Overview

If you didn’t know, Alan likes orange. And we start off discussing why his Skynet is orange. So geeky in many ways.

Do you know what the FIRE movement is? It stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. It’s a mindset to get finances under control and retire under your control.

Recommendations

TodoIst – https://todoist.com/

https://www.adamsactionfiguresandcomics.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRE_movement

Jack Reacher

https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player.html

Trivia

How many words did Shakespeare contribute to the English language?

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Transcript

[00:00:39] Alan: Exactly. You know, what’s funny. I think I might’ve mentioned this before. Um, I moved into the attic when Tim Coleen’s son moved out and, uh, he had really, um, made it a crazy place.

There was writing all on the ceilings. Like what you see from a serial killer, you know, I didn’t want any of [00:01:00] that. And so they, you know, repaint it and they’ll, they

[00:01:03] Stephen: don’t want them to give him more clues as to you’re

[00:01:07] Alan: exactly that, you know, and also some of the strings looking the victims were coming on, Don and I, when I added my own, I didn’t want him to cross over anyway.

I like to call her origin. So I said, you know, let’s paint it orange. Well, of course they went and got safety, orange, the brightest thing they could, and the trim is bright green, like grasshopper green. So I think that Tim really was like, you know, fooling with me that I really thought I’d hate it. And instead I really love it.

But what’s funny is when you’re done on the street and you look up on third floor to this kind of, it looks like there’s a nuclear reactor blowing in and you get this like deep hump, you know, that kind of, so I love it up here. It’s just, who knows why, who knows? Why people have a favorite. Well, I’ve always loved orange because it’s got so much energy and it’s so optimistic and it’s so like, I like to flavor orange.

I like [00:02:00] orange flowers. I like all of it. I like tigers. You know

[00:02:03] Stephen: what I mean? Pumpkins. And somehow

[00:02:05] Alan: my, my rods and Colin’s are all positioned so that the more orange, the

[00:02:09] Stephen: better, one of the things we found when the kids were younger, they have paint. That’s chalkboard paint. So you just spray it up on a wall and it’s just like a chalkboard.

You get chalk and they can write on it and erase it. That’s pretty cool.

[00:02:23] Alan: I mean, that’s, I love material science like that. When you find out that, you know,

Overview

It can be difficult when a loved one dies and even more difficult to talk about arrangements after your own death. Alan has been experiencing this and we discuss things his father did to prepare that made it easier. Lessons for all.

Setting passwords and reliving memories are part of the process. Do you have some great memories of loved ones?

In comic talk, we discuss the great Jonathan Hickman and the wonderful stories he’s added to the history and mythology of x-men and others.

We also finished up Peacemaker, started War of the Archons, and mention Megan Warren and the great work she’s done.

Recommendations

If you’re planning – https://www.beatreecremation.com/

Making passwords? – https://theculturetrip.com/europe/lithuania/articles/7-fascinating-facts-about-the-lithuanian-language/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy

Stephen’s Talks – https://www.superchargeyourkids.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Hickman

https://www.marvel.com/comic-events/house-of-x-powers-of-x

https://www.facebook.com/booksforbedtimenonprofit

Trivia

Who choreographed the dance at the beginning of Peacemaker?

What is a circumzenithal arc?

YouTube

Transcript

Overview

It’s not been a great couple weeks for Alan as he’s dealt with his father’s passing. He has all of our condolences and he knows that. After we skipped last week, he felt we should get on to do an episode.

The subject of death is always a tough one, but there are some lessons we can learn. You want to help those that need to take care of your affairs, and we discuss this.

Even with the stressful times, Alan has been keeping up with the Olympics. We discuss how it’s changed through the years and even discuss ‘participating’ via video games. And not everything about the Olympics is wonderful.

We delve into some comic, movie and TV show talk.

Recommendations

https://olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/olympic-schedule.htm?utm_campaign=dp_bing

YouTube

Transcript

Overview

Stephen’s tech troubles with his 3d printer leads to a conversation on how fixing tech problems has changed. Home networks are also big, and Stephen has been having trouble with that also. Time for a new router.

Meatloaf passed away this past week and we reminisce about the great music. And there is going to be a biopic of Weird Al with Daniel Radcliffe as Al!

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/daniel-radcliffe-weird-al-yankovic-movie-1235156084/?scrollnorefresh=1

Alan has watched several documentaries lately – like ZZ Top and David Foster.

Recommendations

David Foster Documentary – https://www.netflix.com/title/81214083

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:41] Alan: let’s try this. Watch better

[00:00:45] Stephen: tech. I was telling my cousin I’ve had so many tech issues that I’m like ready to just give up and go and shovel horse stalls and call it a living. It’s been one of those. ’cause [00:01:00] so he got out of his 3d printer on Sunday. He got up in the morning. He said, I’m going to put the printer, get her, I’ll call you if I have problems.

So like 12, 12 30. He sends me pictures. Hey, look, it’s pretty four hours. And he hasn’t printing and it’s like halfway done. And I’m like, shut up. I’m not talking to you any longer

[00:01:18] Alan: days worth of. What’s funny. Why isn’t the temperature? Correct?

[00:01:24] Stephen: I tried, I said I can’t let my cousin beat me. So I sat down and I just started messing again.

The same issues though. I did change from the default, a bed to the glass bed, and I adjusted temperatures in various combinations that I hadn’t done before. And I put it back on the default, cleaned the bed real well, it printed fine. And I was like, are you kidding me? So I said, okay. So I hit it. I cleaned the bat again, hit it again.

It got halfway through it and then screwed all up. And I tried four more and [00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Alan: I mean, honestly, part of what makes me worry about that kind of thing, 3d printing or whatever is, I don’t think we’re early adopters it’s been around for a long time, but it sure seems to be that there’s, it’s like being an auto mechanic from before and, and now everything is solid state.

Everything is you can’t listen to it, feel it, and look at it, figure it out. You have no insight. You have no leverage points for, well, it probably is this what’s my first guest. And we’ve talked before about are our troubleshooting skills because after you’ve seen a lot, your instinct, your store knowledge leads you to what’s the first thing that I should try based on what I know so far, what’s the thing that I can try that will cut the solution set in half so that I can dismiss a whole bunch of possibilities by seeing whether this word.

And unfortunately you’re at the start of building that knowledge base. It screws up. It’s lying. It’s exactly the same.

Overview

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/winter-storm-weather-live-01-17-21/index.html

How could we not talk about the incredible snowstorm? It’s the most snow we’ve gotten in quite awhile. Everything may have been closed, but we stop our Relentless Geekery.

We’re not saying you should give up watching your shows, but maybe you could better manage the lists. To that end, we talk about the TV Time app. Links under recommendations.

We talk some great TV shows, including the great new Peacemaker show on HBO. Gold Monkey and Fringe are some wonderful shows, but man, Peacemaker sure knocks it out of the park.

And here’s something discovered with the new Oculus, see if you like the music:

Recommendations

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tv-time-track-shows-movies/id431065232

Peacemaker – https://www.hbomax.com/grw-pcm

David Foster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster

oculus – https://www.oculus.com/referrals/link/mindarch/

Trivia

Robert Patrick, who is in the Peacemaker series, is from Cleveland and has a famous brother. Who is it?

There are two different kinds of wind that blow in the Antarctic – one blows up a slope and one blows down and they gather different amounts of moisture. What are they called?

Listen to the podcast for the answers.

YouTube

Transcript

alright, good morning. Let me get a video on and voice on and all that good stuff I can hear you. Hey, nice snowy scene. We both went with that seam. Obviously here I am up in my mountain fasting thought of going outside in a [00:01:00] park and just getting in a snowdrift. And I’ve seen those simultaneous news reports where the guy’s getting blown away by a hurricane is having to hold onto a pole and stuff.

And I figured we can simulate that experience without having to actually get the fan and have Jason sprinkles, soap flakes. So they’re flying past me, you know, that’s right. The mashed potato flakes, soap flakes, all those things work. Exactly. Yeah, there you go. W w what’s that called floss, fleece something, whatever that little, exactly that, that has the good insulative absorbent value per weight.

You know what I mean? Okay. So yeah. Snowmageddon 2022, you look at these things. We had a rough 2020, and people are like, good, 20, 21 it’s could be better. And it wasn’t, it got way worse in many ways, especially for us Gina and her family. So we’re like, great, 20, 22, let’s start off with a blizzard. That’s not boating.

It w it was time.

Overview

We have toyed with talking about COVID, so we dig in to discuss it today. It’s been around for 2 years now and doesn’t seem to be going away.

Alan tells us a bit more about the Repairman Jack series from F. Paul Wilson. A geeky good time.

Alan gives us an explanation of how the stocks are doing with Zynga being a particularly nice looking one. Stephen updates us on the problems with Codova and setting up his Ender 3d printer.

Recommendations

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles https://www.idwpublishing.com/ip/11

Trivia

When did Boba Fett make his first appearance? And it’s probably not when you are thinking. 😉

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:37] Alan: Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

[00:00:40] Stephen: Oh, you got a nice winter scene going. I got BMW today. I had a fast and the furious last week. So new exciting backgrounds.

[00:00:49] Alan: Exactly. I have enough zoom that I could probably do a year, a week by week. I don’t know that I’ll always remember to change it. I don’t know that I’ll remember to change it to something new and yet the real trouble, the world will [00:01:00] heal will display new possessions like beavers and stuff like that.

[00:01:04] Stephen: It’s interesting. Like a lot of things in the last year and a half, two years, technology has exploded in a lot of ways and people are doing a lot more zoom calls for work for everything, visiting parents and kids and whatever. So the number of companies I went, Hey, I can get, I can give them a free background.

And then everybody that watches that video sees BMW here, please. Hey, get, yeah. You know, I’ve had a thing for years. I don’t wear a lot of shirts like this one I’m wearing right now, that’s advertised as a company or. Then they put their name on it. I paid for it to advertise for.

[00:01:41] Alan: I’ve always been weird about that too.

I really don’t like being somebody else’s billboard, especially when it even goes to the under thing of the most expensive ones, the polo shirts or whatever, like that are like, wow, that it’s not that I’m no, you’re deferring my costs. You’re charging me more advertisers. But then I’ve also seen like, there’s [00:02:00] replies to that where instead of having the, I dunno, the polo, they got a little crocodile on them.

I think that was from JC penny or something like that. It’s funny. I really purposefully try to be very brand unaware so that when someone says, oh, that’s the croc, they’re very fancy. It couldn’t tell you found at the $5 bin because

[00:02:20] Stephen: that’s what I do. I I’m okay if I’m going to get some, cause I admittedly like this sweatshirt, I have literally had this for 18 years and it still wears what’s a little more, but it is a better quality made shirt.

They’re not all that way. I go to the thrift store. I’m like, I’ll look, this $50 pair of pants is $3.

[00:02:43] Alan: That’s right. Pauline. I have lots of nice clothing because Colleen dresses ...

Overview

Before we delve into some dungeons, we talk about some reality TV – Wipeout and American Ninja. The guilty fun of the shows. And a little of Jackie Chan

We have a great discussion on the Hawkeye series and how great it is in the MCU. But we talk about Don’t Look Up more than that. Definitely a movie that should be checked out by everyone.

Recommendations

Humble Bundle – https://humblebundle.com

Atari 800 VCS – https://www.atarivcs.com

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:39] Alan: I’m bored with the background that I have. It’s post-Christmas so let me see. What’s a good thing. You’ve got some good Saifai there. Let’s see. I think I’ve already featured the bat cave, so we don’t want that.

[00:00:51] Stephen: Well, actually it’s not. Oh, hunky racing guys. VIN, diesel and Sienna too fast [00:01:00] and

[00:01:00] Alan: too furious.

[00:01:01] Stephen: Two fast, two furious for the 20000000th time.

[00:01:05] Alan: Let’s try that one. In fact. I don’t know what that’s supposed to. It’s funny that you should have a John Sina up there because, and actually this might be one of the first podcasts that we’ve done where we didn’t do a little communication beforehand saying, Hey, how about some topics to cover? I’ll jump out there.

John Sina is on a show that has just been revived that I really liked. And it’s called wipe out. Really? Have you ever seen it? No. Oh, Steven, it’s my guiltiest. Most horrible pleasure. It’s a huge obstacle course for adults.

They have to Dodge, big rotating arms are going to knock them off the platform while they jump from thing to thing. And they have to bounce on big red balls for them across. And of course you don’t one of the themes of the show is big balls and that kind of stuff. It used to be two guys, John. And why can’t I remember Johnny Anderson and John Hayden or something like [00:02:00] that.

John Heffron. And they were really witty and really like pleasantly. So. And it went until 2014. And when it went away, I just can’t tell you how deprived I felt. It’s foolish. It’s stupid people get it in the face. They take horrible pratfalls and yet some what part of me, the German parts thinks that others’ pain is amusing.

And so I just, I would laugh my, my butt off, it went away and I was deprived of that. I just recently discovered, I think it’s been going on maybe TBS, which I don’t get, but now it’s been packaged for HBO max. And, and so I’ve already binge watched like five episodes in four days, early January. And they’re not quite as witty, but it’s still fun.

And I just watched American ninja warrior. It’s the same kind of thing where it’s amazing that people can do some of the things they do. How do you hang from just the top part of your knuckle for 10 yards across a wall and go up and down, be able to reach out [00:03:00] and pull your entire body weight with this.

Overview

We got lots of cool swag for Christmas. Alan got a ton of music and recommends all of them. Stephen is getting a cool handmade Star Wars wallet. Awesome.

Some COVID concerns due to people not getting vaccinated or masking. You want to be with family for the holidays, but you also don’t want anyone to get sick or even die.

Weekly Recommendations

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:40] Alan: Good morning, Steven.

[00:00:42] Stephen: Good. You got the memo where black shoe. In fact, here,

[00:00:45] Alan: this was the new shirt. Keep calm and carry on my wayward son concert. So Coleen saw that it’s not a rock band, fancy and there’s something on the back. Let’s see. What does it say on the back? Let’s see. There will be peace when [00:01:00] you are done

[00:01:01] Stephen: that that could be for Kansas or supernatural

[00:01:05] Alan: because that’s true.

They did, they sure did embrace Kansas. They had all kinds of good Kansas during that show.

[00:01:10] Stephen: So carry on my way where sign it was like that theme song.

[00:01:15] Alan: Exactly. It is about persevering in the face of terrible privelation and that’s very much natural.

[00:01:22] Stephen: It was about Mary after Christmas. How was your Christmas?

So

[00:01:27] Alan: it’s lots of great swag, Colleen and I were generous with each other as was the family biggest thought tough news is we think that someone at Colleen family had the Rona feeling really Rocky this morning. I am not, which has amazing because Coleen has the immune system of all. She really usually fights everything off.

I forget blue or sniffles, like once a year, I really am pretty also impervious to harm. And yet, even though we’re both vaccines and boosters, she might have breakthrough. Without going into a ton of detail. [00:02:00] We of course, went looking for a positive test to make sure that she has it, and there’s nothing available until the fourth.

Everything is very, all the appointments are taken up, probably cause everybody wants to, if they can get together with friends from the years, even whatever else it might be. And the holidays themselves are very disruptive for getting the test in the first place, getting the lab results, processed, et cetera, et cetera.

We went instead of there being at one central site, Google tries to do it, but it still is that you have to go to each individual site and put in what day and what times might be available and whether you want the rapid or the full PCR test. And so I’ve spent an hour this morning looking for, is there anywhere that we can get lost reasonable driving distances, like 50 miles you ought?

I mean, it really doesn’t matter how far we have to go, but after checking CVS and Rite aids and Walgreens and triangles and most of the four, and then after that, it tails off into like individual. We could not get an appointment for her before the fourth. [00:03:00] So now we’re doing all the searching for how do you handle it?

If you think you have it,

Overview

We have a special guest on today – Stephen’s son Colin! Colin works at a comic book store and recently attended C2E2 in Chicago. We eagerly await the nerdy updates.

Colin tells us about the people he met and signatures collected.

then we talk about the new Spider-man movie – so SPOILER ALERT!

Merry Christmas!

Pinball kit – https://www.scientificsonline.com/product/build-your-own-pinball-machine-kit

C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo) – https://www.c2e2.com/

Hoopla – https://www.hoopladigital.com/

Spider-man: No Way Home: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10872600/

Substack – https://substack.com/

Recommendations

Tom Zahler Cupid’s Arrows – https://thomzahler.squarespace.com/#/cupids-arrows/

Richard Kadrey Sandman Slim – https://www.richardkadrey.com/sandman-slim

Trivia

What actor, famous for a starring role in a classic Christmas movie, played Ming Ming in Elf?

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:41] Alan: products. Is that all right? Yeah. Let me leave that. One of the overall joys of the, of the Mac platform nowadays is that it really integrates well so that I can be working on something on my desktop, and then it can be easily available on my laptop without having. Save a [00:01:00] file somewhere, make sure that it’s shareable, you know, all that kind of stuff.

So I love that little, what they call it, you know, uh, uh, compatibility integration, whatever they have a nice of course, near copyrighted term, you know, just like they try to cover it from windows. Okay.

[00:01:18] Stephen: Welcome. And welcome to the fun buying for volunteer and see me. Okay.

[00:01:23] Colin: Yeah. Yeah. All right.

[00:01:25] Stephen: So we got our third guest on, as Alan pointed out our third esteem.

Yes. My son call him and he’s the geek of the week because he works at a comic bookstore, which is like the dream job for any 20 year old.

[00:01:42] Alan: Right. Exactly. That either that or pinball testing back in the old days,

[00:01:47] Stephen: by the way, Allen side too, before I forget, I was at the little red wagon, which is a really cool toy store in the area.

We had a kid. Cardboard kit, you put [00:02:00] together as a pinball machine, working pinball machine, it’s all peppered fold it and put it together. And then you have a cardboard working pin moment.

[00:02:08] Alan: Wow. That’s I was thinking the other day, you know, I haven’t gotten a 3d printer yet, but it’s, it’s literally like Christmas money is going to do that for that, for,

Overview

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9735318/

https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/

https://www.pixicade.com/

YouTube

Transcript

that’s a good thing to have on our checklist. When we start these sessions, he lost a good chat at the start last time, but I think we included it somehow as we went on. Yeah. We gave an overview a summary. So here’s what we kind of talked about. All right. Moving on, pull up some notes for today. We have a couple of things.

Uh, the weekend, the RG let’s let me [00:01:00] recap that real quick for ya. Um, it was okay. Uh, there were white as many people as I’m used to in Cincinnati. Uh, and I think a couple of the people running, it were new. So, you know, there were bumps and stuff. Uh, of course you had some people just sitting around bitching.

It’s like, okay, I have not even talking to you people, you know, whatever know that’s a sad thing in mental or any volunteer organization, just how much the people who are not doing anything are willing to talk about how it should be done. Right. You know what I mean? There’s, there’s this, it’s, it’s very tough to stay a happy, involved volunteer when 80% of the feedback you get is how you somehow screwed up.

Yeah. Yeah. And I know how rough those things are to plan and execute and the logistics of doing that stuff. Jason had a fantastic weekend. I mean, Sarah Sunday morning, Gina texted him at three [00:02:00] 30. He’s like, Hey, uh, you coming back to the room and going to bed. He’s like, I’m still playing cards. So very good.

That’s all, you know, I’m getting a little to stay till Dawn, but that was one of, some of our favorite RG memories is you’re goofing off with friends. You don’t want it to stop. So you do you play until 3 45 in the morning and then you’re like, well, I had a program I really want to see at nine o’clock.

Can I get my on three hours of sleep and a shower I’m going to try? Yeah. Nope. And my talks were okay. Um,

the first, the first one was supercharger kids talking to parents about things we aren’t teaching our kids for the future, for their work in life that we should. Um, and I, you know, of course, as making a few little adjustments and edits up to the last minute, it was the first time I’ve done it. So I’m still working out Kingston.

And I didn’t realize I was using open office instead of PowerPoint. And open office is a little harder to use at times a little [00:03:00] clunkier. Uh, and I did not realize that I had turned off several slides. So I’m going through the presentation and like this isn’t making sense. You can take them out of the stream cause you kind of want to have them for future, but you don’t have no.

Yeah. And so I got done I’m like that wasn’t right. There was something that was missing and someone might talk that and feel flowy. Like it should up to this crescendo and I missed a few notes on the way. So I’m like, okay, well now I know how to use it properly in there you go. And the second one went pretty good.

Uh, that was, uh, actual learning, a new skill video game storytelling for kids and how to prepare for it. Um,