Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Arbitrary Spiderman, Selfish Time Traveling, Other Famous Bassists

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

The guys cover a lot of ground in this one, including superheroes with tenuous connections to their namesakes, how to make a name for yourself on the WGA picket lines, and their finite capacity for being bad at things. Follow the show on socials: https://www.linktr.ee/QQPodcast Soren Bowie: https://twitter.com/Soren_Ltd Daniel O'Brien: https://twitter.com/DOB_INC

I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, I wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? What do I be? What was it I could wear? What are we not? Oh, forget it. I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien.

Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer, they're gonna find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here senior writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents, bass guitar player, and surf watcher, Daniel O'Brien. Join us always by my co-host, Mr. Soren Bui. Soren, say hello.

Hey, everybody. I'm Soren Bui. I'm also not a surfer. I talk to a lot of people on the lines about it because I have a North Shore shirt, like a Hawaii North Shore shirt from a board shop, and they're like, oh, you surf. And I'm like, I tried it once in Costa Rica and almost drowned. So I don't, I don't do that. I'm not a water sports guy. I live on the beach famously, and there are surfers there all the time. And I just watched them. And, uh, as someone who lives on the beach, you frequently get asked if you surf

or if you've ever wanted to surf or are you, why don't you, Hey buddy, you don't have a job right now. Why don't you, this is a thing you could do. And I've never had any interest in it because I know I'm going to be very bad at it. Sometimes you could tell something where it's like, no, I'm going to be bad at that, and I'm going to be bad for a long time if I ever get good. And I'm, like all of us, dying,

and I don't want to use my time. I'm already committed to being bad at golf for a very long time until i'm good at golf why am i going to pick another activity where it's going to be 900 hours of being bad yeah until it's and i don't know that you actually get good at the end i might not and that's i was gonna. It's very similar to golf in that respect. And that it's like this, the learning curve is just a wall. It's like, it's so steep, that learning curve. And when you, cause there's all these elements to surfing, like you have to account for getting up on the board is such like a minor piece of it, but a very important one. That's like very hard to do. And, uh, I have a background in snowboarding and skateboarding where I'm like oh i could this

will be like an easy transition it was i'm so fucking bad at surfing yeah because i can't read a wave i'm like i grew up in a landlocked state i don't understand water and i don't understand like when like how to like get into a wave so like i can get up on the board but immediately like either the nose dips in and i'm dead or uh missed the wave. Like I sit on top of it and it just sort of like passes me by and then I, and then I sink. And no matter how hard I try, like I can't figure out like that element of it is like, yeah.

And it's not like other things. Like if, if you want to learn how to surf, you will have that first day where it's like, you're just going to learn how to get up on the board. We're not even going to go on the water. We're going to practice on land. It's like, Oh, well that's a, that's not on the board. We're not even going to go on the water. We're going to practice on land. It's like, oh, well, that's not a fun day.

That's a stupid day. If you're trying to get into rock climbing, and you're at an indoor rock gym with a harness and everything, you'll spend a little bit of time on instruction. But guaranteed, by the end of, you're going to do some climbing. Wait, like the first seven minutes. You're going to get on the wall. You're going to do this stuff, and it's going to feel feel like climbing and look like climbing and you never have to do it again

You won't be great at it. But like you you you're guaranteed to feel like a climber for a day surfing There's no guarantee that you're going to it's true I mean the end with golf like the idea of you stepping on a golf course if you don't know how to play golf is Absurd. Yeah, like you have to like you got to go to a driving range first So you don't embarrass yourself and so it's not so that it's at least fun once you get onto a course like you can't just go onto a course and play that's a crazy thing no yeah i and i've been been doing more golf now going to like pitch and putts and driving range and it's still i'm not good enough for it to be fun yet and it's like it's the only thing in my life that i do where it's like, well, there's two hours that I didn't have any fun and I paid for it and I did it on purpose.

Yeah, I know that. I felt pretty bad about myself today out there. And it's like the worst part is like you can as you progress, you progress into like a worse state. Like you can like you start getting really good. And then as soon as you'll hit something that that's just like, whatever, something's weird about your swing. You unlock something new, but like you fuck something else up and now like you're way lower than you were before.

And you're like, well, if I could just go back to where I was, like I wasn't crushing everything to the right back then. And it's, it's such a deeply frustrating game. And surfing, I think has got to be like the same way. Like I, I've got my meditative shit. I don't need another like thing where I have to be very, like the same way. Like I, I've got my meditative shit. I don't need another like thing where I have to be very, very practiced at it before it's, it's something I can do mindlessly. It's, I take comfort in the fact that I'm not, it's not one of the things where

I'm jealous of the people who are doing it. There are plenty of things like that where I, where I, I am jealous and I wish I'd put the time in. I'm, I'm, I, my attitude is very much good, good for you guys. I bet this is fun I love being in the water, I love being in nature it seems very meditative like you said God bless enjoy it. It's not for me. I'm gonna run or like do actual meditation

or... It is interesting you brought up bass guitar at the beginning of this because it's similar to that it's like getting good at bass that's not an instrument first of all that you just play by yourself and it sounds like... Did I bring up bass guitar? Yeah, you said bass player. Man, I don't even listen to me when I'm doing this show.

You said bass player and I was like, oh yeah, Dan is a really good bassist. Bass is like a tough instrument to learn because you're not any good at it at first. You got to figure it out. You got to figure out the finger picking and stuff. And then you got to like basically start stretching your left hand. Yeah. Because your left hand has to be able to stretch further than your right hand because you got to reach all those large frets. And then playing bass by yourself sucks.

Like it just objectively sucks. Especially when you're just beginning. And you can't, you need like a band to play along with, but you can't be in a band to play along with until you learn the instrument. Yeah. And so like, there's this whole period with the beginning where you're just like, dun,

dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,

dun, dun, Like figuring shit out and hang on, do that again. Gabe, record this. Start recording right now. And I was just

in my mind dude that was like the very first slap bass riff that I'd learned I'm so lucky and grateful and thankful

that I learned how to play bass much much younger like that's the way you gotta do that's gotta be golf that's gotta be surfing

when I have kids if they have any interest in anything I'm like yes be shitty at it now get that out of the way now because when you're older You'll have pride and you won't want to do anything that you're shitty at Just be really shitty at this instrument for a couple years And then when you're older and you could do it and it's fun. You will forget this time you won't remember Being a shitty bass player alone in your room at 12 years old that time is is is gone to

you now you're just like a fucking one of those cool bass players you know like flea or a second example of a bass player let's play cool oh i think we have time for this i have a really quick story for you at the gym sure uh where i wait wait wait did that did that pick up I heard it from here so I was at the gym and as I was on my way out I was going down the stairs of the gym and this guy comes up and he's got on a t-shirt that has a little ween emblem here

and the emblem of ween is just this smiley face with like crazy hair and like a very funny weird teeth ween is a band ween is a band that Soren likes they're a very alien weird teeth. Ween is a band. Ween is a band. Ween is a band. That Soren likes. They're a very alienating band that I think wants to upset their fans often. I think they...

They're just... They like to explore different genres of music. I think they're one of the most eclectic and like prolific bands there is. They are... And like there are... I will admit that there are Ween songs I can't listen to. Right there is they are and like there are i will admit that there are wean songs i can't listen to right but there are also like wean songs that are i think are some

of the best songs ever written and so i love wean and i am fully there for like the songs where i don't get it and i'm like no you just you're on some other plane and i'm not there yet so uh i trust that you're making good music i I just don't, I don't care for Poop Ship. And so they've got a song called Poop Ship Destroyer that sucks so hard. Am I selling ween to you? And so this guy comes up the stairs

and he's got like a little ween emblem on his shirt. It's just a smiley, silly looking smiley face. And on the back, there's a pentagram with a horse in the middle because they're also like

really into demon horses for whatever reason. It sounds so objectively crazy. They're into demon horses like that's a type of person. You ever one of those kids in school that was always talking about demon horses? Were you a unicorn girl or a demon horse girl? Yeah, there was horse girls in there that were like demon horse girls. And so he comes upstairs and I was like, I pass him on the stairs and i was like i gotta talk to him about ween so i went back in and i

was just like i just want to say i like his shirt so i go and i tap on him he immediately thinks he's like oh you were on this piece of equipment that i'm sitting on like no no sir no no your shirt and he's like oh it's a band like no i love ween and he was like you know ween and i was like ween is my favorite band of all time and he was like i'm their photographer i travel around with them on tour and i take all of their pictures i do it with this other band called primus and i was like yeah dude i know that band um this other band called primus buddy i name checked ween based on your shirt and uh he was so psyched that i liked ween because he's like usually i run into people and they're like what is that silly little face and i was like uh how do we like exchange information how do how do i now use this to meet ween basically without saying that and i got his

name and stuff and i was like all I'm going to check out his photography. And I think I have. Like, I think I've looked at Ween photos in the past. I mean, like, looked through their tours and stuff. Just because it's really hard for me. But I can't stop doing it looking at Gene and Dean Ween aging. But it was really cool. Like, this guy was intimate with Ween.

And I was like, this is a real moment for me. That's great. I hope something happens there for you. His name's Billy. Billy, reach out to me. Cool. Let's do a strike update. Oh, please.

As of this recording, it's 101 days of the Writers Guild striking. That's our union. 101 days of the Writers Guild striking. That's our union. We were both on the lines yesterday because I'm out in LA right now and we got to celebrate day 100. And we got

tacos and margaritas was a little strike gift for us. Margaritas is a big swing from the studios. It might have been from the studios because that's like a very sabotaging thing to do. But like bringing alcohol to the lines where it's like 92 degrees out there is such a mistake. And it's like I've been really impressed and appreciative by the restraint of people to not be drinking on the lines.

Because you totally could just have a canteen of whatever. But I think everyone is like, no, we like everyone knows intuitively we can't be drunk on the lines. We can't be disruptive or a problem. And so as soon as margaritas came out, I thought, this is going to change things for people. People are going to be like, this is better when I'm a little bit drunk. There's something, I mean, you're absolutely right. It does have like a social feel to it because you're meeting new people constantly and you're talking, you're just chatting about whatever and you're walking around. Uh, it feels so much like a bar crawl that, but there is something deeply sad about showing up at the lines and you have a hydration flask that is filled with alcohol. You're not telling anyone. There's like like that's a

problem yeah certainly um but it made me think i was very we get little like snacks and treats on the lines all the time and it's uh uh it's always fun to learn who they're from we were in new york protesting and it was for union uh support staff solidarity day and someone came up and give a speech and like all right and uh everyone thanks for coming out there are burritos and smoothies from quest love and it's it's that makes sense because it's New York and quest love works on the Tonight Show and like there's you you'll often get like famous people doing things like this the all the late-night hosts got together to get trucks for various strike days was like here this waffles

and ice cream from Seth Meyers or whatever it made me think this is a really good opportunity for any rich but random celebrity to be like everyone there's sushi here from Rick Springfield yeah it's a no-brainer yeah Yeah. It'd be so easy to just get your name out there again. Yeah. You're like, yeah. If you find out that Rebecca De Mornay gave you Yeasty Boys, you'd be like, I loved her in Risky Business. Yeah.

Let's find out what she's doing. If I was a slightly more well-known celebrity, but also very petty, I would use it as an opportunity. Like, Noah Wiley sent us 900 hamburgers. Is he doing that great? Just as a big swing to let people think that you're doing really well.

Yeah, I like that a lot. I wonder what I could afford. I mean, obviously not much, given that this is day 101, but I wonder if there's something I could afford. Yeah. I mean, obviously not much given that this is day 101. But I wonder if there's something I could figure out that is big impact on the lines. And people would be like, and Soren Bui brought us 12 bagels. So that's something. He says, there are instructions.

It'll feel like 24 if you cut them in half. Well, that's nice. That's nice of him. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. their instructions it'll feel like 24 if you cut them in half so well that's nice that's nice yeah yeah that's great i wonder if i would like to donate i wish i could think of a thing that is not food or or beverage that people don't realize they want like yeah donate 10 000 yo-yos people like this this is fun i'm glad i like i didn't have anything to do with my hands before and now this is like passing the time at a streetlight.

This is good. I like this. Yeah, if you could get some sort of Leonardo Psy holder for the back, and you could just put your sign in it. Sure. Oh, yeah. You could create that for people. Oh, I think they'd go nuts for it. Or I could do like a, today's the day I'm cutting the sleeves off all of our WGA shirts.

Yeah. I think that would be pretty great. and then we're all sleeveless yeah because that's been something i've been dreaming of for a while certainly it's so hot out there in the wga shirts i don't know what's like in the east dan but on the west we've got these royal blue wga west shirts that are if you wash them like, they shell up. Like they get real tight. All the threads in them get really tight. And they are, they don't breathe. And they just get starchy. It's like weird. And they're tough.

And when you wear those around, I was wearing a name tag one day over one of them. And the name tag just fell off from sweat. And there was like a little square of sweat right there where my body was just like get it off of me this is my first uh strike shirt oh is it how's that one feel not good yeah it's pretty uncomfortable they gave it to me it's actually from the 0708 strike okay uh they were very proud to say like oh it's a vintage one we've been holding on to them for fucking what yeah i have another one that says we stand with the wga

which is very confusing yeah because it sounds like it's i'm from some other organization that's like and also us nurses but uh that's not the case it's like it's like a wga strike shirt from when they all left their agents i guess they had shirts for that i guess so yeah this one actually does breathe it's like at some point they did have it dialed in and then they forgot their way I was a super pumped to wear this shirt today because another part of my struck update Jennifer Bennifer bakes is a bake shop on Pico and they are giving 15% off if you are a Striking member of either Writers Guild or Actors Guild. She was so excited

to see my shirt. She said, ah, 15% off. I support you. Good. Go. Go, Strikers. Her grandfather was one of the founding... Jason Biggs? Yeah. One of the founding members of our union, apparently. Oh, okay. Great.

She was saying, my whole family is different members of unions. I'm familiar with the strike, and I support you 15% off for my vegan bacon and avocado sandwich. Okay. That's good news. I don't know. It's an ad.

What do you want me to say about it? I've never seen you more ready for a story to end let's uh let's do our show um dude i have a quick question for you sure um okay so batman chose bats very into bats like has a interesting and like but definite relationship with bats sure there are a lot of antagonists like in the first Batman to Joker he falls in chemicals and then they full sort of falls in love with chemicals like once you use them constantly the lizard was that his name the Liz man the lizard what's the spider-man lizard name lizard yeah lizard lizards very into lizards I can't

wait until this becomes a question yeah Spider-Man got bit by a radioactive spider gave him all his powers he owes everything to it right couldn't care less about spiders completely ambivalent to spiders it seems is there any point in the comics where like he's like ushering one out of his house in a glass jar or anything like that or like he cares about them in any capacity not that I know

of no not to my knowledge he just he doesn't couldn't care fucking less about spiders. Sure. Feels like a real missed opportunity. The only reason I think of this is that my daughter has a Spider-Man costume now that she wears just about every morning. We go through about three outfit changes even before school. And she wears Spider-Man and then she insists that we call Spider-Man when we have a web in the house.

Okay. So that Spider-Man can come and shoo away the web and clear it out. And I'm like, yeah, that makes more sense. Like either he hates spiders or he loves spiders. But his relationship to spiders ends at the point where he got bit. And then it's just like, and fuck off. I don't care about spiders after that. Yeah.

I mean, he shoots web. Yeah. He he made webbing also a weird choice like because he didn't have to embrace that element of the spider hood right because there's no until he called himself spider-man and put on the costume uh and like made web shooters no one would have thought no one would have made that comparison. He'd have been like, I'm super fucking strong and I can see a little bit into the future with my sensing abilities and I can stick to walls. Yeah.

You know, like a spider. Everyone's like, ah, I don't know about that. You could have been anything you wanted. Yeah. And you were super into photography. You could be like a photography-based crime fighter if you wanted it that's your thing Or science there was only there was no rough draft It was just like the first first idea was the best idea as far as he was concerned

Yeah, and it was like I'll go with spiders, but also If you're gonna do that then like steer into the skid a little bit and also embrace spider hood like embrace Like your fellow spiders see if maybe you could summon some it is the the weirder thing about the spider-man world is how many other spider things sprang up around him like there's madam webb and there's spider woman and spider girl and just like all like the villains didn't need to to join in on this delusion. There are other kinds of things to be. I don't know how did they get their powers.

Or do they have powers? I don't. It is really funny that they were like, he's doing a spider thing? Well, we could all do spider things. That would be fine. I'm going to be impressively right, and then I'm going to be kind of delusional about this. When Spider-Man first showed up in Amazing Fantasy 15 as a side character for the Fantastic Four... Holy shit.

Okay. I think he... This is where I'm speculating. I think it was just a throwaway thing, because it was like... Ben Grimm as the thing is trying to solve some kind of mystery. And he's like going around town talking to different people. And,

uh, one of the people that he talks to to try to get information is Spider-Man in like one panel thing. And I really think it was just the, the writers of that comic just being like, there's a million different fucking kinds of superhero. Yeah. Now there's like

i gotta talk to mole man and owl person and spider-man and this guy and for some reason that like the name spider-man and the design of this they're like well let's just like pluck this guy out and give him his own story why do we call him spider-man maybe he got bit by a spider why doesn't his costume have like eight legs or something because we already fucking drew it and he looks like this just shut up he's red and blue like spiders are hey you can see in the future like a spider is he poisonous no he's not a spider uh yeah that and it's you have other people in that universe like ant-man where it's like it's clear where like once they discovered like oh fuck we could do insects as well that that they're like

all these guys who are suddenly blue beetle and stuff and they never talk about that either like ant-man spider-man don't have like this side conversations they're like you chose ants huh yeah that's a cool one like it's good it's good because you're super strong i like i should have done ants uh no i've been spider-man for too long now i can't just i can't be a man can i i can't right yeah i can't you should you tell me i like when uh it was kind of a winking moment that i i normally hate in these movies but when uh in avengers infinity war, uh, the Hulk comes back after being in space for years and someone mentions Ant-Man or Spider-Man. And he goes, there's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man.

And he was like, yeah, that's the right reaction. That's what we'd all be saying. That's what we're all thinking. Yeah. I love that. Yes.

There should be more of, there should be more of that. More of those conversations between them were like, Oh, you did a, yeah, you did a little thing too. An exoskeleton thing. That's a good choice.

Especially because Ant-Man, to my knowledge, has never in the Marvel Cinematic Universe hid his identity. Protecting his identity, keeping it secret was never a stressor for him. It was not part of his like his whole journey. He writes a book in ant-man 3 about being

ant-man and uh we we haven't seen it but in the marvel universe he hosts a podcast and talks about superhero stuff so i don't know why he why he wasn't, it's me, Scott. And sometimes I'm tiny and sometimes I'm big. Spider-Man putting on a mask and becoming Spider-Man makes sense. He's trying to keep his identity secret. It doesn't make any sense at all for Scott Lang to just like, and now you call me Ant-Man. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm your friend. I know you're Scott still.

Right. And like, Scott Lang is cooler sounding than ant-man honestly it's a better name it's easier to shout yeah you don't feel as silly when you're like help me help me ant-man um i i also think about like iron man is it's just tribute to the very first iron suit that he made which was iron yeah After that, it's all animantium or something, right? It's like some other more lightweight thing that can fly around. Yeah. I mean, by the end of his run in Marvel, his suit is all nanotech.

Yeah. So at that point, I wonder if he's just like keeping one little piece ironed as like an homage to like, ah, I was an Iron Man once. It's cooler. as an homage to like, ah, I was an Iron Man once. It's cooler. I guess it's because when they invented Iron Man, that's kind of like the Iron Age, right?

That's where we were as far as the strongest stuff. Sure. I think now I'm trying to remember if the song Iron Man exists in the MCU. They play it in the very first Iron Man, but I don't know that it's like... I don't know that the characters hear it. I don't know. It happens when he's in the KO, I think.

Yeah. So I don't think he's hearing it. And I wonder if they... Was that song about Iron Man? Oh, Iron... Now I'm going through the lyrics. All I know is I am Iron Man. I am Iron Man? Oh, Iron. Now I'm going through the lyrics. All I know is I am Iron Man. Yeah.

I am Iron Man, doing all the things that an iron can. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Getting my clothes and the wrinkles out. I am Iron Man. Fell apart at the end. Really strong start, though. It was going somewhere and then

well I need more time but yeah I guess we'll never know if that song exists in the universe or

and if it does what questions it answers like what comes first well in our universe you were asking as well I don't know that it yeah truly like

in our universe if that's based on the the Iron Man I assume it's probably not oh Gabe our producer is saying nope no it's not based on Iron Man no so that's just on the Iron Man. I assume it's probably not. Oh, Gabe, our producer, is saying nope. No, it's not based on Iron Man?

No. So that's just Ozzy Osbourne who's like, also thinks Iron Man is a cool thing to be? What's the matter with you fucking people? It's stupid. Yeah, it's a sci-fi time travel adventure. It's a sci-fi time travel adventure. That's interesting because...

So is Iron Man. You said you had a question for me about time travel. Yeah. And I don't think we've gotten to it yet. Oh, we have not. Oh, sorry. I have another question. Dan.

I have a question about time travel. Batman likes bats, right? Another time travel question. Uh-huh. What? No, another quick question. Not a time travel question. Jesus Christ what no another quick question not a time travel question jesus christ um okay quick question uh let's say that time travel this is a hypothetical okay let's say

time travel existed and but it's like you could just you didn't actually get to choose where you're going back to you just get like a window of time you move back to in your own life like you have the opportunity to go back for let's say 15 minutes to some point in your own life but you can't like pick the destination you can land kind of close to it uh no i'm gonna change it let's say you can go back to 15 minutes and, but you have to like, you get to pick it, but it's just like one time. It's a one time thing. The way I see it,

there are a couple of different options. The ones that I think everybody explores are the, you go back and you, uh, change something for yourself. Like you change something, uh, to make your life better or like something that you deeply regret. The other option is,

uh, you go back and you relive something great like some moment that was like meant a lot to you and was seminal and you could go back and have that experience again but there's like a third option i think which is somebody in your like in your close enough circle that you were in proximity to at one point in your life you saw something either catastrophic happen to them or like change the trajectory of their life, or you were responsible for doing some damage to somebody and you could go back and like fix that. What would you choose to do? And it doesn't I don't think the actual event is super important. I think it's like, says more about you like what you i'll give you my answer i think so for a good portion of my life i would have gone back and just relived moments i would

have gone back and been like this was a really cool fun thing that i loved uh and i would go back and do that immediately of your three the the janky ass time travel service that you run. Yes. This imperfect business that you've started. Of the three things that you, the three options that you've laid out. That is the one that, not for a second did I think,

I'm going to go back and relive. You've watched About Time. There's a moment where Bill Nighy comes back and plays ping pong with his son. Mm-hmm. That's like. Yeah, I guess I would time travel back

to the first time I saw that movie. You're right. Yeah. That was good. It was a good experience. Um, he goes back just to like relive these moments with his, with his child.

Uh, I, I get that. Uh, that's what I would think I would have chosen. Cause I'm also deeply selfish and I don't, I, of the things that I like lie in bed and think about it.

And I were like, Oh, I fucked that up throughout my life. None of them are so severe that I'm like, I think I would go back and change it. Also. I'm very afraid of the fact that if I change things that I fuck everything. Right.

I think about that too. Like every time I think about time travel, traveling into my own body or like visiting my past self, it's never anything super high stakes or, or like very formative partly because I'm, I'm really happy with who I am and how I turned out and how my life has turned out

and I don't want to fuck with that but like the things that I would change would be have more fun in high school you know like to give my younger self advice it would be either like don't take this as seriously as you're taking it or relevant to the conversation we were having earlier. Like invest in a hobby now because I'm an idiot. I wouldn't say invest in Apple now or anything like that.

I would be like, learn another instrument. Yeah. Yeah. Try to surf or like get into, especially i was younger get get more serious about running now or or like develop healthy exercise habits now that'll pay off way better than stocks definitely still go to school and be an english major uh with a concentration on creative writing and a music minor definitely still do that don't learn business but you'll be rich in character yeah um learn to surf

um yeah i i i think i would go back and like relive like good fun experiences i'm too scared to change my own stuff but But as a parent now, it's like a no-brainer that it would be the third option. That I would go back and just these little tiny moments where I'm like, I think I really fucked that up. For somebody else,

I'm like, I would go back and just change those. There was a night, my son will just ask me to make up stories. And generally the stories can be kind of like, I've got a lot of license. I can i can run with like dark stories and like horror or sad stories

so like we'll be walking to school and he'll be like can we tell me a story about lighthouses and i'm like yeah and i'll be able to tell him like this story about uh this guy who witnesses like he's staying in a lightweight house and lighthouse and he witnesses like a sea monster like pull a ship under but he can only see it like these like the light as it goes past like varying moments and he can't do anything about it you are wasting this on your son that's cool and uh and it's and yeah that's the thing is like as i'm telling i'm like this is going good um but that's so like i feel like in i'm not curbing myself as i'm telling the story i just won to tell something that I enjoy, too. He was in the tub and he's like asking me to tell him a story.

I start telling the story about robots that ended up being a short story I did for Michael Swain on his podcast, Tales from the Pit, which is a very good podcast about depression and stuff. And the reason I knew it was a very sad story was because as i'm like making it up and telling it to my son my son just all of a sudden starts crying and i'm like are you okay and he's like no and i was like oh i went too far like i gave him it the the general premise of it was that there was like a um we discovered like this new battery it's like this kinetic heart that we can put in in robots and like as long as they continue like this kinetic heart that we can put in in robots and like as long as they continue like their singular motion that they're designed for like it recharges but if they do anything outside of that then uh they lose a unit of life for everything else they

do so like these more sophisticated robots like there is no room for like joy or discovery or anything a curiosity or anything because each time that they're taking time away from their one design um design task is like it's pulling life off the end of their existence and so what i'm like there's no like if they want to experience anything else they die a little and he just cried i was like oh that really touched you in a way that like that you probably don't understand. And I don't totally understand. Right. And I'm so sorry. And then he kept talking about the robot story like at nights he would be like, I'm thinking of the robots again. And I was like, it was going to get better. Like it was good. They were good. That was the beginning. That's the conflict. And then they figure it out and they figured out that they can do the opposite. They're like, they can make their pro their primary program just exploratory. And then they don't, they're not beholden to a task at all, but like, it was too late. It was too late. Just the idea of this was just like too much for him and it was too early. And I'm like, I would love to just go back and like, not do that.

Take that story away from his brain so that he can deal with it later um things like that that's very sweet i don't i don't think i have anything like that at all well did you kill anyone no this is not a good story in that well if there are things we're going to change they rarely are it looks it is good for me to tell it we're friends you can tell me so I want everyone

to know that things worked out and no one's mad at me and so you shouldn't be either when I was a senior in high school I'm not going to use any real names here. Yeah. People were, started saying, I heard you're going to prom with Ashley. Okay. And I said,

no, I'm, I'm, I'm not, I don't know who I'm going to prom with yet. And they're like, well, Ashley thinks you're taking her to prom. I'm like, you, you have that mistaken. We're going to clear this up. And then I heard from more and more people that Ashley was going around telling people that I had invited her to prom. And I'm like, oh, Ashley's crazy. This is, she wasn't even in our grade. This is like a, like, I got to get ahead of this. I don't know what this is. I did not ask Ashley to prom. I don't want to go to prom with Ashley. I confronted her and I was like, are you telling people that we're going to prom together? And she was like, yeah. Like, stop that. Don't, don't, don't do that. Like, I'm really, I'm really sorry, but, but

we're not going to prom together. And she was just like, like very strange, like, okay, I thought we were, but we don't have to. That's wild. I'll stop telling people that, but I thought we were. I was like, yeah, no, stop it, please. Very, I wasn't calling her crazy to her face, but I was like, what an unstable person. And I'm glad she's going to stop telling people this crazy thing. We weren't like enemies. We were friends.

Was she younger or older? She was younger. Okay. And everything was fine. I went to, to prom with a good friend of mine. We all had a lovely prom. It's prom who gives a shit. Um, well me, I never had one. I care deeply. I'm very curious about years and years later. I think I was already living in Los Angeles at the time, and for no clear reason

a thing appeared in my brain and I go, oh I did ask Ashley to prom holy shit I forgot that I did it oh dang I know and wasn't she cool about it

oh my god And she didn't But like she didn't try to set the record straight In that moment either where she was like Remember we were in your car and you asked me No she I mean all she did was say like I thought we were going to prom together

But it's okay if we're not But I thought we were I had this serious moment in high school Where I'm like I gotta let this crazy person down Gently and I gotta if we're not but i thought we were and you i had this this serious moment in high school where i'm like i gotta i gotta let this crazy person down gently and i gotta be very firm about what's going on and how what she's doing is not okay yeah and like truly i swear to god there wasn't even like a faint memory of it at the time like i was so convinced in high school that this, this girl was running around telling crazy stories. And then at 23 years old,

I was like, Oh shit. Yeah, I did. I did it cause I thought it would be fun to go to prom with her. And then I, Oh my God. I met in black memory to myself.

That's so uncomfortable. I know. I would, and like, she is fine now. We're both fine. Have you checked in with her since then? Not about that. I know. And like, she is fine now. We're both fine now. Have you checked in with her since then? Not about that.

I think we did talk about that eventually when I was back in Jersey. I was just like, hey, this doesn't matter, but I want you to know you were right. And I just completely fucking forgot. That sounds like a lie. I know. I wonder, I mean, I don't want to give you too much credit for this experience, too much credit, but like, I wonder if you change the way that she interacts with men in any capacity where it was like, this guy just gaslit me, like completely. Just completely asked me to prom and then was like, you're crazy. I did not ask you to prom.

Stop telling everyone we're going to prom. She was so remarkably cool about an awful thing that i did yeah wow well what a good foundation she had i want to i want to do that for my kids not what you did to them no what her parents did for her that she was so cool and like that was just like fell off of her like water off a duck's back yeah um boy dan that is a good one uh you absolutely should go back and change that thank you for coming to my janky ass time travel service this is a worthy cause i'm gonna let you have it for 15 off yeah i would be in a really tough spot because you said it's not precise i can't go exactly where i where i want to go yeah so i could just like just get

sent to senior year of high school and i won't know if it's before or after i invited her to prom the first time a little bit like you could do some damage control um i don't know if it's in like the the period in between inviting her and forgetting yeah i i would time travel back to 17 year old daniel and be like listen you either take her to prom or you just do it again just like if you really don't want to go it doesn't pretend you never invited you ended up having a great time anyway but i don't know uh you should you should at least tell her. I, the reason I ask is that I, or like that this question even came up in the first place was I started doing this new thing where I get frustrated with my kids all the time

because their kids ruin your story. Yeah. And they take, they just take so much, just eating away at your substance. I mean, look at me. I've aged like a wartime president.

It's just like, it just drains you. Someone's been reading the comments. I, throughout your day, like, they just have, they need your attention so much, and like, your focus, and it's not in an emergency sort of situation, it's just like, they want it.

And you have to, like, give them solid answers to questions that they don't actually care they're like not asking because they want to know the answer to they're just asking because they're like hey focus on me focus on me um and so i occasionally i lose my temper and i will yell at my children and then i always feel bad afterwards and i started doing this thing where i pretend that i'm gone back that i'm like 70 years old and i've gone back in time and it's not precise. Like I can't pick where I'm going back to. I just get to go back and experience like a little chunk of time from my past. And I've come back and landed right here.

And then I'm way calmer. I'm so much nicer to my children in those moments where like I start to like feeling a bubble up. If I pretend that like I just got here and I'm like, oh, I get to see you again at seven years old or at three years old. This is, this is great. And also knowing they're going to be fine. Like the things that I'm trying to curb right now and the reasons that I get upset with them and like, you're not listening to me. You have to learn how to listen. Like those kinds of things don't totally matter because they're going to be fine. And so i can come back and just like indulge in the moment as opposed to feel like i need to be a parent in the moment and i'm like

i'm way i'm a way better parent because of it like in those moments i can calm down immediately yeah that's a really good strategy yeah do you do you ever do it uh for things that don't involve your kids any other little like like mental time travel stuff to, to make you enjoy a thing better? No, I do a much darker thing, which is I pretend that I'm going to kill myself. If,

if things are, if like, I'm just sort of like generally not feeling good. If I'm like, I'm not actually ever going to do it by the way. These are not real ideations. I just think like, and tomorrow I'm going to die. I enjoy the moment a lot more or like i can i'm much more willing to just let

things go like that nothing really matters because it's i should be enjoying these moments i should be happy i should be living in this present and i only can do that if i feel like there's a finite end to it and generally i have a hard time understanding the idea that there is an end. So I have to like put a date on it, a hard date, and it has to be soon. And then I will enjoy moments a lot more. That's like a dark way to do it, but it is a thing I do. I think a lot about a story from this book I've mentioned before. What is it called, the book?

Whoa. A book you mentioned before. Who wrote it? Whoa. This is new for you. It was that book about time management for your life. It was like 4,000 weeks or something like that. Some amount of weeks.

Oh, boy. Anyway. Go on. It's a book about being present and living a better life. And the story that someone gives in it talks about a friend of theirs who passed away and their friend Robert who died. And it's something that they think about whenever they're in traffic and they're like really stressed or angry about traffic. They think about Robert would give anything to be to feel that moment being stuck in traffic right now and that's what i think about in like any unpleasant moment like

generally traffic yeah just thinking like i get to feel being in traffic right now i get to experience being in traffic right now and if i was dead i wouldn't or think about someone who did pass away and like i bet they'd be if if they're in in the afterlife and they were given the trade would you like to sit in traffic you have two hours on earth i'm gonna put you in traffic or you don't get to go back to earth i'm sure like everyone would like yeah i'll take that like let me roll the window down and smell the air and yeah and feel heat and all that stuff. I mean, it's a tough moment to come back to. I mean, it sucks that heaven is as

janky and unreliable as your time travel service. It could be anything, but it's still St. Peter's. We can put you in Queens on the bridge for a couple hours. It's rush hour right now. Take it or leave it, man.

It's what we got. And you're running out of gas and you're stressed about it. Well, I occupied this episode with a bunch of questions, Dan. I'm sorry, but... It's okay. That was not real.

Well, don't ruin the illusion for everyone at home. This is a very well-lit, lots of windows room. The plants do great here. Yeah. They love it. We should end this. Yeah.

I trust you. You can do it. Okay, here we go. Thank you for watching. Also, if you aren't watching and you happen to be listening to this episode, thank you for doing that. Instead, we really had a hard time figuring out what to do with our hands you're probably better off just having listened to it you can follow daniel on twitter no well i don't know about that if you're only listening and you're not watching you're missing i do like a lot of like fun looking at

the camera bits that's like just doing like my my jim halpert bullshit whenever i'm not talking i'm finding some business uh you're missing out on a lot you're also bullshit. Whenever I'm not talking, I'm finding some business. You're missing out on a lot. Hold on. When you're not talking, I'm talking. And you're just like, all you're doing is like, no, it would be a fun thing for me to do. That's correct. Checking my camera.

Oh, he's still going. I can't believe it. This is amazing. So you can see all that fun bits. And also like, Soren mentioned not knowing what to do with our hands. I am, I get pretty weird with it. I don't know what I'm doing, but sometimes I'll notice that I'm, like, trying to rip skin off my thumb. I'm like,

oh no, they can see that. So go... maybe do go watch this episode. You can follow Daniel on X at DOV underscore Inc. You can follow me on X at Soren underscore LTD. It's so funny that he changed Twitter to X for all the people who have tweet in their username, like Dylan Tweets.

All those people who were just like, what the fuck now? Now I got to... Damn it. Yeah. You can also email us at qqwithsorenanddaniel at gmail.com. And if you like our theme song, that's by Me Rex, and you can find email us at QQ with Soren and Daniel at gmail.com and if you like our theme song that's by me Rex and you can find their music on Spotify or anywhere but you can also find their full albums at me Rex bandcamp.com we have a sound engineer and editor and producer named Gabe harder who's

wonderful he's also doing all the video for these and the ladies and energy folks and everything and we have a patreon it's patreon slash quick question surely there's something else the youtube fucking you're watching this i'm not gonna give you the youtube uh that's gonna be it i'm done great bye I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, I wanna know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight. So what's your favourite?

Who did you get? When will I be remembered? What's it up with? Where did all the good weeks go? Oh, forget it. I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it

I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here.