Ticking Clocks, Humming Fridges
Wednesday morning is the time when we do the recording for the front and end of the podcast episode. I have to say, this is the worst part of the whole thing for me. We sit at my big glass table, and use a floor microphone to do the recording. Much of this time is spent setting up and chatting about just about anything and everything from the state of global finance to the influence of plate tectonic theory on my writing. It usually takes me a while to warm up to the intro, but we try not to script these bits of the podcast because it sounds too wooden. I feel mildly ridiculous sitting in a chair in front of a mic, effectively talking to the wall, but there you go.
We did the original recording in a local radio studio, and really fell on our feet. The intro and back end of the podcast don’t have to be as excellent quality, so we’re working in my apartment. Unfortunately, the Producer and I don’t have the same definition of the word “quiet”. I personally think I have a quiet apartment because I can sleep in it without being woken up, and I’m not really bothered by the appearance of the Kuehn and Nagel lorry that shows up at 5am on every Wednesday to deliver beer to the pub next door. The Producer, however, has other ideas.
Sitting at the table, the other week we were about to start, when suddenly the Producer looked at me and asked what the ticking noise was. I indicated the clock in the kitchen and he nodded. I can barely hear it, but evidently he has better ears than I do. During this week, we transferred over to British Summer Time, and this was, sadly, too much for my kitchen clock which was something cheap I bought when I moved down here. It died in the process of moving forward an hour (evidently a very stressful event for a clock).
“Notice, no ticking,” I said. “The clock died.”
“Yes,” the Producer replied. “But now I can hear your fridge humming.”
This week we’re both congratulating ourselves on getting our podcast onto iTunes. For some reason, this took longer than we wanted. I had no idea that such things were so complicated, and I’m very glad that I don’t have to do the work of getting the whole thing submitted. We started off with only a title, and it took ages to get the description and the author name to transfer from our site feed to iTunes store. Now, however, at least we have it all in place, making everybody’s lives much, much easier. I’m in the process of building up the Amnapedia for the new website. My old Wikispaces Amnapedia is still in play, since I use it for keeping tabs on information I need to remember but don’t want available for public consumption (yet).
Meanwhile, there is not much to report. I’m splitting my time between writing 4765 and the Amnapedia, and life is quiet. One good thing though: the sun is shining in Manchester. That’s worth mentioning.
