H.I. No. 25: Fantasy Stage

"H.I. #25: Fantasy Stage" is the 25th episode of Hello Internet, released on November 24, 2014.
==Official Description==
Grey and Brady are jet lagged and exhausted from their week in Alabama. Listen as they struggle through a conversation about: humblebrags and bragging humble (it will never end), the original iPhone keynote, their travel experiences, instructions in security, everybody loves Brady, US vs Irish passports, Indian bureaucracy, guns guns guns, Alabama food, Random Acts of Intelligence, The U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and a little bit on fame.
==Show Notes==
*Discuss this episode
*Humblebragging
*Donald Knuth
*Email lists and the Professional Sharer
*Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone
*Redacted airline logo
*Destin from Smarter Every Day
*Henry from MinutePhysics
*Derek from Veritasium
*Read My Mind
*Washington Dulles Airport
*'MURICA!
*Old US passport
*New US passport
*Old Irish passport
*New Irish passport
*Walther P22
*Ruger SP-101
*Strawberry Pretzel Salad
*Random Acts of Intelligence
*U.S. Space and Rocket Center
*Signed iPhone
*Faceless Voices
*Mile of Pi
==Flowchart==
*Flowchart 1
*Flowchart 2
I have a feeling that today's episode is going to be a little bit what I did in my holidays. Like when you go back to school and everyone has to write their essay. Or by the way, someone got in touch the other day and said, oh, do you realise you didn't invent the term humble brag? It's been around for ages and there's a book and everything. We are well aware of that. In fact, the first time humble brag came up was you pointing out the twitter of the person who is really into it. So we don't think we invented humble brag just for the record. We just enjoy a good humble brag. And we discuss it way too often. Yes. Although I believe you are probably the originator of the word hollow brag. Hollow brag, yes. Well, I have another one that I want to spring on you. Oh, boy. And this is called the brag humble. This is going to be trouble. This is going to be trouble. What is this? I first start. I quite like the name brag humble because it sounds, you know, he's is he bragging humble like is he breaking bad? So I think is he bragging humble sounds kind of cool. But the brag humble is the opposite of the humble brag. It contains both components but with different intent. So for a start, let's establish the humble brag is all about for those who may have missed it. This is just that we need to throw more confusion. And this thing I feel like I'm already thanking you for this. I get tweets from people. Uh-huh. Go ahead. Go ahead. For those who may have missed it, the humble brag is about saying something that is ostensibly humble but your real intent is to brag. Right. That's where your intent is in a humble brag isn't it? It's to brag. Right. That's what you're doing. Right. Do you agree? Yes. Are we agreed on that? Yes, we are agreed on that. All right. The brag humble. Uh-huh. Is when you brag but the intent of the brag is to increase the humility. Okay. I'm going to have an example of this. Okay. Let me give you an example. As you know, I was recently in California. And I was mainly in Berkeley but one day I went to the other famous university in the area, which is Stanford. So I went and spent the night in a hotel because I had an early meeting. Got up early and got prepared and made my way to a meeting with a really famous important person who I was who I couldn't believe I got to meet because he really meets with people. A guy called Don Canoath. And in the world of computer science, I am bragging right now. Okay. Get it. You know, I went to his house. I spent hours with him. We filmed some things for number file and computer file. I had a great time with him. It was fantastic. Me and Don Canoath. Wow. And even at the end he even said I had a really good time. I really enjoyed it and I felt like a million dollars. I then went to another meeting and before my other meeting, I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. And there was this huge white streak going from the corner of my mouth basically to all the way to my ear. Really like I was like I was painted like Indian warpaint. It was so prominent. And I was like, what an earth is that? What's happened? So I put my finger on it and tasted it because that's just what I do when I see chemicals. Luckily, it wasn't point. What it was was a huge streak of toothpaste. Oh man. So clearly. And I do remember that I and what had happened that morning is I tied my electric toothbrush with me but it had ran out of power. So I brushed my teeth with it like a normal toothbrush which isn't a good idea when I electric toothbrush. Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't work satisfactorily. Yeah. And I was in a rush and I didn't look in the mirror because I'm rubbish. You know, when my wife's not around to look after me, I just look rubbish and stuff. So basically I spent I spent my morning with the great man of computer science, you know, having this fantastic time with this enormous streak of toothpaste going all the way from my mouth to my ear and he's too nice a guy to bring it up. He was a total gentleman and I met his wife and everything and I must have looked like the biggest idiot of all time. And there you go. That is a bragg humble because because the bragg just increased the humbleness at the end. Okay. Where do you stand on this? I'm not impressed by that but more importantly, I need to know how did you get the toothpaste in a streak going all the way up to your ear? Did you attempt to put the toothbrush in your mouth and you missed and you dragged it all along the side of your face? Is this the scenario under which you had a streak of toothpaste running along the side of your face? I don't understand. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a morning person. Yeah, but that's pretty impressive to miss your mouth with the toothbrush. I mean, that's what happened. I don't know what happened. Who knows what happened? But I think you know what happened. I don't know what happened. Who knows? That's what happened to me. So anyway, when it happened, I thought, oh, that's a good story. I have to tell Gray about it and then I thought, I'm not humble bragging. I'm bragging humble. Bragging humble. Because I could have told you that story without the Don Canooth element, and it would just be a story. But putting the bragging increased the humility. Do you not agree? It makes it more embarrassing. I don't know if it makes it more humbling. I'm not sold on the Bragg humble. I think you're just going nuts with variations on the humble Bragg. And this one is a bit of reaching for straws if I'm being honest with you. I think this is just an embarrassing story. Made worse is what it is. The more you say that, the more I think it works. The more you say yes, it's made worse. It increases the embarrassment. The more I think I'm onto something here. It's a Bragg humble. I think we will have to listen to it decide. One of the main things from the last conversation was how YouTube handles sending people notifications that new videos from the people they are subscribed to are out. How do people basically consume their YouTube? And tons of people got in touch to tell me about how on YouTube there is a section which is called, I think it's called My Subscriptions or something like that, which still has the old behavior of YouTube, which is where I think it just lists all of your channels and it shows which ones have new videos and which ones do not have new videos. And I was very much aware of this when we were having this conversation. This was not a new piece of information. But I just wanted to point out as a little minor thing that whenever you're talking about stuff with computers, you have to assume that the default action is basically what everybody does. Because so few people ever changed the settings. I can't remember where it was, but I read some analysis from app creators about how many people ever change any of the settings in their apps and it is basically nobody. Certain kinds of people are completely blown away by that information because I'm the sort of person who was like, oh, I downloaded a new app before I even see what it really does. Let me look at all of the settings. What can I change? How can I flip these switches? Maybe I wanted this way. Maybe I wanted that way. And I haven't even used the thing. And so the idea that most people just, oh, they go to YouTube and they never change any of the settings is sort of foreign. And for many of the people who are really into YouTube, the power users, that is also kind of foreign. But if something is the default, you just have to assume that that is what everybody uses. And the people who don't use the defaults are vanishingly small percentage of the population. So even if there is a solution on YouTube, it is functionally irrelevant. So that was my only other piece of follow up. You will be unsurprised to hear that I'm more of a default kind of guy. I am not surprised at all by this, no. I apologize. There's nothing to apologize for. You live a simpler and possibly better life. Frustrated life, perhaps. There was one more thing I wanted to tell you about. And this, I don't know where this fits into the show. But I just wanted to tell you about it because it was on my mind. I had a lot of spare time while I was away, sort of sitting alone in my hotel room, washing toothpaste off my face. And one of the things I did, because I'd heard it talked about so many times, was I watched the original keynote by Steve Jobs when the first iPhone was launched. Oh really? You've never seen it before? I had never seen it before. I'm just kidding. I'm assuming you've probably seen it multiple times when you say you're nightly prayers to Steve Jobs before you go to sleep. Yeah, that's what my life is like. No, I sighed. I think I just sighed once. I highly recommend it. I highly recommend it to anyone to watch now, because watching it now, it is so much better. All the usual stuff aside, he did a very good job. He was a good presenter. It was a good watch. But the thing that's so funny is when he first takes it out and starts doing things like swiping the screen and zooming in and zooming out with the pinch movement. No one had seen that before. And it's like he's doing magic, like the crowd gasp. He says, watch this and he swipes the screen and pinches it and zooms it. And the crowd are like, What have you done? This is amazing. And to see that now, where even little kids do it, to TV screens, because it's just an assumed thing that will happen, is really good fun. And to see something so recent, but to see people react that way, made it all worthwhile. 2007, I think that's right. I don't know. I don't know. I have to look at one. Tap, tap, tap. I like tap, tap, tap. Click, click, click, click. Do your thing. Do your thing. I haven't got much more to say about it, just that I enjoyed it and I recommend it. And maybe, you know, he's a level watch. The only thing I remember from that, before he introduces, he says, Oh, you know, we've made a, we've combined, you know, a phone and an iPod and an internet communication device, I think is the way he phrases it or something like that. Yeah, but I think it's that internet communicator or something. Yeah, something like that. But the thing that I think is interesting about that little section is that the crowd, you can hear them respond very positively to the first two things, the phone and the iPod. But the internet communicator part is a bit more muffled, where people are not super excited about that. And it's partly because you don't know the magic of this phone. You don't, you don't know yet how your whole life is about to be transformed by the fact that this thing is connected to the internet. You know, you have an experience that yet. And so you are excited about the things that you do know being combined. But it's not, it's not like, it's not obvious at the time that the biggest deal is that last part. It's not the first two parts. But anyway, that's my, that's my only memory of the thing. So you recommend it for people. I will see if I can find a link and put it in the show notes. Now, I haven't got a particular plane crash corner, but I've got plane crash corner follow-up because a few people have sent me a little bit about this. We talked about in the previous episode about how when a plane crashes, the logo of the plane can be on display for all to see. And that can be quite embarrassing for the company. And you talked about how that's a good thing because it makes the companies accountable for their wrong doings and things like that. Since then, I have found out about, and I did not know this was the case, which makes me feel a bit silly, because I'm supposedly a plane crash enthusiast, it seems now. Which is a weird way to describe yourself, but anyway. You are a professional plane crash analyst, I think is what we can say. No, I consider myself more of an amateur plane crash analyst. There's ads on this podcast, buddy. At this stage, you are a professional. I would consider myself more of a hobbyist when it comes to plane crashes, but this is not relevant. But what I have learned from people who are more knowledgeable than me is that it is a common practice when a plane has a mishap for one of the first things the company does is either cover or paint over their logo, like on, like, basically on the wreckage, so that all the pictures that inevitably get taken don't highlight what's going on. And I've got a link. This was sent to us by a few people. So apologies for not name checking you, but you know who you are. This was a Thai Airways plane, which skidded off a runway somewhere in Bangkok. It appears. Yeah, there's a picture of the plane kind of, you know, on its belly, looking a bit stricken. And they've basically just painted. It looks like it's been done in, it looks fake. It looks like it's been done in Photoshop. They've basically just gone with black paint and painted over their name and their logo everywhere. So that yeah, what this looks like is it is though someone has redacted the airplane. Someone has taken a black marker and just right across the side and just scribbled over the tail fin. And as far as I'm concerned, that should be illegal. This should not be allowed to happen. Oh, that is awful. If this is an illegal activity, does that mean you and I get to invent a name for it? Yes, yes. Do you want to try to come up with a name for this? I think aircraft reduction is quite a cool sounding term. Or maybe, maybe brand reduction. I don't know, it feels like this is broader than just airplanes trying to hide your brand when something bad has happened. But yeah, although reduction does have that other use. So maybe we need to come up with a different word. I don't know the other use for reduction. What is the other use for reduction? Well, you know, like, like, reduction is in like, you know, with confidential documents. I mean, there can be good reasons to redact information. You will put the link in the show notes so everyone can see this redacted plane. Yes, I will. I will. Lying on its belly, black marks all over its name and logo, cheating. They're cheating here. If you do the crime, you do the time. And that means having your logo plastered all over the internet. Yeah, that is really awful to see. Well, I don't know. I don't know what to think about it. Anyway, I do. It's off. You were outraged. I kind of thought, yeah, I think it's pretty. I think it's probably not right. But yeah, it's pretty not right. Anyway, have a look people. See what you think. Well, it's Christmas time and that can mean only one thing buying shaving products probably for the men in your family. But this year, instead of some vacuum-packed shaving kit with branding that looks like it was designed for a Michael Bay movie, why not try one from our show sponsor, Harrys? Now, if you're listening to this podcast before December 14, 2014, there's an extra special Christmas deal to be had. I'll tell you about that in a second, but first, let me tell you why we like Harrys. Essentially, they're all about making your life easy and cool. No faffing around with locked cases at the shops, no tacky packaging, order online, get a great looking sleek product that does the job spot on. I've got a Harrys kit myself, and although I do support that designer stubble that drives the fans crazy, I do shave around the edges using Harrys blades and they're doing a fine job. These blades are made in Germany, so they must be good, like BMWs. Now, they've got some Christmas offers on their website, if you're getting quick, and the one I'd like to tell you about is $5 off a winter Winston. All listeners can get in on this deal, old or new, go to Harrys.com and enter the coupon code, H-I-Holiday. I don't know if that's case sensitive, but the way it's written here for me, lowercase H, lowercase I, and then a capital H, starting the word holiday, but it's all bunched together as one word. That's Harrys.com and the code, H-I-Holiday. This offer expires on the 14th of December. You'll get five bucks off a nice little set here, including a razor, three blades, and a choice of shave, cream, or gel. Really good deal. It's win-win. You've shown Harrys that you support our podcast, and you've sorted out someone like maybe your dad's Christmas present for another year. Or at the very least, you're a shorter, nice, clean shave for that kiss under the mistletoe. But seriously, thanks to Harrys for supporting our show and getting quick for that Christmas offer. If you're listening to the podcast sometime after Christmas, well, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas with a nice smooth shave. Now, another reason this may be a short show is we have spent so much time together lately. Yes. In fact, I would go so far as to say, we're almost sick of each other. I would never get sick of you, Brady. I couldn't never get sick of you. We even shared a bathroom for a week, almost. Yes, we did. I think we shared it very well. I think there were no problems. We did. We did. I joked about using your towel to dry myself, but I didn't ever do it. I assume that you didn't ever do it. On my way back from California, we went to Alabama, met with destined from Smarter Every Day, Henry from Minute Physics, and Dirk from Veritas' Asastium. And I'm never going to stop doing that, by the way. We met with Dirk from Veritasium. Yes, exactly. For people who might not know in advance who you're talking about. And we obviously, we did this random massive intelligence show, which we may talk about shortly, but in the week up building up to that, we just like, hang out in Alabama. Tell me about your trip, however, because I know you love talking about plans and travels and all the things that work you up. That was your trip, however. Do I love talking about that stuff? I don't know. You flew standby, presumably? Yes, I flew standby. And I lucked out both times on this trip, both going to America. I got the incredibly rare first-class seat, which is like an amazing space pod from the future. So that was quite enjoyable. And if you ever fly first-class, it's almost sad when the flight is over, even if it is a transatlantic flight. I feel like I could live in that first-class cabin. I want to kick you in the shins now. That's very mature of you. You're lucky, man. This is what makes all of the stress and anxiety of flying standby occasionally worth it, but that is exceedingly rare. They never upgrade me. I'm always stuck in the back with all the cattle. But you fly off the time. Don't you have some miles program? Yes, that's what I keep thinking. I keep thinking they're going to come up to me and say, Mr. Harron, you have been chosen. You get to go into the pointy end in the space pod with CGP Gray. But never happens. Never happens. I think you've been terrible miles program then. Well, maybe they see that toothpaste over my face and say we can't let this guy up the room. He doesn't look at the business. That is also quite possible. So you arrived at a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after sitting in the space pod? Yeah, as much as it is possible to arrive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, because travel is terrible, obviously. And then on the way back, leaving from T.C. coming back to the UK, I looked out again and got business class. And I was able to have a little sleep on the airplane, which is very nice, because then I don't occasionally think about how terrifying flying is. If you're unconscious, you don't. It's a much shorter experience. After flying first class, was business class like a real come-down for you? Like, oh, no, I can't believe I have to fly business class. Oh, disgusting. It wasn't. And I often think that first class is only for people for whom money just doesn't matter at all. Because first class is, it's like, if you look up the prices sometimes for, say, like a London to JFK or a London to DC trip, first class tickets will be three times as much as a business class ticket. And business class tickets already run, you know, five to ten thousand dollars. So those first class seats are just crazy expensive sometimes. But I am of the opinion that the first class seats are not that much better, that the business class and first class on many airplanes is very comparable. So this is only for people for whom the marginal value of dollars is just irrelevant. They're people like, I have billions of dollars and I will pay tens of thousands of dollars to be very slightly more comfortable because money is just completely irrelevant to me. So even if you are like a millionaire, first class doesn't necessarily make any financial sense. You have to just have a crazy amount of money or have a company that doesn't mind just spending a crazy amount of money to fly first class. So no, business class, business class was not like some terrible come down. It was still great to be able to fly business class. I think the only way first class would be worthwhile was if I had Scarlett Johansson personally delivering me peanut M&Ms and and back issues of NTSB crash reports while I was singing Read My Mind over the Intercom to everyone else on the plane. Then you would pay the thirty thousand dollars. I would consider it under those circumstances and those circumstances only. That's good to know. That's good to know. I'll see if I can reach that. Well, congratulations on your upgrade. I'm sorry about saying I wanted to kick you in the shins. I don't and I am happy for you and all that sort of stuff. Meanwhile, my flying experience involved them saying, sorry, your camera begs too big, you're going to have to check it under the plane. And I was unwilling to put all my camera equipment under the plane. Yeah, so I literally had to take all my cameras and equipment out and just like hold it in my arms for the flight. Cradling them like a baby. I was. I was just cradling all these cameras and lenses and stuff. It was like I was like some kind of Canon sponsored hobo. That's a good mental image there for everybody to look around and see. Ooh, look at those impressive lenses that person has. So I didn't have such a nice flying experience, but I'm sorry. What else can you tell me about travel? I do have a minor frustration, which is kind of follow up from I think the last episode. I don't remember one of the recent episodes anyway. We were talking about not reading the instruction manuals. But I think this was the last one. And we both came to the conclusion that instruction manuals need to be presented in pictograph form that the idea just the idea instruction manual is perfect. Or the instructions that came with the blue Yeti with little cartoons showing you how to use the microphone. This is about what I'm acceptable. Or this is about what I will tolerate for reading. To be kind of caveman proof. Yeah caveman proof. Egyptian hieroglyphics. Very clear images showing what's going on. So there's this thing that irritates me at airport. So I guess on this trip I hit four airports. Yeah that's right. London, North Carolina, Washington DC, and Huntsville. And then back again through the bunch. I do not understand why particularly international airports don't have gigantic signs in the security area showing you what to do with what. Shoes off, laptops out. What are the things that you need to do? Because they're not the same everywhere for everyone who is say traveling through a place like London Heathrow. And I get annoyed that the security guards get annoyed that people don't just magically know what to do. And they have instructions but they are usually tiny and they are very usually like written instructions as well. And I just think no no no. There needs to be on the back wall as big as you can possibly make it. A picture of a person with their iPad either in their backpack or out of their backpack. This is what we need to have. I am. Just to try to be crazy. I'm kind of, I don't know exactly where I stand on that. I people are at their dumbest in airports. Yeah that's why you need to help them with gigantic pictures. Because it's like they've just like stepped off an alien spaceship and they're like they're looking around, days to confuse and the stand in stupid places and they're like they don't know what they're doing. So people do need help but I don't know I don't know because I don't know where the big pictograms will help or I don't even imagine that even help that much because people it is too dumb in airports. But also the problem is like technology changes really quickly and like do I take my laptop out? Yes do I take an iPad out? Yeah yes do I take a kindle out? No do I like and everything's like you know and do I take my shoes off? And sometimes they say yes and sometimes they say no depending on the shoes and it gets really really complicated really really quickly and I think the kind of the subtleties involved here either need to be removed or don't lend themselves to pictograms. Just tell everybody shoes off because it's going to be faster if everybody just takes shoes off as opposed to oh me or no not me or are you sure I don't need to take these shoes off? That is just that causes huge delays any kind of uncertainty. Do the shoes go in a tray? Do they have to go in a different tray to the computer? Can the computer go in the same tray as my thing? And like yeah. So this is why I think if you can't reduce the instructions to pictograph levels you cannot expect those instructions to happen. So if you're going to have a picture of a dude taking his shoes off everybody takes their shoes off. iPad in or out of the bag. Everybody's iPad in or out of the bag. Any tablet like thing is in or out of the bag. You just you just make that call and don't don't have the oh is it a kindle? Is it not a kindle question that's just that is just terrible and I'm a total proud that now though man you should see me I'm amazing one seamless movement. Oh yeah I do a lot of pre preparation for the security line at the airport because and I look around and I always feel like I don't travel a lot but surely other people must know that when you get to the front of the line they want you to take things out of your pockets. Like if you've ever been in the airport and they look stunned they're like oh I had no idea this was going to happen. I've been I've been I've been watching a hundred people in front of me do it for the last 10 minutes but I didn't think I was going to have to do it. Yeah so my advice always for traveling when you're going through security is you need one of two things you need one either to be wearing a jacket that has pockets that you can zip up or you need an empty front pocket on your suitcase that also has a zipper and so it's okay. Yeah one of those two things while you are online you take everything out of your pockets and just shove it into one of those two things and usually for me that's my jacket so just everything goes in the jacket zip up the pockets and put it through the X-ray machine no problem man that's good advice that should have but that should have been the 11th command when Moses came down off the mountain because that is a good call it makes things it makes things so much easier but the iPad is the really tricky one the inner out one because I asked several security agents and I got different answers about no of course not and yes of course always iPad in or out and this is also my first time flying in America after the the rule change that they've just made about having electronics on during takeoff and landing I don't know if you were aware of that but it used to always be they used to have the big lie where it was like oh if anybody leaves their iPhone on this whole plane is going down right so everybody has to turn off all their electronic devices during takeoff and landing which was manifestly wrong right people don't even know how to turn off their iPhones I mean just people just don't so obviously it was okay but they they change the rule but now they have this very confusing announcement which is it's something like please still away all large electronic devices and small electronic devices can be used during land landing and takeoff so where's the line here by the way like where does an iPad mini fold and an iPad and a Kindle and a well this is so the first time this happened to me I thought oh well look at me I'm here with an iPad and I have the regular full iPad air size one and I thought well clearly this is a large electronic device so I'm going to put it in my bag but then I look around and I notice other people while we are taking off are reading on their iPads and then I feel like a sucker sitting there being bored with nothing to do and so the next couple of flights I had it out but I felt like I needed to be kind of sneaky about it but the flight attendance never said anything so I thought oh okay I guess an iPad counts as a small electronic device clearly doesn't seem like it should to me but that that that that announcement is not helpful what is large what is small I don't understand they should just say laptops away tablets are fine that I think that's a lot clearer but I don't I don't know great if you're going to be engendering a lot of sympathy and love from the listenership as you talk about your problems with which electronic devices you can have out while flying first class from England to America well I only had my iPad with me I didn't have anything so what while we while we continue talking about your millionaire lifestyle I wish I see I see the next item oh no you're not going to bring this up now this is this is a terrible time to bring this up I shouldn't put this stuff in the show notes I see I see that I see I see that while you were not while you were not sitting in the spaceport you were living it up in the airport lounge oh god okay come on I need to explain myself now you do the crime you do the time um flying back from Alabama I can't believe you brought this up now I mean I was going to slide right by this one um no chance flying flying back from Alabama to London I had the downside of flying standby which is I left Alabama on Sunday night but I was not able to get on a plane Sunday night to take me home and so I was I was stranded in Washington DC and for those of you who know Washington Delas airport is one of the worst airports in the world it is absolutely terrible it it's just it the whole airport is designed to feel claustrophobic it is a single just unbelievably long tube and I swear the ceiling must be only seven feet from the ground it's just it's awful and they have some problem for years now I've gone in and out of Delas they have some problem with the heating system in this gigantic airport and so as you walk between sections of this endless column some of the sections it must be 85 degrees and steamy and tropical in and then other sections it's like an arctic wasteland and so nowhere in the airport is even remotely comfortable to be plus there's the claustrophobia feeling everywhere and they have the worst selection of shops ever and it's just it's a terrible terrible airport I just I don't understand why it hasn't been burned to the ground and they just start over because it's awful so I was looking forward to about seven hours in one of my least favorite airports in the world that's a long time it is a very long time because I'm not the panicky person that I am I'm not going to go do anything in DC because then I have to you know strategize about when am I going to get back and there's always a possibility that flights change and things so I need to be near the airport anyway so I had basically a full working day in the airport and I remembered a comment that you said on the last podcast which wouldn't have crossed my mind otherwise so I blame this entirely on you which is that some of the lounges at the airports you can pay to get into the lounge and you cannot do what I was confused about is you cannot do this with the first class lounges those are for just the billionaires who care not about money but for the rest of us you can purchase a day pass to some of those lounges and I thought I have seven hours in this god awful airport I would never normally do this but I'm going to buy one of these passes today and so I did and so I spent most of the day in a somewhat comatose state just sitting in front of a big window and watching airplanes take off and watching the ground crew do stuff in a relatively comfortable environment so that was a little airport lounge experience but I'm going to blame it on you because I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't mentioned it last time I mean a million adjacks or so I'd say would you do it again like was it good advice if I had what would be my cutoff point I think I think if I had three and a half or more hours at dullas I would buy the pass again I think that that is the point at which it makes sense less than three and a half hours it starts becoming this is just like I'm not sure this is entirely worth it but dullas is really awful so it would also depend on on how tolerant of feeling of the world in general but I think that's that's the cutoff point so anyway my my flight back from Chicago got delayed by four hours were you just on the runway uh no I was in inside they didn't they hadn't put us on the plane without fixing like the brakes or something oh I hate it when there's a mechanical thing I start getting nervous about the plane you know yeah yeah if you've been on a plane where they had a mechanical thing and you're flying over the ocean I mean it's already hard not to think about the the black abyss of water that awaits for you below the airplane it's extra difficult when you know you're on a plane that they just maybe barely fixed a few hours ago uh yeah oh I get vertigo sometimes just even thinking about what is beneath the airplane especially when it's over water that's no good because on land you have a chance on land you have a chance on water nothing but death awaits you if you crash in the middle of the ocean this just it's just over if you're lucky uh quickly not you know good to days sorry sorry I just I didn't mean to keep going on like that I was trying to stop I thought I thought I was the moment playing crash guy you're you're you're encroaching on my territory there is this is this is a personal fear you are interested in the deaths of others I am interested in avoiding my own death and on an airplane you know it is obviously it is it is shockingly safe air travel but there is that that situation of you have no control sometimes I find my mind wandering towards the pilots and thinking I wonder if he got a lot of sleep last night or what if that pilot just had a divorce and he wants to kill himself and he's going to take all of us down with him what could we do under that situation not very much not very much at all uh and so you just you know you start thinking about all the worst case scenarios plus mechanical failure plus dying of exposure in the water anyway I hope you're enjoying your flight Tim I was I was watching uh a Louis CK special the other day on Netflix uh I think it was the one called hilarious and and he was talking about people who complain about having their flights delayed and how angry that makes him because they're like oh I was delayed by two hours and they get really moaning and whining and he just wants to turn around and say to them you were flying like in a tube at hundreds of miles an hour through the sky and you magically got from one place to another that would have taken weeks or months in the past and you're complaining about a few hours delay and that has made me a little bit cautious at the moment about complaining about my four hour delay and apparently I get I get some kind of refund or something from the airline if I go to a website that I have not yet gone to I should do that yeah you're gonna get right on that uh if I kept list so I would put it on a list that's exactly why they make you do a thing before the refund they know almost everybody doesn't do the thing that's that's why you have to do a thing they don't just do that I must do that I must do that yeah if they just came out and like just like gave you a few 20s let it be cool wouldn't it but yeah but that's not what they're gonna do now and it will be vouchers to have to fly with them again no doubt yeah that's that's almost certainly what you're gonna get and they never upgrade me I'm terribly sorry and it's your and it's your mum's airline oh yeah yeah I'll see what we can do about that spoiler alert we won't be able to do anything well I'm hoping maybe you can my mate my mate had my best man changed to his like family thing so he could fly him to my wedding but you can only change it once every six months or something who your designated person is yeah there's all bunch of limits on that and it's not gonna happen but your parents quite like me don't they okay okay so I visited my parents for a week before the Alabama thing and my parents are probably listening right now because I swear we're not actually not actually right now but yeah but but listening to it listening to the recorded thing yeah I swear one of the most popular topics of conversation in the house was how much they love Brady and how great Brady is on the podcast there was nothing but a whole bunch of love for Brady and also a whole bunch of concern about Audrey and Lulu and they were just super into how great Brady is it was really it was a strange experience to be their son and to feel like let's talk about Brady some more to they I mean clearly this is clearly they have never met me or they would think very differently but do they not ask about like do they not ask about you and like to they not say I I love that they joke you made or that was a really good point you made on the podcast uh okay so to give you to give you an example of the kind of comment that I had while I was home my mother said numerous times that you are really likable and she wanted to know why I could not be more likable like Brady she goes everybody likes Brady not everybody likes you that's clearly not true she's obviously not reading the Reddit comments she's reading the she's I think she's reading the reviews on iTunes which are are very pro Brady and then sometimes broke me sometimes anti me but that's okay that's okay but anyway the point is they love and adore you so I may very well actually find myself without any standby tickets the next time I try flying because all of them have been given to you that might be the case oh that would be nice I don't I don't want to drive a wedge between you and your family but I probably would withstand my tickets fair enough fair enough also you might have to cut this next bit out because I'm gonna specifically thank your dad forgiving me those Harry's razor blades oh yeah yeah and I know he what I know he made a big deal about it not being a big deal uh-huh because like for those who don't know I can't get my Harry's razor blades here in the UK yet because they're not delivering here but Grace dad got me a secret stash and sent them with Grey and they were waiting for me and I were given to me on the condition that I not thank him or email him or do anything because sounds like he's a pretty humble guy well yeah two two things about this one yeah I will take this moment to point out that there were no presents waiting for me when I came home but there was a present that I was supposed to deliver to you so my parents know how much I hate carrying extra stuff in my luggage but this was no no you need to bring these to Brady because we really like him and and and and the second thing is that my my family we haven't really done gifts for birthdays or holidays for a very long time and it's just because we're as a whole family we're not a real we heart stuff kind of family so we we don't have a whole bunch of needs and so then trying to buy stuff for a bunch of other people who also don't want anything makes for a difficult holiday and so everybody was a lot happier when we decided you know what let's just get together instead of doing all of these things as a result of this if my parents do give a gift they'd feel like they don't want to burden the other person with having to now thank them so that's why my father was very insistent that if I give you these razor blades I need to make it clear how things work in this family and it is okay you have no obligation to send him a thank you and that he will probably be slightly annoyed if you send him a thank you because you were wasting your time all right well I think I'm gonna say mr. Gray I have no comment on those razor blades you sent whatsoever I'm just gonna I'm just gonna be silent on the matter although if your family has this kind of if no one likes getting presents and gifts but these holidays exist as a sort of a gift giving time why don't you start a new tradition of everyone in your family buying me a gift you always want the things you want my million subscriber button you want gifts from my parents I think we need to start setting some boundaries Brady I don't know I've got a present I've got the present from your family I think your gold buttons next maybe not good maybe I'm pushing my luck let's move on you you did write something here about Irish US passport design what's all that about when I first saw some of the images for the redesign of the US passport I thought they were joke I did not think that they were real and what they made me think of was there's a section on reddit called America so it's marica yeah our slash America are you familiar with America vaguely yes yeah so it is a kind of a jockey section where it's a super hyper patriotic pretend place where people will post photoshopped images of for example Abe Lincoln holding the US Constitution while riding a bear on the moon and shooting space Nazis yeah yeah it'll just say America across the top with a big exclamation marks it is it's kind of making fun of a particular sort of hyper patriotism that is a real thing in America and I well when we went to that Alabama football match and they're playing in national anthem they were showing like a fighter jet on the screen on the TV screen so we're singing the national anthem looking at a fully laden missile carrying fighter jet yeah that's that's exactly it right so so when I saw the redesign I honestly thought oh this looks like something from America like is this a prank that people are pulling to try to make it seem like this is the passport redesign because when you open up the passport there are just on all of the pages where there are supposed to be clear spaces for stamps so I don't know maybe you could see the stamps in the various places that you've gone no there are these full color pictures of all kinds of hyper patriotic American stuff like Abe Lincoln riding the bear yeah so you know it'll it's like monuments and fields of grain and mountains and I don't know of space rockets like all kinds of America I think one of them is Neil Armstrong on the moon now undoubtedly these are all you know great things that are American but the design of them on the passport it just it looks terrible it's just it's too much right it's too much dialed out yeah you need to dial it down especially for a passport because it's a bit like oh well now I'm gonna put you know I'm gonna put stamps on this right and like this really why would why would you leave America yeah I guess you would never leave America you you know you're just gonna have this as an object of adoration this passport and the worst one which always kind of makes me laugh is when you open up the passport to the to the page that you're supposed to show the dude when you're going into a country the top of it is this huge eagle it's this big eagle face and I hope every time I open up that passport I think it should make the little car sound right like the screaming eagle sound just like those those birthday cards that open up and start playing music I'm honestly surprised that they didn't put a little sound effect in there for when you open up the passport it just it just looks unreal it's like this can't possibly be the actual design but it is and so I kind of think it's terrible but it is also like well I guess this is America you know America not known for her subtlety yeah so I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of the redesigned passport but I got that one a few years ago and then just barely like days before I was supposed to leave for this trip I got my Irish passport in the mail and I think they have done exactly what the American passport has done except in a nice subtle way so it's the same thing where on the passport stamp pages there are Irish designs scenes from Irish history or physical locations in Ireland but they know how to do it because it's sort of two-tone green where the the pages are a light green and then the designs are a slightly darker green maybe with a little blue tip to as an accent color but it looks like something that you could put a stamp on and then the stamp would be clearly visible it doesn't look like the pages are supposed to be the thing like it doesn't the American passport so I'm gonna give it like it is like a fraud prevention thing isn't it these pages and designs and so there is it's not it's there is method to the madness but it can just be done in a more dialed down way yeah it doesn't you you don't have to have it like full-color paintings of people on the moon or fields of green you know it's just or the liberty bell or you know I don't know it just it anyway I'm gonna give a thumbs up to the Irish passport I think it looks very nice and I kind of like a thumbs down to the US passport but also just like an inevitable sigh like well I guess it couldn't be anything else could it America this is just what it was going to be so anyway that's the US passports Irish passports I mean this is not a good day to be talking to me about passports because I have not told you about the Palava I have been through today involving passports oh yeah it was this is this for uh so what was it you have been traveling for like five weeks you're back in the UK for what four days is that right uh yeah yeah yeah some short amount of time and then you are going straight to India is that right well well I'm supposed to be this is now in some doubt oh yeah because basically I require a visa to go to India and you have you have to be in the UK or apply for your visa so I couldn't have done this in advance and I don't know if you have much experience with Indian bureaucracy do you know how hot India is I'm never going to India I love the people of India and I'm very thankful to any of them who watch my videos all this into this podcast but your bureaucracy is not one of my favorite things I have this I've been a few times before it always causes problems and it's caused me tremendous problems today to the point where I doubt I will get my visa in time for the flight on Sunday which is already paid for so we'll see what happens but I don't know I think you know what I'm going to edit this before we even start and I'm not going to tell you the story because it's just it's a little bit too uh it's too much it's too much but but the highlight but there was one highlight which will appeal to you I like that I like that whatever now I'm really curious like what is the story that is too first world problems for our podcast which is basically first world problem yeah I have to ask you offline about this one but my curiosity is now peaked but but the the the the the the moment you will enjoy was when I was in the I went to Birmingham it was just a city in the UK as most people would know I went to Birmingham which is where I had to do this for various reasons I was told I couldn't apply in Birmingham because I live in a part of England where they don't accept Birmingham where they don't accept applications so anyway I said well I'm here now so what are we going to do about this and it turns out by chance I I I did have an address in another part of England that I could use and they said all right you can use this other address you can put your application in here but you're going to have to refill out the form and I couldn't like I had to be typed and everything I couldn't just cross it out and put a different address they said you're going to have to redo the whole form retip it all online and I'm like oh for goodness sake all right well where can I do that and they said well four blocks that way is a library you can go to so I was sent to this library like in the middle of nowhere where I then walked in and like had to book a computer and then sit down and refill out this form that I had filled out the night before retiping it all it then the computer then crashed and I had to do it a third time and then I had to pay my 30 pence to print it out on the library computer how frustrating walk walk back to the this center get another number and get in the queue again and every time I went up to the counter there was some other little tiny piece of minutia that had to be done oh now we need you to fill out a declaration saying what cameras you're going to take to the country so I then had to go and get a scrap of paper and I hand wrote I am Brady Harron and I will take a can and see 100 and two microphones and and in the end I gave them all these pieces of paper and then they were like okay this will take three to four working days to process and I'm like well I'm flying on Sunday and it's Thursday we have two working days can I can I pay you an extortion amount of money to have you do it sooner and they were like no god that's a good bureaucracy no if you were applying for a business visa you could you could do the same day service but you have to apply for a journalist visa because you will be filming something while you were there there's no flexibility anywhere there's no and India is just so it's like the Indian bureaucracy in the UK reflects India itself it's just huge and unwieldy and inflexible and and in the end I just walked out and said all right well I'll try and pull some strings which I've been trying to do today but it's not going to happen I'm not going to get this visa I'm not going to be on this plane I'm going to be letting a few people down I don't know what's going to happen but it was just I think the Indian bureaucracy is letting a few people down yeah and it's like and it's this weird mix of super low tech and trying to be super high tech so I have got this terribly designed website that breaks all the time and and they're going through some transition at the moment and I don't I've talked about it enough it was it was a bad experience and it's always a bad experience and I love the people of India and you have a nice country and you're very good at cricket but you are really bad at processing visas and make it very difficult to come and visit your country I'm sorry to hear that you won't be able to continue your crazy travel extravaganza well I don't know what's going to happen am I going to get the visa on Monday or Tuesday and go later and miss some of this conference who knows who knows who cares only the listeners died hello internet today's sponsor is audible.com a leading provider of spoken audio information and entertainment listen to audio books whenever and wherever you want this time I'm going to pick an old favorite of mine that I was actually rereading on this trip which is the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien audible has just about everything so of course they have this selection as well and I think this is a good time of year to read it it almost feels like a kind of thanks giving e christmasy sort of book and it is also well placed because of course the next Hobbit movie is coming out soon and you're going to want to know the real story before you watch that very long very extended possibly very boring conclusion to the series so far so if you have not read it already now is an excellent time to listen to the Hobbit the real version of the story so if you want to listen to a free copy of the Hobbit you can do so when you sign up at audible.com slash hello internet so they know that you came from us and you also get a 30 day free trial of audible if you want to listen to it audible has it with over 150,000 titles and virtually every genre you'll find what you're looking for once again get your free audio book and 30 day trial today by signing up at audible.com slash hello internet let's talk about a place that was easy to go to and that was Alabama where we went and hung out with our friends and had a fantastic time did we not have a great trip to Alabama I have to say it was an amazing experience it was I was I was very happy to go and I feel like the five of us are we get along very well I feel like we've we've clicked since the very first time that we met up in up in Canada at the perimeter institute to a certain extent that is true what do you mean what do you mean we don't we don't mind a good argument about things but that's but that's part of the clicking right is yeah you can have an argument with somebody Derek and and you don't feel like you're hurting each other's feelings or that's true or at least I don't think Derek feels that way I don't know I mean maybe I made him cry in his room at night or something but I feel like I had nothing but love to express to Derek even if we're arguing a whole bunch well he's the one doing the arguing so I hope he's not going back and crying in his room hey he makes me look lovely and I and I think I'm a pretty argumentative guy I think I think we're all argumentative in our own way we're all we're all very particular in our own way and but I like I still think we we just get along really well and so that's why when Dustin first arranged this it was like I I will come I will make time in my schedule for this you know no no questions asked and even though it was absolutely exhausting if Dustin said oh I know I want to try to arrange this again for next month I would be on board without a doubt it's like I would go quite happily even though it'll probably take me a week to recover from the trip it was it was glorious it was absolutely glorious do you know what's most exhausting about hanging out with you guys what and you're not as guilty of this as some of the others but this is just a thing you don't get away with anything like like if you miss speak or like mispronounce something or use a bit of hyperbola you shouldn't or say something that is incorrect which happens all the time like you know normally when you're talking to normal people and they say something like and you know like you know they don't need correcting either because they don't need correcting or because they just misspoke and they know the correct information you just kind of let that go like you just don't say anything that that's what normal people do that doesn't happen when we're hanging out like if you say something wrong or like with the with a whether by mistake or just miss speaking you're gone man that's not that's not just going to slide by these are these are these are these are guys who enjoy accuracy yes that is definitely true and destined was busy telling us a whole bunch of local stories about Huntsville and the various places that he was taking us and Derek was right behind him with his iPhone fact checking the stories he was doing it was too fun there to desiccation yeah let's just say oh that's this place is fake this place is famous for being yeah that you know the the the the tallest the tallest tree south of the Mississippi or something and then Derek could be a little actually there it's the third tallest and yeah that same kind of personality trait is also why I just absolutely adore hanging out with you guys whenever I get the chance and I think what what really set things off on the right foot was when Derek and Dustin were picking me up from the airport I think I was the second person to arrive and so they picked me up from the airport we've done the initial oh hi how are you and we're not in the car three minutes before all of us are having a conversation about how the highway numbering system works how the industry highway number system works I thought I love this this doesn't happen with anybody else everybody else there'd be like this whole big boring how was your trip how did things go sort of like we started the podcast with right yeah but with them it's like you can almost guarantee that any conversation is going to turn both very interesting and super nerdy really fast because somebody knows something about something or other and you just you know among the five of us you just need someone to make an off-handed comment and boom we're we're in deep on how the highway numbering system works or what are the editing rules for Wikipedia or just a numerous other topics that came up and that is why I absolutely love hanging out with you guys and it was just it was just great but it is it is kind of mentally exhausting after a whole week especially especially for someone like me who barely socializes who puts the socializing light bulb at the dimest it can possibly be without being off and then to suddenly have six days in a row of 18-hour days of talking to people it is quite draining from my perspective but totally worth it I'll tell you what was totally worth it for me yeah this is this is going to make people jealous because this is what I got to see while I was away with Gray I got to see Gray wielding all manner of guns and handguns and AK-47s and just firing those bad boys at targets and I think you loved it yeah we we had a kind of special morning with Destin where Destin was asked Destin when he arranged this asked people various things that that they might want to do and so there was a whole bunch of options and one of those options was to learn how to fire a gun and I had never fired a gun in my whole life and I was thinking later it is quite possible that I had never touched an active firearm in my life you know something that is outside of a museum touch the gun touch the gun Gray it was one of these things where I thought well I've never I've never done this before and I know and very much respect how very serious Destin is about gun safety this is no joke we've had some conversations about he he takes this stuff very very seriously oh yeah and so I thought well I'm never going to go to a gun range just on my own and to have some dude I don't know tell me about guns so I looked at Destin and I thought that is the man I'm going to lose my gun virginity with and he was very gentle and it was a great experience it was good it's like he gave us a little lesson on each gun before we used on how it worked and then he gave us a little safety briefing on each one and then basically he said go on then and we loaded those bad boys up and bang bang bang yeah but it was so much fun seeing seeing you who like I don't know like like it was fine for all of us and we all had a good time but there was something particularly amusing to me about seeing you firing especially those those those handguns I don't see why there's anything amusing about that I don't I don't know I don't know it was just like I don't know it was just the it was just a funny shot the thing that I have to say that was most surprising about that again someone who's just never shot guns has no experience with this is when it started out Destin set up a bunch of little orange targets and I want to say that the first ones were maybe 40 or 50 meters away I don't know is that fair I have a hard time estimating distance it depends on the story you're going to tell about how far away I'm going to say they were the far away ones I think 50 meters yeah 40 or 50 sounds about fair okay and Destin came out and he said oh don't worry you're going to be hitting these little you know 10 centimeter across targets in no time and I thought no way buddy did you how far away that is it looks like a dot on my field division I would need to train for years to hit one of those targets and much to my surprise guns are designed to make it easy to shoot things accurately and I said oh as long as I'm not moving around too much and if I can line up the the sights with the target I actually have a decent chance of hitting something that seems way too far away to actually hit so that was it's not it's not like angry birds where you've got to let out through the air the bullet's going to go in a pretty straight line the whole way yeah honest to God that was kind of what I was thinking is like well you know it's going to take a long time and I'll need to get a feel for the gun no they're designed to shoot things accurately and so if you if someone teaches you how to use it you can hit things relatively accurately now I'm not saying I hit every one of the targets but I was surprised that I hit any of the targets I was I was genuinely shocked ladies and gentlemen I can assure you great not hit that many of the targets I mean I am surprised I hit any of them I thought there's no way we could be here for weeks before I would hit one of those targets but no you know it was it was quite remarkable so yeah you were knock on them off and you even knock on a few off with the handgun which was pretty impressive that was that was a fun Alabama experience without a word did you have a did you have a favorite weapon well I think we both had a favorite weapon so I like the the P22 handgun and I don't remember what the name of yours was but you were simple I liked lots of them I attended to like the one I was holding at the time the most and it was like oh I can't imagine one being more enjoyable than this but you know the one I'm talking about the it was like the six shooter one oh yeah the what's the code is something 45 special or something I think that's right this is just this is how much we know about this desks destined will be screaming at his podcast app right now I'm gonna look at what it was called so I get it right yeah I did like that one it was something special I think this is 45 special that sounds right that was pretty cool although no that's not right because it's not calling out many pictures I don't know it was that revolver no I also liked that one that will be fired the dragon breath at the end that had a real big kick to it I like that one that was the shotgun you mean the shotgun yeah but the one that was kind of an AK 47 version of a shotgun okay this is one of these things where it is difficult to describe but there were just so many guns it was there was what's the what's the collect what's the collect an arsenal of guns is that collective now it's just this table of guns of all various sizes and shapes it's not like oh we can't remember the names of the two guns that you know we must have fired 10 different kinds of guns you know at least so it was it was definitely it was a very memorable experience I enjoyed a lot and if you ever have to learn about gun safety I would highly recommend Destin as the man to do it with he was very serious and also very very accepting as a teacher when I would do something dumb like try to shoot with the safety on you know it was like other just idiotic things so he was very good he was excellent and in true style we did spend the hour driving to the site talking about gun laws and stuff in the US so so we had this big like heated debate about the pros and cons of gun laws and where we all stood on it and then basically we got out of the currency all right let's load them up yeah which was kind of funny but anyway it was a good experience and it was done very safely and we were very grateful for it yes we had a we had a great dinner with his parents that night too well what wonderful people all his family were they were so kind and nice and tarry his wife organizing everything and we're they were so good I feel really bad that they were so nice I can't I can't imagine I could ever be that nice a host what this is exactly I I struggled to put into words destined family it's almost like they are the perfect family out of a Disney movie the whole extended family everybody is really great everybody is really polite and everybody is really nice and it was it was honestly just overwhelming I always I always find it you know because I come from a pretty small family I always find it really interesting to see other people's families and and how they interact and I have to say this was just a great big family and it was it was quite an experience and we felt really welcome the whole time and yeah it was I was just overwhelmed but perhaps the the most important and the one of the great discoveries from destined family was a delicacy that was prepared for us on multiple occasions and it was prepared for us on one occasion and for you explicitly I think on several other occasions and to where it went and I'm not going to describe it because you will accuse me of exaggerating do you want to describe this delicacy which apparently is a bit of a family tradition in destined family and I thought was the finest dessert I've ever encountered okay so this this tray appears one of the evenings a huge tray as well the size of a dinner table yeah yeah this tray appears and it looks like it is just strawberries on the top in a little bit of strawberry sauce but there is a surprise underneath which is that's like jello it's like set in jello yeah yeah it's kind of like jello on the top of strawberries but but very intense strawberry flavor yeah but underneath the layer of strawberries there is a layer of whipped cream which is like okay okay so far so good I can understand this this you know this is understandable but then the bottom layer is crunchy pretzels which doesn't seem like it fits with the other two and we ended up having a big argument over how to quantify the tastiness of this dessert which sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud but this really was like an hour of our evening was arguing over on a one to ten scale how delicious is this dessert and you were taking a very strong nine possibly ten stands no no I never said ten I was I was going nine and then I may be downgraded to eight just to leave myself some wiggle room but the thing that disappointed me was some of the others were quite gave it too low a mark basically and the whole time though we're giving it this this too low a mark they were just doubting the stuff by the bow Henry must have had three bows other stuff it was fantastic it was one of the real discoveries of my trip to Alabama yeah well all of the food in Alabama was delicious now as the listeners may guess I'm a relatively picky eater I don't like to try new foods I like things real consistent especially if it's going in my body but I have to say Alabama was probably one of the only places on earth I have ever been where I felt like whatever just order the food at one restaurant I even delegated the power of my order to destined which is something I would never do anywhere on earth any circumstance but I was like you know what I have been here four days everything is delicious I don't have any idea what to order on this menu you just do it dude and he ordered a whole bunch of stuff I was like this is all delicious this is all amazing so Alabama thumbs up on your food I gained five pounds in a week from eating everything it was just it was amazing but I could not live there because I would obviously die of some kind of obesity related disease if I spent two or three years down in Alabama so excellent place to visit but I could not possibly live there because the food is too good so I mean the main reason we went was just to hang out with friends and we we did this shooting and we ate this yummy jello and we went into a cave and we went to a football match and we did this amazing like tour of NASA the Marshall Space Center that was arranged but another big thing we did of course was the random acts of intelligence show at the rocket center which 600 people came to yeah well to back this up to back this up I have a couple lessons about destined the first we've already mentioned on I think one of the extras to this podcast which is do not discuss potential titles for videos with destined unless you have a full working day to give over to that project yeah you will be engaged in this conversation for forever and the other lesson that I learned on this trip is do not agree to do something with destined on the premise that it is going to be small destined can only do things all the way and so I went back and looked at the old emails and it started as oh hey let's let's have this trip just together in Alabama and we're just going to hang out and isn't that going to be great and then over time it progressed to hey maybe we should have an informal meet up in a park with some people who might want to meet up with us if we just say something on Twitter and then it was oh maybe we could do at a university like a little panel and then it kept ratcheting up in this way when I wasn't paying close enough attention to all of a sudden I felt like I did not understand the full scale of this thing until I was actually in Alabama and it was tomorrow I was like oh we have the space and rocket center and there's going to be a Saturn 5 rocket above us and there's going to be 600 people and there's a huge screen and there's audio visual checks to be done it just turned into this enormous thing and we were like grated by like the local tourist authority it was like a big deal like yeah the whole thing was just crazy and I kept thinking I don't remember signing up for any of this I don't exactly know how I got here and it is somewhat nerve-wracking to see how real this thing is if if that had been presented to me at the start I would have said no way are you crazy I'm not going to do that but somehow destined just kept ratcheting it up a little bit a little bit over the months and you never say no at any particular point and suddenly you find yourself on stage in front of 600 people for the first time so yeah but it was again it was a great event but it was surprising how much effort Dustin was able to put into it and how well he was able to pull off the whole thing when it started as just like oh maybe we'll do a thing so yes you know how like I was joking before about how if I was flying first class I'd want scarlet your hands and give me peanut m&Ms and all this sort of stuff if I was going to put on a show and I was joking around and you said where do you want your stage to be Brady I would say to you all right here's the stage I want Grey make this happen I want a satin five rocket above my head suspended from the ceiling and then I would say I want an Apollo a real Apollo lunar landing module and lunar rover to my left I want a real Apollo return capsule that brought men back from the moon to my right in fact put a moon rock there as well while you're at it I want I want Apollo memorabilia in every corner I want the parachute from an Apollo lunar module sitting above my right shoulder make that happen and you would laugh at me I would I would and that is exactly what we had yeah yeah it was like it was like Brady fantasy stage the the the only thing that would have been more amazing was if halfway through Scarlet your hands and appeared and started giving me peanut m&Ms oh I should give you a speedmaster that's what she's scarlet your hands comes up with they well they did they did bring a speedmaster on stage for me so that part was covered I guess they could have brought a tray of that pretzel jelly strawberry stuff on stick that didn't happen during the show but I did have some afterwards back at home yeah it really was the perfect Brady stage I have a hard time imagining that there will ever be a stage that you could love more than that one yeah so as is known this this was deliberately something we like you know didn't want to make a like a big recording of and like it was it was this was a live show it wasn't a video so I don't think we're gonna you know rabbit on for ages about what we didn't and things like that because you know maybe would maybe this will happen again one day although I doubt at listening to you listening to some of your comments but but but one thing that we should talk about because it's quite interesting is the fact that you were there you were on stage I mean you don't make a big deal about public appearances and blast yourself all over your videos and post photos of yourself like the rest of us showoffs so this so this was something a bit different for you and I think I think a fair proportion of people who were there were quite curious about seeing you come out from your little editing cave and appear in public and how was that experience for you yeah I think I think it felt it felt really natural I almost feel like we couldn't talk a lot about the night because from my perspective it went so fast it's a bit like it's a bit like on one the the previous podcast I mentioned how I would have no memory of my wedding if it had not been recorded and I do have memories of the space and rocket center talk because obviously it was not as intense as my wedding was it's a whole other level but it was it was a very very intense evening still and so it felt like the thing just went by so fast and there are little details that I remember about it but it would almost be difficult to actually talk about the thing in its entirety but yeah but yeah I did appear in person at this event and yeah I think it went well and afterwards after the actual event itself we ended up all five of us ended up signing posters and t-shirts and stuff for about two hours I think it was crazy it was crazy it was absolutely crazy I was trying to estimate how many people it was and I'm thinking okay I probably probably saw something like two or three people a minute and it was you know two hours of signing at the least and so that's something like what 250 people at a minimum maybe 400 people at a maximum I don't know that's a lot of people to to say hello to and we had to sign iPhones oh man that was so that was well I've never that was I did not expect that to happen I did not expect that to happen either and so so one so the setup here is that after the show we went out into the kind of lobby of the space and rocket center and it it felt just mobbed there were just people everywhere and I ended up being in a corner with a kind of semicircle of people around me and just pulling people out and signing and saying hello and shaking hands and all the stuff like that one really well that that was really nice but I do remember the first guy who came up to me and said I want you to sign my iPhone and I thought dude I don't know if I can handle this kind of pressure and just to be clear this is with a pen yeah with a permanent marker on the back of the phone on the screen iPhone yeah on the on the metal part on the back yeah I don't know if I can handle this but I did say okay if you know you look me in the eyes man and you tell me that you're really okay with this I'm going to do it and so he did and I signed it and I have to say signing an iPhone is a very pleasurable experience the back is nice and solid the pen moves nice and smoothly compared to signing something like a t-shirt signing an iPhone is a total joy so I made this comment and a bunch of people around heard this and then I ended up by my count signing four iPhones in total over that event because other people like oh do you want to sign my iPhone and I thought well once you sign one you know you've broken through that isn't this terrifying barrier sure I'll sign everybody's iPhone this is way better than signing posters I feel a bit bad about the one I signed because did you mess it up did you mess it up no no I didn't mess it up but I mean obviously what happened was a lot of people sort of went around like to all five of us and just got them to sign things like a poster and stuff like that so have like the the collection of people who were there but but the first time I was asked to sign the phone and I was well aware that you know a lot of people were there not to see me in fact more people were probably there to see you know the Derrick's and the Destins because they're like big superstars and the CGP Greg because he's in history man anyway that's okay that's that's the humility okay sorry false humility false humility let me get back to my humble break so the the the thing so this guy pulls out his phone and says will you sign my iPhone and I think I was the first person asked to do it because you obviously got a whole bunch of others after you made your comment but this was like the first one I'd seen and and it was it was unsigned and I was like I said like you said I said you serious you want me to sign your phone and he was like yeah yeah do so I was like okay yeah sure whereabouts and he sort of pointed vaguely to an area so I like I signed it and I signed it really big in the middle and it never occurred to me that he was going to take that phone to be signed by the rest of you which of course I should have occurred to me why would he just want me to sign it so later on when a picture was posted like to Twitter or something of the phone signed by everyone there's kind of my giant signature in the middle and like there's CGP Greg and Derrick and Destin all like you guys are all like on the edges on the writing and everything and I've hobbed to the best spot so you are the John Hancock of that phone exactly I hope I hope he came to me first because he wanted me most because I'm in the middle but I tell you what those few hours that obviously it was very self-selecting and these people had come because they wanted to see us so but it did give you a taste for a couple of hours of what it must be like to be like like a well-known person and it made me realize like I loved I loved it talking to all these people and doing this but I also liked that after two or three hours it stopped yes and I can't imagine what it must be like to be like bread pit or someone and just everywhere you go that is the default yes yes this is this is the topic you know very well I want to talk about more in detail at some point but yes yeah I would I would reaffirm this that you know people think being famous is awesome and it's like yes it can be awesome for an afternoon by if your whole life was like this it's a nightmare it would it would just be terrible and so yes it was it was really great that there was a group of people who wanted to come and that we could legitimately spend some time with those people and even after the even after the the two hours of signing we then went there was like an after after show at the the Marriott where people were just having drinks and so we went over there and just hung out and it was really great to be able to kind of go around to some tables and just just have some chill conversations with people and like that was also a really a really nice experience but I highly value in my normal life being able to just go somewhere and people don't know me so yes like this is great under limited circumstances but it would not it would not be great in the in your life in general but I do if you say and the reason why I wanted to shut you down before about people people you know just not coming to see you which was my experience was almost everybody who came the very first thing that they mentioned was the podcast and how they listened to the two of us and they really liked it and I found that just very notable and very interesting that there was really strong hello internet listener presence at the random acts event and there was I thought that was really interesting and there's lots of people saying how much they like the podcast and yeah it was that was that was what I'm I felt like oh this is this is really nice I'm glad people I'm glad people like it so I would have preferred it though if they had said like I don't know who that that CGP grade joker is but I think number file and periodic videos is just awesome no it was it was it was it was it was fun you obviously posed for like loads of selfies and stuff like that yeah yeah which was and you know this is obviously these are going to just you know find their way around the places people share things like people do yeah yeah you're cool you're cool with that you've got no problem with you know because you do value your privacy but you've just sort of said oh well there we go well so the the thing the thing about this is as you might imagine I have thought about this kind of decision for a while and yeah I was someone asked during the event if I was okay with pictures and I said yes you know obviously it's it's fine so yeah if you go on Twitter now you can search for pictures of what I look like I still recommend that you don't like I wrote that article about the faceless voices laying out my reasons for for from my experience lots of podcasts I listened to or audio book narrators I listened to I prefer to not know what they look like yeah and so I wrote an article trying to tell people that and I have actually received more than a few emails from people saying that they have regretted their decision to go find out what I look like and I understand that I don't take that as as they're horrified by how horrifically ugly I am or anything it's like no no I get that I completely understand that feeling of it's kind of better when you when you don't know the person but for some but some some people really do want to know and so if if you do you can go on Twitter and and search for the pictures and I'm sure they'll you'll find them and they'll come up but yeah it was it was something that I was thinking about for a long time and it was really really ever since I crossed the million subscriber mark I I noticed that I was starting to have a lot of anxiety about trying to keep my picture off of the internet which of course is just an impossible task and also like I am no fool you look at the trend lines of technology like we're not heading into a world that is more private in the future we are heading into a world that is less private in the future yeah and so if you are a person who does any kind of work in the public sphere you just you can't have the same kind of control over your anonymity that you you would as a normal person because even normal people have a difficult time with that so I guess I was I was having a lot of just stressed about trying to keep that tamped down and yeah I also I also just want to say trying to keep pictures off the internet that was something I was doing but there is also like this whole team of of other people who I have interacted with over the years who have also helped me with this and I cannot possibly name all of them but I do just want to say like my ability to keep my picture off of the internet was not a one-man project there are a lot of people who help me with this and and you know help take old stuff down or you know just just helped protect my anonymity in some way so I do want to say just a huge thanks to all of the people who who did help with that like it it meant quite a lot to me after the million subscribers I could I could feel the tide changing on this that there were just there was just too many people and so the it's again it's like economics with Craig the the stress of trying to maintain this was beginning to outweigh the the personal benefits of the anonymity in a perfect world I would remain anonymous forever but of course that's not the world that we actually live in and so I thought well I have to do this in in at some point in some way and then this is when Dustin started talking about doing an event and I thought oh this this kind of works out perfectly and I have to say my experience now is that I am just hugely relieved to not be stressed out about this anymore because I used to just I used to just get kind of very anxious sometimes when people would send me emails that were something about my picture and I thought like oh god you know what is this what am I going to have to worry about now or you know just like I am very happy to have that part of my life be over but sort of related the same thing like we mentioned before I still have a hard time imagining I'm ever going to be actively promoting me like I don't think I'm going to be in my own videos I like doing the animations and I think they work and I probably won't put my own picture on my about page on my website I did find I mean I did have a brief experience with this a few weeks back with the with the pie my la pie video it was obviously obviously you were there and found your way into various shots because you were helping out basically yeah and I did say to you do you want me to go through with a fine tooth comb and take you out and sense you and you'd obviously had reached this decision already and you just sent to me look just just leave it so obviously I told I told you that I know I wouldn't be there if it wasn't okay for me to be in background yeah because it like it wouldn't be fair for me to go to this thing and then tell you oh you have to spend an enormous amount of time in every making sure that you digitally erase me from every shot yeah but I did find it funny because and mildly creepy but also but more funny that obviously people figured this out because we talked about the video on on the podcast and the lengths people went to on that video to sort of isolate who you were like they would go through like the credits of who was who was there yeah and then like do this sort of process of elimination and they were taking screen grabs and they were using like aerial shots to figure out what you're wearing it was like a it was like CSI yeah and that kind of stuff is is totally creepy like there's no way to look at that and even though the people are have the best intentions I like yeah it just feels subjectively creepy and so yes I am very happy that for stuff like that in the future if the conversation comes up where people go oh which one is CGP Gray someone can just link to one of the pictures on Twitter and go that's CGP Gray if you must know if you must know there he is it's this one but we don't have we don't have to start like tracking down everybody who's appeared in this video yeah putting them up on a on a quirk board with strings connecting to different addresses and stuff like we don't need to do that anymore we just know and it's fine so I'm I'm happy to have that situation be different now I love that you went for the court board and the strings like the very angry like way of doing it that's kind of cute that's the way crazy people look in movies yeah no that would have it like in 3D and there would be strings all across their room and wouldn't be able to walk through the room because they've done it all like yeah hero style yeah although it is some people like like as you said you were asked during the show or do you mind if we you know post pictures and stuff and you said no I mean you jokingly said it was I think you said like it was your coming out or something yeah yeah that got that got a nice laugh and yet some people are still posting pictures from the event like they're selfies with you and they're like censoring out your face like they're putting something maybe they don't like what you look like well I would I love about that I did not expect that and I saw a whole bunch of people do that exact same thing where they posted the picture of them with me but they took that they put the stick figure over my face yeah it never occurred to me that people would do that but I thought oh this is great because I can retweet these photos like look at these pictures from this event and so I have to say I really got a big laugh out of that I really enjoyed that and I think it's I just thought it was really funny and and people did do funny things when we were actually signing stuff one guy wanted me to hold the poster over my face and took a picture of me hold it like him next to me with the poster from I'm not even sure what the point of this picture is but I'm glad it makes you happy there were just if there were a few funny things like that so I have to say I genuinely enjoyed the experience of of meeting everybody no matter how briefly in that signing section and and just talking to to fans of the show or people who liked the videos like that was that was a much better experience than I expected it to be I expected it to just just be really draining which it was but I did not expect that it could also be as as fun as it turned out to be and I hope it was fun for everybody who was there and for those who couldn't make it or would like to have made it I'm sure one day something will happen where you two can take a photo of Grace face covered with a poster yeah that's the ideal thing to do we must we must make sure we do something against sometime one of these days because I hope it was fun yeah I hope destined arranges something I'm just I'm just still delegated to destined to do goodness knows what he would do he'll probably it'll probably be literally held on the moon next time but he'll be like yeah the you know the rocket center wasn't close enough to a lunar environment this time I want to go all the way that's a good point I think maybe maybe I will delegate the next one to Henry Henry should arrange the next one you you come on listeners you won the battle for me on free booting now with the battle for me on on break humble i'm gonna cut that part out
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