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Lords:
* Chris
* https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm
* James
* https://triplefox.itch.io/
* https://youtu.be/I8uStVXNf0M
Topics:
* An adopted microwave which is too small for popcorn, begging the question: what is it for?
* https://compassandquill.com/2012/03/12/how-to-cook-microwave-popcorn-on-the-stove/
* What happened to Galapagos? (And recreating pinball in software.)
* https://triplefox.itch.io/galapagos
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmg5WOvPKpU
* The trade-off between customer satisfaction and worker safety
* John asks "Skipping over links to music when your friends post them, and in turn posting links to music without a shred of self-awareness/the mental barrier to recommending or sharing music."
* Relearning how to run
Microtopics:
* A shoelace knot that you are amazed by.
* Whether somebody knows good ways of tying knots.
* Not having any ads on the show but the same shoelace knot being independently plugged by three separate guests.
* Looking outside and seeing someone furtively deposit the world's smallest microwave on the sidewalk.
* A microwave that is awesome until you try to put popcorn in it.
* A dollhouse microwave that can microwave popcorn one kernel at a time.
* The Easy Bake Microwave.
* That one kid you knew whose family was rich enough that he had a microwave in his bedroom.
* The Easy Bake TV which is just a light bulb that you stare into.
* Downsizing your lifestyle.
* Ultra-miniaturized microwaves that are just big enough for a can of Coca Cola.
* Hot Coke.
* Deciding to try Hot Coke after the show because your microwave is too small to fit anything bigger than a mug of Coca Cola.
* A hot tub with a volume of half a cubic foot.
* Whether the Whirlpool hot tub actually spins.
* Recording an entire additional episode of Topic Lords after this, that only we get to hear.
* Deciding that your fantasy console should be linear without knowing what linear means.
* Making software last a long time by targeting an emulator.
* Deciding that your entire approach to your current project is wrong and inverting its structure and then deciding to make a pinball game instead.
* Having to fake the physical pinball interactions because physics engines still aren't precise enough.
* Not having a ball bearing bouncing around inside of your phone.
* Applying an impulse when the ball hits a collision volume.
* The actual electromechanical mechanism of those triangles near the flippers that push the ball back.
* A physics solver that does mixed rigid and soft body deformation.
* Ordering pinball flippers online so you can measure them because you can't find specs describing their exact shape and size anywhere.
* How pop bumpers work.
* The ball rolling over the skirt and triggering the thrusters.
* Modeling an invisible cone that drives itself down.
* Buying a nice plastic skirt and an extremely high-current solenoid.
* Making a functional pinball table out of cardboard.
* A pinball table inside of a wine bottle.
* Pinball tables all having the common constraint that they need to fit through the door.
* "Hercules," the pinball table where the gimmick is that it's too big to fit through the door.
* How to draw the rest of the owl.
* Pinball except instead of a ball it's water.
* A PSP except instead of a portable video game system it's one of those games where you squeeze water to get rings onto posts.
* Christmas except every present is just a box of avocados.
* Pachinko except it's an oil timer.
* Physically impossible but physically accurate pinball machines.
* Pachinko except there's fire everywhere and what's falling through the pins is your dead body and all your individual bones.
* Getting licensed to make scrambled eggs with an espresso machine.
* A Big Black Egg Gauntlet.
* A big black glove that smells but doesn't look like rotten eggs.
* The pressure of an egg.
* Whether an egg could be held aloft by a shop vac.
* The video of an egg being sucked into a bottle that google shows you when it doesn't have any good results, because you can't stay mad when you get to see an egg sucked into a bottle.
* The ethics of asking your wife to take a video of cafe workers making scrambled eggs.
* The violence of recommendations.
* Whether or not you can get mad about your time being wasted for twenty seconds.
* Doing everything in your power to like your favorite band's new album.
* Your first "Hero's Journey" vs. your hundredth.
* The kind of media you consume while doing other things vs. the kind you actively study.
* Mentoring teenagers and exhorting that they listen to as much music as possible before they get old like you, and handing them some Linkin Park CDs.
* Getting better at stuff.
* Each sport having a different set of recommended vitamin supplements.
* Lurching forward on your ankles.
* Looking up how runners run on Youtube and immediately realizing how you can run way faste