If you can't call in live to participate in the weekly topic discussion, give me a call on the Jestertunes Listener Line: (415) 578-3249. You can call anytime, if I'm feeling spunky, I might even answer the call!
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From the HRC (who I don’t always agree with, but have no problem signing a petition for):
Dear Friend,
Do you want to live in a country that legalizes discrimination? Despite the recent California Supreme Court decision that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional, efforts are underway throughout the country to take away rights from same-sex couples.
I just joined thousands of others in showing my support for marriage equality for all. But recently, proponents of bigotry and hate collected even more signatures in an attempt to invalidate the California Supreme Court decision. And they won’t stop with California - extremists are even trying to add a ban of marriage for same-sex couples to the U.S. Constitution.
We are at a turning point in our nation’s history and I’m hoping you’ll join me in standing up against discrimination. Please sign the Million for Marriage petition and get us one name closer to showing that Americans overwhelmingly support marriage equality!
Every committed couple deserves to enjoy the privileges and responsibilities conferred by marriage. Add your name to the petition and be a part of the movement to fight for marriage equality for all.
I’m a professional web designer who has resorted to putting up a stock theme on his blog.
I don’t have time to build a new one from scratch and I was getting so pissed at the last theme that I could hardly bring myself to write a post on it.
I actually like this one. I’ve tweaked it so that my little jester fellow is back. I’m going to be changing his clothes soon. I’ll probably do some minor color adjustments and stuff, but I’m gonna live with this one for a while.
At least until I get to work and view it on a PC running Explorer and I decide that I want to take up crab fishing for a living instead.
There are a couple of audio bugs to work out, in that my mic level was too high and I distorted quite a bit for the first few minutes.
You can participate in the show chat room using the web client. You don’t have to use the Pro software download.
But, using the software is pretty cool. After you install the software, you visit the show page and click on the button in the lower right hand corner you’ll see a “launch talkshoe live pro software” button. Click on that, it will close the show page and open the software and connect you to the show.
The chat room on the software download takes a few minutes to get used to… it scrolls left to right with a timeline along the bottom. You can click on a chat bubble to directly respond to people, and it color coordinates the response to the original chat comment. You’ll hate it for the first few minutes, but soon you will get into it.
The very cool thing about using the software is that you can connect to the show to talk live without using a phone or skype. Also you can tell who is talking because the user icons light up when people speak. Perfect for figuring out who is the owner of the gay accent.
It’s also great for figuring out who keeps yelling out “nigger dick” on your show uninvited.
That was totally my fault, though. I set the show to automatically unmute new callers. I didn’t realize what that was setting myself up for. It did add a touch of excitement to the show.
My only complaint about TalkShoe so far is that there is no way to upload pre-recorded sound bits into a switchboard. I think there’s a way around that using a mixer.
Karl was a great guest, and a great sport for being the guinea pig for the new format. There were lots of participants and the chat room was off the hook crazy. In fact, as an added bonus from TalkShoe here’s a copy of the chat transcript.
There will be no show next week as Total Eclipse is playing a large corporate party next Wednesday night in San Francisco.
June 11th - Tentatively Lucy from Lucy’s Dilemma will be my guest.
June 18th - Open… Wanna guest star?
June 25th - Howard from TheWebPen.Net POST Chemo special.
Beyond - Open… Wanna guest host!?
I’m sure you all heard about the court ruling earlier this month that basically stated that the State Proposition 22 that barred homosexuals from being married was overturned.
Basically, the courts say that banning gays from being married is unconstitutional.
Opponents of gay marriage (don’t they have anything better to do with their time?) want to change the constitution of the State of California so that the courts can no longer say that Prop 22 is unconstitutional.
It’s the equivalent of changing the rules of the game at halftime because you don’t like the outcome of the first half.
That being said, there is something everyone, including non-Californians can do: Call the Governator’s hotline and make your voice heard.
Calling to voice your support for California’s gay marriage ruling means calling an automated system; you won’t have to talk to anyone. And you can call even if you’re not from California. So please, the more the better.
The number is 1-916-445-2841; press 1 (For English unless you prefer another language), 5 (Hot Issues), 1 to get to the particular issue, then press 1 again if you want to support upholding the court decision and are against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
It will just take a second out of your day, but could mean the world to someone like me.
So if you caught the show last week, when Winter was my special guest, you probably remember the NIGHTMARE of technical problems and bullshit that BlogTalkRadio heaped upon me.
I’ve been so irritated I haven’t wanted to talk about it, but here’s a little bit of a recap of BTR’s bullshit in my short history with them:
My show was slapped with an “Adults Only” rating by John Sweet when Hilly used the word “Fag” in his presence. The context was political correctness and the usage of speech, and certainly not derogatory. I am, after all, an authority on all things gay.
Immediately after that rating, I lost my “prime time” time slot. “Prime Time” is defined as 7pm-Midnight Eastern time. As you know, I’m on the west coast. This means my show either has to air before 4pm or after 9pm my time. This also means that all of my east coast friends, Mr. Fabulous, Avitable, Karl, Miss Britt, Turnbaby, Geeky Tai-Tai, Shiny, (and more, I’m sure I’m forgetting some people) aren’t able to participate on my show.
When I inquired to BTR why I lost my time slot, the answer has varied between “content” and “too few listeners.” BTR refuses to give me an answer as to how many listeners a host must have to maintain a prime time slot. I know that I average 100+ listeners every week. My numbers are not far from fellow hosts, Fab and Turnbaby. My content is certainly not any more “adult” or “questionable” than Hilly or Fab’s shows.
I’m beginning to think (and I truly hate to be that guy who plays this card) that there is an element of homophobia in my treatment.
Since the adult rating, my show has never appeared on the home page as being “on-air.” Many people have been unable to find my show even when hitting my direct profile page. They are met with a “No Shows Scheduled” page, even when I am ON AIR.
Outside of those issues, the audio frequently cuts in and out. Callers are frequently kicked off. The switchboard frequently freezes.
This past week, the chat room refused to open.
To add insult to injury, there is a handy little “live help” button on the switchboard for hosts. I pressed the Live Help button and was met with the following message:
“Blog Talk Radio Live Help is available from 7pm - 11pm EST.”
Does anyone else see the problem? I’m barred from hosting my show during those “prime time” hours, and the help is only available during that period of time.
What. The. Fuck?
Look, I understand that BTR is a free service. Believe me, I get it… HOWEVER… THEY get a revenue stream from advertisers that is based on content generated by the users, and that includes me.
There is a veritable graveyard full of past internet ventures who launched with much fanfare only to fuck over their users and fail to adapt to technological changes. When was the last time any of YOU used Friendster?
So, that being said, The Jester Show is moving on a trial basis to BTR’s competitor, TalkShoe. My first guest at the new host is Karl!
The call-in number if you wish to participate in the discussion (I can have up to 100 callers on line at once!):
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 20116
You will be able to listen to the show streaming live by visiting the show page, but unless you create a profile you will be unable to chat.
When you create a profile, you will want to download the TalkShoe application. One of the very cool features of this application is that not only will you have an all in one streamer/chat client, you will also get to see a notification of who is speaking. That should help all of you who have trouble distinguishing all of us with gay accents from each other.
Because Karl has already promoted the show at 9pm PDT, that’s when the show will be. I don’t believe there are any “Prime Time” restrictions that prevent me from scheduling shows at a decent hour for everyone in the future.
Any questions you may have about the process or how TalkShoe works can be answered by visiting the TalkShoe Frequently Asked Questions Page.
I don’t have all the subscription and iTunes links figured out yet, but hopefully shortly after the show I will get that information.
I hope you all decide to help me try out this service and that you will consider using me as your referral source when creating your profiles!
