Yeah, so it’s not exactly news that I’m a bit behind the times when it comes to the new hotness in technology. I didn’t get a cell phone in the US until I was about a year out of college, even though they were standard issue by the time I was a senior. I held onto my land line for MUCH longer than most cats I know, and I had still to this day have trouble reconciling using up valuable cell phone minutes on any toll-free call. I still don’t have an iPod, and my recently purchased LG Chocolate phone bewilders me more than it entertains me (though I DO occasionally listen to music on it – but I can’t figure out how to pause it well, or do any of the normal, simple commands that I would be able to operate just fine on a device that wasn’t the size of a baby mouse). And never, ever before have I found myself in a position to listen to these pod casts the kids are all talking about these days.
I dunno, it’s not like I couldn’t have. But two jobs ago my boss had the habit of talking to me over a cubicle wall when I couldn’t see her, plus I would always chat over the wall with my coworkers that I was friends with, so having headphones on was sort of detrimental to my professional and personal life. And I guess I sort of carried that into the next job after that, especially since we were allowed to listen to music through actual *speakers* so most of just elected to do that – even though there were generally at least four sources of sound in at least three different languages across our one-room office. But now that I share a small office with two other people, and now that I work somewhere that doens’t even supply speakers with the machines, and now that I’m in the midst of linguistic data-organizing tasks that seem to use a completely different part of my brain than the one I need to understand speech in English, well, it’s POD CAST TIME, baby.
But since I’m new to this world, I’m rather hesitant. I still only go for free ones, of course, and I prefer streaming/simple stuff that just opens up in my browser, to stuff that requires actual plugins or programs to be downloaded (partly because I’m not yet sure exactly what Bill is okay with us downloading over his bandwidth). I’ve already exhausted the Savage Love archives, and now I’m moving on to This American Life. And you know, people are right – Ira Glass *does* have kind of a weird voice. But I digress – what I was getting at is, this podcast thing is pretty neat. See? I don’t even feel the need to use quotes or italics anymore, I’m getting so comfortable with the term. Now THAT’S progress!
Anyway, if any of my imaginary readers have particular (preferably free) podcasts they’d like to recommend, EVEN ONES THAT REQUIRE ME TO ACTUALLY DOWNLOAD SOMETHING, please let me know, as I have a finite supply and sometimes like to mix it up. My preferences lean towards liberal politics and humor, but I’m pretty flexible. And I like that my learning curve is going upwards – maybe soon I’ll even get a DIGITAL CAMERA! For now, I’m content with listening to podcasts, occasionally operating my MP3able phone for something other than calling and “text messaging“, and watching complicated downloads on Grant’s Ten Foot Screen of Technology. When we move in together I’ll have to start actually learning how to operate some of his geek-machinery myself, so for now I’m enjoying my ignorantly blissful days. Okay, back to work and Ira now!