The In-Laws are Coming!!!!

The in-laws fly in today and while I love them very much (I really do) I'm a little nervous... I want everything to be perfect; for them to enjoy themselves and for my wife to be calm and relax while they are here. Now that's not too much to ask for is it??!? ;)

Podcast Peers Awards

The winners of the second bi-annual Podcast Peers Awards has been announced and I won two! Both Mostly News and Desperate Husbands won in their perspective categories. All I can say is "wow!"
Thanks to everyone who voted for my podcasts, it humbles me to know that other podcasters think enough of my shows to 1. nominate them and 2. vote for them. I am very touched.

Twittering

I'm been assimilated into the world of twitter. Thanks to the encouragement of Jen, Doug and Andy. I decided to check out this new form of web-base communication over the weekend. All I can say now is that I'm addicted!
The best way I've found to describe twitter is that it's similar to a party line on your Instant Messenger system. Dozens, if not hundreds, of your best Internet friends tell you what they are through out the day and get to hear about your day. It's like reading dozens of 20 word romance novels all day long.
CC Chapman recently wrote about the ways industry can use twitter to reach new audiences but he didn't touch on the educational aspects of twittering. As many of you know I teach both traditional, on-campus, courses as well was online classes and I use a variety of tools to communicate with my students such as chat, discussion boards, email and the good 'ol phone. With twitter I can combine several technologies into one and work more effectively. Instead of stopping what I'm doing; check email, then the discussion boards, maybe post an announcement to a particular class, check voicemail, I can fire up Google Talk and when a student needs to contact me he or she can send me a quick question through the twitter system and the message will pop up on my desktop. The only drawback I can see is that my students will need to create a twitter account and possible set it up with a IM client to achieve the best results. Also I will still need to post information on the other technologies I use for my classes so that I can reach all of my students and I think I need to accounts, one for my students and work and then another for my personal life. But for a quick and dirty means of communication I think twitter will work well.
If anybody wants to twitter me, create an account and add ccadenhead to your friends list. Be warned twittering is addictive! ;)

Peanut Butter!!!

I just heard that there has been a recall of peanut butter because of possible Salmonella contamination. It's the Peter Pan and Great Value brand names, at least according to the FDA. Check to make sure your peanut butter jars don't have the lot number beginning with "2111", I had to throw away 2 LARGE jars this morning. Peanut butter is very important in the Cadenhead household. Is nothing sacred?!?!

Today's My Birthday!

Yeap, 37 years ago today I was hatched, I mean born. For the past several years I have had a little personal custom of buying myself a birthday gift, usual something I wanted but didn't receive as a gift. Yes, I know I'm shallow. In 2004 I purchased my photo iPod as a gift to myself and last year it was a new pair of hiking boots. This year I thought I would buy myself something a little different. I don't know where the idea came from, probably a podcast, but I decided to give a charitable donation instead of getting some trinket for myself.

After some thought regarding the organization I wanted to donate to I decided on Escape Pod. Yes, maybe it was another superficial decision, I mean Steve Eley is not curing cancer over there. But our family already gives money to groups like Rails-to-Trails and our local children's hospital. Being a science fiction nut I have really enjoyed the stories I've heard on Escape Pod and I respect what Steve is doing, for literature, with his podcast. Besides giving has it's own rewards, such as a warm feeling inside. See I'm not so depthless after all. ;)

My Life as a Soundtrack

Because I'm a sheep and like to jump on the band wagon (pardon all the metaphors) I decided to participate in CC Chapman's blog-tag game of "your life as a soundtrack." Besides it was fun. The rules, which are pretty simple, and my results are below. Have fun and if you give it a try let me know.

How to Play:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question below, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the nextbutton
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool …

My Soundtrack:

Opening Credits:
People Ain't No Good - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

First Day At School:
Walk Away - Sarah Fimm

Falling In Love:
Paperback Writer - The Beatles

Breaking Up:
Miss Independent - Kelly Clarkson

Prom:
Velocity - Sarah Fimm

Mental Breakdown:
Better Life - Common Ground

Flashbacks:
Life for Rent - Dido

Getting Back Together:
She's Got a Way - Billy Joel

Wedding Scene:
Another Postcard - Barenaked Ladies

Final Battle:
Me vs. the World - Halo Friendlies

Death Scene:
Between - Vienna Teng

Funeral Song:
Accidentally in Love - Counting Crows

End Credits:
Oblivious - Fisher

Finale:
All Soul's Night - Loreena McKennitt

The Art of Disclosure

There has been some discussion at the Yahoo Podcasting Forums about the degree to which podcasters should disclosure certain information, like sponsorship and network affiliations. The arguments have been quite persuasive for all schools of thought, which got me to think about how much information podcasters share with their listeners when it's too much.
Podcasting has, at least, one unique quality going for it and that's a special rapport between the podcast host and the podcast listener. Though podcasting I have made friends with people from AZ to Canada, who 6 months ago where complete strangers. It's a wonderful feeling being able to discuss topics ranging from pop culture to politics with these new peers.
This familiarity does have a dark side though. It is possible to tell too much information and to possibly spoil a budding friendship.
I stepped over a line, an imaginary and invisible line, when I asked another podcast a question regarding there show. I tried to pose the question as respectfully and as honestly as possible but the other party didn't see it that way when they replied to my question with a multiple point retort of how wrong I was.
I had assumed that this other podcaster and I were friends and that they would understand that I was asking a question for clarification and not out of nastiness. My familiarity with them was assumed and I thought there was more to this association then there really was.
Podcasting has made great strides in giving individuals a voice and by bringing people, of all nationalities, together. But when one party assumes too much it's bound to get dirty and mean.

Resolutions and Predictions

I'm not very good with resolutions and I'm even worse with predictions so instead of going there let me just say that I hope this message finds y'all well on the beginning of this new year. I've enjoyed getting to know each of you this past year and I look forward to continuing our friendship in the year to come. If you happen to be online drop me a line to say hi, I'm usually on. ;) May your hopes and dreams come true this new year.

Digg Your Podcasts!

Digg.com re-styled their interface on Monday, December 18th, to include podcasts and video productions. The site now breaks content down into 3 different catergories: news, video and podcasting. Users will now be able to listen to and watch audio and video files directly from the Digg website.
Podcasters and their listeners can add a podcast to the Digg site if their podcastis not listed. Once a podcast has been added users can then vote for, or digg,it. As with a news article Digg.com users can also see who has dugg a particularpodcast or video and also see everything that an individual has dugg, buildinga social network similar to MySpace.

So everybody go out and Digg Mostly News and Desperate Husbands!!!! ;)

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everybody. I hope you have a fun and safe new year too. I'll be spending some of my vacation time working on podcasts and reviewing this year. It's been some year. I hope this year I can keep my resolution at least for one day. ;)

Happy Holidays and be safe!

Coming Soon!

I'm in the process of re-vamping this site. I'm not sure what I want to do quite yet since I'm still in the early stages of planning. If you have any suggestions please feel free to give them. Constructive criticism only please. I'm looking for advise on web host and blogger edits, mods, and tools I can use to "spice" up my site. Thanks everybody and please be patient the new site will be here soon!!!!

Check out Mostly News

I've been playing with podcasting for the past year or so and I've created a weekly current event podcast called Mostly News. If you're interested in podcasting or finding out what this podcasting thing is then please check it out. You don't need an ipod or special software to listen (just click the listen button) and it's free!!!

I've Moved

Hi all, since October I've been hosting a podcast, Mostly News. It's a news based podcast highlighting the news events that week. I don't have time to blog here and produce the podcast and I'm moving everything over to Mostly News. If you want to keep up with me than check out Mostly News. Thanks for your support. Charles

Holiday Shopping

Just in time for the holidays: SHOPPING! As you may know, for retailers, the day after Thanksgiving (called Black Friday as in profits) is a highly orchestrated affair. According to the New York Times, prices are scientifically slashed, down to the penny. Sales begin at dawn. And glossy circulars containing the well-laid plans are distributed just a day or two ahead to give us gullible shopper something to drool over. Can you tell how I feel about this subject?!?
This year there are serveral online services, such as BF2005.com, where you can view leaked advertisements weeks in advance. So far this year, sources have leaked advertisements to him from Kohls listing 7" Portable Widescreen LCD TV regularly $169.99 for $119.99, Toys "R" Us showing the Barbie Fashion Show Mall, regularly $99.99, for $29.97, or Ace Hardware which is advisering a Skil 12-volt drill regularly $44.99, for $24.99.
Sites like BF2005.com say their motive is to educate consumers. But retailers are furious, arguing that the site jeopardizes their holiday business, and they have threatened legal action. Micheal Brim, who runs BF2005.com, hopes that by these online sites that "even the average Joe can become a professional bargain hunter." Here is the New York Times article.

We Aren't the Only Ones

Europe's first space mission to Venus was launched successfully. The Venus Express lifted off on a Russian rocket last Wednesday. The spacecraft will orbit Venus to study its atmosphere, which has experienced runaway greenhouse warming. Scientists hope the two-year mission will shed further light on the mechanisms of climate change on our own world. "Initial checks are ongoing and everything looks good," said Paolo Ferri, deputy flight operations director for Venus Express. You can find a couple of the news articles at BBC News and CNN.

I say more power to the Europeans! Here in the US we Americans think we're the only ones who can launch spacecraft. Lately Europe has made tremendous progress in the "space race". They or China may beat us to Mars. Maybe this will knock a little wind out of our sail and wake our government up.

Dog Gives Birth To Green Puppy

A golden retriever puppy, one of four, was born to a dog in California last week. He was born with green fur. Veterinarians said that it's possible for a newborn's fur to be green because the placenta,
which is green, sometimes rubs off at birth. His owners have named him Wasabi. To me the dog looks more grey than green but to see for yourself visit this news link, TheBoston Channel.

Blogger Code?

Ok. I admit it. I don't get it. I surfed across Blogger Code today and participated in the blogger code survey and received my "blogger code". I suppose it's short-hand code to describe me but I wonder how many people will know what it means, I sure don't. So, if you want to read my blogger code then see below.

B1 d- t- k- s-- u-- f- i o++ x-- e l- c+

New IPod

A student told me about the new iPod Nano. I have to say it's really cool, but why so expensive? I have a 40GB ipod that I use for file storage as well as listening to podcasts and I love it. My professional and personal life would be screwed up if I lost it (yes, I have backups). But why so pricey? I just saw a competitor mp3 player that was $109 and it held 5 gigs of data vs. the 4 that one of the Nano versions hold. It's not as small as the Nano, but it's close. I like Apple and their products but should I pay $140 for style?

In the beginning...

If the Bible had been written today would start with "In the beginning was the blog"? Hi! Welcome to my blog. Thanks for stopping by. Why start a blog, especially when everyone else is blogging to? No, I'm not jumping on the copycat parade with everyone else. I started this blog for two reasons, I enjoy writing and I was curious about the technology. Huh!?!!
As corny as it sounds writing is therapeutic for me. It allows me some time to myself and a way to release my pent up thoughts and feelings. I have always enjoyed writing, not because I want to publish it for the masses or to read later, but for the mechanics of putting words to paper. If I or nobody else reads this I don't care I've had a few minutes to myself and have let go a piece of myself to the cosmos. In the past I've always had trouble with my writing endurance, my follow through. I'd start writing, maybe in a new journal or digitally, and then I stop because it's not worry it or something came up. Hopefully writing a blog will motivate me to keep writing.
I was interested in the technology behind blogging tools, php; css; xhtml; databases; etc., and I thought that by writing a blog I would be more motivated to learn about the "science" behind it. By trying to add something to my blog, such as my photo, I'll have to muck around with the code and will, hopefully, learn something about it.
Well, that's it. I hope to add to this weekly so please check back. If you have any comments feel free to add them under the comment link. Red