Fire Escape Cast #78

Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the fire Scape Cast. It is episode seventy eight. I'm Mike. Here's always with Mary. Hello and Daniel. Hello. What's about a formal name? Daniel? It's on the birth certificate. Yeah, yeah, Daniel. What is security? That's a two. I shouldn't do that on a podcast. So, yeah, whoever were you about to give a fake one? Whatever happened if you were giving a fake one? Here's the question. Yeah, or rather not a fake one.

If you were going to give one that is not yours and ended up being someone else's, that someone used to steal their identity, would you be an accessory? No, he's just an idiot. It's totally not connected. You can't be connected to that. That's giving a random person like a phone number. Like anytime a girl gives a dude a fake phone number and then she's like liable he calls them. That's not that's not her fault universe. That is guessing a social security number. Yeah, you can't do that. Yeah,

that was someone's that. Yeah. It reminds me of there's like one of my favorite Simpsons quotes where he goes to the bathroom and mister Burns's house and he comes back like twenty minutes later, and they're like, did you find the bathroom? And he's like, yeah, he just did. It take him a while to find it. He just is somewhere, but somewhere in the house that wasn't a bathroom. Just it's a smart show, Mike.

You wouldn't know very high brown. Interesting. My favorite bit in The Simpsons after watching it when you guys forced me to was when I don't remember the plot point, but there was people coming out of a courthouse and a bunch of reporters were asking questions. Supposedly Conan wrote this one other reporters who just clearly did not do his homework, came up to like the defenders, like who are you and what are we doing here? It is a really good bit. We're in rough shape tonight, I think, Dan, I

know you're not feeling well. I just I told you you two. I went from not really traveling much outside of weddings and leisure stuff every now and then to my first month at the new job, which is going really well, but all of a sudden, it was Stockholm for a week, Puerto Rico for a wedding, San Francisco, and then I came back for two days to the East Coast and then flew back to San Francisco and then got back yesterday from Santa I was surprised to see see you with the San Francisco

stuff on your Instagram recently, was like, he's still there from GDC, but I know you went there and went back. It was to the point where I was almost considering staying that last weekend instead of coming back and then flying back. But Amanda and I had like data versary plans, and I was like, I need to reset a bit. Despite the fact that it's two more flights. I don't mind traveling, it's just don't like flying. Did you play Blatro in the flight the Best Flight You? No, I'll

tell you I but I will. Actually I had this prepared because I played a lot more Vampire Survivors. I mean, I already played a shit ton. I'll talk more about it during the game section. I still think Vampire Survivors is the King of King or Queen of flight games. Blatro is fantastic, and yes I did play a lot of it, but I think Vampire Survivors takes the takes the crown. Vampire Survivors is dead long live blatro of playing Survivors Killer. Sorry, no, I'm trying to think. I actually

it's funny. I'm to the point now where turbulence doesn't disturb me that much anymore. It's still unpleasant, but it doesn't mess with me as much. However, on the way to San Francisco for the second trip, if you're living in the Midwest, you probably had a blizzard like a week ago, and then if you were on the East Cost, you had flooding and a lot of high winds. Both of those combined to contribute to maybe the worst turbulence I've ever had in my life over like Chicago on the way back to

SF. In the sense that shaking is fine, that doesn't bother me. It's when you feel the plane kind of like lift and then drop suddenly, or drop and then lift suddenly, like this is not natural, or it just feels like like the engine like you're just falling all of a sudden's like that's not in the thirty thousand feet however high you are. And then I don't know if that's accurate at all. I'm tired. On the way back,

I somehow got even worse turbulence landing at Newark. I don't know what was going on yesterday, but we were in a It was my first time flying Alaska. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, like maybe they are planes. I mean it was just a Boeing. It was a seven thirty seven, so it's not a plane I've never flown on before. But it was one of those things where I start overthinking the landing because the plane is tilting, and I find that when you're sitting close to

the wings that's when the turbulence is worse. So the plane the wings were just like going lopsided every five seconds. And then when we're landing, I was like, there's no way this big of a thing going this fast cannot like you know, fast and furious on the runway when it lands and just flip and we're always fine. But that's the thing I get into when I'm on planes that often. But uh yeah, hoping, uh like fucking France

is better when I fly there in a month. I've never worried really about, like, you know, any kind of plane crashing thing or anything. It's always just been my own head in anxiety and not being able to get up and move around thing. But lately I've been having this thing because I got all the crazy TMJ issues with my invisline throwing my bite off. So it's like my ears constantly feel feel full, like my ears always need to pop, and my sinuses always feel really fucked up, like behind my nose,

like everything like inside my head feels like pressure. And then I last few flights I've been on, it just feels like it's just mounting and mounting and mounting, and it never goes down. So I'm like spending the whole like flight to and from Boston like trying to blow my nose basically to pop my ears, and nothing will work. And it's just like I'm googling can

your sinuses explode? Like can your ear drums explode? Plate? And they're like a bunch of people, like so like a bunch of people having that the same feeling, and it's the fucking worst. And I've got a flight to Europe probably coming up here in the near future, and I'm just like, oh God, I'm gonna you know, a dozen plus hours or whatever. Plugging your nose and closing your eyes and blowing lightly until they pop doesn't

work. That doesn't do nothing now with my current situation. No, but I also had sucked up yours grown up and everything, and I have tubes of my ears grown up and everything. So it's just a whole bad situation there. And now the TMJ stuff is just making everything fucked up in my head. So that like the tm jpart, because you're you're probably feeling like pressure in your jaw as well. The jaw hurts. Yeah, yeah,

that's that's awful. I mean, just like a physical like jaw hurting thing that's not as like concerning as like feeling like a balloon is inflating inside my like behind my eyes and nose, and it's just like pains, like, oh God, when is this gonna stop? Think you also have allergies because it's spring, right, like spring has sprung us. I think that a lot of people are starting to get that compacted with all the other stuff going

on. I never found I don't think I've ever had allergies, and I've never had this particular thing to this level, so I think it's all just tied the envisiline. Mike, you're asking about the medicine thing, and yeah, I saw a and t's I've seen dentists and doctors about this, and like they say, like a spray of afron in each nose like an hour beforehand it should help. But yeah, I went in and uh because my dentist said, like, go to a physical therapist and there's like exercises that

they can do to like help reduce the pressure or whatever. And so yesterday I went into a physical therapist and they put six fucking needles in my face and ears and just lay there seven minutes on each side, and they're like turning needles around in my fucking skull. Have you is that the first time you've done acupuncture? It wasn't technically acupuncture. I've had acupuncture. I've tried that. This is like trigger point stuff, which is I think it's a

very similar. Let's say, isn't that what acupuncture is just on your back and torso and what not. It might just be that like a branding thing, like I think in a like physical therapist office, this is Jimmy the needle guy. It's a totally different service. Yeah, yeah, this is sharp James. Yeah. Watch, I'm gonna come get you now, get you good. But anyway, I am not a situation it's very legitimate medical issue. No, you know, it seems like the same thing because like

I've tried acupuncture for anxiety. I don't know how much I subscribed to it really because I didn't really notice anything, but it feels very similar to this trigger point stuff. I think it's just if the place wants to brand itself as like, hey, we're a serious like medical place, they'll say this is trigger point injections or dry needling u And if it wants to be kind of like more new age, you know, holistic medicine stuff, they'll say

it's an acupuncture. But it feels like the same thing to me. It Actually that did feel pretty good. Yeah, I yeah, Like I said, I haven't really felt it with the anxiety stuff as far as any real effects, but I also didn't do it for a long time. But it does feel like like when the needles go in and they're turning and stuff,

it does feel like there's some release going on. And then they're also doing a bunch of just like massaging and things like that with the actual like muscles, and yeah, I'm gonna get another round before I get on a plane on Wednesday. So Sharks, I've have heard that for TMJ, like you can do it yourself as well, and like massaging your jaw. I do it because I also have so I also have a VISI line, and I also have jaw issues that stemmed from just the stress that I was putting on

my own jaw. And I think I've told you this before, but you know, like I can't have gum, Like I don't chew gum. My dentist basically told me as like a personal tip. He was like, just don't chew unnecessarily. He's like, unless you're eating food because you're really hungry and need to, don't do it. Don't chew ice, don't chew gum. Uh, don't chew like hard candy or gumsuck gummy candies that are gonna

like irritate your jaw. He's like, stop it. And so I kind of altered some of the food and candies that I would eat so that I

wouldn't irritate my jaw or like overuse my jaw. Essentially, Yeah, there's all those things you got to watch for where it's like it was really flaring up last week and I heard about how the foods can can really have an effect on that I realized, really, oh, I got this new super crunchy Cereal I've been having every morning, and then a fan gave me a giant bag of Starburst and a bunch of other candies at packs, and I've

just been like going to town on starbars after lunch and dinner both those days, and like maybe that had something to do with it. Can we in BacT to super crunchy Cereal? It's like extra crunchy most of all all cereals, like they don't have Captain soft, you know what I mean? Like they're all supposed to be pretty crunchy. Yeah, but like flags, are you know, flanks you get through pretty quick? Or is that this is like like you hear it across the room crunchy. Yeah, it'll fuck your

teeth up. Yeah, I've heard Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfus have had jaws issues as well. What kind of foods were you saying actually make your jaw worse? Mary? You said, okay, so chewy stuff makes the TMJ worse hard, Like, okay, I'll give you some examples. Really tough

bread. Have you ever had like bread that's like and it's not bad, it's good crunch, but like a yeah, like a you know, the kind of bread where you had to like kind of rip it and like grind it down, like I try and eat more like soft rolls now and stuff like that. I know this sounds weird, but like I cognitively think about, like, oh, is that going to be like tough for me to like break down with my teeth and I will I try and avoid foods like

that now. So the chewier something is, the more it will exacerbate the TMJ problems afterward. Is that what you're saying or totally just like grind that makes it sore afterward? Totally have you ever had dinner and then you're just like I'm trying to think of like like a good example because it's there's lots of good foods that do this, but even like a like a big thick steak that's like kind of chewy and really chew it down a little bit right to but I didn't pizza is a good one, say ja are, But

TMJ issues are separate from just sore jaw muscles. Correct it. No, they can be connected, but TMJ is usually a connection with like you are you have irritated your jaw, and now your jaw is overly stressed because you're over using it or you've like put too much stress on it, and so now when you're not using it and you're going to bed, you're like, wait, why is my jaw locked it? That's almost like, yeah,

I've had that on rare occa. I don't think it's like a severe for me, but almost, yeah, maybe think about like, you know, since November, my bite has been changing like every day, So every time I bit if and like going in a different direction, so it's getting all fucked up. But then like all the stuff that's around it, and that neighbor, like the EU station tubes you know that are going through your sinuss up to your ear drums and stuff like that totally gets aggravated and the suddenly

you're getting the U station tube dysfunction. That's so it's just like it's not just like your jaw hurts or whatever. It's just and you get these crazy like headaches that I've never felt that are just going straight down the middle of my head, and you know, the pre it's it's so much more than just like I used to think it was just like oh jaw, it's sored clicks or whatever. But yeah, it's you got like eight things going on

simultaneously, which sounds really stressful. Do you ever do you ever treat yourself to a non uh in visile line? And I every once in a while used to do that you're not supposed to, but like every like I've I'm treating myself this Saturday to no invisi line, and I get like, really

because there's no pressure on my teeth and it feels really good. No, I've I've tried to like keep them in all the time because I think that's part of why I'm having so much trouble right now is I thought that dentist told me that I could switch them out every four days, and so I was very like four days on the minute every time, just trying to get through this as fast as possible. And then lately it's been like no,

it's like a week is like the standard. I think he was trying to tell me that, like, oh, if they're like loose after four days, you could do it. But they have not been loose once. They have been gripping my vice grip the whole time. I have been changed. Wonder if you're pushing yourself too hard, Like this isn't like getting a master's in one year. Like you're fucking your teeth. You're like shoving your teeth into spaces that they don't want to be really quickly. That sounds a little

torturous, honestly. Yeah, it's like I'm backing off now. I'm going like over a week on each one. Now I'll go longer if it's not gonna be Yeah, I wouldn't. I think that you're a good lesson in that. I also listen to what I I We've talked about this. I've done VISI line twice because I was I was bad, and I stopped using my retainer on the second round. I was like, I'm treating myself to two weeks for each retainer, taking my time. I don't want it.

I don't want to go to bed in pain. I don't like it. I want to go to bed like a regular person who enjoy a ways their life. You seem like the things you're doing is like being on like an extreme diet where you're like, I will lose forty pounds in ten days, and it's like the body is not meant for this, and the body is not meant for your teeth to shift locations within two weeks. It's just not like you're pushing yourself. Dude. It wouldn't it be cool if you could?

Yeah, it would be cool. Anyway. How's your fucking jaw head? Yeah? But his teeth look amazing. He can't hear uh out? Yeah anymore? Left eyes blind? It is blind in one eye. Teeth teeth are fucking glamorous. I've got diarrhea for some reason. Yeah, that's just probably unrelated. That's just the food you eat. Oh. I literally this weekend, I've box out of town and I have literally only eaten this weekend h two separate probably sixty dollars worth of Taco Bell and a full Little

Caesar's Peace with two packs of Crazy Puffs. You just only had Little Caesars and Taco Bell for the last three days. Do you just get separation anxiety from bank and eat your way out of it when she's not there? Well, no, cause it's like I don't have any excuse because, like my food is I I just get meal plan stuff sent to the house, and so it's like I have access to the exact same shit I always have. It's not like you know, we eat different stuff. It's not like,

oh, she's gone, so she's not making me. It's like, no, I could just eat my normal stuff. But yeah, I don't know. I streamed like both nights, and when I stream, I typically do like, you know, get to the garbage food or stuff and I dream it's a chee yeah, yeah, yeah, And so I just went the bonkers on that this weekend. But yeah, it's not great. I always think when I am home alone, I also go into grimlin mode, but

not in the same way. What I'll end up doing is is I like have like a pack of frozen vegetables in the freezer, and I'll just nukem for thirty seconds and eat a bag of frozen peas like a sad person. What you say that like, it's like the most unhealthy thing ever. It's like, I mean, they're frozen things. But what I'm saying is is like it's not a balanced meal. I'm eating frozen vegetables out of a bag with a fork, And that is to me, it's hard to describe or

justify, because I do think it's very odd. But to me, when I am alone and there's no one to impress or there's no socialization happening. Food is strictly fuel, and so I'm like, oh, I'm hungry, what's the easiest, closest, whatever thing that will make my stomach stop being annoying, and it will be like whatever I have around, and I will just consume that and move on with my life. When I'm socializing, I want big, fun meals and I'll cook or whatever. But when I am

alone, I just eat whatever gets me to the next stage. I just don't care. It's kind of a weird thing. It's fun giving her self excuses, like because I do I do that where it's like, oh, you know, it's I'm you're gonna be streaming both nights. I guess I've ordered food. I know, box out of town. I'll get a picture. I can't. I don't have time. Yeah, I love that ship. What's your favorite like, uh, what's your favorite snack? So not a meal? Like your favorite when you just had two packs I'm said that

so quickly. I just had two packs of fruit snacks. Yeah, uh, Kraft, the gummy, the Craft Yeah noodles, No Kraft makes gummy they do. Yeah, Okay, Well, what's your favorite snack? Like your little like Snyder's Cheddar pretzel bits. Not not the fucking Cheddar covered pretzels, the Snyder's pretzel bits that are crushed up rods with cheese, and those are hard to eat. I can imagine those will give you abso. Yes, my favorite is a bag of crutons. Oh, all crunchy, I

know. I like. Uh, there's these ones that are like urban garlic. I don't garlic. I thought you said you thought it was urban too. It's like, what is the urban garlic? Suburban? At them? Maybe suburban garlic? Urban garlic? Oh my god? Is that Metro Texas toast live in large here? Yes, urban garlic is good. I yeah, I've I've snacked on croutons of great many times in my life as well.

I Uh, I didn't know if I was gonna say this uh on public platforms or anything, but I guess I will because then I'll hold myself accountable more. But yeah, feeling like shit and stuff this weekend, eating like ship Like God, damn, I gotta get some some real plan together here because I've been working out and just doing but it's like, you know a little like, oh, I'll do a peloton here, I'll do this here, but then it's like I don't really have a plan together. So

I just signed up for a half marathon today. What it's in July, and so I've been doing a lot of research on, like, you know, just the proper like kind of ramp up to it, because like I've got bad planner for shitas and so I haven't run for almost ten years since

last time I did a half marathon. But I was talking to my physical therapist and he was saying that, like, yeah, as long as like your pain is like a three out of three to five out of ten, you're fine and it might actually even kind of help promote healing of the planner fashion running. So yeah, yeah, but he said, if it goes over like a five out of ten and pain stop, So yeah, I'm

going to start now. I don't know. I think there's a good chance I get hurt in camp, but like I'm signed up doing it in July. Did my first run today of the schedule, and yeah, I'm feeling it, but I think they'd be super fun to get back in there. I'm proud of you. I'm also running. I did not sign up for a five k because that scares the shit out of me. I'm very impressed by you. You know, he's doing much more than five k. He's doing a thirteen miles. I'm going to at some point the ks do not

matter because I'm not doing them. It's like, that's your problem. That's yeah, that's your circus. But what I'm saying is is like I could never That scares the shit out of me. I've also been really good and I have jogged every day for the last eight days, which is insane, like I never do that. My secret has been I get up at one hour earlier and I do it before I go to work, because if I try to do it after work, I'm like, nah, I'll make dinner

like be a slug. But before dinner or start before work, I think I can get away with it. And it's been working and I have been doing it, but I'm I'm really bad. I like to take lots of breaks. So I jog like four blocks. Then I'm like, I treat myself to a block walk, and then I walk for a little bit and then I'm like, you can, you can do it, And now I jog for four more blocks and I'm like, yeah, you've earned it. I'm a week, Like I just I don't have it. Have you ever

heard of like a couch to five k app or anything like that. I have heard of it, I have not downloaded it. Do you think rd you have it? I've done it before, like a five K. It's

good. I don't think they have a ten k version. But what you're describing is kind of what it does downloaded twice, just what everything they recommend, which it starts like you'll start all right, start walking, you know, do like a three minute walk or whatever, and then we'll say start running and on your first one and you'll run for like twenty seconds and then

you walk for recommended. So it's literally what you're describing of, like you'll run for a bit and it gives you a little break, and then like every time it kind of ramps up a little bit and before you know it, oh shit, I can run a five k. So that sounds nice. I'm very soft on myself and when I uh, and you should stop if you feel pain, but like if I feel any discomfort, I'm like, take it easy, Mary, and I'll start walking. So I think it would take me days to get through a five k or whatever. It

would just take me so long. But I do enjoy putting on some good tunes, some good tune skis, and like having a little jog. I usually try to jog for one song if that helps. I know that's very different than your system, but to me, if you put on like a really energetic song, I'll send you one of my favorite songs to jog to. I'm so excited that the song is good. Then by the time it's ended, I'm really tired, and then I and then I have a little

rest. Oh yeah, music and energize you during runs, for sure, so it's all, yeah, it's all good. I noticed that today because yeah, normally, like I've done a lot of walks in the last year or so, but like I'll listen to podcasts during walks, but like when you're running and actually like working out, music works better. And I rarely

just have moments in my day where I'm like actively listening to music. And I realized today, like I put on like an old exercise playlist that I haven't dusted off from you know, years ago, I was like, oh shit, right, okay, and I was running to music, and it was like, oh, that'll be a good byproduct of like training for this is that I'll actually like have time to listen to music on a regular basis. The last mile of that half marathon, you need to be listening to

something from Rocky I did when I did the one in twenty fifteen. I set up the playlist, so I timed it out and just like it's nothing but Rocky shit for the last like you know, thirty to forty five minutes was twenty fifth and a half or a full it's a half, gotcha? This goes well? Like and again, it's all just comes down that I could get injured in two weeks or whatever. I think the ultimate goal would like, I think it'd be really fucking cool to do a full marathon at

least once in my life. And New York or some Minneapolis does one too, right, Yeah, yeah, they've got one. Yeah. I did a bunch of phone rolling stuff today after my run, so yeah, Town's got a bunch of like stretching, like you know post run stretches. And here's a ten minute phone rolling thing after a thing, So like that's actually really helpful too. So I'm gonna try to do this right. I'm gonna try not to rush into it and give myself enough time. Hopefully I just

don't get it a lot. Oh yeah, you've got time to build up that way. What is in fact, it's all like kind of pre training stuff until May and then that's when the actual because its supposed to be like you know, fourteen weeks is kind of what I'm shooting four for actual training? What is so? Yeah, what is it? It's from my understanding, those kind of like it's peaks and valleys for that kind of re It's

like, Okay, do a mile today. The next day you'll do two and then three, but then you'll go down to like I think a lot of people I've heard a lot of people try to train for half marathons where you full and they run like two miles a day for six months straight before the Marathon's like, that doesn't help you because you're you're very good at running two miles. You're not going to be structured six of them. Yeah, it's like has to be structured and varied. And you know, not that

I'm an expert. I've done one of them and I didn't do great. It wasn't a great time or anything, but like finished it, then you did pretty good. My goal was to just do the whole thing and not walk, and I did. So what you got to do is vary it between like, okay, so you'll do three runs a week and then a long run so for total, So you know, my long run is gonna be every Sunday, and that's gonna be one that kind of creeps up,

you know, each week in length. But then during the week there's variance and you're supposed to like very you know, your routes, so you're getting different hills and things like that. But also, like this run is a pace run, so I'm trying to like focus on like running out a fast pace for this one. And this one is just kind of like you know, the creeping up the day to day mileage stuff. So it's it's all

structured out. There's this guy, Hal Higden that seems to be like the universal, like you know, he's been doing this for like forty years. He's a writer, written like thirty running books, and like everyone just follows his stuff. So I'm trying to do that. That's sous awesome. I always I wanted to do some sort of long distance thing for a while.

I used to run track when I was younger, and like we got up to sometimes we were during practice, we were getting up to like eleven miles for our long distance stuff, but it was never not not as an adult. So I like to do that at some point. That's cool, though, Glad I decided to do this to start it on the week that I'm about to fly out to Philadelphia and just watch wrestling and eat cheese, steaks and drink beer for a week. Well, you can still jog while you're

there. That could be a cool, the rocky thing that should be at the end of one of my things. I'm so disappointed that I we had to suggest it, because well, no, we already Jan and I were already planning on running up the steps, but like I didn't think about putting him together like that, Holy shit, doing an actual run, not for your jog. You're a job guy. Now, it's so funny, You're

like instinct is like that would have made really good content. Oh right, I'm running down Wait wait, wait is this your first time in Philly? No bachelor party thing a couple of years ago, and yeah I ran the steps once. Okay, of course, what's the funniest thing you could do at the top of the steps? Because Jane and I are talking about doing it, but it's like everyone just you know, you jump you do the thing. Yes, it's the most honest, Like, if you're really that

tired, you're probably gonna that much for breakfast. You a little free. Everyone will know. Yeah, if your shadow boxing to the theme song and then just start hurling your guts out, that'd be really fucking funny. I just don't want to encourage you to do it on purpose. In seat of shadow Boxing Jan at the top of Jan's great, Yeah, I don't know. I'll give it some thought. There's probably some funny things you could do.

But I like pooping or poking. I like your motivation. I will download couch to five K, and while I will not sign up for a five K because that's too intimidating, I will run admirably and in good faith as if I was. I think like a five K is not bad. I think you've if you do the counter for like normal, it's a few miles, it's it's it's really not that bad. I think it's like three and a half ish miles. O, let me see three point one. It's three point one. You can do that in a half hour. I

don't know. Let's all train, let's all get in shake, let's all train. Yeah, like you should get super fat you Carbo will will get really fit and then we'll all run up the rocky steps together and see who wins. Like both race Okay, sounds good, eat taco bell consistently for No, that sounds good. That's tempting. No, good for you, though, that's awesome. I'm eager for July. Yeah, uh yeah, I got the ten k and may I figure that'll be a good kind of

like midpoint check in type thing. It's actually it's it's great to like actually have a goal though, because it's like it's I'm already seeing like like tonight, I was going to like I usually drink every fire escape and a I'm sick, but I was like, well, I got to be kind of like, you know, I can't be drinking as frequently if I'm going to train for those things. So like already seeing these things like, oh, I have an actual purpose I'm going towards and not just general like it should

be healthier. You know that helps me too. I'm no good with I need to exercise twenty minutes a day. That bores me. It's unmotivating and I end up eating cheese sticks instead. The system for me is I'm trying to get a goal. I'm trying to earn a new skill. That's one of the reasons why running does not usually work for me, because you can't like improve at it. So I was I was a gymnast in like high school. My goal wasn't to get fit. My goal was to get a

really sick skill on the beam or on the bars. And then while I was doing that, I was exercising. So like that works really well with my brain. Now, it turns out it's really hard to do gymnastics in your late thirties because your bones you're dying, and it's very tough on the body to like do the stuff I was doing all those years ago. Now, so like high gymnastics stays it's crazy, like you're pushing your my ankles in, my knees are no longer what they wear. I am not going

to be doing like a full on a floor routine anymore. So I have to find something new that motivates me, and jogging usually isn't it. I think I need something else, like like rock climbing or like, uh, what's the one the ribbon. Yeah, something very the ribbon, you know, dance dance suggesting like hardcore Brazilian jiu jitsu style, and Mary's like, what's what's the one where you twirl the ribbon and just kind of float around for a bit. That's capra. I think, Oh, you can kill

with that ribbon, twirl it around their neck and then snap it. Yeah. I think the Essays uses ribbon twirling for their training before they drop an enemy territory. You have like beautiful music, no, no, thet part of the Navy seal training. Yeah, man, I love hit Man. You should kill people in a cooler way. I'd love to see a there isn't a ballet hit Man level, right, I'm not like speaking out of turn ones society type things, you know, fashion show The fashion shows ones

really funny because you can walk the runway. That was superam Krueger. Yeah, I love it. You put them in fancy people situations and watch them. Well, that's just the funniest, Like that's the funniest place to be, like dressing up and pretending to be someone of them. Killing rich people like is just rich people everywhere, cultists and illuminati. The one who he's in the Khalifa, tallest building in the world, Kalia. M hm is that where that one's Yeah? Yeah, the level, Yeah, yeah,

definitely. Did they say it by name or is it just I remember it's saying my name might as well be its like, yeah, is it? Like? I don't know. I thought they did say it. I thought, what's her name, Helen? You're handler whatever her name is Mirron, Yeah, it is it Helen Mirren. Oh yeah doing the voice. Oh yeah, she's forty seven. Her age is not important. That'd be incredible. Okay, No, we're so like, there's a great who's on first? Helen Mirren from Devil Wors product forty seven? How old? How old

was she when she did Devil War's product? And how old was Natalie Portman as her protege in nineteen forty? Yeah, we do. It's very fun. Dan. Good luck than you on your marathon. I'm excited for you. I really didn't decide what I didn't think I was. I didn't think I was gonna say how thank you. That's it. We'll see if you finish it. Yeah, because you have to like actually do it, like and here's the thing and I'm not even saying that you finish it without like

walking or whatever. I don't care about that. If you start it, I'll be very proud of you. It's that's the thing is like I think just saying it publicly gives me some accountability. And I'm very big on like I say i'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it, and so I but I do think like you talk about the bones dying thing. I mean, last time I started running or trying to, and after the twenty fifteen one, I got planner for shitus for a fucking decade and it hasn't really

gone away. And so there is I think at least a fifty percent chance that I am either slowed down or straight up can't do it due to like injury stuff. But I'm gonna try, and I'm gonna take it slow, and I'm gonna try to do it right. So imagine if after you finish the half marathon, I'm only texting you in half texts until you a full one. That's a good bit a dude. Did you see Sylvester Sloan said this and then just stop. I go visit you and you're your porn like

half cocktail ingredients and everything. No, old, I'm not. I'm not pouring half a cocktail. I'm just only putting half of the ingredients in, so you just get better as an ice. O Oh oh so full? Okay? Yeah, well going halfway through the recipe not like batching it to be a half measure. Oh so it's going to be bad, Okay, cool, Okay, it's no, it's not. It's not going to be enjoyable for you. No, that's cool. I've never done a half marathon, so I don't I can't say shit. Do you guys want to talk

about video Games's? Yeah, Jake, you and I both know that Express VPN is great about protecting your privacy and security online, especially in this day and age. But did you also know you can use Express VPN to unlock movies and shows that are only available in other countries? And you know what I did this weekend? What I trick Netflix into thinking I was in South

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vpn dot com slash Fire Escape Cast to learn more. All right, we have a rare guest for this segment. His name is Gizmo. I mean, he just looks bursting at the scene. He's got a lot to say. If you're watching a video version, you can see him right there. He looks excited and rare and ag Gizmo, what have you been playing? What do you got, Leddy? What are you playing? Oh? Shit, same here? No, No, he was okay, I'm gonna do I was gonna do a whole bit, had a whole bit. I had

the whole thing. It was gonna be the funniest thing I've ever said, periods. Everybody should imagine it. And it was super funny. Mary, you're playing something as we speak right now, which is pretty rude considering we're recording a podcast. But yeah, go on, I it is a little rude. I've been playing a mini game in hell Divers in the hangout menu, like before you actually play Stratagem Hero Commission Stratagem here. That's a tough

one. It's really fun and it's so stupid because it like has it has like the music like an arcade game, and it's extremely simple. You just do the arrows very quickly to ensure that you can, i don't know, like get as many done out the door, and then you get a score associated with how many arrows you were led to get done, and Dan, I want to I want to see if you can beat my score, my my top score. I just I think there's an actual leaderboard on that,

but it reminds us two eleven seventy two. Okay, I'm writing that down for next time I play Excellent. I took a photo of it to prove it well if I'm playing with you, which we should do that again sometime. My favorite thing to do is to just stand in between, like physically put my character between, because in front of someone else that they can't see, you can physically get in somebody else's way while they're playing, which is

really funny. But you can also like you know, you're all hanging out. It's kind of like hanging out in an arcade together. It gives you the same vibes as like hanging out with friends while somebody's playing a video game, but you're talking about life or whatever. And it's very fun to play this stupid game. So it's a very simple, unnecessary like mini game. It's fun and I've weirdly spent a decent amount of time in it. I love my stuff. I love that, you know, like Geometry Wars came

from a mini game that was in Project Gotham. You know. I played more Galaga in the loading screen of tech and for PlayStation than I played like normal galaghas. So it's I've always loved the game within a game thing. And I just played a lot of Anaconda and times Splitters too. That just a snake like a rattler type thing. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I always play this is my next game, But I was I've been playing a lot of the minigame side of Stardew Valley, you know, and Stardu

Valley. You can go to the bar and there is there's an arcade in the bar in Stardy Valley. Was that always the case or is it always? This is not the update, It's always been there. Well you've been Yeah, you've been playing because of the update. Correct, correct, that's the only reason. But I couldn't help myself. It's called Journey of the Prairie King. You've never played this, man, I mean I put like one hundred and thirty hours into the game. I would think I did,

but I haven't played since it like came out. You know, Journey of the Prairie King. Yes, what kind of game is this? It's a shooter you have. It's very simple. One controller automatically shoots, or you can pull it to shoot a bullet as you want, but you can hold it down and then you just look different directions and they have enemies that come at you from the four quadrants and they come at you quickly, and it's actually quite it gets. The difficulty ramps up so fast in that Prairie King

game. I'm amazed of how difficult it is. But there's lots of power ups, like a heavy machine gun and there's a nuke and there's a shotgun and all that stuff like can save your bacon. But I mean, I've been addicted to this stupid game. In fact, I've gotten into the role playing that I I so the new update happened and I went with raising animals, and so you get you start with two chickens, which is so cute.

So I start my day, I make sure to get my eggs, I make some oblets, give them to the townspeople or whatever I want to do, and then at five PM I go to the arcade and I play Prairie King until I'm tired, and then I go to bed. And this is I do it every day. So sorry the new update I've played. The last time I played was I think five months ago when they added all

those new starting maps and weather patterns and whatnot. Yeah, when you say you chose raising animals, yes, ranch like that gives you like an already flourishing farm and you have to do one specific thing from there on out. It wants you to focus on a specific thing and it gives you leverage in that thing. So in ranch mode, it starts you with a small barn

with two chickens. It does not start you with a flourishing barn. You still have to earn your barn just like anything else, but it's essentially giving you a leg up and saying, like, we know you want to like have a lot of animals, so we're giving you two to start so that you can expand your barn. There was another one that was like forest and it's like it doesn't have a lot of space for you to just, I

don't know, make traditional gardening crap happen. The purpose is for you to explore the forest and find stuff in the forest and be a forest explorer, or chop down the trees and sell the wood, whatever you know you want to do. But the point is is like it's it's encouraging you to play

the game in a completely different way by giving you a different system. Another one is like the waterway system, where it's like you're going to be surrounded by lots of different lakes and stuff like that, so you'll be a fisherman. Gotcha, How is it going back? Because like I don't know how much you've gone back to it since you and I were initially playing it, like at the same time when it came out in twenty fifteen. Yeah, so obsessively, and I have not come back since. Like I've never seen

multiplayer in it. I've never seen since like you could pick your farm type in the beginning, and I know I've done a million things since then. So is it, like, do you feel like it's still basically the same game, just with some bells and whistles, or is it a whole new thing now? Is my opinion is the same game with some bells and whistles, I would be it would be tough for me to want to replay this entire game again. I have played this game, I have experienced this game

and all of the unique value of this game. But it's a great excuse to go back. It's a really good reason to say, what if I was really focused on being a fisherman instead of a farmer, and so you just fish every day and you try and get all the fish, but a lot of the same basic principles that got you excited about the game in the first place. Remember like how you fixed up the shed and you got all the little weeble wobbles that were inside of it by getting like one of everything

to like finish your shed. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's been a long time. They were like little ghosts. They looked like little jellies. I kind of remember that. Yeah, you guys, Yeah, Okay, so that's still there, and I think that's a big motivator. It's a big motivator to like do all of the seasonal activities like the dance and the Easter egg hunt Happy Easter. Like there's like all these like reasons to do all these things. But it's very similar to the reasons

that we played the first time. You can still romantic character, right, So, like I've been trying to romance someone totally different than who I romanced when I got really into this game. Originally, I was always into SEB And now I'm like, I'm gonna try somebody else. I'm gonna try somebody completely different and see if I can romance some one else. But I think there's enough pull for someone else to say I can't wait to completely soak hours

in this game all over again. Probably not for me, there's just too many other games that I want to play, but it is a good excuse to go back. Yeah, And it's tough with like you know, Haunted, Chocolate Tear being you know in the next year whatever, just now today, next week, surprise drop what No, I made that up? Fucker, don't ever do that With holl of Night. I'll fly to your house

and kill you. That'd be funny. Not funny? What are people saying on Twitter stock I'm waiting for a game for like seven years, some game called Simp Song is coming out, and I'm so sorry I derouned this. Dan, you were talking about you were saying something I was I think, so yeah, I think you were saying something really funny. Oh you were talking about the chocolate Mary, Dan, Why are you I I'm looking forward to that. It's probably not gonna play Stardoo again. I have a question

for you about that. So we all know that Stardoo Valley was kind of a mimic of an older game, right, Like, it wasn't this original concept. It was a Harvest Moon redesign in many ways, and I don't think that anyone like denies that, right, They're very very similar parallel and the creator, I think, was like, yeah, I fucking love Harvest Moon one hundred percent, right, So we all understand that he had a

really good blueprint when he constructed this. There is no blueprint for Haunted Chocolate ear So a part of me is like this one, he's on his own, and he's in New territory. This will be like the actual test of his ability to kind of construct mechanics and systems and see how it works without the sweet sweet benefit of a farming sim that we all know we would love and enjoy it. But correct me if I'm wrong. So far, Haunted Chocolate Tiers seems like it might not be a farming sim but is very much

still like a business sim, but it's in a haunted castle. It doesn't seem like a total departure, right, No, that's like to your point, Mary, I guess he's not like completely building off something else, But I guess he is building off of Stardy Valley in a sense. At least I'm heavily assuming. But maybe it's a sophomore slump. That would be a that would be a bummer if this game was not great, because then I

would just have to go back to start. You. I'm not alluding that it's not going to be good, but yeah, not like but it begs the question, which is, like you had something that we already knew was a slam dunk like Harvest Moon is a good game and people really liked it, and I think he fine tuned it. He made it a bit more like you get there quicker. It humanizes the people a little bit more like there's just like more stuff going on, whereas like Haunted Chocolate Tar, there's

nothing to compare it to. So like, I have no idea how he's ensuring that people are going to enjoy the day to day loop and so this that's why I think it's exciting. It's not so much that I expect it to not be good. It's just we don't know what to expect because there is no blueprint for this game. I think that's kind of exciting though. I think that's uh, that's fun like the unknown there. Yeah, it'll be it'll be really exciting to play that game, and so I I'll obviously

be playing that probably like the day it comes out. That's like a huge one for me based on like how much I loved Stardo. This update very good. It's it's Stardo. It is the same basic game that you know and love. They've flipped a couple switches so that your environment is different. I do think they let you customize the way you want to play a little bit more, but at the end of the day, I'm still going to romance the same people they did. Like some little things. I think you

can have more than one pet. Now that's cool. But as far as I'm aware, you did anything, you can choose the dogs or a cat at the beginning, right, and you have a horse too, Yeah, well that's the farm, right, Yes, I mean I guess you can consider that a pet. But the dog is like you get it as soon as you arrive, whereas the horse you have to like earn it and have the barn and stuff like that. Right. But yeah, when you the first time you ride the horse into town, it's just like the same tics

is. I was like so fucking excited I got that horse. Do you think we'll get Silk Song or Haunted Chocolate Chair? First Chocolate? We all know it's gonna be Haunted Chalk. There isn't even a trailer for Silk Song that's been updated in so long, and I swear to God like the devs are like running away from like journalists when they want to talk about it, like I can't. I can't get updates. We're gonna get the new Kajima Physicant thing before we get Silk Song. It's so unfair, Like what is

going on back there those new ground splash graphics? I hate you. I this game has earned its spot. You don't deserve to play that game. I don't think he will. I'm not going to you know, no, no, no, you know what it's gonna happen. I'm gonna play it in like a year and a half or this game's awesome. What the hell? That's my gimmick. That's gonna happen again. Yeah, why didn't anyone tell me this is good? I'm already planning my bits like years ahead.

I'm on a different level right now. I'm playing this is my twenty twenty seven bit with you. It's gonna be great. I want to be here. I oh be gone. He killed me in twenty twenty seven, You'll be dead. It's not by TMJ, by Emmy kud be really bad kill you. Mary's gonna bring like a laptop to your grave and sit on it and play Silk Song and piss at the same time. Jesus Christ. That's

what she tells me all the time. She texts all daily. Yeah, I can't wait to piss on this man's grave from that all chickens, No silk song, I haunt the here. Oh well if that was Stardu. But yeah, I understand before I started. What have you been playing? Oh? H I played a good amount of The Princess Peach showtime on the on the flights to and from packs. Uh it's fine, it's uh, it's it's what it looks like. It's incredibly incredibly simple. It is.

It's cute. It's uh. It's fun to like have the different gimmick in every level where it's like, oh, now I'm a chef and I'm making cakes, but now I'm this detective and I'm solving little puzzles, and you know, there's that fun variety in each level, but like there's not really a lot of depth to it, so like every one of those outfits kind of just has like a button that's like, okay, well, when you're this, it's like a grappling hook thing, and when you're the sword fighter,

it does the one very basic, you know, sword attack, and there's you know, a simple boss fight at the end of a lot of these, and it's it's I think it's a game that is is very much supposed to be very accessible to people that don't play a lot of video games. I think it's like Kirby's Epic Yarn is the thing I keep thinking back to where it's like it was a very cute game. It was a Nintendo first party thing starring a character that a lot of people knew, and it

was like there was incredibly low stakes, it was easy to play. So yeah, if you're looking for like, you know, this isn't gonna be like Mario three D World Challenge stuff. But if if you just want to, you know, have a fun like it's it's Page having her own game, and uh it's it's got some variety to it, but it's it's nothing that I've been like running back to. So I played I think three of the five floors of this of the building you're in, and I think I'm

maybe maybe on a flight, maybe maybe going out to Mania. I'll play a little more. But uh yeah, it's it's it's fine. It's cute, more of a novelty than anything. Yeah, yeah, I mean I'd like to see more Peach games. I'd like to see more Warrio games. I'd like to see all Luigi game Like I like the idea of there being like for like the idea of like Luigi has his own game series and it's a totally different thing. It's just like, oh, Luig's man, it's

this weird ghost game, and it's good. Like, I like the idea of all these characters I love from Nintendo, Like it doesn't always have to be platformers asn't you know, like give them each their own kind of like lane and genre and things like that. I think that would be a fun thing. So I want more of this. But yeah, this isn't like, you know, knock my socks off? Did you like what's that? Mare? Well didn't I say? I was gonna say, did you like

Treasure Tracker Captain Toad? Yeah? Yeah, like that that's a great example of that. That's that's an incredible example that like they don't have to be these giant things. They're can be a thirty dollars game where it's a collection of fun little levels and stuff like that. Like, yeah, Treasure Trackers a great example. Then going back to the puzzles, you said there was puzzles in this game. What kind of puzzles are we talking about here?

It's the lightest. It's just like there's one where you're like, you know, she has like a Sherlock Holmes detective outfit in her button is just like, oh, you can go up to a thing and if there's an icon she pulls out a magnifying glass and it says, like, this window looks it's got a breeze coming in. I wonder if they took the painting out this way. And it's like, okay, so you have like five guesses to be like that's where the painting went. You know, it's not for

Pessor Layton. It's not like actually like well thought others like I'll press a on that thing. Yeah, it's better than that. Yeah, I loved Professor Layton growing up. And I feel like there is a void there for really fun puzzles where they put you in a space where you have to solve puzzles. I think that is a miss, Like there's nothing like that anymore that I can think of that kind of fills that void that the Ghost Trick is supposed to be. I've never played that, but I feel like I've

heard people kind of just that way. You have never played it. I don't know if that's the thing you're looking for. What was that series this? I guess it's not the same thing, but it's similar, like social interactions and time bending A zero Dark thirty zero zero Scape, yeah, zero Virtues Last Reward series, Yeah, yeah, zero Escape I played a couple of those, and I see why people are obsessed with them. I I

don't know. I think in my I want some sort of I want a little more structure to my puzzle games, like my favorite puzzle game of all time. I don't know. Will my favorite puzzle game of all time be? I really like Portal? Well, yeah, Portal's Portal two Portal are unreal. I like Inside, I used a Valves engine. It was the Source engine. Huh. I like Inside, is that what you said? No, you said it was unreal. It's sort of he still got it. I got it. No one left at my joke earlier. That was

fucking hilarious. I like what he said, you were half proud of me. That was fun. That was fun. Yet each other's jokes for the rest of the episode Into a part of One Into are very unity. I always like when you have to explain your jokes. I didn't Dan explain my joke, or he'd explain his joke. Fucking funk off. I'm trying to say something. I'm probably really insightful and cerebral. I'm trying to remember what

it was. Probably art is not is not inherently good. Sometimes art arises from the bad that humans can do to one another, and then art is almost always about masculinity, and that's where whoa, whoa, whoa? What is it good for? I? What was the actually I started playing? I started Eastward recently, which is sort of God, that's talky. I love that game. I wanted to like that game, but ho Lee,

that was so much talking. Yeah, I didn't play that recently. I bring that up just because, like some of the puzzles that were in it were like, oh man, this game is onto something, and then man, it weighed down. It's like, dude, you're already telling a good story through the game play and the puzzles. Let me just the combat, the boss fights. Just let me fucking do this. I don't need your apologies. If the writer listens to the podcast, I'm sure is great.

I just don't need that in my life. Apologies. I'm about to say something really harsh. I don't think it's that harsh. I think it's a fair Let your game speak for it when it can. But then of Portal is great because the writing itself was top notch and funny alongside it, but it didn't get in the way it was you while you're doing cool things. Puzzles are best when they're doing right. Like The Witness was such a good one. It was just like figure it out, bitch, Like solve it

with balls. Might be my favorite puzzle game of all time. That's fucking Oh, I get it, Mike your highbrow you like you like Palmeroles? Who get it? I don't like The Witness. I like The Witness a lot, But if you just took out everything that was said in terms of like story, like all the tapes and all that stuff, would just get me a bunch of funline puzzles and stuff, it would be a much better game. Yeah, I agree. Who cares? All those tapes added nothing

to the game? Who cares? I was actively detracted from the game for me? Yeah, I agree. I don't like, uh, this don't make games for me. But like when the lore is text and it's like I found another book, It's like, oh, fucking spare me, you like, I don't want it. I don't want your little book, flor

I don't care all that trying to do souls likes. One of the biggest things that those games do well that no one takes from well not no one, but many studios don't take in them as like all of the lore and Soul's likes is like there if you want to read like a half paragraph about this weapon that was from a boss, but if you don't want to interact with it, fucking who cares? You're you're that really quickly? Yeah you

know? No. Yeah, So I'm saying it's like half that there's very deep lore to something like Bloodborne, but it exists in little snippets that none of us unless you're if you want to get into it watching a vati video video on YouTube. That YouTuber is fucking unreal about that. But again it's like, it's okay, cool, I got this new weapon. I'm out. I beat Bloodborne and I loved it. And I couldn't tell you what any car. I couldn't name a character, I couldn't tell you a single

thing that happens. I just liked, Oh, this world looks cool, the action's awesome, these enemies are fucked up, and then if you want to go deep, you can. But it didn't get at all in the way of me just having a good time. Yeah, I guess in that regard. I we were talking about Blatro again before we started recording, and I still love the lootro. The game is incredible. I still think it's

a fantastic playing game. However, I too much lower. I regressed a bit and I started playing on these many flights I've had the last month. No more. Vampire Survivors is still I still have to give the nod to that as the best playing game over slightly above Blatro. Then, Mike, I need you to do something for me, and you've done this many times throughout our friendship. Sell me hard on this because I have planes coming up and I eventually I love Balotro, and I got other stuff I could play.

I would love to have like Vampire Surprivers just grab me again and make time travel. You know, that would be easier if I knew like what specifically is new and the updates, because they added the DLC so they added up the last I played like all the DLC up until like they did that among us one like a month or two ago, and it's just like something about the art style or the like upgrades and stuff were just really not for

me. They just didn't feel like Vampire scribers to me. But I played like the previous DLCs, so I don't have anything new to sell you on outside of the fact that, like I heard, I looked at the screen, that's like, you got two and a half hours left in this flight. I'm like, all right, that's no short amount of time when you

fucking hate being cramped in a fucking tube hurtling through the sky. Okay, I'll do a half hour, and Vampire Survivors, if you're doing semi well, it's literally has to be a half hour unless you're gonna actually fight Dracula at the end. Oh cool, that runs over, and I just unlocked a few more achievements. I just unlocked. I still had characters unlocked, so that helped. So it's like, okay, upgrade. What's the one the pentagram which I fucking hate until until you upgrade it, and it's like

you have a sixty five percent chance to not clear items. You're like, okay, now everybody's dead. So that was fun because I bounced between that and Risk of Rain two and I all get to Risk of Rain two. But Vampire Survivors like, oh, that was half hour right there, and it flew by because it's one of maybe the most satisfying game I've ever played. Yeah, and we talked a lot about it and Elden Ring two years ago. But I all of a sudden, it's like, oh, you

got an hour and a half left in the flight. Like okay, well, there drink carts coming around. I'm gonna grab some coffee. I'll be fresh for when we land. And also, that's what three rounds of Vampire Survivors is. Fucking nothing. Start a new character and I'm like, I'm just gonna get weird. I'm gonna go with things I never pick. I'll go with the the Holy Water and the Bible and the lightning bowlt instead the

Lightning Ring. And then of course you got a whole new building never played, and like, oh shit, another half hour's gone, and that unlocks something in the thing. And then I'm like, oh great, now now I know the combination of fully upgrade. Oh what's the new not new? I don't think there's the character that has the like spell that goes vertical. Oh that one's cool. Yeah, I got it. I found the upgrade to or the combination of items to upgrade that fully and like, oh this

is just fucking very overpowered. But everything that games overpowered the whole point I guess, same with Bilatro, same with all these good flight games. But there's something about the pacing that game, where it's all right, half hour and you get up to the point where you're like, you can I think you know, we at around ten minutes or so, I think you know whether you are gonna do well that run or not, which I think you could actually call that a flaw to the game, because as a roguelike,

you're like, all right, well, I kind of know. I don't think there's any bouncing back if by ten minutes I'm still kind of struggling. That's not true, but I always feel like if by ten minutes I'm not already feeling very overpowered, I'm not gonna win it. It's just like such that is. I don't know that another game has ever put me in a flow state the way that game has that has just makes the half hours melt by Billatro is fucking unreal. However, I'm still and this is just as

much a knock against Vampire Survivors as it is a praising Blatro. But like Balatro, for all of it, for all of the ease of use for that game, I'm still thinking pretty constantly for that game, so like Vampire Survivors is very different because I had David Diver and Dredge loaded up. I have the DLC for Dredge, the Arctic one. I meant to play that on the way back, but again I was just like, I fucking I don't want to be on this flight going Vampire Survivors that's my junk food.

It still just feels fucking incredible to play, even if I'm not unlocking stuff. I just can't imagine a better way to kill time in a in such a satisfying way. If you're playing on a Steam Deck or Switch, I know, it's pretty much the exact same thing. Seam Deck, Yeah, deck, So is there not? I was the under the impression I assumed there was a new DLC, but you're started playing it again. Oh okay, no there, Well, sorry, there was. I'm trying to think

of the last one. What it would have been. Uh. They've added a few patches that introduced like a character here and there, But the last DLC I think would have been last summer. Have you played since then? Oh? No, there was the The among Us one was in like December or so, there was. I might actually be up there probably up to date. So like, again, I don't have anything new content wise to sell you. I just still think it is my like front runner for best

flight game ever. And Blotro I was just as almost about to load that up. And again Blotro I still I would actually probably say Bilotro is a better game, but Vampire Survivors still just if you want to just fucking act an hour and a half three runs of you could do a lot worse than three runs of Vampire Survivors. Think how long a flight to Philly is really good time for from Minneapolis? Like two and a half tops? Probably nice?

Okay, now I'm curious. It can't be that you you are not far from anywhere in the States. You have that's nice, pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah, How long does like a really solid Bilatro run take though, because I feel like it takes a couple hours if you're like really yeah, if you're really considering, like I think, if you have like one of those flesh runs where it's like you're just picking red or black, you know that can go super fast. But like if it's a more kind of

nuanced build, I can see it going with endless mode. Yeah, I was just saying maybe maybe forty five minutes. I don't think it's as quick as a Vampire Survivor's run, but I could be very wrong. It's just Vampire Survivors is so fucking like constant, just dumb, half present. Yeah, if you want to hear more about this, we talked about it's virtues as opposed to elden Ring in our Game of the Year twenty twenty two.

But Billatro, I'm definitely more engaged. But if you are like kind of brain dead and just want like a not all the time, I mean at that current geez, what are you saying about of this game at that moment in time on the flight and you're you're just like, I can't think I want to play Vampire Survivors and like fucking throw some knives at some skeletons for a bit and then those knives become a machine gun of knives. Yeah,

that's great. I do two opposites on the spectrum of playing games, right, because like Blatro, you do have to have thinkum's and I think you can really zone out when you play Vampire Survivors. So what's nice about both of these? Right, Like, as opposed to like saying which one's better, Which ones like the ultimate? I think they actually are both should be installed in your steam deck on a plane ready to mentally go. It's Bilottro all day. And when you're like I need to go to sleepy time,

that's Vampire Survivors. Like you can do that with like nothing up there. You can be like half you could be on so many plane drugs and you could still win. Yeah. I find that, like with Vampire Survivors, I pretty much always want something on, like you know in the background that I'm half watching, or a podcast or something with pasts, especially if I like got a really good run going, I'm thinking, if you can,

I'm just playing Bolotro. You know, I didn't want absolutely agree. I think even when you are building up one of those like holy shit, I'm getting the best possible jokers for this flush run. The most thinking at that point is like do I want to discard a couple of things right now or do I not? And then yep, okay, what if I hit the boss where I can only do one of each hand, I can't rely on

flushes. Let's start building out the two pair or something. You're still gonna thinking with Bilatro, I just pay Yeah, that is that June Uranus. Yeah, yeah, you're in. You know it is. I know. I did play some Bilatro on the way to San Francisco two four flights ago and the way there for GC, and I went hard on full House and I full house is just fucking I figured it out. And full House is

great because what jokers did I have? I had jokers for three of a kind and and then I just amped I combined the joker that gave me three of a kind bonuses, and then I amped up the three of a kind, and then I amped up the actual to the pair, which I believe is Mars Jupiter, whatever it is, and then that way, and then if I hit the full house, I was also amping that up with jokers

and whatnot. And I like that way. When I hit the Boss where I could only do one, all three of those three of a kind and pair and full House were so ramped up that I crushed that boss blind. And the full house itself is I think full House at the base is four multiplier. I could be wrong, maybe I think it's four. So like, you start pretty well off there, but then you get the right jokers

where it's you know, discarding does whatever. It's a benefit. So you're like, all right, well, that's gonna be no problem to get three of a kind. The hardest part with that is the reason straits and flushes, in my mind, are probably the safer way to go is because you start to second guess yourself when you want three of a kind. You're like, oh, I have two fives and two sixes, which one do I discard or whatever? And like to get do I want three sixes or two

fives? But again, full house, you can head your bets and have three of one, two of another, and then if you get all five, great, that's a lot. But you can also like work your way toward that full house with really amped up pairs are really amped up three of a kinds. And it's again, as I'm saying it out loud, and

like, I still think Billattro is a better game the Vampire. So it's not it's not one or the other's apples oranges, but I'm just saying, like, I think Bilatro more is more in line with the kind of games I like most days, but Vampire Survivors is such a both games want to do something really well and they fucking do it well. So I'm being very reductive by comparing them. I'm just saying Vampire Survivors got me through one of

the most hectic travel months in my life. And that's why Vampire Survivors is just playing on such a base level brain chemistry situation where it's like and it also has the benefit of Like I've done this with several people that don't play video games, like my sister Katie. I was a Katie career and I started the new run and it's handed out of the controller. I said, just just move around, don't get hit, and like within ninety seconds is like, oh oh okay. Meanwhile, like I gave my dad Blatro and

I get a Callers. None of this makes any sense. So it's like I feel like it's not super accessible. Well, and my dad maybe a special case, but uh, there's more involved with learning Blatro even though it doesn't take that long, but like Vampire Survivors is immediate. Your brain is firing, Like, okay, I see why this is great. Yeah. No, they're both incredible, though, I like probably the two most essential Steam deck. Yeah, we really got to a good spot with portable gaming

ever since the switch. Didn't we between the stage. We're in the fucking heyday of being able to take a game on PC and be able to play it in a plane. It's so magical. I used to not be able to leave on any work trip without my switch, and it was just like I have to have it. Now it's like, what switch? I haven't charged that bitch in ages. It's all steam Deck all the way I would. I would sell so many of these. If I was like a door to door Steam salesman, I would be killing it. I could do,

I could retire. I'm very I love my steam Deck so much. It is such an incredible device and absolutely worth every penny I paid for it. God, I love fucking playing Steam games on on a plane, and I always before every trip I look, I go and I'm like, okay, Elden Rings downloaded? Nice, yep, Persona five updated? If I want to start? If I wanted to start a ninety five hour Persona five run, okay, maybe I'll do it on the way to SF. Oh seck,

I got Disco Lisium. I never played that with touch controls, And then what what am I fucking doing? I have? I had Vampire Survivors now I have that ambilatro. That's you really don't need much more Like you could go to Hawaii from New York just playing Vampire Survivors. You would play

eighteen times and you'd be fine. I really think prior to the switch and you could make arguments for PSP and and Vida because those were more powerful than traditional handheld But like you know, portable game has been around since the early nineties in a big way, and but it was always like, Okay, here's the game boy version of this, or here's the game of your version of this, and it's like, okay, it's going to be like, yeah, you can play Tony Hawk on a game Boy bands, but it's

asometric, it's not these It's still good. There's still a lot of really great games on the game boy bands. But you were accepting, yeah, that the version of it was going to be a different thing out of necessity. Whereas ever since again I actually I will discount the PSPN bet that those

libraries were terrible. So ever since the switch and now the Steam Deck, you know, like obviously you're not running things at four K, you know, sixty frames a second on the Steam Deck a lot of times, but you're playing big fucking new games on the Steam Deck and bringing your sage, which sure on that thing. Yeah, it's crazy. The chasm is so much narrower now than it was back in the day. It's just it's such a good time to be traveling playing video games. You have to like respect

the technology advancement in our time. And I just feel so honored that after playing Mike, Yeah, my Sega Genesis Days, which was like also like well the game Gear, which was the same game. I could play the Sega Genesis games on my game Gear. It was the same game, and I was like, the future is now, like we are really getting there where you are going to be seeing people playing just like crazy ze visceral games on their little devices on a plane, and then you can kill them and

take it from them. It's just awesome what like we're able to do on top of that. So all the new games and everything are great, But like when I went to Boston, I packed my switch and I packed my Analog pocket and I got super into Mario Golf for the game Boy, a

game that came out in nineteen ninety nine. And so but now I'm playing on this thing that's got like great battery life, and the screen is super duper sharp, and I can use save states, and I can have every fucking game on the console, and so like, even if I want to play old portable games, that situation is a million times better than ever. And then I can pull out my switch in the same bag and play all these new games and oh man, it's just it's a good time. Yeah.

Love that. Yeah. Outside of that, I've heard divisive things about Rise of the Ronan. I want to try it still because I fucking love most things that Ninja theory does. I was curious about it, and then I asked like four or five people that were playing it, and they all said different variations of it's boring. I was like, all right, I got other stuff I can play. I want to try it, just because I liked Wolong quite a bit. I liked Neo one. I never Neo

two is also high on my list as well. I just like everything they've done, so I want to I want to try it out. But I've played more Dragons Dogma two me too, and I don't want to fucking hear about friction in game design ever. Again, However, I do still think that that game is a I'm just fucking around that game and it's fun. It's still so rough around the edges, but like I'm enjoying just getting new ponds, and like my friend's pond omelet food truck is the biggest dumbass,

but he speaks Elvish, so I'm keeping in my party. H And I'm just god, I saw an not an exploit. I saw someone the other day. Your ponds can catch you when you're It happened with Grub. He was streaming it and he was fighting a griffin and he was flying around through the air, stabbing a griffin and he got shaken up. And Dark Mitch, which is his pawnd, just was standing on a roof and just caught

him from the sky. So there's something else. So if you're at the top of a tall cliff, you have your pawn, what you can do if you're an archer, I believe there's an upgrade for the archer where you can shoot a healing arrow, pick up your pawn, throw them off the tall cliff they're gonna get down, shoot them with the healing arrow to revive them, and then you can jump off any cliff they're going to catch you

as long as you land clear, like close enough. And that's the shit I love about that game Shadow of mort or State of Decay two, et cetera. I'm like, I don't give I don't I could not tell you the first thing that's happening in the scripted, you know, the linear narrative, like sure, I'll go to that city or that town just because my one pawn. And like the fact that the pawns are teaching each other is so fucking cool because they're like, oh, I was with someone last week,

or they didn't say that. They're like I was with in another world where they showed me how to kill the cyclops better. And then you hear their weak Oh, the cyclops is obvious. You know, they're points to one eye, but they're like, oh, I think so, yeah, their buttthole. And then you're like, oh, a griffin if you use this element against them, they hate ice or whatever. And then you're like telling your mage this shit. It's like, that's the kind of stuff I'm

playing that game for. I don't know what I'm going to get into every time I sit down and play it, but then I play for two hours. I'm like I followed all these narratives that were laid out by the systems of the game, which still is infinitely more impressive to me than than when

like Cradosina Treas have this heart to harp. Well, it's again there's That's not to say there's not good writing in games like There's that's that's all very impressive as well, But like I like it when I kind of sift through and find my own thing based on like this thing that I rose out of

the game, So I'm liking that game much more. It's still so fucking rough around the edges, but and I don't want to forgive it for that because the first game was too before dark O Risen the like definitive edition.

But I still fucking really like in Dragon's Dogma. It's totally one of those games that, like, if I was back at game and Form when writing a review of this, it would be a hard one to score because it's like I would feel like there's a gap between my enjoyment of the game and then like what you could give it score wise, because like you have to acknowledge that, like, Okay, there are there are performance issues on certain

consoles. There are you know, they're rough around the edges of things, so it's like there are things that would kind of like, you know, but I'm liking it if it was just my enjoyment, the fun factor. It's it's a nine point five, but you know, probably ends up getting an eight point five or eighty. You know. Yeah, that's and that's why I just want to keep playing that. And then I really want to go back to Infinite Wealth, because god, I got so I I got

deep in Dundoku Island. Yeah, I did the whole thing before like six hours, and I'm not I don't know. I got to get back to that game and progress because I've just been doing that. It's hard once you go to Dandoko Island because or not nok Island. I can't talk don Doko Island because then you get wrapped up in that, and it's like, that's really reasonable to the mainland. What the fuck? I want to fight? I want to fight these trash pirates and yeah, upgrade to my beach farm

and then I still have Final Fantasy Rebirth to play. I got a bunch, but like and I'm still playing Warhammer, which is all to say that, like, since I started a new job, it's been pretty nice obviously

for the consulting projects. It's like, all right, well, it would be super helpful to play this game that came out two years ago that I never touched, just so I understand what they were doing, how it might pertain to this new game, you know, like if it's a prequel or just in general, if we like doing, you know, prepping a developer publisher to get into a new genre they're not used to. I should try out Low Long, Fallen Dynasty, et cetera. But outside of that,

it's kind of freeing aside from fire Escape. Even on fire Escape, I think all three of us stay pretty current, but I feel way less obligated to play everything new and now I would not mind. I don't mind the fact that I have not played Rebirth yet. And this is such an inside baseball, like very specific to our job kind of thing, and I don't want to linger on it too much. But it's just like nice to have rebirth therapy. Like maybe I'll play it over the fucking holidays this year.

I have Rise of the Ronan. Maybe i'll check that out over the summer when Amanda's traveling. Like it's I don't know, it's such a weird little thing like to be able to enjoy video games at my own pace, again aside from the stuff that's pertinent into the upcoming project. But turns out it's nice when it's largely a hobby again as opposed to just you know, but again for fire Escape people that listen to us for games. I'm still gonna

stay current as much as I can. But yeah, outside of that, I do want to play Rise of the Ronan as as many people have told me. Like I was talking to Jake and he was saying, like, it feels very inorganic to travel around this world. And I trust Jake's opinion on open world games specifically or many things, but like specifically open world games. So I want to try it out for myself, just to keep up with win Ninja theories doing which kind of refutes what I was just saying,

But I'll try it. Dan, you and I have been kind of tag team teaming a game. I didn't realize you'd be playing it, but I should have because I actually think these are very This is kind of like a you and me style game, So I'm very curious your early thoughts on Pepper Grinder. Yeah, I played the first two worlds. I think I'm in the world three now, but I played all that last night and I like

it a lot. I like games that have gimmicks that are tied to mobility that work really well, and like, right away, you know you've got a drill, and there are parts of the world that you can drill through, and it's pretty clearly marked when you can, and the fact that you can, like you can boost at any point, and like you can boost through the ground and do like I echo the alp and like bursting out of the water thing, like flying up in the air, and that feels good

right away. But I'm getting to the points now where it's like, oh shit, now I have this like grapple hook ability where I don't know if you've gotten to that, where it's I'm in the ice world. So I'm in the world for you. I think, yeah, okay, you're a world past me. So yeah, I just got to the stuff where it's like I'm bursting out of the sand and then I'm hitting X to like whip myself around this and launch myself into another thing, and then I'm bouncing off

an enemy. I'm drilling through another Uh there is a like combo type feel to this where it's like I kind of feel like I could just be in a flow throughout the whole level. I never stopped moving. There's a locomotion

to this game that doesn't really stop and I love it. Yeah, this game, this is a Devolver game for anyone who's who's curious, and it reminds me a lot of Celeste, but instead of being a depression, it's about anger management because it seem's fucking hard, and it's really about being able to control a fast moving, tiny thing on a screen with a lot of obstacles in your way, and it does become so chiny, Dan you are it is preparing you. Level four is essentially like hey, okay, let

me let's go back level one. It's like, hey, did you know that you can drill through sand and shoot out of the sand. Now you're gonna need to be able to control your drill so that you can get all these gems. That is the game's very nice way of saying, in the future, we're going to make everything that's not sand lava, and if you touch anything outside of this very specific line, you will die, and everybody

you love will die. It's it ramps up the difficulty so quickly that at first I was like, I'm going to try and get all these secret coins and I'm going to try one hundred percent these levels, and then level four I'm like, I made it, or you just get a checkpoint, thank I missed the first three coins. That like whipping sweat off my brow. This game is very difficult. This is for game or ass gamers. I

do want to clarify. This game has an element to it that is like if you get frustrated about being able to get through a chain sequence of events and they get chainier Dan, where like you have to do everything right, or it takes you back to the previous save spot that's ten minutes before, and it will make you very frustrated. You have to start memorizing the systems that it's teaching you so you can do them quickly and as they ask you

to do them, so that you could survive to the next checkpoint. It is getting to that point and I'm only on area for I don't know how big this is getting. It's got Mario esque level design where it has an open it has like a not an open world. It has like a world where you go to the next area. As you progress to this game, these new areas, they just introduce bombs, Dan, I mean they're they're

fucking everywhere, and oh, there's really cool. I'm scared to I want to spoil like one little thing because the thing about the gun that's really cool is your drill is your weapon. It's the ultimate thing that you do. But you can put your drill into stuff and it moves levers, it can if it becomes the key, which is really I think it's really smart what they've done here. Like you said, you can put it in a gun and it shoots super fun. But in the ice world, you could put

it in a like a snow mobile and then you drive. Oh really yes, and it's really fucking fun the game when it's on slaps, it is very fun to be able to drive these cool devices. There's almost puzzly elements to how you can construct it. When the game is good, it's good. I will say, like, I have some issues with some of the mechanics. I think they're pushing players a little hard, and I don't know

if it's necessary. When you're putting gems fucking everywhere, it's very difficult to get all these gems, and the payoff is like you can buy her hair in blue, and it's like about that or something like a non permanent health thing, Like, yeah, it's not a valuable payoff for me to try and get all these gems or even all these coins. Quite frankly, it

just doesn't seem like you can justify it in some of these spaces. I've also been in some areas where I'm like, I know what you're trying to get me to do, and I think that you could have designed this a bit smoother so that it would have been easier for me to learn what you're expecting me to do. Here. The grapple is a good example of that, where I don't actually think they trained the player very well how to use the grapple, Like they throw you into it and are like figure it out,

bitch. They did not really prepare me for how important that grapple is going to be in the game, so you need to like really understand how it works. And I died a bunch of times, like yeah, the first time it does that, because like, oh, it's whipping you around really fast and just getting the timing and the you know, the angle you have to take for the next jump and everything like it throws you into the fire with that. It really does. I think this game again, I

think this is a game er ask game. This is for people who are like, enjoy a challenge, they are not afraid of dying again and again and again. I really do compare it to Celeste for that reason, because there's Churn and Celestio where you're like, I can fucking do this, It's just gonna take me ten more minutes of hell. This game is similar.

I would say it's more complicated and more difficult and not as it is not as refined as celest in my opinion, but it is very good and absolute like squeaks of joy when I have beat boss fights and things like that. You know, I definitely see this less comparison. And something that I keep thinking of too is Donkey Kong Country because the overworld it really reminds me of that because it's like, you know, fairly linear and every once in my branch op and oh I can go to the shop and I bought a key

from the shop, and now and go over here the secret level. Yeah yeah, yeah, very simple branching paths, you know, same general level amount of levels, and then a boss fight at the end. Then he moved one to the next one. And then there's levels that are straight up just like Donkey Kong Country, barrel sequences and stuff where you are using the drill to launch yourself through all these different devices and things, and the boss

fights are very Donkeyknng Country. It's usually just like one screen, a lot of pattern recognition, a lot of like, oh, I can attack the weak spot and then this guy pops off and I can attack him. And yeah, I was not expecting the Donkey Kong Country feelings to come from this, but I never thought about that until you said it. But I think that's really fair, and I think it does invoke young the younger generation of games where it's like get good. Sorry it's so tough. We're not going

to explain ho all these mechanics work. You will just have to die until you solve it. There's probably life there though, forgetting, like yeah, it's not forgiving at all. But the thing is like it's it's learned from those old games where the old game is still just worked on like live systems, so it's like, oh, yeah, I lost three lives and now I got to start this whole Donkey Kong country level over again. Here there are checkpoints, and it's like you die and die and die and die,

but you're just going back to the checkpoint. So it's true. Yeah, I think that's really fair of you to say. For as difficult as this game is, you can never actually end game, right, right, It's just a matter of whether or not you choose to quit, because you have as many lives as you want. But because the game does that, it puts you into some absolutely ridiculous scenarios where like, it's very difficult to get

through it. And again, I'm just trying to get through it. I am not going for all of the gems, and I'm not going for all the coins, and I am barely getting to the next checkpoint, and I am satisfied with that. People who want one hundred percent games, good fucking luck. This is a very difficult game to one hundred percent. I couldn't imagine the amount of time it would take to get through it. Yeah, I'm just e can buy every level. I Yeah, this is very difficult,

but again, very enjoyable. If you liked, uh, maybe like a hardcore platformer. That's like asking a lot of you. Super me Boy is a good example. I was carriaged like uh like dust force like something where it's like it's asking for like a very pinpoint mechanic recognition of like when you need to hit the button at the exact time. That's that's what you're getting with this bad Boy. But the boss fights mix it up, which

I like as well. It's almost like those sequences in or where you know there'd be like this cinematical kind of chase sequences in Orie's just like you know, just you got to make sure you're hitting those wall gems. You got to make sure you're doing this at the right time. Then you got to swing the right way. Like yeah, it's like that. I think that they they nailed the mechanic that they wanted with this, and it is very fun to play. It's also fun to look at. It's a it's a

cool concept. They did a good job with the little enemy designs. It's simple, but it works. The music is good too. Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to keep playing it. It's also perfect on the Steam deck, so it's great. I'm going to play it tomorrow on my flight. Like this is my fly game right now, just to get me through the next area. So it's great. Yeah, good one too. Didn't anything else? Uh well, yeah, I've been playing all the

newest hottest games Marry right that? Or is that? No? I wrote that because I've been playing all the newest hottest games, like the aforementioned Mario Golf for a game Boy from nineteen ninety nine. I've played a good you know, six or seven hours of that recently. Also the Jetsons Cogswell's Caper for the nes You remember the Jetson's game, Remember how everyone yet? Yeah? Yeah, everyone in home is saying, yes, we remember. Yeah.

I've been looking for a speed run game and I don't know why are we deciding the jetsoning me and Mike NAUGHTI brought it up for something and I tried it. I beat it like twice. Not going to set a speeder run on that. But I did get on the speed run dot Com leaderboard for Quackshot for the Genesis last night. I'm currently number forty three in the world at Quackshot. After my first attempt, but I fucked up. I died. I went to the wrong place a few times. I can like

easily, easily, easily climb up that. And I like quackshot a lot when I was a kid, So I think that's going to be a thing for the near future, areas that I want to try to climb that leaderboard. So number forty three on the Quackshot leaderboard, you're running a half marathon. You're fucking coming up in the world. Get it. I'm going to

give you so much shit running a half marathon the next six months. By the way, I looked up on the map here where my hotel is in Philly, and like I can see the schedule of how long I need to run every day, and the distance I have to run while I'm in Philly on a couple of these days is like almost exactly the distance from my hotel to the steps, and it goes through the park. So I'm just doing

the Rocky run. Like now, I just want to watch fucking all of them, especially Creed when when Rocky's like, hey, we're going to the gym, and then he gets in the van, He's like, just run behind me, follow me. How far is It's like six miles? Like I'll be quick, it's early. I'm gonna hire a bunch of guys on dirt bikes, So follow me around. I'm gonna comb my ass watching that scene again. I love that scene so much. It's really good. I

actually I have one more. I just thought of Dan. Last time we did the podcast, you played Window Kill, and so I played No Kill on a screen and you stopped in. That game is really tough and super annoying. I felt like I couldn't blink when I was playing it. It hurt my eyes. Yeah, I tuned in, and you know, I go to your thing and the ad plays, and as soon as it ended, I just see you crying and like, what the fuck happened here?

Like just tears falling down my face. Because this game is very high paced, fast paced, high paced, high paced action. I couldn't blink because if you blink, chances are something's going to hit you. It's just a consistent bullet hell. There's always something coming at you. And because the windows the concept of the game as you described it, there's multiple windows and they actually connect in the game. So maybe you're getting shot at and you're like,

where's that coming from? So you slowly move your window to the upper right of your screen, and there's the boss for you to be able to acknowledge that you basically have to keep your eyes wide that you can see all the different parts of your screen. What if you put it on a giant ultra wide monitor, wouldn't that be fucked up? You would die? My screen is very big, and I think it actually fucked me. Like, I think that's why it was so hard. I was getting headaches from playing.

I had to quit. I think I could only play it for I played it for about an hour, maybe like ten minutes, and after that, I was like, I can't play anymore. It hurt my head. Hurt my head to play that. I was pissed. Well, I think when you were when you came in. I think I was cursing your name because I was playing it while I was crying, and I was like, what the fuck was he recommending this? This game is really difficult on your

eyes. I I didn't care for it. I do. I understand the joy of it and the what do you call it, like the hook? Like I think it's a neat concept that you're shootings differ. Yeah, it's a fun gimmick. Yeah, but in actual play, no, thank you. If I head hurt from just getting through a few rounds of it, and it also it feels like it just goes forever. Yeah. I played like three runs or something like maybe like fifteen minutes, and I was like, that's a cool gimmick. I'll bring that up. But yeah, it's

not something I've gone back to you by any means. Yeah, I played that because you recommended it. But yeah, I've so hard to so hard out my brain. Yeah, I still check it out. I like the idea of it. It's a cool concept. I do think people should look at it, but be warned. I got a headache playing it for one hour. It's probably not the best of your tmj It's a bad tmj G.

You can't close your eyes. Oh new category for the game of the year Worst games game require you to worst games on your sinuses, the game that requires you to chew. I guess all the DS games are ready to blow into it. Oh, pantom Simulator. Yeah I thought you meant, but that makes more sense. I played Jerk Simulator every morning, you know what I mean? Oh my god, you guys want to talk about do you want to emails simulating? You're not actually doing it practicing game? What

are you doing? I thought you're at work already. I'm just playing the jerky simulator. That's fine, right, do emails okay? As always, you can ran do fire skip cast at gmail dot com. Questions, comments, concerns, criticism, all of which I take very seriously and never read all of But if you just want to write in a question about games or anything else, you can ride a fire skip cast at gmail dot com.

We have two one from Alex and Mary's Bendigo, Bendigo. I'm not I don't know if I'm the resident KnowledgeR, but I'm gonna say, Bendigo, you are the resident KnowledgeR about Australia. I would have to say, because you've lived there. But I love that I got you to repeat something that was nonsensical. President KnowledgeR is not something that resident seven. Instead of making fun of me, you just absorbed it and put it in your lingo.

And I think that's a win, the President KnowledgeR. Remake, Mary, do you want to read this one from Alex from Bendigo. He's from Australia. Australia. Oh wiggless if I called my youngest new medal listen in silf Okay, sorry, go for it. No commit uh oh wigless. If I told my younger new metal listening self that one day I very much enjoy the works of various jazz composed like Hiromasa Suzuki and David Axelrod, I'd have found it very hard to believe looking back at your younger, more piece of

shit selves. What's the thing that would make that person say, man, you've changed about you now stay hod Alex from Bendigo, Australia. That was amazing. I could not do that. I can't either. It very very very very so yeah, this is pretty easy for me too. I mean, yeah, you guys fucking every I think he wrote this in to just get me to be fucking douchebag. I my younger self would be like,

why do you care this much about? Uh wine? For sure? And also I would have Actually, the real thing I'd be shocked by is how much I actually care about like handiwork now, Because when I was young, I hated nothing more than when my dad was like, I know you want to go play with your friends tomorrow, but I need like four hours from you. I'm going to show you how to change the oil in a car, or I'm going to show you how to hang this shit, Like Dad,

you don't stand what it's like. I don't want to be here watching you do something for four hours. And of course now I thank him every day for all the stuff he taught me. But I'm like, if I told my younger self, no, you'll actually he's right, You'll care about the shit when you're older, and it'll be nice to be able to have a tangible thing that you fixed or something that you actually did in your day to day surroundings that made a difference. That would be the number one thing.

And I'd be like, no, I don't believe you. I can't watch my dad do use one more different kind of wall anchor. I'm gonna lose my mind. This is also extremely easy for me, also because of my dad, but in a completely opposite way, and that because he is still the same guy he was back then, and so he is that version that is now telling me I've changed all the time, that like, oh, your comparancy drinks now you can make comparency cocktail wine guy, you're a

wine guy. I know who you're in love. I'm married, and I'm those are good things for you. That sounds stop mocked if I call my wife when I'm homes got to call my wife im or like that I put the toilet seat now down because I guess I started doing that. You're domesticated. Now you're just okay. When he goes to sleep alone, he's like, that's right, like, oh man, I'm alone. This is he must have been on like his like at a different level when a Manda met

him, because she's like, he doesn't he seemed like perfectly. He was into karaoke, he was into the food, very eating. He was in everything. I feel like he turned it on. Well that's the thing is like he is he's a smart He's a very very smart guy. Uh and he knows when to uh put on a like I am the only person on

the planet gets that gets the raw, undiltered Paul Record experience. Because when he's around the family or he's around friends or something, you know, he's just like he knows how to you know, he's fun of not saying all the things he's saying. He's funny ship to talk to and man like he was great. I was like no, I know, like he was honestly like that was in rare form. But I don't think it's that rare. I think he's just like maybe he yeah, he lowers his defenses when he's

with you or really enjoys busting your balls more. He will just say everything going through his head when it's just me, But the second you add a third party into the mix, then he's like, oh, I can't fully just be myself here and say all these insane things. Yeah, Mary, what would your adult thing that your young self is like, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Be saying? Maybe? Like the music one's really easy because I used to listen to like a lot of uh.

I used to listen to like rebellious music, you know, like Blood Brothers or well Bad Religion, which isn't that rebellious, but like something where I was like, this is cool and it's meaningful and it's like not something my parents would listen to. And now I listen to like Flock of Seagulls and The Sure and I think my pay I think my childhood self would be like,

you're such a loser. But I actually really love my expanded library, Like I love that I can st to listen to Bad Religion and then the next song is like something more maybe from the seventies and then something more modern and they all are enjoyable and that's okay to me. So I I think I've I've grown, but my teenage self would be like, you've changed and you're not as cool. Yeah, I think like if high school me knew that, like I was like meditating every day as an almost forty year old

book, what the fuck happened? Like it was like nopy. Turns out just fucking Hippy's growing and evolving as a person as a universally positive thing. So I guess the next step of this question would be, let's say, what will make fun of your sixty year Yeah, in thirty years, what will we be doing that right now? We like, we can't even And I'm not talking about like what's something you're already kind of getting into that you

could see liking in the future. I'm saying, like, what would you actively like cringe at your six year old's any I don't think there's any old guy behavior I would cringe yet I think now we know better, But I feel like, yeah, I don't think you're but I think like I can death Okay, I can think of a couple. One is like we are still kind of bad up with our uh with our health in terms like we drink a lot, like we probably like would smoke a cigarette if we're like

drunk enough or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if like my six year old self is like I don't drink anymore or anything like that, and I'd be like, that's crazy, you lose er, you nerd like get to the bar. But the reality is is like it's possible, and I don't know, because like I hope, I hope sixty year old Mary is like slinging

them back the bar. Are you kidding me? I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised if I was like, oh, it's like fucking with my health and so I give it up. I wouldn't be surprised Dan, if like when you're sixty, you're like I actually don't have as much candy, Like I very rarely partake in sweets. I don't know well, And I love the idea of being like a sixty five year old dude that gets like really

nice scotch and sipsit and stuff like that and still drinks. But like, yeah, you just look like you know, I'm not even forty technically yet and just seeing how drinking affects me now versus five, ten, twenty years ago, and being like, well, fuck it, this is not going to get better as I get older. So like I could see a point where it's like it's not worth it anymore. All there's a year where you just don't want to have hot snakes anymore, and like it's coming hot snakes.

Yeah, what is that? It's like what happens after you drink too much in the morning. Oh, hot snakes like everything? Yeah, hot steaks, hot snakes, hot little snakes come. I've never heard that term, but I know what you're talking about. We all know what I'm talking about. I have, I have a I have a bigger picture. One not bigger picture, but like I think dying, Yeah, I like you

fucking loser, you're nerd were You're fucking dead. If I die, if I can die in a hospital bed, I'll be so disappointed in myself. Get up. Sure, I would like to see myself on my death. But if I don't don't die in an explosion or something sick, I'm gonna be pissed. I don't If I don't die, like driving my car off a ramp into like the Baltic Sea, firing rockets into the air. I'm gonna be so pissed. I want to see you bullying, die year old

self, surrounded by your family that love you. No, you know what I want to do, And I don't traveling to mock your old dying set. I don't care what kind of rifts in the time continuum this will cause. I want to peel out and then like fucking skid up to my younger self when I'm seventy five in a fucking Lambeau and then with missiles and machine guns, we like get in, dick, and then we fucking both fly into the sunset fire and poop rockets out of the Lambeau. Yeah, and

the machine guns to the sun. Oh no, my actual thing that I I grew up in the suburbs. I you know, like we we live here. We have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. If we do, we really want to make use of the dual citizenship and living up or something for the time being, or at least for the foreseeable future. We want to stay here, and we see ourselves living in New York from here

on out. If there is there there is some universe where one or both of us is like, m, I could go a bit more suburban and whatever, that it will not be the kind of suburb we grew up in. And I don't faul to anybody for living wherever they do, which is I grew up in a you know, very like seventy split level house kind of suburb, and that's where I grew up. And it's not that I don't like how I grew up. I had an amazing childhood, you know, like I wouldn't have it any other way, But I still don't want

to go back to something I did already. So there is a world in which my I, in like thirty years am living somewhere more suburban than I planned, at which point I'll be like what the fuck like? And I'm probably happy with like a garden and like that's the one. I've said this before. I think, yeah, get give more space. Not so bad. I look at bikes around nature, Okay, yeah, you can do

that when you're not in the suburbs. So that's my thing. It's like it's the it's the having a big garden in like a backyard and being able to like not we don't have outdoor space right now, but like it's it's gardening on a bigger scale than just my indoor plants, which is very appealing, and then also having more room for like like when I'm sixty, I

hope my wine collection is fucking like obscene. It better your wine collection outlive you, Like it'll just be like really nice one hundred year old wines. Oh, I'm leaving some good I'm like, that's I'm leaving some good stuff to friends and like nieces and nephews for sure. And Mary, No,

you'll be dead. Yeah you don't know that. I'm sorry we talk at thirty years from hour ten because you'll be probably you'll probably be live in ten, but like I'll have killed you like twenty thirty, Yeah, you'll be dead. I've wine. How do you want to die? Oh? Yeah, oh Mary, you can have some wine? Sure, have someone I want to die drinking Mike's most expensive bottle of wine. Yeah, you want my show of armitage from twenty seventeen. Oh when you're when it's twenty three

years old, child with you? Yeah, you're the syringe hole in the cork. There's nothing in the wine that's just more flavor. I added, Oh, he's getting an arsenic hint from this wine. Buddy, fucking my, No, I'm not going to actually kill you. What if that's the last What if that's the last thing you hear in your life is me saying fucking bye, buddy, fucking bye, fucking get out here. My role play it when you're that's not me. No, that's not me, my

MD fucking by. Who is this, sir? We have, sir, we have twenty years worth of a podcast where you're bragging about this very vintage of shop arimitage and killing Mary. No, that's not me, sir. It's clearly you did a did a fake Australian accent that was borderline awful. You sold merch with a depiction of you trying to kill her on it.

No, I didn't draw that. People at people at a fourth Wall did And then I try to and then I plug the merch on the stand like, oh, by the way, fire Escape mergs dot com go hang out all right, anyway, thank you? It says I killed I'm wearing I'm wearing the shirt on the stand. You're aware that you're under oath. Yeah, dude, you got a fire Stan merch. I know I'm under oath, and you're under oath, and you're under oath unless you go to fire

skate merch dot com to get this being awesome. I'm guilty of murder. Oh no, I'm not. I'm just it was. It was good. Thank you, Alex from Bendigo Pendigo. All right, Dan, you want to do this one from Adam? Sure? Hello, Mike, Mary and Dan. Hope you're all doing well. I'm curious to know what all of

your gaming white whales are. For some context, these might be games that you've always wanted to play but never felt right about the timing, couldn't own it due to console restrictions, games you're praid to start, or maybe you just wanted to play it but haven't. My white whale would have to be PERSONA four. Have been told by a lot of close friends how great it is, and know I definitely enjoy what I know of the story and gameplay,

plus I own it. However, most of the time I find it hard to get myself into the mindset of a JRPG that's that intense and involved, So I back off as always the root and be tooting and be shooting, but most of all, be kind thanks Adam from Pittsburgh. Huh, it's not that I haven't played them, and I Dan, we talked about this many times, or all three of us, but Dan specifically two D

Marios. I respect the fucking shit out of them. I realized that there's some of the most well designed, like in terms of craft, there's almost nothing better than them. I just I'm not good at them, and I don't really I bounce off them so hard. Three D Marios. Honestly,

I like, one hundred percented. I fucking love them, and I maybe it's a generational thing, but like they're just so fucking difficult for me to this day and I play, you know, I get some into some like complex games, but two D marios, like what was last Year's Wonder? Last Year's Wonder like again, I'm like I was playing with Amanda and I'm like, god damn, this game is good, but holy shit, I

uh, I can't. I can't bring myself to a point where I'm like, man, I want to keep playing more at when I'm not playing it seems fair like it there's lots of ways to take this, like a game you've always wanted to play and you just don't have the time or a game that you're like, I just don't know if I can get into it. For me, Like, uh, it's weird to say this out loud, but I've I've heard Skyrim's pretty good, but I've never played it, and

I feel like I should. But it's so big and it's so overwhelming that I'm just afraid that the time has passed for me to get into Skyrim. I would say, systems wise, it's actually not that bad. It's not

like this like super deep complex RPG in terms of the gameplay. I mean, it's big, and there's a ton of possibility and stuff and tons of side quests and things like that, but like it's not it's not like a Balder's Gate where it's like, you know, I loaded it up and I'm like, there's too much fucking going on here, and I don't understand any of this. Skyrim like, there's not a lot to not understand. It's pretty straightforward. I mean you've done inventory systems, you know, it's got

a pretty basic level up system, class selection type stuff. It's a It's it's big in terms of our count and amount of stuff you can do, but don't be overwhelmed by like the gameplay itself just seems like there's like a lot you have to There's just been so much coverage. Sure, yeah, if I want to experience Skyrim, I could watch a billion playthroughs and have that experience. I think. So it's like a part of me is like why me, Like why do I go down this path? But I should

probably play it. It's elusive to me that I haven't played it. It feels like i've It feels like on the list of boxes that you're supposed to tick, Skyrim is supposed to be one of them. The bar for open worlds is so different now, like you might go back to Skyrim and find it actually overly simplistic. Uh, there's no like and like I would actually say, if you haven't played more in that game is more. Eh, I don't know. Morowin to me is like the like the one that's still

to this day does some cool design stuff. But Skyrim is such a solitary like all right, just go in that direction and check out what's in there and gather some stuff and build out your inventory, like Dan said, and you know you can role play if you pick a race, and like maybe you want a stealthy orc who's just dreams about nothing more than to be in

the thieves guild, and then you just focus entirely on that. There's some cool stuff to see in that world, but like fucking Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's like physics systems have kind of made previous open world games feel so threadbare in a way that's not fair. It's just that's how impactful those games were. Is it has the time gone? Like has that

ship sailed? Where? Like No, I just I literally just started a new Skyrim file on like a month ago and the way to stock cam on my steam deck, just to try it out, and it runs well on steam deck. If that's any consolation, maybe try that out. But like I think you'd still have a lot of fun with it and all the upgrades and stuff it's gotten over the years. Mods. Yeah, if you're playing

on your home PC, the mods scene is nuts. One of the most vibrant ones still for that game, and that's what for thirteen years old now, I think you you maybe if you can carve out some time, check it out, because it's it's worth it and that game world's still great and like I. I guess here's something pretty indicative of what I'm saying is when I was playing Starfield and like, fuck now I just want to play Skyrim.

I'd rather be playing Skyrim. They're so good at making just like walking around exploring field magical in Skyrim and Oblivion Moroin's a bit more hardcore in ways that I really liked. But Skyrim is just still like the that and Fallout three in New Vegas to me, or the peak of Bethesda's open worlds. Yeah, you don't really hear a lot of people saying that Starfield is their white whale. First of all, you can go play it, but like

way, Mike, which one is yours? Suty Mario still but like if I'm like picking, well, that's more like I've played a lot of them, and I've finished most of them, but I still like just can't connect with them in terms of a game that I still have just never gotten around

to. I guess final Fantasy these series written large is probably mine. But like in that case, I recognize that I and I love jerapyges like I think of US three here, I'm the one that's most into them, but like I have no I don't know that I ever want to go back to any of those. Yeah, that's I recognize how important they were to a lot of people, but it's like the only one I've beaten was ten. But I've started a million of them and played like ten twenty hours of a

lot of them, and it's like it's just never really grab enough. So yeah, I don't consider it a white whale. Since I've tried and played and get what it is, it's just not for me really. Yeah, And now I'm trying to think, like stuff that I definitely can respect, but I just never can find the time to get around to I got a few. Yeah. As much as much as I love Nintendo First Party stuff,

I've never played Chibi Robo and I barely played at zero. Chibi Robo is a GameCube game where replays a cute little robot who has to go around and do household your household chores and plug himself in and recharge. And it just looks really cute and buryed Nintendo and whimsical, and I think it's something I would I would really like to play, so and why not. I just it just just have not come around to it. I mean, I could load it up in five minutes right now in adult You have it,

you own it. I don't think I own I mean I could play it, you know, I've got it on Dolphins steal it. I mean no, who's to say I'm Marker in jail. It's fine. Actually I do need to buy it. I have been looking for that one. So yeah, Chip Robo is up there as a series. Use F Zero I never really played much, and like it's Nintendo First Party and it's like a I don't know if you'd call it an arcade racer or faturistic racer, but like I like that genre. And I've never played much of F zero. And

then Snatcher is uhma game and sounds like it's a very blade runner. I held onto a framed Snatcher Prince I have. I have the framed soundtrack. I have the game. I just have not played it. So honestly, pre director's cut, I think Death Stranding was my big white well, but I kind of not. Even then, I was like, I was sure, I just didn't like that game. It's about the American dream writ large

you know. No, it's one of those fish on the wall that's like constantly singing when you walk by and it's like, shut the fuck up. I don't want this thing and your we should consider that for this year's awards. At the end of the year, I think I think that game is dead. There's a sequel. People are very excited. That's pretty upward trajectory. Yeah, that's the right game. I don't think anyone's talking about it. Try to think like the number one game I should like by all accounts,

and I just don't. I honestly, you know what. As much as I respect and I've beaten Disco Elysium, I feel like I should like it more than I do. That freak out. I've never been more confident that I would fucking hate a video game than Disco Elysium. Oh yeah, I don't think it. No, no, No, you like the most anti me in every possible way. I I'm usually fairly tuned into what I think you would like. Like. That's why I was like, Dan, you got to play out a while, as I promise disco Elicium. No

again, I respect the hell out of that game. I played the whole thing like one and a half playthroughs and I like it, but I'd rather replay like Kentucky Root zero if I'm going for that kind of It's not the same genre whatsoever, but similar vibes in the storytelling. But Disco Elysium, I'm like to like this more than I do. I wonder anything else that that's just a perfect game. There has to be like like White Whale is something where it's like elusive, like you've always wanted it and you can't.

Like, what's a game that you've like always wanted to beat and you can't, you can't finish it. I'm not going to Polygon Interesting one. I'm gonna look at Polygon's five hundred best games of all time and go to one. I'm gonna see which ones up top. I haven't played one hundred list. Yeah from twenty seventeen, Oh, from twenty seventeen. Okay, I'm going to number one. Okay, Tetris, Okay, played it, Mauric,

Breezelda A. You're gonna go through every game? Well, I'm just I'm going down until I see ones that I haven't played, don't care about. Oh yeah, yeah, okay, Pokemon, there's fucking five. Okay, that's not a White Whale. I don't want to play that. Yeah, Okay, I don't want to play that. No, yeah, these are mostly good Bye Fantasy six. I don't really care about. I don't know if I ever beat Half Life two maybe that's honestly, so many have

come out since then. She definitely beat Half Life two. That has a tremendous art. It's just an absolute, incredible, incredible experience. It's that's definitely worth it. That's your White Whale, Dude, like that I played most of it. I think I wouldn't. Well, I never had a PC, I could play anything. It was on the fourth So good. What do you mean you've played most of it? Like there's like good,

there's such a good Uh, I don't know. It just has a really good I wouldn't call it a conclusion because it's meant to go to the next one, but it's got a really nice it's very well rounded, so it's worth playing. Oh I actually I know what my White Whale is. It's probably Polygon's number twenty two game of all time FIFA twelve. Yeah, I don't work there anymore. I'm allowed to talk about this list. Well that's

just twenty seventeen. This a while ago. Yeah, I mean it's low on this list, but yeah, I mean I would put Pepa twelve, but Mario three Fortresses below FIFA twelve. Oh my god, Polygon meddle, your solid is three below FIFA twelve. When you say below, is that better worse civilization? Your solid is three worse than the soccer game journey is worse than that? Oh boy, yeah, FIFA twelve. Yeah, what the fuck? I'm sure it's well made. Polygone, you crazy kids in

your lists. Oh Mario World number thirty four, Yeah, that's that's significantly worse than a FIFA twelve. It's better than elite beat giants. I gotta stop. Yeah, yeah, I think I still think two D Mario are the ones I always play, and I'm like excited for them, and I'm like, ah, I think this is the fucking talent on display and the

knowledge and the institutional kind of wisdom at that at Nintendo is nuts. But but also when you were a kid, three D Mario was the thing, and like, you know, when I was a kid, two D yeah, I was coming up under my brothers watching them play, like, uh, it would have been Super World and three in World yeah, and I love those. But then like, yeah, I came up like right when three D games I was like six when three D games started becoming a thing.

Like whoa. Yeah, if you're like six and Mario sixty four is out, I can see why he would grab it take towards the arena. I'm like, yeah, right, well, why would I fucking play Adventure of Link? That's a good question. I'm uh. I think of the ways I could define white whales and games. I think it's something I really want to like and something I respect that you just can never connect to,

And I think it's too Yeah, it's up to interpretation. To me, it's like a game that you should obviously have completed because it's so impressive, but you just can't get it for twelve, can't get it likef for twelve. Well, I think what we're all trying to say is that we should be playing FIFA twelve. Yeah, the twenty second best game of all time. Thank you, Adam from Pittsburgh. All right, that's our show.

It's episode seventy eight. As as I mentioned, you can run the fires Cast at gmail dot com if you want to submit any of those questions about games or otherwise. Mary, I usually toss to you for where to get merched, but I'm consistently convinced that you don't even know where we can get marched. So it's gonna be Firescape merch dot com. That's Firescape merches dot com. And then also just follow us on Instagram. That's probably the best

place to follow us these days. We are on X but disappoint Yeah, I learned how to block Twitter on my phone. You have to go into the part where it lets you block porn sites and then you can type in mandible things and I had to type in Twitter dot com in the block porn site section, block boob penis, boob penis battle and Twitter Twitter X. But you can get some merch, get some hot get some hot mouse pads, get some sick beanies, get some nice water bottles, get some six

shirts, sweaters, crew necks, crop tops. Is a banana yellow on there? Do we know? Is it still there on fire Scape merge dot com. I think so? You can put it on our generic logo shirt. Sure, and if you if you took a photo in that banana yellow, we'll retweet it, no questions asked. We'll do some other stuff with it. But then you can also go if you're not listening to our ad free version or watching our video You can go to Patreon dot com, slash

fire Escape or just go to firescapecast dot com. That'll bring you. You can get the episodes without ads. You can get our video versions. You can also just treat it like a tip jar. If you'd like what we do and you enjoy the show every twice every month, then go there. That's our Patreon And uh, Dan, what do you have going on outside of fire Escape U giant bomb dot com? Doing personal thing on Twitch? Just Dan Reichert, that's kind of my big stuff heading off to WrestleMania,

talk about wrestling a bunch. Yeah, Philly, Yeah, in Philly steps I have absolutely Yeah, yes, Mary, what do you have going on Twitch? Things? Streaming of also avoiding the x dot com and instagramming, taking my dog on really fun vacations that snowy that those videos were great? Can you mount Hood? It was Mount Hood. It's an hour from my house, so right now the tulips are out, it's like warm, it's

it's got to be like upper sixties and sunny. It's gorgeous. And then I went an hour and I was covered in snow and I was in like a hot tub surrounded by snow and they were like skiers going by. And then in the same day, I drove an hour back and like walked my dog with a T shirt. It's wild, Like its awesome, It's like peak. What makes this place cool is that a different terrain is an hour away. It's nuts. But yeah, I always take fun videos of wherever

I'm adventuring with Simoon and posting them on on Instagram. So good stuff from my travels there. You seemed happy. He's thrilled. He's like the most spoiled little kid. I've hood, I'm in a hot tub. I need to take any shit. I keep singing that song you're a rich girl, and I don't know that any of the other lyrics. And your old man's money did with your old man's money. Uh, And I think old man, yes, And I'm like constantly giving him my money so we can really

interesting locations. It was constantly shelling out dough for him. Were like mount good. Well, everybody, thank you for joining us. On episode seventy of the fires Kit cast, we will be back in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Uh. With episode seventy nine, we're getting up to eighty. We always got some kind of landmark in the future. We got to do something for a hundred that'll be we should Yeah, that'll be next year. That'll be next year. Forty episodes or sorry, forty weeks from now

will be twenty twenty five. Like bye. Maybe like February. My math might be terrible. It's like January February. Next year, we'll hit episode one hundred. We got to get some guests on and maybe do a meet up if we're somewhere in the same neck of the woods. Maybe it's around like Packs East or something. That would be great. To be sick. I can't wait. All Rick, everybody, thank you for joining. You could have been anywhere in the world. If he tries to hang out with

us, we will see you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for joining. Talk to you later.