Posts tagged ‘opinion’

Oct 11

Podcast Update

You guys, I just recorded my 18th interview! I’m officially in my sixth month of podcasting, and it’s been beyond awesome to have this opportunity to talk to people about who they are, what they do for a living, or to dig into their areas of interest and expertise.

One of my favorite parts is the first thing I ask everyone to do, which is to introduce themselves and tell everyone a little bit about themselves. It’s so interesting to see where people go with it, what they talk about and how much or how little they say. People are endlessly fascinating, and I love getting a little peek into what a person is like by the way they introduce themselves.

A lot of my energies have been focused on the show, but I’m starting to get a handle on it and I’m looking forward to having more time to write. I do miss writing and sharing here.

If you’ve listened to any of the shows, thank you very, very much! If you want to listen, you can subscribe on iTunes or on Stitcher (to listen on android phones). Or visit the People I Almost Know website.

Here are the shows I’ve done since my first month update:

Do You Believe In Destiny: a chat with my Dad
This is a snippet of one of those conversations I had with my dad when I asked him the Query, “Do you believe in destiny?”

Mark Bradley, Completely Un-Legitimate Motorcycle Dude
You know Mark from his comments on this blog! We talk about his blog, being bipolar and writing in multiple personalities.

Amy Severson: on World War Z and real zombie movies
We talk about the movie in relation to the book, what we loved and what we wanted more of. Amy also schools me on what makes a real zombie movie.

Recovering People Pleaser, Rob Shepherd
We talk about the delicate balancing act between being a husband, father and a pastor. And what it means to be a recovering people pleaser.

Coming Full Circle with Larry Carter
We talk about his blogging missteps, searching for the right church and letting God shape his dreams, how we sometimes head out on a search for self or faith or purpose, only to come back around to the place we started from. And how, at forty-five, Larry is just now learning who he is.

Vicki Manuel: on making healthier food choices
We talk about the importance of reading labels and moving away from artificial ingredients, how some “diet” foods may actually be working against you and where you can start if you’re ready to make changes in your own food choices.

Clay Morgan, His Writing Process and the Art of Field Research
Clay talks about the challenges of writing book number 2, fully experiencing the adventure of field research (while still taking notes), and how he turns it all into a book worth reading.

Wonder Woman Jan Moyer
Jan talks to me about blogging, motherhood, living in Canada and the amazing world of the kindergarten classroom.

Matt Mikalatos: Missionary, Teacher, Servant
We talk about his foreign travels, how he gets paid to go to the beach on spring break, and the importance of being of service to other people.
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Last week’s guest was Jamie Golden, and we talked about her job as Marketing Director for a foster care and adoption non-profit. So of course we talked about the kids, their struggles, and the foster care and adoption process. That’s Jamie over there on the sidebar.

This week’s guest is Kim Cox, a friend of mine from high school. We talked about her job as a professional organizer, and the psychology behind why we hold on to things we don’t need. If you’re interested in that, you can find it over on the podcast website.
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Thanks, you guys, for supporting me all the time in the things that I do out here on the interwebs! I wouldn’t have started a podcast if my experience with all of you hadn’t been so overwhelmingly positive and fulfilling. That is the absolute truth!

PS: I would love to talk to any of you on the podcast!! If you’re willing to chat with me, let me know!

Items of Interest:
Prelude to a Podcast
My First Month of Podcasting!
Podcast About Page

Sep 30

16 Comments

Movie Quote Monday – Shirley Valentine

I first saw Shirley Valentine as a one-woman play when I was about 16, and I loved it. The movie came out in 1989 and I don’t remember when I first saw that, but when I did it made me fall in love with Shirley Valentine all over again.

It’s about a woman whose kids have left the nest, and whose husband is in his own “chips and egg are on Tuesdays, steak is on Thursdays” kind of funk. And how, at 42, she finds herself somehow morphed from the rebellious and spirited Shirley Valentine of her youth, into “the wife” and “the mother”. She has sunk so far into her life that she simply doesn’t recognize herself anymore.

Shirley’s friend Jane wins a free vacation to Greece, and in a spark of familial defiance, Shirley accepts an invitation to accompany her. But once in Greece, she finds herself abandoned by Jane on the very first night, and instead of being alone at home talking to the wall, she’s alone in Greece talking to a rock. But she quickly decides that she can do alone in Greece just as well as in London, so why not make the very most of her two-week holiday.

So one night she goes out to fulfill her “soft little dream” of sitting by the sea, drinking a glass of wine and watching the sun set. A restaurant owner, Costas, obliges her by carrying a table down to the shore, glad to be able to make someone’s dream come true.

Of course, what Shirley finds is that sometimes the fulfillment of our dreams doesn’t feel the way we thought it would. And the life we’ve lived, even one we thought we wanted, doesn’t always meet our great expectations.

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Shirley: I’ve led such a little life. And even that will be over pretty soon. I have…allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there was so much more. And it’s all gone unused. And now it never will be. Why do we get all this life if we don’t ever use it? Why do we get all these…feelings…and dreams and hopes…if we don’t ever use them. That’s where Shirley Valentine disappeared to. She got lost in all this unused life.

I’d be lying if I said I’d never felt the way Shirley feels, and I think lots of people go through some kind of emotional crisis of the “what have I done with my life” variety. I won’t tell you what Shirley does to put the living back in her life (some of which I can’t condone), but I will tell you what Costas says when he comes back and finds her crying:

Costas: Dreams. They are never in the place you expect them to be.

And I think that’s the thing. We don’t always get what we think we want most; our dreams won’t always fulfill us in the way we thought they would.

Life won’t always fulfill us the way we thought and hoped and planned that it would.

But that’s no reason to give up. Disappointment is not a good enough reason to give up.

We have to keep creating new dreams. And we have to remain open for the adventures that come to us unbidden and unforced, the dreams we don’t even know we have until they’re happening to us.

Have you ever gone through a “mid-life” crisis?

How did you handle it?

♦

Sep 17

12 Comments

Something About You

This is my favorite song ever.

I have lots of second favorites, songs I get excited about when I hear them on the radio. You know, the “Oh! I LOVE this song!” songs.

But none have ever come close to knocking my favorite out of place.

I don’t even know why it’s my favorite song; I can’t explain it.

It’s like the difference between having a crush and being in love.

It just makes my heart beat in a different way.

What’s your favorite song?

Can you explain why it’s your favorite?

♦

Sep 12

5 Comments

The Vacationers have a Query Session

So, if you’ve been here for a while, then you might know that I do this thing I call Queries.

Ok, so they’re questions, but that doesn’t sound as cool as Query. So I ask a bunch of people a random question and then I post the answers. It’s fun to see how people think alike or different and how we can come at the same question from a lot of different angles.

But I’ve only done one this year! What’s wrong with me?

While we were on vacation, I asked my family and friends to do a query session for my podcast and they said yes. They answered a bunch of questions like “What makes a person beautiful?” and “Would you do something wrong or illegal if you knew you wouldn’t get caught?”

If you’d like to hear how that went (it was fun), click here to visit my podcast site!

My podcast: people I almost know