The audio series includes five audio recordings where we cover our thoughts on every main point in the book itself and one additional audio recording sharing our thoughts after viewing the movie once again, after having read the book.

This special Twilight podcast series will be made available for free, in a normal plus member podcast feed, to our gspn.tv Plus Members starting later this week. For those who are not gspn.tv Plus Members, the entire six part recording project will be made available for purchase as a zip file containing all six mp3’s for a cost of $15.

If you are interested in purchasing the Twilight Project, please contact me by email at Cliff@Ravenscraft.org.

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

+ Business Tech Weekly 008 – Mac vs. PC

In this episode, Andy Traub and Cliff Ravenscraft discuss the idea of using either the Mac or a PC in your business.   Admittedly, this topic is way too broad to cover in just one episode of Business Tech Weekly. They simply provided a starting point for this discussion. While they’ll continue to take listener questions regarding this topic that come in via voice mail, Cliff would strongly encourage anyone interested in switching to the Mac OS to check out the Help I Got A Mac podcast which is an entire podcast devoted to the discussion of Mac Vs PC.

I listened to this thinking it would be a “Mac lovefest”, but I was pleasantly surprised – unlike seemingly everyone else, they had insightful, objective opinions on both operating systems.

Greys Anatomy 066 – Best Two Episodes EVER!!!

+ Desperate Housewives 029 – Keep Off the Grass

Family From the Heart 082 – The One With a Disclaimer

I know I already talked about this episode, but I had one more thing to add – Cliff said that if he had stayed in insurance, he believes he probably would have had a heart attack by now.  Well, *I* think if he had stayed in insurance, rather than worrying about dying from a heart attack, I think he would have been more in danger of Stephanie killing him. :-P

Help iGot a Mac 096 – Droid Does

In This Episode, Chris and Cliff give a hands on review of the new DROID Smart Phone from Verizon. Apple iPhone is on notice.

Social Media Serenity 016 – Twitter Lists Explained

In this episode, Erik Fisher and Cliff Ravenscraft, share a little bit about the following items: Inbound Marketing University, Twitter Grader, Twitter Lists, Facebook Announces Roadmap For Developers, Official Facebook Share Button, Google adds music Search, and Ustream Launches Social Stream Chat Expansion.

Twitter lists JUST came out this week – I couldn’t believe they were podcasting about it already, but it saved me SO much time because I didn’t have to figure it out on my own, and gave me some great uses for this new feature.

Pursuing a Balanced Life 439 - Challenge Started This Week

The 16 week PABL Challenge started on November 1st! For more information, visit the blog entry at http://gspn.tv/pablchallenge.

Podcast Answer Man 133 – Leo Admits Nobody Cares About Video

In episode 130, I shared some audio clips from a talk that Leo Laporte gave at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco recently.  In that talk, Leo had shared that he made over 1.5 million dollars last year from advertising on his podcast network. Soon after sharing this revenues from the previous year, he stated that “Podcasting, essentially, is dead.” Click on the link for Cliff’s thoughts and a much more in depth description of this episode.

Biggest Loser 007 – Family Matters

How do the lifestyle and food choices of parents impact their children? And how can partners support and complement each other in a quest for a more balanced life? Cliff and Fr. Roderick talk about this and more after watching this week’s Biggest Loser.

Biggest Loser 008 – Learning From Failure

There is a difference between quitting and failing. If you quit, you give up, and stay the same; if you fail, you might learn from that failure and get stronger next time. Only the courage to learn from failure will build the ‘new you’.

• Cliff’s tip of the week: http://gspn.tv/howmanycalories (Calories Required To Lose Weight)
• The ‘Pursuing a Balanced Life’ Challenge (starts November 1)

And that’s a wrap for last week! If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email And don’t forget – GSPN is broadcasting live all day on Thursday – join in! http://gspn.tv/live/

So, I don’t want to give the whole Family From the Heart episode away, but at the end of a bit of a trying hour, Cliff finishes it with, “I love you Stephanie” and Stephanie replies, “I love you too.”  You know, it’s so easy to love people when they’re being nice, or fun, or treating you like gold, but real love is loving even when someone isn’t so lovable.  That’s keepin’ it real.

See you next week! Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

Full Time Mom 105 – I Know You Could Have Died But You Didn’t

Family From the Heart 081 – Movies, Soccer and A History Lesson

Amongst other things, included in this episode is a review of “Where the Wild Things Are”.  I also found very interesting what Cliff recounted about when he used to work for the insurance agency – no wonder he was burnt out!

Help iGot A Mac 095 – New Mac Lineup

In This Episode, Chris and Cliff pretty much give their thoughts on the newest product updates made to the iMac, Mac Mini, and Macbook.

Pursuing A Balanced Life 438 – Longest Run Yet

In this episode, Cliff shares a very exciting breakthrough in his health and fitness routine. He also shared a great website that he found for calculating how many calories you should eat in order to lose weight. The calculator can be found at http://gspn.tv/howmanycalories. Reminder: Never eat less than 1200 calories per day!  Also, Cliff announced that we will be launching the 16 week PABL Challenge on November 1st! For more information, visit the blog entry at http://gspn.tv/pablchallenge.

Social Media Serenity 015 – Banned From Twitter

In this episode, Erik Fisher and Cliff Ravenscraft, share some info about the following items:
*Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz banned from Twitter?
*Google Voicemails showing up in search results
*Microsoft makes deal to put Twitter and Facebook Status updates in Bing
*Google Announces Social Search + Twitter Search Deal
*Mozilla Raindrop

Podcast Answer Man 132 – Passion and Products

In this episode, Cliff explains why he thinks this YouTube video about soda pop holds one of the major keys to successful podcasting.  He also mentioned a service called Tungle. Be sure to listen to the interview he did with the CEO. A listener wrote in with a question about getting subscribed to a podcast in the Russian version of iTunes.  And to wrap things up, he reminded you that now is the perfect time to let him know what training products you would like him to produce.

+Desperate Housewives 028 – Everybody Ought To Have a Maid

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

And don’t forget – this is the last week where the live schedule will be messed up. To learn what shows will be live when, please visit http://gspn.tv/schedule.

So, I’m not sure what to do about my “baking urge” that is competing with my “want to lose weight urge”.  If anyone has any suggestions of either things to bake that are satisfying but not deadly amounts of calories, OR what you do to satisfy your baking urge when you know you’re just going to be tempted to eat what you’ve made, please share it with me by leaving a comment!

See you next week!  Carole :-)

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

Biggest Loser 006 – Overcoming Fear

In This Episode:  How can you overcome your fear and take control of your life? That is what the Biggest Loser contestants discover this week. Cliff and Fr. Roderick talk about the small steps you can take to win self-confidence and grow your inner strength on your journey to a healthier and more balanced life.

+ Grey’s Anatomy 065 – Invasion

About the Church 095 – Bible Superheroes

Family From the Heart 080 – That New Baby Smell

Desperate Housewives 027 – My God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues

Podcast Answer Man 131 – Branding A Mustache

In this episode, Cliff hit record without any show notes in front of him. However, he came prepared with a great deal of community feedback. He plays several bits of feedback about the episode he did last week regarding Leo Laporte. Cliff had an interesting question about branding his mustache.

+ Pursing a Balanced Life 437 – Seeking Margin

Last week, Cliff talked about the fact that he has exceeded the capacity of what he felt that he could do in a given work week. This week, Cliff shares some thoughts about his search for margin in his life.

+ Full Time Mom 104 – Something Snapped

I think this should have been called “Stephanie’s Confessions and Apologies”! :-)  Also, Sarah tells an interesting story about her husband and the marathon he was in – funny how sometimes things turn out differently than we expect, but still in a good way.

+ Social Media Serenity 014 – Goobye to Twitter

In this episode, Cliff and Erik answer a question that came in from Jay Carter, who needed some help understanding the difference between facebook profile and fan pages. He also wanted to know if creating a business page was the same as a fan page.  They also covered the following: Woman Arrested For Facebook Poke, Facebook and Twitter Growth Flattens, Myspace’s U.S. Traffic Plummets, and Social Media Charity.

(I heard this as it was recorded live last Thursday!) They also talked about what’s the whole deal with “poking” on Facebook, their opinion on Miley Cyrus quitting Twitter and they share the very funny Billy Ray Cyrus parody “I’m Still Here”.

+ Business Tech Weekly 007 – Skype

In this episode, Andy Traub and Cliff Ravenscraft discuss the advantages of using Skype and much, much more including some updates about Google Document Suite and Tungle v.2.  Also, big name coming to Business Tech Weekly November 12th. Jason Fried (wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Fried) the remaining founder of 37signals will be joining us. He’s so popular that Seth Godin drops his company’s name in his blog as an example what’s cool and he’s got a book coming out next year that’s already in the top 20 books on Management on Amazon.com as of October 14th and it doesn’t come out for another 5 months!

+ Help iGot a Mac 094 – Steveland

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

As you may know, GSPN usually broadcasts live all day on Thursdays. However, there Cliff has other obligations this week and next and has moved several shows to the weekend. Be sure to take a look at the schedule to see what’s happening when.

So, my daughter’s “coupon” is for “Dinner at Your Favorite Restaurant”.  So instead of a home cooked rotisserie chicken, fresh carrots and biscuit dinner, I will be driving 30 minutes to go to…the fast food joint Wendy’s. (I guess it could have been worse – it could have been Chuck E. Cheese!)  But, you gotta honor the rewards the same way you have to be consistent with the punishments, right? :-P

See you next week! Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

gspn.tv’s PABL Challenge is a 16 week heath/fitness challenge for gspn.tv community members. Any and all are welcome. Inspired by the physical activity and nutritional changes in Cliff’s life, this challenge focuses on health and fitness, not weight loss; Pursuing a Balanced Life. Each player sets their own goals, monitors their progress and shares the success (and struggles) with the community.

The “Challenge” format – Points are earned in three categories on a weekly basis. Each week participants will post their weekly results to the gspn.tv’s PABL Challenge section of the Community Forum, points will be tallied and shared on a weekly basis. Challenge Points Leaders will be awarded at the end of each month; awarded with bragging rights! At the end of the 16 weeks Challenge Points Leaders will win a prize (to be determined, something slightly better than bragging rights!).

Point Categories

1. Intentional Physical Activity - Receive 1 point for each day that you meet your physical activity goal; a possible 7 points each week. The amount and type of exercise can be unique to each individual. Intentional Physical Activity is over and beyond your normal daily activity; enough to be considered a workout for your current physical condition.

2. Nutrition - Receive 1 point for each day that you meet your nutritional goal; a possible 7 points each week. Each individuals nutritional program and goals will be different. Any system can be used (Weight Watchers, Calorie Counting or otherwise), as long as their is a mechanism to set goals and measure them.

3. Personal Improvement - 3 points each week available for improvement in another area of your life. Each individual chooses their area of improvement, sets their goal and evaluates their progress. The personal improvement goals you set at that start will remain through the end of the challenge. Some examples of personal improvement are:

* Day of Rest – One day a week will be no work and all play.
* Personal Development – I will spend a minimum of two hours a week reading personal development material
* Unplug – I will unplug from technology every day at 7pm
* Organize – I will spend one evening a week organizing something in my life (closet, finances, todo list…)

4. Weight Loss (optional – no points) - As keeping a healthy weight is key to a balanced life, there are some community members working hard to lose weight. This optional category, for no points, will be modeled after The Biggest Loser. Each week each participant will email (for privacy) their current weight, and their % of weight loss will be posted with the Challenge Points. (Participants weights will not be posted, only the % of weight change.)

How to Participate

Its easy to get started, click here to get registered for the community forum if you are not already registered. Next, simply post a message in the PABL Challenge section of the Community Forum with your Intentional Physical Activity Goal, Nutritional Goal and Self Improvement Goal. If you are participating in the Weight Loss, email your starting weight to pablchallenge@gspn.tv. On a weekly basis, you will post your weekly results and points to the forum. A sample post will be available in the forum. You will have until Wednesday to post your results for the previous week. After all the posts are in, a summary for the week will be posted back to the forum.

Getting Started

The challenge will start on November 1st and end on February 20, 2010. If someone joins late, they will be given the lowest number of points, minus 1, for each week missed. The Challenge is closed for new comers after 10 weeks, January 9th, 2010.

If you have any questions, post them to the PABL Challenge FAQ section of the Community Forum.

Join today!

Hi GSPN Fans! Here I am again with the weekly round up for you. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Cliff is podcasting all day on Thursdays (and other times too) and that you’re encouraged to join in. Do you realize there’s a webcam right in the studio and you can watch as well as listen in?  Well a few months back I tried  watching a few times when Cliff was live podcasting but even though I have DSL and a good computer, for some reason the feed was slow and jerky and I tried a few times, but it just didn’t work well for me. Well, last week I decided to try again, and I don’t know what if anything has changed, but I was able to very smoothly watch the stream as well as view the chatroom and it was a BLAST!  If you’ve never tried tuning in when Cliff is podcasting, or you tried in the past and it didn’t work you have GOT to try this! More in a minute…

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

+ Stephanie Unplugged 060 – More of the Same

+ Help iGot a Mac 093 – Voice Over IP On 3G

+ Greys Anatomy 064 – Tainted Obligations

+ Weekly Lost Podcast 225 – We Need a Date

Pursuing a Balanced Life 436 – Capacity Exceeded

In this episode, Cliff hit the record button with absolutely no idea what he would share in advance. However, as is the case most of the time, he had plenty to say. Cliff didn’t make any notes as he went along, so if you want to know what was shared in this episode, I’m afraid you’re going to have to hit the play button!

Family From the Heart 079 – Preaching, Footwear, Health Updates

In this episode, Stephanie and Cliff share their current thoughts on family travel around the world. Also they share several other relevant things that are going on in their lives.

I listened to this live last Thursday – I reference the “footwear” mentioned later in this post – I’m chuckling that Cliff so politely called it “footwear”.

Depsperate Housewives 026 – Never Judge A Lady

Biggest Loser 005 – Dining Out Strategies

How do you keep control over your calories when you go to a restaurant or order for delivery? Cliff and Fr. Roderick discuss various food strategies and talk about the lessons learned from this week’s Biggest Loser.

+ Full Time Mom 103 – The Spider that Boiled Over

About the Church 094 - Preparing Your Kids for College

Social Media Serenity 013 – Follow DrewFromTV

In this episode, Erik Fisher and Cliff Ravenscraft, share a little bit about the following items:
*Drew Carey Bids $25,000 for @Drew Twitter Name
*Exclusive: Drew Carey Ups The Ante To $1 Million
*Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm coming to XBOX Live
*Twitter’s New ‘Lists’ Feature Finally Introduces Grouping
*Twitter launches #appwednesday
*Google Wave: A Complete Guide
*Twitter in talks with Google and Microsoft

+ Business Tech Weekly 006 – Google Voice

In this episode, Andy Traub and Cliff Ravenscraft discuss the advantages of using Google Voice.

Wow, Google Voice is an incredibly powerful tool to use for all your telephoning needs and then some!  For example, Google Voice offers a phone number for any area code you choose, vanity numbers are standard, voicemail, integration with your Google contacts, even Free Calls To Hawaii And Alaska plus much, much more!  I am so glad Cliff and Andy are out there telling me about all this stuff I would never discover on my own (and they explain it too)!

Watermark Church – Cliff Preaches “The Power of Online Community”

For those of you who don’t know this, Cliff used to be an Associate Pastor of a small Nazarene Church. Later, he moved on to a position where he was the pastor of small groups in a mega church. In those positions, he had the privilege to preach and teach quite often.  Cliff found the community at Watermark Community Church about four years ago. Since then, it’s been amazing how much the leadership of Watermark has allowed him to operate fully in his gifts and talents.  Today Cliff was invited to preach/teach at his church on “The Power of Online Community.” It was the first time that he’s had to opportunity to preach in over five years. He had forgotten just how much he enjoyed sensing the power of the Holy Spirit speak through him, giving him the words to say, beyond what he could have ever imagined being able to prepare for.

Podcast Answer Man 130 – Leo Makes 1.5 Million from Podcasting

In this episode, Cliff shares his thoughts and reactions on a Mashable blog post that said, “Podcast pioneer Leo Laporte gave a talk at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco recently, giving insights into the future of media coupled with anecdotes from his work in television and radio”. The most interesting tidbit: Laporte’s TWiT (This Week in Tech) network does $1.5 million in revenue per year, doubling yearly.  His costs, however, are more impressive: it only takes $350,000 per year to run the business with 7 employees.”

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

So, not only is it great to hear the podcasts as they’re happening, but watching the behind the scenes stuff is loads of fun – Cliff even plays music when he takes his lunch break so there’s never a dull moment.  At times Stephanie is there too and you get the added bonus of the extra “banter” that doesn’t go into the podcast.   Because I tuned in live last week while they were podcasting “Family From the Heart” I got to hear about Stephanie’s so-called “stripper boots” before *you* did on the feed. :-D   It’s fun to be a Community Member ’cause you get to be “in the know”.  So if you haven’t already, give it a try – GSPN is broadcasting live all day on Thursday – join in! http://gspn.tv/live/

See you next week!  Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

[See post to listen to audio]

Cliff Preaches At Watermark
The Power of Online Community

Right-Click Here To Download

For those of you who don’t know this, I used to be an Associate Pastor of a small Nazarene Church. Later, I moved on to a position where I was the pastor of small groups in a mega church. In those positions, I had the privilege to preach and teach quite often.

After getting involved in podcasting, I recognized that God was calling me to devote my ministry efforts to building an online community (gspn.tv) where I would entertain, educate, encourage, and inspire others.

Podcasting was not your typical ministry outlet. When I spoke to those in leadership of the church I was attending at the time, my decision to resign from my position of leadership within the church was not met with enthusiasm. It soon became clear to me that I it might be beneficial to find a church family who could recognize God’s call on my life and who would encourage me to follow that calling.

I found this community at Watermark Community Church about four years ago. Since then, it’s been amazing how much the leadership of Watermark has allowed me to operate fully in my gifts and talents. Of course nothing demonstrates more clearly to me that the leadership of my church “gets it” when it comes to what I have been called to do with my life like what happened this morning.

Today I was invited to preach/teach at my church on “The Power of Online Community.” It was the first time that I’ve had to opportunity to preach in over five years. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed sensing the power of the Holy Spirit speak through me, giving me the words to say, beyond what I could have ever imagined being able to prepare for.

In this blog post, I’ve included the audio version of this message above. The audio quality is extremely high in the audio version. I’ve also uploaded a video version of the talk. Both the quality of the audio and video are pretty low in the video version, but at least you get a feel for what the atmosphere was like this morning. Also, you can see just how much I need to go and buy some clothe that fit my much skinnier body.

Here’s the video if you are interested:

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

Help iGot a Mac 092 – New Mac Minis Coming Soon?

In This Episode:
*Mac Mini’s and iMac Refresh coming? Apple Insider posted earlier that Apple notified retailers that their Mac mini orders will not be filled at the moment — but soon.
*Users of Tweetie, the popular Twitter client for both Mac and iPhone, have reason to be excited: a new version of the iPhone app, Tweetie 2, is confirmed to be on the way. Not a free upgrade however, it will cost $2.99.
*Apple says 30% call failure is normal: An iPhone user aggravated with an unacceptably high rate of dropped calls on his iPhone, took it to a New York City Apple Store to have it checked for issues. The call dump statistics revealed a 22% drop rate on calls, which most of us would call “wicked awful” — but not Apple and AT&T.

Grey’s Anatomy 063 – I Always Feel Like Somebodys Watching Me

+Tv Talk 034 – Managing the DVR

Pursuing A Balanced Life 435 – 5 Months Later 44 Pounds Lighter

This episode is pretty much full of all listener feedback. Special thanks to Maggie, Mary, Andy, Jessica, Wayne, Pam, Frank, and Richi. There is plenty of encouragement and inspiration from others in the gspn.tv community who are also Pursuing A Balanced Life!

Family From the Heart 078 – We Need A Plan

In this episode, Stephanie and Cliff share their current thoughts on family travel around the world. Also they share several other relevant things that are going on in their lives.

Wow, this episode was chock full of stuff – a great personal episode with lots of updates about things they’ve talked about, including some new news about what’s happened to “Studio B”.

Desperate Housewives 025 – Season 6 Episode 2, Being Alive

Biggest Loser 004 – Motivation

Full Time Mom 102 – Fight For Your Marriage

About The Church 093 – Is God Real Part 04

+Social Media Serenity 012 – First Signs of Google Wave

Business Tech Week 005 – Tungle Scheduling

Podcast Answer Man 129 – Where To Find Music For Your Podcasts

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

And don’t forget – GSPN is broadcasting live all day on Thursday – join in! http://gspn.tv/live/

So, one of my favorite things to look for at garage sales and such is old cookbooks. I don’t necessarily like to cook anything from them, but I love looking through them. It’s just “my thing”. I picked up a 1954 copy of “Betty Crocker’s Good and Easy Cookbook” this weekend. People ate some wacky stuff in 1954. For example, how about “Beef Birds” or “Ham ‘N’ Limas” for lunch and some “Pacific Lime Mold” for dessert? Mmm mmm. :-)  Do you have a favorite thing you like to hunt for at yard sales? Leave a comment and tell me about it!

See you next week! Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

A while back, I posted my before and after photos on my personal blog. It is my hope that seeing these changes will be a source of inspiration for many people.

If we can do it, so can you!

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

Almost Daily Devotional 146 – Devote Yourself to Prayer

+Help iGot a Mac  091 – Push Notifications

In This Episode:
*Brad called to tell us about a way to add extensions to phone numbers in the iPhone contact list.
*Jason called to ask if there was a keyboard that he could attach to his iPod Touch.
*Brad called again to share how he was about to get his iTunes Music On iDisk to play on his iPhone.
*Andy called in to ask if we thought he should get a Mac computer. Our answer may surprise you!

Pursuing a Balanced Life 434 – 40 Pounds and Biggest Loser

In this episode, Cliff shared an audio recap of his previous week. It was another amazing week of enjoyable walks with his children. He also spends a great deal of time talking about the launch of their newest “Biggest Loser Fan Podcast.” Even if you never watch the Biggest Loser TV Show, you are strongly encouraged to check out this podcast. Cliff is actually partnering with his great friend, Father Roderick Vonhogen, a Catholic priest from the Netherlands. They use the tv show as a platform for launching conversations related to how to live a more healthy lifestyle.

Family From the Heart 077 – Random Family Thoughts

In this episode, Stephanie and Cliff just share a few updates related to a few things they’ve discussed in previous updates.

Desperate Housewives 024 – Nice is Different than Good

Biggest Loser 001 – Second Chances

In this episode Cliff and Fr. Roderick talk about the first episode of the new season of The Biggest Loser US and share tips and information on losing weight, getting fit, eating right and living a balanced life.

Biggest Loser 002 – A New Beginning

Drama and danger during the first Biggest Loser challenge; the importance of medical consultation; why crash diets won’t help; motivation and accountability; a new beginning.

+Full Time Mom 101 - Forgiveness is a Journey

Greys Anatomy 062 – Season 6 Episodes 1 & 2

About the Church 092 – Is God Real? Part 03

+Social Media Serenity 011 – Take That Twitter Haters

In this episode, Erik Fisher and myself, Cliff Ravenscraft, share a little bit about the following items:
*How Selling something on Twitter gained us a new member to the gspn.tv community.
*Tess wrote in to share how she actually landed a job directly as a result of using Twitter.
Facebook now has over 300 Million users
Myspace is now a Twitter App?
Project Retweet
Real Time Local Twitter Trends:

I am a Twitter user and thought I knew it pretty well, but I am amazed from listening to a few of these podcasts how much I have learned about Twitter and how to USE Twitter in more ways I had never even thought of! If you still haven’t given it a try, what are you waiting for? Cliff and Erik tell you all you need to know. :-)

+Business Tech Weekly 004 – Google Docs

In this episode, Andy Traub and Cliff Ravenscraft discuss the following items:
*Wayne called in to thank us for the information about sending large files.
*Stephen called in to ask if there was an easy solution to backing up your Google Docs.
*We mentioned the following links as examples of easily published Google Docs.
http://gspn.tv/btwnotes
http://gspn.tv/episodeguideCompetition Coming/Existing From Microsoft:
*Andy’s Pick Of The Week: Twitter Bar Plugin For Firefox
*Cliff’s Pick of The Week: Screen Grab Plugin For FireFox

I use Google and a lot of Google’s products all the time, but I really didn’t know anything about Google Docs. Cliff and Andy do such a great job of explaining things in plain English so that you can understand even if you’re not a “Techie”!

Biggest Loser 003 – Calories In, Calories Out

In this episode:
The importance of community support in weight loss efforts; why losing weight comes down to calories in – calories out. How to count calories; reading food labels; how to calculate your BMI.

Podcast Answer Man 128 – Extending Your Brand With Twitter

In this episode:
*Cliff shares a personal story of the power of Twitter in extending your brand.
*He also answered a question from Jerilyn who wrote…. “I know you don’t edit your shows anymore to save time, but my question is when working with a partner, co-host or guest speaker and you, as the producer, think their conversation is a bit dull, or kinda blah, or not very dynamic/funny -do you just go with it, try to re-direct the conversation somehow – or just wait until the recording is over and then maybe not release it? I know with Stephanie you don’t have that problem, but am wondering if it ever has come up – or what you do when you feel a podcast isn’t quite 100% what you want. I’d love to hear your thoughts – thanks!”

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

And don’t forget – GSPN is broadcasting live all day on Thursday – join in! http://gspn.tv/live/

So, we had all picked a TON of apples to make a big batch of applesauce. My sister-in-law had this HUGE pot we put the apples in to boil them, which took forever. Turns out, what do you know? You don’t boil apples to make applesauce. You do the opposite – you are supposed to cook them down – cook some of the water OUT of them. My sister-in-law must not have even looked at a recipe of how to actually make applesauce (which I did when I got home to figure out what went wrong!). Long story short, despite the sugar and cinnamon we dumped in by the scoopful, we made literally gallons of the most tasteless, watery, awful applesauce you could imagine. Two lessons learned that day: #1 – You don’t boil apples to make applesauce. #2 – Don’t assume the person in charge of a project knows what they are doing! :-)

See you next week! Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

I just wanted to take a moment and share some awesome photos with you.

My friend Jenn Davis started her pursuit earlier this year. Like many others, she decided to make drastic lifestyle changes.

Here’s what she has accomplished over the course of the past few months:

Stephanie and I have lost a combined total of 100 pounds! However, we’re not doing this alone. It’s a whole community wide thing.

If you are looking for encouragement along the way, I would love to invite you to check out the Pursuing A Balanced Life Podcast and the Biggest Loser Fan Podcast.

Of course, we would love to invite you to just us on twitter. Information about how to do that can be found by clicking here.

Don’t wait till New Years Eve to make a decision for something different. Decide now to introduce the “new you” at this years New Year’s Eve Party!

Many gspn.tv community members will recognize the name of Father Roderick. His podcasts, were among the first podcasts that I had subscribed to back in 2005 and he’s been a source of inspiration for me ever since.

Over the course of the past four years, Fr. Roderick and I have developed a great friendship and I could not be more excited than I am to have been invited to co-host a show with him.

We will be recording the first episode(s) of The Biggest Loser Fan Podcast at 6am Eastern Time on Thursday, September 24th, 2009. Since this podcast will be a joint venture between Father Roderick and myself, we’re creating a neutral site that can be found at http://BiggestLoserPodcast.com. For those of you who are subscribed to the All-Inclusive Feeds, I’ll also be posting the episodes to the gpsn.tv and gspn.tv Plus Member feeds!

Even if you’ve never watched a single episode of the Biggest Loser television show, I would strongly encourage you to at least have a listen to the first few episodes of this podcast. In fact, what we see in the show will only be used as a launching point for discussions about health, fitness, and overall balanced living.

And if you are an early riser or in another time zone that would allow you to join us live at 6am Eastern Time on Thursdays, feel free to drop into the live chat room at http://gspn.tv/live. And of course we welcome your comments and questions on our listener feedback voice mail hotline at 859-795-4067.

Right now, here’s what rolled out on the GSPN feed in the last week – go get ‘em while they’re hot:

+ denotes podcast released for Plus Members only

Weekly Lost Podcast 224 – Flashbacks Part 6

In this episode, Cliff and Stephanie go back into the archives and share commentary regarding things that were said back in Episode 009 of the Weekly Lost Podcast that covered “The Long Con.”

The above description does not adequately describe all that is in this podcast – besides going over their commentary, it’s like a walk down memory lane – bad audio, an attempt at a “bumper”, a hilarious call from Erik Fisher, and so much more!  I laughed all the way through the episode.  I’ll almost be sorry when new episodes start, these have been so entertaining and fun!

Almost Daily Devotional 144 – We Are Called to be Free

+Help iGot a Mac 090 – iTunes 9 and Much More

* Erik Fisher shares why he loves Snow Leopard and the improvements that it has meant to several processes that he runs.
* Mary called to say that iTunes 9 has broken her ability to sync Smart Playlists. (Note, I believe our friend Lee Andrew from the gspn.tv Community Forum helped solve this issue when he wrote…. “Personally not having any issues with iTunes. That said, everyone else who did, I told them to change to only selected podcasts from the playlists. So in the Podcast tap, make sure you scroll down to see Include Episodes From Playlists.”
* Cliff gives his rants about iTunes 9 and how it might affect the basic end user.
…and much more!

+Pursuing a Balanced Life 433 – A Well Balanced Week

In this episode, Cliff shares several mini recordings made throughout the week. It was fun for him to be able to go back and review the various elements of the week. It wasn’t until he listened to the various elements that he had recorded that Cliff noticed that his life really is getting into a much greater balance.

Family From the Heart 076 – Educational Options

In this episode, Stephanie and Cliff have a discussion about what, if anything, they need to do about a recent development in our home. Their son has not been doing well on his spelling tests. Matthew’s birthday meant that they had two options of when to enroll him into school. Questions like “Did we put him in school too early?” and “Should we hold him back a grade?” have come up in the discussion. Of course there is an option of homeschooling Matthew while leaving Meagan in the school system, as she is thriving there. They just briefly touch on different learning styles. They also talk about the fact that it may not be a bad thing that he’s just not great at “test taking.” Cliff shares some of his past educational experiences when thinking about the subject.

I have thought of homeschooling my daughter and I found their discussion very interesting. I was also a little horrified about what Cliff shared about his experiences in school.

Business Tech Weekly 003 – Sending Large Files

In this episode, Andy Traub and Cliff Ravenscraft discuss the following items:
*Jay Carter called in to ask what options are available out there for sending large files via the internet.
*We put the power of the community to work on this one. You can read all about the various options discussed by clicking here.
*We want to thank Lee Andrew for calling with some audio feedback on the topic and providing a great deal of valuable insight on the topic.
*Here is a link to LifeHacker’s top 5 file sharing services.

Full Time Mom 100 – Sarah Googled

Watermark Community 09-20-09 – I Believe in God But I Don’t Know Him

About the Church 091 – Is God Real? Part 02

+Social Media Serenity 010 – This Week in Facebook

In this episode, Erik Fisher and Cliff Ravenscraft, share a little bit about the following items:
*The world, as we know it, has changed as Cliff’s MOM is on now on Facebook.
*Have you seen Facebook Lite at http://lite.facebook.com? It’s Facebook without all the silly games! Not too shabby!
*Is Facebook getting Voice Chat? Personally, I don’t think so. It seems it’s just another application. I wouldn’t get excited unless I see an official app that goes on everyone’s service like chat did!
*Have you tried out Facebook @Replies? We play around with it, live, on the show to share with you what happens when you tag someone in your status updates.
*Twitter updates Terms of Service. It seems you now own something you put on the web.

Almost Daily Devotional 145 – Contentment and Wealth

Podcast Answer Man 127 – Improving Your Sound Quality

In this episode, Cliff shares an example how a client recently improved the quality of the sound of his show by simply using a professional digital audio recorder like the Edirol R-09. Several folks who were watching as Cliff recorded this episode purchased an Edirol from him that day. Next, Cliff shared an answer to a question that he had received in the 48 Days Podcasting and New Media Group that he runs. He provided his answer in audio form as to demonstrate the before and after effects of the advice he was giving. Finally, Cliff took a call from Gordon who wanted some advice on how Cliff manages his show notes for all the various podcasts that he produces. Of course Cliff told him that the answer is simply GOOGLE DOCS.

And that’s a wrap for last week!

If you’d like to to get the Community Blog posts delivered to your email box so you’re sure not to miss a thing, you can click here to subscribe: Community Blog Posts via Email

And don’t forget – GSPN is broadcasting live all day on Thursday – join in! http://gspn.tv/live/

So, while I was sitting in the kitchen in my “lawnmowing outfit” (don’t ask) twiddling my thumbs, I decided to send out a “tweet” that said something like, “I need to mow the lawn but I’m stalling – waiting to see if any new gspn.tv podcasts will be released. #GSPN”  To my utter surprise, a moment later I get a direct reply from Cliff that said, “@carolesthought Which of today’s podcasts would you like me to release first and I’ll rush it out into the feed. Working on uploads now.” Wow! What lucky timing! I replied that I was hoping for the Weekly Lost Podcast, but any of them would be fine except for Help iGot a Mac (only because iDon’t have a Mac!). So sure enough, in a little bit the Weekly Lost Podcast showed up on iTunes, which I got to enjoy while mowing – HOW AWESOME WAS THAT?? I tell you, being a Community member sure has it’s perks.  :-D  (If you don’t already follow Cliff on Twitter, you can do that here.)

See you next week! Carole

If you’d like to know more about me, here’s my personal blog: Carole’s Thoughtful Spot

I have had a great deal of success in finding potential clients by doing a Twitter Search to see if anyone is talking about the need for podcast audio equipment. One of my most popular items that I sell is the Heil PR-40 microphone so I searched for that model in twitter and I found this tweet that said… “Just sold my HEIL PR 20 mic too. Now I need to save up for the lovely HEIL PR 40 mic and shock mount. Won’t be cheap…”

Being the sales person that I am I sent Lee a response that pretty much looked like this:

As it turned out, Lee was living in the UK at the time (He currently lives in Germany). While I could ship audio equipment internationally, the cost of shipping can become an issue when the budget is tight.

So I didn’t end up making a sale that day. However, something amazing did happen as a direct use of Twitter. I met someone who I now consider to be a close, personal friend.

Lee just reminded me today that we had first met because I had tried to sell him audio equipment, a fact that I’d actually forgotten about until he reminded me.

I record a podcast called Social Media Serenity. I thought it would be a great story to tell on the podcast about how you really can use Twitter to meet someone you’ve never met before and develop a relationship with them.

Lee was kind enough to record the following audio clip for me to use in our next episode. Have a listen!
[See post to listen to audio]

Have you met anyone as the result of Twitter or Facebook? Tell me about it in the comments section.