NZXT PODCAST - #202 - Following Your Compass: Basil on Her Creative Journey

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

On this week's episode of the #NZXT Podcast... We have the talented artist and streamer, BasiilLeaf, joining us to talk about her journey from math prodigy to full-time creative! Follow Basil on her socials: beacons.ai/basiilleaf

Hello and welcome to episode 202, God, sorry, 202 of the N60 podcast, the official podcast of the NXC community. His podcast recorded live on Fridays at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on the official N60 Twitch is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Before I get into introductions, we have a giveaway going on for a $100 fly quest gift card for the FlyQuest store. So everyone, please stick around to the end of the show for a super. secret word that gives you 500 extra entries into the glean giveaway. So please stick around till the end. Yes, there is a Nuculele right here in the background. I'm very rusty. But with that being said, my name is Mike. And with me is not Ivan. Ivan is currently doing with some personal stuff right now. So everyone gives a prayers and thoughts for him right now.

But I still have the legendary Rudy by my side. And introducing our very special guests of the day. You've seen her artistic talent all over the internet. This cat is either dressing. up in fruits, onto toilets, or showing his butthole for some reason. She logs into League for Pain, locks into her canvas for peace, and her art single handling has provided you more mental stability than any of your ranked teammates will ever dream of doing. Our forever broke streamer and artist, Basil leave. Basil, thank you so much for joining as these podcasts.

Can you please introduce yourself to our audience? Yeah, hi, I'm Basil. I draw cats. I don't know, I kind of got introduced pretty well already. I just, I draw stuff and that I play league sometimes. And yeah, it's about it, really. I mean, hey, that's a pretty simple life. I love it.

So we're going to kind of learn a little bit about you and everything like that. We're going to kind of transition from like the beginning, I guess. So Rudy, I think we have the first question. Yeah, absolutely. I think we want to get to know, Basel a little bit better. And so I'll kick things off with, you know, how did you get into gaming when you were younger? Um, I think I started playing like flash games or like when I went to school, we still had like

computer labs and stuff. So a game I really liked was like PopTropica. I don't know if anyone played that. This is when like a flash games were a thing, right? I was a gold digger one. I see, I see. No, no Pop Toppa. Pop Tropica was like peak. I don't It was so fun and it's like I would play in class, right? And then I think the Nintendo came out or something. Like, yeah. And I was like, oh, I really want this. Or the, I forgot which version of it that came out that I wanted.

But before I could get my hands on that, I think I would like borrow like my cousins, consoles and stuff. I'd play random shooters. Like, I didn't really know even what was going on. I just thought it was fun. which then let me to play like Pokemon. I played a lot of

Pokemon Soul Silver. I think it was my first Pokemon game. And this was back when like you'd buy Pokemon games for $60 and they would come with something. So I had like a little

Tomogotchi or something that was like Pokemon it was so good. Oh the Pokewalker. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I don't know where that went.

But it was like, I remember saving up so much money at that time, right, to like buy this game. And then I think I got my first laptop somewhere around middle school,

and I started playing this National Geographic game called Animal Jam. I feel like it's like kind of an obscure game. Like, if you know, you know. And I honestly think that was not only like my entryway to like gaming, but also streaming because I used to like record like gameplay and like post it on YouTube when I was like 12 or something. Because I thought I was so good. It was the first game I actually put money down on too.

I would use like my chore money to spend money on membership. and then I think in high school I got introduced to league and then I kind of just started playing league and only league I occasionally play Osu I think I picked up Ballard for like two months and I really didn't like it and I think I played Genshin for like a really good amount of time and but league is probably the only game that stuck around but yeah

that's actually pretty cool here I'm like mentally I'm like trying to depict like the differences in like centuries between us. Because I think your Valerant is my CS 1.6. And your flash games is actually pretty much the same flash games that I used to play as well. Whenever we can get around like the, I think used to block a lot of those websites when I was. Yeah, yeah. And so you had to use like, I don't remember what it was, but it was like.

You used like a site that would like override it. I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing that. So out of all of those games that you kind of like played, you know, you picked up like Fallon for just two weeks. What were some of your favorite games of that time? I still think like Pokemon games hold like a very like dear place in my heart.

But up until like a certain generation, like I think once X and Y came out, I was like, okay, I can't keep track of this anymore. I think I'm getting too old. But I think probably the most impactful games in my life are definitely Poptropica, Animal Jam, and maybe like Pokemon. black and white. Like, I don't know. I forgot which on I owned. But those three were probably, like, the most influential games. If not, like, I don't think league counts because, like, it's just the game I play the most now.

But at that time, those are the three games that, like, really kept me into playing games. Oh, so you talked about league. Like, what part of league, like, got you kind of, like, hooked onto it? So I think it's because I used to play games that were, like, not really competitive. like PopTropic is a single player game where you kind of just like it's like story based right and then like same thing with Pokemon it's like story and strategy and then like Animal Jam is like a role playing game I think where you like learn about animals so I think once I finally got into like a more competitive game where it's like other people are involved and you can be better

than other people I was like wait this is kind of fire and like the champions at the time were like really cool. And I think I also started playing around the time when like Worlds was around or something. So there was like a lot more hype. And I was also lucky enough to join when like I think Team Liquid won like four times in a row.

So it was just a lot of stuff for peeking in league. And so I think that's what like really really got me into it. And like I had like stuff to stay around for basically. Who did you main during that time? Oh, I think I'm remained either, I don't know, it's been a while.

I went from playing midline for a little bit to support to mid to ADC. Because I played support for a really long time because I used to play in a really bad Lenovo laptop on like 200 ping. So whenever I'd press R on any character, my frames would go down to 10. So like playing support was just like a little easier because even my frames dropped like, it's fine, you know? But yeah. Yeah, yeah, nice, nice, nice.

Well, apparently, we've heard it through the great band that you were a math prodigy in school. What was that? Well, well, I grew up in like a very, like, academically forced household, you know? And I think it's because both my parents are, like, immigrants. My mom is from Vietnam. My dad's from Mexico. So like getting like peak education is like you know. Yeah.

It's a big motivator. So I used to do a lot of like it's like Kuman adjacent, you know, or like I don't know that's a thing where you guys are. Kuman is like a math or like subjects. It's like extra school basically. It's just extra school. It's just torture. So a lot of my summers are filled with like I need you to complete this math textbook by

the end of the summer. So I would do that for like multiple summers where I would just grind out multiple like math textbooks. And once I got to high school, my high school is a little scuff. But I think from middle school to high school, I was always like one or two grades above, specifically in math because it's just numbers. You know? It's like once you got it down, you got it down. So I think it was really shown that I was like good at math when I got into high school. And in my first year, I skipped to pre-calc.

And then by my junior year, it was just because of how my school worked, but I stopped being able to take classes because I ran out of classes for me to take. Like usually stats optional, but I had already taken it at some point. So like I was kind of just like doing nothing my senior year. Yeah. You ran out of classes to take. I know. I have to do that. No, no, no.

Did they put you like an avid or did they make you take classes that, for example, would count towards college? So it got a little messy So basically I did dual enroll Because my school didn't really know what to do with me So I just like dual enrolled for some random community college I was like in my area But I like trolled myself by not taking the first Calc

I think it's like an AP test right I did not take it seriously I think I scored a 1 Like I literally had no idea what was on there I was like that's fine I passed I did not pass I ended up taking this like I took Calc again

again because I was like, oh, if I could just do it my senior year again, it should be fine. My professor, I think, wanted me dead. So I dropped out of that class. I think I passed like one random AP exam for like English, so at least that went to college. But no, I don't know. It's like once I passed the class, it just like didn't retain in my brain anymore. So it was a little like useless. But I got the A.

So, you know, it's like it was good. I know it may be a little tough topic, so please don't feel pressure to talk about it. But I remember during this time, we learned that basically you had you're applying to certain schools and you didn't get into them. And I know you went through some hardships because of this. Like, do you have advice for people that were in your position, basically? Yeah. So it's like kind of awkward because I think I put way more pressure myself in like,

my parents did. Like, they just kind of wanted me to get into college. And, like, I still got into a UC. I went to UC Santa Cruz for, like, a year. And it's not the best, not the worst, specifically for the major that was going for. I was a CS major before I dropped out. But, like, I think kids, like, usually put a lot of pressure on themselves, specifically in California, because that's, like, the most I can relate to,

specifically to get into, like, UCI, UC Berkeley, UCLA. If not that, then, like, Stanford or other Ivy leagues. And, like, yeah. honestly, I think what hurt me the most when I applied was not being truthful to myself because I think I am so much better at art, right? Like, obviously, it's literally my job now. But I applied for CS because it was something I was good at but not passionate about. So even if I had like got into like a good school or continued in my education, I don't think I would have like actually ever picked up an internship. Basically, I don't think I would actually do anything with whatever degree I got, right? So I think like some advice is. College is only really what you make out of it. That's why a lot of people attend colleges specifically for networking rather than like, this degree is going to take me places because it can. But with the job market now, I think it's a little iffy, you know?

Yeah. And I don't know. I feel like naturally you're always going to put more pressure on yourself. And it's not the end of the world. Like I literally ended up dropping out. Like it's like if I had never applied to anything anyways, I wouldn't be in the same position, obviously. but it's like, I'm technically in that same position where I'm not in college, you know. Yeah, there's a, I think you kind of touch on a subject that a lot of people have,

it's sort of like a fork in the road that a lot of people face going into their like adulthood, right? It's do you focus on things that you're passionate about and follow your passions, or do you focus on things that you're good at and make your passions your hobbies, right? for you it seems pretty obvious like you want your passion to be one it's the thing that you feel like you're best at um even though you're good at other things the things that your best at is something that you know is your passion and I feel like I mean you know I have immigrant parents too obviously they're now citizens and stuff like that but like as a first and I think we feel that a lot where it also depends right because you also had guidance some of us some

other folks were like, our parents are just like, oh, be happy, do your thing, right? We don't know the surrounding areas, so we don't really know what you have to, like, what standard do you have to meet in order for you to succeed? Success is like made up in your mind kind of ordeal. So I just wanted to highlight that portion because I feel like a lot of, there's always a lot of discussion around do you either follow your passion or do you follow what you're, just what you're good at? And hearing it from someone who is in a similar situation, as some of us were in the past

as well. It's kind of nice to hear because it's also validating for a lot of folks. Me specifically, I thought about me. It's validating because some of us also followed our passions rather than what we believe we were, you know, best at because we thought it would have been us a little bit miserable on that. And for me specifically, the things that I'm good at is something that I'm just not really comfortable with. I just don't care about almost. So the stuff that I'm mostly passionate about is the stuff that I'm becoming. I mean, great at, in my opinion. Yeah.

So thanks for, thanks for sharing all that. Yeah, I just think like in this day and age, you can kind of get a job doing anything, you know? And also, I don't know, I think it's also like, what's it called? It's just different perspectives on like life, you know? Like, I think my, I don't know what the, I don't remember what the word is like my motto, life motto. So I see it.

Like, it's very much more like because life is like so short, you kind of have to make the most of it. And I don't think anything really like matters that. much because there's like there is an end right that's like how I see stuff so it's like yeah like you might as well just do what makes you like happy because you never know what's going to happen but I do know that there's definitely other people that like a little more structured life I just think like because my life kind of derailed that once I like I had such a big structure it derailed after like the whole call the college incident you know that's what I

started being like what actually matters I'm just going to do whatever I want in reason within reason no it totally makes sense it goes off of you know whatever doesn't matter to be doesn't matter almost, right? It's like the world is so large, there's so many points of view. I think it's a, when I was younger, I was like, oh, it's a, it's called this sphere of perception, right? So it's like you imagine, you imagine a dot in the middle of a blank paper or like a plane, right? It's a dark plane, it's just a bright white circle. And then around it, you see like a sphere open up with a whole bunch of lines going through. And the point there is literally just the thing that occurs. Let's say the opinion that you you have, it's life, right?

Whatever. It's like, there's so many different ways to look, to explain and look at the same thing from all kinds of perspectives that there is a correct way to do the one thing. There's only ever your experience with the thing. And that's important to highlight as well, especially around folks who are like, again, more structured, but don't see the value of like, why would you do? Why? Like, some people might ask, why would you go that route instead?

So I kind of wanted to actually kind of talk about. about that point. Eventually, you know, you took a break during college. And I know, like you said, like I think all of us have families that are immigrants and everything like that. It's tough to, especially with their perceptions of, you know, wanting the best for you. How tough was it to like talk to them and be like, hey, I want to take a break for a quarter, but then eventually turns into a year. Yeah. So I kind of like lied the first time around. I was like, Oh, I, what did I say? I think at first it was like, so I had the quarter system in my college.

So I think at first I was like, hey, like I kind of need like a quarter off for like my mental. Because it was definitely like taking a toll on me going into like computer science. Like I, it was one of those things where it's like I can do the classes. I just like literally have so little passion in this. It's like making me depressed again. And so because of that I was like, hey, I kind of need like this quarter off. And my parents are like, okay. And then once I was that behind in that quarter, I was like, oh, okay, I think I'm going to switch majors.

And so I think I was talking to, I don't know, I forgot what they're called, just like my major counselor or whatever they're called. And I was like, hey, what does my timeline look like if I switch majors? And they're like, oh, you'd probably graduate a year late. And I don't know why. I think it's because it like completely, my perception of what my life was like looking like was already like different. So when I heard that more things are going to change, I was like, oh, no, like, I can't do this, you know? So what do you mean? I'm going to be, like, delayed another year.

And so then I was like, if I'm going to be delayed another year because one of my classes, I can't take until next year anyways, let me just take a break for a year, you know? And so my parents are the most happy, but they're like, okay, like, I guess, like as long as you're going back. And then I kind of like, instead I was like, oh, actually, I want to go to community college because I was getting too. expensive, you know? And then I withdrew, I remember I was like kind of looking to apply to community. I was definitely lagging though. So I like, I miss an entire semester that I was supposed so applied. So like basically kept like adding up. And around that time, FlyQuest reached out and I like got this like opportunity at a job, which was like crazy, you know, because I think they definitely took like a leap of faith on me and explained to that to my parents like very much not

easy. My dad is someone who is very much like if you find something that will get you money, then like just do it. But my mom is very education based. So like for her, it kind of took her a while to wrap her head around. And so like I think it definitely strained our relationship for a while. We're totally fine now. I don't really know what happened or what changed. But like she's super supported now. Both my parents really are. But at that time, like I think my mom literally was like if you do not have a degree, like, I don't want to talk to you. And I was like, okay. Like I don't know what to do. But my dad was like thankfully more supportive.

So it kind of like balanced it out. Yeah. And during the break, this is where you started to go into like doing art and streaming and everything, right? So I was already doing a lot of like before college even. I want to say like let's say this starts at like 15. So around 15 was when I started streaming. It was like obviously it's like a super low viewer base and like I think I was mostly

just playing league with friends. But around then is when I started streaming and I started doing. commissions. I think I actually, my first like mini job was doing commissions for league streamers and doing their emotes. I think that's like literally how I started. And one of my big like breakthroughs was like I randomly did a forefront emote for the streamer at the time. And people were like, oh, this is so good. So obviously like the word got around. And so I was able to do like emotes for a lot of people. And I think that's how my like reputation built up. And then in college I was still doing it. So I still had this like passion to do this. That's why going into college is like so frustrating because I was like, oh, I have this like business that I'm running essentially that's doing really well.

But I can't make money right now because I'm in college. And if I don't focus on college, then like I'm going to fail. But if I focus on college, I'm not going to make money. So it was like that's probably why it was so difficult for me to like enjoy college. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That makes sense. Okay. Well, it seems like art played a really big role in kind of what. obviously where you are now. But I guess my next question to you is just how long have you been doing art? Oh, I've been drawing ever since, like, I can remember. I don't know when I picked up or why, but I definitely do remember, like, being a kid and being at home, watching a show and, like, drawing my favorite characters.

So I've probably been drawing for most of my life. How, uh, I guess how, what, uh, what characters are, what are the earliest characters you remember doodling? There's a show called Monster High that I really liked growing up. Yeah, so I drew a lot of those characters. I drew a lot of my little pony characters too. That shows Fire. And Hatsune Miku actually is a character like I still draw, but I remember being like 15.

No, no, sorry, even younger, like nine and drawing her because that's not that she was so cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually pretty awesome. So overall, you would say you probably either self-taught or is there like, routines or education that you went through YouTube tutorials, etc. Creators you follow perhaps

to help kind of get you to the point of what you can draw now. Look at the skill level you have now. Yeah. So when I was a kid, I would rent out a lot of manga from the library because they were kind of expensive. They're like 10 to 25 bucks a piece.

And when I was growing up, I was like, dang, that's like really expensive. I can't afford that. So I instead would borrow them for the library. And like so a lot of the art styles I really liked. One of them is there's this manga called Black Butler. And the artist had like really, really nice linework. I was like, wow, this is beautiful. So that's something that I referenced a lot.

There is this artist that was also really popular on YouTube who had really, really good tutorials. His name was like Mark Crilly, I think. And he was like the OG, like how to learn how to draw anime, you know? And I also rented out. those how to draw anime, like, books. And honestly, I wish I still had them because they have some techniques that are, like, super helpful, actually. But that's probably how I first started, like, incorporating, like, how to draw and stuff. I think there's definitely other artists I take inspiration from them that I can't remember by name,

or I'm not sure, like, specifically who they are. But I think when I think of, like, the most influential, it's definitely Mark Crilly. Yeah. stuff right now I'm curious though so you started so young just drawing for fun what made you want to start

like do you remember your first like art stream and like do you remember like doing it like first time you're really starting to push it publicly to people I don't remember when I first did my arch stream just because I my early years of streaming like a complete blur

like I don't really know how it happened or what happened I think, yeah, I never really know what happened there, but I do remember one of my friends. So I basically did commissions physically, right? Because I wasn't very confident in digital art, but I would like do drawings and like paintings and stuff. And one of my friends in middle school was like, oh, you should like sell these. So I actually did portraits for like 12 bucks when I was, how old was I had? I don't know, 13 or something. So that was like my first real introduction to, oh, people like pay for art.

Like, that's a thing. Because also, going back to the whole conversation about, like, education and stuff, I grew up with the mindset that anything related to art is going to only lead to failure and will not make you money. You know, I feel like it's a very heavily pushed mindset, at least an old one. So I was, like, super scared to becoming an artist or even pursuing, like, an art career because of that, which is why I didn't apply for art in college. But I was like, wait, people actually pay for art. That's kind of cool.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think a lot of us kind of grew up with that mindset, too. Especially, I think in school specifically, a lot of folks are like, if you're going to be an artist, you know, you're going to end up like on the street or something. Yeah. And it's like, you'd be having a hat. You're like, hey, could you.

Yeah, true, true. Please spare some change, sir. That's literally what I do now. But so what, I guess what, what's, what does the mixology look like? What concoction of tools do you use now to create art? Because I feel like you do commissions, but then you also have, I've seen it on your profile. You have like some, fudge, how do I call it? It's just really, I guess, more structured artwork.

It's like a more realistic artwork. And then you have like your cats. What tools do you use now to kind of bring those with life? Yeah. So a lot of it is being chronically online. I scroll Twitter a lot and I just bookmark. a bunch stuff. For example, there's like a, so for the cat stuff, specifically, let's say there's like a funny meme or like mean format. I'll just bookmark it because I'm like, oh, maybe I can incorporate

like my cat art into this somehow. So that's how I structure like the cat art stuff. Sometimes I go a little crazy with the cat art where like dimensions are added or shadow, you know, but I usually don't do that too often. And then what else is there? For more structured art, I kind of just like do the same thing where I'm scrolling to Twitter. I see something I like or let's say something is happening in league or a game that I'm playing that I really like. And so I'll just like take note of that. I have like a private Discord server where it's just me. And I have like different channels.

So one of them is called like typing. And so I'll just type like, oh, draw Kaiser with like wings or something. You know, like if something pops into my head, I'll just like write it in there. So if I ever get bored, I'm like, oh, I don't know what to draw. I'll go back into that tab. Oh, okay. I know what to draw now. And then I also go through Pinterest a lot.

Pinterest is like super underrated, I think it's because it's just photos. Like if you ever need photo references for anything, just go on to Pinterest. That's probably where I go the most, yeah, for inspo and stuff. That's actually pretty interesting because you use Discord in the same way. We would use like a task list manager or like a video list. Yeah, yeah. Like Notion. I don't know.

I can't figure how Notion works because it's too many things that like that. So like I just use Discord. Same thing, you know. It's too technical. Yeah, I have the same gripe with Notion. It's too technical. It's too much. Yeah.

It's just too many layers. I can't do this. Okay. So, you know, obviously you draw a lot of, of different things. What inspired the cat? So the cat was kind of around the time that like one year period where I couldn't figure out what to do with my life because I had like just like semi-dropped out and like nothing was really working,

you know? So I kind of was just like, oh, I like cats and none of my drawings are even doing well. So what's the point? I'm just going to start drawing cats. And I was like, I don't want to draw a black cat, but then a white cat doesn't really have anything interesting. And like I don't want to color that much. So I literally just drew, I can, cat base that I thought was like a little funky which is why like he has like an open cheek for some reason for the whiskers or like the belly bun was because

I actually thought on a lot of Japanese like what's it called like plushies they have the X on the but I didn't know what it was I thought it was like the belly like I actually thought it was the belly bun and so I just started drawing that too and yeah it kind of was like a thing where I could still express myself

through my cat stuff but it's like simple it doesn't take up that much work and it was easy for me to just like almost like vent out my emotions you know you know you went you went through the you went through the diglet phenomena yeah yeah um

the nose is it a tooth or is it a shine digla has a nose you see you see a phenomenon yeah so you you went to the digger phenomena as you were trying to figure out what the bottom I didn't know in Japanese art I didn't even know was the thing with the it's people are debating if the shine is the nose or part of the nose

or no no if if it's a nose uh-huh with a shine on it or if it's a mouth or if it's a mouth okay okay okay got it i think it's a nose there's no way it's not it's like it's it's like it's it literally looks like a tooth so i don't know but that's uh that's the basil in the but whole phenomena, which is, what is that X? And she's like, is it the belly button or is it the butthole? You'll never know. We'll never know. Did you mainly do the cat because of your cat mellow?

Or did you just say? Oh, I got my cap still after. Oh, okay. Yeah, I've only had him for like a year. So the cat thing was just like, I like cats. And I basically asked my dad for a cat when I was 13. I never got one. So, yeah.

So I kind of want to go a little bit into like, your, you know, how you kind of work around. So can you go on until like a day in the life of Basel, like, you know, either doing artwork or traveling or anything like that? Yeah. So I think I have like different iterations of what a daily, just like a day looks like. So I guess a more common one is like, I'll wake up, I'll, I don't know, hour, go to my PC, scroll through Twitter.

bit probably draw like five cats schedule those cats out if I have commissions I'll probably work on those for like a few hours um on the rare occasion I'll be asked to go into like the fly quest office for some content or to help with some content or a photo shoot so I'll probably do that either for the whole day or like maybe three hours come back and then you know if I feel like doing more work because my schedule is super loose throw in some more commissions throw in some more cats if not I'll probably just play league uh When it comes to traveling or more just like intense days, for example, like days or I don't know, I'm cosplay for a league event. It's like wake up 9 a.m.

You know, like getting ready, cosplay, makeup, it's up two to three hours, go to the event for another like five, six hours, stay in the cosplay. Like, the entire day is basically just work up until the end where I'm just like sitting on my desk. I need to watch YouTube videos for like five hours and go to bed, you know? And then on a travel day, super depends on what fly quests usually needs for me. And for anyone that doesn't know, fly quests is the org I'm under. And so usually because it's like league related, I'll go there, I'll help them with like short form or I'll do content with them. But so far my traveling days have been like relatively loose. It's like I make my content.

I help them with theirs. Yeah. Is there something that people are like especially, your audience or your fans may not realize about your daily life or like the workload you do? My days are so busy and unbusy at the same time. Basically, I have to always be ready for something to change at all times, which makes it really hard for me to ever plan stuff with people or just like in general, right? Because let's say I'm like, hey, my Friday, right now, my entire next week is free.

However, I know that at 5 p.m., usually, like, at the very end of the week, I'm going to get an influx of random stuff that I need to scattered throughout my week, you know? So let's say it's like, okay, next week looks free, but then on Monday I'm being told I need something on Friday at 6 p.m. Okay, I can do that? And then I'm randomly like, hey, do you have an hour and a half to sit in this meeting on Tuesday? Oh, okay, suddenly my Tuesday is no longer as free as I thought. And then on Tuesday, they're like, did they tell you about the content you have from Wednesday to Thursday? No, at least now I know I have content. And now suddenly I'm like super busy.

But the week before, it's like, I'm not busy at all. You know what I mean? So I think that's like something about my life that people don't realize. Because sometimes it looks like I'm literally doing nothing. But it's more like I'm constantly on standby, if that makes sense. Totally. Yeah. Out of all that work that you do, I guess mostly going back to commissions, it's like,

I guess which kind of commissions do you like doing the most? I think it depends. I really do enjoy doing the cat commissions, especially when it comes to, like, people commissioning stuff around holiday times, because it's really cute. Like, it's actually really sweet, seeing people be like, oh, my girlfriend has liked your art for, like, a really long time. And for her Christmas gift, like, I really want to get us drawn together. Like, that's so cute. I think that's the cutest thing ever. There is a point in time when I did more, like, anime-ish art, or I did commissions for people who were celebrating, like, an anniversary. It's like, like, it's. like a comic thing. And so I got commissioned to draw like panels of people and like specific photos that they really cherish of them and their partner. And I thought it was the cutest thing ever. Like it's so cute when you get like this message of someone like gushing over the person they care about and you get to like draw it. Like that's so crazy. You know, um, that like you trust me with this. Um, and I think like what else? I will say though like sometimes the cat stuff, it does burn me out.

I'm like, I need to draw something else. Please someone commissioned me like a really pretty girl to draw and I'll draw it. You know, like, I really want to do this. Which is why occasionally you'll get like the, does anyone want a more expensive commission, but I'll draw a lot more detailed, you know? What are your rates, by the way? Can you, can you say that or? Yeah, inflation is crazy now.

So cat art is like, I got to, I got to pay to live, I fear. cat art is like $50 just because I would get so many people requesting it that like I ran out of time So it's kind of one of those things where it's like hey I know this is really expensive but loki I got to pay the bills And I know demand is high I really sorry for the price increase but because I have like a actual like job now I can't delegate like 90% of my day to this you know and basically that's how I would work in the past where cat commissions were like $20 but I would spend I had eight plus hours a day only working on commissions to the point where I couldn't do other stuff. So it's like a healthier balance. Of course, like sometimes I try to work around people where it's like, hey, if you like you can't afford this, like we can figure something out or if you feel more comfortable paying and like two to three payments like Clarna, you know, clarna, but I'm like take your time for like I'm not in a rush, you know, then I try to do that because I definitely understand how it feels like want art but not be able to afford it.

Yeah. Do you remember your first commission, Benchance? My first commission? Hell no. Well, aside for the first one that I did for like a friend, like a friend paid me 12 bucks to draw them, I do remember that one. I just have no idea if I even have a photo of it or not. But first digital commission, I don't remember who commissioned me. But they did. They definitely kickstarted something. Okay. Well, you right now, so right now, demand's pretty high. And, you know, it pays the bills at some capacity.

but was there ever a point where like yeah you were just like this is probably like this is not going to work out I know we talked about this earlier about like art and you know obviously jokingly putting a hat out on street to get some dollars but like was there ever a point where you were like I don't know

this art like arts art in commission the commissions aren't going to be paying the bills neither is streaming probably around say like honestly everything happened around that like college time You know? I was like, I think maybe right before college, I was like, wow, like, I'm not really

making that much money from streaming. I'm like, commissions are fine, but I'm making like, okay money, you know, because I was like living with my parents. And to be fair, I didn't charge that much for stuff anyways. And so I felt like I was like overworking myself, not really making that much money. So I was like, dang, like, what's even the point of doing this? So that's probably around the time where I was like contemplating not doing it anymore, just because I couldn't see the value in it.

Got it. Do you feel a lot more pressure when you're, like, creating art for others? Or do you feel more pressure when you're creating art for, like, yourself? Like, when you're drawing your cat or, like, Twitter? Probably when I'm drawing stuff for myself. Because when I draw stuff for other people, there's, like, a structure to it. Like, I know what this person wants and I can execute on that. But when it's me, it's like, dang, I hope this does well on Twitter.

If it doesn't, I think I'm in my flop era, you know? Like, if I have failure, like, I can't do anything that I want to. Or it's like, when it's for someone else, like, as long as they're happy with it, I'm happy with it. Okay. Yeah. Do you have advice? I know people out there would love to, you know, draw and make commissioned art for living. Do you have advice for those that want to do that?

Yeah. I think this is like the part that sucks about freelance work. But like, in order to start, you have. to kind of sell yourself short, which like it does suck, but I don't know a way around. Like I'm speaking from personal advice in a lot of like the fields that I did like take more of like a chance on. I literally like undersold my art for like a really long time until I had enough credibility to be like, hey guys, you know, I really appreciate the support. But like because of like the influx of like work I'm getting, I will be raising prices to keep

up or like whatever. And usually, you know, you will lose some people. But, but, like, but it one balances out also like the people who do want to continue to support you maybe they can't afford your arc but they will support you which like overall will help your numbers you know like people will still keep track of you but you kind of have to like tank it yourself to start I think that's probably the biggest advice

and also like talk to like your friends like it's okay to like sell yourself you know because I do think that like some people are worried it's like oh that's so like shameless like why would I why would I sell myself to other people it's like I don't know It's a job. You know, you kind of have to. It's like advertising yourself.

Why wouldn't you? And over time, like, I did not like blow up over and I literally did this for like four years before I ever saw anything, you know? So it's a process. Are there any other challenges that you like artists, as you as you're an artist in this entire industry, like are there challenges that some people would not realize or you should like really make sure that people keep. an eye out for? Yeah, I think like workload is easy to take on but actually executing on it can be really hard.

So I think being aware of like how much work can you actually take on or like develop a structure that's healthy for you. Because something that I did that like I really struggled with was I would take on a lot of commissions and then I'd be like, oh God, like how am I even supposed to finish this? So what I started doing recently was I started taking on a lot of commissions with separating it into batches, you know, where it's like, hey, because you were part of the first

10 people that message you, you'll be in batch one that I can finish, you know, within a week. You know, so it's like one to two commissions a day. So it's like a lot more manageable. Then there's like the second batch of people where I'll work on this in two weeks, but you tell them. So, you know, whoever's commissioning you is like aware of a timeline. And also like as the person that's creating the product, it's your responsibility to communicate with your client to be like, hey, I am delayed.

Like, I'm really sorry. It's going to, I'm going to need like another three days or even a week. You know, and if someone is like, I really need this, then it's up to you to figure it out. But usually people are like, hey, totally fine. Take your time. I really appreciate the update. But it's like definitely be aware of your workload and how much you can like actually take on. Because I do think a lot of artists fall under the pressure to like constantly create that they

burn themselves out. and unfortunately when you start doing it as work, you're not the only person that suffers from it. It's also the person that's like waiting on the art. You know, it's not their fault that you're burnt out. And it's not your fault either. You know, it's no one's fault, but it's like something to be aware of. Yeah, those are all things that I've also heard from other artists.

My sister's an artist, so she's always talking to me about this stuff. Out of all the pieces that you've been, that you've created, I guess we'll go with one personal and one that you, that has been commissioned. So for the personal one, it's the same question for both. Do you have a piece that means the most to you? Yeah. Which should I start with?

Go with personal. Okay, personal. I think it's the most recent one I did for a player named Busio. Heard of them. Yeah, yeah, nice guy. Just because I think that was the first piece where it's like, I put a lot of time into that piece. I think it took me 20 hours or more, maybe more. I think it actually took me more.

Like, I literally streamed it multiple days in a row where all I was doing was drawing. I think I had like three or four, 12 hours streams where I was drawing straight. And it was the first time I actually committed to drawing a full piece. I was like a little different because I think that's something I struggle with is like getting too comfortable. Or it's like I look at something that's a little jarring in terms of like art, you know? And it's like, I just can't figure this out. I'm not even going to bother. Like I remember I sketched that piece out when I went to my flight in Curio,

which was a month and a half ago maybe. And I was like, oh, I'm probably never going to work on this. And then I did, you know? And then it's like, ooh, am I going to fit? I'm scared of ruining it, you know? So it was like the first time I really like pushed through on an art piece to like complete it. And I was really happy with it. But it definitely took a lot of mental, like,

I don't know what the word is like I have to like push myself past the point of like I'm scared I'm going to mess this up you know yeah a lot of mental fortitude for sure what about commissions so this is like I don't it's not like my most complex thing ever

but I did a commission for Emory so her sub alerts or like this little pink bunny that shows up I drew all of those and like I had been looking up to Embru she's probably one of the people that inspired me to stream the most and also one of the people that inspired me to get more into

league because I used to watch her so much and to like get a message from her to be like hey I really like your art could you draw my like sub notifications I was like this is literally the best thing ever I never thought that the person I was looking up to whatever asked me to do this for them so it's probably that one nice um let's see I got another question here for you somewhere uh well Okay, well, you do a lot of art, and this is something that we haven't really talked about, but you also do fashion. Talk to us about, I guess, the fashion vertical of Basil. Yeah, so I think it kind of goes hand in hand, where it was like, I think creative outlets are like super fun. And I think I just happen to have a lot of them.

Like, oh, my God. No one really knows this, but like before or even during art, like, let's say I'd get bored of drawing, you know? because it happens. Sometimes you are a little bored of doing the same thing over and over again. I used to be into Rainbow Loom, if you guys know what that is. It's like the, it's these little elastic bands that you like knit together essentially to make like bracelets or like wallets or whatever, you know, like whatever you want to make. I used to be into making like duct tape stuff. So I would make like duct tape bags, duct tape wallets, you know. I was also into polymer clay. I made Clay charms. I've made, like, figurines out of clay. What else did I get into? Like, I just got into so

many random creative things that, like, fashion, I think, was just, like, in that line. And I think the reason why I picked the fashion was actually my mom is and, like, at the time was, like, super, she just, like, loved dressing up. And I think she was very much, like, she was, like, the only, you know, like, woman in my life. So I would see my mom with, like, bags and shoes and I remember growing up I actually really resented the idea of being like too feminine I don't know why I think that's like something a lot of girls go through actually where they like I hate the color of pink and I'm a tomboy because that makes them feel better I don't know but like because of that I actually resented a lot of fashion I think over time as I grew more like

confident comfortable with myself I'm like actually I really like the idea of like clothes and putting stuff together it's like customizing a character you know like you can do anything And I think it really happened during middle school when I started like, I became like fake emo for a year. And I was like, oh, emo fashion is so cool. I still think it's really cool. And it's really incorporated in a lot of my fashion now. But like, you know, it started there where I was like, I'm emo now. And then I was like, wait, no, I'm prepping now.

And then I was like, wait, I could just like do more stuff with more clothes. This is so fun. And so I think recently, I, after especially my trip to Korea, I like consumed so much fashion content. And I was like, these people are so cool. I love like the combinations they have of like their clothes and like how they express themselves. And it's like another way to express yourself. So yeah, that's like how I go into fashion stuff. So that's definitely off the side.

But yeah. No, I love that. I'm someone who I feel like I fit a lot of different profiles and I'm always trying to figure out how to style things. I'm also a bigger guy. So I can like, for example, I went to Japan and everyone was like, you got to get this, these kinds of things. Dude, the size is there. The 3xel fits on my leg, maybe. Yeah.

The 3xel shirt fits on my leg, maybe on like a good day where I'm, like, flat. And I've always, like, struggled, I mean, for me personally. So I guess kind of going off of that, it's like for someone who's struggling trying to figure out what fashion pieces to put together. What do you suggest? Like, do you have any advice for us that where to find it perhaps? What to, like, how to put together, how to figure out your style. I know it's a loaded question, but actually this is a selfish one because I need. this more than anybody in this room right now.

I would say a good place to start is actually figure out what you like seeing on other people, right? It's like there's a reason why certain things like you will gravitate towards and once you figure out like, okay, let's say you'd like dressing it a more I don't know, let's say like

preppy, right? Where it's like you like the sweaters, you like the collars, you like the chitos you know, stuff like that. Once you have like a good foundation of things you like or even like, I like wearing black because it's like easy to pair with stuff. You know, it's like a good, there's like little rules that you can give yourself where it's like, I like this. For example, I like random holes and like zippers and

random things. Why? I don't know. I just know I like it. But it's like you're giving yourself almost like a little checklist of like, I like this and this and this and this. And then you can figure it out, you know? I would recommend for figure out stuff or like sizing. So something that I struggle with as a, I'm not that tall. I'm like five, seven. But for like an Asian girl, sometimes fitting into like Asian brands is really hard because the pants will like go up to my ankles. I'm like, that's not what I was trying to go for, you know? I got a question. Yeah.

You see your 5.7? Yeah. I'm 510. And the day that I met you, you were like six foot. Oh, it's because I had like giant shoes on. Oh my God. I'm like, I was questioning. I was like, am I really 510?

No, no. I also like I love wearing like big chunky shoes. So it definitely, it makes me like 510 to 5, like to 6 foot. like a normal day. It's not by normal height though. Yeah. But as for like finding stuff that'll fit you, I think it just takes a lot of research. Like you should start looking into fashion creators that you really like or that fit like a similar build to you, you know? Uh, because then you could be like, okay, they're sourcing their pieces from like here. Let me see if they have them in my size or like I feel like some people don't look at like some brands you just like

don't want to shop at, you know? But it's like sometimes, even like H&M will have like one thing that looks really good, you know? And I'm not, I am against fast fashion, but I also think if you take care of a piece, it'll last a long time, you know? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, maybe you have like one H&M shirt. They're like, sure, it's from H&M, but it's lasted in the past three years and it fits you beautifully, you know?

And I think over time, you'll like develop a wardrobe. And because you already have like this idea of what other people are wearing that you like, you're like, wait, this shirt actually goes really well with like these pants. instead of the regular pants I've been writing them with. And then you'll start putting stuff together. You're going to get into belts. You're going to get into hats, you know? Like, it's fun.

I think the hardest thing I struggle with is like different kind of pants, different varying kinds of pants. I'm all torso. So like the hard part for me when I, because I also consume a lot of YouTube content for like men's fashion. And I'm like, oh, I think the profile of every, like, depends on what I want to be that day. Do I look like a nice guy? Do I want to look like a, like a douchebag that just got off a motorcycle? Like, what do I want to look like? want to look like because I fit a lot of profiles and I'm like I like them all and the I think the biggest

risk that I take is actually ordering an expensive shirt or something that is like traditional sizing and then and I'm like and then when it when it comes on to me I'm like I am too big for this or maybe like perhaps it doesn't fit the way that I thought I would so that's like the biggest struggle that I have specifically with fashion and then also figuring out outside of blue jeans what other kind of pants to wear. Because I just haven't... I used to be big. By big, I mean like 310 pounds. So like I've come down

a lot. And so the hardest thing I have the biggest... What's the word I'm looking for here? The biggest trust issues I have is with fashion. So the size and things like that, do you have any advice for folks like myself who are always like, I don't trust this kind of size?

So for one, I like, if you can try on in person, always recommend. But I know that's not an option for a lot of people, especially if you're ordering online. Yeah. But usually they have sizing charts and something that I actually recommend. They sell these at like really two stores, even on Amazon.

Just buy yourself a little measuring tape and keep track of your measurements. I know it's like it's actually super try hard. But I went to, there's a store called Pop Mart, right, where they sell like figures and stuff. I spent over a certain amount and they just kind of gave me like a freebie that was like a role of like measuring tape that you could use on the go. Right? and I like started using it for fashion

because they will list their sizing charts and like the model here is 6-1 and wears a small. So I can like take a mental note of like I'm a little shorter but I don't like how tight this fits. Will it look good if I go bigger? And then I look at the sizing chart.

I'm like, I don't think so. You know? Okay. Let me think what else you can do though. I think also like if you find a certain like cut that you like and I think that's like something you should pay attention to where it's like maybe you like the...

What's a cut? So for example, like, do you see how my sweater is like cut off the shoulder, right? I like how this looks. And I also like, you know, that the sleeves are so big. And I like that a bunch is in. These are things that, like you pay attention to the specific item that you like,

you know? So it's like, okay, I like these two factors. I'm going to keep buying stuff that has this cut, this shape, you know? Because I think that'll help too instead of like you kind of like gambling, like, oh, I didn't think this is going to fit how it does. Because you can look at a piece and be like, this doesn't have the type of sleeve that I like in other stuff. It's probably not worth buying, you know? Okay, okay.

Yeah. I took notes. I took notes. Yeah. A lot of notes. A lot of notes here. You have like a favorite fashion piece that you own? Like, what's your favorite thing to have or wear or accessories with?

Okay. I actually do. There is this jacket that I bought in Korea for a brand I really like. It's like this varsity like jacket. You know, like, is that? what they're called? It's like the ones that the jocks wear. Yeah, yeah, like a letterman varsity. Yeah, yeah. Except it's made

out of like a black velvet material and it has some black like leather accents. And it like fits super like, not frumpy, but like bulky, I guess. And like I could figure out how to wear that thing, that jacket with like

a dress, but also dress and more like edgy and stuff. I literally think I've worn that jacket way more than any other jacket I've worn. If you looked at my photos from when I was in Korea, oh my God, I literally wore it every single day. Like, it was probably my favorite jacket. And it probably still is. I just haven't reached for it because I don't go outside.

So, you know, I have no reason to. But, yeah, probably my favorite thing that I own. I'm trying to find the, I think I do. I think I do remember seeing those, but that was a little while ago. That was two and a half months ago, she said earlier. Let me see if I could find like a photo. Oh, for example, if you look on like my Twitter. pinned. I don't know if it'll show on this camera, but like it's this jacket. I also have it on Twitter. I drew an outfit of it. Let's see if I have it. It's this. Oh, it's like this outfit that I drew. Sorry, it's so hard to show. But I drew this outfit. And I'm wearing the jacket in it. And I swear I wore that jacket like 30,000 times during the trip to Korea. Yeah, I really like it.

It doesn't really cool. Yeah. It's a super cool jacket. Good. Goodbye. Goodbye by me. I'm showing it on the street right now. I like the little, kind of like the waffle pattern on the bottom. It's pretty cool. I like that. Yeah, it's like a super... Oh, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, it's just like a super cool piece.

I really like it. You don't have to tell us the exact dollar amount, but how pricey was that? Maybe like $60. It's actually super cheap. Go to Korea for shopping. It's so nice. Oh, my God. It's because the conversion of like the dollar amount is less.

right? Because like the US dollar is worth like, yeah, it's a 1.4, which is really good. Yeah. Right. So like everything is a little cheaper. Oh, he's so nice. Just take me back. Ah, man. I feel it. I feel it. Um, especially when I went to Japan, like, I was like, oh, like, I didn't even think that look at the, like, don't even look at the price. Just just, just take my heart. There was like, there was like one thing that I saw that I love, I like looked at the price and it was the like, the coffee that I was getting from a little, spending machines. It was like 88 cents. After that, I did not look at the price anymore. I just said, here's my card. Let's just go. Yeah, just like, I remember buying food and be like, what do you mean I can buy a whole meal

for three US dollars? That is insane. It's not. It's the best. I'm like, dude, affordability exists. Let's go. Okay, so let's transition over into flycars. I know you mentioned it earlier, but there was some of them arrived late. So can you go over how the partnership happened? Yeah, okay, completely honest, I didn't even know they had eyes on me, but I had been posting a lot of art for a while. And obviously, because I was in the league scene, I was following, like, LCS at the time. I was following LCS. I was a super big team liquid C9 fan, actually. And I remember, like, I actively joke about this.

And I think they know this. But I literally was like, wow, FlyQuest is so bad, but their jerseys are nice. I wish that they would get better because then I would buy a jersey. You know, like it's something I joke about a lot. And then I think they picked up prints and I was like constantly watching them. I also at this time was posting a lot of fan art. So I would do fan art for Team Liquid. I do fan art for C9.

I think they had won their trophy and I drew them a little like chibi stuff. So I was like, oh, like congratulations. And I think this had orgs like looking at me. And I started drawing stuff for FlyQuest as well. And I think this just had me on the radar for like, this is a content creator that's like super invested in league and like gaming. And then I remember I got a DM from Papa Smithy and he was like, hey, you know, we're trying to maybe have this like creative, what's it called? Like, they were just like looking for creatives in the industry that like maybe wanted to work at FlyQuest.

And I was like, oh, that sounds kind of cool. Could I know more? And that led into like, you know, would you like be a content creator for us? And I've been with them for like two years now, I think, almost a few years. So that's kind of how it happened. Yeah. So what was it like bringing your ideas to life with FlyQuest, whether it was like the cats or any additional stuff that you've done with them?

Yeah. So I think the biggest thing was like merchandise. Merchandise was never something I ever did before. And with FlyQuest, it's been really nice because all the people that I've worked with, especially on the creative team, are like super understanding and patient, especially with my ideas.

Because for an e-sports org, I think FlyQuest definitely gets pushed a lot, at least in the apparel side. Like, if not everything else, but especially in apparel. Like, the jerseys are super unique because I think our like artists for apparel super talented. Her name's Carly and she always has like really, really good designs. But we have like trust. I think she's in chat today, by the way. Oh, I love Carly.

I love working with Carly. Well, I hope she sees this. But I love working with Carly. Basically, it's like a lot of people in gaming don't really have an eye for fashion. I'm so sorry. That's like, that's just the truth. You know, people wear the same shorts and like shirt and that's okay. That's how you'd like to dress.

But when it comes to more like, almost like eccentric styles, uh, I think that's something that FlyQuest like always pushes. So I remember when I was making marriage, especially my most recent stuff, I was like, hey, I have like a crazy idea. It's going to be really complicated, but I need you guys to trust me. And that's something that like I've gotten only positive. of reception from and I like I really really value because like they they could understand the vision or at least they believe me enough to try and you also with this you you created the

basil cat cafe uh so how was that like making like your art come to life and also having a pop up for your art so that was so stressful oh my god so it kind of just happened because I I was talking to Angie, who she does a lot of the, I believe, like, marketing, but at that time, she did community stuff. And I was like, hey, I have this idea. I see pop-ups all the time. I really want to do my own pop-up. And I think this is actually after anime Expo, where I had actually sold my stuff in person for the first time. And it was crazy. Like, the fact that people actually knew what it was or were, like, actually buying stuff, there's this tweet that, like, went, like, a little viral when anime Expo was around

where I was like, oh man, I'm at Anime Expo, really excited. And I sold out on the first day. There were three more days to go through. I had nothing left to sell. And I was like, oh, oh. And so that was so stressful. I ended up figuring something out.

But like, I was like, I really want to do this one on smaller scale, just because Anime Expo was a bit stressful. And so I was like, hey, what do we think about doing a pop-up? And then we started like outsourcing, you know, like, should we do it at a cafe, blah, blah, blah. And as I was doing all this stuff, I was also in Europe for worlds. So like the time difference was a little crazy. I'm like all the stuff and all the stuff that I've designed, by the way,

especially for these events, are all done through MSPaint. So I'm like in my hotel room on like a kind of bad laptop and a tiny drawing pad, just like sketching stuff out, MSPaint, giving myself full carpal tunnel, you know, to like just get this done with. There's like a 14-hour time difference between us. It was so stressful. but I think the fact that so many people showed up to like support was so shocking to me or even people at the cafe being like, what is this?

You know, this is so cute. They just buy stuff. And I think we did it again recently. And it was so cute because there were multiple people that came back that I knew had come the first time. And one person I specifically remember, I know this person's in my Discord server, so I don't think they're watching. But I'm not sure if they're watching. But he came in with like my sweater from the last time.

and like the plushy which like that was like a super limited sale it was like two weeks you know so to come in with like the plushy the sweater and he's coming in with like his mom and his dad it was like so cute you know because I think this is like some 16 year old kid maybe uh who like reminds me of my little brother so I'm like this is so cute that like I can impact people like this way you know um yeah if you had to do like a follow up like a part two to, you know, FlyQuest, Basil Leaf and ZXT pop-up, like what would you do differently? And what would you do the same?

Boba Shop. Coffee's a little hard. Oh, sorry, my voice just cracked. Coffee's a little hard because, like, I really like coffee, but coffee is also not everyone's thing and neither is like matcha, you know? But if you go to a coffee shop, you know, you'll get coffee or any sort of caffeine, like what's kind of the point? You know, it's not like a, it's not like a situation where it's like,

customize your drink can do anything. However, Boba, fire. Everyone loves noba. If you don't like boba, I'm sure, just get a smoothie, you know? You don't like boba? I don't care about it. I think. Just get a smoothie.

Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, I, because most of my friends are, they're like either. So they're Vietnamese. Yeah, they're Vietnamese and they love going to Garden Grove. And they're just like, yeah, cool. Let's go to BCD or let's go to whatever else. And everyone always wants to get. Boba.

And I'm just like, why? Guys, like that has a lot of sugar. I mean, like, it's cool to have the effect of like, little balls like you can chew on them um it's got nice flavors and i love the branding that's the one thing that i can admire yeah all boba everything it's fantastic branding it's for everybody um but then they want to go to irvine and they want they want to get in line to like really big i will like that's too i did that once where like i went to i for it's like oh oh b no not obi it was so one of those like irvine boba places i literally sat in line for 45 minutes no drink is

worth 45 minutes. Yeah. And then it's like that's all they ever want to do. They all, all they want to do is they want to go. I'm like, bro, I'm Mexican, dog. Let's go get some talk. Get some like, but tacos and over. Fire.

No, I know, I know. But it's like, it's all like, they all, they only care about Boa and I'm just like, dude, I'm going to like have a rant. Maybe this is how I get canceled. So I'm saying to have a rink about how much. It's just all about Bova and I'm like. Stop the boba propaganda. No, but like Boba shop and fire. You should do a boba.

shop. We. And ZXT hit me up. There's a Michelin Star Boba, like, place here in Vegas. I don't know. No, it's called Chicha San Chen. Oh, Chichot is so good. Their teas are really good. If you're a big tea person, I had Chichia when I went to Seattle

because I have one there too. It's really good. It's really good. It's just crazy that's a Michelin Star one. Like, that's crazy to think that. Because I always think like restaurants, but no, but Bobo Shop can also get that too. That's fire. Yeah, yeah. All righty. So yeah, we'll let you know about that Beaux show on the N60 side. And then just going into, I guess, continuing with the conversation about, you know, your relationship

in partnership with FlyQuest. You kind of already kind of covered this, but just in case, you know, that wasn't the only moment that you've shared with like someone who's from your Discord, who's, you know, perhaps a fan or part of the community. What's one of the most wholesome or surprising things you've seen within the FlyQuest community? With the FlyQuest community? Let me think. I guess maybe it could also be reframed as like with your, during your time in the FlyQuest.

Yeah, let me think. I think there's a lot of like FlyQuest fans that I've been able to interact with. Like just seeing how much like care is like so sweet, you know? Like there's this like server that has like a lot of. FlyQuest fans that like follow the LTA team and they're like always cheering for them. They're always posting updates of like, hey, this just happened. And like, wow, this amount of passion is like so sweet, you know, like it's so, I don't know, just like it's so nice.

And also, for example, I think sometimes whenever I post like stuff on Twitter, I'll randomly get like a DM maybe every now and then if someone being like, hey, I've been following you, you know, since you first joined FlyQuest, I'm so happy that you're here, you know, or something it's like those small things are really, really nice. Also, whenever people go to FlyQuest events or like games, and they specifically wear my merchandise, I think that's the cutest thing ever. Because, like, you could wear a jersey,

but instead you're wearing this, like, dumb cat shirt, I love you, you know? Like, that's so far. I'll be real. I debated wearing my Basel merch, but I was like, no, that's just creepy. I'm a 33-year-old dude wearing a cat. That would have been so awesome.

wearing a cat shirt uh no catch me on laundry days just kidding whatever whatever i genuinely like the merch by the way i genuinely like the merch i genuinely like the merch i just thank you i'll be finally i'll be finding complete yeah yeah it's one of those things like i mentioned earlier about fashion it's like i fit in several profiles i'm like when do i want to look like a creep cool that's what i'm going to wear no you don't know you look fire you're the cat on my shirt i'm gonna like hey people tell me that they've like gotten numbers with my stuff you know how many people like like people are complimenting my shirt at the gym

you know I'm gonna I'm gonna wear my baseless shirt and go get boba and wait 45 minutes for boba see you at seaside no way no way joke joke yeah yeah um all right so next question is is there any brand or streamer that it's kind of on your radar or that like you like love to work with next we can we don't have to go super international like you know like hip pop groups or stuff like that

but like is there anybody on your mind Or I guess we can. Don't live up to you. Is there anything, any brand or any, uh, streaming you'd like to work with? Um, you know,

I think like, because I come from a very, like, OG Twitch. Not like OG Twitch or like what I saw growing up. Like, I still really want to do more stuff at Emoryu. And like Lily Peachu,

I think would be really fun. Uh, let me think if there's like other artists that I would love to do stuff. Oh, oh my God. Surrell is, this artist for like 2010 is spelled S3RL.

He is my favorite like music artist. He does like techno-happy hardcore music. And I, this is like my favorite person ever. I so badly either want to go to his show or do art for him. Because sometimes I think he commissions people for like his album art. Oh my God. It would be so crazy to ever do anything to this guy. Well, you do have, by the way, you do have a pipeline.

You know that, right? with folks that are in LA that can get you connected to a lot of these people. Just a heads up. I don't know if you've explored the avenues, but I'm pretty sure. This guy's like deep. Like this guy's like 45,

literally went off the radar for a few years, did not play at any shows because he had kids and wanted them to go through college before. Oh, that's lovely. I know. Great guy. And so he only recently went out to do like a rave in Australia. So he's like Loki coming back.

I remember I sent him an email back when I was like, I don't know, maybe like four years ago, be like, hey, I really want to make a video with your music. Am I allowed to use it? He's like, yeah, go ahead. I was like, this is so awesome. He just responded to my email, you know? I absolutely love that.

Yeah. Probably that guy. I'm looking at his stuff. I'll check out his music later too. Because I'm bet someone in the chat commented, that's a MySpace age name drop. And I'm like, whoa, wait a second. I might bring back some memories.

Like the moment I hear like one of his songs. This guy, if you know, like, pika girl and like rave girl i don't know you had to have like i don't know what kind of people listen to this music if you're like a scene person you probably know who he is but i only discovered him like super late into my discovery of like edm and stuff so he used to listen to nightcore a lot oh yeah so he's like he's just like fell down that pipeline you know yeah shout out sir interesting interesting uh okay mike do you want to cover the next one yes all righty so So we're going to do a little rapid fire questions.

I got a list of random rapid fire ones. You could go in deaf as you want, but don't feel like you need to. So first, actually, this was actually from a chat from Bali 321. What is your favorite emo? My favorite emot? Oh, shoot. I really like a buh. Like, I don't know, it's this like 7 TV email of this cat looking like this.

you know, I don't know how to explain it, but it's just like B UH, but. I like that one. Oh, I know this. I, I'll show it. Whenever someone talks to me, I just, but. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Who's your favorite K-pop group?

Oh, shoot. Recently, it's been like ESPA, but, eh, I don't know. I used to be into more K-pop before, but my tops are still probably, like, I really, really like, like red velvet. and twice. And I used to really like Black Pink, not anymore. But mainly, probably Red Velvet and twice. Yeah.

The only K-pop group I ever accepted into my life was Girls' Generation Pop. Oh, fire. Unfortunately, they're like, they're super retired. Not in our hearts. They will be forever again. Who's your bias? In general, for twice,

I really like Sana. Sona is my bias. And in Red Velvet, Joy, Joy is my bias. What is your favorite game, outside of Lee. Osu, I open it occasionally. It's like, I just click and it's music. You know, it's so simple and so easy to enjoy.

Is Flash on D or F? F. Why would Flash me on anything else? Oh my God. Flash on D. Flash on D. Always. The fakers says flashes on Fash on D.

Flash on M. I can't even, I can't. That feels disgusting. Oh, my God. What is your favorite league champ of all time? Kaisa. Kaisa. Were you always at ADC main?

When I first started, yes, until I couldn't auto attack because of my frames. Yes, I played MF, and then I played Jin, and then recently it's in Kaisa. If Pamela had a league role, what do you think he would main? He'd probably play, like, Topper Jungle. This guy's a menace, so. Not a polite guy this one. I don't even know where it is. Would he be a toxic juggler?

I think he just like talk too much. Like sometimes you get those games or someone's like talking to themselves and you're like, what the hell is wrong with this guy? I think he'd be like one of those players. Like he's not really toxic. He's just kind of like, you kind of just leave that guy alone. I need you guys to chill. I feel, I feel seen and called out.

I need you guys to chill. He's a bit of a talkative one. If you would, would you rather jungle for a toxic midlane or duo for a Yumi main with a UV main forever. I think I'd rather do it with the UV meme because I think Yumi is broken and like if if we mess up it's like my fault but it depends on how good the Yumi is. It's one of the ones that net they basically are attached to you and they'll never

leave ever. They won't go out and auto attack or anything. They're just stuck. They're like oh you're the way at you for Fountain. Third option. Third option uninstall. I'm not touching league. I'm retiring.

And speaking of if you could delete. a champion from the game forever they never have to see again which one is it going to be probably you me or no probably you me i think that champion's like i just don't understand like i understand but i don't understand you know they need to fix that one it's it's just not fair it's just this is an odd cause of like oh yeah we have five okay now this one's kind of attached and you can't hit them yeah or mel i actually don't like me i really hate mel i know she's new get her out of here i hate that champion she is kind of she is very just right thing.

It's just annoying. Like, I hate it. Would you rather do A-RAMS forever or just rank? Just rank? Because at least you can get better. What's the highest rank you've gone to? Masters. Dang.

What season? Last season. No way. Yeah. Bro, that's huge. Rudy, you just have to emerald, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way to diamond, but masters is huge, huge. Yeah.

What the? I was grilling. Papa Smithy on the last spot about that. Because he was like, I was like really high I was like yeah, but I was like

Trinity was like oldy was broken cyan was yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. Last season I'm like, yo,

matter of respect. Thank you, thank you. I played the game way too much. How many hours do you think you spent on league total? Oh God.

I don't think there's enough hours to say like I probably have spent like three years worth of hours on league probably. Have you, you can check that, by the way. I think you can check this. Is there like an online checker for how much time or whatever?

Yeah. Yeah. If I find it, you want it? Are you comfortable? Yes, yes. There's also the other side of the question, too, we can also look up is how much money have you spent on league as well. Okay. I should have not spent that much money because I've been very, very lucky.

Okay. I will say I got gifted so much stuff. I got so much for your RP. Like some people would give me RPS gifts, right? So honestly, I've probably spent like, like $2,000 on league in the past seven years I've played it. However, however, the Uzi Skid is coming out. That is like $500.

They'll be taken my 500. I hate to be that kind of person, but they can have it. Basil, so I plugged in Wasted on League, LOL. Go ahead and fill that out. That way we don't release your IGN. And tell us what that magic number says. Okay. It says, oh, oh, it says,

8, okay, wait, let's just do this one. So 8,000 hours, right? It's 8,226, and then I need to put in another account one second. Oh, we have a second. Another, oh, my God. Oh, my gosh. Wait, hold on, 8,000, how much hours? 226, yeah.

Divided by 24, which is 342 days. And then add 652 to that hours. So I have two accounts I play on. Oh, that's like, that's like a week. Yeah. That's about a week and a half. It's just 27 days. So it's like I've had a little over a year on league.

Yeah. But that's the league straight up playing. Yeah, around 369 days. Damn. Not bad. Not bad. Not bad. That's crazy.

I mean, I get it, though. I really like this game. What can I say? I literally only play this game. Like, if I don't play this game, I'm doing nothing. I'm drawing. And how long have you played league?

Since season seven or eight. So we're on 115 now, seven years, ish. Oh, okay, okay. I felt, okay. We have about the same time, but I've been playing for 11, 12 years now. Oh, God. I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry to hear you have the same amount of time. I have 391 days. Yeah, yeah. It gets shameless, you know? League gets crazy. It's so easy. One game is literally one hour, like, you know. Yeah, I feel it.

And that's the reason why it's so painful, though, because then you're, you got a whole hour, you got to go through. Yeah. It gets really cool. It gets tough because as you get older, you're like, do I need to use the facilities before I, before I get to the next game? Oh, really? Like, do you stretch? Oh, like, stretching is always good. Even at my blossoming age, I'd be doing stretches.

You, you pop. No, I'm just like, I'm scared. I'm like scared to take a sip of water before I go into a map. because I'm like, am I going to be in the middle of a fight and then suddenly, it's like, you know what I mean? Like mentally, I'm a grandpa. I'm just like, if I take this sip of water, is it going to be the reason why I leave? You're starving, dehydrated, clicking your buttons. Yeah, I feel like that's worse for you because you're going to be like, oh, antsy and stuff. It gets worse as you age, guys.

Ivan, I think, is watching this, but he hates sleep. if you had to try to like sell and like try to make him play league like what would you say or do? There's like 160 characters. You don't even have to play ranked. Aram is beautiful. You just spawn in as five people randomly

to start fighting each other. You know, let's see you don't want to do that. There's this game mode called Prawl. You can pick your champion to do the same thing. There's champions to do everything. If you want to like sit back and relax, you can do that. If you want a champion that like always goes in,

you can do that. If you want to be a tank, you can do that. There's something for everyone. And literally, there's an option where you can just mute people. Literally, if someone's pissing you off, just pretend they don't exist,

and you'll have a lovely time. Yeah. Been saying it, been saying it, man. Beautiful game. Also, let's say you don't even like the game. Go watch Arcade and then come back. You're just going to get some random piece of, like, inspiration for some reason, you know?

Yeah. I also see you have a lot of plushies behind. you. What is your number one favorite? Oh, God. Let's see. My favorite, it has to be this recent pickup, the Hacheware, the, this guy. It also looks like he's like glistening the light. But probably that one. I got it as a gift recently. And it was like a super surprise.

And I was like, no freaking way. This is so awesome. So probably that guy, yeah. Or if not that guy, that pink one, that's like, in the middle, sorry, I can't see where I have, is the first gloomy bear I ever bought. I'll go into like a mini lore drop. During COVID, I got really into these things called gloomy bears, which were, they're like a Japanese character that is supposed to be like a PSA on like animal cruelty or like animal testing where it's like, you know, don't obviously like abuse animals.

And the whole story is like this kid adopts a bear and is like trying to like turn it into something it's not like it's a bear you know and so the bear like will go and attack the kid like constantly it's a cartoon it's like not anything like violent or i guess it is so it's not like horrible and then i was like wait these bears are fire and so over the time of covid i just started buying a bunch of them and like that one the purple one is like i spent way too much money on that one why did i do that i don't know COVID was an era you know but uh yeah that pink one was the first one that started all though i remember buying that one for 50 bucks oh my god i've just looked at up and he's like body slamming him into the ground.

Like he's punching him. Like, oh my gosh. I have like a life-sized Miku figure in the back to or cut out. So, yeah. How long? When did you get that? It was actually a stream thing. I remember I saw it at a store my local mall.

I went on stream. I was like, if someone gets me five subs, I'll go back and buy it. So I'll give you five subs and I went back and bought it. And it's been with me since. So I think it's been like two years. Do you like to draw? in silence or like with like music or a video to back? Loud music all the way.

If so the videos I really like watching are sometimes I get into like really obscure videos. So videos I like watching are like documentary style. Something really long that I could just like keep on. So like images with disturbing backgrounds are like, you know, why did the Costa Concordia fail? You know? Like random videos about like things that just happen around the world. can go into depth for for like three hours, that will be on the back. Timeline of Final Destination.

I will put that on and start drawing. If not those videos, really loud music. I have this playlist on, it's the same playlist I used to play league. And if I listen to it, I feel so like in the zone. I'm like working. I'm like, oh my God, this music is so freaking epic. I need to keep working, you know? But yeah, it's definitely the mix of those two.

Or like a league stream every now and then. through the fire in the flames by Dragon Force. That's the one. You play that in the background and you... You just start working or what? You literally get lost in it. You play it. Get the 10-hour version because like the... I think it's like seven minutes. The song. It's not a song. It's not a song more so than it is like a guitar rift. Yeah, yeah.

Or like the whole time if you've heard it. And then if you just put like the 10-hour version of it, all you got to do is like it doesn't feel repetitive. until you obviously hear them sing again through the fire and the flames the best guitar hero song of all time it was like the hardest one I remember now that that's where a lot of people discovered it yeah guitar hero

through the fire and the flames that that one works for me all the time other than good guitar riff that like so good yeah and then for me it's out of that or Emery in the back there's a song called maybe it's called flame wall. It's an Osu map. A lot of those music inspo I get now too

it's definitely because of Osu. Like I think that's why I listen at the type of music I do now. But like all of these have some crazy riffs. It's so good. But yeah. Sorry, next question. No, you're good. Macha or Boba. Oh, what do you mean? I can't have Bowe. No, you know, and she's one for the rest of your life.

Recently, matcha. I think I like appreciate like the higher quality of macha and like the caffeine and it's really nice. And sometimes Boba definitely is just like a sugar overload. I've definitely been reaching for it less, but yeah. Right now, matcha, I think. Would you do matcha tea or matcha ice cream?

I actually don't like ice cream. I don't like ice cream that much. I think the texture is like too boring. So probably tea. Yeah. What would your last meal be? I always like to hear like what someone's like last meal like your favorite. Oh, God.

Um, last. Okay, I think I have like two answers. Either my mom makes me fuh for the last time. Damn, that's so, and then takes me out. Or I really, really like, oh my God, there's just too many good options. Just give me a platter of sushi, but specifically a lot of salmon and like California rolls. Oh my God, peak. I was going to ask, what kind of sushi is it?

The sushi that's like in rolls or the sushi, like, the sushi, I think, is she... Nogiri. I think. depends on like what the what we're going for like in terms of like rolls i actually california roll super basic i just really like them though you know it's like the crap i really like crap so if not that honestly anything with salmon or just straight up salmon so it's kind of hard i don't really it's like either one type of role or just pure salmon obviously that's kind that's kind of how i do it too like i love tuna like i'll do like two in the gear all the time but then

like give me like the craziest role like this like just like deep like strip temporal deep fried rolls. I have a question for both of you. Thoughts on cream cheese in sushi, like Philadelphia rolls. I can't. Ew, no. Right?

Okay. I'm a hot on. I'm a sauce guy. I'm a sauce guy. I love sauces. This is a cultural thing. If anything, I cannot have,

I cannot not have food without hot sauce or some kind of like sauce into that. That's spicy. And so generally, I like flavor and I like different flavors. Like, so, for example, when I get a plate, You get, you know how people like parse things? They have like, yeah, stuff. I grab one fucking spoon and I'm just like, I mix it out again.

They're like put that, like put it all in a bowl. Okay, okay, fair fair. Add a couple more sauces. So I'm a big fan of adding additional things to the flavor of, I don't think it's called umami, but like just the, just the natural flavors of the things. Yeah. I believe it enhances it unless I'm like, you know, unless it's part of the experience and like the, it's like a nomacasa where it's like it rather than you adding.

stuff, you have to eat it just as the chef provided it. That makes sense to me. But if you have to give me the option, give me the sauce. No, cream cheese. It's just so weird. I had a bad experience with basically we're at Oikini Sushi. And remember, when you do all I can eat sushi and you don't finish it, they'll charge you. My friend goes, oh, I'm going to order this Philadelphia roll with cream cheese.

I'm like, all right, that's on you. He literally goes to me, goes, I can't finish this. And I look at this cream cheese and I'm like, I'm fine. And I had to finish. it for him and it ruined it for me. It is just like the tech. Bro. Like cream cheese is like diabolical.

I think I can. I just don't know why you need creep like I see someone in chat said like. Literally who did that? Like cream cheese and salmon like a salmon lock bagel? Fantastic. That's great. But like putting that with sushi with rice and see. Which one of you Americans bastardize my sushi?

Like I'm saying who put that on there? Who put cream cheese in sushi? We need a fine 1980s A madame Saito A sushi chef in restaurant Tour in Philadelphia created a Philadelphia

created a Philadelphia role in 1980s Oh, Philly makes sense Of course, that's a lot I mean I won't What's it called? I won't like I'll like ick your yum

Whatever that's saying is You know I won't yuck your yum Yep Yeah I won't judge But I will silently judge you Yeah But I will

Yeah Listen, I'm not going to take this from boba lovers What? Man, this man has no taste. It's like to be wrong twice, you know? It's okay. Now I know how Ivan feels. Ivan, if you're there, you and me both, buddy.

All right, I got a couple last questions and then we're going to announcements. Which color do you think has the most anxiety? Anxiety? Which color? I don't know. orange. It's giving anxious. I like that. And these last few are kind of like insightful ones. So, uh,

if you could give yourself advice to your younger self, you see your younger version of you right now. What would that advice be? Hmm. Uh, probably to like not lie to myself. Like, oh, throughout my entire childhood, I was, the whole like math thing we're talking about, like, the fact that I, I cannot believe I apply to. the college is under CS. I don't even like computer science.

I just happen to be okay at it, you know? So I think that's like a big thing. Like be true to yourself because like anything can work out. Do you think, and this is the final one, which is would little youngen basil, would that like that young version of yourself believe where you are now? Hell no. I don't even believe what's going on. I don't even know what's going on every day.

I'm like, wow, this is crazy. Like, there's so many times where with my friend, I'm like, hey, this is so crazy. Like, what am I doing? You know? But as a strong follow-up, do you believe that young Beasel will be proud of this Beasel? I would hope so. I'd be working hard.

So if Young Beasel's not proud, girl, we got nothing going on. All righty. That wraps up the rapid fire. Before I go to announce this, Basil, do you have anything you want to bring up? Any announcements coming up? Any events happening? Um, yeah. FlyQuest plays this Saturday.

Tomorrow, if you're going, I will be there, but don't gank me. I'll be scared. Let me think. What else is happening? Plushies, different kinds of plushies coming out in the fall. I know people are asking about that. Fall time.

Next thing, NZXT, can you work with me on a desk mat? That'd be pretty cool. I think people would like it. Just saying. I'm not saying weird. I'm not saying anything for now, for now, for now. Just saying, please, please, please. I want a new desk mat.

All right. Really, you got to work on it now. He says, please. We got to do it now. I'm not saying anything for specific reasons. Not because we're not not working on it, but I cannot confirm nor deny. Hurd. But also not happening.

Okay. Heard. Understood. Whatever that means. If I could, if I could wink at the camera. Yeah. Okay. Both eyes.

Hold on. There you go. There you go. All right. I'm going to go to some announcements and then I'll give this. code word for the glean giveaway. Bays will get ready for this because I have some words for you for that secret code word. Okay.

So first, if you are in SoCal and want to shape the future of NZXT and our future products, there is a link. I'll go ahead and send a link out right now. You guys said go ahead to fill that out. Select the guests will get an exclusive gift for participating. So go ahead and sign up. I can't say exactly what's about. but it's gonna be really dope so go ahead and click that link and do it we just

launched our new a bunch of new products honestly we have a new micro ATX case the H3 flow our newly updated H9 flow cracking elite 420 420 millimeters crazy to hope these things are getting bigger and a line of Crackett plus coolers available in 240 280 and 360 millimeters take a look at nzxte dot co slash new stuff or exclamation point new stuff in chat you guys can join the club, join the NCC club. You can see that there are some people that are getting poochy points. Basically, you guys join the club, NXT.com slash club or SMAH point club in chat.

And you can basically do quests, very simple, just basically interacting with us on social. And you get poochie points. And he uses poochie points to get monthly giveaways and free stuff. I literally, after this podcast, I'm going to be sending out like cases and coolers and mice and everything. Free stuff. It's literally free and all you have to do is just join in. So it's super dope.

Join the NCC.com slash club. Also, thank you, Basil, for joining us. So please follow Basil on X or Twitter. I always call it Twitter. Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and a bunch of other ones. Esclamation point, Basil in chat, you can go to her beacon and go ahead and follow her on everything. If you don't, I'll find you. Okay.

Uh, oh yeah, yeah. That is the next thing. Uh, is that we are also hosting an in-person feedback event at NZXTHQ this summer. So if you're around to keep an eye out for on our socials for an announcement for that. So that's going to be super dope. So I can't wait for that. I know there's a couple people in chat that were there for our last one. Super fun.

All righty. So for our secret code word, I've got to show this off on. this because Basil what is this cable management here what is this what is this here? Dude what is this? Basel. You know the PC's intact but that's all that matter. I mean it works but like come on I don't know how cable management works I swear and I was like this time don't worry guys I'll put it in one by one I'll start wrapping it up I don't know what happened I looked down it's a mess and I just have to hope to God that my house and

burn down. But it won't because NCXT PC so strong and cool, it'll never do that to me. I just, I saw this and I went, oh no. And all the like things I love it. And that is the code word for the 500 extra entry, which is

please cable manage. Please cable manage is the secret code word. That should looks fine right now, I think. I would show you, but I can't. That is the code word for the 500 extra entries. Thank you, Basil, for joining us. Thank you, Rudy, for joining me. And thank all of you guys here for joining us live on Fridays at 10m Pacific Standard Time on the official NCC Twitch. And don't

forget to listen to previous episodes at Apple Podcast, Spotify and SoundCloud. You got any questions for us, sending email to podcast nzac.com or tag at NXT on social media platforms. Thank you, Basil for joining us. Follow her on all these platforms. Thank you, Rudy. Thank you, everyone. And happy Prime Month. Have a good day, everyone.