Do a Thing – Oh, yeah! That thing!

Episode 15: If at First You Don’t Succeed

October 20, 2021October 20, 2021 ohyeahthatthing

Fall is here, and with a new season comes a new episode. Well sort of. We just do these whenever now, really. This is another fun one, but it is worth mentioning that the conversation does bring up sexual assault and how it is used/portrayed in books, movies, and TV. It’s not a huge focus of the episode, but if that’s something you’d rather not hear, you might want to fast forward through those bits or skip this one. Totally understand.

In the words of Ms. Frizzle, you gotta take chances and make mistakes! A new hobby, a relationship, bangs! Some things aren’t worth retrying (the people who can pull off bangs already have bangs, do not give in to the temptation!), but there are plenty of failed experiments that are certainly worth a second chance. That’s exactly what we did this episode, revisit something we first tried over ten years ago.

Pay revisited Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a book she first bought at her college bookstore. Like a lot of folks, Pay first become aware of the book when it became a Broadway hit, and the revisionist take of the Wizard of Oz sounded like a cool concept. The first time she gave it a go, it ended up back on the shelf, partially read. When she started reading it again for this episode, the reasons she didn’t finish it the first time popped up again.

It’s a bit dense and disjointed and would skip over parts of the story that sounded more compelling than what you actually get to read. The story is told from different points of view, but rarely from Elphaba’s perspective, which makes it difficult to really connect with her. That’s not to say that using other points of view is not an effective literary device in general, but it just didn’t seem to work as well here as it does in other books. Also, there was much more political intrigue than Pay was expecting. So while it has its fair share of fans, it just wasn’t up Pay’s alley.

Adri has been baking and making mistakes for most of her life at this point. She’s also been a fan of pro wrestling for almost just as long, give or take a few breaks in between. So when in 2008 Kate told her about a wrestling-themed baking competition, Adri was up for it! And she made the ugliest cookies inspired by Bret Hart and took the ugliest pictures of those cookies.

Bret Hart poses before defending his WWF Championship against Owen Hart at the Wembley Arena in London.. Taken 9/14/1994. Photo by Mandy Coombes, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Three heart-shaped cookies on an overturned bowl. The cookies are topped with rudimentary sugar skull and wing decorations. — Listen, it was 2008, I only had a terrible digital camera, and I had limited lighting options. But they didn’t look much better in person, tbh…

While she appreciates beautifully decorated cookies and has purchased several, Adri just doesn’t care about doing it herself. She’s more of a flavor/texture focused baker, so this kind of cookie was a strangely ambitious choice. And honestly she hasn’t done much decorating of this kind since, but it seemed worth a shot to try again. She almost left these cookies undecorated after the thought of decorating them felt daunting, but in the end stopped stressing and had some fun with it! And while they are still far from perfect, they are much better than the first time.

Is there anything you tried and gave up on? Maybe it’s time to give another go! Or trust your gut! We don’t know!

Episode Highlights

What animated show do we discuss almost as thoroughly as our episode topics?
What other books have we left half-read?
What show did Pay watch all the way through, only for the last season to ruin it all?
What bad movie does Adri wish she’d walked out of?
What life lesson do we realize is the true message of the episode?

Further Watching/Reading

How ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Animated Its Realistic Fight Scenes | Movies Insider
The winning entry for the wrestling baking competition
Classic cut out cookies recipe | King Arthur Flour
Royal icing recipe | Serious Eats/Stella Parks

Episode 14: Swords ‘n’ Stuff

July 7, 2021July 7, 2021 ohyeahthatthing

So we’re vaccinated now and you know what that means? It means we spent time together without the expectation of having it recorded because it turns out we’re actually friends and have been for a long time. But now that we’re on separate coasts again, it’s time to get back to the podcast, baby! It’s a bit rough and rocky at the start, but we got back into the rhythm of things. It’s good to be back, and hope you enjoy the new one.

Geralt kneels by a campfire at night. The title card is overlaid with the game name "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" — Geralt being moody and camping on the title screen.

For a couple of indoor kids, neither of us has been a very big gamer. Sure, we had access to Super Nintendos, Playstations, and GameBoys, but it was never something we really got into. Cut to 2020 when we were all stuck inside because, y’know. As more people started getting into Animal Crossing as a replacement for real world socializing, it was a reminder that video games are the perfect way to keep our butts indoors. Pay asked her brother for a recommendation, and he suggested The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game that is apparently loved by everyone who’s played it.

One of the Ciri vignettes that plays as the game loads.

Most of our past video game experience was on the lighter side, more along the lines of racing games, simple side-scroller adventures, and Rock Band. This sort of combat-heavy, open world game was really new to both of us. Even though we both play on the easiest mode available, we have found the game to be hella challenging. Definitely had to look up a few things before getting past some of the game’s hurdles.

Nithral, a skull-faced rider of the Wild Hunt in The Witcher 3 — Nithral *shakes fist*

That being said, the story is intriguing and we’ve both put in several hours into the thing, so safe to say The Witcher 3 is fun and worth the effort. We both plan to see the game through. There are little things that bring us unexpected joys, like doing some of the menial in-game stuff that more experienced players asked why we bothered with it, or the odd glitch here and there.

Screenshot of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt where you can see through Roach the horse's head — Just Roach, the definitely-intentional-and-not-at-all-a-glitch see-through horse. That eyeball over Geralt’s shoulder is haunting.

We don’t go into much in the episode, but it really is a great looking game and one that isn’t bad to watch someone else play, if you’re not one for playing it yourself. This next set of screenshots were from when Adri’s partner played, and frankly it was kind of nice to have that visual in the background while reading or doing other things.

Geralt on a unicorn
Geralt looking handsome
Geralt looking handsome by a lake
Geralt in town
A hella nice sunset
Geralt and Yennefer look over a mountain landscape

All-in-all, we play this game in a way that makes it fun for us, which is what matters. But it would still be nice if we could pet the animals or feed Roach some apples.

A chibi Geralt figure holding a sword and a gold plastic dinosaur planter on a windowsill, facing each other as if in battle — Not entirely sure how Geralt would handle a dinosaur in the wild.

Episode Highlights

What tips do we have for not getting murdered?
What reality competition shows do we wish we could be on but know we’d be terrible at?
What menial video game task do we both find fun/useful when in a dark room?
Is there any strategy to our combat style?
Did either of us have Geralt engage in any romance?

Further Watching/Playing

Girlfriend Reviews The Witcher 3 is a fun watch
The Witcher on Netflix
Firewatch, another great game

Episode 08: Smorgasbord Sound Off

April 1, 2020April 1, 2020 ohyeahthatthing

Welp, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, aren’t we? We are doing our part, social distancing and self-isolating. We hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. It’s gonna be a long ride.

But we’re not here to talk about the real world and how society may well soon be on the brink of collapse. No. We are here to chat about some random shit. That’s right. We’ve got ourselves a smorgasbord of topics for our latest episode, so let’s hop to it, shall we?

The first theme we have going is Food. An incredibly vague theme, but there were a few things we’d been meaning to do in the food world. First up is Adri’s adventures in croissant making. If you know anything about baking or have watched at least one series of Great British Bake Off, then you know laminated dough recipes are all about skill and precise temperature. You may also know that making croissants is an ambitious task. So of course Adri decided to try making some in her too-hot kitchen.

Ugh, look at that blowout.
The butter is practically melted…
The leaking!
At least there is some evidence of layers.

Well, it certainly could’ve gone better. At least it was still edible. Moving forward she’s going to stick with practicing some easier recipes, maybe a rough puff pastry, and work her way up to croissants.

Croissant sandwich with boiled egg, lettuce, vegan bacon. — Extra toasted, it made a great breakfast sandwich.

Over on the other side of the country, we are talking burgers. L.A. is a pretty good food city, and it has more than its fair share of good burger places. Pay, resident burger enthusiast, likes to keep her eye out for new places that pop up to try. This time around, she went to HiHo Cheeseburger. They already had a Santa Monica location, but c’mon, even a burger can’t convince Pay to make the trek. Luckily they opened a location on Wilshire, so after a day at the salon, she checked out this location.

The burger itself is really good, nicely seasoned. Fries are an essential part of a burger joint, and these didn’t disappoint in their supporting role. The experience was marred by a few awkward situations, so Pay didn’t get to savor the meal as much as she’d hoped, but y’know what, it was still delicious.

After that, we took a ride down Pop Culture Lane and chatted about music and movies for a bit.

Adri finally purchased two albums she’s been listening to over the last year: Walk Through Fire by Yola and Pony by Orville Peck. Both are great country albums, and both artists are a joy to watch perform. If you somehow don’t know about these two albums already, absolutely check them out.

Pay finally watched Logan, and really enjoyed this take on superhero movies. We really appreciate a superhero movie that takes the story in an interesting direction. Getting to see these characters be physically vulnerable is certainly different, and we are here for it. Also if you are or know a fight choreographer, get in touch! Because you’re cool! And impressive!

Episode Highlights

How to we feel about hugs?
What GameCube game helped Pay learn about social distancing?
What is Adri’s favorite movie fight?
What very important opinions so we have about french fries?

Further Watching

Between Things: Flours and strings

September 25, 2019October 1, 2019 ohyeahthatthing

Our next episode is right around the corner, so it’s time for a little update on what Adri finally got around to since the last one.

Adventures in baking

OK looking bagels on a cooling rack. Taste better than they look. — Hmm…darn ugly, but darn tasty.

Oh man. I really like making bread and always have a list of recipes I mean to try, but I just haven’t gotten around to much of it until recently. It started with some English muffin bread I made a month or so ago. Then I got it into my head to finally make bagels. Most of the bagels I have access to are pretty unimpressive, and since I’ve made pretzels on multiple occasions, this seemed like it would be an easy thing to learn. Joke’s on me! I messed with the recipe too much (foolish mistake), and definitely deflated them when I boiled them. The bagels came out pretty flat and not too pretty, but they still make a great breakfast sandwich.

A bagel breakfast sandwidch — Now that’s a fine looking sandwich

A while ago, I picked up a book on cooking with spelt, something inspired by an old D&D character of mine. (A halfling from a long line of bakers. Spelt loaves were the family specialty.) It’s been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. I managed to find a natural market that carried spelt flour, and I picked up some rye while I was at it. I made a spelt-rye loaf from the book, with some adjustments since I didn’t have white spelt flour. (King Arthur bread flour to the rescue.) Whoo-wee! What a delicious loaf of bread. My partner and I slathered on some garlic butter and gobbled up too many slices of this sucker in one sitting.

A dark spelt and rye loaf on a cooling rack — I wish I was eating this right now. Which I can. Because I made it.

The bagels and spelt loaf are in the freezer now, because otherwise I’d be in a major carb coma right now. With the new season of British Bake Off on Netflix, I’m sure there will be more baking to come.

Bought myself a ukulele

Purple ukulele on a read pillow — Doesn’t do justice to the color. It’s more of a deep, gothy purple in real life, not this Ghostwriter slime monster purple.

I started playing violin in elementary school; in middle school, I was second-to-last chair of second violin. For those who don’t know, that means I wasn’t the worst violin player in the group. I was the second worst. It also meant I sat near the viola and cello players who were undoubtedly cool as far as orchestra kids go.

My musical skills never really got past second-to-last chair. Granted, a lot of that was due to lack of practice. I was embarrassed about sounding bad. Who knows where I’d be if I hadn’t let that stop me. Could I have been third-to-last chair of second violin? What! A! Dream!

Over the years I tried some other instruments, but was always held back by the anxiety of having to practice. Best I ever did was learn the bass lines for “Rebel Rebel” and “Welcome to Paradise”. I’ve been meaning to try again, but didn’t want to make as a huge of an investment in case it went the same way as before. A ukulele has been in the back of my mind as a good way to dip my toes in.

Look, I know that ukulele has been the go-to instrument for every aging white hipster for the better part of a decade. For that very reason I resisted the urge to get one. Luckily, I no longer give a shit about whether or not what I like makes me seem like a hipster or whatever. I also no longer give a shit about sounding bad, so I’ve actually been practicing. A great resource has been Cynthia Lin’s Youtube channel.

I’ve gone off on my own a bit, picking up chords here and there. So far I’ve learned “Heart-Shaped Guitar” by Masked Intruder, the Jeopardy theme song, and “Jolene” because who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? I’ve been on a bit of a break since I got a tattoo on the arm that holds up the ukulele’s body, but it’s healed up and I’m ready to get back to it.

My sincerest apologies to the neighbors. It’s gonna get annoying.

Keep an eye/ear out for our next episode, which drops in October. In the meantime, have you subscribed? Or maybe even suggested a thing? If not, what the heck are you waiting for?!