HomePodcastsGenXGrownUp PodcastLanterns, Bluetooth Sleep Mask, & Star Wars: Zero Company

Lanterns, Bluetooth Sleep Mask, & Star Wars: Zero Company

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By Mo


About This Episode

We watch two members of the Green Lantern Corps investigate a dark mystery in the American heartland, test drive a Bluetooth sleep mask designed to shut out the world without giving up your bedtime listening, and command an elite squad in a new turn-based Star Wars adventure set during the twilight of the Clone Wars!

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(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

Transcript

JonWelcome back Gen X Grown Up podcast listener to this episode 217 of the Gen X Grown Up podcast. You should see Moe smirking. When he hears that number, he can’t believe it.
MoIt keeps getting bigger.
Joni know Well, that’s how it works.
GeorgeYeah. ah That’s the only place that’s how that works.
JonThat’s how math is. I’m John. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, my buddy Moe. Hey, Moe.
MoHey, how’s it going?
JonYou know it would not be a show without George. Hey, George.
Georgehey How’s it going, everybody?
JonGreat. In this episode, we’re going to watch two members of the Green Lantern Corps investigate a dark mystery in the American heartland.
GeorgeHell yeah, we are.
JonTest drive. Yeah, we are.
Moah
JonTest drive a Bluetooth sleep mask designed to shut out the world without giving up your bedtime listening and command an elite squad in a new turn-based Star Wars adventure set during the twilight of the Clone Wars.
JonBut. That sounds like a lot of cool stuff in this episode. And and I wrote it and still think it’s a lot of cool stuff.
MoOh yeah.
GeorgeKinda. like Like, I feel like it was like the Joker’s wild, but the middle Joker was the one that missed in that list.
Jonah
JonOh, because it was mine? Okay. All right.
Georgeum
Jonwell
Georgelike you don’t know norah it was joker joker but this time it was like joker u .s history joker
MoWe got Green Lantern, Star Wars.
JonRight. and Presidential candidates.
MoYeah.
Georgeah
JonThe last one is just something stupid.
Georgei
JonOK, well, before we rail on my tech pick a little bit later in the show, let’s jump into some fourth listener email. Look, the three of us are here. We are liable to listen. But if anyone else does and you drop us a line about something you heard in the show.
JonYou are our fourth listener and the fourth listener for this episode. is longtime listener and supporter and friend, Slow Mo.
MoHmm.
JonThe subject.
GeorgeYou got a lot of tags on his name.
JonSubject line. He does, yeah. Subject line of the email is steering wheel spinner.
GeorgeOkay.
MoHello.
JonOkay. Alright.
MoOh, so oh your thing gets a response.
JonSee? How about that? Not so silly now, is it? All right. So he says.
GeorgeYeah.
JonGreetings, gentlemen, more or less. Smiley face. Ha! just like the Regarding.
GeorgeWe’re taking one of those tags off now.
JonRight, right. regarding one of regarding the steering wheel spinner as a very old gen x grown up born in 65 I remember first hearing about what was then called a suicide knob.
GeorgeMm.
JonMm hmm. Remember that too. I vividly remember my dad telling me about it as we rode around in his 72 Duster.
GeorgeMmm.
JonNow, if you’re listening, don’t remember a few episodes ago, I talked about getting one of those knobs for my car, like those steering knobs, right?
MoMm-hmm
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah. ah So he says in a 72 Duster at the time, almost all vehicles did not have power steering.
MoOh yeah.
JonSo the knob was particularly useful. But. Without power steering, if you completely let go of the wheel after turning a sharp corner, it would snap back quickly and cause all kinds of damage to fingers and knuckles and perhaps even catch onto your shirt if you were sitting too close.
MoThat’s right.
GeorgeYep.
JonHence the suicide top, right? So. Now, with power steering, it’s just a fun addition to driving. Just thought you whippersnappers. Wow. or ah Even Mo gets to be a whippersnapper. Just thought you whippersnappers might want to know.
Georgeweren’t they born in the same year?
MoNo.
Jonno No, Mo’s not slow-mo old.
GeorgeOkay.
JonHe’s just old.
GeorgeI know.
MoYeah, I’m just old old, not slow-mo old.
GeorgeHey! I just get confused
Jonah ah But you whippersnappers might want to know a little bit of history behind the item. Sincerely, Cliff Clavin, er, slow-mo. He’s…
Moyeah
JonYeah. yeah i have continued and we talked about that like mo already had one in his car i got mine i was stunned how much i used it and george you had like a possible use for it that’s one of those weird tech toys that we all like
GeorgeI do.
JonI thought everybody would go, that’s dumb. And everybody was like, that’s kind of cool.
MoYeah.
JonSlimo educated us a little bit on the background. I remember I ted said my dad used to have one on his big rig steering wheel and he called it a suicide knob too. but Yes, indeed. Slow-mo, thank you for listening, buddy. We appreciate it. You’ve been a listener for…
JonYou’ve been a listener for as long as we’ve had a show. So I know you’ve been around a long, long time.
MoOh, yeah. yeah
GeorgeMmm.
JonHe’s always been a listener and a supporter. So thank you for writing in. Long time fourth listener. Hey. If you would like your email featured on the show, it’s drop dead easy. just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup .com. We read every single email, of course, and most of them. like slobos.
JonWe’ll probably make it to the show. Alright. that good business in the rearview mirror we’re going to jump into this body of Okay, with that good business in the rearview mirror, we’re jumping into the body of episode 217. We’re ready for this very quick break.
JonAll right, guys, let’s get the ball rolling here at the top of the show talking about, of course, media that we have been consuming and enjoying since we last spoke.
JonIt could be a comics or music or books or television or movies or film or movies and film are the same thing, whatever you know what I mean. Let’s start with you, Mo. What have you been checking out?
GeorgeThey may not be the same thing, but okay.
JonThey might know. Who who knows?
Moyeah Yeah, close enough.
JonRight.
GeorgeYeah.
JonCinema.
MoUm. Yeah, I’m a big fan of like… you know British TV.
JonMm-hmm
Mobritish game shows especially you know really big fan and
GeorgeOkay.
Moum And I was. and we kind of like ran through like all the ones that we were watching. So I was like thinking there was one. that actually that I used to watch back in my college days. It was like it came on some weird PBS channel and. For some reason, my fraternity, everybody watched this thing when it came on.
MoAnd it was called Mastermind. Have you ever heard of this show?
GeorgeI mean… I think so. Of course there’s the game, but I think I’ve heard of the show too.
MoOkay. Well it’s a show that started back in 72.
JonYeah, let’s see Mm.
Moand it’s iss such And it’s a… a trivia general knowledge thing like you just answer questions and it
GeorgeRight. Yeah.
JonOkay.
MoThe twist is… You give them the topics ahead of time. So you have to pick a topic.
GeorgeRight.
MoAnd then…
GeorgeAnd they test how much of an expert you are on it, right?
JonOkay.
Moah You really are on that one thing.
JonOh, so you’re presenting your own area of expertise.
MoYes, exactly.
JonAh. Oh interesting.
MoAnd then they do a bunch of research. They come up with a bunch of questions. And then the guy just grills you for two minutes. Just those two questions on it.
JonSo no excuse for not knowing the answers. You pick the topic.
GeorgeRight.
MoYou pick the topic.
JonI gotcha.
MoBut, you know, but of course they get.
JonI gotcha
Modeep into these things. you know
JonOf course.
Moum and it’s funny the range and the trick is you want to pick a topic that’s not too broad But not too narrow, because if it’s too narrow, they won’t take it. you know but if it’s too
Georgeoh Okay
MoBut if it’s too broad, like you said. Yo. all James Bond movies or something like that. you would definitely lose because we’re the odds of, you know, they would just go, you know, who is a cinematographer on For Your Eyes Only and the you know.
JonUh… Okay. We got it. Gotta pick the focus.
MoUm. So you got to pick a focus. So like somebody actually did James Bond movies of Roger Moore. That was their topic.
JonOkay, right.
GeorgeOkay. Six movies, seven movies.
MoYou know.
JonMm hmm.
MoUm,
GeorgeYeah.
MoBut they’ll do like somebody, but you could, the topics are just funny because you get someone who does. you know, The War of the Roses. And then the next person is The Clash. yeah as topics um and they take And.
JonNice variety.
GeorgeRight.
MoIt’s… It’s a very, very dramatic. You find these shows on YouTube, which is awesome. Um, A lot of drama. And if you really want to laugh, you can go back and see the old ones from like the 80s and 70s.
JonHmm?
Mobecause those are on there too and those are just freaking hilarious just Everyone’s in suits and ties and all this stuff. um and so and you have to do three rounds so you have to have three topics they’re gonna ask you about And if you win at the end, there’s no money.
MoYou win a glass. bowl that’s made by this artist that has like all the muses as eshton is gorgeous
JonMm hmm.
MoBut that’s all you win. There’s no money, no cash prize.
GeorgeOkay.
JonBragging rights. Right.
MoYeah, essentially.
GeorgeRight.
MoAnd there’s only one a year to one person wins a year.
JonNope.
MoSo.
GeorgeWow.
JonNow, are you watching? Is this something that’s still running? I know you said that you’re watching some from the 80s.
MoOh, yeah.
JonAre these like brand new episodes or?
MoBrand spanking new.
JonSo it’s still running after all these years.
Moum
GeorgeSo they’re still running. Wow.
MoOh, yeah. It’s it’s actually, it’s it’s considered the, well, you know.
JonOkay.
MoWe call it trivia, they call it quizzing, I guess over there.
JonHm?
MoIt is considered the… Apex. quizzing show that if you You win that one, you are…
JonSure.
MoLike. it Because after they ask you the questions about your topic. Then you have a two and a half minutes where they ask you about general things, which could be anything.
JonOkay.
MoAnd then they add the number of answers right together, and then that’s your total.
JonHmm.
GeorgeOh wow. Yeah, it’s got a component to it that’s… in um a slightly more modern game show. I mean, I know this is still on the air, but there was a show that started a few years ago that my wife really loves called The Floor.
MoHmm?
GeorgeWith ah Rob.
MoI think I’ve seen that one.
Georgeah What’s his name from the Brat Pack? Rob?
MoRob Lowe.
GeorgeRob Lowe as the host.
JonMm.
GeorgeSo in that one, they start off with like 40 or 50 contestants on the floor, each in their own little square, and they’ve picked their own so area of expertise subject.
JonHmm, similar.
GeorgeAnd so if somebody challenges them. the competition between the two people is on the area of expertise that they selected before the show. Now theirs is not answering trivia.
GeorgeIt’s images that are up on the screen and they have to identify the image in some way. Like it might be, ah say the person’s area of expertise is James Bond movies.
MoOkay.
GeorgeThe images might say, identify these villains from James Bond movies. And the people just go back and forth until somebody runs out of time. And then whoever runs out of time first is the person who loses.
Mooh gotcha Okay.
Georgebut I like the aspect of choosing your own area of expertise and then having to live or die by that sword on the national stage.
JonMm hmm. mm-hmm
MoYeah.
MoIt totally is.
GeorgeThat’s pretty fun.
Jone
MoYeah, it’s funny because we see the topics too. Like I said, it could be, you know, King Henry VIII and then the next person. Penguins.
Georgeah
Moi mean literally that and um i was watching with my wife we’re like Penguins? Yeah, um I mean, just the not it just seemed like a very big topic.
JonIt does, yeah.
Moevery single question. This guy was like, boom, boom, boom. He was just answering every question you could think of about penguins.
JonSo if you’re watching this, you’ve probably thought about this, Mo. Have you thought about a particular area of expertise you would pick if you went on the show?
MoActually, yeah. um and I’ve been asking everyone this one, and I’m like…
JonI figured.
MoI don’t know um the closest i could come up with is one i thought maybe firefly because I’ve watched all those shows multiple times, but they could they get…
JonOkay.
MoLike.
GeorgeRight.
MoWhat was the name of the character in this show who did this? I mean, they get super deep on the details, but… I don’t know anything I would know. that Well, even Dungeons & Dragons and stuff like that. that i think I know really well.
MoI don’t know it as well as what they would quiz me on. Yeah.
GeorgeMmm.
JonGotcha.
MoSo how about you? Do you have something you would pick?
JonOh, me? I was just trying to throw you under the bus. I wasn’t trying to thought of it.
MoI want to throw it right back.
GeorgeNo.
JonI don’t know. I… I don’t know. I mean, like I might pick, like you might say Star Trek. but that’s probably too broad. Like I might say.
MoYeah.
GeorgeOh, good Lord. Yeah, that would be crazy broad.
JonI might say like. The next generation Star Trek or TOS, just like pick one, you know, ah what are you going to George?
MoBush. Mm hmm.
GeorgeYou might have to pick just an episode.
JonGeorge is like, I’m just picking season two. I’m just narrowing down.
GeorgeYeah.
MoYeah.
GeorgeWell, because of the way he’s talking about, they dig into the details.
Joni mean i might do something like that or
GeorgeIt’s not just like I can.
MoYeah, yeah.
JonYeah, I know.
GeorgeYou give me a synopsis of an episode. I can probably remember the title pretty easily.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeI can tell you the actors, the characters, all that kind of stuff, but.
JonYeah.
GeorgeCan I tell you the third DP on episode two of season four?
MoYeah.
GeorgeNo.
JonYeah, that that that that seems like unfair. Like, who would know or care about that, even as trivia? But yeah, I guess.
GeorgeI guess that’s kind of the point though, right?
JonI guess.
MoYeah.
GeorgeIt’s mastermind, not.
JonI guess. What would you pick, George?
Georgeyou know. Kind of know it, guy.
JonWhat would your area of expertise be?
Georgeah
GeorgeI… I mean, I’m kind of with Moe. That’s a tough one because.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
Georgeyou know something that you think you know like Maybe I would pick.
JonWhat about some wrestling?
GeorgeWell, yeah, wrestling would…
MoYou have to pick, I would pick a wrestler. That’s probably what you want to do.
GeorgeYeah, because… Yeah, because wrestling itself is as broad as the day is long.
JonToo big.
MoMassive, yeah
JonYeah, right, right.
GeorgeI would think I would pick something straightforward that seems… very niche but has a broad enough range that they would select it because that’s what mo talked about they it has to be broad enough that they’re going to accept it i think i would pick a particular video game like Dragon’s Lair.
JonMm hmm.
JonHmm. you know like all the blue floor and all the
GeorgeBecause there’s probably a crap ton of stuff about it.
MoYeah.
Georgebut it’s one specific thing that I could study.
JonInteresting. Okay.
MoYeah. Yeah, somebody did pick Deep Space Nine. as a topic.
JonOh, neat.
GeorgeOh.
MoSo…
GeorgeOh, that’s still got to be broad, though.
MoThere’s a person did it.
JonOh.
MoAnd…
GeorgeI bet it kicked their butt.
MoAnd I mean, they didn’t get into like who was, you know.
JonI know.
MoBash who did the clothes or costumes that but they did go into like Who did the theme music? Is one of the questions, you know, you know, what was the name of the characters?
GeorgeMmm.
JonOh, yeah? Yeah.
MoAnd they give you and there’s always a couple that, you know, are just kind of give me, you know. Like what was the name of the captain’s son?
GeorgeRight.
Jonto get you started.
MoYou know, that kind of, you know, this like the general, you know.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah, stuff to make you feel comfortable until they slap you in the face.
MoYeah.
JonRight. Get cocky and relax and they hit you with the hard ones.
MoYeah, get cut. is
JonYeah.
MoYeah, and all of a sudden it’s like, yeah, then they hit you with the next one and you see people just… And you do have an option of passing, like you could pass a question.
JonRight.
MoBut if it’s a tie. Whoever has the most passes loses. So…
JonThere you go.
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonOh, yeah, I can see that. Yeah, because you skipped them.
MoYep, so you skip them so but so you see some people just will give any answer just so they don’t pass you know
JonIt’ll pass.
GeorgeRight.
Moand You know, they’ll say, John Glenn.
GeorgeSure.
JonSounds fun.
MoI don’t know. You know, it’s awesome.
JonYeah.
MoSo check them out. um You find them all on YouTube. Usually somebody has compiled a list of the entire season and a season there is a year long almost.
JonOkay.
Moum It’s like 27 episodes, 28 episodes, and it only comes on once a week.
JonOh, wow.
GeorgeOkay.
JonOkay. Yeah.
GeorgeBut it’s being made still today.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeSo if we wanted to watch it on.
MoOh yeah, they just…
Georgeregular television, do you know which BBC channel it’s on?
Mono i don’t i know it’s on the brit box but i don’t know which
Georgeokay
JonOh.
Moand I don’t know which BBC it’s on specifically.
GeorgeOkay.
JonYeah. I’ll stick with YouTube .com. That sounds good.
MoYeah, so right now they’re in the…
GeorgeWell, I was just thinking, because it sounds like one that my wife would like watching, but I’d have to…
JonOh sure. All right.
GeorgeI’d have to find where it’s at so that she could watch it.
Moyeah well it’s on the let’s say it’s on youtube and right now they’re doing the 26 27 season because it crosses the year boundary so
JonGot it.
Georgewow
MoThey’re going through it right now. So yeah. So if you want something cool, like check out masterminds. I said, it’s, it’s amazing how much.
JonNight.
MoRandom stuff people know. That’s that’s all it’s like.
GeorgeMm.
MoSo. um The next thing, George, you got, I have been. Elbow deep in the show as well.
JonMm-hmm Yep.
GeorgeOh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I couldn’t help myself when John was doing his introduction. I was like, hell yeah, we’re going to talk about lanterns. You’re damn right we are.
JonYep.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeSo… This is one that… We all kind of had on our. you know, looking forward to lists at one point or another.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeI started watching it um just a couple of days ago. I wanted to get a couple episodes in so I could watch more than just one before I could decide if I was going to like it or not.
MoSure.
Georgeum I don’t know that I needed more than one. I liked it almost instantly because it’s very dark.
JonHmm.
GeorgeIt’s very. non-superhero-y superhero kind of stuff, like a Brightburn kind of feel.
JonMm hmm.
MoAt all. Yeah.
Georgea little bit
MoYeah, just a little bit, but not a lot.
Georgeum
MoYeah.
GeorgeNo, I mean… That’s what I mean.
MoEnough.
Georgelike it You know, Brightburn wasn’t about a superhero kid who goes nuts. Brightburn was about a kid who goes nuts that has superpowers.
MoRight. Yeah.
GeorgeRight. um I really enjoy. they’re They’re taking Hal Jordan. Who was not the first Green Lantern, by the way. I mean, I know the show is doing that, but Green Lantern was the reimagined.
Jonhe
MoMm-hmm
GeorgeHe came in in the 50s and the first guy was like. Steven or Lance or something like that.
MoOh, the Golden Age guy with the cape?
GeorgeThe… Yeah, but that was before they had the Green Lantern Corps and the whole mythos behind it.
MoRight.
GeorgeHe was just ah the Green Lantern.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeThere was no… backstory to him, really. um So… You got Hal Jordan in there and. I just… I was really looking forward to it because Al Jordan was the Green Lantern I grew up with.
JonMhm.
GeorgeAnd then Stewart, of course.
MoMm hmm.
Georgehe was part of the whole retconning that they were doing at that point in the eighties. I mean, they brought him in, they brought a new Iron Man in, they brought a whole bunch of new characters in and different, both in Marvel and DC.
GeorgeI love how they’re localizing this storyline, though.
MoHmm.
GeorgeIt’s just about this one little Midwestern town. That. There’s something weird going on. They’ve got some top-notch actors. The guy who played John Dory from Fear of the Walking Dead, it looks like he’s going to be kind of a main lead bad guy looking character so far.
MoOh, my God, yeah.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeum they They’ve just got… it’s just a rock star group of people and not all of them like super A-list well-known people, but solid, solid actors, right?
MoSolid, yeah absolutely.
Georgeum The writing is on point. I’ve enjoyed it so far. The special effects are. For me. perfect because they’re not. making them overblown.
GeorgeMarvel Cinematic Universe kind of stuff. It’s just very like. Oh look. I’m going to use my ring to make a dollar bill and put it in the jukebox.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd it’s very simple stuff. and I love the backstory with Stuart and his family in the one episode where they told the whole thing of him growing up without fear kind of thing, Daredevil style.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeall right Really, really well done so far. It’s one of those that I hate that it’s released weekly because I want to watch them all, but then at the same time.
Mo<unk>cc
Georgethey’re probably only going to have 10 damn episodes instead of the 24 I want.
MoYeah.
GeorgeSo. I don’t know. it’s It’s a beautiful series so far.
JonYeah, I’ll tell you, I’m loving it too. And it sounds like Mo is as well. i’m I am. I like it for. probably different reasons than other people would although Now that you’ve spoken, George, you’re like a lot of things I like about it. And that is that it’s not particularly superhero-y.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeMhm.
MoMm hmm.
Jonit It feels a lot more like, what was the? The true crime show with like Woody Harrelson and.
GeorgeTrue detective.
MoYou a detective?
JonDrew detective. It feels a lot like that with these two guys that are kind of adversarial, but they both are very sharp.
MoYeah, it kind of does. yeah
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonAnd although this kind of has like a. yeah kind of a sidekick feel to it. They’re not equals, but still. They clearly are equals in terms of competence, even though maybe they don’t have the same you know roles. And I like that.
JonThey don’t get it along and yet they clearly have some sort of a deep seated begrudging respect for one another.
Mohe
Jonin a way that It’s like, yeah, I don’t really like you, but. I do kind of respect who you are and what you do sort of thing, but they don’t say that they will never say it, but they are working together in a way that uncharacteristically makes it work in a way that true detective did.
Momm-hmm
JonAnd. There’s so little superhero stuff in it that when it happens, I go. I’m like. Oh yeah, I forgot this was a superhero show.
MoYeah.
GeorgeRight.
JonYou know, all of a sudden, somebody will fly off and go…
GeorgeMm-hmm
JonOh, that’s right. He can fly. I forgot. you know im
GeorgeYeah, because he spends a lot of time driving around and you’re like, why is he driving around?
MoYeah.
JonAnd he almost never wears the suit.
Molike
JonYou know, he just eschews all of that.
GeorgeRight.
MoYeah.
JonHe’s so over being a superhero, even though he still has the job in a way that makes me go, yeah, this is like that Marvel thing of like how real people would deal with being a superhero, even though I know it’s a DC character.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeYeah.
JonSo I’ve been enjoying it. for those reasons.
MoYeah, I like what they kind of were doing with the characters. The fact that Hal Jordan is just sort of burned out on the job.
GeorgeMm hmm.
Moyeah you just You can see he’s just weird.
JonYeah. Yep.
Georgebut he doesn’t want to give it up either.
Mobut he doesn’t want to give it up right he likes he likes the stuff that comes with it but he Doesn’t want to.
JonNo.
MoJust deal with it, you know?
GeorgeYeah.
Moum And Stuart’s character, man, talk about a strong character, too. It’s like. I could see why Haldron would be threatened by him.
JonMm hmm.
MoYou know.
GeorgeYeah.
MoBecause he’s just… He’s just on top of it, you know?
GeorgeWell…
MoIt’s
GeorgeYeah, it’s… Crazy.
MoYeah. um And I also like the fact that… This story has like… Everybody has agendas. And…
JonMm hmm.
MoYou don’t really find out what they are. You just sort of peel the onion thing. You sort of learn what everyone’s agendas are.
GeorgeA lot of political intrigue going on.
MoYeah, exactly. You know, one upmanship and what are you doing here?
JonHmm.
MoAnd, you know. It’s, like I said, and the fact that it’s not superhero, like they they focus, I think, on the story first. And. And then worried about the superhero stuff on top of it, you know.
Moum i said i i really like what they’re doing with the show i can’t wait this Hopefully they’ll do another season. Um,
Georgei think it’s got a shot i mean it’s on hbo i believe um certainly you know we saw the one episode where he’s dragging the dead bodies around they’re not worried about network censorship or anything
MoI’m hoping.
MoYeah.
JonMm hmm. You’re right.
MoYeah.
Georgeyou know, they, they can do what they want on this network. Um, I, I love, I think her, the actress’s name, is it Laura Kinney? That’s playing. one of the overlords
MoThe sheriff or? Oh, ah I was playing when the Guardians.
GeorgeYeah.
MoI think that’s her name.
Georgethink I think that’s Laura Kinney, but i’m somebody will write in and tell me I’m wrong, I’m sure.
JonI don’t know her name. Is it? Okay.
MoYeah.
GeorgeBut she played such a…
Jonhe
GeorgeGood roll. that It reminded me of when I loved her diabolical turn in the Truman Show.
MoOh yeah.
JonOh.
Georgeit’s It’s very, it’s a similar.
MoThat’s right. That’s where I saw her. That’s right.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYeah.
Georgeit’s a very similar kind of character to that role in that she’s got something. pulled back from Hal Jordan and from Stewart’s family and everything else.
JonMm hmm.
Georgethat, you know, she has to because of who she is, right?
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeShe’s…
JonBut it’s kind of understated.
MoYeah.
GeorgeShe’s one of these cosmic entities.
JonYou know it’s simmering back there, yeah.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYeah, and I love the fact that she has She thought. I think that she was going to get to play Stuart a little bit when they did the whole interview thing, when they were doing the backstory.
GeorgeBut it was really like he was so confident because he had been taught to be that confident his entire childhood.
JonRight.
MoYeah.
GeorgeHe knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew what he was walking into and nothing she said. changed or dissuaded his belief in that moment.
JonOr rattle them?
GeorgeHe was like, look.
JonNone.
GeorgeI… This job is mine. I was destined for this job.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYou know I was destined for this job. What are we doing here?
MoYeah.
GeorgeLike why are you even interviewing people? This is all just a smoke show to see if I’m going to falter or something. And. Then at the same time. You can see her. priming the pumps for his betrayal of Hal.
MoMm hmm.
Georgewhich goes against his military discipline nature of the chain of command and stuff.
JonYeah.
GeorgeIt’s really well written and all the characters. Relationships and reactions feel believable.
MoYeah.
GeorgeThat’s the part that I love so far.
MoYeah. So, George, I mean, you’re… We’re in the complex. So in the complex world. There were actually three Green Lanterns on Earth, right? Three humans at one time.
Georgeah Well, I mean, we just talked about the three. There was the guy from the 40s. There was Hal Jordan of Stewart.
MoOh, but so I’m going to talk about Guy Gardner, too.
Georgea Guy Gardner, yeah. Yeah.
Moso there were actually three so but it doesn’t say like that’s the situation here like here it seems like there’s only going to be one probably but
GeorgeNo, I mean…
JonIt’s like a Highlander.
GeorgeAnd…
JonIt seems like you get one here. It seems.
Georgeah Right. Well, and Guy Gardner came later after Stewart.
MoYeah.
GeorgeSo i I would imagine because they’re setting this in the Stuart training timeline, which was not really a thing in the books, but.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeum because they’re setting that here, it’s it’s very likely that. Gardner wouldn’t be a thing now. Gardner, isn’t that the character that’s… being played by um Bye, Firefly.
JonYeah.
MoNo, yeah, yeah yeah
JonYeah, Nathan Fillion did that in Superman.
GeorgeYeah, right.
MoMaybe this villain is playing it.
GeorgeYeah.
JonRight.
GeorgeSo I would imagine that because they have already shown him in the films. There’s a very real possibility that if we get any future forward storylines, we could see an appearance because who doesn’t love Nathan Fillion, right?
JonRight.
MoYeah.
GeorgeI mean… And he loves being in. superhero stuff he loves being in marvel and star wars and everything when he gets to do these little bit roles that one just happened to hit a little bit harder for everybody um
JonHmm.
GeorgeYeah. I don’t imagine we’re going to, I mean. there’s It’s just like with Thor, right? I mean, we had Thor, we had Lady Thor, we had Beta Ray Bill. We had. A billion Thors. We have a billion.
Moc
Georgegreen lanterns that’s the thing that’s great about the core i did like the I always called him Sinistro. So… They they.
JonSinestro? Yeah, yeah.
GeorgeYeah, they changed the enunciation on the syllables in the show, so I was doing it wrong all these years, I guess. but Oh. yeah I like that they’re bringing him in because he was a big part of the Hal Jordan storylines for obvious reasons.
GeorgeGreen, yellow, evil teacher, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeIt’s just good television.
MoYeah.
Georgemore than anything it doesn’t need to be superhero doesn’t have to be dc It’s just good television.
JonYeah. I’ve been enjoying it.
GeorgeThe hero stuff was what gave me the hook to get into watching it. Once I got there. The story’s what kept me.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeSo.
JonEasy. Yep.
GeorgeYep.
JonI agree.
GeorgeJohn, what about you? What have you been watching?
JonYeah, yeah know we actually, we missed a little bit when we, a few months ago, we had a couple of of rewinds. And so I skipped some stuff that I had watched.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonAnd so I want to circle back to something that’s been out for a few months now, but you probably missed it. This is a documentary within a documentary called Mockbuster. So I don’t know if you know the term mockbuster.
MoNever heard this one. Uh-uh.
JonBut. That’s kind of the… derogatory yet embraced now term for the kind of films that um Studio The Asylum makes.
JonIf you don’t haven’t heard of them, I know you’ve heard of their work.
MoOh yeah.
GeorgeThat’s the ones where they take the title and make the crappy version of it?
JonSharknado! Yep. Yep, exactly.
GeorgeRight.
JonSharknado, Snakes on a Train, Titanic 2.
Moah
Jonah
MoSnakes on a train.
JonAnd. Atlantic Rim.
GeorgeLike, didn’t they just release? They just released a Ulysses movie.
MoOh yeah, Atlantic Rim.
Mooh yeah and they called it the odyssey too i think they give it the same name yeah
JonThat’s right. Yeah, yeah. They called it the Odyssey because that’s that’s not copyrighted.
GeorgeRight.
JonExactly. That’s exactly right.
MoOkay.
JonSo. This movie… is about a young filmmaker who has spent his life trying to be a filmmaker, but he just makes like corporate training videos and stuff.
Georgea
JonHe really wants to get in the business. He tried to get in one angle. It didn’t work. And finally, he’s like. I’m going to see if I can work for these guys because I’ve heard they’ll let you. like anybody do a movie.
JonAnd he asked them, I’m an upcoming director. Here’s what I’ve done. Can I make a movie? And they said, sure. And so he said, Well. So I’m going to make the movie. But I’m also going to make a documentary about me making the movie to show what kind of constraints you’re put under, under the limited budget, limited resources.
Georgeoh
JonLimited effects. And so ah the movie is, uh, I think I forget the name is like the the land before time or something. It’s a, it’s like a time travel dinosaur movie, right?
GeorgeOkay.
JonHe lives in Australia. He’s going to shoot it in Australia. And he flew out to the the the studio headquarters once and they. they They. Saw him. They… He saw them shooting some B-rolls, some scenes there in the building, just in an office building or whatever, to try to stitch together some movie they’re working on. And it’s ridiculously small budget. ridiculously… limited resources.
JonAnd I think, frankly. The documentary. took more money to make than the movie he’s making in the documentary.
Moah
Jonyou know. Cause he had actual backers for that, but he didn’t over it. He didn’t. Across the streams, right? he Whatever their limitations were, he did it. And it is so fascinating. It’s a leak.
JonIt’s a peek into the life of. why they make these movies. And the guys say, look, we know they’re garbage. We don’t make cinema here. We make movies to make profit.
JonLow budget. High releases. Sell it through. Fund the next movie. That’s all they’re doing. And they don’t care that you laugh at it. They don’t care that you think. I don’t know Look at the list here.
JonAge of the Hobbits and the Da Vinci Treasure, that you think those are stupid? They’re Gladmo’s laughing. Because at least we know about it. and they watched enough of them, they could sell it to whatever streaming services, just enough to make the next one. That’s it. And it’s fascinating.
MoSo this is actually a movie. he’s He actually is making a movie in this.
JonHe makes a movie in the course of this documentary.
MoYeah, she is making it. Okay, okay.
JonThat you can watch. That’s right. It’s real.
Mowow
JonYep. From casting to costumes that don’t that aren’t right, that the flags are upside down on because somebody wasn’t paying attention to, oh, well, the special effects, the dinosaurs have to come from the other way and you shot it wrong, so you got to reshoot.
Moah
JonYou have to reshoot it to fit the CGI. Just whatever stupid stuff they tell them. It’s just really. nuts. Yeah. So once you watch the documentary.
GeorgeHold on. Hold on.
JonYeah.
GeorgeSorry, I hate to interrupt. My mother’s knocking on my door. Give me one second.
Moah Go for it, man.
JonGo ahead.
MoYeah, yeah, yeah.
JonYou’re right. Yeah, yeah, good.
MoThese people do Sharknado.
JonYep. The Asylum.
JonMega shark versus giant octopus. Nazis at the center of the earth. Two-headed shark attack.
MoThat’s… The Nazis at the center of the earth.
JonAbraham Lincoln versus the zombies.
MoI actually saw that. I actually went to the theater and saw that one.
JonWhat? Abraham Lincoln versus zombies? Really?
MoYeah, it was in the theater for a little bit. i took Me and my son went to go see it.
JonIt was 2012.
MoIt was ridiculously stupid.
JonYeah. Well, it it would have been. Nazis at the center of the earth?
Moah she said this ah
GeorgeOkay. Sorry about that.
JonThat’s okay. Everything all right?
GeorgeI guess. ah Yeah. Yeah. She just brought over dinner for me and grace. And she, nobody told her that I was recording a podcast. So.
JonOkay.
GeorgeShe was just knocking on the door and I kept trying to type while you were talking.
JonGotcha.
JonUnderstood.
GeorgeSorry.
JonYeah, that’s all right. So it’s called The Land That Time Forgot, by the way. I don’t think I… What’s up? Anyway. ah All right, so I’ll pick it up there, and we’re and we’re about to end this segment anyway. so
JonSo. The movie that he’s making, if I didn’t say, it’s called The Land That Time Forgot. at the movie. about the movie is called… Mockbuster. And it’s it’s out there streaming platforms. It’s worth watching. And it basically get several movies at once, all happening simultaneously.
JonDefinitely worth checking out.
GeorgeI I’m very interested because I always look at these asylum films, like they’re purposefully bait and switch. They give similar titles to try and get you to download or rent or watch wherever you’re going to see the film at.
MoMm-hmm
JonMm hmm.
JonHmm?
GeorgeAnd then you don’t get the thing you want. And matter of fact, I’ve seen parent groups get very angry because they do this with children’s films and the children don’t get the movie that they think they’re going to get, but they pay a same price or something.
Moah right
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeI’m very interested in watching the mock buster part of this. I don’t care about the land before time, whatever thing, but.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThe Mockbuster part seems really good. Does he? expose Asylum for shysters in your opinion or is he just telling Here’s what happened.
JonYou know what’s funny? There’s nobody to expose. They’ll go, hey, we’re shysters. They’re not trying to hide with it.
GeorgeOkay.
JonEffectively what their strategy is. Look, uh Masters of the Universe? is coming out. It’s got a huge, huge marketing campaign.
GeorgeRight.
JonSo we’re going to make a crappy movie called Master of the Universe. And it’s going to piggyback, it’s going to slipstream behind that movie and get attention.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonThat’s their whole strategy. whatever Whatever’s popular.
Moand It’s been working, I guess, huh?
JonDo something dumb and similar that can lead to confusion and they make enough money to make the next movie. That’s it.
GeorgeI know if it feels like a business model I would have. come up with myself.
JonIt does. it’s It’s kind of snaky. There you go.
GeorgeYeah.
MoYeah.
MoSo I’m going to kick us off with Tekken Toys because…
JonMm-hmm.
MoJohn, I’m going to let you do cleanup on this segment. so
Georgelaughter
MoWe’ll see how you do there. Um,
JonThey usually save the best for cleanup, I thought, and that’s not right here, but that’s okay.
Moyeah yeah we’ll see how it goes we’ll see how it goes um
JonWe’ll try. Okay. Yeah.
MoSo. So what I have is, it’s nothing exciting, but it’s a magnetic phone. amount for your for tripods, for to be able to mount your phone onto a tripod, it has a shoe mount. The reason why I got it, though, is like…
MoAll the tripods I have that… come up with like a thing to hold your phone is that spring Loaded.
GeorgeThe clamp.
JonThe clampy deal, yeah.
MoThe clampy things, they’re freaking impossible to get open.
Jonmm-hmm
MoYou know, and.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoA pain in the ass to get… take them off in the end i always feel like i’m gonna break my phone for some reason even though i know i probably won’t but
JonAnd you always end up pushing the damn button when I’m closing it.
MoYeah.
JonThat’s the other problem.
MoExactly, yeah. And then the the thing will sit on the one of the buttons sometimes.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeMm hmm.
Moand It’s just ridiculous. So I say there’s got to be a magnetic one out there, right, that takes advantage of it.
JonOh yeah, Minnie.
MoUm, Looked out there. Amazon. Of course.
JonMm hmm.
MoAnd. Sure enough, I found one and I was like. Holy cow. And let me tell you. It reduced the stress in my life so much.
Georgehe
Jonyeah
Moah You know, just a simple thing that I could just. Pop my phone because I was doing the filming the… uh putting the spinner control in and i had my phone mount above the table
JonMm hmm.
MoAnd. i was like the second day i was like trying to get in i’m like i was just Amazon. you know Came in, took two seconds to swap out. It was like night and day.
GeorgeYeah.
MoI could take my phone down, fiddle with it, pop.
JonYeah. Oh yeah.
MoIt just pops right back up where it was.
JonIt’s delightful.
MoSo simple. I… I’m assuming this probably came out a long time ago and I’m just now discovering it.
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoBut let me tell you though, if… You deal with these things. spending the extra The 20 bucks I think it was to get this. is totally worth it.
GeorgeYeah, so I have one that John knows because i think I think it was at the New York Toy Fair when I first showed it to you, John, the little foldy one.
JonYeah.
JonMm hmm.
JonMm hmm. Right.
GeorgeSo… I got this one. It’s an all aluminum cast body, but it it kind of origami folds down really super flat. but it has a screw hole in it for the tripod, you know, little quarter inch screw mounts.
MoRight.
GeorgeIt has these little hooks on it so that you could also hook it on a tray table while you’re flying on your airplane kind of situation.
MoThat’s pretty cool
GeorgeAnd they’re just so. convenient.
MoMm hmm.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThat’s what. this solves. And now that. Probably. 90 % of the phones that we get have MagSafe capability or you can get a case.
MoYeah.
MoRight.
JonThat’s what I did.
Georgethat will have the same thing for almost every phone out there.
MoThere’s a little statistic, yeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeI don’t know why The claw mounts are still. even being given away. Like I just got an, another tripod from newer the other day and it came with one of the claw mounts.
JonMm hmm.
MoYeah.
GeorgeAnd I’m like, why would you do that to devalue your product?
JonYeah.
MoThese are, they’re crap.
JonLike I don’t want this garbage.
MoYeah.
GeorgeYou’ve got this great tripod, but you won’t give me a mag safe mount.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeWhat is, what are you thinking? I guess because technically the claw one is a little bit more universal.
JonMm-hmm
GeorgeBut at this day and age, it’s kind of like USBA versus USBC.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
MoYeah, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?
JonIt’s like the adoption. Yes. Yes. I was just thinking the USBC adoption.
MoYes.
JonIt’s like, it’s not universal, but it’s so much better. Just start forcing it.
MoYeah.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYep.
JonYeah, I’d agree, Mo.
MoSo cool. So, yep, so that’s what I got. so George, what do you want to talk about?
GeorgeWell… Um, I went back and forth. John knows I had something different in this segment earlier. And by the way, Rip Van X, if you’re watching this on our YouTube channel or listening to this on the podcast, I need your help with that game and watch pinball.
JonMm hmm.
Georgegame that I got. I got some questions for you on it because that’s what I was going to talk about in this segment.
MoOkay.
GeorgeBut I decided to move that down. into the next segment for the games. And I wanted to talk a little bit about something that we recently discussed with a…
Georgepretty significant audience at the Long Island Retro, and that’s AI. uh um Specifically. We talked in that.
GeorgeUm. That podcast, that John, you just released that just the other day, I think.
MoMm hmm.
JonMm-hmm Yeah, it’s in the feed. You can go hear it.
GeorgeYeah.
JonThat’s right.
GeorgeUm. We talked mainly in that. what do you call those things
JonPanel.
Mopanel.
GeorgePanel, thank you. Good lord, I’m old. See, I need help for that too. ah We talked about it in that panel, mainly from a creative creep. content creator kind of standpoint and view.
JonMhm.
GeorgeBut I’m using ChatGPT now. for something on the other side of the fence that we’ve mentioned maybe a little bit in that panel, but not a lot. And that’s for organizational and business help. So what I’ve done, I saw a video about a month ago where this guy did this thing for an entrepreneur who was trying to run a business that was overwhelming her.
GeorgeI have created four virtual employees for Gen X grownup. in ChatGPT with personalities and specific agendas that allow them to do certain things for me when I’m doing other stuff.
Georgeor am exhausted because they never get tired and they work 24-7.
JonHmm. he
GeorgeWhat I’ve done is.
MoLike child labor.
GeorgeI kind of.
MoYeah.
JonHmph.
GeorgeI’ve created four. Dunder Mifflin based. Chat. AI agents. that help me with different tasks for Gen X Renup. So I’ve got a Pam, I’ve got a Jim.
GeorgeI’ve got a Karen Filippelli and I’ve got an Oscar Martinez so far. And they all do different things. Pam handles things for me, like she monitors my inbox for me. And if I get significant emails, she helps me with my CRM database when I need to reach out to customers, reminding me, hey, you need to send an email out today for this person. And we you know it’s been three days since this person.
Georgewrote us back we need to try and get them going again. um Jim, who’s kind of like my overall project guy, he like he talks to the other AI agents, finds out what they’re doing, and gives me operational updates whenever I ask for them.
Georgeum Karen Filippelli is handling like a lot of the planning and stuff that I’m using for social media. Yeah. then. um Oscar is going to be handling all.
Georgea lot of like just kind of like helping me polish up some of the writing. Like I’ll write a thing and then I’ll put it through Oscars. But to like make sure my grammar is correct and that kind of stuff.
GeorgeI know there’s grammar checkers, spell checkers, but they never work as well as you’d like them to.
JonMm hmm.
Georgeand Just… Getting to chat with these AI agents in their personality matrix that I’ve set up, which by the way, I’m not a genius. You know what I did? I got the Pam one working the way I wanted her to. And then I asked her to write the prompts to help me create the other ones.
Moyeah
GeorgeAI helping me create other AI.
JonYeah.
Georgeum
MoWhat could go wrong?
JonYep. Reverse engineer it, kind of, yeah.
GeorgeEat up. Yeah. So it’s a lot of fun and I just. I’m just curious like for you guys If that’s anything you’ve thought about or you might be using at any point for what we do or anything in your personal life. And then what do you think to implement the implications are of…
GeorgeThis side of AI, because I’m still using processing in a data center or somewhere that’s pissing somebody off, I’m sure.
JonMhm.
JonRight. Right? Yeah.
GeorgeYou know, what are the moral implications of this and what are the practical implications for you guys?
Moum So one question is like. What? What? stuff does do these things have access to of yours like do they have access to your email do they have access to your Okay, and you’re…
GeorgeThey do.
MoJust… your stuff they can just see your stuff basically
GeorgeMm hmm.
MoHow do you feel about that?
GeorgeBut I had to give them access to it.
MoOkay.
GeorgeBut yeah.
MoAnd… um And but as far as creating the agent, how what is it a hard process to do?
GeorgeTook me maybe… I mean, the Pam one was probably the one that took the longest because it just kind of developed. like so i have projects in chat gpt and inside projects you have chats so what i’ve learned is that inside a project all the different chats can listen to each other a little bit now.
GeorgeThat’s a new feature with them.
Jonhe
GeorgeAnd so the PAM one. that or the one that became pam was the one that i just started out like look i’ve built the crm uh, The CRM.
GeorgeExcel spreadsheet over in Google Drive, I need some help making it look prettier.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeI need some help. I can’t figure out this rule, why it’s breaking that kind of stuff. That’s where I started with that one, just asking questions. And then eventually I remembered that video and I was like. Well, let me just ask it.
GeorgeSo I gave it the link to the video. I said, can you? become what’s in this video. And it watched the summary and all the stuff of the video, the little. you know, whatever the closed captions or something. And it was like, well, I can’t do exactly that, but here’s what I can do.
GeorgeAnd I was like, great. How do I do that? It was like, well, here, give me this prompt.
Jonhe
GeorgeAnd so… i copied that prompt and put it back into itself and I had Pam at that point. um So. that one took the longest maybe a day but after that they’re like Like 10 minutes?
GeorgeNo. to create one.
MoSo. I guess my concern is… How do you know when you’ve gone too far?
JonMm hmm.
MoI guess is one thing I’d be worried about. you know we’re And. I mean, i so ah I’m sure you’re probably looking at the work it’s doing and checking and stuff. but you know i’m sure there’s a temptation to just sort of let things just sort of go and let these sort of flow. but And I’m not sure there’s probably some risk there, I would imagine.
GeorgeYeah. So that video that I fed into it, it showed a little bit of that. So this lady, she’s a hairdresser and she had a side business where she created this own wig extension kind of thing.
Georgebut she was overwhelmed with trying to do both things. And so this YouTuber who’s…
JonYeah.
Georgebig into ai he created six ah AI all based on the Dunder Mifflin office characters. But he even went a step further than what I’m doing.
GeorgeLike he had them where they could audibly talk to her and she could respond back verbally.
JonNo, really
Georgeto them.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThere’s six monitors in her little studio and each one of them has a little caricature of the different characters.
JonWow.
GeorgeAnd they’re all talking to each other.
MoOh my god.
GeorgeLike there’s a Dwight one who’s getting mad at the gym one all the time.
JonThat’s… That’s creepy.
MoThat’s very creepy.
JonThat’s very creepy.
GeorgeYeah. it’s a little creepy But they were. They were reaching out to her potential customers and clients and setting appointments. They were getting her signed up for this expo that she was going to be attending and stuff and making sure that she had meetings with people.
GeorgeThey were doing all of that work. on their own. Now I’m not doing that. I’m. I’m controlling what they do And I don’t, they don’t send anything out for me. Like Mo, I’m sure, you know, you were asking about the email. They don’t send emails for me.
GeorgeOr anything like that.
MoOkay.
GeorgeThey… Tell me when it’s time to send an email. And. I can ask them to analyze the. email chain to help me craft a response based on what I want to say back.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeBut then I still have to send the email.
JonYeah.
Georgebut it does make my life a lot simpler.
JonI can see that. Yeah, I mean, we’ve talked to that panel, as you said. We’ve talked since then.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonYou know, I use it quite a bit for research because… researching inside of an agent and researching in google is virtually the same thing these days. Because if I search Google, it makes an AI search for me and then says, and here’s the rest of it.
MoIt’s using AI. Yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonAnd so I’ve just cut out the middleman. I’ll usually go, okay, I’m researching this topic. Go and find me. Release information. um you know at the time critical reception and things like that And then.
Jonthe the the The part that concerns me is probably the same part that Mo has, and that is… uh I don’t know if you know, but I’m a bit of a control freak. And so I often worry.
Moah
JonI often to worry about ensuring that I have human oversight. To go, okay, I get that that’s all the stuff you thought.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonBut. That’s not what I think or feel or believe. And so I. I would never feel comfortable giving it the agency like that person in the video did to send out and schedule things and do whatever, because I’ve seen it go rogue and hallucinate and go down a rabbit hole that is totally fictional.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonAnd it would be so easy to. wreck your business in a way that well i’ve set up 24 appointments at the same time of the day because i Forgot time exists.
MoYeah.
JonYou can imagine doing doing crazy stuff like that.
GeorgeRight.
JonI. I tend to use it for recommendations and suggestions for improvement rather than. the thinking tasks that you’re using. Although, as we said in panel. They’re all getting better.
JonIt’s at what point do you trust them? And at what point? Are they as capable as? But there’s still that human oversight level that I feel like I’m always going to want to at some point.
GeorgeSo here’s the thing that I think is getting missed a little bit with what I’m doing. So I’m i’m not. what the lady was doing with the, you know, the AIs are taking over everything.
JonNo, we get that. Yeah. Mm-hmm
GeorgeI’m still. in control. i still make the decisions i still send out the emails i still make the appointments But what I’m getting from this is something that. When people hear it say it said in one way, they go, ooh.
GeorgeThat’s getting creepy. It is another. entity. for me to talk to?
JonMm-hmm
GeorgeDuring my day To help me. Feel. Like I’m not just living in a bubble. YouTubers all the time talk to us about how they’re the one person.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeLike we have three people on this channel.
JonYep.
GeorgeMost people just have one. And they tell us all the time how they feel like they’re completely isolated and alone. And that starts to weigh on you mentally.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThere are parts of this that are keeping me enthusiastic about doing stuff.
JonHm?
Georgethat I couldn’t get. from anything else. Cause I can’t just call John up in the middle of the day and say, I want to do this, this, and this. What are your thoughts? Cause John is doing his stuff. Mo, you have another full-time job just like I do. I can’t just say, Hey, Mo.
GeorgeWhat do you think about this? like We almost have to make appointments to get even a few messages. going. But with the chat GPT AI. things that I’ve created, I don’t have to make an appointment. I can just type in a command or dictate to one of them and say, look.
GeorgeThis is what I’m thinking about doing. Is it possible in this type of software to do this thing how much does it cost if i wanted to buy this tool for gen x grown up
JonHm?
Georgeyou know Give me the pluses and minuses of it. And it will do that stuff for me and it’ll respond back to me. and I get… I hate to say it like this but I get instant gratification that way.
JonOh, yeah. Yeah.
GeorgeBut I get to keep making progress when I’m interested in making progress, because that’s the hardest part of doing one of the type of jobs that we’re doing with Gen X Grownup is.
GeorgeYou’re left to your own devices. It’s real easy to go. Fuck it. I’m going to go watch lanterns for 45 minutes.
MoYeah.
GeorgeBut with this, I’m…
JonWhich was a valid use of time, mind you.
Moah
GeorgeYeah.
Jonah
GeorgeWith this, I’ll sit in my chair now working on either my nine to five job during those hours or. After hours, I will sit here now for four or five extra hours doing work that’s important for our channel. because I have something to engage with.
JonThere’s definite definitely something to be said for that having… it’s It’s a sounding board. It’s a second set of eyes, a second set of ears that I definitely use all…
GeorgeMm hmm.
Moyeah
Jonchat, all AI stuff for now. But the other thing is I know you’re not doing software development, but I’ve spoken with my friends who are software developers. And the way they use it is. effectively what you’ve done. I train it to do busy work that I could be doing.
Jonthat makes me more function it makes me more efficient in doing other stuff I can do that you can’t do.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonSo. ah Our friend Marcus, who does software development, he has these bots that he runs. He trains it to code the way he wants to code. And it’s not that he couldn’t do it. It’s that if I can have the bot do the menial tasks, like write me.
JonWrite me a subroutine that does this. I know how to do it. I trained you how. You do that while I focus on the bigger picture. And that’s the thing that the benefit that it adds. And I don’t think I misunderstood how you’re using it, but I can see how people would misunderstand and think, oh, well, you’re not doing work.
GeorgeMhm.
JonWell, I’m actually i’ doing more work than ever because. Little tasks. or offloaded And I’m more motivated because I’m making progress. So that’s how I see it.
GeorgeYeah.
JonYep. I like it.
MoOkay.
Georgeit’s ah It’s just a really interesting topic in the day and times that we live in that when we started this channel nine years ago, we would not have had a discussion around this.
JonMm-hmm
JonYeah. I remember the day Mo brought ChatGPT to the tech segment.
MoOh no, not at all.
JonI’d never heard of it. I remember that episode.
MoThat’s right.
JonYep.
MoIt wasn’t that long ago.
JonNo, it was a couple years, yeah.
GeorgeYeah. There you go. Well, John Moe said you were going to. You were going to sweep up this segment.
JonOh he did.
Mosee
GeorgeSo…
JonYeah. Well, I’m gonna sweep it up real quick.
GeorgeLet’s let’s have it
JonIt’s it’s it’s quite easy.
Georgeah
JonSo. I love listening to something in my ears when I’m going to bed. When I lie down, if I lie down and there’s not something playing, an old radio show or something.
GeorgeOh, John. I love you laying in the bed next to me.
MoOh my god.
JonOkay, now now I’ll never sleep again.
JonI’ll listen to something. And I don’t want to disturb my wife, so I usually wear earbuds. But. earbuds in bed is like you lay on them and they poke you in the ear and all that. So I often will try to get the small little ones that I can get anyway.
JonI ended up looking recently. I tried this before, finding some kind of like a pillow speaker or whatever that you can lay your head on.
MoMm hmm.
GeorgeOh, yeah.
JonWell, in the Bluetooth days, I had not thought of this, but I’m like, let’s see what modern. sleep earphones are. Well, I found something larger than I expected here. This is a sleep mask. that has Bluetooth speakers in it.
GeorgeHmm.
JonSo… If you think… Now, I’d never worn a sleep mask either. I don’t need one. I don’t need pitch black to sleep, but that’s okay.
GeorgeOh I wear them all the time, yeah.
JonDo you?
GeorgeOh yeah.
JonSo… Just like when you get noise-canceling headphones and you’re stunned by how silent it is. I got these things and put them on for the first time. And I’m like, where did the lights go? Like, it wasn’t just a little darker or a little bleed. It was pitch black. Like, did I just go blind?
GeorgeRight.
JonAnd it’s kind of they’re kind of wide on the side to give them a place to put. Ear speakers in them. and you connect them with Bluetooth. And the buttons are kind of like right on the bridge of your nose. So you can’t accidentally push them on the side anywhere. You’re not going to face plant in the pillow.
JonThey connect via Bluetooth, like I said. They’re inside of the sleep mask. They charge during the day and the last like. i There’s still 70 % when I get up in the morning after sleeping.
JonSix, eight hours.
MoOh wow.
GeorgeWow.
JonThey’re still 70%. I usually charge them every couple of days. I’ve been using them for a couple of weeks now. They’re far better Than. $5 or $10 earbuds that I get it.
Jonyou know, five below every once in a while that I lose in the pillows.
GeorgeRight.
JonPlus. It’s like 14 bucks.
MoOh wow.
GeorgeOh, wow.
JonIt’s so cheap. So the the mask is there. And maybe you don’t want to listen to music. Maybe you’re like.
MoOh, the white noise or something.
JonMaybe you want ocean sounds or the fan.
GeorgeRight.
JonYou can do all that without disturbing your significant other or anybody else in the room or the building. Put that on. It’s going right in your ears. Sounds pretty good. And. cheap as hell.
JonIt’s my, I’m going to get another pair.
Georgehu
JonThey’re really surprisingly good.
GeorgeI mean, $14, $15 is… Because… a good sleep mask can be $20.
JonYeah, yeah. And these are… um They have the notches so that you can have your eyes wide open and look around. It’s not touching your eyes, right? it’s ah There’s a cavity.
GeorgeRight. Yeah. The flat ones that hit your eyelashes and stuff.
JonYeah. Yeah.
GeorgeYeah.
JonSo much so that the other morning I woke up in the morning, I went, why is it so dark out? I thought, what you know, it was like seven 30.
GeorgeBye. Bye. Bye.
Jonbecause I forgot I had these on. Like, why is it pitch black? And then I tried to wake up my tablet to look and see, and it wouldn’t come on. It was coming on. I couldn’t see it because I had a sleep mask on.
JonI forgot I was wearing it.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonis pitch black.
Moah
JonSo they work well as a speaker.
Georgeagain you have sleep apnea sir i’m sorry
JonLike, yeah, yeah, yeah. They work well as a speaker. They work well as a. blocking out the light thing. and they’re only And they’re super cheap, like 14, 15 bucks, so.
GeorgeMmm.
Jonah Mo, do you have the link? Throw it down there.
MoYeah.
JonIf you haven’t already ordered some, you might want to check them out. But listeners who have similar problems that I do or like to listen to stuff. Yeah. Give it a shot.
JonAwesome.
MoOkay.
GeorgeAll right. Once again, we all three have something to talk about in this segment, which is the segment of the podcast games, ladies and gentlemen.
JonHmm.
Mo<unk>cc
GeorgeUh, as I alluded to earlier. I switched this from the toy segment down to the game segment. I want to talk about that AI stuff up there. And this felt a little bit more appropriate down here. I recently purchased.
GeorgeThe Game & Watch Pinball.
JonNeat.
Georgeforum. eBay for Way more money than I should have paid.
JonMm hmm.
Moah
JonThose gaming watches are steep, yeah.
GeorgeBut… They are I think I paid like 75 bucks total for it
JonYeah, that’s not so bad.
GeorgeHey. especially because this is one of the dual screen ones.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeMatter of fact, I’ve got it right here. And since we do video, sometimes I should.
Moyou
GeorgeOr do I have it right here? No, I have it over here. Look at this. I moved it because I was playing with it. So here it is. Right here on the screen for you guys who can see this on our YouTube channel.
JonMm hmm.
MoOkay.
GeorgeThere’s the dual screens
JonYep.
MoOkay.
GeorgeAnd I really like it.
JonThat’s a Game & Watch.
GeorgeYeah. I really enjoy it. I had to wait for to get the batteries because they’re those special LR44s from back in the day.
JonAlright.
GeorgeBut. What I discovered… playing it for the first time. These really didn’t have a backlight on these goddamn screens.
JonOh no!
GeorgeIt’s really hard to see.
MoOh.
JonYeah.
GeorgeAnd that’s what I need ah Rip Van X’s help with, because I know he released a video about a Game & Watch thing that he got, and he even replaced some little film thing inside the screen that made it clearer for him.
JonYeah.
JonYeah. more Better contrast.
GeorgeI’m thinking um maybe I can do that on this and get them, but it’s a dual screen one, so it feels more complicated.
JonYep.
GeorgeI can see the little ribbon cable between the two halves of the shell.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeUm, But. Boy, I tell you. there are a lot of ways to do Game & Watch stuff. I have that one that I bought for my wife. That’s the Zelda modded one that plays all the Game & Watch plus other things on it.
JonMm hmm. Mm hmm.
GeorgeAnd. There is emulation for Game & Watch, you know, whatever emulation platform you’re using, like I’m using Launchbox again, finally. Is it just…
GeorgeIs it just stupid to want to own? things that you didn’t have as a kid, but you kind of wish you had like these gaming watches, because eventually I’m going to run out of pocket room. right Hey.
JonYeah, it’s
GeorgeAnd $75 a pop seems stupid.
JonI don’t.
Moit But, you know, yeah it makes you happy.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonexactly exactly I just did
MoIt could be crack.
GeorgeI guess it kind of does.
MoI say it could be crack right it could be
Georgeyeah
JonI just did and another, I produced another video this week about a 1977 Pong knockoff. It doesn’t do anything I’ve never seen before. It’s just in a different shape.
Jonhooked up to your TV.
GeorgeMm hmm.
JonIt was in great condition. I never owned one. Didn’t know about it when it came out to know because I was eight years old and already looking at Atari. But. I still enjoy playing with it. maybe because I didn’t have it back then. So there’s sometimes it’s nostalgia to relive something that you already had.
JonBut sometimes it’s… I never could have had this because. I wasn’t going to get this and Atari. It was never on the radar.
GeorgeSure.
JonBut now. I’m an old dork who can get it for chump change at a convention and go for 20 bucks.
Mo<unk>
JonNow I can experience this. Even if it’s just for a little while, I’m not carrying all those in my pocket. Like you said, I’m not.
GeorgeRight.
Jonfiring them all up and connecting my TV every day. But I have it. And I can. And more so than knowing it exists, I have plugged it in, played with it. I know exactly the experience. And now I have that in my brain.
JonYou can’t take that away. So I don’t think it’s dumb.
GeorgeHey. I just wonder sometimes if it’s not a first world thing, like where I’m.
JonHmm.
GeorgeLike, i I see these things. We went to that. ah That Long Island retro. convention and i picked up three or four of them little handheld units like you’re talking about Like, why am I picking this up?
JonYep. Because they’re fun.
GeorgeWell, it was only $15.
JonYep.
GeorgeIt was only $20. It was only $10. I ended up spending like $200 on a whole bunch. I got Game Boy cartridges. I got all this stuff.
JonEasy.
GeorgeAnd I’m like. Well, I can play this on my mod retro chromatic now. And I got, I picked up a Sega game gear that.
JonYep.
GeorgeTurns out it doesn’t work. So I have to work on that to fix it, all this different stuff.
JonYep.
GeorgeAnd I’m like, I go now and I look in the other room at the table and it’s just piles and piles of this stuff now.
Jonhe
GeorgeAnd his game and watch pinball. I still, I. so on our discord server rip van x he posted about getting one i’m like god damn it
JonYeah.
Georgeyou know i’m a pinball guy you know i love these little game and watch things now you’re making me go buy this thing like john does all the time
Jonah
JonGotcha. Now it’s not just me.
Moyeah
GeorgeNo, now it’s like a whole group of people making me spend money. And I’m just starting to wonder like, am I. doing something stupid should i just be investing this money in gold instead or something but
Moyeah
JonWell, it might get you more money.
GeorgeI don’t know
Jonbut it might not get you more happiness. At what point are you going to spend some money to, you know?
GeorgeYeah.
JonMoney’s like the wind. You only feel it when it’s moving, brother.
GeorgeThat’s true. Well…
JonYep.
Moah
GeorgeAre you feeling the game that you’re playing this week, John? Are you feeling it moving at all? Because I don’t recognize this game at all.
JonI am. And I’m feeling it because it’s free, which makes it even better. uh so
MoOh there you go.
GeorgeOh, there you go.
Jonah So. Probably 10 years ago, if I said settlers of Catan, people look at me with glassy eyes. But these days, I think everybody on the planet knows what settlers of Catan is.
Moyes
GeorgeSure.
Jonum There’s a Catan Universe that is a platform where I play most of my Settlers of Catan online. By the way, analog Settlers of Catan is for the birds.
MoYeah.
JonYou’re playing it on a table with 8 million little pieces and 20 bajillion little cards. You’re wasting your life. Digital is the way to go with this. When the dice roll, give me my cards.
Georgea
JonI’ve always played digital. I love it. I played it back on the Xbox 360 that way. Anyway. Catan universe is kind of the de facto version of playing Catan. on it’s a it’s on everything it’s on switch and it’s on phones and it’s on steam whatever But it has kind of stagnated.
JonThey have not done anything with it. For for a while, they were adding to it. adding some maps or adding new versions, but they haven’t. done anything with it in now like three or four years. So the other day I went kind of digging around and I discovered a brand new. Catan esque game.
Mooh
Joncalled Landover.
GeorgeMmm.
MoOkay.
JonIt’s totally free Like Catan Universe, you can play it on phones and PCs and… I don’t know if it’s on consoles yet. It ah probably is coming there. But it’s a platform that does cross play. So, you know, you could be on your iPhone and I could be on my Android. You could be on PC. We could all be playing it.
JonThe thing it does is it. You can play a regular boring old game of Catan with no special rules. but they have a flavor of Catan they call Landover. which takes…
JonA lot of the basic rules, like what it takes to build things, a road is a lumber and a brick, or, you know, a…
MoOkay.
Jonyeah Whatever it takes, it takes three ore and two wheat to build a city. whatever All those things are the same, but it’s streamlined stuff in a way that. Some of this is going to sound like gibberish if you haven’t played, but for example…
JonThey’ve eliminated… interpersonal trading to speed things up. but they’ve given you slipstream trading. on your side to the store. So if I go to build something, if I have a way to build it with trades, it’ll just go, do you want to build this way or this way or this way.
JonSo like auto trades will happen.
Georgeoh
JonInstead of all of the like. Things happen. You’re like, pick a card from these. Nope. When things happen like that, you get a random card. When sevens roll, if there’s no robber in this game. Instead.
JonYou can raid other people by putting a little catapult. on their property, behaves the same way, stops production. And they have to get rid of it by rolling a seven to clear it out. There’s a bunch of little bonuses that are really smart and speed up the game.
GeorgeOkay.
MoOkay.
JonThey get rid of the. human selections and put in random stuff. uh and custom maps that you can build yourself. Publish them. Share them. Custom rule sets.
JonAnd it’s free. If you like Catan. you ought to check out Landover. I’ve been playing it to the exclusion of Catan for the last two weeks now since I discovered it. And you can try it on your phone. You can try it whatever. I expect they’re going to charge for it eventually.
JonIt’s not super polished yet. It has a few things they kind of need to add, but I think it’s only been out for a couple of months now. It’s pretty brand new.
GeorgeYeah, I just looked at it on Steam.
JonI went to their Discord. is it
GeorgeIt’s been out since May.
JonThere you go. I went to their Discord server and it had like 50 members on it.
MoOkay, still pretty new.
JonLike, they’re not huge yet. but they’re growing. And it’s really cool. And it’s already better in a lot of ways than the most popular Catan platform. so
Moah Okay.
JonEasy peasy. Easy to recommend.
MoI’ll take a look at that one.
JonCheck it out. done And no risk. Doesn’t cost you a thing. So. All right, Mo, what have you been playing?
MoYes. Oh, I’m very excited about this. It’s Star Wars Zero Company.
JonHmm.
MoAnd I had been.
JonOkay.
GeorgeOkay.
MoWaiting for this game for so long. um One of my favorite all-time games is XCOM 2. I’ve talked about this many times in this.
JonYep. Hmm.
MoProgram you. Every expansion I have, I just play the crap out of it. A bunch of people left? That company. And they created this game. So it’s some of the original creators.
JonOh, okay.
Moso It’s XCOM 2. in the Star Wars universe.
JonSo like the turn-based, pick your functions, action, got it.
MoYep. It’s tactic.
JonYep.
GeorgeOkay.
JonMm hmm.
Moyou know.
JonMm hmm.
MoUm, It is. So much fun to like, you can, and you have your your group, basically it takes place time-wise, timeline-wise, excuse me.
JonHmm.
Moright when you know the clone wars were ending and order 66 came out You know, it’s it’s right in that.
JonOkay.
Mothat area of time. Um, you’re like a. disgrace general you formed this little company you do random missions and stuff you’re trying to raise money survive you know usual stuff and of course you get sucked in some bigger story like everything does, but.
MoThe cool thing is, is that You play, there’s actually a mission? where Anakin Skywalker… is one of your characters. He shows up.
JonMm. Mmm.
Moto help you with the mission.
JonOkay.
MoWhich makes it really easy, by the way.
Jonah
MoIt makes that mission really simple. You just have him run around killing everybody.
JonThat’s what he does best.
MoAnd then Order 66 actually comes in in the middle of the game. So like one of your stormtrooper people who’s working for you suddenly switches. and You know, and you have to deal with that.
JonMm hmm.
MoIt is. Just so much fun and so cool. There’s a Mandalorian character in it. Like all the characters from the Star Wars universe that you can play. You have. injured. In your crew, basically.
Moyou you can make ah You can make a team of droids.
JonNeat.
GeorgeWow.
MoThat’s it.
JonOh.
Georgeah
Moyou know remember i think there’s an achievement if you do that which i have not done but But um is. just a ton of fun it just came out it’s a premium game it’s not cheap But as soon as I saw XCOM 2 and Star Wars, I knew I was going to get it.
JonYeah.
GeorgeYeah especially with that IP and everything.
MoYeah.
JonYeah, how much you like XCOM.
GeorgeYeah.
Jonyeah
Moum there’s a but and There is a story. Line in it. you know, the story kind of pulls you through There’s of course side missions you can do. you and they actually do something they added something that x-com 2 didn’t have which is The relationship between your different people.
Momake a difference? And you could do things to improve that relationship.
JonOkay.
Moor sometimes things will happen that will make it worse.
JonHmm.
MoSo you know like sending them together on missions will actually improve that relationship.
GeorgeMmm.
MoAnd then because their relationship is improved, you can actually help each other. Like, one of your guys sold the…
JonAh.
MoAnd XCOM 2 is very much… you know, I play through kind of each character. like each characters ap points so like i would say okay he runs here shoots does this and this character is it This one I would have to do like, okay, this character moves here, stops.
MoThen I move this other character. Now I go back to the first character who still has some most like action points left. Do this to help the character I just moved. You know.
JonSo they’re kind of buffing one another in a way.
Georgeah
MoYeah.
JonOh interesting.
GeorgeOkay.
Jonokay
MoWhich is, and i it’s I kind of made it sound probably more complicated than it is. It’s really not. It makes it very, very simple.
GeorgeThey’re your AI chatbot workgroup.
MoYeah, there you go.
Georgeah
JonGet them to work together better.
Moit’s
JonYeah.
MoBut. Let me tell you, it’s it’s a blast. I have been playing. the Crap out of this game. i’m very positive i’m gonna probably restart it at some point and play it again
JonMm hmm.
Mobecause there’s certain… type things you can’t do. at once. You have to play it twice to kind of get through everything. and it’s just a lot of fun i if you’re into x-com 2 you’re looking to scratch that itch Definitely recommend this game.
JonAll right. Zero company.
GeorgeCool.
MoYep.
JonGreat. Alright. Thanks, Mo. We’ll be right back.
JonAll right. We’re at that point of the show where we like to take a pause and look either. forward look at things we’re looking how do i say that look at positive at now okay Three, two, sorry. All right.
JonWe are at that point of the show where we like to kind of pause and either talk about the things we’re looking at right now or looking forward to between now and the next time we get together. And I’m going to start with you, Mo. What do you have on the horizon?
MoHmm? Um. But oddly enough, all three of the things I’m looking forward to come out the same day. They all come out September 16th, just by luck.
JonHmm, okay.
GeorgeOkay.
JonAll right.
Moum So the first thing is a new season of Slow Horses. i’ve talked about it on the show oh great show really gary oldman’s the lead character in it
GeorgeOh yeah. Yeah.
Moum One of the people in it. is shortlisted for the next James Bond as well. So that’s kind of interesting.
JonMmm.
MoBut it it is a great, great show.
JonOh.
MoHighly recommend you watch it. It’s up to season six. um Also coming back, South Park.
JonMm-hmm
MoYeah.
GeorgeOh.
Mohot off their emmy win so um they’re coming back again that same day and what i’m most looking forward to though is
JonYep. That’s right.
Mothe start of the new series, Neely. which is a spin-off.
JonMm-hmm.
GeorgeYeah.
JonFor Breacher. Right.
MoOf Reacher, of course. um Always liked her character in Reacher. she’s she’s interesting like you know there’s layers there like and they don’t really have time to go into it too much because you know it’s reacher
JonCheers. Yeah.
MoBut having her own show, I think, is a really, really smart idea.
JonYep.
MoAnd hopefully it’s done right. And it’s. It’s fun. I think it could be a really great show.
JonThe trailer looks good.
MoYeah, absolutely.
GeorgeYeah.
MoSo that’s what I’m looking forward to. So how about you, John?
Jonah Yeah, so first of all, there’s something that I played the demo of some time ago, and it just got early access release, a game. We played a lot of the retro rewind with the video rental store.
MoMm hmm.
JonThere’s this other one now called retro arcade shop simulator where you’re building up.
Moah
GeorgeOh yeah.
Jonyour own video arcade with foosball and go-karts and everything. Well, they just released the early access. It’s normally 10 bucks. It’s nine bucks right now. And I’m looking forward. I just picked it up.
JonI’m looking forward. to playing it though i haven’t had a chance to play it since its full release Another game which is out right now on Steam and all major platforms is… Halloween the Game.
Moo
JonNow I was following this for a while.
GeorgeMm-hmm
JonYou can either be the shape. Or you can be somebody who’s chasing him down trying to defeat him.
GeorgeYep.
JonBut as the shape, or even if you’re not playing him. the mechanic of like disappearing from one place and appearing somewhere else
GeorgeYeah.
JonThat’s something like you see how you do it. Like you go into this ghost mode and you move it.
GeorgeMm-hmm.
JonIt looks really cool. I’ll probably wait. and play this. closer to Halloween. You know, it’s more, I mean, it’s Halloween, play closer to Halloween, but I’m keeping my eye on it. It’s on my wishlist and I’ve watched stuff. It’s it’s out now, but.
JonOh. Yeah, i want to I want to play more of that. but it’s It’s released now. You can pick it up. And the big thing for me again was South Park season 29. As you said, it’s Comedy Central, September 16th.
MoYeah.
JonAnd they just they keep changing. what that show is. And it makes people so mad at them sometimes. But I love how they keep you guessing.
Georgeah
MoYeah.
JonLike, wait, what is this show again?
GeorgeYeah.
JonI don’t understand. But they keep making… They keep you guessing. And I love how they’re. they’re always on the bleeding edge of whatever it is that people think they shouldn’t talk about.
JonAnd they do.
Moah
JonAnd it just, they somehow make it approachable for me. I just, I love. Like, I know I don’t agree with all of their politics and all of their thoughts and beliefs, but I love how they keep poking every bear there is.
MoOh, yeah.
JonAnd I appreciate about them. They’re fearless. so
MoIf there’s a bear they’re poking it.
JonUh,
Georgehe
JonYeah, yeah. Pick a bear. All bears.
MoYeah.
JonA lot lot of good stuff coming up. What about you, George? What’s coming up for you?
GeorgeYeah, well, Neely, obviously, that’s one that, you know, being ah the big fan of Reacher that I have been since that series came out.
JonSure. Yeah.
Georgeyou know, reading the books back in the day. Then also um Stranger Things, Tales from 85, this animated series.
MoOh yeah!
Georgei I didn’t watch season one, but I saw that season two was coming out on Netflix on September 17th.
JonOh yeah.
MoI didn’t either. yeah
JonOh good. Alright.
GeorgeSo that’s kind of motivating me to go back and watch season one and see if I’ll enjoy it.
MoOkay.
GeorgeBut I love the Stranger Things universe and we’re not going to get any more of the live action show. So this might be a nice little bomb to soothe that wound a little bit.
MoYeah.
JonRight. Mm-hmm.
MoHehehe.
GeorgeBut the thing I’m looking forward to the most is the new A24 film Primetime on September 25th.
JonHmm.
Mo824. I’m skeptical.
GeorgeSo this is another one of these like. It’s… It’s set in our real world, but it’s a skewed version of our real world. And it takes a look at how Chris Hansen started and did the whole Predator.
JonAll right.
JonAll right. Yes. Yes.
GeorgeTo catch a predator stuff.
JonYep.
Georgeum this is bringing that whole thing back. You know, he’s got his own YouTube series that he’s been doing the last few years and stuff.
JonMm-hmm
GeorgeUm, documentaries, people have been asking him on news, other news programs, talk about it. You know, he had the whole thing with the Senator, their representative or somebody that killed himself. This…
GeorgeLooks very interesting. And it’s got a Twilight Batman kid playing Chris Hansen.
JonYeah. Robert Pattinson.
MoOh, Paxton.
JonI know.
MoOh, yeah, yeah.
GeorgeRobert Pattinson.
JonYeah. Yeah.
Georgeso
JonThat looks cool.
GeorgeIt looks A24 creepy.
JonMm hmm.
GeorgeSo I’m kind of interested to see. how they can. take that subject matter and make it worse.
JonMake it 824-y.
MoYeah.
GeorgeExactly. So.
JonYeah.
GeorgeThere we go.
Jonyeah i want to see that too but i didn’t know the name of it but i remember seeing this trailer for it yeah A lot of good stuff. Hey, hey, before we leave you, I have to once again, thank, is it a new patron? It’s returning patron.
JonSo long ago. Leafy Jawa, you might have known him as Captain Kiwi. He changes his name periodically. He’s been a supporter of us for years.
MoMm-hmm
JonBut on and off. when his financial situation changes and uh I want to say a couple of weeks ago, he just popped back on the discord server. How you guys been? I missed you. Just realized my credit card was declined.
JonHe jumped right back. He headed to patreon .com slash Gen X grown up and renewed his support.
GeorgeHmm.
Jonfor everything that we do. He thought he was supporting us already. And he’s like, I can’t believe it.
Georgeah
JonSo he jumped in a little higher level than he used to be. I think he’s trying to make up lost time. But I was certainly grateful.
GeorgeNice.
JonThank you so much, Aaron. Blue is cover Eric. Thank you. Leafy Jawa. Thank you for. ah you You are, I want to say you’re joining, you are rejoining a squad of amazing people that support us regularly and and make sure we can stay viable and keep doing what we do.
Georgeah
JonSo, so thankful that you came back on board with that. uh Before I leave you, I know we’re almost done with the show. But… Next week, you know, is the backtrack. We pick a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep. And normally I would pick George or Mo to do the honors here, but I’m not letting them.
Jonbecause i want to tell you what next week’s backtrack is It’s another album. Released in 1986. Run DMC’s Raising Hell.
JonSent. Them as a group and hip hop itself crashing into mainstream. They had stuff like It’s Tricky, My Adidas, and the collab they had with the Aerosmith, Walk This Way.
MoHere we go.
GeorgeYeah.
JonLook, this album, not only was it a great just an album to listen to, it reshaped pop music. showed how far rap could reach and what it could do in in mainstream. ah just the popular culture in general. And it sent Run DMC to the…
Jonjust to the top of. uh of hip-hop in my opinion and ah it’s one you can still listen to today so I can tell you that… Not everybody on this podcast has the same familiarity with this album that I do, but we are all going to get ourselves somewhat familiar and talk about it again.
GeorgeMm-hmm
JonWe’re going to run through this album track by track and talk about Run DMC’s 1986, 40 years old now album. Raisin Hill. Mm. You’re not going to win want to miss that one. Until then.
JonI am John George. Thank you so much for joining. How do I say this? bre Uh, no. You do not want to miss that one. Until then, though, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here, buddy.
GeorgeYes, sir
JonMo, you know I appreciate you.
MoAlways fun man.
JonFourth listener is you. We all three appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again. next time. Bye-bye.
GeorgeSee you guys.
MoTake care, everybody.
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About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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