post | Croncast - Life is Show Prep

Next To Me, They Love The Beard, Apricot Jam

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:23:55 -0600

Episode: #771 | Length:32:48 | Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

Grow the beard does
Some ladies can't get enough
Just not you
Apricot jam with snowflakes on it
They won't sit next to me
Holiday sales post holiday for all items with Santa on the package
More paper products than a school
Horde the holiday in full effect

Tags: Kris Smith Betsy Smith Croncast Funniest Podcast comedy Podcast

Giving Away - 2 Black Keys Tickets for SOLD OUT Las Vegas Show (You pay shipping)

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:37:13 -0600

Too good to be true? Nope.

If you get picked at random and pay the overnight shipping. Which according to FedEx is about $40 for 10:30 a.m. deliver tomorrow.

I am a huge Black Keys fan and haven't seen them live since 2006. I thought Las Vegas would be the end to that drought. Not the case.

However, it can be the start of something awesome for you or another great set of memories from a stand out rock band.

I've got TWO General Admission tickets to the Saturday, February 19th sold out show at the Chelsea in the Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas.

Here's how I'm going to do this since I waited to the last minute because I thought I could pull this out:

A. Leave a comment on this post with your facebook page, twitter handle or an email with '[at]' instead of an '@' (helping to avoid the spam) so that i can contact you if you win.

B. At 3:00 EST today I will pick one commenter at random. You've got 10 minutes to get back to me before I pick someone else, since I need to send these out as soon as possible to get them to someone.

C. Drop the $40 for the shipping in my PayPal and I'll head to FedEx.

This isn't a scam or anything weird.

I'm a huge fan and thought I could pull it out. I tried to take my 5 year old with me to Central Park when the Keys played there but it was sold out. We sat outside and listened for about an hour. She's also loves the Keys, well it makes up about 850f her music listening in my presence, so of course she does. She was pissed we couldn't get in. Don't let this happen to you ;).

Tags: the black keys las vegas cosmopolitan chelsea

T Partied, He Closed It, Three Strangers

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:17:01 -0500

Episode: #655
Length: 28:42
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

Three strangers enter
They meet
Two become friends
One goes home with something from the other
Drama ensues
I don't know who the daddy is
The guy was a pimp
Then . . . then . . . he was out pimped
The post I mention on the show - Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it. Cabbie couldn't hang
He thought he was going to rip us off
He will never mess with a midwestern dude again
I know why it happened
I'll tell you on Friday

Tags: ice t cabbie drama 10 90 mark suster

Season 26 Episode 05: The Croncast Shorty

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:02:31 -0500

Episode: #655 The Croncast Shorty
Length: 4:01
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool!

Tags: ice t cabbie drama 10 90 mark suster

Croncast Addiction, The Episodes Will Flow

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:18:37 -0500

I prefer not to write these posts . . .

It was Monday, we missed it with a new episode. I am sure if you've got a strong Croncast addiction, you noticed.

No excuses, our routine is to record them Sunday night.

That changed this week, as something came up for Betsy. Yesterday evening, it didn't come together either.

We'll get an episode out tonight and back on track for regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday deliveries.

Tags: kris wayne betsy shilts croncast croncast addiction

Macedonian Warbler, Gubernatorial Run, Sentimental Hangup

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:30:22 -0500

Episode: #639
Length: 30:01
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

The Lions
The Buffalo
Highway red meat
Sentimental hangup
Patient zero and her sparrows
Warbling in Macedonian
You have no idea where their beaks have been
Gubernatorial run
Sell the post office
Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Tags: macedonian warbler gubernatorial run sentimental hangup buffalo lions

Season 25 Episode 14: The Croncast Shorty

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:26:21 -0500

Episode: #639 The Croncast Shorty
Length: 4:02
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool!

The Lion
The Buffalo
Highway red meat
Sentimental hangup
Patient zero and her sparrows
Warbling in Macedonian
You have no idea where their beaks have been
Gubernatorial run
Sell the post office
Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Tags: macedonian warbler gubernatorial run sentimental hangup buffalo lions

Eyebrow scaping, Subway Dance Crew, Celebrity Encounters

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:29:45 -0600

Show: #539
Length: 30:25
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

Server issues today, apparently the it ate the show and post
Thanks to those that sent messages!
Betsy thinks that I shave between my eyebrows
I'm just flakey and y'all scrape my flesh
Betsy wants to talk celebrity sightings
Mark was in town and we went to Kidrobot
And who else, Kris?
Mr. I'm Rick James, Bitch
Just us
I can't stand the fact you get to see all these people
On to pizza
NY is so awesome for show prep
The old man says, I'll be there in 15 minutes
Am I going to jail today?
Not today?
But I am still going to jail, yes?
Yes.
The dance crew gets on the subway

Tags: kidrobot dave chappelle subway dance crew celebrity encounters eyebrow shaping

croncast subscription info - via twitter

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:46:38 -0600

my puter blew up last night after i posted the show. for now click get cool in nav bar

Tags: paid rss

post yo gabba gabba and pre hip hop harry

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:58:19 -0500

Tags: gabba hop harry hip pre

Structured Data: Follow-Up to Palegroove Blog Post

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:02:54 -0500

In the my previous post at Palegroove, "Improving your SEO with RSS in 3 easy steps," I shared some insight about how to setup your RSS feed URL's so that they are search engine friendly. After reading the post again, well, I missed explaining why search spiders like feeds so much. The answer is structured data.

PC Magazine defines structured data as, "Data that resides in fixed fields within a record or file. Relational databases and spreadsheets are examples of structured data. Contrast with unstructured data." I'm sure a future revised version will include XML or RSS ;-).

When your content is placed into feeds it has the benefit of being described by a template - structured data. It is described by elements in the feed the same as mine, CNN.com, Apple, Microsoft or anyone else with a RSS feed. RSS is the ubiquitous, defacto standard for syndication. The simplicity of RSS as a standard to describe your content's title, description, dates, content, enclosures, etc makes it a magic API for search engines, developers and database administrators. Your website doesn't do this. It is full of unstructured data.

On your site the post titles could be in a h1-6 tag, div or a legacy table cell with a style applied to it. This makes it harder for search engines to understand your content. Sure, there are insanely engineered algorithms that are in place to create associations between the content on your site and the code that is used to display it, but RSS makes it uniform and much easier for search companies to cache, categorize, rank and re-syndicate your ideas. The primary reason is that the feed describes the data types instead ot telling a browser how to display it.

So, like I said in the last post, "Treat your feeds with the same care that you do your pages," with the caveat that maybe you need to treat them better because the next iteration of the web is being built on structured data.

Tags: RSS SEO structured data feeds seo

Think differently about RSS and its uses

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:18:54 -0500

It's been quite a while since I wrote a blog post and it was time to get down with the reality that some things can't be said in 140 characters or less.

Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.

I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.

Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.

First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.

Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.

How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.

In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.

Here's how it goes down:

1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo

What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery

Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!

Tags: flickr live photo blogging RSS as API seesmic tumblr twitter

Season 22 Ep 02: Gothar, Alaskan Nomads, Ham Ketchup Sandwich

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:26:05 -0500

Croncast - 2009-04-17.mp3
Show: #527
Length: 24:15
Size: 22.3 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

Bringing it on the Friday!
That's a post, this is a post I know that I am fabulous
Helps promote the show
Give these people a chance
Then the audience swells
My kids can't sleep
More popular than Wired magazine daddy's
I can make a super sandwich
For your daughter
The ham and ketchup sandwich
Fulfilling her need "Scooby Doo Style"
That's on you
Appaloosa is where I am going
Let's count down your shiny chasing skills
Glad you can admit them
You are my little raccoon
Betsy is going to be on the Radio Shopping Show
Gotta give the back story
Rubeeen had been there to show us
Pet a lizard Sure he'll bring the salmonella to your front door
This is my favorite lizard, Gothar
Sure, he's gotta pack the lizards
It's totally worth two hundred bucks
The party phenomenon
Turn it all into a party
What kind of burner are you?
Pipeline or bust
They were on the bust side
We have a token listener in Alaska
Don't even try
Nomad in some populations, transient in our community
I was just that good

Tags: lizard food gothar alaska wired ham sandwich

Season 21 Ep 24: The Mexico Part 3

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:52:03 -0500

Croncast - 2009-03-30.mp3
Show: #524
Length: 41:24
Size: 38 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

When, when, when, when
This was supposed to go out Friday
Maggie has been insanely sick
What happens when you read all of these Oprah books?
It should come with a six pack of Xanax
Difficult times?
Write a book
You need to change your name to Kristina
Sending email as Kris Smith
People would respond to me as a woman<
br> So I had to make it Kristopher Smith Wait, Mr B
I have to give a shout out to Carrie, thanks for coming to my show
The Mexico Part 3 begins now
Betsy, you are at the buffet, go . . .
If I had known that they served guacamole breakfast, lunch and dinner
Standing at the buffet
A woman sidles up next to me
"What part of Canada are you from?"
I speak like that because I lived in Milwaukee for a few years
Where's that?
Wisconsin
Is that a big city?
All the push ups that you do
They could throw a rock at it
She was wearing the crocs
Then I scanned the room and it was covered in crocs
That is he face of colonialism
Later . . .
I'm the only American
What is the most expensive shit you got behind this bar?
Grand Marnier on the rocks the entire trip
Do you want to know how to cook the guacamole?
He was like a bull fighter
Super hot
Fellas watch out for this
They will whisk you wife away
The Italian says, "You mean this prison"
You must leave this compound
They will take you to the jungle
They get electricity for 2 hours a day
It is wonderful
Deciding to go deep see fishing
How did you get over the shark fear?
We were stuck at the front gate
How many signs do you need?
It was like a road block
We were there on a gift certificate
I'm thinking that this will be so nice
The authentic Mexican experience awaits
We get to the place
Sure, it would have have been authentic
But didn't the charter company name tell you all you needed to know?
Captain Rick's
It should have
Yeah, if it were Captain Ricardo's
On the boat with a Canada
They start swearing at us in Spanish
Turns out I am the only one that knows it
I kept my mouth shut
Betsy catches Dory (see photo in post)
"Chocha Grande"
How is the fish doing?
Mas muerto
They pull it back into the boat
Cut up Dory and turned her into chum
We had Captain Bicho
More protected species were caught
Chopped and chum
Chocha account is over 11 at this point
I'm the bloke, right
Don't be a chocha Mr B

Tags: Crocs Canadian Tourists The Mexico GrandMarnier

Season 21 Ep 11: The Kitty's Gone, CarMax Sale, Kelly Blue Book

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:14:43 -0600

Croncast - 2009-02-11.mp3
Show: #511
Length: 33:56
Size: 31.2 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

This show brought to you by Affordable Promotions
Pick a post, any post to leave a comment
You can leave a comment for our 2012 shows
It's a whole new internet that I developed on my own
Valentine's day is 3 days away
Buy you love an "I love you baby USB drive"
You gave me the best gift ever Mr B for Valentines Day
Conversion van jokes search this site for John Elway
I read a thread
Ping me when you're ready
So you're reading this thread about CarMax
Supposedly they pay close to Kelly Blue Book for car
Saved by a bucket of chicken
Selling a car privately
Was much to worry about
The slow drive-by in the Ford Explorer
It's the same person
I've been to that garage sale
The same Velma
That would be Vonda
CarMax gives you an appraisal
So we go for it
The Volvo will be sold
Picking it up after detail
The car knew
The dash lit up with warnings
30 minutes later all good
We decide to get both cars appraised
Well, Kris' gift?
The photo above says it all
Trunk full of auto parts and a mechanic strapped to bumper
But we still did something that Dave Ramsey would frown on
Hit up the casino last week
It felt really good to be really bad . . . on a budget
What is so hot to ladies about a man that plays the tables?
No oxygen tank

Tags: Jaguar CarMax appraisal Kelly Blue Book Dave Ramsey

Season 21 Ep 9: Copies, Chicken Chutes, Cheap Divorces

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:02:22 -0600

Croncast - 2009-02-06.mp3
Show: #509
Length: 29:41
Size: 27.3 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

This show brought to you by Affordable Promotions
I'm on the wellness train
Gary Shilts cheap divorces window scraper
Betsy's host read
I didn't know that you background in radio?
Your dating a of DJ
I got this gig through FFA
I wasn't gonna check chicken chutes
Feta is for farmers
Chemists making cheese
I was the hottest chick in FFA
They could break walnuts with their thighs
You know, those girls
They smelled like hog shit at school
Which farm implement to have sex in for comfort
What else are the going to do?
It laid fallow long enough
See you didn't get to do that
They would have given you the bullhorn one morning
Get your feral cat poison by the gallon. Two for one!
Corn based economy
Flat tire again
Buy wine and bottled water for earthquake
Better if it was a Croncast poster
Join the department of health
"You probably have hep c. Brought to you by Croncast.com"
We could find tons of new listeners
Small town video store All the labels were black and white
Quality of my relations was my credit

Tags: goat cheese FFA wellness train cronast ads corn based economy

Season 21 Ep 08: Where is everybody, Blue Book, Not well

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:42:21 -0600

Croncast - 2009-02-04.mp3
Show: #508
Length: 23:57
Size: 22mb
Format: mp3

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This show brought to you by Podiobooks.com
No show notes, I'm sick
I'm heading to bed
Glad I built scheduled posting into this thing!

Tags: kelly blue book dealership chipotle economy

still running? - via twitter

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:20:48 -0600

simple test to see if my twitter to blog post script is still running at croncast.

Tags: macbook pro apple tv twitter 2 blog

shopping after the rapture

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:18:08 -0500

this is how all shopping will look when it is you and me kicking it post apocalypse.

Tags: shopping apocalypse post kicking rapture

Season 20 Ep 19: San Francisco Part 2, The Meetup

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:25:08 -0500

Croncast - 2008-06-04.mp3
Show: #494
Length: 41:59
Size: 28.8 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

We're back for part two of San Francisco
The pre pre-school baby is in a kissing phase
She kissed a diseased baby
Then she kissed me and now I am infected
Other than daddy just do
I can blame it on her cuz I got the documentation
Her encrusted nostril in photos
I could track back the vector of my illness
Yes, you are the carriers
Listen to Croncast, "They argue with one another in their basement"
We rank with NPR shows in the post
How are we different than any other shows?
Funnier
Let the woman talk
No love for this man
I didn't get a party when I was there
Heading to the meetup at House of Shields
What if no one shows up?
People were bound to show up
Four people showed up
I am so glad that I disappointed you in a positive way
David, Sam, Russ and Katherine

The Meetup: Left to Right: Russ, Sam, Katherine (in back), David, Betsy (in blue), Jeanie

David has been listening for a long time
A very long time
He was in college, birthday, marriage to attorney
Look back at things that have happened while we have been doing the show
Schlomo gave us the space
It was dark, with a kicked over chair
That is HoS
Russ got a pre-smoking ban chair with an ashtray built into it
This is where we made the mistake
We started drinking right away, heavily
Jeanie kept up with me drink for drink
Mind you she is one third my size
We left the meetup to go dancing
More drinks
Then Jeanie starts dancing with a bearded Marylin Monroe
Having a great time and we stiffed them on the cab
Just drunk bitches we were
We gotta get to sleep
We have things to do the next day
We surface at 10 am
Jeanie didn't get out of bed till 3
I see a pattern with your Jeanie vacations
Remember Chef Jeff?
Back in my skinny days
Now I'm chubby
There's a food shortage I'm good for 8 weeks
At 8pm Mrs. and Mrs Smith are going to hop on a romantic cruise
They should have named it, "The Good Ship Jagermeister"
A little romantic music for you
If I tried to do that with my friends Evan or Mike
So the next day we rent a car
And we end up dumped in a pile of homeless people
They're like day of the dead zombies
Here comes the scariest wican beast i have ever seen in my life
This weather beaten hag pops up in the window
Shit happens, some people aren't what you expect
Are we on the road to Guerneville?
You can't do that with a kind vegan sister
A big coin receptacle
"I'm saving up to clone my cat, donations welcome"

Tags: San Francisco Guerneville Betsy Smith Jeanie Bowen meetup

the toad sees all. well, maybe just me.

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:08:44 -0500

we've lived here for four years and i've never had anything fall in this window well before.

today it has been a bunny and now two toads.

next shot i hope to post is stacks of $100's that fell from the sky into the window well. fingers crossed.

Tags: window stacks post fell sky

Season 20 Ep 12: New Hag, Betsy in Boystown, Cut to the Chase

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:05:52 -0500

Croncast - 2008-05-05.mp3
Show: #487
Length: 29:40
Size: 20.4 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

Special note: Betsy and Jeanie are having a meetup in San Francisco May 21, 2008 at House of Shields 39 New Montgomery St., Time: 6:30 p.m., stop and have a drink or two!

Cinco de Mayo
The drink comments spilled over
Work with me
Comment on the proper post and subject
You should be embarrassed to drink that in front of other people
It's a weird girly drink
If it's the only drink you are going to drink for the night
One tumbler
You just took the story to a whole new level
Oh, bears
I feel really good about closing out Croncast and moving on
There are legal concerns with letting listeners choose
Everything is an impeding legal issue
I can't even say v$deo pr0fe$$or anymore
My sister wanted to come to Karl's with me
Your sister needs to cut to the chase
You can thank me later when you wake up in your own vomit
Sometimes threesomes are weird
Half the audience just said, "Why, yes they are"
Not that kind!
My friend is super
Maybe they were looking for a new hag
Did you wear open toe shoes?
That might have confused him
Becoming a stripper at 33
That is wrong
It is time to retire at 33 for most strippers
You have a glamorous view of strippers
You are nuts
There is nothing glamorous about stripping as a career
I don't dread these things
What you can and can't comment on

Tags: Chicago girly drink new hag boystown careers

sundown flowers #4

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:34:53 -0500

singing backup to the yellow was this blue player.

i mentioned in the other photo post about wondering how the digital camera changed the color of the purple flowers, well, in this shot it was true to life with the blue and yellow in this shot.

i wonder if it could be something in the flower itself and the way it reflects light?

Tags: blue yellow shot flowers life

Where's the meat?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:23:49 -0500

I wanted to pop in and say that I do realize I haven't blogged much substance lately. I've been so busy that I've had a difficult time finding more time than that of snapping a photo and uploading it to flickr with a short description.

There are some posts brewing in me about class, social media, web 2.0, art, opportunities and parenting. Anyway, have a good day, my people.

Tags: class web 2.0 social media art

Famous people I've sold shoes to

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:31:20 -0500

In the mid 90's after I left college (see; not graduating) I worked my up the food chain with an athletic shoe retailer to eventually manage a couple stores. In this time I was able to put shoes on the following famous (lightly said) peoples' feet:

By the way, the whole reason for this post is that for some reason I had a dream last night and replayed all of these sales in my head. Maybe it's a sign to give it all up and go back to selling shoes. Wouldn't Betsy be thrilled?!

Ok, here they are:

1) Carrot Top
2) Teddy Riley
3) Kevin Garnett
4) Lorrie Morgan
5) Ray Allen
6) Rudy T

What good stuff you got in your closet from a former life in sales dealing with "famous" people?

Tags: nike the finish line carrot top famous people feet