0:00

Glory, glory, God.

0:20

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode

0:22

of what a hell of a way

0:24

to dad. It's Nate and Francis back

0:26

on microphones. Nate, it is, I'm not

0:28

going to complain too much. It's still

0:31

balls out cold here though. Un unnecessarily

0:33

cold. But we already talked about being

0:35

cold last week, so we're not going

0:37

to. I mean, it's wild though. I

0:39

see friends stuff from home and it

0:41

seems like what you're going through in

0:43

the US in the Midwest in particular

0:45

is shocking. I mean my mom and

0:47

dad live in Minneapolis and dad live

0:50

in Minneapolis- when Minneapolis was colder than

0:52

the South Pole. Which, I mean, it's cold

0:54

here, but not, it's not as cold as

0:56

it's been, it's like foggy and rainy actually,

0:58

but I don't even really mind when it's

1:01

cold to long, it's like sunny and dry.

1:03

but it's Joe is telling me it's been

1:05

snowing in the Netherlands and stuff like it's

1:07

winter but although we are kind of at

1:10

the foot of the Alps here we haven't

1:12

had any snow that stuck and it's been

1:14

it's just been either like I said really

1:16

cold like barely above freezing and very sunny

1:19

and very sunny and bright which is I

1:21

mean frankly kind of nice if you're

1:23

gonna have cold or like this warmer

1:25

but just wet the whole time and

1:28

just like basically British weather like there's

1:30

no definition in the this place gets

1:32

a lot more like thick fog I

1:34

think. Yeah we had so we had

1:36

like eight inches of snow and then

1:39

it stopped snow and then we had

1:41

another four inches of snow 24 to

1:43

48 hours later and the we're just

1:45

not used to that much snow and

1:47

of course what ends up happening is

1:50

like our street because we live on a one-way street so

1:52

of course they don't run plows down it but everything is now a good like

1:54

inch and a half thick ice. as it used to

1:56

be but I've got this dog that wants

1:58

to walk all the time and all

2:00

of the sidewalks have not been cleared like

2:02

you know you're as a homeowner or

2:04

a renter or whatever legally you're supposed to

2:06

but of course nobody actually enforces that

2:09

so she and I will be out walking

2:11

and she's dragging me along she doesn't

2:13

give a shit she's a dog she's a

2:15

Pyrenees like all this all mountains ice

2:17

it's all all her forte and I'm you

2:19

know so far have not busted my

2:21

ass she's almost busted her ass a few

2:23

times on the on the ice but

2:25

I've managed to avoid it so far and

2:27

but I mean we still got like

2:30

it's gonna be it's gonna I think we're gonna

2:32

get up to like low 30s today like

2:34

it's just we need those those warm days

2:36

how it usually is is like my friends

2:38

down in Louisiana who are getting snow but

2:40

it's gonna be gone by the end of

2:42

the week so unfortunately we're not getting our

2:44

like it's gonna snow and then it's gonna

2:46

be 35 degrees for three days straight and

2:48

all the snow is gonna disappear that's what

2:50

I'm used to this is unnecessary unprecedented it

2:52

was you that shared in our group chat

2:54

right the photo of the Dunkin Donuts in

2:56

Missouri that was like just pavement and cold

2:58

and just it was just so evocative of

3:00

midwest winter it I gotta tell you

3:02

that so that Dunkin Donuts and I'll

3:04

make it the picture for this this

3:06

episode that Dunkin Donuts is right next

3:09

to this massive field that used to

3:11

be a National Guard Armory and I

3:13

don't know how much you know about

3:15

like what you can do with land

3:17

once you've done something with it like

3:19

if you put if you have a

3:21

gas station somewhere you can't just be

3:23

like all right we're gonna close the

3:25

gas station and put like you know

3:27

a steakhouse here unless you live in

3:29

Houston right yeah and unless like the uh

3:31

the gasoline is kind of part of the

3:33

the flavor that you're searching for it's the it's

3:35

the fact that like certain kinds of sites

3:37

have a pretty thorough amount of cleanup required before

3:39

they can be repurposed it's what they call

3:41

brownfields I think it's like previous industrial sites yeah

3:44

and depending on like with a military thing

3:46

if it's like a motor pool exactly so you

3:48

get a lot of oil spills you get

3:50

a lot of so on the other side of

3:52

it uh speaking of oil spills is a

3:54

um so are you familiar with the fast food

3:56

restaurant rallies or checkers yeah yeah yeah okay

3:59

so you know how there set up there's no

4:01

real inside area there's just two drive-throughs

4:03

that you can kind of go down

4:05

the side of so yep there's an

4:07

old rallies that was converted into a

4:09

used car lot jimmy kavadas which this

4:11

old bald old man who's on the

4:14

on the the sign ready to give

4:16

you the shittiest car you've ever driven

4:18

at a 23% interest rate that has

4:20

completely gone though like well I'm sorry

4:22

the rallies is still there so this

4:24

pre-used rallies that turned into a used

4:27

car sales place on the other side

4:29

you have this. field that is probably

4:31

full of God knows what you know

4:33

I mean there's an armory on that

4:35

there is it was National Guard is

4:37

infantry I knew I knew a guy

4:39

that went there so it's not only

4:41

like just the picture is has this

4:43

like blown out Midwest look to it

4:45

and I and I promise you the

4:47

rest of it looks exactly the same

4:49

but if we keep panning you're gonna

4:51

see we have a minaret in the

4:53

back there is a Muslim house of

4:55

worship in the area so there's just

4:57

like a random minaret that's that stands

4:59

up out there too. It's a very

5:02

strange, strange stretch of King's High. For

5:04

you, for you St. Louisians out there

5:06

listening, we're talking about South King's Highway.

5:08

There's a Duncan Donuts with a large

5:10

inflatable cup of coffee on top of

5:13

it. I think they did that because

5:15

down the street there's another coffee house

5:17

called scooters that just opened. That's also

5:19

like a drive-through coffee thing. Remember when

5:21

we met up in Terre Haote and

5:24

like my route that I took brought

5:26

me kind of like around from Bedford

5:28

through of like relatively big state roads

5:30

and then kind of kind of that

5:32

stopped me from having to go all

5:34

the way up to Indianapolis to then

5:36

take I think 70 towards St. Louis

5:38

and that main drag that you go

5:40

past like the I think it's a

5:42

Vigo County courthouse it's just it's nothing

5:44

but like that intense just like asphalt

5:46

no sidewalk nothing but like chain stores

5:48

and drive throughs and just and in

5:50

winter time it's that vibe I'm also

5:52

recalling like driving back from the Indianapolis

5:54

suburbs when I was in college to

5:57

go back to Bloomington and going you

5:59

know I four 65 all the way

6:01

around to either state road 37 or

6:03

67 and taking it south towards you

6:05

know Martinsville and onwards to Bloomington and

6:07

just like yeah kind of like disused

6:10

or underused industrial sites and just like

6:12

falling apart stuff and very cold and

6:14

that kind of cold clear weather on

6:16

asphalt kind of vibe and I mean

6:18

it's weird it's evocative I don't miss

6:21

it but it's incredibly evocative of something

6:23

just from having lived there I mean

6:25

like you know it's weird I realize

6:27

that maybe the most time in my

6:30

life. I mean it It's not like

6:32

I was born and raised there and

6:34

didn't know anything but that until I

6:36

left. I had moved a ton as

6:38

a kid. It's just that when my

6:41

dad retired, he took his last assignment

6:43

at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and then after

6:45

that it was like, you know, we

6:47

stayed here. Yeah, well, that was intentional

6:50

too. My parents had like looked and

6:52

all the stuff that of the available

6:54

options that like was the place where

6:56

like in general Indiana's public schools had

6:59

a pretty good reputation. like I love

7:01

to make jokes about Ohio but I

7:03

mean I don't know I don't know

7:05

what you're about honestly like thinking about

7:07

what would be your best option in

7:09

the Midwest like what state if you'd

7:11

be like okay you have to bring

7:13

your at the time my brother would

7:15

have been 14 and I was 11

7:17

almost 12 you've got to bring your

7:19

your tween sons to a Midwestern state

7:21

where should they go I would say

7:23

Minnesota now in the 90s I don't

7:25

I mean Indiana was I mean Indiana

7:27

was I mean Indiana was like It's

7:29

just funny because so much of it

7:31

is just like Indiana except it's got

7:33

Chicago and also its governance is But

7:35

at the time Illinois governance was fucking

7:37

Rod Blagojevich, you know what I mean?

7:39

Like it was maybe Illinois back then

7:41

not so much because they kept putting

7:44

their governors in prison But now they

7:46

have a good governor. They've got the

7:48

one billionaire who doesn't seem like a

7:50

huge asshole. They got they got big

7:52

boy. They got Jay B Fritzker and

7:54

yeah, he seems to be you know

7:56

like actually good at politics actually state

7:58

level programs and protections. like insurance stuff

8:00

for people with lower incomes like in general

8:02

Minnesota's just like got a high quality of

8:05

life for a variety of reasons but also

8:07

Minnesota at the time was like the hotbed

8:09

of American militia shit in the 90s and

8:11

also like they elected Jesse Ventura as the

8:13

governor you know what I mean like so

8:15

it's not as if it's hard to look

8:18

at but back then versus now I mean

8:20

I just think it's interesting culturally I think

8:22

one of the reasons why I don't miss

8:24

Indiana is we've talked about this on the

8:26

show before but going to that pork tenderloin

8:28

sandwich and and basically being treated like they

8:30

were going to call the cops on us.

8:33

And we just showed up, like we were

8:35

literally just waiting for a table. Yeah, our

8:37

lily white asses too. And we're so fucking

8:39

obviously from there and like I'm driving a

8:42

car with Indiana plates and you're driving a

8:44

car with. Missouri Place. Yeah. Yeah. They were

8:46

looking at our cars out there. But yeah,

8:48

I was I was actually just thinking about

8:50

that, that god-awful tenderloin sandwich that we had.

8:53

That was just covered with like the restaurant

8:55

was just covered in like JFK memorabilia, which

8:57

is I mean, I guess it's a vibe,

8:59

but it's an odd one. Do you

9:01

have? And I wonder like all the

9:04

all the traveling that you've that you've

9:06

done. Do you come across places like

9:08

that in other countries where it's just

9:10

like this like we have? standing in

9:13

front of a McDonald's sign because that's

9:15

the McDonald's sign that he stood in

9:17

front of. So, and this was like,

9:19

you know, 40 years ago. But like

9:21

all of these little restaurants that have

9:24

like goofy shit on the walls, you

9:26

know, the TGI Fridays, but it's, you

9:28

know, not a chain kind of restaurant.

9:30

I don't know if the Netherlands has a

9:32

place where you can buy like the shittiest

9:34

sandwich you've ever eaten with a bunch of

9:36

chochgis on the wall. in touch forever, but

9:39

we hadn't seen each other in forever, for

9:41

like decade, over a decade and a half.

9:43

And then she was temporarily doing a, she

9:45

did one year of a PhD program in

9:47

Switzerland in Freiborg, which is like maybe an

9:49

hour and a half train from here. And

9:51

we met up and then the next time

9:53

I was in Switzerland in the summer, we

9:55

met up and we went to the beach,

9:57

like the Lakeside Beach in Véve, which is.

10:00

closer to where we are now but

10:02

it's still probably about like an hourish

10:04

on the train and then we went

10:06

and got dinner afterwards before we went

10:09

our separate ways and we wound up

10:11

it was a Sunday so not a

10:13

ton of places were open but one

10:16

of the places was open was a

10:18

place that just you know had burgers

10:20

and it was a place that just

10:22

you know had burgers and some of

10:25

our food and And she had to

10:27

take a day off during her on

10:29

board because she was so sick. And

10:32

so I just stayed because I speak

10:34

French and we had a little kitchenette

10:36

in the like hotel room so we

10:38

could I could cook her food and

10:41

stuff and just like kind of nursed

10:43

her back to health. So yeah, like

10:45

even in you know, one of the

10:48

highest income countries in the world. So

10:50

yeah, like even in, you know, one

10:52

of the highest income countries in the

10:55

world with very. probably hadn't come to

10:57

my more recent appreciation for how much

10:59

of a absolute genius that man was.

11:01

That's a more recent thing. I feel

11:04

like there's a lot of like countries

11:06

that are spiritually Midwest. Like when Joe

11:08

was talking about how Armenia had a

11:11

bar that was like joker themed like

11:13

from the movie, the joker, you know,

11:15

like I feel like Armenia, if you

11:17

took Armenia and just put it in

11:20

the middle of the United States, they'd

11:22

integrate pretty well. Like they did integrate

11:24

pretty well. I was going to say,

11:27

yeah, ask Joe and Annie if such

11:29

a thing exists. I was going to

11:31

say, thinking about this, I do remember

11:34

there being a, this is so dumb,

11:36

it was definitely a one-off, but also

11:38

like a very corporate one-off bar in

11:40

the East Village in Manhattan called Durden,

11:43

and it was like Tyler Durden themed

11:45

restaurant, I guess. And you can imagine

11:47

the clientele it attracted. It's not around

11:50

anymore, but like it was real. That's

11:52

the kind of place that's the kind

11:54

of thing. You know what's really funny

11:56

about that film and that book? is

11:59

that like, I am not a Chuck

12:01

Polaniac fan. I did read the book

12:03

and kind of like it when I

12:06

was 16. I did like the movie

12:08

when I was 15 when it came

12:10

out. Sure. And I don't think it's

12:13

a bad book. I don't think it's

12:15

a bad movie. And it's just very

12:17

interesting because it foments this discussion of

12:19

like, is it a good idea to

12:22

make a piece of art that has

12:24

a particular point if the consequences of

12:26

everyone missing the point or that grave?

12:29

is way smarter about film and just

12:31

way smarter in general than I am and

12:33

one of the points she made is that

12:35

like there's no way you could take away

12:37

the intended message of that film with Brad

12:39

Pitt looking like he did like he shows

12:41

up the most in shape any dude has

12:44

ever been in terms of like the aesthetics

12:46

of being in shape. It's dressed like impossibly

12:48

hot the entire time. He's such a cool

12:50

ass guy the whole time. And the whole

12:52

point of the idea is that like this

12:54

is, you're supposed to not like this, this

12:56

is bad, this is the kind of like

12:59

life frustration, split personality, externalized version of

13:01

like you, if you could achieve

13:03

like the sort of like life

13:05

frustration, split personality, externalized version of

13:07

like you, if you could achieve

13:09

like the most common body building,

13:11

this is really cool like yeah

13:13

we should we should start an

13:15

underground boxing club so many dudes

13:17

of Cynthia's generating like high school

13:19

college acquaintances literally did that they

13:21

did the fight club thing Oh

13:23

yeah, I look I was of

13:25

that age and I see my

13:27

fight club wasn't my movie my

13:29

movie was boondoxants which was also which

13:32

is also an embarrassing movie when you

13:34

watch it when you grow up and

13:36

you watch it you're like oh this

13:38

movie is fucking stupid this movie is

13:40

real bad you know what's funny is

13:42

my movie either train spotting or go

13:44

I don't if you remember go I

13:46

watched Jay Moore and uh... fucking fucking

13:49

uh... married to like the person who

13:51

owns a basketball team j more j

13:53

more fucking uh... did it all right

13:55

at the end of it yeah yeah

13:57

yeah i mean it's got it's got

13:59

will you Fickner in it. It's got,

14:01

this is killing me, it's, it's, so I'm

14:03

trying to remember because I mean there's like

14:06

a lot of cameos and my brother had,

14:08

just as a side of it, my brother

14:10

had a friend at high school named Katie

14:12

Holmes and so I wasn't sure if that

14:15

was, if I was mixing it up with

14:17

my brother's friend's name, but it's Katie Holmes.

14:19

So it's got, I think. It's got Timothy

14:21

Olefant. It does have Timothy Olefaunt. I haven't,

14:23

I saw this movie once like a year

14:26

after it came out so I've not seen

14:28

it in 25 years. Yeah, I can't remember

14:30

who everyone is in this. I want

14:33

to say it's got, it's got Taye

14:35

digs in it too, yeah. One of

14:37

the things that really surprised me about

14:39

it is, yeah. It's got Taye digs

14:42

in it too, yeah. One of the

14:44

things that really surprised me about it,

14:46

like go. basically no one's gonna watch

14:48

go unless they're they're they're a weirdo

14:51

or like it's an indie movie in

14:53

a lot of ways but like it's

14:55

just for what it is it's way

14:58

smarter yeah that being said I mean

15:00

I don't like Adam Sandler movies

15:02

but I will say in retrospect

15:04

big daddy's actually a good movie

15:06

is actually a good movie is

15:08

actually a good movie is actually

15:10

a good movie is actually a

15:12

good movie relatively a good movie

15:14

like it's not Adam Sandler but

15:16

like can't hardly wait you know

15:18

has I think it has Seth

15:20

Green in it it's actually a

15:22

good movie it's actually a good

15:24

movie me and my friend Melissa

15:26

I'm in high school watched that

15:29

movie back to back because I I

15:31

loved that movie I probably have seen it

15:33

about a dozen times I'm a Seth Greenhead

15:35

I don't know why I just think that

15:37

like his the way he does delivery is

15:39

very funny he actually did a TV show

15:41

called Greg the Bunny where he plays a

15:43

little bit of star power and it's got

15:46

this whole like kind of like it's not

15:48

the you know it's like what if the

15:50

muppets were kind of raunchy what if you

15:52

know Sesame Street they've got like the vampire

15:54

count on on it but it's not the

15:56

count right so it's zeth green has done

15:58

a lot of very curious movies and TV

16:01

shows that I have I have

16:03

picked up along the way but

16:05

yeah it can't hardly wait was

16:07

one of my favorite his when

16:09

he's telling his friends like oh

16:11

I got those two bitches over

16:13

there just fighting over who gets

16:15

to knock the boots and he's

16:17

like and there's like what two

16:19

bitches me when I'm seeing him

16:21

he's like why y'all gotta be

16:23

wasting my flavor kills me when

16:25

I was on parental leave and

16:27

it opens it's like there's a

16:29

good one. It's named after a

16:31

replacement song, so I mean

16:33

like another big one. Yeah,

16:35

it's it's genuinely, it's got

16:37

Jennifer Love Hewitt in like

16:39

full teen idol mode. Like

16:41

yeah, she's so yeah, yeah,

16:43

you know, I was probably

16:46

what, that's the funny thing

16:48

too for me because Cynthia's

16:50

a little bit older than

16:52

me. So I saw that

16:54

movie in theaters, she saw

16:56

that movie because she was

16:58

graduating. particularly a cute example. Beth

17:00

and I have the same thing. We

17:02

got five year difference and I'm the

17:04

elder millennial and she's the young Gen

17:06

Xer. So like our our references cross

17:08

over each other a lot of in

17:10

a lot of different ways. Like she

17:12

had like I'm just like yeah I

17:14

love watching you know Rescue Rangers Chip

17:16

and Dale and she's like yeah that's

17:19

the kids I babysat watched that's why

17:21

I mean are still Fred but haven't

17:23

spoke to him on the show in

17:25

a while. Zuma correspondent Kevin. being is

17:27

that you were going to graduate from

17:29

high school in the year 2000, which means

17:31

you had to be in the like the school

17:33

year 81 to 82. So my brother would be

17:35

the oldest possible millennial who was born March 82.

17:38

Cynthia was born in 80s, so she's not. She's

17:40

technically a really young Gen Xer. But then also

17:42

the notion that somebody born in 95 would also

17:44

be in the same generation. Like I mean, maybe,

17:46

but it's just one of those things where it's

17:49

like, like, I think generations were sort of generational

17:51

generational generationalational experiences are like a little more. Sure,

17:53

the narrow than that and also we've had such

17:55

dumb-ass big things happen in our adult lifetimes and

17:58

our young adult lifetimes that like how you experienced

18:00

those I think really defines a

18:02

lot. I mean, really the biggest divide

18:04

that Beth and I have is

18:06

we both grew up with the internet

18:08

in our house, but five years

18:10

difference of 90s internet. So she was

18:12

talking about being on Prodigy, I

18:14

was on ICQ. The

18:17

internet was moot like today if you have

18:19

a five year difference, it's like, oh, you're

18:21

on Twitter? Yeah, I was on Twitter too,

18:23

or TikTok or whatever. These things - I

18:25

met on Twitter, you and I met on

18:27

Twitter. These things have kind of a longevity. I

18:30

actually just deleted my Twitter account. I mean,

18:32

17 years, baby. I need to do that too.

18:34

You know, somebody is just like, well, you've

18:36

got to download all of your stuff. I can't

18:38

imagine ever being like, I want to revisit

18:40

my tweets from 2017. Fuck no. I

18:42

actually joined Twitter in 2009 under

18:44

a different name, but I couldn't really

18:47

get into it. I was actually

18:49

deployed at the time, but for a

18:51

brief period, our battalion, the detachment

18:53

of the brigade's signal company that was

18:55

manning all the stuff for all

18:57

satellite things for the Nipper and SIPR

18:59

connections had let the license on their

19:01

fucking net nanny gateway blocking service laps. And

19:03

so the Nipper was completely unblocked. And so

19:05

I was able to get on social media,

19:07

get on Facebook. It was temporary, but for

19:10

a while there was working. And so I

19:12

just remember getting on Twitter and hilariously, one

19:14

of the few things that I saw was

19:16

people making fun of and joking about Bitcoin.

19:18

And part of me is like, I'm glad

19:20

I never cared. The other part of me

19:22

is like, damn dude, if I put like

19:24

50 bucks into Bitcoin in 2009 and hadn't

19:27

lost my hard drive, like I could be

19:29

even more annoying now, but what I'm saying that

19:31

was I just didn't get into it. So

19:33

I kind of like let it lapse. But then

19:35

when I started writing for McSweeney's, when I won

19:37

the columnist contest in 2010, they were like,

19:39

we have an account with 500 ,000 followers, which in

19:41

2010 was a ton and like we'll share

19:43

every time that you post, if you make a

19:45

Twitter account, we'll actually tag you in it and

19:47

it'll help you build an audience. And so

19:49

that's why I that's why I'm in these deserts

19:51

is because that's what my column was called in

19:53

fucking. Yeah, 2010, 2011. And so I got on

19:55

Twitter and then I basically never went back.

19:57

Well, I'm going back now because it sucks. It's

19:59

awful. It's not it's like it's everything

20:01

which is sad because like it

20:03

I mean it was always bad

20:06

but there were there were good

20:08

interesting fascinating things happening. When it

20:10

was just a place to do

20:12

to make posts with your friends

20:14

it was a great place and

20:16

now it's like well most of

20:18

my friends have left and every

20:20

time I get on I am

20:22

inundated with right-wing propaganda. One of

20:24

the fun ways about it when

20:26

I'm like one of the fun

20:28

ways about it when I'm enjoying

20:30

like one of the fun ways about

20:32

it when enjoying it was when something

20:34

funny. lag them on a list in

20:36

the stupid way Twitter does. You could

20:38

build a list of people just whose

20:40

opinions you wanted to read. But now,

20:42

especially if it's like a big post,

20:44

it is. thousands of the dumbest people

20:46

to ever fucking breathe air who have

20:48

paid for Twitter just saying stupid shit

20:51

and like pumping their shit coins like

20:53

it's awful it's unusable and that takes

20:55

away so much of it like it's

20:57

so it's u. It's u. It's unusable

20:59

it's unusable it's unreliable there's so much

21:01

disinformation there's so much right-wing shit the

21:03

owners now fucking like you know running

21:05

around doing Nazi salutes and 14 words

21:07

shit and then also apparently owes like

21:10

you know the entire Delamorated Saudi Bonesaw

21:12

Incorporated and like it just seems like

21:14

it's not long for this world I

21:16

mean it was always bad in a

21:19

lot of ways but it did have

21:21

its uses and it was fun and

21:23

now it's just not anymore and I

21:25

think all the other things you could

21:27

be on or also bad at least

21:30

in my opinion except for the ones the kids

21:32

love but I'm just not a smash-cut video fucking

21:34

person so I can't I can't I can't watch

21:36

it like I was trying to do Tik-talk and

21:39

I kind of understand And it's like, all right,

21:41

this is easy. I can cut stuff together. It

21:43

doesn't have to be like, I don't have to

21:45

be anything, but you know, social media, you have

21:48

to be social. And I never wanted to interact

21:50

with any other video. I don't want to watch

21:52

any other video. When my wife sent me Instagram

21:54

reals, I was like, I don't want to watch

21:57

this. And thankfully, now that Mark Zuckerberg is also

21:59

like, yeah. I'm cool with the Nazi

22:01

stuff. She has moved away from

22:03

Facebook and Instagram. And honestly, it's

22:05

just made both of our brains

22:07

a lot better just to not

22:09

constantly. Like you said, I don't

22:11

think Blue Sky is like, oh,

22:13

here it is. Finally, we've got

22:15

the great place to go. Because

22:17

Blue Sky is also, full of

22:19

bots, full of bots, full of

22:21

bots, full of people who brought

22:23

the Twitter nonsense over to another

22:25

place. I feel like it's especially

22:27

in the earth. phases of it

22:29

because you know I got an invite in

22:32

2023 and I signed up and I did

22:34

use I use it more now just because

22:36

like it's just easier to follow conversations as

22:38

and not be inundated with just shit non-stop

22:40

but and what I mean by that is

22:43

even if I don't think I've engaged hardly

22:45

at all in months on Twitter but like

22:47

if I did even check the timeline like

22:49

just being able to not be flooded with

22:51

like just stupid and also completely unrelated stuff.

22:53

And then like the, there's absolute Z-grade ads

22:56

from people who are still paying for ads

22:58

on Twitter. Most of which are like, here's

23:00

this basically inaccessible unless you ride in

23:02

with a bear cat hotel in the

23:04

middle of nowhere in the Alps and

23:06

Switzerland rent it for your business conference.

23:08

Like I get so many of those,

23:10

like it's only 500 francs at night

23:12

for the whole hotel. It's like, yes,

23:14

and apparently you have to do the

23:16

fucking plot of the movie alive to

23:18

get there. 2012-ish in terms of like,

23:20

for one, I was a much smaller

23:23

account and had a smaller follow list.

23:25

There was this feeling of like, yep,

23:27

you ran out of posts, no more

23:29

posts left. And, but I would say

23:31

some of the attitudes there, like it's

23:33

just, excuse, older and more center-right liberal,

23:35

and there's just a lot of kind

23:37

of, there's a lot of the sort

23:40

of like, you know, lost children of

23:42

fucking, you know, people who would be

23:44

really, really, really into like, like not

23:46

just watchable shit. that would be on

23:48

before or after that time slot on

23:51

MS NBC and it's just it's annoying

23:53

I mean you just get people there

23:55

is this tendency there just like Cynthia's

23:57

take is that like it's all basically

24:00

really really old really old millennial white

24:02

people and or Gen X white people

24:04

and it's just basically non-stop scolding and

24:06

not getting the joke and not taking

24:08

the point and just being weird and

24:11

what I would describe is very I

24:13

don't know presumptuous is the right word

24:15

but I think somewhere between presumptuous and

24:17

over familiar in the replies and the

24:20

best example I literally had to block

24:22

a guy that I don't really have

24:24

any beef with because it's Jamal buoy

24:26

because He gets the stupidest replies and

24:28

like you basically couldn't browse the site

24:31

even if you didn't follow him and

24:33

had no interaction. Even if you had

24:35

him muted, you'd still see all the

24:37

stupid shit from the things people were

24:39

saying to him. And I think the

24:41

best example I can get is Jamal

24:43

Bowie was visiting, I want to say

24:45

like Alexandria or Charlottesville, Virginia. And he

24:47

said, hey, I'm in, anybody have any

24:49

recommendations on restaurants? And someone responded, an

24:51

independent black-owned business. And he was like,

24:53

there's a white lady saying to him,

24:55

Jamal Boo is black. And he's like,

24:57

great, but like, do you have any

24:59

recommendations? She's like, oh, no, I've never

25:01

been there. I made the joke once

25:03

that like the on-blue guy that you

25:06

should basically, they should do like a

25:08

MySpace-style ranking and the person who received

25:10

the most on his replies replies, Blue

25:12

Skye themed and decorated library fucking painted

25:14

gun. But the thing about it is

25:16

that Jamal Bowie would get it every

25:18

month and he would just basically, he'd

25:20

look like when like they'd open up

25:22

the gun room in the Matrix. Like,

25:25

except they'd all have the Blue Sky

25:27

Butterfly on them so it looked like

25:29

it was some sort of like, you know,

25:31

Crazy Town slash, like spring break, regrettable tattoo

25:33

themed gun store. It's just, yeah, so I

25:35

mean like I use it, like I use

25:37

to drive a... of engagement, for example, on

25:39

Trash Future merch. And now you have to

25:41

play a game. Now you have to be

25:43

like, well, I'm going to post and I'm

25:45

going to post the link later, I'm going

25:47

to do this, I'm going to do that

25:49

because it's the only way. But like, I

25:51

still, like, even, I have like almost 30,000

25:53

followers on Twitter, and it's completely, you know,

25:55

no, I mean, no, and so we, we

25:57

did the, we finally had the Avenue on

25:59

post. loops and lagoon shirts on sale. We put

26:01

out the sales link via our Patreon and our Discord

26:03

and then via voice ads that we recorded like

26:05

bumpers on the episodes and then in the show notes

26:07

on the episodes on the free one and on

26:10

the bonus one. And you know, we sold quite a

26:12

bit and it was pre -sales. And so finally at

26:14

the end, we had some footage and stuff we're

26:16

going to do to put it together to make ads

26:18

for Instagram and TikTok. And Milo was like, what

26:20

about, what about Twitter? We have like, you know, 20

26:22

,000. I was like, honestly dude, it's not worth it.

26:24

But he's like, no, I mean, we should do

26:26

it regardless. And I was like, fine. Okay, cool. So

26:28

made a post posted it had everyone in the

26:30

group chat, the big group chat share it.

26:32

So like, if you look at the total

26:34

number of followers, obviously it's like it's sort

26:36

of like when you, you know, it's like

26:38

it kind of skews the metrics. You've got

26:40

all everyone who's in the chat and then

26:42

Abby. And so it's like, oh, wow, that's

26:44

over a million people and like 990 ,000 of

26:46

them are from Abby potential reach of like

26:48

well over like a million and a half

26:50

people. We got we got like so a

26:52

ton of retweets from us. And I think

26:54

we got maybe 10 link clicks and no

26:56

sales. But what we did get was a

26:59

fucking like red bubble scraper that then was selling

27:01

counterfeits of our stuff. It was awful. I

27:03

mean, it's it's absolutely atrocious. It wasn't even a

27:05

person. It looked like it was one of

27:07

those scraper algo things where like they it's set

27:09

up to basically like parse links. And if

27:11

there's anything like if it meets the threshold of

27:13

like, oh, you're selling a thing, it just

27:15

steals the image and then does it, you know,

27:17

as like a drop ship version of it.

27:19

But like if you, you know, someone asks us

27:21

to give a gift and the person they

27:23

ask doesn't know that it's a thing sold via

27:25

the website, then they just look for it

27:27

on Google and what's Google going to pump? It's

27:29

going to be this shitty, you know, probably

27:31

like SEO juked link. And so yeah,

27:33

it's it's it's wild. How let me tell

27:35

you my most recent experience with something

27:37

like this is over on Facebook where there's

27:39

we're doing more in person events. So

27:41

a lot of the things that are in

27:43

the store, a lot of things that

27:45

my wife makes that I make. We make

27:48

a lot of things that don't necessarily

27:50

go into the online store. Sometimes you'll see

27:52

her crochet or my dice boxes. But

27:54

like we have those for, you know, sale

27:56

in person sales. And so there's one

27:58

we have this place called Das Bevo. Bevo Mill,

28:00

it's a giant windmill in the

28:02

middle of South City. Because when

28:04

the Anheuser-Bush family would leave the

28:06

brewery and go to their farm

28:08

in the county by horse and

28:10

buggy, they'd like to stop off

28:12

at the mill because they owned

28:14

that to have dinner and then

28:16

they'd keep going because it took

28:18

you, you know, like it's a,

28:21

you know, 20 minute drive in

28:23

good traffic, you know, but horse

28:25

and buggy, it's going to take

28:27

it a little bit longer. on

28:29

your way to the coast, we stay

28:31

overnight when you left the City of

28:33

London, yeah. Yeah, so, and we've done

28:35

events there. I love it. They have

28:37

not only in the Bevo Mill, but

28:39

there's a bar next to it called

28:41

Crombar. That's really odd. It's a really

28:44

odd. It's a really odd. It's a

28:46

really nice bar. It's a really odd.

28:48

It's a really nice bar. It's a

28:50

really odd. It's a really nice bar.

28:52

They're a really nice bar. It's a

28:54

really nice bar. It's a really nice

28:56

bar. It's a really nice bar. I

28:58

sent emails, I wasn't getting responses, because

29:01

I know it's like, you know, it's

29:03

one of those things where it's like,

29:05

a person runs it. So, you know,

29:07

sometimes things fall between the cracks. So,

29:10

I was like, cool, I'll go onto

29:12

their Facebook and I will see if

29:14

they've got a link, sign up for

29:17

vendors. And I go and I go

29:19

and I'll see if they've got a

29:21

link, sign up for vendors. And I

29:23

go and I go and sign up

29:26

for vendors for this, I'd like, Das

29:28

Bivo at all. Like they're just scammers.

29:30

And one lady was actually just

29:32

like, I gave $100 to somebody,

29:34

but I didn't get any confirmation.

29:36

Am I going to be at

29:39

this thing? Oh my God. Yeah,

29:41

and Bivo had to be like,

29:43

no, that's not us. Like, don't.

29:45

And they put out another thing.

29:47

And unless it's us giving you

29:49

the link, don't click on it

29:51

and don't go to it. But

29:53

this is, and I told my

29:55

wife about it. of these things

29:57

like an event gets posted there's

29:59

all always, always scammers in the

30:01

comments. It's immediately scammers. Like there's

30:03

something that's scraping and digging all

30:06

these up and trying to scam

30:08

people. And like, I want my

30:10

social media experience to not be

30:12

something where I want my social

30:14

media experience to not be something

30:16

where I have to always be

30:18

on guard. You know, when I

30:20

would go on Twitter back in

30:22

2015, it would be a play.

30:24

Like I was on guard because

30:26

I might post something I might

30:28

tell me to steal. money from

30:30

me. That's when it gets, you

30:32

know, I don't want to have

30:34

to be on guard, I want

30:37

to have to look out for

30:39

that shit. And all of these

30:41

social medias have just become so

30:43

incredibly unusable and unfortunately so entrenched

30:45

in everybody's life. Like people are

30:47

just like, but how do I

30:49

get, how do I do things

30:51

without Facebook? Like we've done it

30:53

before, I remember, I remember a

30:55

time before Facebook. Like I remember

30:57

a time before social media. There's

30:59

just so many better places that

31:01

I have access to our fans

31:03

and to the people who, you

31:06

know, actually want to interact with

31:08

us and bypassing all of the

31:10

social media stuff makes it a

31:12

lot easier. If I can just

31:14

say, here, let me put it

31:16

in front of you. Can I

31:18

read you something? Because what you

31:20

just said reminded me, I don't

31:22

know, I, trash you just had

31:24

at Zitron on before, and I

31:26

periodically read his articles on his,

31:29

and, degradation that's going on in

31:31

these platforms. And there was one,

31:33

he, I'll send you the link,

31:35

Francis, and you can put it

31:37

in the show notes if you

31:39

want, but for those of you

31:41

listening, the article is called The

31:43

Slop Society on Ed site, where's

31:45

your Ed site, where's your, the

31:47

article is called The Slop Society

31:49

on Ed site, where is your

31:52

Ed dot at, and this is

31:54

this long kind of like pull

31:56

quote, from a page you don't

31:58

follow a series of recommended reals

32:00

in quotes that show a two

32:02

second clip on repeat of what

32:04

you might see so you click

32:06

through it another ad three pay

32:08

posts from pages you don't follow

32:10

and then another ad searching for

32:12

Facebook support leads you to a

32:15

sponsored post about Facebook bringing your

32:17

community together end quotes and then

32:19

a selection post about Facebook bringing

32:21

your community together end quotes and

32:23

then a selection of groups the

32:25

first and then a selection of

32:27

groups the first which is called

32:29

and provide assistance and solutions to them.

32:31

Oliver Green's Avatars is actually a picture

32:34

of writer Oliver Darcy. One post says,

32:36

please don't respond to messages from my

32:38

Facebook, I was hacked. Another responder, Decker

32:40

Tech Fix, says, when was it hacked?

32:42

They asked them to post a message

32:44

for a quick recovery account, they asked

32:46

them to post a message for a

32:49

quick recovery of the account. Another user,

32:51

where a user says, when was it

32:53

hacked? They asked them to post a

32:55

message for a message for a quick

32:57

recovery of the account, Another group called

32:59

Account Hack, which has 850 members

33:01

and hasn't been updated since late

33:04

2023, immediately hits you with a

33:06

post that says, message me for

33:08

any hacking services, Facebook, recovery, Instagram,

33:10

recovery, loss funds, recovery, I cloud,

33:13

bypass, etc. with a few users

33:15

responding along with several other, one,

33:17

several, several, several, several, several, other,

33:19

several, other, several, other, other, other,

33:22

other, other, other, other, other, other,

33:24

other, other, other, other, other, other,

33:26

other, has been responded to 44

33:29

times, mostly by scammers, attempting to

33:31

offer account recovery services, but a few

33:33

times by actual users. Elsewhere, a group

33:35

promising to literally send you money on

33:37

PayPal has 24,000 members and 10 plus

33:40

posts a day. Another called PayPal Problem

33:42

Solution offers if you offer similarly scammy

33:44

services if you can't get into PayPal.

33:46

Another called Scammy Services if you can't

33:49

get into PayPal. Another called Cashat Venmo

33:51

Paypal Zell Support has 58100 50-800 and

33:53

it's time to wake up. I would

33:55

also point this out because you know

33:58

up until maybe like a year. year

34:00

ago or six months ago, you would sometimes

34:02

share posts on Facebook and you would sometimes do

34:04

targeted ads. And those in like 2017, sometimes

34:06

we would do some targeted ads and actually they

34:08

did drive some content, some interactions with the

34:10

show and some interactions in the store. And one

34:12

the things that I noticed was that because

34:14

I have the, you know, what a hell a

34:17

way to dad Facebook account credentials as well

34:19

as you do. And so I would be logged

34:21

in and even if I'm not using Messenger

34:23

or like I'm not on that profile, if we

34:25

get messages, I would get notifications for them.

34:27

And anytime you do a post, we would get

34:29

a, we'd get dozens and I'm not exaggerating

34:31

dozens of posts of almost identical scam

34:33

accounts being like, you know, Facebook moderation saying

34:35

like your account has some problem. And

34:38

like they would have like like weird artifact

34:40

on the Facebook logo or like one

34:42

random little like black pixel in there. Like

34:44

it was all, it was, but it

34:46

was, you know, faked, but everything. And then

34:48

periodically if I went back, those people's

34:50

accounts had been fucking either caught or changed.

34:53

And so now it's just like random

34:55

people's names, whose identities I assume they've just

34:57

stolen or like they've made up fake

34:59

people. But like that's us as a, I mean,

35:01

I remember us doing the ads and you

35:03

pay like 50 bucks or 100 bucks for like

35:05

a month's worth of ads. And it's like,

35:07

that's what it looked like. And that's what it

35:09

is now. Like you can't use it without

35:11

being inundated. And it's like, I suppose if you're

35:13

a major brand advertising on Facebook, this will

35:15

happen, but there's like layers of, you know, of,

35:17

of protection or at least some kind of

35:19

obfuscation. And you've got social media people. But if

35:21

you're like a regular person or you're like

35:23

running a small business yourself, imagine like, especially if

35:25

you aren't tech savvy enough like to see

35:27

what this is, like there's just simply, I mean,

35:29

fuck it, dude. I'll read this to

35:31

you. I had this hilarious ad. Hello,

35:33

I'm an ad. I had a scam

35:35

blackmail letter come to my email inbox.

35:38

Yeah, you mentioned that. Yeah. What is

35:40

that? Okay. So let me go and

35:42

see if I can find it really

35:44

fast because it's one of those things

35:46

where I was at first I was

35:48

like, wait, what is this? And now

35:50

I'm looking at him as like, this

35:52

is genuinely so incredibly funny. So somebody

35:54

with the name Angel and Gil Vivek,

35:56

not Angel and Gil Vivek with like

35:58

jibberish, jibberish, jibberish at hotmail.com. sent me an

36:00

email and I was like it has Nate

36:03

Bethay written as the PDF as the file.

36:05

Now I'm absolutely not going to download this

36:07

but I can view it via the Gmail

36:09

and basically it says Nate Bethay I know

36:12

that calling my old US number or visiting

36:14

my old address in Brooklyn New York where

36:16

I haven't lived in almost seven years would

36:19

be a better way to have a word

36:21

with you if you don't cooperate. Don't try

36:23

to hide from this. You have no idea

36:25

what I'm capable of in Brooklyn. I suggest

36:28

you read this message carefully. Actually, you know

36:30

what? Why don't I do this in Marine

36:32

Todd? Take a minute. Take a minute to

36:34

relax, breathe, and really dig into it. We're

36:36

talking about something serious here, and I ain't

36:39

playing games. You do not know me, but

36:41

I know everything about you, and right now,

36:43

you are thinking, how, correct? Well, you've been

36:45

a little bit careless lately. Scroll through those

36:47

videos and clicking on some not-so-safe sites. I

36:49

play so... Capital M malware on a porn

36:52

website and you asked it to watch you

36:54

get my drift while you were busy watching

36:56

videos Your system initiated operating as an RDP

36:58

remote device which allowed me total control over

37:00

your device I can look at everything on

37:03

your display Flick your cam and mic and

37:05

you wouldn't even suspect a thing Oh and

37:07

you wouldn't even suspect a thing Oh and

37:09

you wouldn't even suspect a thing Oh and

37:11

I've got access to all your emails contacts

37:13

and your pathetic life for a while it's

37:15

simply your misfortune that I saw your misfortune

37:17

that I saw your misfortuneic from your system.

37:19

And I've seen it all, yeah, yeah, I've

37:22

got footage of you doing filthy things in

37:24

your room. Nice setup, by the way. Then

37:26

I developed videos of screenshots where on one

37:28

side of the screen, there's whatever garbage you've

37:30

been enjoying, and the other half is your vacant

37:32

face. With simply a single click, I can send

37:34

this video to all your contacts. I feel your

37:36

worry and confusion. Frankly, I want to wipe the

37:38

slate clean and allow you to move on with

37:40

your life and forget you ever existed. I'm about

37:42

to present you two options. Option one is to

37:44

ignore this email message. Let's see what happens if

37:46

you take this path. Your video gets set into

37:48

your context. The video is lit. I can't even

37:51

fathom the humiliation you'll face when your colleague's friends

37:53

and fam. Check it out. But hey, that's life

37:55

ain't it? Don't be playing the victim here. Second

37:57

option is to pay me and be confidential and

37:59

be confidential about. How much do they want?

38:01

Oh, I'll get to that. Okay.

38:03

We'll name this my, there's like

38:05

character, like asking characters in your

38:07

privacy charges. Tell you what happens

38:09

if you offer this choice. Your

38:11

filthy secret remains your secret. I'll

38:13

wipe everything clean once you come

38:15

through with a payment. You'll transfer

38:18

the payment once you come through

38:20

with a payment. You'll transfer the

38:22

payment through Bitcoin, once you come

38:24

through with a payment. You'll transfer

38:26

the payment, everything clean once you

38:28

come through with. this message and at

38:30

the moment I've been notified you've read this email. This email and

38:32

Bitcoin address were custom-made for you, untraceable. If you're unfamiliar with Bitcoin,

38:34

Google it. You can buy it online through a Bitcoin ATM in

38:36

your neighborhood. There's no point in replying this email or negotiating it.

38:38

It's pointless. My price is pointless. My price is email or negotiating

38:40

it's pointless. My price is fixed. My price is fixed. My price

38:42

is fixed. My price is fixed. My price is fixed. My price

38:44

is fixed. My price is fixed. My name or negotiating. My price

38:46

is fixed. My price is fixed. My price is fixed. My price

38:48

is fixed. My price is fixed. My price is fixed. As my

38:50

price is fixed. As my price is fixed. As my price is

38:52

fixed. As my price is fixed. As my price is fixed. As

38:54

my price is fixed. As my price is fixed. As my price

38:56

is fixed. As my price is fixed. As my price is fixed.

38:58

As my price is fixed. As I don't make mistakes, Nate.

39:00

Honestly, those online tips about covering your

39:03

camera on as useless as they seem.

39:05

Now, I'm awaiting my payment. I miss

39:07

the days when you just get a,

39:09

you know, forward this to 10 people

39:12

on your email list or else like,

39:14

you know, you'll be poor. The Jonestown

39:16

flood will happen again or you'll be

39:19

poor. You know, a lady, a lady

39:21

in Arkansas for this and then she

39:23

got a whole, she got a new

39:25

pig. She got a new pig. really

39:28

stupid. I was like, yeah, guess what?

39:30

I mean, remember when I read those

39:32

books about it and we talked about

39:34

it much on the show about the

39:36

fact that like it's traceable, far more

39:39

traceable than people think and that like

39:41

there are, you know, in the early

39:43

days it might have seemed untraceable, but

39:45

also like as crypto stuff became more

39:47

like the only way to buy in

39:49

and out of it or certain things

39:52

that were like, it was way more

39:54

locked down in basically every country outside

39:56

of Russia. like a residency visa to

39:58

get one and so no matter what

40:00

like it's so easy to trace the and

40:02

when you pull money out of stuff

40:04

where they know it's come from illegal activity

40:06

like that's very obvious and like most

40:09

people who use it for crimes think it's

40:11

anonymous and don't do any of the

40:13

sort of Bitcoin tumbling kind of stuff you'd

40:15

need to do and so like there

40:17

are consultancies and security services that provide this

40:19

like billion dollar industry to be able

40:21

to be able to observe this stuff and

40:23

like absolutely they work with law enforcement

40:25

and they can show make the case for

40:28

them basically of like if you use

40:30

it for something illegal they can be like

40:32

here's how you got your money in

40:34

and what you did with it and how

40:36

or if you you extorted money or

40:38

whatever the fuck here's how you got it

40:40

out and so like the permanent ledger

40:42

aspect of Bitcoin makes it like not just

40:44

bad for crime but like the dumbest

40:47

shit on the planet for crime it's like

40:49

oh yeah it's like it's like cash

40:51

except if cash had like a permanent receipt

40:53

in the fucking fabric of time showing

40:55

what it was used for yeah and you

40:57

used it for drugs on drugs.com like

40:59

with your real name as it turns out

41:01

cash is still king nobody if I

41:03

get you know you go to your your

41:06

drug dealer and you give him $50

41:08

and he gives you $50 a weed or

41:10

whatever you're good nobody's ever going to

41:12

trace that because that's a $50 pill but

41:14

this Bitcoin stuff and like I said

41:16

I was explaining this to my dad because

41:18

my dad who as I've said is

41:20

a very very liberal minded person and he

41:23

was just like look I'm not he's

41:25

like I'm not going to get into Bitcoin

41:27

but like can you just explain it

41:29

to me I was like well imagine if

41:31

you had money that was specifically for

41:33

crimes that's what Bitcoin is there's the whole

41:35

point of this is like is it's

41:37

not traced and then he's like well how

41:39

do I get one I said well

41:42

you can go to an ATM apparently you

41:44

can go you know there's ATMs I

41:46

know I know of a couple around in

41:48

St. Louis but like the problem is

41:50

though is that like it's not like you

41:52

know I want to buy give me

41:54

one Bitcoin for the service you know there's

41:56

a whole process where in every step

41:58

of the process your money could get stolen

42:01

by somebody else and there's nothing you

42:03

can do about it so it's like look

42:05

dad you're 83 you don't need a

42:07

Bitcoin you've got regular money and regular money

42:09

will continue to be more useful than

42:11

any of this stuff it is just the

42:13

crime money for doing crimes I want

42:15

to say it was But now Bluska user maple cocaine who said

42:17

this, but it may have been someone else. And I do try to credit things

42:20

when I can remember, but the guys, the understanding Bitcoin, it's basically, you leave your

42:22

car running all night and it solves Sudoku puzzles for you and then you can

42:24

trade them for heroin. Yes. And it's like, yeah, that's. Yep. That's, that's, he was

42:26

like, he's like, explain mining to me. I was like, well, you have to have

42:28

all of these processors do a bunch of math, and then it gives you a

42:30

Bitcoin. He's like, how am I? I

42:32

don't, I don't, I don't understand. Yeah,

42:34

and it's like, how am I, I

42:37

don't, I don't understand. Yeah, and it's

42:39

like, the, the economics of it used

42:41

to be that it used to be,

42:44

get exponentially larger with each sort of

42:46

successive tranche of it, sort of like,

42:48

like, like, like, like, like, like, squaring

42:50

something constantly, you know, to the third,

42:53

then the fifth, and the sixth power,

42:55

it's like, you go from, what, two,

42:57

then four, then 16, then 64, then,

42:59

like, like, bits and bites, that kind of

43:02

thing, but, like, you know, you could leave

43:04

your fucking laptop running all night and get

43:06

yourself a Bitcoin. 2009 now like they make

43:08

just you know effectively like yeah they basically

43:10

make what looks like a like a server

43:12

farm of nothing but GPUs running these things

43:14

and it's just stupid and it's like oh

43:16

yeah let's put him in Kazakhstan and do

43:19

them on coal power you know what I

43:21

mean like yeah and God help you if

43:23

you were trying to build a gaming computer

43:25

at that time oh god I mean oh

43:27

my god you see this the thing too

43:29

is it so some it's not as as

43:31

as as effective as with video and for

43:34

gaming but some processes for things like running

43:36

audio processing plugins can take advantage of your

43:38

graphics processing unit to accelerate the computation because

43:40

you know you have a separate effectively you

43:43

know you have the CPU you have your

43:45

your core of your computer but you can

43:47

also like offload some of this to the

43:49

to the GPU and it can it can

43:51

make processes go faster and like you know

43:54

I know this from doing this job for

43:56

so long that like now with my current

43:58

setup and the current thing that I use

44:00

and the fact that like all of my

44:02

plugins are either native on the software that's

44:05

been optimized to run on the Apple Silicon

44:07

or the the plugins have two. It typically

44:09

takes to like mix down an episode of

44:11

a podcast it would take like seven eight

44:13

minutes, it would take like seven, eight minutes,

44:15

eight minutes now, but like there was time

44:17

when like a lot of stuff wasn't optimized

44:19

and the processors weren't as good and also

44:22

I for real-time previews of what the effects

44:24

will sound like, it's great, you know, when

44:26

you're editing, when you edit a podcast, you,

44:28

if you've got effects, like, you know, real-time

44:30

previews of them, you want to hear what

44:32

it's sounding like as you're editing, and then

44:34

you also want to be able to, if

44:36

you make changes, to have that reflected. And

44:39

so, and like for instance, like you were

44:41

saying, there was a period of time when

44:43

even like the stupidest low-end ass graphics card,

44:45

graphics card was so expensive, was so expensive,

44:47

so expensive, because, like, like, like, like, like,

44:49

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

44:51

like, like, like, like, it's, like, it's, it's,

44:53

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

44:56

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's

44:58

Everyone yeah some of the and I wasn't

45:00

building one of the time my last time

45:02

I built a computer was 2011 I want

45:04

to say so It wasn't it wasn't too

45:06

bad, but I know a lot of people

45:08

had that problem where like you know You're

45:11

running your your generic kind of run of

45:13

the mill graphic processing units were running like

45:15

five to six hundred dollars, you know twice

45:17

as much because they're all being snapped up

45:19

by these people who were like, like you

45:21

said doing Sudoku's until they could say this

45:23

It's weird because at the time in like

45:25

2018-1920 it felt like for the amount of

45:28

money you spent on a new Mac it

45:30

was so expensive and so unconfigurable and then

45:32

like pieces were really kind of the way

45:34

to go in a lot of this stuff

45:36

but the Apple Silicon chips are I mean

45:38

it just once things take advantage of them

45:40

it's genuinely shocking how much easier it makes

45:42

my life for editing yeah but I just

45:45

learned this from doing Cynthia has the old

45:47

work from home set up from London with

45:49

two monitors what I have learned is that

45:51

I have a Macbook air And this is

45:53

going to sound like an ableist term, but

45:55

it's actually like, it's the term that's used

45:57

as I understand it in tech, which is

45:59

called crippleware, is basically. when they have intentionally

46:02

disabled or downgraded the ability of a thing

46:04

for no reason other than to limit your

46:06

access to it. And the Macbook heirs have

46:08

crippleware functions in them that even though they

46:10

can support multiple displays and direct connection, you're

46:12

only allowed to do one. So I basically

46:14

am going to have to buy, if I

46:16

want to use two monitors with this thing,

46:19

a dongle that can do, I believe it's

46:21

called display link, but effectively sort of like,

46:23

like imagine a USBC dongle with splitters for

46:25

like delink or e-link or a e-link or

46:27

issueMI, but that it. more or less cloning

46:29

a display in the eyes of how the Apple operating system

46:31

perceives it, so you can send it to two monitors. It's like

46:33

the only reason I may have to spend, you know, 120 francs

46:36

on a fucking dongle is because they're like, well, no, you should

46:38

buy a more expensive computer if you want two monitors. You got

46:40

enough USB ports. You all, it can handle it, like, nobody's business.

46:42

These aren't four K monitors. They're HD monitors, but it's just like,

46:44

no, fuck you, fuck you, you, you, you, you, you, you're gonna,

46:46

you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna,

46:49

you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna,

46:51

you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna,

46:53

you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna, you I'm very

46:55

happy that I work for a company

46:57

that is lousy with docking stations that

46:59

I could take home with me because

47:02

yeah I have the same. I have

47:04

like this four. I can do like,

47:06

you know, four monitors in my office

47:08

and the only reason is in my

47:10

office and the only reason is because

47:13

I have this like $350 docking station

47:15

that also sits on my desk and

47:17

that everything runs through and it's like,

47:19

you know, I know that we don't

47:21

have to do this, but you can.

47:24

can slam a couple more HDMI ports

47:26

into here. I mean like, it's funny because

47:28

these Dell monitors that they got her, the

47:30

Sun of Dell corporate, like commercial monitors, like

47:32

not going into like color correction, professional video

47:35

kind of things where there's like super high-end

47:37

stuff, but just like the kind of the

47:39

higher end of what's intended to be like

47:41

business stuff and not just regular consumer monitors.

47:44

They're actually kind of amazing like they, the

47:46

functionality as I found with like one USBC

47:48

kind of what is, I suppose that would

47:50

be the upstream connection from your computer. to

47:53

the monitor and then all the peripheral things

47:55

can plug in, they can do power, there's a network port,

47:57

like if you wanted to, you effectively can create where the

47:59

monitor... is the docking station. The one hitch on this is

48:01

that, as far as I know, and maybe I'm wrong, I

48:03

don't think that there's a way that you could like daisy chain

48:05

the monitors together. You know, there has to be from the computer,

48:08

it has to both kind of like, it's not, daisy chain,

48:10

it's got to be fucking spokes, it's got to be fucking

48:12

like, it's not, daisy chain, it's got to be fucking spokes of

48:14

the wheel, and it's got to be fucking, it's not, it's not,

48:16

it's got to be fucking, it's, it's got to be fucking,

48:18

it's got to be fucking, it's got to be fucking, it's

48:20

got to be fucking, it's got to be fucking, it's got to

48:22

be fucking, it's got to be fucking, it's got to be

48:24

fucking, it's got to be fucking, it's got to be fucking,

48:26

it's got to be fucking, it's got to be fucking, it's got

48:28

to be fucking, and it also delivers power to

48:31

the computer, but one of my

48:33

screens is completely blank because Tim

48:35

Apple wants another trillion dollars in

48:37

Ireland that he's not going to

48:39

spend. And yeah. What a world

48:41

we've created for ourselves. It's just

48:43

very funny too, because I mean,

48:45

I know you know this stuff,

48:47

and my first job job job

48:49

they got paid money for was

48:51

scrapping old computers in a computer

48:53

shop in Carmel, Indiana when I

48:55

was 14. It was like a

48:57

guy named Jack Baldwin. since business,

48:59

but like Jack knew everybody in

49:01

Carmel, so like if anyone complained

49:03

he would just fucking pay the

49:05

cops to not care. And so

49:07

he paid me cash and he'd

49:09

pay me like 20 bucks an

49:11

hour, 15 bucks an hour in

49:13

1999. Dude, I remember working and

49:15

getting like 200 bucks or so

49:17

for a week's work in like

49:19

200 bucks or so for a

49:21

week's work in cash when I

49:23

was 14. I remember working and

49:25

getting like 200 bucks or so

49:27

for a week's work in cash.

49:29

less fuck-witable, basically grandma-proofed, and now they've

49:31

basically put like the software as a

49:33

service equivalent of that letter that I

49:36

read out loud on every fucking feature.

49:38

It's amazing. That was my nephew's first

49:40

job was scrapping computers. So the guy

49:42

with the old computers in a house

49:44

and a garage paying kids cash to

49:46

scrap them, still a viable economic part

49:48

of America. He is in school now

49:50

and he's like in his 20s, but

49:53

yeah, in his teen years, first. I

49:55

was like, yeah, it's great, I just

49:57

take computers apart and the guy gets

49:59

me cash. a guy who knows computers better

50:01

than me looks at all the parts that

50:03

I pull out of it and he says

50:05

what we can. And I remember like finding

50:07

some things and I was really proud of

50:09

not bending the pins on something and the

50:11

guy was like yeah you do a good

50:14

job but that thing actually there's no way

50:16

that you can make it's fucking firmware Y2K

50:18

compliant and this is nice. He's like so

50:20

yeah it's like we could put it in

50:22

something and then it's just gonna break in

50:24

about. six months. So, wow, that's such an

50:26

experience. Funny, I'll do a quick side note.

50:28

There was a dude I knew from home

50:30

who went on to have, I believe, extreme

50:32

psychotic meltdown, like full episodes. But it was

50:34

on Facebook and was like an early trumpet

50:36

or hardcore, like full episodes. But it was

50:38

on Facebook and was like a kind of

50:40

early trumpet or hardcore hardcore sort of, I

50:43

hate cancels. But I guess he at one

50:45

point had as a big brain entrepreneur had

50:47

bought Jack Baldwin, had bought Jack Baldwin's, had

50:49

bought Jack Baldwin, Now, he's got me mixed

50:51

up. Did he send you an email? I

50:53

said on Facebook, it's pointing to fucking expose

50:55

me to the world, my hypocrisy. And I

50:57

was like, and he's like, all your left

50:59

is bullshit me, you know, it disgraces my

51:01

friend's military service. And it's like, listen, dude,

51:03

I was in the military, you were, you

51:05

bought Jack Ball with fucking illegal computer shop,

51:07

and you're like, listen, dude, I was in

51:09

the military, you bought, you bought Jack Ball

51:12

with fucking, I. mostly scrap. A lot of

51:14

it was going to go to the fucking

51:16

junk yard. But I absolutely know that I

51:18

didn't. I, I, and so it was just

51:20

very funny, sort of like, you've got me

51:22

mixed up with someone based on an anecdote

51:24

from a dude who remembers me from 1999.

51:26

It's 2016 and you're threatening to expose me.

51:28

And it's just like, sometimes I think maybe

51:30

like we were better just. drawing an elope

51:32

and deer on cave walls. It's a lot

51:34

easier, but look, even the Romans were saying,

51:36

you know, they're writing on the walls, this

51:39

guy sucks dick and he sucks dick badly.

51:41

The insult is you suck dick, it's sucking

51:43

dick. The insult is you suck dick at

51:45

sucking dick. I remember the Roman baths in

51:47

the city of Bath in England, and like

51:49

they have all these cursed tablets, which is

51:51

like you basically paid to write a thing

51:53

to like send a request to the goddess

51:55

Minerva to the goddess Minerva to curse somebody.

51:57

example of British Celtic in writing is they

51:59

can't read it but they know that it's

52:01

British Celtic is there and it's a curse

52:03

tablet which means it's probably some complaint in

52:05

the Celtic language like dear Minerva please curse

52:08

the dick who stole my clothes and made

52:10

everybody laugh my tiny dick and balls when

52:12

I had to walk out of the bass

52:14

with no clothes on. Dear Minerva why do

52:16

you have to make shrinkage a thing? Well

52:18

it's cold in England. Yeah, I mean, you

52:20

know, man, I, we, well, I, look, I

52:22

haven't gotten any pictures of you gooning, so

52:24

I imagine that the, the threats were all

52:26

just that threats. Well, I mean, I, I

52:28

had this feeling that it probably wasn't in

52:30

the sense that, in the sense that, in the

52:32

sense that, in the sense that, in the sense

52:35

that, that, in the sense that, that, in the

52:37

sense that, that, that, that, in the sense that,

52:39

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:41

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:43

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:46

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:48

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:50

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

52:52

that, that, that but like right that's not how

52:54

it works but also like I figured that when

52:56

he was threatening he's like I'll post videos all

52:59

around your neighborhood it's like so you're gonna go

53:01

back to Kingston Avenue and Crown Heights in

53:03

Brooklyn and you're gonna go to every apartment

53:05

half of which is owned by acidic people

53:07

who probably like half of which is owned

53:09

by acidic people who probably like at least

53:11

one day we can't watch the porn video

53:13

who just be like who is this dick

53:15

and here. Also, I don't think I can't

53:17

recall looking at anything even approaching a porn

53:19

site. So you tell me, man, maybe you

53:21

got the wrong guy, maybe you're like the

53:23

British lawyers who were convinced that I was,

53:25

oh my God, remember that story? I know

53:27

we got a British lawyer who were convinced

53:30

that I was, oh my God, remember that we got a British

53:32

lawyer? I know that story? I know we got a British lawyer

53:34

who were convinced that I was, oh my God, remember that we

53:36

got a British story? I know, I know, I know, I know,

53:38

remember that I know, I know, remember that I know, I know,

53:40

remember that I know, I know, remember that I know, remember that

53:42

I know, remember that I know, I know, remember that I know,

53:44

remember that, remember that I know, I know, remember that I know,

53:47

I know, remember that, remember that, remember that, remember that I know,

53:49

remember that I know, I know, remember that, remember that, I know,

53:51

I partially like I've gone to school you know in my adult

53:53

lifetime like I'm not gonna be like yep listen to me I'm

53:55

a rabbinical scholar but like get the fuck out of here man

53:57

and then they were like actually you're not who you say you

53:59

are found another Nate, but they found some dudes blog

54:01

and it was like a 16 year old black kid

54:04

in South Carolina who was publishing this blog in like

54:06

2014 and I'm like he talks about turning 16 dude

54:08

I'm in 2014 I just got out of the army

54:10

after seven years like shut the f- some of them

54:12

just wouldn't give up and they were convinced they had

54:14

found me and it was like they found like a

54:16

like a card dealer black dude in Nebraska named Nate

54:18

Bethay and I was like oh my god And so

54:20

just out of curiosity and out of like caution I

54:23

was like well I hope that none of these British

54:25

freaks are like going on these people's like social media

54:27

and harassing them I didn't find any harassment but when

54:29

I looked up Nate Bethay I did

54:31

find a guy with an unrelated

54:33

It was Nate Bethay was the

54:35

display name, but the actual account

54:38

name was different on Instagram. And

54:40

he had a very, very deep

54:42

fried fucking sort of meme thing

54:44

shared on Instagram that said a

54:46

lot of UN were sharing some

54:49

bisexual ass selfies. Well, uh, I

54:51

don't really... Not helping your case

54:53

here. And I was just like,

54:55

okay, well, you know what, uh,

54:57

I... I feel like the British

55:00

lawyers will probably know better than to fuck with

55:02

that guy, so I'm not worried about them messing

55:04

his life up. But yeah, so, I'm like

55:06

I said, if you're gonna harass someone and try

55:08

to start a cybersock them and threaten them, like

55:11

he's probably not just pay for like dog shit

55:13

scraping thing from the yellow pages that says

55:15

like, Nate lived to this place because I don't.

55:17

I don't live there anymore. The thing is, is

55:19

that it works sometimes, you know. Oh, I know

55:22

it's sad. People would freak out and they were

55:24

like, I did look at, you know, like

55:26

the archive.org version of hot sex.com, like maybe they're

55:28

gonna fucking expose me. And so they'll pay

55:30

them, you know, they'll pay them. They'll pay

55:32

them. They'll pay them to use an incognito

55:35

browser, guys. But obviously, you'd assume that like

55:37

most. Here's the thing, most of the time,

55:39

those porn sites, like, they also are fucking,

55:41

they have SSL. And they have SSL, but

55:44

they have SSL, so like, like, okay, if,

55:46

if you- The porn sites know that you

55:48

don't want to be found. Well, yeah, it's

55:50

just like, like, I, I, I'm not a

55:53

hundred percent, I don't want to fucking say

55:55

something that sounds done, but like, I don't

55:57

want to fucking say something that sounds like,

56:00

sent over RDP is not encrypted, but

56:02

like SSL is working differently. Like, and

56:04

the porn sites, unless you're like, I

56:06

don't know, like someone's fucking FDP server

56:09

from 1995, like, it's gonna be encrypted

56:11

because it's gonna have. It's going to

56:13

be an ACPS connection. Like it's just

56:16

stupid, shut up. Scam, something better. Yeah,

56:18

Anade, well, thank you. I think that's

56:20

going to be a podcast. Everybody, thank

56:23

you for listening. So something that I'm

56:25

trying out, going forward, is you know,

56:27

we have the weekly newsletters that's going

56:30

out, which you can sign up

56:32

for. At what a hell of

56:34

a way to dad.com, we're also

56:36

trying to highlight a charity every

56:38

week. My wife is all about

56:40

the like, like, like, donated to

56:42

quite a bit in the past.

56:44

They. provide services for transgender people,

56:46

obviously, with the way things are

56:48

going in America, transgender people need

56:50

your help as much, you know,

56:52

more now than any other time

56:54

period. And we love our trans

56:56

homies on this podcast. So consider

56:58

trans lifeline.org. I will have the

57:00

link down in the show notes for

57:03

you. I'm sure they will appreciate anything

57:05

that you can give. But yeah, that's

57:07

it. Everything will be down in the

57:09

show notes. Like I said, sign up

57:12

for the newsletter. with the podcast itself

57:14

if you end up missing something. You

57:16

know, like I said, social media is

57:19

gone. We're trying to, we're trying to

57:21

meet you all where it is. I'll

57:23

send, I'll send, I'll send mailers to

57:25

your house. I don't know. I'll find

57:28

you. I'll tell this up. I'll tell

57:30

this up. We worked really hard with a

57:32

really, really talented artist to make. I'll find

57:34

you. I'll tell this too. We worked really

57:36

hard with a really, they are moving quickly

57:38

enough that I feel like within a few

57:40

weeks are going to be gone. So if

57:42

you're interested in painful figurines, like I'm not

57:44

trying to pat myself from the back here

57:46

because it wasn't my work, it was my

57:48

friend Ari's work, but the guy who cast

57:50

the fucking, the figurines even said he's like,

57:53

this is what I do professionally and Ari's

57:55

one of the best artists I've ever worked

57:57

with and this is I think his best

57:59

work ever. So. I've got two physical

58:01

ones at home and I've seen

58:03

the work that people have done

58:05

painting. They're 67 millimeters tall. They're

58:07

standalone. There's a base connection thing

58:09

that you can then stand the

58:12

figurine up on. It's basically Doug

58:14

the Donkey and like a Napoleonic

58:16

uniform. I'm not a figurines person,

58:18

but it's cool. It's genuinely cool

58:20

shit. So it's 41 pounds on

58:22

the website and we ship internationally.

58:24

So just saying it. Yeah, it's,

58:26

it's, yeah, we will have that.

58:29

there because yeah it is and I'm

58:31

just saying so I'm not a figuring

58:33

guy but I if somebody dropped that

58:35

onto my war hammer 40k table I

58:37

would be fun I'm also gonna say

58:39

Sue because I Britain Britain's going through

58:41

one of its it's various fucking toilet

58:43

mode crises again the pound is very

58:45

weak right now relative to the dollar

58:48

so you know what let Britain's misfortune

58:50

be your gain in the figuring game and

58:52

other than that thank you yeah thank you

58:54

everybody and we will talk to you next

58:56

week have a good one