We get a little serious in the beginning, but don’t worry. That’s quickly tossed out in favor of driving, meat products, and fifteen minute orgasms! Who-hoo!
LINKS:
If you’re into some dense theory about roleplaying games, check out this essay.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Magical Talking Pod! Hah, I thought you were going to quote Lister from Red Dwarf at the start there. “Broadcast on all known frequencies, in all known languages… including Welsh.”
I can’t really do dark chocolate. Sounds bonkers, given my predilection for dessert, but it’s too strong. I can eat kinda dark chocolate, but not the stuff that’s no milk whatsoever.
Interesting, hacker group Anonymous wishes the Hat a happy first birthday. Card personally delivered for the lulz! (Cute card by the way, I love the idea of the Hat getting a note hand delivered by the Pony Express or something).
I hear you on the news stuff. I suppose it is escapist, but damn, everything is so hopelessly depressing, particularly politics. It’s not just stuff going on at the State or Federal level; the UK, after absolutely gutting the social welfare safety net, is dropping the 50% tax rate to 40%. Normal folk get shafted, high earners get a tax break. How about the state of Maryland trying to impose their no gambling laws on people from Canada and the UK? And the women’s health things you mention just make me want to punch something. It sickens me this sort of thing is appended to political debate (it’s a debate which is separate to politic issues in the UK). The fact they’re going ahead with SOPA/ACTA stuff behind our backs regardless? The crowning turd in the water pipe is the way the whole Republican charade laments Obama for being “liberal”, while he drone attacks villages to the stone age, smooth talking everyone from his center-right position.
HEAD EXPLODE. RAGE.
Doesn’t do my blood pressure any good, so I avoid it of late. I’m going to skip trying to get my citizenship this year, too. In 4 short years (I came to the US in 2008, during the election campaign) I’ve become so apathetic to the whole thing I’m not stumping up the 600 bucks to have the privilege to vote for one of these clowns.
Anyway, drive it like you stole it. Don’t you guys have that saying? Not so much abusing a car that isn’t yours, it means driving it fast… away from the fuzz… like you stole it. And Miss Daisy drives slow, innit. Anyway, I’m quite proud of having 2 out of the 5 crappiest questions in 53 episodes 🙂
But yeah, I think I’m a good driver. I drive really defensively, always anticipating that someone will make a mistake. Not that I don’t make mistakes, but always reflect on them. I get on my high horse about good driving – the number of near misses I’ve had with massive trucks and careless car drivers at the Dubuque and 1st Ave on and off ramps on I-80 is depressing. I’ve considered writing to Loebsack, it’s so bad. I’m waiting to see what this Summer’s construction will yield – hopefully they’ll add an exit-only lane from 1st Ave to Dubuque St., and vice versa, which will mitigate things slightly. They also need to put up a sign asking through traffic, not coming off at any of the 3 Iowa City exits, to keep right to allow Iowa City area traffic to hop on and off.
Watch this space, I may well write that polite rant to Loebsack yet. I’m going to post this in case the browser makes me lose it…
Then maybe you’re just eating it wrong. See with a really good bar of dark chocolate, the best way to eat it is to go very, very slowly. Taking tiny nibbles and letting each nibble completely melt on your tongue, before you take another nibble. This way you get to experience the full beauty of the dark chocolate, and if the chocolate is sufficiently dark (e.g. 85% & up) you can make it last for days.
Any amount just tastes odd and leaves a weird taste in my mouth, though.
Ah well, you’re just broken then. 🙂
Hmm, anger while driving – what about people on their phone? The number of people not using hands-free, or texting, blows my mind. I know an automatic makes holding a phone easier (I’ve briefly talked while driving while using a manual transmission, for my sins), but it’s clearly distracting to the point of danger. The “you’ll never be able to enforce that law” defense is daft, too. People still murder other people, and presumably occasionally get away with it. Just deal heavy fines when people are caught for it, they’ll soon stop. It’s about $1,500 spot fine for getting caught using your phone while driving, in the UK.
I’m torn on cyclists. They whizz around with abandon, even more so than silly college students blindly walking into the road with more faith in the oncoming car’s ability to stop than I ever have. Ultimately though, it’s a lot easier for the driver to kill the cyclists, so the driver needs to take responsibility. Same with motorcyclists too, really, despite the traffic weaving.
You know, with all the crap that goes into fast food in general, it’s odd that more places don’t do hot dogs. Speaking of Sonic, did you notice Sonic on the strip closed down? I love the greasy cheeseburgers and cherry lime lemonades they do, with the cherry at the bottom. It’s all about the Guinness Burger at Bennigan’s, though.
Floats are amazing. We don’t really get Root Beer in the UK (you could get it, I guess, in the same way as you could probably find Irn Bru in the US), so Root Beer floats were a bit of a recent revelation. Om nom nom.
Don’t forget to read these comments while mentally making a BLUEERGHH noise (my accent).
I’m pretty sure there’s something in the water in Iowa City that only affects the college students, making them believe the standard laws of physics do not apply to them and thus they will be able to survive being hit by car. I say this because I’ve seen pedestrians in Iowa City who look right at my car coming down the street and still walk straight out in front me.
Loo-dite! 😀
I got the piss taken out of me at work the other day for pronouncing trapezoid “tra-pee-zoid”, instead of “trap-eh-zoid”. I felt a bit better when I pointed out we use trapezium to describe the same shape, and it’s pronounced “tra-pee-zee-um”. I think I was within my rights to assume, to the admonishment of Mr. McGregor, that trapezoid is pronounced tra-pee-zoid.
Anyway.
I’m quite happy to admit to my friends that I, as Tony stated, both cheap and lazy. My shtick is that if a bunch of hard work now will save me a ton of effort in the near future, then I’ll do the work to avoid the effort. So maybe I’m practically lazy? In any case, I didn’t get TMTH the card; if I had, I most likely would have mailed it. Since I don’t really do cards myself I hadn’t thought about sending one for this momentous occasion, but to make up for that appalling lack of foresight on my part, I made you this.
See, my rationale mostly had to do with the fact that I’ve never known you particularly to be anonymous. If you had left the card, my suspicion is you would’ve signed it.
Also, that thing, whatever it is, may give me nightmares . . .
You’re not familiar with Juanita? Then you need to start reading the Bloggess ASAP.
Mark – to your point, the water on campus is from the Iowa River, the water in general Iowa City comes from underground aquifers, so they actually ARE different. That being said, I’m not sure the difference accounts for lack of looking while walking across streets/into traffic.
Stuart – Irn Bru is a delicacy not to be missed, where do you find it in IC? You should send some to the hat to eat with Kraft Dinner.
Congratulations to TMTH, its producer and uh, “talent” on 53 episodes!
Irn Bru is indeed a delicacy, no other soft drink comes close. Well I suppose Mountain Dew does but only in terms of the sheer unnatural colour of it.
http://www.irn-bru-usa.com/orderonline.html
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I’m less likely to drive it like I stole it. I’m always critical of Mr. Bee’s driving, so he was glad that the tables were turned when it came time for him to teach me to drive a stick shift. True story: Mr. Bee was recently pulled over while riding a bicycle home from work, when we still had just one car. His tail light was out, and was saved the ticket by a speeding pickup truck (this all happened late at night, since he works swing shift).
Hot dogs: blech. I’m not a fan of fast food to begin with, so I’m ok with fast food restaurants not serving hot dogs. Even with a child at home, I don’t typically buy them at the grocery store; I’m grossed out by what they’re made of.
Happy birthday TMTH! It wasn’t me who delivered the card, since I have no idea where Tony lives, and there’s that whole business of me living in Oregon. 🙂
… And take BACK one episode… to honor the Hebrew God who’s Arc this is…
I think it’s best not to think about people who sneak up to your door while you’re out and leave notes, no matter how adorable they are.
I’m not commenting on any political stuff because my head asplode.
I used to think that I drove it like I stole it… Then I moved to Texas where the speed limit on freeways is 70 MPH and the traffic isn’t stupid. (Or at least, not at the times I’ve been driving on them.)
I’m pretty sure everybody between my place and central Austin HATES me… or rater HATES the slow ass blue Corolla with the Penny Arcade bumper sticker.
Ah hah! Finally got the avatar to work!
Well there’s Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, which is a fast food chain that does hot dogs.
… I think Dairy Queen does hot dogs… and Five Guys Burgers and Fries does hot dogs (I prefer In N Out for burgers but Five Guys has awesome hot dogs which they will *festoon* with cheese AND bacon.)
Carl’s Jr. (Hardee’s to some of you) started out selling hot dogs and I think they sell hot dogs at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA.
You’re totally forgetting Der Wienerschnitzel… Which you may not have in Iowa…
NEVER take a German person to Der Wienerschnitzel… It’s worse then taking an Italian person to Olive Garden.
I agree that Sonic’s hot dogs are TERRIBLE.
Hot dog cookery does seem to require specialized equipment that can’t be used for other things, unless you (like Five Guys does) split them open and lay the butterfly’ed hot dog flat.
There are a BUNCH of individual hot dog places in So Cal… Pink’s, Tail of the Pup, PCH… Okie Dogs… Ooooooh Okie Dogs.
LA street vender dogs (generally they all use Hebrew National), wrapped in bacon and cooked on a portable griddle with onions and peppers…
OM NOM NOM NOM.
Oh! And Hot Dog On A Stick! Generally you only find those in food courts.
Seriously, if Costco can do hot dogs + soda for $1.50 it CAN’T be that hard to do a good dog inexpensively.
And no catchup on any of those damnit.
I think the idea of a Hebrew National hotdog, wrapped in bacon, is the definition of the phrase “delicious irony.” 🙂
Okay, this is the ACTUAL text of the question…
I heard the author of the 4 Hour Body book on the Nerdist podcast and thought he sounded like he had some good ideas. Did you read this book?
It’s basically about weight loss and living healthy in a really geeky way.
Or so I thought!
After a few chapters about biometrics, nutrition and exercise he suddenly starts talking about the best way to achieve orgasm. Then he switches to talking about insomnia and travel sized humidifiers.
Is this normal? Or did I accidentally get one of a limited run of joke copies?
I’m not going to lie… The switch to and from the subject of sex was abrupt and… a little creepy… I’m not going to lie… Possibly it was because I was listening to the audio book and I was mostly listening to it while I was out walking and doing errands.
Not to self, don’t copy, cut, rewrite and then paste… I didn’t intend to use “I’m not going to lie” more then once… : /
I’m not quite sure where Tony’s copy ended up, but I’d think this particular non-sequitur should make him more likely to read the actual book!
I know where it is!
And I still have to read William’s third book! I’m busy!
… I used “When you assume it makes an ass out of u and Jim McGreggor.” a couple days ago.
Also, I love that William is such a Luddite that he’s not even sure how to pronounce Luddite. 😀
Well, you know I thought about it and realized I’ve often been called a Luddite, but only in text or emails (ironic, I know). That said, I’m sure I’ve heard the word before and I don’t recall ever pronouncing it “loo-dite” before I did so in the podcast.
You just never know what I’ll say when I’m high on chocolate.
You did??
Well… did people look at you like you were a crazy person?
Or maybe they just do that to me. Even when I say something normal.
Or when I’m not saying anything at all.
They did not. They laughed and we moved on with the conversation.
Cheers for sorting the sound, this episode was definitely easier to listen to than the last.
With regards the ‘was this the first episode of year 2’ question I think Tony may be both right and wrong in his claim that this was the last episode of the first year. He’s correct because there are not exactly 52 weeks in a year. 52 weeks is 364 days so there are 1 or 2 days extra on top of that. So yes the day of this episode was within the first year. However each episode is the current episode for a week, so the week for this episode includes the first few days on year 2, thus making it the first episode of year 2.
I’ve got to ask as well but is it common to refer to people on bikes as bicyclists in the US? Over here they’re almost always refered to as cyclists.
You know, now that I think of it, I’m not entirely sure.
Cyclists is definitely common enough in the US. And bicyclist sounded normal to me at the time. But I’m not sure if it *is* considered normal, or if I just had a minor stroke.
But yes, cyclist is definitely common and normal around here. It just may also be normal to say bicyclist.