a lot of people up here feel the same way.
That’s one of my favourite things about living where I do. A short drive, and you can completely escape everyone. Few people, fewer traffic. You can just enjoy the silence and the experience of being alone.
That’s why I sometimes question the mantra of growth. I don’t want to stop people from living up here. But I don’t necessarily think it’s always a bad thing to pursue population stability rather than population expansion. If Prince George were to grow to the point that all these lakes and rivers around town became as busy as the ones around Vancouver and Squamish, I feel like the quality of life will have been negatively impacted. Maybe not in a tangible, measurable way, but in a real one nonetheless.
I know the economic arguments in favour of growth. But I rarely hear anyone take them to their logical conclusion. If population always expands, eventually you run out of room. Maybe not anywhere in the near future, but eventually. I don’t think mega-metropolises are ideal places for humans to live. But you rarely hear that conversation. Just the one about how to get more people to live here or there. Or in some cases, how to encourage more people to have more babies.
And that’s fine. Maybe we need growth in the short term, and even in the medium term. We’re in a relatively sparsely populated part of a relatively sparsely populated country. But I’d feel more comfortable if there was some conversation about what our target population is. What do we need to enjoy a comfortable level of living, have various services provided, and avoid a crushing mass of people everywhere? How do we hit our target and then plateau?
This is a topic I plan on researching in the coming months. But today is a sunny day off in a part of the world where we are lucky enough to be surrounded by getaways and the means to get to them. I’m headed out.
Originally posted on Google+.
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tl;dr: I’m not going to be posting anything on G+ for the foreseeable future. Follow me on Twitter.
The subtitle of this is “for now” because I’m not going to rule out Google+ ever being used. But I’ve been in for over a month, and I’ve posted very infrequently, and rarely about anything other than Google+.
The issue for me at this point is it just adds no utility as a place to share. There’s a few people there that I follow that I don’t follow elsewhere, and that will probably continue to be the case. But there are not enough people on this network that aren’t present on any other networks to make it worth my time or theirs for me to write the same things here that I do on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Anything I post here is just going to be a repeat of what they see on those networks. And that starts to get spammy.
Facebook has most of my real-world contacts. I post once or twice a day or less with what I’m up to, plus the occasional link. I also use it as a quick messaging service. It has its issues, but people are there and there have been a few changes (prompted by G+) that made controlled sharing even easier. Basically, it ain’t broke yet.
Twitter is my extended network. I’ve seen some people saying that G+ is better for this because it lacks the 140 character limit, but the fact is that 140 character limit is what makes Twitter work for me. No one takes up too much of my attention with super-long posts (like this one). And for people on Twitter who I absolutely must-read– real-life contacts, key industry people, etc– lists work just fine.
And for rich media (video, music, photos) and longer posts) I am still very happy with Tumblr. Not as many people are there and it still has occasional downtime issues, but that’s all made up for in the customization. My Tumblr page feels like my Tumblr page, not some brand experience. I can customize the look and feel of it to no end, it’s great for sharing and listening to music, and it has a browsable archive. And the community is great.
These are the three networks I use that Google+ seemed most likely to disrupt. And aside from making the privacy and group settings on Facebook a little better and possibly a few innovations to come from Twitter, it hasn’t changed much. There’s been no mass migration of real people in my network. There’s barely been a trickle.
Like I said, I’m not going to rule out ever using G+. It is clear that Google has big plans for it, and as it integrates deeper and deeper into other Google services that I use (mail, maps, docs, blogger, reader) I’m sure I’ll be back on here, just as everyone else probably will be. I’m using that “+1” button across the web more and more. I’m also seriously considering migrating my Flickr account over to Google’s Picasa/Plus photo service (unlimited storage!). But until then I’m posting this on my G+ page as an explanation/warning to anyone thinking that I’m “present” on this network. Because the truth is, at the moment, I’m really not.
Over the last couple of days I’ve seen two posts from people whose opinions I respect indicating that putting files in the cloud would soon be a thing of the past. First, Fred Wilson:
“I was in DJ Woooo’s Dance/Electro Turntable room last week. I heard a remix track that was super fun. I hit the button to send the track to Rdio. I went to Rdio and listened to it a few times. Then I went to SoundCloud, found the track and then reblogged it into Tumblr. Not once in that experience did I have to touch a file. If Turntable and Rdio had good links into SoundCloud (I’m sure they will in time), I would not even have had to do any searching. It would have been click this, click that, click this and I would have been done. That’s how I think things are going to work when everything is in the cloud.”
This was followed shortly by Bijan Sabet, who also indicated that he loved using ex.fm/soundcloud/tumblr to share his music.
I love Soundcloud and ex.fm, too. But when it comes to using them to share music on my Tumblr and especially to replace my music collection, I’m hesitant.
The reason I’m hesitant is because when I add music to my mixtape or to my music collection, I have the expectation that I will be able to access it a few months and preferably a few years into the future. When I use music from the cloud, that is not necessarily going to be the case. Not because I don’t have faith in the companies providing them (though mistakes can be made), but because I don’t necessarily trust that the users behind them have the same investment in keeping things up.
Say, for example, I like a track by my friend’s band Wisconsin Dream Guitar. And he’s posted the song to Soundcloud . That’s great for sharing it to Twitter and Facebook, because people aren’t generally browsing through archives of those services, and I don’t have the expectation that everything I link to will always be there. As long as the link works for the next week it’s all good.
But if I share it to my music Tumblr I’m hoping it will be there in perpetuity, because I want my mixtape to act as an ongoing music sharing project. And one of the things that awesome about it is the ability to hit “random.” In this case, I’d like someone hitting “random” two years in the future to be able to hear entries I posted today.
But what if my friend has uploaded more than two hours of music to Soundcloud (the limits of a free account). And he figures there’s no need to provide access to his old songs because they’ve been shared. Now that track is inaccessible. And if I’ve shared it on Tumblr, when someone gets to that entry all they do is hear blank noise.
The same thing can happen with ex.fm and Tumblr. Whoever posted the song I’ve reblogged or shared can take it down. Or move it somewhere else. And then I’m left with a blank.
That’s why I still get my own music files. Then I put them in Dropbox. Yes, I deal with the same risks of things disappearing (I also run the risk of Tumblr going away, too), but at least if it’s MY files or MY services that disappear, I’ll be aware of it. If someone who I’ve reblogged or a Soundcloud artist I’ve shared deletes or moves their track, I’d never know until I stumble across that fact. I know this, because it’s happened before.
I’m sure there’s some sort of network architecture that can be used to solve that issue. It will probably involve a paid service like Rdio. But for now, I’m sticking with files– in the cloud.
This is a post written out of selfishness.
Every day on Facebook, Twitter (and now Google+) I see people posting their “song of the day” or week or moment. And often these are people whose music tastes I like. But more often than not, their linking to a YouTube page or some other independent website, which is all well and good if I have time to click around. But generally, I like to listen to music while I’m working, so I need a continuous flow.
So this post is aimed at helping YOU make a mixtape for me.
First of all, let me show you what you’re going to be making.
What It Looks Like
I initially discovered this sort of thing was possible via FredWilson.fm. Open that link. Music will start playing. And it will keep playing through 1342 tracks that Fred Wilson has posted since he started this thing. If you click on the tape on the top the top of this page, you’ll open up my Almost Mainstream mixtape. I have less songs than Fred, but still it’s a good way to listen to a continuous flow of music that I’ve selected to share– one track a day, give or take. So this is what we’re working towards.
Why Would I Bother Doing This? And Why Tumblr?
I already covered the advantages for me as a listener– the ability to hit a continuous stream rather than having to hit play on a bunch of You Tube videos.
As a both a listener and audience member, it’s nice to have the customization and permanence that goes with having a blog. I can search the archives. I can customize the design. It can be an actual presence on the web, rather than just a cog in the flow of Facebook and Twitter.
As for why Tumblr– it is by far the easiest way to set this up, for one. Quick, easy, free.
Tumblr also plays nicely with services like ex.fm which allows me to subscribe to your songs alongside other people, or trntbl.me , which lets me listen to your music randomly. And it works nicely with external mp3s and Soundcloud, which we’ll get to later.
Step One: Make Your Blog
Super easy. Go to Tumblr.com. Enter an email address and a password. I’m not going to go into all the details of how to customize the design and all that, because there’s plenty of information here.
I will give you ONE warning, though. The blog you sign up with is your PRIMARY blog. This is the account that you use to follow other Tumblr users, and “like” individual posts. If you want your music blog to be the one you do with this, fine. If not, create a new blog here. I personally post music and more on my primary Tumblr and post the same music, but nothing else, on my secondary music blog. But it’s not a big deal, do what you want. Fred Wilson only has the one blog, and it works just fine for him (and many, many others). The nice thing is you can make standalone sites that extract only the audio. I’m over-complicating things here.
Step Two: Add Streampad
Streampad is the little bar at the bottom of the Tumblr blogs that shows the track name. Putting it in your Tumblr is the most complicated step, and it’s not complicated at all. Go here, click on “Tumblr” and follow the instructions.
Step Three: Start Posting Music
Also easy. When you’re logged in to Tumblr, click on the word “Audio” or just go to this link. You’ll see a page that looks like this:
You’ll see you have three options. You can upload an mp3 from your computer– you’re limited to one a day. You can search Soundcloud for audio (remember when I said it played nice with Soundcloud? It’s like that.) Or you can post a link to an mp3 elsewhere on the web. Personally, I upload mp3s to a public Dropbox folder and link from there, but again do whatever you find easiest.
One quick note is that if you are posting to a secondary blog (ie not the one you can follow, like, etc with) then make sure you’ve indicated that in the box at the top right that says “Post to”.
And there you go! You’ve just made a Tumblr mixtape that I can subscribe and listen to.
BONUS: Play your music elsewhere
The last, bonus step that you may or may not want to use is the standalone music site like this one. There’s no posts on it, just music. What’s happening is I’m posting to Almost Mainstream, and both this mixtape and my personal Tumblr stream audio from that site. The way to do this is pretty easy. Use the same code as you did in step two, except this time paste this code:
<!– STREAMPAD MUSIC PLAYER –>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://static.streampad.com/streampad-tumblr.js?api=YOURBLOGURL.tumblr.com&clicktext=Click%20to%20play%20all%20audio%20posts&autoplay=false&showpop=false”></script>
<!– END STREAMPAD MUSIC PLAYER –>
Where, obviously, “YOURBLOGURL” is whatever your blog is. For example, if you are posting music to myawesomemusic.tumblr.com replace “YOURBLOGURL” with “myawesomemusic”.
So, hopefully you start doing that I can start following you. If you have any questions, there’s a comment form below, I’m on Twitter or you can email me.
I was interviewed about the Listen Bird today for a student documentary today. It was because I wrote an essay about the Listen Bird a while ago— in it, I said
One of my greatest fears is that one day an overzealous downtown beautifiation project will eradicate the Listen Bird’s presence. Yes, he’ll survive in the bathrooms of Books and Company, but what of the ones hidden away in bowling alley doorways, back alley bus stops, or the downtown post offices?
I bring this up because I was interviewed in front of this bowling alley doorway Listen Bird today, and I noticed that even thought the rest of the area had been repainted yellow, the area surrounding the bird was left alone!
Awesome. Glad to see someone else felt it was worth preserving.
It is August, and it feels like early fall here in Prince George.
That would be bad enough if we had had a summer, but this has been the coolest, greyest, rainiest May/June/July I can remember. This is coming off of one of the longest and snowiest winters we’ve had in years.
Weather doesn’t traditionally get to me that much, but with the long-term forecast predicting more of the same, I’m starting to get worried. If we hit fall proper without breaking the 25 mark, I’m probably going to feel it.
To give you an idea of how bad it’s been, a day where it hits nineteen and doesn’t rain is considered one of the best.
I think the only reason we haven’t had a mass outbreak of depression is there’s been just enough sun to stave it off. An hour here, an hour there, with the occasional actual sunny day, even if still requires a sweater.
What it feels like is wanting dinner, but being given just enough appetizers to stave off the hunger. You’re never full, but you never reach the point of painful hunger, either.
But if that long winter sleep sets in without getting a full meal, I’m going to have to visit another restaurant.
Addendum:
I’ve heard some people saying the weather’s not so bad. Some cite statistics.
Here’s the thing about statistics: they can lie.
For example: A day where it rains intensely for one hour at 3 am, resulting in 5 mm of precipitation, and is then sunny and clear will statistically be rainier than a day that drizzles from 9 am to 9 pm resulting in 4 mm.
This has definitely been the long, drawn out rain and clouds.
I’m producing Daybreak North today. That sounds bigger than it probably is, since I’m only holding things together for a day, as opposed to actually taking on the full-on management portions of the producer’s job. Still, I’m nervous. And excited.
Two years ago, I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. I was transitioning out of a short contract I had landed as a result of a short internship– both in government. My media training essentially amounted to volunteer work. I took the volunteer work seriously, mind, and am proud of some of what I produced, but my resume was pretty thin in the experience front. That didn’t stop me from applying for a job at CBC, though. Always worth a shot, even if it’s a long one.
I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t get the job. I was surprised when I was called to see if I would be interested in coming in for a couple of days to learn how to use the equipment and basically see if I had any potential as fill-in for the Prince George bureau.
Those two days wound up turning into fairly steady work. And eventually a permanent part-time position as a researcher (the most entry-level position in the bureau). That’s the position I still hold, although I’ve probably spent as much time if not more working as an associate producer.
I’ve gotten to put together some really fun stories. I’ve also gotten to handle some very serious ones. I’ve been an “expert guest.” In autumn, I’ll be acting as a producer-personality (on the air throughout the show, but working more behind-the-scenes). And today I’m producing.
I can’t forget that on paper, I am not a star candidate. I hope I’ve proven myself in the short time I’ve been there. I KNOW I’ve significantly improved in all areas, even if I still have a long way to go to get to where I’d like to be. But no one has ever treated me like I don’t belong. My co-workers, superiors, and the organization as a whole has been nothing but supportive, complimentary, constructive in their feedback, and generous with their opportunities. I know it’s tough times to get a job of any sort these days. So for me to be holding a job like this, at what I truly believe is one of the world’s best media outlets, at my age with my experience– well, I can be nothing short of grateful.
There is a certain amount of work and planning on my part that went into getting me to where I am. But it would be for nothing with the help of people in my personal and professional lucks. That’s my luck. And I am a very lucky guy.
I’m posting this as a follow-up to the @hotmail.com debate. I’m doing it because I think there are a lot of people who may not realize there are implications of who your email provider is beyond functionality and perception. There’s also the matter of ownership.
When your email address ends in a domain owned by someone else, they control it, not you. I’m not saying that in a sinister “they’re gonna steal your identity!” sense but in the simple they can lock you out of it if they want to or if they have to or by mistake sense.
I think most people understand that with company email addresses. For example, my cbc.ca email is used to identify me as a member of the CBC. It was given to me by the CBC, and if I were to leave the CBC, they would have every right to take it away or lock me out of it. I don’t work for them anymore, why would I be using an email address that makes it look like I do? That’s why I only use the CBC email address for CBC-related work.
I also have a cfur.ca email address. Since I double as the tech guy there, I have a little more control over where it goes. But if I give a DJ a cfur.ca email they can expect to lose access to it at some point in the future if they cease working with CFUR.
I’ve lost access to both my gov.bc.ca and leg.bc.ca. I get to keep my unbc.ca email address as an alumni of the university, but at some point they may decide they don’t have enough storage space and kick out everyone who isn’t a current student or faculty member.
My point is, I’m fairly certain everyone has experienced and is aware of the company-controlled email and the limitations of keeping this email address as you move on to new jobs or schools, which is why they sign up for Hotmail or Yahoo or Gmail to be a personal email address for use with friends and family. But those have limitations, too. Microsoft may shut down Hotmail. Yahoo has shut down other properties in the past. Gmail looks pretty slick now, but you may stop liking it in the future, or you may be tired of Google throwing ads at you. And in any of these cases, you’ve got a problem: someone else has your old email, and someone else has your email address.
Worse (in my opinion) is the personal address given to you be internet companies– telus.net, shaw.ca, that sort of thing, because they are dependent on you being a paying customer. If you use them for your primary email, it becomes more difficult to switch providers or cancel the service altogether. It’s kind of like only receiving mail so long as you keep using FedEx, even if Purolator is giving better rates, because you don’t want to switch mailing addresses.
I’m by no means an expert, but the best analogy I can think of* is that using these other providers is like having buying a PO Box at your neighbourhood post office. You get mail sent there, you can read it, and move it around. But if you leave it in the PO Box, you don’t own it yet. The post office could shut down, throw it out, change the lock. Or you might want to switch to another post office.
Getting your own email domain– something like contact@myname.org– costs as little as $10 a year, and has the advantage of being yours, which you can point anywhere. And it never sounds unprofessional, unlike free services which, as we’ve seen, can start to fall out of favour.
Again, I’m not suggesting anything sinister here. Pretty much every provider gives you a way to transfer or download your mail right now, and likely will into the future. But it’s worth thinking about– especially since so many people I talk to aren’t even aware of this. For anything important, it’s always worthwhile to have an exit plan.
Further reading:
Let us pay for this service so it won’t go down – Marco.org
Ad nauseam
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September 26 2011 | ∞
This past Saturday, on one of the coldest days we’ve had since winter, a small group of family and close friends met me in a picnic shelter beside the Nechako River, about twenty minutes out of town. They’d come for the vague invitation of a potluck/photo session/party, with few other details. At around 2:30 I stood up and gave a small speech, thanking them for being there and letting them in on the real reason they had been called out.
After over seven wonderful years together, my long-term girlfriend and I had decided to get engaged.
As I said in the speech, we’ve been together for over seven wonderful years.
We met in the first year of university and were soon taking on things like camping, traveling to Cuba, and, in what could have been a terrible idea if we weren’t well-matched, moving in together for the first time…. while living in China.
Since then we’ve finished school, made a couple more moves, bought a house together, and generally committed to being in a full-on partnership.
So on that day, I was very happy to announce that we were finally engaged. Not only that, we’d already set a wedding date– about ten minutes from that exact moment.
I then quickly grabbed our parents and the wedding party (none of whom had been told this in advance), gave them bouquets, corsages, and instructions, and we convened near a grove of trees for the ceremony.
This was followed by a quick photo session, and a small reception at a nearby hall.
A surprise wedding is a different way of doing things, and when we were planning it I saw only a few resources, so I thought I’d share some of our reasons for doing it.
Here’s the backdrop.
In my experience (and I don’t want to make sweeping generalizations so take from this what you will), once you’re with the person you’re supposed to be with, the need for much of anything else sort of slips away. To me, our partnership isn’t about legal papers or rings, it’s about being committed to the other person and having confidence that they’re committed to you. Without that, all the legal papers and rings in the world aren’t going to make a bit of difference. Marriage starts to feel like an afterthought, rather than some sort of first big step you take on the road of your life together. And that’s how we treated our relationship: as what would generally be found in a marriage, regardless of whether it was “official” or not.
And after seven years, other people have been pretty much treating us in the same way. We’d been together so long and done things like merged bank accounts and our mortgage, integrated into each other’s families, and basically full-on committed, that the question of when we would be getting married wasn’t really being asked. We’d reached a point where our actions and the timespan spoke for themselves, not a ceremony. It allowed things to feel like if we did get married it would be for us, not for any latent expectations of what we were supposed to do.
And it was the desire to bring people together. We both like our families, and each other’s families, and we have some friends that have known us for years, and it seemed like it would be nice to get everyone together for a celebration of some sort, since they’d put up with us for so long without getting one. A marriage should be a celebration, and that’s what we went for.
All of which fails to answer why we decided to do it as a surprise. Easiest answer: it kept it simple, and it kept it small. I know weddings can take on a life of their own, despite everyone’s best intentions, so keeping it to ourselves made it a lot easier. We also only gave ourselves a few months to plan, which didn’t allow for too much second-guessing.
I like big weddings. Some of my favourite memories are friends and families having massive get-togethers with catering, DJs, and all the traditional fixings.
But for us, a small wedding seemed right. It fits with what we wanted to do and how we pictured things going. Making it a surprise helped keep it that way. It’s also a pretty fun way to make the announcement.
There’s a lot of people who would have been on the guest list and probably would have been there if we’d done it in a more traditional way. But even with under forty guests, I didn’t get nearly as much time to spend with everyone as I would have wanted. Had there been more, I feel like I would have barely seen anyone at all. If it’s a bigger wedding with dancing and speeches and favours, I feel like you can pull off having lots of people there without ignoring them. I’ve certainly never felt slighted at anyone else’s events. But again, they had a lot more things surrounding the overall ceremony– among them, more than a few months notice.
Ultimately, the whole point of this wasn’t to start of our life’s journey together. It was just a quick stop to celebrate how far we’ve come. In this particular case we dressed up and exchanged vows, but at the end of the night it felt like we’d just had a fun party. We can do that again with more people, or different people, or get together with individuals and smaller groups again and again. There’s new friends who will become closer and old friends that will eventually drift away. That’s the reality of life. But there’s one thing I know, and have known for a long time– I’ve got someone to spend that life with me, and I get to spend it with her. And that’s definitely worth celebrating.
Filed under: Best Of, personal | Discussion