A Geek History of Time - Episode 267A - Bonus Conversations

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, We were saying that we were going to get into the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them because there were way too goddamn many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story arc. Where should I be? Oh, there's Beast. I should step over here. Yeah.

At some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you, like, and force you, like pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the Minutemen who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Damian. And I'm also glad that I got your name right this time. I apologize for that one Tick Tock video. Men of this generation.

Wound up serving the whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh, yeah. And actually, in his case, it was pre war. But but, you know, I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. Fuck it. Yeah. And actually, in his case, it was pre-war. But, you know. I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. Fuck it.

Hello, Geek Timers. This is Damian Harmony with a special message. We've heard recently some feedback from folks who don't like having to go and get their groceries and come back and still not get to the topic. We hear you. We understand you. And so we have decided to try topic. We hear you. We understand you. And so we have decided to try something a little bit different. That means that you can listen

to the episode almost immediately upon starting it. However, that also means that all that gabbing on that people do tend to love will now become bonus content. If you're interested, there will be episodes labeled bonus and it's just the two of us doing the upfront stuff that we used to do, talking about our lives, doing the standard dad things, that sort of thing. If you like that sort of thing, awesome. If you don't, we've managed to excise it from the episodes that you've come to know and love. And if you find that this is too jarring of a transition, then please by all means, let us know again and we will gladly try to readjust everything one more time. I recall

the myth of the Miller, his son, and the ass. And I have no doubt that with your help, we can knock our ass into the river. Thanks a lot for listening, and I hope you enjoy the bonus content. I know I certainly did. So I have my kids watching Star Trek. We're going just through the first season, right? Yeah. And we just got to the episode with the Dr. Manheim. So it's like right after Skin of Evil. So Tasha is dead. Spoiler alert. And so this is about the hiccup effect, you know, and like, you know, time slipped up and stuff like that. And you still have, everybody's still amazed at holodecks

at this point. Apparently there was brand new technology when the show started. Yeah. So that was pretty cool. But what I really loved is that so Mannheim's, the whole episode is based on he like kind of cracked time and plugged the fissure. Otherwise, it's going out by light years mm-hmm and there's a scene where the the main characters are in the turbolift Data Riker and Picard are in the turbolift and then the door opens and it's Data Riker and Picard

having the exact same conversation they just had before they got on the turbolift right so it's like oh what the fuck did we just see and both of the kids completely understand it. It didn't fuck with them at all. Like they understand the time loop effect and all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, I must've done something right, but like, I remember there was the episode, and I think it's like season five or something like that,

where everything comes up threes, and they're like, oh, you gotta get out of the way of this thing, and they're in this time loop for like 77 days or something, and like Crusher hears voices on the Enterprise, and all hands abandon ship, all hands abandon, and then it blows up, and then it starts over again, right? Right, right.

A lot of people had written into their local station saying you guys fucked up the tapes or something, cause it's just restarting the same episode over and over again That's funny people didn't get that in 1990 like 2 or 91 or whenever that came out My kids are getting it Upon first glance so it just kind of a cool feeling. I don't know Yeah, yeah

Well number one your kids are almost disturbingly smart And I think there's been a lot more Messing with time travel and and time loop tropes Since then that's a good point There's a lot more of that on on the landscape So yeah, I of baked in more. Yeah.

And also, again, I mentioned the kids are like, almost disturbingly smart. So you know, there's that. But yeah, no, that's that's pretty cool. What surprises me about the whole thing is you were talking about Dr. Mannheim and, and, you know, having to fill in the cracks in the space-time continuum, and you missed making a Mannheim steamroller, hon. It's only because I don't know that very well. I don't think there were any covers of Mannheim steamroller that I would know.

Okay. Well, that's, yeah's okay. And I, I. So we talked about, you know, what we're what we're going to get into this evening earlier. And it was and my wife asked me, so what are you guys going to going to cover on the podcast? And I said, we're going to talk about, you know, covers that are better than the original and She immediately her whole face lit up and she said oh Luke Holmes and fast car no fucking and I I I Got into trouble because I said that's you know Luke Holmes has a great voice that's great I

Don't think that's better you know, Luke comes as a great voice. That's great. I don't think that's better than the original. Right. Her reply to me, we had just had dinner. And I made guacamole. And, and she and my son, it is it is a point of great joy to me that they both enjoy the guacamole I make as much as they do. She looked at me across the table and said, it's a really good thing you make as good guacamole as you do. How does she?

I'm sorry. I don't care how bad the guac would be. Luke combs is a lovely, lovely voice. And I love their collaboration, but her voice made that song. I 110%. Yeah. I 110% agree with you. Like 110% agree with you. But, you know, then, then we got into, you know, conversations about, you know, um, You know, then we got into conversations about the popularity of each version of the tune broadly and whatever and yeah.

You know. Wow. So yeah, so I've already had some practice this evening arguing about this stuff and yeah. So yeah, I did not do any cooking tonight. Um, I made what I call the sharp fruity board for my kids. Nice. I like that. Some chopped up cheese, some fruit, and a frozen burrito made good.

Okay. That works. I especially while I was sick I Got a reminder of the virtues of just like what do we got in the fridge like what? What's what's in the freezer? What can I throw together? Yeah, like everything but the peaches. Yeah There you go. Yeah, you know, what kind of cheese was it? Oh, I I did String cheese so okay cool, but okay so for my son I chopped it Chunks and for my daughter. I stripped it into strips. Oh, she looked at me and she's like Okay

He has previously said what are you a psychopath when I've just bitten into the string cheese? I I love and fear your daughter's lack of filter Yeah, I think more good will be done by it. Yes. There will be some toes that are stomped Yes, there have been some toes that have been stomped. She's very fond right now of reminding me that there are only two redheads living in this house. Wow. Yeah. Why? Why you got to be hurtful? Right.

Like, oh my God. Yeah, no, it's so cool. So I mentioned to George, I don't know if I mentioned to you yet. Mm-hmm. I I fired up Mac Warrior five because Until I know that I've already mentioned to you and until I know that Robert is asleep. I Can't start up warfare, yeah Because you know, I can't trust him a warfare. Yeah. Because, you know, I can't trust him not to get out of bed and come, you know, try to watch what I'm playing.

And so, you know, if you see these robots blasting each other, that's one thing. But the blood and gore involved in modern warfare. So he has a little bit much for a six year old. Sure. Sure. And so anyway, I started that back up and I decided what the hell and I started a new career mode yeah okay and this time around I'm I'm following your economic model hmm all all salvage all the time you know max

out max out salvage and then get you know damage reimbursement right and then eventually maybe get profit Yeah, yeah, I do not I do not need cash. Don't don't hand me your filthy. Lucre. I want I want stuff right stuff and For the first few missions that's really frustrating The first few missions I didn't do that. Like, okay, you make your money. Yeah, make your money so you can buy a better Mac and then you start and get in. Yeah. Yeah. So but I have now got a diversified or 3b.

That's true. That's yeah, you got to get to work on the portfolio. Right. I've now gotten into a situation where I um, I'm regularly having to do stuff under tonnage because I've bought myself up to max that are, you know, too heavy to have a full lance. Right. And too light to just do like, you know, two max and max it out.

Right, right. So I'm, so I'm, I'm like the last mission I did I had two shadow hawks one of them a variant with a claw melee weapon okay which was kind of awesome and then the third Mac I think I was running a shit what was there? Phoenix Hawk okay, so I had two fifty fives into 45 and maximum tonnage was like 170 So it was I was I was under tonnage Yeah, well I mean it turned out okay, but but the trouble is my AI pilots suck ass right now. Oh, yeah Like I have I think two full sheets or whatever

you know whatever you want to call it two full barracks full yeah yeah 60s oh yeah just well I mean late game yeah you have like the elitist pilot like you know that becomes the best with honors sir that becomes the the only reason to keep playing is like I got to train that guy up from 59 to 60 you Know yeah, yeah, you know But have you tried career mode or just run the campaign? Oh? I don't know um I thought I Thought I was doing career and then like okay

So so the one the one where you're running around and it's like you know I gotta save my dad's reputation and they've got all the you know program story missions. Yeah is Is campaign mode? Okay, and then you can you can eventually say okay I want to like you can import all of your stuff into a career mode But in career mode, it's like the galaxies of the inner sphere is a wide open sandbox And you can just go wherever the hell you want to go take contracts where the Hell you want to take them. I think I've been doing that. Okay. I don't know Yeah, you can kind of do that like late game late game in campaign mode You can do that too. Yeah, like when you finish the campaign, you can just keep going

Oh, you can just keep running around but there's some stuff that that There there are some differences in the ways that like stuff opens up There are some differences in the ways that stuff opens up. And it's easier. One of the things that frustrated me with the phase of game and where I was in the game in campaign mode was like, okay, I have a full lance just made up of variant atlases and I've got all the 70, 70 80 90 ton max but like I can't find any contracts that aren't like 400 tons you know if I if I want to just you know do something with lighter weight max okay you know and so campaign mode is like no no there's always

going to be places around the galaxy where You can go and do lighter weight stuff and all that so I like taking on like a hundred and seventy five ton mission with just an atlas oh There you go. You know that's that could be cool. Yeah, that's fun. I wound up before I before I switched over to career mode I Actually wound up getting the DLC missions which I hadn't gotten up until you know a week ago To actually drag a whole lot there. I know I haven't I haven't gotten that one yet, okay it's it's I Don't remember the name of it, but it's it's the one where they released the hatchet man. Oh, yeah

Yeah, I remember that one and I and I and I got a hold of a hatchet man And I was like, oh, oh Now I understand why this is a big deal Yeah, he the satisfaction level of running up to a catapult and going oh and watching one side torso servo go instantly orange is like oh I get it now. Yep yep I understand so yeah nice so yeah after a long day dealing with kids giving me shit it's nice to come home

and be able to stomp through literally through an office park physically through an office park right with tank scale weapons like yeah so yeah well that's been fun. Well, so I went downstairs between episodes to put my kids to bed and my son, one of those, Anon, Anon, good sir, wait a minute. Uh, cause he was writing a story. And normally it's romantic fanfic about Sonic the Hedgehog characters.

Okay. This time he asked me, he's like, hey, do you know about Operation Chariot? I'm like, I don't. And he's, oh, I was like, well, what was it? And he's like, well, and then he named a guy whose name I don't. And he's, oh. And I was like, well, what was it? And he's like, well, and then he named a guy whose name I don't know. And it's basically, it's like famous incidents involving

trains during World War II for him. And so Operation Chariot was like evacuating a bunch of people out to the countryside. And he told me how crucial trains were to that. And it's funny because most of my exposure to that has been just from a propaganda film on the Battle of Britain and also Bed, Noms and Broomsticks. And I don't remember trains. But it makes sense. Yeah. I mean, talking about the UK, at that have been, that would have been how you got them there.

Right. And so like, he's now writing a story from the perspective of the trains, I'm sure, about the evacuation and then also about North Africa, and that campaign. And so he mentioned somebody who fought off the Italians in Libya. I was like, oh, okay, cool. Have fun. So that was why there's a bit of told him I said hey, man. I can finally talk history with you Yeah, we'll see what happened. That is that's yeah Yeah, I I have I have figured out that I'm actually going to have to Bite the bullet and not do an enrichment course for my home room flex period next time around.

Because for the last two rotations in a row, each cycle lasts about three weeks. Um, I, I wanted to set up a reading room, just 35 minutes of sustained silent reading, just come in, sit down, get a book, have a chill half hour before starting the day and to me and to my nerds, um, this is an awesome way to start the day. Yeah. The problem is that I teach in middle school and older middle schoolers have figured out that they can try, with varying degrees of success from cycle to cycle, to all sign up together for the same class. Whatever that class is supposed to be, and they usually try to go for a study hall or something like that, whatever that class is supposed to be, if they have sufficient numbers, they can just make it impossible for the teacher to have it be anything other than the hangout these, these usually guys

want to be. And so in the prior rotation, I got to, I got a group of students, several of whom were former students of mine who are now not sixth graders anymore, who decided that was what they were going to do. And it led to just three weeks of just it being a complete pain in the ass. And so I, you know, mentioned this to admin before this, this cycle started And I overheard them on the day that they were signing up for the next cycle. Literally in my room, they're saying, oh, hey, let's all go to this teacher's room. We'll all do that room. We'll do that room this time. And like, you're all doing this without understanding

that I'm literally standing right here in front of you with a computer in front of me that I can use to email that teacher and the administration. Like, as slick as you think you're being, you're actually kind of idiots. It's like they figured out how to make perpetual energy by plugging the the the power strip into itself yeah yeah it's plugged in and then it'll power and then it precisely. Yeah and and so This time around I also put a restriction for for this most recent iteration

I put a restriction on my on my class settings like I only want sixth graders I don't want to deal with seven or eighth graders You know and I figured I'd get you know, my own students show up my current students show up who could do that. And I mostly did, except the school counselor was not brought in the loop in the conversation about all of these guys are trying to do this thing. And so in order to prevent one of them from from pulling that off she not knowing that this kid had been in my class reassigned him like with admin privileges took off the limitation I put on my class to reassign this kid into my class along with

another troublemaker who had not been in my class the time before. And so now I'm dealing with these two personalities in the group and I'm like, you know what, next time I'm just going to pick a roster and just say, I'm just going to assign them. And it's like, you know what, I'm actually going to have to, you know, turn this into a study hall and actually do that because you try to do a nice thing and, and shit just goes sideways. Yeah, apparently. Yeah.

That sucks. Yeah. It's a bummer. You know, in the same way that, you know, we had the conversation where I said, you know, you have to understand that Paul was a fucking cop. Like, you know, It's the same thing Republic Bush Bush to was a Republican and Paul was a cop like like Well and everything every in a policy decision Yeah, yes an asexual. Yes, that's important. Yeah, Dan McClellan has has

Makes a very important point when he brings that up that yes. Yes almost definitely an ace cop like Yeah better better to marry than to burn he's not talking about in hell he means he means your loin lusting at all Yeah, and then you know do it enough that you can bring it back down not yeah, you know Yeah, and don't enjoy it don't well don't don't don't don't don't have too much fun right not too much like yeah in as much as you have to And then yeah that other way like which to be honest. I've had study sessions that have been like that I'm like you know what I'll be back in about ten minutes like Well, I mean you know sometimes sometimes you're having trouble getting to sleep and you just need to You know, maybe you know, maybe maybe you need a hand job

Yeah, speaking of speaking of you know other things that you know Recently come up like oh my god Wait for 12 How are you writing this like? Where do you even know what that means like oh okay at 12 I knew what a handjob meant though um but It's still like I probably could have guessed like I could have put two and two together But I don't think I'd ever heard the phrase Guest like I could have put two and two together, but I don't think I'd ever heard the phrase, you know Yeah, I just loved it Like my students are like looking at me like why are you laughing so it aren't hard and I'm like

Because of something a sixth grader wrote to a friend of mine who's a sixth grade teacher Like there you go. That's that's the best way to handle that But yeah, I told I you know, I shared that with like everybody cuz yeah, how could I not? Oh, yeah and and and then I shared that with like everybody because how could I not oh yeah and and and then I shared the screenshot of of me sending that to you and your immediate response being you're an asshole my students are wondering why I'm laughing so hard I'm like yeah got one you Yeah. What's been going on for you this week, by the way, besides cautioning children on writing their enjoyment thereof? Well, I've been pulling teeth trying to teach kids about putting together a five-paragraph

goddamn essay. But other than that, it's kind of, I don't know, kind of been a slow week. There's been family drama, but that was all like last weekend. That's family. Oh, I did today, this was funny. So I don't remember how I how I got on this but I wound up getting never gonna give you up Stuck in my head. Okay, and I was I was just belting it in the shower just just going for it and

Like you you will not convince me that that song is not a banger Like full stop that song is awesome. Yeah, like you can't start singing it without smiling. It's just it's amazing. Yeah so anyway my my I My my son had gotten up early this morning and had been kind of just just bouncing off the walls and driving driving Lee nuts. And so I was like, all right, then I got out of the shower and I said, all right, dude, go get dressed, put clothes on. You can put on whatever it is as long as it involves a shirt with sleeves and long pants because it's cold outside yep yep you know get dressed you and I are going to the store and you know not let's see the part of this I didn't say

out loud to him is you and I are gonna leave the house so your mom can have an hour a moment of peace and quiet like with nobody else here? And so we got in the car, we went out to go grocery shopping. And on our way home, because the song was still stuck in my head, I sang it. Sure. You know, and when I got done, I finished the first verse and the chorus. And for the backseat, I hear, do it again. And I said, okay. Nice.

And I did it again. And I said, hey, how about you sing along with me? And so I sang a line and he repeated and I sang the next line and he repeated. And then he came up with the idea that he wants to do that song for the talent show for his school next year. Hell yeah. On his own. Like, I did not put that idea in his head. That is all him.

And so we practiced it all the way home. And when we got home, he sang it for his mommy. Nice. And I was so proud. That was just, it was amazing. So that's probably been the high point of my whole week. All right. So as a dad of someone who's older and having gone through these stages, I can

tell you that the plans that you've got, what you, what you've unleashed, what you've put into this world is, is going to be a part of a larger plan that you have Okay And it's going to be successful given that this is kind of right around the genesis of these things happening In concert and that is you will not be an early grandfather. So this is great Yeah, well, I have another reason why I'm not gonna be an early grandfather My son has also gotten into Pokemon cards. Yeah, see? Like it's... So I have guaranteed. Yeah. Guaranteed. Yeah. So you got... Number one, that my son will not have enough money for drugs. Right. And that we will not need to worry about a

teen pregnancy. Right. So... So I... You know, this is all winning. There you go. Yeah, so I you I I I sat down with my my son my eldest And Okay, so just real quick the guy's a fucking beast like he is he is enormous like he's just this giant Well, okay, so giraffe as tall as you yet No, what damn near and the thing is he's so thin that he looks just like And so like he you know, he hugged his mother. Goodbye today and he just towering over her kind of thing. It's hilarious but The little beast sits down next to me is like hey

Can I show you that documentary on the Flying Scotsman's tour of the United States? and I was like, yeah, let's put it up on the big TV, you know? And so we do. And the Flying Scotsman, for those of you who don't know, is a famous train. It's the first steam train to, well, it's the fastest steam train ever recorded. Okay. It set the record, the speed record for steam trains. Yeah.

Okay. So we're watching the documentary, which is about a 40 minute documentary. And you know me. I don't like trains at all. But my son has always liked trains. So I like trains. And in the same way that I like Pokemon. Right. Yeah.

So we're watching it. And it says that it was the first steam train to ever go over 100 miles an hour. And he turns to me, he's like, you know, that's not true as a matter of fact There's this other train that was the first to get it But this one is done and he just launches into it and like we're watching a documentary together and my son Is adding information? Correcting the documentary and and and talking to me about it and I'm just like oh my god like

Like father like son like mm-hmm. This is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's what I've really got going on nice Yeah, and of course this amazing shirt. I just Nobody can see this because it's an audio medium audio medium, but could you please describe the shirt that you see before you? Let's see the mic for Yeah, there we go the turtle club it's there's there's a there's a Circle series of concentric circles in the very center is a photograph That has been grayscale. It's it's white on a pale green kind of t-shirt

And it's Dana Carvey in in the turtle suit from It's white on a pale green kind of t-shirt. And it's Dana Carvey in the turtle suit from Master of Disguise. And inner ring around the photo says, Pistachio Disguisely, established 2001. Pistachio Disgu disguisedly wear a toss. And behind Dana Carvey is is a silhouette of the New York skyline as of September 10th, 2001. And then underneath it never forget the turtle club across the top. Yes. turtle club across the top. Um, which, which is only, is a joke that, that only listeners to this podcast will get.

And most of you probably won't, right? Because it's, it's just that, that obscure. And, and yeah, I had to explain that to my wife because you, you put a photo, it's that I need my recording. that to my wife because you you put a photo inside in my recording sure you put that up on Facebook and Leanne looked at me it was like I don't I don't get it I just love that she saw it um or that you were responding to it by laughing so hard that she had to ask what was up yeah yeah I'm cool with either to be honest um but yeah this is a gift actually from friend of the show and star of episodes 20 and 21 Pinball in its discontents, Derek Lipkin. So okay. Yeah big shout out big ups to Derek. Yeah. Thank you

Yeah, so much for for this thing I'm going to have to look at now every Saturday evening for you know, the foreseeable goddamn future. Yes Yes, I need my recording shirt, right? so every Saturday evening for the foreseeable future.