Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Time sure flies, doesn’t it?  It’s hard for me to believe that 20 years have gone by since I graduated high school.  I’ve mentioned before that I graduated from the thriving metropolis (if you use the word metropolis in the loosest way possible) of Wellston, OK in 1994.  I moved to Wellston before I went into the fourth grade. It was an odd adjustment for me.  I had previously gone to school in a much larger school district and the class structure was quite a bit different.  Of course, like any new kid at a school, I knew no one and had no friends.  I don’t know what it was that brought us together, but I soon became friends with a kid named James, and we were pretty much best buds from then on out. We were a small class.  I can’t find my senior yearbook at the moment, but I think my graduating class was around 36 kids.  My wife finds it hard to imagine what my high school experience was like.  She graduated with a group of over 450.  The thought of a school with that many people freaks me out a bit.  Since w

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday.  My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.  In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a story of conflict and confession. Friday Forum Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE […] The post 28- Do You Want to Punch it Out, or Hug it Out? appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

When I was in seventh grade one of my teachers thought it would be good to teach our class a lesson on perspective.  She gave each of us a glass and had us fill it up half way with water.  She then asked us to carefully study the glass of water.  After we had time to study the glass of water she asked us a simple question.  She wanted us to tell her if the glass was half full or half empty.  She asked us to write our answer down on a piece of paper. To me, this question was not as simple as she wanted it to be.  No, I wasn’t one of those people who claimed that it was 100% full because what space was not filled with water was actually full of air.  My problem was that I recognized that the cup was simultaneously half full AND half empty.  The answer I wrote down was “both.”  The teacher asked those who answered “half full” to raise their hands.  She then asked those who answered “half empty” to raise their hands.  She noticed that another girl and I did not raise our hands either time and asked us what answer

I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about the state of Golden Spiral Media.  If you’ve been listening to any of our podcasts for a while, you are probably aware of the work that Golden Spiral Media does.  Just in case you aren’t here’s a brief synopsis.  Golden Spiral Media works in two branches.  One branch is this one, that is, the podcasting branch.  From this branch we record and produce podcasts about TV, Film, family, and life.  This currently includes The Revolution Podcast, Almost Human Podcast, We Have To Go Back Podcast, Triplecast, and this podcast.   The other branch of Golden Spiral Media is the branch I mentioned in the ad earlier.  That branch focuses on helping others with their podcasts.  It consists of consulting, website design, podcast production, custom artwork, and music. It’s been almost one year since I left my regular day job so that I could put my full focus into Golden Spiral Media and both branches are growing nicely.  Yes, I still have some room to grow before I fully make up for

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today's episode I share contributions received from Jill, Ana, and Bonita. You can participate in a future Friday Forum episode by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com. Read More... The post 25- Friday Forum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Time really flies when you’re having fun, right?  The first episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday was released on March 17, so that means that today marks the one month anniversary of Stuff I Learned Yesterday.  This last month has been one of the most challenging and rewarding that I’ve had both personally and professionally.  I’ve learned a lot about myself and some of you in the process.  I don't anticipate that I'll do this type of retrospective episode every month, but I do think there is value in taking time to reflect.  I'll probably take time to reflect when I reach certain milestones like my 100th episode, 1 year anniversary, etc. While Stuff I Learned Yesterday has the smallest audience size of any podcast I’ve ever done, it has already become one of the most rewarding podcasts for me.  In case you’re wondering, Stuff I Learned Yesterday is the 8th podcast that Golden Spiral Media has done.  Portable Orchard will likely not be coming back anytime soon, The Revolution Podcast and Almost Human Podcast

As I mentioned in an earlier episode, my parents divorced when I was 9.  My dad remarried later that year, in December I think.  Sometime after my parents divorced and before the next school year started, my dad moved us into a rent house in a small town.  It was the town that my soon to be step-mom and her two kids lived.   I was going into 4th grade, my step-brother would be in 5th grade, my brother would be in 6th grade, and my step-sister would be a senior.  Once my step-sister graduated high school she moved off to college and we only saw her occasionally.  So for the most part, our home was just the three of us boys, each one grade apart.   During the time of that first school year when my dad and stepmom had not yet married, we were instructed to go to her house immediately after school.  She lived right across the street from the school so this made sense.  We would hang out with my soon to be step siblings and other neighborhood kids.  Our parents would arrive home from work a couple of hours later a

Today’s story begins on an ordinary Wednesday, in an ordinary dorm room in 1995.  I was nearly finished with my first year of college, and as the semester was drawing to a close, I had a few assignment deadlines approaching.  One of the assignments was for a paper I had to write.  I have no idea which class it was or what the paper was about.   What I do remember is that on this particular day I was up early trying to finish the paper before I headed off to work.  It was shortly before 9am.  I fired up the computer and turned on the local radio station.  I sat there typing away for several minutes and didn’t think much of it when I heard a rumbling sound above me.  I thought the guys in the room upstairs must have dragged something heavy across the floor. A few minutes later there was an interruption on the radio.  The morning DJ announced that a major explosion had just occurred in downtown Oklahoma City.  It was now just a few minutes after 9am and 168 lives, 19 of them children, had just been lost as a Ryd

Today’s episode is a story told from two perspectives.  One perspective is mine, and the other is from a friend named Emilee.  Some of you know her on Twitter or in our community as Fauxmeonce.   I asked Emilee if she’d be willing to share her side of this story with the idea that I would then weave them together in a This American Life sort of way.  We did not compare notes or talk about what each of us would say.  She sent me her perspective of the story and I chronicled my side.  Only after I had finished my side of the story did I look at what she said.  It brought me to tears.  Here’s the story: Read More... The post 21- The Journey From Crippled to Courageous appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

The Friday Forum is here! Thanks to everyone that has sent in a Friday Forum contribution. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com. Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. This week’s Friday forum contribution comes in from Mike and he shares a lesson learned after a recent trip to the doctor. I also share a brief lesson learned about the value in powering down your electronic devices. Read More... The post 20- Friday Forum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

Are you up for one more Chicago story? This is the last one for a while…I think. Remember a couple of episodes ago when I said that I want my kids to put others before themselves and make a positive impact on society? I know that the best way for them to learn that behavior is to see it demonstrated in me or my wife, Kari. The thing is, I don’t think I’m particularly good at this. It’s not that I don’t care about other people or don’t like putting others first, I do. I think I’m pretty good about considering the feelings and thoughts of others most of the time, but I don’t know that I do a good job of demonstrating the behavior and teaching my kids. I’ve taught them simple things like the seemingly forgotten courtesy of opening the door for others. I’ve taught them to always allow people off the elevator before you go in. I’ve taught them about being considerate of other drivers. I look at those as situational courtesy, and hope that they’ll teach principles that will flow down into everyday situation

One of the things that my dad always taught me is to live within your means.  He told me to never use a credit card unless I could pay off the full balance when the bill came in.  He told me to save for the things that I wanted and buy them after I had saved the money.  He told me to be content with what I had and not be jealous of things other people had.  These are are all very sound financial principles. I’m pretty conservative with my purchases, but money does burn a hole in my pocket faster than it will my wife.  She is very frugal.  She hates to shop, will wear clothes that are terribly out of style if they still fit and aren’t worn out, and she will talk herself out of buying just about anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.  When we first got married I would buy her gift cards to clothing stores for Christmas or her birthday so she could go buy something she liked.  She never spent them.  On the rare occasion she did spend them, it was when MY birthday had rolled around and she’d use it to buy me s

As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, today’s lesson also came this past weekend while I was visiting Chicago with my daughter.  One thing I didn’t mention in yesterday’s episode was that doing the meetup was not my idea.  I did mention that Matthew organized the event, but I think I should clarify that the whole event was led by three Golden Spiral Media listeners, Matthew, Emilee, and Melissa. I think it’s amazingly cool that our listeners want to hang out so much that they took it upon themselves to organize a meetup and planned to hang out whether I was there or not.  In fact, last year they did that very thing.  I was in Seattle and couldn’t attend the meetup they organized last year.  When I found out that they were planning another event this year, I immediately started making plans to attend. I mentioned the event during dinner one night and my daughter immediately perked up and asked if she could go too.  I had already thought that it would be cool to take one of the kids with me, and Kari agreed th

I am exhausted.  I am encouraged.  I am inspired.  I am feeling blessed.  All of these things things are because of the same thing.  I just returned home from spending the weekend in Chicago where I got to spend some great one on one time with my daughter, Addison, eat some of Chicago’s tastiest pizza, and meet and hangout with some wonderful members of the Golden Spiral Media Community. When I started podcasting in 2008 I had no idea that it would lead me down such a life changing path.  I thought it would be cool to podcast with some friends and that we might even get a few folks to listen to us.  I never thought I would care so deeply about the listeners of our podcast, or that they would care so much about me.   The last 15 months have been the best and most rewarding that I’ve ever experienced as a podcaster.  When we announced that we were doing a party for the finale of Fringe, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.  Would we have a thousand people show up, or would we have 3 people show up?  Would peopl

The Friday Forum is here! Thanks to everyone that has sent in a Friday Forum contribution. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com. Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. This week’s Friday forum contributions come in from from Ben, Mike, and Mark. Ben shares a story of a recent trip to a pro-am golf event with the lesson of giving up, or moving forward. Mike shares the story of creating a video of memories of his grandma and the lesson of keeping it authentic when learning new skills. Mark shares a challenge to find someone and pay them a compliment this weekend. Read More... The post 15- Friday Forum a

I could make today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday really short and sweet.  If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.  I mean, that’s not the way it works 100% of the time, but it’s a pretty solid statement.  I would say that the vast majority of the time, if you don’t ask, you won’t get what you seek.  Let me share an example that drastically impacted my life. This story begins in the fall of 2012.  During that time of my life I was very discontent with my job at the bookstore and focused on building a career in new media.  Things were progressing, but not quickly enough for my satisfaction.  I was really struggling.  I it was either late October or early November.  I had no desire to go through another Christmas season in retail, but at that point there was no way to avoid it.  There was one morning in particular that I was getting ready for work and it was the last place I wanted to be.  My heart wasn’t there.  My passion for  that career had gone.   The truth is, nearly every morning had been that way f

I recorded the first episode of The Fringe Podcast speaking directly into the digital recorder while standing in my closet.  I thought the clothes in the closet would help absorb any echo from my voice, and also drown out the noise from my kids in the other room.  Jason ended up not wanting to drive to my house each week, and never even used the equipment he’d help pay for.   We would bring him in via Skype each week. There is so much I didn’t know back then.  I had no idea how to get rid of that chirping electrical sound from our computers.  I didn’t know about shock mounts.  I had never even heard of a compressor/limiter/gate.  We landed an interview with actress Jasika Nicole about a month after the show premiered.  From an audio quality standpoint, that interview was and is a disaster.   In fact, it is such a disaster that when I was at new media expo 2014 I sat in on a session that had Ray Ortega as one of the panelists.  I was surprised when he mentioned this Fringe podcast that interviewed one of the a

Today I have not one story to share with you, but two.  On the surface, these two stories seem completely unrelated.  Honestly, I suppose they are completely unrelated.  The first story took place nearly 30 years ago.  The second story took place 2 weeks ago.  As I thought about what I learned from the recent story, it reminded me of the older story.  I think they share a common thread, so I’m including both of them in today’s episode. The first story took place when I was probably 8 to 10 years old.  My brother and I always spent a lot of time with my grandparents, that is, my dad’s mom and stepdad.  My mom’s parents lived in California, and I only remember meeting them one time.  There were a couple of other times I met them, but just like my Disneyland experience, I was too young to remember.  My step grandpa was the only grandpa I ever knew, and never considered him  anything other than my real blood related grandpa.  Because they lived here in Oklahoma, they’ve always been a close and important part of m

If you’ve listened to all the episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, then by now you know that I spent a good chunk of my life working for a bookstore.  I started out as a part-time cashier, worked my way up to store manager, worked as a buyer for a short time, and then worked as the e-commerce director.  Many of you also know that after nearly 19 years with the company, I left there almost one year ago.  In fact, this Saturday, April 5th, will mark the one year anniversary of the day I turned in my resignation. My decision to leave the bookstore was not easy nor was it made quickly.  A few years ago I started a business that I hoped would help transition me from the bookstore to being full-time self employed.  That business is a website design company called Dramatic Traffic.  I still own it and have local clients that I serve under that name.  Most of my new clients are served under the more widely known company I own, Golden Spiral Media.   To help grow Dramatic Traffic locally, I joined a Wednesday mornin

Thanks to everyone that has sent in a Friday Forum contribution.  If you submitted a Friday Forum and don’t hear it on the show today, don’t worry.  I still have it and will very likely use it on next week’s Friday Forum episode.  You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com.  Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU.  It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long.  It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others.   This week’s Friday forum come to us from Mark.  Mark sent in a story that’s long enough to take up the entire duration of today’s show.  While it’s perfectly okay that Mark’s story is this long, please don’t think that your Friday Forum story has to be this long.  In fact, for most Friday Forum episodes,