Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

The Midjourney Descent Episode: Where It All Goes Wrong, The First Few Notes, What We've Already Changed, What Is Coming, Nightmares and A Shifting Lens, The Role of the Artist, Drawing People Wrong, What Art in Prompts. What goes up, must come down - some thoughts on what Midjourney and products like it could bring to the world, and some stirred memories long ago of what art even has been to me. This is the second of three episodes about Midjourney.

The Midjourney Ascent Episode: Not a Pitch, A Long Forgotten Feeling, Text to Image in A Few Sentences, The Moment of Power, The Sharing of Friends, The Excitement, A Small Chat, A Hope For More Moments. An introduction to the Text to Image generator MidJourney which I've been spending some time playing with, getting in while the getting is good, before it all comes crashing down. This is the first of three episodes about the situation.

The Basquiat Episode: Visiting the Museum, The Phases and Rooms, The Nightclub and Giftshop, Lessons Learned, What is the Purpose, Ice Cream Machine, Inspiration from Logistics, A Strange Lesson Learned, The Real Work of Art. Some thoughts after walking through an exhibit of the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988).

A Chat with Dad.

The Prank Call Episode: An Early Call, The Disappointed Monk, Phones and BBSes as Refuge, Learning Voice Skills, An Eternal Battlefield, The Landline Stare, Middle Distance, Holding Your Own, A Breakdown Of The Disappointing Challenger, Inviting The World to Prank, A Welcome Second Prank Call. A rumination on prank calling and the unspoken rules within, as well as why people know my number. Some time ago, I compiled the many hours of recorded prank calls people had uploaded to the Internet Archive, and they're listenable here: https://archive.org/details/prankcallarchive

The U-Matic Episode: A Brand New Brand Old Format, The Tapes of Mark Pines, Broadcast Quality, Working But Not Working, A Street Corner Transaction, The First Steps, Success, The Unintended Bought Pain, Integrating U-Matic, A Cave of Wires. Some thoughts on the event of the reception of a U-Matic tape machine into my workflow and the near-miraculous situation that I haven't broken it yet.

The Boundary Check Episode: Why I Like Frameworks, Limits, The Edge of What I Thought Computers Could Do, ASCII and High Code, Magic Tricks, A Non-Existent Friend, Custom Sprites and Characters, Frames, Boxes, Music, Art, Being Comfortable In The Box, Being Aware of the Box, Finding a New Box. Also: Explaining the NES. Some ruminations of how much I really fall into boundaries and limits rather than trying to constantly upend structure, and where that might come from. I do still dream of how to do custom sprites on Atari 8-Bit machines, though!

The Limited Time Episode: Under the Weather, Goals, Plans, Assessments, Considerations. Ends Are Always Messy, Roller Coaster Lifespans, Plans, Priorities and the Legend of Cheese Hands. A quick self-assessment of priorities and goals in life; an affirmation what has happened and what will happen.

The WJST Episode: Airchecks, Mike Schweitzer, Special Days, Radio Transition, The Discovery of WJST, Songs in the Air, Rubber Tubes, Reel to Reels, Baking, Digitization, The Miracle Flight of Jet Radio Audio, Jet Music Everywhere. And: Justifying The App. Some discussion of WJST radio, a collection of easy listening for the air, collected and digitized and listenable right now at https://archive.org/details/chriscromwelltapes as well as many related materials from the same group. The Mike Schweizer Aircheck Collection is at https://archive.org/details/schweizerairchecks and is part of the larger aircheck collection which is at https://archive.org/details/airchecks.

The Wonderswan Episode: A Little Extra Free Time, 35 Minutes, The Wonderswan's Story, Boring Emulation, Vertical/Horizontal, The Extra Work, Joy From Obscurity, The Perfect Grey Market, Hashes and Dumps, The Joy to Play. Announcing the Wonderswan collection at https://archive.org/details/wonderswan-library which has settled down to about 260 games, all playable and all rather interesting, especially if the Swan was never a part of your life, like me.

The Tax Bill Episode: The Bill, The Reasoning, A Silly Misunderstanding, A Misunderstanding Without End, Understanding Stress, Living a Life, A Giddy Fire, A Walk Well Taken, A Promise. A quick meditation on some current tax issues I'm dealing with because of the podcast.

The City Reliquary and Panorama Episode: My Friend Eric Drysdale, A Last-Minute Spot, The Experience of the City Reliquary, The Mid-Century Panorama, Curation of Collections, The Success of the Experience, A Look Instead of a Glance, A Drowned Car, An Inspiration. Some words on the Mid-Century Stereo Panorama. The website: https://midcenturystereopanorama.com/ Which took place at the City Reliquary: https://www.cityreliquary.org/

The Severance Fox Episode: Two Media Experiences. Puzzle Fox, Zelda Not Zelda, Bewilderment, Ancient Instructions, Severance, Offices, Eero Saarinen, T. J. Watson, Visitation, Hallways, Warrens, Fonts, Machines. An acknowledgement of two modern media experiences I've had that push back through childhood and memories, and the unexpected love I have for a sterile place.

The Compuserve Miracle Episode: Keeping Secrets, Compuserve's Place, Incredible Ads, The Cost, Dinner Jacket, How a Teenager Got On, The Miracle That Is No Longer a Miracle, Hints and Rumors, The Big Announcement. Regarding a bounty of Compuserve that has fallen (partially) into my hands, and what Compuserve means to me.

The Blunders and Mistakes Episode: Pick-Up, Zappa, Disk Switch, Rocking Tow, Crash Cart. Some stories of me in the middle of blunders both due to me and completely out of my control.

The New Generation of Sorting Episode: A New Feature Lands, A Rediscovery of My Love of Sorting, Pulp Fiction Redux, The Approach and the Result, A Teenager's Categories, The Next Mountains, The Reason Behind it All. A rumination of the act of sorting and presentation, and remembering why I do this. https://archive.org/details/pulpfictionarchive is ready for your attentions and enjoyment.

The 75 Bad VHS Tapes Episode: A Simple Review, A Horrible Revelation, Diagnosis, Determination, A Crossroads, Volunteer Rescue, The Solution, The Forward Moving, An Iterative Process. A story of a terrible mistake found by random, and the efforts to unravel the knot. To enjoy some fansubs with goodsound: https://archive.org/details/fansubmarine

The Mini-Appler Episode: A Classroom Epiphany, Beautiful Boot, 612 BBSes, Safehouse, Midwest Pirates' Guild, Gods Among Us, BBS Documentary, A Living Room Interview, The Art of Luding, Applesauce, A Day Late, The Golden Wake. A full interview with MPG is here: https://archive.org/details/20040125-bbs-612 Here's beautiful boot in action: https://archive.org/details/Dung_Beetles_Ms._PacMan_Pooyan_Star_Cruiser_Star_Thief_Invas._Force There are many games and programs by Mini Appler/Matt Dornquast around, here's a terminal program written in his teens: https://archive.org/details/a2_Megaterm_v3.0_1984_Novation

The HarvardNet Redux Episode: HarvardNet Memories, Fraud and Deceit, The Wonder of a Datacenter, Tiles and Carpet, Loud and Cold, Remote at Any Cost, A Difference of a Year, Smiles and Grimaces, HarvardNet's Doom, See Ya, Pal. A rather ramshackle and rambunctious episode in memory of a wild friend now lost. Also, HarvardNet Sucks.

The Blender Episode: Learning Blender, Doing Nothing, 3D Studio, The Raytraced Canvas of My Yore, A Canvas In Time, Capsela, Knobs and Tubes, The Tools I Now Have, Boom Box, The Missing Imagination. Less a review than a set of thoughts of my interactions with Blender, the free 3D Program now at version 3.0. https://www.blender.org/

The Job Evaluation Episode: A Yearly Check-in, My Strange Job, The Heaps of Inbox, 100,000 Wojacks, Why It Gets Done, The Need to Continue, A Prediction. January is job self-evaluation at the Archive and it put me in the mood of why I keep doing all this, and here's where I am about my place in this magnificent contraption. If you need 100,000 Wojacks, they're here: https://archive.org/details/wojak-collections

The Mountain of VHS Episode: Back in the Saddle, The Depth of VHS, The Variant Quality, The Results of Digitizing VHS, VHS Vault, A Very Large Auction, 3 Days to Victory, Why Save VHS, Helping Hands, The Foggy Road Ahead. A tale of how I went from having what I thought was a lot of videotapes to having entirely too many videotapes. These tapes are safe and will begin getting digitized later this year. As I explain in the episode, my health is back to normal; thanks for all the kind words.

The JoCo Cruise Crazy Episode (4 of 4) Endings, Disembarking, Memories. Never Again, Inner Ear, The Food and The Sea. Highlights and Memories, Not Another Community, Ever Shortening Time, A Cruise as Reality, The Continuing JoCo Cruises, Memories Forever. Plus: A Sickness.

The JoCo Cruise Crazy Episode (3 of 4) Days at Sea. Meeting The Crew, A Lifeboat Break, A False Island, The Acts and Shows. Wil Wheaton. Coulton as Conductor, Poverty and Vacation, Capsule Hotel, Laser Tag Near Laser Tag, I Got It, No I Really Got It, Lost at Sea.

The JoCo Cruise Crazy Episode (2 of 4) Onboard, Walking The Ship, Industrial Luxury, Joco Cruise Convention Crazy, The Realms of a Ship, Meeting the Acts, Connections and Discussions, David Rees, The Internet Temperance League, A Well-Seasoned Seagoing Couple.

The JoCo Cruise Crazy Episode (1 of 4) Who is Jonathan Coulton, A Thinking Musician, New Things, Home Concerts, Cruise Offer, Geek Cruises, First Signup, A Series of Shocks, An A la Carte Vacation, Boarding the Gangplank.

The Most Precious Manual Episode: Dude Ranch, Open Door, Asteroids, The Purpose of a Manual, The Secrets Within, My Awakening to Arcade Creators, The First Collection, The Millions of Manuals, Forgive Me. A story of a summer I risked electric shock to get a different kind of shock.

The Million Paperclips and Midday Nap Episode. Two intertwining stories of youth wasted at the International Business Machines corporation.

The Ballad of Ricky Jay Episode: A Visit to Sotheby's, The Story of Ricky Jay, The Auction, The Magician as Storyteller, A Collection Remixed to a Collection, Broadsheets and Posters, Showmanship, The Secret to Magic, A Life Well Lived, The Circus Leaves Town. As I mention twice in the episode and mention here, the Ricky Jay book Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women is easily one of my all-time favorite books, a glory to enjoy, and one of Ricky Jay's lasting legacies. I recommend it highly.

The TEAC Drive Episode: A Little Drive Kerfuffle, The New Difficult Life of Floppy Drives, Sustaining the Flux, Circuit Boards, Jumpers and Software Configurations. Plus: A Dream of a Future Superfluxer. Some thoughts on the TEAC drives that make up the vast majority of the dozen-plus floppy drives I use for imaging disks with my Applesauce DOS work. (TEAC stands for "Toyko Electro-Acoustic Company", I recently found out.) Applesauce FDC covering DOS disks has been a major new chapter for me - hundreds of disks in the backlog are disappearing into digital form. (And then stored physically forever.)

The Streaming Episode: A Try at Streaming, Winamp, Shoutcast, College Radio, Bifurcated Timing, The Manager Phone, Top Of The Hour, Justin, Twitch, The Running Mind, Streaming Forever. I'm streaming a lot of days at this point, at twitch.tv/textfiles and twitch.tv/sketchthecow. Services are so transient and changes come so quickly, I don't expect these to last forever, but for now, they're neat.

The Paul Andrew Mitchell Episode : A Relatively Infamous Presentation, Lifetimes Ago, A Quick Recap, What's Happened Since, What P.A.M. Represents, Podcast Fuel, A Bit Player, The Most Important Lesson. A little revisiting of that awesome time I was sued for two billion dollars. The presentation, if you've missed it, is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSWqx8goqSY

The DOS Applesauce Episode: A Package Arrives, The Difficulty of DOS, The Rolls Royce of Drives, The Variations, The Extra Steps Applesauce Takes, Reading Directories, The Cog in the Machine, The Software Future. Some words appreciating the release of the newest Applesauce utility disk reader, now capable of reading DOS disks, which make up the vast majority of my backlog. Applesauce FDC: https://www.applesaucefdc.com

The Death Threats Episode: A Favorite Co-Worker, Stairs and a Truck, The Ease of Communication, Wikipedia Real Names, A Threat Through a Window, BBS and MUD and Internet, The Vintage of Threats for Internet Archive, Homeless With a Phone, 13 Years of Mail, A Price Worth Paying. Plus: A Matter of a Bill Death threats I've gotten over the years, plus some thoughts regarding my opinion of them and how it's shifted over time.

The Music Tour Episode: Visiting the Music House, Waiting Outside, Tour by Tom, The Saloon and the General Store, The Magic of Tour Guides, The Missing Archive Tour Guide, A Moment With Tom. The Music House, in Traverse City, MI: https://musichouse.org/

The Wires and Sleeping Episode: Decades Among a Bed of Wires, The Connection To My Work, The Secret Sleeping Place At Work, A Low Hum, An Experiment to Split the Wires. I have taken on a separate office to do my archive and history work, and it is paying dividends, but I look back on a lifetime of living like a cross between a hacker and a raccoon.

The Stolen Account Episode: A Need to Get Online, TERMINUS, Harvard Square, Harvard, A Machine Room, A Useful Utility, A Ghost Among the Terminals, My Musician Buddy, What Did We Learn. A sordid tale of internet access acquisition representing times in need of more of a hustle. Terminus is long dead, but someone kept the name for a text adventure: https://web.mit.edu/mprat/Public/web/Terminus/Web/main.html

The Carousel of Nightmares Episode: Rocks and Mineral Apertif, The House on the Rock, My 30 Year Wait, Roadside Obscurity Lost, The House, The Rooms, The Collections of Collections of Collections, Was I Always In The House, A Bonus Dream The House on the Rock: https://www.thehouseontherock.com/

The Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Episode. A strongest recommendation for a cure of one of my biggest problems.

The ZX-81 Episode: A New Old Machine is Reborn, A Giggling Child, A Beige Beauty, Rampack Wobble and Cassette Loads, The Process of Booting, C64 Cassettes, The Keystrokes, Scroll Lock and F2, Everything Works, Thanks Aschmitz and Trumad, Screenshots and Zen, The Cup of Tea, Well Worth The Search. We added ZX-81 emulation to the archive, something that probably made no sense to do years ago, but why not. If you want to visit the collection as it stands: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_zx_81_games

The Liminal Spaces Episode: A Late-Stage Discovery, Transitions, Hallways, Contrasts, Checkerboards, Trees in Light, Gateways, Emulation as Transition, Pantone, Your Own Late-Stage Discovery. Plus: A Dead End. A musing on the concept of liminal spaces, the strings that have guided my dances in the theater of life.

The PCs I Have Known Episode: Emotion vs. PCs, Our First IBM 5150, Dining Room, Word Processing, Dawn Surprise, Two Room Perfection, Out of the House, Focus PC, Hand-Delivered BIOS, More Plastic, LAN Party, DEFCON PC, A Faithful Set of Horses. Some thoughts on PCs that have been a part of my life. I definitely use them until they barely function, and I sense the changes in my life reflected in them.

The Directions Episode: Possibilities, A Monster, Where It Goes Wrong, The Choices Made and the Hardest Choice of All, Why Patreon Works, Why Youtube Wouldn't, A Likely Mentor. I've made this offer in various ways before, but I am always up for being a voice in a project for anyone working on something that you think would benefit from my assistance. Silent or quiet awesome folks helped me with all my projects, and the least I can do is help others in the same way.

The Individual Incorporated Episode: A Simple Temp Job, A Strange Office, Off-White Shirt, Packed to the Gills, Postage Paid Envelopes, The Business, Two Full Shifts, Personalized News, Rubber Gloves. One of my shorter temp jobs gives me insight into a world before it becomes commonplace (and before machines do all the work), along with learning a general hatred of bored people with envelopes.

The Multi-Culti-Level Episode: Two Boxes of Tapes, Concentrated Evil, Organized Groups and Our Nature, A Concert and a Phone Call, Innoculation, Cynical Forever, What I Look Out For, A Hard-Won Allegance, The Tapes, The Fundamental Pitch, What We Gain, What the World Will Be. That time that two large boxes of multi-level marketing tapes showed up in my possession and what that all means to me. My pal (in the story) is doing fine and is a home renovator.

The Limited Time and Structure Episode: Aching Muscles, Third Time's the Charm, Statins, Liver, Changes, Unlimited Resources to Limited, Choices, Discordant and Structured Living, No More Documentaries, Counting Pennies, Every Moment. A meditation on how structure affects my life differently than it used to.

The Art of Noise Episode: A Video On A Television, Punk Girl and Destroyed Instruments, Record Store and Tabs, Cassette, Who's Afraid, Later Albums, Favorite Band, An Unexpected Tour, Paul Morley Artistic Expansiveness, The Band. Some thoughts on my favorite band, Art of Noise. The music video I saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sFK0-lcjGU

The Waterfall of Plastic Episode: A Most Impressive Uploading, The Various Focused Uploaders, ShivaShaw, Walnut Creek and Wayzata, Niche, Rental Prices, Gigabytes, Half of all CDs, The Obscure Ones, Tireless Effort, A Small Portal. An episode shouting out Shiva Shaw, an unprecedented uploader of CD-ROMs. A listing of the CD-ROMs is at https://archive.org/details/@shivashaw

The Deep Appreciation Episode: The Flow Of Items, The Modern Day Miracle, The Fun We Have, The Momentary Life of SItes, Inevitable Doom, Thanks and Correspondence, Drama and Decay, The Good in That, BBS Title Screen, A Day But Also Forever. An episode about appreciating the day and the things we have instead of the things we don't.

The Workshop Episode: A Realization and Realignment, What I Specifically Do, The Joy of Sharing and Streaming, The Lessons and Conversations, My Three Potential Careers (And the One I Chose), Workshops, Planting Seeds. Some ideas on where I might go next, as well as a look back on where I might have headed.