Episode #170: Entertaining Myself Weakly

I actually spotted this near entrance #3 to Cedar Mountain on my walk in the mountain yesterday. People have way too much free time on their hands. This was about a hundred feet or so from another sign that said, ironically enough, Shoulder Closed {at a bend in the path}.

My audio listening is often cyclical these days. For example, the last time that I had actually listened to an audio-book, was back in the early 90's, when books-on-tapes were a major thing and CD's were but a dream on the library horizon. To be frank, I only got into that particular audio-book format was one, they were great to listen to on my days off from working the overnight, and two, my attention span wasn't as short then as it is now.

Eventually we moved out of that audio format and moved into the listening of the different music formats that I've lived through: radio, vinyl, cassettes, c.d.'s, music apps, sports apps and finally, podcasts. Today, after roughly 5 years of living with a smartie phone, my top three preferred formats are: podcasts, c.d.'s, and sports app. Radio, music apps and vinyl (once I have my record player functioning again), are now dragging up the rear. Sports app is a seasonal thing, since the only one I own is MLB, and that's to listen to the local broadcasts of my particular team (if you like baseball, MLB app is the way to go. Prices start at only $2.99 + tax per month).

Music streaming has (I use Tune-In) dropped so far off my radar that I actually had to log back in after they did a bunch of app upgrades. I have about 15 channels for my listening pleasure, the bulk being specific genre based (e.g., rock, soft rock, bluegrass) and the other being good public/college radio stations (three local collages and two community based in Wyoming and Idaho). So now, the only time that I listen to music is either when I'm doing transcription on the computer or I need a small change of pace on my twice daily walks

Podcasts are now my audio of choice when I do my twice daily walks (unless there's an early afternoon ball game to listen to, and even when I go on long drives to run errands or visit family. If you think about it, we are kind of revisiting the audio-book genre, as I managed to expand. through hard work and determination, my wicked short attention span to something that is respectable (to me, respectable is being able to tolerate episodic podcasts to a maximum of 75 minutes).

My tastes in podcasts, just like in books, is quite the eclectic mix. Without doing a deep title dive of the 35+ podcasts I listen to on a weekly-to-semi-weekly basis, here are the genres that I listen to.

General knowledge: 29%; History: 50%; Nature: 7%; True Crime: 14%.

Now this will fluctuate from time to time, whenever I find other interesting multi-season series to listen to or when I find interesting limited run podcasts that have piqued my curiosity (e.g. Dolly Parton, Fred Rogers, the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and currently John Quincy Adams) over the past five years. But basically it has stayed at 35+ level since 2019. 

I really enjoy listening to podcasts these days, mostly on my twice a day walks and long drives, as they're the closest thing to the actual audio-book format that I can tolerate. But, I haven't completely abandoned music though. I have a list of roughly 35 titles split between three artists that I'm slowly acquiring from Amazon. Two of them will be expensive to buy, since one is from Japan (fantastic rock music from that country in all genres) and one is a punk rock band from the states fronted by an actress who was on the show "Gossip Girl" and the Jim Carey version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" as Cindy Lou Who. The other is a country artist whose back catalog, starting in 1991, can be had very cheaply on Amazon.

Plus, while I find listening to podcasts while transcribing is a serious distraction, listening to music or baseball is not, so that will always be my saving grace. Cyclical can be fun sometimes, but it can also be a major pain in the butt, since sometimes the various stops can last a lot longer than normal, and before you know it, half a decade has gone by and you're asking yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

I got to here by exploring You Tube. Enjoy this song by the punk rock band The Pretty Reckless.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved