Wings Over the Pyre

Current Mood: accomplished

There’s a brand new promo for the show up on the TalkShoe home right now!

I suggest going to get it, downloading it, and sharing it with every single person you’ve ever met, heard of, chatted with, had sex with, licked, snuggled against, violated, corrupted, interviewed, broke bread with, or otherwise or in any way engaged in the process of human discourse near. No, seriously, go! Now!

You’ll thank me. And I’ll thank you.

Yes, as far as I know, we’re still on course to be interviewing Days of Our Decay this coming Sunday night on BSU. Updates as they’re available.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Gwar - Violence Has Arrived - Happy Death-Day (Squid's Redoubt)

Hopefully, this little bit of code will actually work on LiveJournal. If not, just recognize that tonight, 9p Eastern, we’ll be putting on the usual madness of Operation BSU and interviewing the electronic/pop band Blood Red Squid in a fit of ironic self-referential humour.

Pre-show starts at 8:45p Eastern, recording kicks in at 9p, You can actually call in now without having a TalkShoe account just by calling 724-444-7444 and hitting 1#. Better yet is to create an account right quick (it’s free) and connect up to the live chat room from the show page as well as calling in. Get the whole experience! If you’re too shy to talk, the chat room comes with it’s own live audio stream so you can still be part of the whole thing!

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Various Artists - Wig In A Box: Songs From & Inspired By Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Frank Black - S

I’ve made a few changes to the way Operation BSU’s shows are being put together and presented. It’s actually a pretty heavy-duty structural changes that codifies more than we used to, so go and read it on the BSU community and give me your comments.

Show suggestions are always welcome, and I’m really trying to find a sweeter spot to attract more listeners regularly, both live and via download.

First step is to cut the length of the show back hard. Second is to mix the voices up during the segments up better. I’m hoping I get time to produce new segment bumpers which are topic-related more than Anchor-related before Sunday.

There are times I wonder if I don’t put too much thought into this.

… is over on the Operation BSU community, so hustle over there and catch up on what’s happening tonight.

Plus, hey, join the community and keep up to date. Tell your friends. Hell, tell your enemies. Having some nice, solid numbers tonight certainly wouldn’t hurt my feelings none.

Seriously, guys, if you haven’t been listening to BSU, start. If for no other reason than to call in for a few minutes and mock my wretched attempts to keep a talk-variety show interesting and fresh every week while tightening production and trying to keep such a nest of vipers under control. :P

So, yeah. Tell folks. Get them to tune in. You know the drill.

Tonight on Operation BSU there’s another two-fer guest dose of intra-aural madness in the usual Sunday night, 9p niche!

Doctor Fishkisser appears via time-shift to answer your questions on a very special Ask Dr Fishkisser.

Ursula Vernon returns in the first segment to talk about webcomics, artist burnout, and the travails of pulling together your own webcomic.

The Big Leneski and his lecherous beer-grip talk up the pleasures to be had with reprogrammed Chuck-E-Cheese androids and other entertainment news.

Ghoultown’s Count Lyle, the smoothest undead gunslinger in gothabilly, brings us Texas punk sensibility and fine tequila.

Eric the Half-a-Bee buzzes in with spine-chilling tales of governmental terror; if you’re not outraged, you’re not feeling his sting!

Finally, SquidLord slithers across the cold tiles with reports from DefCon, real powered armour, plus the true definition of nerd-dom.

Don’t forget that you, yes you, can be part of the live spectacle!

Sure, you could just listen to the stream from the site, but wouldn’t you really rather be live in the text-based chatroom during the show? All you need is a TalkShoe account and a Java-enabled browser.

Better yet, wouldn’t you like to be live on the air with us? Since you already have the account, go ahead and give us a call at (724) 444-7444 with show ID “33899.” Put in your PIN, and you’ll be right there in the studio with us. Ask Lyle, Ursula, or one of our hosts the most personal, inappropriate questions! Or even good questions. We’re pretty easy about that sort of thing.

Tonight, Sunday, 9:00pm Eastern, 6p Pacific if you’re over on the Left Coast. It’s the talk show your mother warned you about. Wearing plaid.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Thyrty: 30th Anniversary Collection (Disc 2) - Talked Muself Right Into It (Squid's

This week, Dr Fishkisser won’t be able to make it to BSU in the flesh, as it were, so I was hoping some of my readers could put together a few good questions to put together beforehand, and pre-record.

Since you, good people, are my readers, well …

The idea is this:

• It has to be medically related.
• It has to be a non-trivial question to answer.
• It has to have a little bit of edginess, a bit of twist, something that makes it sound like something you couldn’t send to Dear Abby.
• It has to be in by Friday night.

You know the drill: sex, drugs, psychology, violence, relationships, “why are my turds doing this,” all perfectly valid topics to to take up with Herr Fraulein Doktor Fishkisser, MD, PhD, Esq. I just need them put in by the time I need to record this thing. Best ones, of course, get read live on the air (if you’ll be planning to call in live to the show, we may just have you read your accepted question).

Throw me a bone here, folks. Ghoultown’ll be in the house on Sunday night for the show as musical guests, so double reason to listen. OK, one more, ursulav will be anchoring again, too.

Want in? Reply to this post with your questions.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Momus - philosophy of momus, The - Withinity (Squid's Redoubt)

Dear Hells of my Forefathers, I’ve been watching the stats on the show — like I watch them on every show I do — and have proceeded to being boggled at every turn.

Let’s just break out a bit of the last few week’s stats:

Talkcast Weekly Report - Squid's Redoubt: Operation BSU
Statistics for Past Weeks   This report was last updated Jul 30,2007 5:16:10 am
Week    Episode Detail  Recorded Episodes   *Total Downloads    *Live Audio Streamers   Callers     TalkShoe LIVE
07/22/07-07/28/07   Detail  1   31  4   6   6
07/15/07-07/21/07   Detail  2   103     13  5   3
07/08/07-07/14/07   Detail  2   44  16  10  4
07/01/07-07/07/07   Detail  1   32  2   4   1

And then — this week.

Statistics for Current Week: 07/29/07-08/04/07 (in progress)
Episode Detail  Recorded Episodes   *Total Downloads    *Live Audio Streamers   Callers TalkShoe LIVE
Detail  1   97  36  8   7

Yes, that’s right, the numbers from the past 8hrs or so of data put this show up as the second highest downloaded show in Operation BSU history, such as it is. By this evening, the thing’ll easily be double the size of anything I’ve done to date, including the Top Ten Podcast I’ve been doing for over a year now.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

My gut says it’s just a matter of reaching the right people. At the right time. Through the right face. That side of me is pretty pleased with itself right now.

The other part of me whispers “We’ll see … Nexxxxt week, ssssucker,” and leaves me feeling kind of overawed and underwhelmed. Plus, you know, performance anxiety.

I’m off to bed, but I thought I’d just point that out. Hopefully, most of the folks who tuned in will stick with us, even call in and be part of the rampage.

Post Scriptum: In the time it took to write and post this, total numbers hit 104. Shit, people. Just … shit. I’m overwhelmed, here. I’m totally boggled.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: W.A.S.P. - Inside The Electric Circus - I'm Alive (Squid's Redoubt)

ursulav has issues. Not that, y’know, I can actually avoid criticism because I inspire this madness, but still. Insanity.

Incidently, she’ll be the anchor host for the opening segment Sunday night at 9p on Operation BSU which’ll have Rugged N Raw as the musical guest.

Madness. It’s what’s for dinner.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Dethklok - Metalocalypse Soundtrack - Pre-release - Go Forth and Die (Squid's Redoubt)

It occurred to me, after multiple occasions on which I’ve been talking about Operation BSU when I really wished that I could leave something behind, that I really, really need some kind of business card to hand out. I mean, in the worst kind of way. So, in a fit of madness, I actually sat down and started hacking on some things.

Alright, not really madness. It was at the top of my GTD list. Actually, it was in my GTD list twice, because I’d thought about it on two separate occasions and sent it to myself, so obviously it was on my mind.

Checking around the net, I ran into Click Business Cards, who actually have prices up on the site and accept uploaded PDF designs at what looks like almost reasonable prices ($33 for 250) … though on the list is call local places to get their quotes before jumping in.

But what you really want is to see the card, right?

There are all sorts of ironic in-jokes in this design: the pseudo-blood-smeared edges, the fact that the main title font is “Evil Genius,” the patchwork of very faint topic words in the background including “Violence” and “Food” and “Sex” all in Comic Sans. I can’t help it, I’m a horribly in-joke kind of guy, and since I’m designing it …

It’s rather amusing that this is actually the second prototype. The first had the slogan centered and across the whole card, the time/URL left-side, and far fewer faded words, along with tags on all the info lines. Then it struck me how absolutely ragingly stupid it was to have “URL:” in front of the URL since it’s obviously the URL and the clean-up for phase two began.

Yes, I fully intend to make a “professional” business card for my own purposes, with just my name and “Broadcast Professional” and “Voice Talent, Production, Live DJ” on it in very cold, stark, grey/black/band-of-blue design aesthetic. Just not tonight.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Bloodsimple - A Cruel World - Cruel World (Squid's Redoubt)

Getting things done is strangely addictive, especially if your friends have kept you distracted for most of the day. Still, I managed to get a lot of things done today, including getting Stuckey and Murray almost lined up for a show, sending an invite off to Ghoultown, and producing a commercial for BSU.

Pretty productive.

Now … tired.

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: tired
Current Music: Evanesnence - My Immortal (Squid's Redoubt)

Operation NSU went on last night just a little bit late due to a failure of the weather-control machines that generally over-watch the SquidLair. In fact, the weather was so bad that I, literally, took a lightning bolt to the ear while getting the systems back online after the first power outage. That’s not really an experience I want to repeat anytime soon, truthfully.

That said, it was a great show, despite Dr Fishkisser (tryptophan’s absence, but we understand how hard it is to be a world famous raconteur and doctor on Canada Day.

If you’re not subscribed to Operation BSU via RSS feed to your favourite feedreader … well, why? You’ll get near-instant updates to the posted podcasts, and most of them will even go ahead and download it for you. Add us to iTunes even, if that’s your toxin of choice, or hook up using one of the other options on the Operation BSU page.

I believe Zlango when it says:

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: W.A.S.P. - Heaven's Hung In Black (Squid's Redoubt)

Voot! The latest Operation BSU is up and online.

A pretty solid show this week. Production values are up, the special musical guest was DJ Bnaut, and the conversation this week wallowed around in it's ranty way through emergency rooms, odd anime, the definition of Libertarianism, and Warhammer versus Warcraft.

Next week, Operation BSU moves to Saturday at 9p Eastern for one night.

Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: Various Artists - 39 Clocks / Psychotic Louie Louie (Squid's Redoubt)

You've got about 45min to prepare for the beginning of Operation BSU. We go live with the pre-show at 8:45p Eastern and the show goes hot in the LZ at 9:00p sharp, or as sharp as I can herd these cats together to do.

Tonight's topics include:

• Health, community, and all the terrifying ER stories you can take from Dr. Fishkisser.
• The Big Leneski covering Mr Wizard, beer, and anime.
• A cool, secret, live musical guest and their vote-worthy song!
• The Half-a-Bee defining Libertarianism, talking about Genarlow Wilson and being generally politically cranky, and
• The SquidLord going on about Warhammer Online, Ghost Rider, and Facebook.
• Plus the usual insane free-for-all until 11p!

Tune in, turn on, and drop out -- of your mind, as the madness accumulates.

Remember, you can call in and be a live guest on the show as well as anyone! See the website for details, but if you can't call in, at least pop into the chatroom and keep us amused with perverse and off-colour comments in text. And tell your friends!

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: W.A.S.P. - L.O.V.E. Machine (Squid's Redoubt)

Episode 1 is in the can, with Doctor Fishkisser, The Big Leneski, Eric the Half-a-Bee and the one and only SquidLord putting in a solid two hours of talk, and a musical guest in nothing like real-time.

There's a good deal of production in this show, but we're still hammering out the rough edges. OK, I'm hammering out the rough edges; overall, I'm decently happy with it, but I definitely can't use bed music given some of the stream limitations, and I really need to record from my Virtual Audio Cable to a split, so that I can capture a higher-quality audio output. Still, a damn fine show, all considered.

If you were to want to download the audio straight from here, well, I couldn't object.

I'm tired. Time to drug up and crash out.

Current Mood: pleased

I did a bit of a turn on the talk show circuit this morning, mainly as an excuse to turn on the new audio rig setup for the production and media management, and plug it into the digital phone ...

And, dayum, I sound friggin' great with a little bit of audio volume compression and EQ. I might need just a hint more high-end or to drop the base a bit, but other than that, it's sweet, sweet wonderment.

EPISODE40 - Spontaneous Speaking - AM Chat

Hey, Spontaneous Speaking was the only thing on that wasn't overtly Christian cheerleading at that time of the morning.

It's kind of a weird feeling to end up resonating the feeling that, compared to the bulk of the Net, I'm the worst kind of racist Conservative, and I don't mind it at all. Which is groovy in all kinds of ways. :)

If you tune in, I come in about 56min in, and ride out to the end. It's good times, kids. I want Rush Limbaugh's job. It's way more fun than playing music.

And on that note, remember, this coming Sunday is the first episode of Squid's Redoubt: Operation BSU. We'll be talking video games, the big Livejournal kerfluffle, and possibly some Hit and Run libertarian politics if I can get my hardcore H&R correspondent to be there. (I'm looking at you, Eric the .5b ... you know you've got responsibilities.)

Listening only requires you hit the Squid's Redoubt: Operation BSU website, then tap the Listen button. I suggest popping the Join In button if only so you can make sniping little text comments to the hosts, even if you don't want to chime in with your dulcet tones. If you desire sharing your point of view with the world at large, you can hook up with us via SIP softphone (Xlite or SJphone) or by calling straight in with your cell or land-line! Dial in, hit the airwaves, and mock and be mocked by some of the best folks in the business.

Or ... something.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: The Goof, the Bad, and the Geeky (TalkShoe)

I can only blow smoke up my ass for so long before I have to actually get something done and lay some pipe for the structure to get built on. In that light, I'm putting a hard stake out there, at 9pm on Sunday night EDT. The show will probably be up about 15min before the drop-dead time, to give you time to hook up and roll out the technology for big time listening.

The name:

Operation BSU (Blow Shit Up)

The plan:

Put together a charmingly surrealistic show, full of the sound and fury of the geek setting. From the tempest-in-a-teapot about the Livejournal deletions, to the incipient beta of Warhammer Online, we're going to be tackling the stories kicking around the blogosphere and, sometimes, in your very own apartments.

The people:

• SquidLord:
  Head jock, head production engineer, head writer -- if anyone, he needs a little head.
• Starchild:
  Local LARP expert, Ed McMahon-wannabe, guest liaison.
• Heather:
  Medical consultant, emergency triage, surgery, obstetrics, bi-component toxic radioactive terrorism.
• Eric the .5b:
  Databases, corporate cultural environments, fabulous flaming libertarian, and general prosaic pedant.

The technology:

All you need to listen is a browser and the desire to hit the site. If you want to talk, or think you might, there are two ways to keep in mind:

• The easiest is to simply call the show via your phone. (724) 444-7444, with the talkcast ID (33899) at the prompt. You'll need to have signed up with Talkshoe before hand, and that'd give you the ten-digit personal login. Put all that in and you'll be hooked right in with the broadcast. Wait for the tone that tells you you're free to talk, and you're off to the races!
• Use Gizmo for Livejournal or SJphone/Xlite with free VoxAlot accounts, then connect to the server directly with the IP. You'll get the same login key stroke requirements, and then a direct connect just as if you were on the phone.

Once you're on, you're good to roll. Get the line, jump into the fray.

If you remember to connect to the Talkshoe Live applet, you can read the associated text room comments and stay involved with that inter-listener feedback.

The bottom line:

We can't do it alone. We need cool people willing to jump in and be passionate about their subjects. We need you to bring your friends or just folks you think'd been cool right on in. Give them a hook and come on for the ride.

The whole thing will be recorded for podcasting, so you can download the whole beastly thing once it's done and the files are in place.

You, every one of you, can get on the air and say the one thing you've wished to have people hear since it first came to you. We want to hear it.

Bring it.