Real Live Preacher - Audio File

Public Service Announcement

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:21:02 -0500

Any questions as to whether or not I'm a computer nerd will be answered after this post.

How to synchronize your PDA with Google Calendar.

The whole Google "let us help you organize your life" thing is cool, as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty much all in with Google. I have a number of calendars going there. The church calendar is at Google now, as is my own and one for my family. I can see them all (and modify any of them) when logged into my primary Google account. I use Gmail for all my email needs. I don't use my @gmail.com account, but I use Gmail as my mail client, letting it check various pop accounts for me. This way I get the Gmail grouping by conversation feature (which I love) for all my email accounts - and I have several. Tim Heavin and I share a number of church documents through Google. That's pretty handy too. We also use Google groups for emails to everyone in the church.

Sounds perfect huh? It's close, but the one thing that was lacking was the ability to synch all this with my Treo phone/PDA. I'm often not in a central location with my computer. I jot down a lot of appointments using my Treo. And when I'm out, I check my Treo to see what I have to do on any given day. The advantage of the Treo over other phones with calendars is that I can synch it with Outlook on my desktop. That was great in the past when I used Outlook for the church calendar, but as I said, it's all Google now. And at this point, Google has not provided a way to synch its calendars with your desktop or PDA.

But I've discovered a way to get that done. I'm assuming there may be some others would like to synch Google with a desktop or PDA but haven't figured out how. It's a little work setting this up, but once you do, it's easy to maintain. Here's one way to do this. I'm sure there are others:

First, I'm assuming you have a Google calendar. That's why you're reading. But if not, setting one up is ridiculously easy. Notice that your Google calendar has an ICAL feed button found under "calendar settings." That's an important part of this.

Next, go to Airset.com. This is a public calendar program on the Internet. It has two shining features that make this work. First, it synchs with Outlook or other desktop calendars (including the Palm calendar) using a little application that you download for free. Second, you can create calendar groups and "subscribe" to the ICAL feed from your Google calendar. Once you do that, anything you enter into Google's calendar will be pulled into your Airset calendar without you having to do anything.

This system is particularly advantageous if you have several people editing and using a Google calendar. In my case, Jeanene can edit our Google family calendar and Tim edits the church Google calendar.

Most of you probably see where this is going. Simply run the Airset desktop synch to synch Outlook or the Palm calendar with your Airset calendar (which now includes all of your Google calendar information). Then synch with your PDA as usual. I know this sounds complicated, but here's how it works in real life:

A couple of times I week I synch Outlook with Airset. And I synch my PDA with the desktop as I have been doing for years as a backup. That probably means once a week or so.

The bottom line: everything new added to any of my Google Calendars by me or Jeanene or Tim ends up on my Treo. New items that I enter in the Treo make it to my desktop and then to Airset via Outlook. But they won't end up on the Google calendars. Google does not import like that. But that's okay. That's got an advantage for me. There is no way some personal calendar item will end up on our Google church calendar. The main thing is, I get the latest calendar from the church and our family on my treo so I don't overbook myself.

rlp

NEW - RLP Ringtones

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:07:00 -0500

I don't get ringtones. I mean, I know what they are, but I don't care enough about them to download any. I'm happy with whatever ringtones come with my phone. But my kids like them, and I understand some people buy them online.

Buying ringtones? Why? I'll give you a selection of RLP ringtones for free. Enjoy. Note: You'll have to have a phone that can import an mp3 file and use it as a ringtone for these to work. Right click to download.

Official Real Live Preacher Ringtones:

Traditional - download mp3

Modern - download mp3

Irritating - download mp3

Jetsons - download mp3

Polite - download mp3

rlp

Audio File

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:30:45 -0500

I'm between essays and working on a number of other things, so I thought I'd post one of my audio files from the audio archive for the subscribers to rlp.

My House
I read the essay, "My House" and talk about Jung, the human psyche, the symbols in the essay, and whatever else came to mind.

If the above link does not stream, click here for a direct link to the mp3 file.

The music intro is "I'll Fly Away" by Ben Bowen King and the Sidewalk Saints.

rlp

Audio File and Outtake

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:33:46 -0600

I'm creating a collection of audio files, which I'm enjoying greatly. No big deal; just me reading my stuff and talking about whatever strikes me that day. I make these files available to people who support this blog by subscribing. You can read more about that here, if you are interested.

But occasionally I'm going to drop one here for anyone. This week's audio was me reading "Open Communion" and talking a little bit about creative writing. I also included an outtake that I thought was pretty funny. This is a remix of the original file with a new musical intro.

Click here if you want to listen. (If the streaming link doesn't work for you, here is a direct link to the file.)

The music is by Ben and the Sidewalk Saints. My friend Ben King is intrigued with old-time gospel music performed in new ways. He's working on an album, and he lets me have rough cuts to use as intros for my audio files. The new intro is "I'll Fly Away." You may be familiar with that song, but you've never heard it like Ben does it. You can listen to the whole song here. (direct link)

rlp

ps - I just listened to the finished file for the first time. I found an audio glitch. You lose a sentence or so. Damn! The master must be flawed. Oh well, that's what happens when rank amateurs try to play with the big boys.

Audio File Available

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:11:03 -0600

Okay, I managed to figure out what I was doing wrong with my mixing software and hardware, so I now have an audio file of yesterday's essay, "The Beginning and the End of Wisdom." I'm beginning to create audio files in part to respond to some very nice requests for such a thing. I also think audio books and the like are going to be an increasing part of the world in which we live.

A good part of writing is learning to listen. You have to hear your writing. You need to know what it SOUNDS like. Reading my work aloud and with expression is a big part of my own process. If you hear me reading, you will know how I imagined an essay sounding.

I'm still not happy with my reading style, but I'm working on it. I think a big part is learning to relax and pretend that you don't have a microphone in your face. It's also a challenge to both read and run the software.

The music is from the CD "Our Lady of the Guitar" by Ben King, Ruben Romero, and Frank Corrales. The music is used with permission from Talking Taco.

Click Here for an experiment in streaming mp3.
(Let me know if it works for you)

Click Here to download or listen conventionally.

rlp

Something New at RLP

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:58:19 -0500

Audio Files

I've got a number of things planned for this site. Book reviews and a bookstore are coming soon. Christian Century will be launching a blog here, featuring some of their best writers. That's going to be very cool. Many people only know Christianity from television or perhaps from a bad experience or two. Christian Century is a magazine for thinking people. I'm very excited about that.

Six months ago I began wondering about creating audio files and offering them here. I'm really hoping to do a podcast at some time in the future. So I bought an MBox and spent a little time learning to use it. I'm just beginning, but I know how to lay down tracks and mix them. Editing is still hard, but I'm getting there.

So here's my first attempt at an audio production of an essay. I recorded this essay from February of 2004. Remember, this is my FIRST try. After I was done, I realized I slurred the word "through" in one part. But I'm am not good enough yet to go in and fix just one word. Also, the music intro and exit is a little plain and obvious. Oh well, you gotta start somewhere.

When an author reads something he or she wrote, you get to hear the words the way they were imagined. I try to write so that my prose sounds good. I read everything out loud. It's the only way I can keep hearing it fresh. So anyway, this is how I imagined this thing sounding.

The music is from Ben King's CD, "Rio Grande Romeos." Actually I grabbed it to see if I could figure out how to have a musical intro. After I had played with it, I ended up liking the sound so I kept it. I'm pretty sure Ben is okay with this.

Hey Ben, is it okay if I use your music for an audio file? If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes.

(Okay seriously, Ben's a friend and he's cool with me doing this.)

The mp3 file is 3.3 megabytes. PC users can right click to download the file (I don't know how Mac people do that), or just click to listen. It isn't a streaming file so you'll have to wait until it loads.

Click here and enjoy!

peace,

rlp