Don’t Call It A Comeback

Hello everyone, it’s been a very long time. I hope you are all good. In my last post (over 6 months ago now!) I said I’d be writing more often and talking about things other than my ongoing health situation. Well that hasn’t happened has it? Apologies for that. I did want to write today though to tell you about some exciting things I’ve done, or hopefully will be doing in future. I’m hesitant to make any promises about the amount of activity there’ll be. Let’s just see how it goes hey.

A big thanks to everyone who continues to ask about my health. There isn’t a lot to report but I am doing OK. Illness is still limiting what I can do a lot on a daily basis but I always keep a positive attitude. I’m also trying to explore some new avenues with a private doctor. I recently started taking antibiotics again and there are some other potential treatments to come but I think that’s enough on that for now. If there’s anything significant to report I will let you know I promise πŸ™‚

So, onto the real business of today’s post. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve done the odd podcast here or there in recent months. I wanted to explain what’s going on. If you follow me on Twitter you will probably already be aware but I’m involved with an event called Liverpool MakeFest. It’s coming up in 2 short weeks now and I’ve been doing social media, producing some podcasts and generally trying to help out with online stuff for them. It’s a way I thought I could contribute when health permits and hopefully do something positive.

In case you don’t know, Liverpool MakeFest is a free day-long celebration of Maker culture and all things creative. That means techy stuff like robots, rockets and circuit boards of course, but it also means much more in the way of art, craft, textiles and other things too. There’s something for everyone.

Liverpool MakeFest 2018 will take place on Saturday June 30th from 9am to 5pm at Liverpool Central Library. It’s massive, 1000s of people come to enjoy the workshops, demos, exhibition and other activities. I was more heavily involved at the inaugural event back in 2015 and it’s good to be back on board. I love the idea of spreading knowledge and getting people (particularly kids) excited to use their imaginations and create.

I’ve been writing some pretty hefty posts on the MakeFest blog in the last few months and doing regular interviews with Makers in the build up to the event. If you want to read some of those you can find them under the Meet The Makers tag. I’ve also been recording audio of the interviews and producing podcasts. The first podcasts I’ve produced in almost 3 years now! That’s very exciting and rewarding to do. I have been on some episodes of FLOSS Weekly which I really enjoy doing but I don’t produce it. They have the TWiT engineers and crew doing the media production. It’s been good to record some location interviews on the H4 and then work on the audio in Audacity again. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget how and I love making things sound as good as possible. That old sound engineer inside me is still very much alive.

The podcast is called Radio MakeFest. Please have a listen, subscribe if you like and pass it on to friends. It will be a limited series but there’s 7 new half hour episodes to enjoy so far. I have 2 more recorded interviews to release and I hope there’ll be a couple more episodes after the event but we’ll see. Should be at least 10 episodes in all. That’s about 5 hours of highly produced audio, not bad going.

I know this will excite some of you who often ask me when Rathole Radio will return, when I’ll do more podcasts with Fab or other ventures. I don’t see that happening any time soon if I’m honest. I love people’s enthusiasm and it’s so good to hear when they enjoy listening, but doing this MakeFest stuff is taking all my energy and I’ll need to rest for a while once it’s done in 2 weeks. There are still no plans to bring back Rathole Radio or do any other podcasts yet, sorry.

The title of this post says it all really, don’t call it a comeback, because it’s not. Not yet at least. If treatments go well and I have more energy I would love to do all those things again. Podcasting is great fun and I’ve realised through this recent work what I really love is interviewing people. Hearing their stories and getting a sense of who they are. Maybe I can pursue that more after a rest.

In the meantime come along to Liverpool MakeFest if you’re in traveling range and say hello. You won’t regret it. Listen to Radio MakeFest, leave comments, send emails, messages in bottles, courier pigeons, whatever you like.

I hope to be back with more updates very soon but as I said, no promises. I will try to make sure it’s a lot less than 6 months though that’s for sure!

Take care one and all and remember, be excellent to each other,

Dan

12 Comments

  1. Glad to hear you are still fighting the good fight.

    Good thoughts and Hope’s for your new treatment.

    Miss the Podcasts, but life has a way of working that way.

  2. Lovely to have you posting again πŸ™‚

    I’ve loved the Makefest posts and radio πŸ™‚

    Caz X

  3. Hey Dan, glad to know you’re still kicking.

    Your cover of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” in one of the last episodes of Linux Outlaws came up in my music player today. Still my favorite rendition of that song.

    Take care.
    -Mike / Dave71 (if you remember that one)

    • @Mike Really? Wow. Yeah I remember doing that song back in 2014, hard to believe it was almost 4 years since the last Linux Outlaws. It is a great song and really fun to sing. Touched to hear it is you favourite version, thanks! Thanks for the good wishes too πŸ™‚

  4. Hi Dan,
    Your post today really brightened up my day… brilliant to hear from you again and all my best wishes for you chum:)
    I’ll certainly give Radio Make Fest a wee listen.

  5. Hey, great to hear from you again! Miss your podcasts (ofc) but you gotta take care of yourself. Sounds like you’re doing pretty good! Keep on keepin’ on. Peace!

    Amy

  6. Great to see an update from you Dan, had no idea you had been on FLOSS Weekly recently. Hopefully we’ll see/hear more of you in future.

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