One Fun Thing

Tyler shares a metaphor for how the pandemic is going, then Amanda shares her grades for the semester and experiments with TikTok addiction. Your hosts then follow up about receiving gifts from their families, and Amanda gets into the holiday spirit in Animal Crossing.

(Recorded on Saturday, December 19, 2020)

• How To Roast Beets on SeriousEats
• Four Minute Mile by The Get Up Kids (1997) (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube)
• Doctors Play Super Monkey Ball 2 to warm-up before surgery (Polygon 2013)

Amanda is very excited to tell you about her fun thing. Later.

She talks about calendar blocking, her plans to listen to more music next year, and then your hosts reminisce about the days when music was like, their whole lives, when they were teenagers.

Amanda's been making her Christmas list, and Tyler can't seem to help his mom understand that, despite her admirable intentions, it's important to him to not have her try to force gifts on him.

(Recorded on Saturday, December 12, 2020)

• Carrot Facts (@realcarrotfacts) on Twitter
• Amy Landino on YouTube

Amanda finishes the last of her scary exams and papers, and is now left with the scary expanse of open, unallocated time. Tyler talks about how doing monthly retrospectives has been helpful while shuffling multiple long-term projects and project ideas.

Amanda wants to listen to more music next year, and muses about getting speakers. Tyler loosely explains how he arrived at his current hi-fi setups, and his side of the conversation is occasionally even accompanied by the percussive sound of freezing rain hitting his window (he's sorry about that).

(Recorded on Saturday, December 5, 2020)

• WickerWoodWorks audio storage
• Stereophile The Entry Level column (2011-2014)
• No Man's Sky website
• Galaxy Quest on Wikipedia

Amanda wraps up classes for her first semester of grad school, and she shares her refined method for writing papers as she begins final exams and projects.

Tyler takes advantage of some extra free time this week to return to some personal projects and squeeze in a few cartoons, the latter which prompts a discussion about some remembered cartoons from your hosts' pasts.

Tyler sets up his parents' retirement accounts for them after realizing no amount of carefully worded, bulleted emails were going to do it, and your hosts follow up on their social media conversation from the previous two episodes in an effort to identify some areas of optimism for the future of cultivating meaningful connections online.

(Recorded on Saturday, November 28, 2020)

• Doc Martin on Wikipedia
• Animaniacs (2020) on Wikipedia
• Gargoyles (1994) on Wikipedia
• Street Sharks (1994) on Wikipedia
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) on Wikipedia
• Zoomies-to-nap skill level high on this one on Reddit
• Scuttlebutt social network: a decentralised platform
• Manyverse
• Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie on Goodreads
• April Coloring App: Color by number for adults
• Picasso Quote, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

Amanda is celebrating (with an asterisk) after finishing classes for the semester, and now she has two weeks to finish papers and wrap up finals. She's clearly very excited about it, so please excuse all of the noise from her moving her mic while she's talking.

For the main topic, Tyler and Amanda follow up from last week to talk about posting on the internet, but this time about how it can be colored by professional motives or aspirations. We're all fed the marketer's list of how one "should" use the internet to look appealing to a more professional audience, but do we really want to do that? This segues into the computer science education both hosts received in high school by an eclectic series of teachers, most of whom never signed up to be CS teachers in the first place.

Lastly, we get to the fun things. Tyler talks about his experience playing some fighting games with a coworker, and Amanda details her celebration itinerary after finishing classes.

(Recorded on Monday, November 23, 2020)

• Carl Reinecke – Flute sonata Undine op.167 | Sir James Galway
• LinkedIn will pay $13M for sending those awful emails (2015)
• Tyler's photography on Instagram
• Tyler's photography blog
• Indent Hadouken
• Mortal Kombat 4 on Wikipedia
• Mortal Kombat 4: Scorpion Vs. Sub-Zero
• Street Fighter V on Steam
• King Of Fighters XIV on Steam
• Destiny 2: Bungie Says the Best Endgame Loot is Friendship
• Ted Lasso on Apple TV+

Tyler wakes up from a surprise nap just in time to record, and your hosts share stories of falling asleep during class.

Amanda's grad school anxiety and COVID anxiety are peaking, but she's so close to the end of the semester. She shares an update on her family's health and both your hosts get frustrated with people not taking the pandemic seriously enough. It's kind of a bummer, so we put in chapter markers so you can skip ahead when you get too sad.

Amanda gets bashful and flattered after getting some surprise recognition and kindness on-air from the hosts of the Make Do podcast, and your hosts talk about their inner conflicts when contemplating using the internet for professional marketing or a space to be open and vulnerable.

(Recorded on Saturday, November 14, 2020)

• Ricky Gervais on Noah's Ark
• 'Unimaginable' pain: Coronavirus robs Michigan woman of whole family
• Gruber on Covid Holiday Dangers
• Make Do podcast
• A Show with Ze Frank on YouTube
• Ólafur Arnalds, Bonobo – "Loom"
• Jónsi – "Exhale"

Amanda opens the show processing the news that her parents and older brother have all tested positive for COVID-19. There's a lot to talk about.

Tyler and Amanda both have a lot of feelings about the importance of libraries, and  they repine that nothing feels like a worthy substitute during COVID times.

Tyler ammends his Halloween talk from last week because he forgot to mention some exciting and meaningful ways to get into the holiday that aren't scary, but are still a little kooky and spooky.

Amanda reveals if she had a Good October or a Bad October, and she shares the challenges of pursuing healthier coping mechanisms.

• Gaiwan (Wikipedia)
• Dobrá Tea (Where Tyler buys tea)
• Safety razor examples

It's a Halloween episode of One Fun Thing 🎃

Tyler shares his memories of Halloweens past and shares why Halloween is his favorite holiday. Amanda shares a very different experience with the holiday, and talks about how she's tried to redefine what it means to her as an adult.

Tyler discusses his experience navigating the horror genre from childhood to present trying to find what he likes.

This segues into the comic books Tyler checked out from his local library.

Amanda talks about how much she enjoyed experiencing Terminator 2 with no prior knowledge of the film, while excitedly spoiling many of the plot points for any of our listeners that may have hoped to do the same.

(Recorded on Saturday, October 31, 2020)

• Swamp Thing, Vol. 1
• The Sandman: A  Beginner’s Guide (GQ)
• Archie, Vol. 1
• Hellblazer
• Why Are Dads: Robot Daddies and Terminator 2

Amanda gets a “bad” grade and your hosts talk about comforting rituals they've each held to better endure intimidating milestones.

Also, there's talk of leftovers.

Amanda talks about an overwhelming workload, her university maybe deciding not to pay her this winter, and the emotional toll of reading about Beethoven’s gradual loss of hearing.

(Recorded on Saturday, October 24, 2020)

• Kenji's Best Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever Recipe
• Pen Jillette interview on habits and the mono diet
• Calvin and Hobbes for September 18, 1993

Amanda kicks off with some low-pressure news from her family about expectations surrounding family gatherings this year, and your hosts begin mentally preparing for another isolating winter ahead.

Amanda follows up on life with glasses, then life with an iPad. Conversation then turns to the design legacy of the iPod, which helped define the late teen years for both Tyler and Amanda.

Your hosts meander into a reflection on how well-intentioned gestures and gift giving can sometimes awkwardly reveal the limitations of someone's understanding of the "real" us.

Amanda also vents about some complicated feelings after walking into her old place of work and finding an uncanny Amanda doppelgänger at her post.

And if it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse, now Amanda has too many bell peppers.

Tyler talks about being made aware of so many wonderful foods in college, and how culinary exploration was a challenge in his early home life.

(Recorded on Saturday, October 17, 2020)

• Flappy Bird on Wikipedia
• Binging With Babish: Buttered Noodles from Community