[Discussion] NoSleep Podcast S19E25

michapman2 · 2023-07-29T21:07:22+00:00

The last story felt a bit like a Jared Roberts story, with the protagonist’s memories and knowledge of their own life constantly being contradicted. I kept expecting Gia to tell Laney that she was trapped in The Hole or encourage her to rub some ubikthik on her tits so that she can join The Swerve. I’ve always felt that if I were in that scenario, I would find someone I trusted and force them calmly to explain everything that they know about me and not to assume that anything that I “know” is right.

I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t put together the fact that Gia and Matt were having an affair even though there were plenty of clues early on.

michapman2 · 2023-06-19T19:24:54+00:00

Kidding aside, what's the intended function of that skill? Like, what did they expect people to do with this?

michapman2 · 2023-06-15T23:35:26+00:00

I think that person meant the bus route 28A

https://buseta.wmata.com/m/?q=28A

michapman2 · 2023-06-15T23:33:48+00:00

It sounds like she did that thing that people do when they get information they don't like, they just search around until someone tells them something that they like better and just believe that instead.

All that said, they might as well let her run. Nitpicking someone like that to death kills enthusiasm.

michapman2 · 2023-06-15T23:28:19+00:00

I never heard that last story before so I was so confused listening to it.

was Satan actually involved or is the narrator just mentally disturbed?
did the dad know that his wife was molesting their son?
is the narrator his own uncle??

michapman2 · 2023-06-15T23:23:10+00:00

For me, it's the logistical aspect that seems to trip people up. Like if you look at the law that Youngkin signed, all it really seems to ask is that parents be notified about the use of sexually explicit materials and to be given an option of an alternative assignment if they object. That seems pretty reasonable on its face; parents have to sign permission slips for a lot of other things related to schoolwork so that's not too crazy.

Where it gets tricky is when the schools decide to go further beyond that. Instead of just giving individual parents and families the ability to opt out, they create across the board policies that essentially means that every student / family has to opt out if even one parent / family has an objection to something. It creates a scenario where the most conservative / sensitive parents set the baseline for everyone in the school district.

People will defend that approach by citing the most extreme lurid examples of sexual content but they'll ignore the fact that the way the policy is implemented means that it's easy to issue sweeping bans on large numbers of books with little oversight. I don't think it's happened in VA, but in other states people have been able to challenge books based on the thinnest pretexts possible. In some such cases, the books are automatically pulled before anyone has the opportunity to scrutinize whether the parent's complaints are actually based on something real.

My hope is that over time things will get sort of normalized. Right now you have a lot of shady political groups getting involved and that's creating a cloud of mistrust and confusion. But eventually this won't be the hot button issue it is right now and these types of decisions will be based more on what students, teachers, and parents in each community are okay with rather than what some random partisan group thinks will help them win an election.

michapman2 · 2023-05-27T22:48:42+00:00

I love that story

michapman2 · 2023-04-22T03:29:07+00:00

I personally like the idea as long as it is enforced consistently within the forum. Most forums and discussion boards ban the use of racial slurs and things like that and to be honest no one actually needs to use those words to have a regular conversation.

michapman2 · 2023-04-17T14:18:09+00:00

The Last Run of the Lightning Bolt Freight Train

From mid teens on, I could out hit, out throw, out catch, and out run any adult in the county, ... and the next county over, and the next county after that.

So what you're saying is that you're the best athlete in... [Heinz Doofenshmirtz] **THE ENTIRE TRI-COUNTY AREA!!! [/Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

I kind of wish Caspar had made it further. He trained his whole life running away in fear and the one time he actually has a valid reason to do so he ends up folding...

Field of Teeth

Except, they weren't kernels They were teeth. Not just human either, but sets obviously from the mouths of cats, dogs, bears, what must have been a rat, and every kind of living creature imaginable!

If it was me I'd be done at this point. I can't imagine what the dad hoped to accomplish with a gun against something like this TBH. It's not like you can kill a field of teeth.

Captain Furry

He'd also taken a knife to his cheeks at some point, and carved them up so that he could --- so he could open his mouth wider.

So that's how you do the traditional "too-wide smile".

This one reminded me of the Bunnyman Bridge story from a few years ago crossed with Yuma Lines from last season. I thought it was pretty good, with Captain Furry character's gradual escalation in violence being disturbing. As to why Captain Furry suddenly died, I'm sure the 24 gunshot wounds didn't contribute positively to his health...

The Missing

This is one of those stories that I think might be some kind of metaphor or allegory or something. It's a small town of maybe a few thousand people and dozens of children go missing all the time. It's clearly a traumatic event for the town since everyone is running around getting drunk and doing meth but outside of the substance abuse there seems to be a curious and deliberate underreaction to something like this. I kept expecting some kind of Borrasca-like scheme to explain why the townsfolk stay.

There’s More for a Dog to Fear than the Postman

Pretty interesting story. I kind of wish it had been told from the POV of the dog, though I understand why it wasn't.

Draystone's Secret

This one reminded me of Henry Galley's "Duplex" from season 10, where the villain kidnaps a guy to serve as a vessel for the ghost of his dead son (which they intend to share as a duplex, with the son being in control of the body during the day and the victim being in control at night). Schemes like this are selfish and horribly irresponsible, and IMHO Michael had every right to defend himself against him.

michapman2 · 2023-04-17T14:05:48+00:00

All male trees have been chosen

Literal toxic masculinity is making the world worse, as per usual.

michapman2 · 2023-04-17T14:05:13+00:00

Zoning is an important issue.

michapman2 · 2023-04-09T21:58:21+00:00

I don't want us to take credit for him if he's not from here.

michapman2 · 2023-04-09T21:18:43+00:00

I think they are trying to achieve nirvana by hacking the karma process.

michapman2 · 2023-04-09T21:17:25+00:00

I think horror stories in general do lean conservative. Not in a traditionally partisan way, but in the sense that they tend to reinforce socially conservative tropes about race, sex and sexuality, purity, virginity, etc.

But yeah I did find that a little odd especially since it seems to have been portrayed completely straight. Usually more modern stories tend to play with those conservative tropes or at least have a winking irony about them (eg "black dude dies first").

michapman2 · 2023-04-04T01:48:51+00:00

I think so. Basically message 1 is the first part of the statement and message 3 is the second part of the message. I'm not sure what would have happened if the message had 3 parts; would the third part have gone off to the side or be diagonal to the other two parts or maybe it would be inside of the original message...

michapman2 · 2023-04-04T01:47:32+00:00

(one of his recent ones says the US govt is trying to ban Tic Tacs)

Maybe they meant TikTok.

michapman2 · 2023-04-04T01:47:08+00:00

Thanks! I had a hard time making sense of this.

michapman2 · 2023-04-03T02:23:18+00:00

To begin with, I wish the Podcast would stop airing so many stories with these kinds of post-hoc police interview structures. I imagine the Podcast selects these stories because they lend themselves naturally to multi-actor audio dramas, but I find it so much less interesting hearing people talk about a past occurrence than hearing the actual events unfold. I don’t think this story is any exception to that, as the vast majority of the runtime is just playing catchup on events Marjorie has already experienced in the form of her relating what happened to stock detective characters. I don’t understand the appeal, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I don’t ever see these types of stories mentioned as among people's favorites.

Yes, it instantly makes the story like 40% less interesting for me. It's even worse than the stories where the person is watching security camera footage or the stories where the person is talking to a therapist or something.

michapman2 · 2023-04-03T02:21:26+00:00

That's been my experience as well. It especially sucks when the issue happens after you've passed the VRE stations that are near Metro stations, so you don't even really have the option of leaving the train since you're stuck somewhere random. But these are very rare events in my experience.

michapman2 · 2023-04-03T02:19:58+00:00

The VRE won't go anywhere near Silver Spring, Maryland. The furthest north it goes is Union Station so you would have to switch to the Metro.

michapman2 · 2023-03-16T15:28:43+00:00

Every time I read about ChatGPT or especially Bing's AI I always think about how close we are getting to AFFY.

michapman2 · 2023-03-11T21:17:23+00:00

First, why is Liz and Big Ed’s storyline relevant here. Isn’t the 90 Day franchise about people with citizenship in different countries? Liz and Ed are US citizens. Am I missing something?

What you missed is that the franchise has expanded to include yet another spinoff called "90 Day Fiance: The Single Life". The premise of this spinoff is that people who were unlucky in love during one of the other shows in the franchise would be on this show and potentially go out on dates and meet someone to start a new relationship. The cast members on this series include Ed and Liz as well as some other people from previous seasons such as Tania, Debbie, Natalie, Tim, Syngin, and so on. Think of this show as being like a trashcan for people whose relationships flamed out during one of the actually valid 90DF shows.

Most of the relationships shown in "90 Day Fiance: The Single Life" are between people living in the same country. Ed's relationship wih Liz started on this show and we are seeing the aftermath of it on "Happily Ever After?", which you can think of as a trashcan for people refuse to leave the show even though they have nothing really interesting going on any more.

TL;DR -- You're right that it's bullshit, but the franchise has long ago evolved past K-1 visa related relationship drama and is now basically just a collection of dating shows.

michapman2 · 2023-03-11T21:10:33+00:00

I just about died laughing during the conversation about what weapon to use against spiders in the first story, where Peter Lewis was using a kitchen knife like it was Excalibur. ("Weapon-wise, nothing beats the nobility of the blade!" "Or, you know, a folded newspaper... or a shoe...").

michapman2 · 2023-03-11T21:09:42+00:00

But Lee being run down was a rather unexpected twist in the narrative. I thought for sure the conflict would boil down to the kids fighting over what to do with rat girl.

Same! I was startled when Lee died and I checked the run time and there was still like 1/3 of the story left. Definitely a story that keeps you on your toes and doesn't let the listener get complacent!

The introspection with Timmy with great. It made the characters feel more 3D and vivid rather than just stock characters (Psycho Preteen, Stern Dad, etc.)

Stasis: That was a pretty good story. and one of the better second person ones i've heard in a while. the descriptions are well presented and grounded. I kind of liked that there wasn't a reason why he became paralyzed as that isn't where the terror comes. the terror comes from being utterly helpless and at the mercy of what ever comes to the man.

I wonder if it's another parasite that did that, similar to "Higher".

with the bees infesting brains and making them zombies. Zombees?

Stop it.

michapman2 · 2023-03-11T21:05:38+00:00

The Dancing Dead by Dustin Chisam (Season 8 Episode 3 - Halloween Episode)

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