Bustopia

No More Suspense

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:36:00 -0600

I've decided to end the suspense. I'm going to admit something. The Bustopia podcast was started as a joke. The conversation went like this:
Noobulous: "Bustopia should do more stuff."
TERRANCE: "What should we do?"
Noobulous: "We could start a podcast."
Qalar: "Bustopia DOES need a podcast!"
Noobulous: "Lets do it!"

Like every joke on Bustopia, we took it way to far. As in, we actually produced a podcast. But, like most jokes on Bustopia, it got old. For a while I was forcing it along anyway, hoping it could be a regular tradition and maybe we were just tired for a while. But no, it had, in fact, gotten old. I can't find time to edit it anymore, the people of Bustopia are happy to go back to unstructured conversation, and I no longer have any recording devices left (besides the crappy laptop). Plus, the year is drawing to a close so the teachers are pwning us with the homework. So sorry, we pretty muched failed you. If there's an outcry of people who miss the show, maybe I will consider putting effort into it, but I seriously doubt that will happen.

Episode 6 is fully recorded, and the audio has been waiting to be edited for a month now. I'm thinking I'll probably just do that and release it this summer, so you have something to remember us by. But I might not, it's all a matter of willpower.

Anyway, stay tuned for Dormtopia next year, from the UT honors dorms. Maybe.

Guide to the Pr0n

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:36:00 -0600

This is a guide to pronouncing TERRANCE. Are you ready? Good. We shall begin.

Step one. Select an epsode of The Bustopia Podcast. Step two. Download the episode. Step three. Transfer the episode to your listening device of choice. You may skip this step if you listen on the computer. Step four. Drink alcohol. Step five. FLAME WARRIOR STORMS THE CASTLE!!!

Step six. Begin listening to The Bustopia Podcast. Step seven. Continue listening until you hear a name that reminds you of Mary Poppins. Step eight. Rewind to before the name and listen again. Repeat until the name is burned into your brain like Flame Warrior's sword in balsa wood. Step nine. Say the name aloud until the people around you wonder about your sanity, or if you are alone, until you wonder about your sanity.

Step ten. Go about your business for 24 hours. Step eleven. Speak the name again. Step twelve. Listen to the name again to verify your speakage. If you have spoken it wrong or not at all, You Need More Training! Whiplash. Wha-tch!. Go back to step six.

Step thirteen. You win. Treat yourself to a gallon of ice cream. Step fourteen. Don't sue me for making you fat.

No Ep6 Yet

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sun, 8 Apr 2007 20:25:00 -0600

Well, it's been a week since I should have released Episode 6, so I suppose I owe you some sort of apology.

Sorry, I've been busy.

That's your apology. Given how little anybody cares, it should be enough.

Bustopia to be Sold

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 18:01:00 -0600

Bustopia is going to go through some major changes to offset the rising costs of podcasting (equipment, advertising, bandwidth, etc). We have opened bidding for a corporation to purchase the Bustopia podcast. So far, Fox Networks, Apple, Public Broadcasting Corporation, and Air America have expressed interest. Since whatever road we take will screw over you listeners, I felt it was only fair to warn you. I will list the cons of each; the only pros in any case is we get our financial burdens lifted.

Fox Networks
Episodes would be available for stream, but not download
We would be required to run a few advertisements throughout each episode

Apple
All episodes would be purchased at the iTunes Music Store, for 99 cents each
We would each be given a Mac and then required to pretend we like it on the show
We would have to conform to strict censorship

Public Broadcasting Corporation
We would have donation buttons on the site and regularly ask for donations during the show
We would regularly play Public Service Announcements
We would add a "history time" section

Air America
We would be required to set aside 30% of each show for Republican bashing
We would no longer be allowed to talk about how much we love Dick Cheney
We would be required to increase our ethnic diversity by getting some black dude to ride the bus
We would no longer be allowed to use the terms "Democrat," "liberal," "nerd," "gay," "ghey," "elderly," and "hippie" as insults

Feel free to post comments telling us which company you would most like to see Bustopia a subsidiary of. Unless there are large differences in the money involved, we will try to cater to our listenership like the suck-ups we are.

HELLO, MORTALS!

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:44:00 -0600

Consider yourself warned! 16-9 days remain before the coming of the apocalypse. There will be swords of flame and demons aplenty, not to mention I, your subterranean overlord, Adrian. Pestilence will overcome nations, as greed turns to bloodshed and regularly peaceful busses revolt, not don't stopping and such. APOCALYPSE!

Is that you Adrian?! No. It can't be. I defeated you in Episode... um, in a prior episode. *draws sword. Now we duel! *swords clash, sparks fly. Gaah! My arm! *thunder crashes in background, grunts issue from both parties as they struggle against each other.

You haven't bested me yet, TERRANCE! En garde! *sword comes down between shoulders, hewing body in two.

AHH! Oh. I'm awake. Well, that was exciting. And now, to practice my swordsmanship for when I must face him in real life...

~Bustopia Podcast Episode 5~

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:06:00 -0600

Surgeon General's Warning
Episodes of Bustopia evenly divisible by 5 are known by the state of California to cause birth defects in babies (as are most substances). Additionally, they are known to the civilized world to cause you not wanting to listen to Bustopia ever again.

Well, folks, we've come a long way since the birth of our fine podcast (just look at the difference between 0 and 1 or between 1 and 4!). As you may know, it takes a lot of work to keep the podcast bitchin' awesome, and every once in a while I need a break. So, we conceived the "behind-the-scenes" episode. Originally, it was going to be an episode where we talk about how the podcast is produced and stuff, but it turned out (partially thanks to Qalar) just to be something where I record the entire bus ride and don't edit. (I'm going to do about two rides per /5 episodes, since that comes out to about an hour). Anyway, we revert to the style known only as "Noobulous running a podcast before he knew how to run a podcast." Enjoy.

Just to be clear, there is no reason to feel obligated to the /5 episodes. Unlike the rest, they exist for our entertainment, not yours. Listeners such as Barnaby who have large quantities of free time due to excessive TARDIS use should feel free to listen to this, but listeners like the Mad Potter who had to be coerced into listening to Bustopia at all should steer clear.

On the show:
-whatever the hell we felt like saying/doing

Send death threats, rude comments, and DDoS to bustopia@gmail.com

Bustopia Episode 5

Ep5 delayed

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:49:00 -0600

I started the upload last night, and in the morning I found that it had failed. I copied the file and resumed the upload from my desktop PC. It gave an ETA of 45 minutes, and the Busride was 1 hour. When I got to school, I checked in the file and it did not seem to exist. So the upload failed. The facist school firewall blocks FTP, so I can't reupload. I should have interim-hosted it on my own webserver, but I didn't. So you will get it later today.

A few notes about Bustopia

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:57:00 -0600

As many of you know, because it was on this blog before, the former official recording device of Bustopia, the Noobulous' mp3 player, has broken. Or perhaps bwoken. Anyway, Episode 4 was partially recorded on that, and after it broke, recorded on the portable video player (The Archos) that Sqiblet and I share. The mp3 player recorded at the sample rate of 8000hz. The Archos, however, records at the much higher sample rate of 44100hz. The second half of Episode 5 was recorded on my laptop, actually, because I forgot to charge The Archos, but the laptop also records at 44100hz. The point is, for Episode 4, I downsampled the 44100hz audio to 8000hz, so I could mix it with the audio from the mp3 player, but if all my audio is 44100hz it isn't worth the large amount of effort to downsample it all. This means there will be a notable increase in the size of our lossless files. There might be an increase in the size of the VBR mp3s and the ogg vorbis, but the 64kbps mp3s are bitrate-capped (and mp3s are not sample based as far as I know), and those are the ones I link to, so most of you won't notice a thing. (by the way, if you take the filename out of the url, you can access the archive.org project pages, but you can also find those by Googling "Bustopia")

On an unrelated note, I've noticed that there is a misunderstanding about the email system. I am fairly certain we have at least eight listeners, yet we have gotten almost no email. You may have noticed that at the bottom of each episode it says "Send somethingorother to bustopia@gmail.com"? This is not a request. Emailing is mandatory. It is only fair; Bustopia gives you many well-developed thoughts on a regular basis, so if you are going to consume them, you are required to give us at least a few in return. Thank you for your cooperation (which I trust I will be receiving shortly in the form of angry emails promising to never listen to Bustopia again).

Speaking of episodes of Bustopia to not listen to, Episode 5 is ready and will be posted tomorrow morning, because it's uploading now and I'm going to sleep.

More reasons not to trust Noobulous

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:46:00 -0600

...I promised Episode 5 yesterday, didn't I?
It's not ready.

Yesterday Qalar and TERRANCE were not on the Bus, and Ferris refused to podcast without them, so it would have been just me and Sqiblet, and Squiblet's boring.

And since there's no school for a week, you don't get anything until the following Monday, if then.

In the meantime, listen to The Original, or listen to a good podcast (which I already know I will get a lot of flak for linking to).

The Original

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Fri, 9 Mar 2007 07:02:00 -0600

We have decided to bring you a "Special Behind the Scenes" edition of Bustopia to celebrate the fact that 5 is half of a round number. If releases were years, it would be a fifth anniversary (That's right, Qalar, I said "anniversary"). Anyway, it was originally going to be a normal show but with all the behind-the-scenes action, like me saying "Hey TERRANCE, say something funny." preceding the funny. But then it degenerated into just people talking and me not being allowed to edit it. So basically, it's going to suck. In fact, it reminded me of the original episode of Bustopia I made. I had recorded about 3 hours of Bus audio, and through 8 hours of editing (it literally consumed my entire Saturday), trimmed it down to 2 hours. So for those of you with strong livers and little to do:

Bustopia Episode 0: Rolling Down a Hill

Anyway, Episode 5 will not be as bad because we are actually trying. But it will still be bad, you can count on that. And it will be released on Friday, because I won't have to deal with finding time to edit it like I do for the so-called "not completely stupid" episodes. Prepare yourself.

Bustopia Podcast Episode 4

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Thu, 8 Mar 2007 12:46:00 -0600

Yeah, it's episode 4! Sorry it took me so long. I had a campout last weekend and this week I've been swamped with homework.

On the show:
-TERRANCE's Girlfriend Asks Bustopia
-News
-Haiku (That's the plural, right?)
-Japanezu
-Debate on the virtues of Bob Dylan

Send suggestions and questions and stuff to bustopia@gmail.com

Bustopia Episode 4

Episode 4 soon

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Thu, 8 Mar 2007 12:28:00 -0600

I finished editing Episode 4 on the bus this morning. I hope that this episode of Bustopia is even more authentic since it was edited on a bus as well as being recorded on a bus. I wasn't able to upload it at school, because FTP is blocked from the wifi. My theory is that Mr. Cutler hates freedom. Anyway, I'm on UT campus now, mooching off somebody's wifi to upload the episode, so you can expect it in a few minutes. Like anybody is going to visit this blog in the next few minutes, most of our listenership is in school.

Scott Adams Dilbert

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Mon, 5 Mar 2007 17:38:00 -0600

Scott Adams just wrote on The Dilbert Blog about Google Alerts, which sends him an email anytime somebody mentions his keywords in a blog. So that's what I'm doing. His keywords are "Scott Adams Dilbert." Most likely before you read this, one of the coolest people in the world has read this, and there is a nonzero chance that he will listen to the Bustopia podcast. Too frickin' cool.

By the way, I love the comic.

Episode 4 should be out soon, we have all the audio but the editing's not done. I had a campout last weekend so I need to find time during the week.

No podcast this (last) weekend

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:39:00 -0600

I went on a campout, so I never came home on Friday. Had I been not stupid, I would have made this post on Thursday.

We do not have enough audio to release a show, so expect one next weekend.

Technology Failure

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:03:00 -0600

The official recording device of Bustopia, the Noobulous' MP3 Player, has died today due to shoddy manufacturing. This prevented recording from taking place today, although not much would have happened anyway, because few members were present. I'm bringing two alternative recording devices tomorrow: a cassette recorder and another digital recorder. Hopefully this won't be a major setback, and we can probably still release an episode this weekend. We hope we Don't Stop.

Updated Poetry

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:19:00 -0600

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The system is down. The system is down.
Down down down down down down down down...
Robots... Running... Forever.
The center cannot hold. 3:57.
Robots... Running... Robots.
Anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The system ... is down.
Robots ... ... Fabris.
Dying Mr. Fabris. The system is down.
Robots Running ForFabris.

—W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”: Bustopia Remix

Bustopia Torrent 1-3

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:04:00 -0600

Anybody want to download the first three episodes of Bustopia in one convenient torrent? Of course you do. Here it is.

Bustopia_1-3.torrent

By the way, that reminds me, I want to talk about our host. Archive.org is a nonprofit organization that hosts content with expired copyright or free content by independent artists for free. Bustopia falls into the latter category. Without them, people like us who want to get our content out but don't have money would be pretty screwed. So if for any reason the Bustopia podcast gives you an urge to donate money, after seeing a shrink, donate it to archive.org.

Bustopia Podcast Episode 3

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:49:00 -0600

Okay, you guys are lucky I'm an insomniac. Here it is. It's a bit shorter than usual, but that's probably for the better, since you guys are doing us a favor by listening to this crap anyway.

On the program today:
-Not suicide
-Eating flies
-TERRANCE's girlfriend (and others) ask Bustopia
-Various shorts

Contact us at bustopia@gmail.com

Bustopia Episode 3

Episode 3 delayed due to laziness

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:24:00 -0600

I should have released episode 3 yesterday, but I was too busy doing homework. And by "doing homework," I mean "neglecting homework and watching MacGyver." Anyway, just now I edited most of it, but not all of it, and I'm going to bed now. So expect the release tomorrow morning. Good night and Girlstart. Keep that molasses-ey torrent of listener feedback coming.

Decline in Bustopia's Work Ethic

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:40:00 -0600

I am having problems with the other citizens of Bustopia; they seem to want to spend less and less time recording each busride. They always say "I don't feel like it, maybe later." I suspect they are becoming disillusioned because they think that we aren't accomplishing anything. But I know for a fact that we have at least two listeners (Ida and Ben), and I assume (optimistically) that we have a few more.

So, I'd like all you fans to flood this post with encouraging comments, so I can print them out and renew my fellow citizens' faith in this project. I've set the blog up so that you don't need Google registration to comment. So tell us how much you love the show and what you would like to hear on the show and why we should continue to work diligently on the show.

Please.

Notes to self

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 05:55:00 -0600

-Feed the cats
-Take out the trash
-Give hope to orphans

Bustopia Podcast Episode 2

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Fri, 9 Feb 2007 20:00:00 -0600

Is ready now.

On the program today:
-We introduce a new cast member, Terrance. He was actually already active in Bustopia, but wasn't available for any of the recording sessions for Episode 1.
-Many reviews
-A PSA
-Random shorts
-Ridiculous

I would also like to note that we don't have an Ask Bustopia in this episode. If you are one of the 6,525,170,264 people who did not send in a question to bustopia@gmail.com, you'll be unhappy to know that you are personally responsible for this tragedy. Nice going, jerk. Get the emails flowing, and feel free to send voice recordings. We'll play them on the show, respond to them, make fun of them, etc. (if you don't want your message read/played on the show, say so in the email).

Anyway, happy postThursday, and enjoy.

Bustopia Episode 2

Say hello to irregular release cycle

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Thu, 8 Feb 2007 22:08:00 -0600

The original plan called for this podcast being weekly. However, since the other members of Bustopia are reluctant to participate in recording sessions regularly because they don't give a damn, it's probably going to be less-than-weekly. I had the audio for Episode 2 last weekend, but I never had time to edit it, so I plan to release Episode 2 this weekend. I probably won't have enough content for Episode 3 this weekend, because of various content-reducing troubles, so that will probably be released during next week or the following weekend.
Girlstart.

Helpful Reminder

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:24:00 -0600

Don't
STOP

Bustopia Podcast Episode 1

bustopia@gmail.com (Bustopia Ministry of Webmastery) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:28:00 -0600

Bustopia episode 1 has been released. Enjoy. Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to bustopia@gmail.com.

Bustopia Episode 1