So what are your thoughts about the upcoming movie Captain Phillips? I'm very excited about the movie. I think it will show a human story for many different aspects. Captain Phillips' challenges throughout the time, the crew of the MERSC Alabama, and then also the teamwork and interoperability of our joint forces, especially my crew on board Bainbridge along with the Hallie Burton and the Boxer and Naval Special Warfare. So can you take us through kind of a timeline of what happened from your perspective? Sure, from my perspective, the thing about this story, this human story, is that there's many aspects of it in many views of the story. My story that I tell is my sea story from the perspective of the commanding officer of Bainbridge. There's multiple other stories that are out there, multiple other views of what happened. So it's very interesting to be able to bring it all together and I think that's what we're going to see with this movie, the different perspectives. For me, basically, we were a few weeks into our deployment to the fifth lead area of operation conducting maritime security operations and struggle against violent extremism in the Somali Basin and the Gulf of Aden. We were patrolling off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday the 7th of April. I was actually conducting a maintenance spot check with one of my ET-3s when my Tactical Action Officer called me up to notify me that he had received a call from Fifth Fleet that a U.S. merchant vessel, the MERSC Alabama, had been pirated. It was approximately 300 miles away from us and that we were ordered to make best speed available in order to intercept the MERSC Alabama. So I ended the spot check, told the ET-3 that I'd get back with them a little bit later and then went down in a combat and that's when my team started gathering intelligence and getting up the communications and everything else as we made our way at 30 knots towards the last known position of the Alabama. We were able to get on station really early in the morning on the 8th of April. Along our journey there, though, we had learned that the crew of the Alabama had heroically taken their ship back from the four Somali pirates that had hijacked it and pirated it. Unfortunately, in the process, Captain Richard Phillips, their master, had been taken hostage by the pirates. However, they did have the pirate leader on board, but then the exchange went wrong and now there were four pirates with Captain Phillips in the covered lifeboat off the stern. So as we proceeded to station, we were coordinating and communicating with higher headquarters along with actually talking to MERSC headquarters back in Norfolk to get some situational awareness from their perspective. And I actually was able to call the first mate and talk to him on the Alabama to find out what the situation was along with talking to the Chief Engineer. So it was very, very interesting. We had a little perspective of going in there on what situation we were getting into. So it was incredible. And from the internal perspective of my crew, just the focus, determination, and forthrightness of my crew was incredible. Just many examples. One of my officers, Lieutenant J. G. Jonathan Hughes, spent 16 hours on the bridge, driving Bainbridge and conducting blocking and tackling of the lifeboat to keep it from making any closer to a shore. My sailors out on the small caliber action team who were out there in the 110 degree sun with their full battle rattle on, monitoring what was going on in the lifeboat and providing that info back. My CSs, my culinary specialists who were ensuring that my crew, I had to order some of them to actually leave station and get some rest so they could be fresh again for the next day. My culinary specialists was going out feeding those guys. My deck division, my first Lieutenant and her chief and her deck seamen and petty osheres, sleeping on the midship's quarter deck so that they could in a moment's notice be able to launch boats and to support to the Special Operations Forces. It was a total team effort. I'm very proud of my crew to this day. So overall would you say the demeanor of the whole crew throughout the entire operation was, let's go get them? Yes, very focused, very patient, very determined and it was a total team effort. I mean from the lowest ranking person all the way up to the commanding officer. Very focused. I had a very cohesive crew that was focused on the mission and like I said I'm very proud of them. Can you actually tell us about how did you feel in the moment when you woke up and the Bainbridge is all over the news with Captain Phillips? How did that feel? It was pretty surreal. We actually cut back our communications off ship in terms of internet connectivity and everything else and we had a small limited number of folks who could access that. And I had no time to go to CNN or Fox or any of those websites to see what was going on. It was kind of only after the situation was resolved that we realized the worldwide media attention that had been paid to us and everything that was going on. It was pretty overwhelming and then just the feeling of you cannot ever prepare for a situation like that. You can train, you can conduct scenarios, you can what if, but in that moment you're going with it. Future sailors to know about this specific operation. Since it's actually now becoming a very important part of, like you said, how are I guess our Navy is viewed? One of the things that I stress to my officers, my Chief Petty officers and my sailors and to any future officers, Chief Petty officers and sailors is you don't know when your number is going to be called to step out and conduct the mission. We hadn't specifically trained for a hostage rescue at sea. It's not something that you typically do but you train for other missions on deployment and that training and that readiness and being forward ready to accomplish whatever mission is assigned to you. You have to take day to day whatever you do, whether that's cooking, cleaning, repairing your gear, leadership, et cetera, et cetera. That all builds a networked team that is ready to respond on a moment's notice when it's just like being on a sports team. You don't know when you're going to the Super Bowl or the World Series but when you get there you better be ready because the margins are very tight. So what's it like having your real life experience this whole thing happen? What's it like having Hollywood and a bunch of actors and people who maybe don't know as much about the situation but are learning about it and are portraying you and several of the other people who are involved in this? How does it feel? It's actually pretty neat, kind of interesting and everything else. I mean the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy has been working well with Hollywood and there's a traditional relationship that goes back years and years and years from World War II where we portrayed our gallant heroes from World War II all the way up to present day. And the interesting thing is I was interviewed for the film to provide some context. Additionally I had the opportunity to speak to the actor who was portraying me during the film and then during the two weeks of filming down in the Norfolk waterfront I had a few opportunities to go down and actually view some of the filming on board the USS Truxton which plays the Bainbridge in the movie. And I can tell you the Truxton sailors, they did an awesome job. I talked to the CEO, Captain John Ferguson and said if there was any other ship that I could have other than Bainbridge Truxton was it. They were very professional. And they really did a great job with the movie and I think we're going to see that. And it just shows you the quality and the talents of our sailors throughout the Navy. And the other interesting observation was just talking to the actors, the director, the producer and just the film crew, the crew members, the hairdressers, etc. It was both the crew of the Truxton and the film crew in general that included the actors, learned a lot from each other. And I think when all was said and done there were a lot of smiles and teamwork that occurred and I think we got a greater understanding of what the Hollywood industry does and I think they got a greater understanding of what the Navy does. And it was very much positive for both sides. Is there anything that you just want to add, maybe a message that you have for the actors that were in this movie, the people that produced this, maybe the people that aren't in the Navy anymore that were a part of this and maybe some of the people that are still involved? I think the biggest thing, some of the biggest takeaways about the whole situation in general is, and it goes to the CNO's, Sandling Directions, of war fighting first, operate forward and be ready. I think all three of those were seen in this incident. I shudder to think, if we project years from now, what could happen in the world if our Navy ships aren't out there on station being ready to keep the freedom of the seas? That is one of the biggest takeaways. And I think, you know, I've talked to Cap Richard Phillips since the incident. Typically, he and his wife contact me around Easter every year, which, you know, that's pretty special to all of us. But he just got back from being out at sea again. He took about a year off after the incident, but he's been at sea the last three years. And what motivates him? A person, a mariner that was attacked by pirates was held hostage for upwards of five days. And then he steps out again on U.S. flag merchant ships and goes and continues to do that. And I think that tells you that he knows that if something happens, the United States Navy will be there again. You're welcome. Oh, you do? Sure. Go ahead. Sorry about that. Sure. Correct. Sure. So we got the call, I mean, right. Oh, sure. We got the call to head towards the Alabama about 0900, 100 on Tuesday, the morning of September, excuse me, April 7th. Our transit, we arrived on station about 0100 on the morning of the 8th. And the lifeboat was just a stern of the Alabama about off its port quarter. Does that help? Yeah, so basically when you got to the Alabama, they were just... Yeah, what had happened was once they put the, so the lifeboat got in the water, and then the deal that the pirates were actually talking to Alabama about was that they wanted in the morning to re-board Alabama. So that way, and they would give back Captain Phillips that morning. But it was just another opportunity for them to retake the vessel. Because additionally, there were other pirate mother ships in the area that they were communicating with to have that pirate flotilla close on Alabama so that they could actually bring more forces to bear to recapture Alabama. So that was part of our mission. That was what I was confused about. I wasn't sure how long you were actually in contact with the lifeboat. It was all five of those days, and that's... Yeah, it was pretty... Once we got on station, the lifeboat was there. And Alabama and the lifeboat had stayed pretty much in the same area throughout the night. And then once we showed up on scene, we remained in the area throughout the morning of the 8th. And then I put a boarding team on board Alabama to bring her safely to Mombasa. Sure. You kind of touched on it a little bit, and it's certainly trained for this specific type of thing.  Were you excited? Did you feel the crew was ever pumped up for this type of thing? Does that make sense? Yes, I understand. Okay. You... part of our Navy culture is we train, we train, we train, and then we go out and operate forward. My crew had gone through an extensive training phase prior to our deployment. And I had a focused team of professionals who were ready to respond to any task that was thrown their way. And they performed superbly. I... just my personnel remained focused. They did their job. They did it well. And they also provided different perspectives thinking outside the box on how we can tackle this situation that was unlike any that has occurred in the modern Navy. The last time a U.S. merchant vessel had been pirated was 200 years ago. The Navy were coming up on our 238th birthday, but the reason for it being around was thanks to Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates.


Hi, my name is Michael. I come from Zambia. I'm one of the beneficiaries of the program called the Global Fund. I found out my HIV status in 1999. I lost my wife and son to HIV-related diseases. And at the time, there was no treatment. So because of the Global Fund, I'm alive today because they were able to provide treatment. And like most people in the world out there, the understanding is that we start taking drugs because treatment is going to be provided for the rest of your life. If no money is pumped into the Global Fund basket, it means people like me and many others in the world out there are going to die. That's my message to you. Please put in more money into the Global Fund basket.


Hello everyone and welcome back to for the minions episode 23 of for the minions the weekly show we talk about some of these Spiritual successors to Paragon this week We've got the news and updates as always followed by poll results then tech time without ruby again It's just gonna be with me. We're gonna start a new series with tech time Get a little bit more into that later But um and then after that we've got our topic of discussion Which is how much should the hero kits change if at all and then we got the community suggestions Which was some mount ideas and then our community spotlight, which was tiger.exe Sorry that this one is a little bit late on it's a day late. Mandy had to go get her butthole bleach speaking of Mandy My beautiful co-host is joining me as always He's on Mandy No such thing as confidentiality anymore I'm doing great got a fresh butthole say you know There's nothing like a fresh butthole to start off your week Why do I go along with you? I don't know why you go along with it cuz now people are totally gonna think that's why we But also introducing a special guest moody blues.  So very thankful for that, but moody blues. How you doing man doing very good Thank you guys for having me. I'll be great you guys. Thanks so much for coming on Thank you guys tell us a little bit about your experience with Paragon and who your favorite hero was Um, I started playing Paragon when it was an alpha my favorite hero shimpy offline Yeah, it's like Paragon Everything up to v42 And So let's roll right into the news and updates start off with made above and core Start targeting the questions a little more at them I usually just say like hey man, you got any updates this time. I was like, hey, how far are you towards completion? They do say that they're well well over 50% complete towards the Alpha release there was a little bit of you know Some people would within made above would say that they're further along some people would say that they're not as far But everybody agrees that they're well over 50% towards completion So that's great news for everybody out there And then they said that there will be some big updates towards the end of the month so keep an eye on their discord YouTube all that social media and They also confirmed that the map will change based on feedback from the latest round of Map testing. So cool stuff all around moody. What do you think? Um, I'm just waiting for a gameplay trailer. I want to see if it's I want to see if it's a thing No, yeah, I'm just waiting to see a gameplay trailer just like everybody else Yeah What do you guys think about um that the map is gonna have some changes? Was there stuff that you guys wanted to see changed or you were you happy with it? Yeah, I brought up quite a few things moody. Go ahead Yeah, everything from what uh, bread it said I think it was one of bread its videos I think it was his stream My concerns were because I'm a jungler too awesome So my concern was how wide the lanes were We talked about this how wide the lanes were and how big the structures were other than that though But from what I heard is they were gonna fix that or strengthen it smaller make it a little smaller Yeah, they already did apply a few changes on one of the things was the prime dunk pit pit They moved that they scooched that in a little bit further so that the The duo lane was a wasn't as wide as it was originally. So that's one of the things they change Yeah, the mid lane was huge the mid lane was super wide Mid lane was very wide. Yeah, that was I had kind of in the beginning thought that the wide lanes were super cool I really liked them and then after hearing some things that different Streamers were pointing out. I was like, okay. Yeah, they they might be just a tit bit too wide. So yeah You don't want to give them too narrow then our bash won't be able to fit down the lane That's true. That's true Moving on to Omeida studios and predecessor again drilled down on them.  So that leaves gadget and Muriel for completion. So and they are almost done fully implementing the the GAS the gameplay ability system We covered that in episode 20 of in a in tech time So if you want to check that out go right ahead. So were you guys thoughts on predecessor in there? Man, I thought it looked great. My only concern was Murdoch's basic attacks and gadgets sticky mine Kind of felt a little off Other than that it looks good. It's feels good to see legacy back and uh, yeah I'm excited killer. Yeah, I'm oh man fringed it just not with that with that map It was really nice. I'm excited to get my hands on it again. I want to experience it with that lag the input lag gone That was definitely my biggest complaint and really hindered my experience with it So I'm excited to get my hands back on it and see see what kind of finishing touches they they put on it Yeah, you know gadgets minds sticky mind. They seem kind of small, right? They're like But they like they seem about that big in the you know, yeah, then our verdicts Murdoch's basics kind of felt a little weird Yeah, well everybody's basics felt a little really input like wonky, but uh, they they have completely fixed that input lag They're uh, that's that's a thing of the past. So thank God for that That's part of what the the gameplay ability system is all about and then smokey did say that they are going to start streaming a lot More again, and you may have noticed that if you follow smokey's twitch channel He has been streaming the development of the game once again so rejoice if that is something that you are into and Moving on to a therial Therial is going to be at colossal con in Sandusky, Ohio May 30th through June 2nd It's like a little local con that's going to be pretty cool Cool beans for them there. They're gonna be represented by UG Tricolo Is that our audio and voice director and they released some voice assets for malware, which are pretty damn cool I'll go ahead and play them right now on me papa Boom there we go System to the test One side in your system It's only a matter of time Virus installed You were dead the moment my optics scammed you And there we go. Unfortunately The real reason that we had to delay it was because I didn't record any of the show when we were doing it yesterday It's unfortunate because the the the look on both Moody and Mandy's face for those voice lines was It was very cool to hear those for the first time it was like it was wicked I liked it a lot Yeah, the although some people are kind of complaining that they sound a little glitchy I think they're supposed to because malware is supposed to be like a sentient computer virus like a virus. Yeah, yeah Good yeah, that's why he's talking about it infecting you with a virus and all that kind of stuff Yeah, I think it's so cool that they're gonna be at this colossal con that's I mean, I'm not anywhere near the area I so wish I was because I love going to local cons like that and I think they're a great way to Build a bigger audience and build hype with the audience you already have Like I said, I love going to local cons So if I was going to one of my local ones and one of these games was gonna be there I would be so excited to like Meet some of the developers or the team face-to-face like I just think that's so cool And I just really I want you guys to come to Florida come to Florida. We have cons all the time So get your booties down here. It's nice and warm.  I would be walking past Tricolo heading straight to her boot Sorry Tricolo, I'll be giving her the blue steal What do you guys think they're gonna show over there I I'm not sure. I'm sure they'll show off far more voice line says it's Tricolo That's gonna be the one there by the way he provided his twit his Twitter I'll try and get that and link that in the Comments below, but he said he's gonna be releasing a few more voice lines leading up to the to the con I don't know what else they'll show I'm sure it'll be some cool stuff if they're gonna go to like a con like this Then they're gonna want to bring some ammo with them to get that's what I was thinking, you know definitely maybe they'll Record and and put something on their YouTube that would be really cool so that everybody can kind of experience it So yeah, you guys haven't thought of that yet. You're welcome Maybe they'll uh, they'll finally show the overseer class. I don't think so I don't think they're gonna have the overseers in the alpha unfortunately, so we're gonna have to wait. Oh, wow Yeah, wait for that one and Moving on to visionary games with project Phoenix Rising. They said uh, I Asked them about the progress press on their The problem blah blah blah blah the progress on their one lane expo map If you don't know they they are still doing the three lane 5v5 map But they kind of plan to do a proof of concept on a one lane sort of a ram map So that should be pretty cool stuff for For everybody and they said that it's going really well. Hopefully we'll get to see that sometime soon yeah, definitely, I can't wait to see more from them and You know see maybe some some more news on when and when we can look at an alpha that would be great I'm just happy that we're you know hearing from them again, and they say that progress is going well. That's awesome. Yeah good to hear Yeah, it's really good to hear from there the ones if I'm not mistaken that took a I hid in their development They had like a lot of cut from the yeah back in November. They had like I'm thinking yeah, yeah, so it's really good And I'm excited to check it out. I mean I smite has a one lane map by gels So I'm excited to check it out. Maybe it's something like that. That'd be fun. Yeah, their concepts are cool, too Yeah, they could just they could just keep that one lane expo as like a Just like an extra map that you can play one. I mean absolutely I think that would be a wonderful exactly like a joust map. That'd be really cool. Yeah. Yeah Speaking of joust maps moody keep me in on paragon demo. I don't know if you guys have heard about it yet But it's a kind of a cool thing. It's a lot like overthrow. It's somebody It's not going to be, you know a full game So we're probably not going to track it on the show, but it is a cool little project It's a it's a one lane a ram Using the paragon heroes some guy named dan is doing it as a school project. So it's Not going to be making any money off of it, but you can get in there and play around on your heroes It's not perfect, of course I mean who would expect it to be perfect, but it does look pretty cool I'll be hooking that up and playing later on so If that's something you're interested in I'll also provide links to to that down in the comments below and thank you moody for Let me know about that particular project. Yeah, no problem at all. I thought it looked neat I thought it looked neat and not too polished, but It ran you're able to shoot Just like rocket mania and you have all the heroes you're able to play all the heroes Even out. I think they had boris on there. Oh, oh, that's awesome. I thought that was really neat. Yeah Very cool. What if he used my um ability to get for boris Let's all hope right If you guys uh, if you guys are interested in learning any more about any of these games I'll have as many of their social links as I can linked down in the video description below Go check them out, especially the discord's great place to get some information Let's move on now to the poll results Not a big change as always because there hasn't been a lot of big news coming out But uh, you know last week we had core at 68 predecessor at 6 ethereal at 8 phoenix rising at 2 all of the above at 17 This week we got core at 66 predecessor at 7 ethereal at 7 phoenix rising at 2 and all of the above at 18 So not a lot of variance didn't expect a lot of variance and um, that's about all I've got to say about that So let's uh, let's move on to tech time. What we're going to be doing with tech time now. Um We're going to go through from the very beginning and show you guys how to Get the paragon assets load them into the unreal engine and mess around with them on your own A lot of people always say I wish I could just I wish I could just get on aurora and just run around on my Own little map. Well, we're going to show you how you could do that How you could design your own map and get aurora with all of our abilities Loaded up and running around and uh, this week we're going to start small I didn't have rubo with me But I do know a little bit about how to how to get things going with the unreal engine So let's uh, let's go ahead and get into tech time Hello everyone and welcome back to tech time to mess around with the paragon assets You first need to download the unreal engine Open up the epic launcher go to the unreal engine and install from the top right I already have it installed, but you'll be asked if you're using it for business or personal or Education or something like that. Just let them know that you're using it just to muck around Once you launch the engine you'll have to create a new project There are several options available here, but we're going to pick a third person project to simulate paragon And there we have our third person project. You can name it whatever you want We don't have any paragon assets for this though. So we need to go back into the launcher Go to the marketplace tab and type paragon into the search bar This will bring up all the paragon assets I have most of these already, but I don't have yen. So let's go ahead and buy her She's free. So you just need to check out and you you have her Add her into the project. We need to go to the library tab find yen Click on add the project and select our third person project Now she'll download into the project Once that's done head back to the engine go to content click on the folder mark the paragon yen Open characters then heroes yen And now we have some options to add to the project. I'm going to add the yen player character Wait for the shaders to load Now we have yen as an actor in our project, but I want to be able to control her instead of this mannequin So what I'll do is apply this yen animation blueprint to the mannequin Let's put a uh, let's put a skin on her since it's asking for an option And now we can move around with yen. I mean she isn't animated at all She's just kind of standing there sliding around we can jump at least But there we go We at least have a small area loaded up with a yen that we can control Next step is beyond my capability. So we'll bring ruben next time and show me how to make it look like She's running around instead of just sliding Hope you guys enjoyed tech time. I hope you learned a little something something But uh, we're going to move right on now into the topic for discussion for this week Which is how much do the hero kits need to change now? What i'm talking about is omeda studios and madeabuff have you know decided to change up the hero kits a little bit For example with obeda in their alpha Alacrity or muriel what instead of applying a slow would give you a little bit of a knock-up and um The murdoch they completely rewound his kit to the legacy style kit for murdoch And then for madeabuff they you know, one of the things I know that they were toying around with was Having how it's able to target his the first barrage of rockets on the ground Then fly up and launch his final rocket. So it doesn't all just hit in the same area He has a little bit more control over it But the thing is how much can you change the hero kits before these heroes lose their identity And lose their place in the game how much is too much So that is the topic for discussion for today and uh moody. Do you got anything to say on this? um, I'm a little on the fence I kind of like we talked about this. I like murdoch's old passives. I mean the hot pursuit I really dig that I just don't want them to change too much Because then these heroes are gonna stop feeling like the heroes that were coming the reason we're coming back to the game I don't want to change too much. I don't want them to Some heroes are perfectly fine. I mean I guess murdoch what they did they changed it back to his old Uh That's not bad I just hope they don't start trying to make their own kits or just switch it up too much Yeah, I definitely agree 100 percent. I like the little changes that we've either seen or heard talked about with core and omeda Well core and uh predecessor So I like the little the little changes they've they've talked about or implemented. That's fine There are characters like wukong that I think need to be looked at As well, but but still don't want to see too much too much change done, so definitely Basically like moody said we are coming back because we loved these heroes so much. There was nothing I shouldn't say nothing wrong. There was balance issues But you know the for the most part you really could find a character that you really just clicked with and you know Acceled at so you don't we don't want to see too much change. Definitely. Um, I I agree. I think moody hit hit the nail on the head Even a little bit of change to a hero can completely um Ruin them Yeah, well it can ruin what their purpose was in the game each hero had a bit of a niche We talked about yesterday when we recorded this before and then we're recording this again Talked about sparrow a little bit if you gave sparrow an escape. She loses her identity. That's the word I was looking for identity her identity as being like the carry that Has to be babied extra special in the early game But comes one super strong in the late game If you give her an escape then there's no drawbacks to sparrow whatsoever So right even something small is changing one ability like that could completely ruin a hero's identity They need to be very careful when they make when they're making these changes to the kits Absolutely, I agree But yeah, like you said so far everything I've seen I've been cool with. Um, I know moody you were a fan of the New murdoch. I was not at all. I didn't like I didn't like all the passives I mean hot pursuit was kind of cool. I guess but that could be cool You know in legacy each hero had a passive on top of their other abilities. Maybe hot pursuit could just be his passive For a core and predecessor. That would be kind of cool I thought it fit very good for a carry because when you get them, what was it out? They got him half health below half out and then he would start uh, he would get increased movement speed, right? Right when I'm mistaken. Yeah, I thought that was a perfect passive for a carry So it's a good one. Yeah I don't know. I think anything that encourages my carry to chase pisses me off Oh That's an excellent point. But yeah, I Be that type of carry where I was like You know got hungry got hungry for that kill I get it though. People miss the static trap push them into the static trap. It was a thing. Yeah, it was fun um Playing with um, because I didn't play a lot of murdoch In my paragon days, but whenever I messed around in the alpha for predecessor I got to play him and I got to say those traps were fun. It was really satisfying when someone would step in one You were like, yes Yeah, so I like uh, I like, you know I like the idea of like you said just having a passive on top of all their And then, you know, that way you maybe get the best of both worlds. Yep Yeah, I used to love stealing kills with a murdoch Oh Man the first time that happened to me I was Like bamboozled.  It always sucked to when like you saved your core and it was at 1% You're like, oh, thank god. They're like, oh wait, they got a murdoch We're done. We're done anyway Wow Moving on to community suggestions What I asked from you guys last week was to give me some mount ideas Especially if they could go along with the hero and uh, so we got some pretty good ones We got future doc with a giant banana for wu kong My idea for the banana is that it have human legs Like harry human legs too Absolutely awesome barefoot Barefoot human legs on the giant banana. That's what I want for wu kong And then um Slight drizzle, uh, he was saying a wind wind for yin But not like nimbus not like a cloud that she flies on but like the wind from her ultimate So it would be kind of like Uh ang from avatar whenever he would float around a little ball of air I think that's a great idea for yin Great idea and excellent reference Then demon face 96 he was talking about gideon could be mounted onto his disc You know that disc that he keeps on his back and then uses to Do gideon stuff. I think that's a cool idea I mean, I love that because I can see that Yeah, that I can see it kind of just like shifting into travel mode and him like taking off that would be Like really cool. That was a really good suggestion. Yeah fits gideon perfect Absolutely, the noob sock doesn't really go with any heroes, but a martin mcfly hoverboard I think every game needs a hoverboard at least a hero that rides around on a hoverboard. Yeah, maybe um Oh, what's his face? Uh Tom Selleck No, uh the paragon hero, um the wraith, maybe he could have a hoverboard. He he would be Oh, you know the hoverboard? Yeah, I think he's the hoverboard guy. Yeah He's the hoverboard guy. Definitely And then uh Blaine fiasco had a land shark Which is uh, could have made he brought up a picture of uh, you picked that picture up again The land shark Because I had to google what is a land shark because I I didn't know and I still have not seen the um The reference No, I have not Because this is what it needs to be This is a shark with horse legs And that is what I want in a mount that is all I could ever ask for in a beautiful if it isn't it If it had a freaking laser beam on its head, it would be even better Yes Perfect Before we get too far into this no none of the paragon remakes are going to put mounts on there For their characters ethereal, however, which is its own thing They are going to have mounts and they are going to have uh, just it's just going to be horses at first But um, it's not going to be like the old paragon travel mode where you get stunned or rooted or slowed whenever you're coming out of your your um Travel mode animation. It's just going to be you know spin up a little bit mount up take off And then if you get hit or if you perform an action while you're on the mount The mount just goes away and it's you're back to regular normal movement speed So that'll deal with a lot of the issues that paragon had Hmm Very cool. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for pretty ponies As always you are as always Then uh, I think it's a good idea Yeah, I think it's a really cool idea. I mean paladins does it it works Yeah, and especially for a map of that size. I think it's going to be very helpful. So Definitely cool. I wonder if the sky slayers will have pegasi Pegasus is that's a good point. That'd be cool. How do you pluralize pegasus? Is it pegasi? Pegas. I think pegasi is one pegasus Pegasus It's pegaseat Pegasusan I'm pretty sure it's pegasusan in the woodnesses in the woodnesses And then let's move on to the community builder. I can't believe you got that manny good. Heck. Yeah, brian Good shit brian reagan one of my favorite comedians of all time He's the best That uh, the community builder this week is it'll be tiger.exe. You see him in the comments a lot He's uh, he's been one of my subscribers for a long time. He's making some paragon videos Go check him out. Um, if you like it stick around, you know That's all i'm asking is that you go take a look and give him some support And uh, I think that is going to about wrap up the show. Mandy you got any plugs I do, um, I just want to encourage everybody to check out my Twitch, um, I actually just renamed it today So it's now mandi mal games before it was just mandi mal But it's just mandi mal games like everything my instagram my, um, youtube So i'm a little bit easier to find everything's cohesive But um, i'm streaming a lot more on twitch these days than I am on youtube just because i've had some technical issues with youtube But I do plan to finish out my until dawn series on uh, youtube and I've been streaming those because that's really fun to kind of interact with everybody as I'm getting my Butt scared. It's a fun watch for sure. It's a fun watch It's a it's a fun place So I definitely encourage everybody to check it out. I just wish I had i'm probably going to start announcing on my instagram stories when I stream so that's going to be the best place to um to go and give me a follow There and then that way you will know when i'm going to stream you can come say hi and hang out I would love to have you Awesome and moody. Do you got anything to plug? No, no plugs. Just happy to be here and uh, thank you guys for having me on you guys are really cool Yeah, we're happy to have you you were a Very fun guest. Thanks for coming and doing it again because I fucked it up yesterday Not a problem For me, um, the core cast the actual podcast I do with nato crystal that is now a uh, that's now available in itunes stitcher And uh google play so I'll put the links down in the description if you want to check out The core cast but um, I think that's going to be it. I appreciate everybody coming out Let's all keep our ears through the ground Let's keep our eyes on that discord If you have any updates that you think I didn't see or didn't notice hit me up and let me know Let's all work together on this to keep the community as updated as possible But for now, this is the entire for the minions crew signing off. You guys have a good one. Bye Hi Man go


For some years I have been in self-imposed retreat. Having moved away from my evangelical upbringing and its disdain for social justice, I have been uncertain where to put my feet, how I can participate in justice today. So like a dutiful five, I have been living in my head, reading and learning, thinking and theorizing, listening and talking all in preparation for re-engaging with the world in a new way, a reality both already and not yet. For as a five, I must always act before I am ready, for it is acting which makes me ready.