Introduction to Episode 34
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode number 34 of Just Shillin. I am one of your hosts, Sean Hoffman.
Sean's Chaotic Week & Local Involvement
00:00:11
Speaker
And I'm your other host, Andy Bell. and How are you buddy? I am good. It has been, it has been, a kid me it's just been crazy. Um, I was, good if we would have recorded yesterday, I would have been like, dude, it's been like a rough,
00:00:29
Speaker
a rough week, it's been just like all over the place. But today, today, like the last 24 hours have been like chaotic good, if we wanna put it in like the the three by three square. Like chaotic good. um So it's like, I feel my heart rate in my throat in like a good way of like, ooh, this is exciting. So like things have really kind of turned around for the better.
00:00:57
Speaker
um It's been a week man. I I'm I know we talked about it right before we recorded like not a lot's happened um We've got a little bit to talk about but like maybe it'll be a short one. Maybe who knows? But uh, it's been yeah, it's just been crazy. I I wish we've been did we've been doing all sorts of stuff recently like um Like we've been really really I've been really busy with work We've been doing some stuff for like local Like not, I won't say like local politics, cause it's not really what it
Vacancy Tax Debate & Real Estate Lobbyists
00:01:27
Speaker
is. It's specifically for like a local measure, like doing some canvassing and I've been doing some web stuff for it because there's some, there's some heated proposals coming through in the area. and and
00:01:38
Speaker
Just for it like, not to go into the details of it, but it's very interesting because it's it's getting over like millions of dollars from like national lobbyists paying to kind of disrupt the campaign. So it's kind of an interesting time here in the basin. And what's that for is is that for? Is that for some kind of planning or some sort of development? It's for a proposed vacancy tax.
00:02:07
Speaker
Um, in, in our city. So basically over 44% of our homes here in town are vacant, uh, over six months of the year because because that holiday holiday lets all the exactly. yeah And, and that's causing there's, it's causing a ton of issues. Like that's one of the issues. Like it's school enrollment rates are down like 30 plus percent, uh, workers can't afford to live here. They have to commute like over an hour outside and it's just, it's a whole, but it's a whole big thing. So they're proposing a vacancy tax. So if you don't live here over,
00:02:43
Speaker
X number of days, like you'd get an extra 3K tacked on to your property taxes a year. And that has the real estate lobby, the real estate agent lobby flipping their gourd. They are not happy about it. So they we're getting money for they're getting money from ah d Washington DC, from Los Angeles. They have like paid ah paid people walking around like spreading these flyers that are just why like it's
Housing Issues in Tahoe vs. Cornwall
00:03:15
Speaker
wild. it's it's like It's a bizarre time to be alive because they're like, oh, the government's going to be peeping in your windows with binoculars or they're going to be doing all this stuff. And like I feel like I'm in the midst of like the the chaos that you see on TV with like political like misinformation and stuff. It's crazy. It's it's wild times. Well, that's the problem with... that's the I mean, that's the challenge. i mean the
00:03:39
Speaker
The challenge with living in a place of outstanding beauty, which you know Tahoe is renowned for, is that it becomes unaffordable. um it It really, really drives the local economy into the ground. I mean i saw the same thing happen where where I was born and brought up. Locals can't live there, and can't afford to buy there. Pretty much pretty much my my remaining family that are living back in in this place Cornwall and Any old friends that I still have down there, they' they're pretty much having to rent because they cannot afford. They don't have the means to to to to to buy their own place. It's crazy and sad and really, really sad. And I understand why people want a second home down there. I understand why people want to um get into the property market or get into the the the the yeah the rental market or the Airbnb market. I
Airbnb Regulations & Affordable Housing
00:04:31
Speaker
get it. I understand it. But if there's no local economy,
00:04:34
Speaker
Um, its and that's what you say it's not good. And that's what makes it so complicated is we already put a cap. And like, so you have, you can't just open an Airbnb here. You have to have a permit through the city and they already capped those and they're actually not renewing them. So the numbers are going down there. Um, and we also have this regional planning thing. That's kind of environmental, like for the entire basin that controls like development. And you can only have so much coverage on your land because they need snow to melt and be filtered and go to the base. So there's a lot of regulation to kind of keep, uh, from being over, uh, overbuilt. But what, one of the things that's kind of come out of it is like the only people who can afford or to like develop are the, the ones, the second homes, the ones where they just tear out the entire lot and rebuild these, these massive
Tensions Surrounding Vacancy Tax Vote
00:05:26
Speaker
things. So like it's getting rid of affordable housing, tearing down but like motels, apartment complexes and building these.
00:05:32
Speaker
these mansions We call them McMansions. and so yeah it's It's incredibly crazy, but it's funny how the real estate like real estate agents have come out of the woodwork. like it's hot It's hostile. It's it's hostile here. and We have until November when this vote comes through.
00:05:52
Speaker
And it's, it's already kind of weird. Like who cares about the, the, the, not who cares, but like people aren't even talking about like the national election. It's like, what is this individual measure going to do? And it's, it's crazy. Um, so yeah, we've been if you're talking about, but if you're talking about 3k, I mean, if you if you're talking about 3k and I understand, but if you're talking about 3k, um, 3k is a lot of money, but it's not.
00:06:19
Speaker
It's not extortionate. If you've you've got the if you've got the the disposable income or the investment portfolio or the credit to be able to afford a second home or a rental.
00:06:35
Speaker
in 3K to support your local, the local community. Is that is that a lot? It doesn't seem like a lot to me. It is. It is not even two ski passes, which is like that. That's the that's the funniest part is like we have we have some neighbors who who this would affect.
00:06:56
Speaker
And it's not even like and they come in and they buy ski multiple season ski passes for their entire family. And this isn't even the cost of two of them. Like right for a single person. um But it's it's it's yeah, it's it's bananas. What's what's going on? Different world because because there's different towns that are surrounding us that their their vacancy rates are over 70 percent.
00:07:21
Speaker
And they like it's too far gone for them now. Like they like there's nothing they really can do um because they don't have the majority anymore. and So they can't. it's It's yeah, it's bananas. But anyways, not to go down that rabbit hole any further because it's crazy times.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, besides besides that, we ah we have an update.
Podcast Engagement on Instagram
00:07:44
Speaker
I have an update for us. Kind of kind of trigger. I mean, something I've kind of been mulling around in the background. um for a while, but I think the Just Craftin stuff kind of pushed me over the edge on it. We now have an Instagram account for both Just Showin and Just Craftin. Awesome.
00:08:02
Speaker
just a, I mean, which, and I know you're a big Facebook facebook guy, so that could we could even, if you have an interest, you can even use that there. I'm not a big Facebook guy. It's the only place that I can stay in touch with my family over in over in Sydney. i use it I use it mainly for for keeping in touch with, in fact, I've used it for what, 10, 15 years, only for posting family stuff, really. It's it's not anything but a family. Well, you heard it here live. Andy said, fuck Facebook. We're not getting one. We're not doing it there, ever. But no, we do have... we I did do the... No, no, I will. No, no, no. It'll be nice. Let's just put it this way. It'll be a nicer to get get little get a little bit of but get a little bit more active there as well and maybe um break the seal and finally come clean to some of my friends and family that I do at Dorky Podcast.
00:08:55
Speaker
Oh, that's not happening for me, Ned. Nope. Although I'm sure and so like i might my internet footprint is massive, so I'm sure with a reasonable Google search.
00:09:09
Speaker
like can they'll They'll find out one way or another. he yeah Yeah, for sure. I was going to leave it to later on, actually. It's something I've been listening to, but I really enjoyed you you get your latest episode of of just crafting. it's it It's good. I mean, if you you know if you if you get around me that that the the absolute chaos that is ah Ed, um, it's the rest of it is, is, is, is really, really good. God, that guy's a, a live wire, isn't he? You can't control. one so What's the over under that if he will post the episode to their feed, like I'm i'm about to start taking a bet on it and just Ed, if you're listening to this, which was worthy odds of that. Um, you can't say this time that I didn't send it to you because now I've sent it to you twice.
00:09:57
Speaker
So yeah, shots fired. and i And I'm a witness. And it was witnessed. So yeah, no excuses, Ed. But no, it sounds it sounded great. I mean, it sounds really, really good. I mean, to to some of the feedback you you guys have been getting, it's like it would be great to be able to um put some images or some context to what you guys are talking about. So yeah, setting up that Instagram account as well, I think is a very, very good thing.
00:10:23
Speaker
um because um i've seen I've seen some of the art, that you've the the modeling you've been doing. i've ah Obviously ive I've seen firsthand some of the scratch building that our buddy Chris has been doing and and Ed himself has been quite prolific on Discord with with his stuff. So spreading the word on that and and and and making that content available to a wider audience, I think is a good, good thing because there's some sweet, sweet stuff there that you guys have been working on.
00:10:52
Speaker
And the other the other added bonus is that forcing my it forced me to kind of create a new project for like editing. And it it's helped me discover a solution to the things that maybe people have given us feedback about, about the audio leveling. And I believe this episode will be the first one where that is I fixed it before, but this will be, I'm hoping that this one is more fixed than normal because I know people will say that it sounds different in headphones versus in the car. In the car, one of us is really loud or one of us is really quiet. It sounds fine. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I think I have that problem resolved now for this episode. So we'll see. If not,
00:11:39
Speaker
Well, I also think a less technical solution of me not actually actually having my mouth more than 20 centimeters away from the actual mic helps an awful lot as well. In the early days, in the early days I was more or less swallowing the microphone. um i I think that made a lot of difference as well. Cool. Anything else you've been doing this week, mate?
00:12:04
Speaker
No, man, it's just been I mean, besides the the watching and stuff like that, um just been a I guess I mean, it's kind of kind of part of
Sean's Investment in Satisfactory Game
00:12:13
Speaker
it. The other the other thing, it's kind of news, kind of what I've been up to. And I talked about a little bit off air with you last week of Ike.
00:12:21
Speaker
I've never, I would never consider myself a huge gamer. Like I've always played video games, but like you meet some of our friends who are like, they, they live for it. They, like, it's, they follow, like I'll follow it and I get excited for games. Like, but I'm one of those people who has like a steam library where it's like, there's more games unplayed than played. And it's just kind of like that.
00:12:42
Speaker
shame library um and even even console games because it's like I like the idea of it, but then like making myself come and sit like I'll always play Star Wars games and I played other ones, but like. I just I feel like there's always something else that's kind of pulling me somewhere else, but a game that I have followed for since pre-release ordered it the day day. Open for pre-release over four, like four freaking years ago.
00:13:10
Speaker
And I've got 700 plus hours and finally hit 1.0 yesterday. And it's like, man, I've never felt like pride for a company or like a game studio or anything that I have nothing to do with. Like I have, I'm not associated with any of it, but it's like you just kind of sit back and go, hell yeah, dude. Congratulations. That's awesome. Like.
00:13:33
Speaker
I'm going to get back into it at some point. Like not right now. I started to boot it up yesterday. I'm like, what am I doing? I don't have time for this shit. Like ah it's like ah it's cool. I've never I've never felt that for like a game. And like I think it's kind of cool to feel that myself. I know a lot of our friends are like super invested into games that have meant a lot to them for a very, very long time or they've invested a lot of hours. No, it's just kind of it's kind of weird. It's like a new experience for me.
00:14:00
Speaker
um I mean, I guess I'd ever mentioned the name of the game, not that it's like, it's very niche and very specific to like how my brain works, but it's called Satisfactory. It's a factory automation game. It's really cool. Uh, if you'd like doing work as a game, that's kind of fun. Um, but, and I, I know I talked to you about it last week, but it is coming to console too. They're pouring into console. It looks really, really good. And it's not what, when you described it to me before you showed me what it was, I thought, okay.
00:14:30
Speaker
I thought it was a bit like you know some of those little handheld or the little DS games like Cooking Mama or um or animal and i'm not animal farm i said animal Animal Crossing Crossing, Animal Crossing, Animal Farm. That's very, very different depending on what That would be a good game. yeah um Yes, it would. um Animal Crossing. um and um But no, when you showed me, I thought it it blew my med ah my head off. I mean, it is it is an auto it is a factory automation concept, but it's set in a sci-fi setting surrounding, you know, you're you you you're basically
00:15:14
Speaker
um I was about to say an astronaut. You're not an astronaut. You're a miner or you're a factory builder, but it just so happens to be on alien planets. And I think that's absolutely awesome. The graphics look really, really good. A lot of it reminded me of Starfield. A lot of it reminded me of Starfield.
00:15:42
Speaker
That's what's funny is like when I first saw the stuff about Starfield and like why I jumped straight into it, come like, Ooh, I heard I can set up stuff on like on moons. But then after playing satisfactory and like, and then going to Starfield, like, oh, like it's you can a little bit, but it's nothing. It's not as nor should it be, nor nor should it be. It's like it's not the scale like where it's like it's the singular point of this game is to like.
00:16:05
Speaker
You start with nothing, you build some miners, and then you're ah you're building all the way up to like nuclear power plus teleporters. and it's it isn't I've never gotten to the end. like I have that many hours in, and like obviously I've never played 1.0, but I've never even gotten to the end of like where it was when I was still playing. like it's It's a niche, like I'm telling you, like if there's people be like, I don't want to do that. Like, I don't want to look at a paper that says like, it's like when you hear about the Eve online people, they're like, oh, they're doing like economics and like.
00:16:39
Speaker
figuring out like math strategies of that. Like I used to have papers. I mean, I made a whole website dedicated to it. Like as a helper, like there's websites that are dedicated like production flows. I'm like, okay, if you want this many of this thing, like how many minds you need, what kind of belts and the idea? It's work. Like people look at it and they go, oh, it looks like work. I'm like, I don't know what it is, man. It tickles that fancy, but.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's all that's all there is. It's cool. I enjoyed it. and So and now that one so now that they've launched, do you have to. Start again on the real game or as a beta, I'm assuming you're a beta trialist, you can just carry on where you're left off. There's no there's no impact to you. um You could you could load old saves.
00:17:27
Speaker
um But like some of the some of the production chains have changed like the recipes. So like you may you may have to go and like tweak things. I'm starting. fresh like Everybody's kind of starting fresh. Right. Got it. But like you could go in and like tweak. Like tweak something. So like, oh, it takes used to take 45 screws and 45 grams of bauxite, but now it's 60. And so all your your like nice non-overflowing backups and stuff won't won't work, but you could technically do it. yeah Very cool. I'm happy for you, man. Because when you shaved me last week, I was reallympressed really impressed. It's good stuff. Yeah, that's all I got. that's all That's all that I have this week. Next week should be much more exciting because I got some cool stuff coming up, but I'm going to save that. What about you? ah Very, very quiet week.
00:18:24
Speaker
very, very quiet week. In fact, um we already kind of warned each other that it might be a quite a quick episode. But we we decided to record because we've got some good stuff coming up that we hinted about last week. And I'm not going to go any further on that hint than until it actually lands and we deliver against that hint. um But we want to clear out the barn. Is that a thing? We want to be one make sure we're fresh and um
Lucy's Office Renovation
00:18:51
Speaker
and focused. um for this little venture we've got going on this weekend. um But no, it's been a very, very quiet week. And the reason why it's been quiet, both in my ah my personal, my work and my televisual or my pop culture um life is because um I'm rather addicted to outlaws, mate. And I'll talk about it later on because um
00:19:19
Speaker
you know We upgraded last week. We officially upgraded. I don't think I actually asked you for permission, but we officially upgraded watching, listening, reading to watching, listening, reading, and playing. And I've got some stuff to tell you about where I am in Outlaws, but I have been hammering it. And I'm around about 30 to 32, 33 hours of gameplay now.
00:19:43
Speaker
um Which sounds like a lot, but bearing in mind, I did 15 hours in the first week, the first weekend, sorry. That's still impressive, though. That's impressive. it sounds it's It's a couple of hours a night. um And I need to get back into, you know, we've these deadlines for for work aren't going to get out i'm going to go any ah go anywhere. And i'm i'm doing I'm doing the job, but I need to kind of ease off a little bit just to get us over the line and then I'll go back in.
00:20:12
Speaker
hell for leather, but this is right up my... Anyway, listen, I'm not going to go into it until we're later. um The other thing that's been going on in the house is good. I don't know if you remember, I told you that I was having Lucy's office refurbished. We were... Yeah, the dump room. Yeah, the dump room has been turned into a a really nice office. We found a local firm Um, we had the option to go to, you know, one of the national firms that specialize in, in bespoke built in furniture. Um, but we found a local firm, uh, really, really nice, very small family run business. Take themselves extremely, extremely serious. Lee half the price of one of these global, one of these, um, UK wide firms. And they've done an amazing job and I will take some photographs because we've basically got.
00:21:05
Speaker
and an arrangement now for Lucy whereby she's got a really, really comfortable um office um with a stack of storage um and done in one of the things that this company prides itself on is that it it it it basically will paint the woodwork any color you want. And they literally mean any color you want because they'll match it. And they um the reason why it takes six weeks to be installed is it takes that long to cure the paint that they pre-spray before they arrive. um Obviously, it's all ready and hence the reason why it goes up. I mean, it went up in three days.
00:21:47
Speaker
Um, and it's a big, big, big, big exercise. It sounds very simple. I had a couple of desks and a couple of wardrobes and a couple of shelving units. No, no, no. It's massive. We're talking about integrated into the walls, um, in a, in a, in a kind of L shape. Um, it's, it's a right angle configuration and it's, um, she's very happy up ah when she exactly, when, and when she's happy, I'm very happy because it means I've got brownie points in the bank.
00:22:15
Speaker
So that's happened this week and I'm very happy with that. Um, the only other bit of news, and maybe I should have saved it for a bit of, um, just grilling conversation that we should have at some point with, with our buddy Jimmy.
Andy Discovers Dark Chocolate in Chili
00:22:28
Speaker
Um, but, um, I discovered a, um, um, dark chocolate as a, as a cooking dark chocolate as a cooking, um,
00:22:44
Speaker
as a really, really good cooking ingredient. um And I knew it was it was a thing, um but I used it this weekend in my chili and good God, it's amazing. it adds a So I don't know how you guys cook. I mean, there are very, very different ways of cooking chili. I tend to grind my own spices. I tend to be respectful as respectful as I possibly can.
00:23:11
Speaker
But one of the ingredients that I've always not felt right about is adding sugar, albeit a little bit of sugar to sweeten it up. And I haven't felt right about it. And um I found, um I just was just reading, I was just reading something and and I found a ah chef that said, have you tried dark chocolate which will add the sweetness but it also introduces a bitterness to that sweetness that you don't expect and it it worked a treat and I have to say it's my go-to secret ingredient of choice. It's a little bit like um
00:23:46
Speaker
conversation I had with this Gruffy's quite a while ago, and we were talking about um what we were cooking, and I'd made a shepherd's pie. I think it was in i view either on the Struffys or on one of these episodes. But anyway, um my secret ingredient on my shepherd's pie is Worcestershire sauce.
00:24:02
Speaker
um It is. what It was this pod because you asked me how to pronounce it. Yeah. Worcester. Okay. No worries. Yeah. Um, so yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, um, it was good. It was, it was, it was good. And it was, um, like a Mola, like a Mola chili. You know, you put a little chocolate. I'm sure I've, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure I've used it before. I'm sure for summary, somehow I've used dark chocolate with red wine in something before. And it may well be something as simple as a tomato sauce for a, um,
00:24:34
Speaker
for for a bolognese or something as simple as that. But it's the first time I've used it in a chili, I think. But good God, it was it was really, really good. Sorry, I i mean, it's not it's not particularly exciting, but this has been my week. I i find this fascinating. and Well, i was I was actually wondering, you know you know you know how we're... So, you know bit of bit of behind the scenes gossip or bit of behind the scenes chatter for our friends. But you and I talk about, you know, what would we...
00:25:03
Speaker
what What do we want to talk about? um we don't you know Especially when it's ah a quiet week or especially when we've got a guest on. um And um I love my cooking. I love love cooking. I don't do it as half as much as I should um because it's changed an awful lot since the two of it's the two of us. you know When you've got a family of four, it's a it' kind of a... It changes it.
00:25:28
Speaker
It changes it because it's a lot more relaxed. You don't have to, you know, you don't have children to worry about anymore. So, um, I mean, I, but, but, but when we get into it, I mean, the, the, the, the barbecue this summer was absolutely rocking pretty much pretty much every weekend.
Andy’s Passion for Cooking & Gardening
00:25:44
Speaker
Um, even when it was raining, you the the barbecue was on. So I do, I do love my cooking, but, um, yeah, we gotta get Jimmy on just to talk about food.
00:25:55
Speaker
We'll do it. And we'll get him on here as well because that will placate people like Chris and Kev. They want to hear that shit. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So are you familiar with the term fire, like financial independence retire early? Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:10
Speaker
Would that be, would like being like cooking or like chef stuff, would that be like your barista fire kind of job with like, you don't have to make money, but like you, you're just doing. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. That'll gardening, mate. That'll, that'll being outdoors in the garden. I would love to spend that doors in the garden.
00:26:32
Speaker
Sorry, i I forgot that. i did do i did It's getting cold here now. It's mid-September it's mid-september and I've got to try and put the garden to bed for winter. and by doing that and What I mean by that is I need to start cutting stuff back to make sure that I cut it back before the frost comes. so I spent and i spent i spent didn't realize I hadn't I forgot all about it. But yeah, I spent a good two or three week kens now um cutting back some stuff. I don't touch the apple trees until January. Sorry, January, February time, so just before the blossom comes out. um but the But the other stuff in the garden, I need to get it cut back now before but because I really don't want it to suffer from frost frost damage.
Andy’s Home Orchard
00:27:20
Speaker
So that's been going on as well. You have a lot of apple trees. I'm picturing this massive estate with giant green lawns and rows of apple trees. Where we live, where we live, where we live, it's about the house's approach. It's 90 years old, something like that. But where it's based is it's an old orchard.
00:27:45
Speaker
And so what they did was when they built, when they built the the the the houses, we've got, the reason why we bought it was because it's a little bit out of the way and and being a little bit out of the way, or the main city of Cheltenham, which is quite a nice nice city in in in the UK, but fucking expensive. um We're a little bit out of the way, ah which but but which means it was a lot more affordable, but also we've got a lot more land. um It's not a huge amount of land, but we've got a lot more land and and the, unless
00:28:15
Speaker
the house owners subsequently tore them out. A lot of the original app orchard is is is still in our back garden. So we've got a good got two put two parts of the garden. We've got the first part of the garden, which is basically the back of the house.
00:28:29
Speaker
uh where you know you your patio and your decking is um and um and then they got the garden and the bottom part of the garden is where we've got um three apple trees and a cherry tree um the cherry tree bless it it it struggles every year struggles every every year um ah pe really I mean, it's it's fine. it's fine it's live it's It's still here many, many years later. But we don't get a lot of produce. Oh, we've got a couple of um the bottom of the garden so the very, very bottom of the garden. We've also got a couple of um plum trees as well. we We've got some plums.
00:29:17
Speaker
Well, in this bottom, in this but I'm actually in the shed, which is at the bottom. of I'm surrounded by those trees in this in this shed. and um And when we originally bought the house, the guy who owned it was a bit of a market gardener, so he had a lot in between the trees. He had vegetables vegetable plots and everything.
00:29:36
Speaker
they were the first thing to be ripped up, I promise you. um It's now just all in between, it's all lawns. I would love to think I'm that self-sufficient, but I'm also a a realist. I know i'm ah i'm I'm extremely lazy and could not be bothered to maintain anything like that. um But who knows? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When it when the when the day comes to that i you know i I decide to call it a day on the on the The big stuff, um, yeah, gardening, cooking, anything like that. I love it. and Absolutely love it. Bombs are one of those things that I never realized that I liked because I was, I'd always got, I've always received it from stores. But when I still lived in like the San Francisco area, somebody brought them into work, like some fresh ones in from their home.
00:30:24
Speaker
And man, I make a fool of myself. I'm a plum guy now. Like it's, I'll just make a huge huge, like I would trim my beard short just so I can eat plums more efficiently. It's, they're they're that good ah when they're like good and fresh. Like yeah that there they're pretty awesome. you ah The other thing is you reminded me of my gardening situation. So I love hearing about your like lush orchard things that grow.
00:30:53
Speaker
Because that that's not really how it goes here, um being in the the climate that we are and considering I live right up a ah pretty main road through the high school. So when we moved in, we had like a lawn, but it was like, it needed, like it had sprinklers and stuff and like, it really struggled.
00:31:12
Speaker
So I ripped the sprinklers out and now our yard is mostly like granite and gravel from the the road that melts and just it's all this. But what I did discover that works is we can replant native wildflowers.
00:31:29
Speaker
So what my neighbors, what my neighbors don't realize is about to happen is right around November 1st, I have an excessive, an excessive amount of native wildflower seeds that are going to get sprinkled over my entire property um right before it snows. So they'll be ready to germinate in spring. Yeah. But I'm, I'm literally covering every inch of my yard and everything just in copious amounts of wildflower seeds and I'm just seeing what's going to happen. So we'll, in about, I don't know, six months, we'll see we'll see how that's going. but um lot of my friends A lot of my friends leave their lawns to, um I don't i can't can't remember what they call it over here, but it basically goes, fat you know, it's fallow.
00:32:18
Speaker
um like a rec reclaiming it for like native plants and... yeah yeah and so so so so Yeah. So farmers are being paid for that in the UK now. So so you know crop rotation is a big thing over in the UK. So yeah one, if if you're a farmer, you'll use you'll have... um I don't know. um you'll do wheat and and you'll do wheat in the in the in the field one year, the next year barley, the yeah the next year rape seed, then the next year is fallow um and you'd have your cattle use that field instead and you keep rotating them so that the soil is getting everything it kind of needs from cow crap all the way through to different types of of plants. of monoc cultureture and stuff yeah But there's a there's a new there's a new, I would say a new, but relatively new um
00:33:05
Speaker
um subsidy that farmers can get by leaving some of their land truly fallow, and sorry, not fallow, wild, leaving it wild, so that things like hedgerows. Hedgerows is a big thing over here in that there's an awful lot of wildlife that was endangered.
00:33:28
Speaker
um um ah indigenous like ah wildlife that was that was very close to being um dying out, like badgers and ah birds of prey and and and other animals that lived in hedgerows. um And hedgerows we were going um for two reasons. One is that It was more economical for farmers to expand their land sorry to extend to to to take down borders between their lands so that they could yeah have yield yield larger crops. Of course, an awful lot of land this day these days are being um is being sold off for development, the housing development, which is a big thing over here with an ever increasing population. and um so There's an awful lot of government
00:34:13
Speaker
minister sorry farming ministry thought it going into paying farmers now for to to to establish natural habitats for wildlife on their own property and i think it's quite a good earner for them as well um i'd have to rewatch i think it's season one of clarkson's farm but i think it's i don't think it's too bad too bad at all i actually had a recommendation from that from a friend this last weekend i really If you watch Clarkson's farm, I'm like, I know what you're talking about what you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, the guy the guy's the guys um obnoxious, but he's funny, obnoxious. it's it's you know he's ah He's a misogynist. He's everything that that the the pretty much, hopefully, died out with my father's generation. but um
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's he's yeah is all right. He's good value, he's good fun. But yeah, that's been my week, mate. I can't wait to to talk to you about Outlaws though, because I've got some got some updates there. i can't get I can't stop playing it. It's really, really good.
Watching Anime 86: Themes of Division
00:35:16
Speaker
what about so but have you been Have you had a chance in your busy week to be able to watch, um listen, read?
00:35:24
Speaker
Anything? Oh, so now that we've added gaming and maybe even food to what we should just call it, what have we been consuming? It's like games, TV, podcasts, some music.
00:35:38
Speaker
Food consumption. Really? Like what? What did we consume this week? um I did. So I haven't caught up. I haven't watched For All Mankind. I haven't. I'm hearing really good stuff about Rings of Power, but I haven't had a chance to watch that yet. But we did start a new show because of a friend of being in town. um An anime called 8686.
00:36:00
Speaker
um oh And I think it was a recommend, I think Madison was talking to her and was like, oh, I like, I like to think. And so it's kind of a thinking, like an introspective anime. It's pretty good so far. I mean, I think there's only one season or two seasons if you can split the mid-season breakup into two. So we're like, I don't know, five or six episodes in and think there's 24 total. It's an interesting concept. Um, I'll have more to say about it when I, when we wrap it up, but it's kind of like a,
00:36:36
Speaker
not to give away like spoilers or anything, but it's kind of the premise is there's a ah future where there was a country and then another country, they the the bad air quote, bad country created autonomous robots that would then attacked like the main country. And then the main country, they kind of did a ah
00:37:00
Speaker
the the all the silver-haired people took all the non-silver-haired people and put them on the outside and said, you have to defend us because you're not real humans. ah And like, so you can go sacrifice yourselves to save, the save say protect us from the enemy. um And then it kind of like the social commentary around, and oh and there's people in the silver-haired thing who kind of coordinate with their own group of non-silver-haired people.
00:37:29
Speaker
and just kind of this us versus them lesser than people. Like think of like Hunger Games, think of- Yeah, yeah, yeah. The elite. It's elite, but like different and it's a very interesting story so far. Like I can't go further, but it's pretty- Like, so far, like the thing I'll say about it, like it's not a spoiler. It's like, it doesn't feel like it's one of those stories where like, oh, there's a singular hero who's going to like fix the mistakes that have been made to get here. It's really about like, you can't fix this. This is just as what it is. And so it's kind of cool. I like it. It's it's interesting. And what's it on?
00:38:13
Speaker
I believe it's on, I believe it's on Netflix. It's on Sean flicks for us. Um, but yes, I believe it's on Netflix. Got it. Okay. Got it. Excellent. That's my boy. Um, ah excellent. Anything else, mate? I've been playing outlaws, but we can talk about that when yeah you've got a lot more time in there than I do. So I, I'm hinged to hear what you've said.
00:38:39
Speaker
Well, I started watching Terminator Zero. So i prize i said um I said last week that I was not going to have it on in the background. So I started watching that. And at the moment, i'm only it's only think it's only six eight six or eight episodes. it's It's quite short. And I'm up to episode five. And it's really well done. It's really, really well done. What I like about it is it's not um it It's its own take on terminator. Well, no shit, Sherlock. um But it's it's it's also not, um what trying to say? it's not it It's not taking the terminator and making it bigger and badder. So there's a very, very, there's always a risk of of of of when you when you
00:39:32
Speaker
when you take the franchise and you've got someone like Arnie, for example, that's leading the first, the main tranche of all the media releases. And it's like, that means all terminators must be huge, must be absolutely massive. Well, it wouldn't be very particularly good infiltration units if every single one of them was massive because it wouldn't take an awful lot for people to work out, well, that must be a terminated because of the size of them.
00:40:00
Speaker
um it's's It's really, really good. and the the the the I've got to a point at the moment where the main unit, or sorry, the the the it takes it back to its roots. Is it the T-800, which is the original Arne terminator? So it's another T-800, which is um um looking to influence the past, although it has nothing to do with Cyberdyne.
00:40:26
Speaker
is to do with another company. And at the moment, I don't know whether the intention of that other the the consequences of that but or the the output of that company is good or bad. And as a result, I don't know what the terminator is trying to do, either save the company or because it's it's it's it's going to help Cyberdyne and Skynet.
00:40:51
Speaker
or it potentially could destroy the AI, the Sky and AI. I don't know yet, and it's really, really interesting, and it's done really, really well. And it's done in, the animation's gorgeous as you'd expect from anime, but it's, I've got to put it, it's...
00:41:13
Speaker
I think it's hand-drawn, albeit digitally, I think it's hand-drawn, but many, many parts of it look very, very CGI, albeit cell-shaded, so it looks, it does look a little bit hand-drawn. I'm really enjoying it, I'm really, really enjoying it. um Finished, that's sorry, finished. Keeping up with Rings of Power week on week, and I'm glad I'm doing it weekly, as opposed to binging, because it is It is good. It's really, really good. Very, and I can't, I can't say it enough. I'm not going to give anything away to you, but it is very, very different to season one. You have my promise that I'm going to catch up on that before next week. Okay. Cool. i have i have time um Yeah. Yeah. No, that's cool because it is, it is really good. And, uh, you know, hats off to you for for, for, for, for, um, aligning yourself with that because it is, it's
Enjoying Just Craftin Episode
00:42:02
Speaker
good. Uh, everything else kind of taken up, um, um,
00:42:05
Speaker
a backseat. One, I did do a little bit of driving this last week um with ah picking up my in-laws from the airport because they've they've been away on a holiday. and I picked them up from the airport and um i got I managed to catch a podcast.
00:42:26
Speaker
And I, and it's the latest, um, sack off show. Um, and again, I don't want to get into the habit of calling out every week because I listened to it weekly, but, um, the latest one is with, um, Titus, whatever, who's the guy that plays Bosch.
00:42:44
Speaker
um And he's already a fail of mine. It's a good episode. It's quite a quick episode. The interview is quite quick. but he said he's a deep He's a deep guy. I like him a lot. I had no idea he was a comic nerd, which was I thought was awesome. Absolutely awesome. He got into comics quite late, a little bit like myself. And um ah is I don't know if you recall the story that he gave of when he um He got back into, shall we say, graphic novels, comics as a kid, gave it up for a while, you know, as as as as as as young men do, then got back into it with um ah Return of the Dark Knight, yeah, Dark Knight Returns, sorry, and um and Watchmen.
00:43:30
Speaker
So that really, really appealed to me. I thought, what a what a cool guy. And then lastly, um listen to um the latest episode of Just Crafting, which had me have me yeah have me really interested at times and then stitches the next. Because um i I can imagine what it was like recording with those two guys. um So yeah, that was good. Sounds really, really good.
00:43:59
Speaker
I think you've got something going there. And what I like about it as well is that you're getting into the routine now of thinking about themes. So you're thinking about themes, not only what you're working on, but you're thinking about themes. So as you, a little bit like us with guests, as you develop and as you grow, this week we're going to talk about, I don't know, dry brushing. Next week we're going to talk about I don't know, whatever. you But I really like it. I really, really enjoy it. um And now you can make that a bit of a visual experience for your listeners. I think it's ah it's a good thing. And then I've just been playing all the time in between that and you know the occasional bit of sleep and and food um and using the bathroom.
Star Wars Outlaws Game Discussion
00:44:46
Speaker
um I've been playing Outlaws, a lot of Outlaws, a heck of a lot of Outlaws, and I'm really, really enjoying it. So as I said, I've done about, arguably, let's say 32 hours at the moment. Where are you at the moment? Are you still playing it? But bearing in mind, you've got this new game out, and I understand if you drop off or not. No, yeah. I'm not getting into Satisfactory until I finish Outlaws. Oh, wow. OK. So I opened it, and I was like, ooh.
00:45:16
Speaker
and I kind of looked at stuff, but I cannot get sucked into that. I am enjoying Outlaws. I played for a couple hours last night. I'm nowhere close to as deep as you are, but I have this next week, I have a lot of time that I'm going to be able to put into it. So where I'm at with... Do you want to know where I'm at level-wise or where I'm at with it, like how I feel about it? Both. So first of all, let me know where you are at the moment.
00:45:45
Speaker
i you ph I am. in the game I am physically on the second planet. Right. I have met a couple of the experts. um I've like upgraded my speeder. I've upgraded my ship. i Yeah, I've gone into all the wrong places on the map. with Really pissed people off.
00:46:11
Speaker
um i've I've done like the turbine the turbine thing where you go and do all that go obviously because I have the speeder upgrade um I've been doing a lot of like dumb missions around there. I've been playing a lot of subac Because I've been afraid of like moving the the story progression too far when I wasn't wasn't sure how much time I would have to be dedicated to it that night and I I will say I quick sidebar. Whatever the update they pushed like two days ago, my game is behaving a lot better. um It doesn't seem as jerky. um The camera controls are still weird, like the angle like when I'm driving my speeder bike. Like still just feel like why am I looking? Like, why am I looking like at the ground instead of like further? Yeah, and I've heard I've heard that it's um
00:47:01
Speaker
I've heard that it's fixed quite a few things. i mean i Like I said, I never i never experienced it. however However, I did pick up on ah on a little tip, and it's no no spoiler or anything. I did pick up on a little so tip that on console, and they didn't specify which console, you know in your settings and your accessibility settings, if if you if you if you play the game straight out of the box or you know once you download it,
00:47:27
Speaker
it It plays it in panoramic. almost a pattern I don't know what ratio it is, but extremely wide screen. And I've heard that an awful lot, a lot of the problems um are rectified if you change your mode to full screen.
00:47:46
Speaker
So it will re-render the whole game into full screen, which I did from the very out from the very off anyway, because I've got a massive, massive TV nowhere near as you guys you know you guys that shop at Costco. But it's big for me. um And um and ah I want to get the full experience. I don't want a black bar top and bottom of it. So I already did that. And as a result of that, before I even started the game, and as a result of that, I haven't had a lot of the screen tearing and a lot of the pixilation problems and most importantly the lip sync problems an awful lot of the people have Have said they've had and it just so happened to be I was watching before we started speaking You knew I was on on YouTube watching a few tips about um um Outlaws and one of them was about changing their the resolution of the screen to to to to full screen And it seems to have done that but I'm glad that I'm glad the patch came out I hope that will fix a a few problems for a few people that like I said, I haven't
00:48:46
Speaker
touch wood I haven't experienced myself. That's cool. And how are you feeling about it? I'm i'm feeling good. i I think early on I felt like I've always enjoyed the game statement number one. ah never had I've never had any issue with it that made me not want to play it. Straight out of the way. um I did find early on there was like It didn't have that addictive quality, which is, that's not a complaint. It's just like, there was nothing like, cause it is a lot of.
00:49:17
Speaker
fart around kind of move the needle a little bit. it It works you into it. And I think that's a good thing because I think there are so many of these games anymore that just like because now that we've played I've played a while, like there's a billion menus, there's a billion things to keep track of. And I'm glad that they slowly worked me into that. Like and I think that comes at the cost of like addictive beginning. So it's like there's there's pluses and minuses there. um I'm really enjoying it. I like that. I like that it's not.
00:49:45
Speaker
It doesn't feel like, cause normally like these games, open world games feel like there's a main path, which there is, but it feels like everything else just doesn't matter. Like all the side missions, those are just extra. This I like because it feels like there is still the main thing, but like there is like a middle tier of like things that are side missions that you don't have to do, but they are still valuable. And I think that comes in with the reputation system that comes with added bonuses. And then there's like.
00:50:15
Speaker
Then there's like the low tier of just like. Help help the farmers like on this help them do whatever like that's the stuff that just like who cares if it's situational if you want to do it, then do it. um I like that they've added more weight to that middle tier. um I will say there's times I've noticed I don't think I've had it since the patches. The latest patch, but like if there's times where I feel like I'm in the middle of a mission and.
00:50:43
Speaker
It wasn't, like the one that specifically came up was like trying to find the speeder mechanic. Like, oh, go talk to the speeder mechanic, but it doesn't, like you had to go to some weird menus to do it, but then like, and then it moved it back to ah Waka. And then I go back to him and they're like, no, he's like, go, go do it. I'm like, move the yellow thing here, then yellow marker. So I had to go back there, then go back into the diner. Cause I thought I had to talk to the speeder person outside the the diner.
00:51:10
Speaker
talk to them and then it's like, oh, go talk to Waka. And it's like, okay. And then I had to go back and then do that thing. Then I had to do the whole mission. It's like, there's times where I feel like I get stuck in the mission progression, but I feel like maybe some of that's fixed now with the patch. That's still not a huge point. It's just like, just something I noticed. It's also frustrating when you, when you, I accept an awful lot of what you say, especially when you're stuck on that planet and that planet's quite broad. It's quite, it's quite vast.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and there's a million, one things to do there and you're tempted to go and do them, but you're stuck in the monotony of that one planet. And it's kind of, I do get that. I do. I will say I agree 100% with everyone that says the minute you leave that meet that, that you're able to leave that planet.
00:52:01
Speaker
It makes going back no problem at all. you yeah i mean i' ah I haven't done all the missions. you It's physically impossible to do. um Not if I want to progress with the story. But the minute you leave that planet, going back there doesn't seem so bad. Whereas well i what when I was stuck there, I was Say, can we just please move on? Go here, go there. It's like, I don't don't mind doing so i doing that that. That the reputation system makes it scary to like mess around. So like, yeah, you'll, you'll go from one edge of the map to the other. And all of a sudden, like, you know, there's like that Imperial tower. They're like, you, write you drive by a million and a half times. Like, but if you get too close, they're like, what are you doing? It's like, I just want to kill him. Can I kill him? But like, I'm afraid of what the repercussions are going to be.
00:52:46
Speaker
Oh, the repercussions of killing Imperials is you you become wanted and they hunt you down with um um um dark troopers. Is it dark troopers, the ones that were in ah Rogue One? The ah death troopers. Death troopers. Sorry, death troopers. They come. Yeah, it's like, I feel like there's Like it's it's a very extreme like ah GTA system. Oh yeah. like it's so it's actually it's a really That's a really, really good. and I haven't played GTA. This is probably since GTA four and you know the two, and you know, you know, in the beginning of the game and you're stuck on one part of the map.
00:53:24
Speaker
And then you eventually, the bridges open up and you can go to another island or go to another part of the, I can't remember which game it was. It was, I think it was GTA a four. I could be completely wrong. yeah But yeah, it's a little bit like that. It's a little bit like that where you're stuck in one part and there's so much to do. And in the meantime, you're trying to understand the mechanics of the game and you so and you want to, you know, you, you, well, I was certainly chomping at the bit to try and, you know, I want to fly my ship. I want to, I want to mod it. I want to, I want to.
00:53:53
Speaker
I want to do all of these things. that that But in the meantime, I've got to do the drudgery of of of of kind of getting used to the game. um But what honestly, man, as soon as you get off that planet, I've been going back there over and over and over again um just to finish off side stuff. And I haven't had a problem with it because I know I can leave at any time.
00:54:16
Speaker
now Cool. I'm enjoying it. it's not I do I think I like that the the so far the missions so like I know there's times I complain about Jedi survivor being to wall climbing puzzle II platform I like that so far those don't seem to be as long because I can just get Like annoying after a while of like climbing, like i you still do it and it's still jumpy, jumpy, climby, climby, find the bars, do this and stuff like that. Like I, I like that stuff, but there's times it's like the Jedi survivor. It's like, dude, I've been doing this for like 45 freaking minutes. do like yeah Doing the ro run along the walls and stuff. I feel like it's better. I like it. It's not, it's nowhere near as complicated. It's not like a run across the wall, a jump on and grab on something. It literally is grabbing on or swinging down or swinging across. Um, there's a lot of it.
00:55:10
Speaker
has a lot of it coming your way because it's all about, s but you know, it's all about sneaking in, um, of which, you know, the direct approaches is sometimes not the best approach. And I've, I've learned that the hard way. Um, but it's like I said last week, it's lazy gameplay, which will frustrate some people that want a little bit more. Um, how can I put this that want a little bit more fine tuning in their gaming?
00:55:40
Speaker
And i so i I probably would expect someone like Hawes, for example, thinking that the combat system, for example, is is very, very basic. It's robust, but it's basic. That, for me, is fine. It's absolutely fine. I love it. it worked it that That works beautifully for me. Very, very simple.
00:56:00
Speaker
um But yeah, no i'm i'm really I'm really, really enjoying it. And it's like... um i I'll be, I'm going to be here for a couple of years. I reckon I won't be surprised. And I'm not, I'm not talking about, you know, every night till three in the morning. I'm talking about this with the two DLCs coming up and their plans for future. as I think I'm, this is going to be my, could be my Mass Effect two for a while until something else comes all the way. Cause like I said, it it it appeals to my style of gameplay and it's not everyone's cup of tea. In fact, it's many, many gaming aficionados. It's the, it's the least of their cups of tea.
00:56:37
Speaker
it's the it's It's the furthest opposite from that cup of tea. But for me, it works really, really well and I love it. A couple of things that I wrote down um to give you an update on, i've i've I'm addicted so to Sabacc.
Addiction to Sabacc Game Challenges
00:56:50
Speaker
In fact, one of the main quest lines that you you're encouraged to do throughout the the game is to find a big a big game in every in every planet. um And you work your way through there and ah earn some decent credits that way. But so back the game itself, I'm loving it. I did make the fundamental mistake of realizing that I was doing pretty well. And then all of a sudden, I did really started doing really, really badly. And I was trying to work out what was going on.
00:57:18
Speaker
And of course I was pulling, I was, I was taking from the middle two cards. I didn't realize the two outside cards as well. Where are the people have dropped? You can take from them as well and actually make up your, you know, make up your deck from the drop cards as well. I didn't realize that because I'm stupid. Um, so yeah, that, that was, that that's, that's got me highly addicted. And that was one of those things that I'd normally avoid. I'd normally avoid card games and poker, for example, in, um, in red dead, cause it just took up time.
00:57:49
Speaker
Um, but I found myself, you know, like looking at the clock one minute and then looking at it again, it'd be two hours later. It's like, ahka it feels like a modern board game. Like, yeah, yeah. sort of adapted It's not some basic card game where it's like, this doesn't feel fun. It does feel fun. Well, it's fun for me because it's simple as well. It's the the the rules are are relatively simple. And then you get these kind of, um, these, the, these extra enhancements that you can have, like you can grab You can steal other people's cards. You can um you can ah get a refund from the pot, which you can play one per round. um But it's it's it's really, really good. um The faction rep, ah I am getting it right on the second planet. I got it really wrong on the first planet. So on the first planet, you were on there already, so it's no spoilers. um The two crime syndicates, the two main crime syndicates are the um
00:58:49
Speaker
the, um, the Pikes and the, and Crimson Dawn. And each of them having, have you doing jobs for them to progress the story, but also in addition to the story. And if you get, if you get, um, if you max out your reputation with a, a, a, a, a syndicate or a organization, they give you lots of good things. And for, for Crimson Dawn,
00:59:18
Speaker
um There's this set of sleek black jammies that they give our hero and she looks ace in them She looks really really cool. So I was like, right. I'm gonna I'm gonna do everything for Crimson Dawn, which meant that every single um Job I was doing including for the pikes I was double crossing the pikes and I increasing my rep with Crimson Dawn, which worked in that I'm completely maxed out on my on my Crimson Dawn rep, but I now have the worst, the absolute worst of reputation with the Pikes. And in doing so, you find out when you bring the map up, you find out that there's areass areas of red that if you go there, they will kill you. They will kill you. Not only that,
01:00:08
Speaker
Is it Gomak or go or something like that? The the main the main boss? um Yeah, Gaurak. He puts out a hit on you. um So you've got, in your your new reputation, there's ah there's a there's a death mark on you. you know As ah general writing says, a death nut's not an easy thing to live with. um And which basically means when you're, there I am in the countryside out in the wild on my little speeder bike, you know, just taking it easy and exploring and checking out rocks. I feel like, you know, the sun's out and in the game. I'm looking cool. I've got my, I've got my, uh, very chic Crimson Dawn threads on. I'm feeling like Satyr Distel.
01:00:51
Speaker
on a moped in the south of France, you know, you know, that kind of with that little cheeky 60s and 70s beat going on as well. And this whole bunch of fucking bike, this biker gang comes up and start shooting at me and trying to take me out. And you and it's not like it's not like um It's not like when you go through a bad area and then you escape, you put the turbos on and you escape. No, these guys pursue you until they've killed you or you've killed them. So I've got to do, at some point I've got to think about how do I fix my rep with the bikes because while I got the sweet kit that I wanted, I probably didn't think about balancing out enough and maybe taking on a few. I need a faster bike.
01:01:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But but maybe, yeah maybe I didn't think about, and maybe I didn't think enough about keeping the pike sweet and using other missions or other quests to gain father with, gain father with the, uh, with Crimson Dawn, as opposed to double crossing the pike's every opportunity I got. Uh, and now on the second plan, I gave it back thinking it would get me a load of rep. It didn't, it didn't do anything.
01:02:07
Speaker
Didn't do anything, mate. I haven't given it a back yet. I'm like, no, fuck you. you can Didn't do anything. At the end of the day, I even looked it up afterwards. thinking You get 5% reputation. It's nothing. when you When you give it back, but you can get 300 credits from it if you if you trade it in. so Anyway, it's up to you, mate. No more of that. I'm on the second planet now, ah which again is liberating. It's also a smaller map as well, significantly smaller.
01:02:33
Speaker
and you make a lot more progress very, very quickly, and you sometimes have to go back to, or what or you feel compelled to go back to the original planet. I should know the names of these places, but I can't bother to look them up.
01:02:45
Speaker
um and that's And that's really, really cool. um they um oh One bit of advice i will i will I will give you, and I hope it's not a spoiler. I don't think it's a spoiler, but I think it's a decision that you need to make. Now, um when you do leave the planet, you have to make a choice as to which planet you want to go to next. Okay. I would strongly All I would say is I'll strongly recommend going by the guidance of the person that suggests where you should go to first. And the reason for that is one of the planets is Tatooine. And of course, us being Star Wars fans, we'd automatically think, oh, I've got to go there. And i I was this close from going there first. The only problem with going there first, and I found this out,
01:03:42
Speaker
before I made my decision. And I'm glad I did. um Spoilers for 30 seconds, guys, if you don't want to know. But if you do choose Tatooine, you're locked there until Jabba lets you go. so unlike the So you get a choice of three three planets to go to, because you have you're looking for something on each of those planets.
01:04:08
Speaker
The first planet and the second planet that your options are fine and you can flip around them and you flip, flop, flip, flop, flip, flop, flip, you know, and and and do whatever you want. And that's what makes the the the game compelling. Really, really good. um And then the third choice is Tatooine. And on my understanding, and I'm taking this from what I read, I hope it's true, um but once you get there, you're landlocked. So in other words, they put you know you you can't leave the planet until Jabba tells you you can you you have you have permission to leave. So that's the only spoiler I think like that I'm going to give, if if it indeed it is even a spoiler. um The advice I'd give you is um
01:04:51
Speaker
If you want cash, go for the vault quests. So every, so every planet has a vault quest where you're asked to find three keys. Um, and then you have to sneak in to that, a factional, a factional vault and steal the, um, the contents of that vault that pays big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big. Um, you know, I was worried last week when I first spoke to you that I dropped from.
01:05:21
Speaker
6,000 to 3,000 because I kept being killed. um Oh, and by the way, on that point as well, the amount of health you sorry with amount of money you lose depends on who kills you. So you are absolutely right. It's not about you know you get plundered every single time. So if the Imperials kill you, they take more money.
01:05:42
Speaker
If somebody else kills you and you've got a high you've actually got a high rep with them, they take less money from you. So it all depends on on your factional rating and everything. um But yeah, vaults are a big, big thing. um and i recommend So I recommend um doing them. It's quite fun as well, sneaking in and and and and doing a bit of a heist like that.
01:06:07
Speaker
um And then lastly, and I don't know whether it's a thing or not, and I can't find it anywhere, but it was funny. It made me laugh. So one of the missions that I did was to, was a side quest. So it's not important. I mean, there, a lot of them are cookie cookie cutters and and then be good dated and something else later on. Again, a little bit like Red Dead, but one of the, one of the side missions is quite funny in that it's, um, you have to, uh, one, one, one of the syndicates.
01:06:38
Speaker
is conducting a raid on a pirate base to get some, I can't even remember what it was, to get something, or to steal something, or to secure something. And you're there as their hired gun. So you're you know you're you're basically there to help them. you're there You're their shotgun kind of, you know, shotgun on the wagon train. And Great, no problem. Started the mission, went in there. Anyway, one of the pirate baddies dropped a grenade launcher, and I was, of course, hello, Dolly, grenade launcher. eyes shooting off I'm shooting off everywhere. every The ceilings, the floors, I'm taking everyone out. now I don't know whether friendly fire is a thing or not. I don't know whether it is. But by the time this red mist of anger, rage, and and delight passed me,
01:07:33
Speaker
everyone was dead. Everyone was dead. So not only were the pirates dead, but also my own hombres that I should have been supporting and protecting. They are also dead. Now, luckily, this is a forgiving game. And I still got the i still got the yeah ah the reward and the factional points. Had it been any other game, one of the conditions were that at least one one of my buddies survived, but no, everyone was dead. ah myed that's I hope it wasn't.
01:08:03
Speaker
Yeah. Whenever heard something happens, like when in doubt, kill everybody so that way they don't push the alarm or there's no, but they can't call for reinforcements. Like I've had stuff go sideways. I guess you're, I guess you're all dead now. Again, it's one of those things where it was the first time I think I realized that some of the guys you kill, they drop the weapons and you can pick them up.
01:08:26
Speaker
And I don't know why I hadn't seen it before because it's quite late in the, it's quite a late mission when I'm on that first planet still. um but I picked it up and I had the time of my life. and then And then you run out of, then you run out of grades and there's another guy that's died near you. he's He's also got a rocket launcher, ah sorry, a grenade launcher. I was frantic, mate. I was absolutely frantic. Hell of a good time. Hell of a good time. um So that's kind of what I've been up to. And yeah, for me, like I said, I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving it. i can I can finish the night and do an hour, no problem at all. And that hour may well be something as simple as just visiting a few
01:09:05
Speaker
going to go into a merchant getting rid of my valuables that that that don't mean anything you know that are just things you pick up along the way that don't have any intrinsic value so you sell them to a sell them to a merchant I might check out some of the clothing um because I'm I'm a sucker when it comes down to little outfits for our hero um and maybe do one or two fetch quests. It's nice that space is open now so I can jump into space and do a few things there. There's a few locations in space where you can get off the ship. There's a few space stations and habitats that you can do that kind of stuff. It's good fun. It's good fun. It's not a technical innovation in any way, in any way, but it's the kind of gameplay that I like and it's
01:09:55
Speaker
You know, bitch that bits that parts of it, I mean, you and I were ex extending exchanging messages either the other week, which which it was like, God, this is really hard. And then you realize what you can and what you can do. And you realize that actually it's not so, once you get into the swing of it, it's a lot easier than you think. And one way um one thing I, once I believe they're... Yeah, I was going to say, didn't aren't they, they're now, haven't they implemented, in the patch, haven't they implemented checkpoints?
01:10:24
Speaker
They have checkpoints, but now you can also save anywhere. Like, before it was like, you can't save, you can't save. It's like, just let me, like, I gotta go walk away for a second. Like, just not having that pressure is nice. I'm loving it, man. I'm loving it. And unlike and like I said, I did like the Jedi, you know, the Jedi, well, Fallen Order, I finished, Survivor, I didn't, I did like them.
01:10:49
Speaker
But but and and, and as a story, they're phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. I love the story of the, um you know, of of of the first one being focused on fine, you know, on on on saving it on finding and save and protecting the children. The second one of finding, finding a secret bolt hole and creating the path.
01:11:08
Speaker
Um, I, I, I freaking love the story. It's very dramatic. Um, it's very serious as well. It's very, you know, it's very, very operatic. Should we say, um, I'm just loving this for what it is, which is, which is, um, less serious. And I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but yeah, pick up and play really lazy gameplay and I'm love I'm down for it. Have you noticed the audio or like the music choices that they make when you talk to
01:11:35
Speaker
Like I'm trying, i'm I'm obviously, we need to progress a story and see where it goes, so but it's like, I'm curious to know if like the music choices that they pick for talking when you're in certain areas, doing certain things, talking to certain characters, other characters, like are they on the nose? Or is it really just, uh, or is it not? Like, cause there's certain characters where it's like,
01:12:04
Speaker
There's themes and stuff that are happening. And so I'm curious to know where that leads. um i the audio live The audio choices are very interesting. I could be oblivious to it, mate.
01:12:19
Speaker
I don't know. you mean It'll be interesting to find out because there's There's been a couple instances where I was, there's one where I was randomly doing stuff on the map and it had themes playing.
01:12:37
Speaker
in like doing something. And then there's other times where I'm talking to certain individuals where themme certain themes started playing. And it's like, I mean, if this if this is if this is like supposed to be like a subtle hit, like it's like a hit. It's like also on the nose, I feel like I got hit in the ha so face with a hammer. um I haven't noticed like it's not it. That's not a story. I haven't noticed it. I mean, I have... um
01:13:04
Speaker
I have met someone from, I've now met someone from the movies, um which is interesting. um
01:13:17
Speaker
And even then I didn't even pick up ah whether there was any sort of musical cue. So I have not met anybody from the movies, but I'm i'm referring to new, new characters where stuff has happened. And it could just be,
01:13:32
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. It could just be whatever like because each every time you talk to somebody like there's times where you go places in the map. Like I know a lot of it has to do with like the wind. They're like, oh, you can hear the wind howling, but then you go behind a rock and it's just dead silence. Like there's audio cues that they do in certain places that are odd. So that's why I'm like, are the audio cues that you do get when you do certain things and talk to certain people, are they just not semi random, but do they have more meaning than.
01:14:00
Speaker
The only thing I've picked up on is is is a particular treasure hunting quest that that the that that extends across the entire game. And when you when you do a certain action, you get the nah, nah, nah, nah, which is the kind of the main theme. Yeah. um Or the first the first couple. yeah That's the only thing I've noticed as being recurring and and particularly on the, it's not even on the nose, I guess.
01:14:28
Speaker
um on a slightly yeah related, but to you to that point, there is one audio sound effect that drives me nuts. i have I still can't figure out if it means anything or if it's just the sound of the speeder bike. But you know when you're driving, you ever hear that coin flip sound where it's like, I think it's just the speeder bike.
01:14:48
Speaker
doing it, but I don't know if it's like me driving past something and it sounds like somebody's like like a cartoon character fliing like flipping a coin. Maybe I just need to adjust my headphone settings. There are certain sounds that are like way too loud. Yeah, you might see in the top right hand corner something saying opportunities available yeah when you hear that sound, in which case you you you flick up on your cross pad. Sorry, what control are you using?
01:15:16
Speaker
ah PS PlayStation. okay i don't up up on the d Up on the D-pad thing. Yeah, yeah yeah so up ah yeah so so if you on the on the cross-pad, if you flip up on that, you'll see you'll see um what the opportunity is. And sometimes they just it's it's quite a big payout. so so worth just slowing down. Is that associated with that sound that when you're driving around? I think so. I think so, because you will. I also hear it when I'm walking as well down the streets of a particular location as well. Interesting. I think um I think I could be all fighting, fighting, because that is my only semi complaint is the is the speeder controls. It's like I feel like one of these days I'm going to like it's going to not feel clunky.
01:16:07
Speaker
I don't know. i i've I've upgraded mine quite a lot because i am there are certain missions you can't do unless you do upgrade them. So for example, you've got ah you've got a you've got to um um user ah you've you've got to jump a chasm to be able to make to be able to make a particular location. um So you've got to get you know the booster on there. But I must admit, I have not had a problem. There's only a couple of times I've had a problem where the speeder, I just
01:16:38
Speaker
i just Typically when I run into a rock as well, um and one of the great upgrades you can have is that you can actually jump over rocks as well. So that's one of the upgrades you can get. you can actually You can actually leap over them, which is which is kind of cool. um But um yeah, typically when i when I'm, again, doing my sachet de sel moment in south of France and I'm just literally cruising and ah all of a sudden i'm I'm being chased and I'm looking behind me because you can look behind behind you. Yeah. And I'm looking behind Miami to find out and then I run into a rock and I'm like, for fuck's sake. um like on it switch I feel like I'm pushing a shopping cart backwards. That's kind of my driving. That will change. That will change when you upgrade, when you go through a few upgrades, it come it becomes a lot more graceful, a lot more graceful. Well, I'm certainly finding it that way anyway. Great game. Good game. Yeah, I'm loving it.
01:17:33
Speaker
I just need more hours in the day. If I had 36 hours in a day, oh my God, I'd be, life would be crazy. Yeah, it'd be good, wouldn't it?
Remembering James Earl Jones
01:17:42
Speaker
Hey, dude, there's a couple of things. I was thinking, I kept thinking in the back of my mind, we've missed something and we have, we've we've missed the news. And while I don't have an awful lot of news, and we do need to um acknowledge that um yeah the just hit me king of the king of voice, actually, to be honest with you, his acting career was pretty solid as well. um Live acting career, sorry. James Earl Jones, we lost him this week.
01:18:08
Speaker
92, 93. 93. I mean, what an age. ah Really good. right i it's It's hard to feel sad. I mean, it's sad, but it's hard it's far it's it's hard to be mortified when you when the guy lived such a rich life um and gave so much to all of us. I mean, I don't think there's going to be a guy You know, outside of people like, he he's in the same echelons as someone like Orson Welles, for example, where there is no one, you listen to that guy's voice, you know who it is. And many people have tried and it has not been the same. It just has not been the same. So yeah, it really, really sad, but what a dude. What a dude.
01:18:59
Speaker
um Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's just very, very sad, really. It's very sad on a more positive note. No, sorry. yeah Like what's what's crazy is like, like, you know, his voice, you know, his voice, you know, his, his work, but then like you go to like his IMDB page and then you like see the stuff that you don't remember.
01:19:22
Speaker
And it's like, that is a, that is a prolific career that you haven't seen. You just don't, you just don't see the likes of it as much anymore. It's like, I mean, cause I know, I know him from field of dreams, like that's my, yeah that's like my one of my big ones, but it's like, Oh yeah. The, the Lion King, Mufasa and like, you know, uh, like Vader, obviously I think it goes without saying it's,
01:19:45
Speaker
It's it's crazy. It's like it's what it's like what you're saying. Well, I did, but you're just not going to see that again for a while. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I did. um I did a little bit of media studies for a while when I was at school when when they decided but when they decided to be quite cool about their lessons. um And um we watched, you know, you you had to watch the classics. The the media that you you consume would be, you know, got a British State School, it's got to be it' got to be the classics. And one of them was Dr. Strangelove. And I've forgotten that i love it James Earl Jones um played the lieutenant, the the aviator. ah forgot I've forgotten that he'd played he played that role. And what a pivotal fit or influential film that was.
01:20:32
Speaker
um for me as an influential teenager, you know, at a time where I was starting to read books like Jack Kerouac on the Road, Dharma Buns, you know, um William Burroughs, all that kind of stuff that that the was off its tits at the time. And and then Dr. Strangelove, that was something that we pretty much required viewing for someone of that age that had um political and moral views that that the that I had at the time. And um yeah, no, I've forgotten that he was in that. I mean, what a... We watched that in high school. ah you the movie That's a movie that will divide a classroom between the kids who were in their mouth agape and the other class the other half who just went, I have no idea what I just watched. And I just remember watching that. I think that was my junior year, probably 16, 17.
01:21:28
Speaker
years old and it's like just sitting there to going like what that was that was that was yeah make movies like this like this is yeah it's nuts and so that was cool yeah ah
Shogun's Emmy Wins & Sequel Concerns
01:21:42
Speaker
yeah no it's um it's a film and a half it's a film and a half god what a lineup peter cellars georgy scott limppie Slim Sterling Hayden. Tracy Reid. Wow, what a film. Sorry. um On a more positive note, on a more positive note, ah we learned this week, and I can't work this out, because I feel as if I'm, I think, I feel as if somebody's pulling my leg and I'm being, I'm being ch- So this week, Variety said that Shogun has won 14 Ebbies.
01:22:23
Speaker
I understand that Shogun, the Team East series, yeah has won 14 Emmys, but at the same time, the Emmys is being broadcast this weekend. Did they know the winner before before it's announced? How does it work? is it So I don't I don't know how that stuff works, but I if I had to guess, I feel like they announced some of them ahead of time and like they save like the big because there's a I think there's a lot of OK. So maybe it's not like the big ones, but I could be OK. So long in this. No, no, I'm not looking at Forbes. So um sound mixing, sound editing, period costumes, production design, main type. Yeah, you're right. You're right.
01:23:06
Speaker
But fair play. 14 already, sound mixing, sound editing, period costumes, production design, main title design, special visual effects, period fantasy makeup, prosthetic makeup, stunt performance, casting for a drama, period hair styling, guest actor in a drama. Okay. um Picture editing and cinematography. What about show? I have no notes. 10 out of 10 for me.
01:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's beaten Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones was the only other ah show. ah It won 12 creative arts and them em minute Emmys before. Ah, okay. So these are creative arts. Okay, fine.
01:23:51
Speaker
fine okay let me explain my confusion now it happens when you do a bit apparently it's really useful when you do a bit of research anyway but you did when you do more than read the headline yeah yeah well no yeah well would you yeah exactly the emmys are split between the creative arts em emmys full of smaller awards from technical ones to guest actors and the main showcase the creative ops were last night at the primetime emmys were last night and the primetime emmys are next week being this weekend There you go. There you go. Good to know. Good to know. Do you know what? Even the damn um Variety article didn't explain it. So thank you, Forbes. I'll be coming to you again soon. Yeah, but I'm stoked about that. I'm really stoked about it. And I'm stoked that they're, I'd normally be really, pessimant we've had this conversation before. I'd normally be really, really pessimistic towards um
01:24:51
Speaker
a second season, you know, what can they possibly do now that they've run out of material? And as long as they don't do a game, you know, a season finale of Game of Thrones, they've got the time, the place and hopefully the the investment to make a really, really good job of it. Um, yeah, no, I'm looking forward to it. It's, um, it's good and I hope it does well this weekend as well. Good luck guys. I keep, I keep in my head. I'm like, I don't know if you ever saw the old like Pocahontas Disney cartoon.
01:25:21
Speaker
Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's like really good. Have you ever seen Pocahontas to like the sequel and just, yes, I had to came out when the kids were young. We had them on, we had them on VHS then DVD. um a single on I don't know why in my head. I'm like,
01:25:41
Speaker
As long as Shogun Season 2 is not Pocahontas 2, where it's like, well, it's... it's the its he go He went back home, and now we're gonna get a batshit crazy story of what eat what happens what happens next. I don't know why I'm correlating those two, but it's like, as long as it's not Pocahontas 2, I think will be it will be in good shape. and so i'm trying to think of I'm trying to think of other sequels that work great. If I remember rightly, I don't think the...
01:26:09
Speaker
The Lilo leo and spitch Stitch was always a favorite of mine ah with the girls. A hunchback of Notre Dame too is is is up there if horrible. like yeah it ah It does not stand the test of time in that because Madison and I went through like a watch through of like, we're going to watch all the Disney sequels. And some of those are They're insane. Like what what even just even for those times, it's like, man, you didn't see that is not problematic in like PC way, but just like what what are you trying to get across here with this? ah Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why I brought that up, but it's just like Shogun Season 2. Please, please don't do it poorly. Hunchback on Dr. Dam, the secret of Bell.
01:26:59
Speaker
Voted the worst. Oh, Pocahontas 2. Voted the second were at worst. Cinderella 2, When Dreams Come True. Atlantis. Oh God, I loose love Atlantis. I didn't even know there was a sequel. Milo's Return. Atlantis, Milo's Return. Apparently not so good.
01:27:19
Speaker
So one of the, one of the Cinderella's wasn't bad. I don't remember which one it is, but like it goes with like one of the stepsisters and it kind of gives her a little bit of a redemption arc of like, let's let her find love. And then I think the third one, I think undoes it and makes her just a total, a total sucko again. It's like, yeah,
01:27:42
Speaker
yeah I can't believe, I can't believe how many
Disney Sequels & New Album Highlights
01:27:44
Speaker
out of these I've seen. I'm just looking, I'm just looking at the list at the moment to be honest with you, mate. i didn't even I didn't know there was a sequel to Tarzan and Jane as well. Sorry, Tarzan. Tarzan was really, really good with that Phil Collins soundtrack as well behind it. The only thing I remember from that.
01:28:00
Speaker
Well, we might as well say it. ah One of the things I've been consuming this week is Disney released a new album, ah right like influential artists that were like when I was in high school and college, like that hot punk emo scene, and some of the newer ones where they're redoing Disney classics. And one of those is that you'll be in my heart. Oh, wow. This song still rules. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:28:27
Speaker
And as and as a as a young man with two with two young daughters, when i shit you know I would admit to the fact that I like um ah Phil Collins. Phil Collins, no way. Genesis, no, hated all that. That's my dad's generation. No, hate it. Yeah, I thought he was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. and um It's amazing what happens when you get older. ah He starts tolerating an awful lot more and not actually giving a shit what other people think of you as well. yeah It helps an awful lot. Helps an awful lot.
01:28:56
Speaker
Oh, dude. What a good week. Oh, we've done we've done an hour and a half. I didn't think we'd didn't even think we'd make an hour. We've done an hour and a half. Thank God for outlaws. Hurrah! Well, we suck in. We bring in local politics and gardening and that all that'll beef up the front beef up the front end a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. no always always ah Always a winner. And we even we didn't even have to break open. you know We didn't have even have to smash the emergency seal and bring out dip the decking conversation either. So we've done pretty well.
01:29:26
Speaker
i said and I said in our private DMs, I said, i'm I'm done. Like I shared some photos. I'm like, here's what it was. Here's where it is. Like I'm feeling, I'm feeling some closure there. You say you're done, but you you're never really done. it's Oh, I'm not done with the work. I'm just done talking about it. Yeah. yeah Well, you see yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We shall see. Now it's going to be catios, wildflower progress, more about your gardens. I want to hear more about your gardens and uh,
Closing & Fan Acknowledgment
01:30:00
Speaker
Well, mate, thank you very much for recording with me. It's been good fun. And I was, um, I know that we are potentially recording again at the weekend, which is exciting. And so I kind of, and very exciting. Um, and I kind of was, was thinking, you know, should we record, shouldn't we record? I'm glad we got this out of the way because we can focus a hundred percent of our attention, um, at the weekend on what we're recording there.
01:30:26
Speaker
Um, thank you to everyone, uh, who listen. Um, I really, really hope again, that you don't mind our stick in two buddies just talking nonsense about what they've been doing during the week. That is very much our brand these days. Um, and I hope it works for you guys. Um, look, that look out for this space or check out this space very, very soon for something very, very special coming our way.
01:30:56
Speaker
in the next couple of days or so. Um, but in the meantime, Sean, take us out, mate. Like Andy said, we really appreciate you spending your time with us. Uh, as we've previously mentioned, we have a new Instagram account. You can find all of that information at our website, just shillin dot.com. There's two new links there. ah Check them out. You can find all so all the other awesome content there as well.
01:31:25
Speaker
Until, until a couple days from now, hopefully fingers crossed. Uh, appreciate your time. Thanks for listening. I'm Sean until then.
01:31:38
Speaker
um and Don't forget, don't forget folks, having a soft heart is, is in a cruel world is courage, not a weakness. What happened, mate? I forgot my tip. It's too far. It's below the fold. It's below the fold. It's not even a tip. It's just a life a life mantra that I always heard from my dad. And I'm sure it's not it didn't come from him, but it came from somewhere else. He always used to say, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.
01:32:05
Speaker
Just keep that in mind. What can you? I'm not going to find out. Cheers guys! Bye!