Equipment Test!: Recent Episodes
Eric Shay Howard
Equipment Test! is a podcast about a 30-something year old writer who bought a microphone and started recording a podcast. On Equipment Test!, I talk about my week in blogging, creative writing, and being gay. It's basically my blog in audio form. I have both a liberal arts degree and a business degree, so I pursue my creative endeavors outside of my day job, which is at a firm throughout the week. I write short fiction and post short stories on my blog every Friday. I'm the author of Crushes, a literary fiction collection about characters from the south exploring sexuality. It's available on Amazon in print and on Amazon Kindle.
This week on the blog, I didn't post that much. I was distracted by my second MFA Program acceptance, which I accepted. I got accepted into the EKU Bluegrass Writers Studio MFA Program. I start in the summer.
On this week's podcast episode, I also read Friday's short story - "Beards". I also talk about how I resubscribed to the New Yorker after a few years of hiatus from reading it. I think I unsubscribed because I didn't want to renew sometime in 2017 or so, to cut some costs after graduating with my bachelor's degree. I figured it was time to resubscribe, since I am also catching up on The Best American Short Stories series that I'm so behind on.
A short episode this week. I'm still figuring out what this podcast even is, so thanks for listening.
This week on my blog, I let you all know that I got accepted into one of the four MFA Programs for Creative Writing that I applied to! I'm excited! I'm still figuring out the details, but I think it's safe to say I'll be writing A LOT of fiction here soon.
In this episode, I also read my short story that I posted on my blog on Friday, called 'The Plan".
I also bought a Leuchtturm notebook to start a writing project in. I've found that I don't write in notebooks very well longterm as a writer - I tend to type most of my stories. But, if I'm working on a specific project, or doing a lot of writing about the same characters or places, I like doing that sort of work in a notebook. I don't do it super often, maybe once or twice a year.
Also, on my reading list this week, I started reading The Best American Short Stories 2021, edited by Jesmyn Ward.
This week on my blog, I talked about my reading for the week and I posted a short story on Friday.
This week, I read (or got read to by Audible) Less by Andrew Sean Greer and The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. I also talked about some books that helped me with my writing, including Widow by Michelle Latiolais and the Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff.
I also picked up a copy of The Best American Short Stories 2021, edited by Jesmyn Ward this week.
My short story this week was "Replacement Parts", which I read for you on this podcast.
This week I read my short story, "Binoculars", and talk about my blog! I'm still waiting to hear back about my MFA applications, and I'm trying to manage my expectations. I looked at lots of MFA programs and settled on 4 to apply to for now, and will see where I get with those.
There were some other programs that I wasn't too sure about, and one in particular that really kind of bothered me on a number of levels. I'm hoping I'm just wrong about it and I missed some important information about it or something - something that would help it make sense.
This week on my blog, I posted my short story, "Knees", and wasn't sure about the title. I also wrote about The LinkedIn Learning and Udemy platforms, and I got a Capstone Excellence Award from WGU!
I'm also applying to some Low Residency and online MFA programs in Creative Writing. Let me know if you know about any good MFA programs! I'm currently on the fence and applying to 4 of them. Not sure if I'll get into any of them.
This week on Equipment Test!, I talk about why I love short fiction/short stories! I wrote a blog post last week about it on my website and since I'm trying to make this podcast more useful and actually about really things, I thought I'd talk about it here!
I post short stories on my blog every Friday, so please check that out, if you're interested!
Also, I mention some blogs and books I've been reading this week. Those are:
- https://www.thebloggess.com - Blog
- https://www.stuartdanker.com - Blog
- https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/hashtag_good_guy_with_a_gun - Literary Fiction
Thanks for listening to my podcast, which is basically my blog in audio form. I blog on my website Monday through Friday, and I'll talk to you next weekend back on the podcast!
This week I fixed my blog, wrote short stories, and dabbled in marketing for my blog!
I talk on today's episode about my plans with my creative stuff for this year. I've been working on my blog. Armed with my knowledge of the MBA program that I just completed, I experimented with marketing and Google ads. I also started tweeting more.
It was also great to actually not have to stress out about school every day after work. I was able to blog all week. I also started posting short stories on my blog every Friday. I think if I keep building up my blog and blogging every week, I'll be able to build something cool after a while. Same with this podcast. I still don't know where it fits into what I'm doing with my creative stuff, but as long as I keep making this podcast every weekend, I think it will eventually be good and make sense.
This week, I finished my MBA, I had to go to the dentist, and I am still really messed about all of the stuff that happened with Allison Mack (from Smallville) and the NXIVM cult. Allison Mack's sentencing was in 2021. I grew up watching Smallville. I was a freshman when it aired and I didn't miss any episode of it. I know that there are people who will have to deal with a lot of real stuff for the rest of their lives because of what happened, but as a fan of Smallville, I still just have so much trouble wrapping my head around it all. I don't know if I'll ever be able to like a show as much as I liked Smallville.
Anyways, let's have the best 2022 that we can!
This week on Equipment Test!, I practice with my Elgato Wave 3 microphone, talk about my Wyze security camera and my Ring Doorbell 3, and how I thought I broke Amazon Web Services. I took a break from recording the podcast live, because it was starting to get a little distracting and it was creating some pretty awful quality audio.
On Equipment Test!, I talk about audio and video equipment, complain about package delivery issues, and try to catch people stealing my new stuff I buy. Just recording a podcast to practice using my microphone because microphones are cool.
Next week, I will look back at my 2021 audio, video, and computer purchases.
You can follow me on Twitter @ericshayhoward.
This week on Equipment Test!, I complain about package delivery issues, realize I live-stream too much, and I finally got a pair of Apple AirPods Max! I also jumped the gun and started posting Equipment Test! as an actual podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other services.
After recording this episode and playing it back, I'm still hearing the audio drops every few minutes. I've been using my Elgato Wave 3 microphone for 2 weeks and love it, except for the audio issues I'm having. I think it's because I've been recording via my YouTube live-stream. I think I'll need to try a "bonus" episode in a few days where I only record locally on my computer and post the episode to the podcasting platforms. I want to see if this helps with the audio issues. I'm SUPER new to podcasting, microphones, and live-streaming. Each week of this podcast, I'll get better and more comfortable, and more capable of figuring this stuff out.
Equipment Test! is the result of a random week of me deciding to buy a nice microphone for work. This started a chain of events in which I upgraded my home setup and ended up with enough equipment to mess around with live-streaming and podcasting.
This first episode is a recap of my first week of live-streaming and setting up my space.
Equipment Test! records on Fridays on my YouTube channel. Since I recorded it by pushing buttons in OBS that I don't understand, I figured I should also publish it on Apple Podcasts and some other places, which is something else that I don't completely understand.
This may take me years to figure out, but that's okay. I've got time.