I have successfully turned my arms and legs (mostly my legs) into rubbery wet noodles, which is an accomplishment, though not a very useful one. I decided this afternoon that I wanted to ride my bike around; the temps are in the mid-50s, and the sun is out, which is perfect bike-riding weather for me. After an embarrassing ten minutes of just trying to get the lock unlocked, I got on the road and rode around for about an hour. And I discovered that I'm much more accutely aware of the many hills here (we live in the piedmont) when I'm bike-riding than when I'm car-driving. Especially uphill, whoo. Not to mention that I'm severely out of shape. Still, it was a fun little ride, even if my limbs will hate me later.

PodcasterCon was both interesting and fun yesterday. I learned that there is an insane amount of gear out there, but that for my needs, I don't require them right now. Yes, there is a definite difference between using studio mikes with mixers and consumer computer mikes, but I'm just doing my little thing for my 15 listeners (so far) and not really worried yet about nationwide broadcast. And, thanks to an incredibly informative talk by Stephen Eley, I realized that my setup can work just fine; I don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on new equipment, I just need to be smarter about my sound production.

I also got to hang out with some very cool people, like the aforementioned Steve (who is very cool and funny), Mur Lafferty (who'd lost her voice, but still managed to draw a huge crowd) and her husband Jim, Patrick McLean of The Seanachai, Derek and Swoopy of Skepticality, and a bunch of others. After the conference was over last night around 6:30, a big group of us went to a sushi restaurant (I got kitsune udon: fried tofu with shoelace-thick udon noodles) and ate and talked and stayed far longer than the waitresses would have liked. There were a lot of gaming geeks there, so many video games were discussed. I got to hear an impression of Christopher Walken as Han Solo that cracked up the whole table. It was lots of fun.

And so, energized by yesterday's camaraderie and my newfound knowledge, I'm excited about this week's podcast: "The Specialist's Hat" by Kelly Link. If you might not be a podcast listener, I'd like to ask the favor that you listen to this show; Kelly's fiction is amazing, and I'm hoping to do it justice through my performance. And if you like it, maybe you'll subscribe to future shows, and tell your friends about it. If not, no worries, you won't hurt my feelings.