K- Blogger Gord Sellar on PodCastle

UPDATE: Robbed! Gord's story has been bumped. Escape Pod is very well organized but Podcastle, only in it's third week, may still be working out the kinks and bugs. Here's hoping we see Gord's story in the next few weeks. Giant looks like a good story, too.

I have listened to Escape Pod, a weekly podcast of audio fiction for around two years now. I say audio fiction because it started with both Science Fiction and Fantasy stories but now focuses exclusively on science fiction because a sister podcast now offers fantasy.

That sister podcast, Podcastle, starting offering stories on April 1 (no joke and thanks for nothing for not commenting on my attempts at April fool's Day jokes, jerks!). Anyway, its too early to say much about the quality but I've enjoyed the stories so far and they make my commute a little easier. I expect good quality as Escape Pod has been excellent.

Tomorrow (Friday, April 18 - but probably late in the day for those of us 12 hours ahead of most of the US here in Korea), a 'miniature', a short fantasy story, will be released and the story, Pahwahke, is by K-blogger Gord Sellar. Congratulations to him and I'll be going out of my way to listen as soon as I can.

Podcastle schedule:

EPISODE 1 - April 1: “Come Lady Death” by Peter Beagle
Bonus Flash - April 4: “Stone Born” by Loreen Heneghan
EPISODE 2 - April 8: “For Fear of Dragons” by Carrie Vaughn
EPISODE 3 - April 15: “Run of the Fiery Horse” by Hilary Moon Murphy
Bonus Flash - April 18: “Pahwahke” by Gord Sellar
EPISODE 4 - April 22: “Goosegirl” by Margaret Ronald
EPISODE 5 - April 29: “The Girl with the Sun in Her Head” by Jeremiah Tolbert
Bonus Flash - May 2: “Giant” by Stephanie Burgis
EPISODE 6 - May 6: “The Dead Girl’s Wedding March” by Cat Rambo


Gord is currently on a tear about the Wonder Girls and the sexualization of Korean youth. If there is no such word as 'sexualization', then read his post. There may still be no such word, but you will have learned something.

Korean Language Podcast

The EFL Geek has found a KSL website that includes free mp3s. Korean Class 101 seems like a well-made site. I registered for the free service which includes a week of premium. I haven't even listened to the content yet but I am already considering paying for basic or premium service.

Chunk Edited out here. No big deal - I felt I had passed beyond humor into rudeness.

I will review my thoughts on the first few lessons in a few days.

Sigler did it (and questionable cooking advice)

As of this morning, Scott Sigler made #1 in the Amazon sci-fi/Fantasy list and #7 overall.

The most popular items on Amazon.com. Updated hourly.
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In listing podcasts I listen to, I mentioned one of his books and I have listened to this one as well. I am not that confident in my ability to rate quality literature so I am hesitant to promote the book too much but his ability to reach #1 was due to careful planning.

He had been turned down by major publisher after major publisher after publisher after minor publisher.... and decided to make his books available online in audio form. After he had more than 10,000 downloads, publishers decided the book might sell after all.

Over the last two months, Sigler promoted his book on many podcasts and asked listeners to wait until the day the book was available and buy it en-mass at 9:00am -um, US East Coast time (I've forgotten the name of the timezone). He even gave away a PDF of the text -slightly different from the audio - with the understanding that e-Books haven't really caught on, no-one would print out the book because reading on loose-leaf A4 isn't that exciting either, so readers would just be more interested in buying the hard-copy (but softcover) book. Loyal listeners did buy on April 1; Australians even waited until 2:00am their time to synchronize their purchases.

I enjoyed Ancestor, but not enough to buy it, even though I feel a kind of connectedness to the author, having listened to him read for the past year.

I wonder if any of my readers do give money for services online. I'm talking about free services with a 'donate here' button, not pay services like Amazon. I listen to PodioBooks and Escape Pod and use Juice to download their content and have never donated; am I a bad man?

Now, on to cooking advice.

Charles at Liminality, has a mouth watering post about making Calzones. He makes the cooking process seem so easy that I may try it soon. Still, I've seen photos of him. He's pretty slim. Can one really trust cooking advice from a thin person?

Managing my commute

I have a good job that I enjoy doing. I also enjoy the time off, of which I have a great deal. So, I can't really complain about the three hour a day round trip commute I do to get to work. Well, I can, but few would have sympathy for me.

Why don't I move closer to work? Well, my wife works longer hours, more days a week and more months a year than I do. She deserves a short commute (and much more).

I don't really hate the time spent on the bus. This post is about how I spend my time -oh, and at the bottom are a few notes on other parts of the life of Kwandongbrian.

I am pretty comfortable on a moving platform. I have gotten sea-sick but not that badly. Even Korean bus travel is not that bad, so I am able to read without wooziness. I can't easily use my computer on the bus - there is a little too much shaking for that. Still, I have more options than Kwandongwife who can only choose between sleeping or staring out the window while travelling.

For the longest time, I listened to my MP3 player constantly. I still listen, but not as much. I listen to a little music, mostly novelty stuff, and a double handful of podcasts and audio books.

Here is what I listen to:

Science fiction and Fantasy stories, reviews and commentary:

The Rookie (Sigler) -A new quarterback competes in an interstellar football league. Good stuff for the price (free). This and other Sigler audiobooks are among the best to be found free online and I like them. Still, that means they are big fish only in a small pool.

Podiobooks -This is where I found Sigler's first book. This and many others can be found, with variable quality. Great Moments in History is a BBC educational series that is well prepared. There is also a series of interviews on intelligent design.

Escape Pod. Short science fiction and fantasy stories of high quality. Good stuff.

University of Minnesota Narratives in Sci-fi/Fantasy. A favorite author (P.C. Hodgell) and another guy (also good) discuss the history of speculative fiction and interivew a few authors. Good stuff.

Kickass Mystic ninjas - reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy, the good, the bad and the hokey.

podcasts for thinkers

In Our Time. A BBC Radio 4 program looking at subjects from science, literature, history, religion and art. Great stuff but I had to laugh at the segment on Don Quixote, who they called Don Quik-sit.

Ideas The same as above but with Canadian accents (CBC).

Science

Quirks and Quarks A weekly science show from CBC

Science Friday a two hour weekly science show from NPR - it covers research but also political issues in science.

Skepticality An occassional show -not quite weekly about science and humanist issues.

Clean Break - An environmental news 'cast from the Toronto Star

Korea

Liminality - Charles had planned to produce weekly 'casts and I still have high hopes.

The Metropolitician - The scribbler has talked about good stuff. Most of his work is now on video 'casts but his audio 'casts can be found there.

Humor and other

Linwood Barkley - Interesting humor but based on Toronto events and not always comprehensible to outsiders.

The Now Show -Rich audio from BBC. The same caveat as above.

Jonathan Coulton - this is where I get my novelty music. Skullcrusher Mountain is the best.

Academic lectures can be found here. Some are interesting but most are straight audio from a lecture. The audio is not great and any visual aids are missing. You can find some good stuff but it takes work.

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I mentioned above that I don't listen to my MP3 player as much as I used to. I just got a few books from What the Book and have relearned how much I prefer reading -audio books are not as interesting for me.

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In other news, I fear that I may be beat up soon. Before Kwandongalex was born, my adventures were mostly in human-power travel. Now, I don't hike or ride as much. Today, possibly as compensation; while crossing a street, a truck turned without signalling and stopped as I was halfway across the street. I walked up to the window and the driver rolled down the window. I reached in and turned on the guy's turn-signal. I felt good about it but I also walked off quickly.

Altruism

Altruism, behavior that helps others to your detriment, has long been claimed as a refutation of evolution. It is claimed that evolution dictates or requires selfishness so if selfless behavior exists, there are problems with evolution.

Social animals, as I was taught, and have in some small part have observed, do indeed help each other sometimes for abstract or distant reward. Seagulls make an alarm cry when danger approaches, attracting attention to themselves. This behavior is advantageous because other gulls will perform the same activity at other times. Is this altruism?

On BBC4's "In Our Time" is another interesting podcast with academics discussing altruism. As the [in]famous Richard Dawkins is one of the speakers, I suspect altruism will be shown to, or at least claimed to, have evolution roots. The recording will be available starting this Thursday, for a week.

On an unrelated note, this week I start volunteering at a Sokcho church, teaching English.

The historic rise and fall of Chinese technology

*Blogger is having difficulties tonight. I cannot edit my writing well - no hyperlinks or bolding, etc.*

I have a long commute three days a week and I find listening to podcasts a good way to fill the time.

On such podcast is BBC4's "In our time". www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/

Despite the title, the speakers mostly discuss historic events (I think the title refers to how the subjects are researched and understood 'in our time'). The most recent episode questioned how or why China was far and away the world leader in science and technology from the twelth century to only a few hundred years ago. European technology only pulled ahead in the nineteenth century.

One item of discussion was gunpowder. The Chinese understood how to use it as a propellent in fireworks but the main reason it was made was as part of Chinese alchemy and medicine. Once the secret of gunpowder reached Europe, its usefulness, um, exploded.

Also mentioned in some detail were printing presses and ceramics. Although Korea itself is not mentioned, the parrellels are clear.

"In Our Time", as a download, is available for a week. After that, you can still listen as a stream but not a download.