It's been fun setting up the podcast for our band. Four episodes into it, and I'm learning a lot. Noting some observations now while it is in its infancy. Future me can come back to this and have a laugh or a think.

Length

Started the podcast with every intention of it being short. With each episode, I am noticing a temptation to make it longer and longer. An intro here...an ad there...and then the episode is long.

If future me is reading this and the show is now an hour long, you need to get it back to ten minutes or less.

Outside Influence

When I was searching for answers on how to get my podcast XML file to validate, a lot of "how to make a podcast" links popped up. I clicked around a few and was quickly bored. So much about how to make podcasting "pro". Not so much about how to have fun.

If future me is reading this and the show sounds like a talk show right now, you need to get it back to the first four episodes vibe.

Intention

We have listeners that speak Japanese, English, a little or a lot of both, and neither. I am fully aware of this and am keeping it in mind with each episode. I want there to be something to enjoy no matter what languages you speak. It is more of a challenge than just getting on the mic and yammering for a while. I think some people are going to think we are trying to be art-y, but for real, it's all about making things that can be enjoyed anywhere.

If future me is reading this, can everyone still find something in the show to enjoy?

Links

Podcast Feed: https://1000sofcats.band/public/feeds/podcast.xml

Website: https://1000sofcats.band

One of my favorite shortcuts I made is the Weather Icon. It is a simple four step shortcut but it is so reusable in other shortcuts.

For example, I have a shortcut I run for when I greet my colleagues in the morning. It chooses a random salutation and runs the Weather Icon shortcut to get the weather.

Steps

1. Get current weather at Current Location
2. Get Condition from Weather Conditions
3. Dictionary w/ the Keys being the weather conditions (list below). Value is the actual emoji.
4. Get Value for Condition in Dictionary

Weather Conditions ¹

• Clear
• Mostly Sunny
• Sunny
• Cloudy
• Partly Cloudy
• Mostly Cloudy
• Rain
• Showers
• Thunderstorms
• Snow
• Hail
• Sleet
• Blowing Snow
• Fog
• Haze
• Dust
• Smoke
• Windy
• Tornado
• Hurricane
• Drizzle
• Overcast
• Freezing Rain
• Freezing Drizzle
• Flurries
• Hot
• Cold
• Blizzard
• Ice Pellets
• Sandstorm

¹ Not sure if this list is complete or not. Seems to be working though.

I had friends in town so I couldn't review week eight last Monday. Looking back on two weeks of albums today. Here are the albums I can still hear in my head:

• Nahida Akhtar Best of Nahid Akhtar 87 #playbacksinging
• Walter Franco Revólver #MPB
• Johnny Preston Rock #rock
• Joe Pass For Django #jazz
• Super Heroines Souls That Save #punk
• Terry Riley Shri Camel #electronic

What are you listening to? Point me to your list. Don't have a list of music you are listening to? The best day to start one is  today.

There are two things I like to do to keep in shape for drumming and for me in general. One is using a pair of light dumbbells that we found in an old box. The other is jogging in place because I can do it at my desk during pomodoro breaks or while watching a tutorial.

During one jogging break I thought to myself, "If I could only combine the weights and jogging then I'd be done with them quicker".

So I started jogging with the dumbbells¹.

Sometimes I do the normal running motion. Sometimes I just hold them in a position until I get tired then switch positions.

This rules. Less counting. Less routines. My muscles feel the same as the past dumbbell lifting. Perhaps ever more of a workout. The app I use to track jogging is telling me "way to go".

Also the moving the legs while keeping my arms out with the weight feels a lot like drumming. Bonus!

¹ This is probably a well known exercise but I really don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

One thing I love lately is generating a word cloud in Obsidian from my morning writing sessions. There is a plugin for it called "Tag & Word Cloud" that generates a word cloud of my most commonly used words.

I run the plugin as a treat for getting a morning writing session done. For example, my list today is "show, tasks, things, let, words, need, time".

It's kind of like having a personal oracle.