Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 236: Our Quarantine Activities | Ear Biscuits Ep. 236

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

From diving into TikTok to a 2000 piece puzzle, there are a plethora of activities that people are engaging in to pass the time. Listen to R&L discuss some strange, unusual, or completely common things people are doing to pass the time as well as what they themselves have been up to on this episode of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the differently shaped tables in our own homes, we're going to be exploring the answers that you gave to our question that we put out on the social media, which was, what strange, unusual, or just completely normal things are you doing to pass the time during quarantine?

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this conversation because, I mean, we've been conversing about how we're dealing with this and of course we'll continue to do that, but I've just been curious how everyone listening has been coping with this situation as the weeks lengthen and as the reality sets in. They're definitely lengthening.

Yeah, they are. They're literally getting longer each week. Yeah, yeah. How you holding up? Yeah, so how am I holding up? Your hair's growing. I mean, mine has been growing for a while, but yours is really starting to like...

Poof out on the sides. It's changing. Mine has sort of reached a certain stasis, even though it's slowly evolving. Yours is like actually becoming something new. Yeah, well, I'm not gonna go out and get a haircut. You know, so. Well, what about those days

you used to give yourself a haircut? I'm not really motivated. But here's the thing, the side part, well, I'm not doing a side part, the side regions of my hair are the issues. And so instead of saying, you know, I'm gonna cut this and I might really screw it up. I'm just saying instead of it coming down

or just slicking it back, which I tried that for a little bit. Now it's just like- Oh, you tried to slicking it back. I'm gonna puff it a little bit. Well, I was like tucking it behind my ears. Yeah. You know, and like tucking it behind my ears. Yeah. You know, and trying to keep it at bay with my glasses.

And now I'm just like, well, ever since we recreated that big puffy hair photo, and you did your like college Mohawk photo, I'm like, I'm just gonna go puffier. Oh, I'm not saying you should do anything different. You definitely shouldn't get a haircut. Shouldn't try to change it. Exactly.

I think that's my mentality in general with this thing is taking what comes to me and saying, this is now a part of my lifestyle. I have a new lifestyle and I'm trying to adapt to it. And like I said, some days are better than others for me. And I do think some of what the Mythical Beast commented that they were doing and how they were adapting to this lifestyle, some of it resonates with me.

Some of it is polar opposite of me, which might resonate with you. So I'm excited to get into it. I do wanna tell you about the dream that I had last night. Please do. And maybe get an interpretation. Oh. Again, I don't know what percentage of your biscuits

start out with some sort of bathroom humor, more than I would like, but I can't help what I dream about. You going there again? And I mean, it's kind of gross, but it's also ridiculous. Okay. So in my dream, I was at a large high school. And I think that it might've been,

it was supposed to maybe have been our high school, Harnett Central, but it was completely different and much bigger, and it was like from today, but I actually feel like it was what the school is going to be like post-virus, like when everybody comes back. Okay, you're gonna go back to high school after this is over.

Maybe as a teacher. I don't know. Probably not as a student. So I had to use the restroom in my dream, which happens all the time, but usually... But you were a student. No, I was like visiting for unknown reasons, but I was definitely not a student. It wasn't one of the I'm back in high school dreams,

which I have had plenty of those. Number one or number two? That's the interesting thing. So I've had many, many, many dreams in my life where I had to do number one, right? And then you wake up and you're like, man, I gotta pee. That's trouble. Or maybe you already have.

Well, no, well, I don't wet the bed anymore. I wet the bed until probably seven or eight. So I was a bed wetter for real. But I haven't wet the bed anymore. I went to bed until probably seven or eight. So I was a bed wetter for real. But I haven't wet the bed in the double digit ages at all. At least not on purpose, not accidentally. And... What? Okay, just keep, please keep going.

And so one of the, what usually happens is I'll have to pee and in my dream, I'll find a place to urinate. And then I'll begin to urinate in the dream, but then I'll still have to urinate because I'm actually not urinating in real life, right? Urinating in a dream, boy, that is dicey. It's dancing with the devil. But I've never, again, as an adult man, peed the bed in that fashion.

Double digits. But in this stream last night at Harnett Central in the future, I had to take a crap. Okay. Have you crapped in the double digits? No, I have crapped my pants, but that was on the way to Dollywood one time. I've never done it in my bed.

And so I go into the men's locker room, and it was vast. It was just absolutely vast, and in the middle of the locker room, there were just multiple toilets, multiple stalls, as if this bathroom had been designed for me to take a poop in. You know what I'm saying?

It was like a dreamscape where many options existed for toilets. Okay. But I go into the stall, and there's a seat like a toilet seat, but underneath the toilet seat, there is like a screen. There's no plumbing. There is a screen, like a square, like a net.

Like a colander? Like a colander that won't let anything solid go through. It's like a urologist sifter to get the stones out? Like a colander that won't let anything solid go through. It's like a urologist sifter to get the stones out? Like a pool net. Okay. Like a pool net that catches your poop. And then I look over in the corner

and there is a charcoal fire. What? Yes, there's a charcoal fire where you're supposed to burn the poop after you... At least that's what I inferred in the dream. I was like, oh, there's no plumbing in the future. They don't have plumbing. The funny thing is that I thought it was about toilet paper, but it wasn't about toilet paper.

I didn't see any toilet paper, but that wasn't what I was thinking. I was like, man, I'm going to have to crap in this net and then burn it wasn't about toilet paper. I didn't see any toilet paper, but that wasn't what I was thinking. I was like, man, I'm gonna have to crap in this net and then burn it in my old high school. And- Kind of cool. I'm not prepared for that. And so- Oh, you started getting stressed? So I walked out of the bathroom,

but then I still had to take a crap. So I walked back in the bathroom. And in the moment where I was committing in the bathroom and in the moment where I was committing to the BM, I woke up. And I was not, interestingly, in need of a BM in real life. That is weird. That is, but was there a net in your bathroom or anything? Well, I'm thinking about putting one in.

Yeah. And burning it. And burning it. That's a way to keep your house warm. Well, that's what they did on the plains back in the day. They would, when there were no trees on the prairie, they would burn the buffalo chips. They would also make their homes out of them. Really?

It's kind of a small home. I guess there were a lot of buffaloes. They didn't take one and dig into it. They used them like bricks. Yeah, because once it dries, that stuff's nice and ready to... It also loses its stink when it dries. You have to have a drying zone.

You just can't plop it out of the net into a furnace unless it's already burning. If it's like a blazing furnace, was there already... No, it was a small... Was there already a blaze going? It was a small fire. Small fire. Okay.

Yeah, because they might would have doused it. Hmm. So what does this mean? Yeah, please tell me. I mean, there's definitely, I mean, there's a lot of toilet paper talk happening. A lot of, a lot of, there's a lot of toilet paper talk happening. A lot of, a lot of, there's a lot of newfound anxiety

around doing number twos for that reason, for most people. But I know we're both working the bidets. I don't think you're, I don't think you, and I know you've got a lot of toilet paper. We've already talked about that. I have no toilet paper anxiety. So I know you personally I don't have. aren't concerned about that.

I don't have BM anxiety in general. And I would think that you would think it would feel cool to be experiencing this in your dream. Like if you were experiencing this in real life, you'd be like, Link, you gotta come in here, just like you're telling me about the dream. But in the dream, you were freaked out by it. Well, I didn't wanna carry my poop in a net

across a locker room and be seen. That's just something that I don't wanna do anyway. And I don't think that makes me an especially anxious person. I think that makes me normal. I have no, actually using the bathroom, it's not a problem for me, never has been. But bringing the poop out into the open and moving it across a public space,

that is a problem for me. You don't want people seeing your log. Yeah. Okay, yeah, people seeing your log. Yeah. Okay, yeah, so this is a vulnerability issue. Oh, you think so? Yeah, this is definitely, there's something inside of you that Some poop?

Needs to come out. But you know when it comes out, people are gonna see it. But it's gonna take people seeing it and that vulnerability for you to be able, for you to destroy it, for you to burn it, for the good of everyone that you live with. So I actually think.

Oh, you think this is my house? Yeah, I think you need to explore being vulnerable about something with your family members, the people that you're spending day after day, after night after night with. There's a level of intimacy that you've never had with your immediate family and neither have I. And I think that's what it is.

I think you're afraid they're gonna learn things about you that are gonna stink. That's pretty good, right? I'm glad you're not a therapist. Let me just say that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that is good. And hey, by the way, I think it applies to me too. Well, I'm just saying that

in a professional therapeutic setting, you would want someone, you can't, you know what you just did? You just acted like a TV therapist or a therapist from movies and television where they always tell you what's wrong with you in the movies, but in reality, they let you discover what's wrong.

So you could have led me down that path a little bit, but you just said it. And so I actually can't accept it because I didn't come to that conclusion. So maybe I'll listen to this later. That's another problem you have. You can't accept wisdom. I do want to-

I just crapped into your net and you don't want to burn it. That's your problem. Exactly. You crapped into my net. That's a perfect analogy. You did say, I have a dream. I can craft into my net. I want you to interpret it.

You didn't say, I would like to clock into a therapy session. I should have known that I was stepping into it, literally. I do wanna give an update on the TP situation though. I don't know if you saw the article that Feldman posted in the Slack. I saw it, I saw it. I didn't read it because underneath it,

it said six minute read. And I was like, oh man, think of all the other things I could do in six minutes and you're deflecting. But yeah, let's just move on. No, this is actually,

this is something I want to talk about because the toilet paper thing, I don't know why I hadn't thought of this and I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned. But one of the things that is driving the toilet paper shortage, which continues, isn't, I mean, panic buying is obviously contributing to it, and the perception of panic buying, which leads to more panic buying and hoarding,

is a part of it. My in-laws mailed us a big box of toilet paper because we are about out and Christy was telling her mom that and lo and behold, they sent us a box. I was very grateful. Well, but you know what the problem actually, one of the major problems is the fact that we're all crapping at home and not at

work. And so the toilet paper suppliers supply commercial and they also supply the grocery stores. And so most big businesses are getting their toilet paper supply. Now, I think Mythical, last time I checked, people go on grocery runs. Bring your own toilet paper supply. Now, I think Mythical, last time I checked, people go on grocery runs. Bring your own toilet paper. That's our policy. Bring your own net is gonna be the new policy when we get back.

Right. There's gonna be a fire in the bathroom and a net, and you're gonna have to figure it out. It's gonna be warm in there. Smell a little odd. But basically, it's the commercial toilet paper that's sitting on the shelves not being used. I mean, I didn't think about it in terms of toilet paper.

I thought about it in terms of water usage. I was like, hmm, everybody's at home. I bet you our electric bill and water bill is gonna go up, but our electric bill and water bill at the studio is gonna go down. You know, cause I'm thinking about both sides of the coin for us personally. And, but also, I'm assuming that we've got, thinking about both sides of the coin for us personally.

And, but also, I'm assuming that we've got, you know, there's just toilet paper on shelves in businesses and there's toilet paper on shelves in the warehouses that supply the businesses. Because people aren't using more toilet paper. I mean, I'm eating more beans. So maybe a little bit more. Yeah, I'm using a lot less just out of principle.

But yeah, there's all these sheltered businesses and they're like full of that single ply crap that the corporations pay for. We don't do that single ply crap at Mythical Entertainment. We don't stand for that. That's why people, businesses are freaking boarding up their windows and stuff because I heard that in New York City

there's like a 75% increase in business burglaries. Yeah. What the crap? What the crap? In the midst of this, you got people, they're probably looking for the single ply. But you know what's probably gone down? Residential burglaries.

I don't think that there's more, I would doubt that there's more crime. I think what we're talking about is that- Actually in my neighborhood, Christy said that in the Nextdoor app, there are people are going around and- Well, maybe cars. Pulling on door handles and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

Cars. I mean breaking in homes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because- That would be stupid. That would be very, very stupid. Burglars gonna burglar, right? And so they got a burglar somewhere. And so they're gonna go- Burglar. They're gonna go to business, sis.

You wanna answer some of these questions? What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime! Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President.

And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Let's get into some hearings from you-uns. You-uns. You want to read the first one?

Or first two? Yeah, these are kind of a pair. So Cam, Cassius Cam, says, again, this is, what are you doing to get through the quarantine? I gave myself a daily chore-slash-project-slash-workout sheet and follow it to a tee. Today's events include jump rope, push-ups,

catalog comic books, and hang some floating shelves. It helps keep a sense of schedule. Wow, Cam bringing the schedule heat. Now, on the other- I'm relating to Cam. On the other end of the spectrum, we've got Jamie Always, who says, not doing all the things I'd hoped I would do. I imagined I would be drawing every day and catching up on my podcasts. Instead, I've shaved the sides of my head, and catching up on my podcasts. Instead, I've shaved the sides of my head,

done endless personality tests, and lay on my couch thinking deep thoughts for hours at a time. Yeah, I think that, you know, what's the saying of the well-laid plans of men? A poop in the net is worth one in the fire. You know, I can kind of relate to both of these because I'm very much a planner.

You know that I'm very system oriented and immediately when I knew we were gonna be hunkering down, like even the few days leading up to it, I wasn't thinking about what am I gonna stock up on? I was thinking about schedule. I was thinking about routine. I was thinking about all the things I was gonna infuse into my life.

And I just felt like I had so much opportunity. And now that we're, I don't know, is this three weeks in? This is faltering a little bit. It is the fourth week. We're in the fourth week now. Yeah. Because we started, I think, a little bit earlier. But to me, having a routine is,

and it's no surprise to you, is a lifeline for me because I need to channel my energies. And so I made up my mind that, you know, I'm gonna buckle down on my energies. And so I made up my mind that, you know, I'm gonna buckle down on my meditation. I'm gonna get up every morning and I'm gonna meditate. I'm gonna do my physical therapy stretches and I'm gonna work out.

In my normal life, I would be able to choose one, maybe two of those each day, but there's no way I could do all three. And I got excited about that. Yeah, I got excited about that. And then I was like, I've got this book on tape that I'm gonna listen to, and I'm gonna really be engaged.

I'm gonna take notes. And I got another book that I'm gonna be reading. And I just started thinking about these things and then I was getting excited. But then some of it goes by the wayside. The stuff that's like the first morning stuff, I've been able to do. Like I'm pretty happy that I've done 16 days

of meditation in a row. Like I'm pretty happy that I've done 16 days of meditation in a row. Like the most I've ever done in a row is like three days. So I feel like I got a lot of momentum and the app I use, it tells me how long my streak is. So especially at this point, I'm pretty motivated to stick with it because man, I'd hate to start over and try to get to 16 again.

Yeah, that's why they do that. Yeah, that type of thing really works for me. Jumping rope, I don't know how to jump rope. I have done some pushups. I don't collect comic books, but floating shelves, now that's something. I mean, and you saw the vlog, so I've done, I've thrown myself into cleaning.

A little cleaning, yeah. Just a little bit. What about you, how do you relate to this? I mean, I don't know. I'm not a planner, but I am a doer. You know, I think there's a... There is a difference. Most of the time, they coincide, right?

Because if you're like, well, if you don't set out a plan, what are you gonna do? I just find myself doing a lot of things. But not necessarily... And i think i i end up um once i start doing things and start realizing there's a lot of things that i want to do then i start understanding oh well you should plan so you can figure out the order that you want to do these things in and uh you know you want to prioritize them you actually want to make them happen. So I think the thing that's been happening to me is the first couple of weeks, I was thinking,

oh, this is actually, there's this like involuntary slowing down of everything that I think is ultimately something that I can take advantage of, you know, personally, professionally. I mean, there's a lot of things that I, a lot of work that I'm trying to do personally, stuff that I talk about in therapy, but a lot of times it ends up being the kind of thing that I make some progress and have a great conversation. And then I actually, I go to therapy every two weeks. And so I just won't think about things very, very many times between those two weeks. And then from a professional standpoint, I mean, I know you and I are always kind of sitting back and evaluating what our strategy is and what we're doing and what we're trying to accomplish, specifically what we're trying to

create, the long-term sort of comprehensive plan for Mythical Entertainment. And again, a lot of times what happens with those things is we get into doing something and then that planning, which may happen at the beginning of the year or the end of the year is like, oh yeah, it turns out that we had great intention and we actually fulfilled some of these goals and we executed some of this plan,

but we didn't really check back in with it because we just got busy doing, right? So I was excited about this forced slowdown as a time to journal more, read more, meditate more from a personal standpoint. There's a few things I'm kind of working through, like establishing what my values are and just some things I want to sort of cement. And then from a professional standpoint, we've been talking about figuring out like, hey, we've got this downtime where we, from what we can do as a business right now is, well, we can keep making content and kind of keep our folks busy. But we also have an opportunity to figure out like, well, when things get back

to normal, what do we want our business to look like, where we want it to go in the rest of 2020 and 2021 and beyond. So I was very excited about that. But then I quickly found that I was also like, you know, I don't really have to get up at the same time. You know, I usually get up at 5.50 in order to stretch, eat, get to the gym, you can get to work. Yeah. And the I usually get up at 5.50 in order to stretch, eat, get to the gym, and get to work. Yeah. And the idea of getting up at 5.50 right now feels ridiculous, right? The first week, I was going to bed at about 11 o'clock,

which is interestingly, which is about when I usually go to bed, but I was waking up at like eight. Yeah. And I was like, whoa, but I was waking up at like eight. Yeah. And I was like, whoa, that's nine hours of sleep and I don't, and it feels good. And I was like, is that my body telling me that that's how much sleep I should have been getting

all along? But over the course of these past few weeks, maybe because my body's adjusting, but also because I feel like I can't get used to getting up late. And also now that we are kind of entering into a schedule of creating our content and planning and doing all these things, I've moved it to seven. So I've kind of slowly moved that wake up time to seven. And I am doing,

it's actually, so recording this on a Tuesday and this week was the week that I was finally like, all right, I kind of need to get some things in place because I wanna meditate every day, I wanna work out every day, I wanna read and I wanna journal every single day, I wanna do those four things. And so yesterday I did all four before we did any work this morning i did the meditation and the exercise before we did this but so i don't know i kind of feel like i'm somewhere in the middle

like i get this this idea of like i'm i sit down and i have these intentions and i want and this whole idea that i want to draw like i have have that Procreate app on the iPad, which basically turns your iPad into an endless canvas, right? I mean, it's incredible the stuff that you could do on there. And I was actually sitting outside meditating over the weekend and I was doing the thing where you kind of focus on the sounds that you could hear. And I don't know, this is kind of a synesthesia thing that I think most people have if you really think about it. But like, I've always, since I was a kid,

when I hear a sound, I have a mental picture of what that sound looks like. Not a waveform, but just it's, there's sort of, it's represented in something. Like a high sound is represented in a certain way, and a low sound, and a round sound, and a bird chirping. And they, if you really dig into your mind, you can kind of, oh, I'm actually seeing something. And so I was like, I want to create a procreate project that visualizes the sounds, both color and shape that I am experiencing in this meditation moment

where I hear the road and the cars and the trucks and then a bird, you know, my family behind me in the house talking or whatever, and I like sat down to do that and about seven minutes in, I was like, I'm not gonna do this. That's a good idea, man. No, no. You can do that. Well, I started to do it and it became more difficult

than I wanted it to be in order to kind of capture. I think I will go back to it, because I really like the idea, because I really like the idea of doing it. And then one of the cool things about the Procreate app, not a sponsor, is that you can do a time lapse video of anything that you drew. It's constantly recording all your strokes.

Oh, that's cool. So theoretically, you could play it back and then I could actually bring it into a video editing program and put the corresponding sounds as they're painted and it would create this awesome video. Just because you haven't doesn't mean you can't now start.

It's a great idea, but then it ends up getting superseded by things like work. Yeah, I mean, we're still working a lot. I'm surprised at how much we're working. I'm also surprised that even though I've had a lot of ideas, like I told you yesterday, I just felt so unmotivated, like more unmotivated than I can recall ever feeling feeling just kind of feeling blue, just like a little,

I guess a little depressed, you know, and just trying to put my finger on what that is. And I mean, the thing that I relayed to, to, to our, to the mythical team, because we had our, our company wide meeting yesterday yesterday we'll try to have one of those every two weeks so that we're just kind of giving people everyone an update and making sure that we all connect and we we're all on the same page but you know the advice I gave them was basically the advice I was trying to take for myself which is from week to week, it's not like you just figure out your approach to this.

Just like everybody's saying in the news, there has to be a fluidity and a flexibility to this. There also has to be a sensitivity to how am I doing from day to day? And is the way that I'm approaching this and is the lifestyle that I'm adopting, is it the healthiest for me? Does it position me to care for myself and care for other people and to cultivate kindness? I mean, I'm sure we'll get into it eventually, if not today, but the challenges of being in such close proximity with your immediate

family is um it's difficult it is trying it's it's difficult and it's and it's hard to we were we were talking to the kids last night about what grace is and how we can extend grace to each other. But also extend grace to ourselves and just continually assess, is this working for me? And what do I need to change? Now, as an Enneagram One, I am an improver, right? So I do think that way. But I also, and I think that's a healthy approach, but I also think I've had such a difficult time because control is so important to me. Having a sense of accomplishment every single day is very important to me. And when there's a lot of frustration, I just feel like so much of what we're having to tackle professionally in this new environment,

every time I turn around, there's a frustration. And my patience has been wearing so thin, and then I judge myself. And I get down on myself because I'm not relaxing enough. You're just at home, you know? You're able to spend hours with yourself before anybody wakes up and like, you're doing a great job at that,

that should be making a difference the rest of your day. Even the good parts of what I'm doing, I turn into a critique of myself. And I, you know, I don't know. That's just what I'm processing at this point. Well, interestingly, you're a one, which is a perfectionist and I'm a three, which is like a performer slash achiever.

And I mean, all the Enneagram numbers, and again, we will do an Enneagram episode. We say we would, but the reason we haven't done it yet is because I just don't like to speak out of school about things and I don't feel like I've read enough about it. But anyway, the- You can't perform it well enough.

Yeah, exactly. But one of the interesting things about both ones and threes is they're both deeply self-critical, right? For different reasons. It's actually very, it's different, but there's a similarity to it because it has to do with your performance. Like a one is critical of how you're performing,

but a three is very critical of how they're performing as well. And so I definitely feel that. I feel we probably experience it differently, but I feel the same thing. It's just like, I'm always, you might be thinking, am I doing this right? And I'm thinking, am I doing enough?

Like that's, I tend to just think about, man, I don't want this time to have gone by and I don't have anything to show for it. Because my tendency as a three is to find myself worth in the things that I accomplish. So if I look at this downtime that we had, it's like, oh, this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity to get stuff figured out, to get yourself figured out, to get your business figured out, to figure out what your strategies are going to be, and to know what you're going to accomplish, figuring out what you're going to accomplish. And I think that there is good in that, right? I mean,

I think this is one of the reasons that we've done a lot of the things that we've done is because of the way that our personalities mix, but both of us are kind of driving towards accomplishing. I'm kind of driving towards accomplishing more and you're driving towards accomplishing things better, you know? And so, and I think that those two things, that one, three combination is a, is a big key to a lot of things that have happened for us, but it also can be, you know, greatest strength is your greatest weakness. It can be our downfall.

One thing that was really helpful to me the other day, speaking of meditation, was in the guided meditation that I was doing, talking about kindness and kindness to yourself. I think incidentally, this is something that growing up evangelical was a really difficult thing for both of us. I think that we've always heard the term

sort of self-care and self-kindness as an inherently prideful and selfish thing because everything had to be about others first. And I actually think that if you really want others to be first, then you got to make sure that you're kind to yourself and you're loving yourself, not in this self, the thing that we began to learn in the 80s and 90s, which was all about everybody's special and everybody, all about your self image. I'm not talking about that, but I'm just saying,

being kind to yourself. Like, one thing that struck me in that meditation was, treat yourself the way that you would treat others, which what we hear a lot of times, which is the golden rule, would treat others the way that you would treat yourself, which is an incredible thing. We should all live by it.

But there's a different way to see that sometimes, which is I tend to be very gracious towards people. Like when I hear you talking about being hard on yourself for not feeling like you're doing things right, I'm like, oh, come on, man, don't be so hard on yourself. Like my natural inclination, and I think most of the people listening, would'm like, oh, come on, man, don't be so hard on yourself. Like my natural inclination, and I think most of the people listening would be to,

yeah, hey, give yourself a break. But sometimes it's very difficult to direct that type of grace back on yourself. So for me, it was like, definitely, just know that you're okay, you're accepted. You know, you're not going to increase the love that is available for you by the things that you do and for the way that you do them or for the way that you perform. I mean, that's grace.

It's one of the things I love about the gospel is the idea of grace. You got to be willing to extend that grace to yourself. It's not easy to do though. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think, you know, let's put a pin in it and let's move on to other questions, but I think that, or other comments. But it's a good thing to continue to explore

as I continue to take the, we take the advice that we're giving to each other, you know? Yeah. Here's one. Erica is lost in the music. Panoramic underscore soul. I've been spending more time than usual with my guitar. I mean, we know that must be true because we're looking at where ad dollars are not coming in for YouTube as much. There's been like a drastic decrease,

but we have heard that unless you're like making guitar videos. Yeah. You know, people are buying ads on music tutorials. She also said, also my old self, my old self is trying this TikTok thing and let me tell you, I feel ancient. I'm sure you're not actually ancient.

That's just what TikTok does when we're adopting at this point. And I know that we both are now, we're exploring TikTok because we have official Mythical TikTok. So, hey, let's do a promo. Follow Mythical on TikTok, or is it subscribe? See, I don't even know what the word is.

Well, it's funny. I saw, I don't know who it was, somebody commented when we posted something about TikTok. They were like, oh, this is what the quest for relevance has led to? Yes. You know what, kiss my, you know what, that person can kiss my butt.

Well, they can kiss my ass. This is what we do. This is what, we make internet content for a living. If you, don't judge us for getting on Facebook. You mean TikTok? Am I defensive? Why did I say Facebook? Because you're old and irrelevant. I'm not on Facebook.

We're on Facebook. No, we actually, it's funny thing is, is we've been talking a lot about TikTok, not just because I feel like it's where my, you know, I mean, that's what Locke is watching more so than YouTube at this point. So I think any sort of teenager is there. And there's this very,

we've talked about this a number of times with each other, that the attitude that we've had as we've gotten older towards emerging platforms is every single time they come along, they are perceived first as an annoyance because if you're in the digital entertainment business, you see them as a like, ah, an obligation. It's like, ah, I feel like we've got to do this because like Link said, this is what we do.

And if Mythical doesn't have a presence in these places, then what are we doing, right? But we haven't really seen those as opportunities as much as we've seen them as annoyances and obligations. And one of the things that we're trying to do during this time is to shift the way we see it. I mean, and there's always this point where you step into it and there's sort of this confusion

and you feel old and you feel out of touch. You feel ancient, like Erica said. Cause you're like, I just don't understand what this is about. You're telling me that the majority of this content is these like girls and then dudes with very particular haircuts doing these dances, which are nothing like what I'm actually doing right now,

because I can't really, I don't know what they are. But then, once you dig a little bit deeper, you're like, well, yes, it is a lot of that. But beyond that, there's some like really legitimately engaging, really authentically funny stuff happening on there. And that's when I start getting excited because I'm like, oh, I kind of understand what people like about this. I find myself going on there, not just as a student, but as a user, you know, as someone who is just

enjoying it like everybody else. And now there's a shift happening towards what does it look like from a creative standpoint? So I'm pretty excited about it. Yeah, which is exciting. Yeah, so hey, Erica, just stick with it a little bit. You know, you find the right things to get interested in and it might be exciting for you too. Get past the dancing.

That's all I can say is like, the dancing is not for me. If you get past that, there's a lot more. There's actually some like serious content on there. People like doing self help and stuff. I was reading about, when Drake's single, Toosie Slide first came out, I was reading about it.

And he was working on this song, and he reached out to this dance choreographer, Toosie, who then said, hey, I'm working on this song. Can you put a dance to it? Because that's part of the lyrics. And then the way that it, three days before that's part of the lyrics. And then the way that it, three days before the song came out, it drops where? TikTok. On TikTok. And it's them doing the Toosie slide,

which then I proceeded to, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna learn this, and then I did not have the courage to post it anywhere. Oh really? Well you should have done that. My wife- Lincoln and I were working on it. My wife was not impressed. She actually went out of her way to point out

that she was not impressed with the 2C slide. She found it to be an underwhelming dance. Well, the original version on TikTok looks great when people who really know how to do it and invented it do it. Interestingly enough, the audio and the video, I'm pretty sure are out of sync, which in terms of learning the dance, it's a little weird.

That's cumbersome. But then, you know, it kind of melds as other people start to do it and it becomes not as impressive. Yeah, you gotta pop it and like it, you gotta keep it tight. I don't even, I haven't watched it. There's a river dance aspect to it.

Let's move on. Emily Boswell, Emily B. Writer, said, my husband and I did a 2,000 piece puzzle and now that it's finished, it feels like there's a hole in our lives. I think a lot of people are doing puzzles right now. Well, you're right, Emily. We had one at the McLaughlin household and the puzzle,

I believe this puzzle may haunt me until the day I die. But it's more- You didn't finish it. It's more likely to haunt Jessie because- How many pieces and are the boys involved in this? 1,500 pieces. So by far the biggest puzzle that we've ever attempted to do.

Did you already own it or did you order it? She ordered it because she was like, "'Quarantine, puzzle time," you know? Now, I saw folly in this from the beginning. P-U-Z, zol, a puzzle, yeah. Yeah. Because you might guess this about me, but one of the things that makes me like doing things

is like... Nets. Yeah, nets, fire, and poop is one thing. But the idea of, there's some unpredictability about a process or there's like insight or something that can happen. Like I like dynamic experiences and puzzles are by default not dynamic,

or by design not dynamic. It is literally the same thing from start to finish. It is a process that has, you know exactly what the end is gonna be, because there's a freaking picture that you're looking at. What's the discovery? Oh, we made the picture that's on the box. It isn't like there's a surprise when you put it together.

Oh, no, there's a secret little animal that's in the version that you put together, which is, by the way, a good business idea because then maybe people like me would actually wanna do puzzles. But I just don't like, it's like reading a book twice. It's something, unless it's a book about a concept that I need to grasp better,

I don't like reading a story again. I'm not one of those people. Because I don't- So how far did you get? Well, I was not involved at all. I saw them put it on the table and I was like, just to let you know, I'm not into puzzles. It's not my thing. And I think by the end of it,

you'll also realize it's not your thing. Because I know my wife, she's a lot like me. I know she ain't gonna wanna do this puzzle. But over the course of two weeks, we could not use our dining room table because this 1500 piece monstrosity was being slowly put together. What was it a picture of?

It was a picture, and this is so interesting. They made it, it wasn't just a 1500 piece puzzle. It was a 1500piece puzzle of a landscape with a house and a barn reflected in a pond that was reflecting every single thing that was above the fold, right? So you had two puzzles. It was an inversion. A slightly blurrier version of landscape reflected in the pond.

I mean, very, very crisp for a pond reflection, but ever so slightly blurry, but not easy to tell when you just take two little teeny pieces and look at them. It's like, is this the blurry one or is this not the blurry one? So I knew it was going to be a complete mind screw just by looking at it. And then it had large patches of grass and sky that were, there's no point of reference. It's just, that's all blue. You should start a YouTube channel.

Let's say a TikTok. You should start a TikTok. I'll contribute. Puzzle criticism? Where you review puzzles just based on the box and all of them get a review of zero out of 10 and you're just convincing people not to build that puzzle. You know what, this is a TikTok idea and I love it.

Don't do, it's a review, welcome to my puzzle review. As you can see this one, blah, blah, blah, blah, I give it a zero out of 10 and then you just rip it to shreds. I'm gonna do it with this one. And then, I'll make it. And by the way, at the end of each one, you literally shred it.

You get some sort of like big shredder and you put the puzzle in it, the box and all the pieces and you just. A paper shredder. Just destroy it. I could probably do a puzzle with a paper shredder. Great idea. Or burn it, burn it.

Put it in that and burn it. But that didn't stop my wife from repeatedly revisiting this. And actually there was a couple of times that I felt sympathy for her and I sat down and- Because it's staring you in the face. Every time you walk past your table, you've got this thing that's just like

thumbing its nose at you that you know what? You are inadequate. You don't have what it takes to finish me. Right and- That's why I don't have what it takes to finish me. Right, and she- That's why I don't like puzzles either, by the way, because I don't like long-term commitments when the chances of failure are very, very high. Well, she didn't wanna admit failure.

Like she went, she got so far into this thing over the course of two weeks. And there was one time that I sat down and I just sat down and started looking at the way she'd organized the pieces, which is she had not organized the pieces. And so I was just like, you know, why don't you? And she said, don't judge me.

Like she interrupted me. Oh. She was like, I've been working on this. You can't just sit down and begin to point out why my technique is wrong, like I know you're about to do. So I didn't say anything else, and I just kinda selected a couple. I saw it was like a bunch of window pieces. And I was like, I could put together this house.

And so I got some of the window pieces. And over the course of about 20 minutes or so, I probably put like seven or eight pieces together. I mean, that's how long this thing takes. I mean, did she even work the border first? She worked the border first, she did do that. She worked the border first, yeah. But then when I presented my little house

that I put together, she said, thanks. That's the easy part. She was just like, she didn't even accept the house. I mean, she did accept the house, she put it in there. She didn't take it back. But she finally gave, just to close the loop on the puzzle, she finally got to a place where all the parts that had some sort of recognizable points of reference

were together and she was left with this big piece of sky and this big piece of grass and this big part of a mountain, which is still probably 30% of the puzzle. And she just had all these pieces. You didn't know which ones were from the reflection or not the reflection. Right. And you had to just keep trying pieces over and over again, and they would look like they were going to fit.

And then she just took the thing, put it back in the box, and we haven't talked about it. We haven't talked about it. Oh. We're not going to talk about the puzzle. She righted it into the box? Yeah, I went into the kitchen, I mean, I went into the dining room

and there was no puzzle and I was like. I ain't gonna say nothing. Well, I said, what happened to the puzzle? I said, did you finish it? And she just said, no, I quit. And we haven't spoken since. About anything. About anything ever. Oh my gosh, okay.

Here's one from Katashi, call me cat, underscore, underscore. I've been hoping so masks for the health professionals out there. I wanted to make sure that we acknowledged not only Kat's work, but everyone who's doing things like this. I mean, that's absolutely amazing, Kat. Thank you for being your mythical best.

And I think about all the health professionals who are out there on the front lines. And I'll add one more from Jay, at Good Mythicality, I've gone from working part-time to overtime at Walmart. And when I get home, all I do is rewatch Toy Story 3 with my nephew. He's two and manages to forget the plot every time.

I am not so lucky. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Who could have thought, Who could have thought that Walmart will be the front lines for this thing? I mean, you know, there are people who are working, stocking shelves, helping make sure that we get what we need and are able to stay at home, delivery people. They're passing away. I mean, they're not, delivery people, they're passing away.

I mean, they're not just getting sick, they're dying. I mean, it's heart wrenching. And it's, I mean, it's not sensationalism to say that these people are the ones that are on the front lines. Because you know, we're talking about how there's a little bit of, you know, we're talking about how there's a little bit of, you know, we're doing the right thing by staying home. But at times you feel guilty because there's people who, you know,

they have to work and then, but their work requires them to do something that's very much essential and it puts them in harm's way. So for people like Kat to come in and give them masks is tremendous. Well, and staying home is a very privileged option in this whole thing. There are a lot of people who don't have a choice. I mean, some people are just still required to go to work whether or not their particular business has been deemed essential, just because some employers are doing that.

and the nurses and the janitors cleaning up the hospitals and the people supplying them with the things that they need to do their jobs and the people providing all the essential services that keep that going. And then all the people who provide the essential services that allow us to just sit at home and do what we're doing. And there's a reason that the internet is working right now and I'm able to communicate with you.

There's people going in and managing all this stuff to enable us to have some sense of normalcy. And I just think that they're the real heroes. And that's a lot of people. And if the only thing you can do is do what we do, which is to stay home. Then that's actually, that's you doing your part because that's flattening the curve. It's a huge, important part of this. But yeah, I heard somebody say that this is going to be the kind of thing where,

and it's interesting because I found myself saying, thank you for your service to the UPS guy. You know what I'm saying? It's just like we come from a, you know, the way it's always been when we think about patriotism is we think about our country succeeding in war against other countries. And we thank the soldiers who fought for our freedom. And we shouldn't stop doing that. We shouldn't stop thanking soldiers. But this is much like a

war and there is a frontline and these people are the soldiers fighting and then there's the people behind the scenes making it all happen. And so I think that the definition of patriotism is changing. And it's also changing the way that we think about this whole America first thing, which has become such a big thing politically. It's just like, I understand the idea of national pride to some extent, but I think that one of the things that we've been able to experience in having a business that might be based in the United States, but a community of people who watch what we do that knows no borders, there's a very international sense to this community of people that have gathered around what we do. And you just see their perspective of where they're at.

And you see the life that they're living. And you see that most people want the same things out of life. And you see that this virus doesn't discriminate. This virus doesn't know about borders. It doesn't know about the imaginary borders that we've drawn around ourselves. It doesn't know about the imaginary borders that we've drawn around ourselves. It doesn't know about the imaginary labels that we've given ourselves. And the effort to combat it shouldn't have borders around it. When we think about the idea of a cure, and our president says things like,

America's got the best scientists in the world, and we're going to find the cure. It's like, okay, yeah, American scientists are great, but scientists are great is really what we should be saying. And the idea that we're gonna not listen to the knowledge in another place if they figured something out. And the funny thing is,

is I read an article where scientists were kind of responding to that mentality. And they were like saying, science has never worked that way. We've never, science is not a national thing because we know that if you're doing a controlled experiment in Japan and I'm doing a controlled experiment in America, we're going to get the same results if the same things go into it. And so the idea of this collective global effort to combat this collective global problem, I think is something that,

we didn't get to this last week when we talked about the silver lining, but that's a huge silver lining for me is just the idea that we continue to realize that there is an incredible interdependence between all humans and these labels that we place on ourselves are not helpful. Yeah, and to bring it back to Jay working at the Walmart,

I mean, I will think differently about my mail woman and my delivery guy and the person stocking my shelves at the Ralph's down the street, you know? And I think that's very good. my shelves at the Ralph's down the street, you know? And I think that's very good. You know, we tip our waiters and waitresses, you know? I'm gonna do that differently, you know? I'm gonna look for opportunities to look people in the eye and to thank them, at least that is my intention.

So I'm going on podcast record to be more appreciative of the people that make everything run. So, again, we thank you. If you're listening, you're one of those people you're listening you're on a route or you're stocking a shelf or you're you're taking care of um your grandkids so that your daughter can be a doctor or a hospital janitor i mean we there's so many people playing so many critical roles and now more than ever i appreciate the how interconnected we all are just just like you're saying. You wanna- What you think? You wanna wrap things up? You think you got a wreck

for us? I do have a wreck. This is a wreck that we, we've talked about this. I don't know if you made this as a wreck, but you talked about on a podcast last year, how you were going back and watching Survivor as a family. And- Yeah, our Christmas, how you were going back and watching Survivor as a family. Yeah, our Christmas, our post-Christmas vacation year before last,

we went to Sedona and we watched Survivor, Millennials versus Gen X. Right, so Jessie was on. It was amazing. Jessie was on the call with her friends, of which one is Link's wife, and one of their collective friends that said, hey, our family's really enjoying this season of Survivor. And, you know, even when you talked about Survivor,

I think I did, we watched a little bit of a season, but I just, I haven't been back into it basically since the beginning. But Jesse, there's something when you're a family and you're looking for things to do together. Yeah. A lot of times, if that's not a puzzle, it might be on a screen.

And so she was like, hey, Rebecca and her family are watching the latest season of Survivor, which is like the 20th, you know, the 40th season, the 20th anniversary or whatever, and it's all the winners. We should watch it with the kids. And I was like, you know what, that's a good idea. It's a network show, which means there's gonna be like over 20 episodes.

They're each like an hour long. This feels like a good way to spend some time together as a family. And so we started that, we're like a few episodes in. I have to say that me and Jesse and Shepard are the most into it. It's been difficult to hold the petition of a 16 year old. Now Lily and Lincoln both love it over here.

Well, Locke will kind of get into it a little bit and then he'll kind of back off a little bit. It's like, uh-oh. So we'll see. We're gonna keep doing it. But I mean, I'm into it in this, you have to sort of acknowledge that like, I am watching Survivor.

I'm okay with that. You know? There's a nostalgia to it. And there is, hey man, I told you before, there's something for everyone, except apparently Locke most of the time. I mean, you got, if you're into men and women and basically underwear in the bush or the brush or-

Careful. Wherever they are. You got that. I think I told you, I was really into the way that it's edited and the way they tell a story. Even the recaps at the beginning of an episode, if you were to binge watch and you had just watched the previous episode,

the recaps are great because they don't recycle footage. They reveal a little different angle on the same things that you already experienced. It's like, it's a really, really well-made show. Everything down to the drone shots and the score changes from season to season. It's funny the difference in our approach because I made the decision,

we made the decision as a family to dive back into Survivor 2, but then I said, I'm gonna go away and do some research and I'm gonna come back with which episode we should watch and what our plan should be. And for us, that was, let's not watch the current season. Let's watch, let's start with season 17, which is in Gabon, Africa.

It's the first HD season. And then from there, I mean, I read a number of articles that like make recommendations about which seasons are good and if some of the best seasons, you kind of have to watch a season before if you really wanna know the characters that they're bringing back. So we've taken the extreme long-term approach that I have.

If we're gonna be in this for a couple of years, which we're gonna be in this for a couple of years, which we're not, then I think I have like seven seasons we could watch. And of course, I don't know, we're the Neils. We might actually do that. Yeah, we would never do that. We're so different that way. I understand that watching this season

that I'm gonna know who the winners are, but I just don't think there's a world in which we're gonna, I mean, there's like over 20 episodes just of this season. I'm not gonna go back and do it again, I don't think. Based on the reaction so far, I am still recommending it. Yeah. You should try it. Because it is something you can watch as a family. So you're saying recommend the current one.

I'm recommending starting with season 17 and then working up to heroes versus villains. And you can read articles, make sure that you check spoiler free before you do too much research. All right. All right. I agree with that rec. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. Let us know. Let's continue the conversation online until we speak at you next week. Yeah. Thanks for listening as always.