Oh man Rory, you talked about your pricey hotel stay again. Man you were set at M$ with mad cash. Suffice it to say no matter how much I would secretly want to destroy a large corporation like that I worked for, I would continue working there just to rake in the dough and play along. Such as was the case in the film office space.

I know you're not like that, but you could have bilked every dime and penny you could have out of MS and stayed in fancy hotels forever.

Other than that your podcast was A-OK.
So here are some pics I took today on my way to the post office and Hollywood video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8606487@N03/sets/72157604786666415/detail/
I love this place.

Worse than this?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/bigrigsotrr/review.html?sid=6086528


*shudder*

"Tell your friends about it, tell your mother, and tell your mother to tell her friends"

Is this a Bomb The Bass reference?

Boom!

Huzaah!

Boom! again (my music teacher always said, if you do something wrong, do it again - with confidence - then everyone will think you did it on purpose.)

Huzzah! (My science teacher taught me to experiment until I got things working, then work out what I did.)

Buzzard! (My spell checker doesn't recognize any version of Huzzah, so I give up.)

Marvellous news, I shall listen to it forthwith. Keep up the good work! At least, I'm assuming it's good, I haven't heard it yet, but I'm going on past performance. (Then again, my finance advisor says past performance is no indicator of future success, so I'll hedge my bets.)

Cool - any word from Carl about reviving Millahseconds, I've been waiting for part to of the Is He Or Isn't He episode. Are you?

*runs*

Hm.  You may have to upgrade to "The Smartest Man in the Universe".  :D

Chris -

"I know you're not like that, but you could have bilked every dime and penny you could have out of MS and stayed in fancy hotels forever."

Yeah - you're right - I'm not like that. I could have stayed on the payroll through benefits, but... I wanted to cut the cord. During the three years I was there, I had tons of "free" money at my disposal. Stayed in amazing hotels. Flew all over the place. For two years when I was public speaking, I had a $75/day food budget alone. It was something.

But... I gotta be me. MS isn't a good match for me - at least not as a salaried employee - and no benefits can make up for that. I've turned away other jobs that had even wilder spending accounts.

Eventually, money just isn't worth it. Opulence isn't comfortable for me. I've lived in cool places - had some cool stuff - but it's just not Me. When I went to London on Microsoft's bill to present at a university keynote thingy, I stayed in a hostel in Holland Park. Actually, kinda funny I should talk about opulence being uncomfortable considering that I was staying in Holland Park, but the hostel itself was filthy. It stank, it was dirty, the showers were scummy, and you're always looking for something to wash the soap with.

But that's kind of where I feel like I belong. *That's* Rory.

'Course... all that isn't to say I didn't have a lot of fun along the way :)

Had many experiences I wouldn't otherwise have had. If nothing else, it's more Life. Variety. New things to see. And that's generally good, even when it's Bad.

"Other than that your podcast was A-OK."

Thanks, mister.

"So here are some pics I took today on my way to the post office and Hollywood video: ... I love this place."

It's funny - compare those to the photos you used to post from Canada where your car was buried beneath eighteen feet of snow.

And that was during the summertime.

Sun is good. Good for the mood - good for motivation. Fills you more with thoughts about the things you can do rather than what's in your way. I think I may have said it before, but I'm interested to see how it changes both the way you do business *and* You. I bet that, after several months, you'll still be Chris, but you'll be a slightly different guy. Perhaps very different. Not in terms of values or whatever, but in terms of stress and whatever. I know you went through a lot of crap up in Canada - getting bilked by the government for ridiculous taxes, losing money because of fluctuating currency values, and so on.

You also had to go through the move. Moving is never easy, and moving from one country to another - opening another business... those things are all hugely stressful. I've done a bit of it. The time zone differences alone can cause problems for the first week or so. I tend to be sensitive to time zone changes, and it can take a couple weeks before I get into a normal schedule.

Yep. Should be interesting. You've certainly been a lot cooler around here, which is nice. I was always interested in your opinion - I just didn't care at all for the way we communicated.

So... welcome to The United States of 'Merica.

You'll have bad days, and LA people can be really obnoxious - not the good kind of obnoxious, but the bad kind that makes you want to strangle people with their smugness that's become so dense that it's taken a corporeal form.

I'm going to stop writing this comment before it gets much weirder.

Davevb -

"Worse than this?"

*THANK YOU*.

Oh... my... god...

Thank you.

I couldn't stop laughing for about ten minutes. That was amazing. I want to track down and interview the people who made that "game."

Amazing. So very, very amazing.

Do you realize that somebody had to think that up? Get it approved? Invest in it? Market it? Publish it? Distribute it? I'd say "sell it," but I doubt that was much of a problem for them.

I've met people with money who throw it around without discretion, "investing" in something they think is hip or exciting. He may have heard that video games are the "new Hollywood," and wanted to get in on it.

I'd describe it here, but I'm going to write a post on it. The story's pretty funny, and, although it isn't universal, it's indicative of what happens when stupidity meets greed.

Thanks for jogging my memory :)

You'll get links and credit, of course...

punky -

"Is this a Bomb The Bass reference?"

Never heard of it.

I wrote down "Tell your friends. Tell your mother."

As soon as it was down, I heard the rest and went back to change the sentence.

Happens a lot. I pay attention to sound and rhythm in language. I ignore it much of the time because it can be distracting - annoying - but I liked this one. It had a lot of soft sounds - not at all jarring.

So... nope - not a reference to bomb the something something...

100% Fresh-Squeezed Pure Florida Rory.

Massif -

"Marvellous news, I shall listen to it forthwith. Keep up the good work! At least, I'm assuming it's good, I haven't heard it yet, but I'm going on past performance. (Then again, my finance advisor says past performance is no indicator of future success, so I'll hedge my bets.)"

I trust your judgment - if you wouldn't mind giving feedback, it'd be very, very, berry appreciated.

Carl has a new editor. The show doesn't "feel" the same to me. The music changes more often than before, and it sounds like there wasn't much editing for timing.

What made the show Great before rather than Good was the editing and the music. It might just be my preference, though - this other guy's style might appeal more to people. You never know.

I also haven't listened to an entire episode yet, so it's not fair for me to judge it. I'm just going on my initial impression.

So... after all the things you've done to help me - encouragement, ideas, gifts, being You - I ask you for one more favor, and that's to give me your honest opinion.

That goes for anybody else reading this, too - I'd love to hear what you think of the show. I want it to be Great - Good isn't enough. If there are things that could be changed to make it Great, then I demmed well wanna know about it.

Fanks, all :)

Tee -

"Hm.  You may have to upgrade to 'The Smartest Man in the Universe'."

Oh, I don't think so, missy. You know better than anyone how important humility is to me. Even though there may be truth to it, I wouldn't feel comfortable with such a title.

Also, happy late birthday :)

I felt weird about leaving a comment about it, but it looks like we're back to using our real names here, so... birthday wishes, I think, are acceptable.

We're not very good at keeping our distance, are we?

Hi, thanks Rory. Again, good podcast. Sunny weather is great. Canada is a bad bad place.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.  I don't know what the rules of this agreement are so if you could let me know, I could start keeping my distance.  I didn't see the sense in using a fake name if you knew who it really was anyway.  

Congrats on "The Smartest Man".  

I miss you.

Tee -

"I don't know what the rules of this agreement are so if you could let me know, I could start keeping my distance."

I don't think there *is* an agreement. If there was, it's gone, I'd say.

But, no - we've put enough distance between us. Don't need more, and we're obviously both terrible at keeping much distance anyway. Whatever it is we've got going on here is good. There isn't space enough here to talk about all of it (as you know), but, for now, let's just say that I don't want to lose contact with you, and you don't want to lose contact with me, and this is a good way of not losing contact.

"I didn't see the sense in using a fake name if you knew who it really was anyway."

The Smartest Man in the World overlooked that part.

"I miss you."

I miss you, too.

I'm a-listening now.

I have two thoughts at the moment, but mainly they're really one thought, and that thought is that the music has too strong a beat for the reading.

But it's sooo close to working absolutely marvellously. If the beat were 1% less prominent and matched the rhythm of the speaking 1% better it would be a marvellous combination. (But then that would require you are effectively doing a 10 minute rap of the post.)

That hardcore guitar bit 6 minutes in is a bit weird though.

And now the beat's gone quiet and I kinda miss it.

OK, we've officially gone past the "too many different tunes" mark. Note to the music-chooser, you might be better served with a smaller pallet.

Anyway, away from the music. Somehow the sound on your voice is a little "brighter" (is that the right technical term?) and it kinda works.

The timing seems to work too, assuming it's some percentage Rory, some percentage editing. It's less slow and lazy than it was before (I think), some of the comic pauses could do with being dragged out a little long. (The bit around the "you gotta put it in your mouth" line could have been dragged out a little longer. In fact, it kinda sounds like the editing got less care towards the end. A few extra pauses in around some of the better lines at the end would have helped. Ok, now I have a trailing parenthesis because this was supposed to be just an aside, and is now a full blown paragraph, so I shall insert the closing bracket now.)

Overall impressions are good, it appears to have gotten less care towards the end. Which is a shame, as you could do with ending on a high.

So, in conclusion:

Content: Good
Music: Starts off close to genius, but not quite, so doesn't really work that well. In the middle it changes around too much for my old-man brain to cope with, and by the end it settles down, perhaps a bit too much. ( 7 / 10 )
Editing: Starts well, then trails off towards the end.

Overall, good stuff! Better than most of the garbage on the internet.

"Never heard of it."

This explains why you messed it up. It's supposed to be "tell your mother and your sister and your sister's friends".

I like the K & D remix better than the original. Search for "bug powder dust" on YouTube.

I remember the university thing. You gave a great keynote at Slide 5 and we kidnapped that student and took him to an english pub by mistake...... (never did hear the end of that story).

You should come to england again Rory, it would be great to see you.

And, do you want a free copy of my book? I'd love to have your opinion of the text.

www.verysillygames.com

On "Glop":

you're the master of tangents.  Not that you didn't already know this, but perhaps you had forgotten.

P.S. I wrote "Snow-Maker" for my portfolio.  Thanks for the inspiration.

PODCAST!

Yeeeeeah whooo!

My first Rory-experience (man, that kind of sounds what it's not) was Podcast Rory. It's how I ended up here. Because of that, every time I read a blog post, I hear music and Rory taking...

That doesn't sound that crazy, does it?

"What made the show Great before rather than Good was the editing and the music."

I have to agree. I haven't heard the new podcast yet and for that reason kind of skipped over a few comments to keep my opinion pure.

You can always rely on me for an honest opinion... and good cookies. Since you're on the other side of the country, you'll have to settle for the opinion.

Also interesting to note, I think the first time I heard a Rory podcast was while it was being edited. I got to hear certain phrases over and over as it was being put together. That actually made some parts even funnier. :)

Woot! Yea Rory! Yea Carl! & videos too? My mind is officially blown.

Okay, so I was listening to a podcast when suddenly some gnome started playing some 8bit videogame from the the 80s. I was like "WTF, gnome? I'm *trying* to listen to Rory who just so happens to be the smartest man in the world! Have some respect!" But he wouldn't listen!

That's the only explanation I can come up with for the music that was playing alongside the podcast, because for the most part, it didn't seem to have much to do with the podcast. Sure, someone was hitting the pause button at some opportune times, and some of the music was mood appropriate, but for the most part, it was quite distracting from the Rory story. Every time that gnome got to a new level, the music would change and come to the front of my mind above the Rory words and promote irateness that is contrary to hilarity that is the word of Rory.

It was too loud, and I don't just mean volume wise. It seemed a bit mismatched and changed too often. The old podcast music was background- ambiance that helped you sink into the scary yet warm world of Rory's mind.

I think a lot of it was the cadence of the music to the voice, but I'm not musician, so I'm having a hard time articulating why the music was distracting and irritating exactly, I just know it was. It needs your attention Rory, listen to it and give this editor some pointers before all the hott womenses that your podcast has attracted go and stone him to death. Really, it's for his/her own good.

Also, I'd tell Mr./Ms. New Editor to put in some pauses. Maybe it's my preference or what I'm used to, but it's just not as clean as what I'm used to with your podcast.

Other than that, great podcast!! Forget the spice! The glop must flow!! I laughed out loud several times. It left me with  a warm feeling of what is to come. It left me with a desire to go to all of my friends who I forced to listen to the old podcasts when they first came out and force them to listen to this one too!!

I hope I'm not being to hard on the music and editing. I'm sure this person will get better at it, after all, with practice. With any luck, that gnome will get what is coming to him.

Now I'm curious to see what everyone else wrote. I hope I'm not the one ass being a nay-sayer, but then again, so long as I'm true to my peep, here, the Byth-man, I feel I can do no wrong. Asked for an honest shout, and got it.

Okay, I feel justified now that Massif had most of the same type of comments as me, even if he was a bit nicer about it.

I blame art school. All the critiquing. Hyper critical no holds barred taring creative things apart.

Also, now that Massif mentions it, I did hate the gnome much more towards the end. For the first part of the cast, I was pretty neutral.

Yes, I also blame the gnomes. They do these things. This editor must learn the way of controlling those gnomes.

I'm interested to hear what other people think. 2 opinions is not much of a general consensus.

I just noticed that Rory asked for Massif's opinion and not everyone's. I was so excited to hear the podcast, I guess I kinda skimmed, oops.

This one was for free then. No charge. Your welcome.

Yeah, well, it's not the first time I have made an ass of myself in the name of honest opinion. And no, it will not be the last.

I enjoyed my video gaming gnome metaphor at least. I'm so poetic.

Celes -

"I just noticed that Rory asked for Massif's opinion and not everyone's."

No! No, my dear!

No!

It's a few paragraphs down in the same comment, but this line is in there:

"That goes for anybody else reading this, too - I'd love to hear what you think of the show."

I want to hear what people think if they want to share their opinions. Absolutely.

I don't know how to make The Smartest Man in the World as successful as I'd like it to be. I trust Carl, and I trust the new editor (though I really miss Geoff - for many reasons - not just editing).

Most of all, I trust you people to tell me what you think. Since we've only done the first five episodes, there's plenty of time to adjust the show's format and "feeling" to satisfy opinions that've received consensus (or nearly).

So, no, lady - no - I don't just want Massif's opinion.

I haven't read your comments yet - saw this one and wanted you to know The Truth - but I'm gon' go read 'em now.

Fanx :)

Aright.

Thanks for the opinions - I agree 100%. These were my feelings as well, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't just being uptight because I'm close to the project. It's easy to lose perspective when you're deeply involved with something, so outside opinions are invaluable.

I'm gon' contact the ol' Franklin and see what we can do to get this little son'biatch polished into the once great Thing it was. Good isn't good enough...

"I'm gon' contact the ol' Franklin and see what we can do to get this little son'biatch polished into the once great Thing it was. Good isn't good enough..."

Awesomeness. And I will preach the word of the smart man.

"I trust Carl, and I trust the new editor (though I really miss Geoff - for many reasons - not just editing)."

Yah, Geoff was really great at his job... He made those episodes shine. I facebooked him to ask him if he's heard the show yet and to ask him what he thought.

It did occur to me that I might have a bit if a bias because I think he did an awesome job and I'm used to the way he would edit.

"I agree 100%"

So you too know about those pesky gnomes...

Celes -

"It did occur to me that I might have a bit if a bias because I think he did an awesome job and I'm used to the way he would edit."

It's impossible to have an opinion without bias.

What's important - and true - is that he *was* truly great at his job.

Editing, as I think I said in an earlier comment, isn't just a technical skill - it's a feeling. I've learned that from the video stuff I've done. If you saw the raw footage of those videos, you'd never come back here again. I take that crap footage and make it into something good. At least *I* think it's good. Doesn't get many views, so maybe it's not so hot, but I think I'm a good storyteller and rambler.

But back to Geoff.

Yes.

The man is very talented. Quite skilled.

And missed.