NZXT PODCAST - #089 - Tali

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

This week on the podcast, we are joined by NZXT’s Director of Community and PR: Tali! Tali and the crew discuss Community, PR, and bagels, so many bagels! Follow Tali on Twitter: https://twitter.com/talissima Listen live to the NZXT 💜 CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT and submit your questions to [e-mail]! Thanks to for Reece#7331 the artwork!

Buddy and welcome to episode 89 of the NZC Clubcast, the official podcast of the NXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard time of the official NXT Discord server. It's available to stream also on Twitch on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. So cozy up with the warm putine, heat up some mancho bagels, and turn this podcast the heck up because you're going in, guys. My name is Dennis. And with me, as always, is Ivan. Hey, Dennis. I've missed you, man. I feel like I have. haven't talked to you since the last podcast, which was a week ago. I know.

It's been nuts. I got my second COVID-Moderna vaccine. And immediately my third eye was opened. I could hear Bill Gates talking through my feelings in my teeth. And I got this really bad headache. Like, I was fine the day after. But the two days after that, I had like the worst headache I've ever experienced. And I was like, yeah, I'm not coming in.

Bye. I just bounce for two days. And I'm paranoid. I'm paranoid now because I get my second dose on Monday. I had to reschedule it. It was supposed to be Saturday, but I'm going to get it Monday now. But yeah, now I'm like kind of paranoid. I'm like, I hope I don't get the same thing that Dennis had because I definitely didn't feel anything the first time.

And I know you didn't either, right? No, I was maybe like a little tired and that's it. And that, yeah, and then, yeah. Like I was telling you earlier, I do feel a little bit dumber because I was doing your job the last three days. the last three days. And what I mean by that is not like your job is dumb, but that like it just like nonstopping on social media for three days. Like it got to me, man.

Like I forgot, I forgot that feeling of what it's like to just like be just nonstop talking with people. And yeah, it feels good to have you back, man. I missed you. Thanks. Thanks. Well, you know who I'm even more glad to have back, Ivan? Who?

Who? today's special guest who is Tally Fisher the director of communications and PR at NZXT and also Ivan's boss I can't be both of bosses she's really more your boss and she is mine

we're one magical team one magical team together with one big boss like the people the people are our bosses the community is our boss right yeah exactly and it gets on Andy's side, all the media outlets are his boss?

Is that how it works? Yeah, pretty much. The show for my IGN is like, Andy, I need something on my table tomorrow. Yeah, that's Andy's boss. That's it. It's true. We all answer to our own higher powers. That's very deep.

I like that. Right. So to continue on with our mental health awareness celebration of the month, we do have Talley here. And she's going to be talking to us a little bit about what we're doing for mental health awareness. But first, we want to get to know, Talley, for those who don't know, she's been here, there, everywhere. She's the master of bagels, the queen of Teddy, right? You might make a special appearance during the podcast. Tully. Tally, how long have you been at MZXT?

It's been a really long time. It's been three months, so forever. It's been a really great three months, though. I have to say, I feel like I have an amazing team that I get work with here. So it's been three months that have gone by like nothing. Yeah, I remember when you first started, like I think your first task was like to help us deal with a bunch of PR disasters, essentially. It's like one right after the other. It's like you started and I'm like, hey, by the way, thanks for joining. Now you get to deal with this stuff. Yep. Yep. It's been nonstop. Yeah. It has been nonstop. But I actually think like I think when you're starting a new job, that's the best way to start a new job because I learned everything and everyone real, real quick.

And I didn't have any of those awkward, like wait and get to know people kind of moments because I had to figure everyone out in like two or three days. So I prefer that. So send the chaos my way. We definitely will. We'll bring all the all the chaos your way. Good. Thanks. Thanks for that.

All right. Then we're done. I got to go with chaos. All right. Bye. So Talley, what is your job until at NXT being the director of PR and community? Oh, there's so much. I, you know, there's a lot of PRing.

There's a lot of communitying. I think it's really all about how do we get the message out about cool things and ZXT and what are some cool stories we can tell. And we're also, I'm super lucky in that I also get to do some diversity and inclusion work here, which I'm really passionate about. So I think this PR and community and comms role has given me a chance to do everything. but basically I'm going to make cool swag. So that's all anyone needs to know is that there is swag in my future.

And I plan to spend the next year wearing exclusively NXD gear. I can't imagine wearing NZXT gear, Ivan. Can you? You know what's funny? It's like actually have like maybe like a quarter of my closet of NZXT gear I've never worn. Like just like I have like a bunch of jerseys like every year I've worked at ZXT that give me a jersey and like I don't think I've ever worn one and I wear I wear him at events. That's where I usually wear him. I have but I do I do want to say that Dennis has like the ugliest NZXT hat I've ever seen in my life. I love hats. I love wearing hats. I have a lot of hats. I have a shroud hat. I have a Discord hat. I have hats from all kinds of games that I like, Witcher hat, right?

And I will wear them all day every day. And I only ever got one hat from Inslee that was during the pop-up. And I'm pretty sure I actually paid for the hat. I'm like, I want this hat so bad. I'm going to pay for it. And after I think like three months, just like pretty much wearing it almost every day, that thing no longer holds its shape. It's just like it looks like a toek now.

It doesn't even look like a regular ball cap. It's just like flat and it falls off my head. And yeah, it's not a... It falls off your denhead. Yeah, it falls on my denhead. I need a new hat, Ivan. Give me some more hats. That reminds me.

I do have a picture of us rocking those hats with our intern, Mike. I'm going to look for it and post it in the podcast chat. I feel like we all need to see that. I need to see this hat. It's very important. I forget where we have it. I think the photo might be in like a group chat or something. But while you look for that, Talley, so you came from this,

you went to N60, or sorry, you started N60, three months ago. What were you doing before that? Before that, I was working at Discord. Whoa, Discord. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's a tiny little chat app. Yeah, I've been at Discord. I spent, well, the past five years at Discord working similar in similar areas, PR community, the event. So some people might have met me at a Pax in the past. I was super lucky enough to work with the amazing team there, like Mallory and Cody and Michael and Tori and Corey and there's a great team there, got to hang out with them, learn everything about Discord, where a lot of Discord swag meet amazing people at a variety of events.

And then I came over here to work with more amazing people. So how lucky am I? Pretty, to be honest. I mean, I, uh, if you do so yourself, pretty lucky. Yeah, no, I agree. That's, so look, what, what made you want to make the jump if you're, if you're, if you're able to say? You know, I think it's just it was a really cool opportunity to, I mean, there's a couple things. My kid, as many of you have heard me talk about, Max for President, he is definitely

into PC gaming. He's been talking a lot about building his own PC and so this made me extra cool in his eyes and really that's how I make all my life decisions at this point is how I can level up my child's opinion of me. And, you know, I know NCXT was doing some really cool stuff. I have the opportunity to be part of that, to be part of helping this team evolve. And I couldn't say no to that. It was just an exciting challenge that I couldn't refuse. And I do like a good challenge. Yeah, that's something that like I've spoken to with a couple people here because they'll ask me like, wait, she's from Discord. I'm like, yeah, like, why would she ever leave? I'm like, well, you know, the reason why a lot of people leave like bigger,

not I say bigger, but like companies where they've done a lot of stuff is because sometimes you just want to do something different, right? You want to maybe build something, you know? I know with NZXT, we're relatively young in the sense of we're just now transitioning from like this almost like a startup kind of company to being more of a big boy company

and we're putting all these processes in place. And I know since you started, you've been really heavy on like the processes that we've been doing. You're like, hey, what are you guys doing? And we're like, uh, we just do it. It's just like, no, no, write this stuff down. Right? Get it organized so that we can do it better. You're like, that's a really good idea. Why would we do that before?

I mean, 100%. I think what makes things in NST so interesting is that we have this incredible global team of people who are super passionate about what we're doing. So I think figuring out how to work globally and how to do more cool things with our teams around the world is super exciting. But you do need to write stuff down when you're communicating with everyone around the world. So I'm all four processes, even though most people who know me will tell me that I am super disorganized and chaotic in my outside of work life. If you saw my house, you'd be like, this is not the same person. She is like a disaster. My house is like a target exploded. Basically, that's what I live.

It's funny. I was a target the other day. And I bought an air mattress there, the air mattress. Oh, interesting. It took me for Everett or fine, too. I thought it would be one section. It was not, it was like in the supporting good section, which to me is not like where a mattress made out of air should live,

but apparently that's where Target decides. That's where they're going to put them. Interesting. It was camping gear, right? I mean, in theory. In theory, but like if you're camping with an air mattress, isn't really camping, like isn't part of it that, like, you have like that sleeping bag and stuff.

Like it reminds me of the episode of Parks and Rec, right, where that one character, I forget his name, He has like this tent, but it's like all powered up, you know, with like a generator. He's playing the Xbox and has like a smoothie machine and an air mattress and like a Roomba going, playing music and stuff. It's not really camping. Those who know me will tell you that camping is definitely not my thing. So I have many air mattresses, but they are strictly guest sleeping for my house. Camping is basically my version of a nightmare.

If someone was like you have to go camping, I'd be like, I'm being punished for something. thing. Making me sleep outside is punishment. So I will be the first to go when the zombie invasion happens because I don't know how I'm going to survive in a rugged zombie world. I could probably survive in a zombie world. I don't know about Ivan. I feel like you just give up, you know? I could survive. What's your, what's your, okay, so. I'm good at hiding. Okay, so zombie apocalypse breaks. Where's the first place you're going to, Ivan? zombie apocalypse breaks first place i'm going to is my attic okay attic that's terrible that's terrible that's terrible yeah it's terrible now you're high up you're stuck when they come in the house you can't

get out yeah no food right no supplies i i have a little stash of food up there that's why i would go up there does everyone hear that if you if you're an emergency stash of food at ivan's house Just to go back real quick to Talley's time at Discord, I just want to mention that, yeah, the three months that Talley has been here, they've really flown by, to be honest. Like, I feel like from January to May, like it took like two days basically,

like times are really flying. But when I first found out that, you know, you could potentially get Talley Fisher from Discord over here, they asked me like, what are your thoughts on hiring her? And I was like, well, if I could pick one company in the entire planet that, you know, I look up to in terms of like what they're doing with the community, the social media and their branding and all that. Like it would honestly, I'm not just saying this to two year orange. It's literally Discord.

They've always been like a huge, huge inspiration personally to me, like with how they handle those things. And especially because like when I first started working at NZXT, that's literally right when Discord launched. And I remember meeting the Discord people at the very first TwitchCon. And they had like the cheapest, ugliest booth you can possibly think of. It was just like a little like foldup table with pins on it. And watching them go from that to where they're at now. Like it's awesome. And it's cool for me because I've also seen not the exact same thing happen with NZXT,

but I've also watched NZXT go from being, you know, like not having like a large social media following, not having a Discord server and all that to having a bunch of people that are following us and things like that. So for me, it's been really, really fun having Talley here. Even though she does make us work more, but it is good work, you know?

Like she's helping us do the things that we were struggling with before she got here, right? Which is like Dennis was saying, like we just gotta write stuff down. Like, we basically work off our heads for, like, a lot of things. But we're just trying to get better. And hopefully one day we will be, you know, like a like a disc word, I guess you can say. I was going to say real quick that while you're saying that, we had Talley, pick up her dog,

grab a can of like meat flavored substance and put it into this con for her dog. And it's the funniest thing ever. I'm multi-task. Always multitasking here, you know? We've got to keep the puppy quiet. Got to keep it. Busy life. Busy life is remote work. I know. It's pretty crazy.

By the way, remote work, I'm almost done working remotely. Forever? I got two more weeks and then I'm done. Yeah. I can't wait to go back to the office. Like, I've struggled working from home big time. Part of it is because, yeah, I have a toddler. And another part is because I have to work in the same room all day. but a huge part of it is because I am not in that NXT office,

which is like, you know, full of webes and K-pop blasting and just all my, all my homies and all that. Like, I miss that environment. I miss just, you know, like hanging out with the homies over there. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of FOMO once you're all back in the office and I'm still at home. It's going to be real hard. I expect everyone to have cameras on all day so I can just hang out.

Just move down. It's fun. It's definitely a vibe, you know, and I miss it. Like, I feel like it helps me be more creative, have more fun, come up with, like, better content for social, all that stuff. Like, I can't wait to go back. Soon, TikTok. And then you know what? You're going to go back and you're going to be like, oh, God, I miss being at home.

I have to put pants on. That's going to be playing. We go, when I have to, like, go out in public again, like, I haven't worn jeans in a year and a half. Like, I live in sweatpants and pajamas. I have no idea what real life looks like out there. Tell me about it. I put on jeans the day for the first time in like half a year, and I absolutely hated it.

It was gross. I don't know what people did it before. I feel like we just moved past the point. You wear sweats to the pants. I mean, you wear sweats to the office all the time, though. Joggers are not sweats, Ivan. Two different things, two different things, okay? To be fair, you're not jogging in them?

That's exactly. I briskly power walk. in them. We should make a, oh, that's actually a good idea. So I've always wanted some N-ZC joggers. We've made one for the pop-up, but can we make joggers, but not call them joggers and call them like power walkers or something? Power walkers, so that people don't have to like go as fast as jogging in them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. They're like relaxed joggers or power walkers. Exactly. Yeah. Palm sitters. We can. I think we can see. by Teo, we try to do that, by the way.

Do they call his sitters? Yeah, they do. They do, yeah. Yeah, their joggers are called the sitters because they're designed for you to be sitting in them while you're hardcore gaming. I mean, aren't all jogging pants designed for you to be sitting in them? Let's be real.

Like, I feel like if I was, I mean, I obviously work out all the time, but let's just say I worked out all the time. I don't know that I'd want to wear, like, sweat pants to actually be working out in. They're too hot. I literally only wears my sweatpants to sit around the couch in. If I'm going to do some form of exercise, it'll be in like, I don't know, leggings. I think the idea is that you're supposed to sweat out.

I think it's like an old school workout thing where like if you're sweating, you're letting loose water weight, right? And that like keeps you from being like bloated or something. But I think from what I've read, you know, in my extensive exercise research, right, it doesn't really do anything because you just put on an off-water weight like all day every all day every day. Yeah, I think we can, uh, I'm trying to think like who in the company is like big in the bodybuilding or like big in like to working out that we can maybe like ask. Yeah, besides you.

I haven't. Oh, yeah. I should tell everyone my new favorite hobby is I got a Peloton. So that's what I do all the time now. Yeah. And you got it, the day you got the peloton, their stock literally plummeted. Everyone was like, oh, Talley got one.

Yeah. Sell, sell, sell. Sorry, everyone. I single-handedly ruined it. Here's what I have learned about pelotons. Here's what I've learned about myself. Exercise and I are not a good team. We are a bad team.

And also, loud dog. That's the other thing I have learned. And I, bike seats are not comfortable. Like, not at all comfortable. I am in so much pain after every bike ride that I don't know how people do this regularly. Yeah, I can't. Nice, Ivan. Nice tweet link.

Yeah, I used to work out a lot, actually. I see pretty fit. And then I started working at NZXT. And as you know, what happens is I started working at Kakao Games. And they had a fully stocked kitchen with a bunch of snacks, a bunch of Korean snacks, by the way, which are like some of the best things ever. And that was like my decline of like my workout routine was, I get the work, I'd be having snacks every single day.

And then for like a month, all right, I'm going to meal prep. And then I did it. And I'm like, man, this chicken's really lame. This goes back to these Korean snacks. And I just, yeah, it just never stopped. Yeah, I got really, really fat and out of shape in 2020 with the, like, seriously, I did. I got really fat out of shape, like in 2020.

But then Christmas, 2020. I bought myself a rowing machine and I've been working out consistently since then. Even my wife yesterday told me you're getting too skinny. Can you stop working out? But it's fun. I actually like I didn't think I was going to really enjoy working out. But now when I miss a workout, I feel bad like both mentally and physically like that's what they want you to think Ivan. That's what they want you to think, Ivan. I don't know. It feels it feels good to start your day by working out because it's hard and I think it's good to do hard things when you don't want to do them, especially like first thing in the morning because then the rest of the stuff you have to do the rest of the day is kind of easy because you already did the hard thing, you know. I and I want a Peloton bike. I want to get one. It's just you got to prepare yourself for the I definitely needed to I'm just going to say it. It really hurts.

my butt. It's really super painful to sit on that seat. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that on this podcast, but I did. But really, here, anyone who knows me knows that I do all, any exercise I do just so I can justify the vast amount of cheese that I enjoy eating. So it's all a balance. Peloton is my, is my, not excuse. It's not the right word, but I can justify all the cheese I eat by enjoying that Peloton on occasion. Also the only reason I got a dog because I'm forced to go on a walk every morning. And so that's like, then I can eat cheese. It's all about cheese.

I love how he's just staring. Like he's just looking at nothing in particular. He's literally just like blank stare. The dog? Yeah, just live in life. Just biting. I have to hold him right now because he's going to run around and bark. So he's totally annoyed that he's trapped.

Totally trapped. But you know what? I'm fine with that because then you won't all have to listen to him being a lunatic. All right. So to kind of roll it back a little bit, Talley, I'm asking a very, very hard question. Okay. Hopefully you can answer this. Oh, no.

What is your favorite part about the communications team is what we call ourselves now? Oh, wow. That is not an easy question. What is my favorite part? The answer is Dennis and Ivan. Obviously. I mean, okay. to sound super cheesy, but I'm going to say it anyway, but it really is the people for me.

I'm not going to lie. I would not take a job at a company where I didn't like the people in the interview. So the interview process is actually huge for me because if I don't feel like I can connect with and work with the people, I just would not take a job. So it's the best part for me because I know I'm working with good people who are excited about the work we do in the same way I am. So I'm sorry if that sounds cheesy, but I'm going with it. That sounds meat-flavored cheesy to me. I do. I don't know what to do with that.

This is gross, but fair, maybe it's gross. Okay, and follow up question. What is your least favorite part about working on the comms team? I don't know if it's least favorite, but I'm definitely still adjusting to some of these very early morning calls. It's been a long time since I've been having 7 a.m. calls. So some days, let me just apologize to everyone who's been on them with me. I might be slightly less conversational than others. I don't know if there's anything that there, other than that,

and I can handle that because I'm kind of an annoying morning person. I don't know if there's anything particularly that I'm like, I don't like this. I think there are some things that, you know, I want to do more of all the time, and I have to sort of raid myself in from trying to do everything. all at once all the time. But there's so many cool opportunities that I sometimes feel like I don't know where to, I don't know what I want to jump on first because I want to do everything. So I think that is probably a good problem to have. I don't know if there's a least favorite though.

The least favorite is that I don't get to work with all of you in person because I'm too far away. So there we go. Just move all down. Easy peasy. Right. I lived in a, I lived in the Los Angeles area. for a brief period of time. And I love you all, but I will not do that again, just for the record. It's too hot for me.

I would rather live in the Bay. I'd rather live in Orange County. L.A. is butt. The Bay Area is, honestly, like, the best weather in California. It's always cloudy. It's always overcast. It's never 115 degrees like it is here at N60 headquarters, man. It's freaking hot over here.

But that's interesting. you said the early morning meetings because for me the least favorite thing is the the evening meetings like the ones that like start like at six or whatever and like if i'm a morning person if someone scheduled the meeting at six in the morning i'm down like i'm there and i'm and i'll be awake too i'll be i'll be into it but when it's like six o'clock my brain is fried my my toddler's like knocking down on the door i'm hungry all these different things and yeah, I wish I could do all my meetings like, you know, before 9 a.m., basically. I mean, it's fair.

I think, like, maybe the better answer is those extreme hour meetings, meaning outside of, like, your normal workday. But for me, it depends on the day because days that, like, Max is at his dad's, for example. I don't mind going a little late, but sometimes the mornings can be chaos, getting him up and fed. I think, whatever, I get to hang out with cool. people. So at the end of the day, these calls are, no call is really that bad. So at least it's, I am spending whatever those hours are talking to people I really like, which is more important

than anything else. Speaking of cool people, can you, can you explain Andy to us? Andy, like our Andy? Yeah, our Andy. Our Andy Johnson. Can you, can you, can you explain him? Because some people still don't think he's a real person. It's definitely a real person. I think he's a character. He is, he is a character. I think that's a true statement. I mean, he is really one of the most supportive of my addiction to Ratchet and Clank in the world. And he has committed to helping me find a PS5 so that I can play Ratchet and Clank when it's released, which is a massive motivation for me.

And he has really welcomed me into his family by letting me be part of his tea ritual because they get. at tea from Starbucks quite often, and I'm often there to witness it. So I really feel like it's formed a bond between me and Andy and his family. So I mean, how can I say anything but amazing things right there? Yeah, Andy. Andy is definitely the biggest character at NZXT, and I love that guy. And I remember when he was interviewing at NZXT, I got the chance to interview him and all we talked about was baseball and this video game called the show but though just the way just just talking to him like I don't know there's something about him where I'm like this guy this guy has like I don't know like the nicest he's like the nicest person too at the same time and

yeah so anyway I recommended I told I told his boss at a time West I was like okay we got to get this guy because this guy you know he has that he has the NZXT spirit he's gonna he's gonna fit right in he's super cool and then um his very first day at work he actually sat next to me and he walks in with uh you know his backpack or whatever and he puts it down and then he looks at me and he goes just so you know i sit like a moron and i'm like what what do you mean he's like yeah i sit like i sit really stupid and i was like okay what do you mean and he's like just just watch me and uh yeah he he sits on his legs fun fact and he sits on his legs fun fact and he sits on his legs. I don't know what that means. He doesn't sit on his butt. He puts his legs on the chair and then he

sits down on his legs. He does like a squat on the chair. He like squats in the chair with one leg like bent under him. This sounds horribly uncomfortable. The next thing that he did was he brought in like all his ameboes. This guy has he literally has like every amoe known to man and he brought in like hundreds of them and he put him all over his desk and then like what are he doing and he's like I thrive in chaos and yeah his his desk is the most chaotic like thing I've ever seen in the office it's just boxes everywhere umbibos video game cartridges baseball member bribilia just you name it's like on Andy's desk and it's he's a character but at the same time he's also I don't know.

He's also like a good, a good friend, I think, to have on, on anyone's team. I really like working with Andy. I think that Andy, if he's like, I think he's like me and that, and maybe it's a PR thing. We thrive in chaos. So chaos works for us. It has taken me many years of working to sort of get to even the sort of point I am when it comes to process. but I definitely, I prefer chaos. I think maybe that's the way PR, people who start in PR work,

is that we just like the insanity. It works with our brains or the way we think. So I'm all for it. I'm team Andy for sure, 100%. I do need to see a video of how he sits, though. I'm super unclear. It sounds awful to me. I have pictures.

I'll post them in the chat right now. Oh, Andy. So this is actually a really great transition because Andy, being our lovely PR, PR king here, has also been working with us and setting up our mental health awareness efforts. So Talley, could you let everyone know what we've been doing and what we're going to be doing for mental health awareness? Sure. So mental health awareness month is May. So this year we wanted to lean into it a little bit.

So because I think the reality is, especially during the pandemic, we've all, it's been kind of a tough year. You know, it's tough for everyone. I think it's definitely taken its toll. I think as a general rule, we're all pretty tough on ourselves, too. You know, none of us, I don't think any of us, and I don't mean us at NZXT, I mean us in the world. We're not all great at sort of taking the pressure off, considering the world's in chaos. And a lot of us aren't seeing friends or family or doing the things that usually help us de-stress. So we wanted to spend a little bit of time this mental health month, mental health awareness month,

just sort of sharing our own stories. So we started sharing stories internally at work. People can talk about what they've been through. We really want to destigmatize mental health issues. We're sharing some tips on our social media, which you've seen that Dennis and Ivan have been posting and they're amazing. We've talked to an organization called Safe and Our World. Keep getting their name wrong, but Safe and Our World, I believe it is.

Gina was on the podcast last weekend from that. So if you haven't heard that, definitely go listen to that. It's a great show. Great show. Yeah. and been sort of talking to them a bit about, you know, how we can support people with men, not people with mental health issues. That doesn't sound right.

But just some tips and tricks. We've also shared some resources on the blog, great resources around mental health issues. So I think really we've spent some time or a good portion of time this week, this week, this month, just talking about just opening the door to have conversations about mental health issues and some ways to help what you're going through, even though here's the truth. I think I encourage everyone to talk to a therapist if they feel like they're going through something tough

and need that extra ear and some extra support, I am a huge advocate of therapy. I think it's, I'm all for it. I have definitely done it myself. I would definitely do it again. I think we take for granted how great it is to have someone who's good at listening and who can really help you get out of your own head of it. That sounds funny because we're talking about mental health, but, you know, help you

process things in a different way. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I just posted a picture of Andy sitting in the chat at his chaotic desk if anyone wants to take a look. This is in the old, the old podcast. Like Indian style and then like on his feet. It's really weird. Oh, okay. I'm going to check it out. He also do this thing where he'll kind of squat and one leg is like resting over the leg rest too. Oh. So he like swaps it out a little bit. He does a...

I think didn't we do like an Andy sitting challenge one day, something? Yeah. I think Vivian has that photo. Vivian might have that photo. That sounds painful. It looks painful. I couldn't do it. Andy, I could not do it.

I don't know how he sits like that. I was afraid of falling off the chair and like dying pretty much. It would fall off the chair. Yeah, right? You just fall off and crack your head open like a watermelon. No, thank you. For sure. No, it sounds terrible.

Yeah. All right. Continuing on, Talley, what is your favorite NXT product? You ask this of everybody. I mean, I really love the Cracken. I think that was super cool when I got my, when I got my computer here and Max and I set it up,

we spent a long time sort of figuring out the gift to put on that. I also really like Cam. I'm not going to lie. I'm super excited about the Cam software. because I think especially for me, parent kid who's really getting into PC building, he had to, it was good for him to sort of look at that and learn about what's going on in his system. And he and Andy have bonded over a lot of things. So another reason I love Andy is because he virtually hangs out with my kid and gives him all these cool tips and tricks.

So I'd say those are like the two top for me right now. because one has made my dining room, which is now my computer room, look really cool. And the other is helping Max and I sort of get a better understanding of what is going on with our system, which we love. All right. What is your least favorite NZC product and be honest? I mean, I don't know if I have least favorite products. I think there are probably products I've spent less time thinking about, like power supply. probably are not a thing I spend a lot of time investing in.

Not surprise. I don't know, but I don't know if there's anything that's a least favorite. I think there are just some things that I'm less. I haven't necessarily spent a ton of time thinking about. It's funny because I always forget we make power supplies. I forget about that. And just the other day, like now that, you know, with that it's gone, and I was looking at, you know, what should I post on Instagram?

And I was going through like my image folders. And I was like, oh, yeah, we make power supplies today. Yeah, I'll tell you why I don't forget about them. Because every time someone talks about a PSU, I think they're talking about Fantasy Star Universe. And I get very confused sometimes. It took me a long time to understand what people were talking about when they said PSU. And so now I just find it very amusing.

So that is kind of why PSUs are top of mind for me. me, but probably for the wrong reasons because I was totally confused about why we were constantly talking about fantasy star universe. I am aware of fantasy star. I think when I was younger, I wanted to play it and like not like people talk about it. I don't even know what it is anymore. It's just like it's just like a concept in my brain that I don't understand anymore at this point. Yeah, I didn't, I cannot say I'm an expert in the game, but I definitely PSU to me, fantasy star universe. That's it.

That's just the way it works. But that is not at NZTU. What it means. Power supply unit. So I have learned something in my three months here. Exactly. And from the PSU nerds here in our Discord community, apparently they're not too bad.

They're actually pretty good, which is like, I guess it's like good because people who know about power supplies know a lot about power supplies. And I guess there's like very specific things that make a power supply good or bad. So from what I hear, they're good, you know, so, you know, don't be afraid. Go ahead of PSU. Yeah, exactly. Go get an NZC power supply. Go grab the ones with the, with the little USB so you can monitor it through Cam,

because Cam will one day control everything. You know what I don't have yet that I want, though? I'm just going to put it out there. I do not have my own puck yet, so I'm a little bit sad about that. I thought you were going to mention the puck, and I didn't want to set this argument, but I remember I was talking to Talley and saying that the puck is probably one of our single greatest products ever made that we never talk about. And we need a puck revolution. We need to bring the puck out again. That should be our marquee product.

So being that I don't have it, I can't actually attest to whether it's the coolest thing ever. But I feel like I hear about it a lot. So I clearly need to spend some quality time with this marquee product. As someone who has 25 of them on his refrigerator, I'll send you one. I just wrote down a note. I'm going to send you on. Okay, I cannot wait.

I can't wait, but I want one of my very own for sure. Have you shown Talley your X-Files Puck poster? What? I don't think I have. So Ivan has a poster that you had up in the? the office. And it's the I want to believe poster, right? But instead of a spaceship, it's a puck. Because from what Ivan told me, right, before we released the puck, no one thought they would be like a thing. They thought it was dumb and he was like the sole champion of the puck. He loved

the puck so much. And it turns out that, you know, it's a, it is like I said, one of the most important products ever released in the 20th century. It has revolutionized the world, right? Elon wishes he could have designed and released the puck. We'll trade him a puck for some Dogecoin. How's that? Oh, I'm down. I think, I think Doche is like on a drop right now, right? I think they're in a debt.

Not picking back up. Is it picking back up again? Yeah. Time in hands. If you are listening, Elon, just for the record, I can throw it out there. We will send you a puck if you want one. Let's see, we're, 39.39.0.39. for a Doge unit, Ivan.

We're still up there, you know? Still up there. Yeah, I'm not worried. Yeah. I mean, it's higher than it's ever been, right? I remember I bought a bunch of Doge like a while ago. I'm Hodlin until I become a slumdoge millionaire. Wow, slum doge millionaire.

Okay. All right. And final final NXT related question, Talley. What is one non-PC product you would like to see NXT ticket? crack at. Non-PC? Yes, non-gaming hardware product. That's really hard.

I mean, I would like to see a super awesome NZXT Pride T-shirt. How is that? We should definitely do that. It's a great idea. If we can never make that happen, I feel like that would be awesome. So that's number one on my list.

And then give one to everybody, right? Everyone just gets one for free. I mean, yeah, told maybe not that part, but yes. All right. So I want to talk about something that I feel like it's very important, and I feel like the community needs to know. So everyone please sit down, right? If you're standing, please sit down, take a seat,

because you might fall over from hearing this. So I've been hounding Ivan for a million years to get a brand new computer, right? Because he can't even run, like, he couldn't even run a Zoom meeting background. He had issues doing all these really weird wonky things. And he's like, okay, fine, fine, fine, I'm getting a computer. So a couple weeks ago, he's like, hey, I'm getting my computer. I'm excited to go pick it up.

He goes to the office. And he's like, yo, I'm all my computer. It's great, it's great. Turns out it's not a computer. It is a laptop. And I told Ivan that a laptop is not a computer. The laptop is a computer. A laptop is not a computer?

Ivan, is a laptop a computer? A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. So yes, Dennis, it is a computer. So is the phone in your pocket. So is your calculator. So is your Casio G-shock, whatever, is you wearing on your wrist there? Yes, it's a computer. But I have a very good reason why I chose to get a laptop.

The first reason is it was forced on me by Ed. I asked Ed, I said, hey man, what did I get to get a PC? And he's like, just let me know what you want under a certain amount. And I'll send it to you. I was like, all right, cool. And then I told him I wanted a Chromebook because I plan on going back to the office soon. So I was just like, you know what? I just get a laptop to hold me over until I go back.

And then he saw the Chromebook link I said him. And he's like, yeah, that's garbage. I'm not going to send you that. I'm going to dig you this other one. I'm like, okay, whatever, man. I just need a laptop because. like I said, I'm going to be back in the office soon. So I didn't want to swap out my whole desktop at home and whatnot.

But yes, I know a laptop is not as good as a desktop computer, but it's still a computer. Pegas in the chat says the laptop is on a computer. And here's another bit of evidence, Ivan. Is there any RGB in that laptop? Are there any gamer glowie lights? Exactly. So it's not a computer. I rest my case.

Moving on. Ivan, what do you got for Talley? Well, Dennis. Oh, wow. My first question for Talley here is being Canadian. Yes. My first question for you is, do you give her? Do I giver?

Yeah. Are you trying to throw like Canadian speak at me to see how I react to it? Yes, giver. I mean, listen, I'm from Montreal. We have different speech. So this is really your there's these are regional things in Montreal. It's not the same. It's not the same.

I don't think I've ever used giver in a sentence. That's from my favorite Canadian movie of all time called Fubar. You guys get a chance. Please check that out. Yeah, it's a hilarious movie. Good movie. Also, fun fact, I think part of the reason why why we all like Andy's because he's literally like the most Canadian person you'll ever meet. Like literally he really is.

So my next question for you, Talley. I'm waiting for the big one. I know what's coming and I'm waiting for us to just address this issue. We're not getting there. We're getting there. Okay. Before we get to the bagels. My first question for you is, why is your dad so freaking cool?

I was in a meeting with Talley and then she's like, oh, hold on. My dad's calling me. Want to talk to him? And I was like, yeah, sure, I'll talk to him. And the first thing he does is, like, roast me for wearing, like, a, I think I was wearing, like, a Raiders shirt or something. And he's like, well, I think that's not real, real sports or something. And he's just a funny dude. My dad is to give, I mean, there are people out there maybe who are paying attention who may have met my dad because he has come to gaming events, which is really funny.

because my dad is the most afraid of technology in the entire world. Literally, he has, like, it's terrible with technology and knows nothing about video games. So when he hangs out with video game people, he's totally lost. But everyone quite enjoys him. He is hilarious. He's the Big Lebowski. He is, like, a long-haired stock trader who wears, like, who's also a hippie. He's just, he's all kinds of crazy.

And I feel like when people meet him, it explains a lot about me. And I also think the truth is a lot of people are only my friend as a reason to hang out with my dad. I am definitely tier two because he's just pretty hilarious as a general rule. And the truth be told, I actually have my mom is equally awesome. You haven't met my mom yet, but I sort of got super lucky with these two awesome parents that everyone likes more than me. So I'm definitely a product of my parents. and if you meet them, you'll like them more than you will ever like me.

And I'm happy to live in their shadow. Yeah, your dad is really cool, which kind of explains why your son Max is so cool. I actually have, I don't think I've seen Max on camera yet. But what I like about Max is, like, I'll be talking to Talley in a meeting and then I'll say something. And then I don't know where like Max will just say like the most random thing in the background. I'm like, oh, I guess Max is listening. we're talking about. He always chimes in with something funny.

Like yesterday, yesterday I was talking to Talley, and then he just told his mom something like, like, I'm not going to take off my hat. I mean about his hat. His favorite, like, his favorite thing to do is to show, come over when I'm on a call and just hand me an animal. So I have like a puppy and two cats. out of nowhere, he'll just hand me a cat or a dog.

And like, all you see is two arms and a floating fur ball coming at me. And then he walks away and I'm standing here holding a pet that does not want to be held or is, like, as confused as I am. But apparently it's quite hilarious for Max, often amusing for the person who is watching the video. A, you know, it's been kind of cool the whole pandemic having Max at home all day. And like, it's really different than back pre-pandemic when he'd be. at school all day and we'd only have evenings to hang out. We're together a lot more now. You know, and he's not at his dad's, he's here and we're just hanging out and it's, I'm going to miss that when he goes back to school. It's going to be so quiet in my house when

it's just me and the animals. Maybe I need more animals. Maybe I should get another cat because like a dog and two cats is not enough. No, no more cats. There's enough cats at N-Z-XT know. More dogs, more cats. But anyway, yeah, like, let's get into it, Talley. up with your fascination with bagels you're addicted to bagels it's not a fascination it is just like a tribute to the glory that is a Montreal bagel Montreal is great bagels I am surprised at the amount of people who do not know about this um hot debate that has like has spread across the east coast and it's been a thing my whole life which is Montreal bet you got to choose Montreal bagels and New York bagels and the clear winner is

Montreal bagels. I even have a bagel tattoo, which I feel like the question came up, would I get a bagel tattoo? And I was like, I already have one. Both my brothers and I got bagel tattoos. My sister was like, hell's no, you guys are nerds. I'm not getting a bagel tattoo with you, but my brothers and I all got bagel tattoos together. Yeah, your knuckles spelled bagels when you put it together. Yeah, bagel with cream cheese. That's the other hand. Yeah. And then I posted a screenshot in the chat of what a Montreal-style bagel is.

But when you first told me about it, I just imagined it was a bagel without a hole for some reason. Because Canadians always do everything backwards. So I just assumed, okay, it's probably a bagel that just doesn't have a hole in it or something. But apparently a Montreal-style bagel or a Montreal bagel, or a Montreal bagel. is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired baked bagel. So I feel like the biggest difference is that it's wood-fired. Is that what it is? It's wood-fired.

It's a little, Montreal bagels are a little sweeter. The taste reminds me of, I don't know how many people listening have ever gone for dim sum. But at the end of dim sum for dessert, you get those sesame balls. They're amazing. I quite love them. So the outside of that, the sesame part, that reminds me a little bit of what a Montreal bagel tastes like. Not the red bean on the inside, but that sort of sesame crispy on the outside that's a little bit sweet. Oh, so good.

I have, I have spent a lot of money in the past year because I can't go home because of the pandemic on Goldbelly ordering St. Vieter bagels like dozens at a time. So my freezer is literally filled with frozen Montreal bagels at all times. I want to step in real quick because a friend of the show, Min says that Vancouver has better bagels. Do you have a retort? No, that's incorrect. I mean, there are some good bagels in Vancouver, but they're all from places that are saying their Montreal-style bagels. And I've been to many of them. There's one on, like, Granville Island.

They make great Montreal-style bagels. Tell them, Tally. They're just Montreal bagels. Tell them what his name is. Tell them what his name is. I mean, oh, my God, why can't I remember the name of the bagel place? Anyway, listen, Montreal bagels for the win, Vancouver. I mean, Vancouver tries real hard, but they're not as good.

Sorry, I love Vancouver, though. My dad lives there. Yay, Vancouver. It's great. There's so many great things in Vancouver. It does not. They don't have their own bagels. They just have Montreal bagels.

And you mentioned you have a bagel tattoo. I do. And I know that's not your only tattoo. You recently got a new tattoo last week. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that one? Sure. I got a tattoo of a scene. from where the wild things are.

So it's Max and two of the wild things, obvious reason is Max. And I found this incredible tattoo artist named Sai Lee here in San Francisco. Her work is amazing. She does a lot of anime and manga tattoos and they're amazing. And so I got super lucky

because I submitted my idea and she was like, how about you come in next week? And I was totally not prepared. I was like I have six months to emotionally prepare myself, but she had a cancellation, so I went in and got it, and it's beautiful and insanely itchy right now as it's healing. It's driving me crazy.

And it's right next to your Weezer logo tattoo, right? That's horrifying. Yes, it is not Weezer. For sure, not Weezer. I get that a lot. Weezer, so I have a Wonder Woman tattoo for anyone who knows, doesn't know. A lot of people think it is What a Burger? Weezer. I've gotten Van Halen. I've gotten WWE. I've gotten a lot of things. But just so everyone knows, if they ever see me, it is Wonder Woman.

I think Weezer stole that logo from Wonder Woman, by the way. I mean, because it's almost identical. But yeah, as a Weezer, Weezer fan, when I first saw you your wrist, I was like, oh, that's a Weezer tattoo. But then I swear I thought that. It was like, oh, I guess it's a Wonder Woman tattoo. You have to be. 100%. I have a lot of love for Wonder Woman, so it's definitely Wonder Woman. It is not any of the other things I just listed. And how many tattoos in total do you have?

I now have six. Six. Yes. So my last question for you, Talley, is... Would you get an NZXT tattoo? No. I would not get... I would never get a corporate tattoo.

I mean, every tattoo that I've gotten of the six had some meaning to me, either because of what it is or like the moment I got it in. And I would never do. I don't think there's any company whose tattoo I would get unless it was like get this tattoo or die. Then maybe I would do it. But mine are a little more artistic and emotional. What is the correct answer? Because people often ask me like, you know, if I get an NZXT tattoo, Can you give me a free PC?

And I'm like, no, I'll block you on Twitter if you get NZT tattoo. And people have actually gotten NZT tattoos. And it is cool. Like, I do think it's cool that, you know, someone likes NZXT so much that they're going to put it on their body. But it was also funny to me one time.

This guy, he sent me a picture of his NXT tattoo. And it was a computer, right, with like all the NXT parts. And the Krakken was installed wrong. And I was like, I didn't tell him anything, but I wanted to, I wanted to be like just clown on him. Like, you big dummy, look what he did. But I just like, oh, that's a cool tattoo mat. Wow.

So here's what I will say. This is my one thing I'll say about tattoos. I've gotten tattoos from a lot of cool artists, but I am now trying to only get tattoos from women tattoo artists. So the last two have been by amazing women here in the Bay Area. So I'm sort of tracking cool women tattoo artists. So if anyone has any recommends, let me know. But that is my mission is that the next ones I get, anything I get from now on are by women artists. And I'm thinking I should not say this out loud.

You're all going to make fun of me. I'm thinking I might get a clank tattoo for my next one. I'm thinking that might be a thing I go with. So it's a big maybe, but I do quite love a good robot. When you come visit NZXT headquarters, we should all go out and get Andy tattoos. I agree.

Tally, would you ever get a Discord tattoo but using the new font? I would never get any company tattoo. I would, regardless of the font. That font is so good. It's amazing.

Regardless of the font or the company, there is no corporate tattoo I would ever get unless I was under threat of death. I just don't. I actually don't. Get an NZT tattooer will kill you, Talley. I don't know.

It's not a thing I entirely understand is why people get corporate tattoos. That just seems so strange to me. I guess if you feel super connected to a company you're working at or a brand, but it's just one of those things that I've never been really interested in. Dennis has a back piece.

of the famous Stars and Stripes logo. You mean Stars and Straps? Whatever the heck is called, man. I'm a child to the 90s. I have a Tilly's tattoo. I have a Tony Hawk tattoo. I love those games so much. I'm not judging.

Actually, let me take that back. If someone started a company and it was really successful, I could see that. Like Johnny, if Johnny got an NZXT tattoo, I wouldn't judge. I feel like it's his baby. I get it. I think that is the only most of,

Johnny, if you're listening to this right now, we all want to see your NZXT tattoo. He actually does. He has a doco tattoo. His knuckle say doco. I was like, really? Go Google the doco folks, DOKO, and you see him talking about it.

I want to know what's your next tattoo you two. What tattoo are you two getting next? Together or separately? You know what? I would actually, I don't think I would get the NZT logo, but I probably would get like a cool poochie somewhere. Okay. That'd be cool.

I have two tattoos on either side of my legs near my ankle up to my calf, their wings. I got them like 22 or something. There's a, there's a dumb reason why I got them originally, but now the meaning is, Hermes, the god of games, so on and so forth, I live a video game. So that's what I tell people.

now, right? But I think if I were to get, I still want to get a full sleeve. I want to get a full sleeve. And I kind of want to make a Castlevania theme because it's like my favorite, like video game, like franchise IP ever. But you can make it look like it's not like video game related

because Casabini is just like creepy monsters and like, you know, do with the whip and stuff like that. And I also kind of want to get some neck tattoos. I think I want to go up that far. I think it can look like, yeah. I think it can look sick. I think it would be really cool. Post-Den Malone.

Yeah, post-Dem, exactly. And then I want the barbed wire across my forehead, right? I want to get it upside down tear drop, right? Because it represents life instead of death, right? That's how it works, right? Can you imagine? Yeah. So, so, yeah.

So, so, so, so traditionally, right, if you get a tear-drop tattoo, it's because it's because you've killed somebody, right? So what if you're a doctor, would you get a tear-drop tattoo? drop tattoo that's going up into your eye because you're saving lives. Does that count? What if you get a tear drop tattoo not on your face? If you got a tear drop tattoo someone else, is it somewhere else? Does it still mean the same thing?

Or is that only on your face? I think it's more gross if it's anywhere else in your body. I think it means something different. Okay. Yes. You know what? My brother's a doctor. I will ask him if he, if there's a reverse tear drop tattoo that all doctors get.

There we go. I will answer that question for you. Does your doctor brother have a bagel tattoo? Yeah. I would never go to a doctor with a bagel tattoo. Both my brothers do. The doctor brother and the other brother have bagel tattoos. I'll be I could trust the doctor if I saw him.

He's just giving me some medical advice and then like his sleeve rolls up or something and I get a glimpse of like a bagel. I'm like, who is this guy? Don't worry. It's on his rib cage. You would never see it. You'd never see it. Like, it's like a hidden tattoo.

You'd only see it if you're at the beach with him, so you're good. All right, Dennis, that was my last question. You want to get into the community questions? Oh, community questions. Okay. Is Dennis still with us? Oh, sorry. My mic is needed.

I had to type something out. Yes, first question from Min, what music does Talley listen to? That's a really good question. I, um. Weezer. Yeah, Weezer. I listen exclusively to Weezer. I don't, I listen to all kinds of music.

I make a lot of playlists on Spotify that are based on mood. So my approach to listening to music is what the mood I'm in. So I have like a bunch of happy playlist. I have a sad playlist. I have an angry playlist. So it's kind of all over the place. There's not one thing in particular. I've been deep into some Dua Lipa lately.

I'm not going to lie. I don't understand the look at Duolipa. I feel like everyone's talking about it all of a sudden. I think out of all the the pop artists who have. emerged in the past couple years, they're way better ones than Duelipa. I think she's overhyped. I think she's bad. I just think she's overhyped.

I think her songs are catchy. I put them on. So I try to take my puppy for a walk every morning and I can put on some Duelipa and walks got like a good walking beat. It puts me in a good mood for the day. But I also like, I will totally do the thing where I find a song I like and I'll listen to it like a thousand times on repeat. I just did that recently with that new little Naz-X song.

What is it, Montero? Anyway, listen to it like a thousand times, and then I'm like, I can't listen to this anymore. So I have like a short attention span with songs, but then I'll revisit them again in a few months. But all that to say, my music tastes are super varied because it totally depends on how a specific song makes me feel. And if it puts me in the right mood, then I'm all over it.

So everything. I don't have a favorite. The correct answer is Weird Al Yankovic. Okay, Weird Al Yankovic. Yeah, that too. That's in my good mood music. That's happy music. It's funny.

He's been around for such a long time. And my sister, she's a teacher. She teaches like junior high slash high school. And she told me one of her kids came up to her. And she's like, have you heard of this guy weird ow? He's a genius. It's like, yeah, I know. I've been doing.

He's been around for a long time kid. So we just watched. I actually just watched UHF with Max because obviously he hadn't seen it. I don't know if everyone here has seen that movie, but it's a old movie. weird out movie my brother loves it so we watched it with max and he thought it was really funny and i think vhs right uhs right uhf yeah uhhf yeah uhhf yeah yeah all right i mean it's good what else what else you got for me i'm ready for tough questions next from tweeze this is a hard one pineapple on pizza yes or no no uh

uh i don't personally like it but i have recently gotten more into sort of that kind of adding something sweet to things that are traditionally savory. Like, I have been eating pokey and always putting pineapple and mango in the pokey, and I quite love it. So, like, I'm not super into pineapple on my pizza, but I'm less offended these days by the having something sweet when it is mostly savory. But I'm very picky with it. Like, I don't want a salad with raisins in it.

I think that's gross. I'm just not into it. I'm not going to, I don't really necessarily, like, fruit in my salads. But occasionally I can find something that works. So that was like my way of not really answering that question because I know it's controversial. So I'm neutral. All right. I just made some pineapple orange juice delicious.

Pineapple orange juice? Yeah. Like pineapple juice with orange juice in it as well or pineapple juice? Blend it up a pineapple and then squeeze some oranges and put it together and mix it up. You know what? I fully am not I am not always a fan of pineapple juice, but I, I, I, I am not always a fan of pineapple juice, but I, I, have learned to appreciate it lately, especially when I'm somewhere hot. There's something about pineapple juice that's super refreshing.

I don't know what it is. It's new for me. All right, fair enough. Hoser. Tipper wants to know, because people have to wear names and change them all the time. As head of communications, Talley, do you have a fancy cell phone? No, I just have an iPhone. It's not fancy.

I would say iPhones are the fanciest. Let me just say. I have a problem with my cell phone and I'm going to share some like deep insights here and I hope that no one judges me but I have so many games downloaded on my phone that I have to keep buying new phones with more memory on them because I cannot stop both downloading games and taking pictures so my phone is a real problem I would show you but I'm too embarrassed I just have pages and pages and pages and pages of games and I don't use folders and I don't organize Oh, no. My phone is as chaotic as my house and my brain all the time, but I just can't stop. There's so many good games to play and so many good pictures to take and I can do it all so easily and have all these things at my fingertips all the time. So I do not have a fancy phone and I don't think I could be trusted with one, quite frankly, because I make a mess of it. Have you gotten into the gotcha gaming scene yet on your cell phone? You know what talking about? Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, this is what I'm into. Most of my phone. is I play a lot of the clicker games. Don't judge. I really like the clicker games.

And cooking sims. I'm all about cooking sims. Every game is like a version of a cooking sim. So if it's sort of like a cooking sim, chances are I have downloaded and played it. Although there are some like I have some favorites that I will sort of go back to a lot or some games that I'll play that when I'm really bored, like Sudoku, crosswords.

I'm like, honestly, sometimes I think I'm about 70 years old in terms of the stereotype of the games I play, but it's mostly cooking sims and clickers. I have a solitaire game on my phone that actually paid like the monthly subscription for it. It's like $2.99 or something for the entire year, but like I can get down on some solitaire and just chill. And I always win.

I'm a god of solitaire. I'm going to show this just to Ivan and Dennis, because they can see my camera. but I'm showing them the vast amount of, I don't know if you can see this, but I'm just really I'm just going through. I just looked at a screenshot in the podcast channel. There's like a million games on that thing. What the heck?

So that is definitely like, like, looks like Andy's desktop. It's just icon upon icon. Good Lord. I have a problem, but I like, it's actually not just with my phone. Like I legitimately have a similar problem with my Steam account. I just keep buying games. My Switch and just keep buying games. Like, I just can't stop myself.

If there's an easy way to buy games, I buy games. I forgot about that. You showed me your Switch the other day. And it's just like 50 pages of a game. I can't resist. I just scrolling up just game, game, game, game. I can't. I can't resist.

I love games. I love them so much. Have we started Monster Honey yet, Talley? Because nobody made you buy it during the hangout. I'm trying real, real hard to get into it, but the tutorial is just not. So far, I have not fallen in love. But I'm going to try real hard because I want to see what people love. But I, this true confession is that like when games are really popular,

I don't often love them as much as I want to. Like I want to get super into them. Like when the new, I like games that are just, I think, less popular. Often I'm just not captured by a lot of the stuff that everyone's playing. I really wanted to get into Animal Crossing. You all know Mallory from Discord. She's a huge Animal Crossing fan. I was like, I got to see what it's all about.

Couldn't get into it. When the new Red Dead Red Dead Redemption came out, I wanted to love it. I was like on a horse riding around in the snow for like 12 hours. I was like, I can't anymore. I'm like super picky with my games. I definitely, when I like something, I'm in it for a long time. Like I played Viva Penaata for I could play that game for hours anytime. If you put a controller in my hand and give me Viva Pignata, you won't see me for at least three days, for sure.

Or Ratchet and Clank, similar. Cook served delicious, similar. Let's yourself, give Talley a pinata game. It's a problem. Or. That game's kind of creepy when you think about it, though, right? Because, like, you breed pignatas, and then you feed the candy of the pignatas to the offspring, so they grow. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. Well, you can buy the candy.

Yeah, it's weird. It's got some weird things. It's very dark. You got a romance them. It is, but I really like it. I can't. I like disappear into a pinata world when I play that game. There's something about it.

I can't, I legitimately can't stop myself. And hours go by. Someone needs to remove the controller from, I need the controller to basically run out of battery is the key. Because otherwise I just sit there and glaze over. You know what else? Game, I played a lot. I played it on every platform is Bastion.

I don't know if anyone here has played it, but super giant games, that game was amazing. Have you played Hades yet? I have it. I started it. I haven't. It's hard. I also play a lot of games at once.

That's the other true confession. I'm trying to get away from that. I'll pick one or two games and just kind of hyper-focus on them because I got into this really bad habit where like, I do this with music too. We're like, I'll have a playlist and I'll like, oh, this song's so great. 30 seconds in. Awesome. Time for the next one. I'll just keep going in for like the next little taste of stuff.

Just kind of chasing that like serotonin. so I'll I'll I'm kind of forcing myself a little bit more to kind of stick to one one game or one to two games like one on like my switch one of my PC so right now on on PC it's a resident evil right the new ones and then monster hunter so all Capcom because Capcom is like kicking butt right now and that's it I can't touch anything else or else I'll never finish anything wait is that the new Resident Evil village is that what it's called yes so I so I so uh so uh be and Amanda pretty much told me it had to play Resident Evil and to play it on stream. So I, so they got me the game. Well, B got me the game. So thank you to her. And I played through seven. It took me like two days to do it.

And now we're going through eight on stream. And they're really, really cool. I don't know if I would consider them to be quote-called Resident Evil games, right? but I like them a lot. I think it's a nice evolution of the series because I was also playing through the two remake and two remake feels a little bit different than like the current gen Resident Evil Games.

But I think it's a good change because I think like that solid gameplay can't really be sustained forever. Kind of like how four came through and it changed everything. Before us would ruin the franchise a little bit because already five and six are really wonky. They're almost like Call of Duty simulators essentially

and it's really like really funky games anyway yes village is cool it's super creepy uh it looks amazing the port on PC is kind of wonky though so rip PC gamers we done lost again BC Master Race you failed uh breaking news guys breaking news sorry to interrupt the podcast but uh vroon just sent out a company-wide email that slack is down what yeah i don't even know i don't I don't know how to is it I think it's working for me but I don't know It's only down for Veroon

That's awkward Yeah I always think it's uh When it does go down I always think we should be on Discord Instead of Slack If it's if it's only down for Veroon I think I know what that means

And I think someone needs to have a conversation with him Before it sends another email You're like Slack I don't know like what it's So Slack did something With these last couple of updates Because now it's just like Like it works in slow motion for me, literally.

Like, I click on it and like, it takes forever to load it in, in chat. Like, it's really, really bad. Yeah, messaging. I'm going to message Ivan on Slack. We'll see if he gets it. And that will determine if it's really down. Not that I don't trust for it. And he probably knows better than I do.

Um, you have convinced me that maybe I will get Resident Evil Village, by the way. I think I will. We'll play Monster 100 first. Play Monster 100 first. They're different. I play them at different times. Switch games I play in bed. Other games,

games on my, I would probably get Village on Xbox. I play it in front of my TV. What you, so if you are going to play Switch slash Monster Hunter in bed, I recommend grabbing a better set of joycons. I just purchased the Hori split pad pro, which basically turns your switch into almost like a game gear.

Like they're really thick, chunky. But the D-pad is nice. The buttons are nice. The analogs feel real. It's, it's, it adds a little bit of, like, thickness to your switch undocked, but it's so much nicer to play games because that, those joycons make my hands cramp. I'm an old man now, right? I'm 31, pushing 32 now, right? And my hands ain't, they ain't what they used to be, you know? I'll, I'll grab like a bag of McDonald's and just like the little pinching maneuver makes my, makes my, makes my fingies cramp. So, We can't do that anymore. Can we just discuss one quick thing, sidebar.

You cannot ever talk about how old you are at 30 or 31 because I am so much older than you that by saying that you basically imply that I am practically like I'm basically geriatric and there's nothing wrong with that even though I'm not quite ready to feel that way yet. Here's my here's my rebuttal of that, right? You're Canadian, you guys have better and free health care. We age differently in the U.S. because we don't take care of ourselves.

So we're technically... But I'm living in the States. So we're technically the same age. We're technically the same age at this point. Canadian years hit different. Yeah, they do. It's like dog years, but in reverse. I wish that were true.

If that was a true story, then I don't know. But let's remember that I am in the States now. So I feel like once you move here for a certain amount of time, that might alter your aging process back to the non-Canadian version. But maybe it resets if I move back, which is the plan. at some point. Maybe it'll go back to the way it was. Yeah. All right. Next question. What will the role of TalleySF be in this Discord server in the future? I like I gave your whole tag. I'll be here. I'll be hanging out. What should my role be? What's

what's suggestion? What should I do? Should I just come on once a day? I can be like team mom, because that's usually how I end up. You tell me what you want my role to be and I will play it. But I'll be here, be hanging out. It's funny. I was going to put in our outline for the podcast that you're kind of like our team mom. But I didn't know if you'd find that offensive. But I, but I feel like you do have a lot of like mom type qualities, especially when we're like in meetings. You're like, you know, really supportive. You're like, you can do it. I'm like, yeah, thanks, Talley. I can't do this. And then you go do the thing, right?

Listen, I'm a Jewish mom. That's it. It's like, on some level, I think it just becomes in your DNA a little bit. And I'm actually, an actual mom. So it's over. She just have Talley answer modemil, but we call it mom mail. I can totally do that. I'm just going to the day you call me Bubla. I can use Yiddish words. I'll give like good advice on things to do.

The only thing, my one failing though is I am not a good cook. So unlike I think a lot of other moms, I do not have that skill set. I am a good eater. I enjoy other good cooks, but I just am not. So I guess those cooking sims are you, are you, are you? list then. The only time I cook well is when I'm in a cooking zone. That's why I play them.

It fills the gap. It fills the gap for me. Okay. And last question is from Kat. Can you get a hoo-ya? A who-ya? Who-ya, you know? What does that mean?

Like, just say who-ya? Yeah. That's it. That's it. You got it. There's a very good. Got them. So I have a question for everyone then.

Uh-oh. So I am, when I am not gaming, I spend a lot of time reading graphic novels. So what I was really hoping to get out of this podcast other than getting to hang with the community is I need some recommends because I need some new books to read when I'm trying to avoid playing Monster Hunter. Just kidding. I mean, when I'm taking a break from Monster Hunter. I have not read a comic in forever, manga or otherwise. The last comics I read were the Walking Dead series, like the volumes, like the little big thick books. This was a little bit before the show.

I got into the comic before the show was announced, and then like a month later it was announced. So like I'm pretty sure there was like some like back in marketing that affected my my like decision to buy these series of books. And then I saw the show, thought it was bad. and he never went back. And then they just started hitting all the zombie content. Like that those two years was nothing but zombie stuff

and I was over it. And that is suggesting paper girls. Yeah, read it. Love it. Have said Josh is saying Armory Wars. I have not read that. Okay. It's on my list.

And that's it so far. Okay, wait, can we just talk about this Walking Dead for one second? You didn't like the show at all? So the first season was pretty good. The second season was complete trash And they looked into why the second season was so long and drawn out and bad.

And I just fell off super hard. And it was also a byproduct of like so much zombie stuff being a thing so quickly hitting me from every angle that I just, I was over the, the zombie stuff in general. Like, I'll still play zombie games. I think they're fun. I don't think any game has done zombie survival good yet, but I just, I can't anymore. I can't do it. I totally had a crush on Darrell on Walking Dead, so I'm not going to lie, I would watch it for Darrell, but it is there are for sure some seasons that are a little hard to watch. There are some, like, bad guys in the show that really made me uncomfortable.

It's too stressful for me. But I love a good zombie anything. Sean of the Dead. That is one of my favorite zombie movies ever. If you haven't seen it, go out and see it. It's great. That movie is awesome. Yeah, that is a very good, very good movie.

So good. even though here's a horrible moment for me yesterday. I was watching, okay, don't judge me any more than you already have, but I love the Lifetime Movie Network because I love the trashy movies. I do. And I was watching a really stupid movie. And the woman who was in Shawna the Dead, who played Liz, the girlfriend, she was like the mom on this movie.

And I was like, no, Liz, no, no, what is happening? I'm so confused. It made me sad. But Sean of the Dead for sure is one of my faves. The end. That was it. Thanks for the graphic novel recommends, though. I see some people dropping stuff into the Discord Convo,

so I'm going to write down what I see in terms of graphic novels. And, oh, look at that. I want you all to see Susan E, who just messaged. That is my mom. Oh, hey, Mom. Let's all say hi to my mom. Thanks, Mom. We should give her a special role.

Let's make her an admin right now. By the way, I think the correct answer. answer tally was Wonder Woman, right? If you have a Wonder Woman tattoo, wouldn't you have, like, read all these Wonder Woman comics? Yeah, I've read some. I haven't read them all. There's a lot. And some I like more than others. I kind of like the idea of Wonder Woman the most, which is she was the first real female superhero that had this staying power that sort of emerged out of the Superman, Batman, all that. Wonder Woman was really, really the one that stuck and the only woman. So she had to represent.

So that is more meaningful to me than trying to read every Wonder Woman comic that's come out because there's just so many. But I've definitely read some good ones. You have to read all of them now. Okay. All of them. By the way, the new Wonder Woman movie that I think it went straight to streaming, right? Because it came out in the pandemic.

What did you think about that? I wanted to love the Wonder Woman movies, but I just kind of didn't. Like I feel like they really, the focus about the focus of her relationship bugs me because you don't, it's just too much, right? Like I don't know why everything Wonder Woman has to be so in those two movies is so all about her not being this sort of powerhouse woman, but about her being in love and dealing with that loss or how much she misses him. That was the worst part about those movies. Yeah. Yeah. And the new one, it was really weird because like the first, I don't know, 10 minutes.

it was like super exciting and like all his action and then the next two hours it was like her working in an office it's like what the heck movie is this and i wanted to love it because i love christin wig like christin wig i think she's awesome and so i was super bummed that i feel like they could have done so much more between christin wigg and like wonder woman and those characters like that could have been awesome and it just all kind of fell flat for me and i so i just watched Wanda Vision and this is so much more interesting to me. Like I want to see more Wonder Woman content like that. I'm actually on HBO now.

You can watch all the original Linda Carter Wonder Woman TV series and that I'm all for. Yeah, we're just talking about DC movies now in the podcast chat on Discord. I think my biggest problem with these DC movies, and especially Wonder Woman, is that the first one was pretty good. I liked it, right? I love the setting. I love what they were doing. But then, like, the end, like, that final act where it's, like, a bunch of CGI, there's fire everywhere.

She's fighting some weird, like, demon dude. It just didn't make sense to me. It didn't hit. And I felt like they tried to, like, make it this thing that it wasn't, right? And it's like, nothing wrong with, like, a nice, cool, simple story about Wonder Woman, but they had to make it just, like, saving the world again, right? Everything's in peril. Yeah, but could we also just talk about the fact that, like, Steve Trevor in one

Wonder Woman. In the first one at Wonder Woman, why was Steve Trevor seemingly more the hero than Wonder Woman? Like he was the one that went in and sort of infiltrated and he was the spy and she sort of came in at the end. But like he, I feel like they set him up a little too much as like he had to sacrifice for her to be the hero. And I was like, why? She's way more badass than he is. Quite frankly, I'm a little biased, but this is Wonder Woman. But I don't know. It's why I think those movies put me off. I just don't think that she had a chance to shine. I think the, the I look at the new Superman and Batman movies, though, and they're pretty dark. And I actually like the old school, like Superman when it was a little lighter and a little more funny. Like the old Christopher Reeve ones, to me are my favorite. So if they could find a way to capture some of that, I think that would be awesome. Have you seen Birds of Prey, the new-ishest Harley Quinn movie? I have not. Should I?

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more than I thought it would. and the overall like story of it is that she, and this is something you find out in the first 10 minutes, right? So I'm not spoiling anything. If you haven't seen it also, it came out 2020. So you haven't seen it like go cry somewhere else, right? I'm going to say it, right?

It's about, so she breaks up with the Joker, right? She's over it. She doesn't want to deal with this dude anymore. She breaks up with them and then she has to reconcile with all the stuff that she did as a product of being with the Joker and kind of like basically being her own badass. Of which she is a super huge badass in this movie. I thought it was really cool because it was just her doing Harley Quinn things, being badass, doing cool stuff. So I do recommend it.

It's a lot of ladies in there, very little dudes doing badass stuff. A lot of ladies doing badass stuff. So if you want to see ladies doing badass stuff and beating up dudes, which I think we all want to do in 2010. Right. Just beat up dudes. It's awesome. Okay. All right.

I'll check it out. I'll check it out. Also, can I do another shout out to my sister who is also now jumped into the Discord. Maddie Kwan is what she's up there as. What a do. Everyone say hi to my sister Madison, who is 20 feet from me in the other room because she is moved here to live with me and hang out here for a bit. By the way, I just want to say your sister has impeccable taste in hamburgers.

The other day, I was in a meeting with Talley. I swear, I was in a meeting with Talley other day, and she goes to her sister's like, hey, I'm going to order you a hamburger. I'm just going to get you a plain burger. And then your sister goes, no, no, give me one with like grilled onions and cheese and all this stuff. And I was like, yeah, that's a that's a real burger. Who orders a plain hamburger with like nothing on it?

My 12 year old does, but you're right. No grown-out. No grown-out. Yeah, I agree. She's got good taste in burgers. She got good taste in a lot of things. She's much cooler than me for the record. She's like one of those people who just, she's a great taste and everything.

It's really annoying. Does she have a burger? Does she have a hamburger or a bagel tattoo? No, she wouldn't get it with us. She was like, you're all nerds and refused. She has impeccable taste in tattoos as well. Wow. Wow, disagree for sure.

All right. Let's move down to the community roundup guy. So we can go ahead and finish this up. A lot happened. A bee and Amanda have been busy doing a lot of stuff on the server. and hopefully, hopefully I wrote this down. I literally stole it from the announcements. I've been gone for like three days, so don't hate on me.

But a couple things. First and foremost, Pucci Pals has been expanding slash revamping a bit. So as was said in the announcement, I'm just going to go ahead and scroll up here, which you should not before. The Pucci's Pals team has been expanded, slightly different shades of yellow, and a few more administrative tasks that you guys won't really see on the server but mostly stuff that we're going to having them do

and help us up be more a part of what we do here every day to make the community a fun, safe, and inclusive environment for everybody. So shout-outs to them and also shout-outs to Potato for joining the Pallas team in the absence too. So go ahead, tag the heck out of Potato. They're going to be very confused as to why they're getting tagged,

but it's a-okay. So thanks for that. Also, we opened up, we, they opened up, we have opened up as a team, a 24-7 club voice channel. So now we have a voice channel open for everyone, all time, every time, every day. As always, follow the rules, don't be a butt. So yay, we can all just sit there and chat about Wonder Woman and why In-N-Out Burger is pretty dang good. Not the best, but pretty dang good. I'm going to leave it at that.

Wait, hold on. I need to throw something super quickly in here. Madison, my sister, just threw in a question, which I feel like people need to be discussing this long after we get off this. But it is a big question. I want to hear both of your answers. But would you rather have arms as legs or legs as arms? Important, important, important.

Arms is legs because you can grab stuff like a monkey. That's what I said. I would rather have four sets of legs so I can run faster. then I can just have like my daughter fetch things for me. And then I would have excuses like to not do stuff. Like people would ask me to do things. I was like, sorry, no arms. Noted.

All right. Well, ongoing discussion I expect to see. And I think that you all should have like every podcast. Just have that one question that. There's strong opinions about it. Hot debate. Here's a good one here. Arms is legs because you don't have to worry about leg day.

There you go. Just work out. It's work out all your arms. arms at the same time. It's in everything arm day then, though. Every day is arm day. Exactly. Talley would have four legs and have two pellet arm bikes.

No, that would be awful. To work out legs at the same time. That would be awful. I'd be all arms for sure. For sure. Then I can be grabbing more cheese. I could grab cheese like with all four limbs. It would be a dream.

It's a dream. All right. And moving on here, for those who don't know who have not been paying attention to the announcements, should. If you don't read announcements on the Discord server, shame on you. What are you doing? We have removed the Pucci's Picks role. And part of the reason for that is because even though it was a community spotlight kind of role, it's also something that we, that we've kind of been doing with the pals as well. So in the sense that, and I'm explaining this totally wrong. If you want

like a better explanation, please ask Bean and Amanda. They're going to be way better at it. I'm just giving you like the Sparks notes, right? And just like every single English teacher who's ever told me, don't use Sparks Notes, they don't give you the full story. You're going to fill this test. I can tell, right? So I'm going to fill this test right now. But TLDR, right?

The picks were a community spotlight program. The pals are pretty much also a community spotlight program. And all of the picks ended up being pals anyway. So might as well just make them all the pals. And that way they can actually even do cool things as opposed to I just have a role for a little bit and I can do a couple things. So there we go. But we're also, you know, also thinking up more ways and working on cooler ways to reward the community and spotlight all the amazing people in our community. So if you have any suggestions, don't talk to me, talk to being Amanda or use the mod mail.

Actually, do that. Don't even DM anybody. Use the mod mail. That way everybody can see it and we can give our input. Be a good, yeah, exactly. Just how Nando Loris says, right? Be a good, wholesome member. Be wholesomer than.

then the most of them, and then you'll be good. Next one is check out our mental health awareness thread on Twitter. We're posting all over stuff on Twitter. We're linking it all in one place. It is an innovative idea on how to use Twitter threads. Me and I've been made it up. We can take it for anybody else. It is completely original.

By the way, I really hated doing that while you were gone. It's a pain of the butt, right? Yeah, it was annoying. I was like, I don't do this? It just got really, really confusing. And thankfully, I didn't screw it up. But yeah, just click on that thread and scroll through it. We have, what, three weeks' worth of content on there already.

We got podcasts, blog posts, et cetera. Which, by the way, we did not even get into the mental health. How Talley addresses mental health stuff, but she did talk a little bit about mental health. Yeah, she did. Yeah. So you didn't go too much deeper in it because we pretty much, I mean, we've been saying this like, you know, for like a million months. right. Yeah. But if anyone does have questions for Talley on how she addresses her own mental health, you can follow her on Twitter. Talissimo. Talismima. Yeah. I like, I like Talley's Twitter

handle because it sounds like a coffee brand. Talismma. Like, sounds like really good coffee. This is like something I was seen on, I was seen Telemundo, right? That's going to be my next, I'm just like, I'm setting up my next like business venture, right? So now when I launch my coffee brand. It makes sense for everyone. And then... Coffee or a novella, like then it's the same. I don't know. Maybe both. And then you can get a tattoo, right?

And then it's time for the tattoo. I could actually do the voiceover for the novella if you want me to. I'm good at that. I can see. Okay. You're in. Done. Oh, la Talismima.

Sounds way better when you say it than when I say it. So good. Done. All right. And I think that's it. Tala, do you have any other questions for us? Any other final thoughts, hot takes? Final thoughts and hot takes. This podcast is awesome.

Heck yeah. I'm excited that I got to be on it. I hope everyone listens to it. I think we need to have even more cool people on it. So I can't wait to hear from all the cool people who are dying to be on here. And I'm super excited that I got to hang out with the community for a bit. So thank you all for letting me join the party. Who should we have on next?

Oh, I mean. Who's your number one? Who's my number one? I don't know. There's a lot of options. It's too hard to choose. There's a ton of people I would like to get on the podcast, so I'm actually going to make it my side mission to bring cool people on here

so we can talk about all the cool things going on around us. So be tuned. Can you please convince Varroon to be on? Because he's very shy and doesn't want to hop on, but we've been wanting Varun on for a while. 100%. I mean. I can work it. I will work on him.

All right. Awesome. That's great. All right, everybody, with that, thank you for joining us, Talley. Isima. Thank you for letting me join it. It's super fun. And thank you to everybody who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10eM Pacific Center time of the official NCC Discord server and Twitch

and follow N6C on all relevant and irrelevant social media. And send an email to Clubcast at nzicc.com If you want to ask a question off the air, that is Clubcaste, L-U-B-C-A-S-T-T-com. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And also, guys, if you can do this a real big favor, let me just, bring it in, bring it in closer folks, bring it in, turn your headphones up, turn your speakers up. I don't care where you're up, bump it up. If you can leave us a positive review on your platform choice, if you like what you hear.

But especially if you don't, because we love to hear. hear from the haters or people who just have really constructive criticism. Both work. With that, guys, thank you very much. We'll see you next week. Thanks again, Talley. Thanks again, Ivan. Yeah, thank you, Talley.

We know you're a busy, busy person. So thank you for taking time out of your day for us and the community. It's awesome. Love it. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye.