A longer Update than usual

Dammit Tex you're on to me, how did you suss out that baklava dislike is a sign of being an extradimensional alien being? The poetry is excellent, and Invictus was a perfect choice. I didnt know the whole poem, but the last lines are ones I'm very familiar with. Your reading gives it an appropriate sense of gravitas. You've been talking a lot on both here and the podcast recently on a lot of subject matter very close to the mark on struggles my wife and I have. This isn't exactly the place for me to air things out, but know that the insight on creativity, worth, and struggle are all mirroring what we've been discussing at home and having an outside voice with no bias towards our own issues has been reassuring. Thank you, very sincerely. Small shoutout to the self proclaimed "dumb enlisted", because my dude, it could be worse. They hand out a partial lobotomy with every set of butter bars. They don't make officers much smarter than enlisted men. Just better educated, which is not at all the same thing. And a question for TTBT: are you going to be spending any time discussing the Hunchback IIC? I know its a dirty clanner mech, but I find it fascinating to explore how it both is and isnt a hunchback and cant necessarily fight the same way as its IS grandpappy. As always, well wishes to you and the team!

Iden DeSeer

Excited to see what the new BPL website will become, but I do have one pressing question Will it have a “web ring”? You know, the best feature of Web 1.0. I remember setting up quite a few of those, back-in-the-day

Lord Travis Lance the 3rd Matheson esq

Tex and Crew, thanks for all the poetry lately. I hope you get to feeling better and get yourself some rest. Looking forward to the Hunchback. Bring it on!

Gera5915

Hey Tex and crew, I had originally made a very long manifesto of a post regarding self compassion and a dump truck of past trauma, but I decided to delete it on favor of another train of thought...so I was thinking about self-compassion in regards to our current setting and it seems as though it loops around yo an old thought line of "You have to love yourself before you can love someone else." I don't completely believe this, for my own reasons, but at its core in relation to the self it makes sense. We are our own worst critics, nay-sayers, denigrators, and in a lot of cases the most unforgiving. To an extent we can't start healing until we allow ourselves to. Also thank you for all the general words of encouragement about fighting the darkness. But that aside, I wanted to remind folks that tabletop is a wonderful teaching tool. Very recently a good friend of mine and I decided to throw down in battletech with some custom mechs. He brought two 125 tonners with more firepower than an assault lance...6 er ppcs and 20 er medium lasers between them. I brought an assault lance, mainly to see if I could bring ONE of the bastards down. Game starts we move into range and start blasting. My mainline assault mech, essentially a rebuilt atlas stuffed with clan-tech and ready to pound all before them into oblivion....welp....the only thing that was obliterated was it...took a crit to the hip and I proceeded to fail the next 4 pilot checks...and as the story goes, my mech warrior face rolled the controls, hit the ejection button and yeeted themselves into a tree. Wa laughed for 10 minutes and it became the best moment of the game. It reminded me that even when I take an L I had a great time and I put up the best fight I could and left nothing on the field except for a dead lance. We are already suiting up for another game in the next week or so. Just because I failed doesn't mean I give up

The Mailman

I've been loving Tex Talks Poetry! Any news on the audiobook you were going to voice? Edit: Also, a podcast idea if you have the think tank members back, have western armored vehicles (thinking tanks, lavs) l had an effect in Russia yet? Do you guys think they will, or is it just propoganda?

TheMaskedP

Gonna need your lot size and its set backs and we can start designing that sauna!

Christopher Barnes

Evening Tex, the podcast with Father Bill was great, I teared up a bit when he mentioned anointing the person at Disney because its just a good damn story. Don't feel you need to read the rest outloud because it's a lot and fairly disjointed as far as thought wanderings go. I just saw your short about Listening to the must'nts, and because of how my brain is wired I tumbled down a list of memories and stopped at a 6 min podcast you released back in 2021...if I recall correctly, I don't have it right in front of me. It was 6 mins of you just reminding us to keep going, take the hit and get back up no matter how many times. I honestly cried when I heard that, I was around hour 12 and a half of my day and just exhausted, more than a few times I've thought about throwing in the towel and moving on, but I kept trudging forward even to my own detriment. It also got me thinking of self-compassion and how, as you mentioned, it's really only entered our collective lexicon very recently. As my name implies I was an essential employee all during covid. I had been in the employ well before the pandemic, but that is of little import. Covid was rough on those of us in the Mail Service, I won't say it was worse than other first responders or essential employees because it wasn't, we just suffered in our own unique way. Co-workers were scared, rightfully so, and because of that those of us who reported everyday were not only responsible for our customers, but other parts of uncovered routes. The station I worked in had roughly 71 routes, at peak pandemic nearly half were uncovered, which meant that most of us were carrying our routes, which were roughly 6 to 7 hours of actual delivery, and then an additional 2 to 2 and a half hours of delivery. We did this for nearly two years...I watched it break people, I saw good people say they were going back to old jobs they hated b/c it was getting to be too much for them. I watched people's spirits break and they just walk away. I watched a man no joke have a minor stroke and flagged the paramedics down as they were pulling into the station parking lot. Hearing our managers complain and moan only reinforced how expendable we all were, which only compounded the issues. I broke inside, I literally burnt and overworked myself to the point where I can't work like I used to without physically breaking down. Sure it's also that I was a recent 37 when lockdown started and I'm almost 40 now, so I won't deny that I'm obviously getting older. We were working 80-90+ hours in a single work week...6-7 twelve hour days at the minimum. At one point in time I blacked out in the parking lot getting ready to go deliver mail, they had to call a squad to take me to the er...my manager had the audacity to ask if I was sure I couldn't go out to deliver mail...I was too incoherent to tell him what I thought of that plan with anything other than a weird grunt, and maybe the middle finger? I'm still hazey on the details. It got so bad that I literally was doing the math and logistical run-through of how to cause a catastrophic car accident that would pay out life insurance, but look like a genuine accident so insurance wouldn't raise any more questions. I then decided to go to therapy. After talking with my therapist, who was great by the way, the first thing he said is that I had to be easier on myself and learn some self-compassion because he could tell I felt that no one else who I was regularly interacting with, namely my co-workers were mostly negative interactions. Which was hard, very hard, maybe because of some generational upbringing? As a child of the very early 80's I remember being taught self reliance and that it was my responsibility to make sure everything in the house was in order once I was an adult...I never remember being told that it's okay to screw up, and that I shouldn't be hard on myself as long as I learned from the experience. Do you think that this is maybe why people from our generation have such a hard time with the concept. I know I'm rambling like someone who has gazed to long into the abyss, but in a roundabout way I want to say a heartfelt thanks for everything you and the rest of the BPL have created. Some days, like that cold fucking night in February (I was catching up on podcasts because I just found out you and the crew did them) I just needed to hear that it's okay, keep going, fight like hell, and to not quit until I literally can't give any more than I have. Again sorry for the long rambling brain vomit, I'll share a fun story next week

The Mailman

Hey Tex, enjoyed the Father Bill interview. I feel where your coming from with the V-tubers, though I have found one that is very good directly related to battletech classic, Nerdy Overanalyzed. But other than that you and the team are doing a fantastic job, keep them coming.

Codius Dak

I would just like to say thank you for hosting father bill on your podcast. As a religious person it was nice to see someone of faith given the spotlight and done so in a positive light.

CPTMAUGHAN

I vote for that type of story telling as well!

RobinWhiteTX

I thought the Baron segment was great too! I forgot for a minute I was watching the Warhammer video, but I be that on my ADD. I much prefer the long form explanation of things.

RobinWhiteTX

I can’t find anything about exactly how long a Long Tom barrel actually is. I’m trying to calculate (within an acceptable margin of error) that if you were to take one and convert it into a huge smoker or grill, how many full sized briskets you could cook at once. My current estimate is about 300 but more information is required.

Haleion

RE: Branded diseases. DON’T GIVE MONSANTO ANY IDEAS!!!

Jellicoe Cats

Good Afternoon Mr. Tex... Listening to your update and.. Well, I'm on the other side of the Baron complaints. For me, this was one of the high points of the episode. Having been an Army NCO back in the 90's and now in "IT Management" in higher education I got to see a LOT of the really bad decisions being made in the past and in real time. Combat Engineer commanding an ancient M-113, and we deployed with the M9 "ACE" (Armored Combat Earthmover). A bulldozer designed to Army specifications ignoring the recommendations of the builder (Caterpillar, you know the company that came up with the tracked vehicle design to begin with). Lost track of the number of road wheels that we had to change out because it turns out aluminum road wheels are "OK" on the M-113 (going straight ahead), but trying to use those wheels on a dozer puts a LOT of stress on them actually using it to dig in say, sand... Aluminum is lighter and cheaper, but not nearly so durable... But teh road wheels were the same as on the M-113 for compatibility and it was seen as a succus I am told. Long since ended my exile in the military, so no longer directly my problem. But I do really enjoy the little bits you put in there about the military industrial complex and the like... Again, great update, thank you and looking forward to what comes next. Good luck out there, sir!

Paul Chappell

Tex, I would like to cast my vote in favor of Beware the Baron style storytelling. Not only do I find it entertaining, but also tremendously helpful in understanding the context in which the subject of the video came to be. In support of my position, I offer the following: Last week I showed a Christmas to Remember to my mother and stepfather. Beyond the occasional chuckle, they didn’t seem very interested in the first half of the video, and I was afraid that they were losing interest. They stuck with it, and by the end they found it both informative and entertaining. Fast forward to this week, and together we’re watching a program on The Smithsonian Channel which mentioned Kitty Hawk and the Wright brothers. My stepfather looks over at my mother and I and says “the bicycle men!” Not only were they informed and entertained by TTH, but they retained the information, which is a challenge all it’s own. As one artist to another, making art that you would appreciate had someone else made it rather than making the art you think someone else wants is always the way to go. Thank you for doing what you do!

Tory II-C

It sounds like the Black Pants Legion Air Force has failed to get off the ground, due to the sellers not taking the offer to buy seriously. Now that US government is giving away some lighthouses, perhaps a new base of operations could be arranged? Also, I loved the poetry short. I was surprised to see a BPL short show up in my feed, then saw what you were doing with it. Its the first use of the format that makes sense to me.

Tetatae Exchange Student

Tommy sees.

Milsurp Oracle

Tex, I’ve never met anyone stressed out while on a fishing boat. You wanna go and fish for just a day, catch up on vitamin D and some fresh air right next door in Oklahoma, I’ll gladly hook you up.

MrToBeNamedLater

Why Black Pants? Is that the opposite of Black Shirts?

Jellicoe Cats

I felt that talk about managers and how the buzzword feedback loop is wild. Part of why i took up a heavy trade is because I come from a small manufacturing town in the middle of nowhere and watched as in both my previous jobs managers by incompetence or design ruined the places they worked. Letting the accountants make choices about maintenance, promoting for who made them feel good by sucking them off with words every time they came in. Some of them I think were genuinely ignorant to the damage they did, and others knew exactly what they were doing as they leveraged other employees to get ahead. I honestly have no idea what's worse. In the end I had to quit both before severance was an option because of the ruinous effect these people had on my ability to do my job and not be crippled from it. My favourite last straw at the most recent before my change was having a workplace incident where a large super sack (grocery bag but for 1000 KG (2205 lbs for freedom unit users) had all four straps on the lift harness give out at once while I was lifting it. To be very honest, i was lucky and fast enough that ultimately I shrugged it off. Some of my coworkers wouldn't have been as lucky. The day before I left that job i had a manager sit in a meeting and tell me and my shift supervisor who had seen what happened (and my supervisor, he'd be furious on my behalf) and tell us both that what had occurred was impossible. There was no way they could have all failed at once like that. There was no way a product bought and labelled as a single use consumable recycled and reused hundreds of times and years old made of a substance that weakens with age could have possibly hit a point where fatigue would make it fail. My supervisor was furious as we left, but I laughed, shook his hand, and apologized for his shift being short of motivated and competent people as I was moving on. Within a week I was signed on and training with a unionized trade with a company who has the highest safety rating in our region. As I understand it, he moved on after they closed the place and screwed him over in the process (given much less severance than he was entitled to and told him to be thankful for it) and moved to another job without missing a beat where he commutes less, works with his wife, and seems to be doing better. I don't have a morale for the story. Only that it feels like the top heavy ship capsizes sooner. When they got rid of the guys who came up from the shop and knew the jobs and what was asked of the ones who did it, they started asking more without shame or thought. That you advocate understanding what someone does warmed my heart. I hope you find what peace and relief you can in this mad, mad world. P.S. I adored the poem. I shall leave one from a writer whom i recently fell into and found inspiring. “Do not hold your breath for anyone, Do not wish your lungs to be still, It may delay the cracks from spreading, But eventually they will. Sometimes to keep yourself together You must allow yourself to leave, Even if breaking your own heart Is what it takes to let you breathe.” ― Erin Hanson

Big Mac

I was fortunate enough to get a lot of hand-me-downs from my older brothers, including a beat-up Nintendo and a bunch of GI Joes. I had some of the Vidja games, but role-playing and wargaming was just more fun. I first got into Battletech right around the time the clan invasion was big, vicinity of '95. I, uh. I would have been 9ish? One of my most vivid memories is putting a round from a Hunchback's shouldernope into an Atlas' cockpit at inadvisably long range. I am absolutely one of the Hunchback cultists. Played religiously until the (older) guys I was gaming with moved off to the real world. Only fairly recently have been able to get my gaming crew into it, in no small part due to the TTB vids. Retirement is death. Don't do it. "We frequently have enough budget for food." Oof. Enjoyed the update, sir. Thanks again.

Korehammer

I can appreciate poetry, just not very good at it myself. And the underlying concept of invictus/invicta is a theme/concept if come around to multiple times in my life, like a theme. I only hope you get better. Careful Tex, if you talk about name brand diseases that might be misconstrued as conspiracy theories and/or The Dreaded Politics. Yeah, I said Battletech Tex was your in Universe self. Star Wars isn't aiming for a "wider audience", they're aiming for a narrow one, and failing.

Jay McIntyre

I'm planning on making a Randolph P. Checkers lego minifigure from parts that I can get off the secondary market, and I'm thinking of getting some different accessories for it as well. I might potentially get custom printed tiles with the Nanotrasen and the BPL logos. I'm definitely looking into getting a Thompson and a 1911 for it as well, which I think it'll be nice addition to the figure as a whole. If ur interested, I'd be willing to send u one of them, cus I'm planning on making 2 copies of the figure. Let me know ow if ur interested, I'm in the aux very frequently.

MaezHughes

You talking about Branded Diseases and how society makes dystopic fiction seem tame with the Cyberpunk trauma team costs reminded me of the comparison that someone made - the thousand psykers the 40K Emperor eats daily was meant to be obscene when it was written, and we were losing more than that every day during the height of COVID, and people just shrugged that off.

Daniel S

I don't do much poetry, I tend to be the Griglak charge type. It was really neat though. There is a Battletech version of Poe's The Raven that would be cool if you did a reading of it for a short. I don't know what people are on about, I love your "rambling" intros. I actually get excited waiting to see how it all gets pulled together.

Whit17

Bioshock 1 was tighter thematically but I prefer 2. I had way too much fun with the drill. There's also Lamb's correct solution to Delta's inability to die. It's not a game I regularly go back to but it does stick in the mind. I have to admit that I've yet to play Infinite; though I do have it thanks to a challenge made by a random steam community member. Jumping back to last week. I'd comment on the political elements of the pony-cast but you've worked to make your place a non-political space and that deserves to be respected. I thought you handled the interview well and kept the best parts of the story in the limelight. Those stories of madness are wonderful. Also the eldritch 1911 rant at the end was a fantastic chaser. Get well soon Tex, and high-five Goat and Mike when you can.

Captain1nsaneo

I enjoyed the poetry. I don't know much poetry myself - most of the verse I know is the lyrics of songs that move me, or verses of the Christian Bible, King James Version.

David Axel Hansen

Would it be possible to summarize the update in text form? Just for people who don't have time to listen to audio. It doesn't have to be comprehensive: just details you'd want people to know if they don't listen.

Jeremy Saklad

Gonna have to listen to this one tomorrow when i got more time, but seems exciting.