This and That, or "Join up!"

Occasionally on my blog, I’ll post a few things and links to places I’ve been on the internet. I call them “THINKS”, a combination of the words things and links. It’s been months since I’ve posted any THINKS… It’s been months since I posted anything of substance at all. Lately it’s been random memes and questionnaires.

Here are a few THINKS, some related to my hometown – Evansville, Indiana. Others are just some things I find interesting.

Club Evansville is a brand new website, Evansville’s version of MySpace. Join up!

If you’re a Star Wars fan, the Evansville region has it’s very own Star Wars FanForce fanclub (look for the “Welcome New Members” thread and introduce yourself!). They have monthly book club meetings, monthly collecting meetings, monthly costuming meetings, monthly General meetings (all optional, you can pick and choose what you want to attend and what you don’t). They also have occasional “unofficial” get-togethers and movie outings. Again: Join up! Oh, and the club also maintains a MySpace page.

If you’re in the Evansville area and a fan of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity… you’re out of luck. There’s no fanclub for us Browncoats in the area. There is a website for Indiana Browncoats to gather though. Once again I say: Join up (even if you’re not in Indiana, we’ll take anyone willing to make a trek to Hoosierland ever now and again for Browncoat revelry – Louisville, St. Louis, etc.)!

Lately I’ve been playing a couple of online games, both are sort of “Space Strategy” games. In oGame, you start a colony on a planet and build up your production to produce fleets of ships, conduct research into new technology, colonize other planets, and maybe attack other players’ colonies to raid for resources. In Dark Pirates, you are a loan pirate raiding transport ships, convoys, and fleets, attacking other pirates, searching for resources, and working on space-stations to earn money to repair and upgrade your ship or buy a new ship. If you join up at either of these, please don’t attack me!

And to finish up, my sister (who does not live in the Evansville area) has started her own blog. She’s better at it than I am.

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This and That, or "Join up!"

PodCast Review: The PodCulture Network

The Podculture Network, "Equal Opportunity Geekness", is a great podcast.


The show is currently recorded every other week, split into two parts and fed weekly. You get part "A" the first week and part "B" the second week. It is not a "professional" podcast with specific show topics and scripts. It's three friends sitting around "geeking" with microphones recording them.


Brad, Glenn, and Christina host Podculture and spend their time rambling about what they watch on TV, what's in their DVD player, their new "toys" and video games, comic books, and a couple of special segments called "Geek Cuisine" and "Glenn's Guilty Pleasures". Geek Cuisine has the hosts trying out a different snack and beverage each episode on-mic and discussing whether or not they like them and why. Glenn's Guilty Pleasures features Glenn talking about really bad old movies that he likes and thinks other geeks might like. Podculture also is friendly with other podcasts, and runs promos for those podcasts, and even has been "syndicating" sci-fi reviews from the excellent Firefly podcast, The Signal. The hosts also mention a little bit about their "real lives" during the show, as asides to whatever the current topic of conversation may be.


It's that little bit about their real lives that makes Podculture extra special. Through their rambling, you seem to get to know these three people more and more as you listen to each episode. Listening to Podculture makes it seem like you are right there, sitting on the couch in Brad's living room talking about the geeky stuff you've done over the past week - except you're the introvert of the bunch and you let everyone else talk while you listen.

Brad produces the show very well. He has each person miked and runs each mic into a mixer before running it into his computer for recording. He also edits in bumpers, promos, intros, outros, and music for the show after the initial recording session. Podculture has a clean, well-produced sound. There is no hiss or digital artifacting. It almost sounds like Brad runs the audio through a compressor - it's that clean.

The only thing I might suggest to them to make the show a little more "user friendly" would be to announce the title of the songs they play during breaks either before or after the break. This probably would involve more planning on their part, as the songs are probably edited in during post along with the segment intros and other pre-produced items. I know that information is usually available in the show notes. But I rarely check show notes for the podcasts I listen to. I'm also not sure about the split feed/two-part thing. I'm always behind in my listening, so it really doesn't matter to me. But it seems like they changed the order of the segments when they went to the two-part episode. I liked them having a set order for their segments. But I'm not completely against the change they've made. It does keep things interesting not knowing which segment is next. Oh, one more thing: Brad has mentioned in some episodes that he is a Christian. That's a cool thing for a geek to blatantly admit to the world. But Brad sure does curse frequently for a Christian. Glenn and Christina don't seem to curse as much as Brad. But now that I think about it - this goes along with the "being in the living room" with them. I know Christians that, when in their living rooms, occasionally curse to express or elicit emotion: humor, displeasure, disgust, etc. But they'd never do it out in public. I guess this is the same thing.

Podculture occasionally invites listeners to submit their own audio for inclusion in the show. They have "fan-made" voice-overs for bumpers for various segments. They also invite listeners to send them ideas for Glenn's Guilty Pleasures reviews, Geek Cuisine ideas, or a dollar.

You can find the Podculture Network at Podculture.net and their forums are hosted at Bluegrassbrowncoats.net, where you can find the rules for The Podculture Drinking Game and discuss episodes, among other things. Brad and Christina also host the Stargate Louisville podcast. Or so they say. Hosting Podculture and Real Life seem to be conspiring against new episodes of SGL.

If you're a geek, this is a fun show. Podculture is number three in my list of podcasts that I have to listen to, and I listen to many podcasts.

Crossposted at Kev's:

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PodCast Review: The PodCulture Network

Blog Party

A mom's blog is hosting a blog party the first week-ish of March.

Make plans to stop by. I heard mention of prizes. Plus, maybe you can make some new virtual friends.

Blog Party