WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:04.890 Uh, we're just getting ready to record here. Let's get everything going. 00:00:05.770 --> 00:00:07.450 Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. 00:00:08.730 --> 00:00:13.230 Dog barking in the background, for those of you who can hear it. Okay. 00:00:15.030 --> 00:00:18.050 Let's just do this intro part. Here we go. 00:00:18.050 --> 00:00:41.650 Transcription by ESO. 00:00:41.650 --> 00:00:44.590 Translation by — Welcome to Curmudgeons Corner for Saturday, 00:00:45.070 --> 00:00:52.270 March 21st, 2026. It's just before 1930 UTC as I'm starting to record. 00:00:52.370 --> 00:00:57.650 I am Sam Minter, and we have no Yvonne with us again this week. 00:00:58.270 --> 00:01:04.170 And this time around, it's his son's spring break, and they're visiting Yvonne's brother in Texas. 00:01:04.990 --> 00:01:08.950 And I am happy to report, as I'm sure Yvonne would if he is here, 00:01:09.470 --> 00:01:12.270 his son Manu actually got on the plane to go. 00:01:12.410 --> 00:01:16.450 There'd been an issue a number of months ago, as some of our listeners may remember, 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:20.570 where Yvonne was going to come out to Seattle and we were going to do a curmudgeons corner meetup. 00:01:21.270 --> 00:01:26.010 And then Manu wouldn't get on the plane. So it didn't happen. 00:01:27.070 --> 00:01:30.230 But yeah, he got on the plane. He traveled. All good. They're having their vacation. 00:01:30.430 --> 00:01:36.130 But that means I'm here and I put out the email saying, hey, 00:01:36.430 --> 00:01:38.870 anybody want to be a co-host? Blah, blah, blah. 00:01:39.270 --> 00:01:43.930 As usual, leaving out the last couple of people who've done it so we don't get 00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:46.890 repeats all the time. And I got no response. 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:53.550 Well, after I mentioned something in person, my wife said maybe she could do 00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:55.410 something with me. So we'll see. Maybe. 00:01:55.670 --> 00:02:03.030 But I am doing the thing I usually do when I'm doing solo shows, which is it is Saturday. 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:09.530 I am starting the recording to get this in the right Sunday through Saturday 00:02:09.530 --> 00:02:14.490 week that we have not missed a week forever. And this will not be it either. 00:02:15.050 --> 00:02:18.830 It's because I'm starting on Saturday, darn it, UTC. 00:02:19.810 --> 00:02:24.350 And then I'll go off and do other things for a while. We're going to the Apple 00:02:24.350 --> 00:02:26.190 store in just a few minutes. 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:31.430 My son cracked the screen on his iPhone, and we're going to get it taken care of under Apple Care. 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:35.730 And I'm picking up something else at the Apple store while I'm there. 00:02:36.070 --> 00:02:39.070 Not a big thing. I'm not buying a laptop or anything. 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:44.410 I'm just, yes, something to pick up. Okay, fine. It's a second Apple TV. 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:51.070 Because, you know, we now have a second device in the house that we can use. 00:02:51.170 --> 00:02:56.430 Like we, we, my projector that I have in the living room died finally. 00:02:56.430 --> 00:03:03.570 Like it had been having issues for a while, you know, like it wouldn't come on unless you hit it. 00:03:03.650 --> 00:03:06.490 So we'd like get up on a stool and hit it. 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:10.670 It was on the ceiling and, you know, sometimes it would start up fine. 00:03:11.170 --> 00:03:14.530 Sometimes you'd have to hit it a little bit. and, like, jostle it. 00:03:14.630 --> 00:03:17.810 And then once you've jostled it, of course, it's not lined up properly on the 00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:19.230 screen, so you'd have to readjust it. 00:03:20.010 --> 00:03:25.990 And the bulb... We had replaced the bulb once because it had told us, you know, it was... 00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:31.000 Running, you know, the bulb had had however many hours on it and they recommend replacement. 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:36.260 But the problem is the projector was old enough that there was no, 00:03:36.540 --> 00:03:39.880 you couldn't get the OEM bulbs anymore. 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:45.120 They didn't make them anymore. Like the, the, the original company. 00:03:46.380 --> 00:03:49.280 That we got the projector from had moved 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:52.340 on to newer and better projectors and you couldn't get replacement 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:55.220 bulbs for this one anyway anymore you could 00:03:55.220 --> 00:03:58.680 get them online from other 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:02.900 people no name brands and like 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:05.780 but some of them when you 00:04:05.780 --> 00:04:08.980 went to look for them some of them were even like used you have 00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:12.040 to look carefully to get a new one but we did 00:04:12.040 --> 00:04:14.980 we had done that you know we generally in 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:18.420 the past like we'd gotten a no-name brand a 00:04:18.420 --> 00:04:21.240 few bulbs ago and it didn't work 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.720 very well and so we did switch to an oem one 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:27.440 because we could still find them at that point they were just 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:34.160 like twice the price or something so the the the no-name brand the bulb had 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:39.360 problems immediately didn't work what whatever or maybe it worked but it it 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:44.840 it like blew out like very quickly like in a few months or so. I forget. 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:50.860 But then we ordered another no-name brand because it was at this point the only 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:51.840 thing that was available. 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:55.520 And I remember this last time, it caused problems immediately. 00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:59.420 So much so that we took out the new Bulb. 00:05:00.050 --> 00:05:03.890 And put the old one back in because the old one hadn't burnt out it was just 00:05:03.890 --> 00:05:07.830 at the point where the projector was telling us this bulb is old you need to 00:05:07.830 --> 00:05:10.190 replace it and we put it back in, 00:05:10.770 --> 00:05:15.450 and it lasted like another year and a half after that with the caveat that you 00:05:15.450 --> 00:05:19.810 sometimes had to hit the projector anyway we decided a long time ago that when 00:05:19.810 --> 00:05:26.770 it finally died it was time to replace the projector so we we did when it was 00:05:26.770 --> 00:05:29.150 finally dead we did order a new projector. 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:33.030 And but it was going to take a couple days for the 00:05:33.030 --> 00:05:36.330 new projector to arrive and i you 00:05:36.330 --> 00:05:40.990 know the it was going to take even longer if i'd ordered it from my former employer 00:05:40.990 --> 00:05:47.670 amazon it was going to be a couple weeks but we found uh you know bnh photo 00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:53.350 back in new york you remember like i remember the days where I got their catalogs 00:05:53.350 --> 00:05:54.970 and I ordered stuff from them before. 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:59.530 And, you know, they've got a big physical store in New York and a big mail order business. 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:06.010 And, you know, free, you know, just buy everything online from Amazon. That's, 00:06:07.260 --> 00:06:10.320 That's, you know, it was one of the places you went to for electronics. 00:06:11.200 --> 00:06:15.740 But anyway, it was going to take a couple days. We did not want to go a couple 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:17.080 days without television. 00:06:17.280 --> 00:06:22.260 We did not want to just watch it on our laptops or this was just me and Alex. 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:23.520 Brandy was still in Olympia. 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:31.480 We did not want to just, you know, watch on either a laptop or an iPad or my 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:34.460 computer monitors in my office. 00:06:34.460 --> 00:06:38.860 I mean, you know, I've got 27-inch monitors, but 27 inches is still, 00:06:39.020 --> 00:06:44.400 you know, relatively small compared to, like, a big, like, 120-inch projector 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:48.120 or however big this thing is. It's even bigger, 200? 00:06:48.380 --> 00:06:51.820 I don't know. It's an entire wall, okay? It's an entire wall. 00:06:53.480 --> 00:07:00.020 But anyway, so we went out to our local store. We have Fred Myers out here in 00:07:00.020 --> 00:07:04.400 Seattle and just picked up one of the really cheap TVs. 00:07:04.700 --> 00:07:11.720 We picked up a $200 TV, which was still like, you know, big compared to the old days. 00:07:11.820 --> 00:07:16.320 I remember, you know, having 20-inch TVs and thinking that was like a big thing 00:07:16.320 --> 00:07:19.220 when I was, you know, however old. 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:24.440 Anyway, it's not like a big 70-inch screen or anything like that, 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:29.060 but it's a decent size. It's bigger than the 27 inches. I forget exactly. 50 something? 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:34.620 50 something? Anyway, it was a cheap Samsung. It was the cheapest Samsung. 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:40.800 And we got it and we set it up. And so we used that in our living room for a few days. But now... 00:07:41.350 --> 00:07:45.430 We got the new projector. It's all set up. It's like it was an upgrade. 00:07:45.590 --> 00:07:49.250 It's a it's a laser projector instead of having a bulb. 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:53.910 So it's not going to burn out the same way. So no no bulb replacements every 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:56.730 3000 hours of watching or whatever it's supposed to be. 00:07:57.610 --> 00:08:03.890 And it's it's 4k instead of, you know, old fashioned HD, which which frankly, 00:08:04.190 --> 00:08:09.490 for most things, didn't make a big difference to us. 00:08:09.490 --> 00:08:14.310 But having the new one in place, I can definitely tell the difference on some things. 00:08:14.490 --> 00:08:20.890 Like on lots of streaming stuff, the compression artifacts are bigger than the 00:08:20.890 --> 00:08:22.510 resolution difference anyway. 00:08:22.790 --> 00:08:27.470 It depends what you're streaming, right? Because they vary the bitrate quite 00:08:27.470 --> 00:08:32.290 a bit depending on which service you're using and what the content is and blah, 00:08:32.370 --> 00:08:33.350 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:08:33.710 --> 00:08:37.130 But anyway, it's definitely noticeably better. 00:08:37.610 --> 00:08:42.230 I won't deny it's noticeably better. It is absolutely noticeably better. 00:08:42.390 --> 00:08:45.210 It's just like how much better depends on what you're watching. 00:08:45.370 --> 00:08:48.910 I mean, like, you know, Alex and I, amongst other things, you know, 00:08:49.030 --> 00:08:54.990 we're watching, you know, old Doctor Who episodes from the 70s and we're watching 00:08:54.990 --> 00:09:00.510 an animated cartoon from like the, I think it was the late 90s, 00:09:00.930 --> 00:09:02.630 maybe, no, early 2000s. 00:09:02.630 --> 00:09:07.170 Anyway, these things were not HD to begin with, let alone 4K. 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:12.070 So, you know, and obviously there's some up-resing that happens, 00:09:12.230 --> 00:09:16.370 but, you know, it is a limit to how much better you can make things if the source 00:09:16.370 --> 00:09:18.210 material wasn't great to begin with, right? 00:09:19.110 --> 00:09:23.510 But a lot of things, yeah, you can tell the difference. And it's brighter, 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:28.630 has better colors, you know, all this kind of stuff. So a good upgrade. 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:32.010 But anyway, the point is, get back to the beginning of this story. 00:09:33.660 --> 00:09:38.680 Now we've got an extra TV, so we're going to put it in one of our rooms upstairs. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:41.020 But now it needs an Apple TV hooked up to it. 00:09:41.640 --> 00:09:48.020 Because, of course, there's no way in hell I'm allowing this TV to get on the 00:09:48.020 --> 00:09:50.900 Internet to use its own built-in smart TV features. 00:09:51.380 --> 00:09:55.840 We had to figure out when setting it up, like, the right way to bypass all that crap. 00:09:56.560 --> 00:09:59.320 Like like smart tvs have a 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.200 really bad reputation for a the software being 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:05.120 really clunky and slow and bad but b 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:08.460 also they've turned them into surveillance machines that's one of the reasons 00:10:08.460 --> 00:10:14.680 that for 200 bucks you can get a decently sized tv these days is because they 00:10:14.680 --> 00:10:18.920 are all about tracking everything you watch and reporting it back and all kinds 00:10:18.920 --> 00:10:23.800 of crap and there's some of them like are inserting advertising. 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:24.880 Some of them are doing things. 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:30.560 And you, and you think like you, you would initially think, okay, look, okay. 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:34.460 I know if I'm watching a particular service, obviously that service knows what 00:10:34.460 --> 00:10:35.980 I'm watching. No, no, no. 00:10:36.740 --> 00:10:40.200 The, the, these smart TVs are smarter than that. They're like taking screenshots 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:44.620 of what you're watching every few seconds and sending them back to the mothership. 00:10:44.780 --> 00:10:48.160 So even if you plug like a Blu-ray player into the thing, 00:10:48.160 --> 00:10:51.160 it knows what you're watching you know 00:10:51.160 --> 00:10:54.040 and the exact amount of this 00:10:54.040 --> 00:10:56.760 varies by company some do it 00:10:56.760 --> 00:11:01.800 more some do it less i figured samsung was a nice established brand i know they 00:11:01.800 --> 00:11:05.540 do it too though you know i don't know so anyway but the point is i'm gonna 00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:10.420 hook an apple tv up to the thing so it can be used and so i'm getting a second 00:11:10.420 --> 00:11:15.760 apple tv and there's probably actually a really old Apple TV laying around somewhere. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:20.400 And there was an unused one that I gave to my mom and she's hooked up, 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:21.600 logged into all our accounts. 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:25.820 So I don't know. Anyway, we're going to the Apple store for those two things. 00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:34.060 And, you know, that that's the plan for day. Apparently there's some social thing that, 00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:40.210 My wife and I may attend in the evening as well. I've been talking to my wife 00:11:40.210 --> 00:11:42.870 and Alex. There are a couple movies I want to actually see in the theaters. 00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:46.910 I won't do two in this weekend, but maybe one this week, one next week. 00:11:47.070 --> 00:11:51.110 I don't know. There's stuff going on. So anyway, I'm starting this out. 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:57.830 And then, like I usually do when I do solo shows, I'll spread out the rest of 00:11:57.830 --> 00:12:02.350 the show throughout the rest of the weekend as I have a few minutes here, 00:12:02.470 --> 00:12:04.010 a few minutes there. We'll do it. 00:12:04.550 --> 00:12:07.550 I don't know. My wife may join me for some parts of it. She may not. 00:12:07.930 --> 00:12:10.850 Alex may join me for some parts of it. He may not. 00:12:11.430 --> 00:12:15.390 The dog may join us and bark for some parts of it. He may not. 00:12:16.510 --> 00:12:21.770 You never know. Anyway, though, we need to leave for the Apple store to be on 00:12:21.770 --> 00:12:22.590 time for our appointment. 00:12:22.970 --> 00:12:28.230 So I'm going to say goodbye. I owe you guys an Apple dream. I've been talking 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:29.330 about it for several weeks. 00:12:29.770 --> 00:12:35.830 I still have not made it ready. however through the magic of me doing this over 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:38.410 the course of the weekend i will make sure, 00:12:38.970 --> 00:12:44.850 that it is ready to go so does as soon as i say we're taking a break and i'll 00:12:44.850 --> 00:12:49.750 be right back after this you will hear the apple dream won't that be exciting 00:12:49.750 --> 00:12:56.450 well you'll know just a couple seconds because i'm taking that break here's the apple dream. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:01.180 I think this was a continuation of the last dream 00:13:01.180 --> 00:13:04.300 and i had successfully done something but 00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:07.280 i don't remember what it was that i'd successfully done 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:13.180 and people were congratulating me for successfully doing the thing and i was 00:13:13.180 --> 00:13:20.300 telling them something like yeah but no it doesn't really do that yet or something 00:13:20.300 --> 00:13:26.760 maybe i don't i'm not really sure bye well. 00:13:26.760 --> 00:13:30.460 That was one of the most exciting apple dreams ever wasn't 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:38.360 it i don't even know what to say anyway i'm back as expected i took a long time 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:43.660 did other stuff it's the next day it's sunday march 22nd a little bit after 00:13:43.660 --> 00:13:48.800 22 utc and i don't much time because we're going to a movie next. 00:13:50.020 --> 00:13:53.760 Yeah, Yvonne had like raved about Hoppers. So we're going to go see Hoppers 00:13:53.760 --> 00:13:56.240 with my wife, my son, and my mother. 00:13:56.800 --> 00:14:00.160 And I won't talk about it until I get to it in order. 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:05.780 Probably. Maybe I'll give just a thumbs up, thumbs down in the next segment. I don't know. 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:09.840 I also want to see Project Hail Mary. We'll probably see that next week. 00:14:10.520 --> 00:14:16.560 Anyway, I got a couple things. And look, I didn't do movies yet in that little 00:14:16.560 --> 00:14:20.640 mini segment a few seconds ago. So I am going to do a couple movies now. 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:29.500 And then maybe, I don't know. You know, I am not really feeling super news inspired this week. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.480 There are, of course, news things going on. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.680 Let's take a quick look. I'm looking at Google News real quick. 00:14:39.060 --> 00:14:42.480 We, of course, have more on Iran. 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:46.520 You know, Trump is threatening this. Iran is threatening that. 00:14:46.820 --> 00:14:51.720 They sent a missile aimed at Diego Garcia, which showed that their missiles 00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:54.160 have a longer range than people thought they did. 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:59.200 There's Trump saying he's going to send ICE agents to the airport. 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:06.000 There's you know cuba's had power issues and trump's been threatening cuba too, 00:15:07.020 --> 00:15:13.760 you know we got stuff we yeah i'm scrolling down the list and there's more there's 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:20.200 a meteorite near houston on top of the one near ohio that already happened and 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:23.700 yeah there's this stuff. 00:15:24.100 --> 00:15:27.180 We had people, you know, there were famous people who died. 00:15:28.280 --> 00:15:33.440 Chapel Roan is defending herself and saying she doesn't hate children after 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:39.960 some incident at some hotel somewhere where security did something. I don't know. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:44.460 We care about any of that. Anyway, a couple quick things. First, that are updates. 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:48.820 First, in the last segment, I said the cheap TV we got was like, 00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:50.160 I don't know, 50 inches or something. 00:15:50.260 --> 00:15:54.680 And I looked at the box because we still have the box. It's laying in our entryway, 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:55.800 waiting to be taken outside. 00:15:56.040 --> 00:16:02.420 It was 43 inches, which is by today's standards, a relatively small TV. 00:16:02.980 --> 00:16:06.660 By the standards of when I was growing up, 43 inches would have been a huge 00:16:06.660 --> 00:16:09.820 TV. But now it's like you can get smaller. 00:16:10.040 --> 00:16:14.140 Just to be clear, you can get smaller, but you have to look for them. 00:16:14.860 --> 00:16:19.220 You know, like if you go into the just the TV section of your store, 00:16:19.220 --> 00:16:22.220 Most are bigger than 43 inches. 00:16:22.380 --> 00:16:25.980 43 is already like the small end of the spectrum at this point. 00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:31.600 But anyway, we're, you know, like I said, we just got basically... 00:16:33.470 --> 00:16:37.530 They did have options that were cheaper. 00:16:38.310 --> 00:16:41.630 Alex was at first looking at, like, really cheap projectors. 00:16:41.810 --> 00:16:43.870 Like, they make projectors that are, like, $100. 00:16:45.450 --> 00:16:49.310 But they're relatively dim, and they have some issues, and blah, blah. 00:16:49.550 --> 00:16:55.630 And we just ordered an expensive projector. So it was like, let's get a regular 00:16:55.630 --> 00:16:59.090 TV. We haven't had one in his entire lifetime. 00:17:00.170 --> 00:17:02.690 You know, my daughter had one 00:17:02.690 --> 00:17:06.490 in her room. But we have not had one as a family in his entire lifetime. 00:17:06.930 --> 00:17:12.430 So we got one. And we got the cheapest, decent one, I would say. 00:17:12.890 --> 00:17:20.570 You know, anyway, it still has to make its way upstairs in the next couple of days. 00:17:20.890 --> 00:17:24.330 You know, but anyway, that was the one correction. 00:17:24.630 --> 00:17:28.190 The other thing I wanted to give an update on is last week, Yvonne and I spent 00:17:28.190 --> 00:17:29.870 an inordinate amount of time probably. 00:17:29.870 --> 00:17:34.950 And without actually asking her if it was okay, talking about our friend's file, 00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:41.170 you know, she accidentally purged files she didn't mean to by setting up a synchronization 00:17:41.170 --> 00:17:46.730 thing that got confused between iCloud and Google, whatever, Google Drive. 00:17:47.570 --> 00:17:53.210 And we'd said, oh, but it looks like iCloud has a restore. We did test that later. 00:17:54.050 --> 00:17:58.830 ICloud restore only had three files. We did restore those three files. 00:17:58.830 --> 00:18:02.070 I don't even know if they were missing or not, but we restored them just to be sure. 00:18:03.290 --> 00:18:07.890 And the rest of the stuff wasn't there. So we have yet to do the thing going through the backups. 00:18:09.030 --> 00:18:12.750 We're going to go do that sometime this coming week, probably. 00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:18.570 She's going to call me and we'll screenshot her and go through all of that kind of stuff. 00:18:19.230 --> 00:18:23.870 And she also wants to look at the Google Drive backups, because apparently they also have something. 00:18:23.870 --> 00:18:29.010 But I'm less confident that there's going to be much there because she had just 00:18:29.010 --> 00:18:38.070 turned it on to sync anyway lesson is lesson number one synchronization is not backup, 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:45.260 Those are two completely different things. And second, synchronization actually 00:18:45.260 --> 00:18:48.420 complicates backups, so be careful about that. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:57.940 Third, if you are trying to synchronize the same stuff to two different places, be super careful. 00:18:58.540 --> 00:19:03.180 I'm not saying it'll never work. It may sometimes work. She may have just gotten 00:19:03.180 --> 00:19:05.720 unlucky. There may have been other factors going on. 00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:10.520 But beware like yeah these 00:19:10.520 --> 00:19:14.800 synchronization things are built to just 00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:17.860 synchronize one thing 00:19:17.860 --> 00:19:25.840 really you know so anyway like i don't know how many people would like go through 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:29.640 the i don't know like you'd think it's an edge case that people would figure 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:32.860 you know what well what happens if people are trying to synchronize this to 00:19:32.860 --> 00:19:36.400 five different things at the same time but you know that's not the primary use 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:37.640 case anybody's worrying about. 00:19:38.340 --> 00:19:40.400 At best, it's a secondary use case. 00:19:41.700 --> 00:19:46.380 Anyway, so that's the update on that. I thought I'd also give an update on Robin 00:19:46.380 --> 00:19:50.060 Letter because, you know, it's a thing. 00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:53.240 And I've been talking about it a bunch. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.360 Why is this stuff here? Because I clicked on the wrong thing. That's why. 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:03.180 Okay, so my quick Robin Letter update. First of all, once again, 00:20:03.360 --> 00:20:09.920 my appeal, If anybody listening here is not already on Robin Letter and is willing to at least try it, 00:20:10.830 --> 00:20:15.470 please drop me a line. Feedback at RobinLetter.com will get you there specifically 00:20:15.470 --> 00:20:19.110 for Robin Letter, but any of the ways to contact me, I always mention at the 00:20:19.110 --> 00:20:20.350 end of the show, will be fine too. 00:20:20.530 --> 00:20:26.710 It is a sort of anti-social media, like, I keep saying that term, 00:20:26.850 --> 00:20:29.870 but that's, it's not right. It's not anti-social media. 00:20:30.910 --> 00:20:34.170 It's a reaction against what social media has become. 00:20:34.450 --> 00:20:36.370 It's an alternative to social media. 00:20:36.590 --> 00:20:41.250 Basically, it's keeping in touch with family and friends in a way that, 00:20:41.850 --> 00:20:48.090 is slower and more deliberate and is not intended to induce competition or is 00:20:48.090 --> 00:20:52.010 not optimized for gaining views, all of that kind of stuff. 00:20:52.210 --> 00:20:55.130 I've mentioned it before in the show, so I won't go over it much more. 00:20:55.350 --> 00:20:57.110 And I'm just going to give some numbers. 00:20:58.030 --> 00:21:02.610 As of, I don't know, hour and a half from now. 00:21:02.950 --> 00:21:08.750 Well, that's actually, I won't have stats yet, but it has, we just passed a 00:21:08.750 --> 00:21:13.270 couple hours ago, five weeks since I launched the public version of it. 00:21:13.790 --> 00:21:17.690 And I have the stats from the end of yesterday UTC. So these, 00:21:17.870 --> 00:21:22.330 and I know there's been some activity since then, including new users and stuff, 00:21:22.490 --> 00:21:24.510 but I just give the stats. 00:21:24.650 --> 00:21:31.330 In five weeks, we're up to nine active Robins, 75 active users. 00:21:33.070 --> 00:21:38.190 118 invites were sent out And I'll admit most of them were by me Not all, not all, 00:21:38.910 --> 00:21:45.730 Of those 57 Oh, sorry, sorry I want to be clear When I said active users That 00:21:45.730 --> 00:21:50.850 is active users in the last four weeks I'm tracking The active robins is just 00:21:50.850 --> 00:21:52.850 as of The end of the day yesterday, 00:21:53.130 --> 00:21:59.450 UTC That's a static number, most recent number, nine The rest of these Because I want to, 00:22:00.820 --> 00:22:07.860 As we move forward, it doesn't make sense to say, here's the total number of 00:22:07.860 --> 00:22:11.200 users, here's the total number of invites, here's the total number of invites 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:14.020 accepted, et cetera. You have to time-bound that. 00:22:15.800 --> 00:22:20.540 And I have been also looking at weekly numbers and daily numbers and all that kind of stuff. 00:22:20.620 --> 00:22:23.960 But a good number to use is four weeks. 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:27.020 It's you know and people sometimes talk about monthly active 00:22:27.020 --> 00:22:30.460 users and things like that when they're talking about twitter or 00:22:30.460 --> 00:22:33.140 tiktok or facebook or any of the big 00:22:33.140 --> 00:22:35.920 social medias i go for four weeks because it's an 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:39.220 even number of weeks and you definitely in most things like 00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:42.700 this you have patterns that are weekly so 00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:45.880 if you go with a month first of all months are different lengths 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:49.060 you've got february at 28 or 29 days depending 00:22:49.060 --> 00:22:51.800 on the year you've got months that are 30 days you've got 00:22:51.800 --> 00:22:55.000 months to the 31 days a month is not a real unit 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.800 and that like infuriates me 00:22:57.800 --> 00:23:00.980 all the time anyway so four weeks so in the 00:23:00.980 --> 00:23:05.200 last four weeks there have been 75 active users 118 invites 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:11.120 sent 57 accepted there have been 60 updates posted in those last four weeks 00:23:11.120 --> 00:23:19.000 and 1697 read events that's when somebody clicks the button to read somebody's 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.860 update if they try to read it like four different times, it'll count as four, right? 00:23:23.320 --> 00:23:25.660 So, because obviously there have been 60 updates. 00:23:26.340 --> 00:23:30.340 Reading 1,697 is like, 00:23:30.980 --> 00:23:35.300 crazy. It means a bunch of updates have been open more than one time. 00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:38.480 It also includes updates that weren't posted in the last four weeks. 00:23:38.580 --> 00:23:41.200 They might have been reading older updates beyond that. 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:44.200 It still seems a little bit high for me. Maybe I'll check that number, 00:23:44.300 --> 00:23:45.280 but it seems to be accurate. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.540 It seems to be like, you know, when somebody clicks the read button, 00:23:49.080 --> 00:23:50.640 you know, you see the thing. 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:56.720 Anyway, 118 comments left and 171 reactions. So that's pretty good. 00:23:56.840 --> 00:23:58.900 All of these are still growing, by the way. 00:23:59.220 --> 00:24:04.160 If you compare all of these to where we were four weeks ago, they are up quite a bit. 00:24:04.360 --> 00:24:08.080 If you look at weekly numbers, there are some that are sort of leveling off 00:24:08.080 --> 00:24:13.360 a little bit, or sometimes up, sometimes down, but still trending up. 00:24:14.080 --> 00:24:17.740 But anyway, I'm happy with the growth so far. 00:24:17.840 --> 00:24:23.200 There's actually been a little additional growth burst in the last week or so, which is great, 00:24:23.460 --> 00:24:31.020 including two new Robins created by people that weren't me, one of which by 00:24:31.020 --> 00:24:33.960 somebody who I had not talked to about it at all. 00:24:34.380 --> 00:24:38.480 You know, they were included in one of my Robins. They have not had a turn yet, 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:44.060 but they, and I think in my first post, I did say something about, 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:46.560 it would be great if people used this and created their own Robins, 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:48.380 but I did not actually talk to this person. 00:24:48.500 --> 00:24:51.900 I have not actually spoken to this person in 20 years, I don't think. 00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:58.940 Anyway, they made a Robin. And so, and it's, it seems to be going well so far. 00:24:59.060 --> 00:25:02.280 And, you know, I try to be really good, by the way, just if anybody's worried 00:25:02.280 --> 00:25:03.220 about this kind of thing. 00:25:04.040 --> 00:25:07.460 I do not look at the content of Robins I am not in. 00:25:07.900 --> 00:25:13.220 Now, I could, I have not built end-to-end encryption on this thing or anything like that. 00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:17.280 And in fact, there are possible problems with that as it would gain, 00:25:17.780 --> 00:25:22.880 if it continues to grow and gets larger, as an admin, you know, 00:25:23.020 --> 00:25:25.140 I might have to potentially deal with. 00:25:26.280 --> 00:25:35.300 You know, moderation problems or people even posting illegal stuff, you know, I don't know. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:40.020 Like, so actually making it completely encrypted so even I can't read it is 00:25:40.020 --> 00:25:46.180 probably not the right thing to do for a thing like this. 00:25:46.540 --> 00:25:50.960 However, just as a policy, like I'm not, you know, I'm obviously reading all 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.240 the Robins I'm in, which at the most at the current time is most of the ones that exist. 00:25:55.900 --> 00:26:02.360 But there are now a few that I am not a member of and I am not reading the content of those. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.100 I am, however, monitoring the general health of them. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:09.780 You know, like how many people were invited? How many people have accepted? 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.720 Who has, not who has posted, but how many posts have there been? Like that kind of stuff. 00:26:14.940 --> 00:26:19.420 Just to understand, are these new ones that are being created working or not? 00:26:20.620 --> 00:26:27.200 Anyway, I'm happy with the progress But I have now, officially as of yesterday, 00:26:28.120 --> 00:26:33.280 reached the limit of what I think I am going to do in terms of inviting individual 00:26:33.280 --> 00:26:39.160 people I know to individual Robbins as a growth mechanism. 00:26:40.850 --> 00:26:47.730 So next up, I'm probably going to make a more general LinkedIn post or something 00:26:47.730 --> 00:26:51.610 about the site and inviting people. 00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:55.390 I'll still keep it as invites only, but basically say that anybody who wants 00:26:55.390 --> 00:26:57.670 an invite, contact me and I'll come up. 00:26:58.490 --> 00:27:01.550 And if they make sense in one of the groups that I already have, 00:27:01.690 --> 00:27:06.370 I'll add them. But if not, I'll just add them cold and empty so they can make their own Robbins. 00:27:06.910 --> 00:27:10.990 Cold and empty sounds bad. Like, I'm not a marketer. What, what, what can I say? 00:27:11.730 --> 00:27:18.510 But yeah, but before that, one thing I've determined is necessary. 00:27:18.730 --> 00:27:21.890 I, you know, I've got this big, long backlog of things to do, 00:27:21.890 --> 00:27:26.590 but one thing that I'll definitely do before I do any additional promotion that 00:27:26.590 --> 00:27:28.270 probably would have helped already with like, 00:27:28.630 --> 00:27:34.390 you know, cause I have, I switched from at first only inviting people who I 00:27:34.390 --> 00:27:40.690 had extensively explained the concept to, and had gone back and forth in email first. 00:27:40.970 --> 00:27:47.810 Then the second phase where I was contacting them either by LinkedIn or by Facebook 00:27:47.810 --> 00:27:51.490 and giving sort of a one-paragraph description and saying, 00:27:51.710 --> 00:27:57.330 hey, would you like to be invited and inviting the people who said yes to finally just saying, okay. 00:27:57.890 --> 00:28:02.590 I've got the email addresses of some additional people I knew in college or 00:28:02.590 --> 00:28:06.550 additional people I knew at one of my previous jobs or whatever. 00:28:06.750 --> 00:28:08.430 I'm just going to send them an invite. 00:28:08.710 --> 00:28:13.030 Straight from the site with the only explanation being the exclamation, 00:28:13.130 --> 00:28:19.670 the explanation that you get in the email that the site sends you and see how that goes. 00:28:19.850 --> 00:28:24.230 And obviously, as you go through those categories, 00:28:24.570 --> 00:28:29.730 the less upfront conversation and explanation you've had with somebody about 00:28:29.730 --> 00:28:37.350 it, the less likely they are to accept and the less likely they are to actually engage once you're in. 00:28:37.350 --> 00:28:39.710 And also even those that, 00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:43.960 that in, there's sometimes confusion on exactly what to do next. 00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:49.640 And like, I'd say 80 to 90% of the people who get in figure that out immediately on their own. 00:28:49.780 --> 00:28:52.520 But I have gotten a couple of comments about people who like, 00:28:52.600 --> 00:28:54.680 what do I do next? I don't understand what do I do? 00:28:54.760 --> 00:28:59.900 So I'm probably going to do one of those like little slideshow things where 00:28:59.900 --> 00:29:06.600 the first time you log in, you get a little tour with like explaining the UI 00:29:06.600 --> 00:29:09.500 and stuff like that and the concept and. 00:29:10.080 --> 00:29:14.060 You know that that kind of stuff just so that people who come in that way know 00:29:14.060 --> 00:29:18.940 what they're supposed to do anyway i've talked long enough about that i've got 00:29:18.940 --> 00:29:26.780 one more story that's not like a newsy story that i thought i was going to to 00:29:26.780 --> 00:29:29.940 talk about today well you know i i was i was. 00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:34.520 I was saving it for yvonne i was going to talk about it with yvonne because 00:29:34.520 --> 00:29:36.500 i figured his reactions would be funny. 00:29:37.620 --> 00:29:45.480 So, but he's not here. So do I tell the story anyway? Or do I save it? 00:29:47.050 --> 00:29:52.890 So here's what I'm going to do. I'm at the very least not going to tell it in this segment. 00:29:54.350 --> 00:29:57.610 I'm going to go ahead and take a break, because we've got about 10 minutes until 00:29:57.610 --> 00:30:00.130 we need to be in the car to go to that movie. We're picking up my mom, 00:30:00.170 --> 00:30:01.730 and then we're going to the movie, and blah, blah, blah. 00:30:02.390 --> 00:30:05.730 And so, like, I don't want to start it and then run long and then be late, 00:30:05.770 --> 00:30:08.130 and then I would get all stressed about that and blah, blah, blah. 00:30:08.750 --> 00:30:11.930 So I'm going to go ahead and take another break. And I know, 00:30:12.150 --> 00:30:15.930 look, we've gone through two segments relatively quick here. 00:30:17.050 --> 00:30:19.690 This may not be our standard two-hour show of course 00:30:19.690 --> 00:30:22.910 every time i say that it ends up being even longer it ends up being like a five-hour 00:30:22.910 --> 00:30:28.910 show or something but like nope nope i am just going to accept however long 00:30:28.910 --> 00:30:33.730 this thing is however light this thing is hell a few weeks ago i did a relatively 00:30:33.730 --> 00:30:37.910 short show that was only a few minutes long saying like i just got out of surgery and Oh, 00:30:38.710 --> 00:30:40.650 I should update folks on that, too. 00:30:42.910 --> 00:30:51.790 I did have my last procedure for my lovely kidney stone thing. 00:30:53.320 --> 00:31:00.860 And so, like, back in January, I got this infection. I went to the ER. 00:31:01.220 --> 00:31:05.540 They determined, like, his kidney slash bladder infection slash actually it 00:31:05.540 --> 00:31:07.520 had spread. I was, like, in sepsis. 00:31:07.800 --> 00:31:12.180 They pumped me full of antibiotics. They stuck, like, a drain in my side. 00:31:13.280 --> 00:31:18.340 And then I came back for, you know, and they did the drain in my side just with, 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:23.200 like, you know, the stuff that makes you not care, not the stuff that. 00:31:23.320 --> 00:31:24.800 Knocks you out completely. 00:31:25.800 --> 00:31:31.380 And then they, I came back in for a procedure where they did knock me out completely 00:31:31.380 --> 00:31:38.320 and they, they stuck a stent inside me and they used a laser to break up the 00:31:38.320 --> 00:31:40.040 stone, but they couldn't get it all. 00:31:40.220 --> 00:31:45.800 So then like several weeks later, I went back in, they changed the stent to 00:31:45.800 --> 00:31:49.100 a new one, I guess, just to give me a nice, fresh, clean one. 00:31:49.320 --> 00:31:55.040 They lasered out the rest of the stone, and then nine days later I had to come 00:31:55.040 --> 00:31:57.400 in to get the stet taken out. 00:31:57.600 --> 00:32:01.960 A stet, for anybody who doesn't know, is basically just a tube that helps widen 00:32:01.960 --> 00:32:06.480 an opening, because they wanted the passageway from, I guess, 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:10.440 I never asked the details of exactly where this was placed, 00:32:10.860 --> 00:32:15.700 but from my kidney to my bladder, from my bladder to out, 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:22.280 make all of those spaces bigger so that more stuff could get out more easily, 00:32:22.280 --> 00:32:25.660 and in the second time around so that there wouldn't be swelling, 00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:29.720 so that those things would close up because that would also cause problems. 00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:37.060 Anyway, my description that I did on one of the robins that I happened to have 00:32:37.060 --> 00:32:43.780 a turn on the day after, I got the stent yanked out of my bladder a few hours ago. It was fun. 00:32:44.560 --> 00:32:49.440 Take your pants off, lie down, we'll shove lidocaine in you, 00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:54.680 followed by a camera, and then pull this plastic tube out of you while you scream. 00:32:55.510 --> 00:32:59.930 Fun. Fun, damn it. Anyway, I feel so much better. 00:33:00.370 --> 00:33:06.730 The last, like, week and a half between the last actual surgery that they knocked 00:33:06.730 --> 00:33:13.230 me out for and pulling this thing out of me actually felt worse than any of 00:33:13.230 --> 00:33:15.230 the other time in the month previously. 00:33:15.490 --> 00:33:19.590 Now, they say that I asked the doctor about this, and he's like, 00:33:19.650 --> 00:33:22.870 well, you know, it's actually probably not any more uncomfortable. 00:33:22.910 --> 00:33:25.270 It's just that you're no longer sick. 00:33:25.950 --> 00:33:31.450 You know, the infection is gone, the actual kidney stone is gone, 00:33:31.450 --> 00:33:36.430 and so all you have left is this tube in you, and it's really irritating. 00:33:36.590 --> 00:33:42.270 So it feels worse because you're not comparing it to those other things that were wrong. 00:33:42.470 --> 00:33:46.650 Meanwhile, I'm like, I don't entirely buy it. Like the entire rest of the time, 00:33:46.950 --> 00:33:52.710 like I'd taken like three or four of the heavy duty prescription painkillers 00:33:52.710 --> 00:33:55.510 they gave me like right after procedures. 00:33:55.510 --> 00:33:58.630 And then I switched to like over-the-counter stuff for the rest of the time. 00:33:58.970 --> 00:34:04.850 This last week and a half, I felt like I needed that stuff like constantly. 00:34:05.110 --> 00:34:11.250 Like if I moved even slightly, it would hurt quite a lot. 00:34:11.770 --> 00:34:15.830 I mean, not like I was just shot a lot, I guess. Well, I don't know. 00:34:15.910 --> 00:34:17.290 I haven't been shot, so I can't compare. 00:34:17.550 --> 00:34:19.770 But it wasn't like, you know... 00:34:20.600 --> 00:34:25.980 It wasn't immobilizing, but it was definitely like you couldn't think about 00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:27.660 anything else because, oh my God, it hurt. 00:34:27.820 --> 00:34:33.260 And whenever I moved, I would also immediately get extremely urgent to run to 00:34:33.260 --> 00:34:34.980 the bathroom as quickly as possible. 00:34:34.980 --> 00:34:40.560 So I was spending as much time as humanly possible not moving at all, 00:34:40.700 --> 00:34:43.760 you know, and certain positions were more comfortable than others, 00:34:43.900 --> 00:34:46.440 but fundamentally, it hurt when you moved. 00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:50.180 So it was just like, find a position and then just don't move. 00:34:50.600 --> 00:34:54.620 Anyway, now that they pulled the thing out of me, which apparently they say 00:34:54.620 --> 00:34:59.760 took like between 45 seconds and 60 seconds, so the actual removal did not take very long. 00:35:00.020 --> 00:35:06.120 It was very unpleasant having the thing yanked out of me, but I started feeling 00:35:06.120 --> 00:35:08.740 better very quickly afterwards. 00:35:09.580 --> 00:35:13.900 By a few hours later, it was noticeably better. By the next morning, 00:35:14.180 --> 00:35:16.860 I basically felt really good. 00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:25.160 I wouldn't necessarily say 100%. I still occasionally feel some twinges and 00:35:25.160 --> 00:35:32.260 some, you know, uncomfort, but I'm probably over 95% now. 00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:36.620 I'm feeling much better, and I'm confident within a few more days it really 00:35:36.620 --> 00:35:39.760 will be 100%. So I'm feeling much better with that kind of stuff. 00:35:39.860 --> 00:35:43.720 So thank you for anybody who cares, and for those of you who don't care, 00:35:43.860 --> 00:35:45.760 well, fuck you. You know, so anyway... 00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:50.340 I'm going to go ahead and take that break, because it really is time for us 00:35:50.340 --> 00:35:52.100 to go get in the car and go get my mom. 00:35:52.580 --> 00:35:55.420 And I'm hoping my son is actually awake now. He's probably not. 00:35:55.600 --> 00:35:59.600 So we will go get all that taken care of. We'll go see the movie. 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:05.520 And later tonight, which will then be Monday, UTC, I'll finish recording. 00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:08.600 I don't know if I'll probably be solo. 00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:12.940 Maybe I'll have my wife with me, but probably not. We'll see. 00:36:13.180 --> 00:36:16.620 We'll see. She's offered a couple times, but I don't know. We'll see. 00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:24.780 And that is that. Here comes the break. And yeah, back in a while. 00:36:25.900 --> 00:36:28.320 Okie dokie. Here it comes. 00:36:34.980 --> 00:36:42.980 It's just my internet being stupid. My internet being stupid is a new song we will make. 00:37:08.720 --> 00:37:17.220 Oh, I'm tired. 00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:24.040 What's wrong i'm i'm really tired you you you it's it's amazing to get the show 00:37:24.040 --> 00:37:29.880 on the road there's a road there's a road oh my god there's a road. 00:37:30.980 --> 00:37:34.720 And I am back. As predicted, it is much later. 00:37:34.920 --> 00:37:43.960 It is now Monday, March 23rd, just before 7 UTC, which is midnight here on the West Coast on the 22nd. 00:37:44.600 --> 00:37:48.520 Anyway, I saw the movie, saw Hoppers. Like I said, I'm not going to give detailed 00:37:48.520 --> 00:37:51.980 thing until I get to it in order, but thumbs up. Good movie. 00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:59.280 And I will avoid saying more about that. I will say that I realized just now 00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:03.480 that I hadn't actually done the two movies from before that I was supposed to do. 00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:10.040 And I will say, before I do the two movies, I'll say, look, it's looking very 00:38:10.040 --> 00:38:13.100 much like I'm not going to do any newsy stuff at all. None. 00:38:13.740 --> 00:38:16.240 It will be a newsless show. 00:38:17.180 --> 00:38:22.520 Because, you know, okay, the Iran stuff is continuing to get worse. 00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:29.960 There's all kinds of headlines about gas prices and the Straits of Hormuz and all this kind of stuff. 00:38:30.600 --> 00:38:33.700 I just don't really feel like it. I just don't. 00:38:34.180 --> 00:38:41.040 There's the stuff about the airports being all backed up and security and ICE 00:38:41.040 --> 00:38:45.600 agents going to do that and all the stuff about that, whether it's even legal or not. 00:38:45.600 --> 00:38:48.720 And if it is legal, then what are the effects going to be? And blah, 00:38:48.820 --> 00:38:49.960 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:56.160 Not going to do that. There was, oh, yeah, I did want to update with this, though. 00:38:56.820 --> 00:39:02.580 You know, I ended with my health update. And I'm like, I'm feeling much better. 00:39:03.200 --> 00:39:06.020 I'm feeling much better on that one thing. 00:39:07.120 --> 00:39:12.120 But just within the last 24 hours, I've started to feel like crap in other ways. 00:39:12.120 --> 00:39:15.900 Which is like really i just 00:39:15.900 --> 00:39:18.740 finished or i'm almost finished getting 00:39:18.740 --> 00:39:22.700 better with one thing and you're going to hit me with something else basically sunday 00:39:22.700 --> 00:39:26.380 like i i 00:39:26.380 --> 00:39:29.060 mean i slept till like i went to 00:39:29.060 --> 00:39:31.880 bed just around midnight a little bit after 00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:34.880 midnight which is around when i usually go to bed i did not wake 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:38.760 up until like 2 p.m like i 00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:41.960 just did not every yeah i 00:39:41.960 --> 00:39:45.300 would wake up occasionally use the bathroom but i was like still like feeling 00:39:45.300 --> 00:39:50.540 utterly exhausted went right back to sleep i went to the movie thing and that 00:39:50.540 --> 00:39:55.880 was fine but then on the way back from the movie i was not feeling good like 00:39:55.880 --> 00:39:59.840 my my head's all kind of like. 00:40:01.070 --> 00:40:06.050 I guess it's like head congestion is going on. I had a little bit of a cough. 00:40:06.410 --> 00:40:09.730 I was just feeling generally exhausted and run down. 00:40:10.110 --> 00:40:12.230 I'm like, this is fun. 00:40:12.790 --> 00:40:18.130 This is fun. I got home from the movie and I basically was like, 00:40:18.190 --> 00:40:19.790 I've got a whole bunch of stuff to do. 00:40:19.930 --> 00:40:23.770 I've got to finish the podcast. I've got to, I've got to do some cleaning. 00:40:23.890 --> 00:40:27.750 We've got some people coming over to the house to do some maintenance work on 00:40:27.750 --> 00:40:31.430 Tuesday. And I basically have to get, like, the downstairs in shape so that, 00:40:31.470 --> 00:40:36.190 like, we won't be completely embarrassed by random worker people coming into the house, right? 00:40:36.830 --> 00:40:42.910 And so, and, you know, that's going to be mostly me. Brandy's been doing a bunch. 00:40:43.070 --> 00:40:44.390 I have to do a bunch of stuff. 00:40:45.610 --> 00:40:51.730 And, yeah, I got home from a movie, and I went upstairs, and I lay down and 00:40:51.730 --> 00:40:55.350 slept, like, three hours, basically. 00:40:55.350 --> 00:40:58.770 Again, after having already had a big sleep earlier in the day, 00:40:58.890 --> 00:41:03.970 and I forced myself to get up because I had to finish the podcast, 00:41:03.970 --> 00:41:07.970 and I, you know, want to do some of the other stuff. 00:41:07.970 --> 00:41:10.530 I want to watch some TV with my son too, you know? 00:41:10.790 --> 00:41:17.010 And it's one of these, like, you know, I mentioned my head. I've sort of got 00:41:17.010 --> 00:41:18.350 a headache, stuffy head. 00:41:19.130 --> 00:41:22.250 Had the chest stuff going on right after the movie, but less so now. 00:41:22.590 --> 00:41:24.270 There is smoke in the air. 00:41:26.310 --> 00:41:31.990 And I don't know I haven't looked if there are wildfires going on or it's just 00:41:31.990 --> 00:41:36.610 this is the weather that people are using like wood burning fireplaces and it's 00:41:36.610 --> 00:41:38.650 in the air but whatever it is, 00:41:38.910 --> 00:41:43.090 the outdoor air itself is bothersome right now to me, 00:41:43.830 --> 00:41:48.150 so maybe that has something to do with it, I don't know that sort of started 00:41:48.150 --> 00:41:50.050 Saturday night, so it would line up, 00:41:51.090 --> 00:41:55.090 but in any case, I am pissed that, you know, 00:41:56.320 --> 00:42:00.100 getting over the one thing. And like, I now feel like crap and I've got stuff to do. 00:42:00.200 --> 00:42:04.520 And I was like counting on the notion that, you know, I feel good now. 00:42:04.660 --> 00:42:06.860 I can do stuff. I can be productive. 00:42:07.200 --> 00:42:11.800 I can like, not just like stuff sitting at a desk working on a computer too, 00:42:11.900 --> 00:42:15.900 but I can do like the physical things that need to be done, like laundry and 00:42:15.900 --> 00:42:20.280 cleaning the house and all this kind of stuff that, you know, I actually don't mind. 00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:25.400 I actually enjoy some of those things when I sit down to do them and when I'm 00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:28.180 not exhausted and when I don't have, 00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:32.060 you know, the situation where I do it for five or ten minutes and then I have 00:42:32.060 --> 00:42:36.360 to sit down either because I'm in pain or exhausted again or anything like that, 00:42:36.860 --> 00:42:38.700 which I was looking forward to. 00:42:38.940 --> 00:42:44.080 And now I'm like, I spent most of the day in bed. This is not okay. 00:42:45.800 --> 00:42:49.100 Okay, so anyway, I'm going to do these two movies and then basically wrap up. 00:42:49.100 --> 00:42:52.020 I don't even know what the total length of the show is because, 00:42:52.020 --> 00:42:56.940 you know, I recorded in segments and I don't remember how long the first two are. 00:42:57.040 --> 00:43:01.100 But I have a sense that this will be a short show, which, again, 00:43:01.320 --> 00:43:05.440 I shouldn't say because whenever I say that, that causes a problem. But whatever. 00:43:06.120 --> 00:43:13.720 Okay, the two movies, as promised last week. First off, Murder by Death from 1976. 00:43:15.420 --> 00:43:19.760 This is a comedy mystery film. and you 00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:23.840 know i i mentioned to yvonne last time he asked who who's who does it star eileen 00:43:23.840 --> 00:43:29.800 brennan truman capote james coco peter falk alec guinness elsa lanchester david 00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:37.720 niven peter sellers maggie smith nancy walker and estelle winwood the quick summary, 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:44.880 on Wikipedia. The plot is a broad parody or spoof of the traditional country 00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:50.900 house whodunit, familiar to mystery fiction fans of classics such as Agatha 00:43:50.900 --> 00:43:52.340 Christie's and Then There Were None. 00:43:52.540 --> 00:43:59.100 The cast is an ensemble of British and American actors playing send-ups of well-known 00:43:59.100 --> 00:44:02.780 fictional sleuths, including Hercule Perrault, 00:44:03.240 --> 00:44:08.000 Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, and Sam Spade. 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:12.940 It also features a rare acting performance by author Truman Capote. 00:44:13.880 --> 00:44:20.180 And here's the thing. I remember seeing this, like, as a kid. 00:44:20.180 --> 00:44:25.280 I can't remember if it was, like, late preteens or early teens, 00:44:25.380 --> 00:44:26.880 but somewhere around that. 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.320 I think, you know, it was one of these things—. 00:44:31.300 --> 00:44:40.120 I don't remember. In my head, it was like, I went to a couple of these things for summer camp, 00:44:40.380 --> 00:44:46.180 where it was like a sleepover summer camp at like the YMCA, and they'd put on 00:44:46.180 --> 00:44:49.000 old movies overnight for the kids to watch. 00:44:50.060 --> 00:44:55.000 And I have a feeling that maybe it was one of those. If it was one of those, 00:44:55.180 --> 00:44:57.100 it puts it in late preteen years. 00:44:59.060 --> 00:45:05.220 Alternately maybe i saw it in college or something i don't know like all you know the years all, 00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:09.980 merged together when you're old like me but i 00:45:09.980 --> 00:45:18.380 remember liking it at the time and thinking it was funny and laughing at the 00:45:18.380 --> 00:45:23.400 jokes and all that kind of stuff and maybe my memory has been corrupted but 00:45:23.400 --> 00:45:29.500 I'll tell you this time around I didn't like it. Thumbs down thumbs down. 00:45:29.700 --> 00:45:33.740 I found it more annoying than anything else. 00:45:33.940 --> 00:45:38.800 Like I didn't find it particularly funny like when they were spoofing things 00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:45.800 I was like just this is dumb you know and I recognize it was a spoof and I recognize 00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:51.600 it was supposed to be that kind of comedy but it just was not working for me. I just you know. 00:45:53.680 --> 00:45:54.380 I don't know, 00:45:55.020 --> 00:45:58.240 Here's the first two paragraphs of the plot from Wikipedia. 00:45:59.160 --> 00:46:03.780 A group of five renowned detectives, each accompanied by a relative or associate, 00:46:04.060 --> 00:46:08.320 is invited to dinner and a murder by the mysterious Lionel Twain. 00:46:08.680 --> 00:46:14.120 Having lured his guests to his mansion, managed by a blind butler named Jassimir 00:46:14.120 --> 00:46:19.680 Bensamum, who is later joined by a deaf, mute, and illiterate cook named Yetta, 00:46:20.440 --> 00:46:24.160 Twain joins his guests at dinner. 00:46:24.160 --> 00:46:26.800 He presses a button which seals the house. 00:46:27.400 --> 00:46:30.580 Twain announces that he is the greatest criminologist in the world. 00:46:30.820 --> 00:46:35.260 To prove his claim, he challenges the guest to solve a murder that will occur at midnight. 00:46:35.580 --> 00:46:39.240 A reward of $1 million will be presented to the winner. 00:46:40.260 --> 00:46:44.180 Before midnight, the butler is found dead. Twain disappears, 00:46:44.540 --> 00:46:50.620 only to reappear immediately after midnight, stabbed 12 times in the back with a butcher knife. 00:46:51.260 --> 00:46:54.600 The cook is also discovered to have been an animated mannequin, 00:46:54.820 --> 00:46:56.760 now packed in a storage crate. 00:46:56.980 --> 00:47:00.760 The party spends the rest of the night investigating and bickering. 00:47:00.980 --> 00:47:04.480 They are manipulated by a mysterious behind-the-scenes force, 00:47:04.740 --> 00:47:12.000 confused by red herrings, and baffled by the mechanical marvel that is Twain's house. 00:47:12.180 --> 00:47:15.020 They ultimately find their own lives threatened. 00:47:15.560 --> 00:47:19.840 Each sleuth presents his or her theory on the case, pointing out the other's 00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:23.560 past connections to Twain and their possible motives for murdering him. 00:47:23.880 --> 00:47:27.620 Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And it continues. 00:47:28.600 --> 00:47:33.080 And, you know, there are various reveals at various points. 00:47:33.320 --> 00:47:37.820 There are various sort of pieces of comedy of various sorts. 00:47:38.240 --> 00:47:41.040 There's some slapstick in there. There's some just, like... 00:47:42.220 --> 00:47:47.600 All kinds of like twists that make sense or don't make sense or are in them 00:47:47.600 --> 00:47:49.380 in and of themselves just silly. 00:47:49.660 --> 00:47:53.600 And like I said, I remember liking this. 00:47:53.740 --> 00:47:58.460 I mean, you know, I don't remember my specific responses to it, 00:47:58.500 --> 00:48:02.120 but I remember thinking, oh, that was a cool movie. 00:48:03.570 --> 00:48:11.110 I don't feel like that right now. I feel like it was dumb, you know? 00:48:11.430 --> 00:48:15.450 And yeah, it's just, no. 00:48:15.950 --> 00:48:21.670 I don't know. Maybe if you like these particular people or the characters they 00:48:21.670 --> 00:48:26.630 were sending up or just the style of stuff, I don't know. I was not impressed. 00:48:27.430 --> 00:48:31.170 And maybe this is one of those things that just didn't age well, 00:48:31.170 --> 00:48:36.950 or maybe it's one of those things that worked really well for Teenager or Below, 00:48:38.090 --> 00:48:43.250 but did not work so well for, you know, an adult. 00:48:43.470 --> 00:48:49.550 Or maybe it would work better if you were under the influence of something or other. I was not. 00:48:51.310 --> 00:48:56.130 But yeah, I was, you know, not impressed. 00:48:57.250 --> 00:49:01.990 Domestic reviews. New York Times wrote that the film had one of Simon's, 00:49:01.990 --> 00:49:05.590 This was written by Neil Simon, along with Robert Moore. 00:49:07.050 --> 00:49:11.550 Wrote that the film had one of Simon's nicest, breeziest screenplays, 00:49:12.370 --> 00:49:17.370 with James Coco very, very funny as that somewhat prissy takeoff on Hercule 00:49:17.370 --> 00:49:21.990 Perrault, and David Niven and Maggie Smith marvelous as Dick or Dora Charleston, 00:49:22.130 --> 00:49:23.510 though they hadn't enough to do. 00:49:24.310 --> 00:49:31.190 Variety called it a very good, silly, funny Neil Simon satirical comedy with a super all-star cast. 00:49:31.790 --> 00:49:36.530 Adding, it's the sort of film one could see more than once and pick up on comedy 00:49:36.530 --> 00:49:38.070 bits unnoticed at first. 00:49:39.130 --> 00:49:44.390 L.A. Times found the film amusing, but added, while it is only amusing and not 00:49:44.390 --> 00:49:49.210 hilarious, madcap riotous, rip-roaring, or richly romping, I don't entirely know. 00:49:49.610 --> 00:49:53.530 It's a short movie, 94 minutes, but a slow one, surprisingly, 00:49:53.790 --> 00:49:56.790 so when you'd have said knock about speed was called for. 00:49:57.910 --> 00:50:01.350 Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it three stars out of four. 00:50:02.420 --> 00:50:06.060 After getting off to a shaky start, the picture quickly hits a speedball comedy 00:50:06.060 --> 00:50:10.380 pace it doesn't lose until the unsatisfactory unraveling of the mystery. 00:50:11.080 --> 00:50:13.580 Anyway, it is what it is. 00:50:14.560 --> 00:50:18.580 Shall I move on? I think I shall move on. That's enough murder by death. 00:50:20.020 --> 00:50:25.180 Next up, Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones, from 2002. 00:50:25.800 --> 00:50:30.280 I joked with Yvonne, this was a small indie movie that no one's ever heard of. 00:50:30.380 --> 00:50:31.780 Obviously, that is not the case. 00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:37.040 It is the second of the prequel movies in the Star Wars saga. 00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:43.540 I gave a relatively negative review to episode one when we talked about it a while ago. 00:50:43.880 --> 00:50:50.220 Episode two, I think, was fine. You know, I'm giving it a between thumbs sideways and thumbs up. 00:50:51.060 --> 00:50:55.440 I guess the last one, I said I gave it a thumbs down. It's not the kind of thumbs 00:50:55.440 --> 00:50:59.180 down, murder by death that is, that is a straight down. 00:50:59.580 --> 00:51:03.080 So between thumbs sideways and thumbs down. I'm graduating this more. 00:51:03.220 --> 00:51:06.420 I'm saving the true thumbs down to the ones that are actually painful, 00:51:06.420 --> 00:51:09.180 and I'm mad for having wasted my time watching them. 00:51:09.360 --> 00:51:11.880 That was not true of Murder by Death. I just didn't like it. 00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:17.840 So anyway, for Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones, 00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:20.180 I'll give it between a thumb sideways and a thumbs up. 00:51:20.440 --> 00:51:26.240 Not a particularly great, amazing movie, but it was fine and certainly better 00:51:26.240 --> 00:51:29.380 than Episode I. The plot... 00:51:30.130 --> 00:51:41.030 Ten years after the Battle of Naboo, the Galactic Republic is threatened by 00:51:41.030 --> 00:51:43.290 a separatist movement organized by Count Dooku, 00:51:43.850 --> 00:51:49.790 a former Jedi Master who mentored Qui-Gon Jinn. There we go. 00:51:50.310 --> 00:51:56.170 Former Queen-turned-Senator Padme Amidala travels to Coruscant to vote against 00:51:56.170 --> 00:51:59.530 a motion to create an army to assist the Jedi against the growing menace. 00:52:00.130 --> 00:52:04.010 After narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt from bounty hunter Zam Wessel 00:52:04.010 --> 00:52:10.330 upon her arrival, she's placed under the protection of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi 00:52:10.330 --> 00:52:15.010 and his Padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. Zam attempts to... 00:52:15.980 --> 00:52:20.340 The mouth, the blubbering, is like bad today. 00:52:21.120 --> 00:52:25.720 Zam attempts to assassinate Padme again, but is thwarted and subdued by the Jedi pair. 00:52:26.160 --> 00:52:31.940 Zam's employer, a jetpack-wearing bounty hunter, kills her before she reveals his identity. 00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:35.660 The Jedi Council instructs Obi-Wan to find the bounty hunter, 00:52:35.820 --> 00:52:39.840 while Anakin is tasked to protect Padme and escort her to Naboo. 00:52:40.100 --> 00:52:44.540 Despite the Jedi Code forbidding attachments, the two fall in love. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:50.840 And the fact that he's so much younger than her, and she knew him as a child, 00:52:51.260 --> 00:52:55.420 which is kind of never awesome. But whatever! 00:52:55.720 --> 00:52:57.900 That was not in the Wikipedia summary, that was me. 00:52:58.840 --> 00:53:03.720 Obi-Wan's search leads to the ocean planet Kamino, where he discovers a clone 00:53:03.720 --> 00:53:08.620 army is being produced for the Republic allegedly in the name of Sifo-Dyas, 00:53:08.620 --> 00:53:12.440 a Jedi Master who died before allegedly ordering the drones, 00:53:12.700 --> 00:53:16.880 with the bounty hunter Jango Fett serving as the clone's genetic template. 00:53:17.280 --> 00:53:21.500 Obi-Wan deduces Jango as the bounty hunter he is seeking and places a homing 00:53:21.500 --> 00:53:28.280 beacon on Jango's ship, before following Jango and his clone son Boba to the planet Geonosis. 00:53:28.680 --> 00:53:33.000 Meanwhile, Anakin is troubled by visions of his mother Shimi in pain and returns 00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:36.560 to his homeworld of Tatooine with Padme to save her. 00:53:36.560 --> 00:53:42.400 His former owner, Watto, reveals that he sold Shimi to a moisture farmer named 00:53:42.400 --> 00:53:45.740 Klieg Lars, who then freed and married her. 00:53:46.360 --> 00:53:51.860 Klieg says Tusken raiders abducted Shimi one month earlier, and she is likely dead. 00:53:52.540 --> 00:53:55.900 Anakin finds her at the Tusken campsite, barely alive. 00:53:56.180 --> 00:54:01.340 After she dies in his arms, an enraged Anakin massacres the entire tribe. 00:54:01.340 --> 00:54:07.300 He later confesses his actions to Padme and vows to prevent the deaths of those 00:54:07.300 --> 00:54:10.100 he loves, dot, dot, dot. It continues... 00:54:11.060 --> 00:54:16.100 Like I said, it was fine. It was a decent first Star Wars movie. 00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:21.940 I don't think it's like one of the... If I was going to rank the top Star Wars 00:54:21.940 --> 00:54:26.820 movies, which I'm not going to right now, but I would not put it in the top tier. 00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:35.100 I would say that neither of these first two are better than the original trilogy, 00:54:35.620 --> 00:54:37.260 than any of the original trilogy. 00:54:37.260 --> 00:54:39.980 I would still put episodes four, five, and six, which, of course, 00:54:40.420 --> 00:54:44.120 were the first, second, and third released, I had of these two, 00:54:44.740 --> 00:54:47.820 and I think probably episode three from what I remember of it, 00:54:47.880 --> 00:54:50.940 but I haven't watched it recently, so I'll reserve judgment until I watch it again. 00:54:52.140 --> 00:54:57.820 Same for, I'll reserve judgment for the newer ones as well. 00:54:59.100 --> 00:55:04.360 That's that. If you like Star Wars, of course you're going to watch it. You know, duh. You know. 00:55:05.200 --> 00:55:10.220 And so, you know, here we go. continuing on with Star Wars. 00:55:10.360 --> 00:55:18.320 And Alex and I had to make a decision at one point on universes like Star Wars 00:55:18.320 --> 00:55:21.200 or the MCU that have both TV and movies. 00:55:22.900 --> 00:55:26.220 Because what I had been doing was... 00:55:27.230 --> 00:55:34.110 When we say watch a movie, and then the next thing to have started was a TV show, 00:55:34.470 --> 00:55:40.570 then I would put watching that next TV show on my TV show list, 00:55:40.730 --> 00:55:46.970 but I would not put a continuation for the next movie on my movie list until 00:55:46.970 --> 00:55:49.110 after the TV show got watched. 00:55:49.110 --> 00:55:52.370 But the pace and 00:55:52.370 --> 00:55:55.190 the way in which we get to the 00:55:55.190 --> 00:55:58.370 next tv show is much longer because while 00:55:58.370 --> 00:56:01.650 i'm watching 10 tv shows at a time one of 00:56:01.650 --> 00:56:04.710 them has to finish completely like we've watched every 00:56:04.710 --> 00:56:10.430 episode that exists before we pick a new show to replace it and so you know 00:56:10.430 --> 00:56:16.110 going through the associated tv shows may take a lot longer than going through 00:56:16.110 --> 00:56:20.630 the movies so we decided to split those up so like what happens is if we finish 00:56:20.630 --> 00:56:23.490 like episode 2 attack of the clones, 00:56:24.470 --> 00:56:30.750 where the next thing in order that came out is like the clone wars tv series 00:56:30.750 --> 00:56:37.110 or the is actually a series of shorts that came out first no alex is telling me i'm wrong. 00:56:40.490 --> 00:56:47.170 Oh i did it that way i i you know i thought the decision was in conjunction, 00:56:47.670 --> 00:56:52.250 to do it this way because I actually thought we should keep doing it the old 00:56:52.250 --> 00:56:54.190 way. It would just take forever. But anyway... 00:56:55.860 --> 00:57:01.420 We should go back to doing it the old way? I think we changed it because at 00:57:01.420 --> 00:57:05.500 one point we were doing the Marvel Universe. 00:57:05.940 --> 00:57:09.400 And the oldest thing was a... 00:57:10.120 --> 00:57:17.660 We were looking for the oldest... We had rolled Marvel movie on the movie list. 00:57:17.780 --> 00:57:24.880 But the oldest one we hadn't seen yet was some series of shorts from the 1940s 00:57:24.880 --> 00:57:27.640 that would have fallen on the TV show side. 00:57:27.980 --> 00:57:31.700 But we still wanted to watch something, so we picked the first movie anyway 00:57:31.700 --> 00:57:34.180 and put the shorts... Anyway, we'll decide. 00:57:34.660 --> 00:57:38.620 I decided. Okay. Maybe I decided. 00:57:39.040 --> 00:57:45.800 We will discuss again the next time it comes up the right way to do this. 00:57:47.340 --> 00:57:53.320 Yeah. You know, cause I don't know. 00:57:54.220 --> 00:57:58.220 There are pros and cons to both approaches. Like, but anyway, 00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:06.760 the point is after Attack of the Clones, the next thing is the 2003 to 2005 Clone Wars series. 00:58:07.200 --> 00:58:10.480 Three seasons, 25 episodes total. so 00:58:10.480 --> 00:58:16.440 there's also a Clone Wars thing in 2008 this is separate from that and then 00:58:16.440 --> 00:58:22.580 there's another Clone Wars thing from 2008 going and I think they even released 00:58:22.580 --> 00:58:27.040 a new season a couple years ago so it lasts a long period of time there's several 00:58:27.040 --> 00:58:28.620 things with Clone Wars in the title. 00:58:29.200 --> 00:58:36.000 Anyway so we broke them up so we'll see I don't think we've watched any Star 00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:37.840 Wars since Attack of the Clones though, 00:58:39.120 --> 00:58:45.320 So next up will either be the Clone Wars TV series, if we roll that on the TV side, 00:58:45.480 --> 00:58:50.160 or Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, if we roll that on that side, 00:58:50.280 --> 00:58:55.960 or if we decide to re-separate those again, or no, re-combine, I don't know. 00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:01.960 Alex is advocating for that, in which case the only eligible next thing would 00:59:01.960 --> 00:59:04.940 be Clone Wars, the series. 00:59:05.420 --> 00:59:09.560 Anyway, I don't know. It is what it is. I've said it is what it is several times. 00:59:09.720 --> 00:59:13.780 I also notice in terms of, you know, what I was saying earlier, 00:59:13.780 --> 00:59:16.640 I'm losing my voice a little bit now. 00:59:17.220 --> 00:59:22.140 And my eyes are watering. I think both of those, and my throat is getting a 00:59:22.140 --> 00:59:28.000 little scratchy, I think both of those things, like, or all three of those things, whatever it is, 00:59:29.060 --> 00:59:33.620 lend themselves to maybe it is an air quality thing that's bugging me. 00:59:33.620 --> 00:59:37.440 But like I look at my, I just brought up an air quality app. 00:59:37.880 --> 00:59:41.380 It says it's fine right now. So... 00:59:42.340 --> 00:59:47.720 I don't know. Like, yeah, I'm looking at the air quality index at places all 00:59:47.720 --> 00:59:50.520 around me, and they're fine. 00:59:50.720 --> 00:59:58.140 They're all green, really low readings, nothing like— the closest yellow thing 00:59:58.140 --> 01:00:02.600 is quite a few miles away, and they're scattered in a couple specific locations. 01:00:03.100 --> 01:00:07.680 So I don't know what's up with me. I hope I'm not getting sick again. I don't want to be sick. 01:00:08.300 --> 01:00:09.980 Anyway, I'm going to wrap it up. 01:00:11.240 --> 01:00:15.340 Thank you for joining me for yet another curmudgeons corner. 01:00:17.080 --> 01:00:23.440 Go to our website curmudgeons-corner.com check out all the ways to you can see our archives, 01:00:23.960 --> 01:00:29.220 you can see all the ways to contact us you can go to our patreon and give us 01:00:29.220 --> 01:00:33.660 money of course at various levels we will we will mention you on the show we 01:00:33.660 --> 01:00:36.100 will ring a bell we will send you a postcard We'll send you a mug. 01:00:37.120 --> 01:00:41.320 At $2 a month or more, you'll get invited to our Curmudgeon's Corner Slack, 01:00:41.320 --> 01:00:47.020 where Yvonne and I and various listeners are chatting throughout the week, 01:00:47.200 --> 01:00:49.160 sharing links, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 01:00:49.480 --> 01:00:54.940 And let's see. Oh, oh, oh, I should mention, I have not shared on the Curmudgeon's 01:00:54.940 --> 01:00:58.780 Corner Slack that story that I mentioned I was saving for Yvonne. 01:00:58.900 --> 01:01:02.040 And obviously, I've not shared it here either. So I'm still saving it for Yvonne. 01:01:02.040 --> 01:01:09.880 I will give you the hint that it involves almost running out of charge on my EV vehicle, 01:01:10.280 --> 01:01:17.440 having problems charging at superchargers, and how all of that end up being resolved. 01:01:17.740 --> 01:01:19.660 There's my spoiler. 01:01:20.580 --> 01:01:27.460 But from the Curmudgeon Square Slack, a highlight that we have not talked about on the show today, 01:01:28.610 --> 01:01:33.670 Let me find something good, something good from the, I usually, 01:01:34.110 --> 01:01:37.310 well, Yvonne usually picks these, but he usually picks from the random channel, 01:01:37.470 --> 01:01:42.410 which is the less serious stuff or tech, tech stuff often goes into random channel 01:01:42.410 --> 01:01:44.390 as opposed to like serious news stuff. 01:01:46.050 --> 01:01:48.210 Oh, polymarket. You know, those 01:01:48.210 --> 01:01:52.130 folks who are doing sort of the online gambling, they call it a market. 01:01:52.130 --> 01:02:00.170 You invest in futures for an event, and the price effectively represents the 01:02:00.170 --> 01:02:03.110 percent chance people think that it will happen. 01:02:03.310 --> 01:02:08.950 And it'll either end up going to 100% if it happens or to zero if it does not. 01:02:09.190 --> 01:02:14.930 So, for instance, you know, if something's a 50-50 chance and you buy it at 01:02:14.930 --> 01:02:19.330 50 cents, then if it does happen, you double your money. If it doesn't happen, 01:02:19.450 --> 01:02:23.070 you lose all your money. Basically, that's how I understand it to work. 01:02:23.190 --> 01:02:26.190 I could be wrong because I've never actually tried this. 01:02:26.570 --> 01:02:31.190 But anyway, Polymarket has apparently opened a bar in Washington, 01:02:31.370 --> 01:02:33.070 D.C. called the Situation Room. 01:02:33.350 --> 01:02:39.490 The quick one-line description is, imagine a sports bar, but just for situation monitoring. 01:02:40.130 --> 01:02:42.930 Live feeds from X, flight radar. 01:02:45.950 --> 01:02:51.330 Bloomberg terminals, and polymarket screens so that people can live in real 01:02:51.330 --> 01:02:57.390 time, watch all kinds of world situations and determine how they want to bet on them, I guess. 01:02:59.490 --> 01:03:06.430 I guess it's no different than sports bars or the places that you go to like 01:03:06.430 --> 01:03:07.990 bet on horses or whatever. 01:03:10.950 --> 01:03:17.730 I can't see myself being, you know, I'm kind of lying. 01:03:17.930 --> 01:03:23.830 I don't see myself getting into the betting part of this. That just seems kind of dumb to me. 01:03:24.850 --> 01:03:30.530 Although Bruce once, one of our listeners told me that he made some bets based 01:03:30.530 --> 01:03:32.890 on what I was saying over on election graphs. 01:03:32.930 --> 01:03:37.170 And he made some money a couple of elections ago. So I don't know if it was 01:03:37.170 --> 01:03:40.790 Polymarket or something else. But so I don't know. 01:03:40.910 --> 01:03:47.990 But honestly, the idea of a place that you can go to sit where the screens, 01:03:48.130 --> 01:03:50.310 instead of being random sports games, 01:03:51.010 --> 01:03:58.530 are, you know, news channels and tickers and charts and graphs. 01:03:59.130 --> 01:04:01.910 Okay let me not lie that would 01:04:01.910 --> 01:04:06.570 be kind of cool now I wouldn't necessarily want to sit there and drink or whatever 01:04:06.570 --> 01:04:12.390 but like if there was a restaurant like this you know yeah I could see that 01:04:12.390 --> 01:04:20.390 I could see one as it is if I go to restaurants if there's a screen that's on a news channel, 01:04:20.970 --> 01:04:26.650 instead of on sports am I going to position myself so I can see that screen 01:04:26.650 --> 01:04:31.950 yes yes I am I'll generally ignore the sports ones. Yeah, generally. 01:04:32.410 --> 01:04:35.030 There are occasional exceptions, but it's rare. 01:04:36.130 --> 01:04:41.130 Yeah. Okay, I think that's a show. I'm going to wrap this sucker up. 01:04:42.510 --> 01:04:45.790 Hopefully, we will be back to a normal show with Yvonne next week. 01:04:46.570 --> 01:04:50.290 In the meantime, and hopefully, I'm feeling really, actually, 01:04:50.470 --> 01:04:53.210 100% better. And we'll talk about more news. 01:04:53.530 --> 01:04:59.950 Because, you know, the Iran stuff is important. And it will probably get worse over the next week. 01:05:00.390 --> 01:05:05.110 Just, there's my bet. There's my polymarket bet. 01:05:05.430 --> 01:05:10.770 Iran will get worse over the next week. Of course, they're probably much more 01:05:10.770 --> 01:05:15.350 specific, like, you know, bet on the price of oil at a certain date and whether 01:05:15.350 --> 01:05:18.450 or not thing X or Y will happen by a specific date, whatever. 01:05:18.610 --> 01:05:22.070 I'm just very amorphous blobby. 01:05:22.770 --> 01:05:27.390 The Iran situation will get worse, not better, in the next week. We'll see. 01:05:29.230 --> 01:05:33.250 Okay. Is it time for the outro music? I think it's time for the outro music. 01:05:33.990 --> 01:05:37.970 And then I'll figure out what I'm doing. Bye, folks. 01:05:38.850 --> 01:05:39.550 .