On this week’s show, Will gets an important savings tip, Gary learns what kids really want for Christmas, and Norm learns the true meaning of Black Friday. All that, plus the latest on OSX 10.9, Intel’s CEO retirement, the Kin’s failure, and another edition of fake outtakes. Enjoy!
One Day Builds
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
One Day Builds
Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
http://files.tested.com/podcast/thisisonlyatest-148-20121121.mp3
Christmas is about materialism and Thanksgiving (which we don’t celebrate where I live) seems to be about gluttony. Both suck and are really sad. Do you guys ever get tired of it? I love tech but at a certain point you have to ask yourself, how many more devices do you need? Also Americans are the fattest people in the world. Do you really need Thanksgiving?
Sorry to be so glum, it just bothers me!
Again, thank you! 😀
Americans are not the fattest people in the world, Bahrain is the fattest country.
I think employees who bitch about working on Black Friday are A) dumb and B) should enjoy having something to do. Retail is so boring v.v
That’s a pretty cynical stupid way to see it. It’s a happy time of year that brings families together. Assuming they aren’t totally dysfunctional, and that is besides the point. There are some ugly bits like idiots rushing for sales and stuff, but it’s mostly a time of year that people are generally kinder than they normally would be, giving to friends, family, and strangers.
I’m not saying it’s a magical fuckin display of human compassion, just that it’s not worse than the rest of the year, and probably a bit better in some ways.
I could give a fuck either way. Gimme some yummy food and let me buy my girl lavish gifts, I’ll be happy.
Well okay. Only thing I remember reading is that between Europe and USA the overwhelmingly fattest were USA and Britain.
Fair enough. To me there are far better ways to be kind to someone than giving them presents though. I am probably cynical but most people probably have family they don’t really like. To me it is wrong to pretend to like everyone during one day each year and then never see them for the rest of the year.
That was a great episode! I prefer the Family Guy version were Lois went crazy 🙂
“Lois You all think Christmas just happens? You think all this goodwill just falls from the freakin’ sky? Well, it doesn’t! It falls out of my holly jolly butt! So, you can cook your own *** turkey, wrap your own *** presents! And while you’re at it, you can all ride a one-horse open sleigh to hell!”
Couldn’t have put it better myself. It’s just that we’ve all heard it before and I highly doubt it will add anything meaningful to the discussion besides making Will look like a cranky old man.
I’m someone who could care less what other people do this weekend and as a price-conscious person if I can expect online deals around this time, great! I don’t think the line waiting and the excesses of the event are worth it and on that front I agree with Will that it’s probably better to stay home. With that said I never really gave that much of a shit about Thanksgiving and is a rather meaningless holiday to me. Thanksgiving amounts to “go downstairs, eat some Turkey, go back upstairs, hey it’s Friday”. December 1st is way more of a celebration for me than Thanksgiving ever was.
Christmas is where it’s at because there are emotions it brings out, decorations, music, the whole 9. As a holiday that is what really does it for me and so if that means Thanksgiving gets buried so be it, didn’t care anyway.
“Elite” shout out. I played so much of that on the Spectrum. It was crazy at the time!
But I am excited about the Wing commander reboot too!
I remember downloading a demo for the last part for the first time (1 GB?) on a ISDN line over night.
The Pikmin movers with the Wii transfer stuff is also on the 3DS when you transfer your stuff from a DSi.
This Narwhal/Orca discussion is up there with the worst segments I’ve heard on the podcast.
That’s just you being cynical. An excuse to buy people things doesn’t mean you’re pretending to like them, or that you don’t show it during the rest of the year. It’s sort of like getting a new phone when your upgrade comes along. You probably don’t need it, but you’ve got enough of a reason to get a new phone.
It’s nice to have a month or so of people being especially social and pleasant and giving. Having it all year around would be exhausting and obnoxious.
That’s where I disagree.
Also, I realize that this is a tech site but sometimes I think people value products too much. Do we need more than 5 devices that connect to the internet? Watching kids getting interviewed after “Sandy” and most were sad that they had lost all their stuff.
The guys did talk about how ridiculous the first world problems have become. I also enjoyed Gary Whitta, aka story consultant and writer, talking about poop yet again. Never change Gary!
I’m with Whitta, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce suck.
That’s a pretty cynical way of looking at things, and can be true for some people. But for most Thanksgiving is just flat out about being with your family, and you could say you don’t need a day for that but there is nothing wrong with a little push.
Also Christmas being about materialism is only in relation to kids, most people after they turn about 15 or so stop getting presents so much and start giving them. Sure you could say its teaching kids bad lessons to ask so much for nothing but hopefully most parents realize that Christmas is a way to show kids that giving and being together is the real joy.
Finally I think fatness is not a problem with the media, society or the country you live in. It is (for most) a choice, and you can do whatever you want to do, people complain when your too skinny or too fat, if you don’t want to be healthy who is anyone to tell you not to.
You can’t live your whole life thinking about the worst stuff in the world. If you are lucky enough to you should enjoy the world around you, but of course help out when you can.
My understanding of the origin of the term “Black Friday” was the same as Norm’s, that the day was marked as roughly when retail stores became profitable for the year. I’ll concede that at least Wikipedia indicates that this explanation is a newer one, and that the origin seems to be related to the general chaos and crappiness of the day. But Will gave Norm an unreasonable amount of shit about the profitability thing. Saying “Well why would the stores even be open before November if they’re running at a loss before then?” is like saying “If you only have to pay rent on the first of the month, why don’t you just only live in your apartment from the 2nd to the 30th???” The idea is not that Black Friday is a profitable day and all the prior days lose money, it’s that Black Friday is the day where the revenue from that day in addition to all the prior shopping days of the year finally exceed their yearly overhead costs. You start the year with a bunch of costs you know you will have to pay (rent, employee salaries, etc.) no matter how much stuff you sell. For many retail outlets, the point at which their sales revenue exceeds those yearly fixed costs and they are ‘in the black’ is towards the end of the year. Certainly some stores are assured of a yearly profit much sooner than November (I’d assume Apple stores), and some will not stand a chance of getting there at all (Best Buy, perhaps). But that’s the general idea behind that understanding of the phrase. While it may not be the actual origin of the term, it is by no means an insane theory.
RIGHT?! Will and Gary arguing with Norm about the origins of the term “Black Friday” is equally as irritating…
Holidays as the deadly sins.
Yes? 🙂 Gluttony, greed and sloth are definitely covered. Not sure about the others!