Smart Home Tech, Streaming Services, and Star Wars

Hey, it's Mistress Carrie and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hi, this is David

Kay and you're listening to Altered Geek. Geek,

geek, geek. You are tuned in to Steve Megatron

on Altered Geek. Hello, and welcome to Altered

Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron. And joining

me on this adventure into geekdom is TFG1 Mike.

Hello. And Mike Booth, Ninja Powers. Hello. We

is back. Yeah. Three episodes in a row. I know.

Look at me go. I'm doing something. There you

go. So how everybody's How has everybody's week

been going? It's going. Sometimes I wish it would

stop, but it's going. Mine's been pretty good.

I have been troubleshooting an issue with my

HVAC system. Oh, that's fun. I mean, it's not

it's not. So it's it's it's not a bad like a

bad thing to like try to like troubleshoot or

narrow down. But like because we still call there.

So we're not like dying or in dire need of any

like. replacement equipment or anything like

that. But last summer when the AC would run and

the reason I can hear all this so people don't

think I'm like just crazy and like standing outside

by my air conditioner. The air conditioner for

my house is on the opposite side of the wall

of my family room. So I can hear it when it starts

up and when it's doing anything that it shouldn't

be doing. And last summer I noticed that it would

run and then for like an extended period of time

and then it would kick off and then the compressor

would immediately try to start back up like three

or four times and then it would kick on for another

couple of minutes and then it would shut off

like it was supposed to and I didn't think anything

of it I'm like okay we'll just you know we'll

get we'll get through this whatever we'll deal

with it later and then we got to the summer the

winter and the one of the first when it got colder,

I noticed that my furnace was doing this weird

thing, or the blower of my furnace was doing

this weird thing, or it was running, and then

it would kick off, and then kick right back on.

And so finally I got fed up with hearing that,

because my desk is right in front of the return.

I know this is all very boring, but it's going

someplace interesting, I think, for me anyways.

So finally I decided to call the people that

installed the HVAC system in my house and asked

them if you know they could send somebody out

to the house and I they wanted like $400 for

somebody to come out to the house and just like

look things over and Like I was like, um No,

that's okay. I'll just I'll just wait until something

breaks basically I'm gonna have to pay that much

for someone just to come out here and look at

it but I'm glad I did because as soon as I got

off the phone with them and I was kind of mad

about that I went and checked the air filter

and Yeah, well with Koba 19 and all that crap

completely lost track of time like everybody

else did and Didn't realize I didn't change the

last time I changed my air filter was like the

beginning of 2020. Oh, no Wow I was like, holy

cow, I am so glad that I didn't pay $400 for

a technician to come out here and go, it's your

air filter. Yeah. Oh wow. So I replaced that

this past winter while the furnace was still

going and that immediately solved the blower

coming on and a kicking off problem. And I'm

like, okay, the AC is probably good then too.

I thought maybe it was like something similar.

Except since the beginning of the summer of this

year, the AC has been doing the exact same thing.

and So I finally called another company and they

came out and they ran all their tests on everything

in the house and like no everything's You're

a little bit overcharged. Everything's on the

up, you know, everything is right where it like

should be We can't For the life of us. We can't

figure out why your unit is cycling like this

when it's not supposed to be so it was that brings

us to this past week where I've been trying to

like troubleshoot stuff and Finally I was like,

you know the one the one thing that nobody looked

at or Thought to look at including myself until

this past week was the thermostat Whoops, so

I have a nest thermostat. I've had one since

like 2013. No, this is not the same one I've

had since like 2013 but it's a product I'm familiar

with so they have a little product called airflow

which like It runs the blower for an extended

period of time to empty the vents of any cold

or hot air that was produced So it's not just

going to waste like after the AC shuts off, right?

And I thought well, maybe that's what's going

on here. So I turned that feature off and we

let the unit run and It ran for Like two days

without an issue and it's not a reoccurring issue

like some days it wouldn't happen at all and

other days it would happen like quite Frequently

like and mostly in the evening. So it was very

it was not something that could be reproduced

while technician was here But it ran for two

days without an issue and then yesterday It just

decided like it just did it again with that setting

turned off and I'm like dang it So I went and

got a dumb thermometer or a thermostat and hook

that up No, no problems whatsoever. So Somebody

fried your nest well It's probably that something

probably happened. Like there was a problem.

I've had the backboard on an Esco bad before,

so there's probably something somewhere that

got borked, but it's way out of warranty. So

the geek part of this is I decided to order another

smart thermostat to try, which is the Echo B

stuff. And I've been messing with that all evening.

That's what my evening consisted of from like

six o 'clock to about 15 minutes ago. I've been.

Doing nothing but staring at my phone watching

and also listening for the for the AC to act

up in any way shape or form so I know if I need

to rip it off the wall and Just just go back

to my nest and it and it's just it you know,

it's just all all for naught But so far everything's

been on the up and up and what's really weird

is the house is a lot colder since even putting

in the dumb thermostat yesterday, so That tells

me that there was something wrong with the Nest

for a lot longer than I thought something was

wrong. How long have you had that particular

model? You said it was on a warranty, but...

I've had it for five years. Oh, well, yeah. So

if Nest wasn't owned by Google, I would try to

reach out and ask them for help because before

Nest was bought by Google, just like every other

company, they were actually really good with

customer service. and could pull logs from their

hardware and give you information about what's

going on with stuff that you can't see. And they

won't do that anymore. Well, that sucks. Doesn't

surprise me. No, it doesn't surprise me. It just

sucks. I had I had a thing. I can't remember

what it was. It was something it was something,

but I tried to get them to do it like a like

a probably last year or the year before that.

Who knows the COVID time shrink, but like. they

wouldn't go and look at anything because of privacy,

which I guess I get, but it's like, dude, just

ask me a series of questions like any other company

would that it verifies that it's me and go rooting

around in my stuff. Like you used to do this.

And so we just decided to go with another company

at this time and. The thing functions a little

bit like because not all thermostats function

the same, right? So now my wife and I are going

like is this supposed to be doing that? Exactly.

Is it is it supposed to work like that? And it

just so happens that we installed it on like

the hot one of the hottest days in the summer

So now we're like, is it? It's probably just

cuz it's hot outside, right? Like so I don't

know. It's That's been my that's been my since

last Friday was when the tech came out and I

just decided like on Monday did started thinking

like pointing the finger at the thermostat so

So I'm hoping I'm at the end of this. Little

adventure, but that's what I've had to deal with,

because. But I like it. I do. I like messing

around with all that stuff and then. They have

a web interface for the thermostat. Which shows

you bar graphs and everything. That's awesome.

I love being able to look at metrics for nothing

that anyone cares about. It's a metric of how

cool or hot your house is I mean, you know Yep,

you gotta keep up with that stuff, especially

if you're a homeowner. Oh, yeah me I just have

to worry about having enough double -a batteries

on hand for my I Don't understand this so the

apartment building I live in it's Over 50 years

old they've constantly been improving it and

things like that and it's good, you know all

new boy It's got all new like but the building

itself is old as hell. I move in here and I'm

like, okay That's the thermostat great. I Don't

remember the last time thermostats had batteries

in them Yeah, okay. Well, yeah, that's yeah well

Apparently they haven't upgraded this building

enough because I have to make sure I have enough

AA batteries on hand for every remote I have

in this apartment, plus the dumb thermostat.

At least it only takes one. Steve? Yeah, I mean,

I don't have problems with air conditioning in

my house, but I mean, I've got a smart one, but

it's not that smart. It's supposed to work with

an app, but it doesn't. And it came with the

house. So I kind of just. Ignore it for the most

part, but I'm also not home enough So it we keep

it around like 80 even when it's hot because

there's a lot of days we're over a hundred degrees

Yeah, this is one thing like my what and that's

the thing I know this is riveting conversation

for everyone that tuned in to listen this whole

freaking thing but it was just like there were

a whole book like even at the beginning of the

season like I just knew something was off somewhere

with something because we've been having we've

been having to like cool the bedroom down or

tell the nest to cool the bedroom down to like

what we thought was like 73 and We've since we've

lived in this house. We've never had to have

the bedroom like that cold at night Like it's

been usually we leave the thermostat would be

at 78 during the day regardless of how hot it

got out and then like 75 at night and Having

to like force the bedroom down to 73. I was like

there's there's some something is not Right here

and there was just so I think there was like

it's just a cascade of failures at the nest Wasn't

doesn't report to you because it's it's but that

may it just became a dumb thermostat That was

severely crippled. I guess I don't know So but

for all I know the extended You know that there

was probably only like six months from when it

started up to when I changed the air filter so

it very much could have like Destroyed it and

I really should have like check that that's not

me though I should have checked that air filter

because everything around our house was still

under construction when we moved in So there

was just kind of like that thing was the worst

air filter I've ever seen anywhere I couldn't

even believe I let it get that back because I'm

usually like I gotta get new air filters and

my wife's like do you really have to buy one,

even though they're like 30 bucks or something

like that? She's like, do you really have to

get them? And I'm like, that service call almost

cost us $400 for someone to tell us that we need

a $30 air filter. And they probably would have

charged us for it. So anyway. Not to get depressing

or anything else, but when Karen was still alive

and we had the house that she owned in Illinois,

similar air conditioning things happened and

it was a hundred and something year old Sears

home and it had this old boiler and whatever

and water heater and they're like, would you

like a tank water heater or a tankless water

heater? They're like, okay, we're like, okay,

which one is gonna be the best that doesn't cost

us so much of an arm and a leg? And we're like,

no, pretty much go tankless. So we did, but that

was a night. I'm so glad I'm not a homeowner.

I just could never deal with that stuff. I prefer

being a homeowner because I don't like Being

bewildered to someone else controlling the place

that I live That's so unfortunate cuz like I

had I have a tangless water heater Mm -hmm, but

I love it. We had no I loved it, too. Absolutely.

I No, no, no. The old and busted 130 -year -old

tanked water heater was the problem. Gotcha.

And when we were going to replace it, we asked

them what would be the best and almost the most

cost effective. And they said, well, there's

this tankless water heater or there's... In order

to replace your one giant drum... of a 50 -year

-old heater that you had, we would have to buy

you 230 or whatever it was, two separate. We're

like, fine, just put the tankless in. And yeah,

no, we absolutely loved it. It was great. It

was awesome. It was the best thing we ever had

in that house. That's what we invested in during

the pandemic is we got, I don't know if I was

on the podcast and mentioned this, but we had

solar panels put on the roof and a tankless water

heater installed. Yeah, you did mention the solar

panels. I don't remember you mentioning the yeah,

that was like priority one the tank was water

here was like priority one we moved in here because

we don't have a basement and Yes, so and we have

a our staircase wrap wraps around on itself,

right? So there's a landing midway and then it

turns around and comes doubles back on itself.

Mm -hmm Well on the main floor under that is

a club to get that space back They put a closet

there and that's where they put the water heater

the The problem is they didn't put the water

heater like back as far as they could. They basically

you open the door and the water heater is right

in your face. And then there's all this empty

space like just for that you could use for like

storage. Rubbermaid tubs. It's full Lego boxes

right now for me. But like like that space was

all you couldn't get in there to store stuff.

It was just wasted space. And like the first

thing we did was have them install a tankless

water heater. Luckily, they're small enough.

They actually installed it, like, under the landing.

Like, it's all the way at the back of that storage

space now. Like, it's all the way at the back

on the outside wall of the house. And we got

all that space back and basically we turned it

into the cat's bathroom. So anyways, yes, owning

a home 101. It's pricey. It can be, yeah. Yeah,

so who here has joined? new social media platforms

like for myself I recently joined Instagram and

by Association threads Which is like Twitter

light so I have I joined Mastodon when Twitter

started going belly up a while ago because Usually

when there's a new social media platform I will

dip a toe in and register my name That way if

I ever have to use that or like I need to use

that for anything I can use my name and I don't

have to worry about somebody else having it Like

so I've I do pretty much have I don't have tick

-tock. I don't have Yeah, I don't have that either.

I don't have to talk or snap Snapchat yeah Think

booth ninja 81 is on Just about Every single

one now if that app is on my phone is a completely

different story But I do have an account on every

platform. I've been on Twitter and Facebook so

long It took me up until I don't remember when

Instagram started. I really don't care, but I

wasn't until like maybe To give it on there since

2019 so it's been a while and like You guys have

said Twitter just started going. I mean, it's

been crazy since 2014, but it's gone a little

more insane since Mr. Billionaire bought it.

Well, it was kind of losing its way anyway. Yeah,

it was becoming a colossal cesspool. It just.

Yeah, yeah. And so several people suggested Blue

Sky and then Threads came along. I was holding

out on Threads up until we decided to do this

discussion because I kept hearing people say,

oh, it's like classic Twitter. It's like Twitter

of old. It's like this. It's like that. But it

doesn't have this. It doesn't have this. And

it doesn't have that. And I don't know what this,

this, and that were. So I was like, oh, I'm going

to wait until it improves more or whatever. And

we decided to have this talk and I'm like, okay,

we'll try it. And I'm on there, but I'm barely

on there. I check it maybe once a day, whereas

I'm on Instagram, God knows how many times a

day. Cause I belong to a, through a Patreon program

I'm in, I belong to a specific group chat for

a YouTube channel. So. and Facebook, and I probably

will never not use Facebook unless it dies, obviously.

Blue Sky is kind of cool. It's essentially decentralized

Twitter. If I remember, like Threads is even

supposed to be decentralized to a point, too,

because like they said it's supposed to be able

to integrate with Macedon. I guess I haven't

looked that deep into it. And other stuff like

neither have I. I'm just like I've read a little

bit about it and like what they're using. And

I think Blue Sky is supposed to be able to integrate

with Macedon, too. Which is interesting, but

I don't know, like I realized today. Like. I

never I use Twitter a lot. I did and for a lot

of things, but the thing is I never. How do I

say this? I never used Twitter from the drum

deck, right? But like, but like. But from the

get -go, I used apps that... Twitter didn't used

to have ads in its feeds when they started adding

feeds, but I always used a third -party app to

access Twitter. I used Tweety, and then when

Twitter bought that and they bastardized it,

then Tweetbot hit the market in 2011, 2012, and

I had only ever interfaced with Twitter through

Tweetbot, which... Didn't give me any of the

ads like so when people were complaining about

seeing stuff out of like contacts or like This

why am I seeing this? I never saw any of that

stuff. I thought I'd even see like promoted tweets

and all that stuff I never saw any of it. I only

saw the stuff that I subscribe to and that was

it and and so obviously we've talked about this

already, but like Like I guess it's weird to

say like I've never used Twitter Like you've

never used the actual website. You've never used

the actual app other than to sign up and that

kind of thing. And I, up until they killed tweak

deck recently, I didn't either. I only, the only

time I ever used Twitter. was on my phone when

I wasn't at my computer, but my computer, my

desktop has always been my main, because I've

never, up until I met Karen back in 2017, I didn't

really have smartphones. I didn't really, I always

had the phone number through Skype or I had dumb

cell phones or whatever kind of thing. Uh, before

I met Karen, the last smartphone I had was I

think the iPhone three GS and that was God knows

how long ago, over a decade. And, but when I

was on the iPhone, I, back then they had Twitterific

and this was one of the, another one of those

third parties with Twitterific. The coolest thing

about that was the Mentions were one color, and

the DMs were a different color, and then everything

else was its normal, whatever the normal, light

mode, dark mode, whatever. But ever since TweetDeck

was around, and we could do columns and do all

this cool stuff, and now Twitter has basically,

with Mr. Colon over there, he's basically said,

oh, we're killing all third -party apps, including

the ones you love, including the... We're going

to bastardize tweet deck and make it this stupid

thing. And we're not going to make you or let

you go back to the old one unless you pay us.

And I'm sorry, I'm not, I'm not paying for social

media. That's just not happening. I, I would,

I would pay that man his asking fee if I could

use a third party app. I could see that. I would

100 % pay it because I've, I paid. I paid to

use those apps like I paid those app guys to

use their apps like I would I would now would

you pay a monthly fee or would you want like

a one -time I Pay a monthly fee. I pay whatever

they ask like if they if they seriously went

like, you know what? It's it's this month's per

month or this month for the year. Like I would

totally I But the caveat would be The guys that

made tweet bot would have to bring tweet bot

back. Yeah, like I'm not I don't want to use

somebody else's app and speaking of that that's

why I signed up for mastodon because those guys

jumped from they made they made a really they

took their tweet bot architecture app and and

renamed it ivory and built it on top of mastodon

but but yeah my my I look at twitter right now

and it's just it's it all it is is full of dumb

people because I can't see I mean, I see the

people that I like follow or what I follow, but

it's like you have to read. You have to go between

like 10 other posts from people you've never

met spouting nonsense stuff. Nonsense. Yeah.

And ads. And I just I never had to deal with

any of that. I never saw it. And it was so it's

like, man, I've never I realized like this is

I didn't like I didn't like Twitter. I like interacting

with people on Tweetbot like. Your product that

Twitter was garbage. I think Twitter has always

been garbage It's been the people that it's it's

people that made the apps that made it usable

that made Twitter what it is So that's unfortunate

Yeah, right is interesting too because anytime

I follow somebody new on threads my feed gets

messed up Yeah, it seems to kind of go all over

the place yeah when you add someone new right

like yeah it Like, so this morning I looked up,

I had a couple people a day that I remember following

on Twitter just to see if they're on there. And

this morning I looked up like the Colorado Avalanche

to see if they had a threads account. And they

do. So I clicked on it and I went back to my

main feed and all there for some stupid reason,

there was no Colorado Avalanche stuff in my thread.

It was all stuff for the Dallas Stars. I was

like, why? Why are you showing me this? Like

I think that goes into advertising in general

Because I've seen ads for some new law that has

come out in Michigan and I live in, Indiana No,

I mean it's but like these aren't I don't think

these were necessarily ads they were posts from

like the Dallas stars No, I wanted to follow

Colorado. Yeah, I want to go back to my feed

to see the people that I follow like what they

posted And now it's just like flooded with. Dallas

stars stuff, and I'm like, you didn't even try

to get this geometrically close or geographically,

excuse me, geographically close to where I am.

Otherwise, you'd be serving me up close blue

jackets crap. Yeah, I don't know it. And I obviously

that only lasts for like a little bit. Like I

refreshed it and it kind of like sort itself

out. But like it's like it took a while. Yeah,

it's like no, I don't I know what you're trying

to do and it's not gonna work So I think the

coolest thing with threads as far as joining

it Whereas I was already on instagram because

it's true instagram is through meta It's through

whatever is that any of the people you were following

already on instagram Are already being followed

by you on threads already So you don't have to

go search out all of those people that you had

already been following on instagram I think that

was the draw. Yeah Yeah, absolutely so like that

that for me was like kind of a I mean, I was

new to it, but I just kind of followed everything

that popped up for Geekcast Radio and some other

stuff. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm still experimenting

with it. I still haven't found a good alternative

to Twitter. Do you guys think Reddit's going

to go away? I have never used Reddit. I never

use it, but I don't see it going away. That's

just funny to read about. on a daily basis. What,

Reddit? Yeah. Just how crazy it is and what they're

going through, because that's another basically

a web experience that was entirely curated by

the moderators of the forums or the subreddits.

I don't know what it was over there, but it was

entirely curated by people that don't even get

paid to do the work. That made it like what it

is and the company thinks they can wrestle it

away from these from these people And that it'll

still be the same product that they're trying

to get, you know IPO on so It's all it's it's

funny watching these companies just go just go

sideways and There's a lot of them doing it now.

Yeah Yeah, I don't understand why people make

like the companies are making the choices that

they make. Like sometimes I can kind of see.

Why people, why companies do things the way they

are and other like I know I can almost always

see why they do it, but I don't understand why

you're doing it because you're just alienating

people or you're you're giving yourself bad.

Pressing bad PR. Yeah, I mean, where I'm kind

of going with that, too, is just on another like

side trip is that. And this only affects me out

of the three of us, I think. But like GM is dropping

support for carplay. Oh, no. I mean, it doesn't.

I mean, I can sympathize me. I mean, I don't

have a modern car, so it doesn't really. It doesn't

surprise me either. But it's like, why? Like,

like you think you can come up with something

better? Like it's it literally just lets people

put maps on their dashboard and play their music

in an in an iPhone type environment. And it's

like. you've had it in your cars for like a decade

and now you're just gonna like, okay, you wanna

take on Apple's, you don't want any of that Apple

ecosystem money, like that's fine, let's just

go buy cars elsewhere. Stuff like that just baffles

me. Especially since it's an auto manufacturer

and I don't think any of them know anything about

UI and software. Like, you can't compete. Like,

why are you even trying? So it's funny, even

though out of the three of us, I don't drive,

I never have driven due to my disabilities and

everything else. I've, I just, it's just not

a thing I will ever able to be able to do. No.

However, I watch a bunch of tech youtubers and

MKBHD is one of them and he has his autofocus

channel and he talks about electric cars and

other cars and everything else and the one thing

he always points out is Not like you just said

none of these car manufacturers know how to put

UI for tech in these cars It's just crazy and

they're all different. We need one uniform thing

for it for the modern, the new cars, whatever,

like whatever is going to work. I don't know

about that, but that's me. Like I Ali asked me,

like, are you like, just don't let this like

going back to this thermostat thing that I don't

don't let this ruin your night. And I'm like,

I'm like, no, I like this stuff. Like I like

learning something new. You know, like. Like,

but granted, I've had, you know, I got a trail

Chevy Blazer last year and I've never used the

infotainment system in that car. Like, I can't.

I'm lucky that I have wireless CarPlay, which

means I just jump in the car and my iPhone shows

up there instead of their trash. Yep. But like,

and I know what their plan is. They're working

on something themselves that they want people

to like subscribe to because they're trying to

get that subscription money. Yeah. Okay, so you

want that subscription money then make something

that's better that people will pay for otherwise

just give everyone the choice of what they want

like I Don't know. Anyways, yeah No, we're talking

about new tech gadgets and everything else and

all this stuff and social media and everything

else and it all goes back to what they want as

far as subscription money and all this and all

that and everything else but like For me, ever

since Karen had gotten sick in late 2020, early

2021 with her liver and her kidneys, I slowly

transitioned, if I could, all of my premium streaming

services to annual billing because I only want

to pay one time per year. I don't want to have

to pay $15 a month here $17 a month there $45

a month there for Netflix or whatever it is.

I'm just using that as a outrageous example,

but like Yeah, I would rather be able to have

either a one -time payment or a yearly payment

Does Netflix have a one annual? No, not to my

knowledge Okay, because I know that like um Allie

and I talked about that too like doing like with

taking our tax returns and just doing annual

subscriptions Mm -hmm for the stuff that like

has it like Disney plus HBO just like getting

out of the way like at the beginning of the year

when you've got the when you know, you've a test

returns coming or something like that and the

reason we didn't do it is because Netflix wasn't

included in that but we still have we're still

gonna get rid of Netflix at the end of the month

after we finished watching the Witcher so Which

feels so weird to me like I can't imagine not

having Netflix and I don't know why Because it's

the original yeah, and I've had it since like

I had it on my Xbox 360 man like In 2007, I remember

like the or eight, maybe it was like that's when

they started like the streaming stuff, like the

watch instantly. Like, yeah. And I just I don't

know. Like, I can't. It's like so weird. I've

had some license to that. I've had I've I've

pretty much had Netflix for as long as I've had

an iPhone, which is like 15, 16 years. It's like,

oh, my God, I can't imagine not having that.

Like, but the thing is, I don't even look at

Netflix on a daily basis. Like We watch just

about everything else until something comes on

Netflix that we want to watch, because Netflix

is just garbage now, for the most part. I go

there for various movies that I want to watch.

It's a Netflix original, so I assume they'll

still keep it up. I don't think they'll ever

get rid of it, but like The Atom Project and

Six Underground, those two movies I like watching

every once in a while. But unless it has something,

any streaming service, unless it has something

I'm going to be watching on a regular -ish basis,

and that's the other thing with me, I don't watch

content the way I used to. Steve's been podcasting,

what is this year, your 16th or 17th year? It's

been since 2006. Oh geez, so you're, yeah, you're

way over that, so. yeah so you're 17 years this

year i'm 15 years this december and i do all

of my stuff because i'm eventually going to record

a podcast about whatever show it is it doesn't

matter like shows movies cartoons whatever it

is comics music whatever I do it for content

for the podcasts. And if a streaming service

doesn't have what I want to watch or what I need

to watch, then why am I going to pay for it?

Like, you know, as awesome as it is to have that,

that old reliable thing that as much as I love

having a not having my, my situation change or

whatever kind of thing, it's like, if you don't

have anything, I'm not interested in watching.

Why am I paying you money? You know what I mean?

Yeah. Oh, I got this. So, but yeah, no, I think

Max, Paramount Plus, Disney, those are the three

that I know that have annual billing. I know

Paramount Plus does because my parents, I'm piggybacking

off my parents for that. Yep. I'm pretty sure

Peacock does, but I don't know. What is crazy

to me is that Xfinity Just which they're all

owned by Comcast. Xfinity is Comcast, whatever,

but Xfinity did away with having Peacock as part

of the plans now. Well, they own NBC Universal.

Right. I know. But that's what I'm saying. Like

Peacock is the NBC Univer - Well, it's not the

NBC Universal app. It's one of them. It's the

NBC branded app. And it's just crazy to me not

to have that included in my internet and Xfinity

Flex and all that stuff, everything else. It's

just crazy what they give us, what they think

we want, and then what they think, oh well, we're

gonna screw everybody's life up and remove this

one thing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well,

it's about consolidation. True. A lot of them

like Hulu's going away at the end of the year

because it's being swallowed up into Disney Plus.

You know what? Honestly, as much as I do like

a lot of the stuff that I have on Hulu and everything

else, they're, as we've said already, they'll

offer annual billing on some other plans, but

they don't offer it on the whatever the no ad.

two screens, whatever the plan was that was $11

.99 and it's like $15 .99 for no ads now. So

honestly, you know what? If it's all going to

be on Disney Plus anyway, I'm perfectly fine.

I'm grandfathered in on that for a while. So

what are you going to do? Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, we use Hulu quite a lot. That's probably

the other thing. And I'm trying to get my wife

to let us keep it. When it's up in September

is we got a trial for YouTube premium. Oh premium

Once you go premium, you'll never go back because

you I I agree with you because like I can't tell

you how much nicer it's been to just Watch it

not have ads and I have to hit the skip ad button.

Yep like it's Game changer. Hello. Like I think

that's what we might replace Netflix with is

YouTube premium Mm -hmm. I mean, there's a lot

of movies for free on there, too. I don't care.

I don't care. We there's enough stuff that we

watch like like it probably goes like I'd probably

say half of what we watch in the house comes

off of YouTube. Yeah. And then the rest of it

is broken up between like Hulu, HBO, Netflix

and ESPN plus like it's in its so it's we get

way more value from YouTube premium than we do

from like Netflix. You know, yeah, absolutely

I went premium last year Not no, I forget I I've

had YouTube premium for a couple years now and

I Just finally gets and look I know everyone

listening to this that may or may not be a YouTube

creator if they are I'm sorry It's not about

the YouTube creators not getting ad revenue off

of us watching it. It's more for me because I

If I am paying for content, that content better

have no ads. End of story. And YouTube, you don't

pay for it, obviously, unless you want to, kind

of thing. But some of the YouTube ads, some of

the ad placements are just... If someone is in

the middle of telling me about an iPhone 17 whatever...

No, I know. Somebody's doing a bulleted video

on the new features of iOS 17, because even though

I'm not an Apple person, I still keep up with

what's going on. And I still like watching people

talk about this stuff. And their conversation

and what they're telling me is interrupted by

a YouTube ad? Nope, not going to happen. Do you

know John Hyatt's songs? Maybe you know them

from being covered by Roseanne Cash, Three Dog

Nine, the Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris. Eric

Clapton, BB King, Jeff Healy, Bonnie Raitt, or

literally hundreds of others. Maybe you have

some of his albums on your shelf, or in your

cowhorned Cadillac right now. I'm Jesse Jackson.

And I'm Sylvan Graf. And we're going to dive

in from A to Z. Join us on the Perfectly Good

Podcast. We're going to discuss all of your favorites

and uncover some forgotten gems, from Aces Up

Your Sleeve to Zero House. rate and debate every

John Hyatt song on the Perfectly Good Podcast.

Have a little faith. And some of those mid -rolls,

you cannot skip. Some of them you can't. I've

got a browser extension that skips them for me.

Well, that's good. We use the Apple TV for that,

and we've been able to skip just about every,

unless it's like a really short ad, like one

of those little like five seconds, like it takes

you longer to click the button than it does for

the ad to play. Like they don't let us skip those.

But we've been able to skip everything else on

there, which is one of the reasons why we just

kind of like put up with it for so long. But.

I don't know, like, I mean, they still get something,

though, right? For you watching those. I assume

they do. I have no idea. I don't know how. They

have to get some kind of revenue from that. It

might not be a lot, but they have to get something.

I'm sure there's plenty more people out there

that are not us that are not paying for premium.

I'm sure there may be plenty of people that do

pay for it. But I mean, YouTube is the single

giant of video uploading services for everyday

people kind of thing, not just tech YouTubers,

not just experts, not just specified people that

create content. I am sure there are plenty of

people that don't pay for premium. Oh, yeah.

Wholeheartedly. Yeah, and I guarantee there's

a majority of people that don't pay for it and

there's other ways that they do it. Yeah, which

I heard not too long ago, they're coming up with

a way to circumvent that. Yeah, unless they disable

the developer tools, there's not really a way

to do that. I mean, they think there is, so that's

all that matters. I've gone into the code successfully

and ripped things out of even the the live streams

of something that, you know, you pay for the

live stream and you're like, well, I want to

have access to this. And they're like, well,

you get access for the next month. And then after

that, it's gone forever. So this information

is good. Sorry, Steve. Well, and so like I've

I reverse. engineer it so I can get in and get

the file. One, if I paid for it, I'm gonna make

sure I get it. Two, I don't know. Some of the

time I think it's a bit ridiculous, but I get

everybody's gonna make money off of it, but same

time, something a bit, yeah, I don't know. According

to Google, who owns YouTube, This is as of almost

a year ago September of 2022 YouTube surpassed

80 million music and premium subscribers globally

So there's 80 million people That subscribe to

it Versus I don't know what the number would

be that don't subscribe to it because it doesn't

say you know what all of these creators some

of them have premium services that you can pay

for like I know MKBHD has all kinds of merch

I know he has a specific premium section on his

Discord. I know a lot of people do Patreon and

other things. I'll gladly support the creators

directly, if I can, kind of thing. Yeah, I've

done that. There's only one Patreon that I subscribe

to. It's weird because we've got people that

we've watched on YouTube for And we still watch

them today, but we've been watching like we've

watched. Practically, I'll say 95 % of all of

their content we have consumed and we regularly

go back and just put it on the background for

like noise. Like that's how much we like. We

like these guys and. They have a patron that

we've just never subscribed to. So and I don't

know why we've talked about it and then we just

don't do it. Yeah, so I'm too poor Yeah, that's

what I mean when I say if I'm able to I have

a specific budget per month and right now I'm

currently doing two patreon's and I'm getting

the benefits that I want out of those and The

rest of it is I don't know so Yeah, all right

other technology things gents. I've been messing

around with my 3d printer quite a bit i'm about

to finish printing my stasis pod it'll be done

tonight yay been working on that for over a week

so that's it's finally printing the last piece

i ran on a filament of a particular color uh

which is not why i used orange for part of it

that was just because I have to paint it something

similar. So I just was like, I might as well

use that color while I waited. And then the gray,

I was waiting for that to come in so I could

print the rest of the pod. But yeah, I assembled

part of it this morning and then I took it back

apart and just glued it. Now I'm in the painting

process other than the final piece I'm waiting

on. So, but another week I should be done with

painting it. Finally. Awesome. Very cool. And

then I'm going to print the enterprise in a bigger

scale because the one that I printed kind of

turned out like crap just because the angle it

printed at it. Some of the I sanded it down.

I have like a I have a Dremel tool. So I which

I forgot I even had until I was trying to fix

some of what printed badly and And then I was

like, oh yeah, I can fix that. And so I tweaked

it the best I could and then I kind of, I like

spray paint and my wife messes with me about

it because I'll sooner spray paint something

than actually paint it. So anyways, I spray painted

the ship with like a very dark metallic gray

like and It looked fine Overall, but I realized

that it was entirely too dark Do any other paint

work on and I was like I probably should have

printed that white and then done all the detail

work because I want to try and do like the sticker

job for it and kind of you know do the I Want

to torture myself basically with the paint job

so I printed the Enterprise from Picard Season

3. So yeah, I want to print the Enterprise D

and E and then the one from Picard. But I have

to wait until I get done with the stasis pod

and then find good enough files to print. And

this thing's almost done. But yeah, I've enjoyed

having a 3d printer getting it to print right

has been the biggest pain but since I've Since

we last recorded I figured out a lot of it and

managed to print the entire stasis pod so That

is awesome very cool very cool. Yep So yeah Wolverine

is in the blue and yellow spandex finally is

he? Anybody else excited about it? Somebody said

to me that I don't know if I don't think it was

you Mike, but somebody said I Don't think the

Hugh Jackman Wolverine Character would want to

be in that like he wants to be like wasn't it

a joke in the first film? Didn't Mars didn't

say it didn't Cyclops say it to him. What were

you expecting blue and yellow spandex? Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, but the the joke about this is is there

There's like a Planet of the Apes moment That

they have them screenshot with Deadpool and Wolverine.

And it's got the 20th Century Fox logo collapsed

where the Statue of Liberty was. Yeah. And so

I have a feeling that they're going to, you know,

he's going to discover him and kind of pull him

out of that universe, more or less. Oh, God.

It I, I don't know, like. As bad as I can see

the film going to some regards, I'm kind of excited

for it too because I just like how he portrays

it and plus those two work together really well.

Yeah. So here's something interesting I find

that it just kind of, it's very interesting to

me that Deadpool 3 is being filmed under the

same conditions that Wolverine Origins was. Oh

no. A writer strike? Yep. I just, there's something

fitting about that, I think. Well, and then,

and then they're bringing back a striker. Oh

god. What is it? X2, yes. Yep. Yeah, he's coming

back. I wonder if they're going to purposely

crap on it. The only thing that I really have

a problem with is, um, what you said about, uh,

the, the, the plan of the 20th century Fox thing.

That's just too, there's something too on the

nose about that. I think, I don't know. Like

that's no crazy. It might work. I'm sure I'll

see it anyways. It's just one of those things

where it's like, I mean, I get it. It's Deadpool.

That's what he that's his that's his thing. But

like, I feel like you can only take that so far

before it just gets annoying. Well, I think this

is the way they're going to this is the send

off. Like, I don't think there'll be another

one. I think this was because this was kind of

like the way to get Hugh Jackman to come back

to the role. Yeah. That's the only, I mean, I'm

not saying it's the only reason why Deadpool

3 is getting made, but that's the only reason

why that it will be the last one because it's

Ryan and Hugh. Well, and they didn't want to

take away from like Logan. But I feel like Logan's

the better movie to go out on. I don't know.

I can't say anything about Deadpool 3, but I

do agree with the sentiment of Logan being the

better film. Uh, cause that was really good.

I mean, as much as I enjoyed it, I, I like the

fact that they're getting a redo at the origins

almost with the two of them. But like, okay.

So normally I will defend this about the whole,

okay. Origins need to be told because not everyone

is us. I know, but it's not an origin. No, no,

no. I know, but I'm saying like, My point is,

is that it's the third movie, like, yay, the

yellow costume, but other than that, like, what,

after the second film, where can the Deadpool

character go? Like, is the sky the limit for

his character in the films, or does he have a

specific point to get to? I think they're gonna

break the multiverse. It's Deadpool, of course

they would. I'm tired of this multiverse crap.

Me too. It makes everything so messy. I forget

which, I was on a podcast or a video cast or

a YouTube, I forget where it was, but I was talking

about the fact that we've had multiverses in

the last 15 years, 16 years, 17 years for so

long now. I miss the age old thing of having

one film, beginning, middle and end. And then

that's it. And then maybe two years later they

come up with a sequel, but it's not guaranteed,

it's not hinted at, it's not whatever, you just

never know kind of thing. I miss that single,

and there are still single films out there these

days, but most of them are so niche, it's beyond

the scope of what the mainstream stuff is. I

think we are hopefully heading back in that direction

because I think everybody is kind of getting

tired of the multiverses I think it's just getting

burned out like in general, but I I'm more so

excited for for Deadpool 3 because of the interaction

that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman get to have

and then you just know it's gonna be fun between

the two of them and seeing what they can get

away with. Granted, I feel like they won't get

a lot of that because with the writer's strike,

they're not allowed to ad lib. And the writer's

strike, they're not allowed to. So granted, that

means the movie goes to a halt anyway. Well,

it should have halted. I mean, it should have

halted today, too. Yeah, because of the actual

strike. Yeah, so. So yeah, I mean we'll see what

happens. I mean, I'm I'm kind of bummed about

it because like that just means we're gonna be

in one of those Scenarios again where everything

is kind of up in the air Was it two weeks ago

or was it us that I said this that SDCC whatever

year it was Where Marvel released faces five

and six they blew the wad on that? Yeah, because

okay Well, the reason why, you know, because

again, so we had the pandemic that delayed everything.

They're now pushing back everything anyway because

of all of the delays. And now, like Steve just

said, with the writer's strike, that's going

to like right now, Deadpool is scheduled for

May 3rd of next year. Deadpool 3 is. I don't

think it's going to happen unless it's already

done. Well, it's not. Yeah. My thing is, is the

writer's strike. I have a feeling, and now the

actors strike, I don't think we're going to see

any of these programs that we're seeing into

that make the light of day just because everything

shut down. I think it was funny, I think it was

Bob Iger was like, I just don't understand why

they're Going on strike. This is like the worst

opportunity time. It's like well, maybe for you

Like and then I said this is like I've been looking

into the strikes over the last day and a half

or so and From what I can tell from what I've

looked at and from several actors that I've seen

online like I See at least I've seen at least

two different posts from voice actress Jennifer

Hale where she is expressly saying in posts,

in images, in everything, unless you get her

express written permission, you do not have permission

to use her voice or anything with AI, et cetera.

Like, look, if that's what all this is about,

which it is. A lot of it has to do with that.

Yeah. Because the studios are trying to have

AI write the stories now and use their canned

footage to AI train it to replace them. Speaking

of, have you guys seen the new Black Mirror episode

on Netflix? Nope, I don't watch Black Mirror.

They literally have, one of the newest episodes

is literally about that. Isn't that what whatever

film, yeah. Just read the plot synopsis for a

certain IMF movie and I'm like, oh my god, it's

like real life on screen Joan is awful. The episode

is called Joan is awful on the episode It's it's

literally that that that's what but it's it's

taken to the extreme basically, it's a it so

The streaming service in the episode is called

Streamberry. I don't know how Netflix let them

do this. But basically what happens is when you

sign up for the Streamberry service, you sign

over your life and your likeness and they're

able, they can do whatever, they can AI generate

whatever they want off of you. So they start

making Basically, it's they they make a show

called Joan is awful, but Joan is a real person

And it just kind of like spins out of control

from there and they and it's like and you think

about just the ramifications of like anybody

that signs up They have the the legal right to

do that. So they were able to like AI generate

celebrities and Yeah, it's that's so that's so

crazy that they I can't believe Netflix let them

do that. Yeah, that's nuts. But I may make the

episode anyways like that. That's that's crazy.

But yeah, I and more power to them, but I just

can't. I'm sitting here going like, well, what

can I do? Can I just like not if I can just not

go to the movies like because that ends up hurting

them, the studios. But how many people will actually

do that? Yeah, but see, that's the thing, right?

If you go like, well, it's just me, it's just

my $20. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to guess the

ramifications, I guess. Yeah. I went to the movies

years ago, but that was more so just, I don't

have time. But I feel like that's like that's

like any type of activist activism, right? Or

like any type of like boycott that you might

want to like participate in it's like it at the

end of the day It's unless you're like in like

a community of people. It's probably just gonna

be you taking that stand, right? So um But that's

it's where it comes down to like do you do you

have the the willpower to make that stand? You

know, like it doesn't matter like like what do

you think it's gonna do? I mean anyone can say

that about any type of I don't know what word

I'm looking for here, but - Campaign. Activism.

Campaign, activism, what have you? What do you

have? What little bit that you contribute is,

why do you think that's going to matter? Well,

it matters to the individual, right? It matters

to the individual, and honestly, if enough individuals

get together and - Like I remember as a kid my

mom and everybody else under the Sun if something

wasn't going right with the If something didn't

go right everybody was like start a letter campaign

Everybody did letter campaigns back in the 70s

80s and early 90s like write your congressman

write this write that and some of it worked most

of it didn't Right. Well, I mean, that's what

I'm saying though. Like it's like it Just because

you don't see other people doing it or there

aren't other people around us. Yeah, it doesn't

mean it doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't mean it

doesn't work. It's not happening. But I'm saying

like that's usually like the, well, what do you

think your little one -off, you know, they're

not just because they're not going to get your

20 bucks. That doesn't matter. Well, enough people

don't give their 20 bucks. Yeah, exactly. So

you shouldn't be deterred just because you're

the one person that wants to take a stand. There

are there are probably other people out there

where there's where there's enough to make a

difference is a different story. But you shouldn't

you know, people shouldn't be deterred from taking

a stance just because they might be the only

person in their friend group willing to take

that stand. Well, the thing is, is I. I completely

agree with why they're striking if that's like

a hundred percent the reason why they're doing

it, because. I don't want my voice taken, you

know, because I mean, there's nothing to stop

them from taking podcasters voices and or YouTubers

or whatever and saying, well, they endorsed it

because, you know, they they did this, you know,

or they, you know, and it's like, well, I never

said that. Well, we have audio that says you

did. So it's funny you say that. And Mike, I'm

going to go to you since you're the Apple expert

of the three of us. I've seen videos in the last

couple of days, like I mentioned, the iOS 17

update. Have you received the iOS 17 update yet?

I do. I've had it. I've been using it for about

a month. Okay. All right. Well, I keep up, but

I don't keep, I'm not as fast as everybody else

is. So anyway, they have this voice modulation.

What's the thing now, the new thing in the iOS

17 for the voice dictation? It's an accessibility

feature. Okay. And I'm not quite sure of the

use case for it. See, the thing is, it's not

something that I'm going to use, so I haven't

really watched a video on it. I'm well aware

of what you're talking about, and I haven't set

it up myself, but I think it's just like you

can train the phone to speak for you, but I'm

trying to figure out who that's supposed to give

a voice to. So I think it's better speech dictation

for, like I use like, I'll do this as an example

on the podcast and I'll just send it to you guys

in Facebook Messenger. Like I can hit my microphone

on my Google Pixel 6 Pro. Hey guys, recording

the podcast. Duh. And I can just send that. So

instead of typing that to you guys, I just say

it. It shows up. It's a dictation type of thing.

I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Who's the Boss or

Maybe it was him and MKBHD that both have a video

about this. I remember Mr. Who's the Boss doing

it, Aaron Mayani. I remember him talking about

it. But they were also talking about it in the

sense of that it sounds like their voices are

now becoming an AI voice kind of thing. Like

it's a your voice. Like instead of having Siri

be the voice that Siri is, Siri could now be

your voice kind of thing. That just creeps me

out. No, that's not you're not replacing Siri

and that's not yeah, it's It's not it doesn't

help with Apple says the personal voice can provide

valuable assistance to people facing challenges

with speech due to conditions like ALS or Similar

ailments that allows them to reserve their unique

voice and communicate more effortlessly Basically,

it's text to speech in your voice. It's not speech

to text, it's text to speech. I got it now. I

just got it backwards. I think what it is, if

you have symptoms where you could potentially

lose your voice or it's going, you can use this

to create it and then you can text and it's you

rather than it's sounding like a like some random

AI thing. That's why it's under an accessibility

feature. You're not replacing Siri. It's not

helping. Now, dictation is improved with iOS

17. That is a thing, yes. But no, personal voice

is an accessibility feature that is text to speech

in your voice rather than something that Apple

put on the phone, basically. Well, that's cool,

because some of those AI voices, like on Instagram's

reels and stuff, they're just creepy. Yeah. And

I haven't set that up. Maybe I should set that

up. Maybe I'll do the entire next podcast with

my personal voice. Turn in two weeks from today,

folks. That would be funny. Oh, man. Oh, AI.

It's going to be the death of us. All right.

I think the last thing we want to briefly bring

up is the totally tubular trailer talk between

Ahsoka and Wonka and I don't remember one of

those we had I think you mentioned blue beetle.

I yeah, I mentioned that I am like I know it's

interesting looking Yeah, the way it looks is

why it grabbed me it has nothing to do with the

blue Like I know somewhat about the blue beetle

comic book character and everything else, but

I've never had any interest in Blue beetle in

general. I just like like it. It should look

shiny. That's all it was for me. So I think how

do I say this without sounding like a completely

awful person because I don't mean to sound like

a completely awful person. I want to see. I don't

think it's that bad. If it's that bad, then we

just edit it out. So I'll let you guys be the

judge. Okay, I want to see Blue Beetle for the

same reason that I want to see or that I wanted

to see like Black Panther because I'm not represented.

Like I want to support. Right. Yeah, that's not

bad. And I'm fine. I'm one of those people that's

fine with like I don't I don't need to see me

again. Like I don't. That's boring. I don't I

don't want that. And I don't so like that that

that to me is the most interesting thing about

Blue Beetle. And I know like a little bit about

it from some animated series. I don't know which

one he was in. He's been in multiple, but I'd

have to actually look it up. And I'm too lazy

to do that right now. Yeah. So it's not that

big of a deal, obviously. But I think was he

not in the Arrowverse at some point? I think

they hinted at them. They mentioned like cord

industries and some other stuff, but they never

actually had him show up. They were going to

do booster gold too at one point and that. OK,

so yeah, I'm like I again I'm I'm all for it.

The only thing again like we said on the last

episode, like does it even freaking matter? Like

I don't. Man is supposed to be the start right

Superman legacy or whatever It is is supposed

to be the start of James Gunn's universe. So

is Blue Beetle this final thread of the Blue

Beetle is a part of this is a part of what's

coming. Oh, okay I mean in like with what you're

saying about that you're not represented that

it's other You know, whatever represented that's

fine. I just None of that really ever met like

for me when it comes to conflict characters.

It's about like the character of blue beetle

it really was it was always about the super part

not the Not the Clark Kent part kind of thing

for me. So yeah, I Mean, that's that's why I'm

really not that interested in it. However Sure,

I mean like I said, ooh shiny. It looks really

shit like and I liked the trailer I liked what

they did in the trailer and I've seen several

different versions of blue beetle over the years

in certain I think he was in Young Justice I

think that's where I saw it. That's probably

where he was. Yeah, I remember him being in there

and I remember him being in some other stuff

off and on That's the animation style that is

jumping through my head right now that I can't

place. Go Young Justice. Gotta love it. And then

Star Wars and Ahsoka. You've lost all hope, haven't

you? I haven't lost all hope. I watched the trailer.

And interesting aside, I watched the trailer

with my wife who then looked at me and like...

try to get me to share my opinion first. And

I'm like, no, you go first, because she generally

kind of looked a little excited, which is weird

because it's Star Wars. She's not a Star Wars

person. No. And bless her heart. I've been trying

to drag her kicking and screaming through the

Clone Wars and stuff like that. Because for me.

I wouldn't like I wouldn't care about Star Wars

right now if it wasn't for Clone Wars and Rebels.

Like if Dave Loney is great. Yes. And but like

if if if those shows did not exist, I would not

care. But like, well, Star Wars would have ended

for me with Episode three, right? Like if because

there's that huge gap in there. like that ten

that decade long gap where all all there was

was Clone Wars and rebels and luckily that stuff

was actually like good. I mean I've said before

on numerous other occasions there are entire

episodes of Clone Wars that retroactively make

the prequels better movies 100 % I just finished

late last year. Yeah, and And and rebels is just

an extension on that and I mean bad batch too

But see bad batches now like like yeah, but if

I hadn't like if those shows two shows hadn't

existed I wouldn't have cared about Mandalorian.

I wouldn't have cared about Episode seven eight

and nine. I wouldn't have cared about you know,

anything that came after that stuff and So with

that going into a soca like a soca is probably

my favorite Star Wars character because You know

spoiler alert. I mean, she basically tells the

Jedi order to go f themselves. Yep Which endeared

her to me and is one of the most controversial

things about like Episode 9 when she's in there

at the end and it's her voice, you know Cheering

ray on gag me with a spoon, please. Yes, I know

But like I was like people were like, oh, she's

a Jedi again. I'm like she better Frickin' nappy.

Like, I will be angry if that's the case. Like,

no thank you. I just blame J .J. Abrams. I don't

think. I don't think Filoni had any say in it.

I think they were just like, oh, let's throw

in this other voice because absolutely, because

nine. I can't watch nine. I cannot. It's a terrible

film. I watched it once and I don't even remember

it. I remember eight even less. And I liked episode

eight episode eight remind me of clone wars and

rebels and that's why I liked episode eight because

it it wasn't afraid to take a stand and change

something for the sake of good storytelling and

then nine like completely trashed everything

that eight had done and lead so far into the

fan service that they didn't even like they they

reinvented the wheel like there's stuff in In

Rebels, that better explains things that happened

in episode nine, but they decided not to do it.

And like. What's her face, Carrie Russell? Yeah,

in nine. Like, why wasn't she Sabine? Like, yeah,

right. Like she was her character was was nobody

like like she could have been Sabine. from Rebels

and it would have blown everyone's frickin mind.

But you just had to cast Carrie Russell because

you're J .J. Abrams and you make her. Do everything

is so unforgettable. I don't even I don't even

know. I cannot watch that movie. I don't own

that movie. I own every other Star Wars movie.

But that one like and I can't even bring myself

to buy like the Skywalker like legacy like the

Skywalker like saga set like because of that

movie. Like I don't want that movie. Anyways,

that's an aside. So like the Clone Wars and Rebels,

they set the stakes so high. For me, for what

Star Wars can be or or I feel like it should

be. And the first season of Mandalorian was like

their. Season two, like. Lost it in season three

was. I don't know what season three was a cameo

fest. Yeah, Season 3 was not only a cameo fest,

but from what? I don't remember if it was Favreau

or if it was Filoni that said this, but they

were trying. The goal was to bring the larger

Star Wars universe to Mando. And my thought is,

no, keep that Skywalker crap away from this.

This is good. This is awesome. This is cool.

We only have hints of the Empire. We only have,

like, Moff Gideon. Great. Fine. Sure. Bring Gus

Fring from Breaking Bad into the Star Wars universe.

Make him a badass. Whatever. That's fine. That's

good. But like, the rest of it was like, why

do we have to drag all these other people in?

I don't know, man. It just... And then Boba Fett

was garbage. And Obi -Wan was garbage. So...

Obi -Wan was better with the fan edit. Yeah,

I don't have time after I wasted all my time

watching The good thing about Obi -Wan was I

forget what her actual name is cuz all is everybody

actually just calls her as little Leia But whoever

plays little Leia that young actress that was

great I guess if you discount the first episode

where people are just falling all over themselves

trying to catch her. Okay, well... I'm saying

she, as playing a young Leia, that's what I think

is great. The performance of her, not necessarily

the plot and what she's caught up in. Well, the

plot was convoluted. It could have been just

a one -off film. Without way, which is what it

was going to be and then it isn't that like the

first episode of that They're the first two episodes

of that show that series are you don't even need

to watch you You don't like you could start with

episode 3 and watch the last four episodes and

you're fine like anyways, so I had like So, I've

been excited for Ahsoka since she showed up in

Mandalorian and then, you know, they're like,

oh yeah, it's basically like a spiritual successor

to Rebels and I'm like, huh? Okay. I'm paying

attention with what's going on. Oh, Sabine's

there, Chopper's there, Hera's there. I'm like,

okay, Thrawn, I'm paying attention. And then

they're going to have Ezra? Yes, that's fine.

I like Ezra. Well, they gotta bring him because

he was lost with Thrawn at the end of Rebels

Yeah, so I'm just like I'm like I'm I'm on board

with this and I just that this is the one that

could just Asoka is the one that could like crush.

I think Star Wars for me If they do it poorly,

yes, it's gonna make or break whether or not

I watch any other Star Wars content like ever

yeah, I don't Yeah, I don't ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha She will like I can drag her kicking and screaming

through like all of Clone Wars because she doesn't

want to just watch the episodes out of context

like like just the ones that she needs because

I and years ago I I made the mistake of trying

to do that like getting her to watch Justice

League the animated series I was I picked and

choose I was picking and choosing the The episodes

to show her because they're not all great. Yeah,

and When she realized I was doing that she was

like, oh no, and so we never went back to watching

it again So that's like what happened with me

in in Star Trek TNG with my wife Yeah, like my

wife won't let me curate like a best of or an

abridged version or like these are the only episodes

you need to know to get to understand Rebels

so she's willing to like sit through all of it.

And so we've got anyway She's she's she seemed

a little more excited about Continuing our watch

through of those now that she's seen the Ahsoka

trailer. So When did Rebels run through wasn't

that was it 20? When did Rebels start? It it

ended in like right before Rise of Skywalker,

didn't it? Okay, I think like I I watched it

when it hit what I it was the first thing I watched

when Disney Plus Disney Plus came on. Yeah, I

Remember what and this is again. So this is why

I'm asking is because It ran from anyway when

the L 2014 really 2014 four seasons so 2014 to

2018 Wow 2019 whatever so 2014 I remember trying

to watch this show on whichever Disney thing

they had it on back that I forget if it was the

xd xd okay well whatever that's not the point

the point is I tried watching it and like all

television networks they always move the action

cartoons around so I never could catch it but

what episodes I did catch of it I could not stand

Ezra. He was such a whiny girl. Ezra is annoying

in the first season. Yeah, that's the only season

I actually tried to watch at the time because

they kept, like I said, they kept moving it around.

There's a there's a time jump between season

one and season two. All right. So yeah. But the

thing I really liked about Rebels is they really

went in the Ralph McQuarrie. um art style like

they they totally used all like that that artwork

that he had done and that's what they used for

you know their their character designs and like

the lightsabers and stuff like that which is

why they look more like rapiers than um fluorescent

tubes yep uh but also um in my opinion uh the

scariest version of darth vader like I feel like

Darth Vader looks the way that, so the Ralph

McQuarrie, I hope I'm getting that guy's name

right, I think I am, but his rendition of his

drawings of what Darth Vader should look like

are far scarier than what Darth Vader actually

looks like. Yeah, the concept designs for Vader

were way... The concept designs for everybody

were way scarier looking than what they actually

ended up being. Right, and I feel like that is...

The Vader in Rebels is much closer to his design,

his concept design for the character, which makes

him more terrifying than the on -screen version

of Darth Vader, who I've never really felt was...

Feel like every other Sith Lord was with that

with the exception of Dooku was scarier than

Darth Vader The only yeah, like the only I really

like about him is the voice And then some of

his actions were scary but most of them weren't

because it's Just just wasn't The the sarlacc

was scarier kind of but not really I like that

Like that Star Wars meme that goes around every

time there's like a new show announced where

it's like Star Wars has an entire planet full

of demonic S &M witches. Where are we gonna set

this one Tatooine? Yeah, so like we said in the

Facebook chat and I will I I will say this until

I die Star Wars is better the farther away it

gets from Skywalker garbage 100 % I agree because

here's the thing we've told that story for the

past 50 years almost That's one of the things

I cried foul on like when the it was in the It

was like when the DVD version for the original

movies came out like the special features or

something there was something like oh Star Wars

has always been about has always been the story

of Anakin and Vader and all that stuff and I'm

like you're such a freaking liar Yeah, like I

don't like I you I At least I never thought that

like watching the first three movies. I never

thought it was about Darth Vader. I Never so

like I don't The original trilogy was more about

the mysterious part of Darth Vader like he used

to be Anakin Skywalker like that whole what happened

to my father thing? That was the mysterious and

cool part about it, but the actual story in the

original trilogy It's surrounded by a moisture

farmer who becomes a light tube wielding mind

controlling moron? I don't know. Sure. I don't

know. I guess I don't know. But yeah, I'm so

over the whole if there was never another skywalker,

anything, I would be perfectly fine. I would,

too, except there's going to be more. And and

I I told my buddy because he's a Star Wars guy

and we we joke about this stuff all the time

cuz you know It's like it's so mad about it.

But like they announced like the ray Movie, which

I'm totally fine with. I'd probably go see it's

a skywalker What's that? Except she's a skywalker,

right? but I probably go see it just cuz it's

ray and I never had a problem with ray and I

just would I I don't get why people had a problem

with her. So anyways, I But there was another

one that they announced and it was like supposed

to take place like what 10 ,000 years before

the Skywalker stuff and be like the origin of

the force and all that stuff, which awesome.

Cool. And then there was an article I read like

in the last two weeks that they said there will

be thematic connections between this this movie

and Ray's movie. And I'm like the first Skywalker.

I was like, if you show me a cave painting. Of

a Skywalker of a Skywalker I will walk out of

the movie theater. No, I will never watch it

another Star Wars movie thing again, I like your

10 ,000 years early and I don't know if you guys

have ever read the the thron books So the thron

books mention it's an entire So there is one

thing I will I will accept there's one version

of a Skywalker that I will accept in the throne

books they talk about the edge of the galaxy

and Being able to hide out there and all that

stuff and there is a raise of people called Skywalker's

But it's it's a group of people like they don't

go into like a whole lot of detail about them

They just mentioned them, but it's not like They

have no link to Anakin Skywalker. They're just

called And the fact they're not called they're

they're Skywalker's not yeah Yeah, it's a plural

thing so it's because it's a whole like racer

group or society of People that live in these

like the unformed regions of space in the Star

Wars universe. It's like again You have all this

stuff to play with and you want to go play in

a sandbox Yeah, no No more sandbox for us, please.

No, we're always going. There will always be

a Tatooine. I know there. There can always be

a Tatooine. That's fine. Everyone liked Hoth.

Why have we gone back to Hoth? Oh, no, that was

a cool plan. OK, speaking of again, remind me

if I've said this before, because I don't freaking

remember. When I finished. Clone Wars. those

final what was it Mike five six parts that final

arc of stories where She's abandoned on whatever

planet like they crash land on the planet and

then time passes She buries her sabers in the

whatever in the snow or whatever else and then

like time passes invader shows up and picks up

her sabers at the end I Literally thought that

was Hoff. I was hoping against hope it would

have been But it's not yeah, I mean but that's

also like See I don't That kind of reminds me

of like the beginning of episode 9 where they're

fighting where Kyler ends fighting in that forest

and then you find out that that's Mustafar It's

like where have you ever shown us that that's

what there are trees on Mustafar Exactly. Yeah,

get out of here Nonsense absolute nonsense So

I don't know. I'm cautiously optimistic, but

it could go really bad for me in Star Wars if

Ahsoka is not what it should be. When does she

come into Rebels? The end of the first season.

Oh, okay. There's a key element that happens

in... Yeah. So, time jump from first to second.

and less douchey Ezra. Okay, good. Then I might

actually... Not that I wasn't gonna give it a

try, but like... Plus, Kanan goes a long way

to bouncing out Ezra. Good. That's good. Yeah,

that first season I cared about every other character

on that Kanan, Zeb, everybody else except Ezra.

I wanted him to just fall into a pit on Mustafar.

For the first season That's what my thing again

back then back in 2014 I only ever saw like one

or two or three episodes of that first season

I had so I'm not trying to sit here and judge

rebels on the I'm just trying to make sure I

have the character Whatever of what I don't like

to where I'm like, okay fine. I'll I'll suffer

through one character Wow, you've grown. Hey.

Hey, I'm trying This isn't the TFG1 mic I know.

I'm trying. I still couldn't get past the first

15 minutes of Game of Thrones, though. They did

nothing but walk. That's alright. Well, wait.

Have you seen Lord of the Rings? I'm sorry the

episode's turned into a longevity, Steve, but

I'm the one editing this stuff anyway. I have

to give you context. This is quick. In 94, I

was 14. I got a copy of Fellowship of the Ring.

First, I was 14 years old in the 90s. First time

I ever read anything like it. I could not get

past the sentence, Bilbo's eleventy -first birthday.

He's turning 111 years old. Like I understand

it's Tolkien's language and all that but like

ever since then it's just never been my thing

So no, I've never seen any of the Lord of the

Rings stuff Okay, so alright Steve, I think we've

Blaster shot this podcast into the ground So

you're saying Han shot first, okay All righty.

So, thank you for listening to this episode of

Altered Geek. I have been Steve Megadron, and

joining me are... JFJ and Mike. And Mike Ruthens

of Powers. And you can get ahold of us on the

website geekcastradio .com. You can find us on

various social platforms. at SCP 21 on Twitter,

but Steve Phillips VO elsewhere. I'm at TF2 and

Mike on Twitter and it's pretty much TF2 and

Mike almost everywhere except I think Instagram

is TF2 and Mike presents. Yeah, as I said earlier,

you can find me on just about any social media

platform. It's BoothNinja81. Whether or not I

have the app installed to get the notifications

is another story. Hey, whatever works. So until

next time, get altered geeky with the Altered

Geeks!