Principles of Surviving the Oregon Trail (Game)

(upbeat music) Hi again, everybody. And welcome back to the MilesPathcast, the flagship podcast of seasoned coffee cups. I've heard it before. I've always wondered it. Like, do you really have to wash like a mug? Like a coffee mug every single time you use it, or you find like, you don't drink coffee out of it one day and it's letting it sit and not washing, not cleaning it, not putting the dishwasher, and then you're gonna get it. And again, and again. I remember hearing someone say like it, it seasons it, kind of like a cast iron pan, if you don't wash it, like you've got that good flavor built in, it's great, but at the same time, is that gross? Like is there germs there? So I looked it up, and basically here's what it says. It says because as long as you're just using black coffee, which is what I use. I don't put any cream in there. I don't add anything in which I think it's kind of the key here. You're more or less safe because it's like, it's those kind of things that when you add that, you can lead to mold growth and bacteria growth, any kind of flavored surrups, sugar cream, anything like that, because it kind of something that will eventually feed the mold of bacteria, that's where your problem lies. But if it's just black coffee, if it's just coffee, that you drink it straight, you should be fine, 'cause you're safe from your own germs, you're avoiding, you're actually avoiding, like putting a sponge in it, which can give you germs, and you get the seasoned flavor of it. And it also saves you the time, 'cause I'm at the point where there are some times like a wash and mug, especially if it's been several days. But otherwise, I drink the coffee, I put it on my desk, I leave it there, I never have a chance to go to a sink and I just keep using it again. So it's nice to hear this. Again, again, if you add things, that's a problem, if you're sharing your mug with others, and you're sharing germs, obviously that brings that up here. If you use it maybe too many times, it can become rancid and eventually mute the flavor of fresh coffee, but I don't think I'm using it that much. And it says like a bacteria breeding ground. But again, I think if you're just using kind of straight black coffee, it's like water, like it's just there's nothing there for it to really grow off of and you're safe. So there you go. The flavored or seasoned coffee mugs, it's fine. If you're adding something that's not good, but as long as it's a straight black coffee, you're off the hook, you're safe, and you're healthy as can be. Anyways, today on the podcast, tell me something good. I got to talk about something that I loved back in the day, and I just didn't do a podcast, I talked all about it, and it made me want to talk about it. So we got to talk about that. We got to talk about the I-O-U-1, which is something really short and sweet something that I saw through the day on my walk, and then last but not least, John's what he into. I'm doing it again for the third time and excited about it, so much so. But tell me something good. (upbeat music) Tell me something good. Is the Oregon Trail? The game used to be called just Oregon, but it's called the Oregon Trail. I think it's probably one of the first computer games I've probably ever played. I remember playing it back on the really, really old, green screen computers. I think they were Apple twos, is what they were called. It's those ones like, I remember being in, my first grade in Mrs. Line Webber, second grade in Mrs. Hunt, and there was like six computers in the back of the room, and you could like scroll through and like there'd be, I remember like finding it with a message board so you could talk to the person right next to you, it was like the first form of texting, but there's all these different games on it. You could play Oregon Trail, you could play like number games, learning games, I don't know, there are several on there. And I wish, I would love to have one of those things, but anyways, Oregon Trail, we eventually then got it on like CD-ROM for Windows 95 when we got a computer at home, and playing through, it was so fun. And the podcast I listened to it on, it's called version history. It is a nerdy podcast where they talk about like the first run of different things. Like they've talked about, like in this case, the Oregon Trail, or they talked about like when, the Microsoft Zoom came out, or when different things arrived for the first time, like when the first telephone came about, it's so nerdy and it's just like the history of tech, and like the first version of these things. And it was the Oregon Trail, and it was so fun listening to it, because a lot of things that didn't realize that now make perfect sense looking back, it was made as a teaching game. Like an actual true to be like learning game that you could learn from, and looking back, that is so true. They phrases like, it's a resource management game, because at the beginning of the game, if you remember, when you first set off from independence, you have to buy different things, like you have to buy a wagon, and you have to choose like, do you buy the fancy wagon for a lot of money, or do you buy the middle of the road wagon, and spend more money on your food? And then what food do you bring? Do you bring, you know, I don't remember how I broke it up, but like which foods do you bring? Do you buy oxen? Do you bring oxen? Because that gives you more meat down the road. You have to buy bullets for hunting, and you have to buy medicine if somebody gets sick, 'cause God forbid someone dies on the way. There's so many little things that you have to figure out. And I remember, I remember mom telling the story, and I don't know if I remember it because she's like implanted as memory in my head or not, but I remember like being in the grocery store once, down in Colfax, and asking, like thinking about like, hey, we do this, like would this help Blank and Blank survive? And obviously taking out a context, like there's people like walking by there, like what? Like people are dying, 'cause you're not buying certain foods, but I was talking about the organ trail and trying to figure out like how could we get the whole fam to organ without anybody dying along the way, because it seemed like there was always someone dying because of illness, or someone who gets like hit by our ricochet when you're hunting, and they die, or you try and forward a stream and blank and blank drowns. And we would always like our whole family for it, and it was fun to do it in that way. But it'll get back, it's so cool because you had to like strategize and figure this stuff out, and it wasn't like a game where you just, you play for a minute, and then it's over, like it wasn't like dopamine seeking or anything, it's like you've played this for 20, 30 minutes, and then you get your result. You see how many people made it, you have your score, and then you play again, you're like, how could I do that better? Should I have bought a faster wagon? So we got there before the snow's hit, or should I have bought, you know, the cheaper wagon and bought more food and more medicine to make sure like no one died along the way, or we could afford the river a little bit better. All right, it's just, I remember being such a fun, cool game, and there's still versions of it that you can play, but they really talked about like how is a really big teaching game, and like it'd be implemented into schools. And I remember doing that exactly in first and second grade, and trying to strategize the way through it. Like you, to the point where I remember you had to choose like which month do you leave? Do you leave earlier in the year where you like risk cold weather beginning, or do you leave later, so you're in the summer, and you risk possibly dehydration, but then also snow's later on. Just all those choices, like that's the kind of game, there's a lot of games that I want the girls to play, but that game develops so much strategy, and I play games with kids all the time, and I always wonder like what level or what age does like true strategy come online? And I think the answer is like it doesn't until you like you practice this stuff. Like that's when you get really good at, you know, playing Uno and playing the right cards the right times, because I watch kids play these things and like there's no strategy, and maybe it's things like the Oregon Trail that helps you like really think the stuff through, and I don't know, the podcast was awesome. I loved listening to it, it brought back like the memories of, you know, you have to go hunting and you have to have bullets, and there's ricochets and deaths because of that, but you can only beg so much of the things that you shoot, and you have to try and get there before, I can before like the snow, so there's all those little things that is so much strategy built in, and like problem solving because of it, and it was such a fun game because, you know, you put your family in there and you see who makes it, and who doesn't need more to play it again. A very similar game that I also loved, kind of in the same way, that I look back, I'm like, man, I can't believe I had the attention span for that, roller coaster tycoon. I know I've mentioned this before, but the idea of like building a theme park, and you look at the whole thing and the grand scheme of it, and you're like, all right, this line, or this roller coaster has a giant line, and people are getting tired because they're waiting so long, 'cause you can read their thoughts. Do I make the price of that higher by a dollar or a ride, or, oh, that slide ride doesn't have anybody there, I gotta drop the price or make it free, or make the queue longer or shorter, there's, I gotta put bathrooms here, put an extra janitor in this area, there's so much strategy, and games these days just don't have that. And man, I hope, I wanna go back and play to see if I can handle that kind of thing nowadays, but I remember playing those for hours and hours, and there's so much value to that. Again, this is so much more obvious to me, 'cause I work with kids that have problems in these areas, or that have difficulties, or could use a good dose of attention span. But man, these games are so cool, and there's so much value to that, and Oregon Trail, one of them, roller coaster tycoon, I think I got, I was so lucky to play those, I got a lot out of them, and, I don't know, it was cool, I was like, nerdy listening to that kind of thing, but that was cool, Oregon Trail, and roller coaster tycoon, for that matter. All right, I owe you one. ♪ You know who you are, yeah, who you are ♪ This one's quick, I always go on like a walk sit lunch or a run at lunch, 'cause it's the only time that I got to do like my training for all the stuff, and you see a lot of stuff. Like I've been asked, like if I'm a cop, like these two guys, like these two, 19, 20, something year old kids, like, spelled up next to me, and asked if I was a cop walking around, I've been bit by a dog before, like there's wild dogs running around, it's not actually the best part of town, clearly, but you run into stuff. In the other day, I was running up the street on one of my runs, and there's a big school with a big playground right there, and there was this car pulled over on the side of this pretty busy street, and like it's a spot where you're not really supposed to pull over, like it's a narrow road, it's a two-in-road, it's a pretty frequently used to the road fare, and there's like this playground right there, and there's this car stopped, and there's this guy getting out, and he's older, he's probably 60, 70s, and he looks like he's, I don't know, like he's wearing a suit and stuff, like he's like a banker or, you know, now some job that requires you to kind of dress up a little bit, and he's getting out of his car, and he's walking over, and it's like, what is happening? Like there's all these kids playing, like is there something creepy happening, like what is going on? And then it became really obvious, because there's a ball, like these kids must have somehow kicked or thrown this ball over, and it's just sitting on the sidewalk, and it kind of rolled into the street, and this guy was picking up the ball, and walking over, and throwing it back to the kids. Again, busy street didn't have to do it, there's a lot of things happening, but this guy just pulled over, and he's getting this kids ball, as they were playing at lunch, and throwing it back to them, and that was awesome. Like that had been an easy thing just to dry pass, not doing anything about, but the guy was taking some, got the ball, saved it for the kids, and that's cool. That deserves to be recognized. I have no idea who the guy was, he clearly had nothing to gain from it, but he did it, and I think that's awesome. And that's one of the cool things that I like to point on this podcast, because at the end of the day, like that, Otherwise, he wouldn't be recognized, and I don't know who this guy is, but he did a good thing. As my grandma used to say, or maybe. I don't know where my memories come from. I don't know if mom said this or grandma said this. Somebody planted it in my mind, but it's like, he earned a jewel in his halo that day when he did that kind of thing. Just a little things like that. All right, last but not least. All right, listeners, it's time for hidden passions, wild hobbies, and that one thing that he didn't know miles was obsessed with. Buckle up, it's time for Sean's, "What are you into?" Watching it again, the third time through. I love it. Controversial show, but man, lost is so freaking good. I loved it the first time through. I know a lot of people did not like the ending of it. I think it's a very misunderstood show in that regard, because I love the ending. I thought the ending was absolutely spot-on, and you ask nine out of ten people and they're going to say they didn't like the ending. But I could not disagree more. I love it. I think it's perfectly done. It gets captures. Well, it doesn't matter. The ending does not matter, because I don't want to spoil it for anybody who's been fortunate enough not to watch it yet, and still has the lovely five seasons to watch and to fall in love with the show. It's crazy, though, because I watched with the initial time, and then I re-watched it on Hulu probably as 2014-2015. I remember then thing. It's so much time has passed since the original show ran. It had been like eight years. I think the finale was 2029, 2009. So it had been like six years, and I thought that was a long time. It is now 2026. I watched this show now ten years ago. This is the longest it's been since I've watched this show, which is just kind of crazy to think at how time works. This year, this time around, I bought the whole thing. I waited till it was on sale. I got it for like 30 bucks, so I don't have to worry about ads, because ads just kill you, especially in the broadcast TV shows where there's like 24 episodes a season. Most of the seasons have 24. I think there's one that has like three or 13 in it, but it's a lot of episodes, which I think is awesome. I just watched, I just finished watching another show, Chuck, that I loved back in the day. It was another show that was on obviously NBC broadcast TV. Each season was around 24 episodes. You just don't get that nowadays. Obviously there's still broadcast shows. I just don't watch those for whatever reason. I watch all the streaming shows. And obviously, the streaming show is like eight episodes a season, or it might be six or it might be ten. It might run for three or four seasons, because data shows after three seasons, you're not picking up any new subscribers. There's really no reason to keep making shows after that point, unless you got to show like the House of Dragon. But like you, and because of that, you're never going to get the like, here we go again, like the finale, the finale of Chuck was awesome, because it had, you know, what was it? Probably close to a hundred episodes of nostalgia to hit on, of flashbacks. And there's just something so special about Finning Should You Show that you spent so much time with those characters that you're not really going to get anymore. The finale that show is fantastic. But anyways, I'm watching the last now, third time through. It's so cool, because you still pick up on things that you never even realized the first two times through. It's kind of like Harry Potter. Like no matter how many times you read that, there's always going to be something a little that you've never realized and never recognized, but it's, it's really cool not to watch it back. I'm like, oh, that now makes perfect sense. That was the least strengths they put in there. It's great watching it through with no ads. You fly through the episodes. And the one thing about loss, like I've been waiting to rewatch it, because I really wanted to kindle to watch it, because I think it's an awesome show. She watched one episode of it years ago. And the problem with the lost is like the first episode, it doesn't really paint the season or the series justice, because it's scary. It looks like it's like a horror show almost like when you watch it, like the way that the camera does is it does not paint that show justice, because what lost does so well, which I think what every show just kind of tries and tries to do is it's all about character building. And it's all about the characters and all about the story. And loss does that better than the show. The first episode does not paint that picture. But after that, if you're familiar with all with loss, like when you watch an episode, they have like, they kind of focus on one primary character and like, there's flashbacks of like what happened to them right before this, this plane crash, like why they were in Sydney and why they got on the plane. And it does such a good job at just capturing the entire cast, which is huge. Like there's a ton of characters. And it's so well done. Like it just, it weaves together so many things, like there's so much good that comes out of that show as far as like storytelling goes and creativity and wonder and magic. Like it's just, it's a magical show. And I feel like that first episode paints it more as like horror. So no, Kindle's out. And she'll won't watch it, which is such a bummer. So I've given up, I can probably watch it faster without her anyway. So here we are. I think I'm halfway through season one and loving it. Highly recommend. If you've ever watched Lost, it is a, it is a bunch of episodes. Like I said, I bet it's, let's say it's 24 episodes for four seasons. And then you got like a 13 episode season in every thing. There's like a writer's strike. I mean, you're talking over probably 100 episodes. It's like 90 110 episodes somewhere in there. It's a lot. And it's, it's 40 episodes a pop, or 40 minutes a pop for each episode. So it's, it's a chunk. But it is, man, it's worth it. Like you can break it up. It's just, it's a good show. Like watching you got nothing else on when you're all cut up on your other shows. But third time through loving it. It just takes me back to those days. I'm excited to see so many different moments. And like I'm watching it now. Like I don't remember some of the stuff ever happening. Or like I see a character that I know does not make it. And I'm like, I don't remember how they, they died or how they left the show. So just cool. I love, I think I've, I've realized like my favorite shows now to watch the part of the ones that I'm going to go back to over and over and over again that I watched, you know, back in the 2000s or so. Obviously, lots of great shows coming out on streaming. But there's just some shows from back in the day that were so good. And to watch them and have that nostalgic kind of creep in makes it all the better, all the better. All right. That's all I got. Thank you all for listening. I appreciate you all taking the time as always. Amy Gabby Soundbite on the way out. And we'll talk to y'all next week. Bye. Bye, bye, bye, bye. Is Pink Baby in here? I see her. You see her? Yeah. Who else do you see? Who's having? Pink Baby and her stuffy? Yeah. Is that your favorite? Yeah. Go get her. What else is in there? No, my buddy. My buddy. Ready? Yeah.