Geek Culture Smackdown: Digital Scams, Physical Media’s Reign, and Rebooting Your Feed!

Hi, this is David Kay, and you're listening to

Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron.

Welcome back to another episode of Altered Geek.

I am happy that you're here to explore this week's

adventure into geekdom. I have some interesting

articles, you could say, and conversation pieces,

not only for this show, but just kind of in general.

I, of course, Appreciate you listening to this

episode on geekcastradio .com. And if you're

not, why are you not there? There's plenty of

great things to explore on the website. Not only

in the realms of podcasting, but we have video

content as well. So you might be wondering what

all is there. Well, we have articles we have

staff blogs Where I rant and rave we have the

top 100 countdown. We have the geek meter We

have video content from Captain ruggles gaming

geek showcase the comic concierge Kai dragon

media and of course some old content from altered

geek so How the heck are you guys what's going

on like what is something that's just Interesting

you in this geeky era that we're kind of sitting

in I I've been sitting on a lot of rants lately

And if you're not familiar with Headshot It's

it's an old podcast You'll never find it. It's

been scrubbed. If you do, by chance, have it.

Lucky you. Yeah, so. I have been having an interesting

time. And among the many things that are in this

episode, sorry if there's a little bit of a clipping

there, my dog was. Howling and I had to put a

stop to it. So anyways, um, yeah, I I've been

enjoying some Dragon Ball super getting back

involved with Dragon Ball Z and all of the content

they're in I've Been more or less just kind of

coasting through various media. I saw transformers

1 great movie I Question the marketing of that

film because they showed the worst parts in the

trailer in addition to just Not showing enough

of it. I guess It's probably the best Transformers

film that we've gotten Since the first 2007 film

and then prior to that the 1986 film I would

argue. I mean, yeah, there's some things in it.

Yeah, there's some swearing. Yeah, there's some

dismemberment. There's some stuff. And there's

there's people that are clamoring about how horrible

it is and everything. And, you know, oh, you

screwed up the G1 formula, which I'm I love G1.

Don't get me wrong. I love it in general. We're

never getting G1 again. Yes, they will always

go back to the cues and the visualizations and

similarities of it. They're never going back

to G1. proper it's like beast wars i as much

as i hate kingdom uh it was a different iteration

it reintroduced the toys and the aspects of having

all of that kind of show in the limelight uh

again even though the voice acting was terrible

um but nevertheless i i feel like this film did

what the 2007 film did for Transformers and revitalizing

it back at that point. And what Beast Wars did

after G1 kind of died out. So I feel like this

is that new era, that new iteration that is going

to kind of bring us into the the future of Transformers.

We'll always get random stuff that's G1 styled.

But as far as the media, it's. It's very fitting

and then I saw an awesome clip that somebody

put together on YouTube and I can't remember

who or where they clipped it together like portions

of Transformers 1 and part of the story and the

characterizations and things like that and They

mixed it with Transformers Prime with the aligned

continuity like the part where Prime forgot Megatron

was evil and called the Megatronus and then Megatron

stood down and he's like Orion. And Prime, you

know, and him were friends and he's like, what

is happening, old friend? And they're, you know,

just thick as thieves again. It's interesting

because it fits really, really, really well with

that continuity. So I would recommend watching

Transformers 1 and then going to that portion

where Prime loses his memory and in Transformers

Prime, it's very fitting, sadly enough. It like

I said, it was a good film and like I said, I've

been enjoying Dragon Ball Super Dragon Ball Z

I've been going back and re -watching stuff some

of those stuff continuity wise is really weird

because I mean You get some stuff that just doesn't

quite line up especially with like Supreme Kai

and things like that Dragon Ball Z and Dragon

Ball Super Just it's it's different and then

we've got you know, of course the manga going

Little bit farther than the show and the show

will eventually get there Which I'm looking forward

to in the meantime. I'm gonna read the manga

which I have not done in 20 years Gosh, that's

a long time ago 38 now when I started geek cast

radio I was in my early 20s and The The funny

thing is is like I was 15 the last time I read

like a Dragon Ball Z manga That I bought one

in comic form So it's it's surreal to kind of

go back to that. I used to have one of those

old Beckett Dragon Ball Z like Magazines it had

like all of this information like it was basically

an encyclopedia magazine and for the life of

me cannot find it I think I threw it out a number

of years ago because I'm like I'm never gonna

do this podcast that was holding on to it for

and The sad thing is I'm probably gonna end up

doing that podcast even if it's solo just as

something to kind of Run through fresh with Dragon

Ball Z. I'll probably do Dragon Ball Z Kai because

the voice acting is better They cut a lot of

the filler and I'll get through it faster and

then going into Dragon Ball Super and then they're

gonna have Dragon Ball Daima and then it'll go

into like Dragon Ball Z the end and Then technically

GT even though GT doesn't really take place in

continuity and then there's Dragon Ball They're

Super Dragon Ball heroes or something it's it's

basically for a card game, but they they did

do an animation piece and they've got you know

a Super Saiyan 4 Goku with Super Saiyan blue

Goku and Ultra Instinct and you know all these

different characters and Kind of takes place

after super even though it's not really in continuity.

So it's it's really strange and it's fun at the

same time I've I've been really enjoying going

back and rewatching a lot of that So yeah in

the meantime I don't know about you, but I kind

of go through LinkedIn for a lot of my entertainment

news. I've gone through this massive purge on

my Facebook and Twitter account recently, and

I'll get into that in a minute, but it's... It's

more so I'm using these two apps one of them

that will help me filter down like I had so many

groups popping up with crap That somehow I'd

followed over the years and I couldn't get rid

of it fast enough like cuz there was just so

many that I'd followed or that I'd Join the groups

or that I'd like to page or I'd followed a page

and I just couldn't get rid of them all there

I ended up looking and I was in like 300 some

groups on Facebook and I've whittled that down

to 38 then the the likes I went from I don't

know 300 maybe no it was like 500 something liked

pages or followed pages total all together and

I used this Facebook all -in -one plug -in for

Chrome and then you if you review it they give

you like two weeks of you know you can like do

a mass selection of dumping of stuff And I was

just going through and just mass dumping and

purging stuff and it manually like it will go

through and it will unlike all the pages for

you simply by hitting a checkbox on all of the

things and I was relieved because my feed has

gone from a lot of nonsense and garbage back

to and This is just Facebook. I'm talking about

at the moment has gone back to the things I enjoyed

about Facebook back in like 2010 2012 before

it kind of got hyperbolic and screwed up and

very politicized or very like, like the dark

side of social media, basically. I've I've gotten

it back to this point where I enjoy the interactions.

I actually see the interactions with people that

I used to interact with a lot more, but I didn't

see because of all of the crap cluttering my

my feed. Not to mention, I also went to Twitter.

or X and I found it's like a social media management

software and I figured out ways around it so

that it's because I used to use untweeps back

when that was around to find who was not not

only not following me but also to find out who

was Just it was it like a dead account So like

if they hadn't posted in three months, like I

was like, okay your fair game to be tossed off

the side of the cliff there and So I would unfollow

them and I'm like, you know, whatever so I Had

also taken a new approach with my social media

feeds anything anything political or like spiteful

or hateful or just toxic behavior doesn't matter

what side of the line doesn't matter if any of

them were like kind of a waste of my time and

very toxic i dumped them and i actually wrote

an article about that about why it's okay to

unfollow toxic people on social media i mean

it's basically like a digital detox like I felt

so much better going out of my social media at

that point because I knew it was going to be

things I enjoyed. Not things that were going

to become polarized, not things that are going

to become. And I'm still not done purging, but

it's it's cleaned up so much. I'm seeing people

I used to interact with 10, 12 years ago. And

in my feed, and I'm like genuinely interested

in the content being posted, because again. It's

things that are kind of lively or uplifting or

they're just entertaining. Like there's no preconceived

notions, no angles. It's literally just curating

your feed to include positive influences and

people who share your interests. Honestly, I

feel like that's where a lot of the negativity

and the depression comes from because people

get caught up in that whirlwind of negativity

that that surrounds the discussions on, you know,

pop culture, war, politics, whatever. And, you

know, while it's important to stay informed.

It's equally important to recognize when certain

accounts or individuals are consistently bringing

you down. So unfollowing or muting these accounts

could be a form of self -care. Doesn't mean you're

ignoring problems in the world. Just means you're

choosing to engage with them on your own terms

and in a way that doesn't compromise your mental

health. And to be honest, I the last several

years, probably the last five years, I've really

toned down my use of social media. I've hung

out more on Discord because, again, it's like

a small niche community that I can hang out with

and just talk about geek culture. And it's something

I missed from the days of like the bulletin boards

and the forums and things like that. So I'm very

much. a proponent for yes if something's you

know if you believe in something and you want

to get involved all by all means do it like don't

don't feel like that's a you know thing you should

have to oh i gotta skirt across it because i

might offend somebody no i mean if you're genuinely

you know for something why not like But I just

I'm I'm personally purging the negativity building

the geek community the the clean and kind of

just Something where people are just passionate

and you know, make make you laugh constructively

challenge you, you know, I Things like that.

Like I don't have to have the same Opinion as

other people and that's fine. Like they don't

have same same opinion as me. That's fine, too

Like I can get along with anybody. It doesn't

matter. I'm just and I'm being very careful here

on how I word this because it's just everybody

has their own opinion, everybody has their own

beliefs, everybody has everything. I'm trying

to connect on the things that we all have in

common and I guess that's where the positivity

comes from in the social media feeds. So again,

I have an article about that on geekcastradio

.com. I also I had something happen with, you

know, a say yes scam, which I wrote another article

about because I've had my private data leaked,

AT &T, Colorado, Medicaid, job background checks,

slew of other sites. And what these sneaky sites

do is they start by targeting unsuspecting people.

What seems like kind of harmless chit chat they

want to get you to say yes, and then they hang

up so in my scenario They called me and they

said you know are you Stephen Phillips, and I

was like it is I Which is not the answer they

want I just answered that because I don't know

who it is and it's my sarcastic way of being

non -compliant It's also just because that's

my personality and I don't ever say yes to things.

I learned that a long time ago because if you

say yes to something without finding out what

they're calling about or what they're asking

you to do, it usually turns out poorly. So I

like to get the information before I admit anything

as far as helping or doing something because

I need the data to properly think about and prioritize

it, especially being an introvert. That is key

to me. I need the information. So anyways, they

called. They wanted me to do this. They ask.

You know. These things that are kind of creating

a sense of urgency and why it's it's good to

not answer the phone with yes or to say yes during

your conversation is. They are getting sneakier.

They also want. You know your personal information,

which usually they've got a lot of it because

it's been compromised They You know legit companies

don't ever ask you for your social or you know

bank account or passwords or any of that crap

I had somebody try that on me with my hotmail

account years ago A couple years ago when somebody

stole my phone number right out from my phone

while I was using it Transferring it to another

phone, which was ridiculous. I had to fight that

one for a while But anyways, they'll they'll

call and they'll basically use your yes as an

authentication To Set up a bank account Or other

things that they they have to use So somebody

somebody I know uses like the next generation

episode Dharmak and Jalad at Tanagra Shaka when

the walls fall or fell uh as a way of being non

-compliant um my particular scenario they asked

you know they wanted me to say the word and i

said it is i not exactly what they wanted they

asked can you hear me and i replied i can now

who are you calling from they asked me again

and i repeated i can this prompted them to hang

up And I've seen, like I said, I've seen this,

it's very dodgy. So I would do some research

on it, but yeah. So kind of, I have other articles

on GeekCast Radio. I have some from like Enhancing

Your Privacy on Windows 10 and 11 with BC White

Privacy Guard. Software that disables like Windows

11 Recall. It also has Privacy stuff to help

you lock down Windows 11 from a lot of call home

features or downloadable information I have also

on my recent blogs like are we unleashing the

geek anymore the impact of misinformation of

geek culture predominantly Websites that use

dodgy narratives to get people involved. There's

also the detrimental impact of clickbait junk

reviews on geek culture and I name drop a few

of them just for good measure because you know

they're irritating and they they're very flashy

headlines and you know very click baity and I

see this one particular one about William Shatner

a lot like they regurgitate this across multiple

websites about him or the Trek guy would you

know, Gene Roddenberry be rolling in his grave

and I've never watched Star Trek and You know,

I would come back and play Captain Kirk under

these circumstances And so I see like variations

of the same article pop up everywhere And they

just kind of milk it which is annoying so again

like there's there's you know a lot of these

these things and that's these these are on the

website like I said I wrote one about you know

going solo for indie podcasting and why podcasting

conventions are a waste of time for independents

the streaming wars from a la carte dreams to

physical media is on the website. And that one

I didn't do, but I did. When is it OK to reboot

a franchise? Why, physical media is king in the

era of streaming uncertainty. Of course, that

was properly timed yesterday. 10 1 October 1st,

right as they were. dumping stuff from the WB

app. And of course, now there's the entire Indiana

Jones saga is removed. And yeah, we're getting

to that point where people are going to want

to start ponying up and getting physical media

once more. And then I wrote a recent article

about the misnomer of video podcasts, why they're

not true podcasts. But enough about my articles

and all of my rants. I'm going to get over to

some of the news stuff that I saw, like Disney

keeps cutting TV staff jobs. And of course, I've

seen something about Paramount plus dumping their

people too. And we're going to hit this point

where a lot of between news stations and local

stations and like they're cutting the TV staff

jobs right now at Disney. But they've also cut

teams on ABC and Hulu originals. They're really

trying to save a buck because they're all hurting.

from the streaming empire. Like Disney merges

ABC online, the Hulu online studios into Disney

and kind of folds a lot of things together and

removes redundancies. So we're going to see a

lot of a lot more layoffs in the entertainment

stream before this is all over. Sadly. And, you

know, then there's there's a multitude of other

things that are kind of going on in geek culture.

such as DCU is going to have a Robin animated

movie focusing on Batman's Dick Grayson and Jason

Todd as a part of some of their Exclusive films.

It's gonna be called dynamic duo the story of

Robbins Then of course we have finally an Xbox

one emulator coming to PC, but it's kind of It's

not actually emulation so it'll be interesting

to see how that comes out to play Especially

because I used to use emulation quite a bit Then

of course we have something huge coming from

California California Governor Gavin Newsom has

signed a bill into law that will force storefronts

to admit that you don't actually own your digitally

purchased games, films, and TV shows. You're

licensing them. Good. That is a good thing to

tell people because I love physical media for

that reason. I like digital as much as everybody

else, but physical, they can't take it away from

you. I mean, point in case, I still have Unreal

Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3. Have I

played them in the recent times? Probably one

of them six months ago and then before that,

like six years before that. But the point of

the matter is you cannot get your hands on a

legal copy of Unreal Tournament at all. And it's

kind of painful because, again, this is an issue

with modern gaming. Games that require online

connectivity to play are generally just licenses.

And the consumers should be aware of this, because

you don't own it. If you're streaming it, you

don't own it. Now, I, and this is why I don't

like multiplayer games, and then also like They

have this thing that you know, of course you

cheat and get caught you get banned Well, the

ban is just the company revoking the license

to continue accessing the online service So why

can you not continue to play the game? like I

used to I used to you know cheat on my games

and You know, but I was playing by myself like

these games and I get that they're not cheap

And there's maintenance and there's creation

and there's marketing and there's all this stuff.

I. I think that I would like to see us get back

to games that we don't need multiplayer, that

we don't need to be online. And if we want to

pay for an expansion, we'll pay for the expansion.

But I don't I don't particularly love. What they're

doing. To. Video games and that's why I never

buy new ones Quite honestly, like unless I can

get it for free Like legally through steam or

something. I just don't get them. I don't play

I don't care So in addition to that As most of

you know the like the beast unleashed like the

name The podcast the art and the slogan were

all stolen By monster energy drink at some point

Within the last two years and It's funny because

like a lot of the stuff that we come up with

a naming convention for somebody else takes the

name and runs with it like there's another Person

I'm like X that's taking Cobra cast which I'll

admit. We never got off the ground, but I did

have the artwork made and the title so it's kind

of interesting there I would have to change it

if we were gonna ever do a GI Joe podcast at

this point because we had nothing nothing come

out to warrant keeping that name convention so

but yeah it's it's it's it's just kind of funny

not to go in rambly rambly zone Let me dial down

with some feedback. So before we close out the

episode, I'm going to read some feedback from

Brad. This is some feedback on the last episode

of Altered Geek. He says, I saw TF1 a few weeks

ago as part of an early fan screening. Lucky

dog. It's the first time I've ever seen a film

before its release with fans and with more than

a dozen people in the theater. There were about

250 fans. Not only did I enjoy the experience

but the film as well. It was composed by Brian

Tyler who did Transformers Prime and since that's

my favorite series I love the music in Transformers

1 as well. I think that the audio tracks and

the voice performances and the music were spot

-on. I felt like it was a great film and the

fact that it's done by Brian Tyler also who did

Prime. It is fitting that somebody actually put

those two together on YouTube. There's literally

a clip of it. I don't remember the name of it,

and I wish I did, but it's on there. He says,

anyone expecting a faithful retelling of the

Transformers origin story will be probably disappointed.

The franchise reboots every few years, and this

is just yet another instance of that, but I enjoyed

it, and now the backstory is complete. I look

forward to another couple of films in this universe.

I agree, my friend. I genuinely really, really,

really love this film for what it is, and it's

great. I was quite surprised, and that's just

my honest answer there. So he also says, As for

podcast length you're right. It should be about

as long as it needs to be as long as a Long -haul

he says is a long -haul truck driver I have plenty

of time to listen to podcast some are two to

three hours others are 20 minutes as long as

the subject is interesting I play the episode

that fits how much time I have to listen. Thanks

for all you and Mike do Yeah, I appreciate it

and I agree like I I can feel myself dwindling

here And so that's why I'm gonna wind this down

as soon as I'm done because I don't want to Become

like an echo chamber where it's just pointless

So again, he's he he follows up with a second

email saying PS I wasn't a fan of the voice cast

Hemsworth accent came through at times I did

hear that and it was kind of bothersome. I I

didn't like listening to it in hearing like Steve

Buscemi or The half, you know, a couple of members

of the Avengers or I I don't know. I didn't I

didn't really care for the voice. I didn't like

the voice of Megatron. That's what he says. I

didn't either. He says now that it's a success,

hopefully they get voice actors for the next

one to save some budget. They probably won't

because they'll think that people signed on for

the characters, although I know it didn't make

a huge amount of budget. So only time will tell

there. But we'll see, we'll see. But yeah, so

I'm going to sign off this episode of Altered

Geek. You can of course interact with the show

on geekcastradio .com. I've been your host, Steve

Megatron. Be sure to check us out on the episode

post as well as our SS feed. You can interact

with me on X at SCP 21. And until next time.

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