Less of A Bummer
SPEAKER_2: What do you mean, there's stages?
SPEAKER_2: So it's like cancer?
SPEAKER_1: Well, I mean.
SPEAKER_2: Like you can't just like throw that at me.
SPEAKER_1: So, you know, let's say a given season is like, and we're not even gonna introduce and say what show we're talking about.
SPEAKER_1: Say a season is like 12 episodes.
SPEAKER_2: Uh-huh, I know, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: The first two, they're in the pods.
SPEAKER_2: Like The Matrix.
SPEAKER_1: Completely unlike The Matrix.
SPEAKER_1: But they're in pods, they're talking.
SPEAKER_2: Like the NHL season, the COVID season.
SPEAKER_1: No, no, because they could see one another.
SPEAKER_1: Here, they can't see each other.
SPEAKER_1: That's like the whole blind, the blind aspect of it.
SPEAKER_2: This is like Netflix, The Circle.
SPEAKER_1: You know?
SPEAKER_2: The Square, whichever shape.
SPEAKER_1: It does, the early parts do recall The Circle, but The Circle is much better.
SPEAKER_1: And that's not saying much, but The Circle is much better.
SPEAKER_1: Or at least it was, I haven't seen, you know, they're probably, I haven't seen recent seasons, if it's still even going on, who knows?
SPEAKER_1: So they start off in the pods for about a week, and by the end of this-
SPEAKER_2: So they have to, they have to gestate?
SPEAKER_1: Well, they talk to one another with a wall between them.
SPEAKER_1: You know?
SPEAKER_2: It's sort of like the, yeah, it's like the boy in the striped pajamas.
SPEAKER_2: I'm just gonna keep throwing analogies until I make sense of this.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, some that I don't even understand, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_1: It's like literal blind dates, you know, where they're both in separate rooms.
SPEAKER_1: They can hear each other.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's like the fantastical Mr.
SPEAKER_2: Beast or whatever.
SPEAKER_1: Sexy Beast.
SPEAKER_2: The stupid shows that we had to watch.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Anyway, yeah, okay, so then the pods.
SPEAKER_1: And you know, there's like one of two things that can happen.
SPEAKER_1: They either leave the show or they get engaged with someone after like seven days without ever seeing them.
SPEAKER_2: So they just leave?
SPEAKER_2: They just get up and leave.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, in fact, so like the way they do it's very hetero, by the way, it's at least the seasons I've seen.
SPEAKER_1: So the men are, you know, when they're outside of the pods, they have like a common room just to hang out.
SPEAKER_1: So the men are together and the women are together.
SPEAKER_2: Usually they call that the yard.
SPEAKER_1: Do they?
SPEAKER_2: It's prison.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: None of my jokes are landing.
SPEAKER_2: It's fine.
SPEAKER_1: Hey, they're amusing you and that's really what matters, right?
SPEAKER_1: So not only do some people just kind of go their own way and leave, but like there are people in that yard that I like don't even know who they are.
SPEAKER_1: Like some of the main characters, the ones that they really focus in on will be having conversations with people in the common area.
SPEAKER_1: I don't even know their names.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, so they're like blind.
SPEAKER_2: Is the audience blind?
SPEAKER_1: Not at all.
SPEAKER_1: It's just the way they structure it.
SPEAKER_1: They sort of zero in on, I guess, the ones that are really going to be successful, of course, because you have to get to know them because they actually move on and become a main part of the show.
SPEAKER_1: But that leaves these weird periphery characters that you just know you never even really.
SPEAKER_2: Well, how many motherfuckers is it?
SPEAKER_2: It seemed like is it sort of like squid game where it's just like hundreds?
SPEAKER_1: No, if I had to guess, probably about a dozen of each men and women.
SPEAKER_2: And then by the end, it is probably too many.
SPEAKER_1: It's too many.
SPEAKER_1: And then by the end, there's like four or five couples that make it out of the pods.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Why don't you just start with like six each and then?
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, I guess for choice, the purposes of having choices.
SPEAKER_2: But if you're only talking to one person.
SPEAKER_1: No, no, no, they go around.
SPEAKER_1: They rotate.
SPEAKER_1: Everyone talks to everyone at some point or another.
SPEAKER_1: Even so, it's structured very strangely because like one person will propose and get engaged like the end of episode one.
SPEAKER_1: And then the rest of them are lagging behind.
SPEAKER_2: They get engaged that quickly?
SPEAKER_1: Before they've even seen each other.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, immediately.
SPEAKER_1: This is what I mean by it.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, it's just a mockery of how anything works in the world.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: So from there, the second stage is they go on a vacation in Cancun as like newly engaged couples.
SPEAKER_1: Right.
SPEAKER_2: But also the show doesn't end for them there.
SPEAKER_1: It's just beginning.
SPEAKER_1: This is we're talking the end of episode two.
SPEAKER_1: Everyone's engaged by the end of episode two.
SPEAKER_1: In real time, it's been about a week.
SPEAKER_2: They and they call it engaged.
SPEAKER_1: They like, will you marry me down on one knee?
SPEAKER_1: Rings included.
SPEAKER_1: And in fact, there's from the very outset, there is a countdown graphic that says days until wedding.
SPEAKER_1: And that's like, I guess, the finale destination, which is there's there's about, I guess, 35 days until the wedding from from the outset.
SPEAKER_1: So this whole process.
SPEAKER_2: So do you get like money if you survive?
SPEAKER_2: Is that the is that the incentive?
SPEAKER_1: Not it's not stated.
SPEAKER_1: I think the the reward is, quote unquote, love.
SPEAKER_2: But if you stay on the show longer, you get the day rate.
SPEAKER_1: So you well, that's that's like behind the scenes, right?
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: I'm just trying to think of why anybody would do this.
SPEAKER_1: It's either that or sort of 15 minutes of fame type thing.
SPEAKER_1: Or you're just straight up completely delusional.
SPEAKER_2: I just I just do I like fine.
SPEAKER_2: Whatever.
SPEAKER_2: They got this wonky pairing system.
SPEAKER_2: You can't you know, you can't see them fine.
SPEAKER_2: Whatever.
SPEAKER_2: That's the title of the show.
SPEAKER_2: But like just immediately say like, yeah, no, no, you're engaged.
SPEAKER_2: You're just straight up engaged.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Is not even just like, yeah, no, you're going to do the date thing or whatever, like The Bachelor or whatever.
SPEAKER_1: It's no, it's actually very strange.
SPEAKER_2: The pretend.
SPEAKER_1: That's a very good point.
SPEAKER_2: The pretend polyamory.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, no, that's a very good point because I'm at the Cancun.
SPEAKER_1: This is stage two.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And the Cancun vacation very much feels like just, you know, couples getting to know each other and start dating.
SPEAKER_1: Except there's this intense, immense pressure.
SPEAKER_2: That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_2: Like, what is the what is the incentive to stay together?
SPEAKER_2: So like if they if they split up, are they just like done?
SPEAKER_1: Well, that's so I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_1: Right.
SPEAKER_1: Because what's going to happen, what's going to happen soon is that the couples will intermingle.
SPEAKER_2: And so there is a little hokey pokey going on.
SPEAKER_1: I knew something was right because they've all been talking to each other.
SPEAKER_1: They've never met in person, but now everyone's engaged.
SPEAKER_1: But there's going to be intermingling.
SPEAKER_1: So if there were any feelings in the pods, those could sort of...
SPEAKER_2: So that's what this is.
SPEAKER_2: This show is just set up by a pervert is what this tells me.
SPEAKER_1: Does it?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_2: Some little cuckold is getting his kicks.
SPEAKER_2: It's like, oh, you're engaged now, but now you got to swap partners.
SPEAKER_2: That kind of weird key party shenanigans.
SPEAKER_2: That's what I'm getting out of this.
SPEAKER_2: That's all this is.
SPEAKER_2: This is like this is like 95 percent of the way to a porn.
SPEAKER_1: So you know what stage that's all this stage three is?
SPEAKER_1: Well, I move in together.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_2: You know, this is this is this is almost traditional.
SPEAKER_2: You know, you can't move in together unless you're engaged.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_2: So you gotta.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_2: What do you mean move in together?
SPEAKER_2: Like, do they get a house?
SPEAKER_2: Like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_1: I believe they live in one of the current residencies of, you know, the one of the partners, whichever one is preferable, I guess.
SPEAKER_1: I haven't made it that far yet.
SPEAKER_1: I'm still on stage two.
SPEAKER_2: And who gets whose health insurance?
SPEAKER_2: Like, this is this is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_1: Well, that's a little too in the weeds for the show.
SPEAKER_2: Is it?
SPEAKER_2: They're already calling it moving in together when they're on a set.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And for me, one of the least compelling parts of the show so far was after the proposal, after the engagement, when they actually see each other and what they look like.
SPEAKER_1: Because you know that everyone is at least somewhat attractive.
SPEAKER_2: Of course.
SPEAKER_2: Otherwise, they wouldn't be on television.
SPEAKER_1: Otherwise, they wouldn't be on television.
SPEAKER_1: So it's like every single encounter is the same.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, oh, they're so beautiful.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, they're really attractive.
SPEAKER_1: What a shock.
SPEAKER_1: What a surprise.
SPEAKER_1: What a relief.
SPEAKER_1: And that just happens over and over again.
SPEAKER_1: Because there's, you know, five couples or whatever.
SPEAKER_2: So the show is called Love is Blind, but then they sort of drop that pretense after the first episode.
SPEAKER_1: And I guess they don't drop it.
SPEAKER_1: They still emphasize the fact that, oh, these people, quote unquote, fell in love before they'd ever laid eyes on each other.
SPEAKER_2: But of course.
SPEAKER_1: But falling in love just means having a few conversations through a wall for a few days.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And it should come as no surprise that in previous seasons, people, contestants have come out of this saying that the working conditions were terrible.
SPEAKER_1: There was just like unreasonable hours spent on set and in this environment.
SPEAKER_1: And it was incredibly like toxic and stressful and, you know, things like that.
SPEAKER_1: So you can almost feel that at times coming through on the show.
SPEAKER_2: Who makes it?
SPEAKER_2: Is this TLC?
SPEAKER_1: Netflix.
SPEAKER_2: Who does this one?
SPEAKER_2: Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_1: The makers of Sexy Beast.
SPEAKER_1: In fact, I think Sexy Beast came as it was inspired by Love is Blind.
SPEAKER_1: And I would say is a better iteration of it.
SPEAKER_2: Against all odds.
SPEAKER_2: What was the one from like the early 2000s that was sort of like the riff on The Bachelor where it's like, we've got this ugly fucking guy, but we told all these women that he's a millionaire.
SPEAKER_1: Wasn't that a bit on The Curse?
SPEAKER_2: Was it?
SPEAKER_1: Do you remember the toxic director on The Curse had like a write up idea about a reality show?
SPEAKER_2: Oh, I don't remember.
SPEAKER_2: I remember he had something crazy, but I don't think it was like that.
SPEAKER_2: No, because this was Joe Millionaire, right?
SPEAKER_1: Oh, is that the name of the show?
SPEAKER_2: It was Joe Millionaire Still Hot.
SPEAKER_2: I think it was, yeah, I think it was called Joe Millionaire, right?
SPEAKER_1: Maybe.
SPEAKER_1: That one, that one.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, Joe Millionaire.
SPEAKER_1: Was elusive.
SPEAKER_1: I never, I never.
SPEAKER_2: 2003, yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Huh.
SPEAKER_2: A group of single women in competition for the affection of a bachelor.
SPEAKER_2: The women were under the belief that the bachelor was a millionaire.
SPEAKER_2: However, he was actually a working class average Joe.
SPEAKER_1: Is this?
SPEAKER_2: Back when a million dollars was a lot of money.
SPEAKER_1: Is this on streaming?
SPEAKER_2: Let's see.
SPEAKER_2: Watch season one.
SPEAKER_2: Joe Millionaire 2022, they brought it back.
SPEAKER_1: Well, you know, the economy has been in decline.
SPEAKER_1: And I think the timing was right.
SPEAKER_2: I think you might be able to watch season one on Tubi.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_2: I remember this guy's fucking haircut.
SPEAKER_2: Jesus.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, nine episodes.
SPEAKER_2: Season one.
SPEAKER_1: Now, season one, is that the reboot?
SPEAKER_2: No, this is the original 2003.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, it's funny.
SPEAKER_2: Season one, episode seven, the last episode.
SPEAKER_2: Season one, episode eight, the last episode, part two.
SPEAKER_2: Season one, episode nine, the aftermath.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, shit.
SPEAKER_2: But then, yeah, what's this?
SPEAKER_2: Joe Millionaire for Richer or Poorer.
SPEAKER_2: 2022, 20 women are faced with the age-old dilemma of choosing love or money while dating one prince and one pauper without knowing which is which.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, the old switcheroo.
SPEAKER_2: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, man.
SPEAKER_1: But yeah, the bottom line is, I'm all in on Love is Blind.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, yeah, because it's awful.
SPEAKER_1: It's just all the worst traits of dating shows that you could imagine.
SPEAKER_1: But it's incredibly watchable.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's like The Bachelor just microwaved.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Just sped up to infinity.
SPEAKER_2: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_2: Hey, what's up?
SPEAKER_2: It's The Dead End Road Show episode 99.
SPEAKER_2: 99 of these suckers.
SPEAKER_1: We're going on hiatus after this one, right?
SPEAKER_2: Well, I have a dilemma.
SPEAKER_2: So I like to do my seasons that mean absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_2: And so the next episode would be episode 100.
SPEAKER_2: And so this is a completely made up problem that I've created myself.
SPEAKER_2: Should the next season of the show begin with episode 100 or episode 101?
SPEAKER_1: Oh, that's the easiest question.
SPEAKER_2: Is it?
SPEAKER_1: Episode 100 is a season finale.
SPEAKER_1: There's no other way.
SPEAKER_1: Who ends their season?
SPEAKER_1: Unless you want episode 99 to be season finale part 1.
SPEAKER_1: And then episode 100, season finale part 2, then 101 is the aftermath.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_1: But no, I really think 100 should be the finale.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: That means I have some leeway to create the new thumbnail.
SPEAKER_2: Because Fred Durst is still there.
SPEAKER_2: This is going to be a little bit of an update show because as soon as I published last episode, a shit ton of details came out about the Hugo Awards.
SPEAKER_2: That was the main focus of the last episode.
SPEAKER_2: Literally a couple hours after I was done editing and setting up the episode, this massive document was released that gave us all kinds of details about what went down with the Hugo Awards.
SPEAKER_2: In a way, it brings that closure that we were missing the last time.
SPEAKER_2: It was like I didn't really know how to wrap up the story of it all.
SPEAKER_2: And here we are.
SPEAKER_2: We have some answers where they were missing.
SPEAKER_2: So if you're a little confused about what any of this is, then you should probably listen to last episode.
SPEAKER_2: So you can just literally look whatever day I published last episode.
SPEAKER_2: That same day, this 16-page document by Chris M.
SPEAKER_2: Barkley and Jason Sanford, who are two journalists, was released.
SPEAKER_2: They released it as a Google Doc and then also, I think, on their respective websites.
SPEAKER_2: And I'll put it in the description like I did for a lot of the sources last time.
SPEAKER_2: The long and short of it is that it's basically the worst of what we had all assumed.
SPEAKER_2: There was lots of theories being sort of tossed back and forth about why these nominees for these awards were just sort of marked as ineligible, you know?
SPEAKER_2: And the reality is that sort of the dude running, like the head administrator, that Dave McCarty guy, tasked the Western administrators of the Hugo Awards.
SPEAKER_2: I forget which body it is, because there's like the WorldCon sort of administrative body and all that.
SPEAKER_2: But basically the group that was in charge of organizing and that was in charge of the not quite the ballots, but like basically who was allowed to be on the ballots.
SPEAKER_2: He instructed them to create dossiers of the nominees and look for anything that could be politically sensitive to China.
SPEAKER_2: And he didn't really give them instructions for this and was just basically like, you know, China, China stuff sort of thing.
SPEAKER_2: And so they did.
SPEAKER_2: So they created basically like almost like political ops documents for all the nominees.
SPEAKER_2: See if they had anything in their background.
SPEAKER_1: OK, I was going to ask, is it specifically the authors and what they have maybe said or done in their lives?
SPEAKER_1: Is it the content of the actual work that is being considered?
SPEAKER_1: Like, is it everything?
SPEAKER_2: I will say the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_2: The answer was yes.
SPEAKER_2: Anything that they had said publicly, said privately, done publicly, done privately, anything they had written publicly or privately, anything, anything and everything was on the table.
SPEAKER_2: There were really no guidelines.
SPEAKER_2: This was so slapdash.
SPEAKER_2: This was so carelessly handled.
SPEAKER_2: And again, this was not under directive, apparently, from the Chinese government.
SPEAKER_2: It was this guy who decided to do this because he did not want to potentially offend the Chinese government, maybe, because he didn't even say that really.
SPEAKER_2: All he said was, well, you know, China's got laws.
SPEAKER_2: That's literally like a quote from one of these emails.
SPEAKER_2: You know, China's got laws.
SPEAKER_2: Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.
SPEAKER_2: It's like, yeah, a lot of countries do.
SPEAKER_2: And so in the group of administrators he tasked with this, he only tasked the Western administrators, only the ones from the US and Canada.
SPEAKER_2: None of the Chinese collaborators were involved in this at all.
SPEAKER_2: I think mostly because he couldn't speak Chinese and wasn't really involving them.
SPEAKER_2: But that's just me trying to make sense of this.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, none of the Chinese administrators were involved in creating these ops documents.
SPEAKER_2: And these are like volunteers, right?
SPEAKER_2: They're just doing this.
SPEAKER_2: Apparently some of them raised concerns.
SPEAKER_2: It didn't stop them from doing it anyway.
SPEAKER_2: And it's a little...
SPEAKER_2: I'm still like iffy on the timeline.
SPEAKER_2: So they were told to do this in June, and the awards were in October.
SPEAKER_2: And so I still don't know if these were just the finalists, or if this was literally anybody that could have been voted on, or if this was like what stage of the process this was.
SPEAKER_2: I'm still not clear on that.
SPEAKER_2: And this document doesn't really alleviate that portion for me personally.
SPEAKER_2: But at this point, we're past that.
SPEAKER_2: But I couldn't find that clarification for myself.
SPEAKER_2: So I do want to bring up a couple quotes here, because they're so fucking bonkers.
SPEAKER_2: One of the other administrators, a Kat Jones, wrote an email to the administration group titled Best Novel Potential Issues.
SPEAKER_2: In the email, Jones raised concerns about the novel Babel or the Necessity of Violence by RF.
SPEAKER_2: Kwong and A Daughter of Dr.
SPEAKER_2: Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia.
SPEAKER_2: Jones wrote that Babel has, quote, a lot about China.
SPEAKER_2: I haven't read it and I'm not up on Chinese politics, so cannot say whether it would be viewed as negatives of China.
SPEAKER_2: While adding that the daughter of Dr.
SPEAKER_2: Moreau talked about, quote, about importing Hacienda workers from China.
SPEAKER_2: I have not read the book and do not know whether this would be considered negative.
SPEAKER_1: I love I have not read the book.
SPEAKER_1: It's just very fitting for the type of research.
SPEAKER_1: On display here.
SPEAKER_2: The book by the the the Chinese, the Chinese American author has a lot about China.
SPEAKER_2: The book that's about like a lot about you don't fucking say.
SPEAKER_1: By the way, worth mentioning, both authors excellent and highly recommend.
SPEAKER_1: I've read both.
SPEAKER_1: I've read both of them, not these specific books.
SPEAKER_1: Unfortunately, I only read books that are eligible for Hugo Awards, but I've read some of their other work and it's they're great.
SPEAKER_1: But anyway, just mention just mentioning that.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, so this is an aside, but because I was going to bring this up last time.
SPEAKER_2: And then in the throughout the episode, I just lost track of it.
SPEAKER_2: But so I bought Babel because I hadn't read it yet either.
SPEAKER_2: And it was on sale on Kindle, whether that was the publisher, seeing the search interests rise and decided to discount it, or that was Amazon doing that.
SPEAKER_2: And I used to say, and I had some Kindle credit and I was like, oh, this will be great.
SPEAKER_2: I'll just I'll grab that and read it at some point.
SPEAKER_2: Fucking Amazon is so dirty.
SPEAKER_2: I have to pirate that book because I cannot download it because I no longer have a Kindle device.
SPEAKER_2: That's fucking insane.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_2: I bought the book and what I would usually do is I would go into my Amazon account, click the little download, you know, download AZW button or whatever, and then I would transfer it over previously to my Kindle.
SPEAKER_2: And what I would do is I would transfer it now to my new e-reader, which is not a Kindle.
SPEAKER_2: So I can't do that because I deregistered my Kindle and sold it on eBay.
SPEAKER_2: So now I can no longer download Kindle books.
SPEAKER_2: That's great.
SPEAKER_2: That's super fun.
SPEAKER_2: That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_2: That's a great decision.
SPEAKER_2: How fucking stupid is that?
SPEAKER_2: I can have the Kindle app.
SPEAKER_2: I could read it on the web browser.
SPEAKER_2: But I cannot download the DRM locked Kindle book to my computer, which I could do anyway, which is what I was doing anyway with a Kindle, because I don't have a Kindle registered to my Amazon account.
SPEAKER_2: How fucking stupid is that?
SPEAKER_1: I really like this mini rant in the middle of...
SPEAKER_2: I had to get it out eventually.
SPEAKER_1: But no, you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_1: And you know what my solution is?
SPEAKER_1: If I'm buying a book now, it's just physical.
SPEAKER_1: I'm just buying the physical book.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, no, that's entirely valid.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, no, I have to steal a copy of a book I bought just so I could access it.
SPEAKER_1: Because is there a way to purchase universally compatible ebooks?
SPEAKER_1: I'm sure there probably is.
SPEAKER_2: Not without cracking somebody's DRM.
SPEAKER_1: Okay, but that's not the point, though.
SPEAKER_1: The point is you had the credit on this platform and you figured, hey, if I buy the book, I should be able to read the book on this device that I own and, you know.
SPEAKER_2: Because I'm not even literally, if I had the Kindle, that fucking AZW file would go on to my computer first.
SPEAKER_2: It wouldn't go right to the Kindle.
SPEAKER_2: What's the fucking difference?
SPEAKER_2: I bought it.
SPEAKER_2: I have to break the DRM one way or another.
SPEAKER_1: This is just another example of like you don't actually own most, if not all of the things that you purchase digitally.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_2: This was the one way you fucking could.
SPEAKER_2: If you downloaded your fucking AZWs, their fucking proprietary ass format to your computer.
SPEAKER_2: There you go.
SPEAKER_2: You've got the file.
SPEAKER_1: Which I have to say.
SPEAKER_2: A lot of times depending on how they fucking update it, you couldn't break the DRM.
SPEAKER_2: You need all kinds of fucking bullshit software.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know if in the history of podcasting, anyone has been as passionate about AZW files as what's happening right now.
SPEAKER_2: I fucking despise AZW files.
SPEAKER_2: They're better than fucking KFX.
SPEAKER_2: Don't get me started on fucking KFX.
SPEAKER_1: That sounds like a candy bar.
SPEAKER_2: KFX can gargle my nuts.
SPEAKER_1: Wow.
SPEAKER_2: Those suck so bad.
SPEAKER_2: They never work.
SPEAKER_1: Not pulling any punches this week.
SPEAKER_2: They create duplicates.
SPEAKER_2: Oh my God.
SPEAKER_2: AZWs are literally just locked EPUBs for God's sake.
SPEAKER_2: Do you know how long it took Amazon to fucking just allow you to put regular ass EPUBs on Kindle?
SPEAKER_2: Holy shit.
SPEAKER_2: They only allowed it in like the last couple of years.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, I was going to say, because back when I was using a Kindle, I would have to always like side load.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, you have to use Mobi.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: You convert it first and then you would.
SPEAKER_2: What's the difference between EPUB and Mobi?
SPEAKER_2: Not much.
SPEAKER_2: It was just a pain in the ass.
SPEAKER_2: Because an EPUB is basically just HTML.
SPEAKER_2: It's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_2: Anyway.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: I got to get back.
SPEAKER_2: I fucking hate Amazon so bad.
SPEAKER_2: Anyway.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah.
SPEAKER_2: So I have also not read Babble yet.
SPEAKER_2: I'd like to.
SPEAKER_2: I had to steal a copy because I bought it legally.
SPEAKER_2: And so yeah, this Kat Jones also did not read Babble, but knows it's got a lot about China in it.
SPEAKER_2: Just just an absolutely insane, insane thing to say and insane justification for why a book should be should be banned from awards consideration.
SPEAKER_2: Like what?
SPEAKER_2: What if the quote unquote a lot about China was like incredibly positive about the CCP?
SPEAKER_1: He wouldn't know because he didn't read it.
SPEAKER_2: Wouldn't know, wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_2: Didn't read it.
SPEAKER_2: Didn't read it.
SPEAKER_1: But he only didn't read it because he didn't own a Kindle.
SPEAKER_1: So you can't blame him.
SPEAKER_2: Insane, insane.
SPEAKER_2: But like this is what this is what they were told to do was just control F for China.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, no, that's exactly it.
SPEAKER_2: And then we talked a bit about the fan writer Paul Weimer last time as well, and we were a little iffy on what exactly his role in the community was.
SPEAKER_2: And so he originally believed he was eligible for the awards because he confirmed in an interview that he thought he was eligible because he had published more than 60 works in different outlets.
SPEAKER_2: So he was up for best fan writer.
SPEAKER_2: And so there should have been no reason.
SPEAKER_2: His disqualification is somehow even more ridiculous.
SPEAKER_2: Somehow he was deemed not eligible despite meeting the eligibility requirements in their constitution because he had traveled to Tibet, had a Twitter discussion about Hong Kong, mentioned Hong Kong, mentioned Tiananmen Square, expressed support for the Chengdu Worldcon Hugos while also being negative about the Chinese government in a Patreon article, and wrote a review of SL Huang's The Water Outlaws, where he praised Huang for taking one of the pillars of Chinese literature and reinventing it as a queer feminist retelling of an important and nation-defining story.
SPEAKER_2: So he was banned for a bunch of Twitter posts.
SPEAKER_1: It's always the old tweets that catch up to you in the end, but usually those tweets are bad or problematic, unlike in this scenario.
SPEAKER_1: Did I hear that right, that one of them was that he expressed positivity about this award show?
SPEAKER_2: Yes, he expressed support for the Chengdu Worldcon while also sharing negatives about the Chinese government.
SPEAKER_2: Come on, it's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_2: But here's the stupid thing, okay?
SPEAKER_2: Quote, Weimer also confirmed that despite the research done on him by the Hugo administrators, he had never visited Tibet.
SPEAKER_2: Instead, he had previously traveled to Nepal and Vietnam.
SPEAKER_1: Where did they get that intel?
SPEAKER_2: From apparently his social media.
SPEAKER_2: So they don't know the difference between Tibet and Nepal and Vietnam.
SPEAKER_1: They didn't read the book.
SPEAKER_2: So that's just...
SPEAKER_2: They didn't read the book.
SPEAKER_2: They didn't read the Instagram posts or whatever the hell they were.
SPEAKER_2: He had like photos of his trip on social media, and they just assumed the wrong...
SPEAKER_1: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: And then the writers of this document reached out to him and he responded, I was afraid that in the end, this was going to come down to soft or hard or some kind of censorship once things started leaking out.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, they came up with a dossier and all of us went through stuff from 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, honestly, I think that the Hugo committee are cowards.
SPEAKER_2: I would like to hope that if I was in the position of Dave McCarty and others, I'd have simply said we can't hold the awards under these conditions.
SPEAKER_2: And just cancel the fucking things rather than going through political dossiers.
SPEAKER_2: This is the worst possible outcome.
SPEAKER_2: And yeah, it's like it's one thing if this was actually Chinese government censorship, right?
SPEAKER_2: But it was preemptive self-censorship at the directive of one guy to for whatever end.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that's still unclear, isn't it?
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, to potentially maybe appease the Chinese government that were not seemingly all that concerned.
SPEAKER_2: So the other thing, there is still like these, a lot of this came from email correspondence between these administrators, because some of the administrators came forward and provided that information.
SPEAKER_2: There seems to be zero, like any kind of paper trail, at least publicly now at this point.
SPEAKER_2: And as a recording for why the fucking Sandman episode was deemed ineligible.
SPEAKER_2: No known reason at all.
SPEAKER_1: And that was an audio book, right?
SPEAKER_2: No, that was the Netflix.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, oh, oh.
SPEAKER_1: Okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it was up for best.
SPEAKER_2: I don't know, short video, short form video or something like something like that.
SPEAKER_2: Whatever TV episode would fall under.
SPEAKER_1: I wasn't expecting a Netflix show to end up at the Hugo's.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I don't even know what else like what would have replaced it or what even won in its place, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, but yeah, there's still no reason.
SPEAKER_2: In my opinion, I just think this dude, and this is entirely me theorizing, I just think he's got something against Neil Gaiman, to be honest.
SPEAKER_2: Like, because there's like nothing.
SPEAKER_2: The other administrators, because like they were obviously asked by these by these two journalists by Barclay and Sanford, and they didn't know.
SPEAKER_2: That was the one they didn't know, because they didn't pull up any information on it, I guess.
SPEAKER_2: And yeah, because their their only job was to just like pull up the quote unquote dirt, you know, they were not passing the judgment.
SPEAKER_1: Their job was espionage.
SPEAKER_2: McCarty.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_2: And but they were not the ones making the actual like judgment.
SPEAKER_2: It was just McCarty.
SPEAKER_2: He was the one that was just deciding, supposedly based off of the information they pulled and like collated.
SPEAKER_2: And so I think the other more interesting bit of information from this is the Chinese fan response to all of this.
SPEAKER_2: And so a lot of this comes from translations that had to get passed through the Chinese firewall and everything.
SPEAKER_2: So, quote, shock and anger.
SPEAKER_2: What happened while also giving a glimpse behind the scenes of what might have gone down?
SPEAKER_2: Another quote.
SPEAKER_2: However, in recent weeks, posts like these from Chinese fans have been harder to find.
SPEAKER_2: And that posts relating to the Hugo Awards controversially began disappearing around January 27th.
SPEAKER_2: And these two could not find, like didn't receive any responses from Chinese fans, even though they reached out.
SPEAKER_2: And there's some interesting quotes from Pablo Vasquez, who is called here a traveling genre fan and former chair of the 12th North American Science Fiction Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
SPEAKER_1: What does that mean to be a traveling genre fan?
SPEAKER_2: So it says here that he is well known for his connections with genre fans around the world.
SPEAKER_1: Like, for example, in Tibet.
SPEAKER_2: Perhaps, but they reached out to him to see if he had any connections with fans in China, to see if they could get more of a, you know, response and reaction from them.
SPEAKER_2: And here's a quote from him.
SPEAKER_2: I'm sorry, they do not want to speak to the media, even anonymously.
SPEAKER_2: I have a lot of love for Chinese fandom and my friendships and connections there run deep.
SPEAKER_2: That's a real and vibrant fandom there that is, like us, wanting very little to do with their government being involved in their fandom.
SPEAKER_2: Definitely don't think it's their government, instead think it's a corporate interest or even worse, fan slash pro organization.
SPEAKER_2: Honestly, they seem more scared by that than anything else, which saddens me to see.
SPEAKER_2: Despite multiple attempts to get them to share their story, they seem really hesitant.
SPEAKER_2: They don't seem to fear official reprisal.
SPEAKER_2: And then, I'm going to put this here, the CPC seems to want to find who's responsible for embarrassing them on the world stage, actually.
SPEAKER_2: Rather ostracization from their community or its outright destruction.
SPEAKER_2: If I were to hazard a guess, the way we blew up this affair in the international media has now put this fandom in very serious trouble.
SPEAKER_2: Previously, it was one of the few avenues of free speech left in China.
SPEAKER_2: Now, after all this, the continuation of that freedom seems highly unlikely.
SPEAKER_2: So, these motherfuckers, these motherfuckers in some weird attempt to appease the Chinese Communist Party that didn't give a shit about a book fair, about a science fiction book fair that was taking place in China, they didn't give a fuck.
SPEAKER_2: I have now put a bullseye on the science fiction community in China, fantastic, fanfucking-tastic.
SPEAKER_2: What was supposed to be a celebration of science fiction in China turned into the exact opposite because this douchebag went mad with power and just fucking decided to do this shit.
SPEAKER_2: It's unreal.
SPEAKER_1: It's infuriating.
SPEAKER_1: It really is.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's like the awards, that sucks for the individual authors, right?
SPEAKER_2: It sucks for, again, the ones that were, you know, taken off the ballots.
SPEAKER_2: It sucks for the ones that quote unquote won and, you know, now feel like they didn't.
SPEAKER_2: We discussed all that last time.
SPEAKER_2: But this...
SPEAKER_1: It's an entire community.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: An entire culture and community has been impacted.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: And not even that, but it's like retroactive, which I'm sure you're going to get into because like the awards themselves, like it just raises questions about the past, not to even mention any potential for a future here.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Like we talked about, because the next awards are happening in Glasgow.
SPEAKER_2: The biggest microscope is on that.
SPEAKER_2: It's a different team.
SPEAKER_2: It's a different administration.
SPEAKER_2: Like how do you get past this shit?
SPEAKER_2: I don't know.
SPEAKER_2: There's a few other details that I saw floating around.
SPEAKER_2: So we quoted Mary Robinette Cowell last week.
SPEAKER_2: She was sort of familiar with the workings of this process, especially like the ballot collecting process.
SPEAKER_2: And so she said that Dave McCarty used his own like proprietary ballot software and that no one's ever like seen it or accessed it.
SPEAKER_2: And he was the only one in charge of it.
SPEAKER_2: Like it was his.
SPEAKER_2: So like not even on like just on top of just being able to just sort of strike anybody off for whatever silly reasons.
SPEAKER_1: It's like I feel like that detail alone would have delegitimized the whole thing, you know, if it hadn't already been.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, just having one guy in charge of the numbers, like, come on, how is that allowed to be?
SPEAKER_1: Who knows if he even read the books?
SPEAKER_1: Let's let's be real.
SPEAKER_2: Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_2: Like but how is that allowed to be the system for years?
SPEAKER_2: Just have one guy, basically one guy counting the votes?
SPEAKER_2: That's nuts.
SPEAKER_2: It's insane.
SPEAKER_2: And yeah, so somebody, I want to get their name, oh, you should sign your blogs.
SPEAKER_2: I have no idea how to pronounce that.
SPEAKER_2: OK, I'm going to say Chymestros Philapton.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_2: They're basically saying that, like, based on the numbers, certain categories should have had all native Chinese nominations, but instead had all English language works in them instead.
SPEAKER_1: Incredible.
SPEAKER_2: Come on, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_1: What the fuck happened?
SPEAKER_2: I think we know what happened.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, yeah, no, I know.
SPEAKER_2: How did nobody think just having one dude with his own super secret software in charge of the votes would just be, oh yeah, there's no way there's going to be any kind of corruption or anything with this.
SPEAKER_2: He's the dude, he's the guy.
SPEAKER_2: And then, of course, whenever a lot of this started blowing up, I saw allegations of sexual harassment against Dave McCarty.
SPEAKER_2: And it was nothing like very detailed or super, super specific.
SPEAKER_2: But it was sort of just like, yeah, he's a known harasser of women at conventions.
SPEAKER_2: It's like, oh yeah, sure, let's just put that cherry on top.
SPEAKER_2: Okay, sure.
SPEAKER_2: And so the takeaway for me is he was just trying to exert any kind of authority and power he could, wherever he could.
SPEAKER_2: It's just, it's just insane.
SPEAKER_1: It's, I mean, it's good that we got this, this information because when we left off last time, we thought a lot of this would just be kind of left uncertain.
SPEAKER_1: But boy, is it bleak.
SPEAKER_2: It is.
SPEAKER_1: It's very bleak.
SPEAKER_2: It is.
SPEAKER_1: So about the book club.
SPEAKER_2: So on the plus side, a lot of writers are realizing that like, oh shit, there's a lot of this Chinese work that should have been nominated and won.
SPEAKER_2: And it's being ignored.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, we should maybe find a way to translate that and get it published in the West.
SPEAKER_2: So the proper, the decent people in publishing are like, you know, trying to maybe-
SPEAKER_1: Uplift the work that was-
SPEAKER_2: Make things, yeah, make things better here.
SPEAKER_1: Yes.
SPEAKER_2: I just hope that this doesn't cause things to get clamped down further so that that can happen.
SPEAKER_2: And there can be an exchange of ideas and writing and we can get some good stories.
SPEAKER_2: Because that was sort of the whole fucking point.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, as long as they're not written by New Game, you know, it's-
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, apparently not.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, you can't have any New Game and shit.
SPEAKER_2: Boy, I would love a New Game and novel.
SPEAKER_2: It has been a very long time.
SPEAKER_1: American Gods is very special.
SPEAKER_2: The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favorite books.
SPEAKER_2: And that was the-
SPEAKER_2: I guess he did Norse mythology, but I sort of consider Ocean to be his last novel.
SPEAKER_2: And that was over a decade ago.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, I would really love a new novel from him.
SPEAKER_2: But anyway, yeah, so hopefully something decent can come out of this, you know?
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, pretty rough.
SPEAKER_2: There is some kind of closure now.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's not very good.
SPEAKER_2: But like you said, yeah, we do want to do the Book Club again.
SPEAKER_2: Because what did we even read last time?
SPEAKER_2: I can't remember.
SPEAKER_2: It's been so long.
SPEAKER_1: We did RF Kwan.
SPEAKER_2: Was that the last one?
SPEAKER_1: Yes, we've only done two.
SPEAKER_2: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_1: We've only done two.
SPEAKER_2: My sense of time has just...
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, well, it's been in hibernation, this Book Club.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: Well, because I came to the realization immediately with the first pick that we constructed a horror themed Book Club.
SPEAKER_2: Well, the horror aspect was your idea.
SPEAKER_1: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_1: I came up.
SPEAKER_2: And then you wanted to abandon it immediately.
SPEAKER_1: Well, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_1: Horror for me, personally, is a visual medium.
SPEAKER_1: And I've really struggled to find any horror in literature that resonates and that I really connect with.
SPEAKER_1: It doesn't mean I'm not willing to keep trying.
SPEAKER_1: It's just one of those things.
SPEAKER_2: I think the problem is that a lot of the really, really good ones I've already read and I've suggested to use some of them to read.
SPEAKER_2: And you've also read them.
SPEAKER_2: So it's a little rough.
SPEAKER_2: And then there's also just a lot of ehh kind of stuff out there.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_1: That's a good point.
SPEAKER_2: Because there was like that one...
SPEAKER_2: It was like a novella really from a few years ago that I suggested you read.
SPEAKER_2: It was almost told like chat transcript.
SPEAKER_1: Yes.
SPEAKER_2: Do you remember that one?
SPEAKER_1: In fact, I have it on my shelf here.
SPEAKER_1: This is the...
SPEAKER_2: Oh, see.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, you got the physical.
SPEAKER_1: This is what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: It is called...
SPEAKER_1: Oh, it's got such a good cover and such a good title.
SPEAKER_1: It's Eric LaRocca is the author.
SPEAKER_1: It's called Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.
SPEAKER_2: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_1: Which honestly, I could...
SPEAKER_1: You know what?
SPEAKER_1: I'm going to take this off the shelf.
SPEAKER_1: I think it's...
SPEAKER_1: I'm due for a reread on that one.
SPEAKER_2: Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: So you know what?
SPEAKER_1: Maybe it is about finding the right sort of type of horror novel that works for me.
SPEAKER_2: It is.
SPEAKER_2: No, it really is.
SPEAKER_1: It's hard to make a blanket statement like that because it's such a vast genre that can be taken in so many directions.
SPEAKER_1: And that Paul Tremblay book was genuinely bad too.
SPEAKER_1: And I think you even...
SPEAKER_2: It was.
SPEAKER_2: It was.
SPEAKER_2: It really was.
SPEAKER_2: And what made it so disappointing is that Head Full of Ghosts is very good.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, see that that's...
SPEAKER_2: So I don't think you've read this.
SPEAKER_2: I picked something.
SPEAKER_2: I don't think you've read this.
SPEAKER_2: If you have, then I have to scramble.
SPEAKER_1: I have not.
SPEAKER_2: Okay, so I picked The This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno.
SPEAKER_2: I found it on a whim recently.
SPEAKER_2: Came out in 2021.
SPEAKER_2: It seems pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_1: Let's go for it, I say.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I'll read the blur.
SPEAKER_1: Oh yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_2: It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza, the world's most advanced smart speaker.
SPEAKER_2: Didn't interest the Agoh, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo.
SPEAKER_2: It made things worse.
SPEAKER_2: The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house.
SPEAKER_2: Who ordered industrial lye?
SPEAKER_2: Then there was the eerie music at odd hours.
SPEAKER_2: Tiago waking up to Itza projecting lights shows in an empty room.
SPEAKER_2: It was funny and strange right until Vera was killed and Tiago's world became unbearable.
SPEAKER_2: Punents and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas.
SPEAKER_2: A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on, waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room.
SPEAKER_2: The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago, away from everything and everyone.
SPEAKER_2: A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief, but soon Tiago realized there is no escape, not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.
SPEAKER_2: And then it has like the selling point though, a bold original horror novel about grief, loneliness, and the oppressive intimacy of technology.
SPEAKER_2: And it's from FSG.
SPEAKER_2: I have a lot of luck with FSG novels and like horror novels in general.
SPEAKER_2: So it's a debut work.
SPEAKER_2: I think it's worth a shot.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, I'm up for that for sure.
SPEAKER_1: It sounds like it's hitting on some important things and sounds intriguing.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, yeah, we'll read that.
SPEAKER_1: Now is it gonna be episode 100 or is that too quick of a turnaround?
SPEAKER_2: I guess it would depend on what episode 100 is.
SPEAKER_2: But so this is, it's 255 pages.
SPEAKER_2: So it's not very, you know, not a super long one.
SPEAKER_2: Okay, yeah, so then look for that discussion.
SPEAKER_2: March 27th, we will discuss This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno if you wanna follow along.
SPEAKER_2: And that should be fun.
SPEAKER_2: Should be, well, I shouldn't say much more fun than the last time because we talked about Yellowface, which I thought was a good discussion.
SPEAKER_2: So, yeah, should I talk about the foam?
SPEAKER_1: I've been, like, you know, it was great to get a follow-up story about an important topic such as the Hugo Awards.
SPEAKER_1: It's really important reporting.
SPEAKER_1: It's good to be sort of, to sort of have your finger on the pulse of that news story.
SPEAKER_1: However, the real follow-up story this week for me involves the foam.
SPEAKER_1: I've been dying in there now.
SPEAKER_2: All right, let's talk about the foam.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, brother, this guy stinks!
SPEAKER_2: Great.
SPEAKER_2: Uh.
SPEAKER_2: So, where we left off is that I had the new keyboard because I broke the other one because of the foam.
SPEAKER_2: And I felt like the new keyboard really needed some foam.
SPEAKER_2: So I bought the foam for the new keyboard.
SPEAKER_2: I bought the foam set from the manufacturer.
SPEAKER_2: And the way this one worked is that it was basically a whole kit, not only a foam, but also of a bottom plate.
SPEAKER_2: So like the foam would actually fit.
SPEAKER_2: So it came very quickly.
SPEAKER_2: And cause where we left off, I was like, I don't know if I should buy it, right?
SPEAKER_2: And so then one day I was typing and I was like, you know, I need the foam.
SPEAKER_2: I need to get the fucking foam.
SPEAKER_2: Cause my stabilizers came in.
SPEAKER_2: And so since I had to take apart the whole keyboard anyway in order to get access to the stabilizers, I was like, let me just do the fucking foam at the same time.
SPEAKER_2: So I ordered the foam, I got my stabilizers.
SPEAKER_2: I have to lube the stabilizers.
SPEAKER_2: The lubing part is actually like the easiest part.
SPEAKER_2: The annoying thing was actually just like getting to the stabilizers cause I had to take the whole keyboard apart.
SPEAKER_2: So I had some options for the foam.
SPEAKER_2: I could have gone with, I think it was either four millimeter or the three millimeter.
SPEAKER_2: I went with the three millimeter, and this is the one for in between the switch plate and the back plate, I think.
SPEAKER_2: And then I also installed gasket foam cause that's what it came with as well.
SPEAKER_2: And so like these little tiny strips that basically go on these like little mounting points along the inside of the keyboard.
SPEAKER_2: And then also some foam at the very bottom of the case as well.
SPEAKER_2: And in disassembling the keyboard for the first time, I found out it actually came with foam in it already.
SPEAKER_2: Could have fooled me, I guess.
SPEAKER_2: I didn't realize there was already foam in there.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, so this took a few hours of my time last Friday doing all of this.
SPEAKER_2: And I'm actually really happy with it.
SPEAKER_1: Well, there we go.
SPEAKER_2: I had a bit of an issue with one of the stabilizers at first, and I'm still not super happy with the space bar, but it's way better than it was.
SPEAKER_2: But I'm actually really happy with the way the phones are down.
SPEAKER_2: I really like how it sounds, and I wasn't expecting this.
SPEAKER_2: It actually feels way better.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, so it sounds way better.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, it also feels, I wasn't expecting it to feel, it's poppier, like my keys have more spring to them, which I was not expecting, because I didn't change anything about the switches or the keycaps, just the foam itself.
SPEAKER_2: But I have, it's a bouncy, poppier feel to them.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, I'm actually very happy with the foam.
SPEAKER_2: After all that.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, we love a happy ending.
SPEAKER_1: You don't get them often on the show.
SPEAKER_2: No, not usually.
SPEAKER_2: But one thing that does suck, so I am trying to sell the old busted keyboard.
SPEAKER_2: And I have it listed as for parts.
SPEAKER_1: Right, right, you're not trying to deceive anybody.
SPEAKER_2: No, no, I'm really not.
SPEAKER_2: I have it listed as for parts, but I have in the description that, hey, I'm pretty sure that the circuit board does work because it did work previously and nothing on it actually broke.
SPEAKER_2: And when you plug it in, it lights up.
SPEAKER_2: So it should work.
SPEAKER_1: Is that how you have it worried?
SPEAKER_1: I'm pretty sure this part works.
SPEAKER_2: Like for that, like, yeah.
SPEAKER_2: So I thought somebody bought it today and I was like, oh shit, yeah, cool.
SPEAKER_2: Well, actually, because they sent me an offer and it was a decent offer.
SPEAKER_2: And so I was like, yeah, I want to get rid of this fucking thing.
SPEAKER_2: So I accepted it.
SPEAKER_2: And then I was like, oh shit, they're in Canada.
SPEAKER_2: That's going to be annoying.
SPEAKER_2: And I thought I turned off international like shipping and purchasing.
SPEAKER_2: Then I had to wait for them to pay for it.
SPEAKER_2: Then I get a fucking message and they're like, hey, I didn't mean to order this.
SPEAKER_2: I was trying to order something else.
SPEAKER_2: So can I cancel this?
SPEAKER_2: Like, are you fucking kidding me?
SPEAKER_2: Like really, like how do you send like a reasonable offer on something that you didn't mean to order?
SPEAKER_1: No, they were looking for a different broken keyboard.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, like what the fuck?
SPEAKER_2: Like you have to literally type in the number.
SPEAKER_2: You have to like hit confirm a bunch of times.
SPEAKER_1: I think they changed their mind and that was their way of trying to like, I don't know, get out of it in like a polite way, maybe.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it was like whatever, cause it's like, well, they're not gonna pay me.
SPEAKER_2: So like, what else do I have to do?
SPEAKER_2: But cancel this.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_1: You didn't double down.
SPEAKER_2: No, cause it's like, I know you're not gonna pay me.
SPEAKER_2: So like, there's no sense trying to fight this.
SPEAKER_2: Like, I could try to make eBay make you pay, but like, that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_1: Did you consider just being like, hey, do you just want it anyway?
SPEAKER_2: Like I guess-
SPEAKER_2: Oh, cause I do want a little something for it.
SPEAKER_2: Cause it's like, the keyboard itself retails for like $150.
SPEAKER_1: It doesn't fucking matter.
SPEAKER_2: So like, yeah, but no, so here's the thing.
SPEAKER_2: No, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_2: So no, no.
SPEAKER_2: You gotta listen to me, listen to me.
SPEAKER_2: So the manufacturer of that keyboard will sell like the case.
SPEAKER_2: Which is basically what's broken, but they don't sell the circuit board, which is what I have that works.
SPEAKER_2: So if somebody's got a broken circuit board, I'm basically selling it for pretty cheap.
SPEAKER_1: Right, so then that person in theory could go and...
SPEAKER_2: And then buy a new case.
SPEAKER_1: How come you couldn't do that?
SPEAKER_2: Because I didn't want to sink any more money into it.
SPEAKER_1: Oh yeah, yeah, all right, yeah, that's fair.
SPEAKER_1: That's definitely fair at this point.
SPEAKER_2: Because I considered it, yeah, because then I have to sink more money into it and then sell like a completed bare bones keyboard.
SPEAKER_1: Right.
SPEAKER_2: So, but yeah, that literally just happened this afternoon.
SPEAKER_2: I was really pissed off about that.
SPEAKER_2: So I was like, oh great, I can finally be done and ship off this keyboard that I can't use.
SPEAKER_2: So, but yeah, the foam is at least nice.
SPEAKER_2: So, but now I just need my Persona 3 keycaps.
SPEAKER_2: I'm waiting on those, so.
SPEAKER_1: By the time they arrive, you'll have completed the game.
SPEAKER_2: Probably, probably.
SPEAKER_1: When's that podcast coming out?
SPEAKER_2: Next week.
SPEAKER_1: Oh really?
SPEAKER_2: Next week.
SPEAKER_1: Now is that, is that sound like a full game review?
SPEAKER_1: Is it, is it just like an update?
SPEAKER_2: No, it's everything.
SPEAKER_1: It's everything, wow.
SPEAKER_2: It's fucking everything.
SPEAKER_2: It's.
SPEAKER_1: Have you recorded it?
SPEAKER_2: I am at, no, not yet.
SPEAKER_2: I'm at 15 pages of notes.
SPEAKER_1: You know what, based on the, based on your start, you know, the rate you were going at in the first few hours, that's actually lower than I expected.
SPEAKER_2: Well, so I've barely touched on the combat, is the thing.
SPEAKER_2: But the notes.
SPEAKER_1: The notes.
SPEAKER_2: So I've been like putting it off.
SPEAKER_2: I've been putting off the combat thing because I know it's going to be most of the notes and like the in-game economy.
SPEAKER_1: Wait, you're saying that the combat is going to take up a majority of the notes?
SPEAKER_2: It's going to be a very large chunk.
SPEAKER_2: It's going to take up the majority of the notes, but it won't take up the majority of what I say.
SPEAKER_2: I know that sounds weird.
SPEAKER_1: Okay.
SPEAKER_2: But like it's like so many things I need to keep straight in my head for when I talk.
SPEAKER_2: Sort of the same thing like I did here.
SPEAKER_1: Right.
SPEAKER_2: Today.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, this is much more scripted than I usually do, but it's going to be a lot.
SPEAKER_2: It's going to be a lot.
SPEAKER_2: It's going to be so fucking granular.
SPEAKER_2: I don't know if anybody's going to like it, but it's going to be very, very in-depth.
SPEAKER_1: But there was no other outcome.
SPEAKER_1: Like there was no other way this could have come is the thing.
SPEAKER_2: No, yeah.
SPEAKER_1: So you might as well embrace it.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: It should be good.
SPEAKER_2: I mean, I'll try to make it entertaining.
SPEAKER_2: If you just want to hear a crazy person just sort of obsessively nitpick a video game for like two hours, I don't know how long it's going to be, but it's probably going to be around two hours.
SPEAKER_1: It's funny you think that.
SPEAKER_2: It's probably going to be two hours.
SPEAKER_1: All right.
SPEAKER_1: If you say so.
SPEAKER_2: I think that's what I'm shooting for.
SPEAKER_2: Cause I honestly can't talk like physically that much.
SPEAKER_2: I have a lot to say, but I physically can't talk that much.
SPEAKER_1: Well, you should do the remap or formerly waypoint thing where they just, you know, the recording is six hours long and they split it among multiple days.
SPEAKER_2: If it ends up, if I end up doing that, then yeah, I will.
SPEAKER_2: But I also want to get it out because in two days, fucking Final Fantasy VII comes out.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_1: You've been on JRPG Crunch Time.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it's insane.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that is wild.
SPEAKER_2: So, and Atlas, Atlas kills me because now they announced SMT5 ports.
SPEAKER_2: So like Christ alive.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, but if those are just ports, do you need to play that game again?
SPEAKER_2: No, no, no, no, there's new content.
SPEAKER_2: You don't understand.
SPEAKER_2: This is SMT5, which was a fucking Switch exclusive.
SPEAKER_2: I need that on PC.
SPEAKER_2: I need that game on PC.
SPEAKER_2: And there's new content.
SPEAKER_2: There's a whole new fucking story.
SPEAKER_2: They said that there's two routes now to the game.
SPEAKER_2: I got 160 hours apparently ahead of me in that fucking thing.
SPEAKER_2: I need the time machine basically so I can just sort of like stop time and like, go listen to Did It All From The Moogles.
SPEAKER_2: He just actually break, like actually break.
SPEAKER_2: I know I joke about it a lot, but like, it might finally happen.
SPEAKER_1: And right before episode 100, we almost made it.
SPEAKER_2: I know, I know.
SPEAKER_1: We're so close.
SPEAKER_1: But hey, at least the foam's good.
SPEAKER_2: The foam's good, the foam's good.
SPEAKER_2: Feels nice to type on, sounds good.
SPEAKER_2: And I need my personal three key caps.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, this is, this doesn't have to be part of the recording, but I have a Persona 3 key chain for you.
SPEAKER_1: It's a GameStop exclusive.
SPEAKER_2: Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_1: So I have, I was given an extra one.
SPEAKER_2: Okay.
SPEAKER_1: And I immediately knew what I'd be doing with it.
SPEAKER_1: So.
SPEAKER_2: Throw it into the trash.
SPEAKER_1: No, it's actually nice.
SPEAKER_1: This one's still in the wrapping, but I saw what it looks like, and it's actually got some nice detail.
SPEAKER_1: It's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_1: It's like, I guess if you pre-ordered the game through GameStop, which I knew there was no chance you had done that.
SPEAKER_1: So yeah, next time I see it, I'll give that to you.
SPEAKER_2: Our last segment here, I just want to briefly touch on the AI shit.
SPEAKER_2: So I said it last time, and it's still true, that I want to sunset this segment, because it bums me out so much.
SPEAKER_2: It really has gotten to the point where we say that the AI is taking the jobs, and well, it actually is now.
SPEAKER_2: I see a lot of them now, and so I pulled up this one, which I have to make bigger now because I can't fucking read that small.
SPEAKER_2: So this is a creative writing AI trainer.
SPEAKER_2: Help train AI models to become more accurate, relevant, and safe in your field.
SPEAKER_2: About this opportunity, cutting edge projects, work on challenging projects that push the boundaries of AI.
SPEAKER_2: Flexibility, set your own hours and work remotely from anywhere.
SPEAKER_2: Weekly payouts, get paid conveniently on a weekly basis.
SPEAKER_2: Professional growth, gain valuable experience in AI while honing your writing skills and deepening your domain expertise.
SPEAKER_2: I love to deepen my domain expertise.
SPEAKER_2: Collaborative environment, join a team of talented professionals who share your passion for AI and creative writing.
SPEAKER_2: Duration, variable depending on project length, flexible hours, location, remote work from anywhere.
SPEAKER_2: Qualifications, a bachelor's degree.
SPEAKER_2: Guess what the compensation was?
SPEAKER_1: Let's hear it.
SPEAKER_2: $15 an hour.
SPEAKER_1: Oh boy, that's like basically minimum wage in a lot of places, or at least what should be considered at the very least.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that's...
SPEAKER_2: I could be paid $15 an hour to have the AI take over my entire industry.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, it's funny, right?
SPEAKER_1: Even just the title creative writing AI is like two completely contradictory things.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Yep.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, I've been quite depressed this week because this is just probably the most egregious one I've seen.
SPEAKER_1: Right, because what you're doing is you're providing the AI trainer with things that it will steal from you.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: Right.
SPEAKER_1: To better learn and then steal more things and regurgitate and so on.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: I'm just providing a data set.
SPEAKER_1: But that domain expertise, so that's very valuable.
SPEAKER_2: So you have to weigh your options here.
SPEAKER_2: I've been trying to expand my domain expertise.
SPEAKER_1: You did change your website recently.
SPEAKER_2: Speaking of, just today, Automatic, which is the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, they're going to sell user data to OpenAI and Mid Journey.
SPEAKER_2: So the artists aren't safe either.
SPEAKER_2: And so I had to nuke all of my old accounts that I still had out there.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, that's bleak.
SPEAKER_2: That's fun.
SPEAKER_1: That's very bleak.
SPEAKER_1: Now, when they say user data, how do you interpret that?
SPEAKER_1: Just everything?
SPEAKER_2: Everything.
SPEAKER_1: Nothing's off limits?
SPEAKER_2: Everything and the kitchen sink and the baby and the bathwater.
SPEAKER_1: Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_2: Everything.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, because Tumblr makes no money and they haven't had a way to monetize it ever.
SPEAKER_2: And they're struggling.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, so you're telling me the whole allowing just random users to purchase advertisements didn't really work in their favor?
SPEAKER_2: No, no.
SPEAKER_2: And so they had a recently they had like, they apparently had a live streaming service, I guess, I don't know, section of the site.
SPEAKER_2: And they recently shut that down.
SPEAKER_2: I can only presume because nobody used it and also for cost cutting measures.
SPEAKER_2: And yeah, so this is pretty bad.
SPEAKER_2: The fact that they're doing both OpenAI and Mid Journey, which of course Mid Journey is the one that creates all the bullshit AI art, tells me that they are literally just selling everybody's posts, like explicitly.
SPEAKER_2: Because if it was just like, oh, what are users interacting with?
SPEAKER_2: Or just whatever bullshit advertising data, why would you sell to the AI art company also?
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, it's bad.
SPEAKER_2: And I just would probably have just like a bunch of sad boy emo shit that I posted in like 2012.
SPEAKER_2: Even so, I had to like, even so I had to nuke that shit.
SPEAKER_2: It's the principle of it.
SPEAKER_2: No, it's entirely the principle.
SPEAKER_2: And it's also just kind of good to get rid of that digital footprint.
SPEAKER_2: But like, also, yeah, no, I just had to had to completely nuke that shit.
SPEAKER_2: WordPress, on the other hand, so if you have a wordpress.com like blog, that is what they're going to be taking from.
SPEAKER_2: If you have your own website that uses WordPress as the CMS, you should be fine.
SPEAKER_2: If you use wordpress.com plugins on that site, though, you might be in trouble.
SPEAKER_2: They really need to clarify this shit.
SPEAKER_2: They probably won't know which.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it all sucks.
SPEAKER_2: It all sucks the whole way down.
SPEAKER_2: This shit should be opt-in, not opt-out.
SPEAKER_2: It never is.
SPEAKER_2: They take first, maybe ask you about it later.
SPEAKER_2: Usually don't even do that.
SPEAKER_2: Sucks.
SPEAKER_2: Sucks so hard.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, I feel like I'm just outrunning the AI shit.
SPEAKER_2: Just trying to get as fast as I can, and then I just kind of trip, oh shit, and then they got me.
SPEAKER_2: It's so fucking bad, but yeah.
SPEAKER_2: I really don't want to talk about it anymore.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, no, I get that.
SPEAKER_1: I really do.
SPEAKER_2: I really don't.
SPEAKER_2: It's so bad.
SPEAKER_2: If it wasn't such a personal affront to me, I could poke more fun at it.
SPEAKER_2: But the fact that it's literally coming for my personal livelihood.
SPEAKER_1: And a field that was already so difficult.
SPEAKER_2: A field where I already made no fucking money.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, just already not a good situation, not a good field to...
SPEAKER_1: I don't want to say not a good field, just a very difficult field to be in.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, it's just very bleak.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know what other word to describe it as.
SPEAKER_2: Right.
SPEAKER_2: So yeah, I would like to do more fun things on the show.
SPEAKER_2: That's kind of my point.
SPEAKER_2: Kind of my point.
SPEAKER_2: Talk about foam.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, it has not been a very good week.
SPEAKER_2: But anyway, that's all I wanted to talk about.
SPEAKER_2: A couple notes.
SPEAKER_2: I think we covered most of this.
SPEAKER_2: Whoever downloaded 100 episodes of the show on February 23rd, thank you, I guess.
SPEAKER_2: I'm also curious what you're doing.
SPEAKER_2: Those downloads, because I can see you.
SPEAKER_2: I can see that you did that and that you might be in Canada.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, hey, that's a win's a win.
SPEAKER_2: A win's a win, but what were you doing that day?
SPEAKER_1: I would, my guess, if they're anything like me, they have a very boring job and bad reception at that job.
SPEAKER_1: So they just, they come pre-stocked with, they come to the office pre-stocked with podcast episodes.
SPEAKER_1: And for some reason, fortunately, it's ours.
SPEAKER_1: At least that's what I would like to think is going on there.
SPEAKER_2: I'll take it.
SPEAKER_2: I really will.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, that basically means they downloaded every episode.
SPEAKER_1: They listen to one, they're like, I just need all of it.
SPEAKER_1: I need all of this.
SPEAKER_1: And not only do I need it, I need it to be accessible anytime, anywhere.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, so if I go to A Cabin in the Woods in one of any horror novels, I need this whole podcast catalogue.
SPEAKER_2: But yeah, appreciate it.
SPEAKER_2: I just couldn't believe.
SPEAKER_2: I was like, why is the graph so high on this day?
SPEAKER_2: I'm like, what the fuck happened here?
SPEAKER_2: What do you think our highest, aside from the US, our next highest country, I can't speak anymore, downloads?
SPEAKER_1: Tibet.
SPEAKER_2: You know, Tibet.
SPEAKER_2: You wouldn't be, well, you're wrong, but you wouldn't be super far off.
SPEAKER_2: Let me pull it up.
SPEAKER_2: This is not something I planned.
SPEAKER_2: Let's see.
SPEAKER_2: Analytics.
SPEAKER_2: So it's well, now it's Canada.
SPEAKER_2: Canada has actually overtaken the US.
SPEAKER_1: Just with this person.
SPEAKER_2: Just with just of whatever happened on February 23rd.
SPEAKER_2: Then it's France.
SPEAKER_2: And then Taiwan.
SPEAKER_1: All right.
SPEAKER_1: That's that's solid.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know why I say that.
SPEAKER_1: But it's good.
SPEAKER_1: Good countries.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, I don't I don't know what the French are up to either.
SPEAKER_2: They have a very large percentage.
SPEAKER_1: Yeah, it's because they know I love French cinema.
SPEAKER_1: It's it's part of it's it's you know, the Irma Vap is really that's got to be that's got to be that was such a that's such a big one for us.
SPEAKER_1: Not in terms of numbers, but just no, not at all.
SPEAKER_1: Just my own personal enjoyment.
SPEAKER_1: Those those metrics.
SPEAKER_2: I already mentioned it, but check out episode two of Did It All For The Moogle, Persona 3 Reload Edition should be live next week.
SPEAKER_1: Download it.
SPEAKER_1: Don't just listen to it.
SPEAKER_2: Download it.
SPEAKER_1: It's what everyone's doing.
SPEAKER_2: Download it to all your devices.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, man.
SPEAKER_2: The YouTube numbers are OK.
SPEAKER_2: They've been consistent.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Shit.
SPEAKER_2: I don't have any other updates.
SPEAKER_2: I think that's it.
SPEAKER_2: Check out the Facebook page.
SPEAKER_2: Everything should automatically get posted to the Facebook page now.
SPEAKER_2: I set that up.
SPEAKER_2: Go to the GoToDeadEndRoad.media and subscribe via email.
SPEAKER_2: You can do that.
SPEAKER_2: That's fun.
SPEAKER_2: Check out some of the fiction I've been posting there.
SPEAKER_2: I don't know.
SPEAKER_2: I don't have anything.
SPEAKER_2: I'm tired.
SPEAKER_2: I think that's it.
SPEAKER_2: I think we will see you in episode 100.
SPEAKER_2: We should do some fun stuff for episode 100, huh?
SPEAKER_1: Well, I mean, that would imply that we don't usually do fun stuff.
SPEAKER_2: I know.
SPEAKER_2: I feel like I'm too much of a bummer.
SPEAKER_1: I hate to tell you, but that's not going to change just because it's episode 100.
SPEAKER_1: It just you got to stay true to the show.
SPEAKER_1: I don't think there's any other way.
SPEAKER_1: AI will still exist.
SPEAKER_2: I want to be less of a bummer.
SPEAKER_1: Elon will still exist.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, I don't even break him up anymore.
SPEAKER_1: No.
SPEAKER_2: Maybe I'll finish that beat.
SPEAKER_2: I got to finish that beat.
SPEAKER_1: There you go.
SPEAKER_1: That'll be fun.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah.
SPEAKER_2: Episode 100, I'll finish that beat.
SPEAKER_1: Bring Back Dating is Dead or something.
SPEAKER_1: I don't know.
SPEAKER_2: Oh, you know what?
SPEAKER_2: I almost did for this week.
SPEAKER_2: Did you?
SPEAKER_2: I'll do it.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: That's the plan.
SPEAKER_2: That's the plan.
SPEAKER_2: I'll finish the beat and I'll bring back Dating is Dead.
SPEAKER_2: Because I found some whack shit.
SPEAKER_2: All right.
SPEAKER_2: That's the plan.
SPEAKER_2: Thank you for reminding me.
SPEAKER_1: All right.
SPEAKER_2: There we go.
SPEAKER_2: Episode 100, I'll finish the beat.
SPEAKER_1: Or we could just rewatch all of Irma Vep.
SPEAKER_1: It depends on whose definition of fun we're talking about, I guess.
SPEAKER_2: I downloaded that Oscar buzz Nazi movie.
SPEAKER_1: Oh, Zone of Interest.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, it's I mean, you know, you've seen Under the Skin, right?
SPEAKER_1: I was that director.
SPEAKER_1: It's the movie that I described to you as the most lynchian thing that has not been made by David Lynch.
SPEAKER_1: And I mean that in a really good way and not like a ripoff type way because it's so very much its own distinct thing, too.
SPEAKER_1: It's just it captures an energy that I think David Lynch is able to capture.
SPEAKER_1: And up until I'd seen it, only David Lynch was able to capture.
SPEAKER_2: Sure.
SPEAKER_1: If that makes any sense.
SPEAKER_1: So long story short, I do need to see Zone of Interest.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe we can talk about that.
SPEAKER_2: Yeah, we can.
SPEAKER_2: We could just play the whole episode.
SPEAKER_1: We could do the beat and then the dating is dead and then the Nazi.
SPEAKER_2: That sounds like a party.
SPEAKER_2: If anybody listens to this part, you're fucking insane.
SPEAKER_1: I mean, it's one thing to download a hundred episodes.
SPEAKER_1: It's a whole other thing to actually listen to them.
SPEAKER_2: See, because even I don't do that to boost my own memories.
SPEAKER_1: And you know, I can't listen to the sound of my own voice, so I would be no health guy.
SPEAKER_2: See you at episode 100.
