For some reason I ended up on a plethora of podcasts this week! Here’s the rundown for your listening and viewing enjoyment:

Sunday: This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte, Steve Gillmore, John C. Dvorak and Patrick Norton. We talked about all sorts of news, including SXSW (and Twitter, natch) as well as some unfounded rumors involving Revision3. Which leads us to…

Tuesday: Tekzilla! I love guest hosting this show, mostly because it means I get to hang out with Patrick and Roger all afternoon.

Thursday: The Instance Episode #100! I was honored and delighted to be on the 100th episode of my favorite podcast. Scott and Randy had folks on air that have made appearances or recorded special pieces for the show over the last 100 episodes, so it was like a big homecoming.

Friday: I went down to CNET for an in-studio recording of Buzz Out Loud. It was nice to be back in the BOL chair, even if I let Tom run the production side of things (it’s been a while, I’d probably break it). They live stream on ustream.tv now too, so I was able to record it. Not too exciting to watch us talk, I bet, but you get to see me chug some coffee.

And on Monday and Wednesday I recorded upcoming episodes of Mahalo Daily, so it was quite a full week.

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Looking for a reason to drag out your old copy of The Matrix or Raiders of the Lost Ark? OK, bad examples, you don’t really need a reason for those. How about Batman and Robin or Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith? These movies can actually be tolerable with the help of Rifftrax, possibly the greatest thing to happen to home movie viewing since Netflix. Created by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, they continue the tried and true formula of commenting (hilariously) as a film plays. If you’re not familiar with the format, think of it as having your three most sarcastic and absurd friends sitting in your living room with you, with a constant running commentary. Yes, it could be annoying if you’ve never seen the film, but Rifftrax tends to hit the most popular blockbusters that you’ve likely seen 50 times.

I’ve seen MST3K in the past, and Ryan is a huge fan (and by “fan” I mean he was an actual fan club member…), but it was our friend Dan that introduced us to Rifftrax a few months ago. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard more about it, considering how neatly it fits into two major areas of interest for me: geeky movies and downloadable content. Getting your Rifftrax is easy enough: you pick a movie, download the Rifftrax audio file, and then follow the syncing instructions. Throughout the film, DisembAudio (the robotic voice behind their “Perfect Synch Technology”) will read a line of dialog at the moment it should be said on the film, so you can pause for a second if you’re out of sync. Beware — the syncing process can lead to arguments amongst video watchers: “No, just pause the film for a second!” “No way, it’s the Rifftrax that’s off, pause that!” “Oh great, now it’s totally screwed up…” and so forth. Luckily, they have their own RiffTrax Player that will do all the work for you, if you’re watching the DVD on a PC (dammit).

I’ve seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, 300, and The Matrix so far, and 300 was definitely my favorite. There are over 50 titles available and they cost between $1.99-3.99, and it’s absolutely worth the money to breathe new life into some of these films.

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I referenced that I flew a plane a few weeks ago, and here’s the final product: “How to Get Your Private Pilot’s Certificate.” I was absolutely terrified to do this shoot, because I do have a history of having a fear of heights (which I guess is better now, considering I did this and go rock climbing with some regularity). Flying a plane is something I’d never even thought to try, but now I would love to do it again sometime. We flew the Cessna over Santa Monica and Venice, and it was absolutely beautiful. I did have a moment of “Oh crap” when he wanted me to start some major turns, but we got through them eventually!

See? Now if I’m ever on your flight and the pilot goes unconscious, I can probably rescue everyone! Uhh… maybe not.

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I received a beta invite to Bitstrips today, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to break into the web comic world. I’m kidding, of course (we’ll leave that to the people who actually have talent, like Scott) but this new social network and comic drawing site is a lot of fun to play around with. You can create characters (the customization is really good) and save and share your strips for other users. I don’t actually have any friends on there yet, but it seems as though people can also edit your comic (instant collaboration!).

I wish there were more ways to embed the comic, but maybe I just haven’t found that option yet. I’d like to be able to show all three panels at once instead of scrolling through panes. You can save a jpeg version of it, and then post that image, but that’s kind of a workaround. The site is in private beta right now, but they’ll be going live during SXSW (and also “comic blogging” the event, which should be hilarious).

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