Mental Health, Reinvention, and Geek Culture

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek So I was

not sure 100 % if I was going to record an episode

this week So the funny aspect of this is The

only time I get to record these is typically

at night or during the day when I have nothing

going on at some given point in time. It's kind

of hard to decide or decipher what may or may

not happen as far as that. Not to go into the

update realm because I think that's kind of boring,

I was kind of... I've been kind of in a funk

lately, and I just I don't even know why I don't

know if it's the weather. I don't know if it's

because Just I don't know there's and it could

be like the negativity. That's all over social

media at this point I've honestly started weeding

out my Twitter my Facebook basically anybody

that's got like For one if it's politically based

I've just been like dodging it because the job

I work is media based and I see enough political

stuff and Granted it's nice to hear it from people

that aren't They have a bias, but they're not

They're not geared We're fired up to the point

that it's it's irritating They try and see both

sides or the the you know where both sides could

be coming from But The thing that kind of irks

me is that everybody's posting their opinions

on the social media Facebook and Twitter especially

of What they feel about the current presidency

the you know Democrat Republican like no matter

what side of the coin you're on, and I have family

that's involved in this garbage too, and I've

either unfollowed or unfriended them. So it's

not an exclusivity thing. And then I've kind

of just been, like I had well over 500 friends

on Facebook. Granted, I never talk to most of

them. I don't even barely use Facebook other

than to read people's updates. or to kind of

see stuff. I unliked every page. I found a script

that does it for you and I unliked every page

on Facebook so I could start off fresh because

I have nine years worth of garbage that I've

liked on there and I just, I didn't want it anymore.

So I unliked almost everything. The groups, I

had them all turn notifications off through another

script. Then I'm just kind of I'm kind of going

clean slate protocol almost Tony Stark on it

all just because I kind of want to I Want to

eradicate like a lot of the negativity for my

life. I've gotten in this new Era where it's

just not conducive or helpful. I want to get

back to What matters, you know like life getting

back down to the conversation with everybody

I want to get back down to you know Just enjoying

the fun that that everybody used to have like

two three years ago I think that between the

geek market and the politics everything has gotten

so freaking wired that it's it's gotten difficult

to Actually function as normal human beings Think

people are getting so wound up on it that depressions

hitting an all -time high. I think that people

are Just miserable and so I just at this point

like I would rather focus on the good Like for

instance, I mean this isn't a great thing, but

like Mike the Birdman Dodd As some of you may

know, than some of you may not know, he's been

in the hospital for the last 18 -19 days because

of his health. He's getting ready to move to

a new apartment or a home in another city, Guelph

or something in Ontario. He's got some... some

weight issues and he was having problems walking

and stuff like that. But you can go watch his

YouTube videos. It's Mike Dodd on there or Birdman

Dodd. You can find his vlogs. But he was giving

an update, you know, just a daily vlog on kind

of what's going on. And I thought that was kind

of cool. And he's I've noticed like since that

that he's had a noticeable difference in disposition.

which has been nice to see coming out of Mike

because most of the time he's so wired and so

like wound up that he gets depressed really easily

and I'm not trying to make depression lightly

because I think I suffer from it I just try and

deny it as much as possible because I don't like

I feel like that stuff like at least for me I

feel like it's a thing in my head And I feel

like if I can conquer it myself, even though

most of the time most people can't conquer it

on their own, they need somebody else outside

to do it. And I think that that's partially why

I've suffered on this show or other shows I've

been a part of. It's just because I think that

I've got something upstairs that's not quite

tweaked right. And I'm not quite sure why. So

I'm kind of unloading a little bit. But yeah,

so let me I've noticed a big difference in Mike

Dodd. I think he's doing much better mentally

Since he's been in there. I See hope in him again,

and it's it's kind of cool to see fellow geek

especially one that I admired and they just hit

their 10 -year milestone on twig and Blanchard

managed to give them a a resounding good compilation

show between various hosts or people that have

been a part of the network over the years, myself

included. It was fun hearing some of my outtakes

or some of the double -D rants that I was obsessively

mashing together back in the day when I used

Audacity from various CRNC shows of Twig. Man,

that was a long time ago. So, I was sitting here

today, and I was debating whether I wanted to

do this episode. Because, like, as always, I

have things that I want to talk about, and then

I have things that I probably would talk about,

but I just don't want to even mess with anymore.

So, I was editing an episode on a recent show

that, or transcribing, for my... my work and

this topic kind of came to me and I was thinking

about it because it's again about, it's written

by or the interviewee was James Altucher and

he wrote a book called reinvent yourself So I

was reading this this piece and while I was I

was listening to it So it basically he breaks

down How he said to reinvent himself his interests

his life many times and then? You know he Basically

outsourced his self -esteem to you know but it

caused disaster and whatnot in his life. But

he says, you know, now with the entire world,

you know, technology, governments, the shifting

landscapes of opportunity and success are all

turning upside down, forcing people to reinvent

as individuals and as a culture, which I think

is very accurate in that. But like some of the

things that stood out to me during the actual

interview was That he said You know some of the

steps to reinventing yourself is is you know

being healthy mentally and physically Being creative

in a constant state of learning and around people

who challenge you and then solidifying it through

people you teach So like I was I was thinking

about this and it all kind of resonated with

me that Isn't that why we podcast? Isn't it so

that we can have like this external communication

with people and that So we can you know Let it

out and converse with our friends on the internet

And in fans of the same topics so we can be creative

and put this out there and have this out you

know as a creative way of venting and as as communicating

and the internet group setting And then at the

same time, it's technically a constant state

of learning because we're learning new stuff

with our craft, we're learning to evolve the

shows, we're learning about the content we cover.

And then if it's not you that challenges yourself,

your listeners do. And then the solidifying through

the people you teach, if you have something that

people don't often know about, You're teaching

them, so you're solidifying it. Technically,

I feel like podcasting kind of lands right on

the center of that. I think I kind of lost the

meaning of the whole thing. A lot of it's been

fly by the seat of my pants in some of it. I

know that this is another one of those soapbox

things that I've done, kind of like a previous

episode. I think it's just now starting to click,

and I understand it. So enough with that. Let's

get into some of the awesome stuff that's happening.

First of all, Mass Effect Andromeda dropped a

team briefing trailer. It was earlier in the

week. It takes the place of the players far beyond

the boundaries of the Milky Way into the depths

of the Andromeda Galaxy. You become the Pathfinder

and lead humanity's search for a new home in

this unchartered and unforgiving region of space.

So you get to battle new villains, essentially,

and there's one N7 guy who's voiced by Clancy

Brown, and they... He essentially trains his

two kids, which when you choose male or female

in the series You kind of get one You get to

pick one or the other kid. They're two different

characters. They're not like the male and female

Shepherd But everything's based around that So

that's that's kind of an interesting twist to

it and the N7 guy Is He's supposed to have worked

with the guy who was who was heading up the Citadel

stuff for the the weapon against the Protheon

the Protheon weapon so Yeah, it's supposed to

come out March 21st. I actually can't wait for

this game. I'm probably gonna get it for PC more

so because I'm going to sell my Xbox 360. There's

no point in having it. I haven't turned it on

in probably six, eight months now. And then on

top of that, there's nothing coming out for it,

and I'm not buying a next -gen console. I'll

just upgrade my PC for cheap. Moving on. There's

a lot of theories going around about Snoke in

The Last Jedi. some people are trying to connect

the dots saying that perhaps Snoke is the last

Jedi and then they kind of go back to you know

the time when the Jedi were founded before there

was such thing as a Sith they were light side

and dark side you know or fallen Jedi and they're

making it sound like he could be a falling Jedi

like this particular video I watched which is

an interesting take Which would mean that Because

he does look older than dirt. He could be older

than Yoda The way he looks so it would be interesting

to see if he was one of the original Jedi That

essentially took up the you know the Knights

of Rhine because like You have the Knights of

the Old Republic and that kind of stuff So I

mean, I'm wondering if they're gonna intertwine

that somehow and make it interesting, but only

only time will tell So the Nintendo switch has

parental controls Which is kind of awesome because

there's an app specifically for For the the switch

that allows you to set time limits for the kid

allows you to Lock out certain material allows

you to see how long they played see what they

played so it's like glorified you know babysitter

in a sense for it you can set timers and you

can you know do all these things or set certain

times of the day that it will turn on for that

account but they they illustrated it with Bowser

and Bowser jr. which was kind of kind of cool

but yeah it was it was kind of enlightening and

I'm kind of glad to see that because I think

that in today's age we do need to limit some

of the technology going in. I sit in front of

a machine all day, and I see people less than

I'm in front of a machine. So it's kind of a...

I get it. So I personally keep my kids away from

electronics any chance I get, but that's because

they go to grandparents' houses and do whatever

they want. Yeah, it's I I'm glad to see that

actually finally hit a game console to be honest

So but leave it to Nintendo to come up with something

like that. I don't see Sony or Xbox You know

doing that So Verizon is attempting to purchase

Charter communications which just ate up Time

Warner Cable, which would put them at the number

one cable company in the United States far beyond

Comcast. I hope that doesn't happen because while

some people may see that it's a good thing, I

mean prices already blow like as far as cable

companies because I mean really we have we have

Verizon which is kind of a contender. Now that

Time Warner Cable is a part of Charter, so there's

Charter, and then you have Comcast, and then

you have AT &T. So you really only have, for

the most part, four big players. There's some

little players depending on the city, but for

the most part it's four big players. And the

more that these start gobbling up other ones,

the more prices are going to go higher, because

there won't be any competition. And so... I don't

see any good way for this to go down. I hope

it gets shot down in the Supreme Court because

it would be in a monopoly, whereas AT &T bought

up Time Warner, their media section, so all their

Warner Brothers and all that kind of stuff, so

AT &T owns all that, which is fine because that's

content, that's not the distribution platform.

I don't know it's the world's getting kind of

I don't know condensed in that aspect So we'll

we'll see how that goes Star Trek discovery of

course dropped a new Teaser even though it keeps

you know they keep I don't know what game they're

playing, but it's it's really getting annoying

the They showed off like the uniforms which whoopie

-doo they look like almost Archer esque type

of uniforms or Abrams like Star Trek Beyond uniforms

They showed off the new captain's chair, which

looks like Star Trek the next generation Nemesis

Command chair They have a female captain Which

would normally not be a problem But if you're

going in continuity of the original Star Trek

universe there were no female captains until

the Late 23rd century early 24th century like

there really weren't so to me that's it's kind

of It's not that I want to be sexist about it

because I'm not I have no problem because Janeway

was by far one of the most awesome captains and

she wasn't weighed down by you know the love

romance crap like all the time she actually was

a strong captain for having been stranded for

seven years but my whole beef with it is that

continuity wise of the original Star Trek that

technically shouldn't be possible. And I don't,

because it's supposed to be like ten years before

the original series, so like I don't see any

way for this to go down and be legit. So I don't

know. I'm gonna wait for judgment, but I really

don't see myself, I'm not gonna fork over money

to watch the stupid show. So yeah, I that's that's

all I'm gonna say on the subject Because I just

yeah, I don't want I don't want to deal with

that So with that I'm going to take a quick break

and be back after this Hi, this is Pat Fraley,

purveyor of duck, doog, and villain voices, and

you're watching Altered Geek. So, we're back.

What are some things that you guys would like

to hear come out of the show in the next couple

episodes? I am looking into a new theme song

to be professionally done. I'm looking for somebody

to write and sing it and produce it, and then

I'm going to use it. but I'm checking Fiverr

right now so we'll we'll see how that goes but

yeah I'm I will be taking time off from the show

after I hit the August mark of four years and

the 200th episode and I'll be taking the rest

of the year off because of the move and Whatever

else happens to go on during that time So time

will tell So yeah, if there's any anything you

guys want to hear on the next couple episodes

I will wait until Blanchard comes back to talk

superheroes Because the shows were actually really

good this week But yeah, maybe we'll do like

some some awesome kind of geeky Top 10 next episode

on something like maybe our top 10 favorites

of And then we'll just you know throw it out

there. Whatever you guys want top tens of I'm

probably going to talk about some 3d printed

stuff next episode too, but just throwing that

out there So until next time get altered get

geeky with the altered geeks