Idle Thumbs 76: The Three Antidotes

[Roswell47]

Patrick's held it for a while, but I think it'd be a big relief and things would be a lot less tense if he just let go.

After so long, I don't even know if Steve wants it to fall back on him (I'd personally like to see that) but it definately seems confusing and wrong to pick up Hot Scoops just because nobody's using it. On that I think we can all agree.

Things are gonna get more and more confusing the more we throw Hot Scoops around like this.

[I_smell]

I'm sure Patrick must feel uncomfortable holding Hot Scoops for a few months without saying anything, I hope he won't feel too hard pressed after letting go.

Alright that's enough being horrendous, I actually wanna mention that Chris playing to Sean's antidotes was hilarious and really cool.

[tabacco]

Only partially through, but I have to say that I fucking love these anecdotes and the music and the paced way Sean says them. It's like you dropped a bizarro chunk of The Memory Palace into Idle Thumbs and it WORKS.

"This is Idle Thumbs. I'm Sean Vanaman."

[Sententia]

Ah good thing I checked back on the thread might have ended up with an incomplete podcast archive.

[Henroid]

The reason we found out Patrick goes by Scoops is because someone saw "Scoops" in FTL and thought it was Patrick, but it was actually the name Steve chose for his character in that game--so I think we can assume Steve is down with Scoops.

Now we need Chris to get on board with Gunga Galunga.

[SecretAsianMan]

Great episode. Makes me feel less lonely working the night shift, although I did get strange looks from the 3 people here besides me as I laughed at "How am I driving".

[Archimidias]

Hey all,

First I wanted to ask Chris if he could share a piece of musical wisdom with us and give me some idea of how to play that background anecdote music? It was excellent.

Weird episode! Isn't FTL great? Can't stop playing it. I wanted to share a brief story that I really enjoyed. I jumped into a new sector when a Mantis suddenly materialized aboard my ship. He was fleeing the Engi, and I needed a gunner, so I sided with him and fought off the encroaching cyborgs. The Mantis integrated himself into my human/engi crew, and we had many adventures. Several sectors later, an Engi space station's fire-suppression system was failing, and my crew rushed to help. Though the inhabitants were saved one lone crew member sacrificed his life for the Engi: the Mantis. I have to think that in his time aboard my ship he learned to forgive and even love the race which had so wronged him.

Ahh, video games.

-Archimidias

[brkl]

I need to read Sean's drunken speech like right now!

Oooh, actually, you should actually read it on the podcast after GDC like you were actually delivering it.

[Problem Machine]

The reason we found out Patrick goes by Scoops is because someone saw "Scoops" in FTL and thought it was Patrick, but it was actually the name Steve chose for his character in that game--so I think we can assume Steve is down with Scoops.

Down or not, he had to sooner or later come to terms with his scoops-- as must we all, someday, in our turn, come to terms with our own scoops. For some of us, our scoops is a shameful secret, for some of us our pride and joy. Many of us have tried to deny our scoops, but to deny these scoops is to deny ourselves, for in the end these are the scoops which define who and what we truly are.

Scoops.

[I_smell]

Everybody scoops. Maybe in a hundred years time, architects will dig up this thread and see just how much of it was a poop joke.

[Chris]

Hey all,

First I wanted to ask Chris if he could share a piece of musical wisdom with us and give me some idea of how to play that background anecdote music? It was excellent.

First off, I was playing with the guitar downtuned a whole step. In terms of the relationships of the strings to one another, it's totally standard tuning, just a bit lower than usual. I keep my guitar this way because (to my constant frustration) my voice is in a relatively low range and it's more comfortable for me to sing with a guitar that's pitched down a bit.

Obviously that doesn't matter in terms of actually playing the notes; I just bring it up because you won't be able to "play along" if your guitar uses standard tuning.

Anyway, it's all just idle fingerpicking around a descending chord structure in A minor. Each of the following lines is played for an equal number of beats:

- Start with an open A minor

- Play the same chord but with the bass note on G on the 6th string

- Move the bass note down to F# on the 6th string (take a finger off the 4th string to do that) and add a D on the 2nd string--in total, this creates a D chord, but with the open E still on the 1st string that gives it that wistful quality

- Move the bass note down to F on the 6th string but otherwise keep everything the same (I use my thumb for this but some people's hands aren't big enough for that)

- Start over

That's basically it. Beyond that I just kind of add or subtract notes occasionally for variety, and sometimes when it felt appropriate I would move down to an E chord instead of starting over right away, etc. I also played a full cycle pretty much identically except leaving the 2nd string open instead of fingering a C on the first fret. Stuff like that.

[Badfinger]

The reason we found out Patrick goes by Scoops is because someone saw "Scoops" in FTL and thought it was Patrick, but it was actually the name Steve chose for his character in that game--so I think we can assume Steve is down with Scoops.

I was confused at first, because I was uncertain how Patrick "Trick" "Tricky" "Kleptok" Klepek was being mistaken for Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor. I'd forgotten That One Time when they called him Scoops I guess, I just don't think of it as his nickname.

I have to say, you guys have stirred up some ire on The Internet for daring to mention overlapping meme themes on different podcasts. Personally, I blame Scoops.

It's always Steve's fault.

[Henroid]

Everybody scoops. Maybe in a hundred years time, architects will dig up this thread and see just how much of it was a poop joke.

Hot Scoops.

Kick off the Remo shoes.

Hey, Famous, watch out for Phaedrus

Jake, Rodkin-

I give up, writing parody songs is harder than I thought.

[Problem Machine]

Everybody scoops. Maybe in a hundred years time, architects will dig up this thread and see just how much of it was a poop joke.

An apt summation.

[Security_Tubbs]

I was driving a car when the whole "how am I driving?" discussion came up. It made me very conscious about it. How WAS I operating that complex piece of machinery with such ease? I really had to concentrate to remain at a steady speed.

[Urthman]

As someone who vaguely likes Biden, but hasn't really seen much of him, I was intrigued by the tweets Sean made recently about him, and hoped he'd say something about why he likes him or particular occasions Biden's impressed him, but it was mostly just more awe-struck noises on the podcast.

Got any links or anecdotes about why Biden impresses you so much, Famous? (And hopefully any discussion can be more about him as a person than how much people agree/disagree with his politics -- unless Sean's answer is something like "He's always right about everything!")

[sclpls]

I really love how the Joe Biden character in the Onion has developed. I don't know why Sean likes Biden, but the Joe Biden character in the Onion basically makes him the most awesome politician of all time in my mind.

[Henroid]

Biden is one of those guys where I know nothing about his professional history in lawmaking, but I see him speak and not only does he say the right things but he has charisma going on.

Plus he was on the Colbert Report that one time serving food to a unit from the US Armed Forces that was sitting there as the audience.

[gregbrown]

As sclpls noted, Biden's lovability started out from The Onion's articles about his wilder side, but didn't really take off until these last few months when Biden hit the campaign trail and it turned out that The Onion Biden is only a slightly-exaggerated version of Real Biden.

All the sweet Biden links you'll ever need, both real and not: http://pinboard.in/u...gbrown/t:Biden/

Also, I'd pull out this specific speech for an example of how Biden's one of the most genuine people in politics today, and how quickly that can pivot from being a goofy guy to addressing serious topics straightforwardly, and with a sense of willing vulnerability:

[Jake]

I have to say, you guys have stirred up some ire on The Internet for daring to mention overlapping meme themes on different podcasts. Personally, I blame Scoops.

I hear shots were fired?

[Roswell47]

I hear shots were fired?

One Brad Shoemaker was allegedly heard saying something about a wizard in a less than cheerful tone.

You should totally have him on the cast again for Explode Mode 2.0.

[feelthedarkness]

While probably already known to the average Bidenophile, this might be my favorite recent story:

Approaching a table of men he knew to be Greek, the VP said, “I’m Joe Bidenopoulos.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/08/im-joe-bidenopoulos-133992.html

[seedpod]

Ack! I can't believe you teased talking about Torchlight II and then didn't, Mr. Remo! After your affection for the first one I'm interested in hearing how you find the second, especially with the parallels being drawn to Diablo 2. Any chance of getting Max Schaefer on for another chat?

Also: really enjoyed the discussion of video games vis-a-vis children during the reader mail. I love hearing stories of educators using games to teach concepts, and Sean's insight on the vapidity of mainstream development targeted at kids rings all too true.

I reckon I stand corrected, but it seems peculiar that the pronunciation would be so thoroughly separated from its roots. I figured its pronunciation goes more like kee-HO-tik (IPA: ki:ˈhoʊtik) to match the root, Don Quixote, and I've never heard it said any other way before.

Seriously though, how did it get that pronunciation?

EDIT: Turns out the short answer is that quixotic was part of the English language so long that it basically predated the notion of correctly pronouncing Spanish words.

I had the same response hearing it pronounced that way in the 'cast, and wondered. Whelp, the more you know. Idle Thumbs enriches my life yet again.

I love that it's pronounced that way. It suggests to me an archetype that is so deeply woven into the public consciousness that it simply adapts to fit the conventions of its host language, rather than maintaining an element of exoticism.

Great way of looking at it Chris. I accept your reasoning and shall henceforth get a thrill out of pronouncing it "correctly." Not that one finds many opportunities to drop quixotic.

[Rich Wilson]

The reader mail lamenting emergent and imagination-assisted narrative in kids' games was great. Lot of food for thought there, and as a parent I have a similar wish. One game I think that falls into that category was/is The Oregon Trail. I used to play the hell out of that game in 1st and 2nd grade, and it conjured up a ton of horror stories from the American frontier. Writing up epitaphs for travelers you named for friends who died of violence or disease was quite moving (read: often hilarious). FTL also evokes similar feelings to me that I got on an Apple II many years ago.

[Sean]

The reader mail lamenting emergent and imagination-assisted narrative in kids' games was great. Lot of food for thought there, and as a parent I have a similar wish. One game I think that falls into that category was/is The Oregon Trail. I used to play the hell out of that game in 1st and 2nd grade, and it conjured up a ton of horror stories from the American frontier. Writing up epitaphs for travelers you named for friends who died of violence or disease was quite moving (read: often hilarious). FTL also evokes similar feelings to me that I got on an Apple II many years ago.

Great point about the Oregon Trail.