A peek in the mirror

From the web comic XKCD.

Any suggestion that this applies to Freemasons on various blogs and web forums is, of course, completely coincidental.

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Live at five...

Actually, it was more like 8:00 PM, but that doesn't rhyme.

What could be better than listening to me for 90 minutes? Most people who know me would say listening to other people for 90 minutes.

Cory Sigler, the Grand Master of Masonic Media has added podcasting to his ever-expanding resume of online accomplishments. Some of you may know him as "corsig," a moderator and frequent visitor of several excellent Masonic web forums. Bro. Sigler also publishes "The Working Tools Magazine," an online compendium of Masonic news and items of interest. A couple of months ago, I mentioned Cory's incorporation to the magazine a social networking site (like MySpace or Facebook) for Freemasons.

Apparently still having too much time on his hands, Bro. Sigler decided to explore the idea of having a regular podcast. Podcasting is simply using various tools to create a radio show format that can be downloaded and listened to on portable MP3 players, such as an Apple iPod. He asked if I would be interested in being a test subject, and somehow I wound up being a co-host on his first episode.

Cory moves very quickly. By the time I managed to contact him to see what he wanted to do, he had already contacted the authors of "Morals and Dogma for the 21st Century," a revised version of Albert Pike's classic, written in more accessible language for modern readers, and he managed to set up a time for all of us to be on the phone. Yes, all of us: There are four authors, all members of the Scottish Rite in Texas.

And as if that weren't enough, we were joined by everyone's favorite Dummy, Bro. Chris Hodapp. Chris was an invaluable addition, mainly because he was (* ahem *) the only one of us who had actually read the book beforehand. I did, however, manage to play Ed McMahon to Cory's Johnny Carson, and before the show we managed to come up with a dozen or so talking points, including asking how they handled the sections of M&D that are too-often quoted by the religious Anti-Masons.

We were worried that we might not have enough material to cover an hour's worth of time, but we ended up having a great 7-way conversation for 90 minutes. Along the way, we took IM questions from listeners. The platform that we used, Talkshoe, allows people to log on to listen to the show in real-time; people logged on are able to IM the hosts to ask questions and offer up comments. The best thing was that no studio equipment was needed - just a telephone and a computer.

We had such a great time - and so far, such positive feedback - that we're planning several more programs. Anyone interested can listen or download the program at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/11669 . We'd love to hear comments, feedback, suggestions for improvements, and ideas for new programs.

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