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Two dudes, a BMW, and an iRiver - the ultimate sound-seeing tour


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What was supposed to be a 40-minute test drive of the BMW I'm buying wound up being a two-and-a-half hour tour around Guam from north to south and then back up again (the podcast is only about 54 minutes long).  My best friend Will and I, two public school kids who now work in technology, give you a tour around Guam on an unbelievably beautiful day in paradise. 

It's a pretty simple setup: a pair of friends, an iRiver iFP-799, putting 107 miles on a 2005 BMW 325i's odometer. 

Interesting things that happened:

  • One of us is an extreme car enthusiast and the other knows nothing about anything with moving parts, and that dichotomy makes for great comedy.  Try and see how long it takes before you figure out who's who. 
  • Because of the noise filter in the Plantronics headset used during the first 14 minutes of the podcast, it's somewhat hard to hear Will.  We stopped off at a Sony A/V shop and bought a stereo mic, which did wonders for sound clarity.  The quality and the acoustics of the car do get better, so just be patient and give it a chance. 
  • We stopped off in Guam's red light district (Anigua) to grab a drink - what else?    King Car Lemon Tea!
  • Ironically, we wound up tailgating what I later realized was the Toyota Camry my mom used to own.
  • The BMW nearly ran out of gas.  There are few occasions in my life when I've been more embarrassed than having to roll up into a station and ask to put a mere $2.86 of gas into a new Cherry Red Beamer.  Good grief.  And then we couldn't figure out how to open the damn gas door, so we read from the owner's manual...which we learned just required us to push on the gas door itself.
  • My co-worker called me on a two-way radio, which generated radiointerference and caused the iRiver to lock-up and not save the last bit of recording.  Thankfully, I was recording in segments, so we in effect only lost the last 7 minutes of footage.

Comments

TrackBack said:

# May 14, 2005 9:47 AM

TrackBack said:

# May 15, 2005 4:35 AM

TrackBack said:

# May 15, 2005 4:54 AM

TrackBack said:

# May 16, 2005 3:47 AM

Glenn said:

you gotta take pictures dude!
# May 16, 2005 4:39 PM

alex in dallas said:

regarding my email about video: let me be more specific -- i wasnt asking why your 'sound-seeing' tour didnt have video. i realize it was what it was... what i was asking you is, why don't you DO a video tour?

podcasting is not just audio. many enclosure deliveries are video files.

and as good as you sound, we (the displaced guamanians) would rather see what you see, than just listen to you describe it.

OK, maybe that last part is just me. or is it?
# May 16, 2005 9:05 PM

Jason Salas said:

Cool...thanks Alex. Can you imagine how big the file would be for 50 minutes of video? I don't know about you, but I get motion sick when I try to read or operate anything in a moving car, so I doubt I'll be headed down that path. :)
# May 16, 2005 9:09 PM

Jhoanne said:

This is the first time I actually listened to a your podcast. Used to only pick poetry reading stuff or some other work related thing. :D Anyway, I picked this one because of the tour -- now I have a pretty good idea about some of Guam's charms, sorta. For your friend Will's debut - he did pretty well! Yey, Will! :) The new mic picked up the sounds better, too.
Looking forward to your other "collaborative" podcasts.
G'day!
# May 17, 2005 6:29 AM

TrackBack said:

Here's a great application for podcasting: remix culture ... specifically museum and art gallery commentaries so that they're less pedagogical and you don't have to cope with those irritating buttons on those audio devices you have to hire and hang...
# May 27, 2005 11:47 AM
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