Quick background: After PodcampAZ this weekend some of us were relaxing together and of course someone pulled out a recorder. If she publishes this conversation I’ll let you know. We started the “official” conversation discussing the difference between the tolerance and coexist bumper stickers (she has the tolerance one on her car) and then moved on to other political points. In there a few times the Tea Party and the Occupy movements came up.

And I ended up yelling at someone.

I can’t remember my exact words (hopefully they’re on the recording) but the gist was every time someone would mention the Occupiers, Mr. Conservative would either scoff or make some snide remark. This bugged me. I’ve been working very hard to use a smaller paintbrush (shut up, yes I have!) when I think/talk about people who think opposite of me. So let me get this down here, paraphrasing myself, before I forget:

I have no real idea what the Tea Party is about. All we see on TV are the loudest most obnoxious, racists, hateful representatives but standing behind them are people who feel strongly enough about their feelings to take the time to gather to be heard. They may have had better leadership and organizational skills, but this and the Occupy movement have that in common. Years ago the poor and overworked rose up and said we’re not gonna take this shit anymore and unions were created to protect them. Well, unions have now become the screwers and people are rising up again to say the same thing. We don’t like what’s going on in America and we want to be heard.

The Occupy movement has no real solution but those people are in pain. Those people are wanting someone to know they’ve lost their homes and/or can’t find jobs or are in enormous debt or whatever and you can’t scoff at people’s pain. They feel strongly enough to gather and protest you must respect their feelings. Sure, people lost their houses because they made bad decisions but they were ALSO set up to fail by the banks. Sure kids gather debt in colleges but the loans were made easier to get and the jobs they’re now ready for are not there.

We watch our government throw millions of dollars at banks and the banks turn around and give their already high-paid execs millions of dollars in bonuses. It’s bullshit. Voting doesn’t work because the politicians either lie to get elected or just have such an enormous fight against the lobbyists and special interest groups and whoever they’ve got on their side that change doesn’t happen.

As another friend says, “the system sucks” and right now the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are made up of regular people trying to have a voice. These people are in pain. And you just can’t scoff at them. You can’t paint everyone you oppose with the same giant paintbrush. That is demeaning.

And that’s not right, that’s NOT okay.

Whew. I later apologized to Mr. Conservative for directing that specifically at him, but he admits I was right to call him out and he’d try harder to show respect. Now if we could get the media and government to do the same thing, show respect to the people trying to speak, maybe someone would come up with a fair solution. Right, that’s never gonna happen.

I really hope most of that conversation is published. We talked about much more but as with all recordings in public places who knows how the sound will work out until you get into editing. I’ll let you know what she ends up with.

Something just popped up on my Google+ thingamajiggy that I don’t really use. Some feller posted something about online “friendships” and how most people (those who presumably don’t spend a lot of time online) don’t give much credit to those friendships.

Now I’ve met bunches of people I first knew online, either through twitter or other local social events. Honestly I barely know most of them. Yes we greet each other warmly (and sometimes hug) but really it’s a more surface relationship. But I can count many people I’ve met online over the years that have really become lasting relationships.

My oldest online and BFF is Cara. I met her and another friend Charlotte on a fandom site years ago and have met them both IRL. I make time in my life to see Cara at least once a year. We laugh that we’re twins born 10 years apart. Peas in a pod. Closer than sisters. Charlotte is awesome too. She’s an amazing writer and one of the most interesting young people I know. I feel honored that she likes me. There are other “friends” I met on that site that I still stay in contact with, some I wish I could meet and some I’m fine with keeping it an online relationship.

I met Evo online (podcasting) before I actually met him, and through him his wonderful wife Sheila. My lifesavers. These people changed my life. And through podcasting I’ve met other wonderful real life friends. CJ (my local BFF), Dani the Diva, Donna, A, Bruce, Crystal and many others.

I’ve met people through twitter meetups and other online-people social get-togethers that I love! Jana, Jeff, Wendy and Chris, Katie and Tyler, Patrick and Vinessa, Ruthie, Oden… I can’t wait to see these people all the time. Great times, great people.

Had I never plugged into the internet I would never have met any of them. I shudder to imagine where I’d be without them. Most of the people listed here mean more to me than my own family – except my kids/grandkids!

Here’s the thing. Of all my friendships with people I didn’t meet online only one has survived. But guess what, Wendy and I maintain most of our contact on the internet and use twitter to occasionally meet up in real life. I can’t think of another real friend I didn’t meet online or through online groups, unless you count my kids and our mutual friends.

Thank you Internets.

My friend Dani finally tied me down and had me on her podcast. Hers is one of the few I still listen to so I’m like, absolutely! I thought we’d disagree more, but it seems like we feel the same on just about every issue. The Truthseekers podcast is mostly about politics in general and Arizona’s politics in particular.

Apparently I’m in two parts so part I is up and next week the rest. And we recorded in my living room so you can hear traffic in the background.

So go listen.

TS98: It’s Hard Out There For A Thinker

I’m getting involved more. I’ve always been on the PodcampAZ planning team, but I recently joined the Ignite Phoenix crew and started volunteering at Gangplank. And yesterday I went out with ImprovAZ on their Fake Protest Flash Mob. It was awesome!

You know, last week we hit 100° but yesterday was so friggin’ cold we only hung out there for about a half hour. There were so many of us we split up and fake protested on two separate corners. Some people have no sense of humor, but we did get at least half the cars going by to honk – or at least smile and wave. I didn’t want to stop!

I’m currently editing one podcast and helping someone else put their audiobook together, so “work” is going well. And Sheila, Evo and I are working on a new project now that Evo@11 is over. I haven’t actually put an episode together yet, but we’re getting there. This project is a bit more involved than a regular podcast.

I’m officially going to Vegas for my birthday. I invited my daughter-in-law Krystal to go with me and apparently that meant Max and Casey could go as well. Fine, they can wander off and do guy stuff. Poor Ginnie isn’t old enough, so we had to promise another trip in November when she turns 21. I have a couple more girlfriends meeting me up there and have invited (SNOWCALLA!) even more so I might end up with a real party. I’ll be there April 29th through Sunday.

I’m also officially going to Balticon Memorial Day weekend. All my podcasting friends go and I’ve missed the fun too many times. Flight’s pre-paid, admission’s pre-paid, so now I just have to pay for a room (roommate Evo?) and food/drink.

Then there’s SkepchickCon, June 30-July 3. That’s not official. It really depends on my finances after those first two trips. Another fun drive up to Minneapolis but I’m pretty sure I’d have a place to stay (AGAIN, SNOWCALLA!) so it’s just gas, food, and convention costs. That’s a maybe.

And I’d like to go back to TAM. TAM 9 is in Vegas mid July, but I’d be just as happy hanging out outside of the actual meeting. It’s so expensive to attend and I don’t want to press my luck by asking for a freebie again this year.

I think that’s it for now. Crap, I forgot I had eggs boiling and all the water boiled away. I have NO attention span.

No I didn’t forget ya, I’ve just been busy and distracted.  Here’s how the last week went.

Thursday Mom called to tell me my cousin Jackie died unexpectedly. Well not that unexpectedly as I had noticed she was posting hospital testing comments on Facebook. I feel bad that I didn’t pay more attention before it was too late to commiserate. Apparently she went to her local Michigan hospital thinking she was having a heart attack and they sent her to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Nine days later she was gone in her sleep. Something to do with Amyloidosis. I’m clueless about what that is.

Friday night #evfn at Whole Foods was fun. LaDawn and I went to Yucca Tap Room but after a drink and a game of pool I pretty much dumped her there. I had too much to do and didn’t feel well anyhow.

Saturday I spent the day packing the last of my stuff and in the afternoon Casey and bunch came over to move the heavy furniture. They said they’d move it all so I left to go have my…

Debbie’s Naked Pool Party. Seriously. Excellent. Party. I had three ciders and no problem getting naked. Good friends, good party and we even recorded a show during it.

I came home to my new apartment to find that no, in fact they did NOT move everything else after all. So Sunday Ginnie and I schlepped back and forth looking for house keys and then finally packing as much crap as I could into my car before Casey and bunch came back to move the rest…

While I drove to Phoenix to bail Max out of jail. Long story I really can’t go into, but I just paid the bail and left him to find his own way home hours later.

By Sunday night – between the moving and the stress and the humidity and the dust – I was really struggling to breathe so I ended up at the VA emergency room Monday morning. I might post more about that fiasco later. A couple of albuteral treatments and I’m just fine.

Monday night I went over to CJ’s to record their show (the first half is about Star Trek TNG/the second half about their life) about our trip together to SDCC.

I think I finally have my new apartment mostly put together. I need a few things like shelves and plug thingies. Most of the sockets in this apartment are two-prong sockets, which poses a problem in our three-prong electronic world. Easy fix, just gotta do it.

Whew, I think we’re all caught up. SmallChild and her cousin are here and we’re watching Ella Enchanted for I think the 615th time.

I’ve been hired!

Okay, it’s not technically podcast producing, but it is sort of in the field and I’ll eventually get paid. What I do producing podcasts includes a lot of dumping files in this program and waiting for them to do something and then systematically making changes then dumping files in another program and waiting for it to chunk away doing it’s thing.

Well so is this job. It’s the attention to the detail of 47 steps from beginning to end. And that I do and do well.

Monkey work maybe? No, you have to have half a brain.

The thing is, I can’t stop. My back is killing me and I keep yawning. There are a lot of little projects and I just can’t stop tonight. Like I want to get it all done NOW.

Fine, I’ll save the rest for tomorrow.

This is the presentation I delivered yesterday at CenPhoCamp.

I got my new business cards yesterday. What do you think?

Okay fine, technically they’re not business cards. My moo-cards, while adorable, had outdated information on the back and I needed to get something new. Bite me.

I probably shouldn’t have designed/ordered them so late at night when I was tired. I like them, but I probably should have leaned a little more to the professional side. Or not.

Did I mention I’m a little lost in this going-int0-business-for-yourself thing?

He’s one of the most generous men I’ve ever met.

When our podcasting friend Joe Murphy died, Tee was the front man for the website and podcast, first to raise money for Joe’s family and then to help fight leiomyosarcoma.

Tee was a founder and one of the first authors to give away their audio books at podiobooks.com.  He’s been recording and giving away his work since.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s also trying to sell his published books. I really like his Morevi series but Billibub Baddings is my favorite. He and Evo wrote the original Podcasting for Dummies.

Plus, he’s a hell of a DJ. And adorable. And sometimes annoying with all that energy. I could bring up positives about Tee all day.

But with the recent passing of his wife Natalie, he’s now also a single father.  The community has come together to help him in one of the few ways we can:

The Boom Effect

We can help take some of the financial pressure off Tee in raising Sonic Boom. Believe it or not, authors aren’t rolling in it. Hopefully we can be as generous to Tee as he is to us. I’ll be donating as soon as I can.

So if you have a few spare bucks you can send along to someone who will definitely need them please do so.

As of now, I’m charging for my audio editing skills. I’ll continue to do the ones I’m currently doing for free, but from now on unless I really really like you, I’m asking a fee.

You can see I’ve added a page to my website with some details, so if you want to avail yourself of my free time or know someone who does please pass along the information.