Podcasts

I've not been following the news very closely since arriving in Toyohashi in August. Of course I have a general idea, but I didn't read the papers or watch TV regularly, until I got sick of being so ignorant, and started downloading podcasts for BBC, NHK, and CBC, and some other media a few weeks ago. I've been downloading CNN too, but there's a lot more information and there are more perspectives in BBC news, and I've always been a fan anyway. CBC of course keeps me updated on what's going on in Canada, and NHK—on what's going on Japan. I feel so much better now that I've started downloading and listening to those. I commute almost every day, and at work I spend time on a number of tasks that don't require intense thinking, like organizing materials before the lesson, so I actually have a lot of time to listen to podcasts.

It's amazing, I've been discovering just exactly how much time I have in a day.
I remember Dr. Peterson's lecture on conscientiousness, he talked a lot about what the difference is between people who get to the top in their field, like lawyers, politicians, scientists. I remember taking from these lectures that the main difference between these people and regular people is that the ones that reach the top work hard, all the time. Sure, this is trivial, but really, if you think about it, how much of your day do we waste? How much of our day when we could have worked we actually wasted on procrastinating, or not multi-tasking?

So I figured, if I am too tired in the evenings or too sleepy in the mornings to read the papers, then why not use the time while I am making breakfast, or cleaning my house, riding the train home, on listening to the news and other programs? Before I'd listen to the music instead or do nothing. And it really has been working out wonderfully. I have learned many interesting things in just a few weeks.

Really, the money I spent on the iPhone were the best money I've ever spent in my life. I think I've been able to learn so many new interesting things because I have my phone with me, with the dictionary, internet, maps and GPS, podcasts, and other great programs.