27: Bigger than a breadbox

May 30, 2008 12:04 PM

Show #27 features recaps from the past three weeks of MetaFilter. It was recorded on May 28, 2008 and runs about 60 minutes long.

direct download link

Music mentioned:
til we're dead by inoculatedcities
melancholy piece by xmutex
Book of Love (cover) by sleepy pete

MetaTalk posts
Projects gets public comments

vacapinta as midnight mod

Jobs
Intelligent Female American Voices Wanted

MetaFilter Posts
Gary Snyder

Utah Phillips obit

One Man's Polaroid Collection

Earthquake on your wedding day

Rimshot and Sad Trombone

The Weezer webmeme video (barenaked ladies version) (dave weinberger's post)

Muxfind search for Muxtape

Tables of Contents: Flickr set and tags

Ask MeFi Posts
Why can't my cat's paw work a laptop trackpad?

Minibike stunt death of the world's largest twins?

Handbrake ripped off by a commercial software company

Why is the only .arpa site about unicycles?

What do I need to know about wine as a restaurant server?

What are code words in your field?

Difference between a bag and a purse

Do you wear your shoes indoors?

Notable comments
DaShiv on Clinton/Obama and Democrat primaries in history

Downsides of Wii Fit

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 12:04 PM (30 comments total)

True story: usually I drink a big coke before recording so that I'm chipper and upbeat but the coke machine was broken where I got some breakfast so I sound sleepy and mumbly. Stupid caffeine!
posted by mathowie at 12:21 PM on May 30, 2008

Country things! Country things!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:48 PM on May 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

And I'm down with the letter writing campaign, just say the word.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:22 PM on May 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Christ, I still haven't listened to #20. I need a vacation so I can get caught up.
posted by Eideteker at 1:59 PM on May 30, 2008

Weezer on Muxtape.
posted by drezdn at 2:06 PM on May 30, 2008

"Everyone's Twittering now! Fuuuck!"
posted by danb at 2:51 PM on May 30, 2008

I have a breadbox! It's the same size as a small toaster oven.
posted by aubilenon at 5:11 PM on May 30, 2008

What measurements define toaster ovens as small, medium, large, xl?
posted by netbros at 5:48 PM on May 30, 2008

I'll call in.
posted by fixedgear at 5:50 PM on May 30, 2008

Everyone I ask is in Bangalore. Bangalore! A great word.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:46 PM on May 30, 2008

Can I help you? What'd you do this time?

OMG! You sound just like me when I was the unofficial Linux tech support in grad school! Only less bitter!
posted by dirigibleman at 8:05 PM on May 30, 2008

Well, I've made it.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:43 PM on May 30, 2008

BTW, starting Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road right at the start of the indoor shoes thing absolutely meshes perfectly.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:54 PM on May 30, 2008

First song, did not appreciate the "dyslexic Presidents" line. Kind of a pejorative use don't you think?
posted by munchbunch at 7:21 AM on May 31, 2008

Thanks to jessamyn for the very positive mention of the Utah Phillips post. It was really great to see so many positive reminisces and just a very nice appreciation of him on the site. (Am I really some kind of old-timer here? I joined right after $5 registration started, I guess that's been a while.)
posted by graymouser at 9:25 AM on May 31, 2008

The lyrics for that verse are

Disbarred lawyers are threatening to sue
Dysfunctional families reproduce
Dyslexic presidents
Destroy the residents
Of a land previously unknown to you

You may want to take it up with innoculatedcities since it's his song. I think as pejoratives go, it's not that terrible, but we didn't pick the song for the lyrics.
posted by jessamyn at 10:21 AM on May 31, 2008

For jessamyn and other record book fans: The Guinness Book of World Records Editor Answers Your Questions.
posted by danb at 2:32 PM on May 31, 2008

Guess I missed deadline on this one...
posted by BrooklynCouch at 3:08 PM on May 31, 2008

Hey, thanks for adding the song to the podcast. I think I forgot to say something last time you did that and I don't want to seem ungrateful or anything.
posted by sleepy pete at 5:39 PM on May 31, 2008

Hey! Glad you liked the teeshirt, Jessamyn. I was walking out the door of the restaurant and saw that and thought, "How could I not buy that?"

Great podcast. 27? Holy moses!
posted by ColdChef at 6:27 PM on May 31, 2008

Awesome!

You know, we had a bit of a Wii-breakthrough, and I thought about updating my WiiFit comment in the original post, but maybe I'll throw it in here. After being totally demoralized by the WiiFit's casual frankness in regards to his physique, my 5 year old has come around and has started to play a few things. He does the yoga, a few strength moves, and especially loves the running (mostly because if you run really fast, you can make your Mii trip). He's kind of gotten the hang of the trainer responses, and has started to feel pretty good about his accomplishments. And his BMI went down a little after a week of WiiFit playing. He's still a little sad about not being "normal" in the body test (I wish they had some different terminology for that!), but he no longer feels ashamed that "the Wii thinks [he's] fat." Mostly we've just been talking a lot about how fun it is to try stuff even if you can't do it perfectly, and mostly he's been buying it.
posted by mothershock at 9:35 PM on May 31, 2008 [2 favorites]

Two notes:

I grab the podcast via Juice, and the version I got was only 19 minutes long. I am about to listen through the link on this page and see if it is 60 minutes long. (It appears to be complete.) Anyone else have this problem?

And second, is Mathowie snickering throughout the Gary Snyder bit? What, it's funny that a poet won a prize? Was the amount of the prize laughable? Does Matt hate poetry? WTF?
posted by Riverine at 9:35 PM on May 31, 2008

It was hearing the phrase "$100,000 poetry prize" that cracked me up. It's such a weird phrase, like a jumble of words I never thought I'd hear in the same sentence -- I think of poetry as an intensely personal form of expression, something one does for many reasons, but I never thought of "prizes" or "$100,000" as a motivation to do poetry. It sounded weird; almost anti-poetry that a 100k prize exists for it.
posted by mathowie at 11:58 PM on May 31, 2008

sleepypete, just wanted to say that I Loved your cover!
posted by iamkimiam at 12:39 AM on June 1, 2008

Stuff I missed, cool!

The mail campaign idea for obtaining cat-scan.com cracked me up. I bet we could impersonate endearing/demanding children quite well (ahem).
posted by eponymouse at 7:37 AM on June 1, 2008

Heh. The Wii Fit reminded me this morning that it was my wife's birthday. Then, when she got on to do her exercises, the Wii Fit Board Icon was wearing a birthday hat and it shot fireworks and streamers for her. Neat.
posted by ColdChef at 9:07 AM on June 1, 2008

m: Why Female?

j: WE SOUND NICE!

Now I'm cleaning up after my spit-take.
posted by potch at 7:31 AM on June 2, 2008

This was a very funny podcast. I am glad I joined Metafilter.
posted by BrooklynCouch at 7:37 AM on June 2, 2008

That was a very funny occurrence. I am suprised my comment was deleted.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:40 PM on June 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Did Matt "yadda, yadda, yadda" the phrase "don't kill babies" ?!
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 1:38 PM on June 16, 2008