December 2021 Q&A

Transcript

Happy December, Moonbeams. Welcome to the December Patreon Q&A. It is currently, well, I'm recording this on the 10th of December, and I've got to say I'm very proud of myself because I'm going to toot my own horn just a little bit here.

I have been very busy, Kat and I have been very busy with our content generation, and I am going to today on the 10th be finishing my recording responsibilities for the whole month. This is very big news. Compare that with other times that I have had some things come out after the end of the month, and you've been very patient with me on that, so thank you there.

But I'm very proud of myself. This is my Christmas gift to me so that I don't have to be worrying about it and have it hanging over my head. Now, editing is time-consuming.

It's laborious, and I am going to toot Kat's horn just a little bit here, too. She has been learning how to edit. She's been doing a wonderful job.

The last couple of audios have been edited by Kativa, so if you're not already on the server, get your butts over there. And if you are, be sure to say hi to Kat over in the Planetarium channel and give her props for her editing. She's coming along very, very well, and she's got a real ear for this stuff.

So special thanks to her for her hard work on that, helping decompress my audio creation load as I've been, you know, getting through end-of-the-year stuff. And without further ado, let's get into the questions. Tracy asks, do you watch Christmas movies? And if so, do you have a favorite? Yes and yes.

I would say probably my favorite is A Christmas Story. I've always just absolutely loved that show. Actually, so that film was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio.

It's set in Indiana, but it was filmed in Cleveland. And as a little homage to Cleveland, the street the kid lives on is Cleveland Street. Well, several years ago, I want to say 10, 15 years ago, something like that, somebody who's a fan went and purchased the house that that movie was filmed in.

And it's been converted into a Christmas story museum. And they have the whole thing done. They've got the they've got the, you know, the outlet with a million different cables coming out of it.

They've got all sorts of fun stuff. And I actually went a few years ago and toured that. And so that was really a lot of fun for me.

Other things that are favorite Christmas stories or Christmas movies of mine, I should say I've always really loved the original Miracle on 34th Street. I think it's just a fabulous movie. I kind of like it's a wonderful life.

I've never really gotten that much into it. But you know, I've enjoyed it when I've seen it. It's just not one that I'm like, let's put that on.

Unless I've already watched the other ones. What was your favorite gift you ever received when you were a child and growing up slash older? Okay, this is going to be a little bit sentimental for me.

I remember about I don't remember it was a few years ago. I'm a big Lord of the Rings nerd. And, and I grew up reading my dad's copies of those books.

And a few years ago, on on I want to say it was is the 26th. So the day after Christmas, which some of you people may erroneously, you may erroneously call it Boxing Day. It's called the 26th of December.

That's the proper name for it. Because I'm American. My dad came up to me and I was just sitting on the couch in the living room at my parents house.

I can't remember what I was doing. I was putting something together that I'd received for Christmas. And my dad said, so, son, how was your Christmas? You get everything you wanted? And I said, well, it was great.

You know, thank you. And I got just about everything I wanted. I'm perfectly happy.

And he kind of started, he's like, what did you want that you didn't get? And I said, well, I was hoping to get my own copy of the Lord of the Rings. And he said, oh, okay, well, I guess there's birthdays.

And he went off to do some stuff. Well, he comes in about an hour later. And he has a copy of the Lord of the Rings, a whole trilogy in one single bound volume that he had just purchased.

And he dropped it on my lap and he said, Merry Christmas. And I'm starting to get a little emotional here. It just really, I knew what it really was.

It was a big I love you from my dad. And it meant a lot to me. And that is one of my most cherished gifts that I've ever received for birthday, Christmas or anything else because of the message behind it.

My dad, it was a special gift from my dad. And it just really, it hit hard and it meant a lot. And I have it on my shelf and I read it and it's something I, for the rest of my life, I'm going to remember that Christmas and my dad buying me the Lord of the Rings like that.

What would your perfect Christmas be? Oh, gosh. You know, I can't say that I've sat down and really thought through, you know, like carefully planned out.

Okay. In my mind, the perfect Christmas would be this, this, isn't that. It would be a Christmas where I'm surrounded by people that I love, where it's cozy, where it's warm, where people are happy, there's harmony, and we have a great, wonderful Christmas dinner in the making.

And just really the themes there are being with people that I love and having peace. And those are the things that really, you know, I value them all the time, but they really, they, I guess hit harder at Christmas time or they, they, they're just much more at the forefront of my thoughts at Christmas time, given the season and everything that it stands for. Jordan asks, what are your dream Christmas tree colors? I can tell you right now, my Christmas tree has white lights on it.

In the past, I've been known to run alternating strings of red and white lights of a tree to make it look like a candy cane, which I think is a fun thing. Cause then I also have the Christmas colors, you know, the, the, the red and the green together. I want to say, so this, and this just made me remember the most random thing.

I want to say it was like Christmas time a few years ago that the, I don't remember if it was Christmas day or whatever, but the NFL decided they were using these like color splash uniforms or something like that. And they had the New York jets and the Buffalo Bills playing, I want to say. And the jets were wearing like this bright Christmas green and the, and the Bills were wearing this bright Christmas red and the commentators were saying how it was a colorblind person's nightmare.

But, um, so that was, that just kind of came to mind when I thought of Christmas colors. Olivia Cooper says, what is your favorite Christmas song? I like a lot of Christmas songs.

I like a lot of contemporary ones. I like a lot of traditional ones, like a lot of ones that are considered hymns. Um, there's a chill Christmas songs, um, Spotify playlist, uh, that, uh, if I remember to, I'll put the link to it in the post for this Q and a, uh, that I've been playing a lot lately.

Um, but if I had to choose just one favorite Christmas song, it would be Isaac Watts's, um, brilliant masterpiece, joy to the world. Roshni, uh, asked several questions. So share your most romantic Christmas memory.

I don't really have any Christmas memories that are particularly romantic. Um, there are romanticized Christmas memories, uh, just being with people that I love, um, sharing time and space and, and doing activities with those close to me with family members, with close friends. And those are kind of the, the things that are really romanticized in my mind that mean a lot to me.

Uh, what is your favorite Christmas food? Oh gosh. Um, so when I was a kid, my mom on Christmas morning would make these, I don't even know really what they were, but we call them scones and they were just these honeyed, um, pastries that she would, and she would only make them on Christmas.

And so that was something I really looked forward to on Christmas was that mom was going to make scones and I haven't had them in years. Um, but I, I, I mean, I think she stopped making them when I was a teenager. Um, but I think just because of the memories and how much I looked forward to them, they gotta be probably my favorite Christmas food, favorite Christmas food that I still have.

Um, generally on Christmas, the spread that I'm used to looks a lot like Thanksgiving. So turkey and pumpkin pie and stuff like that. And so it's like getting to eat Thanksgiving.

In fact, the thing is at Costco, they used to sell at, and I don't know if they still do, but at Thanksgiving, coming up to Thanksgiving, they would sell two turkeys for the price of one over at Costco. And so, you know, growing up, we had a big ice box in the, in the, um, in the, in the garage. And so my parents would go and buy two turkeys at Costco and they would cook one for Thanksgiving and they would throw the other in the ice box in the, in the garage.

And so that would be our turkey for Christmas. And so it was like, I got to, I got to have Thanksgiving twice. So that's pretty awesome.

Um, do you ever get winter blues? And if so, how do you combat them? Uh, I think everybody do.

I think everybody does sometimes to an extent. Um, usually for me, the thing to do is to wrap up in warm blankets, drink hot cocoa, you know, and just get cozy. I just really like to because like sit in front of a fireplace, you know, um, I may or may not be famous for lying down on the carpet in front of a fireplace and falling asleep there.

Um, can neither confirm nor deny. So, um, that may also be something I do. Uh, Christmas vacations, are they for traveling or curling up on the sofa with a box set? I would say the latter because if there's a theme you may be noticing here, it's that I like to be cozy when the winter's when the weather's cold.

Um, so yeah, more for curling up on the sofa with a box set. Next question. Given I'm new here, I'm curious to know what kind of support you find most helpful from this community, direct chat, comments, likes, or something else entirely.

Um, you know, comments and likes are always fun and appreciated, but really the things that, um, are the most supportive are, is, is when people come to the server and interact with me. I haven't been on there lately as much as I, um, have sometimes in the past. I'm going to try to be better about that, but I really just like interacting with the community on my discord server and, um, and being part of the events that we have and the hangouts that we do.

Um, just that, that one-on-one something that really kind of does not like really give me the happy feel goods is when people come, when people like start simping, cause I do get some of that from time to time and it's like, eh, you know, it just doesn't like get to know me. Like, you know, a part of a character when you listen to my audios and I, and I love that you guys love that, but get to know me, you know, and, and, uh, and, um, interact with me. And that's, that's kind of the most fun for me.

And finally, you do a lot of stargazing in your audios anyway. Tell us about the most beautiful sky you ever witnessed and what made it unique to you. Um, okay.

So I do love stargazing. I am not good at it. I'm not like one of these people that's out there mapping the sky, like a real true amateur astronomer or anything.

I do have a couple of telescopes. Um, and I've, I've enjoyed like with, with my favorite one, I've been able to like see the bands, the cloud bands on Jupiter. I've been able to see the rings on Saturn and stuff like that.

But I, I'm, I remember one time as a teenager going for a long, um, like week long camping type of thing with a group of guys that I, that I, um, was friends with. And we were out in the middle of nowhere, um, out in the Western U S and there was an observatory, um, not far from where we were camping. And so at one point we, um, and this was a youth group type activity.

So we had adult, uh, you know, adult chaperone slash leader slash supervisor slash parole officers with us. And, um, and they arranged to go up to the observatory and the guy that, um, was on duty there showed us the sky, showed us some really cool stuff. Um, he came down to our campsite the next morning.

He's like, Hey, do you guys want to look at the sun? And took us up and they had the filter on the telescope. So we could look at the sun through this like high powered, just amazing telescope.

And so that really was one of the most beautiful skies I've ever witnessed simply because I was able to see so many things. And it was just such a, like, I'm a science geek. It was really cool.

You know, it was really cool to, to see that and, and experience that. Um, what's the, and then, uh, so forgive me if I mispronounce this, Riri, uh, says what stops you from getting too overwhelmed in stressful situations? Um, you know, just like anybody else, I can get overwhelmed from time to time.

I can get stressed out. Um, one of the things that really helps me calm down a lot of times is my mom would always tell me when I get stressed out as a kid, she's like, relax, everything's going to work out. It always does.

And she was right. Even when things don't go my way, cause they don't always go my way. They don't always end the way that I want them to, but ultimately, ultimately any problem looming before me eventually is not a problem anymore.

One way or another, it gets resolved. Now it may get resolved in a way that really sucks. And, you know, causes some misery for me and I have to get over it and blah, blah, blah.

I may lose something and not be able to get it back. Who knows? But the problem itself resolves and remembering when I'm down in the dumps like that, that I'm, the problems will resolve and I'm not going to feel that way forever.

The way that I'm feeling right now, when I'm down is not how I'm going to feel forever. This is not my default state. And just remembering that helps me to kind of keep a perspective on things.

When I get overwhelmed, helps me to remember that, things are going to work out one way or another. And they often work out in a, in a wonderful way too. Often unexpectedly, you know, I, I have opportunities present themselves that I wasn't anticipating.

I have solutions come up that I did not foresee. And so keeping, keeping things in perspective like that. And another thing that really helps me a lot, and this is something that I have worked on quite a bit throughout my life.

And I, you know, it's a work in progress is to simply accept what is and accept the framework that I'm working within. You know, the world is, it works in a specific, in a certain way. And I can either rage against things that are outside of my control, or I can accept them.

And really the, the serenity prayer, kind of is the answer there, you know, God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't, and the wisdom to tell the difference. And, and that right there, I think is, like I said, I'm by no means am I perfect at it, but that's kind of one of the governing philosophies of my life that I try to implement from day to day is to accept the things that I can't change, but to be motivated to change the things I can. And again, to be wise enough to tell the difference between the two.