Passion Fruits Podcast

Lauren is sharing some of her backpacking and bikepacking stories and pictures this week!

Germany/Urban Backpacking  September/October 2015

Bikepacking adventure starting on the old Weinstrasse (Old world wine trade route) from Neustadt, Germany to Wissembourg, Franch with the Hambach Castle in the background.  It was the end of September when we did this route, which meant harvest season at the wineries.  The air was a mix of sweet and fermented as we rode along.  

Later that trip I traded in my bikepack for my backpack and took on a new expedition.  I stayed in hostles along the way.  One morning I was dropped off at the base of a ski mountain.  I grabbed a map and as I was deciding if I  should take the ski-lift up half of it, I heard cowbells, so I started wandering.  Next thing I knew, I kept wandering- all the way up to where the first skilift let off.  Which was at the base of the final ascent to the summit.  I learned about wanderlust that day, going where the road leads you, and the satisfaction of climbing a mountain without having the time to think about or be intimidated by it.

Keeping the hiking theme alive- after a train ride to Zurich, I decided I didn’t want to stay there and immediately found myself on another train to Interlaken, Switzerland.  I did some research and realized I was right by Lauterbrunen- a village sitting in a carved valley, being watched by cliffside waterfalls and the massive Jungfrau. 

– Lauren

We’re all going through a lot of things right now. People have turned to crafts, exercise, and media to help them get through this emotionally taxing time. For some reason, in the past week, I’ve turned to listening to Boz Scaggs’ 1976 album, Silk Degrees. It’s a seminal album in his career, one that gave us such hits as “Lido Shuffle” and “What Can I Say.”

And I’ve been listening to it frequently in the past week, and have had multiple songs from the album stuck in my head. I haven’t listened to this album in years! It’s one of my parents’ favorites, and on summer trips we would listen to Boz Scaggs, Jimmy Buffett, and Jackson Browne non-stop. We would drive to the beach, going over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with the windows down so we could get the first smell of brine and salt, along with whiffs of gasoline.

Silk Degrees is very much outside the kind of music I listen to. But I still know all the words. Still laugh at the cheesiness of the lyrics. And have enjoyed catching up with an old friend. It’s been like settling into a comfy couch, finding the impression where you used to sit, and dozing off for a pleasant nap.

– Daniel

What have you been doing to keep you sane during this time? Let us know!

This is Daniel. He’s about to ride in his first bike race. It was a road criterium race. Daniel was using Adam’s bike and shoes. He was far from first, but he was not last. Daniel doesn’t ride road bikes any more.

This is Adam. This is his 2nd ever Mountain Bike race. It was a 6 hour race in the Tidewater area. He’s got his game face on, and is ripping it up. He still shreds the gnar consistently.

And here’s Jeff. He won this bike race, the Tantalus Time Trial. This wasn’t his first bike race, but he looks younger, and that’s what really matters. Jeff is a fast biker, and wins most races. Hear all about his cycling experience in our latest episode.

Editing a podcast. What does it take? Well, it takes a little bit of gumption, some elbow grease, and a good ear. We record and edit our podcast in Reaper. It’s an awesome Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that offers a lot of customization options, for music producers and podcasters alike. While recording, we use a skeleton outline to keep us on track (kind of), so our episodes are pretty conversational. In editing episodes, I try to maintain that conversational quality. So while I edit out a lot of “umms”, sniffles, and dead air, I don’t edit out all of it. Otherwise it would make me and Adam sound robotic or too scripted.

Any questions about our process, leave a comment or email us at PassionFruitsPodcast@gmail.com!

– Daniel

Here’s a picture from last week’s recording sesh. In a future episode, you’ll get to hear all about Adam’s passion and love for winter skiing. Spoilers, apparently winter skiing requires snow and mountains…

Our episode released today is all about Video Game Design. We talk with Mark Nauta, a good friend and employee with Firaxis Studios, who create the Civilization and XCOM franchise of games.

If you’re not familiar with the XCOM franchise, it’s a turn based strategy game where you control a military organization whose mission is to protect the earth after an alien invasion. In XCOM 2, which Mark worked on, the aliens have won, and your group of ragtag misfits have to retake Earth.

One of the franchises main feature is it’s difficulty and the fact that your soldiers can die permanently. It makes for tense games and heartbreaking losses.

We took to Reddit to ask members of the XCOM subreddit for some of their most harrowing XCOM stories. Here’s one from user TheNiTrex:

“As for stories, my most memorable one for XCOM 2 would be my first campaign when the game launched in Feb. 2016. I jumped immediately into Commander/Ironman difficulty, as I had beaten the previous game on that respective difficulty level before, and needless to say, I got absolutely smashed. I was losing units and missions left and right, and most importantly, I was letting the aliens get away with advancing the AVATAR Project. Eventually, the doom-ticker filled-up, and I was given a limited amount of time to launch an Alien Facility Assault to stop it. I rushed over to one, and prepared a final last-ditch effort to stop the aliens from winning. I outfitted my guys with an EXO-Suit and Spider Suit, new technologies I had developed, and sent them on their suicide mission.

Only my Sniper was left standing, I had barely even managed to set a foot inside the facility before they wiped-out my team, so instead of assigning him to the same fate as his squad-fates, I evacuated. The mission was a bust, and with it, the Resistance as a whole.

Despite losing, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the campaign, I genuinely felt like a resistance trying to desperately crawl their way to liberation under the foot of an authoritarian regime, it was great. And that last mission will probably stick with me for years to come.”

If you’re interesting in checking out XCOM, it’s out for PC, Xbox One, and PS4!

Often after we’ve recorded an episode, I’ve later thought of stuff or experiences that I wish I had talked about. So, I’m thinking we may use this space to discuss things we missed while recording an episode. Hopefully that will be interesting… We’ll see! Keep an eye out on this space!

– Daniel