This week I have a, longer than planned, garden update, a mini rant about “autism” and “ADHD” being umbrella terms, and a landscaping whoopsie that is a result of my own ADHD tendencies. Plus, I pontificate on the lurking thoughts about quitting this show in order to start any number of other podcast ideas. And in an impromptu podcast recommendation, I briefly discuss “Succotash: The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast.”
*This episode is brought to you by “Coffee.” When you just need to stay up for 2 more hours. “Coffee” Go to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/odddadout to buy me a coffee and keep me awake, because sleep is overrated anyway.
July 22nd marks the 5th anniversary of the start of this podcast.
Am I feeling a little nostalgic?
Yes.
Did I do an emotional clip show?
HELL NO!! I AINT GOT TIME FOR THAT SHIT
This is prime rambling random train of thought stuff. From show changes caused by the new recording schedule, to binge watching horror movies, a few semi-reviews of some of our recent watches, a rant about the Halloween films, and an impromptu commercial for the new Dr Pepper with Cream Soda.
After 5 years, 269 total episodes, (188 real ones) and over 20,000 downloads, I just want to say thank you for listening.
This week I’m catching you up on what’s been going on around here while I’ve been releasing interviews. Long story short, school is closed, we’ve gotta homeschool the boys, ReAnna got sick, and I think we both may have had the corona, but can’t be sure.
Plus, I rant about how Instagram shut down one account and froze another for my editing business, ODO Voice Productions.
Kind of an uneventful week I guess. We went to the first food truck event of the season, (now that the sun wont cook all the vendors inside their trucks.) I give an update on my whole “being sick” thing. No news theme this week, just stupidity. There’s a guy who got fired over his attendance record, an idiot who tried to fight a grizzly bear, and an unplanned rant inspired by Moby’s new neck tattoo. Lastly, in Recommended Listening, we’re exploring the New Kingdom of America with “The Rise of King Asilas.“
I realized, as I started recording, that Halloween is only a week away and I don’t know what we are going to do this year. As I thought about that I started thinking about the holiday season and how Halloween kicks off the season of spending. Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas time, you just start purging cash at the end of October. I also reflect on how my general introversion makes me uncomfortable with holiday travel, and I have a callback to last week’s psychological breakdown.
Super short show this week. I’ve just got that weather change low energy vibe going right now. But that doesn’t stop me from talking podcasting, and giving a quick “Cliff’s Notes” of my livestream on International Podcast Day.
I also rant a bit about the recently announced cancellation of the bankruptcy auction for Toys R Us.
And I crown Lindsay Lohan the Jackass Of The Week over her attempted kidnapping of homeless refugee children in Russia on Instagram. (more…)
This week’s show comes as a direct side effect of my recent foray into professional podcast editing. Long story short, I have been using a new program for editing podcasts, but I had yet to try recording an episode on it. I literally just sat down and started talking. Of course whenever I do an audio test I start with the opening of the show, and it just progressed from there.
I’m back from our regular summer vacation, and I think I need another one. We always a good time, but, let’s just put it this way, would you want to spend 20 hours in a van with 4 screaming boys? But now it’s time to get back to work, back to business, and back to talking about myself because that’s what I do here. Well, not just about myself. It’s also time for another Sunshine Summit!
– In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, I had to take some time and get some things off of my chest. Some people, likely many, may not like what I have to say at some points. That said, you may want to stick it out til the end for the lesson, or just read it below because, just like a pencil, the point is at the end. –
This week we had the deadliest mass shooting in American history. At the time I’m writing this, 59 people are reported dead, and well over 500 are injured. I’m not gonna mention the scumbag murdering SOB by name because I strongly believe that we shouldn’t make these people famous, and the news organizations have been plastering his name across every readable surface since they got it. This guy was a murderer. NO two ways about it.
As the news came in today and I read more and more about what they know, and what they don’t know, I started bouncing things around in my head. Never mind that the media always goes out there and shares the guy’s name, job, girlfriend, former employers blah blah blah… As all this crap started going out the question everyone was still, mostly fairly, asking was why? Why did a 64 year, old multi-millionaire, retired accountant decide one day to shoot up at country music festival in Las Vegas? What made this guy snap? Did anybody know? Were there signs that he could have been stopped? I don’t know. At this point nobody really does. But what I’ve come to realize is, I really don’t give a shit. I don’t really give a half a rat’s ass about who the fucker is and why he shot nearly 600 people. All that matters is that out there are nearly 60 people who didn’t make it home from a concert. Sixty people who will never again see their moms, dads, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives… And all of those moms, dads, sisters, brothers, husbands, and wives that now have to put somebody that they love into a box for no good reason, because, trust me, there is NO “good” reason for why this motherfucker did what he did.
But you know what really gets to me? All the self-righteous motherfuckers on social media who go out there spewing their bullshit and politicizing this heinous act. Those people who, rather than show support for those who were lost, or the injured, choose to rant about how this is all because the of the GOP, or all because of Trump. Or the people who say this wouldn’t have happened if we banned automatic weapons.
– SIDEBAR- Automatic weapons ARE illegal, and it appears that the dozen or so automatic riffles used in this shooting were all acquired illegally. So a ban wouldn’t have stopped him. People who want to do bad things and commit terrible acts don’t care about laws.-
These people are out there using this terrible act of violence against innocent civilians as an excuse to spew hatred, when the bodies are still being counted. It seems like everywhere I looked this morning was somebody else bitching, oh the GOP says you have the right to own guns but not the right to healthcare… This is all because Republicans care more about gun owners than the people they kill… I bet they’re gonna make all these people pay for their medical treatment… First off, yes they’re probably gonna get some sort of bill for medical treatment. Some of these people may need therapy for a while after this. But at the same time, there are millions upon millions of dollars given to help people in these type of situations every year so that they don’t have to pay for being the victim of a violent crime. I personally had all my medical bills covered by just such a fund when I was hospitalized following “the Incident.” And secondly, this is not a gun rights issue, this is a sick bastard issue. You CANNOT blame the tool for being used irresponsibly. You blame the person who used the tool. You don’t sue Jack Daniels every time somebody gets drunk and kills a pedestrian. No, you blame the person who did the killing. In this case, that man is already dead. Some may say that isn’t truly justice. To me, one less sick fuck in the world who chose to savagely murder others is a good thing. But what isn’t good is spreading vitriol across the internet while the bodies are still warm. They haven’t even identified everybody and there are people out there making this a political issue instead of showing concern for the victims and their families.
To all of those people, some I may even consider my friends, who take this as an opportunity to spew hate towards any political party or person or policy: FUCK YOU! It’s not about you, or any political bullshit, it’s about those people who lost their lives and the families who now have to put them in the ground. So many people chomping at the bit to shit on politicians on either side of the aisle and hate hate hate, when what this whole world needs is love. We need to be coming together to help these families get through this. We need to be out there donating to these charities so that nobody hurt by this psychopath has to pay for the damage done to them. We need to be going out and donating blood, because 600 people out there sure as hell lost a lot of it. We need to be coming together as a country and saying we love you and we’re here to help, whatever you need.
And when the dust has settled and the services have all passed, and the survivors are home, then we can have a civil discussion about what can be done to try and prevent something like this from happening again. No wise choice has ever been made under duress. Now is not the time for some kneejerk legislative reaction that will only truly serve to get one political group or another public favor. Now is the time for unity and strength and love for everyone affected by this tragedy. And for the time being, it’s time to keep your political views to yourself.
Here’s the thing about writing… You have to actually do it. I think about writing blog posts all the time to get out some of my more ranty ideas. Since I changed my show around to more news/ comedy oriented, there’s less of a place for me just rambling about a thing. But of course, because I’m me, I never manage to put these thoughts down somewhere. I have some rather complex thoughts that I think all the way out and really just need to expel out into the universe. But alas, I never manage to type them out or share them beyond the voices in my head.
I want to write. I don’t really know what to write beyond just getting things out of my head. Originally that’s what my whole podcast was. I would just talk and get things out of my head. The thing about that is that I didn’t always have a thing to talk about. One of the most important things about having a podcast really is some sort of consistency. Maybe that’s where I went wrong in that. I made it a point to have a schedule and a consistency, but that doesn’t really work when the topic is just whatever is happening in my head. I will admit that I had more people listen to know what craziness happened in my head than listen to me talk shit about weird news stories. Therein lies the dilemma. I enjoy producing my podcast. I enjoy sharing weird news crap and making fun of it. I enjoy the simple act of sitting down with my microphone and talking to whoever is out there crazy enough to listen to me. But that sort of show is more pressure to produce. It requires research and prep and planning. Those parts are time consuming and kind of stressful to maintain.
Should I have some sort of master plan? Probably. Should I designate time for prep and research and planning? Definitely! I should also probably put more effort into promoting the show beyond social media posts. Unfortunately, I have this pesky little thing called a family to contend with. I’m not saying my family is in the way of the show. What I am saying is that I can’t take time away from being a full time/ daytime stay at home dad to promote my podcast. There are plenty of people who are parents, who work full time, that also have podcasts. The primary difference between them and I is the schedule they live on. Most all of these people work normal jobs in the day and stay up late to work on their podcasts after the kids have gone to bed. In my case, I stay home with my boys during the day, and work full time graveyards. The free time I have in daylight hours must be committed to sleep. Up til this point I’ve sacrificed my personal sleep in order to produce my show. That isn’t sustainable, not even for health reasons because that’s never stopped me before, but because I have numerous household responsibilities as the parent that is home during the day. Children must be fed, laundry must be done, the yard must be mowed. All of these things a daytime dependent, and those are my tightest hours already.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know. That’s just how my brain works. Pull the string and watch the monkey drive the train off the cliff. That’s me. Even this odd rant has taken multiple twists and turns from the original thought and is ultimately nowhere near where it started. But in all honesty, if I could keep a single focused thought for more than 10 minutes without deviating somehow, I would probably actually be a writer.
