Storytime with GamerDude

GamerDude has gone back to Seasons 1 to re-edit and re-produce the episode he did about his grandparents. (In all of these re-masters, GamerDude tries to clean up some of the technical glitches that occurred in some of the episodes from the first season, and also edits them so they sound cleaner.)GamerDude talks about his memories of his two grandfathers, although those memories are limited becaus...

This week, GamerDude talks about how doing certain things, or society's view of having certain things, has changed over the years. He first talks about the process of making a phone call when he was a kid. He remembers when the only phone anyone had was the house phone, so you had to learn to talk to your friend's parents and siblings when making a call. He also talks about the awkwardness of call...

This week, GamerDude talks about words again. He starts things off by revisiting the word "niche", which, for most of his life had only one pronunciation: "nitch." He discusses how, in recent years, the pronunciation "neesh" has become accepted, for reasons that escape him. He understands how it's not THAT big of a deal, but explains why it matters to him. He also discusses several other words, an...

The latest Indiana Jones sequel inspired GamerDude to talk about why certain sequels just don't work, and also reminded him - once again - of the differences between the generations. He talks about the time when Raiders of the Lost Ark released in 1981, and how different the world was then - pre-internet and pre-social media. He talks about the two sequels to that movie, and how the original trilo...

This week's episode is about Mrs. GamerDude's adventures handling a paraganglioma, and is made with her knowledge and approval. GamerDude talks about what the initial diagnosis was like for her, and what a paraganglioma actually is. He talks about the trips to the hospital, and the preparation for surgery. He talks about how he did his best to help Mrs. GamerDude through the "worrying process" and...

With some personal things going on, and his voice not quite 100%, GamerDude has gone back to Season Three for one of his favorite Best of Storytime episodes. In this episode, GamerDude shares stories about how he drove on his aunt's farm when he was 11, and how he spent quality bonding time with his dad while learning to bake. He also discusses his own "golden age" of television, and what TV was l...

GamerDude has gone back to Season One for another one of his "very special episodes." He has re-mastered and re-edited this episode about Christian Science to get a cleaner, better-sounding version. In this episode, he talks about what Christian Science is, and what it was like to grow up in a religion where you don't visit doctors or take medicine. He talks about what it was like to grow up that...

Those who follow GamerDude on Twitch or Twitter know that he's been struggling with some allergy-related voice problems this week (which you'll hear in the intro to this week's episode!) So, he's gone back to Season One to remaster one of the most popular episodes from that season: GamerDude's Stories About Books. GamerDude talks about his love for reading, and how he practically devoured books wh...

GamerDude loves to talk about movies and tv, and over the years he's done several episodes about movies, television, and the tropes we see over-used in them. This week's Best Of episode revisits some of the tropes GamerDude has compiled over the years, from the ever-present parking space out front, to the hero trying to escape by climbing up the building, to the villain revealing all of his dastar...

GamerDude has gone back to Season One for this "very special episode" about being bullied as a child. He has re-edited this episode to clean up some of the pops and clicks from the original version. GamerDude wanted to share the stories in this episode again because being bullied happens to so many kids, and so many people, and so few feel comfortable talking about it. GamerDude talks about what i...

This week, GamerDude talks about how the lust for power, or love, or sex, usually leads to scandal in the political arena. He also talks about how some political types survive these scandals while others simply disappear. GamerDude talks about the sexual scandals involving trump, from the Access Hollywood tape, to Stormy Daniels, to E. Jean Carroll and how, years ago, any one of them would have be...

This week, GamerDude talks about the "generations" sociologists have created to characterize people born in different eras. He goes back to 1908 to talk about The Greatest Generation, which fought World War Two, and goes through the chronological sequence of generations as described by the Pew Research Center. GamerDude talks about The Silent Generation, The Baby Boomers, Generation X, The Millenn...

GamerDude goes back to Season 1 this week for his "very special episode" about growing up as the fat kid. He has re-edited, tightened up, and cleaned up some of the pops, and sounds, and gaps in the original episode in order to preserve and present the stories in an even better form. GamerDude talks about being heavy when he was a kid, being rewarded with food, and how that impacted on his weight...

This week's episode was inspired by a casual mention of "Josephine the Plumber" in an episode of the Golden Girls. We have commercial spokespeople these days like Flo from Progressive, Jan from Toyota, and the Limu Emu, but GamerDude grew up with some of the all-time classic commercial characters that lasted for decades. He talks about characters like Mr. Whipple, who couldn't help but squeeze the...

This week, GamerDude talks about sleeping and dreaming. First, he talks about how his sleep habits have changed as he's gotten older, and how he used to be a stomach sleeper who now needs four pillows just to sleep on his back. GamerDude also talks about how peoples' sleep-patterns, in general, have changed over the centuries. He talks about segmented, or biphasic, sleep patterns, which were the d...

This week, GamerDude takes another trip, wandering down Memory Lane. The Easter weekend prompted his recollections about hunting for easter eggs and all of the egg salad his family ate after the holiday. This prompted him to remember the bowling alley his dad took him to on Easter Sunday, while dinner was cooking. GamerDude was also reminded of the tuna salad he grew up with, and how one church pa...

GamerDude goes back to Season 2 this week, for more of the Best of Storytime. He pulls some stories about his shopping with his mom, the clicker she used to stay on-budget, and the brand comparison she taught him. He also pulls some of his recollections of the mall, and how it used to be THE place for everyone to gather when he was a kid. GamerDude also talks about some of the brands and stores he...

This week, GamerDude talks about the pets that he's had in his life. The first pet he remembers is the dog that his parents had before GamerDude was even born: Barney. GamerDude talks about how Barney protected him when he wandered away from the house as a child, and how Barney had a bit of a tragic life. He talks about the other dog and the cats he grew up with, and remembers the very first cat t...

It's been three years since the United States first locked down as a result of the Covid pandemic, and GamerDude talks about how Covid is one of those generational events, like December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001, where things changed forever after the event. He remembers what he was reading, and thinking, and doing leading up to the lockdown, and he talks about the simple things he and Mrs. G...

This week, GamerDude has gone back to Season 2 for his Top 15 (okay, Top 16) Iconic Movie Theme Songs, and cleaned up the original production a bit. Included in the list are current themes and older themes, with multiple appearances by John Williams. GamerDude talks about the themes, and the composers, and why he believes the themes stick with us, and what makes them iconic. As with all subjective...

GamerDude talks about breakfast this week, and what breakfast was like when he was growing up. He talks about how breakfast was primarily cold cereal, with some occasional crock-pot oatmeal mixed in to the rotation. He also talks about discovering the wide variety of breakfast foods and options when he went away to school, starting with a breakfast buffet he went to during his orientation trip. Th...

This week, GamerDude talks about sensory memories: those memories that are triggered by a certain scent, or sound, or the way something feels. He talks about how some sensory memories have disappeared because the source of the memory no longer exists, like his grandfather's shed. He also talks about how technology has caused some memories to disappear, like the white static on a VHS cassette, or t...

GamerDude returns to one of his favorite topics: food! And this week, he's revisiting snacking! GamerDude talks about the apples, oranges and raisins his mom tried to get him to eat as snacks when he was a kid, and also discusses how his mom always baked, and always had a full cookie jar, which led to a lot of snacking on cookies when he was a kid. GamerDude also discusses some of the types of sna...

GamerDude has dipped back into Season 1 of Storytime for one of his favorite episodes, where he expresses his appreciation for the Star Trek universe. He took this episode back to the production room and re-edited and re-produced it, cleaning up some of the sound issues that he didn't fully appreciate back in Season 1. He wanted to do that with this episode because it captures the full spirit of h...

Thanks to COVID and the strange effect it has had on the car market, from slowing the production of new cars to increasing the prices of used cars, GamerDude found himself in a unique situation: he had a used truck that was worth more than he bought it for. Combined with the facts that he wasn't commuting anymore, and that he didn't really need two vehicles anymore, GamerDude decided to try to tak...