Seven Years Later...

So, we're in the middle of a pandemic, financial turmoil, and civil unrest.

Tomorrow will mark the seventh anniversary of my last post on this blog, and I felt like giving a brief update for anyone who stumbles around here and wonders "Whatever happened to that guy?" 

- Things that didn't change

Seven years later, the podcast is still going strong. We've recorded nearly 350 shows, each about ninety minutes long, talking about pop culture nostalgia, our own lives, music, movies, games, and television. Turns out the concept had legs. I'm still happily married, still playing a lot (maybe too many) PC games, mostly on Steam. Most of my interests are as they were, and I still spend a lot of time doing exactly what I'd like to.

- Things that changed quite a bit

Since I last posted, I bought a house in the Chicago suburbs, got two dogs and a bird, and went back to school, first earning one undergraduate degree and fixing my decades old poor GPA. (Graduated with a 4.0! Score!) Now, I'm enrolled at the Penn State World Campus pursuing an economics degree, as my wife, who also had no degree of any kind when I posted last, moves on from her Bachelor's to her Masters. Since becoming a guy who is one kid short of being an average suburban Grill Dad, I got really into grilling and smoking meat, and craft beer (as you do.) I rarely, if ever, stream my gameplay on Twitch or YouTube anymore. 

Dog tax. I know the rules. Mention a dog, show a dog.

- The more things change, the more they stay the same

I'm back in the same field that I originally was let go from all those years ago when I first started this blog, only now I'm on salary, and for the moment, like may other people, I'm working remotely. I'm still losing weight, then occasionally finding it, and I still lift weights, only now, I have a squat rack (power cage, to be more precise,) a bench, and an Olympic set of bumper plates and bar in my garage. I still play a reasonable amount of tabletop roleplaying games, though long before COVID-19, I started moving my games to a Virtual Tabletop (Roll20,) in order to accommodate the difficulty in scheduling a weekly event with four other adults, even if I happen to be married to one of them.

So... Will there be more updates in this space? Honestly, I'm not sure. I created this page when I was in a very different place in my life, but if I feel the need to get something out, or just want to get back into the habit of writing periodically on a schedule again, maybe. The likelihood of that happening might just be increased by knowing that someone is reading, so if you'd like more... let me know.

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Blog Gadgets

About damn time. Doc talks at "40 going on 14"

For 20 years, I've known Joel, Mike and Pat. We've been through a lot, even if we haven't all kept in touch as often as we'd like. We met through performing on stage and playing D&D and Shadowrun in college, and lived in the same dorms and later apartments for years before marriage, moving away and the rest of it meant our respective paths diverged for a bit. In those years, at one time or another, we've all worked as comedians – stand-up, improv, internet radio, etc. We just never collaborated the way our friends and spouses always hoped we would. Until now.

From "A Midsummer Night's Dream," I'm far left holding a brick, Pat is dressed as a Lion next to me, and Joel is the blonde with the goatee on the far right. I have strange friends.

It is no secret here that when I am gainfully employed, I don't post nearly as often as I'd like to on this blog, or even to my Twitch/YouTube channels. I'm still out there experiencing geek culture, and still feeling the effects of my months being unemployed, but I post when I want to, not because I need to anymore. I've come to terms with that. I like these outlets to be a labor of love, not one purely of obligation, because the content is always better when I'm inspired, rather than required to create it. The collaboration I've found in this podcast, called 40 going on14... well, it is inspiring.

A few words to talk about the other folks on the podcast - Longtime readers already know Joel from his guest blogging here, but unless you already follow his own blog, where I have had the privilege of writing for myself, you might not know about his podcasting history. He was a part of The Awful Show, and is now one of the Undercover Unitards, bringing comedy and music to the internet weekly. He also does a more personal show, The Sunshine Happy kPants Hour (the "k" in kPants is silent.) Mike and Pat have influenced a lot of the events that inspired me to write here about movies, games and comics. Since college, we've shared trips to Gen Con, various roleplaying campaigns, and done comedy together whether on-stage or off. Pat has recently been doing stand-up back in his home state of Texas, and Mike was at the helm of another show not so very long ago called "TikiGeeks."

Mike and I at Ed Debevic's, back in our college days.

The podcast takes on elements of pop culture that we remember from when we were growing up, and seeing those things repeating themselves now that we are approaching middle age. For our first show, we all watched both Conan The Barbarian films (1982 and 2011) and ran them through the paces of what we all thought about them. It was a hell of a lot of fun to create, and I'm pretty proud of the finished product, especially for a first try. If you haven't tried podcasts before, but have a 30-minute or more commute when you might listen to talk radio... give us a shot one day out of your week. I think you'll be glad you did. I know I'm happy helping make it.

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Blog Gadgets