Gadgetory

hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to the 404 show it is friday march forth oh man you know I every now and then and we've had a great string of guests lately we have I think we're in the midst of an all-star this is like sweeps week lycra for us it is really is this is how were judged you ready air king we had jordan hoffman two weeks ago you know that guy well Steve Guttenberg for four all-star and now is this your second appearance I think it's my third third I've been in two of them because I was here the last time you I think the last time i did one with russ yeah and i did one one time where it was just the two of us oh right that was an intimate ordeal was a great day ladies and gentlemen help us welcome back for the third time mr. Scott Jones yeah Scott Jones a little awkward I'm clapping for myself why not we don't do it enough right we don't as a people we don't do it enough why shoulders off I love me do you as you should why not totally why into it it's so weird to be back in New York I'm staying at a hotel that's just about a block and a half away from here Scott staying at the Ace Hotel which is a very very nice very high tell ya hipster coffee in the basement Aaron stumptown club Hannah yeah I stop there on the way you can see I have it right here uh but uh you know coming back to New York and I first moved here in the mid-90s right I feel really old now and for years and years I felt great every time I would come here wherever I would go I just feel like I'm not aging at all and now coming back to New York this time I feel like everything's maybe because I've been in Canada for so long I think Canada does that to a person so what does that mean that people in Canada look older no I just feel like this is a city that very young people of Charis gathering yes and in the hotel that I'm staying which is now yeah it's super hipster shit tips are central yeah it's kind of douchey but I mean I kind of like it too at the same time to tell it I don't really fit in yeah anymore even like you know I have to when I first moved to New York I was so nervous about the people in New York accepting me and finding me appealing hi everybody feels like way from originally I'm from upstate near Syracuse all right okay the good you're one of the good guys am I he's ghost good guy I'm an East Coast good guy but you know I dreamed of New York for so long as an outsider and i would i'd never visited New York until I was in college okay not as a kid my parents weren't interested but I would watch TV shows like The Odd Couple and they were always open with Oscar and Felix you guys we haven't you especially the same age he's a little bit oh yeah a little long a couple years old there that TV show would open with a montage of new york city area I'm just like why don't we live there here all these people they live in little rooms on top of each other their roommate but they also love their roommate yeah one's a sports writer when runs the vacuum and the ride trains that go underneath the city like what a magical place it's amazin a shin with New York growing up I I was lucky enough to be here you know my whole life kind of coming in and out all the time yeah that's a great part of that but then I moved here and I was thinking about this story last night because I went out for a walk when I got here was just totally gently here and it's freezing like that it hasn't it never snows where i live in the part of canada that i live in and so last night with like whoosh weather shock for me i went out to look for water and finally I found a little deli i'm in a weird that Ace Hotel exact whole yeah nothing around yesterday so i found a little random delhi and i got two bottles of water it was four dollars a bottle hmm I'm like I said to the guys guy leaning over the counter he's looking at his phone he's not even paying attention I'm sure he's charging me the out of counter price I think big bottles I mean they're like the two liter bottle SmartWater it's Poland Springs toyota brand i wanna areas like smart water would cost whatever looks right no spring that do you think you got you got like swindle oh yeah I look like an outsider now I was feeling really insecure and I said to the game like four dollars a bottle for this every other part of the world even every other part of New York it's three dollars at most yeah two dollars in most parts of New York is like these are the New York that's that's what New York water costs ah and I went back to the hotel and ironically not New York water poland polish water who knows words actually who knows what tap it came out her but I just felt likes it like for sure that I got fleeced I've been here for like 20 minutes that I got fleeced and you have this legacy were like I don't deserve that so I was gonna say been here you know being on weights what I told him I said to the guy used to live here I lived here for 15 years like my baby I the outside I was gonna say you look very good you look young hale hearty I wouldn't say like you're getting up in years certainly but now you're complaining about water prices and that might be the first step into going down i right not wrong all right all right we'll just send it back did you write a letter when you come to New York you wonder can I still cut it here yeah have I still got it well then will they will they buy the illusion of me pasas in New Yorker but I just felt like some old guy from out of town who's wearing all the wrong clothes no I think you're also in that neighborhood like who there's no one living in that neighborhood you know it's just essentially Taurus and people that work there during the day so in the neighborhood I mean you know if you were added bodega in whatever like Queens jackson heights mm-hmm um I don't think you'd get that same sort of treatment all right you gotta you gotta really take the all the context into account yes I you know I don't know if you want to do this I know you have an agenda and we don't a lot of time today but well I just want to tell you my first night going out in New York I felt so insecure about going out I had to go meet some people I knew one person but I was getting introduced in all these mid 90s mid 90s and so I had this shirt it was a flannel shirt I'm sure I look like some hillbilly that was cool then though it wasn't cool yeah I wasn't even with the grunge thing like that was like late night okay so what I did is I was in my tiny apartment that I couldn't afford and I cut the sleeves off of it like right down here and I rolled him up just to try to make it look cooler yeah and I went out and I saw my friend at this bar and she said what did you do to your shirt like I will never pass here so tough but that was an edgy move and that's what the city is about is making edgy it was Asian even if even if you walk away looking a little brighter bill cunningham would take a picture of you and you'd be famous about that now i want to back up a bit and explain to people who maybe don't know who you are yes and explain that you have been in this industry in the one space in about 15 years about 15 years your veteran better in I do feel like I'm one of the elders of the village sure and it's a village that's changing you guys know this but anybody go to any press event i'm a video game guy like I loved games my whole life yeah for city long before I moved to New York I didn't feel like I was ready for New York so my starter city was chicago i moved to chicago and i was obsessed with video games because i didn't want to I didn't want to face all the things that I couldn't I wasn't ready to face and where life I damn I didn't want to deal with all the complications so I got a job but at night I would drink 12 packs okay that's a bad first step chair and I would play video games you have an itch the 12-pack yeah some nights I'd okay yeah but I would play video games and they this was the this was like the early 90 you know I was playing a super metroid my Super Nintendo was just like I couldn't believe what a magical machine parish a definite entre alien wars yes I'm super smash TV everything had super in front of it is super generation but electronic gaming monthly was in Chicago back then I guess that's another time effin when when magazines used to have offices at very rare now like press room is either yeah yeah yeah it's very rare but I was a i would get this magazine like holy crap it's right here in Chicago it's probably right down the street from where I live and I just remember like who I was then i remember my hopefulness for the future and i remember being excited about something like working at egm really is aa is been operating on fumes for years at this point but at the time I was a juggernaut the time I was the only one that was you standard I was a computer gaming world was also floating around their pc gamer was still floating around there but I mean they were they were like I would say four or five that were like big buts egm was like the they were the going down yeah so you did so so explain that path out of Chicago uh function when I was in Chicago I was trying to be a writer and his thought at some point I'm gonna have to give up video games i'm gonna have to get serious i'm gonna i was put on a suit well no I wanted to be a poet I wanted I thought that that was the way to do things that is serious I will see you so it's mid 90s you're in chicago and you're like I got it I'm gonna be a poet you know what I'm going to quote some TS Eliot for you right now yes go then you and I when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table wow you know up lapua tree is barely permeate lovesong of j alfred Prufrock yeah again like I can make up stuff to you know I didn't know i'm joking nobody i was i thought well i can do this like i can become a successful you were passionate you you it that affected you loved you yes yes uh and so what i was doing in chicago was i was getting some city experience i was applying for graduate school uh thinking about working or probably for poetry okay and and so i applied to graduate school I got into Columbia variable I got into Iowa it's amazing I was like that big writing the big writing one the right girls all right I've seen a girl's that's right and uh and then i also got into syracuse and syracuse was back where I grew up and I got a full scholarship holy shit so I mean you kind of almost always do if you're gonna go back to school for some sort of RT thing here you shouldn't accrue more debt right you're going I totally agree with these like I didn't get any money from Iowa I didn't get any money from bear I would have had a really struggle I could have gone to either one but I went with the freebie and went back to syracuse settled for Syracuse oh my god that's it that's a great set it's pretty far down on the list I feel regretful that I didn't go to Columbia bullet what was your endgame here like okay so you go to school for poetry what's what is what is the not depressing outcome no altercations you know I was fascinated with like New England colleges like I like those little sort of snow globe come at some things I wanted it all says another time I want can I talk they're charming on a level that is not I want anywhere I wanted an office that had a little fireplace in it right and allowed to write my stories and I want to be in my office on a meet with my students maybe have an affair with a student I don't know you want your profession I wanted to be a professor got it and so what they just not that in there the old affair with the students tell me I'm being honest about what's in my heart or what was in my or younger you these were the things that cross the room and label how old were you then I was in my mid-20s on me 20 was about your age now I'm 30 I'll be 34 in a couple weeks you're so sexy 434 thanks man that's nice uh so yeah that was my non depressing endgame okay so I I got my degree my MFA in poetry very useful degree move to New York City and I don't know why I'm going into my whole life I like this because this you know people are like oh who's this Jones guy whatever and you know we've had you on before and when you were on before you were very ingrained in the video game industry writing and courteous being I don't know less so a little less so you you spend a lot of time in Canada on on Canadian television very famous in Canada very famous in Canada uh yes yeah you don't don't don't hesitate I don't know you know like I'm the show that I used to host ended on December 31st that was the end of it electric playground that's it yeah Victor Lucas with Victor Lucas yes legendary Victor Lucas and I'm so grateful that I got a chance to work with him for so many years how many years are we there is six year I've been there I'm been there for a little over seven years yes American maybe from a Canadian citizenship very exciting you know what what I would get that I would get it in a heartbeat why because things are going listen I've been doing a little bit of reading you can't just get up and move to Canada I found out it's not even doesn't work like that even if things don't go also with the whole Trump situation just like if for whatever reason you ever needed you know to take a trip and get some medical procedures done for real cheap I names like a good stuff I know we're not the one's the only ones who told you this no and and I'm i like it like I like the graphic rates are higher it's it's a great country our dollars destroyed right now there every year dollars is worth like a dollar fits amazing that quickly that happened it was when white a while i was in what during the recession i feel like they were above for a little bit i was a montreal in july of 15 and it was 121 that's crazy and now it is half that right that yeah it's probably like every it's about 60 cents that's bit so that bottled water was like 20 bucks for you i would have a point about that always asks that now because i have been doing some different kinds of work and then you know where's your paycheck coming from is it from the us or canadian and whenever I say well that one's from the US bit oh sweet Alice Oh take dinner tonight don't know the cave us what you guys are better in the US money a long time I feel like we have it if you live in the US it doesn't really benefit you you understand like it's all sure everything's priced accordingly yeah which is great which is fine i mean so so now that's a a chapter in your life that's that's that's closing yeah well as clothes the journalism side will the EP stuff yeah the EP stuff is done and I don't know if I want to do TV anymore like I I felt like it was something I needed to learn how to do when I was trying to be a writer write really all I'm really interested in is writing I don't want to do TV I like having a conversation with you guys yeah but I don't need like I'm not dying to share I don't even know what it means any more like why why would you want to be on TV like TV is going away yeah really interesting is like it's pocono like people on cruise that work at like whatever like big national networks here in the city and it'll be like an assistant director or someone like that and all they talked to me about cuz I'm just there to guests or whatever it is is like hey so you know any like new media companies yes then they see the writing on the wall that Mike this is not a ten year or 20 year plan here see i right they definitely see they see a little bit of the future in what's coming and you're crazy to ignore something like that yeah I think I don't think the the big networks are going anywhere no but I think they're sort of like spider webbing out yeah and sort of uh reaching you on a different plane I know that's not groundbreaking or anything but I think there is still room for production value air like TV sets it's just not a television you like all that stuff wherever it's consumed I still think that is still very relevant so when we say like TVs going away and we mean gathering around the couch is going away like your living room is going away essentially yeah I just think about the ways in which we spend most of our time these days and I did have cable during the NFL season this was the first NFL season wife committed to every game this year okay i watch as many games as I could I enjoyed it so much but as soon as it was over as soon as the Super Bowl was done i had the plug pulled yeah cuz i was watching okay i was watching like like people's court in the afternoon yeah and i started craving it every day I'm like oh it's two-thirty and I think people's courts on maybe something interestings going on I like that judge milian see what's happening her eyes are really beautiful uh but then I'm just like I can't go through my life like you have I mean I so during lunch you know I work at home and during lunch I watch like new girl on netflix like you have things to get addicted to an outside to see I know but I feel like at least netflix you're making a choice okay he's not making the tragedy so if you can't just leave it on his background see and I've always argued that there should be this sort of always on thing that Netflix duh Yeah Yeah right where you kind of uh this is gonna sound may be crazy to follow it but it's like i wanna i want netflix to know the shit i like which it does some degree and then i want to be able to just like turn it on and i want something to already be playing even it is head way through like a film i've seen already yeah don't start me new on something i haven't seen yet right but start me in the middle of like Oh die hard 3 is just on right now right cuz that's something that it should know that Jeff just loves to watch okay you know I'm saying like there should be the sort of like you should because the channel surfing psychological a gratification I get that we all get maybe it's gone on a new generation but they're still the legacy of that rustling I created that you turn that on and like famke janssen is crushing someone with her legs and golden yeah the second you turn on your like sick i'll watch the rest of it i do feel like the the the thing that is getting lost and it's not a huge thing but it is getting lost for sure i think you've articulated it very well both of you it is the that coming in to die hard three halfway through watching the second half of it and just thinking like I really have to kind of revise my definition of what's a good movie re was wasn't bad at all like that I'd read at all it is high it is the second best diet ever one is so good yeah so good um so before we take the brake that's coming up I wanna you know get pivot into a thing that happened getting awkward now with your life okay I can talk about that no I mean it's an awkward topic so it's a little difficult for other I think it might be cool and I'm interested in it but we should dive in because you'll see it's a little bit difficult and we will dive into that right after this break oh really all right let's dick move right there haha the dick ass move today's episode of the 44 show is brought to you by audible.com do you love books but fine that you never have the time to read them that's every day of my life I always want to read books and I can't audible com has the perfect solution for me and you you can get audio books and listen to those books like you've been meaning to do like your resolutions all the things you want to accomplish in 2016 I want to read more books and I'm gonna do it with audible com they provide over 180,000 titles from the leading audio book publishers 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Scott Jones who's just about ready to flash me his Canadian citizenship card you get a card I do get a card you want to see is it just or lady to be like a hawk I thought you were in a citizen this is what I put out though okay of course this is my they call it a permanent resident card oh wow and did you get this look at you this is also the health card they give you oh that's very nice everyone will think wow I'm getting a little crash course in Canadian yeah in hot canadian living here's our metro card Oh lovely Wow so so this care card it's like a credit card uh yeah you bring it to the world like any I need a Madison library it's not that easy but it's not that far from that that's great what a great it is great it isn't land hockey's the best so you uh had something happened to ya I got really sick and I missed almost an entire year of the TV show because of this I i started i was dating a really sexy woman for a while she was like 5-10 she used to model i did not know this is how the story storm you're a tall guy as well what are you 64 65 63 but with a very small penis okay yeah okay what do you think that's part of no I is that what happened no what's I was dating this woman and uh and I uh you know I have not lived with a lot of women I know you've been married for a while and you're married not almost married july uh so you guys are used to sleeping with women but I'm not uh and so I I would wake up every night just completely drenched in sweat yeah I would soak through my sheets only when she was staying over every night every she was there not there okay when she was there at least a witness chair uh but I didn't know it was wrong with me so I went to the doctor and he said maybe eight something spicy I said okay and I went I went back home and I kept sweating so the sweat was the only swing that was it that went on for about a year and so well I went to a walk in clinic they sent me home i went to the i went to the ER a couple times they sent me home just like I really don't feel right something's wrong what sent you to the ER if you don't mind me uh a little granular here I don't really remember and you'll know what why I don't remember a few seconds but I I kept trying to get diagnosed know it's very difficult to diagnose I had something we ultimately discovered called endocarditis which is an infection in your heart so in one of my heart valves there was an infection that was growing and growing and growing and so my sweating was my body's way of trying phytate yeah exactly and so I had had it for so long even though no one was able to diagnose it that the infection grew so large the pieces of it broke off and went to my brain oh my god and so I had a stroke wait so you so the stroke was an event that happened after the infection infection you'll did the stroke that's right so but them so the stroke was a specific moment I thought we were friends how do you guys not know that even I did I knew about the show could you know all about the stuff I'm talking about the chrono like right how it was any action stroke there a thing that happened at a moment uh what it wasn't like this kind of I fell down and I come collect me but it was little pieces God what so were you in the hospital already when you had the stroke no I had probably been having it for a few weeks if not longer cuz I I was in the impression that a stroke is like like an events having a stroke that's one way a straight can go for sure Kevin but this is the way mine went care and uh so I didn't know this I went I got checked into the hospital finally usually the people who get endocarditis are IV drug users I had obviously have never done heroin or any IV drugs and so they had a very tough time diagnosing at one dr. guest and he was right and I still haven't I have to find that guy and thank him sandy guess that like did the right test to confirm it eventually yeah and so uh I was in the hospital and what they did is they decided to give me do open-heart surgery they took out the part the valve that was had the infection yeah and they installed a plastic valve okay in my chest so I had open-heart surgery that was maybe 45 at the time and then after that I you know I there's no way to say this without sounding melodramatic but there was a doctor who came to me and said listen we're going to do the heart valve operation he came back the next day and said we've talked about it we're not going to do that operation then he came back the day after that said we are gonna do the upper oh my jesus and i was like i do whatever you guys are they saying why they're like nobody I didn't hear but I do have a friend who's a doctor who was at some of those meetings and she said they didn't want to do it because they were kind of sure that you weren't gonna make it Wow so I'm here but you are and you your your your back like me I I don't see a difference I don't I'm it I'm probably a seventy-five or eighty percent but maybe I was here a year ago last April yeah and I came here for Guitar Hero event right and it was my first time back in New York and I think about the the person I was the Scott that I was back then and I'm stronger now Decker I'm more myself my energy levels back I got really tired for a long time I went I was in the hospital for maybe ten weeks uh no prompt six weeks and then I was in rehab like they have a legit Arab facility and and I was there for another ten weeks yeah well and like the recovery from something like this and for sure this isn't as dramatic a stroke as you've probably seen right if you've seen older people and had strokes they're all there super screwed up but for me I have a numbness on the left side of my body and I'm still yeah it will probably always be there is it a like a prickly kind of thing or just an omniscient sale and I don't feel anything Wow and they're not sure if it'll ever come back I did a lot of rehab trying to get my brain working properly again had trouble remembering anything in the beginning like passwords on your computer I know we all are overwhelmed by them but when you have a stroke and then try to go back to your computer I couldn't remember it sheraton yeah so I had to redo all my passwords everyone kept recommending these password apps like 1password yeah all the different ones are out there but I kept the faith I kept doing my best i kept trying to be optimistic yeah and I'm just trying to enjoy my days now globally like I feel like I see the world through a different lens the world that I saw before and even being back in New York right now and for sure there are things I can pitch about you know the four dollar wad bottles of water and so forth but I'm just happy to be here I'm proud of my life but I'm proud of the life that I made and I'm proud that I got to be on TV for all these years proud that I wrote all these stories that I mostly well mostly I'm proud of those dry but I just I feel like I've had a great career I had great you know great friends I'm glad that you guys are my friends and I don't know I just kind of wake up with that every day and that that is this such an amazing thing to have after that I really think it's I don't want to say like well but the silver lining in all this but it's but it's like you know it to be able to like be aware of that is something that I think a lot of people need it's very difficult to your sort of basically internalizing your mortality and Jang okay well this is literally like you forget if you're in the day-to-day you're doing the same stuff every day whatever you forget you have so much freedom and so much like you can do really whatever you want so like both of you who have had great job oh yeah no great job she's gone to do a lot of things like the fact that you get to go to e3 and you get to go to CES and like oh yeah easy oh yeah it's it's I mean I think there comes a time when you kind of realize how grateful you need to be yeah for stuff like that and yeah and I know you get up and just put the plow down in a bunch of stuff chair but you gotta take time every day and just remember you know like i know it we always say yeah yeah yeah I get it when I we don't live forever blah blah blah whatever but we really don't write and and Russ and I can talk like that forever but you are in a different I went into the show's man you you saw the other side I really did I do feel like I've seen the other side I I'm not a believer in the afterlife I have no patience for bullshit anymore none yeah no no BS yeah and even trying to go back to being a movie reviewer and a game reviewer with Vic was very difficult I just couldn't sit through some crummy movie so was it cause you're like this doesn't matter like what yeah exactly i'm just i don't want anyone to waste through i started giving out zeros all the time and Vic was right he was ready to hang me yes like this one you know it's but I'm like this is how I feel like I feel like this is an awful wretched piece of garbage I feel bad that I had to sit through it and God help anyone out there from having to sit through it but that's always I'm certainly viewed like a service that we as a business provide is like saving other people from misery sorry I think a relatively noble way to look at it but maybe before I got sick I would have given it a three okay now it just no pressure like that's the end of it don't happen don't would like seriously do something better with your friday yeah I see you know what whatever there's so many bad movies out there that Everest movie I couldn't stand you guys like which I didn't see it everyone's Angela no I didn't see that you both made the right choice yeah yeah I love that Creed movie from last I liked it I liked it I really liked it yeah yeah is that is that your favorite live every time yeah the thing is the the great thing is now like I now I'm not in the media anymore and so I I'm just I'm a normal consumer again yeah when I go to the movies I gotta go like every other a hole out there and I had to sit through all the commercials I gotta sit through all the trailers I got all the coming soon it goes on for like 45 minutes at the screenings they just go right into them yeah right and so I missed that but I kind of like being a consumer again yeah I'm enjoying and I like you know a couple weeks ago I felt this impulse to go to the store I felt excited about it and by far cry primal right and and I read your review which I thought was really great thanks terrific job appreciate that a good writer oh really am i right now thank you look at you but Jeff's blushing a little ring no I appreciate uh bones a lot it just it's fun to just behave like a consumer again I yeah stinks especially in Canada the games aren't sixty dollars they're eighty dollars yeah yeah is that even for I guess it should be for like PSN like online digital download stuff it's also like super all the same you know crazy all the prices are the sofa yeah you gotta pick and choose yeah so that's quite the that's quite a second act has quite a ride and you know I just feel I feel like whatever I still want to do I have to do it yeah I have to do it and I did a TED talk on this in November uh and I didn't see your Ted I didn't know about that I do a very eager to go back and watch and we'll link everyone in the show notes yeah watch the UH but mostly it was just about paring down your life sure and the things that matter and the things that don't and I do it in kind of a elegant way but also a very crude way yeah so I don't want you go ahead and watch it I think you're able to give everybody the full Scott Jones sort of treatment like I think people can know you after watching that I think so feels very honest I think so yeah I think it I think that's true I felt like the TED talk I wasn't that happy with it I was just proud of myself for doing it fair and i met a lot of cool people right and I mean I mean I just that's the thing is I just want to enjoy my day like I'm seeing you guys I'm going to see some other friends later I'm in New York like this morning i got up at the Ace Hotel where I'm Way too old to be when you guys you punched a few hipsters move them around to understand i'm from the west coast of Canada Ireland so I haven't seen snow in a billion years this morning at it I was drinking a cup of great coffee standing in front of the east hotel and snows falling and I just felt happier yeah really lucky to be here and beautiful be coming up to see you guys and is beautiful I want to cry I want to cry making fun of me I'm not even jive you as always happen I'm I'm sorry my fault I'm having emotions your your I'm serious you're actually like really it's your moving it's very it's an amazing story I have a lot of history in the city I know you did a lot of memories my first job was over here in the parkin and 28 yeah hustler right no it was one of those clothes that was it playboy I used to work at gallery magazine oh I don't think I know this well that's the story for the next time I was my first job in New York I worked there for seven years I thought I'd never get enough I mean I was probably in high school when that was happening just did just in terms of like me knowing that I used to work with a guy for sure you've read some of my stories okay i'm i'm i'm sure i was raised catholic so they make the best porn writers for sure right at whoa now Johnny I didn't I didn't know that really I did not know that yeah I wanted to have a great weird cool job in New York and I want to have a job that I could write about afterward like I wanted to have like a really gutsy learned something new job and it was kind of a nightmare started out kind of fun but uh yeah I have a lot of history man like I've lived a lot of life at this point I know you have yeah and uh you know when I first met you I forget who introduced us I think we just had met at an event was a jan akkerman he was probably there I don't know if he was like oh jen economy this guy that I know if you did like money yes excuse today I know it's low-hanging fruit but it never gets old it's so it so sweet it tastes it's the taste beautiful and yeah and you Jeff and everyone loves to do it I forgot and and someone had told me like I don't know this guy I've seen some shit oh really and I and I remember seeing you and being like all that guys like what I'd been in Vietnam no I would know basically and I'm like oh that guy's I he's too tall to be my friend you didn't yeah my head that's the first thing I thought I think we're judgmental things off the bat about p Mike he's 66 what do you think of fresh dick oh that's a good question I think the first time I saw Rus I was like oh this guy's like you know someone I went to Hebrew school with I will say this i will say this i do remember and this was God two thousand seven or so i just made skidooed take my crew his nurse canada that's how we say thank you but I remember Jeff was very hot like intensely pushing the podcast and having me on the podcast oh yes with what I was customers need a bar on right took a couple times the same way it did with you and I Scott it took a few time felt like our chemistry was right there love at first sight what if I moved back to New York and then the three of us did this every now stop oh boy don't tease me with that um no yeah you should eat regardless you should come back because you're involved in different things now you're you're in why are you in New York what is the reason to be there's a virtual reality conference called versions that the kill screen people do you know I did yet okay so I'm going to go to go to that and I'm going to that saturday and sunday so today is perfect i'm just with you guys today and i'm trying to find a life beyond media mm-hmm and I think you've been struggling with Cheryl bit back yeah worth trying a little bit of this is there a half or two years has been so many tools do we have on our Swiss Army knives and this is the time in our lives when we figure that out like I have the corkscrewed out of the can opener what can can I use this and so at the end of last year was actually halfway through last year I started looking for new employment opportunities i interviewed it a couple different places i did it interview a facebook although i signed an NDA i can't ever tell you guys when i saw up there was kind of amazing though was it like was it like the wonka factory yeah it was really kind of what I was glad the preview emotions for you happy get angry faces first look that was fun and I i I've spent a lot of time with the in the virtual reality space yeah very good space I I feel like it's a very cool space and the thing that gives me hope is the fact that the tech is still a little crude we can't do first person shooters yeah and I think that's a good thing and the thing that the only reason I love video games at all is I'm a story guy yeah that's it that's all I care about I want stories I like the fact that this new medium is telling stories in a new way and I feel like the fact that we can't go down the most obvious road on the Virtual Reality front yeah which is shooters here forces everyone to slow down tell slower paced stories and experiment more and I think this is a good thing this makes me very excited I've had some incredible oculus demo you know I've done the toy box that we all did last year and I was really knocked out by that and and I you know I've done the HTC vive and I've you know put that all that stuff on I've gotten used to wearing that thing now and I've gotten used to having big cords coming onto the back of my head the wire dreadlocks like I like the color like some of the air you are you just assume that character yeah and so uh I learned some of the language the lighthouse I know what that is now I didn't know what that was I don't know what that is but it's five right that's the Nazi divine the vibe has such a specific apparatus yes like you like not every like not only cannot everyone afford that not only can not everyone and I don't want to like it ours right it's 800 bucks yeah but you need basically a room this big like you really did but it works as like a normal VR device no no what no it needs this yeah so you so games that have developed for oculus and when I say this space I mean I mean like an eight-by-eight never game room developed of oculus theoretically could couldn't just be simply ported over the vibe no I do i do not believe it is a one to one conversion thing like that i could be wrong but I don't think it's like pouring from pc to be a seems like you could just as easily like I understand most like the epic five experiences which I haven't used but I've heard it's amazing the epic private do involve an empty room and you're like reach around ya around but I got to imagine there's also a seated experience as well I think you can I don't no I right I think the light boxing what like their confusion is natural check every it's the Wild West rain brown like everything is being built but you have no definition yet for what good VR is where we don't know what it's gonna look like if everybody's just throwing stuff at a wall and they're seeing what sticks that makes it intriguing for me I don't know if it's gonna last I think it's certainly gonna have a life cycle here it's going to be around for a while we're gonna see some things that we've never seen before I have mixed feelings about it sometimes has a media guy sure like I feel weird putting all that that you know the mechanism on my head and I'm you know putting on the the ocular HTC the pre the very dystopian very strange and I don't like cutting myself off more from the world I already do enough of that in my personal life right I don't want to do it with my tech life too so the company I started working for it's called virtually live and basically what they're leading with although they're hoping to turn it into other things is they're taking live sports event like if there was a Knicks game not that anybody actually goes to me right away but then we would have a virtual version eight seconds later so as the game is going on we would have sensors inside Madison Square Garden yeah be gathering the data from the experience they would take all that data they would transform it through the unity gameplay okay and like stitch it together right stitch it together so you would actually be in Madison Square Garden a virtual version okay and you'd be able to go anywhere in the garden and you know one of the selling points of virtually live is that you can sit and NEC you can sit and the jack nicholson see Karen courtside if you want to eat a little locker rooms you can I know thanks for the education so so now can you and and you have the ability to switch in real time while you're in the while you're jacked in you can move any chat you move any we can go down on the field if you want to although we're still debating whether it's a court make that well we're leading wits with soccer oh we can go on the soccer field during the pitch it's awesome what was amazing to do what are the actual athletes how are they presented I mean it looks it looks like a FIFA game it's like a fever game so you're essentially they're taking the data they're saying okay whatever Pele is standing right here so we're gonna put digital Pele in that position and move them around as pals right that's right and the technology I don't understand all of it there's a little bit of Voodoo around it they use some anticipatory gameplay stuff whether this guy usually goes this way we're going to put them there already so there's a little jittery and then we're still building and a year so that's really fast it's very cool and uh and you know I the the the possibilities for what they could do with this kind of tech is is very cool and and I mean it's basically a way for you to gather the same way that which lets people get together for certain occasions and so I think that's that's going to be a part of a success yeah a part of the story going forward right as it's an opportunity for everyone to get together there's a game going on right now let's all get in there you can get in the kanye suite upstairs you can get a virtual bartender you can have a drink you can watch the game or you could do what most sports fans do and that is they don't really watch the game they talk to each other yeah they just bullshit it's an opportunity for socializing that's that is really cool tech and and something that I haven't really heard anyone doing with VR so that's really neat yes yeah so we also we have a new demo that has to do with the racing and we're moving in lots lots of different directions I've never been on this side before it so it's a little strange yeah yeah the world from the production side from the production side end in this brave new world that is VR is kind of this like amazing common we have a huge office in San Francisco yes they're like a week and a half ago like I love I you know it's funny because we you were on the media island for a long time there was tuned there's not much to eat there it's a very small island that's Aaron its varied and yes you go to the other side and it's like I don't know there's lots it just feels like there's it's wide open there's lots of opportunity there's lots of weird jobs being created virtual virtual reality doesn't know what kind of jobs it's going to need in the future and so I think it's an exciting time if you're a man in his mid-40s like I am and you've survived a life-changing of that chair you just there are roads for you to go down yeah it's it's it's uh you know not to make it like this poetic sort of thing but it's like it's this beautiful sort of like opening a door opening experience for you on multiple fronts all right was like career wise yeah your life wise i mean it's it's cool i also feel like every man and you know I I usually just say this off off the air but I'll say it again I feel like every man has a window of opportunity to make money and that's from when he's 35 to 55 and I feel like you or woman right or woman or woman just people in general yeah you just gotta roll up your sleeves and you got to go out there and I feel like the economy is good right now everything's strong like there's a new opportunity there's new options there's new tech I feel like our e3 is going to look very different going forward like virtual reality is going to be a huge part of it have you guys ever tried any of the virtual reality headset yeah yeah I've accepted the vibe yeah Ivy Ivan use the visor again one here next week yeah what about the virtual boy yeah yes I Friday yes you have it so I do not have it I've tried I tried actually the Museum of the moving image enhancers virtual boy I remember hating even when you care for terrible mess like odors terrible i was i was at syracuse than when it came out doing my MFA i know it sounds like bragging but i had a girlfriend who had moved so i was a little heartbroken and i went to the store and I stood there for about 20 minutes section i get this virtual boy yeah should i just paid you good money for this and i ended up not getting the virtual our way Martin listen to the jugs he's got the right make sure yeah I feel like I had good good instincts that day I want to take one more break we were and then we got to talk about this other thing you're doing sure the thing you're writing whatever you want all right on the other side of this don't worry it's gonna get oh you I know what you're doing I know you're doing it you know what it gets weird it gets real with no it doesn't get weird just the futures we had it's interesting the future is weird the weird stuffs up ahead yeah stay tuned the 404 shows also brought to you by Ruby receptionist's there a virtual receptionist service it means you can forward your existing business phone 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into VR do you feel optimistic about the future um so those are two different things vr is a concept in VR that I've used and loved is amazing to me absolutely crazy super cool i have not had even the HD jump going from SD to HD I don't think was as dramatic and experience as this is right now so here's ok but you gotta say the read so the second part of your question am i optimistic do I think it's gonna go mainstream which is obviously what companies like your company is hoping for and a lot of other people I think I think we're all a ways away I would say yes five years away we are going mainstream definite just the the barrier to entry right is such a steep wall sibel soon are yes yeah friend sibel she always says this I have to give her credit she said the the VR equipment right now is kind of like that that cell phone the Michael Douglas uses in wall street that's actly like it's just a weird and awkward and will still use it because we like to make phone calls from the beach but exactly it's stuff that's where robes like you I you want to be a cool guy here's the thing no one looks cool it win vr no one that's the worst no one looks cool wearing Google glass I know it is the the coolness you got any google+ at sea yes no that's like Don there I think they I mean I don't even think this was a product though like to me they were saying hey we can do this place slowly we have worked if you saw it but it was one thing I myself will make that yeah there was they were selling the dream they weren't like look you might not want to wear this dream in public right but you know they were they were like look we got we made a thousand of them why not yeah let's get them out of storage um the thing with VR is that it is not a product in the sense that like yes there's oculus there's five there's PlayStation VR coming out later this year it is a platform it is a universe it is a is it a new dimension and that to me and I don't want to like oversell this but like the way we transferred into understanding the internet which we're still sort of doing that is what VR will be in my opinion for someone like my son who is not even a year he will probably be way more ingrained in in the way I grew up with the internet perhaps he will grow grow up with VR yeah yeah it's still all shaken out the big endorsement is really the mark zuckerberg endorsement yeah the fact right invested everything like we're going osky oculus you know he doesn't do anything half-assed right and that makes me feel so much more hopeful about the future of virtual reality I feel like it's going to be around for a while and I didn't irritate us it'll probably irritate us a lot it's already irritated me yeah it's so you're I mean and everyone want you know you guys know this at Cena you have to make you have to make stories every day and you look everywhere and you shake the tree see what kind of proof drops off but there's not always new stories there's not always things to write about so we're weren't you know everyone's just combing over the same area people always want to bang it though they always want to what do you mean like a man likes the like with a lady when they get together and then a baby comes out I don't know why this is like the evolutionary way of things yes it always starts with sex but a people I was right but can I have sex with it just like yeah yeah it's a person yeah just how things work you can bang this thing you can be doing in the Garden of Eden there was two people one was Adam and one was even and then they went to dinner yeah they went to a candlelight man one little italy and they went to a hedonism resort uh uh yeah it's gonna start with sex for sure and uh you know I was working on a story for Esquire calm about the sexual revolution that virtual reality is going to ostensibly present to us and with any one of these technologies the first you know the first vice to the doors always always let's look at busa through it yeah let maybe boobs look great in three dimensions and of course I started making some phone calls one day I called this this porn company that you may have heard of vivid and I you know because of my history working over here on a gallery I knew some of the porn people I don't know them anymore but you know it's the first time I called a porn company in almost 20 years and I just got the sleazy voicemail like no matter what no matter who you're calling and it you know it's the perspective my perspective on it just this is vivid voice man I liked not even number / s 1 it's just everything just feels so better look at Atlanta and so I was working on this story for Esquire and then my friend who had hired me to do this story moved over to a different publication but in the interim in the meanwhile Ben Silverman my friend at Yahoo he said he was interested in the story and would like to see it so I'm still writing this story about how the virtual reality porn will shake out and again it's going to take it's going to take a little bit of time and there's going to be some really crude stuff in the beginning and it's some of its going to work and some of its not going to work but I don't know I feel like it's an interesting place to have a conversation killer it is have you try to hold that thought Ross have you tried it out have you tried out like like I said at CES we had the naughty america company and what do you think of the night I didn't do it well don't lie to me no I didn't I didn't oh you're such a good man I would love to have tried so they they are like show my hand there listen I would love to secrecy I I want to see that I you know I think of like Minority Report yeah in that scene were like Tom Cruise runs through like that arcade Sherrick the the VR arcade and everyone's like in their own pod doing the right thing for like demolition man right of course like strange days writing like we all have these sci-fi fantasies of things we saw when we were younger yes and now it's like oh my god that stuff is way closer than I ever thought it we would be with any of that like the thing we don't really realize you know like something 3d TV is done yeah everybody's given up on that's the end of it but porn was really all over that they were like first ones through they would like we got it all we got it all mapped out in here and then nobody else went that way only porn went that way porn is always first because there's so much money to be made if someone pulls this off it does it right it's like boot it's booze right it's it's it's never gonna go away the American there's always gonna be a market for porn and booze what were you about to mention I was gonna say I was going to talk about logistics mm-hmm so when someone's watching porn generally they have other activities that they're doing while they're watching porn what yeah their taxes their taxes so you're if you're wearing know is that none are you what are you doing with you I got like the old-timey calculator and that green visor now let's see well I could do 8300 dollars in deductions and you dan ackerman voice again it's not intentional I want to say you understand you're wearing a VR helmet there is a logistical issue with this equation you can see your penis among other things you can't if you're the mass if you're masturbating right with VR right a man a woman it doesn't matter you can't see you know I'm saying you can't wait naughty bit you don't know where things are going they get all the keep like who looks at why are you looking at it like I don't want to see it I don't know nothing you just punch it I don't I don't know if I want to see it the whole time but I want to see it eventually yeah well there's there's like a you know a concern finale maybe it's just unlike persnickety about cleanliness I want to make sure I know where things are going you may need to bring that up with your analysts but uh I have a friend you guys know I'm not gonna say his name but he's been caught uh while enjoying himself oh my are not to be are no I don't know who this person is you know it's I'll tell you later yeah but he's been caught a couple times you know but he's gotten that that sort of talk builder and just like I Ely into it by his wife okay okay and so he told me about these taps and yeah I was laughs hysterically avoids me like here's another reason why not to get married the reason why to live alone is better but with porn uh it's very dangerous and I I hear what you're saying for sure I mean you're very exposed and you're very vulnerable and for sure I'm sure I'm sure thousands of people who are you know they've been caught already for sure and there's just gonna be millions going forward yeah you know just like somebody's wife is gonna come home and the goggles are gonna be on and you're just like oh well the funny thing is like I mean that's only part of it though like why are you worried about about the mess why she don't care you take it off yeah I guess it's all over your computer I guess that's why were you and why you ain't get to you compare and why not so pushy or elsewhere my point is I don't know where the computer isn't worried a helmet so funny though like not only will you be walked in on but like you can walk theoretically right in the face of the person won't know where they are now that's just magic that's a nice story I don't know how far your she but but I'm saying like I'm saying uh you know you want you will walk in on this person and they won't even know you're in the room and you're just be like well I'm gonna sit here and this is well let's it works out let's do this you know and you can you can reach in and they could think it's like a really immersive experience is great for sure it's gonna be scary but the you know what you're gonna get on the far side of that is amazing I mean what you're gonna see with with me whether it's the oculus or the HTC vive you know you're gonna see amazing things yes they're building them right now they're experimenting it's not just the 360 camera they're trying everything right now buddy's gonna figure it out of course and they're gonna make so much money and and yeah let's get in on that is what you're saying 369 camera yeah the Nexus the 369 haha nice that's an impossible degree but that's it I feel like you guys have some running jokes which is now see you're running joke that we don't agree your both laughing it resisted uh yeah it's crazy it's a brave new world and I and I'm a little you know to get serious risen I am a immediately I feel threatened by it for some reason I'd my natural knee-jerk reaction to VR is like I don't like it and I and I and it's not like an age thing on ackerman again I don't like it I think you just hear that no matter what I thought um I you know I I want to embrace it and I and as a just a born fighter the whole thing everything of the whole ball of your I just feel like this is I Phi sweat in it i I uh it's it's gone comfortable we know Victor Lucas won't even put the goggles on he's afraid of what I'll do to his hair yeah well that's a whole nother so we're nice hair he doesn't nice here but like dude get over I know not to mention like the 15 years now VR will just be like putting on glasses you know for sure you're like putting on I whenever I do a demo I always make some joke about pink eye yeah yeah like that's a thing like where are the bowling shoe spray equivalent like where's back cuz that's a problem especially like at e3 this year I threw me out of you that shit your house it's not it's fine fine but but at e3 when you're like number 83 for the day sloppy 83rd yeah like those goggles have been on hundreds of other faces that day and they just they have a little boy like white oh yeah Diana McClay not so good now you put it on who's next wear this at some point pink I just gotta run rampant through one of these conventions maybe a GDC maybe at e3 like we don't know right that'll make national headlines are you guys going easier lgd c and e are not doing nice easy for me to tears yeah yeah um yeah there's gonna be a lot of stuff there mm-hmm uh III i'll be out i might go to pax east also wears on boston in a month and a half okay i miss the circuit a little bit it misses you yeah and but i don't recognize anybody you guys are the only familiar faces that i see no band there's like a handful of people laugh but everybody else has gone on the other thing it's pretty much that crew that was together for the for the e3 sony press conference just like carved out a nice that's right and we've just born watching we kind of were just doing our own we always set up top yeah just up in the tier that's just here yeah it's a great place to sit well it's a it's a great feeling having here man that's great to be here thanks for listening to my stories it was are moving i'm sure everyone who heard this was touched by it it's a great story like strokes are a huge thing man yeah a bigger thing going forward more and more people gets have strokes all the time they're younger and younger ages and so I you know I know I'm naka i'm not alone now and i'm gonna be less alone as the longer I live yeah that sounds like a threat no it sounds like it I want you to take care of yourself and I where takers yeah yeah if knowing what you know now what what what could you have done get checked out earlier no there's nothing ever you were your situation is very very rare just beyond you know it's like a medical book honey yeah yeah I'll just episode it is kind of like what's wrong with this guy that is a new not a bad analogy I'm not trying to trivialize your spend some good jokes today guys I think we did okay yeah and the 369 I'll remember that yeah you can tell you can make that work for your story okay yeah okay all right I want to use that one yeah that's good what do you what do you want me to give me one question for for the porn star interview the next porn star I interview for destroyed okay I've got it good isn't she concerned that this essentially is gonna make her obsolete no I think if I I can answer that already he played that's I think it makes you more relevant than ever because people want the real thing and they they do and I think it open up you know you talk about like the one on one stuff that people pay for will now forget it you can do a VR one-on-one that you can pay for that's unique to you or they he or she is looking in your eyes saying hi Jonesy Alison I know yeah you work here at seen it but obviously what you just revealed with that is that you have mind of somebody who should be working in the adult industry and 19 Matilda sorry havin it was very Amy you're writing to 50 year old should be working in the porn industry only you you're the only one who possesses this time all know it we all know it I love you both love you too where can we follow you on twitter uh i'm scott c jones very easy right and i have a website scott c jones com go there and you can read all of my can read my CES writings beautiful fun it was a great pleasure having and I see anybody around soon thank you 866 four for Cena is the phone number leave a voicemail we're back here next week we're gonna we're gonna find someone else I don't I i love my Marc Maron again mom no he hasn't been on a little bit it's too famous he uh oh man is the second time we had him on he had reached at him and he came back so I was like oh why you you'd like that no I like that yeah I don't know if I like his TV show but i like his poncho TV show that's true we'll talk about that next step the next time we see you guys next time have a fantastic weekend then today's episode of the 404 show is brought to you by Ruby receptionist's did you know that seventy two percent of callers who reach an automated answer they're gonna hang up and not leave a message but not when you've got Ruby Ruby is your friendly and professional virtual receptionist team that never takes a break goes on vacation or calls in sick get started today head over to call Ruby com / 40 for show and you're going to get free activation which is a 95 dollar value big thanks again to Ruby receptionist for sponsoring the 404 show