30 Things I like about my wife [Amreitha 1/30]

Every March I do a 30 day challenge. This year, right before our 10 year anniversary, I’m going to write 30 things I like about my wife Amreitha. When we first began dating, I wrote her 7 letters about why I wanted to date her, and now’s a great time to update that list. I’m usually not sappy or prone to compliments, so this also a challenge for me to work on my encouragement skills.

1. I like/love that Amreitha loves God

The first time I saw Amreitha was in a church service worshipping God. She used to come to church services late and leave early. In order to ask her to grab a meal with some friends for the first time, I had to interrupt her during a worship song because I knew she’d leave before the service ended. She’s always been a worshiper. She’s been consistent in placing God as her first first love. I’ve always been attracted to that. In fact, there have been a few times in my life where I’ve wanted to distance myself from God, and she anchored me. To be honest, I don’t know if I’d be a pastor (at the most) or even following Jesus right now if it weren’t the encouragement of Amreitha—I like the way her love of God has challenged me to continue walking with God eternally.

Intro [PODCAST 30/30]

Using a bunch of royalty free stock footage and music + a fiverr voice over artist, I created an intro for my podcast. The emphasis is definitely on audio, but I wanted to create a retro future vibe for the youtube vodcast intro as well.

Each month, I’ll splice in footage and audio from my guests as a teaser before the full episode. So, the intro will be kind of a “living” intro and not static.

The Title [PODCAST 29/30]

“Deep Learning” is what I decided to call the podcast!

My name is Pradeepan, and I wanted to use a pun (Deep).

I like learning, and Deep Learning is a style of learning computers do (like machine learning), so it’s fitting with my subject matter.

With AI, Crypto, and theology, I wanted to run with a retro-future look for the podcast (as you can see in the graphic below).

2nd Video Test [PODCAST 28/30]

I downloaded a hacked patch to give my D7000 a clean HDMI output. Then, I linked an ipad to computer to make a zoom call. I connected the ipad to a teleprompter so that I could make eye contact with my guest while looking at the camera. As you can see in the video, it worked!
In the video, Becca is using my camera and microphone and looking directly in the camera while being able to watch my face!

Video Test [PODCAST 24-27]

I setup my Shure MV7 and my Nikon D7000 to my computer for a zoom call!

Nikon does not provide a utility for the d7000 to be used as a webcam so I bought a $13 dollar capture card and it seems to be working well. As you can see, I don’t have a clean hdmi output (you can see all my camera settings), so I’m going to hack a firmware patch (1.03) to clean it up!

I see a lot of vodcasters not look directly at the camera when talking to guests, but that seems really strange. I’m still wondering if I should look directly at the camera or have it capture my profile. I still have some major work to do, but I have a lot of big biggest issues figured out!

Mic Test [PODCAST 18-23]

I got my microphone! Here’s my first recording test!

It’s all coming together. I’m still working a lot of things out, but I’m pretty confident about the audio portion.

For my video setup, because I want to keep eye contact with my guests, I’m planning on using zoom via a teleprompter. That way I don’t have to choose between looking at my guest or looking at the camera. So I’ll setup the microphone to my computer, link an ipad to use as a mirrored screen (that’s hooked up to the teleprompter) and use zoom on that.

I have some old dslr cameras. I’m going to try to figure out to interface those with my computer for zooming capabilities.