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Console Yourself With Cheap Steam

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·44m 26s·analyzed·Jun 27, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Steam sales and PC hardware upgrades for Pinball Arcade; Farsight UI improvements; STYN pinball art project.

Summary

Blockade Podcast hosts Chris and Jared discuss Steam sales for Pinball Arcade, recommend upgrading PC hardware for better digital pinball experiences, highlight a unique pinball art installation by Sam Van Doorn called STYN, and cover Farsight's new UI improvements. The episode includes extensive off-topic commentary on a pretentious New York Times wedding announcement.

Key Claims

  • Farsight fixed major UI texture issues by changing one thing in the app itself

    high confidence · Farsight came out with the new UI...they worked out what was going on with that. There was just one thing they had to change in the app itself to just fix the whole lot of textures.

  • Indianapolis 500 beta is currently available but experiencing loading issues for some users

    high confidence · The beta for Indianapolis 500 has gone up...I push the start button and it just gives me the start bing, but the table itself doesn't load.

  • A GTX 670 video card (3-4 years old) runs Pinball Arcade perfectly fine and is sufficient for the game

    medium confidence · So I'm running currently...It does a fairly good job of running everything...And it runs Pinball Arcade perfectly fine.

  • Steam gets Pinball Arcade updates weeks before PS4 and Android, with iOS arriving first

    high confidence · iOS gets it first...they always get it at least a week before Steam gets it...And then six months later, PS4.

  • STYN (pinball art device by Sam Van Doorn) has been around for approximately four years

    medium confidence · Well, because this guy's project has been around for, I believe, four years.

  • Farsight knew the new UI was early/incomplete but had to release it because it was blocking Indianapolis 500 development

    high confidence · They knew it was a little bit early to release it, but they just had to because it was blocking development on Indianapolis 500.

  • Under $200 should be sufficient to spend on a video card for good Pinball Arcade performance

    medium confidence · I think you could probably easily get away with spending under $200 on a video card and it functioning just perfectly fine.

  • Pinball Arcade icon sizes have increased to roughly twice their previous size in the new UI

    high confidence · The icons are heaps bigger. So they're about, yeah, and they're huge...They're about twice the size now.

Notable Quotes

  • “So I'm just saying to all you console owners that have a PC just do yourself the favor just eliminate the headache you, you will be amazed at how many fewer things you have to complain about.”

    Chris Frebus @ ~24:00 — Core recommendation for digital pinball players to migrate from console to PC for better update timing and discounts

  • “I've got to say, okay, so right now, people, Steam sale is happening...Basically, Farsight made it so that not only did all the seasons go on sale except for season five, but the pro price of the season is the exact same price as the regular price of the season.”

    Chris Frebus @ ~18:00 — Notable Steam sale pricing anomaly making Pro version equivalent to regular price

  • “With the ball control, I was able to guide it directly up to just like a little bit inside the plastic, a little bit outside the plastic, and then take a screenshot. And it was so clear.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~32:00 — Endorsement of Pro mode utility for beta testing and table exploration

  • “They are definitely trying to fix all the problems, because they knew it was a little bit early to release it, but they just had to because it was blocking development on Indianapolis 500.”

    Chris Frebus @ ~48:00 — Explanation for early UI release and indication of continued development

  • “If you really want to see something effectively happen, the way you can do it is make it point blank obvious. Be respectful about what your requests are, but also say, hey, this is keeping me from enjoying the product as I enjoyed it in the past.”

    Chris Frebus @ ~59:00 — Guidance on how to provide constructive feedback to developers

Entities

Chris FrebuspersonJared MorganpersonFarsight StudioscompanyPinball ArcadeproductIndianapolis 500gameSam Van DoornpersonSTYNproductZen StudioscompanyBlockade Pinball PodcastorganizationMike Reitmeyerperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Farsight actively soliciting and implementing constructive community feedback on new UI despite early release

    high · Farsight posted on forum: 'Hey, gang, we understand the problems. Please continue posting your constructive criticism.' Jared's 20-minute controller feedback video was used to prioritize fixes.

  • $

    market_signal: PC gaming platform advantages over console for digital pinball: earlier updates, frequent discounts, better customization

    high · Chris explicitly recommends PC over console for pinball players citing 6-month PS4 delay, update timing, and discount availability as key factors

  • $

    market_signal: Steam sale pricing anomaly: Pro and regular versions of Pinball Arcade seasons priced nearly identically during sale

    high · Chris notes: 'the pro price of the season is the exact same price as the regular price of the season, or maybe like three cents more'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Indianapolis 500 beta enabled early to unblock downstream development work; UI release accelerated despite incompleteness

    high · Chris states: 'They knew it was a little bit early to release it, but they just had to because it was blocking development on Indianapolis 500.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Farsight's new Pinball Arcade UI includes icon size increases (2x), improved Pro mode visibility, and enhanced controller support

    high · Icon sizes increased substantially making tables clearly visible; Pro banner more visible; controller support expanded across multiple screens; settings persistence improvements noted

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.133

0:00
This is the Blockade Podcast with your hosts, Chris and Jared. You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I am your host, Shut Your Trap, a.k.a. Chris Frebus. He is Jared Morgan. I sure am. How's it going, Chris? It's going good. So it's a little odd for me. We're recording on Friday instead of Saturday, and it's Friday evening for me and Saturday afternoon for Jared. So our times are a little bit funky. Is that going to affect us at all, you think? Well, I don't know. I don't think so. Yeah, highly unlikely. Probably not. The time is relative anyhow, as the doctor says.
1:05
Yeah, basically that is the truth of the matter. So there's not a whole lot of pinball issues that cropped up this past week.
1:17
Basically the beta for Indy 500 has gone up. Cool. And I wish I could report on playing it, but unfortunately I push the start button and it just gives me the start bing, but the table itself doesn't load. That's not so good. Yeah, but other people in the beta have been able to touch it and open it. So I don't know what's going on there. It's one of those issues. I wish I could have reported more about that. I wonder why. Maybe it's some sort of cached state issue or something like that. with the table, with the app? Well, this tends to happen with the first table of the season. Ah, right. Because there's that funky, weird, well, it's not part of a season, and how do they release it? And I know that Mike Reitmeyer had opened it up to free play rather than limited by the score play. Ah, okay. So he sort of made a special concession just so you guys can actually test it before they, I guess, provision the entitlements for the season officially. Right. But I personally have always had problems with that very first table, getting it to function. So, yeah, it's one of those things. We are still waiting to see any sign of Indy 500 on Android at this stage. I believe they're working on it, but it's not quite up yet. But that's pretty typical because I'm pretty sure that you guys get it on Steam first and Android, not Android, iOS. Well, iOS gets it first. That's right, because they have to because of the submission issues. They always get it at least a week before Steam gets it. Yeah, because they just have to because of submission delays. So, yeah, so it's iOS and then Steam and then Android. And, yeah, that's how it rolls. And then six months later, PS4.
Steam
platform
  • ?

    product_concern: Indianapolis 500 beta experiencing table loading failures for some users despite successful beta release

    high · Chris reports: 'I push the start button and it just gives me the start bing, but the table itself doesn't load.' Jared notes this is typical of first table of season and has historically had loading issues.

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pinball Arcade portrait mode still experiencing significant UI/layout issues on Steam despite new UI release

    medium · Chris mentions video showing numerous problems in portrait mode; landscape mode described as 'not too shabby' by comparison. Camera/table exploration functionality limited in portrait mode.

    • 3:14
    Yes, and it's so unfortunate that they had to wait that long to actually pull patches out. It just sucks. I'd hate to be on it. Which I got to say, okay, so right now, people, Steam sale is happening. Oh, yeah, it is too. Prices are really good for picking up the seasons. Basically, Farsight made it so that not only did all the seasons go on sale except for season five, but the pro price of the season is the exact same price as the regular price of the season, or maybe like three cents more. So point being, go ahead, buy the pro version. Buy the Pro and it'd be good to actually get more eyes on it as far as the public goes because, you know, not a lot of people would actually get the Pro. No. You know, based on, I think a lot of that comes down to the sort of like value argument that they've had for Pro in the past. Yeah. You know, I've actually recently got some Pro packs and I've got to say from a testing perspective, they're great because the ball control.
    4:14
    Oh, yeah. allows you to actually just move the ball exactly to where the problem is. Like there might have been a case in the beta where we had some problems with plastic transparencies. I think in Rescue 9-11 beta, some of the early betas, when the ball was going underneath the plastics, it was losing all of its texture and just going this weird sort of pattern. So with the ball control, I was able to guide it directly up to just like a little bit inside the plastic, a little bit outside the plastic, and then take a screenshot. and it was so clear, but trying to do that actually in-game, it's impossible. So, yeah, Pro is good for that, but also just exploring the table and really zooming in, it's kind of cool as well, particularly on the newer Season 4 onwards tables where they actually got better equipment to capture play fields and stuff like that. You can tell because everything is really crisp when you zoom in. That is one thing I've got to figure out with, this might be a glitch with the new UI, one of the bugs, but all I can do right now for table exploration is panning and zooming in and out, but I'm not able to travel up the playfield. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Yeah, so I'm not sure what's going on there. I haven't reported it yet. I think somebody else actually already has. Okay. There might have just been a bit of a camera glitch. I know that, I think reading the recent news and information thread, which rarely gets updated anymore. Yeah. But I think somebody put the changelog up for Steam and what was released like in the official like update that's happened a couple days ago. And there seems to be quite a lot of improvements to cameras and stuff like that. So I just wonder if it might be related to that. It could be a bit of a regression, minor regression. Minor regression.
    6:02
    Also in the Steam cell, I got to mention Zen tables. Most of them are on severe discount also. Ah, well, they're pretty good with their discounts. So you don't have to usually wait a while to get a Zen table discount. No, usually you can get the Zen tables for half off. If you wait long enough, you can get it for 75% off. Yeah, normally around Christmas and all the digital cyber Tuesday or whatever they call it as well, they often discount, don't they? It's about three times a year. Yeah, they're pretty good. So you can pick up a bargain. so anyway i'm just saying to all you console owners that have a pc just do yourself the favor just eliminate the headache you you will be amazed at how many fewer things you have to complain about now new things you'll complain about like if you decide that you want to rotate your monitor and then go portrait mode and you know that kind of that kind of thing sure there may be new complaints but you know as far as the tables on time you get updates on time it's like you can ask access discounts like that you just don't get on consoles it was it was such such the best move i made not going past season two on the ps3 um yeah and you know sure so if there's people out there with consoles going you know what i'm sick of this shenanigans i want to get onto pc what do you reckon if they were to go right i've got an existing box but maybe i don't have a really great video card or a processor what would i need to do to upgrade my box to get the best pimple arcade experience what do you reckon you just need a better video card you need a dedicated video card and not the cheapest one that you can find either i tried going that route it doesn't work i said that one with at least lots of onboard ram like at least 512 Yeah, I mean, I had spent like, I think, maybe 80 bucks on a dedicated video card.
    8:06
    And I don't think I ever had any. Actually, I don't think I ever had any problems with Pinball Arcade, even in DX11. But it had a problem with other games. games and uh i know i've had less issues when there's been multiball now that i have a better video card yeah um because it's all about um i think the the video card or the graphics gpu does a lot of um physics work as well so yeah the the cpu does the game emulation and keeps that running, but all of the physics timing and frames per second, everything like that is all offloaded to the GPU or your graphics card. If you're skimping on the specs of the video card there, you would obviously have a bad time because it's doing... Right now, the video card I'm running, it helps when your PC case has a clear side so you can see into it. I was wondering what you were doing down there.
    9:09
    For those who aren't on Blab at the moment, Chris is just contorting himself underneath the desk. What are you doing, mate? So I have an NVIDIA Geoforce GTX 5, no, excuse me, 670. A 670, right. Yeah, so that's what I'm running currently.
    9:27
    It does a fairly good job of running everything. I did run into, when I was playing the new Rise of the Tomb Raider game,
    9:39
    there was times in the game it was not happy. mainly when there would be all of a sudden probably more than five AI enemies rushing at you. Suddenly it would stutter to about I don't know, maybe it seemed like it probably was about 12 frames maybe 6 frames per second. People were literally leaping across the screen. But I didn't want to turn down anything because walking through the snow just looked awesome. And if I turned down the graphics it just looked like mud and it was like, yeah, that sucks. So I was like, you know what? I can deal with this. I can survive. I don't mind if the enemies are a bit janky. I'll just nail them with my guns, and they'll be dead before they get to me anyhow. So anyway, that video card is, I believe, three, maybe four years old. Oh, right. And it still runs it pretty well. And it runs TPA perfectly fine. So, I mean, you don't have to go all out. You don't have to go GTX 960 with, you know, 2GB RAM on board and all that. Right. You can. Right. It'll save you very well if you want to play other Steam games, but if you're just wanting to meet the minimum requirement, man, what is going on there? Are you at Daytona or something?
    10:54
    This is what happens when you're recording in the afternoon. We have the people that go, hey let ride the minibike up and down the street It a wonderful yeah That all right Here they come again Here they come again Yep. Oh, they're going quiet this time. Here we go. They're doing quiet runs. We have the same problem here. It's fine. My wife is going to help me by shutting the windows. That's the other thing. I have all the windows open because... It's a bit hot. Yeah. It's a bit hot. It's not hot here at the moment. We've got a weather pattern that's drawing all the cold air from the southern states of Australia all the way up to Queensland. And, you know, for Queensland, it's pretty cold out there at the moment.
    11:39
    But, yes. So it seems like getting back to the whole Steam, getting your PC spec'd out if you've got a console and you want to be done with that. It seems like you don't really need to have a super high-spec GPU to run it all. So it might be worth investigating. You just get like the – because there's a Steam version of TPA, you get a free table to try, don't you?
    12:05
    Yeah. Yeah, just like everything else. You just download it and give it a go. And if it runs like rubbish on your computer, then you can – I mean, not that Tales of the Arabian Nights is any table to really push the thing on, but – It gives you an idea. I think you could probably easily get away with spending under $200 on a video card and it functioning just perfectly fine.
    12:35
    That's food for thought, I guess, for those people who are just done with consoles. It would annoy me. I wouldn't want to wait for six months. It would drive me insane. Speaking of if you have expendable cash, so there is an artist by the name of Sam Van Dorn. and he has this it's not really him doing the art because you wind up doing the art yourself but he's rigged up a pinball machine with a white surface six flippers and with latex paint you bash a ball around on this thing and it obviously puts down the trails of the pinball and then at the end of it boom, pops off the thing and boom, you've got pinball art to hang on your wall. It's pretty cool. Yeah. It's called, I'm probably mispronouncing this, it's S-T-Y-N. So I'm saying Stein. Yep.
    13:32
    I think it's Stein as well. And Sam Vendorn is a Dutch artist, and apparently he's touring with this device.
    13:41
    It's an artistic device. This artistic device. He's currently in Europe. so i'm just saying if you all are interested in something unique uh that is pinball related definitely would be maybe worth searching this guy out um i did a basic google search of his name his last name is uh van and then d-o-o-r-n and then i typed in s-t-y-n for the uh the art project basically and all sorts of google things popped up and you can check it out for yourselves and look at it, but it is pretty cool looking. It reminds me a lot of that game that we were talking about that was in iOS. Inks. Yes. Yeah, it looks exactly like that, actually. Yes. Very cool. I wonder if they were inspired by this and went, you know what? That's a great idea. Let's do that. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe this guy was inspired by that. I don't know what the genesis was of it, but it sounds really cool.
    14:41
    Well, because this guy's project has been around for, I believe, four years. Okay. It may have actually been the digital version of it then. Yeah. Inks. That's very interesting.
    14:54
    Yeah. It looks cool. I definitely wanted to highlight that as one of those, you know, it's not often that we have something pinball related besides, you know, back glass art or a stripped play field that you can hang on the wall kind of thing. Exactly. This is far more accessible than that. I'll put the link in the show notes if you're listening to this. after the fact, so check out the show notes to get the link to that.
    15:19
    Because they worked out what was going on with that. There was just one thing they had to change in the app itself to just fix the whole lot of textures, which is good that they found that.
    15:33
    So that's a positive. The icons are heaps bigger. So they're about, yeah, and they're huge. You can actually see what the tables are now. Oh good, so your fingers can actually touch them.
    15:47
    You know how small they were before. They were pretty tiny. And the hitbox on them, when you were scrolling through on a small screen, I was playing on the Shield tablet, so it was pretty small on that. But on a little phone, not really a good time. So if I go to the...
    16:08
    Well, I do have a stylus on the Shield tablet. You're like, you're ready to bust out a stylus. Maybe I should use that. But yeah, they're about twice the size now. So they're very big. You can see the graphics easily. They've increased the size of the Pro banner on each one as well, if you've got the Pro mode for them. So it's much, much more visible now and looking much better.
    16:35
    Oh, good. And they're, yeah, pretty good. You still really can't scroll that list on the controller, which I'm sure that's something they'll actually start to put in future releases. They'll actually start to put more and more of this controller support in.
    16:51
    But you can actually click through a lot of the screens now and select stuff with the controller. And the B button will actually take you back in screens and stuff like that.
    17:02
    And some of the settings, persistent things, they've worked out a little bit better too. I'm still not seeing the sound options persistent between restarts. So if you set it and then play for a session, it will keep all the settings the way you have it. But when you go back in, I don't think it's saving the settings still, which is a little bit weird. So they're going to have to work on that. But overall, things are happening with it. So if you think, oh, that's a lot, like whatever was released, that's all we're going to see, and it's going to be like this forever. It's not the case. They are definitely trying to fix all the problems, because they knew it was a little bit early to release it, but they just had to because it was blocking development on Indy 500. So they'll just keep on improving it, and it will get better. So keep on. And, you know, they came on the forum and specifically posted, Hey, gang, we understand the problems. Please continue posting your constructive criticism.
    17:59
    Constructive. Jared, you actually did something constructive because I had pointed out that one individual had made a video of all the things that were wrong on Steam in portrait mode because the landscape mode was not too shabby, but the portrait mode, there was just heaps of issues that were happening. So I pointed that out to you, and you did something in kind on Android, correct? I did a 20-minute video of walking through each screen, trying to use a controller on each screen to show which ones didn't have any controller support or limited support. I also stepped through all the settings screens to describe how I think they should work from a user's perspective. All the sorting in the tables, I also walked through how those should behave, how they should be grouped as far as I could see based on the other apps and other programs that I use.
    18:52
    And it turns out that, yep, they were able to use a lot of the stuff in that video. So it took, because I'm in Australia, it took me about 70 minutes to upload that video to YouTube so I could actually share it privately. But it was worth it because it really helped them understand from a controller's perspective interaction and also just a user, an end user expectation, just what they needed to fix more urgently than others. and it's and it's because as with any criticism this goes nothing you know rather than going i hate the ui it sucks well what are they going to do with that nothing right they've already moved forward so instead if you can you know whether you can do a video which is an awesome way because that really shows them explicitly what is going on because there's this weird thing with somehow the device is up at Farsight, don't react like every other person's device at home.
    19:49
    So, no. So it's really handy if you can show them point blank this is what's happening. Otherwise, if you can write a really descriptive text about what is going on with your experience,
    20:04
    what versions you're using, what the steps are that you took to have a certain thing, or just how something should behave, walk through the steps of how you feel it should behave, not just, hey, you know, when I use my controller, I should be able to just scroll through anything. Well, again, that's not really piecing it together.
    20:26
    Right, because now they have to figure out what you're talking about when they go into the store, when we go into the main menu select.
    20:33
    There's so many. It makes it very difficult. So if you really want to see something effectively happen, And that's the way you can do is make it point blank obvious.
    20:43
    Be respectful about what your requests are, but also say, hey, this is keeping me from enjoying the product as I enjoyed it in the past. Please implement something like that. And they will listen. Things will change. So I just wanted to kind of point that out that Jared had done that. I wish I could remember the guy that I hooked you up with to see who did it to give him credit. But anyway, the right way to do it. And, like, the video, I was frustrated in the video, and I was speaking in a bit of a frustrated tone. And they could tell when I was getting frustrated with the menus because I was going, I was clicking the button, and nothing's happening here. Why isn't anything happening here? And, you know, it's actually okay to be frustrated when you're talking about something, but at the same time, it's the way you talk about the issue. You should always say, this is like, it comes back to, like, how to raise a bug. It's like, what, the steps are to reproduce it, what you expect to happen, what's actually happening at the moment. And if you break down your suggestion like that, that makes it very easy for a developer to go understand where you're coming from and then hopefully try and implement your fix. So that's just a bit of a tip. Tips for all. Hey, so that's about the end of our show this week. Next week, hopefully we'll be able to talk about Indy 500. I think it was one thing I wanted to mention as well. If not released outright. And it was due with those on Android. We all know that I sort of created an Android user guide of sorts that explains at the time some of the shortcomings in the version 1 UI and ways to work around those shortcomings and just to sort of help users sort of understand how things are structured and why they're structured like that. Well, of course, with the new UI coming out, that guide's pretty much obsolete now. So I'm having to think about is it worth making a new one or is it worth perhaps taking a different approach to it? And I'm thinking rather than having like a cover-to-cover user guide, actually making a knowledge base using this service called GitBook because it supports like an FAQ style interface. And I can group it still, you know, on audio, on table setup, or, you know, like categorize everything, but actually have it more like a question and answer sort of thing and do it like that instead of like a traditional cover-to-cover user guide. I'll still put pictures and stuff like that in it, which I didn't really have in the first guide. And it was a bit sort of like a bit of a wall of text. So I think doing it this way will actually prevent a bit of that sort of wall of text stuff coming on. And it was, it would sort of just chunk down the information really what they call atomically. If you're a technical writer, you'll know what I'm talking about and make it. So you only have to look at the one thing and it all like uses a search index and everything. So you can put your question in there and if there's something written about it, You can get the answer, but if there's not, you can also suggest something that you'd like to know about, and I can probably get the information for you as well. So it'll be sort of more interactive than just the user guide. So keep a lookout for that.
    23:47
    I'll be reusing probably a lot of stuff from the old guide, but I'll just be putting it in a slightly different structure because a lot of the issues still remain.
    23:56
    So keep an eye out. If you've got any ideas of what you'd like to see, you can email blahblahblockade at gmail.com or you could tweet me or send me a message on the forum whatever you like, just give me some ideas and I'd be happy to talk them over with you yeah, tweet Jared at Jared Morgz you could tweet me at ShutYourTraps or best of all tweet the show at Blockade also, make sure you visit our website blockadepinball.com that's where all the episodes are hosted currently and any other information like all the show notes of what is in each episode, what minute markers are, stuff like that if you want to skip around and also as Jared points out if there's any websites that we reference during the episode he posts them in the show notes so you can quickly be able to scan those and find them. Also make sure you check out our t-shirt represent.com forward slash blockade like website hosting and stuff like that and pizza. No, not really pizza.
    25:05
    No, we just keep it strictly to run the show, so we don't take a celery for this. Imagine if that happened. We do it for our own pleasure and hopefully yours too.
    25:17
    Yeah. So anyway, we will catch up again next week and enjoy whatever pinball you can possibly get your hands on. I'm looking forward to trying to pummel more of No Fear into submission. Unfortunately, it's been pummeling me into submission on TPA.
    25:38
    It's one of those tables where I should like it. It's one of those tables. It's beating me up, and I can't get a grip on it, which sucks.
    25:49
    See you later. Yep. But anyway, until next time, folks, we're out. Warning. The following contains little to no actual talk about pinball.
    26:03
    Yeah, very interesting. Now, the other thing I wanted to talk about, because you know me. I like to talk about non-pinball things. So I came across this guy's blog, and his blog is called This Hipster of Marriage Announcement from the New York Times' Most Insufferable History. yet right now i've come across a couple of things hipsters in general don't bother me no um they're more of an amusement you know i will happily laugh at the man bun and uh and everybody's wonderful beard that they're growing now and then i've come across interesting images where uh i don't know if i mentioned it here before the the coffee shop that was advertising with the barista and he was wearing a flowered shirt with a bow tie. He had the tight shaved head with the pompadour on top and the long beard and tattoos of pinup girls on his arms.
    27:00
    And, of course, the coffee that he was – oh, suspenders. Oh, yeah. And the coffee that he was pouring was in some funky decanter kind of thing. I mean, it just screamed – Hipster. Ultimate hipster, right? Bigger hipster. So I find it more amusing than anything.
    27:20
    But this particular article, and I'm not going to read you what the blog is. If you want to read the blog for yourself, and the guy that posted it, he has all sorts of commentary about this, and it's hilarious.
    27:33
    If you follow Blockade on Twitter, the link is in the Twitter account there. But I want to read you. I just wanted to read you what the actual announcement in the New York Times was. And, Jared, I'll let you just laugh and mock along the way. All right. I'm prepared.
    27:53
    Okay. So here it goes. It's story time, folks. When Nathaniel Peters goes for a walk, he often sings aloud, which may be a genetic trait. His great-grandparents were Maria and George von Trapp, who founded the Trapp family singers with their children and whose story was the basis for the sound of music.
    28:13
    Here we go. That was the introduction. That was the introduction, not nothing. So here we go. Mr. Peters, 30, also appears to have inherited Maria von Trapp's exuberant climb-every-mountain attitude. You know that look that a golden lab has when chasing a tennis ball? That's how Nathaniel chases life, said Ryan. patrico a friend growing up growing up on martha's vineyard mr peters was bookish and interested in existential questions and distinctive clothing from an early age he's the kind of person who wants to wear bright orange shoelaces in his very fancy dress shoes said claire rose a friend he's often seen in a bow tie or some kind of hat miss rose added he knows what he likes and Nothing he likes is run-of-the-mill.
    29:00
    Do you hate this guy yet already? Yep. Yeah. Oh. By the fall of 2013, he was a graduate student in theology at Boston College. Fluent in Latin, fond of three-piece suits, and living in a house on the edge of campus that was full of people studying religion and philosophy. Yeah. Is he a barista as well? It's good that he's getting an education in something that's really going to pay off, right?
    29:32
    All right. He's got to be, right? No, no, no. Wait until you – okay, it's coming. All right. When asked for words to describe himself and his friends, he replied, you could try heaty. On the one hand, we are people who enjoy lots of books and investigating particular questions having to do with the human existence or God or the nature of beauty. but at least three of us are capable of cooking dinner to Taylor Swift and enjoying that too. Is this biography?
    30:01
    Oh, that was just him. Now comes the moment when we meet his fiancé. Oh, is this a biography or a wedding announcement? Seriously.
    30:08
    That was just him. Again, this is a wedding announcement. Barbara Jane Sloan, a fellow graduate student in theology at Boston College, who was known as Jane, lived in a house across an open field from Mr. Peters.
    30:28
    The two had met briefly during the summer of 2012 at a mutual friend's wedding, and he remembered her as quiet and thoughtful. There was an introverted loveliness about her, he said. By contrast, John Petkin, a friend, said Mr. Peters possessed an ear-piercing loveliness. A loveliness so loud that it would be amazing. Wow.
    30:52
    Yeah. Well, I like how her name is Jane. It's like plain Jane. That fall, Miss Sloan and Mr. Peters got to know each other better. She wore Warby Parker eyeglasses that were almost identical to his. He appreciated both liturgical music and Ella Fitzgerald, as he did.
    31:14
    Yeah, just let that sink in, people. I'm not a bully or anything but I want to pummel this guy growing up in Carmel, Indiana she was a bookworm with an early curiosity about God when she was small she'd say things like this summer I'm going to read the Bible said her father Dan Sloan seriously the two began walking back and forth through each other's house for long talks about early Christianity, her specialty, or the pros and cons of joining a religious order. Sometimes I could hear him coming because he'd be singing to himself. Usually opera, Sidney Sloan, 31. Singing opera. This guy's a kid.
    32:04
    Well, as the blog commenter going, he goes, Jane, we have some questions about your boyfriend. friends.
    32:15
    Can you say beard? When she visited his house, she generally arrived with an armful of baguettes and pastries, leftovers from the bakery where she worked. Of course she did, right?
    32:28
    I started referring to, yes, I started referring to her as our friend with benefits, he said. He did not own a car, but she did, which also helped forge a bond between them. She often gave him rides to Trader Joe's for groceries. It's like, can they name drop any more about just how unique and quirky they are?
    32:58
    No. Apparently you can submit wedding announcements to the New York Times, like, you know, society page probably. it was it was always an adventure she said he get in the car and he have a cd or magazine article he wanted to read me or biscuits he baked that morning I was like who is this guy I more a slow plotting contemplative person and he always on the go I'm sorry, but these people sound like, if he's the one that's always on the go, she's practically comatose.
    33:35
    One day he borrowed her car and got into a minor accident, which left a bumper dented and a headlight wobbling like a loose tooth. When she saw the damage, she just laughed and got out some duct tape, which really impressed him. His words to me were, Mom, she's being saintly about this, said his mother, Elizabeth Peters. Still, neither thought of becoming more than friends, partly because one or the other was usually dating someone else. Yeah, sure. Also, Miss Sloan said, it took a while for me to wake up to how great he was. It took a year of friendship.
    34:09
    During that year, they created several traditions together. You're going to love these. Sunday nights were Sherlock and Downton Abbey. Or when those were not on Shakespeare, he said.
    34:25
    They formed a group that gathered regularly at his kitchen table to sing in harmony. And he taught her how to cross country ski on the trails outside the Trapp family lodge in Stowe, Vermont. Eventually, Miss Sloan said the two were spending so much time together that she asked him, is this fair? We are not too close, right? He said, no, we were just two pilgrims along the way, traveling together for a while.
    34:47
    Early in the summer of 2014, he invited her and some other friends to his family's house on Martha's Vineyard. It was a disaster weekend for me, she said. What do you think happened there, Jared?
    34:58
    It would be a disaster for these people. Close. I was, my hat blew off while we were sailing. I lost my sunglasses in the water. Nathaniel and I went swimming. No, Nathaniel, there's no way he's a Nate. There's not a chance in hell anybody ever calls him Nate.
    35:25
    Nathaniel and I went swimming, and there was a riptide. He ended up carrying me out of the waves. I had this moment of, this is really nice, she said. But at the same time, I thought, we have to not be holding on to each other anymore. not long after she recalled he asked her remember our conversation about being two pilgrims along the way well i would like to make a slight amendment i'd like to take you down to the public garden and have a picnic and read from pj wodehouse for once both were single at the same time this is ridiculous this is flaming absurd i say on july 23rd 2014 they arrived at the garden carrying a picnic basket and something fresh a novel by wodehouse which he read aloud to her under a willow tree it was the best first date ever over the next few days they continued reading a reading the book together near the conclusion mr peter said there's a great description of a kiss we both got impatient so i thumbed to the end of the book read it and kissed her he said it wasn't long before they were musing about marriage which mr peters imagined would be like entering a deep mystery with my best friend miss sloan who is now a phd student in theology at marquette university in milwaukee said she could never have conjured up a partner who could cook analyze medieval texts climb trees and dance as adroitly as mr peters if someone asked me for a list of qualities i would want an ideal person because My list would fall so short of who Nathaniel is. So far short. What's my thing? Yes, I like to decode medieval texts. That's an absolute must in my partner.
    37:05
    And I also require much pastries and top hats. That's what I want in a partner. And neckbeards as well. Must have a neckbeard, otherwise it deals off.
    37:23
    Yes. You get the feeling that Wes Anderson is even creeped out by these people. You know, it's like his movies are a little too spunky for them.
    37:43
    On May 31st, 2015, he proposed in a tiny stone chapel that his great uncle, Werner von Trapp, built in the woods behind the family lodge. He asked her to wait outside while he decorated the floor with beeswax candles, arranged in the shape of a heart and a cross, which glowed in the dark like a constellation.
    37:59
    I came in and the first thing I remember is this beautiful smell of beeswax. This lovely warm smell, she said. I gave him a hug for support, like, we both know what's happening. You can do it. She was naughty. By the time the proposal was over and she accepted all the candles that had melted, I said,
    38:20
    I said, I have a feeling this is the marriage it's going to be like. Watching candles melt. We just had this moment of intimacy, and now we're sitting here scraping wax off the floor.
    38:42
    On June 4th, they were married at Blessed Sacrament Church in Stowe. He in a vintage morning coat, and she in a gown that was both subtle and sparkly. like her. The couple created a 16-page illustrated pamphlet to guide the 172 guests through the carefully curated nuptial mass, which was led by the Reverend Brian E. Daly at Roman Catholic Christ. Now, if you've ever been to a Catholic wedding,
    39:06
    they're insufferable. They go on forever. The fact that this guy had to add in 15 songs just kills me. along with many prayers blessings and readings there were 15 different pieces of music performed mr peter described his music as joyful rich lush lush like a forest not like an alcoholic thank you thank you for clarifying that mate i want to be one sorry it's the only way i would be able to have a little wine after this because i'm going to need one Mr. Patrico, the best man, watched the groom throughout the ceremony.
    39:49
    He's sitting very erect in his chair and he's swerving and bobbing just like a conductor. I thought it was going to take a bit of a bills and boots in there. I think I'm being allergic to this guy. He was a bit erect in his chair.
    40:02
    It's getting interesting. Oh no, but it's not, unfortunately. He picked out all the music and he knows it by heart and it's the music he chose to express these feelings he has for Jane. He was crying at the end of every piece. Of course he was. Afterward, there was a reception in the wedding meadow outside the family lodge. What should he get? It was the Worcester mountains and maple syrup and little leaf-shaped bottles as gifts for the guests. It's like maple syrup.
    40:31
    Wow, that's so thoughtful. Any pastries to go with that? Probably bread. there's probably bread in the days leading up to the wedding the group said i felt like i'm wading into a pool of joy and i don't know the depth of the joy yet right then then the there was an update to this because they published it uh this little tidbit who's what the couple made a graph of their wedding guest professions for fun and to examine the kind of people with whom they spend time. There were 12 doctors, 3 astronomers, 4 computer programmers, 18 PhD students, 4 women Catholic priests, 10 teachers, and 1 private investigator. Oh, boy.
    41:22
    So, I just thought I would share that all with you as a... Just to know that as messed up as some people on our forum can be. Nobody's this messed up. Which I am, anyhow.
    41:41
    Yeah. It is more normal than any of these crazy people. I was going to say, I just messaged with them today.
    41:51
    No. These are the kind of... Now, I don't know if you have NPR radio in Australia, but we here in America have. It's National Public Radio.
    42:02
    And... the way the hosts of the radio programs drone on, it'll put you to sleep in five minutes. There is just zero emotion. And I've run into people that regularly listen to NPR, and I always just question their sanity because I can't believe that they put up with this. But I imagine that this couple not only enthusiastically listens to NPR, but then now and then comments about how they got rowdy that night. You know, it's like, oh, wow, it's just going crazy. Quick, we need a baguette.
    42:44
    So as the blogger commented, he said, something tells me this marriage had more to do with the fact that in order to get the inheritance, he had to have a family. and she's looking at it more as a hey, this is a person that's never going to bother touching me, isn't that wonderful? Oh boy.
    43:07
    And they lived happily ever after. Anyway, if you want to read the commentary, like I said, the commentary is hysterical.
    43:17
    In a wedding meadow. Yeah. I'm surprised they didn't go out into the green green pastures and do a big the hills are alive what does that's part of the like after the reception you know wow wizardamusement.com the west coast leader in classic pinball makers of custom pinball shooter rods and buyer specifications swap out your standard ball plunger with something themed to your specific table installs in less than five minutes with no custom tools even if you don't own a table looks great as a pinball memento to admire Prices start at $39, but mention Blockade Podcast and receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization.
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    Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't approve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and place it in goal.
    44:24
    you