Photo Link (Flickr)

Download the movie

Subscribe to the video feed

Esther just called me. Apparently she got a C on her first paper. It was a little bit of a tearful call. I hope that she has a better day. I know it sucks. Gotta keep her positive.

Episode 1: Gin Blossomettes

Welcome to the Jeredb podcast, today you’ll hear about the our weekend which included cycling and a concert. Also hear about Esther’s remarkable progress towards her Ph.D.

For more about Jeredb: www.jeredb.com
For more about Esther: www.estherknits.com

Download Episode 1

RSS feed for future episodes

In my previous post, I reffered to Esther and I creating audiocasts. For those who don’t know, audiocasts are the same things as a “podcast” (â„¢ or © or ®, not sure which).

Everyone on the web has been writing about Apple’s recent move to own the word podcast by sending a C&D letter to PodcastReady and having followed this event, I am a little miffed.

I think Dave Winer has it right:

“Apple has been coasting on other people’s work, as well as contributing their own, but they’re not very generous when it comes to sharing the credit. I’d be inclined to work with them on this, and other things, if they would be kind to us and our creations. Instead Apple sneers at the people who gave them this innovation, and sends demand letters to members of the community.”

If you didn’t initially create the concept, the you just have to suck it up. I’m sorry Apple, you might be the dealer of cool when it comes to portable audio and computer design, but in this instance, you are not cool.

Esther and I have recorded our first audiocast, but since I forgot my powercord at work, I’m stuck waiting until tomorrow to upload it. Bummer.

After recording, getting it edited together and saving, we made a Walmart run, usually what Esther likes to do when she’s bored. While wondering through the electronics isles, I found a great deal on an ipod attachment from Belkin.

Belkin creates a voice recorder for the iPod, specifically for a 3rd generation one, which is great, because that’s what Esther has. The idea behind us buying it was that we can now create mobile audiocasts. (It’s weird that we are planning on doing mobile audiocasts with interviews before we have gotten our first one published … ambition?)

Tomorrow we should have a audiocast posted. Over the weekend we might also be transitioning both of our blogs to a Wordpress.org install. This should get us ready for blogging, audiocasting, and videocasting.

Esther and I called up our friends and went for a bike ride. They rode down from Williamsburg, we rode up from home and met halfway on the Parkway. We went down to the Yorktown Riverwalk and tried to find a place to eat. All of the places were either not tasty (i.e. ice cream) or too expensive. After snacking on a couple of snacks brought by Casey, we rode to our house for some real food. Esther made some great pasta and we had a great conversation before I had to drive them back up to the ‘Burg.

Esther and I are watching the final parts of the House DVD Season 2. Just so ya know: we love House, the show not the character.

I was looking through the stats on my blog and I found a very interesting tidbit.

I am #7 on DogPile.com when you search for the Posiedon Adventure.

Apparently, the Famousity post is popluar…hmmm.

This morning Esther and I woke up a little later than we thought we would and had to jump in the shower to get ready to drive out to Ditchley. I am shooting a wedding at Ditchley in two weeks and wanted to get acquainted with the area before I get the camera out.

Maggie came by at ten o’clock on the dot and Esther and I had to scramble to get some coffee and everything ready to drive out there. It is out in Gloucester, which is about 30 - 45 mintues away (map), and it’s pretty confusing to get there, so I’m glad that we did this. I’ll be a little more familiar with getting out there so on the day I won’t get lost or freak out.

On the way back from Ditchley, Esther and I peeled off from the main road and made our way to Williamsburg. We were going to the Gin Blossoms concert at the Harvest Festival. Esther had arranged for us to meet a couple who we have recently started to hang out with, Kristi and Casey. We got to our parking space and started walking to the stage setup in the middle of a field, crossing over an orange fence. We walked around the vendors and searched for our friends, but didn’t find them. What we did find was the entrance to the concert, where we had not gone. It was funny because earlier Esther had commented on how they didn’t check for a ticket. Oops.

After going through the proper entrance and getting our tickets and wristbands (it was at a winery after all), we saw one of Esther’s professor and one of the women that I used to work with. We said hello to her professor, I didn’t say hello to my former co-worker; does that make me a misanthrope?

After getting a little italian ice, we walked back towards the stage and after scanning the crowd for a bit, we had our friends show up behind us. We made our way to the seats and blanket they had just as the first song started.

It was a very interesting concert. The Gin Blossoms were big when I was in 8th grade and it was a very odd middle school flashback. Of course they played the songs that they made them famous in the early nineties and some tracks off their new album, but the oldies got a rise out of the crowd. I wondered through the entire concert about what they had been doing in the 10 years between their waning first fame and this recent resurgence. I also wondered it they felt really let down by the fact that they were playing to a really small concert. There had to be less that 300 people there. I guess that is what happens when you have a hit in the early nineties and then fade in to pop music obscurity. I really wish that I would have brought the video camera, because it would have made a great little video podcast. Oh well.

After the hour-long concert wrapped up, we walked around the vendors again, joined by one of Esther’s cohort-mates (is that the proper term?) Adele. Kristi and Adele then got a bottle of wine, Esther got some kettle corn and we stood around eating the popcorn as the ladies enjoyed the wine.

After finishing the bottle and packing up, we walked around the winery a little and then decieded to get some coffee. We went to the Coffee House and I had a satisfying Large (triple shot) Latte. Mmmm. Caffeine.

After a little coffee and alot of good conversation we went to Adele’s apartment. Casey and I helped take apart a table and load said table and four chairs into Adele’s SUV, and after we had finished that we had some pizza and more conversation.

It’s really different to have a couple that Esther and I both click with. I have al lot in common with Casey, she has a lot in common with Kristi. Esther and I have been kind of picky about our friends in the past and its finally nice to have friends that we don’t have to be picky about.

Overall a great day.

Oscar, our dog, has taken to hopping up on the bed at night when we sleep.

Most nights it isn’t to bad, but last night was interesting. He was cuddled up to me all night long, but then early in the morning he had moved into a position that wouldn’t let me move or cover up. I decided that he must be cold. I tried to coax him into moving but that was hard to do. When Oscar is asleep, he really doesn’t want to move. I finally did get him to move, but he essentially ended up under the covers, with me spooning him.

Needless to say, it was a little odd.

I have my macbook back!

I spent all of last night working on getting all the software back on the machine. It’s been interesting being on a computer diet for the past 3 weeks. I’ve been checking my bloglines more at work and less at home. Over the weekends, I would read more (which is a change for me) and got out and did more. But I have to say, it is nice to have my computer back.

Even after only a few hours of shake down, I can tell that the work that I had done was necessary. The shop that I took it to changed out the main logic board (which has had a lot of problems on the macbooks) and the bezels around the keyboard and screen. The only thing that I have noticed is the mouse is not as “clicky”. The left side doesn’t have the distinctive click that the center does. That’s a trade off I’m willing to make.

Over all, the mac is back. Stay tuned for more things coming from Jeredb.com