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Episode 208: Building Community with the Queen
119 Plays1 year ago
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome back to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast! Today the hosts sit down with close friend Beth, The Queen of Cardboard (we're ashamed she hasn't been on before...). Beth is actively involved with building communities and with helping organize charity work. A lot of this is thanks to Sheldon Menery and we discuss the upcoming Fuck Cancer... ummmmmm we mean Commander Charity Stream honoring Sheldon and raising money for the Moffit Cancer Center. The event will take place here on November 18th and 19th. We hope that you all can join us and celebrate our friend.
Donations can be made here: https://streamlabscharity.com/@commanderrc/in-honor-of-sheldon-menery
We also finally have a Linktree with all of our discounts/resources
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
Goblin Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast, and a part of their growing Vorthos content – as well as Magic content of all kinds. Check them out at hipstersofthecoast.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Appreciation
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome to another episode of the Goblin Lore podcast. This is Hobbs Q. My pronouns are he, him, and we are going to be having somebody that I actually could not believe has never been on the show before. So we'll get around introductions in a second, but I am going to say it just kept slipping my mind that this person had not been on the show. Like it's actually my name to me. So I'm really looking forward to today's episode.
00:00:58
Speaker
Before we get going and started and doing all of our introductions, we want to remember to shout out and thank the Grinding Coffee Company. So they are a LGBT and women-led coffee company that supports gamers, they support us, and they are always willing to just even help us out. So we're going to be talking today a little bit about charity events because we have one coming up. And as soon as I reached out to them and told them, hey, we have a charity event, here's what we're
00:01:26
Speaker
Wanting like well, here's the reason we're raising the funds. Here's what what why we're doing this it just not not even any questions Okay, great. What do you want? Here you go. Here's here's some coats They're just so willing to jump in and help in every time we've done it and and I find magic players like coffee So they're usually they're usually giveaway items that get goblins like coffee, really? Yeah
00:01:49
Speaker
I did do this week my, do you ever think about this card for experimental frenzy because it has flavor text related to coffee. It was the proof that coffee exists in the magic world.
00:02:04
Speaker
And is it their customers buying coffee?
Guest Introduction and Charity Focus
00:02:10
Speaker
So that was funny is because I went back, Joe and I saw that Joe Redman, who was the original third host of the show or the one who actually started the show him and I did an entire episode on who Ryan, what parts of the coffee trade on Ravnica, all based just on that flavor text. So very fitting.
00:02:29
Speaker
So today we have with us Beth, queen of cardboard, who is one of my absolute favorite human beings and a very close personal friend, which is why I am shocked that she has never been on this show.
00:02:45
Speaker
We're going to be talking to her today about charity events and community building.
Mindfulness and Mental Health Practices
00:02:49
Speaker
So to get us started, we'll do introductions. My name is Hobbs Q. I already said pronouns are he, him, and we have a question. And our question is, what is something that you're working on right now for yourself for mindfulness? I posted in my video that I recorded today, which is a week before any of you were hearing this episode about delaying that first, like,
00:03:13
Speaker
Looking at my phone to look at notifications to look at Twitter to look at messages. I may have received while asleep For at least 30 minutes after I wake up and to spend that time Really just being engaged with getting my kids ready for school so that I don't get frustrated at them Because they take longer than they probably need to but I'm also distracted because I'm looking at my phone and doing everything else because that's kind of a
00:03:39
Speaker
It's just mindlessness for me to just kind of have that phone going. So that's what I'm going to do. And that's what I'm working on. Taya. Hi, I'm Taya. Pronouns are she, her, they, them. Taya transcends on the socials. You know, I thought about this question since you asked and I've been having a hard time thinking of it. So since we came up with it literally three minutes ago. Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
I'm just going to say is one thing I've been needing to do a lot lately, and I've really been struggling my depression a lot lately, and it's been a hard couple of months for me. And I'm just going to say that I need to spend less time on social media.
00:04:29
Speaker
You know, I think I just need to eat Twitter off my phone for a while and You know maybe sick to blue sky for a bit which is a little less terrible for the
00:04:43
Speaker
going on but especially I will say though also a lot more horny yes it definitely is especially if you're on uh trans uh blue sky which I might maybe I am because today I posted my do you ever think about card about sangromancer and like it took it took hours for anybody to comment on the art in my twitter
00:05:07
Speaker
Right. So it was like, oh, I think about that midriff. It was literally up on blue sky for about five minutes and I got horny postings about it. So just going to say that. You know, it's definitely a different audience.
00:05:25
Speaker
You know, I can only take so many posts and videos about everything going on in the Middle East right now, and I just can't deal with it.
Travel and Mood Tracking with Schmooty
00:05:39
Speaker
And taking some time from social media would probably be the biggest thing to help me at the moment.
00:05:45
Speaker
Awesome. And Beth, friend, how's it going? I miss you. Hi. It's been forever. I miss you too. It doesn't feel like that to me, not because it's not been forever, but because I just got home from traveling for
00:06:03
Speaker
six weeks, I think straight. And so- Basically from Vegas on, right? Oh no, before Vegas, sealed on. Before Vegas, sealed on. And I just don't know who I've seen and who I haven't seen anymore. I'm like, yeah, it's been a while, I guess. I don't know.
00:06:23
Speaker
But my name is Beth. I'm the queen of cardboard on all social medias. My pronouns are she, her, and I actually have done the opposite thing from UHABs. I downloaded an app.
00:06:36
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. An app. Really? Wow, look at this. You're joining the kids. I know. It's an app called Schmooty and it helps me stay on task. It kind of helps me track my mood. It gives me small tasks to accomplish to make me feel like I've done something.
00:06:57
Speaker
And it just kind of like reminds me of things that I need to do for myself. Like, for example, there's a joy time tool where I schedule times for things that give me joy. Oh, I'm looking into this app right now. I love this. Holy hell.
00:07:17
Speaker
The only negative is it does push a paid version, but so far I haven't had to pay anything and just kind of skipped through paying and was like, no, I don't want to pay. No, I don't want to pay. Um, so it's, it's, I've had it for a couple of days. I kind of like it. In addition to that, I've taken some time to play magic games offline, like you're allowed to do that.
Magic Games Offline and Streaming Background
00:07:40
Speaker
And what? I don't know. I have had two games since I've been back that have been unstreamed and they were the best thing that I can even fathom. I had a great time and it just reminded me that I've been so busy creating content and traveling and, you know, promoting things that I still need to take time to enjoy magic and enjoy it with people I enjoy.
00:08:08
Speaker
And not that I will say like, and not that I play with people I don't enjoy, but like, I don't have to put on that face of like, hi, I'm Beth. Right. If you're having a bad night or you're not or you're having a low energy night and you still want to play, you don't have to worry that, you know, oh, my numbers are going to go down because people are tuning out because my energy level isn't the same that it was normally or it is typically. Exactly. We recently
00:08:35
Speaker
A few weeks ago, Tay and I played the Dr. Who decks with people from our Discord and it was absolutely fantastic. Nobody saw the game. It was just for us. I had a great time doing it and not feeling that I had to be making a joke or I had to make sure that I was entertaining or am I being too quiet and people are going to think I'm disengaged, right? There's a lot that goes into being just even a guest. Like, forget hosting a stream. So.
00:09:03
Speaker
Honestly, sometimes I think being a guest is more stressful because it's not my stream and I don't know what people are going to expect from me. So I'm afraid that I might mess up or make a mistake or upset somebody on my stream. I own it. So, you know, what you just described as my baseline. So it really isn't that hard to be a guest because that's just baseline. Yeah, I guess that's fair.
00:09:31
Speaker
I really like that app. I'm going to like, seriously, I am looking at it right now to kind of check out because it has a lot of elements that I like. I like that it's called the get out of bed app to kind of just like said, it's not necessarily to force you. It's not saying to doom scroll. It's trying to get you to get up and do something. The scheduling time for joy or scheduling time for in for things that you like to do. I mean, it's funny. I make I probably suggest that once to twice a week as as homework.
Magic Community and Social Justice Efforts
00:10:01
Speaker
I need you to tell me when you're going to do this. No, no, no. Pull out your calendar and tell me when are you doing this self-care activity for yourself? We are planning it just like we would anything else.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, I've been scheduling lots of time for joy playing Baldur's Gate 3 lately, and it mostly involves looking at Karlaq, but, uh, bringing me a lot of joy. I was also going to say, is it scheduling time or just playing video games non-stop? When you have a polycule, it is scheduling time.
00:10:37
Speaker
That is a very good point. That is very fair. I love that. So, well, Beth, it's funny because, you know, we joked about being able to stream for fun and not to have to promote or not have to do that. But that's not actually what we're here for today. Today we're here to promote. So you better be on your game. You better be entertaining. Yeah.
00:11:04
Speaker
Uh, we're highly judgmental. Time to go. Thanks. It's been fun. Now I know why I haven't been here. We got a solid 10 minutes of content there. I mean, if the requirement to be on this podcast to be entertaining, I would not have made it past two weeks. Oh, my gosh. You all get anyway. Can you tell us? Which was what?
00:11:32
Speaker
to be entertaining. That is my job. That is Hobbs's job. That would be the bullish apologist. Those are his two jobs. I still don't see it as an apology. It's just statements of fact. So Beth. Yes. Who are you? Who are you? Just in case there's people listening that don't really know what a queen of cardboard is. Well, you are. Anywhere else I'd be seven.
00:12:02
Speaker
Um, sorry. You can cut that out if you want. I am absolutely, I do not cut stuff unless it is just wildly inappropriate and that does not cross that threshold.
00:12:19
Speaker
Dang. Who is Beth? Let's see. So in the magic world, I am a MTG ambassador. I'm an author for EDH Rec and Commanders Herald and Cool Stuff, Inc. You can also find me streaming on my own channel. I stream commander content primarily and a little bit of chaos EDH, where our viewers can come in and change the gameplay using their channel points.
00:12:48
Speaker
But primarily in my experience, when people say these things and chaos, what ends up happening is I get I love to come and play. And yet somehow, no matter whose stream it is, it doesn't seem to be chaotic. It seems to be let's punch Hobbs in the face. I don't know why that is. I definitely did not change my channel point specifically to target Hobbs when you played.
00:13:15
Speaker
Uh, but as I was saying, I'm, I'm primarily a charity streamer. So I am, uh, lucky enough to be. To not need income from streaming. It's not my primary job or source of income. And we're doing okay as a family. So when I started streaming, I did it because I wanted to reach outside of myself and have a life outside of my tiny home. And.
00:13:45
Speaker
It was just a way to connect. And that very quickly said, okay, well, what can I do? And that led to charity streaming. And since then, I've been involved in raising money for a bunch of charities, including St. Jude, NAMI, the Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline, and a bunch of other charities as well. No, Raul. I mean, I could speak to that one because that was one that my wife was, my wife got to be involved in. And that's kind of cool. She is not a magic player.
00:14:14
Speaker
So I think that was one of my favorite things was getting to sit and just talk about reproductive rights. And that was really cool. Yeah. So I mean, you obviously were drawn to kind of this more social justice is like aspect of of magic, right? Like, how did you initially get involved with doing charity type events?
00:14:36
Speaker
Well, when I streamed before, I was a streamer who did the annual St. Jude event, and I did that. I actually learned about that from Jambo, who is a variety streamer partner, and I hope she's okay with this. I'm going to say friend of mine. And when I switched to magic... Oh, don't worry. I'll reach out and make sure I don't need to edit that part out.
00:15:02
Speaker
Um, when I switched to magic, it was just a natural fit to do that. And I think the other thing with magic is that the community itself is so socially justice aware. Um, there were, there's a lot of things that happen in the community that aren't great, but the things that I love about the community is when they stand behind our trans friends and our LGBTQIA friends and our
00:15:32
Speaker
minority friends and just marginalized groups right yeah people who need help I like I'm even gonna use that in a like a broader sense of even saying you know so I mean I hope you're okay with me saying this but you know one of those areas is you know we have a lot of people who are military members right that's something else you have been involved in you know it's from groups that aren't historically maybe represented within within magic or within magics culture at least I
00:16:00
Speaker
Both stereotypes were just historically what has been the case. So, yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
Well, and I think, too, a lot of the representation from the military is these very hula hula guys who are still in or very proud of their military service. And not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but there's a lot of people like me who I would call as reluctant veterans. It's not that I'm ashamed that I was a veteran, but my experience in the military was not a spectacular one.
00:16:35
Speaker
And so I have a lot of PTSD and a lot of other issues stemming from my military service. And I don't always want to be loud and proud and out there like, I was in the army and I did this. And I can sometimes feel left out of those groups or even some, unfortunately, sometimes triggered by the actions of those groups. And it's not their fault, but
00:17:02
Speaker
I tend to shy away from the more actively military guys and take, I would say, a quieter, more supporting role. Yeah.
00:17:18
Speaker
I mean, I think of it as being kind of one of those things, it's actually, sorry, I mean, this is completely out of field, but I mean, it makes me think of even just what can end up being kind of the stereotype in terms of military members even being, you know, being a female military member, that there was elements of that lifestyle around you that probably just wasn't a great fit. Yeah. You like the way I put that? Yeah.
00:17:47
Speaker
But I mean, it is true that like, you know, you, you, the magic community does have kind of all of these just underrepresented groups, I think, and trying to find ways to connect them and to help them feel connected to the community, but also to support them in more than just words. Right. Like the organizations that you're describing are organizations that I think, you know, from my experience are ones that
00:18:17
Speaker
I associate with doing real work, advocacy work, work that does have tangential outcomes, work that – or things like that is – I'm thinking, for instance, the one that we just did, TAYA for the Praters for Change, right? Like that directly supporting those LGBTQ and with a focus on trans legislature in states like Texas and Florida.
00:18:41
Speaker
you know, this this is there's been streams that are directly putting money back in the hands of some of the members of our community that need it. Yeah. And need it to move or need it to get out of their situation. And I've seen the community come together. I mean, it's to me, I'm talking a lot because this is something that's really important to me. Why I've been so involved with them is because there are a lot of really shitty things in our community.
Honoring Sheldon Menery and Charity Event Details
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah, there are.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, there is. Don't go look on the Aragorn sketch post. I found like 100 people to block. I just ran out of time. I was like, well, I've been doing this for 30 minutes and I found more people. I'm just going to go do something else now. I'm going to cut my losses and say that I did more than I did. I did what I could do right now. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there are really very bad elements. And the problem is that oftentimes get overshadow. Why most of us got into the community, why most of us joined and still play magic. For sure. I will say as a female who's been on the internet since the nineties, late nineties, mid nineties, I mean, I've had internet since dial up. Uh,
00:20:06
Speaker
not to age myself, but that's when the sound goes like, and you lift the phone up if you want your parent to get off the internet so you can have it.
00:20:18
Speaker
There are a lot of downsides to being a woman on the internet. We don't need to go into all of things. I don't need to explain them. If you're listening, you either know or you don't. But I will say... I'd be shocked if you're listening to this podcast and aren't at least tangentially aware of this. Listen.
00:20:38
Speaker
I will say the magic community is the only community that I have ever seen stand up and say, no, this is wrong. We're going to do something about it and not immediately get drowned out by the hordes of bad actors and unsafery folks who don't want to hear women speak and don't want to have LGBTQ plus people in their community, don't want these marginalized people to have a voice.
00:21:06
Speaker
The Magic community is the only place that I have ever existed online where that has happened time and time and time again. And that's why, despite the bad stuff, I stay.
00:21:19
Speaker
I think that even for me this week, my daily video was about feeling about the fact that we had somebody else that was in spaces that was not great. I don't want to get into specifics about horrible people because we don't need to.
00:21:38
Speaker
we had another bad actor that kind of is showing up is kind of taking advantage, I think, of the fact that people are accepting and are wanting to do things like charity events and wanting to champion causes that they believe in. And I kind of said, I hope that people don't lose that idea of like, I got burned again, because we're going to have bad actors. We are.
00:22:04
Speaker
that's going to be the nature of communities. And it's also the nature of people who care, I find, I mean, that's for me, I feel like I, as a person who tends to overly care about things, I can then let myself get hurt because I want to believe the best, but I'd rather live that way. Absolutely.
00:22:20
Speaker
And I think too, for people that aren't experiencing this daily, because listen, I've had my share of bad things in my inbox and people saying mean things to me on the internet, but I in no way am experiencing this on the daily.
00:22:38
Speaker
I think one thing that we can do is that when we do have the time and we do have the energy that we go through our friends and we say hey friend are you okay or we go through their posts and look for anything that is hateful and cruel and we report it and we block it and we share that with another person who can report it and block it and has that energy.
00:23:01
Speaker
And it's those types of little things as well as donating funds to help with top and bottom surgery, to help with relocation costs, to help with anything that you might need. Like there are ways to help with money and ways to help without money. So I think that our community is really good at doing that as well.
00:23:24
Speaker
And I will say, of communities I've been in, I am blown away by the changes I've seen in Magic over the last 10 years in that way. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Since I came back to Magic in 2012 to now is a huge difference. Well, I think that Sheldon is a huge reason for that, to be honest.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, so let's talk about kind of the event that we have coming up. So I mean, this is a very personal one for the people that are involved with it, I will say. I mean, I'm always like, it's not to say that none of these events are always going to be personal, right? Like anytime I do an event for NAMI, it's very personal because of the work that I do and the stuff that I believe in. The people who get involved with them believe in it.
00:24:07
Speaker
this one so people don't know next weekend so this is if you're listening to this on wednesday or sometime before the weekend november 18th through 19th there is a two-day
00:24:22
Speaker
charity event in honor of Sheldon Menary, raising money for the Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation. So if people don't know, so it is a research foundation and treatment foundation or treatment center in Florida. And it is where Sheldon received his care for the seven years that he was fighting
00:24:43
Speaker
He was fortunate enough to have access to kind of this care and I know that his wife Gretchen really when we approached and when people that were interested started to kind of come together to want to plan something like this, this was the organization that we wanted to raise money for. We've talked about Sheldon on here since his passing. Sheldon is somebody that was very important to
00:25:14
Speaker
most people in this community. And I will say, there's a very personal connection for myself and Beth. That is, I say this in a way that realize that like, this is going to be a little bit difficult for us to talk about. But we're doing it because this is what we because of exactly what you just said. This community being the way that it is. Yep. Um, so
00:25:40
Speaker
I guess we can talk about why Sheldon was so instrumental in this community. I think if you know Sheldon, he was a late middle aged man, white man who had worked in the military, came from at this point is very well to do.
00:26:02
Speaker
chose in every way to make sure that his spaces and the spaces that he represented did not have hate within them. He reached out to people who he did not have any thing in common with and listened and learned and grew and brought that mentality to commander.
00:26:30
Speaker
And I think it speaks volumes that he chose to overcome his age and his place in life to make sure that as well as he could, he could not only understand smaller voices, but that he took the time to lift them up. And I would say that he gave 90% of himself, if not more to this community.
00:27:00
Speaker
He was perpetually online, perpetually watching and listening and learning. People don't know he was a lifelong learner. Later in life, as you said, because he had a military career, he got his degree in English and did this at a time because he just continued to love learning. I think that is the thing that is known about him. One of the things that he knew,
00:27:30
Speaker
or at least had a good awareness of, was he was able to better understand, especially over time, an effort, a lot of effort, where his blind spots were, where he had blind spots as an older middle-aged white male. You know, that is kind of, that was magic at the start of, you know, like that was what magic looked like back when he started.
00:28:00
Speaker
He did not want it to stay that way.
00:28:04
Speaker
which is the coolest thing because I think not only as you get older, but so many magic players themselves struggle with change. I mean, anytime a card is banned, anytime a card isn't banned, anytime a new set comes out, anytime anything is different than what it was, there's this uproar of angst and upsetiveness and frustration. And I think
00:28:31
Speaker
What I've been trying to do at any time, especially in the last month, is go back and say, OK, what would Sheldon do? What would Sheldon want me to do? And this is in no way thinking that I myself can be Sheldon. I know for a fact I can't. I am a mom. I have a job. I have so many things going on. And even if I had none of that, I don't have the mental capacity or patience that Sheldon had.
00:29:01
Speaker
But I think that the community together can embody what Sheldon was.
00:29:08
Speaker
And that's what I've been trying to do. And it's been interesting because it's forced me to think outside of what I would normally do or how I would normally react. But it's also led to me having amazing conversations with other community builders. I recently had a conversation with a female led magic group community leader and talked about
00:29:39
Speaker
how some people like Target and some people like Walmart. And if you like Target, you can't make the people like Walmart like Target. They're just gonna like Walmart. And you have to let that be. And that's okay. And then talking to another community leader who's putting together efforts for other smaller streamers to learn and grow together and talking to them about how
00:30:06
Speaker
you have to listen and you have to understand that your reality is different from someone else's reality because what they experienced is true for them. To listen and learn from that and you don't always have to be speaking, which for me is really hard because I love to talk.
00:30:29
Speaker
Also talking about gatekeeping and how you know when we're perpetually online We might want to have a safe space where we don't have to worry about people You know coming in and interrupting that but that in itself it can lead to gatekeeping and that can lead to newer people Not joining the community because they either a don't know it exists be no one knows who they are or see they were left out and I will say that this is a
00:30:59
Speaker
One of the things that struck me in the days after Sheldon had passed away was the number of stories that you saw from people who were who said basically Sheldon sought me out.
00:31:10
Speaker
to ask me about my viewpoint because he learned of who I was, but he didn't know me. He'd heard about me through other people. He wanted to understand my viewpoint because I was different than him. And I was representing maybe even a part of the commander community or a part of magic that he doesn't know a lot about. So he sought me out just to have a conversation, to learn about me and to learn about who I was.
00:31:36
Speaker
The people who were saying, you know, he, he had me on the stream, the RC stream and reached out to me because the same reason, right? I want there. I want, he wanted another voice to be heard. Um, those stories just kept coming out. Uh, I was obviously chronically online that day as I, well, I'm all I'm already chronically online as we've already established, but that day in particular, uh, I, it was a day of morning and it was a day of me not
00:32:05
Speaker
being able to, there was no way I would have been staying away. And so I was watching these stories and I was looking to see what these stories were. And that was one of the things that struck me was the number of conversations that were, he sought me out. He asked to speak to me. Absolutely. And for people that didn't used to.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that if not for Sheldon, I wouldn't know you. I mean, I wouldn't know. No one would know who I am. Like Sheldon, not only mentored me, kind of I kind of looked to him as the person who was like, hey, you're doing all right. And then not exactly tell me I was wrong,
00:32:57
Speaker
but set me on a different path than I was before, if that makes sense. And he also was there when I needed something. When I needed to do something or get somewhere, he supported me. And why? I don't know that I'll ever know why. But he was there to tell me when I was doing the right thing.
00:33:28
Speaker
And when I wasn't, and you need somebody like that, who can be honest with you, but kind and put you on the right path. Yeah. I mean, like if we want to be honest, right? Like there's part of this was he had that this is where I joke. Cause not a lot of people necessarily even knew that Sheldon was military. Um, yeah. I think if you know military culture and had a conversation with the man, you knew he was military, but
00:33:57
Speaker
People don't have that, right? So I think of kind of some of his stuff to do with his way of talking that may have been seen as blunt or seen as direct that people weren't comfortable with, but it was directness with coming from a place of kindness. People just didn't necessarily know this because they don't know what that looks like. It's not typical for what they're expecting to see.
00:34:21
Speaker
I think one of the reasons Sheldon liked me is because while I don't actively say that I'm military, the way that I talk comes out pretty quickly that I was. And in one of our first interactions, the more nervous I get, my go to is to make fun of you. Yeah. Which Sheldon thought was the funniest thing in the world, because when I met Sheldon and we played, I just teased him.
00:34:48
Speaker
and talk smack and he talked smack right back and then he killed me and he just thought it was the best thing that had ever happened because I I mean I was scared and I was nervous but I I just had fun with it because that's all you can do right when you're in a situation where you feel completely out of your depth you either sink or you swim or you tease the godfather of commander
00:35:17
Speaker
The very first time that we ever played, uh, you popped into the voice chat before your pot. So it was on the RC stream. And, you know, I was playing both, both halves of the stream that night. Um, and you were coming in for game two and you showed up early and you joined the voice chat and you just started making fun of me.
00:35:46
Speaker
Know I think it spoke to you know We'd had enough interactions at that point that you know that you knew that I would not be somebody bothered by that But at the same time right like we'd never actually played a game and it was great It was fantastic, but that is kind of what as you're saying right like that is probably something that Sheldon left He was commenting on it before we even started our game because it it was
00:36:11
Speaker
It was done from a place of love. It was done from a place of you can make fun of people while still being kind, right? You're doing it in a way that is not mean, that's not tearing somebody down, that's not doing it in a way that's punching down, right? It's not doing it in a way that you were trying to belittle or do anything else. You were having fun and it was obviously clear that you felt that it was a comfortable place. Exactly. Yeah.
00:36:39
Speaker
And I think that ability to make things feel like they were a comfortable place is something that, that goes into what the philosophy of people want to always come back to what the philosophy of EDH is. That's it, right? Like this whole idea of like that we have a game that has a philosophy or we have a format that has a philosophy. It's, it's to be an inclusive welcoming space that we want everybody to be able to sit down and play. For sure.
00:37:06
Speaker
I will say of the things that Sheldon said in his last interview, I hold several things close to my heart, but the one that I've been coming back to was his idea of a perfect game of Commander, and how are you going to argue with the person who created it, right? And if I remember correctly... Well, he would have wanted us to argue with him, but to be fair, that's a tip right now.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah, I've had some words with him in the last couple weeks as well, I'm sure he knows. But he said that the perfect game of Commander was one where every deck gets a chance to do the thing, that you have a good time with people at the table, and eventually someone wins. And I think that a lot of people focus on that last part, and what I've been trying to focus on is those first and middle parts.
00:38:01
Speaker
where how can I make sure that people are feeling safe and comfortable and happy and enjoy themselves? How can I help their decks do the things that they were meant to do? How can I make this a space that people want to be? And not necessarily a place that's entertaining, but a place that people want to be. Yeah, there's a difference there.
00:38:31
Speaker
So we've been talking a lot about like just this concept of what, I mean, when Sheldon came on the show and sat down and talked to me, we talked a little bit about, you know, how, how having cancer had affected maybe his relationship with the game, kind of this starting to have some of these conversations. Cause it was about a year ahead of when he passed about, right? Like legacy or just the fact that like at the end of the day, no matter what,
00:38:58
Speaker
We're all not going to be here, and we want this community to keep going. And I think for him, knowing that even just at that point, stuff was fairly in remission. He was feeling, well, he still had this idea that at some point, I won't be here anymore. And it is wanting the game to be set up in a place where it doesn't need him.
Organizing and Community Support Challenges
00:39:23
Speaker
The fact that Commander Community is the one that most embrace, and I'm not saying the only, and so I hope anybody else that is listening to it, because that's just like the community that I know kind of the best, is the ones that I really think of that jumped into kind of these larger scale, multiple day streams for charity events, right? Like I know there's things like Desert Bus, I know there's other ones out there, but within Magic, outside of
00:39:54
Speaker
a single person like the prof running a campaign that wasn't necessarily focused on gameplay, that this is where commander community really has stepped up. I can remember the first one that I was involved in to do with mental health in Mental Health Month. And the response to people wanting to be involved with these things was overwhelming.
00:40:23
Speaker
And I'm going to say, let's couple that with the fact that we're doing one with Sheldon and the response has already been completely overwhelming from a logistical standpoint for people planning this event. Right? Because who wouldn't? Who doesn't? Who's who out there is going to say that they don't want to be involved? Right? Like, yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think we could have if we had fit
00:40:49
Speaker
everyone that wanted to be involved. Uh, I think we probably could have streamed all month, 24 hours. Uh, and that's just not feasible. So it's, it's unfortunate because I want to involve everyone. And I know that everyone who wanted to be involved in, isn't like it's, it's, it sucks. Like there's, there's, there's no nice way to say it. It just sucks. Um,
00:41:19
Speaker
And that's like the downside. You never want anyone to feel like they're left out, but you're still trying to do a thing and get all the pieces in order and make it work the way that you want to. And I think it is kind of like, you know, that game of commander.
00:41:35
Speaker
And I also harken it to events like Vegas because in Vegas, I set aside an entire day where I had no responsibilities. All I was going to do is play commander all day long. And I had a list of people that I want sit at one table, not move. And all I wanted to do was play commander with all of the people that I'd been missing for months.
00:42:01
Speaker
And I can still tell you that I didn't get games with Donnie and Jen. I didn't get games with Nat. I, there were so many people on my list that I just did not miss because they were doing something or I was doing something or, you know, I got up to pee for two seconds and then they were in a game. And it's kind of one of those situations where you just have to say, okay, we'll get, we'll catch you next time. And I hate it.
00:42:30
Speaker
And I wish that I could duplicate myself, you know, 10 times over and do all of the things, but sometimes I just have to admit that I have limitations. And I'll say, right. So we have this event, it's coming up next weekend. We really want people to be there. We're going to be, this is cool.
00:42:54
Speaker
It is going to be your typical kind of normal pods running basically all day Saturday and Sunday. It's going to have giveaway items. We're figuring out kind of what those are going to be. We've had some amazing donations come in some really cool stuff that you know we're by the time this episode is out. I'm hoping that you all have seen a lot of them. There's some sketched proofs that there is is like.
00:43:18
Speaker
There are some of Sheldon's favorite cards, right? The things like Breena, things like Ink Shield, things that are very difficult proofs to get, I will tell you, is me being the nerdy proof guy. We have like the last proof of Ink Shield. Yeah. So the last proof for Ink Shield, the last copy of it was reprinted. He only had one left. Yeah. And the only sketched Breena. Yeah. The Breena AP is the only sketched one that is in existence as of right now.
00:43:46
Speaker
And this came about because I reached out and said, this is for Sheldon. And it's just amazing to see everybody step up. So we're having all of that. But one of the other cool things that I want to share is that we don't have specific hosts for each pod. It's going to very much be a
00:44:11
Speaker
people dropping in as if they were hanging out with a group of their friends and watching Commander and talking while people are playing. We don't know who all is going to be around because it's open. We're leaving this open to the people that I think that this event is also serving as more than just charity, right? This is an event to honor Sheldon Menary.
00:44:36
Speaker
We want to raise money for Moffat. That is obviously a big part of what this is because we know that it's just a organization that Sheldon believed so much in. Um, when him and I had had some chance to talk when he was receiving care, you know, he raved about the fact that he had a place like that available to him, right? He just never anything but the best to say about these people. And we want to do what we can to, you know, to, to show them that how important this man was to the magic community.
00:45:06
Speaker
and also how important they were to him and keeping him going and keeping him able to do events and be involved with us in the final years of his life, unfortunately. And so we want people to come out, right? Like if you're able to just spend some time with us this weekend, it's really important for just, at this point I'm rambling because I'm starting to tear up a little bit, sorry.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah, this is something that we know is important. There's a reason that we're having this episode right now. Beth is here. Beth and I have become such close people, and there's a common factor there, and we want to honor that.
00:45:54
Speaker
I think it's the only way we can honor it is to continue playing Commander and continuing doing the things that Sheldon believed in. And I've kind of, I know I've talked a lot. We've talked about this. One of the things that I've done for better or for worse is attempted to stay busy. Because there's days where it doesn't feel real.
00:46:26
Speaker
where I still very much miss the person who made sure that I had a place in this community even when I didn't believe in myself. And I want to tell him
00:46:42
Speaker
about the things that I'm doing and that I've gotten to do and thank him again, because I think I spent the last year thanking him again and again and again. It doesn't feel like enough. It doesn't. It doesn't feel like enough. And I think even when this is done, it's not going to feel like enough. But it's
00:47:09
Speaker
What does it need to be? If this is the only if this is the last thing that I do, it will be to honor Sheldon and honor what he's given to not just me or you, but this entire community. I do think. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead. And I just going to say, and I think there's going to be so many people in the community that are going to appreciate this, too. And I hope there's a lot of people that feel this way.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's interesting when you have someone like Sheldon. I know that we were going to talk about grief at some point. You have an entire community grieving and we all do that a different way. But I think that we're all pretty much one mind and that Sheldon was just
00:48:05
Speaker
unstoppable and incomparable in this community.
00:48:11
Speaker
So I'm excited for the event and I'm excited to have so many people who cared so much about him coming together to celebrate his life and to honor the foundation that he was receiving care in to raise funds for cancer research because fuck cancer specifically.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Fuck cancer. Evergreen, like, you know, there is a, yeah, fuck cancer. I mean, let's just think, I'd be willing to just like loop that. We could turn it into a song. I mean, I don't think this is gonna be the last thing that you ever do. I don't think it's the last thing that, you know, we're ever gonna do as people partnered together, wanting to work together.
00:49:05
Speaker
And I think that a big part of that motivator is to have something that is ongoing, right? I think it is so that one person leaving us doesn't, it actually spurs others on to step up and not to take the mantle and not to, you know, become the Batman.
00:49:25
Speaker
but to become the family that kind of keeps things going. Or, you know, as people said, right, like, if you just do something to live by that, like mantra of like, be kind, do something kind in your day, reach out to somebody and start a conversation that maybe you wouldn't have, get to know people that you wouldn't. As Sheldon said, is one of his superpowers was just surrounding himself with talented people and like amazing people. And that's what you can do in your own life. And
00:49:52
Speaker
This is just something that I think is just the beginning and we really wanted to have Beth on because she's always been somebody so involved with community building prior to this. And I've been fortunate enough to get to, like I said, plan and be involved with the vets with her many times over and to see just.
Audience Participation and Closing Remarks
00:50:15
Speaker
that kindness and everything is why I'm a little embarrassed that it's taking this long to get her on the show. We'll ignore the fact that, like, I could say that. It's because I was spending all my time on Nick's podcast making fun of you. It is true. Like, you know, it's like each time I thought about having you, it was like, she's on that WNXS and she's breaking my record for being on it.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, and I think it will that the more you find yourself going out of yourself to share and
00:50:49
Speaker
share yourself, share your time, and bringing people together, you'll be blessed in unspeakable ways. In fact, related to that conversation I had recently, I wanted to read the text that I got later, which was, I just wanted to thank you again for your advice and willingness to dedicate some time to help me. It means a lot, and I understand why you were chosen to be an MTG ambassador.
00:51:16
Speaker
And this was somebody that I met in Vegas. We had a silly moment where we kind of like made silly like a woo noises at each other from across the room at the after party.
00:51:36
Speaker
And, you know, because I was willing to be silly in a moment when somebody needed it and then also listen when they needed it, that's all I did. But it meant enough to them to write that message. And that meant a lot to me.
00:51:58
Speaker
I'm a words of affirmation person, so I'm holding that for a long, long time. But I think it's important. You're both really special people in this community, and the community is better having both of you in it. Thank you. I like being a partner of Hobbs on this podcast, and I think a lot of it is because of what he brings to the community, and you bring a lot as well.
00:52:23
Speaker
Thank you. I will say for as much as people think I bring to the community not to gas Hobbs up because he won't be able to do another podcast because he'll be too busy like shrinking his head. But if not for Hobbs and telling people that they should come to my
00:52:43
Speaker
after unofficial official after party and command fest Richmond, I wouldn't know a lot of people. I met Benny Smith that way and Scott Larabee, who we now torture together. And it's that kind of action. Like you never know where it's going to lead, like just taking the time to be like, hey,
00:53:03
Speaker
You should get to know this person or hey, you should check this out. When you think something's cool, share it. And I go back to this concept of like nine. If you can share something that you did or something that someone did or something that you think is awesome with nine people that are close to you,
00:53:22
Speaker
then that makes the world that much better. And they have their nine, which might include you and it might not. That's OK. But they're going to share it with nine people. And that joy and that goodness, it spreads like. It overcomes so much negativity, and I think it's one of the reasons why our community is so blessed with this power to do good, even in the face of adversity, in the face of evil.
00:53:51
Speaker
Yeah, I can no longer do this podcast. I can't do anything else tonight. We're good. You're going to have to talk now. I've just been quiet the whole time because listening to you two talk about Sheldon has, you know, I've got nothing to say, you know, just listening to you both gush over Sheldon and I wish I could have known him better.
00:54:19
Speaker
I will say as much as I gosh, and I would tell this to him and plan to eventually he had flaws. And I think it's important to know, like, I think it's important to know, like, no matter who your hero is, like, they are they are flawed and they're human. And I think the good thing about remembering that Sheldon was human is that
00:54:48
Speaker
You can be as great as you want to be, and you can overcome those flaws to leave impressions on people and still do good. There's plenty of things that I do wrong, and focusing on that doesn't get me anywhere.
00:55:09
Speaker
and focusing on the bad things that people do doesn't help. So I always try to focus on what I can do well and what I can do to better improve the situation. And that's been called toxic positivity. I'm not anywhere, like everything's great all the time, but I think if you change your wording to we get to be here and we get to do this,
00:55:37
Speaker
and try to see at least some good. Not we should or we have to. Yeah, try to see some good in your situations. It has helped a lot. And to bring back to mindfulness, that ability of saying I get to has changed my mindset tenfold.
00:55:59
Speaker
Well, Beth, once again, I am so glad that you finally came on. I'm anticipating this will just open the gates for you to return, hopefully. You know, you didn't swear too much, so we'll be able to keep you around.
00:56:16
Speaker
So this weekend, people, November 18th and 19th, this will all be hosted on the Rules Committee's Twitch stream. Follow that for any updates. That's where we'll be blasting things out of.
00:56:31
Speaker
I'm anticipating you'll be seeing a lot of tweets about this. As Beth said, getting involved could be as simple as retweeting those and getting them to a larger audience because we never know who will see them or who can – I think about this before where people tell me they didn't know something was going on and I saw tons of tweets about it but it doesn't mean they did and it needs to be just that chance that they saw it. Our timelines are a fucking mess.
00:56:55
Speaker
Like I miss half the tweets. So I just getting things out there, being willing to do the retweets, being able to donate if you were able to, to stop by and watch if you can and just hang out and chat. We just want to have you all there with us to honor Sheldon and raise money to say fuck cancer. And that's our show for today. You can find all of the host on Twitter for now.
00:57:21
Speaker
Hobbs can be found at HobbsQ, Tay can be found at Tayatranscendence, and Alex can be found at Mel underscore Chronicler. Feel free to send us any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to the Goblin Lore Pod on Twitter, or email us at goblinlorepodcast at gmail.com.
00:57:39
Speaker
If you would like to support your friendly neighborhood Gob's Hugs, our link tree can be found on our Twitter account and in the description of today's show. This has everything from various discount codes to the link for our Patreon. The music for today's show was by Wintergotten, who can be found at vintergotten at bandcamp.com. The art was done by Steven Raphael, who can be found at Steve Ruffle on Twitter. Gob and Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing forthos content.
00:58:07
Speaker
Check them out on Twitter at hipsters MTG or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you for listening and remember goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers.