233. Cravating

AlexThis is Do By Friday, a weekly challenge podcast. This week's challenge, watch Halt and Catch Fire and play with Home Assistant.

MerlinHello.

AlexI'm so angry. I was told not to come in hot. Not to come in hot. But here you are. Hello. starting a conversation off with hello i don't hello is this a show hi hi hello hello i'll fix your audio oh is it bad again hold on hold on is this a good time for you should we do this another

Merlintime god damn it zoom you know i think a good trick is to just leave it on system setting i do

Alexi do it's literally on there right sorry hello it's working great your system works i apologize

Merlinfor trying to help. Okay.

AlexI reply canceled. Oh boy. Oh boy. Hey Merlin man, how's it going?

God.

MerlinIt's going pretty good.

AlexI'm very tired. Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. Thank you.

MerlinI'm a little bit debilitated right now. How so? Well, I have multi-symptom something going on right now and I I think at the heart of it, it might be what we used to call a cold, but it's making my mouth very non-compliant.

AlexCan you smell and taste things?

MerlinYeah, I just had an egg and muffin. It's that like, so I do feel like a little bit I got that taste that you get. I have a taste. I have a telltale taste, like Poe said.

AlexOkay, so no COVID.

MerlinAnd on top of it, my uvula. My uvula is swollen again.

AlexOh, hot.

MerlinSo I got that punching bag in the back of my throat sitting on my tongue, which is very upsetting. I also have a couple blown out taste buds in the back right area. And I have a cold sore. So I got a whole mouth. So everything you hear, I want you to understand. Everything I do, I do it for you.

AlexThank you.

MerlinI'm also congested.

AlexOh, boy. What do you do now when you get all of your mouth sores and there's stuff up in your nose bits?

MerlinWhat do I do?

AlexYeah, you're here to help people.

MerlinHelp me, help me. Oh, you don't want to know what to do with a stress bump. I'll tell you, but you don't want to know.

AlexNo, no, no, no, no.

MerlinI've received numerous complaints about explaining my scorched earth approach to stress bumps. It involves a needle and a lot of rubbing alcohol.

AlexOh, I mean, at least that sounds sanitary.

MerlinAnd then you burn the place down. Oh, it's more than sanitary. you're just lavishing lavishing all that uh rubbing alcohol and then you throw everything

Alexaway because now it's got stress pump juice oh oh yeah because then it's spread it could spread

Merlinoh god that's why you gotta be careful yeah gotta be careful that's that's poison that's a poison

Alexmouth anyway i'm fine i'll be okay i'm a little out of it you okay oh oh no not at all but i'm coming to terms with that which is so so good yeah yeah it's i mean i i just finished listening to Welcome to Dubai Friday, where we love the program Election Profit Makers.

MerlinOh, that's a really good show.

AlexIt's a real good show.

MerlinStarley sounded a little sad this week or sick or something. She didn't sound like her usual self. Maybe she had a stress bump.

AlexOh, God, I'm still stressed. My spouse occasionally gets stress bumps. I don't. And I really don't want to get them.

MerlinYou know what it is? I am slightly immune compromised. I could tell you based on a number of extremely minor and one semi-major chronic health condition that I believe myself to be an immunocompromised person. So here's one that I think is useful for everybody, which is sometimes your body just needs a break. And it just says, I know this is true of my lady friend, like every eight weeks, she's just overcome with something. And I'm like, dude, that's your body telling you you've got to slow down. You know what I mean?

Sometimes it just says, that's it. We're shutting everything down. if you couldn't take care of this I will you know what I'm saying? it's like when Fredo's wife is out drunk and dancing on the dance floor the guy goes up to Fredo I don't know his name, it's not Al Neary but an Al Neary-like guy walks up to Fredo and says Michael says if you can't take care of this I have to and that's your body talking to you okay, you're Fredo

AlexI know

Merlinyour quality of life is whatever her name is, Debra I forget her name it doesn't matter that email John Siracusa, and then the fake Alniri guy is a stress bomb, or similar. I'm going to be getting the players a little bit messed up. I came in late and didn't get a program.

My new theme in drafts is cool, but it's doing things that are confusing to me. I think I'm using the new multi... All I know is that the anchor for a link is in bigger text than the link in parentheses, and it's really cool, but it looks really weird to me right now.

AlexWhich So are you using the new Custom? Let's see what I got

MerlinI got a Tim Nun How do you say his name? Tim

AlexOh god Tim I don't know I'm so sorry Tim N

MerlinTim N has produced a lot of things And I've been getting his things

AlexI didn't use I'm not using his syntax because I don't really Or I started to and I'm like Why this isn't for me I don't need to use Sintai And the but I enjoy the purple and it looks like a sight.

MerlinYeah, I'm going to play with a lot of them. What have I got? I am using... An app that Alexandra and I, I think it's fair to say, both really love, Drafts, has a wonderful new version. It just came out and it's got some cool stuff in it. I've been on the beta for several weeks. The multi-markdown, I'm using... My theme is... I'm clicking... It's a little bit confusing. There's a lot of interface in this app.

Oh, there's a new Task Paper Plus that Tim, you know. No, it wasn't Tim. I think it was actually Greg that put that out.

AlexThat is built in, yes. I was going to ask you, oh, oh, is it, are you still not able to?

MerlinWell, no, I mean, well, hang on. What are you talking about? I'm sorry, there's always been Task Paper, but now, well, in the beta, now there's Task Paper Plus, and that's one that's.

AlexIs it like multi-Marktown?

MerlinIf you go to the updated directory, it now has sections for syntax. And yeah, you'll see it there. Task, paper, plus.

AlexBut what does plus mean?

MerlinI don't know. What's Apple TV plus mean? That's true.

AlexOh, gosh.

MerlinNo, no. It's mainly just I think it's got – this is really not going anywhere. Boy, I like drafts.

AlexHey, welcome to Dubai Friday, everybody. We're talking about the application drafts, which is free. And you should definitely go and get it from the App Store. and you can tell my state of mind by how many drafts I have in my inbox. What is it? Oh, boy. 350. That's a cool boy.

MerlinDo you ever clean them out?

AlexYeah, every day.

MerlinI don't. I have 11,355.

AlexWell, I mean, that's the thing. People use it really differently. Actually, I don't know how to find. Oh, I have 2,000 in my archive. So that's different than the inbox.

MerlinToo much to my peril, honestly, I don't have a – well, apart from knowing that that's where I go on any of – well, on my Mac or my phone or iOS or macOS. That's where I – as they say, where text starts. But that's not always true. I mean, it used to be, time was, I would start stuff in drafts, and then I've had an action for years that turns that into first line of file space timestamp in Dropbox in my elements folder.

AlexOh, elements.

MerlinWhich is still called elements. Is yours still called elements?

AlexI hope so.

MerlinBut also it's just, there's, I'm getting kind of stepping on my own dick these days because I started doing stuff where like some of my home assistant stuff, I just keep in tagged files and drafts. But like, I got to pick one place. You know, it's that thing now where I'm breaking my own rule about, you know, what the cutlery drawer is for. And I'm doing it from all different angles. And it's not ruining my life or anything, but it is getting a little bit silly where now I do have to look sometimes in three places to wonder where I put something.

And that's a hole in the system from my POV. But, you know, it's a really good app.

AlexYeah, there shouldn't be a third place in regards to your brain. Like I don't want a Starbucks for my brain.

MerlinWell, I like them for such different reasons. I mean, something that's about to be really useful for me that probably every other home, Mac home automation person is already doing, but I'm just coming around to is, okay, so like for, I'm sorry, real quick. So like in NvAlt, I have a way that I name things that's really Byzantine because the text files that are created mostly on my Mac in NvAlt are also mostly being used in NvAlt on my Mac with occasional need to open them in an editorial for now.

but that's what it's for it's for like this is every set of show notes I've ever done for every show it's not a Google Doc etc but then it occurs to me I'll be sitting around I go you know it would be so easy to say hey Apple lady create a note call today or create a note called watching and like a one word thing where you can hail the dingus from across the room and so this is my thing I'm always coming back to this every few weeks is I just want to be able to yell across the room, have the thing hear me and put it somewhere.

You know, like it's I love another underutilized thing for me is I rarely remember. This is so dumb. I rarely remember that I can reorder or order things from the Amazon lady.

AlexOh, really? Why do you think that is?

MerlinWell, I mean, I know that's the whole point. But like, I sometimes I just don't want to have a conversation. I don't want to interact with the screen. All I want to know, I want like I'm walking around, I'm cleaning the bathroom and I just want to yell something. and make sure it gets captured. Now, I recently rediscovered this ability when I was cleaning out the garage, and I said, hey, Apple lady, create a note called Garage.

Now, compare that with what I'm doing on the Mac with NvAlt, where I've got this crazy, I won't go into it, but I've got this sort of Rube Goldberg device for how I name things in NvAlt. But I want to be able to just yell, you know, add Halt and Catch Fire to my watching list, or bring down gaffer's tape to my garage note.

So those are very different kinds of things. So I got drafts. I got Envy All. I got notes. I got other things. Sometimes I just want to create a reminder. So I just yell, set a 30-minute lizard timer. And that means remember the lizard's out. Otherwise, he'll fall asleep under the cables and we'll feel bad.

AlexOh, yeah. That's what I call death, too.

MerlinI created a candle timer this morning. Oh, my God.

AlexOh, a candle timer?

MerlinPeople in my house like candles.

AlexOh.

MerlinAnd I'm like, you know what? Before you light the candle, you should create the reminder.

AlexIs there a back channel happening? Because some people in my house also like candles now. And I'm like.

MerlinOh, you can join. You can join John Syracuse and me in this in this lecture.

AlexI just.

MerlinJohn has an even. John has. Believe it or not. John has an even stronger position than I do, which is that we shouldn't have candles in the house. I just... It's like daring yourself. You're daring yourself to almost set your house on fire every time you do that.

AlexI sort of gamble with, or rather I don't gamble with renter's insurance. And sometimes I wonder...

MerlinIt's a good deal. It's a really good deal.

AlexI hope so because...

MerlinOh, it's so inexpensive for the coverage you get. It's really... I swear to God it's worth it.

AlexIt's true. And so I'm like, you know what? I don't want to be...

MerlinI'm not chiding you. I'm just saying it's worth it.

AlexWell, that is good to hear because, you know, I didn't want to be Ned Flanders in the episode where his house called Absinthe. It's like, nope.

MerlinThat's a low bearing poster. You're a master suite. You've been going through a Simpsons thing lately, haven't you?

AlexI mean, I would say my entire life I've been going through a Simpsons thing.

MerlinIt just seems like lately you've been finding like you found like movie references and stuff. you're having fun right oh absolutely yeah it's a really it's a really good show uh yeah how deep

Alexam i too deep in the stack at this point alex should we start over i no no no no it it seems

Merlinlike you are having a day are we just doing word jazz is that it we just we'll just we're just kind

Alexof i think it's called a conversation is what you're referring to well that's what i was literally just thinking about is when is in-person conversation gonna feel normal and i i've always been the person who has trouble looking people in the eye and as

awkward and stammers and stutters and whatnot. So I'm not too worried about people's perceptions of me.

MerlinI mean, we have, we have, I mean, I can only speak for myself. I don't go to parties and stuff, but, you know, I mean, we either Madeline or I, as I've mentioned, because I really treasure this, we'll go down to the cafe every morning with Emma. And so, yeah, we've got, we're regulars there. and I should mention big week, huge week. This week... Back to school? Sorry. No, no, no.

AlexSorry, I made it sad. Go on, go on.

MerlinNo, no. She graduated too. She's now got she now has a the usual. That's a

Alexbig deal. That's a big step.

MerlinYeah. Yes. I think it's because I like to think, I think it's really because of me always reminding her to say please and thank you. Because that makes a good impression, especially for a dad. He looks real good when he does that. But yeah, yeah, yeah. We walked in yesterday morning and the lady goes, the usual? She said, yes. That is like a person

Alexsaying I love you for the first time, or at least for me because I'm broken. But there's this

Merlinbreakfast place. It's nice. No, it's funny. I mentioned this on Roderick on the Line where I brought up my old bugaboo, my old bugbear, my old bedbug about, you know, assuming more familiarity than you have with a person and how that kind of gets under my skin. On the other hand, I think there is a kind of jolly, gregarious, entirely normal sort of familiarity or like, I mean, like there's restaurants out there, places like say a house of prime rib where you go in and the maitre t's just really is cool.

Cool, like a little bit in the new sense, a little bit in the old sense. in the old sense of being a little bit Miles Davis, sort of like, you know, too cool for school, but also like makes you feel welcome. Not places that are like snooty, but places that make you feel welcome and notice something about you and try to help. Like, oh, you want me to take your jacket? Like, oh, oh, I see that there's a small person here who's a child. Can I bring them some bread? That's so much better than how we enjoy in dinner. Just don't ask me questions about my food while I'm eating.

AlexYou know what's probably going to be gone? The wait staff kneeling down and trying to talk to you.

MerlinTheir face is right by your food. Alex, we're deeper in the stack now, but I thought about this low this very morning because I ordered Ronald McDonald food. I was in the mood for an egg and muffin. And, you know, since it's been an option in this particular delivery app, of course, I've kept one radio button ticked, which is contact-free delivery. Okay? So, I mean, there's all kinds of ways to approach this. One is that, like, I mean, I think a complaint of people who deliver things is that they've got to do all the work.

They've got to, like, figure out where you are. I had a discussion with our former co-host about whether you should be out front and looking for your Uber, like actively looking for the plate versus them having to go honk honk. And I like to think that I'm pretty good about that. But there's a time. Imagine this. Imagine it's January of 2020 and you say, Yes, I would like an egg a muffin and some of those potatoes, but I don't want contact with anyone. Just slide them under the door. Leave them outside. Leave them outside.

Don't look at me. Like your frickin' Roderick Usher. You know, that's two Poe references. One more and I get a Buick. I'm going to predict it will be Casco Amontillado. Just if you're looking forward, that's foreshadowing. But you see what I'm saying, though? It would be so weird if in the notes field, you know my trick, the notes field. Oh, you know, just beef and cheese on a bun, please. It's for a kid, thanks. But what if the note you always had was, please don't contact me. You seem like such a weirdo. Now you ready for this? Now we're going to get back into it.

I feel like such a weirdo for unticking the contact-free delivery. Because it seems to say that I would like some contact, please. It's another one of those, this is going to be weirder than we thought. Getting back into things, I'm saying I agree that this is all going to be weirder than we thought. But it's going to include stuff like we have to now affirm some negative that we never used to have to think about. because everybody just thought, of course, it would be total normal for me to look through the crack of the door like some kind of shut-in and go, I don't know.

Like, I never would have done that before. Like, just pick up the food like a person. I was telling my kid how we used to have a pile of dollar bills, dollars and fives by the door for tips for people. And that seems like not very long ago.

AlexOh, I forgot you used cash.

MerlinWell, no, this is a long time ago. But the time was you order pizza by calling the pizza place. And the pizza place says, OK, that'll be 2116 or whatever. And then you tip them when they arrive. I didn't start using a credit card to like – and again, buying it, ordering it from the restaurant. I didn't start doing that until like the mid-2000s. Always pay cash.

AlexAsk your parents. It's dirty. It's dirty. Literal dirty money.

MerlinYou love dirty stuff. I don't know.

AlexOh, gosh. You know what? I wish I did. It would make me more interesting, but I'm not.

MerlinOh, you're just fronting for your brand, for the Insta?

AlexFor the Insta?

MerlinIsn't that the name of the site? Instacart? You're just doing it for Instacart.

AlexBeing horny for computers is not interesting. It is a normal and fine thing.

MerlinAs long as you put on your Walkman and listen to punk rock, it's pretty cool.

AlexYeah. As long as Mackenzie Davis is there spouting off beautiful things and parroting everything you love about computers.

MerlinI want to just go start bringing her every precious thing in my life and asking her which one she would prefer to stomp on.

AlexYeah, I mean, oh, God. I just...

MerlinDid you get that Funko Pop I sent you? Did you see that?

AlexOh, no, no. I'm done with the Funkos. I'm done.

MerlinA Funko Pop of her character from San Junipero. She's so cute. I love the shorts.

AlexOh, God.

MerlinUgh. But, you know, I mean, this is probably out of scope for our discussion today. We have lots of other things to talk about. But, yeah, I put something in the notes for rec diffs of what I call it, a pre-postmortem on Korn.

AlexYeah.

MerlinWhere it's not quite over yet. But, like, I have this whole, like, this flight of topics that are always going through my mind now. Which is, like, one of the things that started with me wanting to say, wanting to ask John, actually, really, you know, So can we all agree that there's certain kinds of BS we don't miss, like dry cleaning or like commuting as often, you know, for most people, for most like, you know, people who do the kind of stuff we do.

AlexBut that's actually, well, actually, I think that we're assuming more things about other people just in a natural way.

MerlinWell, I'm trying to do that thing without using your octothorpe. I would say, yeah, that's the kind of job I've got. But my wife has been able to do her job and quite ably without having to spend an hour and a half or two hours a day commuting in the same city. That's what it takes to live for the round trip. It's crazy. And yeah, and I mean like – and it's just been – there's been this very sort of very gracious combination of things where like, okay, once everything shut down, more or less, you know.

like my kid didn't have to get to school didn't have to be at school an hour earlier than now she talks on the computer no it's the worst but that doesn't start till 9 30 where she used to have to be at school an hour earlier and also that's my you know my wife's got to drop her off and then get to work where she pays 200 and some dollars a month just for parking and all that stuff yeah yeah yeah no but i'm so like i'm trying to avoid the octothorpe thing because i'm not going to do that anymore and i think you should stop too but that's your own it's because it is

Alexa bit and it is because

MerlinI know it's a bit but it becomes so much of a bit that pretty soon you're the kind of person like me who starts off impersonating Paul Stanley as a joke and then you can't stop and now you just walk around going alright anyway now here's what I'm trying to say I want to just finish this dumb thought that was all just to clear the decks so you don't like start going out and form some charity to like you know make me feel better I'm trying to say another one is like so there's BS and you know there's a sort of BS where you're like I can't imagine there's that many people who don't have a financial stake in it who want a lot of that BS back.

Obviously, if you run a dry cleaning place, you want that BS to be back. If you sell gasoline and cars, you know what I'm saying? But that's even like, okay, but here's the important part. So yeah, there's some BS where I don't miss it. I don't think anybody misses some of the BS. And here I'm just referring to all of the things that just became not only accepted, but things nobody, almost nobody liked about work and life. But we all somehow found ourselves agreeing to because, oh my gosh, the Overton window was where it was.

It will always be this way. Places that said, no way in a million years will you ever be allowed to work from home. Well, you had to. If you wouldn't have a business, that's where the people had to work. It was either that or just, you know, turn the place into a crime scene, set it on fire. Okay, but like, I do feel like there's things where like, there's this BS you won't miss. And then you know what's interesting, though, is there's a certain kind of BS. It's not really BS, but like, wouldn't you, it's a leading question, but aren't there some kinds of structure, for example, that you miss?

Like, meetings, boy, don't worry, we still got plenty of meetings. But like, you know, aren't there certain kinds of things, even beyond just informal, fun, serendipitous things? like there's certain kinds of structure that I miss. And that could be, my kid just went to a bookstore for the second time in a year. Went to this Barnes and Noble we used to go to. And was like, we've got to go back there. We already have a date for the family to go to this weekend. She doesn't remember going to these places as a kid, but she's like, they had everything. She's like, they had Saga, they had Watchmen,

they had da-da-da, and they have all this, they have a whole section on biographies. I'm like, yeah, it's a bookstore. It's amazing.

AlexIt's Fox Books, yay!

MerlinI miss having a place, I miss having a place to go to on the reg. And I miss all the places we used to get to go to on the reg. Like just like dumb, you know, like when, when, when she was little, there was a lot more of this. Like every Friday night we, we go to the Hofbrau and pick up some sliced pastrami and you know, there's always these things we would do like every X day. Sunday was always daddy daughter day. And that's where we would go and do something for like two, three hours, go have breakfast and hang out, give mom a break. But like, there's just not as many places to go to, to do things.

The library is not open. I mean, sometimes we just go to Walgreens.

AlexOh.

MerlinUsually because she's a candy lawyer, it's a way of her being able to get some bonus candy. But I'll have to pick up. I got a new monitor. I guess you'd call it a thermometer, for my fridge and freezer, and I needed nicer batteries that weren't the rechargeables. And I'm like, you want to go to Walgreens? She's like, yes, I want to go to Walgreens. She started taking walks. She started walking to the ocean and back by herself. almost every day. Cause there's nowhere to go. There's no, there's no, you know what I'm saying? They're like, I'm sorry, cut all this out Quinn.

AlexNo,

MerlinI just, I, there's some stuff I, I, I do miss. And like, I'm going to, once we get through this incredibly awkward, probably multi-year transition, it's going to be nice. Like for the people who want to hang out with family, they're going to be able to hang out with family for people who just want to go and get pancakes Sunday morning. You can do that. Not just retail, but like just the freedom of movement, you know, I, But I do think there's some stuff where it's going to be so weird. We all joke about only wearing sweatpants or like women who are like, I'm never putting on a pair of heels again.

It's going to be so weird as we slowly turn this all back on.

AlexHandshakes are going to come back sooner than I want, I bet.

MerlinWell, tell me, I just ranted a lot because I've had some coffee and my uvula is swollen. What are you thinking about the, you know, what's next?

AlexI continue to feel the way I did last, sort of like I did last March, where everybody seems again, hey, we're in this together. Let's all get vaccinated and go out and we're double masking. But that's so we don't fuck this up again. And I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop where I mean, it already has with Fox and there's a pandemic.

MerlinBut when is. Yeah, I don't. There's like what was it? I'm sorry. I won't interrupt you, but come back to that. Explain that to me. I keep hearing about that. So come back to that. But this is you feel the way you did last March.

AlexYeah. In a both good and bad ways, because I once again, I like I said, that the seeing people's behavior in sort of this solidarity, let's not fuck this up type of thing. But I also am wondering, am I just going overboard? Am I now at the point where I'm being too cautious? Like, where am I?

MerlinI know. I started wondering. I started wondering that, too. I mean, the shame, the shame we all don't discuss over much, whether that's you or me or Roderick or whomever is like, there's a lot about this that's been not just easier for me than other people, but has been so preferable to other kinds of things. And that, so I try to ask myself sometimes, I think I know the answer is like, am I being a foot dragging liberal about this because of the science and health aspects or because I'm

only somewhat secretly worried about how well I'm going to do once you start going back to the old ways.

AlexI'm openly worried, but I...

MerlinI don't think we're supposed to be happy about any aspect of this.

AlexOh, why is that?

MerlinNot happy, but like, I get to... I mean, I get to spend time, more time with my family and my... Again, just for my wife. I know this, I'm not going to be beating this to death, but it's insane what has to go into the overhead that goes into her doing the part of her job that's actually her job. And I think that's true for almost everybody. If we're really being honest with ourselves, and I hate to keep beating up on cars and dry cleaning, but if you really do trace that through

the whole stack, it's nuts. The reason you have a car probably is to get to the job so you can pay for the car and like you know oh you're sort of sold at the company's store it's kind of bananas and i i think in some ways i bet a lot of folks in business are really glad we haven't gone any further than that i mean i know that's going to happen with variants but you know we're probably

Alexon the edge of just open revolt and like i don't know oh what do you mean by that i don't know we

Merlinstarted watching a a dystopian uh very good dystopian uh hulu show from a few years back that's probably not appropriate for a 13-year-old. But, you know, we're talking about Handmaid's Tale. We've been watching Handmaid's Tale. Oh, boy.

AlexWolf. Talk about children in peril. Woo. No judgment.

MerlinAnd I can tell she's interested in paying attention when she keeps talking during the show to ask questions. Not like, Daddy, why is grass green? But more like, wait a minute. Over what period of time did this happen? I said, I think that's actually one of the interesting parts of this. I said, I hate to, you know, break Godwin's law here, But if you look back, I mean, what happened in the early 30s in Germany started in a rail car train with the Treaty of Versailles many years earlier. Like that's really, I mean, if not earlier, and then just like, did you know there used to be a country called Bavaria?

Like there used to be different countries inside what became called Germany. And like there's a whole bunch of different contributing factors that led to that. So what they say was Hemingway says going bankrupt slowly and then all at once. I mean, I feel like a lot of what happened in the early 30s, it seems like, oh, gosh, that all happened in this one, two, three year period after Hindenburg dies, et cetera. But it really built up over time. And I think that's one thing Handmaid's Tale really gets right is like it's this attrition of rights.

You know what I mean? It's like you just become used to this. You're getting more. You're still indignant about being a woman who's treated terribly. but like it isn't like they put a bonnet on everybody on the same day i am i think in the

Alexminority in that i i prefer the show to the book not that the book is bad but if you tried to start it and we're like it's not for me uh you might want to try the show because it's sort of the same theme but presented in a different way and this is gonna sound a little wild at first but Handmaid's Tale is remarkably like For All Mankind reminds me so much of Handmaid's Tale because it's this alternate history.

So people don't know For All Mankind is the it's it is an alternate past.

MerlinIf the Soviets got to the moon first.

AlexYes. And there are just a few little things like you would assume. Oh, that was the thing that changed everything. And maybe, but it was that, and then a bunch of little things that happened afterwards that were or were not on both sides. But it's kind of wild to see the like, yeah, if a butterfly flapped its wings, woof. And I love seeing, huh.

I'm worried about the butterflies who will be flapping their wings in the next few months or a few years, really, because I mean, I don't know. Well, when's the next coup going to be, I guess, is something I didn't think about until now.

MerlinI know. I'm super worried. One thing I love, though, is that I don't know. First of all, I warned her from the beginning. This show really goes there in like a big way. Um, but you know, one of the things I love, and I kind of forgot about the commander's, um, wife, the, you know, the Lindsay Bluth looking lady. It's like, I forgot that it was, wasn't it her book that sort of kind of, um, brought

the movement really together. And she kind of made her husband with that book she wrote. Right. The reason the commander is such a big deal is because she wrote the book of saying like, this is what we need to do. you know, I'm a woman, but boy, you better treat me bad if we want to save society.

AlexI vaguely remember something like that.

MerlinI didn't watch that. I had to record last night. I didn't get to see that episode. But that's what I remember is the reveal that, like, of course, even from the first episode, the Lindsay Booth lady is involved in some pretty nasty business. She's got a hold. It's like, check out how she's like, so Elizabeth Moss, right? Yeah, Elizabeth Moss kind of becomes like an externalized, you know, lady tube. But also she's kind of holding her down. It's like, oh my God. It's such a horrible but extremely powerful image.

And remember the tradition is that she knocks because this is her domain. It's like, God, it's so well done.

AlexYeah, yeah.

MerlinBut like then she did, didn't she write a book? And like, it's kind of because of that, the thing sort of kicks off. I'm probably remembering this wrong.

AlexI don't think so because the book at least.

MerlinI just remember looking for the Phyllis Schlafly kind of vibe.

AlexExactly. Yes. She is inspired by Phyllis Schlafly.

MerlinYeah. She's an extremely powerful, articulate, sort of charismatic character who – and the way that – what's her name played her in Mrs. America or whatever. The idea of like, oh, there's times where she just swallows her pride because the whole point is she lets the guy think he's smarter and won.

AlexYep.

MerlinBut she wants to be. But it's almost like, again, it's a little bit almost like Aunt Lydia. Or like it's one thing to be a Martha. But like if I'm going to be a Martha, I'm going to be like the meanest, toughest, most leading Martha ever.

AlexYeah. I mean.

MerlinWhen she goes in and tells Rory, oh, you'll still be able to have a child, but it won't be as distracting.

AlexMy Rory is...

MerlinPoor Rory. You know she's 39 years old now.

AlexYes.

MerlinIt makes me feel good about myself, actually. Oh, good.

AlexOh. Well, I mean, just because I'm like, wow, this woman has done a whole lot in her life. No, I don't know. I don't know why it makes me feel good. But maybe because I just rewatched A Year in a Life. And I'm like, wow, this is a nice show. I enjoy this. I enjoy this actor.

MerlinOh, wait. Was it you or Emma that told me this? that it's been, I think it's Emma, it's been five years since that came out? Is that possible?

AlexYep, it was, yeah.

MerlinAnd then I saw Halt and Catch Fire. I was like, oh, I've been missing this for a couple years. That came out in 2014.

AlexWhen I found that out, I immediately...

MerlinI was like, something's not right. I dropped a half decade somewhere.

AlexWell, no, here was my issue. I have made fun of my friends for thinking that Tom Holland is hot, and I'm like, too young, people, too, too young. And when I found out that this had started in, Halt and Catch Fire had started in 2014, I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, how old is Mackenzie Davis? And she is two years older than me, but also she, in that first season of the show, so she would have been 20, she would have been 26.

So I think a 26-year-old is hot in a TV show, and it's not as weird as I thought it was going to be for a second.

Merlinthank you i'm um yeah i mean you know it's it does feel yeah it feels it feels it feels like uh we're in one of those periods where just for me anyway like something's gonna happen and i'm just not sure what where like what domain of the united states in the world, but something, I have a feeling something fucked up is going to happen.

AlexWell, I mean, we're back to...

MerlinMaybe that's just my dumb chemistry, but the shootings, the shootings, the Trumpism, the like Tucker Carlson stuff, the like, the durability, the durability of like a certain kind. I mean, I think everybody says, oh, you know, we've never been more divided. And I think that's especially true. Like, I got a feeling the sides are really, when I say the sides are hardening, what I mean is that it seems like the frustrating thing for people like me is that the smaller the slice

of the pie represented by the Trump people, the deeper it seems to get until there's just going to be one super angry guy left. But you know what I mean? Like, it isn't like it's enough to still have an impact on like Ted Cruz. Did he go to Harvard? He's not dumb. Why is he? Why is he saying about like, oh, you know, he's like Bobby Newport. He's like, well, listen, I'm going to raise people up with thoughts and prayers and if people don't like that then you know well maybe

Alexthey're not your friend lisa i mean he is phyllis shafley that's why but like like what the fuck is

Merlinwrong with him yeah i you're right yeah you're right he wants to be the head cock yeah that's

Alexthat's all it is i can't that's that's the only thing i i i do actually wonder about the intelligence of the bushes but i mean everybody has gone to of the george w bush family yes and just seems i don't know just watching a lot of his older speeches and stuff i kind of i was i was like oh i thought maybe i didn't notice this because i was very young uh but they're not quite

i mean no one's gonna be obama but yikes he's a pretty dim bulb and something people say about

MerlinBoth him and his father, the other president, is that they're both like in the room, like you've never met like a more impressive, like warm person. Everybody say that about George H.W. Bush. I still remember George H.W. Bush as the person who was, God, his behavior in the last days of the 90, what would that be, 92 campaign? he was just swinging at the fences and going totally he you know a kind of style that you see now more today that pugnacious like just fighting and swinging it you could tell it didn't

suit him his nickname is poppy you know he's not really a swinger well anyway so the future well we'll keep monitoring we'll keep monitoring that

Alexi think that the main indicator of like ah hey things are going back to normal was when I realized that I'm now measuring weeks in what shooting has happened or what hate crime has happened that week. And not to say that that hasn't happened for a while. This summer was a horrific, horrific situation.

MerlinTalking about BLM stuff?

AlexOh, yeah.

MerlinI mean, we really got an uptick in murder.

AlexHey, everybody. have you heard of black lives matter have you heard of george floyd remember that remember that but i mean wow we're really getting back into the swing of things and uh they were talking about this on electric and profit makers vaccines are rolling out a lot faster than i anticipated um and i mean even doctors are like yeah if you can jump the line go ahead like just that's who cares just go ahead like and um i mean i don't i don't know i've i've i got an invite to go out to dinner the

other day from a friend who is like they're absolutely politically aligned with me and it's not as if like i did not i i didn't judge her or anything but i'm like i don't want to go in that flappy tent and pretend like we're outside i mean i oh no i i totally i totally agree we're getting

MerlinAnd we're getting the full press. I told Syracuse about this last night when we recorded, but, like, we're getting the full press from the family to make plans to all be together in August. And, like, we're in this really unenviable position of, like, you know, of just being like, look, you know, we'll do this already. But even just from a financial standpoint, I'm not ready to commit to three round-trip tickets and a week or two or whatever of hotels and Airbnbs at this point, just financially. And the reason I'm not ready to commit to that just financially is,

I still think there's a lot of grenades rolling around. And on top of it all, to use my old analogy, you know, when you meet somebody who says, don't, we don't need a condom. Don't worry, I never use them. That's a huge red flag.

AlexI'm so glad I've never had to hear that phrase in real life from another person.

MerlinI'm not going to, you know, put my envelope in that night's depository because, you know, past is prologue. And ergo, when I meet people who are really lackadaisical in their nose peekers, if they wear a mask at all and you start to get the feeling, wait a minute. I know this is old news. I've been saying this for a year. But like that's a huge red flag to me. When I meet somebody who's that like casual about this stuff and like, oh, come on. You know, it's like, you know, you're like somebody in a PSA trying to get me to try weed.

It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like you need to just understand that like I'll do stuff when I think it's appropriate and safe by the standards that I have determined. It's like you said to my kid when we're crossing the street, don't cross when everybody else crosses. You cross when we cross. We cross when we're ready. We do not follow people into a road because there's a lot of people doing it. And, you know, you're going to need to just be okay. and you know what, further, Your Honor, I'm going to advise that you not draw any inference

about our relationship based on me not wanting to hop on a plane, promise to hop on a plane just to have you go a little easier on me and not make me feel guilty. You know what I mean? Like, can't we just all be cool? No.

AlexNo.

MerlinThat's one of the warmest three midnight proclamations, right? Just be cool, be cool.

AlexBe cool.

MerlinSorry, it's an event, damn joke. Yep, nope.

AlexThat one went on my head.

MerlinBut you got to do this stuff. And you know what? And here's the thing, though. Like, if I'm – okay, okay, okay. Here's the thing. And my poor wife, she just wants to, like, go do her work and pet the cat. But I'm always, like, tossing out thought technologies. You know, I think – so we already see this rift. We hear – at least I feel like I hear about from cable news and newspapers. You know, there is this certain percentage of the population. small percentage, but that's all it took for Trump to be president. There's a small percentage of the

population that is not getting a vaccine, does not want to get a vaccine, and is pretty hardened in their position. Supposedly, more people are on the maybe side of that are getting vaccines as they see other people getting vaccines. I think we're just below one in six people right now. Something like 15% have gotten both in – all the injections they need. Like but if there is – let's even say 15%. If there's 15% of adults in America that just flatly refuse to – I'm not even going to say.

Let me put it this way. I don't think we're done.

AlexOh, winter is going to be a shit show.

MerlinBut if you're the kind of person who just thinks, oh, fuck it. I'm done with this. we are going to have a so much longer road of this than we need to have. Now let me ask you this. What happens when this is, I'm going to give you a little bit of a little TV miniseries here. What happens when everybody who wants a vaccine has gotten one? And a bunch of people got persuaded, but there's still like some percentage. And what if that percentage is a lot of people who like live in, let's just say non-urban and suburban areas,

like the kind of people who work at a Walmart or whatever. I was just starting arbitrarily, but like somebody who's employed by like a big national employer in a big retail store or similar, like, okay, well, everybody else has gotten it, but that's also a community where the people who work there and the people who shop there maybe are not taking this seriously, including getting vaccinated. Now the pressure's on, not only for Grandpa Uncle Joe Biden. Like we can't get back to totally normal. I'm so fucking sick of wearing a mask, but I wear it.

Like, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I'm so tired of it. Right? But, like, what happens when we get to where, look, we've plateaued now. Guys, the economy is not kicking in in the way that we need it to. The hotels and business travel is basically a relic at this point. There's so many industries that are not going to survive with two years of zero to 25% capacity. We really need to get, do you follow me so far?

AlexOh, yeah. Watching Comdex was crazy.

Merlinin Halt and Catch Fire. I'm like, whoa, that's right. I know. I know. But to get over this hump, something needs to change. And we've done TV ads. We've done fun things. We provided incentives. Remember, this is the same group that says, you can't have my gun and I don't have to make a cake for gays and all this stuff. You can't make me. You can't make me. What happens? Do we just live with that standoff that one out of seven people working at Walmart refuses to get vaccinated or

whatever? I'm just speculating. But do you see what I'm saying? I think we're going to get to a point where that hardening of positions is people are really going to be at loggerheads about how to resolve that. So, I mean, what do you do? Do you mandate it? Oh my God, people, they'd go grab their blunderbusses and head into the streets. I don't know. I don't know how we get to that, I don't know, it really worries me because on top of all the things that we feel so divided right now, I think there's still plenty of room for it to get way, way worse. Yeah, I

Alexthink it was from the Atlantic. Oh, goodness, Edward Yu. Oh, I forget his name. He's a science reporter and wrote out a really good possible timeline for 2021. And so far, it's all come to fruition and um like summer is gonna look a lot like last year but uh you know winter is going to look a lot different than last year and it's not gonna be a good thing because new strains are

gonna happen and i keep wondering do people not remember when i we all thought we were gonna be able to hang out at Easter. Like even, like, not the weirdos like us who are like, Dr. Don, what, okay, what food should we clean now? I can't.

MerlinOnce we got past February, March, once we got past the initial, like, oh boy, this is pretty wild, there was a lot of talk even then of like, wow, you know, if we all do this right, it would be, what, three, four weeks, things would be settled by summertime. I mean, am I remembering that wrong? Isn't that kind of what we thought?

AlexOh yeah, that is what I thought slash hope i mean like hoped for but as you know i i got covid billed and just watched everything all

Merlinthe time like oh this isn't happening well i can i'll tell you this the idea that the idea that my kid would not have a school year uh an academic school year in 2020 you know into 21 would have been a crazy thought let alone that uh you know we're still not so sure about 21 22 too. Yeah, I think I think that's that part, I think is getting better. I think the pressure versus what we know. I think that's got to get better. I just don't know if the resources are

going to be there to do it safely in the same way for everyone everywhere. I will that's thing. I'm

Alexwatching my friends kids who are in private school that they've been in school for so I can't even remember probably actually since at least december like uh or after like winter break yeah it's

Merlinprivate schools have been open for a long time here too and it's it's just gut-wrenching because

Alexit's not like yeah don't send your kids to school that's bad like i'm so happy that they get to experience that but what and i sure like i think about the walmart worker who refuses to get vaccinated but also what happens when the you know goop ladies are like nope not gonna get my kid uh definitely not getting my kid vaccinated and i already know multiple people who cannot get vaccinated like my grandpa can't get the vaccine and that why that terrifies something

with the uh like like a a basic ass allergy like he he's not vaccinated for like oh oh for health

MerlinFor health reasons. OK.

AlexYeah. Yeah. For. Yeah. So it's. And, you know, luckily.

MerlinAre they all three are not doable for him?

AlexThe what's what's the newest one that hasn't quite.

MerlinOh, AstraZeneca. There's Pfizer, Moderna. The one dose is Johnson and Johnson. And the one that the one that caused problems for 37 out of many million people was AstraZeneca.

AlexYes. And so but he but he hasn't like ever most vaccinations he's just unable to get. For reasons that I don't understand. Something with the like like how people have a silicon allergy.

MerlinI told you about this. I have a friend. I have a friend whose kid is one of those rare kids who actually not rare, but rare compared to the Marin moms crowd. But like where he like actually can't get it because of a similar reason.

AlexYeah.

MerlinAnd I think it's true. But she used to say it's so important that everybody get a vaccine because my kid can't.

AlexYeah. That's why I'm kind of like jump the fucking line.

MerlinLike, like I would nothing I want nothing more in the world than like give him the, you know, the MMR or the whatever. Like, like I would love my kid to have that. But like it is really I think a little bit like Gruber's kid. Like he has some kind of an allergy or like extreme sensitivity. But do you think it's something like that for him?

AlexAnd especially with the older folks, it seems that most of the Q and Trump people are in that age range. And, you know, they're shopping at the same grocery stores as people who are vaccinated or can't be vaccinated. And I'm just like, oh, boy. And then what happens also when you're – because I've been doing this a ton for my jobby job, researching what an employer can or can't do in terms of requiring people to be vaccinated.

MerlinWell, that's – if that was not clear from what I was saying, that's part of what I'm saying, whether it's Walmart or – I don't know. I don't know what the CDC or anybody like it is empowered to do. But I mean, you know, at a certain point, like, you know, there are there are there are cases where for public health reasons, you can have certain kinds of force, if you like. And I'm not saying you go strap people to a table and, you know, that would that would feel very handmaid's tale to them, I'm sure. But like, I don't I don't know how that pans out.

AlexAnd there's no spoilers there. Right now, there's really no good answer because we, it comes down to, like so many things, state by state is different. And it's, oh, God, cards isn't like everyone must be vaccinated. It's like we're, luckily, we can stay. We don't need to open up anytime soon. We're definitely not going to have anybody in our office until after May just because it's like, nope, nope, nope.

But it's and we assume like we're a tiny company and we assume that everybody is sort of politically, similarly politically aligned. Like we have our own like Bernie versus Pete fights, but not anything. But what happens if there is someone who just isn't comfortable and doesn't want to get the vaccine? I don't want to fucking be by them. But also HIPAA exists and it's this whole big jumble of stuff.

And also I'm wondering what is going to make especially like let's put that part aside that everybody wants to get vaccinated at an office. What but what other safety measures makes people feel comfortable and what will people actually do? Oh, and what is theater? You know, that's kind of where I am at, especially if you're bringing other people to meet in your office space. Like, you don't fucking know. Like, I mean, I feel like we're in some ways we're back to where we were.

Merlinwherever we were so goddamn boring wherever we were when i was having that boring depressing not boring well i mean i don't i mean everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it but like the that that the thing when i first started having that thought of like yeah but like so you're really you're sanitizing all the chairs at the movie theater uh okay how do they get to the movie theater like i still feel like okay we didn't crack that nut before now when we go to 25% capacity, like the A's, the Oakland A's are like, hey, you know, we're all

ready to reopen at 25% capacity and like, da, da, da, da. And like, dude, I can look on the walk from my house to my office. There's, there's, I passed by two different places that are like, basically like bar slash restaurants with outside stuff. Dude, nobody's wearing a mask. Or if sometimes they have it on, but again, they're doing, they're cravatting a little bit. Yeah.

AlexYeah, like the –

MerlinYeah, they're cravading. And no, but you know what I'm saying? And it's like, dude, a bunch of people like getting beer at an A's game. Well, first of all, if you can't get beer and stuff, who knows how many people will go. Whatever. I don't want to cast an aspersion. I'm just saying like, again, we glide like straight past like all of these like yeah but, yeah but, yeah but issues. 25% capacity, sure, that sounds great. But they're not arriving via claw crane. They got to go shooka, shooka, shooka down the little rows of seats to get past people.

That's not 25 percent anything. That's like right next to all these other people. And like, I don't know. I just you know what? I'm ready to open my heart and say, you know what? Nice work if you can get it. If if this ends up working this time in a way that it has not worked up till now, that will be great. Alongside vaccines, alongside lots of other things. Maybe it's going to be fine. Maybe I am a nut who's overreacting.

AlexI would love if I am just being a hypochondriac and, you know, the agoraphobia is just skyrocketing.

MerlinSomebody needs to be. Somebody needs to be because nobody else is doing it. Now they're shucking and jiving and screaming about sports. They move the TVs outside. That feels like a great move. And like, you know, and they're in their little tent cities, quote unquote, outside, quote unquote, quote unquote. And it's like, you know, if you can pull that off, if the AIDS can stay alive as an organization and with their, quote unquote, 25 percent capacity. But again, think about the condoms. Consider the condoms. The people who are like, yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. I never get sick.

You know, and like, OK, great. You know, you're out there now. You're you're you're the Oakland carriers.

AlexYeah. And I even think I mean, I'm already seeing the, you know, individual shaming amongst people, especially on the grams is the photos of indoor dining and hanging out pops up and then people turning on one another who are friends who aren't like, you know, Nazis.

MerlinImagine how much weirder that gets once a percentage of people have the vaccine. And Dr. Fauci says we're supposed to keep wearing masks anyway. But like, you know, pretty soon our all the shaming that one wants to do reflexively because it feels safe is kind of a dick move. Yeah. You're like you now you're being like everybody's, you know, has to print and you're wanting to put a scarlet mask on them.

AlexYeah. It's like everybody yelling at the one transphobic person instead of being like, there are bills across the country being like, this is a good use of our time. And, but the, the thing with this here is like, what is a good use of time in order to help people? Like there are right now. Sure. There, there are awesome places where you can help, um, help like the intake to get people vaccinated and stuff like that. But when we are hopefully let's,

let's say again, like at 80%, you know, vaccinated even now i i like the same people who are who are inviting me out are like well i'm not vaccinated but everybody else is going to be and i'm like yeah no i'm i'm not so i no no thank you i don't i say no to i said no to mostly everything in the past if i could so it isn't that weird for me but i mean i don't know the the other thing is people's mental health there are people who've

lived alone this entire time and who are like us who are so cautious and i mean i still don't i won't even take out the trash without i mean when i do take out the trash i would not leave without

Merlina mask oh my god i'm telling you when i go to the garage emma wants me to wear a mask i'll never

Alexforget this i in our hallway in our building i wear a mask like i don't know well i mean i i i'm

Merlinyeah my i'll never forget i think it was over the summer when my one of my wife's employees said uh i haven't touched another person in i forget what it was like at that point six weeks or two months or something like that it's like oh god what a chilling thought yep yeah i i mean

Alexjust watching my niece as she like learns to walk and gets her baby teeth over you know over FaceTime and I'm like it's okay people have had so much work you know but I'm like okay if this is hard for us I mean people are broken it's all anecdotal but I don't

MerlinI don't know how it's not more obviously worse I don't know how the economy is not economy I just don't understand how any people have any money I just don't understand it

Alexum because there are jobs where you can do sit in a corner and talk

Merlinlook at Stuart and Charlene two bar owners having to deal with this in Brooklyn for a year and it's like all the changing things and like oh now it's this percent now it's that percent. Now you got to serve food. Now, you know what I mean? All that stuff. It's like, I don't know how anybody keeps it going. Like the, um, not marginal cost, but like, can you sustain a business at takeout only or 10% capacity? I just don't understand it. I mean, obviously it's wrecked a ton of stuff in the Bay area where the overhead was already crazy.

You people who own like, who had been ridiculously successful with like three, you know whatever sometimes big high fancy restaurants sometimes those little things but like think about like what was an empire that almost prints money that suddenly stops and now there's all those employees there's all that that sort of physical plant that you have to keep going

Alexi don't know and then there's you know when that happens those people don't have health care and then when they get sick they're too afraid to go to the hospital because no they're not vaccinated it yet and it's a cascading effect and and that's high stakes stuff but even low stakes stuff like we joke about my apartment but it's getting a little bit out of control and uh i'm like why don't you just move and i'm like because i don't because it's scary and i i don't you know like

sure the resources are here now but like what happens in six months it changed every single month in in 2020 like i don't know and the reason i mean i i don't know i that's that's i think the division is i do i don't think there's more div like the the left and right yes there there's bigger divide but also there are so many more forks in the road and not necessarily bad forks

But there are people who are now homeless and there are people who have a shit ton of money because they didn't have to pay for travel this year because, oh, my God, going to conventions and conferences is like half the budget for some people's jobs. And I mean, I don't know. It's those types of things where the I know I'm getting all chapo here, but the wealth gap going is so many folks who are middle considered, quote, middle class in January 2020 who are living a stimulus check to six months later stimulus check.

and I mean I don't know I'm we're having a weird one

MerlinI agree

Alexit's I have to remain cautiously optimistic otherwise I will lose my mind but whenever someone's like oh in two years we're not even going to remember this I'm like, that's fine, but that's not right now. Like, there's, you know, for children's brains, from what we know, develop pretty quickly.

And a whole lot can happen in a year or so. I don't know. Sure, the Spanish flu, which I know that's bad. Like, it really sucks that most people know it by that and not the 1917 flu. Like, we're gonna... Oh, that's the other thing. What if this is referred to as the China virus in like 100 years? Jesus Christ, I didn't even think about that.

MerlinYeah, I don't know about that.

AlexI hope not. That's just a dystopian, hopefully a dystopian thought that it has had.

MerlinI am a fan of optimism, I guess. I don't know. I don't know what the word for it is. But not to seem defensive, but like I just don't like when my – I'll put it another way. Maybe rather than optimism, I'm going to say good faith. Like I – if things are tendered in good faith, that's really good. Like that's how humanity gets less bad. But like don't leverage that against me. Like don't take my – like I'm going to give you this one on the strength, you know.

But like, you know, it's sort of a Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football thing at a certain point where you're like, you know, I'm kind of – I'm running out of optimism, let alone patience. And I certainly don't like the idea that, you know, I feel like the day that I stop being a karma suck is the day that I really regret trusting anybody. Because you're like, I, you, you have not, there's no, not you, I say the collective you, but like everybody who's in a position to make these difficult decisions with, you know, small resources and weird schedules.

and like it's been hard for everybody but like there has not been a lot of so for ron de santis the governor of florida to walk around touting like you know in your face see like you couldn't hurt florida you know everything's open here we're doing great and like like he's the hero for being the one that saw the emperor has no clothes well i think a fair number of people in florida died because he is a chode and does not know how to protect anybody and has aspirations I think like Mr. Cruz has aspirations, but like, I don't know.

It's just, um, at a certain point, you know, I used to say this here on this program. I think some of the most cynical people are broken hearted romantics. Um, that sounds a silly way to put that, but if you've trusted and you've believed, and if you've had hope in the past and then that not only didn't pan out, but maybe even got used against you, like you feel like, you know, a little bit like, oh, you know, fool me once you know shame on you you know so i don't know but let's talk about something else

Alexthanks so biden that's uh no it's not i am you tell me you tell me go go go i i will say that I am so grateful that there are people like you and others who make me feel more rational for, you know, still not that I think everybody should wear a mask in their hallway. It's

Merlinjust like... It sucks to feel nuts, but it sucks to feel nuts and alone. If you add and alone to anything

Alexit makes it worse. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Want to start the show?

MerlinYeah. now i don't know i i so last week in the after show we worked out uh either a very interesting idea or possibly two different terrible ideas oh i explain this to folks what we're thinking about

Alexdoing here? Please explain.

MerlinMy whistle's stopped. Here's the quick version. Because I've been going off like a nut job going off about Home Assistant and all this home stuff. So Alexander has been wanting to do a what are they calling it on Netflix? A special series? What are they calling it on Netflix?

AlexA limited series.

MerlinWe were thinking about doing a limited series, maybe a little bit like Vanessa Williams, but do something where we have a multi-episode arc. What I'm getting from this is we're going to try something a little experimental, which is I feel like we're going to be having an ongoing project for a little while that, no, listen, listen, this is not all the show is going to be, but we'll be, I think what we, I think what we'll be doing is picking up with each other every week on an ongoing project that involves something around, uh, Synology Naz stuff involves home assistant,

involves extending home assistant style things into, go listen to last week's after show. It's really good. But like into this more like kind of, what do you call it? Ambient computing. Like what is the state of ambient computing that we can safely bring into our home in interesting ways? But Rome wasn't built in a day. We're not going to be able to just have a Synology appear and be hooked up. So alongside our limited series on whatever that is, we're also going to be doing sub challenges, mini challenges, no brainer, easy challenges mostly that we will be covering

in each episode. And of course, we could always just fall all the way back on. Does that make sense?

AlexYes, it does. But I would. It's dual tracks, dual tracks, dual, dual, like, like how you can play podcasts and listen to Clubhouse at the same time on iOS for some reason. I don't. Oh, I hate it so much. Oh, iOS is sure in a state. But I think even more so what interests me, not just that home assistant is awesome, is the exploring the agency we have over our, quote, smart devices and what they not just what we are, what they're taking from us and what we're giving them.

But what, see, that's the thing. It's an ongoing process in my brain that I'm just like constantly thinking about. What sort of things are we doing that will define our habits in the future in regards to ambient computing? And like when we, I really think we will be putting things on our faces sooner than, I don't think it will be VR headsets. Like never thought that.

MerlinBut I mean, I think implied in what you're saying, though, is a kind of forward-looking approach, rather. Which, I mean, just to be clear here, like, there's the old joke about how, you know, whenever we look at the sci-fi of a certain age, it reflects the most high-tech, recent, usually consumer technology. So sci-fi in the 50s, sci-fi in the 30s looks like radios. sci-fi in the 50s, you know, and it looks like TVs, you know, rockets, et cetera, all this kind of stuff.

AlexFuturama's amazing to watch. I adore it.

MerlinWhy did nobody ever imagine that the internet would happen apart from Mackenzie? Yes. I screamed. But like that's always the hang up. Not always. It's often the hang up in so many sci-fi speculative fiction stories is like, are people just not communicating with each other? And, you know, how do we bounce this signal off the satellite? I mean, the internet started getting wider spread adoption in America in the mid-90s. And it's just weird. I mean, you've got Necronaut. What's it called?

Crypto? Shit, what's it called? What's the William Gibson book that I like? The new... Neuromancer. You have something like Neuromancer. And that is really, as they say, jacking into the matrix or whatever. What do they call it? Jacking into the grid or whatever. God, it's a good book. Oh, and at one point, Gordon is reading that book.

AlexYes. Oh, my God. There's so many Easter eggs. There's so many. There's so many.

MerlinOh, there's so many little great things.

AlexOh, my God. When the dial-up tone happened, I was like, wait, that's not a thing. Yes, it is, though. All right. Sorry.

MerlinWe're connected to 2400 bod. Wow. You've really gotten far, haven't you?

AlexOh, we watched the finale last night.

MerlinAre you in season two?

AlexNo. I tried to. Meet me. Yeah. Okay. I adore this show. And I'm told that the first season is by far, not the worst, but, like, it only gets better.

MerlinOkay. All right. Save it for the show. Okay. But I say forward-looking. I only say forward-looking because the thing that's going to seem a little fruity about this, I think, to a lot of folks, I mean, you know, look at the way people like me are so hardened. Not hardened, but in this position of, like, oh, I can't wait to get this, an M1 iMac. because like, you know, computing is what I do and I need the computer. And like, I think that's very understandable. You like computers, but like, what about the computers without the computers? And like, it's every, and of course it's fun.

We, especially on the Roderick Online program, we have our fun with things like, you know, electronic internet doorknobs or whatever. We like to have our fun with stuff like that. But I do think it is interesting and I like it to be forward looking. And you have so much, I guess to teach me, but to point to that are things

AlexWell, you have things to teach me. Oh, God.

MerlinWell, just the nuts and bolts of all of my screaming at my computer for the last few weeks.

AlexWell, that's what I love is I'm learning. I am learning again what I need to learn, which I haven't been able to do in a while, which excites me.

MerlinI don't know how long we'll do this, but that's the idea. We're going to talk about something involving computers, and then we're also going to have a sub-challenge each time. If you have any questions, who should they email? John Siracusa?

AlexMe. I'm on Twitter. I need to stop tweeting. But may I read you... May I do a brief reading series from Steve Wozniak from... What is... Oh, this is the Infinite Retina by Irene Cronin and Robert Scoble. And it's about VR. But he calls it spatial computing. Spatial computing will be used to serve us with deeper understanding of ourselves and give us wild new ways to experience the world and new ways to become more productive in business and classrooms.

And that is like, so yeah, that sounds like boilerplate BS, like every sci-fi stuff.

MerlinLike the AT&T commercial.

AlexRight, right. But then right after, the $250 Apple AirPod Pros have more compute power. More compute power? I guess I've been, I guess it's computed, not computing. Anyway, sorry. The $250 Apple AirPods Pros have more compute power inside them than an iPhone 4. And then certainly more than a bunch of other computers. And I was like, wait a second. Wait a second. Yes.

Holy fucking shit. Yes. And I know that I am putting two little computers in my ears every day. But the iPhone 4 wasn't that long ago. It wasn't. I mean, did we even have copy and paste on the iPhone at that point? And things are moving so fast, especially with Amazon and ambient spatial contextual computing, whatever you want to call it. And I don't think we are ready. But when I say I don't think we're ready, I mean it in the same way that we aren't ready for the iPhone.

But the stakes are a lot higher now. But also things are a lot, if you want them to be, things are a lot more fun now. unless Apple breaks all your shortcuts.

MerlinI just sent you a cell phone photo from 2005, which perfectly dovetails with the point I want to make about the camera.

AlexOh! I like this photo a lot.

MerlinThe camera on your phone right now.

AlexMm-hmm.

MerlinIt's, I mean, like, I know this goes by real fast for people like me at WWDC. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Knits and knits, lots of lenses and things, and, you know. But like it's just – it's crazy what is happening to get the photos that we get on our camera in 2021. I mean I had a friend whose dad – a friend from Minnesota whose dad worked on the Cray in the 80s.

AlexOh my god. Sorry. It's very cool.

MerlinAnd it's like – I mean like I'm just guessing if you went in to whatever the version of low-end Mac is where you could put them side by side and do a comparison. I mean what's happening in your phone right now is so nuts. it's you know what I mean it's just

Alexand you know and what you don't know is happening in your phone is even more bonkers like it sounds like it sounds

Merlinlike a joke it sounds like you know the whatever fuck it we're doing five blades kind of thing where you're like you're kidding me and then 18,000 photos are taken and it's very small team of elves compare all to see which is best and this is happening in real time at you know 72 frames a second or whatever it's why I've ended up I was talking to my I told my shrink at the beginning of the last session, I want to set aside 30 minutes that I pay for just to talk about tech stuff and to catch up on some stuff because he's a Blackmagic guy.

He's a Stream Deck guy. What? What? He's trying to sell me... What's the thing? ATEC, the ATEC or whatever? He's like basically... An ATEM, you mean? ATEM. He's basically demanding that I buy one. So anyway, we set aside some time to talk about the stuff you and I are talking about right now, talking about all these things. And I told him I confessed that I got that Blackmagic camera because of him. His setup is gorgeous. He's also an Elgato light man. Um, uh, he's got a green screen. He does it all.

AlexI need to get a therapist in San Francisco.

MerlinHe's a libertarian. He's a libertarian.

AlexOh, that's right. Well, so is many a, many a San Franciscan. Is that what they're called? The Frisco's? Okay.

MerlinSorry. Sorry. They call them Frisco's.

AlexYeah.

MerlinUm, and I was like, but you know, I said the same thing I told you. Like I, one day I, I, the way I'm telling the story anyway, I think this is mostly correct. After hours and days of like trying to learn everything about the black magic camera and how to apply LUTs. And I was kind of running behind for you look nice today. I was like, oh, damn it. I want to have this all ready. Grabbed my iPhone, plugged it in, turned on camo. I was like, fuck, this is so much better. The video. Now, fair enough. The lighting, I think, is helping. The hair light and all the lights, that is good. But like, honestly,

I mean, with the right person, as you see the nut behind the keyboard, you get the right person on that black magic and boy it's gonna look like you know david fincher or whatever but in terms of like running gun grab and go you know taking breakfast by the hand just slamming that iphone up in this dumb plastic claw hand and plugging it into my mac it's it's flawless yeah it does all of the work

Alexit's mind-boggling yep yep and i love it i we we talked about it before and mr syracuse says it all the time. You can't fight physics, but you can fight computer. You can make, ah, God, there's so much software in these Sony cameras. That's, like, I mean, I know there's this moral panic of, oh, the children want to be YouTube stars. It's like, okay, well, fine. Children will...

MerlinAre Sony lenses, Sony ones are the ones that are famous for being really sharp, right?

AlexOh, interesting. I don't know. I've been out of

MerlinI'm fighting my Sigma a little bit right now. Oh, really? You know, I'm doing things. I'm doing things. I'm doing things. I do adjusting. I've gotten some things for adjusting the autofocus sharpness, and I still feel like when you zoom way, way, way in, I'm still not getting – you know what? Another show. Save it for the show. Save it for the show.

AlexWell, I see what you're saying, though. So like for run and gun stuff, Sony, well, a year ago was my favorite thing to shoot with. But now I don't film anything that isn't on my iPhone. And we are now almost at the point where with zero, like right out of the box, having an iPhone looks better than the top end DSLRs I used in 2013.

Oh, absolutely. Which is just wild.

MerlinBut I like, I do, I, I, I, so God talk about COVID. I cannot wait until I can go to a camera store, say, here's my camera. Here's my 7D. Here's all my lenses. Make everything nice. I do whatever, charge me whatever you charge. Like, you know, like on the, the cheapy, the 1.8 Canon 50 millimeter, like that, whatever. I could just, you could, you know, you could bounce that off a wall all day and it'd be fine. But like the Sigma, like I've got the tool for doing it. It comes with this really cool little USB dingus,

but I don't want to have to go in and define. You have to go in and define all the different. So for the 50 millimeter, it's not as hard, but for the whatever it is, 17 to whatever the other one is, you know, you have to go in and there's like, you know what I'm talking about? There's like four different levels.

AlexIs this a prime? Are you talking about a 17 prime?

MerlinI don't know if it's technically a prime, but I got two Sigmas. I've got the 50 millimeter. It's really big. And the other one is not 17 to 85, but it's the one everybody gets for video.

AlexOh, yes. Okay, yeah. Like the YouTube one, yeah.

MerlinBut like if you go in, they have a tool for doing this, but like you have to go in and I'm so like if you wanted to go and change the autofocus specificity, like you can do this right on your Canon by saying plus or minus for any of these.

Now, but like if you're doing that with this other lens, now you got a table of like at each of these, measurements in meters or feet, you do this particular plus or minus. So now you're actually, you're talking more like 16 different things that need to be adjusted. I just want to be able to take all this into a store. I'll clean these up, make them good, make things clean, no dust on thing, give me new UV protectors,

and make all my lenses sharp. I would really like that. I don't want to do that. That's where I'm like, okay you know what i've bought three different ways to adjust autofocus about three different systems like where it comes with the cardboard thing and you shoot it from this far away depending

Alexon the oh my god you are deep deep in the stack in an interesting good way i want it to be sharp

Merlinlike hell because i look at my old photos on the 7d with the with the medium the 300 dollar uh the 1.4 canon lens oh that was a good one some of my photos are really fucking good and i feel like i sit there all day long the afternoon is gone and i'm like i still feel like there's you know almost like bad registration you know the way bad registration looks in printing where you're like oh that can be a fun look for you know a comic book but like you you get all the way in there i'm thinking maybe am i doing am i doing the thing right because i do want the bouquet so i'm like i'm

generally shooting nobody cares why am i talking okay all right okay every episode is someone's

Alexfavorite episode so i uh what is it i uh i brought back latin what did you ever do um the i can't wow i can't quote rushmore anymore this year truly has broken my brain but what you're talking about is also the things that you aren't automating because we don't think about this but your camera does in your phone does a whole bunch of things automatically without you knowing and

and it used to be like in certain apps you'd have to be like yes this is the autofocus i want like change this and then this and that's still how it is on many you know big boy cameras uh and i've lost a lot of interest in that not just because like in the same way that you lose interest in

Merlinlike a video game for a while like i i do i do choose to and need to take breaks from each of my projects and sometimes that just means okay i'm done for today like i'll spend an hour or two a day on this home assistant stuff usually i could say home assistant stuff but as we'll get to there's a lot of different to me very fascinating aspects including stuff now i'm learning to do more scripting and ifs and whiles and stuff like that but um which is good because i need to learn that Um, but, but it's also that like, I want this to stay fun and fresh.

And as much as I say, Oh, I need to amortize my dumb camera and lenses. It's more like, well, just take a little break. And like I said, one of the best break that I could take break that I could take that was actually really good was saying, no, wait, hang on, put the shitty $80 Canon lens on the 7D. Now, don't even use the fancy one, but like, you know, a situation where like, I just want, I want to have to learn this stuff again. And I think that was really good for me. Of course, the truth is I don't want to carry even that light lens around with me all the time.

If you include – so my Blackmagic, which kind of takes stills, but asterisk, asterisk.

AlexNo, it's –

MerlinBut like having that Sigma lens on the Blackmagic with the cage, with the hard drive. It's got a little Samsung, a little SSD, the one everybody gets. And it's like, oh my god, that thing weighs like eight pounds. And that's what made my mic stand, the blue Yeti mic stand, grown. It was just too much cage.

AlexAnd it's another one of those weird things where when I hold that camera, I'm like, holy shit, this is light. But I am thinking of it. No, I am not thinking of it as a DSLR.

MerlinCompared to like a Sony from the 80s, like you shoot a movie with?

AlexYeah, yeah. I mean, even next to, you know, the, like, lightest red cam. It's so, so light. And the pictures, I am not a cinematographer, not nearly talented as so many people are at changing the looks and getting the looks of, like, yes, you watch this. And if you have watched enough stuff, it's like, yeah, that was shot on a Black Magic.

And oh, that was shot on the red. And there's...

MerlinCan you eyeball that?

AlexSometimes. It depends on how good or... I mean, I was thinking about the cinematography of Halt and Catch Fire constantly as I was... Oh, God, that show is so good. But sometimes you don't want something to look like it was shot on the red. And, you know, sometimes you don't want something to look like it was shot on a DSLR because you want the film look. So, I mean, yeah, I can eyeball a 24 versus like 30 frames, something like that.

And some people can't. But also we've been talking about my really old TV. So having no, you know, like watching it, I can tell the difference when I'm watching it on an iPhone, but not so much a big TV.

MerlinOh, interesting.

AlexYeah, but that's not me. That's an LCD.

MerlinWhy 29.97? I could look it up, but why is that?

AlexI remember it has something to do with digital stuff.

MerlinThat used to be THE. I mean, it still is kind of THE standard for actual video, right?

AlexYeah, I think so. I think it had something to do with compatibility with the PAL stuff overseas. I truly don't remember.

MerlinWell, I'm sure people will let me know, and I'm sure I could look it up myself. but it's a non-round number. So it must be there for a reason.

AlexPlease don't send me a Google this link. I know it's 29.9 and I know it's 23.9.

MerlinI'm just glad that they maintain the 4x3 format.

AlexOh my God.

Have you watched any of the Snyder cut?

MerlinYeah.

AlexI don't know. I don't know. I don't know if you're...

MerlinWell, I had a little night with it one night.

AlexOh, a little special night. Did you like it?

MerlinAnd I was saying to Emma, it's, you know, I can... Let me put it this way. Let me put it this way. Okay. I'm going to be double controversial. Because first of all, I love Watchmen. And I understand why people... I understand why people don't like... I love Watchmen. I think it's a good Zack Snyder movie. I think it's a good Zack Snyder movie like I think you know the one with the sexy girls like not a good Zack Snyder movie 300 okay sucker punch but like I think does everything

have to be in slow motion can you imagine how much longer the movie would be if it was in regular motion

AlexI haven't seen any of it not out of any sort of opinion

Merlinthere's so much debris Alex there's CGI debris everywhere I don't know. I don't know. It's like there is like, like, God, there's not an example of this historically I can say without causing problems. But it's just very ashy all the time.

AlexAh, yeah.

MerlinHe loves that stuff. And the super slow-mo is crazy. So here's the thing. I get, I think, why people like that. Here's the thing. I like a lot of movies, but I have come to believe on information that there are a handful of Marvel movies that are the best Marvel movies. When it's not a Marvel movie, it's a Sony movie. I'm going to say both Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Verse are up there as candidates for the best superhero movie.

That tells you almost everything you need to know about my taste.

AlexOh, hold up. Spider-Man 2 as in the Tobey Maguire one? Oh, okay. So, all right. Yes, I agree then. Yes.

MerlinI mean, superhero movie qua superhero movie, it's really, really good. And if you disagree, that's okay. But to understand my POV when I'm making fun of that terrible, terrible seven-hour-long movie I started, I watched two-thirds of, huck, that's why. I mean, like, this is not what I find fun about comics. You know what I find fun? So those two movies I just mentioned, right? Those Spider-Men. I'm going to say Ragnarok. I'm going to say when it first came out, especially Guardians of the Galaxy.

Like that's so fun. We just watched Ant-Man the other day. We watched most of Ant-Man because we're redheads. And then it was that evening that I started watching. I had watched most of Ant-Man, which I think is a riot mostly. And then that evening is when I started watching Justice League. And it was like, oh, man. it's like record scratch how do I end up here like oh my god and it opens in Superman's in pain and stuff and I'm not sure why I guess did Batman kill him in a previous movie I do not acknowledge Ben Affleck

so you know it's very confusing

Alexwho's the Robert Pattinson is gonna be Trump's favorite actor is gonna be the next Batman

Merlinoh did you see that pretty doll I sent you no I think I sent you I was shopping for some Easter-related Easter-bastic presents for my kid. And I was looking for different things. And I found a Barbie-branded – oh, I might have sent it to Madeline. A Barbie-branded Robert Pattinson in – holy shit. Barbie-brand 56 slick back black hair wigs.

Barbie branded Robert Pattinson Twilight doll which I'm sending to you now now what little girl or boy or they wouldn't love to have that beautiful doll

Alexoh no

Merlinlook at the hair look at the face no no is he okay has anybody seen Cedric Diggory is he okay

AlexI'm deep no I don't

MerlinHe looks like he's wearing Nancy Reagan's hair.

AlexAm I wrong? No, you're not.

MerlinSo show art is either going to be a Robert Pattinson doll or a fuzzy photo of me with Steve Wozniak. TBD. I think we've got a long show. We've talked a lot. I think the home stuff.

AlexWe addressed the challenge. And I, well, you know this. I have not yet been able to acquire a Synology.

MerlinOkay. So why don't we just do a blast on – what do you want to talk about?

AlexOh, I do want to talk about Halton Catch Fire because it's one of these things. Oh, and this is my Raspberry Pi that I forgot. Oh, yeah. I don't own a monitor. I should – I was like, wait, fuck.

MerlinOh, I'll tell you. The height of my phone call with my shrink as we talked about all this gear and, like, you know, what to use it for. I reached over to here and I picked up this gorgeous Blackmagic video monitor that you talked me through and which I had to go and get all these different fittings. You know how it is when you get into the three-eighths world and this world and how do you connect this? Why is there not a wizard for that somewhere? But I finally figured out how to get it mounted on this desktop mic stand because I wanted to have an easy way to just have that.

And I was like, you know what I've most used this for so far? Configuring my M1 Mac Mini.

AlexI've been looking for –

MerlinDid I send you a photo of that? I pulled it up. I pulled it up on the Blackmagic – it's the only monitor I had at my office. And I was like, why is it all red? I was like, oh, that's right. It's because it's showing me where it's focused. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Why am I getting zebras?

AlexOh, God. I had the – this thing I kind of want – there are plenty of shitty monitors.

MerlinI want a monitor. I want a monitor so I can use my, I want to try using my MacBook Air as a real computer.

AlexI use my MacBook Air for everything except this just because. Actually, why don't? You know what? Fuck it. I can do the Scarlett software.

MerlinMaybe I should just get a Dell. I should just get some shitty Dell. Dude, get a Dell. Because the iMacs are coming, right?

AlexI think.

MerlinI really think the iMacs are coming. I do. I need that for my work.

AlexYou do. I'm very glad that you did not. I am very glad that I did not. I was able to talk my bosses into getting me an iMac Probe, and I'm so glad that I did.

MerlinSo you really feel that mostly with like when you're bouncing something down, right? That's where you get the raw power really put to use, right?

AlexYeah, when it is like bouncing video. With audio, I honestly can't tell. But I haven't bounced anything more than six tracks on my MacBook Air. So who knows?

MerlinI'm so confused about where the power lives. I'm deeply confused. I ran a bunch of GeekBenches on the three computers that I have here. So I ran GeekBench on the M1 Mac Mini, on the MacBook Pro, and on my very old 2015 iMac. And the results are kind of confusing to me. It's weird. The old iMac is still faster at some things. It's really weird.

Is it under CPU or under compute? Which one was it? There's my compute comparison. You know, instead of talking about the challenge, why don't we talk about how fast our computers are?

AlexHere's the thing, though.

MerlinYes, the compute comparison. The compute comparison. It's crazy.

AlexIt makes no sense. Wait, wait. What's happening? What? Is this the show?

MerlinOkay. I'm going to say a number.

AlexOkay.

MerlinThis is so you could do CPU or compute.

AlexOr compute? I don't even know what that...

MerlinWhen you run Geekbench, it gives you...

AlexOh, I see what you're saying.

MerlinI don't know what I'm talking about, but here we go. I'm going to say a number. Each one of these is a five-digit number that reflects the quote-unquote compute speed of... This is in order. Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, both M1, and 2015 iMac. 18,122. So 18,000, 19,000, 26,000. It compute faster, old computer. But now let's look at CPU. I bet CPU is a different story. I'll bet.

Let me go look here. You know, you guys could make this easier for me. I mean, it's not, this is interesting. Yes, yes. Okay, so in that case, same order. Mac mini, this is a single core. Mac mini, 1543. Single core on MacBook Pro, 1721. single core test on the old iMac 1062. So MacBook Pro is the winner there.

AlexYeah. Oh, for sure. That is the, I, for people who are all in on the M1 who aren't, you know, like computers aren't their thing, but their work is entirely on a computer.

MerlinThis doesn't account for the secret sauce, the secret sauce that we're still discovering about why it's, it is and feels faster than any of those numbers indicate.

AlexYeah.

MerlinIt's something with secret sauce, right?

AlexI assume because I don't know like why audio. Oh, I, I apologize. I figured out why audio hijack did the thing when we lost that after show the one time I have audio hijack saving to Dropbox directly.

MerlinNo,

Alexno, big, no, no. I was a dingaling.

Merlinso yeah but saving to dropbox in your home directory yeah but apparently you're not supposed to do that why would that make a difference it's still just a folder i don't know i don't know i don't know because you probably had the service turn hmm okay i i had a current i had a kernel panic last night 52 minutes in directives i had a literal kernel panic oh don't see those every day and in that case audio hijack had it right up to the last second and it was call recorder that did that of course of course not oh still on still on the

call recorder lots of vintage merlin uh well it's you know it's it's a call recorder is in palliative care you know you just you have good days and bad days it's like hospice you you want

Alexto provide the best care that that was dark no oh that's the other thing is like we're discussing hey for family like what should we do with the funerals of like the people who did dive covid and didn't dive covid are we gonna have a memorial service are we gonna like oh there's gonna be a flood of funerals i have to go to all right i'm sorry okay uh challenge

Merlinhalting catch fire as i'm watching dude we're an hour and 36 minutes in i just want to say

Alexthat Halt and Catch Fire reignited so many positive, passionate, and enthusiastic feelings in me in a way that nothing has in a very, very long time.

MerlinSo now you can make a joke for the show to be over.

AlexOh, it's such a long show. No.

MerlinNo. All I wanted to say, no, I mean, this is such a weird thing to say nowadays. But at some point, definitely after The Sopranos and before yesterday, something happened along the way where like there's so many shows and like, but it's not enough for a show just to be good. Like a show is supposed to be important. And like shows that would have been all that anybody was talking about in the late 90s become something where it gets one season and nobody watches it. You know, I can't think of a lot of examples off the dome, but there are shows like that where it's like, you know, is this like a big enough deal?

Is this a groundbreaker? Is there something about this that's new and unique in the midst of this, you know, landscape where there's very few middle sliders? Like there's all these, like if you took pound for pound the number of shows that are available in a given week, huge amount of those are like reality shows, talk shows, game shows, like all these easy to produce, you know, relatively inexpensive shows. And then other kinds of things were like, you know, I mean, I don't know how much work went into season one of I think you should leave.

But as I used to like to say, this thing doesn't owe me a nickel. Like I have exacted a lot of value from that show. But like, you know, here's the thing about this show. It's really good. It's not important. It's just really good. I mean, no, here's what I'm saying, though, is like at first, by the time I got to the end of the season, which I like I whipped through voraciously. I was like, I was like, I found myself having this dumb niggling thought of like, wow, you know, like, was it, was it good enough? Was it big enough? Was it important enough? It's like, you know what?

I just really enjoyed it. It's, it's like, like, like something like say Silicon Valley where it's like, oh my God, this show is so fun. And like any other time we would be falling all over ourselves to say how grateful we are that this thing exists, that this got made as they say. But like, you know, it's not the Sopranos, but I'm, and I'm not damning it with faint praise. quite the opposite. I'm saying I kind of wish there was more shows I could just watch that are good.

Netflix thinks I really, really like Murder. I like Murder a little bit, but I can't believe how many schlocky, shovelware shows are on Netflix now. Last night was the first night in a really long time that I was like, ugh! There's so much of this I don't want to watch where it's either like a 60% or it doesn't even mention the percent, which is never good. And anyhow, I just want to say Halt and Catch Fire, I think it's so much fun it moves really fast but it also does some interesting things

like the way that they kind of don't tell you how long it's been since the previous episode do you agree?

Alexyes

MerlinI said did you notice what I really should be saying is do you agree because I feel like sometimes it's an indeterminate amount of time like oh I didn't know she was going to Cincinnati like what was that about?

Alexyep yep and oh my god And I like that this is a show that is not important to the world, but it feels important to me in the way that certain podcasts and shows and things that aren't incredibly, you know, they're good, but they're not hugely acclaimed. But this show probably is going to make a huge shift. It already has made a huge fucking shift in my life. And not just because I want Donna and camera to kiss so much.

Why don't you kiss? Stop kissing. I just want them to kiss once. Or at least make us think. Queer bait me. Please.

MerlinBoy, that blouse she wears on the night the thing goes down with the dude.

AlexOh, so my gosh.

MerlinThat's a hell of a blouse. That blouse should get an Emmy.

AlexAll right.

Thank you.

Show notes

Transcript

233. Cravating

Show notes

Transcript

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