The Battle of Palmdale: A Lesson in How Not to Do Air Combat
This week, we're diving into the hilariously disastrous Battle of Palmdale, where the U.S. Air Force faced off against a runaway drone in an epic fail that left a trail of chaos and confusion. We’ll dissect how armed jets, equipped with advanced fire control systems, ended up missing their target entirely, leading to more destruction on the ground than in the sky. Spoiler alert: the drones might have had the last laugh. I also share my ongoing saga with my broken wrist, including the unexpected twist of being told to start exercising it just a week after surgery. And yes, there's a tram story this week that you won’t want to miss—filled with the usual mix of annoyance and absurdity. So sit back, relax, unless you're driving, and let's get into the madness of this episode!
YouTube Keywords:
vampire jokes, Battle of Palmdale, air force history, drone warfare, laughable military failures, F89D Scorpion, hearing study, broken wrist updates, tram stories, UK tram system, broken wrist recovery, humor in history, military misadventures, funny war stories, aviation mishaps, drone malfunction, absurd military operations, medical advice humor, audience engagement in podcasts, podcast episode keywords
Transcript
While researching jokes, I found a whole bunch of vampires.
Speaker A:Sadly, I discovered that the the puns to be pretty poor.
Speaker A:They just like the bite that they used to have.
Speaker A:Oh dear.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What a way to open the show.
Speaker A:What a way to look to open the show.
Speaker A:I just said look at the show then.
Speaker A:So this week on the show I'm going to take a a look at the disastrous and hilarious Battle of Palmdale.
Speaker A:I've got a report on the hearing study.
Speaker A:I've joined even more broken wrist updates will be pleased to know that there is indeed a tram story this week.
Speaker A:Will the battle of Palmdale actually be hilarious?
Speaker A:Did I actually join a hearing study?
Speaker A:And did I even get on a tram this week?
Speaker A:For answers to questions such as these, Keep listening to that's a Freebie.
Speaker A:Sit back, relax, unless you're driving.
Speaker A:It's time for that's a Freebie.
Speaker A:Here's a story that sounds like something straight out of a slapstick war movie.
Speaker A: In August: Speaker A:Armed with 208 rockets, two F89D Scorpions spent the afternoon trying and failing to bring down a bright red Grumman F6F 5K Hellcat drone.
Speaker A:By the end of the day, the drone was the only thing that didn't take damage.
Speaker A:O the Navy had been using drones to test air to air missiles, including the Aim 7 Sparrow, when one of them decided it had other plans.
Speaker A:Shortly after takeoff, the drone stopped responding to commands and began drifting ominously toward Los Angeles.
Speaker A:With no way to stop it, the Navy called in the Air Force from nearby Oxnard Air Force Base, setting the stage for one of the most embarrassing battles in air Force history.
Speaker A:Two F89D Scorpions piloted by First Lieutenant Hans Einstein.
Speaker A:No relation, but the irony is noted.
Speaker A:The First Lieutenant Richard Hurliman, scrambled to intercept the wayward drone.
Speaker A:Their Scorpions were equipped with the latest in fire control systems.
Speaker A:Except, as it turned out, that system didn't work.
Speaker A:After several failed attempts to launch rockets in automatic mode, the pilots had to switch to manual.
Speaker A:Here's the catch, though.
Speaker A:The gun sights had been removed to make room for the fancy new fire control system.
Speaker A:So they were essentially trying to aim 114 rockets using the power of positive thinking.
Speaker A:Ah, I imagine that didn't go well.
Speaker A:As the drone meandered over Castaic and Santa Paula, the Scorpions began launching rockets in waves.
Speaker A:Out of 200, eight rockets fired, not one hit the drone.
Speaker A:Some rockets bounced off the drone's fuselage without exploding.
Speaker A:Probably out of sheer pity, to be truthful.
Speaker A:Instead, the rockets did what rockets do best.
Speaker A:They hit everything else.
Speaker A:Brush fires broke out across a thousand acres, oil tanks caught fire, and chunks of shrapnel tore through houses and cars.
Speaker A:In Palmdale.
Speaker A:One rocket shredded a passing car's tire, another blew up a utility truck, and two men had just left to sit under a tree.
Speaker A:Why do I keep saying and two men?
Speaker A:Another blew up a utility truck that two men had just left to sit under a tree.
Speaker A:After.
Speaker A:After an afternoon of chaos, the drone finally ran out of fuel and spiraled down to crash in the desert.
Speaker A:It managed to take out some power lines, but otherwise it did less damage than the air Force's rockets.
Speaker A:In the end, the battle left behind scorched earth, damaged homes, and a lot of unanswered questions.
Speaker A:The good news, no one was hurt.
Speaker A:The bad news, the air Force will probably never live it down.
Speaker A:The Battle of Palmdale was a textbook example of how not to shoot down a drone.
Speaker A:It also serves as a reminder that sometimes the only winning move is to let the drone run out of gas.
Speaker A:So there we have the battle of Palmdale.
Speaker A:Absolutely ridiculous situation.
Speaker A:Remember, if you would like to send topics in for pod tails, all you need to do is go to Fluxo Media, that's Fluxo Med I A and you two can submit a topic.
Speaker A:Let's have our two weekly catch up then, shall we?
Speaker A:Last time we spoke, I was awaiting a hospital appointment to have my wrist looked at again.
Speaker A:If you recall, I broke my wrist.
Speaker A:I'm not going to go back through the whole story again.
Speaker A:If you read New Listener and you want to know, go back a couple of episodes, you'll hear all about it.
Speaker A:So I was waiting this appointment to have my.
Speaker A:The wound checked out and have a splint installed so that I could get on with finally healing.
Speaker A:And I got there.
Speaker A:They, they, they did the wound check.
Speaker A:So they, they cut off the, the cast that I had on or the half cast.
Speaker A:I had sort of a cast that covered the bottom half of my arm but not the top half of my arm.
Speaker A:They cut that off my arm immediately.
Speaker A:Just felt like a lump of like just flesh, meat and bone attached to my body, which I suppose is what it is, but it felt very much like that.
Speaker A:I couldn't lift it.
Speaker A:I couldn't do anything with it.
Speaker A:It felt like it had not been used in three weeks, which was the case.
Speaker A:Funnily enough, they then started taking the plaster off that was on there.
Speaker A:It was like a big like dressing that was on there.
Speaker A:It was clear that it had been bleeding quite a lot, which they were surprised that it wasn't supposed to have been able to bleed the way it did, but it did.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of dried up blood in there, fortunately, no infection or anything.
Speaker A:Everything was great.
Speaker A:They cleaned it up.
Speaker A:It was extremely painful to the touch.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:It was all yellow, black and just completely bruised around the scar, which, you know, is expected because I'd had quite major surgery on it.
Speaker A:So that wasn't an issue there.
Speaker A:It just looked really bad, very swollen still.
Speaker A:So they cleaned it all up.
Speaker A:They needed to cut the knot off by stitches.
Speaker A:That probably hurt just as much as breaking my arm in the first place.
Speaker A:They had to pull that knot upwards as they did it and then snipped it off.
Speaker A:And then the rest of the stitches just dissolve.
Speaker A:The way they've stitched it up, it's sort of.
Speaker A:It's stitched from the inside, so it's.
Speaker A:It should be a fairly clean scar when it's all done.
Speaker A:It's a bit jaggedy, I've noticed, but that could just be the way my skin is, to be truthful, you know, the way it's pulled when they've pulled the, the stitches through.
Speaker A:So, yeah, they did all that.
Speaker A:Then the next step was the splint.
Speaker A:So they got the splinter out of the packaging, built it all up, told me all about it, showed me how to put it on, take it off.
Speaker A:Like they demonstrated it.
Speaker A:And then as they were going to put it on, the surgeon came walking over who'd done the operation to do his checks, and he said, no, no, no, no, don't put that on.
Speaker A:And so he didn't.
Speaker A:And obviously he needed to check my arm.
Speaker A:I think they were just getting a bit ahead of themselves.
Speaker A:They probably didn't know when he was due, that kind of thing, but he just happened to arrive at that point.
Speaker A:So he had a look at it and he was moving it about a lot.
Speaker A:Like, bearing in mind I'd only had the surgery a week earlier and so it's obviously still broken.
Speaker A:I was like, that really hurt.
Speaker A:Like, I was, I was.
Speaker A:I wouldn't say I was screaming, but it was, it was extremely painful.
Speaker A:And then he, he starts telling me about all the different exercises I need to start doing with it.
Speaker A:I'm like, but, but surely I can't move it yet, it's broken.
Speaker A:And he's like, no, no, no, you need to start moving it.
Speaker A:And I'm like, what?
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You feel like somebody's misunderstood something somewhere.
Speaker A:So I said, I.
Speaker A:I only had surgery last week.
Speaker A:And he went, yeah, I know.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, but.
Speaker A:But it's broken still.
Speaker A:Like, you told me it'd be six to eight weeks till he did.
Speaker A:It had, like, even.
Speaker A:Maybe even start healing.
Speaker A:And he said, yeah, yeah, but it's fine.
Speaker A:The plate will hold everything in place.
Speaker A:You just need to start moving your arm now.
Speaker A:And obviously, this terrified me.
Speaker A:Like, it still looked massively out of shape.
Speaker A:That was because of the swelling, obviously, but he started going through.
Speaker A:So, like, the exercises I have to do, I have to put my arm on a table and push my hand down as far as it'll go.
Speaker A:Obviously, I have to stop if it feels like it's snapping something, but push it.
Speaker A:Push it down as far it'll go, then push it back as far as it'll go.
Speaker A:Twist it.
Speaker A:Just every movement you can think of these.
Speaker A:You know, this physio actually covers three times a day.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:I was a bit dubious, so I said, well, okay, that's fine.
Speaker A:And then.
Speaker A:So I put my hat.
Speaker A:I put my arm out to get the splint put on.
Speaker A:And he said, no, no, no, you can't have that.
Speaker A:And that was when I got really worried.
Speaker A:I was like, what do you mean I can't have the splint?
Speaker A:Like, what do I need?
Speaker A:If.
Speaker A:How do I stop it from moving or getting banged or anything like that?
Speaker A:He's like, well, you just have to be careful with it.
Speaker A:So I thought, well, I got here on a tram.
Speaker A:I've got to get on the tram.
Speaker A:Like, you can't walk on a trap without someone banging into you.
Speaker A:It's like, well, you just have to be careful.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, but you.
Speaker A:But you said, like, it says in the notes that I'll be getting the splint to protect it from.
Speaker A:From unneeded movements.
Speaker A:And he's like, nope, I've decided that you're not having it because you need to.
Speaker A:You need to get it moving.
Speaker A:The quicker you get it moving, the.
Speaker A:The better it'll be.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I was a little bit perturbed by that.
Speaker A:I really thought that he's misunderstood something here.
Speaker A:And I'm.
Speaker A:I was terrified, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker A:So the.
Speaker A:He left because he had to go and see his next patient.
Speaker A:The nurse said to me, it's called a Futuro splint.
Speaker A:You could get them on Amazon if you end up needing one.
Speaker A:Because she looked very confused as well.
Speaker A:That I wasn't being given this splint, which made me even more worried, to be honest.
Speaker A:I was convinced that he's.
Speaker A:He's just completely misunderstood something.
Speaker A:But you know what?
Speaker A:He's the surgeon.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I took his word for it.
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:I had a.
Speaker A:A sling with me because I.
Speaker A:I needed it in a sling before that point.
Speaker A:So I.
Speaker A:I did actually put the sling back on to get home because I had the kids with me as well.
Speaker A:It wasn't.
Speaker A:It wasn't the easiest thing to hold my arm as I was walking because I.
Speaker A:I couldn't.
Speaker A:I couldn't not hold my arm because the weight of my hand was pulling on the bone on the plate and it was hurting.
Speaker A:So I had to hold my hand in place.
Speaker A:I can't.
Speaker A:I couldn't dangle it down the side of my body just like, you know, like what?
Speaker A:Normally, because it was painful, the weight of my hand was causing it to hurt, and it was a shooting pain that went right up my.
Speaker A:Up my arm and all the way through my body.
Speaker A:And that was the thing that I was trying to get across to the.
Speaker A:To the surgeon.
Speaker A:But, hey, he knows best, right?
Speaker A:So I wore the slink home and it was fine.
Speaker A:I started when I got home.
Speaker A:I know I took the sling off and just tried to use it as best I could.
Speaker A:It was painful.
Speaker A:My wife came home that night and I explained what was happening, and she was like, that doesn't sound right.
Speaker A:I was like, yeah, I know it doesn't sound right.
Speaker A:And like, I.
Speaker A:I couldn't even.
Speaker A:I don't even know how to describe it.
Speaker A:I couldn't even touch the area where it was without, like, extreme pain because the skin was aurora and everything.
Speaker A:So I went to bed that night.
Speaker A:You know, I was worried about rolling over on it, so I.
Speaker A:I was propping it up on cushions and things like that, which is what I've been doing anyway, because they do keep telling me to still keep it raised so that the swelling goes down.
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:After a couple of days, I've got to admit, it was getting a lot better doing the exercises.
Speaker A:He was absolutely correct.
Speaker A:So it just goes to show, you know, sometimes it is good to listen to your doctor.
Speaker A:Probably all the time, it is good to listen to your doctor is the truth there.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So it's now been.
Speaker A:Oh, man, I can't even remember when I went in.
Speaker A:It was like two to three weeks ago.
Speaker A:I'm completely splintless castless.
Speaker A:The wound is healing quite well.
Speaker A:I'VE got quite limited movement in my.
Speaker A:In my wrist, but I can move it, I can use it.
Speaker A:I just can't pick anything up that's heavy.
Speaker A:I've been instructed not to pick anything up more than £4 because that's the weight limit of the plate that's in there.
Speaker A:And so the plate can't take any more weight than that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And I do find if I try and lift anything heavier than, like, a cup of tea, for example, that's when I.
Speaker A:I start to feel a bit of pain then, and I struggle to keep hold of it.
Speaker A:I've just got to take it a little bit easy there.
Speaker A:That's something that could go on for quite a while now.
Speaker A:I've got a checkup coming up next month, actually.
Speaker A:What date is it?
Speaker A:It's currently the 30th.
Speaker A:So, yes, next month, technically.
Speaker A:So I'll give you an update when I've had that.
Speaker A:Probably this is going to be the last update you get on Risk Gate for a while now, because unless something major happens, well, other than my next story, I might as well move on to my next story now, actually.
Speaker A:So of all the things that could happen.
Speaker A:I was on the tram.
Speaker A:This is my tram story.
Speaker A:I was on the tram, as always.
Speaker A:You know, I was.
Speaker A:I was going into work because I am back at work now.
Speaker A:It was Sunday, so Sunday was the Manchester Marathon.
Speaker A:You've probably heard me complain before on this very podcast that I absolutely hate the runners at Manchester Marathon Time.
Speaker A:Now, it's not that I don't like runners.
Speaker A:I'm fine with runners.
Speaker A:I would love to actually be one of them, but I am not in that kind of shape.
Speaker A:I'd love to be able to say, yeah, I could run a marathon, which is hard to say.
Speaker A:Can't even say it, let alone run it.
Speaker A:Run it, I said.
Speaker A:Then I turned into Scooby Doo.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But the problem with the, with the marathon is that they don't.
Speaker A:They don't seem to think about everybody else.
Speaker A:Now, I understand that, you know, they're.
Speaker A:They're focused on the job, they're focused on what they're going to do, but if they're so focused on what they're going to do, why is it that every single one of them seems to want to get on the tram 20 minutes before the race is due to start, with their entire family with a pram and massive signs on a day when people are trying to get into work?
Speaker A:There's loads of signs, there's loads of announcements, they get loads of emails.
Speaker A:From the.
Speaker A:From the organizers saying that you need to travel early.
Speaker A:Now, again, I know a lot of them do travel early, but there's so many that don't know.
Speaker A:I had to be work for 11 o'clock on Sunday.
Speaker A:I ended up leaving at 8am, right.
Speaker A:So I left at 8am and sure enough, runners everywhere.
Speaker A:There were three lots of.
Speaker A:Of trams.
Speaker A:Three trams came that were full of people before I could get on one.
Speaker A:At that point I got shoved out the way because they were all trying to flood on before me.
Speaker A:There were people complaining that they couldn't get the prams on.
Speaker A:These are people with the runners.
Speaker A:Like, why do you need to travel together in the first place?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:Because they're both going to the.
Speaker A:The families all got off at a different stop to what the runners get off.
Speaker A:It's like you.
Speaker A:You didn't even need to be together, just like, just think about other people.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:They all need to get there.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But travel earlier so you can spread out the.
Speaker A:The travel and just think about all the people that have got to get to work that.
Speaker A:That have no choice but to get on there and that can't necessarily go too early or too late.
Speaker A:It's just not physically feasible.
Speaker A:Absolute nightmare.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I've complained about the runners in the past.
Speaker A:I'm not going to do it too much again, even though I just completely did.
Speaker A:However, I'm on this tram.
Speaker A:It's pretty busy, like, really busy.
Speaker A:And there's a bunch of lads who, I mean, they were just dicks, right?
Speaker A:They decided that, you know, it'd be.
Speaker A:They were just going to goof around on this really busy trap.
Speaker A:They were bumping into other people.
Speaker A:They would.
Speaker A:They were swearing.
Speaker A:They were.
Speaker A:They were just generally annoying everybody, to be honest.
Speaker A:One of them decided that he was gonna do a funny run.
Speaker A:He said, I'm gonna run like this.
Speaker A:And I don't feel.
Speaker A:I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker A:He was sort of kicking his legs in the air and as he did, guess what he did booted me right in my broken wrist.
Speaker A:Oh, God, did it hurt?
Speaker A:I yelped.
Speaker A:Ah.
Speaker A:He says to his mates, hardly even touched him.
Speaker A:And it's true, he didn't.
Speaker A:He didn't.
Speaker A:It wasn't a massive whack, it was.
Speaker A:It was contact.
Speaker A:But any other part of my body, any other day that wasn't broken wrist day, I would have just moved my arm and got and looked at him and he'd have gone, sorry, mate, but no.
Speaker A:Oh, man, the pain, it Shot right up my arm.
Speaker A:I looked at him and he looked at his mates.
Speaker A:I hardly hit him.
Speaker A:So I put my sleeve up and showed him the scar and it was like, I've just had wrist surgery.
Speaker A:It's not that you hardly hit me, it's that you hit me in a broken wrist.
Speaker A:I said it a little bit more forceful with a lot more words that I'm not going to repeat on here than that.
Speaker A:And he just sort of sunk away into the crowd and his mates did as well.
Speaker A:I was like, ah, idiot.
Speaker A:So yeah, that's my tram story.
Speaker A:Got an email the other day asking me if I would like to participate in a study.
Speaker A:Yeah, it turns out that they have been looking across the Internet at posts people have made on Reddit and all different places, like listening to podcasts and whatnot and they've, they've actually found a list of the 10 most intelligent people in the world and I'm on that list.
Speaker A:No, I'm joking.
Speaker A:That's not what it was at all.
Speaker A:Can you imagine when I got my current set of hearing aids, the company that make them, Phonak, they partner with a another company to do studies for you, like beta products and things like that.
Speaker A:So testing new features, testing new ideas of things that they could stick into, into hearing aids and whatnot.
Speaker A:And I signed up to say yes, I'd be willing to participate in these studies because you get paid for them.
Speaker A:I had no idea how much you get paid, you know, I just said yes, I'll do it.
Speaker A:I'm not happily get paid to do some market research, I'm cool with that.
Speaker A:And so I received my first email and I was like, oh, I was very excited.
Speaker A:It said it's basically It'll be a 15 minute Zoom call that will be a group of people and you get paid 22 quid for it.
Speaker A:22 quid is not a great deal of money, but for 15 minutes work I'll happily do that.
Speaker A:The time that they were proposing was a perfect time for me, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:So I was like, yeah, brilliant, I'll happily do that.
Speaker A:So I decided to read all the stuff about it just to make sure I wasn't getting myself involved in something that I didn't want to get involved in.
Speaker A:I read all the FAQs, so it was all about, you know, setting up your environment, what kind of questions about you be asked.
Speaker A:It's all depends on the study, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:I, I read through the NDA, did nothing odd in the NDA, it was just like, you know, if we talk about any new features, don't, don't talk about them publicly, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:I never signed an NDA because I hadn't actually signed up for it at this point.
Speaker A:The whole thing took me about 40 minutes to read through.
Speaker A:So I was a bit like, huh, that's funny, you get 15 minutes, you get 22 quid for 15 minutes of a call.
Speaker A:But you, you know, you don't get paid for the actual homework that you need to do at first.
Speaker A:Now bear in mind, I suppose you didn't have to read all this documentation that I read, but be silly to not sign up for a study that you haven't at least read the documentation for once.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So anyways, fine, I was like, yeah, you know what, I'm still happy to go ahead with it.
Speaker A:I'm more interested to see what, what, what might be coming in the future than anything else.
Speaker A:That was the whole point of it, really.
Speaker A:I'm, I, I, I'm very nosy like that.
Speaker A:I like to test out beta apps and things like that just so that I can see what's coming, see if there's any way I can influence what it's going to look like.
Speaker A:So I click the message, the, the button in the email that says, yes, I'm okay with this, and immediately said, we're sorry, you don't fit the criteria for this test.
Speaker A:So I did like 40 minutes work for free.
Speaker A:Couldn't believe it.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I tried again.
Speaker A:Yep, completely just don't fit the criteria for the test.
Speaker A:So at least I know now in the future that if I do get another one of these emails, actually check that I could do it first.
Speaker A:It didn't say why I didn't fit the criteria, it just said, you don't fit the criteria.
Speaker A:I am looking for advice from all of the freebies out there recently.
Speaker A:Toby mentioned that he, we, we used to a few years ago, around Pandemic time, actually, just afterwards, we had our own little YouTube channel.
Speaker A:I'll leave a link to it actually in the, in the show notes.
Speaker A:Uh, it was called the Family Nook.
Speaker A:Uh, it was actually linked to a business that we had where we were selling like games and things online.
Speaker A:I closed it down a while ago.
Speaker A:Now it was, it's not something that I wanted to pursue any further at one point.
Speaker A:Actually.
Speaker A:There's an interesting story there, but I'll save it for another time.
Speaker A:Actually, you know what?
Speaker A:I will talk about that story in today's, in today's plus feed.
Speaker A:Because it's an interesting story, but it's not something that's necessarily interesting for everybody.
Speaker A:So yeah, I'll talk about it in the plus feedback.
Speaker A:Essentially we had this YouTube channel, like I say I'll leave a link to it, where we built little tiny robots.
Speaker A:Like we bought kits.
Speaker A:Like there was a little bee that would vibrate and walk along the table.
Speaker A:That's the first one we did, actually.
Speaker A:Ironically, the show is now called that's a Freebie.
Speaker A:That's not the reason why we built one that it's eyes lit up and things like that.
Speaker A:And they're all on the web on the YouTube channel.
Speaker A:But he mentioned that he really enjoyed doing them.
Speaker A:So I said, well, we could do some more.
Speaker A:We could look up, we could get some kits and things like that.
Speaker A:And in doing so I remembered that there is such a thing called an Arduino.
Speaker A:If you don't know what an Arduino is, it's basically a circuit board that you can use to control different pieces of hardware.
Speaker A:It's a bit like a Raspberry PI, except a Raspberry PI is more, more software based.
Speaker A:You can use it to control.
Speaker A:It's essentially.
Speaker A:A Raspberry PI is essentially a little computer that runs Linux.
Speaker A:An Arduino is a controller.
Speaker A:So you could build like, let's say a robotic arm.
Speaker A:And you can use the Arduino to control the robotic arm.
Speaker A:You can give it instructions and say in this situation, do this and, and so on and so forth.
Speaker A:It requires a little bit of programming to do it and I thought it might be a good idea for him.
Speaker A:I was just wondering if there's any of you out there that have taken on any of these projects that you could give me some advice on where to start.
Speaker A:I've only started looking at it today myself, so I found a few starter kits and things like that.
Speaker A:But I don't want to just jump in and get the wrong thing.
Speaker A:So if any of you have tried any of these, feel free to head over to Fluxo Media and hit me up.
Speaker A:Let me know.
Speaker A:I'd love to know what projects I could do with Toby.
Speaker A:I'll obviously stick him up on the YouTube channel because I think that's what he actually really enjoys about it.
Speaker A:He said he only wants to do it if we can make more videos of it.
Speaker A:So we'll probably revive that long dormant YouTube channel and I'll just link it in with the, the stuff that's on Fluxor Media.
Speaker A:So yeah, yeah, if you've, if you tried any of it.
Speaker A:Please give me a shout.
Speaker A:I'd love to know your your experiences Final catch up story for this week is more of a precursor to something that we're probably going to hear about next week.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I've got to the point where it's been a couple of years so I need new glasses.
Speaker A:I, I tend to need new glasses every couple of years.
Speaker A:Last time I went for my eyes checked a couple of years ago, I was told that I should probably get varifocals because I was struggling to see up close stuff.
Speaker A:Well, small print is probably more accurate and I didn't because I was terrified of getting varifocals.
Speaker A:I've read all about how they can be really hard to get used to and how you have to get used to putting your head in different places to be able to read different distances and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:However, I have over the last year or so I have noticed, but I am really struggling with smaller text like you know, like instructions on things like food packets and things like that.
Speaker A:I can't read it even with my glasses on.
Speaker A:I have to take a photo of it and stretch it.
Speaker A:And it's not that it's blurry or anything like that.
Speaker A:It is literally just too small.
Speaker A:Can't make out what the letters are.
Speaker A:And I've, I've noticed it a lot more things recently and I don't want to start making my text bigger on my phone and things like that.
Speaker A:I do not want to get to that point.
Speaker A:Fortunately, it's not been too bad on things like that.
Speaker A:It is more like things in the physical world where there's a lot of text printed.
Speaker A:So I, I finally gave in and I've ordered myself a pair of very focal glasses and they are due to arrive today.
Speaker A:They're due, well, anytime after 12 o'clock, between 12 and 3 it says.
Speaker A:So I should have an update for you by next week on what they like.
Speaker A:But so I've, I, I've ordered a pair of glasses.
Speaker A:I got red frames.
Speaker A:I like colored frames.
Speaker A:I, I also like transition lenses.
Speaker A:They've just come out with a new, a new series of transition lenses.
Speaker A:They're called Transitions S or Generation S I think they're called.
Speaker A:Apparently the S stands for speed, which I'm looking forward to.
Speaker A:So one of the complaints I've always had with transition lenses is they take longer than you would expect to go back to clear.
Speaker A:So like if you walk into a shop, for example, like if I walk into the supermarket, I could have done all my shopping by the time they've gone back to clear and it's really hard to walk around.
Speaker A:So I have to then put the glasses on the top of my head which, you know, in a situation where I'm going to be reading the packets for the food that I'm buying and they're needing very focused to be able to read that.
Speaker A:I can't be waiting for that to happen.
Speaker A:But these Generation S, apparently they go all the way back to clear within two minutes.
Speaker A:I've, I've watched a lot of videos on them.
Speaker A:I've comparing them to the ones I've got.
Speaker A:I've got Generation 8 at the moment and these are supposed to take about, from, from what I read about like five to six minutes to go back.
Speaker A:But honestly if you take about 10 to 15 minutes to get clear and I've been watching loads of comparison videos with them and these S seem like they're very, very quick.
Speaker A:So I can't wait for that.
Speaker A:That is something I'll report on next week.
Speaker A:And I got them, they come now in a new like a ruby red color.
Speaker A:So when the they, they go dark, they go like a really nice ruby red.
Speaker A:So very much looking forward to getting my new glasses.
Speaker A:Hopefully they arrive today.
Speaker A:I've had the Royal Mail thing saying that they're.
Speaker A:I guess we will see when the podcast is over.
Speaker A:Do you ever sit there thinking, I wish there was more.
Speaker A:I wish I could listen to more.
Speaker A:That's a freebie because Diggy makes such amazing points and he's so funny and I just wish there was more of him in my life.
Speaker A:Well, guess what?
Speaker A:You can, you can join.
Speaker A:That's a freebie.
Speaker A:Plus head over to Fluxo Media and you can find a link there to get to my patreon, which is £4amonth and you get an additional section at the end of the show.
Speaker A:In today's show we're going to play a game which we've been playing for a few weeks where I describe a movie plot badly and we, we see what we can.
Speaker A:We see if you can guess the name of the, the movie.
Speaker A:I've got a couple of other topics in there as well.
Speaker A:So yeah, you should, you should join.
Speaker A:You should join.
Speaker A:There's also a Discord room so you can, you can chat to other members and there is, there is a pre show as well.
Speaker A:Now the pre show is more just me setting everything up.
Speaker A:Every now and then though, I give you a little bit of a previous to why I'm doing things in the show and how I'M doing things in the show which some people are interested in.
Speaker A:So, yeah, head over to Fluxo Media where you could join.
Speaker A:That's a freebie.
Speaker A:Plus foreign I've got a Dear Diggy topic or a Dear Diggy question and it was sent in by somebody and I recall that it wasn't an anonymous question, but I seem to have mislaid deleted the email with the person's name on who asked the question.
Speaker A:So I'm really, really sorry.
Speaker A:I did see it, whoever it was.
Speaker A:Thank you for sending the question in.
Speaker A:Don't let this discourage you from sending others in.
Speaker A:It's just I started writing this document like two and a half weeks ago and I've cleaned inbox since then.
Speaker A:This week's Dear Diggy question was what car do you drive?
Speaker A:Also, little bit stalkerish.
Speaker A:Do you plan on following me?
Speaker A:It'll be really difficult though, because I drive a silver Toyota Auris.
Speaker A:I'm not going to tell you the registration and from what I can see, there are bloody loads of them on the road.
Speaker A:The number of times we're driving down the road and Toby goes, hey, dad, that car's exactly the same as ours and it always is.
Speaker A:It's a very common car.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:Good grief.
Speaker A: It's a: Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:I'm really giving you a lot of information here.
Speaker A:If you want to stalk me, Anna.
Speaker A:Well, might as well while I'm here.
Speaker A:My PIN number for my card is.
Speaker A:Ah, no, obviously I'm not going to do that, am I?
Speaker A:That is it for the main show this week.
Speaker A:Members, don't forget to wait and join me in the post show.
Speaker A:You can head over to Fluxo Media if you want to reach out to me on social media or via email.
Speaker A:All of the details are on that website.
Speaker A:My blog is also on that website, so feel free to read that.
Speaker A:I haven't updated it as much as I was hoping because, well, not been able to type properly but I should be getting back onto that soon.
Speaker A:But there are a couple of posts up there.
Speaker A:I will see you all next week.
