#super nice interview

[homestuckreplay]

Happy Wriggling Day, Karkat Vantas (?!)

(page 1989-1994)

HIVEBENT?!?!

Freaking the fuck out over here. What’s happening to my completely normal webcomic about the totally average escapades of four human kids. Suddenly we got a whole new character who’s basically being set up as an alternate universe, alternate species, dark John? We’re on the troll planet? But it’s not even a quick trollplanet intermission, like the one with the Midnight Crew and the Felt, this is the actual and real Act 5?????

ok taking some deep breaths to calm down. I think.

Karkat Vantas. I was so sure his name was gonna be Reggie. Previously known to us as carcinoGeneticist. Is the protagonist of ‘Hivebent’, which is like a twisted alien version of ‘Homestuck’, which is my favorite webcomic. Karkat lives on the planet Alternia, which (unlike the Incipisphere), exists within the regular flow of time in paradox space. This story takes place more than 413 million years before the beginning of Homestuck.

It felt pretty obvious that the trolls would play a bigger role in Act 5, maybe even with some flashbacks to their own gameplay, like how the story regularly cuts over to the exiles even while the kids are still the main characters. But this is something else. This is a huge shift, one that gives the trolls near equal importance to the kids. And like every act so far, it zooms the story out further, now focusing on a second planet and soon, a second Incipisphere.

Seeing the trolls’ adventure is probably gonna accomplish a few things:

- Teaching us more about Sburb’s intended gameplay, in a session that goes mostly to plan, to compare the kids’ session against

- Possibly revealing the Ultimate Riddle/purpose of the game, since the kids may never discover it for themselves

- Getting to know the trolls better, so that we’re more sympathetic to their cause, and find it harder to ‘pick a side’ between them and the kids when the two groups have conflict

- Getting to read about a bunch of characters who are just the worst, in so many ways, in contrast to how most of the kids have always been relatively kind and polite, and even Dave is starting to get character development – just like the MC intermission, reading about people who suck can be a lot of fun

- Giving us background on the trolls’ planet, which makes the storyworld feel bigger and more fleshed out, instead of just vaguely saying ‘uhhhh there’s other planets out there, somewhere’

- Chance to make up a bunch of silly names for things along the lines of ‘appearifier’ and ‘cookalizer’ – we’ve already got ‘respiteblock’, ‘larval awakening’ and ‘wriggling day’, and that was just in a single page. This may be much faster paced than our introduction to the kids, but there’s still gotta be jokes.

- ??????

Karkat is similar to John in a few ways. First, our story starts on the equivalent of his thirteenth birthday. Second, his room has the same configuration – small chest of drawers to the door’s left with miscellaneous items on top, software beta poster on the door, movie posters on both sides, and what I’m guessing is the trolls’ equivalent of a bed on the right, though it looks more like a giant larva. Third, they both ‘have a passion for REALLY TERRIBLE (ROMANTIC) MOVIES’ and ‘like to program computers but are NOT VERY GOOD AT IT/NOTORIOUSLY PRETTY AWFUL AT IT’ (p.4/1994). The color palette of Karkat’s room is much darker, as is the sky outside, and he’s angry, violent, mad at his own friends, and specifically interested in computer viruses. In his glorification of violence he’s more like Dave than John, to be honest, but overall he’s set up as the shitty mean kid in contrast to John’s goofy weird kid.

This guy has a lot of troll pals and their adventures are going to be quite extensive and convoluted, to an even greater degree than one perhaps may be accustomed. (p.1993)

Today is June 12, 6/12, and ‘Karkat Vantas’ has 6 syllables in each name for a total of 12. He’s six solar sweeps old, and later he’s going to play Sburb with five other friends, meaning a six-player session, even though we know there are twelve trolls. So it seems like 6 and 12 will be the key numbers this arc instead of 4 and 13, and Karkat (I can’t get over having a name for this guy, for real) currently only knows five of the other trolls. Unlike Earth where only one Sburb session was ‘successful’ (ie. its players made it to the Medium), on Alternia, there will be two successful sessions. The two groups will enter the same Medium and meet each other that way, but their success won’t be dependent on each other – in fact they’ll probably be racing to beat the other group, and it might not be possible for both to win the game. At least, that’s my best guess based on what we know about the trolls’ session so far. A 12-player chain would be a lot to keep track of, and competitive Sburb seems more appropriate for the trolls than the kids’ collaborative Sburb.

Act 4 left a fair few cliffhangers – John’s missions with the queen’s ring and getting Jade into the Medium, Rose’s attempts to destroy the game from the inside, Jade falling from her exploded bedroom while a meteor looms overhead, the ongoing destruction of Skaia – and it hurts that they won’t be resolved for a while. Plus I missed the kids during the Intermission, so I’m sure I’ll miss them more here. But I am very excited to learn more about the trolls, their group dynamics, their home planet, and especially their game sessions.

I still have some act4posting to finish up because of the many huge revelations I’m still processing from that. If there’s about to be twelve new characters introduced in act 5, I’m gonna try writing shorter reaction posts to the new pages without too much analysis, and then do character studies for each of the trolls as they’re introduced if time allows.

[sapphicsnzs]

camping with allergies is so adorable especially with a significant other. being outside all day kicking off their allergies. then holding them close by the campfire and having the smoke tickle their nose more. and then finally exhausted after a day of sneezing cuddling into their partner in the tent only to realize there’s so much dust in there. also the idea of not having tissues because you can’t throw them out so having to use a bandana, a shirt, or your partner…

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Why is it that pretty much every ya thriller is like “random teenage girl decides to investigate year(s) old murder/disappearance of perfect sweet angel of the community and continuously puts herself in situations where she is alone on purpose with people she suspects might have had a hand in the murder but also along the way finds out that literal victim might not have been so perfect all along and also some things should just stay hidden oooooh spooooky”

[batsplat]

new casey podcast have you seen it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=ye8wNfrvaPDjtpDV&v=IuwZN6aP8sg&feature=youtu.be

(link to the podcast) yeah I did, cheers!

there's not that much 'new information' per se within this podcast, though there's a bunch of nice tidbits about teenage casey. what stood out to me is how the framing of his journey to becoming a racer is... well, it's kinda new? it's not exactly surprising, because you could get a lot of this stuff from reading between the lines in his autobiography. the question of 'is this your dream or your parents' dream' is a very common one with athletes, and it's often a thin line... but, y'know, this podcast interview in particular is quite a noticeable shift in how casey himself talks about this issue. it's a shift in how he portrays his 'dream' of becoming a professional rider back when he was formulating his autobiography, versus how he's answering questions in this episode. his autobiography isn't free from criticism of his parents - but casey is always stressing his own desire to race. so you do get stuff like this (from the autobiography):

At this point things were getting serious. Dad used to say, 'If you want to become World Champion you can't be that much better than local competition,' holding his finger and thumb an inch apart. 'You have to be this much better,' he'd say, holding his arms wide open. Dad confirms this feeling still today: 'I know it's a harsh way to look at things but that's the difference between a champion and the rest. Just look at the careers of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo. Dani had Alberto Puig and Jorge had his old man, both of them hard as nails. If you want to make it to the top I think it takes somebody with an unforgiving view on life to help get you there. So I said those things to Casey, particularly when we went to the UK, because to keep moving up a level he couldn't just be happy with winning a race. If he wasn't winning by a margin that represented his maximum performance then he wasn't showing people how much better he was than the rest.' There's no denying that Dani, Jorge and I became successful with that kind of upbringing and sometimes you probably do need it. As far as I'm concerned Alberto was nowhere near as tough on Dani as my dad was on me or Jorge's dad was on him. That kind of intensity and expectation puts a lot of extra pressure on a father-son relationship that isn't always healthy. We definitely had our moments and there were a few major blow-ups to come. But at the time, rightly or wrongly, it was proving to be a good system for us and I was eager to continue impressing my dad and others with my performances on the track.

(quick reminder, jorge's review of his father's style of parenting was describing him as "a kind of hitler")

but in general the emphasis is very much on how much casey enjoyed racing, on how single-minded casey was when it came to racing. he might have been isolated by his racing (again this is from the autobiography, in the context of discussing being bullied by kids in school until he got 'protection' from his dirt track friends):

School life was a whole lot better after that but I still hated it. All my real friends were from dirt-track; they were the only people I had anything in common with.

and he's talked about how other parents misinterpreted his shyness as him not actually wanting to race, which meant they were judging casey's parents as a result (autobiography):

Mum tells me that the other parents thought she and Dad were awful because I cried as I lined up on the start line. She remembers: 'I was putting his gloves on his hands and pushing his helmet over his head. The thing was, I knew Casey wasn't crying because he didn't want to ride or because he was scared. He just didn't like the attention of being stared at by all these people!'

but like. overall racing for him was still something he portrayed as a very positive aspect of his childhood. something he always clung onto, something that was his choice to pursue

so... let's play compare and contrast with some specific passages of the autobiography and this podcast, you decide for yourself. take this from his autobiography:

After I started winning more times than not, and it was obvious my passion for bikes wasn't wavering, Mum and Dad decided that seeking out sponsors could be a great idea to help offset some of the costs of travelling to meets and keeping the bikes in good order.

and here, in a longer excerpt about what a sickly child casey was, what his mother said (autobiography):

'They tested him for cystic fibrosis and he was on all kinds of medication; you name it, he was on it. But Casey still raced, we couldn't stop him.' I know I was sick but Mum was right, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

versus this from the podcast, when he's responding to a completely open question about how he got into riding:

To be honest, I don't know if I was allowed to have any other attraction to be honest. I think it was, you know, you're going to be a bike rider from when I was a very very young age - and I'm not the only one to think that. I think my parents have stated that enough times to certain people and you know I was sort of pushed in that direction. My elder sister who's six and a half years older than me, she actually raced a little bit of dirt bikes and dirt track before I was born and when I was very young, so it was sort of a natural progression to go and do a little bit more of that and I think because at the time road racing was a lot more similar to dirt track. That was our sort of way in.

this was one of the very first questions in the interview, it basically just consisted of asking casey how he got into biking in the first place - whether it had come through his family or whatever. casey chose to take the response in that direction... it's not an answer that is just about his own internal passion, how he loved riding the second he touched a bike, how he loved it throughout his childhood etc etc (which is how it's framed in the autobiography) - but instead he says he wasn't allowed to do anything else. he says that he was pushed in that direction, that his parents have openly said as much to others. that he feels vindicated in the belief he was never given another choice

let's play another round. here from the autobiography:

Mum and Dad used to stand at the side for hours on end watching me practise at different tracks. They'd sometimes clock laps with a stopwatch as I went round and round. Other parents couldn't see the point in taking it so seriously but they didn't realise it was what I wanted. I was having fun. Working out how to go faster was how I got my kicks and I couldn't stop until I had taken a tenth or two of a second off my best time on any day. If another kid came out onto the track with me I would be all over them, practising passing them in different ways and in different corners, but most of the time they avoided riding with me and I would be out there on my own, racing the clock.

and this (autobiography):

I enjoyed racing so much that even when I was at home riding on my own I would set up different track configurations to challenge myself. I'd find myself a rock here, a tree there, a gatepost over there and maybe move a branch and that would be my track.

versus here, in the podcast:

Q: And did you realise at the time that you were - not groomed, is not the word but well you were being groomed to be a professional motorcycle racer, or obviously that was your only one reference point, that was the norm. Did that just feel the norm or did you think actually this feels a bit intense or how did you feel about it? A: I think it's hard, it's not until I sort of reached my mid teens where I started to have a bit of a reality check on what I was actually doing. Before then, you know I was competitive. I'm not as competitive as people think, I'm a lot more competitive internally rather than externally versus other people. I always challenge myself to things, so all those younger years was just getting the job done that I was expected to do. I enjoyed winning, I loved it, but you know I enjoyed perfect laps, perfect races, as close as I could get to that and you know from a young age I always sort of challenged myself constantly to be better. So I didn't just win races, I tried to win them - you know, if I won races by five seconds in a [...] race I'd try and win, you know I'd try and get to double that by the end of the day if I could. So you know that always kept me sharp and it stopped me from being sort of, you know, complacent in the position I was at. And it wasn't until sort of you know 16, 17, 18 that reality kicked in. I'd had a couple years road racing in the UK and Spain, been rather successful and then you get to world championships and you know maybe an engineer that was sort of - didn't have your best interests at hear. And, you know, I nearly finished my career right there after my first year of world championships just because of the reality of how hard it was in comparison to everything else I'd experienced up to that point. And, you know, it was a real reality check for me and I think it was then that I started to - you know consider everything around me and consider how and why I got to the position that I was in and that's when the mind started to change a little bit and realise that you know I really was being groomed my whole life just to sort of be here and be put on a track and try and win. And, you know, that was my seemingly most of my existence.

in all the excerpts, he stresses how much he enjoys his perfect laps, how much he enjoys riding, how there is genuine passion there, how dedicated he is to this pursuit... but then in the podcast, he's adding something else - how he'd been groomed his whole life into that role of 'professional bike racer'. that it was only in his late teens (when he was in 125cc/250cc) where he had this moment of 'man I never really had a choice in all this'

and another round. here's him talking in the autobiography about how all the money he got through racing went back into racing - but it was fine because it was the only thing he cared about anyway:

I don't remember seeing any of the money I earned because it all went back into my racing, although I guess at the time that's all I really cared about anyway. I didn't know anything else. Mum and Dad always said to me: 'If you put in the effort, we'll put in the effort.'

and here in the autobiography on how he just wanted to ride all day:

I couldn't ride my bike all day, though, as much as I would have liked to.

and him talking in the autobiography about his parents encouraging him and his sister to 'chase their dreams':

Mum and Dad encouraged both Kelly and me to follow our passions and work hard to chase our dreams. That might sound strange when you are talking about a seven-year-old but I don't think you are never too young to know that if you want something you have to earn it.

versus this in the podcast:

Q: And I've never asked you this before, but did you want to? A: Um... I think I'd been convinced of a dream I suppose. You know, yes I loved riding bikes and you know I really did enjoy racing... but there was lots of other things that I - I really enjoyed as well but just never had the opportunity or never was allowed to do anything else, so... You know, motorbikes for our budget everything fortunately dirt track was probably the cheapest way that you could go motorbike racing. You could survive on very very little in dirt track and show your potential in other ways. You know, yes, having good bikes and good tyres and all that sort of thing made a difference but it wasn't the be all end all, you could always make a difference in other ways, so... I think it was, you know - the best thing we could have done, racing through that. Like I said I enjoyed it, it wasn't until late teens, early 20s where I sort of was like, I don't know if I would have been a bike racer had I actually had a choice.

was riding really all he cared about? or were there other things he was interested in, things he just never had the opportunity to pursue? things he wasn't allowed to pursue? from the autobiography, you get the sense that his parents always deliberately portrayed it as casey's dream, something he was expected to work hard for in order to be allowed to fulfil. in the podcast, casey says it was a dream he was 'convinced' of. without wanting to speak too much on the specifics of this parenting relationship we only have limited knowledge of, this kinda does all sound like athlete parent 101: getting it into their kids' heads that this is the dream of the child, not the parent, before holding it over them when they fail to perform when their parents have invested so so much in their child's success. casey's family was financially completely dependent on his racing results when they moved to the uk - he was fourteen at the time. he was painfully conscious of his parents' 'sacrifice' to make 'his dream' possible. can you imagine what kind of pressure that must be for a teenager?

to be clear, this isn't supposed to be a gotcha, I'm not trying to uncover contradictions between what casey said back then and what he's saying now. obviously, this is all very... thorny, complicated stuff, and casey has had to figure out for himself how he feels about it, how he feels about how his parents approached his upbringing. but it is worth pointing out that this isn't necessarily just a question of his feelings changing over time - if the internal timeline he provides in the podcast is correct, he was really having that realisation in his late teens, early 20s, so on the verge of joining the premier class. that is when he says he had the thought "I don't know if I would have been a bike racer had I actually had a choice"... which is a pretty major admission, you have to say, especially given how rough those premier class years often ended up being on him. but then that realisation would have already come years and years before he wrote his autobiography, it would've been something he carried with him for most of his career. given that, you do look at his autobiography and think that he did make the decision to frame things pretty differently back then, that he decided to exclude certain things from his narrative. if this really is already something that's been festering within him for years, if he does feel like he wants to be a bit more open about all of that now than back then... well, hopefully it shows he's been able to work through all of it a bit more in the intervening years

(this is somehow an even thornier topic than his relationship with parents, but relatedly there is a bit of a discrepancy between how bullish he is in his autobiography about how mentally unaffected he was by his results, versus how he's since opened up since then about his anxiety. again, I want to stress, this is not a gotcha, he's under no obligation to share this stuff with the world - especially given the amount of discourse during his career about his supposed 'mental weakness'. it is still important in understanding him, though, how he consciously decided to tell his own story in the autobiography and how he's somewhat changed his approach in the subsequent years)

this is the rest of his answer to that podcast question I relayed above:

But at the same time you know I felt that no matter what I would have done, I sort of have a - my mentality of self-punishment, you know, of never being good enough that always drove me to try and be better and any single thing that I did, I didn't like it when I wasn't not perfect. I don't believe in the word perfect but I really didn't enjoy when I wasn't, you know, in my own terms considered a good enough level at anything I did so I would always sort of try to get up as high as I could regardless of what for.

at which point hodgson says exactly what I was thinking and goes 'god what a line' about the "mentality of self-punishment" thing. it is one hell of a line!

what's really interesting about this podcast is how these two big themes of 'this wasn't my choice' and 'self-punishment' end up kinda being linked together when casey talks about how the motogp world reacted to him... so again I'm gonna quickly toss in a bit from the autobiography (where he's talking about casual motorcycling events he went to as a kid), because it does read similarly in how for him the joy and competitive aspects of riding are closely linked:

It was a competition but it wasn't highly competitive; it was just for fun, really. Of course, I didn't see it that way, though, and I had dirt and stones flying everywhere. I don't think anyone expected the park to be shredded like it was. When I was on my bike, if I wasn't competing to my maximum level then I wasn't having as much fun.

and back to the podcast:

And also because people truly didn't understand me, that I'm not there just to enjoy the racing. As we're explaining, before that, you know it was sort of a road paved for me... And so the results were all important, not the enjoyment of it. And then you cop the flak for everything you do. I'm also very self-punishing, so it was kind of a - just a lose lose lose and it was all very very heavy on myself, so... It, you know, it took me till my later years to realise I could take the pressure off myself a little bit and go look you've done all the work you've done everything you can, you got to be proud of what you've done, so... Not necessarily go out there and enjoy it, because I don't believe you should just be going out in a sport where you're paid as much as we are expect to get results and just - you know - oh I'm just going to go and have fun it's like... yeah, nah, if you're just going to go and have fun then you're not putting in the work. And that's when we see inconsistencies etc. So I was very very harsh on myself and so even when I won races, if I made mistakes or I wasn't happy with the way I rode, well then yeah I'm happy I won but there's work to do. There was more to get out of myself and so that's where I copped a lot of bad... um, let's say bad press because of those kind of things and then they sort of attack you even more because they didn't like the fact that you didn't celebrate these wins like they wanted you to they expect you to I suppose treat every victory like almost a championship and you know it's not that I expected these wins but I expected more of myself and therefore maybe I didn't celebrate them as much as you know other people do.

kind of brings together a lot of different things, doesn't it? this whole profession was a path that was chosen for him... which he links here to how the results were 'all important' for him, how it just couldn't ever be about enjoyment. he always punished himself for his mistakes, he was under constant pressure, which also affected how he communicated with the outside world... he was so committed to self-flagellation that he made it tough for himself to actually celebrate his victories, which in turn wasn't appreciated by the fans or the press. so on the one hand, casey's obviously still not particularly thrilled about how much of a hard time he was given over his particular approach to being a rider. but on the other hand, he's also describing how all of this can be traced back to how becoming a rider was never actually his 'choice'. he's detailed his perfectionism before, including in his autobiography, including in discussing his anxiety disorder more recently - but this is explicitly establishing that link between the pressure he'd felt during his childhood to how he'd been pushed into this direction to how he then had to perform. he couldn't afford to be anything less than perfect, so he wasn't, and at times he made his own life even tougher as a result of his own exacting standards. this just wasn't stuff he's said in such straightforward, explicit terms before... and now he is

my general thing with casey is that his reputation as a straight shooter or whatever means people aren't really paying enough attention to how he's telling his own story. like, I kinda feel the perception is 'oh he used to be more closed off because the media ragged on him but since retirement he's been able to tell it like it really is' or whatever. and I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong, but it's not quite as simple as that. because he's not a natural at dealing with the media, he's put a fair bit of thought into how to communicate better with them (which he does also say in the podcast), and he's explicitly acknowledged this is something he looked to valentino for in order to learn how to better handle. because casey has felt misunderstood for quite a long time, he's quite invested in selling his story in certain ways - and it's interesting how what he's chosen to reveal or emphasise or conceal or downplay has changed over time. which means there will be plenty of slight discrepancies that pop up over time that will be as revealing as anything he explicitly says... and it tells you something, what his own idea of what 'his story' is at any given time. this podcast isn't just interesting as a sort of, y'know, one to one, 'this is casey telling the truth' or whatever - it's reflecting where his mind is at currently, what he wants to share and in what way, and how that compares to his past outlook. the framing of his childhood was really something that popped out about this particular interview... it's not like it's exactly surprising that this is how he feels, but more that he decided to say all of this so openly. some pretty heavy stuff in there! hope the years really have helped him... man, I don't know. figure it all out, for himself. something like that

[vanyafresita]

happy pride !! here's a digital zine i made to compile short letters i wrote to some of the queer people in my life i hold close to my heart <3

[stockholmgf]

this too shall pass 😄

but this too shall pass 😢

[emometalhead]

Finally had my interview that I previously couldn't schedule when I was sick. I think it went well!

[candyredterezii]

I have got 4 rejections this week but

i have another interview at a bank next week that is literally perfect for me. the perfect hours. pay more than I am doing now. the job isnt anything too challenging/different from what Im used to. Being able to have weekends off every now again. Not having to work till 9/10 PM

PLEASE PRAY FOR ME I SCORE THIS JOB..

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

had a job interview today at a record shop and it went so well, he basically gave me the job, and then i checked my phone afterwards and i have an interview next week for an internship i really want!!

[guinevereslancelot]

applied to a bunch of jobs! 😅🙏

[miss--river]

.

[varsity-sportsbeing]

PLD EN Interview Pt 1

Podcast link

High draft pick expectation woes, game priorities. Transcripts below the cut. I’ve kept the original podcast section titles where my selections align with them.

Summary: The expectations of going surprisingly high in the draft clearly weigh on him. A few times, he brings up the idea of focusing on the big picture over points - preparing for the NHL, winning games, etc. They also bring up his penalty minutes and the pros and cons of playing a more physical game.

There is also a funny story towards the end. Torts told him to cross check Ryan Kessler first face off of a game. He knew it was gonna be a scrappy game from there out but did it anyway. Had a rough time from there.

"Rookie Records" 19:54-21:52

Hosts: I want to talk about your first year quick right. So you're playing Juniors you're like the leading scorer in the Q at 16. not bad not bad and then you go third overall like Dan said, behind Matthews and Laine. And you show up in Columbus, 20 tucks 48 points you break Rick Nash's record for most goals break Werenski's record for most points as a rookie in franchise history. How did you take that confidence of your success in juniors and just translate it to the NHL immediately, what was that like?

PLD: Yeah honestly, it was tough because I went back [to the Q] at 18. And those - Matthews and Laine, they played [in the NHL] at 18 and they had really good years.

Hosts: yeah yeah

PLD: Yeah people are looking at you again, like oh this - and I wasn't even supposed to go third. I remember I got drafted, and you know Matthews went and everybody applauded. Second Laine went, everybody applauded. Then I went and everybody's like "What, huh?" You could just see everybody looking, like "Who is this guy?"

So I go back to Junior. Statistically I didn't have a better year at 18 than I did at 17, and you know nobody's watching Cape Breton play at that point, you know, from anywhere else but Cape Breton. So you know people are looking at the stats sheet like, "Oh, he went back junior. He's a flop. He's not going to do well, blah blah blah." I go to World Juniors. I didn't have a great tournament. I didn't even score a goal. People are like, "Oh, he's he's awful. Why did they draft him?" So I think that whole year - because I was playing good hockey, just like I wasn't - I was playing to prepare to play in the NHL at 19. I wasn't playing just to score as many goals as I could. So I think that whole year helped me out.

Then at 19, I come in - and you know Tort's camps, the hardest thing I've seen.

Hosts: Yeah, super easy and chill?

PLD: Yeah my first year, I wasn't ready. Like I showed up, and I was like, "I'm ready for this," and three days, in I couldn't skate. I couldn't move. So you know [my second year] I was ready at 19, and then yeah, I had a good year. I started playing with Panarin, which you know was was great. I got to learn a lot from him, and playing with him was fun. And guys like Atkinson, Josh Anderson, guys like that. Also living with David Savard, I gotta say that was the best decision I've ever made in my life. But yeah it was - a lot of people had a lot to do with with that first year in the NHL and even to this day.

[talk about staying with Savard and his family for a while]

23:59-26:20

Host: um dude you just said something that I think is super important for people to hear. you were talking about that final year in Junior and you were playing hockey to prepare for the NHL not put up points. yes dude I think that is such an important thing for hockey fans everywhere to hear the difference of - can you talk about that a little bit? like how is that different when you get drafted, and you're like all right I'm a top five pick here I'm going to the show soon - how does your mindset change? and what is that preparation and the way you change your playing style like

PLD: Yeah, I mean well my dad's a coach, so he's - he's probably the number one person in my life in terms of you know, helping me become who I am today. And I remember when I was in m***t he told me, because it was my draft year then too, he told me, "You know, scoring goals is great, but winning games is the most important. So be the player that, when a scout goes to see you, he says, "You know he does everything well. There's nothing - yeah there's nothing he can't do. Yeah, there's some stuff he could do better, but there's nothing that he's missing." And um, you know, sometimes it's boring, like having a good stick, being in the right spot, being the F3 instead of diving in. So that was like uh, always in my mind.

Then at my draft year, I got put - I was on the wing my whole life, never played center. My dad wanted me to play center. I didn't want to. I thought it was too complicated, too hard. I was like, "I'm a right winger and that's it." Then I got put, halfway through my season, my draft year, I got put Center, and I was like, I told my coach, "No. I - I don't want to." He's like, "Yeah, you're gonna." I was like, "Okay." You have no choice, so you know, I played center, and that was one of the best things that ever happened in my career, I think because you know, you get to play a little bit more defense, you get to think - you have to think a bit more. You have to support your D's and everything. But yeah I think, like I said, you look at some of the guys - I mean, one's right here: Kopitar.

Hosts: yeah

PLD: Phil Danault. You know guys like that, that offensively, defensively they're so good. It's just, it's just as fun to watch, you know? And could they score five more goals a year, or 10 more points? Maybe. But would that lead to more wins? Probably not. So guys like that are - have always been - you know, guys I've looked up to and tried to to become.

[discussion of Mullet arena & a few other arenas and fan bases]

31:51-37:45 PIM Life

Hosts: Well, speaking of hits, actually one thing I wanted to ask you about - and maybe it's um a little bit - we were talking about the switch to Center, but since you got to Winnipeg your PIMs are way up dude, like way up. So I wanted to know if that - like not that you're out there looking for a penalty. But is being more physical, playing a heavier game, roughing it up, you know mixing it up in front of both nets - is that, was that a conscious effort? Was that a coaching decision, or are you just a goon now? Maybe you're a goon now.

PLD: I only had one fight last year so I don't know if I call myself that. But uh, I mean yeah. Would I love to take less penalties? For sure. But you know, I think in the NHL, you know, if you're getting a lot of penalties, I'm drawing a lot of penalties too. So there's that balance of it. Like obviously, it'd be great to finish a year with zero penalty minutes. Is that gonna happen this year? Absolutely not. Like there's no chance.

Host: And you wouldn't be playing the right game I don't think, right? Like you got to smash.

PLD: And the way I play, I don't start a game thinking, "Alright, I'm gonna get a penalty here tonight." I never - I don't think I'm ever due for one.

Hosts: Yeah, like "You know what, haven't been in the box in a while, I'm gonna just go and absolutely crinkle someone off the puck."

PLD: Yeah but you know the way it goes um, I always - my dad always taught me, you know, you sometimes just gotta go out there, and if it's a hit, if it's a cross-check, if it's a scrum - you got to get something going. And you could score a goal, you could have a big hit, big fight, or just a scrum.

So yeah I don't know, it's - I grew up, like we'd go out to the the frozen pond. And there's two rinks. There's the normal size one that we play you know, 12 on 12. You know, there's no rules. But then there's one right next to it that was probably, you know, 15 feet by 8 feet. We'd play 4v4, and might as well not put a puck out there. We would just hit each other, and it would always finish in a fight, and it would always finish with somebody crying going home with a bloody lip or a bruise or whatever. And um, that was fun to me. That was really fun. I always loved that. My dad made me watch Broad Street Bullies when I was like 12 and I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

So yeah I mean I'm not, I don't think I'll ever win - is it the Lady Bing?

Hosts: yeah yeah

PLD: I don't think I'll ever win the Lady Bing in my career, but you know I'm okay with that. I think it's fun sometimes to-

Hosts: Yeah, well you got the frame for it, dude you know when I was young, I was just like, I was always pretty tall. I wasn't the tallest of my crew till later in life. I had a late growth spurt, but I, for whatever reason because he[other host] played D he was always banging people around. But I played forward and I was like I grew up watching the danglers and thought that was cool, but then I got big, and I'm in you know playing Junior's like trying to like walk everyone at the blue line and my coach is like, "Can you hit somebody?" Like "No, I just want to be the small guy," and I never did. so I think it's important, I think it's important to use that frame and bang around, dude, you know? It impacts the game in a lot of ways.

PLD: Yeah it's fun.

Hosts: And there are just games, like man you said it there are games where it's just getting chippy, and I love that. When it's like, alright, people are just throwing shit around. I'm gonna get in the mix. That is the best feeling sometimes. Gets you in a game faster. Like booms, hit someone first shift, and you're like, "Alright, here we go."

PLD: Yeah. I've had a coach that told me, "The best way to get in the game is first shift to get a hit." And like I said, it's not like I start a game, I'm like, "Alright, I'm gonna get a penalty tonight," or "I'm gonna get in something," or "I'm gonna start a scrum." There's some games that nothing happens, but there's sometimes when the game gets chippy or, I mean it's a physical sport. And it's uh - it's there's a lot of hitting. There's fighting, there's cross checks, you know the battles in front of the net, everything like that. There's a lot of emotion.

So yeah, would I love - I'm gonna finish with, would I love to get less penalty minutes? I would love it. But you know, you never know how it's gonna go so.

Hosts: No, but I mean dude, I think the the best mindset - I think every coach, every player would appreciate that mindset. Because it is - like those games, like uh against the Islanders, those just pop up. And if you're going out there being like I don't really want to get into it with anyone, you're going to be off your game the whole time. So it's like, I promise you, I'd rather you go out there playing the way you want to play right now than go out there trying to win a Lady Bing.

PLD: Yeah. You know, there's some - like uh, like when I was in Columbus my first year, Torts was always telling me, we play good teams, we play you know, top players, and he'd always say, "Don't be scared of them. Don't be scared." And um, I'd often start, so I'd take the first face off against one of the top guys. We were playing um, Anaheim. And he goes, "Okay, tonight you're gonna be playing against Ryan Kessler. I want you to cross check him, first face off." And I'm like, [hand to face, whispering] "Fuuu--" It's gonna be a long game. Do I want to do this?

Hosts: How old are you, what year was this?

PLD: 19.

Hosts: Yeah dude, come on.

PLD: I'm like [grimaces]. He's like, "No, no, you don't fight him. Just cross check him."

Hosts: He's like "Luc, just send a message," sure. Because yeah Ryan Kessler's the type of player who's gonna be like, "Oh, good cross check," he doesn't want to fight. It's - this is fine.[sarcasm]

PLD: But the whole game! But I'm like [sighs] "Okay." So, first face off, I don't even try to go for the puck. I just cross checked him. And-

Hosts: You did it.

PLD: Yeah. Because he told me to do it.

Hosts: Yeah, what are you gonna do, say no to Torts?

PLD: Yeah, so I'm like okay I cross check, and then the rest of the game was just me and him, back and forth, scrum. He grabbed me by like, my collar. I was on my knees. Thankfully, I think Savard was there and was like, pulling me back.

Hosts: He's like, "That's my son."

PLD: Yeah, he's pulling me back. But uh, yeah I think that game, I got two - probably, I got two penalties. You know, like that's just how it goes.

Hosts: Did Kess say something when you cross-checked him, or was it just like - he was like, "Alright, fine?"

PLD: I don't think he - I think he might have just slashed me. But it's a long game, and they were at home. So they were matching against our line, and the whole game was just slash, cross check, slash, cross check. But that's that's how it is, and it was it was a fun game, but you know, at the end of the game you finished with two penalty or four penalty minutes, and a couple scrums and all that and-

Hosts: About 17 new bruises.

PLD: Yeah, I had this, like, cut in my neck from the jersey. But yeah it was uh - those games are also fun. You know, the 7-6 games are great. But you know, most often that's not how it happens, right? You know there's a lot of games that's 2-1, and physical play, and to me those are just as fun.

Host[L]: Hell yeah you got a job to do. And fucking Torts, dude. The guy is out of his fucking mind. I love it.

[hillbillyoracle]

I worked in western PA for a few years and I still think about the most PA conversation I ever overheard:

Two young Amish women came into the waiting room and were speaking Pennsylvania Dutch with each other. Another older woman in a steelers jersey came up to them and just said "Yinns Amish?"

They nodded. She proceeded to ask them whether they could do/had a long list of things.

"Yinns have internet?"

"No we don't."

"Yinns have football?"

"No we don't watch football."

"Yinns have cheesestake?"

"Of course we have cheesestake."

"Well thank god for that."

[kiealer]

i have a job now, apparently -- got offered as soon as the interview was over, they wanted me to start tomorrow, i said can i please have a couple days first to process this so now apparently i start tuesday instead--

[kidneys-and-custard]

The most recent person I called on Skype was Lee Majdoub and that was in 2018. Shows how much I use Skype I guess

[capesandshapes]

I am so bad at foreign languages that it makes me so sad, because I just imagine the books you can read and getting to fully appreciate the prose and read all of the intelligence behind walls of text that for once wouldn't be cut apart and rearranged for my English speaking consumption

Like Jesus Christ, to read something and truly know what someone means on that level rather than to get their words garbled through a telephone