Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Hey everybody! Podcast #83 is online!

You can download the show directly: CTAS 83
You can subscribe to the feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the pickle player! (Scroll down to that green thingie on the sidebar!)

Here's what we talked about...


Mike is paying attention to nonsensical figures of speech

He's constantly correcting his roommate

"Yeah, no"

"Bated" Breath

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! Japanese Cheerleading Game, the most ridiculously fun game ever!

Thanks to Mur Lafferty for showing me the game!

Zee and Zed have retired from podcasting.

Sad to see them go, but glad that they decided to have an actual goodbye show instead of just podfading.

We do plan to resume our Survivor-casts in the fall.

I'm mock-annoyed that Mike didn't go to see The Descent yet.

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Podcast #82 is now live, or at least, online.

You can download the file directly: CTAS 82
You can subscribe to the feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the Pickle Player. Check the right hand sidebar. Also on the sidebar is my new MyChingo, which allows you to leave me audiocomments right here from the webpage!

Here's what we talked about...

Distrust of photos and photo-medium

Criss Angel's Mindfreak TV show, and how to address people who try to simply dismiss everything as "trick photography" as though there is no skill involved in the presentation.

It's not ACTUALLY magic!

The fun comes from admiring the art of the performance.

I can fool four-year-olds really well.

The show occasionally features editing cuts or fast-forwards that are frustrating, but occasionally a whole trick is shown in an unbroken shot.

Some people feel like the real techniques of magic tricks are "cheating" somehow instead of the whole point.

In response, the show has started doing small tricks and then showing how they are done.

Often we can guess in a general way what KIND of trick it is, but actually spotting it can still be hard.

Mentalism is cool, but not when people don't acknowledge that it's a trick. (Like John Edwards)

Penn and Teller are awesome.

David Blaine special where he goes to Haiti. Because there is so much "witchcraft" and such in their culture, they tended to believe he was actually reading their minds instead of doing a trick.

Snakes on a Plane! Customized messages

"Do what I say if you want to live"

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Hey everybody, Podcast 81 is online!

You can download the file direct: CTAS 81
You can subscribe to the feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff
Or you can listen right here on the Pickle Player. Just click that green thing on the right-hand sidebar!

Here's what we talked about...

Talking Shop: Why the sound quality wasn't so good for the last few shows.

Mike is watching The Eiger Sanction and is very impressed with the mountain climbing scenes.

Only idiots carry beer up mountains

Climbers are no longer allowed in Monument Valley

Sneaky Mountain-climbers

Mike has been mountain climbing lately.

Continental versus Contiguous

Colorado's 14'ers UPDATE! Mike says that this website and this book are better resources.

Because it's there. Assorted profundities.

As you were...

Mike is a weekend warrior, addicted to mountain climbing

Rocky Mountain High

Being on top of things

Staying out late and drinking or early morning mountain climbing? Why not both?

Technical climbing versus non-technical

My hike in the Appalaichians (Have some pics!) (hiking1, hiking2, hiking3, hiking4, hiking5)

Mike's photos: Album 1, Album 2, Album 3

Pictures don't really capture the experience of actually being there.

Reuters and their faux photos.

Increasing public distrust (or at least suspicion) of photographs.

Photos offer no depth perception so scale can be impossible to determine without context.

Climbing Everest, At a certain altitude, you just start dying.

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I did it! Five podcasts in five days! w00t, I say, w00t!

Anyway,

You can download the file directly: CTAS 80
You can subscribe to the RSS Feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the Pickle Player (Just click that big ol friendly pickle on the right sidebar, then below that, check out my new MyChingo! You can leave me an audio comment right here on the website!

Here's what we talked about...

--Preview for new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie
--Will the human characters be realistic or stylized?
--The "Uncanny Valley"
--Final Fantasy 7 taunted me mercilessly
--The Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children movie
--Roadhouse versus Red Dawn
--My mom bought me the "Rough Guide to Cult Movies"

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Podcast #79 is online!

You can download the file direct: CTAS 79
You can subscribe to the RSS Feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the Pickle Player! (Just click that green thing on the right sidebar!)

Here's what we talked about...

--Mike recommends Match Point
--My terrible Woody Allen Impression
--Mike also recommends Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
--Mission to Mars Versus Red Planet
--"Who the F#@% taught you grammar?"
--Mike anti-recommends The Hills Have Eyes
--Some of the buzz for The Descent is actually pretty good
--The Cave sucked, but caves are cool
--I plug Scott Sigler's Earthcore (Podcast / Amazon)
--Cave Diving, also cool, but scary
--"From the studio that brought you..."
--I'm looking for a certain kind of story done well...
--Evil Dead 2 is awesome
--Promotional material for Spiderman 3
--What direction will they take Venom? Topher Grace as Eddie Brock? Peter's alter-ego?
--The origins of Venom (Yes, we are geeks. This should not be new information)

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Podcast #78 is online (Three shows this week so far! Can she make it to five?)

You can download the mp3 file direct: CTAS 78
You can subscribe to the feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the Pickle Player by clicking that green thing on the right-hand sidebar!

Here's what we talked about...

SciFi's outstanding new reality show: Who Wants To Be A Super-Hero?

Stan Lee wants people in hero-mode 24-7

The competition is not about strength or speed, but being a superhero in your heart, and I like that.

The first challenge: changing your costume without being seen, but with a twist!

The competition is not always what it seems.

Nitro-G's pitiful performance

My favorite so far: Major Victory

Next week: A costume makeover and attack dogs

Stan Lee is a little too Trump-like on the show, but there's a reason behind it.

Dead Like Me also showing on Scifi, one of my all-time favorite shows.

It takes a few episodes to get to the best of the show, but the early episodes lay the groundwork.

"Hardly" recommend?

Mandy Patinkin: Inigo or Rube?

Don't bother with the re-releases of the Princess Bride DVD. If you already own the old version, it has nothing but new packaging.

Eureka an okay show, but the commercials are EVERYWHERE!

The excessive pimping of Fox shows during baseball season

Advertising backlash

I try to plug Nina Kimberly the Merciless, (A fantastic FREE audiobook by yours truly!) but Mike bulldozes me.

The excellent Mac Vs. PC commercials

I have a sexy voice, but it's not mine.

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Second show this week, Podcast 77 is online!

You can download the file direct: CTAS 77

You can subscribe to the feed: Christiana Talks About Stuff

Or you can listen right here on the Podcast Pickle Pickle Player. Just click the player on the right-hand sidebar!

Here's what we talked about...

My microphone troubles

Mike is watching Pretty in Pink, and we discuss James Spader's roles in that and in Boston Legal.

We revisit Silent Hill versus Hostel. Which is scarier? Well that depends on you.

There is a difference between something being a scary idea and something actually scaring you.

"Disturbment"

We give Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest a post-mortem. Fun but flawed?

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