Latest / The Book-Watchers / 101. This is cuuuute! (Pride Month: Conventionally Yours)

Transcript

101. This is cuuuute! (Pride Month: Conventionally Yours) · The Book-Watchers

0:05
Speaker 1: Its yeah, so we're so we will record for our
0:27
Speaker 1: Die and that will be the last apsod bye, and
0:31
Speaker 1: that will be the last apisode. I'd tell like mid August. Yeah, yeah,
0:36
Speaker 1: because because we're not going to come back until October.
0:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, mid August. I still have episodes for July.
0:46
Speaker 1: I still have the rest of the Immortal instruments supposed,
0:48
Speaker 1: so that will take up all of July.
0:51
Speaker 2: So, Devin, you keep saying immortal instrument, mortal, mortal, yeah.
0:58
Speaker 1: Oh, immortal, all my bad mortal instruments whatever.
1:02
Speaker 2: Who cares, Devin, you're so dyslexic.
1:05
Speaker 1: Shut up? So is your boyfriend? And what? And what?
1:10
Speaker 1: So is your boyfriend?
1:12
Speaker 2: It's okay, it's yeah.
1:14
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:15
Speaker 2: I don't felt him for it. I don't fault him.
1:17
Speaker 1: Of course you don't. Of course you don't. Mister. I'm
1:20
Speaker 1: going to look for someone who's like my best friend
1:22
Speaker 1: and a boyfriend. Forms I can get a boyfriend. No no, yeah,
1:25
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, no no no no. You don't look for
1:29
Speaker 1: someone like your mom or dad. You look for someone
1:31
Speaker 1: your best friend.
1:32
Speaker 2: No, I don't. And first of all, hold up, okay,
1:35
Speaker 2: I did not look for that. Okay, he does. The
1:38
Speaker 2: one who came out. Who came to me?
1:40
Speaker 1: I found you? I told you, I said, you did
1:44
Speaker 1: not wait? I said, I say, who's I said, Someone's
1:47
Speaker 1: gonna find you? And what happened? Someone found you. I
1:50
Speaker 1: told you. I told you twice twice. Mm hm, three times.
1:55
Speaker 1: I've been telling you for the last couple of years.
1:57
Speaker 1: Someone's gonna find you. Mm hmmm. I'll add that to
2:01
Speaker 1: the chalkboard of me being right. Thank you.
2:05
Speaker 2: You're not always right.
2:06
Speaker 1: I'm right alt time. I have not been wrong about this.
2:10
Speaker 1: You got yourself a boot who I who is great?
2:13
Speaker 1: Am fabulous? And Alex if you're listening, Oh my god,
2:15
Speaker 1: love you body. He's a little for tuty. You're a treasure.
2:20
Speaker 1: You can't do no wrong. You can call me a
2:22
Speaker 1: faget and I'd be like, oh my god, you're so adorable.
2:25
Speaker 1: Oh my good you can call me a slur whatever.
2:28
Speaker 1: I don't care. You're too cute. He is. He's adorable.
2:32
Speaker 2: I know he's I know, what do you think I'm
2:35
Speaker 2: with him?
2:35
Speaker 1: He's adorable. He's like, oh my god, yeah, oh my god,
2:44
Speaker 1: our boyfriends are adorable.
2:48
Speaker 2: Yes he is.
2:50
Speaker 1: I know he's so cute.
2:53
Speaker 2: Anyway, So anyway, uh, it's huge generic intro. Blah blah blah,
3:02
Speaker 2: book watchers.
3:07
Speaker 1: Give me an ideas, I might think of something, I
3:09
Speaker 1: might do something.
3:10
Speaker 2: Honestly, like you should just do that like that that
3:13
Speaker 2: should just be our Our thing for book watchers is
3:16
Speaker 2: just literally the first few minutes of like before we
3:18
Speaker 2: actually get started. It's just like just the outtakes of
3:22
Speaker 2: like fucking around over nothing. And then, just like the
3:26
Speaker 2: generic book Watchers intro, welcome back to book Watchers, where
3:30
Speaker 2: the stories are made up and when the books don't matter,
3:33
Speaker 2: or watch the movies anyway.
3:35
Speaker 1: Forever. So Hey, I'm Devin. You know you know me,
3:42
Speaker 1: you love me. I'm a Ginger.
3:45
Speaker 2: Don't take it. You know who I am? Feed out,
3:48
Speaker 2: that's problem gang.
3:52
Speaker 1: The gay fagot almost actual, almost actual, And.
3:57
Speaker 2: This man over here is bisexual.
4:01
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, that's right.
4:04
Speaker 2: Corn. Oh oh oh my god, do I have that
4:09
Speaker 2: with the hoof, with the call in the back?
4:11
Speaker 1: I still remember that. If y'all haven't seen the Death
4:14
Speaker 1: of a Unicorn, it's fabulous. Just imagine a bunch of nerds.
4:18
Speaker 1: Imagine a bunch of DND nerds sitting in a row,
4:20
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you see a car. You
4:22
Speaker 1: see ah, a claw come back from an anklob, a hoof,
4:25
Speaker 1: and you just see everyone go oh oh for many
4:29
Speaker 1: different reasons, for many different reasons.
4:32
Speaker 2: For many different reasons.
4:33
Speaker 1: Oh so good, fabulous movie.
4:35
Speaker 2: No, I'm don't saying you're a unicorn because you don't exist.
4:38
Speaker 1: Wow wow, wow wow. My ancestors are planting your or
4:44
Speaker 1: planting your demise.
4:47
Speaker 2: Jokes on you. My demise has already been determined.
4:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, by a colonizer.
4:56
Speaker 2: Hey, he's mixed. He's mixed, just like I am. Okay,
5:00
Speaker 2: you can't be talking.
5:01
Speaker 1: He's still he's still he still has a colonizer.
5:04
Speaker 2: We both have colonizer, but we're also mixed. Okay, don't
5:07
Speaker 2: don't let the colonizer erase the No, no, no.
5:09
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not the colonizers colonizing the colonizer.
5:13
Speaker 2: The colonizer has no point, has no bearing in this
5:18
Speaker 2: situation here. Okay, don't don't let the colonizer wash out
5:21
Speaker 2: our actual heritage.
5:22
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, no, never, absolutely never. I
5:25
Speaker 1: love the fact that you're that you're a Latino mm hmm.
5:28
Speaker 1: And then alex is.
5:33
Speaker 2: Wait is guam Asian or like or like Pacific Islander
5:39
Speaker 2: because Guam is like in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
5:43
Speaker 1: That might be let me google search, Google search, that'd
5:48
Speaker 1: be a Google search for later. That's an islander. That's
5:53
Speaker 1: a Polynesian I think, or Southeast Asia. I don't know.
5:58
Speaker 1: I don't know because where is Guam located. Isn't that
6:04
Speaker 1: all ground the Philippines or something.
6:10
Speaker 2: It's in the western Pacific Ocean part of the region,
6:13
Speaker 2: and its Micronesia, so it's a Micronesian. It's Micronesian, so
6:19
Speaker 2: Pacific islander of Micronesia. Mm hmmm, yeah, yes, ladies and gentlemen.
6:27
Speaker 2: I have recently discovered chat BBT.
6:30
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he sure has, okay, Like I don't use
6:36
Speaker 1: it every day too, Yeah, Like I don't use it
6:39
Speaker 1: for D and D. Like is this a good idea?
6:41
Speaker 1: How should I go about this? Like I currently look
6:46
Speaker 1: at that he's trying to flex, He's trying to flex.
6:48
Speaker 1: Trying to flex again, I'm trying to flex.
6:52
Speaker 2: I'm not flexing. I'll scratching it.
6:54
Speaker 1: Oh sure, sure, Then next you go do the whole
6:57
Speaker 1: arm over the No, I.
6:59
Speaker 2: Don't use to do that, don't need to do that
7:00
Speaker 2: on camera. I can just go over to Alex's house
7:02
Speaker 2: right now and just start flexing in front of him,
7:04
Speaker 2: just like figure out, babe, I don't have muscles at all.
7:09
Speaker 2: I got these noble arms. STU gonna look at you
7:12
Speaker 2: are so gay? I can't either.
7:13
Speaker 1: I am and I love it, And.
7:17
Speaker 2: You're not even You're not even full gay like me.
7:19
Speaker 2: You're fucking bisexual.
7:20
Speaker 1: Uh huh. But at your at some point I'm more flampoyant.
7:25
Speaker 2: Yes, one hundred percent. No, no, not at certain points.
7:28
Speaker 2: You're more flamboyant than me one hundred percent of the time.
7:31
Speaker 2: Like I just kind of like do the I just
7:34
Speaker 2: kind of pull out the flamboyance here and there, just
7:36
Speaker 2: like do a little thing here and there. You you
7:39
Speaker 2: walk around and it's just like like flair flair point
7:45
Speaker 2: like period y as queen.
7:48
Speaker 1: That sounds yeah, speaking of speaking of it, I need
7:51
Speaker 1: watch drug That's not why we're here today. No, no,
7:55
Speaker 1: we don't know. But you need to watch rug race
7:57
Speaker 1: with him. He does, Yeah, he does like drag race.
8:04
Speaker 2: Yeah he does. Yeah, I'll ask him.
8:07
Speaker 3: He quotes the Queen the Queens. Anyway, if you look
8:13
Speaker 3: at the description below, you'll see a leaky link. I'll
8:16
Speaker 3: take it to the other ship of the Ardboard Productions podcasts.
8:20
Speaker 3: We listen to some d n D spooky stuff.
8:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, so before were getting today's episode. So this will
8:32
Speaker 1: be the last great I mean this technically won't be
8:36
Speaker 1: the last episode because I still have the rest of
8:39
Speaker 1: another series that will probably post it through July. But
8:43
Speaker 1: after July there won't be any more new episodes of
8:46
Speaker 1: book Watchers. Oh my god, did I fire Jacob?
8:50
Speaker 2: No? No, we are going on a hiatus all right,
8:55
Speaker 2: because we got lives and we need to catch up. Uh,
9:00
Speaker 2: give me a chance to read the stack of books
9:02
Speaker 2: that I have, Like, I've already read a bunch of books,
9:05
Speaker 2: and we we got some good content coming up. But
9:09
Speaker 2: the to be red stack keeps growing, keeps, it keeps growing,
9:18
Speaker 2: so well, new episodes won't come up, of course, plus
9:22
Speaker 2: in July as usual, finishing out whatever you do have
9:26
Speaker 2: pre recorded.
9:27
Speaker 1: But after that there will be no more new episodes
9:30
Speaker 1: until October.
9:33
Speaker 2: Spooky Season, yep, spooky season, and we will be doing
9:37
Speaker 2: a whole line of spookyy stuff for for October, because
9:41
Speaker 2: of course, of course I might even throw in a
9:43
Speaker 2: little we might even throw in a little something for
9:46
Speaker 2: Da the Morthos for those people who please, please like
9:52
Speaker 2: you know, I'm actually I actually should I should look
9:54
Speaker 2: up a book that's like that centered around the lit morthos.
9:59
Speaker 2: And we're not talking like Disney's Cocoa or anything like.
10:01
Speaker 2: I mean, I love Coco, love Coco, but like I
10:04
Speaker 2: want to look up something more unique, maybe like a
10:07
Speaker 2: nice little like either like a good like supernatural, thriller, horror,
10:11
Speaker 2: or maybe even just like a nice little love store
10:13
Speaker 2: like something like that. I don't know, I gotta look
10:15
Speaker 2: at it. I gotta look something up. There's a lot
10:16
Speaker 2: of like, there's a lot of material out there, a
10:19
Speaker 2: lot of time we have before we start recording again.
10:22
Speaker 1: So it's just true. I found a few myself. So yeah,
10:29
Speaker 1: we're no one knows says it will be out until October,
10:33
Speaker 1: and of course, well at this point when this episode
10:37
Speaker 1: comes out, Spook is also doing the same thing. But
10:39
Speaker 1: we will be coming back. Spook Ouca Lips will be
10:41
Speaker 1: coming back until September. Yeah, September, So two of my
10:48
Speaker 1: podcasts are going to take a break. Boordonica will still
10:50
Speaker 1: be posted weekly and we'll still be recording that finishing
10:53
Speaker 1: out that game because we're at the time of the recording,
10:55
Speaker 1: we're almost done we're close close to it, so we
10:58
Speaker 1: were recording that weekly, but that'd be the mom podcasts
11:00
Speaker 1: were reporting. Is just Fortnica mhm for the next while,
11:04
Speaker 1: which is fine.
11:05
Speaker 2: We're almost one time.
11:07
Speaker 1: We're almost done. I guess it's more time to plan
11:11
Speaker 1: for the other stuff, take a break, joy the rest
11:15
Speaker 1: of the summer.
11:16
Speaker 2: But for now, this is our last the book where
11:19
Speaker 2: we're being today is the last book we're reviewing for Pride. Pride, Okay,
11:23
Speaker 2: we should, we were gonna have four, but life happens
11:26
Speaker 2: in one of our episodes.
11:29
Speaker 1: You had to always you always had to point that out,
11:31
Speaker 1: don't you, don't you?
11:33
Speaker 2: Yes, just gotta rub it. I just gotta rub it
11:35
Speaker 2: in a little bit. But uh so today's episode, uh,
11:40
Speaker 2: it's gonna be kind of taking a step away from
11:42
Speaker 2: the smut because.
11:46
Speaker 1: Leslie was muddy.
11:48
Speaker 2: Yours was just just straight up degenerously like yeah, like
11:53
Speaker 2: just unhinged. But you know what, I'm here for it.
11:59
Speaker 2: I'm here for it. I'm not judging, Okay, mister YOOI
12:02
Speaker 2: over here, Yeah.
12:04
Speaker 1: You better to be judging mister military books of military man.
12:08
Speaker 2: Just you leave the military smut out of this, right, Okay,
12:12
Speaker 2: that's that's sound nowhere near on the level of this,
12:14
Speaker 2: like of this which you went over last week.
12:18
Speaker 1: Okay, one guy eats a demon and bucks his intestines
12:20
Speaker 1: while he's a corpse. Come on now, Jill Ah, at.
12:25
Speaker 2: Least at least heard it. It was just at least
12:28
Speaker 2: like literally, the first the first book in that military
12:31
Speaker 2: in that military smut series was a closeted Navy seal
12:36
Speaker 2: who finally comes out, like who finally finds a way
12:40
Speaker 2: to come out and like and distance himself from his
12:43
Speaker 2: toxic family.
12:45
Speaker 1: A Navy seal that's gay. Groundbreaking, phenomenal, groundbreaking, has never
12:51
Speaker 1: been done before, never done before.
12:54
Speaker 2: Hey, honestly, like I could relate to these character to
12:56
Speaker 2: these guys, all right, so it's good.
13:01
Speaker 1: No, I'm saying groundbreaking because I know plenty of Navy
13:04
Speaker 1: people were gay. Because when you think of a gay
13:09
Speaker 1: Navy when you you think of a gay military person,
13:11
Speaker 1: nine times out of.
13:11
Speaker 2: Ten navy baby, because they're your dad, his dad, ladies
13:16
Speaker 2: and gentlemen, my dad, my dad.
13:19
Speaker 1: Gay.
13:19
Speaker 2: M not saying all, not saying all men and women
13:25
Speaker 2: who are en listen in the Navy currently or in
13:29
Speaker 2: the past are gay. But that's it's you're not beating
13:34
Speaker 2: the allegations people.
13:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean the numbers don't lie. The
13:39
Speaker 1: numbers don't lie.
13:40
Speaker 2: And that's where I get people in the other branches.
13:42
Speaker 2: Of course, of course, Marines. Hey, they're like, hey, we're
13:48
Speaker 2: not putting. No one's plenty fingers, no one's pointing fingers.
13:53
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm mm hmm.
13:55
Speaker 2: We know what.
13:57
Speaker 1: The closet is made of glass. Anyway, what we talk
14:01
Speaker 1: about today.
14:03
Speaker 2: There is no there is no Narnia to hide to
14:05
Speaker 2: hide in in that closet. Sorry, anyway, today, so anyway,
14:10
Speaker 2: today we're gonna be talking about a nice little this
14:17
Speaker 2: kind of This is a nice little nerdy book. It
14:20
Speaker 2: is a gay it is a gay romance. It's actually
14:23
Speaker 2: the author Annabeth Albert. She's actually the author of the
14:26
Speaker 2: military smut that was mentioned. I was mentioned, and I
14:30
Speaker 2: was like, I wonder what else she wrote. After I
14:31
Speaker 2: finished that series and I found this, I'm like, oh, okay,
14:34
Speaker 2: this is nice. Not as somebody as I was looking for,
14:38
Speaker 2: but you know what I dig it. So the book
14:40
Speaker 2: we're reviewing today is called conventionally yours. So conventionally yours
14:46
Speaker 2: it it's gonna be following. Uh, it's gonna be following
14:51
Speaker 2: a pair of young college aged guys. So it's the
14:56
Speaker 2: main characters is Conrad Stewart and Alden Rock. So these
15:02
Speaker 2: two guys could not be more opposite than you can
15:05
Speaker 2: ever imagine. So like Raw, so like Conrad, he was
15:09
Speaker 2: the jockey kind of guy, the popular one, like bright smile,
15:14
Speaker 2: pretty much the guy that everyone gravitated to and wanted
15:17
Speaker 2: to be around and be friends with. And then you
15:19
Speaker 2: got Alden, who is this very like recluse and I
15:24
Speaker 2: don't want to say reclusive. He's more of like the
15:27
Speaker 2: solo like loaner type, tends to be prickly around people
15:35
Speaker 2: he's not he's not really familiar with or trusting, and
15:39
Speaker 2: tends to be tends to come across as very unlikable.
15:43
Speaker 2: So this book, this book follows. This book follows the
15:48
Speaker 2: two of them as they take a trip across the
15:51
Speaker 2: US to participate in a competition. So these guys they
15:56
Speaker 2: play a card game called Odyssey. So Odesty is not
16:01
Speaker 2: a real card game, but it is loosely based off
16:03
Speaker 2: of another card game that is real called Magic the Gathering.
16:07
Speaker 2: So if you read this book and you read some
16:09
Speaker 2: of the like how they play the game, some of
16:11
Speaker 2: the rules and some of the cards. You may think, oh,
16:14
Speaker 2: this kind of sounds like magic gathering. Well, there you go,
16:18
Speaker 2: it's loosely based off of it. So Conrad and Alden
16:22
Speaker 2: are they Actually they play the game. They play the
16:27
Speaker 2: game more professionally because they are a part of this
16:32
Speaker 2: YouTube channel run by one of their college professors, a
16:35
Speaker 2: guy named Professor Tuttle, and his gaming handle. His channel
16:41
Speaker 2: handle is called gamer Grandpa because he's an older guy,
16:45
Speaker 2: so it's really fun they play. They host a lot
16:47
Speaker 2: of like gaming tournaments, they do little game tutorials and
16:50
Speaker 2: things like that. And the thing about these two is
16:54
Speaker 2: that both of them are going through their own personal
16:58
Speaker 2: hurdles at the at the time of this book. But
17:02
Speaker 2: yet while they both have their own issues that they
17:05
Speaker 2: have to come that they have to work through, the
17:09
Speaker 2: level and the things that they're going through is very different.
17:13
Speaker 2: They come from very opposite ends of the spectrum. Because
17:17
Speaker 2: so let's let's start off with Alden, because Alden's a
17:19
Speaker 2: little bit easier to explain. So Alden lives a very
17:22
Speaker 2: comes from a very privileged background. I say privilege because
17:26
Speaker 2: not only is he like his family is very well
17:29
Speaker 2: to do, but his parents area are a same sex couple.
17:34
Speaker 2: Like his parents are lesbians, and they're very successful, especially
17:43
Speaker 2: one of his mothers is a neurosurgeon, so she's very
17:47
Speaker 2: she's a very she's very famous, famous, and they do
17:52
Speaker 2: very well for themselves. They're very well known in their community.
17:56
Speaker 2: And but the thing is that they have very high
17:58
Speaker 2: expectations for all that, so I guess he's high. These
18:01
Speaker 2: high expectations tend to put a lot of pressure on him.
18:04
Speaker 2: They put a lot of pressure on him because see,
18:08
Speaker 2: his mother is being a neurosurgeon, she expects her kids
18:13
Speaker 2: to follow similar career paths. Like he has an older
18:15
Speaker 2: sister who's already a doctor and pursuing a similar field
18:20
Speaker 2: in medicine, and there's there's an expectation for Alden who
18:23
Speaker 2: also follow the same path as maybe not a neurosurgeon,
18:27
Speaker 2: but as some form of professional medical practitioner. He's already
18:32
Speaker 2: gone through like most of the like pre med courses,
18:37
Speaker 2: but he keeps plunking out of med school so he can't.
18:40
Speaker 2: He keeps trying to take take the test for the
18:42
Speaker 2: entrance exam for medical school, and he keeps plunking out
18:45
Speaker 2: of it, and you know, he's gone. He's he's feeling
18:49
Speaker 2: distressed and pressure, the stress and pressure from his family
18:53
Speaker 2: to succeed. But he's grappling with this idea that maybe
18:59
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to be a medical practitioner, maybe he
19:01
Speaker 2: wants to do something else because I mean doesn't have
19:04
Speaker 2: He doesn't why like why should his value and worth
19:08
Speaker 2: be determined by whether or not he is a doctor? Yeah,
19:13
Speaker 2: And also he deals with his own form of mental
19:17
Speaker 2: health like of course depression, anxiety. Uh. And it doesn't
19:23
Speaker 2: say necessarily that he is on the spectrum. Most likely
19:27
Speaker 2: it's just ADHD or doesn't say like exactly what kind
19:30
Speaker 2: of medical issues he has, like mental health wise, but
19:36
Speaker 2: he does struggle with that. And the problem is is
19:38
Speaker 2: that his mother, the neurosurgeon, doesn't approach it from a
19:41
Speaker 2: more empathic perspective. She approaches it as a neurosurgeon like, Okay, well,
19:48
Speaker 2: mental illness is just an imbalance of chemical of chemicals
19:51
Speaker 2: in your brain chemistry. So we're just going to get
19:53
Speaker 2: to you the right medicine and get those chemicals, you know,
19:56
Speaker 2: getting your brains to function correctly, right, which is not.
20:00
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that sometimes mental health or
20:03
Speaker 2: mental illnesses can't be cured with medicine alone, okay. You
20:09
Speaker 2: need you need structure, you need empathy, you need something
20:13
Speaker 2: more than just medicine. You have to work these problems out, okay,
20:16
Speaker 2: because you can't just like take medicine and expect yourself
20:19
Speaker 2: to be all right. Okay, because the medicine may help
20:21
Speaker 2: rebalance the structure your brain chemistry. But if you yourself
20:27
Speaker 2: are not like like doing the work, not working to
20:31
Speaker 2: resolve your your trauma or what you know, your brain
20:34
Speaker 2: whenever you're like anxiety and depression is a lot of
20:39
Speaker 2: times there your brain's reaction to external trauma or external stimuli,
20:45
Speaker 2: and a lot of times it's also your brain trying
20:47
Speaker 2: to tell you that something's not right. Okay, but you're
20:50
Speaker 2: not so In Allen case, he's struggling with his future,
20:54
Speaker 2: wanting wanting to be something more than just a doctor,
20:57
Speaker 2: want to pursue other things. Conrad, on the other hands,
21:02
Speaker 2: his background is he comes from a very opposite background.
21:07
Speaker 2: Like he was air typical jock in high school, he
21:10
Speaker 2: got a full scholarship, his parents were paying for everything. Well,
21:15
Speaker 2: he like he didn't get a full scholar Im sorry,
21:17
Speaker 2: he didn't get a full scholarship. He actually like he
21:20
Speaker 2: did get a scholarship, but it only covered so much
21:22
Speaker 2: of his tuition, and his parents were covering everything else.
21:26
Speaker 2: But the thing is, he comes from a very like
21:28
Speaker 2: typical Midwestern family, and unfortunately he got outed to his
21:34
Speaker 2: parents to his parents while he was still in college,
21:39
Speaker 2: and his parents cut him off completely. Yeah, so both
21:43
Speaker 2: Conrad and Alden are gay. It's just that in Conrad's case,
21:50
Speaker 2: his parents cut him off and as a result, because
21:54
Speaker 2: his scholarship only covered his school so far and he
21:57
Speaker 2: had no other way of paying his tuition, he was
22:00
Speaker 2: cut off. He didn't, he couldn't. He did not have
22:03
Speaker 2: the credit to get loans or the support to uh
22:06
Speaker 2: to apply for government assistance, so he was forced to
22:11
Speaker 2: drop out of school. He basically was living out of
22:15
Speaker 2: the out of like a spare room in somebody's house,
22:19
Speaker 2: and and CouchSurfing when he can. He basically works himself
22:24
Speaker 2: like a dog because he can't afford he has to
22:27
Speaker 2: pay for everything.
22:28
Speaker 1: Now.
22:29
Speaker 2: So where so you can see like we're both where
22:32
Speaker 2: both of these guys come from very opposite backgrounds, and
22:36
Speaker 2: initially it seems like the two never really get along.
22:39
Speaker 2: There's like, while Conrad is always trying to be friendly,
22:41
Speaker 2: and approachable. Alden is all is very prickly and doesn't
22:46
Speaker 2: and kind of fuse everyone as like a hurdle or
22:51
Speaker 2: like competition or really not worth his time. So again,
22:55
Speaker 2: he tends to be very high strung and h in
23:00
Speaker 2: Conrad's case, he is desperately trying to find something to
23:03
Speaker 2: get him out of this situation, so where he's not
23:06
Speaker 2: constantly struggling, where he can get where he can support himself.
23:11
Speaker 2: All that. Yeah, and the opportunity, the opportunity presents itself
23:15
Speaker 2: in the form of an odyssey of a convention called
23:18
Speaker 2: Odyssey con now, and this is a convention that's being
23:22
Speaker 2: hosted in uh Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and uh,
23:28
Speaker 2: their professor, uh, the professor, mister Tuttle Gamer Grandpa. Professor
23:35
Speaker 2: Tuttle was planning on taking a cross country a cross
23:41
Speaker 2: country trip to Vegas to participate in the convention. Now,
23:47
Speaker 2: initially they were he was just gonna fly there, and
23:49
Speaker 2: he was actually, uh, he was just gonna fly there
23:52
Speaker 2: himself and get some uh you know, do some recording
23:56
Speaker 2: for his channel, you know, promote his channel more. But
24:01
Speaker 2: he had an accent broke his hip and he couldn't go.
24:04
Speaker 2: But he still wanted his channel to get the exposure,
24:08
Speaker 2: so he asked his students to help him by going
24:11
Speaker 2: to the convention in his place and participating in the
24:15
Speaker 2: in the competition, and he actually arranges to have he
24:20
Speaker 2: actually arranges kind of they kind of restructure the whole
24:24
Speaker 2: trip so because right now, no one can none of
24:28
Speaker 2: his students can afford to fly to Vegas on their own,
24:31
Speaker 2: con Conrad especially, and so they decide that they're going
24:37
Speaker 2: to turn this into a cross country road trip. So
24:41
Speaker 2: and they have multiple different stops planned across the US
24:44
Speaker 2: at different small game stores. They're going to set up
24:47
Speaker 2: what basically what they're going to do. Conrad Alden and
24:49
Speaker 2: one of their older one of their other friends, We're
24:52
Speaker 2: going to make these stops at these game stores. They're
24:56
Speaker 2: going to play with some of the locals, take some
25:00
Speaker 2: recordings of the games that they play for their channel,
25:05
Speaker 2: and eventually of course gets to Vegas and promote the
25:10
Speaker 2: channel more and participate in the competition. The thing is
25:14
Speaker 2: at the very last second, it's very last minute before
25:16
Speaker 2: they can leave. Before they can leave, the third the
25:22
Speaker 2: third student going on the trip, has a family emergency
25:26
Speaker 2: in this force to leave. So this leaves Conrad and
25:30
Speaker 2: All then to take the trip by themselves. So for
25:34
Speaker 2: the first like half of the journey, it's a pretty tense.
25:38
Speaker 2: It's pretty tense between them. Conrad is trying to be
25:41
Speaker 2: of course amicable, but All then very high strung, not
25:45
Speaker 2: really giving them much opportunity to relax. But it's also
25:49
Speaker 2: like planning everything meticulously, like how much money they spend,
25:52
Speaker 2: how many stops they make. Conrad wants to just take it,
25:56
Speaker 2: just wants like, hey, just just go like, let's just
25:58
Speaker 2: take it easy, relax right. Conrad is Alden of course,
26:03
Speaker 2: is just like, no, we can't spend too much. We
26:05
Speaker 2: gotta like do this, do that. And they do butt
26:08
Speaker 2: heads at first, and they both are very closed off
26:12
Speaker 2: because they're not very close and they don't know each
26:14
Speaker 2: other very like on a more personal level. But as
26:20
Speaker 2: they go through the as they go through the journey,
26:24
Speaker 2: they begin to allow themselves to be more vulnerable around
26:29
Speaker 2: each other and start realizing that they have a lot
26:33
Speaker 2: more in common. So of course they both love the
26:36
Speaker 2: game Odyssey, and they have many different powerful moments where
26:42
Speaker 2: they start realizing start coming to understand each other more,
26:45
Speaker 2: and that slowly blossoms into actual attraction. Between each other.
26:52
Speaker 2: So I think the part the one part where they
26:54
Speaker 2: both realize they have deeper feelings for each others. They
26:58
Speaker 2: are passing through a town in Conrad's home state, so
27:02
Speaker 2: they're actually not that far from his hometown, and Conrad
27:05
Speaker 2: was very nervous because this town not being not so
27:08
Speaker 2: far from where he's from his hometown, he was a
27:11
Speaker 2: little worried that he may run into people he knew.
27:14
Speaker 2: But they never did, so they end up in joining
27:16
Speaker 2: because they stay there there. Because they stayed in this town,
27:20
Speaker 2: they had to stay there for a couple of days
27:22
Speaker 2: because the car that they were taking, which happened to
27:25
Speaker 2: be Professor Tuttle's car, broke down, so they had to
27:28
Speaker 2: put into his shop and basically wait for the repairs
27:32
Speaker 2: to be done. And so they enjoy themselves. They visit
27:34
Speaker 2: an arcade, they do cheesy little photo booth session and
27:39
Speaker 2: see that both of them like, really like starting to
27:42
Speaker 2: come closer together, and eventually they they do admit that
27:45
Speaker 2: they have deeper feelings for each other and start actually
27:49
Speaker 2: wanting to pursue a relationship. Now, this is where they
27:54
Speaker 2: start to confess. They confess to each other their motivations
27:59
Speaker 2: for wanting to participate in the competition at Odyssey con
28:04
Speaker 2: So the competition has a major cast prize, like I
28:08
Speaker 2: think it was like one hundred thousand dollars cash prize,
28:11
Speaker 2: and also the creators of the Creators of Odyssey, which
28:18
Speaker 2: kind of like I think Wizards of the Coast as
28:20
Speaker 2: the creators of Magic the Gathering, right, Yeah, So basically
28:25
Speaker 2: these guys are the same are It's like the books
28:28
Speaker 2: equivalent of Wizard of Wizards of the Coast. They also
28:33
Speaker 2: are offering like a special deal for like the competition winners,
28:37
Speaker 2: like for like exposure, and basically it's like kind of
28:41
Speaker 2: like a marketing thing where that where the winner of
28:45
Speaker 2: the competition will basically get access to like new card
28:50
Speaker 2: materials and promotions and things like that and be a
28:53
Speaker 2: part of like some bigger team. And they both both
28:58
Speaker 2: Conrad and Alden and Mitch to each other their motivations.
29:01
Speaker 2: So in Alden's case, he wanted to win the competition
29:04
Speaker 2: because he wanted to prove that he is capable of
29:08
Speaker 2: being something else and pursuing other career opportunities aside from
29:14
Speaker 2: just being a doctor. So he wanted to prove that
29:17
Speaker 2: he could make Odyssey into a lucrative opportunity and does.
29:25
Speaker 2: And so that way it would be his way of
29:27
Speaker 2: breaking away from his from the expectations of his parents,
29:31
Speaker 2: especially his neurosurgeon mother. In Alden's case, he's broke. He's
29:38
Speaker 2: living basically in a cardboard box. The next specs thing
29:42
Speaker 2: to a cardboard box, and you know, he wants to
29:46
Speaker 2: stop struggling, and he wants to try to like he
29:49
Speaker 2: wants he wants that big break, all right. And despite
29:54
Speaker 2: their very new relationship and feelings that they are cultivate
30:00
Speaker 2: with each other, they make an agreement that whoever wins,
30:03
Speaker 2: you know, no hard feelings, okay, they'll both give it
30:06
Speaker 2: their all. And one thing, one ground rule they touch
30:09
Speaker 2: for each other is that if both of them were
30:12
Speaker 2: to make it to like the final round and they
30:14
Speaker 2: have to compete against each other, they're not too like
30:17
Speaker 2: all back, They're going to play with They're going to
30:19
Speaker 2: play the game with their everything. They're going to use
30:22
Speaker 2: their best strategies, their best decks, everything. They can't hold
30:26
Speaker 2: back against the other, all right, because that would be unfair.
30:29
Speaker 2: And Conrad espectively doesn't want to feel like he's been
30:33
Speaker 2: given charity. He is like, oh, you're like that Alden
30:36
Speaker 2: did this for his benefit. No, he wants to feel
30:41
Speaker 2: like Conrad wants to feel like he earned this. And
30:45
Speaker 2: they eventually do make it to Vegas. It they were
30:48
Speaker 2: almost a little too late because they got help because
30:50
Speaker 2: of that hold up with the car. But uh, they
30:55
Speaker 2: make it to Vegas. They check in, they get set up,
30:58
Speaker 2: and they start playing. They start playing, and they both
31:05
Speaker 2: make it to the final round. They both use their best,
31:08
Speaker 2: they play at they play at their best, They beat
31:11
Speaker 2: every player they come up against, and then at the
31:13
Speaker 2: very end, they're both surprised to see that, oh, our
31:16
Speaker 2: final opponent is each other. So they begin to so
31:21
Speaker 2: they play their final game. They're they're throwing their best strategies,
31:25
Speaker 2: their best cards at each other, and eventually Conrad is
31:30
Speaker 2: the one who wins. But this his win does him.
31:35
Speaker 2: Winning does create a bit of tension between them because
31:39
Speaker 2: Conrad realized that there was a certain strategy that Alden
31:42
Speaker 2: could have used to beat him, but Alden didn't, and
31:45
Speaker 2: he thought that Alden deliberately through the game, and he
31:50
Speaker 2: was pretty upset with Alden. But Alden was able to
31:52
Speaker 2: talk him down and told him and explain that no,
31:55
Speaker 2: actually I I messed up because during the game, I
31:59
Speaker 2: didn't realize I could have made that move. Like he
32:03
Speaker 2: was so like focused and he was actually feeling like
32:06
Speaker 2: really pressed because usually like it was kind of it
32:09
Speaker 2: was somewhat agreed that Alden was the better player. I
32:11
Speaker 2: mean was somewhat a better player, and it wasn't just
32:15
Speaker 2: because of his strategies, but because he had access to
32:17
Speaker 2: better cards, like he was able to afford the better cards. Well,
32:21
Speaker 2: Conrad had to make do with whatever he could get
32:23
Speaker 2: his hands on to make his decks because he's broke.
32:27
Speaker 2: He's broke, so so that's why that's where Conrad's insecurities
32:33
Speaker 2: came from. But they've taught, they hashed it out and
32:38
Speaker 2: Conrad he not only won the cash prize, but the company,
32:44
Speaker 2: the creators of Odyssey, actually did more than just offer
32:49
Speaker 2: him like a press tour. They actually they did some
32:53
Speaker 2: research on Conrad and they realized, oh, he actually has
32:56
Speaker 2: a decent background in games and he understands that he
32:59
Speaker 2: understand and honestly very well he knows the content, and
33:03
Speaker 2: also because of his work on Gamer Grandpa, that he
33:07
Speaker 2: actually would be an asset to their company. So they
33:11
Speaker 2: offer Conrad a job. So they basically offer him as
33:16
Speaker 2: a job. It's like basically like a part of their
33:19
Speaker 2: marketing division where he'll help develop like new strategies, like
33:23
Speaker 2: test new gains, things like that. It's a really great opportunity.
33:28
Speaker 2: And because because the two of them live in Boston,
33:34
Speaker 2: both Alden and Conrad live in Boston, and then the
33:37
Speaker 2: company's headquarters is actually in Manhattan, so Conrad would be
33:41
Speaker 2: moving down to Manhattan to start his new job, and
33:47
Speaker 2: Alden accepts, but he also makes a deal. He also
33:50
Speaker 2: cuts a deal with the company to include several people
33:53
Speaker 2: within the deals, so like can they also take on
33:56
Speaker 2: several other people aside from him, Like he gets it
34:00
Speaker 2: to where they also hire take on ald In as
34:04
Speaker 2: well as a couple other people from the gamer Grand
34:06
Speaker 2: Pod channel. So in the end, it works out better
34:10
Speaker 2: for the two of them. It works out a lot
34:12
Speaker 2: better for the two of them, and they're able to
34:16
Speaker 2: they're both able to pursue their relationship and not like
34:19
Speaker 2: have to you know, get separate from each other. Like, Okay,
34:22
Speaker 2: we won, So I guess this relationship Okay, hi one,
34:25
Speaker 2: So I guess the relationship's done. I got a new
34:26
Speaker 2: job and moving I'm moving away. How good life? Like
34:29
Speaker 2: no they're actually going to stay together. They This is
34:31
Speaker 2: pretty much where the book ends, like, uh, you know,
34:35
Speaker 2: there's hope for Conrad's future because he's he finally got
34:37
Speaker 2: his big break and all that now has an out
34:40
Speaker 2: because he now has a career opportunity to pursue that's
34:45
Speaker 2: not in medicine. And then of course the gamer grand
34:49
Speaker 2: Pad channel is going to be getting more popular because
34:51
Speaker 2: two of the biggest players are now going to be
34:53
Speaker 2: working directly for the game, for the creators of Odyssey.
34:57
Speaker 2: So it was a cute book. It took me a
35:00
Speaker 2: while to read it because I started reading it and
35:02
Speaker 2: then I fell off it, and then I went back
35:04
Speaker 2: to finish reading it, and it was It was a
35:07
Speaker 2: decent It was a decent story, It was cute, it
35:10
Speaker 2: was lovable. There wasn't very many spicy scenes in this
35:14
Speaker 2: So if you came you're looking for the pure smutt, sorry,
35:18
Speaker 2: just listen to the last episode that you'll get your
35:19
Speaker 2: smut there. But yeah, me, I want to point out
35:24
Speaker 2: that major themes of this book was definitely like, of course,
35:27
Speaker 2: found family, because both both characters were looking for places
35:31
Speaker 2: that they felt accepted and all this case, it was
35:35
Speaker 2: an escape from the expectations of his family, and Conrad's case,
35:39
Speaker 2: it's literally finding a new family because this old family
35:41
Speaker 2: gave him the boot. There's major theme that. Another major
35:47
Speaker 2: theme is neurodiversence and queerness. You know, get it does uh?
35:53
Speaker 2: You know that both of these characters don't exactly fit
35:55
Speaker 2: societal norms. Alden deals with his own mental health issues.
36:00
Speaker 2: Conrad deals with his unresolved trauma from being uh, from
36:06
Speaker 2: being cut off from his family. There's a lot of
36:09
Speaker 2: heal themes of healing because you know, as the two
36:11
Speaker 2: of them grow together, they they open up about their
36:14
Speaker 2: own problems and they actually find healing and comfort in
36:17
Speaker 2: each other. And then of course gaming because you know,
36:20
Speaker 2: we got to like, I'm pretty sure many of our
36:23
Speaker 2: listeners here are big nerds. Like, and I mean that
36:28
Speaker 2: in the good way, because I'm a I'm a nerd.
36:30
Speaker 2: Devin's a nerd.
36:32
Speaker 1: Me a nerd?
36:33
Speaker 2: Yeah I am, I am, Yes you are.
36:37
Speaker 1: You can see my figures, you just it just screams nerd.
36:43
Speaker 2: Like. I'm currently in between houses right now, like, and
36:47
Speaker 2: most of my stuff is packed away, but even now
36:50
Speaker 2: on the desk that I have set up here, I
36:52
Speaker 2: have I have all my figures I have like a
36:54
Speaker 2: few figures, like they're just recently came uh uncle pop
36:58
Speaker 2: recently came up with a bunch of new figures and
37:01
Speaker 2: like I just got these new ones like Mecca Godzilla
37:07
Speaker 2: and then also that other one. So like yeah, yeah,
37:11
Speaker 2: so there's like six new figures coming out, Like this
37:14
Speaker 2: is also not a paid promotion, so don't come for me, funko. Uh,
37:19
Speaker 2: but there's like three more coming out and I'm gonna
37:24
Speaker 2: get them. It's not if I'm gonna get them, it's
37:27
Speaker 2: when when, like as soon as they drop at the
37:30
Speaker 2: car at the car, at the car at the cart,
37:33
Speaker 2: just like that car, that meme with the card, like
37:39
Speaker 2: my card, take my card?
37:43
Speaker 1: Is that really your card?
37:45
Speaker 2: Yes? This is really my card? As my god? Yeah,
37:53
Speaker 2: my god, do I love that? Yes?
37:56
Speaker 1: Have I made?
37:57
Speaker 2: Have I made Godzilla my life? Yes I have.
38:00
Speaker 1: I'll tread wherever I want.
38:04
Speaker 2: I saw this one and I thought, oh this is gold.
38:06
Speaker 2: I love it.
38:07
Speaker 4: I love them both, My god, I love this one
38:10
Speaker 4: because of course yeah, yeah, Meca Godzilla's the goat. Although
38:18
Speaker 4: like personally next to Mecca Godzilla, like it's it's Kingidora
38:23
Speaker 4: and Mathra for me.
38:27
Speaker 2: No, no, I keep saying they need to make a
38:30
Speaker 2: King of Door a pop figure, but they haven't yet.
38:33
Speaker 2: Okay you no. I swear Funko made a Kingidor a
38:36
Speaker 2: pop figure for the for God's looking at the monsters,
38:40
Speaker 2: but it was so rare that I can't find it anywhere.
38:44
Speaker 2: Like I swear to God there was a King of
38:46
Speaker 2: Door a pop figure, but I can't find it, like
38:48
Speaker 2: people who have it are like holding onto it or
38:53
Speaker 2: that or I'm just tripping. I don't know.
38:56
Speaker 1: Sorry. Sorry. The best monsters Mathra, Biolante, and Shimu Queens
39:04
Speaker 1: I love the Queens, Ah and tam Love.
39:08
Speaker 2: At this rate, it seems like they're making all of
39:11
Speaker 2: the popular like they're going through the Hayse series list
39:15
Speaker 2: because they made mecha king Ydora already they made uh,
39:23
Speaker 2: they're coming up with Destroyer and Space Godzilla.
39:26
Speaker 1: I mean Space Godzilla is also the goat they just.
39:29
Speaker 2: Need to make. They just need to make rodin Mathra.
39:34
Speaker 2: They may not make Moghia because Molghera is another like
39:36
Speaker 2: mech kind of from the Heyse series. Because these are
39:39
Speaker 2: all like so far, they've made a bunch of this,
39:41
Speaker 2: like they're making a bunch of the Heyse Godzilla pop
39:45
Speaker 2: figures like like heyse monsters. So like this mecha Godzilla
39:51
Speaker 2: is called Cure You and he's from the Millennium series,
39:55
Speaker 2: so that's like from the early mid two thousands. But
40:00
Speaker 2: like going on, no, I was gonna say the Heysta
40:04
Speaker 2: era was from the eighties and nineties and like by
40:08
Speaker 2: alonce destroya mecha Kingidora. I think they're probably just doing
40:14
Speaker 2: the more unique monsters because like Mathra, Kingidora, Rodan, those
40:19
Speaker 2: have those those three next to Mecca Godzilla have all
40:23
Speaker 2: come out. They they all came out in the original series,
40:30
Speaker 2: so like they're the they're the O g Mont. Those
40:32
Speaker 2: are the original original monsters, like next to Godzilla, those
40:35
Speaker 2: are Toho's oldest monsters, like Mathra and King and Rodin
40:41
Speaker 2: have their own standalone films from like the sixties, and
40:46
Speaker 2: King his his debut movie was like a crossover of Godzillah, Mathra,
40:50
Speaker 2: and Rodin.
40:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mathra by a Lantem Space Godzilla.
41:00
Speaker 2: We're getting Space Goes a little soon probably most likely
41:05
Speaker 2: most likely they're going to release him next month or
41:08
Speaker 2: in August. So I'm thinking either July or August is
41:10
Speaker 2: when they're gonna release him, because I was really shocked.
41:13
Speaker 2: They released these three all within the same month, so
41:17
Speaker 2: you're probably gonna release the last three within the next
41:20
Speaker 2: month or two fucking better.
41:24
Speaker 1: Speaking of Biolante, I got I finally got it. I
41:30
Speaker 1: finally got the Biolante Magic card. Nice body, Yeah, I can.
41:37
Speaker 2: Just trade out.
41:38
Speaker 1: I can just trade out that damn cat beast because
41:42
Speaker 1: in one of my DAGs and I'm.
41:43
Speaker 3: Like, I can put by a lot in here now, Queen,
41:47
Speaker 3: I don't care. She's she's on being the movie she's
41:50
Speaker 3: going to be in minus two and you wait, bitch, wait,
41:55
Speaker 3: based out.
41:56
Speaker 2: That's a conversation we have in another US. But yeah,
42:02
Speaker 2: so my point is proven. We're huge nerds. We're huge geeks.
42:05
Speaker 2: All right, if you are too, that's okay. We rule
42:08
Speaker 2: the world. Now. The jocks, the popular people, they're the idiots.
42:12
Speaker 2: They're the druggies and the ones that you know didn't
42:14
Speaker 2: amount to anything after not the drug ee okay, they're
42:21
Speaker 2: the ones well fit. If they spent less time focusing
42:26
Speaker 2: on their appearance and their popularity and more time on
42:29
Speaker 2: like actually doing something wrong the lives, then yeah, damn,
42:34
Speaker 2: maybe they'd actually maybe they'd actually rule the world. But no,
42:38
Speaker 2: it's the nerds, the geeks, we're the ones in charge.
42:40
Speaker 2: So eh, where the boss is now?
42:43
Speaker 1: Yeah?
42:45
Speaker 2: But anyway, so that was conventionally yours. Conventionally yours is
42:49
Speaker 2: actually a part of a two part series of the
42:53
Speaker 2: True Color series. So there is another book. I did
42:57
Speaker 2: not read the other book, and I forgot the name.
43:00
Speaker 2: Don't don't come for me? Oh actually, you know, let
43:02
Speaker 2: me get the name for here. If you guys want,
43:05
Speaker 2: I'll I'll be nice, get you the name of the book.
43:11
Speaker 2: So the second book is called Out of Character, and
43:15
Speaker 2: it like many of these kind of romance novels, it's
43:19
Speaker 2: never like they never follow the same characters. They're more
43:25
Speaker 2: of an anthology. Like the the characters of the sequel.
43:28
Speaker 2: The main characters of the sequel book will be characters
43:31
Speaker 2: that were introduced in the first book, right, that were
43:33
Speaker 2: introduced but had like a side role, and now it's
43:36
Speaker 2: exploring their romance after the fact. So like, okay, these
43:40
Speaker 2: two characters, Yeah, they had their they had their love story.
43:44
Speaker 2: Let's move on, like they already got together. It's like, no,
43:47
Speaker 2: what came after? Like hints, hints, TJ klun make a
43:54
Speaker 2: sequel to Wolf Song. I want, I want to hear
43:56
Speaker 2: more about Oxen Joe's story. Man, I know the big
44:01
Speaker 2: bad evil guys dead, but come on, give me more.
44:04
Speaker 2: Those are those two are my favorite?
44:07
Speaker 1: Of course they were because he likes wear Wolf.
44:11
Speaker 2: Yeah and yes and.
44:18
Speaker 1: I s Anyway, thank you all for listening. Toy's episode.
44:24
Speaker 1: Next month, it'll be The Mortal will be the Mortal
44:27
Speaker 1: Instruments finishing out that series because we have, like I
44:30
Speaker 1: think I have like three more episodes of post on
44:31
Speaker 1: that So that's be July and then you won't see
44:35
Speaker 1: us October. But thank you all for listening and catch'all
44:41
Speaker 1: next time. Peace out, bye,