College Graduation and Star Trek Online Reflections

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips. And in this

episode of the podcast, I'm doing something abnormal.

I'm recording while I'm driving. Yes, so I have

my phone mounted to my car. I'm sitting here,

driving my car, going to school. For the third

to the last time. And what I mean by that is

I'm ending school. I'm finally getting that coveted

associate's degree. It's only taken me four years

to do it. Typically, if someone was going full

-time, they could get this degree done in about

two years, maybe three. It's taken me four to

the semester to get it done because I... I don't

have all the time in the world to go. And I've

had to take one or two or sometimes three classes,

depending. But that is all over. No more parking

in a crappy parking garage where it looks like

the roof is going to cave in or the parking lot

is in dire need of repair. I go to a community

college kind of close to home, but it's... Their

parking lot and their parking ramps are sorely

in need of repair. And I hate saying that because

the school's actually pretty good. The pricing

is good. The staff are awesome. It's a really

great community college, but their parking lot

sucks. So yeah, I've been sitting in this same

classroom. I've kind of locked out a lot of my

classes. Like I've taken business classes and

I'll end up in the same room, you know, two,

three times I've taken media classes. I've actually

ended up in the same media room for every one

of my media classes, but one, and I've taken

six or seven media classes and it's just, it's

amazing to me. Um, and The funny thing is, is

that I'm just, I'm finally going to be done.

It's so exciting that I can't even fathom it.

Because one, I'm going to have a normal work

schedule again, which is going to be awesome.

Instead of having it, the schooling, taking a

chunk of three to four hours out of two days

a week. So that's eight hours a week that's just

eaten up by school. plus whatever time I have

to spend during the week to actually do the homework

or do the classwork that has to be done at home,

it's finally going to be all over. And as I'm

ending this last class, I can't even tell you

how excited I am. It's been a ride. I've learned

a lot. Some of it, not so much. Some of it's

stuff that I learned on my own. such as recording

in a studio environment. I have my own at home.

I have my own editing software. I have all my

own computer tech gear. So whenever it comes

to actually recording a show, I just don't want

to do it at school. I do it at home. I would

rather leave class. and do it at home because,

um, I, one, my, my hardware is so much better

than the crap that they have at the school. And

for them to just get brand new hardware is kind

of ridiculous to say that. Um, they have, they

have like, uh, Macintosh computers. Um, couldn't

tell you what version of, uh, Apple. is on there,

but it's, they've got all the software. They've

got like Celtics for the script writing they've

got, or final draft or something. Um, they've

got pro tools. They've got all that, like the

pro tools thing I can kind of see for their,

for their booth, but I can do the same thing

with a condenser microphone and, um, a well orchestrated

office and do it in Adobe audition and not have

to deal with all the extra stuff. Um, so it's

been kind of interesting. I mean, I know a little

bit about that. I don't know anything about pro

tools, honestly, but I've never really had to

use it. They usually have a computer tech, uh,

or a class aid do it. Um, but the, uh, the rest

of the stuff, like I've done 90 % of it at home.

Like I don't. I don't like editing at school

because, one, the mouse throws me, two, the shortcut

commands. So I take everything home and I edit

it there. And I have a 27 -inch monitor at home

and a second monitor. So if there's stuff I need

to be doing, I can do graphics on the one screen

and I can do on the 27 -incher, I can do all

the rest of the content there for the editing.

It's the same size screen as what the school

has. The only difference I think that I have

is, one, I have 12 gigs of memory, and I think

they have eight in their machines. But I have

a solid -state hard drive and have all my editing

software installed on it, which I think is an

instrumental thing in terms of my editing skills,

is the fact that the hard drive is on flash memory

as opposed to a moving disk. which is what the

schools have. And you would think for having

editing as the primary use of these machines,

they would have faster machines. I don't know.

And I think that the fact that they get locked

into these contracts for the certain things,

it's kind of crap too, but I don't know. Maybe

I'm just on my soapbox with that, but... Yeah,

I'm finally to the end of the tunnel. I almost

have my final project put together, which is

a newscast. We had to do a news broadcast using

TV news packages that we had to do as individuals

and comprise into, we had to craft a newscast

and have a couple people anchor it, somebody

record it, somebody, you know, I did the teleprompter.

Uh, cause I was the only one that knew how, um,

I'm doing the editing because they all opted

to have me do it. I had the most experience with

editing. So, um, not that any of them did bad

with their edits at all because they all did

pretty well for what we were given. Um, but I

think that they opted to have me edit because

it was just easier and I can do it a lot faster.

And, um, I dunno, I think it was just because.

One, I sometimes open my mouth and boast too

much about, oh, I did this and I did that. And

so I ended up doing it. But I enjoyed my team.

It was one of the few times that, I mean, I've

had pretty good teams in most of my assignments

throughout my college experience. I have to say

that that's been one of the pluses. But, yeah,

I... I've been fortunate. I'm super glad that

it's almost over. This ride is almost done. I'll

have my associate's degree mailed to me. I'm

not going to the graduation. I have no intention

of it. I don't want to buy this cap and gown.

I don't really care. I just want to be done.

I have an awesome job working in media. Media

is a side thing that I do that is podcasting.

no money from it, but it's enjoyable. And the,

I mean, once in a while there's a little stuff

involved, whether it's like swag that I get to

review or, you know, the occasional like marketing

thing that, uh, will be enough to pay for hosting

for the month or something. But, um, it's, yeah,

I don't really make anything. Uh, And so, yeah,

I get to concentrate from school on hanging out

with my family, which would be awesome. I'll

get to see my kids more in the morning and in

the evening every day. And I won't have to use

any time for school to do that. I'll also be

able to concentrate on stuff I need to do for

Geekcast Radio and get that all done and Altered

Geek. And I won't feel as burnt out. Just because

by the end of the day, between working full -time

and then the kids and then doing schoolwork and

then the podcasts and everything on top of it,

lately I haven't really wanted to do anything.

No editing. I haven't wanted to do any of it.

I procrastinated on about every assignment in

class this past year. Just because I'm at the

end of the tunnel, I'm burnt out, I'm done. The

audio stuff that we had to do for class was rather

simplistic. The video stuff is not really my

forte. I can edit audio all day long. It doesn't

bother me. I know what to look for. I know where

to find the issues. I know where the uhs, how

they look in the actual podcast waveform. I've

been trying not to do that lately. The video

stuff, it's a little bit harder to cut because

you have to make it look natural or you have

to put something to overlay when there is a cut

so that the audio sounds great, but the video

doesn't look like it's clipping. And it's just

been a lot of fun. I'm sure I've lost the majority

of you through this entire conversation. But,

yeah, I'm just super excited to be done, have

my degree in what I'm working in, in what I'm

doing for fun. And, yeah, it's been a ride. So,

that being said, I get to go to class and converse

with... my teammates. Next week we have our final

exam and then we get to display these grand videos

next Thursday and my we get to turn them in the

night before and as long as they're turned in

we get to watch them on Thursday next week and

then we get to leave. So being there's only two

groups we should only actually be in class about

20 minutes next Thursday. And then we get to

leave. And then I'm going to go get an oil change

in my car and take a gander up to the cart lot

that I used to work at and pay them a little

visit and hang out for, I don't know, like 45

minutes. And I've got some pretty awesome stuff

planned for my wife for Mother's Day. Can't say

a word about it because I don't know if she'll

ever listen. And if she does, I don't want her

knowing. So... We're actually not going to be

around the week of Mother's Day. So I won't be

recording an episode that week. I may pre -record

something, have like a topical show that myself

and Blanchard or myself and Dodd or Dan or somebody

and I record. I just got to figure out when and

what. That's one of the things I've been running

into lately is I've been running into this like

brick wall where... I want to talk about the

geeky news, but at the same time, I don't really

care. The movie news, yes. Superheroes, somewhat.

Tech, really into it when I see it. That interests

me, but a lot of the content lately has been...

And I just, I don't care. And so, it's been really

hard for me to record anything. I kind of think

that... I'm getting the summer blues. I really

want to be outside. I really want to enjoy life

and be outside, not have to worry about school,

not have to worry about just anything. I'm in

my office 40 -plus hours a week, 50 hours a week,

in my basement, which is freezing. So at any

point, I'm looking forward to actually getting

out of the office, which my wife was like, You're

going to hate working from home. I love working

from home. Don't get me wrong. Love it with nothing.

I have no qualms about it whatsoever. Love it

totally. My issue is that when I sit down at

the end of the day after recording a podcast

or after editing crap with the website, which

there's some major stuff coming this year. Um,

I just can't tease any of it yet. Um, so there's

some, some major stuff going on with the website,

but I get done with, um, I get done with work

and I just want a game because it's the only

thing I can do that keeps my mind off just how

busy I am. So that being said, I'll be very back

after this quick break. Do you want to interact

with the show? Well, you can get a hold of us

in the following ways. You can email us feedback

at alteredgeek .com or you can fill out the form

on the website on alteredgeek .com. You can also

get on the episode post on alteredgeek .com and

make your comments there. You can, of course,

get a hold of us on the social media, Facebook

at Altered Geek or on Twitter at Altered Geek.

And, of course, you can find the show in the

following locations. You can get it on iTunes,

on Google Play, on Stitcher, and on TuneIn, Blog

Talk Radio, as well as AlteredGeek .com. And

now, back to the show. And we're back. So...

After concluding that third of the last class

of school, I have come to the conclusion that

I cannot wait for it to be over. And yes, I got

my footage, I got my flash drive loaded up, got

the part of the assignment that the other people

already did, so I can mix it in the assignment,

put in the lower thirds. And I get to turn it

in on YouTube to my teacher, and I am good. I'm

done. Cannot wait. So, that aside, superhero

shows came back this week. Supergirl, meh, so

-so. It was kind of cool. I mean, you had the

guy that plays Ravi from iZombie on the show

playing kind of the villain. but there's a twist,

and then, um, yeah, so you get, um, there's a,

a, uh, another show, uh, Arrow, it's got some

stuff going on, but it's not, it's still not,

like, all the way there for me, I kind of don't

really care, um, but I think that's kind of just

because it's the end of the season, I'm just

waiting to see who their bringing back, um, villain

-wise, uh, I hear rumors, rumor has it Malcolm

Merlin's coming back for the end of the series,

uh, or season, um, and then, uh, what's the other

character, uh, uh, Deathstroke is supposed to

be back, so I guess we'll see what happens on

Arrow, uh, as for Team Flash, Uh, Barry going

to the future was kind of a bust. Um, the only

one who knows who Savitar is, is Caitlin Snow.

And, um, Caitlin, now that she's Killer Frost,

um, it goes to the future and spoilers for anyone

that has not seen the Flash, uh, episode yet.

You get to see Barry in the future. He's kind

of emo, fighting Top and Mirror Master. And then

Sisko's there. He can't Vibe anymore because

Killer Frost and that duel that Vibe and Killer

Frost get into, she freezes his hands and his

hands shatter, and so he's got robo hands. And

then Barry's kind of a dick in the future. It

takes place, like, years after Iris died. And

Cisco convinces Future Barry to take up the mantle

again, and he's got a new futuristic flash suit,

more red and kind of cool looking, more lightning

bolt -y. And I actually like that suit probably

the best out of any of them that I've seen so

far, whether it be from the actual show or from

the movie. That future Flash outfit that they

had him wearing was awesome. And then, of course,

we get into, towards the end, like all the guys

from the team of Team Flash reunite for Team

Flash in the future. Because all the female characters

are either dead or evil. And Caitlyn won't, because

she's completely Killer Frost, won't divulge

to Barry of the past who... Savitar actually

is and she says he's not going to expect it it's

a twist and I have my own thoughts and recollections

of what I think it could be and I think that

one Savitar is going to be either because it's

not Wally it's not Jesse it's not um I almost

want to say it's going to be like Ronnie, Ronnie

Raymond. Because the blue flames kind of engulfing

him, he's going to turn into death. Like, instead

of the firestorm, he'll turn into death storm.

So, like, essentially he can kind of take away

metapowers or kind of kill people or whatnot.

Um, but I think that it could be Ronnie Raymond

because without Stein, he would turn blue instead

of, cause Stein's done it too. When, before he

got, um, uh, Jackson. And, um, so like, I think

it's him because the look on Caitlin's face is

like one of recognition and like surprise, uh,

when he steps out of the suit and Being that

he was kind of imprisoned in a singularity and

it didn't really tell that he died and Stein

was there, there's the possibility that it's

still open for interpretation. And so in that

sense, I think that it could be him. That's just

one guess. It could also be a flash from an alternate

timeline. So it could be the... the the flash

that's from Harrison Wells timeline uh who apparently

they've already shown uh when interacting with

the bounty hunter that has vibes powers so uh

there is that it could be that one too so I guess

we'll see what happens um I I don't think it's

going to be anybody else other than those two,

but I think that it's going to be in that realm.

So jumping into a little bit of movie stuff,

Pirates of the Caribbean trailers dropped recently.

You get to see that Will Turner's son, you get

to see quite a few stuff there. Jack Sparrow's

not really the focal point, but he's going to

be in it. I'm sure I've talked about that at

some point. It's still, it's something I'm looking

forward to. And then of course we have Another

Transformers thing going on, which... I'm going

to leave that alone. Cars 3, there's a new trailer

that dropped to that where it's showing a younger

race car trying to... She called it her senior

project, which is kind of funny because Lightning

at this point is supposed to be old. Kind of

like Hudson Hornet. And then they've got a lot

of the original returning cast from the first

film that weren't necessarily in the second film.

So it's going to be kind of cool to see that,

everybody kind of returning. They're going to

have Lightning get banged up quite a bit, and

he's going to kind of come back out like Hudson

Hornet did and become top dog again for at least

one race where he's racing the new race car.

where he isn't going to go faster, but he's got

to go smarter. And I think that this will probably

be the best Cars movie that they've had. But

I guess time will tell on that. It seems to be

like third one's the charm on Pixar. Granted,

they've only done three of Toy Story so far.

And we're about to get the second Incredibles,

which I'm stoked about. So I guess we'll just

see what happens with that film. So what's a

topic that you guys would like to hear me talk

about? I do have several ideas for short segments

as well as little clips. And I'm going to go

into the root of... Maybe some movie, TV review

stuff. Maybe a video game. Maybe something like...

And it's going to be very short form. I kind

of want to get into that and get away from a

lot of the news. It's going to be a lot more

discussion based in the future just because it's

easier to riff on than necessarily talking about

the news. But, yeah. So as for Geekcast Radio's

concern, there's a lot of big plans coming. We

are planning out the next Top 100 in a way that

everyone involved will be able to interact and

to give suggestions. We will be having another

GC Iron Wars tournament. We recently had a meeting

with Geekcast Radio staff. The Core Four, as

I call it, and... There's quite a few good plans

coming down the ropes in the next coming months

or so. I have taken the idea of decidedly I'm

going to take a vacation this year. I will not

be in town a week in May, so that'll be a week

I'm not here, as I mentioned before. And then

there'll be a week in July that I won't be available

because of... I'm going to be going up north,

so I'm going to be in a virtual dead zone. Completely

dead zone. I don't know how I'm going to survive

a week without technology. Because I won't have

any data. I won't have any cell phone service.

It's going to be in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

There's a campground. I'm not sure what week

even I'm going. I can't keep that straight. But

it's going to be strange to be... certain I'm

not one for being without my tech and to go a

week without it I'm gonna feel like I'm having

withdrawals by the end of the week now I might

feel great not having it on me or having the

concerns but I know that if anything goes haywire

while I'm gone I'm gonna flip when I come back

and then as far as my May vacation I'll still

have all my tech I'm gonna have my portable computer

That's about the size of, it's about the size

of, of about the length of a, of a 12 ounce can

of pop, but it's about as thick as, uh, two smartphones

stacked. So it's, it's going to be great. I,

I'm going to hook that up. I got a Bluetooth

mouse and, uh, um, keyboard. and hook that up

to the hotel TV when I get there, connect to

Wi -Fi, and then, man, I'm going to have me an

awesome computer on the go. Plus, I'll have access

to all of the stuff that I need. So... It's going

to be great. Going to be great. So, yeah, I'm

thinking about covering less movies and less

TV shows. I don't know what you guys think about

that. I'm... Kind of not really wanting to talk

about any of it. Although I will say Prison Break

is desperately filling that need that I enjoy,

and it's definitely hitting the vein that it

used to hit when I was watching the original

show, the original first four seasons. It's only

at four episodes in. They've already kind of

given away the villain. They've done something

with Kellerman, but they're not telling. Like,

they're not... They've done this before. They

don't show anything happen. They insinuate that

it happened. And to me, if you don't physically

see them get shot and killed, it didn't happen.

Not in prison break. Prison break. They brutally

murder them if they're going to die. That's just

how it is. You see the blood roll and you see

them just dead. They did it with... quite a few

characters in the show throughout its iterations.

Every time somebody was going to leave or die,

they took them out that way. Kellerman's had

two false deaths before. I'm thinking this might

be the third. Because they show them always in

dire straits and then a gun going off somewhere,

but they never actually show them die. And I

think that his story may yet play out differently.

But then again, they could pull it where he actually

does die, so I don't know. And then they finally

escape the prison, episode four, because they're

trying to fast -track it with nine episodes for

the season. So now it's more or less getting

out of the country, not necessarily just the

jail. And it's kind of interesting to see who

the ringleader is, and you won't find that out

until the very end, but Theodore Bagwell actually

is redeemed in this show. Because it's supposed

to be seven years after. And there's another

master strategist playing a game just like Schofield.

And it's not who you think it is. It is who you

think it is. But they kind of insinuate in the

first episode right away. And you kind of figure

out who it's going to be. But, again. Time will

tell. So, anyways, that shows that that one's

on par with me for lethal weapon and how good

those are. Only difference is this is written

better and the continuity is better. The only

thing I wish they'd explain is how the heck he

survived the explosion. Schofield. Because he

was in the building when it blew up and apparently

he had to hold on to these two connectors. And

they showed him... but he's not dead. So I don't

know what they did. I hope they explain it. Yeah,

so that's kind of how the show went for that.

So like I said, I've been playing a lot of Star

Trek Online. I'm a part of a fleet, although

I have no idea how the fleet thing works, how

you're supposed to get perks of the fleet to

buy stuff from the fleet. how you get to actually

go to the star base unless it's just a dashboard

um and then the uh the whole thing with it like

i'm level 60 i'm a fleet admiral now uh a starfleet

fleet admiral and instead of a starfleet admiral

uh so it's i'm as high as you can get and now

you can get like an ambassador ship uh titles

and titles based on your status and missions

past level 60. So, like, theoretically, I can

become an ambassador. You can unlock when you

complete. Now there's, like, side missions you

can do. Like, you do the Battle of Procyon 5,

where you're helping the Enterprise J with Captain

Chekov and Captain Scott, Scotty. uh, with Agent

Daniels and, and the like, uh, kind of preserve

the timeline and take care of the, the Dyson,

you know, the sphere builders. And you play the

mission like three times and you can collect

some pretty decent swag in there. Plus you can

get a lot of, uh, you build up enough like dilithium

or like omega marks or temporal marks or stuff

like that. And you can actually do research,

and it builds up your level, and when you get

enough stuff, you can level up in those categories.

And if you hit high enough of experience in those

categories, then you get to unlock special gear.

You get to unlock the Mako or the Omega armors

and weaponry. You get to unlock... some new costumes.

You get to get a bunch of different stuff. So

I've been playing that, doing the research on

it. Some of the stuff should be done like 8 o

'clock tonight on the game. So I'm experimenting

with that. I've got Enterprise 1701. I've got

1701A. I've got 1701C, 1701D, 1701E. And I thought

I had, uh, well, I have like a stargazer basically

class with an, it's, it's basically the stargazer

with a galaxy class saucer. Um, and then, uh,

I have, um, a runabout and a shuttlecraft and

a ton of bridge command, like bridge crew. I

have like nine bridge crew. Um, you know, all

different things, security, tactical, medical,

science, engineering, um, operations, just all

different stuff. Uh, I like how you can go in

the ship and you can actually run around your

own ship. Uh, so it's kind of an interesting

there and you can get, you know, model ships

to go on the ready room and it's basically the

enterprise D like standard ready room. Uh, and

then. I thought I had the Enterprise J bought

in the game, and it's a fleet V6 something or

another in -game, and it's a fleet battlecruiser

type thing, but it's not the Enterprise J because

that thing is monstrous and so is the Kelvin

Enterprise. But I'll be back after this. Hey,

this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. So I think that's

about it on this episode of Altered Geek. Quite

a few things going on. And I'm back in my studio

here preparing the episode for upload. Yeah,

so there's quite a bit of stuff going on. As

for superhero TV, Black Siren returns in episode

22 of Arrow. Captain Cold returns in episode

22 of The Flash. And Cat Grant returns in episode

21 of Supergirl. So there's some returns of some

old characters to the shows. Yeah, not a lot

going on. I'm starting on the 23rd century Star

Trek Online now. Almost done with all the missions.

It's all in the past, but it all has to do with

time travel and Daniels and the Gorn, the Tholians,

the Nakul, and Captain Chekov from the future,

and Captain Scott. So it's intertwining into

part of the past history of Star Trek, and I

like how it fits. I just hope that before I finish,

it actually ends up in the 25th century characters.

Which it sounds like that may happen. Because

there was an incident that it says that the character

was killed and they were brought forth to the

25th century. So I'm not sure if they let you

continue that character from there. If they do,

that's pretty awesome. I probably should have

played that first. But, yeah, then I'll go back

to my level 60 character and kind of go from

there. But, yeah, definitely awesome. So until

next week, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks.