Episode 253: 2024 Gift Giving Guide: Giving the Gift of Self-Care?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello, and welcome to episode two hundred and fifty three
of the n T BAMAS Gamer podcast podcast, where we
talk about living, working, playing, and existing in and around
the games industry. My name is Samantha Blackman, and I'm
an associate professor here at Purdue University in Westlafia, Indiana,

(00:52):
and I'm joined tonight by one of my amazing co hosts,
Jordan Lukomski. Hey, Jordan, who are you? How are you?
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
It always warms my heart when you say amazing co host.
It's true though I appreciate it. It just it always
brings a smile to my face, especially during these hard times.
This year has not been great, which I think explains
the how I'm doing, But I'm always happy to be
here and this brings a few hours of light to

(01:29):
what's going on, and I hope for anyone else that
stops by and listens to them as well.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
So not like.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Overly in the holiday spirit, but on this episode I
am because I like talking about this stuff in general,
and I'm excited. But who am i? Jordan Lakomski. I'm
an senior environment outsource artist at a company called That
Snow Moon, where we work on things and stuff, and yeah,

(02:02):
I don't really have a major update outside of that.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's okay. We'll have a major update one day and
we'll celebrate. We'll celebrate, and maybe we'll celebrate with the
bottle of with libations that I can actually open. But
we'll talk about that more in just a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I hope, So, I hope. So the amount of stress
and fear and excitement because this is the first like
studio I've been at where I am not like a
contractor and where I'm staying for the whole project. So
there's a lot of feelings, a lot of nerves.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I get it, I get it. I mean the
industry has been extremely turbulent these last couple of years.
I do not envy you. I mean that at least
I don't envy you that part.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I truly get it. I've been stressed,
but I'm also very fortunate with the role and my
team that I have. I'll be able to get into
more of that, uh someday soon, hopefully. But it has
hit my partner a little bit more like they've had

(03:21):
a few more layoffs and there's been a lot of
like ups and downs there definitely in terms of the
gaming industry. So yeah, it's definitely been hard what.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I feel for y'all. Well, let's let's let's talk about
something that's a little more upbeat, shall we.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Let's let's start with what do we usually do? What
you reading, what you playing, what you drinking? Right, I
was like, what order do we usually go in? I
don't know what's robin, which.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Doesn't help that I always post my notes not in order.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
That's okay, that's what you're reading, what you're playing, what
you're drinking. I'm looking at show notes and my first
question is, uh, what we're reading? And your answer is huh, yep, Oh,

(04:27):
I understand. I understand. We we hit reading slumps sometimes,
and I completely understand, but I do go ahead.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I do think there's been a few months here and there,
but it's been like a four year slump. Sorry to
take the average.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, but you know what, when you're not in a slump,
you're reading. We come back and it's been like two
weeks and you've read like six books, so you know
you you have books banked? How's that.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
You?

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah? And I say, what I'm reading? So I've been
reading lots of different things, and for I don't know,
five or six years, I've been reading, like for pleasure anyway,
almost solely marginalized authors. Lots of you know, Afro and
indigenous futurisms, some African futurism, some sci fi, but all

(05:25):
by marginalized authors, right queer authors, authors of color, etcetera, etcetera,
Etcetera's queer and authors of color, you know, and it's
been a blast. I the last couple of books I've
read have been rough on me for whatever reason. One
of the last I think I talked about the this
last one last time, last time we recorded. The one

(05:52):
of the last ones I read that was rough on
me was or the last one I read that was
rough on me was for book club and it turned
out to be a romance, and I don't like romances,
but you know, I started it and it was for
book clubs, so I said I was gonna read it anyway.
Then it turned out to be enemies to lovers and
it just felt like Stockholm syndrome to me, and I

(06:14):
hated the whole thing and I was mad. So I
was like, I need something different. I don't know what
I want to read, and then I got an email
from Amazon was like recommended books, and I was like,
let's see what Amazon's recommended. Even though I got four
hundred ninety seven books in my house and four hundred

(06:36):
and ninety seven books on my wish list, I was like,
let's see what Amazon is recommended. Amazon recommended a book
called The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. Barbara
Davis appears to be a middle aged white slash white
passing women. But it didn't look like it was romance

(07:00):
because I was like, if this is romance, I will
be mad. You know a lot of times you see
authors in their middle aged white women it's a romance
these days, right, didn't look like there was any romance
in It wasn't a romance. It was about a woman
who owned a bookstore and she, uh, it's like telepathic

(07:22):
with books, so she can feel what people are feeling
when they've read a book. And I was like, oh,
that sounds interesting, and like it starts and it's about
she's a friend who owns like a used media store,
and so sometimes when people bring in like albums and

(07:45):
movies and stuff like that, they'll also bring in books.
And when they bring in books her friend calls her
and to look at them and give her kind of
first DIBs on it for her bookstore. And so she
goes in and she gets this book that's like beautifully bound,
and it simply has the title Regretting Bell. We know

(08:07):
a little tiny bit about like how the book got
received the first time from the first chapter of it.
Of the of the book, we're reading the echo of
old Books, but it doesn't happen. The book doesn't have
an author, doesn't have publication date, doesn't have anything. And
she starts to read it, and basically what it is
is like a bound a book length bound letter from

(08:39):
a man to a woman that he met in the
nineteen forties. So it's really interesting because you know, I
don't want to like give too much away, but but
she's like a wealthy social like and he's like a

(09:04):
an ethically questionable journalist. Let's just put it that way.
It's interesting. I don't know if I'm gonna finish it,
to be perfectly honest, I was really interested at the
beginning for the first several chapters, and now it's just

(09:25):
getting to be to the it's like gotten to the
point that I was like I already know what's gonna happen.
I already know what's gonna happen. And it's not like
the book is that great that I'm willing to keep
going because there's anything that's gonna make it worth it
to me in the end, unless I'm gonna give it
a couple more chapters. I'm gonna give it a couple

(09:46):
more chapters and see if something else picks up. Because so,
after she reads the first several chapters of the book,
her friend called her back and says, oh, before I
went on vacation, the person who brought that box of
books here brought brought that box of stuff in, brought

(10:06):
in another box, and there's a there's something you need
to see. So she goes and see, and there's another
book that looks very similar, right, but it's not the same.
It looks like it, you know, it's not the same.
It's not the exact same cover, it's not the exact
same binding, it's not the exact same you know, font
or whatever. But what appears to have happened is that

(10:32):
the man sends the woman this book called regretting Belle,
and Belle is the pet name he had given her,
and so she, in turn, I guess, after she reads
his book and his like story of what happened between

(10:54):
the two of them, wrote her own books and sent
it back to with and it's called uh. I think
the title of that one is like Forever and Other Lies. Oh,
so that little twist be so. And then she's starting

(11:16):
to and she's and she's reading this, and she's reading
the second book, and it's her take on what happened
between the two of them from the very beginning of
their relationship, like when they first.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Met one another.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
So it's say, it's interesting, right, it's got a it
had a little twist in it. I wasn't expecting that.
That's why I'm gonna give it a couple of more
chapters and see, uh, and see what I think, and
see what I think, to see if it's, you know,
worth finishing, or if I'm ready to go back and
read something else, because because you know, I'm I'm no

(11:52):
longer mad at all my other books. I'm no longer
mad at all my other books. But let's see. So
I've got I want to see one, two, three, thirteen.
Oh god, there's a whole lot more chapters. Yeah, there's

(12:13):
a whole lot more chapters. I'm like, maybe a quarter
of the way through it, So we'll see, we'll see,
we'll see if it if it continues, if it holds
my interest. After we get through this first segment where
she where Belle is telling her story, her side of

(12:36):
the story, and I'm like, really do I want to?
You know, the story is not that interesting, The story
between the two of them, right, is not that interesting
so far? So far, it's not that interesting, and so
having to read it twice from two different perspectives might
be a bit much. Might be a bit much. And

(12:59):
that's why the book sold so banglong, or has so
many chapters. It's because it's just jumping back and forth, like,
here's his perspective, now, boom, here's her perspective. Is what
I'm imagining, continues to go wan with the number of chapters.
So we shall see, we shall see. But that's what
I'm reading.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
One comment in one question. Yes, so in terms of
your four hundred and ninety five books, I feel like
books are a lot like time, where you have a
lot and it doesn't matter, it will continue to grow. Yes,
and I have no regrets. And then question, when you

(13:40):
have a book and say it's a book that you
were slightly interested and the interest just kind of faded out,
not like stopped for very angering reasons. Do you ever
go and read like the last chapter?

Speaker 1 (13:56):
No, No, I don't. I know it's very weird. I don't.
I mean, I guess, you know, it would be interesting
to do to see, you know what happened. I guess
in this In this case, I probably have to read
the last two.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Chapters, like his perspective and hers and probably and probably
like Ashland who's the bookstore owner, the woman who has
the telepathic power, probably like Herd.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
So I'd have to read the last three chapters his perspective,
herd perspective, and Ashland's kind of telepathic read on it.
Probably is the summation is probably the last chapter, is
what I imagine. Yeah, I don't know if I decide to quit.
If I decide to quit, I might read, but if
I read the if I read the end, I won't

(14:49):
go back and finish it anyway.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Oh yeah, no, once I figured out that I or
if it spoiled for me, I struggle very much to
get through it, whether it's a movie, TV show, book,
sometimes video game, though video game still has like the
gameplay aspect that can occasionally get me through. And I
also do not go and read the end of the
book if I choose to stop reading it, even if
it's just like oh I got too busy or oh

(15:13):
I lost interest, I usually don't read in the n
mm hmmm hmm.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
So what if if it doesn't snatch me soon, I'm
gonna go ahead and jump back to a jump to
what is it called? I think it was called A
Glimmer of Death, the one about the black female detective
by Valerie Wesley, and I just remember what I remember,

(15:43):
and the one that the book, the one that snatched
my attention last time because the protagonist name was Odessa Jones,
and I was like, it don't get no blackert in
the name like Odessa Jones. So if I don't finish
this when, I'm gonna go ahead and read my Odessa
Jones book. And we'll probably have a new book club

(16:04):
book soon, since we have we have our book club
discussion tomorrow, so after that we'll be choosing a new
book song. I'll have something else to read too. But yep,
that's what I'm reading. Uh, I'm like to see this
is what happens when I when I stray from when
I stray from the pat This is what happened when
I strayed from the path. She just stayed and read

(16:26):
the stuff I know I like and engages me. See,
you try to read something like for fun that's different.
I do read stuff that's different. I don't read just
the same stuff. But I don't know. This one's a
little disappointed. I tried something different. This is the second
time I tried something different. The last book of book Club.

(16:46):
I tried something different because it was you know, adventure
slash romance, and then it just had me mad the
whole time I was reading, and I couldn't quit reading
it because it was a book Club book. See, I
ain't reading else different. I'm only gonna read what I
want to read, all right, That's all. I'll read what
I'm reading. What do you play it? Jordan?

Speaker 2 (17:09):
I am still playing Lives of p because again I
forget the name of the website. But how long to finish?
Says thirty hours. It's gonna take me sixty just because
that's how that works, and that game is hard. So

(17:31):
still playing that, and then the two newer ones that
I'm playing are Inscription on the Switch and Nobody Saves
the World co op with my partner on the PlayStation five.
Inscription is a rogue like card game with a horror element,

(17:54):
and it has puzzles that you figure out kind of
as you play car but you're also allowed to back
out of the card game and look in the environment
around you, and there's puzzles there and which give you
hints or unlocked new cards. And I'm trying not to
give too much away because there's like a lot of

(18:15):
revealed and kind of interesting things that I haven't experienced
in a card game before. I will say it took
me so long and so much frustration to get to

(18:38):
the final boss, and then there was something extra and
I'm like, okay, you know what. I kind of knew
this was coming. That's fine. And the game is split
into three acts and I finished that boss and I'm like, wow,
that took me a long time to get those three acts.

(18:58):
And then the game was like act too, and I'm
like what. So I'm both very interested. Again, I don't
want to give too much away, but the game vastly changes,

(19:19):
and I mean vastly between the first and second act,
and I feel like that's going to be the case
for the third act too. It also kind of plays
where the person you are with sets out a randomized

(19:40):
map and they kind of act like a horrific dungeon
master in which they present certain gameplay or situations to you.
So that has also been kind of interesting because usually

(20:04):
card games I play don't have characters. And then the
other game, Nobody Saves the World. You can play that
single player. I think you can play up to four
people co op, and it's on multiple platforms, but I'm
playing on PlayStation, and that one is a lot of

(20:25):
fun because you are this person who wakes up in
the middle of this chaotic, weird, magical world and you
don't have any memory, and as you're walking around you

(20:45):
get quests. But it is also like a roguelike, but
with a lot of different locations and discoveries, and you
unlock different classes that you play, which give you different moves.
But then as you unlock classes and different moves, you

(21:06):
can start combining different classes moves together, so you can
be a horse that runs really fast and shoots arrows,
and it is pretty ridiculous and so much fun. We're
liking a lot of the Rogue Lake elements and the
gameplay and the dungeons that we have to go through.

(21:31):
I think we're like slightly under halfway through it. It
also goes pretty fast, like you level up pretty quickly,
you get rewards pretty quickly, and it goes at a
consistent pace, so even if you only play for like
twenty minutes, it feels like you get something done, which
is nice.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
It helps if I unmute my mic. Yeah, that was
so interesting and Inscription is something that's been on my
wish list for a long time, but I never knew
exactly what it was because people's descriptions of the of

(22:18):
it is they're all the descriptions are always so kind
of vague and weird. So I was like, I don't
know what the hell that game is. But at the
same time, I don't want to like look too deeply
into it because I don't want to spoil anything for myself.
So we got the Steam cell coming up like next week,
so maybe I'll grab it and see. Am I gonna

(22:44):
like it? Am I gonna hate it? I love puzzle games.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
You might like it because again, it's primarily a card game.
The puzzles are usually periphial, And again I don't want
to give away too much, but the roguelike element deals
with you being able to craft new cards based on

(23:12):
a randomization, which could be super powerful or kind of disappointing.
But you as a character and you find us out
very quickly in the game, are somehow trapped in this
cabin with this other person and if you don't beat them,
they will kill you. And then so it's the next person.

(23:35):
And it's not like super graphic or anything. They don't
show anything, there's no audio effects, but in general there's
that sense and not even an implication you like, know
what happens. So just as a preface for anyone thinking

(23:56):
of trying it again, it does have the horror.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, that's but that was another thing that that kind
of has me, you know, question in my life choices
because you know, I'm a coward. We'll see, We'll see.
I'm gonna write it down. I have a list over
here of things I want to spend my money on.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I mean, I didn't find it scary, but and I
don't do all with horror games either, but just there
are those elements in there that could be very tense
or upsetting.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Okay, I feel I feel warned, but that usually doesn't
bother me too much. The tension part, well, it can,
but we'll see. I'm gonna write it down though. I'm
gonna write it down because I have so many things
on my wish list that when the Steam sales starts,
it's gonna be like one hundred things on sale and

(24:58):
I won't find it in that list. So I'm gonna
write it down so I know to look for it
specifically in scription. Okay, okay, I got you, all right.
You might you might have sold me on a game.
You might have sold me on a game. Maybe it's
time for me to play. So what I've been playing,

(25:19):
I've been doing a lot of work, playing research, playing.
Excuse me. I finished the Black Ops six campaign had finished.
I had. I had to finish it one because I

(25:39):
usually always play the campaign first, but I jumped in
the multiplayer first this time. But it's so it took
me like an extra I don't know, to be like
a week to actually finish the campaign. But I didn't
want to get it. I didn't want to get it
spoiled for myself, so I was like being very careful

(26:04):
with where I went on the internet and when people
start talking about it, I'd be like, I, Nope, don't
tell me nothing. But I finished the Black Op six campaign.
I'm not gonna tell any for people who might not
have finished it yet because the game has only been
out like three but three weeks now. But a week
after next we're gonna do a Black Op six campaign

(26:26):
spoiler cast, so if you're interested in our takes on
the Black Op six campaign, and Victoria will be back
for that one of course, so we'll be talking about
Black Op six in two weeks. So I played that.
I've also still been playing Beta four Refantasio a little bit, because,

(26:50):
like I said, I haven't really been playing much for fun.
For like, I had gone a whole week without playing
any Call of Duty, which is so unlike because that's
my nightly wind down game. But so I have played
no Call of Duty. So I did play a couple
of other little things that I was playing at bedtime instead,

(27:11):
and I'll talk about those in a second. The other
thing that I've been playing is Last Time I Saw You,
which is a it's like a visual novel. It deals
with magical realism and it's about a I guess I

(27:31):
can't call him a little boy, a young man who's
kind of free adolescent slash adolescent who's coming of age
in a cursed Japanese town, and that it was really
sounds really weird, but it's it's one is a beautiful game.

(27:52):
One of the things that drew me to it first
and foremost was the fact that it's hand drawn and
it's steeped in Japanese mythology. Right, So it's cursed town
and it's about coming of age, and he's dealing with,
you know, friendships and relationships and feelings and all these

(28:14):
things that you deal with when you're coming of age
as a human. And then you throw like very like
some cute, some disturbing mythical Japanese creatures into the mix
to kind of add to the story of like the
story of life and the story of the curse. I'm

(28:37):
trying to be vague but explain it as well as
I can at the same time, because it is a
visual novel, and I'm always hesitant to explain too much
about visual novels because they tend to be very linear,
and it's a story. It's just like a book. So
if you tell too much, We've told the whole thing,
and nobody wants to read the book. But it's really interesting.
It's really interesting. So yeah, it's called again, it's called

(29:02):
the last time. It's called last time I saw you that.
And then since I haven't been, since I wasn't playing
Call of Duty as my wind down game, I was
playing two other they're rogue lights, but different kinds of

(29:22):
rogue lights. So the first one is called Economics, which
is actually like a tactical game, like a tactical strategy
kind of game where you play this. I called him
a uh megalamaniacal mining mogul, I like alliteration. Who is
you know? Basically, you know the Jeff Bezos of gnome

(29:47):
mining situations. And so you keep going down in the
mind and use different classes of gnomes that do different things.
Two try to find your bottom, your way to the
bottom of a mine and get as much stuff as
you can. And then when you like inevitably like run

(30:12):
out of enough food to pay the bats because there's
bats in the mind and everybody gets killed, you get
to come back to the surface. But when you come
back to the surface, you get to bring like resources
back with you, and then you use those resources to
build up the kind of gnome mining town that you're
building above the surface. And then you also get to

(30:36):
kind of unlock new things that you can then use
on your next trip down in the mines. So and
then there's I think three different uh mindes that go
really far down. And then there's course there's bosses as well,
every couple of level of a couple of levels, and

(30:59):
then when you hit a boss, you beat that boss
and then it's like cool, now here's the next sub
level of the mind. Do that for ten levels or whatever. So,
but it's a lot of fun and it gives me
the ability to do things that I like. I love
rogue lights. I don't mind dying as long as it
serves some purpose in the game. In the game, and

(31:22):
also I get to build stuff and so, and also
I get to mine, and I love mining in all games.
So I've been having fun with that one. And then
the other one is also a rogue like but it's
a roguelike slash card game slash. I don't know what

(31:44):
else would you call it. I'll tell you more about it.
It's called Dungeon Claw, right, so it's a claw machine game.
But it's a rogue Light, so you unlock cards that
put different things in your in your claw machine, right,

(32:07):
and then you use the things that come out of
your claw machine to fight the batties on the other side.
And it's turn based, so it's like a claw Machine
roguelike meets Slatest Spire. If you've ever played Slatest Fire,
and it's called dungeon claw or claw Lur instead of

(32:30):
crawler claw lu. I know that's so weird and it's
hard to say dungeon Claw Alert c l A w
l e R Clawler, But it's really fun. It's really fun,
and there's different characters you can play ass and the
different characters have different buffs and de buffs, so there's
lots of replayability. And those have been the two that

(32:55):
I've been playing at night, and then I had to
stop playing them at night because they were too fun.
And if you give me a game that's too fun
and too engaging, then I won't go to bed. I'll
just keep playing. And especially because those both of those
I was playing, I've been playing on my Steam deck.

(33:15):
I can play in bed see at least with Call
of Duty. I mean, yes, I get pulled into Call
of duty because I'm like, I'm just gonna unlock this
one more camo. I'm just gonna play until I finish
my daily challenges. But when I'm done, I can just like,
I'm like, okay, I'm done, and I'll you know, turn
the Xbox off, put the controller down, and go do

(33:36):
whatever I'm gonna do, go to bed, right. But when
I'm already in bed, it's too easy to say, oh,
just one more run, just one more run, and then
the birds start chirping. So I had to stop playing
Economics and Dungeon Caller in bed. And that's part of

(33:58):
the reason I started to play Last Time I Saw
You in Bed instead, because one of the one thing
that happens is that once I started getting tired, I
started losing track of what I'm reading. So at that
point I'm like, oh, I got mine, so I just
turn this off. I'm going to bed now because I
don't even remember what I just read. Yeah, so that's

(34:21):
what I've been playing.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm just laughing because not how much money I lost,
but how much money my parents lost to claw machines,
well because of me, but it wasn't my money.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I used to be freakingly good at claw machines, like
so much so that they would come sometimes and put
like an out of order machine sign on the claw machine.
I will never forget the time that I was at
a Denny's. I was home visiting, like during the holidays, right, so,
and we had met at like a Denny's or something

(34:57):
because it was near my aunt's house. And so there
it was a lot of my family members and a
lot of my like like little cousins, little nephew's, nieces
kids right just running around, and so there was a
claw machine in the lobby and that claw machine. Between
me being good at claw machines and that claw machine
just not being well packed at least for their benefit,

(35:24):
I got toys for all the kids and they just
came out and they were like, no, no, they ain't
put it out of order side or because I was
just emptying the machine out. So yeah, So for Dungeon
Claller to come up with my weird fascination with claw

(35:45):
machines is scary. It's scary you know, because like for
fifty cents or a dollar or whatever it is, it was,
you know, everybody was getting a toy because it was
like y'all pack and rite. That's not my fault. I'm
just here to empty it. But anyway, what are we drinking?

(36:09):
What's your drink in Jordan?

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I am drinking Stones seasonal Imperial Stout, which is inspired
by Mexican hot chocolate. So the overall flavors are obviously stout, chocolate, coffee,
pasia peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. And I really like it.

(36:36):
I don't know if I could drink a lot of it,
but I really like it for like one or two drinks.
It does tastes like Mexican hot chocolate, but it's odd
because it's it's called drink. And yeah, if you if

(37:01):
those are like your flavor profiles, I would recommend. And
it also it doesn't taste like sugary sweet. That obviously
has some of those sweet overtones, but it isn't heavy
on the tongue in that way.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
I was gonna ask if it was like if it
was like, you know, chocolate milk. I like like chocolate milk,
but I can't really have chocolate milk. But okay, that
sounds good a.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Little not quite. It's more close to the hot chocolate
with spiciness.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Got it. So I have a sad story about what
I'm drinking. I was very excited because I chill and
decided that what I was gonna drink tonight is this

(38:12):
hard cherry cider from Cherry Republic and it's it's called
Cherry Republic and it's actually from a cider mill out
of Michigan called Beaches and Pie Sellers, And so I
was super excited. I got it all chilled, had my glass,

(38:33):
came in here, sat down, and it's a it's a
big bottle, right, So I was like, I'm gonna I'm
gonna drink tonight, y'all. I'm gonna drink tonight. And so
I couldn't get the damn bottle open. Jordan and I
spent twenty minutes, like on this call before we even

(38:58):
started with me trying to open this bottle of cider.
And I cannot tell you how sad I am that
I could not get this, that I couldn't get it open.
I cannot begin to tell you how sad I am.

(39:19):
Because I love cherry ciders. I'm not a I like cherry,
certain cherry things. I'm not a big fan of cherries
unless they're raineal cherries. And then I'll eat those all
day long. But yeah, no, I couldn't get it open.
So it's still sitting here staring at me, mocking me,

(39:39):
and for like a minute or two while we were
while we were talking during the earlier part, I was
still trying to get it open. But it's a big bottle.
It's one of those big seven hundred and fifty milliters bottles,
so it's got that kind of twist off cap, the
one that's like it's all metal, but it's got the
like little serrations. And I just even though I took

(40:02):
this is how desperate I was. I took a box
cutter and I cut through like the little serrated parts
because I was determined. I was bound and determined, as
they say, to get this bottle. And I'm clumsy. I'm clumsy,
And Jordan was pretty sure we weren't gonna record tonight
because I was gonna cut half my finger off and

(40:24):
she would not have been wrong, and she would not
have been wrong. I even went and got the corkscrew
because I was like, maybe I can use the corkscrew to, like,
I don't know, fry it up a little bit or something. Now.
The last time I used this corkscrew in particular, I
don't use regular corkscrews anymore. I only use the electric

(40:46):
ones with the like the safety thing on them, because
the last time I used the regular corkscrew I ended
up in the emergency room. So corkscrews are not my friend.
So she was not wrong to be to be concerned,
because I got issues when it comes to stuff like that.

(41:09):
I got issues when it comes to stuff like that.
So but instand sitting here staring at me, but I
can't get it open. So what I'm gonna try to
do this is I have a plan. Is I'm gonna
find a wrench in my house, and I'm gonna use
the wrench to like tighten on the top and then

(41:29):
hold the bottom and try to unscrew it with the wrench,
but not too tight because I don't want to crack
the glass. Right, I have a plan. I have a plan.
This was a gifted bottle of cider from a Grass
student who lives who lived in Michigan, who lived in

(41:50):
Michigan and knows that I'm also from Michigan, and because
we don't get good cherry stuff in Indiana, would like
occasionally bring me back good like hard cherry siders and
good hard apple ciders from like local uh from local

(42:13):
cider mills in Michigan, because we can't get them in Indiana.
Like we get some of the bigger cider meal stuff
in Indiana because we're only one state below. We get some,
but we don't get a lot. And we don't get
this stuff from the small cider meals. And it's the
small cider meal stuff because they're not mass producing. That's

(42:34):
always so damn yummy. And I'm so it makes me
even sadder that I can't get this bottle open. But
that's my that's my sad story about why I'm not
just sitting here drinking coffee, iced coffee, iced coffee with
oat milk and a little sugar free banilla syrup. That's

(43:00):
I'm so sad. Watch I won't be looking all day tomorrow.
I'm gonna be looking for I'm gonna be looking for
a wrench that will, you know, fit to do what
it needs to do, so we don't see we won't
see maybe some a rich or even Plyers or even Plyers.
And I know where are my pliers. I just had
to put my TV stand together so I should have Plyers.

(43:22):
And I know, I didn't put them up because that
would be too much like right, So they probably still
in the put away bucket in the game room. So
we'll try tomorrow. We'll try tomorrow. It'll be fine. It's
book club night tomorrow, so then I'll have some hard
cherry cider to go with the unfortunate book. We'll have

(43:50):
hard Cheerry sided to go with the unfortunate. But yeah,
that's what that's where we are, That's what we're playing,
what we're reading, what we drinking. What about our discussion
for the week. So next week, next to Friday is
Black Friday. I don't even know why we have Black

(44:11):
Friday anymore. Why do we even have Black Friday anywhare
the Black Friday sales have already started? And like historically,
Black Friday is the day that people like you know,
started their big Christmas shop. And I started my Christmas
shopping back in August because I like to have my

(44:31):
Christmas shop and done. Sometimes I started even earlier than that.
I started picking up little things. When I see them,
I'm like, oh so and so like that and I'll
grab it. But I started my like big Christmas shopping
back in August. But we thought it would be fun
because we I feel like we always do this or
we've been doing it for several years. Is going over

(44:52):
like fun things, things that we think would be fun
to give or receive at the holidays, right at the holidays,
regardless of what winter holiday you celebrate, or none at all,
if you're just looking for birthday gifts or other gifts
to do, other gifts to donate, other gifts to give.

(45:16):
We thought this would be fun. We thought this would
be fun, so we kind of did them. We kind
of did our the same way. And we'll start with
We'll start outside at the top, right, So I have
this list this as stocking stuffers, right, and for stocking stuffers,
I put zero to twenty five dollars. I guess it

(45:40):
would be one to twenty five dollars because nothing costs zero,
but one to twenty five dollars, I guess would be
like the stocking stuffer things. And I'm just mine are
fairly easy things, and I'll just do my. I'll just

(46:02):
do my because I only have three on my socking
stuff for list. One is socks. I know it's very
strange socks and for me, if they're usually like comfy socks,
like socks that you can like throw one and just
like walk around the house, like plushy socks or some

(46:24):
kind of some kind of fun socks. Right, I always
put I always put socks. I think last year I
did socks and underwear in our in our in our
in our stockings, because those are fun.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
I don't think socks is weird at all. My best
friend asked for fun socks to my mom last year
and that was literally the only thing she asked for
was like fun socks, uh, like our two D two
socks or some avatar socks, and my mom literally sent
plain white socks, no, and like a few other things.

(47:02):
So this year, because we celebrated our holidays early back
when I visited, my best friend got my mom fun socks.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
It's like, this is what I mean when I say
fun socks.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
And it was a good time. Everyone took it over
very well.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
It was funny.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I think what happened or how I was explained was
I have no idea why I did that. I totally forgot,
so it was not intentional, but it was. It was.
It was still a good time.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
She's like, I got to the store and the only
thing I remember it with socks. Yep, hmm, okay, so socks.
Another great thing to get and give. One of my
favorite things to get and give gift cards. Gift cards,

(47:54):
not not like huge gift cards, but small gift cards
like grab a gift card at your local independent coffee
shop for like twenty bucks or twenty five bucks or whatever.
Gift cards for like game gift cards like for Steam
or Xbox or PlayStation, and they're usually small, like twenty

(48:19):
bucks or twenty five bucks. Right, while that might buy
you a whole indie game, it's not gonna buy you
a whole triple A title, but it'll to pay for
like a little less than half these days, or half
of it's on sale. Bookstore gift cards also same denomination
twenty five bucks or less. That will get you at
least one hardcover book usually, and then if you get

(48:42):
in paperbacks, like especially trade paper that's like two books,
or you know, a book and a cookie and a
cup of coffee at the Barns and Noble or something.
And then you can also give like a twenty five
dollars gift card for like somebody's like favorite cheap ish restaurant, right,

(49:06):
somebody's favorite cheap ish restaurant so that they can get
lunch right, or even twenty five dollars on door dash
because they have door dash gift cards.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Now, yeah, if you weren't gonna mention this one, I
was gonna add it because I know I know a
lot of people personally that have a lot of like
not necessarily fear, but kind of stress and uh, they're
kind of upset with themselves if they are thinking of

(49:35):
getting a gift card, giving a gift card, or getting one.
And so every year I try to emphasize and stress.
Gift cards are not not fun. No, gift cards are
not boring. Gift cards are not lazy. No, gift cards
are great. You don't need this stress forgive yourself. Trust me.

(49:58):
I understand where it is. I understand the feeling. Say,
I understand where it's coming from, because it's different for
each person. But gift cards are great.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Yeah, and they're like the gift that keeps on giving.
There's nothing like going to the bookstore and buying books right,
or having a like a budget right for your books
and then you say, Okay, I'm gonna get these two books.
That's what this is what I said. I was gonna
spend or whatever. And then you get to the register
and you look in your you look in your wallet

(50:30):
and there's that gift card. You're like, wow, I got
an extra twenty five dollars. I'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
And also something I realized just now in talking about
this is technically you're giving two gifts, the gift card
itself the monetary value. But also if you don't forget
about gift cards, which sometimes I do sometimes I don't,
but you sometimes it's hard to buy stuff for yourself.

(50:59):
Sometimes it's hard to go out and do something for
yourself relax. And by having that gift card and you
see it and you're like, oh, I can after work
or on this weekend. I know things are super busy,
but you know what, I can take an hour and
an hour and a half and go to that bookstore

(51:20):
or game store for myself. And so, like, I don't
say it provides the pressure, because that's not the right
connotation or feeling, but it provides like a reminder and
an opportunity of hey, you have this gift card, go
spend it.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Mm hmmm hm, and a chance for self care because
I mean, how many times like I don't have that.
I won't say luxury. I don't do it because I
have an advocate. But before I had a kid, I
could come home from work and be bone tired and

(51:59):
just too tired to right. But I was like, oh, yeah,
but I'm not gonna spend money on ordering Chinese or
pizza because I was back back then that was like
the only thing that delivered before she was born, right,
and that's a waste of money kind of thing. I'll
just eat cereal or I'll just make a sandwich, right,

(52:20):
and that would be dinner. Right. Because it's hard to
justify sometimes for yourself spending twenty or twenty five dollars
on door dash, even though you know what you are
worth it, right, But sometimes it's hard to do it,
even if it's not a financial hardship. It's hard to
justify two years for me anyway. It's hard to justify myself,

(52:44):
right because I know I'll do it a lot of
times if I'm on campus, because I'm on campus and
I buy myself and I'm like, oh, I'm hungry, it's lunchtime.
And I was like, I forgot to bring anything for lunch.
And I was like, if I go over to the union,
or I order door Dash and have them bring it
to the office. It's gonna be twenty dollars. It's gonna

(53:05):
be twenty five dollars. That's such a waste of money
for just me. Eh, never mind, I'll just wait to
eat until I get home like six hours later. Right,
So I wait, like literally, because I'm teaching night classes
and I don't get out of class until seven thirty
one night and nine thirty the other night, and that
could be like lunchtime, and I'll be like, I just
wait till I get home, which is stupid, but I

(53:30):
just sometimes, you know, can't justify it. But why if
you have that door Dash gift card or that gift
card for I don't know, Wendy's or whatever it is,
I don't know, whatever that person likes, they can just
like run and like get guilt free, get food, and

(53:51):
if there's money left over, there's money for lunch for
another day. If father spend it ten dollars at Wendy's,
then they got lunch at Wendy's another day. So gift
cards are nice. Gift cards are nice. The other thing
that I want to throw out there are personalized or

(54:14):
themed Christmas ornaments. My mother doesn't listen to the podcast,
so I'm gonna tell you where hers is this year.
Every year, P and I, every year for Christmas we
go out and we buy a Christmas ornament. We each
pick a Christmas ornament. Right, it's like what Christmas ornament
do you want? This year? Kind of thing. So I

(54:38):
blame Victoria, who's not here to defend herself. But it's
her fault because she sent me. She sent me a
text and was like, look at these. Because Hallmark this
year has retro console ornaments and they play sound. So
there's like a og xbox that plays the there's a

(55:02):
og xbox that plays the Halo theme. There's a ne
S and an sn e s one place like the
Mario Brothers theme, and one place I can't remember what
the other place, but there were five of them. I
bought all five of them. But the other one I

(55:23):
bought is because my mother is not usually here when
we go buy like new ornaments for the tree, but
this year I bought her her own ornament for the
tree because they had a animal crossing KK slider. They
have several different animal crossing ornaments, but my mother loves

(55:45):
KK Slider. So I bought her the KK Slider ornament
that I think it plays one of KK Slider songs,
and that's one of the things that she loves about
Animal Crossing is KK Slider and she collects all the
KK Sliders albums and listens to them when she's playing
Animal Crossing. So yeah, so something like that, something small,

(56:12):
but something that is very personal, you know, in some
interesting ways, because it could be personalized or it can
be just hey, I recognize that this is the thing
you love, and I want you to know that you're seen,
and your your likes are seeing, your loves are seeing
kind of thing. Yeah, that those were my Those were
my one dollar to twenty five dollar things.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
I struggled to categorize mine because I have one that
I would say as a stocking stuffer, and everything else
I chose is in general, on average between twenty to
sixty dollars, but depending on the type or the version,

(56:58):
it can get up to the lower one hundreds or
even literally a dollar. I know that's a wide range.
But the only one that I would say usually most
often is consistently ten dollars or less is Nerdy magnets.

(57:24):
Oh because oh and I should background to this. A
lot of my choices I chose based on what I
am hearing and seeing a lot from my friends recently,
my coworkers and are on household, so I know that's
not going to reflect everyone. But I started to see

(57:45):
very certain patterns this year and I'm like, okay, okay,
I'm gonna make note of this. And one of them
was magnets, because no matter how many magnets you have,
you always seem to need another one, and even if

(58:05):
that means you need to clear off your fridge. I'm
losing like the generic circular ones that are a solid color,
but I definitely will not lose my nerdy ones. And also,
people are using magnets for a lot more things. It's
not just the fridge anymore. But some people have like
the magnetic whiteboards for their reminders. Some people have certain

(58:29):
magnetic frames, So yeah, a magnet of something that they like,
be that a certain video game, a certain character TV show.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Yeah, and here's another thing that a lot of people
don't think about, like outside of things that you like,
purposely or normally put magnets on ones like you like
your refrigerator or or unless you're like me, and our
refrigerator stayless steel, so lonely sticks to the side, but
magnets will stick to stuff like that, or if you

(59:03):
have a magnetic whiteboard, or but also just at the office,
if you have a if you have a file cabinet
in your office, they stick to your file cabinet. Right,
you can stick magnets like tons of different places that
you don't normally think about. And it's nice to have
like fun nerdy things in your office even, right, like

(59:27):
stuck to the file cabinet or stuck to the like
media cabinet or whatever. Right, so wherever you are, you
can like stick magnets if there's anything that is magnetible.
I just made that up, totally, just made that up.
But yeah, that's a good one. I think that that
really feels like it's a long sail along the lines
of the ornaments, right, oh, yeah, kind of thing. I

(59:52):
think anything that lets people know that you see them
and you see when I say when I say you
see them, that you see what like you know them?
That kind of fun, that kind of fun stuff. It's
always nice because it's not only nice to get the thing,
but it's nice to know that people pay attention.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, definitely. M quick question, m hm overall how many
do you have?

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Oh? God, left too many. I'm not gonna go over
all of them.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Why because I was just trying to figure out which
ones I should cover. I think I have I have
four more.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Okay, so how about I'm gonna do two from my
twenty five to fifty dollars range, and then if you
have any of that are in the twenty five to
fifty you can do yours. I have lots of ideas.
I shop for a lot of different people, so it's

(01:01:07):
always it's always fun. It's always fun. But okay, so
I'll do these and my twenty five to fifty dollars range.
I had a subscription box. I think subscription boxes are
fun and you know so, and so you can do

(01:01:29):
a book subscription box, or a coffee t script subscription box,
or yard subscription box. And usually you can get one
like one month, a one to one subscription from anywhere
from twenty five to fifty dollars, and if you want
to up it, then you can do like a three
month and usually around Christmas they have like three months

(01:01:52):
for ninety nine dollars of different kinds of subscription box
or whatever, and that's the pricier ones, and those are
fun because they're often a surprise and they're themed boxes.
I like themed boxes, right, So if you get like
a themed book subscription box, you can choose like the

(01:02:13):
book like sci fi fit like you could do sci fi,
or you can do fantasy, or you can do romance.
And usually there'll be a new book, so it's less
likely that the person already has that book. And then
it'll also come with like a mug and a tea
that are themed or sometimes magnets or sometimes pens. Right,

(01:02:38):
so it's like like a little box of little things
that are either visually or thematically themed after things in
the book. Yeah, after things in the book. Or you
can get coffees and tea subscription boxes, which will give
you different copies, different teas, sometimes spoons sometimes like flavored

(01:02:59):
stir sticks and a coffee mug or what have you,
or a teacup, and those things are always fun and
always nice because all of that is still about self care,
and y'all in this year, in the next four years,
if we don't think we don't need self care, maybe

(01:03:20):
that's why all my things are Like, here are things
that make you feel good, have some socks and some tea. Okay,
I just I just noticed the theme and all the
things on my lege.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
But also subscription from boxes give an opportunity to like
try something new that people may not like spend on
themselves or even have direct access to, depending on like
the grocery stores. So a lot of my extended family
have done snacks around the world or certain spices from

(01:03:56):
around the world, or even something specificause like just snacks
that are beef jerky but different kinds from around the country,
and everyone has always had a really fun time and
had a lot to say about it and even bought
some or had a new thing to buy every once
every few months or on special occasions because of it.

(01:04:19):
And then this isn't a subscription box, but one of
our local bookstores does a date with a book where
they wrap the book up and they give a brief
description of it without trying to give the exact summary
that is printed online, and they give like the overall genres.

(01:04:40):
I know it could be totally hit or miss, but
it's just kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
I just did one of those when I was Oh gosh,
when I was in New York, we went we went bookshopping.
We call bookshopping everywhere we go, and they had like
a date with a book and it was and they
actually had one that was really specific. It was like

(01:05:07):
a romance for your grandmother. And I was like, what,
my mother loves it because my kid found them first
and they said a romance for your grandmother. My mother
loves romances, right, So we were like we we were like,
that's so odd and so specific. We have to get this.
And it was one of my mother's New York souvenirs

(01:05:30):
and she loved it. She loved it. So yeah, that's
always a great one. That's always a great one. And
my other twenty five to fifty dollars one. Again, it
feels like self care is a custom tumbler, right, you
know everybody had everybody likes tumblrs. Well, I like tumblers

(01:05:51):
because I'm again we talked about this earlier, because I'm clumsy.
Not only do I tend to hurt myself, but I
knock everything over and spill it. So I try to
put all my drinks coffee, water, juice, tea, anything in
a tumbler so that if I knock it over, it's
either a leakproof tumbler and it won't leak or I

(01:06:14):
have time to grab it before it all spills all
over everything. And so even if you're buying, like, you know,
some kind of fancy tumbler, if you're buying like a
Yetti or you're buying like a Stanley tumbler, or you're
buying whatever whatever that person wants, like whatever their demographic
is that they might think it's cool, you can give

(01:06:35):
them customized right. You can get them custom painted or
custom designed with their name or their favorite animal or
their favorite whatever. Right, and places like Etsy are really
great for that kind of stuff. Or even if they're
like the glass Libby cups, you can get like you
can get them custom printed with stuff. So it just

(01:06:55):
depends on what kind of Tumblr slash glass slash thing
they like. You get the do you get the Libby cups?
Don't get those bamboo lids. People don't understand this those,
but because bamboo is the worst wood to use for
food stuffs because it like instantly molds. So if you
get it, try to get one that's got a plastic lid,

(01:07:15):
or just go on Amazon and get a plastic or
a metal lid with a rubber with a rubber ring
on it that you could put in because those don't mold,
but bamboo is left damp for longer than twelve seconds
will mold. So thing to think, things to think about.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
I have a question, and this may say a lot
about me. Is that why tumblers are called tumblers? Maybe
maybe because you were talking about it and I was
today years old when I was like, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
I don't know, but it would make sense because I knock.
I knock everything over, absolutely everything if it's if it
is on my desk and it does not have a
lid on it, it is guaranteed to be on my
desk before the day is over, with the exception of
I've been buying since the Pepperoni pizza started, like handmade

(01:08:22):
mugs because and because they're hand thrown, they've got wide
bases and they're super heavy. I have yet to knock
one of those over because they're it's kind of like
impossible to knock them over. Well, I say that, and
I'll probably knock this one with my coffee on, putting
it over before the day is over, because I said

(01:08:43):
it out loud. But yeah, what about you, you got
anything in that twenty five to fifty range.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Yeah, I have like a general couple that fall and
that range. Again, so these can be cheaper, so at
these can be more expensive. So my first like overall
category is anything gaming maintenance, and what I mean by
that is PlayStation charging stations or the PS five cooling station.

(01:09:21):
The PlayStation brand or the Sony brand itself is usually
mid level. Off brands can both be cheaper and more expensive.
And obviously I'm mentioning PlayStation just because that's the main
console that I use. But we're at the year where
a lot of stuff is breaking down or running a

(01:09:46):
lot harder. So anything that can contribute to your gamers
sustained electronic life I think would be beneficial. I usually
say controllers every year, so yeah, a lot of our
controllers are dying. A new controller would always be great,
But that one is usually in the eighty plus range.

(01:10:10):
So the Sony brand charging station is thirty dollars. The
off brand ones I was looking at were around twenty
three to forty, and some of them are really really cool,
But if you're nervous about it being compatible for any reason,
I would just get the official yeah ones that you

(01:10:33):
know of the console that they primarily use.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Yeah, and some and I always say get those anyway,
because especially because with the with certain consoles, right, like
the switch was one of them, because they use like
a proprietary charger and that is like it has it
charges at a higher wattage than just like the regular

(01:11:00):
U SBC chargers. And when people were buying those third
party ones, like the first year or two that the
switch was out, they were bricking their switches. So I
always say it's better safe than sorry, unless you know
they're okay with just having a third party one, or
for give them a third party one. Make sure they

(01:11:20):
get a gift receipt so if they don't want to
use it, they can return it. It's it's not as
bad with Xbox and PlayStation in terms of thinking about
things like wattage because they use they use standard chargers
for stuff. But like Sony and Steam Deck and even

(01:11:41):
I think like the Asis Rock ally X, all of
those are those alloys being handheld, those are very those
are very different and they use like specific wattage.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Yeah, and then even maintenance in terms of like the
surrounding space. So the charging stations is nice because one
you're not directly connecting it to the console, which is
adding extra power and usage. The charging station charges two controllers,

(01:12:24):
so you don't need those extra wires. It doesn't have
to be attached to your PlayStation. And regardless, because we've
had it for a few years, our PlayStation runs pretty
hot sometimes, so that cooling station is forty dollars of
the Sony brand. So yeah, organization, less cords, less connectivity

(01:12:51):
between devices, which in this case I think is nice
and electronic life.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Yeah yeah, true facts.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
The other one I have, and this one can run
from a dollar up into the hundreds of dollars. The
ones I'm thinking of are generally in between the twenty
to fifty range. And this may sound strange, but frames

(01:13:26):
for photograph pictures, artwork that you're that you buy, posters,
artwork that's given to you, surrounded by a lot of creatives,
and just being really interested in art myself, we're usually
gifted a lot of artwork or we want to support

(01:13:46):
our friends art. Also sometimes we just buy posters or
an artist's art and there is never enough frames, never,
And I do not want to put the artwork up
anymore without a frame, because things too easily get damaged.

(01:14:13):
Outside of the package and you have it, and it's
sad not to put it up. And I know it's like, oh,
just go buy a frame, but I constantly forget because
the artwork is not up, because it doesn't have a frame.
I sometimes forget about the artwork and because it's just
a interesting extra expense. Technically you don't need it, but

(01:14:43):
it's nice and helpful. Yeah, picture frames, if you know
the general size, and if you can't decide a color,
I would recommend white for wood frames and black for
plastic frames, just based on the easibility of standing and

(01:15:06):
then painting and that paint sticking.

Speaker 5 (01:15:09):
Oh that makes sense, just in case they do have
a specific color or theme in the room that they're
hanging it up in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
In mind, I mean, if you know the color is then great, but.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Yeah, no, and sometimes people want to do like a
color that is complementary to the piece of artwork that
they're hanging right, So, and you don't know what that
is necessarily, m.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Those guy's a good one. That's a good one. All right,
You done with that category? I am all right. I'm
going back into my self care mode again, apparently because
I'm looking this is so funny because I did noticed
this until we started talking about it. So I put

(01:16:05):
the fifty dollar range, and I'm not gonna choose all
the self care things. I'm gonna choose one. Wow, I
have three on the list, Okay, we'll say, And in
the fifty dollars range. The one of the three self

(01:16:25):
care things I put was a cozy or weighted blanket,
like a comfy one, you know, something that is. But
that's a little harder because it depends on some people.
What some people think is comfy for a blanket. Some
people like blanks with sharing like inside. Some people just
like something that is like softer but not sharing, but

(01:16:50):
so a comfy blanket, right, something that you can curl
up under, like on the couch or in your favorite chair,
with your favorite book or your favorite video game or
what have you. And I love that kind of thing.
I love that kind of thing, and I tend to

(01:17:11):
buy a lot of them because I will often like
get a comfy blanket and have my favorite comfy blanket,
and then all of a sudden, I'll look over and
one of the cats will like literally have stolen it,
and be like, this is mine. Now you cannot have it.
Or my kid will take them and I never like

(01:17:31):
see them again, and then when I do get them back,
it's like, oh, can you wash this? I spilled grape
juice all over it. I'm like really really kind of thing.
She like, can you watch this? I don't know how
to get this? Stay now? So or a weighted blanket.
Waited blankets are also nice, right, especially for people who

(01:17:52):
have who just want something that you know is weighted,
or have anxiety issues, or have sleeping Sometimes weighted blankets
really help those kinds of things. And it's important to
have a good estimation of like a person's size when
you get them a weight of blanket because weady blankets
come in different weights. If you don't know, I say,

(01:18:15):
go low with go low with the weight, and then
they'll know. For they'll know if they want something that's
a little heavier, because if it's too heavy, it's just
gonna feel like it's crushing you if it's too heavy
for your liking. And also always if you can give
give gift receipts so that if it's too heavy or

(01:18:37):
too light, they can exchange it. But wait, the blankets
are great too. So yeah, that was one of my
things again self care, And here's it is it? M Yeah,
well no, it's it's also self care, dammit. So the
other thing that I have I'm broken, I'm broken, was

(01:19:03):
a journal and a pen or stationary and a pen, right,
And because you know I love stationary, I love journals
like of different kinds. So if you want to get
somebody a journal or a planner or any of that,
I'll tell you what. A couple of my favorites are.

(01:19:23):
I Journals, especially plan well planners in general, can be
very stressful, right because they have dates, right, and if
you miss a day, or miss a week, or miss
two weeks, it's hard. You're like, oh if you feel
if you're like me, you feel guilty when you go
back to it and you're like, oh, I gotta like
flip through all these pages because I haven't been here

(01:19:43):
in like two weeks or three weeks or whatever. Get
here's a recommendation, get undated journals and undated planners, because
then the person can date them for whatever date that
they're using them. So if they don't use it for
a month, they can come back on today's the November twentieth,

(01:20:03):
they can come back on December twenty first and be
like it's December twenty first, you know, and feel no guilt,
no pressure, no nothing. And two of the brands that
I really like, my regular planners for the last i
don't know five six years have been passion planners, and
I'm a reverse planner. I think we've talked about this

(01:20:24):
before because planning stresses me out. Right. I keep you know,
dates and dates and appointments and stuff in my phone
just so I know. But planning, like writing out things
that I need to do, like I need to do X,
Y and Z. Writing that down in the planner stresses
me out because then I'm I feel pressured to when

(01:20:46):
I don't do everything on my to do list right,
So I don't do it that way. I will like
have like a global idea of what needs to be
done and what I do because okay, let me also say,
because when I don't get everything on that to do
list done at the end of the day, I feel
like I've done nothing because I'm not able. If I wrote,

(01:21:08):
you know, revised draft of X. If that's not done
by the end of the day and I'm not able
to cross it out, I'll look at it and be
like I didn't do anything today. What the hell? I
wasted the entire day. So I reverse plan, so when
I do things like, I'll when I get things completed,

(01:21:28):
I'll write them down. Rite. So if my whole goal
is to revise, you know, a document or a video
or something like, when I do certain parts like revise
the introduction finished, right, I write that down, you know,
Revise the body did that? Write that down. Revise the conclusion,

(01:21:50):
write that down. Revise the bibliography, write that down. So
I can write down very specifically what I have done
through out the day. And even like sometimes you'll be
doing stuff like for example, I was working on a
video for a kind of a critical less play, and

(01:22:12):
my goal was to was to finish the video right.
And when I was thinking about finishing the video, I
was like, all I have to do is add these
last two clips and it's done right, and that's gonna
take me like an hour, pops, right. It ended up
taking me twelve hours because not only did I have

(01:22:34):
to add three clips instead of two, but there were
two different graphics that I was using on different parts
of the video that I had made that were not working,
So I had to go in and recreate both of
the graphics and then go in and change the graphics
in every section in the entire video. Right, So everything

(01:22:58):
all in all took me twelve. So but if I
had just written down the thing I needed to do
was put in the you know, finish the video, then
I would have been like, why did that take me twelve?
Why did that take me all day? I didn't do
anything right when I go back and think about it,
because when I go back and think about it, I
don't think about all the little things I had to
do to get it to that point. Right. So, given

(01:23:21):
some people something that gives them the ability to kind
of work through all of these little things. So my
Passion Planner is my daily go to, but I also
have a project planner that's also undated that it's for gamers.
It really is for gamers because it gives you the ability.
And I think I've probably talked about this in previous

(01:23:42):
years when we talked about gift and this kind of thing,
but if you missed it, it's called the Heroes Journal,
where it's a project planner and you do it like
a quest law, right, so you can write down all, like,
here's the quest that I need to complete to get
this project done, and then you can like write it
out as quest text and you can write it out

(01:24:05):
as this is what you got done, and you can
also I use that as well to reverse plan, but
I use it as on a larger scale twos to
plan out an entire project. So things like that I
think are really fun, and then you can give them
a nice pen to go with it if you want
to go fancy. This is why it goes in the

(01:24:26):
fifty to one hundred dollars range, because those journals and
planners are going to cost you anywhere from like forty
to fifty bucks right unless a passion planner can go
and say all the time you can get them cheaper
than that. But if you want to go fancy. One
of my favorite fancy pins right now it changes often

(01:24:47):
is a Barren Fig pan a Baron Fig pen, and
you can get those like anywhere from fifty to sixty
bucks apiece. Or if you don't want to go fancy
and you just want to go, you know, with a
nice pin. My favorite and they have both just the
plastic disposable ones and refillable is a pilot G two

(01:25:09):
and I have a metal refillable one, I think it
was like fifteen bucks. But you can also get like
a pack of ten for like for like nine ninety
nine at Staples or whatever, and they come in fun
colors or Another one that I've been using a lot
lately is the Uniball pins. And they're the ones that

(01:25:31):
I've been using that come in fun colors and write
really well, are the Uniball ones. And again that's when
you can get like a pack of six in different
colors for like less than ten bucks. So there's some
great writing pins out there that you can get for
less than ten dollars, which you know, would make that
combo a lot less expensive than buying a fancy expensive pin. Yeah,

(01:25:56):
so it's still all self care stuff, damn it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
The importance of a good pen cannot be understated because
when you pick up a pen that doesn't feel good
write with, is constantly choppy, like it's caught on the paaper, right.
I don't know how else to explain that, I know,
oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
And if it's if it's a clickie pin, it's got
to have a solid click. Don't give me a squishy
clickie pin. You give me a squishy clickie pin. It's
gonna hurt my feelings.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
Also a good point.

Speaker 1 (01:26:37):
Well bout you you have anything in that range or
did we already do?

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
No? We did the last two that I had again
wide range, but in general I was seeing these more
in the forty five to eighty dollars range. The first
one is kind of a combo. You can get one

(01:27:04):
without the other, but if you could get both, even
if you have to buy it separately, I think it
would be a nice pairing. Obviously, as gamers, we're going
to be spending time inside. I know that varies different
between person to person and also the console and the

(01:27:27):
type of game, but I think you can safely say
that if you know a gamer, they're probably going to
be spending time for a chunk of hours at least
occasionally playing games inside. And a lot of my friends
also say they really need an air purifier or something

(01:27:49):
to help filter the air, and they cannot keep a
plant alive, like even a cactus. I have had one
of these plants for three years and I had to
poke it and be like, are you fake? If you

(01:28:11):
can get a nerdy plant pot that holds an air plant,
maybe that's kind of self care realm. But it gives
the person the plant that they never thought they could
take care of. And it depending on the size and
how many you have, but even just a small one,

(01:28:32):
if it's like close to them on the desk, can
help filter some of the air, get some of it
to go through it. And a lot of these are
on Etsy. A lot of them are three D printed
or would carbon. You can also get succulent plant pots,

(01:28:52):
so if you're not finding a lot of options searching
air plant pots, you could look up succulent. It may
work directly as is, or you may have to drill
a few extra holes in the bottom if the roots
really really do need to be exposed. But there are
so many fun ones out there, and obviously my search

(01:29:13):
history is tailored to me. But I was just like
Aunt Etsy, and I saw some Lord of the Rings ones,
some Final Fantasy ones, some spaceships from Star Wars. So
airplants with a nerdy plant pot emphasis more so on
the plant pot. But if you can get the airplant,
that'd be great.

Speaker 1 (01:29:34):
Yeah. Succulents also are good. Are good plant because you
only have to water them like once a long.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
That is also good. I did not mention that one
because A lot of my friends have killed their succulents.

Speaker 1 (01:29:49):
You know I didn't kill my succulents. Is he killed
my succulents. I made these two like nerdy. I bought
just like big white to put like large, and then
I bought figures and I made like a scene from
Totoro in one and a scene from God. Why is

(01:30:17):
it just totally blowing my blowing my mind. The the
no face spirited away, spirited away. So I made two
two themed pots. I made two theme pots and put
succulents in them. Izzy has a thing for succulents, so
she continually, no matter where I moved it, would climb
up and dig them and dig them up until they

(01:30:42):
until they died, until they died. She didn't eat them
or anything. She just would dig them out of the plant,
out of the pot, out of the planter.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Did she drag them anywhere? No, just one.

Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
Once it was out, she was fine. She would just
dig them out and leave on the desk. She wasn't
using it as a litter box. She wasn't eating them,
she wasn't chewing on them, she wasn't anything. She just
wanted them out of the pot.

Speaker 2 (01:31:07):
Oh my gosh, I am also going to blame my
cat bow because after too slightly over two years, the
huge succulent uh, it was like a longer trait. So
I had a bunch in there that had been growing
there for a while. I was so proud of myself.
They were alive, they were doing well. I was switching

(01:31:29):
out the soil when I needed to, and I was
learning about like the nitrogen and potassium levels. In one day,
I don't know how because this thing isn't heavy, but
it definitely isn't. Oh, I'm going to knock over this
plastic cup. Somehow bo tipped it over and it broke

(01:31:51):
all the roots and the stems. No though, despite my
best efforts, after a few months, they did die. And
then I also had pre ordered this little grow Goo
generic planter. You could use it for succulentce, you could
use it for cat grass. You could use it and

(01:32:13):
hang it up with special hooks with certain ivs. I
got this and he knocked it over the third day
I had it, and it shattered, so all the cat
grass was gone. And this was not a oh, let's
glue this back together. I mean it was pull shift.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:32:38):
And now we have a few other plants we have
like an indoor technically it's a tree, and overall it's
doing well. I'm really proud of our progress. The other
succulent did not make it because again Bo was ripping
it out. He did like to chew on them, but
now that the succulents are gone, for some reason, I

(01:32:59):
don't know what he trying to signal, because sometimes it's
not food, sometimes it's not pets. I think he's just
doing it to be annoying. Sometimes he doesn't even chew
on the plants anymore. I mean he tries to, but
he just goes for the soil, and I'm like, what
are you doing? That is nasty and not good for you?
And we usually catch him right away. He only does

(01:33:20):
it when we're around because he's trying.

Speaker 1 (01:33:21):
To kisses off.

Speaker 2 (01:33:23):
Yeah, I'm just so confused. I'm like that that cannot
taste good.

Speaker 1 (01:33:30):
No, Yeah, Cat's weird. Cats are one hundred percent weird.

Speaker 2 (01:33:41):
Love him, but sometimes I'm just like, what are you doing? Yeah?
The last item I had. You can get official ones.
You can get pre made ones. Again, a lot of
the ones that I was seeing on Etsy tailored to me,

(01:34:01):
but you can choose any franchise is headphones holders, and
I say that because I do not have one, and
I keep losing my health headphones. They keep getting knocked off,
which is not good for them or the mic. I
am temporarily using one of my fans as my headphone holder,

(01:34:24):
and we do have one, and it's frustrating because it
actually is the official or one of the official PlayStation ones,
but it ironically is really flimsy and easy to knock off.
So that's why I started looking more for handcrafted ones,

(01:34:46):
because again you're not connecting it to a device, and
there's a lot of just plane wooden ones, but there's
also a lot of fun. Like I saw the oh
my gosh, I'm gonna lose the name of it. It

(01:35:07):
was like the Saarn helmet from Lord of the Rings,
but now he's wearing headphones because it's a headphone holder,
and they have different Pokemon ones that make it look
like the Pokemon's listening to music, So there's so much fun.
I do know, in general, the handmade ones do take

(01:35:28):
up a little bit more space because the produced ones
from the specific companies are usually plastic and those thin
arms that are made to be more compact, so that's
something to keep in mind. Not saying that you can't
find a handcrafted one out there that's compact, but in general,

(01:35:50):
that's what I was saying. So, yeah, a lot of
people I know could use headphone holders, and why not
make it fun and stable.

Speaker 1 (01:36:00):
That's a good point because you know her headphones are
hard to keep up with. Unfortunately, I have four thousand headphones,
uh because you know, because I'm sponsored by Logitech and
they always send me headphones. So I got a bunch
of different different headphones, but I had I just have
like the plane boring ones that like cook on your
desk and then I just throw my headphones on them.

(01:36:22):
But I love that idea, especially the Pokemon I might
look because you know, Pee has headphones that she uses
in the game room, and she only has one pair
that she uses in the game room, and so it
might be nice to have something like fun like that
for her. She would probably like like pokemona or some
kind of magical girl one. That's a good idea I'm

(01:36:43):
writing this down. But also headphones, right, also a good
pair of headphones. Headphones are a little harder unless you
really know a person because headphones come like in different sizes,
different weights, and like some are like completely cover your ear,

(01:37:06):
some just kind of sit on top of the ear.
So those are a little harder unless you already know
like what kind of headphones they already use, and to
buy people like a new set of headphones of that
same series. If this is like a set of headphones
that they really love, it's always nice too. But okay,
so my under my my one hundred plus and I'm
just gonna do two, do two, even though I have

(01:37:30):
like forty seven. But one of the things that I
think is a fun thing to do is like a
themed gift basket. And I've done this a couple of
times for folks, and especially for my kid. It's like

(01:37:51):
give them a themed gift basket. So if there's a
game that they've really been wanting and they don't have yet,
get a basket, and in that basket you put the game,
maybe a novelization of the game. So these are my
usual go to the game. A novelization, a shirt or

(01:38:14):
a hoodie that's themed in that way, a plush that's
like a like a critter or an animal or a
character from the game or from the series. And then
I'll also put other fun stuff in there that are
like specifically themed snacks, right, so if it's a JRPG,

(01:38:36):
like Japanese snacks and drinks right, so like Japanese drinks.
Or if you can't find a drink that specifically themed,
then whatever their like favorite soda or sparkling water or
energy drink or whatever it is in there as well,
so you just have like And then also also when

(01:38:59):
I do it for p I also like do a blanket,
like just like a little lap blanket. So if I'll
either find a lap blanket that's already themed in that
way or a lot of times because Joeanne Fabrics now
had they carry a lot of licensed video game flease

(01:39:20):
so like that you use to make blankets and stuff.
So I'll go and get a yard and a half
of whatever the themed fleece is, the Zelda Seen theme
fleece or the final Fancy theme fleee and then a
coordinating color a yard and a half and then make
just make a one of the tied blankets where you

(01:39:41):
just like cut ribbons at the end of both and
then tie it together and make a and make a
blanket because again I just got real cozy and and
specifically themed about things that make make people comfy. But yeah,
those are always a lot of fun and there's a

(01:40:01):
lot of stuff in there, right. It's like it gives
them hours and hours, so you know, it gives them
the game that they can play for you know, twenty hours,
thirty hours, forty hours, sixty hours, one hundred hours, however
long it is. It gives them a novel that they
can read. It gives them a blanket that they can
use forever. It gives them a T shirt that they
can wear wherever, wear or whenever. If there's like a

(01:40:23):
little plushy, a plushy that they can keep forever. So
something that goes beyond just the length of the game
or the time that it takes to read the novel.
And I love doing I love doing those. I love
doing those themed baskets. They just you know, I might
do a themed basket for my mother because one of

(01:40:47):
the things that she was gonna get for Christmas this
year is one of those what is it the meo
like mystery scary visual novel. What is it called family?
It's from the It's in the Famicin Detective Club series.
So if I can find other stuff that would fit

(01:41:10):
that theme. Maybe I'll make her an EMEO themed basket.
I hope for some reason my mother doesn't decide after
what has it been twelve thirteen years to listen to
the damn because I have just thrown all kinds of
stuff out about my weather tonight. Uh, for Christmas, it

(01:41:33):
would it would be hilarious and it would it would
be just my love. So maybe that's what I'll do,
because I've already bought her some stuff for Christmas. But uh,
the MEO themed basket would probably be fun too. Maybe
I'll do that. I'm gonna look, I'm gonna write this
down so I don't FORGETO themed, Okay, and then I
have he helped me, she'll help me. Maybe that can

(01:41:56):
be our share gift. And then the other thing also,
you know, Okay, I'm gonna throw out two things. One
thing is just like a handheld device of some sort.
This is a big gift. This is an expensive gift.
This is a gift that you're gonna buy for someone
you want to spend a lot of money more, you know,

(01:42:17):
And that would be something like a steam deck. I
love my steam deck, something that you know, where they
can play their games in bed. Or when they're traveling
or on the bus, or you know, waiting in the
car for a kid to get out of a like
a soccer game or doctor's office, lobby or wherever you are, right,

(01:42:44):
Do you need to play video games all the time. No,
would it be nice to be able to play video
games when you want to. Absolutely. But the other thing
that I had I put on the list is something
that I've been something that I've been wearing probably for
the last year or two two years at this point,
because every a lot of a lot of folks wear

(01:43:05):
smart watches or fitbits or whatever because they count your
steps and they keep track of like things that you
want to keep track of in terms of your health,
and it also you know, keep track of a lot
of different things. But what I've found after years, because
I think my very first Apple Watch was the very
first Apple Watch, of wearing an Apple Watch for years,

(01:43:28):
is that, you know what, I was sick of wearing
an Apple Watch every day. I still have an Apple Watch,
but I didn't. I wanted to wear other watches, you know,
I wanted to wear other watches that were fun or
that didn't just have a different band. But I still
wanted to be able to keep track of stuff right,
like my sleep. And also I like to keep track

(01:43:50):
of my sleep because my sleep hygiene is ridiculous. My
sleep hygiene is ridiculous. Like sometimes I'll sleep wait a minute,
times a sleep three hours. I never see more than
for five or six hours. But myself, my sleep hygiene
is ridiculous. And I like to and I've been trying
to get better. I've been trying to get better. I've
been trying to get right, y'all. I've been trying to
get right. But I also don't like sleeping in a

(01:44:14):
watch because if a flailed my arm wrong, then I
pop myself in the face. And it's nothing like getting
hit in the face with you know, with with shadow
proof glass on a watch. That hurts. So I bought
myself a smart ring. I bought myself an order ring
kind of quite specifically, I bought myself an order ring.

(01:44:34):
Oh you are a And I've been wearing that for
like the last couple of years. And it tracks my
sleep and at tracks my heart rate and at tracks
my steps and tracks all that stuff for me, and
like sends it to my phone and also kind of
keeps tracking in its own app, and then I can

(01:44:55):
wear whatever watch I want to wear that day. It
doesn't have to be my Apple Watch. It can be
you know, it can be my Starfield watch. It could
be my Pride watch. I got a very cute Pride watch.
It can be like anything, right, it could be any
of my watches, any of my like nicer watches, fun watches,
nerdy watches. I can wear whatever kind of watch I want.

(01:45:16):
It doesn't have to be my Apple watch, and I
can still keep track of all the stuff I wanted
to keep track of. Because I have an or ring,
and I know it sounds weird, but I get more
questions and people who are interested in that ring quite specifically,
because sometimes I'll be cause you can wear it on
either hand, and that's always Another thing that's always nice

(01:45:40):
is that I take it. Sometimes it's on my left
hand and I just take it off and I flip
it to my right hand. And because people think it's
a wedding band because it's on my left hand and
it's on my ring figure and they're like, what are
you doing, I'm like, that's not a wedding band, it's
a smart ring. And they're like, so what, And I'm like,
and then you explain it, or like when I like
go get my nails done. The nail tech asked me

(01:46:00):
about it a couple of weeks ago because she because
I've been going here forever and she was like, I've
been meaning to ask you this. She was like, I
said that that bring has light seed it because it's
got like the sensors in the inside. Because I take
it off whenever I'm getting like a hand massage or whatever,
because I don't want to get like oils and creams
on it and underneath it. Even though it's like completely
waterproof and all that other stuff and you can wash it,

(01:46:22):
I just don't, like, you know, because then it's gonna
feel like it's slipping off all day. So uh, And
I explained it, and she was like, oh, that would
be really cool. That would be a really cool thing
to have, so, you know, and it's not. And because
they can be a little priceier, Yeah, they're gonna cost
you like three hundred bucks for like the low end

(01:46:44):
of the or ring. Right, But Samsung has one too,
if you want to go with Samsung. I have an
Aura because it was a brand that I was familiar
with and I knew people who had it, and I
also because I have an iPhone and I knew it
would I knew it was sync with my iPhone. But

(01:47:06):
they all running that same range, starting at a couple
of hundred dollars, right, But it's it's nice. It's nice,
and I've thought about I'm not gonna do it, though.
I thought about getting one from my mother because I
got her an Apple Watch a couple of years ago
for Christmas, just because she's older and I was, and
and she lives alone still, so I was worried about

(01:47:28):
like her falling right and not being able to get
to her phone. So not only can she call someone
from her watch, but it also has like Faull detection
on it, so if she falls and it notices that
she falls and she doesn't address the alert, it will
automatically call her sister, who lives close to her right.

(01:47:50):
So it's interesting when you find like smart devices that
do that kind of stuff. If you use it for
different people, for different things, that's it. I mean, I
got other stuff on my list, but that's all. Now.

Speaker 2 (01:48:08):
I understand I always have like a huge list, and
I'm like, how do I narrow this down?

Speaker 1 (01:48:15):
Yep? And I tried to also stick to things that
I have either already gifted or planned to gift this year,
Like for Christmas, we're in the very near future, so
that I know how people responded to them if I
already gifted them. It's like, I'm not gonna tell you

(01:48:37):
something to be like, give this. And then I was
like and then I gifted to somebody and they're like,
why the hell would you give me this? But yeah,
that's that's it. We're better than Oprah's Favorite Things. We're
better than Oprahs. I think every year we're better than
Oprah's Favorite Things, even though I think the Aura ring

(01:49:01):
was on Oprah's Favorite Things list last year if I
don't if I remember correctly, And it just came out
with a new version, like version four that's a little different,
but very little different. So if you're interested in an
or ring for yourself or for someone else, you can
get version three for like a discount right now because

(01:49:21):
version four just came out. I'm gonna stick with version
three for a while. Like I said, I only got
mine a couple of years ago. Yep, So I guess
that's it. Did you do all your things too? Your Hey?

(01:49:42):
Not good? As if good, we're done. But good, I'm
glad you got your two wires. So I guess that
will bring us to the end of our episode on
fun things to gift for the people you care about.
One year, we should do things to get for people
you don't like. I'm just kidding. I'm just It's like,

(01:50:09):
send them poop in a bag, not real poop, not
real poop, but fake poop that you can buy on
the internet, that kind of stuff. But I wouldn't do that.
I'm not gonna spend my money on people I don't like.
But so that, I guess brings us to the end

(01:50:29):
of episode two fifty three, and so until episode two
fifty four, where we're gonna be doing our Black Ops
six campaign spoiler cast. So, y'all, if you haven't finished
Black Ops six campaign yet, go ahead and knock it out. Well,
you can save it for you can save that episode

(01:50:50):
for later. It's the The campaign is not very long.
You can finish it just main story in about eight
hours unless you get it. One of my missions was glitched.
One of my missions was glitched, and it literally took
me two and a half hours to finish that mission,
and I had no choice but to find a way

(01:51:11):
around it and to finish it, because I'm actually writing
about it, and I was like, I can't even do
my work if I don't finish this mission. I was
so frustrated because I every time, every time there was
there was a part of and this was early, so
hopefully they've patched it. And I didn't find anybody else
who said they'd had the same problem. But there was

(01:51:33):
this one mission in my game where any like I
would do something and then when I would land on
a solid surface, after that, I would fall through the
surface and be stuck and there would be no way
out of it, and the only thing to do would
be to start the mission over from the very beginning.
And it took me two and a half hours to

(01:51:53):
finish that, and I was ready to cry. I was
ready to cry. But so yeah, until next time, y'all,
when we talk about Black Op six, that's gonna be
a blast. I'm super excited for that. Take care of yourselves,
take care of one another, stay safe, have a good

(01:52:13):
Thanksgiving break, and if you celebrate Thanksgiving, I do not
have a good friends Giving break or a good holiday break,
fall break, whatever kind of break you have to just
spend with friends or family, or just to relax it

(01:52:33):
and then we'll see you in a couple of weeks.
Take care of friends, and until then, as always, game.

Speaker 3 (01:52:40):
On fastnssstads name the.

Speaker 6 (01:53:34):
Masts. Names begins today as the bassas most name the masts.
Most name the Maststna decided that.

Speaker 3 (01:54:36):
Decided that the.

Speaker 6 (01:54:40):
Decided to nations nastiage the coasts them the need to
stations the.

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
Another East

Speaker 6 (01:55:11):
Engagement jost another

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 253: 2024 Gift Giving Guide: Giving the Gift of Self-Care?

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.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

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Episode 253: 2024 Gift Giving Guide: Giving the Gift of Self-Care?

Stuff You Should Know