cleaning

i hate cleaning my room.  hate it! as a grown-up, i've done pretty much everything i can to avoid having to clean it.  at the same time, a clean room feels nice.  some tidiness makes all the difference; things can be found, stuff i don't use or want can be thrown away or donated, and the very act, while loathsome, does make me feel productive. 

to that end, i've spent some time today listening to podcasts while cleaning.  i love the unfuck your habitat tumblr (it's really great!), and one of the tips on there is so easy; work for about twenty minutes, then take ten off.  all the welcome to night vale podcasts are about twenty minutes long, so that's the soundtrack to tonight.  have you heard the night vale podcast?!  it's hilarious and smart and cheeky and i love it.  i can't believe i'd never heard of it before.  i'm slowly catching up, throwing things away, and putting clothes (gasp!) on hangers in my closet.  it's wild over here. 

homebody

lately i am all about hanging out at the house. i have pretty much no stories to amuse you with, as all i do is cook and read and hang out. boring! to further my hermitude, i bought these portable mp3 speakers. it's a clever design; the speakers are set on the outside of a little hard-case, you unzip the case, plug your mp3 player in and turn it on, and you can listen to your music wherever. i use mine mainly for podcasts; i've been hooked on pseudopod for quite some time, but i've also fallen victim to the sister podcasts, escape pod and podCastle. wiretap is also a podcast on iTunes now, and we all know how much i love jonathan goldstein. in honor of fall, i'm also re-reading a whole lot of the little house books, and baking too many cookies. i try to pretend that the cookies are trial runs of things i might make for the holidays, but in reality it's just a reaction to the darkening days and rain. a house that's warm and smells of vanilla and cookie is infinitely more cheerful in the dark than one that smells like green salad. true story.

awesome fun

today through boing boing i discovered pseudopod; the sound of horror. it's a podcast blog, all horror stories. it's awesome. creepy and delightful. i listened to the sloan men today, and know i'm going to have a hard time not listening to the rest of them tonight. i also want to check out escape pod, the sister site of all sci-fi fantasy stories.

i've never been much for podcasts, i'm not sure why. i love public radio, and shows like this american life and the splendid table. that's what pseudopod reminds me of, old radio stories. albeit with a twisted bend, like the twilight zone. now that i've discovered these podcasts, though, i have a feeling i'm going to be hooked.

go give it a listen, okay? let me know what you think.