podcasts | Sonya Cheney

writing letters on the lawn yesterday

This week has been rather wonderful and productive. My favorite day, I think, was Wednesday: sitting on the floor with craft supplies sprawled out around me, listening to podcasts, and decorating my filofax. I kept seeing awesome + inspiring ones on pinterest, so I decided I wanted mine to look organized in a super cute way too. I did find myself wishing I had some other options of washi tape, but I worked just fine with what I had. I’ve also kept up with my daily word count for the first time in weeks and got a fair amount of reading done. All in all, one of my favorite weeks lately.

The Nerdist podcast ♥ Kristin’s awesome blogiversary giveaway that I secretly don’t want to share with people so I can win ♥ mysteriously meowing Charlie in the entryway ♥ browsing Etsy for crystals ♥ The X-Files–I really love The X-Files ♥ drawing in my sketchbook + making my own art for the apartment ♥ waiting for my new owl Scentsy warmer ♥ writing letters to new pen pals ♥ mix CDs ♥ Jessikat’s Holistic Health series ♥ decorating my filofax ♥ browsing boots + boot socks for fall ♥ Starbucks peach green tea lemonade ♥ hanging up our new bedroom mirror

Three ways to make next week great:

Finish my Tarot notes. I’ve been making notes on each card in a cool little notebook I’ve decorated for quite honestly a year now. I started them in Spring 2012 and somehow have yet to finish. I’m close, though; I have maybe nine or ten of the Major Arcana left. Then I can start my 52 week project of doing a reading every week. I get worn out making all the notes, though. I just need to buckle down and finish these last few up.
Write more letters. I wrote a couple already this week, but I’ve gotten some new pen pals from tumblr + twitter, so I’d really like to get letters sent out to them soon. I also want to get some fun new envelopes, because even though I like making my own, it gets a little tiresome sometimes.
Catch up on “Supernatural.” This is a silly and somewhat unproductive one, but it feels like we’ve been watching forever at this point, and it’d be nice to get to the end! Not that I’m not enjoying it. I’m just not a patient person sometimes (oftentimes).

“It’s Friday; I’m in Love” is a weekly gratitude post. It aims to remind myself and others of the good things from the past week, big and small; to share ways to make the next week a positive one; and to serve as a record to look back on for the not-so-great days to come. The title comes from the song by The Cure.

Do you like weird, creepy stories? I do. Always have. In middle school, I would take books from the library on ghost hunting, bringing them home and taking notes before they had to be returned. (I don’t know why my middle school library had books on ghost hunting.) Then I’d imagine searching out my own ghosts (and still do), pretending there were some in my house. I watch every show on ghosts, the paranormal, and the general unknown as often as I can, my favorite topics being ghosts and aliens, though I do indulge in the occasional Bigfoot or Nessie search. Oh, and I also enjoy the “real Dracula” shows on History. And just last week we saw “The Conjuring,” and I of course couldn’t resist the “based on a true story” aspect, looking up information when we came home (as I huddled beneath the blankets instead of cooking my much desired chicken nuggets…in the kitchen…by myself–but I’m getting sidetracked).

If any of these are your kind of thing, you should be listening to “Welcome to Night Vale.”

“Welcome to Night Vale” is a bi-monthly podcast by Commonplace Books presented as “community updates on the desert town of Night Vale.” It includes talk of hooded figures, new rankings for boy scouts–including but not limited to dreadnought scout, fear scout, and eternal scout–and an outbreak of feral dogs. I mean plastic bags.

“Night Vale” is a fantastically told story, and what I really love about it–besides narrator Cecil’s adoration for the new scientist in town, Carlos–is the way it makes me think of old radio shows in the ’40s. I’ll listen to it while cleaning the apartment and imagine my grandmother doing something similar, though probably listening to a vastly different story. It’s cute to think of an updated version of something from that time period. And it requires imagination, far more than watching television does (not that I’m against watching television, as noted above).

The podcast is something I highly recommend to fans of even the slightly strange. It’s eerie, but provides a good laugh all the same. Some of the comments Cecil makes are so absurd that you can’t help but chuckle. I don’t think it’s meant to genuinely scare, but it can have its moments. For me, they usual come when creepy music starts up, and Cecil’s voice starts to get a little lower and a little slower.

You can subscribe via iTunes or on the “Welcome to Night Vale” web page.