Podcasts? Mr. Sean Listens to them? Really?

My Walkman mp3 Player that allows me to listen to podcasts

Recently I've gotten into listening to podcasts. My interest in podcasts came up suddenly this week although I've listened to a few before. I figured that I could stay connected to things that interest me and learn more by listening to podcasts. Here are some of the podcasts I listen/have listened to.

The Art of Manliness

The Art of Manliness podcast is an extension of the website The Art of Manliness (artofmanliness.com). Hosted by Brett McKay, episodes are released weekly and in each episode Brett along with a guest explore various topics related to the idea of manliness such as proper etiquette, exercise advice, and ways to approach challenges in life. This podcast does post weekly as of the writing of this post.

The Food Chain

The Food Chain (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p028z2z0) is a podcast courtesy of the BBC World Service. This podcast is a good way of feeding my hunger for knowledge. Also, for those who know me well, food! I've listened to two episodes so far. One focused on the culinary innovations of Chinatowns worldwide while the other focused on McDonald's in Asia. This podcast does post weekly at the time this post was written.

Mostly Weather

Mostly Weather (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/mostly-weather) is a podcast courtesy of the Met Office in the United Kingdom. Twenty-six episodes so far where a group of Met Office meteorologists discuss anything related to weather. I learned that the first use of the word "forecast" was in 1861 by Admiral Robert FitzRoy of the Royal Navy. At time of writing, Mostly Weather does not have a regular uploading schedule but the newest episode is from June 2018.  

NHK World Radio Japan

NHK World Radio Japan (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/radio/about/  this URL links to a landing page where one can listen to Radio Japan live, on demand, or via podcast) is available in English, French, Arabic, and other languages. Daily uploads give the listener short updates on news from Japan, the greater Asia-Pacific region, and the world. I picked NHK World Radio Japan as I like watching NHK World Newsline on TV and on their website.

WeatherBrains

WeatherBrains (http://weatherbrains.com/) is a weekly podcast by the well known and legendary (at least to his fans and viewers) James Spann. Available on YouTube and via podcasting programs, each episode features Spann and a bunch of meteorologists that discuss all things meteorology, similarly to MostlyWeather from across the pond, except that James Spann also has his job as chief meteorologist at ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, AL to keep him busy separately from the WeatherBrains podcast. With 653 episodes and counting, I may not be able to catch up on all the episodes.

WittyClothes Productions

The final podcast mentioned in this blog is responsible for my interest in podcasts despite the fact that I first watched them before I got deep into podcasts. WittyClothes Productions (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX7m3CpZz5YU257wM9G8gDw) was my first introduction to podcasts in general, though I watched rather than purely listened to this podcast. The dynamic duo of my friend Cailin Clothier and her friend Dara Wittman have produced podcasts that focus on reacting to and commentary on various shows such as the Legend of Korra and Orphan Black. Thank you very much Cailin and Dara for getting me into listening to podcasts.

Anyways, if you have any suggestions for podcasts that you think I would like, please post them in the comments section. Thank you!

What has Mr. Sean been up to recently?

Francis Ow sure had some cool ideas for Origami models.

Sorry for the silence on my blog in the past two months. I just have not been inspired to write a blog post until now. I figured that at least a few people would appreciate knowing what I'm up to anymore. I figured I'd try to leave out the more boring parts of my summer as they would bore me even more. Anyways I can say that my goal of reading the entire Bible in 2018 is going along quite nicely, even though I did have to catch up because I was not diligent enough some days or there were exams to worry about earlier. The hard part is seeing that I'm making progress in terms of days the Bible was read while seeing how few books I have read so far. I've also been writing daily Haiku except these are only haiku in syllabic form, that is the first and last line comprising of five syllables and the middle line seven. Some of my Facebook friends with memories as good as or better than mine will remember that I tried to accomplish these goals in 2017 but failed after a few months. This year I decided I'll be less of a failure to myself.  I've also been sporadically active in origami, more so in re-creating modular models than anything else. I may write up a few posts on origami I've folded previously under the guise of Throwback Thursday. Though my ultimate goal for the year is to fold 1000 tiny swans and 1000 tiny cranes. Each crane and swan will be folded from paper that is 3 centimeters by 3 centimeters. In the world of math, I probably should not be working on Khan Academy math, but I figured it would be good for me to refresh some of the older skills I have learned, though I should focus more on reviewing calculus as it is very relevant to meteorology. I've also recently been working on solving problems from Project Euler. Project Euler is a website that has hundreds of math problems that people are encouraged to write computer programs to solve. I'll admit that I've only solved 11 problems so far out of the nearly 630. So far I've been using Python to good results in under a minute.

Anyways, I'll try to set for myself more deadlines for writing up posts and try to be less boring than I currently am at the moment. If you have any suggestions on what you'd like to hear from me, let me know!