Feature Creep: Built-in Microwave

Ned and Meg talk silverware, flatware, china patterns and espresso machines. This one is a bit obsessive compulsive and what started as a short discussion turned into a surprise long one. Enjoy and thanks for indulging. Wash your hands, wear a mask, drink decaf?

Ned and Meg discuss the difficulties that come with trying to become a notary, or in this case maybe it’s easy? Also, what’s the deal with authentication? What does that mean? Why is it important? Maybe we answer some of those questions. What does it mean to be who you say you are? More questions than answers in this one. Wear a mask, wash your hands. Be kind.

Ned and Meg discuss the fact that we are both former smokers as we muse over bygone American cigarette culture. Also cigarettes are terrible, don’t start, seriously you’re not missing out on anything good. It’s a trap. OK wash your hands, wear a mask, don’t smoke, thanks for listening.

Ned and Meg discuss the curious phenomenon of nonsensical branding on Amazon and other online retail sites. We take the usual detours and side roads, so conversation also includes supply chain gripes and literary product reviews. Thanks for listening to our inanities, wear a mask, wash your hands!

Ned and Meg discuss trash can liners and a host of other dysfunctional everyday objects that we have to waste time interacting with instead of solving REAL problems. Rant! Thank you as always for listening and commiserating. Wash your hands, wear a mask, don't be a jerk.

Ned and Meg discuss headlines you’re unlikely to see and why. Stories include a preschool coup, building saunas, risk assessment for jumping off tall stuff, schadenfreude, working groups, and gnome surgery. Join us and laugh at other people’s misery! Wash your hands, wear a mask, don’t close talk in the time of COVID! Thanks for palling around with us.

Ned and Meg undertake the third in our series of shorts on logical fallacies by returning to a superlative source of definitions and examples, the Purdue Owl. We talk about hasty generalizations, post hoc ergo propter hoc, ad hominem, ad populum, and red herrings! Logical fallacies are everywhere, and some are in Latin. Wash your hands and wear a mask and don’t swallow BS.

Ned and Meg set out to discuss the design aesthetic of the Jetsons. Turns out that was a whole can of worms. We attempt to discuss design decisions while navigating the fucked up sexism of the 60’s. It’s not easy.

Ned and Meg discuss playing games during a pandemic! Role playing games (aka RPGs) and others delight us even during COVID-19. Ticket to Ride is a fun game to play online or on PC, and it started as a board game. Doctor Magnet Hands (available for free at http://lookrobot.co.uk/doctor-magnethands/) and Quest, a simple RPG (available at https://adventure.game) are both delightful and fun as well. T...

Ned and Meg discuss housekeeping, which Ned basically intended to be housekeeping in the abstract sense, but Meg ran with it and discussed actually keeping house. Anyway, there’s some good stuff in here about cleaning house, both literally and figuratively. Wash your hands, wear a mask, do nice things for people who are not yourself.

Ned and Meg revisit gaming as Ned explains the game Quest and offers a trip report on his recent evening playing it with friends. Did you know game mechanics improve over time? For example, role playing games that are heavy on mechanics and rules aren’t always accessible to everyone but Quest solves that by making it easy to join and follow a story! Characters grow and advance, plus the focus is o...

Ned and Meg discuss 'really good ideas!' the likes of which may require inebriation or worse. Try our dishwasher-pressure-cooker-autoclave-garbage-disposal-mulching-mower in one. Feel impervious as you hurl cruel insults at your neighbors from inside your personal moat. It’s going to be great. Watch out world, here come the best domestic inventions that just might kill you.

Ned and Meg discuss Halloween. Why is it so great? Because it’s a creepy liminal space and there’s nothing we like better than upending all the rules and starting things on fire, plus candy. We talk activities, favorite costumes, and ask what is scary anymore? Happy Halloween, from a couple of Halloweenies. Wash your hands, wear a mask, use a candy chute, celebrate while you can, no one gets out a...

Ned and Meg discuss crafting contemporary hexes. So far we have hexes for butts, elevators, peeling skin, and more. If you would like us to craft a bespoke hex for YOU, we can do that. In the meantime, wash your hands, be nice, WEAR A MASK, don’t be a fascist.

Ned talks a little bit about role playing games. He gets a little off track and gets into the weeds with Dungeons and Dragons, but ultimately gets back on track and talks about the game Quest. A role playing game that everyone should try.

Ned and Meg discuss Classical Mythology and garden statuary of Bavaria plus American traditions in art-based humor. This is a weird history lesson with some detours. THANK YOU for listening while the world burns and sinks and wash your hands and wear a mask and watch your butts out there.

Meg and Ned briefly explore futility. Talk a little bit about solar powered toasters, and maybe even think about kitchen gadgets!

Ned and Meg discuss ennui. Mostly this conversation circles around designing a sleepaway camp that ensures max boredom by the end of the week. Highlights include saying ‘no’ a lot, and dialing down enthusiasm for any kind of self-expression. Fun is also disincentivized and you’re gonna hate the food. Welcome back, campers! Wash your hands, drink your milk (not the chocolate kind), wear a mask and...

Ned and Meg discuss sammiches, but ONLY the openface kind. We like turkey dinner hobby kit, eggs, fruit, weird items, and curry. We chat about the various iterations of openfaced sandwiches. Openface, for what it’s worth, is apparently not a word but it is now, and thus goes the entire conversation about sandwiches here. Enjoy. Wear your mask, wash your hands, don’t be a dick.

Ned and Meg discuss 1980s Cartoons and Saturday morning favorites. Lots of the ones we looked up we never even saw, or it turns out are just complicated ads to sell crap to kids--hooray vertical marketing! Somewhere we lose the cartoons and switch tracks to Alice in Wonderland. Enjoy this nostalgic trip! Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Don't be a dick.

Ned and Meg attempt to redeem the first episode on our series of shorts on logical fallacies by turning to a better source of definitions and examples, the Purdue Owl. We talk about slippery slopes, genetic and either/or fallacies, begging the question, circular arguments and straw men. Please allow us to edify you a little less clumsily this time. Thank you. Wash your hands and wear a mask and do...

Ned and Meg attempt to tie all our past conversations about Dystopia into a single summary bundle, with predictably mixed results. We pull a drive-by on religion, conformity, conditions on the ground in the real world, entropy, sci-fi, family and state arrangements, and state sponsored violence. Come aboard with us and sail the high seas of disappointment. Wash your hands, wear a mask, stay away f...

Ned and Meg create a mess out of our initial discussion of logical fallacies. But it’s a fun mess. First and worst in a series on Logical Fallacies. The rest will be examples, not hamfisted, much better, please and thank you. Wash your hands, wear a mask, be nice.

Ned and Meg discuss a litany of human indignities. We review other people’s urine, men peeing all over, human incivility, starvation, genocide, war, your OWN urine, the best toilet paper and our insecurity about it, symbiotic bathroom snoops, AI personhood, cellphones, Trainspotting, botched social outings, radiation from coal slurry, and reparations to the African diaspora (get with the program,...

Ned and Meg chat about the Mapping Prejudice project that uses GIS data to map racial covenants in housing deeds in Minneapolis, MN, with a goal of explaining and visualizing the effects of discriminatory housing policies over time. You can volunteer to help or read more about this groundbreaking work at www. MappingPrejudice.org. Wash your hands, wear a mask, be nice!