But I can’t hide who I am, nor do I want to. I am a nerd, a geek, a dweeb, and I’m proud! So please, enjoy the following video.

I decided to write up a quick how-do-ya-do to sort of explain my long absence (if there’s anyone left who cares) and throw up a few recommendations for your consideration. So let’s get started!

I’ve been reading a very interesting biography about Winston Churchill over the last week. It’s called Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: a Brief Account of a Long Life by Gretchin Rubin. It’s a really quick read, just over 200 pages not counting the notes, but it’s an excellent introduction to the life and personality of Chruchill. I highly recommend it for anyone who is a bit of a hobby history buff like me. The really neat thing about this book is the way the author sort of deconstructs the art of biography throughout the book. As the title suggests, she looks at Churchill’s life from forty different angles, many of them contradictory to one another. She makes the argument that Chruchill was a drunk, and then follows that with all the reasons why he wasn’t. I would recommend that anyone who likes biographies check this book out, even if Churchill isn’t of great interest too you, just for the unique method of examining a persons life through multiple lenses.

I’d also like to recommend an awesome history podcast called Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, which is where I originally heard about Forty Ways. If you like history at all, or just like a good story and don’t mind learning some history along the way, then this podcast is a must-hear. Carlin is a wonderful story teller and is great at turning historical facts into an interesting story that keeps you hooked from beginning to end. My only beef with Hardcore History is how few and far between the episodes are. I understand that it takes a long time to do the research for a history show (especially for one that often runs around the one hour mark), and I understand that he’s doing it all for no money (even though he’s always asking for it), but one to two months between shows is a looooong time. To be fair to Mr. Carlin, he’s getting better now with smaller episodes coming out in between main shows, but it’s still a long wait. That being said, if you’re picking it up for the first time there are a number of shows in the archive to listen to and enjoy before you’re stuck waiting for a new one, so download and enjoy!

Well I guess that will do it for now. I really hope I can get off my ass and post some stuff here more often. It’s fun and kind of cathartic, even when I’m just talking about easy stuff like what I’m reading or what I listen too. If you’re interested, keep your eyes on this space for future updates, as well as a possible announcement about a new project. A little hint: there may be a couple of familiar voices added to the pod-o-sphere in the new year. I may have said too much…

I’m a fan of most types of podcasts, and I like to try a bit of everything (plenty of space on the ‘ol iPod for variety), but I have to admit that audio podcasts will always have a special place in my heart. They remind me of a simpler time in my childhood, listening to the CBC as they had a discussion about some obscure yet inexplicably interesting curiosity. Besides, I consume most of my podcasts while walking to work nowadays, and watching video dramatically increases my chances of being smooshed by a Mack truck while crossing Talbot St.

Getting even more specific, my favorite type of audio podcast is those that focus on a narrative of some kind. These shows remind me of story time in elementary school, and I have always loved story time. Now, when it comes to stories in podcast form, nothing even compares to Escape Pod, one of the best podcasts I’ve ever stuck in my ears. Escape Pod consists of a weekly reading of a sci-fi short story, and includes in it’s enteries some of the top writers in the genre. I’ve been a faithful listener for about a year now, maybe more, and the show has yet to disappoint. Even when they tell a story that I don’t particularly like in the end, I still have a good time on the journey. The show has introduced me to some truly great writers and some even greater stories as well.

All this leads me to this story on io9.com (a comprehensive, if sometimes snarky, sci-fi blog). Despite my extreme nerdy-ness, I’m still pretty new to the world of modern sci-fi writing, so the list of Hugo winners in this article was full of unfamiliar names and titles. That is, until I came across the Best Short Story category. “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear was a story most familiar to me as a remarkable episode of Escape Pod from a few months ago. I really enjoyed it at the time and can say now with a good deal of certainty that it indeed deserves to win the Hugo. I guess it’s all thanks to podcasting that I can now have a nearly completely uninformed opinion about a prestigious literary award.

So please, if you enjoy podcasts or sci-fi, please give Escape Pod a try. I highly recommend “Tideline” as a fine place to start, but you really can’t go wrong with almost any episode in their archives. And if you don’t like what you hear one week, next week will be an entirely new story to explore.

It’s a bit lengthy running almost a full hour, but it’s well worth it if you’re at all interested in the so called ‘Web 2.0′ phenomenon. I’m glad that academicas are seriously studying the online world like this. There is a great deal of potential in websites like YouTube, Twitter, WordPress, etc. I’m especially excited about this potential after reading Vernor Vinge’s latest novel, Rainbows End. It’s set in a near future world where everyone wears computers integrated in their clothing which allows them to live in the real and virtual world simultaneously. The idea of being able to alter perception on a whim and being able to call up any information with the twitch of a finger, no matter where you are, is awesome. And I feel like were living through the beginning of that world now. All we need to do to complete my childhood dreams is to get started on transporter and warp drive technology, throw it all on a spaceship and hire Patrick Stewert to say ‘engage’.

Working at this new job has drained me of all my extra energy (juice). Maybe it’s the ten hour days 4 times a week that are just a bit too much for me to handle, or the stress of learning a bunch of new skills while trying to calm down grouchy credit card customers on the phone that just keep calling. Either way I’m finding I have very little energy for other activities like reading and writing blogs or even twitter.

And my web 2.0 personality isn’t the only thing that’s suffered; I haven’t been to the gym in weeks! So I think it’s time to get back on track in all things. I’m going to resolve to do more internet stuff like this on my days off, and going to the gym after work. I don’t want my day to consist of work, tv, sleep for the next 12 months.

To make a long story short, I’m back baby!