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Weaving a Tapestry: Moral and Philosophical Insights from Star Trek's The Next Generation
24 Plays7 months ago
Welcome to Episode 21 of the CodePlay Culture Podcast takes us on an interstellar journey inspired by the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Tapestry" (Season 6, Episode 15). In this episode, we dive into the profound moral, spiritual, and philosophical themes presented in 'Tapestry'. We dissect the intricate storytelling and character development that make this episode a standout in the Star Trek universe. Join us as we geek out about the finer details of the Trek lore and discuss how 'Tapestry' continues to resonate with audiences, offering timeless lessons on life's choices and second chances. Whether you're a lifelong Trekkie or a casual viewer, this discussion will deepen your appreciation for the narrative craft and enduring wisdom of Star Trek.
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Transcript
Exploring Philosophical Ideas in Star Trek
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to a co-play culture podcast on today's episode. We're inspired by the world of star trek. Uh, we explore the moral spiritual and philosophical ideas And the next generation episode tapestry which is season six episode 15 Along the way we'll touch on some of the interesting storytelling and character elements of the episode And likely we'll geek out about star trek a bit. Welcome chris. Welcome logan
00:00:23
Speaker
Going on. Hello. Not much. Not much. Same old, same old man. Beautiful Tuesday. It's going to be 15 degrees here. Weather's getting hot. Winter is hopefully finished. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. According to Pox Tony Phil. It was supposed to finish a while ago, so. Is that right? Yeah. So he's on track. Yeah.
00:00:42
Speaker
We're talking about the gopher or the yeah Seeing a shadow. I'm not works. Does anybody follow that that guy still or that guy? It's every year It's groundhog. They didn't my kids school. She's like, oh he didn't see a shadow. I'm like, okay Ever since groundhog day movie, right? It's been it's been a little more famous great movie by the way You know one of it is a great movie one of my great cultural exports apart second to Star Trek
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Great segue. Yeah, exactly.
Sci-Fi's Influence on Moral and Philosophical Frameworks
00:01:10
Speaker
So for our top three today, I was going to say, won't we each name our top three sci fi series, movies, games, anything, you know, the format doesn't really matter here that influenced your moral code or philosophical frameworks, whether it was a kid, adult, whatever. So really, you want to start us off? Yeah, for sure. I can kick it off. So my top three is Firefly.
00:01:31
Speaker
I don't know if you guys know Firefly, but it lasted one season. It's basically Western and Outer Space. Good show. But yeah, not enough episodes. Well, then they had a movie where they basically got revenge on canceling the show. Yeah, what was that? Serenity. I was going to say Trinity. Yeah, so my second one is Star Trek Deep Space Nine. For me, it's the better of all the Star Trek series. Just because of its story arc, it lasted about three seasons.
00:02:02
Speaker
Man, my number one is Babylon 5. Best sci-fi show ever. Like, it's literally light years ahead of Star Trek. No pun intended on that.
00:02:15
Speaker
Couldn't get into that one, but wow, man, you're missing out by Babylon four. I give you another shot as an adult. That's yeah. I mean, Babylon five is on my list as well. I mean, I miss it as a kid, actually, and getting to see it as an adult and just seeing it straight through.
00:02:33
Speaker
Just the character arcs, the complexity of the characters and the world building. In my mind,
Sci-Fi Shows and Career Choices
00:02:40
Speaker
one of the best. It's tops, man. Masterful storytelling. I had Star Trek as well. I mean, for me, I grew up on that original series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine. I mean, all the way through, even Voyager.
00:02:51
Speaker
Um, I actually strange new worlds is kind of like, you know, the newer, the newer series is phenomenal. So I am, I am, you know, I'm a hardcore Trekkie. So that's always been like the top for me in terms of moral and philosophical underpinnings. And my, my sneaky third pick here is C quest DSV.
00:03:08
Speaker
So it was a show from the mid-90s that really was influential to me at a critical time. I think it was really written for teenagers, people that were fans of the next generation, just in a different environment. I mean, listen, I went into the field of ocean engineering because of that show. But for me, it was lessons in mentorship, leadership. You know, Captain Bridger was somebody I, you know, it was fictional character, but I took a lot away from how he interacted with people on the show and how to be a good leader, how to deal with conflict and sacrifice and service.
00:03:37
Speaker
So there's lots of great moral underpinnings of that show, so that's why I added it to my list. But good crossover there, Rui. Logan. Yeah. Yeah. Was that like the original Sea Quest?
00:03:50
Speaker
So there was three seasons. There was two of them where it was a C-Quest DSV. And then they went C-Quest 20. They did the jumping to shark time travel nonsense. And it was C-Quest 2037. They leaned heavily on the military side with Michael Ironside and stuff. It was actually still a pretty good show. And I think one of the rare instances where you get all of a sudden a 10-year gap in the world building, and everything changed while they were gone. And actually, I have used that as fodder for a lot of my own
00:04:20
Speaker
like creative projects. Yeah. Yeah. That sort of world building what they did in that show. So it still holds a special piece, but not quite the first two seasons. Yeah. I like Sequest, the one you're talking about the first two. Yeah. I couldn't get into the third season, which is like, it's got its merits though. I think, I think, you know, having to react to a different leader, it's like, there's some good lessons in there. If you, if you really give it a shot, but, uh, top one for me for movie, sci-fi, uh, matrix, that kind of.
Impact of Sci-Fi Films on Philosophy
00:04:50
Speaker
like fueled my passion to like love sci-fi on this transformative meditative level where, Hey, let's rethink this world. You know, Elon Musk style, is it all a simulation? Like if you're always playing the game, you never know that you're playing the game kind of thing. Uh, number two, it's like books or, or games. I would say sci-fi in general.
00:05:22
Speaker
I don't know, probably just some, it's really the, who did, who did Dark Knight? What's the director's name? Luke Christopher Nolan. Yeah. So I'll say that for the third, like so many Christopher Nolan movies go in my mind, but number two would be the Alien series. That was,
00:05:46
Speaker
Unfortunately, I probably saw that a little too early for so it like registered as PTSD level. Like I shouldn't have been shown that. But then I also loved like, OK, that's a little scary, but I want to see more of it. And then the last one, probably like, you know, Interstellar or Inception, any Christopher Nolan movies that are the sci fi like Inception is crazy, like the dream level where time moves slower.
00:06:15
Speaker
Oh, man, I didn't even mention like Rick and Morty and stuff like that. I would say like that. That was just for I'm going to boot guy out of the third and I'm going to put Rick and Morty right in the third spot. Nice. Yeah. And it sounds like all those are kind of multilayered and just, you know, to bring it back, bring it sort of to the main topic.
Regrets and Life Choices in Star Trek: TNG
00:06:36
Speaker
I mean, so is Captain Picard, right? It's a very multilayered character. And this really explores not just his backstory, but, you know, this philosophical
00:06:44
Speaker
questions of, you know, what, if you could undo a decision in your past, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, every moment, like watching this episode was pretty cool. I mean, every moment of, of his life he questioned, he seemed like he regretted every moment up until the time where he died. Right. And I wonder if that's, it's like that for each and every one of us, right? Like, do we just,
00:07:12
Speaker
Accumulate guilt over the years and want to go back and wash it all away And that was that was kind of the magic of the episode saying like, you know this you're on the table now because you have an artificial heart I know we're right Don't worry about spoilers for a show that came out in the night. Yeah, exactly but you know that using that premise of like it's tied to a very specific event informative event in his life and
00:07:36
Speaker
You only get that particular choice. Although it was tied to that one event, he began to want to change everything. He approached everything with, I'm going to be a different person. I think that was one of his quotes. From now on, I'm going to be a different person, something to that effect. But he was beginning to not just avoid the fight that broke his heart, but he began to change everything and undo the past.
00:08:01
Speaker
We also had the benefit of 20, 30, you know, well, I don't even know how they gave a number, but, you know, 20 plus years of experience they bring into that moment. All right. Well, if you're time traveling. Yeah. But even I think even when you're time traveling to your own memory, right, you're bringing all the knowledge, what happened after everything you've learned since that incident to your thoughts like, I wish I could have. Well, yeah. In hindsight, it's 2020. Right. Sure. Right.
00:08:24
Speaker
I think that's the danger of even thinking that way instead of just seeing, all right, the value of what you gained through the experience, which is ultimately where he ends up, right? Are we the same person we were five minutes ago? We're a different, different person altogether, right? Yeah. Yeah. We're always like evolving and.
00:08:41
Speaker
I think it's really like a fourth dimension problem. Like, you know, where the two-dimensional creature doesn't know about the dimensions higher than them. Like if the fourth dimension is time, right? This is really like a fourth dimensional issue, right? Like if time wasn't a thing, you just like zip back and forth between baby you and, you know, grandpa you, or any permutations, you probably wouldn't regret, well,
00:09:07
Speaker
There's the, then there's a whole component of regret and self-love. Like for me, I've like worked very hard over the years of saying to myself, no, I will be confidently able to get on a soapbox right now and scream out what I did with confidence. And I stand behind that act wholeheartedly. You know, if you, if you're, if, and then putting myself in that hypothetical, metaphorical hypothetical,
00:09:34
Speaker
I'm able to confidently minimize or lower the regret. Yeah, it's funny kids regret could be high too, right? If you have kids, fuck. Yeah. Because you're like, Oh, I could spend more time with them. Oh, should have like, it's just regret is like, I've find like, even if like, we're all great dads, we're all married to great, you know, women that are, you know, great moms. But, you know, great parents have arguably more regret
00:10:04
Speaker
and not so great parents because maybe they're not so great parents might have ignorance, but they're a great man of like, oh, I could have spent more time or I could have said that nicer or I could have thought about this different, all things considered, the grass is not always greener compared to someone else. You don't know the house next to you, the relationship, and then you go and you're like, oh wow, this is way worse.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting you say it that way too, because it could just be a poignant moment, like, that makes you realize that, well, why am I doing things
The Danger of Rewriting History
00:10:36
Speaker
a certain way? Why am I making those choices on a daily basis, right? Is there something that happened in my past that makes me, you know, maybe it was something formative in our youth, or it was just something that happened to us on a physical or emotional level that makes us maybe unable to make that choice the right way? What if that thing didn't happen?
00:10:57
Speaker
Would I be more available for my kids or, you know, there's a danger in that too though. There is a danger in that. There's absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you'd be a different person sitting here right now. All right. Yeah. And that's, I think that was the cool trick of the episode too is it show, it shows you the, the life after, you know, it's.
00:11:19
Speaker
very much like a Christmas cow, right? That's kind of the old classic example of this type of storytelling where it's like, well, look what happens if you made that choice. You're now a junior science officer that's not assertive and like, all right, it's nice to have it around, but you're expendable, right? Yeah.
00:11:34
Speaker
what he said to Q or he'd rather be dead dead as the man he was than alive as the man he is. Yeah, as you had to like go through that experience to realize that though, which was, I think the part that I'm trying to avoid personally, is not have to like be shown that I shouldn't regret things. You know, I should, I should, you know, within reason go through that same experience and be like, yep, you know what, I
00:11:59
Speaker
I tried my 100% best. I am a good dad. I am a good friend. I am a good spouse. I am a good employee. I am a good, you know, you know what I mean? But it's tough. Yeah. You know, what's really interesting about this episode, I'm just kind of looking back on it now as an adult that's been through therapy and things like that, right?
00:12:22
Speaker
is that this is, Q acts as a therapist in this. It's almost like a, you know, he's got his powers and everything else, but like he kind of walks him through this whole experience, like a therapist would say, like, hmm, like
Q as a Therapist for Picard
00:12:36
Speaker
letting him make his choice, but then like making him reevaluate. And he does it through humor and things like that. It's probably Q's funniest episode, I think, just in terms of one-liners, like, ah, that really gets here, right here. Like, yeah, that's a really-
00:12:50
Speaker
But he's making his appearances through the recollection, asking kind of questions and prodding and poking, but letting him come to the realizations. There's a lot of therapeutic concepts to it. And they're not trying to do that, I don't think, with the writing. I don't think Ronald Moore, the main writer on this, that was his main intent. But that's something I just kind of took away. It's interesting how they walked him through it.
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah, we don't even know if that was really Q or that was Picard's subconscious, right? That's the mystery. Yeah, they always do a little kind of with hand wavy stuff with Q, right? Exactly. During the episode, Picard asks him if I avoid the fight, you know, what's going to happen? And he said that you're going to have your heart, your actual heart. So Picard says, so I won't die.
00:13:35
Speaker
And Q responds with, you'll die just at a later time. And Picard's face is just like smart ass. Oh yeah. I like the part when he woke up, like he like, you know what, I'm going to go back and change everything. So I'm going to sleep with that girl that I never got to sleep with. So he wakes up, he wakes up and like, he's got his armies on the side. I was like, holy crap. Like, Alpichard's a beefcake. Like he's like a buff, buff baby. He's like got
00:14:00
Speaker
huge biceps and he's got this hairy like chest like caveman style and then as soon as he sees that Q is like in the bed next to him he pulls up the bed like a little girl like he's covering like Q like this is not like your Q you know what I mean and then after they talk a bit you see he lets his guard down and then he just
00:14:21
Speaker
pulls the blanket down so exposes his hairy chest again. He's like, wait a minute, are you good with Q being in bed now? Like, it's weird. That part, I'm like, it's weird to see where mine works. I'm like, I never knew he was such like a, he had like a pretty good physique. He does, he does. Man's a good shape. He's just bald, which makes him look, you know, just slightly older. Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker
I mean, not that anything's wrong. The white hair didn't hurt. And the white hair. They say that if you have a lot of face hair and not a lot of head hair, your testosterone levels are generally so high that you lose your hair because of the DHT conversion through the scalp and miniaturization of the follicles due to that. But I'll just say that maybe I got high T levels. Well, your follicles get smaller.
00:15:15
Speaker
So things get miniaturized as, as you get, as you work out, is it just specific to your follicles? Are there any other, I don't know the exact like mechanism of like action, how it like happens, but generally if you, if you have so much DHT in your body, which is like what, you know, there's like downstream conditions of testosterone, right? But yeah, if you think about it, when you're working out and lifting heavy to heavy as cortisol increases,
00:15:44
Speaker
that will also pop out hairs because you can't vasodilate when you're stressed. You vasoconstrict when you're stressed. So if you get less blood flow to that area and it's just stress, you'll lose your hair because of stress and DHT and genetic predispositions and more. But that's why you see a lot of these bodybuilders were like, they're bald, right?
00:16:08
Speaker
It's, they weren't bald, Lou Ferrigno. I mean, I'm pretty sure they have a full head of hair. Yeah, they, yeah, exactly. Um, but there is like, you notice that like you'll see it, um, just like big beard and bald. Like some of that is like, because of the steroids and stuff that they're taking to have that kind of physique, which ultimately leads to more androgenic and DHT like kind of effects. But some people were like going that way anyways. And then because they started working on it, like it's all like,
00:16:39
Speaker
But it, it's like a, in society, it looks like not such a attractive
Humor in Character Portrayals
00:16:44
Speaker
quality. And most men don't want to have that. But if you look at like it chemically or hormone levels wise, it's much more optimal, you know, if you think about it, it's better. Yeah. So that's what happened to Picard, I guess. That's Picard. Yeah. He's got more hair in his chest than he does in his nostrils. Well, cause he was fighting Narssigans.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Narcissists or whatever. Yeah. It sounds like Nausicaa. Nausicaa from Studio Ghibli. Narcissists. Who's fucking like predators, right? Like they look like they have the predator. Yeah. The predator mouth. Yeah. What do you call it? It's like a... There are punching women in that episode, you know.
00:17:31
Speaker
I know they're aliens, so that doesn't mean they get a pass. Who's the woman? No, the woman that's hanging out with the two guys, right? Oh yeah, they could be all women. Androgynous. What was the name of the game that they were playing that was like a rip off from like billiards?
00:17:51
Speaker
Oh yeah. Dom Jot. Dom Jot. Yeah. Human. Dom Jot. I love how easy it is to mess with. Thanks buddy. The whole game can be undone by like a tiny, you know, a couple of little screwdrivers. Yeah. Like what, and then when they're underneath the table, like having their little private session and he's like, Oh yeah. Yeah. You're rigging the table. Cause you're like, you got a screwdriver in there.
00:18:17
Speaker
whatever. Show me what he actually did, like engineering wise. Props, 21st century, they still can't protect their, their games from getting hacked. Yeah, exactly. It's like, they can't, they can't foible a screwdriver. Oh, damn it. You got to just patch that server, but the guy had a hammer. Something in his belt. Yeah.
00:18:44
Speaker
What do you think? That's just a plot device, right? Yeah, absolutely. Move the plot along. Everyone in this podcast, we've all made mistakes, right? And it's like, you know, how do you take a lesson or change your life or behaviors or who you surround yourself with based on mistakes you've made in your past, right? I know I'm no stranger to it. And that's really what it's trying to teach.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine going back, like the fear of being here and not having the same people around you, you know, having like no kids or no wife or two wives or whatever, whatever the case, but this week, I had this week on polygamy. We have Logan introducing the truth seeker, the anti-illuminologist. I would honestly, would any of you guys go back and make minor?
00:19:38
Speaker
minor changes. No, they made me who I am now. You're one of the few that. I think if there's a chance that I won't get to meet my kids, I'm not going to sit on no lizard, you know, like Homer did. I wouldn't change any one thing. That would just ride it out, man. Same way I possibly would obviously go back and invest, but you know how that works, right? Yeah. Listen, if I go back to, you know, young me and smack him upside the head a little bit. Yeah. Sure. I'd take a whack, but that would change things.
00:20:07
Speaker
And you're a whole different person. Had you been like load, like go back and invest, you'd be rich today. You'd be a different person for sure. You wouldn't be sitting here on this podcast to tell you right now. That's true. I don't know. I guess we're like assuming that if you go back and change that timeline, that's the same timeline you're on.
00:20:27
Speaker
You think they're all different threads? Yeah, it's a different thread of the same friggin whatever universe thing, wherever this is contained. It's a multi-thread program. Yeah, exactly. I think Q took some of the teeth out of it too, saying, I guarantee nothing else will change only you. It's kind of like, oh, really? Yeah. I know, right? Well, that would be because, listen, they don't
00:20:50
Speaker
get specific about it, but you know, clearly the lies that everyone else that he's influenced would be different. And that's where maybe the episode falls, it falls down a little bit, where it doesn't really explore the ramifications that your decisions have on other people in their lives. Yeah. You know, Riker and Troy, the same Riker and Troy, when they have a little scene at 10 forward, but yeah, there's always so much you could fit into a 30 minute episode. Of course, of course. But saying what, what, what do you say again? What, what did you say?
00:21:16
Speaker
Well, no, he just read the start. He's just like, hey, listen, I guarantee I find there's a few. I promise you I won't. Yeah. No, nothing else will change. I'm like, well, really? Yeah, that's like pretty deep. Like maybe nothing else does change. Well, we wouldn't have to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It would be the Riker show. Oh, actually, you know what? That would be way better. Yeah. He's got a cool name.
Accepting Past Mistakes and Learning
00:21:40
Speaker
He's got a cool name. Is it? Yeah.
00:21:41
Speaker
It's like Striker from Mortal Kombat 3. It's like a cop that throws bombs. Oh, yeah. I remember Striker. Yeah. Oh, oh. I love that. I love like that. Like, oh, freaking. But I mean, like, would I give it to my kids? Hell no. Like, I can't believe that my, well, I guess. My parents had no idea, right? I'm like playing Duke Nukem, like, no idea.
00:22:08
Speaker
Time to kick ass and chew bubble gum and a load of gum. I do. I had to install that from like eight floppies. And my son's like, what are floppies? And then I'm like, it's like these. I have one on my wall, but it's a massive one from 1984. I was like, it's like this. And then you got to put in a bunch. And then you got a five and a quarter up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I don't take it down, actually. But my dad got it from.
00:22:33
Speaker
Yeah, show us your floppy, Logan. Yeah, this is stuff from 1984. Oh, geez. Nice. So that's like, this thing's huge. But that's not even a B drive, you know, like floppy B.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah. That's way bigger than floppy. Oh, yeah. That's a floppy OB, you know? Yeah. If it's like 60 KB. So yeah, my dad was like, cause he worked at CTV and he's clearing out some old media and it said 1984 on the storage media. So he went to Michael's and he always like,
00:23:10
Speaker
led with his heart, not his wallet. So he's probably ended up spending 600 bucks on the custom framing, right? But he just, yeah, exactly. It's nothing to him. It was like a special gesture, right? And then... Was this like 1984, like the story? Yeah, like what you would use. Oh, from the year 1984. What's on it though? It's not George Orwell. Okay, yeah. The one thing it says on it is,
00:23:37
Speaker
This software contains trade secrets owned by CMX, including the scenes, software routines, and logic sequencing that is made available only under the terms of a license agreement.
00:23:50
Speaker
The trade secrets may not be disclosed to anyone except in accordance with the license agreement. I have no idea. I'm going to, we're going to enjoy the emails coming. It's like source code from like all of the servers from like Bell Media and like one exec IT guy hears his podcast or like, let's get them boys. But they're like kind of slow cause they're all immediate.
00:24:11
Speaker
What's the over-under on how many weeks after we post this episode, we're going to cease and desist order. Someone raise your house. Also the SWAT team that comes in, it's like government secrets. How about a Logan? Yeah, I should probably Google that. But yeah, no, I don't have anything to play it, but I don't think that's going to protect me from the SWAT team. Whatever your equivalent is in Canada. Release the hounds. We don't have SWAT.
00:24:40
Speaker
No, but like, you know, there's like fun little hooks like that where you just make a story out of it, right? Like your dad, like, put it like, why would he frame a random disk in a frame? And really, he's part of some like crazy underground thing where you got to protect the secret for as long as possible. Well, framing and putting my kids room, it has no idea what.
00:24:56
Speaker
this thing even does or has any machine to play it. That'll keep it safe until it reveals it on a podcast. It's like, that's just the author. And you're just like the storyteller and you're like, that's how it all started. And the last time we saw him was three weeks after that show. Gone missing bits and pieces of them washed up. What did he do? Yeah.
00:25:21
Speaker
It's like damn floppies every time. I blame floppies. Just the word floppy is just so rubbery. It's like it's got low physics.
00:25:31
Speaker
You guys remember when the graphics cards were like getting popular and then they came out with a FizzX card. You had to have like a special card in your computer for physics for like floppy to make things floppy. I remember this guy, I worked at Blockbuster and there was this guy that came in. He's a cool kid. He always asked me about games. He's like, when's this game coming out? And it was like probably around then. He's like, does it have ragdoll?
00:25:56
Speaker
I'm like, why do you want all the games to have ragdoll? It's like, that was like a selling feature of like, it's like, okay, well, it's like chess. Do you want like ragdoll and chess? You know, like digital chess? Like what are the pieces just going to like, well, what are they, jello shots? Like anyways, but the one thing about the alpha card episode, I guess they're all alpha card episodes next generation, but
00:26:32
Speaker
I thought about like in secular Buddhism.
Life as a Tapestry: A Secular Buddhist View
00:26:39
Speaker
like secular meaning non-deity, right? Just practicing meditation. There was like one thing that someone said where if you're like life is crystal clear water and you've done something bad like a, so the water is synonymous to the threat, sorry, to the tapestry and the throwing in a big clump of mud and making the water a little ripply and a little dirty for a bit will eventually diffuse and the dirt is like synonymous for a threat.
00:27:08
Speaker
But as that thread gets woven into a tapestry of whatever, it just still goes back to pristine clear, right? You have to literally be dumping tons of toxic ooze every day, like mobster-like.
00:27:24
Speaker
you know, get rid of the bodies every day in order to muddy your pristine, clear tapestry. But I like, I love that idea that the thing was even called tapestry. Yeah. All those threads added up. Like what threads are we weaving today in our tapestries that will pave the way for no regrets when we're older, you know? Yeah.
00:27:51
Speaker
or regrets. I mean, it's, you know, water water is going to find its level, right? Even the mud example, right? The mud is now in different places. The waters technically does change, but it will find its level, right? Yeah. For me, it always comes down to that principle of just making this self your best self and just, you know, seeing, seeing the, seeing the wisdom and lessons from your past and either not creating, you know, not recreating them or reinforcing that. Yeah. When I do that, that thing happens and it's made me a better person. So I should either double down on that or
00:28:20
Speaker
use that and combine it with something else that happened and to, into taking steps forward to wherever I want to be in that moment. Yeah. You know, just as he, just as he couldn't foresee, you know, the impact of his decisions when he was an impetuous 20 year old or 21 year old, they got out of the academy, but Trek, you should know that I guess, but from a screenwriter perspective, definitely I think upped things a notch with bottles. He went on to become one of the leads in Battlestar Galactica. And I think, you know, these sort of questions, the moral question is sure, but I think these,
00:28:50
Speaker
You know, one incident can just change someone's path, right? I mean, that was the core thread through the show. I mean, it isn't a lot of shows cause and effect, but I think in terms of like understanding characters' backstory through key events was a big tenet through that show.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was definitely a good episode. I mean, there were a couple, um, a couple of interesting episodes that were closely related. And one of them was, was where they live. They put like 20 years of memory into his brain over a span of like, you know, 20 minutes. However, some alien technology did that. Right. So the whole, the whole life timing. Yeah. Yeah. Right. We had that really cool hair, which is like came up to here. It was like all, you know, um,
00:29:36
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just putting in these notes here to hopefully those translate. Oh, right. Yeah, man. Yeah, there are a lot of that's that's the one thing with with story arc shows, you may not get these different ideas, different episodes, right? The story arc is basically an obviously one continuous story, but all these little like random episodes are. I know what you'd call them, anthologies, no, because anthology would mean that they're all separate stories altogether, right?
00:30:09
Speaker
Right. Yeah, Chris, right. Sorry, say that again. That was pretty deep. I think Chris was like at 50% capacity and he said something transformative and then like Chris is like, wait a minute. When you have a show that has episodes, it's episodic show and every episode is different. It's not an anthology, right? An anthology would be a different story with different characters per episode, kind of like Black Mirror. That's an anthology.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah, usually, usually the collection of stories based on a specific theme or, you know, bound in the same volume of some kind. Right. But they're not not related to each other in any way. Well, or it could be same offer or same thematic. Right. The stories about floods and things like that. But right. See a lot of science fiction anthologies. But yeah, I mean, they're good. I mean, Matrix had an anthology, right? The Matrix animation.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yes, I love those animatrix. That's right animatrix. That's exactly it. Yeah matrix. Yeah, it was pretty good, right? Yep Yeah, I mean it's yeah, there's a there's a term for episodic especially in television Yeah, i'm trying to figure out what that term is, but I can't can't think of it off the top of my head Yeah, maybe there's a standalone episodes but yeah Yeah, yeah, so um guys
00:31:29
Speaker
You got to take one captain with you on a journey through space. One of these Star Trek captains. Oh, sorry. What is that? 37. I was going to say Captain Crunch and you're like Star Trek. If you're on a desert island, there's no way. If you want to take Captain Crunch, man, be my guest. You could take whoever you like.
00:31:53
Speaker
But give him a hard rap. Real quick, that episode you were talking about, Rui, I had to look at the title, The Inner Light from season five. OK. Good episode, man. Good episode. Yeah, great one. Sorry. I had to. Yeah. Was gnawing at you. Was gnawing at me. So you have to take one, Captain Logan. You're with Crunch. Crunch, is that your final take, or you want to take one of the Star Trek captains? He has to be Star Trek. Maybe the girl from Voyager. The girl? Jane Way. The lady? Yeah.
00:32:23
Speaker
I mean, I'm not going with a dude. Like it's just, it's a desert island. We're talking about tanning and coconuts and just sunburns. I don't know. I'm not bringing bald hairy chest man, even though he's very, his physique is desirable in my eyes. And, uh, I wouldn't take, I don't know anyone else from next generation or from deep space nine. I mean, I don't know. Maybe it's going bad though. Yeah. That's a, that's a tough question about the desert island.
00:32:53
Speaker
You know what? I'm going to have to go with Logan, man. I'm going to take Janeway.
00:32:57
Speaker
I'm taking Jayway, man. You're right. I called dibs first. You can have the lower half 35 minutes, 15 seconds. It's like, we got a splitter. I'm not splitting Jayway, man. You know what? I'll just, we'll give you like wharf, like when you were dressed up as a girl, but yeah, it's fine.
00:33:28
Speaker
I don't know like the Captain Pike from Strange New Worlds is a from it or now. There's only two seasons in so it's a little bit time for that one. I'm a huge fan of Anson Mount, the actor generally from his Hell on Wheels show way back in the day.
00:33:44
Speaker
Just great acting, but also just in terms of how the character is written. And listen, it benefits from 20, 30 years now, this modern episodic television where there's threads that weave through seasons. So he's the beneficiary of the road that Picard and Janeway and all the other Cisco all forged for him. He pays homage to it tonight. So I think it's kind of like the epitome of what it means to be a captain. So that's why I picked that one, but nice. With deference to the classics in the past. Yeah.
00:34:13
Speaker
All right. So you got, uh, you got Pike on board and Logan and I are sharing Janeway. Yeah. So we're, uh, I see, I see where this is headed. So feature complete. So why don't we move on to the on our shelves section? Cause this is getting weird. So on our shelves, this is the lower half of the captain from Voyager. We all know that Logan is coding right now.
00:34:42
Speaker
The lower half. The lower deck. Which is great. Actually, if you like Rick and Morty, the lower deck show is Star
SEO Tactics and Programming
00:34:50
Speaker
Trek. Oh, yeah. Right. It's really good. Oh, Scotty. It's it's legit worth watching. It's like the IT crowd, but like Star Trek. Yeah. No, it's of that elk. It's Rick and Morty, Star Trek. Yeah. What are you coding?
00:35:07
Speaker
You were learning about C sharp and stuff, Chris, but like, what are you, uh, Oh, right, right now, right now we've got a couple upcoming trade shows. So, you know, we, we'd have created a touchscreen set up, uh, using HTML and a portable Kia laptop, you know, with some help, obviously, but now I got to basically take that from a joint project and just make it for, uh, for my company for an upcoming show. So just light HTML coding while I'm on a plane. Yeah. And, um, How about you?
00:35:36
Speaker
Me, right now I'm actually learning about SEO. So I'm trying to learn some SEO tactics to weave into my code and my projects to kind of get up there on the Google ranking list in the search engines. It's been pretty interesting and it's working out pretty good. I have to say, yeah, it's quite the challenge, but it's nice to see your projects kind of ranking up
00:36:06
Speaker
And then going up that ladder for sure. So that's what I've been up to, man. Yeah. Like a programmer's mind on that because I believe historically SEO is predominantly dominated by marketing people.
00:36:23
Speaker
So having like a, I'm going to program SEO, like it's, you know, that's, it'd be interesting to see what you did. Like I know some of what you did and I never, like I'm pretty in tune with this stuff. You know, I had no idea how much you could boost like just by doing some stuff I never heard of, right?
00:36:42
Speaker
And it's a YouTube video loop, like rabbit hole. If you go to, if you type in SEO, it's like best like moisturizer for your face on YouTube. It's like, forget about it. Everyone's an expert. You're done. Yeah. And there's so many misconceptions, right? Like, you know, with the, the analytics and the search console, like none of that really matters, right? It's just, most of them don't know how to program properly. Yeah. Yep.
00:37:07
Speaker
They just want YouTube links. Top five ways the booster has to go. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. One, put down this video and just run outside and tell people about your product. Number two, the video turns off. Who's in front of a Ferrari. Start a fake argument with the person in public. Yeah. And the camera like zooms in on the guy going, yeah. I am. What am I coding?
00:37:34
Speaker
coding the world's first 100% free serverless Azure website in Blazor. So there's no cost end to end. And it's all free, like for life. It's a nice little loophole that if
00:37:57
Speaker
Properly advertised will be swiftly plugged by Mr. Gates and team, but pretty awesome. Yeah, that's good. Cool. So what are we all playing these days? Why don't you log in? Bring it back in reverse. Yeah, I'm trying to get Final Fantasy rebirth set like Final Fantasy seven rebirth and
00:38:26
Speaker
Snake Eater Remastered.
Anticipation for Upcoming Games
00:38:28
Speaker
I forget what it's called, but... Wait, did you get Rebirth? No. Like, I'm gonna go and get it, but I'm like waiting to like, hey, Ruby, you want to go and we'll pick one up from...
00:38:45
Speaker
that game store that's near water depth. But I just want to get the snake eater remaster too, because the kids don't really have a depth of like, they they've seen death stranding. Yeah. How crazy that is with the day of Kojima, but they haven't seen like a really good metal gear. Right. So really excited about, about that one. So.
00:39:11
Speaker
Well, listen, if you're if you're going to go to that place, let me know if you want to grab lunch, we can stop at that that game place. Yeah. I'm a free ad. Hey, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm totally fine with unpaid ads, man. Yeah, for sure. Like what's the name of that place again? Game Haven. Yes. Game Haven on Brant Street in Burlington, Ontario. Yes. Super helpful, enthusiastic owner employees. Every time I go in there, I feel like
00:39:41
Speaker
Imagine the first time you go into like an EB games or game stop or micro play without the fear of being sold a membership when you're checking out. Um, it's that true, like, Oh my God, I'm at home. I can finally talk to someone about everything. It's like having a best friend as a store owner that you just, you know, and then you leave and you're like, Oh, I want to spend more time there. That's game even. It's like, I hope that place never goes the way of micro play and all this like,
00:40:09
Speaker
You know, they're, they're strong in like, you know, it's a halfway point for Ruby and I to meet, you know, so it's like built in and watered down the Burlington. Just bring, just bring cash because they do not take credit card or debit, um, which is unfortunate. Yeah. But at the same time, it's good.
00:40:28
Speaker
I remember we were in the parking lot and then, um, I was like holding a door for someone or they're saying hi to someone. And Ruby is like a good friend. It's like, Logan, just come with me. Like he's like holding my hands. Like, because it's like a weird little, weird little neighborhood is like, he's protecting me. He's like, Logan, don't talk to that person. You know, like that guy's like,
00:40:48
Speaker
Oh, I want to speak to her. I'm not sure if you guys seen Smiling Friends. It's like a cartoon like Rick and Morty. But like the whole world is like bleak. And it's like a horror funny cartoon where there's this one guy that's just like, oh, hello, everybody. I love you so much. And then basically his friends are like, get away from him. They're like murderers. But I'm not saying that those people were. It was just like they were pretty shifty. And I didn't realize that until I really pulled me away. It's like,
00:41:16
Speaker
So friends are for my keys when I'm sober, but the game store is definitely worth it. Right next to the pizza pizza, potentially arsenic or arsenic, arsenic that happened to the Tim Hortons right beside there. All right. Fun times in Burlington. How about you? What are you playing? What am I playing right now? What game did I play recently on my PS5? I cannot think of it. Oh, it's called chicken horse.
00:41:47
Speaker
Chicken Horse. Unexpected? Yeah. Just making stuff up? No, man, it's called Chicken Horse, I swear. Oh, no, it's Meatball Turtles. It's like Bald or Gate. Goodness. No, it's definitely Chicken Horse, man. Now I got to look it up because now... I want to play Meatball Turtles. So it's called Ultimate Chicken Horse. Yes, it's on PlayStation. We're going to play it next time.
00:42:10
Speaker
Yeah. Ultimate chicken. Kids were asking about when you're going to come over, Rui, because they have some Skylanders for your kiddo and they wanted to play more four player, like PS5, PS4 games. Oh, I have tons of those games, man. They were like, why does Rui always have like the multiplayer cool games? But dad, you just have like dark souls. I'm like, because I'm sad. Close the door, mom. My favorite was always Tower Fall Ascension. Oh, Tower Fall, man. Love that, dude. Such a good game.
00:42:40
Speaker
Is it like online like can you play online? I don't play you man Have it on ps4 But I need to play it on ps5 if you have one No, I don't I'm only you don't have console. Well, I have switch. Okay, which
00:42:55
Speaker
Speaking of which, I finally beat Tears of the Kingdom over the weekend. Oh, nice. I finally decided I've had enough. I will finish the game. Nice. And it was so disappointing. Oh, no. From a story perspective, it was like you kind of knew how the story was going to end. But I love the game. Don't get me wrong. But I just blew right through it. I brought the whole game. I brought everything ready to go. I needed half of it. It was just like, pew, pew, pew, pew.
00:43:22
Speaker
Literally took me minutes. I was like this. That is kind of a shame. It was not an epic final. No, no, no, no. It was a phenomenal sequel. Like the story was beautiful. Like it was, I mean, 180 almost two or two hundred hours of gameplay. It was, it was definitely value. It was just the ending boss. A Ganondorf just sucked. It's just totally under like the lead up to him was better than like fighting him like this is lame. And I don't know. Yeah. So would you play it again?
00:43:48
Speaker
Well, I mean, you play through the whole thing. It's the open world. If they made a third game in the world, I would totally go dive right back in. That'd be a different engine, though. Well, it might be on the Switch 2 or something, right? Yeah. Whatever that is. Which apparently is coming. I know it's like they're always speculative. There's whole people make channels on speculation of the Switch 2. But I think it's coming this Christmas. It's just going to be, I don't know, better.
00:44:16
Speaker
I say for, for a couple hours a week, you know, bedtimes, things like that. We're just trying to, you know, I wasn't investing heavily into it and just took a long time, but it was, it was fun and rewarding, but kind of happy.
Mindfulness Meditation Challenges
00:44:25
Speaker
I can move on to something else. Have you guys ever seen DAX? D A X Samsung DAX. It's like a desktop environment. Yes. Yeah. Have you like, have you used it? I tried to use it. It was slow. Okay. I'm not sure what it's like now. There's no steam console too, right? Like a handheld steam. Yeah. That's Linux or something.
00:44:45
Speaker
Honestly, like I like the idea of like you have a phone, you dock it and boom, you're on a computer, you bring it with like the device, like fruit salad, like of the world, you got your iPad, you got your laptop, you got your, but like, I know people want to separate work from personal sometimes, but like,
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think the switch, it'd be cool if you could dock it and be on PC. The whole docking thing is super cool, like dock. Yeah, so what I'm culturing lately, just to close out the talk. Yeah, nice segue there.
00:45:27
Speaker
fell off the map a little bit for mindfulness meditation over the past like five years. And past couple nights, I've been very diligent about going down to the basement, having, you know, no screens, just listening to the sounds. Like when a thought arises, just give it the space, but don't engage with it and letting it fade away. It is incredibly hard. It's like trying to do bicep curls with like
00:45:53
Speaker
I don't know, a feeble old, you know, dilapidated body, right? Yeah, exactly. It just, it's frustrating. It's like, you know, when you're tired from your muscles lifting, it's like the feeling of frustration, but you can't try. So imagine like trying to do something and trying to do nothing at the same time. It's like a tree falling in the woods, like zen koan.
00:46:20
Speaker
That's where for me, the morning tends to be easier because you can kind of, you know, work that muscle before it gets overworked during the day. And then yes, exactly. I always fall at the night where you try to bring it back, right? Yep. What about you, Chris?
00:46:33
Speaker
So I'm very excited because Cal Newport's new book, Slow Productivity came out. I mean, a lot of people have heard about this, came in the mail this week. So it is coming with me on my business trip. I'll probably finish it on that trip, but I'm very much looking forward to it. I mean, I'm a huge fan of his podcast, Deep Work, all this previous book. So pump for this one. Because it kind of resonates where I am right now. So it's getting all sorts of good press. I'm going to get that right now because I have a credit on Audible.
Concluding Thoughts on Mistakes and Loss
00:47:02
Speaker
I, you know, I skateboard, I listen to eBooks and go for walks and stuff, but. And, um, all right, guys, well, it's time to wrap up this episode. Uh, I want to thank everybody for being here. Thank you for taking, um, a journey with us through this thread of time. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Logan, for joining me as you do every week. And in the words of captain Picard, it's possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. See everybody.
00:47:32
Speaker
See ya. See ya.