Monthly Archives: December 2023

Enjoy

There is never a dull moment at the Montague PO.

After watching an interview with Chuck Palahniuk, I was struck enough by his narrative style that I had to go out and buy one of his novels.

Unfortunately, while Canada Post said we picked it up from the post office, it was not picked up by us. We often get other people’s delivery slips in our box and hand them back to one of the clerks. I assume the person who got our slip did not and is now enjoying our copy of Choke.

I like going to the Montague PO, but I’ve started sending packages to Stratford for future deliveries. It takes an extra two days to come out here to the wilds of Kings County.

Camren in Montreal

Camren is returning to the Island today after attending a swim meet in Montreal. Camren is everything I wasn’t at his age. He is smart, hard working, driven, and has grit.

Automation

When we moved into this old house, I invested in a bunch of low-cost sensors, plugs, and cameras. In part, this was due to being hysterically told, “Crime is rampant in Montague,” and to monitor temperatures and humidity so that when certain thresholds were reached, an action could be performed. It’s also nice to not have to reach around to turn off hard-to-reach power switches for lamps.

I’ve got a mix of HomeKit and Alexa/Blink devices in the home and studio.

Yesterday, for some unknown reason, HomeKit stopped working, and all the lights everywhere were on. I tried some quick fixes, but I refuse to put effort into what is supposed to be a timesaver. That era was supposed to be over a decade or more ago. This morning, it came back, and I discovered the studio was 10˙C.

Also, this morning, the TV turned on itself and started playing Pipi Longstocking Bedtime Stories.

Attempting to turn off the Christmas lights, Alexa said they didn’t exist. I looked on the app, and the name had been changed to 0.

If I attempt to answer the door with our doorbell, the person will likely be back in Charlottetown by the time it connects.

I have each Alexa device we own set to a different voice. The bedroom is Aussie, the living room is British, and the office is indistinct. I am constantly being sold something.

Siri never works, but the American voice I have it set to sounds fun announcing Island place names.

HomeKit routines have a mind of their own. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

I tried to order a heater through Amazon that would quickly warm up my office in the morning, but it kept arriving in pieces. Homedepot has 4, but their automation doesn’t work either because each time I go there, no one knows where they are.

Instead of writing, I just finished troubleshooting an issue with Supercast, which is supposed to automate paid subscriptions. I spend far too much time acting as their tech support.

I recently subscribed to Spark Email’s Pro plan (or whatever it’s called) to automate email through Ai. They forgot about how important the user interface is, and now I spend more time looking for actions so I can do things with my mail – 2 steps forward, 6 steps back.

Alexa just told me someone is in the driveway; it’s likely a fly or the neighbour’s cat.

Compete

Sleep Tight Media’s three current public podcasts joined another network – sort of a network within a network. The relationships were obfuscated enough that we hired someone at great expense to review the contract, but funnily enough, we got a more detailed analysis from ChatGPT. There is no press release, and I am unsure if we are allowed to mention them by name until we move our digital bits to their platform.

These arrangements become necessary in these early stages if we want to continue paying our mortgage and continue with an activity that has great personal value to us and our listeners. We need help growing our product, and bringing in revenue is the only way I know of other than eliciting help from others.

It’s also become necessary because, in the past six months, there has been an explosion of interest in our category. When we started, there were plenty of others, many of which processed more talent and resources than we did. But I generally never uttered the word competitor. Now, a day doesn’t go by when I don’t see something new, not just stories for kids podcasts but bedtime stories as well. Coincidentally, our formula seems to work as I see it being used by many others.

Most of these podcasts come from companies with actual organizational structures. Some are big, like Amazon; some are much smaller. We are all competing for an audience and need revenue to continue.

Of course, it’s great to have confirmation that what you are doing works well enough that others want to do it, too. And it’s especially great to have kids’ audio get the attention and growth it deserves.

The downside is I am competitive and like to try to win. But how do you compete when you are creating something that you feel appeals to children? This isn’t candy bars, but it’s not art either.

This is the question I have been wrestling with: how do we compete against overwhelming odds while staying true to doing what we love to do?