His covers grace books from many different publishers, have won [...]]]> Once again, my friend John Anealio and I had the privilege of hosting a fantastic guest over on the Functional Nerds podcast. John Picacio is an award winning artist who has put together some of the most memorable cover art I’ve seen in a long time.

His covers grace books from many different publishers, have won or been nominated for some of the industries most prestigious awards and he is in very high demand to produce more – but you know what else?  He is a really nice guy and a great person to chat with.

Before the show even started, we were chatting about the (possible) origins of his surname, Bob Ross on PBS and a slew of other things that prompted John Anealio to comment, “Maybe we should save some of this for the podcast, guys!”

(I’ll clue you in to a secret – John has to say that a lot. I have the gift of gab, people.)

The ‘official’ portion of the conversation included a bit about how he got started creating book covers, his time as an architect, the future of genre covers in general and how he approaches each commission.

What I took away from the whole thing was a very grounded guy, very personable, knows what he’s doing and does it well and is forward thinking enough to be thinking about what comes next.

Overall, an excellent conversation.  Check it out over at the Functional Nerds, episode 15.

~P

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Despite Skype continually failing us (30 second random silences, disconnects, more 30 second random silences, more disconnects), we had a really good conversation.

Mur began podcasting in 04 so she is more than a little acquainted with the whole thing and [...]]]> Last week, John Anealio and I hosted the great Mur Lafferty for the Functional Nerds podcast.

Despite Skype continually failing us (30 second random silences, disconnects, more 30 second random silences, more disconnects), we had a really good conversation.

Mur began podcasting in 04 so she is more than a little acquainted with the whole thing and had some good insights.  She also knows a thing or two about publishing and alternative publishing, so it was a really informative discussion.  I wish that Skype had cooperated and it could’ve been a more cohesive conversation.  I did the best I could with the editing.  Mur was a trooper about the whole thing.

John and I will have her on again.

The podcast itself is doing well.  When John and I first discussed teaming up, I had no idea how well received the whole thing would be.  Thanks for that!

Episode 13 of the Functional Nerds featuring Mur Lafferty is live over on the Functional Nerds website.  Check it out.

~P

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What a fantastic little show that was.

I never know what is going to happen when I hit that record button; I’m sure it’s going to be good, I just never know [...]]]> Over on the Functional Nerds site, John Anealio and I had the opportunity to chat with Z (Hipster, Please) from the Wired GeekDad Hiptrax podcast.

What a fantastic little show that was.

I never know what is going to happen when I hit that record button; I’m sure it’s going to be good, I just never know exactly how good.  This was really, really good.  I think I had more fun editing that show than any other we’ve done so far.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Z knows a lot about music, about Nerdcore, about all the little genre’s and subgenre’s – it made for a very engaging conversation.

I didn’t know much about Nerdcore til Anealio tipped me to it. Now I know even more and I am amazed by all these talented people out there making music and releasing it all on their own.  Z pointed out that it’s not really a new thing, that Dr Demento has been out there and pushing this special brand of indy music for a very long time.  This caused a light to go off in my head.  He’s right, this music has been around for a while, it’s just that technology has caught up with us and it’s easier than ever for someone with talent and passion to create their music and then distribute it to the masses.

Kinda like the way authors are now able to reach out and get their words into the hands of fans and potential fans.

Which brought up something that Anealio mentioned re: Balticon.  Something about how older authors tend to go for the ‘Gandalf look’; long beard, hat, bushy eyebrows.  I don’t know about that.  Some of the young ones do it too…

Check out Episode 12 of The Functional Nerds.

~P

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Since Blake is both an author and a medical student, it gave us the opportunity to branch out a little bit and talk about more serious stuff – like the human brain.

Blake was able to bring a unique [...]]]> Had a great time with Blake Charlton and John Anealio last week over on the Functional Nerds podcast.

Since Blake is both an author and a medical student, it gave us the opportunity to branch out a little bit and talk about more serious stuff – like the human brain.

Blake was able to bring a unique perspective to the podcast and the show is definitely my favorite so far.  We were very lucky to have him as one of our 3rd Nerds.

If you haven’t already, check out the podcast – episode 8, over on the Functional Nerds website.

Also check out the contest – we’re going to give away a signed copy of Blake’s debut novel, Spellwright!

~P

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In this weeks ATFMB podcast, I talk about scifi television, including the renewal of Fox hit Fringe for a 3rd season, Chuck’s ratings win that might mean a 4th season and how i09 has a list of 25 books Hollywood should be making movies out of, how HBO has greenlit a new series based on [...]]]> #11

In this weeks ATFMB podcast, I talk about scifi television, including the renewal of Fox hit Fringe for a 3rd season, Chuck’s ratings win that might mean a 4th season and how i09 has a list of 25 books Hollywood should be making movies out of, how HBO has greenlit a new series based on the Song of Fire and Ice fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, how Bruce Wayne, like every other comic book character who has ever died before him, is ‘coming back’ to the DC Universe and how Comics Should Be Good – which is the title of a new blog that I absolutely love.  In music, I share with you my thoughts on Susan Tedeschi, blues goddess and not so secret crush.

~P

Susan Tedeschi on iTunes

Comics Should be Good

DCU Bruce Wayne Returns

Susan Tedeschi

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In the Milestone Tenth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about NASA losing it’s funding for the Constellation program, about the iPad, the Kindle, Amazon and Apple, of the impending tv episode price war Apple wants to start, about the two rare comics that [...]]]> Episode 10: All Things From My Brain

In the Milestone Tenth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about NASA losing it’s funding for the Constellation program, about the iPad, the Kindle, Amazon and Apple, of the impending tv episode price war Apple wants to start, about the two rare comics that recently sold for $1mil each and I feature music by one of my favorite bands, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, in the hopes that all of you will go out and support them and buy their stuff.

Leave comments. They make the world go round…

[podcast]http://atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/AllThingsFromMyBrain010.mp3[/podcast]

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I’ve got the podcast listed on iTunes again!  What I need from you is a little love.  I’m back on iTunes (I even put all the past episodes up on the new domain!) but, as you can see from this screen shot, I don’t have any Customer Ratings or [...]]]> Okay folks – help a guy out!

I’ve got the podcast listed on iTunes again!  What I need from you is a little love.  I’m back on iTunes (I even put all the past episodes up on the new domain!) but, as you can see from this screen shot, I don’t have any Customer Ratings or Reviews!

So, what I’m asking for is a little iTunes love!  How about taking a couple minutes to give me a rating, maybe write a review gushing about how much you love me and the podcast?

You can get to the page above by clicking this link: ATFMB on iTunes.  (This will launch iTunes)  If you love me *puppy dog eyes, quivering lip*, just click on the stars under ‘Customer Ratings’.  You can also subscribe to the podcast via this page so you won’t miss any upcoming episodes.   If you have subscribed in the past, please be aware – THAT LINK WON’T WORK ANYMORE! I used to host the podcast on a different site and a different domain that is no longer active, so you won’t receive updates unless you switch your subscription.

If you feel like giving me a little iTunes love, I really appreciate it.   If you don’t, that’s okay too. *sniff-sniff*  I’ll manage.  *sniff-sniff*  Somehow… *sad music*

~P

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THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST IS HERE!

Episode 9 of the All Things From My Brain Podcast is here.

In this weeks massive, DOUBLE SIZED, MAXI-PODCAST, I am joined by a special guest on his very first podcast [...]]]> I said I’d do it, I warned you – you didn’t listen, did you? Well, now it’s TOO LATE!

THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST IS HERE!

Episode 9 of the All Things From My Brain Podcast is here.

In this weeks massive, DOUBLE SIZED, MAXI-PODCAST, I am joined by a special guest on his very first podcast appearance as we discuss the iPad, about Apple, Google, Blizzard, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Torchwood – and the fact that his youngest son may be stalking me via iPhone.

With Episode 9 I am dumping Podbean and everything is going to be hosted here on atfmb.com. If you’ve subscribed to the podcast via iTunes, that link is in the process of being changed and you’ll have to resubscribe – I’ll let you know as soon as that’s ready and available.

In the meantime, click below and stream to your hearts content or you can download via this link by right clicking and choosing ’save as’.

~P

[podcast]http://www.atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AllThingsFromMyBrain009.mp3[/podcast]

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The whole thing is run on Wordpress MU – multi user.

When I decided that I wanted to do this podcast thing, I didn’t have a lot of trust in my [...]]]> So.  If you are unfamiliar with Podbean, they’re a dedicated podcasting service.  They host your podcast and then have a site that promotes the podcasts internally.

The whole thing is run on Wordpress MU – multi user.

When I decided that I wanted to do this podcast thing, I didn’t have a lot of trust in my current webhosting.  As many of us feel, once you go down a certain road, you don’t necessarily want to change directions though.  Example: It’s a pain in the ass to move your webhosting.  I’m sorry, it just is.  Wordpress tries to make it as easy as possible to move a blog – you can do exports and whatnotall, but every time I’ve tried that, I’ve failed miserably and had to start over – which sucks.  SO, with an unreliable host on my hands I was sort of going back and forth on what to do.  Plus, I wasn’t really sure how all of this podcast stuff worked – I’d never looked into it before.

Somewhat of an impulse buyer, I found Podbean and decided my troubles were over.  I didn’t really get from their stuff that I was getting a second blog, which I didn’t want.  I wanted someone to host my podcast on a reliable server, provide me with all the iTunes stuff I needed leaving me free to simply put together my podcast.  Well, that’s not entirely what I got.  I got a service that was attached to a second blog.  Bleh.  Still, I’d already signed up, so I decided to go with it (that whole changing course thing).

I haven’t used PayPal in years.  I was surprised they were still around.  Podbean uses them for their service.  Oh well, I went ahead and signed in and signed up and all that jazz.  Turns out, PayPal had old bank information.  As quickly as my podcast went up, it came crashing back down again.  I received emails in rapid succession (minutes apart) telling me that there was a problem with my subscription, that I should take a look and fix it before losing my account, and then that my account was canceled.  There was no way I could’ve prevented it – it was one email after the other and all of them combining to form a giant middle finger.

Realizing that it was my fault because my PayPal account was out of date, I fixed PayPal first.  Then I went back to Podbean and tried to fix my account there, only it wouldn’t let me.  I could not fix my current account, I could only upgrade it to a more expensive package.  I hemmed and I hawed and I thought about it and realized that, in the end, it made more sense to get more space if I was truly going to do this podcast right and have lots of episodes.  So I bit the bullet and I hit upgrade on the account and subscribed for the new, more expensive monthly fee.

Everything came back up; site, podcast, all of it.  Whew.  Right?  I was back in the podcasting business.

I pushed forward and every week since, I’ve put out a podcast and with the exception of one weekend when they were having network issues and everything was massively slow, the whole thing has worked without a hitch.

Then I get an email from them telling me that if I renew now, I can get a 30% discount.  Hrm.  Not interested in paying for a year up front, which is usually what those are, so I ignore it.

Then I get another one.  Sales 101 – the pressure pitch.  Sigh.  I decide to open it.

“Dear Patrick Hester,

This is a courtesy notification to inform you that your Podbean account thenewuniverse is expired on Jul 21, 2009. Please renew your account now to avoid interrupted service.”

Um… what now?

Considering I received this in mid august, I thought for sure it must be some sort of mistake.  I check PayPal first and according to them, I am on a monthly subscription plan with Podbean.  Okay, getting weird now.

I call the number in the email, it goes straight to voice mail.  I leave a message.  No one calls me back.  I start to panic about this.  So I send an email to their customer service asking what’s up?  They reply:

“Patrick,

You account was canceled shortly after you had subscribed by Paypal. You may check what happened there.”

WHAT?  WHY?  Okay, now I’m in ‘what the f***?’ mode.

I hit PayPal again and I verify that I’m on a subscription plan with Podbean.  I took this screen shot:

I’ve blurred certain info just in case.  As you can see, though, I am on a recurring monthly plan with them and the next payment is due next Monday, the 24th of August.

I sent this screen shot along with another confused email over to Podbean.  No response.  Nothing.  Nada!  Zilch!  And my podcast, feed, dashboard – all of it, is down.  I suppose that’s sort of a response…

Still no call from them either, which really pisses me off.  Any time I experience such horrendous customer service and/or  support, it pisses me off because I did CS for so long and have a high standard.

This is really frustrating.

So this weekend, I guess I’ll be looking for a new webhost that can handle everything and then I’ll have to start moving things over, which is just such a pain in the ass.  Email, websites, all of it – bleh.  Will they charge my PayPal on monday? Who knows?!  Will I be back online then?  Again, who knows?!

AND, the topper is – my iTunes feed is out of my control.  I can’t change it unless I put code in my current/old feed, which I can’t do, because Podbean is in control of all of that.  So if I want to get back up and running, it’ll have to be under a different name for my podcast because ‘All Things From my Brain’ is ‘taken’.

Seriously bummed and frustrated.  Beware folks – Never, ever use Podbean.

~P

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In the eighth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about the petition to make the Kindle open and non-DRM, DRM in general with books, music, movies and dvds, how ESPN, the NFL and the Marine Corps have all banned Twitter and Facebook, TiVo’s new [...]]]> Episode #8: All Things from My Brain

In the eighth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about the petition to make the Kindle open and non-DRM, DRM in general with books, music, movies and dvds, how ESPN, the NFL and the Marine Corps have all banned Twitter and Facebook, TiVo’s new web video support, the FlyCast App from the App Store, TomTom on iPhone, Sam Raimi’s (fictitious) World of Warcraft movie production Diary from Wired, chargebacks via PaymentOne causing Warcraft accounts to be suspended, G.I. Joe; The Rise of Cobra. 73 ways to become a better writer and my own writing and blogging this week on All Things From My Brain.

[podcast]http://www.atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AllThingsFromMyBrain008.mp3[/podcast]

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