132: During Pre-Roll We Talked About The Dacia

September 1, 2017 12:57 PM

This episode of Best of the Web, Jessamyn and I chat about MetaFilter in August, and camping, and Jess filling in, and a whole dang bunch of MetaFiltery things, as is our wont. Recorded September 1st, it runs about 90 minutes.

• play
• pause
• stop
• min volume
• max volume

Helpful Links

Podcast Feed
Subscribe with iTunes
Direct mp3 download

Misc
- Jess in a Shelby Cobra
- Oblique Strategies
- Lint (the Unix utility, not the bellybutton stuff)
- heyyyyyy, Stormfront can go fuck itself
- opposite of librarian is model? ಠ_ಠ
- the wiki's list of transcribed podcasts could use updating!
- Dacia, the plunkbatter's sedan of choice

Jobs
- Station Manager at CFRC in Ontario by Kitteh

Projects
- The truth has got its boots on: an evidence-based response to James Damore's Google memo by sciatrix (MeFi Post)
- @MotifBot by overeducated_alligator
- FatFinger.JS by rottytooth
- Snakehead Trade Whiskey by maxsparber (MeFi Post)
- Shtacks: Type a painting by device55

MetaFilter
- Sword Guys Are a Thing and I’ve Had Sex With All of Them by coolname
- My childhood fears realized by ckape
- a comment by Catseye
- “What makes it a sport as opposed to a different kind of game?” by Fizz
- a comment by jessamyn
- everybody just needs to relax by philip-random
- How one man built a $51m theme park for his disabled daughter by Faintdreams
- If Job had a different job, what job would Job have? by storybored

Ask MetaFilter
- Simple & pretty games for my Apple TV by jessamyn
- Swim Spas – Sink Or Swim? by jenjen23
- How does one do "aqua therapy" by brook horse
- a comment by Jesse the K
- Adopting kittens: Avoid the doppelganger? by mudpuppie
- The year of Barbie Girl, Princess Di, and Ally McBeal. by Anonymous
- Choosing the best neighborhood in Baltimore by caitlinb
- Regional comedy and music by roll truck roll
- What are you doing to deal with political stress? What should I do? by Frowner
- Really good historical fiction? by cpatterson
- Male friend asked me to go on a camping trip alone with him by winterportage
- Texting into the void by I_Love_Bananas

MetaTalk
- User Release 2.0 "Rune Behrends" by WidgetAlley
- MeFites, how should we pronounce your username? by numaner
- Agregation sites as FPPs by larrybob
- Hurricane Harvey Check-In Post by hippybear
- The Election Year That Never Ended by Wordshore
- Metatalktail Hour: TOTAL ECLIPSE by Eyebrows McGee
- Themed Metafilter Posts by jonnyploy
- So what happened with your Ask? by DirtyOldTown

MeFi Music
Featured in this episode:
- I've been drinking all day by Bluebird Wine
- Indelible Swing by grumpybear69
- Strictly Germ-proof by AxelT
- Ask and you shall receive by thedamnbees

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 12:57 PM (31 comments total)

So I was wrong at pronouncing Dacia too! Wikipedia says it's more like DUTCH-ya.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:05 PM on September 1, 2017

But they pronounced it Day-cee-uh on Top Gear for year and years, which probably influenced most american's interaction with the brand.
posted by French Fry at 1:08 PM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best long weekend present ever.
posted by quaking fajita at 1:09 PM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

WHAT HO, MODS.

Just a note to thank Jessamyn for pointing out the iPhone game Alto's Adventure.

I haven't played more than a handful of computer games in my life: DOS Zork, Crystal Quest & Tetris on a Mac Classic, and Snood on a color Mac at the end of last century. But I watched the trailer for Alto's Adventure, and learned about its Zen Mode, and I bought it.

I have played it a bunch this week, and I am amazing mysef: my tiny snowboarder crashes into the snow and dies every minute or so, and I laugh out loud every single time. No raging, no phone-throwing, no disgust, just "Play again"!

Thank you, Jessamyn: this game, amazingly, is helping my practice of becoming a mellower person. (Must be the Canadian developers.)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:25 PM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

my tiny snowboarder crashes into the snow and dies

They do not die! They just crash and are usually fine (or disappear but I believe even then they do not die). And they start over. At level ten you can be a girl snowboarder (maybe my only beef with the game) and way up in the altostratosphere you can play a snowboarding llama. Too cool.

Now can someone tell me what a plunkbatter is? Google is no help.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:32 PM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

This evening I am in a booth of an upmarket bar on my own - martini, crisp buttoned cotton shirt, low lighting, low level of conversation, the barman is wearing a tie, that kind of place. Even though I'm in a booth, with some privacy, people are turning round to look at the guy who is sobbing with laughter with his face in his hands, and they are probably wondering why (my headphones are discrete).

(To be specific, it's the yearning for meadow dwelling comment)
posted by Wordshore at 1:38 PM on September 1, 2017

A plunkbatter is someone who plays plunkbat, which is my preferred non-canonical name for that game I won't shut up about.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:39 PM on September 1, 2017

Now can someone tell me what a plunkbatter is? Google is no help.

It is how one orders fish and chips in the North of England. Upon entering the chippy, one locates the fryer and requests:

"EY 'UP. PLUNKBATTER THAR COD, DUCKIE."

May not be entirely accurate in some parts of Lancashire
posted by Wordshore at 1:44 PM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Landline phone ringing tone made me nostalgic
posted by Wordshore at 2:13 PM on September 1, 2017

Haven't listened to the 'cast yet, but I'm so happy you covered sciatrix' eloquently written and brilliantly argued paper on ex-Google employee James Damore's misogynistic screed. If anyone missed it, it's a masterpiece and definitely worth reading.
posted by zarq at 2:24 PM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Librarians use these skills the least:

* Ability to coordinate two or more limbs.

Amoeba in the Stacks. Ballerina on the Slats.
posted by zarq at 2:58 PM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thanks for the shout-out! :) Great pod episode.
posted by Fizz at 3:03 PM on September 1, 2017

The c is pronounced as a sh sound, like in Lojban. It is the Lojban word for danger, since, as you can see in my user profile, Danger is my middle name.
posted by ckape at 3:56 PM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I, too, am curious to know how winterportage's camping trip went. Really super well, I hope!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:38 PM on September 1, 2017

There is no c in Lojban.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:52 PM on September 1, 2017

The Book Thief is a favourite in adeptopia. Save the books from the nazis. Keep tissues handy if you haven't seen it.
posted by adept256 at 7:18 PM on September 1, 2017

Lojban the language, not the word.
posted by ckape at 9:38 PM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm happy to share this relevant, interesting post about library heists! “the most fascinating, best, smartest crook I ever encountered.” - The Rare-Book Thief Who Looted College Libraries in the ’80s, posted by the man of twists and turns on Aug. 31st.

this game, amazingly, is helping my practice of becoming a mellower person.

Yay, wenestvedt! This is the first game I have ever bought for iOS and the first game I can remember buying in years. It's certainly helped me de-stress, too.

They do not die! They just crash and are usually fine

I have a bunch of screenshots of the player sitting in the snow after a crash or a bad landing. I also seem to enjoy taking screenshots of the player teleporting up out of a chasm in zen mode. Currently stuck on a level (still haven't gotten the hang of the wingsuit) but am looking forward to playing as a llama in the future.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 12:51 AM on September 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

fizz has done excellent work covering gaming news. I was just thinking, we've got fanfare now and it's great. There's mefightclub which I don't know about. Could you include games in fanfare?

This is a shameless feature request where I know cortex will see it. But it's fair, metafilter is a safe space for so many, and when it comes to games, if you just want to talk about pokemon or minecraft on the internet, you are going to see some bad things.
posted by adept256 at 1:35 AM on September 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's a shameless feature request that lays deep in the cockles of my own heart; we'll get there at some point, but FanFare has some major todo items I want to sort out before we add more media types.

I will say that MeFightClub is a really great, not-mefi-but-very-mefi-spirit place for talking about video games and is somewhere I'll keep hanging around at daily even after we eventually get games stuff in the mix over here. Definitely worth checking out if you've got a hunger for a bit more non-shitty video game discussion in your life.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:45 AM on September 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

They do not die! They just crash and are usually fine

Very true. Takes some more of the stress out of playing, if that's possible.

My only grump is that screen glare makes the game's beautiful graphics pretty much invisible. I asked them about it and their response was like, "Yeah, sucks, play in the dark or with something dark behind you." Yesterday I had time to kill between 5:00-5:40 and I played a bunch of games and just kept losing sight of where I was...but I won't let it stop me for good!! :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:56 AM on September 2, 2017

I haven't listened yet but thx for mentioning the Station Manager job listing! Hopefully they can find someone to helm the oldest campus/community station in the world (1923)!
posted by Kitteh at 7:27 AM on September 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

How did I not know about Alto's Adventure before now??? Just started playing and I'm hooked. Llamas...what's not to like???
posted by bookmammal at 12:54 PM on September 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know, I know!
posted by wenestvedt at 6:00 PM on September 2, 2017

The Name of the Rose will now forever be my go-to example of a library with rules-based customer service (opposed to values-based): "People are dying!" "Yeah. But only the ones who fucked with the library."
posted by steef at 4:48 AM on September 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Delighted to hear my inaccurate half-comment (I looked it up; yeah, it really is a Bowie knife), followed by cortex having to spend a minute explaining his excellent Machete retort.

Jokes are always funnier when you explain them.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:52 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dacias? Oh, you mean AROs. Dacia are alive and well and making Renault cars in Romania, but ARO left the planet more than a decade ago.
posted by scruss at 4:59 PM on September 3, 2017

I mentioned in the other thread (about traditions) that I often listen to the podcast on my Sunday morning walks, which is when I listened to this one today, and it's very nice to feel like I'm listening to two friends chat about stuff as I'm walking along and looking at vineyards. And guinea fowl! I saw a small flock of guinea fowl today on my walk and while I had thought that chickens running full-out was the funniest fowl-related activity ever, it turns out that guinea fowl running full-out is even funnier, because they do even more of the side-to-side motion than chickens, and look even more like they're about to tip over, and apparently large birds running inefficiently while looking very serious is something that makes me giggle. Having a soundtrack of cortex talking about how he never watched "WKRP" somehow made it even better.
posted by lazuli at 5:41 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Cat update:

For various reasons, I did not end up adopting the cat who closely resembled Best Cat Ever. Instead, over the past week, I adopted one kitten, then another. As it turns out, they look very much like each other. (It was unplanned. Just worked out that way.)

I never did really figure out how I would have felt about adopting the doppelganger. It's been two weeks and I'm still pretty crushed, so it's probably best that I didn't go that route. Now, having heard cortex's story about losing one cat when the surviving cat looks like the lost cat, I have a whole new layer of things to worry about in re: pet loss.

But that's what you take on when you bring pets into your life, right?
posted by mudpuppie at 8:34 PM on September 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd do an Email Olympics! Jessamyn, did you ever use mutt? I had to break it out last week to look at "Hey, I had trouble running this for you" emails from the cron scheduler on my server. I was wowed when Gmail first came out, but now I think mutt is far more peaceful.

Also, I think the loud "COME ON!" followed by the really soft "Come on." is my favorite podcast affectation.
posted by ignignokt at 12:17 PM on September 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I see Dacia, I think of the Roman province.

Also, WKRP was great.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 PM on September 13, 2017 [1 favorite]