State of the Dorks

Hey, internet friends! Stephen here.

I haven’t shared much on this side in a long time. So much of our content is coming in audio form, or through posts on social media that I often forget we have a place for long form content should ever need it. I feel like it’s worth posting a thing here every once in a while so we have some sort of online presence that’s not a podcast, YouTube video, or Twitch stream.

I could not be more proud of this community and who we are as a group. When we first put together Horseshoes and Hand grenades over 15 years ago, I never would have guessed that it would last like it has, but more importantly that it would bring me together with people that I get to call “friend.” So many I only see in person once a year but I feel like we know each other and have had opportunities to bond regardless of our geographical location

We’ve been seeing a lot of success with Those Were the Days lately and I’m super proud of how it came together and continues to be a strong podcast as the episodes go on. I’ve been introduced to things I never even knew about until I brought my love of classic TV together with my good friends TVsTravis, Audie Norman, and Amy Frost. It’s been such a blast to work together and its one of the things I look forward to every week.

Horseshoes & Hand Grenades took a hiatus for a bit after the newest member of our 2Dorks family came along, but Ashley and I are officially working hard to bring back a consistent and entertaining show to the masses. It’s harder than you’d think to balance the needs of a tiny human and our needs as narcissistic podcasters. We’re doing everything we can to bring back the laughs and tomfoolery on a weekly basis for you.

I’m excited about what we’re doing now and a few other irons in the fire that we’ve been thinking about for some time. I want to make more content and there are some doors open that will allow us to do that without sacrificing much in terms of that much needed rest and family time.

I hope you all are in good places and I look forward to more great work and good laughs being done as the year goes on. If you can make it, we’ll see you all at Dragon Con 2024!

Thanks!

Stephen

The Dragon Con 2022 Report

I had the time of my life.

I have been going to Dragon Con off and on since 2010. Every year, I learn a little bit and get a little familiar with where to go and what to do. The big difference this year is that I didn’t even bother to go any of the celebrity stuff. I spent all of my time either with my friends at the Digital Media track or taking my kiddo to see stuff that he would enjoy.

It’s really the best flippin’ place to be a nerd.

I’ve already booked for next year, so if you are swinging by this site, I hope you decide to come next year! We’re hoping to have an even bigger presence from the LoD and maybe even shoot for an actual meetup! It was an absolute treasure to spend time with all of the cool folks there and I can’t wait to get back. The countdown begins!

DragonCon 2022

Stephen will be joining all the cool cats at DragonCon this year!

We weren’t able to be there the last few years because, well, … everything. But we’re back! Looking forward to seeing all of our friends and fellow nerds on the Digital Media track. Stephen’s schedule is below and he would love nothing more than to shake some hands and give out some stickers. So swing by the panels and say hello!

If you’re reading this after the con, then welcome! Take a look at some of the links above, or just join us on Discord where we spend most of our time. It’s such a rad group of folks and we hope you enjoy swinging in and being part of the community. It’s a good vibes group and we try to keep it that way, so read the rules!

Thanks for stopping by!

New Show!

It’s been a long time since we’ve announced anything huge on this site, but I’m pretty dang excited about this one. We’ve been on a bit of an unintended hiatus with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades just due to life things, but that’s not gonna stop us from finding other ways to make some good content.

Introducing ….

Those Were The Days

Those Were The Days is a brand new show that we’re doing with TVsTravis, Audie Norman, and Amy Frost! It’s all about classic TV. Those shows that we grew up on, and shows our parents grew up on. We’re taking a time machine to The Honeymooners all the way up through more recent stuff like Everybody Loves Raymond.

It’s a good opportunity to look at how TV has changed over time and whether any of it holds up. I think we’ll be surprised at what we find, and you will to! We truly hope you can join us in revisiting some of our favorite classic episodes of television.

We’ll be recording LIVE on Twitch every Monday night at 9pm. We’re kicking off our first episode on April 4th. Come hang with us!

New Show Alert!

You read that right! We have a new show called …

Side Quests: A Weekly Challenge Podcast

Jacob, Travis, and I got tired of talking about disease on Staring at Goats, so we dreamed up something new and we’re super pumped to have you join us on our adventure. The first episode should be going up soon, but in the meantime, here’s the rundown.

Each week we’re pitting two challenges against each other and letting our audience vote on which challenge we do that week. Think of it as a bracket, but the loser will progress and be attempted again later. The challenge that gets chosen is something the three of us will need to complete over the next week. No excuses!

The fun part about all this is that we want you to join us! You vote on the quests, and you get to participate in them alongside us. We want you to send us your emails, voicemails, twitter messages, and join us in Discord to let us know how the challenges went for you and what came of it.

So now that you have a brief overview, it’s time to tell you what the audience decided was our first challenge.

Culinary World Tour!

Our first challenge is to create 4 dishes over the next week that hail from different countries than yours. The idea here is not to create Mexican or Italian food you make every Friday, but to really stretch and try to make recipes from somewhere you’ve never been. Maybe you want to try Korean food for the first time. Sounds like a good opportunity to give it a go! Any food counts, so you can make this as difficult or as easy as you’d like. You know where your comfort zone is. Just attempt to step outside of it a bit.

Our next challenge poll is up this week. We have these two:

  • Face Your Death
  • Clean up a park/road

Face Your Death is a particularly somber one. We want you, and us, to craft an “I’m gonna die” plan. Basically, what do you want to be available for when you meet your ultimate demise. You’re not going to be around to tell your loved ones what to do with you, or to send that letter you always thought you’d send, or say the thing that you always wanted to say. Maybe you just need to collect your finances and plan a will. This challenge is to get us thinking about that and, at the very least, have a plan that should be executed when we let loose our mortal coil.

Cleaning up a park or road is much more self-explanatory. The world can be ugly if we don’t take care of it, so we should take a minute to clean something up. Just pick a park or a road nearby that you want to clean and collect a few garbage bags of junk. It makes a bigger difference than you might think, and you might be surprised how it goes for you.

VOTE NOW!

Charity!

Oh man, you guys. It’s coming. Back and as awesome as it ever was.

It’s time for the….

LEGION OF DORKS GAMING AND GIVING CHARITY STREAM

That’s right! It’s time for us to make some dollars for Toys for Tots. Every year the LoD comes together to stream all day long, and hopefully make some money for the charity along the way. It’s been a ton of fun the last few years and we’re excited to do it again.

This year has been tough for everyone, but we know that there are still folks out there who have both the capacity and the will to give to this fantastic charity. There are more kids than ever who will be going with far less this year in terms of toys than there ever has been. It’s hard to imagine for a lot of us, but a single toy can change a kid’s Christmas more than we realize.

If you’d like to participate, join us on Twitch on December 4th for a full day of gaming and fun!

You can also donate anytime leading up to or after the events by visiting our Donate Page. All your money goes directly to Toys for Tots and not through us in any way. Thanks!

Getting Busy!

It’s that time of the year again, when the Legion starts doing some stuff and making some waves. Before we get to that, though, let’s talk Staring at Goats!

We started Staring at Goats way back in March, when the pandemic was concerning and we thought we were going to be chatting about it for a couple months before we switched gears. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons and we’re still out there doing this show.

The biggest change is that Lando found himself super busy with other activities on his goat farm and his real life, so we’ve been having on special guests to join Jacob and I as we chat about our life in the plague lands. It’s been a really fun addition to the podcasting family here at Legion of Dorks. Sometimes we go deep, and sometimes we just stay at the surface level and talk about how we see the world changing as we move forward.

If you haven’t listened to that show, you should! Give it a try

Our latest anthology is launching on November 10th! This is huge news for us. Our previous anthology, Laundered: An Anthology of Monster Messes, was awarded the 2nd place price in short stories at the North Texas Book Festival. That’s right! It’s an award winning book! Therefore everyone in it is an award winning author! You should pick it up here or just read it on Amazon Unlimited. Either way, cash goes to Toys for Tots as part of our yearly charity support.

Which brings us to the charity stream! We’ve kicked off planning for it and expect to have a date soon, so keep an eye out for it.

Thank you so much for supporting us! Keep an eye out here for the latest updates! Also consider joining our community in Discord!

Staring At Goats

Shame on me for not dropping a note about this new show here sooner, but I should!

I was approached a couple months back by my good friend Lando about doing a show to cover all the insanity that is COVID-19. He wanted to point out how absurd this world is getting because of this virus, and drop a little science on the whole thing as well.

Well that little idea has morphed into an actual show that we are doing every week to cover all the insanity that is what we’re calling The Plaguelands. My brother-in-law and producer of H&H, Jacob, wanted to join as well, so here we are doing a new show about the plague.

Over the last few episodes I think we’ve really begun to find our legs and really find a voice for this show. We’re still hunting around in the weeds a bit, but I think we’re on to something pretty magical. In general, we’re having a good time with it. It feels odd to say that, but I think it’s okay to find some joy in the mess that we’re all in. We’re all seeing so much doom and gloom every day that it’s nice to just see people cutting up a bit some time.

If you want to check out the show, swing on by our page on Anchor to give it a list. Or you can subscribe on your podcast player of choice! We’re everywhere. Have fun! Stay safe out there!

– Stephen

Community

If there is one important thing in the podcasting or streaming world that cannot be overstated, it’s the community that you build. It’s the group of people that surround you every time you hit that “Go Live” button that makes the biggest difference in whether you succeed or fail. Whether you feel like you put on a good show, or just didn’t have it. Somehow, Ashley, Jacob, and I have found ourselves the raddest bunch of folks on the planet to hang with us when we aim the cameras at our faces.

Over the last few months, I feel like our little discord server has exploded into a massive, wonderfully distracting community of fantastic humans. We started doing just a little bit more promotion that we’ve ever done. Most of it was just by joining other communities we liked and taking advantage of their willingness for community members to promote their stuff in a designated channel. I always felt bad about it in the past, but I’ve come to realize that I really appreciate it when people use our channel for that, so I’m sure these other places enjoy it as well. I try to be a participant in those groups too so it doesn’t look like I’m just mooching off their good will.

That little change has brought some of the coolest people into our group. Not only did they sign up to our server, but they stuck around. They participated. They joined us on the stream and routinely throw out funnier jokes than we do. I love the activity that surrounds us these days.

As we approach episode 500 of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, I can’t help but reflect on how far we’ve come and how awesome this journey has been. All I can do is say thanks to all the people that have come alongside us over the years to hang out, laugh, and just be a part of our lives. We’re forever grateful for it.

Nerd or Die!

Hey, party people! We have some fun news!

Nerd or Die, a very popular site for streaming overlays, has made us an affiliate! I’m pretty pumped about this. Bill, AKA RunJumpStomp, recommended them to me back when we went to DragonCon, and I checked them out as soon as I got home. They’ve added some fantastic elements to our streams and made them feel a bit more alive.

If you want to dial up the production value of your stream, Nerd or Die is the place to go. With easy-peasy setups and launch scripts, you can get up and running in no time. Check them out, and use our affiliate link if you decide to pick something up. It helps us out too!