Frank Ramblings

Life has been busier than ever, but somehow I’ve managed to emerge from my cave and do a bit of guest blogging this week. I had forgotten just how much I love it and it was a refreshing change of pace from my recent activities.

First, I wrote up a piece for the Likeable Media blog. My post is a guide to avoiding annoying trends and events in your social media stream without having to give up your addiction all together. It was first inspired by my annoyance with Super Bowl tweets, but it really applies to any event that you don’t want to have polluting your timeline. Please do me a huge favor and hit the “Tweet” button when you read it!

Next, I wrote a post for my good friends at GeeksOfDoom.com. Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of The Beatles’ arrival in the US, so I contributed a piece that put into perspective the impact that their arrival had on music and on history in general. It’s just a brief look into my feelings on the subject, but it’s something I feel really passionate about, and I’m proud of how it turned out.

I’m going to try to use this unexpected burst of self-expression and turn it into something productive. I really miss blogging, but I’m so busy doing things these days, I rarely have the time to sit down and make a verbal record of them. Still, I really love the rewarding nature of blogging, and I miss writing for fun. I’m not going to be that guy who apologizes for not updating his blog often enough, promises to blog every day, and then disappears for another six months, but I am going to at least try and make a habit of  keeping this site at least somewhat up to date. I’ve felt uninspired for several months, but lately, some ideas have been brewing, and I’d love a chance to put them into words and get them out there. So here’s to blogging!

Faith gives us a great recap of the final hours of the Con as real life sets back in…

Dragon*Con Wrapup

Sunday! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Our heroes recap Saturday and look forward to their plans for Sunday as they wait in line for the last Firefly panel of the Con.

Shout out to our buddy Louis who was with us at the Con but didn’t make an appearance on the podcast!

Dragon*Con Day 4

WE MET SUMMER GLAU! Yeah. Take that.

Dragon*Con Day 3

Our heroes are joined by Chris for the drive from North Carolina to Atlanta and arrive at the convention triumphantly! Surrounded by trumpets and cheerleaders! Or at least, that’s how they’d like to remember it. Oh, and Morena Baccarin was there too. That part’s true.

Dragon*Con Day 2

Here’s our audio blog from Dragon*Con Day 1. I landed in North Carolina and met up with Andrea, Faith, and Jesse on Thursday night. We had a great time hanging out and preparing to leave for Atlanta the next morning!

Dragon*Con Day 1

Well, I can’t believe it, but it’s finally here. Tomorrow night (well, technically tonight), I board a plane to North Carolina. I’m meeting up with friends and driving down to Atlanta for Dragon*Con! I bought my pass way back in November, and already it’s time to head South and enjoy a weekend of fun and geekiness!

Dragon*Con is one of the biggest sci-fi/fantasy/pop culture conventions on the East Coast, featuring novelists, comic book creators, TV and film actors in panel discussions, signing autographs, and just hanging out with their fans. I’ve already been to New York Comic Con and Big Apple Con, but from what I hear, this is supposed to be a very different experience. I can’t wait!

I’m looking forward to getting to know my friends Faith and Ky a little better, as well as meeting my friends Chris and Louis in real life for the first time. It’s going to be great to hang out with these people who I know from Twitter.

But of course, it wouldn’t be Dragon*Con without some good geekery! I’ve loaded up on comics to read while I’m in line for panels and autographs (10 trades and about 30 single issues on my iPod Touch), and I’ve got a mental list of people I need to meet before the weekend is out: Summer Glau, Kevin J. Anderson, Timothy Zahn, Veronica Belmont, Tom Merritt, Brian Brushwood, Jeff Lewis, Sandeep Parikh, and a few others. Also, I’m excited about getting to sit in on some panels and enjoy some great parties. If all goes well, it should be a great weekend.

If things go right, I’ll be checking in here each night during the convention and throwing up a quick post filled with the latest from that day. Can’t wait!

I say it to myself all the time. Each time, I know that the more I say it, the deeper I dig myself. And yet I keep going. I’m just not busy enough, apparently. Well, in the last couple of months I’ve been saying, “Sure, I can do that,” a lot more than ever before. As busy as that makes me, I’ve found that I actually enjoy diving head-first into a project and just giving it everything I’ve got. My most recent projects are two new podcasts. I know. Shocking.

Since December, I’ve been working with some friends on starting a network of audio dramas based on our favorite comic books. We call ourselves Thought Bubble Audio. Our debut project is a Superman/Batman tale based on the origins of Supergirl as told by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner. It’s an awesome story and adapting it for audio has been a challenging but incredibly fun process. I’ve been blogging about it on our site, tracking our progress, and it continues to blow my mind that we’re actually doing something. Pre-production is just about wrapped up now and we’re beginning the daunting process of actually recording and producing what we hope will be an exciting and fun show. Check out the site and follow us on Twitter for updates and news about when we’ll be ready for release!

Another project I’ve been working on for the last several weeks is something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time: a tech podcast. My good friend Justin Vactor of the Geekland, Entertainment Overload, and Gotham Central podcasts joined forces with me to create Tech Ramblings: a show where we talk tech with our own fun spin. Justin and I have known each other for over a year now, and I’ve always considered him a very knowledgeable and capable podcaster. He produces very high quality shows, and it’s been a pleasure to work with him. We just have a great time talking 3 tech news issues each week, often giving our own opinions on what’s going on. It’s a rapid-fire snapshot of what’s going on in the tech industry from week to week. I look forward to recording with Justin every week and I hope you’ll look forward to hearing what we have to say!

On top of these new shows, I’m actually working on developing as many as 3 more, if everything works out. If everything comes together to make these shows happen, I’ll be podcasting with some very cool friends who I’ve been looking forward to working with for a while now. Things are about to get crazy over here and I’m dying to get into it all. I’ll be trying out some new things I’ve never done before. Sure, my life as a student, intern, and employee already keep me busy, but these projects make it all seem worth it. They keep me sane and give me something to look forward to. So here’s to more podcasting!