Why I was gone - Went on a little adventure in the hills of TN near Oliver Springs, west of Knoxville, to a place called Windrock Offroad park. Put some new dents in the Jeep, made some amazing memories with my brother, and came back with some perspective. I run a 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon. Being a Rubicon model it has a 4:1 ratio in the low range of the transfer case, a 4.10:1 gear ratio in the axles, factory rock sliders, and locking differentials. I’ve added a lift, tires, front and rear ARB bumpers, a winch, and some odds and ends. Basically this Jeep can go many places and conquer many obstacles with little effort, it’s an amazing starting point for anyone looking to get their family out exploring the country. That being said...it is being replaced, for the type of offroading I do and the style of driving I maintain the JKU just isn’t the platform for me.

GMC Hummer EV - If you haven’t looked it’s amazing, I mean it’s got a $115K price tag so...lol

350 mile range, 1000 hp 11,500 trq, 0-60 in 3sec, modular roof panels that store in the frunk, air ride adjustable suspension able to lift the truck 6 inches. Very interesting interior, lots of rugged choices but still very high end. I’d take one if a six figure truck was attainable for me.

Quibi - Is/Was a mobile first streaming platform. Short form content with “star studded casts” all meant to be absorbed on your phone. Bad timing, bad marketing, bad content...at this point no one can really say what doomed them but...almost as soon as they launched their apps...they shut that shit down a day later!

ShadowBan - This comes from a massive Twitch purge for copyright claims regarding music. Thousands of creators got a DMCA email, had videos removed due to these copyright claims. No report of the claimant, the track, or way to counterclaim. All while “soundtrack” (amazon’s royalty free music service) was launched the day before...Amazon isn’t taking the hit for this...so where is the proof to legally fight the battle for the content creator.

Alpha Gamer - Ryan (sound engineer), record labels want to count these large streamers as one 50K listen per song. So in the end each “play” will get devalued over time killing any indie creators producing at this point.

Creative director at Google Stadia, Alex Hutchison stepped on a landmine that blew up in his face. Dude...go back to school and learn about marketing 101…"Streamers worried about getting their content pulled because they used music they didn't pay for should be more worried by the fact that they're streaming games they didn't pay for as well," he wrote. "It's all gone as soon as publishers decide to enforce it.”

Streaming is and the only way things move forward when it comes to modern content. YT’s ID system is one of the most powerful DMCA tools and developers/publishers don’t use it! It’s an understood agreement at this point that the relationship between Content Creators and Developers/Publishers is symbiotic, one directly benefits the other! Look at “Among Us” the game was destined for failure to the point it was going to be shut down in favor for a second game...now it’s one of the most popular games being streamed in late 2020...freakin AOC teamed up to play.

Xbox Lower Price HW - Phil Spencer - “You could imagine us even having something that we just included in the Game Pass subscription that gave you an ability to stream xCloud games to your television and buying the controller.” basically shots fired at Stadia, all hypothetical right now but you can see Microsoft doubling down on the subscription model.