Writing Excuses CD-ROM at PodDisc.com
Posted October 2nd, 2008 by Howard Tayler
You asked for it, we delivered it. Season One of Writing Excuses is now available on CD-ROM at PodDisc.com.
Here’s what you get:
- Nine hours of fifteen-minute-long episodes in DRM-free MP3 format
- Both bonus episodes
- Two unaired episodes, including our pilot, straight from the cutting-room floor
- An outtakes episode, assembled by our fun-loving producer Jordan
- Three Brandon Sanderson essays, including two unavailable anywhere else
- Mistborn desktop wallpaper
- Every Schlock Mercenary wallpaper ever (16 designs, 158 files)
- An entire Dan Wells novel, The Night of Blacker Darkness, also unavailable anywhere else
How much would you pay for a collection like this? $50? $100? Folks, it’s yours for just $10 plus shipping and handling, in one easy installment of $10 (plus shipping and handling.) Any one of these features is worth the $10 all by itself (except the outtakes.) Operators are standing by.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Has anyone else noticed that when they show pens for writing, it’s usually a fountain pen – but almost noone other than myself uses one anymore?
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I use a fountain pen, too. It’s probably a nostalgia thing for everyone else.
In fact, I have three of them red, blue, and black.
The only problem is I have to remember not to take them with me on airplanes. Pressurized cabins and fountain pens don’t mix well.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
You need to get a Parker 51. I had one in my pocket and didn’t have a bit of issues.
My pen jar has about six fountain pens right now. Maybe eight. That doesn’t include the ones in my ‘to be resaced’ box
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I dunno… A copy of The Night of Darker Darkness???
Sounds like he should be paying us… :-D
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
It’s a humorous urban fantasy/horror novel with vampire bunnies in it. I’m pretty sure the title is fitting.
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I dunno what other people think, but I find it less effort to write with a fountain pen. With a ballpoint you’ve got to press it on the paper so the itty-bitty little ball keeps turning. With a good weight of fountain pen you’re almost doing the opposite – holding it over the paper so it sits in the ink and, well, it’s just easier.
My son’s elementary school here in Belgium required that they use a fountain pen for the first few years – apparently helps get decent handwriting.
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:20 am
I was attempting to tease Dan, Howard… Way to ruin it, man… ;)
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
What’s even more amusing about fountain pens is that people are going gooey over ‘gel’ ink pens. “They flow so much better!” – but they clump and ball up just like a regular roller ball pen. My ball pointed fountain pens flow wonderfully, and I don’t tend to have to worry about ‘lumps’ of ink. (Just the occasional fiber from the paper, and I don’t tend to have that with the better grade of pen)
Yes, with a fountain pen, you can’t be quite so sloppy with your handwriting – it tends to get all over you if you try to scribble.
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
fountain pens suck badly cuz teh tips get worn easily or bend when you press to write with em.
the writing does come out better with a fountain pen than any other instrument tho. and you can do calligraphy with the rear side of a fountain pen.
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
$10 to have them send a CD. Tempting.
Any chance I could send them $10 for just the .ISO instead?
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Pi: there’s a good chance of that. I’ll look into it. Email me.
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
@zurk: Speaking as someone who works a LOT with pens, if you’re bending the nibs on your fountain pens, you’re pushing too hard.
For the casual jotter and note-taker that’s not a problem. For guys like me who work the pen-hand for hours at a time, a light touch is critical. I don’t care about how fast the nib dies. I care about fatiguing my hand.
Using a fountain pen is a good way to train yourself for a light touch, because if you press hard you get wide lines and gouges in the paper.
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Ah, good old reliable zurk…
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
On today’s strip: I thought the Toughs used army ranks for enlisteds, and navy ranks for officers. Commander’s certainly a navy rank. A navy captain is equivalent to a colonel.
October 4th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Any chance you’ll ship the CD to New Zealand?
October 4th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Or I could check the ordering site… *goes to do that*
October 4th, 2008 at 4:00 am
@ Sam Says:
Maybe dad was in a different branch of the military?
Of course, it’s been 10 centuries, they may’ve changed the rankings, after all, we’re only 200 years from ranks like “cornet” and such.
October 4th, 2008 at 4:55 am
A different branch? Different military – I don’t think the General was ever a mercenary (except in the deleted timeline).
I was referring in particular to the second panel: “By your age I was a colonel!” Sure, a colonel outranks an army captain, but a navy captain is equivalent to a colonel.
Personally, I’m disappointed that they still have a rank called captain. An army captain is equivalent to a navy lieutenant, a navy captain is equivalent to a colonel, and the captain of a ship can be a commissioned officer of any rank (or a properly-licenced civilian). To avoid confusion, an officer with the rank of captain on board a ship they aren’t in command of is not to be referred to by rank (although they may be given a courtesy title of commodore or major, depending on what kind of captain they are).
Personally, I think an army captain should be called a centurion (they typically command a similar number of soldiers).
October 4th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
zurk – that’s why many fountain pens can be bought with covered (hooded) nibs. The Parker 51 was big doings because you could write with carbon paper.
As Howard said, however, the key is that if you’re bending the nib, you’re treating that pen like a crayon – held in a fist.
Sam – a centurion was supposedly a commander of one hundred men. If you’re going to insist on that, call him a hecatontarch, which was the Greco-Roman term. Or, you could simply call him chiliarch, which meant ‘commander of a thousand’.
One of the reasons they don’t use titles like that is that they are rather specific. Decarch commanded ten men. Pentecontarch commanded fifty. Hecatontarch commanded one hundred, and chiliarch commanded a thousand.
A lieutenant could command as little as one man, or up to fifty, depending on the deployment (and reason thereof). That command could be made up of staff side or line side as well.
October 4th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
So, um, as someone who’s used all kinds of fountain pens growing up in Germany, where we were required to use them, let me clue you kids in (yes, according to Howard, I’ll be turning 17 next year): Ballpoint pens work just fine, thanks.
October 4th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
i normally buy $20 fountain pens and they last 8 months before bending. dont think i press too hard.
anyways, ive switched to http://www.spacepen.com/contractorpen.aspx which has better writing than a ball point and lasts longer than a fountain pen (cuz you just replace the pressurized cartridge and the nib is replaced with it for $6).
October 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
hmoulding – I’ve been using them for a number of *cough* years(decades), and I prefer fountain pens when I can. The biggest downside is drying out between uses. (Another thing the parker is good at)
Zurk – my parker 51 is approximately 60 years old, and still works just fine. I have several Schaeffer fountain pens that go back to junior high school, and they still write fine, same with a couple of Parker cartridge fillers. Even the $6 pens (made by cross – forgot the sub brand), are good enough to last for quite a while as long as you don’t think they’re darts :)
I really need to resac the esterbrooks so I can play with those.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Any word on if this can be delivered electronically? I’ll spend the $10, but I’d rather just download it all.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I’m looking into electronic availability. If it happens, I’ll blog it.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Bookworm Says:
> The biggest downside is drying out between uses. (Another thing
> the parker is good at)
Mine never dried out – that’s what happens when you actually have to use them, rather than taking them out every once in a while for fancy penmanship or what. Instead, I enjoyed inkstained fingertips for most of my years in school. And the smell of ink can quickly transport me back to those memories of yore, cowering in fear as the teacher is looking for someone who hasn’t done their homework.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:53 am
The smell of ink makes me quite happy. Ah, the power of positive association. :-)
October 6th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Yes, but likely it’s the smell of the inks used by the US Mint, and it is hardly a rare thing for such smells to cause a smile. :)
October 6th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
hmoulding – mine can dry, simply because it can be days between needing them (I’m a computer tech). I’d rather be able to sit down and use them regularly.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I carried a Mont Blanc fountain pen for years. Don’t know what happened to it, unfortunately.
I now own a gorgeous fountain pen: custom made from polished jasper. I’ve never used it…don’t want to mount a cartridge in it. I might use it for special occasions, by dipping into an inkwell.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Whatever Howard tells me to buy, I buy. (Granted, this works only for certain values of “Whatever.”)
Although I maintain Writing Excuses as one of my regularly updated podcasts on my Zune, having a CD that I can simply throw into the CD player of my car means that I can listen to greatness without even having to plug in my audio player. A great idea–thanks for the option, Howard!
–Xy
October 6th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
NOTE: it’s a CD-ROM full of MP3s. Your car’s CD player may not play it right, depending on the player.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
doh! waay to lose a sale, howard.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
swj719: Of course, the smell of US currency is also partly the smell of cocaine.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
@Sam: Chromatography values # human olfactory values.
Nice thought though. . .
D.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:03 am
@zurk: I’d rather lose the sale than have a customer regretting a purchase.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Which is why Howard is awesome.
But Zurk, if you tell me the model of CD player your car has, I know I can find out if it would play it (most will).
October 7th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
@greyscribe
I’m fixing that problem by having installed a car stario that has an iPod jack. :) Not one of those jacks, an actual sync cable.
It be pimpin’, yo…
…
Ok, I’m way too white to be able to say that…
And My computer cd/dvd drive is… Well, it’s borked. Being able to DL the tracks would be awesome…
October 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
@swj719: I’m too cheap to buy the $100 adapter that adds line input to my existing car, so I usually plug my Zune into a sweet li’l pair of Creative speakers that sit neatly on my center console. But sometimes I’m too lazy even to plug in and turn on the speakers. So I’ll let my old-school CD player do the heavy lifting.
Howard: I’m pretty certain that my player is savvy about MP3s. (Really, I should’ve checked that detail before I ordered, but, hey, I like to live life on the edge. Granted, that’s the cheap, lazy edge, but it’s an edge. Yeah.) Thanks for clarifying that, though, just in case anyone was unclear.
–Xy
October 7th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
@Grey
Trust me, I understand… I wouldn’t even be doing it if it wasn’t being paid for partly by walmart (they caused the eff up that blew the original stereo in my ‘93 Mazda) and my father (who had “possession” of the car and thus is also to be blamed.
What kinda stereo is in your car? I can find out if it’ll play mp3 discs… And if it doesn’t you can re-burn it to another CD rom disc in “music” format…
October 8th, 2008 at 9:02 am
@swj719: I have a 2007 Honda Accord EX-L with the factory-standard six-CD changer (no navigation system). IIRC, the stereo is OEM’d by Sony.
CNET (yes, CNET) says that the 2007 Accord doesn’t grok MP3 files. Honda apparently added that capability in the 2008 model year. No huhu–the “added value” of the other stuff on the CD still makes it a value.
–Xy
October 8th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
And like I said… You could rip it, and then with Nero or the like (I love Nero for burning discs), put it on a CD in music format. Nero has a specific “Music CD or mp3 disc” feature… Though you’d be limited to 70 minutes a disc…
October 9th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
“15 minutes long because you’re in a hurry, we’re not that smart, and do you have ANY idea how many non-mp3 CD’s it would take to burn this out onto if it was any longer!?”