How To Start A Podcast #1


Hello, I am Phil and as you may (or may not know) I am part of a Star Trek fan group. We want to do something different so I decided to start a podcast in the trek genre. Oh you say, this doesn't fall in to this blog's genre. Read more

May Nerdy Events


Hello Nerd Pilgrims! Here's a list of the nerdiest and geekiest events around the world during the month of May. What counts as nerdy? Anything having to do with gaming, books, fantasy, science fiction, anime, and so much more. Nerdom is universal, so it doesn't matter where it is, Read more

World Book Night


World Book Night. Three words that makes my bibliomaniac heart soar with glee! Why? Well it just happens to be a celebration of reading, literature, libraries, bookstores and printed books. All around the world, the WBN organization selected people to pass out free books on April 23rd. I, your Read more

A Lorax Kind of Day


Recently, the wonderful story of the Lorax was in theaters much to the joy of fellow Nerd Pilgrimage writer Sara and myself. It's a story that promotes being kind to the environment and against major corporations (sort of).  Considering this is one of Sara's favorite stories, we decided to Read more

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How To Start A Podcast #1

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Phil Posted in Advice | Leave a comment

Hello, I am Phil and as you may (or may not know) I am part of a Star Trek fan group. We want to do something different so I decided to start a podcast in the trek genre. Oh you say, this doesn’t fall in to this blog’s genre. You may be right, except for the fact that starting a podcast will take you to new heights in creativity. Podcast are all about information, community, and sharing what you overly obsess about. Perfect for your average day nerd pilgrim. Which leads to why I was brought on board. I’m here to help my fellow nerds and geeks to starting a new adventure of their own.

What does it take to get started?

A wise man once said “Organization will set you free.” This is no different, you need to decide hosting (media hosting that is), voice talent, podcast format, frequency, etc. The list goes on and on. If you were to just jump in and start recording you are going to have a bad time!

Media Hosting

Wow, decisions, decisions, decisions. There are primarily 2 options, self hosted and off-site hosting. If you aren’t tech savvy then this may be a VERY easy decision for you, but if you *ARE* tech savvy the decision becomes harder. Why is it harder you ask? That’s a GREAT question! While you may be able to host it yourself, what happens when your podcast becomes popular? Do you have enough bandwidth to handle 1,000 downloads per month? How about 100,000? Let’s say you do have the bandwidth available, will your servers be able to take the impact? Downloading a podcast even at 10MB will consume a connection socket for the length of the download, let’s say you have the resources to handle 100 concurrent connections. If you have 100 people downloading your podcast, you no longer have any sockets available for users to be able to browse your website, or for people’s RSS feeds to update from the server. There are many places out there that can host this for you, for a price, that are able to handle the traffic, and you will have someone to point the finger at if the podcast doesn’t download properly.

Podcast frequency

Weekly or even biweekly might sound like a great idea, and it may just, but can you keep up with that pace? Make sure that you don’t over promise and under deliver. It’s always better to under promise and over deliver. How about seasons, are you going to have planned breaks where your talent can take time off without interrupting the podcast, or are you going to just interrupt your podcast when you lose talent? Will you have enough talent to be able to keep the podcast running when you have talent taking vacation? The amount of planning that goes in to each episode will play a lot in to this decision, so will the availability of your talent, remember you need to have everyone’s schedules line up to do the recording.

Hardware

Hardware, why can’t you do this with just a boom mic attached to your computer you ask? Well you can, but what is the quality level that you want of your podcast? How much money do you have to spend on the hardware? I recommend at least a decent condenser mic. This will pick up the true tones of your voice, and will do a fairly decent job of getting rid of background noise. You also probably don’t want to have your co-presenter’s voices booming over your speakers, this will lead to some bad echo.

Well, that’s it for today. Next week we’ll be discussing voice talent and how to format you’re podcast!

-Phil

May Nerdy Events

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Steffie Posted in Conventions | Leave a comment

Hello Nerd Pilgrims! Here’s a list of the nerdiest and geekiest events around the world during the month of May. What counts as nerdy? Anything having to do with gaming, books, fantasy, science fiction, anime, and so much more. Nerdom is universal, so it doesn’t matter where it is, people should hear about it.

Going to any of these events? See a problem with the list or know something that should be added? Did you want to write or vlog about your experiences? Well send me a message and I’ll get right back to you!

 

World Book Night

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Steffie Posted in Bibliophile, Various Locations | Leave a comment

World Book Night. Three words that makes my bibliomaniac heart soar with glee! Why? Well it just happens to be a celebration of reading, literature, libraries, bookstores and printed books. All around the world, the WBN organization selected people to pass out free books on April 23rd. I, your local nerdy travel girl, was one of the selected bookworms to go out and give 20 copies of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  by Junot Díaz to complete strangers.

I knew immediately that I wanted have this adventure at the capitol here in Austin, Texas. It’s a tourist hot spot, lots of students, and families walking around . Talking to strangers was not that big of a deal to me but I feared I would come off as a crazy person with a bag full of books. It turns out I looked completely crazy and it was glorious. Within an hour, all the books were given out and I had conversations with people from all around the world. My favorite was a man who was completely baffled at the thought he got a book for free and didn’t have to do anything. Here’s a snippet of our conversation:

Him -  “Do I need to let anyone know you gave this to me?”

Me – “Nope, just read it.”

Him – “Do I need to pass it on?”

Me – “You can do whatever you want with it. It’s all yours!”

Him – “…Should I confirm online I read the book?”

Me – “You have no obligation to do anything. Just read a good book. If you want. Nothing more.”

Him – “Really…?”

Me – “Yes.”

It was bizarre that a few people were just in utter shock that a random girl just wants to give them a book to read and want nothing in return. My greatest surprise was when I found out that there were people looking for me! Three girls had to track me down since I wasn’t exactly clear where I would be passing the books out.

They eventually found me and lived happily ever after with their new book. Including these girls, only five people knew what was going on and why I was there. That didn’t stop people asking how to contribute more and start talking about their own favorite books. While we had some say on what book to pass out, our book was chosen for us. I was lucky enough to pass out a book that was given to me as gift years ago and really meant something to me. I have so many memories with this book and hopefully now, others will too. Honestly, it was one of the funnest things I ever got to be a part of. Whether you participated in WBN or not, hopefully you’ll take the time to support your local bookstore or library. At the very least,  just read a good book.

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