Month: February 2007

No running posts

The reason for the lack of running comments here is because I have not been running.

Saturday I got a “flat tire.” My shoes rubbed a hole in the back of my leg. I was doing a 6 mile run and about 2 miles into it I noticed that my shoes had been rubbing my achilles tendon. This was not a new problem. These shoes have been a problem since my first run with them.

I then ran 2 more miles and found that I could not go any more. I stopped and took off my shoe and started the 2 mile walk back home. That did not last too long since I am a tenderfoot. I put the shoe back on, but very loosely laced and tried to walk with my foot in the front of the shoe. That still hurt, but I alternated walking with and without the shoe. I would have called my wife, but since it was a short run, I did not take the phone with me. I normally only take it when I am going to be gone more than 7 miles.

I have not found a shoe store here that carries shoes big enough for me. So I am stuck with these until I can have some brought in or I make a trip back to the US. These have 350 miles on them. I can almost justify getting new ones now.

So the hole in the back of the leg has kept me out of shoes as much as possible the last few days. I will probably get back on the road tomorrow. I have missed the last 2 exercise classes because of this, but I have been doing other basic exercises in the mean time.

Now that I have had my break, it is time to go bang out a few more push-ups before hitting the shower.

Recording phone conversations

iRiver recording setupToday I built a little device that will allow me to record a phone interview into my iRiver recorder. If you have heard my recent podcast, you know that the recording quality was not that great. I would still like to find a fix for that problem, which I will do…some day. But until then, I came across a neat solution on my own.

I have a phone that allows you to tap in with a cell phone headphone/microphone combo. The kind with the tiny little plug. The box I built comes out of the phone and splits into separate connectors for an 1/8″ headphone and an 1/8″ microphone plug. Then the headphone pipes over to an RCA connecter and out to the iRiver’s microphone input.

There is one other thing I need to figure out. Maybe one of my readers will have a suggestion. I want to record only the other person through the iRiver. Then I will record myself through my computer. This total isolation of the voices on the recording helps edit out interruptions on one end or the other.

In my current setup, I get my voice coming into the recording. It is not nearly as strong as the person on the other end, but it is still present. I thought it was due to my headphone/microphone combination. But, I ended up plugging in a separate headphone and ran the mic out of my mixer back into the box so that the other person could hear me. I still had my voice in the recording. I assume this is due to the telephone patching my voice back through the speaker. That way the person on the phone hears their own voice and knows that the line is not dead.

The biggest problem is that the call quality is phone quality. You will be able to hear in the recording that it is definitely a phone interview. This was done for episode 18 of Missionary Talks.

Great photos!

Leesa’s woodpeckerI had dreams as a teen of being a great photographer. I ended up going into the darkroom instead of behind the lens. I worked my way through high school and college in a photo lab. I still enjoy it as a hobby today.

Anyway, back to the point.

I saw some tremendous photos today. I was reading one of my regular blog stops of the day when Terry linked over to Leesa’s flickr page and her photoblog site. I was stunned by the incredible work she has done with a camera. She has a blog and store where you can buy some of her work.

Just some great work by a true artist. I only dreamed of shots like these. I have taken some truely amazing pictures in my day. But fewer than the number of fingers I have on my hands. Leesa probably gets more than 10 wonderful shots each time she turns on her camera.

Missionary Talks 17: Bob Van Sant

I spoke with an old friend, Bob Van Sant, this morning. Bob is a missionary in Ukraine working with the Deaf. I think I met Bob in 1990 or 1992. I was working at The Bill Rice Ranch when we met. He left for Ukraine a short time later. Since then we have only seen each other a couple of times.

Today I interviewed him for Missionary Talks. The call quality was not that great, but the content survived. It actually took 5 phone calls to get it all recorded. It is stitched together a bit.

He talked about his first trip to Simferopol with our other friend Ronnie Rice. He also told about how the site of the Yalta conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin is just a short drive from him.

It was enjoyable talking to Bob. I hope you enjoy the episode.

My Thought Spot 01: DRM, Cenotes and Road Races

Here is the first episode of the new podcast: My Thought Spot.

I tried hard to make this a non-typical first episode. Normally you would hear the host talk about what he is going to talk about instead of just giving you the podcast. While it seems important to have an introductory episode, in reality most post people who start listening to the podcast will not hear episode 1 as their first show. They will pick you up many months in the future and then possibly go back and listen to episode 1 later on.

So, how did I do?

Show links:

Thanks for giving it a listen. I will work on getting links up to voting sites so that you can shoot this podcast up the charts. 🙂

My Thought Spot 01: DRM, Cenotes and Road Races [ 12:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download