Personal Project, Professional Development

Teaching Myself Technology

This is the first of three follow-up pieces to my piece last week about my online presence, concerning hard skills. Posts on people and networking skills and establishing individuality are still forthcoming. Each post will build on the previous posts ultimately highlighting my unique skill set.

Today’s post, if you couldn’t tell by the title, is about my self-taught tech-skills. I’m discussing learning html, graphic design/editing software and podcast editing and how they have helped in my professional life. I’ve learned and refined other skills including copy editing (always a work in progress), mobile design programs and time management to name a few, but I wanted to focus on the bigger skills for this piece.

2015 08-26 HTML SampleLet’s start with the first I learned: html. Sure, most platforms have WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, but having the ability to go in and fix formatting issues from font size and space to photo alignment is critical. When you add in the ability to build more complex things like lists and tables this has become an invaluable skill in my professional life. I am able to build, design and edit webpages and solve most formatting problems on my own. I can even use this to find out how other webpages are built (by viewing the source code) which allows me to continually expand my html knowledge!

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CRWMPodcast

CRWM #06: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

CRWM06My friend Emily joined me to talk about Maya Angelou’s most famous work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And I’m not sure how I did it, but even with my two weeks in Spain and being part of a wedding this past weekend, I managed to get this edited and online for June! I’m mostly glad that I was able to incorporate my “real” transitions and sound effects this time!

This was a very interesting book to talk about, especially with the current climate surrounding race relations, police brutality and institutionalized racism. We were very upfront about the fact that we were two white kids hanging out in a nicer “suburb” of Boston and that we’d each grown up in specific neighborhoods.

Download it here: CRWM #06 (Right click and “save as.”) Or, better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

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ARC, Updates

April Recap 2015

2015 04-18 Rockport, MAIt has been one of those months where I didn’t read a lot but I did SO much from visiting Rockport, MA (photo to the right), releasing my fifth episode of Come Read With Me and staying super busy at work.

I could talk about all the amazing art and the numerous galleries we visited in Rockport, but what was the most exciting thing for me was we went into two little bookstores (Toad Hall and Bullseye Book, I only found a blog talking about a move three years ago here.). At Bullseye, I finally asked someone where they got the bags they use to store paperback books (bagsunlimited.com) and I ordered some for my Wuthering Heights collection and autographed books! (Pictures to follow in another post I’m sure.) What’s also cool about Bags Unlimited, is they have a lot of preservation items so I’m excited about that for my postcard and posters too!

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CRWMPodcast

CRWM #05: Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion

CRWM05In the longest episode yet I talk with one of my roommates, Mike, about two VERY long books Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, the first two novels of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

I’m sad I had to cut out as much as I did (including a great aside about Doctor Who), but I think you’ll enjoy this one. We talk about science fiction and religion, technology and the fear of Artificial intelligence and even delve briefly into religion and philosophy, and what all of these mean for the future of society. (We’re so smart!)

I did use this episode as a weird transition episode. You’ll start to see hints of what I’m working into the next episode from my “podcast class,” but  because this was recorded well before I did that class there are no actual transitions, I hadn’t recorded actual transitions yet, just the page turning sounds.

Download it here: CRWM #05 (Right click and “save as.”) Or, better yet, subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Other books we talked about:

I was able to do a lot more editing wise so hopefully the sound quality is a bit better than usual! I’m also mulling over a few more changes, like starting with the guest reading as the intro and then going into the discussion, but I’m not sure.

As usual, if you have any thoughts or ideas feel free to comment or email me at podcast@geoffwhaley.com!

Random

Podcast Procrastination

2015 04-09 Lynda PodcastingI know you are desperately waiting for the fifth episode (what?!) of Come Read with Me, but you have a few more weeks to wait! I’m editing away and it will be released on time (Apr. 30). I don’t have a book post this week as I’m still trekking through The Witching Hour so I wanted to talk a bit about podcasting technology. Last week I wrote about reading technology and how simple it can be and it couldn’t be further from the complexities of podcast editing.

In general it takes me a VERY long time to edit an episode of Come Read With Me. Most of this time is because of procrastination, but a lot of it is because I’m very slow at editing and I wasn’t even editing HALF of what I’ve learned you can edit!

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