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S3 Ep268: Theology and Masculinity
76 Plays2 years ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk about...wait a minute... there's barely game coverage at all! It's just Christianity, what it means to be a good person, masculinity and how we define it, and other random stuff in this week's episode!
Intro:
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Intro:
- Pastor & Mrs. Jim Colerick - Rappin' for Jesus
- Maneater - Arc Shark
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Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
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Transcript
The Christian Rap Song
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, I wrote this song for the Christian youth. I want to teach kids the Christian truth. If you want to reach those kids on the street, then you got to do a rap to a hip hop beat. So I gave my sermon an urban kick. My rhymes are fly. My beats are sick. My crew is big and it keeps getting bigger. That's because Jesus Christ is my name.
Introductions and Fruit Snacks
00:00:24
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake and I'm joined by my co-host is always Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave?
00:00:31
Speaker
It's going well. She has fruit snacks. Ah, they are pretty good.
00:00:39
Speaker
Can you we can tell where I got this joke from? And this for the for the audience is a Welch's fruit snacks container container. It is a container scraps of a pouch. It's a pouch, a pouch is a more. So a pouch is like the subcategory container is the super category. It's not helpful to call it a container. I live in a container. I drive a container. Mm hmm.
00:01:04
Speaker
By that you mean your human body, right? I'm piloting a meat mech, basically. If you ever think that you're not cool, like this is for listeners out there as well, just remember that you are piloting a meat mech. And unlike Senji, you actually got in there, so good job.
Funny Names and Childhood Stories
00:01:26
Speaker
This could really devolve into a discussion about the soul, but, you know, that's, that's a little too much effort. Well, I'd rather talk about the soul than fucking Evangelion. Yeah. I feel like it's so overrated. That's the wake me up inside thing, right? Yeah. Hmm. That's the, they, they saying wake me up inside. I thought it was a stretch for me to connect Evan essence and Evangelion. I was like, where's this? Oh, yeah. They're all, they're both about Evan. So.
00:01:56
Speaker
Evan seems cool. We actually, I say we, like I'm referring to other people who are here. But me and other group of friends, there's a kid we knew in school named Evan. I won't do his last name, even though I've technically already doxxed on the podcast once because his last name is very funny. But he was just like the coolest fucking guy. It's Gaylord. We can just say it. It's Evan Gaylord. Evan Gaylord. But he had like long curly hair. He's very much like a skater kid.
00:02:28
Speaker
I thought of a better joke. I know you're describing him now. He's the skater kid, but I'm imagining an oral. So it's Evan Orrell. Oh, Evan Orrell? Evan Orrell. Ah, I see you've met my daughter, Angel. That's not a great name. What's your middle name or what's your last name? Oh, God. You're devil.
00:02:56
Speaker
But I mean, props to you. I don't know any Evans, nor do I think I've ever met an Evan. I believe I've only ever heard of that name in like popular fiction, such as like, I think Anchorman has an Evan in it.
00:03:12
Speaker
But you're like, hey, congrats for getting out there and getting to meet some people. I've never been in heaven before. It's not like a race of people. It's a name. You've got the Pokedex equivalent for names and you're further ahead than me. I'm just going to acknowledge it. What's the weirdest name? Not, I guess, weirdest, but most uncommon name of somebody who you've met.
Philosophical Debates on Sin and Morality
00:03:35
Speaker
Oh, that's kind of tough.
00:03:38
Speaker
You know what? I'm actually going to limit this because I know that we've both been to Poland. They have to be from the US. From the US. I think so. I have like an actual answer, but I don't know if it's true because this kid, the kid told stories and I was like a little bit young. I know his actual name was Tanis.
00:04:02
Speaker
which for the Borderlands fans, you'll know that the name was used there, but it's not really clear whether that's a masculine, feminine name, whatever, right? It's just Tanis. But he said that it was short for Tantalantis, which was what his mom wanted to name him. And I was like, your mom's weird. I want to call it bullshit on that. Tantalantis?
00:04:27
Speaker
He also, when we were at church camp, he tried to convince people that he, he made up the lyrics to a song. And later I learned it was a weird, weird owl song. So, um, okay. So that's, I appreciate Tantalantos because he's, he's doing like the, the soft lies where you don't find out about for like 10 years. That's such a good bit. I appreciate that.
00:04:53
Speaker
No, it was, it was definitely, I was impressed at the time. I was like, this is a good song. Um, but, uh, I didn't know he knew so many items from hardware stores. I'm mildly impressed. Uh-huh. I kept trying to remember. I think it was, it was an Elmish.
00:05:09
Speaker
How much paradise maybe it was. It was like it wasn't even like a lesser known song. It was one where people would be identifying. But he just went around like singing it and he had he had a cardboard box and he just asked people for money. He was literally grifting in the middle of this church camp. I don't know how that turned out, but it was it's funny. I feel like this person can't the length this has grown up to become like some type of social engineer. Uh huh.
00:05:37
Speaker
I don't know for people grandma's emails and social security numbers. I have no idea what he's doing with his life. I just know that it's more interesting than what I'm doing with my life. Probably not even in a good way, but more interesting. I always wonder if those people are going to like settle down or just like remain fucking crazy. But I would say Tanis would be my answer for most unique name. What about what about yours?
00:06:22
Speaker
that is a very unique name even as a middle name that are unique
00:06:31
Speaker
Like, I don't think of that as a person name, right? It's like naming someone castle, right? Like, unless you're literally the Punisher, that doesn't work, right? It's definitely, definitely not what you would expect. I'm not trying to think of people I remember from youth. A lot of them just had like the basic ass white person, one syllable names, like names. Can't stand them.
00:06:56
Speaker
I knew a Nate, I knew a Chad, I knew him. I knew him, I knew him. He went bald at like 18. That's a choice, but obviously it wasn't. That is a lot to get early. Because you have to just be like, this is who I am now, and you have to accept that other people are not going to accept that because they're young. They're like, that's weird and different and bad.
00:07:25
Speaker
And one of the few things I remember about him, he's very athletic. He like play volleyball. But the thing I most remember is I was having a discussion with a girl named Caitlin about whether God could sin or not. And he disrupted the discussion. He was just like, let's just let's talk about something else or whatever. I still kind of I can't kind of resent him to this day.
00:07:54
Speaker
He's trying to shut down the, uh, the mind working. Cause I was like, I was taking the stance. I was like, no, he can't. Obviously. Like he's incapable of it. And she was like, Oh no, he obviously could. He just chooses not to. So you could see this was a productive discussion that got disrupted here. Twitter argument years earlier. Um, it was the precursor. Well, Hey, fuck Nate. Uh, I said we complete this discussion now. Okay.
00:08:25
Speaker
So obviously, there's the argument to be made of God is setting the rules, so he would decide what is sin and what isn't. The executive override, basically. So if he could set his own rules, and he's all powerful, meaning he can do anything, he would also be able to do an action against what he said.
00:08:48
Speaker
Right. Like we said, like, I'm not allowed to just kill somebody randomly on earth and he does it. He considers that to be sin. He can sin. I mean, he does. I think I think in all right. So precursor. This is a contemporary Christianity scope. I'm coming from for this. I mean, he does do that, though. There were times where he killed people who just didn't call it sin or it's just righteous. If God does it, it's righteous.
00:09:12
Speaker
And that's the thing is like I think because sin is defined as rebellion against God to some capacity and his will. It's like impossible for God to sin. You ever Google sin? I mean, I mean, that's the important part, though, like you have to you have to act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Yeah, a sin in the eyes of God is the paraphrase.
00:09:42
Speaker
So I think it's impossible for him to send categorically because if he did something Then he's setting the the norm that he wants, you know people to follow her or whatever Which is problematic in its own right? I mean, I'm not a believer anymore For the context of the listeners, but
Masculinity and Role Models
00:10:00
Speaker
I think as a kid, I was just like, no, no, I don't think I had that rationale at the time, the categorical rationale against force in itself. I think I was just like, it's just going to cause so many problems if we did that. So no, we can't do that. Caitlin was probably smarter than me. I mean, most girls are smarter than boys for a good, a good portion of time. Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
But then they get to learning about 40K lore and they just shoot so far ahead, just so quickly. What about animals? Do animals consume? No. No. Because they don't have the free will to act on their own accord? Yeah, they're just too stupid.
00:10:53
Speaker
Just too stupid to say. It's part of the paradox of understanding that if you think about it, it's not great for Christianity.
00:11:08
Speaker
But basically the church has talked about this in different ways, but how are people treated if they never, you know, if they never had the opportunity to accept Jesus, right? Like if kids die early or people live in someplace that never had missionaries or something like that, animals are just a very extreme case of that. There's no way that they could perceive right. So animals are then by default going to heaven because
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it depends on your denomination, I guess. I think what was it? Catholics believe in Limbo, where it's like, or was it Elysium? I can't remember. I mean, I'm confusing things with like Greek mythology, but where they can kind of spend some time and then go to heaven. But yeah, contemporary Christianity, we would just say if you never had the option, then God judges the thoughts and intents of your heart and you go to heaven probably.
00:12:08
Speaker
I like the Lucy goosey rubric. Well, it's because like other people would have different interpretations of it. Right. I know. Like fire and brimstone Christians would be like, oh yeah, God is going to judge your thoughts and intents and know that you would or would not have accepted Jesus if you were prompted. But now you're getting into predestination and that's an entirely different kind of worms. So.
00:12:34
Speaker
As a as the worms thing I'm born into again on my second life assuming I didn't get in I think that's reincarnated That's a slightly different one church isn't big on that but it's more fun for sure If you can like roll the die to see what your next spawn is you're just like So there's level up level down
00:12:56
Speaker
I would love to see like a theoretical scale of like my karmic, my credit karmic balance, basically, to see where I would end up. I can't imagine it would be great. Yeah. Like, I don't know how many shitty things I've done in my life, but like, it's not like it's only one. I'm not a perfect person by any means. I don't know if I've done enough to outweigh that shit. So I feel like I would definitely go back down instead of up.
00:13:24
Speaker
It's like you cut somebody off so you're demoted from orangutan to bonobo.
00:13:32
Speaker
Fuck. They're the worst type of ace. Uh-huh. When I think about reincarnation, also, reincarnation is a fun one, but I like that they have to basically bake into the religious understanding some sort of clause about like, hey, if you off yourself, it's always a downgrade. You're always losing experience. You're going back in levels.
00:13:56
Speaker
just because the alternative is a mind trap where it's like, this life sucks. I'm going to roll the dice and see if I can do better. You don't want the people who believe you're religion. You're playing Binding of Isaac and you're just holding the reset button. You're holding the reset button. You're holding the treasure room to spawn right next to you.
00:14:18
Speaker
I feel like so many things in religion feel like very early improv where it's like Hey God exists. Don't do shitty things. Why shouldn't we do what we want to do? You're gonna go to hell like what's hell and then they just kind of kept making things up for people like well that don't do that because because this And then they're like, uh, we said too many things. I'll lock it down lock it down. Yeah, I was like essentially 70 tenants and
00:14:47
Speaker
of a given religion and they're like, uh, that's this one. How'd we do? Yeah. And outside of your perspective is definitely, definitely that for organized religion as a whole. Are you familiar with King's cup, Jake? I know you're not a drinker. I don't think so. Is that like King's quest?
00:15:09
Speaker
I wish. It'd be so much more fun. Basically, if you're playing kings, the drinking game where you basically reveal a card from a little bicycle playing cards thing, and all of the card faces have different rules.
00:15:32
Speaker
unfortunately remember like maybe it's five you have to like touch the ground and last person who has the drink stuff like that with kings specifically you get to create a rule and typically it'll be like a an ever-present rule like a global like a world enchantment so it's a memory test now yes well
00:15:53
Speaker
And keep in mind, you're drinking as well. So to be like, hey, every time before you drink, you have to put on one of my favorites that I came across is the little green man, where you have to take off a little green man who you're imagining is sitting on the edge of your cup, off, before you take a drink, and then put it back on. And if you fuck it up, you have to do it again. But if you fuck it up on the second attempt, you have to do it again. But I imagine religion works to that, to some degree.
00:16:35
Speaker
who ever is now the current authority or establishment of government really all were in a mix of modifications to the baton rule is existing thing
00:16:39
Speaker
I mean, the Catholic Church is the traditional example of that, right? Cause they have the literal papacy. But yes, also pretty good example of government and that they are literally the government for their local province. So yeah, pretty good classical example and also pretty much true, right? Like religion evolves. So if you don't believe in evolution, jot that down.
00:17:07
Speaker
by adapting to where people are in the modern day. There's kind of this traditional Christian take which is just like if Jesus showed up today and he looked like he probably looked instead of like this white guy with long hair that we all imagine him.
00:17:28
Speaker
No one would listen to him. Like no, no Christians would listen to him. They would want to kick him back to the country he came from. Like there's, there's, there's nothing like that. And it's because, are those his tenants? No, but it's where the religion is now. Right. So yes. This is why everybody kind of globally will just take the golden rule from the Bible or Christianity or wherever it initially came from. I'm just like, yeah, not even the Bible, the people.
00:17:55
Speaker
That one was just, I think that's just common sense. Not like Thomas Paine's common sense, but like maybe, I don't know where the golden rule came from, but.
00:18:08
Speaker
That one's the reasonable one. That's the command I can get behind. Should I knife that person's tire? Would you want them to do it to you? Well, no. Don't do it to them. They will. They will if you knife their tire. Yeah. I mean, so there's a little bit of that in the Bible. This is one I like, which is whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do also to me. Right? And so it's like,
00:18:38
Speaker
I think about that sometimes when the church is mistreating minorities or, you know, uh, diminished groups or people they disagree with or people who are not in positions of power, uh, or kids or whatever. And it's like, I don't really think they're thinking about that verse in this moment, right? I mean,
00:19:02
Speaker
They're very hypocritical. Or rather, hypocratic. Yeah, I was like, I think that was a that was a mix of apocryphal. They're very hypocritical for their stuff for like, what they preach, and then how they actually act out on stuff. And I'm sure there's some good ones. But I mean, we have experiences. It's the few bad apples argument, right?
00:19:39
Speaker
also unrelated. There was a cop today at sheets. Oh my gosh. So that was interesting. Like, presumably doing something instead of just ordering or they weren't ordering food. Like the people who were like, there were some like young kids who were around the same time I did. And then he came in and like pulled them aside. Oh, and I don't know what the situation was. Right. I didn't get involved to be like,
00:19:47
Speaker
the other bits
00:20:07
Speaker
I was skeptical because it was a white cop and black kids.
00:20:11
Speaker
Mm-hmm, but also like their kids so like they could have been doing some dumb shit I don't know right and you you had already made your deal So you just wanted to remove yourself from the situation at that point. I was just waiting for my food But like there wasn't like everything they look very civil just chatting about something I think the cop is trying to just figure out whatever that was actually going on He was just talking a couple of people trying to get the story straight first Okay
00:20:39
Speaker
I just imagine he walks up and he's like, so you eat here often or something like that. I thought about that today. Like if I look at my Google GPS history, he's like, you recently you've traveled to and there's just like a giant heat map of only this one sheet. You just formed a spider web. I guess it's not spider web, it's the one place, a very thick line. I like to visit sheets and then I go to the left. I go to the left of sheets. And the next time I go, I go north past.
00:21:06
Speaker
it's usually smart enough that unless you're really traveling for food it doesn't really tell you but it will tell you like um trip summaries or something like that yeah um so which i don't know when they added that i would kind of like to opt out of it because i don't think i need it you can um it's like the locational tracking on your account itself um
00:21:30
Speaker
But I always figure that if I, if I died randomly before we recorded, uh, you could use that information to find my body. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think it's like that up to date and helpful. I'm sure they have it if your phone is reporting GPS, but I wouldn't have access to it and probably take law enforcement while they get access to it as well.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, they're never gonna find my body. That's what I'm realizing. Yeah, it's real tough. Definitely coming back is a bonobo. That's a dark joke. I think it's actually funny. Like, my apartment's been like abandoned. It's like, you know, very dusty has the tarps over everything, even things that don't need tarps. And for some reason,
00:22:22
Speaker
the edge of like habit you send the link on discord, and then you join like how I missed days and then my camera turns on it just a fucking but no but the fact that the fact that the fact that
00:22:44
Speaker
I think there's probably enough evidence that if reincarnation is the thing, and to be clear, I don't believe it, there's some sort of memory wipe involved with it.
00:22:56
Speaker
You know, my favorite before we completely jump off of theology, one of my favorite like stories that have a theological structure to it is. This is just a segue. You don't even have to respond to if you say no. OK, I'll just talk about something else. So there's this story. I think it's called The Egg, I believe.
00:23:19
Speaker
Um, and, uh, I'm going to TLDR the entire thing. Uh, but basically the concept that it's based around is that, um, every single person is a person just living all of their lives before they ascend. So like, uh, every terrible person, every good person, every child, everything. We're all versions of one person.
00:23:44
Speaker
One person who does not have access to any other person's memory until the end At which point the it's called the egg because that's like the the metamorphosis into a higher beam But it's I mean, it's obviously BS but the reason it's interesting to think about is it kind of really sorry, I'll let you know where I make make commentary
00:24:10
Speaker
Oh, I was going to say, obviously BS, but the reason it's kind of interesting to think about is from like an empathy experiment, because if you put yourself in that headspace for a second, you're like, how do I treat the people I disagree with or the people I agree with or the people who I find reprehensible or maybe they do terrible things? And it's interesting to think about it in that context for a second.
00:24:32
Speaker
it
00:24:45
Speaker
Hopefully a better version, depending on the comparison. But my brain, instead of going, oh, that would be a good way to teach empathy, I'm like, so what does that make incest?
Humor and Media Analysis
00:25:00
Speaker
Just immediately. Immediately, yeah. Well, if you think about it, everyone's just, again, while we're still in theology, just really far removed from Adam and Eve. It's not actually incest. It's all just a variety of masturbation.
00:25:02
Speaker
would teach you some answers like a putting yourself in their shoes because they are you were a version of you right
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, that is. Oh, please click the link. Go to admineev.com. Oh, no. Not an affiliate. Just a friend of the show. There was a brand that was mentioned earlier in the episode too. I can't remember what it was, but also not an affiliate. I mean, we have no affiliates. I feel like our blanket state. Well, yeah, it's important to this claim now in case, you know. By the way, Gravity Blankets now on sale, 10% off user code.
00:25:40
Speaker
what if we just said what if we just like had ads we just put our own ads in but we just like use like a coupon site or something like that and be like through the end of June you can get 15% off your dominance order with 15 off thank you for using our code and it just has nothing to do with us
00:26:02
Speaker
That would be funny. Just taking credit for other existing coupon codes? Yeah, just public ones that would go out in a flyer. Although the next tier of humor would be to actually use other people's codes, right? It's just like, yeah, use Veritasium when you check out.
00:26:22
Speaker
the other they're looking at the numbers like we didn't even have like a promotion this month what happened and I was really one of the one up by two year
00:26:38
Speaker
question for you sure as somebody who just a lot of media myself but also I'm targeting this at you do you question based on my own context which you don't have what are your thoughts on this
00:26:56
Speaker
But I was going to ask, since you ingest as much media, I'm going to assume as I do, do you find yourself deconstructing a lot of things you experience, whether it be video games, movies, or even just as we're making jokes about advertisements from podcasts or infomercials?
00:27:20
Speaker
I'm going to even go an example further. I've noticed so many commercials now and I know they've been around forever where it's, hey, here's the thing. I am a sports celebrity. I am also here. The celebrity endorsement. Yeah. It's just like they put them in for like five seconds so they can say their name and like that's it.
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think so. Definitely more for things that we deal with, right? Like one of your examples was video games. Not all the time, but when we, it's been a while since we did an episode specifically for a game, but if it's like a multiplayer game, this doesn't necessarily happen as much, but for single player, I found myself like deconstructing the aspects of the game a lot more while I played it.
00:28:06
Speaker
Um, just so I could have actual points of context to come back to. Cause if I'm just like, Hey, the music sucks, which I don't know if I've ever said that for a game, but as an example, like I want to be able to identify that when I'm going through the game. Whereas if I wasn't looking out specifically for the music, I'd be like, something is irritating me right now and I'm not sure what it is. Right. What about you?
00:28:33
Speaker
Nope. You're weird. Okay. I mean, I definitely do in the same way. Sometimes to the point where I think it, it doesn't benefit me. Hmm. Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
as you deconstruct it too too much right on it's like just having that gamer sense of like figuring out which things you can break and how things don't line up with how you think they should whether it's like an animation or interaction or something else or abusing some game system and it basically it's taking you out of the I just wanna have fun and get immersed into the game
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, if you think about it, like a video game is pretty much a composite of a lot of aspects. It's the gameplay, which includes your core loop. It's your music. It's your story. It's your voice acting. It's all this stuff. But the designer, the developers jobs, including all the people that work on it.
00:29:33
Speaker
is to take all of that and create a product from that where those things mesh together well. And if you are coming at it from the perspective of reviewing or being critical or something like that, you're actually doing the opposite. You're taking that composite and you're like, all right, we're going to isolate the music. We're going to isolate the gameplay. We're going to evaluate those things instead of just asking yourself if you're having moment by moment fun.
Video Game Insights and Analysis
00:29:58
Speaker
It's kind of like if you ordered a dish from a fancy restaurant and as soon as it was on a plate in front of you, you're like, all right, first thing we're going to do here, I'm separating out the salt and the pepper. And it looks like these eggs are cooked. I'm going to separate the eggs, you know, like whatever. Right. And the brioche goes here.
00:30:19
Speaker
I feel like I might be managed an example of the law extreme as I would maybe make more can still also relates to court occasionally
00:30:38
Speaker
So if I have a really tasty meal off my mouth somewhere, I'm like, oh, that was good. But then my brain will jump to, oh, what's in it? How would I make this? Because I have some degree of context. I'm trying to translate it back to something I'm familiar with. So I think in the same way with video games,
00:30:58
Speaker
You're like, Oh, that was a really fun game. I enjoyed this section. Why? Um, was it the music? Was it the animation? Was it the voice acting? So you'll start to look for different pieces that you appreciate to a degree. So even if it's not from like a strictly analytical sense, I feel like people can do that if they have a lot of context in one thing. Yeah.
00:31:25
Speaker
I mean, it changes. That's one of the reasons. Also, I had to make a joke. He said, you make food occasionally. The joke is not even a joke, just a statement. I make food occasionally as a white man. By the way, I'm not white. I don't know if anybody assumed that I was white or not. Much like video game donkey. Dave is a black man.
00:31:52
Speaker
But I mean, the more you learn about the knowledge behind something, like, once you understand how music is made, once you know more about music, it changes the way you appreciate music. You know more about the games industry, it changes the way you appreciate games, books, being an author, anything like that, right? Expertise changes your perception of whatever the medium is. The key is, I mean, when it comes to video games, at least,
00:32:18
Speaker
As far as I know, we're not getting paid for this. If we are, Dave definitely got the better deal. And so it should still be fun, right? And so if it gets to the point where it's like, okay, we're now like disassociating while playing the game, or it's no longer enjoyable, or it's not leaning toward an enjoyable critique, because that can be fun too. Sometimes you tear into a game and it's like, let me tell you what's wrong with Fallout 76. And we would be the last people on the planet to do that, but we could and it would be fun.
00:32:50
Speaker
you're like the bomb since office I wouldn't say bad but just not greats in the space
00:33:09
Speaker
but if it's like again a triple-a budget game and I'm finding like these little things where it's like hey we figured this shit out 20 years ago what happens why not putting this in which is considered like maybe basic quality of life adjustments or accessibility settings yeah I'm gonna make fun of you
00:33:32
Speaker
I wouldn't say I like to make fun of friends as much as I like to be made fun of. You do notoriously just analyze your friends. You break them down to the elemental level. You're like 60% depression and like 10% style. I'm not sure what the rest is, but we're working on it. I still like the teasing stuff from time to time, of course.
00:34:00
Speaker
I find I do it less two people. Just because I feel like in the last five years, I want to say we became more woke. But I guess that is the term to a degree. But I think we became a lot more sensitive to people's feelings. Because it's such a terrible word. It's yeah, it's broad and shiny. And it's a right wing. But we became a lot more sensitive people's feelings because
00:34:26
Speaker
almost every interaction I have with people now, um, like people will preface context myself, themselves, Hey, I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. Or like, Hey, I just want to clarify. Like last week, I didn't mean anything. Like everybody, not something on eggshells, but they're just making sure, Hey, are we good? Or are we on the same page? Um, I'm not trying to impede on your feelings or your thoughts and actions. Um, but it happens so much more now. I feel in the last five years.
00:34:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, as a straight white male, um, listens to Bo Burnham songs. A straight ish. White ish.
00:35:10
Speaker
I'm going to keep doing this indefinitely, so sorry. I think that there was a lot of, talking about masculinity, the preconceptions of masculinity, that changed a lot between my parents' generation and my generation, between my parents and me. There you go. I don't need to generalize that out further.
00:35:33
Speaker
Um, where it's just like, there's a bunch of stuff you don't talk about as a guy. And like my dad's really sensitive. Um, and you know, I, there's things I have disagreements with, uh, but he was, you know, raised in this generation of just not talking about a bunch of stuff. Like he was very uncomfortable. We talked about this and that I think we talked about sex ed had no desire whatsoever to have any sort of communication like that with me. He wanted to skip that entire thing. Um,
00:36:03
Speaker
And the barriers, I feel like, are a little bit less pronounced now, or I hope that they are, right? The less defined you have to be this to be a man, society is, the better society is, honestly, the more accepting and, I guess, inclusive it can be.
00:36:30
Speaker
Because when you're talking about checking up on people, are you doing OK? Asking someone if they're good could almost be, to a fragile ego, an implication that they're not good. If I ask you, OK, are you doing all right? And you feel like you're trying to perpetuate this sensation that you are all right, this perception that you are all right.
00:36:59
Speaker
You're like crap someone breaking through the cracks like like why do you why do you think I'm not alright? What's brought like you know you can almost be aggressive about it, right? And that's not how it works with our friend group right like as an example of that
00:37:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's... I don't know when it happened for me. I was definitely not always this way. Cute and perfect. He wasn't born this way. No, I was born a very ugly child.
00:37:29
Speaker
my mother noted it on my birth, my birth card. They dropped them in a wishing well. But no, at some point I was like, oh, maybe it's in college. I was just like, at some point there was a
00:37:48
Speaker
I mean, I've never been like a big sports guy. I've always had some degree of health issues and like shitty back and blah, blah, blah. So maybe like that part of life was not directly accessible to me. So I did not align with it as far as like, this is how you be a guy and stuff. Um, but like people who I was respected the most were just the kindest people. Like I've never been like, man, you're just the coolest person ever. I want to be like you. It was more like.
00:38:14
Speaker
that person's really friendly and open and social and I wish I had the same skills so I'm gonna try and work on those, um, whereas if somebody's a dick, I'll remember you forever. I'll remember what you did. And you're in my imaginary book of fuck that person.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I mean, what it sounds like you're saying is like, for us at least, I don't want to extrapolate too far, right? I don't know if this is a generation or if it's just us, just our friend group, whatever, but our perception of
00:38:50
Speaker
Um, the type of person we'd like to be changed, right? It's like, you know, you don't really just want to be Superman because he's strong. You don't want to smoke because they're cool. Um, it's more like, it is pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
00:39:09
Speaker
Friend of the show, Marlboro? No, not affiliated. But having a couple examples like that, like for me, Bob Ross, right? Bob Ross is freaking awesome.
00:39:26
Speaker
I was going to say Mr. Rogers also. Freaking awesome. Super great example. There's a lot of generations who did not have people like that who were soft-spoken, who accepted others, and generally just made any situation they were involved in better. So I don't know. I think that probably makes a difference, right? Having some role models is the word I was looking for.
00:39:57
Speaker
Yes. And as much as I love my dad, I wouldn't consider him. Oh God, if you listen to him, I feel like shit. In some ways I would not consider him a great role model.
00:40:14
Speaker
this is not actually your son, this is somebody else's, this is a record, this isn't, this is, I actually wrote the script for the day today, today, so, but no, it's like, one, I don't think anybody's perfect, parents included.
00:40:30
Speaker
on the other certain things of a growing up unlike all no that's not who I want to be whether somebody else model on use like all that's that they see some people like all that's good on and I usually they're pretty obvious for people you have
00:40:50
Speaker
I'll say a decent moral compass but like there is something like a gut instinct of this seems right or this seems off or wrong on an even like very young kids can be like
00:41:09
Speaker
unless it's like your whole world and it's all-consuming and then you don't realize until you get out and talk to other people you're like, oh, that was actually super bad and not normal but I was in this bubble of that was my whole life type thing I don't know where I was going with this but to be a man I'm gonna use the loose terminology from Shin-chan to be a man you must have honor honor and a penis
00:41:38
Speaker
Okay. But I mean, with the more recent trans thing, I'm not super sure what I'm up to. Yes. But honestly, the honor is pretty optional, too. I think I make both of those. Maybe maybe negotiable for both. I think the main if I'm going to put a label on it, I think. Tenants of being a man.
00:42:01
Speaker
I mean, it really applies to fucking everybody, but sure. Something that I feel, but I've not really ever had to act upon too much is standing up for the people in your life. Yeah.
00:42:17
Speaker
Like in a lot of cases, like women are still, I don't want to say a minority, but because it's for reasons. There are more women than men. For a lot of instances, women still get the short end of the stick. Right. Testosterone. Yes. It causes it. But yeah, it's just, um,
00:42:47
Speaker
right
00:43:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think you were definitely maneuvering between land mines there for a little bit. But I think you nailed it. I think you made it through the minefield. Because I get what you're saying. You don't have to have a dick. It's fine. But no, I think like I get what you're saying, though.
00:43:21
Speaker
Um, cause there is, I dunno, it seems like this is, this is the complaint about, um, people who are grown to use the band word woke, like growing up woke more inclusive, accepting others, uh, you know, and other such evil concepts. Um, I could play against that is that they're losing masculinity, right? They were abandoning our roots, our definitions of what these things mean.
00:43:49
Speaker
or maybe like not just masculinity, right? It's like, what does it mean to be a woman, right? But the reality is, in my mind, in my humble opinion, those terms don't actually matter that much, right? Like if you're a kid, how much time do you really need to spend trying to be a man? Nothing, like literally nothing. The problem is the pursuit of it
00:44:12
Speaker
is you're told it's important and then you're told it's something that you need to live up to, right? And sometimes that could be used for some bit, some beneficial life lessons like being a protector, right?
00:44:28
Speaker
It doesn't really have anything to do with being a man. But yeah, if you have the opportunity to protect other people, that is a good beneficial attribute as a human being. So the fact that that was one of the good traits that was wrapped in there is not like worth throwing out entirely. But you can I think you can detach it from the masculinity part of it and be like, well, if you're if you're wimpy and you're not able to defend someone from like a bully or something like that is the thing. Right. It doesn't make you less of a man. Right.
00:44:58
Speaker
yet I don't think it
00:45:17
Speaker
but sometimes it can be as simple as just like saying something like there's somebody being rude or like cat calling your friend like hey cut it out fuck off I'd say I start off with cut it out before I go to fuck off open heart and then you can walk it back a little bit I'm just a little guy it's my work
00:45:40
Speaker
But yeah, um, I know I'm not a big guy myself. I'm fairly short and petite, wee, little fusion. I figured out a lot of words for these over the years. Um, but I had some other friends who were like taller or bigger guys and like, they could look threatening. Jake fucking terrifies me. Um, but even if they went up to somebody and be like, Hey,
00:46:14
Speaker
and they're just looking to see what they can get away with and sometimes they just need a little are
00:46:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I would say if you're trying to, if one of the criteria of being a good person or a decent human being is watching out for your friends or watching out for others, it doesn't always have to be in this physical, I am a body builder or a bouncer type scenario, right? This is the religious episode, apparently. We're talking a lot about theology. So I'm gonna take it back to the Trinity.
00:46:51
Speaker
You have DPS, you have tanks, and you have healers and support. Dude, I was immediately going to, like, so you have Morpheus and Neo alongside her. Uh-huh. Would have been good, too. But, you know, a tank in the scenario could be somebody who is capable of being that bodybuilder or that bouncer basically walking up and being like, hey, by my physical presence, I'm going to make this situation a little bit more chill. But I probably couldn't do that in many scenarios due to
00:47:21
Speaker
I'm relatively tall, but I also just don't want to put myself in those scenarios. But, you know, the reality is a lot of people aren't threatened by schoolyard bullies anymore like day to day, but they might need a little bit of emotional help or maybe they need to just chat. Right. So you could be the support in that scenario, the healer. And if other things in life are getting somebody down, you can still assist.
00:47:47
Speaker
in this scenario, right? So I think all of those you could wrap into being the protector, right? Which is obviously just the first of a multi-part series we're going to have on how to be a good person where we break down individual traits. But
00:48:02
Speaker
but we tie everything back to RPGs. Now remember, your support skills have cooldowns and you need to take some time for yourself to recharge. It's a good lesson, yeah. People that are very giving of themselves can give too much. If you are not in a good place, it can be
00:48:23
Speaker
self-destructive to continue to give of yourself and your time continually at the expense of your own health, right? Mental and physical. It's like if you forget the exact terminology for it, but essentially if you liken it to like a font,
00:48:41
Speaker
like fountain. Like if you're overflowing, obviously you can give your liquids, I guess water in this case or wine to other fountains or chalices or cups or containers or what have you because you have extra to give. Yeah. But if you do not have that, still trying to give some, you're giving people like the dried up stuff at the bottom of the cup. Right.
00:49:10
Speaker
It does nobody any favors yourself included Yeah to take it to the lyrics it's give me oil in my lamp keep me burning, you know, obviously oil also great analogy here I had I did have to google it a little bit. I was like, what's this or a fake imagination thing? No, it actually exists Yeah
00:49:33
Speaker
I mean, the people who listen to this podcast obviously are a tier above those that would, you know, actively seek to harm others in this world. So thank you guys for that. So I know we're preaching to the choir here, maybe a little bit literally with some of the theology, but I don't know. Others might need to hear it. Who's to say?
00:49:58
Speaker
that's a thing I feel like you always assume everybody has the exact same lexicon of information in their brain as I do and that is rarely the case and there's so many times for somebody who says like a different life experience or something else and then you hear about something for the first time or it just hits you in a certain way because you heard it at the right time and for those who are more receptive
00:50:26
Speaker
And for the listeners that don't know what lexicon means, you can add that to your lexicon.
Gaming Experiences and Preferences
00:50:30
Speaker
It's just a bunch of words and their definitions. It's like a dictionary, but fancy. There's a kid I knew growing up, Lex Luthor. His mom said his full name was Lexicon. Lexicon.
00:50:49
Speaker
Yeah. Well, lexicography is the study of words, I believe. Ah, OK. Lexicon is a collection of words, like a dictionary. It's a fetish. I have no idea how to transition to that topic to anything else. So recently I've been playing video games. Oh, what are those? So I started I picked up. So I had on my wish list for a long time, man eater.
00:51:18
Speaker
by Tripwire. I'm pretty sure they're the same people who made Killing Four. Yeah, it's just a song. I shouldn't have paid as much money for it as I did. You don't even have the edit. You have no power here. But yeah, you play as a shark.
00:51:35
Speaker
And it starts as basically like the spore. Did you ever play spore? I may have asked this exact question. I think I watched people play it. That's the correct computer for it at the time or whatever that whatever it was. And so I just noticed that entirely.
00:51:51
Speaker
It was not honestly that best of a game, but it did try to do a lot of things at once. And maybe that was the problem. But the first phase has you basically like as a cell and you just eat other organisms that are slightly smaller than you keep growing. Osmosis is also literally this mechanic played the flash fish game.
00:52:11
Speaker
Yeah, it'd probably be similar then. But basically, that's the gameplay is you start as a small shark and you grow by eating stuff and eventually get to the point where it's like humans are on the menu and you eat so many people as the title would include or title would imply.
00:52:29
Speaker
And it's a pretty decent game. I don't think, I'd probably give it like mid 70s. It's good. It's kind of high. Well, it's like, I mean, mid 70s for me are like, it has good aspects and there's not a reason you shouldn't play it, really. But it's also like, there are great games out there, right? So you wouldn't put it above anything, but if somebody played it, you'd be like, oh, I had fun playing that. I would put it above bad games.
00:52:58
Speaker
That's where I put it. Good is between bad and great in my team. But it was it was all right and it was very it was inexpensive and I got it off my wish list. So it's nice to get that done. It was also like, I think, 11 hours to complete everything and the DLC and I'm just like free. This wasn't a 100 hour JRPG. I did not spend a crazy amount of time on this and I got it done.
00:53:26
Speaker
What would you say are some highlights of the game? How does it play, I guess? Gotcha. So it basically has like some RPG elements where because of, I mean, it's like radiation or mutation, like serums or something that you eat or whatever, you can basically get powers for your shark and that you equip it to slots like it was armor, basically. Right. But it's your fins and your teeth and your tail and your body.
00:53:56
Speaker
Um, and then the part that makes no sense in any context, even if you go for the mutations is, uh, you can swap them out at will, right? You just go back to your Haven. You're like, Oh, I'm going to be a tiger shark today. Or I'm going to be a shadow. Go back to the shop doc. He's like, Oh, yeah. Yes. This is, this takes place in the cyberpunk universe, I think.
00:54:15
Speaker
Um, and the coolest parts are definitely like some of the later powers. Um, so like the three archetypes are like bio electric, uh, and that one makes it. So if you equip it on your fins and you go to dodge, you like turn into electricity and you displace faster and further than you usually would.
00:54:37
Speaker
Or it's like the shadow tail can like throw an orb of shadow like do a tail whip and hit an enemy with it Or they go fast and they go faster with the shadow parts. So you kind of end up being this like amalgamation
00:54:53
Speaker
of shark parts, of the things that are fun to use. There's a bone shark type and it does really well against ships. You can just start ramming into ships and just tear them to pieces. And that's fun. That's definitely where almost the entirety of the enjoyment of the game comes from, outside of a couple set piece boss fights.
00:55:17
Speaker
Nice. And then the music. Look up like Arc Shark. I'm going to I'm going to put it as the outro. I'm just going to make this note now. Arc Shark is the outro because it's very brief and it's freaking great. I'll send it to Dave afterwards and he can judge it. Sorry, you were going to say something.
00:55:39
Speaker
I'd say it sounds like a good time. I think I watched Steve play some back in the day. It didn't look like something that I personally would be trying to vibe with, but that's kind of the trick. That's why it's a 75 is it's like, I don't know who I recommend this to. It's technically a simulator game, but even if you like simulator games, do you like simulator games where you play as a shark and the main draw is fighting and eating people?
00:56:06
Speaker
Like, I don't know who the target market is for that, but because of that, I'm glad it exists, right? Because I would rather have more weird games where I can't just put it on a list. Like, this isn't in anybody's top baseball games list or FPS or third person anything. It's probably one of two shark games. So that was fun. It was a nice little diversion.
00:56:34
Speaker
Does it make you appreciate fishing games all the more because you know what lies under the depths? So I got to save the depths episode because I know at least one other person who's played and beat that one. I know you weren't making a reference to literally the game. Oh, it's called dredge, right? Yeah, there's probably one called the depths, too, but that's not what I'm talking about. I like that game. I like dredge.
00:57:02
Speaker
I heard a dredge was really well received by multiple people who are in our friend group. Also just in general, all the streamers seem to get a kick out of it. That's pretty good. I don't think it's going to upset Subnautica for me. Subnautica is like it is it is the king of underwater kind of horror, but just horror because I'm scared.
00:57:29
Speaker
It's fair to say that that game's scary, actually. I think that's just generally true.
00:57:35
Speaker
What other types of horror are there? Other than above water horror, because I'm scared. Well, so it sounds like scary horror, like it maybe go. I feel like for some people. I say, for instance, like Doom 3 might not have been a horror game, but they specifically made the choice that you couldn't have your gun and your flashlight on at the same time. So for some, it was a horror game, right?
00:58:03
Speaker
But Subnautica's like, there are times like a Reaper, like Leviathan is coming straight for you and it grapples you in an animation. And you're like, yeah, this is actually just a horror game. It's like maybe we don't waffle on that one. Um, so, you know, until DR is Jake does not appreciate jump scares. I actually don't. I don't like jump scares. Do you like jump scares games?
00:58:28
Speaker
No. I was just more so citing a recent event that had happened, which we can talk about at a later time. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be fun. Oh, man, I almost I almost suggested like, hey, could we just like delay the record? We could just play this. It'll be fine. And then I was like, I have no time to make up the recording this week. This would be a suggestion to cancel. I'm not going to do that.
00:58:59
Speaker
So we'd be excluding someone, but you know, can't talk about that. It's a future episode, maybe, probably, we'll see. Well, you already had your words of wisdom for this episode.
00:59:15
Speaker
Is there anything you've done that you want to inform people about? No crimes. Or something else that you want to throw into this mishmash, this cauldron of an episode to round us out? Throws out a list of crimes I was working so fucking hard on.
00:59:43
Speaker
that feels nice to at least feel like I'm making an effort on my own mom will see where that goes I probably still need a couple one or two other doctors on for specialists on
01:00:04
Speaker
, like the first month is like a dollar to try a couple titles
01:00:26
Speaker
That game is scorned by the way. Yeah. I got an hour in and I'm like, I don't have a patient for this dumb shit. Yeah, that's fair. I was a little afraid of that. I was afraid that the theme and the HR Geiger likeness of the game was not enough to carry it.
01:00:44
Speaker
Like I know there is a story there. Um, but like the whole thing just feels very obtuse. I don't know. It's just, I wasn't getting enjoyment from doing the stuff in the game. Therefore I wasn't really enjoying the game. That's fair. Yeah. I mean, if I ever wanted more of scoring, I'd just go to the dreaming city.
01:01:07
Speaker
That's a reference for a very specific group of people who might listen to this. But I'm sure that in future episodes we might discuss more about our impressions of Game Pass. I also have it, so we'll see what we can make of that. But it'll just be nice to have...
01:01:24
Speaker
to be part of the group where people don't need to try to sell it to us anymore. Because I think we pretty much always agreed it was a good deal. It just didn't make sense at the time to pick it up.
Conclusion and Audience Engagement
01:01:35
Speaker
So now it's just like, not only do we agree it's a good deal, we already have it. You don't need to sell us at all. So we're there with you. But on that note, I will say if you guys have recommendations for games that are available on Game Pass that you'd like us to check out,
01:01:53
Speaker
Feel free to send those in. I have a quick lookup spreadsheet, but I'm not going to link. I think you can just Google what games are on Game Pass. There's a lot, though. Send in those recommendations to Soapstone Podcast at gmail.com, or you can join the discussion on Facebook, which is entirely dedicated to Game Pass discussion. Not just for our page, for all pages. Facebook.com slash Soapstone Podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night. Bye.