Episode 79: The James & Aysha Power Hour (Again)

https://pgenpod.com/updates/episodes/79

The gang takes on your dumb group chat. Also: Restaurant reviews. Scooby-Doo. "MANAGEMENT STYLES." Post-apocalyptic knitwear. Shitty and boring Andrew stories. Bidets. Put a dick warning on it.

Listen to this episode at https://pgenpod.com/updates/episodes/79

## Transcript

Kate:  The perfectly generic podcast contains spoilers, occasional adult language and Vriska. You've been warned. This show is supported by listeners like you on Patreon. We'd like to thank the following Crockertier patrons for their generous support for episode [names]

[Intro Music]

Aysha:  Welcome to the James and Aysha Power Hour Part Four.

James:  Yeah wow.

Aysha:  It's like a whole new podcast.

James:  It is like a whole new podcast only we're not– we're never gonna make... ooh this is great audio. Alright, so [Aysha laughs] yeah, welcome once again to the James and Aysha Power Hour. Not Homestuck related this time. Though, I mean, I guess we'll talk about Homestuck maybe.

Aysha:  Y'all always trick us into talking about Homestuck.

James:  We didn't swear it off explicitly this time, however, if I can help it, I will not. Anyway, first talking point, let's talk about these named Homestuck crews that seem to be duking it out on Twitter right now. Um, I don't understand it.

Aysha:  [Aysha laughs] You immediately started talking about Homestuck.

James:  Yeah, it's been on my mind lately because like... Okay, I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, as a resident, old person of the Homestuck community, I don't get it. It seems like everyone's got a crew name for some reason. It feels very seventh grade to me. And then I realize, it's because a lot of them are young people. That's why [James laughs].

Aysha:  I don't know if I've even seen these crews. Like I have pretty much just sort of Cask of Amontilladoed myself off into a corner of Twitter, and I don't really interact with any of the fandom at large except the people in my server.

James:  It's a hot ticket issue lately with these like 'Oh, you know if you interact with anybody from this, it's like, What? What low stakes.

Aysha:  I guess you just can't stop people from forming gangs. Like they're just gonna do it. They're just gonna form cliques.

James:  It feels very Gangs of New York like, you know, the early turn of the century. Like this guy's out here with his shillelagh. I'm just like-

Aysha:  [Aysha singing] When your jet you're a jet all the way. Yeah,

James:  Yeah. It's like, fuckin'...

Aysha:  I don't know. I mean

James:  Montague Capulets I don't remember West Side Story.

Aysha:  As long as everyone's having fun.[Aysha laughs]

James:  Yeah. I feel like–

Aysha:  A classic thing to say about games.

James:  Yeah, as long as you're all having a great time it's very just, what's the word I'm looking for? It's so low stakes to get so caught up and stuff like this. Sometimes, for me I guess that's...

Aysha:  I mean? I guess sometimes I wonder why we all do spend so much time just ripping each other apart online and I guess it's because there is a bunch of high stakes stuff happening, and sometimes, you just want to yell at someone for stanning Eridan instead of thinking about how the world is literally burning down.

James:  Yeah, that's true. I mean, I would much rather deal with like, 'Oh, this guy likes Zebruh? Huh huh.' you know, than dealing with any sort of you know, oh my god, you've been watching the debates? Topic two: how's politics.

Aysha:  Oh my god. I just, luckily, I missed the last debate because I was literally recording my podcast. So..

James:  Politics?

Aysha:  No, it was– it's an audio drama. It's a space audio drama.

James:  Oh, that one?

Aysha:  Yeah. Um, Second Star To the left,

James:  Who do you play on it?

Aysha:  Um, I play somebody who comes later in the story, but I also am a writer, so I'm just there for the recording.

James:  Okay, that's nice.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  This last debate was a shitshow. Ooh you really...yikes dodged a bullet

Aysha:  Yeah \*sighs\*. Everybody was just like, yep, like everyone was yelling? And it reminded me of just trying like, it just reminded me of theater class.

James:  Hmm.

Aysha:  Or something or just like trying to get teens to do something.

James:  Theater class but way straighter.

Aysha:  Yeah. [Aysha laughs] God and then, um, I did see the Pete Buttigeg tweet that got deleted really fast where he was like, Let's not go back to those revolutionary politics of the 1960s. And it's like, oof, Man,

James:  Wasn't your dad– he was Marxist you, clown.

Aysha:  Well, yeah, I mean but also the 1960s was like Civil Rights, Gay Rights. So it's like, oh man you posted cringe.

James:  Ooh you're gonna lose delegates

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  Yeah, it was a nightmare. But touching back on something that I feel is very important to kind of get back into what you mentioned a little bit ago. Were you in theater in high school? Were you a theater kid?

Aysha:  Oh, yeah.

James:  Oh my gosh.

Aysha:  I was a theater major in college for like a minute.

James:  Oh, in college. I feel like in college there's a sort of, there's a sense of legitimacy to doing something in college as opposed to doing something in high school because high school you just do. It's pure like id what you do.

Aysha:  I mean, I played a gangster in Guys and Dolls because I could sing tenor.

James:  Wow.

Aysha:  Um, and I had one line and at one point I just yelled, it's the fuzz and then we all ran.

James:  Can you do like a? Like a completely not racist?  italian accent cuz you lived in Italy for a while right?

Aysha:  Yeah, I did I–

James:  Those two things are very related.

Aysha:  I don't think anybody talked like a 1940s gangster there though.

James:  That's really disappointing.

Aysha:  I know. I mean, I'm sure there are people who talk that way but I was not in a very mob run part of Italy.

James:  Well, that's, that's certainly disappointing, but I trust you.

Aysha: Every accent I do just eventually becomes me doing an impression of my grandfather.

James:  Oh.

Aysha:  So

James:  Yeah, I can't do accents. And like it's not that I refused, like, you know, as a Hispanic person. It's not like I'm refusing to do like a Mexican accent. I just can't do it. Like regardless of whether or not it's like, racist of me to do so. Again I remind the audience that I am Mexican, but I can't actually physically vocally do it. I just... I got no accent chops I guess.

Aysha:  I'm really good at– I can mimic really well so if I hear an accent or if I hear someone say something in an accent I can repeat it, but it's kind of hard for me to just pull out of my ass.

James:  I think what happened is one time in middle school I tried to do it and someone was like that's terrible and I never did it again.

Aysha:  [Aysha laughs] God the best accent is um, Pip's American accent is incredible.

James:  [James laughs] I have not heard Pip's American accent.

Aysha:  You should hear Pip's impression of Solid Snake. It's incredible.[Both laugh]

James:  Just a gruff– what's my impression of Solid Snake? Probably bad. I can do one voice. And it's Kermit the Frog. And then

Aysha:  Yup.

James:  It's not good.

Aysha:  I feel like I knew that or I could just feel it.

James:  I think we did a bit where I did– it was Kermit the Frog. Like I was trying to do a Jeff Bezos impression.

Aysha:  Oh right [Aysha laughs]

James:  Like yeah, that's not what he sounds like, but in my mind is what he does.

Aysha:  I have no idea what Jeff Bezos sounds like. Probably just sounds rich.

James:  I don't know. Cuz he's like new money, right?

Aysha:  Yeah, I don't know. But like, what a rich. Oh my god. Okay, so I told you that I was going to talk about this game.

James: Sure.

Aysha:  And everybody who... Um, hold on. I'm echoing. Give me a second. Oh...

James:  No.

Aysha:  Cut this out. Cut this audio out. I'll be right back.

James:  Sure.

Aysha:  We're on that next level professional shit here.

James:  Oh, hello.

Aysha:  Sorry.

James:  I was putting on a little show for myself.

Aysha:  Okay.

James:  Back?

Aysha:  Yes, we're back. So the game that I've been obsessed with and telling everybody about constantly, Disco Elysium

James:  Never heard you mention it a single time.

Aysha:  [Aysha laughs] There's a character in it that you can find who's just called like the high net worth individual.

James:  Wow.

Aysha:  And like he's just like a rich guy, but he's so rich that light just bends around him.

James:  Jesus.

Aysha:  And you can't look at him. Because your poor ass just cannot see him because his net worth is so high.

James:  Can't fathom how rich this person is?

Aysha:  Yeah, and you can ask him for some money and he gives you like $1

James:  Perfect.

Aysha:  Yeah, I know. Rich people are really cheap.

James: Uh, this will tie in. Okay, we'll touch back on old Jeffy boy later, because it ties into one of the questions we received. Um, let's see, we delivered our talking points. We talked about one of them. Oh, there's actually a really interesting thing I wanted to ask you about: traditional food. I've been thinking about traditional food a lot lately. And the idea of Yelp reviewed like, Oh, this is legit Mexican food. That's what every Mexican food place says. And none of it's true. So I was wondering, Is there any traditional food that you've ever gotten right at a restaurant?

Aysha:  Um, I feel like there's a couple. I think that there was a place in Arlington, Virginia.

James: Okay.

Aysha:  It's closed now. It's called, I think it was called Laya Lena and they had really good Hummus and stuff like that. Um, I guess I just have a sliding scale, like, really good in the US is different than what I would say would be really good if my grandmother or grandpa was making it or something like that. Or my uncle. Um, but I mean there's like a place downtown it's just called Mediterranean Delhi and it's Arab food. They just don't want to call it Arab because then people would probably throw rocks through the window.

James:  Firebomb it. Yeah.

Aysha:  Yeah. Um, and they have really really good pita.

James:  Mmm.

Aysha:  But everything else is just kind of like, I'm in America so that's fine.

James:  I feel like finding stuff like that's hard. It's like it's hard to get right. Unless you've been making it for generations in your family. There's something about tortillas. It's like it's you can tell when someone has made them a long time and you can tell when someone's looked it up on like, Where's my Pinterest like, you know, I pinned recipe earlier this week. That's me when I try and make them

Aysha:  Yeah, the thing that nobody I feel like has ever gotten right, like I've only tasted when one of my uncles brings it back from the Middle East and that's baklava, is like, really hard to do,

James:  Which was that one?

Aysha:  Oh, I think it's um baklava.

James:  Yeah, that's what I was about to say, yeah. Is that baklava for us?

Aysha:  So if I say baklava in front of my dad, he will correct me.

James:  Oh, no, I understand that completely. I have very white boy pronunciation because our parents didn't– which actually brings us into our next topic that I wrote down. Name pronunciations. I am the worst because my parents didn't want me to speak Spanish, like at all. You know, they wanted me to understand it, but not speak it so that I didn't have an accent.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  And so like when I say stuff, sometimes, it's just like, well, first of all, my family doesn't speak exact Spanish.

Aysha:  Right.

James:  Second of all, like, I just, I'll say stuff like, oh, I'll have an enchilada. You know?

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  Yeah, they make fun of me, but at the same time, they're like, 'You better not speak with an accent.' What is the pernect– prinect? Ooh, uh K-word if we could get that edited out. All right, is the correct pronunciation of your name? Just for everyone

Aysha:  Aysha? (like eye shuh- transcriber's note)

James:  Yeah, cuz I've heard like seven people say it. Like, I know what it is. I got it right on the first try. So it's not hard. But

Aysha:  I mean, there are people who've legitimately been working with me for two years who still can't say it.

James:  I, the one that like–

Aysha:  And it's not a hard one.

James:  The one that gets me is like, Ayesha? (pronounced eye eesh uh- transcriber's note). Because it's like, that's not even how that is spelled. You know, like,

Aysha:  I mean, it comes from the same name like it is the same name. Technically, it means life in Arabic, but I don't know. It just doesn't seem like a tough one to me. I feel like Aisha (pronounced ayy shuh) is what it looks like, which is like fair and a lot of other Ayshas I've met have spelled it with an 'I' instead of a 'Y'? Because I think that that more reads is Aysha, but whatever.

James:  Like the neopet, yeah.

Aysha:  Oh yeah, like the neopet, yeah.

James:  Um, there's actually this really like, do you ever watch Patriot Act with Hasan, what's his last name? Minhaj? But, yeah, he did this like whole thing where he went on Ellen, you know, an Ellen got his name wrong, like the pronunciation but not like super wrong, but just like wrong enough that his parents who are in the audience– and Ellen being the most American TV show, like, I'm sure if my grandparents were still around, they'd fucking watch Ellen. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like,

Aysha:  oh, yeah, of course.

James:  Yeah. Like not really my thing but like, I know that a lot of like, old POC people like it because it's so American. It's such a distillation of American culture, the show.  And so she got his name wrong. And so four of the seven minutes that he had he spent making her say his name right.

Aysha:  Oh my god, that like, that's real, that's fucking real.

James:  Because he's like, I have a TV show that has my name in it, you know, like, we're not gonna do this in 2020. And I was like, Man, that's some stuff. And the way that he talked about it was he was saying you know, our parents, because this is kind of the level that I'm on a lot of the time where it's like smile and nod and just you're surviving, you're just trying to get through this interaction. And he's like, you know, and while I appreciate that, blah, blah, blah. He's like, I'm not trying to survive. I'm trying to live and I'm like, that's really cool. But also, I don't know if I could.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  Like even–

Aysha:  Gotta, you know, I don't know if I can get on that level, man.

James:  Yeah. It's like, Whoa, you have a little bit of money so it's okay for you.

Aysha:  Um, I stopped wearing– like when I was working still before I quit my day job, I worked at a coffee shop and I wore a name tag that said Aysha, and I would get like one in five people would ask me how to say it,  where I was from,  I'd get some people calling me exotic to my face.

James:  Oh boy.

Aysha:  Which was weird. And they were like, Where are you from? And I'd say, Washington DC.

James:  Right but where's your family from?

Aysha:  Because Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's true. I am from Washington, DC. And then, one time this woman came in and started talking to me about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. And trying to explain to me why Israel is good?

James:  Oh, boy.

Aysha:  And I felt my soul leave my body. So after that, I stopped wearing my name tag because I was like, I just don't want these conversations to happen. And my manager was like, Hey, you gotta wear a name tag. And I was like, um, well I actually just don't like people talking about my name. Like it just, I don't like it. And he was like, can you wear a different name? And I said, Oh, you mean like a white name? And he is now scared of me.

James:  Nice. Have you ever had a like a white name? Like, have you ever had an American name?

Aysha:  Yeah, I mean, I initially was gonna go by Layla Carr.

James:  Layal Carr. Okay.

Aysha:  As my nom de plume.

James:  White person name, yeah.

Aysha:  Right. But then I was like, actually fuck that.

James:  Yeah. Well, that's what James Roach is. Yeah,

Aysha:  Yeah. Yeah, my sister goes by a more pronounceable name.

James:  Hmm yeah. Santiago, ooh. It's such a like, that's such a Spanish name. Like even among Spanish speaking people, that's like an old man's name. Like that's, it's one of the things I always hated about it as a kid, but now, maybe I'll go back. I've built a brand you know, James Roach, is so easy to remember. It's two syllables. Santiago Gatalario like it, that's too much, no thanks.

Aysha:  Yeah, I get that and I actually thought a lot about going– I had a serious do I want to go by my actual first name publicly? And I don't know, I just I feel like doing it gave me a lot more confidence because for a long time I just went by my screen name online

James:  Right.

Aysha:  And it was fine because I still had people– like people shortened it and had a name for me, but I don't know it just didn't feel like me. It felt like the fake me that I made and put on the internet, which it was, but I don't know. I recommend it if you know...

James:  Have you ever gotten, from being entertainment industry adjacent, have you ever gotten from anybody like nobody's gonna be– who's gonna buy a book from Aysha U Farah? Like, no, who's gonna do that? Like?

Aysha:  Um, no, no, I feel like there is kind of a general, unsaid idea that if you have a scare quotes, ethnic name, people are going to expect your book to be something.

James:  Oh, I get what you say. Yeah,

Aysha:  Like they're going to expect it to be an issue book or something like that. Or it's gonna be– or if it's not about Arab people, then why are you bothering to write under this name?

James:  Right, right.

Aysha:  Like, why don't you pick a regular name kind of feeling? Um, so yeah, I think that, I mean, also it opens doors too. Like the job that I got working for Event Horizon, which is a LARP company that's now producing my new game project that I'm working on. They had an explicit call for queer PoC, and I answered that call, which is cool. And the people who run that company are white, but they make it a point to hire people of color, which I really appreciate.

James:  Nice.

Aysha:  I mean, Andrew does too. I don't know if he goes out of his way to do it, but he does.

James:  Yeah. I do know that he has like a... Hey, folks, people change, you know. People love to talk about things just like, Oh, this is the same guy. It's like, yeah, dude, like, there's no secret. It's like sometimes people grow up, and sometimes you grow up in your mid to late 30s. You know, like, it happens. Not that exciting, it's really no mystery.

Aysha:  I mean, the world has changed a lot too. I am really different from how I was in 2009.

James:  Oh my god, yeah. Oh, have you ever gone back and looked at your old anything and you're just like, what the hell was I on?

Aysha:  No, I have not.

James:  This is the only thing I do anymore. Just self reflect about what an awful chode I was in fucking [James chuckles]

Aysha:  Yeah, I was definitely one of the– I was very like, 'I'm not one of those girls' kind of cuz, you know

James:  You were an other girls me aficionado

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  Me too.

Aysha:  Yeah. Yeah.

James:  I don't know what– like a lot of things were happening around the time. So I was like, peak sad boy. Like, uhh, everything's bad. It was like to be fair, my parents did die, like I will admit

Aysha:  I think you get a sad boy pass for that. [Aysha laughs]

James:  No. I'm laughing about it now. So whenever I tell people about that they're like, Oh, I'm so– and I'm like, Oh, it was like a decade and change it's was so

Aysha:  Well it goes to show what kind of person I am. I just make a quip instead.

James:  There you go. Which brings us perfectly to our next point. Um, what are some formative jokes in early media– completely just off the wall. We're just going down the talking points, a formative joke in early media that you recall like, okay, so kind of a weird setup of a question. I understand. And I'm reading it really poorly. This is great radio. Like, here's an example. I think of things like just, I repeat things. You know, I'm like a fucking cultural media sponge. There's a tweet I made yesterday that was like, Oh, it was the beast of times. It was the weast of times. And I'm like, This is such a stupid joke. But in my mind, I'm hearing it in a very specific cadence, and it couldn't figure out why. Until I saw one of the responses. And I realized, Oh, this is a Simpsons joke. Or it's like oh, here's 1000 monkeys on 1000 typewriters, and eventually, they'll write the greatest novel of all time. And Mr. Burns like takes the fucking sheet of paper from the typewriter, the monkey smoking a cigarette, that's really like stupid a setup. And he goes, it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. There's so many jokes like that, where it's like, I make jokes like that now. So I was wondering for you as a writer, what are some classic formative jokes in, you know, cartoons or media or whatever that you're like, Oh, this awoke something in me.

Aysha:  I feel with comedic, I mean, this is kind of like, I'm just pulling this out of nowhere because I... I think I could come up with better answers if I had time. But, um,

James:  Well you don't.

Aysha:  So the kind of comedic timing from Scooby Doo I feel influenced me a lot.

James:  Like, what's a good example of that.

Aysha:  I mean, I don't know. Like old classic Scooby Doo like Scooby Doo Where are you the first TV show,had a lot of... oh god it's really hard to explain. Um I don't know it's just like there's setup and then the joke gets set up and then there's pay off and just nobody responds to it. It's just everything is played very straight, which is weird for that time period and also weird for kids show.

James:  I do know what you're saying where it's like oh, fucking Velma will say something like, oh, but how did they get the marbles out of the jar and shaggy will just be like, yeah, how did they lose the marbles? And then no one will– It's like Shaggy. That's gold. What you just– I mean, like for a toddler. You know like, there's a time frame where you watch Scooby Doo. And it's like from the ages of two to six.

Aysha:  Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was my favorite shit. Like when I was legitimately a five year old. It used to be my favorite show.

James:  I used to love Scooby Doo, yeah.

Aysha:  That shit slapped

James:  Like, this is really aging myself a little bit. I used to love the weird Scooby Doo kids show. You know, when everything was babies in the like\_

Aysha:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Muppet Babies. Yeah, that was weird. That was uh, yeah.

James:  It's happening again. Everything's babies.

Aysha:  Yeah, actually, a joke that I think about a lot when I'm trying to do military time.In one of the Scooby Doo– I think it's one of the ones with Scrappy Doo so you know, it's not very good. But somebody says to Shaggy, 'okay, we'll meet here at 1400 hours'. And then Shaggy is just vibing and Scrappy's like 'Shaggy, we have to go' and Shaggy's like, 'it's fine.We have 1400 hours.' I always think about that joke. Because I have so much trouble with military time too that it's just whenever I have to like, do 24 hour time I think of that joke.

James:  Yeah, this is a specific cadence to military time. It's like, if you use two numbers, it's that. Yeah, it's because there's something if you like, 'Oh, it's like, 0400 means' you know, because you have to. Because if you don't use two numbers, it's a different thing.

Aysha:  I mean, everywhere– pretty much everywhere else besides the US uses 24 hour time. Yeah. Which is like so when I leave the country, I change my clock to 24 hour time, but even living in Italy for like, half a year, I just could not get used to it.

James:  Well when I lived in Mexico–

Aysha:  Because you don't say 23 o'clock you still say 11 o'clock. I don't know what the fuck y'all are doing.

James:  It just so happens that you have– mmm that's hmm. I mean, I guess it's kind of what we're doing with AM/PM but I dunno. When I lived in Mexico for like, I lived in Mexico for a couple months. I don't know, just nobody really used to watch. Like if I'm being– like, my family is like, we're a very specific kind of Romani Mexican. That's another word that I pronounce wrong. And I know I'm pronouncing it wrong. It's Romani (roh mah ni emphasis on roh)   But that doesn't sound– well in Spanish it's– there's a handful of words you can use, but like I always say Romani (more emphasis on the mah) when I'm speaking in my English voice. Whenever I speak Spanish I have a Telemundo voice.

Aysha:  There's a couple words in English that I always want to pronounce with an Arab accent because my dad and his brothers do it. And whenever I have to say it with an American accent to somebody who's not in my family, it feels very weird. Like, the word apparently (uh pair ent lee) my dad will say apparently (uh pehr ent lee).

James:  Yeah, I have one Spanish speaking friend that I see all the time and I've grown my Spanish speaking friends circle to three. And so we'll talk back and forth it's like... I realize we sound like an old, bitter married couple because we're just arguing in bad Spanish. But it's very much like, Oh, I have a voice I do when I speak Spanish. I have like a... there's a switch in my mind, because I'm not actually bilingual. It's not natural for me.  And my Spanish voice is very like Telemundo broadcaster, like ¿Dónde está? like it's very like ahh yes. ¿Dónde están mis pantalones donde es tus pantalones? You know, it's like, until I switch into that voice everything is like I'll have the enchiladas and the you know. Yeah, it's  bad.

Aysha:  Well, I mean, learning a second language is– this was true. The only language I sort of speak after English is Italian because I don't know Arabic. Um,

James:  It's very simple

Aysha:  Yeah, I know.

James:  I'm sure you get that a lot from your family but

Aysha:  And it's like, I know for like lots of people. This is like a common thing for people who speak a second language, it's like you grow another personality with it. It's like I'm different when I speak Italian than when I speak English. Like I have a different personality almost.

James:  Spicy Aysha.

Aysha:  More like Aysha with the vocabulary of a seven year old but I hope that's not spicy. Aysha,

James:  Aysha U Parmigiana. I can't, I can't.[Aysha laughs] The only Italian I know is like musical terms. And there's like some overlap with Spanish but it's slightly different and my Spanish is bad enough as it is.

Aysha:  The overlap will fuck you up.

James:  Yeah. Let's get into some questions. So our first question comes from Courtney on Twitter. Hey, Courtney, I saw you a couple of days ago. I'm gonna out Courtney really fast. So Courtney is one of our co-workers. They're caramapa or just Courtney I guess.

Aysha:  They rule.

James:  Really good background artist. Incredible friend. Courtney lives like a block away from me. And

Aysha:  That rules.

James:  I wanted to express how close Courtney lives to me um, One time we were all hanging out. And Courtney was like, I would like some ice cream, walked home, came back with a bowl of ice cream.

Aysha:  [Aysha laughs] That's like some college shit. That's like some dorm room shit.

James:  Yeah. It's like you didn't bring enough for ev–? I think actually, I think she did bring enough for everybody. I think she brought like a tub. But I remember just the visual of Courtney eating ice cream out like with a spoon. It's like yeah.

Aysha:  [Aysha Laughs]That rules. That's powerful.

James:  It was really good. Um, and we discovered this on accident after we were already coworkers. I was talking about something and I was like, Oh, the, you know, the such and such restaurant by my house. And they're like the one at this intersection. And I was like, Yeah, she was like, I live right by there. And then I found out another good friend of mine. Do you know Jones?

Aysha:  I don't think so.

James:  No.

Aysha:  Maybe I've met– I don't know if I've met them.

James:  Yeah, they were part of the New York crew. They just recently moved out here. They moved across the alley from me. Like if I were to go outside and yell Jones really, really loud, I could probably wait and until I hear What you know.[Aysha laughs] Just like oh, that's really funny. Sorry for outing where you live, all of these people. Anyway Courtney asks, What's poppin '? So what's poppin with you Aysha?

Aysha:  Oh man, nothing. I barely slept last night. Um, I just like kept waking up. I don't know what it was. It was really hot in my room. I don't know why. But also– so then I dozed off this morning. I had a Metal Gear Solid dream. And I just like burst awake convinced that it was the South Carolina primary. And I was like, wait, even if it is the South Carolina primary. I don't have to do anything. But this is what my brain has been for the past couple days. It's just been Metal Gear and politics.

James:  Aysha bolting awake sitting up right. Oh, Bernie needs me.

Aysha:  Yeah. Oh shit. I gotta fuckin blog.

James:  Your wife is just like, No he doesn't.Go back to sleep mi amore.

Aysha:  Bernie doesn't need you. Actually Bernie just texted me. And he was like give me money. And I'm like I already gave you money Bernie,

James:  Bernie. Oh that Bernie.

Aysha:  Oh, anyway what's poppin with you?

James:  Similarly I also had a Metal Gear Solid dream actually. I did not have a Metal Gear Solid dream. I did have trouble sleeping and then right before we recorded this I fell asleep in my chair and slept .I have such– I'll lay down and fall asleep. I'll wake up in 45 minutes like clockwork you know. It's like this is like an apnea thing? Am I gonna die? You know?

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  But I'll fall asleep in my chair. Sleep like a baby for just\_

Aysha:  That rules. I have a lot of– I cannot nap. I can kind of like doze nap where I'm in a state. I can dream, but I'm still not fully asleep. So when I wake up, I'm just as tired and like, confused.

James:  I realized like falling like that– there's like a meme about that where it's like, the fucking old man meme where you're like, Oh, I'm up at like five in the morning every day. And then it's like, in 15 minutes of sitting on the couch and I'm just asleep. I just knock out. I love to sleep sitting up. It's the worst way to sleep. So that's what's poppin with me? Nothing.

Aysha:  Yeah, that's what it's like.

James:  Next question. Ghosts. Ghostsrally. Yeah, I was like, is that ghost trailed? No, I just don't have my glasses on. I got new glasses recently. .

Aysha:  That's poppin

James:  That was like a week ago. So I don't know how relevant that is.

Aysha:  It's not really popping them. Yeah. Well,

James:  It's not fresh. Let's see– and to be popping it has to be fresh.

Aysha:  Yeah, it's gotta be fresh.

James:  Like popcorn. Nope. All right.[Aysha laughs] We know– so this is from ghostsrallied on Twitter. We know that you do the writing and music for Homestuck and pester quest. But how are your visual arts skills? You draw Aysha?

Aysha:  No, my visual art skills are dogshit.

James:  Whoo. Just absolute terrible.

Aysha:  Yeah, I can't draw anything. I literally– people be like, Oh, no, it's fine. Like anybody can draw. I'm like, Fuck you don't talk to me. Don't make me draw.

James:  Alright Ratatouille. Okay, wait, that's anybody can cook, nevermind. Also, his name's Gousto. He's the chef.

Aysha:  Yeah, Ratatouille is the food.

James:  Ratatouille's the rat. That's his name. It's Remy and I know there's someone out there that will get mad at me and like, his name's not Ratatouille. It's Ratatouille, bro. Like it's got rat in the title. Anyway, I used to be a comic artist. I used to draw a lot. I was never good at it though. Which is why I'm not an artist now. Yeah.

Aysha:  Oh, I didn't know you did. That's cool.

James:  Yeah, I used to want to be a webcomic artist. I had a webcomic. It was bad.

Aysha:  Man. I remember the era of everybody having a webcomic.

James:  This was like late High School for me where i was like–

Aysha: I say now as if I don't have a webcomic.

James:  Shit. Yeah, this was like, This is what I'm gonna do forever. No, I did it for a year. And then it's like, oh, I This doesn't pay my bills. So I need to do other things.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  Let's see. Yeah, so we're bad at art. We're bat at–

Aysha:  Yeah we're bad at art.

James:  Can you do like sculpture or anything like that. Visual arts is very broad spectrum

Aysha:  Not really. Like I can write and that's about it. I can write and I can sing. That's about it.

James:  Wow. I can do neither of those things. Umnah–

Aysha:  You can write.

James:  I'm an okay writer I, like–

Aysha:  You wrote two routes in my game. Don't tell me you can't write.

James:  Uh oh. I actually really enjoy writing. I did apply for that writing job. And

Aysha:  I know you did.

James:  And I really wish I had kind of taken the application a little more seriously, but there's like, one question was like, What indispensable skills do you have? And I was like, just unbelievable. Kermit the Frog impression.

Aysha:  that's valuable.

James:  Yeah. No, I mean, I answered because that one was kind of like a gimme at the end there. I answered the real ones with real things. Uh, let's see. Cut this part out. Oh, Have y'all ever had a kinder egg this from asmadon on Discord.

Aysha:  Yeah, we had them in Italy and we called them the Nazi eggs.

James:  Oh?

Aysha:  This was back before it was too soon to make jokes about Nazis, remember this was in like 2012.

James:  This is when they weren't back in a real way.

Aysha:  Yeah, this is what it had been like 70 years. And because the kinder egg– there were a lot of Tinder egg advertisements and they have this freaky looking aryan and child on them.

James:

Oh my god.

Aysha:  So we were just like...we were all like 23 year olds too. So we're like, it's the Nazi egg.

James:  If you're out there and you're 23 this is a bad time for you. You will grow out of it. I promise. There's some 23 year old out there like fuck you and. Come back to me 10 years and if you still think Fuck you. One I'll be in my 40s and I will not respond to you.  There's so many things that  as idealist young person I heard in my 20s and I was like, fuck this clown. But now that I'm like in my 30s I'm like, Oh, yeah.

Aysha:  Right. I remember just being– with all these young people that I see struggling and in my server and then people that I talked to, I just want to be like, Listen, it gets so much better. And I know how worthless that feels right now because I remember people would say it to me and I would be like, Fuck you. I feel terrible now and I will never feel better. But holy shit does it get so much better.

James:  I feel like it doesn't get any better. It's the same shit on a different day. You just get so much better. So as much as I want to– you know the “it gets better” campaign is cool, I think you get better. The end.

Aysha:  Yeah. You get better, you get good.

James:  Anyway. So to answer your question, yes, I have had a Kinder Egg. It was fine. Have you ever had a Wonder Ball? They suck.

Aysha:  Oh, no, I haven't. I remember coveting them when I was a child though.

James:  They used to be made–Oh, Hoo. Let me tell you about the Wonder ball conspiracy. I could do a whole podcast–No, I couldn't. I could do exactly two minutes of it. And I'm about to do it. Wonder ball used to be made by Nestle if I'm not mistaken. But now a third party company has taken control of it because Nestle lost the rights or something. And they use really bad chocolate. The chocolate tastes bad. And the candy they use is just disgusting. And it coats the inside of the chocolate with this nasty slightly sour powder. And they're chalky and gross. It's nice. The toys not even inside any– Oh my god.

Aysha:  Oh yeah, that sucks.

James:  I want to choke on the fucking toy if I choose to. I'm opting in. Let's see, what are some advice you have on becoming a better artist? Practice. I feel like practice.

Aysha:  Practice. Yeah,

James:  It always is.

Aysha:  You always– and I want this too, but I want there to be some secret that will unlock the next level but literally it's just do it a lot. That's really the only advice I have

James:  As a creative in any sort of industry you always get that question. And the other question actually, we got from our good friend Plaz asked if you have one piece of advice for any creative industry, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What would it be? You get these two questions all the time. And the answer is the same for both every single time and if you want to get better at art practice, do it more. You're gonna do– the first one is– there's like an Adventure Time quote. Jake says something like you have to you have to be kind of shitty at something before you can be good at. That's not the quote. And I know there's someone out there is gonna be really mad and be like James Roach, your fake Adventure Time fan. Okay, I can live with that. And then like, how do you get in the industry or whatever? Like be okay to work with like, you know be easy to work with. The end.

Aysha:  Yeah, yeah.

James:  Yes. It's not complicated.

Aysha:  Like there's definitely– like we're currently going through resumes for the game that I'm working on and the summit project and  one of the main things is does this person seem chill? Like yeah chill to work with because I don't care how good you are if you don't turn in work on time and if you are exhausting to work with, you will not get jobs.

James:  Yep. You know, if you are a person who does their job well, the thing is, there's lots of people that will do it well. There's lots of people who are extremely talented. And that's one of the things you kind of accept is like a creative person. There's always someone who's a little better than you. That's fine.

Aysha:  Oh, absolutely.

James:  There's a whole bunch of people who are a little worse than you too, you know. It's all kind of like a miasma of talent. But the standout thing can this person– are they easy to work with? And that can mean a lot of things. It's like, is it a, you know, is there a clash of personalities. There's plenty of people that I think are incredibly talented individuals I know, that I could not work with because I think they suck like for lack of better you know.

Aysha:  And sometimes it's not even that the person sucks personally. There's some people who I like on a personal level that I couldn't work with because our working styles clash, or because they just don't work well in a team setting. There are lots of people who don't.

James:  I hard agree with that. Yeah. Absolutely. Some people are like better off– that it's like our current, I guess you could call it managerial style where it's a lot of – at What Pumpkin you have to take a lot of initiative. You kind of have to do things on your own because there's no big overview of nitpicky... Like, for some projects are for Hiveswap. There's definitely a directorial sort of we need this, this and this. Here's the spreadsheets, you know.

Aysha:  Yeah. With Pesterquest it's me baby.

James:  It's like, please read the script and determine what we need and work with the author. You know. Yeah. It's much more...

Aysha:  Can you follow directions, can you read between the lines? Like actually, a thing that I've had to get better at that is– because I never thought I would be a director or lead any sort of, or a producer or anything because I don't think of myself as a team leader. And I never have. But I've been doing it for several years now. And the thing that I realized that I did, partly because I think I was socialized as a woman in America. When I need someone to do something, I ask them to do it. I don't tell them. I'm like, Hey, can you if you get a chance? Can you do this? And then they don't, and I'm like, Okay, wait, let me rephrase that. You have to do this. Please do this. Yeah,. So it's just not automatic for me to do that. But I'm trying to get better at it.

James:  Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you really do just have to tell people what to do. And that's another thing where it's like, there's certain people that I know are incredibly talented and like personality jells well but they do not respond well to being told what to do. You know, it's not like every job you have, you have to be a subservient sort of, but there's, there's an expectation that you can get it done. And that can mean a lot of different things. And one of those is can you follow instructions, right?

Aysha:  I mean working in an online setting on a Discord server or a Slack channel is challenging in that it doesn't really– it kind of feels like you're chilling with your homies.

James:  So the balance doesn't strike up.

Aysha:  Yeah, right. So it can be really easy to... And also another piece of advice is make sure that when you join a group, you familiarize yourself with what the expectations are and what's not cool, because you don't want– because it is not the director's job to teach you how to in a group setting. It's not their job to teach you. You got to take initiative. It's  definitely my advice.

James:  Parasocial relationships in the workplace.

Aysha:  Yeah, yeah, basically.

James:  Yeah, it happens and it's not always... you don't always get it right on the first try.

Aysha:  Oh, absolutely and you know, workplaces, some of them you'll start work at a place and it won't work out. And actually the first big job I ever got, got shut down in like a month and a half

James:  Jesus have you ever been fired before.

Aysha:  I mean, yeah, yes.

James:  Oof.

Aysha:  I got fired from my bookstore job for being too sad. But I got fired from a creative

James:  Too sad to work in a bookstore? Oof Aysha come on now

Aysha:  I know. I know. I know. I was pretty sad, but I feel like it was the appropriate amount of bookstore sad

James:  Yeah, that's damn.

Aysha:  Yeah. I'm just not a very good salesperson.

James:  That's fair. Can I interest you in some tears?

Aysha:  Yeah, exactly.

James:  I've constructed a whole fantasy fiction about Aysha being too sad to work in a bookstore. Next questions from existirOracle opinions on shirts.

Aysha:  Fuck em.

James:  They cover my tiddies.

Aysha:  Um, I don't like t-shirts. I do not like them at all. I don't wear them.

James:  Like you don't like the feel of them or you just don't.

Aysha:  I don't like having things around my– I don't like having colors around my neck. So if I have a T-shirt, I usually cut the neck out of it. And I really– like I wear mostly tank tops. Even in the winter. I wear a sweater over it.

James:  That's true. I've only ever seen you in like a tank top.

Aysha:  Yeah. Fuck sleeves. Fuck a turtleneck.

James:  I'm a big fan of the T shirt jacket combo. Just because I like jackets. I feel like the way to accessorize any outfit. It's just a cool jacket. And I own exactly two. I only wear one cuz like

Aysha:  Yeah, it's like that.

James:  It's too fuckin hot to wear. I have a really... Aysha, I used to dress so nice. You've seen how I dress now. I wear a sweatshirt and socks and sandals. Like

Aysha:  Weren't you wearing a shirt that said video games?

James:  I have a sweatshirt that says video games on it and I wear it all the time because it's extremely comfortable. And it covers all of the right parts of my body.

Aysha:  Yeah. Most of the clothing that I wear kind of sags off my shoulders. Like I always have at least one shoulder out. I used to get in trouble for it at my coffee job. My shoulder for too scintillating or something I don't know.

James:  Now you're the director and you can show as many shoulders as you want.

Aysha:  Exactly.

James:  Which is exactly one.

Aysha:  Yeah. I once, one of my friends described my style as post apocalyptic knitwear.

James:  Okay, I can see that, sure.

Aysha:  Yeah. So that's my  look. I try to look at least a little bit like I might be in an RPG. But

James:  Here's the good question from K word. I'm still not over that. It's really funny. I like how you've censored it on the google doc.

Aysha:  I just thought I wanted to keep in the brand for this power hour.

James:  You wanted to, uh, you wanted to clarify which Kate it was.

Aysha:  THE Kate.

James:  Uh oh. What is a shitty and boring story that you can tell us about Andrew? I have one that I was like we'll touch on this later because I remember the question. Okay, so we're talking about– is it Jeff Beezos or Bezoz. I've been saying, Beezos

Aysha:  Bezos, I say Bezos but I say things weird anyway, so

James:  Let's go with Bezos. I'll defer to you on this one. And that's a historic woke moment from us over here at What Pumpkin.

Aysha:  I mean, my dad says Beezos so that's another word that my family pronounces with an Arab accent so

James:  Besos little muah kisses.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  It's ol' Jeff kisses.

Aysha:  James and Aysha pronounce things with an accent power hour.

James:  What other other accents can I do? And I'm like, none, because a lot of them are racist. Like I don't think I ever got into, you know this thing. I can't do accents. Anyway, boring story about Andrew. Just a real dogshit story, a real turd of a story we're talking about our friends Jeff Bezos. Andrew was telling– Andrew was in my living room. He's telling me this story about how Jeff Bezos when he built his house, he built like every other room, is bathroom. Like, apparently Jeff Bezos cannot be more than 20 feet away from a bathroom at any given time.

Aysha:  I think he told me about this too.

James:  Yeah. And the reason we brought this up is because we're like, how do we bring the bidet to the modern American consumer? Yeah, I was like, Andrew, I had a dream about a commercial for bidets that would blow your mind. It would sell everybody immediately. All right. A man wakes up. Wait, no, I only used woke up because I was in the dream. Anyway, there's a guy standing in front of a mirror. Okay, and His face is just filthy covered, it's caked in mud. And he gets a paper towel and he just wipes it off. And like there's still mud like, you know, mud is hard to clean. And he just looks and goes a job well done. And this is why you need a bidet.

Aysha:  God that is a shitty story, that's a really bad story.

James:  Oh, anyway, so what Yeah, the story about Andrew is Andrew is convinced that if he could get in with Jeff Bezos, he's gonna like, pitch him this idea of bidets. Because this is a man that loves to shit, obviously.

Aysha:  Yeah, clearly.

James:  Um, and I'm like, you're never gonna be friends with this guy. You're never gonna make friends with Jeff Bezos. The end. That's my very mundane Andrew story. Do you have a mundane answer story?

Aysha:  I guess it's kind of like a call out. When we were in California, Andrew and then another friend of ours peer pressured me into having a California burrito with the fries. That shit sucked.

James:  It sucks.

Aysha:  It sucked. And I was like, I can't believe you guys did this to me. I trusted you. I thought we were friends

James:  Have you ever had Peruvian food where they just put the fries in the food like it's like a weird stir fry but with French fries in it?

Aysha:  I haven't. But, I don't know, man, if it's like that burrito.

James:  I thought you were gonna say like, I thought you're gonna say the coffee thing. Have you ever seen him do the coffee thing.

Aysha:  Andrew does the coffee thing?

James:  Where he'll get a fucking full cup of coffee from Starbucks and drink half of it and then physically, like just throw away the rest. And we're like, Andrew no fucking. What are you doing?

Aysha:  Into the garbage you mean?

James:  Yeah. One, that sucks for whoever has to take out the fucking garbage. You can give them back the cup and be like hey pour this out in the sink, you know if you'd be so kind. But he'll order a big coffee and drink half of it knowing damn well he's not gonna drink the whole thing. He'll order a fucking– it's like, Andrew you sh–. This is like this is such a– Ooh, I'm sure there's gonna be a fucking ...Nobody on Reddit listens to this podcast. I was gonna say there's gonna be like a 20 fuckin response thread about like, this is so indicative of the current state of Homestuck. You know Andrew getting a full sized cup of coffee and just throwing half of it away. Um, maybe, but also suck on my balls. All right, next question. Oh, this one was a hefty question. So I did want to get to this one. So this is from girls and davekat on Twitter. I'm going through a major depressive episode and I feel like I have control over nothing. What are some things you recommend to do to least gain back the feeling of being in control without it being harmful in the long run? Good question.

Aysha:  I mean, I think that most... You need to realize that like, I know this seems tough tautology, but You are in control. And if you can just do small things like get up, take a shower, brush your hair, or don't because I don't brush my hair, who brushes their hair, put on clean clothes, take a walk. And if you can't do those things, then you know, take a walk around your apartment. You know, clean something, because I feel like– and I think I've said this before in a different power hour, but just like the idea of giving yourself small, achievable tasks, and then knocking them out and then using the dopamine from those to do harder things. And I'll have days where I just have all this crappy shit I need to do and I'll just order my tasks by what's the easiest that'll kind of get me– because inertia is the hardest thing to get over. So I feel like just demonstrating to yourself that you do have control over some things, no matter. I mean, I guess there are some instances where you have no control at all, but I think that probably that there are some things that you do and that if you can just demonstrate to your brain, I think that might help.

James:  Yeah, I think that's literally exactly what I was gonna say. Just do something small and ride that to be something else. Man. my nose is very stuffed up. Have you got this– I noticed you sniffing a little bit too. Are you sick?

Aysha:  I mean, I have terrible sinuses.

James:  I have a weird disease. That makes it sound serious. I have a weird problem where I've gone to the doctor about it and, you know this is so indicative of being in your fucking late stage early adulthood, you know what I mean?

Aysha:  Late stage 30s?

James:  Yeah, late. Stage 30s. I'm only– We're still early 30s right?

Aysha:  Yeah, I'll be 31 in like, a week and a half.

James:  I'm mid 30s; you’re early 30s. I'm 34. I'm gonna be 35 and like, also happy birthday. Also congratulations on getting married.

Aysha:  Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's wonderful to be able to be like my wife.

James:  Oh, I know. I'm a epic divorced.

Aysha:  You're like I've known the power of wives.

James:  Oh, yes. I used to be fucking wife guy hardcore. Oh, yikes. That's like an embarrassing fucking early 2000s thing for me. It's like I sucked.

Aysha:  Hardcore white guy.

James:  Oh, can you imagine? Probably. It's not great

Aysha:  Wife guy, James.

James:  Oh, Jesus. Anyway, fuckin', there's something so powerful about being like 'ahh yes my ex wife', you know? It feels very grown up. My first wife. We're still really good friends.

Aysha:  That's good.

James:  We both realized about, you know, a year into the marriage 'Oh, this was a shitty idea. We're dumb. We're dumb as hell.' Yeah, so that's funny. All right, we can get through all of these.

Aysha:  Yeah, sure.

James:  What's the hardest thing about both of your jobs currently?

Aysha:  Money.

James:  Oh, man, you took it. I was like, how real do they want me to be? The paycheck is not great.

Aysha:  But I mean, like, that's creative work in general.

James:  Yeah, that's, unless you work in just tv–

Aysha:  You do want to be in this industry boys and girls.

James:  Yeah, have a– like your parents aren't wrong. That's something that I never thought I would fucking say. My parents weren't wrong about you're not gonna make any money, like, fuck you mom and dad.

Aysha:  Right? I mean, it's doable. Like I'm doing it, but I mean, there's always the chance that you, you know, hit it big or whatever

James:  You've got like eight jobs, right?

Aysha:  Yeah, right. Yeah, I have eight jobs. And it just sounds like oh man imagine just working on one thing and having it be– like the guys that made disco Elysium, they spent five years on that game. And they lived in the house of this eccentric millionaire who supported them. And they were able to work on their game and that I'm like, I gotta get me one of those.

James:  We gotta move into Andrews house, our eccentric thousandaire.

Aysha:  God I was just like, Oh man. Also they're like that team, they're Estonian so they have healthcare.

James:  Oh, geez.

Aysha:  Which is another thing which I think a reason why so many good games come out of Europe and Australia, because they have really good health care there.

James:  Not worried about dying. I had to make a conscious decision between like, Am I going to get a very expensive surgery or am I just going to be unable to walk the rest of my life? And guess which one I chose?

Aysha:  Well, you're an American, so I think I probably know.

James:  Yeah, I didn't have 20 grand. And I'm like, Well guess I don't walk places anymore.

Aysha:  Yeah. That's rough, buddy.

James:  It's like that. Let's see. And that was from, clover berry on Twitter and the next question, baked potato cat from the PGP Discord. What is your view on the relationship between revolutionary politics and speculative fiction?

Aysha:  If you're not doing revolutionary politics in your speculative fiction, what are you doing?

James:  This is a you question. Because I don't know what half of these words mean.

Aysha:  I mean if you're not– why make a fake story if you're not gonna try to do cool stuff with it? I don't know. Every single fucking– I go on this rant every time I'm on this podcast but the idea of I will buy wizards but gay people? Fucking get out of here.

James:  Oh yeah that's a weird thing that you see so much of in a certain crowd of people and I'm not gonna call them out for being homophobes or transphobes etc.

Aysha:  Did you see that one gamer on Twitter having a fucking meltdown because they took out that two minute homophobic scene from persona five from the rerelease?

James:  And they're like, oh, what the fuck. This is for the fans, not the fake fans. It's like, you can be a fan of something and be critical of it. I'm a fan of Homestuck and there's certain parts of it hat fucking suck. I think the eight– I'm just gonna– Aysha I'm just gonna, you can't fire me. I can't– you actually could fire me. You're the one person I think that probably could fire me. I should not have challenged you. I'm very sorry.[They laugh] Anyway, I think that aracial thing sucks ass. I think it's stupid. I don't like it. Andrew, love you. You're one of my best friends. Uh, but it was dumb idea. You know. And I think that taking steps to solidify the identity of your characters is a good thing. A lot of people will see that as political because the idea that we exist at all, the idea that a person of color exists or a person of non, you know, conformity of sexuality exists is. That's a political statement. And you know what, maybe me being alive is a radical political statement to you. If you think that a trans person existing is a political statement that means you want them dead. Fuck you, you know. That means it's a radical idea to you that this person is alive and existing in a space that you can see that makes you an asshole that makes you a fucker. Fuck you. I got completely off topic because I got really mad. People don't really like... [Aysha laughs]

Aysha:  No. Go off King.

James:  I'm sorry that... Ooh I got very–

Aysha:  No I mean you're right.

James:  Anyway, that in mind Oh Why is everyone trans now? Fucking, I hate that attitude where, ugh god.

Aysha:  I'm just trying to reflect real life and most people I know are trans sorry.

James:  Have you looked around you bro? Like, maybe your friend group kind of boring like I don't know what to tell you.

Aysha:  I mean, also the story, and I've had this conversation with Andrew before, the story is about a bunch of kids growing up on the internet, and a lot of kids who grew up on the internet were queer kids.

James:  Yeah.

Aysha:  And there's something very inherently queer about a group of people like fighting a giant system that doesn't care about them. Like,

James:  And it's so wild, because it's like, oh, why are they all gay now? It's like, I didn't come out until I was in like, my 20s. You know?

Aysha:  Yeah,

James:  I mean, I was doing some gay things.

Aysha:  That's pretty normal for people in our age group honestly. Lots of us were not

James:  I came out one time. It went real bad, never talked about it again. Like, yeah, you know. I came out to my parents and they kicked me out. And so, I just never talked about it ever. So it was like, you know, a bunch of kids who are 13 and playing video games with each other. Yeah, they're probably not going to talk. about their issues and then when they're a little older, a little wiser, and now they're immortal. probably got time to deal with it. You know, I'm talking about like

Aysha:  Oh, yeah.

James:  Also, the other thing is, it's like a lot of people were reading it when they were like young teens. And they're like, you know, I've been reading Homestuck since I was a 12 year old and they were never this political before I've been reading it for– it's like yeah, cuz when you're when you're like, 11 when you're 12 you're such a good judge of fuckin'- You're so deep and you really think about what you're reading. Also, it doesn't matter fuck you the end.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  If it makes you mad, go away

Aysha:  I mean, there's other stories that you can partake in that don't have this stuff in them because...

James:  Like the Avengers. That's what you want to watch. Go watch the Avengers.

Aysha:  Yeah.

James:  They need your money real bad. I get that there's a balance to strike between you kind of gotta make the straights happy somehow

Aysha:  Oh I absolutely want straight people's money. Like don't get me wrong.

James:  This is a radical statement. There's some good het ships. I feel like there's some pretty solid ones.

Aysha:  I mean, you right.

James:  Even in Homestuck. Look, I mean, it's maybe not the obvious ones. Uh, I like– and like het is very you know, and then you get really heteronormative,

Aysha:  What does it even mean?

James:  Blah blah, blah blah, blah. What does that really mean in like a species of intersex aliens? Right so yeah, complicated anyway. Yeah. Next question.

Aysha:  This is a great question to follow up all this deep shit.

James:  Yeah. Uh, what are your thoughts on Tetris? It's fine.

Aysha:  I love Tetris.

James:  Tetris was my first like, I think Tetris was my first game that I really felt a mastery over.

Aysha:  Man, I'm still vibing all the time on free Tetris .com.

James:  Ooh, can we get a sponsorship deal?

Aysha:  Yeah, for real?

James:  Hey, let's take a break to talk about something I'm really passionate about.

Aysha:  Tetris!

James:  Free tetris.com. If you're like me, you know you think–

Aysha:  You like Tetris.

James:  Oh God, I need–I don't know if you can hear my chair. I need a new one or I just need to fix this one. Anyway, Tetris is– This is actually something I was talking about very recently. I used to have Tetris on the Gameboy, and when my grandfather heard the song, he'd recognize– it's because it's like core banking or whatever. He recognized it and he's like, Oh, mijo you know, like this. I kind of did the accent there a little bit. That's not what he sounded like. He sounded like he was this old Spanish man. And so he played this rendition of it on the guitar that to this day I remember it very specifically cuz he played it more than once. It's not like I heard it one time and it was locked remember forever, but like it's just like perfect rendition of the fucking Tetris A song you know? And it's really good. I played it for private Twitter and posted the video.[Aysha laughs] Yeah oh.

Aysha:  It was good.

James:  It may shock you, every creator you know has a private Twitter. It's not even for anything heinous it's just for talking to friends without being obnoxious. That's what I use for because I don't wanna

Aysha:  I mean, I'm pretty obnoxious on main.

James:  Yeah, I wasn't gonna say anything but now that you've said it it's [James laughs]

Aysha:  Mostly I just– I mean like recently it's just been live tweeting Metal Gear Solid. That's kind of obnoxious but I don't give a shit I'm having fun.

James:  I've never played Metal Gear Solid. That's not true. I played the first one. Nope second one? The one on PlayStation. I never played the Nintendo one.

Aysha:  Yeah. Yeah, that's the first one.

James:  Okay, well, because the other one’s just Metal Gear, right? Like it's like, a whole

Aysha  Yeah, well, those are like eight-bit games. I mean, Kojima– I think he's a genius half the time and half the time I think he's a hack. But you know, that's, that's the real power. That's a real powerful place to be in right in the middle there.

James:  That's where you want to be. I feel like that's a perfect balance. And the final question from everybody is, what's the meaning of life? Not the aspect lol. Homestuck

Aysha:  Oh boy.

James:  This is from brokehiman on Twitter.

Aysha:  Ah, that sounds like diehard man, Speaking of Kojima. Um, I think about this thing that a close friend actually, that Lalo said to me a couple years ago. And I remember on my private Twitter, I was just fucking going off about not knowing how to measure success and feeling like a failure because, you know, whatever. And I was like, how do you measure success? And then Lalo was like, Well, are you having a good time? And I was like, holy shit. Like it didn't even occur to me that I can measure am I doing the right thing with Are you having fun doing the thing that you're doing? And I know that like, not everybody is as fortunate as to, you know, ever be in a place like, you know where that's what they have to worry about. But I think that that is a good way to measure success. Like are you happy? Does this bring you joy?

James:  Yeah. Are you winning son?

Aysha:  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's basically the answer.

James:  See, the meaning of life for me is ...now this is a little bit gay of an answer. Which I can say because I can't say that second part. Aysha, you've known me long enough to know what the setup for that joke is.

Aysha:  Yup.

James:  Like, I've sucked too many dicks to not be able to say something is gay.

Aysha:  Yup.

James:  Cut that part out Kate. I don't know, leave it? Just put a warning on it that I feel like.

Aysha:  A dick warning.

James:  Yeah. Put a dick warning on it. This– welcome to the generically podcast. Generically podcast.

Aysha:  This podcast contains spoilers, occasional adult language and dicks.

James:  And James says the word dick three times. All right.

Aysha:  I mean, doesn't that fall under occasional adult language?

James:  Oh, you know what it does? You've been warned. I was not warned at all. I came in.

Aysha:  Yeah, nobody warned me.

James:  I thought this was a Christian podcast

Aysha:  Here with my Christian kinnie podcast.

James:  Yeah, this is what PGP stands for: praise God podcast.

Aysha:  Oh boy. God, we've been going for a long time.

James:  It was Ash Wednesday, and I've already. Ohh, it's not a great day. All right. I didn't go to a service yesterday. I was busy. Which

Aysha:  I haven't been to mass in like 10 years.

James:  Oh, I went last year. I go to the specific ones. I don't go all the time.

Aysha:  I barely even talk to my mom anymore. So she's the religious one.

James:  Yeah. My mom too, but I don't know. I have no problem with it. For like a lot of–We'll talk about that in the next power.

Aysha:  Yeah, the next power hour we can get into our trauma. You know, really unpack that shit.

James:  The meaning of life for me is I want to be good to the people I care about. It's the only thing that, that's what drives me. That's the only thing I really give a shit about is like, the people I love the people I care about. Are they taken care of, do they feel good? Do they feel loved? Okay, that's it. I'm good. And whatever I have to do to accomplish that means I have to make money so that I, – I have to be. You know, there's people that care about me and they would feel bad if I died. So I have to take care of myself.

Aysha:  You take care of yourself. Yeah.

James:  So yeah, it's a lot of– that's all that matters to me. So, and you can all say it collectively. Gay. But yeah, that's fine.

Aysha:  That sounds good.

James:  Gay is good. Yeah, I'll take it.

Aysha:  Alright. Good. Good. Good episode.

James:  Good podcast.

Aysha:  Yeah. Good job us. Yeah. Bye.

James:  Bye

Kate:  Thanks for listening to the praise God podcast. You can find us on overcast iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and more and at pgenpod.com or pgenpod on Twitter. Thanks to James and Aysha for hosting this one. The music for the show was by Goomy. You can find links to find more of their music in the description. You can support this show on Patreon.com/pgenpod. Patrons get access to the over 20 bonus episodes and counting on intermission. Your support is shared equitably with everyone who makes each episode possible. At the end of the show, we'd like to thank our Skylark tier patrons for their support. [names]

[Outro]