spb

Happy Anniversary Ralphie, You Stubborn Little Ass

Shane — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:10:53 +0000

Seven years ago, Kelly and I adopted Ralphie, a dachshund with a really good temperament…for a dachshund. What that basically means is, Ralphie is very stubborn, doesn’t like to be trained, leaves “presents” when he is dismayed with us, thinks nothing of stepping on other dogs to get to his favorite spot on the couch, steals toys from the lil’est dog, O-Ren, and other stubborn like behavior. This is what he looked like when we adopted him (well, five months later):

and now…

Hard to believe it’s been seven years, but its’ been a pretty good seven years with the little ass.

My Youtube debut….sort of

Shane — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:25:16 +0000

At TAM6 I participated in the following demonstration:

(click here if the video doesn’t embed)

My brother and I, though, are so far in the back you can’t make us out. We did bend the spoons though, and the trick worked nicely.

What I have in common with Stephen Colbert…

Shane — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:04:35 +0000

is that I have too have interviewed Michael Shermer on my show. It was a great thrill to interview one of my favorite authors. Sure, there were a couple other podcasters at TAM6, who have had big time guests like Shermer on all the time, but my podcast is pretty new. I’m only eleven episodes in, and still learning the medium.

Listening to the interview again, I see places I could have done better. I realize I spoke a mile a minute, though, my memory is that he had some place to go quickly, so I didn’t have too much time to delay. One thing I’m glad didn’t happen, is that I didn’t have a “You’re so awesome” interview. I tried to ask questions I really wanted answers for.

The interview was included in our 11th episode of The Libertarian Dime, but if you don’t want to listen to all that, you can download the interview here.

Enjoy!

I guess we solved terrorism…

Shane — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:53:23 +0000

…because apparently the FBI has time to investigate the recent leaks of new Guns n’ Roses tracks:

FBI visits blogger….

I guess this pretty much confirmsthat the tracks were legit, which is a cool thing, because they rock. I’ll post a review later.

Back from TAM6

Shane — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:46:27 +0000

Well, I’m back from TAM6, and it was probably the best overall TAM for me. The speakers were consistently interesting and I did get my interview with Michael Shermer. Because of his schedule and the setup of the conference I was only able to get 10 minutes, however, that is as many minutes as he appeared on The Colbert Report. I also found some new ideas for upcoming guests, and I hope some of those guests will be on in the near future.

I will write a guest by guest summary sometime, but for now, I will just say, it was one of the best times I’ve had learning about things ranging from real crime scene investigation to a spoon bending lesson from Teller. Just a great conference all around.

So, in short, episode 11 of the Libertarian Dime will have my interview with Shermer and our usual opinions on current events. TAM6 also made me more determined to keep going with The Dime, and to expand our offerings. And while I’m at it, I will need to plug my podcast again: http://thelibertariandime.mevio.com.

TAM 6 Update

Shane — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:39:06 +0000

Josh and I have been enjoying the TAM6 conference quite a bit. Friday’s speakers were all around pretty good. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was so good, he was asked to go over his time by 30 minutes. If you think he is good on the Colbert Report, he is even better in person. PZ Meyers and Ben Goldacre were both new to TAM but they were also pretty good. About the only low point, was someone named George Hrab, who sings folk songs about skepticism. Because Christopher Hitchens was unable to attend, Hrab sang a song he dedicated to Hitch called “God is not great.” Well, I can tell you that it is more like that God is great than that song was great. I wasn’t alone, a number of people left during the 10 minutes of folk songs.

I was not able to interview Michael Shermer yet. I did go up to him and check in, and was working on his laptop on his presentation, and clearly was also very tired. During the Penn and Teller session, he was actually sleeping on the floor. So I’m assuming he was actually tired, and not blowing me off. So, sometime in the late morning I will try to arrange a time. I’m still a little nervous, but I think I’ll do okay.

Well, that’s it for now. Josh and I will be heading out to Saturday’s festivities in a little bit. Shermer, Phil Plait, and Adam Savage are on today, and oh, hey, I have a big interview as well.