Coming soon from NLCast Podcast Network.

http://www.brokeya.com

thenewnum2 via Twitter says:

I know u made the Major Spoilers theme like forever ago, but I’ve never found the lyrics anywhere on either site. Can u post them?

Sure! No problem!

Download the Major Spoilers Theme Song

Lyrics:

If I the X Ray vision of a super man
I could save a few bucks and stand
around and read through the covers of the comics on the stand
But although every other page
would be backwards I suppose
I could still read the evens and odds, well I don’t know

I guess I haven’t thought this all the way through,
Plus as soon as the comic book store guy knew,
He’d kick my butt out on the corner

What a Major Spoiler!

Oh wait! I think I’ve found a better way
If I was hulking green or gray
I could bust through that brick wall,  take their comic books away
But then the little me would deal
With all the tanks and bombs and guns
Have you tried to read a series with all that going on?

I guess I need to rethink this plan,
How would I bag and board my comics with such huge hands?
Guess I already told ya…

What a Major Spoiler!!

If I was Stark raving rich like a man of iron
I might not be surprised to find
That I might actually have the hard-cold
To follow an entire storyline.
But would I really even need
To read up on all those escapades
I mean, who needs such distractions when your assistant’s such a babe?

But the downside is such a beast,
Being shot up in a Fun-vee in the Middle East
With a gang-sign-throwing-soldier…

What a Major Spoiler!!

It’s our wedding theme show. It’s also our 1st of our last 4 shows!

All good things must come to and end. To everything there is a season. Turn, turn turn. This is true of podcasts as well. Nobody’s Listening will cease production of new shows after four more episodes. This would make Episode 156 our last show.

Why? The answer is simple to the point of being boring. I’m just finding that I want to move in other directions in podcasting. I’m not done producing clean quality podcasts… I’m just wanting to make different clean quality podcasts.

Trevor, John and I would like to thank you all for literally being the best podcast audience in the world. Your support, input, contributions and community has been the energy that has kept us going as long as we have.

Though NLCast will be no more, that doesn’t mean that we’re gone. Here are a list of shows where you can get your NLCast fix:

CHOP! – The Axe Cop Podcast (James & Jon)

iRacing Today – (Trevor)

Geek Loves Nerd – (James and Jenn)

Podcast Kid – (James and Jenna)

Gospel of Kennison – (James)

Explicit Answers – Coming soon (James and Jenn)

Check out all the NLCast Network continues to offer at http://nlcast.com/pcasts and follow me on twitter to stay in the loop on upcoming NLCast productions.

Recently my wife and I decided to re-brand and reboot our marriage and family podcast, Geek Loves Nerd. We went through dozens of names that we’ll never use (we finally settled on Explicit Answers). So you can pick through what’s left over and if you want one, take one!

• Down To Earth Answers
• Questions Answered Here
• 18 Years Minimum
• Two is Enough
• Bad Parents, Good Kids
• Ask The Parents
• Ask The Real Life Parents
• Practical But Funny
• Creating The Family You Wanted To Grow Up In
• Parental Guidance Requested
• Household Heros
• Husband Father/Wife Mother
• Ask Away
• Questions Answered
• Ask A Question
• The Family You Want
• How-To Not Screw-Up Your Kids
• Parent’s Podcast

Here’s a quick list of podcasts and posts from the NLCast Network this week.

Podcasts:

• Nobody’s Listening 152 – It’s Not Water
• Geek Loves Nerd Bonus – Podcast Kid
• Podcast Kid 8 – Moving
• CHOP! 5 – Magical Riding Spider
• Gospel of Kennison 14 – Be Nice

Posts:

• My Own Personal Star Wars
• Narthex!
• Family Video: The Spill
• Axe Cop Webcomic is Genius
• Self-Made Rollercoaster is Genius
• Optional Ending to Lost is Genius
• Alastair Heseltine’s Woodpile is Genius
• Weiner Dog On Bun is Genius
• X-Wing Honda is Genius
• Li Wei’s Impossible Photography is Genius
• Ewok Karaoke is Genius
• 8bit Stop Motion is Genius
• Sandwich Shaped Cake, Cakewich, is Genius
• Simon Schubert’s Folded Paper Art is Genius
• Iron Man Nikes are Genius
• The Bottom of ThinkGeek.com is Genius
• Mentos and Coke Rocket Car is Genius
• Pixar’s Groovin’ With Ken is Genius
• Self-Made Porsche is Genius

Check out the website so you can Subscribe and all that:
GOK: The Gospel of Kennison

Ethan Nicolle, co-creator and artist of the amazing webcomic Axe Cop shares a story of a childhood watergun fight.

Pickup the NLCast iTunes app for the photo of John’s son in a dress.

• Ethan Nicolle is guest hosting.
• Opening story about some green cheese cubes.
• Ethan’s mom ate half a caterpillar. James had one in his salad.
• Ethan sucked a fly.
• James thought letting kids burn would be kinder than the fire drill.
• James makes a Catholic joke.
• John drops the call but his son wears a dress at church.
• Enchanted is a great movie.
• Ethan’s brother has bad dreams about his Dad turning into a devil pig and eating him. He also draws a crowd while doing the bungie jump at the carnival.
• We mention the chat room.
• People need to check out Podcast Kid – it’s got JoJo!
• LBB of the week is folks who steal from blind people.
• James watches Justice League and Batman swears.
• Ethan’s family can’t watch Hook. James’ Mom’s name is mentioned in that movie.
• Middle School Drama – kids find a bum in a canyon.
• A kid makes fun of a teacher who turns about to be their friend’s aunt.
• A kid smarts off to a teacher and ruins the class’ movie of the day. Gets the nickname PG.
• James saw Romancing the Stone in 6th grade… also Something Wicked this Way Comes.
• Featured Story: A young Ethan gets inspired by the movie “The Boy Who Could Fly” and splashed pee all over some friends during a water gun fight.
• A guy calls in a story about making fun of a girl with six toes.
• Listeners are warned not to listen to NLCast with anything in their mouths.
• A ironic story about finding a childhood lunchbox.
• Sympathy for the guy who runs the Tiki Room at Disney World.
• Girl gets stuck holding a broken sink in a school bathroom during lunch.
• John still finds Haily Mills attractive.
• A child is 100% sure he sees a walking tree in a parking lot.
• James and his wife poke fun at their daughter because she’s scared of a snake she saw.
• James makes fun of a cop’s last name… then fears for his life.
• The cop plays a prank on a fellow officer who sleeps on the job.
• Check out axecop.com. New Baby Man T-Shirts and stickers.

Mike from TMIPodcast.com shares a story of an event in the night that never should have happened.

• Everything in this show is like LOST
• Opening story is from a guy who screws up his friend’s dream date
• James hated Star Wars Weekends
• John’s son bought some great music
• Mike valet parks his mini-van
• 30 folks joined us in the chatroom
• We’ve got a contest. You promote NLCast you could win $50 in prizes.
• LBB a lady who overdoes her job
• James talks about Disney tour guides
• Middle School Drama is a girl who takes issue with her friend’s Batman sticker and gets kicked in the head
• Mike tell the Featured Story about wetting his bed as an adult
• James tells about accidentally peeing on a friend’s couch
• TakeLuck shares a story about a book his daughter made for grandpa
• Someone talks about the first time their little brother cursed, in front of their parents
• Brock emails a story about accidentally seeing a lady naked
• Ken tells about slamming into a fire hydrant while trying to catch rain in his mouth on a bike
• James talks about drinking rain from off the roof
• Someone wants an extra warning added to the show about trying to drive and listen to the show while laughing
• Kate wishes us a happy 150th show and tells of a time she knocked half her tooth off
• James plays along with the outtro music.

Looking around recently at a few of my fellow podcaster’s websites I was surprised to find how many didn’t have simple ways to subscribe to their show or to get in contact with the hosts.

1. A direct link to your RSS feed.
As a podcaster, your show’s success depends almost exclusively on how many listeners are downloading and listening to your shows. Your site should have an obvious link to your feed.

2. A direct link to your iTunes listing.
Love or hate it, iTunes is #1 when it comes to podcast distribution. Almost 95% of all of my downloads come from iTunes. For the folks who find you in iTunes, no biggie… but when you promo your site, when others link to you, they always send visitors to your main website. When they get there then need

3. A link to a contact page with email, contact form and voice mail line.
I’ve found that one of the best ways to grow your podcast audience is by word of mouth. People will be more likely to tell their friends about your show if their input has been read or played on it. So provide a contact page with an email address, a contact form, and your voicemail line if you have one.

4. A brief description of your show.
When your visitors come to the page, what is going to tell them that you’re not just a blog… that the real feature here is your audio shows? You’ve got to tell them. How you do it is up to you. On Nobody’s Listening’s site I use a subtitle, “A Clean Comedy Podcast” and a small About box in the sidebar that gives a little more information.

5. A link to your promo.
When other podcasters want to promote your show, they’re going to need a promo. Don’t make it hard to find. Provide a direct download link, not just a flash player.

What did I miss? Add your podcast website “must-haves” to the comments.

You can find other great articles on Podcasting here, including How I Podcast.

Here’s the deal: You write up a blog post on your site about NLCast or suggest NLCast to your friends on facebook or share us on your Twitter,  or promote us on your podcast, then send us a link to your post or tweet, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win your choice of a $50 iTunes gift card or 6 months of Netflix (1 DVD out at a time) which includes Netflix Instant Streaming.

The winner will be chosen at random from a list of eligible emails that contain legitimate links to blog posts, facebook updates, or tweets on Monday, June 28th and be announced on Nobody’s Listening during the show that night.

Up to four entries maximum per person: one blog post, one facebook update, or Twitter or podcast promotion per person. Send each link as a separate email. If you did an audio promo, please include a direct link to the audio and the minutes and seconds where it can be found.

Email entries must have the words “nlcast share” in the subject line.

Your post, update or tweet must link back to http://www.nlcast.com

Send your entry email to james@nlcast.com

Entries will only be accepted by those 18 and older.

You can find all kinds of audio promos, banners, facebook and twiiter links on our Promote NLCast page.

Good luck!

–

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED, TAXED OR RESTRICTED. We reserve the right to cancel this giveaway at anytime for any reason.

Trevor Cameron, co-host of Nobody’s Listening, has branched off and started his own podcast for the popular iRacing community. He’s got one episode out and already it’s causing a stir.

So whether you’re into sim-racing or not, check it out!

iRacing Today

James’ sister Aimee comes back for a very special milestone episode. She basically just tells lots of crap about her older brother.

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-c3a4eaad2b53e0e89e051f0f6ae8a0a9}

My first article on this topic was in August of 2007. I updated that article in December of that year. In May 2008 I wrote a new article on how I podcasted when both hosts were in the same room. Finally in June 2009 I wrote one more (How I Podcast: 2009) because of new equipment, different online tools and a simpler process. A lot has changed since then. It’s time to update you on my podcasting methods.

I’ve greatly simplified my entire podcasting procedure. What used to take hours now takes minutes. I now record everything in real time and do very little post-production editing. I also no longer use a computer to record.

Hardware

• Self-built Desktop Computer with Windows 7
• Dell Laptop – For live video streaming
• Eee PC – For Skype
• Heil PR-40 – Mic
• Alesis MultiMix8 Firewire
• RackRider Power Conditioner
• Alesis 3630 Compressor-Gate-Limiter
• Zoom H2 Handy Recorder – For recording all audio to wav
• Two Logitech 9000 webcams

Software

• Adobe Audition 3.0 – Editing and encoding to mp3
• Mp3tag – ID3 editing
• Skype – For recording off-site co-hosts
• Ustream Producer – A free application that streamlines the process of streaming video on ustream

Online Services

• Libsyn – Media Hosting
• GoDaddy – Domain Registration and Web Hosting
• Self-Hosted WordPress – Free blogging platform
• Blubrry PowerPress – Plugin for WordPress that generates a podcast RSS feed and puts a player on your website
• Ustream.tv – Live video feed so listeners can watch the show as it is being recorded
• Picnik.com – Easy online image editing

Podcast Recording Setup

I use three computers. One for production and sound effects. One for Skype. The third computer streams video and audio out using ustream. The audio out on the Skype-Lappy and Production Compy are fed into the mixer on separate channels. The two mics are fed into two additional channels on the mixer. The main mix from the mixer (left and right) are fed into the compressor. The output from the compressor is then fed out through a stereo cable into the Zoom recorder. A main mix is also sent out to the Streaming-Lappy to go out with the video from the cameras. A third mix that includes only my vocals and the sound effects (mix-minus) is sent from the mixer into the mic input on the Skype-Lappy.

Podcast Recording Procedure

All of the audio is recorded to the Zoom recorder in real time. I believe the term is “Live To Harddrive”. So I hit record before the show and stop after. I transfer the uncompressed wav file to my Production-Compy and open it in Audition. I trim the front end and back end of the file. I then hard limit the file to anywhere between –4db and –9db depending on the average height of the waveform. Then I Normalize the wav to –1db and save as MP3.

I open the mp3 in Mp3tag and add the show title, author, show title, year, episode number, comments and art. I also use the software to rename the mp3 using the episode number and show title.

I upload the mp3 to Libsyn.com and add some basic information about the file, title and comments. After upload I’m given a direct link to the mp3 file on the server. I copy that url into the post I’ve created for the show on WordPress into the PowerPress plugin and publish the post. This updates my podcast feed and iTunes. The file is now available for download.

Conclusion

With this procedure and equipment I can now publish a show within 15 minutes of pressing stop on the recorder. The key is to record what you want your podcast to sound like the first time. This minimizes post-production editing and in most cases eliminates it completely.

Erik J. Fisher of WBR Show fame joins NLCast for the 3rd time and talks about getting walked in on while changing.

Check out this awesome shirt… but no one is allowed to buy it until I have one!

Today only!

Update: Okay. I’ve got mine on the way. You’re free to buy your own now.

John shares a couple stores stories expressing his extreme fondness for cats.

Spawty.com – Shop for NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA & College team gifts for you, your baby & your pet. A great selection of novelties, apparel & more for your favorite team – and even better prices! Plus, funny photos of your pets & babies wearing team apparel. Spawty.com – Team fanaticism at it’s finest.

Update: Yes. John shares stores. Stores that help his express his fondness for cats. They’re cat fondness stores. They’re real and awesome and that wasn’t a mistake.

It’s a theme show. The theme? “I probably shouldn’t share this, but…” It’s full of awesome

Check out our new podcast: CHOP! – The Axe Cop Fancast

ZLDesignStudio.com – Your place for printable photo cards, handmade floral hair accessories, original photo mats, hand-etched gel candles and other unique treasures. Make a purchase on Sunday, May 2, 2010 and write “Happy Birthday” in the note to the seller to receive a refund of 31% off any one in stock item!

I’ve started yet another podcasting project. This time it spawned out of my love for the genius that is the webcomic Axe Cop.

John and I recorded the first episode last night… and already it’s sweeping the web like a rhino horn that turns things to gold!

You know what? You should go check it out right now!

CHOP! – The Axe Cop Fancast

Would your podcast, small business, personal blog or esty store benefit from some free adspace on this website?

We’re going to have a little contest. Just another way to show some love to our listeners. Leave a comment on this post with the information requested below and after one week I’ll choose one of you to promote at the top of every single page on this website for one month.

Naturally I can refuse any request for any reason. I will not promote commercial products, adult sites, or any other service or product that does not fit well with the NLCast.com brand.

Leave a comment with the following:

Your Name:
URL
What You’re Advertising (podcast, blog, service, etc)

Created by OnePlusYou

The most random show to date. This is the one we talk about race.

Sponsors:

ZLDesignStudio.com has recently added printable photo cards with new themes and layouts coming soon. Checkout the handmade floral hair accessories, original photo mats, hand-etched gel candles and other unique treasures. ZLDesignSudio.com, original design at affordable prices.

DrawYouAPicture.com is your source for super cheap (but super awesome) logos, illustrations and more. Let me draw you a picture!

Use the code podname121 to save money on your next domain name at GoDaddy.com.

Have you listened to my new show for kids? Darn you! What’s your problem anyway?

Podcast Kid Show 4 – Brothers & Sisters

James finally tells a whole mess of the Mom stories he’s been hinting at over the years.

Listen to Podcast Kid – the new NLCast Network podcast for kids ages 3-8!

Sponsors:

ZLDesignStudio.com your site for handmade floral hair accessories, for women and girls; original photo mats, hand-etched gel candles and other unique treasures. New items created daily. ZLDesignSudio.com , original design at affordable prices.

‘Smiled Out’ puzzle game by Dave Andrews, available now in the iTunes app store.

– Sent from my Palm Pre

Prizes in children’s ministry are tricky things. The general thinking by leaders is that kids like winning prizes. So we use them at outreaches and for special events. We’ll give away a couple of bikes or even an iPod or two. The hope is that the prize will bring in a lot of new faces and that we’ll have a lot of happy winners. But all to often, in reality what I’ve seen is two happy winners… and a whole mess of disappointed kids and parents who didn’t win the big prize. I’ve seen a lot of new faces in the crowd, but none of them were smiling on the way out. So are we really getting what we wanted and hoped for or is there a better way?

I don’t do the big giveaways… and here’s why:

1. They cost a lot.
2. They only bless one or two kids.
3. They make the rest of the kids sad, upset, disappointed, jealous or even hateful.

Kids don’t deal well with the concept of Random. They get it in theory… they just don’t like it. It works fine for the randomly chosen winner of said prize… but to the rest of your group Random suddenly turns into just being Unfair! Remember how that felt when you were a kid? It felt Unfair!

What I suggest instead of a big prize drawing is a prize that everyone gets or must be earned. I don’t mind telling a kid that someone else got a prize because they said last week’s bible verse… because I can transform their disappointment into determination. I tell that child that they could get the same thing next week if they say their verses too.

Here are some examples. In an outreach situation, rather than a flier that tells of an iPod that will be given away at the event… what about saying that every child that comes out will get a bag of sour Skittles and a cold soda… plus a special prize at the end of service! Every child wins! And you’ve probably spent less on the candy and soda than the iPod!

For a special event at church you could have a prize for new visitors… and the kid who brought them! Every child has a chance to ‘win’ this prize… and any kid who doesn’t bring a friend that week could do so the next for a second chance.

Just a bit of thinking from a child’s perspective will help guide you when planning your next promotion in children’s church or sunday school. Here are a few of my guiding principals.

1. Prizes shouldn’t be so big that it breaks the hearts of those who don’t win… but still good enough to work hard for.
2. Every child has a controllable chance to win the prize. If they don’t win it’s because they didn’t earn it.
3. All of the prizes are always the same per event. That way children aren’t comparing what others got over (or under) themselves.

Some would argue that it’s important that kids learn self-control and good sportsmanship… and I would agree. But I would also argue that we don’t need to create situations that put kids in needlessly difficult situations. I don’t know about you but I want my visitors leaving my service happy!

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

John shares an excellent story of a french kiss gone horribly wrong.

Listen to Podcast Kid – the new NLCast Network podcast for kids ages 3-8!

Thought I’ve done a clean comedy podcast called Nobody’s Listening and a marriage and family podcast called Geek Loves Nerd and finally this here children’s ministry podcast called Children’s Ministry Monthly… I’ve always wanted to do a show for kids.

Jenna and I have been doing little shows here and there over the past couple of years called JennaCasts… but they were just bonus shows added to the Geek Loves Nerd podcast feed. Recently we’ve decided to split off and combine my daughter’s love of talking with my desire to produce a podcast for children.

Podcast Kid is a podcast for kids that focuses on topics that matter to kids ages 3-8. It’s a weekly half-hour show that features conversations, advice, silly songs and stories from Jenna, her Dad and Mom and a silly clown called JoJo.

Go check out Podcast Kid and if you like it, share it with some kids you know!

It’s a theme show full of apologies. James, Trevor and John take turns apologizing for hilariously terrible things they’ve done.

Get a FREE audiobook and 14-day trial today by signing up at www.audiblepodcast.com/nlcast!

Check out DrawYouAPicture.com where you can get just about anything drawn for pretty darn cheap.

My daughter and I just started a new podcast for kids called Podcast Kid. Here’s some more information on it.

Check it out!

Trevor tells of a time he broke his wrist. James provides the comedy relief.

Check out DrawYouAPicture.com where you can get just about anything drawn for pretty darn cheap.

The best stories, updates and contributions from the past 20 shows or so. Enjoy it like a kick in the jounk!

Get a FREE audiobook and 14-day trial today by signing up at www.audiblepodcast.com/nlcast!

Check out the It’s Just Us Cast

Check out our new iTunes App!

Just about everything we do in Children’s Ministry is about the long term. It’s about the investment. This comic series by my podcast mentor, Scott Johnson, called The Bigfoot Diaries really spoke to me. It reminded me that our investment in children, no matter how small… matters.

Start with this one, 2, 3, end here.

Check it out and add your thoughts in the comments below.

I’d love to sit down after traveling all week and churn out a live show… but it just ain’t happening tonight. We’ll be back, right here, tomorrow evening at 9:30pm Central.

Hope to see you then.

I’m on a plane back to Florida. I’ll get them back to normal when I get home.

This month we address issues that discourage children’s ministers with Children’s Pastor, Mark Turner and Pen/Florida District Children’s Education Director, Grant Foster.

This past Valentine’s day I had a bunch of valentine’s printed up for kids to give out. They doubled as invitations to a special service back at the church. I had it set up so that the visitor and the child who invited them would both get a prize. I had high hopes for this outreach attempt.

My wife and I bought 60 heart-shaped boxes of mixed chocolates from Sam’s Club in anticipation of at least 30 visitors. Statistically I could only expect 10 as you typically get a 1% response and I’d passed out 1000 invites… but faith and hope have to fit in there somewhere right?

Fast-forward to the end of our Valentine’s day service and we’d given away 10 boxes of chocolate. Five to visitors and five to the kids who brought them. I can’t say I was devastated… but I was defiantly disappointed. As we geek-types say, “FAIL!”.

The next morning during devotions I was journaling about the whole thing. I wrote up how hopeful I had been… and how stupid I felt wasting the church’s money buying way to much candy. Then God slapped me in the head. He does that.

I wrote down the thought that suddenly entered my head:

“When you’re disappointed, you forget to be thankful”.

He was right… I was so focused on what I had wanted to accomplish for the Kingdom I was totally overlooking what God had actually accomplished. Five children had experienced a church service for maybe the first time. I also remembered that one of the visitors had been accompanied by their entire family! A whole family had come to church because of a Valentine’s day card… and I had not once thought to give praise to God for any of this… because I had wanted to do more. Naturally I spent the rest of the devotion time in praise. One child is precious to God… five ain’t nothing to turn your nose up at in His Kingdom.

It’s easy to get disappointed in Children’s ministry. I’ve probably spent more time in the last 10 years being disappointed that any other feeling. Disappointed about attendance, volunteer commitment, pastoral support, storage, how many folks join the choir… on and on. My heart has been in the right place for most of the time: I just wanted to do more for God! If I had more resources, if I had more volunteers, if I had more support… how much more effective could this ministry be? But I’ve very recently realized that disappointment keeps me from being thankful for what I have and for how God is using it.

I still set goals. I still have high hopes… but from now on, no matter how things turn out… I will remember to be thankful and give praise to God. If I believe that he is in control and that he is good… I have to believe that he knew how things would turn out… and that he had some hand in the results. My disappointment tells God I’m not happy with his work. Well, not anymore.

Our goal for NLCast is to start doing one theme show a month. This month the theme is “Apologies”. It’s your chance to apologize for the silly, stupid, embarrassing things you’ve put others through in the past! Get something off your chest. Email or call in to the show today!

James and John attempt to clear out the e and vmail backlog featuring your stories and comments!

Check out Waste of Airspace.

Check out our new iTunes App!

John is a fainter. He faints. He tells stories of times he’s fainted. It’s funny.

Check out Waste of Airspace.

Check out our new iTunes App!

It’s a Valentine’s Day theme show! Only the most embarrassing and/or heartless Valentine’s stories we could scrape up from our miserable lives… and yours!

Check out Geek Loves Nerd.

James tells of a woman of conviction who throws it all away to help a little girl believe a lie… and screws it all up.

Check out the TMI Podcast!

Trevor shares an amazing story where his daughter goes Cloverfield on the family fish tank.

Check out The Redboy Podcast.

Can I draw you?

James, Trevor and John swap stories about bike accidents and having the wind knocked out of them. Plus your stories via email and voice mail.

Check out the ZerbinCAST.

One sheet of paper.  One hundred percent awesome.  Check out the other works of Peter Callesen and prepare to be amazed!

More kids are getting mobile phones: Last year, more than 35% of U.S. children ages 10-11 had cellphones, almost double the amount in 2005, according to Mediamark data, via eMarketer. And more than 5% of 6-7-year-olds had cellphones last year.

That leaves the 8-9-year-olds in the 20% bracket. When will we have to add “Turn off your phones” to the Children’s Church rules? Have you already?

[via Gizmodo]

Erik Fisher, host of WBR Show, joins the NLCast guys to share a great camp shower story where nothing goes the way it should.

Check out the WBR Show website! Or in iTunes!

Trevor tells of a time he tried to use his authority to stop a gang of large kids from smoking in the bathroom.

James goes off on a Walmart employee and faces the consequences.

John tells of a time that a teenage James played a stupid joke on his mother as she gave him a ride home. James feels stupid to this day about it.

GoToMyPC: As secure as online banking. Try it FREE for 30 days.

It’s our 2009 Christmas Show! We talk about Santa and our Christmas memories.

GoToMyPC: As secure as online banking. Try it FREE for 30 days.

If you don’t get it… you need to watch this.

Update: Credit to Les aka @hstrykid via Twitter for the find.

I had a strange conversation tonight with an older gentleman. It started off mostly normal. He mentioned that he missed Radio Theatre. I figured he was talking about something they used to to in the old days. Maybe folks came out and watched people make radio broadcasts… like Garrison Keeler with the whole Prairie Home Companion thing. He talked about how much fun it was and how he wishes you could still see them today… then he started talking about how much money could be made if he and I would start one up… or something like that.

“If I were to go into business, again, I would start a Radio Theatre. You wouldn’t have to worry about the economy… because Radio would put people back to work.”

“The Government could make a group that would tell people if they could read books well or if they were crap. Then all of them could get jobs reading different books.”

“Did you know that there is a radio company out there that uses computers to have a book read by any person… even if they’re dead? Some big shot Radio guy said that they had to stop doing that because of copyrights, but they said, ‘NO! We’re a private company.’ and he let them be.”

“That’s what I love about America. You can have an idea, put it to work and get rich! We don’t have a King who says, ‘You have to give your money to me’. But the Communists…”

“I had one of those Communists come up to me once and said, ‘When do you plan to join the Communist Army?’ and I told him, ‘I don’t plan to join at all!’ and he said, ‘Do you know what we can do to your children?’ and I said, ‘Nothing! I don’t have any!!’’ and I gave him some advice.”

“If you threaten a man with children, you will make a good man angry. And rightly so.”

And about that time someone came up and said I was needed elsewhere. I didn’t realize that they were saving me. I was totally ready to get started on that Radio Theatre in order to combat the Red Army!!

The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area. Why is that funny? Get your participant code and you’ll find out!

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John shares a story that could (should) become America’s newest Thanksgiving tradition.

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1. Pastors

Thank God for Senior Pastors. Where would we be without them? Jobless that’s what. Love um or want to strangle them… be thankful for them. Your anointing filters through his office after all.

2. Volunteers

I know we never have enough… but remember to be thankful for those you have!

3. Parents

Where would we be without parents? We’d be preaching to an empty room! Our job is to support and educate them as they raise up their children in the way they should go. No, they’re not all doing it… but thank God for them all anyway.

4. Children

Every one of these little guys is a gift from God. The fact that we have the honor, privilege and responsibility of ministering to them is huge. Thank God for the simple trust they place in us.

5. Resources

Thank God for the Internet and CMConnect.org.

6. Facilities

Maybe you’re meeting in an old choir closet… but be thankful. Just one missions trip will be enough to make you thankful for anything with a roof, floor and air conditioning. Someone will always have it better… and someone will always have it worse.

7. The Call

God called you to minister to his kids. That Call will keep you going when almost nothing else can.

8. Peers

There are others doing what you do… and most of them are more than willing to share what they know… and need the experiences you have gleaned.

9. Mentors

Those who have them, you know why you should be thankful. Those who don’t have one or more… hurry up and get one so you can be thankful too.

10. Spouses

For almost every children’s minister out there, there is a supportive (or at least tolerant) spouse. Thank God for those who help us (or at least allow us) to do what we do.

What are you thankful for in Children’s Ministry?

When I first started full-time Children’s Ministry, I had a pretty narrow view of what children’s ministry was. In my mind it was all about the Children’s Church service. Sure, I had other programs I was over (Rangers, Missionettes, JBQ, etc.) but they were just the side show to my three-ringed circus. Therefore when it came time to name my department, I naturally went with the name of the kids church. JAM City became JAM City Children’s Ministries.

Not a big deal right? Maybe not, but I soon realized that without intending too, I had set the ministry I was directly involved in as the most important program in the department… and the cost of demeaning the role of the other groups. It took me a couple of years to realize this fact… and for the feelings of my program leaders to get to me. They felt that all I cared about was “my” ministry… and everyone else got whatever was left over. This was my wake up call.

I needed a way to quickly get the point across that things were going to be changing. So along with making myself more available and getting more involved, I made another small change that made a big difference. I renamed the Children’s Department. JAM City Children’s Ministries became The Kids Life Department. I kept JAM City name for kids church only. What did this do? It was a neutral name that showed no preference to any particular program, and it equalized all of the ministries. After all, each program fulfills an equally important role in the spiritual development support we provide to our families.

• Sunday School provides the raw materials.
• Children’s Church is about fellowship and life application.
• Mid-Week Programs are typically about mentoring and teamwork.

The renaming didn’t work miracles… but it was the first step in a process. Now that I’m in a new position, I’m going to be changing the name again. Kid’s City Children’s Ministries will become Suncoast Kids Department, the first step in unifying our volunteer staff and leaders and letting them know that they are valuable and valued.

James is all settled in Florida so it’s time for an E n Vmail show.

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I met my new church today. I was a little worried to be honest. Here I’d moved my family halfway across the country from Kansas City to St. Pete, Florida to work as the Children’s Pastor for a church I’d never even been to. I say I was worried… but honestly, I wasn’t. Two reasons:

1. God has worked out so much and made this move so obviously a part of His will I knew this would be no different.

2. The leadership of this church is what attracted me here. They could have been handling snakes and I would have been okay. (That last part is a lie… but almost not.)

After service there was a Children’s Ministry luncheon prepared to introduce me to the lay staff. I shook a lot of hands, met a lot of great folks and forgot a whole mess of names… though I do recall that two girls who were named after Disney Princesses and a dude named Nathan with a very happy Dad.

I wasn’t prepared to say anything… but I was asked and so I walked to the front. I didn’t feel like telling them about where I had worked, how hardcore it was, how many folks I’d had working with me or any of that. The things that were burning in my heart to share were…

1. This ministry does not need me to fix it.

It’s a healthy ministry where kids are growing and being taken care of. I’m not here to fix something that’s broken, but rather to nurture and direct the growth that is already happening.

2. I can tell instantly that you are good people with great hearts.

I don’t usually talk like this… but there was a healthy, family, friendly spirit in the room. I’m sure I’ll bump heads with someone in there eventually… but they seemed eager to accept my family and hit the road running!

3. I want to honor the work you’ve all done by learning what you do.

These folks have recently said goodbye to a CP and then held down the fort for at least nine weeks waiting for us to arrive. I’m not going to barge in and ignore the hard work they’ve put in. I’m sure we won’t be doing it exactly the same 3-6 months from now… but I’ll bet I’ll enjoy the things they do as much as they enjoy the tricks I have up my sleeve.

All in all… it was a fantastic day. (Except for the part where I told the staff that I had prepared a rap for them.) It was cool seeing the church as just another person before I have to go in and be Pastor James. It allowed me to see things from a first-timer’s perspective (which is a very hard thing to do later on) and let me experience the worship service without pressure.

Tomorrow morning I start my first week in the office. Woo hoo!

John takes a phone call during a very important event.

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I have been at Sheffield Family Life Center in Kansas City, Missouri for the past 10 years. Two of those were as an intern, but the past 8 years I have been involved in full time ministry for youth and children.

November 8th, 2009 will mark my last Sunday at Sheffield. I have taken a position at a church in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Why the move? Family mostly. Jenn and I have felt a ‘stirring’ for a while now. I’ve even told folks I felt like a major life change was coming… but didn’t have a clue what it would be. Jenn and I finally decided to sit town and ask God what the deal was. We started with putting together a 5 year plan for our family. I asked Jennifer where she saw us in 5 years… the first thing out of her mouth was, “I want to raise our children around family”.

I guess I had known that she had a leaning toward her folks. There had been quite a bit of travel back and forth since the kids had shown up. But this was the first time she’d just laid it out.

We prayed about it, wrote out our list, and told God that though we were making plans, it was His that we truly wanted. God rarely speaks to me directly… so we committed to two things:

We’re Moving Slow – We gave God plenty of time to let us know if we were moving the right direction. We literally prayed, “God we ask for brick walls if we’re moving the wrong way… but we look forward to mile markers of conformation if we’re headed the right way.”

We’re not going to make any decisions that we’re not willing to unmake in an instant – Though we make our own plans… we do not put our trust in our own decisions. At any point in this journey that God leads differently, we’re ready to change direction in a moment.

There were a couple of brick walls. They typically hurt when you hit them… but if you’re moving slow… not so much. Eventually after every networking resource I had in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida dried up… I got an email from a Pastor in St. Petersburg. We talked, really hit it off and the next thing I knew I was in Florida for two days of interviews.

Long story short… we’re packing up the house and moving to Florida for the next chapter of our life. The job is everything I’ve wanted. The location is everything Jenn wanted. It’s a wonderful gift from God.

Though it’s a little heartbreaking to leave the kids and folks at Sheffield, I know that they are in God’s loving hands… and that He will send someone along to replace me that will be so great that they’ll make me look like dirty dish water by comparison.

So, reader. Have you ever changed churches? Do you have any tips? Post them, or any other thoughts, in the comments.

If I were you, a listener, I’d be wondering about now if my favorite podcast was possibly gone for good. I’m here to tell you that you have nothing to worry about.

Trevor, John and I are just taking a little break due to some recent major life changes. You can expect a new show as recently as November 10th… but possibly not till November 16th.

In the mean time, you can either go back into the archives and listen to some old shows… or check out Geek Loves Nerd or the Gospel of Kennison.

They say the average youth or children’s minister stays in a position about three years. Leaving a ministry position is apparently a common part of our ministry lives. Though I never planned on joining the statistic… my family and I have accepted a position at a church in St. Petersburg, Florida and will be moving from Kansas City in two weeks.

My wife and I have felt for about a year that we’ve been waiting for something but we didn’t know what. Apparently God was preparing our hearts for a transition. Though we weren’t planning to go anywhere, we committed ourselves to prayer and found that God had released us and was calling us elsewhere. I’m pleased to say that we’re leaving on great terms… no drama to report. Our primary reason for the move is to be closer to family. This has become very important to us since we’ve had children.

Once a few years ago, I was going through a pretty dark time in my life. No moral failure or anything like that… I was just “going through” as they say. I was feeling as if I wanted to be done with ministry… that I wanted to leave… to get away from the pressure. I talked to a mentor of mine and he gave me some sound advice that I wanted to share in this context. He asked me to recall when God called me to my current position. I was instantly able to remember that moment. He said, “When it’s time to go, He’ll release you the same way. He called you here… he’ll call you away.” His words really clarified things for me. I realized that leaving wasn’t my choice to make. I remained faithful… and God was good.

So when is it time to leave? When God says. It makes all the difference. On those bad days in ministry sometimes the Call is the only thing that keeps you hanging in there. Knowing that in spite of all of our shortcomings and flaws, that you know that you know that God put you where you are can give us the strength we need to hold on. I’m finding that I need that same assurance as I transition between seasons in ministry. Thank God I have it. I know my future is secure, in spite of all of the unknowns, because we’re following the path that has been laid out for us by our Heavenly Father.

Those of you who may be struggling where you are… I would urge you to remember that moment God called you to be where you are. If you want to leave, ask… but wait for that call to go before you throw in the towel. God still had a lot of work to do on me that would have not been possible if I had left before. If he doesn’t release you it’s because he has unfinished work to do in your life and the lives you minister to. Trust that.

Most of us write up and use pretty basic rules for Children’s Church: Don’t talk, keep your hands to your self, participate, limit bathroom use, blah, blah blah. I’m finding that those just aren’t cutting it these days. There are so many issues that the basic rules just don’t cover. I suggest we add the following to our policies and procedures manuals immediately!

Rules I Wish I Could Use:

For Kids

• You shall not turn your Sunday School papers into airplanes or roll them into weapons.
• If we have drums, you are not allowed to play them. Ever. If you do we will cancel your next birthday.
• Do not groan after my movie video clip illustration is over.
• The answer to every question I ask is not “God”.
• Please thank your parents on our behalf for buying you a cell phone… right after you tell them you lost it.
• Knock, knock jokes are banned for life.
• Understand this: Even though I don’t have your birthday and age memorized… I still love you!
• Please tell your friends we have bibles and coats here at the church… free gifts from all of you who have left yours here.
• Nobody stole your socks.
• Please stay completely still and quiet during worship but move around and talk as much as you want during the sermon.
• Prayer requests are not a chance to tell a story.
• If your grandmother is dead… there’s really no reason to pray for her… again.
• Offering goes in the plate… not in the coke machine after service.
• Please explain to we leaders how you fit all that stuff in that tiny pink purse.
• Keep your dangum shoes on girls!

For Parents

• Parent’s are required to get angry when they arrive late for check-in. We’re only open for an hour after all… only 30 minutes shorter than the service itself… I’d be angry too!
• Parent’s must pick up their children within 15 minutes of the end of service. Those who don’t will have their children given to someone who will raise them properly.
• Deadlines apply to everyone… except you. You’re special.
• Please don’t act like you’re doing us a favor my dropping off your child. It’s not a problem for me… but some of these folks feel a little under appreciated when you act that way.
• By all means, fill up a van full of kids, bring them to church and then refuse to volunteer!
• Offering goes up one dollar for every minute you are late to church.
• Those papers we send home… they’re useful… and not just as replacement floor mats in the minivan.
• I know your kid is perfect… like you… but we still need him to stop stabbing others.
• Thanks for your donation… but the homeless don’t like cans of pepper hulls either.

For Volunteers

• If you’ve been sick since Wednesday, please wait to call in till Saturday night or (even better) Sunday morning just before service. For a bonus, do it via facebook!
• Children’s Ministry is probably not the best place to work off your community service hours.
• You can pass a background check… but if you smell funny, I’m not going to approve you to work with kids. It’s called mercy.
• Volunteers who call in sick for the Super Bowl will have the kids from their abandoned class delivered to their home in time for the game.
• Yes, random church member with an agenda, I’d love to create a class wrapped around your goat farm.
• Please hold all important, drama-filled conversations until right before service starts. Preferably while I’m trying to get PowerPoint to work.
• All scary looking relatives of yours are automatically cleared to sit through kids church. Since you asked me with them standing right there so I couldn’t say no. I’ll be sure to send a couple of mine over to watch you sleep tonight in return.
• If you’re going to read right out of the curriculum, at least hold the book right-side up.

Do you have any of your own rules we should add? Put them in the comments!

I’ve just launched a new podcast called “/exit” (slash exit). It’s a show for folks who play to much World of Warcraft and would like help finding something better to do with their time.

Check it out and give me your feedback!

/exit – Life After WOW

James tells of a time a nerd kid hit on his future wife.

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We’ve had a wiki before… but it was hosted off site and was focused exclusively on Nobody’s Listening. We’ve got a brand new self-hosted site that works exactly like Wikipedia. It has been graciously filled with most of it’s existing content by listener, Tavin. She’s awesome.

You can be awesome too! Check out the Wiki, have a look around, sign up and start fleshing out content yourself!

NLCast Network Wiki

James, Trevor and John read and respond to listener email and voicemail.

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There will be a show on the feed tomorrow… but we recorded it on Sunday night.

We announced it on Twitter… if you’re not following me… you should!

http://twitter.com/nlcast

Due to my schedule this week, I’m not on my usual (nearly) daily blogging schedule… but I wanted to just share a little of what I’m experiencing from God right now. My hope is that it will lift you up.

I really feel like God loves me right now.

I always know he does… but we live in a world that makes that fact a little less than obvious sometimes. Knowing God loves me has carried me through a lot of rough times. Trusting and believing that He has my best in mind… that He’s out there watching over me… that He will never leave or forget about me… those things keep me going on and standing as strong as I can. But that being said, it’s nice to have the feeling once in a while too.

I’ve never been very touchy-feely with God. My childhood taught me that you can’t trust your feelings. So I trusted in hard facts about God. That was safe… ultimately I suppose they took less faith to believe in as well, but I digress. I obviously over compensated, as we adults often do, and so rather than the sensible thing, experiencing feelings but not making life changing decisions based on them, I grew to despise them. They were something for weaker Christians… I didn’t need them. I was almost proud of the fact that I didn’t need to FEEL God in order to believe in Him.

But it got lonely.

I feel the love of my wife. My children are both crazy about me… I love the way that makes me feel. Feelings are awesome… so I really wasn’t opposed to them… only when it came to the spiritual side of things. I wish I had more to write down at this point… but now we’re caught up to the current day… and I’m totally blown away with the amount of love that God, my Father, has expressed to my family.

You know how you feel when someone gives you the perfect gift? A gift that shows that shows you how well they know you? It may not even be very expensive… or maybe it’s even handmade… but the sentiment behind the gift makes it priceless. Have you ever cried after opening something at a birthday or Christmas? I have (it was a Buzz Lightyear watch)… but this gift that God is giving to us is so personal, so perfect, so spot-on… it simply blows my mind. It truly feels like a dream. Unreal.

God’s love feels good for a change. It’s nice.

Let’s be honest, sometimes His love hurts. It urges us to grow and go to places we’re not comfortable going. It shines the light of Truth into the dark corners of our souls… places where ugly things hide. It’s not fun being broken and rebuilt for His use. It doesn’t feel good. I guess I thought that’s all there was. Maybe I was just really screwed up and needed a lot of extra work. Maybe I just fought it and hurt myself. Who cares.

God, thank you for your amazing love. I’ve always had it… but thanks for making it feel so good this time. *tears*

I’m interested in what you do (or don’t do) for Halloween. So let’s flip the script here today and you tell me something.

What are you doing this year for your kids & community for Halloween?

Leave your responses in the comments.

After Trevor tells a story of stealing nameplates in High School, he decides that he wasn’t a great kid after all.

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I’ve got a whole new look and some new artwork up over at DrawYouApicture.com. Check it out… and all of the rest of my portfolio. If I can draw you a picture… let me know!

DrawYouAPicture.com

You must have a lot of free time…

How do you get it all done?

These are just a couple examples of the questions and comments that I get here and there throughout the average week. I thought I’d take a moment and address it and tell you a little about how I do 5 podcasts, a webcomic and blog nearly every day and still hold down a job, be a husband and super-involved father of two.

It doesn’t take up as much time as you think.

I do 5 podcasts… and that sounds like it must take forever… but not as much as you might think. From the very beginning I created the shows to be easy to produce and over the years I’ve worked very hard to simplify and streamline the entire process.

I created shows that require very little pre-show prep. The show with the most prep required is Nobody’s Listening and that’s only because there are a ton of email and voicemails that have to be read and added to the show notes. Geek Loves Nerd is super easy as we just pick a topic during the week and just sit and record. Children’s Ministry Monthly is similar in that I just choose a topic and write a few notes of my experiences with the subject and that’s about it. The Gospel of Kennison is recorded in the car on the way to somewhere with a portable audio recorder. I Like Genius’s pre-show prep is all done via emails randomly through the week as I try to get interviews with interesting and creative people.

As for recording, all of the shows, with the exception of GOK, are between 45-60 mins. Add about 15 minutes to that and the front and the back for setup and such and we’re at an hour and a half per show.

Post-production used to take me forever. I once recorded each voice on different tracks and remixed them… it took hours. Now it’s super simple. Everything is recorded in real time down to a single stereo track. Live to hard drive as they say. After we’re done recording I typically only have to trim and dead air off the front and end of the show, Hard Limit and Normalize it, encode it to MP3, upload it and post it. The whole process maybe takes 30 minutes these days.

I do most of it early and late.

I blog in the early morning during breakfast. I record podcasts late at night. Nobody cares what I do with my spare time after the kids are in bed at 9pm. So from 9:30 to 12… it’s my time. Jenn and I record GLN on Monday nights. Tuesday nights are NLCast. I Like Genius are done randomly throughout the week… but typically on Thursday or Friday evenings. GOK is whenever I’m in the car. CMMonthly is once a month on a Sunday evening. No time has been taken away from my family, chores or other responsibilities. The webcomic is done on Sunday evenings… takes about an hour.

So the tricks and tips? The KISS principal comes into play. If you going to do a lot of podcasting and blogging… Keep It Simple Stupid!

Guest host Jennifer of Geek Loves Nerd crashes the party to share a series of stories of the Kennison’s pets… all of whom have met with a tragic end.

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The first episode of I Like Genius is live! Huge thanks to my guest, Christopher Stapleton (ChickenPopPod & The Folding Chair).

I Like Genius is a podcast that examines the everyday people behind some of the most creative and viral content on the internet and turning entertainment into inspiration.

It’s not listed in iTunes yet… but in the mean time here are some subscription options:

iTunes: Subscribe

Zune: Subscribe

Podcast RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ilikegenius

[Link]

This is great! Enjoy!

Anyone who’s spent any time around the blog here knows that certain things strike me as completely genius. I’m inspired by acts of sheer creativity. That is why I’m going to be launching a brand new podcast that will focus on the everyday (and many times unknown) people behind the creative photos, videos, podcasts, songs, and Lego sculptures (for starters) that make the rounds on the internets.

Those who subscribe to my audio journal, The GOK: Gospel of Kennison, know that I’ve been wanting to do a show on creativity for some time. I just needed to find the angle I wanted to come at it from. My goal with the show is to share the absolute wonder I experience when I see something creative online. I want to turn the entertaining into the inspiring.

We’ll see how it goes.

I don’t know exactly when the fist episode will come out but in the mean time you can check out the future location of the show at http://ilikegenius.com. Stay tuned!

John’s ex-girlfriend found us. OMG.

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Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

Enjoy!

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Next week is a theme show. Send us your Break-Up stories now!

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I’ll admit something… I do a character. His name is JoJo The Christian Clown. I hate clowns. JoJo wrote a song for my daughter a while back and I made a video of it and shared it with the internets. Now I’m sharing it with you. It has no redeeming value at all. It will become stuck in your head and you may sing it out loud at some point today. Just a warning.

You can download the mp3 here.

And check out this Kindergarten class that performed the song for their Family Night. I just found the video last night!

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If you were leaving your position in three months… and wanted to leave the ministry you’d been building in the best condition possible… what would you do in the next 30 days?

I have recently put this challenge to myself and realized I had a vision or two that I had been holding off on for no good reason. I immediately called a meeting and boldly laid out my vision and I think things are going to start moving that direction. It’s exciting.

It’s the same as when you sell your home. There are a ton of things that you suddenly realize you need to fix that you were living with and had actually grown to accept. Looking at your home through a buyers eyes helps you see things in a more honest light. This exercise can help us to light a fire under ourselves to jump on those projects, programs, tasks or whatever that we’ve gotten used to being less than what we’ve wanted them to be.

Today was a pretty rough Sunday. The kids were nuts but the worst behavior come from a few parents who were way out of line. Days like that can make you wonder why you even bother. If the parents don’t appreciate it… what’s the point?

God had a simple reminder for me:

You’re not serving them… you’re serving me.

God will never disrespect you. He never looks down on you for being a servant. He is always proud, always thrilled with your service. He is the reason we do what we do. He’s always worth working for.

I hope that sample phrase ministers to you as much as it did me. It falls into the category of things you know you know… but need to be reminded of in a fresh way once in a while.

Plus… it was only two sets of parents… not all of them.

I use GoDaddy.com for hosting and domain registration. In my experience they are the cheapest and best for my purposes. You can save yourself some money (and help out the show) by using our codes.

I use WordPress for the website itself. WordPress is an excellent, free and easy to learn blogging platform that allows you to install themes that change the look and feel of your site instantly without changing the content itself. GoDaddy hosting makes installing WordPress simple by doing it for you.

The WordPress theme I use currently is a modified version of a premium theme called Simplista by WP Now. They liked what I did with the site so much, they asked to feature it in their Showcase.

I use a lot of plug-ins for WordPress. Plug-ins are free and easy to install. They add additional features to your WordPress blog that do not exist in the base platform. Here’s a list of what I use:

• Akismet – Checks comments for spam.
• All in One SEO Pack – Search Engine Optimization plug-in.
• Audio Player – Mp3 Player.
• Blubrry PowerPress – Adds excellent podcasting support to WordPress.
• Clean Archives Reloaded – Javascript-enhanced post archive list generator.
• Contact Form 7 – A contact form plugin. Simple and flexible.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Generates a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of the blog.
• IntenseDebate – Comment enhancement plugin.
• Lightbox 2 – Overlays linked to images in the current page rather than loading in a new page.
• Mail From – Changes the default address that WordPress uses to send automated emails.
• Redirection – Manages 301 redirects.
• Shockingly Simple Favicon – Simple way to add a favicon to your site.
• Simple:Press Forum – An excellent WordPress forum plugin.
• Simple Feed Copyright – Adds a copyright notice at the end of full text articles in your feed.
• To Do List – Adds a to-do list to your WP dashboard.
• WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, etc.
• WordPress Mobile Edition – Redirects mobile visitors to a mobile phone friendly version of the site.
• WP-Optimize – Keeps the database clean.
• WP-PageNavi – Adds an advanced paging navigation structure.
• WP-Polls – Adds an AJAX polling system to WP.
• WP Greet Box – Shows a different message to visitors depending on which site they came in from.
• WP Post Thumbnail – Enables you to crop and save thumbnail images without manually adding custom fields.
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Adds a list of related posts to the end of a blog entry.

If you have questions about How I Podcast, you can visit the Podcast Resources category for a list of articles that will help you get started.

Do you have any great WordPress themes or plugins to share? Post them in the comments!

Check out what my little sister does with her spare time! So much talent.

I only dream of making cakes… she’s actually doing it!

Check out her growing Flicker set of cakes she’s made.

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See!

Again, thanks to our wonderful listeners who have downloaded and given us wonderful iTunes reviews… we’ve been featured again in iTunes. Thanks peeps!

Check it out!

9. Jokes that only the hosts get… not even regular listeners.

8. Um… (dead air) um… ah. Ummmm.

7. Hosts talking about technical glitches forever.

6. Hosts that talk like they’re bored out of their mind. Why should I care if you don’t?

5. Shows with no discernable format between episodes.

4. Shows that go on for over an hour, but have the content of a 15-30 minute show.

3. Hosts that talk to people off mic that aren’t in the show. It’s so fun hearing one side of a conversation!

2. When the host sounds like he’s recording in the middle of a echo chamber standing about 10 feet from the mic.

1. Heavy breathing and mouth noises… like smacking. *shiver*

I’m just curious about the folks reading and contributing to CMMonthly.com.

Trevor’s wife guest-hosts and shares a story about getting busted while checking what her husband had on under his kilt.

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When it came time for me to start doing my own Audio Journal I chose GOK. Originally I tried to add the audio files to this site… but they keep getting added into the NLCast podcast feed which is not what I want. I went ahead and created a sub-site for GOK.

Here’s the info:

GOK: Gospel of Kennison – http://nlcast.com/gok

Podcast Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GofK

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=319642618

Zune: zune://subscribe/?Gospel%20of%20Kennison=http://feeds2.feedburner.com/GofK

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Funny OR memorable… let me explain before we dive in. I had someone tell me once, “If you can’t be good… be memorable!” A creed all underachievers can live by!

Here are some random things I say to kids to help break the ice when I meet them. Some are funny… others are just memorable. Some are one liners, others take a bit of setup.

When you’re meeting a child or checking them in… after you’ve asked their name and age… find out if they’re married.

When guessing a child’s age… never try to be accurate… guess at least two years higher than what you’re thinking. You’ll impress them because every child wants to be bigger.

Ask groups of siblings who’s got the messiest room… who eats the most… who runs the fastest. Fingers will be flying.

With twins… always ask who’s oldest. Then who’s smartest.

All my kids know that they aren’t allowed to get married till they’re 35.

After service when kids are heading out with their parents, tell them, “Take a nap and clean your room!” You’ll get an amen from Mom.

Tell Mom that we decided that her child was so good in children’s church we decided that he/she could drive home today.

Tell a large group that if they don’t listen… we’re canceling everyone’s birthday! (with a huge smile of course!)

When a child tells me it’s their birthday, I congratulate them, ask them their age… and what did they get ME!

Before and after Christmas, make it clear that if anyone gets any (fill in your favorite stuff here… for me it’s Buzz Lightyear stuff) they can bring it to you rather than return it to the store.

What one-liners and jokes do you use to play with your kids?

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After nearly two years… we’ve changed our call-in number. The old one will work for the next 3 months… but then it’s all gone. Make sure to update the phone number in you cell. You don’t have NLCast in your cell? Add it now!

What’s that number?

209-5NLCAST

or (209-565-2278)

Call us right now!

Check out Geek is Chic Podcast and chicken pop pod!

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That’s all I got.

This will mark the first of THREE WEEKS of no shows. Consider it our Summer Vacation.

We’ll see you fine folks at the end of next month!

We’re going to try to do some recording tonight. Possibly do three shows in advance to fill in the one we missed last night and the two we’d miss otherwise.

I’ve had a few podcasters ask how being featured in iTunes affected things around here. You can see the graph above. I don’t want to go into numbers… I’m sure there are plenty of people who are blowing me away… and others who would think I was bragging.

I think you can tell from the graph that we had a 500% increase in our downloads during that period… then it seems to have settled to about half that. So it’s both a blessing and a curse. Obviously more downloads are good…. but you have to face the fact that about half the people who found you didn’t care for your show.

Thanks again iTunes! Feel free to feature us again any time!

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I’ve found a new site theme I like and am working on modifying it to our purposes. It’ll be up by the end of the week or sooner. The forums and all of the pages and such will be unaffected. My goal is to improve the site, not break it for those who use it.

So next time you visit… and the whole site looks different… don’t freak out. It’s still the same place. Just has a new coat of paint.

What I Use

Recording & Mixing Software

• Adobe Audition 3.0 – To record, mix podcasts
• SoundByte – Computerized cart system to play music and stingers in real-time
• Levelator – It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use.
• WinLame – To encode wav to mp3
• ID3 Tag Writer
• Skype – Internet phone service for recording off-site co-hosts

Graphics Software

• Photoshop
• Picnik.com – Online image editor

Hardware

• Self-built Desktop Computer dual-booting Vista and XP (XP for recording)
• 2nd Dell Laptop (older lappy to get on the Internet and run Skype)
• Alesis Multi Mix 8 Firewire – External sound card & mixer
• Large Diaphragm Condenser Mic
• Headphones
• Plosive Filters

Web Hosting & Software

• Libsyn – Media Hosting
• GoDaddy – Domain Registration and Web Hosting
• Self-Hosted WordPress – Free blogging platform
• Blubrry PowerPress – Plugin for WordPress that generates a podcast RSS feed and puts a player on your website
• Ustream.tv – Live video feed so listeners can watch the show as it is being recorded.

How I Do It

Skype Recording Setup

I use two computers: A laptop running Skype and a desktop recording with Audition. I run the Skype-top’s audio output into a channel on the mixer where it is recorded on it’s own track in Audition. Then I run a main mix minus the co-hosts tracks back into the mic (line—in) of the Skype-top (see illustration). If I send them the main mix (that I hear) the subtle delay that Skype has will result in the co-hosts hearing themselves up to a full second after they spoke. So I send them the main mix, minus their own voices. This is called a mix-minus.

My condenser mic is plugged into the mixer’s first channel. A second mic goes into input two. Input three has the output from the Skype-top. Input seven is the output from my recoding machine to pick up sound effects and voicemails.

In Audition I record using the Multi-track View. I record using three tracks. Track one records me. Track two records my co-hosts on Skype. Track three records the computer (track 7 from the mixer). I might mention that since I use a Firewire Mixer which acts as a separate soundcard for the recording computer, I’m able to use SoundByte to play bumpers and voicemails using the computers native soundcard which is what goes into track seven on the mixer.

Live Video Stream

Ustream makes streaming your show a simple and cheap (free) feature for your listeners. Basically all I do is run a main mix off the mixer with a 1/4” cable into the mic input of a laptop. This laptop also has a webcam. I login to Ustream and begin broadcasting. I set things so that the video comes from the cam, but the audio comes from the line-in (mic) input. Listeners get to hear everything we hear.

Mixing

Since I record all of the sounds for my show in real time to different tracks, my first step is to adjust the volume levels between my vocal track and the skype track. I mix them down to a mono file and save that file. I open up Levelator and run the new mixed vocal track through it and then pull it back into Audition replacing the original vocal tracks in the multi track edit view.

Then I pull up the volume of the music track. If the track recorded to low, I’ll import the original music clips and overlay the music track then mute it. This gives the music a first generation sound and eliminates any background noise a third track would normally add.

Then I import the voicemails that weren’t played in the show and place them at the end. I often try to improve the volume of these tracks so listeners don’t have to turn up or down their players. I do this by looking at the waveform to see where most of the waves are peakiing. I run a Hard Limit to bring all of the waves to that level then Normalize to –1.

The important thing to note before we mix down our session is to make sure all of your various wavforms (voicemails, your voice track, music, sound effects, etc.) sound (in your ears) the same volume. In the past I used to look at the peaks of the wav files or the levels of the volume sliders but none of that matters if your ear is telling you something is louder than it should be.

After I’ve got everything right, I mix down all the wav files to a stereo wavform. If you’re not using a lot of music, you might want to mix to mono. You’ll just be doubling the size of your mp3 for no reason.

I run a Hard Limit at –4 then Normalize to –1. I save the wav as a 16 bit stereo wav file.

Encoding

I encode it using the default settings for High Quality using WinLame (to convert the file from wav to mp3). Then pull it into ID3 Tag Writer and give it a Title, Artist, Album, Comments and Art (300×300 album image). It also has a setting to change the filename based on the track, title and album. It’s best if you have a consistent way of naming your tracks and files.

Posting

I use Filezilla and upload my mp3 to Libsyn. Libsyn has a built in blog that you can use to publish your shows. It will also generate your feed that you can submit to iTunes. I chose to host my website and feed under my own url. I suggest you do the same.

In Libsyn under the Media Files tab I select my new episode, right click on the ‘direct download’ link in the left sidebar, and copy the link. Then in WordPress write a new post and add that link to the Powerpress portion of your post. Powerpress will automatically detect the length and size of your file… so once you paste that url, publish that post!

I then pull up iTunes and download my own show…. just to make sure everything went up correctly.

Conclusion

Every podcast producer will have their own way of doing things, and eventually you will to… but this is how I do it. My hope is that this will shave some time off of our learning curve. If you have any questions not answered here, post a comment or email me and I’ll see if I can help.

A squirrel on a motorcycle.

I drew it by request for my sister.

Click to make it big.

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I recently finished a couple more commissions for some great folks over at DrawYouAPicture. I’ve also got a whole new website to boot. Check it out.

DrawYouAPicture.com

Every week in JAM City, our elementary children’s church) I perform the live character JoJo The Christian Clown. He’s a newly saved overly-excited Christian who is not allowed to work in children’s church… but that’s not going to stop him from trying to prove to everyone he’s got what it takes.

This video was shot as a service intro for our 2009 graduation service. I had to be in the room the entire time… so this video was born. The little girl is my daughter. She’s awesome.

For more JoJo goodness, check out his other video. Note: his voice is different now because I got tired of folks saying he sounded like Adam Sandler!

Stuff like this makes me smile so hard. Genius. Would never fit in any home kitchen in the entire world… but still genius.

[via The Awesomer]

It’s a theme show. A theme show about fire. So the show’s theme is fire themed. James, Trevor and John ‘put out’ their best fire-related stories… and yours as well!

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Check out WBR Podcast and Chicken Pop Pod.

The other week, you folks over at iTunes featured Nobody’s Listening on the main Podcast page in the iTunes Store. I just wanted to saw thanks! I’ve looked for a place to send an email to say thanks… but couldn’t find anything… and I don’t need tech support.

iTunes has been very good to NLCast over the years. I know NLCast is a bit of an oddity in the top Comedy Podcast scene. We’re clean, we’re not super popular… but you see fit to keep us there (or allow us to stay) and it is very much appreciated. Even early on you folks featured us as a New and Notable… and even What’s Hot (back when you did that). Again, thank you.

It was a huge honor, a huge surprise, and a huge boost to our listener-ship. As I type this I’m looking at the spot where our graphics were featured. An ad for ESPN is in it’s place. It only makes it more special. Little old NLCast was featured in a spot now reserved for ESPN! How cool is that.

So from myself, Trevor and John, my co-hosts:

Thanks you mysterious folks at iTunes. Thanks a whole bunch.

Peace,

James

This week John tells a couple of stories about playing with fire.Also featuring some of the best listener submitted stories of all time.

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It’s an all e-n-vmail show. Fluffy bees, wookie cushions, forgotten visitors, root canals, lazy McDonald’s employees, ninja bikers and more!

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…and read the reviews on this shirt.

I’m honored that Nobody’s Listening has been featured on iTunes. It’s more than I could have ever hoped for. No scarasm at all I assure you! You should have seen me when I saw it. I squeeled like a female middle schooler.

Thanks to the folks over at iTunes for putting us up… but thanks most of all to our listeners who have left us nearly 300 iTunes reviews! Without you folks, it just wouldn’t be happening.

Check it out: here, here, here and here.

This week we’re joined by our new guest-host John, but Trevor gets the featured story this week… and it’s a doozy.

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Check out our new Frappr Map.

Visit DrawYouAPicture.com to see larger versions of our new caricatures.

Visit CleanCasts.com the all-new clean podcast directory.

For quite a few months now I have struggled with my love of Firefox because though it will keep usernames and passwords saved, it would not keep me logged in to my favorite sites. Namely Gmail and my WordPress blogs.

It’s irritating to have to log-in every time you want to Twitter or reply to a Facebook comment. It was nearly annoying enough to make me switch back to Internet Explorer… but not quite enough.

The issue only presented itself when I closed the browser or tab. It seemed that whatever cookie was being used would be erased. I checked all the obvious things like making sure cookies were enabled. I checked for exceptions to make sure I wasn’t blocking any access to these websites. Nothing fixed it. I even completely uninstalled Firefox twice… to no avail.

Here’s what worked:

I had to delete the default Firefox profile. I didn’t even know I had a profile… but its there. You can find information on managing and removing profiles here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles

When you delete the default profile it resets Firefox. It removes all of your bookmarks and plug-ins. If you use Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) you can reinstall the plug-in and simply re-sync your bookmarks as I did.

That’s it! Once I deleted that profile, restarted Firefox, re-synced my bookmarks… I’ve had no problem staying logged in!

I hope that helps someone out there. In my many Google searches trying to fix this, I found that it seems to be a pretty common issue… but with very little in the way of fixes for it.

Many of you are asking and wondering who that third guy is. Well, that’s John from Episode 103 – A Mighty Wind. Trevor and I have invited John to become a permanent guest-host and fill in that third chair.

We’ll have more info on John added to our About page as soon as he gives us some. We’re already disappointed in him.

We’ve got a whole new set of banners that reflect our updated look. Grab a few and post them around your blog, facebook or whatever. Spread the Gospel of Kennison!

New NLCast Banners

I spent some time tweaking the site yesterday. Here are a list of some of the changes.

• New header image featuring caricatures of the hosts and our new slogan.
• Minimize Comic button added to main toolbar (far right). Needs more work, but it’s a start.
• “Community” item added to main menu.
• “Forums” moved under Community.
• New pages: Social Networking, Frapper Map, Podcast Archives, Promo, Banners.
• Added NLCast logo bullet to post titles.
• Changed formatting of images in posts.
• Updated About page.
• All new 404 page.
• Removed NLCast Connections from sidebar (items added to Community tab)

Broke Ya, “I have news for you!”, “Let’s Just Say”, Lucy,
and more!

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For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/podcasts

This single feed url contains Nobody’s Listening, Geek Loves Nerd, Children’s Ministry Monthly AND the newly created audio journal, GOK: Gospel of Kennison. Woo-hoo!

Here it is:

• Kennison Master Feed
• Subscribe with iTunes
• Subscribe with Zune

This single feed url contains Nobody’s Listening, Geek Loves Nerd, Children’s Ministry Monthly AND the newly created audio journal, GOK: Gospel of Kennison. Woo-hoo!

Here it is:

• Kennison Master Feed
• Subscribe with iTunes
• Subscribe with Zune

Huge props to Logan for the mashup at the end and Mike for the “News for You” mashup at the opening.

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• Comming Soon: The Gospel of Kennison
  Posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 in News and Info – Comments: (4)
  It’s nothing big… just my personal audio journal. But maybe, just maybe… it is just that big!
• From Episode 103: Carman’s “The Champion”
  Posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (4)
  During the end of Episode 103, John and I started discussing and quoting from an artist that couldn’t be named. The artist was Carman. The song was The Champion. This used to be my favorite song of all time. It’s a little played out for me now.Thanks John!
• GOK 1 – Geek Loves Nerd
  Posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 in Gospel of Kennison – Comments: (3)
  I thought the best way to start this off was to talk about my wife a bit.
• Grocery Store Greatness
  Posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (7)
  Thanks Action Dan! I think all of us can relate to yelling out random things while on Auto Pilot.I know one reader in particular that sill blames NLCast for accidentally selling beer to a minor.
• Weekend Poll: Snap, Crackle or Pop?
  Posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 in Community – Comments: (6)
  Which was your favorite of the three?

There’s actually a lot more than could be put into the comic:

This just happened to me and I knew I would have to share it with you and all the listeners.  At school, I saw that one of my friends got a sunburn over the weekend all over her face.  I thought it would be funny to poke her face.

So, I went to poke her face right under her eyes and next to her nose.  As I went to poke her, she moved her head.  This is going to sound hard to believe, but I swear she turned her head at the right moment and my finger went all the way up her nose.  Luckily, no one got a bloody nose.  Everyone laughed about it, including me, as I went to get some Germ-X and went directly to my seat before class started.

To make the story worse, that day at lunch, one of my friends was letting people dip their fingers in icing and eat it off their fingers at the lunch table.  Just as I ate the icing off of my finger, the girl who got sunburned reminded me that the finger I just stuck in my mouth was the same finger that had been in her nose two hours ago.  Hope you guys enjoy the story.

Thanks,

Adam

It’s nothing big… just my personal audio journal. But maybe, just maybe… it is just that big!

Click the link but be prepared for the most detailed set of photos you’re likely to see on such a project. I wish I had a machine shop!

Wall-E Case Mod

Special thanks to Daniel B. for the mashup!

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Check out CleanCasts.com for more clean podcast goodness!

A listener (Chris AND JJ) sent me an email about this awesome Taun-taun sleeping bag… which is awesome and related to a comic I did a while back. It was put up by ThinkGeek.com as an April Fool’s gag. It’s genius. I love the intestinal print lining and the lightsaber zipper pull that opens the ‘belly’. Genius!

It seems that this thing may become a real product.. and this wouldn’t be the first time. The folks at ThinkGeek are in the process of getting permission to create and sell these things. Let’s home Lucas is in a good mood!

Check out the store page at ThinkGeek and their April Fool’s gags of year’s past.

I know one reader in particular that sill blames NLCast for accidentally selling beer to a minor.

• Announcing the launch of CleanCasts.com – The Clean Podcast Directory
  Posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 in News and Info – Comments: (3)
  I’ve been hinting about a new project for a little while now… and today’s the day to let the world know!CleanCasts is a directory dedicated to listing clean podcasts (G and PG)… and that’s about it.If you’re a listener, head over and check out the growing list of shows and be sure to tell your favorite clean podcast so they can get listed.
• Episode 102 – Tickey The Ratmouse
  Posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 in Podcasts – Comments: (2)
  Trevor gets pwnd by his 2 year old daughter. James is driven mad by a ticking noise in his basement. Someone mentions Tom Selleck.Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days!
• Mice Spreading The Gospel
  Posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 in Genius – Comments: (2)
  Love it!
• The Gospel of Kennison
  Posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (5)
  Color! Not a submitted story! What’s the Gospel of Kennison? I’ll explain.Color because it takes just as long to fill with shades of gray as color… so why not.Not a submitted story because my internet went down and I couldn’t scour through stories. I like what I came up with and it may begin a trend.The Gospel of Kennison (GOK) is best explained at the NLCast Wiki.
• Velma Gets Hot
  Posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (5)
  For a toon anyway… thanks to a Dove Commercial.View the video after the jump.

I’ve been hinting about a new project for a little while now… and today’s the day to let the world know!

CleanCasts is a directory dedicated to listing clean podcasts (G and PG)… and that’s about it.

If you’re a listener, head over and check out the growing list of shows and be sure to tell your favorite clean podcast so they can get listed.

If you’re a podcaster with a G or PG rated show, head over and add your site today!

CleanCasts.com

HUGE THANKS go out to Philip M. Hofer (Frumph) from WebComicPlanet.com for his amazing coding skill and willingness to give.

I just got through with a great project. Three pets were illustrated for a website header.

Check it out.

If I can draw something for you… let me know!

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• Episode 101 – The Giant Meatball
  Posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 in Podcasts – Comments: (2)
  Trevor tells a couple of stories about working for a giant meatball where people push buttons all day. James talks about blowing bubbles in chocolate milk and putting rings on things he likes. Then they read your stories and make fun of middle schoolers. Another typical show really.Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days!
• It’s Going Well, Thanks For Asking
  Posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 in News and Info – Comments: (0)
  Once in a while I’m going to start giving an NLCast State of the Union update of sorts. Here goes.Nobody’s Listening PodcastThe show’s going well… better than ever in my opinion. We just recoded Episode 100 last Monday! What a milestone. Every week I’m overwhelmed by the amount of listener participation we receive. I try to read or play almost everything we get.
• Jed I. Knight Name Makes Rednecks Look Intellegent
  Posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (3)
  Part of me loves this… most of me cringes. I’m glad my Dad was less involved than he was in my life… and the fact that I beat the release of the first movie by three years.Otherwise my name might have been Ben K Nobi… well, now it couldn’t because Nobi wasn’t my last name… but still! I could have been in danger!
• Weekend Poll: Who’s Your Favorite Ninja Turtle?
  Posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 in Uncategorized – Comments: (4)
  I was playing the classic TMNT arcade game on my 360 with my daughter tonight. It got me thinking about the late 80′s-early 90′s era when Ninja Turtles were so hot. I was in High School and though I didn’t give a lick about the cartoon, the trade paperbacks of the classic Eastman and Laird books were read through over and over again.
• Where The Wild Things Are Movie Trailer
  Posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (1)
  I’m going to have to see this movie. It looks a little artsy… but in a good way. Much in the way The Little Prince was random… but in a good way.

Color because it takes just as long to fill with shades of gray as color… so why not.

Not a submitted story because my internet went down and I couldn’t scour through stories. I like what I came up with and it may begin a trend.

The Gospel of Kennison (GOK) is best explained at the NLCast Wiki.

Of course you could just listen to the episode that the joke came from.

Same goes for Geek Loves Nerd… so don’t freak out.

Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/podcasts

Nobody’s Listening Podcast
The show’s going well… better than ever in my opinion. We just recoded Episode 100 last Monday! What a milestone. Every week I’m overwhelmed by the amount of listener participation we receive. I try to read or play almost everything we get… but every week our backlog grows. A good problem to have I guess.

Nobody’s Listening Webcomic
So far I’ve pushed out 6 weekly comics based on stories submitted by our listeners. Traffic to the new comics is good. I really enjoy the challenge of condensing and illustrating folks’ stories.

Geek Loves Nerd Podcast
One of my favorite things I do all week is sit down with my wife and talk about marriage. I really feel that GLN has found it’s true purpose… helping people avoid divorce! The show has become less about us and more about our opinions, the lessons we’ve learned, and the hope we have to share. It’s still funny, it’s still us… but it has more of a purpose… and I like that.

I’m trying to get my wife, Jennifer to start blogging at least once a week. We’ve put it on the calendar for her to start his Saturday with a Monday AM release. Excited? I am.

Jenn and I have been invited to bring GLN to The Marriageability Conference in Kansas City on May 1st and 2nd. We’ll be recording two episodes with a live audience. It’s going to be weird… but a lot of fun.

Geek Loves Nerd Webcomic
Just this week I’ve switched to updating on Wednesdays and Fridays. Still twice a week… just different days. I’ve got a ton of ideas on paper. I’m enjoying drawing them up, putting them out, and getting your feedback. I’m working my way around the internets adding the strip to different webcomic communities and lists. I feel like GLN webcomic has the most potential of the two strips I’m doing.

That being said… I’m far from happy with my inconsistent art style… or lack thereof. I feel that I am improving… it’s obvious if you go through the comic archives… I just hope it continues. I need to do up a ‘How I Draw My Comic’ post because I’m starting to get questions.

Children’s Ministry Monthly
In the big picture… there aren’t really a ton of Children’s Pastor’s out there. There are even less with iPods. There are even less that have iPods but actually know what a podcast is. Even considering all that, we’re running a pretty successful little show here. CMMonthly is one of most regular and longest running shows on this topic.

The Christian world doesn’t seem to give nearly as much feedback and interaction as I’d hoped… but the little that I have received has been overwhelmingly positive… and in many cases has turned into real-life communications and resource sharing.

We’ve recently gotten back our original co-host, “Super” Dave from Macon, Georgia. I’m glad his schedule has been freed up. It’s great to have him back.

Though the show is only once a month, we’ve also started releasing ‘mini-casts‘ weekly to fill in the gaps between shows. Currently we’re doing a multi-part series entitled Proper Discipline in Children’s Ministry.

I’ve recently been in touch with the fine folks who publish High Voltage Curriculum and we’ll be sharing a special offer on the next show that will save folks some money.

DrawYouAPicture.com
Things stay fairly busy over at DYAP. It’s a blast being able to fill the artistic needs of folks who would otherwise not be able to afford the quality we give. I’ve recently finished another curriculum cover and will shortly be doing a great playing card-style business card for a magician.

I’m in the process of redesigning the site. I think I’ve found a theme I’m happy with, I just need to update the graphics and decide on a background color.

• Commercial Outtakes
  Posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (5)
  The other week a fellow pastor and I recorded a 30 second commercial announcing secure computer-based check-in for the Nursery. So 30 seconds of commercial and about 15 mins of crizzle.That’s me with the beard by the way.
• Dude Nearly Ends His Life Dunking, Makes White People Almost Cool Again
  Posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (5)
  I’ve never been tall enough to dunk… and I’ve never had enough of an audience to even make it worthwhile to try. But if I magically were given the height… this is how I would look every single time I dunked… Kinda cool… but mostly stinkin’ dorky as mess.
• Montage of Star Trek Logos
  Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (4)
   I enjoyed this. Figured you might. Anyone else really looking forward to the movie?
• Shelf Keeps Kitty Off Your Keyboard, So Does Mace
  Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (6)
  I saw this add in the middle of our copy of Kansas City Parent magazine… and I thought it was a joke. It’s not.I love how the lady is so upset that her cat  is pressing the C key. She looks so genuinelly distrought… because there’s no way in the world you could ever JUST MOVE THE FLIPPIN’ CAT!! Gosh forbid!
• Wind Break
  Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (8)
  Sorry this one is late. Since we’ve changed our recording night from Tuesday to Monday it’s thrown off my entire week!

How would you like to have this character staring at you during every meal… all weekend?

It’s actually just a lady statue that the neighbors wrap every Winter to protect it from something? But this year it has made me do constant double-takes. I think it’s the way that fold lays across the shoulder, the shape of the ‘hood’. *shiver*

Click him to make him “Evil Size”.

This thing is very cool. It will shoot ANY carbonated beverage (not just beer) up to 10 feet. This is a messy stage game waiting to happen!

The only unfortunate thing is that it’s shaped exactly like a real gun… which may or may not be an issue for your group… but with a little foam or other embellishments it could look just as harmless as a water pistol.

See it in action:

They come in several colors (including pink) and run between $22 and $33 bucks.

[Link]

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If you haven’t checked out our Bonus! page, then you should. If you have, you should too. We’ve just updated it with a NLCast Theme Ringtone (free) and a 100th Episode Wallpaper!

Link

• Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, His Face Revealed!
  Posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (3)
  I gotta say, I was a little disappointed. I always thought he’d look like this:The Face of Dr. Claw… Revealed! (thanks Chris!
• Identity Crisis
  Posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (6)
  Back in my Jr. High days I hated it when I would answer the phone and folks would assume that I was a girl.But I never had that happen face to face! He he.
• Kutiman is a Freakin Genius!!
  Posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 in Genius – Comments: (4)
  Please tell me you’ve heard this guy’s stuff. If you haven’t, you owe it to yourself. This guy takes nothing but YouTube clips and edits them together to make amazing music! Argh! It’s hurts my soul at how awesome it is.
• Now I Want A Barbie Jeep!
  Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (5)
• Weekend Poll: Which Cap’n Crunch?
  Posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 in Community – Comments: (7)
  As a child I had a love/hate relationship with good ol’ Cap’n Crunch. I loved the sweetness of the cereal but hated the way it tore the living crizzle out of the roof of my mouth (still does). It’s just so darn crunchy!Over the years they’ve had several special, limited edition varieties of CC… but after all is said and done, there are only three true varieties.

Next week is show 100! Send us your audio! Everyone to gets something played or read on the show gets a free NLCast sticker!

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• According To This, I’m Already Holy!
  Posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (5)
  I can’t believe that I’ve been working so hard to get to Heaven… I’ve already got the right facial hair!Now I’ve just got to get the rest of the family saved.
• Algebra Drama
  Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (10)
  That’s the risk you take when you ask some random girl for answers. You just might be the one they should be asking for answers.
• Caption This: Elephant on Skis
  Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Community – Comments: (6)
  “This must be a monday.
• Guy Finds Teeth In New Wallet. Turns them in to Walmart, not toothfairy
  Posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (4)
  Police say the man found 10 human teeth Saturday when he unzipped a compartment in the wallet. One tooth had a filling.The customer turned the wallet and the teeth over to employees at the Falmouth store but left without giving his name.Seems he could have gotten a few quarters if he’d just put them under his pillow.
• Terminator Salvation – New Trailer!
  Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (3)
  Anyone else going to see this??

• According To This, I’m Already Holy!
  Posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (5)
  I can’t believe that I’ve been working so hard to get to Heaven… I’ve already got the right facial hair!Now I’ve just got to get the rest of the family saved.
• Algebra Drama
  Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Comic – Comments: (10)
  That’s the risk you take when you ask some random girl for answers. You just might be the one they should be asking for answers.
• Caption This: Elephant on Skis
  Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 in Community – Comments: (6)
  “This must be a monday.
• Guy Finds Teeth In New Wallet. Turns them in to Walmart, not toothfairy
  Posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 in Geek Stuff – Comments: (4)
  Police say the man found 10 human teeth Saturday when he unzipped a compartment in the wallet. One tooth had a filling.The customer turned the wallet and the teeth over to employees at the Falmouth store but left without giving his name.Seems he could have gotten a few quarters if he’d just put them under his pillow.
• Terminator Salvation – New Trailer!
  Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 in Videos – Comments: (3)
  Anyone else going to see this??

But I never had that happen face to face! He he.

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Listen and learn how to enter our contest for Call of Duty 2 PC game.

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Most of my regular readers will know I have certain things that inspire me. Most of those things are acts of unbridled creativity. When someone has a passion for something and follows through to a completed project.

I’d like to introduce you to Solveig, a 10 year old graffiti artist. This girl has done more with her art at 10 than I’ve done with my whole life. You go girl.

Supersolveig’s Photostream on Flickr

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and something they say reminds you of a similar story from your own life? We all have. But what about when everything they say reminds you of something else and you feel the need to share every thing, every time? At what point have you stopped swapping stories and started to hijack the conversation to make it all about you? This can be a common thing, especially when trading funny life stories.

You can’t be a good storyteller without being ready to listen to someone else’s story. Here are some tips to help you be a better listener… and storyteller.

1. Pay Attention

The attention you pay will be the attention you are repaid. (You can quote me on that if you want) It’s a spin-off of the Golden Rule. Listen to others the way you would have them listen to you. Do you want someone texting while you’re sharing? Do you want them nodding like a moron the whole time you’re talking because they’re waiting for a pause so they can interrupt? No! Then be the listener you want them to be.

2. Keep Your Responses Relevant

Does your input compete with the situation shared by the other party or does it enhance it? To often we share our version because it’s “better” or “worse” than theirs (ie: “You thought that was bad? Listen to what happened to me last summer!”) or we’re trying to prove that we’re even funnier. This is passive-aggressive at its root and not the foundation for a comfortable conversation.

Your responses should be just that, responses. This person is sharing something with you that they care about. They’re not trying to out-do you or brag. People typically share things because it was exciting to them and they want to share that feeling with their listeners. If you will go into each conversation with this assumption, it will make it easier for you to be a listener and a participant without being a topic derailer.

3. Ask Questions Instead Of Relating

The typical thing to do after someone shares a story is to come back with a similar happening in our own world. It’s our attempt at relating but it waters down the conversation and steals the thunder of the storyteller. When we don’t have a way to relate, commonly we will respond with a statement, “That sounds awesome,” or simply, “Wow”. This hands the ball back to the storyteller… but gives them nowhere to go. The best response is to start asking questions. Pull more of the story out of them. You’ll see their face light up at your interest, and as an added bonus, you don’t have to think of a way to relate!

4. Bait Your Hook

When the storyteller is done, then it’s your turn. Do yourself a favor though, give them just a title and tagline before you read the entire article. Put just a bit of your story out and see if there’s any interest before you waste their and your time. It may sound something like this:

“You know, one time I fell down a cliff too. It’s the tumble that nearly killed me.”

See how that pulls you in? I just made that up but even I want to hear the rest of that story.

Your Turn

What tips would you have for our readers? What do you hate about folks who can’t listen? Share your thoughts in the comments!

These Monks have been using discarded beer bottles (over 1.5 million) to create buildings since 1984.

Read about it. [via telegraph.co.uk]

Childhood home in Jacksonville, Florida (present day view). I started my life on the Northside of Jacksonville. I lived here with my single mom and two sisters through pre and elementary school (75-84?). I can’t say it was a great neighborhood back then… it’s apparently a ghetto now. There used to be Azalia bushes across the front porch. Someone has closed in the carport. There used to be a tree just to the left of that porch where we had a tire swing. A car driven by a drunk-driver once crashed into it moments after I had been swinging on it.

Martha Drive in St. Marys, GA (present day view) – This is the home I lived in while in High School (88-91). A lot of our stories from the show occurred here. It was positioned right behind the (then) High School and was known as the “Christmas House” because no one ever took down the Christmas lights outside. There used to be Red-tip bushes all the way across the front. My room was the window furthest on the left. The house was on a sharp curve and about once a month a car would take it to fast and end up in the deep ditch across the street. It was also here that someone stole our bird (with cage) right off the front porch.

“The Yellow House” in Kansas City, MO. – Jenn and I lived in the “hood” of Northeast Kansas City for a little over a year (99-00). We did it to save a ton of money on rent and to experience the inner-city. We moved in SURE that we would have our home broken into. We never had a single problem along those lines. We found that most folks in the hood have a respect for one another and that most folks are just parents trying to raise families… it’s just about 5% who screw it up for everyone else. The only problems we did have was a sewer that would back up in the basement, kids going to Osco and throwing their trash in our yard, homeless asking us for our food as we unloaded it from a trip to the store, having to park on the street, having a country dog in the city, and living right across the street from my (huge) church.

Have you ever had something like this happen to you?

Peace.

Over on Instructables.com a fellow named Seamster has created a huge joystick lamp out of wood. I have a place deep in my soul that hurts bad when I see stuff like this. I have always wanted to do hardcore woodworking… and that was before I knew you could bust out something like this.

Giant Atari Joystick Lamp [via The Retroist]

If you’ve never visited our forums, do so!

Join me for a word of prayer.

“Dear Jesus. Please don’t let me destroy two years of posts. Amen.”

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There are approximately 20 million podcasts available for download across the world. Most of them are probably crap. For many, that’s okay. They just want the experience of doing a podcast, they don’t really care about the listener. But for many of us, though we don’t have the greatest equipment and resources, we want to sound like we do. Since we’re poor and ill-equipped we have to find more creative ways (read: cheaper) to pull off that professional air we’re going for. Here are a few tips that I give when someone asks me how to help their podcast stand out from the crowd.

Open Strong

Intros are typically music, often layered with sound effects and a voice over… but that’s not what I’m talking about. The moment your intro stops playing, you need to be able to support that same energy with just your voice. I despise shows that have an excellent intro theme (“You’re about to hear the BEST podcast in the world”) but then it drops out to a horribly quiet, timid or unprepared host (“Um, hi. I’m Stan. Um. I don’t want, um, listeners”).

Scripting your opening will help. That means you’re writing out what you’re going to say, and saying it consistently to open every show. The script should include your show’s title, a tagline, introducing the host, co-hosts and/or guests. Some folks add a pre-cap (in post production) letting the listeners know what they can expect to hear. Your opening is for your new listeners. So script it with them in mind.

Don’t Say Everything That Comes To Mind

Don’t discuss pre-show technical mistakes. Stay focused on your topic. Don’t have conversations live that you should have had before the show. Don’t let distractions during the recording be distracting. Remember to talk to the listener. That will help you describe things as you would to someone over the phone rather than the way you would to someone in the same room. When you discuss things they can’t see, it’s frustrating.

Inside jokes between hosts are also frustrating for the listener. If something interrupts the flow and forces you to hit stop, edit it out later rather than coming back in and spending 5 minutes explaining the break. Throw in a sound effect and keep going if you can’t make it seamless.

Work On Mic Placement and Technique

Most of us don’t have fancy limiters and compressors. It’s just a cheap USB mic (if even that) and a volume slider. The important thing then is to keep voice volumes consistent by keeping heads a consistent distance from the mic. This is especially important if you’re recording two or more people with a single mic. Everyone should sit the same distance from the mic… and should sit still!

One thing you can do (for free) to improve your vocals is to run them through Levelator. This is a free app that does wonderful things to your spoken audio. If one of your hosts is quieter, Levelator will fix that. It’s pretty amazing.

Have Content Worth Listening To

No matter what topic you cover on your show, there are thousands like it out there already. What are you going to bring to your listeners that sets it apart? Don’t spend the whole time laughing at one another. That makes the listener feel like they’re outside of your group. That’s the exact opposite of what you want them to feel. Write out show notes outlining what you want to talk about… and stick to it. Consider dividing your show into segments. Do them in the same order every show. People like consistency.

Consistent Audio Levels

If your opening music is louder than your voices, it will irritate your listeners. The listener sets their volume by the opening volume so try to make them “sound” the same volume.

Long As Necessary, Short As Possible

There is no podcast on the face of the earth than needs to be longer than an hour. As you record keep track of the time. Figure out how long you want to spend on the topics in your notes and mark them. If you’re doing a 15 minute show, keep it constantly to 15 minutes. An hour show? Keep it to an hour. Time limits will help you keep on topic and stay interesting. I used to keep a digital kitchen timer next to my computer to help me.

Last month I had the honor of being interviewed on RonyZone Radio. The recording just went live.

This time, I have the privilege to interview, James Kennison. He’s a Husband, Father, Christian, Children’s Pastor, Geek, Podcaster, Gamer, and even with all that, he’s not cool. To understand what that means, listen to this great interview.

Check it out!

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Nobody’s Listening webcomic will feature illustrated versions of the stories YOU submit to the podcast. I feel this is a much better fit than the Geek Loves Nerd comic was and keeps with the theme of the Nobody’s Listening Podcast, which is, to tell funny life stories.

Will your story be illustrated? Time will tell!

Looking for Geek Loves Nerd webcomic? We moved it!

Just one more reminder… if you’re looking for Tuesday’s webcomic, it’s over at GeekLovesNerd.com.

You’ll find out tomorrow!

After much internal debate, I’ve decided to begin the process of moving the Geek Loves Nerd webcomic from the NLCast.com blog to GeekLovesNerd.com. It just makes sense. I love this strip because it’s about my family… but NLCast is not about my family, it’s about funny life stories.

Geek Loves Nerd is a podcast I do with my wife where we discuss issues relating to marriage, family, hobbies, tech, gaming, children and more. Listen to our promo. We’ve got a whole new website set up over there, so check it out.

Geek Loves Nerd the comic will continue to update every Tuesday and Thursday. So for future updates of the Geek Loves Nerd webcomic go to: http://geeklovesnerd.com. You can also subscribe to the Comic RSS Feed, the Blog RSS Feed, or the Podcast RSS Feed (Subscribe with iTunes).

What’s going to take the place of the comic here on NLCast.com? I’ve got a new comic project in the works that will blend perfectly with the theme of the podcast. Stay tuned.

Enjoy this photo at my expense… after the break.

Click to make it big.

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