Three Years of Visual Evolution, Community, and Future Plans

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Unlimited Hello and welcome to Altered Geek

Unlimited, I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips

and joining me this week is TfG1W Yo. This is

episode 149. That's right, the total fan experience.

And all of you, we are disappointed with 95 %

of you. The other 5%, thank you so much for commenting.

The rest of you, you all get coal in your stockings

for Christmas here in July. You said coal. That's

right. But anyways. anyways yes so where would

you like to start with this kind of time warp

back to the beginning of altered geek for one

I'd like to comment about the art okay and how

much has warped and changed since the beginning

right I was going through trying to find ideas

for new art and the old stuff how often I changed

the logo, or just the stuff surrounding the content,

or the fonts for the text of the title of the

episode, or how much crap I could see if I could

fit in there, was amazing. Some of the art was

utterly horrible to look at, and some of it was

based on the date. it was recorded like solely

on that and then I started going to just episode

titles yeah and then uh well you said to me off

air earlier before we recorded this you said

I'm going back and looking at the old art and

I'm like dude don't it's not that bad like I

like how simple it is right yeah and you're kind

of going for that more simple look in the future

so Yeah, and then I've seen like there's probably

like nine different variations of the logo In

there alone Wait, wait, wait, you went through

nine logos in three years and how many logos

have we had in seven years overall for GCRN?

I've gone through more logos for AGU than I have

for GCRN. I have almost double the amount In

my little document that I put together of all

of them. There's still ones not in that that

I've made since I made that It is just further

warping of the same image Right. Yeah like the

original font Is totally different than what

I use now and I've been using this this font

easy since probably like episode one Let's see,

where? Because I haven't pulled up. 120? 130?

No, I changed it after that. It was close to...

145? It was 151 that I changed the logo. We haven't

gotten to 151. No, not 151. Episode 50. Oh, okay.

I changed the pot art and the logo. Alright.

And then... the colorations and then I added

that green globe to it. Right. And then I changed

it. It's been changed several more times since

then, but including the title of the show, it

doesn't know whether it wants to be unplugged,

unleashed, unlimited. Unleashed, unlimited, yeah.

That was part of the thing that I said about

the... episode 50 art, we do four. Or not 50,

episode 150. Next week, folks, is episode 150.

What I told Steve off air was have four titles.

Unplugged, unleashed, unlimited, and ultimate.

Yeah, I'm probably not going to do that. No,

I know. I'm still torn between two different

featured banners. And it's mostly over the aesthetic

of where the logo is placed and how it's placed.

Well, I think the cool thing with the current,

like the pot art stuff, the orange with the white

background with your avatar that TV's Mr. Neil

made you. and it says Altered Geek Unlimited

in the orange and the blue, get Altered Geek

Geeky. I think with that, you can use your multiple

variation colors of yourself that you've made

since Neil made you the thing. Yeah, I keep changing

the avatar. Yeah. Also, this recent change to

it, I figured out how to digitally create a new

utility belt. Cool. So it doesn't look as crappy

as the one that was there. And so yeah, I did

that I Don't know within the last week and then

I used the the creator that I made all of my

characters for the altered generations And I

made a orange lightsaber Cool, and I have attached

it to the character which will actually be in

the new Potter or in the new Something on the

web page anyway, but yeah very cool very couldn't

help it. I like the orange lightsaber Yeah, it

don't matter now George Lucas can't sue anybody

no, but Disney can and they're an evil or beast

Yeah, true. Hey very true At least they're not

like Hasbro and trademarking the word prime Let's

not even go there. That's for an episode of all

things transfer. So what is Amazon gonna do?

Okay, so since you brought this up now, I know

this is gonna I'm not gonna curse but I just

want to warn people this I'm going to talk about

something that's somewhat sensitive. So if you

have You know Not very good constitutions fast

-forward about three or four sec three or four

minutes here Remember a few years ago when Amazon

fire came well everyone fires were around for

a little while, but there was a few years ago

where This whole website debacle came up between

Amazon fire and a website called fire TV Fire

TV is FYRE TV. It's essentially a porn watching

site used to me Okay, well I'm just I saw the

news story a few years ago and Basically fire

TV was trying to sue Amazon for calling their

their Kindles their their their TV with stuff

all Amazon fire and Amazon fire is F IRE so Obviously

it didn't go anywhere. You know you try to sue

Amazon you're gonna lose so It's still funny.

Yeah, it's very funny. Alliteration, yay! You

are the weakest link, goodbye. Yes, you are the

weakest link, goodbye. Okay, so with with the

art You know you've you've constantly changed

it and you you've always been the type that you

want to evolve with your art and I get bored

Well, it's okay. Well, I I didn't really want

to throw you under the bus because you do great

art I'm just saying over the last seven or eight

years that you've been doing it for the network

and for AGU Well is used three years, but you

know what I mean, you know There have been styles

that you've had that you've liked and then obviously

Sometimes a style that we may like Kind of goes

out of style because with a website change or

a format change to the website that we need new

dimensions and things is there any art in the

past that you want to modify to be current like

take an old image and just Move it around resize

it to fit the new dimensions of what we have

now is So for for what show? AGU because this

way this one I keep doing that anyway. Yeah,

I know I'm saying in in the three years that

you've been doing the AGU stuff Is there any

art style for the the featured banners? That

you liked but you changed because you got bored.

Those are your words not mine That you might

want to go back to in the future. I well theoretically

if if we're talking about that. I like all of

them. Okay. So it's made it very difficult to

pinpoint an exact. Right. Because like I like

the, I don't know, I enjoy all of them equally

to some degree. It's kind of a tough one. Because

for 150 I designed like I think six different

ones And I've come to the conclusion it's gonna

end up being cool like an amalgamation of the

original style Right from like the first like

30 episodes or 50 episodes to Keep it very I

don't know clean Yeah Less is more. Exactly.

Alright, so we have two fan questions on the

website, or actually on the Facebook page here,

when I posted about, you know, AlteredGeek is

unplugging and unleashing the Unlimited Ultimate

Fan Experience post. We're going to start with

Rachel Mannings first. She asks, what inspired

you to do the podcast? So think back, three years

ago, what made you start Altered Geek? I've been

racking my brain with this one all week. Good

job, Rachel. You stumped him. You win a prize.

No, not really. Yeah, because both the ones from

Rachel and Brian. We're pretty loaded Yeah, we'll

get to Brian's closer to the end of this show

because that's more of the future thing. Yeah,

I Originally was an idea to because I was gonna

do this Solely as a YouTube thing Mm -hmm, and

that was like four years ago Yeah, and then now

I'm actually trying to take advantage of it And

I did like three of them and then I was like

I'm too lazy to do this and I have no idea how

to edit videos. So I didn't and then I Did occasionally

one and then it ended up becoming a full -blown

podcast, which actually spawned out of doing

The original name was unplugged. Mm -hmm. Just

simply unplugged. It was GCR and unplugged and

then I Grab the the title of my video show and

threw it on there hmm, which is how that title

came upon everything and then But I think it

was so that I could do like some newsy type of

Content as well as things that interested me.

Yeah And it didn't necessarily have to be up

-to -date it just had to be something that I

wanted to talk about. Yeah. You know, I've said

this for three years. You needed, I mean, you

have your voice on the network all the time,

but, you know, sometimes you don't want to talk

about certain things or if we're doing a topic,

a movie on MWIRE that you don't care about, or

if you're not interested in the cartoon on Tooncast

or, you know, you're not into comics at the time,

you know what I mean? So I think when you started

this show, it was for you to get your voice out

there. and just talk, like you said, talk about

the stuff that you wanted to talk about. And

it kind of keeps me from having to be pigeonholed

into a specific show. Right, exactly. Which is

another issue I was having, and I still struggle

with it now. The review shows, I like them. It's

one of our staples. But at the same time, I don't

want to do them. I want to do them, but I don't

want to do them because I want to do them because

I like the content that's being covered. I don't

want to do them because it's a set amount of

episodes that once I started, I have to complete

it. Whereas that's how I feel about it, though.

This particular show, I don't feel that stress

of having started it and then... If it goes somewhere

great if it doesn't if I don't feel like recording

this particular day, you know, whatever but um,

right More often than not I'll end up doing it

within the next day and then still publish anyone

but We're doubling up the following week, but

yeah the It was mostly so that I didn't have

to be pigeonholed and I could just kind of talk

about whatever Yeah And I'll say that in the

last seven years, the way I've crafted review

shows for the two of us is taking into account

that mentality that you have. Like, we haven't

started production yet, but we're going to, folks.

But our Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World podcast,

the way I've set that up is 10 episode runs.

So really... You know, I mean, I know we both

love Boy Meets World, but really that show, that

podcast doesn't really have to be, it's more

of a limited series kind of thing. So you don't

really have to feel like, oh my God, I have to

get this done, I have to get this out there.

You know, so, you know, that's kind of the thing.

And at this point for review shows for me, I

would rather... Record an entire review show

like when I did Showtime synergy the gem show

we recorded that a Year before we started publishing

it You know and we get most of the cartoon episodes

Review episodes recorded before we ever published

the first episode of the podcast online So I

am all about pre recording and and doing pre

-production way before we ever even That way

it doesn't get to the point of pigeonhole where

you're like, oh shit, oh stuff, we have this

many episodes until this day, and this kind of

comes back to my whole Phineas and Ferb show

thing. Now that we have a new plan for that,

I sat here and tried to do 104 podcasts in 104

days. It didn't happen. It ain't gonna happen.

But it's gonna stretch out between this summer

2016 to summer 2017. So, what? What are you doing?

Nothing. That was my cat attacking my dog. Poor

dog. Geez. This one's gotta be broken in too.

Wow. That dog is gonna be pussy -whipped at the

end of this. That's the point. The oldest cat

doesn't... particularly like dogs oh boy and

that was kind of the case with Sadie when when

she was alive yeah the Myra the oldest cat does

not like dogs whatsoever and by the end like

they were mutual they could be in the same room

didn't matter because they learned to kind of

appreciate each other's space but when Sadie

was a puppy All bets were off. Myra beat her

every which way from Tuesday, so whatever she

came within the vicinity of her personal space.

So since we're talking about your cats and your

new Beagle dog, Piper, I'll have to see if I

can get you to throw this in the post. There

was a video I found on Facebook here, and I eventually

found the YouTube channel. It's Charlie the Beagle,

and it's... Charlie the beagle babysits and That

dog that beagle is amazing that's probably one

of the best beagles I've ever seen this dog is

You know dragging toys around the place for the

for the for the baby to play with it's it's pushing

the baby's little You know seat thing that it

sits. Oh god The dog is amazing you people have

to see that video. It's so awesome Yep Yeah Alright,

so in three years Is there an episode or is there

a topic that you've ever wanted to revisit? That's

another one. I've been trying to Wreck my my

brain On specific topics because I Enjoy just

about everything that gets talked about but at

the same time I'm trying to Trying to figure

out what I would go back to Because like I enjoyed

the snack food one that we did in the early days

Some of a lot of them were news based I enjoyed

some of the topics but like in the new stuff,

but When you know like when we've done some like

Some gaming talk when we've done some TV shows

when we talked about like our our upgrades of

Equipment and whatnot like geeky OCD You know

a lot of the the toys tech games, you know a

lot a lot of the broader stuff And you know,

of course I've got a whole slew of new topics

that we can touch on, which you've seen, obviously.

Yes, I've seen them. Nobody else has seen them

because we want them all to be surprised. Some

of those were takeoffs of some of the art while

I was looking through it. Like, you know, the

dream of a future concept thing that was based

off another one where somewhere in the Middle

East they were planning on building that kind

of futuristic city right because I was looking

at the art trying to decipher things from it

or there's a lot where I'm a lot of it is like

literally BVS and in like in Justice League but

in Arkham but I mean there's been some some general

ones. I don't think I would do like segments

of ATTF or Headshot again. You mean in Altered

Geek? Yeah, well ATTF, we've got a whole new

plan for that. It always came back from the nether

area. It always comes back from the nether area.

You've been reviving that show for eight years

now. We've been reformatting it and you know

transform and transcend and all that stuff. So

you know you talk about topics of old or topics

of the new coming up that and you say about the

dream future I know this isn't the topic for

this episode when you talk about that First thing

it pops into my head as long as there are hoverboards

and jaws still looks fake. I'll be fine But like

the the the car one we actually touched on recently

and that was one that we did within the first

year Right. It was like episode 34 and then we

did it again in like 146 or 147 and then Yeah,

I mean there's been some other you know TV type

stuff like And then talk a lot of talk about

renewals Or controversial topics such as comic

characters mutating Mutating which I enjoy rehashing

because it's fun to get a debate going. Okay,

so I know I'm off the rocker here a little bit,

but there's this news article floating around

Facebook. You've seen the 1991 Rocketeer movie,

right? No. I know about it, though. Okay, so

apparently they're gonna be doing either a sequel

film or a reboot. Just do a reboot. Part of the

story is that the new lead is going to be a female

African -American lead. The way the story reads...

Isn't that like the Iron Man? Yeah, kind of.

I don't know. The way the story reads is it doesn't

seem like it knows what the hell it wants to

be. Either it wants to be a sequel remembering

the old characters and then moving on, or a complete

reboot. They're going to reboot it and do it

like that. That's just pandering. At this point,

they're they're trying to pull the Ghostbusters

formula with the whole thing. And now that I

have a problem with them flip -flopping things

like that because they were characters and whatnot.

Right. So that I didn't particularly have a problem

with because, again, new characters, even though

they were not from what I've read, were not as

fleshed out as they should have been. Again,

I have not seen it. So I'm not making that actual

judgment call. But I just at this point, I think

they're pandering to try and like because they're

doing an Ocean's Eleven reboot with. Are they

really? With an all female cast they're doing.

Yeah, there's there's a lot of flip flopping,

either of orientation or gender in everything

at this point. And yeah, I don't Like the thing

about Sulu in Star Trek, that didn't affect me

whatsoever because I just saw it as like an homage

to the actor. I saw it as an homage to the actor

and plus Sulu in the Abrams verse is a different

timeline Sulu. I thought, and I think I told

this to you off air, I said, oh, well, maybe,

you know, I seriously doubt this is happening,

considering Mr. Takei is vehemently against this

move. But I'm like, oh, well, maybe they can

bring the old Sulu in to talk to the news, kind

of like what they did with the Spocks. Sadly,

Mr. Spock, the original Mr. Spock, is no longer

with us. May he live long and prosper and rest

in peace. It was tasteful how they took care

of that in the movie too. Yeah, I have not had

a chance. I've seen Ghostbusters. I have not

had a chance to sit down and watch Star Trek

Beyond yet because of the fact that before we

recorded this, all the day long that we were

planning up to this recording, I was editing

the other Altered Geek episode that people would

have heard yesterday. What was it on? Something

on on Facebook. I'm trying to find it Something

about was it about Star Trek. Oh, it's the box

office thing But yeah, the whole Rocketeer thing,

you know with the reboot rehash kind of thing

It's like who knows I mean I for me at this point

no matter what the film is whether it's a reboot

a sequel I'm trying my best to stay positive

and Wait until I see an actual trailer not a

not a 30 -second teaser saying oh, hey the trailers

coming Tuesday No, you know I'm waiting for an

actual Minute and a half two and a half minute

whatever long theatrical trailer that they that

they come out with So The thing about Ghostbusters,

I guess, can we talk about that just for a little

bit and then I wanna move, I wanna actually go

back to the past and bring up an old comment

that I uncovered. Ghostbusters, I've seen it.

It's my, out of the films I've seen this year,

it's my second worst film that I don't like.

It's in, out of my top five films that I actually

enjoy, it's number four. Uh, number five is the

worst film of the year, which is the BS that

is VBS. Um, but I wrote on, I wrote on Facebook

saying that, uh, I wrote this long drawn out

post, basically what I liked first and what I

didn't like. I loved all the cameos. I loved

Ernie Hudson's cameo especially. I thought that

was really cool. All the women were great. McKinnon

singing at one point was hilarious. And Jones

was great in everything she did. The only people

I did not care for in Ghostbusters was McCarthy,

because I just generally don't like anything

she does. Because I just don't find her funny

at all. And Wig. Wig was just too weird. I know

she was trying to homage Egon, but she was failing

miserably. The writing for Thor's secretary is

beyond bad, which makes him look horrid. I sit

on here, Ghostbusters 2 is 20 times better than

this movie in every way. At least that was written

well, even though it was a cheesy as crap movie.

The one thing that surprised me about Ghostbusters

2016 is... How horrid the CGI was. I know people

are going to disagree with me on this, and that's

fine. That's what the internet's for. But the

CGI ghosts looked like crap to me. It's sad that

the 1984 practical effects are a million times

better than the CGI. Like, we live in an age

where CGI is everywhere. It should be the greatest

thing ever, especially for Ghostbusters. And

it looks like Sony and Fiegg and whoever the

hell else had control over this thing. It looks

like they just cheaped out to the worst Taiwanese

factory that they could have for CTI. It looks

like crap. I'm sorry. So my closing here, and

we can move on. So those are my thoughts after

seeing the film. Let's never speak of this again

and for the love of Zool Please no sequel unless

you can TMNT out of the shadows it by this I

mean learn from the mistakes of this film and

have a better crafted story in the sequel Well,

I think everybody's problem this besides the

fact that if they were getting mad over the character

swap Because again, I didn't that didn't bother

me. I was the thing that I was reading everywhere

that their characters were hollow Yeah, and not

planned out as well as the original Right. It

was still a fun movie is what I was hearing.

So Yeah, I don't care either way Yeah to each

their own because I'm probably I may watch it.

I don't know it I'll eventually watch it. It's

not I might like have to check out list it's

like I said it's on par with me with the Suicide

Squad movie which I have no interest in the only

okay I have some interest in the Suicide Squad

movie because it looks kind of badass and fun

but my real interest in that is Batfleck honestly

well did you hear they're gonna have the flash

in it too oh no I didn't hear that part because

it's supposed to show how the villains get put

in jail So Boomerang is going to get locked up

by the Flash and Joker is going to get locked

up by Batman. By Batman, that makes sense. Alright,

so let's scooby -doo in this kind of thing. Go

back three years ago. This was on, I believe

this was the very first episode post. I didn't

actually write down the episode numbers. I just

copied the comments out of each one. What, the

stages of grief? Yeah, uh -huh. Hold on, hold

on. This is from Epicareus of Citadam. This is

three years ago. Love the stages of grief you

went through when talking about bad fleck, rejection,

denial, anger, bargaining, and you almost got

to acceptance. My favorite snack is Pringles.

Just so easy to eat, less of a mess than a bag

of chips, and so many awesome flavors. Uh, that

one I still, even three years later, I disagree

with him because Pringles are, they're good in

a pinch when you need something, but they, that,

that recipe has changed over the years, like

in 1990. I think that those were for two different

episodes, I want to say. Unless, oh no, they

weren't. That wasn't the first episode. That

was like episode five or six. Um, because that's,

that's the one that I had. Um, yeah, I just looked

at the art. So. But yeah, that's when they announced

Affleck, I believe. Right. You know, I used to

love Pringles as a kid, but I am sorry. Lay's

Stacks, when Lay's came out with their own version

of stackable chips, they have a much better flavor

density and everything else. Pringles nowadays,

when I try to eat them, I have to have almost

a whole stack because a single chip... It just

has zero flavor to it for me anymore. His question

here... Well, for me, as far as that's concerned,

I do enjoy Pringles, but I would prefer Lay's

stackers that come in the can over the Pringles

because to me they're not tasteless, but I only

eat the original because I don't care for the

other flavors. Right. That's the same way I am.

And the original doesn't taste... bad to me.

I just I prefer the Lay's because it's not as

salty. Oh yeah Lay's you know you know they say

that Pringles is less greasy than an actual bag

of chips and that's that that is true but I mean

Lay's one ups that. Oh yeah it takes it to the

whole next level. I actually did a whole video

I might have you embedded into the post of Lay's

versus Pringles a few years ago. Uh, okay, so

he ends this comment by saying, question for

all you guys, both appear to be two things, married

and geeks. Okay, so this is at a time when you

had powers on. Obviously powers could not be

here tonight. Uh, I am now in a geeky relationship,

so I can kinda, kind of answer this question.

Uh, he asks for someone who is about to take

that plunge. Oh yeah! How was that? Did that

work out, dude? Let us know in the comments.

Um... How can you, how do you manage these two

things? Being a geek can take some time. You

have comics to read, video games to play, movies

to watch, et cetera. Not to mention the cost

to all that. How do you manage that and all?

Manage that and you know, not anger your wife

all the time. I'll let you go first with this.

It's kind of a double -edged sword. The last

time I answered this was three years ago. Didn't

have the dual monitor set up. Didn't have nearly

as much going on. My son was not born yet. I

don't think. Well, no, he was born he'd yeah,

I have a hard time cycling time Yeah, I he was

born but he was still he was real little but

um yeah, the The thing is is I I don't per se

have a problem With geek time because I really

I rarely read comics anymore because I just the

storylines and plus the time It takes time and

money. I just I don't have so I haven't read

really much of comics Unless there's something

we're reviewing right and then as far as like

video games I Generally have one that I'm playing

at any given time And it could be random like

I was playing when Arkham City came out. I think

I played that game non -stop With, you know,

a little bit of variation here or there, but

I played it pretty much nonstop for about a year

and a half. And people are probably like, how

did you keep busy with one game? It's because

I'm poor and don't have any money and I play

the same game. Plus, I wasn't trying to do all

the Riddler trophies. I was just trying to play

the game and just see if I could keep increasing

difficulty levels until it was unbearable. I

did the same thing with Arkham Origins when that

came out. I couldn't play Arkham Knight because

it wasn't available for my Xbox 360 and then

for the PC by the time Warner Brothers Entertainment

in Canada got it ready, I didn't care to play

it because I watched the storyline and I wasn't

going to spend the amount of money to buy a game

that I had no interest in anymore. now within

the last I don't know it's almost a year now

I've been playing Battlefield 4 and I've been

playing like Unreal Tournament and 2004 and then

Unreal Tournament 3 and then Unreal Tournament

which is four or technically the reboot and Command

& Conquer Riddler 2 so I mean I've got some games

I cycle through but I would say the the Battlefield

4 being that it's Shooting and killing and whatnot

Right and the fact that when I get a new game,

I'm addicted to the point that I get irritated

and It gets taxing on us because I and I realize

I'm doing it It's just the hard part is I want

to keep playing And it doesn't matter what game

it is if I get a new game I sit there and play

the crap out of it until it's not fun anymore

And then I moved to another game or if a new

game comes out like for instance. I got in on

the alpha of Battlefield 1 and I played Battlefield

1 and then I tried to play Battlefield 4 like

with my brothers and my dad and Did not enjoy

the game as much because I got a taste of Battlefield

1 Right in the alpha and I get to play that for

about two weeks and then I did some live streams

on YouTube and that's another topic I'll get

into later, but So I I was playing the crap out

of that which she didn't have as much of a problem

with because it was you know Great get a free

game alpha access blah blah blah But the other

one because I want to play periodically like

two to three there was a time I was playing like

five nights a week Mm -hmm, which I could see

as annoying because I don't actually go to bed

until it's like I get four hours sleep a day,

and then it ruins my work week, and then my...

Yeah, there's some other mental things that happen

to you when you play games like that, but I'll

get into that in a future episode. But yeah,

it can be taxing to some degree. The movies we

pretty much don't watch. We've both kind of done

this, but... I still watch my superhero stuff.

I still watch my action movies and my comedies.

But we've both kind of curbed it now so that

if it's like anything that's got like pretty

much like extreme violence or nudity or excessive

swearing. If it starts doing that collectively,

like right at the beginning of the movie, we

shut it off and it's done. Like it's just not.

It's no longer a thing. I've angered her with

my gaming mostly. My television and my movie

habits don't particularly get any feedback other

than the fact that when it's new TV show season

and everything is airing, I had 24 shows I was

watching, which I've cut down to 16, and I'm

going to further trim it down to, I'm hoping,

10. But we'll see. Let's see, what's on that

chopping block, Gotham? Well, I mean, I was watching

Once Upon a Time, I was watching Aces of S .H

.I .E .L .D., I was watching Blacklist, I was

watching Gotham, all the superhero shows. I was

watching iZombie, I was watching Who's Line,

Practical Jokers, Shark Tank. The list goes on,

but I watched 24 different shows and it got to

the point that she couldn't keep up anymore,

I couldn't keep up anymore, and plus I'm trying,

and I'll get into this later, but I'm trying

to detox from as much stuff because it's better

on the two of us because I've gotten so engrossed

in all of my geekdom. Yeah, that it's influencing

everything else. Yeah That's not good. So I have

an obsessive personality. So like when I get

involved with something I go all in to the right

that There is a burnout at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah But yeah, I'll get into that later too,

but anyways, well for me would you know being

in you know, I'm one year into an online long

-distance relationship and at this point you

know we basically find stuff that we both can

do that we both can watch that we both like like

she is probably the only person that would have

ever gotten me to watch Gravity Falls because

I'm just not into the supernatural Halloween

spooky kind of stuff but I wanted to see why

she liked it so much so we sat there and we watched

at least that we've seen at least I've seen at

least the first season of the show I like it

It's alright, and I got her into the 7D and as

soon as she saw Grim and Hildy the Glooms, which

are the villains of that show, she just fell

in love. So, you know, I got her hooked on that

kind of thing. Who knows in the future how it's

going to go. As far as gaming, I have an emulator

for SNES games on my computer, so I can play

my old SNES games. And I've been playing Grand

Theft Auto IV since 2008 when the game came out.

So I've been playing the same game for eight

years and I just keep replaying and replaying

and I just get, I mainly do that to kind of,

you know, relieve stress and not think about

being depressed and that kind of stuff. So, so

yeah. Let's see here. What else? What else? Well,

we could go with Danner's thoughts on who should

play the Justice League. So, rundown, I'm just

going to go through the hero's names and then

I'll tell who he had and who actually was cast

because I edited my document to kind of go through

that. He had Shazam. Black Adam, Dr. Fate, Green

Arrow, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Black Canary,

Cyborg, Elongated Man, Green Lantern, Zatanna,

Huntress, and Power Girl. And then, you know,

of course, Batman and Superman were already cast

at this point. This was before Wonder Woman was

cast. This was before Aquaman, Flash, and, you

know, it's funny because they don't have Aquaman

on here. Oh, yeah, they do have Aquaman. Yeah,

he does. But anyways, wow, that's some interesting

casting considering who's in the wonderwall.

So I'm going to go through the list. Shazam,

he had Patrick Warburton. Yeah, I didn't really

see that, but they don't have Shazam yet. Black

Adam, The Rock, which I think he was confirmed

at that time anyway. Yeah. Dr. Fate he put Hugo

weaving and then you were like no a Matrix guy

mr.. Yeah, I would be fine with him playing Dr.

Fate being that it would be his face would be

covered up, and he would be a you know voice

role and Yeah, he would have to be monotone which

he was better in the matrix than he wasn't anything

else so Okay, so just really quickly. He was

pretty damn good as red skull and first Avenger.

I mean He was pretty damn good. I'll give you

that But um, it's not like I was gonna bring

up Megatron. Well, that's why they hired cat

Walker Yeah, that'll show you Coming back for

more The green arrow he had Nick Offerman, which

I would have never seen playing green arrow His

casting choices so far are highly dubious, and

it fails. Yeah, that's definitely not it. But

Wonder Woman, he had Carrie Anne Moss. Yeah,

that's the Matrix. No, you know, that's the Matrix

chick. That's Trinity. Boo. Nope. They got obviously

Gal Gadot, which there was a rumor that... Of

a few different ones, but some of them were associated

with Marvel at the time Right, and I'm I'm actually

glad that they went with Gal Gadot despite everybody

complaining that she didn't have the chesticles

to go with it I Think she looks Good as the character.

Yes, she does So I am I'm fine with that casting

that they did the flash he had been fostered

Obviously, they have Ezra Miller. Yes. They should

have gotten Grant Gustin, but whatever. Yeah,

I'm in agreement with that. Same thing with Green

Arrow, they should have had Stephen Amell. So,

going down the list, Aquaman is Chris Pine, who

obviously... Captain Kirk. Steve Trevor is actually

Chris Pine instead of Aquaman, who is Jason Momoa.

Love the end of that trailer so I can I hear

you can talk to fish Here you can talk to fish.

Yeah, you know That face or whatever. Yeah But

uh, so he's got black canary as Isla Fisher Cyborg

is Michael B Jordan. I could so see that if he

wasn't already a crappy human torch Elongated

man is Jim Parsons. I just cackled at that when

I saw it. Oh my god Sheldon is elongated man

that would so work Green Lantern, I am assuming

he means Hal Jordan as Jensen Ackles. So a supernatural

kid Kristen Ritter the chick from don't mess

with the bee in apartment 23 and breaking bad

and Jessica Jones is Zatanna, which that's out

at this point now that she's Jessica Jones from

Marvel. Olivia Wilde is Huntress. I can see that.

And Power Girl, Katie Sakoff. That could work.

That could work. Yeah, I wasn't sure. She's got

the headlights for that. Any of his male castings

on here was not a fan of. Oh, come on. OK. Have

you ever seen Elongated Man? No. Okay, there's

an episode of I'll have to point it out for you

to watch later There's an episode of Justice

League unlimited on Netflix that you can watch

but elongated man is kind of like Plastic man

screw that guy. Well. Yeah, he's essentially

similar to plastic plastic man But just seeing

the name and seeing Jim Parsons name like yeah,

I could so go for that. That would be awesome

So funny So, should we talk about Mr. Dragon?

I don't know if he changed his name or something,

because we haven't heard from him in years. The

one thing I want to talk about... I forget who

it was, but there was an incident on one of the

podcasts, and we... Oh no. We... We offended

somebody, oh no. We offended somebody. Oh no!

And it was between you, me, and Dodd. And it

had to do with our thoughts on who should...

Somebody was disagreeing. I think it had to do

with the awards. We were talking about my opinion

of the fact that people were getting mad at me

for my opinion on that the Flash deserved to

be the number one superhero show. And the way

it came off was like I told everybody to screw

off. Which wasn't my intention in any regards

because everybody's opinion is equal and correct

in their their own mind like it's I Might be

biased on it, but it's my opinion Right. So,

you know what? I was basically trying to relay

was I'm not wrong in my opinion to me. It's my

number one But to you it might be something different

like you might enjoy daredevil more or you know

okay so let let's just go ahead and go through

the rankings for me at this point after the after

the first two seasons of flash that is still

my number one superhero show these are out of

the ones I watch these are not all of the suit

because I don't watch all of them so these are

just the ones I watch flash is still number one

Supergirl is pretty much my number two Daredevil

is number three. I do love Daredevil, but see,

I view Daredevil and the Netflix stuff different.

I don't compare that to the same way I compare

the broadcast shows, because the broadcast shows,

they're spread out, where Daredevil, you watch

a whole season in one sitting. But if I'm just

doing an overall list, Flash number one, Supergirl

number two, Daredevil number three, number four

is Arrow, and number five is Gotham. And I'm

sure as soon as the next... Oh no, actually I

take that back. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. I

forgot about one. Wow, I have to redo that whole

thing. Flash is one, Supergirl is... Flash is

one, Legends is two, Supergirl is three, Arrow

is four, and Daredevil... No, Daredevil is four

and Arrow is five. Yeah. Fuck Gotham. Forget

Gotham. Gotham doesn't exist. Alright, so for

mine... I would have Flash number one. I'd probably

put Supergirl as number two because it's different

and it's not been in the same universe. My only

gripe with it was the tiptoeing around Superman,

which obviously they've since changed because

the image of Superman floating around with Supergirl

is now out there amongst the interwebs. So if

you're looking for that, that is out now. And

then I would put Legends as my number three because

I enjoy the time travel aspect and some of the

characters involved. And their growth together

as a team. And they're having constantly something

going, you know, getting out of whack with the

whole thing. And then you have, I would probably

put Arrow. Because I enjoy it, but a lot of the

storyline has just been utter crap over the last

four seasons. I mean, they've been good episodes,

don't be wrong, but I've not fully enjoyed it.

It's like I always say, season one and two are

awesome and epic and really cool, but... Season

three was a complete downer and Season four it

was like hey this week's episode is great next

week episode sucks They didn't have Constantine

and Vixen so that was that was cool But um no,

I mean I And then I would probably have Gotham

as my last one because I don't watch any of the

Marvel Yeah And I have no interest in them. I've

tried watching them. I've given them like three,

four episodes a piece. Just don't care. Like

it's not... And plus with me trying to slim down

my show count. Right, it's not helping that you

have... It's not... They aren't important enough

to me. Right. For the second tier and third tier

characters that they have to pay attention to

it. And honestly animation and television...

DC's got it locked down anyway, so I have not

had any confidence in the television. The television

on Marvel is weaker than their films, just like

the opposite is true for DC. DC's films are weak

by comparison, although they might turn that

around with the awesome Wonder Woman and Justice

League coming out. From what we've seen from

the trailers so far, they look good. Time will

tell. Yeah, very sure But yeah as far as the

casting though, that's kind of my thoughts on

it Yeah, like casting oh Boy so before we get

into more comments about well as of this recording

about an hour ago Our good buddy that I've interviewed

a couple of times on the network, Jim Sorensen,

posted on Facebook, looking at some amazing Beast

Wars uprising artwork. And I commented and said,

new or classic? And he just replied about a half

hour ago, new. So apparently we're getting new

Beast Wars stuff. We better. It's only the 20th

anniversary of the show. Yeah, and then with

them coming out with the masterpiece optimus

primal in October Which I have mine pre -ordered

and coming because I traded in all of my All

of my open Transformers that I had To get that

figure I traded in my optimal optimus I traded

in Quite a few other characters I I just It was

just one that I had to have and now they're coming

out with a masterpiece cheat or Which will be

you know, I'm sure it'll be obviously cheaper,

but I'll play that bigger and see what I get

rid of at that time to Get my hands on it But

yeah, I mean I'm more stoked now and I'm hoping

that they get Megatron Masterpiece right because

that's at this point It wouldn't go after the

Cheetor. I want to, because it's going to be

show accurate. Just like my 30th anniversary

Rattrap and Waspinator that I have. It would

go really nicely together. But yeah, I mean,

I'm... I'm hoping... that Beast Wars gets a lot

more stuff out. Yeah, that would be cool. So

again, from three years ago, I don't remember

which post this was on. Freddy Savage made the

comment. Episode 34. Talks about photos. You

mean driving? No, photos. Freddy Savage. Where

is it? Freddy Savage. It's below the driving

one. It's below Connor Murphy. Oh, OK. He says,

am I the only one who is still as amazed how

photos work? Just the concept taking real life

image, imagine and capturing it into a photo

boggles my mind. The more I think about the science

that it goes into. I mean, when you think how

easy we can take photos now compared to what

we took back in the day. Now the interesting

thing for me, for him on this comment is the

second half of this. He says, one question that

has been going into my head is what does it mean

to be a geek anymore? Does having geek culture

so ingrained into popular culture in a way ruin

it? It feels like it's no longer special. I once

felt like I was a part of a unique community.

Now I kind of feel just like everyone else. And

I got this idea because somebody posted this

in the comments last episode when we were talking

about the Speedsters. I feel like we've been

in this exclusive club. for so long by ourselves

and getting picked on, made fun of and all this,

you know, and enjoyed these things genuinely

for years that now that it's mainstream and everyone

wants to join the membership club. And it's it's

it's gone from like a Sam's membership of, you

know, you have to pay to get in to like a Walmart.

They let anybody in. And I'm not trying to say

that to be negative towards anybody that's like.

discovered these things through like the new

feature films or any of the stuff like that because

It's great that they've helped pump money into

these things that we enjoyed that helped bring

them into the larger light But I kind of agree

with that that That it's so ingrained now that

it kind of There's so what such an over saturation

That yeah, everybody gets a taste of something

they enjoy But there's a lot more complaining

going on online because you have all these people

that have social media to complain about it whereas

like back in the day we all had to Contact companies

or had to send them letters or we had it, you

know, I mean It's gotten super easy for these

people to like run their mouth essentially and

everybody's reviewing this stuff and everybody's

doing Yeah, everybody's reviewing everything

and that's kind of why I mean we still have our

review podcast and also always do the review

podcast but Like, I'm so done with written reviews.

That's one of the reasons why I created the La

La Land Lounge over on Geekcast Radio, so I could

do audio reviews and discuss with myself and

other friends that like soundtracks, the stuff

that La La Land Records does. But like, I am

so beyond writing a review for a film or a television

show or whatever else, I'd rather sit here and

come up with unique idea, topic ideas. That's

why I started my new series from the desk of

TFU and Mike. I've got one about... Being helpful.

I've got one that I actually wrote on my old

blog called one year later changes of a lifetime

I've got one about being a single geek versus

being in a geeky relationship and my latest one

Which will be out by the time this is out It's

all about for the love of art whether that's

photos or art prints or comic books or video

games yes video games are art people you know

movies television whatever so like I'm more at

this point and you know now I mean yeah I have

been negative on podcasts before and I'm probably

still continue to be negative on podcasts at

times but I'm kind of trying to live in the positive

at this point because there's just so much negativity.

Yes, I might have an initial reaction to the

fact that somebody from Sesame Street who was

a classic actor on the show got released. Well,

he wasn't the only one. All the old cash got

squeezed out because it was a money thing. Yeah,

I understand that. I get that. I would have had

a much better reaction to it if the article had

stated that he either retired or they bid him

farewell, but basically they basically said,

oh, we're future endeavoring you. You know, and

that just rubbed me the wrong way. Hey, I'm sorry,

I'm not gonna go on and on and on about it, so.

But no, I mean, I feel like being a geek is not

special anymore, and I feel like... Yeah, because

everyone thinks they're geeks. Well, and I feel

like I mean yes, I'm still like even at work

I'm the go -to person for anything superhero

related anything film related anything television

because to some degree I know about it and usually

when it comes to like any of the you know when

it comes to gaming my you know my my family comes

to me because I know about it before they do

even though like it's funny because a lot of

people send me links for for things and in granted

occasionally somebody surprises me like today

with you know scanner 51 setting the this the

Superman and Supergirl image I hadn't seen that

yet at that point yeah but like just about everything

else that I get is something I've already come

across like either earlier in the day or the

week and It's funny you bring that up because

after, I know I'm sitting here kind of promoting

something but I'm trying not to, after my for

the love of art post I'm going to do one called

I live on social media. My cot is over there

in the corner because I'm the same way like you

where I'm on Twitter, I'm on Facebook and I catch

99 % of my interests. Immediately. I need to

block politicians. I'm gonna turn this thing

down. No, I'm watching my Twitter feed as we

speak because I wait for news articles and I

leave Twitter up 24 -7. Unless it's Friday or

Saturday, I don't have it up, but every other

day it's up. I'll bookmark stuff or like it to

save it for later and then I'll clear it out.

I just feel like we're being alienated to some

degree in our own niche. At this point, I'm trying

to diversify and trying to branch out and do

other things. I'm trying to try the YouTube thing

out. I'm not doing it for the money or the fame

like some of these people try. A lot of people

try and do it because they're like, oh, somebody's

internet famous. You know, I want to be internet

famous. Like, I don't care to be internet famous.

I just want to talk to other geeks. Yep. All's

I can think of is J .K.'s, uh, J .K. Simmons

is J. Jonah Jameson. If he doesn't want to be

famous, I'll make him infamous. Well, Spider

-Man. Oh, boy. Um, all right. So, yeah, I mean,

it, it, it seems like everybody wants to be a

geek now everybody wants to you know and even

have some of the news like I remember as a kid

not a lot of entertainment stuff like the bat

like not a lot of big -time entertainment stuff

got you know national news coverage or even local

news coverage and nowadays with all the news

programs and all that stuff and it seems like

they all want to be Most of them want to be geeks

and especially those sellouts that fucks news

and I mean Fox News and I don't know it's just

It's just so weird nowadays to to be a geek Which

is is kind of crazy Yeah, I mean I'm I'm hoping

eventually to I've been mentally down for a little

bit. So like it's it's been hard for me to even

get into anything geeky Yeah But yeah, I'll bring

that up later So, where should we move from here

Do we want to talk about I'm trying to think

here Wow I don't know. Do we want to talk about

Brian's comment on Facebook? Yeah, we could do

that. And then we could round out the show on

that, and then call it a night. So he says, what

do you see for the future of the show? And I'll

start with that question and move away through

the rest of it. Honestly, I'm unsure. Because

on the one hand, I have... this concept of things

that I want to do and that I've been wanting

to do that I just haven't or I forget about by

the next episode because I've got another set

of things that I want to do. But I do want to

do more video content as opposed to doing as

much audio. And I think the audio, as long as

the fan interaction and the fellow geek interaction

is strong, I would rather cover topics on the

episodes that are of interest to everyone rather

than do only the news. Like, obviously, we brought

up a little bit of the news in this, but it kind

of came up naturally. So I'd like to do more

of that and less of the bringing the news up.

And I keep falling into this rut. And I don't

know how I get I get this this It's been off

and on over the last year. I've not known There

have been episodes where I know what direction

it's going and then there's episodes where I

don't even want to be there And you can sometimes

tell based on the topic or what's going on or

how the conversation is going or how much I talk

Or how little you that's what I'm saying. Like

yeah there's very little of me talking, there's

probably a reason for it. And it's not that I'm

not paying attention because some of the time

I am, but I say some of the time because once

in a while I get reading something and then I

have no idea what they're talking about. Because

I zone out because I'm in this other zone. So

it is not intentional, it just happens. Because

we record these at like 10, 11 o 'clock at night.

My mind is mentally starting to shut down And

because I've been playing games lately. That's

where it goes is like I'm like gotta finish gotta

record gotta play a game Right So yeah, usually

that's how it goes, but I I'd like to do more

more fan interaction I'd like to try and do some

live shows again And try and schedule those out

like maybe do one a month I'd like to try and

do like eventually maybe a patreon Mm -hmm to

where people could support the show And basically

with the money I would be upgrading equipment

and paying to get Services that Would allow me

to branch out into other things that I can cover

for everyone Yeah, for the show. For the show.

And that's kind of where I see things going,

but I definitely want to do more video content

and to do that I need better equipment. Right.

Because I have the ideas, I just lack the stuff.

Yeah. And, you know, we were talking off air

and I kind of gave you an idea of maybe cutting

back to twice a month on Altered Geek Audio and

then just do one video a week. Um, it was just

an idea. Um, if you're going to do the Patreon

thing, you know, we could have somebody, uh,

you know, as long as they have a decent microphone

and a decent setup, we could have one of the

fans like Brian Jackson, like Rachel Manning,

whoever, uh, come on the show. And if they donate

to the Patreon, say they donate 10 bucks, they

can come on for a 30 minute segment and talk

about whatever they want to talk about with us.

Um, That's the cool thing about patreon. We can

come up with so many different ideas of like

digital rewards whether it's coming on the show

whether it's scheduling their ideas for topics

for the show that we talk about You know whether

it's you know I remember because you know I've

known about patreon for a while one of the first

things I saw was my buddy Michael Sims over at

earth -2 .net earth -the -number -two .net. The

way he set his up was, if you donate $1, you

get an on -air thank you. If you donate $5 or

more, you can do this. If you donate $10 or more,

you can do this. And it's all digital content.

One of his higher tiers was, if you donate $100

or more, you get to pick an entire week's worth

of content, whether that be written or audio

or video. You know, so I think maybe, you know,

we sit here and make a list. Because people,

if you haven't noticed by now, Steve and I, you

know, since our friendship eight years ago, you

know, started, we essentially bounce stuff off

of each other and we help each other to work

out and fully flesh out the ideas that we eventually

have that become whatever the hell we do here

on the GCRN. So, you know. Anybody that you know

if you start the patreon and people donate and

they send us ideas and stuff we can then put

those into a hat and it'll be kind of like a

Altered geek, you know grab bag kind of thing

Altered Geek Snack Box. No, no, I'm sorry. Out

of all the boxes, out of the Loot Crate, and

I know Loot Crate is a sponsor, I'm not trying

to throw them under the bus, but out of the Loot

Crates and the this and the that and everything

else, I'm sorry, the worst thing in the world

to me is that new Snack Box thing. I just like,

no, I'd rather just go to the grocery store and

get my snacks. Thank you very much. Yeah, I actually

do have a Patreon. Mm -hmm Yeah, it's it's actually

patreon .com slash altered geek We just have

an advert I believe it's alter geek we just haven't

advertised it a lot. Yeah, I mean I Have to actually

The AlterGeek one's garbage, that was one I made

before. It's actually SteveMegatron, slash SteveMegatron.

And basically I have it set up so that I have

a link to my Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch,

and then I post it, then I'll... I do productions

from podcasts, video podcasts, Q &A videos, news

reporting, reviews, gameplays of Battlefield

4, Battlefield 1, or Unreal Tournament. I actually

just got beta access to Paragon. It's a pre -beta,

so I've got access to it now. Because I had access

to the beta before and the alpha of it. So I've

been meaning to jump back in there and try and

play that, but do some voice impressions and

maybe some other stuff depending on responses.

And then I have a couple different tiers, the

$1, $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100 because beyond

$100 I think that's ridiculous. But even $100

I think is ridiculous. I just put it in there

because it's a worthwhile thing. I will guide

you on your websites, podcasts, and videos because

then I feel like I'm earning it. Yeah, you know

you know you're giving back and you know it's

kind of like we've been my buddy Doug out over

on on talking about my generation about you know

putting his show back in order and giving it

some structure so essentially What's your what

you're paying for with Steve for a hundred bucks?

You're essentially paying for a private lesson

from him Yeah, basically, and that's and that's

my I'm certified in website design. I'm certified

like I have about 20 years worth of graphic design

and stuff like that under my belt. I've been

playing with audio for as long as I can remember.

A lot of the stuff I've got 20 years experience

on, even though I'm 30 years old, I've been doing

this stuff since I was 10. It started as an escape

from my parents' divorce and then I, from there,

You know springed into everything else, but Yeah,

it's And it's all because Transformers started

building a website and then yeah started doing

voiceover because of Transformers It's all because

of Megathrall it it actually is because of Beast

Wars. It was well, and there was because of scourge

Headmasters, I'm still it's it's nine years later

Yeah, still or no, it's what is it? I started

doing that 2005 so it's been 11 years. I'm still

playing the same role It's slow production because

it's you know all fan interaction stuff, but

I'm still playing the same character, which has

been awesome for me But yeah, I mean that's that's

the kind of direction. I want to go and yeah

again It's patreon .com slash Steve Megatron.

I'm I will probably start promoting it start

doing stuff with it because like I'd like to

do that, but I don't and if you know that the

tears there's something you'd like adjust and

just let me know because I Have no idea this

is like uncharted territory for me. I have no

idea how this stuff works Yeah, it's it's like

I feel like I'm getting passed by By all these

people trying to beg for money and I've not been

able like willing to bring myself to that point

and it's not it's not a it's not a pride thing

because like everybody's like hey sign up for

my patreon give me money and some people like

illegitimately i get it like you know and i i

should have done it a long time ago to try and

build right the audience yeah but at the same

time like i i guess it's like the humility of

i do this because i enjoy it because other people

enjoy it i don't do it to make a profit, but

it would be nice to make a little bit of a profit

to pay for a lot of the stuff or to pay for more

time to dedicate to it. Because honestly, I would

love to make this my at least part -time job.

Right. Okay, so here's the thing with Patreon.

This is the way I've always viewed it, and this

is the way that, again, my buddy Michael, David

Sims over at Earth2 .net, has told me. Basically,

the way I view Patreon is a tip jar, okay? You're

not relegated you're like the way I view patreon

is if we say at the beginning of at the beginning

and ending of every altered geek Hey, we have

a patreon for the podcast or Steve has a patreon

for the stuff that he's doing if you like what

he's doing Go throw some stuff into our tip jar.

We know whatever that you know that kind of thing

So let's say for example, and I'm sorry Brian.

I'm just using you as an example Let's just say

Brian Jackson Absolutely loves episode 150 and

because he loved it so much He loved what we

talked about what we discussed the conversation

the flow was good and whatever else That he then

goes over your patreon and drops you five bucks.

It's not specifically asking him Hey, can I have

five bucks? It's saying if you like this and

you want to support the show and keep the show

going, here's the tip jar. That's the way I view

the Patreon thing. I get it. Yeah. But yeah,

I mean, that's as far as like some of the future

of the show that I see. The second question,

I guess you should read the questions because

it's OK. So. What has been your favorite part

of doing the podcast so far, and least favorite

part? My favorite part is talking about the content

and conversing with people. And as long as it's

the topics I want to talk about, I would say

it's easier to answer the least favorite part.

And that's probably because... There are times

when I probably shouldn't even be recording,

but I'm doing it out of obligation. You should

never... It's more so because I feel like I'm

letting people down if I don't record because

they're expecting it every Friday. You've been

doing this for... Three years. No, well yeah,

you've been doing AGU for three years, but you've

been podcasting for nine years overall at this

point. You should be at a point in your life

where you do not feel obligated to put out a

podcast. You really, really should. Yes, AGU

is a weekly thing, but if you need a week off,

your audience is not gonna abandon you. I mean,

you know, look at the... Never mind. Look at

when we put M -Wire on hiatus. We still have

the people that listen to M -Wire or listen to

past episodes. You know, we still have, you know,

Tooncast Classic has been retired since 2011

and we still have people commenting and listening

to that thing. You know, so I don't feel that

you should ever feel that you should be obligated

to put out a damn podcast. If you're not feeling

it, if you don't think you can put on your best

game face that night, simply... walk away for

that week and just say on social media, hey guys,

the show's taking a break for this week, we'll

be back next week, better than ever, whatever

else. I've never felt the need. If I have the

need to record, it's because I want to get stuff

done, because I want to be able to have something,

but it's not because of I think fans are demanding

the stuff that I'm doing. I just don't think

you should feel that way. I don't think you should

feel... If podcasting has become an obligation

to you, then you need to relook at it and rethink

it. You know what I mean? And just kind of step

away for a bit from it if it's become that negative

for you. Well, it's not even negative. My thing

is... And this kind of goes into... The rest

of the questions which he had you know the topics

that I'm tired of and you know right and Things

I haven't talked about that I'd like to or will

One thing I'm like, I don't know I'm getting

so sick of like the topics of When they're like,

oh so and so, you know, like basically any of

the comic news where it's like, oh, they're rebooting

Oh, they're changing these characters. Oh, they're

doing you know I get pigeonholed because I enjoy

a lot of the geek news and I like reading it

and I like talking about it, but I don't necessarily

know how to get myself out of that rut in times

of where I want to talk about it and report on

it, which is nice when we actually get a topic

because then it blows everything else away. And

then if it brings up, it brings up. If not, it

doesn't. But I've kind of gotten to this point

where I've run out of steam. I have no idea where

I'm going. Episode 150, there's some ideas percolating

between myself and Mike. It's going to be fine.

We've been brainstorming off air of ways to keep

the conversation going. And then of course, there'll

be some infusion of news depending on how relevant

it is. But I've kind of had to limit the amount

of stuff that I bring up because I find so much

stuff throughout the week between episodes. I

almost need to do a daily show to cover it all.

Dude, I'm telling you right now, if you get burnt

out on doing a weekly show, trust me. I tried.

Well, I'm saying, like, if I did, like, a, you

know, a two to five minute vidcast. Oh, okay,

video. Okay, video. Okay, yeah, yeah. You know,

if I did that, then it wouldn't be that big of

a deal. Okay, yeah. For a second there, I thought

you were talking about audio because I've been

there, done that. It doesn't work. You can't

keep up. That's the other thing is I want to

start doing more video and I want to do more

gaming streams. I want to do more live streams.

I want to do more... Like the news stuff. I want

to do impressions I want to do, you know, basically

anything that I know how to do I'd like to do

You know, even if it's maybe some tutorials or

talking about like screenwriting or talking about

my alter generations Concept and some of the

superhero class stuff I've taken some of these

topics that I've got for the podcast could also

apply to the video show So, I mean there's ways

that I can still tie them in and if there's something

I want to talk about that's relevant to whatever

the news is in the geekdom during that week,

I might start going to the YouTuber out with

it because one, it'll get more notice based on

the fact that it's a current event thing, and

then two, I can hit that point and be done with

it. In that regard, I might start doing that,

but I'm planning on doing episode 150. Right

and then if there was a point where I was debating

whether I wanted to retire the show retire from

podcasting or you know Just put the show on hi.

Yeah, or just put the show on hiatus, and I'm

like I don't know if I'm ready to hang up the

microphone and headphones yet Yeah, but I do

need a break and right so like I will be going

on vacation and in mid -august And so after episode

150, I'm taking the rest of August off. There

will be no episodes. There might be video content

that I will say that there might be video content.

I might have some alternate geek news. I might

have some impressions. I might have I'm going

to basically try and like backlog a bunch of

stuff and then just edit like a quick intro on

it, chop up stuff a little bit so that it's it's

cleaner and to the point. I know YouTube likes

to do these, you know, YouTubers like to do the,

uh, you know, jump cuts to the next... Oh, I

hate... Unfortunately, I know that I'm gonna

have to do that to some regard, and I'm not gonna

do, like, the high -energy, like, like, you know,

with my arms all up here. Make it more of a fade

than an actual jump cut, because I hate those

quick jump cuts. Those quick jump cuts visually

hurt my eyes. You know why they do that, right?

I've been watching some video documentaries,

some media documentaries, and I guess I'll bring

that up in another episode because it's kind

of interesting to me. Okay. Because it has to

do with, and they had this professor going through

and science guy with media, it has to do with

how the lighting hits your eyes, how the colors

hit your eyes, how the change in action hits

your eyes, because what it does is it it fires

this particular diode in your head that makes

you stay glued to it, even though it bothers

you, you stay glued to it. And it keeps your

attention because of that reason. And so they

use it as a tool to garner more attention and

have people pay attention to it longer, even

though normally you probably would have clicked

off about the time it did the jump cut, which

is when you get rebooted. So it's an instant

attention grabber. and even if it's annoying,

you still find yourself stuck to it, which is...

As soon as somebody does a super hard jump cut,

and I can see that it's a super hard, like, hey,

I'm talking about this, and then I'm going to

talk about... As soon as they do that, I immediately

click off the video. I won't even finish watching

it. I don't do hard jump cuts like that. If I

finish talking about something, I might have...

My recent video, I did some news and then I stopped

it and then I cut between the dead or the gibberish

between one topic and another to go to the next

thing and that's about as all I did. Then I figured

out how to slap on the endings and do the annotations

and the cards and the links and stuff. That was

pretty interesting for me to learn. Well, like,

looking at your Top 10 Batsuit video, you know,

you look at that video... I edited that one heavily.

No, I know, okay, and I appreciate it, but that

video basically has you fading from number to

number, so it's not really a jump cut, and that's

all I'm saying is, the fade is your friend. So...

Altered geek is gonna take a little bit of a

break after 150. Yep. I'll take the rest of August

off I'm gonna be on social media. Like I said,

I'll probably I'll probably mostly be on like

Twitter Because I don't really hang out on Facebook

all that much I hang up predominantly on Twitter

because it's a faster feed and I can I could

pay attention to more stuff going on right, which

is almost still information overload, but I've

got to unplug and basically reboot my memory

of why I do what I do. I know deep down I know

why, but when you brought up the other day, because

I was in such a funk, I didn't know what I was

even babbling about. You said... I said... So

Steve was Steve's post on Twitter was something

to the effect of I don't know if I want to keep

doing this podcast thing. I don't know if I still

want to be in the whole geek dumb and whatever

else said, you know what, dude? It keeps going

back to that classic line. The seeds of the future

lied buried in the past. And I told you, look

to your past. Look to when you were a kid. Look

to when you were 10 years younger than what you

are now. Find something from your past that reignites

your present to take you into your future. and

silence. I'm trying to read through some of your

comments on that. I find this very odd, but about

every five to ten years I go through this weird

funk where I don't know ... It's like I lose

myself. I don't know if that happens to anybody

else, but I get this rut and I don't know why.

I just kind of lose all my faculties and don't

really know why I do what I do still. And then

I run out of steam and don't know what I'm going

to do. So I almost need the time to re -figure

it out. And with that comment that she made,

I'm like, I don't really remember much about

my childhood besides geekdom. Because I was heavily

involved with Batman toys, with Turtles toys,

with Transformers, Star Trek. Star Trek and Transformers

and Turtles and Batman have always been a staple

of my childhood. Among everything, like television,

comics, whatever. That's always been a staple

of my childhood. So trying to figure out, and

I've always enjoyed doing voices, I've always

enjoyed doing fake radio. I did it on a tape

recorder when I was a kid. And I thought it was

hilarious because I was like, Oh, I recorded

myself on the radio. And, um. So like, again,

I'm doing a lot of that, but like there comes

points where I just. I kind of lose it and don't

know what. I get discouraged very easily. And

I hope that I'm not boring the crap out of anybody

with this stuff, but like it's. You're being

honest, dude. Honestly, when it comes to any

audience, being honest with them is the best

policy, so go for it. I really want to keep going,

not necessarily because I feel obligated, but

because I enjoy the purge sessions and getting

to converse with other people on the topics.

because that was kind of what the show was started

as was a place like a soapbox to talk about some

of the geek news and to kind of Spill on whatever

I was interested in and so But it's been hard

trying to figure out where to go from here because

we've done 150 episodes by this point mm -hmm

and I'm trying to rack my brain of what I can

do next to further progress the show rather than

hindering it and keeping it where it's at or

causing its decline. Well, like you already said

in this episode, when we bring up news casually

or, hey, I just saw this on Facebook or, hey,

this popped up on Twitter, I think that's the

better way to go with the news. And like I said

to you off air, In the future, we take two major

topics, whatever it could be, and that's one

podcast. So that way we have two very different

things that could reach to two potentially very

different pieces of the audience. So there is

that. Just to give people a slight, very slight...

Tease of potential future topics. These are not

set in stone or we don't know which episode they're

gonna be in but like Creating a new TV show designing

the future which you already talked about favorite

consoles and games family traditions Relying

too much on nostalgia You know what grinds our

gears and maybe I'll put those up for a vote

Like if people are interested in seeing what

some future topic ideas are and then getting

a vote on them, I would be willing to bring up

any of the topics that people voted highly for.

And I would even go on that order if there was

like five and they were voted in a certain order,

I would go on the order from the most demanded

to the least demanded and work my way down. Because

I'm interested in covering new stuff. It's more

fun when I have... the fellow geeks and the fellow

fans and whatnot to bounce off of as well. Because

it gives me this feeling of we have a conversation.

And that's what I really want is the conversation.

Yeah, exactly. Well, that's what we need. So

like, yeah, I mean, I'm I'm definitely, I'm still

involved. I'm still enjoying the show. I just,

I gotta redirect. And so with taking the three

to four weeks off, I feel like it's gonna help.

Well, it's gonna allow you to recharge. It's

gonna allow you to approach the show fresh. One

of the ideas I had for you was and we can let

the audience kind of decide on this I know you

guys love the every week episode or most of you

do But I suggested to Steve like I said earlier

in this podcast doing two altered geeks audio

a month so every two weeks essentially instead

of every week because The pressures of whether

you feel obligated to put out an episode or not,

the pressures of coming up with topics, figuring

out how the conversation could potentially go,

how you want it to go, and then putting it together,

getting it online, all that stuff, that's a lot

of time. People, if you have not podcasted before,

like the whole McGillicuddy of podcasting, if

you have not recorded, edited, posted. Done the

social media promotion that takes a lot of time.

I Mean coming from someone who and you know how

crazy I am most people do Coming from someone

who edits anywhere between four to six shows

a week and me trying to do the Phineas and Ferb

daily show I edited 27 podcasts in three months

You know, that's a lot of time That's a lot of

effort You know, so What I'm saying is people

ask us or tell us in the comments of episode

149, the total fan experience here. Would you

be okay with, or would you enjoy it more if we

had two altered geek audio episodes a month with

larger topics? Like I was saying before, we picked

two topics for podcasts. So episode 151 could

be. The pink elephant is flying over my left

shoulder while the brown cow just jumped over

them. You know what I mean? Like, we picked two

big topics for that episode. So would you guys

want one episode every two weeks with two very

big topics in each of those episodes instead

of four episodes a month with varying news and

other smaller topics? And what show length would

you want to see? Do you want to see shorter show

lengths? Do you want to see longer? I know there's

no right or wrong answer to this. I'm just curious

either way of what people are thinking on the

subject. Because there's some episodes where

we go 30 to 45 minutes and there's some episodes

where we go an hour and a half, an hour and 45.

Like this one. This is 149. This is supposed

to be the Total Fan Experience. We talked about

at least three or four different fans' questions,

comments from the past, and Brian and Rachel's

stuff on Facebook. And again, to the rest of

you, other than Brian and Rachel, and other than

the comments we went back to, to the rest of

you listening, for shame on all of you for not

interacting with us and emailing us or leaving

us voicemails and being a part of this Total

Fan Experience. For shame on all of you. I put

a pox on all your houses. No, not really But

I know right I think on that note we need to

get the fur about it here So yeah, let us know

in the comments of this episode what Podcast

time link do you prefer 30 minutes 45 minutes

an hour two hours? What is the best time length

for you on that and let us know? Do you want

larger episodes, but fewer releases? So essentially

less is more kind of thing. Yeah, I mean that

and if you've got any ideas for... The future.

Yeah, for the future. I mean, just let me know

because I really want to know. I have fun recording

when I have, you know... Especially going back

and visiting some of the old comments here, like,

it's still... It's amazing how the answers change.

Yeah. Yeah. Three years is a long time, folks.

Opinions change in three years. Opinions are

never right or wrong. They're just assholes.

Yeah, with that note... Come on, no. Opinions

are like assholes. Everybody's got one. Well,

it's kind of like politicians. Let's not go there.

It's like that Adam Sandler, or not Adam Sandler,

Robin Williams quote from Man of the Year. Politicians

are like diapers and they should be changed often

for the same reason. Yeah. I think at this point,

folks, we are now trumping the pence. So I think

we need to get out of here. Well, I'm on that.

Round of thoughts. Somebody posted and I reposted

it. It says, why choose the left nut or the right

nut? And it's got Hillary on one side, Trump

on the other with their pointer fingers and they're

both yelling. And it says when you can have the

Johnson. You can get screwed by them all. I just

thought that was hilarious. Ladies and gentlemen,

Shades of the Old Beast Unleashed are coming

out right now. I didn't even say it. It's a beautiful

piece of art. It's a beautiful piece of art.

Oh, man. It's horrible, but it's funny. But yeah,

before this episode and before we close it out,

I was playing on... Stone Mountain 64 who's on

YouTube and he was the head of one team on Battlefield

1 at EA's panel for E3 and he does like these

YOLO on the battlefield where you know he pretends

he's actually on the battlefield and stuff. He

was doing a little bit of that while we were

playing. I was on his team so it was kind of

funny. I wasn't on his squad but I was on his

team and his team got killed both times. I was

on the opposite team the first time, but I played

for like the first 45 minutes and then we started

recording this and then it sounded off. So I'm

gonna see what he said after that on the live

stream. But yeah, it was pretty funny. Awesome.

Alright folks, next up is the big 150. Send in

anything you want to ask or anything you want

me to do or underwater basket weaving, whatever.

Megatron making a kilt for Barney. Alrighty then.

Yes. Lottie, I can't take the pain. The Joker

just going loony. Yeah. And of course he doesn't

want to do it. It figures. I gotta know the song.

If I had the lyrics I could repeat it then it

technically wouldn't be wrong. Okay. I've paused

the recording, hang on, two seconds, I'm getting

you the lyrics. No Joker tonight, folks. Sorry.

So, until next time, get altered, get geeky,

with the Altered Geeks.