The Unmade Podcast - 55: Dangerous Game

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

Brady and Tim discuss voice breaking, The Wonder Years, pin security, emojis, carrier pigeons, knowledgable friends, made-up games, kooky customers, and mog shots. Use Backblaze to back up your data and save your bacon - Try the 15-day free trial via: http://backblaze.com/unmade Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/i49e1z USEFUL LINKS The Year My Voice Broke - film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_My_Voice_Broke The Cassette Episode of The Unmade Podcast - https://www.unmade.fm/episodes/episode19 The Glee Club Episode of The Wonder Years pirated on Daily Motion - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5v8lfj The Math Teacher Episode of The Wonder Years - a real classic - also on Daily Motion - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5v8lfh The Wonder Years - both episodes we discuss are in Season Three - https://amzn.to/2BZaDAj Sofa Shop Pin - https://www.patreon.com/posts/39344694 The Emoji Wall of Thanks - https://www.unmade.fm/wall-of-thanks-emoji-edition Narrowboat Episode of The Unmade Podcast - with Jono - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2J2Hq-jn4 Snooker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker

Hang on, before you start, I just need to get a tissue and blow my nose, man. See how good an idea that was, people? Tim needs tissues. I'm just crying. Let me know if any of my sounds change dramatically because that happens to me sometimes. Remember that time when your voice broke? You went through puberty when we were recording. That was embarrassing.

What a fantastic podcast that would be be capturing the moment people's voices break you'd call it the podcast my voice broke very good i guess non-australians won't know the year my voice broke as a winner of five australian film institute awards including best film the year my voice broke as a winner of five Australian Film Institute awards, including best film the year my voice broke. Oh, indeed. Yeah. But yeah. Noah Taylor.

You'd have to record with people like who were like on the brink and just record with them all the time in the hope of capturing the moment. That's right. That this would be the moment. The temptation would be there to fake it. No. To do the proverbial you know mackers drive through you know microphone voice hello can i take your order do you remember when your voice broke

uh i do because you know i was a i could sing before my voice broke i could you also play guitar before your voice broke yes yes it was they they seemed to go together i was really good looking before my voice broke now come on now you're just being silly it was funny you know we referred many episodes ago to those old cassette tapes that i found with old recordings and i could hear my childhood voice and I was struck firstly by how ochre my Australian accent how broad my accent was I David I just done up your skateboard I made it up really cool I made it into a vision skateboard also you realize oh that gets quite high that's quite charming to hear yourself. Hey, Mum, how come there's a dead fly in the tape recorder?

Oh, I don't know. There's a dead fly caught next to the tape. But I remember being able to sing. I think I sang like in church up the front. Like in a choir? No, like a solo. But I... Or like Bono. That's right.

I went on tour. But now I'm saying that I'm thinking back going, that's no guarantee that it was any good. Like, it could have just been, you know what I mean? Like, let's give him a go and sing a song. Yeah, because you were cute. Well, there you go. That's something else.

I was cute before my voice broke. Yeah, yeah. It went deep and I was destined to be more the preacher than the singer as soon as the voice broke. Right. Went into preacher mode. Went into speaking mode. Yeah. Do you remember when yours broke?

Not particularly. I don't remember. I don't, like, it's obviously it's always portrayed as like a sort of an embarrassing part of childhood and being a young boy but I don't really remember that I remember you know like I remember pimples and things like that yeah I don't remember voice breaking as one of those difficult phases I had to go through I'm sure I'm sure it was maybe it's like just lost in the post-traumatic stress of it all, you know. You blocked it out, yeah. Yeah. The funny thing is that I think I've noticed it more since. Like I definitely notice my voice getting deeper as I get older.

And partly, partly, if you listen to some of my early albums, you can really tell. No, it's partly found through- I've noticed over the course of the podcast, man That's right Go back Welcome to the first episode Of the Unmade Podcast

We're just a couple of guys from Australia No, I notice it I notice it only because You still sing along in the car to the same songs you've always sung along to all your life when they come on the radio it's just tougher now than it was before but i hear even people like elton john struggle singing his earlier songs so we shouldn't feel bad that that we find it difficult to sing along to them as well. To Elton John songs. Yeah. Very good.

The podcast, My Voice Broke. I look forward to that one. There was a famous Brady Bunch episode where the kids' voice broke, wasn't there? There was also a classic one to yours, wasn't it? Remember? Men, men, men, men, men, men. And there's that guy that was the master singer and his voice broke when they had to do the big performance. We are the men, we are stout-hearted men.

That's right, he's up the back. Is that Warren Gander's voice chose exactly that moment to change. Then at that moment. That's right. And they all went off and then they end up, the stage collapses. That was the great, because it was like their voice, their singing teacher was like, you know, fresh out of teacher's college, full of optimism, you know, use your diaphragms. The funny thing about the One day is television show is right. I mean, the only episodes I really liked and I really cared about when I was watching it were ones that involved like Kevin's like, you know, relationship with Winnie and trying to get girls and stuff, you know, and all the other ones that dealt with like rites of passage, like your maths teacher or the choir and stuff like that.

They almost felt like disappointments and filler episodes that I didn't like because I wanted to find out what's going to happen with Winnie. But now that I'm older and I've grown up, those are the episodes I remember. Those ones in between that, you know, didn't excite me as much as a young boy. And now they're the ones that really stick in your memory. You know what? I was the opposite. I actually found I was bored by the Winnie episodes. I was like, oh, here we go.

Like long dream sequence with Winnie's, you know, brushing her hair. No, I was bored by them. I loved Winnie. You know, the girl that played Winnie, is Danica or Dancia McKellar? She's now a mathematician. And sometimes she does, like, films and videos about mathematics, like, on the internet and stuff. Oh, really? I'd love to get her on a Numberphile video one day.

Oh, that'd be amazing. That'd be such a coup. Can I co-host that one with you just to ask her cool questions about the wonder years? Hi, welcome to Numberphile. This is my friend Tim. He doesn't actually know what pi is, but just ignore him. That's right.

Look, enough about the maths. Let me tell you how I didn't like the episodes of The Wonder Years you were in. Well, maybe you could find one of the other, like, stars from The Wonder Years to go on Numberphile. Just a singing teacher. stars from the wonder years to go on number five just a singing teacher number five just morphs into a where are they now from the one i tell you what speaking of maths and the one dears absolute classic episode is the one where his mathematics teacher dies that is one of the classic wonder years episodes oh yeah that's he he has like a spill has a special bond with him doesn't he yeah well he's really bad at mathematics

and that math teacher's really strict with him and takes him and takes him under his wing and improves him at mathematics but then he kind of disappears off the scene and kevin feels neglected so he deliberately fails his maths exam but it it turns out the maths teacher's, like, dying and dies. Yeah. And then he retakes the test. You don't need to grade that. That's an A. You don't have to grade it.

It's an A. That is a beautiful episode. And there's a line in that that actually has stayed with me where he finds the maths teacher and he says... I thought you were my friend. And the teacher said, Not your friend, Mr. Arnold. Your teacher.

And I thought, oh, that's just a lovely, you know, boundary relationship sort of, you know, clarity moment. It was, yeah, beautiful. That's a great episode. Brilliant episode. People, if you haven't watched The Wonder Years, well, you're missing out. It should. i've gone searching

it's not on any streaming you have to go buying the dvds from somewhere which is feels like such a hassle these days you can get them i remember you know i remember finding them somewhere and pinching them but yeah i don't know where and how you can watch them legitimately these days but anyway enough about the one dears enough quick bit of housekeeping just a bit of news and things that's going on with the podcast the sofa shop pins golden pins the badges of honor a lot not all but a lot of them are making their way out to people who have contributed over 50 in the course of their patreon career I've been getting a few pictures on Twitter from people who've been getting them. So if you get your pin, send Tim and I a picture. We'd love to see it.

Yeah, they are impressive. I've seen those photos. And people are taking a risk identifying themselves as having such a worthy item in their house. I mean, I hope they've upped their insurance or bought a safe or something like that. Definitely. Because, I mean, if you had the Hope Diamond, you're not likely to go on Twitter going, hey, guys, look, I've got the Hope Diamond.

And don't, like, wear it out, like, on the streets of New York or something. You might get rolled for your sofa shop pin, like a pair of Air Jordans or something. Get rolled. Remember when getting rolled for your sneakers was just such a fear in life? Did anyone ever get rolled for their sneakers

anywhere no one ever did not in adelaide but still to be like oh i don't know if you should wear sneakers that expensive you might get rolled in rundle mold for your for your converses i just imagine a gang like a four five, coming and standing around someone going, that's a nice sofa shop pin you got there, you know. Just take the pin. Just don't hurt us. Here, take it. Like the film Clip to Beat It, where it's like, ooh, and they break into like a dance sort of fight thing. It's got gang members.

Yeah. So be careful, people. Be careful if you've got one. Yeah. No joking around. We can't be held legally responsible if you've got one. Yeah. No joking around. We can't be held legally responsible if you get rolled for a sofa shop pin because we warned you. Maybe we should make imitation pins so that people can wear them out. You know what I mean?

The other ones are sort of kept in a vault. Like an imitation sofa shop. Yeah. Yeah. They should have that. Made of cardboard or something. You know, it's just like, oh, this is the one I actually wear out. The other one's much too precious.

I keep them at home, you know. Yeah, that's at the Tower of London. It's at the Tower of London. Also, something I didn't mention, but something I did for a bit of fun, and I never really fleshed it out with you. Tim tweeted a little while ago now, basically that he doesn't like emojis. And before I ask you about that, Tim, the reason that ties into patrons is what I then did was I went to our wall of thanks with all the patrons names on there. And I gave an individual emoji to every patron, like a bit of a,

you know, bit of a rebuke to tim and it was something fun to do that to have each patron having their own emoji i tell you what i didn't think that through that took a really long time to do putting a custom emoji for everyone on the patreon this but anyway i did it by the time people hear this episode that list will have been, refreshed and superseded with an updated patron wall of thanks. But I will archive the old emoji version so you can go and have a look at it for old time's sake because I spent so much time doing it. I want people to see it.

But, Tim, what's with not liking emojis? What's wrong with emojis? I'm not even sure why I don't like them. They just feel too quirky. I like things that are, oh, that's not the right word. I like things that are quirky. Are you just being a snob? Are you being like, you know, bookish?

I don't think I'm being bookish because I will use my own version. Like I'll do a colon and a parentheses to do my own smiley face thing to someone. But there's something about sending a colourful picture. Like if one of my daughters draws a little smiley face or a picture, like one of them the other day drew a picture, hey, here's all of us and there's like funny and we all look like, it was like a potato family. We're all potato heads.

Oh, you're sure they weren't lemons? No. They weren't. But they, it was cute and it's funny and it's great. And I took a photo of it and I've, you know, got it next to my bed and stuff. But then when like an adult sends me something like that, I'm just like, okay, cool. Do you think they're childish? They do.

They seem childish. I think that's what it is. And I know they're kind of childish because texting is kind of childish often anyway. You know, little jokes back and forward. And I get it, but I can't bring myself to do it. So, no texting is childish? No, no. What I mean is it's not like it's a scroll that you're unravelling and then putting a smiley face.

Do you know what I mean? Imagine that if they found the Dead Sea emojis. I know. It's a quick and easy and fun way of communicating. And I should like it because I kind of like that stuff. But I don't. I don't. I don't know why.

Well, this is just more proof to me that you're trapped in the 90s because there were no emojis in the 90s. Basically, if it didn't exist in the 90s, Tim doesn't like it Well, it didn't exist in the 80s either But you don't say I'm trapped in the 80s Why is it the 90s? No, because you decided to get trapped in the 90s That's when you imprinted with culture Oh, okay

Anyway, you can always go to our website to see the wall of thanks with a list of patrons And there will also be a link to the June 2020 version, which had an emoji for each patron. If you're on the list, go there and find out what your emoji was. It was quite the ordeal making that list. Can I just say that I did say there is one emoji that I did like because it was quite clever, which is a series of emojis from the band Kiss where they're like like spitting blood

and stuff and they got their face makeup and stuff and i thought oh that's kind of cool and cute but oh but they're not like official emojis they're not like um you know in the official list of emojis that is authorized by the united nations or something right there is like an official there is like the official list that all the phones have to have. Like, it's not an official emoji if you just make up your own. That's just different. Well, I guess this is more like a, I don't know what it is, a character, a gif or something you buy.

It's not a gif, is it? I don't know. Anyway. Tim, you're so high tech, it blows me away sometimes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I should be. I'm back on the iced coffee and everything tonight.

I was hoping it would help lift my game, but it's not. I was hoping it would suddenly make me understand technology. I think I lose interest in technology and I lose interest. It's like, oh, now I'm going to have to look through all this and, you know, and find something. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. This whole podcast malarkey what a palaver this is i know i know i mean if someone was actually recording this and sending it out to

people i think what on earth are you doing that for i just like talking to my friend can't we just sit down with the audience and talk to them face to face like normal humans that's right or write them novels like why can't this be parch... Parchments. Send them parchments. That's right. With our ideas for unmade parchments. Do you know what I would love? Do you know what I would seriously love? A carrier pigeon.

Have you ever thought about having a carrier pigeon? Imagine writing something, attaching it to a pigeon and sending it off. How magnificent. We've discussed this before. I'm surrounded right now by carrier pigeon paraphernalia. I'm obsessed with carrier pigeons. I have a carrier pigeon basket. I'm looking at one right now.

We've discussed this before. You don't need to sell me on carrier pigeons. If we could do the Unmade Podcast via carrier pigeon, that would be fantastic. Thousands and thousands of pigeons heading off to our – that could be an option. If you become a patron supporter and you pass a certain amount, you get your own pigeon, and we actually send the episode to you

with your own pigeon. Can you imagine that? Or we could record between each other with carrier pigeons, like with our jokes. Like I would send you a joke and it would fly to Australia and you would read it and go, i've got a witty comeback for that and then you'd send me a pigeon back like the banter would be awesome off it goes i'd send you an emoji

pigeons flying around the world facing storms deserts everything gets to the other end lol off you go champ what you up to pigeon looks at you going is that all you're gonna write is that it thanks speckled Jim

off you go champ take this back will ya Okay, thanks Speckled Jim. Off you go, Gem. There we go. Take this back, will you? All right. Why didn't we think of that when we lived in the same city? Carrier pigeons, brilliant. Poor old Speckled Jim. Speckled Jim, legend.

So podcast ideas and stuff. You got an idea for today's episode? I know you've been really busy lately. Maybe you haven't had time to think of ideas. I do. We have moved house. I know I've said this a few times, but we moved into a transitional house. Yeah.

And then now we've moved into our house. So, that's good. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. But that's why we've been busy. But it's also thinking time and it's led to a whole stream of needs that I've had that I have, that they've given rise and focus to my podcast idea. All right. So this idea is called moving house.

Moving house. That's going to be Tim's idea for the next eight weeks. Let me explain. What's your idea today then? My podcast idea is called I've Got a Guy. And this is a podcast idea where you go on and talk about a friend who is that person in your life who you go to, who just seems to know everything. I'm not talking necessarily about everything about every subject, but they just have the practical advice that you need for life. So my example, I've got a friend and his name is John. And if I have a question about anything, like I'll be in the middle a a hi-fi store thinking of buying a

television yeah and i'll be looking at all these brands and all these things and i'll go i'll call john i call john i go look i'm looking at buying a tv what do i do for some reason john has an encyclopedia knowledge give them your credit card yeah that's right that's right he just knows everything easy yeah yeah he just he goes well you've got this brand, this brand. You've got these two types. You can go with this, this. What's your price point here, here? And he goes, well, I'd go with this model.

And he'll do that spontaneously off the top of his head. I'll say, I want to watch a new Netflix series. And he'll go, well, two or three that have come out. This one, you wouldn't like that one, but this one's getting rave. And he'll just give me a rundown and a recommendation. He's amazing. He's amazing. He's brilliant.

Why am I not doing a podcast with him? He's the new Katrina. I need to stop introducing you to my interesting friends, lest you suddenly realise that I'm one of the least interesting people in my circle. All your friends have got a guy that just knows nothing, and that's you. I've got a guy who's got a podcast and he knows nothing. So how does your podcast work? Do we ring the guy or the gal and and like pick their

brains i like the idea of you took i like the idea firstly there's a podcast idea about just talking about a friend you know i'm going on and raving about a particular friend and why they're a great person and who they are and all that kind of stuff i like this though because they're such a resourceful person everyone has someone they go they go to for advice so this is the person you go to but then i think a bonus is you can in the second half of the episode have the person on and they get to ask them a whole bunch of questions about do you find it frustrating when the person calls do you ever bone up on information just thinking they might call how do you get across so much stuff what is is it that you know? You know what I mean? Does your phone say Tim calling and you just hit, like, you know, reject, reject, Paul?

Or do you forward it through to a brains trust? Like, it's interesting. Like, do you, because obviously you can have specialists, can't you? Like, this is like phone a friend, isn't it? Like, who wants to be a millionaire? Oh, yeah. You've got phone a friends who like specialise in certain areas, but then you've also occasionally got that kind of Swiss Army person

who just seems to know a bit about everything. And they're your generalist, you know, that will be able to answer most questions. Yeah, that's a good Swiss Army person. That's a great term. Yeah. Yeah, there are niche people you go to for different things. But look, I mean, mean tax advice i call him like you call him for i have i have to say like if you're buying a car but i

or or buying something you know practical that you're shopping for he just seems to know about things yeah i have to admit i have on occasion leaned over the coffee table and said look i'm recording tomorrow night have you got any ideas for a podcast I have on occasion leaned over the coffee table and said, look, I'm recording tomorrow night. Have you got any ideas for a podcast? What, you even called John for podcast ideas? I have. I've tapped him, yeah.

This podcast was his idea. Me, I should be your podcast. Why don't you do a podcast about phoning me? So, yeah, I've got, now, let me ask, you seem, have you, I love the idea, I've got a guy. You know what I mean? Like, where do you get that from? Or a gal. Or a gal. Or a gal.

That's right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I do have a guy and you met him and he's been on the Unmade podcast. I think my guy is Jono from the Canal Boat. Oh. He's very practical and he's done a bit of, he knows a lot about technology. He knows a lot about, like, he's good at all the things I'm not good at, like,

like, handiwork and house stuff and odd jobs. And he's just very practical and very entrepreneurial. And so, anything about business, anything about technology, anything about like handiwork and things like that, jobs around the house. He's my best all rounder. He's my Swiss Army guy. That's awesome. So Jono would be my first call. If it's not particularly niche, he'd be my first call.

He's the most likely person to be able to help me. Or he'll know a guy as well. Like he'll have a guy if you need to go to a higher level. No, Jono is just the guy. He's the guy. Wow. It's fun that my guy's called Jon and yours is called Jono. Maybe there's something in that.

There you go. And Jono's a nice guy as well. Like my guy is so patient and he'll just yep yep he'll answer all my questions he's just the he's a brilliant guy he's a brilliant guy and like even like i need to buy headphones and i'll call him up yep well you got the i bought these ones but don't get them get the other ones you've got those do you do you secretly wish that you were john no because it's a bit like technology There's too much information

Like I feel like I would Do you know what I mean? You don't want to know too much I don't want to know that crap Well, it's only I guess I would just forget it I don't know if I can recall it for someone else Well, part of being John means you don't forget it

Well, I guess that must be the John superpower or something Where you, yeah, he somehow retains it or he files it away. He's a very systematic person, that's for sure. Is it too personal a question to ask what kind of job and role John does in his spare time when he's not answering all your phone calls? Like, is he a handyman or does he work in a TV shop or just in general terms? No, he's an accountant. He's a partner in a in a in a tax firm yeah right so his work isn't like it doesn't touch on you know because jono as you know like you know

when you met him was doing is a youtuber making videos about canal boats and renovating a canal boat so he does seem like the kind of guy that would know lots of stuff about technology and handy stuff whereas an accountant you might not have immediately thought that no he's that's what i mean he more runs his business you know so he's yeah you know he's a bit more generalist yeah yeah but he will know that you know he knows lots of the minutiae on on tax law and you know this year this has got to be done like this so about 60 60 60 percent of the time he's an accountant the other 40 percent he's answering phone calls from you. That's right. He's not the guy, like when it comes to renovations and like, you know, finding a trades person, I have another guy.

So, that's kind of a different category of stuff. Yeah. But he's a great guy too, actually. That would be a whole episode on him because he knows tradies everywhere and yeah, I've got a guy or a girl. He's your guy that's got guys. That's right. Nice one. Good fun. Good fun idea. Do you think you're anyone's guy? I think I'm your guy for like texting gags during, you know,

Grand Prix. Yeah, well, guy for like texting gags during you know grand prix yeah well it is funny it's so cute how you've like you've gotten into formula one in the last like just in very recent times but you've gotten so into it like you've gone deep very quickly but you still have like very low knowledge so you're watching it all the time but you have all these really really like like you're watching it more than me but you have these really basic questions it's really funny like i suddenly feel like god like the god of formula one because i know everything like what are those black round things on the car on the cars they're tires, Tim. They're amazing. I do.

Every now and then. You are absolutely correct. But I also, I find new things fascinating. So I just want to know everything about it. But I also, I like asking you questions that I know that you'll find. I don't know. It'll be borderline between whether you know that I'm joking or whether I'm asking it for real. Like when I was saying, like, you remember I texted you last night during qualifying and I said the person, why is it they're so busy just before, like, they just seem to be always putting finishing touches on the car just like with a minute to go before they go out.

And it's like, why not turn up to work, you know, like 10 minutes early? It could be ready by now. But why are you doing it right up with a minute to go said the guy who came up with his podcast idea 10 minutes before the episode no no come on this is a few weeks old this one this has been brewing all right i tell you what tim it's time for a sponsorship message and i'm going to be your guy today and tell you about a new product that i use all the time that you probably should be using too let's talk about backing up our computer and hard drives and disk drives oh yes yes i i literally want to know about this yes continue as opposed to everything else i say well i'll listen to you and then I'll call John

Even John should be using this if he's not already This is Backblaze Alright Backblaze, cool name as well hey Sounds like something like from Top Gun Does doesn't it Maverick, what were you doing You shouldn't be doing a Backblaze that close to an aircraft carrier

That would be I was going to say your name could be Brady Backblaze that close to an aircraft carrier that would be i was gonna say your name could be brady backblaze but actually i like yours oh yeah backblaze would be a cool call sign in top gun wouldn't it that's right damn it backblaze get in here now it could be that guy who's famous for doing one of those you know how they suddenly do a pull up pull backwards where they suddenly it looks like the plane just goes backwards yeah that's a back he does them so well he's known as as brady's backblaze i don't know who's going to win the top gun trophy this year it's either going to be maverick or backblaze that's right backblaze i am dangerous. Thank you, Backblaze.

You saved my kittens. Let's talk about what Backblaze actually is. This is a service. This is something you're going to install on your computer. And then you're never going to have to think about it again. And just in the background, it's going to whir away constantly, backing up everything on your computer and your drives to the cloud, not to your house or something physical in your house that you would lose in a fire or a flood or something,

to the cloud, safely away to the cloud. You never even have to think about it. Every time you're doing anything with your computer, it's just constantly keeping everything up to date. And then if you ever lose something, like a file or something like that, you can just go to the cloud and get it back because it was backed up there if you have an absolute catastrophic fail and you know you lose your computer and you lose everything you just get your get your new computer

because you probably got a new computer after the disaster hook it back into backblaze everything will just come streaming back down and your computer will be as it was before or if it's lots and lots of information they've also got a service where you can just contact them and they will actually overnight FedEx you a hard drive with all your stuff gosh so you'll have it straight away on a new hard drive brilliant but another really cool thing about Backblaze Tim and this is actually this isn't like the core service but this is a really cool thing I like about it is you can actually just go in anytime and get an individual file from like using your phone, an app on your phone. So say you and I were having a coffee and we're away from our computers and I had something on my computer, I really wanted to show you like a video or a PDF or something. I can just get my phone,

log into Backblaze and get that file, download it immediately, look at it and show it to you there on the spot. It's another handy little use of backblaze there are so many things at the moment in my life that stress me out and worry me and i have had some of the some of my worst professional moments have been when i've had computer failures and lost important data ever since i've had backblaze running that has gone out of my life altogether and is one of the things that gives me great peace at night knowing that even when i'm not working and not at my computer it's just quietly whirring away keeping everything nice and backed up and when those bad moments come and they come they will there's always another one coming backblazers always got my back it has saved my bacon numerous times already bacon too gosh computer bacon. They are very diverse.

How is your backup game, Tim? Am I selling you on the idea of installing Backblaze? I'll tell you you are because I'm about to get another laptop. I've got one for, which is related to my work and the IT system at my college. And so I have no power over that. That has its own system. But I'm about to get another one for other use and so forth so i this is very timely advice thank you thank you backblaze you get unlimited backup for just six dollars a month but before you do that tim before you sign up

go to backblaze.com slash unmade and you you can do a 15-day free trial, no strings attached. You can just install it, get it backing up, see how it works, download a few files, just see how the whole system works, get a feel for it. And if you like it after 15 days, then you can go all in, $6 a month.

And I think $6 a month is a bargain for the peace of mind it gives me. Totally, totally. But do the 15-day trial. make sure you go to backblaze.com slash unmade when you do the free trial because that will tell the backblaze people that you came from here and they'll think brilliant unmade podcast obviously very persuasive we may do a sponsorship with them again and that means tim and i make more episodes and that in turn means more Backblaze ads. It's this never-ending feedback loop. But every one of those episodes and ads will be backed up.

And that's the important thing. Tim, I want to hear how you do with your 15-day trial when you get this new laptop. I will. I'll let you know on a future episode. I am tempted to call you Backblaze for the rest of this episode because I think it's a good call sign. Brady Backblaze. Not Brady Backblaze. I want to just be Backblaze for the rest of this episode, because I think it's a good call sign. Brady Backblaze.

Not Brady Backblaze. I want to just be Backblaze. All right. Okay. Yep. Yep. Back your stuff up, people. Sleep easy at night.

Your next crash is coming. Your next disaster is coming. Man. It's true. Look, I'm sorry, but it is. All right. So, I've got lots of good ideas, but I'm not going to pull on one of my best ones. I'm going to pull on one because I just want to talk about it.

Okay. Oh, what's this? What am I going to call this? This is going to be called Made Up Games. And this is a podcast that gives people an opportunity to reminisce about games that they played probably when they were younger. They could still be playing them now. that they played probably when they were younger.

They could still be playing them now. But in my case, it will be when I was younger. Games that you made up or that you tailored that quite possibly are unique to you or you think they're unique to you. Great idea. I have three examples I'd like to share. I'll go to the oldest example first. When I was growing up, I was a huge fan of playing backyard cricket. I loved playing backyard cricket with my neighbours. My neighbours were three boys.

And I don't know, I mean, I didn't grow up with a brother, so I don't know what it's completely like having brothers. But from my experience with these brothers is that brothers can be more temperamental, a bit more argumentative sometimes. And there would often be flare-ups and blow-ups and fights between the brothers. That's just what happens, you know. That's just life with young boys. Yeah. So, we used to always play backyard cricket. And almost invariably, every game of backyard cricket within the first hour or two would

result in some kind of fight or argument between the brothers over a dismissal, was it out or not out, or things like that a huge fight would happen their mum would run out into the backyard pull them apart send them to their bedrooms and that would be the end of cricket for the day that's usually how cricket ended for me backyard cricket ended for me on just you standing there going and yeah i would then just have to go home and then usually the brother that was closest to my age would be released from prison and we would go and go swimming and do something else that was it right occasionally there would be a fight or a blup so bad that more draconian measures were necessary right and one time we

had such a big big fight i was never part of these fights by the way i was a gentle soul but one of the games the brothers had a fight so bad that we were banned from playing cricket for a week in the summer holidays. And being banned from playing cricket, like, is the end of the world for us. For a week? That's an eternity in holidays. Oh, I know. But what we did was we came up with, we kind of, I don't know how this happened, but we evolved this alternative version of cricket called mini cricket, which was played with a small child sized cricket bat. And you had to be on your knees.

And instead of a normal bowler, you were just throwing a ball gently from a distance. And it had all these elaborate things to it. It was really just playing cricket on your knees in a gentle way, less competitively. And we managed to, it was almost like a court of arbitration of sport thing. We managed to sell the idea of mini cricket not being cricket to the boy's mum in such a way that during this week-long ban, it was a permitted game. We didn't realise it at the time, but probably because the game

was less competitive and we realised it was being used in this loophole way, there were never fights when we played mini cricket and we got along really well. So, that was probably why the mother was permitting it, because we got along really well when we played it. So, mini cricket was this new version of cricket that we invented. And whenever a ban on cricket was put in place for a day or a week from that point onwards we would just immediately get the smaller bat get onto our knees and start playing mini cricket this new version of cricket that was the bat that was played during bands that's genius was was your was it still a was it a tennis ball tennis ball yes tennis ball yep backyard cricket was a tennis ball too we couldn't play backyard cricket with a

hard ball for the the damage we would have wrought on that backyard and all the windows and everything Yep. Backyard cricket was a tennis ball too. We couldn't play backyard cricket with a hardball for the damage we would have wrought on that backyard and all the windows and everything. All right. But I'll move on to, I want to move on to two other games that are a bit more in keeping with the spirit of my idea. Yep. These are both games that were co-invented by myself and my very good friend, Rod, who I lived with in numerous houses through my late teens and twenties and Tim knows very well also. And I've been trying to get Rod to come on the podcast for ages, but he's so busy. We're never going to get him on. So, I'm just going to go and go ahead and do these ideas without him.

Oh, that'd be great. Rod's great. Yeah, I know. I said he should come on and talk about these, but it's just not going to happen. So, I'm going to do these ideas. Now, the first game that we love to play, Rod always really wanted a pool table. I grew up with a pool table.

So pool tables were not a great novelty to me. I was never like, you know, particularly enamored by playing pool because I probably had my fill as a child. But Rod always really wanted a pool table. When we moved into a house together, he bought one. He bought a pool table and it was a big investment for him. He really loved it. We played a lot of pool, but sometimes we played this other game that we invented on the pool table. And this game was called Dangerous Game. Now, Dangerous Game

involves standing at each end of the pool table, quite a short pool table. So, if you imagine the two corner pockets at each end, you're kind of you imagine the two corner pockets at each end you're kind of standing between those two corner pockets at each end of the pool table on the short sides of the pool table the short sides of the rectangle all 15 or so balls are on the table and the idea of the game is that the people standing at each end grab balls at random, whatever's within reach, and then hurl them as hard as possible along the bays, along the green felt, towards the other pockets at the other end, trying to get them in the pockets, being guarded by the guy at the other end.

And at the same time, he's doing the same thing, grabbing any balls he can and hurling them as fast as he can at your pockets, trying to get them in your pockets. A bit like air hockey. You're sort of guarding, you're guarding your pockets. He's guarding his and you're trying to get them in each other's. And they're all going so hard and so fast that the simple act of reaching down and grabbing a ball is dangerous because you don't know if you're going to get your fingers broken by 18 other balls, you know, flying around. Blocking balls is incredibly dangerous, but necessary to guard your pockets. But also because you're throwing them so hard in such an uncontrollable way, sometimes you kind of lose control of what you're doing a bit. And instead of rolling it along the felt, you might accidentally hurl it into the air

towards the other end of the pool table where the guy is standing. So, occasionally a ball will just suddenly come flying at your face or your chest. Also, the rented house we're in, this happened to have a window behind one of the sides. So, there was a window behind one of the guys that sometimes like a ball would fly towards the window and smash the window. And so it was just for five minutes, there was just this frenzy of broken finger risk being hit in the chest with pool balls, having your arms smashed by pool balls until all the balls were off the table and inside pockets.

But we loved it. But we were very, very aware of how dangerous it was to the point where we would just sometimes say, should we go play a dangerous game? It was literally called Dangerous Game. I have a memory of this game. I was not a big fan of it. I bet it's not fun for someone who wears glasses. No, this is true.

But it's the paranoia of the, you've just got to keep moving. But there's something about chaos theory that means the minute you reach across, something's going to hit your hand. It's also, I always have this strange paranoia about balls just exploding. Pool balls. Or, you know, you think they're going to shatter. Of course they won't. Of course they won't. Of course they won't. They just chip off or something if you threw them at something harsh.

But you know what I mean? That feeling of, oh, this will just smack, smack, smack. It's also very loud. It is very loud. Dangerous game usually starts spontaneously at the end of a game of pool. Like as you're racking up the balls or collecting the, getting the balls out of the pockets yeah and someone will roll and then it's like it's on dangerous game five minutes of

five minutes of pure terror the last one i want to mention is is a game again that uh rod and i invented we used to work together at the newspaper and at the newspaper there was an upstairs on the top floor of the building there was a games room that hardly ever got used with a table tennis table and a full-size snooker table full-size snooker tables for people who've never played on them are massive and snooker is so hard to play because it's so much harder than it looks when they play on tv because the tables are so big the pockets are so small like tommy ball big that's right so so we used to go and play snooker sometimes and in the course of that we invented a new game on the snooker table using the snooker setup you kind of would have to know the rules of snooker to appreciate the game and obviously i

can't explain the rules of snooker now to explain the rules of this new game. But the game that we invented, we called Raccoons, which is snooker spelt backwards. And the idea of this game is the exact opposite of snooker. Every shot you play, you have to do something that would be terrible in snooker. So, for example, in snooker, if you pot the white ball, that's bad. That's a foul. In Raccoons, if your shot involves the white ball going in the pocket, you get bonus points. Also, in snooker, you're supposed to hit a red ball before you hit the colored balls. And if you accidentally hit, say, the black or the pink or the blue before hitting a red, that's bad.

That's a foul. In Rikun's, it's the opposite. You have to avoid the reds and hit the colors so for example one of the best shots you could play in a game of raccoons would be to hit the black ball and then make it the white ball ricochet off into the pocket because that's like like a double foul if you could hit the ball onto the black onto the blue that was called a bruiser a black and blue if you could hit the black onto the blue and get a bruiser, if you could then make the white go in, if the white goes in, that's freezing.

So, that would be called a frozen bruiser. And that's worth like 12, 16 points. So, we came up with all these incredibly elaborate rules, all this amazing nomenclature to the point where it became a really complicated, involved game with scoring and that. At one point, we thought we should market it because it was such an ingenious game. Raccoons.

This is all while you're at work. That's right. Yeah. This is when we were cadets and we would finish the week's work early and you'd have a couple of days to kill. Yes, that's why we're at work rod's the boss net there now so i don't think he can get he can get fired but either that or he's instituted it he's got the whole floor playing it

or he realized what a waste of time it was and had the snooker table removed subdivided into offices, they're so loud Yeah Yeah It is funny how you get absorbed in this, isn't it? You get absorbed in an idea This is a game and then suddenly rules upon rules And it becomes a time stand still It becomes a whole world

20 years later we still talk about raccoons and dangerous game Incredible Yeah You're very good at this, I think You like turning these moments into enjoyable moments but you also come up with good ideas about rules and and um you know and names for things as well i i think you've got a particular gift for this you were an only child does that mean you were more likely or less likely to have made up games as part of

your life that's a good question i used to, again, friends over the back fence and so forth that I played with all the time. And we would do different adventures and things that were pretty conventional. I did have versions of football in the backyard that just involved me kicking goals, you know, all the time. But it wasn't like I just stood there with a football and just kicked it at the clothesline, you know, to the washing line to get a goal. I would sort of set a challenge like, okay, I've got to get from here, run across here, got to run around here. And then you've got to kick it before you get to this point, you know, that lines up with the back veranda, you know. So you've kind of created your own little scenario that just set limitations and it had its own context and whatnot. Oh, I've got a lifetime of games like this. Because I also had a swimming pool growing up. I came up with so many games in the swimming pool. We had underwater cricket that was played with a golf ball.

That was really good fun. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yeah. I remember we had a PE teacher at school. This is at a school back in Tarelvin. And it was like a wet day and stuff. So, we had like a double period after lunch where we had to be inside.

It wasn't a gymnasium. It was like just a big double room that was sort of where we played indoor sort of sports and stuff. Yeah. And he said, okay, today we're playing this game that I've actually created over lunch. Okay. And he pulled out a piece of paper and he basically designed his own game,

which was basically a version of sort of rounders or t-ball you know what i mean a person kicks a ball it goes over here or you can hit it and you run you got to go to two spots it but i i just remember the going oh wow look you can he's just made up a game like he's got and you've got two fielders over and he's explaining it like it's a thing instead of something he's just making up you've got to stand here and here and here and you know this person gets this and that's two shots or back there it's four shots. And he's totally invented it. But I just remember thinking that was, oh, you can do that. Look, that's just a, that's a new game. I had this great teacher at a school I went to called Mr. McCarthy. He died a

year or two ago. I was sad to find out. And he was a very unique teacher. I could tell you a lot of stories about him he's the reason i can juggle he taught you to teach all his students to become very accomplished jugglers as well but he made up these games right that were variants on a sport but he would change it so for example there was a version of cricket and he called it jamaican rules and you could you could only score by hitting fours and sixes and stuff like that. And he made a version of rugby. He would change conventional sports into a way to make them interesting and probably more appropriate for the students. And the class would be divided into three teams and we would name our teams and we would have these elaborate tournaments at the sport once we'd learned how to play it. And at the end end he had this industrial sized tin of vegemite

i don't know it must be a vegemite that was supplied to people to have in like uh factories or in uh on camping sites and things like that so it was a tin of vegemite that was like the size of a paint tin the vegemite branding on it like the logo on it was like paper you of a paint tin. The Vegemite branding on it, like the logo on it, was like paper. You know how you put paper around a tin to make it have a label? Yeah. It still had this huge yellow Vegemite paper label around it. The tin was empty. It had no Vegemite in it.

But it was this huge yellow Vegemite tin, and it sat on the cupboard, on top of a cupboard in the classroom. And at the end of each tournament, say my team was called the Bush Pigs. If my team won the Jamaican Rules cricket tournament that year, the Vegemite tin was pulled down, and in a small marker, he would write the year, 1992, Jamaican Rules, the Bush Pigs, and it would be added to this Vegemite tin on the yellow label. And then the team would get to stand at the front of the class and get to hold the trophy up like

we just won the FA Cup. And there was a celebration. And then the Vegemite tin was put back on top of the cupboard. And you could go and look at the Vegemite tin. And over the years were all the years and names of teams that have won all these tournaments. And you so coveted getting to have your team's name on this Vegemite tin on Mr. McCarthy's cupboard. That's great. That's great he built that up. I wonder how long it went for.

That's marvelous. He was really, really old-fashioned. Like, as the school modernised, he refused to modernise. And his classroom still had old-fashioned wooden desks that you had, had like that would lift up and you would put all your books and that inside the desk like in the old-fashioned times oh yeah so all the rest of the school had modern desks and furniture and that and he still had all these wooden tables and and he was he just refused to go with the times and the school couldn't

challenge him so mr mccarthy was known as like- it was like going back into like the 1800s if you were in Mr. McCarthy's class for a year. Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah. What a character. He was amazing. Yeah. Very strict disciplinarian. Very strict. He wasn't a friend. He was your teacher. Oh, definitely. I had- with Mr. McCarthy, you would have no misgivings or misconceptions. No one would call Mr. McCarthy their friend. He was scary. You were afraid of him.

You were so afraid of him. It was amazing. Do you want a quick patron idea? Yes, yes. Let's do a patron idea. Let me read one. My name's Ken, and I'm a software engineering student from Australia's loneliest state capital, Perth, in the faraway lands of Western Australia. During these unprecedented times, the recent avalanche of episodes never fails to brighten up my commute. The bean dish quiz in particular had me in tears laughing so hard I needed to pull my car over after the guitar question.

That's still the most I've ever laughed during a podcast as well, so I'm winning. Your laugh went into a different tone on that occasion. It was marvellous. I listened back to that the other day and started laughing again like that. Just the way you set it up. I've dreamed of this moment. Ken continues

I figured it's high time I contributed to the Farmers Union Iced Coffee Fund Even though I'm more of a master's man myself I don't know what that means Is that a different kind of iced coffee? I've never heard of it It must be a Perth iced coffee brand, yeah The podcast idea I'd like to pitch is Kooky Customers

And he spelt customers with a z to make it even more zany kooky customers this podcast would focus on the crazy and absurd interactions employees have had with the public which border on absurd it would ideally focus more on truly wacky scenarios to keep it light-hearted but the occasional unruly story may be permitted if it checks the right boxes this is my favorite talking point for meeting new people at uni, as there are many with hospitality or retail experience. Almost all have a great story that is itching to tell. My favourite example actually comes from a mate of mine who used to be a bartender.

Late at night, one of the drunker patrons had to be thrown out after he hadn't taken too kindly to being cut off. Later on, my friend discovered that he'd managed to sneak back inside around the back and was attempting to light some gas canisters he'd found on fire to blow the bar up. Oh, goodness gracious. Luckily, they were CO2 canisters. So if he had, in fact, managed to open the valves,

it would have had the opposite of the intended effect. Needless to say, he was thrown out again and the back door was securely locked. The crazy part is the next day, the same guy, now sober, walks in and tries to act like nothing had happened. When stopped and questioned by the staff, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, sometimes people do stupid things. Walked away and was never seen again, leaving my friend dumbfounded to this day. I'm sure you two would have come across your fair share of kooky customers

in your vast cumulative experience. And I'd love to hear every head scratching detail. All the best, Ken. Now, Tim, you've done a lot more public facing work than me in some respects surely filling up people's cars with petrol you've met you met some kooky customers i did have some regular customers never anyone who was too kooky who stands out every now and then you'd see someone who was obviously in a really bad mood and you know you'd be like whoa you know that's you know just stay out of the way but there was every now and then um some people who were would brag about how they knew the owner whose name was mick yeah you know and this sort of was his sort of kingdom fiefdom this sort of large service station so yeah people would come in and and i'd be pumping their petrol and they'd look across, you know,

they'd lean on their car looking at me and then they'd go, I know Mick. And I'd be like, oh, okay. You know, like. Yeah. For people listening that this garage was a very famous one around Adelaide and the guy who owned this Mick guy was like a larger than life character. So like he was like a known Adelaide identity. So saying I know mick i guess

they thought would carry some cachet with you or something he was the guy where if fuel prices were fluctuating you know they'd go to him for an interview so what's happening you know because he was a famous independent sort of guy yeah so people would brag i you know i know mick and it's just it's just like like someone walking into a, going up to the guy, you know, stocking the shelves and saying, look, I know the manager. It's like, yeah, okay, cool. You know, see ya. I'm not going to give you a discount. It's not like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's not like you're working for Obama and they come in and go, well, you know, Barack and I went to school together. Oh, okay. This is like, okay okay he owns a petrol station i know mick often they'd say it and then the guy would come the same guy would do it again he says i was in the small parts game i know mick i know him from back in the small parts game and i'd go oh okay and then the guy would come in again like next week or a couple of weeks and i'd be serving his petrol and he'd do the same spiel he'd look at me he goes I know Mick back in the small parts guy and I could sort of say it in my head with him like and what's the point of bragging to you you're just some young guy who's pumping petrol for

five bucks an hour I know I know he's just I don't know small talk or some sort of connection I don't know but it was just sort of small he became sort of the small parts game guy in my head you know like that was great there was another guy who um actually this is more about the guy that worked there who we were out serving petrol together but this guy always said to me i'd like to get more work behind the register and i'd be like yeah that's that'd be cool you know that'd be fun inside rather than being out here and in the heat and stuff but he kept going on about it. You know, the next shift he'd say, oh, I'd really like to get some, you know, that's where I belong. I'd like to get some more work behind the register.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, you've made that clear. I've got no power here, bud. You know, like I'm on four bucks an hour. And he'd say it again, I'd like to get more work behind the register. Anyway, like one day I was pumping someone else's petrol and making small talk with them. And they said, oh, that other guy served me the other day. And they paused and then they went,

he said he wants to get more work behind the register. Like I forgot. Word was out. And forever in my mind, he's that guy. I hope he's out there behind a register somewhere because it's all he man there was another guy who when i worked at food land which is like a supermarket um in adelaide there was a guy that would come in and he'd sort of strut and uh he'd he'd sort of he'd come over in motion to me to to get trolley, you know, young fella,

here, get a trolley. Like he wanted me to carry the trolley for him. And he sort of strutted up the aisle. And I was like, oh, this guy looks like he's about to, you know, maybe he's going to buy like, you know, 10 slabs of Coke or something, you know, Coca-Cola or something that requires someone's help. You know what I mean? But we we just walk we walked up into the toilet the toilet paper aisle he just he just takes off one it's sort of like a six pack kind of you know like a big um like multiple rolls of toilet paper all bound together still not put out he just picks off one of them puts it on the trolley and then motions for me to follow him and he walks around to the cash register and i'm just following behind him just with the trolley and i'm like man i feel like this is something you could have done yourself you know you're not 80 like i'm not this is a very light product i didn't say all this i'm just

thinking this in my head because you know i'm just skinny little guy working it yeah and and so i was like his little servant like like he's um helping take his his um bags to his room in a hotel or something was that part of your job description pushing trolleys around for people no no not at all not at all no no he but he did it every single time like he'd walk in and he'd sort of wander over to where i was and go hey young fella and he'd just sort of motion with his hand and i'd go over get a trolley and he'd strut it's almost like he's walking in to buy a ferrari you know what i mean like yeah yeah But he was just strutting up to the toilet paper, pulls off the toilet paper, bangs it on the trolley, you know, flicks his head to the side, follow me, you know, we'd walk around to the cashier.

And I'm like, where in this guy's world is, like, he's beyond trolley pushing? I don't know. It was like a power trip for him to be, like, you know, bossing around. He felt like a millionaire. That's right. That's right. But it's like, it's toilet paper. Like, you're in food land in Marion, buddy.

Like, just, it just seemed, it was funny that he had such a strut, like toilet paper. The only thing that would make that story better was if he was Mick and you got to the checkout and the guy behind the register was that guy behind the register. That's right. Oh, dear. It's more the regulars, you know, with their quirky ways you sort of remember,

rather than the one-offs that are kind of really crazy. There's some great stories, I guess, there, but you get to know people who have their just slight quirks and the things they say and they become so familiar when they come again and again and again. It's like cheers, man. You just want to go where everybody knows your name. That's right. Where everyone knows Mick's name. Very good. Yeah. I never worked in like a customer service-y job. So, I can't share stories like this. But as a journalist, you do meet kooky people.

Like sometimes almost by design, you meet kooky people. I can imagine. One of my favourite kooky people I met. One of my favourite stories. I don't, I'm sure Tim has heard this story a million times. I don't know that I've told it on a podcast though. I probably have. I'll tell it now just in case.

But I had to do a story about a woman who owned, I think she owned like 23 cats. Wow. Pet cats. She was like, a woman who owns 23 cats, you can probably imagine was like eccentric. Yep. And the local council had decided she wasn't allowed to get any more cats because there'd been so many complaints from the neighbours and stuff like that. There's no more cats for this woman.

You can keep your 23 you've got, but as sort of you know uh leave the house through attrition you're not to replace them uh but how are you supposed to enforce this like how how was this going to be enforced how could you tell she hadn't got more cats so the council decided they were going to send a photographer to photograph all the 23 cats for like like identification purposes we called them mog shots as a joke at the paper they were going to be these 23 mog shots so they could then come back later and make sure she hadn't replaced any of the cats and obviously as a newspaper we really wanted to be there and get the photographs of the cats being photographed because that was such a funny thing to have to do. Some council inspector coming around photographing 23 cats

because the cats were just crazy all over the house. How would you even do this? So I said to the woman, we did a story with the woman and I went and I met her and saw her cats in her house. And I said to her, the day the council officer comes, because it hadn't been decided when that was going to happen, make sure you call us and we will rush out as soon as we can and get here so we can photograph the photography.

She said, no problems. So anyway, one day she calls me and she says, the council photographer's coming in an hour to take the mog shots. So I was like, brilliant. Got a photographer. We jumped in the car and we raced out to the suburbs to be there. And we got there just as the council inspector was arriving. The council inspector was this kind of middle-aged, quite serious, shy, taciturn type man who obviously didn't want publicity. No. And he said, I'm not going to take the photos.

I'm not going to play a ball. I'm not going to give you what you want. And he just stood there and refused to, like, you know, he wasn't going to take the photos because he didn't want to be photographed taking the photos. Fair enough. I can't blame the guy. He doesn't want to be the photos because he didn't want to be photographed taking the photos. Fair enough. I can't blame the guy. He doesn't want to be in the paper the next day. So, anyway, I'm talking to him and, like, I'm explaining who I am and stuff. And this is my photographer, Michael.

And my name's Brady Haran and I'm from the advertiser. And then suddenly he goes, did you say your name's Brady Haran? And I'm like, yeah. And he goes, is your dad Peter Haran? And I'm like, yeah, yeah yeah yeah he is and this guy's whole demeanor suddenly changed and he he brightened and he had this huge smile on his face and he said i fought in the vietnam war with peter he was like you know one of my my commanding officer he saved my life one day and he told me the story of the day that my dad saved his life

and he said if you ever see your dad and he put his arm around me and he told me the story of the day that my dad saved his life. Gosh. And he said, if you ever see your dad, and he put his arm around me because I'm like the son of Peter Harron now. If you ever see Peter, tell him Beach Ball says hello. He was called Beach Ball, not Backblaze. He was so happy. And he's like getting more and more excited and happy about meeting me and talking about my dad. And then he says, what is

it you wanted again? And I said, oh, we want to get some photos of you taking photos of the cats. And he's like, I'll do anything for Peter Harron, son. And like, he got out his Polaroid camera and he was like posing for us, taking pictures of the cats and like, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to hold the camera? Where do you want the cats? And we got all these amazing photos of this council officer with his Polaroid photographing the cats that we would never have gotten otherwise. All because of that. It was a crazy day.

Oh, fantastic. Oh, that's magnificent. Beach ball. Who would have thought? You're standing there going, how are we going to get a guy to take a photo of 23 cats so we can photograph him? You never would have thought that would have came up.

Maybe he recognised me. It was amazing. It was such a good fortune. That woman, though, with the cats, she was eccentric. If it was a cat's birthday, she would feed it a special pickled mouse. Oh, wow. Gosh. So she pickled mice.

I don't know where one gets pickled mice or if she did the pickling, but I know she did it. They're harder to get these days, I tell you. I tell you you why a house of 23 cats living in it is not lovely smelling either do you think she chose 23 because that's michael jordan's number i don't know i also don't know if it was 23 i could be getting the number wrong i have still got the newspaper article here samway so if i can find it i'll dig it out for people and my story will fall apart before my eyes kooky customers cat ladies i know mick we've got it all here today thanks ken thanks for being a patreon supporter absolutely good idea yeah well patroned yes very well done and tim we will use that patreon support to buy your next

iced coffee yes now let me just tell you two things one is the iced coffee is over so we're finished and for the i think the first time, without any mention, words are in. You've dropped in the girls. In the mix of the, yep, yep. Not even going to allude to where or what. They're just in there. Do you think I'll be able to pick them? What if I edit them out?

Are you going to tell me when we finish recording so that I don't edit them out? Or are you going to roll the dice? Maybe I'll roll the dice. Because I've fulfilled all righteousness at this end. Even I've done it. I know I've done it. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I won't tell you because that way if I have forgotten, I can always say, well, Brady's probably edited it out. Okay. All right. Gives me a backup excuse. All right. Well, hopefully those words are still in there.

Enjoy. Conclude peacefully. This is Backblaze signing out. Nice. All right. You do edit these episodes before they go out, don't you? That's patreon.com slash unmade if you want to support this content, people.