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Episode 257: The Lucky 7th Anniversary filled with 777s
110 Plays11 days ago
Welcome back to the Goblin Lore Podcast and the celebration of 7 years of doing this show (first episode was posted 6/18/2018). The goblins gather to celebrate 7 years for the podcast in the only way we know how.... kind of controlled chaos. All of the hosts separately chose 7... things(?) to talk about that are important to them. This episode is kind of long because there was a fair amount of cheating going on.
Also please stay around until the end of the episode for an announcement from Hobbes as well as information on some side project he will have around Suicide Prevention. He is running the Twin Cities Marathon to raise awareness and funds
We also finally have a Linktree with all of our discounts/resources
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
Recommended
Transcript
Welcome and Celebration
00:00:00
Speaker
are
00:00:08
Speaker
are are
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to the Goblin Lore Podcast. All three hosts are here today, and we are 10 seconds in, and I correctly identified the show, called people Podwalkers, and...
00:00:45
Speaker
Denoted that all three of us are here. So only things you've had seven years worth of practice for seven. years Wait, Alex, what are you saying? I what I'm saying is this is our seven year anniversary.
00:00:58
Speaker
ah Seven year anniversary. It is. i did not expect that would be words I would ever be saying. Yeah. Like, I'm not going to lie, but that is wild to me.
00:01:12
Speaker
ah And who me for those of you turning in for our seventh anniversary extravaganza, is Hobbs Q. ah My pronouns are he, him. I can be found on the interwebs everywhere as Hobbs Q. And i brought a question without even talking to my hosts.
00:01:30
Speaker
Of course I did. Which is, what is your favorite intro question that you have ever answered on the Goblin Lord podcast? Oh, good. One that requires um yeah one earth requires a lot of thought. Thanks a lot, Hobbs. You're welcome.
00:01:45
Speaker
You know, see, for me, I would just go with whatever one came to my mind first and turn that into my favorite. Which is what I'm going to do. No, actually, my favorite ah all-time question is just the, what are you doing for self-care?
00:02:00
Speaker
That's why I went first. um Our guess standard question when we have no other idea of what question to ask that week. Yeah, how it gives us cobs to go first and take that option off.
00:02:12
Speaker
Correct. And... Notice my use of the word and it is also still one of my favorite because I do think that it's important for us to be thinking about just just ways that we are practicing self-care.
00:02:27
Speaker
It is. And that imp impulses is not an important is not large enough to prevent us from giving you a hard time. Oh, God, no. If so, this would be a very boring episode.
00:02:39
Speaker
So, yes, other people who are talking. Who are you? Sure.
Introducing Alex and Anecdotes
00:02:44
Speaker
i'm alex phone ah in the discord. No, you love being able to say that. Oh, it's so nice.
00:02:52
Speaker
But it's such a habit still because like it's what everybody says. That's what we've always said in the opening of our podcast. It's just how people talk on the Internet sometimes. Right. And so I launch into the found and I go,
00:03:03
Speaker
Nowhere. Nowhere. Quiet corner with a few of my friends. um That's it's fantastic. And no, this isn't just me vamping, trying to remember a single opening question that wasn't already taken. um if You can't. That's fine. I just decided to spring it very last minute because I thought it would be hilarious. It is hilarious. My pronouns are he, him, and I'm still confused.
00:03:30
Speaker
By just life? no No, sorry. I don't know why I said confused. I just but thrown for a loop by this. No, why i am confused is why i am so confused by this whole thing. I should have seen you prepared to do to throw us for a loop. And, uh,
00:03:50
Speaker
I don't know.
Magic: The Gathering Highlights
00:03:51
Speaker
I'm just going to default. I assume at some point we answered we asked a question where I could say Floodgate, so I'm just going to say Floodgate. Because that's what my default answer for a lot of magic-related questions.
00:04:03
Speaker
You know, but me i feel like we do we we i feel like we have had. I am We definitely gotten that as an answer before. Okay.
00:04:14
Speaker
um I'm sure it's probably on like, what is your flight favorite flavor text? Yeah, I believe, may be wrong, but I believe we that this was my answer to the first opening question on our first episode from Joel.
00:04:29
Speaker
that Wasn't that like, what's your favorite piece of like garbage lore or something in in magic? Or garbage, can't remember how he worded it, but... Yeah, I'm going with the card but Floodgate. I'm going to read this card to explain why for people who haven't heard me talk about it. I've talked about it a bunch, if you have not heard me talk about it, this also gives ah the our other host some time to think.
00:04:50
Speaker
um Because I am trying to be a friendly goblin and not a mean goblin. And not Hobbs. And not a Hobbs goblin. So Floodgate is a a wall for three and a blue, 0-5 with Defender.
00:05:05
Speaker
um The text says, when Floodgate has flying, sacrifice it. When Floodgate leaves the battlefield, it deals damage to each non-blue creature without flying, equal to half the number of islands you control rounded down.
00:05:19
Speaker
The flavor text, quick, Rorik, teach me to swim, is attributed to Makut, Goblin Casualty. There is nothing about this card that I don't completely love.
00:05:31
Speaker
It has perfect, beautiful flavor. It has wonderful mechanics that also match the flavor of it because it is literally just a barrier keeping water back. It is a dam.
00:05:45
Speaker
And so if you give it flying, it lifts into the air, becomes useless. You have to sacrifice it. And then all the water, based on how many islands you have, comes crashing down, killing all of your non-blue creatures without flying. Because if you fly, you get over the water. If you're blue, you probably swim.
00:06:03
Speaker
i love this card. It also has fantastic Jeff Miracola art of some goblins running away from a crashing dam that they're not going to escape. They might.
00:06:14
Speaker
You don't know that. At least one of them didn't because the attribution tax to goblin casualties suggests it very strongly. That's also one of my favorite jobs that goblin has ever been given.
00:06:29
Speaker
Casualty? Apparently. Is that a job? oh Probably not. State of being? State of being. That's a good way to say So, hey, I'm Taya. Taya transcends on blue sky. Pronouns are she, her, are they, them?
00:06:45
Speaker
And I was going to ask, or the question I was going to say is, what's your favorite flavor text? Because I know we've asked that one at least once, or variations of it, like what's your favorite goblin flavor text? We have.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yes. I actually think both of those have been done. Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you remember an answer or do you, what is your favorite flavor text off the top of your head? It depends on what day it is. ah So,
00:07:11
Speaker
um you know, and right now you're trying to put me on the spot to think of one and my mind is just going blank. Which is what typically happens. i mean, yeah.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah. Or just good or or just a good one I always like ah the double-edged sword. It's a sword with two edges. What is it? The one that is like you were never alone.
00:07:45
Speaker
ah oh Dominaria. Yeah. Angel. Dominaria Angel, right? I'm trying to find it right now, but... You were not alone. You never were. Yeah, you're that's that's it. Lyra.
00:07:59
Speaker
Lyra. Lyra. That's on Lyra. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's on Lyra. That, which is a very, very good one. Excellent flavor text. Yeah. I always tend to fall back on the the funny ones. Cause that's just my, yeah. My, my next thought was goblin offensive.
00:08:15
Speaker
They certainly are. We still have never, I have still never been able to get a copy of that card in another language to see what was done. that's right. I remember that's right. We talked still like bothers me. I have, I have kept an eye out for a Spanish version.
00:08:29
Speaker
For many years. That's that's cool. yeah that That would be cool. but yeah yeah There's so many good ones. so yeah yeah and We have done an episode on Goblin Flavor Text.
00:08:42
Speaker
We have. There's so many good ones. That was our first ever listener-inspired one. Which I believe was from you, right, Taya? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was.
00:08:56
Speaker
i was i yeah it was and That was what was funny is we couldn't even narrow it down. To just that. So, well, anyway, we are here. we are here for our.
00:09:13
Speaker
Seventh. Seventh episode. Well, seventh year of episodes. Seventh anniversary episode. ah Not just seven episodes, I guess.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah. So we did decide we we took a while. We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for the seventh anniversary. um We've marked anniversaries in various ways, um which it involves everything from well plan out asking people to record like snippets for us of of of things that they're up to, like former guests to.
00:09:48
Speaker
Oh, crap. We passed another year of making episodes. So we've run the gamut. um And Alex suggested a theme inspired by some something I've never
Exploring Hobbies and Interests
00:10:02
Speaker
heard of, Alex. What was this again? so the the The triple seven thing, which shows up with some prominence in in Final Fantasies as a theme.
00:10:11
Speaker
It's also a slot machine thing. And it goes back to gambling and slot machines. It's been around for a long time. Yeah, seven has been considered a lucky number in cultures for a long I just like that when you brought it up, it went straight to.
00:10:29
Speaker
Well, I mentioned Final Fantasy because it's the it's the currently. and So it's like, ah, we don't have to make it about that, but we can say, hey, we're slightly we are we are referencing things that are our current and relevant.
00:10:45
Speaker
But let's be talking about that. Let's be fair. There is no way we were getting through this episode without continuing. True. You and Taya's descent into Final Fantasy-ness. Yeah, the set's out now. we have You can actually play it. I did get to i played it pre-release for the first time since AFR.
00:11:07
Speaker
whoo ah I still had the AFR cards in my limited... My limited pack box that I bring to limited games with me so I could tell it's the last time I actually played a pre-release.
00:11:22
Speaker
Well, I think I might have done one for, I think I did one for the Baldur's Gate Commander one, but i probably bought a different deck box since that was Commander. Yeah. Didn't bring my usual limited one.
00:11:33
Speaker
but But for your just like, for an actual like main set. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Wow. That is, I mean, that that shows you it got you out to do a pre-release.
00:11:44
Speaker
or race Yeah. How was the set for for those that have played with it? It's a lot of fun. i ah Sealed is my least favorite format. I'd rather play anything but Sealed, pretty much, and I still had a good time playing it I enjoyed it. I got to go to a pre-release and if you're a member of the Goblin Lord Discord, you get to see a picture of me holding a buster sword that a friend that my friend made that he brought to the pre-release that we went to um that is maybe taller than me.
00:12:17
Speaker
it was ah It was a really good Buster Sword. I would bet the Buster Sword card I just ordered cost more than that Buster Sword prop did. Did you order the, like... but The fancy art one, yes. Yeah, okay. It's gone up like $25 since pre-release. I was like, oh I'll wait for a release weekend to grab one because prices always go down. Not on that card.
00:12:39
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, I picked up two Vivis. Nice. Because you're the problem, Hobbs, and you always are. Two Vivis and one Final Fantasy IX. That is true.
00:12:53
Speaker
I hope that I'm able to play that on my Switch 2 when it comes. and to continue you being the problem, I have that Sephiroth for you too, because the last thing you need is a way to drain more life in your Slimefoot and Squee deck.
00:13:07
Speaker
I mean, you know, emblems are cool. I like emblems.
00:13:13
Speaker
So we are here to list the seven ways in which Hobbes is the problem. but Like you each get separate seven. yeah yeah
00:13:27
Speaker
No, we decided to do. Seven. Of anything. Yeah. We have not shared what those things are. we we each have our own list of seven.
00:13:38
Speaker
We do not know what is on each other's list. We do not know what each other's list is. Only that it is seven items long. We know that the the number seven it is involved. And that Alex has already cheated.
00:13:52
Speaker
By saying that he had something really clever and funny he wanted to do but ran out of time, but would still share what that was, which just feels like getting an extra thing in. but which is Which is funny because part of the theme of that list would have also given me an extra item.
00:14:10
Speaker
I figured it was going like the seven times... This is perfect for an anniversary episode. the Yes, because yes, Alex always cheats at these things. Yes, yes I do.
00:14:21
Speaker
um And often like the opening questions that I think of and then don't answer straight. Correct. Like you come up with a question for us and then absolutely don't even come close to answering it. That would have been a good list, which I didn't do and wasn't an idea. And I had until right now, but was my seven favorite times that I didn't answer the question. But no what what I wanted to do was um one of like a favorite or highlight thing from each of the years we did the podcast. Oh, yeah. that was seven
00:14:56
Speaker
Seven years long because we started in the middle of the year. That's actually amazing. eight calendar years that occurred during. oh Because I also would probably not take the ah effort, even if I had the time, to make sure that it happened within year.
00:15:13
Speaker
podcast year, I would just say, 2020, it's fine. Close enough. Close enough. And then it also would give me a bonus one as a bonus.
00:15:26
Speaker
So that was the idea that I had that I didn't didn't have time to enact. I thought of that two hours ago. That's pretty impressive. So what what did you choose then? Since you came up with this idea, i'm we're forcing you to start us off. Okay, I will i will start off. um I basically just chose a thing to talk about from seven of my hobbies.
00:15:47
Speaker
Oh, wow. So you said you had a story even to start us off. Oh, yeah. my my this is This is going to come from the tabletop hobby. And I was thinking, oh, maybe I can talk about this character that I love or this thing that I thought was really clever. no i'm not going talk about any of that.
00:16:02
Speaker
um I'm going to talk about this thing. i I'm going to talk about the reason I ordered a quarter sheet cake yesterday that I'm picking up on Thursday. I mean, that's just called depression for me. So, well, especially if it's a Costco one.
00:16:17
Speaker
No, this is this is from Walmart. ah but i'm I'm bringing it up. My my Pathfinder group is is doing our annual cabin retreat this weekend. And so this is coming up to the cabin retreat because we had a ah we had a character one of the characters, not mine, one of my friend's characters.
00:16:33
Speaker
um He has a bonus to find secret doors. Okay. So that's his thing. And the guy being jokester, kind of a funny guy, also a guy who likes to beat jokes into the ground, which we all do time to time.
00:16:48
Speaker
Whenever he had to roll a perception check, you know, look around the room, making an a search, doing a thing. He would always he would roll it, give his number and then go, you know, if it was 10, he'd be like 10, 12 to find the secret door. He'd add that plus two. And that was his thing every time, every time he was asked.
00:17:04
Speaker
Last week when we played our last session before the cabin was the first time he found a secret door.
00:17:12
Speaker
And so we're all like celebrating and we weren't even in person for various reasons. We were playing online. And so we're all yelling into our mics about how exciting it is that Harker finally found a secret door. And then I floated the idea yeah we should bring a cake and then decided that I shouldn't just make a joke of that.
00:17:30
Speaker
So I'm bringing a cake. One person in the group knows for sure. I don't know that the rest of them are actually expecting a cake to show up. So I have I'm bringing it and I'm bringing a cake that will say congrats to Harker for finding a secret door.
00:17:47
Speaker
Did the people look at you funny? I ordered it online, so I did not get any looks. Okay. I'm always interested that we'll see cakes like that get ordered, like what people think. Yeah.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah. So that I am. I am very excited about that this week. Okay. So Alex, I guess we didn't discuss this part of it. Yeah. Are you just going through your seven? I was thinking and we'd rotate, but yeah, let's rotate. Okay.
00:18:13
Speaker
yeah Okay. Hobbs, let's hear. What's your list? So Hobbs did not come up with a list. Hobbs instead came up with seven different categories that he wishes that he had come up with a list for.
00:18:30
Speaker
ah And number one that I wish I had spent time on is the seven best MILFs in Magic the Gathering. And you know what?
00:18:40
Speaker
I'm going give you one, and it would have been Pia Nalar. Yeah, that's a good choice. So that's my first category. And she's eligible.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, she is right? Like, I mean, the DILF is out of the picture. Yeah. So, Chandra... I'm not expecting you to call me daddy.
00:19:04
Speaker
yeah
00:19:10
Speaker
My list can only get more appropriate from here. We all know that that isn't true.
00:19:20
Speaker
yeah
00:19:23
Speaker
And I say we all like the people listening as well. Understand the captive audience we have on the other side of our mics. Understand that that is not true. so
00:19:40
Speaker
So that's my first category of seven things that I could have used. i i i could have used a full seven for well i'm glad you went with that idea because i would have loved to have heard that list fleshed out but just the fact that we still got to discuss it was worthwhile
00:19:59
Speaker
you know so my list and i originally was going to do my my favorite commander decks but i talk about my decks all the time so i thought that'd be boring and then i'm like is there something i can talk about that would get under hobbs's skin or just drive hobbs a little crazy And I decided to do top anime. ok Oh, God.
Anime Discussions
00:20:24
Speaker
i like I straight up thought it was going to be like the seven best landfall cards. These are real? You're going to give a seven real? These are real anime. okay i'm just I'm not going to list them in any particular order. okay And when I made my first draft of the list, I noticed a definite recency bias on it. So I went back through and kind of like I went and looked up.
00:20:49
Speaker
I was on my anime list for a while looking up, okay, what are some titles that I'm missing from my list that should be on here? Because I had way too much recency bias on my list. So I think I've got a pretty good list, such as a mix of recent and old anime.
00:21:05
Speaker
And the first one I'm going to talk about is one of the first anime I ever saw, which was Record of Lotus War. ah This your bog standard... ah fantasy anime it's basically somebody's D&D game told as an anime ah down to the fighter who has is into the obvious dump stat um great classic anime from the 90s there's two different versions of it there's the original
00:21:36
Speaker
um shorter series, and then they they had a revamp series a couple of years later, which was longer. i'm I like both of them for different reasons, but the original one is always going to favorite. I remember receiving the first like two episodes on a VHS tape from ah a um one of those video home videos monthly rentals or monthly services they used to have everywhere where they'd send you a different video and I got i got that and I was like I was hooked immediately I was like wow this is like the coolest anime I've ever seen ah or or like one of another caveat on my list is I'm not listing any Miyazaki movies because I could have just made the entire list the list of Miyazaki movies and that would have been right right ah so yeah yeah
00:22:29
Speaker
Fun fact, ah my neighbor Totoro, I don't know how to pronounce it, was playing at a they added a a big screen here recently. yeah Yeah, they're they're doing some... ah Yeah, they do that they do that every summer. They replay some of the Miyazaki movies in theaters.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, there there's ah there's a chain that um just opened up one near us, replaced the old theater and in the West End, their hubs. Yeah. they ah They have some nationwide things, but they're they're doing like one a month or something for kind of the rest of the year, it looks like. I'm going to talk to a friend of mine to see she wanted to go see, can't remember which one it was.
00:23:12
Speaker
I don't think it was my neighbor. Totoro, I think is how it's pronounced. Yeah, Totoro. Yeah. it might've been Oh, Ponyo is adorable. Cause that's one, a friend and I are, we, we grabbed dinner about once a month and have started ah movie club for, for the, the, the Ghibli films between the two of us. We just watch one a month and go back. That would be another great one to watch with your daughters, Hobbs. That is, yes it is a yes story about two five-year-olds.
00:23:41
Speaker
ah Basically it's really adorable. It's excellent. I, i i i have a list going to to show them so okay okay alice that brings back to you we snake drafting this like where teia has to do two in a row um yeah we can just we can just rotate it that's how we generally do the list but i do want to say i love that this was like you just got a vhs randomly with two episodes on it that's like a like a lego ah ah rite of passage for people who were watching anime around the time. yeah And then you'd have no way to see the rest of the series.
00:24:16
Speaker
Yeah. You just, you find it. Like I, I remember finding like being elated that I found a shelf of VHS tapes at a GameStop. Cause then there was just like a bunch more variety than whatever place I was randomly finding anime at before.
00:24:33
Speaker
But then, of course, I end up paying $30 for the last two episodes of Evangelion on VHS, and I was less elated. i and That's a whole other thing. Evangelion was on my one of my list drafts. I did drop that because... okay I just, I thought I picked better options overall.
00:24:53
Speaker
That's fair. But for for Hobbs sake, the full name is Neon Genesis Evangelion. That one I've heard of. Yeah, it existed before the really, really long names, which I always take pleasure in saying in your company as often as I can. Yeah, because like that one, I would have been like, yeah, I know that one. Yeah, no, that's that's that's just a given.
00:25:11
Speaker
So yeah when that one was a weird one to watch as a teenager. and not understand it it's still weird to watch it's fair i think it's weird to watch at any age yeah um so back to back to my list um i guess just again no particular order just randomly one step up i had conventions as one ah yep um it feels like it checks out so um I guess I'll like, I was thinking about doing other ones cause I talk about fourth street fairly often, but I'm just gonna talk about fourth street cause there's no other convention I could really put on this that, that matches it.
Conventions and Fudge Making
00:25:52
Speaker
um Fourth street fantasy is a convention that happens here in the twin cities. That is the convention I've been going to the longest for sure. I've gone, I've attended every one that has happened cause was a couple of years where i was canceled um since 2013
00:26:08
Speaker
i um It's a writing convention. It's a very small one. ah They actually cap it to, I think, 225. um Though I don't know that we've ever actually hit that cap. I think this year we were 140 people. It's very small.
00:26:21
Speaker
um but it's So because it's so small, it's a single track programming. So unlike big most big conventions, you don't have this huge grid of programming. You have literally... one thing happening at a time, one list of panels that happens at the scheduled time. And then there's meal breaks and, but it's, it's just a very good, so welcoming environment, particularly because it's small, they can do a bunch of things that bigger cons just can't really facilitate like meal ambassadors who just hold up a sign. If you don't have anyone to grab up lunch with that says, we're going to this restaurant that serves this kind of food.
00:26:59
Speaker
um And you want to just have a discussion with random people who have just been to the same content that you have? It's easy. Just find a group, go, then come back in two hours for the next panel.
00:27:12
Speaker
And because it's single track programming, you know you have something, you have a common experience for the weekend to talk about. Even if you don't know these folks who you are now grabbing dinner at the Indian restaurant with, you can just say, what did you think of this last panel? And you have a conversation to start talking immediately.
00:27:29
Speaker
ah It's, I love it. And I also just love the whole like craft of writing thing. it's It's a bunch of writers and people who are interested in storytelling, talking about the craft of storytelling.
00:27:41
Speaker
And how we tell stories. And sometimes there's some panels that are sort of ancillary to that. Like a few years ago, there's a panel about living in a multi-creative household and kind of how to balance some of those needs, which are going to be different from ah ah the needs of a lot of of folks and other setups.
00:27:59
Speaker
But it's, I love it. I go every year that I can. There's one online year that was was fun and weird and different, um but I love going in person whenever I can.
00:28:11
Speaker
ah My number two is cognitive distortions. So this would be my favorite seven cognitive distortions. So you're just listing off the items, the suggestions we gave you because you couldn't come up with your own list. Is that what's going on here? I came up with that MILF option all by myself. That one you did.
00:28:31
Speaker
this And Alex mentioned cognitive distortions because I made a should statement and I was like, oh, I'm just going to choose my seven favorite cognitive distortions. Now, to be fair, the one I'm going to choose is should statements um because I like should statements in the sense that they are really a good thing.
00:28:50
Speaker
They are a good one. So if people don't know, cognitive distortions are common cognitive mistakes that we make that can oftentimes clue us into our thinking being unhealthy. We have done a couple of these. We've done the episode, I believe, at least twice. We've mentioned them a lot.
00:29:04
Speaker
I really enjoyed the time we talked about them. In the sense of Davriel. ah And Davriel has kind of, Davriel is like the closest we almost have to like a voice hearer at the same time, but also just has a thought process that we don't, it's like an entity is how it's described.
00:29:20
Speaker
But I like this idea that it's basically his brain being an asshole. And that's what cognitive distortions can be. And should statements are ones that we oftentimes use to motivate ourselves. Uh, when they're directed inward, we try to use them like, well, I should get this done. I i should prepare a list before we get on the air so that I don't sound like an asshole.
00:29:40
Speaker
And, um, at the end we end up oftentimes feeling guilt because we don't, um, give in. i mean, where we don't, we don't, it doesn't always do a great job of motivating us and oftentimes, or the other other thing that can happen is we direct should statements at others or directed towards other people, like how they should behave or how people should act in a society.
00:30:00
Speaker
ah You know, and that that leads to anger and, and actually should statements are one the the biggest that I, work with people on anger with and myself, because there's a lot of righteous anger that I feel in the world right now. Like people should have empathy.
00:30:13
Speaker
ah You know, we shouldn't have a president that's saying that a governor is, you know, doesn't deserve a phone call because what's the point after a political assassination in your state?
00:30:24
Speaker
um You know, like that you're right. He shouldn't do that. However, me focusing on that is just making me angry, and it's not really doing anything for me in the short term. It's not spurring me the action.
00:30:36
Speaker
It's not changing anything. I already hate the man. And that's my rant because I wanted to somehow work in um the recent political assassinations in Minneapolis to this because i am angry.
00:30:48
Speaker
So yeah, show statement.
00:30:52
Speaker
That's my cognitive distortion of the day. And I will pass it back over to Taya as I frantically come up with another topic. ah You had at least one more in that list that I saw.
00:31:03
Speaker
yeah. yeah they That was just like Lego sets. I'm not doing that. yeah um So the next one ah i am going to discuss is Mr. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, ah which is definitely my favorite slice of life anime.
00:31:19
Speaker
um It's adorable. It's got lesbian dragons. ah you know it's i don't know what to say about it. It actually has adult main characters instead of students, like so many other animes, especially of this kind of anime.
00:31:43
Speaker
ah And it's just, it's a lot of fun. ah Really recommend it. There's two seasons of it and there's a movie coming out later this year. did not know about the movie. That's awesome.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a fun show. I love Slice of Life stuff, but you're right. like one of them Like one of my favorite shows, which is not on my list, but is its about high schoolers. So it's like, it's it's fun and relaxing, but at the same time, it's a little weird to me.
00:32:12
Speaker
It's nice to have adult characters be present.
00:32:18
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. Alex, we're already all the way back to you. Oh, it is me. hey Yeah. I'm over here doing some five by five nonograms. So my next hobby, I guess I'll just talk about food.
00:32:30
Speaker
thought you were going say it was the nonograms. I thought about putting that in on my list, but I have not yet. I haven't gotten to there yet. So we'll see what happens when I get there. um But yeah, so food, i kind of went back and forth to talk about food a lot. And I feel like we got to, you know, I got to recognize the goblins, three favorite things, foods, food, rocks and explosions. Yeah.
00:32:53
Speaker
And unfortunately, or fortunately maybe, rocks and explosions aren't high on my personal hobby list, so where I'm going with food. um I decided to go with fudge.
00:33:05
Speaker
I don't know why I picked fudge specifically. Well, in part I do know why. So one of the like... sort of secondary textual things to my list is not only are these hobbies that I have, but these are, with maybe one exception, I haven't decided, um at least six, maybe all seven of these are things that I have subfolders in my hobbies folder in my Google Drive for.
00:33:34
Speaker
So, so organized. I just, I don't know that I'm so organized, but just the way my brain works, it makes me happy to build spreadsheets for my hobbies, literally build spreadsheets for my hobbies.
00:33:47
Speaker
um But so when I opened up my food folder, there was several things I had in there, but one of them was fudge. it's like, you know, i haven't thought about this for a long time. So, hey, I just love fudge. It's great. You get lots of cool flavors.
00:33:58
Speaker
You go to old timey gift shops in small towns and they all have fudge. I, I, I, you know, I, I, it's funny. So this weekend we're going to one of these like old, you know, just like little rural towns and Minnesota.
00:34:11
Speaker
And I know we're going go somewhere there. There's a fudge counter. Oh yeah. And I'm fine with this. I love this. It's great. But I, I also one time and I discovered a recipe in here that I forgot I had. I have, I have a page of recipes. I was thinking about trying to make my own fudge at home.
00:34:26
Speaker
Um, and I, Ted forgot I put this one in here. But there was, i couldn't even find the Wondersweet. I did one time make my own fudge at home. And it is ludicrous how easy it was.
00:34:40
Speaker
I literally two ingredients... Semi-sweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, microwave, mix, put it in a container. Yeah. That's even less than I normally put in.
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah. Fudge. um And it was good. I will tell you one thing you should very be should be very careful about if you're ever making fudge with more ingredients. Yeah. If you decide that you want to make a half recipe, ensure that you have all the ingredients and don't forget one like...
00:35:09
Speaker
sugar in this thing not that it's too sweet but it is grainy if you don't cut the sugar in half but cut everything else in half boy yeah i bet okay actually in in in inedible so yeah um okay cool yeah so that that's that's gonna be my entry for the food hobby sweet uh are we on number three um My number three is seven groups, people, entities that Hobbs has feuds with.
MTG Online and Anime Reviews
00:35:44
Speaker
And um I'm going with MTGO, right? And that's just because it's longest standing feud that I have because I've been playing on that program since roughly version two of it.
00:35:55
Speaker
And their social media person, like flat out will, will, will, will keep this feud going. And i don't even, i'm I mean, I can't even talk clearly about my feud with MTGO.
00:36:11
Speaker
They made me a creator, I feel like just to make fun of me. ah Also, I have done like nothing for that and I probably should. hu Did you hear that in there? That was forho i was bringing back an old one.
00:36:25
Speaker
um Yeah, but i have i have I've been known, especially once the move happened over to Blue Sky, i really upped my feud game. And yeah, i was I was willing to start a feud with basically anybody.
00:36:36
Speaker
But MTGO is the longest standing I have. So so you got to respect it. I got to respect it. The feud, not MTGO. What? I said the feud, not MTGO. No, and not respecting that program.
00:36:52
Speaker
And I will pass it back to Taya as as i'm getting I'm getting messages while we're recording somehow that MTGO is dropping me from the creator program. ah Yeah, even though I have a mug here that says get good Hobbs with a hashtag.
00:37:05
Speaker
yeah So ah the next one I'm going to list off going back to another classic one is Cowboy Bebop. ah one of the best anime soundtracks of all time, a not-so-great live-action spinoff series on Netflix. ah Well, watch the anime. It's what much better. Okay. Now, here's the thing.
00:37:32
Speaker
Cowboy Bebop is the only anime I've ever watched all the way through. Okay. um And the music was 100% part of the reason that it kept me like engaged.
00:37:44
Speaker
So I actually know what's going on with that one. oh but ah yeah, I mean, i the live I didn't say it's horrible, the live action one. I just said it's not very good.
00:37:57
Speaker
No, I guess for live action anime, from what I've heard. Yeah, it's it's mid for live action anime. Okay, that's good to know. Yeah. ah But considering how god awful some of them are.
00:38:10
Speaker
um
00:38:14
Speaker
So, ah yeah, i I rewatched I rewatched it in preparation for the live action series coming out and I wish I had it. That might have been better just having it as a distant memory.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's it's a good show. The anime is a very good show. Actually, a friend and I went and saw the movie in theaters because it was playing at a theater near us one time.
00:38:44
Speaker
Really cool. That was super cool. yeah I like catching anime in the theater when they have it. Well, back to you, Alex. Yeah. yeah So next, you know I might as well just get my anime out of the way.
00:38:59
Speaker
Um, because of course that was on my list. I will tell you, uh, Hobbes movie, uh, movies and shows were on the cutting room floor. I had to say that to me though.
00:39:11
Speaker
So, um I'm going to go with one. I think I've mentioned here and there, but it is one of my favorite shows. It's, it's hard to say. it's hard for me to say favorites conclusively i guess of the restaurant to another world is the name of this show um it's another slice of life basically but it's it is like both a slice of life show and like a food porn show and like a really cool does a lot of really cool fantasy world building hang i got it food born and or food porn horror
00:39:44
Speaker
Okay. There's a whole whole genre of anime where they hire chefs so that they can present food that looks incredible and have just ridiculously awesome like cool food stuff.
00:40:00
Speaker
So love both of those genres. Restaurant to Another World is a great ah great combination of them. It's also weirdly like it reverse isekai. It's got a lot of cool stuff going on for me. But the the the basic premise is there is a restaurant in Japan that is kind of a Western-style restaurant that one day a week, instead of opening to Japan, it opens to this fantasy world.
00:40:26
Speaker
And so all these people from this fantasy world just find these magic doors that one one day a week bring them to this restaurant where they can eat food unlike anything they have ever had in their entire lives because this is food from Earth, not food from this fantasy world.
00:40:41
Speaker
And it's two seasons that are both 12 episodes long. So it's ah it's a pretty short run. um There starts to be almost plot in the second season. The first season is strictly every episode split in half.
00:40:55
Speaker
Two different stories of two different people in this fantasy world. Yeah, I never got through the first season because... That's fair. but That's fair. There is very little plot. And even in the second, there isn't a ton. But there is some sort of reverse isekai stuff going on, which is fun.
00:41:11
Speaker
um But I love this show so much because it also like I love the fantasy world building where you learn about this tribe of lizard men. And I think this is even the example I go to a lot because I think it's it's a good example of this where.
00:41:25
Speaker
They have this whole competition every week to see who is the strongest and the fittest. And that is the person who gets to go through the door and eat a ah meal at this restaurant and then bring back a second order for the rest of the tribe.
00:41:39
Speaker
And they don't speak any of the languages, but they know enough to be like, here is some coin or whatever they use for currency. And, know, Give us this thing. And so there's some whatever dish that the first lizard men from this village found and stumbled into this door and found and loved.
00:41:57
Speaker
This is their thing. So they just have this essentially Olympic style athletic competition every week to see who gets to go do this. Because you get one to yourself while the village has to split like an order. And that's.
00:42:12
Speaker
that's the the And it's just these little tiny things. You've got a merchant who discovered this and found spaghetti and loves spaghetti so much he is going around his entire world looking for a crop similar to wheat so that he can try to invent spaghetti in his world.
00:42:28
Speaker
You've got just like the adventurer who once a week takes a really, really, really low level quest because she knows where a door is it in this mountain. And then she gets to go to the restaurant and have whatever her her dishes.
00:42:44
Speaker
i I love this show. My number four. Is.
00:42:53
Speaker
favorite artist proofs that I own. It was going to be all artist proofs that I've owned. um And this one, I will give you my favorite and I'm going to invite my co-host to, to guess if you can, if you have any ideas, if you know any of the artist proofs I own, I guess would be number one.
00:43:14
Speaker
um What might my favorite would be? i ah it's, it's tough, but I, I'm going to, I'm going to guess your Gwen one. Okay, so if people don't know, my my I have a Sir Gwen by Lee Sedewan that has my daughter Gwen on the back of it.
00:43:32
Speaker
I love to pull that one out and flip over when I start the game to remind you that whenever you attack me, you're attacking my daughter. um So far, that does not work.
00:43:43
Speaker
You would think it would, but there's a lot of people out there that want to punch a baby, and that's what I've learned about Magic players. So what do you think, Taya? Number three on the list of why Hobbs is a problem?
00:43:54
Speaker
yeah yeah Grenzo would have been my other guest, but I had to go with Gwyn. Grenzo would have been my first guest, though. It feels like that's too obvious, if that makes any sense, because you have Grenzo proof deck.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah and and I own actually multiple Grenzos. All sketched. Yeah, was thinking the painted ones. But I do have ah ah yeah an oil-painted one that sits above my desk.
00:44:21
Speaker
So what's the answer, Hobbs? Oh, the answer actually is my Angus McKenzie. Oh, yeah. um That pure rarity. that it it's nice Part of this is because before I started collecting artist proofs, i I didn't really know much about them.
00:44:36
Speaker
But i at Vegas, one of the first years that they actually did an artist row, I got to meet the the artist, um Brian Wackwitz. And I finally got to ask him the question that had been on my mind for many, many years, which was,
00:44:52
Speaker
hey, this looks like Tim the Enchanter from ah you know Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Was that intentional at all? And his response was, I had just gotten the assignment to do this right after watching the movie, and he confirmed it.
00:45:08
Speaker
So the fact that I was able to finally find a proof and then send it to him and be able to like have that conversation, and artist proofs has been a way that I've gotten to have these connections with artists, which is why it is one that, I mean, I obviously, this would have been a topic that would have been very easy for me to do ah seven of ah just on this alone, was that a was that I was able to like send it to him or talk about how I had met him and had this conversation.
00:45:34
Speaker
And then I was able to get it actually painted. And it has ah Tim the Enchanter and a killer bunny on the back of it. and And as you said, Taya, pure rarity. it's It's wild that I found one to begin with.
00:45:48
Speaker
I don't think I've ever actually seen that one.
Humor and Storytelling
00:45:51
Speaker
yeah Oh, ah next time we're hanging out.
00:45:57
Speaker
yeah I'm not sure I've seen that. I know I've seen, i have seen your your deck from that card with your commander deck. Do you still play that? Is that still together or is that... The Brenzo?
00:46:08
Speaker
No, with the... Oh, the Angus deck? engus The Angus, yeah. It needs to be re-put together. that that deck, that's like a bracket three, I would say.
00:46:20
Speaker
As all of my decks tend to be bracket three. Definitely number two on the Hobbs being the problem. Yeah. ah Listen, Hobbs. That was not a number three. Hobbs' decks get get ah skewed because Hobbs plays Game Changers.
00:46:38
Speaker
Yes. And Hobbs' decks are Game Changers? I don't know. I couldn't turn that phrase very well, but no. that is not That was not a 3D.
00:46:50
Speaker
It's been years and since I played it. I can't like i can't remember exactly. but It's Enchantress, and it is is very good. I think one of my favorite stories from the early days of of webcam magic was playing that on Chase's stream.
00:47:05
Speaker
um Accidentally, somehow getting a turn like three or four omniscience, and then... ah Drawing my entire library before I realized I hadn't put the main combo win con back in the deck.
00:47:24
Speaker
Which is my favorite combo, which is Jace Architect of Thought, Doubling Season, and Wheel of Sun and Moon. So Wheel of Sun a Moon enchants a player whenever a card goes that player's graveyard. Instead, it goes to the bottom of the library.
00:47:38
Speaker
Jace Architect of Thought's Ultimate, which it gets off of the doubling season with just enough exact loyalty to also go to the graveyard, is search every player's library for a card, and you may play it.
00:47:54
Speaker
um And I was down to like the final few cards in my library. i i could have stopped at some point, because i had like no you couldn't i had a ton of angels out thanks to like sigil of the empty throat i just had a lot of four fours i could have passed probably stayed alive based on anything even like i'm pretty sure i could have survived a board wipe um instead i decided to say wait i need to draw to see if i actually included the way and i did not nice all right well back to me um
00:48:32
Speaker
I'm going to include the one I talk about all the time, which is that time I was reincarnated as a slime. ah You know, it's hard for me to beat that. It's my all-time favorite anime. It's one that I have watched multiple times, which I can't say much for other media because I always like to experience new media, so I seldom re-watch things, ah just given how much there is to watch. But it's like, if I...
00:49:02
Speaker
It's been one of those things where like I add a new partner, and and if they haven't seen it before, I'm like, okay, we're going to sit down and watch this together. And I start from the beginning again. ah It's just, ah it makes me happy. It's not that highly rated of a show. If you look at my anime list, it's like 245th.
00:49:23
Speaker
So not everyone, me or most people don't agree with me, but I really enjoy it. I like it. It's a good show. Yeah. um And I'm looking forward to season four whenever we get it yeah Yeah, I really enjoyed and it. it's It is part of, i don't I don't know that these waves actually exist or this is just my own experience of watching anime for a while or not and then not watching anime for a while, but it it feels like it was part of a a wave of the isekai, the reborn in another world anime, where the they were
00:49:59
Speaker
they kind of kept the the main character get some overpowered elements but they didn't make it about a power fantasy yeah he has so much that he's he's doing and cares for that there's so much administrative stuff and maybe it's just the fact that i'm also a nerd for like weird administrative think that's one reason this particular anime scores low on a lot of people's lists because it's slow and they spend a lot of time on like the nation building aspect of the anime yes and you'll go three or four episodes which are mostly just meetings and stuff and there's no no fighting or anything in those episodes and then they get back to three to four episodes in a row of one really long fight yep
00:50:41
Speaker
Oh, but sometimes in those meeting episodes, man, he sets up some stuff. Yeah. i'm I am, again, going to my particular nerddoms, but I am just as like thrilled by some of the some of the plots and maneuverings that get pulled off in those multiple episodes of meetings.
00:51:01
Speaker
Alec, you also will play a video game that's based around packing a bag. Oh, man. Unpacking is such a good game. Oh, Unpacking. Sorry. um Also other way.
00:51:12
Speaker
um there's like There's that, but there's also Backpack Hero that I have to I got to get back to, which is a roguelike where how you pack your backpack affects your combat skills. It's great, but I haven't put too much time into it.
00:51:27
Speaker
um not really related to any of those. like I'm going to talk about books. I'm going to get back to games. I haven't decided what the game is, but I'm going to talk about books.
00:51:40
Speaker
might have talked about these at some point. um One of my favorite series that I found in in recent years, particularly, again, just kind with all the things going on.
00:51:53
Speaker
I found this, this, I found the first book, I believe on Twitter because the, uh, the author Effie Kelvin, the series is called tales of India.
00:52:04
Speaker
Um, ah said something along the lines of like, buy my books because they're princesses being gay or something. And I'm like, that sounds interesting. Yeah. Yeah. the yeah I mean, that'll that'll get my attention for a book series, too. Yeah, the the like ah more fully-fledged pitch for the first book, which also sounded super interesting, ah was about this this princess who's betrothed to the crown prince of another nation.
00:52:32
Speaker
So she's traveling to that nation. It takes months because that's how travel works in worlds set up like this. um Fantasy series. During that time, her betrothed dies in an accident.
00:52:47
Speaker
And so then the nation like still needs this alliance. So then they say, well, you know, he has a younger sibling. Would you like to marry his younger sister?
00:52:59
Speaker
And then there's some royal cousins who try to step in. And then there's this whole thing and they're, very much fantasy, but they they are fantasy romance books. that's That's what they're about. But also, like, the world building is really cool.
00:53:14
Speaker
um Particularly kind of as as the series moves on, like, there's some great cosmology stuff. The second book in the series is probably my favorite. The first is The Queen of Iflaria, the second Daughter of the Sun. And that one has probably my favorite, like,
00:53:31
Speaker
couple, pair relationship of any piece of media I have ever consumed ever. you have ah You have a paladin of the god of order and a chaos goddess, like my like a minor goddess, and it's it's a lot of fun.
00:53:48
Speaker
So that's that's that one of my favorite book series. I would be hard-pressed to say favorite for sure, but it's definitely a favorite a favorite that I want to talk about that's that's part of my list is not necessarily my favorite but one that I don't think I've talked about too much and some of these I want to get more attention I like that one I definitely want to get some more attention I really like this author and I don't know if the books were available right now exactly I know there was some issue with her um her her publisher and know she has the rights again and was going to like self-publish so you might be able to find the books out there otherwise they might be available
00:54:28
Speaker
soon but they're excellent i love them so my are we on number five here yes sweet i was hoping somebody who was keeping track uh mine is was going to be the top seven times that ah i have been involved in a preview card
00:54:52
Speaker
Uh, and, and, um, it is funny because, um, cause I was going to cheat by making it like seven different instances because we've had a couple of times when we've had like three, um, or two or three. And then, but I, I also did one randomly for foundations by myself of like an orc, uh, which was fun because I did a little video about like, what's the difference between an orc a goblin.
00:55:14
Speaker
Um, so that was going to be, it was just, uh, seven times we've, I've gotten to do preview stuff. Um, And it it might surprise you, it's not the Lego one.
00:55:27
Speaker
i think i'm I enjoyed that the most, but it was getting to do breaches. um So after after all of this, you know like it's been really awesome to get to preview now a fair number of goblins, including...
00:55:42
Speaker
war and soul trader. And like that, that, that is the best card I've ever gotten to preview. Yes. By far. and And that one was just, that whole one was fun because like, that was like my, it was really hard, honestly, to to do this, even though it is, it is easily, it is breaches was, um,
00:56:00
Speaker
that one was, was really difficult for me to do. And I think all of this is just like, this is why it's like just having had these opportunities has been a fantastic time. But that one, we had like three really cool things. We had a car, we had Warren soul trader, which again, oh I don't know if she's a milf, but like,
00:56:17
Speaker
Let's just say if she was, she's she's up there on that that former list. um But we got War and Soul Trader, which had already been spoiled ah like or leaked, and they were like, do you guys still want to do this? Do you all still want to do this? We're like, um hi, have you seen the art? Have you seen the card itself?
00:56:35
Speaker
It doesn't matter. we well But we got to do that. We had a Boros Goblin in there, and we also had a um Legendary Common with Grandeur.
00:56:47
Speaker
yeah that so like that was such a cool one but breaches wins out breaches is one of my favorite legends um that we have the fact that it meant that we got to talk about about breaches and malcolm and i just love their relationship and the fact that they like it just it gave us so much to talk about i love the two of them in that story and we got to do a legendary goblin um so that that that that was the one that won out even though it's been just so much fun like that's the thing like i was like the lego set was really hard for me to not say too yeah that was that was super cool like if i had chosen that one there would have been just been ways that i would have been cheating left and right somehow so back on to teia for number five
00:57:40
Speaker
on Number five, let's see here. What do I have left on my list? I'm going to go with Isekai Quartet, which is a joke anime. ah It's a it rounds up It basically re-Isekai's characters from four different animes and later adds another one onto that um and brings them to another world that that is like a Japanese school.
00:58:10
Speaker
ah So it brings these characters that have been Isekai'd once plus their fantasy world companions back to a Japanese school setting. And they're magically compelled to participate in this school.
00:58:24
Speaker
ah um Okay, I have a question. and it's not your description at all. i i This is a question I've been wanting to ask the two of you for a long time, and I've been nervous to ask ah to to reveal even further my ignorance.
00:58:42
Speaker
What is an isekai? It's a portal fantasy. Basically the, you get killed or summoned or some other, how get brought to another, it literally translates another world.
00:58:53
Speaker
It's a literal translation. Okay. Yeah. The, there was the, the early wave. of A lot of it was people being killed by
Gaming and Desk Oddities
00:59:00
Speaker
trucks. Yeah. trackling moon Yes. Where there's, there's a, the community talks about truck co coon, just visiting worlds and sending people to fantasy worlds.
00:59:09
Speaker
Um, yeah, It's not always that, but yeah. Okay. it's ah It's kind of a ah newer twist on an old classic. Like, Portal Fantasy's been around for a long time. yeah I mean, you like, Wizard of Oz is a Portal Fantasy. Yep. Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a Portal Fantasy.
00:59:30
Speaker
you know, Alice in Wonderland, they're all Portal Fantasies. But I had just ah i've I've heard that term and always been like, is this referring to like an animation style? Like people have been isekai. I was like, are they referring to like the style of the cartoon? OK, yeah. Well, I mean, like like an art direction or something, but it's a storytelling.
00:59:51
Speaker
Yeah. OK. Yeah, it's a story classification or genre. I feel, wow, this is this is a wait-off after all these episodes. This show, Isekai Quartet, is absolutely hilarious. ah They're 12-minute episodes. There's like 12 of them per season. So it's a really short watch.
01:00:14
Speaker
Um, I ended up watching most of the other anime that were featured in this one afterwards. Uh, I didn't watch Tanya the evil because war anime aren't really my thing, but they were the characters from that anime were fun in this, uh, setting.
01:00:31
Speaker
Um, But it's got characters from Kanesuba, ReZero, Overlord, Rising of the Shield Hero, and they're all thrown into the school setting. And it's kind of funny. they They hit all the school tropes, like the the class ah festival and the...
01:00:49
Speaker
yeah class trips and stuff and they have to ah survive through that. And like when you have a whole group that is a bunch of undead and demons ah stuck in a classroom with a bunch of, ah you know, a guy and his three totally useless adventuring ah partners and ah another couple of groups, it's it's a really fun time. Yeah, that that is one I have not watched. I've thought about it because I've watched Overlord Yeah, and it's all it's all done in chibi art, too. they're all
01:01:21
Speaker
They're all cute little animated figures characters. Yeah.
01:01:27
Speaker
Okay. i I'm still debating about my last episode. I'm going to go with the games. I had some ideas. I could talked about unpacking, which is a great game, but it's a tiny, short little game, but it's fun. um i Flipping through a list of the games Games I've played that I like, i I was thinking I could just go with some joke thing, like talk about a scapegoat, um which is a puzzle game where you play as a goat who needs to escape the dungeon.
01:01:56
Speaker
but i actually thought you might even choose to do the top seven games on your Steam that you haven't played and probably should before you get more.
01:02:07
Speaker
Oh, Lord, I have far too many games. Yeah, I guess I could have. I could have made that list. But Baldur's Gate three, number one, I'll tell right now. OK, I haven't played that game. OK, wow. You are really missing out. Wow.
01:02:22
Speaker
I cannot tell you how many people keep telling me that. I know. ah But part of the reason I am missing out is because of the Yakuza series, which is what I am going to talk about. um They are absolutely my favorite Japanese soap operas about gangsters.
01:02:38
Speaker
And a guy who, I don't know, does it, I think it fits in the sad dad stories. Like the main character is definitely, uh, uh, the,
01:02:51
Speaker
i I used to and I will tell you, I used to because when I was younger, I thought it was a good, you know, made made me feel better to make fun of things, make fun of soap operas and stuff.
01:03:01
Speaker
But the melodrama in this series, as I got older, I realized like, even if it's not something i I like or I have any realm of context, just leave it alone. If people enjoy it, that's, that is enough. That's totally fine.
01:03:12
Speaker
But now i i I get just a little bit of understanding because the Yakuza series has so much melodrama and I love it so much. There are people who come back from the dead, sort of.
01:03:24
Speaker
There are feuds and all sorts of things going on. And through it all, you have the main character. Sorry. as As I drop things off my desk that may or may not have been picked up by the mic, but now I've acknowledged it. So it doesn't matter. You have the main character, Kazuma Kiryu, who is just...
01:03:43
Speaker
like the greatest like straight man character ever. And so much comedy and drama and things happen around him. And he takes it all very seriously because this is all very serious and it is just incredible.
01:03:59
Speaker
And I love him. And in a lot of ways, he's a little bit like John Wick. in that he is at all times the most dangerous person in the room, but by and large is not, he will throw down in a fight, but that's not what he wants to do.
01:04:16
Speaker
But there are lots of times where people come in and make him throw down. And then the people look at him, people around them, look at those people and be like, do you don't, do you know, what are you doing? This is the, why are you be like, why are you this way? And then Kiryu beats them up. And then they go, why am I this way? And then they change.
01:04:34
Speaker
And it's incredible. ah This series has a lot of games. I almost... This was the other weird idea I had this morning and decided I also didn't have enough time for it. So the series... I could, with a... If you squint, you could say it has seven games. It doesn't.
01:04:51
Speaker
It has...
01:04:54
Speaker
Kiryu games, but actually has eight Kiryu games because he goes zero through seven with Kiryu. Oh, that's like some freaky math cheating right there, Alex. Yeah, exactly. That's just like, that's a whole new level for you, even. and then And then there's several other games that are not Kiryu games that are like follow the story afterwards and he shows up in some of them.
01:05:16
Speaker
So it's it's even the even that isn't accurate, but um I realized seven items that of seven things was again, just too, I didn't have the time to come up with that.
01:05:28
Speaker
but i almost I almost went that direction. but I'm playing Yakuza 6 right now. ah realize it's been actually two months since I played 5, which honestly 5 was a little disappointing at the end.
01:05:39
Speaker
80% of the way there I was in, and the last 20% was kind of a slug. It's been about two months since I played, and I realize that that is the longest I have gone without playing a Yakuza game since I started this last year.
01:05:55
Speaker
i
01:05:58
Speaker
They're great, but it's hard. <unk> I'd say it's hard to recommend because there's a lot of them and they keep making them. But if it is something that's interesting, start with Xero if you want to try the beat-em-ups. Apparently, like and this is another one where the names are are funky. So the games always in Japan have been called Like a Dragon.
01:06:17
Speaker
That was the name of the series. In the US, s there was something that had a similar name, and so they decided... We'll just do a different name. And so they came out here as Yakuza.
01:06:28
Speaker
Yeah. They also, the spinoff ones especially, ah have names that are almost as weird as anime names. Yes, because then when they got to what is numerically actually number seven, because Kiryu's seventh game is actually sort of a side game, they came out with what the in the community, if someone calls it Yakuza 7, generally they are talking about Yakuza like a dragon.
01:06:55
Speaker
which is the first game with Ichiban as a new protagonist. And then the titles got weirder because they started using Like a Dragon for the titles instead of Yakuza for the title here. So then you get the s sequel to that is Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.
01:07:12
Speaker
um You have the seventh Kiryu game, which is actually called Like a Dragon Gaiden, the man who erased his name. But my Japanese copy has a seven on the spine, so I'm going to call it Kiryu seven.
01:07:26
Speaker
um And the best one is the most recent. Yeah. This is the one I was referring so Like, ah like a dragon pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, I believe is the complete title of that game.
01:07:38
Speaker
God, I can't wait to play like a pirate. It is, it is featuring Majima, the greatest character I may have ever seen in a video game before. One of definitely one of um he,
01:07:51
Speaker
there's there's a zombie spinoff that i've also played called dead souls not to be confused with any souls games it's not actually a souls like um it's just zombies in the yakuza universe and you you get to actually use guns i mean there's guns in the game so they're really clunky they're also clunky and dead souls you just have a lot more ammo um god And then you have Majima who's watching a zombie movie while the zombie apocalypse happens and he's the only person who's excited that it's happening.
01:08:23
Speaker
You're saying this under video games and I am just assuming that it's actually also an anime at the same time. You could have just gone through that entire...
01:08:35
Speaker
bit right there alex if we had ever but if we if we do the like is this an anime or not episode like that's all you need to do like i i would have just fully believed that was an anime yeah all of that just you could have just said as like a zombie apocalypse while watching a zombie apocalypse i would have been like uh yeah real oh and and i think dead souls yakuza dead souls might be the first zombie game i've ever played where they just straight up call them zombies because for some reason every game has to come up with their own like uh obfuscation or the the the characters don't know what a zombie is, but no, they literally, this dude is watching a zombie movie when a zombie breaks into his office and he's like, Oh sweet. Picks up a shotgun. And that's how he starts his section.
01:09:19
Speaker
it, uh, yeah. Yeah. um So mine next one, number six, was going to be, you know, obviously because I was struggling to come up with these, as YouTube all said, was going to be seven items that are on my desk in front of me with no explanation for why.
01:09:38
Speaker
And it would have included a light bulb, Lego, and a micro scale that is made to be able to measure things down to the 0.01 grams
01:09:54
Speaker
And with that, I will pass it over to Taya.
01:09:58
Speaker
ah All right. So now I'm wondering what the scale is for. i mean, Hobbes has a drug scale on his desk for some reason.
01:10:13
Speaker
I believe the technical term is a jeweler scale. How much does an artist proof weigh? Yeah.
01:10:22
Speaker
Measuring packs to find out which ones have foils in them. You know, no explanation needed for anything on my desk. Uh, so the next one I'm going to go with is Trigun, which is another classic anime from the nineties. Uh, I, it might be the first anime that I ever saw every episode all the way through in order.
01:10:44
Speaker
um Because ah one of my friends just happened to have the whole series on VHS and I binge watched it over a weekend. ah Great ah Space Western. Yep, yep.
01:11:04
Speaker
Came out the same year as as Cowboy Bebop. no oh that's cool there were three space westerns that came out in 1998 see i love space westerns that's another hit that's a lot of me outlaw star outlaw star okay yeah i've never seen that one um i like it it's my third of favorite of the three though yeah uh but uh trigun is very much a comedy it's a slapstick comedy uh the main character is known as the human aid to food because he basically a walking natural disaster and whole cities keep getting leveled just because he's around.
01:11:40
Speaker
Uh, and so he has a, uh, massive bounty on his head and pretty much everyone in the entire ah world is trying to cash in on that bounty, which just sub create, which, which further perpetrates the destroying everything that's around him.
01:11:58
Speaker
Yeah. Mostly, not even him. Mostly the other people. yeah None of it's his fault. It's all external forces that cause these things to happen. Yes. theaating He's a total pacifist.
01:12:11
Speaker
He is, yeah. The the initiating incident could be seen outside. Okay, now I'm going to... So now this character is the Hobbs of that game. Yeah. I mean, is that anime?
01:12:22
Speaker
Okay. i mean I would say there's a Hobbs-like character. Sure. The one you named. The pacifist that just, like, things just keep happening and he's expecting to respond.
01:12:34
Speaker
Maybe not. yeah Maybe not? Okay. See, i I thought I had a handle on this one. let' say there's there there is a um there is There's a character very Bolas-like and it is not is not our humanoid typhoon.
01:12:49
Speaker
yeah Okay. Okay. Wait, Bullis-like? I said Hobbs-like. Wait, what? Okay, Alex. Six of one, half dozen the other. Alex, what's your final category?
01:13:01
Speaker
i haven't decided. yeah ah All right. I'm just going with my most recent idea for it. So this is the one where the seventh category in my hobbies, the seventh folder in my hobbies. So those first six all have folders in my hobbies folder. The seventh one is magic.
01:13:22
Speaker
I talk about magic a lot on the show, and I couldn't – someone say it like there's topics. I could have picked things, but I couldn't think of anything that was that felt compelling to talk about. that – Seventh item, I'm going to audible to something, and I'm actually audibling a second time because I was going to talk about Lego.
01:13:39
Speaker
and Instead, I'm going to talk about candles. Oh, but I mean, we still have not seven years into the show secured that Yankee candle bag, and I'm a little sad about that.
01:13:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's unfortunate, and I'm going to shill for him for free again. Again? Love my Yankee candle, man. I am literally, while we're talking, resting my arm on a vanilla and sea salt woodwick candle because it's it's nice and tall, and it's holding my arm right now.
01:14:05
Speaker
Hashtag not sponsored, but we would even take just free candles. I'd take a coupon. like can I these things frequently enough. like That'd be fine.
01:14:17
Speaker
um I will say like Yankee Candle are kind of expensive. If you shop deals, you can get them 50% off sometimes because they they like close stuff out every every season, which is usually what I do. I just...
01:14:29
Speaker
order a whole bunch in one chunk, especially if I can get like gift cards for Christmas or get them from work for various things. Um, but I want to like my favorite candle is the, uh, their evening bonfire, but they have,
01:14:46
Speaker
What was it? Ellipse, I think is what they call these ones, where instead of it being like a tall candle, it's a long, wide one. So it has a really large wick. And one of the cool things about wood wicks is that they either would so they crackle when they burn.
01:15:03
Speaker
And so it creates not just the scent of the the candle, but then also you have that the sound. And the evening bonfire one in particular, because now you're doubling up on that sort of fire. And like it it's very nostalgic for me. I had a cabin when we grew up and we did a lot of bonfires and I really enjoy those. But also this one in particular is fun because I have one that I break out whenever we do ah Pathfinder in my apartment, which isn't frequent, but occasionally we do.
01:15:31
Speaker
And then I bring this thing out and I light it while we're playing Pathfinder. And then we got that like 4D experience going on while we're you know camping in the game and having a campfire smell and sound and things going on the table.
01:15:44
Speaker
I love it. Okay. ah So I'm going to do number seven for Hobbes is going to be an honorable mention um before I come back to my true number seven, which I'm going to let Taya go first.
01:16:01
Speaker
um But my my number seven was going to be times that Urza was the worst.
01:16:10
Speaker
You can come up with a lot more than seven in that list. It's going to be the top seven times that Urza was the worst. And you want to know what number one was going to be? Karn?
01:16:21
Speaker
Karn! Yes! Flat out was going to be Karn. Yeah, that was easy because he literally made him feel pain because he wanted him to.
01:16:33
Speaker
But also didn't give him a name. And also made it where like he couldn't remember stuff. So he had to repeat a mantra that Joyra was his friend. Like, okay, we talk about Karin being an absent father to Mirrodin and to Memnor. There's a reason.
01:16:51
Speaker
That's I'm saying. He's bad role model. It makes a lot of sense. So that's my honorable mention seventh category. All right. Hob's cheating again. Yeah. Taking your spotlight, Alex.
01:17:08
Speaker
yeah um My last mention is my favorite anime from the last few years, which is Freerun. ah I've talked about it on the show before. It's absolutely beautiful. it tells a story that no other anime I've seen has ever told before. um You know, it's all about mortality and life and uh just journeying together with people you care about uh it is fantastic uh the animation quality is top notch uh it's i believe it's number one on my anime list now of all-time greatest anime
01:17:50
Speaker
So it is I'm not the only one who has this opinion. ah it is just really good. And if you like if you like standard fantasy stories, I can't recommend it enough. It's really good.
01:18:05
Speaker
I tried to convince some friends of mine at the convention I was at this weekend to watch it. Because it both say it's got kind of the... the Two really i think two of the really compelling story things about it is the meditation on immortality and what that means, ah how that has impacts, because the main character is an elf who's going who literally in like the first episode basically outlives all of the people she had ventured with.
01:18:35
Speaker
but it also, the subtitle of the show, Beyond Journey's End, the story starts at the end of the adventure. And like, not even the end, like we're going to watch them fight the evil. No, they got back to town after defeating the evil.
01:18:48
Speaker
We see the party. We don't see them fight the demon king because that's not the story. The story is what happens after that and how the story changes and how the world changes or doesn't change.
01:19:01
Speaker
it's It's amazing. And day you you recommended it to me when you and I were doing an anime episode and I'm so glad I started watching it. That almost made my list. Yeah, it ah I finished the up to the current episode on the manga. I don't read a lot of manga, but that was one where I was like, I i need to know where the story goes. And I went and read the entire thing.
01:19:23
Speaker
Same thing. this This was the second show. so I guess third, technically, where I went back to the the text. But one of them was Full Metal Alchemist, which is my favorite show. But that is ah that was a complete story. I wasn't reading new material. I was just reading the other.
01:19:38
Speaker
The original version is almost like a shot for shot remake of the manga. I've never seen one that is this close to the original source material. So my, my true final category was going to be um ah looking a little bit. So the the reason i I am doing this last, is like I have something I'm going to talk about here in a second, but I wanted to talk about, I had another way to completely cheat, which would have been like the most ridiculous.
01:20:03
Speaker
which would have been ah just because of the times that we've had to do this on the show over seven years of um doing things like solo episodes. But then I was going to do seven episodes. I did solo with a guest versus seven episodes. I did solo. So I really could have turned it into 14 episodes, which is wild to think about. um But it was just me wanting to kind of think about some of the times when,
01:20:27
Speaker
ah just I've had like the free reign to be able to do some some things that were a little bit more ah you know like a little different. So I think the the one that I thought of with a guest actually is is because it was a time when the show was going through a change, um which was when Joe left the show.
01:20:43
Speaker
Alex, if you remember, ah one of the last things that he had done is he had reached out to the agent for a major league baseball player, Hunter Pence, who owns a game store and plays Magic. But like...
01:20:56
Speaker
it it was very much a like, that would have been Joe and I with the sports element. That's just not the
Interviews and Reflections
01:21:02
Speaker
same. I think is where, you know, like you and I were talking Alex and we ended up like, I ended up getting this interview set up with somebody as we were trying to figure out what was going on with the show.
01:21:12
Speaker
But I also sat and talked to a major league baseball player, two time world series champion about magic, the gathering who knew nothing about lore.
01:21:25
Speaker
And so like, had Everything he had pieced together, and it was interesting to watch this mindset of like what he knew about characters was based on like their arena lines and what he knew of their cards from arena.
01:21:38
Speaker
like He was like, yeah, Nicol Bolas is a giant asshole, but that's just because I don't want to face him in like brawl. or Right? Yeah. And I was like, oh, buddy, you've never been more wrong, let me tell you. No, but I mean it was like he he started asking me questions about like the lore in magic.
01:21:53
Speaker
um And then i actually got to ask him questions about baseball that nothing to do with magic. um But like looking at that that overlap between competitiveness and stuff. But it was like he was talking about like swing paths and trying to figure out what a pitcher was going to throw, which is just something that like – from a fan perspective of baseball was amazing. And then we tied it. to so it's like, it was just a weird opportunity at a time when we were also like, not sure what was going on.
01:22:18
Speaker
um The other was getting to do the Angrath episode by myself about being an MTG dad. So this was five years ago.
01:22:30
Speaker
And, um, This one was – it's really funny. The episode description says that I somehow barely mentioned Bolas at all, and at least it's kind of relevant.
01:22:43
Speaker
And I'm like, is it though? I'm guessing the relevance was like, hey, Bolas is the reason Angrath got trapped away from his daughters for so many years. um But it was me kind of discussing Bolas.
01:22:55
Speaker
five years ago with only one daughter, what it meant to be, um, a dad and what that relationship with the game, how that had impacted my relationship with the game and how much it had changed in the past at that point, 15 months. And I now have a six year old.
01:23:10
Speaker
I mean, I think this is something that's wild to believe. Is it like, ah like we started the show with, before I had a daughter, um, I now have two kids. Uh, I, I, you know, I, I now have, you know, it was a joke is like, we, we,
01:23:24
Speaker
Gwen was like ah an early person on the cast as a guest, is just much like we say with Callie now when Taya has joined us, because I would like have to try to figure out a way to balance that.
01:23:34
Speaker
And it kind of just leads me into what I was going to talk about. you knowre we're We're kind of going through our our seventh anniversary here. I am... and i am you know i think To anybody that's listened to the show's lack of surprise, we've all been struggling.
01:23:54
Speaker
I... and i I know that I particular have been struggling for about ah well over a year and it's just gotten worse. And finding the time to be consistent is one the things that's been hardest for me.
01:24:06
Speaker
um Right now I'm getting ready to start on a new a project that is magic related, but is also something that I've been wanting to do for most of my adult life, which is to run a marathon.
01:24:17
Speaker
One of the problems with that is I'm already struggling to find enough time to get workouts in. and to balance everything. And it's led to, you know, it's just in general, i feel like I've oftentimes had to cancel things last minute. It's not... I would say, you know, this is something that we...
01:24:37
Speaker
I'm not like saying that this is just something that's, that that's been me. um You know, I think we all have had times where we just struggling to get the motivation to record and the motivation to ah be consistent with this in terms of just like Monday would come and it would be a difficult time because I just couldn't get the planning done in such a way that I personally feel that I wanted to.
01:25:00
Speaker
And I'm using a big difference here, Alex, between should and want. Um, that's actually really important to me because it's, it isn't a matter of like, I, I necessarily, there was always some sort of, you know, a sense of obligation that comes, but it's also because this is something that has been some, such a passion for me and led me to so many opportunities within magic.
01:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:25:21
Speaker
and charity events and the show we're now two hundred and fifty plus episodes in and doing something where we're talking about these just silly elements like that i think we showcase ah so far in the seventh anniversary show the range of us talking about food to animate to Hobbs making questionable choices about most things and being a problem.
01:25:44
Speaker
I mean, we've ran the gamut here of like the things to being like sincere and talking about mental health and these things that are really important to us. And I am working to do the best that I can to, to, to train for this marathon, but it's not until October.
01:25:57
Speaker
And I, I'm going to basically be stepping away in the sense that I, I'm not going to be planning to record every week. Kind of the expectation is, and I did talk about this with Alex and Taya before we ever got on air, that would be horrible for me in this, the, the, the things that I, you know, last minute improv my way into to just bring this up with them on unknowing. And I would not do that to my two friends, but yeah,
01:26:27
Speaker
I am going to basically be here infrequently, if
Fundraising and Gratitude
01:26:32
Speaker
at all. like Basically, the expectation is there's no pressure. Tay and Alex are very open to me joining. They very much want to be recording during this time. And once again, it still may not be every week because we're just at that point in our lives and with the world around us where I think that that's a reasonable expectation for for us. And we're still doing this because this...
01:26:54
Speaker
you know i was saying this earlier today when I kind of sent the message to them to talk about was if we didn't have our Discord, that that is one of the things that's kept me most connected to people and knowing that there's folks that are listening to this, whoever you are out there right now, we know that people are because we hear about it and that's important to us.
01:27:17
Speaker
um And it's just... um I just can't do it weekly right now. And I want, I also, it's not it like a, like a, Oh, I just am having trouble letting go. And I'm wanting to step away completely because that isn't what I want.
01:27:35
Speaker
I'm also recognizing where my limitations do lie right now. And that is, that I have a goal that I set that is something that is really important to me. I'm going to be running for the American foundation for suicide prevention.
01:27:48
Speaker
There's going to be a link in the show notes for this, um, because I am doing a fundraiser with that. Uh, and this just shows, I think the,
01:27:57
Speaker
friendship and the just love that I feel, um, Taya was the first person to donate to that. And she got to name my playlist that I'm going to be using for running. She got to put the first songs in and she got to dedicate some space on my Jersey to be able to write a person's name.
01:28:13
Speaker
And, uh, I want to do that. Right. I want to promote that. I want to be kind of doing some of that. And it just means that I can't guarantee that I can be here consistently. And I don't want to feel like I'm always making that decision last minute.
01:28:28
Speaker
um Yeah.
01:28:33
Speaker
Well, you're definitely going to be missed Hobbs when you're not here, um but we'll be happy to have you whenever you're available. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, and that's that's been a big thing that we have we've kind of preached, tried to practice, but talked about you talk about mental health. And that's been a big topic and an important thing for us and all of our lives in general, but and but also for this show.
01:28:55
Speaker
And it's, you got to do, you know this is something that's important for you. go Go do it. That's, you know, you and I have talked about this some. I think maybe we've talked about this as well with since you've been on Taya too, that this show is just, we do this because we love it.
01:29:10
Speaker
And that means yeah and what that means that we have the the the ability to step away from it. This isn't how we make our living. This is because we love it and there's people who listen to it and we think it's we get to talk about important things. we get to talk about fun, silly things.
01:29:25
Speaker
And we get to keep in contact with our friends. So if you you have this to work on, you take the time you need and we'd love to have you back. We'd love to he talk to you when you're here. And when you're not able to be here, that's great.
01:29:39
Speaker
Go, go do your thing. Yeah. So, um, you know, I, know I was going to be kind of coming in with a heavy after our topics, which is why I wanted to kind of save that this, just even talking about like some of the episodes I've done, um, that have been very meaningful to me. I mean, I kind of, we, we've done some of this before where we've just gone through some of our episodes and it always does strike me. Like I forget until I look through our catalog, some of the topics that we've covered, um, that I'm very proud of. And so,
01:30:05
Speaker
Yeah, that that is ah this is our seventh anniversary, 250 episodes. The show is undergone just like it's a wild transformation to think of seven years of my life and the changes in myself, the show, everything.
01:30:21
Speaker
And like the the fact that i i am so connected to people across the world through. ah a quote unquote kids game or just a game.
01:30:33
Speaker
I mean, I don't know, like I'm using that language just ah and not because I think that it's a, you know, a to minimize it. It's how other people can perceive it at times or see it.
01:30:45
Speaker
And I think that it's important to not think of it as just a game.
Future and Farewell
01:30:54
Speaker
So I don't know what Alex and Teya have planned. i i will be editing it still. That is what they we had talked about. I do have the ability to do that. So I will plan. Yeah. Well, you know, ah yeah we have to have some illusions.
01:31:08
Speaker
We have a plan. We're going to talk about Final Fantasy. Yeah. And probably anime. And i don't know. ah Hobbs is going to come back in October and be like, what is going on? and I mean, have you, have you two mentioned magic, the gathering in the last four months?
01:31:27
Speaker
Well, this weekend is Vegas. so I'm sure I'll be talking about Vegas on the next episode. Oh, that's this weekend. Yeah. Maybe you should just fly it out last minute, Alex.
01:31:39
Speaker
Just blow off your ah whole Pathfinder group. Yeah. I got a cake to bring out. You can bring cake to Vegas. Bring the cake to Vegas. I will also not be in Vegas.
01:31:50
Speaker
I am going to an underground waterfall and an owl sanctuary. And I learned today that Taya volunteered in the past at an owl sanctuary. I used to do computer work for one.
01:32:02
Speaker
Did you get to hang out with the owls? I did. I even got to release one back into the wild that was rehabilitated. What? Yeah. Well, when I'm back in October, we have a whole new episode topic that I need to hear about.
01:32:14
Speaker
Eighth anniversary, we're going to talk about our eight favorite owls. or podcast Thank you for listening. We can be found both on Twitter and Blue Sky at GoblinLorePod.
01:32:26
Speaker
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