Podcasts, my sexy, sexy voice and catchup

Working weekends bring me back to my time studying physics. The 8+ hours of studying/cramming/grinding and that fuzzy brain feeling mixed with hyperactivity from sitting still too long. I have since managed to kick the caffeine, so at least I’ll be able to keep a normal bedtime. I shouldn’t complain too much. If this project goes through I will be catapulting myself out of the ranks of the underemployed.

I played around with my audio recorder to check podcast potential because I usually just do interviews for transcribing and I wanted something better than my Blackberry. I have an Olympus DM-520 Digital Stereo voice recorder. I am blown away by the audio quality in a quiet room. It seems that I’m setup for some amazing audio books. Hopefully some of mine will wind down or conclude so I can get started. For some inexplicable reason, this recorder makes my voice sound really, really good. Lower quality recordings can make me sound squeaky, or worse, like a 5 year old, but I seem to be firmly set in the adult range. I’ve also determined that I can read the most disgusting, hilarious stuff aloud with no stuttering or inappropriate laughter. (It helps if you re-read the problem bits once of twice before you make the recording pass. Again, another great thing about my recorder is that I can seamlessly pause.)

So, podcasts and audio books are on! It’s going to be awesome!

Tomorrow is massive review catchup. I have two due Tuesday, and Tuesday morning I’m going to an advance screening of a movie that may prove to be very exciting and is very hyped. I’m happy, I usually don’t get the good ones (unless they only show at 10am, then I get them.)

I can start writing again.

A short story emerges!

On a lark, I remembered that I had a mostly completed non-fiction piece languishing on my hard drive. After completing my work for the morning, I opened it up, wrote the few remaining paragraphs and uploaded it to Wattpad.

For your reading pleasure: How I lost my dad

This has been sitting around for a few years, I started writing it in university. I avoided finishing it due to the uncomfortable subject matter.

But hey, it’s out there now. Maybe it will help some poor kid out there realize that they aren’t alone.

For May’s real short story, the red pen of doom is making an impression. During my re-read, I thought who wrote this crap? Red pen time indeed.

I’m looking forward to when it survives my edits and I can feel good about posting it.

Work wise, big project done, business website should be finished by this afternoon, then I get to write some content and worry about SEO/work blogs/social media and other wonderful crap.

Ways to make Grandma’s Easter.

This one is easy. Plan a surprise roadtrip, show up and watch the Blue Jays game with her.

Bonus: The look on Mom’s face when you interrupt her own visit by accident.

Grandma’s garden is already gorgeous, and it hasn’t even begun yet. Small mayflowers dotted the beds, each so tiny but so detailed. A big woodpecker made some very awesome holes in a nearby tree. I love the country.

We also took a long walk with my mom up around some of my old haunts. It was sad to see my dad’s old house again. The new owners really neglect it. The two-story shed/garage where I made my fort seems to be on the verge of collapse, the brickwork is crumbling on the house and they’ve let the raised vegetable gardens that my dad had built for my brother and I utterly decay, or demolished them completely. The balcony is sloughing off the front of the place.

Then went back and hung out with mom and the stepdad for a bit before packing it in for the four hour drive home.

Going back home is nice, but there are some things that should just be left alone.