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I don’t usually listen to much music, mainly because of time and money.  I quickly lose interest in a song or album so I have no interest amassing a huge collection.  When I do listen, I like a constant stream of new music fed to me without any effort on my part, and for free of course.  Services like imeem and last.fm fit my needs perfectly.  Sadly those services are not available to me away from a computer (although I did try to stream it off my desktop to my phone, but my t-mobile data service can’t keep up).

I have about an hour of driving a day, so how do I entertain myself?  Radio music sucks: way too much repetition and advertising.  That leaves me with Talk Radio, but morning shows kill brain cells.  AM talk shows aren’t much better and half the time are filled with static.  The only beacon of hope left on radio is NPR (on 90.1 WABE in Atlanta).  NPR is the only high-quality, interesting, and entertaining programming on the airwaves… but even it has it’s limitations.  Some programs only air once a week or on weekends.  Outside of rush hour it plays classical music all day, which is nice, but it does get old.  I need something for when NPR is off-air.

That finally brings me to podcasts.  See, the internet is full of mp3s (and videos), which can be automatically downloaded to your portable audio device.  The problem is that when you give the whole world a mic and a stage, you quickly realize you should cover your ears.  Finding a good podcast is like finding a plastic ball in a pit of dirty diapers.  But I managed to find a few, and not surprisingly, most are hosted by NPR.  Distributing quality audio-only programs is what they do, and they do it well.  So here is my current playlist:

This American Life - Chicago Public Radio
Amazing, inspiring, and funny stories from everyday and not-so-everyday people, all on a certain theme for each episode.  This show is awesome.  You will be instantly hooked.  Maybe it’s something about Ira Glass’ voice that just draws you in.

Geek Speak - Central Coast Public Radio
These ”geeks” keep up with the latest tech news and usually they actually know what they are talking about.  They do attempt to explain things in a way that non-geeks can understand, but they also don’t dumb it down.  They invite well-known guests from the tech/web2.0/science world so it’s always an informative discussion that you can learn from.

Car Talk - Dewey, Cheetham and Howe
This is my podcast guilty pleasure.  The hilarious/cheesy antics of the auto-mechanic brothers Tom and Ray will keep you entertained as they attempt to diagnose caller car problems.  They even manage to squeeze in a puzzler in between all their wise-cracks.  I really need to give them a call and let them laugh at me as I attempt to reproduce the thwacking sound my car’s AC makes.

1UP Yours - 1UP.com, EGM, and others
I like my podcasts to be focused and to the point.  Almost every gaming podcast I listened to would break off onto tangents like what they had for breakfast, movies, or whatever.  1UP Yours is the only professional gaming podcast I have found.  They spend over an hour discussing the their personal thoughts on games, the latest news, and other industry tidbits that only those in-the-know would know.  If you just want to know what the latest Wii game is, then pass on this.  If you want an in-depth look into the world of gaming and insight into it’s future, this is right Up Your alley.  I also recommend the 1UP Show video podcast.

The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack - Jay and Jack
These guys discuss the latest and upcoming episodes of Lost.  They mostly take calls from listeners who give their crack-pot theories.  Lost is a show you can sit around and talk about for hours, so it makes great podcast material.

The Digg Reel - Digg.com + Revision3
All the latest top rated videos at Digg.com are collected and put into this video podcast.  A host introduces each video and also reads some of the digg comments.  It’s a nice and easy way to see popular YouTube videos without having to weed through all the YTP.  Video podcasts arn’t good for the road, but they are good on a lunch break.  The good thing about The Digg Reel is that they offer it in almost every format and size you could want.  I have a windows based player, so it’s nice to not have to convert from an Apple format.

I suggest you browse NPR podcast directory to find more that fit your taste. I am trying out a few more now and if they stick I’ll probably write up an updated list.  I also plan to write up how I subscribe and play these mp3s, because it can sometimes be a challenge if you don’t use iTunes.  If you have a favorite podcast, please share!

Jeff Atwood has a great blog for programmers: Coding Horror.  His article about how he grew up with BASIC really brought back memories for me.  BASIC was also my first exposure to programming.  Although I did not have an Atari 2600 like Jeff, I did have a Ti-83 calculator.  I don’t mean to boast, but I am kind of a big deal in the Ti-83 BASIC gaming world.  In high school I spent many a classroom hour thumbing code into the tiny memory of a Ti-83 calculator.  Using lots of inefficient GOTOs and Graph Screen pictures, I managed to create over 20 exciting games.  I dabbled in assembly hoping to make the next Avalache or Penguins, but it was a little over my head at the time.

Using my old aol screenname, RaptureDan, I created my first real website: Only the Best of TI.  It hosted my games and I even had tutorials to help others learn.  I also submitted my games to the legendary ticalc.org and my games quickly got popular.  I currently have the most downloaded Ti-83 BASIC game of all time, Agent007.  Actually it was one of my worst games, and I think it was the James Bond reference that made it so popular.  You can see all my Ti-83 games here.  I am especially proud of Command & Conquer, (which was so big, you could only fit in one turn before running out of memory) and Quake, which was actually a networked FPS with AI bot (it got TiCalc.org September ‘98 Program of the Month!).  Needless to say, I pushed it to the limits.

I then got into QBasic which was included with DOS and Windows (remember Gorillas, the pre-Worms banana-throwing game?)  I ported some of my calculator games over and dabbled with sprites and some game physics (my Jeep game is unplayable now because it runs 100x faster, lol).  Then I went to college to learn “real programming” and the rest is history.

One of these days I hope to have time to get back into creating video games.  It really is the perfect balance between science, math, and art.  I would at least like to take my old Ti-83 games and port them to Flash or even Javascript!

I leave you with this farewell from my glory days:

December 23 1998

Well, I’m not dead…  just very busy.  School, work, church, and driving around in my Beetle has taken up just about all my free time so I havnt been able to update my site, or work on any games.  So due to a lack of time, and a loss of interest in calculator games, there will be no more updates to this site.  As a final farewell, I have added the text version of Command & Conquer and I have added an example program to the Programming page.  I will leave this page up cause it is helpful to many people, but dont expect any more updates any time soon.  When I go to GA Tech, I will major in Computer Scince, so keep an eye out for me as a future game programmer!

About a month ago Jesslyn and I purchased our first house!  We are the proud owners of a new 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath townhome in the Brookhaven area.  What I’m most excited about… the garage!  I can finally park my car without fear of getting keyed overnight.

The home buying process wasn’t that bad, although there were a few bumps.  We went with the builder’s mortgage company, because they offered to pay closing costs.  We talked to a few other mortgage brokers just to be safe, so we think we got a good deal.  The one big problem we had was our credit score had errors on it, and it was making a big impact on our loan options.  We did get it corrected in time though.  Make sure you check your credit report before you start looking for a house.  If you have any questions feel free to ask me, since I feel I know too much about the housing industry now :P

There are still boxes everywhere, and we need some furniture (I HATE buying furniture), but it already feels like home.  Let us know if you arei n the area, we would love for you to stop by.  Jesslyn keeps talking about throwing a huge party too.