Last night I posted a new Missionary Chats episode. I interviewed Justin Long who provides news and information about missionaries and mission movements. Check out the interview and the links to some of the missions news outlets. But to get the most information that Justin can provide, be sure to visit his site directly.

Categories: Podcasting, Websites
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I no longer listen to Adam Tinkoff’s podcasts, but there is one thing that always stuck with me about his recorded runs–I could never figure out how much time he actually spent running and how much time he spent taking pictures.

One of the things I was looking forward to doing on my trip to Las Vegas last week for DeafNation World Expo was to have a nice run up The Strip. Because of the heat I was looking for an early morning run. On Saturday morning I took a couple of friends to the airport a little after 5:00 and came back to start my run. It was a mere 87 degrees.

To make it a Tinkoff run I made sure that I took my camera. The plan was to run for an hour and a half. You can take a lot of pictures in that time. However I was a little surprised to find I had taken 73 at the end of the run. I think Adam would be proud.

My hotel was an off-strip hotel. I entered the strip at Harmon Avenue and ran south. I ran down to MGM Grand and crossed over Las Vegas Blvd. at New York-New York to head back north. I spent a few minutes at the Bellagio fountain before going up to Caesar’s Palace. Though I had been in Las Vegas for a week at that point, I had not spent any time going through the hotels. I found out later that I probably would have really enjoyed the Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace. There are many free exhibits to see in all the hotel lobbies (along with many things I really didn’t want to see).

At Caesar’s Palace I saw a man running away from the hotel with very little clothing, and what he did have on was wet. I thought it was a homeless guy taking an early morning bath. When I got closer to one of the fountain areas I noticed there was a lot of water on the sidewalk. When I went back out to the main road I saw 3 college-age guys putting their clothes back on laughing about their adventure in the pond.

I continued up to the bridge over Sand’s/Spring Mountain Road and met a couple of men from England. We had a nice chat and then I ran on up toward Wynn and Encore before crossing over Las Vegas Blvd and headed south again.

Because it was so early in the morning I was able to run in the shade the whole time. It gave some really neat lighting to some of my pictures. Others ended up “flat” because there were no shadows to set off one layer from another. However there were also fewer people to get in the way of the camera.

The run ended with me shooting back out Harmon Avenue over to my hotel on Koval. I ran 5.7 miles and took 73 photos in 1 hour and 26 minutes. That is almost 1 picture per minute. I am not sure how that compares to an Adam Tinkoff run, but maybe he has some stats he would like to share in the comments.

This can easily go on my list of favorite runs. While it is not even close to my all-time favorite, it certainly ranks high on the list.

Categories: Running
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I think I have posted a couple of Missionary Talks episodes without updating My Thought Spot with the announcements. So while you are at the Missionary Talks website scroll down to see if there are any shows you are missing.

Brad Rhoads is a computer programmer who is using his skills as a missionary for Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF is most known for their program of delivering missionaries and supplies to remote locations. However, Brad works in a division where they deliver Bible training into either closed countries or locations where pastors and Christians don’t have access to Bible schools.

Categories: Podcasting
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Up until a week ago I had my running headed the right direction. Suddenly today I was ready to head out for a run and paused to take a peek at my logbook. I was shocked to read that I had not run since last Wednesday (a week ago). I was on track to run more miles this month than I did last month. Then I took a strange week off. It has been cold and rainy at times during the last week and I have been busy. All of that added up to one excuse after another to derail me.

I only fell 8 miles short of beating last month and was still better than many of my other recent months. Just surprised that the month ended and I hadn’t realized that I threw away a week.

Over the last 5 weeks I have been developing a horrible pain in my right leg. It is piriformis syndrome. I am not entirely sure what caused it, but three of the main causes are running, biking and sitting. Other than sleeping I think that describes just about everything I do. Thankfully it is only in one leg.

Piriformis syndrome is when the piriformis muscle squeezes on the sciatic nerve and causes a pain down the leg or up into the back. This can be due to an injury that causes damage/swelling to the region, or because of excessive muscle tone. I am not sure how I feel about the thought that my rear end muscles may be the most developed ones I have.

The way it effects me is that when transitioning from a sitting to standing position it feels like my muscle spasms and locks up tight over that nerve. When I give it a few seconds to relax the sharp pain goes away as quickly as it started. It does not bother me at all while running, walking or performing any normal activities. It is mostly just that one movement when I flex the muscle to extend the leg that it bites me in the bottom.

When I remember to do stretches and take lots of ibuprofen the pain subsides wonderfully. But each time I have a good day I make the mistake of not being as religious about the exercises and the medicine. That sends me into another day of intense pain.

I will get over this. Or at least get to the bottom of it.

Categories: Running
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I was digging through some podcast websites today that sounded like they might interest me. I was surprised and scared at what I found. Then I started asking myself if Missionary Talks (my main podcast) has the same problems.

The shows I checked out were listed as “religious.” Other than knowing their name and that they should be religious in some way, I knew nothing about the shows. Some I did not even go to because their name told me that I would not be interested (that’s a good thing) or I couldn’t figure out what the show might be about based on their name (that’s a bad thing). As far as a name goes, I think Missionary Talks is a good name for a show. It does not tell you exactly what the show is about, but I think most could figure out that it has something to do with missionaries and that it is conversational or instructional rather than musical.

When I arrived at the websites of the shows that passed the first test I had trouble finding information immediately on the front page that tells about the show. Most had the standard blog post with a few words about the episode and an audio link. But I still had trouble figuring out from the episode posts what the general tone of the podcast was. I did not do this for all the shows, but even clicking through to the standard “about” page left me puzzled about the content of some of them. Is the masthead explanation of Missionary Talks sufficient? Or do I need a little blurb at the top of the sidebar that gives a bit more detail?

None of the sites I looked at gave me any indication as to how long each episode was. I know we, as podcasters, are not bound by a time limit (though I think each one should have a goal), but I could get no feel for how long any of the episodes were without either downloading an episode or starting to play the episode from the website. (This was not always available, nor was the information about episode length always listed on the embedded player.) At Missionary Talks I have the show length stated at the bottom of each post. Does anyone but me care about episode length?

I am curious to get feedback on the impression you get when you go to the Missionary Talks website. I am looking at refreshing the site with some new graphics and maybe a color scheme change. While doing all this I want to make any informational changes that will help potential new listeners become immediately comfortable with navigating the site. Any input is helpful. What bugs you about Missionary Talk? What do you love about it that you think shouldn’t change?

By the way, I didn’t subscribe to any of the podcasts I went to look at. I guess I was too depressed by what I found.

Categories: Podcasting, Websites
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