Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
OTF: Night Routines, Glass Jobs, and Our New WWE Obsession
The dynamic duo of Operation Game Night is back as Travis welcomes Clayton for a catch-up session that ventures far beyond their typical board gaming territory. What starts as a humorous defense of Clayton's "Scrooge-like" bedtime routine—a carefully orchestrated wind-down process designed to combat insomnia—quickly evolves into an entertaining discussion about sleep habits, with both hosts confessing to temperature-related bed conflicts with their partners.
Clayton takes us behind the scenes of his recent adventure in commercial glass installation, where he traded his office chair for power tools and concrete drilling. His genuine amazement at the intricate coordination required for large construction projects offers a refreshing perspective on an industry many of us take for granted. The conversation then shifts to entertainment, featuring a passionate review of the new Fantastic Four film. Clayton's enthusiasm for Pedro Pascal's performance and the movie's optimistic storyline contrasts sharply with his disappointment in revisiting older adaptations, providing valuable insights for superhero movie fans.
Perhaps most surprising is both hosts' unexpected journey into WWE fandom after watching Netflix's behind-the-scenes documentary. Their defense of professional wrestling as a legitimate art form comparable to soap operas and theater shows how appreciation can develop when understanding the craft behind the spectacle. The episode concludes with exciting news about Clayton's classmates sharing his board gaming passion, leading to plans for elaborate game nights potentially involving bourbon and barbecue. Whether you're interested in sleep science, construction insights, movie reviews, or the theatrical world of professional wrestling, this wide-ranging conversation delivers entertainment and unexpected connections throughout.
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast. We're back, and better than ever. It's me and Clayton in the studio today and we are going over the fence. Clayton, it's been a while since the people have heard from you. Tell us what you've been doing outside of board gaming.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, so much. First, I would like to say I listened to your guys' episodes last week and I feel attacked about what's that guy's name? Scroge, ebenezer scrooge. Ebenezer scrooge sent me a get in bed like ebenezer scrooge.
Speaker 1:I have a very rigid nighttime routine.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've suffered bouts of um, I don't know what they call it when you can't fall insomnia, yes, when I don't do the right things before bed and I like get in bed with while I'm still too wired, I can't stop thinking. Okay, and then, once I can't stop thinking, you know, you know how it goes, you've been there and you watch the clock start ticking down and it's just that turns into this nightmare of a night where it's two in the morning and you're like, oh my god, now I'm getting three hours of sleep and now anyway. So I have always had a very strenuous nighttime routine where I wind down with, you know, half hour TV show, go back to the room, watch another half hour TV show while I'm getting my stuff ready for the morning morning, get in bed and then let that finish. And then, you know, hopefully my mind now, from watching modern family for the 300th time, has finally released itself of its worries. And I can just fall asleep, of course, yes, so almost like scrooge so no long nightcap or, uh, no long robe.
Speaker 2:No, carry around a candlestick, skivvies only.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah are you uh? Are you a uh dress sleeper? Do you sleep in clothes?
Speaker 2:no, no, um, no, where I do not. That's not for me, especially in this alabama. Heat man, it's too much.
Speaker 1:I don't know how people do it. Mary, she'll still rock up in the bed. It's hot like our house is like 80 and she gets in the bed under a comforter and then another blanket with a sweatshirt and sweatpants on and I'm like laying on top of everything sweating through my underwear and I don't know what is going on.
Speaker 2:But you know, some people are just different yeah, rachel says like, oh, I'm freezing, I'm freezing. The second she gets underneath the covers she is like a furnace man. She is, yeah, just exuding heat like crazy it's too much can't do it.
Speaker 1:Mary and I have recently become um comfort or divorced. Oh, we still sleep in the same bed, but she sleeps under three layers and I sleep. I sleep two layers up under just our top blanket. So you know we're working our way to separate beds at this point our wives are gonna kill us for talking about sleep patterns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably. What else has been going on in clay world?
Speaker 1:I have two things I really want to talk about. Okay One I got to go out on a commercial glass job, Heck yeah.
Speaker 1:The company I work for is installing a bunch of curtain wall glass in a micro hospital and I put up enough fuss that they finally sent me out there and I wasn't like a number three. I was the second guy on this job. So, john, if you listen, he he doesn't John. He took me out. He's a crew leader for us and he really took me under his wing and was super kind understanding. By the end of the day, I even got to use power tools.
Speaker 2:I drilled into concrete.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we installed in one day like this whole aluminum framing for the curtain wall. I would have liked to be there when they put the glass in on Wednesday, but I, you know, I had to go back to my cushy office job. I only go out when it's below 90. So perfect. But yeah, that was exciting. I mean I it, it was just wild. I never knew anything about construction. It's crazy. Like, yeah, I mean, this is a commercial job, so like there's a big general contractor and then we're there. We're just like the piddly glass company doing our thing on the walls. There's the electricians, just you know, running cables all through this hospital. You know there's people putting up drywall over here. There's a guy cutting bricks next to me. I'm just like, how does all this get done? Like, how are people coordinated for, you know, getting this big of a project and all these different companies and contractors working together? I just have an appreciation now for what goes into, you know, building things. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Large projects like that. It is so involved. It's crazy large projects like that. It is so involved. They have their like gantt charts that they set up and they are just this like spaghetti web of all these tasks that need to be accomplished, which, yeah, it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that that, yeah, that's, that's a big thing, um, but the other really cool thing is Mary and I Sorry, travis, it's going to hurt to hear because I know you wasted your date night on Jurassic World. Oh, but Mary and I went out to see Fantastic Four last night.
Speaker 1:I'm so jealous, I'm so jealous and it was awesome. We saw an IMAX eating popcorn and you know this, this movie, been getting a little bit of hype. You know, yeah, I'm a pedro fan, uh, from the last of us, like he can honestly probably do no wrong for me ever. But you know, I I thought it was great. It was an optimistic story about, you know, kind of like the whole world coming together to overcome, you know, this larger than life threat of Galactus, oh yeah, coming down and freaking eating your world.
Speaker 1:You know I got the marvel united multiverse kickstarter with the freaking coming of galactus mini, which spurred me on to watch, like the silver surfer cartoon a little bit, oh yeah. So I have a little bit of background of you know who the silver surfer is like, what's going on here, yeah, and you know the silver surfer's in this and, uh, yeah, I just thought it was a really entertaining movie from start to finish. The characters well developed, the writing was good, you know it. Mary had a problem with one scene at the end. I won't spoil anything, but she said it upset her, oh, but like continuity issue or like no, no way that is just they are not in like a.
Speaker 1:She just didn't like it personally because of the. They involved a baby in a way that she didn't care for. Okay, great so yeah, um, but anyway. But all that aside, definitely recommend checking that movie out. It is a lot of fun. Sounds like a lot better than jurassic world oh yeah, yeah, I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 2:Uh, did you bring your galactus marvel united miniature to the theater with you? I did not believe it or not I I wish I had thought of it maybe next time I did get the fan cup though oh nice, what's on the fan cup they have like? Did they do a special one? Just a picture of the fantastic four people? Did they do like a commemorative popcorn bucket for this one?
Speaker 1:I think they did, but we didn't get a big bucket, we just got the. We got the little one. Doesn't they collect buckets or something?
Speaker 2:yeah, he's got a bunch of the um, at least the theme park ones that they do yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But then I went back today mary was like you know what? I think our kids could even watch that, because it's not like gory violence, yeah, nothing crazy like some sexual stuff in it. It's a pretty wholesome superhero movie, sure. And so I got fired up about that, watching it with them. And then so I looked up Fantastic Four movies on Disney, and the Fantastic Four Rise of the silver surfer was on there and it was oh yeah. So I was like I can play this. And just from the jump I was like, oh, this is horrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, I mean compared to what I just watched last time.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's like I mean good lord and Lord, it's just not a good movie. I mean, I didn't finish it. I was watching it. It got spoiled. On Pedro Pascal.
Speaker 2:I mean even the old school. Old school I say like was it 2005, maybe that that movie came out?
Speaker 1:Yeah that was 2005.
Speaker 2:That silver surfer is like kind of scary just to look at, let alone hear him talk and see him like seep through the floor and stuff. It's pretty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of spooky yeah, I mean the for the for its time. The graphics were good.
Speaker 2:It was just like cringe worthy writing and yeah, just oh yeah, I man, the the first couple fantastic four movies were okay and then they did like the reboot and then the other reboot and it just has gone so downhill.
Speaker 1:But I'm glad to hear that this one was good yeah, hopefully this is a step in redemption for the intellectual property and since we're talking superhero movies, I've also heard good things about Superman.
Speaker 2:I've not seen Superman, but it's getting good reviews. People seem to like it. I don't want to feel like I was bashing Superman when I called him the Blue Boy Scout. I am all for Superman. I'm glad that this movie is good and people are enjoying it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were up in the air about um superman or fantastic four, and really it was the pedro factor that pushed me over just picture you sitting on the ground like in your room and you have like your superman action figure and like your galactus thing from marvel united and you're like looking, I don't want to play with you anymore. Nice, I'm glad you're with you, man uh, I was gonna ask you because I'm fired up right now. Uh, we watched the mcmahon documentary on netflix. Did you watch their unreal documentary?
Speaker 1:just started it.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I watched the first episode. I'm I watched all of them. I like binge them. Oh yeah, it's so good. I I think I'm a wwe fan now really raya ripley huh and uh, summer slam is going on right now. You can stream it live on peacock. It's like going on right right now as we speak I turned it on I?
Speaker 2:yeah, we probably should. Uh, I turned it on. Rhea ripley was the very first fight and I got to watch that right before we hopped on, so it got me pumped up, um, but yeah, I was like scrolling through the wwe like online shop looking for, like merch I might.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I got into it. Man, I'll get into it with you if you want to get into it, if you want to be in this wwe. I I told mary after watching that unreal thing I'm like dude, there's a lot that goes into this. I think it really is art and that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Like by the by the end of that, because rachel did the same thing. She's like this is stupid, like this is so fake. Why would anybody watch this? Okay, people have watched soap operas for years and years and years. Days of our lives is like still running. Um, people go to the theater to watch people do plays live. It's literally the same thing. They're just like bashing each other's heads in and it's kind of a little a little bit lowbrow, but like who cares, I'm into it, man, if I can watch somebody get suplex from 20 feet up in the air like, why not?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a period in my life when I was into it.
Speaker 2:man, if I can watch somebody get suplexed from 20 feet up in the air like, why not?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a period in my life when I was into it. I can't remember how old I was, but there was like a time for maybe a year where I watched every Monday Night Raw, every Friday Night Smackdown, and I like knew who was beefing with who and like, once you kind of get into it, it really does get exciting and addicting and you're like holy cow, what's going to happen next?
Speaker 2:so that the whole premise of unreal for those that have not seen it is they are doing the lead up to wrestlemania, so they do their. I don't even remember what the first big event is, but it's maybe like two months ahead of wrestlemania. They start to really solidify some of these storylines that they're going to carry through wrestlemania and through summer slam. And so john cena is in his last year of wrestling and they kind of show you behind the scenes of the different wrestlers and you know who's on the rise and who's. You know one foot out the door being john cena and um, yeah, they just kind of show you behind the scenes and even though they tell you up front like this is all fake, we engineer these stories when they show you the matches, you are still invested in them. So yeah, after I hop off this, I'm going to go turn on some SummerSlam and get back into it because I'm into it.
Speaker 2:Man, john Cena and Cody Rhodes, the American Nightmare, are fighting tonight. I think this is John Cena's last thing. I think this is it. I might tune in Just for this moment in history John Cena's been wrestling for 25, 30 years now.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. So 30 years, he's like maybe 25. Yeah, but still yeah, the end of an era. He's moving on to bigger and better things, and yeah, that's on Peacock.
Speaker 1:I thought Netflix like owns.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, netflix owns Monday Night raw and they own like documentary rights and stuff. They have like a bunch of historical matches that you can all watch on there. If you go, like netflix has like a wwe tab now and you can go through all of their historic stuff, it's pretty cool, uh. But the live streaming for, like their big WrestleMania, summerslam, that type of stuff is Peacock, so you have to have a Peacock subscription, which kind of stinks. But if you got both, I don't have it.
Speaker 2:That's how I watch my Modern Family to go to sleep. Yep, that's right. Also on Disney+. Yeah, it's on their Hulu tab what is? Uh modern family oh dang. Maybe you don't need both, but if you want to watch summer slam, then you'll get both yeah, I mean, I might go turn it on now too I'm I'm pretty pumped about it, so next time you see me I might be wearing a cm punk tank top or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, is that your boy? After watching the documentary, I was rooting for CM Punk. He's like the old guy in the group. He left for a while. He had a lot of struggles, fought his way back in, got into good shape again and now they're giving him his victory tour. I support CM Punk. He's a good dude, all right, yes, yeah, you'll have to tell me what you think, who you're rooting for.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna keep watching it.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna keep watching it yeah um anything else you've been into man oh man, a lot of school, a lot of military theory, a lot of reading, nothing, nothing fun anymore. Just uh, school that writing is hard. Did you know that writing is difficult if you have not done it in a while?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't. I never. Never was something I excelled at, uh, and I can't imagine it would be any better now. Yeah, great texter, I'll text.
Speaker 2:Can I just text you my essay? Yeah, uh, yeah. So we haven't done a whole lot of writing yet, and that's what makes me nervous. We had to write like a two page outline on something and I I started that two page outline for far too long. Like you know, academy days we'd start at you know, 11, 30 midnight, the day before it's due, or whatever, and just like jam out 10 page papers, no problem, speak for yourself. Oh my god, dude, it's brutal. Like I have not flexed that muscle in a long time.
Speaker 1:I never stayed up past freaking 10 at the academy.
Speaker 2:I'm not kidding, you're like the only one, the only person I know.
Speaker 1:My class rank reflects that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, it's difficult. I've been focused on school and just like getting back in the groove of things. But I do have an update. My class, the people that I sit with every day they're into board games. Like I'd say there's what? 11 of us? I'd say that there's probably eight of them that are all into board games.
Speaker 2:So they got some yeah we've got some irons in the fire for some boards and boards. Night I pitched boards and boards and one of the guys collects like bourbon bottles, like rare bourbon, and he's like, oh, we can do a triple B, we'll do boards, boards and bourbon, and then somebody said like, well, I like barbecue. Almost professionally, We'll do a quadruple B boards, boards, boards, bourbon and barbecue.
Speaker 1:Where's it stop? Can I bring banana bread?
Speaker 2:Hell yeah Banana bread, hell yeah so anyway the operation can't quit. We got some irons in the fire for some serious game nights coming up.
Speaker 1:More to come. I am excited to hear about it. This is going to be a fun year for Travis.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that, but we're going to get some gaming done, that's for sure, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Jared seemed to have the time of his life.
Speaker 2:Well, jared has the time of his life everywhere he goes. He's probably having the time of his life right now, as we speak, at the Pentagon, at the Pentagon.
Speaker 1:That's probably where he is honestly. Yeah, he tells us it's because he's taking care of his daughter, but we really know he's taking care of National security. The 06s at the Pentagon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so anyways, Jared, we miss you If you're listening to this. We miss you. Come back. One day we will all three get together again.
Speaker 1:Someday we will get our crap together Once again right with the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome, okay, well, we did it. Otf in the books, I have been Travis, he has been clay, this has been OGN and we are out. Thank you.
