Trash Taste Podcast - What They Don't Tell You About Being a Father in Japan (ft. @PremierTwo⁩ ) | Trash Taste #289

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

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All right, hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Tease. I'm your host for today, Garn, joining me once again, other boys. And also, we have the three-time giga-chat of the year. Weighing in a 220 pounds. 187 currently. And now also Father of the Year as well. Thank you very much.

The one and only Peter. Thank you. Thank you. I, you know, that's very kind. That's a really nice introduction because I actually thought you guys might be kind of angry at me lately. And I was, well, I always always, but I was wondering, did I offend you guys? Did I say something on stream or social media that betrayed our friendship? Because at the time of this recording, I just saw on my feed that you had Koji Michael Fox as your guest.

I didn't get a fucking invite. I'm sorry. There's only four mics. I don't care. I would have watched from the windows. I'm like the SpongeBob meme of the guy looking down and everyone having fun. I'm the loser who's in the corner saying they don't know I played last remnant. And you guys are like, oh, I don't know that one.

That is the grossest affront to our friendship I've ever fell in my entire life. What are these awards? I could hear the comment that you left on that episode. I mean, he is an absolutely good. gig of chat. And like, that was an insane follow-up to have me here. Literally right after he left the studio. It makes me sick. So I brought you guys a gift. It's like a gun or something. It's actually more of a, I'm out on Final Fantasy. If I don't get to have a part of this, I don't care anymore. So I'm adding this to your studio background.

We're going Dragon. Yes. Oh, Dragon Quest. The code. I got a great scoffer right here. Like, I'm a bit. So that's my favorite type of slime. See, and that's, and that's a good metaphor for what I thought of you guys. Just a bunch of slimes.

Just, just disgusting me. Is that how you treat your giga chats? And I don't want it. Well, you can live vicariously through, uh... Did you watch the episodes? I, okay, so... I've made it through about every 20 minutes I have to stop. And I'm just like, well,

to be truthful now. I mean, like, it's so cool that you guys had that experience with the special as well. And if it's not me, then I'm glad it's vicariously. I can't enjoy it through people who at least care about what they're interviewing or what they're seeing and participate in you. I tried. I tried to challenge you. Oh, it was, although the last remnant, not the best games. That one can be skipped. Trust me, the RPG mechanics was ahead of its time. Well, it's still looking for the timeline where it's good. But awesome episode. It's great to be back. Thank you guys so much. But we're about to eclipse that episode with this one. Yeah. The real guest's coming on.

I don't know about that. You can live vicariously in the fact that Koji sat in that exact chair. He was this chair. Oh, man, it's just so depressing. But it was cool to see somebody so involved in the gaming industry, especially one that meant so much to Joey and I. Yeah. Oh, boy, whoa.

Sorry. I'm getting into it. I'm getting into it. But that was very cool. And I hope that if you haven't seen that episode yet, go watch it. Especially as a JRP fan. If you like JRP. It's 100%.

It's really insightful. Yeah, I thought it was very educational. And I can't wait to finish it every time I break my desk and half at home. But yeah, that was great. But I'm glad to be here. But yeah, how are you been? What was the last time you came on was?

Early this year? Or late last year? I think. We have you on at least once a year now. I look by how much weight I've gained in each thumb now. And I'm like, oh, that was when I was fattest. So it feels like around the new year, I guess. I think it was the new year.

Yeah, it was. I think it was the first episode of the year. Yeah, first episode of this year. Okay, so I have, so, okay, so let's see. We did generational Welsh. We did generational. That was amazing. We had the cyclathon.

Another million dollars raised. That was awesome. I'd say I did the heavy lifting and we had a child in my family. Yeah, I was going to say, I was like, there's one big thing. Yeah. How could I figure, Bon. There we go. That's my child.

So yeah, that is the highlight of not just my, like my year or, because I was Umamousou may, but, uh, no, I'm kidding. The highlight of my life. It was, was definitely. Yes. How is it being a father? Well, it's unlike anything that I, thought I, like, any expectations I had or any anticipatory, like reading I did,

nothing, and I mean nothing prepares you for what it's like to be. And there's no advice that I've, I've been told a lot of great things by fathers and, like, you know, fatherly figures, here's what's to expect or don't worry about this. It's all out the window when you have a living, crying, screaming, pooping baby who's, and I'm talking about my wife still, and that was, I'm kidding. love you, honey. Don't get bad at that. I was just making a joke. So when you have like this, this thing that is, that is so important. And it's awesome to share it with my wife and like, it's been, it's been crazy. Four months old, um, about a week ago. Four months. Damn.

I think of time of this recording. It's been four months. It's been four months. It's been, well. It's going quick for us. I'm sure it's going quick for you as well. It's been pretty easy being a friend of a dad. Yeah. Honestly, it's been easy being a dad. I left for L.A. for like two weeks. And I was like, oh, you got it. But could you please change that picture? If I have to keep looking at myself as like baby driving for two to half hours, I'm going to throw up. Okay, thank you. So it's been cool.

Time goes by fast. But what's most astonishing is how rapidly he is learning and like growing up. And it's all happening so quickly that I try to capture it with physical media pictures and videos. Yeah. And it's happening way too fast. What's been the biggest thing to surprise you about fatherhood so far? Like, I genuinely did not, this is going to sound worse than how it feels. But I did not know I could care and love something this much.

And it sounds like you don't love your child. I cannot begin to describe to you like, I will go. out of my way to just steal a glance and see if he's resting peacefully or nothing is better ever than waking up in the morning because I wake up a little after he does. By a little, I mean about four hours ago. And he's in the living room and I'll walk in there and he'll hear me before he sees me and he'll start looking for my voice. And then when he sees me, he does this, he does the same thing. He doesn't have any teeth, of course, but he'll go like, and he'll look down enough and start smiling and he's so excited to see his dad.

And I did all the silly bullshit that they told me in the hospital training classes where when my wife was pregnant, I was like talking to her tummy. And like I was like, Papa dao, papa dao. Papa dao. Oh, most mozmoosh. I was like, this shit's lame as hell. But then when he was born, the fact that he does know my voice. And remembered that.

I was like, it's legit. It's legit. So I would say I've, I've had pets, of course, that I love deeply. And I like, but we have this special bond. And it's a big responsibility. So the fear of just, hey, look, I've made a ton of mistakes, but I want to do right by this guy. I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind who watches the show and knows you that.

You're like, you're going to be great. Well, right now I'm useless vestige. I just stand and watch. But my time I know is coming in about four months when he starts crawling and I get to be like, you know, because right now he doesn't like when I read stories. I mean, I'm a man of three voices. I do about three different voices.

I'm being honest. And I was reading him a book the other day because it was my very first time of being alone with him because my wife had to go to like a clinic or something like that. Yeah. And it just so had it was the day after he got his vaccination. So he has a little bit of a fever. I only have to do this for four hours.

The minute the door shuts, within a second, he starts screaming. And I'm like, where's mom? I don't like this. I want to have milk. And I'm like, I can't help on any of these things. I just, so I was like, I'll read him some stories. So I had this ABC book And each letter has like a little vignette of like a character's soul story

It'll be like aunt Ali's alligators are awesome And it says at the beginning is showing him the different alphabets of little A and big A This is the first fucking letter And I went, little lay He hated that shit He absolutely And then I thought well no he didn't hate it So I went big A

Even worse screaming. So for the next four hours, every 20 minutes, I, well, this is either... Tough crowd. Well, very tough. I was either torturing him or I was confirming, but like every 20 or 30 minutes,

we'd be doing something better and he'd get a little bit calmer. And I'd just be like, oh, look, it's Elmo and Sesame Street. Little Leigh. Crying again. I was like, it is me. Damn, he hates one of my... Dude, you're going to give him like a horrible Pavlovian. I know, yeah, no.

He'd be like, ten years old. You'd just be like, Lulae. be like, I couldn't believe it. And so, but I've been trying to slip it in during, I'll say like, trying to make it work. I'm like, I have got to make little A work. It's the first line of the book. It's like broccoli.

He'll get over it. He'll learn to love it. I get 33 years old. I finally enjoy it. But we have all these games where I go like, we're singing songs and swinging his feet. And then I go like, Itidakimas. And I read. And then I tickle him and stuff.

But now I'm going like, you to dookibu? And he'll be like, not crying yet, but it's only the little A and big A. So other than that, you know, that day together was so brutal. But spending time with them getting to learn the ropes of fatherhood. And it's been a real treat that I hope that you all get to enjoy. And I don't mean just taking care of Connor. What the fuck. That's just, you're the youngest.

That was in the alley-you, I got the dunk on. Fair enough. I had to go for an easy one. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. I'm surprised the kid's not already level 90 in Final Fantasy 11. Like, you're probably like, Papa's leveling your account, kiddo. But don't worry, you're going to do this?

The real question is, okay, what's the plan in terms of what are you going to introduce him to? So we're going to, so it's tough. I have two thoughts of this. And I'd like to get your guys' opinions. Okay, okay, sure. So my initial thought, let's say plan A, was, I will, around the age of three or four,

which is when I remember started playing video games. And that's when the Atari and the Famicom or the Nintendo came out. I was thinking around three or four, I could start him with an original Nintendo. And we can kind of expedite the process and say, well, this is where games came from. Here are some fun ones that I want you to like mess with the cartridges and play. It's only two buttons.

Here's Super Nintendo, N64, Sega PlayStation. So doing a speed run. Speed running all of the classics, trying to choose three to four games per console. and see what clicks in his head. See what he enjoys. Now, plan B is that he knows that I will be streaming and I'm playing new games and I have a huge TV.

It's not a CRT 17 inch big screen. Yeah. It is very big. I mean, like, you know, for an American, they're like, you got that for free as like a McDonald's ad on? It's like a small television because they're like, I don't have any money. It literally is your wall.

It takes up. It's a big wall. It's a big wall. It's a big wall. It's a big wall. It's a big wall. I built the wall. And then the worst part is I have this massive TV and I bought like a sound bar and some speakers.

The very first time I watched like any sort of movie, the neighbors came by and said it's too loud. So now I have this mega screen and I listened to like eight volume. And I'm like, this is a B. Eight volume subtitle. I can't hear shit. So plan B is that he can organically feel. find the things that are out and that other kids are playing. Obviously, it lends itself towards whatever K-pop Demon Hunter or Roblox or Fortnite or

whatever people are playing. Does you say Roblox? Roblox. Is that not the name? Roblox. I think it's RO is where you cut it off. Roblox. Roblox.

So it's Roblox. You can become very familiar with this very soon. Just take the card here. So Roblox, Roblox, they're robbing us blind, whatever it is. So like, now those are the two plans. And I think I'm leaning towards plan A, like to show these things. But then I thought, this is kind of selfish of me to force upon the things that I think are really cool and say, I want you to enjoy the things that I liked growing up. But I found those things that I like growing up by myself.

Right. And so I'm trying to, I'm six or seven different. I think you can just, you know, introduce. Okay. Oh, fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you for that. Okay.

Here's a little, though. Like everyone, everyone, everyone grew up and everyone found their own taste and what they enjoy. But, you know, you sometimes have fun memories of the movies and the music that your dad's or your parents listen to. You might not enjoy it yourself as much as they did, but you have fun memories of your dad kind of like. introducing you to this thing. Sure. Man, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The earliest memory for me, for example, right, is like my dad, you know, born in the

60s, obviously grew up with a lot of 60s 70s music. So he would naturally just be playing the music that he listened to when he was like in his teens, so like, you know, Led Zeppelons and the Black status and stuff like that. The youngest, like, existing video of me is when I was about one years old and I just learned how to start walking. And it's this video of me dancing to, uh, she's so hot by the Rolling Stones. And like, my dad was just like, look at this. My son. That's how I know he's my son. And like, he never like forced it upon me. Like my dad would just listen to it because that's what he enjoyed doing it. But like I responded it to it in my own way. And then after that, my dad would kind

of nudge me in that direction, but never force it upon me. I think that's why I like beer. I was like, this is the same side. I live to my life to my life to my dad. I would have to my dad. I would kind of I said. Like, these are the baby ones. I've been showing them these already. Yeah, these are the size. You know, that's a good point. And I did, I, I've been told by, like, good authority and, like, a lot of people in my life that,

for better or for worse, like, my son, I will be his only real friend for his first, like, three or four years. Like, he'll have friends at school and daycare. But everything that he's seeing day to day will be what his dad does. It's why I love baseball. It's why I love movies. Yeah. But I guess it's time for me to, oh, yeah, like, I'm like, yeah, I guess I'll go back to the retro games if I have to.

I did that shit anyway. So, like, yeah, I think plan A then. Give them the physical media. I'd say just like place it in front of him and see. In his hand? Yeah. Yeah, just place it in front of him and then see how he reacts to it. Oh, yeah.

You know, I think he's ready the moment he can navigate Mughal Station. Oh, yeah. Oh, 27. Like, I did, like, that is the... He's ready. He's your own. He's going to university. Yeah. And getting his degree.

I'll tell you that, though. It's, uh, it is, I'm really much looking forward to a lot of the two-player games then. Yeah. Yeah. Couch co-op, as we used to call it. And so, uh, or the land shit. And so that's going to be something I'm, I'm very excited about. I'm also, I'm really, um, looking forward to just whatever he's into, I want to also be into.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, they have that thing that they do in, In Asia, I've heard of it. I'd never heard of this in America. So it could be European as well. They'll put like eight different items out. It'll have like a paintbrush, money, chopsticks or like these different.

And the baby will crawl to one and they'll be like, that's what he's inclined to. I think I just might put all final fantasies. It's like a sorting hat. You never heard of this? It's like a fun little tradition. It's not, it's not serious.

So if he reaches for the paintbrush, she's kind of like an artistic soul. And it's like this fun thing. And it's like a little moment. Like a little horoscope kind of. I'm literally just putting Final Fantasy 1 through 7 and be like, choose wisely. No, no, no, no, you got to give him like different genres of games. You know?

And you're like, oh, you're going to be, you're going to be that kind of game. When he picks some card, you're like, if he touches League of Legends, I'm like disowning. This is no son of mine. This is not, although fake are my goat. So just saying, faker my goat. You don't even know. He's on S-1. I just say in T4.

He's a six-time world champion now. Six-time world champion. And that's the first one. They got the three-peat. And as a three-peat guy myself, it's not easy to go back to back-to-back. But I'm going to, I think my son's first words might be like, fake ah.

So we'll be playing highlights for him. But yeah, that's been a lot of the things I'm gearing up for is trying to find a fun CRTV and have like a retro area. Does that have to be CRT or? You want the entire field. It does. I mean, if you try and put these older consoles on it doesn't look good. I bought two CRTs for a reason. Yes.

It just looks bad. I mean, you've also been playing a lot of retro games recently. Yeah, yeah. And I always apply a CRT filter now that I learned how. But like, it just because it smooths out the pixels to make it look, that's how they're designed to look anyway, was based on these televisions. The other thing that I've really come to recognize as like an old now is that, you know, we have these cool streaming services. You've got Netflix and crunchy roll and you

have iTunes and whatever, Spotify. All these things are at your disposal instantaneously. And then I was on my way here today and I was thinking how much I enjoyed, through lack of a better word, the struggle of like, I have a CD Walkman that has four hours on a battery and I'll bring maybe a CD that's in there. And I'll try to listen. It'll be skipping. It'll be, but just having the physical media, going over to someone's house and seeing which games they've got and that's all we can choose from tonight. I want him to understand that value

even just a little bit because I feel like the paralysis decision mode of like, here's every Steam library. Here's every Steam game I own, pick one. It's better to play Castlevania's first two stages and be like, this game sucks, I can't beat it. But that's all I have, so I'm going to keep playing it.

And so that's the kind of I guess I'm just torturing myself. But like, he'll be little A in no time. So, I mean, I mean, I have a nephew who is like, very limited in terms of, like, the choice that he has, at least, like, early in, like, the first few years of his life. Because I think my cousins told me that, and I kind of agree with this, where he has his whole life, like, type of an iPad and have the internet and have instant access to everything that he can have access to. You know, we feel like with the first few years of his life, at least he will, he can remember a time when instant access isn't always a thing and a commodity that you always grew up with and learn from the first time you have just memories, I guess.

It's a very tough, and in that same vein, it's very hard for me. I just want to give everything to him. Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't dress cool or have nice things. I collect records for Christ's sake. But that's cool. It is cool, but it's like, I'm definitely on my third midlife crisis. Like, I'm fully entrenched.

But the only thing I'm missing is like a Lamborghini or something. But, like, I just feel like I have a big of course is start a baguini. What do you do with a Lamborghini? Pick up chicks. That's what you get a Lamborghini for. You drive it slow because I'm afraid of crashing it. But you're like, you know, so I settled for records and like, you need clothes sweaters. And so I'm okay with that.

Like I like that aspect. But now I have to resist the temptation to give him everything he could ever desire so that he can learn those valuable lessons. Totally. So we learned them because we were poor. So we couldn't have everything. So that was... But I feel that's a good mentality because like I think what's the best part about like

at least when we were growing up and we had that like in terms of games, for example, right? You didn't just have like a steam library of like a. games or whatever you had maybe, I don't know, an N64, maybe like three to five games at most. Sure. I'd get like a game or two for Christmas tops. I had to be sure I wanted those games. Yeah, but I think... I remember picking a game that I did not like and I was like...

Oh, that's the worst. That's your sophomore year. That's like three months. You're locked into this game. That's why you started working at McDonald's. Yes, because I was like, I need money. I need to get out of this house. But I think for better or worse, regardless of if it is like, you know, that one game that

was just like life-changing or if it's the one game then you were just like oh fuck i'm stuck with this for three months that just builds such core memories for that it does it absolutely does like you that that will be the one thing that you know your son will in like 20 years time being like yeah i remember like i only had these three games that my dad showed me growing up and they were the best fucking moments ever even if they weren't necessarily the best games ever dude well well ralcker's a tycoon too on PC. Oh, bang. I'm not giving him a PC until he's 21. That was like, that was like awesome. That was like everything. Yeah, that was, yeah. I mean, when you find that one that has the gameplay loop. He's going to get a PC. I know. He's going to find a way. When he's one month old,

he already has two. I gave him like a, everyone has phones now, right? It's just like, it's kind of like, you don't need to get the PC. They've got everything in that in that thing. You can emulate all these things. Gosh, I was at, I was at TwitchCon recently. And there was a guy who was playing on his phone. I was, and he was a friend of mine. And I, because he's older. So I was like, there's no way you're playing like, you know, heavenly goddess for some sort of like gotcha game. He's like, nah, I installed a retro app that's like a Game Boy Advance. And I'm playing Mother 2. And I was like, okay.

So I didn't know that existed. Yeah. How much does it cost and how do I get it? And so, you know, I mean, you're right, though. It's all right there. It's all in. But this is something I fondly write all this down. So in 10 years when we do a reunion episode, I'll be like,

I don't know what happened. He hates games and loves anime. I hate you guys. And I get like, I lash out that he's, he's not at all, but anything he likes. I really enjoy when we do,

when we play games, you always have such, I mean, because you're, you're one of the OG gamers. You're like an extinct breed. Well, yes,

I'm an endangered species. You're endangered species. Yeah. Like, there's not a lot of people who were so into gaming back then who kept up with it. And also are able to,

like, are excited to share about it because they'll be like, yeah, because, you know, sometimes I'll talk people who are at 40-year-old and they'll be like, yeah, I played this Domitari game back then. It's like, no, that's so cool. You were there. Day one. Day one. Like, you could have told what everyone felt about this game at the time and like this. And I love that when we talk about Final Fantasy, you'll tell me not just about the game, but like what people were talking about, what people were excited about at the time. And this, I think for anime, it's what we love doing as well. It's like, talking about the vibe of when this anime came out. Yeah, what the cultural

was like, why people were talking about. The show is so impactful. Yeah. It's a really good point. Yeah. It's really cool because I feel like it's, for gaming, it's been long forgotten. Well, I think a nice parallel to manga especially, or possibly enemy, I don't really watch a lot of it, obviously. But is that in the old days, you know, now we wait six or seven years for a new iteration of a final fantasy or not called duty.

That's like every two weeks. But like games that we like, like, the next souls like is who knows when. Blood-born fans have been waiting for years, like a decade. GTA 6 has been like a decade or 15 years in like it's delayed again Delayed again Yeah When I was in high school or middle school We had you know video game magazines

We've talked about this before But yeah The month to month previews of little tidbits of information Is kind of similar to you get your weekly shown in magazine Where you get to see a little bit more each week So it remains relevant in conversation Yeah As opposed to now where I'm like well Final Fantasy 17 is coming out

Someday but the old Final Fantasy 6, which is our favorite, or one of them, was only like two or three years in between seven, which is unconsciousable to think about now. Yeah, I think it was a year before that Chronic trigger came out as well. 95, I think was Final Fantasy 6, 96 was Cronotrigured, 97 was. Insane. Generational run. It's like, and then Final Fantasy 8 was like two years after that. Final Fantasy 9 was 2001.

And you have, okay, so Crunchy was 95. So Final Fantasy 6 was 94. 94, yeah. Yeah. So only a year between these, but it felt like it was a lot to talk about. We were waiting because originally Final Fantasy 7 was an N64 game. And they had the prototype images that I don't know if you can show. Can you look up Final Fantasy 7 in 64?

Because this is cool. Oh, yeah, and the size couldn't fit on the 64 cards. No, I think they were disappointed with the music chip and its potential, like, graphics. But this, the second picture there, they did a mockup, which is actually Final Fantasy. six characters as like what? Well, they would look like a 3D on the old. Oh, cool. And so we would get that image first.

And then when news broke, that SquareSoft had left Nintendo, which was like the reason I owned a Super Nintendo and went to PlayStation, I was like, Sony day one, that's always been my goal. I never liked Nintendo. I hate Nintendo. All my homies hate Nintendo. And so I jumped ship to Final Fantasy. and like, you know, but that was still

all that news, all that anticipation. The demo for Final Fantasy 7, I believe was on a game I bought called like Toll Ball Number 1 or some shit. It's a crappy game. And it, it, sole purpose was it came with

the intro to Final Fantasy 7, the bombing run. Right. So all of this was all, like, in a year or two. But it felt like months and months and months. Like when manga, you can't wait for the next, just months.

issue to talk about and to buy them. Yeah. I'm getting way too excited. That's great. I'm getting angry about this Koji Michael Foxy again. Do you remember the console war? Of course. Yeah. There's been several. Yeah. Sega does what Nintendo don't. Yeah. That was a cool slogan.

Yeah. The, yeah, the Sega Nintendo one originally. Then Mario and Sonic. Yeah. Of course. Of course. Everyone needed to pick aside. Well, I was thinking about this the other day. It's crazy. If you look at a lot games that came out in 92, 93, 94, like on these

early Genesis or Master Drive systems and Super Nintendo. A lot of them on the packaging will say like 16 megs of power. And I'm like, fuck yeah. Bitch. I have no idea what that means. But like every kid knew that phrase.

Or like the Sony PlayStation was 32 bits. And now the N64, which is why it's called the 64 is 64 four bits. I still have no idea what a bit is. Like, I should know. But like, but these were, you know, lines drawn in the sand. Yeah. But, you know, Sony's using a proprietary system called a CD. Which was crazy. Like, what? And so, like, but this means we can have richer music and voice acting, but the cartridges load faster. But, like, we had all these different arguments.

And then, you know, if you imagine it like a food pyramid, the N64s kind of has some really great timeless, very, still to this day, like Mario 64, Smash, Banjo Cazui. Like a lot of these games still are relevant. Legendary. Really still very good. And the PlayStation was more innovative and allowed for greater customization. But I don't think they're quite as playable for like today's. Yeah, PSM1 games are rough. They're pretty tough.

Even on the emulator, it's like, oh. It's not right. nasty. But like those wars were like at school. You were a Nintendo kid until you switched to being a Sony kid. Well, I was originally a Nintendo. And then I, I, I, my mom, I, she bought me a Sega CD. But I didn't have a Genesis, which you had to connect them to. Did you ask for a Sega CD? I asked for even worse, an Atari Jaguar, which it's the worst fucking thing. But I mean, that thing ate through batteries. Like you'd go, you'd go poor and dumbing. A Jaguar was, the their home console.

Oh, sorry. I think you meant the, the one that was the links or something like that. Yeah, the links that required like and double the battery. Look at this. Look at this controller though.

I love the. Games were on this that you asked for this one specifically. What? They're only like 20 games. Yeah. So like I said, my son's already smarter than I am.

But to connect this to why I chose it, I was living, it was just back in like 1992. 92 around that time. There was a place called Hastings, which is an electronic store. The famous battle at Hastings. It's also a town in the UK. 1066.

Battle of Hastings. Battle of Hastings. I was having an internal battle at Hastings. Which consular to buy it, because at this particular Hastings, which was about a 15-minute walk from my house. And it was right near a supermarket where I could buy a 12-pack of soda. And then I would go to this Hastings, as soon as they opened on Saturday.

And they had two giant pillars. And on each pillar, there was four consoles that had rotating games. There was eight different games and eight different consoles. Like a kiosk kind of thing? Kind of like a, yeah, like a giant kion. Oh, you don't miss those.

Yeah, I miss those. And I was playing some shit-ass game. I can't even remember where you, like, protected a farm and, like, goblins came and took your sheep. I have no idea what the name of this game is. I was playing this in the Jaguar, and I was holding that beef of a controller.

Yeah. What the fuck is that controller? Does that like a numpad? Why don't you put a doll pad? Yeah, some games would come with a little cardboard thing that would go over that numpad. And so that it would tell you what the buttons do in that game. Oh. So they're essentially like programmed like a number pad, but each game did a different thing with them.

And sometimes games would come with a little cardboard thing. That's kind of cool. Yeah, I thought so. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, it was a gimmick for sure. And this was also, see that bullshit right there before you go? Yeah. Wait, wait, go back.

Oh, the add-on? It's not 64-bit. It has four 16-bit process. Yeah. I remember seeing a video about that. Like a Frankenstein 64-bit machine. Yeah, but look at that fucking box, though, dude. I mean, like, it's very 90s.

It looks cool to me. Can you show the cardboard thing as well? Tarragua cardboard controller, I think. Like, should hopefully come up. I know that a lot of Atari games had these, like in the old, old, old Atari games. But I don't, I was unaware. on the Jaguar. I was just dumb enough because I was nine.

Oh yeah, there you go. There's one for Doom. Yeah, that's it. Brilliant. These things would like kind of come and you just put them on a controller and then it would tell you what they did for it. So you could like switch weapons or like. Straf. Yeah. I mean horrible because none of them you have to possibly, you need to hold it. You need to look down. Yeah. So it doesn't work really. Yeah. But, you know, it's cool. You would need to look down. Okay. Okay. I mean, I can, I'll be fine. But, uh, you know, it's cool. You would need to look dad. Okay. Okay. I mean, I can, I'll be fine. But so I asked for this and my mom just, bless her heart, didn't know what to do. And she goes, well, I got you in an Atari Jaguar. I was like,

mom, it says Sega CD. And she goes, is that bad? I go, it's not bad, but the problem is, is that it's a, you know, this was all the rage in Japan and in America at this time is you would buy the console base and then attach it to other. Yeah. And you'd be have like a suit. It's like you bought me headphones, but I don't have an MP3. Yeah. So I ended up getting a genesis by virtue of my friend had won and they allowed me to connect it. And I rode with that until I saw Final Fantasy 6 being played, which was Final Fantasy 3 at the time. Yeah.

And I saw my friend playing and I was like, well, what was his one? It was only ESNS, right? S&S, yeah. So I, I, that was only a year or two. I had this agency. So I took it all to some exchange. door, carried my ass all the way there, dropped it down, got like, you know, enough credit to downgrade to a Super Nintendo in various games. And then I really wanted an N64. That's all I

wanted. Yeah. They were so sick. And they were impossible to find in the Midwest. And so my mom ended up saying, we couldn't get one. I tried really hard. And then I saw a game called Resident and Evil with voice acting and Gore and it was scary and it was beautiful. And I jumped ship to PlayStation. PlayStation. I feel like I may have told this story once on this channel. So if I did, that's... I don't think you have. It could be Alzheimer's where I'm just repeating myself.

Why are all the links put in? Walking to half our life. Yeah. So... We recorded so many episodes. I don't even know what the fuck I've said in the show. We've repeated stories. We've added new elements to this.

Yeah. That's so cool, though. So yeah, I switched to the PlayStation and then it's crazy to think that all these things happened within three or four years. Yeah. And it was a very developmental time for me. I just moved from a brand new city into a brand new middle school.

I was growing up, you know, it was like, it was crazy to have it. And technology was booming. But now I think we've kind of reached a bottleneck a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it feels insane. My $5,000 graphics card can't run the fucking newest sport lens game.

Like, what the fuck are we doing? I remember seeing an article that was like, oh, the Sony exec says the PS5 is coming, you know, ending its cycle. And I'm like, what? I feel like I just started it cycle. Yeah, right? That's insane, even though, yeah, I know it's been out for like half a decade.

Yeah, it's crazy. I saw a thing that was, you know, Terminator of the movie. Yeah. The Skynet has 80 terraflops, which is enough to end the world. The 5090 has more. It's interesting that it's, you know, I think that's what it was. Something like that. The numbers might be wrong, but the general theme was, yeah.

Right. Just funny to think that we really thought, I mean, they did so much cool stuff with such a little computing power back there. just done not that much with more. Well, game development, I think, just takes way too long. It's crazy how hard it is to make stuff now. But now I would be pissed if somebody gave me an Atari Jaguar. I'd be devastated. Did you get the links?

No. That would have been a crazy investment. I didn't have, I didn't really get into, I had a Game Boy and I liked it, but I was not a Pokemon guy. So I kind of, I've always been a console PC gamer. So. But when you're on the go, your parents forced you to go somewhere? I, well, so this is sad to say, but like one of my favorite games on the Game Boy is the Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening.

But when you, it has no backlight. So we'd be in the car, you'd be waiting to go on the street lights. Every six seconds, I'd be like, okay. If you turned on the dome light, I guess like every parent's like, you're going to get us killed. The Soviet Union's going to nuke us. What are you doing? Yeah, what was the reasoning behind that? Every parent said that.

It was like, in some sort of criminal... It was like, turn the light off, I'm going to crash. It was like you go to five stars in GTA if you have that on. I have no idea why they were... That is a universal parent thing. Yeah, that's so weird. I think I'll pretty just keep the tradition alive. I might just always have my dome light on.

So there you go. And let my kid play Game Boy in peace. But I just didn't... So I feel like when I was playing games mobile, because I had a PSP and stuff, and I liked those systems. But I gotta be honest, at school, gaming was still case zero of, it's like in that bottom tier of absolute loserdom. It's right above D&D guys and magic guys.

It's adjacent to band, even kind of competing. I think we would have got, I don't think anyone was allowed to bring their game concerts to school. Well, the 90s were a wild, I mean, because of us, they banned you. No, no, I wasn't. Yeah, I see. Yeah. I kept it clean. I didn't do it.

I feel like I had this memory of a kid bringing a Nintendo DS and they got taken off them and it was a big whole... I mean, even mobile phones for us was just like... Yeah. You're to like hide it when the teachers came. Yeah.

They weren't out yet in high school from me. You know, the giant... No, the same by the bell. Yeah, no, unfortunately. Honey, I'm coming home. One guy I knew... Had a beeper. And so that was cool.

I was like, how do you need a beeper? You're 13. But he was like big and strong. And I was like, he probably needs a beeper. He was blowing up his dog. He's like, it's just my chick. I'm like, my chick. It doesn't call me.

So he, like, but there was even the link cable so you could trade Pokemon. Oh, my God, the link cable. You had that on the schoolyard, you were the king. I wish I met someone who had a link cable. Yeah, I couldn't afford that. Common, but like people were always trading during lunchtime. Yeah. Yeah.

For me, I was the overpowered guy. So no one, I wanted to link battle me. I was the guy who turned up with six level 100s. And they were like, these guys. That is, that is strange. That's not fair. Yeah. But, yeah, we, people brought them to school.

People, like, played and stuff. And they were picked on. And I admire those guys paying the social price for everyone today. Like every mother, father, child, grandpa. Everyone plays games now. Oh, yeah. It's like everybody has a game in their phone. They ran so everyone else could walk.

Yeah. And I kind of took credit for it. Like I was there and I was like, I ran too. Yeah, no, you did. But I did. But it was more, you had to be careful how you disclosed your gaming hobby. But around high school, I was front and center. Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. Definitely. I can't be very definitely. I can't just tell them. I like anime. Like, porn? Like, so you're gay.

Yeah, sure. But I didn't see, that was, I forgot. When I made that tier list, anime was in like the absolute. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like... I mean, it was for us. Yeah, school as well. Yeah, exactly.

I'm like, yeah, if you like magic. Magic was... I haven't even heard of magic. Yeah, magic wasn't around when I was in school. Everyone was playing Yu-Giour. Oh, well, not us. We were King Dorks.

I was the, you know, in school, there's like, you know, the captain of the football team. I was not. I was the captain of the debate team. So... Dude, I was the captain of my debate team. Yeah, let's go.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we saw. Final Fantasy. But so in debate ended up just becoming magic gathering nights. So instead of researching our files to debate X, Y, and Z. You sort out conflict via magic.

Was magic simpler back then? Because magic is complex. Yeah. So back then, the famous phrase of magic is reading the card explains the card. That's, it's like tagline. That does not resonate in 20s. In 25. Dude,

Ugo's the exact same now. Oh, is it? Yeah, because like, yeah, because like, when we were,

when I was a kid during first generation Ugo cards, like, it was very simple. Like, half of the fucking booster pack was just vanilla monsters

that had no effects. So it was very easy. It's like, okay, 1,000 attack, thousand defense, easy, summon.

But now you look at some of the newer generation Ugo cards, it's like font size two. If you summoned this card on the 15th of January in the moon in the fourth phase. It doubles the attack.

It's legitimately like that now. And it's just like, I don't know what this card does anymore. When I bought a pack of Yu-Gi-O cards recently, I had to attach it to my Jaguar controller to see what you guys. I was like, oh, I see. I just have to push these and attack for two damage. So it's gotten out of hand. You know, I also associate this with mobile gaming of any sort.

The best time to play an MMO or mobile gaming is those first two months. When no one knows the meta, no one knows. That's just competitive games, I think. Oh, yeah, you're right. But I love mobile games for that because they have a fun gameplay loop but you're right, any shooter. The moment is a matter.

Yeah. It's like, all right, pack it up, boys. Or power creep. Power creep can be pretty destructive in mobile games. Like you spend money or you get a free pool and you get like a really cool item or character and you're like, that's awesome.

This is going to be the backbone of my army for years. Yeah. How naive. It's great until, you know, the accelerated English versions like two months later here's the newest thing. You're like, oh. Yeah. Yeah. But they're still fun games, but yeah. So

no Jaguars for me or my son. Yes. But, and certainly no magic for him. No magic? No card games? We have standards at this household. Thank you. Board games? Board games are a plus. Okay. Board games are allowed. Do you know how magic is like a board

game? Wait, do I know what kind of... Or just like card games. I think the danger of magic is the rabbit hole is very deep. It can be, yeah. And the final financial burden can be great. Especially now that it used to be... Pokemon cards? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

So then we get into the... How times have changed? Well, there's like collectors versus players, right? And I feel like the whole market is kind of scummy now. It's really catered towards adults. And adults you're trying to make money. You're not even trying to enjoy it. Yeah.

It's magic suffering from that right now. It used to be three sets a year, and they would all be tied into the same story block. Now, I was reading an article. there's seven sets next year, seven. And four of them, for the first time in magic's history, four of them are universes beyond. It's like Ninja Turtles, an unannounced to Marvel, a Star Trek, and another IP that's not magic.

So it really feels like who is this for? I mean, it's for the adults now, but that's fine to have, like, adult hobbies that you enjoyed as a kid. But it also makes me wonders, what are the hobbies for the kids now? Well, that's a great question. And like when I was teaching,

I still think Japan does a really nice job of having sports play a central role of like lifetime sports. Like parks in America, even when I was there, had a tendency to be quite vacant or, you know, riding our bikes when I was a kid was commonplace. But in America nowadays, it's less frequent.

I don't think it's extinct or anything. But in Japan, they still prioritize a lot of that. So you have a lot of like social people will ride their bikes to go play soccer, basically. But I think one of the big problems is that we're, we are so dumb as adults that they'll be like Ghostbusters cartoon repackage. I'm like, I have to play it. I have to buy it. I have to have my son like it. But there's no, there's not a lot of new IPs. It's kind of just rehashed nostalgia. Yeah, that is true. X-Men 97, you know. That is like what you're describing is just like a problem, I think, that is

prevailing throughout basically all of entertainment in a way, in a sense, where, you know, I said this before, but I look at something like K-pop demon hunters, and it's not for me, but I'm just so fucking glad. Exactly. Something new has come along. Yeah, 100%. And has just become like a cultural phenomenon. And I'm like, damn, it's been like so long since the last time I saw something like this, you know.

It's, it's really cool that it's, it is exactly K-pop demon-hunter. Yeah. This is a great stupid thing. And like my nieces who are eight and four. Yeah. Absolutely love that show. Yeah. And for Halloween, you know, the dad had to be a K-pop demon hunter.

It's equally as dumb sounding as teenage mutant ninja turtle. You know what I mean? I guess so. I guess so. It's the same stupid shit. But like, I'm just glad, like you said, they have something original that they can be super excited about. Totally.

So that is hopefully not what my son likes. Have you watched K-pop demon hunters? Absolutely not. I will not be watching. It's genuinely good. I don't give a damn. The last, the newest show I saw was The Wire. And that was like 20 years ago.

You don't watch anything, right? I don't watch anything. What the fuck out? I don't know. It's a real weird thing. Actually, the last movie we watched together was The Godfather. That's a new movie to me. Came out of 78.

Well, you watched a new movie recently. I saw one battle after another. Yeah, I watched one too. That was amazing. Oh, yeah? Saw that in theaters. Absolutely. What are some of your favorite?

movies then. Let's see. That's such a tough question. I know, I know we've talked about this before because I know I said LA Confidential, which I, it's one of my favorite films. Ghostbusters, you know, obviously the Goodfellas, the godfathers, those crime movies, casino. I do like a lot of, there's a great Western called High Noon that is one of the first movies that the 90 minutes it takes place

in the film is synchronous with the plot. So it's like you have until noon or the, This showdown's going to happen. So it starts at like 10.30 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. And it's like a really cool kind of story. Obviously, there's a lot of Akira Kurosawa films that I grew up studying and watching.

So I like watching a lot of, there was a Korean movie. I was actually watching recently about a serial murder. I think it's called Memories. You guys know this one? No. It's really, really great. I think I've heard of this one. And it was, at the time, it was, I don't think that's the right name.

So I got to see if I'm right. That's funny. We just watched a... It's not this one. It's not memories. It's okay. It came out in 2003. And it's about a murderer who at the time of the movie had not been caught yet.

And it's about these detectives. And he was like a serial like... I know the movie you're talking about. Yeah, serial killer. I should probably... I mean, I just watched it. I know the movie a month ago. But I clearly didn't remember the title.

But the, it has a... Can I spoil the ending for a 20 year or 22-year-old movie? Spoiler a lot. Yeah, go ahead. Memories of murder. That's the one. That's the one. That's the coolest thing about it.

it, which is really special, is at the end of the film, this guy right here, is showing the final scene, he looks right at the camera, right? Because at the time the killer hadn't been caught, and he wanted, the director wanted them to know that if you see this, know what you've done. And so the final thing, he breaks the fourth wall and looks right at you, the viewer. Oh, cool. And it's a really great movie. And it has nothing to do with, because even when this came out, they knew that the killer hadn't

been caught yet. Is this the same director as Parasolite? I can't remember. It's a... I don't think so. But let's prove me wrong. No, no, I just... I don't think so.

I remember watching this. I thought it was... The... Boone... Yeah. Oh. It is him. Okay.

Okay. That's him. Hey. That's it. Yeah. There we go. Parasites. So, at least I have good taste.

Because they find the killer in the end? They did. But not in that. Not in this. It came out, like, after the statute of limitations had passed. Oh, so he had got away with like 40-some

Cere motors. Well, I turned this into a really dark turn of events. But yeah, I've been, I don't, you know, movies are, it's a bad question for me because I don't stay up to date. You, um, I took you around Wales. Oh, man. Yeah, how's, how's Wells? My home country?

Yeah, it's crazy. I think, well, it was, it was a tale of, of two amazing, sad and bittersweet things. One, my grandmother, who lived, Murtha, which is you know, like Gotham. It's like crime-ridden and destructive. You know, it's

without the superhero protecting it. Without Batman. It was just like weed and vape stores and a really good fish and chips place. Yeah. And you, I was able to kind of see through the prism of

what her life was. But and you'd set up this incredible five-day experience. It was insane. We went from all the way down from Cardiff, where we didn't start, but we started at,

right near Port Talbot. At the, I stood about it. I don't know how to say it. Well, before you, day one, day zero, we met up with my parents.

And at like, 11 p.m. I was like, I'm going to bed, dad. I'm tired. Oh, that was a tough one. Pete and my dad stayed up drinking

to like three. Yeah. And every time I was like, he, he'd say something like, your glass looks a little infancy. And I'd say, no more for me. And I'd have to go to like the bathroom.

And he'd go, oops, it got filled up. And so he kept getting me these. It was great. And so I really wanted to buy him a beer. Yeah. And so I was like, all right, it's my turn. I'm Welsh too. I'm like, let's do this.

So I go up to the bar and I said, you know, two Heinekins or whatever. And they're like, bars close. And I was like, this is the United Kingdom. You bars don't close. It's like, what I am. I was like, but to me that was madness. And I said, wait, what about room service? And they're like, we do have room service.

And they're like, what room are you in? And I was, the lobby? And they're like, no, what room are you? And I was like, oh, 301 or something like that. And so I forgot about this interaction. And it goes, well, it's okay. It's been a good night. And I was like, yeah, I know.

I'm sorry I couldn't get you a beer. And I go upstairs and there's just some poor guy who's standing outside of my door holding two Heinikins that have been opened and he's like, it's been 20 minutes. And so for like the next two days, I had just these two hynikins on my sill, still, what I went to sell. But that was an incredible night with him. We went all the way over as well.

He's a great storyteller. Like, a classic style going one direction, but we're going to skip to another spot. And then we're going to touch back on this part later kind of storyteller. Yeah, he does, you have to really pay attention. Oh, it was withdrawling. And if I did miss. he would kind of scold me a little bit. He'll be like, I already told you about this.

I was like, but that was 30 minutes ago. And I'm six busy. But I know what we're talking about, but I'm still getting the names right. It was like the Game of Thrones of these characters. But it was so fun hanging out with him. And then that was just the beginning of like an otherworldly adventure. We went to the culture festival. Yeah, went to the Welsh culture festival.

It was really fun. You're going to be it by the BBC? That's right. Yeah. He went on the BBC proper. Yeah, I know. He was on like the viral. Yeah, oh yeah, dude.

America's most enthusiastic Welshman. I hate to break it to them. I've been here for 15 years in Japan, but I'm a man of no nation. But we had that experience. And then the bittersweet part, which I give a lot of credit to Ian and Paul and, of course, to Connor. Right when this was happening, it was such unfortunate timing. my cat was dying. And so while I was on the trip,

we would have filming for nine or ten, 11 hours a day, possibly 12. It was like 9 to 9. We would be out. And then around 1 a.m. 2 a.m. it would be my wife waking up or whenever she thought, and she would be calling me with health updates. And the first two nights,

I was on like no sleep. I'm very worried. Things are looking very bad. And that's my best friend. Like we really wanted him to meet my son And we, you know, this was I, and Coupo, my cat was like, I know everybody if you've had a pet and you're like, you know how much that means.

But to me, that guy was the only friend I had when all my friends went to America while I was teaching. And before I met Chris and the new friends that he introduced me to, I just had my buddy. And so every day, especially when I was streaming, I'd spend with him. So then when every night she was calling me for like two hours on video chat of like him passing away.

And on the third night, I had to tell her. I said, listen, it's starting to affect like my performance here. I'm not giving Connor and the whales, like the attention that this opportunity requires. I was never worried about any of that. I know.

But, you know, it was an incredible thing that you set up. And it was, it was getting daily, it was getting harder and harder to maintain like, a jovial situation when I couldn't help my wife who's like grieving and eight months pregnant and this cat's like slowly passing away. So on, I regret this very much. But on the final night that he was living, I told my wife, I said, I have to sleep. If I don't sleep tonight, we have like

this whole 12 hour day tomorrow. And I got to be sharp. And she was, I was like, only call me if it's an emergency. I'm so sorry. And I had to put my phone away because she was like beside herself. And she understood. She was like, I understand. I understand. Yeah. That was the night he passed. And I woke up the next day. And I was trying really hard to put on it. And I don't think the viewers could ever tell. Like, I don't think anybody could see it. Kind of credit to you. You brought your A game. Well, it's just, it's sad because if I could go back with a little bit of time and distant to that I, and I never really got closure. Because when I got back, you know, while we're on this boat, we're looking over the most impressive aqueduct in the world. And I'm like having to

choose like a funeral photo for this beloved pet. And, uh, I get back and it's like, it's all done. So it was, that was hard, but right after we did whales, we had to go to TwitchCon. Yeah. And everybody bless their hearts. I really appreciate all the people who were, because they knew my cat was sick. Yeah. They were giving me like coupo plushies that they handma. A baby clothes that have Coupos little palm from like a muggle. Everybody was really, we hope he's doing well. And I'm like, you know, like, I'm just. But nobody wants me to be this, this sad thing.

So I, it was just tough timing. Because he got sick during the cyclathon. I had to go back for a day. Yeah, I remember. So it was in that one month, it was. I was like a curse to you. I'm so sorry. I'm never going on a trip again.

things go wrong when I go on a trip so it was it was tough but like the the Welsh part of it did ground me in a very unique perspective that I have so much to be thankful for right and like how how incredible this opportunity is that I I would have never had and it actually awoken something in me now that I have this wanderlust like I'm like I wish I could no I don't I love my son and my wife but like another part of me wish I could be like the Count of St. Germain and wander the world and tell

embellished stories. People are like, what a curious man. He's had a whole life of adventures. And now I'm a bit more planted in my home life. But that Welsh trip opened the door to like this cultural perspective.

I mean, I would argue that your multiple appearances on trash days, you have kind of become that guy. With the countless stories and the storytelling and everything, man. I say. But it's, it's,

it's, it's been a bit less. And I was telling my wife, I was like, she's like, well, what's new? And I'm like,

nothing. I have no new stories. Right. You know, that's fine. That's fine. That's, that's,

young Peter just couldn't understand. A twinkle in his eyes. It's, it's been, that, that was an amazing truth. And that was in May. Yeah.

And, and to the end of May, into June. But Wales, I, the way you just I was expecting just marshes. I had to sell expectations.

But the sheer beauty of its plains and mountains and greenery were stunning. And the also stunning is the complete lack of any sort of 5G network in the whole country. I mean, that's just the UK. I can't believe it. You guys had the Industrial Revolution and stopped right there. I tried doing an IRL stream in England once. You did? In Brighton? Wait, when?

It's like fucking years ago. Oh, wow. And he just kept cutting out. He was doing that modern-day whales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's insane. And I feel like your guys' food system and progress stopped in 1702. It was like, Girkens, cheese and bread is a fine meal.

And then, like, that's it. Like, we've never advanced. What about melting the cheese? No, no. That's too much effort in it. And then, like, the you guys built, the trough. and King's Station and whatever in these incredible venues, big bin. And then you're like, that's enough.

Let's just not progress any further. With Pete. So I'm waiting for the UK to have its return to glory with 5G or 6G. That's what I'm waiting for. We'll never get it. They keep burning them down. They think there's some kind of, they don't know what the tower is. They're like, ah, get rid of it.

And I learned that Edward the first just did uncanny amounts of progress in Wales. And he built 14 unfinished castles. It's not Edward the third. It was the third. Edward I thought it was. Edward one, I thought it was. Edward, Edward, or Henry III or one of those guys. Or Henry the third?

No, Henry the third. Whatever it was. His whole mission was like every Minecraft server I've ever started. I get like 60% through and I'm like, I'm fucking bored. And then it just stays there and unfinished. I mean, six months later, I was like, I'll give it another crack. But I should start a new one. We'll just go, you know, 20 yams north.

It was so much fun there. It was really fun getting to show you where else because you were just so engaged with everything. You never like, no, no, no way. I mean. And sometimes people are like, man, I got this in L.A. And you're like, okay, man, come on. But, you know, yeah, it's tough because streaming is well.

It's, oh, my God. Sometimes you just have those days where everything goes wrong. You're like, I'm live. You're like, six days of that. Yeah, yeah, that was, oh my God, we were exhausted. It was a good exhaustion. I felt the days were packed with cool stuff and well, well managed.

It was just, I was on very little sleep, and then, you know, I'm also just sad. Yeah. And of course, whales does no help. It's like rain and overcast. That's the big thing. It was mostly overcast or rain. Overcast. Yeah, we had one really beautiful day, and it was the, the aqueduct.

Oh, that was gorgeous. That was a gorgeous day. Yeah, I had to steer the boat a lot, though, which was very stressful. I did zero work that day. I was like, I'm mourning. I think you're lazy. Yeah. So we rented this boat and I just didn't think like, oh, yeah, we should, like, they didn't tell us that we should probably bring our own food.

So we didn't have any food or drink on this boat that was completely self-catering. We're like, ah, shit. A whole day and we got like nothing. And it's the one time I've seen Ian, our, our. trusty, reliable point man who was incapable of steering this boat on there. The boat was hard to steer. He was like playing pinball with the sides of the aqueduct.

And he's like, I am, I, uh, nobody don't say this, but I'm a little uncomfortable. And so he was like, you can't reverse in a direction. You can only reverse back. Right. You can't steer it while. Okay, okay. So it's quite annoying because you have to like, it's, and then obviously. So if I've seen in Austin Powell. Yeah, but then there's only,

the tunnels are only one way. Yeah. So the tunnels, you have to like decide if you're going or they're going. It's very, very stressful. Yeah, I remember you telling us about it.

It sounds very stressful. Yeah, but really fun. Yeah. And then we went to like the most amazing restaurant ever. Oh, 39 courses. Yeah, go ahead. 39. Oh, my God.

I want to go. Oh, man. It was immaculate. I was salivating so much that the chef gave me the sopping grease napkin because he overheard me saying, I will eat that shit. And he served it to me.

And honestly, it's the best smelling thing. Just that napkin that collected the beef drippings of the chicken neck. The dog fat or whatever it was. Oh, my God. I would. Heaven. It was the best. It was a fine meal.

Yeah, this is making me hungry right now. I think it was a wonderful trip. And then I do it when Gartin gets back, I'll tell you about, I went to a legendary baseball game. And I'm sure everybody loves sports. So I'll do my best to make this story. I'll even embellish a little. I'll throw in some false, you know,

red flags that, or not red flags, red herrings. Try and spot them when you... Yeah, so if you're watching, I will add a couple of moments of madness so that it, for entertainment purposes only. But like 99% of this is based in... It's based.

Like, it's just, it's just based. It's based. Well, yes, you said like a trip to Twitchcom mainly, right? Well, actually, it was kind of not that. It was, TwitchCon was the overarching purpose. But I had kind of gotten really depressed streaming, actually. And so normally I don't have that kind of feeling, but I think it was a lot of the run-up of like, you know, I was really ill this year with like asthma and sickness. lost the pet.

I was excited about my son, but it was kind of wearing me a little bit of like stress. And I think it was affecting my streams a lot. So I... Of course, naturally. I just wanted to take a break and disconnect from like...

And the community's so kind that people who take the time to watch, they've been so supportive. And I said, I'm gonna take a little break and I decided to go to L.A. four or five days early. And Ludd, to his great credit, allowed me to stay there

and just detox from... And my wife was... like you need to go do this. You're a terrible dad. She didn't say that. So we go to, I go to L.A. And it's, it's everything Wales is, is not. It's just like all these people are main character syndrome. It's astonishing. Like everyone, I remember you get out at L.A.X,

which is their international airport. Yeah. And I'm instantly lost. And I can't figure out which baggage claim is. And for fuck's sake, I speak English. I should be able to read my I know the signs, but I'm just completely like, I can't figure it out. I'm like, gate, baggage, Tokyo. Wait, was that your first time in LAX? No, it's just. I was just been the whole time he's saying this is like, I know why he's lost because I did

everything last time we did. He did. I was like, get your bag, we're going on this cab, let's leave. It was so straightforward. So I was like, LA's the best. So I get there and this is so cool. This guy named Melvin, if you're watching Melvin, big shout to you. He was like, hey, Peter.

And I was like, I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing. And he was like, no, no, no, it's okay. I work here. I'm, like, part of the staff. And I was like, help me. He's like, you're looking for your bag, yeah? And I was like, yeah, he's like, are you coming from L.A.? I mean, he said, London.

And I was like, never again, never going back to London. No, he was like, oh, you're from the Japan flight. Right, of course. Hey, it's over this way. Here, I'll walk with you. And he's like, can I get a, can we get a picture? Oh, so. I was like, can I get a picture?

I want one with you. So I have this great photo of Melvin and I chilling at L.A.X. Great. And like the staff was really kind. Yeah. But he said when you go outside, it's going to get a little weird because we don't allow Uber pickups at the terminal exits anymore. Yes.

So you get out at L.A.S. In the car park now. Yeah. Well, it's like in a gulag. It's like, it's like, out in the, it's like tense and spotlights. Yeah. And it's like raining. And there's like people moving lights.

Like the great escape is going to happen there. And I get off of the. So you have to wait for this, this bus to take you to the gulag. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's. Never on time. It's madness.

And this guy is like, hey, everyone, just chill. It's on the way. And all these people are just furious. All these passengers. And they're just like, oh, out. They're like, where's my bus? I need the bus now. And they're like, we have dinner plans.

And I'm like, it's going to be all right. Just chill. Everyone just chill out. And this bus comes in. And then it's like, oh, wait, wrong terminal. It kind of goes back out. And people are like rioting. They're like, oh, that was ours.

And they can't imagine that there's other gates that the bus. So the first bus arrives. And it's almost like Battle Royale and there's one weapon. Everyone slams into the bus. And they're like pulling each other's face to like get in. And this one guy was like, everyone stop. Get out of the way. Stop.

Get out of the way. I work here. He's like there's a disabled person who needs to get on the bus first. Yeah. And that's what it took for human decency. Even though still like four or five people still snuck on and we're like holding their spot. We let the person get on who's in a wheelchair. Yeah.

And I was like, I can wait for the next bus. Yeah. I was like, how long is the next one? I don't really care. I'm just like, is it like 20 minutes? And he's like, I'll wait. Two minutes later, this bus comes. And he was like, thanks for waiting or whatever.

And so the staff was really nice. Yeah. I get off at the gulag. And on the way there already, this girl's like, order the Uber now. Stop looking at your phone. Those sports will wait. Order the Uber now.

and he's like, let me just check the sports. There's Uber's everywhere. Order the Uber now so that when we get there, we can get off. And I'm just like, I got to get out of this country. I've been here five minutes, and I'm already, Melvin is going to be the highlight of this trip. I can tell you right now. And so I get off at the whatever. And this woman, I say to myself, because I don't know which tent is.

Oh, my God. Which ones? It's like CZ17. And I'm, it's pouring rain. And I like, and she goes, sir, if you're looking for the Russian help, it's, and I was like, oh, no, no, no. And I was just, I was just throwing it.

I was like, those vodanya, you know? I was like, oh, sorry, I was just, I was mumbling too much. Oh, so you speak English. And I go, yeah, yeah. And she goes, well, if you're looking for lift, it's going to be over there. If you're looking for Uber, it's on that one. And if you're looking for like this third one,

like Kirby's air ride, it's like this. It was like someone I'd never heard. heard of it was like minx or something. Well, you made that up. You made that up. I was like, okay, so there's no third one. And then she goes, I said, I think I'm looking for Uber. And she goes, all right, well, listen, there might not be, if you're coming from international, you might not have a connection to your phone. So I recommend using this Wi-Fi. I said, actually, I have an E-Sim, so I'm okay. And she goes, well, there you go. You get on your way now. And I was like, thank you. You're very kind.

And she goes, well, I hope that means I'm your number one woman in this country. I go, I'm so sorry to tell you. She's like 65, by the way. I was like, you're number two. And she goes, oh, and I said, my mom's going to take first place. I get to go see her. And she goes, well, I can settle for second to your mother. And I was like, I know. And I was like, everybody I've met who has the worst jobs or difficult jobs. I worked retail. I worked in service. You guys are the unsung heroes. And to create a nice, sunny disposition to, you know, travelers who are lost and dumb. It means the world because the other people who should give some sort of gratitude and grace are entitled and frustrated. So I really appreciated all the help so far. I get to Ludge

and I immediately get, uh, I get there and I have these Japanese snacks that I bought for QT. and I immediately get put on live stream fails and the title is Premiere 2, which doesn't even my name anymore, Clipper. So whoever did that, you didn't even get my name right. It's Peter. He wrote, Premiere 2 is a racist to Fan Fan who's a streamer. Oh, I've never met. And this had like 200 comments within

and I was like, what? So what happened was I have all these treats that I got them. And Quddy says, Pete, you know, Lodge streaming right now, just make yourself comfortable. I was like, okay. She goes, we're cooking and we're doing a stream. Do you want some chili? I said, I'm okay.

Oh, actually, I bought you a gift. Can I, do me me give it to you now? Is that okay? She goes, yeah, bring it on. So I have the Tokyo banana, the mango kit cats, the blueberry sandoes. I've got the whole, I've got the classic. I got the good stuff. So as I'm stepping into camera frame, I say, see, see what you do here. That's what you do.

That's what you do. I'm interrupting their thing. And Fanfan makes a joke saying, whoa, are you saying that because I'm Asian? And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't, she's like, I'm Chinese. And I was like, I was not talking. to you directly. I was globally speaking. I thought it was very funny.

And like she was joking and I was joking and we had a nice little moment but people were like, these white guys make me sick. Because I said, no, no, no, I'm from Japan. They were like he's been there for two days

and now he thinks he's Japanese. And they were like, seriously, what kind of guy walks in and says Japanese when he's in America? And, yeah, this was, it was... Meanwhile, those folks have probably never left this state. They wish they were in Japan.

But like, they were, they were killing me. 250 comments. Oh, geez. But most people were like, oh, no, Pete's, he's Japanese. You know, and he was... He's Japanese. So it was, look at it. Look at the top thing says.

I was scared that Pete did something actually racist. It was bombs since I enjoyed. The click bay is insane. Jesus. So it's like, That was my first getting away from streaming moment. Yeah. Six seconds in.

I'm on L-S-L-whatever for the first time ever, and I'm called a racist. Also, L-A-X is a hellscape with the Uber. This is the most peak American L-A-X thing ever. You can call an Uber to the end of the arrivals. You just have to order an Uber black, which is like five times the price. Yeah. So they allow it if you're willing to spend. If you're rich.

If you're rich, which is the peak American. American moment. No, no, no. This is not for the poor. This is for the rich. Well, there was a guy walking around our little train, you know, where we're waiting to wait for the one to go to the Goulang. And he was like, need Uber?

I got it right here. Do you need Uber? I got you, man. But I was like, this, I'm not going to let my first experience. Let me be racist first. Against fan. Like, I'm not going to get scammed before I'm a racist. That's going to be out of context.

I knew it. See, like, even my jokes about you guys were silent for a second. I was like, it's a great clip. But like, you know, that's the simplicity of these silly, you know,

out of context. But, Fanfan and I ended up becoming quite good friends, which was great, because we spent, you know, a couple days together in L.A. before we had to go to Twitchcom.

So, yeah. How was Twitchcom? Well, can I, I'll get that. That's the worst part of the story. It's like the least interesting part.

Yeah. You know, but so we, I have these three days with Ludd. And he says, hey, man, you want to go to a Dodgers game? And I was like, yes, this is, this is so insanely cool. I get to see my favorite American sport played the best by three Japanese guys. I'm ready to cheer for Otani, Sasaki, and Yamamoto, because my team, the Can City Royals are out, right? And I'm a huge fan of what they did in professional baseball here. and it's really cool to see them do well

in an international stage like this. I was like, if you can get the tickets, I want to go. He was like, that's no problem, buddy. So we get the tickets to a Thursday night game. And unfortunately, I had got my schedules mixed up and I thought Iron Mouse's concert, which she debuted as the first like independent V-tuber concert.

Yes. Which was in San Diego, which is, you know, pretty far from L. I thought it was on a Friday night, but it was Thursday. So I told Ludd, I am so sorry. I, hey, I got to see Peak. So I'm going to go to San Diego first. Can you change the tickets to Friday's game? And he was like, yeah, no problem, buddy.

And I was like, I'm really sorry though, because that's really, and if you can't resell them, please just let me know. He was like, no, it's going to be good. So I end up going to see Mouse's concert. Awesome. Yeah, it was really cool. It was really, you couldn't see it live, right? So you were watching the feed. I was watching the pay-per-view, which included the audience.

It was so sick. Yeah, it was amazing. It was really impressive. Worth skipping a Dodgers game, even though baseball is like my sport. But the problem was, is I had to get back to L.A. the next afternoon. So I went to TwitchCon in the morning, like, afternoon part. Then I had to take an Uber from San Diego to L.A. It's a three-hour drive.

That's a long drive. Three-hour, two hours? Yeah. And it was, well, I was. told by every living person I asked, it's two and a half hours. Three, not Friday afternoon with deadlock traffic, which I did not anticipate. And I mean, I'm from out of town, so I should have thought about this. But legendary L.A. traffic jam.

So the game's at like 5-0 or 515 or whatever. And I'm like, I'm going to make it to this warehouse or, you know, place that's near the stadium that's Ludd said, I will pick you up on a motor. And we'll just go there just meet me at this like this useful corner that's like we can just go through this canyon Yeah, I was like I'm um What if I just met you at? Motorcycles like I'm okay. No, no, no, it's it's all good baby. Yeah, and so we get to this this Depot where I'm just dropped off and

He's like hop on here helmet and I put on this helmet and all of a sudden I can't hear anything It's like I'm like I don't like this and he was like hop on and I'm on the back and I'm on the back of this motorcycle and, you know, ludge driving, and I don't know where to put my hands or do. I'm 42 years old. I don't know what I'm doing. So I hold his shoulders like I'm giving him a massage. And as soon as he goes, I'm like squeezing. And I can feel my ass slowly drift off the back of this motorcycle.

I'm so scared. So at any kind of stop, I like kind of nudge up. Yeah. And then I used every muscle in my thigh to squeeze next to him. That you might as well just put a mosaic on that. It was so graphic. That was like pornographic how tight I held him. And I was so scared that at one point he had to like weave between some cars.

Yeah. Which you can do in L.A. It's legal. Yeah. I moved my hand to like this around him. And he was like, can't breathe. I let go with that one. I can't, I can't move. And I was like, I'm sorry.

Why don't you just like do the hug? It all happened too fast. I just wasn't ready for all of this excitement. And we get to the, we get to the stadium. And like my legs are like wobbling, like jelly. I was, I was tainting the whole time, right? It was probably like a three minute ride. But I was terrified.

Yeah, I've done it with him as well. It's terrible. Like, they're cool. Yeah, it's still scary. It goes fast. Even worse. It goes fast. Well, there's, there's one.

The Vespa? Yeah, it's the Vespa. That's scary. In LA traffic, it's scary. If you're not used to it, I feel it's scary. I mean, it's, you know, in Thailand or, you know, it's whatever, you crash into like five of the vespice. But in L.A., you crash into a Ford F-150. It's like, I'm going to get maimed on bull nuts from the back of a truck.

And that's how I die. It's so fucking big the cars. It's terrifying. And so, yeah. And then there's that one, this is one road that, actually I've done it twice or three times a lot now. Yeah. This is one road where he has to cut across all. all three lanes of traffic to join another road.

And it's the most terrifying shit. My eyes were shut. Oh, bro. I was so scared. I get so terrified every time we do it. And then I just, I had this mantra and he was like, I can't know what you're saying,

but what are you? I was like, I just kept saying, I'm having fun. I was not. I was like, I was not having fun. But like,

we get to the stadium and we have these, these helmets and I have my bag. Yeah. And he was like, okay, we have to meet, um, like some friends.

that I got tickets for as well. So we go and we meet them and we go to the ticket gate and it's like the game's just about to start. You can hear everybody singing the national anthem. It's already like we made it just on time. Yeah. I slammed the ticket down and the guy's like,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's this, what's this shit right here? And I was like, it's a bag. And it's like literally this. Like a shoulder by. Yeah, it's this thing. It's like this is the bag that you got me for my birthday a few years ago.

And it's tiny. It's nothing's in there. And all I have in there, well it was kind of like a clowns bag I had like a Nintendo Switch light a battery I was on a three hour Uber what was I gonna do yeah yeah yeah you know and all these like toys and shit in there

and he was like Ludd was like what the hell are you traveling with this and the guy said it has to be clear and we're not letting you in with a bag you can go buy a locker for $12 and shove it in there and Ludd asked if the the helmets can fit in this and he's like those are too big so first Ludd and I

stashed the helmets behind a palm tree near the entrance to the stadium. That was, and I thought this is, this is insane. This is what I do in GTA where I'm like, drop the AGO. I'm like, I'll pick it up later. And this guy was like, working there and he's, are you gonna,

is you okay with that? And Ludd was like, are you okay with that? He was like, fine with me. I was like, it's fine with me. Everyone's fine with me. So we're just going to leave these behind these palm tree and no one's going to steal anything. The guy was like, okay. So we go and we put this stupid thing in the, the locker.

The exact same thing happened to me when I went. So he should have remembered. He should have remembered this. He didn't tell you. But the locker is so fucking annoying because it's so far away. It is.

From the, and it's 12 dollars? It's some insane amounts. I think it's more than 12. I think it's like 15 or something. And it's, oh, it's awful. So we drop it off.

We're dashing back. And we tried to do a different exit. You know how you kind of do, I got a small bag. And we tried to scrunch it up. And then we hear the roar of a crown. And O. Tani had hit a home run.

Oh, we had missed it. We missed, and it hit right where we were sitting around our area. So we missed the, we missed the whole

Japanese celebration. We missed the Otani home run and we get inside and I told him, I'm sorry, man. I didn't know about this bag and I didn't know about the traffic.

And I just, but thank you for getting the tickets and then I canceled the day before. And geez, I'm sorry. And so he's like, sorry, man, let's get a,

let's get a t-shirt. And I was like, okay. So we went and bought, some goods. I bought an Otani jersey and a hat. $500. $3005. Oh my God. USD. Wait, for just those two? I went to a yacoult swallows.

They're like, won it for free. It's like $8,000 in a hat and jersey combo. So this was 305 USD. It's insane. That's just like Goa mom in Japanese. It's insane. Yeah. That's diabolic. And I'm leaving and the guys He's like, I got to check your receipt there. And Ludd had bought like a hat and a sweater or something.

And Ludd had gone ahead. And the guy was like, check him and I receive. And he goes, do I know that guy? I said, maybe. Is he a YouTuber? And I go, yeah. And he goes, is that Ludwig? And I said, yeah.

And he goes, I fucking knew it. Yo, Ludd! Ludd! Love was like, peace baby. You know, it did his little mogging. And I ran up. And I felt like, you know, well, I'm with him, though. So this is fun.

So he got stopped at least two dozen times. Yeah. He has crazy emotion. He does have a crazy. motion. And I was like, I can take the pictures. I felt like I was a part of it all, you know, and really, really interesting. We had these amazing seats. It was right in right field. We're looking over the entire stadium. We're right near the front. I see three Japanese guys watching from like right beneath on like the fun little All You Can Eat Zone. And every time I'm like,

I'm like, I go zhe. Gondon. And they're like, don't know what is. I was like, that's me. I got Otani. I paid $300 for this, Jordan. So, Otani's also pitching that night. Oh shit. So we get the rare double treat.

Yeah. So we get there after he'd already hit a home run, which is insane. He's already struck out three or four guys. Yeah. Which this is already like Babe Ruth territory. He's a god. He's insanely good.

He's striking out guys and he's hitting home runs. And it's like he's doing both at the same time. Yeah. So Otani's up to bat again. And the crowds were just like, this is so cool. Home run, three strikeouts. And he nails another home run. Oh, shit.

Right fucking to us. And Ludd, who's six three, you know, he's like, hold these peanuts and he's trying to like grab for it and bobbling it. I'm holding him like too much avocados guy. I'm like, what do I do for these? Hot dogs and things. And Ludd, of course, muffs it. He can't catch it because he's a dummy.

Was it catchable for him? For him, never. For me, eyes shut. Could have grabbed him. It was actually within like distance to grab. He should have got it. He says he's six three. Maybe next time bring a glove for God's sake.

So it bounced off his ego and landed somewhere in the back. So we, but this is incredible. We saw two home runs. Yeah. Well, technically, you saw one. Two home runs were at the game. I heard of the other one. And he is now up to like seven or eight strikeouts.

Yeah. So now this is already, I'm telling people, anyone who will listen, this is, this is history. We're watching that this is one of the best games of anybody who's ever played ever. Yeah. And, you know, L.A. fans, they're probably just arriving at like seventh inning because it's like, sorry, I was doing a blow and smack in some cool place in L.A. So they're like, I'm like, me and Ludd, I think, and our guests are the only people who are like absolutely freaking out. Yeah.

This is happening. Oh, Tani's up again. I'm not kidding, another fucking home run. Holy shit. He finished that day with three home runs and 10 strikeouts. And they won the game and clinched that particular series to go fight Toronto and the World Series. Yeah. It's like, fine, I'll do it myself.

He's just like that guy. He did the entire thing, solo queue, league, bot lane. Faker. He's the faker. He's a faker baseball. I don't know what I was saying. You looked at me for approval. It works.

It works. It works. It was. And then so we have to go back and we're riding high. As we're leaving the stadium, I, like I said earlier, I'm 42 years old. But to drunk people, I feel like I look like I'm like a sophomore in college. Like I look somehow not grown up. And these tall dudes were walking out with us.

And they were wasted. And they were like, you know, in their early 20s. and they were big strong lads and they were like, let's fucking go! Let's fucking go! And then I guess I didn't react accordingly or like enthusiastically enough

because I was just talking to Ludd. One of the guy like slapped my back like five times. He was like, come on fucking pussy. What's up? Let's fucking go. And I'm 42. Leave me alone.

Like I'm not in high school. But this guy was like all jacked up. And I was like, let's go. We go outside. We grab our helmets and we're still there. They're still there. I'm not going home without a helmet. That's for sure.

So we're carrying them and we can't find where we parked the bike. And we got the bag back, of course. And so we're getting near it. And I put on my helmet and this drunk guy walks through, and it's pretty empty the parking lot. And this drunk guy's weaving through cars. But he has like his girlfriend or wife like in front of him. And they're walking like, she's leading, but he has his arms.

I was like, I should do that on the motorcycle. that's like the way. Yeah. And then he stopped and looked at us and he was like, what in the hell? And I was like, hey, Dodgers.

He was like, fucking helmets. And that's all he said. I was like, yeah, we're, you know, we're partying.

It's party time. And he was like, you know, kids these days. Like, he couldn't understand why we would have helmets and not be drunk.

Like, right. We must have just looked like space creatures. Well, he probably won't be around very long. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think I was going to be around long

with Ludd driving. So we get back on to the bike and we're getting out of L.A. Dodger Stadium after a game, which everyone stayed till the end was like a zombie apocalypse. Everyone's trying to leave the city. It was insane. We're weaving through all the traffic. Yeah.

And this time I have like the strongest. It's like unbreakable. So I'm doing this thing. And he said, I got some bad news. Okay. we got to go on the highway exits closed so then we had to jump on like the highway and really kick it up to as fast as a Vespa

or whatever this thing will go and it's at least five or six minutes of terror on the high roads and then we finally get off and I was like oh my God that was I'm sweating through the everything I have and I was just so stressed out and then we had to get back on the highway

to go back to the way we came so we could take the correct exit but every time I asked, are we almost there? He's like, two minutes. Man, it was two minutes 12 times. And we finally got back. And I think that's the most exhausted I've ever been,

except for when I had to carry the RV stream for two. No, I'm kidding. But like, all you kidding? Are you kidding? No, no. But it was, it was intensely exhausting. But I got to see, with Ludwig, to his credit, one of the nicest gestures,

he got me tickets to see my favorite sport and some really cool players and we saw the game the game three home runs and 10 strikeouts so that was my baseball story not a motorcycle guy no not yet

not a motorcycle guy so like I promised I did embellish a few aspects of that story but I'll let you the viewer decide what was you know truth and what was not but like the X file Well, someone's show with the two facts and two fiction or whatever, the guy goes, oh, fuck. I don't know.

That's not the X-Files. No, it's very similar vibe, though. I'm fucking, anyway, I'm down. Well, it's like, whatever that was, we'll edit it in, and then that's what it was. But it was, but then TwitchCon was kind of trash. So. So I've heard. Yeah.

It's like, I mean, it started, I mean, legitimately horrible with a sexual assault. Yeah. Like, there's no place for that. Yeah. anywhere, especially at a place where you're bringing in creators to have a community and things to let that happen was inexcusable. And then, you know, there was some really bad optics by having... But outside of the sexual assault.

Yeah, well... How was it? I think that, in my opinion, the TwitchCon EU is better. Right. It feels... It's only two days, so it doesn't overstay, it's welcome. And it feels more friendly to, like, the artist's corner and creators and viewers. and affiliates and partners,

everybody kind of coalescing around the same event for just enough time where it feels like a fun thing. The American ones felt a little bit clout chasy, like who you know, where are you going. And I'm very lucky that I had some people take care of me and bring me to places. But I also could feel like it was a tale of like, I don't know who it was for.

Because it's not about meeting your favorite creators anymore. It's not about this community aspect. And I was lucky to see some viewers, but not to the level in which I was able to at TwitchConn, EU. So I think I, for those of you, I did get to see it was great. Nobody was weird to me or anything.

But I prefer the European experience as opposed to the American experience. But hanging out with Ludwig and being a part of just detoxing away from streaming was a necessary break. And I've come back. Detoxed by... Wait, wait.

Don't you mean detainting from streaming? By going to Twitch? But like I hanging out with a lot of bunch of streamers. Well, it taught me like it's weird, right? I feel like the Japan creator's fear is kind of tight knit. Like we all kind of know each other and nobody's really, there's not a lot of drama. There's not like, oh, well, I know that Garn's going to do this video. So now I can't.

There's no that. It's all just like, we're just kind of doing our own thing. And we're all very supportive of each other like with, Bond amazing experience. I think there was not a dry eye in the theater. Everyone was just excited that you had accomplished this. With nonsense, everybody's just excited that you have this thing in the Shibuya Parco building.

We're all just viving and buying cool stuff and reppping it. You're great. I'm kidding. I show up. Comedy comes in three, so you had to be the payoff. You're doing things like the cyclone. No, I don't want your glaze.

Keep your glaze to yourself. These things are all kind of connected. You're raising millions of dollars. You're doing stuff. You're doing stuff. I'm doing stuff. Everybody's doing it, but nobody cares. In L.A., I kind of just wanted to see what the vibe was like with the creator's sphere.

And everyone's nice and it's cool, but it's just, it's a little, it's a little too disassociated for me. I don't feel. It's too clicky. It is. And I don't even know the clicks. So it's hard for me to weigh in. But I just felt I'm in the right spot. from me. And I need to be more cognizantism of that and be thankful that I have such good friends

that I can hang out with and share cool stories and do things. And I have those connections in Los Angeles or in America. But I just felt it's a bit more exhausting for me at my age and where I'm at. So I'm, I thought it was good. So I was there to see where I fit in on the kind of Twitch global ecosystem. And it's, it's right in the retro category. So, And I'm okay with that. And being reminded of those things and having fun with it was really great. And I didn't stream at all except for one day with Ludd, who was like, do you want to do this thing? I said, okay, you know, let's do it.

Yeah. I didn't bring any IRL equipment. I didn't do Twitch rivals for the first time. I just wanted to be present. And those seven or eight days, I really feel since I came back, it's been just a huge weight off my shoulders. it's been it's been really great so that's where I kind of settled on it and even though I was at Twitchcon I got to you know just step back what was the best meal you had in America oh man there was a as you know we both share our love for a bagel shop oh my god yeah it's America's disgusting I love

it's so gross like they the portions and the the food cost more than my mortgage but it always taste, fire. And I would say the top three things that I had was that bagel with jalapino cheddar spread. Oh my God, I love it. It's really good. It was insane. So I, I don't know why, but I'm not really a breakfast guy, but when I'm on vacation or I'm traveling, I become a breakfast guy because now I just want to eat food that is not available to me. Yeah. And I love bread. And getting good bread in Japan's hard, getting a good bagel in Japan. I've never heard of this. I don't even know where we can get that. Yeah. And Lod's like, nah, it's a mid-bagel. He won't even eat it.

He's like, I don't like, I don't like those. And he's like, you like that bagel? But he says it in a way like. Like he knows it's not great. Like he's like judging me from like. Yeah. This is like, I'm like, I'm like fucking, uh, I'm like fucking, uh, Golum in the corner.

Exactly. Like, oh, I. Thank you, Moss. So my halipine your smear dropped in the bag. And I would eat what you dropped. And then like, what is the smog of bagels? Is he sitting on a hoard somewhere? There's like some pinnacle bagel we don't know about.

This was an amazing bagel. I guess maybe to the average New York and it's average, but to me, to the average bagel daily eater. It's like that, just with the, oh, dude, the smear. The smear is good. Although worst name for like a topping, smear.

Like no one wants. Smear? That's what they call it. So you get like the normal cream cheese, but this one is like cheddar and the jalapeno is so spicy and there's little chunks of jalapeno in it. But I just think smear is a, they're constantly just called Sprint.

No. Spread's also not a great. Spreads way better than smear. Smear is used for two words. Ship and pap smear. Those are the two words. To some people, that is the delicacy. I've just said, those are like, that's the only times, or you smear someone, like, you knock

them out. A smear campaign. Yeah, smear campaign. So the other two dishes that I had that I thought were particularly great was I went out of my way with a couple of really long-time viewers that are good, good friends. and they took me to an authentic San Diego like Mexican text not Texanx because it's not Texas but like

a SoCal kind of fusion and it was called the the California burrito which I guess is the staple of San Diego that was like it was as big as both of my forearms it was insanely large but it was the best burrito I think I've ever had and then the other was I had like

4 a.m. It was the, I didn't really drink a lot on this trip, which I get here and you're like, beer, here you go. But I was just kind of like, I don't want to really drink much, but I, I drank one night. And that was at a really fun party that was hosted by our friend. And I was, I was drunk, so I was like hungry. And I got like the last slice of a delicious pizza, which if I ate any other time would be the worst pizza I've ever had in my entire life. But that, that's what I needed. It's the pizza that you need the most. Yeah. So those are the top three. Pizza you regrets in the morning.

Oh, God, it was awful. But TwitchCon did have a lot of cool, like little surprise cameos. I got to meet one of my heroes, Tasty Steve, who I never want to interrupt people. He's an FGC, like, icon and legend. Yeah. And I was like, hey, I'm so sorry to interrupt. He's like, yo, man, what's up? And he might have been indulging on cannabis.

And if he's not, I don't want to say he was. Not a smear campaign, but he was like, you know, man, that's a nice sweater. And I was like, oh, thank you so much. He was like, I like, I like that shit. And I was like, you're really cool. And I really appreciate what you've done for fighting games. And like, I always look forward to your commentating. He was like, that's cool, man.

We like, you know, adapt and then left. The next day, he saw me again. And I was, and he was like, you know, man, you got another cool sweater. He just got all the cool sweaters. And I, this is a highlight now of my life that Tasty Steve thought I looked remotely cool. Is it a unicloor sweater? Actually, one of them, sadly, I have to give more credit to Ludwig. I ran out of clothes and he gave me, he gave me this really cool mogul sweater that has

Mogi on it. And another cool thing, I said, the other sweater I bought was a crew neck I found at Artist Alley. And that one felt really cool that he liked it. And so I was like, whoever made this good job, you got, they liked your stuff and I liked your stuff. So, you know, seeing them, I got to see some other fighting game community long. time players. You've been a big fan of the FGC.

Yeah. FGC fan for 20 plus years. Like Evo Moment 37 that we all know. Yeah. That was like, oh yeah, I was there for 36 and 34 as well. You know, like I remember these lead-ups, but... Does everyone know Moment 37? Yes.

Everyone? You think everyone knows? Yeah. In fact, there is no 35. It's like Rule 34, everyone knows. Do you know Evo moment? If I show you... 37? Yeah.

Do you know Evo Moment 37? Yes, I know it. Even a moment 37, actually, I don't know why it's called. I don't know why it's called. Oh, yes, yes. Yeah, of course you know. Let's go, Justin. Justin!

And he says, Daigo using his rail turtle strategy. I mean, like, come on, but the thing was, there was no other. This is the Eastport. Yeah, this is the most legendary moment. Yeah. The most. The beast is unleashed. Diago Umahara.

The fact that got this on cameras as well. This was like, can you imagine this was Evo 2004? Look at it. It's in like, it's a basement. Yeah. Oh, God. He's gonna do this justice and watch the whole thing. Oh, I got to.

It's Even Moment 37, because he's trying to do the super right now. Yeah. Because all he got to do is chip damage and he wins. Oh. Oh. It's still high. Oh, it's so good. It's madness.

It's so good. I think he yells it's madness. Who's the one who performs a perfect blog? Digo. Digo. Oh, Rip Justin. This year at Toku Game Show, he was finally awarded like a legacy award. That's so cool.

Yeah. That is pretty impressive. So this one, there are no, I've been told to like oral history. There is no moment one through 36. They, it starts at 37. They named that to give it some cachet. Like, uh, evo moment 37. Like there was others.

Or maybe they were talked about. But that's the actual only one. So I saw those like two guys from that era having like a two hour debate. And they were just talking in circles. And I was just watching. I was just watching and drinking. It was awesome. And so there was cool moments like that interspersed throughout TwitchCon.

But I knew that that's the real joy of it, right? For sure. People who hopefully don't know and they're really cool. You hope they're cool. Here, here's where I need to be. So that's what I learned. Welcome home. Thanks. It was great.

It's like your little bond journey. Except you're into like TwitchCon. I'm going back. Fuck you, Thaneo. I teleported us. As soon as I got there, I was like, I've made a mistake. They told me not to. take this portal, but I get it.

I got to go back. I missed not Curry, but just Abisu, I guess. It was. It was a great trip. And you guys, as always, were very gracious listeners about, you know, my exploits. But I knew that I was ready to

embrace streaming again, really excited about it. And so it's made a really positive impact. I've been doing this for five years now. And so it needed... You've been on the grind. Yeah. And so it needed to have a little bit of clarity. and retooling.

There is this beautiful moment when you do any sort of creative work where you kind of feel like you've done it too much you're kind of like, I'm stressed, go about. And then that moment when you get that itch,

we're like, oh, I can't wait for the first the next time I get back. I was like, I know I got my boys and they went and met Kogi Michael Fox without me. And I was like,

never mind, what are friends. You are gone. You are gone. You're gone. You're really from L.A. Tokyo's the new L.A. I missed it.

I missed it all. You met Yogi. She P, you did such devastation was your intent. You can see their amazing voice performances? Not yet. I have a backlog. That's this one. You can stop that.

You should watch that voice performance. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I want ammo for next time. I'm mad. I beat you in Bayblade. I will, but you beat me here. We did another Bayblade tournament as well. We did another one. That'd be fun.

Man, but what a year it was. It's, uh, for all of us. Like, it's crazy. It's just fucked up how much gets done in the Yeah. And it took a baby 40 weeks. That's most of the year right there, just waiting for this thing. And so.

This thing is a . Like it's a FedEx package. You're like, ah, fucking cussars. Delayed, great. And the one not, not Kiyashi, I don't regret anything. But he was on target to be born on 7,7, which is Tanabata, which is Starnas. And this was Deiwa 7. So it would have been 7, 7.

7. I would have named my kid Jack And he would have been like a guilty gear character something. But like he was born regrettably one day earlier on Ludwig's birthday. Are you serious? I'm dead serious. And he was like, ah, that baby's pretty smart after all. He's going to be a good one.

And I was like, oh man, same day. Oh no, now you're sure. So that's- Well, at least you'll never forget Ludd's birthday. You'll never forget his birthday. And he will never forget my son's right. And those presents better be on time. time.

I hope they're a lot-level gift. Oh, he's got to, Vespa for his second birthday. But it was cool. And Yuki's dad, is my wife, Yuki. Her dad was born on 7-7. So it was almost like this, this perfect. But I'm really glad at 76. Yeah, yeah.

Outside of, obviously, the biggest moment of your life, what has been your highlight of the year? I would say generational Welsh, genuinely. Like, that was a transformative experience. It wasn't even just this year. Like, it's really hard to compete with the cyclathon. Yeah. Because it does so much for so many people.

But I never expected to have a trip catered to, like, my family's history. And it was like a charity in a different way. It was like towards me. Individual charity. Yeah, you were like, I need to take care of this man. All the charity for one person. So, yeah. And we may have helped the GDP of Wales.

I mean, for me, that was what I just really wanted to show off Wales because I was like, this place is so cool. Yeah. I want to kind of show how cool it can be. And Pete, you're a great person to experience that way. I think you gave everything the respect. I think that I wanted to. Yeah. We listened to an elderly woman tell us a story for 48 minutes.

Oh my gosh. And I couldn't hear a word she said. She was whispering so quietly about this else. She was so sweet, but none of us could hear what she was saying. And it was like a very important way of like a king, probably Edward Thurton. three or whatever. But like, I couldn't hear anything she said, but she was very charming. But like, that was a highlight. Um, I feel the, you know, sometimes we take it for granted. We can, like on stream of the day, I was managing an inventory of some video game. So my mind was already

distracted. And somebody was asking about, well, why are you playing this game? I said, oh, it was a, um, I'm, uh, it was a, uh, it was a cyclathon award for, um, uh, mouse's stuff. And then I was like, wait, that is not giving it at all the credit that it deserved. It's not mouse's stuff. I was like, we raised a million dollars for countless people who need this. And I'm not going to play through a game and say without the reverence, it deserves. Yeah. Because that would, like, because it's so much bigger than hers.

But I felt like a scumbag for calling it. But, you know, that's how bad breath of the wild is. I can't do anything in that game. You can't have a clear thought while playing that game because it takes so much bullshit management. but the cyclathons always so high on the list. And then it was like, it was like tertiary stuff. It was seeing Bonn in the theaters,

which was incredible. It was seeing Mouss V-Tuber concert, which highlighted specifically so many talent that had gone, you know, kind of screwed over by the management of V-Show-Jone stuff. So she gave a lot of stage presence to creators who had just lost their entire platform.

That was amazing. Yeah, yeah. And then you always feel like I must be missing something else. But I really feel those were the big highlights. It was a crazy year. It was a lot. Yeah. Hopefully there'll be a quiet one at some point.

Nah, man. This is the, we don't let her rip. This is, we need to have more stuff. More kids. I'm surprised you didn't say your B-blade win as your highlights. No, actually,

I think he lied. His highlight is playing Final Fantasy tactics for 50 hours. Oh my God, brother. That, that is, that was so hard for me. It was like, it was the, it was peak in watching you, but it was like, I love that game so much. It was, you made the same mistake so many times. If you're playing the game, every five minutes, you go like, no, no, no. So imagine like, let me put this in the words that are not tactics to like the layman.

If somehow it was a situation where I was, Conner's on a date and I have like an earpiece and I'm supposed to be helping him. And I'll be like, wingmanning him. And I'm watching from like the Mission Impossible van with like, you know, I'm like, okay, here's what you say. Tell her that her hair looks beautiful when the moonlight bounces off of it. And then you're just like, you look fucking hot. And I'm like, no, no, you're throwing. You're throwing. This was you 75 times in this game.

And he, so like that was, it was super cool because the thing I really appreciate, he did this with Gensosuco didn't too. and Final Fantasy Tactics, two of my favorite games ever. You're bringing a new audience to these games that otherwise might miss them because people who watch me play Final Fantasy Tactics expect it. They're like, my target audience is probably interested in those games anyway. But when you play it, it's giving it to a whole new platform of people who are like, wow, this looks really cool. I want to try this game.

So, you know, those moments. And then when you ruin that. No, he didn't ruin it. But to his immense credit, he actually beat the game on the hardest difficulty. And I thought, nah, with me,

by his side, that should be easy. It's actually quite challenging. Textician mode is pretty tough. You made it easy. So, but like that was a big highlight, the Bayblade championship.

It's been spoiled this shit. It's been a great year. Yeah. It's so much cool stuff's happened that it's easy to forget other stuff that's that's been yeah that's it though I mean isn't that it

I think that's it you guys have anything you'd like to add personally like is there any other nothing can tell what you said yeah like everything in life you can't follow up Pia yeah great no it's Michael Kojee Fogg you brought it up something

yeah you should bring it up I had forgotten I think you know as streamers YouTube as whatever you you constantly are forced to just look forward and never be able to look backwards and never appreciate how lucky we are to do all the cool things that we get to do.

Definitely. But also just how much stuff we've done as well. And all the memories you've got to share together. You buying two collector's boxes of Final Fantasy trading cards. I got you your card. You did. The Dragon of Mount Golg and the incredible Sandrian Knights from Final Fantasy.

That like those are, those were luxury. Man, those are tough ones. But we each, a lot of people might not know this, in our wallets, we carry a, a magic gathering card. We do, I got the VV.

It's in my bag upstairs, my wallet. So he has the VV Mythic Rare and I carry around Steiner. So we're like, gross. So there you go. Hell yeah.

And then those two in Final Fantasy Nine, of course, had a good, the bros. Yeah, bros. We got, unbreakable. Unbreakable.

But those were some big highlights this year. For a year. Yeah. I mean, I think it's been a great episode as well. Thanks coming on again.

I just shouted for two hours. No. That's why we're doing your own for. We wanted to hear the great tale. People are the wise. No, I think it's always a pleasure having you on because you always bring such life to stories that otherwise might feel mundane if I told them.

The only regret I have is that you often sit in this chair and I always do my jokes one, two, three. And I had to punch you like six times on this one. I'm sorry. No, no, no, you should punch me in the face. It's really easy. I don't mind. Well, we'll switch it next time.

So I'll bully Joey next time. So it's just, but comedy, there's a tip for you guys. Comedy comes in three. You set it up a two and the third one's the payoff. Yeah. So that's how it goes. That's how it goes. Well, I appreciate it.

And thank you for making fun of me. You're a bitch, you're a bashed, you're going to come back on. Speaking of three is giga chant. One, two, three. Although I think Michael Koji Fox is, he deserves it. I can't even take credit I didn't have the baby My wife did

Like I didn't do shit this year I was I was brought along places You just pulled the ingredients in I did I got taken to the Otani game I'm trying to talk over that Because it makes me sick Taken to Otani

Taken to Bonn Taken to Wales And my wife did the heavy lifting I didn't do shit this year I was just a I was just bore witness You haven't even started on your When Wiesmeyakia

Yeah exactly That was That was all you, baby. That was all you. Carried a whole game category by himself, that was, well, what I accomplished in like six weeks,

Northern Lion did an hour, but that's why he's the goal. But like, it was so much fun experiencing that organically. And, you know, that's,

it must have been such a shock, I think, to the Japanese, because that's what I did, like, there was a clip that went viral where I was commentating like an old radio.

And so many Japanese, Japanese people were like, this is cool that Americans or foreign audiences think this is fun. Yeah. We thought this would only be popular to us in Japan. I think everybody's full time. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a, I mean, a runaway hit.

It was massive. And for, I'd say for a good two or three months, that was the gaming conversation. Yeah. So many. It was awesome. So, yeah, big credit to that. It was already fun game as well. Although my wife, I just talked too much, but I'll make this quick.

She was praying while she was pregnant. She was worried about our income or something. You know, even though I'm like, we're doing fine. It's okay. We have a little kupo shrine thing near the door. And she would pray and she'd go like, she'd say, please let, you know, my husband have 3K viewers someday. And then the monkey paw was like, okay.

Umamusume. And so that was actually one of the reasons I did need to step back is, it was really hard because I was averaging several three or four thousand viewers who really liked this game but after a month of playing it I did have other stuff I wanted to check out

and I still like that game a lot but I wanted to do some other things and I had to reconcile that people were glad I was playing that because that's what they liked and I was a good conduit for it but that doesn't mean that I'm not like if those numbers leave

It doesn't mean I'm bad. But that was a very formative moment for me to, and to tell my wife when she would say, whoa, what happened? You know, is it not going well? I'm like, it is going well. But it's just... It just went very good for this one.

It's just, yeah. You can't compete with horsewomen. It swings and roundabouts. That's why I try to tell her. But, you know, their doubt crept in for a minute. I mean, that's like the scariest part of, I think streaming or YouTubeing is that the income is just so, it fluctuates so much.

And I think that's very uncomfortable. for a lot of people. Well, and you're also competing for what I believe, and I've always believed, is the greatest commodity that any of us have, and it's people's time. And it's way worth more than any dollar. I mean, that's why advertisers pay such insane amounts.

And that's just, you know, when you have a banging lesson as an English teacher, you're like, that was so good. Yeah. But, you know, it's not like my students are going to remember that for like, well, they might, but like, But it's like you're not judged by lesson to lesson. You have a yearly contract.

You've got to create a curriculum. You're going to have some fun ones. You're going to have some. Let's write a story today. And streaming and content creation is not at all like that. It can be, I want to play this thing, but the interest is very narrow. But it's still going to be a good experience. So that can be challenged.

So that was a good one. So thank you to my wife for praying for. And thank you to him of music. You got the success. You got that 3K. Yeah, man, it was a wild month. And that led right into the day he was born. I was playing Umamusume until 6 a.m.

And I had just taken, well, my wife opened the door and she said, it's time, it's time. And I was like, not yet. I have to keep this on black here. I'm on a legendary run. And I was like, can you just, and I'm like live streaming. So, but she said it's time. And I was like, what? And so I just stood up and left.

Like, I didn't even turn off my stream or anything. I just left. And I took her to the hospital. And initially, they said, said, you can't be in here because you didn't sign up six months ago. Yeah. That's how it is in Japan. Yeah.

And I was like, okay. Regulations. Yeah. And maybe it's a COVID thing that's like carried over. Yeah. And originally I didn't want to be there because I was supposed to be taking care of Kupo. So I went back home and I actually had bought a DAP's fat boy sandwich. And I was like, finally, you know, wives have babies.

I can wait. And they said it's not going to be until noon. So you have like six or seven hours. you can come back and wait in like the parking lot and then come in and be like good job and then leave yeah and so I'm about to eat this great sandwich I just ended the stream finished a couple more races and umu-musime yeah tough day for me and then my wife's like it's happening now and they said you can come back so I'm like I'm okay I went there I had been up 36 hours or something she had been up 25 36 hours she had the baby and

it was always great. And it was, but like I... Right back to Omosa. Right back to Moussa. I was like, does, uh, the, the day resets, the daily resets in 12 minutes. Can we, can we, uh, can we, uh, my son anyway? Oh, I didn't see it. I was, I was like, uh, winning ticket.

And they're like your son. I'm like, yeah. So his name, unfortunately now is just winning ticket Macy. They thought I was naming him. So now it was, it was a good transition. I went from, you know, my, my, My pretty horses, too. My beautiful sons.

Oh. There you go. Well, thank you such coming on. Yeah, get this away from me. No, no, no, no. No, no. I don't mean to tear it away from it.

Always a pleasure. Thank you guys. It was a true pleasure. Thank you for letting me be a part of this today. Of course, anytime. But hey guys, look at all these patrons, though. Point to your favorite patron, Pete. He's still here.

He's been here since the first episode, Eyes on. It's gone now. But thank you. Big shout to fuck my Chungus life. Is that the meme? I don't know the meme. Well, now we're going to have a patron called that.

There you go. So that's your, well, look at all these awesome ones. You've got a lot of repeat offenders here. Awesome people. Repeat offenders. Okay, that's a bad term, I guess. But there you go. Thank you, Gavin Newsom.

If you want to be a certified repeat offender, then you can head on over to Patreon.com with the last trash taste. Because if you go over to the Patreon, not only will you be supporting the show, but every single week, you can check out weekly Patreon exclusive content. We have brand new one

that you guys can go check out right after this one. But if you want to support the show, Then held on over to patreon.com slash trash taste. Also falls on Twitter, send us to me as on the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. And thanks again, P, for coming on to the show.

It was my pleasure. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye.