Podcasting to work.
I've decided enough's enough. Driving to work every day is stupid. I stayed within walking distance from work for a reason: so I could walk. But I haven't been.
I like walking. But the trouble is I also like sleeping. And there's nothing I can do--I'm going to be dragging myself through the morning no matter what happens. It takes me about an hour of sitting upright and drooling (usually in front of the laptop) before I'm even capable of making breakfast. So if I'm going to make it into work by or around 10 (I know, poor me), it always ends up that the 20 minute walk is too long and I have to jump in the car instead.
The car's easier in other ways too. Like I can go somewhere different for lunch, or run errands, or stop by the grocery store after work. Stuff like that. But it mostly comes down to the morning situation.
I tried biking a bit during the summer. That didn't last long. I like riding the bike, but I hate riding a bike in traffic (not that I even have much traffic to ride through). Along with that, biking to work seems like it's a hard sell for my subconscious. Maybe it's the helmet (since I started wearing one). Maybe it's the fact that I have to do something with the bike (we have a bike room at work now...). Maybe it's the fact that it always starts raining on the days when I bike. There's just enough inertia making biking a solid third choice in my getting-to-work buffet.
So anyway, I was thinking I really needed some way to convince myself to walk to work in the morning. And that's when I heard (I think on a podcast or something) a guy suggest that he downloads a bunch of podcasts every morning, synchs up his MP3 player and does his hour-long walk to work every morning, blissfully catching up on Internet audio chatter.
And this, to me, sounded like a great idea. Except I don't have an MP3 player.
Of course, I could buy... Wait! Dammit, I do have an MP3 player! And it's about time I used it. That's why I got the stupid 1GB card for it I haven't been using.
Mind you, it's a little chunkier than an iPod nano, but my PSP can play MP3 files. I have pockets. And if I get stuck somewhere waiting for something, I can whip it out and play a little Loco Roco. I'm liking this idea.
What's more, as of some recent firmware update (yes, I actually update the firmware. I know, I'm lame), it has built-in RSS support. So I don't even have to sync it up with anything. Provided I can get the RSS feed into the reader (and it looks like I have to go through the browser, which is kinda a pain), I can just tell it to download everything over WiFi in the morning. That's pretty awesome.
Even so, I'm debating asking for a nano for Christmas... They're adorable.
So two birds with one stone: I get to catch up on the podcasts I haven't had enough time for lately, and this is just enough incentive, it seems, to get me walking in the morning. We'll see if the incentive holds when the temperature drops.
Podcasts I've been listening to:
And now that I can get through more a week, I'll probably start tracking down others.