AskLRR September 2019 - Beard Chat

The second episode of the new AskLRR (YouTube Membership Exclusive).

Vital Statistics

Date: September 28, 2019

Category: AskLRR

Appearing: James Turner, Paul Saunders, Ben Ulmer

Description: You asked us questions, so Ben, James and Paul sat down to answer them. Wanna know where Ben came from? How we take care of our beards and other things? Well look no further. It's time for askLRR.

Questions

How are you?

Dranbo asks: Hey. How are you guys? Feeling well? You look tight as hell. All right. Y'all have a good one.

James: This is a perfect question to start on.
Paul: These are the kind of hard-hitting questions that we want.
Ben: It's definitely one I can answer.

Vacation to an MTG Plane

Daniel Huras asks: If you were a planeswalker, which MTG plane would you like to visit for a vacation?

James: The goat plane - Gold Meadow.
Paul: Kaladesh - there's probably a lot of cool things going on.
Ben: Kylem - you just get to watch live gladitorial fights all the time.

Differences between Edmonton and Victoria

Harold Price asks: For Ben: You've been in Victoria & LRR for a few years now. What was the biggest change you encountered in your move?

Edmonton is a very sprawling city, everything in Victoria is very close together, with a local vibe.

Paul's Obscure Music Recommendations

The Antimuffin asks: For Paul: I've noticed we have similar tastes in music (strong vocals and interesting lyrics). Do you have any less-well-known music groups to recommend?

The Fisherman's Friends of Port Isaac, local folksinger Bill Gallaher. More well-known: They Might Be Giants.

How did Ben meet LRR?

DayBreakKing asks: Hey Ben how did you get involved with LRR?

At 16, Ben went to an anime convention in Calgary, Alberta, where an improv group he was a big fan of - Synaptic Chaos Theatre - were performing. He became friends with one of the members of the group, eventually performing with them in his then home-town of Edmonton, and later becoming a full member. Also in this group were Ian, Cori, Beej and Heather.

Prior to Desert Bus 9, the team was looking for another tech team member that was comfortable with doing improv things, a position for which Ben was recommended by Ian and co. He quit his main job in Edmonton to be able to attend. With encouragement from Ian, Cori and James, he moved to Victoria and steadily started doing more and more work with LRR.

Game you want to stream but haven't

Rachel Barnes asks: What is one game you love but haven't gotten to play on stream that you would want to some day? video game or board game.

There are various games that they love (e.g. World of Warcraft) that they want to keep as non-stream games, but none that they want to stream but have not yet. Ben wants to do an equivalent to this playing all Kingdom Hearts with the Zelda games, but realises that it would be a very significant time commitment.

Favorite Indie Game Dev

ellaser93 asks: Do you have a particularly favorite Indie Game Dev? Mine is probably Knuckle Cracker (The Creeper World Series, and Particle Fleet: Emergence.) Also CW4 HYYYYYYYYYYYYPE! (No date yet on it, though.)

Paul: Also a huge fan of Knuckle Cracker and is excited for Creeper World 4.
Ben: Chucklefish.
James: Doesn't have a favorite, but notices he plays several from Capy.

Innovative Technical Solution for LRR

Ben Francis asks: Paul: What's the most interesting or innovative technical solution you have made for LRR?

The Card Reader was interesting as it evolved from a very janky solution to the program's developers making the program work better for LRR's use case. The overlay, and LRR's ability to quickly adapt it to new games, is also very interesting.

Beards Beards Beards

John Potter asks: What is your daily routine for your sweet beards? Beard oil, creams, or just a daily washing?

James: Has a daily morning shower, washes his beard with his face wash and blow-dries it. Sometimes he brushes it.
Ben: Uses beard balm to reduce frizzyness, also washes blow-dries his beard (specifically downwards) but not daily.
Paul: Occasionally uses beard oil, but isn't sold on whether it makes much difference. It does smell nice and discourages him from playing with his beard.

Sketches scrapped in production

The Cooliest asks: Has there ever been a Crapshot/Sketch idea that got scrapped mid production? If so what was it about and would you try to shoot it again if you had the chance?

Lots of scripts get scrapped because they don't come together, but it is very infrequent for things to be scrapped during filming. One example was a Crapshot(?) called "The Warrior", which required darkness to film, but were filming it this summer and they didn't want to stay late to do the filming, so they'll wait until winter.

How much of Paul is self-taught?

Daye04 asks: For Paul - how much of your technical knowledge comes from teaching yourself?

Most of it. Did a 2-year diploma in Information Technology & Applied Systems, which taught him a lot of expired information, but also a lot of principles for learning new things. All of his audio-visual knowledge is self-taught, like a lot of the LRR crew.

Most-Desired Moonbase Technological Upgrades

Tyler Pidde asks: If there was one technological change/upgrade that you could make to the moonbase (ignoring budgetary restraints) for whatever reason, what would it be?

James: Quiet remote-controlled lights in Studio C.
Paul: Silent and vibration-less air-conditioning.
Ben: Enough lights in Studio C that they don't have to re-position them.

Goals for small Twitch Streamers

Patrick Staight asks: I'm CodeDancer, I have a small stream in Just Chatting category on Twitch. I recently made affiliate but fame and fortune are unlikely. Can you recommend other goals for me?

Don't rule out fame and fortune. Work on crafting a cool community that you can have a good time with.

Editing Workload Distribution

Grafitivoid asks: How do you decide who edits what?

James: It evolves over time, with people working on particular projects.
Paul: Meetings.
Ben: Kathleen.

Returns to Old Stream Shows

Time Stodden asks: Are there any past LRR Stream shows that you would consider bringing back? (Watch & Play notwithstanding)

18 Games ...and Counting and Games of Chance still seem like interesting concepts (playing a game decided randomly), but didn't really work in practice. The shows that have been retired were done so for a reason, so are unlikely to return.

Youngest Crew Member

Eric Choinière asks: Ben: what is it like to be by far the youngest crew member? Others: does Ben ever make you feel old?

Ben: Matt is about 2 years older than him, so it's not so true anymore. He doesn't have an opinion on the subject.
Others: It's only noticable when talking about popular culture that Ben experienced at a different time in his life, or missed entirely.
Beej (from the board): Nothing Ben does makes him feel old - the only thing that could make him feel old would be having his own kid.

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