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: Reunited and it Feels SO Good!
After taking a much-needed June hiatus, Travis, Jared, and Clay reunite for an episode that feels like catching up with old friends over the fence. Their natural chemistry immediately reignites as they share significant life changes and personal milestones with the authentic, unfiltered conversation that defines Operation Game Night.
Clay's transition to civilian life takes center stage as he details his family's move into a new home, proudly showing off his prized 100-inch TV installation. His candid reflections on starting his first post-military job in construction reveal both the challenges and excitement of this major life change. When he describes lobbying his new colleagues to let him experience hands-on fieldwork, listeners get a glimpse of his determination to succeed in this new chapter.
Jared brings his trademark humor to updates about his vasectomy recovery, declaring himself "Wolverine" after learning his previous procedure hadn't worked because his body healed too well. His story about welcoming a King Charles Cavalier puppy named Juno showcases the podcast's blend of vulnerability and comedy, while his reflection on a Flag Day social media post reveals a thoughtful perspective on patriotism beyond political divisions.
Travis shares his experience moving overseas and the surprising ease of purchasing a Nintendo Switch 2 on launch day in Germany without facing the long lines typical in America. His book recommendation, "Between Two Fires," sparks an engaging discussion about media, leading to Clay's heartfelt praise of "Love on the Spectrum" and a recommendation of the documentary "Surviving Ohio State."
Throughout the episode, the trio weaves in nostalgic stories of their military academy days, hilarious anecdotes about belly button lint collections, and plans for their upcoming reunion in Las Vegas. Their conversation demonstrates why Operation Game Night resonates so deeply with listeners—it's authentic friendship captured in audio form, where gaming culture intertwines with the universal experiences of life transitions, family changes, and maintaining connections despite distance.
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast over the fence. My name is Travis Smith and I am joined, as always, by my co-host, jared and Clay. How you doing boys. Boom, boom, boom, boom, doing good.
Speaker 3:I got my hair down with you guys. I'm going to point out the obvious here. With the new restructuring Travis here has had to introduce us three times. How does it feel to say hello to me three? Times in in an hour.
Speaker 1:I can't, you know, live up to the expectations to come up with, uh, witty intros for everybody, because that's then six different unique intros, I know, per week that's a lot.
Speaker 3:Maybe. Maybe the viewership's just really gonna fall off the cliff now, because they just wanted to hear those witty intros. And you know, this whole time that travis has been here in alabama, every time I've seen him he's been like yo, what up, my pellowy, soft-handed friend, and he's like every time I don't know where he comes up with it, but um, I it's. It's just a thing of beauty, but um, I just wanted to say, clay, I can confirm those are not our planes. In the intro there's no, that's not an F-15.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like an F-22 probably.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, you can say that now, happily, because you are, you're officially out of the military now, you don't even care yeah you're out of it well, I'm out, but I'm also back in oh, oh, because he's uh I'm in the reserves, should we? Go? Are we going over the fence?
Speaker 2:well, yes, what we're doing here, are we over? The episode says we never were in the in the, in the new restructuring?
Speaker 3:is it more bantry or do we take turns like civilized people?
Speaker 2:I think we can just have a free-flowing conversation, like three buddies sitting here catching up with each other and yes. I got emailed that I was officially gained to the ALO squadron, so I got to start working on all the paperwork for that, get a new ID card that says reserve, I guess I don't know. But yeah, I was out for about 10 seconds, according to the paperwork, because I was officially gained on the 30th of May, so dang Okay.
Speaker 3:So you don't. Don't say the words out loud, Just blink them to me. But did you smoke any weed during those two hours that you were out of the military?
Speaker 1:I did not oh no blinks needed, I'm sorry okay I really, I really missed an opportunity yeah, dang uh, you have all your tough questions that you're going to ask all the high schoolers when they want to go to the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping there's a booklet.
Speaker 1:What's the toughest leadership challenge you've ever faced?
Speaker 2:These kids, man, I'm telling you, I read when I was at the Academy, I was on the admissions team and I read through their applications and I was like, how did I ever get in this school? These people are like, these kids in high school are apparently living the most glamorous well, not glamorous, but just the most influential lives you'd ever know. Yeah, all captains of their teams working six jobs, single, single mom. I mean no, yeah, it's just, it's just uh amazing what they were doing in high school, or at least what they said they were doing. Uh, I got got in trouble for marking them all so highly. The guy's like you gotta stop giving everybody like five out of five on every category. I was like, but they're so impressive, I don't know, I don't know what else to do yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:So rachel and I volunteered to do entry interviews into the tri-state area and so we had like three or four different congressmen that we all kind of fell under and there was a huge group of people that was doing interviews from new york, new jersey and pennsylvania. And I distinctly remember this one kid. He came in and he you could tell he's like super nervous. He's meeting with four people. He's never met before. We're to like grill him and ask him questions or whatever. It's not like we have any like crazy questions that were going to blow his mind, just like you know, what are you involved in and stuff like that. And we asked him like the very first question which was like tell us about yourself? And he goes um and he's like sweating and you know he's really super nervous.
Speaker 1:Like I'm gonna need to check my notes so he opens up his notebook, he's got nothing written in it. It's like oh, completely blank. And then he looks at it and he kind of stares at it for a second and then he closes it, he goes. I guess I don't have that many notes, oh, oh man you feel for the like?
Speaker 1:I distinctly remember doing my interviews like that and it was just so painful and they sat me on one side of a giant conference room table with like 10 people sitting across from me and it was like just crossfire for like an hour and a half. It was like I don't know may in fresno, california, and it's 110 outside, so it was literally the hot seat miserable. Did you have that experience?
Speaker 2:clay um, it was a friendly experience, but there's a lot of people and I did not do well they, I specifically remember they're like so what? Like books on the military have you read? And I'm like, I don't really read they're like well, I was like and I was like I don't, that's not really my genre of choice. Have you guys seen battle star galactica? Yeah, I wasn't into that yet, but I everything I needed to know about life. I could have learned from that show. So if only I could go back in time.
Speaker 3:I think I slipped through the cracks. I think it was because of the prep school. When I had to do the senator interviews and stuff, they were like initially, oh, you're going to the prep school, you don't need to do it, we're not going to waste an appointment on you. I was like, oh, that's weird. And so I showed up to the prep school. No one said anything. And then at the prep school they're like oh yeah, you need to call your senator and uh, all, like also put in for the like the vice president, uh, appointment and stuff. And my senator again was like, oh, you're an athlete, I'm not going to waste an appointment on you, don't even come to the interviews, like, don't even do the phone interview. So I never did any of that. Like, all these people tell these these crazy stories and they let me slip through the cracks and look at me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you look like somebody who slipped yeah.
Speaker 3:They really should have interviewed me. I would have been the kid that would have opened their notebook. All my papers would have fallen out. I would have started bawling, uh. They would be like, oh my gosh, kick this kid out and uh so now look at me, but there are special types of appointments.
Speaker 1:Like you can get like coaches appointments now, and there's like the superintendent appointments and like, yeah, these weird one-off ones where maybe, if you don't have it and you're like you already are one foot in the door with the prep school anyways, I don't know they they did not interview me.
Speaker 3:They, they missed the big, they missed it, they missed, they dropped the ball. They dropped the big, big ball, big sweaty ball.
Speaker 2:Speaking of those big sweaty balls, Jared, can we get a vasectomy update?
Speaker 3:I have two additional questions. Sutures it looks like a cheese grater down there. Okay, what more do you need to know? I will test in a few months. The doctor was very thorough. I think I'm shooting blanks, I don't know.
Speaker 2:They're not missing any cords this time.
Speaker 3:No, no, okay. Okay, here is an update for Tay. The doc said he checked. He does not think there was a third chord. He thinks that I grew back together. He thinks that the guy cut him.
Speaker 2:Dude, you're like Wolverine.
Speaker 3:I know, that's what I said said I was like wolverine, I uh, I just healed myself so well, um, or maybe he didn't actually like cut him farther, far enough apart, and when my body, you know, just kind of put, put back together, then just healed. So I don't know. So he definitely cut the linguine a lot further apart and I actually asked for them in a vial. I will. I'll give them to you in a week, perfect wow, I have them I have.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to show them on tv, but I will, once you give them to me I have this nice little souvenir, do you? Know that I once saved my belly button lint for clay for about about a year and a half and I I did give it to why you did.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that.
Speaker 3:Thanks for reminding me I kept it in one of those little, you know, those little quarter things that you put a quarter in and you get a little toy. I, I got one of those. I, I think I threw the toy away and then every night when I was going to bed, I'd get the lint out of my belly. I kid you not, this is when I lived in ohio and uh, yeah, that's a special relationship. Now I'm gonna now I'm gonna give him something else in a little while.
Speaker 1:So clay, you've been busy. Tell us about, about your move. Tell us what what's been going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have a beautiful backdrop behind you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the new. This is the new house. I mean it's great, we love it, but it's been a lot getting settled, mary finally got your stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got our stuff, like last week, and mary, in her infinite wisdom she's so loyal to diesel pro she took off one day when the stuff arrived to help and took off no more time. So it was just me trying to unpack boxes that m. Mary is very particular about where things are going to go. So it was a frustrating experience, but I did get my one piece in for the house. This is a. This is like a long room. It's like 45 feet long and it's like a living room dining room. So a lot of space in here. I said if we're going to have this room, I need a lot of space in here. I said if we're gonna have this room, I need a hundred inch tv in here.
Speaker 2:Oh no I got that puppy hung. Let me spin you around here real quick no way, oh my god, and it has been everything I could have dreamed of wasn't your last one, like 95 inches, no it was 75. Think about how much bigger this is.
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous it's comical, it's perfect. Perfect for watching uh board game.
Speaker 2:Youtube videos yeah, I literally that's what I was watching raccoon tycoon how to play on earlier that's incredible yeah, but you know it's been good.
Speaker 2:I started my job my first real job last week. I'm telling you what they get you busy quick. I was like, hey guys, I mean give me about three months to in process and I'll be ready to go. And they're like, no, we need you at this leadership meeting. I was just in it and I'm learning a ton. Construction is a lot different than the Space course, but it's a lot of challenges and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:Did they give you some steel toe boots?
Speaker 2:Not yet, but I'm trying, I'm lobbying for them to take me out on to actually carry some glass on a job.
Speaker 3:He's pretty much a civil engineer.
Speaker 1:Basically he's one of us. They're going to take you out to go watch the construction happen. They're like boom civil engineer yeah yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 2:I mean I I'm begging that guy I wrestled with in high school. He's um like the field supervisor for all the crews that go out and install glass on like commercial buildings, and I was like, oh, justin, no one's gonna respect me if I don't get out there. Can you? Yeah, take me out um he's like he gave me. He gave me a drill and I I showed him that I knew how to pull the trigger and make it go just check it twice.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, so I think we're good. I think I might be going out and doing real work that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can always tell like how long people have been at their company because they have like their issued hard hat with more stickers on than the brand new people. That's how you know. So, like you like just drag your like hard hat behind your vehicle on the way in that day and like stick a couple stickers on it and people will be like, wow, he's, he's one of the senior guys they'll know, just put, put in the ogn stick right on there too oh, shoot, I will.
Speaker 2:I got some.
Speaker 3:You should do that you should do american flag ogn sticker.
Speaker 1:You're in there when they let you install the glass. You hang it up, you bolt it in or whatever, and then take an ogn sticker and put it on the glass yeah, yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2:That's nice speaking of american flags. Jared, that was a moving post you wrote on facebook thank you.
Speaker 3:Yes, I, I, um, I was sitting there 4 am because, uh, usually, you know, my daughter wakes me up and uh, I was there by myself. She was still asleep flag day and I thought I would just write how I felt about, uh, the american flag. I was, I tried to be extremely non-political and this is a non-political podcast, so I didn't do anything.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know, republican, I didn't do anything, democrat, I just I didn't even say I wrote about a flag incident I had at costco and uh, and I just left it very blank. But I just wanted to, like, write about that everyone in america should be. You know, I want everybody in america to rally around the flag because it's our flag, um, and I want people to, you know, feel proud to fly in front of their, their house. I had actually people message like text, message me and be like, hey, I want to say thank you for that because I was able to put, like I felt more comfortable or more, um, proud to put my flag out and not think I was making a political statement yeah, but I was making like a statement of I am proud to be an american boom, so I'm glad that I did put it out there.
Speaker 3:I got really nervous and I thought about not posting it because I was also like it's like 5 am and maybe I'm not in my right head, but I'm glad I did, uh no, it was good, good Got to be vulnerable sometimes you know. Yeah, yeah. That's what the OGN is all about.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You guys know of all people that I just say whatever the hell is on my mind, which is a problem Because for my over the fence I was going to say I went home, I realized that almost all of my nieces and nephews listen to Operation Game Night.
Speaker 3:And that scared the crap out of me. Yeah, yeah, they know all about my vasectomy. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, even the little ones. So I have sworn an oath to try to watch my F-bombs, even though I know Travis does his darndest to censor my, censor, my F-bombs. I'm trying to be a better, a good boy with a with a better, not so potty mouth, but I'm still swagging, though you know, I still got my five milli. I still, you know, pop my collar out a little bit, um, and when I was home, my.
Speaker 3:The big announcement, which you guys both already know, is the. The family is growing a little bit and obviously I did get the vasectomy. So it's not. It's not a baby that is growing. I, we did get a little king, charles, cavalier, doggy, a little puppy. The coolest thing ever is one of my high school teachers is going to watch our beautiful little Juno for a couple weeks while we get settled in Virginia. Then Adrian's going to fly back and go grab her. It's crazy. Kedon and Dave, they're awesome people. Kate on, just, she just retired from, uh, from teaching, which is one of the most selfless jobs that you can do. I feel like in this world. Shout out to uh, clay's family uh full of teachers over there travis too right yeah, parents are both teachers, both of them Principals administrators.
Speaker 1:So look at this.
Speaker 3:We got families galore over here. That's what I really want to do after the military, because I got a little taste of that when I was teaching at the prep school and then you guys got to get the taste of teaching jiu-jitsu or unarmed combat at the academy too. It's very rewarding. But for decades Kay Dawn was, like you know, serving this community and she continues to serve. So shout out to Kay Dawn and Dave for watching Juno. I actually played football with her, with their son, jd Falsliff. He played for BYU. He was like hella good running back for them. So just a great family all around. But that's my big over the fence, what's?
Speaker 1:going on Travis.
Speaker 3:But yeah, Trav, hit us up with your over the fence.
Speaker 1:So we moved overseas. That was an adventure In the midst, in the chaos of all of our moves and stuff, we were kind of dwindling down at work. Things were slowing down. I was getting out of there and I had this brief appointment on base. So I go on base, take care of my business. No big deal, not a mandatory appointment, just something I had to pop in for real quick. Then I check my phone and I see that it is June 5th and I'm like today's a special day because the Nintendo Switch 2 came out today.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting there and I'm like I'm in Germany. Germans are pretty practical and not one for, you know, buying unnecessary things, like americans are. So I thought I thought to myself, like I have a couple hours free, maybe I can swing down to like the electronic store and off base. Yeah, on the economy, german economy walked in, bought a switch to no problem really happy birthday to myself, yeah.
Speaker 1:So all these people are like lining up at 3 am or whatever here in America and I walked in and bought it. Day of launch, no problemo, dang yeah. And like the people that were lined up outside the store Americans, they're all Americans. So yeah, that's. The newest addition to my family is the Nintendo Switch 2, which has been great Is it like the same compatibility with US gaming and everything. Yep, I literally bought a new plug when I got back to the States, and that was it. Yeah, pretty awesome that's great.
Speaker 1:Love it, Clay. I don't know if you ended up watching Our Friends and Neighbors on Apple.
Speaker 3:TV.
Speaker 1:The Jon Hamm show where he's like stealing from his neighbors. We kind of gave up on that one. Oh no, yeah, it was really good until, like, the law got involved. Um, I talked about it like a couple weeks ago, um, but it's this whole like cat and mouse game where he's like down on his luck, he's stealing from his neighbors to then pawn this stuff in this like underground ring of crime. Things are going sideways and then they introduce the law and like the detectives that are trying to catch him and arrest him and sometimes characters don't need to be prevalent in a show to be good. It seemed like they had this law enforcement type agency, these detectives that were after him, and they're like we need to make these guys into characters and they like overdeveloped and it just I, I, just we kind of fell off of that one, which is disappointing.
Speaker 1:And then I do have a book recommendation though, because we got here and I was like Books a Million is great and I haven't been into a bookstore where I can just buy English books in a long time.
Speaker 1:So walking around, I just grabbed a random book off the shelf because I didn't have the other stuff that I was looking for and I'm really enjoying it. It is called Between Two Fires by Christopher Buhlman, b-u-e-h-l-m-a-n. Two fires by Christopher Buhlman, b? U E H L M A N, and it is um a book that's taking place in France during the time of the black plague and it's kind of like a little bit of a sad dad story where this like X night kind of adopts this quasi daughter to help her to safety. But then you think you know what the story's gonna do and it zigs and zags in ways that are so great. It's like a black plague setting but then all of a sudden he's like fighting giant monsters and stuff. It's a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of of historical fiction and, yeah, I'm really enjoying that and I'm tearing through it. So it was a nice surprise. Glad I picked it up. That is my recommendation for Over the Fence.
Speaker 2:Guys, I didn't talk about anything fun and Travis talking about books and switches. I guess this isn't really fun.
Speaker 3:Did you get a Switch 2?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. But I did watch something that I feel compelled to speak on real quick, please. I don't know if you saw on Max, the Surviving Ohio State documentary.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm really interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Ohio State wrestling team had a doctor that was sexually abusing them and it went on for so long and nobody nobody could comprehend like why would these wrestlers let this happen? And it's just a really interesting look into how that all went down and all the layers of like systemic failure that let this guy just persist there at the school. So I would check that out. Obviously it was interesting to me as a wrestler to watch it, but there were other sports involved. That it was, I mean, it's disturbing subject matter, but it was, uh, it was a good documentary, well done this was going on at the same time that the michigan state one was correct, like the answer, yeah, this was me.
Speaker 2:I mean, this was like in the late 80s, early 90s, when this guy was at ohio state, um, so maybe a little earlier wow, yeah, did they just break this or something like I? I hadn't heard anything about it, I just I just was scrolling through max and I saw like a wrestler and a singlet looking all dejected and I was like what the heck's that? And yeah, I watched it and it that was crazy, it's messed up. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You said you didn't talk about anything fun.
Speaker 3:And then you're going to talk about like this yeah. What the hell? Documentary, documentary. But have you guys seen we were talking about uh wrestling earlier.
Speaker 1:I think uh um, professional wrestling mr mcmahon on netflix yeah, yeah, that is awesome. Yeah, yeah, holy smokes. Hey, I think wrestling's having like a a serious comeback right now wwe yeah, resurgence. Wwe raw like all those shows.
Speaker 3:Netflix, I think, streams raw now like on monday yeah yeah, it's like it's live on netflix, like yeah, and then vick had on a wrestler on his podcast, uh, actor, wrestler nick. Um, uh, what's his hacker? Hacker, yeah, something like that yeah that's free, it's wild anyway, yeah we get it should we get into wrestling?
Speaker 1:should we do like?
Speaker 2:maybe we should start covering wrestling.
Speaker 3:I think the audience is probably bigger time I went to wrestling uh practice when I was a freshman in high school, I thought we were going to be doing like the people's elbow and throwing trash cans at each other and we did like 500 up downs. The first time we didn't even like actually do a takedown or like it was like nope, we're doing conditioning, we're sprawling. I'm like what the hell did I get myself?
Speaker 2:they're just weeding everybody out. Oh guys, hold on, but I'm tough, uh, I I got a really happy thing to talk about since I I brought it down with that love on the spectrum I love that show I don't know if I've ever smiled so hard at some of these like when they actually like really click it off.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've seen the whole series, but mary and I watched like the whole thing in like the span of a few days. It was just a nice show to watch when we were stressed out and like when connor and georgie were hitting it off and he, like couldn't wrap his head around. Yeah, how amazing it was, like he was so in love with her. Yeah, I was just grinning ear to ear. I was like this is a beautiful thing to watch. Yeah, um, yeah, that is a great show it's so good.
Speaker 1:I I love like they go to play croquet on the first date and he's like, oh, let me show you how to do it. And he like stands behind her and he's gonna show her, like, how to swing the mallet yeah, he's like oh, I'm sorry, my hands are rough, the swordsman's hands.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yes, yes he's amazing and james just kills me. He is, yeah, a character for days like that. That show it just made me happy and I'm so sad I don't have any more of it, but hopefully there's another season coming there was a whole trend on the instagrams and tiktok after abby like sang the song at the end oh, yes, one of the lyrics is you're the milk to my Chardonnay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is her like significant other, boyfriend, whatever drinks like milk, they'll go to like bars and he'll like order a glass of milk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Drink Chardonnay, yeah. And so there's this whole trend about like people will play the clip, like you're the milk to my Chardonnay and like the men toast with milk and the women toast with chardonnay and they like chug it. Oh yeah, no, that show's great I'm glad such a feel-good show.
Speaker 3:Uh, I love you guys. I miss you guys uh this isn't good. This feels, this feels right. I mean, join hops. June was nice, it was a good break, but this is where I want to be.
Speaker 2:I want to be right here yeah, this is, we're back on it. Pedal to the metal back, we are back. Don't you dare cut us off like you've been doing here we go no no, no no, no, oh, you got something else to say, I'll give you 10 seconds each uh, any final words.
Speaker 3:I love you, miss, miss you. See you soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. I haven't seen you guys gaming that much and I'm, I'm hoping.
Speaker 3:Oh, I am going to send you a quick picture of us gaming while we were watching the two girls, while our ladies were getting their toes done. Yep, yeah, we played. We didn't debrief it, but unrest oh, and we we both played with both characters asymmetric board game um both also took turns winning on the last possible moment, that's how well balanced of a game it is. It's awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, yeah well, shoot I, I would expect.
Speaker 2:I thought I was gonna get a text every time you guys were playing the game so I could feel like I was there, but I guess we've been a little busy too out of sight, out of mind live streaming. A little bit more for you yeah, I want to be there, I want to feel it, I want to know it.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe in September, when we all meet up in Vegas World Series.
Speaker 2:Anyways, Alright, I'm hanging up.
Speaker 1:Let's go back inside the fence. I've been Travis, he's been Clay, he's been Jared and we're out, thank you.
