Dumb Phones, Media Careers, and Geek Life Goals

Neil Ross here and it's time to get altered and

get geeky on Altergeek with Steve Megatron Hello

and welcome to Altergeek I'm your host Steve

Megatron Phillips and joining me on this endeavor

into crazy geekdom is Mike the Birdman Don That's

right, joining you from this week in Geek .net,

also TerribleWarriors .com, your resident geek,

nerd, dork, dweeb, what other derogatory terms

you wanna call me. I'm here to serve your needs

and sometimes something else you just have to

ask and pay a little bit extra. That's what she

said. Oh boy. So what's up? So... For those that

are listening to this episode. Yes, we recorded

this auto sequence of release and what I mean

by that is still have been An episode that's

released the week that this was recorded But

I recorded another altered geek prior to this

one earlier in the same week. So it sounds very

convoluted, but it's funny Because I I was like,

you know cover in the news sucks Everybody does

that we do that at twig. So if you want to do

news We do that every week. You come to Altergeek

for discussion. Yeah. And I mean, I've tried

to sprinkle in and as the show's like evolving

a little bit after the 300 mark, I'm kind of

trying to see where things go and what's sticking

and what's sounding like it's dragging too much

and what segments I want to do. But yeah, I'm

going to put interesting twists on some of them

just to make it. better, as it were. But yeah,

it's definitely an evolution, like trial and

error, seeing what gets downloads and what doesn't.

Exactly. I mean, as people who've been involved

in radio before, segments evolve, segments change,

people change how they produce. Their content

and because we want to make it more interesting

for you the listeners We always encourage interaction

via me and Steve on Twitter. I mean he's at SCP

21 I'm at Birdman Dodd and there is the altered

geek feedback email as well and you can comment

on episode posts, but We're trying to get you

to be more involved and like Steve said getting

things Part of evolving is change and be that

change good batter and different. It's kind of

like puberty Sometimes it hurts sometimes it's

fun and well, we're just just trying to make

things better overall Definitely definitely and

Speaking of some things that have that's trying

to make itself better Star Trek's Twitter handle

Is having fun right now because they're having

the Klingon takeover for what I suspect is a

mobile game Oh goody, because we need more of

those. Well, the thing is, is it came out last

month, or I should say actually end of September,

and it's Star Trek Fleet Command, which if you

misspell can almost get mistaken for that 1999

interplay Star Trek Starfleet Command. Which

was an awesome game, one of the first PC games

I ever owned. I think I've seen ads for this

on Facebook. But then again, for mobile games,

it's weird. The only ones I play are like Pokemon

Go clones. I'm only I'm playing Ghostbusters,

Walking Dead and Pokemon, and that's it. Star

Trek. Maybe I'll check out. Yeah. See, my my

whole thing is, is I well, it's like the Command

and Conquer thing. Like I was a huge fan of the

Command and Conquer series back in the day. And

when EA took over the studio that makes them.

I think it's Westwood 1 or something like that

or Westwood or something. Anyways, they made

the next game in the series and made the fatal

mistake of putting it on mobile. I remember watching

that E3 presentation and I remember the poor

guy who was up there doing it and he's like,

are you guys excited for mobile Command and Conquer?

And you could hear crickets. It was so friggin

bad. I actually just got an email about this

the other day It's like hey guys command and

conquer launches in December. Guess what? It's

six months later and nobody still gives a shit

Yeah Well in the thing is is I love the game

but to me playing command and conquer is almost

Like a mandatory has to be a PC game Yeah, or

if you're going to port it to console, it better

be highly optimized. Yeah, and that's the thing

too is they've had it on console before and I've

tried playing it and it's just miserable. I think

I liked the one that was on the PlayStation 3.

I think it was. Wasn't red. Oh, I forget what

whatever the hell it was called and I thought

it was alright But yeah, I mean a title like

that like especially RTS has to be PC. You need

keyboard and mouse I mean, I've seen a few games

attempt to do RTS on a console with middling

success One of the games I played this year.

I wish I could remember what the hell it was

called, but it was something called strike Some

stupid World War II game. It was so badly optimized.

Like trying to map keyboard and mouse controls

to an Xbox controller does not work. Command

and Conquer, trying to make that work on a mobile

phone. I mean, sure, it's been simplified right

out the ass, but this game looks so stupid. I

concur. I am not a fan of seeing this happen.

especially to such a series that had such a strong

legacy. And you know it's gonna be microtransaction

right out the ass. Which all of them are anymore.

Let's be real, most games nowadays are microtransactions

and that's where they make their money. However...

Well, as long as it's not pay -to -win, if it's

cosmetic, which it won't be. And it's EA, which

means it will be microtransactioned out the frigging

butthole. We'll have to wait and see what happens

with that, I guess. But I think they learned

their lesson on the battlefield games. Yeah,

and Battlefront 2, because they got kicked in

the face. Well, in Battlefield 1 to Battlefield

5, they... decided not to do like where everybody's

on the kind of same playing field and it's more

of a cosmetic thing than a, you know, fight to

win or pay to win. And so like, I feel like this

game is going to bomb horribly and then they're

going to be like, okay, so either we can not

make another Command and Conquer game or we should

go back to PC. And that's to me, like I'm still

playing Red Alert 2. Which is like ancient and

then I'm playing like the expansion of that still

like I have them and I have the entire Command

and Conquer collection on EA All access I bought

it like a while back they had a special on it

and I bought the whole package and so like to

me like I've enjoyed the series enough that I

would go back and play like really any of them

and To see it go that that down the toilet I'm

kind of like and and that's kind of the same

boat I am like they made a Transformers game

that was kind of in that same boat and in a DC

game and they've made you know like this there's

a couple Star Trek games that are doing this

now and into be honest like I would rather that

they Put all of this R &D into a good PC and

console game then doing what they're doing It's

cuz mobile games are cheap and easy to develop.

They're easy to microtransaction and they all

I need is a few good whales People who spend

a lot of money to make it profitable to keep

it going But since we're talking about EA I wanted

to bring this up because I'm really curious to

see what you'll think of this So EA has battlefield

V or five or whatever the hell it's called coming

out later on this month. Yep five cool You're

not getting your battle royale mode until the

spring That's okay. I'm not buying it. This game

is gonna get crushed Be over fortnight and call

of duty and I can't believe They're gonna release

it without their battle royale mode I would have

delayed it until fourth quarter and Had the sales

bump up right? Right at the end of the year because

there's no point in releasing it in a crowded

holiday season in my opinion If you don't have

the thing that's gonna make it stand out against

its competitors No, I totally agree with you

and to be honest my brother actually cancelled

his pre -order And opted just to go with the

EA all -access pass so that he could play other

games under EA rather than deal with it because

Battlefield one kind of left a poor taste and

a lot of the players mouths after they they got

their feel of it and they were like Okay, this

is like a one -trick pony like I'm done And a

lot of them went back to play Battlefield 3 and

4 Wow, what a kick in the face and Even when

the game was new they were going back and playing

Battlefield 3 and 4 like they were just like

and then I mean I because like I played in a

clan like a group and the fast -action response

team go figure on the acronym but they They all

were like, I'm good. They kind of went back and

started playing the other one and a lot of them

are very disinterested in Battlefield V and a

lot of it had to do with a lot of the announcements

that were surrounding it. I gotta say, unless

it has some monumentally epic single player campaign,

which it likely will have a really good single

player, no one cares. This year is dominated.

By multiplayer and fortnight's still doing amazingly.

Well blackout or sorry blackout Well, that's

what everybody's playing call of duty black ops

is doing tremendously. Well The c the cwl which

is the competitive league for call of duty starts

up in december um, so i'll be very interested

to see how the The competitive community takes

this because I like battlefield's competitive

feel But I don't think it's not at the e -sports

level yet. At least as far as I can see it, but

I'm not in that particular competitive circle.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I really like the

previous games in the series. I really like Battlefield.

I loved Hardline personally. See, I didn't even

have those games. I pretty much started playing

around, I think I played it when 1942 was out,

like on the GameCube and like the PC when it

was like new. And I played with my brother on

that. And it had a lot of like the some of the

aspects that are in like Battlefield 1 were involved,

at least in some of the design areas. But they

same token, they My family got me involved when

Battlefield 4 came out and all the expansions

and that's kind of when I decided that, hey,

I'm going to play the Battlefield series again

and it was a lot of fun and I did the whole thing

with... Battlefield one as well and and I enjoyed

it and I played I even got alpha and beta access

and the the trial of Battle the EA all access

right up until battlefield one came out and then

I got that in an expansion and then after that

it kind of After a while started getting old

and then when the expansions came out They really

sucked to be honest There was nothing really

drawing you to really want to play the new levels

that were in it. They were just I Don't know

like unbearably bad like to the point that I

would rather just go back and play battlefield

for and so I guess it's kind of Going full circle.

I think that's kind of what's starting to kill

battlefield as and where Call of Duty faltered

when battlefield one came out so I mean it I

think that the roles have reversed and especially

the funny thing is is Epic was the one that kind

of had one of the the best first -person things

for going for a while and that was Unreal Tournament

and they they've since come out with Fortnite

which is kind of their their Pony show now where

they're they're kind of running the Running the

arena now with the the first -person thing again

Like they did when you used to watch like television

and see eSports with like Unreal Tournament 2004

and so it's it's kind of come full circle with

the epic Yeah, like one of the things I love

about fortnight is it's got such an interesting

competitive scene a couple as of this recording

twitchcon is just recently concluded and they

had a fortnight events at twitchcon they had

the streamer invitation or they invited content

creators some you some pros and Some people who

were just good streamers playing fortnight and

there are people who could team up with their

favorite streamer if they Got like a golden ticket

or something like that and it's interesting to

watch the meta evolve Like basically people who

are really you could tell who's a really good

streamer and who was a pro People weren't engaging

in gunfights stuff like that. Like there was

no incentive for kills, but that's me talking

about the comparison of meta but what I'm trying

to get at is Epic has captured this cartoony

violence that doesn't have violence I mean sure

you sure you're still shooting people but there's

no blood it's animated enough for kids and just

hardcore enough for adults like us to get into

now Fortnite is a game I've dumped maybe 30 bucks

into I gave up on it when Call of Duty 4 came

out or when Black Ops came out Because I'm terrible

at building the battle royale mode blackout,

which is basically pub G but it works Is really

fantastic. I'm really curious to see how that's

gonna evolve in the eSports scene, but Treyarch

has a lot of they're really gonna have to work

on fixing things like audio cues and everything

whereas Fortnite you can do hot fixes on the

fly there's the seasons every other like month

or so it seems like that game prints money and

it's not pay to win, you're just buying cosmetic

items. There are people who can sell their accounts

because they have so many skins, their battle

pass is ranked up right up the ass, stuff like

that. There's like the skull trooper skin that's

ridiculous. There's like this galaxy skin that

you can only get from buying a certain phone,

which was really funny. There were people going

into stores. To demo the phone they'd log in

on the phone in the store into their fortnight

account steal the skin and then the phone was

like oh, I don't want this anymore and The skin

is now permanently locked to their account So

there's a way to screw people by the way. Don't

do it kids because that's bad Um, but it's not

I've heard of people doing that for other things

But I can't think of the examples off the top

of my head But I know people are if there's a

way to screw the system people will find it Totally

totally but anyway So we've rambled on a lot.

Yeah, so kind of going back full circle to the

the whole Star Trek mobile game Yes, when I noticed

that they they started having their little Klingon

take over on the thing to kind of boost promotion

of their account, which by the way the account

that's associated with the whole thing is It

barely had any followers When I looked at it

earlier today It has 147 followers for the start

at star Star Trek fleet which is Star Trek fleet

command And then there's another one that's Klingon

council or Klingon victory on Twitter, which

is Klingon High Council, and it's got 499 followers.

And then I guess they've got a Romulans one,

too. But it's all very Kelvin universe. They've

got Kelvin Scotty, and then they've got a bunch

of the Kelvin design ships. And so I made a snarky

remark like... They were talking, you know, every

every member of at federations, you know, unite.

Well, we're a red tunic when we spill their blood

in battle, you know, cannon fodder, blah, blah,

blah. And I says, why are all the ships Kelvin

universe? And they had another thing of, you

know, if you're reading this, you still have

a chance to choose your manner of demise. How

would you wish to die? Batleth orbital strike

the dagger and then eating by targs. And then

I just posted like a. a GIF of data laughing

hysterically. And so I wasn't even really replying.

I was doing passive aggressive posts, but using

Star Trek GIFs. It says, we laugh at you pathetic

humans and your precious Twitter. It took us

mere seconds to take control of this account.

How long do you think it will take to infiltrate

your Federation defense protocols? And so I posted

the clip from Star Trek 6 where Kirk's like,

he goes. Don't believe them. Don't trust them

See you should use swear track, but I guess they

want to keep this PG Which is why I was using

like clips from the show They had another thing

it says there is no honor in at Twitter We tweet

only to proclaim that the end of the Federation

is at hand and then I did the thing where Kurt

goes fire and They fire the torpedo from the

Enterprise and it blows up the Klingon ship There

was one other good when I one other good jab

I got in there that got retweeted a bunch of

times Oh, that's where it is. They had Krudge

like choking Kirk in Star Trek 3, which was Christopher

Lloyd. And then it says throwback Thursday Klingon

takeover. And so I says, you do realize the Klingons

almost always end up six feet or more under when

dealing with Kirk or humans in general. And people

thought that was kind of funny, but. Because

Krudge ended up more than six feet under. He

was on Genesis. Yeah, but yeah, he's kind of

completely screwed. Yeah, he was space oblivion.

So yeah, it was it was quite funny. I was having

fun with that earlier today, among other things

that were going on. But yeah, so I guess we should

get down to the actual topics of the show. Yes,

the actual topic of the show. So Steve messaged

me earlier this week and said, OK, Mike, we're

going to chase things up here in Altered Geek.

We're going to have a few discussion points,

if we will, kind of give you our thoughts, feelings,

and opinions on certain topics suggested, not

just by you, the listeners, but sort of us having

meetings of the minds between ourselves. And

the topics that we've chosen to speak about today

are three things kind of very near and dear to

me and Steve. And it's going to be. Would you

ever go back to a dumb phone? So we're talking

pre -smartphones, so I think pre -2006. Basically,

getting into the media and radio is hard, to

which me and Steve can both speak to that extensively.

And finally, what are goals for geek life? So

basically looking at adaptation, evolution. and

then kind of settling off into the sunset for

something a little bit happier, something a little

bit more positive as we look at positive goals

for our lives. So I guess let's kind of start

the discussion. Would you ever go back to a dumb

phone? And I kind of want to start this off simply

because you know what? If we all had dumb phones,

you know how much better the universe might be.

Because let me tell you, and this is the only

time I'm going to get political in this entire

conversation. If your president had to type out

old school text numbers, like if you had to enter

nine like five times to enter Z or Z or whatever,

I'm pretty sure Twitter would be a lot quieter

a place if you had to type out those 100 or those

200 characters. and it will take you like 20

minutes to type out a single tweet. It would

be a frigging ghost town. Typing in QWERTY keyboard.

Yeah, that's what I was looking for, QWERTY.

Yeah. I mean, just think about that. I love it.

Or if we didn't have Snapchat. Basically, if

we went back to dumb phones, social media would

not exist. Now, that being said, I used to live

journal on my phone with a QWERTY. I am a glutton

for punishment. So there are people like me who

exist. you destroyed your hands oh my god they

were so cramped and i'm talking i would write

easily a thousand words a day on my live journal

because i'm an emo kid um so just imagine a world

without smartphones but that also means no snapchat

so you can't instantly reply that means no twitter

no facebook the world would be so different it

would be such a different media landscape to

look back at it. And in a certain way, I kind

of wish we could go back to a more innocent time,

don't you? You know, that's and I guess that's

kind of the same boat I'm in. I feel like if

we put less emphasis on being attached to our

devices, and I'm guilty of it, like I'm horribly

guilty of it as well. Because I there's not a

minute that goes by that I'm not thinking I should

check to see if I've got an email I should check

to see if I you know and I've turned off most

of my notifications other than email and when

I turn on the screen like other email and text

but when I turn on the screen I'll have like

notifications for like Twitter and LinkedIn and

Stuff like that, but It ultimately it's like

it's it's a constant anxiety in the back of your

head That you have to check something and they've

got it embedded in our heads because we've you

know and I used to complain when I had a dumb

phone and this is my my second smartphone the

thing is is I've had a smartphone for about six

years and yes it was more of a pain when I needed

to check my email on the go or my Twitter or

things like that because I didn't have internet

on my phone and the new modern flip phones do

have wi -fi. and 4G LTE, unlike the old stuff,

because you can still use it with your data plans

and whatnot. But I feel like a lot of these problems

that we're having now with people just being

constantly on would go away because you wouldn't

have all of these people just constantly blowing

smoke into the ether and hoping something sticks.

Yeah, I completely agree with you. I mean, I'm

trying to reduce my screen time, but even now,

while we're doing the show, I'm tweeting. It's

so hard to disconnect. And I don't know, it's

so weird because kids these days do not understand

that. They've grown up in this era of the smartphone.

Hell, do you remember when the T -Mobile Sidekick

was a thing? Like way back in the, yeah, like

it was a huge device because you could text so

fast. These kids have grown up in this era of

texting, instant messaging, social media. You

and I grew up in the era before that. Yeah, I

mean, we grew up in the era where we had like

almost like the monochrome cell phone, you know,

the stationary monochrome cell phone that just

sucked and it was huge, like a TV remote. Yeah.

I mean, we grew up in the Matrix era of phones.

Yeah. And then, and then like, cause I remember

that I remember my first flip phone, you had

to pull the, um, the antenna out and it was,

it was the green screen type thing. And I was

playing chess on my phone. And that was literally

the only thing to do on the phone because like

I managed to, I think it came with chess and

I was like, Oh, I can play a game on here. And

to me, that was like a game, you know? And so.

And then I was typing in the QWERTY keyboard,

which is just a royal pain and I I hated text

messaging because of it. I was I had it You just

reminded me of something speaking of games and

QWERTY keyboard specifically What's the most

difficult game you could think to play on a QWERTY

keyboard? Off the top of your head first person

shooter. Okay. Okay close I played on a QWERTY

keyboard Mega Man 2 Oh, that's awesome. I beat

the son of a bitch with a corny keyboard. I don't

know how I did it, but I did it Now try to imagine

trying to fight that dragon boss or those jumps

in wily stage three good friggin luck If I remember

correctly, and I'm 90 % sure that I remember

this right, but yeah, I mean I remember when

games evolved on those phones, when there was

like Snake, Chess, and Solitaire, and that started

out coming into the 2000s. Then once you got

people like Nokia and stuff like that, like developing

different phones, and the flip phones came out

with different games and stuff on them. Then

you had that weird hybrid, which was like a taco

you could talk into, which was the Nokia N -Gage.

And then you started getting - I remember that.

the first generation of Android and smartphones

like the iPhone, which is 2008, 2009, give or

take, things have changed so rapidly. And they

have. And not only have the phones and the landscape

changed. I mean, between the data, I remember

the data was like not a lot, like between like

an entire account, like it was. barely what it

is now and then oh yeah and then they bumped

it to unlimited and then they realized once the

smartphone revolution started that uh that was

really dumb and they didn't have the infrastructure

to back it up so they went they backpedaled on

it and then now they've got it again because

they have the infrastructure but um we don't

have that in canada because we get screwed so

bad like the worst When this was in the era of

the smartphone -ish, on my old iPhone 3G, guess

how much I had in data over just one month? I

don't want to guess, but... $900! Yeah, that's

ridiculous. Yeah! Let's just say my parents were

none too happy with me. They're like, Michael,

what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know, what

do you mean? Went over I went over like 75 bucks

and then my parents are like, okay, we're taking

your phone and so like my my instant response

to that was you can you can take my phone and

Shove it well Well, no because I being a rebelistic,

you know teenager at the time Not much different

than now It is you know I went to Cricket Wireless

because you only had to be 16 to go get a cell

phone. Oh, you showed them. I did. And it I went

and paid cash for my phone. Bought it outright,

like $200. I was like, I don't care. I got money

in the bank and like I was working, so I didn't

really care either. And then I bought I paid

for the monthly plan. I come home with a new

cell phone and I'd spent like. three hours that

evening, like manually typing in all of my contacts

from one phone to the other. And then I walk

in the house and I give the other phone back

to my mom and she's like, what's this? You know,

that's your phone. I says, not anymore. And I

did. And then when I bought when I got in trouble,

the next time they took my phone away, talking

to my my girlfriend at the time, now wife. And

I was rather upset. They took my phone. I I was

like I bought the phone They're like you're in

my house and I'm like don't want to be here So

it was just it was really funny, you know, cuz

how your brain works when you're a kid, but But

yeah, I mean I remember going through all those

different stages of the phone thing and then

finally going to you know multiple flip phones

up until 2012 when I got my HTC Evo, which was

utter garbage. My favorite flip phone was the

Motorola Razr because everybody had one. I still

did you know that that thing goes for like three

hundred dollars on eBay or not eBay, Amazon?

Why? I don't know. That's what I just super reliable

or something. I will. I will give you this. That

was by far my most favorite phone that I'd ever

had. It looks like you can buy one. Oh, you can

buy you can buy a couple of used ones actually

now for for anywhere from 20 to 50 dollars, but

the original one mind you But yeah, it's I Remember

when they came out with a razor to yeah, which

didn't really go over as well as the first one

There is one phone I would trade my iPhone for

now And I would rely on a tablet exclusively

if I could have this phone the matrix phone from

the matrix Reloaded the one or or the first matrix

where it shot down Because they released a version

like the one from the movie was a prop phone

and it didn't like like the real phone didn't

do that But they released a version for the Matrix

Reloaded that was Neo's phone, and the talk piece

would shoot down. And it was like $600. And I

remember thinking and scheming when I was a child

thinking, how can I get $600 without becoming

a hooker? I don't think this is possible, but

I'm really, really, really going to think about

it. So I was like, oh, I want this phone. And

now it sells for ridiculous amounts on the secondary

market because everybody still wants it. As far

as I know, it still works because the cell networks

still have the lower bands are still active.

I think it's a more stable phone, if I remember

correctly, in terms of quality for its calls.

It just means you can't use data and shit. Or

if you can, you just can't do a lot of stuff

on it. But if, since we're living in this neo

cyberpunk era we call 2018, I would still rock

that thing. Just the fact that I'd be cruising

down the street in my wheelchair. I'd have my

matrix phone. I'd be like, yeah. Nerd. Yep. It's

true. I would so rock that because that'd be

so cool. I'm sorry, I love the Matrix stuff.

I would love to have the Razr again. Like I wish

that they would like redo. I honestly would love

a smartphone that's a flip phone. I'm surprised

there isn't one available. I mean, I bet you

there's probably some Chinese knockoff that does

it, but I can't think of anything from any of

the major manufacturers. I will say my Razr was

by far like my calls never dropped. I never had

a problem with the phone. Yeah, the cameras suck.

but that was like every phone back then. It's

still a majority of them now, but my battery

life on that thing was like ridiculous. Like

I could go like days without plugging it in.

So yeah, I don't know. I really would love to

see like a new, and I'm tempted just to like

pick one up just to see if I could still use

it. There was one time. I remember my battery

on my old Qualcomm would last for like, I sort

of got days. The battery on my iPhone 7 plus

will last maybe, maybe 12 hours. But I use the

thing pretty heavily. So it's probably closer

to six, maybe eight. I don't know, man. And iPhone

batteries you can't replace. That's one thing

I do like about most androids. Well, that's changing

batteries. That's changing. Oh, really? Yeah.

Over the last year and a half, they've pretty

much gone proprietary battery. Well, they've

gone to where it's like an all like a unibody

for a lot of the phones. So you can't you can't

change them out. Like my Galaxy S5, I could replace

the battery anytime I feel like it. Like I actually

have an extra battery that's that's charged just

in case. But I mean, I work by my computer, so

I keep it plugged in all day. into my car I have

a charger so like I really don't like it's plugged

in right now next to me I mean it's I it's not

good for the battery but the battery sucks so

like same time I don't have to worry about my

battery going dead if I need to take it off the

charger but yeah I mean it's I don't know like

I'm kind of like I've been and I was talking

to Mike Powers about the whole phone thing the

other day on the previous episode of if I was

going to get a new smartphone, what I would get.

But the same token, like, I don't know if that's

necessarily, like, the best idea of getting another

smartphone because they cost, like, for a good

one, it costs between, like, $5 ,000 and $1 ,000.

Yeah. I was actually thinking about my wife right

now was thinking about getting a new phone. And

I wanted to get an iPhone because they're reliable,

but I know the Google Pixels are quite good,

too. But. It's just they're so expensive, like

they're all expensive and it's it's terrible.

Like I want a new iPhone, but I am not paying

fifteen hundred dollars. I can get a good editing

computer for that much money. Screw you. I don't

leave the house that much. Well, and that's that's

that's my boat, too, is like. for the price of

two of these phones, I could buy another computer

fully decked out. That's a tenth of my wheelchair.

My electric wheelchair costs $13 ,000. That's

like 10 % of my wheelchair is a phone. No, I

can use Skype to call people. Well, my thing

is, is when I can buy a brand new Laptop Dell

laptop, you know, pretty pretty middle ground,

you know nothing, you know fancy or anything

for $500 And I have to pay like a thousand for

a piece of machinery that sits in my pocket Like

it's not it's not worth it for me That's why

I've been going on four years on this phone and

have not upgraded yet You know, here's one thing

and I want you to think about this because we

briefly touched upon this imagine a cultural

perspective on this Let's say tomorrow all the

smartphones stopped working. Now I want you to

picture walking through a mall. How different

that experience might be. You'd actually have

people talking. Yeah. I mean, I think going back

to the dumb phones would bring back the lost

art of conversation. If anything, and this might

be a little far fetched, but follow me through

the weeds here. There's a dating app called Tinder.

and it's always swipe left if you like the person,

swipe right if you don't, I think, or maybe it's

the other way around, either way. Imagine how

dating would change. I mean, sure, you could

still text people, but it wouldn't be, hey, I'm

gonna send you nudes, maybe you could, I don't

know. But people would change. Like, the social

landscape would change drastically. It would

change overnight if smartphones just... did away.

Sure, there's tablets and everything, but let's

just say the smart technology is gone. I would

love to see what the world would be like in a

year. Just to see how things would change socially.

I think it would benefit us a great deal. As

you said, people would actually have to talk

to each other because there's the nuance of conversation,

the little details that you miss when saying,

see, you'd actually have to laugh out loud as

opposed to lol. Which man I don't have the words

these kids make up okay lit I Understand I don't

know do people stay do people still say on fleek

anymore. I don't know I have no idea like to

be honest Like I see a lot of these different

acronyms now and I have to Google them because

I have no idea what they are Urban dictionary

is yo friend. Yeah. Yeah, it's just it's I don't

know. It's it's strange and Since we're talking

about flip phones Samsung has a concept for 2019

of a a new flip phone. Mm -hmm. That's a smartphone

because they're using the It's kind of that bendable

AMOLED screen and they they have a They're expected

to make a release it's supposed to have a Qualcomm

processor like everything nowadays, more RAM,

and it's going to have the two 4 .2 -inch displays,

dual rear cameras, you know, basically your normal

set of things that they would have on a flip

phone. However, the only thing is it's like a

leaked image, so there's no telling if it's true.

But Motorola has been working on something, I

guess. Motorola executives are insisting that

the Motorola Razr V4 handset might be coming

out in 2019. And it's a funny thing of talking

about the Razer phone, the V3 that we had on

way back when in the dumb phone era. It's got

how in the front where they have the smartphone

buttons and have the time and the date. Yeah

front so that parts is a screen and on this you

know concept that they have And then it folds

out and then you have the full screen on the

interior, but it holds that old razor style So

the device so it's got that lip at the bottom

just like the old phone That's interesting. I

mean, I'd be curious to see what this thing would

be like handed on. I'm pretty sure we'll see

it at the Consumer Electronics Show if it's real

in January, or at least there'll be some kind

of tech anyway. Yeah, and I'm kind of interested

because they're saying that it would have the

multi -display, they would have the Qualcomm

6 gigs of RAM, and it would probably be expensive.

But if I was going to throw down any money for

this device, If I was gonna throw down money

for any of these phones, like an obscene amount,

it would probably be this one. Because you could

fold it up. That might get me to move away from

iPhone. Maybe. And that says a lot. If you had

basic Android on it, like not the proprietary

crap that Samsung puts on their machines. Just

like most of the Motorola's that are out now.

If they had that, I would for sure jump ship.

I would get this device hands down. This is what

I would get if I had an option. I don't know.

It might behoove me to wait. I don't know. Because

I don't know if this is an actual possibility

for 2019 or if this is all still up in the air.

But I know that this would be the defining factor

of if I were to jump ship. Because I would love

to have a smartphone that folds up and goes in

my pocket the size of my wallet. Or thinner than

my wallet, but it would fold up. It still has

the same horsepower, basically. Yeah. I would

be down for that. And then it would be significant

enough change for me to warrant wanting to do

this in the first place. But yeah, I don't know.

I'm kind of of that mentality with the phone

situation that I think that we've come to this

era of some people are going to start going back

to dumb phones. Because they're hip like that.

Yeah, because now it'll be a status thing. Oh,

I've got a dumb phone because it's better. Because

I'm just cool. Look at me. Yeah. I mean, I don't

use any of the apps. I mean, for the most part,

I don't really download anything. I use it mostly

to check my email. I use mostly the camera, my

email, and I chat on Discord and I play a few

games. Truth be told, that's why this iPhone,

as long as the iOS doesn't screw me, which it

will, I have 256 gigabytes of storage. I can

record entire movies on this thing. Hell, I could

shoot movies with this thing if I so do. I think

my camera's 4K. I'm not 100 % sure, but I know

it's 1080p. But I bought it when I like with

in mind of doing it as a vlog camera the fact

that I can do Facebook live from it I think is

pretty impressive. I'm just impressed with what

the tech can and can't do but That's almost a

discussion for a different day. Yes. Yes, so

moving on the media industry as Some of you know,

I used to work in it And I hope to again And

myself, I have got training in the media industry.

I guess I'm what you call a podcaster slash influencer.

I'm considered an influencer in the quote unquote

geek Canadian media sphere when it comes to video

games. Like I myself get review copies of a lot

of games. I get a lot of movies early, a lot

of. a lot of television shows. Steve and I both

have a relationship with Netflix and stuff like

that. So we are in the media. I myself have training,

as some of you may know, from Niagara College

and Mohawk in radio television presentation and

public relations. So I do know the media sphere

quite well. I've been working in and around it.

since 2007. So Steve pitched this idea to me

this afternoon about getting into radio and media

is hard and specifically I really want to talk

about this not to discourage people. But to realistically

set expectations, because I see a lot of people

who say, oh, I want to be this next YouTube success,

or I want to be the next Twitch streamer, because

people see people like Ninja who rakes in half

a million dollars a month streaming. You know

what's funny? I've never heard of that guy up

until like about two weeks ago when somebody

was talking about it on Twitter. Yeah, it's crazy.

People like that make millions of dollars or

a more contemporary example of a YouTuber you're

probably more familiar with is PewDiePie. Now

he's had his own share of controversies and whatnot

over the last few years by saying the wrong thing

at the wrong time and taking it's just a joke

guys or another contemporary example who people

love to hate and arguably you probably should

Logan Paul or the Paul brothers or you might

remember the Fine Brothers who do try the trademark

the whole blank so -and -so react, that whole

debacle. Yeah, that was a whole tool moment on

their behalf. Yeah, so getting into the media

and radio. Do I recommend it? If you want my

professional opinion, if you're going to do radio,

you do it because you love it. Getting into the

media in terms of television, don't do it because

you want to be famous. Now, the reason I'm giving

this approach, I have to give this with a preface.

I came into this industry for the wrong reasons.

I came into this wanting to be famous. Did I

achieve a degree of fame? I would argue I'm notable

in geek circles, but not much beyond that. And

I got that mostly because of my association with

another website whose name I'm not going to mention

here. Eventually, that changed through the course

of talking with my professors. I wanted to cover

news. I hunger for news. I want the truth. Investigative

journalism is sort of one of my talents that

I think I still have, not as much as I used to

when I was back in school, but I digress. Point

of the matter is with Twig, for example, the

other podcast that I work on with Steve sometimes,

is I believe information yearns to be free. Information

should be provided to the people free of charge

no matter what. Should I be paid for what I do?

It would be nice, but I'll never charge people

for it. That being said, if I was given charge

of a newsroom, I would love that. To me, hunting

the truth down, information, getting unbiased

reporting. is what I crave. That's why when I

look at pundits on CNN or Fox News, one leans

very left, one leans very right. Somewhere in

the middle is the truth of all that. And it makes

me upset the fact that reporting slants one way

or the other, and it's difficult to see the forest

for the trees, if you kind of get what I'm saying.

Or maybe that's the other way. So anyway, point

of the matter is, I want to stay in this for

the news, plus getting all the free stuff is

nice because I get a chance to review it for

you and tell you whether it's worth it or a piece

of crap. But that also being said, things in

the media landscape have changed so much. Because

I know people who go to school for digital media

right now are going with the intention of being

streamers or YouTubers, but for every Person

who makes it there's 10 ,000 people knocking

at the door whose skills are just as good as

yours Whose content is just as good as yours

and can pump it out faster even at times It's

a highly competitive landscape and I don't know

whether people are getting into it for the right

reasons Well, and I think that that's why there's

a lot of burnout in it, too Well, absolutely

because if you watch a lot of people are like

I'm gonna be a podcaster to be internet famous

and it's like You don't want that necessarily.

It could go either way. And what I mean by that

is the numbers on this show are not as well as

they used to be. And that could be for a variety

of reasons. It could be because they've changed

how the metric standards work. It could be because

people don't like the show or like things that

I've said in the past. It could be also the fact

that I'm Canadian and they hate me. Or it could

just be because of the direction that the shows

traversed over the years and changed and they

just liked the original rendition because it

was new. But that being said, it's still kind

of, I started this whole podcasting journey because

one, I always wanted to work in radio and broadcast.

It had nothing to do with the fact I was trying

to get money. Now, would it be nice? Yes. Do

it at times. I think that I would love to monetize

more of the content or put things behind a paywall.

Yes, I do. But at the same time, it would have

to be something substantial for me to even bother

with that. And it would have to be something

that's completely new. It would not be something

that I've been doing for years for free. And

if I was able to get into podcasting professionally

again like I once was. There's a variety of things

I'd love to try and love to do, especially with

a team to work with and kind of bounce ideas

off of and being able to produce different kinds

of content that I either A, don't have the time

or the funds to do at this time. Well, yeah,

I mean, it's so hard to produce content now because,

like, you hit it right on the head there. You

need a team. You need resources. You look at

a website like, say, The Nerdist or Geek and

Sundry. Those are their jobs because there is

a corporation behind them backing them. Me and

Steve are hobbyists. Like, our podcasts are powered

by love, labor, and occasionally some freebies.

Pretty much. And I haven't got much in the way

of freebies lately, but that's yeah Yeah, I mean

like twig is a labor of love for example, and

I do it because I love entertaining people and

I genuinely do and that's getting into this is

Like I said, I think part of my reason I don't

like a lot of youtubers because they're doing

it to be famous They're not doing it because

they love the art of entertaining and I'm not

saying you should go busk on a corner and sing

for your supper I kind of consider podcasters

and this is gonna sound really weird. We're like

the modern -day bards Do we get paid sometimes?

Yeah. But bards love to entertain. They tell

stories. They relay the news. They are entertainers

at heart. And if you want to get in the entertainment

industry, radio or television, you have to understand,

are you doing it for the art? Are you doing it

for fame? Like some people can get famous by

just being a beautiful person and they become

Instagram models and they get product deals flying

at them left, right and center. Know a couple

of people that are Instagram famous and they

don't make a lot of direct money But they do

get a lot of endorsements or they get free products.

Sometimes they'll get paid to hey, can you follow

my page and write of Review but even that's something

that can be fallen behind too because there are

false Instagram people that are famous because

you can buy followers like there's Twitter famous

and in this era of Reddit, do you really want

that? Well, and you could do that with any platform.

I mean, you can go on Fiverr and you can pay

somebody to boost your podcast in the Apple charts,

which the Apple charts are a joke anyway, but

because there's no real standard in that, it's

just, it's kind of, you know, you can pay your

way to get to the top or you can just have these

same shows that show up in there every week.

And it's not, it's not a true. you know, up and

new and noteworthy. It's not like it doesn't

actually cycle through their whole catalog. It's

just whoever happens to be the their top tier

picks. And that's kind of like the same boat

is like the the I heart radio podcast awards.

They they announced there, you know, that the

first ever podcast awards, you know, exclusive

at I heart radio is is going to be taking place.

And there's been podcast awards around for 14

years now. Yeah podcast awards calm on the 14th

annual people's choice podcast awards You know

it just happened this year and they they bring

off the winners at podcast movement in September

So like I don't know like there's a lot of invasion

from the radio industry But they're trying to

say that oh, it's a it's a it's a billion dollar

industry blah blah blah, and you know, they're

like They don't really understand podcasting.

It's not about it's not about you know, a quick

fix to get this money It's it's about the journey

and about the the message that you're conveying

and they miss that I mean a lot of radio stations

that I've noticed is repackaged stuff from their

morning shows and just put it in a podcast form

basically it takes a guy 20 minutes to Edit it

together slap some ads in front of it and I could

say the so -and -so podcast show brought to you

by so -and -so's organic turkey bacon or something.

Yeah, I mean, and that's what majority of traditional

radio does. And they, you know, having been on

that side of it, I because I worked for a online

radio station broadcast network that does like

television on through their own through their

own network and does radio and does podcasts.

All the podcasts were repackaged podcasts from

their radio broadcasts minus the live radio.

Well, minus the live radio ads that would be

on terrestrial and they put dynamic ad insertion

points during those empty spaces on the podcast

to fill that void. And while it does work, some

of that content could have easily been chopped

down and they could have easily made it like

a shorter show instead of being like a repackage

of the entire show. They could have like they

could have because they had daily episodes. So

like it was it was kind of that boat. And they

did have some podcasters that were syndicated.

um which didn't do as well because they weren't

on that you know live radio feed uh and they

weren't the main personalities in the network

but it you know this i don't know like i saw

them as more like taking care of the podcast

itself like the show and like their message whereas

the other one was like how many uh you know and

i guess that's kind of the boat i fell into for

a minute uh working for that for so long is it

was How many messages and how many news topics

can I talk about in my allotted slot? And that's

kind of like I feel like that's kind of like

part of the downfall of radio into podcasting

is because they don't understand the space. Yeah,

I mean, with podcasts, you really have to, in

my opinion, make the most of your time, because

with morning radio, people are tuning in and

out over the course of, say, a morning show,

which is, say, four hours like podcasts. You're

gonna hold someone's attention for maybe an hour,

maybe an hour and a half, if you're lucky? Well,

they actually say that the amount of time, the

average over X amount of podcasts ranging from

10 minutes to three hours, the longest that people

generally listen is about 38 to 43 minutes. Okay,

so about your average television show length,

which is something that I definitely see Like

for example with twig. I always try to keep us

Try to go close to an hour usually go about an

hour 15 hour 30 depending I figure if I want

to be as long as a horror movie or a shitty action

movie, because I figure that's how long it's

going to take you to get to work, depending.

And that's there and back, depending. So we're

always with you in your car or when you're working

out. At least that's a lot of the feedback I've

gotten. Yeah, and that's the feedback I've gotten.

I've gotten feedback about shows being too long

or shows being not long enough. And it's kind

of difficult to ride the line there. But I mean,

I've kind of come to this conclusion that the

show's as long as it needs to be. I mean, yeah,

I'm not going to go on for hours on end. And

my general rule of thumb is I won't go over an

hour and a half. Yeah, same here. That's my hard

rule as well. um because to be honest like i'll

turn out even on my own stuff or other people's

like like even when i'm subscribed to shows on

itunes like there's a majority of shows i'm listening

to right now because i work uh in in an environment

where I work in front of my computer, they're

playing Pandora out in the middle of the store

and I'm in the back and so I just plug my headphones

in and listen to just different podcasts, just

one so I can kind of get a vibe of how other

podcasts run and what they do and to kind of

refresh myself on it because I'd been out of

that general listener loop for so long. I'm trying

to get a variety of different shows under my

belt. I am the worst podcast listener. I don't

listen to any outside of morning radio, which

I know gets repackaged into a podcast. I am the

worst podcast listener you can imagine. Frankly,

it comes down to time. Sorry, go ahead, Steve.

I feel like if you don't listen to new podcasts,

you don't fully get the taste of where podcasts

are going. So I feel like in order to evolve

your own show, you have to be listening to some

of the shows of that current time that you're

producing for because things I produced nine,

10 years ago don't apply today. Not only do the

topics not stick, but the way that it was handled

doesn't stick, because it's a totally different

social environment. I guess with me, I model

the Twig show after morning radio now, where

we still have our news, weird news, and now we

have a segment called Satan's Pantry, where we

try new weird food each week, usually with disastrous

results. I've eaten some real shit on that show.

Oh my god, Steve. It's not I've listened I actually

I actually listened to an episode earlier today

and the only thing that I that I had a critique

on which I don't know if you want me to say that

on air It's fine. I I felt like the the review

should have been much shorter Oh, yeah, because

sometimes we just keep going. Well, and it was

it was and this is no slight against against

Alex, but it was... I knew it was going to be

him. I knew it. It was way too long. Like, just

in general, like, I find that with people's attention

spans, it's like, you know, tell me, you know,

the who, what, why, and where. and all the W's

that they taught you in school and they teach

you in broadcasting, teach me why I should care

about this and then just kind of leave it in

the air and give your brief opinion. But I feel

like if you're doing it in a segment show, it

should be shorter. But I also, I realized that

on my own from having done that in a previous

week when I was trying to segment this show.

And so it's kind of... I don't know. It's just

kind of playing around with the formula. I mean,

whatever works for your listeners kind of thing.

But yeah, same time. I mean, things evolve over

time. And that's part of the reason why getting

into podcasting or media and radio is so hard,

because the industry changes so often. I mean,

myself, specifically getting into radio specific

stuff, you have to keep up. With the music and

the formats of your music and I've noticed this

very very distinctly Canadian rock radio is so

different from American rock radio you guys have

such a different style of DJing of doing talk

bits of basically communicating with your listeners

and building community A lot of the stations

up here are not manned 24 7 or if there is somebody

there may be in the newsroom There's an engineer

maybe someone doing Maybe a satellite shift which

means they're just doing hey guys. It's three

o 'clock in the morning You're listening to so

-and -so. It's currently 12 degrees outside,

you know that sort of bullshit well whereas listening

to radio like the radio station i listen to and

i love and i'll worship these guys till the end

of the earth is a station out of philly called

wmr 93 .3 and they are live 24 7 they interact

they do contests literally 24 hours around the

clock and there's something about building community

sorry steve i i keep cutting you off oh no it's

fine What I was gonna say is like majority of

the ones that are here in my local Michigan area

are that way as well. And just some of the things

I've learned while interviewing with a lot of

these companies, because I have gotten several

interviews and just not for whatever reason.

Just not gotten anything past it. I mean, I've

had ones where I've thought have gone really

well and then just they'll ghost me. And then

I'll never hear from them again, even if I send

them an email like, hey, what's going on? Am

I still in the loop? And then I'll just never

hear from them again, which is just really odd.

But some of the things that I've learned, though,

is that they want people that can handle the

talent and handle the podcast side of things,

but at the same time, they don't. Fully understand

the podcast division of it like or how to make

it work within traditional radio because they're

thinking traditional radio terms not Modern terms

because they also make the talent have to blog

write X amount of articles per week They make

like these people have to motivate, you know

and edit their stuff They make them have to do

like live streams. They make them have to do

like, you know Just very things various things

to draw attention to the talent and the station

and so like they have to wear many hats now and

so it's like it's kind of a different landscape

that you know they're they're having to build

themselves up almost to the point that like celebrities

do when they guest star on like talk shows yeah

but they're doing it by themselves some of the

djs i follow uh from philly They do a lot of

interaction with their community, so I wonder

if that's how they get around having to blog

and microblog, but they do a lot of community

involvement where they go out, say, hey, go check

out this car dealership or go do this, that,

the other thing. Well, they're paid to do those.

Yeah, they're paid to do that. But there's also

other things like one of the guys I really like

produces a morning show and it's air. It's a

public affair show that airs at six thirty in

the morning. So I can only imagine what the listenership

numbers are like. But sometimes there's some

really damn good radio. It just seems out of

nowhere I guess it's to fulfill some fcc requirement.

You have to provide so much local airtime, I

guess um but that being said It the the market

is you have to understand what what you're going

into and specifically If anybody listening wants

to pursue a career in radio I'm gonna say this

love the music, love the format, be adaptable.

You're gonna run into a lot of, and I hate to

say this, Steve, because we're trying to keep

the show as PG -13 as possible, you're gonna

run into a lot of fuckhead program directors

who wanna tell you what to do and how to run

your shift. If you're entertaining, if your talk

bits are very general, if you know your music,

you can make beautiful broadcast. You will entertain

people, your phone lines will light up, you'll

build a community not just on Twitter, but with

your audience that was willing to call in and

talk with you. Like one of the best people that

I know who builds their radio up so much is a

guy, once again, going back to Philly, his name

is Jackie Bam Bam, or another guy called Lockdown,

his name's, he's underscore radio Kevin, I think,

on Twitter. These guys will talk to you. If they

got the time between songs, they'll get a chance

to know you. Or if you email them, they'll get

a chance to know you. But they also know their

music. They know their playlist back to forward.

And they can give you interesting anecdotes.

And particularly, if you're willing to start

small and be ambitious in a small radio market,

I know a guy who cut a really creative demo.

and he got hired in a really small radio station

and now he works for one of the larger stations

in Toronto now. He's their digital content producer.

That can work well too. If you're willing to

take, he took his podcast experience from what

we're doing now and turned it into a career at

a large radio station. Now admittedly, he's producing

little things that I think are really fantastic.

He does something called Behind the Vinyl. where

they talk to an artist like, hey, you did this

album back in 1994. What was it like? What was

the number one single? Blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it's like a five minute thing. Sometimes

it's longer. But if you're willing to put in

the work and know your music or know particularly

what your format you're going is for, say you're

going into talk radio, produce something kind

of not fun. But serious or if you want to do

something fun, you could do that too Like hey,

we're gonna talk about the history of I don't

know bubblegum Let's say you're his say the town

is a history with bubblegum. You know, it's it's

a thing or Say you have particularly famous Political

person produce a focus on them and say hey be

willing to put it together and you might get

a job Just by saying hey, here's five minutes.

I did on senator so -and -so Maybe you got people

who grew up around them as interview subjects,

people on the streets. You never know. That kind

of initiative can really show a radio station

that, hey, you really want this job. You want

to make it more than a job. You want to be a

career. And I think that's the big reason I want

people to understand when you go into media and

into radio or any kind of entertainment, it has

to be about The art it has to be about conveying

something important Being more than a paycheck

don't go if you want to work in radio and be

a paycheck work in promotions work in sales There's

always a need for people in sales in radio. I

can tell you that right now There's always a

need to be someone who wants to work in the editing

department and even still that's creative to

like Cutting together commercials and doing something

fun. That's something that that like you can

do too If you don't get on air your commercials

can make it on air and some people will remember

those jingles forever See and that's the thing

is I personally want to be a Creative person

and so And I, you know, don't get me wrong. I

would love to help make decisions and do things

in that nature, too, but, you know... I want

to do something with digital content. I want

to edit. I eventually want to be on the air of

something. And if not, I've got the podcast,

but it's not a big thing. I tried to do the YouTube

thing a long time ago, and I decided that that

really wasn't for me because... You couldn't

pay me to go on YouTube. No frigging way. Well,

and it wasn't even me visually. I've done both.

I've done me visually and I've done voiceover

with... gameplay. And to be honest, like to me,

like it doesn't fit my personality. And so I'm

going to try to do live video thing again, and

I've got a green screen and I just have to figure

out what I want to do with it. But I just I don't

know, I think that it's a very difficult business

to get into. It is it is absolutely one of the

hardest businesses I've ever come across. And

I've tried to go into computers. I've tried to

go into television behind the scenes, which is

just as competitive, if not more so in some ways.

It's not who you know, it's what you know. And

even then it's cutthroat. Myself. That's very

true. I mean, myself, if I had to choose one

career path, if I had to leave podcasting behind.

I want to do community -focused radio, and I

wouldn't mind even being in a small market like

less than 50 ,000 people. I want to be not that,

hey, that's Mike on the billboard. I want to

be like, hey, guys, it's drive time. I'm going

to be with you from noon till 4 o 'clock, and

we're going to play some of the best music from

the 80s, 90s, and the 2000s. Let's rock and roll.

Let's open up my prize box. Let's see what I

got ready to roll for you today. Hey, I got concert

tickets to the farewell tour of Kiss. Do you

want them? Call me at whatever, whatever, whatever.

I want to do. And I think just talking right

now, you can hear that in my voice. That's the

presentation side of me coming out. Radio, talk

radio or music based radio is my, it's my jam.

Cause I don't like as fun as it might be to talk

about geek stuff every single day. I think that

would burn me out. Like I don't know how certain

podcasters can put out an hour or two hours of

content every single day and not hate their life

with music Yeah, I don't know. I guess to me

it's about presenting something different to

me when I listen to MMR For example again, I

love you Philly. Um, I hear Probably about an

eight -hour loop of music Sometimes some repeats,

like believe it, the amount of times I hear ghost

rats in a day would drive you crazy. Or Metallica

spit out the bone, but that's just their particular

music director. But anyway, side note aside.

It's something about bringing the music to life

for people, to entertain. And I think that's

where I'd most be happy. is bringing music to

people, bringing something entertaining like

that. And sure, geek stuff is fun and everything,

but you know what? Maybe that's not where I should

be all the time. I guess I'm more of a music

guy than I thought I was, but I'm never gonna

stop giving up the podcasting thing as long as

people are willing to listen to me ramble about

who'd win between a Power Ranger and a Ghostbuster.

Why the hell not, I guess? Yeah, and I'm kind

of the same mindset like I I Enjoyed talking

so Which is really odd and and I discovered the

the knack for it really a long time ago like

doing the podcast but The even even if I were

to do it in person I could do it now. I know

because Well, I did it at that Star Trek event

so Yeah, I mean I I love doing personal appearances

when I used to get invited to conventions a lot

I'd be in front of a panel in front of probably

a couple of hundred people Like if I'm filling

a room and they're just listening to me talk.

That was a lot of fun I loved that live vibe.

I totally dug that but I could see how that could

get a exhausting too for certain people but I

guess to swing this conversation around we mentioned

this is hard and the thing that'll make it hard

is your passion your reason why you do it and

I know I keep hammering that home because I want

you people that are listening if there's any

impressionable listeners out there you got to

follow your passions but sometimes your passions

don't always pay the bills I guess the best piece

of advice I can say is make sure you're in this

for the right reasons and be willing to sacrifice

a lot. But if you do, if you do and you get lucky,

you can land yourself into some marvelously rewarding

work. And if you don't happen to land that job

at the radio station or whatever, your little

podcast, your little YouTube channel or whatever

it is. You couldn't make somebody happy as long

as you're fulfilling yourself creatively and

artistically then I say keep keep on doing it

Yeah, and I agree like I'm If this were for money,

I would have quit a long time ago, but It's it's

definitely not there are times where I feel like

I need a break and I just refuse to take it because

I'm I always make it a point to take off December

into mid -January every year so I don't get burned

out. See, I've never taken any time off other

than when I've actually been on vacation. And

even then I'm like, I can't tune it out. I'll

have something prerecorded. Oh yeah, same here.

Which I think that on this it's probably as good

of a place as any to announce that I'm gonna

have more guest hosts. kind of episodes Well,

I'm gonna pre -record As many days as I possibly

can this month of November so that December What's

that? It's good. So you can get ahead of it too.

And that's another reason Or not a reason that's

a trait if you're in media being really well

organized will really help you. If you're piss

port time management, your life will suck. Yep.

Yep. And I've gone back to doing my Google Docs

for my notes on various things when I use it

for something. I even go to the point of trying

to go through my Twitter likes and things like

that. But anyways, I'm going to use these pre

-recorded episodes that I'm doing all like as

much as I can So that I can take off a few weeks

in December and not lose my mind Yeah, I'm gonna

pre -record some stuff with Alex and the rest

of twig and I'm gonna play through my backlog

of stuff because I really want to play the Witcher

and I'm two years behind I'm playing that so

That would be something I'd like to do I'd like

to put some more hours into Assassin's Creed

Odyssey and I'd like to play fallout vault 76

to completion so Yeah, I haven't played too many

video games but lately but that's more so just

cuz I don't have time I get home and I'm tired

So I guess like goals for geek life if your goal

is to be in radio and in Podcasting and media

in general. We've kind of talked about that.

Yep I my other goal is I've recently gotten the

taste of wanting to get back into voiceover.

So it's but I want to do it like for real. So

and I know that it's not an easy journey either

just as much as regular radio. So, yeah, that's

that's going to be a journey on its own. But

yeah, we'll see. I guess my goal for geek life,

and this is a subtle plug, I'm working on a Patreon,

which I hope to launch early next year called

Bard Looking for Job, and it's to be a professional

storyteller. I don't know whether I want to work

in the RPG industry proper, like writing books

or writing rule sets and crunch and fluff and

everything, but I like the idea of creating adventures

of DMing for hire, if you will. Say you don't

have a group of dungeon masters around you to

help set you on your adventures through Greyhawk

or Forgotten Realms, I can do that for you. Stuff

like that. So I guess one of my goals is just

to be a perf - literally to be a bard. That's

what I really want to do, except I don't play

a friggin' loot and don't have a stupid hat.

I really want to do the entertainment thing.

And I guess I was watching something, I can't

remember what it was, but - It showed a guy in

a tavern sitting by this roaring hearth. Yeah,

I think that's what it's called, hearth, whatever.

And he's sitting there talking. People are just

listening to him tell this tale. And I want that

to be me, except in modern times. And I guess

I really am the twig in Terrible Warriors. People

listen to the stories and the worlds that I create.

And I dig that. And as I've said before, I didn't

fancy myself a creative person until a couple

of years ago when I started to get a lot of feedback

on it. People saying, man, you're really awesome

at this. You should keep going. And it's very

encouraging. It's very much a geek goal to create

something. Epic and monumental and right now.

I'm working on something for the other podcast

terrible warriors right now Called the Cambridge

Chronicles, which is sort of the side project

and I'm running a world called shadow run and

it's one of my favorite fictional universes basically

imagine D &D but with guns and more magic, I

guess, if you wanted to put a bit of a slant

on it. So imagine a troll with a friggin' sniper

rifle, I guess. And I'm trying to create this

magnum opus where I've created Toronto in the

year 2054, the neon soaked streets of Toronto

and political intrigue, corporate espionage,

and all sorts of cool things for my characters.

And one of my goals is to bring shadow run or

cyberpunk back into the forefront. I mean, we

live in a cyberpunk society right now where information

is a weapon. Culture is so radicalized now that

we sort of having cybernetic limbs, which I will

soon have in the future when I get my prosthetic

limb, I will be a cyborg. I've literally become

Shadowrun. So I guess a goal for geek life is

to just bring cyberpunk storytelling back a little

bit. Maybe bring the William Gibson -esque worlds

of Neuromancer and the Difference Engine, though

I don't... I think he wrote that? Anyway, stuff

like that. And just be a little bit more well

-rounded in that respect. I mean... Another thing

I'd love to accomplish for a geek goal in life

is I really want to be knowledgeable on one subject

and I guess I've taken that subject to be role

-playing games which is Memorizing a lot of math

and I'm frankly terrible at math um, but it's

finding the the tricks in math and Looking at

the different rule systems because it's kind

of funny. I can now see when people say This

system was designed in the 1980s. This was designed

in the 90s. This is a modern RPG. And it's so

fascinating to see how the parts all flow together.

Like, do you remember that scene in The Hangover

where Alan, Zach Galifianakis' character has

all the numbers floating around his head? I feel

like that when I look at role -playing math.

I'm thinking, I get this. holy crap, I get this,

I see how this functions, I see how this part

works with part A and part B and it's fascinating.

And I guess that's the thing, I really want the

goal for geek life, my geek life, is to entertain

and educate people, to bring something a little

bit new to them. Because if I enjoy it and I

love it, Maybe I can spread that joy to somebody

else because I've had people like my friend Derek

Spread his love of power Rangers to me now. I've

collected most of the mighty Morphin era zords

I've got the legacy power line of Figures at

least all the mighty Morphin figures. I even

got a Lord dragon for my buddy linkara. Thank

you, Lewis. You're a friggin superstar and stuff

like that and I'm starting to get into Japanese

Super Sentai. So I'm learning so much more about

another culture. And you learn things about their

culture, not just through their superheroes,

because it goes further back at how their medieval

culture influenced it, how some of their folk

tales have influenced and stuff like that, like

reading up about common riders, not just guy

gets signs, buckle fights, monster of the week.

There's so much more to it, stuff like that.

There's like one of them where they're like a

detective or something like that. It's weird.

But I guess to sum it up succinctly, my goal

for geek life is to entertain, educate, and bring

a depth of knowledge to myself I did not possess

before. I wish to be more than what I was when

I came in. Yeah, I think that that kind of resonates

with myself as well. I think I've gotten this

kind of knack of, I'd rather be informing people

and teaching them something rather than just

kind of, I hate this television show because,

or I like this television show because, I don't

know, something of meaning. Want to be I mean

one of the greatest moments I've ever gotten

I I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on this show

before is I was telling a terrible warrior story

a couple of years ago and It was in the anime

neon Genesis Evangelion. I was using the GURPS

set of rules Good system complicated, but good

system point of the matter is I had my friend

Dr. Tara want who's Toronto's greatest soup supervillain

My friend Erica, Scotty, and my friend Julian.

I had three of them on the verge of tears, crying

in a room no bigger than most people's kitchens

on a Sunday afternoon when nothing is wrong but

to tell an emotional story, to drag that emotion

out of somebody. That is what I crave. I crave

emotion. I love being able to tell stories that

are that potent and powerful, or to scare someone.

We did this with Ravenloft, had people unsettled

thinking, oh man, what's gonna jump out of the

darkness next? Why did that doll move? What's

whispering in my ear? And I'm just speaking words

as if we're talking right now, telling a story.

And... That's where I think I want my deep goals

to me. I mean because of certain Difficulties

I have ahead of me will I ever work in radio?

realistically, I don't know because of physical

limitations my skills may be out of Maybe at

a whack, but I'm never gonna lose the podcast

but that being said Never gonna give up always

gonna be entertaining always talking always telling

stories in some capacity Yep, I think that you

you pretty well nailed that one right on the

head I My my eventual goals is to do to do voiceover

whether it happens or not. I don't know. I've

been having a lot of fun doing podcast roles

and Fandubs and in audio plays and things like

that, but you know if it ever happens it happens

but if not then you know, whatever but I'm currently

working towards that I'm working towards getting

into radio like traditional radio and television

so just because I I enjoy the the process and

I enjoy the the being able to make a difference

and and entertain and inform and so that's That's

kind of why I want to get into it. It has nothing

to do with money. I mean, yeah, I want enough

to live on, but I don't want to do it to get

rich. Just cover my bills, cover my travel. I'm

generally pretty happy. I know I'm not going

to get rich playing D &D. Yeah. But hey, geek

and sundry, if you're hiring, man, if you can

find a way to not put me on camera and just give

me a voice, I'm good to go, man. Any day of the

week, I'm good to go. Yes. Put him on camera

in the background. I'll be a hand puppet. Give

him a CGI character. Yes. But yeah, so that pretty

much about wraps it up here for us here on Altered

Geek. Hopefully you've enjoyed our conversation

as we've talked about dumb phones. Would we ever

go back to a society that knew how to talk to

each other? The difficulties of getting into

radio media, some of the reasons the Why it's

hard why we think it's hard and why you maybe

should or shouldn't get into it Just follow your

passions. And then finally we just talked about

some of the geek goals We have set up for ourselves

be them life's ambitions or something a little

bit more simple We've definitely buried our souls

to you in this particular episode of alter geek

as always if you want to get in contact With

the show Steve if they wanted to do that, they

would do They would at us on the Facebook's and

the Twitter's at alter geek or myself at SCP

21 You can follow me on Twitter Instagram and

Facebook at Birdman Don You can also email me

Mike at this week in geek dotnet always looking

for you interacting with you We're also trying

out something new. We haven't got it quite figured

out just yet. But if you're on discord We have

a discord server where perhaps you can come out

and talk with us. I'm on there constantly So

if Steve wants to post up the discord in the

episode notes, he can do that So be sure to be

following us on there. I reply to any and all

questions and Yeah, so hopefully next time when

Steve has his next guest host in they'll be talking

about a variety of topics both deep insightful

and Entertaining to you the listener. We always

welcome your interactions with the show. So Please

feel free, also please feel free to leave us

a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening

to this podcast. It helps us out, lets us know

what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong,

and if in fact we are worth your time, but I

think we are. So until next time, listeners,

I've been Mike the Birdman, joined with Steve

Megatron Phillips, and Steve, take us out. So

until next time, get altered. Get icky, yes!

Get icky. It's not Halloween. So until next time,

get altered. Get geeky with the Altered Geeks.