John Walker's Electronic House

Gosh, this nearly didn’t happen. After another week of not being able to travel to meet up, John and Nick once more resorted to crappy old Skype, where John is far too loud, to ensure there’d be an episode before next week’s week off too. So episode 108 is a slightly talking-over-each-other job, in which we don’t discuss whether pasties should be available on the NHS. (It’s only occurred to me now as I write this that pasties in America are something rather different to in the UK, and yet I think it still works.)

We discuss John’s impressive squits, and then on a similar matter move on to talk about Jeremy Hunt and the Leveson enquiry. We wonder what it might be like to have porn stars for parents, and ponder the wisdom of trusting God to stop snakes from biting you to death. Again we celebrate how much money people are willing to pay for the Humble Indie Bundle, and wonder if the Youth Of Today still use instant messenger. There’s discussion of the maddest lady in the world, somehow convincing us to like David Davies, and think about the deaths of languages.

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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/108_rumdoings.mp3]

In Rum Doings 107, we begin by revealing not only how much this damned thing costs us, but an outbreak of sheer honesty. After plotting the demise of a clock, we return to your subjects about which you want us to be angry. Which kicks off with people who stop suddenly on pavements. HNGH!

We establish the rules on looking into people’s windows, spilling things on shirts, and are cornered into discussing how cats are annoying. Is saying “sigh” acceptable? How severely should we punish prestige car drivers?

Nick gets awfully cross about litter, and then when asked to be cross about American politics, we slightly miss target and rant about British and Ancient Roman politics. And some podcast recommendations:

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
99% Invisible

Also, to fill in people’s mental hole, here is a picture of Judge Coxcombe and Nicholas Mailer at John’s wedding:

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/107_rumdoings.mp3]

I’m feeling biographical. Perhaps that happens to you in your mid-30s, I’m not sure. This is indulgence. Indulgence is acceptable. I’m conscious of a couple of things. Firstly, that I want to process being creative, and secondly that I want to ponder what it is I’m actually doing. And it seems to be the case that I do my best processing in the backend of a WordPress site. I mean, this is essentially the ‘room’ I go to every day to do my work, and my work is, I would argue, to be creative.

I think people reach games journalism (and let’s ignore the semantics of ‘journalism’ – I’m aware that I’m not in warzones or uncovering governmental corruption, but “games writing” suggests I’m writing the games themselves, and I’ve yet to find a better term) from a lot of different paths, with a lot of different motivations. For some, it’s because it’s their absolute dream, to be writing about video games. For others, it’s because they love playing video games, and want to find a way to make money from that. (I always advise those latter people away from the career, because, well, I’m an idealist. I used to because it meant they stood no chance of getting anywhere, but I think that notion is somewhat outdated now, and instead I just find the approach personally offensive.) For me, it’s because I want to write. Why I want to write is a much more convoluted question. But why I write about video games is simple: I think video games are incredible, and they provide me an opportunity to write. (I imagine to some that’s equally offensive.)

I’m passionate about games. I’ve loved them since we had our first Atari 2600, and as much as I revel in great film, literature and television, gaming is the medium that most connects with me. It’s the medium that lets not only the story engage with me, but me engage with that story, and through interaction I receive a connection that’s unique. And because I am wired the way I’m wired, my desire is to express that which I experience, and I am blessed and fortunate enough to be able to do that in the job I have.

(continue reading…)

In episode 106 of Bum Pooings, while we don’t discuss the over-population of Britain’s towns, we instead received your tweets explaining what makes you annoyed. Whatever it might be, we decided we’d be angry too.

Whether a listener should join the army distracts us slightly, and then Nick breaks his own rule and starts going on about games as usual. Then we do get cross about the data retention directive, the use of “gay” as a pejorative (although we do end up banning the word entirely), bad service, and then distract ourselves with suspensions and expulsions from school.

Learn that John can pick up heavy things, and then we get back to being enraged, this time about plug sockets. Is John an insane homophobic bigot when it comes to marriage? Then Nick tries to get John even further in trouble. And then it ends.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/106_rumdoings.mp3]

It’s the onehundredandfifth episode of Rum Doings, which is far too many of anything. Our beginnings are found in Nick’s having illegally recorded John’s ugly road rage, which is reproduced for our listening pleasure (with some subtle editing). Then after a foray into burns and tattoos, proving that all lesbians are robots, and noting the arrogance of Newton, we take to the homepage of the Daily Mail, to explore the reasons behind their success.

The extremely right-wing paper betrays itself with a peculiarly grungy tabloid bottomless column of celebrities with their boobies out. But have John and Nick ever heard of either of them? We focus more especially on one story, because it’s about buying a rolling pin, before we realise quite how foul it is. This would be Courtney Stodden. You can read the story here (although they appear to have finally edited some of it.)

We then get a bit distracted by our thieving ways, and grumble about how rubbish DVDs are.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/105_rumdoings.mp3]

In episode 104 of Rum Doings, we do something we said we’d never do. We Skype. It’s not going to be a habit, but hopefully it’s worked out pretty well. We don’t discuss those food colourings, but instead talk over each other and then John has Nick deported. Then it’s time to discuss the family Murdoch’s appearance at the Leveson Inquiry. Which of course means Nick brings out the libel. Should you visit Bath? Should you? We talk about the hypothetical version of reality where Dexter isn’t immortal, and the terrible crimes of Biddles.

Do you have to be insane to murder 72 people? What about to murder one person? What is sane? Was Hitler sane? Find out today! Then we consider our retribution-based criminal justice system. John regails us with the tale of the lying idiot who crashed into his car, and we consider what Victoria Wood is for now. Finally how to cope with compliments, how funny we are, and how we’re adored by young people. Oh, and heroin.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/104_rumdoings.mp3]

Episode 103 of Rum Doings is voiced by two tired, over-fed, and cold-riddled men, hidden away in a dark lounge while their wives sleep. We don’t discuss how it could be possible that there’s a hosepipe ban AND flood warnings!!!! Instead we explain the new rules for standing ovations. We discover that we’re both terrible Jews, but not as bad as Mel Gibson.

We remember our ridiculous lunchtime meal, where Nick definitely didn’t ignore the basic tenets of his inherited religion, and then almost instantly move onto Nick’s favourite topic, games. Which he keeps bringing up. This time Kickstarted games. Then the dangers of bacon-flavoured drugs, why cocaine makes you a dick, and how LSD became naughty.

Talk of cats gets us to superstitious pigeons, and eventually Elmo. Then we feel oooooooooooold. Also, now, from 80 years old laws don’t count for you. Oh, and people called Lee are banned from listening.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/103_rumdoings.mp3]

In a somnambulistic, rather long one hundred and second episode of Rum Doings, we don’t discuss whether it’s time to stop not discussing things. Nick and John still find the effort the argue despite the late hour. Beginning with Galloway, things naturally quickly switch to Just A Minute and Indian politics. And then back to British politics, and the current trend for pretending to like Islam.

We enjoy some splendid lemony booze from the lovely Ed Stern, argue over what age people become humans, ponder the last time we listened to a CD, tape cassette or VHS tape. We are old. John discussed the Mountain Goats/Anonymous 4 gig he’d recently seen, we question the possibility of monitoring everyone’s emails, and then things get a little heated as we consider the strip club.

Nick recalls when John was on the receiving end of some sexual attention, discuss Enid Blyton again, and Nick tells us about the evening his stomach went on holiday. Then we get uncharacteristically serious and talk about anorexia and bulimia. Then things return to normal as we talk about the uselessness of pandas.

If you are suffering from an eating disorder, or know someone who is and want information or help, please visit here, or here.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/102_rumdoings.mp3]

In Rum Doings 101 we eat sweeties! Sugary sugar-free sweeties. And then enter something that’s going to dominate most of our Eastery episode – a leaflet from the local health food shop, promising it can cure all our ailments. That’s enough for most of an episode of Rum Doings.

Please leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/101_rumdoings.mp3]

Before we get onto business, we’d like to ask people straight away to make the effort to leave a review on iTunes. We hate iTunes as much as any other sentient individual, but reviews on there are what get podcasts promoted, and we’d love some promotion. After 100 free episodes, we’d love you to pay us back by writing a quick review. There are 10,000 people listening to this – come on, action.

The other thing to note is that for some reason Audacity decided to go all choppy about 20 mins in. It lasts a minute or two, then gets better.

In the Rum Doings episode 100 spectacular, we don’t discuss the fact that it’s the 100th episode. So instead we talk about what we’ve been up to for the last few weeks, including John’s stories of being in America, and indeed the Lake District.

For some reason that we aren’t going to mention, we have all manner of rum goodies in the episode, including a rum sponge cake from Nick’s wife Victoria, gingerbread rum from Nick’s brother, and rum butter from the wilds of Windermere.

With our faces stuffed we rank American cities in order of bestness, argue about breakfast, and explain how John fell down the stairs. And how he broke the hotel. And then we’re back in England, where the sausages are apparently boiled. There are some very serious concerns about the North West’s cream tea provisions, and their parking prices.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here!

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/100_rumdoings.mp3]