I received a nice note from someone this weekend about the formatting of the podcasts, politely asking for the books in MP3 format (as opposed to the MP4s that are posted). After doing a little research, I’ve converted the “Matters of Mortology” podcasts as MP3s for people who have older generation players (or ones that don’t support the “enhanced MP4 format). You can download the “Mortology” MP3s here.
The “Assam & Darjeeling” ones are more problematic. First off, there’s almost ninety files to convert which is a bit of task. In addition, many of the original source files and recordings were lost in a catastrophic drive failure back in December. Whining aside, I’m researching automated conversion programs right now but if anyone out there knows of a free/shareware application that does a good job automating the MP4 to MP3 conversion, I’d be much obliged. Drop me a note and let me know.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: If I had all of the time in the world I’d rerecord “Assam & Darjeeling” to make the sound quality more consistent and combine the chapters into larger blocks for each episode. I’ll get to it sooner or later, I’m sure. But best of all will be when it’s on the shelves and you can all read it for yourselves. I know. I’m working on it.
And while I’m on the subject of podcasts, it’s worth mentioning that Julie D. over at SFFaudio made my week with her review of “Assam & Darjeeling” by writing very nice things about the story, like:
“One of the truest pleasures of Assam & Darjeeling is the relationship between the forceful younger sister, Darjeeling, and the thoughtful, sensitive older brother, Assam. The way that they work together to save their mother, yet often clash in the details of how they must proceed is what carries the story and makes us believe in their relationship. It rings true to anyone who has siblings whom they love but who also have the capacity to irritate beyond belief in daily life.”
You can read the full review here.
And Julie’s excellent Forgotten Classics blog/podcast is worth checking out as well. There’s some great stories there and well worth listening to.
In other news, it was nice to wake up and find that the world did not in fact end while I was sleeping. I’ve been hearing and reading about the The Large Haldron Collider for a number of months now and cannot help but be reminded of Darkseid’s quest for the Anti-Life Equation. But it looks like we’re off the hook for now.
In any event, it’s good to know that they’ve finally found the entrance to the Underworld — or, at least, one of them.
I haven’t linked to it in a long time, but it’s worth mentioning that the Entrances to Hell website is still out there, going strong. I won’t infer any direct correlation from this fact (and neither should you) but things have really picked up during this past political cycle in the US.
All we need now is a handbasket.