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Extended Warranty for Castle Anxiety
64 Plays2 years ago
Join Dave, Jake, and special guest Mango as they talk about productivity games, the going rate for a castle hermit, what the dog doin', and anxiety in this action-packed episode!
Intro:
- The Sims 4 - Test Card 44 - Full Version
Outro:
- The Sims 4 - Test Card 44 - Calm Version
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:29
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake, and I am joined by my co-host as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going good. And I'm joined by my co-host as sometimes Mango. How's it going tonight, Mango? Hello. It's raining and I'm very tired. Yeah. You know what? I'm not dead, so it goes well.
00:00:52
Speaker
That's fair. That's fair. That's a pretty high. That's a pretty, I would say low bar to clear it out. You're like, I'm not dead. Let's get it. That's the was that the silver lining on it's raining, but I'm not dead. Yeah, I don't know. I like the rain, but it's kind of cold right now. I took the trash out in the rain and it's like.
00:01:18
Speaker
I don't know. It's it's some it's an early sad scene in a movie about a child who's going through like rough stuff in life. It's basically what it's like going out in that weather.
Weather and Health Effects
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, I had to take the dog out a little bit earlier after she ate. And anytime there's like a weather change outside of like static.
00:01:40
Speaker
there's air and there's sun. Uh, she starts to get like outside zoomies and she'd like went into a stance and then started like running at the full length of the leash around me, uh, while still maintaining the stance. That's really weird. Rain is good. I just have bad bones. So, uh, the bones hurt. Yeah.
00:02:05
Speaker
I still like, I should at some point like look up what that is because it seems, it sounds like the thing that would be like an old wives tale. You're just like, oh, oh, my joints are aching. It's probably, it's going to rain or something like that. Right. But like legitimately, it does impact a lot of people. So there has to be science behind it. Oh, there is. I forget what it's called. Barometric pressure, the air pressure change, say barrel trauma, basically bone trauma.
00:02:34
Speaker
air pressure changes and the body's like, I didn't like that. So you get pain. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah, I can confirm its existence as well. My mom had that a lot. I mean, she still does. I just I hear about it less now. Yeah.
00:02:53
Speaker
I know, I know what exists. I still have this association with like, ah, you're a witch, like a suit, say, or something like that. Right. I'm going to say old person. I mean that too, but you don't have to be old. Yeah. Good. I'm going to opt out then. There you go. I would like to be relatively youthful. Uh-huh. Um, never going to grow up toys. I was kidding.
00:03:21
Speaker
I like how like the I have multiple grays in my beard and hair. They're just usually tucked away. But I have one that's like predominantly just from my bottom of my chin, like just straight out. It's like, hey, motherfucker. What was the the long ago? It's like someone discovered spinjitsu or whatever it is that meme template. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that.
00:03:47
Speaker
No. No. It's very funny. You'll just have to take my word for it because I'm not going to be able to look it up fast enough. It's very funny. But usually the format is someone ended up in some situation that like maybe they shot water out of their nose or something like that. And it's just like they look like they have the old traditional like Chinese sort of mustache.
00:04:10
Speaker
The sensei sort of like the wispy. Yeah, the wispy mustache. And it's just like and then it just freezes frame and goes to long ago. You know, it's it's pretty great. I didn't give you guys a lot, but look it up. It's a good time. I'll take your word. If I remember, I'll post it later and you guys will be like, that's moderately entertaining. It's going to get. Oh.
00:04:40
Speaker
Um, otherwise what's going on? You guys playing any games?
Exploring Time Management and Safe Spaces
00:04:47
Speaker
Uh, I've got pomo farm. If you count that as playing a game. Sure. Sell us on it. What is pomo farm?
00:04:55
Speaker
It's an idle game and also a time management game. It's 4.99 and you have a farm and you buy your seeds, you plant them and then you do your set amount of focus time where you're working. And then you get a break for five minutes and you can harvest your crops, plant new seeds and expand your farm. That's focus time again. I've played for 16 hours so far.
00:05:25
Speaker
Oh, I've had it open. And like, do you have to manage the idols or like, and like, kind of like they're singing and debuts and like meeting with fans or? What? Ah, this is a joke. Dave is making a joke.
00:05:41
Speaker
This is IDOL. He's talking about the idle farm. No, this is tragically not K-pop, which is a known manufacturer of the idle farm. This is a different idle farm.
00:05:58
Speaker
I like the idea for that, though. I've played some idle games or games that have idle-esque attributes. And I'm susceptible to this. You both know this about me, that it's like I could get pulled into that type of game, but I'm just going to use cheat engine to speed it up, which kind of defeats the point.
00:06:20
Speaker
The last game I played was like an MMO simulator or something like that, that was idle. But I ran a lot of the game at 20 times speed. Just, you know, letting the guy kill stuff and harvest stuff as fast as possible. I only needed to make it, let it go like one time overnight. And I was done in a couple of days with you all of the content, the stuff that usually is going to require people to like play for hundreds of hours or whatever.
00:06:47
Speaker
I regret zero percent of it because I got like the full game experience in this compacted efficient amount of time.
00:06:55
Speaker
Um, I will be the third part of the triangle in that I don't understand either side of what you guys are saying. Really? I mean, I hear it. I'm not an idle game type person. I need active engagements. Otherwise I'll just get distracted by something. I will say Pomo farm is more time management, less game. It's basically, I'm sending a timer for myself and a set five minute break.
00:07:25
Speaker
And in that short minute break, I'm going to plant crops and harvest. And then I have like four minutes left to just stretch. Okay. Just use that. It's just like a setting fixed breaks in. Yeah. It kind of.
00:07:44
Speaker
People have talked about gamifying productivity breaks and sessions and stuff like that. And I guess this is taking a step further. And it's not just you're literally turning it into a game, right? Yeah. And it's cute. Which is a cool idea.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah, I tried something, not a game version, but just like a, oh, you focus for like an hour and a half and then you're good for like half an hour to do something else. And I got, I think I did it for like an hour and then it just fell apart because
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah. And having to focus for an hour, not an hour and a half. That sounds that sounds awful. That's way too long. I have medians that are that long. I think it's possible if you're stripped of all distractions, because like when I was working in an office, don't let anybody hear this to use as justification. But when I was in an office and I had absolutely no distractions, I couldn't really do fun stuff. It's just here's your work thing.
00:08:45
Speaker
It's your very work minded about everything. And the only breaks really like, I need to pee or have lunch. And then when you're outside of that, you're not really thinking about work so much. Whereas working from home, I definitely have to manage more of the
00:09:01
Speaker
I'm in work mode. I'm not in work mode type thing, but I appreciate the flexibility a lot more, but there are definitely times in meetings where I don't want to be there. And then I'll be like, Oh, there's a new YouTube video by somebody. I just have that queued up on the side.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, I learned I can in fact focus for an hour and a half, but I need about 200 milligrams of caffeine to do it. Otherwise I get a good 30 minutes and then I need to get up and like step away.
00:09:33
Speaker
And then I can come back. But if I have a butt ton of caffeine to where I can just tunnel vision what I'm doing for the next nine hours, I'm set. I may not drink any water in that time, but boy, howdy. Am I going to get it done? Great. Yeah, I feel like everybody should stretch more, myself included, because I never do it.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely classify a sedentary lifestyle on all measures, right? It doesn't matter how lenient this is. This could be defined by people who want to explicitly skew the results, and I would still end up under sedentary. So more stretch breaks is always good. I do find from the question of productivity and working,
00:10:31
Speaker
I had the same issue, like Dave was mentioning sometimes with focus, especially kind of early in work from home. But like a lot of it comes down to like how you work, I guess, and do you have work in front of you? Because I've been so much more busy like the last several months. And so even on days where I'm like, doesn't feel like there's much going on, I could totally just like load up a video game or something like that, like play switch or something.
00:10:59
Speaker
That really doesn't materialize that much because I find someone will reach out to me or there's something else I can pick up. And so like staying busy is basically the cure for getting distracted for me. And if it's a distraction, in this case, it's usually a distraction of something else I have to work on. Someone else is reaching out for something or whatever. I need you to work on practicing electric god windfist.
00:11:27
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I did the one time, but it's very hard. It's less hard now. The key is in the forward, down, down, forward input. You hit.
00:11:41
Speaker
A at the same time that your brain is saying, put in the down input, not when your brain says you just put in the down forward input. You do it like one step ahead because like the joystick motion is faster than the tap. Anyways, that's the advice. Um, I read it online and then I tried it and I was like, huh, why does this work so much? Why do I not have as much coordination as I thought I had?
00:12:12
Speaker
Is that part of what you've been playing lately, Jake? No, I haven't played more Smash than usual. In fact, maybe even a little bit less or at least delayed. I've been playing Bloodborne and Nightingale, but a lot more Bloodborne than Nightingale. I mean, I know Bloodborne. I think it's a good game.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, it does hold up. And I will say playing through it again, it's not as it's very obviously streamlined compared to a lot of Souls games, right? Like I say, I'm a Dark Souls 2 apologist. That game has so much content and so many bosses and just so much stuff. And Bloodborne is like it's almost linear by comparison. It's not really. And it does have optional areas, but
00:13:05
Speaker
The checklist to do everything in the game is like not that long, it's like three pages or something. So, still good though. Now what's this Nightingale thing that people have been playing?
00:13:22
Speaker
So that one's just me. I offered Mango. I was like, hey, you know, it's inexpensive. There's a little discount when the game came out. Are you sure you don't want to play with us? But she declined. And I think it's kind of fair. What was your rationale for not jumping aboard the Nightingale train?
00:13:39
Speaker
Um, I got a minute into the trailer and I got bored and I was like, it looks cool, but there's nothing catching my interest. And also I recently played a survival crafting game, which means I'm set for about four to six months on survival crafting games. And then I'm going to want to play seven days to die.
00:14:04
Speaker
So that's the thing. Like you do survival crafting for like maybe just like a week, maybe two weeks. And you're like, I'm done forever. And then someone's like, Hey, do you want to do that one survival crafting game that we all play together? You're like, yeah. Which one comes first at the right time? Cause it could be Valheim too. Valheim was good, but it's like, once I play a survival crafting game, they're all different themes.
00:14:29
Speaker
and you craft different things, but it's the same core. The core mechanics are gonna be the same. You're building, you're crafting, you're collecting, you're farming, and it's like, I just did that. I'm good. I don't wanna do it anymore. I'm gonna do something else. Yeah. It's the reason that...
00:14:51
Speaker
there was that huge surge in survival crafting is because there is this fundamental like itch to do survival crafting stuff, I think, but that need can be fulfilled. And once it is nothing else in the genre even seems like appealing, right? Yeah.
00:15:09
Speaker
To that end, I actually played two survival crafty games prior to Nightingale, so I have a very clear mind to receive, to receive how it's coming along. And to be fair, I haven't put a lot of time into it, and we're playing just as a group, and we've only met once. But it seems like good. It's made by expireware devs.
00:15:33
Speaker
So there's a lot of dialogue. There's a lot of journal entries and stuff like that you can find. And I'll be honest, I'm like, yeah, this is definitely Bioware, because I didn't read these for Mass Effect. I didn't read these for Dragon Age. I'm not going to read them for Nightingale. What's crazy is for Baldur's Gate 3, a game that I love,
00:15:55
Speaker
They're like, hey, here's like a little thing that somebody wrote. I'm like, don't give two shits. And I did not read anything in that game. It's like a quest related item. Yeah. I don't mango shaking her head because she read every single thing. I read every single thing. I read every.
00:16:12
Speaker
every little thing, every letter. But you have the advantage of being more invested in the Forgotten Realms in general. So as they're talking about deities, as they're talking about heroes and stuff like that, you could be able to piece this together in ways that Dave maybe couldn't. Oh, well, I mean, I found Elminster's library. So once I found that, it's like,
00:16:34
Speaker
This has paid off for me. But yeah, so I don't I'm not comfortable giving like a final score tonight in Gale. It does seem like it does some it has some cool ideas, but there are also some more sort of procedural random events and stuff like that that feel a little bit more MMO esque and MMO is never like
00:17:00
Speaker
Outside of group content, MMO is not like top shelf gameplay, right? Like they specifically made concessions when you're dealing with open world quests and MMOs and stuff like that. That makes it less compelling than the best single player stuff. And so it's OK in that aspect, but we'll see. I like the I like the whole like realm building with cards and stuff, but the game so far has been very constrained in what they actually let you do with cards. So we'll see what comes of it.
00:17:30
Speaker
I will say, no other MMO will explicitly make it clear that you are definitely British. Yeah, yeah. And this isn't an MMO. I should say it's just some of the parts are MMO-esque. But the character creator, Mango, and I were looking at it, and the vibe we got was very much like,
00:17:53
Speaker
You know how the character models look like in Dishonored? They're kind of like angular and elongated. They're stretchy. Yeah, we hands. I got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad you know what that is, Dave. That's kind of just how a lot of the default character starting faces look. And we were trying to put our
00:18:16
Speaker
We're probably trying to put a word to it, and we're like, okay, they're kind of like, they're kind of like primitive man sort of facial structures and things like that, Neanderthal-esque. And, okay, their teeth can be messed up and stuff. Oh, they're British. Okay, it's just British. Once I saw the teeth, I was like, okay, you're British. That makes sense. Got it.
00:18:41
Speaker
They're trying to colonize and steal. Listen, you go to different realms and set up camp. Yeah, you're British. All right. It's British thing I've ever seen.
00:18:53
Speaker
The only thing they didn't steal was good food. And I have not been able to make good food yet. It's mostly just killing things and roasting meat, but that's fine. It's a survival game. You say that, Dave. Oh, so I was going to go to the food in that you're acting like they didn't take over India, which has delicious food. But here's the thing. That's Indian food. It's not British cuisine. Right.
00:19:18
Speaker
Okay, I mean, depending on the food, you've got like the British made Indian cuisine, which is still good because it's got Indian in it.
00:19:30
Speaker
But I've seen a British breakfast and it's so beige. Mm hmm. The full English breakfast is like how much burnt stuff do you want? I feel like I'm shitting on Britain now. We are, but I mean, they deserve it for this. Like none of their food. Like if they have good.
00:19:50
Speaker
food for the nation, for the nationality, stuff like that. They gotta tell people about it. Because what it seems like is whenever people talk about British food, it really seems like it's the leftover parts from a cow after everything has been sold that should be sold. It's always like blood sausage or something like that. You're like, oh, because no one else had to use for blood? Is that what this is?
00:20:16
Speaker
You wouldn't eat the tongue of a cow? Why not? Yeah. It's like, I'm good. Thanks, though. Yeah. I mean, the stuff that like sounds more appetizing to me, like fish and chips or something like that, it's not even really that British. It's just like, OK, you have some French fries and fish. There you go. So a French fries, French fish. My 23andMe said that I am. I've got a lot of UK.
00:20:45
Speaker
and Wales in there, so Wales is different. But I'm in that general area as well, so I'm allowed to be mean to it. I think a great grandmother of mine was from Wales also, actually. There you go. Welsh. I don't know if she was actually Welsh. I almost said that, and then I was like, I don't know if she actually was Welsh.
00:21:12
Speaker
There was a castle. Everybody, if they go back far enough, they're related to some castle. Dude, I would love to fucking get a castle in some distant inheritance, I think. Oh, by the way, you're actually the last living relative of this person. And I guess you have this. It's like, I don't have to do it, but that's cool.
00:21:31
Speaker
It's basically like a Nigerian print scam. You're just getting an email someday. It's just like you're the last living. I can't believe I found you. Please reach out to me so you can claim your castle. What would you guys do if you actually had like a decently sized castle? I'd live in it. Probably. I mean, you could try to live in it.
00:21:54
Speaker
My brain, now that we're like homeowners, immediately goes to the logistical problems of trying to insulate a castle. And like, it's not good. We probably don't insulate all the parts, you know? But the thing is, anything that you don't insulate...
00:22:09
Speaker
is just going to be completely subject to rapidly changing temperatures depending on the time of the year, right? I would rent it out for events at affordable prices. Oh my gosh, yeah. Do you want to have like a vending event? There you go. Affordable prices. Enjoy my castle, sucker.
00:22:30
Speaker
love to have like a bachelor party type thing where it's like, oh, yeah, we just have the castle for the night and you just have like a bender where like people are drinking. It's like, I'm going to go put on the armor and run at Johnny with this jousting. Obviously, find a safe version of that. But yeah, it would be cool to have like that open of a space. Mm hmm.
00:22:52
Speaker
That would be cool. I'm imagining now that you've described like, oh you use this for parties and stuff. You just live like in the groundskeeper shack. You let other people use the castle or you rent it out. Or you fill it all with balls for like a ball pit, a ball castle if you will.
00:23:11
Speaker
I think it'd be funny to have a land party in a castle. Yeah. Yeah. Really long ethernet cable. Man, yeah. Plumbing and utilities and all of these concerns get really difficult when your walls are made of stone. Basically, every single turret has like a wire going across it, whether it's an extension cable or an ethernet cord.
00:23:36
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Nah, man. Man, I would love to host a party in a castle. That would be pretty cool.
00:23:44
Speaker
I think the other factor is I'm going to the mundane downsides to owning a castle and stuff like that. You're like, oh, utilities, and how do you wire stuff and all this crap? If you own a castle, you're probably amongst the group of people who don't care about things that cost money, right? Yes. You're probably doing OK if you own land, let alone a property on that land.
00:24:13
Speaker
like there it's possible to own land in the united states it's uncommon to also own serfs and that's what you get with a castle so oh dude i would yeah i would definitely want to
00:24:25
Speaker
I'd have like a rotating cast of people from Fiverr. Cause like, you know how DDDs brought in all like that throne that are like held up by waddle D's. I'm not saying I would like do it all the time, but it would be a nice option. Yeah. And all they got to do is they just, they just give a portion of the grain that they harvest each year to you. You know, you can pay me back in basmati rice. Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
This is what you do. If you have a castle and you've got a lot of land, you hire garden hermits. It's literally you pay someone to live alone on your property.
00:25:11
Speaker
That's it. I think in the past they were- I need to attend to these shrubs. Yeah, okay. Also, you can't have guests over. I looked up the Wikipedia article because I'm like, what were these guys called? They were garden hermits or ornamental hermits.
00:25:26
Speaker
What in the world? But they would be encouraged to remain permanently on site, where they could be fed, cared for, and consulted for advice or viewed for entertainment. But this is modern age, so maybe we don't do the last part. But like, imagine you just pay someone to live on your property to be like a little old man in the woods. So what's funny, I like that you mentioned the term ornamental hermit.
00:25:51
Speaker
Because I think the intent is that they are helping the ornamentation, like with upkeep and stuff like that around the castle. But it really could just be that the person is the ornament, right? No, they were there to be a part of the land. And as the last bit of the sentence says, viewed for entertainment, they were an ornament to the land. And, uh,
00:26:25
Speaker
It's an interesting idea, I do think.
00:26:31
Speaker
There's probably worse, now I'm not an apologist for what, this sounds like slavery, you'll just be honest, it sounds like you're paying a little bit of money to somebody who otherwise doesn't have much going on, but that's the thing, if I was going to be basically just a little addition to a castle plot or something like that, I would love to be perceived as helpful in some way, or at least improving things. Hear me out, all right? I feel like there's a good demographic that we could use for this.
00:27:00
Speaker
theater kids the walmart greeters oh yeah i don't need to be greeted when i go into a store fucking ever um you don't even need to do it in a restaurant just like once i'm seated i just need to interact with the server and like that's it we also don't need bathroom attendants but like you just have like
00:27:20
Speaker
It's like if you're giving somebody a tour of the grounds, you're like, oh, and then there's somebody who lives over there on your property. It's just like a little nice to have, you know? Right. You can always ask, you're like, okay, well, this is the hermit that I have. Like, oh, how many hermits do you have at your studio apartment? How much do you pay your hermit to live here? You pay your hermits?
00:27:45
Speaker
No, they were, they were literally paid to be there and whoever like was paying them also fed them, took care of them and they would kind of, like you had a little pet and they would do like little performances for people. So if someone asked them,
00:28:08
Speaker
They're leprechauns. That's basically what you're describing. They're like, they'll ask you for a boon or something in an exchange before these tasks. I just like the idea of somebody hitting like a large gong in the food hall that echoes out to the grounds and then all the hermits kind of like shuffle in for hermit dinner.
00:28:34
Speaker
I love it. No, that's entirely fair. I think it'd be great. We should bring it back. Bring it back. It's like how people used to pay artists, like here's 10 years of room and board and we'll feed you. Just make something. I think we can do that for Hermit.
00:28:55
Speaker
That was the original Patreon. They actually just called them patrons. I think we should bring it back. So if anyone wants to give me 10 years worth of salary, I'm here. You know where to find me.
00:29:10
Speaker
I don't know if you need room and board though. We do, we do have a house. Unless you want to tell me, unless you're telling me that you would like to live somewhere else for 10 years. She wants to get paid to live at her existing house. That's pretty good. I guess I kind of do that already though. They still give us the money and then we put that in the mortgage.
00:29:35
Speaker
Ah, okay. And then the money. It's less romantic, for sure. Yeah. In the classical sense, there's less romanticism too. Ah, you paid me. I can use this towards debt. Jake, you could help out. You could like be the easel and you can hold the canvas. That's a pretty good deal.
00:29:59
Speaker
So, guess what I've been playing recently. What have you been playing recently? That was a guess. I'm trying to remember what I see pop up on Steam. I can't remember.
00:30:14
Speaker
Uh, close, but I was going to say the ollie frog toad skater demo. Oh, yeah. I didn't see that pop up on steam, so I would never gotten it. Cutesy frog skating game. And it's it's going to come out at some point. It's going to be completely novel, but. It's cute. It's the new kind of game, is it? A skating game like Tony Hawk. OK, yeah. Like a person doing tricks, doing flips.
00:30:44
Speaker
I hope you have tag mode. Pop, shove it. 50-50 board slide. Dark slide. Christ here. Goofy. Also playing Kadamari reroll as well. That's the one I did see. I couldn't remember the name. And is reroll just remastered or something? No, it's the sequel. So it's the second game.
00:31:13
Speaker
But it's been nice. Friend Landon got it for me for Christmas, I think, and I just sat on it for a little bit. But I was like, oh, let me play some Katamari. And it's really good to go back to the complete insanity that is that game. And it's just really fun to roll things up.
00:31:35
Speaker
I also enjoy like the stacking sound bites of every single thing you can pick up has a sound effect. Right. And they just play in succession and that they don't. It's not like you picked up two people. It's like, oh, the first person now gets cut out. Right. The next person will play. No, no, no. They all keep playing in all layers. Yeah. It's just a fun little game. Yeah.
00:31:59
Speaker
I have Katamari. I've got to play it at some point. I've been keeping it pristine. And by that, I mean it still has shrink wrap on it, but I will have to play it at some point. Did you get it for Switch? I think it was Switch. It was either Switch or PlayStation. Okay.
00:32:19
Speaker
And maybe it's only released on one of them. So historically, it's been PlayStation, but I only mentally remember that just because of the dual analogs at the same point.
00:32:34
Speaker
But yeah, anything that has two analog sticks, I think you can have a good time with it. Yeah. The talk about the multiple audio layers actually reminds me of a little tech. This is a segment we call Tech Tidbits here for Soapstone, where we talk about arbitrary things. And across time, it's been a while since this was really the case. But in early computing, you could actually introduce lag to a game by having too much audio overlap.
00:33:02
Speaker
Like you could literally slow down a game by having too many sounds play. And that's just bonkers to think about.
00:33:10
Speaker
Cause it would take up processing time. Just cause like, yeah, because it was like, okay, well we were playing all of this audio and we have to context switch to like play each of these. Cause you know, you don't think about what your computer's doing when it's playing audio, but it still has to be switching to each piece being like, okay, grab me the next part of the buffer for this sound, the next part of the buffer for this sound, the next part of the buffer for this sound.
00:33:34
Speaker
And it makes sense when you think about that for graphics and you're like, okay, your graphics card is doing too many things at once. So the game is starting to slow down, right? Really cool shadows and water effects or physics or whatever. But like the same could be true of sound. It's a lot easier to do than modern graphics, but back in the day, it was a problem. So. Okay. Yeah. This has been tech tidbits, a new segment here of the soapstone.
00:34:06
Speaker
Sorry, I saw that the dog had awoken in my back camera. But hopefully she's going to lay back down. There you go. It looks like it looks like it. How's the dog treating you?
00:34:21
Speaker
The dogs will meet how you treat the dog. Oh, I punches and kicks mainly kicks as easier because I don't have to bend down. Right. More range. Well, it's been it's been good, though. I mean, I schedule wise, I definitely find myself taking on.
00:34:39
Speaker
Like I feel like a young dog dad who like doesn't know what he's doing, but like I have to get up earlier to make sure I can take care of the dog stuff before work hours. Um, got to make sure the dog can go out to pee or just get some fresh air. Um, I got to pet the dog when she stares at me relentlessly. That's mandatory. Um, and I've been in too many meetings, so I need to take a break. Um,
00:35:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's just weird how many extra considerations I'm having to add on the things that I wouldn't have thought about out of the blue. Right. But at the same time, it's nice because like I'll make her dinner of right now it's mild diet of like rice and some stuff.
00:35:23
Speaker
Um, but as I prepare that, then I'm like, Hmm, this smells good. And I pretend to eat it. Um, or if she doesn't want to eat something that's like good for her, like I got like a little doggy toothbrush, chewy, uh, like sniffed it and she's like, no, not for me. And I started like fake eating on it. Like you would for a kid eat your vegetables. Right. And then she's like, Oh, okay. That's very funny. All these like little things I'm doing just to make sure that one's happy. Um,
00:35:55
Speaker
But I don't mind it really that much either. It's just like if she gets into some shit or if I need to run an errand or do something outside of the house, I have to just account for her. Yeah, which is I understand why people get cats for these reasons, but that's I mean, it's I understand when people like baby their pets because they become part of your family and they're fucking cute. They're very cute.
00:36:22
Speaker
And they tend to not like, I'm not a misanthrope or I don't believe that I am. Like I generally get on with people, but pets are like a special level of that, right? It's like, there's never a situation where you're like,
00:36:40
Speaker
It's Thanksgiving dinner. You're talking about politics. I just really wish you were here right now, right? Dogs and cats don't do that. So there's more of a inherent innocence there. Even if it can occasionally, they do destroy your belongings, right?
Social Anxiety in Friendships
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. It's the thing of, it's that weird balance of.
00:37:01
Speaker
They will do some bad things, but I love them or they're so annoying or they're so messy, but I love them, which is something I always notice that whenever people describe their pets, which is primarily cats for a lot of our friend group was basically just that. And I'm like, oh, she is kind of stinky, but she's cute. Oh, she did destroy the blinds, but it's because she missed me. She got that anxiety.
00:37:30
Speaker
Yeah. Dogs don't have the concept of good and bad. It doesn't exist. They don't have morals. Well, I think she knows when I'm upset with certain things. Oh, yeah. There could be consequences, but they don't have the.
00:37:46
Speaker
Their good and bad equivalent would be what is the repercussion for my action? Right. Yes. Well, it's mainly did the person that I want to appease, are they upset with me? How do I appease them? Right. Yeah. And like show them that like, oops. Don't be mad at me. Mm hmm. And then I'm a tummy rub and it's like, yeah.
00:38:16
Speaker
So easy to get a tummy rub because like if I raise my voice at all, I think she has some me beyond the anxiety Maybe some other stuff going on but she's the the first one just like just crouched down and like go on her belly like I'm so so sorry like I'm I'm presenting myself as vulnerable And you are the alpha. I'm like, I'm not that maverick You know It's very funny, it's like it's
00:38:43
Speaker
The real life equivalent would be like, you're just slightly upset with a friend and they're like, I will fall on my sword. I offer my life to you. I will commit Sudoku.
00:39:00
Speaker
Yeah, dogs are pure though. That's pretty good. Obviously, I mean, we have a cat and I'm kind of a cat person, but I think it's impossible. Well, it's not impossible to not be a dog person, but I'm deeply suspicious of anyone who is deeply suspicious of dogs. I appreciate
00:39:22
Speaker
being around dogs, right? Dogs are very, uh, enthusiastic in their affections in a way that like some cats can be, but a lot of cats are not. Right. So if you're like, Oh, I want to like play with my pet or whatever, right? And like, Oh, go, go pet the dog or the cat. The dog's just like, this is awesome. Like this is great. What we have going here is awesome. And the cat might be like, I accept this. Like if you're lucky, right?
00:39:50
Speaker
Sometimes it's more than that, but different scales. Yeah, I like a little bit of that positive feedback because I'm somebody who is also a little bit anxiety based and I will get into my head of like, am I doing something wrong? Do you hate this? Yeah. That's fair.
00:40:13
Speaker
I had an entire phase, this is, I'm not trying to complete topic shift here. I had an entire phase of my life that was like that, where I was basically stuck in my head and like introverted does not describe how incapable of dealing with people it was. And it's just, I feel like anybody who was a teenager at some point probably has that sort of experience of like, you can go back and be like, there was really just a situation where
00:40:41
Speaker
I completely over-thought a situation instead of talking to the people around me and just retreated into the mental prison. Is that phase ever meant to end? Ideally, you take breaks from it sometimes. Oh, well, maybe that's why I'm in therapy. Yeah. I mean, the real key is just beyond podcasts, really. It's pretty much the fix. The therapists won't tell you that. They just want your money.
00:41:10
Speaker
But that's true. That podcasts are the fix. Yeah. Yeah. Being on podcasts specifically. Gotcha. Because listening to podcasts is just basically, you're observing other people that have achieved that state of wellness, but in order to also achieve that state of wellness, you need to be on a podcast. So.
00:41:35
Speaker
Sorry, everybody who's struggling, who we haven't had on. We're getting through you guys as rapidly as we can. There's a bad service to the community. Is each podcast a different dose and that's why I'm back? We usually try to have people stop by for a checkup once a year or so. Okay.
00:42:00
Speaker
Um, maybe a little bit sooner if other people have cancellations. Well, I think like, at least for me, for teenage years, there's just so much of that, like, Hey, this doesn't actually matter. But, but, but no, like really, you know, it's not matter, but it's so hard to get into that head space because
00:42:25
Speaker
your world is so limited, right? And there's not like other things going on to kind of like put things in perspective or scale. Um, you're like, I really hope Susie likes me. And if she doesn't, my world is over. I'm like, nah, like you and Susie can still be friends or maybe you don't even want to be friends. That's fine. There's other people, right? It doesn't make or break your life. Yeah. And just learning that took or you're still taking, uh, time.
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's something I kind of remember of like when I was a teen and adults would always be like, Oh, this is just a phase of your life. You'll get over it. You know, this is like, none of this is going to be as important as you think it is right now.
00:43:12
Speaker
years from now. And there's like, there's two observations about that. One is that can be completely true, but it's also useless, right? Because for an emotional teenager, where your world is, all of these things are so important to you, telling you that they will not be so important to you in the future.
00:43:32
Speaker
provides zero relief for the present, right? So, you got all these nothing but chemicals in my brain going on. Yeah, there's not some simple fix for that. Could I ask a prying question? Sure. Which the fact that you know what I'm asking means it's not going to Jake. Wait, what? I pry Jake open all the time. I didn't know who you were talking to. I didn't know if this was a crowd. Who, me? You. You. Oh no.
00:44:00
Speaker
So you said you struggle with social anxiety, right? Yeah, but all the time. I always think of you as a very social person because you stream and interact with a lot of people online.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, this is safe. So explain yourself. It's safe. I'm in my own room. I can turn the computer off whenever and you can go nuclear and disappear off the face of the Internet at any point. I'm not going to do that, but it isn't out. Maybe that's not a healthy way to look at it, but it is a comforting thing. It's kind of interesting, though, because it is
00:44:40
Speaker
It's almost entirely placebo, right? Like how many times have you just ended your stream? Because you're like, ah, I'm out. Probably not that many. A few times, definitely. At least earlier. Because it's like, I actually cannot fathom being perceived. I tried it. I hate it. Oops, got to go. Bye.
00:45:03
Speaker
But I mean, that could be, it's not like that doesn't exist in real life too, right? If you were amongst friends and you're like, hey,
00:45:11
Speaker
I'm just feeling a little bit overwhelmed right now. I'm going to peace out. You know, I gotta do something else for a bit. It was fun hanging out, but I gotta go or something like that. Yeah. Sure. People might be like, well, that was like slightly odd, but no true friend would actually like, this is a no true Scotsman scissor scenario. I understand it, but no true friend would be like, um, Oh, that's freaking weird. Let's harass that person about it or, you know, get on their case.
00:45:37
Speaker
See, that's the beauty of social anxiety. You just assume everyone's thinking that anyway. So you're like, I can't fathom drawing attention to it. So you don't say anything. And then you mask up AKA you do a little masking and you're like, I'm doing great. And inside you're like, I'm actively dying. However, I can't draw attention to that.
00:46:02
Speaker
So you power through it. And then usually sometimes, maybe like half the time, you're like, okay, this is fine. And then the other half, it's like, I need no one to talk to me for the next three days. See, like I said, I'm in therapy. Well, we're going over it. It's great.
00:46:28
Speaker
Well, I will say, and this is for anybody who's a friend of mine, not just the two people in the podcast at the moment, but I'm somebody who is relatively dumb and I cannot.
00:46:40
Speaker
Like, I can pick up on social cues. I'm able to be on the world, right? But for certain things, it's hard for me to know the exact level of how much do I push and pull as far as that interaction.
00:46:59
Speaker
So sometimes I just need people to tell me what's good for them. Like front of the show and special guest Rachel, she's blunt. And I like that because she'll just say, hey, like I'll be hanging out with her in dice. And she's like,
00:47:17
Speaker
Well, all right. This was fun. And she's like, either we're going to leave, or you're going to leave type thing. And I'm like, I don't take offense to that. It's just establishing those boundaries. I'm like, cool. Now that I know that, I will do my best to respect that.
00:47:32
Speaker
Because it's as long as I have known people, I've known you guys for. Not going to be mad. We grew up together. Yeah, we grew up together. And then Mango showed up at some point and married my man. But you didn't you weren't fast enough. What can I say? I know I'm I'm slow on the draw. Again, I didn't know how he was feeling. I should. But I can like.
00:47:56
Speaker
I can visit you guys and hang out for like the afternoon and we'll laugh and cry and we'll grab food and bullshit. We're usually crying because we're really humming or our tummy or tum tum tum's hurt because we're hungry. Or mine is afterwards because I've had Arby's or something weird. I will leave that situation and like drive home and on the way home we'll have these thoughts of like,
00:48:25
Speaker
Did I did I fuck up at like points? Did I say something that I shouldn't have or did I maybe not ask about something or follow up on something that I intended to or like it was am I being a good friend or did I just like show up and waste your time? And again, it happens for everybody. And I realize it's just. Thoughts, but it still happens every fucking time.
00:48:54
Speaker
To chime in my experience for that is when I'm done with a social engagement or something like that. Most of the time have an excellent time. If you have friends where being around them helps recharge you a bit or helps you feel like it was a satisfying day, I should say, because I'm still introverted.
00:49:15
Speaker
it still takes energy to be around people. So recharge, if you always recharge around friends, then you're an extrovert, like the definition, right? But any time that that finishes, be it like a dinner or a visit to a friend's house or something like that, for me, it's like the Final Fantasy post battle theme plays and it's just like... And it's just like... And it's because like,
00:49:44
Speaker
We've accomplished this. We went out of our way. We engaged with people. We hung out with the people we love. And it's not always the most comfortable thing to make that jump, but we got through it, right? Saying we got through it implies that it's a journey or like arduous in some way. And that's not really true, but like we did it, right? Well, I mean,
00:50:11
Speaker
It can be. I mean, yeah, it's like I don't think right. I don't hang out with people that it's a chore to be around. Right. But I'm saying like not many people live next door to me. Right. So if I want to go and visit and spend time with somebody who's out of city, out of state, I will have to travel and I do not like traveling. So it is very easy for my brain to go like, I mean,
00:50:38
Speaker
you could call them on the phone or just as like, do you really want to drive there to hang out and then have to drive back at night? And I'm like, right? Yes. I just have to push through that, uh, resistance in my mind. So the Oracle says you must push through the burning. So
00:50:57
Speaker
Um, my doctor would say otherwise. Eat less spicy food. Also an oracle quote. Um, but yeah, it's, it is what it is. It's anxiety. It can be. Yeah.
00:51:21
Speaker
anxiety and I have been besties since approximately kindergarten. So we're in it for life. We're homies. It's a real one. A ride or die. I'm just imagining if all else fails, I will have anxiety. There's this, uh, uh,
00:51:40
Speaker
edgy sort of take I think like Dexter is like what I'm thinking of I think he used the term like dark passenger Dexter's dark passenger and it's incredibly just edgelord nonsense well not like nonsense I could I don't know psychology so maybe that is the thing but it's just really edgy it's a fictional show just really edgy it's very funny for me to think about it where it's just like yeah some people they're
00:52:06
Speaker
Their secret is that they have these compulsions to murder people. And then other people that that that dark presence that follows them throughout their entire life is just like talking to people is hard. Different, different, but equal. Yeah, I think they all kind of chalk up to like your brains dumb, your brains so dumb, it will tell you dumb things.
00:52:37
Speaker
But it can also do math sometimes. Yeah, but not after 9 p.m. Not after 9-11. No, but you can also conceptualize and manifest art using the brain. That's true, which is crazy to me. And theoretically, I could learn to do that with my dumb brain as well. But anyone can.
00:53:02
Speaker
Well, anyone can in the same way Bob Ross was like, anyone can do this. All you need to do is pick a pen, paper, paintbrush, get some paper, get a canvas, and then put some paint or pencil down and bada-bing, bada-boom, you too can do it. If a five-year-old can do it, I think anyone can.
00:53:27
Speaker
I'm not allowed within 50 yards of a canvas after the last time I touched one. We still have those. I was just thinking about that one that was brought up, obviously, because anytime we talk about Bob Ross. But I think one of the first times that we had you on, we also were talking about those exact paintings. So I'm glad that it's still in our mental zeitgeist and it hasn't been like a forgotten thing.
00:53:58
Speaker
I'm gonna be hanging those bad boys out. It's hard to forget it. It's so visible there on our floor waiting to be hung up for the last few years. Yeah, we'll get there.
00:54:10
Speaker
I understand the pile of stuff. You're like, I'm going to address this. And sometimes I just move the pile to a different place. I'm like, yes, I've done a good thing here. It's migrating towards where it needs to be. I have a folding table of like, some of it's just things I want to have out. And other things are, hey, I will get to this little project idea thing.
00:54:33
Speaker
And some of that stuff will now just go into a different thing in the closet. So I don't have to be reminded constantly that I haven't done thing. Yeah. Yeah. See, for me, it's I want to paint part of the room because we have our little little we call our family room. And it's like, yeah, I'd like to paint like the top half. A different color. And it's like, OK, well, if I'm going to be painting, I don't want to put a hole in the wall to hang up a painting.
00:55:03
Speaker
Cause then I hang it up. I'm going to have to take it back down. I don't have to paint. And it's like, I'm just going to leave it on the floor in a pile. And then I'm going to get to painting it and then I can hang it up. So until that day comes, it's just going to be in a pile on the floor.
00:55:24
Speaker
Instead of hanging out, hear me out. Let's just bring viewfinders back and then pull the cool art in the viewfinder. And then if guests come over, it's like, oh, would you like a tour of the apartment? And you just hand it to them. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. This is a little preview. Viewfinders were like there were those red toys with the like latch thing you would pull, right? And it would go picture by picture. Yeah, it's basically how I think the old
00:55:53
Speaker
projectors work where basically you have like a reel of film, which is going to the next photograph. Gotcha. I never knew what those were called. I made a educated guess, but I also could be wrong because I have not seen one in like 20 years. I see view master box set multi. So it's probably that one. But then another one does say viewfinder. When I think of viewfinder, I think of a camera.
00:56:25
Speaker
I'm like, it does look a lot like the camera. I think that's how the toy works. You look through it like you're looking through a camera. Well, it's the same thing as like, like Dave was saying, the, um,
00:56:41
Speaker
There's budget VR that was like just meant for portable phones. And it was, I think it was cardboard VR. I think it was Google's cardboard VR or something like that. And you just like slide your phone in and then just like hold it right up against your eyes. Yeah. That sounds awful. Well, it sounds awful. But the thing was, as soon as your brain got over like the depth perception barrier, the actual image itself would be
00:57:10
Speaker
Projecting depth and I was like I the first time I saw it was at the work office I think with Dave And someone had like brought it in and was letting us try it out I was just like why does this work so like I realized I'm just staring at my phone phone basically point-blank But it kind of worked and I mean like actual VR is a lot better. Do not get me wrong, but Perception is 90% of the problem
00:57:38
Speaker
Do you remember fucking Nintendo Labo? No. I'm not familiar. I don't think it sounds familiar. I think that's when they had those little cardboard attachments for things like, do you want to play a racing game? Here's a little cardboard steering wheel that you can fold out and put your Wii mode in. What about a fishing game? Here's a fishing rod. And they did it for so many things. I don't know how well it did. I just remember thinking, cardboard, that's dumb. And then I'd never heard about it again.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah, it was they had it for the switch. Maybe they also had a version of it for the Wii, but the version that exists now is for the switch. And it's very much like.
00:58:18
Speaker
You're just attaching little doodads to your controllers to make them slightly more ergonomic ergonomic for whatever you're trying to do, like a fishing
Closing Remarks and Future Plans
00:58:27
Speaker
pole or motorcycle handles or something like that. I will allow Ring Fit Adventure Ring Fit Adventure to sell me on the ring part of it. But that's it. Nothing else. Yeah.
00:58:44
Speaker
Like a lot of this stuff, if you look it up, there's like just little cardboard bits that are completely non-functional. And so it's very clear that they're just like, we're just here to make it look cool, I guess. Right? I don't know. Nothing sells cool like cardboard. Uh-huh. Well, it's at least cheap. It still looks okay, but I'm sure it's, I'm sure since it's Nintendo, it's probably expensive cardboard.
00:59:17
Speaker
But that's life. That's life. Just a hard board. Cardboard is love. Cardboard is love. Cardboard is life. I do like cardboard.
00:59:30
Speaker
um cardboard simp i'm a simp sniper monkey i was uh or we're coming towards the end of it and i there's there's more gaming news and stuff like that i figure i'll go into the next episode so stick around for that my my tongue is bleeding for some of the news i know like i know there's there have been developments for people who listened to this episode before the next one but that's okay um
00:59:58
Speaker
The one thing I was going to mention though was I know Mango also watches him. He's a YouTube creator flat who does Overwatch content and Winston in particular in Overwatch 2 has a projectile attack now.
01:00:15
Speaker
Um, so you can, he still has the Tesla arc shot thing, but he can also just fire Tesla, like blasts. And he was talking about how like tanks need to be very defensive now. And he's like, I'll tell you how you're supposed to play Winston this season. Sniper monkey. Winston kinda is a simp though. So it checks out.
01:00:44
Speaker
Simp for peanut butter. Same, honestly. Yeah. Hard pass. Because this would literally be the end for Dave. This is Dave's tap out option is going for peanut butter. Have I ever given it up that way? I need to opt out of the way if I can have one taste of treat on the way out. Yeah. Yeah. Better not to. But thank you, Mango, for being a guest on this episode. Always a pleasure to have you on.
01:01:14
Speaker
Thanks for letting me be here, but I'm going to say thanks for having me. Yeah, we're very exclusive here. Thank you for letting me through the bouncers, the VIP lounge.
01:01:29
Speaker
Uh-huh. It was honestly just a series of successful stealth check. We're still not sure exactly how you ended up in the lobby, but the background check didn't come back yet, but we took it on, you know, a word of a close acquaintance who vouched for you. You want weed? No? Okay.
01:01:47
Speaker
As I like to say, if you just kind of walk through a place with confidence and be it real or fake confidence, people won't question you. They'll be like, they look like they know where they're going. Okay. And they won't stop. Mango just walked into the room with a clipboard, pointed at a couple of ventilation ducts as she moved through and that's all it took.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yeah. But if you guys in the audience, yes, you have ideas for future episodes or you want to put forth your offer to be a guest. We have a very rigorous vetting process. You could do so. Soapstone podcast at gmail.com. Or you could join the discussion on Facebook. We don't accept anyone there as a potential guest, though. So it's got to come through as an email. Facebook dot com slash soapstone podcast.
01:02:40
Speaker
And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good Eldering DLC. Bye.