Windows 10 Updates, Disney-Fox Merger, and Tarantino Trek

On this episode, we'll be talking about the latest

in Windows 10, some new technology, the land

of SMR Med smartphones, Star Wars Episode 8,

something pertaining to the Disney Fox deal,

the new voice Pikachu, yes you heard that right,

and other geeky information. All of this, or

on this week's episode of Dr. Geek. Altered Geek

is brought to Gamefly .com. Sign up today for

a premium free 30 -day trial with one game out

at a time by going to Gameflyoffer .com slash

Altered Geek. You are tuned in to Steve Megatron

on Altered Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered

Geek. I'm your host, Steven C. Phillips, and

as always, thank you for tuning in. So what's

new with you guys this week? For me, I, uh...

Just got back from a flight from TFG one Mike's

wedding Which was a lot of fun? So it was kind

of interesting having the co -creators of the

geek cast radio network meeting for the first

time after nine years We did record an impromptu

geek cast radio presents conversations with Steve

Megatron and TFG one Mike It was very late at

night, so I apologize for any of these stupidity

and randomness in the episode But that's kind

of how the conversations go especially off -air.

The wedding overall was awesome. We had Pecan

Court Michael, Michael Wilson, from the TFG -1

podcast, The Beast Unleashed, and Transformers

Animation podcast, along with Pauka, on with

us. He was next to me at the head table, and

it was a lot of fun. teasing Mike, messing with

him. There was a lot of fun had and yeah, we

It was it was a pretty eventful day, but it's

it's also a happy day for Mike and his new wife

Karen and yeah, it's It's just kind of it's kind

of helped watching this transpire and kind of

just in reminding of how awesome marriage and

family is especially when you're a crazy person

that that records way too much and Does majority

of his his stuff online or in front of a computer?

Speaking about myself here So yeah, I I was quite

glad to return home I'm not a fan of travel or

airplanes. It was different, I'll just leave

it at that. So yeah, getting into this week's

episode, I have a short clip I'm gonna play probably

after I do a little bit of conversation pieces

here. But it's pertaining to the Fall Creators

update of Windows 10. And I've had numerous people

have issues with this update. One of them being

tfg1mike, where... If the hardware or graphics

card is too old, they actually replace your graphics

driver with a standard Microsoft basic graphics

driver. And what that does is, once you have

this update, you're kind of screwed. And I'll

get into my rant in the separate clip. I was

driving at the time I had my speaker on, so if

there's a little bit of road noise, I apologize

for that part of the clip. But, I was coming

back from an oil change, so I was a little flustered

about the Windows issue. That's caused his resolution

to go down, so he can't actually expand his screen

as much unless he wants to add a second screen.

My mom actually had the same problem with her

laptop, where because it's an old Windows 7 machine,

it was built for that. The graphics driver with

that and so the images and the text aren't as

crisp and it doesn't let your resolution get

any larger than Like in some cases like the 1200

or 1280 or the 1160 or aspects like that so I'm

going to take a quick break and it's more so

going to be just a transition break here to the

audio clip of my tech experience with Windows

10. Be back after this. And in this episode,

I'll be covering, well, it's going to be kind

of a short one today, being that I'm in my car

and yeah. The primary purpose of this one is

to talk about some tech issues that I've been

having lately. I don't know if anybody else has

been having these issues, but honestly, I'm kind

of sick of Microsoft. And what does that mean?

Well, I've been a die -hard Microsoft PC fan

pretty much since the dawn of modern computing.

Basically the mid 90s And I've followed every

version of Windows from 2 .0 through to now I

am the Windows 10 user However, I've kind of

decided to rethink my entire thought process

on the the whole Windows Mac endeavor and You

might be asking why would I decide all of a sudden

to flip -flop? to not hate a Mac to not Necessarily

Cater to what I've been used to and Honestly,

it's because of The amount of irritation and

lack of control I Have had nothing but issues

with Microsoft For the past I'm gonna say about

six months I think back to when I first introduced

the concept of avoiding the Windows 10 updates

and the fall creators update when I caught wind

of it and I wanted to avoid it because Honestly,

I'm sick of Microsoft coming in Deciding when

it's okay to install even if you delay it they

decide when it's okay Which interrupts computing

when you're you're busy like I'm on my computer

from 8 a .m. Until in the morning until some

nights until 2 a .m. In the night and I mean

granted there's breaks in between there But I

don't necessarily know when my breaks are gonna

be I work from you know 8 30 in the morning to

4 30 sometimes 5 30 in the evening and then I

work on my website stuff anywhere they're after.

And so I don't want Microsoft deciding when they

can install the new version. I don't want them

in deciding when they can reboot my machine in

the middle of whatever I'm doing or having to

set okay hours of operation. Yes, most people

don't work at their computer that long. And I

don't know if this is just an isolated incident

with Windows Home. Or if you have the option

to change and I believe you do have the option

to change an enterprise and pro version of Windows

10 But I don't One they charge too blasted much

to upgrade to any of these particular versions

to Make one freaking version of Windows that's

one thing. I like about Mac is that it there's

pretty much you get what you get and They don't

really charge you for the OS. It's the machine

you're paying for and they do utilize the machine

better than Microsoft does on the PC and that's

kind of sad. I love the Windows operating system

because it's what I'm used to, it's what all

my programs are for, it's what all my devices

are for. However, I would consider in the future

getting a Mac and the reason because Don't have

to worry about them changing my settings or randomly

removing software I use like Microsoft sticky

I should preface this with saying that The other

day I went to get on my computer And it was it

was a Saturday evening. I My wife had to go to

bed early. My boys had been awake all day. So

My wife is having a trip the next day to go get

a certification and I Was awake loading gonna

load up the flash drive for with stuff to to

listen to like podcasts and whatnot and She Like

I said, she went to bed and I was gonna sit there

and watch a show while I was doing this and I

Go to get on my computer which mind you an hour

before I turned on so that it would be ready

when I got in there not that my computer takes

all that long because it's solid state it takes

about 10 seconds to boot up. But I get onto my

computer and I go downstairs, it's at 42 % of

upgrading to the Fall Creators Update. I didn't

okay it. In fact, I've deleted it six times from

trying to update. I've disabled Windows Update.

I've disabled the Update Assistant, which I don't

want. I've disabled the majority of the processes

that allow this whole system to work and deleted

the folders. Blocked it with my firewall yet

somehow it got through If anybody has ideas on

how to stop this I would be eternally grateful.

I am still using the October 2016 update of Windows

10 the 15 11 version Yes, it may be stupid to

advertise that but I've got the rest of it pretty

much locked down. It's not I'm not too worried

about it but Don't like the the 16 something

build because what happens in that one is they

add the the timing and they disable your ability

to choose updates As well as a lot of other features,

so I don't want a Lot of what they're adding

in I don't approve of it. I don't like it. I'm

not stupid. I don't want it turned on I should

be able to select what is best for my system

Yes, there are people that don't necessarily

understand what they have and that's I get it

But it's not like Microsoft has been the most

secure thing in the world either So anyways I

Get on there it finally after an hour of sitting

there gets into Windows My sticky notes are gone.

Some of my programs are gone some of my Other

settings are like totally screwed up Go in I

revert my system five minutes later system back

to normal and It's it's a welcome change go in

there I use my clean manager clean it out wipe

out the installation stuff and I I get to the

point where you know, I have to figure out how

to redisable it Well, it's already been disabled

everywhere. I don't know where else to turn to

disable it aside from hacking my registry and

in physically Destroying the Windows update capacity.

I don't really know where else to turn to get

rid of it and so I've been manually removing

this thing for weeks perhaps months. It's just

gotten more Aggressive as time has gone on And

honestly, if I could get a hold of somebody from

Microsoft and have a conversation about this,

it would be actually beneficial and awesome.

I don't know if anything would actually get done

because it doesn't seem like Microsoft takes

too kindly to suggestions, and I think they do

to some extent, but... You know, it's like looking

at Hotmail or some of the changes they're gonna

make to their new mailbox. Like, I hate some

of the new stuff. I would switch to Google if

they go this route. Sometimes change is not good.

If it's not broke, don't fix it. That's always

been that kind of that old adage of don't change

it. You know, leave it alone. If it works, leave

it. I just at this point a Mac sounds so much

more appealing because Yeah, I would have to

learn the shortcut keys I would have to learn

a little bit about it still but I can still do

my right click I can still do the still do left

click I can still do Majority of the things I

don't have to apply settings. I just click them

and they happen The updates I don't have to worry

about it wiping out my settings or software because

it decides that it's not good for me I don't

need it. I don't want Cortana. I don't want Siri.

I don't want You know Google whatever they're

calling it. I don't want Alexa I don't need an

AI to decide things for me if I want something.

I'll Google it I guess it's because I'm old and

I'm old -fashioned and this is kind of that thing

where people joke about You know Are you young

whippersnappers get off my lawn? you know, where

I've become the old curmudgeon that doesn't want

to change, I don't like change, I don't like

the new, um, way of things, and so, it's, it's

kind of funny because the younger people are

like, yeah, we like it, woo, and, and us old

people are like, you know, I remember back in

the day when I had a VHS cassette tape, or an

audio cassette, and, you know, and, and it's

just, it's funny to go back and kind of... Reminiscent

of the technologies that have changed, you know,

I remember dial -up America online was something

big and earth link and the internet ramp when

when I started at the internet in 96 and It was

the most tedious thing in the world to get on

anywhere on the internet because it was all text

-based there was no visuals no like it was a

big thing if you had a gif animation and Just

because of what the internet had had Done by

that point and and so now you know going to where

we are here in 2017 almost 2018 It's just funny

seeing how far technology has gone and how close

it's gotten to a lot of the Star Trek tech and

some of it beyond What we've seen in any of the

Star Trek shows Which would be an interesting

topic in and of itself to take Star Trek and

instead of rebooting it and jumping back into

the same characters in the same universe create

a new Star Trek And what I mean by this is do

a new series where you try to imagine things

You know two three hundred years in the future

from now Just like Star Trek and instead of reusing

and trying to fit within the continuity or or

the stuff that's already been created if you

created something new It would kind of give you

a new template to kind of play with and see where

things could go Because a lot of the technology

we have now is far beyond things that were even

in Star Trek Voyager or Star Trek, you know nemesis

or or any of that so It could be an interesting

thing to kind of guess where we could be I Mean,

we're almost I mean, yeah, we don't have the

holodeck. We don't have androids But we're pretty

close on a lot of other things. So it's you know,

we don't have starships, you know, so those are

a few things but still uh like the pads the the

communicators the the phones you know just everything

like that we're we're kind of beyond it so i

don't know i i'm a little peeved at microsoft

i would like to have a conversation with somebody

from it if uh i could find somebody to reach

out to and ask why uh they're they're jamming

this stuff down our throat and why settings have

to get reset every time There's an update why

software manually gets removed I wouldn't have

such an issue with doing the updates if they

would stop screwing with my settings Stop removing

my software Stop, you know if I have cortana

in the search bar Disabled in the app store disabled.

I don't want it. Like there's a reason why it's

not there. I don't want it at all I I have my

my windows, uh start menu With classic shell

so that I can use Windows 7 start menu because

I can get easily to my control panel In other

places without having to do this whole digathon

to get to what I want the whole PC settings thing

While I realize is supposed to be more similar

to a Mac or a cell phone is not helpful It's

more annoying to dig through the features if

you just give it to me in the control panel.

I can directly find what I want I can click the

icon, get right to the display settings. I can

click the icon, get to the mouse settings. I

can click the, you know, get to the display,

add remove programs, whatever. I don't like Microsoft

controlling where it can decide how it's best

for my system. So I guess that's my soap box

here on Altered Geek this week for tech. the

whole operating system war and whatnot. So what

do you guys think? Give me your thoughts on the

whole Microsoft Mac endeavor and have a good

freaking week. And we're back. So since we had

that little conversation about Windows 10, and

I'm not a huge fan of the entire process there,

I'm going to give a recommendation. If you have

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and you're not

a fan of the changes like what I mentioned, there

are some other alternative aspects you can do.

I've removed mine that self -installed, and of

course there's a website called WinAero .com

where they have a lot of free, small, and useful

software content for Windows in general that

you can better utilize your Windows setup. I

love their programs. They're awesome. Support

that site, please. They have this ability to

download like the old task manager for Windows

10, which is nice because you can actually, it's

a lot less performance intensive than the one

that comes with modern Windows. So you can manually

crash programs or manage things on boot up or

the services without having to... put a lot of

system resources into it. And then there's other

things like they tell you how to disable Smart

Screen or like Windows Defender or delaying the

upgrade for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update,

which I've been very fluent in the past six months

trying to prevent my Windows from updating to

anything. So yeah, that's kind of my Windows

tip there. My app tip is to check that out and

kind of scour the site, see if there's anything

that can help you with your Windows setup. I've

been using them for a number of months, and it's

been very helpful. Even their WinAero application,

which is kind of a lot of it bundled in one,

is kind of a nice app. So kind of getting into,

since I'm already talking tech here, I figure

this is kind of the best place to talk about

it. They're taking, in this kind of miraculous

innovation here, they're taking smartphone cuts

and putting them into Windows laptops. And the

results are, now mind you, this is in like, ASUS

and Microsoft specific hardware at the moment.

But they're taking this and what it could do

is possibly triple your battery life. So if you're

somebody that likes your PC to not have to charge,

constantly or it's one of those ones where you

know you start off with the four hours of battery

life and it kind of tanks from there and goes

down to the the whole you know two hours hour

and a half half hour you know crap battery charge.

Microsoft and others have been trying to figure

out how to get like Windows running on chips

other than the x86 processors kind of commonly

made by Intel and AMD. So they're kind of doing

these ARM -based chips, which lead to cheaper,

more accessible systems than these standard laptops

we have now. I will say that it probably won't

garner well for if you're trying to play a game

or something, but if you're just wanting something

that's got productivity tools and can get online

and do things in this realm of just recording

or doing something like this, I think it would

work really well. I guess their first attempt

was with Windows RT. back in the original surface,

but it went so poorly that it tanked the entire

platform. And then in December of 2016, a year

ago, Microsoft announced a partnership with Qualcomm

to bring full Windows 10 and some kind of gimped

RT variant to Snapdragon processors, which famously

kind of work in Android phones at the moment.

So... Essentially, what we're going to end up

with is Snapdragon processors based on ARM instead

of X86 to run the traditional Windows 10 that

we're used to. And then the first batch of Qualcomm

Snapdragon 835 chips found in the Galaxy S8,

Pixel 2, and OnePlus 5. That's such a stupid

phone name. Said that it's still in development

during the test for Windows on Snapdragon, but...

They're they're working on getting this and the

benefits of it would would range The first wave

of them are going to be like the $800 range,

which is not cheaper at all However, the the

the price will come down obviously as it's been

out longer the thing is is the The benefit could

be better better power efficiency, like battery

life, better internet connectivity thanks to

integrated 4G LTE modems and silent operation

due to fanless system design. So for those that

do like productivity, web browsing, video conferencing,

you know, kind of standby, they kind of show

the, you know, two -in -one PCs get about four

and a half. Hours of battery life, and then you

know some of the other competitors get about

seven hours well the 835 mobile PC platform would

get about 25 hours Which would take you from

100 to 40 to 50 percent and then if you had like

the you know for day one And then the connected

standby one hour video streaming you know for

an hour would take you to like you know kind

of another couple percentage of points, then

you can have connected standby by for a number

of hours, and then they're saying basically 25

hours would get you through two days of working

productivity on it, which they kind of get garnered

that 2 .75 hours for some of this stuff. So I'm

guessing if you used it all day long, you could

probably use your PC all day long if you're just

doing productivity and web browsing. and basically

work -based material, you could get through an

entire day instead of two hours. So I think that

this is kind of interesting technology that's

kind of taking place with laptops and the innovation

of Wi -Fi and LTE and trying to pair systems

with battery life. Because it's been something

that's been kind of hurting the tech industry

and the laptop industry for years is the Lack

of mobility and the sake of, you always have

to have this power cord kind of tied at your

hip in order to get these things to stay connected

and the ability to have the LTE network connection

is also another nice feature because you can

connect anywhere which is interesting on and

of itself. This is definitely an innovation and

the ASUS Nova Go re -events the concept as well.

I'm gonna be watching this because ASUS actually

has a 599 version, which comes with four gigs

of RAM, 64 gig of SD storage. And then the second

configuration comes at 799 with eight gigs of

RAM and 256 storage. And as time goes on, these

will drop, but I still think that this is kind

of a new territory, but it gives you that laptop

with the tablet cell phone hardware. Because

you can do a majority of things with your cell

phone anyway. I've worked from my phone when,

like a couple weeks ago, I was at the airport

in Chicago, could not get on Wi -Fi at all. I

was like, I need to work this afternoon. I have

things to do. I have to send emails. I have to

double -check content. I was able to do it from

my phone, which if the screen were bigger would

have been awesome. It would have been too slow

to use my LTE with connecting my computer to

it. I'm definitely down for this technology,

and I think that as time goes on, this will continue

to drop, much like getting the $300 laptops,

$400 laptops we get today for the lower end stuff.

I don't know, what are your guys' thoughts on

this? I'm really interested to see where this

goes. Yeah, there's some instances where Windows

sucks, but I personally would not buy a Chromebook.

I'm not all in on that. I want something I can

use my... standard software with, which would

be Windows. And so if I can connect all my stuff

on there and use it, I'm definitely gonna be

excited if this is the wave of the future. So

moving on, I'm going to get into the Star Wars

Episode VIII content. So going into Star Wars

Episode VIII, We have a number of things that

have kind of popped up over the last week. One

of them being, you know, Mark Hamill naming Sebastian

Stan as contender for a young Luke Skywalker.

And then of course, there was an interview on

Good Morning America where they kind of played

around with that concept. And then MTV did a

clip on MTV News. basically having Sebastian

Stan audition for, you know, an audition tape

for a young Luke Skywalker. And they kind of

gave it that old VHS vibe and he totally flubbed

all the lines. But it was humorous to say the

least to watch. And then we have Rian Johnson

confirming, Rian Johnson confirming that they're

not doing Knights of the Old Republic adaptations.

It's basically gonna be his own thing. So he

says yeah, it's a fantastic game and I understand

it the instinct automatically go to something

that you know and love that you've already seen

to me That's really fun and notion of you know

What stuff are we gonna see what new stories

can we tell for me the possibility of a new story

told over three movies going anywhere to anything?

Skies the limit in Star Wars so that's exciting

so he doesn't know what he's gonna be doing But

it's gonna be something original which I think

kind of is good because then it won't be necessarily

Contained to the universe we've got so far And

then of course Daisy Ridley clarifies now that

you know she wasn't actually saying I'm done

with Star Wars after episode 9 But you know that

she's done as far as her contract at the moment

with this trilogy Because it has a beginning

middle and an end and she doesn't know beyond

that so I think there was kind of a reactive

thing in the sense that She's saying, you know,

I'm done with it officially but If money talks

and it's fits with what I want to do I'll return

kind of like the whole Mark Hamill thing So and

I guess that you know They made Mark Hamill's

Luke Skywalker look really grisly and I guess

they almost wanted to make him blind for the

new movie Which would have been interesting,

but I'm kind of glad they didn't But since we're

on the Disney gravy train here, it looks like

Disney and Fox could be really close to merging.

I've seen a couple of news articles. I don't

know how well off these are, but... It's I've

seen a lot of you know between CNBC that and

in other aspects that are saying that Disney

and and Fox are closing the deal To to finish

acquiring so this this could be rather rather

interesting news. And like I said, with the shirt

I made on Teespring, which if you want to purchase

things on Teespring, you can do so by going to

teespring .com slash stores slash altered dash

geek. That is the official Altered Geek. T -shirt

store you can get these sooner or later the mouse

won't own it all t -shirt which I think is kind

of humorous because I've been saying that for

years and Lo and behold, they're still swallowing

up the media entities. It doesn't matter if there's

a Department of Justice issue. That's just kind

of how it goes nowadays I guess they're saying

and like fortune that Netflix is the reason behind

the Disney Fox deal talks That I think it's kind

of funny that obviously they're not going to

take over the Fox TV network or the Fox network

or news and sports because Disney has their own

with ABC and ESPN. But they would swallow up

the rest of the company's media entities which

would go good for Disney's streaming service.

because both Fox and Disney also own stakes in

the streaming service Hulu and essentially, I

mean they have some aspects on Netflix and Amazon

as well but essentially this would kind of close

that up and they would be able to use their own

service and pull from everything else. Yeah,

that's insane because Disney's bought up Lucas,

Marvel, This is just adding to the portfolio

of things that Disney just keeps getting larger

and larger and larger. And then you add the fact

that they would re -obtain all of the Marvel

rights for their characters that are on Fox right

now, which would open up the playing field for

the next Avengers or, you know, mutants in the

Avengers world. And, you know, you could see

another true casting of Wolverine like 10 years

from now. Probably not. But yeah, this is this

is huge news huge huge huge huge It would definitely

be awesome for Marvel's perspective But Yeah,

you get Disney Marvel Lucasfilm Pixar Disney

animation ABC Fox Fox animation You know the

Marvel entities there you get all the original

stuff there. I mean and then they would own Star

Wars a new hope because Fox actually owns that

film which is why we've had so many like issues

with certain rights things from that film Even

though Lucasfilm Created it and distributed it

Fox kind of had a majority stake in there And

so now this would also give that right back to

Lucasfilm Being that they'd all be on the same

roof Yeah, it's It's crazy. What's going on in

the media world now? Everybody's just Big companies

swallowing up everything else. It's insane. I

wonder what that means for rated R movies like

Deadpool. I think that this would be, if this

takes place, I think that this would be awesome

for the fact that they could theoretically, theoretically,

to do... You could see like a Hugh Jackman possibly

cameo in it as Wolverine, but I think that that

would be cool if they did that. But I think he's

pretty much done with it. I would have loved

to have seen that, but they would have had to

do some kind of a deal years ago for that to

happen. I wonder what that'll mean for R -rated

Deadpool films, because if... Disney owns it,

that would kind of change the adopted formula

for his films. And I wonder how that would affect

Deadpool as a whole in that entirety there. But

since we're talking about films, I think it's

only fitting that we talk about the whole DCEU

with Matt Reeve's Batman films. And because Ben

Affleck would possibly be in Flashpoint, As much

as I hate to say this, I think they're gonna

recast Affleck. I kind of Dislike this idea at

this point like everybody loved Christian Bale

until they saw Ben Affleck take on the cowl and

This is the costume. This is the interpretation

of Batman I've been looking for in the films

with Affleck's version and to me Batman has not

been as good since 89 film and I'm not I'm not

looking forward to it yet another reboot of Batman

I'm just not I've seen too many iterations of

the actor in the end of Batman getting new actors

over the last 20 years 25 years 27 years almost

30 years. It's I'm kind of sick of it. Honestly,

we've gotten three spider -men like in the last

15 years like that's not we've gotten multiple

supermen too. I'm kind of sick of it. Batman's

been the most utterly recasted role in Hollywood

for superheroes. And it's not like a roadie deal

where the guy was in the first Iron Man and then

they got Don Cheadle. This is huge if they change

it because the DCU would fall apart without having

the same look or the same actor taking on Bruce

Wayne Batman. And then it's reported that Matt

Reeves is expected to recast Ben Affleck in his

Batman trilogy, which I'm not really enthused

with. I mean, I think that Matt Reeves will do

awesome as far as the films and the story. I'm

just not looking forward to a recast. And that

kind of makes me sad because I rather like Affleck

as this role, despite what people said about

him in the first film. That he appeared in I

think that he's he's knocked this character and

portray a lot of the park and I Would love to

see more of it so Then I Think I'll get into

a little bit of anime here there's There's some

interesting news For one there's a live -action

Pokemon movie which To be honest, I completely

forgotten this franchise exists because I Don't

pay attention to it It's it's been around but

it's I haven't paid attention to it since the

early 2000s when I had like Gameboy and Pokemon

red and gold and the card game and whatnot Recently

in an animated movie they made poke they made

Pikachu talk and it was debated whether that

was a dream sequence or whether that was actually

Pikachu and You know they they recently cast

This actress from Big Little Lies Katherine Newton

who also was Claire Novak in Supernatural. That's

where I know her from But and she's supposedly

gonna be in the Supernatural spinoff wayward

sisters, so we'll see on that. That'll probably

get cancelled on Unfortunately, but it probably

will. Anyway, she's going to be playing this

character in Detective Pikachu. We're going to

Detective Pikachu. And it'll be a character basically

like Ash Ketchum, but not Ash Ketchum. It'll

be like the main character, Pokemon Trainer.

And I'm glad I waited a week to talk about this

one because when the information came out...

It was on the 29th of November, and so with this

being the second full week, you know, actually

full week of December, we're going to see a voice

for Pikachu as well. And what does that mean?

Well, it means that we're gonna see... Ryan Reynolds

take on Pikachu's voice. I can't believe it.

What is he gonna do? Like, I mean, is he gonna

do that, or is he gonna be like, you know, or

something? I have no idea. They're gonna have

him presumably play Pikachu. I can't fathom this.

I have no idea. I really don't on this. I just,

I found this to be the most like absurd thing

in the world because I've seen like pictures

of Deadpool standing next to Pikachu with a detective

hat like Sherlock Holmes and it just makes me

laugh. But yeah, they're talking about bringing

personality and natural charm and humor to the

character and yeah, I just, I think it's weird.

I really do but you know I guess it's it's kind

of one of those things you just got to wait and

see what happens I Yeah, I have no idea it's

it's crazy Yeah, there's there's all kinds of

crap going down in the movie world right now.

It's it's just it's getting wild You know and

then Feige is excited to work on a new x -men

with you know Disney absorbing Fox At an estimated

cost of more than 60 billion like this is just

all this stuff going on It's just it's insane,

but it does open up all of these universes more

by having these changes So I guess change isn't

necessarily a bad thing It just kind of depends

on your perspective of it, so Anyways, I'm gonna

take a quick break and come back after this with

something else And we're back. So I don't know

how many of you remember this, but I took this

course, it was like two years ago or something.

It was from the Smithsonian X. It was the rise

of superheroes and their influence on pop culture,

followed by another course of that. I took another

one. So I got two certifications in the same

class. It was in their impact on pop culture.

And then there was a third one I took of that.

where I was actually helping moderate content

because I'd done it twice with 100%. And then

I did the second course that came out called

The Rise of Superheroes and the Heroes of the

Future where you physically took your hero you

created in The Rise of Superheroes and you built,

you got paired with a team and you had to create

basically your own Avengers or Justice League

out of them. in your own storyline and a lot

of communication back and forth to create this.

That was a lot of fun as well. It kind of helps

flesh it out. You had to create a new villain

to fight. It was interesting. Now, for 2018,

it's kind of crazy. It's been two years. They've

been running the other classes continuously.

I just didn't see a reason to continue it because

I've done it numerous times. They have Power

and Responsibility, Doing Philosophy with Superheroes,

which is a new course that's starting up. This

class I'm kind of looking forward to because

it starts in January, January 15th, 2018. You

can get that information at smithsonianaxorcourses

.edx .org. I'm going to take this and it's basically...

It's going to be a five -week course. It's free,

although you can add a verified certificate for

$50. The institution is obviously the Smithsonian.

It's an introductory level. There's going to

be video stuff in it. Basically, like the Superman's

embrace of truth, justice, and the American way,

the Wonder Woman's efforts at promoting peace

rather than war, Spider -Man's personal struggles

at balancing romantic life and crime fighting

exploits. I think that these classes are great

primers if you're going to get into comic books

or television writing or any of that stuff, because

even though it's for comic book characters, the

information still applies, no matter what you're

writing. And then they're gonna have... Christopher

Robichaud, senior lecturer in Ethics and Public

Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government,

teaching this course and you can add, the nice

thing is when you take these classes, if you

get the certificate, they have a nice little

personalized certificate with instructor sign

and the institution logo and all that kind of

stuff and then you can add it to your resume

or CV or directly on your LinkedIn. which I have

done, and it gets your certification number and

everything else. So it kind of just adds that

extra layer of things if you're a geek and you

like learning this information. And so I highly

suggest taking advantage of these courses. And

they actually created a character for this class,

which I think is kind of cool. Smithsonian's

power and responsibility in doing philosophy

with superheroes, they created Veritas Man, which

is funny. They kind of based it off of the guy

teaching the class, and it's an original design,

and it's got an H on the spot of Superman's thing,

and it's kind of like a Superman -esque DC suit,

a modern one, but looks really interesting. I'm

really liking a lot of what's going on with this

stuff. Be sure to check that out. I think that

that's awesome. Just being able to learn something

new. However, there is something that I find

to be kind of a weird aspect on the internet.

I just came across it. I'm followed by a voice

actor, an actor that... I have no idea the thoughts

on this, but he was... basically an actor on

Charles in Charge and I Don't have anything against

individuals on their own like he was the young

young kid that was on Charles in Charge and I

saw David Soboloff or something retweet something

of his where he wanted to get a hold of Scott

Baio Pertaining to something. I'm sure it has

something to do with the sexual crap. That's

you know, or the abusing of people that are younger

In Hollywood that have been going on since the

dawn of Hollywood. I mean if you look at And

I'm not trying to get into this whole philosophical

You know right wrong All this stuff going on

with Hollywood right now, but or politicians

or whoever that's being a sleazebag, but When

you For one people have lost this art of treat

everyone how you want to be treated like basically

as Dodd would put it. Don't be a douche And,

you know, all are one, you know, Transformers.

I mean, you can take good quotes from pop culture

and apply them, and it still applies. Like, don't

just be a jerk. Be nice to everyone. Be genuine.

Don't, you know, hide behind closed doors and

like, I didn't do that. I have a different recollection.

Yeah, sure you do, because you're getting caught.

Like, it's like a five -year -old lying, you

know. Did you punch your brother? No. Well, then

why is there this welt on his back? Like, I mean,

it's the same mentality. Or, why did you bite

your brother? I didn't. Why are there teeth marks?

Like, you know, it's the same stupid mentality.

But if you look at the history of Hollywood,

and I took this in my media courses, and I think

that this should be kind of a required thing

of everyone, is Hollywood, even back then, was

riddled with... Even if you're not gonna be an

actor, I think it should be required. Hollywood

was riddled with scandal, with things of sexual

scandal, things of everything else. It's not

something new. And for people to pretend that

it's not something new are a little bit in denial.

It's been going on for generations since this

industry was created. And politicians have been

scum balls since the dawn of time, so there's

nothing... There's nothing, like, different about

any of this. The only difference is that people

are seeing it. I digress. My main point was,

this particular actor created this concept...

basically... his own religion, as it were. Where

he believes in like shamans and everything else

like I Don't like alchemy Buddhism Cosmology

shamanism like all these Egyptian lore like I

being a Christian I find these to be hogwash

But I Don't deny that people need to seek something

better to Become better people if they need it

But I don't this whole like he created this whole

aspect called avatar ism where you know Yeah,

I you basically create an alter ego That's like

your your safety zone and I Don't like I have

to be careful in this and I don't mean to offend

anyone if like they believe in any of that stuff

like I I personally find it to be this but I

don't, you know, to each their own, like, I'm

no one to judge anybody else's concepts. I do

find it to be strange, though, the whole concept

of Avatarism, where they basically say you create,

like, a cosplay -ish type character of yourself,

the nature of your character, and you're basically

an open -source game philosophy of conscious

character creation, and, you know, it's transformational,

and... You know, we've been playing this game

since the beginning of our culture and You transform

yourself from what you have been into what you

want to become It's not really called avatar

ism. It's just called bettering yourself. Like

I you know, there are no superpowers. There are

no, you know creating your life or reimagining

yourself or you know Realizations or You know,

yes people should figure out who they are But

you know and everybody is their own individual

and has their own unique way of achieving things

Most people would call those goals and growth

but Yeah, they're saying that you're paint playing

game and of life and yeah life is kind of a game,

but it's not like It's so weird like just seeing

this like They're basically providing this framework

for, you know, a fun self and fearless and magical

transformation into this, you know, basically

you're creating yourself a Dungeons and Dragons

character for yourself to transform into and...

Well, I do feel like people have different aspects

of their introspective, retrospective personality,

like for instance, in person. I'm not allowed

an obnoxious person like I am on the internet

when I talk, when I'm talking to myself in the

room, when I'm having a conversation, and I don't

know how many other people relate to this. I'm

introspective when I'm in a group of people,

because if I don't know people and I don't know

them very well, even if I know them online, Seeing

them in person is totally different for me. I

can have a blatant conversation. I can speak

my mind when I'm not in front of somebody. I

can be talking to them on Skype and I can say

everything I want to say. But when I get in person

with them, it makes it more difficult because

the person's actually there. And that's kind

of the age of the internet and kind of what's

happened there. But I don't think that there's

a conscious... Character creation or avatar you're

creating. I think you just have these different

facets of your personality And nobody should

be you know judging you per se but nobody should

pushing be pushing their agenda on anybody else

either and I think that that's kind of a lot

of what's happening modern culture as well I

I don't like the aspect of people having to,

like, I have to get in my safety bubble and hide.

You know, people shouldn't have to do that. I

know that there's a lot of craziness going on

with everything in society now. But it's, I'm

very extra respective on a podcast or And I guess

it's kind of my natural self. It's just that

when I don't know people I Close up like a clam

like there's no getting information out of me

It's very difficult for me to get out of my comfort

zone Whereas once I know somebody or if I'm online

or if I'm on a podcast I can just let it rip

and it's very difficult for me like I have a

hard time doing interviews on my own And I feel

very awkward and self -conscious Which is why

I don't do them very often because if I do Yes,

I meet awesome people But that's usually why

I have Mike tag along with me because he's naturally

more outgoing and better at that Aspect than

I am I am NOT a self -seeking, you know, I'm

not seeking more well, I like being a Podcast

personality and I like doing voice acting. I

like doing all that I kind of I humble myself

in the sense that I don't see myself as that

important in the grand scheme of things Whereas

there are some people that do and we kind of

talked about that a little bit at the the wedding

myself and Michael Wilson We're talking about

people that you know, we've come across that

are kind of like that Self servicing and everything

else and so it's it's kind of it's it's really

weird to sit and talk about I like we just had

like the next Headmasters video come out where

I play Scourge and I did the lines so long ago

I don't remember doing them but I'm like oh yeah

that was awesome I got to you know speak with

with different people and you know John Bailey's

playing Cyclonus and you know we have all these

other people you know Derek James playing Victor

Karoly and so I mean it's really fun and I think

it's awesome that I can do an impression of Scourge

and use it for that clip and be a help to the

project and be a part of it, but I don't sit

there and go, yeah, I'm so awesome. I'm Scourge

and Transformers had milestones. And I don't

know, I've kind of digressed and gone all over

the place in this conversation. I don't know.

What do you guys think on all this? I guess I'm

having like really deep thoughts at this point

because, you know, and no, not the... deep thoughts

with Stuart Smalley on SNL, but I'm kind of all

over the place and I think it's because it's

getting close to Christmas and I'm just I guess

trying to re -evaluate things before the end

of the year and for next year and I'm just kind

of out of it this week and last week, which is

why I haven't done much in the podcast realm

so We're gonna be back after a quick break. I

want to talk about this one Star Trek aspect

that's that's kind of bothering me and I'll bring

it up in future and perfectly more detail But

I want to bring it up here as well because they

think it's kind of pertinent information at this

point So I'll be back right after this And we're

back so we We have some Star Trek stuff coming

It sounds like Quentin Tarantino Has shared an

idea with JJ Abrams About apparently wanting

to do his own original Star Trek idea He wants

to do he's talked to Abrams and Paramount the

studio that holds the rights for the film rights

And you know TV rights which are still with CBS

They claim that there's an inside source that

says Quentin's idea was so well received that

there's been a writer's room assembled for it

And of course Abrams is doing episode 9 at this

point, but he would still be an executive producer

on it And Tarantino wants to write direct basically

So There's some people that are excited for this

and There's some people that are not I am among

the are -nots. I am not a fan of Quentin Tarantino

at all. I don't like any of his films. I don't...

I'm gonna get it. Everybody's a fanboy of Star

Trek. Star Trek is kind of that original, it's

kind of like that original thing that everybody

likes and wants. I would love to be a part of

Star Trek in some capacity, but I don't want

necessarily a rated R Star Trek, and Quentin

Tarantino essentially wants to do a rated R Star

Trek. Some of his films, you know, if you're

not familiar with them, he's done is Rose of

War Dogs, Pulp Fiction. I know Pulp Fiction is

one of those ones that like a lot of people like.

He's done Jackie Brown, Kill Bill. That was another

one everybody just kind of liked. Death Proof,

Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Hateful

Eight. He's working on Helter Skelter and apparently

now a Star Trek film. I don't like any of his

films. I've seen aspects of it in my media aesthetics

class. And I find them to be annoying, distasteful,

just irritating films to pay attention to. That

being said, if he does one, you're probably going

to see some of his people that he uses a lot.

You know, amongst them being like, you know,

Sam Jackson. You'll probably see him kind of

cross over at some point, if that's the case.

You might see... You know like maybe Kurt Russell

or you know Maybe Bruce Willis, maybe you know

Christoph Waltz somebody. I don't know you never

know who's gonna pop up in his films, and I I'm

not looking forward to this at all. I don't want

an R rated Star Trek film I don't I think the

films like I liked Beyond I think Into Darkness

was garbage and I don't like any of the films

since they've like gone to this new like action

-y format and kind of just thrown the science

and the Star Trek part of it aside. It's just

I don't like it and yeah, I know that his films

get like B plus or A minus ratings on everything

and they you know, they have huge like decent

box office results depending on them and Just

I don't want gore I don't want rated -r like

for me if I if I saw the trailer and some of

that stuff was among it I think that would turn

me off to the films. I would be done to me that

that would just that would just completely Bastardize

the films to me. I would want nothing to do with

them. I Would be done as far as Star Trek films

are concerned. I would go watch my my old stuff

I would leave it where it's at and I would say

to hell with it. I'm done So I kind of said,

you know, why does it have to be rated R? And

like, Mighty Tim on Twitter says that, he says,

I'm not enthused by Tarantino's Star Trek movie.

Star Trek has been dead since Nemesis, and I

kind of agree with him. Don't... I haven't cared

for Star Trek since Nemesis. I think that...

Yeah, Nemesis wasn't that great, but it was not

a good film either. Insurrection wasn't really

good. And Star Trek's been kind of dark since

First Contact. We kind of lost all the light.

We kind of lost all the... I mean, it got more

grit after that, and then it just kind of stayed

that way. And I think that's why Insurrection

was so jarring, is because it looked like a TNG

episode. And I'm not saying I want a TNG episode,

but... The original series Star Trek films were

probably the best Star Trek films we ever got.

You know, generations in First Contact aside.

And then going into the TV series, I've got a

new appreciation for Enterprise. Because yet

again, it's like a hundred years before Kirk,

so there's certain things that they're still

working on and getting into that fashion. But

Discovery, while I enjoy the show for what it

is, it doesn't fit with the continuity. It doesn't

fit and that's been my other complaint and then

they've turned that into essentially a mature

rated show because The last five minutes of the

season finale or midseason finale Or chapter

one, whatever the heck they want to call it this

week. Um They didn't make a Klingon like and

it looked like some kind of a like xenomorph

like Why do I need to see that in Star Trek?

Like yeah, I know people have gotten you know,

dude They had seven of nine do it in Voyager.

They had to Paul do it in Enterprise but it's

not needed. Like, I guess the intelligence level

is just going down the crapper because I just

don't like what they're doing to Star Trek at

this point. And then Grimbot, a guy I've done

dubs with in the past, says, because of the S

attitude like this, life is short, studio should

take a chance, Star Trek's been playing it safe

long enough. The best Trek has always been the

films and the television episodes that took chances

with the material. That's what opens the door

to this crap. And I kind of agree with him. I

just... I don't... I'm not enthused. I... I'm

kind of curious to hear what you guys have to

say on this whole Tarantino thing on Star Trek.

I... I'm gonna use it in Future Imperfect when

I do that. But... Yeah, I... I'm not... not excited

about this at all. So what do you guys think?

Let me know what's geeky to you this week by

using the hashtag on Twitter, what's geeky to

you? And let me know so that I can talk about

it on next week's episode. And that is for this

week's episode. I hope you guys have a great

week. I hope that you guys have some question

comments. Maybe we can do some listener requests

episodes kind of gearing up to the end of the

year. I will be recording this every week still.

Until the end of the year. It may be a little

bit delayed on Fridays, but it'll still be out

by 12 1 p .m. On Friday afternoons so until next

time get altered get geeky with the alter geeks