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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

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!

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

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!

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.