Another friend is gone

This morning when I checked Facebook I learned that Tom, a friend I met through podcasting back when I first started, had died during the night my time, while I was asleep. That sort of thing has happened many times over the years, but this time I knew it was coming because we’d been told his cancer journey was nearing its end—but knowing that a loss is coming never makes it any easier, of course.

I met Tom through podcasting, and listened to his podcast, “Ramble Redhead”, that featured interviews of folks who were part of or connected to the LGBTQ+ community. In 2007 he asked to interview me after I started my podcast for that reason (surprisingly, moving to the other side of the globe for love isn’t all that common…). His was the second podcast I was on, after Paul Armstrong’s ArcherRadio. We lost Paul last year.

Tom was also the first podcaster I met in real life, way back in December 2007 when I was in Chicago to tie up a few loose ends. Tom and his partner at the time drove from Indiana to the far Northside of Chicago, where I was staying, so we could meet, have lunch, and hang out. It was an awesome—and unbelievably cold—day. The photo was taken on Northalsted across from the LGBT+ community centre that didn’t exist the last time I’d been in Chicago.

After that, we were often both on Paul’s ArcherRadio group shows, and frequently caught up online, especially on Facebook. He and I were also part of the Pride 48 Network of LGBT and LGBT-friendly podcasts, and we both participated in the live streaming events. Nigel and I always hoped to attend the in-person streaming events, but never got the chance, and so, Nigel never got the chance to meet Tom in real life. However, when I was in Chicago in 2007, we rang Nigel so Tom could say hello, and he spoke with Nigel like they were old friends, even though they’d never spoken before. That was just Tom. A few years later, they were both on shows with me (my own live shows, I think? It was a long time ago…).

Tom was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, radiating positivity and support for others. As the years passed, we didn’t chat online as much as we once did, but even so I could tell how happy he was when he met and married his husband, Roger. Just as I understood what Tom was feeling then, I also understand what Roger will be going through now, and that, too, breaks my heart.

Tom was loved and admired by so many people, especially in the Pride 48 family. He used to end his podcast episodes by saying, “Just remember, a crazy redhead in Indiana loves you.” For so very many people, it was definitely mutual.

Farewell, my friend.

The photo up top is from a January 2008 blog post about my trip to the USA I mentioned above. This post is a revised version of what I posted to my personal Facebook page.

Podcasting for 18 years

Eighteen years ago today, I posted the first episode of my AmeriNZ Podcast. Today, as is usually the case, Facebook served up a “Memory”, and one of them was a post for my 15th podcast anniversary in 2022, something that I turned into a blog post. Everything from that post is still true. However, what I haven’t made clear enough, I think, is how much Nigel was my muse—and so much more.

Nigel first encouraged me to start a blog in 2004 or 2005 (I finally did in 2006), and then he encouraged me to start a podcast (they were audio-only at the time). He then bought me all kinds of equipment—an XLR microphone, mixer, studio headphones, and gave me very useful feedback after I was on Paul Armstrong’s “ArcherRadio” podcast for the first time a couple days after I posted my first episode.

A little while later, Nigel and I were shopping for audio mixers for him (he tried several…), he got a microphone, headphones, and monitor speakers. At the time, he was interested in recording and mixing music, but the only song he actually seriously worked on was a vocal by our niece.

That, then, led to two different Internet radio shows, the first alternating with Daniel Brewer, and the second was on his own Internet radio channel. Our friend Brian (who I originally met through podcasting) also had a show on Nigel’s station. I still have recordings of some of our shows on Nigel’s channel.

Things changed, Nigel’s job got busier, we shifted to South Auckland—then it all ended when he did.

I’ve struggled with podcasting and blogging ever since, and it’s pretty common for me to think about formally quitting both. Even so, I persist for some reason—mainly because whatever appealed to me about them at the beginning is still there, though more low key than it was.

I have no idea whether I’ll attempt to continue either, let alone both, or if they might evolve. But I know for sure that Nigel would still be encouraging me to do what feels right to me, and probably quietly proud that I’m still doing what he encouraged me to do so long ago, however imperfectly I’m currently doing it.

In keeping with my tradition, I’ll post a new episode this evening my time [the episode is now uploaded].

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 415 is now available

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 415, “Not present”, is now available from the podcast website. There, you can listen, download or subscribe to the podcast episode, along with any other episode. Will I manage to do another episode this year?

The five most recent episodes of the podcast are listed on the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

Busy not being busy

I’ve been quite busy lately, doing the sorts of things I’d normally mention on this blog and/or on the podcast—yet I’ve done very little of either (sometimes, I didn’t even mention those things on my personal Facebook). That silence is partly because I really have been busy lately, of course, but some of it was because I wasn’t feeling well for awhile, and a sizeable chunk—perhaps the biggest reason—is that I just didn’t feel like blogging or podcasting—not for the first or the last time.

Still, there’s a lot stuff I’ve done recently that I still want to talk about, and I hope to get through the backlog over the coming week or so. That’ll probably mean several days with multiple posts, or (maybe more likely) simply fewer days skipped entirely, but either way, with cooler weather and so many projects approaching, I want to clear out the metaphorical mental filing cabinet.

I can’t promise —well, anything, really, but hope is a powerful thing. If this doesn’t come to be, then maybe it’s not meant to be; I honestly don’t know what’ll happen. Right now, though, I have a post for later today to finish, after I work on a repeatedly begun and abandoned household project. I guess it’s really true: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Summer begins again

This past Friday, December 1, was the start of Summer 2023 in New Zealand—and it was a very nice day. It came at the end of what has been an extremely busy week for me, one so busy that I now have blog posts—overdue, present, and future—all stacked up. It’s time to start fixing that.

The photo up top is of a blooming plant on the Hamilton City Council owned and maintained bit of land between the footpath and street in front of my house. They’re intended to help with retaining storm water, somewhat—there are raingarden/catch-pit kinds of things every so often on both sides of the street, but these smaller ones helps to slow runoff from the footpaths.

This plant blooms like this every year in late Spring/early Summer, and I think it’s pretty—and I really, really wish I was allowed to plant something pretty like this in the Damn Raingarden in my front lawn, rather than the dull thing I’m required to plant. It is what is—and at least I got a nice photo out it (that I’d have shared on Friday if I hadn’t been so busy…).

This week was so very busy because I had the unexpected-though-it-should’ve-been-expected dentist appointment on Wednesday. The next afternoon, we were heading to a family member’s birthday party, though I needed to run up to the supermarket for something first, so I was out twice that day. Then on Friday evening we got together for a barbecue for my niece’s birthday. All up, I was out doing something three days in row, which is unusual. Then on Saturday I joined family for a trip to Raglan for lunch and a wander around the numerous galleries and artisan shops there. It was a lovely day, though the clouds were starting to move in by later in the afternoon. Still, four days in a row!

Today, Leo was spared having to do without me on yet another day mainly because it’s raining a lot, and also because the main thing I need to do—go to The Base shopping centre—isn’t something I’d do on a normal weekend, and absolutely never on a rainy weekend three weeks before Christmas! Besides, a rest day is a good idea on its own.

Tomorrow morning, I have a follow-up appointment with the dentist, followed by my trip to The Base (among other things, I NEED a haircut… though I can also hear the siren song of the shops beckoning me in. Seriously, I need some things for my Fiji trip, especially [inhales deeply] clothes for hot weather. Seems to me, Christmas sales are as good a time as any to see what I can find—and Boxing Day sales will give me yet another chance well before the trip.

Add all of that busy onto my periodic weltschmertz, and it was inevitable that I’d fall farther and farther behind in—well, pretty much everything. Take this blog for example. At November’s start, and even into the month, I was certain that the total number of posts would equal or pass September, my most-blogged month of the year so far*. Instead, November’s 20 posts put it in sixth place (so far?) for 2023. That’s disappointing, but not surprising. It’s been a similar story with my podcast over the past few weeks, though in that case it was mostly that it was complicated by the story of NZ’s post-election circus changing several times—and usually right after I’d just finished recording (more about that specifically in the next episode).

And, of course, I have numerous projects around the house that I thought would be done by now, including even putting up my Christmas tree. All things in time, I guess.

At any rate, summer is here, and hopefully we’ll actually HAVE a summer this year. Kirikiriroa-Hamilton is expected to have some above average temps this summer, but they they also say we’ll have both cool and hot periods, just like this past Spring. I just hope we don’t get any “worst-ever” storms this summer, or another “wettest day on record”. That’s actually a far bigger deal to me than whatever I do or don’t get done.

*My most-blogged months of 2023 (so far): 1. September (30 posts); 2. October (29); 3. August (26); 4. April (25); 5. May (22); 6. November (20); 7. With 19 each, January, March, June; 10. July (18); 11. February (6).

Index indication

Sometimes, I get fixated on something and I keep working on it until I either sort it out or give up. Both have happened—sometimes on the same thing. Recently, I’ve been trying to get my blog and podcast content organised, something that’s still in the fixation stage. I wonder how this one will turn out…

I became fixated on what could be called “content management systems”, a way to plan out content for blogs. I knew they exist because I’d seen them on Pinterest a few years ago. However, that’s not where this all began: It was my podcast that started it.

Sometime back, I joked on the podcast that I could use an index of podcast episodes so I could tell what I have and haven’t talked about already. However, that joke turned serious the longer I produced weekly episodes, and not just for knowing what I’d already talked about. It also realised that it would be useful to plan topics for various times of the year. Part of why I wanted to do that is that I always forget stuff, and there have been episodes where I’ve forgotten to talk about something, and the topic is kind of old when I remember it.

I then realised that if planning podcast episodes would be useful, then planning blog posts would be even more so because I publish blog posts much more frequently than I post podcast episodes, and because I have certain recurring posts to keep track of.

I tried to figure out something on my own, initially trying spreadsheets, and then designing a calendar. None of that was working for me.

Next, I decided to go back to Pinterest to see if I’d “pinned” any of what I was thinking of. I had (I think?), but none of them, nor what I found in searches, were all that useful. Many offered “free downloads” that could only be had if one joined their email list, and I wasn’t going to do that, especially when so many of the sites didn’t even produce a screenshot of their supposedly “best” system. It was back to my own work.

What I did find useful, though, was to see what sort of stuff others thought was important to note—most of which was totally irrelevant to me because the only social media promotion I do is to share stuff to the AmeriNZ Facebook Page, and I don’t have any sponsorships/partnerships/etc. to worry about. They didn’t even use tags the same way I do—it was all about search engine optimisation (SEO), not a way for readers—including me—to find related content easily.

However, tracking the tags used could be useful, I realised.

Back to spreadsheets: I created what’s essentially an index of blog posts, something that—for now—records the date of publication, the title, the code number I give each post, and the tags I applied to the post.

I realised immediately that I had a potential non-serious problem: I’d made the spreadsheet to record one post per day. If I don’t have a post on a day, that doesn’t matter—the line will remain blank. But sometimes I have two or more posts in a day, and that means I have to make sure those lines are undated (because the spreadsheet automatically updates the date on each line). Certainly not a big deal, but something I hadn’t thought of before I started.

I think an actual database would be better because I could include more information that I could then more easily search. Many years ago, Nigel and I bought a database programme called Bento, but that programme was discontinued in 2013 and won’t run on modern Macintoshes (although it will run on my old MacBook Pro). The programme was a simplified version of FileMaker Pro, a full-featured database programme also sold by Apple subsidiary Claris, and it ain’t exactly cheap, especially since it’s now subscription-only (it’s also not suitable for my needs). I’ve looked into replacement database programmes, but that got too hard for me to sort through, and it became one of those fixations I gave up on.

I still have uses for databases, and one day I’ll return to that search again, but right now I’ve decided on simpler solutions, including spreadsheets. I think some sort of calendar that I write things on by hand may be the best short-term option for planning podcast episode and blog post content in advance—assuming I can come up with a design that works for me.

I also developed a far-too-detailed spreadsheet that was a radically revised and expanded version of one I originally created to keep track of my progress toward my annual goal of one-post-per-day on average (the most recent spreadsheet I have available of that was from 2017, and that, oddly enough, was a year I didn’t make my annual goal). After making it (and then repeatedly correcting formulae…) on that detailed spreadsheet, the index one was easy.

All of which avoids one question: Why?! I create all these spreadsheets because it gives me a sense of control over my own life, and I find that calming, and that, in turn, brings me a sense of peace. I’m fully aware of how weird that will sound to some people, and that others might scream out, “Cool!” To each their own, and all that.

Right now, though, I have to go and figure out how to have two lines for a single day because I have another blog post coming later tonight. It wouldn’t be a proper fixation time if I didn’t try to test everything thoroughly.

Noting the not everyday stuff

We all have days in which something unusual happens, the sort of thing that maybe only happens once, even if similar things have happened several times. I just had such a thing happen, and while I can point to some things that have happened far more often, and others have happened far less often, this was particularly significant to me. Still, it’s the way of life, isn’t it? Things happen that we note because they’re unusual to us. I think lots of things deserve to be noted.

Yesterday, I completed the 400th episode of my AmeriNZ Podcast. That same day, my blog post announcing the release, was post number 5,623 on this blog. I always know how many total posts I’ve done because Blogger tells me the running total when I go to publish a new post. Of course, I’ve always been aware of how many podcast episodes I’ve released, too, and each one became more and more remarkable because it was so uncertain I’d get there.

I talked about that in the 400th episode by going over the numbers, in what Roger Green accurately described in a comment on the podcast site as, “the most Arthur thing in this podcast”. Specifically, I looked at how long it took to reach each 100th episode.

Between Episode One (March 28, 2007) and Episode 100 on July 11, 2008, 471 days (1 year, 3 months, 13 days) passed. Episode 200, on March 3, 2010, was 600 days (1 year, 7 months, 20 days) after episode 200. My output started to slow down, and Episode 300, on June 24, 2013, was 1209 days (3 years, 21 days) after Episode 200.

And this latest hundred, Episode 400, was 3746 days—10 years, 3 months, 3 days—after episode 300. When I wrote in the episode shownotes, “Who’d ever have guessed I’d make it?”, I absolutely wasn’t joking, because there were plenty of times I thought I’d never make it to 400. What I didn’t know—and maybe it was all for the best that I didn’t—was that it took more than a decade to get to episode 400.

If I’d known how many years it would take to go from 300 to 400, would I have stopped earlier? The simple answer is no, though obviously I can’t know that for sure. However, my podcast, like this blog, was never about numbers of things published, it’s always been about telling my story over time, as things unfold. That means that collectively the two have presented my story—whether literally about me or more generally, including my interests at any given time—more completely over the past 17 years than literally anything else I’ve done or created. I include the (very) few YouTube videos I made in that because I shared all of them here on this blog, too (all of my posts with/about my videos are tagged AmeriNZ Video).

I know, because people have told me, that they’ve gotten something from my podcasts and blog posts, and that’s powerful encouragement to continue making them. However, if I didn’t have the internal drive to create them, encouragement alone wouldn’t be enough—it’s kind of a partnership, really. I like that.

I’ve never made a cent from any of this stuff I’ve created, but I absolutely don’t have anything against anyone who makes money from what they create, including blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos—all of which I’ve made over the years, too. I talked about monetisation in a post six years ago this week, and noted that people “like me and most of the content creators I know” had made stuff “without receiving any money coming in as a result of that work”. I added:

There’s nothing wrong with people who create stuff just for the love it, and that’s sort of the flipside of crowdfunding: Very often [creators] don’t participate in any sort of crowdfunding merely because they don’t want to.

Everyone deserves to be be compensated for their work, and, for me, that compensation doesn't come in the form of money or gifts or whatever, but from interaction with folks who have been affected in some way by what I make. However, if I’m truly honest, my greatest payment is the self-satisfaction I get from the work, especially when it turns out well—and it turns out well far more often than I’d ever admit.

This is incredibly easy for me to say, though, and I’m keenly aware that it’s coming from a place of privilege: Leo and I are the only ones who depend on me having money to spend on the necessities of life, so I don’t need to receive an income from the time I spend creating stuff. There’s another side to that, though: As a dual national, if I made money from this, I probably wouldn’t see much of it because it could be taxed in two countries (and give me enormous compliance costs, too). I’d have to bring in some pretty serious money in order to get even a small net income out of it.

So, because I don’t need to make any money from my creative work, and because I’d have to make a boatload to receive much of anything, it’s easy for me to do all this stuff as a “labour of love”. And that’s the essence of why even small things like noting the fact I finally achieved my 400th podcast episode matters so much to me: The satisfaction is my paycheck.

I often say, “celebrate the small stuff”. This milestone is a perfect example of why I say that.

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 400 is now available 😮

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 400, “6,028 days”, is now available from the podcast website. There, you can listen, download or subscribe to the podcast episode, along with any other episode.

The five most recent episodes of the podcast are listed on the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 399 is now available

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 399, “For years”, is now available from the podcast website. There, you can listen, download or subscribe to the podcast episode, along with any other episode.

The five most recent episodes of the podcast are listed on the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

Streaming nostalgia

This weekend I listened to the final Pride 48 live-streaming event held from remote locations, something that I was involved with for several years. In fact, in the early days I was one of the folks nicknamed “The Suits” because we planned and worked on the event (and I was also even a host). But when the group started doing in-person events (first in Las Vegas, later in New Orleans), I moved into the background. Although Nigel and I both wanted to go to an in-person event, it just wasn’t feasible for many reasons, and then all sorts of things happened. That meant that I never participated in a remote event again.

This weekend was unusual for me: It’s been a long time since I spent time listening to live shows from the folks I was interacting with all the time back in the day, and since I participated with many of the same folks in the chat. It was as fun as it was back in the old days, and it also made me nostalgic about those days—and maybe a bit disappointed that I didn’t sign up to do a show.

I thought about doing a live show this year, but—as usual—I forgot all about it until it was too late. It turned out that several shows backed out, but I didn’t know that until the last minute, and—that was for the best. I don’t remember a lot of what we used to do, and, things have changed since then. As it was, I had to get set-up with Discord so I could chat (it was something I’d never done). That, at least, was easy.

Fortunately for me, I was invited to take part in the final show on Saturday night (US time, Sunday here). That meant using Zoom, something I haven’t used since the Covid Times. I had to figure that out all over again, and I did. The show was a lot of fun, and, of course, also nostalgic.

Back when I was helping to run the streaming marathons, I always felt sad at the end of the event. Most of that was because we’d put so much work and energy into it, and we’d also probably had at least a little sleep deprivation. What was unexpected for me this year was that I felt the same way when the event ended.

After it was over (early this afternoon my time), I did some stuff around the house, and tried to distract myself. The deep sadness I was feeling eased, as I expected, but I know that part of the reason this happened today was that the event reminded me of how much has changed, and with the fourth Horrible Anniversary in two days, I’m keenly aware of loss right now.

My past couple years in particular have been about building and rebuilding. I’ve been trying to build whatever my life will be, and also to rebuild myself and life from the great shattering. There have been many setbacks over the past few years, but I keep pushing myself forward because—well, it’s what I do. Sometimes it’s been damn hard work, but there’s also been a lot of what are, to me, encouraging signs of progress.

I’ve now resumed podcasting every week, and this year is already a more productive blogging year than last year, even if I stopped right now (I passed the 2022 total on September 8). I realised this weekend that the reason for the progress on both is that they matter to me: They were things that I always enjoyed and found fulfilling. So, of course I’ve started doing more podcasting and blogging.

At the same time, though, I’m also aware of the big roll Nigel played in encouraging me to blog, and then podcast, something I most recently mentioned in a post on Wednesday of last week. Nigel also participated in Pride 48, as well as supporting me while I did. All of which means that in this area, as with so many others, his influence is significant, both in the past and even now: I very probably wouldn’t be blogging and/or podcasting had it not been for him, and that makes it yet another reason my life is so much fuller now, even without Nigel in it, than it could've been without his support and encourangement during our life together, and his continuing influence even now.

While this weekend was nostalgic and sometimes reflective for me, and even though there was some sadness associated with it, too, I nevertheless enjoyed it a lot. The weekend gave me a chance to reconnect with old friends, it helped me realise how important blogging and podcasting are to me, and how much Nigel had to do with making all of that possible.

I intend to keep pushing things forward, to continue to focus on what I value and what’s important to me. I’ve come to believe that this is the best way for me to discover whatever my life will become. This is also the only way I know to repay Nigel for all he gave to me.

I never expected a nostalgic weekend to be so helpful.

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 398 is now available

AmeriNZ Podcast episode 398, “17 and 28”, is now available from the podcast website. There, you can listen, download or subscribe to the podcast episode, along with any other episode.

The five most recent episodes of the podcast are listed on the sidebar on the right side of this blog.

Stabilising goals

The image above is a Facebook “Memory” that popped up today, as it does every year on this date. I blogged about the story behind it back in 2021, but what I didn’t talk about back then (or very often) is that the goal for that stabiliser is one that’s still not realised. I often wonder if it ever will be.

That stabiliser wasn’t exactly cheap, though less expensive than a good oue would’ve been, and that’s the reason I was so determined to get it working—and why I still haven’t given up on it. However, not being able to use it didn’t stop me from taking photos, many of which were to illustrate blog posts. None of them needed that stabiliser, of course.

In 2015, I started making some YouTube videos, and the stabiliser would’ve been handy for some of them. I might have eventually worked it out, but in October 2016 I stopped making any videos. I always intended to make more, but just never did.

At that time, I had plans to make a portable studio for the garage, and was researching lighting options. However, in February of 2017, we moved to the other end of Auckland, along the southern edge of the Manukau Harbour, and there was too much work to do to settle into the new house.

Even so, I continued making plans for a garage studio, and in March 2019 I refurbished some old worklights that I planned to use for photography and video lighting. Nigel and I used them to take photos for some stuff we were selling on NZ’s auction site, Trade Me.

Then, of course, all my plans stopped on September 20, 2019.

Once I was here in my current house, I started thinking about what I wanted to do, and I knew whatever it was, it would include all sorts of creative work. The various Covid lockdowns gave me plenty of time to work on ideas and plans, including for making videos again.

In October 2021, a couple months after I blogged about that Facebook “Memory”, I ordered some studio lights from a photography supply company in Auckland, along a light cube (basically a small collapsible cube used for taking photos of objects). I planned to use both for photos, and the lights (possibly?) for making videos. In the end, the only thing I’ve used them for (so far…) was—once again—to take photos of things I was selling on Trade Me.

In that same era, I also got a ring light, which are used for vlog-style videos, selfies, and video conferencing (I used it for the latter, a family night on Zoom during a Covid lockdown). More recently, I bought a rig to hold a cellphone, something that gives me two handles on either side of my phone, something that makes it more stable than holding the phone by itself using one hand—or even two. Since phones’ video recording includes image stabilisation, the rig gives me just enough stability to make the image appear as if it my phone was on a tripod—well, it did in my tests, anyway. The rig also has a tripod mount and can accept “cold shoe” camera lights (this means lights that don’t get power from a camera), and I bought a pair of battery-powered lights for it, and all of that was pretty inexpensive.

Meanwhile, I also shortened the length of my audio podcasts, trying to keep them to around 18 minutes or less. My idea was that if I could shorten the podcast episodes, I could record them as video to upload to my YouTube Channel, and also post the audio as I always have. The videos have never happened, obviously, but my audio podcast has become weekly, which I think happened in part because I started making them shorter.

All of this lighting and other filming gear was always about making videos again—in fact, that’s the only thing a stabiliser is used for (nearly all the other equipment I bought could be used for photography, too, or it was usable only for photos). I’d enjoyed making videos for the time I did, and I thought I’d like to see if I could get good at it.

More recently, it became obvious to me that what many people now perceive of as a “podcast” is in video format, not audio, and audio-only podcasts have become kind of a quaint relic in some ways. I watched various YouTubers to get a sense of how they did what they do, but I noticed that much of what they did was about “monetising” their channels, which allows them to make a living from YouTube, something that was never my goal (not the least because it would mean paying tax on the income to two countries, along with twice the compliance costs). As it happens, YouTube places ads in front of some of my videos right now, but I don’t get a single cent of that—YouTube gets all of the money (my Channel isn’t even eligible to be monetised at the moment). I think it’s funny how much time I spent entertaining the idea of trying to make money from my videos while YouTube already was—but just for Google, not for me!

I still have no idea whether I’ll resume making videos of any sort, but my equipment has been, and will continue to be, useful for photos. For me, right now, that’s enough. I guess there’s stability in that, too.

The AmeriNZ Podcast is now sixteen

Today the AmeriNZ Podcast turns 16, a number of no particular importance, but given the obstacles and challenges that have repeatedly nearly killed off both the podcast and this blog, I think achieving another anniversary is worth—well, maybe not celebrating: Observing, is probably a better word. Despite its survival against the odds, I have some mixed feelings about the podcast (and this blog), precisely because of all that’s happened over the past decade.

Some people may naturally wonder why I bother at all if I have mixed feelings. I actually answered that in my post last year on the podcast’s 15th anniversary:

…I found out that it’s useful to have [my blog and podcast] as I explore this new universe I now live in. An explorer needs a journal to record their discoveries, and my blog and podcast have become that for me—an explorer’s journal. Apparently some others occasionally find them useful, too.

My journey is nowhere near completed, as far as I know, and there are more discoveries to make—or, maybe, to rediscover, because my explorer's journal helps me remember things I’ve forgotten, too. I know that neither I nor my blog nor my podcast will be around forever, but why not enjoy the ride until then?

Later today I’ll post a link the latest episode of my podcast, where’s I’ll talk a bit about its future and my plans. Later on, I’ll also publish a blog post where I’ll summarise that. At the moment, though, I just want to take a well-deserved (in my opinion…) deep sigh accompanied by a satisfied smile at managing to complete sixteen years of podcasting.

Crowd and funding

The video above from Vox explains crowdfunding, but not exactly how it works, rather, how it works best. Crowdfunding of one sort or another is often used these days to get money for a new project or product, and it’s a more satisfying model for independent creators of any sort, rather than having to rely on venture capitalists—who in addition to being hard to win over are also often called “vulture capitalists” for a reason.

Raising money isn’t the only, or even necessarily the best, use of crowdfunding, as this video explains. And what works for a specific product wouldn’t necessarily work for makers of creative works that are outside of normal product models.

Another form of crowdfunding was created to meet that need, subscription-based services for all sorts of creators: Writers, musicians, visual artists, video producers, even podcasters, among many others. The best-known of these fudners is Patreon, which is now used by a lot of YouTube creators in particular. This kind of figures because Patreon acquired Subbable, which was created by John and Hank Green, and used by them and a lot of big YouTube creators, including CGP Grey, who I’ve shared on this blog.

The basic point with crowdfunding is that it allows people with ideas to directly fund those ideas, and to aviod the loss of control that would happen with traditional funding models. It’s also a way to build a market/audience in advance of release, which is also great.

However, crowdfunding also underlines the new reality: Thanks to the Internet and all the many ways to connect to it and use it, literally anyone can now be a creator, whether of a product or of content. This is a democratising of creation that was never possible until the Internet came along. But until crowdfunding, especially subscription models, came along, there was no reliable way to actually get paid for that work.

The catch in all this is that someone has to create something that someone else wants to pay for, and a great many people (like me and most of the content creators I know) work without receiving any money coming in as a result of that work. There’s nothing wrong with people who create stuff just for the love it, and that’s sort of the flipside of crowdfunding: Very often people don’t participate in any sort of crowdfunding merely because they don’t want to.

In any case, it’s interesting to watch the growth of crowdfunding, and its increasing importance. These are certainly different times—different even than ten years ago. That's a good thing, I think.