Post-Vacation, Copyright Strikes, and Podcast Directories

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Unlimited Hello and welcome to Altered Geek

episode 153 I'm back for vacation and this is

Steve Megatron Phillips joined with Dave T1 Mike

Yes, yes We're here. We're not dead No, it is

not. I couldn't let it go. I've had this show

on a rope. Holding it hostage. It can't leave.

So, yes. I've obviously come back from vacation.

A lot's happened. Driving is not fun. Driving

is not fun. Water parks were, but I was ready

to come back, but I had a lot of fun on vacation

with my family and my wife. It's funny when you

go on vacation and you're on, how long have you

guys gone? A week, right? Yeah, we've gone a

week. I used to take... I used to take a couple

of two -week vacations when I my family would

used to take when I was a kid take a couple of

two -week vacations a time at a time per year

and Two -week vacations or even one -week vacations

being on vacation is wonderful great and amazing

and you can have all this fun and everything

else but by that like sixth fifth sixth or almost

the seventh day If it's a two weeks, you're like,

Oh my God, I'm ready to go home. I'm ready to

get back to normal now. I have done a two week

vacation before when I was a kid. My dad took

us all down to Florida and I think by day 10

or day nine, we were ready to go. But we were

there for like, we were there a while. I mean,

it was a two day drive down. and then it was

two -day drive back, but it was still, I was

like, ah, home, please take me home. Yeah, exactly.

Well, see, for me, and I know this was impromptu,

but anyway, any time I travel, no matter where

it is, I count it as a vacation. I don't know

if that's wrong or not, but... I'll assume you're

like Adam Sandler when he shoots a new movie.

No! He goes on vacation. Oh, no, no, no, no,

no, no. Like, um... In 2007, my grandmother on

my mom's side passed away. So I had to go up

there for the funeral. Technically, even though

I'm from Massachusetts, I haven't actually lived

in Massachusetts since 2001. Before that, I hadn't

lived up there since 1993. So technically any

time I'm not in the state that I live in, that

to me is a vacation. The next quote unquote mini

vacation I took was in 2012 when in December

of that year, I went up and brought my mom back

down here to Kentucky. And she spent the last

few years of her life here from 2012 to last

year. But I'm going on vacation in September.

Jennifer and I have been online dating for about

a year or so, a little bit over a year now. And

I'm going out there to California to see her.

So that's going to be interesting, being on vacation

out in California, considering I've only ever

seen California on TV and newspapers and in movies.

So there's all these preconceived notions. I

know it's probably nothing like what Hollywood

makes it out to be. You know, it's gonna be fun,

my first time out there in California. So that's

gonna be a fun couple of weeks. I'm actually

gonna be going out there two times before the

end of the year. This first time September through

I think the middle of October. And then I'm gonna

be going back out there for Thanksgiving and

Christmas this year. That's that's gonna be fun

But you have vacations usually when you're like

in the like the first three days of a vacation

are all well and good and you're excited you

want to go do stuff by Like I was saying by that

tail end of vacations. You're like, I just want

to go home I want to sleep in my own bed. I want

to be able to do my own stuff Yeah Vacation okay.

Yeah. Well part of the part of the middle of

it kind of sucked because I got notification

my books I'd purchased for class were rejected

because I get financial aid and I wasn't taking

enough classes to use the entire amount for the

semester and it was more so because I don't need

them. So I wasn't taking any. My class is four

credit hours and you need six to get the full

amount of the financial aid. So if I would not

have found, I'm taking a operating system class

to go with my TV commercial production class,

which is four credits. The other class is two

credits, so it puts me at six. I don't need a

book for it. I already know what it's, operating

systems, I already know everything about that.

That's gonna be no brainer for me. The thing

that sucks is I had to take that class, otherwise

I was going to have to pay $284 for my class,

and then another $120 for my books. Which, at

this point in time... I hope you get a good paying

job at the end of this whole schooling thing.

What's that? I hope you're going to get a good

paying job at the end of this whole schooling

thing, because, oh my god, that's a lot of money.

Yeah, well thanks to financial aid. I don't have

to pay. It's because I'm it's because I'm destitute

the the thing that sucks too is that because

I mean we really couldn't afford To do a vacation,

but at the same time we we had a little bit of

money socked away for that because we're it yeah

could really use some extra money at this point,

but I mean, vacation. We needed to get away,

though, because I think we were going to destroy

each other if we didn't get away. And it was

just nobody was happy. We're all stressed out.

We needed to get out. And it was a nice refresher.

I got to get out of this. I got to get out of

work. I get to get out of everything. And then

I've slowly come back into the fold this week.

Already this week, I've kind of accomplished.

I redid the archive section of the website. because

I don't remember why I went to that area. I was

looking for something specific and somehow I

ended up doing that whole section and then realizing,

well, I had to get it done anyway. And so I did.

And then I set it up kind of like the syndicated

section, but I did it a little bit differently.

And, you know, kind of speaking of that, I've

come up with this... And we talked about it a

while back but like a podcast directory rather

than a syndication, right? Which I'm more in

favor for because then it doesn't mean that there's

like any strings attached for us or for the the

syndicated show because I think that the that

syndication and we'll get into the whole podcast

networks and podcast directory more later, but

It has like kind of a bad stigma to it. And so

yeah, we'll get we'll get into that later. We're

gonna that more later, but um But yeah, no the

the whole I mean I completely understand about

getting away and breaking away from your normal

habits But like I like I was saying, you know

There you know, you're saying you guys don't

have didn't have a heck of a lot of money to

do Vicky I mean as long as you have gas money

and money for food You can do vacations on the

cheap. I mean, I mean really we I mean Mary is

like a wizard with money. Yeah, she can stretch

the dollars and I don't even know how but like

if there's no money to play with then it's kind

of it makes it more difficult, but she Yeah,

it there would be no way I could figure out how

to budget a Vacation or anything we need to get

she's like awesome with it So yeah, we got this

vacation for like, you know, it was under 500

bucks all together. So speaking of vacations

and money and budgets and whatever else, we don't

normally bring this stuff up on the show or any

of the GCRN shows because we don't, we're not

that political on this network of podcasts. But

so Donald Trump, he's running for president.

He had the Apprentice celebrity apprentice NBC

television show I Saw recently this past week

or so that for the celebrity apprentice edition

of the show So this is not the regular apprentice.

This is not just Joe blow You talking about the

one that Arnold hosts now, huh? The governor

is gonna be the host a celebrity apprentice get

to the chopper He's gonna be in Trump's cabinet

I don't doubt that, honestly. I'm joking, but

I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised

if he's hiding under his kitchen sink. I've come

to help you. Yes. You will win. We will. I'm

not endorsing either political candidate. It's

not even... I was doing it as a gag. I'm just

letting people know that ahead of time so I don't

get flambasted for it later. I have no love for

either candidate. I think they're both a disaster

for the United States. Me bringing it up has

nothing to actually do with the political part.

It has more to do with the fact that Arnold is

now the boss on Celebrity Apprentice. You're

fired! Get out! Get out of the plane! I mean,

the tower! Get to the chopper! But yeah. Get

out of the tower! Oh god. So, in the news! Well

no, not in the news. We have, um, we're only

putting the comments from the previous episode,

uh... earlier podcast as we go along, it makes

more sense to me personally if we use last week's

episode comments to talk about them earlier in

the show than later. So what do we have for feedback

from 152? I think we'll go back to 151. Oh, okay.

And then we'll go to 152 because we kind of covered

the top 10, like our personal top 10 picks of

current TV. There were a couple of other questions

in there too, but that was kind of the main one

of that episode. We got two responses, which

some of these I was surprised being in their

lists and some of them not so much. Kudos for

having a top 10. It's very hard for me to pick

a top 10 when I had 24 shows I was watching.

But Brad Lincoln has his top 10 TV shows right

now would be Flash Daredevil, Legends of Tomorrow,

Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Big Bang Theory,

Empire, Mr. Robot, The 100, and Agents of S .H

.I .E .L .D. Cool. And the only one out of that

list, well actually about half his list I don't

watch, but actually over half, but I do realize

that I'm in the minority. As far as some of them.

Well, no, I'm saying like I get why people like

The Walking Dead and I get why they like Game

of Thrones and like Empire of Mr. Robot and stuff

like that. I don't watch them, but that's...

Some of them I have attempted. I have attempted

Daredevil, I have attempted Walking Dead, and

Game of Thrones. I just could not get into them.

I did attempt the 100 as well, but I only made

it the first two episodes, which I'm sure is

not long enough. But at this point, I have too

many shows I'm watching, so it's kind of hard

for me to really try and pick up, unless it's

summer months and then it doesn't bother me because

there's nothing to watch anyway. Well, we're

still in the summer months I mean there's not

you know there there really isn't anything right

now and we're actually gonna save this for a

larger topic for another episode, but I'm currently

trying to find because I need something I don't

like I'm used to opening up Hulu my my my hulu

app on my desktop and seeing oh hey this new

episode this new episode this new episode like

all my shows having new episodes and right now

none of the shows that i've been watching religiously

because they're on summer break still have new

episodes so i've been trying to find other shows

that i have had yet to really get into because

I'm one of those types of people, and I know

I'm kind of a hypocrite at this, because I try

to hype up certain shows that I love that other

people just don't care about, and that's fine.

But anything that the entire internet that all

of my friends or followers or fandoms or whatever

you want to call them are talking about, I go

the other way. When it's in its height of its

popularity amongst everybody else, I need to

be able to walk away from that show. And then

come back to it and discover it. You don't want

it tainted by everybody's personal opinion. Well,

it's not even that. It's just the over -saturation

of it being there. Like, I can understand conversation

and, like, water -cooler stuff and that, you

know, say, oh, hey, did you catch this episode

of that new show, Last Line, or did you catch

this episode of this show that we're all watching?

I can understand that. But all the... Just all

the talk of various shows, and I'm not gonna

pinpoint sing that you know single out any shows

But just general it's like if everybody's talking

about it. I don't want to talk about it yet I

want to wait like right now the three shows.

I'm currently making my way through is the Goldberg's

from ABC community from NBC and Person of interest

CBS person of interest I'm up to episode 17 The

Goldbergs, I've fully finished the first season

and Art Danner and I, Art Danner from Off the

Cuff and Geeks of Garage Sale, he and I are gonna

do a remote control episode on season one of

the Goldbergs. And Community, I've made it through

the pilot in five minutes of the second episode.

That show's not that bad, I have watched a little

bit of that, I just haven't gotten back to it.

It's not bad, but it's not like, I grew up...

in the eighties. I was born in 1980, so I grew

up watching Cosby Show, Cheers, all that stuff,

and all those shows are laugh track shows. A

lot of them are laugh... So is Big Bang Theory.

Right, well, that's what I'm saying, but like,

Community really isn't a laugh track show. It's

more of the comedy pays out over the episode,

and I just... I'm having a community out of the

three that I'm watching. Community is the one

that I find myself having the hardest time to

watch. And I just don't find... I like Joel McHale

when he was doing the soup on E or whatever that

was that he was hosting on E. I forget what it

is on the E network. I like him when he's by

himself doing a host show kind of thing. But

as this character in this... quote -unquote comedy

show I just find him reprehensible at least at

least the first two episodes and I know it's

gonna get better and that's fine and I'm still

gonna stick with it but it's just taking me a

lot longer to get through it like the Goldberg's

I have certain issues with that you know that

maybe it's because I didn't have the same childhood

that Adam had With the whole nuclear family kind

of thing like my family was different like everybody's

family is different than everybody else's But

there are just certain things about that show

that I just cannot get into now where it's person

of interest I love that that's awesome because

that's one of those Action drama not comedy action

drama police things and yeah, so we're gonna

have a hell of a lot more TV talk in the future

folks, but Speaking of TV, what do we got for

news coming out of television? just announced

this past week while I was on vacation actually

that they're going to have the open beta on August

31st I'm estimating it'll probably open for about

three weeks just because the Alpha was open for

about two It was about 13, 14 days, somewhere

in there. But yeah, I'm super pumped for this

because I get to put the game back on my computer

and play it again. And it's a new map. Plus,

you get to ride horses. You get a new tank, a

new type of Jeep that's armored. You get an armored

helmet that you can unlock, as well as, because

when you shoot, you go for a head shot at ricochets.

It doesn't actually hurt you because you're wearing

a helmet. So it's kind of nice. I watched the

video of it and you get to ride a horse. You

get to drive a train that has turrets on it.

It's going to be pretty slick. Plus, the nice

part is I'll be able to play with my family.

Awesome. Whereas I didn't get to in the alpha.

So that'll be nice. And I was thinking. because

it's gonna be funny. I want to do a live stream,

but I wanna play as different characters. Like

I wanna vocalize as different characters that

I can do the impressions of. So yeah, I'm gonna

go that route. I was like, you know what would

be fun? Doing a, and I've watched like stone

mountain 64 who's a big battlefield player and

like overwatch and a lot of that stuff he does

these things called yolo on the battlefield which

is he pretends like he's an actual character

on the battlefield of the game like he'll do

is you know he does yankee oscar lima oscar or

whatever which is yolo and then does it for a

gag and then he'll pretend he's in the game and

then start commanding his squad I think it would

be humorous just to annoy people and be the Joker.

And then just have pure chaos just running around.

Especially because you'll have a horse and you'll

have a train. It'll just be hilarious. Oh god.

Purple dinosaur Megatron riding a horse. Yeah,

except I'd have to like script something out

for some of that but luckily those are the two

voices I know like their speech pattern and I

know their brain pattern which is almost scarier

because They're villains and they're like evil

and there's like It just means that there's this

darkness inside you That when you start unlocking

that voice, we all have a dark side to us Yes

So yeah, I thought it would be entertaining to

do that. So when the Alpha comes out, I'm looking

forward to that. The beta. Yeah, the beta. I

mean, I've been talking about the Alpha for so

long because I've had it. And then the other

thing that kind of sucks is that they've already

released the information about their premium

pass, which they did this with Battlefield, like

all the previous games. All these companies do

this. It's their expansions. so they let you

pay it's mind you the game is $59 which that's

standard and then if you want the special edition

which comes with just like extra skins and like

stuff for like the red Baron or you know stuff

like that it's like 79 instead of 59 they have

a $50 premium pass which unlocks like it gives

you access to all of the expansions as they start

coming out It's like you pay it up front and

then you get the first expansion which comes

out like March or something and then You know

every three to four months you get a new expansion

and just automatically downloads So like I'm

down for that, but I don't have a hundred you

know twenty bucks to spend on a game so I Will

play the game, but I don't know how soon I may

not be a part of that original party that starts

in October Well time will tell yeah, I got other

bills coming out. Yeah So but yeah, I just wanted

to get that out of the way with the battlefield

one and yeah, there was another Comment as far

as the top ten and it was Brian Jackson and he

had I know it's kind of jumping back that one

time He had flash arrow Legends of Tomorrow,

Supergirl, Gotham, Walking Dead, Fear the Walking

Dead, At Midnight, Jimmy Fallon, and Daredevil.

Okay, Brian, I gotta ask you this, because I

don't know. Me and The Walking Dead, it has nothing

to do with the show and whatever else, but whenever

I hear zombies, I run the other way. So let me

ask you, Brian, what's the damn difference between

The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead? Is

Fear the Walking Dead a prequel, a sequel, what's

the... It's a prequel. Okay, well... Because

Mary Watch, some of it, I know enough about all

of these that I could kind of comment on them,

but Fear of the Walking Dead is basically the

first episode shows the first infected people.

Oh, okay. So it's kind of like a Resident Evil

kind of thing. Okay, all right. Well, not really.

I mean, it's people that somehow they get into

some kind of drug and people discover the first

zombies and then... They they go to the ER and

then people start getting mass infected because

it's at a hospital So it's just kind of shoe

horns in there There is that I know they plan

to connect it to The Walking Dead and having

like characters from The Walking Dead appear

in it. Yeah The first zombies also I can think

of is oh my god imagine if the the first 13 crimes

were zombies I thought you were gonna refer to

the president's they're all zombies in my eyes

No They all eat the flesh of everybody around

them. Um You know, it's really sad. I'll have

to take a picture of this before I get my hair

cut before I go on vacation My hair has gotten

so long at this point. I essentially have a Donald

Trump comb over in the front I thought you're

gonna say you're a chia pet, but no no no Chachachia

Only not green hair No, you're the joker, I'm

not the joker, you're the joker. I thought you

were going to say something about the fact that

Trump has almost a squirrel on his head. There's

a squirrel on his head. So, jumping into the

next part of news. The STDs. Yeah, STDs. Star

Trek Discovery. William Shatner has expressed

interest in wanting to join backup. as a cameo,

like cameo role. But not to play Kirk, he just

wants to play that type of character where, you

know, he's basically the old man getting all

the women. I honestly think it would be fine.

He doesn't want to come back as Kirk because

that would just not fit right. He wants to come

back and be like basically the same type of...

character archetype where he's got all the women

surrounding him and he's basically like Hugh

Hefner version of Kirk. But I mean he could still

be Kirk except Kirk's retired. No he couldn't

because this show takes place 10 years before

the original series. Oh shit that's right. Yeah

they released that information too after I did

the last thing and I was like oh that's superb.

Yeah let's make another prequel series that nobody

wants because they... They had this Star Trek

show a few years that basically failed, and it

was called Star Trek Planet of the Titans. Right.

Back in the 70s, before the motion picture, they

were going to pitch the show. The Star Trek Discovery

Starship Discovery is the same blasted ship that

they pitched back in the 70s that Roddenberry

is like, nope. Oh, geez. And so that was that

picture I posted a few months back. Yeah. As

soon as we found or like a month and a half ago

when we found the the discovery and then so yeah,

I I'm like why are they doing another prequel

series because Especially being in the prime

universe. We've got Enterprise and then we've

got the basic notion of what happens before Kirk

and if they're wanting like they're saying that

they're gonna have like kind of a female lead

it's gonna be from a different perspective instead

of just the captain it's gonna be like a lieutenant

commander that's a female Which, okay, because

they couldn't have female captains back in those

days, like they were all, you know, that's just

the way things were until like the 24th century

or 23rd century. But anyways, so I'm thinking,

I'm like, why don't they go to like the 25th

or 26th century? Like, skip another 100 years

after Picard. Yeah. And they do that timeline

because then you could You can imagine a whole

new set of technology without having to basically

fit yourself into this little pigeon -holed area

that's already been done. My concern is they're

going to make the tech look still more advanced.

Enterprise, at least, it looked more advanced

to some degree, but it looks still militaristic

and archaic like today's time. It looked like

they were floating around in a submarine based

on the inside of the design. Whereas if you look,

and again I haven't seen anything for Star Trek

Discovery to kind of base this off of for the

ship, but I'm hoping that they stick in that

kind of realm because if they don't and they

try and one -up the original series, it's going

to look really weird when compared to anything

from the original series and their films. Like

prepa cards, so like I'm I'm kind of apprehensive

of what they're gonna do here. Yeah But I'm hoping

that you know, they I Don't know. I'm hoping

that they can do something with this. Yeah And

I'm optimistic and I really hope that they bring

the Shatner on because I think that would be

like another late Leonard Nimoy kind of passing

in a torch and with the 50 years the only Knowledge

to explain more of it to me about it being a

prequel series Honestly, it's after Enterprise,

but it's before the original series and I just

I don't see the need for it. Right, right. I

understand that. It's a it's a it's a middle

child series between Enterprise and TOS. But

what I'm saying is, is that because it is a prequel

series to TOS, I really don't want to see Shatner

in the show. I don't want to see him in the show.

I want to maybe hear him as a narrator. Instead

I think that would be cool, but he's in his late

80s So like I don't really see him doing that

but like if they had him play a bit part Like

that I would be fine with it Star Trek, what

are you gonna do? They technically could have

the Nexus crash back earlier, too Yeah, and then

you could have Kirk get yanked from the Nexus

again because there's still echoes of the same

person in there Regardless if they get pulled

or not, right? because part of them is still

alive in the Nexus. So theoretically, Kirk could

live forever. He probably will. He's like Gaiden

and Picard. They could live in the Nexus forever.

I would like to see that, but that's just me

personally. The other thing that they've kind

of mentioned with the show is that they're going

to have, because it's 10 years before the original

series, they're going to have... At times, the

original series characters show up. Tastily,

like on a screen, or they're gonna have their

vocals here. So like, it's... I'm kind of...

I don't know if I wanted to do that. Cause like...

Well, cause like, three out of the seven are

dead. Like, I'm not trying to sound like... You

know, like... Unsympathetic or anything, but

it's... You don't have Scotty, you don't have

Bones, and you don't have Spot. And the funny

thing is, Shantar's the healthiest looking one

out of the bunch and he's the oldest. Out of

the four that are left, he's the healthiest looking

one and he's the oldest. I'm kind of hoping that...

I don't know. I'm not really sure what to expect

with this because Bryan Singer, I'm not a fan

of most of his stuff. or and then uh well singer

isn't attached to this is he or not singer what's

the other guy fuller fuller whatever i'm not

a fan of like all of his stuff like wait a second

it's got this weird look to everything and then

like i i'm a fan of nicklaus meier but that's

because he did star trek 2 and star trek 6 Wrote

directed them. Those were to me the best original

series films But again, like I haven't seen any

footage. I haven't seen anything besides the

the crappy looking ship and the over tech Over

CGI logo For the series which is gonna look really

hokey on CBS Yeah, I'm surprised that they have

not put out a trailer yet or at least a teaser

for it Don't think that they've had anything

I think that they because they put out the ship

teaser which was utter garbage It looks like

it the quality on it looked worse than Star Trek

renegades or any of the fan projects that I've

seen come out of Star Trek, the fandom, in the

last two years. The animation on it and the quality

was nowhere near what we've seen come out of

the fan projects in the last few years. I'm hoping

that that's just a crappy raw shoot that they

got out around Comic -Con time. because I'm not

gonna be a fan if that's how the show's gonna

look. So since we're talking about Star Trek

and spaceships and all that stuff, did you know

August 25th, the day we record this, marks the

35th anniversary of the NASA space shuttle Voyager

2's flyby of Saturn? Wow. Nope. Did not know

that. And 35 years since Voyager 2 did a flyby

of Saturn. That's kind of interesting. So yeah,

that's about as far as that. I did have some

fun stuff happen with my YouTube channel though.

Cool. No, I'm saying that facetiously, but I

had a copyright thing that came up. Really? Yeah,

it wasn't even my fault. That was the worst part.

Cause you know my altered gaming intros? Like

I have, they're basically Battlefield 1's teaser

trailer just smashed together to be an intro

and they changed Battlefield 1 to altered gaming.

Well, apparently when I paid the guy on Fiverr

to make this for me, cause I couldn't figure

out how to do it, and plus... The templates I

found use Sony Vegas, or Sony, I think that's

the software for their video editing. I don't

have it, I use Adobe, so it's not gonna work

for me. But I found it after I already paid the

guy. Well, apparently this other guy that actually

creates the templates flagged me, and I got a

copyright strike, and I'm like, well, I was like,

okay, what do I do now? And it's like it was

like a bunch of tutorials to try and figure out

how to get around this and it kind of ruined

like the last day of my vacation Because I'm

like I have a copyright strike. I can't live

stream because if you get one strike they take

away your live stream Really if you get three

they take yeah, if you take away if they take

three then your channel is gone Yeah, three of

your shells got one strike. They took away the

live streaming. They like yes could not live

stream could not embed the live stream So like

I was like, oh, this is just awesome I'm like

battlefield ones getting ready to come out and

I want to stream it and I'm not gonna be able

to and so like So I emailed the guy and I'm like

look This is what happened. This is what, you

know, can I get the strikes removed? If you want

the videos taken down, I'll take them down. And

he removed the strikes, took away the thing,

and I just put the credits to him on it, rather

than the other guy on my videos. And he was cool

with it. And I let him know that I said, well,

just so you know, and I'm like, I'm not trying

to like snitch or give away anything to all these

people that are doing it on Fiverr, but people

are using your templates. and selling it for

services for profit on Fiverr. And he gives these

templates away for free, so long as you credit

him, either the video or in the comments, in

the description. And so I, you know, I made sure

if I used it in any of my videos, I just put

it in the description, which not a big deal.

It doesn't bother me. I don't have any problem

pimping out somebody's stuff if I'm utilizing

something that I did not create. And so, you

know, I did that and he reversed it and everything

is gravy now. But like I was like, that really

sucks. Yeah, I'm sure that really, really sucks.

And I'm like, I didn't even do anything wrong.

Like for once, like so. Yeah, so like I know

now, but like I also looked at he's got a lot

of great templates But they're all video game

based which is where everybody's getting them

from for these sites like fiber. Yeah They're

all stealing them from the guy making them. That's

not even cool and selling them and I'm like,

how is that even right? That's not right at all

Like cuz if I would have known like I would have

just downloaded like a trial of Sony Vegas and

that I would have just downloaded it from the

guy I gave him the credit just made it myself

But I didn't know that that was how it was made.

I just thought that Yeah, I I was like there's

just such a crap shoot man I I was like, how

are you gonna do that to somebody like just steal

their stuff, then sell it. It'd be one thing

if you're using it. I mean, it's still wrong,

but it'd be one thing if you're using it, but

you're not selling it. Right. Or trying to make

a profit off it. But if you're stealing somebody's

stuff and then trying to point blank make a profit

off it, that's just messed up. Yeah. But yeah,

that was kind of what happened to me. But I think

before we go into the topic, I have to do a little...

little promotion here on the show. Yes. Which

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folks. He's got a juice Get a speed key When

I had my blue card in that ad what's that it's

funny you mentioned Mario Kart in And I follow

this fan page Talking about it the name of the

page is text from last night, and they post up

these really really strange funny things There

was a whole night. I wish I had this recorded

there's a whole night where I started reading

a lot of these to you, but For 43 I'm a gentleman

chivalry is what I do I'll open the door pull

out your chair buy your drinks I'll even go down

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also we've got, I've been adding stuff little

by little to our store on Zazzle. Zazzle, it's

very zazzly. It reminds me of something Sheldon

said in Big Bang Theory, the name Zazzle. I think

he even said Zazzles. When he had the cats on

that episode. I call them Zazzles because he's

so zazzy or something. Yeah, I think that's when

he had the cat. Oh god, the cat episode, yeah.

Oh god, yeah. And then he was holding the cat

and like, yeah, it was funny. So yeah, I added

a few Altered Geek different varying ones to

the store as well as the new GCRN logo and then

the Altered Gaming shirt. I have yet to get one

for myself. I haven't decided whether I want

Altered Geek, I want Altered Geek Entertainment,

or I want Altered Gaming because I like all of

them, but I can't afford all of them. My purchase

habits are bigger than my wallet. So yeah, I

unfortunately won't be buying it yet. So yeah,

moving on. We have... I forget what the topic

was. No, it was... Is our podcast networks really

necessary or something? Yes, are they necessary?

Do we really need them? Then that kind of ties

into the podcast directory, bud. Here's the thing.

Neither one of us ever set out to create the

GCRN. I was just getting into podcasting to talk

about Transformers G1. You were doing ATTF. Neither

one of us knew where it was going to go. I think

by the time episode 17 or 18 of TFG -1 hit, I'm

like, ooh, I want to do more of this. And so

Tooncast Classic, M -Wire, all that stuff was

created. The network was created. And as we've

gone along these last seven, almost eight years,

seven and a half years now, I mean... I love

having a podcast network where I don't have to

just stick to one show. And that's one of the

reasons why I went the review show style more

so than the traditional general talk about whatever

the hell you want to style, because that way

I knew I had had a beginning and an ending. So

I didn't have to keep going. I could sit there

and record this thing, put it out there to the

public, and they could look back on their childhood

or whatever, and that'd be that. I think where

it comes into play of do we really need Podcast

Networks is do we really need so many? The podcast

networks and don't get me wrong folks when I

started I was greener than green We're still

a little bit green. Well, we've learned over

the past seven years We still you know do a few

things that we used to do but we've gotten a

lot better as time has gone on and For me, honestly

what it is is an appreciation of podcasting equipment

microphones headsets that kind of thing and What

I mean by are there too many podcast networks

out there is You can't sit here and build a podcast

network if you're just gonna use a $10 Walmart

headset I'm sorry you can't you need good enough

audio quality and good enough editing software

to make your podcast as Polished as you can make

it Maybe doesn't have to be perfect, but no no

it doesn't have to be perfect, but It shouldn't

have five minutes of dead air unless somebody

makes a bad joke. Pardon my dog. You know, so.

But I mean, for me, having GCRN and doing the

podcast network with us is more of how many things

can I get into? How many interests do I have

that I want to talk about in depth and over time?

You know that's that's really what it's been

for me and at this point in seven and a half

almost eight years I'm all about I've said this

before on the show and other podcasts at this

point now. I'm all about pre -production I'd

rather spend a year of our time Pre -producing

a 40 or 50 episode podcast and not release it

until the next year that way we're not bogged

down by Having to schedule our time once a week

or whenever it is to record a show and then edit

that show immediately and get it out. I would

rather spend a whole 12 months recording and

editing and prepping everything to go live in

the next year than having to sit here and do

it all at once and be stressed out and just end

up getting frustrated with it and just saying,

you know, ferb it. Because over on the Phineas

and Ferb show, we use the f -word instead of

the the curse word we use verb for for cursing

so yeah um but are they needed i don't know i

mean it just depends on what your interests are

really and as i've said before because i do a

lot of production and a lot of recording and

everything else i've gone down so much in my

listening I do like I would love to listen to

all the podcasts that I had been listening to

for the last seven or eight years But I just

don't have the time or energy to do so anymore

Yeah, I'm I've kind of whittled down what I'm

You know what I'm kind of okay with But uh Yeah,

I don't know. It's kind of tough for me because

I want to do more shows. I haven't really listened

to all that many shows in the last two years

because I got that promotion and I haven't really

listened to a lot, which I think kind of caused

a little bit of my stagnancy with our own podcasts.

I listened to quite a few and it was kind of

refreshing to listen to them on my drive. That's

about the only thing that kept me moving. I was

listening to some of ours. I listened to, you

know, and I don't mean like this show, but I

mean like just some of our shows in general from

the network. And then I've listened to like some

from This Week in Tech. I listened to like In

Session Film. I listened to like some different,

some shows I haven't listened to before as well

as some that I have. And then so it was kind

of entertaining. And then I got some new ideas

as far as stuff to do and kind of like Things

I'd like to try in the future But like as far

as the networks are concerned like I didn't set

out to create one I just kind of thought that

we should have one being that we had all these

different shows And then I don't know if it was

necessarily like a good or a bad thing But either

way we needed to have like a total name for the

whole thing right for all the shows, but I I

don't know like I'm I'm kind of torn because

on the one side, having your stuff on a network

can be beneficial, but it depends on the network

itself, whether it's helping you or if it's not.

Because I've noticed a lot of networks that are

out now are kind of of this particular caliber

of where they're helping market you. It's more

than just social media. They're helping you grow.

They're helping you along all the different steps

of the way. They're giving your podcast essentially

home in doing a lot of legwork for you. I've

looked into quite a few different ones just to

kind of see. And it's even as far as this podcast,

like I've fished this one around a little bit

because I don't really consider it to be part

of the GeekCast Radio Network because I've kind

of made Altered Geek into its own entity. And

when I say that, I've made it, because it's got

a YouTube facet, it's got this, it's got... There's

a lot of different entries into this. I do the

gaming thing with it. The AlterGeek name is more

than just GeekCastRadio, so I've marketed it

around a little bit, and I've noticed that just

to kind of see how some of these other networks

perform... Like some of them will actually spend

money to help you some of them will put it in

print in magazines to help grow like whoever

you know is a part of that network and It's it's

really interesting but I I don't I don't know

if they're necessary at this point though like

just It's there's there's the two sides of it

because like if you're on iTunes or you're on

that kind of stuff Like those you're gonna get

drowned out because everybody's on them. Everybody's

on TuneIn, everybody's on Stitcher, everybody's

on iTunes, on Google Play, which is the newest

competitor in the field. And then you have all

these different avenues and I don't know if it

really helps you. Yeah, you're there, but I think

it depends on the strength of the show itself

and the strength of the network. But you don't

necessarily need to be in a network I don't think

right and like we've we've recently had you know

a few shows just kind of like either they just

don't want to do it anymore or they've had a

different offer for a network or they've you

know, and when I've had people like I Don't consider

people to be like exclusively. Oh, you can only

have your show on Geekcast radio. Yeah like we've

never said that it was always like a a tool to

kind of give our listeners and their listeners

like alternative content for stuff that we or

they may not carry. And that was kind of the

intent with the syndicated program. And again,

this kind of rolls into the podcast directory,

which is why we're creating that instead of doing

the syndicated program because we did turn away

podcasts being that either A, they were too green,

They didn't mesh with our vision or They just

We already had a podcast that covered that realm

and we didn't need the extra competition on the

website. Yeah Because I mean if you look at it

There's several shows even now that are all in

-house that encompass a lot of the same material

like this show in talking circles sometimes cut

into the TV stuff which remote control would

do, or we'd cut into the comics realm of the

pull bag, or we cut into the films that cinema

geeks and movie -weekend review do. I mean, yeah,

they're all different voices. but they're all

covering a lot of the same materials. Yeah, but

see, our original vision for movie and weekend

review compared to what Cinema Geeks is doing,

I think it's two completely very different things.

They are still talking about new movies and old

movies and all that, but it's two very different

formats. In The Pull Bag, I have that... I've

been doing that show for four years now. I have

that as a well -oiled machine at this point,

and I don't mind at all. I have no qualms about

Dan and Chuck and Greg over on Talking in Circles

doing their their personal top five favorite

comic book writers or whatever else because I've

just never been able to get around the top lists

on the pull bag. I would love to be able to do

them, but there's so many, you know, it goes

back to there's just so much content to decipher

and decide what you want to cover. You know,

there's like I've got the full bag. I don't have

it fully planned, but I've got it Ready to go

over 200 episodes if I wanted to have it go that

way you know, so I mean I Know there was one

little debacle a few years ago with the spider

-man 2 coverage where three three of our in -house

shows had all had Amazing Spider -Man 2 reviews

in one week. That was a little weird and a little

strange, but that's fine. I'm not saying anything

bad about that at all, but the diversity at this

point of the... When I had Dan on reviewing I

Hate Fairyland from Image Comics in that first

post, I think I even put in their episode 95

with their top five comic things. So again, the

way I see it now is if... Also, geek and talking

in circles talk about the same thing, but it's

two different opinions. We can sit here and say,

oh, well, if you want to hear different opinions

other than ours, go head on over to talking in

circles and we can put a link to that. Even though

it's on the same website, I think we could put

the link to their episode in our podcast post

and vice versa. You know, they could kind of,

if they wanted to, they could do the same thing

saying, oh, well, if you, you know, we want to

hear other opinions other than ours. Go over

to AlteredGeek, that kind of thing. I mean, at

this point, I am really all about whatever is

good for the network overall. You and I have

put so much work into this thing, and I'm not

saying that our other partners, Optimus Solo,

all of them have not. I'm just saying because

we created it. We've put so much work into it

in the last seven and a half, almost eight years.

It's gonna take somebody prying this stuff out

of my cold dead hand Before I ever stop doing

GCR in I mean I may need to take a break here

and there so me you But we're not going anywhere.

I You know, I still have so much that I want

you and I to talk about I still have so much

that I want to do with with my girl Jen we're

actually in the process of Creating a my little

pony podcast, but more than that later apocalypse

pony More than that later, you know, so I mean

really I am more now Invigorated and doing the

things. I mean certain things are gonna phase

out I'm not gonna bring this up here now because

I have a press release for it for later, but

I Am gonna have to phase out a few of the old

classic shows and stuff, but that's only for

a while and that's only on a temporary retirement

kind of basis and and you know until we can come

back to it and say hey we're refreshed we're

we did all this stuff now we want to come back

to this you know so i'm still jazzed about all

the podcast network stuff but and like you said

i think the thing is is if you sit there and

put out a podcast that is just Your own podcast

unless it gets super popular super fast you like

you said it's going to drown in like how many

my little pony podcaster out there you don't

mean how many gym podcasts are out there. How

many transformer transformers? Hello, how many

transformers podcast rather is there's us on

all things transformers. There was TF wire TF

nation, I think as a podcast Well see like what's

funny is is I think I was among one of the first

Ones to do that after like I left TF wire, right?

And then like it kind of spitballed from there,

but I was never consistent with it, which was

kind of the other thing With that show and I

knew it wasn't consistent, but I just I didn't

have the drive to do it every week right Whereas

this show is about the most committed show I've

had Next to like the review shows of like the

beast unleashed somebody get that man a straight

jacket But yeah the the all things transformers

when that first started TF radio it just started

back up. Yeah, and then TF wire was winding down

I Started up and then like TFW started up and

then like a bunch of the other ones started up.

Yeah, T W I mean as much grief as we website

over the years, but TFW 2005 podcast those guys

I think I don't know I'd have to look this up.

I'm not looking at it right now I think they're

almost a 500 podcasts and which doesn't surprise

me. I mean they're they've earned it. That's

really they have I don't know if you remember

Transformers Anonymous? Yeah. Because I had ties

with those guys too for a while. And it was funny

because one of the guys, J .S. Santee from that

podcast actually earlier this year found an episode

of it. And it was the one where I guessed it

on it and I was doing the... They rewrote The

Night Before Christmas. but did it with Transformers.

Oh, jeez. And I was the narrator. And I think

I had to end it as Megatron, too. Oh, wow. And

I did that. That was actually quite fun. Very

cool. But yeah, getting back to the podcast networks

and the directories and stuff, and that's why

I'm kind of doing the directory thing, and you

kind of reminded me about it today. And I was

kind of like... You know, I could do this and

it would actually be... How I'm planning on doing

it is it'll be very much like a typical business

directory thing. I got to work out a couple of

kinks on the main page because I'm having issues

with something. But as far as the listings are

concerned, they're coming out fine. Right. And

I want to get it so that people can add it on

the front end and not necessarily have to log

in. Right. Because at this point it makes you

have to log in and I don't know if I want to

go that route. But it's not a big deal if it

does go that route it's just it I mean on the

other hand you can edit your own thing whenever

you want, but I Did set up so that you can do

it through social media to sign up So it should

take a lot of that workout, but I got to test

that out so I did add alter geek just to kind

of test it out and I added it so you can do like

the you know the the pod logo the the hosting

you know all the same information I included

on the I also included more information that

you would find in a typical directory for the

podcast itself. That started and ended, how many

episodes it had, that kind of stuff. My goal

with that is to set up a place that fellow friends

of the network, geeks, podcasters can... put

their mark in and have it be in this listing

and then I'm breaking it down by category where

people can kind of choose, and I gotta figure

out how many more categories I need, but you

can click the category that it pertains to and

then you can go to that category head and it's

there. So it kind of does away with that whole

syndicated taboo that's kind of there and have.

more of a free -form link exchange, except it's

a directory of stuff. And I'm going to periodically

review it so I can make sure that we've got the

best of the best in there. And it's not just

going to be me evaluating it. I always put it

to a panel vote. But I'm looking forward to seeing

how that plays out in that chapter of the GCRN.

Rounding out the last bit of comments from 152

And I'll probably answer these next episode because

I actually have to think about it a little bit

Haley Bailey asks here's a question since you're

a big fan of Batman What do you think of Tom

King's run on Batman so far? Do you like the

new direction a new suit for Batman and overall

thoughts on DC Rebirth? We haven't read Batman

yet. Well, I have read it. I just I haven't gotten

I haven't been able to buy comics in months.

I got to get a little bit caught up on it, but

I did buy the initial rebirth issue. I don't

know if it was issue one. It might have been

issue one, but I haven't gotten... I think there's

two and three out now, but I got to get caught

up on that to answer that properly, but I will

come back to that probably next week. And then

Brad Lincoln says, Steve, I agree with you that

Star Trek Beyond was the best franchise movie

of the summer. It gave me everything I wanted

and more. I did like Into Darkness, but Beyond

was more like the first reboot with better characters

and a bigger focus on being entertaining. It's

not really a franchise movie. And then he talks

about what, you know, one of his favorite movies

that wasn't a franchise, but he says it wasn't

a franchise movie, but Tarzan was so much better

than people made it out to be. I haven't checked

that out yet. It'll probably be one of those

when it hits Netflix or DVD. I'll check it out.

When I saw that comment when he said Tarzan,

I thought he was talking about Disney's Tarzan

from 99. I forgot that they had a new one that

came out this year. The superhero movies and

other franchise movies kind of dwarfed out some

of these movies like that and made it so people

didn't notice them. I really enjoyed Star Trek

Beyond. I found that that was a really good film.

I was very optimistic after watching that compared

to Into Darkness, which I thought was a mess.

I did enjoy it for an entertainment purpose,

but the story and the writing was sloppy, and

it was a lot of repetitive, like, fan -wank.

It wasn't, like, I don't think it was a well

-oiled machine, whereas I think Beyond is, and

I think they needed that director and Simon Pegg

to come in and... kind of revamp it. So, anything

you want to bring up before we go? Well, like

I said earlier, my fiance Jennifer and I, we're

looking into bringing a My Little Pony podcast

to the network. We had been looking, not we as

in Jen and I, but we as a network had been looking

to bring in one to the syndicated thing. I've

been trying to think of titles and titles, and

I wanted it to be unique. I didn't want it to

be generic. I didn't want to take a title that

I knew was out there. And I talked to the person

that basically our Pony podcast is going to cover

the cartoons and the IDW comics, which I've already

covered some of those IDW comics on the pull

bag with Beatles Diva. But this week in Geek

and the GCRN, assimilate again. Last exit to

Ponyville will return soon. That's all I can

say, because we have not had a chance, Jen and

I have not had a chance to talk about it or plan

anything. I just know that she wants to do episode

by episode analysis of the cartoons. And I don't

know if she wants to just do French of his magic,

if she wants to do the original 80s cartoon,

or what the deal is. But yes, I talked to our

buddy over at thisweekendgeek .net, Mike the

Birdman Dodd. He had started a My Little Pony

podcast a few years ago called Last Exit to Ponyville.

I noticed that it was in their archives section,

and I just said, hey... I think I put it there.

I don't know if it's actually archived. I don't

think they've had an episode in years. I'm just

saying, I asked him, I said, hey, look, I want

to do this with my gal, Jen, and I've been trying

to come up with a title and whatever else, and

I said, I was thinking maybe we could... If you'd

let us, we could use last day. He said, yeah,

sure. It's hard to get a fan base. Go ahead.

So that'll be coming sometime next year, most

likely. We still have a lot of planning to do,

so. Awesome. So yeah, the pullback is currently

still in hiatus, but please, we have four years

of comic stuff. Please go check it out. Comic

Revolt Dan, aka Movie Revolt Dan and I just recorded

and released our I Hate Fairyland issues 5 and

6 review. Go check that series out, folks. Go

check that out. Tooncast Beyond will be coming

back for episode 69, Stripperella, and episode

70. We have yet to determine what the episode

70 topic will be. And then we're going to be

doing pre -production on the 25 days of Tooncast

Beyond Christmas. 2016 so we got that going on

That's pretty much it Yep, and I'm Currently

compiling because we're about to ramp up for

the next top 100 GCR and top 100 animated characters

yes, um and the the GCR and wars tournament that

I'd planned because of stress levels and because

of Vacation in timing and I think I mentioned

this last week, but I'm not entirely sure I can't

remember but uh I'm gonna put that off to next

year. It'll be I'll launch it about January so

It'll give people something to look forward to

Around the time of the awards. I'm gonna probably

shrink down the GCR and awards a little bit next

year And kind of make it our own without going

too in -depth with other people's stuff so So

yeah, just look forward to that. I think that's

it. I think that's a little bit itch. Well, I

was perusing while we were talking. It has to

do with Battlefield 1. They're saying that the

open beta starts August 31st and DICE won't say

when it ends. So I'm guessing that I'm almost

wondering if they're gonna push it to like close

to the release Yeah Probably because the game

comes out October 23rd. Yeah August 31st to October

23rd almost a two -month beta program that's

average for a video game company, right? I Don't

know. Okay I'm still playing Unreal Tournament

4 or Unreal Tournament Alpha. I mean, it's...

I'm still... That's been on a year. I'm still

playing Unreal Tournament 4 from 2008 and every

now and then I go over to my shelf and I look

through my old computer games and I pull out

Quake 3. So, yeah. Wow, you still play that?

Every now and then, not too... I go back... I

play Doom 2. I got a copy of Duke Nukem 2 from

the old PC days? Yeah, I'd be pleased. What,

Duke Nukem 3D? No, Duke Nukem 2. No, Duke Nukem

3D is awesome. My brother used to code levels

in that. It was great. If there's anything you

guys liked or want to know more about or ask

questions about that we mentioned in this episode

of the podcast, whether it be on, do you think

we need podcast networks or do you see the value

in them? What do you guys think about the podcast

directory? I do plan on, like I said, streaming

to my YouTube channel with the Battlefield 1.

beta right and doing character voices I don't

know if people would be interested in watching

that or knowing like a consistent schedule and

when I'll be doing that or you know if people

want to see a altered geek live like Google Hangout

because what I was thinking about doing was doing

a Google Hangout like a couple days earlier and

then just publishing it at the same time the

audio version right yeah so like people that

are that are like uber fans can come hang out

with us on the uh the hangout uh like on a wednesday

or something see that see that's the thing if

we do that then i just published the audio version

right on a friday no no no see here's the thing

what i would want is if we're gonna have fans

come hang out with us on google hangout i want

that show if we if we get together on a wednesday

night i don't know if you can still do two nights

in a row recording but uh If we can do that on

a Tuesday night and publish it Wednesday, record

the audio episode separate and have completely

separate topics, and then just post the video

version in the audio versions post and say, hey,

if you want a different discussion, go check

out the Google Hangout we had with our fans.

And we answered their questions and that kind

of stuff live. Well, I might do that if we go

the Patreon route. Yeah. Because I think that

would be a cool way to differentiate. Yeah, I

would be down for that if we didn't did Did it

that way? But um, absolutely But uh, yeah, so

that uh that runs it out this week. So till next

time Get altered get geeky with the altered geeks.

I was waiting for you to say that Is he gonna

use his catchphrase or not?