Mom & Me Four Archive

    Today is the 89th day since Prescott has had any precipitation, measurable or not. Immediately after our local weather cast this morning The Weather Channel ran a short video of people wading through water in parts of Seattle, "as Mother Nature continues to soak the Northwest." I'd be having a wonderful time. Wish I was there. When I lived in the area I lived in Renton, on a rise above Lake Washington. I did most of my local shopping in Skyway, higher above sea level than my home. I mostly used the local bus system to travel to Seattle proper, or Kirkland, or Redmond, or Bellevue, so even when it flooded (which happened a couple of times when I lived there) I was happily unaffected amidst standing water, mud slides and slick, horizontal roads. I know how to live around atmospheric water.
    So, let's see:

• BM yesterday at 1330: Good volume; a little smeary due to a previous evening dose of laxative; very easy elimination; only slightly challenging clean-up.
• BM on 1/10/06: Stingy volume; rocky consististency; somewhat difficult elimination; very easy clean-up. Mom complained that she "still had to go" but couldn't. Since no more eliminations occurred before she retired I gave her two tablespoons of Phillip's Milk of Magnesia. AS you can see from the previous tick, it worked.
• Lunch/Dinner last night (which is to say she refused lunch): Ham & bean soup with corn bread. Later, before retiring, at her request I nuked a frozen piece of apple pie and put the last of the ice cream, about 3/4's of a cup, on it for her.
• Dinner on 1/10/06: The last of the home made chicken vegetable curry soup and grilled garlic Parmesan bread.
• Dinner on 1/9/06: Skillet meat loaf so loaded with chopped vegetables that I glued it together with a topping of sharp yellow Cheddar and pan pickled beets (no sugar).
• She declined movement yesterday. We'd gone to Walmart the day before and she got quite a workout so I didn't push the issue. She was a little stiff last night so I gave her an adult aspirin with dinner, which seemed to take care of this.

   &nbsYes, I've figured out everything I need to know about podcasting. I've recorded a very short (less than two minutes) introduction and we've recorded our first interview. I've posted the links at the beginning of the Links section to the right on any page of the main journal. The truth?

1. Our first session is very rough, follows the questionnaire mentioned below, to our detriment, I think and is probably a little painful to listen to. Although Mom and I are both enjoying ourselves and she loves the questions, we haven't hit our stride. She needs to get used to talking in more detail about herself without being obsessively prompted by me. I need to relax into a more extemporaneous mode.
2. The first interview is guided by the first set of questions which is meant to position the interviewee within her present circumstances and attitudes. Thus, it's peppered with what may seem to be trivialities: Such things as "Do you perm your hair? What color is it? What texture is it?" and questions about physical features, feelings about one's physical presence...and, we've only just cracked the contents of the first questionnaire. A few minutes into the interview Mom gives an interesting answer to the question, "How old are you?", but the interview pretty much devolves from there. I'm thinking, as we continue, I'll probably deviate from the questionnaire although I can see how these questions are important from a genealogical perspective, which is the main reason for doing this.
3. The session was fairly heavily edited, which I intend to continue. I am, however, only editing out word repetition, habitual encouragement phrases, thought pauses and "uhms". In the first interview there was a full 10 minutes of these. I'm not editing out "boring", nor am I editing out answers which are inconsistent due to Mom's Dementia-Lite.
4. Despite the questionnaire, our banter is relaxed and an excellent example of our relationship. Mom's presence is much more evident in the casts than it is here in the journals.
5. I may redo the introduction. In it I mention that the podcast will probably be of interest only to family (and may not even be of interest to them). In order to be listed with iTunes, though, one of the considerations is whether the podcast will be of general interest. I'm thinking I should edit out my own commentary on this and let the reviewers make their own determinination.
6. Considering that the the mp3 files take up approximately a megabyte of space per minute I'll be keeping the interviews to a half hour or less.
7. Regarding Access:
   • If your browser choice is Safari on a Mac you can access the RSS file as you would any file in that browser, by clicking on it from its link to the right.
   • I haven't yet applied for listing with iTunes and it is debatable whether, when I do, they'll agree to list it. However, the podcast is accessible through iTunes. The procedure is:
     1. Select Podcasts from the directory.
     2. From the menu choose Advanced, then Subscribe to Podcast....
     3. Type the rss url into the pop-up box and click on OK.
   • It is also playable through QuickTime:
     1. From the menu choose File, then choose Open URL...
     2. Type either of the mp3 addresses (not the rss address, you'll only get a video of the page source) and click OK.
   • I've not been able to figure out how to access it in any other browser besides Safari. Since I have a couple of ways to access it I'm not well motivated to do this but if you, reader, know what you're doing with rss files in other browsers, go for it. I'm sure that it is also available through an RSS reader/feeder, of which I have neither.
   • It is probably accessible through other mp3 players, as well. My guess is that punching the mp3 URLs into other players will do the trick.
   • Our podcast is not yet listed on any directories, including iTunes. I'll be applying, of course, but it's debatable whether iTunes will accept it and they typically won't consider a cast until at least three episodes exist so it may be a bit before I apply there. I'll be stalking other directories but I'm as yet unfamiliar with any other directory's requirements. Considering that the podcast will probably generate limited interest, it's possible no one will be lathering to list it.

    Later.