48: Sitting or Standing

January 14, 2010 12:16 AM

Episode 48 was recorded on January 11 and runs about an hour long. We cover our favorite bits of the site over the past month and squeeze in a few more music clips than usual. Enjoy.

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Helpful Links

Podcast Feed
MeFi Podcast on iTunes
Direct mp3 download

Music

Mr Brightside Acoustic ish by andysouthrop

Thinking About Drinking by frecklefaerie

I will 4 U by american caesar


Projects

Fuck this Weather (mefi post about it)

DIY Computational Photography (mefi post, photo of the camera setup)

BabyZoink name generator (mefi post)

Meet the Lady

Giving Rural a Voice on the Web


MeFi Posts

Return of the "poop discussion" (bondcliff's comment about cortex, Skot's followup)

Real Good Chair Experiment

Great Dad? Or Greatest Dad? photography (an example)

Nick Cage as everyone (Nick Cage as Vanilla Ice)

The Queen Susan Shawl, reconstructing a fabric pattern from a photo on Ravelry (full story)

Chess Boxing

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

Images from the History of Medicine (Moral Thermometer)


Ask MetaFilter

Should I say something when I notice a guy using "Pick-up Artist" techniques on me?

Whatchu dyin' 'bout Willis?: uncharacteristic sitcom episodes

Please explain Net Neutrality for Dummies as if I'm a sixth grader (good answer)

MetaFilter unicorn and narwhal buttons for MeFi greasemonkey script

Cool and contemporary chick bands

How to deal with others when you hate using a phone

Why is fruit more nutritious than candy since they both have lots of sugar? (answer 1, answer 2)

How can I become more of a dirty hippie?

$30 a week frugal food/cooking blog

What can I add to my spaghetti to make it better? (an exhaustive answer)

IUD question

How do I say good bye to a shitty decade?

Becoming an osteopath vs. medical doctor?


MetaTalk stuff

Recent Activity overhaul (more features, faster)

Update on my daughter's broken back

Good news on my tumor (greeting card thread)

Two deaths: Bradlands and Bageena

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 12:16 AM (40 comments total)

Sweet! (Also, it seems like the comment in the cat thread that Cortex deleted containing a number of suggestions could help out someone else dealing with similar problems)
posted by null terminated at 3:10 AM on January 14, 2010

Yay!
posted by Jofus at 4:30 AM on January 14, 2010

Also you need to append cortex's name to the end of the theme tune.

"Welcome... (MATHOWIE!) Welcome...(JESSAMYN!) Welcome to the Metafilter [beat] Podcast...(AND CORTEX!)"
posted by Jofus at 4:43 AM on January 14, 2010

So, uh, why are they wearing headphones while chessboxing?
posted by Rhomboid at 5:00 AM on January 14, 2010

Jofus: "Also you need to append cortex's name to the end of the theme tune."

No, I like that he's the James Earl Jones of the podcast. Who is that alluring baritone behind the spooky mask?
posted by Plutor at 5:02 AM on January 14, 2010

Yeah it always weirded me out that Darth Vader was in Field of Dreams.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:48 AM on January 14, 2010

I would like you to remember the day you compared cortex to James Earl Jones.
posted by Jofus at 6:21 AM on January 14, 2010

Jofus, that would make cortex the wacky sidekick who gets a cartoon at the end.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:18 AM on January 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Making a new podcast theme has been on my to-do list for a long time. Maybe I'll get around to it in time for number 50. It feels a bit weird to replace the old comfy sweater that is the current theme, but it also feels a bit weird explicitly not being there.

(Also, it seems like the comment in the cat thread that Cortex deleted containing a number of suggestions could help out someone else dealing with similar problems)

Yeah, but "oh shit I feel like a complete jerk please delete my comment" wins the day generally. Sort of up to the user to figure out what to do with that ready knowledge in whatever capacity they prefer.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:30 AM on January 14, 2010

re: polarizing of The Big Lebowski, I've found the more you watch it, the more you appreciate it. I've seen it a few times and really like it, but the first time I saw it, I was kind of meh about it. A few other people I've talked to have felt the same way. The problem with this is it can be somewhat difficult to try to get someone to watch a film they don't like.

And yeah, Two Gentlemen of Lebowski is awesome and I hope to see it performed.
posted by ODiV at 8:19 AM on January 14, 2010

Just to clear up a misconception, "The Stand" is not just a slight hover off the seat. That's incorrect. While it's true it's not a full-on, straight-up 90-degrees-from-the-floor stand it's much closer to standing than sitting. Think of the second guy from the left in the Ascent Of Man drawing and you get the idea. I'm sure nobody will disagree with me and this thread won't get derailed into another 900 post discussion of how we poop.

You're welcome.
posted by bondcliff at 8:21 AM on January 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just to clear up a misconception, "The Stand" is not just a slight hover off the seat.

This is true. It is also true that it is not Stephen King's finest work. That title belongs to "The Dead Zone," which is largely unappreciated.

Reports are unclear as to King's wiping preferences. I will write a letter.
posted by Skot at 8:26 AM on January 14, 2010

Agreed with bondcliff. Without representation from an actual Stand-er - such as myself - the discussion in the podcast was pure speculation by non-Standers.
posted by vacapinta at 8:31 AM on January 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

vacapinta I will strive to provide a better Stander/Non-Stander balance during future poop discussions on the podcast.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:42 AM on January 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's like the Fairness Doctrine, but for assholes.

Ok, so it's exactly like the Fairness Doctrine.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:46 AM on January 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

You can, if you use the dev version, have greasemonkey scripts with chrome. However, lately the dev version has been worse than firefox. Still, I'm hoping this is temporary.
posted by Obscure Reference at 9:03 AM on January 14, 2010

[Jofus, that would make cortex the wacky sidekick who gets a cartoon at the end.]

No. You did not just compare cortex to Slimer.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:18 AM on January 14, 2010

OMG cortex totally met the lady!
posted by hermitosis at 9:27 AM on January 14, 2010

The lady couldn't be more met if she was an art museum on 82nd street.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:31 AM on January 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think we finally hit the perfect balance soundwise, finally, after 47 other podcasts. Thank you for all bearing with us.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:35 AM on January 14, 2010

Knitting post made the podcast! Woo!

Tiny point of clarification, though: the pattern's for hand knitting, not a knitting machine.
posted by clavicle at 10:03 AM on January 14, 2010

I would totally watch a cortex cartoon.
posted by Caduceus at 10:04 AM on January 14, 2010

I listened to this podcast during an unusually long drive this morning and it (the podcast) made me very happy - thank you!
posted by ersatzkat at 10:18 AM on January 14, 2010

This is, as far as I know, the only cortex cartoon in existence. That was an animation experiment that I really meant to get back to—using a few keys on a keyboard to basically record a marionette-style performance in real time (in this case against a random recording of mine that I'd pulled out).

I never got around to animating anything but the mouth and the eyes (which just blink randomly, and will continue to do so forever and ever after the recording finishes.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:24 AM on January 14, 2010

jessamyn: "I think we finally hit the perfect balance soundwise"

I'm a little nostalgic for trapped in the well jessamyn. It really conveyed that you were way far away from Cortex and Matt.
posted by boo_radley at 11:41 AM on January 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Enjoyed this one but kind of cringed as coworkers and students walked by and mathowie said "PENIS" and jessamyn said, "No I don't know what those strings are poking your penis." I got to get me some headphones before episode 49!
posted by Lynsey at 11:53 AM on January 14, 2010

Thanks for the podcast, I always enjoy it. I don't have time to keep up on everything going on in all the subsites, and this gives me a good place to see what I might have missed. Needs more bumpers, though!
posted by jefeweiss at 3:03 PM on January 14, 2010

Cortext's Cartoon Calvacade featuring Trapped-in-the-well Jessamyn? I'd hit it.

the play button, that is
posted by davejay at 6:03 PM on January 14, 2010

See, I'm pretty sure that's not right on the colder-in-the-winter-because-we're-further-from-the-sun thing. I've heard it explained that it's not the distance from the sun, it's the angle of the rays.

In summer, the part (say, kilometre squared) of the planet you're sitting on is more or less dead-on to the incoming light and heat and so gets a km^2 of light, but in winter, that km^2 of land is tilted, so doesn't get a full km^2 of sunlight.

Someone who actually knows science can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd like to think I learned something from those Berkeley lectures I downloaded.

47 minutes in and this makes me comment? Back to listening.
posted by Dandeson Coates, Sec'y at 6:29 PM on January 14, 2010

I think that's what I said... that we're closer to the sun in the Winter. You are totally right.

"Why is it colder in the Winter than in the Summer? We're closer to the Sun right now [US-ian Winter] and it's sixteen degrees goddamnit"

I think I was drawing a correlary of some sort, but thanks for commenting anyhow!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:01 PM on January 14, 2010

Yeah, I thought we were all just willfully saying random shit about it at that point. I haven't gone back to listen but I remember making a God Help You If You're On A Mountain joke late in the podcast.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:33 PM on January 14, 2010

I like listening t the mods try to pronounce usernames. For future reference, the 'x' in my name is pronounced like the 'x' in Xavier. Thanks.
posted by fixedgear at 1:34 AM on January 15, 2010

fixedgear: "I like listening t the mods try to pronounce usernames."

I'm still waiting for them to discuss this one.
posted by Plutor at 9:53 AM on January 15, 2010

Oh hey, I "made" the podcast. Guess I'll actually have to listen to this one (when I'm not at work).
posted by Eideteker at 8:15 AM on January 19, 2010

THEY LIKE YOU! THEY REALLY LIKE YOU!
posted by The Whelk at 11:07 AM on January 19, 2010

Also, we're not talking about the possibility of White Russian pancakes.
posted by The Whelk at 11:36 AM on January 19, 2010

Holy profanity Batman! Guess I'll be listening to that one with headphones.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:55 PM on January 19, 2010

Has there every been a podcast where we don't curse like sailors?
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:13 PM on January 19, 2010

I thought this podcast was actually less profane than usual. I always mean to edit out all the non-cursing in the podcasts, just for teh LOLs, but never get around to it. I have the impression that cortex's sweariness is sort of lowkey casual, mathowie's is a little more brash but casual, and jessamyn will verbally fuck your shit up if she is so inclined, but she mostly manages to keep the monster in its cage.

Think of the second guy from the left in the Ascent Of Man drawing and you get the idea.

I was listening at work when it finally hit me, it's like a ski jumper, just after they come out of the crouch but before they straighten.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:16 PM on January 20, 2010

Thank you so much for featuring my song " I will 4 U" on this podcast. I didn't think much of it when I recorded it but I try and do the best I can with what I know. Also this may sound alittle strange. The man sometimes talks to me thru signs and #'s. It seems he does this with the # 42 allot so I was happy to see the podcast was 71 mins and 42 secs. Made me smile when I saw that and my song ended the podcast at 42 secs. Thanks again made my day.

There are so many talented artists in this forum I'm happy and proud to be a part of it.
posted by american caesar at 12:16 PM on January 23, 2010