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Go on, inspire me.

Sarah Lane — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:13:18 +0000

Lately I've been in search of design inspiration for a future web show of sorts that I'm putting together at Current Tech, which is very exciting for a few reasons:

I'll get to do more of what I love most... talk about the stuff I'm passionate about!
Current gets to experiment with new avenues of video, like LIVE and STREAMING!
We all have more reasons to participate in the Current Tech community and hang out together!

Sounds cool, right? Since I have no real design skills to speak of, I asked my Twitter community for some advice. And because they're so awesome, I got a ton of crazysexycool ideas! Like this one (via @tobiaslind):

Admittedly, I don't really understand this website, but I love it! Japan is fun.

Tengo mucho identities. Pass it on.

Sarah Lane — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:16:48 +0000

I've been meaning to update you (yes, you!) on all of my current projects, as there are many and I haven't been the best at keeping everyone in the loop here. The reason I know this is because on an almost daily basis I get emails and tweets from people of seemingly normal intelligence who don't know where I'm working, what I'm up to, or even how to find me online. I'm not going to go into why I think that's a little weird, since I'm the first result in a Google search for "Sarah Lane", "Sara Lane", "Sar Lane", "Shara Lane", and my personal favorite "Sarah Lame", to name a few. Instead, I'll just list my projects here (in order of inception because I love them all equally).

This Week in FUN

In December 2008, my friend Martin Sargent and I, both unemployed, had a lot of free time on our hands and decided to create a weekly show called "This Week in FUN" (AKA "TWiF") on the TWiT netcast network. It started out as a little experiment when our friend Leo went to France for a couple weeks and left us his facility and resources. Leo had recently given me an intensive Tricaster/mixer/etc. lesson, so I felt comfortable running the technical side of things. Since the TWiT network is so heavy on technical content, we thought a talk radio-style show about silly internet stories might be a fun diversion for TWiT's legions of fans. It was also nothing more than a fancy live stream... miss the stream, miss the show. No downloadable/subscribable anything.

Turns out, people really seemed to enjoy TWiF and we quickly realized that the live stream was great, but too limiting for many folks' schedules. Around episode 12, Leo and his team made TWiF an official TWiT netcast, meaning that along with our weekly live stream, we also started offering on-demand audio versions of the show.

We just taped our 20th episode of TWiF, and I'm really proud of the progress we've made. What started out as a bit of a joke has turned into a really fun project with a ton of really cool, dedicated fans who interact with us all over the internet. Coming soon: video downloads.

Watch live: Fridays at 3 pm Pacific time at http://twitlive.tv
Chat live: http://irc.twit.tv
Listen/subscribe: http://twit.tv/twif
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311693613

net@night

In late January, net@night co-host Amber McArthur asked me to fill in for her on the show during her impending maternity leave, which I was thrilled to do since I 1) wasn't working full-time yet and 2) already loved the show, which centered around everything internet-related (my THANG). I co-hosted four episodes with Leo and had a ton of fun. Once Amber was ready to come back, she and Leo asked me to remain on net@night as a regular contributor and I was elated to be a permanent part of the team. Now, you can watch me live every week talking about my favorite new internet toy, or listen at your leisure!

Watch live: Tuesdays at 4 pm Pacific time at http://twitlive.tv
Chat live: http://irc.twit.tv
Listen/subscribe: http://twit.tv/natn
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=101248932

Current

In mid-February, I joined the team at Current full-time as an online producer in the news department. The Current management was awesomely accommodating of my outside projects and even allowed me to start/leave early on Fridays to give me time to keep hosting TWiF (an hour's drive away from San Francisco in Petaluma, CA). Meanwhile, in my new position at Current I was enjoying learning a whole 'nother level of web metrics I had never really focused on in all of my past TV/production work. I also was making new friends! Really cool ones!

In early May, I was offered (and accepted!) the opportunity to move into an ideal role as the sole manager of Current.com's tech channel, which had amazing potential but had been sorely neglected in the past without anyone at the helm full-time. The tech channel is an utterly perfect fit for a tech news/app/service/gadget junkie like me and I'm pumped to make it an amazing destination for tech stories, videos, tutorials, conversation, and community. If you haven't poked around on current.com/tech and gotten familiar with it yet, please do. Don't hesitate to give me your honest feedback on what you like about it and what you want to see changed or added, because I'm not interested in making Current Tech a super place for me, I'm interested in making it a super place for as many people as possible. I also have some rather lofty, ambitious goals for the channel that both frighten and excite me, but also seem like the right next steps. As soon as I can tell you about them, I will. Video is involved. :)

Main channel: http://current.com/tech
Current Tech blog: http://blogs.current.com/tech
Twitter account: @CurrentTech

If you're still reading this, you must really be interested in my professional life and for that I thank you a thousand times! I'm not going to actually write out "thank you" 1000 times here, but rest assured I'm saying it in my head. Perhaps even in Spanish. Now you're really truly up to speed.

Hello! Helvetireader!

Sarah Lane — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:26:45 +0000

Sorry for my radio silence. I have no excuse. Actually, I was in the middle of writing a "top 10 reasons why I suck" post, but something felt too familiar about it. So I did a little search and found this post from August, 2007. AT LEAST I AM CONSISTENT, PEOPLE.

Consider this my 900th entry back into regular blogging! To be honest, I'm in the middle of yet another obsessive compulsive blog redesign, so there's a lot going on behind the scenes even if I seem like I'm an absentee blogger. I want to better integrate all the other posts/photos/videos/tweets/etc I clog the internet with every day, so that sarahlane.com is more of a big mashup, rather than a ghost town for weeks on end. So, you're up to speed. Oh, and please send me any fabulous design ideas if you have 'em!

In the meantime, I came across something wonderful in my Tumblr dashboard this morning (via joelaz). You know how nobody's ever been as obsessed with anything as the world seems to be with the Helvetica font? And who can blame us, right? Helvetica is smart and clean and reminds us all that text is beautiful! Well, now you can use Helvetica to make Google Reader prettier.

Helvetireader is a userscript for a variety of browsers that simplifies Google Reader while also Helvetifying it. I'm going to give it a week to see if my Google Reader usage can be salvaged (I've all but abandoned it lately and could use a fresh coat of paint, as it were).

If you're using a browser that doesn't support userscripts, or just want to tweak the look of Helvetireader, you can download and tweak the CSS file. If you go this route and are happy with the results, post your stellar work in the comments!

Just another day at the TWiT cottage

Sarah Lane — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:47:10 +0000

I love working with the TWiT team, especially on days like the one below, when Brian Brushwood helped Leo Laporte eat fire for the first time. Yep.

(Watch in HD)

Here's the This Week in TECH episode associated with these shenanigans. I've been by more than a few folks that it's their favorite TWiT episode ever, which is a really big compliment. :)

And of course, if you haven't already, you should subscribe to my other show, This Week in FUN, where my buddy Martin Sargent and I wax inappropriate for roughly an hour every week! Oh, and if you want to watch us record the show live, you can! Just tune into http://twitlive.tv every Friday at 3 pm Pacific time. Good times!

This Week in FUN: big news!

Sarah Lane — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:26:36 +0000

Hey, have you heard the good word? This Week in Fun is an official podcast, and we have you to thank. Thanks!

Q: What do I do if I haven't done anything yet?

A: Excellent question!

Subscribe to the series here (don't worry, back episodes will be added ASAP) : TWiF: http://twit.tv/twif

Or click the image below to subscribe via iTunes:

As of this blog post date, we're #25 on iTunes Top Podcasts, which is pretty freaking awesome.

To all those who watch our live stream every Friday at 3 pm Pacific, don't worry, we're still live and direct! It's just that if you can't make the time, you can download the file and listen at your leisure. Oh, and video is 100% on the way. Audio's just the beginning. Great news all around.

Thanks to everyone who's supported Martin and me thus far (especially Leo and the TWiT team who help us do our thing every week... you guys are the best).

The Digg Reel - An Intergalactic Experience

Sarah Lane — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:19:12 +0000

So, the folks at Revision3 asked if I'd guest-host this week's Digg Reel, and I was again happy to oblige.

A little background on why in this particular episode I come off like a psycho: 1) I actually am a psycho, 2) as I was writing my lines late one night, I randomly threw in an incredibly corny spaceship-themed joke and made myself myself laugh and it just snowballed from there and I couldn't stop. I actually woke up the next day thinking it would be a good idea TO HOST THE SHOW AS IF I WAS LIVING IN OUTER SPACE. I'm not kidding. This is how nonsensical my sense of humor actually is. You should get a load of some of my self-rejected material. Actually you shouldn't. I assume you like me and I don't want to give you nightmares.

The day of the shoot I even tore through my closet looking for anything slightly resembling a Star Trek outfit. Clearly I didn't have much to work with, but I applaud my effort. ;)

Some of my favorite comments about this episode on the Rev3 message boards so far:

Wow .. I really don't like you at all .. Except for the looks maybe

ahh sarah... i'd hit it

please keep sarah lane off any and all revision3 shows, she ... well, isn't great :S

As a leg man, I approve those Jeans!

I'm telling you, these boards are THE BEST!

This Week in Fun Episode 11!

Sarah Lane — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:51:16 +0000

Had a great time with Martin via Skype and our in-studio guest, Lisa Bettany!

Solid show all around. The best part? Talking to Leo after we were done with the "show" about making TWiF a full-fledged audio podcast NEXT WEEK, with video on the way! Hooray! Patience is a virtue. I'm so grateful to work with such a bunch of fabulous nerds.

Click the image below for the full video, + behind-the-scenes goodness!

I love the interactivity of the chat room(s) when we're live, but I also want to bring you guys into the show in other ways. Post any cool ideas in the comments, and we'll start playing on next week's show!

Want to catch up on previous TWiF episodes? Hop over to the archives.

net@night Episode 93!

Sarah Lane — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:52:46 +0000

Hey all, some good news in the world of net@night: although Amber has taken the reigns back after a bit of maternity leave, she and Leo have asked me to be a part of the show on a weekly basis! Pretty cool. I know I owe it to all of you who sent in really positive feedback during the episodes I guest-hosted. Thanks!

I'm thrilled about staying with the show because 1) net@night is 100% my content forte, a dream show really, and 2) Amber and Leo are two of the best people I could ask to hang out with and talk about the web on a regular basis.

Here's this week's show (complete with a guest appearance from the lovely iJustine). I hop in right after the CoverItLive interview, just past the halfway mark. Leo likes to make it seem like i'm just *dying* to get in on the show, even though they told me to call at a specific time and then didn't pick up. :) Click on the image below for the full video (I couldn't resist this screen cap... see how gaga I am over Amber?)

Check out my other net@night appearances in the archives!

This Week in Fun Episode 10!

Sarah Lane — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:29:08 +0000

My goodness, I can't believe we've already had our tenth episode anniversary! It's a beautiful thing. Martin wasn't able to be in studio this time around, but I think it worked out pretty well via Skype. Enjoy the magic, plus some behind-the-scenes setup beforehand!

Click on the image below for a link to the full video. Remember, we shoot live every Friday at 3 PM Pacific at live.twit.tv. Join us and chat!

De La Vault: Sarah Needs You Tonight

Sarah Lane — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:30:25 +0000

I know, I know. I'm an embarrassment. I just have no shame at all. None. Enjoy this little gem recorded approximately one year ago. Hop over to its Vimeo page to watch it in HD.