Author Topic: PC283: Right Turns (Read 14714 times)

Max e^{i pi} · **Reply #25 on:** November 03, 2013, 02:24:04 PM

There was noise under the audio, and the stereo was... off. Misaligned or something. I don't know the technical term, but in my headphones it sounded not in the middle of my head, like it should (and where the intro/outro sounded) but about two feet behind me and a foot above me.

Story was meh, not bad, not good.

DKT · **Reply #26 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:23:41 AM

Hey everyone - we think we've isolated the audio issues on this one and have posted a fixed file. It should be about a minute shorter from the previous one (as we took out the bit about the fundraiser that's since passed). Hope that helps, and thanks for your patience!

Max e^{i pi} · **Reply #27 on:** November 05, 2013, 06:49:35 AM

Thanks Dave. We all appreciate the effort you guys put in to this, and mostly you hear complaints. You guys are totally awesome and I wish I could donate more.
But I'm not going to relisten to the story, I don't think it was good enough to warrant that.
I mean, obviously the sound issue wasn't absolutely terrible since I made it all the way through.

InfiniteMonkey · **Reply #28 on:** November 06, 2013, 03:23:23 AM

Oh, did I say nothing about this story?... hmm maybe that's a reflection on how much it effected me.

I think part of the problem for me is that it simply reminded me too much of another EA story - either here or Escape Pod - which involved a man whose wife had fallen into a cave and seemingly been transported in time (I of course can not now remember the name of the story nor find it).

Spindaddy · **Reply #29 on:** November 07, 2013, 01:29:50 AM

THis one bothered me a lot, which I guess is a decent meter stick as to how good it was. Even after I got to work I was thinking about this story and how much it truly bothered me that a man would get so caught up in the thrill of discovery that we wouldn't turn around and come back better prepared. I felt really bad for the woman and on a certain level the story sort of reminded me of the old ascii games I used to play like Moria and Rogue and nethack.

I didn't have any audio issues, and I enjoyed it immensely even though it set a melancholy tone for the day.

Unblinking · **Reply #30 on:** November 07, 2013, 02:26:25 PM

Quote from: InfiniteMonkey on November 06, 2013, 03:23:23 AM

Oh, did I say nothing about this story?... hmm maybe that's a reflection on how much it effected me.

I think part of the problem for me is that it simply reminded me too much of another EA story - either here or Escape Pod - which involved a man whose wife had fallen into a cave and seemingly been transported in time (I of course can not now remember the name of the story nor find it).

I know that story... what was it called. Weren't there glyphs on the walls, and the implication in the end is that something magical down there drew her away and now it's doing the same to him?

DKT · **Reply #31 on:** November 07, 2013, 02:37:58 PM

I believe the story you're talking about Everything You Were Looking For, by Samantha Henderson, read by Wilson Fowlie.

Fenrix · **Reply #32 on:** November 07, 2013, 03:28:16 PM

I think the editors did a fine job ensuring the story has the right home in the right podcast. Sunshine and flowers and empowerment at the end are my trail blazes for this.

Quote from: Varda on October 29, 2013, 03:34:08 PM

Also: Dave, thanks for the shout-out! Proud to be supporting Podcastle however we can. We're keeping that beer cold for you, next time you find yourself in the neighborhood.

Conveniently enough there's good beer in Athens. I would recommend this:

Maybe Creature Comforts will be open by the time you make it out. It's supposed to be open in early 2014 and their monster mascot is a little more in keeping with PodCastle than an antropomorphized turtle.

Varda · **Reply #33 on:** November 07, 2013, 05:34:41 PM

Quote from: Fenrix on November 07, 2013, 03:28:16 PM

I think the editors did a fine job ensuring the story has the right home in the right podcast. Sunshine and flowers and empowerment at the end are my trail blazes for this.

Quote from: Varda on October 29, 2013, 03:34:08 PM

Also: Dave, thanks for the shout-out! Proud to be supporting Podcastle however we can. We're keeping that beer cold for you, next time you find yourself in the neighborhood.

Conveniently enough there's good beer in Athens. I would recommend this:

Maybe Creature Comforts will be open by the time you make it out. It's supposed to be open in early 2014 and their monster mascot is a little more in keeping with PodCastle than an antropomorphized turtle.

1. Terrapin is awesome.
2. I hadn't heard about Creature Comforts!! Holy crap, I love this town.

Someday I hope to make friends with enough people in other craft beer-oriented locations around the country that we can do a Great Beer Exchange where we all mail each other something local. So far, this idea only exists in my head, but a Varda can dream. :-p

Moon_Goddess · **Reply #34 on:** November 07, 2013, 07:41:16 PM

Ok, 3 things

A) So I finally redownloaded this and listened, ironically I redownloaded it over the weekend and didn't get the corrected version.... But this one was a little better to listen to, so I did, and I'm happy I did.

2) Dear god, this belonged on Pseudopod, that was horrific. Losing your memory is frightening enough, I work in IT, sometimes I feel like knowledge is the only important thing about me. I'm valuable because I remember things. My grandmother had really bad alzheimer's. It's likely I'll get it.... Forgetting things is something I think about far far more than I should dwell on.... But this... to be dying of thirst, and know that if you drink that water you'll lose a part of yourself. I think I'd die the painful death of dehydration. I'd have to I couldn't bring myself to slowly stop being me.

Triangle) Ok, It's really freaky to hear my comments be read on the podcast, especially when It's been long enough I forgot exactly what I wrote. That was a big surprise. Makes me notice... everytime I comment on one of these stories I don't say much about the story, it's more of how one aspect of the story (like memory) makes me dwell on my own life. Is that good or bad?

Fenrix · **Reply #35 on:** November 07, 2013, 07:54:19 PM

Quote from: dream6601 on November 07, 2013, 07:41:16 PM

2) Dear god, this belonged on Pseudopod, that was horrific. Losing your memory is frightening enough, I work in IT, sometimes I feel like knowledge is the only important thing about me. I'm valuable because I remember things. My grandmother had really bad alzheimer's. It's likely I'll get it.... Forgetting things is something I think about far far more than I should dwell on.... But this... to be dying of thirst, and know that if you drink that water you'll lose a part of yourself. I think I'd die the painful death of dehydration. I'd have to I couldn't bring myself to slowly stop being me.

May I suggest Come to My Arms, My Beamish Boy and In a Right and Proper Place?

Moon_Goddess · **Reply #36 on:** November 07, 2013, 08:21:30 PM

After reading what I just posted, you offer me more of that.... I do believe you are trying to kill me. However, it appears I'm a masocist as I am going to download those.

Fenrix · **Reply #37 on:** November 08, 2013, 01:37:44 AM

Quote from: dream6601 on November 07, 2013, 08:21:30 PM

After reading what I just posted, you offer me more of that.... I do believe you are trying to kill me. However, it appears I'm a masocist as I am going to download those.

Gooble Gobble one of us.

Jen · **Reply #38 on:** November 09, 2013, 04:04:43 PM

I'm surprised that so many people are 'meh' about this one, because it thought it was excellent (and the narration was amazing).

Hilary Moon Murphy · **Reply #39 on:** November 12, 2013, 03:48:25 AM

Maybe my brain is weird, because I just kept thinking to myself how the presence of an infinite labyrinth in your basement doesn't have to be horrific. At first, I was thinking of the storage possibilities. All my books would fit down there.

Unfortunately, as the story went on, I realized that would not be really practical due to the whole forgetting who you are and what the heck you are doing side effect. Anytime you went down to retrieve a book, you'd risk having one of those moments where you sat there in front of the shelf and said, "Why did I come down here? Hmm... Maybe the answer lies down this endlessly forking maze in front of me." And there would go your whole day. This kind of thing really wreaks havoc with your productivity.

But then it occurred to me that there were other uses for this labyrinth that you could turn into a rather lucrative side business. Waste disposal! And if you're feeling pretty shady, you could even set up your own modern oubliette business. Need to get rid of someone pesky in a semi-humane manner? Bye, bye in-laws! Farewell to IRS agents! You could contract out with scary governmental agencies or the mafia to really make people disappear. The labyrinth would keep getting new people to keep it entertained, and you would add enough revenue to maybe buy the house next door to store your books in.

(Sorry Tim! Once again, I'm seeing a different story in my head than the one you wrote. I'm annoying that way.)

Scattercat · **Reply #40 on:** November 12, 2013, 08:20:13 AM

I really liked this one, but Varda took care of explaining the metaphor before I got here, so I don't have much to add other than hurray for contemplative metaphorical explorations of theme.

Devoted135 · **Reply #41 on:** November 19, 2013, 03:22:51 AM

Continuing on playing catch-up...

I think I'm with Unblinking on this one. I appreciate the metaphor now that Varda has explained it to me, but I certainly did not get all of that on my own. For me, it was an interesting mood piece, but not much more.

Arri · **Reply #42 on:** December 04, 2013, 08:33:45 AM

The audio problem is the narration is (accidentally) recorded with a mono null in a stereo file. The intro and outro is proper mono. Everyone hears that. The narration disappears when you listen on single speaker gear.
The narration is a mono recording in a stereo file and the two channels are identical but 180˚ out of phase. One goes positive while the other goes negative, each cancelling each other out. All you may hear is compression artifacts.
This commonly happens when someone plugs an XLR mic into a stereo mic input with an adapter cable not realizing that the cable is intended to adapt the balanced XLR to balanced 3.5mm jack. Balanced 3.5mm is found sometimes on pro wireless mic gear. Consumer and prosumer 3.5 mic inputs are most always stereo. Hence this obscure problem.
The end result is if you are listening on two speaker stereo gear you hear the narration but it has an odd spacey directionless quality. But if you are listening on a system that has both channels mono-ed together at any point, i.e. by a single speaker or right/left channels wired together, you get zip.
The only way to fix the file is to load the track into an editor and invert phase on just one channel and just for the narration (in this case).

How do I know this? Did a whole production where someone recorded VO using the wrong cable into the wrong gear and I didn't catch it. Sent out tapes with nice music and NO narration when played on (still common at the time) mono TVs. Now I always check playback on a mono speaker when using supplied audio.

Max e^{i pi} · **Reply #43 on:** December 04, 2013, 12:46:47 PM

Wow.
Thank you Arri for that detailed and elucidating explanation. I love learning new things

Unblinking · **Reply #44 on:** December 04, 2013, 06:25:09 PM

Fascinating, and totally makes sense. Maybe pre-release of an episode, that can be added as a test before it goes out.

LaShawn · **Reply #45 on:** January 28, 2014, 06:38:25 PM

Auuughhh...I'm soooo behiiiiiiiiiind....lol.

I thought this was gorgeous, quiet story that had a lot going on in the details. So much so I almost got lost..so to speak. I find it interesting that instead of camping gear, the woman brings pens and paper. And the part where she stops following her husbands signs and start making her own. Wow. I think the story captured perfectly the feeling of spinning your wheels and trudging in a routine, to the point that you forget the reason why you're even doing it, and the realization that with a small change, things do happen. So for me, while the story was bleak, it ended in a bittersweet, optimistic note.

I think if I had been in a more stagnant part of my life, I would be deeply impacted by this story.

girlwithsixarms · **Reply #46 on:** June 07, 2014, 06:35:30 AM

I wasn't going to comment on an episode this old, but I listened to 289 (see Dave's end comments) on the same night as this one.

I didn't like this story so much as I felt a connection to it - a close friend of mine spent years battling with terrible depression and I spent about the same period of time doing the same, one of the things we've both noticed as we're coming out the other side is that our memories are much less sharp than they used to be and it is especially difficult to remember anything from the worst periods of depression. It's difficult to express this thought without sounding overly philosophical and angsty, but I think this labyrinth story stuck with me so fiercely because it's not just about how difficult it is to find your way out, it's also about how the process of doing so takes things from you - some that you didn't know you could lose, and some that you didn't know you had to begin with.