the first one. [The Counter Hit #1]

finding meaning in the things we love.

That's the counter hit.

From emotional intelligence to Street Fighter, poetry to nature, comic books to other
curious things, and everything in between.

This is the internet show that asks, what can this teach us about being human?

I'm your host Sam Kirk.

Welcome to Team Human.

This is the counter hit.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome, welcome.

It's a pleasure to have you all back here.

That's right, I'm your host, Sam Kirk, here to introduce you all to the brand new spanking
brand new Curiosity Podcast, broadcast, TV show stream, whatever you want to call it,

called The Counter Hit.

Hmm.

It is a delight and a pleasure speaking with all of you again today.

How are we all doing?

How's everyone doing today?

oh

that's right.

You're confused.

I I can see why.

You're wondering, wait, did I did I just subscribe to a new show that I didn't know about?

Was I up late last night?

Scrolling and clicking subscribe to a bunch of random channels, random podcasts, TV shows,
etc., and this just came up in my feed?

No, I promise.

You didn't do any of those things.

I mean, you might have.

You might have seen online bootycall.com and scrolled for that.

But I I assure you that this show is one you have actually subscribed to in the past with
full intentionality.

For you see, this was once called the Zero Dot Podcast.

And it has now transformed, like the beautiful butterfly that it is, into I gotta do this
right.

Hold on.

It has transformed now into the counter hit.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen.

We are now called the counter hit.

Couple pragmatic things for you.

We were once three young men, John Merrick, Sam Kirk, Daniel Prattley, with a mission.

Give young people and not so young people help along the way amongst this crazy ride that
we call life.

With the expertise of John as a counselor slash therapist, my expertise as a leadership
consultant and public speaker, and Daniel's expertise as a creative art director and uh

just overall great dude.

And technical wizard.

Great attention to detail.

And as many things has occurred, life gets in the way.

Uh we believe that Zero Dot has kind of

Reached it the end of its course.

We've talked about all the things we've wanted to talk about.

In addition, our dear partner, John Merrick, has other things he's kind of voyaging
onwards onto.

And so we wish him the absolute best.

We thank him for all of his support.

And we're excited all the same for good old Counter Hit.

What is Counter Hit?

Well, Counter Hit is the show.

That we are making right now, myself and Daniel, that's right, still myself and Daniel
here.

We are making this show for the sole purpose of giving you all the same stuff we had
before.

It's 95% exactly the same show.

But now we're diving into meatier topics.

And I have found, in my own ways of life, traveling across the country, talking to
professionals, young and old, that the best way to give anyone any kind of meaningful help

isn't to directly

Come at you from top the clouds and scream at you, these are the ways in which you should
be doing things.

But rather just simply just talk about other stuff and just let the other stuff
organically come through.

The counter hit is our way of, well, punching back at everything that punches us.

Instead of taking it on the chin, counteracting in some way, the way that would make sense
for us, whether it's with a smile, a hug, or maybe some other kind of punch.

Have you ever tried to counteract?

Counter hit like a punch?

Like someone's punching you and you're punching them back.

Have you tried that?

Um, I haven't.

That would be really awkward, really weird, really bizarre.

But all the same, I think it's about time we dive into uh our show for the day.

And to get us started, we'll be talking about, well, some tragedy that's going on here in
the United States.

We're also gonna be talking about some good stuff happening in the international world of
sports.

Um, talking about some nerdy stuff like video games.

I heard you guys like video games.

That might be a thing we talk about today.

And, you know, just kind of some musings that I might have in my mind about what we can do
to be a peaceful yet deliberate rebel in the face of the things that we sometimes we like

feel like we have no control over.

But before we get to all that, let's bring up the mood a little bit and talk about some
pop culture stuff.

For instance, the movies.

This might be the very last week or weekend, depending on when you're listening to this
episode of the show, where you're able to watch DC Studios' second project in theaters

right now called Supergirl.

That's right.

Uh July 29th, 28th, they are bringing Supergirl off to streaming services.

So you can watch it that way as well.

But if you want to watch it in theaters, now might be the time to watch it while you still
can, while there's a couple available seats.

And I'll have to tell you, I went ahead and saw Supergirl over the weekend.

The theater was pretty empty.

Myself and my wife who went to go see Supergirl.

I was excited to watch it.

I was I'm just a fan of James Gunn.

I'm a fan of what they're trying to do with uh that entire universe.

Um didn't find it in me to watch it earlier because you know I'm a busy guy, I'm working
hard.

but you know, uh the project seemed interesting, you know, directed by Craig Gillespie, uh
written by Anna Noguiera.

Nogiera, pr apologies if I'm mispronouncing that.

supposedly the script is something of just magic and majesty.

We're talking about a project that um James Young was so excited about that it wasn't
necessarily going to be the next movie after Superman, but the script was so good, they

just simply had to make it.

and then the movie comes out and people are very split on the movie.

People are feeling all kinds of things.

They're

Some group of people are really upset and angry.

Some people think it's a lot of fun.

There's a lot of people that feel like it's somewhere in between.

And a lot of people are going, did Peter Saffron and James Gunn go wrong here?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Well, I do know now because I went ahead and watched the movie.

Um I wanted to see with my own eyes and ears how the movie is.

And um my own hot take is that it's fine.

It's pretty good.

End of podcast.

That is it.

No, there's a little more to it than that.

it is it is a fine, fine movie.

Um, I have seen a lot of really bad comic book movies in my day.

Um, which I'm this is what I'm calling it, a comic book movie.

I don't like the term superhero movie.

Um, I just don't like that and have never liked it.

It's more it's a comic book movie.

It's based off of a comic book.

supposedly the script is based off of a world renowned graphic novel.

Specifically called, let me get the num name right.

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow.

Full disclosure, I've not read the book.

I would love to read the book.

I the book is by Tom King and Bill Quest Evelie, if I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Um it's based on that graphic novel.

and yeah, the movie includes Lobo.

I'm sure you've seen that from the trailers.

Jason Mamoa, he appears as a rebranded logo.

his prior role as being a good old Aquaman is being retconned a little bit, as all things
are now in James Gunn's new continuity here.

Uh and the movie shows Supergirl kind of reconciling with her dark past.

she's she's got a little bit of a history here.

Uh

I'm gonna go over some very light spoilers, but I won't talk about all the itty bitty
gritty things in case you want to watch it by yourself.

but Supergirl's um lore is similar to Superman's in many ways.

She is from Krypton.

She's a cousin of sorts.

yet she has a little bit more tragedy in her life because.

She saw the fall of Krypton, and then had to deal with the aftermath of it for several
years before she came to Earth.

Unlike good old Clark Kent Kallell, who basically, as a baby orphan, just got teleported
over to Earth.

So there's that element, but then there's also other elements.

Uh there's elements of another story happening at the same time.

Ruthie Mary Knoll.

A young girl who um goes through her own tragedy, loses her entire family due to creme of
the yellow hills, as they it's called in this movie.

Uh, and she is off to recruit Supergirl and needs Supergirl's help.

At the same time, Supergirl is hanging out, partying in planets that have a red sun for
the sole purpose that well, as a Kryptonian, if you are hanging out in red sun planets.

As opposed to yellow sun planets like Earth, your powers are vastly diminished and you can
get drunk.

So she is literally just trying to get drunk because she can't get drunk otherwise.

Um, I'm gonna kind of go over some broad strokes about the movie.

one of the things that I struggled with with the film was I I felt, first of all, that the
it has too many introductions.

And by introductions I mean it has an intro with Supergirl, it has an intro with Ruthie.

Then as a second kind of introduction of who Supergirl is, and then more Ruthie.

And then it takes a while for us to kind of get that hero moment out of Supergirl where we
really see Supergirl kind of we get that tease at the promise of what's to come.

You know, that's why in writing and in creative writing, you're supposed to see the
promise very early on.

And take us takes us a while to see that promise.

Um so I I think i if I were to rearrange it, I I think I would actually remix it so we
don't see Supergirl right away and we slowly kind of

figure out who Supergirl is throughout the story.

Instead, they spend a lot of time dipping between Ruthie and and Supergirl.

And in that way, I'd say that my crit biggest criticism of the film is that I believe the
film is struggling with who is the main character slash protagonist slash the lens of

which we are watching everything.

You think at times that it's Ruthie, that she the that she's the main character and that
it's a movie about Supergirl.

But Supergirl is not the main character.

And then at other times you feel like, no, Supergirl is the main character, and Ruthie is
the side character.

And I feel like the movie switches between those interchangeably, uh, without too much
direction.

I would say there are some moments in the film that feel very James Gunny, and that's
mostly a compliment.

there are some real heartfelt moments in the middle act, the second act of the film,
that's like, wow, you know.

I was getting kind of lost in the sauce, like where the emotional through line of this
movie was.

But now that I I have a couple of scenes here, I can kind of latch on to something.

Not how I thought I was gonna latch on to, because uh again, I think the movie and the
structure is that Ruthie is supposed to be the emotional core of the movie, but it ends up

not that it doesn't end up quite exactly happening.

and then a lot of people have criticism about the end of the film.

I will simply say there is an end of film needle drop that in my opinion is incredibly
incredibly uh off taste, we'll say, uh kind of a little off brand.

Um feels like it tries too hard.

if you watch it and you get to that kind of end of the movie climactic needle drop moment.

you you'll hear it and maybe you'll agree or disagree.

and it's also sad that the needle drop moment is a remix of a song, not the original song.

And that song is one that I I love quite dearly, and in fact it's one of my wife's
favorite songs of all time.

It just feels incredibly forced.

and then on top of all this, uh Jason Momoa as Lobo, you know, he's fabulous when he's in
it.

Really, he's great and he's having the time of his life.

But

I kept asking myself, like, what's his real purpose in the movie?

Like w w he doesn't really advance the plot too much.

He doesn't, you know, he he's the one that kind of knows where the creme are, and kind of
guides, doesn't really even guide Supergirl and Ruthie there because he ends up getting

captured himself.

Uh, makes a weird unofficial bargain with Ruthie to kind of help if so such and such thing
occurs.

He shows up in the final battle, but kind of inconsequentially, like I don't think he was
really necessary.

And then he kind of goes off into the distance, up, up and away, like insert meme of
Sailor Sailor Moon, where Sailor Moon's like, but you did nothing.

And he goes, Wee!

I'm gone.

Uh that's literally how it felt.

and then and the movie kind of dovetails into what I assume is gonna be Superman 2.

Dave, uh

David Cornsweat is in the film in a handful of scenes.

but each time he's in it, he absolutely steals it.

I'm a really big fan of Superman, the the film Superman, his version of Superman.

It's a great film, great character, great interpretation, and he absolutely gets the
assignment.

Um, absolutely flawless.

Also, uh Millie Alcock, who plays the character of Supergirl.

I think she also does a tremendous job.

Um, I think she is burdened by not the best script.

Which is strange because apparently the script was so strong they had to make the movie.

But something something's funny about the whole thing.

Something feels off.

There's moments when the movie feels like it is completely in tune with itself.

And there are moments when the movie feels like it is absolutely stumbling on itself.

Like it just can't it can't quite get it right.

and then afterwards, I went ahead and just did some research.

And supposedly,

There was kind of a studio head fight about the movie between Craig Gillespie and James
Gunn.

Uh apparently um they weren't able to make the movie work for test audiences.

And then they had like a competition where multiple cuts existed where Dave uh Craig
Gillespie made his cut.

James Gunn made his cut.

Craig Gillespie's cut is apparently eight minutes longer than James Gunn's cut, but James
Gunn's cut did like two percentage points better.

For tet for test audiences.

So for that reason and that reason alone, they went with it.

And I'm just baffled by that.

Um, I'm just totally 100% baffled.

I'm curious now what was Craig's version of the film that was so bad.

It was two percentage points off.

Um, nothing amazing, by the way.

I mean, apparently it was like in the 70s or 60s as far as how the the movie scored.

Um, I'm just so surprised that they had such a strong script.

They get the movie and it's like, it's kind of a mess.

Apparently there was a little bit of reshoots here and there.

Don't know how what that manifested with, although I have an idea.

There's a certain flashback sequence in the film that feels it's a good flashback
sequence, but it definitely feels different than everything else in the movie.

So it wouldn't surprise me if that is what um, you know, got reshot.

Um, but overall, the movie's fine.

I I'm saying a lot about it, but I mean, it's fine.

I think it's gonna be a movie that does a lot better in the rental space and in the
streaming space.

You know?

It's uh it's a Sunday afternoon, you gotta fold laundry, pop on some super girl while
you're doing that, have a have a glass of wine or a beer or some kind of beverage in hand.

It's a f it's a movie to kind of crack wise at.

Uh I I can absolutely say it's been a minute since I've seen the other Supergirl movie,
the the first one.

I can absolutely say it is infinitely better than that movie.

Now, I should probably rewatch that movie just to make sure, but I distinctly remember the
original Supergirl movie being painful to watch.

So

All in all, good movie.

Do I recommend it?

Eh.

If you're in the mood.

I think it's a shame that girls with uh not girls, um, comic book heroes that happen to be
female, that identify as female, that get the superhero movie or comic book movie

treatment.

They have such an uphill battle, and it's an uphill battle because there's just this
trending behavior of like not having the best movies come out.

No.

I can't say too much.

I thought Wonder Woman was fine.

I didn't see Wonder Woman eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four.

I didn't see that movie.

probably should.

but I mean I just it just seems like they it gets a bad rap.

And I I feel so sorry for those that love the character Supergirl, that love um Kara, that
love the graphic novel even.

Again, a graphic novel that I should absolutely follow up on and read.

that apparently is really good.

and I feel bad for Anna, Anna Noguiera, who

Who wrote the screenplay apparently was so good.

I I would hate to read that screenplay and think to myself, shoot, Craig or James Gunn or
Peter Saffron or any of the creatives behind the project kind of screwed it up, in my

opinion.

Tatiana S.

Regal and Fred Raskan are credited as being the editors for the project.

So uh dual editors there.

Uh Sematography by Rob Hardy.

there's a couple other people that show up in the movie that might surprise you.

I won't name who those people are, but nothing.

Nothing crazy, just more of like, wow, that actor's in this movie.

That's kind of wild.

But in any case.

Pretty good movie.

Pretty good a movie.

What's coming up next is we definitely have to uh be ready and watch The Odyssey by
Christopher Nolan.

I have not yet seen it.

Um looking forward to hopefully by the next podcast, next broadcast, I will be watching
that with uh the wife.

We're gonna hopefully see it in IMAX.

Let us know.

Let me know if you've seen it.

You know, what are your thoughts on it?

I'm a huge Christopher Nolan fan.

I've seen every single movie of his except for Tenet.

And I really should fix that.

The only reason I didn't Tenet was because it came out right around COVID, and that's when
I was kind of staying away from the movie theaters at that point.

But I've seen every other Christopher Nolan film.

I've loved and enjoyed all of them.

Even Dark Knight Rises.

Uh Love Dunkirk.

Oppenheimer was great.

Uh so I'm really curious to see how the Odyssey goes.

Surprised we're not doing the Iliad first.

Maybe the Iliad's coming up second.

Who knows?

The movie's getting grave reviews.

Uh, and we'll have to check that out next time.

So uh that's it for movies today.

I think now we gotta dive into some more of our meteor, maybe slightly depressing topics,
but good topics all the same.

Let's talk about humanity.

July 7th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Arajo
while on his way to work.

Mr.

Salgado Arajo lived in the United States for 35 years, raising three boys who are U.S.

citizens.

ICE later admitted Mr.

Salgado Arajo wasn't the person they were after.

He supposedly resembled their target.

Whatever that means.

And days later, ICE shot and killed Johann Sebastian Duran Guillermo, a 26 year old man
living in Maine.

His wife and three year old daughter watched in horror as he took his last breaths.

ICE again admitted that he was not the intended target of their operation.

That same day, a man in Florida died during a highway traffic stop.

This comes paraphrased from an action.

Coming from American Civil Liberties Union home.

Um, there's a petition that we'll provide here in the description here in just a little
bit below.

So you can sign it and make a message known to the US Hout, US House and Senate.

but full disclosure and full full transparency right here.

This is not the first time we've talked about ICE here on this zero dot entity now known
as the counter hit.

Lorenzo Salgado Arajo.

Johann Sebastian Guerrero, Ruben Ray Martinez, Alex Predi, Renee Good, don't forget those
names.

Right now in the United States, we are being run by an entity, a force within our US
government that has absolutely no regulation.

No ability for us to do anything beyond just demand from Congress, demand from the
president, that regulations are put for these agents.

They're running amok and they are basically allowed to do whatever it is they want to do.

The National Immigration Project reports on July 15th those that died in ICE custody, that
as of July 15th of 2026, at least 22 people have reportedly died in ICE custody this year.

Twenty-two people this year.

And in twenty twenty five, ICE reported thirty-three detainee deaths, the highest total in
more than over two decades.

As of early April, the agency continues to hold over sixty thousand immigrants in
detention.

They say the spectacle of so called enforcement, the raids, the numbers, the performance
of control requires reducing people to props, human beings to bodies.

More people with more people detained means more people will die.

And at this pace, we can expect the twenty twenty six death toll to break last year's
record.

Once again, coming from the National Immigration Project.

It is really difficult and painful to be an American right now, to be a US citizen.

It is it is challenging.

It is okay to be angry.

It's okay to be sad.

It's okay to be frustrated.

It's okay It's okay to bury your head in sand sometimes.

It's okay to feel.

It's okay to wonder how is this all happening?

It's okay if you avoid the subject with friends and family, and it's okay if you bring it
up with friends and family.

All of those are okay.

Every single one.

But I offer another view.

No matter what we do, no matter what you're gonna be doing, no matter what I'm gonna be
doing, I think it's important that we don't forget the people that are impacted.

We don't forget what's happening.

Because it's my belief that we are now swinging the tide, as they say.

Things are swinging back in a in a direction that I think is more positive pr for team
human.

Truly.

I I really do believe that.

And it's important that we don't lose sight of all the things that have happened.

In this two year span, eighteen months, two years, twenty months, and the years before in
the prior election, we cannot forget this stuff.

Because there's gonna be a time when we finally get a shot to correct some wrongs, and I
would hate for some of these things to get slipped through the cracks.

I'd hate for it.

And it pains me that there are people, there are family members that are

They lost really good people.

People that were innocent.

And we are forced to watch.

Yet with all of that, I offer something else.

You can call it hope if you'd like.

Just observations.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a leadership consultant, public speaker.

I travel around the country talking to professionals of all different kinds of ages,
different kinds of industries, and we talk about a lot of things, like developing the

leadership skills of themselves, focusing on the next generation, which is really
important.

We also focus, at least I focus, on

Being authentic and being real, asking hard questions and letting the room kind of
permeate its own kind of answers.

I often say what's shared in these sessions stays in these sessions, but what's learned
here leaves here.

I want to offer a couple of themes that I hear in these conversations that we have when we
talk about stuff like this.

When we talk about what's going on in the world.

Yes, it's usually an elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.

That's true.

That's absolutely true.

Yeah.

Go a little bit deeper, just a smidge, and something comes through.

This overall theme that no matter where you fall on any kind of political spectrum,

This isn't what anyone wanted.

On top of that.

No matter how you voted.

There's pain and suffering.

There's a chaos, and there's almost an amount of disbelief.

The people that are happy with how things are going right now in the United States, here
in the Americas, those happy people, I don't get to talk to them.

I don't get to talk to them because it is my belief that in the circles that I'm in, which
is pro-human, pro-life, not pro-life, sorry.

Take that back.

That's that's a

weaponized term for something else.

Pro human, pro-team human, you know, everyone and kind of being in this together.

Um, they're not in the circles that I'm in.

Because those those people remain quiet in those types of discussions.

But those that are open and express things, they express a want for things to move in the
other direction.

And so I offer a little bit of hope in that there is desire, there is a belief, there's
some kind of force that is saying, we've got to do a little bit better this time.

We've got to change things for the next generation because if we don't

then what will be left for us?

There is a want for this.

There's a real desire for this to happen.

How that other manifests, I I can't say for certain.

But I but I can absolutely say that if you're feeling alone right now, if you feel like
you are tribalized, you versus them, that's what the other guys think.

The rest of us, we're all trying to gat gather our resources, gather our forces, whatever
we are, and make sure we're united fronts and trying to fight the big bad, whatever that

is.

And I want to offer this probably isn't much.

But want to offer one resource if you haven't checked it out already.

Um, there's a YouTube channel by the name of Police Activity.

It's YouTube.com at policeactivity.

They have a Patreon page as well.

And all they do is they have 2,700 videos plus of just uneditorialized, uncommentary, just
raw footage of police officers doing their job.

Good and sometimes bad.

It's there for you to keep yourself mindful of.

I also offer to all of you that go ahead and bury your head in sand for now, but there's
gonna be a time when we're gonna need to keep track of all the things that are occurring,

keep our receipts wherever we can, and hold our representatives accountable, hold our
government accountable, and hold our our brothers and sisters accountable and not let this

ever happen again.

We're in a really bad wave right now.

There's a bad way of happening all across the board.

I mean, as a United States citizen, it is really, really, really not fun to be in the
situation that we're in.

I mean, we're also at war in a war that no one ever asked for.

But we can at least on home soil.

Be there for each other.

I was in Minneapolis weeks after the shooting of Alex Predi and Renee Good.

And there was an overwhelming sense of community and good.

If you remember, John Merrick, uh, from Minnesota in the Minneapolis area, said exactly
the same thing.

There is something to be said about community.

Um, I have a colleague who lives in Minneapolis and she said she went to town hall not
town hall meetings, group meetings, uh

kind of uh town watch meetings to kind of uh apprise yourself of what to do if an ice
agent comes and and makes you surrounding the ice agent and or agents with en masse with

the community and group so they have nowhere else to hide.

Stuff like that is massive.

And if if the legislation and government isn't gonna step up, then we as the people can
absolutely step up.

So once again, one more time.

Lorenzo Salgado.

Arajo Johan Sebastian Guerrero Ruben Rey Martinez Alex Pretti Rene Good

Let's never forget.

oh

Hey, is this your first time listening to our show?

If so, welcome aboard.

Thanks for being here.

Did you know that we have a Patreon page for extra stuff, extra content, and all kinds of
good stuff?

That's right.

You can find us at patreon.comslash zero dot media, where many people have already donated
their time and resources to invest in the Zero Dot Dream.

I want to give a big shout out to Rags.

David Rivera, God of Grunts, Aid, JP, William Kirk, and Robert Reston for investing in the
Zero Dot Dream.

For a measly $3.99 or your regional equivalent, you get access to our episodes and shows
sooner.

You get access to first look at another show we are working on right now as we speak.

That's right.

Right now as we speak, we are working on a brand new show.

On top of the counter hit show.

It's like two shows in one.

That's right.

And then on top of all that, if that wasn't enough, we also give you a Patreon specific
highlight show that is only to be released in Patreon, nowhere else.

So you're basically getting three shows for the price of one for only $3.99.

And that price, when you get in right now, will never go up for you.

That's pretty significant.

That's pretty cool.

And this is just scratching the surface.

We've got a lot more stuff coming through.

So once again, come join us at patreon.com/slash zero dot media.

Become a member today.

Come join the fam.

and by the way, you also get access to a private Patreon-only Discord to hang out with
myself and Daniel.

That's right.

Get to hang out with us.

Chill, vibe, ask us questions, give us feedback, all that good stuff.

So if you're interested, come check out our Patreon.

We'd love to have you.

I'll talk about a little bit more throughout the episode.

Otherwise, let's carry on.

This good news comes from us from Blue Sky.

That's right.

Beautiful and wonderful things come from all different kinds of places.

And this comes from Unglam.

That's U-N-G-L-A-M-B-Is and Boy.bsky dot social.

And this is a highlight from the World Cup of all things.

The quote here is regarding one of the famous players that got to win the World Cup on
American soil.

Uh

Two Sundays ago, and I'm going to directly quote the quotation, the citation right here,
right now.

The quote is: Spain won the World Cup on American soil on Sunday, and one of the brand new
champions is a man who paints his nails against homophobia and calls the fight for gay

acceptance essential, quote.

His name is Boria Iglesias.

At 33, he was the oldest player in Spain's squad, a Celta Vigo forward, the fans call the
panda, quote.

And on Sunday, he helped beat Argentina 1-0 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

He's straight.

He spent years painting his nails as a protest against homophobia in a sport that has
never made much room for it, and it has cost him.

When opposing fans scream slurs, his answer never wavers.

He'd rather be gay than be like the guy with nothing better to do than abuse people after
a match.

He says, quote, what bothers me is that a gay person is afraid to come out.

He has said, quote, not being able to be yourself and love who you want is unacceptable,
which is why the fight against homophobia is essential.

End quote.

Earlier this year, after he was abused for simply handing his shirt to a supporter,
thousands of Celta fans turned up to the next match with their own nails painted.

The man they stood behind just won the World Cup, painted nails and all.

I want to give a big shout out to this individual in particular.

Um

I would call this a zero dot person right now.

fighting the good fight.

When even when it seems like you have nothing invest in the fight, doing the right thing
in just the smallest of ways possible.

Just the smallest bit of rebellion, the smallest bit of

I don't even want to call it malicious compliance, just the smallest bit of just like
expressing yourself in a way that if you're really fighting me about this, if you're

fighting me on this issue, what does that say about you versus anyone else?

So Boria, Iglesias, thank you so much for all that you've done, not just for winning the
World Cup, but thank you for your uh ambassadorship towards homosexuality.

Thank you for being a voice for the LGBTQ plus community, and thank you for fighting the
good fight.

When I think about this, I think about another story, an older story.

Uh

Story we've probably heard many times before.

And that is of Tank Man.

Remember Tankman?

Tankman was an unidentified individual, presumed to be a Chinese man, who stood in front
of a column of Type 59 tanks near Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 5th, 1989.

You probably know the picture.

Very emblematic.

A man holding some groceries standing in front of a tank and shouting at them for them to.

The history of this man is interesting because we don't know who Tankman was.

And afterwards, there's a lot of speculation as to whether the Chinese government took
hotel tank man, whether they sequestered him, ta tackled him.

Some people believe he's right now in the in the mountains, in a in a Buddhist monastery.

We've heard all different kinds of myths on where he might be.

Um in July twenty seventeenth, it was reported by Apple Daily that Tankman's real name was
Zhang Weyman, a native of Xiingshan, Beijing.

Who was 24 years old back in 1989?

The man who gave the story claimed that he was in the same cell with Zhang in Beijing Jia
Qing prison.

The verdict stated that he struck a tank with a brick and was initially sentenced to life
imprisonment, which was later reduced to 20 years.

After winning an award at Xing Xia Qing Prison, he was released in per on parole in 2007.

After his release, however, he had no relatives or housing and developed a gambling habit.

A few years later, he was imprisoned at Qinhua Prison.

And the sentence was increased by two years.

According to the article, Zhang has been as still being held in the eleventh division of
Kenhua prison.

And at the time of the article's publication, he was spec be released shortly, if that's
to be truth, if that's to be said.

Meanwhile, in two thousand with Mike Wallace, Jiang said, he was never arrested, quote,
uh, I don't care where he is now, many people have said.

So uh who knows?

Uh it is a myth.

Myth whoever this person is.

But what I think is most important is what we carry away from Tankman.

You know, Tankman is one of my great inspirations.

Doing the right thing and then getting the hell out of the way afterwards.

Um, not trying to be anything more than that.

Um, I I I won't say that we've done anything close to that here at Zero Dot, but I'm proud
of the 34 episodes we made at Zero Dot Podcast.

And we kind of asked ourselves, have we said all we wanted to say?

And the answer was, eh, we can always say more, but I think we've done we've gotten a good
foundation there.

And we can keep things moving on here over at Counter Hit.

Um, but in the same way, I think all human beings can learn the lesson of just taking
small itty-bitty steps in rebelling against anything and taking a stand.

This is huge.

This is massive.

Um, we need more of this.

I think we need more of this than we ever have.

I think we've forgotten the power and value of doing these things.

I think we've forgotten the the utility of it.

and so I I love hearing these stories.

I love seeing it.

And I'm grateful for people like Boria Iglesias.

Thank you.

Or good news coming our way.

But now in the the vein of video games.

That's right, video games.

Video games are a thing.

And we've got some good news when it comes to video games.

This comes actually from Instagram.

It's a repost of a repost, um, citing some academic research as it comes to video games.

this comes from Jaiji playing or Jaiji underscore playing at Instagram.

reading academic research on video games is my other hobby, they say, besides playing
games.

and we have some

Very interesting little highlights here I want to highlight right now.

The post says most interesting scientific studies about games by the way.

First one comes Playing Power Wash Simulator makes you instantly happier?

Question mark.

As in 15 minutes within doing so.

This comes from a study coming from Oxford, a study called Effective Uplift During Video
Game Play, a naturalistic case study.

the summary of that says, Do video games affect players' well-being?

In this case study, we examined 1,600, I'm sorry, 162,325 intensive longitudinal in-game
mood reports from 67,328 play sessions of 8,695 players of the popular game, Power Wash

Simulator.

We compared players' moods at the beginning of play sessions with their moods during play
and found that the average player reported a.02.

three, four visual analog scale units, greater mood during at the beginning of the play
sessions.

So during playing versus the beginning of play sessions.

Moreover, we predict that seventy two point one percent of similar players experience this
effective uplift during play, that the bulk of of it happens during the first fifteen

minutes of play.

Ooh, that's nice.

The first fifteen minutes.

You know, I'm one that usually believes that, you know, I can't really get in the groove
with things until I've got like a good hour.

But this says 15 minutes or less, and you've already started to unlock some of that good
mood, whatever that means.

The summary says we do not know whether these results indicate casual effects or to what
extent they generalize to other games or other player populations.

Yet these results, based on in-game subjective reports from players of a popular
commercially available game, suggest good external validity, valid validity, as such,

offer a promising glimpse of the scientific value of

Of transparent industry academic uh collaboration to understanding the psychological roles
of popular digital entertainment.

Once again, the paper comes from Oxford.

Super exciting stuff.

But that's just tip of the iceberg because we got more studies coming in from us.

This study says playing Super Mario induces structural plane uh brain plasticity.

Gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game.

What?

Playing Super Mario 64 is good for brain.

Plasticity.

They played apparently the the DS version, which is a little sus in my opinion.

I'm a big fan of uh big fan of the Super Mario 64 on the original cartridge, but you know,
all being said, it uh it appears that uh brain matter changes and they showed cerebral

structural plasticity changes and gray matter increase when playing Super Mario Sixty
Four.

Um this was a study, uh

Ranging uh playing people were playing this for about two months on and off for about 30
minutes per day.

Um, and they were seeing that benefit go through for those individuals.

Kind of crazy, kind of cool, one of my favorite games of all time.

I'm not gonna complain about that.

Wait, there's even more.

There's a study coming out here from here.

Video games can increase creativity, but with caveats, specifically being playing
Minecraft boosts creativity.

But only when you play without goals.

Ooh.

So if you have the specific goal of trying to quote unquote beat the game of Minecraft or
do well, maybe that's a little bit different than just playing with creativity in mind.

Um, very fascinating.

The participants were asked to imagine and draw aliens and do all different kinds of
things in the study.

And they found that creativity got boosted from that.

That's pretty fantastic.

More studies coming through.

Portal 2 literally trains your problem solving, spatial skill, and ability to face
challenges.

The power of play, the effects of Portal 2, and lumosity on cognitive and non-cognitive
skills.

Ooh, fantastic.

I mean, Portal 2 is a f amazing, fantastic game that doesn't surprise me in any kind of
capacity, but so good to see.

And what's most important is that uh Gigi Playing highlights that there's a lot of
meta-analysis studies on gaming, but it's on the lens of

Gaming disorders, quote unquote.

there's a meta-analysis called Global Prevalence of Gaming Disorders, a systemic review
and meta-analysis.

She basically cites that there's so many academic institutions that focus and get research
funding specifically to focus on the negative influences of gaming, with very few studies

offering the opposite.

So the question is like, are we trying to look for, you know, are are we looking for a red
herring here?

Right?

Are we looking for red?

I I don't know.

I don't know.

You tell me.

I'm a I'm a big fan of gaming.

I love video gaming.

I think it's great.

I'm willing to entertain all different kinds of ideas about video games, the
overconsumption of video games, just like anything.

The overconsumption of anything can be harmful.

But uh it doesn't surprise me that some of these good studies when it comes to changing
your brain and changing how you think about things and enhancing creativity and all that

good stuff.

Um,

It doesn't surprise me that these are coming out to be true.

There's even studies about how gaming is genuinely beneficial for elderly people as well.

Um, the effect of video game based interventions on performance of cognitive function in
older adults.

this is a a Bayesian uh network meta-analysis.

and there are countless studies in this regard of of older individuals focusing on
processing speed, working memory, attention, executive functioning, um, and video game

interventions may have been effective in that regard.

I mean, that's

That's pretty cool.

That's pretty exciting.

So this and many more.

If you like some of these tidbits, go check out Gigi underscore playing on Instagram.

And big shout out to my lovely wife, Crystal Kirk, for highlighting this for me.

Um, we love the good news here about video games.

we love video games here on the counter hit.

we're gamers ourselves.

Um, and we think there's a lot to offer here.

Fun fact, I was uh a fighting game video game coach for Evolution Fighting Game
Championship 2024 for for 12.

Different people competing in Grand Blue, Guilty Gear, um, and Street Fighter Six.

and I I'm sorry, one person was playing Tekken as well.

So I've been a coach um in all different combined capacities, and it was really fun to be
a coach for people in the esports space.

I'm a big fan of it.

I think it helps in a lot of different ways.

Um, let us know what other studies you might have found when it comes to gaming, whether
it's a gaming disorder, bad stuff, or it's good stuff.

We'd love to hear it here on the counter hit um because we're fans of it here.

Nice.

So it's been a week.

And um, if you're listening to this as it's being aired, the prior weekend was a kind of a
cool weekend for betas and demos.

Specifically, Marvel Tokan Fighting Souls.

That is right.

A new fighting game on the prowl.

Only a few weeks until that game officially releases.

The beta was announced.

Um, well, came out for over the weekend.

It was a free beta.

You didn't have to pre order anything, you didn't have to confirm any purchases.

You can play it on Steam, you can play it on Epic Mega Games, you can play it on the
PlayStation hardware, and you can play Tokan Fighting Souls.

real quick, why are we calling it betas?

Like real talk, why why why why do we call it a beta?

If the game is like two weeks away from being released, the game's done.

It's printed.

It's gold.

They're doing a couple patches here and there, but there's no beta.

A beta is like when we're really far away from release.

I I don't know what it is, but we've we've gotten into this habit of calling any fighting
game first look when you get like a network test of kinds, when you get to kind of test

the network capability and play it online and play it ahead of time.

We're calling them betas now, even when the game's kind of like mostly finished.

I don't know.

That drives me nuts.

But anyway, Marvel took on Fighting Souls.

Had a beta.

I got to play a little bit of it.

What did you think about it?

What'd you what did you get a chance to play it?

Uh Marvel took on Fighting Souls is Arxis' answer to the Marvel kind of fighting game
schism.

so yeah, for those of you that don't know, um Marvel.

Characters in a fighting game are probably most famous for their appearance in the Marvel
versus Capcom franchise, which is developed by Capcom.

I thought they were gonna make another one after they announced the Marvel versus Capcom
kind of legacy collection that came out a while ago, um, or fighting game collection,

whatever it was called, um, arcade classics.

just seemed like a no brainer.

Um

But I guess something fell through.

There's some kind of business deal happening behind the scenes, and Sony gave Arxis money
and Disney was okay with it.

And so now we're in the space of playing an Arxis fighting game that's got Marvel
characters, and no Capcom characters, which I gotta be honest, feels a little weird as a

fighting game fan.

That being said, what I saw was pretty cool.

it was very, very neat.

The beta uh was fascinating in a lot of different ways.

Um, it surprised me in a lot of different ways, positive and negative.

and I'll be curious to see what the final release looks like.

Uh, Fighting Souls is a game that is being supplied by or partially funded by Sony.

So one of the interesting caveats about Tokan Fighting Souls is that you log on, and I
played it on PC on the good old Steam version.

It requires you to have a Sony login.

You can't just

Play online with your Steam login and your credentials.

It requires a Sony login.

This is kind of fascinating.

Because Sony made an announcement that they weren't going to bring any of their
PlayStation games to PC anymore.

But I think they're making an exception for this one because it's Arxis and it's a
fighting game and you need to make sure that you play as many of these games and have as m

access to as many players as you possibly can.

So that's I guess that we're just breaking the rules here.

but yeah, so that was definitely not great.

on the technical side of things, I did not enjoy

the game because it kept crashing on me.

Uh no lie.

It d did have a lot of issues, stuttering issues, frame rate issues.

I have a pretty good rig.

I have a a forty ninety, which isn't bad.

Should have been able to run it no matter what resolution I had it.

And I put it at one point I put it at seven twenty to try to make the performance better
and it was better, but it's like at what cost?

but uh that's all stuff that I'm sure will get fixed in time.

Um playing the game and kind of getting my hands on the game, a couple of observations
came through.

Um

First of all, if if you're a fan of fighting games, you might have a controller of choice
you like to play fighting games on.

And luckily, Marvel Tokon um offers different options for playing on a dual sense or a
gamepad, playing on a leverless, which is becoming kind of the most popular way to play

fighting games these days.

And then, of course, good old fashioned true blue arcade sticks.

Except I couldn't find an option to like default change the controls to uh

Any of those options?

Like the way the controls work, they seem geared towards a game pad.

But I plugged my arcade stick into it.

I it didn't change the controls.

It didn't make it different.

It didn't transform it into an arcade functional layout.

It was using a game pad layout on the arcade stick.

Um I found that strange.

So I had to Google and find a resource where fighting or Marvel Tokom, the ArcSys Debs,
made a fun little graphic and showed you.

Different layouts for these controller types.

And I had to manually change my controls for this.

Um, so if you're keeping score, I play on an arcade stick.

Um, the top buttons is light, medium, heavy, and the fourth button could be quick dash if
you wanted it to be.

And the bottom buttons is assist, uh, the unique attack, and then the quick switch, and
then the the last button is the the team attack button or the the tag button, I suppose.

Might want to change that up a little bit depending on your preferences, but I went with
that default scheme when I was playing the game on my good old arcade stick.

the graphics look gorgeous, commands are great, the moves feel good, the the controls and
everything feels like a mix of Grand Blue versus Rising, and Marvel, I suppose.

Marvel versus fighters of that ilk.

And to me, that's a little strange, but uh what whatever.

You know, I can get used to it, I suppose.

Something that kind of

Was bizarre to me personally was how slow the game felt and how fast the game felt.

It was both of those things.

Like, for instance, dashes were pretty good.

They felt good, buttons felt good, combos felt good, launchers felt good, but general walk
speed was incredibly slow.

And this is a common thing I see in modern fighting games today.

I'm finding that general walk speed is slow, but then you have dashes and everything else,
so the game ends up feeling

Faster, I suppose.

Um, I find this strange.

Uh as someone who still plays older fighting games, I always find it strange when we add a
dash to a game and it doesn't make the game any faster.

We actually slow down the game so that way the dash isn't too fast.

It just seems seems silly.

Um this is an old, old, old problem we've had for a long time.

I mean, think about Street Fighter 2 hyper fighting.

An old, old, old game, right?

This was a game that brought Street Fighter 2 and made it fast, like the Rainbow Edition.

Except, fun fact, this is important for you to know, okay?

This is important.

Did you know that if if they sped up the game at the speed in which they did for
hyperfighting and they kept everything else the same, the fireballs and Dalsum's drills

would be too good, too strong, they'd be too fast.

So in hyperfighting, when they sped up the game,

They actually had to.

Reduce the speed of fireballs and reduce the speed of Dalsum's drills.

Just to make it kind of all work out.

You won't notice that when you go from Champion Dishan, the slower version of the game, to
hyperfighting, but it's true, they had to do that.

And I'm always fascinated when they do this.

Like we demand speed, we demand snappiness, we demand fast responses.

And yet, I don't know, like walk speed used to be pretty fast.

I'd rather have a just a generally a fast walk speed and and

Honestly, don't even need a dash, especially if you're dashing all the time.

Like most players are going to be using the fastest way of transportation in a in a game
or locomotion or moving or movement at all times.

They're rarely ever going to shimmy and walk back and forth, very rarely.

Um, they should.

They should use all your options, right?

But still, that is that is the case.

That is that is the deal.

Um overall, uh, I thought it was good.

I think Marvel token, fighting souls,

TFS, is that what we're gonna call it?

What a weird name.

Uh it's gonna be a game that I think a lot of people who have always button mashed the
Marvel versus Capcom Fighting Game series are really gonna dig deep and go, my gosh, this

is great.

I think they're really gonna love this game because it makes a lot of the stuff that some
people struggle with, like launching combos, strings, tag combos, etc.

It standardizes a lot of that stuff and makes it a lot more streamlined.

I'm concerned, like all other fighting games, that that is going to

Well, that's going to homogenize the game a bit.

But fingers crossed, that's not actually what's gonna happen.

The character design seemed really cool.

It sounds like they have a pretty good roadmap for support, and Arxis hasn't screwed up
yet.

They've been kind of on a sweet track lately.

So with Disney money behind the wheel and the designs of the characters looking great, I
think it's gonna be a pretty fine game.

I'll be curious to check it out.

A game that I have not yet played that did come out recently was the Avatar.

Fighting game.

Avatar the last airbender.

I definitely want to play that game.

Haven't yet.

full disclosure, I still have not seen or ingested too much Avatar Last Airbender.

I I am not I I don't have much brand awareness of it.

I'm I'm aware of the brand, but like I'm not allegiant to the brand.

I'm not captivated by the brand.

I've never been attracted to the brand.

But I think I should change that.

Patreon supporter of the show, David Rivera, has let me borrow uh a couple of DVD and
Blu-ray copies of both Avatar and Korra.

So I definitely have to catch up on that.

And I'm curious to check out the Avatar fighting game.

Let me know if you've played it.

Let me know what you like and what you dislike and all that other good stuff.

I'll be keeping an eye out on Tokon Fighting Souls as well as you know, playing other
fighting games, probably old ones, ones that I like quite a bit.

By the way, if you like fighting games.

There's probably extra stuff that's fighting game related over on our Patreon.

So go check that out if you're interested.

Once again, check us out at patreon.com/slash deer.media.

For $3.99, you can get enrolled and enlisted in all of our lovely extra stuff that no
other person gets access to, including extra fighting game stuff if that is your vibe.

So go check us out.

Bring it to down.

Let's talk.

Real talk.

You and me.

Sam Kirk to the audience.

Scare quotes to the audience, my old name.

Still my current name, if I'm being honest.

Can you just level set for a second?

Uh I I d I I don't wanna come across like boomery to anyone.

I I don't wanna be that guy.

Um I just

I feel it in my bones, okay?

I feel like

I feel we're rushing to disaster.

We're racing to our own demise.

And what I mean by that is I feel like a lot of us, and by people, a lot of us, I mean the
20s, the 30s, even the 40-something people, I feel like we're blindly going in whatever

direction the force the world is pushing us towards.

And we're not.

We're not being more conscientious and more slow with some of our decisions.

We're not taking the slow, foregone path.

I and I'm I'm worried about that.

Like seriously, I'm worried about that.

I worried about my friends and my colleagues who they insist on taking that.

Taking the path that demands very little of them.

They insist on scrolling on their phone before bed every single night.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about feeling this feeling of bitter defeat.

I'm also talking about giving up our autonomy and just letting the systems decide for us.

You know, when we were the Zero Dot Podcast, one of the social media platforms we were on
for a very short period of time, and then we went off of.

We might go back, but I I feel pretty strongly we'll we'll stay off of that.

Is TikTok.

We went off of TikTok because TikTok glamorized the algorithmic nature of search engines.

As in, there is no search engine anymore.

You just click on something you like and it determines based off of that some inferences
based on your search history.

And then before you know it.

Before you know it, you're down a rabbit hole you never thought you were gonna be in.

How many of you have watched a video lately?

Maybe this one, who knows?

A video lately, and

thought it was saying all the things you wanted it to say, and then you talk to a friend
and turns out they have the same exact algorithmic feed that you have because it's the

season of the day.

Or maybe the opposite is true.

You're you're catching a a feed of someone and uh someone you like, a creator maybe, and
no one else is into that creator, and then you f suddenly feel alone.

It does both of those things, the the TikTok fication of life.

And I'm I I what are we doing?

That's my question.

What are we doing?

I'm not saying I'm perfect.

One of my daily ritual one of my nightly rituals before I go to bed is I I watch a couple
of YouTube videos.

They're usually long form videos and I start falling asleep to it and then I go to bed.

I I I'm guilty as charged.

Like I'm I'm the same as everyone else.

But what are we doing?

For real.

Can we do better than this?

Just a little bit.

Can't we put our own ambitions forward and make those steps?

Can't we do it?

I think we can.

I think it's possible.

I think that's very reasonable for us.

And yet I find that we aren't more times than not.

We aren't putting ourselves ahead of other systems in place.

We're just giving up.

We're just giving ourselves up to the machine, as they say.

Here's what I've been doing lately.

We talked before on the Zero Dot Podcast about morning and evening rituals, and I still
stand by the fact that I think the evening ritual is far more important than the morning

ritual.

But in order for my evening ritual to work out, I have to think about what my I w what I
want my morning to be like.

And when I think about what I I want my morning to be like, I think about the fact that uh
I don't want to look at my phone for the first couple hours that I'm awake if I can help

it.

For some of you right now, as I said that, that's like that's a pipe dream.

Who can do that?

And you're right.

However

I truly believe.

That the amount of time you spend delayed from the interconnectivity of the world, whether
it's social media or otherwise, has a exponential effect on your overall satisfaction of

your day and your life, overall net positive.

I can spend the first two hours of my morning not even looking up my phone, not even
checking in on things, not checking my email, doing whatever I want to do, my workouts, my

routines, my meditations, my writing, my journaling.

I'm generally gonna have a pretty damn good day.

I'm gonna kind of have an idea of what I wanna do that day.

Generally speaking, if I don't get everything done that I want to get done on that day,
well, that's okay too.

It's okay too.

It's fine.

Really.

That used to be normal.

Used to be normal to do that.

Now it's not so much.

Now you're glued to it.

Before you come at me, don't think for a second I'm trying to say that the phone is, you
know, the phone is evil.

No.

And I know there's a class structure issue here.

I know that we are removing third spaces from our newest generation of people.

And so where do they have to fall back on?

But the thing that they have, which is this little bit of a device here that's got

the entirety of knowledge in our pocket at all times.

I know that that is influencing a new generation of people from the ages of nine to twelve
in a way that we have we are just beginning to see the ramifications of, just beginning to

see that, when their brains are most neuroplastic.

I know that.

I'm saying that in this world that we are living in, where the guardrails just simply
aren't there for us yet, we haven't been able to keep up the limitations and guardrails we

need for our biomechanics and our neurology to play nice with the technology and the
emerging technology that's coming from us.

We haven't been able to do that.

So in that, we are left with what we can do in the meantime until those guardrails come

What if anything?

Just I just eh

Setting up some kind of parameter of when you're going to be diving into this worldwide
web, including what you're doing right now, including listening and watching this episode

of The Counter Hit.

Yes, I'm literally asking you to watch less of me, watch less of us.

Putting some kind of barrier between when you get to enjoy the World Wide Web, any kind of
barrier we can put between ourselves and the World Wide Web.

would make David Berners Lee proud.

You know, the guy that invented the literal world wide web.

I'm not trying to stave off, you know, all the awful things in the world and trying to
keep ourselves grounded.

I'm not trying to prevent us from lovely technology.

I'm just thinking about how our brains operate.

I'm thinking about what's kind to ourselves and okay, how we can operate the best we
possibly can.

And I'm thinking about the fact that doesn't everyone know this?

I feel worse when I'm looking at my my cellular device and checking on social media more
times than not.

Generally.

Generally, I feel better when I'm making a point to go onto my computer or my tablet and
looking up something.

I'm looking something with purpose and meaning.

I generally don't feel good when I spend any amount of time on any of my devices
mindlessly going through things unless I have more autonomy over them.

And I think if we do some of those things, if we put a little bit of barrier between us
and put some actions between us, I think for nothing else than just being happier, I think

we'll start feeling like we have some power over things that we didn't have before.

I don't know.

I really think so.

But you tell me what you think, fellow listener slash watcher of the counter hit.

What do you think about all that?

What can we do to stave off the depression, the anxiety, and everything else in between?

That's what I think.

Reddit and leadership.

Do the two go together?

I don't know.

But I'm a leadership consultant, and well, a really popular segment within our Patreon
supporters has been leadership, or rather, reacting to leadership stories on the Reddit

page.

uh Just so you know, I'm not a Redditor, much of one anyway.

The only times I've ever really looked at Reddit was literally for the Zero Dot podcast
and our Patreon exclusive segments, which by the way.

If you would like certain things covered here on the counter hit, we will be happy to do
so.

And we listen to all feedback and all suggestions sent over to us at questions at the zero
dot podcast dot com, soon to be changed, as well as over at our Patreon page where people

are able to join our Discord and offer feedback and suggestions, and we will tackle every
single one of those items.

Anything you want us to

Talk about and cover, we'll be happy to cover for you.

And one of those items has been the popularity of Sam Kirk, aka Scarequotes reacting to
Reddit.

So let's do that right now as we dive into Reddit.

This is a story, literally top of the page, here on the leadership page from nine hours
ago, as the as a the point of this recording.

The title says, What to do when you feel so overwhelmed with tasks and to-dos.

That you basically shut down.

Ooh, hot one.

Hot one, guys.

Hot one.

We're talking about burnout, right?

We're talking about having so much to do.

How can you possibly keep up with it?

I know this very well in the leadership space and work and everything else.

But let's let's see what the OP hosts about, shall we?

I'm a superintendent for a large mechanical company.

I'm near the end of my assigned project, and as usual, the last few months is a total.

Tidal wave.

I'm sorry, the last few months is a tidal wave of tasks, problems, and to dos with not
nearly enough time or hands.

Hmm, been there.

I felt very comfortable leading fifty guys head first into the project for the last year,
but now with only a handful of guys and very tight deadlines, I feel like I'm drowning and

presented with so many options on tasks to complete that my brain just wants to shut down.

I thought it would be as simple as

Knock off the easy ones first, until in the middle of an easy one, three more pop up to
replace it.

I've hit a brick wall with my crew and can't find a way to motivate them in any way.

Causing them to work slow and careless.

I understand this is an atypical construction industry question on this sub, but
ultimately I'm trying to understand how some leaders are able to keep pushing forward when

the workload is already crushing you.

Hmm.

I feel this one.

This this is

This is spicy.

This is this is one that comes up a lot.

So the OP is working in, it looks like the construction industry.

And in construction, unlike maybe the corporate world, um, there are real, real
consequences if things don't get accomplished on time.

Real consequences.

Like things get not just delayed and bottlenecked, but like things physically can't
happen.

And in some cases, costs the company money, can cost people their lives sometimes.

So in any in any other industry,

Tricks that would normally work of the trade, like you know, slow is smooth and smooth is
fast.

In the construction world, that's not necessarily true, although it is true to slow down
even when you feel the pressure of going fast.

A couple things I'm noticing here.

Um, it looks like when the project launched, there was 50 people running the project.

And then as things start winding down, it slims down.

That's pretty common for almost all big initiatives and projects.

Let's put all of our heavy heavy hitters in the beginning of the project.

And then afterwards, let's pull back.

Let's dial back.

Let's pull back because those guys need to be focusing on other projects.

You need a skeleton crew to run the rest.

And everyone forgets about all of the one-offs, all the little things that come up that
make it feel almost impossible to get done.

I also see a comment here about knock off the easy ones first.

Now, I'm not here to tell you what you've been doing has been wrong thus far, but I would
say that knocking off the easy ones on your list is um it's it can make you feel better in

the moment.

It can give you some kind of sense of serotonin and dopamine for checking off something
off the list.

But in most cases, that's not how you should be addressing this.

In many cases, the easy ones are a trap.

Sure, they make you feel better.

But you're just neglecting and procrastinating against the bigger projects and the bigger
parts of your checklist you need to get done.

Plus, you got that one little thing done now, as this OP says, three other ones pop up to
replace it.

Here's the thing though.

I'm not getting the sense from this OP that they're really looking for a a real how do you
push forward?

I mean, the question is, I'm trying to understand how some leaders are able to keep
pushing forward when the workload is already crushing you.

I I think you've already kind of answered the question.

I think you need to under all people, OP and otherwise, you understand that there are
going to be times when the world, the workforce, the workplace, has insane expectations of

you.

And those expectations are not just unreasonable, but they're there to break you.

And they were made by some guy up in the clouds who thought it would work in their
ideological mind, in their mind's eye, but didn't really realize down on the ground floor

in the trenches what it would take to make it work out.

You are at the bereft of that.

You are subjugated to that.

And that's unfair to you.

I would not ask any single person to try to break the rules of time, to break the rules of
physics and try to squeeze in more things in a minute, in an hour than is reasonable and

possible, especially in the construction world where safety is number one priority.

And let's let's bring that to speed.

No matter what your deadlines, projects are, no matter what you're trying to work on, the
number one thing is safety every single time.

If you ever decide to go fast to meet a quota,

and safety takes a slide, that is someone's life on the line.

That's someone's livelihood, someone's health.

You never mess with that.

Ever.

So first things first, OP, I'm sorry you're in that position.

That's rough.

I would say you're not alone.

I would also say that

It's okay to miss a deadline when it's literally impossible otherwise.

And it sounds like you need to give yourself permission for that.

And you talk about motivating your people.

I don't know, man.

It's not about motivation.

It's about doing one thing at a time, no matter what that is.

And the only reason they're getting demotivated might be because they're seeing the lack
of satisfaction on your face.

I think you need to give yourself permission to slow down.

Give yourself permission to have some really harsh conversations with folks and push back
and say what's possible and what's not.

And give your guys the room to breathe and focus on safety and focus on one thing at a
time.

You calculate what your wins are.

It might not be the deadline, it might not be the quota, but it might be something else.

Let's see what other people say about this particular individual right here.

sushi rice eater.

Oof, love that person's name.

I'm sorry that you're in this situation.

I would do a few things.

A.

eh

Prioritize by actual emergency time limits, not by whatever is the squeaky wheel.

True.

B, push back against whoever has left you with only four people.

Explain you do not have enough people to complete the assignment on time.

True, also true.

I'd say both those things are pretty true.

Again, I don't know enough about what you're specifically work on to tell you what are
what is the highest priority thing.

But it is true.

Like there are things that are squeaky wheels that you're just gonna have to learn the
subtle art of disappointing people.

The subtle art of being like, Okay, I know you're really mad and upset, but that's not the
most important thing.

I'm gonna have to disappoint you right now today.

This comment says, Miss Weed now, it sounds like you're not delegating.

And another comment here, he lost the people he delegated to, from fifty guys down to a
quote unquote handfill.

OP, is someone expecting you to meet similar tight deadlines with a handful of people
versus fifty people?

I'm not sure how that's feasible.

OP says yes and no.

More like the workload of ten on one to three guys.

It's a plague upon construction.

Companies routinely pull the majority of manpower to man up a new job, causing the job to
bottleneck.

Try as I might, it's been the same problem with every company over the past fifteen years
I've been with.

Yeah, it's I I've heard this many, many times.

Koalades uh continues, that sucks.

Company leadership probably has contractual obligations to start new projects on time or
else face financial penalty.

That's true.

And so they're sacrificing your project to protect a financial obligation.

You have no choice but to have you and your team focus only on urgent and important tasks
that you have capacity to complete.

Everything else doesn't get started until these get done.

You have to decide what those things are.

It's the only way you can realistically keep things moving and progress to project
completion.

I know it's easier said than done.

But size up all tasks and see where things shake out.

OP says, it's been a struggle.

I'm working on spending some time each day to identify the must-do products that day or
week and starting there.

I don't really see any other way out.

Some things will have to wait and some people will be upset.

But I can only do so much.

Thanks.

Yeah.

It's a it's a really tough position.

I'm hearing this a lot when I travel.

I mean, these guys are getting ground into paste.

With less and less resources and they're just expected to make the magic happen.

you want to talk about like what's happening in our in our country, in the United States,
all countries, right?

But like United States especially, we've got a work class issue going on here.

Um, there are people profiting off the backs of folks like this who are putting in
everything they can to make the deliverable make it on time.

And that's only gonna be a certain point until folks like this OP pushes back and says,
No.

let's see.

I hope he has a couple other follow up comments.

I don't have I don't have enough crew to delegate with with one to three guys anytime.

There's only so much you can delegate with tasks, often rightfully take taking enough time
for other projects of to backlog behind them.

If I had a crew of fifty like a fifty, like I'm used to, I don't think these issues would
be affecting me.

But this project is beyond that now.

I need to find a way to work with what I have.

Yeah.

That's rough, man.

Like I said, push back, focus on one thing at a time.

I'll let you decide what those priorities are.

And safety, safety, safety, safety.

Everything else can wait.

That's my recommendation.

And um whenever you get past this, the follow up, if you have the spoons for it, would be
don't let yourself in this position again.

Talk to your boss to make sure it can't happen again.

And if so, look elsewhere.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.

But I hear you.

That's hard.

All right.

Here's another one.

Let's look at one more.

This is from twelve days ago.

Dear leadership, your employees should be able to relax on PTO and not come back to a
mountain of work.

Hmm.

Let's see what they say.

My husband and I both took three days off of work to vacation with family.

It's not really much of a vacation, that's just three days off.

I don't feel like a vacation really.

A short vacation is a week.

A real vacation is two weeks, personally.

That's my take.

But

What else they say?

I brought my laptop with me because we had deadlines to meet.

boy.

My sister made the comment I should take PTO next time.

We both went back yesterday to a mountain of work and will likely be spending our weekend
now playing catch up.

So did we really even get PTO?

No.

And we are both burned out and bitter.

Sure, we can set boundaries and say no, but then we'd be out of a job because we missed
our deadlines.

It comes down to leadership, honestly.

So, dear leadership, if you have an employee out on PTO, regardless of sick, vacation,
mental health, etc., please, please, please, please, please extend their deadlines or help

them offload their plate.

And please don't tell them, quote unquote, enjoy your PTO, then bark at them upon return
because you didn't plan accordingly.

Or say, I'll help offload some of your stuff since you'll be out, then fail to actually do
so.

That's the end of the post right there.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I I can't really say it.

Like

To me, a week off isn't even a vacation.

That's just a week off.

but that is on the lighter side of vacations.

And to me, two weeks is a real vacation.

I think this OP has every right to be upset and bitter, especially if they were told by
their boss that take your vacation, enjoy it.

But then also let me bark at you for all the things that you haven't gotten done.

However,

However.

I think sometimes I've seen it.

I was in the position where I would be the person saying, Enjoy your PTO.

I'd offload whatever I could, but there were going to be some things that were going to
have to wait till you got back and it was going to kind of add to your other load.

And so when you come back, there was going to be a little bit of catch up.

I wouldn't say working over the weekend catch up, but a bit of catch up.

And I can definitely tell you afterwards, after a couple of weeks later, that person would
confide in me and tell me that they felt the pressure, like I was barking at them, getting

mad at them, et cetera.

And we we hashed it out.

But I I assure you, um, I was trying to be as sensitive as I possibly could and buffer
them as possibly as we could.

But it was still the impression is you're coming back to a mountain of work.

And so it just feels you just feel the pressure, whether it's real or not on you.

Not saying this is that situation.

I would say if you took your wa work laptop with you and worked any amount of time during
your PTO, take half days of those days, if not full days, and use your PTO somewhere else.

Um, I'd be I'd be pretty upset of doing your work uh while you're on vacation in that
regard, especially for your family.

Um, they they deserve your undivided attention and you deserve time away to prevent
burnout.

So it doesn't this is where people talk about how, like, hey, vacation was great, but now
I need another vacation from my vacation, right?

this is where this this comes up.

Um

Quite a bit, quite a lot.

some comments here.

The concept of quotes doing all my work is something I've given up on.

I have eighteen hundred unread emails as we speak.

I won't get to them.

I have one hundred problems and I'll focus on the three most life or limb threatening.

I'm a salaried leader, I don't have shares, I put my time in for money.

You can't have more time than you pay me for.

In a way my job is to make that work.

Mmm, and someone responds, Yep, it's the boundaries.

Also a salaried leader here.

I'm trying to set the example for my staff that once I leave the office, my life is about
friends and family and doing things I enjoy.

I'm also able to disconnect completely on vacation.

The work is never done, it's continuous, it ebbs and flows, everything else is just good
planning.

The OP says, I did that at my last job and got laid off.

Cause all the youngins below me grinded extra hours.

Sweat this job.

I don't feel like I can do that without fear of.

Not being able to pay bills suddenly again.

Okay, there's a couple things here.

That is true.

the youngins, they don't know that when they are grinding off hours and hustling that they
are actually hurting their compatriots.

They don't know that.

I I was one of those people back back back in the day.

I was working off hours to make the deadline.

I did not realize because I was doing it, people were praising me for it, because this
that's what I wanted.

I was trying to get rise up throughout through the company that I was in.

I was making everyone else look bad.

And

That set a bad example.

So that is true.

I've seen that.

And also, I've talked about this before, but I'll say it again.

Um, my husband and I, and the person's name is Rose Roses Lepis.

This also I need to call in gender here.

the two comments about uh having eighteen hundred emails and only have hundred problems a
day and I'm gonna put that aside and just focus on my friends.

Cool.

Those two comments feel like men.

Men can do that.

Women have a harder time.

Women have the expectation, like they'll they're just super women.

They're they're wonder women.

There's they're meant to do it.

and they don't have that luxury.

And and that is unfortunate because it's all about perceptions here.

Um, you've heard it before.

Women having deadlines and and boundaries for for uh themselves and their co-peers, they
come across like a bitch, even though it's not true.

They just do.

So they have to be overly kind and overly ambitious and bend over backwards E.

That's just part of their identity.

I hate it.

There are there are some workplaces that don't do that, but many of them that's that's
where that comes from.

this comment here is well, if you can't provide more value through your experience than
they can with man hours, it's inevitable for that to happen.

Huh.

Uh OP says we get paid the same.

Experience has nothing to do with most of my tasks.

I can get a hundred tasks done in eight hours.

They get a hundred tasks done eight hours plus another fifty because they worked twelve
hours.

So come layoff time, data says cut me.

So no, you can't always set boundaries.

And it's a vicious negative cycle because they're like, it only took you three days, not
knowing I did 40 hour work week in those three days to to meet their ridiculous deadline.

The leadership mindset of making employees feel like they're not good enough because
they're not fast enough without considering their own mental health and personal time

needs to stop.

Life is too short for all of us.

Edit, I miss the days where quality is greater than quality.

so here's the thing.

Um

Wait, there's one more comment I want to talk about.

Um, someone has a a comment that the OP really liked.

I have an I.O.

background and consult on people and culture.

Modern corporate work ethic is toxic with no boundaries.

After twenty years in the field trying to manage boundaries, this has been my default
tactic.

I don't share any personal details about my life with coworkers.

However, I love to hike and be in nature, so that's the work identity I've built.

This way, when I take PTO, I prepare everything in advance and communicate that I will be
in a remote wilderness location hiking with little to no cell phone reception or access to

email.

Am I?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

They don't need to know where I am or what I'm doing.

It's my paid time off benefit.

Never answer any calls, texts, or emails.

You then make yourself accessible.

When I return, I manage my workload.

I don't let anyone make me feel guilty for taking time off.

And the OP loves this says you're an absolute genius.

I'm stealing this mindset and similar strategy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, it's amazing.

you go to like Europe, you go to Amsterdam, and they take like really long holidays.

They're like, I'm on holiday, you can't reach me, you will not be able to reach me until
I'm back.

See you later.

Bye.

And they're gone for like weeks, sometimes months.

Same same model.

it's an American thing where like an American would be like

Hey, I'm taking half a day of PTO because I have like a life needing surgery I need to
take right now.

And if I don't do that, I might die.

But don't worry, when I come back in you know, in the in four hours, I'll be happy to
answer emails or jump on a call.

It's ridiculous.

Stop doing that.

Um, yeah, it's a great comment.

It's fantastic.

I I agree with that wholeheartedly.

I wish you didn't have to lie.

You might not even have to lie.

You might just be like, you know, when you take vacation, I won't be available.

I'll have no access to emails.

That's it.

I like that they're responsive to that, because that was my other thing is like when we're
feeling this pressure from your leader, yeah, it's true that you're in that situation.

But it's about your the expectations.

I actually want to credit one of our Patreon members, David Rivera.

I know him from a professional life and he's also very good about this.

Like when he's off and he's on PTO, he's not checking emails.

He's just he's doing his own thing, man.

And he'll check emails when he's back.

And that's a really important and powerful thing that you can do if you can do it, um, in
your life.

So

Power to you.

Glad you got a good tip.

And uh I did nothing here.

Woo!

let's see.

Let's back and look at one more thing.

Uh let's see.

This is from four hours ago.

From Elbza.

The the the title is just stuck, question mark.

I lucked into a into a situation where I was able to develop into a very effective leader
in a quote world class enterprise.

I don't know what that means, but okay.

I had misfortune befall me, and as I and as I let go and had to take a step down in order
to take care of my family.

Okay.

So family situation came up.

You have to take care of that.

And so you had to take a step down.

I guess priorities and all stuff.

Interesting, but I'm just curious where this goes and where this is going.

I'm currently in an operation with leaders that struggle with operations at a very
fundamental level and are consumed with being in charge versus being effective in removing

obstacles.

The company is surprisingly outdated considering their size and name recognition, but
there's no growth mindset or attempt at professionalism.

Okay.

I don't have any education beyond high school and a career of servant leadership that
spans almost two decades.

So I'm having trouble even getting considered for a role comparable to my previous one.

I'm becoming increasingly aware that the odds are against me regarding building a more
effective leadership culture, but I don't feel like I have anywhere to go to develop

myself and others and continue to restore my career.

I don't know exactly what I'm d looking for here.

One of the things I lost was a mentor, and I feel like I'm screaming into the abyss when I
have these conversations nowadays.

I guess I just want to feel heard and understood.

Forgive me, this is not the right space for this.

Um, so let me just make sure.

They looked into a situation, then they had misfortune misfortune befall them, and as I
let go and had to take a step down order, as I let go.

Had misfortune befall me and I has let go.

Okay.

I think they were let go.

Had to take a step down or take care of my family.

Okay.

I think they were let go for whatever reason.

They're working in a new organization.

They're taking care of their family and they're in a new culture and they're trying to
acquiesce and trying to bestow that growth mindset.

Okay.

I think if that's what they're saying, I understand that now.

Okay.

I'm sorry that happened.

Um

It can be really frustrating to be in a situation where everyone around you is speaking
one language that makes no sense and you know from the bottom of your heart that's not the

right way, but no one's listening to you.

Can be really tough, especially when individuals are not receptive to your own ideas.

I'm curious what people have to say about this.

because there's some missing data here.

And I'm curious if the OP gives more data here.

one person asks, Do you have any project management experience?

Elbs says, I actually have successfully navigated several cross-functional projects in the
last few years, not to mention some some smaller scale.

I'm sorry, that reads like a LinkedIn thing, like

I've worked in teams versus I've navigated several cross-functional projects in the last
few years.

I mean, that sounds like fluff to me, but okay, fine.

It's interesting that you asked that because it's something I really enjoy facilitating in
a role that I've been curious about for some time.

and then the other the only other comment is: in my experience, you can't do much about
what other people do or don't do, or the mindset they have, yet you can influence unless

they are truly not open.

So I try to do is look at what is in my control to do what I do and say and how I

Support myself.

Okay.

And if you are a person that can help solve problems, i.e., work on process improvements
or move projects forward, you might get noticed, especially if there are tangible and

measurable results.

That is what worked for me over two decades ago.

And after I helped people solve their problems and reduce their pain, so to speak, they
kept coming back to me for more help and guidance.

Just to give you some perspective, about 20 years ago, when I was looking at job
descriptions, only about 20% had project management in them.

Fast forward to today is more like 60% for admin operational type roles.

Get good at this, and you might find yourself somewhere different.

I can share more, yet I will stop here for now.

Cheers.

And that's the end of the thread.

This was minutes ago.

So there's a little bit of things that are vague here.

what I would say is cutting through the fat, you're in a culture of people who are
closed-minded and not growth-oriented mindset, or they lack professionalism.

I would do the SNL, um, shut up and listen.

Um in Prada, when they promote someone or even hire someone, there's this like there's an
expectation that for the first 60 to 90 days, you don't say anything in meetings.

You just listen.

You just absorb people have to say.

I would focus more on just really getting to know these individuals, their culture, what's
going on first, really understand their stories and ask questions.

Um, really ask questions, ask thought-provoking questions.

And when you can use the

the use of powerful questions to get these people to say exactly what you want them to
say, they will be bought more bought into it versus you just telling them.

Um so for instance, you know, if you if you paint a picture for people and say, hey, look,
you know, if we had all the resources available to us to be successful here, what would

that look like?

Let's paint a picture right now.

If we had all everything, gold and all the other resources, all the manpower, what would
success look like?

Ask them those types of questions.

You know, what does a win-win situation look like for you?

You know, um, and get their idea on this.

Honestly, in engage with them with what I call an engagement conversation, like with these
individuals.

Have put a meeting on your calendar with one person at a time.

It's a five to ten minute conversation.

They'll ask what it's about.

Say, hey, look, I just want to get to know you a little bit better.

Real quick, just want a quick chat, and I want to know just one thing.

What about what is it you value most about work?

Ask that question.

And you'll be surprised at what comes out and challenge yourself that when they answer it
and they give you a pretty robust answer, ask more follow-through questions.

Don't fill in the gaps.

Ask more questions, get to know them.

You will get more information from that.

And in addition, they will respond well to you and feel good about that conversation with
you as if you have intentions to get to know them.

Because, scary fact, only 34% of employees in the United States, and I'm sure it's similar
across the world, but 34% in the United States.

believe that their boss cares about their well-being.

And if you can spread that good intention everywhere else, they'll be more receptive to
your ideas.

You might be able to you might not be able to suggest and push through and posit all of
your ideas, but maybe a few of them.

And that might be enough to get the ball rolling.

And you might be surprised by what might come through that.

There's other things I want to pick up from the OP, like things like, I had misfortune
befall me, let go, had to take a step down,

Okay, you took a step down.

Is it the same company?

Is it a different company?

If it's the same company, um, you know, depends on what this the settlement or reach out
was.

I'm sure you still have goodwill with people that work there, whether those people were
laid off or not, and they know your relationship and they know you you made it through the

layoffs.

But if it's a new company, then i i it it's a step down that you you you took out of

It was a choice you made.

Even if you had to take care of your family, it was still that choice.

You took that role.

You took that job.

So I would remove that rhetoric from your your line of thinking.

Don't woe is me this situation.

You're in a tough situation for sure.

If you want to influence people, there is a path forward.

And if you don't, then you can jump ship again and go to a different job.

Either option is available to you.

Don't sweat it.

Hope that helps.

This last topic of ours comes courtesy of David Rivera, one of our Patreon supporters.

That's right.

Once again, a perk of being one of our Patreon members is well, we talk about all kinds of
fun stuff.

All kinds of fun stuff.

And you get to pick the topic.

So David Rivera asked.

He wanted us to talk about a fighting game term, a fighting game terminology, in the good
old lexicon, a good old glossary.

And explain it a little bit for those that might not know what it is.

So, fighting games are pretty great, and you might use a bevy of different controllers for
it, whether it's you know, a classic button pad controller, you might have a leverless pad

somewhere, or you might be using an arcade stick of some sort, right?

Some kind of arcade stick.

Might be using an arcade stick, right?

In fighting games, two terms get confused a lot.

I want to take a few moments right now to talk about these two terms.

The terms I'm talking about are charge buffering and charge partitioning.

So in fighting games, when characters have special moves that use a charge input, it
usually means you have to hold a very specific direction for a predetermined amount of

time.

Usually 60 seconds, sometimes it's less than that, and then do the opposite direction and
then some kind of button press.

The most common example is good old Guile, um, who has sonic booms.

He holds back for a second, 60 total frames, then forward and punch, and a sonic boom
comes out.

He holds down for about 60 seconds and then up, and right before he jumps, while you're
holding up, push the kick button and he'll do a flash kick.

And

There are two terms that get a little confused here, and it's charge buffering and charge
partitioning.

So charge buffering, as defined by the glossary.infill.net website, which is a great
website you should all check out.

The act of trying to charge as soon as possible after taking other actions.

For example, if you release your charge to jump forward, you should immediately hold down
back as soon as you leave the ground.

So when you land, you'll have built the charge back up again.

So charge buffering is basically this concept of.

try to demonstrate it on my arcade stick here for those that are looking.

It is where.

If I'm Guile, for instance, and I'm holding back, and then I'm going forward and I'm
pushing punch, I'm not just holding forward while I'm doing that for a long time.

I'm Guile holding back for a few seconds, forward punch, kick, then back again.

So once again, if I'm guile, I'm holding charge back, forward, then back again.

Basically, always be charging.

The ABCs of charging, right?

That's what charge buffering is.

Um, really good guile players in Super Turbo, they are constantly charging.

The moment they just tap forward for a second to push the punch, or tap up for a second to
flash kick, and they're immediately back into charge mode.

So that way they have charge.

Because the moment you lose charge, you can't do your special moves anymore for many of
these characters.

That's charge buffering.

What it gets confused with is charge partitioning.

And charge partitioning is kind of only available in a handful of games.

The most notable one is a game called Street Fighter 3, Third Strike.

Shout out to Kitetsu, my friend.

And this allows you to momentarily stop holding charge for a period of time and then
continue the rest of the charge and then do the rest of the input.

Whoa, what does that even mean?

Okay.

Put it another way.

In my example.

Okay.

Charge back for a second.

Charge back for a second.

Let go of the stick for a second, then back again, then forward again.

Meaning you can break up where your charge exists.

So for instance, this is common in third strike, where Remy and Gurion are able to hold
back for less than half of a less than a full second, then dash forward, then charge a

little bit longer to get that full second of charge, then forward again.

Release a punch, either a tackle or some kind of sonic boom or light of virtue, as it's
called for Remy.

This actually isn't super hard.

Not really.

But it does take a little bit of getting used to.

uh For Remy specifically, uh there is a way in which to do it and get a visual tell as you
do it.

If you're watching the broadcast right now live, you'll be able to see that I have on my
screen a training mode for Street Fighter 3, Third Strike.

I have Remy on the screen with good old Ryu as the dummy.

And

Again, to explain how charge partitioning works, charge buffering is this.

I'm holding back for a little bit, forward punch, forward punch.

Notice how I'm able to do it incredibly quickly.

That's because I'm charge buffering.

Charge partitioning is when I'm going to break up the charge.

So for instance, what Dremmy can do is he can charge for a little bit, dash forward,
charge a little bit more, then do the light of virtue.

It looks a little bit something like this.

Notice how I'm breaking up the charge.

And all I'm really doing is I'm paying attention to the animation frames.

And this is one of those signs where like I resonate really well with pixel based games
and animation um games of this like where the game code is 60 frames per second, but the

animation isn't 60 frames per second.

And the tell for Remy is if you hold down back and wait for the animation to be done.

Not that not that little wavy animation, but like the moment he gets down and he's his his
animation's frozen for a little bit, then dash forward like that, then do it again and

wait for the animation to be done.

You have a full charge.

So let's try that right now.

There you go.

Just like that.

And that's charge partitioning.

So there aren't too many games that have charge partitioning.

There's a few others, but third strike is the most popular one.

So if you see someone floating around the term charge partitioning, um

They're they probably don't know what they're talking about unless they're talking about
Street Fighter 3, Third Strike.

Hope that helps those out that are struggling with that terminology.

If you want to see more fighting game terminology explained here on the Counter Hit Show,
let us know.

We'll be happy to talk about it.

All right, folks, that has been an episode of the Counter Hit.

One of our very first episodes of the Counter Hit.

That's right, one of our first.

We've had more episodes available, again, only to our patron members.

You can find us.

At theZeroDotPodcast.com until we get a brand new website.

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This has been Sam Kirk.

It's been an absolute pleasure, and we'll see you next time on the Counter Hint.