January 2022 Q&A

Transcript

Hey Moonbeams, welcome to another Q&A, this one being the first one of 2022. I seem to remember a few months back, y'all didn't ask me very many questions, and I asked y'all to submit some more questions, and it sounds like you took me seriously, it seems like you took me seriously, because last month there were a good number, and y'all loaded me up for January too, so without further ado, here we go. Marlo asks, do you have any New Year's resolutions? I do have some personal work that I'm undertaking, it's not really, and with respect, sorry I don't want to talk about it, it is a rather personal thing, but I really don't have a habit of making New Year's resolutions, I kind of have a habit of setting goals throughout the year, I don't look at it as, you know, there's something magical about January 1st, and I'm going to make, you know, new goals based on that date, because I think that if I've made the goal to conform to a specific, you know, it's January 1st, therefore I must do this, I don't think my heart's going to be in it as much, and it makes more sense to me personally, at least the way I'm wired, to make my goals throughout the year, undertake them throughout the year, and just make sure that I'm always trying to move forward as a person, and in my job, and with my community, etc.

, just try to make goals for personal betterment, and do that throughout the course of the year. Marla says I absolutely loved your Spanish audio, thank you, I'm glad you liked it. Are you fluent in Spanish? If so, when did you learn, and why? I am not fluent in Spanish, I am conversational, I can get by, definitely don't speak it fluently by any shot of the imagination.

I studied it for several years when I was like in high school, we had to take a foreign language for a couple years as part of the requirements for the high school I went to, or I think for one year at least, I can't remember, and I want to say the options were Spanish, German, and French, where I went to school, I can't remember, because I didn't really look after, like I chose Spanish like right off the bat because I was like, well that's probably going to be the most used to me down the road, you know, being as it's the second most common language spoken in the United States, and so that's when I picked, and I ended up studying it all the way through high school. More recently, I've been trying to practice it, I've been trying to pick it up a bit, you know, it's coming along slowly, it's not something that I've really dedicated, you know, carved out hours and hours of time daily to studying and learning, but it is coming along a bit, and I'm picking more and more up. And then are there any other languages you're interested in learning? Well, yes.

I a few years ago was looking at learning Japanese, and just for funsies, just because I've always been a bit of a Japanophile, and wanted to learn it, and I started learning some, but I got distracted by other pursuits, one of which was audio creation, and kind of tabled the Japanese studies for the time being. Coco Calypso asks, what would you consider to be the most attractive kind of piercing out there, even if you aren't super into them? Well, I don't know if I've ever thought about that.

I do find something attractive about the single just stud in the side of the nose. I think it's cute, I don't know why, I like it. Not anything else that I really, you know, that really jumps out at me.

If you had to pick one person from history that inspires you or you look up to, who would that person be? Well, I mean, I don't think I've made much secret of the fact that I'm a Christian, and that makes this answer extremely easy. I would pick Jesus Christ.

If I'm choosing a non-religious figure, I would have to decide, honestly, between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, to be perfectly honest. And it's kind of a toss-up, like, have me flip a coin any given day, and, you know, because they're kind of right up there, in terms of just my admiration for their perseverance through some very, very difficult times in the history of our country, of my country, and the things that they accomplished and the freedoms that that ultimately has led to today. Oddball, would you ever try roasted peach with goat cheese in the center? 10 out of 10 recommend this, if this piques your interest.

I would totally try that, like, yeah. Forgive me if I mispronounce your name, Justin, but Justin Trojanovich, please, in the comments, you can tell me the pronunciation. I want to get it right.

What's your favorite way to spend a day off? What or how I usually do? What I would love to do on a day off is just relax, go somewhere nice and pleasant where the sun is shining, where it's warm but not too hot, sit out on the beach, walk through the forest, just be outdoors.

I really like being outdoors. The way that I usually spend them, I fit in a lot of my, you know, I work a regular nine to five. And so how do I get to stuff? Like, how do I get to my doctor appointments, you know, and how do I get to the bank when they work the same hours I do?

And so I tend to run a lot of errands on my days off, fit in a lot of the appointments that I need to do, tend to do a lot of housework, a lot of cleaning. And I try to record and make sure that I've got, you know, because it's not every day that I have, you know, recording time. And so I typically sit down and record several things at a time if I can.

And like last month, December, I want to say all of the recordings for the whole month were done, were recorded by the fifth of the month or something or the seventh. It was really early because I had some time right up front there. And so I banged that all out and didn't have to worry about it for a while.

What is the best vacation you ever took and why? That is a good question. Best vacation I ever took.

Well, I don't know if there's one that I can say is the best. I remember going to Disney World a few years back with my whole family, including someone I love very much who was terminally ill at the time. And it was that person's last trip to Disney.

And it was just a very emotionally full vacation. We had an absolute ball. We knew that our loved one wasn't going to be with us for much longer.

And he did end up passing away four months later. And still a trip that I look back. One of the things that really strikes me about that trip that's made it really pop in my mind is pictures of my family member who knew he was dying and just happy and smiling and having the time of his life.

And it was because he was with his family doing something he loved. And so that's really stuck out to me. That's really been something I thought about many, many times about the important things in life and the things where at the end of the day, when you have to face your own mortality, you have to face that there is an end at some point.

The things that bring you your real happiness and that you, you know, I'm very proud of my family member. He spent, he went with courage and he spent the last days of his life really focusing more than ever on the things of most importance. And he gave us all some wonderful memories to take along with us through our journeys.

So that, like I said, I can't say that I've had one trip that stands out as the best vacation I've ever had. But that is one that stands out as just being particularly emotionally impactful and, and fulfilling in a lot of ways. What is your go-to guilty pleasure? Um, geez, I, I mean, I have a few like playing video games, um, hitting the snooze button on my alarm 15 times, just so I can stay in bed for an extra like six hours, um, or two hours or whatever, or 30 minutes.

I don't know, um, dessert, you know, in all its varieties, um, yeah, just, I don't know. I don't, I'm not, I'm not really given to a lot of vice, you know, um, and if I had to pick one, I'd say cheesecake. Because like, if I go to the store and pick up cheesecake, you know, that comes like pre sliced into, you know, 16 slices, like one of these huge cheesecakes that you can get at Costco or whatever.

I mean, that's, that's like four sittings for me because, you know, I think cheesecake gets lonely when you only eat one piece, so you have to eat several is kind of the way I see it. I don't want to eat one piece and have it be lonely in my stomach because I might get indigestion. So probably best that I eat like six.

Um, if you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? A cheesecake. Yeah, probably cheesecake.

Um, uh, there is a chicken sausage rigatoni, um, dish. So I think it was last year. Um, you know, you may recall in one of my audios, I talked about a hello fresh box being delivered and on the doorstep and it's not something that I had signed up for or it wasn't my stuff.

And that was actually art mirroring life because that really happened to me. I, you know, look at my front door one morning and there's a hello fresh box there addressed to someone that used to live where I live now. And, um, and I called them up and I was like, Hey, you know, this isn't mine.

And they're like, well, thanks for being honest. And we'll see if we can find who the real owner is. But everything in there is perishable.

So don't bother sending it back. Just enjoy. And it's yours.

And, um, and, uh, maybe you'll consider, um, maybe you'll consider joining us. And I did not consider joining them, especially because did you know you can go on their website and get all their recipes like for free? So if I'm going to cook from scratch, I mean, I'll just go to Walmart or wherever and buy the ingredients and do it for like half the price and use their free recipe.

Thank you very much. Um, but anyway, this, uh, chicken sausage rigatoni, uh, is really, really good. And I've made it half dozen times since then.

And, um, and, uh, it's just, it's just terrific, terrific. It's one of my very favorite recipes I've ever had. Snowflake VA asks, what is your favorite video game? Um, honestly, again, I don't know if I have a favorite, but there are some that I really enjoy the Uncharted series, a lot of the Assassin's Creed ones.

Um, but if I had to pick one that I would say is kind of the one I look at and I'm like, that is the masterpiece. It's still the last of us. Now I haven't been, you know, keeping up, uh, very, um, religiously on the gaming scene for a little while now.

And there's, you know, there's other stuff out now that I just haven't been following. Um, but it still just stands out in my mind, you know, there are certain films that stand the test of time and in film school, they teach all about them because everything is, you know, Citizen Kane is probably the one that's most frequently cited. Everything was good.

The script was good. The acting was good. The lighting was good.

The blocking was good. The sets, the visuals, the direction, everything about it was good. It's and if you haven't seen it, it is a, it is a classic and I recommend watching it.

It's a terrific movie. Um, but, uh, there was a, a game critic that said the last of us was the Citizen Kane of video games. And I agree.

Everything about it was well done from start to finish. Um, Roshni asks, have you ever taken on a fitness challenge such as a marathon? If so, do you have any tips for surviving it? Uh, I have never taken on any kind of fitness challenge like that.

Um, I have in the past, uh, been diligent at the gym. I kind of fell out of that because of COVID and everything I need to get back into it. Uh, but you know, when COVID, um, closed things down and, and I wasn't able to go to the gym anymore.

I kind of fell off the horse there, uh, and, uh, but I mean, my tips for surviving any physical challenge are pace yourself. You know, know your limitations, push yourself to the edge, but don't do something that's going to, like, if you work out way too hard, you may be too sore to work out for like several days afterwards. So work out hard enough that you're going to be mildly sore, but still able to do your thing.

Don't injure yourself, you know, obviously, um, so know your limitations, accept your limitations and push on them. Have you ever wanted, tried or thought of writing a book? Uh, no, no, and also no, I am not a writer.

I am barely literate. As a matter of fact, are there any areas or genres of audio work, such as radio that you'd like to try? Well, I did lend my voice to a radio serial, um, called the search for the super weapon that a friend of mine, mute zero.

And uh, he's on Twitter at mute underscore errant, E-R-R-A-N-T, um, he wrote it. It's a hundred episodes long. I was one of the, uh, I played a significant character and I've, I really enjoyed that.

Um, early in the, uh, early in the days of the Patreon, uh, the Moonlight Audio Patreon, I did podcast work, um, but I really haven't thought too much about much other voice work. You know, this, this, um, audio started out as a, as a way to me, way for me to give back to people, um, for help that I, and strength that I had received during a, during a challenging time. Um, but it's not my day job and it's not my career.

You know, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's part of who I am. It's a very good creative outlet for me, but, um, I do have a day job and a career and I've got, you know, family and friends and, and, and, uh, community obligations and, and just not really a lot of time in my life to expand, um, to other areas at this point. What advice would you give for January or winter survival? Well, one thing that I think everyone should do is make sure if you drive, if you have a car, have an emergency kit in the back of your car.

It needs to include space blankets. It needs to include lanterns and flares. And you ought to get, you can get these at like any army supply store.

Um, a few MREs, meal ready to eat, get a couple, throw them in the trunk. They last for like 10 years or something and they're good forever. And um, and they're, they're designed for, for soldiers, for people that are, you know, need a lot of calories all at once, need to go for a long time and don't know when they're going to be able to eat again.

And so assume, you know, well, I guess don't assume that bad things are going to happen, but think about, you know, what would happen if I were stranded and, and couldn't, you know, didn't have cell signal and, and, uh, needed to be here a while. Well, how would I keep myself safe? How would I provide for myself? You know, so that's why I say space blankets, stuff to eat, flares, that sort of thing.

Have you seen the movie? Don't look up. If so, who would you want to share a meal with if it were the end of the world? Well, I have seen it.

Because of immediately before this, uh, recording this Q and A, just got done watching it. Um, I liked it. It was, it was interesting.

I mean, it was, it was very obviously a sendup of Trump. Um, and, but there, there was a lot of really good commentary in there, I thought on a, on a range of different, um, things. So that was very well done.

Um, who would I like to share a meal with? I am not going to name names, but there is a small group of people that are very close to me, um, that I would want to share that meal with. Um, yeah.

And if I only had one meal left, that's, that's who I'd want to be there. Olivia Cooper asks, have you ever wanted to do a weekly podcast? No, I haven't.

I did a monthly one for three or four months, I want to say. Um, early in the days of the, as I said, the, the Moonlight Oddity.