Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Soren the Dark Elf

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

The guys hit the three big S's! Skyrim, Subway and Stoic Philosophers!  And we have our first (and maybe last?) song submission and its incredible! and as always big thanks to our sponsors. Thanks Raycon!.  For a limited time, go To buyraycon.com/qq and use code HOLIDAY for up to 15% off your entire Raycon order.

Hi everyone, you're listening to Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, a podcast where two best friends only ask each other questions that we ourselves have fun answers to, and then we wait patiently for the other person to stop talking before we can shine. I'm one of those hosts, a writer for American Dad by day, a dark elf with fire mage ambitions and a house in soul steam by night, Soren Bui, and I'm joined as always by my co-host and possibly presently confused co-host, Daniel O'Brien. Daniel, say, what's a dark elf? What is a dark elf?

You anticipated my question. I've been playing Skyrim, which is, I watch my movies like I play my video games, which is a decade after they come out. And I found now now my daughter's been getting up an hour later in the mornings which has changed my whole life it's like my quality of life has gone way up before I was getting up when it was still dark out and now the Sun's out when she wakes up which means that I am

using that time unwisely late at night where I stay up like an hour later and I'm like you know what i haven't done i've never played skyrim so i started playing skyrim for an hour every night not enough time by the way to yeah to play a current video game but that's enough time for me to like feel like i'm gonna go do uh maybe a tour of the hall of the dead in mark hearth or uh i might go visit a borrow somewhere and kill some draugrs this is this is my this has become a huge part of my life now where i'm very excited about it i don't i don't i don't know anything about it and it all sounds like a bunch of nerd bullshit to me but it is but i i can tell that you're enjoying it so i so we've talked previously on a podcast

where i played with toys up until i was i think 16 yeah uh had adventures with my my toys and the embarrassment that i would feel when anyone even got within proximity of seeing what i was doing even acknowledging that these toys were around when it was my family people who i trusted with that kind of information i was still still deeply humiliated. My wife walking through, walking past the living room as like, I'm listening to a, a wood elf tell me about this special ring that I have to go find, uh, is deeply humiliating. It's like this part of me that I don't even I don't totally care about the missions or the dialogue all I want is to go blow some people up with fireballs and I

I really enjoy it I think that's a really fun part of it But man, that is not what I think a lot of people got out of this game because there's a whole lot of other shit That I don't get yeah Thanks to Raycon for supporting quick. Raycons are our go-to for on-the-go audio. Our audience can get 15% off their Raycon

order at buyraycon.com slash QQ. I'm surprised that you feel embarrassed or humiliated to be playing the game, even if you think you're playing it

wrong, because I feel like video games have really come a long way from being an embarrassing nerd thing to being so aggressively thoroughly mainstream yeah that I feel I've come all the way around to being an outcast and being quite cranky about it we're now like it still really sounds like nerd bullshit to me that I want everyone to stop talking about. I guess this is how you feel

about Star Wars where I, back when I was on Twitter and a new game would come out like this this time it's the new Zero Dawn Horizon and that Elden Ring George R.R. Martin game and everyone's playing it and like sophisticated reasonable adults are playing it and. Martin game and everyone's playing it and like

sophisticated reasonable adults are playing it and talking about it and I just want to be like no stop it I'm not part of this and so I've decided it's bad and you should all you should be ashamed about it still do it and have your fun but do it

quietly the reason I feel embarrassment about it... First of all, I do feel embarrassment about playing video games. Because I can tell that my wife is like, I don't get this. She's the same as you. She's like, I don't get this. I don't know why you're into this. It's weird to me.

It's fine, though. I will tolerate it. Right. And to be clear, I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. I just feel like back when I played video games, we had the good sense to be ashamed of it all of us but now no one is the fantasy elements are so there's they're just it's a lot of fantasy bullshit to wade through through with Skyrim. It's so entrenched in that D&D mythos that like I I find

myself playing it and being like this isn't for me. There's a lot of stuff here where they think that this means something to me where like there'll be a reveal in the game where they're like oh no the city of Markarth was it belonged to different people at one point and now you've been killing them the briar hearts this entire time are the first sworn this entire time and now you have to help the first war and take over mark hearth and i'm like yeah just point the people out who i'm supposed to kill and i will do that that's what's

fun for me i i'm somewhere between i'm i'm I also play games incorrectly now when I play Breath of the Wild I don't do any of the things they want me to do I don't spend that time killing the meanies or whatever like I'm not Grand Theft Auto ignoring the missions

to get chased by cops and kill street toughs I'm just walking around the world and like occasionally fishing and looking at things. And like someone will try to steer me in the direction of like a

narrative of the story and they're like oh I heard there's extra powers for you where you can move metal with your mind if you go just over that hill. I'm like okay that seems like something you want so you can move metal with your mind if you go just over that hill. I'm like, okay, that seems like something you want, so you can do that. I'm going to just run around in this field over here. That sounds important to you, and I don't want to stop you from doing it.

There are these things in Skyrim called Daedra, which are like gods, but they're like mean gods. They're like demon gods. And they're constantly like, hey, you're going to be my champion, and I'm going to give you the very best weapon. But first you got to trick somebody into coming here and like, and then killing them in front of me. And I'm like, uh, no, I don't think so. I'm pretty happy with like the killing that I'm doing right now. The witches are all pretty easy to kill with just fireballs. And I think I'm good. I don't need a sword or something like that. And there, there was one point in the game where it was, this is going to sound funny, but it was like my favorite type of day. It was, the sun was low. There was some rain overhead.

So the sun was out, but it was still raining. And like there were dark clouds overhead, but the sun was low and coming in underneath. And I was so kind of taken by it the same way I get with, uh, with red dead redemption where i'm just like oh this is beautiful i'm gonna find something to sit on and like within this game it's much harder to just sit down you actually have to find a seat somewhere and as i'm like kind of like trying to really enjoy this day these this loud butting is getting in my way and it's this mammoth like a giant breathtaking mammoth and i was like okay after i kill this mammoth i won't have to listen to that anymore and i can really enjoy this day so i kill

a mammoth and then a giant i guess the giants heard mammoths in this game so a giant starts attacking me and i was so mad in the middle of the game that they were like destroying my day yeah i mean it's it seems really cruel to me that we're at a day and age where in a game i could conceivably just sit and watch the sunset but also simultaneously starve to death yeah no just only the first part please um but anyway i've been i've been playing a lot of skyrim and you're you're a dark elf in it yeah Yeah, I'm a dark elf. Okay. It just seems so unfair.

When you get to pick what you are at the very beginning, and there's a bunch of stuff that's pretty reasonable. There's like a Nord, or there's a Briton. I don't know how to pronounce their names. And there's like a lizard person. There's a wood elf and like a high elf. You're right, this is all reasonable. And then there's a dark elf, which is like so unfair, cosmically unfair that there's a wood elf and like a right this is all reasonable and and then there's a dark elf which is like so unfair cosmically unfair that there's these this and it's they're hideous they're like

these gross looking things with red eyes and sharp angular features and like they're not good they can't possibly be good guys and so i was like i will i'll adopt one of these i mean i might be this might be the result of my own Google algorithm, but an image search of Dark Elf is very horny. Is it really? Yes. Okay, I guess people really like Dark Elf. This isn't what they look like in the game, by the way.

These are way more attractive than what look like in the game by the way this is these are way more attractive than what's what's actually in the game this man that that gets naked quick that image search um i'm gonna go look up dark elf skyrim and see if that's any better but you do at some point you get to like kind of choose what you look like oh yeah this is much better dark elf skyrim you can really see that there. Okay, yeah, I could see that. These guys just like wandering around your city and like little kids coming up and being like,

will you adopt me? It just doesn't make sense. But anyway, I think what I'm finding from this game is that it's very relaxing at night. It's very calming to live in a world where there are really no consequences at all. I assume the same thing everybody gets out of video games where I get to, I've got some cool armor. I got some cool, uh, magic that I do. And this is just where I go live for an hour

every night. And I find that I need that more and more because I'll let me like clear some of the circumstances in my life right now. I have, I talked about the new sliding glass doors that I'm putting on my house. Uh, you talked about the installation of them and that being a whole curve. Yeah, that was months ago. Funny.

You should say hole Dan, because I have a hole in the side of my house that has been there since the end of February and will continue to be there until the end of March. A giant picture, a big eight to 12 foot hole wide, and then like seven feet tall right now, just sort of boarded up, uh, haphazardly boarded up with some plywood and then some plastic. It's been awful. The whole process has been really, really terrible. The company, I think last time I was very hesitant to out them, but it's Pella.

I have no problem telling everyone that they're bad. Pella? Pella. Pella is a window company. They make a lot of windows and glass. Googling. See, now here again, very horny. You know, a lot of people didn't make resolutions this year, and you know what?

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their Raycon order at buyraycon.com slash QQ. That's buyraycon.com slash QQ. That's buyraycon.com slash QQ to save 15% off on your Raycons. I mean, the windows are great though. What they actually, the products that they make are good, but the process, this process has been like just brutal at every single turn. It's been a disaster and they are not very forthcoming with apologies or information. Uh, and so it's been like this nightmare where I had to confront people

constantly where the installers themselves are fine, but like they, or the wrong piece was ordered twice. The first time no piece arrived, like this frame never arrived the second time the wrong frame came. And so they'd already cut it open before they tried to fit the frame in and they saw that it didn't fit so uh i've been on the phone with people who are constantly like it's always a different person obviously and there's

always a person being like okay so i'm just i'm playing catch up uh i'm trying to understand what's happening here i'm really sorry for what's happened uh obviously, obviously with this like air, like it wasn't me, I'm just getting in on this now. And so there's no one who's actually really accountable. And like, that's in these moments where you're kind of helpless and you're everything's sort of wrong at your house. And there's just sort of this, you can't even lock your house or anything. There's this, I just, I, in that helplessness, I want somebody to be accountable. I want somebody who's like, ah, it was me. I fucked up.

And they won't ever give you that for good reason, because I think it costs them money in those circumstances where if there's somebody who says that, then that person, you don't know what the customer's going to do. You don't know if they're going to take you to arbitration or if they're going to be like, well, let me talk to your supervisor. You should be fired. Like what they want from that circumstance. So obviously a company would shield people from that. But man, I'm just, I'm in that moment of helplessness. They can't even shield you from the elements.

Hey, Gabe, make it so I said that faster. Thank you. i said that faster thank you and i'm so mad and i'm just person after person as i go up this chain just yelling on the phone and that's not who i want to be i don't but i need them to understand the severity of the situation and i and as soon as i even get a call back from one of them or i get an email back from one of them and i know what, the things that I've said to that person and like, uh, obviously not personal, but like just, I've been not nice.

I've been mean on the phone and I get this filled with anxiety that I have to get back to that headspace. Just hate it. Yeah. It, uh, sounds like you hate it. Sounds like it's a thing that brings, you you no joy and you should get rid of it

I wish I could it'll make for I'm on your side it'll make for infuriating podcast stuff but I'm just not I just feel like don't yell on the phone

and like, don't look for someone who's gonna, who's gonna say the thing that you want to hear. Yeah. Cause, cause,

uh, you might not hear it. You know? I won't ever get that. I'm so, I'm, I'm, I can,

like, I can still like put on the hat of being someone who's, who's pissed off on your behalf. I totally understand all of this. I'm not a completely different person than I was six episodes of this podcast ago. But I think between meditation and running a lot and reading a lot of stoic philosophy has just made me a lot happier and more equipped to deal with this specific exact type of thing of uh getting into impotent fights on the phone with a customer service line or whatever

but i i don't want them to win they need to know that they messed up. There's, I'll give you another example. Why do they need to know that? Why did George Mallory climb Everest, Dan? It was... Because it was there. And it was something within his power that he could do. Right. That I needed, it's something that I. It's a wrong that I see. Oh, okay. That's why he climbed it?

Yeah. I'm going to tell you one more story. He just stared at it from his window every day. He's like, that fucking mountain. Thinking I can't climb it. Gotta wake up pretty early in the day, mountain, to watch me go out like a fucking chump. I went to Subway the other day hell yeah and as i'm ordering my food there's another woman in the line who is objectively rude to the people there i mean the way she's talking to them and like

telling them what she wants and then they're like all, all right, what do you want? She's like, I said, I said, I want that. And then like insisting on them putting mayonnaise on before they put any of the meat on and then bring the bread back over. And now she's like, now I want just the cheese on. Now you're allowed to toast it like that kind of shit. And then she takes a phone call in the middle of it. And I'm kind of watching this unfold and she's so rude. And then at the end, she takes out

her money. They tell her how much it is. She takes out cash and instead of handing it to the woman, she kind of like throws it on the counter in a way where it kind of scatters. And objectively, objectively, that's not crazy. I mean, we're in the middle of a pandemic. She didn't punch or slap the woman or anything like that or call her a rude name. But the gesture itself combined with everything else was so cruel and rude and disrespectful that I couldn't help myself. And I stepped in. And now let me just paint the picture for you, Dan. I had already ordered my sandwich. I had beat this woman to the cash register because she had so many demands.

And then I hung around. I paid. And I sat there and waited to see what she would do. And when she did that with the money, I went over and I said, are you tipping them? And she was like, huh? And I was like, are you tipping them? She's she's, she can have my change. And it was like 24 cents or something like that. And I was like, I was like, that's not good enough, but not in that I'm not being that calm in it. I wasn't reacting to the tone.

Yeah, I'll give you the actual tone, which is not very becoming, but it was like, that's not good enough. You're really high and kind of nasally and clearly upset. And she doesn't see me before. She doesn't know me because she's been oblivious to this, to me spying on her this whole time.

So she's very taken aback. And I'm like, I was like, you've been so rude to them. You can't treat them like this. And then I started to think I started to backpedal a little. Cause I was like them. And it was,

uh, three people behind the, the making sandwiches. And it would, people behind the making sandwiches. And they were all Hispanic. And I didn't want that to be the qualifier. And so I was like, you can't treat, you can't treat. I couldn't think of the words. I went sandwich artists.

Because that's what they were called for a very long time at Subway. And I was like, you can't treat them like that. That's you've been so disrespectful this entire time you need to pay them more and she was like no so we're at this like impasse where i had to be like okay i will uh and i i look in my wallet and immediately realize there's just 20s in there. And I think to myself, well, that's too much for this. And so I hand the woman one. I was like, please give me $10 back and take my money. This woman learned nothing. She like did say anything else. She just grabbed her food and walked out the door, kind of giving me a snide look and talking on her phone and left. And there was another man who was sitting down at a table who was like, I saw her too. She was very rude. And, uh, she was a real pain to the artists at the end, the people who were working there at

the, well, the manager, the guy who I think runs the place kind of came out when he heard me getting loud. And he thought that I was the problem because he wasn't privy to any of the rest of it. And he was like, what do you need, sir? What do you need? And I was like, nothing, just my, my change. And, uh, and the women who were working there were, I can't tell if they appreciate it or not. This was, it was clear that like by the end, as I left, I was thinking, oh, I think maybe that was just for me. I think what I, in my mind, I was, I was helping somebody.

I was righting a wrong and I was making the circumstance better and people shouldn't have to deal with this. And I'm sure that every single day they loathe coming to work because you've got five or six of those people that ruin your whole day. And I was like writing a wrong and making the world better. And by the time I left, I thought, no, that's all you made all of that up. You, this is, she was maybe a bad person, but they're used to dealing with bad people all the time. And then you just created a scene in a subway for no reason. And it was only for selfish reasons. Like I, I was doing it because I was like, ah, altruistic Soren will solve this. And that's not what happened at all. Nobody came out better from it.

And so I think that that might be what's happening with my door as well. This is all to say, Daniel. Yeah. You're probably right. I don't know about all that. But I can't let these things go. I can't do it. It's very hard to.

And it's like letting it go is occupying 100% of my mental energy in my life. And I'm still not always doing it. I still caught myself... My landlord is quirky and kooky and likes things her way. And I try to match her weird, aggressive energy with patience as much as I can. But I still catch myself getting in my own way. She wanted to come into my home to take pictures of the kitchen and bathroom. And I said no.

And I realized afterwards that I only said it because I wanted to like she was just in the house with the like an insurance inspector looking at things and then left and that was the plan uh and then she just called back and was like hey I want to go back in again and do this other thing and that wasn't planned in advance and uh and like didn't get approval from me and it wasn't on my to-do list of things that I had expected to deal with that day. So I was like, uh, no, not if you don't have to. I could take the pictures or you can get pictures off the website and I could send you I'll take lots of pictures from multiple angles and I was saying no and she was like I was just in

there can I just come back and do it real quick and I said yes because I'm ultimately a pushover but I still I realized later and later than I wanted to that I could have said yes from the beginning because she wanted to come in and the only reason I was saying no was because I wanted to have some kind of power and just say no for the sake of saying no and the only reason I was saying no was because I wanted to have some kind of power and just say no for the sake of saying no and mostly I think I was saying no because that wasn't on my

to-do list and I want to I'm either a chill relaxed person who can gracefully navigate whatever obstacles are thrown at me, or I'm a chill, relaxed person who can gracefully navigate obstacles that are on my to-do list.

And I want to be the former and not the latter. And I think I was being the latter in this case, where the night before I can say, yeah, yeah, yeah, come in between the hours of 9 and 11. Sure. Come in with the insurance guy. I'll make whatever work. I'm a chill, relaxed guy. And then as soon as there's an unplanned thing, then suddenly all of the mental work that I do to try to be a chill and relaxed guy gets thrown out the window. And I'm 25-year-old Daniel saying, no, you can't come in here because I said no. And all that is a long way of saying, like, I don't, I understand.

I understand wanting to fight and to be right, especially when you feel like you have a good case for being right. Yeah. I don't, I don't have an ending to that story, but you, you, she wasn't adhering to the tacit agreement between humans, which is like her main, but you did.

I mean, you're, even if you're not explicitly saying it, you're saying, you're saying no, because you're like, no, you're doing this wrong.

Yeah. And like, that's the subtext is not the, no, is the out loud. And then the subtext is you're doing explicitly saying it you're saying you're saying no because you're like no you're doing this wrong yeah and like that's the subtext is not the no is the out loud and then the subtext is you're doing this wrong and she needs to know that she's doing it wrong and so people need to stop and think and that's the thing that i'm trying to correct in myself is that i don't think she does need to know that she's doing it wrong because she she was always the kind of person who was going to do it wrong and it's not my job to make the world look like I want it to look. I can make the world look the way I want it to look in the sense that I can recycle and try to present a good image to the world and all that kind of stuff. But I can't... I shouldn't...

stuff but like i can't i shouldn't she's she's not gonna like bend to my will and she's not going to suddenly start seeing the world the way i want her to so why should i why should i try to change that why am i arguing with a storm oh yeah because it's fun because it makes me feel good? Of course, Soren! Yeah. I mean, you're right. You're absolutely right. And for the same reasons you wouldn't try and change somebody in a relationship, you absolutely should not try to change a stranger in five minutes. I mean, you're not... Everything you're saying is is right it's just not the way i want the world

to work and it's i'll also say in my defense i might be spoiled because this is exactly what you should be doing with your children all along is like you just keep guiding them on a path a little bit and i'm not yelling at them well I guess sometimes I am yelling at them, but, uh, only when they like egregiously step out of bounds and they're very rude or whatever, but like at every single turn, I'm trying to like curb bad behavior and just make you be like, no, this is, this is how we work. It works. Like, this is how society works. Like come back this way, come back and go that way. And in a, in a way where I'm, I'm constantly correcting and I should be correcting i mean they're they're not fully formed humans yet so when i'm constantly correcting and i see that take shape and i see

them eventually it clicks with them and i don't have to correct on a certain thing anymore and they're just these like enjoyable people i'm like yes it. And so I think that I've overstepped my bounds. I, my, my sense of power has gotten too great where I think, oh, I could, what if I just changed the world? What if I changed other people too? I don't think changing the world is a bad impulse. I'm not doing, I'm not, no, the way my wife does changing the world, that's good. That's a constructive way to change the world. My wife works for a research center for environmental policy in a way where like, yes, that's tangible good that you can be doing in the world in the face of people who just don't give a shit, but you don't have to actually, your job is to not then go fight with those people.

Your job is to just keep, keep your head down and be like, no, let's go with like sustainable programs that keep, that we can keep doing. And eventually everyone will see the right way. But I just, for the same reason, when I'm driving and somebody cuts me off, like I don't need to honk at them. I don't need to fight with them, but I need to see their face and I need them to see my face. That like just an acknowledgement from somebody who has is doing things wrong. Oh, yeah. Of them being like, I'm sorry in any way.

It should go without saying that when I talk about the mental work that I'm trying to do about like not needing to be right all the time and not getting into arguments that go nowhere. It doesn't count when you're driving. It's different than because man was never meant to drive cars so whatever happens there is by design alien so i'm allowed to i'm allowed to be whoever i want when i'm driving we are in uncharted waters when we are in our vehicles yeah epic titus never had to deal with some fucking slow driver i yeah i i like i want, I guess I don't even want an apology. All I want from somebody is for them to, to see somebody else saw they did wrong. Like they, it needs to be witnessed.

And that's enough. If I have that in my own life, and maybe that's where it comes from, is that when I fuck up and like, even if I'm not aware of it, and then someone, I see someone who has either acknowledged it or it was clear that somebody watched what just happened. I sit there and I'm like, it's time for me to do some fucking reflection because that was a big mess up. And so then I will think about that for a very long time. And that's what I want. I just want other people to think about how to be better people and they're not doing it yeah i don't know if that's wrong i don't know that's that sounds really good and really right when you say it i want to

not be a person who wants that yes i that's what i want and not in a way that makes me like lethargic or nihilistic or anything like that. I want to remove from me the impulse to not just be right, but to be seen as right. And for other people around me to be contrite when they're wrong. Yeah. That last element is what I can't get. That's the hump I can't get over. But I'm really glad that you're on the other side of this. It actually helps me a lot.

It helps me to get some perspective on it. It's not just that I'm just getting mad. I'm on the other side of it right now. helps me a lot. It helps me to get some perspective on it. It's not just that I was getting mad. I'm on the other side of it right now. Remember when I used to be into fishing? Who knows what's going to happen next season? Maybe I'll be in a good emotional space, and then I will help you with something. That's what friendship is. It's just two people at mismatched emotional wellness.

One swells, the other one ebbs. Just showing up to this podcast. How's fishing? Fishing? What are you fucking talking about? I'm into Marcus Aurelius now, you idiot. Are you reading Meditations of Marcus Aurelius? I've read Meditations before. I'm reading

um uh fuck. Stillness is the key. I'm rereading Stillness is the Key. It's by Ryan Holiday, who is a modern writer who is like absorbed and is regurgitating all of the great stoic philosophers. And I gave that book to my dad and he's reading it now. And I'm reading it at the same time to also like talk to him about it when he wants to talk about it. You're reading it through his eyes, right?

I love doing that, by the way. I love giving a book to somebody and then rereading it and thinking like, let's cut up this fresh. Like, let's see what it would be like to come out as them. Meditations, did you read that? What turned you on to Meditations of Marcus Aurelius when you first read it? The same guy, Ryanyan holiday who wrote this this book is uh like a best-selling wildly successful author uh but before that he was just like a buddy of mine

who was also do like we we came up writing internet stuff at the same time and our our paths diverged when i continued writing fuck around stuff for the internet and he got very into marcus aurelius and like writing modern stoic philosophy in like in like kind of a self-help motivational speaker sort of way okay i but he was i need to read it again more seriously because i the first time i read it was because of him in my 20s and i was was like, I could see how this would be helpful to someone. Obviously, no weapons in here for me. Yeah, nothing for my tool belt. This would be a good book for someone not destined for greatness like me. The way I think I found out about it was when Al Gore's mother or father died. Maybe it's his father.

He was on Air Force One. I might be misconflating this story, but he was on a plane with Clinton and Bill Clinton gave it to him. It was like, I give it to everybody when somebody close to them dies. And I was like, I need to read this book. What is this book? And so, and it was, you know, it's ancient Greek, so it's right in my wheelhouse. And so, and it was, you know, it's ancient Greek, so it's right in my wheelhouse.

And I guess not truly ancient, but at like the height of Athens. And so, or is, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Marcus Aurelius, is he Roman? Yeah. Oh, then fuck me. He's Gladiator. Okay. He's not Gladiator.

He's the guy who fucking eats it in the beginning of Gladiator so forget everything i said about ancient greece okay um but uh i i read it then and it was the same i was in my 20s and i was like there's some really i found like a tremendous sense of calm from it and like the idea that there is no finished product of anything in the world everything just continues to exist in different stages and no stage is better than the other. Like he talks about the grape and like from seed to grape, to raisin, to wine, whatever, like every single stage, they're not, there's not one that's better than the other. They're all just very different. And I was like, that went a lot to me then, because you're in a lot of transition when you're in your early twenties and everything else. I was like, and maybe this other stuff will mean something at some point. But like really just cherry picking from it and being like, ah, okay, I can apply this to my life.

Do you want to do questions? Good stuff. Yeah. Wait, what? Do you want to do questions? You have something for me, don't you? I do. So do you remember this podcast a couple episodes ago?

Oh, God. I would help if I listened to it. Yeah. We were talking about how we both hate the theme song for our show. Yes. I'm familiar. We asked, one of the hosts asked our listeners if they felt so inclined to send in some music that could replace our theme song. Yes. Got some great submissions. Yes. The contest is still going.

I want everyone to continue submitting these to an email address that I have in front of me. And that's why I'm saying it so quickly. QQwithSorinAndDaniel at gmail.com. Send your potential new theme music to that address, but for starters, I wanted to kick us off with what I think is so far, far and away, the winner running away with this contest. We don't know yet, because the contest goes until some amount of time. This is by Miles McCabe, who makes music as and with the band MeRex, M-E space R-E-X. And you're going to hear it. I've heard it.

You're going to hear it for the first time. Is that correct, Soren? Yes, because I've never heard this before. Let's listen to this. I've got a quick, quick question for you, all right? I want to hear your thoughts 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 did I do? Where did all the good things 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. Ah! Oh, my God. I love it. Somebody made that. Do you know when you work at like a company where you don't totally want to be,

you've been, we work at a company where you don't want to be. And like there's, and then at like a Christmas party or whatever, they will do a slideshow to music or they will do some sort of compilation that reminds you of all this heart, like this terrible hard work you did. And it's all really like, it makes it look,

it's like somebody appreciated it and you're like oh this is so nice i you know this is really really nice it's really nice to have this that's what that feels like that like somebody really likes our show i know made beautiful beautiful music to it it's so fucking cool i know i know it's very popular to hate this show as one of its hosts but uh that's really really cool i don't i don't have more words for it beyond like it's what what a smile i get listening to it and i and i and it's weird to say like, oh man, this person gets it. Because it's not a terribly difficult podcast to get. But still, this person gets it.

Yeah, that is... The questions, our names. It's beautiful. I really love it. That was amazing. I want to just have that in my life. I want to listen to that. Sure.

Oh, it's also really beautiful. Like it's not, not only like, is it clear that they get it, but also just the melody, everything about it is really great. Wow. That's like magic. That's understood the assignment. Yeah. Uh, again, that's the clear and away, uh, front runner right now, but please send your

songs. Uh, we would but please send your songs. We would love to play more songs. We have a few more in the hopper for future episodes, but we're going to keep playing these as long as people send them. I guess... I sure hope legally we were allowed to play that song we just played. Yeah, I think... This is a person that I... just played. Yeah, I think, yeah.

I mean, this is a person that I'll send them whatever they want, right? Because now this song is a car. Don't say that. I will listen to it in my car. What do you want? Do you want one of my kids? You want Dan's bike? Wait, did your bike get stolen?

No, I haven't gone on a bike since I fell off and broke my wrist. I forgot. I forgot. I was like, I know there's a reason he's not riding. stolen no i haven't gone on a bike since i fell off and broke my wrist i forgot i forgot i was like i know there's a reason he's not writing the small update that i have on on on that story is i got on a stationary exercise bike at the gym last week first time i've been on anything bike like Since 2018, when I had that accident. And how did it go? It was fine. Did you feel like you could ride a real bike? I did.

Interesting. I mean, that's obviously the safest. I was always going to feel safe and fine on a stationary bike. I don't know. It would be pretty fun for you to get hit by a fine on a stationary bike i don't know it was pretty fun for you to get hit by a car in the back of my head i did kind of have an idea that like what if it's like in the movies and as soon as i get on it i start sweating and i freak out and i have a panic attack on the bike and that didn't happen so that was nice well that's great i do have a uh a goal

to get on a bike again this year year god that's so i didn't realize it was such a big thing i know that you kind of like put it in the back of your mind and you weren't doing it on purpose or anything but but now i mean like the the more time goes by the more it's like hey when was you know i don't i don't have nightmares about bikes or anything but it's it's undeniable that like the last time I was on a bike was this bad time. Right. And more time passes every day. And it just gets worse.

The distance you have to travel to get onto a bike becomes greater and greater. I don't have anything, I don't think, in my life like that. Yeah. I don't have anything I don't think in my life like that. Yeah. But I also have been very lucky and fortunate that I haven't been through a lot of trauma. That's probably the only reason. I think that the minute it would happen,

I'd like to think now, I'm like, no, no, no, you're strong enough. Like you would do it right away. You'd know that it was important, but I know that if it actually happened, I would be like, I just don't think I'm a person who swims anymore. I, I got caught in a tide pool. I don't think that's me anymore. I think that I'm a land-based creature. Oh, and in fact, you guys still swim. That's interesting. It's interesting that you would still do that. Maybe you didn't hear what happened to me.

that maybe you didn't hear what happened to me um was there anything else that you want to talk about i'm trying to think man it's so it's hard because that song is not a song i can talk about it's like what am i gonna say other than that's the most incredible song i've ever heard i've listened to it a bunch of times now. Yeah, I'm going to go start listening to it over and over again. Alright, well, while Sorin does that, I guess I'll close us out. Thanks for supporting this show. You can follow Sorin at

Sorin underscore LTD. You can follow the show at QQ underscore Sorin and Dan. I am still no longer active on Twitter by choice. Please just try to get ahead of this. Don't tweet at Soren asking where I am or if I'm coming back. I'm doing this on purpose and I'm very happy. Email the show with questions and also with your song.

Submissions at QQ with Soren andiel at gmail.com. Find the show on Instagram at qqwithsorin and underscore Daniel. We also have a Patreon, and you can support us there, and once a month we answer questions directly from you, our listeners. Last month, it was a real

corker of an episode. It started with me doing my sexy voice, so you can listen to that. I think it's going to be pretty much a mainstay of those. It just has this feeling, this sleazy after dark feeling to it. Yeah. They all feature different interpretations of me doing my sexy voice. And I want to be clear about this.

Doing my best alright bye