The Puerto Rico Connection The Puerto Rico Connection

https://prconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/ep015.mp3



Antonio and I recorded this episode on November 2, 2020. Was there anything of importance happening that day?

Well, for me, it was a day to make soup from left over Halloween pumpkins, so you get kitchen pans rattling and oven buzzer actions going off as the orange bits were subjected to high temperatures.

We spoke only of He Who Shall not Be named in critical terms…

Okay, we talked a little bit about the US Elections, and what things looked like for Antonio and other US Citizens in Puerto Rico, who sad to say, have no voice in voting for the President or representation in Congress.

How do we go from the Audacity of Hope to… the orange pumpkin baking in my oven?

Alan gave a hearty recommendation for Pete Sousa’s The Way I See It



Antonio shared how things were going for his INF115 (New Media) students, and how they still got so much out of their podcasting projects as well as the Daily photo activity (going on now, jump in!) Una Foto Cada Día.

He also shared thoughts of rejuvenating his ~2011-2103 project The Zen of Teaching maybe as a new podcast series? See the original web site as well as a Wiki which Still Lives. This warms my heart as this was what I remember early or even first as my encounter with Antonio’s work. So by putting it here, maybe there’s a little extra pressure.

Speaking of pressure, Alan completely fell down on our mission to up the frequency of our podcast production. The files sat in the pantry way too long, sorry Antonio!

But at least the pumpkin soup was tasty and the Orange Menace is also on the shelf of expired items.

Vote for Soup!

Adding just this line to nudge the podcast rss feed….



Featured Image:

https://prconnection.cogdog.casa/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pr-connection-ep-14.mp3



I Lose You

…is my 6th-grade-English equivalent to “I’m losing you”, the distress signal we use to mean there is a broken-line communication problem. In this case, thanks to Audacity editing I was able to lessen that issue as we faced poor Internet connection just when Alan and I were recording our 14th episode. It’s a common issue, now we are Zooming all over–but, as Alan says, it’s a sort of a miracle if the networks are still functioning given the amount of traffic any day.



So, welcome to our 14th episode, and enjoy it as much as I did. The frequency of the PR Connection podcast has been steadily increasing, so I’m trying to publish this not so late after the recording. Done with Zencastr.org, a beautiful platform that records people’s tracks separately but perfectly in synch–even when someone drops off for a little.



2020/366/298 All Along The Split Rail Fence Line #flickr https://t.co/7vEOJDvb1X

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 26, 2020



So, we rtalked a bit about life in quarantine, which I say “Keeps me in sync with another part of the world outside of classes etc.”, of COVID-19 Testing and lockdown

That’s pretty fine,

I hear myself as saying…

Then we talk about Photo habits, particularly about Alan’s One Photo Every Day challenge, where he publishes 365–or-so imageas a year (on Flickr) , and also on Instagram.

“You gotta find one thing that matters,”

he replies…

And then we talk about Zoom (what else) and how fantastic it is that the network infrastructure has not collapsed under the pressure.

It’s pleasure to have these conversations together with Alan, as often as possible, and as well-recorded as possible!

Now, please, go vote!



“Vote for guy who respects women” https://t.co/z1Cq4TdanK

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 26, 2020



 

https://prconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/ep013.mp3



Do you feel lucky? Antonio and I do. It’s been almost exactly 3 months since our last podcast (is this a confession booth?).

Antonio and I have expectations of a new frequency. Maybe we spend too much time editing and writing detailed show notes. So the new model is all about S-P-E-E-D. We record, insert into our Audacity template that has opening and closing music, and then we just pop out an mp3. Leave the gaffes and ums.

And then no fancy editing here. I will only spend enough time writing this to wait for the file to be sent up to the cloud.

We tried a new setup I have been using for another project. A trick I learned from Terry Greene of Gettin’ Air. We record in Zencastr (I am on the cheapo freebie version) which saves each attendee’s voice as a separate audio. I have it connected to my DropBox so the files just show up.

It quite saved our butts this time. About 1/3 the way in, Antonio’s router went kerflooie (technical term) and his audio went off track and then disappeared. He returned and the recording kept going.

Amazingly, Zencastr kept all of the audio in sync. There was one spot where he was talking and I was talking but we could not hear each other. That was the one edit, I zeroed out my audio trying to talk while Antonio was gone.

Uh oh, audio is done!



So is my editing. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as Antonio and I did. If this thing takes off, the monthly costs might top 50 cents.

As promised one link shared that Antonio requested (I will grab it from the tweet he saw).



Impressively done. Doing a 100 word story podcast a day since 2005. Until he dies. https://t.co/BAIH3QqiHl pic.twitter.com/BjsP8EeAcb

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) September 14, 2020



Us lucky podcasts could only aspire to this kind of daily habit.



Image Credit: Lucky 13 flickr photo by cogdogblog shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license



 

https://prconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/ep012.mp3



Some recipes claim to be easy. This podcast was in the oven for almost three months, and the fault is all mine.

Antonio and I recorded this episode on March 21, way back in the early part of pandemic lockdown. Then I just let it sit.

But in a way, it’s interesting to hear us talk while this was a bit of a novelty, not the dread filled mire it has become. Oh, was that pessimistic? No worries, because my colleague and friend Antonio is a primo optimist. Just listen to him!

I did learn some Italian, OMS in Italian, is “Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità” or what you might say, as in WHO (World Health Organization). Antonio was understandably concerned about his 90+ year old mother in Italy.

Antonio described that in Puerto Rico there were night time curfews. Students at his University. Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, had to leave their dorms and return to home on the island. He says that things at Sagrado were done in orderly manner for lockdown.

This was his preparation week for the “online pivoting” (insert ballet puns). He noted that after Hurricane Maria, Sagrado was first in Puerto Rico to reinstate classes as hybrid (under tents), so they were used to dealing with calamity. Because that seems pretty regular there, be it from natural forces or the boot of the US Government.

He described the hashtag #EsteVirusLoParamosUnidos or “We Stop this virus united” – Check out the 150,000 photos tagged on instagram.

But as “always an optimist” Antonio was ready to do remote teaching.

I shared a great retweet form Moia, and 80+ year old high spirited professor from Mexico I got to know form the UDG Agora Project



Este es un virusito que anda buscando un descuidadito, pero si te cuidas, no va a encontrar un nidito y se va a morir solito. @ArturoZaldivarL @lopezobrador_ @BeatrizGMuller @nestora_salgado @SusanaHarp @NapoleonGomezUr @galvanochoa @AristeguiOnline @lydiacachosi @cogdog https://t.co/sIceH0ENrv

— moiacost (@moiacost) March 21, 2020



Antonio noted the first COVID-19 death in Puerto Rico happened recently, a tourist from a cruise ship.

I wondered if there was any singing from balconies in Puerto Rico.

Antonio talked about planning for teaching his Italian film class– he was using some sites for co-watching films, and that he had plans to watch soon a Mario Bava movie with Jim Groom (who blogged it thus).

Antonio’s strategies including Mixing asynchronous and synchronous. His INF115 New Media students, like always, publish to blog class summaries, with blog syndication to the main site, doing daily photos, and a class podcast project (see a href="https://blogs.netedu.

https://prconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/ep011.mp3



In which Alan & Antonio deal with

strong cellular deficiency

And they talk aimlessly about connection (quite rightly) and other high-level stuff.

Hello, planet Earth, do you hear? Instead of raising the bar, we have the lowest possible quality. Zero.

But I love these conversations a little more every time, because it’s nice to talk tech (and other stuff) with Alan. And please listen through the end since he has got a special surprise with the outro.

So this episode seems a weird radio program from the 70’s, with some joker at some place having fun of listeners.

The worst podcast ever.

How can I not worry, Antonio?

Charting our frequency? Seems to be increasing.

[What are we talking about?]

The battery. Welcome back. OMG. Talking disruptions.

And I keep forgetting the English language.

Radio… photography…

Tom Woodward‘s WordPress Timeline JS Plugin useful to visualize an interactive timeline of blogs.

And Fleabag??

I almost watch no tv.

What?



I love #Fleabag. I love that a show about a dry-witted, grief-stricken, hypersexual, depressed person is even getting attention. I love that Phoebe Waller-Bridge won for her performance. I just love #Fleabag.

One of the most perfect shows I’ve ever seen. #Emmys2019 pic.twitter.com/zWRGilieaX

— Michael Boo-nlein👻🎃 (@MichaelBCompany) September 23, 2019



Then there’s Lucy. Of course the broken connections means Alan thinks I’m talking about the other Lucy from I Love Lucy. But no, at the time I didn’t know nothin’ about this Lucy #2. For me the one and only is the One From The Peanuts, a memory from my adolescence.

And talking about comics: You want the Italians? Diabolik, Satanik, Alan Ford, Jacovitti…

Yes, Satanik was drawn by the very Max Bunker (Luciano Secchi) of Alan Ford and written by Magnus (Roberto Raviola).

Last, there is Jacovitti, a genius telling Western-style stories, with dumb cigarette-smoking horses, pencils, salami-on-foot and worms on the ground.



I learn that Alan looks at his browser’s cookies (to check privacy etc.)

Usage of facebook. Usefullness? I find myself saying:

No other medium to contact far-away friends besides calling them FTW??

Alan Tweets In ALL CAPS:



I'M A VICTIM OF THIS PHONY CONSTITUTION THING.

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) October 22, 2019



Then, there’s Terry Greene‘s podcast Gettin’ Air from VoiceEd.ca,

https://prconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/ep010.mp3



It’s been 148 days since our last episode; does the low frequency of publication mean we are no longer a podcast?

Antonio and I don’t care; we have abolished rules before. But we did manage to record this one on September 4, and looking at we have a calendar item on September 23 to record another, it was time to push the editing into high gear.

Antonio was sitting outside on campus at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, so you will hear the sounds of students walking by. And birds. And street traffic. Apparently, he is without office while he is assigned a new one (“like a Zombie”), so he roams campus.

I did talk some about the possibility of ceasing the publication of our audio on Amazon S3, this in the face of getting am 18 cent bill last month. But I decided to leave things as they are. If we get a spike in audience, where maybe it costs $2.00 a month, I will reconsider.

Antonio described the podcasting assignments he is doing this semester with his New Media INF115 students. Again they will be collaborating on their shared podcast show, La Situación.

Antonio described how he was planning to have his students discuss the political story that took place over the summer, where public protests led to the forcing out of their governor Ricardo Rosselló. He shared his observations how the public protests were heavily attended by young people and very peaceful.

I was rather impressed with the ability of a population that was able to unseat unfit leaders. Maybe it can happen elsewhere (cough cough).

Antonio will again have students do their version of the DS106 Daily Create, or what he calls sting to Una Foto Cada Día (see more about his plans in his recent blog post).

He mentioned coming across a great Canadian Podcast, which turned out to be my colleague and friend Terry Greene’s Gettin’ Air. Small internet world. Right after the show, I DM-ed Terry in twitter and suggested doing an episode featuring Antonio. It’s in the works.

We rounded out the show with a quasi plan for the next one… and it may be a better frequency!



Technically 148 days is the Period, time between cycles. The inverse of that is the frequency, converted to seconds, that is 0.00000078 Hz

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) September 23, 2019





Featured Image: Image from page 799 of “The Bell System technical journal” (1922) flickr photo by Internet Archive Book Images shared with no copyright restriction (Flickr Commons)