Here’s episode two of our recently launched babble-a-thon. A couple of months ago I made a huge mistake at work. The worst I’ve ever made on the job. Funny thing is, it was caused by a very minor error. And I can’t elaborate. But recently, someone else in Japan made just as small of an error that had enormous repercussions.
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Right. So I’ve come to the conclusion that the anxiety I’m feeling over podcasting isn’t going to disappear. In fact, it’s putting up quite a fight. It’s as if I’m shadow boxing and taking a severe beating. Is that the most embarrassing way to lose or what?
Anxiety won the last match hands down, so I’m taking a different strategy. Self-help gurus would call it, “Feel the fear, but do it anyway,” but I prefer the mantra, “Hey anxiety: Eat shit.”
Like it or not, I’m going to shit out the next 50 podcasts in 50 days. Short ones, about 10-15 minutes each. They might or might not have anything to do with Japan. If they stink, they stink, but over time they’ll improve. I have get over the idea that every performance has to be spectacular, otherwise I’ll continue to accomplish nothing and drive myself even more nuts.
Oh, how I envy people who can drivel, babble and spew their way through episode after episode and not feel the least self-conscious. For me, this is a real challenge, like someone who’s deathly afraid of getting into an airplane deciding to take flying lessons. But it’s our neuroses flaws as much as our strengths that make us interesting and unique, right?
It’s time to start kickin’ fear in the nuts.
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How about we consider my recent absence just water under the bridge. I don’t want to play the drama queen by putting out a “Too Much Information” podcast or blog post that’s going to make everyone (especially me) uncomfortable. If you really need to know, I was hospitalized after being abducted by aliens while on a secret mission for the CIA. Not only are the details highly classified, but also extremely graphic.
From now on I’ll try to get back into the swing of things, stay in touch, stick to a schedule, and not disappear from the pod-blog-video-esphere for weeks at a time anymore. I apologize to the people who were worried. Honestly, thank you for caring.
Herro Flom the Xbox 360 Lounge
Originally uploaded by RichPav.
What do the Apple Stores in Tokyo and the new XBOX 360 Lounge have in common? They’re architecturally beautiful boutiques in expensive neighborhoods staffed by young people, and they both offer free internet access.
That’s where the similarities end. The XBOX Lounge serves food and alcohol. Nothing is for sale. The youthful staff wear suits instead of jeans and T-shirts. But the most noticable difference of all is that at the Apple Stores, there are more than ten customers at any given time. Why they built this place in upscale Omotesando instead of the techno-gadget geek Mecca of Akihabara is completely baffling. The stunningly beautiful rich babes who shop in this part of town probably spend hours filing their nails, not zoning out in front of a TV Game.
But you have to give them credit here for letting me film. All they said was I couldn’t take pictures of the TV screens or the designer XBOX console faceplates that adorn the lamps.
There’s a TV film crew here. Looks like they’re using one of the new high-end consumer grade mini HDTV DV cameras instead of a Betacam.
If I threw a party and an obnoxious guest said something offensive just to piss people off, I’d kick him out of my house.
The same goes here. My blog, my rules.
Update: mod_access: the internet’s bouncer. Gee, I hope I didn’t just block all of Amsterdam.
Show notes, photos and links later. I’m goin’ to bed.
Now, I know someone out there is going to be tempted to post something negative about them because they didn’t sing and play every single note perfectly. The way I see it, they’re simply amateurs enjoying themselves–just like me.
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No, it’s not a soundseeing tour. It’s me talking about the time it happened to my wife.
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I re-encoded the last two videos for iPod. Someone with a brand-spankin’ new iPod, please download them and let me know how they look and sound.
https://herroflomjapan.com/ipod_video/
I’ve been checking out the other video podcasts tonight, mostly to reverse engineer the encoding settings they used. My favorite so far is Democracy Now. Yes, I’m a Bush-hating leftist liberal.
On the right side of my blog, I used to have a list of the locations of the last 10 visitors, and I absolutely loved that thing. Last week or so it suddenly disappeared. Kevin from gvisit.com just explained to me what happened.
I can’t affort to host that feature anymore, but visitor tracking and the RSS feed will remain up. And there are lots of sites that will display an RSS feed on your site for you. Look into Feed2Js:
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/
Well, that was certainly easy to fix. Just thought I’d mention this because I know a few of you out there use it too.
Technorati Tags: gvisit, Feed2Js, PSA
Originally uploaded by RichPav.
Taken with the new iMac that has iSight built in and an app called Photo Booth. It’s a camwhore’s wet dream.
Technorati Tags: camwhore, apple store, imac, isight