160: That Was A Bood Posscat

February 7, 2020 5:14 PM

Like Frodo and Sam enduring the travails of Mordor, Jessamyn and I have managed somehow to surmount the difficulties of the world to produce a podcast episode this month. Instead of getting a finger bit off we just lost some of our usual running time, so this is a lembas-thin 56 minutes. Also just to be clear there is literally no discussion of Tolkeinian mythology in this episode, I'm just punchy on a Friday night and you're getting whatever comes out of the keyboard at this point. Elevensies.

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We just kinda smashed that link and describe button, so this shit's not really organized this time out. Revel in the anarchy.

- Disability-related posts appreciation by DrAstroZoom
- Final Results of the January 2020 Best Post Contest by taz
- This is very dumb by Going To Maine
- #poctakeover by Conspire

- Interlude: jessamyn does a tweet

- Book: Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by MonkeyToes
- That famous cello prelude, deconstructed by tonycpsu
- What would it be like to ride a Space Elevator? by Narrative Priorities
- How NOT to be a doormat? by catspajammies
- 文言文編程語言 A programming language for the ancient Chinese by daisyk
- Adapting to Ask Culture by 4rtemis
- Art Garfunkel's Reading Habits by Jasper Friendly Bear
- 100 Days of Art History Jinjins by rebent
- Special Event: Superbowl LIV: NFL football 2020 championship by LobsterMitten
- Golden Arm! Wait, no ... Radiant Form. Wait, no ... by komara
- What else is like Corner Gas? by Ender's Friend
- looking for recipes using lots of maple syrup by maurice
- What are some good examples of repeated words/names/phrases? by AgentRocket

- Interlude: Balrog!

- What gift can I get for my wife to celebrate her new job as a librarian? by NoneOfTheAbove
- What to include in a Library of Things? by daisyace
- How to manage a reading list for multiple libraries? by Tehhund
- Kaycee Nicole hoax documentary research by cortex
- ~*Glitter*~ by sallybrown
- Happy 2020/02/02! by Going To Maine

Music this episode is five seconds of me singing dodgy barbershop quartet harmonies into my iMac's built-in mic about ten minutes ago.

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 5:14 PM (23 comments total)

February is always an excellent time for Tolkien-related thingies.
posted by kristi at 6:25 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

I apologize in advance for talking on basically 78% of this.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:38 PM on February 7, 2020

Also my shoes are these.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:53 PM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

I be super bummed if I die before everything gets awesome, so I'm with jessamyn on that one.
posted by curious nu at 7:13 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Enduring travails is not a good selling point boss.

runs

Check out those library shoes.
posted by clavdivs at 8:57 PM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

Looks like those shoes have never been checked out. Those cards need to be stamped.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:30 AM on February 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

OMG. Bucketfeet. I did not know. Thank you.
posted by Chairboy at 3:57 AM on February 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

I apologize in advance for talking on basically 78% of this.

SHARE THE LOAD
posted by fleacircus at 6:08 AM on February 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

My son, it was then that she carried me.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:30 AM on February 8, 2020 [15 favorites]

(In all seriousness I was having a rough one when we recorded and Jessamyn was a good supportive friend about it and all "hey, let's just give it a go" and we did and a podcast ep exists, so she deserves real, non-goofy credit for doing a lot of extra conversational work there and I really appreciate it.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:10 AM on February 8, 2020 [15 favorites]

Thanks for letting people know about the Because Internet post over on Fanfare--I'd like to hear what other readers think of the book!
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:30 PM on February 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh, I just like saying 'share the load'; there was no intended implied imperative, my bad.
posted by fleacircus at 9:17 AM on February 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

No worries, I think I caught your meaning.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:28 PM on February 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I had a stomachache pretty much all day on Friday and when I saw this podcast episode go up later in the day, I jokingly said to myself "Oooh, new MeFi Podcast! Maybe this will cure my stomachache."

And after I listened to it late on Friday night, my stomach did feel a lot better. Yeah, correlation doesn't imply causation etc, but I can't deny that listening to you talk about MeFi -- and library-related shoes and (weirdly) Red Dawn(s) and trivia and snow falling from roof and sense of smell and esoteric programming languages (among other things) -- lifted my spirits.

Orphan Black as a TV show is indeed over (I stopped mid-way through too because of the grimness). However, there is an official continuation of the series in audiobook/ebook format on Serial Box; audio version is narrated by Tatiana Maslany. (Tor.com has some reviews.)

Any chance we can see a screenshot of the new mods' recent activity hotspots page (with blurred or obscured text if needed)? Does it pretty much look like Recent Activity, except with some new bells/whistles? Super curious.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 10:46 PM on February 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oh by the way, last week I accidentally discovered “Recent Activity on My Favorites” and it was a trip.

(Here is where I make a plug for the LL private rundle, but registration closes Wednesday night and we have an even number right now, so you takes your chances.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:43 AM on February 10, 2020

Any chance we can see a screenshot of the new mods' recent activity hotspots page (with blurred or obscured text if needed)?

It's pretty much Recent Activity with less fancy formatting plus it shows deleted comments. It's tricky to screenshot usefully because it's just a two-column spread with post text on the left and the last however many comments on the right.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 7:11 AM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Did I hear correctly? Did Cortex have to explain to Jessamyn, member of Generation X Jessamyn, what Red Dawn was?

WOLVERINES!
posted by bondcliff at 8:09 AM on February 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

It's pretty much Recent Activity with less fancy formatting plus it shows deleted comments.

Yeah I gotta be honest I am filling in a few shifts while cortex is on vacation and took one look at it and noped out. It's a great tool, but the formatting is just text in boxes, no padding, some timezone that is not mine and it made me all o_O. I am very glad it solves a problem for the mods who manage with it all the time. It's a cool development.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 9:09 AM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

WOLVERINES!

Just listened to the podcast and came here to say this. Beaten to the punch.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:06 AM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

As an aside, I was surprised to learn that elevenses is actually a real thing.
posted by XMLicious at 12:07 PM on February 10, 2020

I really need to do a post about the wonder that is Recent Activity. It took nineteen years for me to understand what it was for, and now I'm all mind explosion. Like, I always assumed people must have dozens of tabs open and be constantly refreshing to see keep up with asynchronous conversations, but no!
posted by adrianhon at 6:05 AM on February 11, 2020

Such cool shoes! Hope you’re feeling better Cortex, and everyone should enjoy some elevenses!
posted by ellieBOA at 8:32 AM on February 11, 2020

I missed the G Major Suite post. And the thread is closed. Pity.
Years ago, I tried to teach myself to play it on electric guitar. With the right application of fuzz, you can the sound close. The fingerings are pretty lousy for this crappy guitar player. It doesn't mean I won't try.
posted by plinth at 1:52 PM on March 19, 2020 [1 favorite]