Podcasts On The Go

What podcasts do you subscribe to? Do you listen to them as they arrive (be downloaded) to your Podcasts folder in iTunes?

I subscribe to several podcasts: ABC News Good Morning America, English as a Second Language Podcast, The French Pod Class, NEWSWEEK On Air and Planetizen - Podcast. Podcasts opens broader chances to listen to spoken foreign languages. We can even find lectures from prominent colleges and universities in Podcasts catalog.

However, it seems that short-time played podcast will be likely to listen to. Many episodes need minimum 15 minutes to play. Newsweek on Air episodes even need 40 to 50 minutes each. And so, blue dot marks grow on the list, showing episodes that haven't been played in the past two years.

If I could sit in front of iMac just listen to those podcasts.. But, I always do something else with the compie, don't I? Can't concentrate to what podcast says while doing something in the compie. It is not like driving or eating, that you can still listen to what other people say and even make conversation with them.

Inspired by one of Lifehacker 's tip, I make smart playlist of "neglected" podcasts with the following rules:
⁃ Podcast is true;
⁃ Play count is 0;
⁃ Kind is not PDF document (PDF files are always listed, whether or not you had opened the files);
⁃ Kind is not MPEG-4 video file (if you do not want video files); and
⁃ Kind is not QuickTime movie file (again, if you do not want video files in the list).
Tara... new smart playlist consists of episodes of (audio) podcasts that haven't been played. Once you play the episode from the playlist, the blue dot next to the episode will disappear and the number next to podcasts folder will decrease.

I intend to copy the files of this playlist to cellphone (iPhone? not yet), make it Podcasts On The Go. Hope I can listen to all episodes while crossing the town, not just in front of iMac. And maybe someday, there is nothing left in the podcasts playlist, there is no blue dot next to episode of Podcasts folder.

Family News Round-Up

Thursday, June 28, 2007:
Ita (my youngest sister) and her two sons, Tito and Titang, finally arrived in Jakarta. Nice to see you again sist and nephews! *big hug* Tito's voice had altered. Even, he is taller than me. And Titang: he speaks English with Californian accent! Cute nephews!

Saturday, July 7, 2007:
Asti (my niece) wed her highschool class-mate--Hendra. Congratulations to Asti and Hendra! May Allah helps you celebrate your journey together. Dik Dayat and his eldest son from Yogya and mbak Peni from Blitar came to the occasion. Thank you cousins.

Saturday, July 28. 2007:
Noki (my nephew) and Ema became new parents. Congratulations to the new parents. And welcome to the world, Pradipta. Allah be with you, always. Amen.

Nunukan, here I come back again!

Last week I've been to Nunukan for 5 days. Nunukan is an island in Kalimantan Timur Province. Meanwhile, Kabupaten Nunukan covers some areas of Kalimantan island, the whole Nunukan island and the southern part of Sebatik Island. The northern part of Sebatik Island belongs to Malaysia.

The first impression was the airport. A new and bigger passenger terminal was being built. Fence was built in the air side of the old terminal, preventing the well-wishers from the taxiway.

This time I have more time to go to some places in town than my visit here last year (Journey to Border Land). Nunukan is changing. New roads, new buildings are found around town.

However, Nunukan is not a tourism area; rather, it is a transit point to Sabah, Malaysia. We can find many Indonesian manpower agencies here in Nunukan.

I went to Nunukan with Mila, Eky and Rizal. Surprisingly, at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, I met and old friend, Reflus. We happened to be in the same flight to Tarakan and then to Nunukan. Nice meeting you again, Reflus, after 2 or 3 years since our class reunion.