Podcast Addiction, the New Disorder

This morning I thought was going to be like any other morning. About 5 or 10 minutes before I walk out the door to catch the bus, I sync my iPod. Doing so ensures that I have the latest podcasts at my fingertips for the bus ride into the downtown core.

This morning was different.

I looked at the time stamps of the podcasts, there no new podcasts for the day. I felt cold. Alone. Confused. I asked myself, "How could this be?". I clicked the "refresh" button in iTunes. Still no new podcasts. A sense of terror soon gripped my soul. What would I now do on the bus? What would I listen to? I felt lost. I then hung my head and realized that I had a podcast addiction.

Indeed, when I finally got on the Express bus to downtown, and sat down, it felt weird. I had no new podcast to listen to. I got the shakes, my chin twitched. What's happening to me?!!

My overall point is this. Podcasts are good things, very enjoyable, makes the bus ride boredom melt away. But make sure you have an audio-book on stand by. And let this serve as an advisory that they can get darn addictive.

By the way, here are my podcasts, the ones that lead me to my OCPD (Obsessive Compulsive Podcast Disorder):

(1) Pardon the Interruption - ESPN. Two very animated sports guys commentating on US sporting news. Very rare hockey material.

(2) Prime Time Sports - Rogers Sportsnet. One not so animated host commentating on sports, usually a high hockey dose.

(3) TWIT - This Week In Tech - Leo Laporte is host. A week's worth of geek news with a panel of very likable geeks of all age ranges.

(4) Quirks and Quarks - CBC. Venerable CBC science guy Bob MacDonald chats up scientists and often times succeeds in making subject matter interesting.

(5) Learn French by Podcast - learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Host capsulizes a typical daily event in life, and disects the conversation. Actually pretty interesting.

If any of you know of any other good ones out there that can help fuel my addiction, can you let me know?

Gutless

Pictured right is a hockey dad.

At his son's Atom hockey game, he was troubled to find out that his son had been benched for the start of the game: the boy had missed practice, and was dogging it during the warm-up. The standard coach's attention-getter.

How did the boy's dad react? He decided to leap into the players' box and choke the coach until he was rendered unconscious. He didn't ask the coach after the game. He didn't consult the coach before the game if there were going to be repercussions for missing practice. He decided to try a little attempted murder.

His sentence was handed down today. All he gets is a fine. No jail. No remorse to his victim. No voluntarily declaring that he stay away from the rink. No counselling was sought. Instead, he took the gutless way out, he declared himself to be the victim. His Dad died recently, he was sleep deprived from travel, he had some stress going on, I'm sure he had more on his list.

Hockey Canada President Bob Nicholson was really hoping for a message to be sent, but this gutless coward was sent no such message. Now, Nicholson echoes the thoughts of many hockey people: "is it now open season on hockey volunteers?"

But this guy is a spineless coward, and forever will be a pariah in the rink. Believe me, hockey parents talk. Word gets around in a hurry. The coward has been banned for 3 more years from the rink, doesn't matter. No one will talk to him. Some may even want to give him a little Frontier Justice, although that would clearly be sinking to the level of this slimy worm.

But at least this is big news in the country. Its not so commonplace that it barely gets a mention. I'm going to bring the topic up at my boy's next practice. I wonder what the consensus will be towards the coward?

How to Salvage your Christmas Family Get-Togethers

The news lately is rife with all sorts of political offerings:

(1) Ed Stelmach elected leader of provincial PC Party, and by extension, Premier of Alberta
(2) Stephane Dion elected leader of federal Liberal Party, and by extension Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition
(3) Iraq report presented to President George W. Bush

Normally, not such a bad thing. It gets the region talking about politics, about policies that affect them, about how they want the future to take shape. But here's the problem: Family Christmas Gatherings. I may be generalizing here, but the older generation just laps this stuff up. It's like gasoline on a fire. If you let them follow-up on their own political topic introduction, your Christmas meal is in peril.

Here's my recommended course of action taken from a childcare technique called passive discipline through redirection. They introduce the topic, you use this technique to redirect the conversation, and thus save Christmas for your family.

Introduction: "So Ed Stelmach is our new Premier, eh?"
Diversion: "That race was pretty darn close, about as close as the NorthEast division. Those Flames are almost in first place! Think this is the year?"
Technique synopsis: As this is Canada, you can never go wrong with diverting to the topic of Hockey. The key is to draw the parallel between the competition from the leadership race to the competition of the NHL regular season.

Introduction: "Dumb Liberals anyway, voting in that Frenchman! Those guys won't be happy until they ruin this country!"
Diversion: "No more than this warm weather is ruining the ski season. We've had quite a few Christmases without snow, eh?"
Technique synopsis: Weather is the one topic that its virtually impossible to get a political angle on. Given the fact that Calgary December winters are relatively mild, you're diverting the conversation to a positive tone.

Introduction: "Those ungrateful Arabs! We're over there trying to help them, and those bleeding hearts are going to make that report to say we should get out of the Mid-East."
Diversion: "I think our soldiers over there will be concentrating too much on watching the World Junior Tournament. Must be tough on those kids to be away from home for Christmas!"
Technique synopsis: Here is the 'fork in the road' technique. You are presenting the participant with a choice to either pursue the hockey thread, or the family thread, either one presents a positive tone.

It is crucial to employ the diversionary technique immediately, the success of which is diminished with time as the conversation progresses. The older generation loves to pick up the sword and ramble on about politics, even at Christmas. So be ready. Be prepared. Be agile. Be the hero.