I don’t want to sound too much like a grinch, but I’m glad Christmas is over. My wife and I are exhausted. I am really going to have to try to make Christmas more enjoyable or I will definitely turn into a scrooge soon. Do any podcasters have some good advice for making the holidays more enjoyable?

I have to admit, I loved all the podcast gift ideas. DL.TV, the Daily Giz Whiz and InDigital get silver stars for their great ideas. Luckily, I was able to find geeky gifts for everyone in all price ranges. I will definitely be listening to these podcasts for gift ideas in 2007.

What is the podcast to listen to for the New Year? The Daily Source Code, of course! I’m thinking it’s a must to listen to Adam Curry on New Year’s Day in order to start 2007 out right!

Now that things have slowed down a bit, I hope to get back to working on my computer. My New Year’s resolution, of course, is to listen to more podcast, and keep on coding and blogging. Happy New Year, Hurray!

I just saw John Edwards on Rocketboom pre-announcing his campaign for President in 2008. I was catching up on some podcast and, as I was watching, the obvious questions suddenly hit me. How are we to judge who is the best podculture presidential candidate? There must be a lot of issues in which to evaluate each candidate; however, because podcasting is such a new phenomenon, most of these issues feel very nebulous to me. Are there even issues in which we need to be concerned about? Luckily, I’ve got a little time to figure all this out.

As another New Year’s resolution, I will attempt to direct people towards each presidential candidates views on podcasting. I was looking at the candidates (official and potential) and I don’t even know most of these people (See Wikipedia Article). I guess I need to start doing some research.

Note: Joanne did a wonderful job of interviewing John Edwards on the December 28th episode of Rocketboom. If you are the least bit interested in the presidential election, then you must check this interview out.

I took a little responsibility and action this afternoon and went looking for Presidential Campaign podcasts. The only two I found were John Edwards (audio) and Tom Vilsack (video). I listened and watched a few of them and I was impressed by these candidates’ efforts. Edwards’ podcasts are very polished, honest, and informative. Vilsack’s videocast was also good. I checked out about a dozen other party and independent candidates’ websites. No one else seemed to have a real podcast or videocast. There were lots of video and audio archives; however, these other sites never seemed to have a specific production geared for the podcasting audience.

Let us hope the other’s get it. The podcasting medium is a great way for a candidate to broadcast his or her message. Foremost, it is a very personal way to become close to the public in ways that other media mediums cannot.

If you know of a presidential campaign site that has a podcast or videocast that I have missed, please e-mail the address to me at 78g@cssurfer.com. I will try to post it here pronto. Thanks.

The family is still asleep. I snuck into the office earlier this morning and I have been itching to write a post. I thought about writing a year end review or some predictions for next year, but I really do not want to pretend that I could be an expert on any of that drivel. I only know that I discovered this exciting culture earlier this year when I picked up a library book on podcasting. After I read the first few chapters, I downloaded Juice and started to subscribe to more and more feeds. Surprisingly, I found some voices that I did not expect like Adam Curry, Wil Wheaton, and Leo Laporte. These were personalities that I had known before and I was glad to find them again. I was also surprised to encounter a multitude of new voices like Dr. Bill Bailey, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Patrick Norton, and Robert Heron. In fact, I became so interested in this new podculture that I almost spontaneous started writing this blog as an outlet for my excitement. The podcasting domain is huge, thrilling, and scary. I just hope in the coming year that my voice can take better shape and this blog can become something that I am proud to author.

I opened up my podcast receiver and clicked the button to start my subscription downloads earlier this afternoon. I was wondering what podcasts would download for the first day of the New Year. I captured just three shows: The Daily Source Code (DSC), The Computer Curmudgeon, and iLifeZone. DSC, of course, was the first show that I listened too. It was a best of show guest hosted by Marcus Couch and his wife, Barbara. Apparently, Couch has two productions, The Scene Zine and Music Rewind. Couch is new to me, but I am definitely going to start subscribing to both his feeds. The DSC episode was a great start to 2007.

The Computer Curmudgeon was a show produced on December 30. My receiver, apparently, had not picked up this episode earlier. Dr. Bill just has a great way of talking about technology. iLifeZone was also a best of show. It was well produced; however, I would have liked some commentary between the ‘best of’ cuts.

I enjoyed the Old Time Radio Science Fiction podcast today at work. I found the episodes to be very clever. I am glad to know that someone is broadcasting these golden age gems. The Old Time Radio Network has four channels in which they package vintage radio shows in podcasting format. The creators, Dennis Humphrey and Bob Camardella, have done a wonderful job. If you get a chance, you ought to sample an episode.

I have to admit that my mind was not on podcasting today. Yesterday evening, the neighbors were shooting off fireworks and our dogs in a panic broke through the fence and escaped. We have both a Sheltie and a mixed breed. Both dogs are rescue specials. Because they were abused by previous owners, the dogs are very scared of loud noises and strangers. Buddy, the Sheltie, is especially nervous and will only allow me to come near him. Over the past few years, I have developed an especially close bond to Buddy and enjoyed his companionship. The mix, Bailey, does not stray very far from the house, but Buddy can disappear for several hours and wander for miles. I have searched high and low, but can find no sign of him. Unfortunately, it has been almost twenty-four hours since Buddy has disappeared, and I fear he is gone for good. Buddy has been a member of our family for over five years. He is a wonderful friend and a beautiful, noble dog. I can only pray that while he is gone, the world is very kind to him.

No podcasting subscription list can be without these Podcasting divas: Cali Lewis at Geekbrief.TV; Karina Stenquist at MobuzzTV; and Joanne Colan at Rocketboom. The original, podcasting diva, Amanda Congdan, also has a must have subscription feed. She is at ABCNews.com. Finally, Katie Bevard makes podcasting diva ‘must have’ subscription feed number five at Podcast Salad. I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts geared towards geeky computer and gacket stuff. The content can sometimes become overwhelmingly monotone. These five divas bring light-hearted fun back to my podcast subscription list. All five subscriptions are short videocast that are about five to ten minutes each.