Podcast, Vidcasts and Audio Books....Oh my!

Firstly I'd like to mention the two podcasts I listened to. The first one I listened to is Film JUnk which is essentially some guys getting together and reviewing movies and being goofy. The content is actually pretty humourous considering that they never drop the sarcasm. In the episode I listened to they were reviewing Alice in Wonderland. To be honest I chose this episode hoping they would really make fun of the movie. One guy really objected to the 3D aspect of the movie and also found the movie quite boring while another guy argued that the 3D was used very well. Overall I found the podcast both informing and entertaining but I doubt I'd tune into their podcast again.
The next podcast I listened to is Sticks and Strings. Honestly I only chose this podcast because the description said 'an australian bloke who knits'. I was thoroughly entertained by his podcast purely for the fact that he had an australian accent. Terrible reason to like something, but completely the reason. He was talking about editing in this podcast, not very thrilling. Apparently he did suffer a knitting injury though; that did make me laugh. What really happened was he was using a certain needle and a bloke sat beside him, knocked his arm and all of a sudden he stabbed himself in the finger. Who knew you could get hurt from knitting? I learnt something from the podcast.
Next, I'd like to discuss audio books. Now, what an audio book is, is essentially a book on tape but instead of tape it's a digital file that you can download onto your ipod or itunes or burn onto a CD, whichever you'd like. I can see the practicality behind audio books. Some people hate reading and would just prefer a story read to them. Some people don't think they have enough time to sit and read so it's easier to have it read to you while commuting to work or exercising. Personally however, I find audio books quite irritating. It could be because I love to read but I think my opinion of audio books is based purely on the fact that when I read I create character voices in my head. I like these voices, and actually become quite attached to them, but if I were to listen to an audio book there wouldn't be any character voices, only a narator. So, yes, I can see the practicality and usage of an audio book but personally it's not something I'd use.
Now, to reflect on my podcast experience. I'm not trying to say that the podcasts were boring but for me, sitting at my computer, listening to someone's voice talk about knitting or Alice in Wonderland is just not that titalating. I didn't know if I should go to other websites and read while being informed or if I should stare blankly at the webpage, I was just confused as to what to do with myself while listening. Now if I found a show that was beyond a doubt absolutely incredible, informative and funny then I could definately see myself listening to podcasts again. However, this was not the case and I'll just stick to my daily dose of Vloggers and Vidcasts. I wouldn't say that this method is any better or worse than blogging, it's basically a verbal blog. This in mind, I do think it's a better way to obtain information than a magazine or newspaper. This is because people are really busy with their lives and some do not have time to actually sit and shift through fifty thousand ads just to hear that Ricky Martin is gay (who was shocked by that, seriously?) Students can be updated on their walk to school, commute to work, wait for the bus; basically anytime.
Now for my favourite part; Vidcasts. I've been a fan of Vidcasts for years now, ever since I first watched Cute With Chris. So forgive me for my bias of Vidcasts over podcasts. Before I go over the reviews of the vidcasts I watched, here's one of my favourite videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwWdelbLbO0&feature=channel

Now for my first vidcast I watched a video done by Cute With Chris. Chris is actually incredibly sarcastic and that's what rfeally makes his show entertaining. He posts pictures of cute little animals and gets the viewers to vote on who is cuter. While doing this, he makes fun of himself the entire time. In this episode Chris changes his name to My Lord because there are too many chris's in the world. He also responds to a complaint from a mother that was concerned about his show and surprised it had cute in the name. It's actually a lot more interesting than I can explain.
The next Vidcast I watched is also another one I've watched for a few years. It's titled Ask A Ninja. Now, I happen to think Ninjas rule all and would so win the Pirate vs. Ninja fight but that's an entirely different story. In this Vidcast a man dressed like a ninja answers viewer questions. In this episode he answers as many questions as he can in one vidcast. His answers always have some verb that has been fused with the word ninja and his self absobtion is quite entertaining. Again, my explaination really doesn't do justice to just how entertaining this is.
As previously stated Vidcasts are a favourite of mine. I have a few that I used to subscribe to when my ipod was working. I find them mostly to be entertaining and not really informative. I wouldn't substitute a newspaper with a vidcast. Although I do really enjoy the vidcasts I don't use them for anything but humour.
That is Podcasts, Vidcasts and Audio books all in a nut shell. Have a good night.

RSS

RSS is actually a really simple system of sharing info from other sites and transfering it to others. With Google reader I'm able to access my facebook, youtube and other fun sites I view often.
With Google reader I'm able to add pages in three different ways. First, I could manually search for blogs that interest me and subscribe to them. Also I can go to say facebook and put in my settings that I'd like my facebook account to link with my google reader. Thisd allows me to see my friends updates and status changes without leaving google. Alternatively I could first add the subscribe address to my bookmark (or favourites) tab and once I'm on a blag or site that I enjoy and would like to keep updated with I could go to my favourites and click on the subscribe link and that'll automatically add the feed to my reader.
I could see this being useful in the case that you find a blog or site you really enjoy but can't remember the link to in the future, so you add it to your reader to keep it right there where you can always find it. Although it just seems a lot easier to just go to your facebook or youtube or what ever you like instead of going through the process of adding it to your reader. Then again it's like creating your own page of favourites. You won't have to travel around to see everything you like when you can just go onto your reader and view it from there.
Overall, I don't see this a way to read my interests day to day. This is only because it's not often that I sign into my google account and I just find it easier to go onto my facebook and youtube seperately. I realize some of my friends really like this aspect of google, having all their interests on one page but personally it's just not my favourite way to get all my information. The only way i can see this being really useful is if my facebook or youtube for some reason cease to work and all that is functioning on the internet is my google account.
thanks for reading,
-Paige

Something witty

Ok so my first blog. Not really, but maybe the first one I'll actually continue to use.
Blog, it's funny how this word never used to exist years ago. It's weird how much the world has changed and become so adapted to the Internet. I mean I may only be a teenager, but when I was in middle school, a blog, blogging, vlogging, twitter, and facebook never existed.
Blogging may not change the world exactly but it definitely has left its mark. Now, anyone from any country can read the text on the screen from their own home. I can keep in contact with friends and family that have moved away to different countries or even different cities. Since moving to university the only way to keep in contact with my friends from high school has been through social networking sites and sites such as blogger. I can read up on their daily experiences and never feel out of the loop. I can search blogs for topics that interest me and actually connect with the authors. Blogging has brought around an entirely different form of communication. Instead of waiting for a letter through the mail, or reading the newspaper for national and international happenings I can just log in and read. Maybe not a life changing occurrence, but blogging certainly makes it easier.
It's 6:45am and for whatever reason I can't fall asleep tonight. And although I have no one to talk to or keep me entertained, I do have this blog to occupy me and give me a sense of communicating with someone. I mean I know eventually some one's eyes will read these words.
People from all over the world can come together and read the same blog and connect with each other without ever having to really put an effort into anything. Is it laziness or just convenience? To be honest I can't decide. But for whatever reason, blogging is bringing together thousands of people with the same interest and allowing them to share this interest with the world. Also, from the blogs I have read tonight I can also tell that writing a blog allows people a sort of outlet for their thoughts and feelings that for different reasons can't be shared with others in their life. It's like having an online diary, only it's throwing out the whole idea of it being private, though I'm sure some people do have private blogs.
Now as for the blogs I visited. The first one I read was about a man struggling with his identity as a homosexual man as well as a devout Christian and the title of this blog was Two world Collision. I found this appropriate as it is often found that Christianity finds it hard to accept homosexuality as well as the fact that homosexuals often judge Christians as close minded bigots. This man's journey to accept himself and find a balance between his two identities was actually heartfelt and I wish this man luck to finding happiness and balance. The next blog I read was about the media, journalism public affairs and how it all relates back to the public. It was called Innovative Journalism Blog. Appropriate title I think. Anyways the first entry I read was about Apple's new Ipad, which I'm sure everyone knows about as of now. I found the entry to be true as well as comical. And the next entry I read was about how the music industry does not make buying records an easy transaction with other countries so why bother paying for it when you can download it free? I found this reasonable, but then again I'm pretty sure itunes allows you to buy the music from anywhere as long as you have the software, so this guy may not be trying his hardest. For the final blog I decided to look at I tried to change it up. It was a purely photographic blog. Somewhere for the artist to show off his work. This blog was called Urban Nature. I enjoyed the photos and found it nice that artists can now get some publicity for their work without emptying their pockets.
Blogger isn't the only blogging site online obviously, and I actually have accounts on other sites as well but from what I can tell blogger is a decent site for beginners. It's easy to understand and navigate through, and the entire concept is actually very simple; just write.
Now twitter. Oh how I've avoided getting one for so long. In my opinion Twitter is just another social networking site that makes stalking people's everyday life easier. Of course the people on twitter are willingly giving up this information for their "followers" to view so stalking isn't the appropriate word. On a second note, I feel that anyone who feels the need to update their twitter whenever something changes is just doing it to feel as if other people actually care what they are doing every second of the day. Though, with the fact that these people actually do have "followers" maybe they're justified in believing people care? I'm being harsh I know. Twitter actually is like a small blog I guess. I mean go through a weeks worth of 140 character status changes and it does give you an idea of this person's life. And who knows, it may even be entertaining.
Just personally, I'd much rather read any one's blog on Blogger than read what someone is doing in 140 characters or less. I think every day occurrences, no matter how small deserve to be explained and analyzed instead of just stated. Based on Twitter's popularity though, it could just be me who thinks this.
I think this just about wraps up my thoughts for the night.
Until next time,
-PTolmie