I’m in a really bad mood this morning, so forgive me if I seem to be ranting.

What happened was this: I was supposed to submit a report for a group assignment to my lecturer and my “employer” (we were working as a virtual group in a “virtual company”, if you get what I mean). The instructions were to combine the various parts of the report into a SINGLE word document, which was exactly what I did. The problem is the university’s webmail portal kicked me out while I was sending the email. I tried a few more times, but I still got an error. I figured that my word document was too huge, so I compressed it into a RAR format, which was significantly smaller, and that managed to go through.

The next day I received a “return receipt” from an unknown address regarding the report. I check with my lecturer if the report has reached both her and my “virtual employer”. She said they have received it, multiple times.

All is well until yesterday, I receive emails from both the “virtual employer” and the lecturer saying that the file received was corrupted. I resend a compressed copy, complete with instructions on how to extract the file.

This morning, my “dear” lecturer sends me an email saying “Instructions are there for a reason. Please submit a SINGLE document containing all the parts of the report”. I’m pissed. I reply her, explaining that the word document has been archived in the RAR file which I submitted. I also tell her that the original word document was too large to be sent across via email. After that, I proceed to send her the original document anyway, just to prove that it will not go through, at the same time I promise to send it to her via my personal gmail if necessary.

As expected, the email went through, but with a corrupted copy of the original document. This somehow pisses off my lecturer who replies asking me to “get my act together”, and that what I did was not professional, etc. She insists on the word document, but I’ll have to figure out how to compress it to a “sendable” size.

Thanks teacher, for helping to “make my day”. Thanks a lot.

Tags: life, rant

Podcasts are a fantastic educational tool. Not only can I learn new things about my faith and pickup useful cooking tips, I can even pickup a couple of new languages at my own pace.

JapanesePod101.com provides a platform to make learning the Japanese easy and fun, while incorporating and current issues into their lessons. Subscribe to their free feeds (audio, video or both) and start learning Japanese. Better yet, sign up as a member and subscribe to their member-only feeds to get pdf transcripts of each lesson. If you sign up as a premium member, you’ll even be able to make use of the learning centre to further enhance your language skills.

KoreanClass101.com is a sister site of JapanesePod101.com. It provides the same ease and fun in learning the Korean language. There’s even a video available on how to read and write Hangul (the Korean writing system). Similar to JapanesePod101.com, you’ll have to sign us as a member to be able to download the extras, though you can always subscribe to the free feed for the audio and video content.

If you just want to pick up some basic phrases to survive in a foreign country, or just to communicate with a new friend, SurvivalPhrases.com has the answers. Evident from the similar layout lesson structure, SurvivalPhrases.com is another sister site of JapanesePod101.com and KoreanClass101.com. While the latter 2 includes more intermediate and advanced contents, SurvivalPhrases.com presents just the basics needed for “survival”. Currently, they offer lessons for 5 different languages, namely Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish.

The revival of the traditional Latin mass, now known as the extraordinary rite of the mass, has brought on a sudden interest in the Latin language. LatinCast.org provides an online resource for learning and discussing the Latin language. Sadly, the site has not been updated since May. Perhaps it’s because there has been too many looney people spamming their guestbook with inappropriate material. Urgh!

If the world of nature and science is your cup of tea, you’ll definitely enjoy the various high-quality audio and video podcasts from National Geographic. My personal favorites are the Wild Chronicles and Video Shorts video podcasts.

That’s all for now. Time for me to pack up and prepare for a busy night of editing and formatting my degree assignment.

Tags: education, languages, Podcasts, Reviews

Ah.. food.. everyone’s favorite topic!

For those who love, live and breathe food, you now have an option to “hear” food. There are many podcasts available that revolve around the topic of food, cooking and nutrition. The choice is endless. I’ll just want to introduce some of the “foodcasts” which I enjoy.

As the name suggests, the Culinary Podcast Network is a network of podcasts celebrating the culture of good food and drinks, produced by Chef Mark Tafoya and friends. Chef Mark is a personal chef in New York City who is also a globe-trotter and self-taught gourmand. By subscribing to the feed at the Culinary Podcast Network homepage, you will receive the following podcasts as they are updated, you can also subscribe to the shows individually using the links provided:

• ReMARKable Palate™ by Chef Mark Tafoya
• Food Philosophy™ by Jennifer Iannolo
• Simply Ming by Chef Ming Tsai
• CHIC Podcast by Chef Tom Beckman
• All You Can Eat by Don Genova
• A Guy, A Girl and a Bottle by Joe and Pam Carpenter
• ChefsLine™@5 by Jenn Beisser and the chefs of ChefsLine™
• Culinary Roundtable™ by all foodcasters
• Hungry Mag by Mike Nagrant
• Cuisine Populaire by Bob Borchardt
  

Listeners to Father Roderick Vonhögen’sDaily Breakfast podcast may be familiar to the Scottish celebrity chef. Gordon Ramsay. Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food is series a video podcast produced by Times Online, Britains most successful newspaper podcaster. By subscribing to this podcast, you will also receive the recipes discussed in pdf format.

If you’re exploring vegetarianism like I am, the Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau from Compassionate Cooks, may be what you are looking for. This podcast aims to inspire a joyful, sustainable and compassionate diet, by debunking myths about vegetarianism and empowering people to make informed food choices.

Watching a cooking video is also a good way to pick up cooking. Apart from the afore-mentioned Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food, there are many fine video podcasts out there in the “pod-o-sphere”. One such video podcast is Start Cooking, which helps busy people to learn the basics of cooking that’s easy to follow. There are of course lots more out there. So do a search for “cooking” in your iTunes today!

Tags: food, Podcasts, Reviews

Podcasts are great! Not only can I keep up with my faith any time, any place, I can also keep up with my “reading” by listening to podcast novels. The brains behind podcasting belong to a genius, that’s for sure!

Podcast novels are variants of the traditional audiobooks, which used to be available on tape/CD. Now, many audiobooks are available in podcast format, and can be easily downloaded through an aggregator. Some podcast novels are available via podcast only. Such podcast novels are typically read and “performed” by the author themselves, and are released on a weekly basis. Podcast novels are a good way of “testing the waters” for new authors, and as there are lots of author-listener interaction. They’re a good (and economical) way of promoting one’s works too. If you like reading, but simply don’t have the time to keep up with your reading list, podcast novels are a way to bring your favorite books to your MP3 player. For a good selection of available podcast novels check out:

• Podiobooks.com
• LibriVox
• BabbleBooks

Today I’ll like to share with you some of the podcast novels which I’ve listened to or am currently subscribed to. Disclaimer: Some of the novels featured here contain mature situations, language and violence.

I’m recently hooked on the 7th Son written by J.C. Hutchins. It is a trilogy of sci-fi podcast novels exploring the adventures of 7 clones trying to solve the mystery of the assassination of the President of the United States, while desperately trying to stay alive and sane. 7th Son is made up of:

• Book One: Descent
• Book Two: Deceit
• Book Three: Destruction

You can choose to subscribe to individual books of the novel, or better yet, you can subscribe to the “catch-all” feed here, where you will also receive bonus episodes, listener feedback, etc.

One of the most prominent podcast novelists out there has got to be Scott Sigler. Apparently, Scott has a penchant for writing sci-fi/horror stuff, peppered with lots and LOTS of violence. I must say he does have talent for it, though sometimes I feel his stuff tend to get TOO gory for my liking. Among his many works, I’ve listened to and enjoyed the following:

• Earthcore
• Ancestor
• Infection

Scott has his own channel at PodShow.com, which features all the above podcast novels as well his latest work The Rookie and BloodCast, a podcast where Scott discusses latest news on his upcoming works.

Another podcast novel I listened to was Shadowmagic by John Lenahan, a fun fantasy adventure loosely based on a Irish mythological folklore. Quite humorous and the background music is nice, though the cliffhangers can turn out to be quite anti-climax sometimes. Or maybe I’m just picky.

Ok, enough of science-fiction and back to some family-friendly reading. One of my favorite novels from my high-school days is now available as podcast novels. Anne of Green Gables by Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, tells the adventures of a red-haired orphan girl, Anne Shirley, when she is accidentally adopted by the Cuthberts, a pair of middle-aged siblings who were expecting to adopt a boy to help with chores. Anne’s dreamy and, most times, dramatic personality gets her into lots of trouble throughout the book, but also helps gains the hearts of all around her.

That’s all for now. More podcast adventures next time!

Tags: fiction, literature, Podcasts, podiobooks, Reviews

In my last few podcast review posts, I shared with you information, reviews and recommendations on various podcasts related to Catholic media, theology, apologetics, music, prayer, devotion and worship. But I’m sure most of you have to a agree, a typical day in the life of an ordinary Catholic isn’t just about getting caught up in such hardcore religious topics. Despite what most people think, most Catholics DO have a life.

Many Catholics have now chosen to share their life with the rest of the world via podcasting. With the success of podcasts such as Catholic Insider, Daily Breakfast & Rosary Army, there has been a significant increase in the number of podcasts produced by Catholic clergy and/or lay individuals, friends and families, and non-profit organizations. Their topics of interest range anything from family life, technological gadgetry, movies, music and popular literature. Of course, there’s no running away from sharing their faith too. Today, I’ll like to share with you some of these new, up and coming Catholic podcasts.

The BustedHalo Cast is produced by the people behind BustedHalo.com, an online magazine for spiritual seekers in their 20s and 30s, and is hosted by Mike Hayes and Paulist Father Dave Dwyer. If you like learning the faith in a light-hearted, humorous way, the BustedHalo Cast is the way to go.You can also find some of Fr. Dave’s homilies in Father Dave Preaches, as well as a selection of segments and interviews from Fr. Dave’s Sirius Satellite Radio show in The Busted Halo Show with Father Dave Dwyer.

Catholic Exchange is a non-profit media organization that seeks to bring the good news of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Catholic Church to the world through the modern tools of mass communication. Catholic Exchange also carries 2 podcasts, Catholic Exchange’s Rock Solid with Mark Shea, as well as Catholic Exchange Today with John Morales

The Catholic Moments Podcast is produced by Lisa Hendey from CatholicMom.com, a website dedicated to sharing and learning about parenting and faith. The podcast contains news and chats with several of CatholicMom.com’s authors, columnists and musicians. If you are a Catholic mom, you’re sure to find the resources at CatholicMom.com useful and interesting.

On the topic of Catholic family living, another podcast worth checking out is Monster Cookies. Produced by Jon and Amber McInnis, a young couple from Canada, Monster Cookies is a little of everything. Daniel and Joshua , Jon and Amber’s older 2 sons have a regular segment in podcast as well, Andrew their youngest, occasionally “chips in”.

The Tupelo Catholic Podcast is another podcast hosted by a young Catholic couple, Rob and Kristen Williams from Tupelo, Mississippi. Rob and Kristen share their everyday lives and their comments on things happening around them.

Catholic Spotlight is produced by the The Catholic Company, and hosted by Chris Cash. It features interviews with various Catholic authors like Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins, Teresa Tomeo, etc. If you enjoy reading the brilliant works of these geniuses, you’ll definitely enjoy listening to these interviews.

The iPadre Catholic Podcast is produced by Father Jay Finelli. Fr. Jay shares his insights on things happening around him, as well as some of his homilies, and “sound-seeing” tours of places of interest while on religious pilgrimages. Fr. Jay also produces the iPadre Catholic Videocast, the ChantCast and the Voice of Mary podcast.

With the recent Motu Propio from Pope Benedict XVI, reinstating the common use of the traditional Latin mass, Latin has become almost everyone’s “must learn” language. LatinCast.org provides an online resource for learning, practicing and discussing Latin language. They even have a podcast which you can subscribe and listen to on your computer or portable MP3 player.

For more podcasts by Catholics, for Catholic or about Catholics, please check out the following podcast directories:

• CatholicPodcasts.info
• Disciples with Microphones
• Star Quest Production Network (SQPN)

Tags: Catholic, Podcasts, Reviews, SQPN