I'm the Comic Weekly Man, the Jolly Comic Weekly Man. And I'm here to read the bunnies to you happy boys and honeys. Yes, boys and girls, it's comic weekly time.  Right out of the pages, I've poked the Comic Weekly straight into your living room. Your friend, the Comic Weekly Man, the Jolly Comic Weekly Man. Hello, hello, hello. Hello. Little Miss Honey, how are you today? I'm kind of warm today. Why? Good for the corn, but not for you, huh? Yeah. You have a riddle today? I certainly do. Now listen, I can carry a man, but I cannot walk. I have a tongue, yet I cannot talk. Though I have eyes, I cannot see. I wonder what my name can be. The answer quick. Very well. I'm a pair of shoes.  Now would you please read me the funny? Pock the Comic Weekly? Yes. Very well, I will in just a moment. But before I do, let's listen to this nice man. Now here we go with Pock the Comic Weekly. And on top of the first page is Hop along Cassidy. Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Six guns blazing as he thunders along. Give us music for Hop along. Hoppy and Doc Swayze escaped from being burned alive when the ghost raiders tried to kill them by setting Nestor's shack on fire. The sheriff, California and Lucky, joined Hoppy in order to capture the ghost raiders. Hoppy has worked out a plan which he has put in operation today.  It's Lucky in California. Lucky says, first picture, second role, but Hoppy's right it was the ghost raiders that tried to kill him and Doc Swayze and Nestor's shack. California replies, Well, 5,000 were totent to El Paso. Hard to be enough bait to lure them out in the open. They approached the waterhole where the robberies had occurred before. California says, There's the waterhole. Now don't forget your instructions. Lucky replies, Don't worry, I'm just thirsty, not crazy. They pull up beside the waterhole, big picture, third row. They rain in, eagerly Lucky in California dismount, and drop beside the waterhole, but they only pretend to drink. Then they continue on their way. First picture, fourth row, a dozen miles beyond the waterhole, they make camp, and then they bed down under blankets and pretend to fall asleep. In the silence of the night they wait, tensed and ready. Suddenly off in the shadows, it's two men who slip quietly toward them. It's Brand and Conscio, the outlaws. First picture, next row, Brand whispers, Ah, sleeping like babes. That drunk water sure did its work. And Conscio exclaims, And now we do ours. They look brand. The 5,000 they break about in town. And then the unexpected happens. A tarpaulin is jerked off the wagon. All right, man, get him.  After them, I'll go over that little line there. First picture, bottom row, Lucky in California leaps to their feet and fire at them. And last picture, Lucky says, Ah, the plan's working. They're dubbing them back toward Buckskin. Take after them. California and I will shortcut into town to sound the alarm. The sheriff's men in the wagon get surprised even in me. Me too. Now if Lucky gets back to the town of Buckskin in time, they can head off the outlaws and then they can capture them. Do you think that'll happen next week? The only way to find out is to be here. Oh, I love. Good. Now it's time for Prince Valet. And he's on page 3, I know. So over the page we go, and here he is on page 3. You remember because he lost one of his legs, and so Val has been trying to cheer him up. Yes, and when they stopped at a strange port, Val tried another plan which he had in mind. And just as he was wondering how it would work out, A beautiful girl decides to introduce the beautiful girl to Arth. Yes, he hopes that Arth will fall in love with the girl and forget about it. And I hope she will fall in love with him. So do I. Now let's find out how it works out. Here we go with Prince Valient in the days of King Arthur. Heckard, brekkard, gray, mullkin, and quince. Use a chromatic for a fair, fair Prince. So despondent is Arth over his shattered dream that Prince Valient has to tell him that he never would have become a great warrior. Then two passengers board the ship. Val and Prince Valient, and Prince Valient, and Prince Valient, and Prince Valient, the passengers board the ship. Val makes haste to introduce himself for here is someone who could easily make a young man forget his problems. Val tells the young lady, last picture top roll, we have a long journey ahead of us across Windry Seas. Perhaps my young squire can help you while away the lonely hours. Big picture middle of the page, Val leads the young lady whose name is Adele to Arth's cabin. And immediately he becomes tongue-tied. He remembers that his hair is uncombed, his tunic rumpled. Val is commanded that he entertain the girl, so in the course of duty, he reads to her the account of their travels from Thule to Rome. Adele thinks it's splendid. She asks Arth who wrote it. Arth answers modestly, oh, it's just something I dashed off for the king of Thule. Once again the ship has gone to sea. And Val's plan seems to be working. In the days he aspired to be a great warrior, Arth had disdain using. But now, still in the course of duty, he finds it a pleasant way to entertain. First picture bottom roll, he serenades the fair Adele who listens, a soft green look in her eyes as their ship sails under the starry skies toward home. A smile comes once again to Val's face before he goes to sleep at night, for he has found the way to make his young squire happy and forget his unfortunate accident. And Val plays the lute as Arth, his evening spent composing ballads for his beautiful young lady, works on. We see him dreamily at work. Last picture, writing sonnets for the amusement of one small girl. Adele is in love with Arth, and Arth is in love with her, and he's happy again. Yes, he is. He looks as happy as any young man could be. Isn't that wonderful? It's just wonderful. Oh, I love people who are in love. So do I. Would you like to read another comic? Yes, please, please. Very well then. How about Donald Duck? Oh, I just love Donald Duck. All right, turn over the page and go to the single gym. Turn over that page, and there is Donald Duck at the top of page six. Say the magic words with me, please. Squeeze them, squeeze them, squeeze it. Let's have music. Quack, quack. Donald and his nephew, Huey, are going out golfing.  If we don't lose any this time, I'll treat you to a movie. Huey replies, Boy, oh, boy! I'll keep my eye on the ball. Donald takes a swing at the ball. And away the ball sails away, away, away. And then out of sight, Huey exclaims second picture. It's in the rough, but I got it spotted. So they walk out on the rough, which is in the woods in the bushes in the grass of the fairway of the golf course. And Donald finds the ball, and Huey says, Hard to get back on the fairway, Uncle Donald. This was a little hard to find. So Donald gives the ball a wallop. And away it goes and lands on the fairway. They trudge after the ball again. Donald settles down and plays a good game. Until finally, fourth picture, first row, Huey says, Only three more hoes, Uncle Donald. And we haven't lost the ball yet. Last picture, top row, Donald wallops the ball again. And they watch it as it sails away. And this appears in the rough again. And they trudge after it once more. Finally, second picture, bottom row, Huey tells Donald as he hands him the club, The last hole, Uncle Donald. And if you don't lose the ball this time, we've won. Donald replies, I won't lose it. I'll put it right on the green. Donald takes a whack at it. Huey exclaims, Third picture, bottom row, You done it, Uncle Donald. It's right on the green. And they walk toward the green that the ball is lying on. They have to cross over a little bridge. Next picture, Huey is carrying the golf clubs and the golf bag. And Huey says, You didn't lose a single ball. Suddenly the shoulder strap breaks and the golf clubs in the bag drop into the river below. And last picture, they both look at the golf bag lying at the bottom of the river. Donald scowls furiously. And Huey looks sad. And the golf clubs look like a!!! Yes, and now Donald has lost a whole set of clubs. Yes, let's hope that they remember that. We certainly can please in just a second, but first here's that nice man again with something interesting to say. Now here we go again with Puck the Comic Weekly and on the first page of the second section and Blondie. Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Ram-a-foo, Ram-a-fum, Zim-Zim, Zombie, conjume music for Dagwood and Blondie. Blondie's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She's telling Tootsie Woodley her friend. Oh, everything seems to go wrong. I have to bake a cake for Mrs. McNuff's surprise party, and then I have to dye the living room gray. And Tootsie Woodley tells her, now stop working, Blondie. We'll get everything under control. An hour later, last picture top row, Blondie goes to the kitchen and Tootsie tells her, see how nicely everything's working out? There's your beautiful cake for Mrs. McNuff. Finish to the icing. And Blondie exclaims, Wonderful. Water to dye the drapes. And she runs upstairs.  And first picture second row, just as she's going to put the dye in the water, Tootsie tells her it might be a good idea to look at her drapes before putting the dye in. Blondie says, Good idea.  No sooner have they gone out of the house, though, than Dagwood comes home saying, Nice to the boss to let me go home early today. Maybe I can help Blondie around the house. He walks into the kitchen and sees the cake on the table. Last picture, second row.  Blondie knows how I love devil's food. First picture, third row, he goes into the bathroom and sees the tub of water that Blondie has drawn to dye the curtains in. And he exclaims, And a tub of water, all ready for me. Oh man, what a beautiful wife I've got. And a moment later, he's in the bathtub soaking himself. Suddenly, he hears someone coming up the stairs. It's Tootsie and Blondie, and they stop outside the door. Dagwood exclaims, Oh, they're coming in here. And he takes a deep breath and ducks under the water. Tootsie and Blondie come into the bathroom and Tootsie says, We better use two packages if you want to dock her. And she pours in a whole box of green dye. And Blondie says, You sure this isn't too much dye? But she pours in another box of green dye. Suddenly, first picture, bottom row, up comes Dagwood. And he gasps, I can't hold my breath any longer. Dagwood, you're green. Tootsie dashes out of the bathroom with Blondie after her. They dash into the kitchen and Tootsie exclaims, Slice out of Mrs. McNuff's cake and Blondie faints. Last picture is Tootsie fans Blondie trying to make her come to Dagwood wearing a towel and looking grief as an elf walks in. And he reads the directions on a box of dye. And he howls, Oh, won't he look funny going into the office tomorrow? I think that's the funniest thing. Oh, and Blondie wakes up. She's going to faint again. He's so funny. Well, I know one thing they can use him for. What? A traffic light. That's so funny. Well, now, very well, since you're so eager, here we go on the bottom of the page with Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys. Ah, yip-yoh, now here we go with Roy and Trigger. Ah, yip-yoh. Deck Dolan has stolen a horse from Roy Rogers ranch after trying unsuccessfully to kill Roy. Roy let out after Dolan. But no sooner had Roy left than Uncle Quincy, the timid bookkeeper, ran into his office and dressed up as the outlaw, Killer Monty, saying that he'd show Roy he could do more than just push a pencil and do office work. First picture, Roy pursues Deck Dolan to an old mine. Dolan leaps off his horse and runs up an old oil chute up to the side of the mountain. When he reaches the top, he turns around so Roy can see him. Ah, if I can sucker Rogers up this old oil chute, I'll have him just where I want him. At this moment, Roy gallops up and reigns in at the bottom of the chute. He sees Dolan at the top, running for a cave in the mountain side. Roy dismounts quickly, third picture saying, oh, now easy boy. Looks like the only way to reach Dolan is to climb that ore chute like Dolan did. Here I go. Dolan quickly grabs a barrel of kerosene standing nearby as he watches Roy coming up the chute and he says, ah, Rogers is coming. I ain't got a gun, but I'll bust every bone in his body with this. He rolls the barrel toward the head of the chute. The last picture top row pushes the barrel of kerosene down the chute. As it rolls, the cork pops out and the kerosene pours onto the wooden chute. First picture bottom row, it hits Roy, knocking him out. At that moment, Uncle Quincy, masquerading as killer Monty, gallops up. He sees Dek Dolan at the top of the chute, touching a lighted torch to the kerosene, which catches on fire. The fire quickly races along the kerosene spilled on the wooden chute, travels swiftly toward the barrel and the unconscious Roy.  You're on fire. I'm toying. Yes, he's soaked with that kerosene.  Unless Quincy saves him. Do you think he will? Well, we'll find that out next week. Oh, next. No, but we'll still have to wait. My. Well, now if you'll go over the page. Hold up there, Flash Gordon. Yes, Flash Gordon, who has been sent out on an expedition to build a space platform in the air a thousand miles away from the urch. But ginger. And Flash went after her to save her. And ship. Well, let's find out what happens to Flash and Ginger. So here we go with Flash Gordon. A riga, riga, doon, doon, saskum, a tash. Let's have music for heroic flash. Dr. Ruff climbs inside the rocket platform, circling the earth. He tells Dale. We've lost Flash and Ginger. She was thrown off. Flash jumped after her. They vanished in space and their oxygen won't last.  No, ginger is my niece. But to turn back would endanger more crew members. We can't do that. Meanwhile, last picture top row on the mysterious spaceship that has picked up Flash and Ginger, their captors reveal themselves as men from Mars. Their chief, Toxo, uses hypnotic brain waves to make Flash answer questions about his unfinished space platform. Flash, who is in a trance and does not know what's happening to him, answers the questions, giving out the information to Toxo, leader of the Martians. First picture bottom row, Toxo focuses his periscope on the earth men's project and he gloats. And then Flash, lowly coming to, knows from Ginger's bitter charges of treachery that he must have given away secrets. Desperately, he tries to plan some way to outwit the Martians. The camouflage top of the Martianship makes it invisible to the workers on the space platform who forge ahead in their building operations, unaware of the danger that lurks nearby last picture. The Martian observers keep a close watch, biding their time to strike at the Great Laboratory Fortress, floating thousands of miles above the earth. So do I, because if he doesn't, the Martians are going to wait until the earth men have finished making that space platform and then they're going to capture it themselves. And just think Flash is so close to Dale and she doesn't know he's there. Oh, well, maybe- Oh, let's hope so. Well, now it's time for Dick's adventures. And look, here he is right across the page. And you remember last week, Daniel Boone's son and some of the other early settlers were killed by the Indians in a cruel rage. Yes, in Daniel's. Well, let's find out now. Here we go with Dick's adventures. Say the magic words with me. Riggity pack is act-ca-zink. Let's have music for adventurous Dick.   In a forest clearing, they suddenly halt. Dick and Daniel dismount and make their way quietly to the edge of the river. They peer through the tall grass and see across the swollen, Reed French dream, the main shawano village. Last picture top row, they see parties of warriors coming out of the woods and their horses. They're gathering for a war console and carry grizzly trophies on their belts. Boone and Dick, knowing the Indians will listen only if no fear of them is shown, wade boldly cross, holding their hands high in the air in a gesture of friendship. First picture, second row. They climb out on the bank and are greeted by the chief who is crowning with hate. Next picture, Boone demands a hearing before the assembled chiefs and bravers and quickly the word is passed around among the Indians. Last picture, second row, the warrior seat themselves in a large console hut. Admiring the white men's courage and risking themselves in their midst, the shawanos hear out Boone in silence. He offers forgiveness for his son's death and then pleads for peace. First picture bottom row, to Dick's joy, the warriors after considering this proposal offered to shake hands on it white man fashion. An instant later, Dick find himself with a stalwart Redmond gripping each of his hands and he sees that a similar ruse is being practiced on Boone. Both struggled furiously but in vain to shake their foes loose. And they're carried out of the console hut. Last picture, ambushed by these wily means, they are thrown roughly into a guarded hut. And there they wait till their fate is decided by the war console. It was when you realize that Boone came there without any hatred in his heart, even after the Indians had killed his own son and wanted to have peace, it was a mean, mean trick. So do I. He realizes that hatred is no way to arrive at peace. Well after that trick, I'm afraid that Boone and Dick are in danger of their life. Well we'll find that out next week. Now look, underneath Dick's adventures there's Rusty Riley. Oh yes. Then a little girl came to get laundry in her coaster wagon and when she'd gone away, Rusty found some grains of oats where the wagon had been standing and he wonders whether she could have been taking the oats. And then now he's trailed her into the woods. Let's read now and see whether she's the one who's been taking the feed. So here we go with Rusty Riley. Gallop and run until the road is dusty. Give us music for his horse and Rusty. Rusty sees Flip taking a little path leading off into a gully. He follows Flip saying, that little girl queen must have gone down into this gully but she sure couldn't pull that wagon with a basket of was through this underbrush and suddenly he sees something through the bushes. He pushes them apart and there's the wagon. He exclaims, gee willikens, there it is hidden in the bushes. He follows the path which leads down the hill and at the bottom of the hill he says, a cave entrance.  She spilled a few grains of oats.  First picture bottom row Rusty goes into the cave quietly and finds Queenie there feeding a horse. Rusty says, hello Queenie. A little girl looks up very frightened. Rusty smiles at her and says, don't you remember me Queenie? I'm Rusty Riley from Milestone Farm. Queenie begs Rusty not to tell on her. Rusty sits down third picture and says, how about telling me all about it. I guess it's you who's been stealing the feed from our barn for this horse. Whose horse is he? Oh come on, come on, tell me. So Queenie tells Rusty that it's her horse Snowflake. Only she's not supposed to have a horse anymore. That they're too poor. Her daddy was going to sell Snowflake with the other horses when they lost their farm. But she hid Snowflake in the cave and pretended that the horse had strayed away. Rusty listens carefully to this sad story. And then last picture says thoughtfully and seriously, I know how you feel but stealing is never right Queenie. Say, maybe I've got an idea. Rusty'll have a good kind idea because he's a good kind boy. I think you're right and next week maybe we'll find out what the kind idea is. And I hope this kind idea will mean that Queenie can keep her horse and won't have to sell it. Oh that'd be kind of nice wouldn't it. Well now that's all the time I have. But before I go here's that nice fellow with some more interesting information. Well honey and all your boys and girls, I gotta go now. All right Mr. Sonic Weekly man but I'll be waiting for you next week.  Be sure to meet me with a little friend Miss Honey next week when I read Puck the Comic Weekly. For I'm the Comic Weekly man, the Jolly Comic Weekly man. I'll be back to read the funnies to you happy boys and honeys. Don't forget boys and girls see you all next week. Your friend the Comic Weekly man, the Jolly Comic Weekly man.


Thanks for coming out. My name is Scott Stahl, software developer at OnShift in Cleveland. That's my Twitter, website, email address. Feel free to get in touch with me. Ask any questions you want. Cool. So, I'm gonna hear to talk about my career transition. I used to work in the lumber industry. That was a year and a half ago. Now I work writing Python. How did that happen, you might ask. So, I'm gonna step back a little bit. When I was a kid, I'm sure like most of you, I loved computers, loved playing video games. I loved writing code. I wrote my first block of code when I was in sixth grade. So, I had, you know, when I was young, I kind of had a connection with thinking that way, you know, a mindset that matched up with that way. I took computer science classes in high school. I had two or three semesters of it. So I had a little bit of an inkling that I wanted to do this.  And then I went to college for wood products engineering. So, to explain how that happened, we had a family business in my family. That was a Rochester lumber company. And my dad worked there, his dad worked there, his dad before him started it. So it's kind of expected that I would go into it as well. And so, I did. And I worked in lumber and building materials for eight years after graduating, wouldn't my degree. Was an estimator, was a manager. I did all sorts of things related to the lumber world, which was very interesting and fun. I still found ways though, while I was there to continue working with computers, we had an inventory system that we had an inventory system that we had an old one that we had to transition over to a new one.  I'll take that on. You know, we had, any time, again, I'm sure like most of you, if you're working in non-software companies, anytime some computer issue came up, they said, hey, you're the young guy who seems to like computers. Why don't you help out? So I kept finding ways to get involved with that. But at the same time, I learned a lot about the sales side of the business. I learned a lot about management. I learned a lot about business in general. So that eight years that I spent was time where I was not developing software skills, but I was developing business skills. So it ended up being useful. Now a couple of pictures, lumber, doors. And here's me happily managing my coworkers. It's a caricature drawn by one of them with me and there was me trying to live it out. So despite all the flannel I got to wear, I wasn't happy. So I had thought for years about wanting to switch careers, wanting to work as a software developer. But returning to college felt like a huge investment of time and money that I couldn't afford. It was hard to think about stepping back from earning a paycheck to having debt, again. To going back and spending, I didn't know what was involved in it. So is it two years? Is it four years? It felt scary. So I knew I wanted to make a change, but didn't know how to get there. So after some research, I decided to go to a software bootcamp, which I'm sure many of you, how many here have heard of software bootcamps? Yeah, cool. All right, so what is it? A lot of people ask, because this is something that's really just come up in the past several years. The goal of a software bootcamp is to take someone from being a complete novice to having enough skills to get a job. So there were a lot of people there who had, I took two semesters of high school computer science. There were some people who came in with none. So it was a 12-week period that was supposed to take you from whatever skill level to be able to get a job. So the reason that these are now currently coming up and being successful is that in the current job market, employers are looking for more practical development skills over people with computer science degrees. Having a computer science degree is good. Having any degree is good, but it's more important, people are finding it more important that you know how to work in an environment where, you know, that you've actually written code and in an environment where you've written code and worked with teams to create code and a bootcamp put you in a place where you could do that. Like I said, it was typically a 12-week program that's on site. There's a variety of languages, locations, costs and quality levels. I was doing some research in the past few weeks as I was preparing for this and finding that there's a lot of more options now too. I say it's typically a 12-week program. There are some places that do, you know, this was a intensive on-site program. There are places that are doing part-time programs. There are places that are doing, you know, just take a four-week chunk and learn this specific project or language. And so it's becoming a bit more flexible. But for me, it was really, you know, a more intense experience. So there's, you know, locations. There was some in New York. There's some in San Francisco. There's some right here in Ohio. And costs can range as well. And like I said, quality levels. Do your research. As I was trying to decide where to go, there was a lot of horror stories that I read. There were some places that were basically rip-offs. Like people paid their money and showed up and then like they just got abandoned after a couple days. So be sure if you're considering doing this that you look into reviews. So the experience, being there when I was actually being there. So the 60 plus hour weeks that we're warned about are really not a joke. Sorry. So the 60 plus hour weeks are for real. We were there from, you know, nine to four every day. Then we had work to take home with us. Yeah, I didn't think that it was going to be as much work as it was. And then it ended up being probably more work than I thought it would be. So it's all right. The first two, those two semesters of high school computer science that I took, we covered within the first week. So I thought I was gonna have a leg up. I was worried it was gonna even maybe be a little bit slow, but that was not anything that I should have been afraid of. Went quite fast. So we talked about having a two week rule. If you can understand what was being taught two weeks ago, you're in good shape. And there's logic behind that. The reasoning was that if we can't stop for everyone who has a question, we've got to kind of barrel through because we've got a place we need to get to. So trust us, we're gonna throw you in the deep end and you'll learn to swim eventually.  That was actually part of the way they described it at the start. So it really was like, here's a ton of information. Do with it, make with it as much as you can. Work with other people around you. Try to learn from them. In that way though, it really was a replication of what I found when I became a junior developer. There really is, for those of you who are working in the industry now, your first week was probably intense. Your first month was probably incredibly intense. You didn't know what people were talking about. So it really felt like a good preparation for that. Here's a picture of us. Looks fancy, doesn't it? Sorry. So yeah, that's actually the only picture I have from being there. I didn't think to take many pictures. So that's why it's not a great picture. But during our final project, some people giving presentations. So then there's the process of actually getting a job. So now I've been through about 10 weeks of the boot camp. So they set us up with several interviews before we even left, which was really helpful. At the place I went to, they set us up with people to work on getting our resume in place. They set us up with many practice interviews that ended up being actual job offers. So they had a network that, again, the idea is to get everyone into a career in the industry. So how do we get you there? For myself, again, my personal story, I had two job offers within a week of graduating the program, which was better than I expected. One was a corporate job in Rochester, where I was living, and the other one was a startup in Cleveland. What I ended up, one of the things that I thought about, and one of the things I think that's important to think about when you're going into a place where you're gonna be working is are you going to be a profit center or a cost center? Are the developers profit for the company, or are they a cost to the company that can be cut as soon as they don't need you anymore? I ended up taking the job in Cleveland, as you might have guessed, but the other company I found ended up, I saw a news piece six months later that they had massive layoffs in the place that I would have taken a job, and I'm sure I would have been right out, because that was the place that I would have been there to support some other business. But the company I'm working at now, we are the business, so what can you do for us? We'll keep that going. So, junior developer status. So now I've got a job, right? I've got a job, I am gainfully employed, it's great. Moving to Cleveland was fun. I did decide to take the startup job, as I said, and moved to Ohio. The nice thing I found going in, you might ask, going in without a computer science background, again working in the lumber industry six months previous to this. Everyone else who worked there was very happy to help out. You know, they knew that the software industry I've found, as I've experienced it over the past year and a half, people have been very willing to take the time to teach you things.  It's really a culture of learning that we have here, and I think it's excellent. I think that's really one of the reasons why transitioning from another career into software can really go well, because you've got a lot of people here who wanna help. There were other people at my company who also came from some non-traditional backgrounds. We have some people who, you know, went to college later in life. We have some people who were changing from different careers, so it was not crazy. Most important part I found for my success was being willing to learn, being willing to jump in on new projects, and trying to find my own place within the team and where I could help. So, and like I said before, I felt that I was prepared well for this by the boot camp experience. I feel like when, by throwing us in and saying, here's some new technology, you're on a team, figure out how you guys are gonna make it work, felt very realistic to what my career has felt like so far. So, but that's a good thing. I think that's been good, and I think, yeah, I think it's been really beneficial. So, and the benefit, again, of being at a startup has been that we've had plenty of real projects that have needed to get done, and there's been plenty of opportunity for new guys like myself to get involved and make a difference. So, this is a little picture from work. Cleveland is not always this dirty, but in, all right, well, differing opinions. Late, late winter it is very dirty. So, ah, and another nice benefit is on the weekend I get to code with my friends, and then this is one of my favorite pictures of me and some of my coworkers that illustrates how fun it is to work with us. I call Millennials in the Workplace. Picnic, I don't know, I thought it was fun. Okay, bottom line, when it came around about a year later, everyone in our cohort ended up getting a job in the software industry. So, ended up working out well for us. For myself, I was very lucky. I had the background in computer science. I had an interest in learning. I had the ability to quit a job for three months and take this on full time. Yeah, I was lucky, I'm not gonna say I'm not, but a lot of other people have been too. There's a lot of success stories out there of people changing careers, going through boot camps, and having success, ending up with good jobs in the industry. So, to echo that again, there are risks. Anytime you make a major change, a major life change like this, there's a lot of risks that go into it, but rewards exist too. I'm incredibly happy now that I'm working here, working, doing the job I'm doing, working in the industry I'm working, and I'm glad that I didn't decide two years ago to just stick it out and work in the lumber business. I would be very unhappy now if I made that decision. And it's a great time to join the software industry. There's a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of jobs available for people who are transitioning from other jobs or don't have the ideal background of a four year computer science degree from whatever university. And the last benefit is I can still all wear all the flannel I want. However, I choose not to. That's fine. And basically, I could have skipped everything and just shown you that. So, really I just wanted to stay cool. Just wanted to stay the cool dude, so. All right, so some further reading. I got into it by Googling. I just started searching boot camps and it led me down a rabbit hole. There's a couple of great sites that do reviews if it's something you might be interested in doing. And just a plug for that final site. It's called the Practical Developer and I found it to be a great learning resource for people at my skill level and people who are juniors coming in. It's really great practical learning for, yeah, developers. So, I guess we've got a little bit of time. If anyone has any questions, yeah. So, in my particular circumstance, oh sorry, the question was, how did the boot camp prepare me for actually getting into the job market? What steps did, you know, how did I go from boot camp to step job market? They did help. We had the boot camp I went to had a hiring network of about 12 companies that they'd worked with. They'd placed people who graduated from the boot camp there into these companies and so they said, wow, that worked out pretty well. Who else you got? And so, we had kind of a speed dating round where you bring all these companies in and we would schedule these 20 minute interviews and then some people would get follow ups and but either it was experience or it was an actual opportunity to get a job. So, some people landed jobs from there. For myself, actually my instructor ended up working at one of the companies and said, hey, you should also come work at this company. So, networking, that's another benefit. The other offer I got though back in Rochester was actually I was mostly, again, networking. I had a friend back there who worked and I just reached out to all my friends I knew who worked in the software industry and I said, what have you got? And he said, actually, we're hiring and that's how I got in to find out about that. So, they helped but reaching out on your own and reaching out to your network, that helps as well. Yeah. Yes, yeah. So, that's one of the guys who interviewed me and allowed me to get a job so that's pretty great. But I actually had and this is one of the things that I wouldn't have had probably if I hadn't gone through the boot camp is I had something published. I had something I could say, go to this website and you can see an application that I've written. And I sent it to him. I don't know if it entirely worked as well as it should have but he was like, hey, you tried. That's pretty nice. Yeah. So, I mean, there's, you know, get something there. Get an app out there. Yes, sir. What were the commonalities amongst people in my cohort? Actually, you wanna know what one of the funniest ones was was that I think there were three of us who were all coming from family businesses we weren't happy in. Three of the 15 or so of us. But there was, you know, it was people who were either, who were looking to get into the industry and either they felt, some people had gone through college and felt that it didn't prepare them enough for it. Some people were looking to get, you know, into the hiring network or to get into the networking part of this. So, yeah, I think it was, it was people, most people who were just looking who are coming from one career and going into another but I don't know that there was a huge crossover in terms of background. Yes. So, my interest in computers, the question was, is that, was that a common thread? I do think so. There was a, so the one that I went to and I think most reputable boot camps, they have a pre-screen for people. They don't just take anyone who can pay. They wanna make sure that you're actually successful because they get ranked based on how many people they place into jobs eventually. So, they, you gotta have some familiarity with it. You're not finding people who have, who are saying, you know, where's the any key sort of thing? You know, that's, you've weeded those people out previously to that. Yeah. What kind of code do I write as a junior developer? Yeah. I'm not gonna repeat that. So, no, so, like I said, we were given real projects. So, we work in an agile environment and they gave us, they said, here's the stories we've got to work on. I, here's, here, what, what looks good to you? I don't know, this one, I guess. Okay, figure it out. And it's like, okay, well, how, someone help me. And then I'm just pulling on people's, you know, their, yeah, exactly. Yeah, what? Sorry? Cotail. Pulling on Cotail, I was thinking more of the apron strings. That's what I was going for. So, reaching out, yeah, trying to get help. Yes, sir? Yeah, it was, we, it was split into like a back end and then a front end course, end of the front end. So, yeah, it was, it was in the end web development, but we started with Java and just had to teach people what, if else, statements were. And, you know, for loops and things like that. So, both. Yes. The hours I'm currently working is my boss here. No, I mean, we typically do, you know, about a 40 hour week.  The work that I was doing my first month would not be as demanding now, but if you are successful at doing your work, you're going to get more. So, it continues to be demanding. Yes, sir? You're going to be this far away for a while. Yeah. But, it's an excellent opportunity. Yeah. Just a thought, I don't, because it's not something that everyone is here and thinks about. Yes. If you have a job, it is an option. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I think we've got to, yeah, I've got to cut it off. So, sorry, I'm happy to answer any other questions anyone has, but we do have to cut off so we can move on. So, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate your time.


Hey, what's going on guys? Patriot Prime here once again with another episode of the sit rep and my guest tonight is the lazy eyebrow How are you doing this evening, sir? We're doing good. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for Hopping on my show and giving all my viewers a chance to get to know you. I've been watching you for years I've always enjoyed your stop motion videos and your sense of humor. You always are cracking me up Thanks And I was one of the many ones I was so disappointed when I thought you were leaving, but like a great Phoenix you rose from the ashes Let's go with that That's all I got right now. It's late So anyone anyone that anyway everyone how the sit rep works is I have ten questions for my guest five questions regarding him as a Transformers collector and five questions regarding him as a youtuber and at the end of this As time allows, I'll take questions from you the audience So if you're ready, we'll go ahead and start with question number one All right, what is the appeal of transformers for you They're robots to turn into cars That's all you need I Love the stop motion aspect of it like just like I know I stop motion things in general But like so when I first saw them and then like the whole concept of it's this Humanoid thing that becomes our car. It's just blown away. It was like my favorite thing in the world I started collecting like anything I could find that's awesome and Okay, question number two aside from g1, which is always the number on it Well, I should turn that off. I'm sorry They're attacking All right What is your favorite Transformers fiction besides g1 That's a hard one as the years go by So it's not it's not that it's hard cuz I don't know what it's like Do I like prime or do I like animated more as a thing like those those the two up there like Anything else is kind of and like I never was into Beast Wars. I didn't watch anything else really but Animated was fun and I thought prime was cool and I think they're both great for what they are I Like how animated when I first started watching I couldn't it took me forever to get past the animation style Yes, you know, I grew up g1 and this was so cartoony, but then as the series went along I was like this is getting dark, especially when Megatron finally comes back, you know, they're ripping I Aren't hot ratchet. They're ripping ratchet's hands off and all that stuff and Megatron was just so cool in that show see for me, I was like 17 or 18 when that first came out and I started watching it and I was in that like this is kiddie kind of thing I did not like it at all and I watched like four episodes of it because You know, I was also watching like the baby or smoothies at that time But like I stopped watching it. I just thought it was garbage in complete I've said that to the like, I don't know six years of being on YouTube And then I can't remember who it was but someone sat me down Online and said like here's all of it go watch all of it and don't say another thing until you've seen all of it Then you can have an opinion like This is actually really good. I Think I got back into it I love weird Al Yankovic and somebody said you got to watch the new Transformers animated weird Al's on I was like, okay, I'll check it out again Okay, this is brilliant. He's now a garbage truck Now he's centered All right, sir question number three Do you have a favorite figure like a holy grail a figure in your collection? You will never get rid of Let's say you got to sell everything This one's not going anywhere I don't know because like I've already sold everything once and I didn't keep anything So it's like No, it's just toys. You can just buy them again That's the most honest answer I've heard yet. Yeah, I'll just buy them again someday Like Do I have any regrets? Yes, and it's not a Transformer. I regret selling the figma sawmas I had but like That's kind of it Or samus everyone keeps bragging on me. I say it wrong. I don't know what's talking about anyways That's right from nintendo. Oh, okay. You're right. You're right. I remember that now. I remember being Back in the old days how much controversy that was when you found out that samus was a girl I was not old enough to know that controversy. All right. Well, I'm old but we're not gonna get into that right now So I'm 30 I'm you plus 17 Fair enough. I'm up there. Oh, you could be my dad Uh Sadly, you can't rebuy a figure that has gps old dreaded gps true. Yeah But I mean like It had gps when you had it too. So true All right Now Do you have a figure that's a white whale like your most wanted figure? Is there one you're really wanting to get that just seems to be always out of your grasp? Uh, well nothing that's This is gonna sound weird Uh titans return wheelie just because he's like ridiculously expensive now. He's like as much as a modern day voyager Really? Yeah, he's like 40 bucks or something like that and I'm like I don't want to spend that See if this is the one that you're talking about this guy here Yeah Wow, I had no idea Yeah, because like they never made a ko of them. So therefore the price of it skyrockets meanwhile all the other titans return legends You can get a ko of So it's ridiculously cheap Good wheelie. I haven't messed with this guy for a while. He's got cobwebs on him Clean your collections folks Yeah, no kidding I used to have one And then I sold everything and it's just like I can't justify spending 40 dollars on a little legends figure So it's like I just never bought it But one figure I'd like to get that I just haven't bothered looking because I know it's going to be a little expensive Is the mpo3 original masterpiece star screen just because it's got all those realistic colors and whatnot Is that the gray version? Yeah, it's like this gray version with like slight pink tones to it and it's just like a realistic F15 I just think that's the coolest. I kind of want to just own it because it's cool That is awesome. Do they have ko's of that? I don't know. I haven't looked That's one thing.  I've got no problem buying a ko Because I'm gonna pass it off as an original Yeah Like I got no problem by ko's if it's like something it's at a print if it's like a modern day figure It's like k should just buy it but If it's like a 10 year old toy and it's like ko's not gonna make a difference to my collection That's like I have one g1 ko my ko it's three. I've got the reflector set Okay, I'm like I'm not paying 180 for that set when this one for 40 bucks looks just as good And of course that toy hacks it up to make it look even better said It works for me All right, we're at now question number five What's your favorite transformer character any fiction any media? Uh g1 jazz because he's just cool. Wow, that's scratch for me. Anyway, it's moving Uh g1 jazz because he's pretty I got four. So yeah, so g1 jazz. Um, because he was Let's face it the coolest character of the show and like any iteration of yeah, there you go. Yeah Any iteration of him is just Fun like animated jazz He was fun. He was like a really cool character and movie jazz is kind of neat He's like kind of the most personality and all that so That's kind of cool. But uh, so Thanks, kato Astro train from g1 because He was just ruthless. Have you ever seen the god gambit? Yes more my favorite and I love his boy. Oh, yeah Yeah, we have the coolest voice I think my favorite moment in that episode was like the planet's crumbling and whatnot and everyone's like Well, what do we do when he just goes into the shuttle mode and goes die Yep, astro trains great I do that's like cyclonus. Well, my favorite lines from cyclonus I meant to put it in my review But I'm going to do the g1 when he was in head the headmaster series And they asked for the heads of the animals I see I will give you the heads of the animals and their weapons and he I forget which character didn't want to In cyclonus points his gun aim says you'll do as I say or you'll die Just there you go That's all you need to know. Um brawn ended up being a favorite like I started watching the series again And I I just like brawn like the whole concept of he's like this little squat guy but he's like the strongest one on the team and He just he has some cheesy one-liners, but I kind of like cheesy in a good way. So It's I like brawn. I was just ashamed that he never really got much screen time after season two. It's just yeah I think it was fire in the mountain Was his standout episode. Was that the one where he grabbed megatron's fusion cannon and hit it with him? That was a kick Um, and then the last one's thunder cracker just because I'm It's uh superficial that way. He's a blue jet There you go. Yeah. Yes your Seeker review. I learned so much Jet knowledge. I didn't care about the transformers. You have me enthralled with the jet knowledge that you have now in this artillery guy's brain That was amazing. One of the things I like to do is research my stuff and like this is like some people like rag on I'm like, oh, you went wrong 15 minutes about vehicle mode. It's like, yeah, because vehicles are cool. Exactly I Had a guy rag on me. It says I don't understand your video.  Yeah, there's other people that Don't do this kind of thing. Go watch them. You don't have to watch our stuff. Just I refuse to be just para talking hands Yeah, I've done the introduction since day one and I'm just gonna keep rocking it And you know, there's enough people doing that. You don't we don't need 300 people doing that. Yeah All right, here we go. What's this here's a question popped up already. Do you have two earth rise primes? I do leader class and netflix. Let's see earth rise primes. I've got the regular earth rise prime and I've got dead prime That I converted with the toy hex right right into the monster thing I I literally do have two earth rise primes one of them. I tore apart completely and repainted into nemesis prime Cool. Now, did you is that one of the ones you tore the smokestack off of? Actually, I did that both of them. Uh, I'll go and grab it. Actually, I'll show you What do you think of gi joe being in fortnight? I know nothing about fortnight I want to know about fortnight because they got gi joe. I think they had the terminator and I think they had the predator so That's all I know about it And he's back Yeah, so there's earth rise prime and yeah the smokestacks and whatnot. Oh, those are sweet Yeah, but I saw him 10 off at cv games one day. So I bought him again and then custom painted him into nemesis Oh, that's nice The windshields look really good. Mm-hmm Actually, my webcam seems to be popping that red a little harder than it actually is popping nice So, yeah, I I literally do have two earth rise primes Nice now waiting. I got the walmart nemesis. I think it was the siege siege prime with the earth rise trailer Yeah, it's just I thought that was weird when that was announced It was just after I'd finished painting it and everyone's like, oh, you're gonna be so disappointed I didn't like you didn't have to do all that work. Then it turned out to be siege and like, all right mom I'm winning Yeah, but if you're into customizing and taking the figures apart and painting them, that's part of your hobby and that's something you enjoy doing Yeah, I don't understand why people with me and toy hacks. I don't have the patience for that I was like, well, I do and I enjoy it. Then that's why I show it off. Yeah All right So that's it. That's all of our transformers questions. Now. This is what everybody's here for is the youtuber questions number six What possessed you a grown man to do toy reviews on youtube? Does your question literally say grown man or did you just throw that in right now? No, that's how I have it typed. Actually, it was grown something else But I know you like me to tone down on the things I normally say Well, thank you. Um Is a bit of a story about it or I guess we got time. We got time. That's what we're here for stories. Cool. So, uh, let's see The year was 2011 No, so I've been collecting transformers at that point for about Two or three years and I'd been watching reviews of other people Octabonimus Pia and I think there's like two or three others that were like big at the time. Vangelis was another one Um, and I liked Vangelis' style. He was pretty cool. Like how like everyone else was just the hands in front of a camera and that's it and it's like That's all right. I guess like that's all it was available at the time Um, and then have you ever seen tf sources channel? Did you know they even had a channel? I think so. It's just I it's not popping into my head right now, but fair enough. Um, my friends Uh That I was you know one of like the best friend at the time. Um, I guess he still is. I don't know why I said at the time It was He bought What was it? It was 2011 He bought the mpa one optimus prime like that the first one, right? Oh, yeah, he's back here holding the flag Yep, there you go. So it was that one. It was the dead prime and the nemesis prime all all three of them. He like tax refund or something and he spent money on all that and then He's like, oh, I'll show you what I bought. So he sent me a link to tf sources thing and they were using stop motion in their videos Um to and it was just like a standard like blogs out of view like he'd write up a write up in him just voicing it over and then It just had the random stop motion of like the rotation and the transformation and whatnot And I thought that was the coolest thing ever and then I watched all of that over the course of 2011 that year And was disappointed when I ran out of content to watch by the end of the year He only made 25 videos and then he told the the site It's like this is too much type taking too much of my time. I can't do it Um, I found this out later much much later when I contacted them about it. Um, but Yeah Early 2012 something like that. I kind of had the idea of like well I should kind of make my own because I'm the kind of person where if I want something and it doesn't exist I will make it so I can enjoy it so That's what I started doing was I made an astrotrain video um made a whole review that was like Almost word for word kind of what you'd see like it was the exact same style and whatnot very much not me And then I posted it on A side channel of mine that was just my name And showed it to my friend And he's like that's actually really really cool and like a few days later He came back with like this crayon doodle. He had drawn a purple crayon that is my logo right now But it was like this really crudely drawn logo underneath drawn lazy eyebrow reviewer. I'm like You know, I have to call the channel this now. It's like, I just wanted to make fun of you. It's like, nope It's going on there now Uh So that went on and then I re shot the video and posted it to a new channel that Is currently what it is um Excuse me And so yeah, that's why I started doing it and then it progressed from there over the course of five videos over the course of two weeks until I got to g1 optimus and by that time I kind of Discovered I didn't like doing the whole dry voice over and boring animation and started Like a joke here a joke there until I actually made that whole there's a skit in that g1 optimus video of this Like little kid walking by and he's like, yeah, so there's like 30 decepticons that way I need someone to pile the trailer, but you might hop it in it's like, yeah, sure and so they just like Go through and like take out 30 things until star screen blasts him and then he falls out It's like, wow, that was a rough ride. Hey, you all right there, buddy and little lego do just Body parts through and all over the place. He just runs off So that was the first skit I made and that it was at that point that I'm like This is actually a lot more fun. I think I'll do this from now on Yeah, and that that's where this least for me it's a side hobby and when you have fun doing it That's when your audience knows too anytime. I feel like stress. I've got to knock out a review I'm just like, nope. I'm not going to do it tonight because it will carry over Into that review. So if you're not having a good time doing it, there's no sense in doing it whatsoever Perfect example about that. I didn't want to make this the seeker review I when I first bought star screen in july, I was like, yeah, this is kind of cool I want to make a video about it and then I got other things and then I kind of went back to it And like the more I played it that the more I didn't like it and I had promised the review and there was multiple people asking when I was going to do it And then I had shown off the whole scale portion of the thing And the part that actually interested me was that whole scale part until it got to about december And it's like I have no excuse. I got to make this people keep asking me about it And like there's a reason why there's like Five or ten minutes dedicated to look at star screen scales with everything. Isn't that cool? Because that's the part I actually enjoyed about star screen And that's a fantastic segment as well. I was talking about just a while ago The knowledge about that I have about jets now is amazing. Thanks for that video. That's a great video I'm gonna link that in here when we hit to this point at 20 minutes in Ultra marcus is a good question if you don't mind me. Oh, yeah, help out Bring that up. I will No, actually I didn't um I had the only training I had was in high school And it was a class called media arts. So I learned editing through that As for photography, it was all just kind of on the fly stuff I bought an actual dslr Back a year and a half ago um And the first video that got to use it was astrotrain And if you go back and watch it, you'll see like that video is full of noise because I had the iso cranked My shutter speed was weird There's a really narrow depth of field and everything else is blurry in front of it and behind it because I had no idea what I was doing so like Everything you see on my channel the majority of it has learned on the fly Nice And that's that's that's the best. I mean I I like going back and look at my old stuff And it's amazing seeing how you progress over the years Because like I said, I've watched you for a long time back when your little lego Logo would pop up. Hey pull in I love that I gotta I gotta redo that like I made a second version of that logo and I just haven't taken the time to animate it So I need to Let me here we go Yes, they do they have a facebook page. It's under toyhacks.com and then there's groups There's repro labels and toy hacks. So there's three different ones on facebook I didn't know they still responded to repro labels They that's what they their main facebook page They still call themselves repro labels and every now and then I'll call them repro labels I catch myself editing those out of my videos a lot Well, it's because that's what they were up until about five six years ago I don't I think it was even less than that. I think they became toy hacks maybe in They may be right about six years ago. Yeah, they were repro labels when I first got them and I think They may still have repro labels on No, I thought they did I thought they had repro labels on their Stickers, but they don't I think it's copyrighted somewhere on there, isn't it? It may be I don't know uh to answer nanomats question, uh eight Oh, there's one off scale of one to ten I'd say eight. It's actually a really good figure. I don't like hot rod. That's a really good figure You know, I don't either and I am just amazed with that figure because if you didn't know he was a transformer in robot mode You wouldn't think he is he's like a perfect action figure Yeah in robot mode. He's got a very weird transformation I'm still having a hard time getting him to line up Just right because I like to get my perfect before I throw him in front of the camera. Yeah Just one thing I don't like is like when you do the arms like like this to shoot you can't splay them out Where it's it's only for because of the way the shoulders are and the shoulder comes up right into his ear That's it it brings him from being a ten, but like otherwise it's it's a pretty great toy What was this here's one we're getting the questions early. We usually don't do this. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry That's fine. I start answering one when you got up. I answered a couple I realized the netflix earth rise prime is Supposed to be the collars of the g1 toy I think so. I didn't bother getting that one again. That's just another Recaller prime I didn't need that's maybe does come with I think two battle masters Uh, all right, let's see here. We are number seven. Let's get back into our youtube questions What keeps inspiring you to get in front of the camera? These people right? Money No, um So like I left for those that don't know in uh 2018 I quit the channel because I just had Riley and It was like okay. I didn't see much of abby's life type thing the first year and a half So I quit to focus on family um and then Cardboard bots and I had an agreement that I hadn't fulfilled yet. So I came back quickly to do this whole spoof of an inside joke that was me reviewing a bagel And it had been about a year and a half since I had animated anything And I forgot how much I missed Stop motion. I love it.  I'm back now, but um This is a clone. This is a great example like Yeah, it was a great toy, but You'll see in my reviews if I really love something they will be Some animation in it that is just Like you'll look at and go wow, that's really cool. And it's because I had fun The scene you have where he's jumping up in robot mode You had the jets and he's jumping up in robot mode and then transforms with the four jets shooting out of the back That was awesome. I you know, I knew you were having fun with that video I have so much was I've also got a rig I built in the summer and like If the photo editing afterwards is a little tedious, but it's just so much fun when it's finished like Um I've got a video like when I first built it. I didn't actually the first thing I used it for it wasn't a video it was One of my friends anniversary and because it's zoom and stuff We couldn't you know have a party or anything It was his 15th anniversary And so a mutual friend of ours was putting together a collection of all of his friends and family Saying congratulations and he said in the email you can be creative as you want saying this But I'm like, well, I've got a new rig. Let's try using this rig and I don't know if you've ever seen it, but um Have you ever seen it? I'm not sure I've watched so many yours, but that was just not clicking right now fair enough. Um I'll keep talking, but I'll pull it up. What we're doing that anyways so like I did that and it's a lot of fun and like the end result is just so It's good like like that backflip was fun and uh I think that the most fun I had that entire video was the whole Him flying in and then stopping and then hovering and then jumping up and blasting off um Just just because I was I don't know I was in a mood that day and I just Blasted it out It was awesome. Like fire talk said I watched that over and over again My co-worker is out.  She got her uh second second vaccine shot I think this second shot is just wiping people out. So she's gone So I'm my boss didn't watch this I youtube a lot at work when my co-worker's not in the office with me So I know I'll watch that cyclone this review. You were quite a few times that day Uh, let's say hold on what we got here. Okay. So here it is. Um, so I made this as a Like a happy 15th anniversary thing. This is the first use of rig See there you go See if I can blow you up Dude that is sweet Wow Yeah, it was just having fun that day All right. Now. I'm curious how long let's see that was about 10 seconds long How long does it make something like that? that one took Five hours Like I think I started it at like because He sent that email out and I wasn't sure what to do and then I came up with that and He's like, okay. Well the video needs to be shown on Friday The deadline is Wednesday night and it is Tuesday morning But I'm like, oh my goodness. I have to get on this. So it was like Tuesday at one o'clock that I started filming Um by 3 30 I was done filming By 4 30 I finished video editing and or photo editing all the rigging out And then I think it was like seven o'clock at night. I finished editing Or something like that whatever the time works out to be it was like five and a half hours Now is the stop motion video or techniques that you use is it kind of like the ray harry house and stuff? I mean you've got your figure and you got this scene here and you move the arm a little bit Take a picture move the arm a little bit. Take a picture. Is that how you do it? Yeah, okay. Is there a different way to doing it? I don't know Ray harry house and fan and I got all of his films. I just I love that work I hope this isn't dating you but I have no idea what that is. Oh god. Yeah, you just And Okay, all right, I'll probably enjoy it. But yeah, I know it that's all stop motion ever is it's just Click click. Well, I guess there's people out there that take a picture of all the Example of how it could be different is uh That bumper I did for omega supreme all I did was take a picture of parts And then in my editor move them all around to make it look like it was flying apart reassembling itself Yeah, those bumpers are really cool I mean there's their spot on and your g1 intro Good lord That was amazing. That was a project I could imagine that. Well, I mean you just it synced up perfect So kudos to you fantastic work. Well, that was a reason why it's synced up so well I went in and every time the frame changed on screen. I take a screenshot and then in total I had What was it 30 seconds at 24 frames? So I had something like 900 screenshots or something or whoever the Sorry, 300 no 900 Let's just do some quick math It is 30 seconds long It is 12 frames a second. Okay. Yeah, there's there were 300 to 400 frames I had taken that I needed to recreate and it's not just recreate 300 frames. It's There are Like for instance the Seekers landing that was the hardest the canyon run.  So I take that Thing of skyward place it over where it was and like tweak it and adjust it and whatnot And then like that was the whole process for the thing It took about nine months. Like I started in september of 2017 and it came out april 2018 Wow Yeah, and I didn't even take all the pictures too. I had to contact Masterpiece reanimated. He did like a third of the figures because I didn't have Mirage I did not have trail breaker Um or hound so he did that final scene where they all point up as the decepticons fly by He did that for the Autobots he did The There's a scene with optimus running because he already had that finish. So he just sent it to me and I reused it And then there was what else?  He did those ones neat It was a really cool cool But we totally derailed. Sorry That's fine. That's my fault because I mean I was curious with that myself and I these are the questions I ask everybody so I didn't really have any specific for you and I thought when we get to the stop motion I gotta inquire a little bit. I toyed with it in my uh k.o Masterpiece megatron review where all I did was make him do this See, it's not to derail again, I guess but it's It gets easier over time like it because it's you know, uh, like that took me That thing five hours, right? Had I done that eight years ago, that would have taken me a week Like it's it's something you kind of just get a knack for and you get kind of like, okay, that's good then we'll just tweak it post if we need to but like Just I don't know it's like doing anything with skill that becomes easier over time. Yeah muscle memory. Yeah, there you go All right. Well, I pretty much know we've answered this one already Question eight is there are thousands of toy reviewers on youtube What makes you any different from the rest and it's your stop motion without a doubt Well, I've also seen some motion reviewers in the comments. So like what's makes me different from them Been doing it longer No, um No offense to stop watching reviewer. No, I'd say my humor Because I inject my own personality into it. I don't try and copy anyone else's personality. But like I you know Reused some people's joke before but I don't tend not to But um, no, I'd say my humor is what kind of sets me apart from people that do stop motion So I think there's like eight or nine of them now. I know cardboard boss does a stop motion reviewer I just saw eye icon animation And there's there's a lot of other people that do it now, which is nice Like I'm glad like some of it's been inspired by me And so I'm not sure how many have just done it on their own, but I think it's really cool that it's not just Hands in front of a camera anymore. I think there's just such a wide variety and it's so cool to see Oh, no, this this community has just blown up. It's definitely a lot more than I was expecting when I first started I mean, I met great people you included. I mean here.  So it's really cool. And I made some great friends doing this Okay So going on to that a little bit with question number nine What's your thoughts on the Transformers social community i.e. youtube facebook and things like that and any special shout outs? Do you have? I'm not even sure when I start with this question Uh It can be fun at times. It can also be a little like Times yeah Um I I've got a discord and the people on it and stuff like that and I'm happy that they're there and I hang out with them and stuff But in general I don't do much interaction with most of the community unless there's like a reason to Or it's like I'm part of the group or something but in general it's like I don't try and Hang out with everyone I guess I guess the phrase you can't be friends with everyone kind of comes into play because it makes It makes sense in a way because there's people when I first started you everybody was you know shooting me friend requests and stuff like that And there were some that I got like I really shouldn't accepted this one But there's there's some doozies out there and that's kind of the thing is like I don't mean to be all What's the term? I don't even know it I'll just say I got 30 000 subs and there's lots of people out there. They're just like friend requesting me and it's like I'm one guy and there's 30 000 of you and I can't talk to everyone and I'm a father of two And I've got friends. I know in real life that I'd like to talk to and I just don't have time to be everybody's friend And I don't mean that in a mean way. It's just I'm just one person kind of thing So you said you got two kids. What's what's their ages? I just got the one six year old Okay, um, so Abigail's four and she's going to turn five next month and then Riley is three and a half Wow Now do your little ones here? I'm shooting off train derailing again Oh, no, it's all good Do your little ones have any interest in doing this do they see you doing the videos and want to hop in because Will you've seen my post my little ones wanting to take over one of these days? Yeah um Abigail actually made a stop motion like months ago.  It's like, okay But there was one day I was filming The prowl like the the siege Datsun review. I think it was or could it was a matter? Um, Abigail came in she takes my phone and asks if she could take pictures. I'm like, yeah, sure. Why not? And I had left a few of the toys I wasn't using for that scene on the table behind me Or other bed because it's in our bedroom. So it's all gone the our king size bed. It's just you know eight toys there And then I heard she was taking it's like the shutter on my phone was going click click click click click click I was like, it's uh What's going on? Let's turn around and find out and she had taken uh a trailer I built at a lego for uh studio series 38 optimus and she was moving it incrementally while she was clicking and She had like her hand was barely in it, but she had made the door animate all on its own That is awesome. Yeah, I was impressed And beyond that they like to watch what i'm doing. It's hard because if it was just a review It's easy to say like the hands in front of the camera thing. I could say, okay You got to stay there. You got to be quiet. You can watch with this It's like you can watch but if you touch anything you will ruin an hour's worth of work So please for the love of all that is good. Do not touch anything And my little one I'm pretty sure has a dhd and she cannot follow that rule So I have to close the door quite frequently I'll get gotta get my son props. There's many times when I'm in here recording, especially on the weekends I try to do it early in the morning And I'll go outside and open the door and there's dylan just sitting there Clydes can be he scares the hell out of me every time because I just don't know he's there Well, I heard you talking dad.  Can I just want to animate something so I'll let her sit on the bed and then I'll let it all pose something and then instead of hitting like I've got a separate keypad that It's for dragon frames. I'll hit the enter key instead of having to reach over to the laptop But it's like she'll sit next to the laptop and it's like I'll take my hands away I said, okay, you can take a picture now. So she'll press the enter key She likes doing that because she's helping Well, Dylan so used to me doing videos anytime up.  We're playing with the dog Oh, no, all righty then so there we go All right, we're gonna wrap up our last set rep question for you and then we'll get into the audience more Question number 10. Do you have any channel goals for yourself and where can our viewers find you? channel goals Well, you're already out there, so Oh, no, I want to do for your channel or anything For the channel itself. I would like to have More backgrounds and vary the scenery in my skits like As far as like milestones in the channel No, I've never ever ever had a goal of like I hope I hit a million subscribers one day like Or anything even remotely because it's like it's just numbers and like I follow the numbers because it's cool to watch but I I honestly I started doing this because I wanted to and if no one watched it I'd still probably be doing it because it's fun. I just wouldn't be doing it for a living um, so as far as like the What would you call this clout? I don't know Yeah As far as a goal for that No, never never had that a goal or a plan for that like if I stay at 30 000 forever I'll be happy as long as it pays the bills, but as far as the actual content itself I would like more Scenery I guess more space, but that's just more of like my own I just got to move because an apartment is just in conducent to having a whole studio I'm not kidding when I say it's our master bedroom and it's like maybe 10 of it is dedicated to a giant table Wow My desk here is an L desk. So what you're seeing right here is the front part and then all my reviewing area I just turn and there we go. Of course, I set up a little camera and everything right here. So when I first started That was that was all I had like those first 30 reviews was an L desk So Yeah, like I know what it's like And it's quite nice because you have the computer there and you're like Yeah, everything's plugged in editing software. You're ready to go Yeah, all right. Well that wraps up my questions now We're going to hit over for the audience and I promise the lazy eyebrow that I wasn't going to keep him on Too late tonight. We're at 40 minutes right now. You good for maybe another 10 minutes of questions Oh, absolutely. Okay, so we will hit up those in the audience So if anybody's got some questions, I am going to Oh, here's one. I gotta put this up because Yes, I get that all the time dammit Bobby I could work transformers and transformers accessories I've never put like I didn't watch that show as much as I was a kid, but like yeah All right, here's here's one What do you think about the transformers crossovers delorean gigawatt? As a concept, it's really cool in practice. Wow, they completely botched it. I find It's fine. It's got its nice nods But I'm like, I just paid twice as much for a deluxe and you didn't even fully detail the thing What the what gives I'm curious to see toy hacks is okay. I just oh here we are Yeah, I just got the hoverboard for him That's cool. I've considered getting that Pretty awesome like waterslides or whatnot to make the Mattel thing. Okay. So like the thing I have wrong with it is like They took the time to texture brushed metal, but they didn't put a metallic coat on it Why? They gave it to studio series sound waves. So they clearly have the paint They didn't Paint gigawatt and they charge twice as much for it.  It's I feel like it's just a lazy retool of side swipe Like I'm planning on doing a custom to it where I flip it around and like the fronts of the the The back of the car is the shins. That's what I want from it That's all I want to do to make it like slightly different And I think that'll be enough for me to fully enjoy it But now I liked it more as the DeLorean than the transformer itself. Yeah Mine actually it's one of the very few figures. I actually put back in the box and it's displayed in the box Most of us out of the box.  You can't look up. You can't look down You can just do side to side All right fire talks had a question here It's okay tf fan pages like, you know, there he is so hanging me on about not having mp10 All right, where are here we are. What kind of craziness do you have planned for the kingdom figures? I can only imagine those skits Yes I have skits planned for earth fries and some other figures But in general, I don't come up with skits until I get the figure in hand and start playing with it Like I didn't come up with any of the skits for cup until I had it in hand yesterday And I've got five of them figured out. Oh, I can't wait to see that this And you don't have to do the four bots one cup thing. It's just that was me No plans on doing that one And just to let you know, I have not seen that video. I have heard enough about it to never want to watch it Ah, let's see, waltimus. He's been asking this over and over. I'm finally going to pull it up Westerious. Westerious. I'm sorry Contacts Patriot Prime reviews, do you think customizing the earth rise of the prime trailer chrome or with some sharpie in paint? Go with both I sharpie a lot of my figures and I have You can never go wrong with all the liquid chrome gold pan. That's a great tool Absolutely go with one of those. I have restored so many g1 weapons with this You just can't touch it for like 48 hours Yep And you can even use it from metallic to like you can chrome stuff and then clear coat it and then it goes I'm metallic. It's nice, but um That's great. I don't recommend sharpie because the color fades over time I got I used to use sharpie back in the combiner was there and they just it doesn't hold up The most I've ever done with a sharpie. I've touched up wheels And my titans return galvatron. I colored in his little goatee thing Okay, black sharpies all right, but I mean I just feel like the color sharpie like I used to Yeah, no No, that stuff fades like no tomorrow Let's say Easy get carried away with the chrome pen. Oh, yeah, I went through one of those in probably a week Because I've I chromed up every sword that I own And all the g1 stuff I gotta figure out I lost my train of thought continue Let's say What's this one better than sounding like bruce from family guy like the left Baldwin. Who's bruce? Which one's bruce? I haven't seen family guy in years I like watched a few episodes here and there and that was kind of where I just thought it was too crude for my taste Yeah, my sense of humor has changed since I've become a dad. Yeah, I now watch more gory movies for some reason. I don't know All right, I'm scrolling I'm scrolling. Let's see Yeah, there he is Bet you don't No, you know who has my mp10 brian has my mp10 and he won't let me forget it When I sold my original collection, I actually handed it to him in person And it's like goodbye friends Uh, here we go. Here's t fan page. You got you a question here. Okay Um The kids are good kids are great kids are awesome. Um, they're going a little stir crazy because they can't really go outside right now But uh, other than that, they're great Involved in more of the content. I don't know Uh, not for a while anyway Just because a kappa and the way a whole thing works and like you can't have your kids in the thing because they Can't consider four kids and I just want to avoid that whole potluck of bureaucracy There was a question I saw where did it? Oh, yeah, smith there had a question about my eyebrow. Yes Uh, no, it hasn't always been like that. It's been like that since I was three Um, so the story behind my eyebrow and why this whole section of my face does not work is when I was born I had a huge lump of fat that was like right there and in fact, you can even still see the scar from the surgery Let's see. Where is it? Right There there's a scar right there Um, I had surgery when I was three to remove said lump of fat I'll just uh zoom in on that scar and you can kind of see it right there Yep It's just like double mirror and I'm just no good there. Yeah, right there Um, so yeah when I was three I had the surgery to have it removed And when they were in there before the surgery they told my parents the surgery is delicate like very very delicate And it is like scraping the sauce off spaghetti and hoping we get all of it without breaking any of the noodles because there's so many nerve endings in this section So I could have lost the ability to look around if that I I could have lost the ability to feel anything I could have lost the ability to move this side of my face or There's a long List of muscle control groups I could have lost but losing control of my eyebrow is probably the best they could have done It was an accident. They severed a nerve ending and that was that And now you're famous for it apparently I never even noticed it until somebody pointed. I think it was during our live stream with all of us together And somebody pointed out and I was like, well, I'll be damned. I just never was paying attention to I'm surprised how many people like oh, wow. It's not just a name Like, oh, yeah, that's just a weird thing to call myself otherwise Well, now you think of it. I've I've always wondered. I was like, why does he call himself that? Or maybe it's just the way that thing looks his little logo. I don't know Because I like to do this, but I guess I just call myself the spark review channel or something Well mine came from the tattoo on my arm and nothing else nothing political the tattoo on my arm Is where my name came from from this channel I find it hilarious where names come from here Like have you ever heard of peanut butter gamer? Just kind of an off tangent. He's a gaming channel But like he talked about why he has his name is peanut butter gamer once is And his name is Jeff But he misspelled it in a chat one day as jiff and people kept calling him jiffy So he was the peanut butter guy and then he just called his channel the peanut butter gamer and it stuck And it's like people called it even like deadmills for instance So, you know who dead most is right, uh-huh. Yeah, um, I was Look at a history on him.   It's like names for things are just the coolest stories Oh, yeah, where was that? Yeah, my buddy birth the stormtrooper how he got his name. He's huge I don't know if what you call it like the stormtrooper Cosplay's the 501st legion and stuff like that. Yeah, so that's kind of where he his name came from Let's see Let's see here's adamantium matrix hadn't seen him for a while Are you both still enjoying these new figures and will you continue to buy new releases?  I mean, there's not much for me around here I I have a po dunk walmart and I love the figures But granted if you've seen my last few reviews They've been tearing me up lately.  I didn't Go masterpiece. I went chug because it was just you know, it was good this time and You know siege was great earth where I started off great and then it slowly went into garbage And oh, it sucked but the quality aside, I find the figures are good um After watching you and I think it was rodamus primal with your dotson brothers didn't yours break too Mine didn't break. No, okay. It's just rodamus. I've been paranoid transforming those guys now and now it's like every time my studio series scourge for example, but These guys seem to be pretty good, but mine His left hand. I know he's got a rotation. I can't get to move for nothing Yeah, I noticed that on mine too. So I haven't forced it or anything, but I'll let me do the old NECA trick I collect NECA figures and getting those out of the box The only way you're going to move them half the time is to run them under hot water Or heat them on low with a hairdryer Yeah Oh, I know what to say. Um, you said regarding your hasbro not replacing things um I've got a friend in maryland and He bought two of the ironhide prowl packs one for him one for his son And the one he was going to give to his son his son opened it up and the windshield was cracked right out of the box for prowl Like the roof windshield thing.  Let's see. Yeah, I am interested to see what rhodomus primal what you do with that blue streak Because it just looking at it. It seems like an easy enough fix glue it to the plastic and whatnot, but uh I'm genuinely curious what what you got planned I will you won't come up and tell him hi. Yeah, my son wants to tell you hi. All right. Come on. Oh, he's gonna come up He he's like I don't mean to interrupt, but you I want to tell george Come on over dylan. Let's come say hi Dylan I have trained him since day one. I don't know if you ever saw that review It's one of the very first videos I posted He's two and he's in this room I'm like, what's the rules in this room son? Look with mine eyes and not mine hands and he just goes through the whole Thing and then finally gets to the micromasters. They're all in vehicle mode and he starts going through them Uh, I'm thinking of like Getting some of the beast's worst things and reviewing them because people like they're like right now the most highly requested Hey, dylan They were just talking about your uh videos a while ago. His little girl does videos too. Yep She tries to make stop motion She's not very good, but she will get better Oh, she will get better How are you doing dylan? I'm doing great. Just a dog ripped off my pants and I'm paying for smile Excellent. That's the stuff you don't want to say on the internet buddy. Thanks for sharing buddy. Appreciate that Coppa just got me All right, well, I'm getting ready to wrap this up. I'll be downstairs. Okay Okay, get your pantsless stuff out of here. Okay Get some of them pj's on.  It's funny.  Oh, it's just a joke. You're good They said and I'm demonetized Means I don't make no money because you came in here talking about having no pants on Yeah, you are It's I do too, uh Bridaless, did you see my That's gonna trigger skew was his name smoke screen video. They did a great job with the windshield on that I so want a set of that Man, it's it's like they took everything from masterpiece and shrunk it down and made a new set And I loved it for the masterpiece and I want it for this one of the sets I Eventually going to do I have plan is I want to be able to Take out the existing headlights and replace it with a new piece To make it more like the old 280z Because I think that'd be pretty cool, but uh None of mine He gets his own And it's funny eddie. He's coming in here before and he'll look at these with just all in wonder And he's like dad. I want that one right that he's obsessed with my g1 octa punch for some reason And he's like dad. I want that figure. I was like, well, you can't have that That's one of my old figures and he needs to stay on display But you can have all of these when I'm dead And he'll look at me with sincerity and say when's that gonna be Thank you, anthony Love that review of the sneakers It was a double tipped comment He tipped you and gave you a tip tip by the tip Where is yes, he is I am yes, um We're in canada. That's a fantastic question because I grew up in ontario lived in bc And now I live in a new brunswick. So I mean I've literally been across the country. I have stepped in both oceans See transformers brings countries together Yes Let's see stand it down hot rod. See I was just talking about this guy. I can't get him to line up just right I just got studio series hot rod. I gotta watch your video about that If you do you have a video showcasing all those little tips and tricks you did to your hot rod because I I I am curious what you did I think he does, uh He did one and who else did one burt the stormtrooper. I think did one I gotta be fully honest. I don't really watch other people's content not because like I don't think it's good or anything but because like if I did I'd be on the site all day and Also, I'm very prone to if I watch something I'll start getting ideas and like I liked that So I should do that in my insight. I just try not to watch something unless it's something I've already covered That's like me in a way because I A lot of great friends on here that do these videos, but I don't watch them because I'm afraid I don't want to copy anything. I want to go in fresh. And if it's something that I'm into I'm like, well, that was just Chance because I didn't watch yours. I always try to steer clear that way nobody can say well, you're just copying so-and-so Yeah The only exception is like I'll watch transformation videos to make sure I've got it right Then I consider that part of just fact checking and doing my research before I do a figure Like I'll go to m go saying if he has a jti that figure. Okay. We'll just make sure I've got it right He usually knows what he's talking about with that kind of thing And then like, you know, like check out someone else. So that's kind of the only real content I watch before I'll I'll make a video but other than that I tend to not watch much of else I think in terms of other content though I think I watched chris McFeely's stuff and I watched rada misses stuff in terms of just backstory on characters Because I think that's pretty cool chris McFeely has that soothing voice I can watch this stuff all day But Where was it? Where it's you? All right, here we are I'm not sure if it's just me, but what you always sound so formal in your vids even in the comments sometimes again I'm not sure if it's just me, but do you always talk so formally? Professionally kind of yes, I don't know You've been listening to me talk right there there's times I will throw a drawl in my voice and like add Aintons the stuff like that just because it's fun, but in general I grew up watching star trek and I enjoyed the way they talked there and I can just I just talk like that That's just how I talk Yeah, I'm very fortunate being from west virginia. You think I sound like Hank Hill Yeah, I hear what my northern brethren sound like in this state I could really have some good reviews if I did that All right, everybody's agreeing that yes cyclonus is skywarp What do you call him in your review? bomb warp laughs so hard that I chose not to pick a side for that video and then it's still like I made a tweet about it too where it's like Top comments in order like third most commented thing great review second most commented thing Animation fantastic spot on great top most commented review. Well cyclonus is really a I didn't ask for this Chat there Curtis do I have the purple nose cone g1 skyward? I didn't know there was a variant. I didn't either. I'm not sure He um way over there Someone responded to one of my comments on one of my social media things and they said uh dirge is actually cyclonus and honestly That I think is the funniest thing I've heard. I'm just going to stick with that from now on dirge is cyclonus That's mine. Mine's black No cause dirge was in the first episode of season three. So of course we don't talk about season three in their animation No, but I mean like I was even showcasing in Uh the video when I was talking about scaling whatnot like when cyclonus lands during that coronation scene There was at least two insecticons and thundercracker in that scene But somebody just said that this guy warples at star screams coronation I think he was too. That's right. So it's like It doesn't matter. So for all we know it was dirge dirge was Cyclonus, what's funny when cyclonus is formed? There's two of him and then they kind of fly together and there's never another cyclonus again And you never hear of an armada I think we have kind of wrapped up and it's been an hour and I promise an hour or so Yeah, well I mean I was just kidding at an hour. I'd sign off and we're like four minutes over time So, I mean I gotta doc your pay for that. Yeah, sorry man. I'll hook you up Hot like it's like clonus there we go. Jay Lee's on the ball here. Nice All right, well everyone, thank you so much for stopping by and spending your another exciting saturday night with me here on patriot prime reviews Big shout out to the lazy eyebrow for agreeing to sit down with me And just shoot some ball about our favorite plastic robots If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to click that bell icon I can't see my finger now To get it notified when I upload new reviews lazy anything you want to say to everybody Uh, this has been lazy eyebrow. Yeah, sorry Yeah, so you can find me at the channel called lazy eyebrow or literally anywhere else. It's lazy eyebrow Just it's not that hard to find All right, well, thanks so much and guys you guys have a great weekend patriot prime signing out Still haven't figured out the end of this broadcast sharply


We didn't see a lot of sunshine today, but the gloomy weather didn't stop the city of Walker from having some fun outside with their annual Crazy Days event. Walker hosts Crazy Days once a month during the summertime. It's a chance for the many retailers in their downtown area to bring their goods out to the sidewalk, share some deals and interact with the crowd. Walker recently moved their July date to coincide with the Moondance Jam music festival that happened just last week as a way to take advantage of the extra-foot traffic. It was absolutely incredible. And when I got up today to come to work, I knew that it would be simply because when the lakes are all rough and whatever, people come to town to shop. And we have a lot of tourists. This is a very high tourist season right now. So, and we're happy to have them. It's fun. It's a great atmosphere. And we love the retail world here. Walker's last Crazy Days of the summer will be held two weeks from now on August 9th. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.