SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:21]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
So how are doing, John?
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:25]
I'm doing alright, Stan.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:27]
I don't know how to take this, your lack of wanting other people on the podcast.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:33]
Missus Lemon wanted to talk about Disney World last week. Finker's gonna be in town later tonight and tomorrow,
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:39]
but you've moved to recording so that we avoided him and don't have opportunity to ask him about his meat rubs by finger business.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:46]
Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. I did not I did not move the event to avoid him.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:53]
As you know, I don't like recording multiple people in the same room.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:57]
Thus, it made sense
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:00]
for me to not record with him. But I didn't even I didn't even bring up the idea. I like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:06]
it totally totally put me on the spot here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:09]
All I'm saying is that we've talked about Finker on many episodes in our eighty five year eighty five episode history, not eighty five years.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:18]
And we Right now, it feels like eighty five years.
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:23]
I did find out that somebody stumbled across our podcast, though. Oh, yeah?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:27]
My pastor
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:29]
said something to me on Sunday morning. He particularly
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:34]
admired your,
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:36]
take on Manhattans
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:38]
on how if they're served without a cherry, then what is even the point?
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:43]
Hey, man. That's So in honor of that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:46]
I mixed up a Manhattan. Oh, I get you. You got a cherry? Alright. Good good deal. But listen, I am really pleased to find that all of that targeted ad payments you've been doing on Facebook have finally paid off, you, you know I don't do Facebook anymore, Stan. All of our listeners should
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:04]
deactivate their accounts so that I don't have to maintain the Facebook page anymore.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:08]
Oh, please don't do that. If if you're listening, please don't do that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:13]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:13]
you you're not you're not on Facebook at all right now?
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:17]
Right now, I am not. I reactivate my account once a week in order to post the life with twist of lemon episode, at which point, I deactivate
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:25]
my account, and they make you, select a reason for deactivation.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:30]
So I always say, I have a privacy concern.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:35]
Okay. Alright. I wonder what that looks like because, you know, somewhere there's a dashboard Right. That's tracking that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:42]
You're that guy. I'm that guy.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:46]
Living a dream, Stan. You sound better.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:50]
I wish I could say that I felt better. I mean, I feel better, but not a 100%. Whatever
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:56]
thing is, like, infected in my ear is lingering.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:59]
Yeah. So But you don't sound like you're dying anymore. So there is It's spectrum. It's all spectrum. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:07]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:08]
what's the weather like by you? Are you getting this, like, heat wave that we're getting?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:13]
So we had a very nice weekend.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:15]
Temperature is right around 60 degrees.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:19]
Last night, I think Anna told me that we were supposed to get eight inches of snow starting tomorrow.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:26]
That appears to have shifted in the weather pattern and will be missing us, so we could get up to one inch of snow.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:32]
But today, I think we hit a high of forty
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:35]
forty two, somewhere around there. Yeah. As I say, like, right now,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:38]
I think I'm in let me check. What does it say? 42.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:42]
It's currently 42.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:44]
And and over the weekend, it got up into the mid fifties, and I couldn't believe it. Oh, so we were warmer than you? Yeah. By by a bit. By a bit. But but this begs the question, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:53]
are you getting ready for lawn care now, or are you gonna hold out? I I am itching for lawn care.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:01]
I've been watching my favorite lawn care video star.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:05]
He released some of his early spring content.
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:09]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:10]
we'll see. I think I still probably have
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:13]
month and a half or so before I can do anything really, but
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:17]
thinking about it. Saw some grass. Still some snow on the lawn, though.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:22]
Okay. Alright. So what what's the first step at the Coal Meyer Ranch
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:28]
for,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:30]
lawn care? Because, you know, springtime, you're putting down something to kill weeds. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:35]
Generally,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:36]
first step is always raking those, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:39]
Oh, okay. Rake. So you're gonna you're gonna go through and rake. Yep. We'll clear up any lingering fall leaves,
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:45]
and it will get all
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:47]
the grass starting to stand up on its own. Let some sunlight get down to the roots
SPEAKER_1 [00:04:52]
soil.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:54]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:55]
See, that's not something I'm gonna spend time doing. Yeah. Because you don't have any trees. Well, there's that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:02]
I I mean, there's there's no leaves. Like, there's nothing from from that regard. Now I I also did I I,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:09]
dethatched and all that good stuff Yeah. At the end of last year. So I don't know what would actually kick up at this point. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:15]
But, yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:17]
Okay. So you're gonna go through and rake. Your your yard's also a little bit smaller than mine, so that might be Indeed it is. But I just seeing all the grass, I got some leaves and sticks down and stuff like that. So general yard cleanup will be first on the list.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:30]
Okay. Alright. And then once that's done? So once that's done, I I'm still kinda up in the air. So, generally, the best time to plant grass seed is in the fall, which I did not do last year.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:43]
I have a serious
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:46]
creeping Charlie problem in the backyard as we talked about on the podcast previously.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:52]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:53]
I think what I'm gonna do
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:55]
is I am going to throw down a pre emergent in the front yard.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:01]
And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:02]
so that basically stops crabgrass.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:05]
Like, it doesn't do anything for dandelions or anything like that, but it creates this weed barrier for,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:11]
grassy type weeds,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:13]
which also will kill off any
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:15]
grass seed that you plant too because, you know, they kinda act the same.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:19]
So preemergent
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:21]
in the front yard when probably April.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:25]
And then at the same time, I will do my first fertilizer application of the year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:31]
Okay. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:33]
the backyard, are you gonna go nuclear? Like, what's what's the thought there? So the backyard, I think I'm going to skip the pre emergent and throw down grass seed in all the bare spots
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:43]
and pray, basically.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:47]
So you're not gonna do anything specifically to tackle the creeping Charlie?
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:51]
No. So creeping Charlie,
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:53]
basically, you have to attack in the fall. That's when they kinda drop their seeds for next year.
SPEAKER_1 [00:06:58]
So what I'm gonna try to do in the back is really push the grass and get
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:04]
kind of a fuller grass turf back there. I also my backyard is heavily shaded, so it's not really at risk for
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:12]
crabgrass and those types of weeds.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:15]
So I'm gonna throw down seed, and I'll fertilize at the same time,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:19]
there to kinda push the existing grass,
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:24]
and we'll kinda go from there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:26]
Okay. Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:28]
So the the creeping Charlie, is it in your neighbor's yards?
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:33]
I don't know. See, my backyard is fenced in all around.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:37]
From what I can see of
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:39]
the neighbor's yard, that is really the only one that I can see.
SPEAKER_1 [00:07:44]
Their grass is not in great shape. I'm not sure if it's creeping Charlie or what, but it's not really moving out to my front yard,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:52]
under the fence or anything like that. So I guess we'll see. Okay. Because I was I was just thinking if your neighbors have creeping Charlie
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:00]
as well, that might be a losing battle. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:03]
Yeah. That's
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:04]
that stuff's a pain, man.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:07]
So we'll see. Thought that if there was somebody I didn't like in life that, a great way to haze them would be to plant some creeping Charlie in some part of their yard when they're not looking.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:17]
Yeah. I mean, it's it's a nasty nasty weed.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:21]
It's it's like a ground vine,
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:23]
So it just kinda sprawls out, and it grabs hold of the soil wherever it can. And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:28]
yeah, it thrives in
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:31]
shaded areas
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:32]
and,
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:35]
basically, places that stay wet, kinda damper areas.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:40]
So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:40]
shifting gears a little bit here. I seeded
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:43]
at the end of last year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:45]
Should I put a pre emergent down, or should I
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:49]
hold off on that? I think that you should definitely put a pre emergent down especially since your lawn is very, very sunny.
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:56]
Okay. Because no trees. So lay down pre emergent, fight your crabgrass,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:01]
Get started with some high nitrogen content,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:05]
and we'll make it green up before all your neighbors.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:08]
Well, at least that would be the hope. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:11]
I've got I have some areas that I I was trying to do some some patching
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:15]
last year, particularly around the trees. I I decided we we had these, like, flower beds, and after we pulled the flowers out, I just laid down seed. They do not appear to be taking on as fast as I was hoping, so we'll see how that goes. That could look a little weird this year. Yeah. Grass under trees is always iffy because it's competing with all the tree roots.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:36]
And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:37]
I mean, your trees are small, so they still get lots of sun. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:42]
Yeah. Yeah. No. They I mean, they would. I I don't know. We'll see. I just,
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:48]
I'm hoping they'll they'll fill in. But okay. So I need to hit a pre emergent, and I need to
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:54]
lay down some nitrogen. Not at the same time, though.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:58]
Not together, but you can do them the same day. So, generally, what I what I learned this year is when soil temperatures reach 55 degrees,
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:07]
and there's a cool online tool that looks at historical soil temperatures, or you can go out and get a meat thermometer and stick it in the ground.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:15]
This just seems like a really expensive way to answer that question. I'd be curious. How how does the, how does the website know
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:22]
the temperature in your area? Like, somebody's gotta be taking and collecting that data. Yeah. So, like, there's usually
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:28]
I think they're called extension centers. They're, like, all over the place. Usually, they're fighting farm crop or something like that. We have an extension center based out of the university,
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:38]
and it would be regional. So I don't know. Like, yours could be in the center of state rather than
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:43]
you exactly or something like that. I'm I'm kind of in the center of the state, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:48]
I guess you are.
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:50]
Yeah. Yeah. But you're so close to Ohio.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:53]
That's because we're a very narrow state.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:57]
Alright. So,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:58]
too early for me to be doing that though probably because I I definitely Your ground is probably still frozen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:06]
That would surprise me because we haven't had that many, like, frozen days,
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:10]
But it's definitely not gonna be 55, at least not with any kind of consistency.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:14]
If I'm taking my meat thermometer and shoving it in the ground, John, what time of day should I be doing that?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:23]
Don't know, Stan. That's a good question.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:26]
See, that seems important. It seems important.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:29]
Speaking of meat thermometers, I actually just ordered a new one. Yeah. For soil temperature?
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:33]
No. No. No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:35]
No. And No. I got a, I I like ThermoWorks since I got a a new thermal pen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:40]
And, the one I had, I had a thermal pop, and I think I got too much water on it when I was cleaning it and Mhmm. Shorted it out. So I remember that thing. And you need those for your
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:50]
for your meat smoking that you'll do this year. Yep. For meat smoking and then well, I have the, I have the ThermoWorks dot that I use for meat smoking because it's got an extended probe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:01]
And so I can actually run the probe in through the back vents of the the,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:05]
smoker and then leave them in while I'm smoking the meat.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:09]
Nice. Yeah. So that that works. And I did have to buy a new
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:14]
probe for that. So ordered the probe and then the new pen.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:16]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:18]
the the
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:19]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:20]
probe, I think I kinked it and just ruined it and, you know, it is what it is. But,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:26]
thermal pen, I'm excited about. So that's that's an upgrade from my thermal pop. So we'll see, see how that goes. I just have a meat thermometer that was, like, $12 that I got on Amazon. Works pretty well. Yeah. It's not, like, instant. Gotta wait a couple seconds. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:41]
So the the nice thing about the ThermoWorks stuff is it is, like, almost immediate and
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:48]
highly accurate.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:49]
And this one I got is water resistant
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:52]
or excuse me. It's waterproof to I p 67.
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:55]
So, hopefully, I won't You'll be okay washing it. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:00]
I hope so. I'm not gonna put it in the dishwasher or anything like that, but highly recommend the the ThermoWorks products. They're they're pretty good. Just don't buy them on Amazon because they're all knockoffs on Amazon. Brings up the point that if you're cooking meat ever, you should have a meat thermometer.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:14]
Or if you're cooking bread. Both of those things require a thermometer. Yeah. That's actually why I bought the ThermoPop. Bread, though. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:21]
Maybe. That's the last time I bought the ThermoPop. When was the last time you made a loaf of bread?
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:26]
In the fall. I don't remember exactly when. It's been a bit. No. My kids stopped eating it, man. Like, it was just weird. They just all of a sudden stopped eating bread. Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:36]
Yeah. So, you know, does it make sense to go through all that work if it's just gonna go moldy? Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:42]
Anyways.
SPEAKER_1 [00:13:44]
Did you did you sharpen your lawnmower blade last year?
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:47]
I did not.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:50]
It it would have been the year before that it was sharpened. So it it basically has
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:56]
a year and a couple months worth of cutting on it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:02]
I don't know. I I know a lot of people sharpen them every season. Yeah. I'm not sure that I'll mess with that. Maybe.
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:08]
I've been thinking about buying a second blade and putting that on, and then, like, get it sharpened at some point this season, switch it out next year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:17]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:20]
And then just pop it off and on yourself. I mean, I I think that would work. I that that sounds
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:25]
honestly, if I'm gonna get it sharpened, I'm probably just gonna take it in Yeah. And get the whole thing serviced.
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:31]
That's fair. You did that with your snowblower.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:34]
I did. Yeah. And, actually, I have to do it with
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:37]
with,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:38]
my power washer sometime this year. I need to do the north side of the house. It's getting a little mossy on the siding. So I was looking at that actually the other day because it was warm. I was walking around outside,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:49]
and, just realizing that I need to spend some time out there and just get it get it clean. Because, you know, the north side of the house, you're it's gonna happen. So I should get a power washer this year. I bought all that stuff last year. It's my first season as a homeowner, so a power washer would be a good purchase this year. Power washer is a lot of fun. Yeah. It's,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:09]
yeah. Mine's mine's in bad shape. It needs to be cleaned and treated badly, but I think I used it once the entire time we were in Seymour.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:17]
Yeah. Didn't didn't have a lot of reason to to mess around with it. So You had, like, a dark
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:23]
stone house, brick house? It was brick. Yeah. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:27]
the I didn't have a moss growing problem like I do here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:33]
There just wasn't anything else to power wash. No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:36]
So Yeah. Do
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:39]
you do any other, spring cleaning type things on a regular basis?
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:45]
Not really. I mean, we'll, like, straighten up the garage, and we'll shift some things around. Right? Because
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:50]
You don't need a snowblower anymore? Yeah. Right? I'll solve I'll get that empty of gasoline,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:56]
run off whatever I can't pump out, and then,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:59]
kinda shift that to the back,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:01]
get the mower closer to where I can get to it. You know? Maybe set up the
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:06]
the the bike stand, get the bikes down. Bike tune up. Yeah. Some of that stuff. So I I wouldn't I don't know that that'll happen here in March. You know? Yeah. March is around the corner. I guess we'll see. Yeah. What March brings.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:21]
My my guess is probably April. But Ma'am. You know, beyond that, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:26]
I don't know. There's not a lot there's not a lot to be
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:30]
spring cleaning around here, truth be told. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:33]
So at some point, I'm gonna get outside and wash all the exteriors of my windows,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:39]
mostly the big picture window that I can't just fold in. But And you have a ladder now, you can do that. I have a ladder. Yeah. You know, that it's a good thing to call out. We we probably will do some window cleaning.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:51]
Honestly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:51]
the power washer might be helpful for that too. Yeah. So maybe maybe that's motivation. Start there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:58]
But Well, good.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:00]
It's always a hassle if you got screens. I'm assuming you have screens. I have screens, but the majority of, like, the bedroom windows, they, like, fold in so I can get the outside from the inside.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:10]
It's really the main picture window and then the lower level windows that
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:15]
I'll have to get.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:17]
Yeah. That picture window, that that's begging for a power washer. Yeah. If you ask me.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:23]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:25]
John, did you watch Picard this week? I did. Well, last week because the new Picard comes out when this airs. Right. What do you think? We're talking about episode like five. Right? Is it five already? I don't know.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:39]
I liked it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:40]
For the most part, there were
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:44]
like, I really enjoyed the
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:47]
crazy flamboyant costumes when they went to this outlaw city or whatever it was.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:54]
I know you did not. Free Cloud. Free Cloud. Yeah. Not a big fan of the name. But I I liked the
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:01]
episode overall.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:02]
I did not like what they did with Seven of Nine,
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:05]
and I did not like what they did with Agnes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:11]
Yeah. Okay. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:12]
this was Stardust City Rag,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:15]
and,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:17]
they show up at Free Cloud.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:19]
They do the weird
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:21]
costumes. I wasn't feeling it, but whatever. I'm not gonna write it off that for that. This episode a feather in your cap, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:28]
That's
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:29]
a good line. That's a good line. I'll give you that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:32]
But I think the thing that like, this is the homicide episode. And Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:37]
Very not Star Trekky.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:38]
No. No. Right? So the whole thing starts with,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:43]
Seven doing a mercy kill on Ikeb. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right. No. Or Ikeb. I think it's Ikeb.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:50]
But, and then later, she blows away Bajazel.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:53]
Weird name, by the way. Yeah. And then, to top it off, yeah, you're right. Agnes
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:59]
off Bruce Maddox.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:01]
And Right. I I, like
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:03]
I don't know. I think that's gonna ruin her character. Right? Like, I I don't think they can do anything cool with her character at this point. Yeah. She can't stay in the fold. She's basically gotta be a bad guy. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:13]
You would assume so. Yeah. I don't know. I was kinda sad that they killed off Maddox so early too.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:20]
I I was as well, and I I thought we would get a couple episodes out of him, get some depth, maybe some connections back to
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:28]
the the, you know, the the TNG
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:31]
connection. Right? Yep. But they they squander that all the Now maybe we'll get a flashback or something Sure. Because every episode starts that way. But, you know, I just seems like a missed opportunity at this point. This episode as a whole,
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:45]
it's just I don't know. I didn't I wasn't feeling it, to be completely honest with you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:50]
So I liked it much more than episode two.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:53]
Sure. Episode two has been the weakest by far. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:57]
So this one,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:59]
overall, was done
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:01]
very well, but it was not done in the spirit of Gene Roddenberry.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:07]
Right. And I think I think that's what's bugging me about it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:13]
Yeah. I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:15]
It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:17]
we we gotta see how this plays out. I think the other thing that was interesting was,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:21]
Raffi's visit home to meet her son
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:25]
Yeah. Which there's some character depth there.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:27]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:29]
appreciated that. I hope it's not the last
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:32]
chapter of that story.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:34]
Alright. Hope we'll come back to that. But, obviously, that drives her then to come back aboard. What what's the ship called? The La Sienna or something like that or Sirena? That's kinda sad that we don't know that off the top of our heads.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:45]
Yeah. Well, they they haven't really they haven't spoken
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:48]
of it by name much, which is, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:51]
peculiar.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:53]
But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:54]
you know, I I, I like Rios still. I like him in this episode. I think he he plays that character well.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:01]
It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:02]
just not clear what seven's up to. Is she gonna come back into the fold? You gotta think she's going to.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:09]
At this point, it was not good. So I I know you didn't like Voyager, and you probably didn't like seven zero nine that much, but it didn't seem
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:17]
it didn't seem true to her character.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:20]
No. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:21]
she she seemed too casual,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:24]
too, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:25]
human. And I would expect part of that after some time, but she's, like, all on bourbon drinking
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:33]
western gunslinger.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:34]
So Yeah. Yeah. And I I mean, the the shot of bourbon or whatever, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:41]
it's it seemed out of place. It didn't really add anything to the story, but there's also just this casualness to her
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:48]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:49]
we we don't know how she got there, and I think that's the problem. Yeah. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:53]
seeing her evolution would be one thing, but we didn't. And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:57]
we're left with someone that looks like the character we know from Voyager, but isn't anything like her. Right. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:05]
Yeah. And she was always kinda between her and the
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:09]
doctor hologram on Voyager,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:11]
they were kind of like
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:14]
the data parallels,
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:16]
kind of what the literary device on exploring what it means to be human.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:21]
Yep. And now, like, there's none of that. So Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:25]
Yeah. And, you know, she's part of these rangers,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:29]
that
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:30]
are supposedly
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:32]
digital anti policing
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:34]
this region of space.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:35]
Sounds interesting. Again, like, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:39]
Without more depth, it's hard to say whether or not it's actually meaningful, but I'm I'm not sold.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:46]
I am. How about how about Elnor for the comic relief in this episode, though? Yeah. I like Elnor.
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:51]
I It kinda reminds me of a Lord of the Rings elf.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:55]
Oh, totally totally looks like an elf.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:58]
But yeah. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:00]
I don't know. We'll see what what happens with this next episode.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:03]
I think I told you episode six is really
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:06]
the make or break moment for me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:08]
The next episode's called the impossible box,
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:12]
so we'll see what that means. It's gotta be a cube reference, though. Right? Right. Because we didn't get a lot of the artifact
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:17]
in this last episode.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:19]
Nope. So Soji and
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:21]
Hugh, we don't really know what they're up to.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:24]
We we do get the realization that they have to go to the artifact.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:28]
Right. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:29]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:31]
I it's the
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:33]
I was really hoping, and maybe we'll get in the next episode. I don't know. I want an explanation for how
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:39]
this cube came to be
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:42]
and and how it exactly got captured because Okay. It's not it's just not clear.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:48]
It's a big big gap. Supposedly, the episode after the next one will get, Riker, so we'll see again.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:54]
Yeah. He directed this last episode too. He did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:59]
And, you
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:00]
know, the
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:01]
I'm trying to think now. He he directed this one. Did he do He did the last two. Yeah. Yeah. He directed Absolute Candor.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:09]
And then, what was the one before that? The End is the Beginning?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:13]
The End is the Beginning was, directed by Culpepper,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:17]
so not him.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:18]
But there was another one I thought
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:21]
I don't know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:23]
I'll
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:24]
find it after we're done recording probably. Like, this whole series has been absolutely beautiful. I especially noticed the,
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:33]
use of light
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:35]
in this last episode
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:36]
Yep. Especially in, like, Picard's
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:39]
holodeck study,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:41]
whatever it is. Yeah. You know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:45]
it's such an interesting use of the holodeck too. Right. There's there's elements of the modernization,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:51]
like the progression of their technology that you get. They're not overly blatant,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:56]
but they're they're fascinating.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:58]
Yeah. And I'm I'm enjoying them. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:01]
Alright. Anything else on Star Trek?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:04]
I watched Star Trek five this week.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:06]
Oh, yeah. You mentioned that. I can't remember last time I watched Star Trek five. Well, that's why I watched it. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:12]
it had been so long, and, I thought, well, you know, maybe maybe it wasn't as bad as I remembered.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:19]
And, no, it it really is that bad. It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:22]
the
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:23]
thing is there's, like, these hints of awesomeness. There's some fantastic lines.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:28]
So, you know, the whole thing starts in Yosemite.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:30]
Kirk is rock climbing,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:32]
and then, you know, you got some comic relief between him and Spock. He slips and falls, and then you got all this, like, tension with McCoy and they're camping.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:40]
Then they wind up singing Row Row Your Boat, and you're like, why?
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:43]
You know? Because William Shatner directed.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:47]
Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:48]
And then you got the enterprise,
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:50]
which is it's the enterprise a, but it's not in good shape. And so you got Scotty kinda fretting over all the repairs.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:57]
That was good. But then once you start
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:01]
dealing with Cybok, it goes downhill real fast.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:04]
Yeah. And by the time they actually face off with, you know, the the godlike alien,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:10]
Kirk just blindly blows it up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:13]
You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:14]
And then the story's over. It's just weird, man. It's really weird.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:19]
So better or worse than the motion picture?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:23]
Oh.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:24]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:25]
my hate for the motion picture
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:28]
is less about the writing.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:31]
Now, I mean, it is about the writing, but it's less about the story
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:35]
than it is about the kinda, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:38]
cheap shots at reusing
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:41]
Spock and then
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:43]
erasing
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:44]
the timeline.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:45]
Right? And so
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:47]
the problem with Star Trek five is it's just a really bad story. It's just it's just a it's just a bad story. There's no writing that could possibly have saved it.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:57]
You know what they needed? They needed to bring back the whales.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:01]
Yeah. Yeah. Really.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:03]
I think the question that I had after watching it this most recent time is is it better or worse than the motion picture?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:09]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:10]
Because that's a pretty bad movie too,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:14]
And I think it's worse. I think it might actually be worse than that first Star Trek movie, and that
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:20]
that's hard to say out loud. Like, it's bad.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:26]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:27]
I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:29]
Go watch Generations and First Contact.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:32]
Yeah. Two great movies. Two great movies. When in Undiscovered Country too
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:37]
is
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:38]
it's up there with Wrath of Khan in my book in terms of just how fantastic it is. Yeah. That is a really well written story. By the way, Final Frontier was not just directed by Shatner. The story was actually by him. Ah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:52]
Yeah. So double whammy there. I think, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:56]
Leonard Nimoy had a hand in the Voyage Homes,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:59]
story, and I think there had to have been some jealousy driving that. You know? Got it. That's that's the only thing that makes sense to me anyhow.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:06]
What
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:07]
does Shatner do in these days anyway? I
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:10]
have no idea. Does he still have he used to have, like, a YouTube channel or something. Oh, no. Yeah. It it can't possibly be good.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:18]
But
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:20]
gonna come back as as Kirk in the new timeline.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:24]
That will be
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:26]
Star Trek four
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:27]
reboot.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:29]
Well, you know, and and I was reading that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:31]
Chris Pine is not signed on for the next one, so they're gonna kinda reset. So they, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:37]
there was something that happened. I think it was with, like, how little money the third one made,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:43]
that they had to renegotiate contracts,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:46]
and that's when they all, like, got out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:49]
It's probably a good move on their part. I think
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:51]
I don't know. There was rumors
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:54]
of, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:57]
Tarantino
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:58]
doing something with it. And Oh, that would be bad. That would be very bad. Pulp fiction meets Star Trek.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:06]
I think what they need to do is they need to take a hard look at the writing behind
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:11]
Wrath of Khan,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:12]
Undiscovered Country,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:14]
even Search for Spock and The Voyage Home Yep. And then Generations
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:18]
and First Contact and ask themselves
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:21]
what worked, and can we do it again with a new crew? Yep.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:26]
And,
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:27]
those early
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:28]
early movies are not long. They're, what, ninety minutes tops?
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:33]
Something like that. They're yeah. They're not they're not terribly long. And, you know, part of that's probably to do with budget and and just, like, how tight of budgets they had. But here here's the here's, I think, maybe the challenge that the franchise as a whole faces.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:46]
Those movies, they all, every single one of them,
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:50]
drew upon
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:52]
key aspects of Star Trek lore in the series that preceded them. Right? Wrath of Khan being the most blatant and obvious,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:00]
search for Spock and the voyage home,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:02]
dabbling with the time travel that they did in the original series, but also, like, the elements of, you know, Vulcans and their culture. You also have the connection to,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:13]
you know, Kirk and his family and, like, that whole,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:16]
element to it. Then you get to undiscovered country. Right? And you're you're, catapulting yourself on all of this lore around the Klanans
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:25]
and this war and how do you remediate that. Generations,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:29]
obviously, is just it's I mean, it literally is a continuation from all good things. Right. And then first contact. Right? It's at that point, the Borg
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:37]
really didn't have much airtime in the next generation.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:42]
And and so I think you look at what they did there, and for them, in my opinion, to have another successful Star Trek movie,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:49]
they have to do something similar, but they don't have the crew
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:52]
anymore to do it. You know?
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:54]
Yeah. So there's so many good things about first contact because you got that. You have the time travel aspect
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:01]
going back and seeing the first warp flight
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:05]
Yep. First encounter with the Vulcans.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:08]
And Yep. Like so
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:11]
Yeah. They I mean, it was almost like a grab bag of of the best things that they could possibly,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:17]
string together. And the, again, I think part of the advantage with using the Borg at that point is they just hadn't been tapped. Yep. And so, you know, you got to you got to show a side of them,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:29]
and some depth to their their backstory, if you will, that you just hadn't seen before. You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:35]
The
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:36]
only other show that was respectful of the Borg in its use, because DS9 ignored them wholesale
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:42]
Yep. Was Enterprise. Enterprise has a single episode that that, you know, basically picked up with this potential
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:49]
angle
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:50]
from first contact
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:52]
and did a a wonderful job with it. But you contrast that with, like, what what they did in, Voyager, and they just Yeah. They overused it. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:01]
Yeah. Voyager was just kind of a weird
SPEAKER_1 [00:32:04]
a weird premise for a show anyway.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:08]
I I think they could have made it work. I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:11]
dragging it out for seven years
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:13]
Yeah. They they showed that they
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:16]
didn't have enough prepped on the story and on the characters
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:21]
Right. To develop over that time span. And that's that's really
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:24]
you know, they spent more time, I think, worried about, you know, what
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:28]
wig and hairdo they were gonna put on Kate Mulgrew than they did the the depth of the story.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:33]
Have you ever have you ever looked and seen, like, what they did with her hair over the course of that show? No. That is the one that I have not gone back to watch yet. So There's, like, there's, like, two episodes in season three where she is actually just with her own hair, and that's it. Yeah? Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:48]
Talk about wasted energy.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:53]
Oh, well. Alright, John. Enough said. Note. Yeah. So to
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:58]
boldly go where no podcast has gone before.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:01]
Tell Finker we say hi. I will I will do that. Hopefully,
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:05]
I wonder if he'll I I gotta find out what the latest is on the meat rubbers by Finker. Alright. That's your mission. Seems like it's been a little dormant lately. You you can
SPEAKER_1 [00:33:14]
even record a sound bite if you want.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:17]
Oh, okay. What what would you like the sound bite to be? Something about meat rubs.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:21]
Okay. Alright. We'll work on that. Alright. Until next time, John. We'll see you later, Stan.