Podcast 32 Transcript

A transcript for Episode 32: This kid doesn't even know how to drive (2008-10-03).

Pronoiac passed the podcast to otter.ai.

Summary keywords

people, totally, filter, paul, joanne, librarian, book, posted, read, week, link, blog, drive, meetup, thought, metal, banned, story, tajikistan, repave

Transcript

Jessamyn 0:00 And welcome to the metal filter odd. So this is podcast 32. Yep. The last one we did was August 25, I guess when we had Koko GIAC on.

mathowie 0:39 Yep. So this would be basically everything happened in September.

Jessamyn 0:42 So here are the songs that I liked. And it was really weird looking at meta filter music. There was like people who were like just uploading, like random songs. Somebody who was using Metafilter music for a podcast, which is kind of cool. And yet not really. Not really what it's for, you know?

mathowie 1:00 Yeah, no, I came up like on the first day of Metafilter music like, can I upload my podcast? And I was like, No, it has to be music. Sorry. I just didn't want to be a podcast host.

Jessamyn 1:11 Yeah, well, and the funny thing is, if you go to that guy's website, he's actually hosting the podcast on his own website. Also. I think, you know, so it's not like, he's just ganking the sort of free bandwidth. And it's a good podcast, but yeah, it's not music.

mathowie 1:27 So a lot has happened in the last month. Yes. You became national news. I think I did. That's safe to say, for what? Sarah Palin and banning books

Jessamyn 1:40 that I was like, I got a purple bicycle. not that interesting.

mathowie 1:45 No, it's It's pretty crazy. I mean, what's it like to be at the center of that? So yeah, well, the original issue is that she

Jessamyn 1:55 so why don't you like give people some backstory? If God forbid, they've missed it? Yeah.

mathowie 2:00 So what? So we get this dumb? vice presidential nominee? nominee had picked her. He picked her. And then where did it come up at? I think Newsweek right. That's high

Jessamyn 2:16 magazine. Time Magazine wrote an article about these kind of personal her having a run in with the librarian. Yeah, in masala. And they made a connection, sort of their own connection. Like she lets her religious views interfere with governing, governing. And you can tell because she fought with the librarian about a whole bunch of books, and I just sort of posted it to my blog being like, this is interesting. Librarians should know this.

mathowie 2:47 Yeah. And then you know, something about the vice presidential nominee from that. The kind of person that would ask, how would I go about removing books like is says a lot. But the whole Yeah, it was like, like declawed, because there was one lame ass comment and you did everything you could to say, this isn't substantiate someone posted. What is this post?

Jessamyn 3:15 Someone posted a comment that was like, This is the list of books that Sarah Palin wanted banned in my blog. And people told me it was in other blogs, but I didn't see it anywhere else. Yeah. And you said his name and email address and I was like, I was like, There's no way that's true.

mathowie 3:30 Yeah. And you said this isn't you know, this is totally unsubstantiated. Oh, and because there was two or three books on it that came out after 1996 Yeah, the higher honor Bori was deemed false. You know that like

Jessamyn 3:44 and it was in comment 11 of like a 250 comment. Yeah, blog post meanwhile, the Sarah Palin threads on Metafilter are going into the four digits Yeah. And I'm just like what the fuck you know, like he hit national news because Yeah,

mathowie 4:01 the thing that killed me was like this is how sausage gets made like seeing it live and happen and you were right in the middle of it was a something shocking comes out like she wants to she wanted she investigated how to ban books so that just says a lot.

Jessamyn 4:16 Yeah, how to Yeah, it wasn't like what's your challenge procedure? It was like what if I want daddy's remain off the shelf?

mathowie 4:22 But then the like national news cycle churn of it like through the noise machine was that a she never banned a book. So therefore the entire story is moot. And be the suppose it banned book list is a falsehood and the web is spreading lies. And it was

Jessamyn 4:42 misinformation was like all over the place, right? Because there was actually some major news outlets and you know, I don't need to belabor this again, but there was some major news outlets that were like the librarian was never fired. And yeah, no, she was fired. No, she was fired and then she got reinstated and then She left but so depending on where you came in in the story Yeah, what you thought happened was totally different meanwhile I'm getting all this hate mail from like lunatics. Yeah, basically on both sides of it, like on both sides of it being like, shame on you and like, I don't even get that like I'm a stranger on the internet like don't enter

mathowie 5:19 you know, um library and stuff you didn't know become national? No, I

Jessamyn 5:24 mean, I kind of knew it was kind of going to be a thing, right? Because book banning pisses off librarians. Yeah, it makes them angry. But you know, you think librarians would be really good. Researchers have this kind of stuff. And the funny thing was, there was a hopes Oh my god. It made it to Snopes. And the whole funny thing turned out to be and I don't even know what to believe and what not to believe. But I actually got email from the guy who posted that comment, basically saying he didn't post a comment his hippie roommate, I'm not lying, hippie roommate posted it kind of joshing with him. And now the poor guys getting all this hate mail. I mean, I made him like friend me on Facebook, so that I knew it was actually him this time, which was, you know, more ridiculous stuff. But that the whole thing started out like an lol for the lols kind of thing. It's like one of the few web memes I think that hasn't been started by 4chan in the last like four years. You know what I mean?

mathowie 6:22 Like, when you gave me the IP address on the comment, because I was wondering if it was like some weird Republican operative this plant disinformation

Jessamyn 6:31 Who's mad at me for Metafilter? Yeah,

mathowie 6:33 no, it was. It was from like an Ohio Medical address. Yeah, no, I don't think it was school. I think it was sort of like, like a pharmaceutical company office PC. Right. Right. Right. Right. How could it be as hippie roommate? I think that's bullshit.

Jessamyn 6:49 Well, I don't know. But I know the guy is a real guy. And he's you know,

mathowie 6:54 where did he get the list?

Jessamyn 6:56 It's it's an it's a list like it's a known list of like, frequently challenged or banned books.

mathowie 7:02 Why did he think it was the official banned list? He

Jessamyn 7:05 didn't he was just been fucker about it. I think. I know, I find the whole thing. Like who spend their whole time being like he said, she said, Oh, and if you want to know something actually interesting. It's actually banned books week this week. Oh, right. Yeah, like right now. Yeah, I really wish the ALA website wasn't terrible. But it is and I'm sorry about that. But

mathowie 7:28 bookstore has their awesome window display up for it, which is like a book with a giant chain lock around it this week.

Jessamyn 7:38 Yeah, I mean, the real problem with Banned Books Week as a holiday or whatever, as a librarian holiday, it's also Jewish New Year tonight, so Toba to you but is that they kind of conflate banning with challenging? Yeah. So the fact that somebody said I don't think people should read daddy's roommate, which is, you know, a book about a kid with a dad with a partner, a male partner, is really different from being like, I don't think anybody should read it. Like, I think it's totally cool to like, or not cool, but like it's acceptable to go through the process. You know, I don't like this book. Well, here's how we have it. Here's our selection policy. Everybody learns something. The book stays on the shelf. Most of the time. It's fine. That's different from you know, Sarah Palin being like, I want you to get rid of daddy's roommate, because no one should read it. You know? Yeah. So yeah, national news. blar.

mathowie 8:30 Um, what else happened in September? Aside from meta filter, you probably went to several meetups. Um, I'm

Jessamyn 8:37 Jedi.

mathowie 8:39 I totally slept through one of my meet up there.

Jessamyn 8:41 Yeah, I saw that. Wait, I missed the Portland meet up. I

mathowie 8:43 can't believe I just totally forgot about it.

Jessamyn 8:47 Yeah, did I go to any meetups scared now that my calendar exists in like two separate places.

mathowie 8:54 You mean, probably with Monica, Vermont meetup?

Jessamyn 9:00 Well, I had my birthday, which is kind of like a meetup. Oh, no, actually. But no, I did have my 40th birthday and the 40th birthday. Jasmine's birthday card, which was actually pretty awesome. But no, no, I don't think I've been to meetup would you say?

mathowie 9:16 Oh, yeah. Wow. September as late meetup month we only had 12345789 1011 only had 12 meetups on three continents, two continents. That's late August and must have been looks like there's twice as many do you enjoy? Oh, and

Jessamyn 9:36 if people are curious the little picture link on the Met up post on the on the meetup list actually goes right to the pictures now. Yeah. So that's great. Yeah, we really does. PB totally fixed it. Yeah,

mathowie 9:51 we list but we listed the actual photo links on that MIT meetup. Right. Oh, right.

Jessamyn 9:57 Right. Oh, and hey, you bye a so called like some huge amount this past month too, didn't you?

mathowie 10:03 Yeah, when all week long trip it was fantastic. The most amazing thing in the world. So

Jessamyn 10:09 was it like a fundraising thing? Or was it literally just like a big bike ride?

mathowie 10:12 It's like a bike ride vacation. Not really not a race, just sort of, hey, we're gonna ride 60 miles a day for a week. It seemed pretty good. And out. Yeah, it cost like 1000 bucks and it was a

Jessamyn 10:26 wait, you pay 1000 bucks. And then you ride your bicycle. 600 miles. Yep. But that. Where do I sign up?

mathowie 10:33 That means they had like our tent sitting there with our bags sitting there for

Jessamyn 10:38 Wait, you pay 1000 bucks and you get to sleep in a tent for a week. Yes, it's better and better.

mathowie 10:43 Camping. But then you have no idea what I mean. It's like moving a small city.

Jessamyn 10:48 No, I did it with a I had a boyfriend who did the AIDS ride one year. Yeah. And it's the same. It's exactly the same kind of logistical structure

mathowie 10:56 must be there must be like 10 to 20 semi trucks of stuff. There's like, you know, two mobile kitchens. There's like all the mobile showers all the mobile toilets all the, like the actually carrying our bags and the tents like and an elk. And so yeah, and we and we would plop into towns of like 200 people and it'd be 2000 of us. So it was like

Jessamyn 11:18 2000 people. Yeah, wait, that's 2000 people at 1000 bucks ahead? That's like $2 million.

mathowie 11:25 Yes, it's 2 million. They have a $2 million operating budget. They're totally a nonprofit. They have a million dollar fund that they give money to all the towns we go to, like you can apply for a grant and they'll they'll like repave, your pague playground and buy you a new soccer field. Like with all the money from these writers is pretty cool. It's not it's nice. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's total. It was started by an Oregonian reporter who was like from Wales. And he was doing stories in the 80s on these little like lumber towns that were going under. And he was like, This is so sad. This is what I saw happen, you know, with coal mining back in, you know, Wales, and

Jessamyn 12:04 how we got to write the jobs go away, and then the towns implode on themselves? Yeah.

mathowie 12:07 And then everyone gets into drugs, or you know, depression, and it's horrible. So he was like, What can we do? Like I need to get like Portlander people with money that want to come see beautiful places and teach these people how to do like tourism. So he came up with this bike ride to we had only goes to like tiny towns that could use the help. And then all the leftover money, they have something a few employees a year that do nothing but plan all the logistics of it.

Jessamyn 12:33 So that sounds awesome. We've been like talking about that kind of stuff where I live, which is also like so tiny towns with missing jobs and stuff.

mathowie 12:41 Yeah. Someone said there was a Vermont ride or a ride around there that was similar, like a week long thing. We visited a bunch of places. I think

Jessamyn 12:49 there is because I think I'm on it. Like I think they go on my road.

mathowie 12:53 It was pretty extraordinary. I mean, the pulling to me, it's there, like a few interesting things. One was like learning how to like, take a trip on a bike versus a car was amazing. Like I'd never done totally pack differently. Totally. Yeah, well, also seeing the world go by 15 miles an hour and being able to talk to people while you do it. And

Jessamyn 13:13 that's kind of what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is about. Yeah, on a motorcycle. But still, like you get a totally different view. It's not like you watch the world go by you like on a screen through your windshield is like

mathowie 13:26 I finally learned like a whole new appreciation for people who are crazy and like ride their bike across continents and have a wonderful day. I was thinking like all the road trips, I've taken my life just hundreds of 1000s of miles of road trips, like one or two interesting things a day happened when you're out of your car. On a bike. It's like one or two thing, interesting things happen an hour while you're riding like because you're meeting people and like you're seeing amazing stuff. And you can stop anytime you feel like it's right. Totally, totally. It was fantastic.

Jessamyn 13:56 That's so great. And meanwhile, Josh and I took care of everything. Yeah. And I have no more or less you were like on email for like, 10 minutes. Yeah. And

mathowie 14:04 I came home and I just sort of set Google Reader to like, everything mark is read and he want to catch up and brand new day. Don't know what happened in the first week. I was so nice to stay away from politics for a week. Nobody talks at night.

Jessamyn 14:21 That's sort of what I did. You know, I went to Michigan for a couple days and talked to librarians about computers and drove around the Upper Peninsula. And I came back and I was like, what debate what?

mathowie 14:33 It was great to be with, you know, I don't know if we ever talks about this. It's great to be unapologetically with people who love what you love. Like, I mean, I mean, you feel great at library competence, right? Like you can kind of, you know, yeah, totally

Jessamyn 14:47 well and we all agree about stuff like privacy and freedom of information, intellectual freedom, and it's not even that everybody's a lefty. It's just that we sort of share the same values about work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like

mathowie 15:01 I remember going into like tech conferences and like just having this total relaxation the moment I walked through the door I'm like I do like, Oh, these people get me. Yeah, and I can be as big of a dork as I want 1000 More dorky people than me and I don't have to worry about looking like a dork or saying something. Right? Yeah, danger, like in a Starbucks because they're dorks too. So it was great to be with people and spandex and riding bikes all day that just wanted to talk about bikes.

Jessamyn 15:29 That's so cool. Oh, well, I should mention, like, one of the whole reasons I was in Houghton, Michigan was because I was going to Marquette and somebody from metal filter who works at Michigan Tech, or no, he's a student at Michigan Tech. But his mom's the provost was like, hey, maybe you should come to Houghton to and so we went back and forth. And, you know, I wound up spending an extra day, thanks to an invite from a nice metal filter person who's like a techie guy, not a librarian guy. But yeah, I got to go give a talk. And so it was kind of like a meet up, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So now I know Metafilter user arco, who's a librarian in DC and metal filter user acro, who, you know, works with the libraries in Houghton, Michigan. Shout out. Yes. So the rest of the website when we weren't talking about politics. There were two jobs one of which I actually missed last time. So it's actually older than than our last podcast, but so one of them is the build me a treehouse. Oh, job you that. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a really basic, like, I need someone to build me a treehouse and give me instructions on how to build a treehouse. Thank you. Yeah, and then the other one is, go be an English teacher in Tajikistan. Oh, wow. It's just I sent you a link. No, I

mathowie 16:50 meant Where's Oh, where's

Jessamyn 16:51 Tajikistan? It's it's in your Skype window.

mathowie 16:55 I don't know where it is in the world. I

Jessamyn 16:58 make this your wiki pedia broken all I'm gonna do is like send you a let me give you a link. It's next to Pakistan. Yeah.

mathowie 17:04 Factbook. Okay. That gets done.

Jessamyn 17:09 You know, what pack has never heard of it? Well, it's a former, you know, it's near Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kurdistan. And whatever it's it hasn't been independent for it was it was part of the Soviet Union. Okay, cool. And then it had a devastating civil war. You can read this in Wikipedia, same as me. But it's kind of like it's a really interesting kind of freaky place. And apparently Metafilter user que te works for some sort of ESL concern. I don't really know. But there's a school there. And if somebody would like to go live in Tajikistan, and make 20k, or something like that,

mathowie 17:47 Oh, I forgot to look at projects. What the hell is the project?

Jessamyn 17:51 Oh, I've got a whole list of projects that I that I loved. Two of them are library. Well, they're kind of library projects, like one of the things that I always to hold on, I'm just bringing up the page, one of the things that I always do is, you know, look for kind of library oriented stuff and posted to librarian dotnet. Because it's too easy to be like grumpy, grumpy, grumpy, you know, everything's, everything's terrible. And so there's a really cool, just like, hey, here's my blog. thing called library finds.

mathowie 18:21 Oh, yeah. Cool stuff found in the library. Yeah,

Jessamyn 18:25 but like, so like, yeah, cool stuff, found a library. That's awesome. Right. But like, the other thing about it is, it's not just like, oh, my gosh, my blog, but it's also like, really good photography, neat little stories. And so it takes something that would just be oh, here's a blog about my thing, and turns it into something that like you really want to check out because the pictures are pretty. And you know, there's, there's just neat stuff in there. And so I can show it off to library types who are kind of, you know, tech, curious, or maybe tech, hostile, or, you know, whatever it is, and be like, hey, look, here's a neat little blog that has something you might really like. Yeah, very cool in it. And the same thing I found with the short meal service blog, which was basically like, it's Twitter for like little tiny meal ideas. But people ask me all the time, why should I give a shit about Twitter? And, you know, it's fine. If you don't give a shit about Twitter, you know what I mean? But for people who are already interested in it, something like this. Oh, look, it's little. It's little food. Is is is cool. And it's a cool site. So I linked to both of them and librarian dotnet and both people were like, Whoa, tons of people, you know, the library finds thing especially. Wow, did

mathowie 19:49 you see this muddy stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no weird. It's kind of crazy how it works. It's a similarity finder. And So they just give you I was looking at men's shoes and like, I have this problem all the time, they should use this like Zappos. Zappos should buy these people. Zappos is like, Hello, welcome to Zappos we have 50,000 shoes, what would you like? And I'm like, I just want something that looks cool. And there's no way to just thumb and

Jessamyn 20:18 I like this shoe. Yeah, and are some and

mathowie 20:21 everything. It's like Amazon, you know, you just land on one shoes page and you can't figure out what's next to it or near it's not like a store. So this is like, just totally fascinating because I can find one hip shoe out of like a screenshot of 500 shoes.

Jessamyn 20:35 You click on it, it's gone like a shoe you like and then yeah, go

mathowie 20:39 colors are similar styles are similar. I don't know what algorithms are using this really fascinating because it's so like, you're like, holy shit. Like, here's 500 499 shoes that look like that first shoe like, oh, that's an amazing sorter.

Jessamyn 20:55 Yeah, it's an amazing sorter and and then it just takes you what it takes. You

mathowie 20:59 know, I guess it is a Zappos, like interface this kid made because there's like a buyer at Zappos, that he must fit. Maybe they have, oh, okay, they're different. Or buy

Jessamyn 21:09 it. shoes.com it basically takes you to a different seat. Now I've found my dream shoes. My dream clogs just by

mathowie 21:17 I have so many orange, hip looking twos in front of me. Oh, my God. orange shoes.

Jessamyn 21:24 You sound like me? Yeah,

mathowie 21:26 I like orange shoes.

Jessamyn 21:27 Send the link. Put the link.

mathowie 21:29 Oh, no, I'm lost because I clicked on something else. Green this is it's really cool. It's finding similar. I don't know how they do it. This is like it's shockingly accurate and pretty cool.

Jessamyn 21:42 And it's from a meta filter user who's been a member for two and a half years. And I guess what other projects is he? This was some little like, what did the Sudoku slam he did to like a Sudoku and Sudoku 2.0 site? And then this one? Yeah. And this is

mathowie 21:59 just like some little school project like, hey, we just did this in a business plan competition.

Jessamyn 22:06 Well, and as soon as you see something like this, you're suddenly like, Oh, my God, the rest of the internet sucks so hard. Because because this is possible for humans to do and yet, et cetera. So

mathowie 22:18 yeah, that'd be Oh, yeah. Cool.

Jessamyn 22:22 The other thing that I really liked was just a little website that grew out of I don't remember if it was the Sarah Palin thread, or basically someone was like blar blar blar pull it up politics politics, politics, Ivy League elitists, blah Oh yeah, that's always what people point it's sort of the Republican like working class Oh, you Democrats Ivy League elitist and so somebody

mathowie 22:46 from Mikos post? Yeah, yeah. As a rundown of every every what Ivy League every

Jessamyn 22:53 well it explains what Ivy League is first of all, which is like a division for sports.

mathowie 23:00 Only nine colleges or seven colleges or something.

Jessamyn 23:04 Yeah, yeah. And so the website basically has like who all the who all the Ivy League grad people are and there's a lot on both sides of the aisle I guess is what they say.

mathowie 23:17 Would you say your trainee right there at the top? Oh, totally.

Jessamyn 23:20 And that's not I mean, that's the whole point is there's nothing wrong with it like go into kind of a you know, you see it as a big fancy school using it's a book down a is ineffective and it's flat out flat out wrong, right. So I just like that as a yay little metal filter.

mathowie 23:38 That reminds me of the seen that graphic floating around with the cars and the houses.

Jessamyn 23:44 Oh, yeah. How many cars and how Obama is one car and one bicycle?

mathowie 23:50 Yeah, this is like who's the elitist and there's like 13 cars and eight houses on one side. And there's one car one house on the other side, and a bicycle and a bicycle and who's constantly referred to as elitist? Yeah, exactly.

Jessamyn 24:04 Yeah, I didn't see the debate. So yeah, I I skipped him. Does that make me a bad American

mathowie 24:11 who makes you a smart person? Yay. Smart. Guess. Should we launch into metta filter stuff?

Jessamyn 24:22 Yeah, sure. I have now I'm going to be a little I'll make a list of all these posts because they're open in my other open in my other window. Oh, yeah. But that should be it should be Oh, we

mathowie 24:35 got three favorites. So

Jessamyn 24:37 only three favorites in ask are in the regular regular filters. I don't have that many either. I have one too.

mathowie 24:44 There's so much political.

Jessamyn 24:46 No, I have a ton. shit done. Why don't you start?

mathowie 24:51 I only have three because I was gone for a week and avoiding all the politics and financial filter. There's no like amazing Financial filter posts to me so yeah, let me see the one crazy cool. The Honda's Yes, that was one of mine to Honda add that relied on grooves cut in the road when you drive over them making actually a song as the grooves changed, so they temporarily cut up some road and then repaved it. But in the course of like after they taped it at film, the commercial, it was open to the public stills a road for a couple of weeks before they started repaving it. So there's all these YouTube videos of people driving over. It's like, what's the song? I can't remember something totally classic. Oh, yeah. The William Tell Overture. Yeah. Yeah, isn't it the Lone Ranger theme?

Jessamyn 25:51 Oh, the William Tell Overture is? Oh, I'm thinking?

mathowie 25:54 Yeah, you're thinking like, some war song.

Jessamyn 25:57 The Apocalypse Now song? It's Vivaldi. Yeah.

mathowie 26:02 Whatever the Lone Ranger did I can't remember it. But it's funny. And there's all these people on YouTube.

Jessamyn 26:08 Oh, did didn't, didn't didn't didn't know that sounded

nothing but Iranian music and like a metal filter music songs for the last like week. So.

mathowie 26:22 So yeah, very inventive sort of add. I have no idea what kind of add it's gonna turn into but pretty crazy kind of cool art project slash ad.

Jessamyn 26:35 That's very cool. This was one of the ones that I really liked. Just because it was like a combination of like, a story I didn't know with a whole ton of links. And just a whole bunch of people loved it. It's the story. Mother shock, posted it about. The director of the Harvard Observatory was like totally fed up with his assistants. And he basically said his maid could do a better job. And then he gave her the job, and took them up on the offer and work there. And then she hired like, 40 women, you know, in the 30 years that she was there who then went on to do awesome stuff. Of course, you know, at first the women work for free, and bla bla bla bla bla bla, but at any rate, yeah, it's a really well linked kind of really awesome story.

mathowie 27:18 There. Crap loads of Early computing is filled with rooms full of women doing computation of women

Jessamyn 27:25 computers. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because computer used to be the person

mathowie 27:30 that even carries over into like electronic computing a bit. But yeah, pretty cool.

Jessamyn 27:36 Yeah, yeah. So I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that posts a lot. I mean, and then the one that I of course, did not enjoy, but was very interesting, because Hold on, I'm gonna make sure I have the link for it was the David Foster Wallace obit, which wound up having a lot of just really good remembrances? And it was, like an obit post where people were mostly decent. And yeah, I don't know. I mean, the whole thing was just incredibly sad. But the thread itself was sort of interesting. If you're one of those people that doesn't really read obit posts, or you think they're stupid, or you think they're like just a whole bunch of dots. This was sort of more than that. I felt like because a lot of people already sort of knew the news. Yeah.

mathowie 28:21 I actually, since I didn't, I've never read David Foster Wallace, really? I don't know. I like missed him in college, and so never had the chance to catch up and the little things I've read, you know, he's kind of, he's got an annoying style. Yeah,

Jessamyn 28:38 I mean, you either kind of like his thing, or Yeah.

mathowie 28:41 I mean, I wish I was like, 20 again, and it was new to me, I would totally love it. I think I would

Jessamyn 28:46 I feel that way about Kurt Vonnegut. Where like, I really loved loving Kurt Vonnegut when I was younger now that I'm older I'm kind of like

mathowie 28:55 he came at the perfect time for me so like, deal to me but so reading this I'm completely disjointed from this whole thing, but it was great to watch some of you are angry just like how fucking dare you and like calling them names while other people are completely

Jessamyn 29:11 always do that. It was natural. Yeah, really strange. Chickens. totally

mathowie 29:15 natural. Like it's a natural. I mean, because it's a selfish act. So I mean, there are all these people, you know, kind of fighting

Jessamyn 29:23 itself is just isn't the word for it. You know what I mean? Like, that's kind of true, but like, you know, selfish also kind of has all these connotations that I don't think suicide really deserves if you know what I mean. It's not like keeping the extra slice of pie. You know?

mathowie 29:39 The Did you see the Paul Newman story?

Jessamyn 29:43 Yeah, I did. I sat by that. I think I was going to and then I went out the door. Yeah, it was huiskes Whose story was that? Some girl the one about Paul Newman being like, What do you mean you don't know how to drive when

mathowie 29:56 overall day to Yeah, just a story of an act. there who worked at his local Playhouse and I emailed her going, would you want to read this? Like this American lifestyle? Like recorded on your computer? No, we

Jessamyn 30:09 should get people to do that. Yeah, I'm

mathowie 30:11 like she's an actor, right? She's probably pretty good at it. She could probably like, do a convincing story of this. That would be so much I actually read

Jessamyn 30:20 it out loud to my sister. Oh, it's really interesting that because my sister was visiting this weekend, and I was like, Oh, my gosh, great story. And she's like, what? And I read the whole thing out? Yeah,

mathowie 30:28 I was reading. I read it last night. And I was like, This is so great. We can't read this on the podcast. It's way too fucking long. And then I'm like, I emailed there, like two hours ago. So I haven't heard anything back yet.

Jessamyn 30:39 Okay, what else? What else did you see from the, from the main part of this?

mathowie 30:45 Did you watch the Adam Savage Swan our one man show thing. Like he gave a talk?

Jessamyn 30:51 I did not.

mathowie 30:53 He gave a talk. I don't know what it was, is this was a month ago. So I can't remember. But I sort of, I think I ripped this on Google Video. I like went through all these hoops to get it on my television because like an hour, and I really wanted it like sit and concentrate on it. Enjoy it. So I moved the I think there's the second or third link is a way to grab it on Google the it's like an hour long talk. You know, Adam Savage is going to be at the college auditorium this Thursday at eight o'clock. This is basically one of those things. But it was just great, super awesome. Like little talk he gave about how he's obsessed. How, you know, geeks have obsessions, and wonderful obsessions and how far they follow him and how it's sort of this quest for knowledge and how there's nothing to be ashamed of with that and great things happen. And the best part, you know, for fans of the show is like the last 10 or 15 minutes is like, here's all the wacky crap we couldn't do on TV. Oh, awesome. That's great. It's one of them's like he's on a treadmill drunk. It's the funniest thing in the world. They did a few tests where they're drinking and checking their response rates and reflexes and driving. They're like purposely drunk driving and stuff. And one of them he's like on a treadmill. I don't know why it's never made it into the show. totally drunk, like five shots of Scotch or something. And yeah, he can't is balanced is off and he keeps trying to run on the treadmill. And he crashes really hard. And it's hilarious and slomo it's Oh, my God, the best thing. And then in it, he mentioned like two things that couldn't be in the show that became sort of news. I don't know how far they are. I think Boeing Boeing had a fit over one of them. They're gonna RFID thing they're showing that like, right, right

Jessamyn 32:41 and did that turn into like its own? Yeah, coast. I remember reading that somewhere else.

mathowie 32:46 It was that boiling, boiling and Slashdot picked it up. I don't know how far it went. But so they're gonna do us a story on all the security risks of having an RFID RFID radio frequency identifier in your like, you're walking by can you steal someone's personal details, and you kind of can with, you know, five bucks of parts from RadioShack. And so the right sensors, yeah, so like the, I guess the lead counsel for American Express and all the other credit cards basically told the network to never play it certainly never did.

Jessamyn 33:21 Oh, right. Yeah, I did. It's all sort of coming back to me.

mathowie 33:25 Oh, funny thing was they tested are are those white strips? Do they ask for your teeth? Do they work as good as the dentist or not? And I guess in testing they realize those white strips you buy at the store don't do anything at all and it's all in your head if you think you'll look better and the stuff that the dentist actually does whiten your teeth. So crest and all like Discovery Channels like we can't play this because like crystal never you know, advertiser this again? Yeah, like their entire business model relies on people thinking at work. So yeah.

Jessamyn 33:57 Right. Yeah. Mythbusters is only good for myths not for product deep bunkmate. Yeah,

mathowie 34:01 so yeah, they caved on that.

Jessamyn 34:05 That's cool, though. That's that was really cool. Right now I'm gonna go grab it on Google video and watch it Yeah. And

mathowie 34:10 the first half hour is just him talking about how he just became obsessed with the dodo bird and making his own and, and he's kind of so he has a lot of experience in the movie. He's on this forum. You know, he like reads FARC meta filter in this like movie prop nerd forum for all right, because that's what that's what he did before Miss Plus, yeah, so all they do is make movie prop. So imagine a forum of nerds going like, I don't think the patch on the left shoulder is the right size. You know, if you look at this frame, grabbed from the movie, and like so yeah, people are constantly trying to recreate props from films. Uh huh. So yeah, the dodo bird. He kind of goes like to that level of extreme with making an accurate dodo bird himself.

Jessamyn 34:56 That's awesome. I just saw one at the Peabody Museum. A couple months ago, except I think it's made from chicken feathers because I think there aren't any feathers like extant. Yeah, yeah, totally go away.

mathowie 35:09 Hundreds or is it? Really? Yeah. Well, they

Jessamyn 35:12 were only lived on like Mauritania, you know? So yeah, they were doomed. Big, stupid, flightless birds. Oh. So sad. Here's the last. There's a couple other posts I really liked. But the other one that I think really needs pointing out is a printable version of solitaire civilization that's small enough that you can actually print and play on a plane. Oh, it's like a pad of paper and a deck of cards was totally awesome. What

mathowie 35:44 does it actually look like? Is there like a PDF or something? I saw this but I'd never played the game. So where's the actual thing? Downloadable the advanced cars scenarios? I don't know what the hell this game is. So

Jessamyn 35:57 yeah, you need gosh, yeah, they're they're like cards that you can print out. And then you know, that's basically Yes, smaller versions of all the things. Including artwork is a civilization the

mathowie 36:11 thing where you're like making culture and people. Yeah, you're thinking SimCity I think yeah, no, but ya know, my wife played civilization like crazy. So I never did really? Yeah, like you set up cities. And yeah, they have to go through revolutions and all that crap, right? How do you play? How do you play it on paper?

Jessamyn 36:32 Maybe you should read this link.

mathowie 36:34 I've never played the game. I have no clue. Though. The last thing I liked was the StackOverflow talk. So a new AskMe edit filter for programmers basically.

Jessamyn 36:46 Whoa, right. Right there. Cortex was on that was great. Yeah. And I

mathowie 36:50 thought it was great. I thought it was most of the metal filters. Kind of snarky about it. But so they've slightly over engineered sort of AskMe edit filter for programmers. I mean, there's like,

Jessamyn 37:01 well, it, it's got voting, it's got.

mathowie 37:04 Like, there's all these ratios of what you can do and who gets like a yellow star like it's kind of they put up

Jessamyn 37:11 but it's an ASCA site. It's a q&a site for programmers. Yeah.

mathowie 37:15 They're sort of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks since it's only a couple of weeks old. Right? And a lot of people are talking about like, well, you're not gonna get really great answers, because the real programmers are busy on real work, and they're not going to help but you know, the guys that want,

Jessamyn 37:31 whatever. So are the real doctors and so are the real lawyers. And we see them on metaphysics. Yeah.

mathowie 37:36 And then cortex is on the podcast to dig up the that was great. I actually listened to I listened the whole thing too. Yeah. Yeah. And John was interesting. They didn't laugh at all of his jokes. Yeah, they, they they're a little straight. They Yeah, talk to him and compared it to metal filter. The one Coding Horror guys on metal filter for the last couple years, Joel? I don't think he is. But they talked about like yeah, and he he really likes metal filter clearly and said he took a lot of lessons from it. So it's really nice. I thought it was good and Josh talked about some stuff about metal filters are back in behind the scenes stuff and yeah,

Jessamyn 38:16 well it's always Yeah, I mean, I Josh is like really well spoken and interesting to talk to so I'm always happy to have him be another person people can talk to when they're like, I want to talk to someone about metal filter, and you're like, talk to John.

mathowie 38:28 I was I was personally laughing a little inside because it was like some questions he couldn't answer that I could answer in a second. Like like what it was like Why were you hired to help a metal filter? And he never Josh never said what I told him an email which is why it was like

Jessamyn 38:44 Jessamyn was going to Australia for two Oh no, it wasn't that

mathowie 38:48 oh, he filled in but like the time I was like, I need to pay this person. It was like when I realized he was better at answering people in meta talk than I was like,

Jessamyn 38:59 right and he was working more than either one of us pretty much and I was by that point even getting paid. Yeah, exactly.

mathowie 39:05 And I was like yeah, when you were better at me than I am at my own job like you know that you deserve

Jessamyn 39:11 Yeah, so that works he doesn't have the kind of ready posse of of anecdotes Yeah, I'm sure helped he'll get up to it Yeah,

mathowie 39:20 it's always like interesting for you know me to you know, I created meta filter and I'm always associated with it, but then other people or other people to like talk in the you know, as the authoritative voice and meta filter

Jessamyn 39:56 we're just talking about Josh that's a really good cortex. That's a good one. way to segue over onto the poor old cortex has a personal blog and his whole domain is blocked for adult slash sex content. Yes. Oh.

mathowie 40:10 So I was reading this by RSS and I wasn't paying attention to like, who's the asker? And I ran across this a couple days ago. I was like, Oh, that's weird. How do you get out of that? Ya know,

Jessamyn 40:23 after basically

mathowie 40:24 it's harmless his blog?

Jessamyn 40:27 Yeah. And he has, I mean, he has nothing. It's not like some of my blogs where it's like, wow, there's some shitty language and a couple links to naked people, but it's mostly okay. Like, is this just totally fine?

mathowie 40:38 Are you really talking about dangling commas in words people make up.

Jessamyn 40:43 I know, websites, basically blocks sort of by IP block, you know, that he shares an IP address with a not safe for work site. And websites doesn't block anything. They just make a list of sexy sites that then other people use to block content. So they're like, oh, it's not us. And yet, give me a break. So that was one of my AskMe, edit filter questions that I thought was interesting. Oh, wow.

mathowie 41:10 Is everyone doing reverse domains? That's cool. Yeah. Did he ever get it?

Jessamyn 41:20 No. I mean, he got in touch with them. I don't think he had actually, I think you can, I don't think you

mathowie 41:24 can shout a request into a black hole. Basically, please take me off this because I'm sure the people that run websites just get 10,000 requests from like office workers to remove X site from the list so they can look at it at work, while they're selling $100,000 software to the companies, you know, they're blocking.

Jessamyn 41:46 I know, Hi, now,

mathowie 41:48 I say employees like adults, but sometimes I guess they don't act like it.

Jessamyn 41:56 Yeah, and do you know, what I've been, you know, reading about and sort of the even big media is that, you know, the work life distinction is blurring. And the more people get, you know, benefit from having employees kind of be at work all the time, the more they should they also feel like they should be able to sort of, you know, check their personal email or whatever the heck they do while they're at work. And so then you have to kind of do this even more complicatedly I guess, the worst

mathowie 42:23 part is fucking solitaire comes on every Windows machine still. All the people I've known that have abused their sort of office job, it was fucking even with the VISTA machines, fucking Solitaire. Yeah, like people, sweeper in solitary, but just do for hours.

Jessamyn 42:43 I usually tell people, that's a good way to learn to use a mouse.

mathowie 42:48 I tell. I tell people to learn how to use proxy servers and other things right around shit.

Jessamyn 42:56 Yeah, well, and that's the thing too, it's like anybody who can, it only kind of keeps out the level of people who aren't going to bust their ass to figure out how to get around it. Here's two more little quickie ones that I that I really liked from AskMe edit filter, both of which kind of play to ask meta filter strengths, one of which is helped me make the periodic table, which is essentially a list of a list of beers that go along with all of the letter O codes. Yeah.

mathowie 43:26 Should be PBR baby PB. Why don't you start answering these questions that have some good Pabst Blue Ribbon for PB?

Jessamyn 43:35 Well, and the problem the only problem is it makes it kind of hard to like, you look at the list, and then you're like, oh, PBR, but then you have to scroll down and figure out that nobody else has, you know, answered your answer yet, because the q&a blog format isn't really perfect for this kind of thing. And then the other one I really like only because I think it points to other things that are cool about us. Metafilter is the what do I need to know to build a cabin in the middle of the woods by myself? And like two or three people who are like, oh, yeah, I did that. Here's what you need to know. You know, instead of this kind of Lozi, Yahoo. Nonsense, yeah,

mathowie 44:10 no, I saw Yeah, I saw that. I thought that sounds cool. Because, you know, I was in these, like, I was in the middle of, like, upper high desert, middle of nowhere, Oregon for a week, and saw like, all these sort of handmade cabins and barns. And almost all of them are like, half, you know, nobody's lived in for 50 years. And I kind of have to cane away. But yeah, it's like, you just get logs, right? And start cutting them and stacking them and not that hard.

Jessamyn 44:37 Yeah, well, I mean, what the hard parts are like, what are you going to do about plumbing? What are you going to do about a foundation, like just a little place to sleep is easy. And then once you start thinking about electricity, and because every hole you put in your house is a place that like weather can get in in addition to electricity and little mice and but yeah, I mean, people talked about what the big deals are and it was Allah was all really interesting. I thought

mathowie 45:02 Wait Yeah, and if you've ever worked on done a construction you start, you know from if you start from zero and you like build something like I built a deck and I was like, That wasn't so hard I could build a house you know, it's just walls and wood and yeah, and toilet fascinating. My only my only political mention on this show is this was fucking awesome the debate party ideas. And this is like I have a friend

Jessamyn 45:31 I just skipped it. I was just like blah blah blah politics teacher it's so

mathowie 45:35 clever, nerdy and fun. I have a friend who throws like an epic Oscar party every year and he goes to great lengths to put the most nerdy possible things in the world on the table for food, you know, with some rough relationship they usually like word play with you know, whatever, nominated, you know, movies there are in this show. Totally remind me of like, it's like, I'm gonna throw a bait party, what should I serve and someone's saying, you know, make a ton of sandwiches, cut them into triangles and put toothpick labels on them that say like abortion, gay marriage, immigration, death penalty, gun control, and you're like what? wedges. The adaptivity of hops on your beer is good.

Jessamyn 46:19 And then the thing at the bottom, the OP, like came back and said, Make dozens of promises about what you'll serve at the party, but only serve like two of those steps and then repeat every four years. Are har har. The only last one I had just because we don't have any good like squeaky asked Metafilter questions is the Oh, touch some hot person and went to pee.

mathowie 46:44 Excellent. I was gonna mention this is great on so many levels, the whole like, you know, using meta filter instead of Google or a real doctor, but then I actually just touched hot peppers and my penis momentarily ago and yet I'm typing on the internet moments like

Jessamyn 47:01 holy shit. This hurts more than anything I've ever experienced. Please help me so I don't have to kill myself. Do

mathowie 47:08 you possibly type that minutes later? It's just so great. So awful. So great.

Jessamyn 47:15 Yeah, and and there's and there's lots of good

mathowie 47:19 it's all basically dipping your stuff in something with that what? Like a milk in your junk and a glass of milk or yogurt face to do the stuff. It's the same thing you do if you're eating super hot, spicy food, yogurt and you rub your eyes or some yogurt milk works so much better.

Jessamyn 47:39 Yes, I thought that was funny. And I wanted to point point to that

mathowie 47:44 resolve tag is the result tag resolved. Because there's a follow up there at the end with the my junk is

Jessamyn 47:52 lived. Yeah, that's wonderful.

mathowie 47:56 That was the greatest thing ever. All right, cool.

Jessamyn 48:01 But that was that was basically my list. Was there anything else that you were like, we're gonna have a new metal filter music challenge and just a couple days I think. Yeah. We haven't rolled out anything. I mean, August was kind of, you know, kind of a mellow down month and so I feel like we're kind of getting back up to speed everybody's back from vacation, you know, doing doing their thing.

Unknown Speaker 48:38 Couple of years ago, I did a play at the Westport country Playhouse. At the end of the first week of rehearsal, we were invited to dinner at a board member's house after rehearsal on Sunday evening. I didn't want to go. I was tired and cranky and the show was not going well. And that the two hour commute home to Brooklyn and pretty much just wanting to bail. sneak over to the train station and be done with it. I profusely apologize Tuesday morning claiming illness or fatigue or some other half baked excuse for blowing off the generosity of one of our sponsors. The stage manager sniffing out my plan by noting my hasty and not so subtle exit out the side door of the rehearsal hall pulled me aside and said rather mysteriously. You don't want to miss this one. Trust me. i In the other actors, the stage manager and director all piled into a van and headed into the woods a few miles from the Playhouse. We drove up to a metal gate with an intercom box outside after our driver cheerfully called hits us into the intercom. The gate slowly opened. We drove up a winding little road past a sprawling red farmhouse and arrived at a barn that had been converted into a guest house across from the main home. Joanne stuck her head out of the screen door and waved out As she then looked back inside the barn and called Paul company, Paul was watching the Masters on television and took little note of our arrival. Joanne guided us all to the sitting area near the fireplace, inviting us to take load off and deposit our bags and coats and hats on a sofa near the door. She encouraged us to wander freely around the barn at our leisure and then went downstairs to the kitchen to have hors d'oeuvres and glasses of wine and bottled beers sent up on trays. every millimeter of wall space was covered by photographs of Paul and Joanne and their children. Or Paul and Robert on the side of Butch Cassidy or Robert Shaw on the side of the sting. Oh, that that's Paul and Altman in between takes on Buffalo Bill. That's Paul at the opening night of Somebody Up There Likes Me. This here is Joanne's first equity acting contract. This is Paul in the kids skiing out Colorado. That was Paul's first Academy Award nomination. Joanne and Sally Field. These are the posters for every production Joanne directed at the Playhouse. This is Orson Welles drinking nice tea mugging for the camera. an Oscar nomination an Emmy nomination a Golden Globe award certificates for excellence in philanthropy. Photos of Paul and his daughter dressed in American Gothic drag for the Newman's own brand packaging. Paul with the family dog Hall in a racing jumpsuit, a perfect miniature replica of a Formula One race car in an acrylic case. Joanne came back upstairs and milled about offering beer and wine asking questions about the first week of rehearsal, earnestly listening to the occasional anecdote encouraging perseverance. genially offering directorial guidance. She padded arms and shoulders nodded sympathetically and smiled easily. She also attempted to herd Paul back toward the fireplace where we all stood. We have guests Paul. Paul waved an arm in our general direction and turned his attention back toward the television. He likes Tiger Woods, Joanne said. I helped myself to a glass of wine and wandered over near the mini Formula One race car and had a look at it. It was a strange addition to the menagerie of acting honors and family photos. And yet it also seemed to be the focal point of the collection sitting squarely in the middle of the large credenza that sat against the den wall. A light focus directly on it. That's the only thing in here worth a damn. Set a low familiar voice. I turned sharply. Paul Newman took a sip of Newcastle scratched his left temple and looked at me. His eyes were blue, if I recall. I blushed any interest? He said inward racing. Not really. Paul looked annoyed. Why not? I don't drive. I said. You don't drive? Paul said surprised and exasperated in equal measure. Why in the hell not? I just don't have a driver's license. You don't know how to drive? Well, no, not anymore. I guess. I can teach you how to drive. He said. I'm out of town next week. But I can take you over in the parking lot by the Playhouse week after that.

Unknown Speaker 53:35 Okay. I said what's that you're drinking wine. He wants more. I like golf. I offered stupidly. I blushed again. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Joanne approached and took him gently by the arm. She looked at me and smiled. We just put the food out. She said. What's it this time? Paul asked. Let's go find out. She led us over to the buffet by the fireplace. The offering was roast chicken pasta with vegetables and salad. Paul immediately dug a drumstick out of a chafing dish and took a bite. Paul, Joanne said. You can eat chicken with a damn knife and fork. Paul grumped. Joanne picked up a napkin and wiped a bit of chicken grease from his cheek. He waved her off. You're a mess. She said with Mark irritation. Pretty good chicken, said Paul. Their eyes met. Paul took another bite of drumstick. She tapped his nose with her fingertip. You embarrass me. She said this kid doesn't even know how to drive. That's embarrassing. He said jutting a thumb at me I blushed I blushed