Marion's Blog

My Blogoversary

I started this blog 4 years ago. My Blogoversary was yesterday. I started it as I was getting ready to leave Sun Microsystems. Sun is where I started blogging in September of 2004. Sun was a fantastic place to learn about blogging. It was very nurturing and supportive and encouraged people to be authentic. My Sun blog is still on the Sun blog site.

Now that Sun is being bought by Oracle and presumably will be swallowed up I wonder what will happen to the Sun blogging program. By googling Oracle blogs I see that they do have an Oracle blog site but it doesn't seem as free wheeling as Sun's. At Sun anyone could blog about anything as long as we followed some common sense rules about not sharing secrets etc. I think Sun's blogs have a really authenticity which is a reflection of Sun's culture.

In thinking about the fact that Sun blogs could go away I recently decided to print out my old blogs so I would at least have a paper back up. It has been fun to look at the blogs I wrote five  years ago.

Improving my Podcast Quality - Podcasters Emporium - Buying a mixer.

As you may know I have recently started a Podcast. I published my first show a month ago and am working on show number two. I am a total neophyte when it comes to podcasting. I am good with technology. It was my career for 30 years. But I have zero experience with sound or recording.

I have been doing a lot of research on podcasting. I believe in learning by doing so I just dove in and published my first show. I'm glad I did it. It was a lot of fun and I think the content turned out to be pretty good. But the sound quality was horrible. So I have been focusing on learning more about what is needed to produce a more professional show.

One of the resources I found which has become invaluable and has quickly become my favorite Podcast is The Podcasters Emporium, a show by two Australian guys James Williams and Dave Gray about how to improve your podcast. I like it because it isn't too basic but it also isn't aimed at experts. Plus I really enjoy the authenticity and personality of Dave and James. They have a great voice and a very engaging show. I think I need to start a side bar list of my favorite podcasts. The Podcasters Emporium will be on the list.

The first things I learned were all about gain, what gain is, and how I need to adjust it. This was covered in episode 11 of Podcasters Emporium. I suspect turning my gain down will make a very big improvement to my sound quality.

In studying ways to improve my podcast I also became convinced that if I am going to be doing interviews I need 2 mics. Handing the mic back and forth or holding it between the two of us just doesn't cut it. But if I use 2 mics I need a mixer. So I started shopping for  a mixer. My only complaint about Podcasters Emporium (and it is a minor one) is that it left me with the impression that I would need to spend at least $500 if I wanted a good enough mixer and mics. And I really don't want to invest a lot of money getting started.

So I posted a comment on Twitter saying  that I was looking for a good mixer but I thought I ws going to have to spend hundreds of dollars. One of my twitter and blogging friends Ryan of Ryan Jerz :: Reno Blogger responded almost immediately recommending the Behringer 802 8-Input mixer. The key things I learned from Podcasters Emporium were that I should buy a mixer with at least 2 XLR inputs and with phantom power. I didn't know what those things were but I learned that too. I went to my local Radio Shack store but the $30 mixer they had didn't have XLR input and the cheaper  Behringer mixer for sale on Amazon didn't have phantom power. So I ordered the 802 from Amazon for $59 and should be receiving it next week. Hopefully it will do the trick.

For now I am going to keep using my very cheap microphones but once I learn how to use the mixer I may be upgrading them too. If you have ideas or suggestions on other things I should know or do please let me know. Post a comment or email me.

Just Do It!

Interviews are always fascinating to me. Every time I watch a great Charlie Rose interview I say to myself Wow! I would love to have interesting conversations like that. The other day I listened to a Podcast interview that Dan Carlin of Hardcore History did with James Burke and my reaction was the same.

Several years ago my boss at the time had caricature done of each of his managers as a gift. The text of mine was "Just Do It!" which in fact is my motto. Any time I am faced with something I am not sure I want to do or something I don't know how to do  I believe the best thing to do is to just get on with it.

The beauty of the Internet and things like blogs and Podcasts is that with a blog it is very easy to be a writer, and in a similar vein it would be relatively easy to create a Podcast and become an interviewer. I am sure that 30 years ago Charlie Rose was not as good as he is today at creating interesting interviews. And good Podcasts take a lot of hare work and practice too.  So if I really want to be an interviewer I should Do It!

Of course I have lots of ideas like this and my problem/opportunity is actually focusing and doing it?!

100 Books in 2009

Some days I can start reading blogs and following links forever. It is enormously engrossing. I move from one interesting post to another. It is like wandering through a giant department store of interesting people. Today is one of those days. I started with the list of elderbloggers that Ronni added to her elderblogger list at Time Goes By and went from there. When I find a blog that I feel a connection to I add it to my Google Reader list. Today I've added about 10 blogs to my list.

During my browsing I decided to sign up for the 100 BOOKS IN 2009 challenge as presented on J. Kaye's Book Blog.

Here is what I've read so far in 2009 with links to my reviews.

1. A Perfect Union, Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
2. Soul Made Flesh - The Discovery of the Brain -- and How it Changed the World
3. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
4. One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald   2/5/2009
5. John Quincy Adams - A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul C. Nagel  2/18/2009
6. Founding Mothers - The Women who Raised our Nation by Cokie Roberts 2/25/2009
7. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean 3/5/09
8. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin 3/8/09
9. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 3/11/2009
10. Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher 3/18/2009
11. Angels Fall by Nora Roberts 3/27/2009
12. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 3/29/2009
13. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 4/1/2009
14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 4/30/2009
15. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett 5/5/2009
16. Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts 5/7/2009
17. American Lion by Jon Meacham 5/26/2009
18. Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison 5/29/2009
19. The Increment by David Ignatius 6/2/2009
20. Introducing C. B. Greenfield by Lucille Kallen 6/12/2009
21. A book of bees by Sue Hubbell 7/5/2009
22. Different Seasons by Stephen King 7/16/2009
23. The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick 7/17/2009
24. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer 7/23/2009
25. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff 8/1/2009
26. Street Fighters by Kate Kelly 8/3/2009
27. Coraline by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell 8/6/2009
28. Coming Home by Posamunde Pilcher 8/19/2009
29. Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin 8/20/2009
30. Catherine de Medici - Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda 8/28/09
31. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell 9/3/2009
32. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell 9/5/2009
    
33. Sense and Sensability by Jane Austin 9/14/09
34. Dancing to the Precipice by Caroline Moorehead 10/9/09
35. Old Tippecanoe - William Henry Harrison and His Time 11/18/2009

The deal with the challenge is that I will add books to this list as I finish them.

I don't think I'll make it to 100 but it is fun to keep a list of what I am reading this year.

I'm passionate about using social networking to build your brand.

I follow Robert Scoble (scobelizer) on Twitter. I often learn new stuff or find new interesting people. At the Consumer Electronics Show Scoble was on a panel about blogging with Gary Vaynerchuk who does a really cool video blog called Wine Library TV and also has his own personal video blog. I love finding new people like this. If you want some great entertainment that will make you laugh watch the segment when Vaynerchuk was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien or if you want to branding and social media watch Gary's  latest segment on his personal website. The guy is just plain entertaining.

What Vaynerchuk does with WineLibraryTV is a great example of how to use social networking to help build your business. My friend Todd who just started The Tucson Tamale Company is in the early stages of doing the exact same thing. You can follow him on twitter (tucsontamales or cornartist) I haven't talked to him about this but I could see him doing tamaleTV.com :-) Todd is doing a great job of building the Tucson Tamale Company brand.

A side note: I haven't tried Tucson Tamale Company tamales yet but Todd says he is going to do mail order soon. I can't wait!