Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Zachary and Faith. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

This past weekend my son and I went to an outdoors show in Ottawa, Canada's Capital. There were exhibitors, displays and presentations about camping, canoeing and kayaking, mountain climbing, white water rafting and so much more. Ryan and I got to meet Kevin Callan, aka The Happy Camper who is known the world over for his outdoor experiences. One highlight of the show was a huge central pool where various canoe and kayak demonstrations were held throughout the day. Ryan is a member of his university's kayak club, so he was more interested in these presentations than I was. During one of the demos I found myself at the back of the crowd standing next to a man that had a huge bushy Grizzly Adams type beard, a threadbare military style jacket, old jeans and boots and a worn out ball cap on his head. For all intense and purpose he looked like he could be a homeless person there seeking shelter from the cold. Now, I know looks can be deceiving, and since I also knew how much tickets to the event cost, I figured he wasn't some vagrant passing time. So, being the person I am, I struck up a conversation with him. I motioned to the pool and asked if he ever kayaked. He shook his head and told me canoes were more his thing. So I asked him where he liked to canoe and the conversation took off from there. Read More...

Inspiration is powerful, isn’t it? Inspiration is like a mighty river that brings life to the world around us. Mark was inspired to podcast because of me. I was inspired to podcast because of Cliff Ravenscraft. Cliff was inspired to podcast because of Leo Laporte. Inspiration that started with Leo trickled to others...MANY others. I can’t even begin to count the number of people who have been inspired by Cliff. His influence is tremendous. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a contribution from Bonita. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

Early evening found the four of us getting ready to watch a movie. Hunger Games Mocking Jay part 1 in case you're interested. While sitting in our living room, waiting for everyone to join me I decided to take out my iPhone to check what NHL hockey games were going on that night. I saw my Toronto Maple Leafs would be playing the Calgary Flames and I thought they may even have a chance against them. I read a couple of articles pertaining to the upcoming game, then checked Twitter and Facebook. At one point I glanced up wondering when we were going to start the movie only to see my wife and both my kids also sitting in the living room. All three were looking at their phones. I had been so focused on my iPhone that I hadn't even realized any of them had joined me. I made a decision then and there, that for the entire weekend I would be unplugging my cellphone. I went into the settings panel and turned off both data and wifi, blocking my iPhone from the world, in effect turning it into a... well, just a normal plain old cordless phone, imagine that. I then set it "do not disturb". Read More...

By now I think most of you know the story of how this podcast came to be, but just in case you don’t, or you need a refresher, this is for you. I cut my teeth on podcasting by doing podcasts on TV, film, and technology with the primary focus being on TV. Obviously that’s still the major thing we do here at Golden Spiral Media. However, after talking about those things for over 5 years, I had a desire to do something else. It wasn’t a desire to stop talking about that other stuff, it was a desire to talk about a wider variety of things. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a contribution from Barb. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

We have a metal gazebo on our deck. In the spring, summer and fall, it shelters us from the sun while we sit on our outdoor furniture. In the winter months, when our furniture is put away, we hang a bird feeder from a ceiling hook in it's centre. The feeder is mostly protected from the elements and having it so close to the house allows us to watch our feathered friends from the warm comfort of our kitchen and living room. We watch sparrows, chickadees, finches, nuthatches as well as the odd woodpecker as they feed on the black oil sunflower seeds we put out. Some mornings there could be as many as 30 or 40 birds coming and going from the feeder at any one time. Last week, while watching with my wife, she wondered if the birds ever got tired of eating the same thing over and over. She decided to look up online what other things we could feed them and as luck would have it, we had many of the suggested menu items in our pantry. My wife filled a bowl with tasty bird treats and trudged through our snow filled deck to put the bowl on the ground beneath the feeder. Read More...

Last year I really struggled with the idea of separating out my podcast production services into a separate company from Golden Spiral Media. I sought out several of my friends for advice, and even got advice from a marketing executive from one of the biggest media companies in my city. The results were pretty much split 50/50 as to those who thought I should break them apart and those who thought I should keep them together. Both sides also made good points to support their perspective. I thought about it a lot and as you are probably aware, I decided to break them apart. Last September I formed Pro Podcast Solutions to serve as the company that handles all of my podcast consulting and production, and kept Golden Spiral Media as my podcast network. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Bonita and Geoff. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

My daughter arrived home from school on Friday and instead of saying hi like she always does, she went straight to her room and closed the door. Never a good sign. Of course being a concerned parent I went to check on her only to find her crying on her bed because "all her friends hated her". This is what I was able to get out of her. A couple of weeks ago Joelle's best friend was invited to a party by a couple of girls that, for some reason, don't like Joelle. She doesn't know why they don't like her but needless to say she wasn't invited. Joelle's best friend asked her if she minded if she went to the party and Joelle told her she didn't. I remember this. At dinner one night Kim and I asked her if she had any plans with her friend that evening and she told us about the party. Joelle wasn't upset that she wasn't invited, nor was she upset that her friend went. She told us she was surprised that her friend even asked her. Joelle thinks it's ok if her friend hangs out with other people just like she would expect her friend to be ok if Joelle wanted to hang out with someone else. Just because they are best friends doesn't mean they need to be exclusive to each other. I personally thought she was very mature about it. Read More...

Are you up for another episode involving snow? I know many of you have had enough of the white stuff to last a lifetime, but I guess we can all be grateful we didn’t live in Silver Creek, Colorado back in 1921. As I look out my window today I see a few inches of snow. I haven’t watched the news to see how much is out there, but I’d guess it’s about 2 inches. It’s nice to have a window in my studio. It’s something I never got during my corporate days. Okay, well technically I did have a window, but the only thing I could see was the tops of shelving out in our warehouse. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday we’re looking back across 250 episodes as you share your favorite Stuff I Learned Yesterday moments. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

In the past few weeks, my life has taken some dramatic turns. With the combination of our decision for me to stay home with our children while simultaneously moving into a new home, our financial situation changed drastically. We have been stretched thin recently, but were making cuts necessary to be able to maintain life as we knew it. We did the things people normally do when faced with financial strain. We cut extras, trimmed fat and eliminated all extra spending. We quit eating out, and began shopping in more budget friendly ways as well. Read More...

We're taught as children to ask for things. Can I have a cookie? Can I go to the park? Can I buy these shoes? It's one of the fundamental principals of life. If you don't ask, you wont get. Of course we're also taught that we don't always get what we ask for. It might be too close to supper for a cookie or the shoes may be too expensive. Sure, we may be disappointed but at least we tried. Read More...