Wings Over the Pyre

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah - Ooh (Squid's Redoubt)

… I won’t be singing the Star Spangled American Anthem Medley. And the crowd visibly droops.

But I will be running the Squid’s Redoubt: Operation BSU with special musical guests, Fire and Ice! Yeeeeeeeeeahhh! [said in best Kermit-voice] The fun’ll be ongoing since, by current reports, Dr Fishkisser will be in live attendance on the show, along with The Big Leneski and Eric the Half-a-Bee. Most folks even have their show notes up for me, too, which makes me happy. :)

Scheduling for the show is getting juggled around a bit, as much to mimic reality as anything. We’ve never actually hit my scheduling in the last half of the show-as-stands, though we always get in our material and get out, so it’s worthwhile to make the actual spreadsheet agree with how I actually run things. Less cognitive dissonance, more joy.

Reminder, too, that you can be a part of the show — live and in person! Just sign up on TalkShoe to get a free account and, more importantly, a PIN, then call in from your cell phone or land-line while we’re on. That’s it! If I don’t get you unmuted immediately, just hit the “I Wanna Talk!” button in the upper-right of the interface to get my attention. Now that ShoePhone has gone beta, you don’t even need to set up a VoIP solution to call in if you’d rather use your computer, so there are even fewer reasons to avoid us!

Come out tonight and give Fire and Ice your support! Or protect them from the insanity. Whatever.

Nota bene: Further news updates for Operation BSU will go over on the Operation BSU Community page from now on, leaving this one a bit more uncluttered. Expect more news there soon!

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Various Artists - Arena Rock Classics - Who Let the Dogs Out? (Squid's Redoubt)

I’m somewhat considering doing a live version of Squid’s Redoubt: Top Ten Podcast. The thing is, it’s really not worth doing unless there really will be some people tuned in live, ready to talk about stuff and roll with the tracks.

If there’s enough interest, I might actually make it a regular thing, because Hades knows it’s easier to make these things if there’s someone else to talk to. The obvious draw back would be the sound quality will bite compared to the usual SRTTP fare. I can try and record the feed from this side at a better bit-rate, but it’ll be interesting to try and get the two output lines sync’d up (ie. high-bit-rate local, low bit-rate Xlite audio feed).

It’s not insoluable, but I really only want to work on it if there’s interest.

Don’t forget you can tune into Operation BSU this Sunday night at 9p and hear Fire and Ice live … and if you’re particularly gutsy about talking to hotties, call in and talk to them.

No, seriously, call in.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Trace Adkins - Rough & Ready (Squid's Redoubt)

Just a bit random tonight:

• I dare say I think I’ll start posting shorter blog bits.

  I think Twitter has begun both spoiling me and changing how I think about blogging in general. I’ve been feeling a kind of compulsion to only post long-form writing, extended rants, or that sort of thing to my LJ, but that’s essentially irrational. There’s no reason I can’t or shouldn’t post ideas, thoughts, and/or rationalizations that are only a paragraph or two long. I’m not required to go on at length.

  I know there are several folks out there boggling at the idea of me not going on at length. Totally fair.

  Anything under 140 charas will still go to Twitter though.

• I’m going back to being nocturnal.

  I don’t really have a reason to be up during the morning hours, and frankly I haven’t been doing so much of it since I finished ABI, plus I’m just generally more aware at night. Better to stay up, get some things done between 3a and 5a, when there’s no one but me about but I feel conscious and competent, and simply not worry about it. I’m not working right now (plenty of resumes out — no call-backs) and not going to school.

  Why bother getting up?

• I need to start doing the Top Ten Podcast more often.

  Not just because it’s fun, or because it’s a solid production, or it’s good practice.

  All of those are true.

  No, the real reason is because if I post them to the Squid’s Redoubt TalkShoe feed*, the downloads will be counted, and the more downloads I get, the more jingle I’ll see in my pocket at the end of the month. Though we’re talking about “jingle,” not “crinkle,” since even with nearly 200 downloads last month, I only saw about $4. But that’s $4 I’d never have seen otherwise!

  Incidentally, Operation BSU saw 55 downloads last week across all posted episodes. That’s up from 29 the week before. Why the huge leap? I have no idea at all, but I’d like to encourage everyone that can read this to go out and tell all your friends about this fantastic call-in talk show that’s podcasting recorded episodes and that goes live every Sunday night at 9p. Oh, yes, and that can support up to 250 folks tuned in via the phone lines at any given time.

  Yeah, so, call.

  This coming Sunday, we’ll have the band Fire and Ice as our special live guests in via fabulous technology, and the week after … well, that’s a special treat. I’ll announce it closer in.

I think that’s about it for the life-updates tonight. More thoughts as they ping through my brainmeats.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Richard Cheese - Baby Got Back/Sir Mix-A-Lot (Squid's Redoubt)

And so, at Morgasm's repeated insistence, I finish A Clash of Kings.

There are some interesting implicative undercurrents in the setting, which I don't think it's spoilerish to note.

• The prettier you are, the more useless you are.
• The less you want power, the more you should be given.
• Incest truly is best.
• Violence is not only the question, it's the answer and the most aggressive affirmative available.
• Civilization has a corruptive influence.
• The proximity of nature is a good indicator of the randomness of your behaviour.
• The gods are not only subtle, they're bastards.
• The most loyal and faithful women are whores.
• Wives are a dangerous weakness and active disadvantage.
• Being physically impaired demands you be royal-born, or else not born at all.
• Missing the coherent and very obvious upsurge in magical phenomenology when you have an entire academy studying the long-term weather patterns of your multi-year seasonal progressive cycle is not only possible, but strangely akin to global warming in that they can't see the forest for the trees.

Interestingly, the number of co-tenets found in RE Howard's Conan series is significant, even though they were challenged stylistically by Moorcock's Elric and other writers of the time.

I can see how Morgasm could confuse me for Tyrion, though. Short, cunning, mouth digs holes his ass has to fill, more comfortable in a nice warm stone castle than out in the ass-end of the kingdoms. Oh yes.