0:00

- <silence> - Welcome to the Mystic Access Podcast, where the magic

0:08

- Is in learning. - Hi everyone. Welcome

0:16

to the April 2nd Mystic Access Podcast episode. I'm Kim.

0:22

- I'm Chris. - We have to change it up every once in a while.

0:24

Y'all, <laugh>, welcome to the episode.

0:27

We have two hopefully interesting tidbits

0:29

to share with you today. First, though, we want to thank those of you

0:33

who attended our class on getting comfortable

0:35

with computers, really appreciated your time, your insights,

0:40

and all those cool questions you shared on the registration form.

0:43

They really helped us to tailor that,

0:45

to make it hopefully more of what you wanted

0:47

and what you were looking for. And we hope you enjoyed it.

0:50

And for those of you who weren't able to come, you can now visit

0:54

- Mystic access downloads.com and download the event.

0:58

- Yep, absolutely. And for those of you who haven't visited

1:01

or explored that site, you can go there

1:03

to get literally hundreds of hours of free stuff from us.

1:06

So if you're new to us, you're thinking, I don't know what these people are all about.

1:09

I've listened to their podcast, but I've never bought anything from them.

1:12

Kind of wanna know what their stuff's about. Then this will again, help you to get an idea of who we are

1:16

and what we offer, so you can kind of learn how we present

1:20

and how we teach and see if our style is for you.

1:23

So you're welcome to go check out mystic access downloads.com, and there's all kinds of stuff.

1:28

There's not just free events, there's all kinds of other things available there as well.

1:32

So you're welcome to check that out, all free of charge.

1:36

Now let's talk about something that wasn't free of Charge <laugh>.

1:39

We're going to return one final time to our saga

1:42

of the Google Doorbell, and we've been hearing about this for a few episodes now,

1:47

for one reason or another. We're gonna finish it off today,

1:50

and we're gonna tell you the story of what happened and why we ended up choosing to buy a Google camera

1:55

and kind of how that came about. So this is a little bit of a scary story

1:59

and it's also a story that hopefully provides some understanding on why you need

2:05

to take initiative with these things. So do you wanna tell a story?

2:08

- Not really, but I will. Anyway, <laugh>? - Yeah, I don't either. It's kind of a sad.

2:12

- So what happened was is as we said,

2:15

we sent the Google Doorbell back to Amazon,

2:18

and in doing that we had UPS come

2:22

and pick it up. At least that was the plan.

2:25

- We had DoorDash come and pick it up, - Right?

2:27

But at first we had UPS come and pick it up

2:30

because that's part of the story.

2:33

- Yes. - So we go to Amazon, do a return,

2:36

tell them we want UPS to pick it up and bring a label, which is cool.

2:40

So what happened was is that the package was out on the chair,

2:44

but it was raining. It - Was raining hard, - And about four 30 in the afternoon,

2:49

we decided to pull the package in.

2:52

And come to find out, 10 minutes later, UPS came

2:56

and left the label. And we didn't know that until the next day day when I went

2:59

outside and there was a label hanging out on the handle.

3:02

So UPS from Amazon only comes once.

3:05

So we lost that opportunity to send it back.

3:07

So what we decided to do was, because we had good luck with it in the past, we decided

3:13

to have DoorDash come and take the package to UPS.

3:18

So I make it happen and I get a notification from DoorDash

3:24

that says, hi, I'm here. And so I go outside, pick the package up that was in front

3:30

of the Ring doorbell. Now keep in mind that the Ring doorbell was not functioning.

3:35

This is why we're even looking at Google to begin with.

3:38

So I go outside, I pick up the package

3:41

and this person comes up to me and says, are you Chris?

3:44

And I says, yeah. And he takes the package, okay, good.

3:47

It's on its way back to Amazon via UPS via DoorDash.

3:51

So I am thinking this has concluded.

3:55

So I go and I do my own thing. I'm getting ready, you know, we're just getting ready

3:59

for the day and now this story needs to be turned over

4:03

to Kim because Kim was sitting there minding her

4:06

own business and, - And I get a phone call, the guy says, Hey,

4:10

I'm your dasher. I'm like, what? Yeah, I'm here

4:14

to pick up your package, but I don't see a package.

4:16

Um, I'm confused. The package was already picked up.

4:20

Well, I don't know anything about that, but that's why I'm here.

4:23

And you know, I'm at the house. Should I like knock or ring?

4:25

It's like, no, we're here, but the package is gone.

4:28

<laugh>, it was already picked up. So we're really confused.

4:31

We don't understand. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you just need to turn around

4:34

and I hate it for you 'cause you're not gonna get paid. So I don't know what to tell you. You know,

4:37

probably just want to go back to find another person to dash two.

4:42

'cause I don't know what to say, <laugh>. It was very awkward. And so I hang up with this person

4:46

and literally like two minutes later I get another call.

4:49

And this is from like DoorDash headquarters. Hey, what's the deal with this package?

4:53

You know, essentially you're supposed to have this package.

4:56

And the person ended up leaving because there was no package.

4:58

And I'm like, well, I talked to that person, but there was a person who came

5:02

before and my husband dealt with it. So I don't know what's going on.

5:04

I don't know what the deal was, but I know that that person had picked up the package.

5:10

I didn't know about the text at that time and I didn't know about the person asking for him by name.

5:15

So basically I was really confused and I went in to talk to Chris

5:18

'cause Chris wasn't able to talk at that time. And I went and talked to him and I said, Hey,

5:20

what the heck is going on? What's happening? So pass the story back to you

5:24

because you then called DoorDash because you're the one who dealt

5:28

with the first quote Dasher. - Right? So I called back DoorDash from

5:34

Kim's phone 'cause we just did a return, you know,

5:37

from the phone app, found the number in history

5:40

and just returned the call. So I was talking to the person

5:43

and keep in mind we ordered breakfast earlier that day.

5:47

So there were multiple dashers that came to the house.

5:50

But I was talking to this person and I says, I wasn't able to talk to anybody

5:56

because of the fact that I was busy.

5:59

And she had mentioned something about a text

6:03

or a notification that she saw come in in the logs

6:07

that said, I am here. And it was at 8 24. I said, yeah, that sounds about right.

6:11

So I filed a complaint with DoorDash

6:13

that I basically accused them

6:16

of this Dasher stealing the package right from under me.

6:20

So to make a kind of long story short,

6:23

'cause we could probably talk about this for like three hours, and what had happened was, is later

6:28

that day I got an email from someone from DoorDash package

6:33

returns and they said, well, you know, we called the Dashers

6:37

and the dashers said that there was no package.

6:40

And I'm going on about this text, it's the only proof

6:43

that I have is this text from 8 24 in the morning.

6:47

And so I just basically laid into 'em

6:50

and said, you know, what's up with this package?

6:53

Check your timelines. Right? Somebody came to the door and I handed him off this package

6:58

and I got this text message. It wasn't a text message, sorry,

7:02

I keep saying it's a text message, but it was a notification within the DoorDash app.

7:05

So they were able to see this text message. Now the next day I felt so crummy about it

7:11

because of the fact that, you know,

7:14

I think it would've been better if he would've just stole it off the chair instead of me actually handing it to him.

7:20

Yes. Because you kind of feel violated.

7:22

- It's a different level of violation. - It is. So basically the next day we filed a police report

7:28

and they're like, would you like to press charges? And we're like, no, we just want it

7:31

as a record. And you know, - We know this guy's around here, if it happens

7:35

to somebody else, there's a report that says, oh,

7:37

it happened to these people too, right? Potentially the same person.

7:40

Obviously we couldn't really give a description to this person.

7:43

We knew it was male. Yeah. That's about all we knew. Right?

7:45

- So basically I went back and forth with DoorDash

7:50

and I gave him all the timelines. He gave him all this. He says, do you have video footage?

7:55

And I says, no, we were doing the doorbell.

7:57

So we were looking at alternatives for Ring

8:01

because we wanted to see if we wanted

8:03

to change our ecosystem from Ring to Google.

8:06

So the doorbell was dead, it was kind of on the front house still, but it didn't work.

8:11

And I said to him too, I said, we had UPS come from Amazon

8:15

to pick it up the day before we started with you guys.

8:19

I said, basically I thought they were calling me a liar

8:21

because you know, trying to get a couple hundred dollars out

8:24

of DoorDash for reimbursement for this package that was stolen.

8:28

And so I finally said to 'em at the end they says,

8:31

well here's this, this, this, this, this.

8:33

Here's the police report, here's the number

8:35

to the police station if you would like to call them and ask them.

8:38

And I said to them too, I said, exactly, why would we lie

8:41

to them when it was supposed to go back to Amazon

8:44

and we would've gotten our money back either way. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So I got this response

8:48

and he says, oh, it'll take three to five business days.

8:51

It took one business day. I got my refund back.

8:54

And they decided, I said, well I hope

8:57

that you know, you catch the person. And he says, well we're gonna do our

9:00

own internal investigation. So they must have saw something, they must know

9:03

- Either that or they just told us that. - Right. Which - Is the part

9:06

I've always worried a little bit about. Right. It doesn't - Make sense.

9:09

You hope that they don't. Yeah, right. - Because it doesn't make sense that this first person wasn't the dasher.

9:13

How else would they know your name and send you a message.

9:16

It's the only thing that makes any sense. - Right. So I did some looking up online.

9:20

Apparently this does happen. So be vigilant if you decide

9:23

to do something like that. That's why DoorDash,

9:26

they will not take anything worth more than 500 bucks.

9:29

I had to send them Amazon receipts, I had

9:32

to send them the label. So I took screenshots of the label that Amazon sent me,

9:38

what was supposed to be in the package, how much it was worth and all that stuff.

9:42

So, you know, just be vigilant on this if you're asked

9:46

to do these kinds of things. And the refund,

9:49

because I didn't buy the doorbell from DoorDash,

9:53

I bought it from Amazon. So there were two things they could have done for us.

9:57

One was DoorDash credits and the other one was a Visa gift card.

10:01

So Visa gift card isn't gonna let me put

10:04

that money back onto the credit card. Neither did the DoorDash credits,

10:08

but we opted for the DoorDash credits anyways. 'cause we

10:12

- Knew we'd use 'em eventually. Right. - So - The problem with that of course is the fact

10:16

that we still owed Amazon that money.

10:18

- Right, exactly. So you know, you're still owed them the $200, which is fine.

10:23

It is what it is. Yeah. You know, you can't return it.

10:25

It's not there. It's gone. It's, it's

10:28

- On somebody else's door. Right. Somebody in this city has our doorbell on their door.

10:32

- Right. <laugh>. - Which sucks. - Which does. But you know, you wonder why he did that.

10:39

I don't know why, - But you suspect, tell your suspicion.

10:43

- I suspect that he figured I couldn't

10:46

see him. So he'd get away with it - If you hadn't have gone out there.

10:49

I wonder if our doorbell would've installed. Interesting little thing. He also may have been able to see

10:54

and probably could that the camera was not working.

10:57

- Yeah. Because I think lights the camera on - Already.

10:59

- Lights. Right. Because I think lights come on and stuff when things are recording.

11:02

So we kinda lost that opportunity of footage.

11:05

The officers also asked us if we had footage

11:09

and we said, no we did not because blah blah blah.

11:11

He goes, yeah, no wonder why you're trying a new doorbell. - Exactly. - <laugh>.

11:15

You know, so, and you're not gonna file a police report

11:18

and lie to the police about a $200 thing. Nope.

11:21

- You know. Nope. That's gonna be on your record if you're caught doing that.

11:24

Right. So you're not gonna do that. So hopefully that was one of the things.

11:27

'cause we had talked about it. We said, should we file? Should we file? And finally he's like, I'm just gonna do it.

11:31

So he ended up calling the cops and by the time we came back

11:34

downstairs, the cops were there. 'cause this was early in the morning, the next day.

11:38

So, Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> the cop was very nice. Not patronizing at all, in spite of the circumstances.

11:42

You know, that could have been perceived as laughable to some

11:45

people. He was very nice about it. - He says, I understand why you have a camera.

11:49

I says, yeah, it's our eyeballs - <laugh>.

11:52

Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's extra important to us. And he got that. So, you know, that part was fine.

11:56

That was a pleasant experience. You know, you don't wanna have to do it.

11:59

But for what it was, it was a good experience. And yeah.

12:02

So that's our story. And you know, just be cautious

12:05

and our alternative to doing this through DoorDash in future.

12:09

'cause we're not gonna do it through DoorDash anymore. Because one of the things that you said

12:12

to them was about their GPS. - Right. I said, you know, if you don't have logs

12:18

for your drivers, you need to get logs for your drivers,

12:22

you know, for your GPS position. This guy didn't stop his car for five, 10 blocks away

12:29

and run to the house in enough time to send

12:34

that notification and then be away from his car.

12:37

It's just not gonna happen. Or you know, maybe

12:40

with his phone or something, I don't know. It's all app related I guess.

12:44

So I suppose he could have done that, but he'd be carrying his phone around in order

12:47

to hit the notification. So, but that's what I said.

12:50

And I think if we do it again, because I told the guy that I'm a little leery

12:54

of doing this again just because you know, it'll never happen again to us.

12:59

Mm-Hmm. But you know, the chance that it did is kind of,

13:03

you know, we sent her mom an iPad

13:05

and if we would've done the same thing with DoorDash

13:08

and they would've got a nice iPad, that would not have been cool.

13:12

- That would've been our stupidity for putting a thousand dollars device in a $500.

13:17

What was supposed to be a 500 package or maximum. Right.

13:20

- Maximum 500. Yeah. Yeah. So that would've been dumb.

13:23

So you just think about that every time you put something out

13:27

that you know you have no control over once it leaves your place. Mm-Hmm.

13:31

- Or your hand - <laugh>. Right. Or your hand.

13:34

So, but we just wanted to let you know,

13:37

and that's one of the reasons why in the last episode,

13:39

Kim was talking about a glow the camera. Camera. Right.

13:42

- We wanted more eyes as it were on

13:45

that front portion of our house. - Right. And the camera, if it's plugged in,

13:49

the Google cam can record 24 7. So,

13:52

- And that's what we did. We, we were actually paying for a plan.

13:54

We had to get another plan <laugh> to make sure

13:57

that we could have that 10 days of recording or whatever it is.

14:00

- Right. 10 days of 24 7 recording. So

14:04

- If we need it, we have it. Right. And to go back to what I was saying a minute ago,

14:07

what we've decided to do in future is that, is it Uber Eats?

14:11

Yes. Uber Eats has a similar one, but you get the license plate

14:15

- Right when the person's on their way to pick it up.

14:17

You get your license plate kind of like you do with Uber.

14:20

So you get the license plate, the name of the car and the type of the car.

14:23

- So that at least is a lot more to go on. Mm-Hmm.

14:26

<affirmative> should you need it. Right. So it's just a cautionary tale. It's a sad story.

14:30

Our doorbell disappeared. We were just gonna send it back to Amazon.

14:34

But I guess we learned something out of it and you know, you have to be proactive about these things

14:39

and just know that these things could happen

14:42

to you even in a safe neighborhood. - Yes. It was the money. I mean, I'm not gonna sit there

14:46

and say that we didn't want our money back. Of course we wanted our money back.

14:49

But it was more to, to get the person caught.

14:52

- Yes. It could have been anything. It could have been anything this person took.

14:56

We were grateful it wasn't some kind of sentimental thing

14:58

that we were sending off as a present. Right. Or something like that.

15:00

Something that was a treasure that somebody would get

15:02

and not even want Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and would toss it out on the street.

15:05

So it's definitely a violation. It's definitely a sad thing.

15:09

And it definitely shook us up him especially

15:11

because he gave it to the guy. Right. So, you know,

15:14

and we don't even know, the sad thing is we don't even know

15:17

the guy's first name because usually you get their first names.

15:20

I wasn't even looking at it at the time. Neither

15:22

- Was I. - And so we don't even know who he was supposed

15:24

to be. I was waiting nothing. - And what happens too with DoorDash from

15:30

what I was reading, is people can't unsign.

15:32

They can assign themselves an order and then somewhere during that order they can unsign it,

15:38

which then goes to a different dasher.

15:40

And we believe that that is exactly what the person did.

15:44

- So hopefully this is helpful to somebody <laugh>.

15:47

And we just wanted to share our story. Have you received mail, email,

15:54

or phone calls that used tactics to fill you

15:56

with fear or intimidate you? Are companies claiming you owe them money

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when you're quite sure you don't? Or that hundreds or even thousands of dollars of products

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to protect yourself starting today. So now onto something hopefully a lot more fun

18:11

and interesting to those of you who are into such things.

18:13

Let's talk about a huge event that's happening.

18:17

It's happening in various places across the US

18:19

but it's particularly huge for us.

18:22

And that is the April 8th solar eclipse,

18:25

- Right? April 8th, 2024.

18:28

- Yeah. - So why is this a big deal here?

18:31

- Because we are in what's called full totality.

18:34

There's only a little swath

18:36

and how many miles? You know the mileage, - I believe it's 67 mile wide.

18:40

- I mean that's crazy. 67 miles that's going

18:43

to be in full totality for this eclipse and we are part of that.

18:46

So we are having eclipse fever up here, <laugh>.

18:49

And it is crazy. They're letting kids outta school.

18:54

I mean people are planning where they're gonna go and what they're gonna do.

18:57

All the breweries have their eclipse bruise on tap or will.

19:01

It's gonna be wild here in a couple weeks.

19:05

We are so excited. - The thing is though, it hasn't been done in

19:09

here in 99 years. - No we don't had anything like this in 99 years

19:13

and we won't have another solar eclipse in the US

19:16

for 20 years. So we're all gonna be much older when we have the next one

19:21

and we probably won't get totality wherever we are.

19:23

So this is a huge deal. The last eclipse in 2017,

19:27

the last major solar eclipse in 2017 was cool for me.

19:31

I definitely enjoyed it and we didn't get anywhere near totality.

19:34

It was just kind of dark for a few minutes <laugh>. It was kind of cool though. But this one is gonna be a very

19:39

different experience and we've kind of prepared for this

19:42

because one thing that a lot of people don't know about us is when we first met, one

19:46

of the first really serious conversations that we had was about astronomy and what's out there

19:50

and the planets and the stars. And we discovered very quickly that it was something

19:53

that both of us really enjoyed and appreciated. So it was kind of one of the things that

19:57

brought us together all. So as a result, we are particularly looking forward to this.

20:02

We got married on the night of the height

20:04

of the per proceeds in 2021.

20:07

So you know, we love stuff like this <laugh>

20:09

and we're really looking forward to it. And there's gonna be events everywhere.

20:13

But rather than trying to go to an event, we are gonna do it here at our house.

20:17

But before we talk about that, talk about the,

20:20

and we can even link to this, Chris saw a story on NPR about a cool little box

20:25

that has been invented and tell him about that.

20:27

- Yeah. First I wanna talk about what is the path of totality. What does that mean?

20:31

- Yes, please - Do so you're just throwing her on these words and nobody understands <laugh>.

20:34

- Well that's why we're gonna tell you. - So the path of totality means it is a total eclipse.

20:40

So for about three minutes, three minutes and 18 seconds

20:44

or something like that, the moon will cover the sun.

20:47

There will be no sun at all. You will not see any sliver of sunlight.

20:51

And basically the funny thing is this starts, the moon,

20:55

starts to cover the sun at about two o'clock in the

20:58

afternoon eastern time. It goes until about four 30 eastern time.

21:03

This is at pm and about I wanna say three 17,

21:08

you got three minutes of totality where the moon will totally eclipse the sun.

21:14

So we've got ourselves a pair of glasses for the,

21:18

you know the solar eclipse. They were like seven bucks on Amazon. I

21:21

- For two - For two. And they're cardboard

21:25

but they'll protect whatever retinas we have left

21:28

- <laugh>. Yeah, - So, so

21:30

but you know you're not supposed to look into the sun

21:33

but you don't want to accidentally look into the sun. You don't wanna accidentally look up,

21:36

even in totality you don't wanna look into

21:38

where the sun would be. So we're hoping for clear skies. Yes.

21:43

- Everyone cross your fingers for sunny skies. - Well sunny and clear.

21:47

So, but this NPR going back to that, there's this little box

21:51

that was made by I believe Harvard.

21:54

And it is kind of a light detector.

21:56

So if you're outside during the eclipse,

21:59

you can actually hear the eclipse. So it makes

22:02

- Different vibrations, - It makes different vibrations,

22:04

it makes different melodies. And you only hear like a click, click, click,

22:09

click when it's in total. So when the moon is covering the sun, it's total,

22:13

there's nothing, there's no light. I don't remember the 2017 eclipse.

22:18

I remember doing it or being a part of it, but I don't remember, like Kim said

22:22

that it cooled down quite a bit and crickets came out.

22:25

It was like a whole nighttime event.

22:28

- It was like it switch flipped and it became night in a second.

22:33

It was the strangest, coolest experience

22:36

and that eclipse was in August.

22:39

So it was nice and warm

22:41

and it was just good timing, eclipse <laugh>.

22:44

And like I said, when I was there in North Carolina we

22:47

didn't get any kind of totality or anything like that,

22:49

but we still got to experience some of it, enough of it

22:51

for it to become night <laugh>. And that was just very, very cool.

22:54

It was a really fun experience. - I might try and see if I can record ambience when it goes

23:00

behind the moon to see if the sounds

23:03

and everything just changes. That would be pretty interesting audio wise.

23:07

So I'm gonna might try and do that. I don't know if that's even gonna work, but we'll see.

23:11

- Yeah, we'll have to see. They're actually, some scientists are trying to find out

23:16

and recruiting volunteers for checking experiments.

23:20

Like what kind of crickets are out and what's going on out there as terms of the soundscape.

23:24

So that's pretty cool. You can look up all kinds of things about this.

23:27

I'll try and link to a couple interesting resources. But basically what they do is they send you these little,

23:31

there's some kind of mics and they like clip onto trees

23:34

and things <laugh> and you can kind

23:36

of see what's going on out there and send that data back.

23:39

So it's very, very cool and there's a lot of excitement around this eclipse

23:44

because it's very rare. - They're expecting between 500,000 and a million people

23:51

or something to come through. - They're putting out like cautionary alerts, like you know,

23:55

unless you're watching the eclipse, don't be out there if you don't need to.

23:58

I mean it's gonna be a crazy day. So it's essentially a three day weekend for us up here

24:01

because I think a lot

24:04

of people are gonna be playing hooky just to watch the eclipse.

24:06

- Oh probably because - It's kind of a treasure. - So how do you experience an eclipse if you can't see it?

24:13

Well we just talked about the little box from NPR

24:16

- And that is available if you go to certain events.

24:18

So not everyone's gonna have a little box, but there are events in places

24:22

where the little boxes will be right

24:24

and you'll be able to experience them if you go to certain events.

24:27

But you can't guarantee obviously that your event has a box.

24:30

I don't know how many, do you remember how many they said they'd made or were distributing out?

24:34

- I don't remember. But there are quite a few

24:36

of them here in Buffalo for obvious reasons. <laugh>.

24:40

- Yeah, right, exactly. So if you're somewhere near where there's totality

24:44

- But you have to do it with an organization such

24:48

as the Buffalo Museum of Science. Yes. They're actually one of the places,

24:51

because I contacted the company and I said that's kind of cool.

24:54

They actually have a place on their website

24:57

where if you're skilled with soldering and stuff, you can actually make one of these boxes.

25:01

- Yeah, you can make your own. It tells you how to do it. - Yeah, they give you the instructions on how

25:05

to do it. So that's fun. - It's cool. I'll make sure to again, link to some

25:09

of this information for those of you who are kind

25:11

of interested in learning more about the eclipse and things.

25:14

'cause no matter where you are in the states or parts of Canada,

25:17

you should be able to enjoy parts of this - Something, right?

25:20

- Something. Yeah. And it'll pass over Mexico as well.

25:23

So I don't wanna forget any of our Mexican friends or anyone in Mexico.

25:26

You will be able to see the eclipse as well.

25:29

So you're not completely out, I'm not just talking to those

25:31

of you who are in the path of totality here. I'm talking to everybody. You can enjoy lots of it.

25:36

You know, you can still get a kick out of it and enjoy it.

25:39

So if you're into science, if this is something that interests you and you have time on

25:43

that Monday the eighth, then this can be something you can check out too.

25:46

And that takes us back to what you were saying about well if we're not going

25:50

to an event, if we don't have a box, what can we do?

25:52

Well there are a few things if you're around here

25:55

and you won't get this everywhere in the country, but if you're around here, there are certain radio stations

25:59

that will actually be doing eclipse coverage all the way through

26:02

- Live events. I'm gonna try and tune into that.

26:05

They're gonna do a description, which would be kind

26:07

of interesting to see what they would say. You know what it's doing, you know, just your Joe,

26:12

- One of particular interest is the Niagara

26:14

Frontier Radio Reading Service. They're going to be doing a two hour program.

26:18

So that could be particularly good because it's aimed for this audience.

26:22

So anyone remotely interested might want to check that out.

26:25

You can get that on your streams, you can look it up on their website,

26:28

which is NF radio reading.org.

26:32

So you can check that out if you'd like. And it might just be a matter

26:35

of recording some of this stuff. 'cause doing it all at once might be a little bit, you know,

26:40

overwhelm, trying to do all these things at the same time. <laugh>,

26:43

- Right? - So we'll have to see how we end up doing it,

26:46

but we're definitely just gonna go out and sit on our porch and enjoy the eclipse from here.

26:51

So there's the radio, right? You know you've got that option.

26:53

There'll be plenty of newspaper and television coverage as the day progresses.

26:57

Certainly. But there's another way

27:00

and this is a tool that I actually used back in 2017.

27:03

Dunno how I learned about it, but I think you probably told me about it.

27:06

I think you learned about it before I did. - I think I did. - And it's an app, so those of you

27:10

who have smartphones, either Android or iOS can check this out and it is a really cool app.

27:15

It's free and it's called Eclipse Sound Scapes.

27:18

- Yes. And there are both iOS and Android versions. Correct.

27:22

So what we're gonna do here, and apologies for the kind of sounds

27:26

- Today we're gonna show you on Android. - So we're going to, - They're very similar.

27:31

- They are. So I'm gonna go to recents

27:37

- One item active in background search button,

27:40

Google Play store, eclipse Soundscapes,

27:43

- And there it is. Activate I opened it.

27:46

- Eclipse Soundscapes walkthrough page, page one of five out of list.

27:49

Welcome. Thank you for downloading the Eclipse Soundscapes app,

27:52

A multisensory experience for people learning styles

27:54

to engage with astronomical events, singular and total solar eclipses.

27:58

Inside this app you'll find countdowns to major astronomical events in your area

28:02

and realtime narration of those events with illustrative audio descriptions.

28:05

You can also explore the cosmos with high quality photos,

28:08

educational information, and accessible learning tools.

28:11

This app is available in English and Spanish to change the language within the application.

28:16

Go to the menu Next page button, page two of five,

28:20

skip button, edge panels window edge, page two of five,

28:24

window eclipse soundscapes walkthrough rumble map.

28:27

Our rumble map tool is designed for you to hear and feel astronomical phenomena such

28:30

as eclipses using the touch screen and the speakers on your smartphone.

28:33

For example, the rumble map will display photos

28:36

of the moon passing in front of the sun during the most engaging and

28:39

educational moments of an eclipse. When you touch the image on the screen,

28:42

the app will read the gray scale value of a pixel underneath your finger and play an audio tone,

28:46

which will vibrate your phone with a strength relative to the brightness of that section.

28:49

As you move your finger onto the bright sections of the sun,

28:52

your phone will vibrate more. As you move your finger into the dark spaces blocked

28:56

by the moon's disc, the vibration will diminish and disappear by paying close attention to the audio tones

29:00

and the strength of your phone's vibration. You can learn how much sunlight is visible on each stage

29:04

of the eclipse and explore some of the fascinating features

29:06

of the sun's Corona Double. Next page, one page three of five Eclipse Center.

29:13

The Eclipse Center is your go-to destination for learning about eclipses in your area

29:17

so you can discover them as they happen. When you open the eclipse center, it will ask

29:20

to pinpoint your geographic location. Once you accept, you will find a countdown

29:24

to the next eclipse Information on whether you will experience a total or a partial solar eclipse in your area.

29:29

And the exact start time, peak time, and end time of the eclipse.

29:32

Next page button, page four of five audio descriptions.

29:37

When it is time for the next eclipse to start, you'll receive a push notification

29:40

to open eclipse soundscapes. The app will then guide you through the main event

29:43

with illustrative audio descriptions of an eclipse's most important moments.

29:47

These audio descriptions provided by the National Center

29:50

for Accessible Media are explanations of photos developed

29:52

with specialized language to help people who are blind

29:54

and visually impaired engage with an eclipse. After each audio description ends, you will have the option

29:59

to either hear more educational information or explore that feature of an eclipse using the rumble map.

30:05

Next page button, page five of five, skip bench panels.

30:10

Please allow location access, window eclipse soundscapes walkthrough.

30:13

You don't want to miss this amazing astronomical event.

30:16

We'll need access to your location to show you information about the eclipse

30:21

location permission button, not now button,

30:24

location permission button. - So I'm gonna go there. - Allow Eclipse soundscapes

30:28

to access this device's location not selected.

30:30

Approximate radio while using the app button out of left

30:34

center, eclipse center. Next eclipse info eclipse type, total solar eclipse.

30:40

Date April 8th, 2024. Countdown until next Eclipse.

30:44

Countdown until eclipse from your location. Zero years, zero months, four days, seven hours,

30:49

17 minutes, and 25 seconds. Woo. - So there you go. - Years, zero months, zero days,

30:56

11 hours, seven minutes, 17.

31:00

Next eclipse at your location. Eclipse 100.0%.

31:05

Duration of totality, three minutes and 45 seconds.

31:08

- There we go. - Event from - Closest location I was close. Start

31:11

- Partial eclipse, local time, 2 0 4 and 50 6:00 PM Universal time, 1804 and 56 seconds.

31:16

Point four. Event from closest location start

31:19

of total eclipse local time, three 18 and 19 seconds pm universal time, 19, 18 and 19 seconds.

31:24

Point two. Event from closest location maximum eclipse,

31:27

local time, three 20 and 11 seconds pm universal time, 1920 and 11 seconds.

31:32

Point two. Event from closest location, end

31:35

of total eclipse, local time, 3 22

31:37

and two seconds pm Universal time, 1922 and two seconds.

31:41

Point seven. Event from closest location, end

31:43

of partial eclipse, local time, 4 32

31:45

and five seconds pm universal time, 2032 and five seconds.

31:48

Point six. Selected center.

31:51

Tab one of four, enlist four items. - So you've got four tabs

31:55

- Features. Tab two, four, media tab three of four, menu tab four

32:00

of four panels media

32:03

- Features. So let's go to features and take a peek.

32:06

- Selected features media tab three of four.

32:09

Menu edge panels features wind annular, solar eclipse.

32:13

The annular eclipse begins two of 14, open description

32:16

of annular phase begins three of 14.

32:19

Open description of, - Let's see what this says. Annular

32:22

- Phase begins navigate up button out of line.

32:25

Annular phase begins. This image is at the phenomenon called Bailey's beads.

32:29

In this stage, the moon has moved in front of the sun.

32:31

The sunlight is reduced to a shape or crescent shining at the edge of the moon.

32:35

Bailey's beads look like a few glowing pearls

32:37

at the ends of the crescent. Bailey's beads occur because the moon surface is not smooth.

32:41

It is covered by mountains and valleys. Bailey's beads are caused by sunlight beaming

32:45

between the mountains and through the valleys on the moon. When the sun begins to peak around the moon's edge,

32:49

after Bailey's beads disappear, the annular phase begins.

32:53

Bailey's beads are named for an English astronomer named Sir Francis Bailey.

32:56

Sir Francis published his observations after seeing these bright beads of light

32:59

during the May 15th, 1836 granular solar eclipse.

33:03

And even though Sir Francis was not the first person

33:05

to observe this phenomenon, he was the first to publish his observations.

33:09

This image was taken by Tallia and sucker Pakistan.

33:12

Tala did not use a solar filter, which can be dangerous

33:15

to protect their eyes. Tala did not look into the lens.

33:18

Tala set up a camera with a telescope on a motorized mouth

33:20

that followed the sun to protect the camera lens. Tala the amount of light by setting

33:24

a very short exposure time. Visit the rumble map to explore this image

33:28

of Bailey's beads through touch and sound. The absence of light is silent and still can you feel

33:32

and hear where the sun's light creates several beads

33:35

dotted along a ring of light. This image is of the phenomenon called back recents

33:40

button showing item two. - So that gives you an idea of

33:43

what the description is going to be. There

33:45

- Are great descriptions and when the eclipse is actually going on,

33:48

you can open this app and it will walk you through

33:50

and tell you exactly what's going on. It's really cool.

33:54

Somebody worked really hard on this app and I'm so glad it's back. Yes, they did. I actually looked for it a few weeks ago

33:58

and it wasn't back in the app store. At least I couldn't find it. And then you found it

34:01

and said, Hey, here's a clip soundscape. So I'm like, hey, I was looking for that.

34:06

So I don't know why I couldn't find it the first time, but I'm really glad that I have it back on my phone.

34:10

- I was looking in my recent apps for another app

34:13

and I saw it and I was like, oh, I'll this go download it again.

34:16

- Yeah, we had both used it in 2017, which seems like a lifetime ago, <laugh>.

34:21

- So it's part of your app library if you've downloaded it

34:24

once before and it's hopefully still works,

34:26

which it does. Yeah, - Absolutely.

34:29

Now for those of you who are iOS users, you'll find this is very, very similar to

34:33

how you'll use it on iOS. You've got the tabs on the bottom

34:35

and you can just pick what is of interest to you.

34:37

You can explore the rumble map. You've got all kinds

34:40

of things in here that you can check out. And we are so glad we have it

34:43

because it's gonna be especially special for those of us

34:46

who get to be in full totality.

34:49

But definitely check it out no matter where you're gonna be,

34:51

because you can kind of wander around and see how much sun is peeping out from behind the moon.

34:55

- Exactly. - If you're into science

34:57

and you like this kind of thing, or you know others who are going to experience it

35:01

and you wanna experience it too and you wanna be able to talk about it

35:03

around the water cooler as it were, then this is definitely something

35:06

to check out Eclipse Soundscapes for iOS or Android.

35:10

And I will definitely provide a link in the show notes.

35:13

So show notes will be full of good science eclipse goodness this time.

35:17

So definitely visit mystic access podcasts.com

35:20

to check those out if you're interested. - Well, we've had some dark times <laugh>

35:27

in this podcast, probably in both stories,

35:30

but one dark is better than the other dark. - Yeah, for sure. <laugh>.

35:34

- So we will see you in a couple of weeks

35:38

and probably have something about our

35:41

experiences to talk about. It'll be fun.

35:44

- Yes. So join us then, and if you get to enjoy it, we hope you have a great time

35:49

and we'll see you in two weeks. Bye - Bye.

35:52

- And now for the blooper reel. - But we just wanted to let you know,

35:59

and that's one of the reasons why in the last episode,

36:02

Kim was talking about a Google Doorbell, or not the Google doorbell.

36:05

The The camera. Camera. Right. So what we're gonna do here,

36:11

and apologies for the kind of sounds,

36:13

but we're going to, whoops.

36:17

This is the wrong phone. We don't wanna use that phone.

36:20

- No. Today we're gonna show you on Android <laugh>.

36:25

Join us then and if you get to enjoy it,

36:28

hope you have a great experience and we'll see you in April.

36:31

Bye. Oh, what? - You were already in April.

36:35

- Oh, nevermind then. We won't see you in April. Um, we hope you have a great time

36:39

and we'll see you in two weeks. - The Proceeding podcast is a presentation of Mystic Access

36:47

where the magic is in learning. If you are blind or visually impaired

36:52

and wish to experience less stress and more fun on your unique assistive technology journey,

36:57

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