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Raise a Glass to the Grab Bag (Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Wingspan, and more)
22 Plays21 days ago
Eric and Hunter get back into recording with a grab bag episode.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Raise a Glass' Podcast
00:00:37
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Raise a Glass. Oh, that sounds like a podcast voice. Hello and welcome to Raise a Glass, the podcast where we talk about the stories and storytellers that shape us. Somehow, after all these months, we're still around, still trying to work on these episodes, which we love so much. My name is Eric Linsola. And I am Hunter Danson. And Hunter, it is very exciting to be back with you, kind of re-testing our legs.
00:01:07
Speaker
in a sense, our vocal cords, I guess, as we get another episode started and hopefully kind of kick off another run of episodes that connects with stories and storytellers that have ah shaped us for a while and and some newer ones that are are kind of still shaping us maybe or in the in the process of shaping us. yeah But as is our ah tradition on this on this podcast.
Drink Choices: Charlie Brown Ale & Gatorade
00:01:37
Speaker
Before we get into that first, I gotta know what is in your glass. Well, I have a Charlie Brown ale. Charlie Brown. Crafted in New York. It's connected in New York. This was a gift from my mom
00:01:54
Speaker
sort of Christmas birthday they visited us this past weekend. I have already had one, but ah not this evening, so.
00:02:10
Speaker
There we go. Nice. Very nice, smooth brown ale. Great for winter. What's in your glass, Eric? So I made the decision to work. I had some time today.
00:02:24
Speaker
after our kids swim lessons to work out. And so I have a nice lemon-lime Gatorade thirst quencher. Nice. Is is that your favorite color of Gatorade?
00:02:41
Speaker
Until you get into some of those like extra colors. I like purple Gatorades and yellow Gatorades. And the dark blue ones. Not regular blue, though. um I didn't grow up drinking lots of Gatorades or anything like that. So yellow was like, if we got it, it was like the powdered stuff that you'd put in a big, uh, those big yeah sports drink, massive coolers. Yeah. Yeah. The ones they dump on people. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. How's your brown? How's your Charlie Brown out? Oh, very good. Very good.
00:03:21
Speaker
I'm pretty sure if I drank one of those in this episode, I would fall asleep by the end of it. so
00:03:30
Speaker
Well,
Balancing Podcasting with Life
00:03:31
Speaker
let's continue. um As is also tradition, what are you raising and pouring one out for this week?
00:03:39
Speaker
Oh boy, I did not think about this at all. You're the one that said we had to do an intro, so this is totally on you. Well, you know, it's been a while, so... You gotta give the listeners what they want. I'm just pouring one out for the busyness of life and scheduling.
00:04:00
Speaker
um You know, i think I don't think either of us thought that we would, you know, be a professional podcast and I don't think that's what we want. But we we did start out having like weekly episodes and that's just not realistic because we're both you know working and we have kids and it's tough. and um yeah But you know some of the favorite things that I've, some of our favorite stories were created by
00:04:35
Speaker
people who it was not their main job. yep And we're doing this because we really enjoy the conversation. So i I'm raising a glass. I know it's a bit of a cop out just to recording again and doing something. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's good. I love it. I love you. I also did not give any forethought to this.
00:05:06
Speaker
um And I actually agree entirely wholeheartedly with everything you said. um And I think I would actually echo your your pouring went out. um
00:05:25
Speaker
One of the reasons we don't record as often as we used to is because we used to have the time to hang out and talk outside of our podcast episodes. But where we're at right now in our lives, it's so much it takes so much work to even just get time to talk. And so the podcast episode is something we love, but it's hard to do that if you're not continuing the friendship and relationship.
00:05:57
Speaker
yeah ah Right, this the beautiful language from, um there's a beautiful quote from probably the only good Ben Stiller movie, or at least high quality one, The Serial Life of Walter Mitty, where he's in interacting and talking with a man who shoots photos with a National Geographic, and the man decides not to take a photo, of this beautiful photo, and he says some things aren't, you know, aren't are too beautiful to be, to be filmed. Um, or like, are so, you know, strong in what they are, that it would be a loss to try and mimic that. And, and what i' I'm thinking about that is that not every, and and you use a different quote for this, but not every thing that we share is something that, uh, is worth, um, or it's even right to share on a podcast.
00:06:59
Speaker
ah So that was a long way to get back into this. And then I'm going to raise a glass, in fact, to ah the soon to be um older a podcast friend of mine. I'm going to raise a glass to you, Hunter. I know you've got a birthday coming up. By the time this episode comes out, you will already have had that birthday, but I really have appreciated I don't know the last 13 years of walking with you and all this stuff and decided for the next 30 and more. So here's to you. I raised my Gatorade.
Exploring Dostoyevsky's 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man'
00:07:47
Speaker
Cheers. che
00:07:52
Speaker
okay So we've got a fun episode coming today and it's, it's one of our grab bag episodes. So in this, um, if we are actually staying to our, our desired timing, um, we will probably talk anywhere between four and 10 different stories and storytellers that have shaped our lives and in small ways, um, or at different times in a back and forth type of, um, conversation.
00:08:23
Speaker
And so, Hunter, we had one that we had already planned. So I figured let's start there and let's go from there into into chaos. Yes. What are we going to start with? What are you bringing to the table? it's I am bringing the dream of a ridiculous man.
00:08:42
Speaker
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. ah Perfect man to go into chaos with. um And I had picked this one because we're planning to do Paralandra um for our next episode by C.S. Lewis. um And I'm excited for that episode. um And if you would like to read it, it's a pretty short book. You could probably probably get through it by the time we get around to the episode.
00:09:15
Speaker
um um But um the dream of a ridiculous man is a really, like, it really was like uncanny how much it reminded me of Paralandra, because I read this shortly after reading Paralandra, because It's about a guy who um I think he eventually works, and he's he's like really struggling with nihilism, which you see a lot of Dostoevsky's characters doing um because it was kind of a theme during during his day and I think it's something he probably struggled with himself.
00:10:01
Speaker
but he keeps working up to to kill himself and he has he has this dream where he does it and he suddenly he's like dead for a while in his coffin um and then he gets like transported to a another planet. Interesting. I didn't get that far.
00:10:30
Speaker
It looks a lot like. um
00:10:36
Speaker
It it looked like a Greek archipelago and it's like he lands somewhere on the on the mainland. And he says, it was an earth as yet undefiled by the fall. It was inhabited by sinless people who lived in that paradise in which, according to the tradition of all mankind, our sinful ancestors had lived, with this difference, that the entire earth was one and the same paradise. These people, smiling gladly, crowded around me, showering me with affection,
00:11:09
Speaker
They took me to their homes, and each of them sought to set me at ease. Oh, they did not ask me any questions. It was as if they knew all about it already, and they sought to drive the suffering from my face as quickly as they were able." And as the dream progresses, um he like really kind of he's incredibly affected by these people. They're sweet, like they're innocent, totally trusting, love and um and eventually ah he ends up corrupting them. Not on purpose. He lets something slip about a lie or something and just the concept of of a lie
00:12:09
Speaker
just so starts to infect the people. um
00:12:17
Speaker
And it's this incredible, like, progression. You know, it's it's a really short story. It's like, let me see how many pages here. It's 100 and page 108 to page 128. So it's like 20 pages. um And
00:12:44
Speaker
He says he doesn't quite remember how he infects them. um
00:12:52
Speaker
But the like he talks to them a lot, and I guess it it sort of comes from his speech, the this idea of lying. And that's how it starts. They learn how to how to lie. It starts off innocently, and then the germ of the lie keeps going through, and then there's luxury and jealousy and cruelty and blood and it's just this really tragic progression um to all of the vices and of our history and our present that we know today.
00:13:28
Speaker
um
00:13:31
Speaker
And he tries to like plead with them and and they they have this attitude of like, oh no, we know the truth now. Thank you for telling us the truth.
00:13:43
Speaker
um you know, we we're we're enlightened and now. And that's their sort of attitude. And then, um and then he wakes up. And from this point on, he basically starts
Knowledge vs. Happiness in Modern Life
00:13:57
Speaker
preaching, like he ah starts preaching to anyone who will hear him. And I know that my summary is not quite the best, but you should really read it for yourself. But I think the main, one of the main quotes that I want to share that really
00:14:17
Speaker
affected me and and shaved me was, that's what the scoffers cannot comprehend. They say he's been dreaming, he's rambling, hallucinations, well, what of it? And they're so proud of themselves.
00:14:32
Speaker
dream? What's a dream? Isn't this life of ours a dream? I'll go further. Suppose it never ever comes true and there is no paradise. Now that I do understand. Well, I'll still go on preaching. And yet how simple a matter it is, in one day, in one hour, it could all be brought about at once. The chief thing is to love others as oneself. That's the main thing.
00:14:56
Speaker
And that's it. Absolutely nothing more is necessary. You would immediately discover how to bring it about. And yet, it's just the old truth after all. An old truth a billion times repeated and preached, though it fell on stony ground, didn't it? And then this quote the cognition The cognition of life is superior to life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness superior to happiness. And that's what has to be fought against, and I shall. If only everyone desired it, it could all be brought about at once." Why? but it Why did it shape you?
00:15:43
Speaker
well or its part? This the part, the cognition of life is superior to life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness superior to happiness. And that's that's an idea that the main protagonist was struggling with and the attitude that he finds in people who, you know, kind of scoff at the idea that you could change the world just by loving your neighbor.
00:16:09
Speaker
um
00:16:12
Speaker
And I We've been thinking about it a lot because I think we've arrived at a point in our culture where we really value the cognition of life. Like, we want to understand how to live our best life. We have all of these scientific behavior studies about you'll be happier if you exercise or do all of this stuff. and um
00:16:44
Speaker
the knowledge of the laws of happiness, you know. We think that's superior to happiness, but I feel like it's so easy, you know, speaking for myself, to, you know, get caught up in trying to be better, that I sort of miss the happiness that's right in front of me. um And, you know, we were, so we're humans are so good at making ends of their means. um you know we turn the end We turn the means of getting happiness into the end of it. like um and I feel like we kind of worship those those means.
00:17:30
Speaker
um
00:17:34
Speaker
ah
00:17:42
Speaker
I, you would recommend it it's to me and I i read through Lou. I listened through the first 20 minutes of it. So probably the first five minutes five pages or so. And I did not get to the point where he started dreaming. And so it was very, very depressing when I was reading it. So I'm encouraged to hear that there's a couple of twists that come up.
00:18:09
Speaker
There's actually a happy ending. that don't touch don't Don't tell me. I know we are, spoiler fill a podcast, but in this particular case, I plan on reading this very shortly. So I would prefer to have that shared at a future time. um yeah and That's all I was going to say. It has a happy ending, which is rare for Dusty. That is a surprise to me.
00:18:38
Speaker
I was also, I was like, how in the world is this story at all like Paralandra? It's like, I'm understanding a little bit more with your summary. When did you first read this one, Hunter? Actually, last month, right I think, it would be earlier this month. It was around when I read Paralandra, which is you know, within a month ago. Nice. Well, I'm excited um to catch up on on that and kind of finish that story. And I think that's a cool way to start the grab bag with a much more recent read, even though it's a much older story that I'm sure most of what we're going to be talking about over the the coming minutes. Yeah.
00:19:27
Speaker
All right. What do you got? So I wrote these beautiful things whenever we started the grab bag tradition, and I have not looked at them since.
Passion for Old Houses
00:19:37
Speaker
So I have no idea what I'm about to put on this bag. And I hope I still remember it.
00:19:48
Speaker
Oh, that's a great one. Okay. I was actually, I was hoping I was going to get one of these today, but I didn't. Hold on.
00:20:03
Speaker
So you think you know the center. I subscribe to two magazines. I receive other ones, but like I receive ones from our college and another college in grad school. And I receive one from some random other organization that got my information at some point. But I i pay for two things. One is the yearly whole seed catalog.
00:20:29
Speaker
um and and some other seed catalogs, I get those in the mail. Didn't we do one of those on a... We did this already, yep. Yes. This is one of my previous stories. The other one is The Old House Journal. Okay. Probably gives somebody pretty big yeah insight into my life.
00:20:55
Speaker
If you're wondering why there's all that extra extra noise, it's because it just so happens that they I keep my old house journals right behind where I'm currently sitting. and so um I just grabbed the kind of the two most recent ones. I think it comes out once a quarter or so, um but or every other month. I love these, Hunter.
00:21:17
Speaker
It makes me so happy and so excited whenever I get get one of these in the mail. um My house is 105 years old. It was built in 1920, which when we could, I'm sorry, it was built in 1921.
00:21:33
Speaker
um It's always challenging with houses built that say they're built in 1920 because whatever people don't actually know when a house is built, they'll say it was built in 1920.
00:21:45
Speaker
I gave it to the whole house, but our house was built in 1921. And so when we moved in, in 2022, we were starting the new century. We officially started the second century of this house.
00:22:13
Speaker
Um, which is a really cool thing. Um, and cause houses out the bus, at least our earthly bodies. And so what we get to do is we steward the space. Um, you know, it takes on our personality, but when we're gone, somebody else is going to live here. We did it right.
00:22:33
Speaker
And um they're going to yeah make it their own personality. You can see some of the work I've done, just even sitting behind me, a bookshelf I've built. But this old house journal walks through houses from around the country. And I've drawn so much inspiration from ideas and just some of the beauty. We even have like little trainings like, hey, how do you unstick a sliding door or a pocket door? how do you um The old windows have, we've got a couple in our house, have ropes and dollies and like levers and pulling like a pulley system inside of them. like How do you fix those um without, you know how do you mitigate lead poisoning? Those types of things. Or mitigate lead so you don't give lead poisoning. How do you patch a plaster wall? This is a page I've specifically tagged. Because I know at some point in the near nearest future, I will run into that issue.
00:23:31
Speaker
um
00:23:34
Speaker
And they they just have something. like i Currently, i bought I bought a vent fan ah for over my my oven a while ago. I have not put it in yet. It's just a very kind of plain one, but I'm going to vent it outside. But you can see here and and the look of what an older style is going to be. And so what I plan on doing after I build mine or put mine in,
00:24:03
Speaker
is to build a facade to make it look grand and elegant and even though very you know it's primarily for a show. and i just I love the look, the the feel um of of old houses um because some houses you look at and it's like man, that looks like it could be on my street. So I'm really like, Oh man, those, those are, you know, in my area. Some of them are like, man, that that's a countryside home. I know your, your family, uh, purchased an old house, uh, at some point and your parents fixed it up, right? Yeah. I remember correctly. Yeah. Um, and I just, I love how creative people are and.
00:24:49
Speaker
There are very few things that make me feel more satisfaction and a but a sense of accomplishment maybe is a better word than taking a visual idea and putting it into practice in my home um you know with my own hands.
00:25:08
Speaker
my own mind, my hands. I take ideas from old house journal. I spend, spend a lot of time on Pinterest and looking around, making my own plan. Um, and then I'll put it into action. But you say you tell stories about your house. iphone Oh, I think you can tell the story of the house through the rooms you walk through. Um, and this is a storytelling, right? A journal. This, this journal is a story, right? There are tons of stories in here of homes.
00:25:38
Speaker
Um, but I definitely think as you walk through my home, um, and in fact, I give many people tours of it. I just gave a a truncated tour yesterday of our home. I tell the stories of, of the rooms and and and what they were created for and what they're used for now and and why we've made some of those decisions and how we've built onto it. And I have my mind, you know, ideas in my mind for,
00:26:05
Speaker
what they might look like in the future and kind of what types of stories we might tell then. For instance, when our house was built, was it's a four square home with a craftsman in interior. um I used to just say it was a craftsman house, but it's it's a four square home with a craftsman interior. It's not a bungalow.
00:26:26
Speaker
um
00:26:29
Speaker
It was built with a formal dining room with the absolutely beautiful like wood paneled ceilings where you have the be there's specific word that is missing mine. I can't think of right now, but it's like a checkerboard ceiling with the wood, um the natural wood, and it was never painted in our home. And um and then in the last the last homeowners built an addition onto the back of the house that continued the same style as the house.
00:26:59
Speaker
But it wasn't like an in-law suite. So when we bought this house, the in-law suite is like a side room. We turned the side room into our dining room. And we turned our formal dining room into the playroom.
00:27:13
Speaker
And so and that it's a part of the story I tell of it is how the family that lives in the home ah changes the dynamic and changes the usage of the different rooms. And and this is also where you make all the memories, right? How many stories are you going to spend telling? um How many years of stories are you going to tell um about
00:27:42
Speaker
the interactions that happened in the room you're sitting in right now, Hunter, or in the kitchen, or in what is now your kid's room. But last time I slept at your house, it was a random guest room with a computer in it. And it was probably something else before then. Yeah, it was an office.
00:28:07
Speaker
Thank you, Eric.
00:28:10
Speaker
ah It's funny because ah you know we did so much work on our house when I was a kid. um My dad does pretty much everything except for plumbing. And he does really high quality, finished work, interior work. um I just remember going to Home Depot and being so bored when I was like 10. Used to do it all the time.
00:28:41
Speaker
And I think it's taken me like 20 years to get over that to the point where now I'm like more interested, you know, um and, ah you know, starting to think about our family and, you know, buying a house and stories we're going to tell and, and all of that. So, yeah.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's funny how there's so many different feelings that people have about houses. Yes. Agreed. What's up next?
00:29:24
Speaker
Okay. This is an interesting one. I got Lance Armstrong. Ooh. Okay.
Lance Armstrong: Achievements and Scandal
00:29:35
Speaker
So those of you who know me,
00:29:37
Speaker
um you know that I like cycling ah especially if you knew me in like high school and college and high school I was on a cycling team um and ah you know we we wrote a lot and you know a few of us were able to compete at a fairly high level um but because our hometown had in Cambridge New York it was the home of the Tour of the Battenco, which was the biggest single-day race in the country. um And it's still going on. It's kind of changed owners and organizers, the original organizers, who was actually my coach in high school, cycling coach, is coming back to organize it. Oh, wow. um Yeah. so
00:30:31
Speaker
ah But he he had some connections to like pretty high level athletes. I was able to meet um Floyd Landis, who was a three time tour winner ah before he was investigated for doping.
00:30:48
Speaker
no um ah And l Floyd Landis was on Lance's team and Floyd Landis actually was the one who ah started the process of—he started blowing the whistle on Lance and led to the investigation really that revealed the truth. So if you don't know about Lance Armstrong, I should start there. He was a seven-time tour winner, the Tour de France, the biggest cycling tour in the world, really. um it's you know It's kind of the race that all of the big
00:31:25
Speaker
ah Tour racers want to to win, and he won it seven times when he was racing. That's a lot of times. Yeah. And, you know, when I was riding, um, it was, it was, I never really got totally into Lance, like worshiping Lance, but I, you know, I had a Livestrong bracelet. Oh yeah. We all did. We all did. Right. I mean, cause he not only wanted that many times, but he had,
00:31:55
Speaker
cancer and yeah cancer and then came back and won it again. Yeah, and I used to watch their YouTube videos about some of his showing his big moments. and A couple that I remember is, I forget which climb it was on. It might've been Mountain Ventoo or one of the big climbs. he just they were He was in the group pack and he just turned around and looked at all of them in the face.
00:32:22
Speaker
And then he just started walking away from and they didn't, they just didn't even try to catch him. Um, yeah. epic what a Yeah. So you, it you know, my friends and I used to like reenact those moments, like when we were just messing around out on the road, um, and, and racing each other and stuff, uh, and on our team. But, um, you know, it was, it was interesting because.
00:32:48
Speaker
Our coach, I remember we were talking about Lance and our coach said like, yeah, you know, in two or three years, some things that are going to start coming out about Lance. And they did um because Floyd Landis, ah he blew the whistle. And um and I met actually met Floyd, a really cool guy, very good at air hockey, really likes the big Lebowski, the movie The Big Lebowski.
00:33:16
Speaker
um a really nice guy. um And he was really kind enough to like actually go on a ride with us. um And I also met Greg LeMond once, which was cool. He came to the bat and kill and I got to like shake his hand and take a picture with him. Greg LeMond was, I think, a four-time winner of the tour. He was a U.S. writer. And he never doped. And he never liked Lance Armstrong because he was pretty sure that Lance was doping.
00:33:44
Speaker
um
00:33:47
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, so Lance was a story and I think Lance really, one of the the quotes I've heard about Lance, I can't remember exactly who said it, but he said, it's, you know, it's either the greatest comeback story in the history of sport or it's a complete, or it's the greatest betrayal in the history of sport, because Lance,
00:34:16
Speaker
you know, he really leaned into the story he made, and you know, he got cancer, um which now they think could have been related to all the, you know, steroids and stuff that he was taking. um And he came back from cancer and he won the tour seven times. And it's a great story. um you know It's incredible. um And
00:34:43
Speaker
But he was cheating. And and yes, you know almost everyone in the pro circuit was was doing some kind of doping. But Lance, his whole team was built around the Tour de France. And if you wanted to be on Lance's team, you had to dope. And that's what happened to Floyd Landis. He got onto Lance's team as a young guy, got you know indoctrinated into the the doping program. and And then, you know, Floyd got his titles stripped and he saw Lance come back to the tour and guess getting all of this glory and um decided he decided to tell the truth. But um yeah, so Lance Armstrong, I still think about him from time to time. i have i Apparently Lance has a podcast. I have no desire to listen to it. i just He spent so much time lying.
00:35:38
Speaker
like You know, because he would be asked all the time and Lance is like, I've never cheated. I've never, never failed a drug test. Uh, and he would get very defensive and, um, Billy disparage the people who are attacking him. And, um, someone who's, who's lied for so many years, I just don't, uh, I think they've really wasted their good will. Um, and so.
00:36:09
Speaker
But you know it's it's it's like a cautionary tale and a you know has been a big story in my life ah that has shaped me. Yeah. That's one of the most shocking like sporting yeah events and truths that's kind of hit hit the world in the 21st century. Yeah.
00:36:38
Speaker
Thanks for sharing that, Hunter. Appreciate that. yeah and' um Yeah. Depending on the age of the individual listening, I'm sure you have your own thoughts on the only answer I was drawing. I guess there's a documentary out on Netflix or on probably on Netflix. um Yeah, there is. It's talking about it and about like what doping can do um in in in recycling as far as increasing your strength and speed and and endurance. and yeah with with With the clarity of what doping can do, it's made it it makes it very clear that every so um and almost every single cycler at that time was doping. But again, it doesn't justify anybody doping.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah, the, the Lance documentary on Netflix, I think it's on Netflix is pretty good. Um, explains it pretty well. Uh, but you know, one small tidbit, uh, then we'll get to yours is, is the doping and cycling is not really, not really steroids. Cause like raw strength doesn't really help you that much in psych. It'll help my healthiest sprint, but you know, before you sprint and you have to cycle, like you have to race.
00:38:02
Speaker
96 miles until you get to the finish line. so
00:38:08
Speaker
so it's really ah you know It's really about endurance. and ah I have a limited understanding, but ah I think one of the main things that Lance used was EPO. and I'm pretty sure the main thing it does is it increases your oxygen content and the amount of um oxygen that you could carry and utilize.
00:38:32
Speaker
um And so a lot of times if you watch those old videos a lot of the the riding it looks like really like almost unnatural like Cause if you've ever actually rode, you've done bike riding, you know how like variable your performance can be on any given day. And you watch them and they're just like so consistent all the time. And it's, and one of the reasons that Greg Lamont never liked Lance is cause he kind of was running the numbers on Lance's, you know, speed and his, uh, VO two max.
00:39:11
Speaker
And he was like, yeah, that's not possible. um And you know it's nice to see Greg Lamont kind of get some vindication because he took a lot of flack for for not supporting Lance.
00:39:24
Speaker
um
00:39:30
Speaker
Thanks. Anyway, to you. It was cool to learn more new things. Yeah. Oh, yeah, thanks. Let's hope this is a gem.
00:39:42
Speaker
um That's another one that I have right around here. Give me a moment. I like this. I chose the right place to sit today.
The Board Game Wingspan
00:39:51
Speaker
So I've talked about houses, old houses. Now what's the logical next step? It's to talk about birds.
00:40:02
Speaker
ah The next story that that I'm sharing is ah the story of wingspan. Wingspan is a a board game that my wife and I love. It's been a while since we've played it. and Definitely have not played it since our second job was born. we're We're just now starting to get back into having time to play board games. But Wingspan is a board game that is focused on building the best bird sanctuary, pretty much.
00:40:35
Speaker
um You draw bird cards, you roll dice that have different things that birds might eat. Fish, caterpillars, berries, wheat, rodents, these types of things. And you lay eggs and you place birds.
00:40:58
Speaker
and um um The birds end up in either the river habitat, the forest habitat, or the grasslands habitat. um And let me give the caveat. I'm sure if you were to be reading the rules, um they have different words for everything I'm saying right now. um But in terms of speaking by the rules, I assure you that I have read them and know how to play this game well.
00:41:30
Speaker
um that matters to me deeply. Anyways, I'm a little bit of legalist when it comes to board games and rules. You're going to break the rules. You have to know what the rules are and why you're breaking them. And then it needs to be because the rules are bad. um You know this, Bummy Hunter.
00:41:50
Speaker
and so Totally unexpected facet of your personality. I hope you're being honest about that.
00:42:00
Speaker
Anyways, um so it's just such a beautiful game. um So in this game, every single one of the bird cards have our hand drawn pictures.
00:42:14
Speaker
You've played this, aren't you? You know what these cards look like. If you haven't played Wingspan, I really, highly encourage you to look it up. They're absolutely stunning pictures, and it gives you a little bit of the history of the bird, where it's from. We own two of the expansions. We expand like Europa and Oceania, which is based on different parts of the world where the birds are. The first one is just North America.
00:42:40
Speaker
Oceania. Oceania. Thank you. um The first one's just North America. And in the Europa one is actually is a good expansion. It just adds more bird cards and a couple more different types of actions. um The Oceania, it makes the game too complicated. It brings in new board. it's I don't recommend it. It changes the game too much.
00:43:05
Speaker
um and yeah in ways that don't make it more enjoyable. They just make it more confusing. um But I do think both of them also give you um different color eggs. This is going to be a random thing to say, but one of the pieces of this game that makes it so enjoyable is um is the the pieces. The birds are beautiful. The dice are nice wooden.
00:43:34
Speaker
The little rodents that you might eat, and the food that you might eat are these little pogs with basic cardboard cutouts. But the eggs are some type of plastic, but they look like an egg that's been cut off at the bottom so it would stand up. But the way they've been made just makes them very tactile. It's not kinetic sand, but it's the type of thing that you want to Just hold on to it. Very eatable. Yes. And you want to hold on to it. And so we've made this very clear on our podcast that when we talk about stories and storytellers, we're pretty broad in the meaning of that.
00:44:18
Speaker
um
00:44:21
Speaker
i can ah but This game tells a beautiful story um as you're building your habitat and you're competing against everybody else. um And it's full of fun and laughter. And it's a good competitive one, but it's it's also a great game for people that aren't used to board games. So it can bring lots of people together. It's not too long, too hard to explain. It's not the fastest game to explain, but it's it's pretty pretty good first game or second board game as you're moving from your your clues and your monopolies to your terraforming Marses.
00:44:54
Speaker
as you're going from you know board game monopoly to like really intense two-hour board game this is much closer to the to a beginner level board game.
00:45:06
Speaker
um And a home a home rule we have when playing with friends is, and it just came up recently, one of Melanie's friends um brought up the ridiculousness of our home rule. um On the bird cards, when you play a bird, you're supposed to just kind of share the bird you're playing and the the actions it can give you and stuff like that. and But we also make people read um the Latin name of the bird right under the,
00:45:38
Speaker
The main name of it. And it is absolutely hilarious um hearing some people hear people try to name these things. And so let let me give you ah an example that I just randomly picked one. This is the Parrot Crossbill. It's an orange bird. It's got a crossbill. It's got a weird bill. but it's And the the Latin part is also written in cursive.
00:46:05
Speaker
It makes it incredibly hard to read. Um, it's also known as the Laxia.
00:46:14
Speaker
Pitio. Sit. Sitakis. Pitio. Sit. Sitakis. I think there's some Greek in there too. And that one. Sitakis.
00:46:31
Speaker
This is all one word. Pityopsic. Pityopsic ticat. P-Y-T-Y-O-P-S-I-T-T-A-C-U-S. Oh, yeah. That's, that's great. P-S-I. Yeah. How about this one? The act, activist, macularious.
00:46:52
Speaker
Macularious. That sounds vaguely Latin. You know, the thing with the scientific names is they borrow from both Greek and Latin, I think. Yeah, that's true. How dare they? The Barnswallow, also known as the Herundo Restica. So Greek and Latin. But this is not your story to tell, okay, Hunter? Sorry. Get out of my face. Do you have any wingspan stories? I've played wingspan a few times. Okay.
00:47:23
Speaker
Well, I can look at the...
00:47:27
Speaker
Do you have a go to wingspan story? Is that why you asked? Uh, not really. I, I do. I would challenge your statement that it's good for be well, somewhat beginners. I think it depends on who you are because I know people who, who play board games, you know, uh, quite a lot. And they found wingspan really, really difficult to figure out on their own. So.
00:47:55
Speaker
I think it really depends on who you are because it's on the board. Yeah, who's teaching you. Yeah. I think being taught four games is an important skill that not everybody has. Yeah. Different people respond to different types of teaching styles differently. Totally. Yes, it's not our go-to original game or first four game to teach people is Azul.
00:48:24
Speaker
It's, that's our favorite, yeah favorite board game for somebody that doesn't think they like board games. Um, but the nice thing about wingspan is you can just build pretty birds. You don't have to be competitive in it. You know, um, but we first got this, the first time we played this was, um, just over four years ago. Um, and so it's, it's a, it's a game that's made its way from Chicago to Rochester.
00:48:53
Speaker
Um, and I can just, as I'm looking through the previous scores in different games, I'm seeing people that are in all different walks of life, uh, of our lives playing this together. And so I don't have a specific story, but it definitely brings a smile to my face and an excitement to me that it makes me want to play it again with my wife and some friends. I played it with, uh, some guys that I've I also played Magic the Gathering with and we were all using like magic terms when we were playing the barn, the birds. It was like, here goes my three men of barn swallow. so It's really, if you don't know Magic the Gathering, it it doesn't, it's not funny at all.
00:49:48
Speaker
and Are you kidding me? I know nothing about it, but I found that absolutely hilarious. I'm dying inside. I'm sure you can hear it in my voice. It's just pure, I just roll it around. ah That's cool though. And let me say- I really like the thing you put the dice in. Yes, yes. So actually I had the bird feeder up separately. and We had to keep that one out of our kid's reach and our cat's reach too. um But they just released a new version of it.
00:50:19
Speaker
of Wingspan this year, or this past year, at least in time for Christmas, that's dragon-based. It's called Wurm, W-Y-R-M, span. And so my brother-in-law got it for Christmas. I'm really excited to to see what makes it unique, if it's just the different cards, or if there's a different um if it's the same playing mechanics, and like just the visuals are different, or if there's some different mechanics.
00:50:47
Speaker
Um, but got to know that I'm going to get myself a Saphira and, uh, take on the rest of the dragons, uh, as I, and, and Griffin's of course, as I fight to rule the world.
00:51:07
Speaker
You're up Hunter. Sounds like a friendly game. How about one more each? Is that, does that sound good? Yeah.
00:51:20
Speaker
Are you rolling them? Mm-hmm. It sounds like you're rolling them like dice. I am. I could find a bowl nearby. Okay. I had to really... MacGyver it, but...
Admiration for 'Tron Legacy'
00:51:33
Speaker
MacGyver it. I've got Tron Legacy. Tron Legacy. The movie? The movie Tron Legacy. Okay. I have seen this movie at least three times. Um,
00:51:48
Speaker
I don't know. Have you seen Tron Legacy, Eric? I think it might have fallen into one of my late night watches, um but not I am not super familiar with the Tron-averse. Okay. Tron-averse. I think there's only two movies as far as I know. They're working on the other one, right? It's shown up in a few Disney things. Yeah. um There's a game too. Yeah, but the main thing is the first movie really. Tron um is about a guy who finds a way to enter the computer and he ah creates what's called the grid and um is kind of sucked into the grid and
00:52:41
Speaker
um Tron is sort of like a hero who fights for the users, um kind of like ah anti-malware.
00:52:55
Speaker
um But there's these all these really crazy visualizations. of If you watch the first one, it's really old, so the visual effects are kind of um campy, but it is still kind of charming. ah You have the light cycles ah races where the cycles have these like tails that come off of them that it's like a light wall. And if you you know you try to get your opponent to crash into your light wall that's coming off of your tail, I think there's some tanks. There's the disc throwing, where you throw discs at each other.
00:53:33
Speaker
um and And then Tron Legacy, I think is a descendant of the original guy. i And he's he's kind of a, he's a rebel. Oh, he's his son. Yeah. he's Because what happens is Jeff Bridges, who I think he's in the original Tron, he gets sucked into the grid and he never comes back and he leaves his son. And so now the second movie, Tron Legacy, his son is trying to go after him.
00:54:03
Speaker
And the sort of corporation that owns the computer um you is kind of, the Sun has to like infiltrate it and get into the computer room and get into the grid. and um There's not really a plot, honestly. He just gets into the grid and he has to fight Clue, who kind of took over. Clue helped Jeff Bridges. I don't even remember his character's name, I just remember Jeff Bridges. I love Jeff Bridges. I don't know if you know this about me, but Hey, good choice. Don't you love True Grit? Isn't Jeff Bridges a true Grit? I love, yeah, Jeff Bridges' True Grit. The John Wayne one's pretty good, but honestly... Iron Man? Belongs to the... The original Iron Man? Yeah, he's good in Iron Man, my favorite Jeff Bridges movie. But he's terrifying at the end of that movie. He is, yeah. I mean, he's a good actor. He found the thing that he does well, and he does it well. It's true. He's in The Big Lebowski, too.
00:55:10
Speaker
Yeah, you brought that up twice. that great I did not enjoy Trump. Did not enjoy the Big Lebowski, but that's it I know that's... It's kind of a weird. It really depends on who you are. It all depends on how old you are. yeah but There's some funny lines in that movie though, but... Trump legacy. Not a highly acclaimed, critically acclaimed movie. Really a flop, right?
00:55:35
Speaker
at least wasn't, they didn't make any more after it. Since when have I ever cared about whether he was a flop or not? And i this movie, I just, I think it was on like, it would like come on Netflix and I would watch it and then it'd go off. It would come on Netflix again and I'd watch it again. And like, it's just, I love, I think some of the things that they do in that movie visually is like some of the most imaginative sci-fi that I've ever seen.
00:56:04
Speaker
Um, and I've watched a lot of sci-fi. Um, yeah and, you know, I, I just, I love the, the music. Uh, I believe they got Daft Punk to do the music for Tron Legacy and they did pretty well. Um, the actors are decent enough. Jeff Bridges is, is, you know, he's Jeff Bridges. bridges Um, and I'm really sad that there's not another one. I, um, who's the, the female actor, Olivia? Wild.
00:56:34
Speaker
Yeah, Olivia Wilde. she's She's great. She's sort of like Jeff Bridges' virtual daughter that he has in the um in the grid. And you get to see some some like really cool remakes of you know the disc fights and the light cycles. And they go even beyond that to like light planes and things. And you get to see Tron come back.
00:57:02
Speaker
um
00:57:05
Speaker
but Yeah, I mean, like it's most of it is vibes, really, I think, for me. um And i I mean, honestly, like just just go watch it and see what you think, because like there's a lot of bad sci-fi coming out. and and And I really don't think Tron Legacy is bad sci-fi. It's a pretty well done movie. And the story, even though there's not It's not like a complicated plot. He just gets into the grid and then he tries to get out of the grid. And he ends up getting out with Olivia Wilde's character. And their sort of like relationship and um as it develops is is actually kind of touching. um And the like the scene when they finally get out of the grid and she's like riding on the motorcycle um behind him and they're on the
00:58:00
Speaker
on the freeway, and I think it's like San Francisco, and the sun is coming up, and it's ah it's a real sun. It's not a grid sun. It's it's a really beautiful shot, um and I still remember it to this day. and Lots of scenes from that movie I can remember very well. okay And i would I would watch it again. that's because I kind of want to watch it again now. but Yeah, I mean, I have seen this movie, but I have no memory of it. But I remember that I have seen it.
00:58:28
Speaker
or that I've seen enough of it to feel like I've seen it. And so you're making me want to figure out where it's streaming now on. Yeah. and I mean, I think if they did a video if the video game adaption right, it could be it could be really good. On Disney+. And we'll probably rewatch at some point in the next few months.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a good movie. um I would pick it over a lot of things so these days. All right, Eric, close this out. Close this out. Let's end with a winner. Is this a winner?
00:59:17
Speaker
We're in the dark service. Oh, this is a winner. I must have been looking at this bookshelf when when I wrote down these cards.
00:59:30
Speaker
um How funny is this?
Using Story Cards for Conversations
00:59:33
Speaker
ah The thing we're going to end with on our podcast about the stories and storytellers that shape us are story cards. This is actually from North Point Church, which is the church that Andy Stanley is the pastor of, or at least has been the pastor of.
00:59:53
Speaker
um But they're not They were created as a small group resource um But they can be used in any group setting and the the premise of story cards is to get a group talking and and really to start build build some relationships and allow those who who think differently To um To feel comfortable sharing About
01:00:26
Speaker
Well, whatever it is that if you want to talk about. And so this is the second iteration of story cards, which I really i like it better than the first iteration.
01:00:39
Speaker
But just imagine roughly 40 to 50 cards. I just have random pictures on them. This is an escalator, either going up or down, somebody sitting at a coffee shop.
01:00:56
Speaker
A mother goose with a baby. A little kid playing Jenga. Somebody looking at an alarm clock at 7.20 pm over over a highway. A random sign in the middle of the desert saying pointing two different ways. A guy lifting weights at the gym. Somebody hang gliding. Pot of coffee.
01:01:25
Speaker
A couple kissing ice cream cones. There's always my favorite and or two of them that I really like. A chain around a a fence. um And then this is the real winner. It's almost always chosen. It's a green crayon amongst a box of red crayons. They're just random pictures, right? You look at it and you're like, okay,
01:01:50
Speaker
i mean Most people would see this thing and say, well that's a ah what is that for? It seems like that might be a waste of time. but This is a go-to tool that I use when trying to connect with a group of people and trying to get us to think a little bit creatively um and to be open and honest. And so what I'll do, and I've done this for staff related things, for other things related to church and other small group settings, is I'll put these and in the middle of a group of anywhere from four to 12 people, um and I'll ask a question. And the first question I usually ask is and something yeah pretty, not super so superficial, but
01:02:37
Speaker
um you know, an icebreaker type question, I'll ask that. Pick a card that um reminds you of a favorite experience you've had this past month. Or pick a card that, um you know, relates to one of your favorite activities. Something that allows us to get to know each other a little bit better. But then, you know, the second question, I'll ask usually three or four questions. um And so people will grab the card And then once everybody has their card and some people grab two cards, some people will want to grab the same card and that's fine. There's no major, there's no real rules to this. um Some people will know what they want right away. Some people will have no idea. Let's say, oh my goodness, this is too creative.
01:03:23
Speaker
um and bill we'll We'll then go around and share, hey, why did you grab this card? And some people will share two or three words. Some people will share a couple minutes and then We'll move on to later, later questions and later questions might ask somebody like, Hey, what is, what does home mean to you? Which picture reminds you of home? Um, and, um, then I'll ask something, if it's in like a work related setting, I'll ask somebody along the lines of, um, where do you, which card envisions where you want us to be in a year?
01:04:07
Speaker
And as you look at this, where do you want to be in the year end? Maybe somebody will bring up the ice cream cones, say, hey, I want us to be in a place where we're celebrating and where we're celebrating together across our diversity and across the things that that that really brought us together. um you know Or maybe I'll ask a question of like, what is it, you a small group setting? um like
01:04:36
Speaker
What does your relationship with God look like? And somebody might pick out this picture. And this is a picture of a a woman standing in a sunbeam. And the nice thing is you can interpret this however you want, but I see this and I think about just the warm rays of God shining on you. You know how?
01:04:56
Speaker
Um, my cat doesn't like sitting in sun beams. He's weird. Um, most cats that I have experienced do, um, but just how you can, like, when you stand in a sun beam, if you're in the right space, close your eyes, you're just like are warmed by the heat of the sun. Um, and it can, you know, my office right now is in the low sixties or it's really, really cold. Um, but just the warmth, um, that I could feel from, from God's presence. Um,
01:05:23
Speaker
And i I've seen an experience in many different spaces, um individuals willing to become pretty open and honest and and and share real things um as as they use these story cards. no and And often ah people will start with some, oh my goodness, what are we doing?
01:05:48
Speaker
And by the end, we're having a good time. There's laughter. There's there's real meaningful conversations. They have some basic like recommended. You can buy this. I think it was like 12 bucks. Just type in story cards. um You can make them your own too. A lot of people have. um I like the ah that being made for me and kind of having a professional quality for them.
01:06:11
Speaker
and But they there's examples like they've got example questions like which picture best represents something you are grateful for Or a favorite memory from childhood or your perfect weekend your life right now Your feelings about church or religion a cause of your stress Something that made you laugh recently So so for those of you who are like, hey, I can't imagine trying to think of a question on a spot for a group They have those built into here um but They, you can also use them strategically as you're thinking about how to build relationships and how to get people thinking, um, in terms of where are you now and where, where do you want us to be? So I haven't used these in, in, in probably a little over a year now. Um, but now that I bring them up, I want to put them back in action. Um, and I just have so many good, good memories and experiences. Have I done them with you before Hunter?
01:07:08
Speaker
I don't think so. I was going to ask, where do you see this podcast in five years? Let's see. Let me draw a random one and see if that gives us a good answer. Is this the card you're looking for?
01:07:30
Speaker
and Oh, okay. I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe 50 years. this is This is possibly an older couple sitting in one of them's in a wheelchair. Imagine us 50 years from now at a table. i Let me talk to you about the story cards.
01:07:56
Speaker
this one this one day 65 years ago be
01:08:07
Speaker
but Lots of laughter, lots of joy five years from now. Got no idea what's going to be going on in our lives. I mean, we'll have, you know, six to eight year olds to nine year olds. How old is your oldest now? He's four. He's four. My goodness. So I'm sure there'll be many, many activities going on in our lives. Um, but hopefully I'm still,
01:08:39
Speaker
Hopefully we'll have even better rhythms for, for rest and for, for meeting together. That's my five year, five year hope. And maybe we'll finish talking, uh, through all of, uh, Tolkien by then. Yeah.
01:09:00
Speaker
Or at least East of Eden. Right. Yes. That's that is our plan. We're doing Para Landra. next week or two weeks. Recording and and editing are are going to be a different timeline, but our plan after Paralandra is to do East of Eden part three. Part three. Now's your chance. We've given you lots of time if you've been reading along.
01:09:31
Speaker
ah
01:09:35
Speaker
You're probably, you're gonna have some more time too, you know, if you want to read along with us, but East of Eden part three. I'm excited to get back into East of Eden. I'm not really, I've been reading some stuff that late lately that has really been testing my patience. So I'm happy to get back into Steinbeck. You're talking about Genesis, right? No, no, not Genesis. in Different books. You know, in in East of Eden, part three. Oh, yes. And talk about Genesis. I thought you were mentioning about the stuff that I've been reading. No. Talk about Genesis, right? That East of Eden kind of has some of that conversation with... Yes, yeah, Cain and Abel. Some great scholars around. Spending a lot of time in Genesis, you know, Paralandra, a lot of Genesis, Dream of a Ridiculous Man, East of Eden,
01:10:30
Speaker
that's what we can talk about in this next week in creation. Supplementary class materials. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, recommended readings. Yes. Not required. Okay.
Appreciating Stories as They Are
01:10:43
Speaker
Hunter, any last thoughts as we head out tonight?
01:10:47
Speaker
ah No. ah Thank you for listening. I hope it's i hope it's given you some help to appreciate stories for what they are, going back to the dream of the ridiculous man. I think this podcast for me is an attempt to elevate stories themselves above the cognition of stories, ah because I think so often we are concerned with what the story says or means or what it does or the movements that it creates.
01:11:27
Speaker
or the thoughts that it brings up. And yet, there's, you know, it's a story. You know, there's a pleasant feeling about just reading a story and letting it be a story and shaping you. You know, the Harasa and Phalcandra would argue that the conversation about the story is part of the story itself.
01:11:54
Speaker
Oh, it is part of it, but I feel like in our culture, we tend to make that the only conversation. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. andm I'm a big, uh, Bill's fan, Buffalo Bill's fan, gotta be in my area. And they've been watching a lot of news and reading a lot of articles about the Bill's Chiefs game. And the game hasn't happened yet. And yet the game has already happened many times.
01:12:21
Speaker
um And I can read all of these things about, oh, who's going to win? How's it going to go? What's the score going to be? What's it been in the past? Who's you know set up to be better? How does it seem? But the thing that makes me actually excited is not that.
01:12:37
Speaker
It's this right the the story unfolding. right um yeah That helps build the ah anticipation. And obviously, we're talking about the other side of it, you most of what you're talking about with cognition. um But it can happen beforehand, too.
01:12:51
Speaker
Right. Um, but the actual experience of it is, is a thrill as it, you know, into itself, unto itself, that we can lose sight of. Very easily. Very easily.
01:13:14
Speaker
And with that, see you next time.