Podcasts Saved My Job (I hope)

Hey Strangers! 

I've been a little busy lately, I will admit. I would like to say that all of my spare time has been spent on perfecting the six short stories that make up my MFA thesis, which, in its finished form, will be about 125 pages and is due May 3rd.
 

Sadly, this is not the case. 
 

My after-work and weekend time has lately been spent doing online tutoring for Lesley, reviewing hundreds of pages of MEd papers. While this activity is definitely sharpening skills I will be using this fall when I start teaching freshmen how to write (or, more likely, how to stop Facebooking in class), it isn't improving my own writing very much. But that's beside my current point. 
 

My during-work hours, 40 of 'em a week (which are currently on the cutting table of my company's budget meeting...cross your fingers for me), are spent making sure that the over 6,000 contacts of the old database are smoothly transfered into the new database. I've been here six weeks, and started at the Zs. I am now at the Rs. This enthralling and tedious work was really getting to me, until my coworker mentioned she listened to Podcasts while she worked.
 

A little disclaimer before I continue: Yes, I am getting to this party very, very late. Call it a very fashionable entrance. 
 

Podcasts! Glorious podcasts! Back when I lived in Michigan and drove 30 minutes to work, I downloaded Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and This American Life to get me through the boring drive, and loved every minute of it, and then like many different things in my life (for reasons I haven't figured out yet), my interest with podcasts waned (probably when I left that awful job and took a better one, closer to my house). So naturally, these beloved shows were my first stop. But these shows only came out once a week each and took up less than two hours to listen to - what do with my 38 remaining?
 

I sent out a plea to Facebook (and Facebook never disappoints with my pleas...well, at least none but the one about who wanted to come over and clean my kitchen for me) and my awesome friends responded. So, armed with their great suggestions and the ingenius suggestions put forth by the iTunes store, I have discovered favorites:
 

Champs Not Chumps

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

This American Life

The Savage Lovecast

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Librivox (various - right now I'm starting The Odyssey)

NPR: Storycorps, Shuffle, Fresh Air, Books
 

I have many more in the wings, including some of your suggestions I haven't gotten to yet, so I appreciate everyone's imput! Thankfully now I have plenty to keep my brain occupied, which in turn makes my fingers type faster on the keyboard, which in turn will hopefully make my job like me enough to keep me on another six weeks or more, which will cause me to exclaim, "PODCASTS SAVED MY JOB!"
 

We'll see. For now, they are saving my sanity, and if you're looking for a boost and can split your attention a bit, I suggest them to help save yours, too.

Vlogs and Memes and Back Hair

In the absence of a television and the recent cancellation of my rarely-used Netflix account, I have discovered YouTube vlogs (video logs), and among my new favorites are the Vlog Brothers. An older episode of theirs revealed this meme, which is quite funny and would make a good writing exercise.

The Google Verb Meme:
I typed my name and the verbs into Google and posted the topmost hit that wasn't a reference to this same meme...or Lost (that took some scrolling). So here we go...

Kate needs a shave.
Kate looks like a transgender man. (Hm, that explains why I would need to shave.)
Kate says she loves Sawyer. (Who's Sawyer? Maybe he's my transgender identity.)
Kate wants to change joint-custody arrangements. (Hey, who else has custody of Sawyer?)
Kate does the right thing. (Do I give up Sawyer for the chance of a better life???)
Kate hates back-combing. (Which is why I usually shave!)
Kate asks judge to throw book at Jon. (Maybe he's trying to take Sawyer!)
Kate likes the smell of vintage. (Nothing better.)
Kate eats the world. (If you can't win custody battles, eat everyone.)
Kate wears the pants in our relationship. (Well naturally.)
Kate was arrested for singing in Sainsbury's. (Maybe I was really out of it from eating everyone)
Kate loves Sydney. (It tasted the best.)

Well THAT was interesting. I wonder what would have popped up pre-Kate Gosselin drama. Give this one a go, especially as a writing exercise to get some juices flowing. Now excuse me while I go shave my back and sing a lullaby to Sawyer.

Strikethrough

I love Google Tasks.

Not only do I love seeing exactly what I need to be doing at any given time, I also love to see those tasks in Strikethrough mode once they're done. (I'm assuming Google realized that everyone does, considering your finished tasks will actually stay in this mode until you physically remove them.) The most rewarding occurred the other day: Taxes. There is nothing quite as wonderful as seeing the word "taxes" in strikethrough, especially after you've spent two hours wondering how in the world you're going to file as a business owner even though you thought you'd been working directly for a company the whole year.

Also currently on my task list in strikethrough, because I like looking at them:

-Revised Stories/Seminar Proposal
-Get new Social Security Card
-Send in change of time to Direct Loans
-Talk to VW about selling car

Sadly, still on the list without that satisfying line through them, are:

-Sell Car
-Get Job
-Submit Stories to Lit Magazines
-Get Teeth Cleaned

The fourth one has been on there for about 2 years. I floss, okay?

I really don't know how I've gone so long without embracing lists, high-tech or otherwise. Because I get just as much pleasure out of adding new tasks as I do at striking them out. It says, "Look! Your life has meaning even though you're currently underemployed and spend a lot of the day at home! You still have all this stuff to do!"

I have also recently started a task list for the blog posts I want to write. I'm not including that in here because that would be ruining the surprise. Although, I can probably now cross off the one at the top... "Write blog post about task lists." Yup, that one is now done.

Strikethrough.

Another Fun Lesson Learned from Internet Dating

In addition to "Love you," another thing that will get you ignored on IM faster than you can type "LOL" is this one, which an overzealous dude said to me earlier today: "You don't want to miss out in this hunk of man." I think he was kidding. I think.

Welcome to the 21st Century of Relationships

In this day and age, when we are all so aching to let everyone in on our personal failures and triumphs, technology has kindly given us neat little paths on which to do so. But I say, why not step it up a bit?

Take Facebook. Kudos are in order for the site, which has now (in cause anyone's missed it these last few months) added a "In an Open Relationship" status in the fold. But what good is this status if you can only add one name? Do you have to pick your favorite open relationship and snub the others? Do you rotate every month? I say give us multiple slots! In an Open Relationship with Jim Bob. In an Open Relationship with Mary Kay. In an Open Relationship with Your Mom. Then there will be no favoritism.

And while you're at it, why not add some new relationship statuses? "Still Not Over" and "Desperately Wants but Can't Have" are some that come to mind. What about, "Used to be Married to but Now Trying Friendship with," or "Friends with Benefits with"? Oh, and to avoid gender-preference confusion, how about the ever-popular, "Pretending to be Married to Just for Fun but Neither of Us are Gay" feature?

Might as well, right? Then we could all save time on hiding secret angst in our statuses (come on you know we all do it) and just come out with how we are feeling! Who's with me?

The Sloth Hole

I have now entered the Fancy-Scmancy Phone world. For real this time. That one time, in April: that was a pretend fancy-schmancy phone. This is a Droid. And thanks to the generosity of my awesome parents who put me back on their family plan (welcome back to childhood, Kate!) I'm paying less per month for my F-S Phone and all its perks than I was paying for calling and texting only on that Chinese RAZR I ordered on Ebay after my pretend F-S phone broke. (Although I will miss how amusing it was that the RAZR didn't speak English...)

Now, this new phone could be helpful and it could be harmful on my new quest: not to fall deeper into the Sloth Hole than I have already fallen (Sloth Hole: (n) Reminiscent of Alice's rabbit hole, although instead of pulling you into another world, it makes you complacent with sitting in front of a computer all day.) I am constantly worried that I am missing something as I am stuck here in front of my laptop all day, although there is little I can do about it at the moment. Unlike some who have fallen into the Hole, I have reason to be down here: as a writer and online tutor, my job lies on this computer. It is a part of me, like gaff tape to a theater technician.

So here's where the Droid comes in. Yes, I will have access to e-mail, weather, maps, my calendar, contacts, Facebook, Pandora, even Blogger from anywhere I can get a cell signal. But does that mean that I will spend less time checking these things once I get home to my computer, or more time checking them on the Droid when I should be doing other things away from my computer?

I live in the #2 walking-friendly city in America. I should probably try and stay out of Sloth Holes when I'm walking around out in it, lest I fall and break something (most tragically, my new phone).

A Quick Note

My new cell phone has a section in the "Messages" menu called "Quick Notes." I always just thought these were for business matters: "I'm in a meeting," "Meet me for lunch," "Sorry can't talk busy now" kind of thing. But today I noticed one I hadn't seen before: "I'm sorry/I love you." Ah, I thought, nothing like really showing remorse and love like sending a pre-packaged message you didn't even have to type yourself. And it's not even a comma, or a period, or an "and" - it's an either/or slash. Like either "I'm sorry" or "I love you" or perhaps you're meant to erase the one that doesn't apply...

This...is an apology fail. If you ever receive this text, I would be dubious of its sincerity.