New episodes, new website, and more!

Well, this is going to be a bit of a first. I've never really kept a blog/journal before, so I'm not generally accustomed to just spilling thoughts without trying to get somewhere. So, excuse me for - what may be perceived as - rambling. 

This is a real time of change for not only me, but the podcast. Been going through a LOT recently (starting a new job, buying a home, planning a big trip, etc.), and have been spending almost all of my free time on some facet of the podcast. Whether it be writing/recording/editing the current "Hughes" family episodes, laying the groundwork for future episodes (in one case, doing an in-person interview for the first time), or just working on the website, I feel like I've just been spending a lot of time on the podcast recently...

... and I've been LOVING it. 

Normally, this is all just time that I would have been spending playing video games or wasting time on Reddit (which is still a frequent pastime of mine), but with so much going on in the podcast-sphere, my days feel more full and accomplished. 

Working on the new website was a big goal for me, and one that I had been putting off for quite some time. I had kept the horribly janky blog for a good chunk of time, but finally just got to the snapping point and had to do away with it. 

Creating the new podcast was pretty simple: I cheated and went the Squarespace route. However, transferring over all of the transcripts, images, and sources from the blog was a task in-and-of itself. It required lots of re-formatting (trying to make sure there were only one line breaks between every paragraph, etc.) and in some cases, pouring through each transcript looking for issues. 

So, simple, just time-consuming. 

Now I feel like the podcast website is in pretty good shape, but I still have some work to do to get it where I want it. There's still no real "home" page, and since my skills in website design are pretty lacking, I've been struggling with it for the past week or so. I'm sure I'll come up with something soon, but just playing with it for now. 

As for the podcast, I've finally gotten to the point where I think I can keep up a regular-ish schedule. The plan is to try and stick to biweekly episodes (as in: one every two weeks, not 2X a week), with multi-part episodes making an exception. I'd like to keep those to a weekly schedule (since, as a podcast fan myself, I realize how infuriating it is to have to wait two weeks for a story you could easily Google). 

However, I have a good idea of the next story I want to tackle, which would take the podcast to Europe for the first time. I'm pretty excited about that, but don't want to spill the beans until I've started to put a dent into the research and writing. 

Not bad for a first time blog... think I got some good volume on this one. I think I'll try it again in the near-future, and post any relevant podcast updates/thoughts here. Heck, maybe I'll even make some irrelevant thoughts, as well.