Broken Area

Isabelle wants to burn a DVD, which led us into a discussion of why anyone in this day and age would use a DVD for anything.

Jon has been super sick and I haven't really gotten out of the house since Wednesday. I feel like Betty Draper. I'll probably take care of that with a bit of Valium..... I kid, I kid.

While I have been watching Mad Men again Isabelle has been watching 'Highway Thru Hell'. She likes these shows. I'm not much on them, but to each their own.

We got to talking about mostly Isabelle's Dad this time around, and how he was a designer into things one would have seen on Mad Men.

Finally, I wonder if it is true that houses have fewer hallways now because of the efficiency of heating and insulation.

So, it was -26 last week, today it is plus 2. The snow is melting, for now.

Hello to all of our friends at podcamp Toronto. We're podcasting, so you don't have to.

Today we got to talking about 'experiential' learning. This is a new education buzzword (which always makes me skeptical) that deals with people learning by doing. You know, labs, studio work, placements, internships, that sort of thing.

Then it was off to the mall! Yup, we changed it up this week, for your listening enjoyment.

Isabelle was a big Pac Man fan in her day, I was more into Defender and Galaga.

I apparently once got mad at Isabelle for buying expensive red peppers rather than the cheaper green ones.

Holy shit it is cold. So we plugged the car in last night, no problems (I hope, I am typing this before we go).

OK, we're back and yes the car started no problem.

Isabelle has been working out and doing serious exercise. This led us into a discussion of what we did in gym in high school.

Oh yeah, this is our one hundredth episode of our reimagining of Broca's Area, so everyone should celebrate somehow.

Why has playing ukulele become a thing? We don't know but Isabelle has a good guess, it is easy to share stuff now with youtube and such. She is probably right.

To survive these long cold winters Isabelle has done stuff like learn ukulele, do art, do origami etc. The neat thing is that, in a way, living here has brought the artist in Isabelle out more than ever. So that is pretty cool. (I stay sane in the winter with the video games and the podcasts and such).

Thanks again to everyone for listening. Wow, 100 is a lot.

Another Saturday, another podcast.

Isabelle talked quite a bit about her installation assignment. Apparently they had to make cool things and put them in a room, or in her case a hallway. I watched the evolution of some of the work and it is pretty cool. I helped out on the technical side with the projector and stuff.

I'm tired of people telling me to 'feel the bern', very tired.

Isabelle is working on an assignment wherein she writes an arts grant, neat assignment.

Enjoy.

We began today's discussion talking about hippies, beatniks and how my Dad was no beatnik. Dad was funny, and indeed I tell the story about him running a long term practical joke on his old business partner.

Isabelle went to an art exhibit last night at the Art Gallery of Algoma featuring a recent grad of her program at the University. The AGA is starting to show stuff from locals, including recent BFA grads from Algoma University. This is a good thing.

I ran into a guy from work. He talked about the University. I just said 'I'm deleting emails' I love my sabbatical.

I tend to talk and talk and talk. Indeed, I just want to be the most interesting person you have ever met.

Sometimes my vision gets in the way of me being social. Of course other times, I'm actually anti social....

Thanks for the comments and thanks for listening.

I've reformatted my phone, so we are back to using Bossjock, I hope to hell it works. (Turns out is has...)

What is the difference between a family room and a living room? This is a huge debate which divides the country apparently along linguistic, cultural and religious lines.

It's snowing in the States, I hope you all survive.

Isabelle is looking for a new show to watch, does anyone have any suggestions?

We ended talking about students and teaching and cheating, so not that different than usual.

Oh we got gas too.....

We started out this week by talking about the death of David Bowie. Bowie was a big deal musically and really influential. I was never a huge fan, though I liked his stuff. Isabelle felt roughly the same way. As noted, we both like his music a lot (it was just never a huge deal to us.) Neither of us were affected by the death of Lemmy from Moorhead.

We then went from there and talked about the TV show Mr. Robot which we just finished. Watch it. Seriously.

Out last segment ended with us talking about why people go to the US to shop when the dollar is so low, and, about Isabelle's upcoming afternoon.

Before we get going, thanks to everyone for the comments both on the website and last week on Facebook.

So, upshot of that 'why don't we have a battery health indicator in the car' is that we needed a new battery. It was a crazy week that way. It was super cold suddenly (and isn't now) but that was the final nail in our battery's coffin as we had super cold winters two years in a row.

It'd be a shame if something happened to your nest.

It'd be a shame if something happened to your nest.

We then discussed cowbirds and the 'mafia hypothesis'. (That's the real name, click the link there, you'll see).

We then talked a bit about what happened the next day, after the battery. Isabelle's ATM card was compromised, along with many others' in town. So that was her Tuesday.

Then we were off to find some plexiglass! Yay!

Finally, I gave Isabelle the title of the voice of a generation with her art.

Today's major topic was loyalty points, you know like frequent flyer points, Air Miles, PC Points and all of that. It seems that most of our wallets are filled with points cards rather than actually useful things. We have used Air Miles though a few times and I have cashed in aeroplan points a couple of times.

We then talked about Uber and taxis. Are taxis a public service? Should they be protected? If so, why?

This is almost certainly our final episode of 2015 as, well as the year is coming to an end. Don't worry, we'll be back in 2016. We started the grocery casts this year and it has worked out pretty well.

Jon came along, claimed to be asleep, but wasn't.

We talked a bit about the holidays and having the whole family together, a bit about Home Depot and their spotty customer service, and about the never ending saga of the University.

Happy New Year, and see you in 2016!