I originally heard about 12 Volt Theater on several other podcasts. I signed up, but couldn’t make myself listen to it. You see, at 12 Volt Theater the listeners vote on what happens next. While it was a very intriguing concept to me, I remembered all the disappointing Twist-a-Plots I’d read as a child and was apprehensive.

About a month ago, I finally decided to give it a chance and to say I’m glad I did is an understatement. The story is raw and honest. Even though it is being written after a “decision gate” is voted on, the world feels real. This is not a twist-a-plot. This is not a rehash of another tale you’ve heard over and over again. This is not for children.

12 Volt Theater is a living, breathing world with very real characters that grow and experience, make good and bad choices, and wait for their guides to help them decide their path. Road guides… like us.

Because I waited, I didn’t get to vote for the first time until Episode #11. Don’t wait! Get caught up and vote with us at the next decision gate!

I’ve heard a couple of podcasts now that are playing stories from dead record labels and I was wondering about the legality of it all. I have a bunch myself that I’d love to podcast, but I don’t know where or if I need to seek permission. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I’d ask the podcasters that are doing it, but I couldn’t find any info on one of them and the other didn’t answer or didn’t get my email.

I had several people ask why I called my daughter Tater Tot in Twitter. Seeing as how the story is a smidge too long for Twitter, I said I would post it here. It’s probably a “had to be there” kind of thing, but here it is anyway…

Shroud has always said he has the memory of an elephant… a dead elephant.

About 8 years ago, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner when Shroud decided to take out the trash. The trash can was beside the big freezer we had in the kitchen and on the freezer was about half a 10 lb bag of potatoes. He asked me if the potatoes needed to be thrown away. I told him they were fine and I was about to use them. I had my back to him, facing the stove, so I couldn’t see what he was doing. Not even a minute later he grabbed the trash and the potatoes and took them out to the dumpster. When he walked back inside, I turned around and saw that the potatoes were missing. I asked him where the potatoes were and he instantly remembered I’d said I was going to use them. He was very apologetic, but Sara and I thought it was hillarious. He became Potato Brain from that point on.

Shroud ate tons of potatoes, so we always explained to people that he had to eat them to replenish. Many, many jokes were made at his expense… and at the expense of his potato brain.

About 4 years ago, Sara told one of her friends the story behind Potato Brain and together they shortened it to Tater. One day, Sara was calling Shroud Tater and her friend turned to her and said, “Does that make you Tater Tot?” I don’t think Sara was amused, but Shroud thought it was the funniest and cutest thing he’d heard in a long time.

For about 2 years, the tater/potato comments were slung back and forth between Sara and Shroud in good fun. I was always concerned it would be actual potatoes at some point, so I was relieved when it never went that far. However, Sara rarely calls Shroud Tater or Potato Brain in front of him any longer because she knows Tater Tot is soon to follow. She’s a full fledged teenager now and that’s just not cool. She sneers and it’s not much fun anymore, but we’ll never forget…

… and we’ll never let her live it down.

Have you ever gotten up in the morning, blinked, then realized it was time for bed and wondered where in the heck your day went? That’s pretty much been my existence for the last month. Wow… I didn’t realize it had been so long since I posted.

The big project I’ve been working on is almost done. Everything in both my professional and personal life quadrupled in June as well. While expressing to my mother that I’d be glad when everything was finished, caught up, slowed down so I could work on three other projects that I’ve been dying to tackle, she said something that caused me pause. She said, “You may find that you never quite have the time to do everything you want to do.”

While she was talking about podcasting, writing, and some crafting that I’ve been wanting to do, I ran with the thought and applied it more generally to life itself. What about all those things I want to do before I die? How many of our childhood dreams do we really have to give up? Are people that live their dreams really as rare as they seem to be?

Which, of course, gave me an idea for a story…

Sometimes I love the way my brain works. Instead of getting depressed about all the things I haven’t done in my life, I turn it into a story idea.

I still want to start podcasting. My next big time sink after June isn’t until November-December, so I’m really hoping I can get things rolling in the next few weeks. I’ve been recording here and there, trying to clean up the sound from my crappy mic until I can finally get my new one, but sound isn’t exactly my strong point. I know it’s going to sound like crap at first, but I know it’s not possible to make it sound like I want it to from the beginning, so I’m ok with that. I’ll work on it, I’ll get better… I just need to get started. I have people waiting on me and people that have already given up on me. Unfortunately, the family and the business have to come first and that will always be the case.

I just have to find time, cut off it’s wings, and tack it to the wall so it will stop flying away from me.

Are people not getting my emails recently or is there an “ignore Kryson” mandate out there? Six people, two friends and four I was hoping to become friends with, haven’t answered multiple emails and/or Tweets. It’s weird since most of them don’t know each other, so I’m wondering if it’s my server, but I don’t see how it could be. Family and customers seem to be getting my emails just fine. Odd. Maybe I just annoyed everyone at the same time?

Tater post…

Yeah, I know I’ve been promising it for awhile now. I know there’s at least one interested person since I got an email asking when I was going to post it, so… I’m staying up uber late and posting it tonight! It will be the next post for sure this time! Sorry about that.