Tag: advise

“Let’s Make a Podcast”: the New “Let’s Start a Band”

In the decades before, particularly in the 1970s through the 1990s, the common movie phrase among young rebellious teenagers is “Let’s start a band.” This phrase even made appearances into the early-to-mid 2000s, when teenagers wanted to become famous and popular, fast. It was inspired by regular young teen’s desires to become famous their own way, but in the case of the movies they were always successful.

But now no one uses that phrase anymore. Now the new in thing is the say “Let’s start a podcast.”

Why a podcast? Beats me. Maybe it’s the idea of people just sitting, relaxing, and talking about a random subject for an hour while making a profit. Maybe, people think it might be an easier and more sociable way of gaining media influence than Youtube. Or perhaps it’s just a creative outlet that some people want to take. Whatever the appeal is, podcasting is attracting a lot of people.

Podcasts are appearing all over the place, on many platforms. Spotify even has a special category just for popular playlists, something that I hadn’t seen two years before. What once was a more niche source of entertainment is now extremely popular. I’ve even been recommended a nice podcast to listen to while driving five hours home. I haven’t tried it yet, but the fact that I was recommended it says something.

No one wants to be in a band anymore (except for the more hipster bands). Most mainstream artists these days are solo, with the occasional band in between. Wanting to start a band has seriously dropped in popularity, especially among the young kids who now dream of becoming Youtubers. Starting a podcast seems much more achievable and appealing. You can talk about seemingly any topic in the world, making itself an auditory form of blogging. I’ve heard podcasts about different serial killers, new movies, or just funny story times and games. They can be quite soothing. There’s a a larger band of creative freedom when it comes to podcasts, although there can be quite a bit of freedom with starting a band in this day and age as well.

There’s nothing wrong with starting a podcast. You certainly don’t need to know how to play an instrument to start one (although showing off your skills on it might be entertaining). But that isn’t to say you can just start out of the blue. It’s recommended that you have at least some tech experience editing audio and video, and dealing with sound recording. Not to say that you need to be an expert, but being a total newbie to it can make it quite confusing.

Planning a Trip to Disneyland

Disneyland in Anaheim is a park that receives millions of visitors in a year. It’s the first one ever opened, and is most known for the fact. It is also known to have a major overcrowding problem, pushing ticket prices up seemingly every year. It’s an issue that especially affects socal locals, who not only need to plan around the traffic, but also be ready to drop a minimum of $200 a person. Which often pushes them away (unless you’re one of the ones who buys an annual pass and goes every weekend). But, if you are willing to splurge once a year or every other year, here’s a few habits my friends and I picked up trying to make the most out of our visits.

The first habit we picked up was going during “off seasons”. An “off season” are the seasons where tourist traffic is lower than average (late summer/early fall to december, january to april). You might think “but LA always has tourists.” That’s why I said lower than average traffic. The months are important, because they center around when people need to go back to school, and when they go one winter break. Going during an “off season” can make all the difference in wait times, which can be cut by as much as half. Choosing a weekday is also important, as it guarantees people will be in school (which helps if you have vacation during the quarter system, which is different from everyone else).

The second is to be very picky of where we get our food. Disneyland food is especially pricey, and you have to know where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck. If you get a park hopper pass, I would just recommend that you go to California Adventure, where the food tends to be cheaper. But if you’re stuck in just Disneyland, go to Downtown Disney (you can always come back into the park). But the food in the New Orleans area of Disneyland isn’t bad.

The third habit we picked up was fast passing the biggest rides. You can only take out one fast pass at a time, but its worth getting them for Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain. Those tend to be the rides within Disneyland park that have the longest waits (although Matterhorn can be up to 110 minute wait, as well). In California Adventure, getting a fast pass for Cars Ride, and Guardians of the Galaxy are the ones you need to get. While getting the fast pass for the ride is helpful, if the lines are short enough, it may just be more worth it just to wait in the line.

The last important habit I can say is try to stay all day. You have the make the most out of your trip, especially if it was a hassle getting there in the first place, and staying all day and trying to see as much as you can is the least you can do. The crowds can be a bit tedious, however, and if it threatens to chase you away, that’s okay. Just stay out of the fantasyland area and you avoid most of the people with strollers.

A Trip to Universal Studios: What to Expect

With summer here, hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe will be travelling to Los Angeles to see the world famous attractions. One of these attractions, is of course, Universal Studios.

What can you expect if you want to go here? Well, from experience (although I haven’t been since a year before Hogwarts opened), here’s a few tips that’ll prepare you for what usually happens when you visit the park.

First step: buying tickets. No matter what, you will want to buy your tickets online. They can range anywhere from $109-124 during the summer (during off seasons, they’re much cheaper). The price ranges on what day of the month you decide to go. Earlier in the month tends to be cheaper. If you decide to buy the tickets at the door, they will be the most expensive.

Second: Be ready for crowds. Universal Studios not only attracts locals, but tourists from all over the world. Don’t be surprised to find that the biggest rides will have the longest waits (yes, this includes the studio tours). Also, there will be people everywhere, despite the streets being built for large crowds. Make sure to keep track of your party at all times.

Third: It’s probably best not to buy food in the park. Think of it like any theme park food- overpriced, and not that great. It’s better just to go to City Walk and return to the park. It may not be cheaper, but it is certainly better tasting. However, if you don’t want to deal with the trouble of getting out and back in to the park, then staying in the park will be fine. The food won’t kill you.

Fourth: Bring water and find ways to stay hydrated. Los Angeles is a semi-desert, and gets insanely hot during the summer (the average in the 90s), and it’s important to drink plenty of water while you’re in the park. Also bring sunscreen. You don’t want to get sunburnt by walking to get on a ride.

Fifth: And lastly, don’t forget to enjoy the whole park. There are multiple levels to it, and a great view of Warner Brothers studios. It is a fun park, and although the lines can get long, the day wouldn’t be worth it if you skipped half the lines. Also, it’s not recommended that you bring infant kids. They wouldn’t really enjoy most rides, and dealing with a crying kid in the heat is less than enjoyable. Have Fun!