Geeking Out to Ark, Trucks, and Media Reboots

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

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

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and joining

me on this endeavor into all things geeky is...

Mike Boothinger -Powers. So this week we thought

we would talk about stuff we're geeking out to.

Boy, but real quick real quick at the top of

this I just want to put this out there again

And I will probably do it every episode until

something starts happening because I feel like

it needs to be needs to happen If we could guys

it we We are always taking suggestions for things

to talk about to record shows for you guys but

things that you want us to to hit on discuss

things of that nature Obviously you can tweet

your your story ideas or your show Ideas to myself

at booth in j81 or to Steve at SCP 21 or you

can leave them in the comment section of the

show or You could head over to your favorite

podcasting Aggregate site and you could leave

us a five -star review and leave a topic there

for us to discuss It's just we we try to bookmark

a whole bunch of stories every week to discuss

But then when it comes down to actually hit the

record button We spend a good chunk of time deliberating

over what we should possibly do And we're looking

for some that some of that engagement And the

more engagement we get we do have a plan to do

a feedback episode where we go back real quick

and kind of do like a clip show if you will of

the last few topics and Bring up what you guys

had to say about said things so Which I've been

bookmarking those so those those will all be

cataloged so let's let's I know the shows are

shorter and there's there sometimes there's more

of them, but let's try to Get a little little

engagement whether it's like directly Communicating

with us or in the comment section on the websites

on Facebook or on your inner review on the aggregate

sites Just let us know how we're doing or what

you want us to discuss, things of that nature,

and we'll work as a team here. Yeah. So I guess

I can let you go first, Steve. What have you

been up to? So I've been in addition to just

life and work and everything else. I've been

having fun trying to sell a lot of my old collectibles

I've been putting them all up on eBay. So if

anybody wants that you should be able to find

a nice link a few few posts back anyway on my

my Twitter feed I'm trying to sell off majority

of my collectibles and that's because One, they

aren't displayed anymore. And two, I'm trying

to collect the money from them. Because one,

these things have been in a tote. Most of it

is brand new. New in the box, like in a tote

for the last year. They haven't seen the light

of day. And then the other things that are open

were display case pieces, and so they've not

been out other than... you know in this tote

as well so I like carefully packed them all away

and now I'm trying to off them all so that I

can just have money freed up uh partially for

the the uniform thing I'm trying to get done

and uh personally just so that I can um stretch

some of it for uh websites and and promotion

purposes and uh things for Getting everybody

more involved or things to upgrade equipment

so that I can do better content So yeah, I've

been doing that and then trying to start a Starfleet

international chapter which if you listen to

future imperfect at all or The last topic show

of this show. I talked about it briefly that

I more or less got tired of Waiting for Email

communication, which that's something that drives

me nuts is how slow email can be like I don't

know if it's because I'm impatient and I expect

like Like social media level responses to things

are you were those guys like Okay, I was this

way with my last job where you're you're kind

of almost constantly monitoring all your channels

right for input the second like a text or maybe

like a tweet or a DM or an email comes through

you if there's someone looking for information

from you you almost immediately respond to it

and then When they don't it's like dude You literally

just sent this email to me like five seconds

ago, and I answered you within 30 And it takes

you like five hours to get back with me. You

know like like I was that way all the time with

Because email was a big part of the communication

with my last job. I think I could deal with like

up to like two hours. I think it drives me nuts

when it goes days. I see that like two hour like

when I when I when I would give like an immediate

response like two hours that would like that's

like nails on a chalkboard. Oh, it's still nails

on a chalkboard to me. Like I've I've sent off

multiple emails today and not gotten responses

to things until like way later where it was like

too late to actually do anything about it. And

I'm just like you people it's not difficult like

and that's part of what's been driving me nuts

with Starfleet is like I love the organization

I love the the classes but communication Seems

to be and this is with any organization. It doesn't

matter where it is. It could be work. It could

be You know clubs associations, you know anything

I find that communication seems to be that broken

link that every organization has where you have

a few people that are on it and then you have

usually people that are in charge of things that

you need communication with that aren't on it

and then it just creates this disconnect so that's

that's kind of how it's been with me for multiple

things this week so I've been kind of like on

edge and like between PR companies for Because

I'm trying to get information on like reboot

the guardian code Because that there was no PR

front for it from since like August until February

21st, and then it started popping up all over

the place I don't know if it's because I was

badgering the crap out of the company and their

PR establishments But I was inquiring and it

was like an hour later and all this stuff started

just massively dumping all over the place For

the next day and then so I'm trying to get access

to the show itself so that I can kind of give

a overview of it So I've been doing that communicating

with them. I've been communicating with Netflix.

I'm trying to get access to Lost in Space the

new rebooted show Yeah, I watched the trailer

for that I'm excited for that I'm excited for

it too being I watched the original and I've

seen the crappy movie that came out in the 90s.

I got this like I got this like Okay, CBS. You

want to make your own Star Trek? You want to

make a Star Trek online series only? Well, we'll

just make this Yeah, like I got that that's the

vibe I got from watching that trailer. Yeah,

I kind of got that too But that's not a bad thing.

No, I'm trying to get a screener for it so that

I can see it So I kind of do a pre -review before

it comes out and be able to have it ready to

go when the show debuts. Same thing with the

reboot of The Guardian Code and I'm trying to

get access to that new Carmen Sandiego show just

because I watched every iteration of it in the

90s. So it's just a curiosity thing for me. So

between those, I'm trying to get access to all

that. I'm trying to do the chapter. I've put

together a chapter website for the thing before

I've even got full authorization for everything.

But it doubles as the podcast website as well

for Future Imperfect. So it kind of works out

in that. So I've had fun designing my own Elkar's

theme in WordPress, which was... Fun because

I had to find the right color palette I was looking

for to design it and it was kind of a mess to

do and tedious but I got it to work and So yeah,

I've been doing a multitude of things this week

and it's just it's driving me nuts So I'm looking

forward to tomorrow night where I shut down for

like two days So what's new with you? Oh, man.

Well, I okay. So I've been I don't know if I

ever brought this up on any of the new shows

that we've been doing, but I have been on unemployed

for about a month, about five weeks now. And

I'm just kind of now like starting to break some

of the habits that I had. That I had picked up

over the last 18 months with the job, which is

I you know I was always constantly looking at

my work phone checking my work phone always feeling

like I was missing something, you know This that

the other thing and that's I think within the

within the last week. It's really died down And

I'm not quite sure what's like Taken over or

if it's just I'm far enough removed from it now

where I'm not like I don't have my work phone

anymore I had a work phone and a personal phone

and I would just always walk by the kitchen counter

where my work phone was and Multiple times a

day. I would look to see if there was a message

there on the phone But I don't have the phone

anymore. Like I was literally looking at a empty

counter That sounds kind of like how I am with

with work although my work phone and my my You

know normal use phone is the same device Yeah,

so But that's slowly starting to go away and

like so there was there's that Getting better.

I'm starting to get more into Back into games.

I haven't picked up anything really too meaty

Since since I since I became unemployed Like

I've played games over the last 18 months, but

like when I sit down and go I don't play games.

It's it's like I'm thinking of games like horizon

zero dawn or the last Tomb Raider or like single

-player Narrative driven games like I haven't

played one of those in almost 18 months I've

played my fair share of Overwatch, and I just

recently got into Fortnite, which has been a

lot of fun. And just this last week, my wife

and I got into Ark Survival Evolved. I don't

know if you've heard of that game or not. It

sounds familiar, but I'm not familiar with it.

So the neat thing about it... Talk a little bit

about this just because you are a PC gamer and

you know PC games tend to be a little cheap I

do believe there is cross -platform play between

consoles and the PC And so like if you wanted

to play with us like we could all play on the

same server But basically it's like it's one

of those games where they drop you in a world

and everything can be mined for resources and

you can craft a ton of different stuff and the

For me the key to the game is like you can tame

dinosaurs and ride them hmm And you can build

bases and forts and all this all this really

cool stuff, but it all takes time and it's it's

like you know, we watched a whole YouTube series

on it and When we're done with it, we're like,

you know, we're waiting for the the guys that

made it which Give them credit. It's the needs

gaming channel Okay, I think a lot of really

funny stuff out there But we watched all hundred

episodes that they had we were like we're caught

up on it So now we're kind of watching it when

they release videos for it, but we're like we

should play this you know so we went out and

picked it up and it's a it's one of the weirder

video games I played because I'm used to The

games just being ready to go like out the box

but there's a couple of different ways there's

like three different ways to play this game okay

there's uh you can play on public servers that

the company has set up but that was if that was

the only way for my wife and i to play the game

like i immediately would have had buyer's remorse

the the server was constantly re -sinking so

your character would get rolled back like five

seconds from what you had just done Because it's

it's syncing up for everyone that's on the server

And then there's then my wife we were like this

is this is dumb. I can't play this way So then

we then my wife and I found out that you can

do and they don't make any of this really clear

None of the language is really clear on how to

do any of this stuff So it was all trial and

error because when you watch a video on YouTube,

it's not this is how we set up our game It's

this is just us playing the game, right? Yeah,

so Okay, I was like there must be another way

to do this and one of the other ways is you can

play like You can set up your a PlayStation 4

As a server and basically do like local co -op

over your LAN. Yep, but Your world exists on

either my my PlayStation or my wife's PlayStation

And so you can't go anywhere in the world like

you could go up to like 200 yards away from each

other Mmm, and then I guess it would start drag

I never had this happen to me But I guess it

would start me being the host it would start

dragging my wife's character to wherever I was

Okay, that's kind of funny There are four ways

so and then the third way was if we had bought

a third copy of the game You can set up a PlayStation

4 to be a server like just by itself, okay, okay,

but Have a third ps4 That's just sitting here

doing nothing But I didn't want to buy a third

copy of a game that I don't even know that I

even care for right because I still have yet

to find The best way to play it. So my wife and

I found out that you can also rent servers like

online and So we did that it was like thirteen

dollars for one month and you can have up to

ten people playing with you So we had a company

spin up a server and we logged into that and

the game has been great ever since. So she can

go wherever she wants to go. I can go wherever

I want to go in the world. It's not constantly

re -syncing on itself. It's been great. And as

far as I can tell, that server is publicly available

across PC and PS4. So all you have to do is search

for that server, put in our password, and then

you can play with us. So long story short, that's

what we've been doing for the last week. So I

guess probably the biggest thing that's happened,

I got. a new vehicle. Yeah, I saw that. It's

it looks pretty awesome. I remember driving those

when I worked at the dealership. So I. My dad

is since since I've been a kid or since I've

been born, my dad has always had trucks, always

like it's always been a GMC or a Silverado. It's

either been a Sierra or a Silverado. And, you

know. But I myself, ever since I've been able

to drive, I've always driven cars. You know,

and two years ago, my dad got a brand new GMC

Sierra and I drove it around when he got it.

And my wife and everyone around me was like,

you look really good in the truck. You know,

no one's ever told me I look good in a vehicle

before. But they're all like, you look really

good in the truck. And I was like, yeah, OK,

you know, I like I like trucks, but I've never.

owned one myself you know and well like when

I was employed I had a company car and my wife

had a car so we didn't need two cars but now

that I'm unemployed and I need to be able to

get to a job when I have it and you know my my

wife is you know she's working and I'm stuck

at home until she gets out of work like I need

to be able to get around to go to interviews

and things so we went and my original plan was

I wanted to get a Camaro I wanted to buy a Camaro

to have it to save it as like a just I wanted

it to be the car that I was going to have for

like ever like you know drive it drive it around

on nice days put it in the garage under a tarp

you know on the bad days have it as your your

your summer pet vehicle Yeah, like keep it really

nice like keep it as like the I mean I have no

plans to have kids but like in the back of my

head it was always like if I ever had kids this

is the car that my kids gonna get to drive right

like that's just how I always saw it but when

it came right down to it we ended up making the

decision my wife talked me into it we ended up

going with I bought myself a 2018 Silverado and

Love it. I I mean I didn't know I I don't feel

like I made a compromise or anything about getting

the Camaro But I love the truck. I like I said,

I've driven I've said it on Twitter before like

before this like I've driven trucks Like like

I said, my dad's always had a truck. I've driven

them. I've always felt comfortable driving trucks

but I I've always had cars and I Don't know that

I can go back to driving a car after driving

The truck. There's something like I think I said

it, I said it online, but I don't remember exactly

what I said. There's something about there's

something empowering and self -sufficiency about

having a truck. Well, it's nice because if you

need to haul something or need to go take care

of something, you can do it. You don't necessarily

have to wait. Yeah. Yeah. You're not at the whim

of somebody else being available. And you can

like, as far as I know, this truck will, I mean,

It'll haul just about anything. I would want

to haul with it like It there's way I've told

myself this and it just to myself sitting in

the truck. There's way more truck there than

I will ever use But I I love it. I love the color.

It's like a it's a crazy. It's a real It's a

real nice blue. It's got black leather interior

it has the Apple CarPlay Which I love and it

has this really neat feature Like it has the

intelligent high beams on it Which is actually

pretty good from what I can tell it basically

uses high beams the way that I use them like

if I can see headlights in front of me I don't

use my high beams and If there are any headlights

in front of me these high beams headlights or

tail lights in front of the truck the even like

way down the road It won't turn the high beams

on I mean I can turn them on I can override it

but it won't automatically turn them on that's

still pretty cool and then it has one of the

things that I really like about it it has it

won't it's not self -driving but it has the other

they call it the lane guidance so it knows where

the where the edge of the lanes are So if you

start getting too close to it, it will kind of

just it feels like a magnet is pushing the truck

Back back the way it needs to go like back into

the middle of the lane Which is nice like I don't

use that when I'm driving on like side streets

or whatever but I I use it when I'm on the expressway

and I'm Driving like I've gone home a couple

times. So like when I'm on the expressway and

I've got the cruise on like I'll turn the lane

guidance on because it's one less thing that

I need to like I'm paying attention but it's

one less thing that I need to like worry about

driving back home for like a long or a long distance

and the last time I went home I wanted to see

how much it would actually do so I took my hands

off the steering wheel and it you know it drifted

to the right and then it pushed itself back to

the left but it kind of like over corrected So

it went all the way to the the left side of the

lane that I was in and then went back You know

it and then it pushed it back over to the right

so I was like okay now. I just look like a drunk

guy But it was staying in the lane. It's not

me. It's my truck I was staying in the lane,

but it was just it was starting to ping -pong

back and forth between the lines I was like clearly

this is not you know it's it's not an autonomous

vehicle by any stretch of the imagination But

no I There's something else I wanted to say,

but I know I really I'm really enjoying it Man

it just my it just slipped my mind, but yeah,

that's pretty much it like I'm just slowly getting

back into my routine And I Got the new truck

been playing some playing some new games, but

I've nothing nothing too meaty like I said I'm

trying to get back into that still and Just me

one of the reasons I started podcasting again

with you is because I am sitting here trying

to get Trying to think of a way to get one of

my podcast back off the ground But I haven't

felt too motivated And if I'm being completely

honest that I wanted to revive off the cuff with

with this new format that we have for altered

geek But but before I could do that I shared

this I shared the idea with with you for alter

key Hey, at least it's getting used no, I know

it's it's good I'm just saying like I like I

I wanted so now I'm going okay now I gotta I

gotta think of something you know to something

else to do but I have enough fun doing this so

it's like like I have fun doing this and recording

the multiple episodes so it's like I don't need

to go and find another podcast to do not that

I you know so that's what I've been up to that's

what we've been up to so what have you been up

to the listeners yeah so let us know in the comments

again like I said let us know what you thought

of this show let us know what you've been doing

let us know what we can talk about in the future

if you're enjoying the show which seems like

everybody is seems like everybody is I said at

the top if you could go to your favorite your

podcast aggregate site and Leave us a five -star

review along with a friendly comment or or put

a story in there Just something you want us to

talk about in general. Let us know Let us know

how we're doing It's kind of what that's kind

of what I'm looking forward this episode. I just

want to know how how you think we're doing with

the new altered geek here This this like help

us help you Yeah, exactly Help me help you help

us help you we want to make a better show. We

want to make the best show we possibly can It

does seem like you guys are enjoying the shorter

format. So we're gonna keep that up So as always

you can comment on Facebook on geek cast radio

calm on your favorite aggregate site. You could

hit me up on Twitter at Booth Ninja 81. You can

hit Steve up at SCP 21 and you can also comment

the show directly at altered geek. You can use

the hashtag. Hey, you got one. Yeah, we'll just

use the generic what's geeky to you. Hashtag

what's geeky to you. So until next week. Get

altered with the altered keys.