Although I haven’t posted here in a while, I’m still actively working on the site and this brand spanking new theme is proof.

Have a look around. If you feel like it, tell me of anything you spot that looks wrong either in the comments, or just by tweeting it to me on Twitter @Yorrike . If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, try using the “tweet this” link below and watch in delight as any tweets regarding this post will appear in the “tweetbacks” section of this post.

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you can wait a few days until I get around to fixing any display bugs you’ll no doubt be seeing (even though it’s all perfectly valid XHTML and CSS, which is displayed properly in Safari, Firefox and Opera).

Hello everyone.

Sorry for the long hiatus here on goodSchist and on the podClast, I’ve been traveling to various places in Europe for the past month and I’m about to head out on the second leg of my long trip home later this morning with a flight to San Francisco.

This will, of course, bring about the long talked about San Francisco GeoBloggers in the Pub event that I’ve hinted at to various people over the last few months.

So, if you’d like to come along, have a few beers or drinks of various other types with geologists and geobloggers, and participate with a live recording of the podClast, here are the details you’ll need:

Date: Saturday the 25th of July
Time: from 1400 (2pm) onwards (podClasting from about 1500 I reckon)
Place: The 21st Amendment Brewery, 563 2nd St, San Francisco (Google Map)

If you’re intending on joining us for the podClast recording and you have an iPhone, it’d be really handy if you loaded a copy of the Griffin iTalk app (website here). It’s free and means we can have a few recordings going on at once for prosperity/volume levels. Also, if people could suggest topics for discussion in the comments section below, that’d be great too (although a free flowing discussion will no doubt ensue).

Hopefully see a reasonable group of you there.

On the first weekend of May I’ll be stomping around the mighty city of London and in between catching up with the 7 million kiwis who live there, I’d like to initiate the first Geobloggers in the Pub (calling it “Geologists in the Pub” would have set off my redundancy meter – but either will do). Before announcing official times and a location, I’d like to just get a show of hands from geologists or geo-interested persons who’d be willing to sit around a table in the mid afternoon in a pub in central-ish London on Saturday, May the 2nd.

Since it’ll be a podclasting weekend, I’m intending on doing a recording with whoevers there too, getting opinions on whatever geonews is around for 20-40 minutes. That’ll make it the first “live” podclast.

So, who’s up for drinks and some light conversation?

The former issue above is the reason for there having not been a podclast in the last couple of weeks. Ron and I tried to record last week, but Skype refused to cooperate. This week I tried again, but everyone who normally joins was busy. That meant procrastinating (by writing bit of my thesis) and therefore, no podClast.

I’m going to try really hard to record something before I leave, but failing that, you’re going to have to wait another month before the next podClast is up. I’m sorry about that, but the situation causing this disruption is rather unique.

On the up side, I’ve thought ahead and I have at least one interview lined up in the UK (the first podclast interview, quite momentous), so the podclast isn’t dying, that’s for sure.

I’ve made the changes so I can make quick, short posts like you’re supposed to be able to do with blogs anyway. This way if I see something cool, or note-worthy, and I don’t want to spend an hour writing about it, I can just let my small readership know and move on.

I’ll still be writing my normal long articles and the podClat posts will be just as detailed as you’re used to. I’ve still got some things to work on , but the main functionality of being able to make short entires, like this one, was my primary objective.

Technical and Time Details
My intended time for recording at the moment is 2300 GMT on the 12th of April (work out your own timezone from there). Since this is first episode, I’d prefer to keep it short at around 30 minutes.

I intend to use Skype so everyone can talk to each other. If you haven’t got a Skype account, download Skype from the previous link, run through the setup, and make sure you have headphones and a microphone hooked up to your computer. External or USB microphones are preferred (especially on laptops), since you can get a lot of fan noise with internal microphones. USB-powered microphones or headsets are also a good idea, as microphones often need amplification in order to get good sound quality.

If you want to be part of the panel
Comment below before the 9th and I’ll email you the details you’ll need to join the conference call. I’d like to run a test recording a little before the real recording so it’d be good if you could be available to start at around 2230 GMT. We’ll hopefully be able to iron out any technical problems people maybe having with skype, and get to know one another a little beforehand. If you want to test out your Skype or microphone setup at any point between now and the beginning of the show (I’d recommend that), let me know (via comment or through chris [the "at" symbol] goodschist.com.

If you’d like to contribute and not be part of the panel
We’ll be discussing a few subjects of recent geology news and topics we can just have a chat about. Subjects like the recent activity on Kilauea will likely be discussed, but we need more than that, so throw some ideas out if you have any. If there’s subjects that are interesting but not timely, we’ll probably hit on them in future episodes.

…and that’s it. Comment below. I’m looking forward to this.

I’m interested in getting a geoblogosphere round-table podcast going (be it called the podclast or otherwise) and I’d like to know who else is keen. Ideally it’ll be once a fortnight or once a month (in a similar vein to The Accretionary Wedge). It’ll be fairly conversational and accessable to the general public, and it’ll feature 3-4 regular contributors.

If you’re interested in helping, contributing or just have some ideas, drop me a comment below (in order to avoid spam I have to approve all first-time commenters), or email me at chris [the regular sysmbol] goodschist.com. Let’s get this thing rolling.

What’s with the name?
Schist is a low grade metamorphic rock, often found in mountain orogenies such as the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Schist displays what is known as schistosity – where its constituant minerals are arranged along a single plain, allowing them to display a uniform cleavage and thus be pretty and shiny. The term “good shit” is one of approval or appreciation in my native New Zealand. Thus the combination of a rock type with a name that sounds similar to “shit” and a local colloquialism seemed appropriate. Besides, hotschist.com had already been taken.

What’s the point of this bull schist?
I’ve long posted items I considered interesting from a scientific point of view, usually those which fell within the broad category of “geology” on my personal blog yorrike.com. After reading an article by another geologist called Chris, I decided it was high time I separated my rock-worrying into its own realm and goodSchist was born. For close to a year before I started this blog, I’ve also had a plan to produce a geology pod cast of some kind, and the podClast finds a platform for launch from goodSchist. And no, the geology puns aren’t as prevalent here as you may think.