Wings Over the Pyre

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!

Religious people tend to respond oddly when you actually respond with what you think:

TJ: So, what is your opinion of abortion?

SquidLord: I love ‘em! I think everybody should have at least one! I keep mine in the closet.

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: 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.

Current Mood: geeky

Last night was more than a little strange, in the sense of getting really tied up in something and being up way, way later than I intended to be. In this case, I popped onto Talkshoe and looked for something to listen to. Perhaps reasonably, I tuned in to a show called Mantalk With Bill And Brent.

I really didn't expect anything more interesting than The Man Show without the bouncing boobies to distract me from the unappetizing dialog, but was pointedly not what I got. Instead, I ended up hearing the Radio Outlaw, Bill Bege, who's an old-school long-experienced radio guy start telling stories from getting into the business. This is where things start spinning out in a more strange direction.

Episode125 - Mantalk With Bill and Brent

About 4min in, you can hear the influence of my texting in the listening-room to the Outlaw. I inject bits about Air America.

At 18:30 -- you get the fun of my initial foray into the zone. And there I stay for the next 2h:40m or so.

Kind of cool to get on a fairly listened to old-school jock to talk to you for a while running. Almost enough to make me think about jumping over to WGST 640, just to check out opportunities for the geekdom production.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Talking Heads - Crosseyed And Painless (WOXY.com [32k aacPlus])

In an effort to try and put together the kind of call-in radio show that folks seem to believe I should be hosting, I've been tinkering about with various bits and forms of technology, and believe I've found at least a partial solution.

Talkshoe.

Yes, it's an old TV reference. I didn't create it, don't blame me.

Amusingly, the first show I actually listened to live, I kind of got dragged in to talking on, rather unexpectedly. Military and the Media turned out to be an interesting bit. Yes, I'm the SquidLord guy yapping away about 20 minutes in. I suppose that would be obvious to anyone that regularly caught my podcasts.

Interesting technology, but my softphone disconnected a bit into it, and Talkshoe wouldn't let me re-establish connection. Most annoying.