The Literate Loser

Oh, boy. The literature stuff is great (Chapter 5 of Mark Twain’s The Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson), but then the loser stuff is, well, quite loserly (I record my responses to the first section of an online match-making service’s compatibility survey). No book review this time.

00:00 — Hello
01:45 — Chapter 4 recap
03:46 — New vocab
04:17 — Puddin’head Wilson, chapter 5
15:37 — Some exposition
17:47 — Something a little different and completely fun (for me)

download here (33:54 total time; 15.894 megs, depending on how you count them).

Chapter 4 of Puddin’head Wilson is a little longer than the previous chapters, and I can’t shut my mouth — not an auspicious combination! I recommend four books about the late-70s New York Yankees and babble about my latest thoughts about my sad lack of a love-life!

00:00 — Peace like a river
00:40 — Hello.
01:49 — Puddin’head recap
04:04 — New vocab
05:00 — Three-minute allusion explanation
08:00 — Mark Twain’s Puddin’head Wilson Chapter 4
25:20 — Vague memories of the PBS adaptation
26:27 — Four books co-authored by Peter Golenbock
30:51 — Wanted: Wife
34:26 — Email me, and a few weird technical hiccups I’m too lazy to re-record.

The PBS adaptation on the iMDB.
Peter Golenbock’s website.
Balls, by Graig Nettles, The Bronx Zoo, by Sparky Lyle, Guidry by Ron Guidry, and Number 1, by Billy Martin, at Powells.

Download here. 36:09. 17.357 word-filled megs! Holy cow. I need to use smaller words.

Show 1: July 12
Show 2: July 16
Show 3: July 21

I list these just for reference.

As of July 23, there have been 155 requests for files with .mp3 extensions. Since the only mp3s here are the shows, that’s 155 downloads (or at least, link-clicks) of three shows. My stats report also says that the 155 .mp3 requests account for 97.91% of the data transferred from this subdomain, which sounds exactly right, since the webpages themselves (including graphics) account for just a few megs of data.

There have been 622 requests for RSS2 feeds.
There have been 11 requests for Atom feeds.
There have been 79 requests for Show 1.
There have been 45 requests for Show 2.
There have been 32 requests for Show 3.

Okay. Show 2 is 15.615 megs. The 45 requests for this show account for 31.23% of the 690.15 megs taken overall in this time-period. 31.23% of 690.15 is 215.533845 megs. If all 45 requests were downloaded completely, that would be 702.675 megs. However, at the absolute MOST, 16 of the 45 clicks for Show 2 were downloaded completely, or about 36%.

Show 3 is 15.623 megs. The 32 requests for this show account for 19.39% of the 690.15 megs taken overall in this time-period. 19.39% of 690.15 is 133.820085 megs. If all 32 requests were downloaded completely that would be 499.936 megs. However, at the absolute MOST, 8 of the 32 clicks for Show 3 were downloaded to their completion, or about 25%.

I’m going through these numbers to hopefully arrive at a reliable percentage of file requests that are downloaded fully, so that when I look at my stats page, I can say, “This file was requested this many times, so X percent of that means at the most, this many complete downloads.” The sample size is too small right now, and I’m guessing that as each show gets older (yet remains available), the percentage changes — whether increasing or decreasing, I can’t begin to estimate — and I’d like to see how that plays out.

Anyone see anything wrong with my figuring?

The puddin’ thickens — as does the plot — in chapter three of Puddin’head Wilson, I go on a bit long about my introduction to Harry Potter, and I review one of my favorite read-aloud books, One Fat Summer.

00:00 — Preflight preparations
00:35 — Hello; The Story So Far; new vocab
03:13 — Puddin’head Wilson, chapter 3
15:32 — Yet another (probably needless) apology
15:55 — Harry Potter update; Me, Grace, and Harry
24:04 — Grad school saga continues
25:45 — One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte (my go-to book)

download here. Total time: 33:05 (15.623 megs)

One Fat Summer at Powells.
Madeleine L’Engle, my favorite writer and the author of A Wrinkle in Time.
A nice, simple explanation of the coming-of-age story at VirtualSalt.

On the night of the most significant literary event in two years, Twain turns on the sarcasm and I turn on the Harry Potter fanaticism. A quick review of Bob Scher’s The Little Know-How Book (along with a short excerpt) leave not so much time for the loser talk.

• 00:00 — Tuning up
• 01:00 — Critique
• 04:02 — Recap and vocab
• 06:58 — Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter 2
• 22:23 — Correct spelling
• 23:03 — Harry Potter
• 25:33 — The Little Know-How Book
• 30:08 — Transcript trouble, housecleaning, and Maggie Gyllenhaal

download here (33:18 total time; 15.615 megs)

Bob Scher, the author of The Little Know-How Book.
Roger Ebert’s review of the new Maggie Gyllenhaal movie, Happy Endings.

I take the plunge with chapter 1 of Mark Twain’s Puddin’Head Wilson and a quickie review of the long-out-of-print Harvey the Beer Can King. I find it useful when people index their podcasts, so I’ll do it too:

• 0:00 — Hello. What’s this?
• 2:00 — On reading aloud.
• 4:40 — About the selection
• 9:17 — Puddin’Head Wilson, Chapter 1
• 20:00 — Harvey the Beer Can King
• 25:00 — Harry Potter, grad school, and being a loser

download here
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