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Sep. 17th, 2013 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI used to have an Ipod that would let me listen to things at 1.5 times normal speed without changing the pitch of the audio. It was great; I used it all the time for podcasts, which for the most part are still entirely intelligible. There's always more content in the world than there is time, so compressing a little of it so I can consume more is nice.
Then the Ipod disappeared. I think it was taken out of my car. So I've been messing with different playback programs on my tablet. None of them work as well as the built in functionality of the Ipod did, and the tablet is clunky in comparison to boot.
But I've figured out how to make it work. I did some Googling on the matter. I found a number of people in forums, in response to other people looking for good systems to do this, who asked "Do people really do this?" Why, yes. Yes they do. More fruitful though, I found a suggestion to download Audacity, a freeware, full-featured audio-processing suite. I did, then learned how to set it up to batch-process files. Now I can export a chunk of podcasts into a folder, batch process them for time compression, import them into Media Monkey as part of my library, and copy them to my (older, sans-alterable playback speed) Ipod. Yay! I listened to a bunch of Backstory, This American Life, and Curious City on my trip to Evanston this past weekend. Soon, I'll be caught up on Radiolab, Ideas, and Polyamory Weekly as well! And I'm playing with the idea of subscribing to Startalk, too. 'Cause it's hard to have too much Neil Degrasse Tyson, right?
Hey, would any of you recommend any news podcasts focusing on domestic (US) political, economic, or human/civil rights issues? I think I'd be interested in any and all of those. International issues are important to me too, but there's only so much time, and better something than nothing.
I did try riding my bike with earbuds in, but there's too much wind noise to hear the audio. Maybe with cold weather, I'll wear a hood that covers my ears; that would have the added effect of blocking wind noise. Yay!
---
I just learned today that the Parkside Asian Organization is having a "Mid-Autumn Festival" event this Friday at 7 o' clock. Since I'll be in Kenosha this weekend rather than driving southward, I do believe I'm going to attend it! And I'll admit it; it's partly because the art on the poster is so pretty. It calls to mind the sort of exoticized other perception that Western culture applies to Japan and China. And while I'm conscious of it, I'll let myself fall for it a little bit too as I think of glowing lanterns and pretty kimono under welcoming trees on a cool night.
I'm also playing with the idea of attending meetings of the geography club on campus. It might be interesting. They encourage people to do little informal presentations of matters of interest, I can see getting up and talking about my trip around southern Illinois and to Kaskaskia. Plus they usually have free food. In such matters, I really am a stereotypical college student. Meetings happen while I'm working at the archives, but the archivist has always been nice about letting me go to such things.
---
The reason I'm going to be in Kenosha this weekend is that, as part of my environmental anthropology class, I'm going to be attending a cleanup day on the Pike River on the grounds of Petrifying Springs Park. The class will be doing participant observation, helping with cleanup, talking to the people present about who they are, what they're doing, and why they're there, and writing up field notes. I'll make sure my digital voice recorder has fresh batteries and see what kind of fun people I can meet!
Then the Ipod disappeared. I think it was taken out of my car. So I've been messing with different playback programs on my tablet. None of them work as well as the built in functionality of the Ipod did, and the tablet is clunky in comparison to boot.
But I've figured out how to make it work. I did some Googling on the matter. I found a number of people in forums, in response to other people looking for good systems to do this, who asked "Do people really do this?" Why, yes. Yes they do. More fruitful though, I found a suggestion to download Audacity, a freeware, full-featured audio-processing suite. I did, then learned how to set it up to batch-process files. Now I can export a chunk of podcasts into a folder, batch process them for time compression, import them into Media Monkey as part of my library, and copy them to my (older, sans-alterable playback speed) Ipod. Yay! I listened to a bunch of Backstory, This American Life, and Curious City on my trip to Evanston this past weekend. Soon, I'll be caught up on Radiolab, Ideas, and Polyamory Weekly as well! And I'm playing with the idea of subscribing to Startalk, too. 'Cause it's hard to have too much Neil Degrasse Tyson, right?
Hey, would any of you recommend any news podcasts focusing on domestic (US) political, economic, or human/civil rights issues? I think I'd be interested in any and all of those. International issues are important to me too, but there's only so much time, and better something than nothing.
I did try riding my bike with earbuds in, but there's too much wind noise to hear the audio. Maybe with cold weather, I'll wear a hood that covers my ears; that would have the added effect of blocking wind noise. Yay!
---
I just learned today that the Parkside Asian Organization is having a "Mid-Autumn Festival" event this Friday at 7 o' clock. Since I'll be in Kenosha this weekend rather than driving southward, I do believe I'm going to attend it! And I'll admit it; it's partly because the art on the poster is so pretty. It calls to mind the sort of exoticized other perception that Western culture applies to Japan and China. And while I'm conscious of it, I'll let myself fall for it a little bit too as I think of glowing lanterns and pretty kimono under welcoming trees on a cool night.
I'm also playing with the idea of attending meetings of the geography club on campus. It might be interesting. They encourage people to do little informal presentations of matters of interest, I can see getting up and talking about my trip around southern Illinois and to Kaskaskia. Plus they usually have free food. In such matters, I really am a stereotypical college student. Meetings happen while I'm working at the archives, but the archivist has always been nice about letting me go to such things.
---
The reason I'm going to be in Kenosha this weekend is that, as part of my environmental anthropology class, I'm going to be attending a cleanup day on the Pike River on the grounds of Petrifying Springs Park. The class will be doing participant observation, helping with cleanup, talking to the people present about who they are, what they're doing, and why they're there, and writing up field notes. I'll make sure my digital voice recorder has fresh batteries and see what kind of fun people I can meet!
