First of all a very heartfelt thank you to all of the crew.
To everyone who is feeling sad about this let me me tell you a little story. As many here I have been listening since the very inception of the site.
I felt drawn to the Giant beastcast since the first episode. I was very close to sending in one of those postcards a few years ago that Vinnie solicited to be read out loud by Jeff.
This was during a time when I had to spend a lot of time in the hospital after the birth of our third child. I often listened to the podcast on my way back and to the icu.
Listening to the podcast offered a short reprieve from all the pain we experienced during this time. The great thing is that now after four years of treatment, surgery and nurses in our house every single day the situation has improved so drastically that the last nurse to ever help us left yesterday for good. They are simply not needed anymore.
So change will always be bitter and also sweet. In my mind the runtime but also the end of this Podcast will be forever connected to this difficult period but also miraculous change in the life of my family.
So just think of the good things that are ahead for all of us in the future because things have to keep changing.
By the way, the whole hockey and cutting balls in half conversation was so on brand.
Well, I started listening in 2008 when my first child was a toddler. I honestly listened to every bombcast and beastcast wherever I was in the world.
Especially the beastcast offered much needed weekly 2h reprieve 4 years ago when life got very tough with the birth of our 3rd child and long stays at the hospital.
But now that has been sorted, I'm 52, my son is taller than me and everything is great.
So listen to me when I tell you, podcasts do work after all...
Hey, all of you GB people : "you did good, you did good"!
Great article. I'm older then everyone in the GB Crew and don't have time to play games anymore. But I want to thank your and especially GB East for your podcasts. 2017 was a very difficult year having to do with having to basically live at the hospital for a very long time to be with our newborn 3rd child. On my trip to and forth I would listen to all of your shenanigans from Vinnie's leaking basements to Dan 's usual craziness. It was a rest stop of normalcy that told me that somewhere, somehow people were still fighting the good fight with very low stakes because video games...
@nukleon: It is a long road and if Alex could make it you can too! His journey sounds really taxing...
But like everything in life there is no magic bullet and it will take long daily practice to change things/thinking patterns and behaviours.
What I think worked for me is to let go of the constant "I am intrinsically bad/not good enough/subpar etc" introspection and look at the actual things I was doing. I don't think nobody is anything (neither good nor bad) unless they act and then we can judge ourselves against these actions and how they affect other people. Something things that take us away from our daily routine (eg charity work) help get us out of our head. Just an idea...
@ebinbraveheart: it's the only way out. Online interactions are to talking to actual humans what a TV dinner is to cooking. It is food but generic and not meant to be used exclusively.
Just imagine there was no internet. What would you do? Look up a club etc. today!
I would suggest cutting down on interactions online and doing as much as you can in the real world. By that I mean joining a club/activity group where people interact based on a common interest. Could be anything really. Getting to know people and knowing how to behave around different types of fellow humans is actually a skill that one can hone I came to understand.
I just read a very interesting article on shyness and why it is so hard for some people to make contact with others.
The gist was that many shy people actually are overly concerned with their own self image, wanting to control a conversation/setting/scenario as much as possible. This is of course not feasible so they tend to "shy" away from these unplannable interactions. So it is in fact a bit narcissistic because they place themselves at the center of any interaction with others. The good news is that most people we meet don´t really think about us that much so we may as well just go with the flow and see where it takes us.
At least that worked for me many decades ago when I felt the same...
Any way, don´t give up and if you suspect there may be more to your challenges, just get professional help. Once again, worked for me once I let go of the notion of "normal" and "strange". I wish you luck!
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