April 17, 2025 • 23 mins
We celebrate Dan's birthday with a bag of fun, and talk about one of the first ways to instantly message people: AIM! From funny user names, to sad sappy away messages, Brady and Dan go in depth about the way we communicated in the late 90's and early 2000's. We also learned, someone on the podcast has literally written and produced an absolute banger for a crush lol. Enjoy! k
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throw your fake id's away. We are at twenty almost
one more year, one year off.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
One more time. I'll look back on all things nineties
and two thousands, the movies. If you can dodge your wrench,
you can dodge your ball, the music, the awkwardness. So
answer your question.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Aha, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Welcome into a trip down memory lane.
It's usually a foggy trip. That lane is foggy for
the most part. But we like to bring back memories.
We like to get nostalgic. It is the Brady One
More Time Podcast. I'm the Brady part on radio stations
across the country. My glasses it half full, it is
(00:51):
not is overflowing.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And we will not say what is in that glass
right now? You're not with me today. He is the
kickball King. What happy National Kickball Day.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is that today? Wow? How are you not celebrating? How
are we not playing kickball? I'm out here. Do you
take the rest of the show and again.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Uh, And he is here to help us through the podcast.
But a very important day, very important week because it
is his birthday week. My friend Danimal aka Dana Kanna
aka dan Ken's.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Burn forree tomorrow. You you got to say your your
number on the air bro. Today's my last day in
my early forties.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You gotta start, You gotta like you leave that all behind,
don't don't we're look I mean, we're not looking forward
in that regards, but we don't want we don't want
to remind ourselves. So but anyways, per tradition, before we
get started, it's not if you call him random, I
call him some of your favorite things that you love
(01:52):
that I did not get from downstairs at the Art
convenience store located here on Michigan Avenue. I spent a
lot of time and money scoured the globe on these,
on these gifts.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So here, why don't you go ahead, I'm saying, we've
we've got videos. You've got video, Yeah, in my live
react you can just and you can describe to people
what they are. They I'm to look. Yeah, first, the
first thing, what do you got? What is it? We
have advising red eye hydrating comfort. I will say I
took zir tech for the first time today because we're
getting close to allergy season. So this is one of
(02:23):
your favorite change my life. Thank you some one of
your favorite things Okay, we know how much I love
not having red eyes. Rubber bands. These look like the
ones you put in your braces when you're a teenager.
These are the little one you don't. Ponytails and braids
your favorite things to do with your hair. See if
you're watching how much hair I've got? So next week
(02:44):
this is gonna Oh you left the price tag on here?
I know you spent a dollar ninety nine on this.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Damn I was gonna have you guess how much going
to be. We're gonna play prices right after, so ignore
the price tags on them.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I didn't see that one. Okay, all right, some of yours? Oh,
there's a lot more. I told you.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I spent a lot of time in the different places
ear rings stand there, earrings for pierced ears, Yes, and
what does the bag call them?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Nothing? There's literally no words on the bag. There is
a price. Why what are they?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I thought they had a name there in the fashion
section of your favorite store that you like to get
gifts from.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, what else you got in there? How am I doing? Oh? Well,
nail clippers, my tail? My toenails are getting long. I
knew season is coming up. You love being at the beach. Yeah,
and oh god, it's the fancy, luxurious kind that has
this thing that I don't know what it does or
what it's called. You're not allowed in an airplane with it.
But oh, there's one more. There's one more, my favorite one,
(03:54):
I think. Yeah, long boys, coconut. Uh, this is candy.
You're acting like you've never seen it before. It's one
of your favorite things. Hold on, maybe it'll come back
to me. Looks like a slim gym? Is it all?
That's you're gonna have to go to the dentist. Dan
is taking a bite of his well. Good thing is
(04:15):
if they have to give me embraces, I have rubber
bands ready to go. Well, happy birthday, my friend. I'm
I am so touched. I mean to get five presents? Now?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Does it beat the one year? I think I brought
you a pickle and a bag and a condom.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, there were there were a few other things. Those
are the only two I remember. This is better. The
pickle in the bag was the most disgusting thing I've
ever eaten in my life. It was not meant to
be eaten. It was meant to laugh at you. No.
At some point I tried it. It was like a
shelf stable like it was not a refrigerated pickle as
a self shelf stable pickle in a bag. Yeah, it was.
You have to take a day off any birthday place,
(04:53):
you know. I can't. I wish I could make your
your feud party.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, but I can. I'm going to be in Vegas unfortunately.
So I love going to that party. People who are
missing it are missing it because of Easter. You're missing
it for a much more important reason.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So Mania weekend. Yeah you excited, so excited. No, I'm
doing the part. I'm excited to go to Vegas for wrestle.
May dumb question. Yeah, but no, your parties Tomorrow night,
party Tomorrow night, and they gonna go get dim sum
and bubble Tea in Chinatown on Sunday, which I always
loved it. I'm a big, big Chinatown fan. Love to
get there my birthday weekend every year. And I mean
the biggest thing is it's supposed to be like eighty
(05:26):
and sunny here tomorrow, like random one day of summer,
and tomorrow's your actual birth Tomorrow's my actual birthday. So hopeful, hopefully,
if work cooperates, they can clock out a little early
and get.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Some seer yet I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
now we're going to get into it. This is our
twentieth podcast. You've been talking about wanting to do something
like this for a minute, and I think that's the
perfect time to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
We did. We did a MySpace.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yes, we did a Napster and I think this is
kind of this is before that era, but it's right
around the same time frame, so we're going like late nineties,
early two thousands, and it actually lasted just a brief history,
started in ninety four all the way till till twenty
seventeen is when they finally uhocked.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
When I saw it lasted that long.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Right at The topic today is America Online Instant Messenger,
or as the kids called it AIM.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yep, it was AIM, so AIM if you want Dan
to just kind of quickly describe it for just a refresh, yeah,
or maybe there's younger listeners that are like, what the
F is AIM? I mean it was basically it was
an instant messenger service, which so you were basically sending
direct messages to people or groups of people. So it
was like, you know, not that different than a group
(06:38):
thread or an individual text thread. But texting wasn't a
thing when Ame was around. You could only only call people. Yeah,
and being online all the time wasn't a thing. One
of the big things. I'm sure you heard the sound
effect in the intro, but one of the big things
was you'd hear that door open sound when one of
your friends came online, and the door closed sound when
they came offline. You ran over the computer like, who
(06:59):
is it? Oh, that's not how I want. It wasn't
my crush, it was just that annoying friend. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So basically it was kind of the first text message
really if you talk, if you think about it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean there was there was older like primitive
like compu serve and old text based chat rooms, but
this was the first, like mass pop culture, like every
one of our generation got into it at a certain point.
It was the first real, big, mass way to digitally
communicate on your computer.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Now I have a really juicy story about we'll get
into that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's called the Tease.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
We'll get into that a little bit of it. But
for me, thinking about AIM, it made me a little depressing.
And the reason why is because number one, I was
too poor to buy a computer, so so in college
I had to use my roommates computers, so whenever he
like left, whenever you like, because if you leave, you
don't know if you're on it or not. So I
had to log them out and then I took over
(07:55):
and then I started. You know, So that there's that
part and then every other memory when thinking about it,
about this topic today reminds me of like relationships that
have failed.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, because there's always a drama. I have. I have
a heartbreak AIM story for me too after that. Yeah,
so no, I I it was not another heart drama,
but yeah, yeah, no, I mean there was. That was
where people gossip. That's where where it was where people
talked about their crushes and talked to their crushes and
often maybe asked out their crushes or confessed feelings for
(08:27):
their crushes. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
That's a good point because prior to this it was
either the old fashioned way you asked them out face
to face on the phone or maybe a note.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
This is going going elementary like noe to be.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right notes in middle school probably oh yeah, yah, middle
school actualddle school was the was the time time. So yeah,
so AIM started in nineteen ninety four really picked up
like late nineties, though, I want to say, like ninety
nine was was peakyar.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I think that's about right.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Between then and the early two thousands, it was significantly
popular with massive user base at up to fifty two
percent of instant message market share, so I guess there's others,
but so it owned half of that. And the best
part about this whole experience of having AIM was your
user name.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah. I was gonna say that was a big decision.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That you had to like define yourself, right, because you
wanted people to know it can't just be you know,
Michael Schabowski.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Won, Like that's mine was and mine was boring. Mine
was just Dan G eighty two. And that's how it
became my email and my Facebook user name and my everything. Wow,
I know you just did the plane, James. I had
personality in my away messages, which we'll we'll talk about.
But how old were you when when you when you
started like an account. Probably fifteen sixteen, Okay, so I'm
(09:46):
a little bit older. So mine would have been in college. Yeah,
so that makes no I definitely used it in high school.
But in high school again, it was it was a
very different high school versus college. AIM experience for me
in high school. You know, you had your friend's list
and you got really excited when they come online because
they had to connect to dial up internet and then
you'd get the notification they were there. And then when
you get to college, there's like wired internet in the
(10:09):
dorms and people just left their computers on. You would
talk to your friends in the dorm down the hall.
You'd have a group chat for your floor, and then
individual chats with individual people. It was it was like
a weird time. Yeah, so you'd have conversations. We got
that part.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
You can you can add people, you can find people.
You can you talk to your crushes, like you said,
but you could talk to strangers too. Could sometimes you'd
find people.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
What would you do? Just search for like randoms, find
things on like journals and blogs on the internet, or
group like groups of people with shared interests. I never
got that deep.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, I kept it in my circle actually my college
I username by the way, before we get yeah mikey
one d MB Dave Matthews.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, so I want everybody to know. I want everybody
to know this is who this is who.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm this is who I'm going to be and uh,
and that leads me into the away message, because there
were a lot of Dave Matthews quotes.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yes everybody, So an away message for those who did
not use AIM. When you stepped away from your computer,
you could set up, you know, basically a status that
it would display whatever you wanted it to display, so
that when your status went from online to away, you'd
see some message. And I believe when you walked away
(11:28):
and it was idle and you didn't leave a message,
wouldn't it like show it like a time, like a
number of like a number of minutes. I think. So
as far as like how long you've been away? I
know there was the like famous, like iconic, like the
little running Man logo when you were online, and then
that turned into I don't remember exactly what the away
logo looked like.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But another sad memory Carrie e Wald. She was out
there doing She was my she was like my junior
year girlfriend for like three months, and she was out
doing not good things. And I kept on checking, I
kept touch checking her. Is she bad issue back yet? No?
What is going on around here? And there's no way message?
So then the next day, sure we broke up. And
(12:07):
then my first away message is a very sad, like
sappy and break my heart.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like it was the first.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It was like the first cryptic like messaging that was that,
you know, we're on Twitter, so it'd just be like
feeling sad or like something in my fields that wasn't
a thing. But yeah, yeah, Away messages with the best.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
This conversation is giving me some self context for why
my when I see my Facebook memories from early early Facebook,
why they're so cringey. Yeah, because that's this was where
it started, was with aim Like in those times, Yeah,
we were so melodramatic about everything. Do you ever see that?
Did you delete those at some point or do you
ever see those? Like when I look at my Facebook memories,
(12:47):
I will see things from like the mid two thousands,
there's like, what in the hell was I thinking sharing
these thoughts with every single person who was friends with me?
You know what I did? I did a good scrub. Yeah,
I think I think.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I think I think it was the right decision because,
let's face it, immaturity plus different times where humor was
way different, Right, there's some of that, And I was like,
I don't want I don't want people to think this,
you know, so no, I think my oldest history. I
think my oldest history is probably like twenty twenty ten. Yeah,
(13:23):
so at that point I'm kind of an adult. But yeah,
so we get the away messages.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
You got the lingo too. Yeah, the b RB L
O L T T y L it began. Yeah, I
mean some of it again might have started in these
old primitive but this was where it became mainstream. Like
this is where everyone learned be right back and laughing
out loud and all these things.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
My favorite away message to sign off the last three
the last three words, hit the cell, going to the beach.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, but hit the cell, man, hit the actually call
me on my cell phone, not text me. Hit the cell.
Oh my god, I bet you.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
There's a lot of people watching and listening right now
that remember their names, and I think this is what
we should ask them to do, is to let us
know what their names were.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I but you know, there's a lot of like XO XO,
mame or like you know, Gator Boy with an eight
and s K eight E R B O I yeah,
because that was that era.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
And what's funny is whenever on the radio and I
take contest winners every so often I have to have
to get their email address. Every so often they'll drop
like a like a two thousands email, like justin Timberlake
girl g r L and I just l O L
yeah at that.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But uh, yeah, I would love to know. I would
love to know the your your userer was it using
screen name? Your screen screen name? Yeah, that's what Yeah,
you also had Again, I don't know that that aim
necessarily created it, but it was definitely where first you've
had your first mainstream example of knowing when someone was typing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, is there there was there was there?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, something like that, like you knew you you can
really mess with people that way. Yeah, yeah, de or
you could go offline or go away, and then you
could you know, you could change your status. There was
a whole not relationship status no no, no, no no, like
change your status from being available to away to offline.
(15:24):
It was It was a great technology to launch us
into basically social media and texting, but also for us
specifically because of our age group, it was a lot
of drama surrounding it was what was your heartbreak story?
Oh man, So we've we've talked before about how I
was extremely, extremely shy with with the ladies. When I
(15:48):
was younger, I had a crush on this girl, uh
for like the last two years of high school, and
I never got up the nerve to tell her until
And this, I feel like was another hallmark of the
Aim generation is late night chats till four or five,
six in the morning. Totally. I had this probably I
(16:09):
don't know, like a month before going off to college.
I had this long chat with her where I confessed
that I had had had had a crush on her
for two years. Okay, there was even a song that
I had written about my feelings for her that I shared,
what are you Doing? And as it turned out, she
(16:32):
had liked me the whole time, and she confessed that
to me too, And we ended up up until like
probably ten in the morning the next day. Like I
didn't slee I was an all nighter. I really wanted
to to. I hadn't. I hadn't ever had like a real,
actual post middle school I don't want to say adult
but real relationship period at that point I wanted to
(16:54):
pursue it. She was much smarter than me, and we
were both going off to different college is on opposite
ends of the country. And yeah, but you got the
whole summer.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Man.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
No, it was you're describing it, You're describing American pie. Well,
now you're making my argument and I'm making her argument.
So she wisely cut that off. But it was it
was a really tough I remember I had to go
to work at the deli of the grocery store at
like noon the next day. I hadn't slept the entire night.
I had confessed my love, found out she liked me too,
(17:23):
only to not want to date me anymore. And that
was a rough week. Most important question asking you on
the podcast up to this point is, Okay, what was
the name of the song? It was called Walk with Me? Okay,
I did you? Just?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Was Mandy Moore the inspiration, probably along with all of
the other music at that time.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
If you really wanna want to laugh, oh, play I
have the MP three somewhere. I mean I made friends
hold on time out. Okay, you wrote a song us
Did you record it? Yeah? You sang it. I had
a keyboard and music software, and I with the keyboard,
I did the guitar. There was guitar, there was drums.
(18:10):
There was like a piano solo of guitar solo, and
I sang wow, I've made CDs. I wrote two songs
ever in my life, both in high school, and I
released a well, I made a single. I burned CDs
that just have these two tracks on them, and I
made some graphic and you know how you could like
print out the size of the CD. I like made
(18:35):
CD singles for my friends that I passed out to
them at school. Oh my this is it had walk
with Me and it had now the Memories. My other
song which just to like raise the dorkiness a hundred times.
The other one was about my love of and memories
from band camp. The second the second single, the follow
(18:55):
us the following. It really took my music career to
New Heights.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Only we knew somebody that worked in radio that could
play these on the air.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
The audio exists. I still have it, dude, we need
to do yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I need
to hear Dan Ginsburg walk with Me. It was just
something memory now the memories. Now the man. We can
sing that I'm here because it's not property property. Okay. Yeah,
I was gonna sing you Happy Birthday, but I can't.
(19:26):
I thought that one Happy birthdays, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I just didn't want to sing Actually, to be honest
with you, happy Birthday is the most overrated song of
all time because when you're singing it to the person
that's their birthday, they're like, hurry up and get this.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah yeah, what about the happy birthday birthday to you? No? No, no,
But anyways, okay, I wanted to hear you sing that one.
But that's okay. I'm impressed. I learn I learned. I
learned something today. I learned that you that is impressive
for you to sit down and write a song. And
when when's your next music meeting? I'm going to pitch
these two singles for were we so we stopped doing that,
(20:02):
so we're not gonna so you're gonna have to wait
on that. How what's your label? Bro? Self? Label self?
I'm independent and independent. That's great, man, I love that.
So I want to hear yours.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
This is this is how I believe receipts began. Okay,
So best friend from high school goes to different college
dating a girl we hated, sucked she was she's not
not not a good person.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We'll just say that we being like the whole group
of friends, but did not like war.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Anyways, she proved that point when she logged on to
Aim started having a conversation with old Brady over here
while they're dating.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh yeah, and roommate in dorm with me. And I'm like,
I'm gonna play along with this and then and then
and then show my other friend. So we did. And
I called him and I didn't tell her. Yeah whatever,
called him. I was like, you got to come over here.
His his college appened to just be like twenty minutes. Okay,
So he comes over.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
We printed it because I don't like, I don't even
think you could adopt matrix printer with it.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It took forever.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, so now I have I have a paper copy
so that that way he can take it and he
can show her right like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh wow yeah okay, So it was just like the
front of a trend right there, Like that's a literal receipt.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, people have receipts now phones. Yeah, screenshots. But yeah,
so that ended that relationship. So you know, he's married
and with kids, happy family, So it all worked out.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
But man, that was if you hadn't if it weren't
for Aim, he might have married that monster.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, and he and he might have not also gotten
mad very mad. He was very angry that night, not
with me. Yeah, but he uh yeah, so that's my
that is my AIM story. So did he read it?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
He was like, you know, you played along for a while,
but you don't have to get that. What do you
what are these details? Why are you now?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You're having now you're having aim sex.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That was a thing too, That was a thing. I
didn't do that. I don't think I did that.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I think my first kind of non traditional getting it
on was was probably sexting. That was probably my first
because I don't know, I felt. I guess I felt
maybe it's always because I had to remain around or something.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I don't know. But anyways, very cool. Yeah, I love it. Man. Well, hey,
we want to know.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
What your uh what your aim screen name was, so
drop it on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
When we post this are on YouTube, I want to
hear away messages to your most dramatic away message, maybe
a song lyric.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Maybe you found Dan's song and that was your way
message somehow, some way. Next time we'll try and get
Dan to uh maybe perform live for us.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, we'll get the band together. Spoiler alert, The band
is me.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
All right, man, So do all the things follow like subscribe.
Is there anything I missed?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What else? That's that's the things you share shared.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, Sharon's carrying Sharon's car and have an awesome birthday.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Thank you. We'll miss you, but I appreciate the gifts
that will last me a lifetime. Don't lose those rubber
bands are very expensive. All right, We'll talk to you
next time. Later
Throw your fake id's away. We are at twenty almost
one more year, one year off.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
One more time. I'll look back on all things nineties
and two thousands, the movies. If you can dodge your wrench,
you can dodge your ball, the music, the awkwardness. So
answer your question.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Aha, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Welcome into a trip down memory lane.
It's usually a foggy trip. That lane is foggy for
the most part. But we like to bring back memories.
We like to get nostalgic. It is the Brady One
More Time Podcast. I'm the Brady part on radio stations
across the country. My glasses it half full, it is
(00:51):
not is overflowing.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
And we will not say what is in that glass
right now? You're not with me today. He is the
kickball King. What happy National Kickball Day.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is that today? Wow? How are you not celebrating? How
are we not playing kickball? I'm out here. Do you
take the rest of the show and again.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Uh, And he is here to help us through the podcast.
But a very important day, very important week because it
is his birthday week. My friend Danimal aka Dana Kanna
aka dan Ken's.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Burn forree tomorrow. You you got to say your your
number on the air bro. Today's my last day in
my early forties.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You gotta start, You gotta like you leave that all behind,
don't don't we're look I mean, we're not looking forward
in that regards, but we don't want we don't want
to remind ourselves. So but anyways, per tradition, before we
get started, it's not if you call him random, I
call him some of your favorite things that you love
(01:52):
that I did not get from downstairs at the Art
convenience store located here on Michigan Avenue. I spent a
lot of time and money scoured the globe on these,
on these gifts.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So here, why don't you go ahead, I'm saying, we've
we've got videos. You've got video, Yeah, in my live
react you can just and you can describe to people
what they are. They I'm to look. Yeah, first, the
first thing, what do you got? What is it? We
have advising red eye hydrating comfort. I will say I
took zir tech for the first time today because we're
getting close to allergy season. So this is one of
(02:23):
your favorite change my life. Thank you some one of
your favorite things Okay, we know how much I love
not having red eyes. Rubber bands. These look like the
ones you put in your braces when you're a teenager.
These are the little one you don't. Ponytails and braids
your favorite things to do with your hair. See if
you're watching how much hair I've got? So next week
(02:44):
this is gonna Oh you left the price tag on here?
I know you spent a dollar ninety nine on this.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Damn I was gonna have you guess how much going
to be. We're gonna play prices right after, so ignore
the price tags on them.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I didn't see that one. Okay, all right, some of yours? Oh,
there's a lot more. I told you.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I spent a lot of time in the different places
ear rings stand there, earrings for pierced ears, Yes, and
what does the bag call them?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Nothing? There's literally no words on the bag. There is
a price. Why what are they?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I thought they had a name there in the fashion
section of your favorite store that you like to get
gifts from.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Okay, what else you got in there? How am I doing? Oh? Well,
nail clippers, my tail? My toenails are getting long. I
knew season is coming up. You love being at the beach. Yeah,
and oh god, it's the fancy, luxurious kind that has
this thing that I don't know what it does or
what it's called. You're not allowed in an airplane with it.
But oh, there's one more. There's one more, my favorite one,
(03:54):
I think. Yeah, long boys, coconut. Uh, this is candy.
You're acting like you've never seen it before. It's one
of your favorite things. Hold on, maybe it'll come back
to me. Looks like a slim gym? Is it all?
That's you're gonna have to go to the dentist. Dan
is taking a bite of his well. Good thing is
(04:15):
if they have to give me embraces, I have rubber
bands ready to go. Well, happy birthday, my friend. I'm
I am so touched. I mean to get five presents? Now?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Does it beat the one year? I think I brought
you a pickle and a bag and a condom.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, there were there were a few other things. Those
are the only two I remember. This is better. The
pickle in the bag was the most disgusting thing I've
ever eaten in my life. It was not meant to
be eaten. It was meant to laugh at you. No.
At some point I tried it. It was like a
shelf stable like it was not a refrigerated pickle as
a self shelf stable pickle in a bag. Yeah, it was.
You have to take a day off any birthday place,
(04:53):
you know. I can't. I wish I could make your
your feud party.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, but I can. I'm going to be in Vegas unfortunately.
So I love going to that party. People who are
missing it are missing it because of Easter. You're missing
it for a much more important reason.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So Mania weekend. Yeah you excited, so excited. No, I'm
doing the part. I'm excited to go to Vegas for wrestle.
May dumb question. Yeah, but no, your parties Tomorrow night,
party Tomorrow night, and they gonna go get dim sum
and bubble Tea in Chinatown on Sunday, which I always
loved it. I'm a big, big Chinatown fan. Love to
get there my birthday weekend every year. And I mean
the biggest thing is it's supposed to be like eighty
(05:26):
and sunny here tomorrow, like random one day of summer,
and tomorrow's your actual birth Tomorrow's my actual birthday. So hopeful, hopefully,
if work cooperates, they can clock out a little early
and get.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Some seer yet I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So
now we're going to get into it. This is our
twentieth podcast. You've been talking about wanting to do something
like this for a minute, and I think that's the
perfect time to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
We did. We did a MySpace.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yes, we did a Napster and I think this is
kind of this is before that era, but it's right
around the same time frame, so we're going like late nineties,
early two thousands, and it actually lasted just a brief history,
started in ninety four all the way till till twenty
seventeen is when they finally uhocked.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
When I saw it lasted that long.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Right at The topic today is America Online Instant Messenger,
or as the kids called it AIM.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yep, it was AIM, so AIM if you want Dan
to just kind of quickly describe it for just a refresh, yeah,
or maybe there's younger listeners that are like, what the
F is AIM? I mean it was basically it was
an instant messenger service, which so you were basically sending
direct messages to people or groups of people. So it
was like, you know, not that different than a group
(06:38):
thread or an individual text thread. But texting wasn't a
thing when Ame was around. You could only only call people. Yeah,
and being online all the time wasn't a thing. One
of the big things. I'm sure you heard the sound
effect in the intro, but one of the big things
was you'd hear that door open sound when one of
your friends came online, and the door closed sound when
they came offline. You ran over the computer like, who
(06:59):
is it? Oh, that's not how I want. It wasn't
my crush, it was just that annoying friend. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So basically it was kind of the first text message
really if you talk, if you think about it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean there was there was older like primitive
like compu serve and old text based chat rooms, but
this was the first, like mass pop culture, like every
one of our generation got into it at a certain point.
It was the first real, big, mass way to digitally
communicate on your computer.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Now I have a really juicy story about we'll get
into that.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's called the Tease.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
We'll get into that a little bit of it. But
for me, thinking about AIM, it made me a little depressing.
And the reason why is because number one, I was
too poor to buy a computer, so so in college
I had to use my roommates computers, so whenever he
like left, whenever you like, because if you leave, you
don't know if you're on it or not. So I
had to log them out and then I took over
(07:55):
and then I started. You know, So that there's that
part and then every other memory when thinking about it,
about this topic today reminds me of like relationships that
have failed.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, because there's always a drama. I have. I have
a heartbreak AIM story for me too after that. Yeah,
so no, I I it was not another heart drama,
but yeah, yeah, no, I mean there was. That was
where people gossip. That's where where it was where people
talked about their crushes and talked to their crushes and
often maybe asked out their crushes or confessed feelings for
(08:27):
their crushes. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
That's a good point because prior to this it was
either the old fashioned way you asked them out face
to face on the phone or maybe a note.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
This is going going elementary like noe to be.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Right notes in middle school probably oh yeah, yah, middle
school actualddle school was the was the time time. So yeah,
so AIM started in nineteen ninety four really picked up
like late nineties, though, I want to say, like ninety
nine was was peakyar.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I think that's about right.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Between then and the early two thousands, it was significantly
popular with massive user base at up to fifty two
percent of instant message market share, so I guess there's others,
but so it owned half of that. And the best
part about this whole experience of having AIM was your
user name.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah. I was gonna say that was a big decision.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
That you had to like define yourself, right, because you
wanted people to know it can't just be you know,
Michael Schabowski.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Won, Like that's mine was and mine was boring. Mine
was just Dan G eighty two. And that's how it
became my email and my Facebook user name and my everything. Wow,
I know you just did the plane, James. I had
personality in my away messages, which we'll we'll talk about.
But how old were you when when you when you
started like an account. Probably fifteen sixteen, Okay, so I'm
(09:46):
a little bit older. So mine would have been in college. Yeah,
so that makes no I definitely used it in high school.
But in high school again, it was it was a
very different high school versus college. AIM experience for me
in high school. You know, you had your friend's list
and you got really excited when they come online because
they had to connect to dial up internet and then
you'd get the notification they were there. And then when
you get to college, there's like wired internet in the
(10:09):
dorms and people just left their computers on. You would
talk to your friends in the dorm down the hall.
You'd have a group chat for your floor, and then
individual chats with individual people. It was it was like
a weird time. Yeah, so you'd have conversations. We got
that part.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
You can you can add people, you can find people.
You can you talk to your crushes, like you said,
but you could talk to strangers too. Could sometimes you'd
find people.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
What would you do? Just search for like randoms, find
things on like journals and blogs on the internet, or
group like groups of people with shared interests. I never
got that deep.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, I kept it in my circle actually my college
I username by the way, before we get yeah mikey
one d MB Dave Matthews.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, so I want everybody to know. I want everybody
to know this is who this is who.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm this is who I'm going to be and uh,
and that leads me into the away message, because there
were a lot of Dave Matthews quotes.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yes everybody, So an away message for those who did
not use AIM. When you stepped away from your computer,
you could set up, you know, basically a status that
it would display whatever you wanted it to display, so
that when your status went from online to away, you'd
see some message. And I believe when you walked away
(11:28):
and it was idle and you didn't leave a message,
wouldn't it like show it like a time, like a
number of like a number of minutes. I think. So
as far as like how long you've been away? I
know there was the like famous, like iconic, like the
little running Man logo when you were online, and then
that turned into I don't remember exactly what the away
logo looked like.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But another sad memory Carrie e Wald. She was out
there doing She was my she was like my junior
year girlfriend for like three months, and she was out
doing not good things. And I kept on checking, I
kept touch checking her. Is she bad issue back yet? No?
What is going on around here? And there's no way message?
So then the next day, sure we broke up. And
(12:07):
then my first away message is a very sad, like
sappy and break my heart.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like it was the first.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It was like the first cryptic like messaging that was that,
you know, we're on Twitter, so it'd just be like
feeling sad or like something in my fields that wasn't
a thing. But yeah, yeah, Away messages with the best.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
This conversation is giving me some self context for why
my when I see my Facebook memories from early early Facebook,
why they're so cringey. Yeah, because that's this was where
it started, was with aim Like in those times, Yeah,
we were so melodramatic about everything. Do you ever see that?
Did you delete those at some point or do you
ever see those? Like when I look at my Facebook memories,
(12:47):
I will see things from like the mid two thousands,
there's like, what in the hell was I thinking sharing
these thoughts with every single person who was friends with me?
You know what I did? I did a good scrub. Yeah,
I think I think.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I think I think it was the right decision because,
let's face it, immaturity plus different times where humor was
way different, Right, there's some of that, And I was like,
I don't want I don't want people to think this,
you know, so no, I think my oldest history. I
think my oldest history is probably like twenty twenty ten. Yeah,
(13:23):
so at that point I'm kind of an adult. But yeah,
so we get the away messages.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
You got the lingo too. Yeah, the b RB L
O L T T y L it began. Yeah, I
mean some of it again might have started in these
old primitive but this was where it became mainstream. Like
this is where everyone learned be right back and laughing
out loud and all these things.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
My favorite away message to sign off the last three
the last three words, hit the cell, going to the beach.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, but hit the cell, man, hit the actually call
me on my cell phone, not text me. Hit the cell.
Oh my god, I bet you.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
There's a lot of people watching and listening right now
that remember their names, and I think this is what
we should ask them to do, is to let us
know what their names were.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I but you know, there's a lot of like XO XO,
mame or like you know, Gator Boy with an eight
and s K eight E R B O I yeah,
because that was that era.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
And what's funny is whenever on the radio and I
take contest winners every so often I have to have
to get their email address. Every so often they'll drop
like a like a two thousands email, like justin Timberlake
girl g r L and I just l O L
yeah at that.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But uh, yeah, I would love to know. I would
love to know the your your userer was it using
screen name? Your screen screen name? Yeah, that's what Yeah,
you also had Again, I don't know that that aim
necessarily created it, but it was definitely where first you've
had your first mainstream example of knowing when someone was typing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh, is there there was there was there?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, something like that, like you knew you you can
really mess with people that way. Yeah, yeah, de or
you could go offline or go away, and then you
could you know, you could change your status. There was
a whole not relationship status no no, no, no no, like
change your status from being available to away to offline.
(15:24):
It was It was a great technology to launch us
into basically social media and texting, but also for us
specifically because of our age group, it was a lot
of drama surrounding it was what was your heartbreak story?
Oh man, So we've we've talked before about how I
was extremely, extremely shy with with the ladies. When I
(15:48):
was younger, I had a crush on this girl, uh
for like the last two years of high school, and
I never got up the nerve to tell her until
And this, I feel like was another hallmark of the
Aim generation is late night chats till four or five,
six in the morning. Totally. I had this probably I
(16:09):
don't know, like a month before going off to college.
I had this long chat with her where I confessed
that I had had had had a crush on her
for two years. Okay, there was even a song that
I had written about my feelings for her that I shared,
what are you Doing? And as it turned out, she
(16:32):
had liked me the whole time, and she confessed that
to me too, And we ended up up until like
probably ten in the morning the next day. Like I
didn't slee I was an all nighter. I really wanted
to to. I hadn't. I hadn't ever had like a real,
actual post middle school I don't want to say adult
but real relationship period at that point I wanted to
(16:54):
pursue it. She was much smarter than me, and we
were both going off to different college is on opposite
ends of the country. And yeah, but you got the
whole summer.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Man.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
No, it was you're describing it, You're describing American pie. Well,
now you're making my argument and I'm making her argument.
So she wisely cut that off. But it was it
was a really tough I remember I had to go
to work at the deli of the grocery store at
like noon the next day. I hadn't slept the entire night.
I had confessed my love, found out she liked me too,
(17:23):
only to not want to date me anymore. And that
was a rough week. Most important question asking you on
the podcast up to this point is, Okay, what was
the name of the song? It was called Walk with Me? Okay,
I did you? Just?
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Was Mandy Moore the inspiration, probably along with all of
the other music at that time.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
If you really wanna want to laugh, oh, play I
have the MP three somewhere. I mean I made friends
hold on time out. Okay, you wrote a song us
Did you record it? Yeah? You sang it. I had
a keyboard and music software, and I with the keyboard,
I did the guitar. There was guitar, there was drums.
(18:10):
There was like a piano solo of guitar solo, and
I sang wow, I've made CDs. I wrote two songs
ever in my life, both in high school, and I
released a well, I made a single. I burned CDs
that just have these two tracks on them, and I
made some graphic and you know how you could like
print out the size of the CD. I like made
(18:35):
CD singles for my friends that I passed out to
them at school. Oh my this is it had walk
with Me and it had now the Memories. My other
song which just to like raise the dorkiness a hundred times.
The other one was about my love of and memories
from band camp. The second the second single, the follow
(18:55):
us the following. It really took my music career to
New Heights.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Only we knew somebody that worked in radio that could
play these on the air.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
The audio exists. I still have it, dude, we need
to do yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I need
to hear Dan Ginsburg walk with Me. It was just
something memory now the memories. Now the man. We can
sing that I'm here because it's not property property. Okay. Yeah,
I was gonna sing you Happy Birthday, but I can't.
(19:26):
I thought that one Happy birthdays, okay.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I just didn't want to sing Actually, to be honest
with you, happy Birthday is the most overrated song of
all time because when you're singing it to the person
that's their birthday, they're like, hurry up and get this.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah yeah, what about the happy birthday birthday to you? No? No, no,
But anyways, okay, I wanted to hear you sing that one.
But that's okay. I'm impressed. I learn I learned. I
learned something today. I learned that you that is impressive
for you to sit down and write a song. And
when when's your next music meeting? I'm going to pitch
these two singles for were we so we stopped doing that,
(20:02):
so we're not gonna so you're gonna have to wait
on that. How what's your label? Bro? Self? Label self?
I'm independent and independent. That's great, man, I love that.
So I want to hear yours.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
This is this is how I believe receipts began. Okay,
So best friend from high school goes to different college
dating a girl we hated, sucked she was she's not
not not a good person.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We'll just say that we being like the whole group
of friends, but did not like war.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Anyways, she proved that point when she logged on to
Aim started having a conversation with old Brady over here
while they're dating.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh yeah, and roommate in dorm with me. And I'm like,
I'm gonna play along with this and then and then
and then show my other friend. So we did. And
I called him and I didn't tell her. Yeah whatever,
called him. I was like, you got to come over here.
His his college appened to just be like twenty minutes. Okay,
So he comes over.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
We printed it because I don't like, I don't even
think you could adopt matrix printer with it.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
It took forever.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, so now I have I have a paper copy
so that that way he can take it and he
can show her right like that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Oh wow yeah okay, So it was just like the
front of a trend right there, Like that's a literal receipt.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, people have receipts now phones. Yeah, screenshots. But yeah,
so that ended that relationship. So you know, he's married
and with kids, happy family, So it all worked out.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
But man, that was if you hadn't if it weren't
for Aim, he might have married that monster.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, and he and he might have not also gotten
mad very mad. He was very angry that night, not
with me. Yeah, but he uh yeah, so that's my
that is my AIM story. So did he read it?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
He was like, you know, you played along for a while,
but you don't have to get that. What do you
what are these details? Why are you now?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You're having now you're having aim sex.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That was a thing too, That was a thing. I
didn't do that. I don't think I did that.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I think my first kind of non traditional getting it
on was was probably sexting. That was probably my first
because I don't know, I felt. I guess I felt
maybe it's always because I had to remain around or something.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I don't know. But anyways, very cool. Yeah, I love it. Man. Well, hey,
we want to know.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
What your uh what your aim screen name was, so
drop it on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
When we post this are on YouTube, I want to
hear away messages to your most dramatic away message, maybe
a song lyric.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Maybe you found Dan's song and that was your way
message somehow, some way. Next time we'll try and get
Dan to uh maybe perform live for us.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, we'll get the band together. Spoiler alert, The band
is me.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
All right, man, So do all the things follow like subscribe.
Is there anything I missed?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What else? That's that's the things you share shared.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, Sharon's carrying Sharon's car and have an awesome birthday.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Thank you. We'll miss you, but I appreciate the gifts
that will last me a lifetime. Don't lose those rubber
bands are very expensive. All right, We'll talk to you
next time. Later
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