Feed Back Up

Just a heads up; the Minions feed is back up.  

Repeat; the Minions feed is back up.

Previously unpublished, back-logged episodes due soon.

Under Construction

Just a reminder, the server is down.  We're looking into getting a new drive enclosure, and the feed is temporarily offline.

We've got a crack team of analysts, therapists, and even some hybrid analrapists working 'round the clock to fix it.  In addition we have construction crews, catering, English Civil War re-enactors, and a full-time masseuse to help with all the stress induced tension.

Thanks for being patient.  This guy says, "Hey, no problem chief!"

Technical Delays, Not the End of the World (or the Podcast)

Duck Sauce: "FYI.  Not sure the problem yet, won't be able to work on it until tomorrow night."

A little later.

Duck Sauce: "FWIW, it doesn't look terminal.  The drive enclosure went down, so I will have to buy a new one.  It will take a few days to get back up."

Even later.

Duck Sauce: "Yeah the podcast feed is gone until the server is back up.  I had just put together the next episode and was uploading it when I realized the server had crashed."

Then.

Duck Sauce: "You may want to post on minions site."

So what can we take away from this?  Well, it looks like we were AWOL for the summer. Now with the feed gone it looks likes we're gone from the Earth.  These are just LOOKS people!  As you can see from our closet of wires, this is a sensitive tech operation, the slightest out-of-phase variance and the whole enchilada shuts down.

Recap:

No, we're not AWOL, on the contrary we've been recording more than ever.

No, the podcast isn't gone, it's just having server problems now.  The upside is when it gets back up it will be faster and better than ever.  And start cranking out a whole catalog of back issues.

The takeaway:

We're here, but having a little trouble.  Spread the word, tell your friends, post on your blogs, talk about it on your own podcasts...the Minions are forever.  Seriously, spread the word.

We'll see you soon.

Minions MIA?

Yeah, it's been dormant...dead...a ghost town!  That's why Pavel here looks so unsure of himself.  Rest assured, the Minions themselves have NOT been dormant.  We've got, like, a lot of finished episodes in the can and just waiting to be delivered to you.  We've got some Pathfinder all-Elf stuff, a new Superhero game using a new ruleset (ICONS), a bunch of Around the Horn, and you know, other stuff.  In all seriousness, as of this writing, we've got at least half a dozen episodes that are as yet unreleased.  So stay tuned, go back and listen to some older episodes (surely you haven't heard them all, right?) or relisten to some of your favorite moments.  Winter's coming, and so are more Minions.

Technical Difficulties: It's All Part of the Show

That is a HUGE spider!

Often we have joked about how here at Minions Headquarters it's not the polished, professional product most other "good" podcasts strive for.  We're down and dirty, record fast and loose, and in the end we hop there's a bit of a niche out there for putting you at the game table on your random game night, hanging out with your buddies, having a drink, and rolling some dice...all vicariously through the podcast itself.

Even with the admitted lack of professionalism, there's even standards that aren't good enough for us.  You see, we though that the "four channel" mode on the recorder was a good idea.  We figured, four channels has to be better than two channels, right?

Wrong.  When the Zoom H2 recorder is in four channel mode it automatically converts sound files to .WAV type files, recording MP3s (like we have always done) is impossible.  .WAV files are limited to a maximum of about three and a half hours after which it stops recording and technically starts a brand new file to pick up where the old one left off with "several tens of seconds of lost audio".  We are fairly certain that the last half dozen or so podcast episodes suffered from this problem causing some very severe "cliffhanger" moments in the actual play. 

The bad news is that almost all of these recent episodes are cut off at the end, losing up to thirty to forty-five minutes each.  One episode isn't cut off but that was because it was a short episode anyway.  The good news is that we figured this problem out before it got too out of hand and starting with episode #67, we should be back on track. 

I suppose there is a ghost of a chance that there are some "tail end" clips on the device we didn't think to look for where it rolled over, but we may have to just bite the bullet and count our losses.  So, whereas we may indeed play fast and loose, we still try to at least keep the technical side of things in the clear.  Sorry for the cliffhangers friends, we're now good to go!

Heavy Metal Action

Above's an "action" shot of episode 32's game, the Fiasco Heavy Metal edition. It gives you a sense of the high-tech recording techniques we use and what's going down in the center of the table we all sit around.

Rock on.

Feed Issues Fixed?

I've put a temporary fix in place, and will be working on something more permanent. If you've had a hard time getting the latest episodes, give it a try again.

Minions Banner Button

How about a little MotMM goodness to garnish the side of the platter that is your own blog? With the directions below, you'll be able to add a banner button such as above to wherever you see fit. Never mind the fact that it spreads the word, it just plain looks cool!

Here you go:

1. Right-click and save the above image
   
2. On your blog's Dashboard go to "Layout"
3. Click on "Add Gadget"
4. Choose "Picture"
5. Add the saved image from above
6. Add the following information as the link:
7. http://minionsofthemonstermaster.blogspot.com/

And voila, that's all it takes. The width of the image is 175pixels, but you can always edit this number in the HTML code if you like to make it larger or smaller. These are written for Blogger blogs of course, but they should be able to be modified to work with pretty much whatever blog service you fancy. As always, we thank you the readers for your support!

Feed Down

If you happen to notice that the podcast feed is having problems, that's because the server it is on is actually having some issues. Hopefully, this will be corrected in the next few days.

Ed: It's back now.