Here's hoping tonight will be different.

Some of the garbling on Will's end clearly is something going on with Sound Forge; I have a feeling that he may need more RAM in that sucker, unless he's doing the show off his Alienware, in which case, I have no clue why I would have an easier time of it than he.

Next show, though, I have a couple of ideas that we're going to test out before hand, and I will make sure that the acoustics on my end are better off. I'm sure Will would do so, as well. If you guys know how to help out with some of the issues you're hearing, by all means, e-mail us!

--Logan

-- Fresno? Fresyes!

-- Pulp Fiction (iMDb)

-- Blair Witch Project (iMDb)

-- Poor Man's Steadycam

-- IFC Media Lab

-- Channel 101

-- YouTube

-- Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive

-- Stephen Graham Jones

Music

-- Psycheasthetic

-- Cursive

-- Revolution

We will probably be late for show #10.

That is all.

We finished recording show #008 this past Wednesday, and I'm going to spend some time editing it and wait until next Wednesday to post it. That way we can finally get things aligned properly. I want to have Wednesday be when we post a show and record the next one to give me a full week to edit it all throughout. It's just nicer that way, and then, with it being hump day, if we for whatever reason don't get it rockin' that night, we still have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, etc. to get it done, with plenty of time to clean up the audio and what not.

Again, we're getting interviews lined up; we have some actually saying yes, which means eventually we'll be getting something nailed down. I'm still working out the kinks with recording Skype calls, but I think we'll be all right.

Anyway, see you Wednesday!

Also, Will had some problems with his computer, and so I took out what chunks I could where that happened, but a little over the fifty minute mark, you'll hear a little bit of garbage in there. We're hoping that dropping the overall quality and bit rate should fix it, and with it being a spoken word (mostly) show, you shouldn't notice much difference.

With that said - if you're on the latest part of iTunes, you'll see we've got our chapter markers up, now. It really doesn't work right now if you're looking for a particular segment - occasionally I threw stuff in there because it was funny and not because I was marking out a section of audio - so you may want to open the "album artwork" window and just keep an eye on it as you listen. I have the show links on there.

I may be losing a few listeners as a result, because I believe now the only people who can listen are iTunes people, or those who can play .m4b files. I'm not too concerned, as I have the stat numbers and when they show it to me in a pie chart, the number of people who don't use iTunes seem to have a line's worth of the pie. Not even a slice.

If you don't have iTunes, your only excuse should be that you're on a Linux distro. And if you're on Linux, chances are there's something for it that you could use in place of iTunes. Again, not worried. Just a heads up.

Wednesday evening: Record

Thursday-Saturday: Edit

Sunday: Publish

We figured that since Wednesday is LOST night, we would both be around and not doing anything like partying or sexual perversions, so it would be easy for us to just record. Which means, yes, tomorrow we are scheduled to record.

5:37:51 PM Will: I'm thinking I'm gonna re-seduce the chick I lost my virginity to.
5:38:40 PM Logan: Yay.
5:39:03 PM Will: 'Cause she's hot. And has money, so I could probably convince her to come to me
5:39:09 PM Logan: Whoo.
5:39:21 PM Logan: See if you can't get her to donate to Misnomer.
5:39:27 PM Will: No.
5:39:36 PM Will: 'Cause then she'd be curious, and want to listen to it.
5:39:51 PM Will: And then any chances of successful seduction would implode.
5:40:06 PM Logan: Then lie.
5:40:20 PM Will: I'm not a very good liar.
5:40:48 PM Logan: ...
5:41:00 PM Will: Yeah, that was a lie

Even the insane, and I mean the deepest of the clinically insane, think in a structure. Instability, deception, skewed perception and the like must still follow some form of logic. The way your character makes connections and associations, his progression of thought, and his moral barometer must follow an internal consistency. Otherwise, you're working with something random and, regardless of what deconstructionists want to say about it, you cannot build character without some kind of pattern. That pattern can shift and evolve, but it has to for a reason.

"I'm dead, doctor."
"What, Joe? That's absurd."
"Really, I mean it. I'm dead, 100% dead."
"Can dead people bleed, Joe?"
"No. I don't think so. Why?"
"Well, if I do this..."
"Hey, ow, goddammit."
"See, now you're bleeding. Ergo, you are not dead."
"Isn't that something?"
"It certainly is."
"Dead people can bleed."

It's all about interior logic.

I totally mangled the quote, but there you go!

1) Will's sick, still, and on-and-off, so this next show we've got my good pal Nick to fill in.

2) Nick filled in nicely, but technical problems and my brain-to-mouth connection just made the show a flat out disaster. We have the audio, just on a number of tracks that I'm going to have to splice together. It took about three hours to get one hour of audio with all the issues. Not fun.

3) Show #6? Probably not until Wednesday.

4) Thursday? Will should be up for recording by then, and this time I won't let him run off to "get drinks." He can drink on the show.

Clearly, Will's 102-fahrenheit fever can only have one explanation.

Needless to say, we haven't recorded, and thus it may be until Monday, I would gather, before we record again, which is... well, it may very well become our new schedule. Plan for Thursday, actually record on Monday, lay it down on Wednesday.

Yeah. Yeah, I think we can work that.

GarageBand 3, by the way? I'm there. You don't even know. No, really, you don't know.

I've played around with Quicktime Pro's chapter-making abilities. I'm able to edit the show in a good three hours if I sit down and do it. I'm not entirely certain how Podcast Maker would work with Libsyn. Perhaps if I had something that had me do more of the work, it would feel like it was worth the investment. I do need something better than Audacity, now. I believe we've gotten to that point to where we need some better features.

Ubercaster looks very, very promising, but it has yet to reach beta, and with the way Audacity likes to crash - nay, not crash, I believe the closer term is detonate - at the most inopportune times (like, say, after I've forgotten to save every three changes, and I decide to make just one more addition and I'll save this big different version), I could use some better software.

I'm considering GarageBand, which I guess if you're on a Mac (and I am), supposedly it's the best thing around. I may do my basic recording via Audacity, and then edit on GarageBand. I think just straight up audio, while many podcasts do that, doesn't quite do it. I like to have an all-around show. As you're listening, have chapter pictures with clickable links. The show notes while you listen. Obviously, if you're on iTunes - and from the numbers, nearly 100% of you are - you'll have this capability. Since you can make chapters in Quicktime Pro, I assume you can see them, as well.

If you're on WinAmp... I don't know, man. I don't know. I left 1999 a while ago.

I am getting better at editing, I think. It would be nice to have some audio people making or finding sounds that would fit what I'm looking for. What I do find is just patchwork, and I'd like to get something a bit more, y'know, that p-word. Professional.

Update: So much for Audacity. At about 8:30 into the show, silence. I had a bumper in there. I know I did, because I heard it when I did my final listen to make sure there wasn't any dead air. And it has disappeared. So I've had to re-open and simply erase that dead air, and then re-upload the file. We may have seen the last of Audacity for me.

In any case, no, podcast hasn't been recorded. Did I say it'd be done by now? No, you misunderstood: We would be starting by now. See that? That's how I lie. I would like to think of myself as a lying connoisseur, if you will. And I hope that you forgive me for my betrayal.

I will be optimistic in that he got drunk, laid, and has had a twenty-four hour hangover. The other way it could go involves chains, whips and knives, and I would like to believe my co-host is still in one piece. Or at least, the primary piece of said co-host is capable enough to do a show this weekend. We'll see. If we don't get it to you on Monday, it'll certainly be edited and ready to go soon thereafter, and once he gets used to living amongst cows, he'll get back in line the way co-hosts do.

Or he doesn't and I'll castrate him.

Logan - I mean, the whole point is keeping the segments snappy.

Logan - With a thing like a writing show, the number one thing I want to avoid is going off on long-winded bits of just talking.

Logan - Which is why a minimum of two hosts, wishing for three, really. The hopeless romantic, the raving womanizing drunk, and either the matronly hot girl, or the Word Whore-type.

Will - Hey, wait. That's uncalled for. I'm not "raving."

So, instead, I'll just throw a couple of links out here to shows I've recently been listening to, enjoy, and think you may as well, and hope that you come back a little later after the holidays for when we get back into the show.

Next Week's Primary Topic: "Trying Too Hard"

Red Bar Radio - the alternative to Stern, with a bit more brain to it. Very much in touch with the fan base.

Gamers With Jobs Radio - for the more (im)mature gaming enthusiasts.

Air Out My Shorts - Good stuff, making fun of other writers. Good times!

In my berating of writers workshops, I forgot to mention some writing podcasts that are cool to listen to, and incredibly, incredibly helpful. I'll list them here and now, but expect for me to reiterate this to you in next week's show, perhaps even with promos of said show. First is Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing, who has as impressive a rejection collection as ours, and certainly sounds way too sweet to commiserate with lunatics like ourselves.

Second podcast comes out of an author that I have grown up reading, Michael A. Stackpole's The Secrets, and while every once in a while his information does go into the genre part of the business (there are some slight differences), 99.9% of the podcast is something You Need To Hear.

Currently I'm breaking from camping out for an XBOX 360 - to sell, and thus acquire great riches to purchase my baby, so I may have something more substantial later. But for now, I have coffee to brew, a novel to read, and one to write.

--Logan

We'll have it for you on time. You should make note of this, for it may never happen again. Especially if Will dies.

--Logan

Our very own Will Garroutte, ladies and gentlemen.