The Morning Stream - TMS 2237: Top Pocket

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

Braunschweiger? I like all kinds of music. Lord Biocow and his Magic Cheese. Bring Empty Pepto Bottle. I OVERPACK THE TECH! Don't get the nerds too warm. Pretend you know what you're doing. Do it to yourself pepper spray. Don't blow. Peeping at Pete's Parts. Read This with Amy. Wet Denim with Wendi. and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Coming up on TMS, I promise Brian is here. and I'm reading the list alone because he's not here at the end of the show because his power went out. Bronshwager. I like all kinds of music. Lord BioCow and his magic cheese. Bring empty pepto bottle. I overpacked the tech. Don't get the nerds too warm. Pretend you know what you're doing. Do it to yourself, pepper spray. Don't blow. Peeping at Pete's parts. Read this with Amy. Wet denim with Wendy and more on this episode of the morning stream. Hello there, Nikki. How you doing today? I'm in a good mood and it's here to stay. I've got a customer here that wants an Ulu to buy. I'll send one right over. I've got plenty in supply. Um, I'm thinking I'm

done plugging stuff in. The morning stream. I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the TMS show. Yeah, that's right, short for the morning stream. It's Thursday, January 27th, 2020. I'm Scott, and he's Brian. That's right. Yeah.

You know what? I never thought about like that, but you're exactly right, Scott. I know. I feel like we've finally cracked the code. we've figured out what's real what is real uh so you get another one of those rap rap sales training video hello there nicky which sounds like it sounds like well we don't have any good uh rap music let's use porn yeah let's use porn music for the background of our rap sales training video very era specific porn music as well very era specific porn but the uh this is one of those

things that right now, I feel like I can't get enough of those, but I know that at some point I have, I will have had enough of those. Yeah, there's, there is an upper limit, for sure. But right now, I've been enjoying the ride. I'm loving each and every one of those. I hope there's, I hope there's hours and hours and hours of those. They're amazing. I try to find as much of that stuff as I can. If anyone out there ever just stumbles across, like, training video, where they rap instead of talk, you know. Yeah. Please let me know. there was a Wendy's one that we had a while back that was put the burger right on the grill and then you lay some cheese on top or mustard if you will or something like that like it was something it's totally that I have that stuff someplace I've kept it all but it's uh yeah it's one of my favorite weird subgenres of bad commercial use like it just is this idea that you should sing what you do yeah or rap what you do is hilarious to me somebody is somebody at one person at each of these companies thought they had the brilliant idea like you know how we can finally reach these kids that we're hiring for these minimum wage jobs is by wrapping the method of putting a hamburger together that's what we've made because the kids love rap they're super into the rap and we as adult people who have no idea what that world's about we'll go ahead and you know adopt that as our method of communication to these young kids that we need flipping these burgers perfect solution

all right how is everyone everyone's good good hey there's a whole chat room here we always talk about them and refer to them but just want to say thanks to them for coming you know their tip of the spear type folks they're they're always here every day and i love it it's good having them here yeah all right like a warm they're like the warm blanket uh that we need in the morning that's right now since you're going to new orleans today i am you're flying today you'll get there in the calendar day of today right you're not going late New Orleans is close enough to not be a red-eye flight. Okay, good.

Good, good. So it's about of what? Last time I went, it's like four hours, something like that. It's two and a half hour flight. Oh, that's not bad. It's longer for me. Your plane apparently like has to take a running start over the mountains and then finally can fly once it, once it. You know what I'm thinking of?

I'm thinking of, I wonder where that would be any quicker. combining, you're probably combining the flight time and the, um, the time change. Just the time. Oh, maybe I am. The last time I went, it was in, uh, I went to Mississippi, which is roughly the same, you know, time. And for whatever reason in my head, it felt like four hours, but I probably have combined things. That's what I do. Like the genie just said, Scott's a combiner. I do that. A combiner. You're a streaker and a combiner. Yeah, I tend to combine things. Uh, hey, so I wanted it, so in, in light of the fact that as soon as the, The show ends, basically, you're on your way.

Yeah, pretty much. I got a packing, I got packing questions. Yeah, let's talk packing. Okay. I'm a, I'm a packer. Go pack, go. So, look, do you, okay, when I go anywhere that's like extended out of town, I have a list that I make. Oh, really?

Yeah, do you do that? Physical list. Physical list. I make a list and check it off. Really? Do you do that at all? What do you do? Do you just know what you need and you're all good and what I know.

what I need. Like basically, I'm a t-shirt under a long-sleeve shirt guy. Yeah, same. I'm also a, if I'm on a plane, I want to have a, my top needs to have a pocket that I can get too easily because I want to put something that I need very quickly in that pocket. This, this sweatshirt thing that I'm wearing happens to have a little pocket. Oh, look at that. That's perfect. Yeah. That's great. Um, and it's in a good place and like a regular shirt pocket, if it's, if I'm going somewhere warmer, then I don't wear a big heavy sweatshirt. I have a, like a, um, button up. Um, so that's, that's a requirement. And then just basically clothing wise, I go, uh, all right, I'm there for two days. So bam, bam, pair socks, pair underwear, pair, a t-shirt, uh, shirt. I can wear a shirt twice because it's over a t-shirt if I need to. So if it's like seven days, then I can maybe get away with four shirts and just, and just, reuse them. Sure. The trick is more the, um, uh, the, um, the, the tech. Like, what tech am I going to need on this trip? Oh, right. Yeah. That's a big part. And I, I tend to overpack the tech. If I'm honest, if that's where I kind of, my failing is, it's that I overpack the tech. So it's like, all right, well, I'm taking my iPad. I need a charger that does the USBC. Um, and then I've got the little, the thing that, I think you got me, that's got a watch and phone charge on it.

Like, it's got the key charging that I just put my phone on it and then it has a little thing for the watch. And so I need a, whatever that is, USB micro or mini or whatever it is. Whatever it is. But then it's like, oh, but, you know, what if I get there in the hotel has a TV that, you know, I can't plug my iPad into so we can stream stuff from my iPad. I'd better take a divvy or a D-D-M-H-DMI cable. And you know what, now they think about it,

maybe I better take a... Yeah, no, I keep doing that too. I compound and compound. In fact, look at it. So here's the thing I found, and this might be a fun thing for the people at home to hear about. Sure. In 2017, for some reason, I just still have this checklist.

Really? Yeah. Oh, look at that. I made this checklist for a blizzcon trip that year. And it pretty well represents what I do when I pack. So here's my list. Some of this is ridiculous. So I have two categories.

I have a capitalized heading for main stuff. And then I have one for personal. I don't know why I made the distinction. All right. Claire in all caps, by the way, just typed, you pack HDMI cables with seven question marks at the end. I mean, I packed one HDMI cable so that I can undock my sweats. Yeah.

Thank you. There you go. Thank you a lot. All right. So here's what I have in her main stuff. Shut down all things no needed. I think that means like... Like how you really conserve words by dropping that T off of not needed, which would be a little bit more grammatically correct. It would be. But for some reason, I said no needed. So that's like, you know, make sure the computers are shut down

and that there's no heater on some corner somewhere that I forgot about or whatever. So all that stuff. I write, then the next thing is recorder thing. What I mean by that is like the little portable two mic to what was called? Zoom, Tascam or Zoom. Yeah, I've forgotten the name of those things ever since Zoom, the desktop thing became popular.

It's been replaced by that. And that's so that you can go up to Mike Moreheim and say, hey, could you record a bumper for the instance? Yeah. And then he returned and he said, you know what? I'd be happy to do that for you. Here it is. Hold on, here it is.

Hi, I'm Mike Morheim from Dreamhaven. And you're listening to the instance. That didn't sound edited at all. No, not at all. So anyway, so there's that. And then what else did I take? Oh, okay. So then I put tickets for me and Kim.

Our plane tickets, I think. Sure, sure. Phone and cables. New AV adapters and cables for notebook. Notebook. Notebook charger. Watch a watch charger. It's back when I cared about that.

Charger brick and charging cables. Power block. Too bad you didn't look at that list before you left the clip-clop a few years ago. Exactly. And I didn't have that list. I would have been, I screwed myself. Charger brick and charger cables. Power block, wallet, Kindle.

Couple hats. Couple hats. Couple hats. Not couple of hats. Couple hats. It's just his and hers hats. I always take a couple of baseball hats with me everywhere. I go, and I think that's what I meant there.

So now we get to personal. Two pair glasses, because I like a backup. If one pair goes dead, I'm screwed, so I need the other pair. If it goes dead. Like, you forget to charge him or something. I mean, if they break or get lost, I don't know why. If they get smudged, because, you know, I'd

rather bring two pair of glasses than one pair glasses and cleaning cloth. Exactly. Then I also wrote here, pepto bottle. I assume that means a bottle full of pepto. You just... Not just an empty pepto bottle. I don't know why I wrote bottle, just write tepto.

A.V. Cables in pepto bottle. Bottle A.V. Cables and two, and couple hats. Let's see. Sunglasses. There was a great app that I did try to use once that had a, like, a reusable checklist in it. So in other words, you know, you get some apps that have a checklist, and then as soon as you're done checking off that list, that checklist is full. And if you want to reuse it, you've got to uncheck everything. and then use it again.

But there was one that had like a reasonable checklist. And so you'd go in and say, planning for a eight-day trip and you'd hit that. And then it would give you your checklist of, all right, here are all the things you need for an eight-day trip versus a weekend where you just need your, you know, your iPad, your phone, your watch, et cetera. Right, right, right. And I tried all those too. This ends up being just in my like simple notes app, just like a simple text list of them. See, and that's really all you need. It's all you need.

Nobody needs anything. And I can mark them off when I've got it And made sure I've got it with a little asterisk So then I've got to check mark thing So it's fine So listen, this one, this one's real dumb I put jackets And then in parentheses, two maybe

Oh man Playing by hard and fast rules there, Scott Like, who knows? One? Never know. Ooh, baby. Never know. This is for BlissCon?

Yeah, this is for BlissCon. I know. Well, it got, you know, it's November, sometimes cold at night. I know. Sometimes it would drop down to 60. Yeah, it would get real chilly in there. No, mainly it was because the show floor was cold. It was always cold in there.

Oh, it didn't get chilly on the show floor. Yeah, and they need all those nerds warm or cold or something. They don't want them to smell too bad. I think that's why they keep it so cold. Anyway, then I got power toothbrush and port charger. Gorilla snot. That's the hair stuff I use. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's like a gorilla snot juice. It's called, I don't know what it is. It's just like a kind of a gel type stuff, but they, call it gorillas nut regular toothbrush i wrote after that toothpaste your power toothbrush and your regular toothbrush yeah i don't know why i do that you know here's the thing if your power toothbrush runs out of power it turns into a regular toothbrush it's a good point if you don't have power what do you have you have a toothbrush right it's like oh i can't use the escalator why when it's broken it turns into stairs yeah yeah there you go now even with this list

often I would go to the event and still feel like I left something at home or would leave something at home. And then I would never remember that or forget to write down what I should have brought. And then the next year I'd go again and go, oh, what was that last year that I forgot? And then I would just do it again. I would repeat the error. So that happens.

But there you go. It's 2017's packing list, everybody. That was Mitch Hedberg, wasn't it? Yeah, that was such a great, great bit from him. Oh, did he do the whole thing? The escalator becoming stairs. Oh, yeah. He's, dude, he was so good. Oh, my God. It was so good.

What's with people that are really great having their lives ended too soon? What's with that? I don't know. They're just too bright for this world. Is that what's going on? That explains why we'll live forever, Scott. Back to the forgetting something on a trip. Is there something that you found that you bought multiple of because you'd always forget to get them when you traveled? Or you always forget to bring them when you traveled?

So you ended up having to buy them when you were... Oh, all the time. Yeah. Like, I remember your Vegas story where you had to get underwear down at the CVS. That's a great story. I was like, yeah, I had to go to, from the MGM Grand had to walk to Ross Dress for Less. Yep. The only time, I think the only time in my life I ever went somewhere commando.

Yeah, you were in full Kramer, dude. Full on Kramer, your boys are swinging free. There's nothing between us and his junk except a thin layer of gaberdine. Bradine, exactly. So that's cool. But yeah, like, usually it's toiletry type things. You know, right. Did you bring the deodorant? No. Well, shit. Off we go to buy deodorant. A dumb thing to have to buy. Thankfully, they usually have all that. But yeah. Anyway, it's funny. It's just funny how this stuff works out. I hope, here's what I hope for you, Brian, is that you go there today and that you get there and realize that you've got everything, that you've forgot nothing, you know? I feel like I've gotten

really good at just visualizing a day, a typical day on a trip like this and saying, all right, I get up, I got what I need there. Good. All right. I've even got, you know, just because I have it in my jacket, extra packets of splendor because sometimes you'll be in the hotel room, they'll have the

coffee maker, they'll have powdered garbage creamer, and they won't have any, like, fake sugar, though, just have the real sugar. It's like, oh, you know what, no problem, yoink, I've got my splendor. Yeah, you got your splendor. It's like I figure I am a grandma. I even have some hard candy in case I need it. You are like it. You got some little, you got some old Kleenexes in there. You can lick. I have some Kleenexes. Yeah, I have, I have atomic fireballs because, you know, you always need an atomic fireball. Oh, you need a one or two at those at least. It's like a cinnamon deal, suck on one of those as the plane's going down and you're

One son of the chat. Wothers. Yeah, the Wothers. That's such an old man thing. The originals. Yeah, they walk around with those. Well, anyway, the point is, oh, I never told you this story. I'll tell you this real fast. BlizzCon 2018.

Scary year for me. I had to be on stage for that thing. And it was fine. It's funny yesterday I was thinking about how at the time I was so worried about getting Alex as Afraza Robbie's name wrong. Oh, yes. But I kind of wish. I wish I would have gotten it wrong.

Yeah, I kind of wish I would have butchered it. Yeah, I did tweet that yesterday, but I wish I would have butchered it. Anyway, I was nervous. I was really nervous. And, you know, I had friends around, Randy was there. People were there. It's not like I was, you know, on my own or whatever for this, but it's still just kind of nervous about it. So guess what I took with me that helped me be not as nervous?

I took. Edibles. No. I didn't take, take nothing. I didn't ingest anything. I took a, is it over here? Did you take a fidget spinner? Or a...

I got a whole box I'm unloved over. Wait. No, no, I only have a few left. I have one or two left. I took our world famous TMS challenge coin. Oh, yeah.

Uh-huh. And I rubbed this. Whoops. Let me show the chat and I'm getting the wrong screen up. I rubbed this in my pocket while I was getting ready. I know Jamie. Jamie. Maybe.

Anyway, there's something really, uh, something really tactile about a nice challenge coin. Got a lot of braised edges. and stuff. And there's a picture of me and Brian there on the front. It says, TMS Vegas on the back it says, love the show though. And these are nice, hefty little coins. So I had this in my little front, whatever that. What is

that tiny pocket for? The little pill pocket you got? Yeah, the Levi's, we looked this up at some point, like five years ago. Oh, by the way. Before we even forget, we celebrate our 11th anniversary of doing this show yesterday, I think. Oh, shit.

And we didn't even notice? And we didn't even notice. Didn't we start on January 26th, 2011? Some like that. I got to look at the date now. Yeah. But while you're looking that up. So, yeah, no, there is, there is, that's the reason I take my little Spider-Man

Fidget Cube with me when I go to the dentist is because, you know, I can just have that in my, in my hand. And it's not like a, oh, my God, this is going to hurt. I'm really worried. It's more like a, oh, we'll push this button. Oh, let's turn this. little knob here. And I completely forget about what's going on in my mouth because I'm all

focused on, oh, let's flick this little light switch up and down. Yeah, no kidding. Okay, here it is. I found it. Our first episode was the morning stream January 1st, sorry, January 24th, 2011. So it was a 24th. 24th, so it was earlier this week.

Yeah, somebody, gosh, dang it. How do we miss that? Mo Aranos, um, hope you liked your Secret Santa gifts this year, Mo. Oh, Mooranos tweeted or Facebook post or something about how, you know, happy 11th anniversary Eve.

We don't have anyone to keep. I totally forgot the next day to. Nobody remembers this stuff because we're busy making the stuff. So we don't have a person who sits off to the side and says, don't forget to mention your birthday. We probably need someone like that, but we never have anyone like that. Here's what that show started like or sounded like that day. Hey, man. Howdy do, dude?

I wonder if I see you again. I wouldn't miss the semis? Oh, yeah. Well, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs. I'm sure I've got you. Yeah. Thanks, Gary. Well, take care, man.

Got to get back. Sure. Take it easy, dude. Oh, yeah. I know that you will. Yeah, well, the dude abides. You are going to have actual podcast in your podcast, aren't you? Yeah, I'm just waiting for this, Dan.

Oh, the dude abides. Yeah. Did I have him do the whole freaking scene? I think you do. Someone to make sure I'm keeping on the straight and narrow, as it were. Someone who will make me laugh and make me cry. This is me and introducing you. And all those things in between.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to who I'm going to. I can't stand listen to myself that long ago. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it. I feel like I didn't know what I was doing. It's always this way. You start a new show.

You don't really know what you're doing yet. You don't know what the, you don't know what the overall thing's going to be. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, that was, that was us finding the vibe that comes 100% naturally now. Yeah. It's nothing now. But back then is like, all right, how do we make this sound? Yeah.

Some of the chat mentioned my voice is all high. Oh, Carter, my dad, or my daughter. Yeah, 10 years ago, it was higher. You can tell because she ended it with dad. Yeah, dad, that dad part. Someone in the chat room. It's a real giveaway. Yeah.

The real giveaway is the dad part. there. I should have really noticed that. But yeah, it's weird to hear yourself that long ago. All right. Speaking of which is too funny, you brought up the anniversary. Yeah. Oh, yeah? The, remember we did a thing? I think maybe even that first episode, we did a segment called Word of the Day where we hated a word.

Like, it was a word that we hated. And that was actually, you know, we webinar. A lot of the ones that I said at the beginning are pre-show webinar and synergy. Yeah, those are all, I bet we did. most of those because we did most of those yeah so just to commemorate i got a new one for you we'll do this right here if you make a deal with somebody you keep your word all right worst that's our word of the day segment today thank you mike irman trout from breaking bad uh the word of the day today because i'm annoyed with this word is beverage i don't like the word beverage i'd like it when people say

oh would you like a beverage with that or should we meet for beverages or how is your beverage it gets worse every time you hear it it sucks i hate i don't mind the word beverage and how is it that uh that the hipster elite have not reduced it to beves like hey who wants some beves you want a bev you want a that's almost worse that's almost worse right most worse you want some apps no one you know what officially that is worse i hope no one does it if everyone anyone ever says bev for short you unless it's beverly i understand that okay somebody named beverly you call her bev that's fine But when you're saying beverage and you say Bev, you might be dead to me. I can't deal with you.

I cannot do it. It's already bad enough. The word itself is bad enough. I hate it. Can I tell you a really quick story about a friend, my mom's friend, Bev? Do it. When I was a kid. So my mom had a friend Bev or Beverly.

Still does. Beverly is still a friend of hers. Sure. And we went on a picnic and it was her and my mom and me and my uncle George. And we're getting sandwiches out. And George says to Beverly, do you like, do you like Braunschweiger? And Beverly says, I like all kinds of music.

That's good. Did she know or did she just think, did she really think? No, she didn't actually really thought that Braunschweger was some kind of music. That's even better. It's our favorite Beverly story. Like whenever we talk about Beverly, my mom and I, it's like, yeah, remember when she thought Braunschweger was a kind of music? That's great. That's the time Carter meant to say narcotics and said narcotis.

I'll never forget that. She looks so confident in saying it. She was a senior in high school. She looked at me and she's reading this card and she goes, Narcotis. And I went, narcotics. Anyway, hey, so there you go. There's all that.

That was fun. A little fun to throwback. So where did it is, beverage? I don't have a problem with beverage. I don't have a problem with beverages either. No, no, me neither. just for comparison sake. Let me just play a random old.

Okay, here's an episode from January 20, no, January 30th, 2014. Let's just see what that sounds like. We were three years in. Coming up on, yeah, let's see what we say that day. Coming up on TMS, what are you doing with your life? A morning. Okay, so that's interesting. Wow, three years in, we were already doing the titles?

Yeah, but I think these were titles that we made up pre-show. Right. Pre-show based on the On the rundown, yeah. We had on the list. Which was never optimal, and it wasn't until Lord BioCow swooped in with his magic cheese and made it happen. Yeah. Okay.

I'm going to skip ahead just to see what we say randomly. Okay. Over time, breathing tamako smoke irritates the airways and destroys. I say tamako. I think it's a tamaco. Were we talking about the Simpsons and Tamaco? I don't know. Stretchy fibers in the lungs.

Sounds like actual, like something about smoking. Longterm exposure, lung irritants, the damage the lungs. and the airways is usually the cause of COPD. Often that is cigarette smoke. Well, you're just accelerating it. Like, if you lived in a crap. Wow, a science segment with not Bobby that day. All right, moving on.

This is a person. We're having a meta conversation about what they've been doing all day. The first windy. Ah, first windy thing. That's the first Wendy? Well, let's see. If we started on, oh, no, no, I'm sorry. It's 2014.

I was thinking it was the same week as we started. She's been on since the beginning. You're totally right. Well, anyway, that's fun stuff, isn't it? That's so cool. Yeah, yeah. Good fun to go back and listen to your terrible things. All right.

We are going to bring a guest in. I just realized how much time we've eaten up. But don't worry. Sorry, Amy. I hope you're talking about a comic book because we ain't got time for much more than that. Yeah, my bad. We just kind of got to rambling. Yeah.

But we're going to bring Amy in. We're going to do a little read this and it'll be great. So here you go. Enjoy everybody. Where is it? It's right here. Yes, that's right. that music means it's time to hang out with Amy

and find out what books you all should be sticking your nose into and reading. Amy Robinson, welcome back to the show. Hello, how's everybody doing? Good, how are you? Good. Hope you're well. Oh, I am great. I'm very much enjoying how ADHD you guys are today.

It's really fun. Hey, how about Beverly? What about beverages? Beveridge is beverage. How about the beverage thing? Oh, about the beverage thing. I do have a little bit, of bad news for you. I don't know anybody that calls them Beves for short, but you know the little

napkins that they give you like at a bar or whatever, the bartenders and the servers do call those Bev Naps. Bev Naps. Bev Naps. That shouldn't be anything other than Brian's mom's thing to do in the afternoon when she's tired. That should be it. After too much rush, like you. That's what Bev would do. Yeah, I don't like that at all. That annoys me, especially because it's insider stuff. They shouldn't, they shouldn't contribute to society's downfall they should call them you know they should just call them napkins how about that drink at a restaurant a bar that has that has a restaurant to it then they'd actually have the big thick napkins too i think correct yes exactly it distinguishes between the two the bevenaps

a little small paper things but they're made for cocktails so call them cocknaps oh cocknaps dude so much better that's so much better yeah cocknap yeah i took your thing and i fixed it Completely turned it around. Well done. All right. Hey, Red Fraggle slash Amy. I think it's time for you to regale us with whatever we're talking about today. You actually gave me a clip. Do you want me to play that now? What are you going to do here? No, I want to tell a story first and then we'll play the clip. So I have a story that leads into today's book really well. And it's about how I fail to be a functioning human. And so that will lead in today's book really well. And it's actually, it relates to my TMS mug. And so, some Phoenix Pearl tea. Okay. So I was making myself a cup of Hope's retribution tea, which if you have not tried it, it's lovely. It's a blueberry mix, but it also contains cayenne pepper, and that's a key element

to this story. I'm not having to do that yet. It is very good. It's really, really nice. Yeah. It's based on Hope's character and There Will Be Dungeons is where that came from, but the mix is real good. It's very good.

Cool. Yeah. Yes, it's excellent. So I was downstairs making myself a cup of this tea. I have one of those tea infusers that's like, it's like a little thing of tongs, you know. You squeeze it and the little open and you reach in like a claw machine and grab the tea and then pull it back out. So I was using that. And of course, the cayenne pepper just falls right through that, right?

It doesn't work very well. So, excuse me. So I was like, all right, well, and I'm just making a mess. So I clean all that up and I get a different tea infuser out that's kind of work a little better. And I look in the bottom of my mug, and there's a lot of the cayenne pepper in the bottom there. And so I was like, I don't want a big plump of that. So I'm trying to shake it out into my other infuser and get it actually in there. And it doesn't all come out.

Like an idiot, I blow into the cup. I basically pepper strip sprayed myself. You did, yeah. Like, wow, just blue cayenne pepper right into your eyes, I'm guessing. Well, the thing is, you don't even, like, you don't even want tea in your eye, but this also has pepper in it. I guess that's the worst idea. That's a bad idea that you did.

It was just like Kai and Pepper. Like I immediately, you ever do those things where it's like it takes you a second to regret it? No, not this time. I immediately regretted it. And I like ran for the sink and was, you know, running my eyes under the water and stuff to get about. So yeah. So that's my, that's my crazy story. By the way, that rinsing your eyes out under the sink is such, it's tantamount to like, it's torture.

I hate it. I hate that feeling. Yeah. And sometimes you have to do it because you've got something gnarly in there and you better wash your eye out. But gosh, dang it. What a gnarly thing to do to yourself. I hate just taking contact lenses out and putting fresh ones in. It's like that process, anything in my eye I'm squeamish.

You're not squeamish about, but I can't. I'm not like, Tina can just go boop and stick her finger in her eye, no problem at all. Me, it's like I have to get those jaws of life to pull my eyelids apart. Like, what's his face? McDowell and Clockwork Orange To get a contact end up That guy

It's been a while Yeah same Wow Claire is asking why I put tea In my eye voluntarily I didn't It was an accident It's just because I failed

To be proper functioning human Claire Where were you five minutes ago When she explained the part She was blowing on the tea Well anyway I hope you never do that again I hope that's a one-off

And your eyes will forever Be free of any sort of Cyan pepper Or Cyan pepper-like material That would be good So that leads us into the clip that I sent. This is a clip from the audiobook of the book I'm recommending today. Oh, cool.

Very nice. All right, I'll play it. We'll see what happens on the other side. It's about a minute and a half here. Here you go. Truly, I have managed to fuck shit up in shockingly impressive ways and still be considered a fairly acceptable person. In some ways, I have actually made it my living.

And because I am so good at being publicly terrible other people feel comfortable telling me about how awful they are at being an adult and then I try to top them with oh you think that's bad let me tell you about the time that I tried to rescue a decapitated human head from my work and then they're like no hold my beer and in the end I end up with a new best friend because how could you not love a person who couldn't understand where those terrible farting noises were coming from on the bus But then she realized that they were the noises of the dog toy in her purse that she was leaning on and everyone looked at her. And so she ended up shaking a rubber foot at them while yelling, I'm not farting, it's my dog's foot.

Answer, you can't. You love them hard. It's weird because we often try to present our fake, shiny, happy selves to others and make sure that we're not wearing too obvious pajamas at the grocery store. but really who wants to see that level of fraud? No one. What we really want is to know that we're not alone in our terribleness. We want to appreciate the failure that makes us perfectly us and wonderfully relatable to every other person out there who was also pretending that they have their shit together and didn't just eat that onion ring that fell on the floor. Human foibles are what make us us and the art of mortification is what brings us all together all i know is i want

onion rings now that's what i want okay before you say anything amy is this noel wells it is not oh my god sounds just like i was like remarking that uh this sounds like the woman from the first season of master of none like her voice to a tea but apparently not okay oh funny no that is actually voiced by the author and her name is Jenny Lawson. She's also known on the internet as the bloggist. And if you've never read any of her stuff, I mean, she's got, she's, she has had an internet presence since the internet was really sort of born.

I mean, she had a blog back when that was a cool thing. And she still has a blog, even though now it's sort of passe, but like, she is absolutely hilarious. And she just lays it all. out there for everyone to see and so the name of the book that that is a a an excerpt from is broken in the best way possible um she has she currently has uh four books out one of which is a grown up coloring book which i also have and love um but yeah she's absolutely hilarious she she talks a lot about mental illness and because she she suffers from a number of different

mental illnesses. But she's absolutely just the funniest. It's it you you can't help but laugh. I was reading her first book sitting in bed one night and I'm crying. I'm laughing so hard. And my husband's like, what the hell are you reading? So that he read it. And then he started just cackling. And it is autobiographical. So every everything in here is completely nonfiction. And it's it's really funny. she talks about how she grew up in rural Texas, and her dad is a taxidermist and also a bit of a prankster. So that may be a little bit why she's kind of screwy. I love this chapter heading where she says, six times I've lost my shoes while wearing them, a list that shouldn't exist. I like that.

Oh, yeah. That is a great story. That's fantastic. One time one of her shoes rode an elevator by itself. It's great. Like, I mean, it's... She said she bought condoms for her dog. That's the weirdest thing I've ever read.

That's insane. All right. You sold me. Yep. Sounds like... So, yeah, she's absolutely hilarious, but it's also, as she mentioned, sort of in that introduction, it's very relatable and makes things like mental illness and self-care and things like that very relatable and also accessible.

It's like, hey, this is okay. It's okay to be kind of messed up. And see, look how fun it is. Look how hilarious I am because of all my foibles, you know. And so I thought that would be the perfect book to talk about today because we're going to have Wendy later. And then, you know, our Real Steps meeting that's like the party for everybody is coming up on Monday. So I thought that would be perfect. Yep, it's on Monday.

I might pop in there. Yeah, I think I may go in there. So I'm sure that Wendy will mention it also. but I just wanted to plug it as well because I am a member of the Real Steps community and it is it is a fantastically wonderful place and it's supportive and awesome plus you get like no party like a Real Steps Party because a Real Steps Party don't stop don't stop yeah hey uh you get access to my sister so I always like to ask her how her little cult is going but it's all in jest I'm kidding because obviously it's not a cult but it's fun to say that to her

because you know she's my sister and that's what you do not a cult Yeah, not a cult. I'm not an accurate person to ask because, like, I'm a member. So if it is a cult, then I'm all in. Yeah, people in the cult never know they're in it. They just, they're just in it. But yeah, no, she's doing killer stuff with that. And I'm really, I'm actually excited about to hear what that's like.

I mean, I know it's a virtual party, but I have no idea what that means or what they have planned. So I think I may sneak in there and just kind of see, you know? Yeah. Anyway. Oh, you totally should. Well, we enjoyed when we, when, when, you know, You joined us that one time, Scott. It's, uh, you can see.

It's very, that was a good time. No, that was really great. I enjoyed that. And it was, you know, Wendy couldn't have had worse internet. She was like on the road at the time and had some crappy Wi-Fi at some place they were staying. And she couldn't stay on very long or when she'd get cut out. It was just like, all right, whatever.

But it was still fun. You guys all were super chill and, yeah, I liked it in there. Uh, good. Well, there you go. Uh, remind people the name of the book again one more time. I saw it's on the Amazon or everywhere you get books. So super easy to find. find. Yep, it totally is. It is broken in the best way possible by Jenny Lawson. You can just look for

broken by Jenny Lawson and find it. And she does read all of her own audiobooks. And like I say, with nonfiction, I find it, it's really good if the author reads their own stuff because they're just telling you their own story. So I really enjoy her. And I love, she actually talked about her doing the reading for her first audiobook, she was absolutely in a panic because she suffers from just crippling anxiety. And she had never done anything like that before. And she was just messing it up. And she could tell the producers were getting really impatient with her. And she went outside. And she's friends with Neil Gaiman. And so like, but she was just thought, she just thought, okay, I'm just going to call my friend

Neil, you know, and she called him and she's like, I'm screwing this up completely. You got to help me. And Neil Gaiman gave her the best advice ever. He said, go back in and pretend you're good at it. That's great. And that worked. And she's done that ever since. And like, people have actually gotten, you know, they come to her book signings and stuff and

they have tattoos on their arms. She wrote it on her arm. She took a Sharpie and wrote, pretend you're good at it on her arm. And so people get tattoos of that on their arms and show her now. Yeah, people that ask Brian and I, how do you do an 11-year-old podcast? You just go on every day and pretend you know what you're doing. Pretend you know what you're doing. Exactly.

Yeah. Works for us. If it works for us, it'll work for you. Go check it out. It's available like everywhere. Whoever sells books, they have it. Okay, so don't worry. Claire's in there, give me someone other than Amazon.

I can't go anywhere. I can't do it. It's fine. That's fine. I understand. Go to Barnes & Noble or I guess, whatever you have in Ireland. What do you got? Like the pot and the kettle over there or something?

like that. And she says, I need an, oh, an Audible equivalent. I was going to say, well, Audible is Amazon, but that's not what she's asking for. Oh, she wants an alternative, yeah. The alternative, that is actually kind of a problem. There's no good, if you want something other than Audible, there aren't many out there. Yeah. No, they really aren't. Not with the breadth and width of coverage that they have. I guess you could always keep buying the disc versions and then convert them to Mp3s yourself and then live in a nightmare world, but yeah, there needs to be more competition in audiobooks. I think that would be really good. I'll look it up for you, Claire, because

Because Jenny Lawson is a huge, huge fan of independent booksellers. In fact, she runs an independent bookshop now in Texas where she lives. And so she's a big, big fan of that. So there may actually be, you know, a way to get her audiobook without going through Amazon. So I'll find out. I'll look at it for you. There you have it. It's Amy, everyone.

Red Fraggle everywhere that you can find her. Anything else you want to tell people before we go? Yes. So I am actually going to be on. on TV's Travis's podcast called Wait, You Haven't Seen? Oh, my. Cool. What are you guys watching?

What's your thing? What's your movie? We're going to be talking about one of my favorite movies ever. It's The Apartment with Jack Lemon and Shirley McLean because TV's Travis had never seen it. And so it qualified for the podcast. And I love that movie so much. And I'm all about that. You want to talk about a cult?

Like, that is a cult. I'm like, come watch the apartment. Everybody should watch the apartment. I'm trying to... I've never seen it either. So that's a good one for me to listen to. Is that streaming somewhere? 60?

Let's see. Not sure. I have it on Blu-ray, so I don't know if it's streaming, but I imagine it is. It's an old Jack Lemon, Shirley MacLean movie. It's like, it's in black and white, and it's fantastic. It's really, really good. Oh, this is a seven-year-inch guy. Billy Wilder made this.

He makes great. He made great. He was awesome in those days. He made everything that was good. All right. Well, you've convinced me to watch something only my mom would love, so I'm going to go check it out. I just have never heard of it.

All right. Well, there you have it. It's Amy, everyone. Take it easy. Have fun. Thanks for being here this week, and we'll see you next time. Thanks. Don't blow.

Oh, damn it. Don't blow. Don't blow. Yeah, good advice. Yep, we'll let that stand as a statement. the best advice I think we've ever received for the show. Don't blow. Wonderful.

Don't blow. I'm sure she was going to say don't blow the cayenne pepper into your eyes. Oh yeah. That was probably it. It might have been something else. Yeah. Fill in the blanks. You guys say and do it you want to not blow. Okay. All right.

Hey, Brian, let's take a break. When we come back, my sister, Wendy will be here. We've got a big email she received that we're going to read today and see if we can deal with. And that'll be fun. so stick around. What song hath you prepared? We're going to Chicago today, Scott, and big thanks to us and them group for sending me this one. This is a band called Touched by G-G-L, not touched by a ghoul, just touched by ghoul, G-H-O-U-L.

They have a brand-new album called Cancel the World. This is a Chicago quartet that's made up of members of Cyprus and Pink Frost. So if you're a local to Chicago and those bands, you recognize those band names, then you'll like this. This Chicago Quartet, Touched by Gould, first video from their sophomore album, Cancel the World. I've said all that stuff. Let's just listen to the song. Here is, canceled, sorry, better than me by Touched by Gould. What kind of dire?

And the harder we fall And we are, Where you've called upon there Forever who chimes And we are Better when it's all them wash Walk on walker. Well, you think you know us now,

because you know who you are. Better than me. Better than me. You're alive. You're alive. What are you from? We are. We're going to love for now.

We're all right. Sloper Love Better when you tell a rush I'm tired Every time you go outside You don't know me hard Harder than the crippled wind

That makes us higher Better than the way Than you are And one Oh Better than me Think you better than me Think you better time my

Thank you, much more, think you better than me, better than me, better than me. Better than you better than you. Thank you much better than you. Better than you say who you are, who you are. Who you are. Oh, there's no one like here. Oh, there's no one like here. I know I like you

I'm just trying to help I ain't got no money I eat baguette aren't you afraid too scared to be all right we're back everybody this song once again was that song is touched by ghoul uh and the song's called better than me very very nice yeah all right we're gonna get windy in here speaking of the the uh the leader of all things real steps real steps is what i meant to say and uh she's Yeah, hey, oh, look who it is, everybody.

It's my sister Wendy, who is a cult leader. The cult leader of the benevolent leader, the great leader. What do you prefer to be called by your people, by your minions? Benevolent, dictator, oh, I like that. Or belevolent, yeah, that's fine. Belvelin dictator. Yeah. Hey, are you, I'm excited because you're going to, we're going to get to see you in family, I guess, sometime here soon, a couple months.

In March. Yeah. Not too far off. Yeah. That'll be good. Well, yes, in comparison. Plus, they'll be really nice. You're going to ski, I guess, right?

That's part of the plan or something. I'll just give everyone your full itinerary. But anyway, the point is. Yeah, we're on two. So meet me there. You're going to go up in, it's like great skiing time in Utah is like March. March is amazing because it's kind of warm in the valley or warming. And the mountains are still just awesome.

and lots of powder and oh, you're going to love it. And we will be sweating to death. Yeah, that's what you do. Compared to where you live? Because it is so cold. So Elliot's been going snowboarding quite a bit and it's, you know, three or four degrees. Yeah. So can you imagine just skiing?

We're going to be those jeans and t-shirt skiers, remember in the 80s and 90s? Yeah. Nothing better than skiing in wet denim. Yeah, wet denim. No, I mean, seriously, is there a worse feeling than wet, cold denim on your legs? I don't think there is. I don't. No.

It's pretty bad. It's bad sensation. Well, anyway, it's good to have you here. We're looking forward to that. We're going to go ahead and dive into your segment today. But with an email that you received and supposedly I got copied on, but I never got it. I don't know why I didn't see it. But I'm glad you got it because this is a good one and I feel bad I missed it.

I had a weird email issue that I'm still kind of having. So if anyone out there feels like you sent me something real important and it never got a reply, it might be because of this weird thing I'm having with Hover. I got to figure it out. So I apologize. guys, use the Gmail ones and you'll be fine. All right. Wendy, you want me to just dive in here? Any set up here or just read it? All right, here we go. Scott, looking to remain anonymous, they say. So we're going to call this person E. Hey, Wendy and TMS. I have an ex-partner and still

wonderful friend who managed to get out of a very toxic relationship. They had been in for a very long time. That same toxic relationship actually made our dating life fall apart. After they were super depressed or after they were super depressed and trying to unwrap all the trauma that was generally just in a bad place. altogether. As they worked through it and started to become a stronger, worked through it and started to become a stronger person over all they met. Oh, overall, comma. Stronger person overall. Got it. They met the love of their life. Having dated, I recognized the signs of how happy they were with their new partner. Talking with this new partner, I just know how perfect they were for each other. And for the first time, in a long time,

I felt like my friend was finally going to be okay again. They dated for a while and things were going really great, really well. There was even talk about getting married, even, where did I get even from? If they could save up enough money for it at all. Today is a tough read for some reason. Then one terrible day in mid-December of 2018, the partner had a stroke and passed away two days later. Jeez. My friend was obviously devastated and a few months later lockdown started isolating themselves even more.

They have fought hard with grief then, and I have been as supportive as possible, while some members of their family and even some friends have told them it's been two years you need to move on, I have continued to be on their side. Supporting them, giving them a shoulder to cry on, listening to the good memories, letting them rant about how other people don't understand. I have never experienced the loss of a loved one, but I know the grief is difficult for anyone or everyone, and I know it will probably never truly go away. I knew the best thing I could do is just continue to be a good friend and be there for them. I meet up with them last week or met up with them last week and they told me they went to a psychic to talk to their partner and how nice it was.

I'm agnostic both in religion and my philosophy on the universe. I don't know if psychics are a real thing or if they are just good at reading people, but if it helps them deal with their grief, I believe they should do it. But I do know some psychics out there, in it for the money and don't care about their clients. My hesitation is that I've fallen for a scam recently and lost a fair amount of money.

I know how good it can feel to be following that and how good it can feel to be following that and how easy it is to ignore signs in the middle of it. My friend says they're going to continue to visit psychics, even different ones. As I said, if this can help them with their grief, I don't want to discourage it. But I also care for them and know how vulnerable they are right now. and I'm afraid they'll have a run-in with somebody who will tell them everything they want to hear and drain my friend of all of their money and fake psychic and the fake psychic can get away with it. My friend gets a lot of negativity about dealing with their grief from people in their life

and I've done my best to help them and be supportive, but I'm not sure how to approach them with my concern about this without starting to sound like the negative people around them. Do you have any advice on how to talk to my friend about this? Am I being overprotective of my friend? Am I causing harm by pushing them to move? on at all. Any suggestions you would give would be extremely helpful. Thanks. Signed a Concern Friend. E. So, psychics. I'm going to try not to let my own biases in this conversation today. I hear your bias. Just get it out. It's all BS. It's bull crap. Flim flam is what it is.

It's flim flam bull crap. It doesn't exist. It's garbage. It doesn't, it isn't real. And they I know that there's, Wendy, we probably speak to this, but I know there are people in the world that can can even convince themselves of the things they're telling people and so they believe that they are psychic but at some point when it started for them they started lying to themselves and they've just forgotten that they lied to themselves so i think it's utter garbage is what i'm saying so at me if you want everybody in the world i don't care psychics are bullshit and that's just my stance so there's my bias how you feel about that now is but if I mean, that's where the conundrum is, right?

If going to a psychic helps your friend, do you put away your bias against psychics and say, well, it's working for them, it's making them feel better? Is it going to cause damage in the long run than believing this sort of thing? Like, what if it doesn't work all of a sudden, then they're going to feel like you didn't have their back? There's so much, so much to that. Yeah. Yeah, this is tricky because, like, okay, we'll get into. the psychic part of things in a second, but let's just start with the very core most important

thing is that this is a person you care about deeply and their heart is broken, right? And I would say for the most part, and every sort of culture is a little different in how they handle grief. You know, we've talked about this on the show a couple times, but just, you know, what's appropriate, what's normal, how it's handled. And then just sort of the human capacity for certain things with grief. You know, some people, you could see them just sort of process through it and their loss of a loved one and, you know, it's sad and they have a memorial or a couple of things and then they kind of resume life eventually.

And that's kind of what we consider healthy or normal grief, right? And we call it that. And, but everyone's going to be somewhere, a variation of that. when it gets stuck and lasts a lot longer. I always say a year is like a good benchmark of like you should pass through every holiday or every anniversary at least once before anyone should get too worried that they're still sad. And because of course you should be a little bit sad forever, right? If this person meant that much to you, it's when it becomes complicated or stuck and you can't move on and you can't function and it starts to. cause all sorts of other things where your life is now affected so so much then then those are

signs that like okay this has gotten stuck or complicated it's prolonged um and you need help with that and it can't and i so i get that you know the psychic's kind of like a fun version of getting help in that it it's going to satisfy the part of you that just wants that connection so bad wants it so wants it back so desperately that you know this feels like like an option so I'm going to give you a quick story I worked with a client who had very complicated grief and the death was sudden and unexpected and suicide and that that can be just more complicated it usually is right so very very difficult all during the pandemic where there was no ability they were in different countries, there was no ability to go and even go to the grave, let alone the gathering or

whatever, right? And so I think some of this complicated grief, I think we're seeing a lot in the last two years because of those realities. Like, you know, five people can be at this funeral service back in the early days of this. I had a friend lose a parent during that time and only eight people could be in the room. And just how sort of stunted that, that, that, the effect of grieving it can have by not being allowed to gather and not being able allowed to sort of see the person one last time or those types of things. Right. So so much challenge there and just empathy and compassion for how hard this has been for so many people. Yeah. And I want to I should make something very clear. Like people, I am not annoyed with

people who are seeking help from psychics or those who are getting help from psychics or think they're getting help from psychists or anyone who believes anything. If somebody decides that the only way they can deal with a problem is that that ducks are running the world secretly, that's okay with me too. I don't have a problem with any of that. It may not be a shared belief I have, but I don't have a problem with it. The problem I have with it is there's a victimization here with psychics. And the...

We'll get to that. We'll get to all that in a second. I just want to point out all of the reasons anyone would go there and then why this friend, of course, is concerned. But starting out with, like, and the reason I want to acknowledge all of the grief and it's difficult and everyone's grieving something, some of us are just grieving, you know, not having to show our vaccine cards when we go to a restaurant, you know, or whatever, wherever you're at with different things in your life, but collectively, we've all experienced some things we should be grieving about lost relationships because

none of us see I to eye anymore, you know, whatever. So there's a lot of grief and name one time any of you have had a class before that tells you how to handle grief, what's healthy grief. What is okay? What is dangerous? When do I need health? Like, nobody? Nobody. Never. I can't think of any situation. Like, they don't do this in school. Like, it's all hard knocks, right? It's basically like, you know, in my industry, we get trained in that, and then we go out and have to help people with it. Like, that's the closest thing. And, you know, some families will maybe have a healthier version of this. But that's going to be dependent on one person in the family making sure that happens or whatever.

So it's just collectively, we're not awesome, at least Western culture-wise. I can't speak for others. But I do think, like, just recently I was at a funeral and everyone there was African. And there was so much more noise and like real crying and like and then dancing and there was a band. And I was like, this did my rule. It was just alive and also really sincerely weeping and grieving and. everyone's sharing, and I was like, this has to help you process grief. It has to. And,

and, you know, these are Africans living in Minnesota, which is like a rough combo of, like, tone it down and be quiet and it's cold and then be yourselves, right? But they're still just like the joy in celebrating someone's life was pretty, pretty moving and like, wow, okay, this is a, this is a difference in, like, you know, let's sip our British selves. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. No, I know what you mean. So, okay, so that's what's tricky, is this, like he or she, I can't remember who sent the email, or they said that this person does not have a lot of support in grieving with their family, right? And then also two years, people have moved on after two weeks. So two years, you know, the family and friends component are just like, they're living their lives, paying their taxes, doing their thing.

So for two years, you know, they're in this deep grief and people stop wanting to talk. about it. They don't know what to do. They stop wanting to talk about it. So isolation for this person is part of the reason some of this could explain some of the way it's stuck. And it's very common for people to be stuck in grief when others around them move on and they feel very alone in that. So here comes, how do I get help for that? So grief work in therapy is arduous long and you're going to cry a lot and you have to work through some things. And, you know, it's it's not the least expensive and or quick route so if that's the option that society has provided and you don't want to that that seems extra hard and then the other option society's provided is

you talk to this lady from long island who has a gift and you know you pay money and she'll tell you whatever kinds of things you want to hear so so this client this client uh who have this very complicated grief, ended up, you know, we're doing therapy. She's doing the hard work of grief and it is hard and it's stuck and she's doing her best and it's improving but it's slow. And so she's just like, don't judge me, but I made an appointment with a psychic. And I was like, cool, I want to hear all about it when you're done. And this psychic is, I'm sure it's a famous person, some American dude who like is like a cheesy

not cheesy it's fine but I just watch one minute of a video about him I was like oh my gosh really this is this is appealing to anyone and that's because I'm not in the desperate sense of grief right like I can't really just look past his the clear obvious you know maybe scam of it

but also like hey people are intuitive they can read a room they can get a sense of what you know they hear enough about your story and this person by the way I should mention is incredibly bright This is someone who works, you know, an international, you know, making the world really, truly a better place. Like, this is no dummy. And what ends up happening is while she's actively doing therapy and then she goes to the psychic, she comes back and tells me the things.

And of course, a part of her nose, like, oh, well, they read the thing I wrote and then they just said stuff that would make me hopefully feel better. Like, he loves you and he wants you to move on. on and you know all the things but he got a bunch of stuff wrong too and she knows she knows but it was just a moment that she needed to feel something and I look at it as part of the treatment process for her she needed to kind of almost cross that box um and and really recognize you know that it's not going to be a way like that that you feel better necessarily and other people they get to hear all the right things humans are really good this is why magicians have jobs right and psychics have jobs is you can do this type of work with somebody and maybe not harm them

you're helping them feel better but it isn't true you didn't actually know this person and what he wants to say you know it's and so is it a weird service that's sort of provided throughout history in our on this planet yeah kind of that someone really intuitive is going to have you touch your crystal ball and tell you stuff yeah and then take some of your money uh-huh and so that's why i would just like to mention like there is a version of this that is not going to harm anyone but here's this emailer who has been taking advantage of recently yeah so of course you're heightened to that and you're really nervous about it and you want to tell this person not to do this thing because you're afraid of the scam because your height your heightened awareness means for sure it's a

scam and they're going to get ripped off and et cetera et cetera and here's where your real power is because often we think our power is like telling someone not to do something i just like everyone to raise their hand if the last time you told another adult not to do something they did it or did not do yeah how well did that go for you yeah it doesn't it doesn't and it's a struggle for us to learn this because we truly want that to work oh yeah we want it to work so bad that we keep trying and it never works i don't know why we keep trying but and in fact makes people go the other direction quicker right it's it's like a rebellious rebound effect or something um and so to go to this friend and say this is a scam and you're going to get hurt means you are setting them up

to secretly go to the psychic rather than publicly talk to you about going to the psychic those are the only two options because you're not going to convince them otherwise if they're already planning this yeah they're just not so then you have to decide do i want to be the the person they can talk to about it so that I can then have some influence, and I can express concern. You can say, oh, I'm concerned. Remember that thing that just happened to me? I'm a little sensitive. Maybe that's just me. You kind of can couch it with like, maybe I'm being paranoid for you, but just like walk me through what it is and who this person is. And, you know, you can be the concerned voice of reason without trying to stop someone from doing something. Because what you do,

is then you say, like I said to my client, I could have said like, hello, why are you doing this? You're an intelligent person. Don't do this. Or we're working on your grief and make it about me not doing my job or something, right? But I just knew. If she just knew, I was like, it's okay. Yeah, let's talk about it when you're done. I want to hear all about it. And then she can come back with her own conclusions. She doesn't need to defend that decision to me. That makes sense. Yeah. So that's what I would recommend. you make sure you stay the pro grieving friend that grieve as long as you need. How can I help you? I'm here to listen. If you're going to go to this psychic, here are some of my

concerns. I'm nervous just because I care about you. Reiterate that I care about you and then be willing to be there to listen to it afterwards. Then this person, then you don't have to worry you're going to lose them to the realm of psychic wizardry and she or he or they will lose all or money. I mean, I get that there's this money component that is haunting them because of their own experience. But, you know, sure, but the idea is that you, if you do this right, she doesn't, she or they don't have to defend themselves against you also. Like, don't be yet another thing where justification has to happen. That's, that's the thing that's hard for me. Like, if I heard, I don't know,

if one of my kids came to me and said, dad, I'm seeing a psychic. And I talked to grandpa the other day or something like that yeah it would be difficult for me to just say okay well now all right that sounds interesting you know like I I would be like really you're really doing that like what did I raise you or not like what happened here so that would be hard for me because again back to what I said earlier there's a there's a victim and a perpetrator aspect to this that I really dislike and and it would it's hard for me to separate that even though in this situation like you're talking about with the emailer the best thing might be to let this play out and be that kind of friend that's there for the playing out and that's probably the best way to be right now

but it's so hard when you know in the deepest parts of your guts that this you know that the The person claiming to be the psychic is, at the very least, full of it, and at the worst, is, you know, going to leave you dry and you'll have no money or no whatever by the time you're done or you'll wonder if anything's, everything's alive now because now, well, if that isn't true, who's, who's telling me the truth anymore? Like, I just, I always jump to that. And I don't know how to, like, dial that back and not be so ready to. Well, and a piece of it, like, I mean, if your kid did that, you know, and this is where we, we, we, we just. sort of struggle as a species, is stuff triggers us, right? So, like, you're triggered by that idea

that one of your kids would fall for something like that. And then you're reacting out of the, like, protection or the, like, whoa, what, you know? And really how that's perceived is not like, oh, see, my dad really loves me. He thinks that makes good decisions. Like, what they then have to do is go, well, not going to defend that. And, you know what happens when people, are defending really bad ideas, they start to really double down and believe them and make

that part of their identities. And so you can just push someone further and further away. So you take this person who is still supportive of their friend's grief. I mean, I'm saying that. I'm not sure they are supportive of it, but need to be supportive of it because what happens is when every door shuts because everyone's just like moving on all the influences in this person's life that can be helpful and they're just running out of patience well then you'll find someone who's willing to listen and and help you and you're willing to pay more and more money so you're not going to get ripped off with one session with a psychic you're not going to rip off with a couple it's when you are going to just it's like a whatever i don't know what they do or how they get all

eating an addiction kind of thing where they keep increasing well for another hundred dollars we could you know we could do a say on and get uh yeah exactly and and you name a business that doesn't doing that to all of us right now anyway you know what I mean a lot of a lot of that is yeah a lot of that happens anyway so I don't know like that's my whole that's my big take with this is like isn't it more okay let me ask you this Wendy is it more or less responsible for them to say You know, there are actual grief therapists, you know, people who are trained and have, like, degrees and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I mean, that's the most appealing thing in the world. Um, um, that will probably really help you. I know. Um, I guess it just doesn't sound as good as this person might be able to channel them and I can talk to him on Friday, you know? Of course not. Nothing like that is, is, is, is, I mean, that's the most appealing thing in the world. You know, right? That'd be rad. My grief counseling would take a couple such a way.

Okay, now call Jimmy. He's going to tell you everything this person wants you to know. And then we'll deal with it. Like, okay, this person hated you. All right, we got to deal with that. But, you know, no one's going to offer, you know, words from the other side of, you know, the grave that are, like, awful and real. And, you know, like, it's only going to be whatever that person might need to hear. Yeah, they're not going to come out and go, I see you still.

take the garbage out too late for the morning pickup, you know, it's not like your, your dead parent is going to just, you know, do any of those things. It's always going to be, yes, I, I miss you and you're doing great. Yeah. I'm still disappointed in you. Yeah. Well, I also think, you know, when any of this happens, there are people who will do this for entertainment. So we should probably make that caveat. Like, we're going to spend how much money on whatever we find entertaining. There are some people that this is like fun. I've known lots of, lots of women in their like dating years, in their 30s and their career stuff who are just like, it's just fun. My friends and I go, do we go to this, whatever, and she tells us our future. You know, like they're

not facing their lives around it. It's like a carnival trick or a, you go to Vegas and you're like, hey, we're going to do this thing we'd never do otherwise. Let's go do it. Yeah, I get that. But of course, the desperation. This is why we can't have much. monopolies right is because it makes you desperate and so in this in this same sense it's like I have nothing else to go to I have no other resource this starts to feel really appealing and that's when people can be at risk and so I don't know what this this the emailers um the scam they got involved with is but to find maybe dig into that a little for yourself like why did that work on me some of it is they're pretty savvy sometimes other times I mean like tricking old

people into doing something because you called them on the phone is like so easy because that is their history is to answer the phone and have conversations, right? You try to trick one of my kids by having the phone ring. They're not going to answer, right? Like you go to where the need is or whatever the person is craving. And that's that's why making sure no one is that desperate is the answer, right, that they're supportive and loved. Sure. Sure. Well, it's complicated, obviously, just like everything is that we talk about on this segment. But I don't know, I really, this is one or I really hope that whatever the method is gets through to them

and they don't get too far down. Because this does not sound like somebody who's going to a psychic for entertainment reasons. This is not somebody who's getting a kick out of magic trade. Dialing up Ms. Cleo on the 976 number after American gladiators. Exactly. So I, you know, it's, I get this way about, again, people should believe what they want to believe if they want to,

whatever, I just don't like it when others take advantage of that. And so I just want this, I want sooner than later for this to turn around and not be about the psychic and just be about, I don't know. Because this friendship sounds legit and real and meaningful and, you know, that comes through in this email. So, yeah, I'm with Wendy on everything she said, but boy, I don't know how hard this must be because psychics dude whatever here's the thing too

they're so full of it yeah go ahead but but so one thing is you know well and maybe it's that you know when you think about what you're naturally good at that other people don't get like both of you what do you both good at naturally

it kind of happens maybe it's like you have you dream certain ways or artistic wise or you know just some thing like what sort of makes you different than like the five randos that live around you on your streets oh geez no one's ever asked me that i tend to retain stuff like i you know i have a a pretty good memory for garbage information that i'll never use again but uh but i retain it

he's got a big we always use that straw brian's got a giant straw or he's got lots of marbles yeah i um for me it's probably i think i'm pretty good at it filling conversation. So if I'm in any situation, I can't imagine a single situation where I would be at a loss for words. I could always say something. So yeah, that's probably my...

If I have a superpower, that's it. That's all I got. Okay. So now imagine if people came to seek your gift and you could offer it. Yeah. And it was,

you could actually make them feel better and help them. With your straw analogy and your filling space and conversation. Like, you can imagine like, oh, wow, that's like a use of a gift in like a good way. And I'm going to tell you, there might be just all the crooks out there doing the whatever's, but there are, I would assume, many, many psychics actually have some gifts or experiences that other people around them don't, meaning they just, I mean, I can find

you a kid who is in a difficult family life where they were always tuned in. to the vibe in the room to make sure they didn't do the wrong thing to have their parents fight or whatever and you you ask them as an adult usually that shows up as anxiety later on but how they use that that training that gift to be just really overly aware of how people are feeling in a room and now they are able to manage and I have a friend like this who's a lawyer and it serves her so well in the work she does as a lawyer because she can it's like she can vibe that they're lying or feel that something like and she's just never really talked about it but when she said it out loud it was like wow it's like a superpower from a training from a different error or sometimes you're

just born with some of this stuff i think that's what we might be dealing with with most psychics and that they have kind of a gift that they have you know and it might not be that they see dead people or understand what's happening on the other side, but they can really read the people there with. Yeah, the idea of an empath or somebody who's like, I don't know, counselor Troy

on Star Trek, somebody who can really totally feel your feelings. I want to bash anyone who has some of these gifts and they don't know what to do with it and there's not a market necessarily for some of that. But, you know, obviously there's in any person's profession, there's a way

to cheat and scam and hurt other people and and so this just one is maybe a little more fraught because the desperation of those you know coming to you um but i'm thinking about the and you guys see brian i do not have your gift at all it is called it's just a you have a little tiny straw and very little marbles barely and he gets in and then nothing stays anyway anyway the magic show we all watched remember and talked about yeah you know i think brian lost his internet's why he's not answering, but... Oh, boo.

Okay. Keep going. Of course, the guy with this big straw, we've lost. Anyway, with that, you know, when he went around and, and I'm not, I can't remember the name, of course, but he ran around and told everyone the cards that they picked about who they really wish they were and who they really are on their core and how emotional people got. And all he did was the magic trick. He figured out who picked what card and where they were sitting and then he could go through,

but he was dramatic and it was pretty dang amazing and seen. impossible and then but it touched these people like and i think i mentioned i had a client attend one of those who um is a firefighter and you know that kind of rescuer and and his his thing was like you know i'm i'm going to save people and he said it's incredibly moving to have some stranger look you in the eye and tell you who you really are and who you really feel like you are like that's a gift for that dude to have figured out how to do all those things and it was very entertaining and you know you just had to be careful because when you're desperate on the other end you maybe can make yeah i you know what and that that's interesting and i i'm going to tell

a very quick little story here that i promise is not i'm not trying to toot a horn here i promise okay it's just something i did the other day and i wasn't sure why i did it but what we're talking about today is making me think maybe i'm figuring it out Um, I feel like I've been starred for this a little bit, but the other day, uh, a follower on Twitter, uh, tagged me on Twitter and said, hey, here's this drawing. Have you seen the last airbender? Watch that with your kids at all. Okay. He puts up on this, on his feed, a drawing that his daughter had done of Ang, the character Ang, the last, the last airbender. And it was super cute and it was adorable. She's six years old. And I loved it. I just loved it. I just loved. when people share that kind of stuff and I'm a sucker for kids and good parenting and art and kids and whatever it's like it's like it's like my my kryptonite and I just got this feeling like you know what I want to do I'm gonna I'm in a private message that guy I'm gonna before I do that I'm gonna draw a version of what she drew like in her style I'm gonna draw that again but I'm gonna do it like all

finished up and colored up and everything and I'm gonna put like a personal little note to her and I'm going to print this and I'm going to send it to this guy if he's okay with it. So I contacted him and said, hey, I'd like to just do this. Your daughter's art made my day that I'd like to do a little thing. It's, you know, it's free, of course, and you don't have to do it if you don't want to. If you think this is weird at all, you know, just feel free to tell me to go, go away. And he's like, oh, no, she'd love it. She likes your cartoons a lot and she wants to grow up and draw and she gets older and all this stuff.

So it's just like very, very cathartic experience for me. it i don't know why i needed it i just needed this moment of like um i can do a thing like there's so much stuff i can't help and do like i can't fix problems that we hear about all the time that we see every day uh all of it amplified during the pandemic in a way that's you know kind of a thing of our time but there was one thing i could do which was this one moment i see this thing and I realize I could do this and connect in this way, and maybe this makes some difference. I don't know. I don't even know if it does.

I mean, it will make a six-year-old happy for a half an hour, and that's probably as good as anything can be in the world anyway. So I'm just going to do that. And it was cathartic. It didn't, I was worried that on the other end of it, you're like, ah, you're just, you know, trying, you're just throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks or whatever. But it was really helpful for me. And I hope it made a difference to them as well. But that was something I just felt like I just freaking had to do. It was weird.

It was a really weird thing that came out of that. Because I didn't expect to feel that way. But there was just something so genuine about his post and about her cute little drawing. And I just thought, you know, we can play this. Let's have, let's play a game real quick. And it's one that I can do. I can do this. Like I can't do a lot of things, but this I can do.

and it's not going to solve it's not going to solve divisions in my country it's not going to just solve uh you know whatever other problems i want to point it's not going to make the pandemic go away it's not going to do any of those things but it did help me for about a day you know yeah and that was nice i mean and it's all we can do right is the things you can yeah and i mean and i really super hesitant to even share that story because i don't i really did i don't i didn't do it to tell anybody about it. In fact, I had no plan to. But what you're talking about today just feels like that sort of thing. And there's like a chance for people listening to us today to reach down to figure out what, what is your thing? Like you said, what is your magic power? What is your

deal? If it's, you know, Brian's Elephant Titus memory or my, whatever my thing is, my ability to fill conversations, what, what is yours? And how could you maybe apply it like right now to make just a tiny, tiny poke in the, in the overall scheme of things? And just earn a little, karma. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I think there's, I think that's the absolute right application, right? I mean, the email is like, how's this related to us? And how it is related is like, whatever gift you have to share with this friend and it, you maybe aren't so sure of it, because when someone's grieving, it's when probably most of us feel the most impotent. Like, how do I help this person? Right. And I have training.

And I've had moments with certain clients in grief that I'm like, I am not qualified right now. Like, I don't, this is too much because it's just so much pain. And so the worst thing we can do is leave someone alone in their pain, right? That's on every level. It's abandoning them anyway, but abandoning them in their dire need. That's why when someone shows up for you. So I was talking to a Swede the other day who said she came to America a couple times as a kid or dad lived here for a little. the while, so she'd visit it, and she loved Costco.

It was the best place she's ever been. Costco? I cannot believe that story exists. That's great. And so we're talking about Costco, and then she said, the other thing, my dad really liked old car, so he bought like this 1962 old Chevy, and it go out for a drive, and it breaks down. And she said, I'm 13 years old, and I counted, 25 people stopped to ask to help us.

Oh, yeah. And she was like, in Sweden, no one would stop. And it's true. they wouldn't you'd have to say could someone help me and then they'd all come and help they would absolutely help but they will not break the line of that's your business and this is my business whereas in america we'd love to break that line all the time but anyway but just she just loved like so she just has all sorts of positive feelings but just this how amazing that so many people would reach out to help a stranger and so that's you know those 25 people's gift um

to see a need and go try to fill the need and there's probably plenty of people walk by and have a different gifts. So some of it is, like you're saying, Scott, it's not everyone go do my thing or don't, but being overwhelmed and doing nothing, I think it's been, can be a thing that we're all having or we have a different time. Or at least the, or at least the feeling of being, being overwhelmed and not knowing what you can do. Yeah. Like just that feeling of like helplessness like, I don't even know what to do. We got news yesterday that one of Taylor's friends from high school, who we've stayed close with and actually live around here now, young married couple in their 20s now. They were pregnant. We knew that. But what we didn't know is the day of the birth,

the mom experienced, I forgot the name. It's a thing that women get during childbirth, the actual labor process, where the body, almost like a body rejecting an artificial heart, it's rejecting you and the baby at the same time saying nope none of this is right foreign body you're all going to die basically and i don't know what the condition's called it's just like a rare thing anyway this starts happening to her um they had to take the baby early as a result and it looks like overall things are going to be okay but then the same day that this ordeal happens and this baby's in the nicc you and all this stuff both mom and dad who have been very careful triple vaxed all that both have COVID and have been around this little baby, who's a brand new newborn and a preemie.

So now there's all this concern about, well, when were you contagious and weren't you contagious? And anyway, all this stuff going on. And I hear about that and I go, I don't know what to do. And Kim goes, I know what to do. And she takes care. She had food all ready to go, like in no time flat. She went over to the house over there, gloved up, masked up, went over there and just

did like a mass cleaning just so that. when he got home that would be okay because he has to isolate for a while or whatever like she knew right what to do and where to put all of her charity pokes like just new yeah and no one will ever well now you guys all know because I'm telling you but no one will know this like I don't even think like I don't know who will know the people we help will know and that's all that mattered to Kim but that's maybe the trick is knowing what you can do and you can do it I guess and she knew right away and I was like struggling to know what to do this heart thing it was easy for me to know what to do um so I guess that's the thing if Michael Jordan knew he could play basketball I have no

problem but if he knew he had to go do a public speech maybe it'd be a little harder for him that's a bad example but you know what I mean like we have our strengths and we should I guess lean into those I suppose yeah and just like the little thing right that is just instead of doing nothing especially in these these bigger situations they're they're really tough And so I usually think, and this is why Kim's superpower is so handy is everyone needs food and nobody wants to clean. She just hit two of the most fundamental human needs right there. Yeah. Right?

And it just comes to her. It's like she doesn't have to think about it, whereas you would have to really think hard that you wanted to clean something up. You know, like it wouldn't, that's a stretch. But could you fill their walls with art? Sure. Right. Yeah. So that's why we need everybody.

I agree. Well, I would love to hear back from this person. Let us know how this goes. And we hope that, I mean, it sounds like they're already kind of doing their power, which is being this empathetic friend who's there by their side, no matter what happens. So you're kind of already doing the important thing. And I don't know. Hopefully this psychic stuff will wear off and become less of whatever it is. This isn't all that different than anything else. People like, oh, if I eat this, one flower. I'll never get the, it'll kill this cancer I've got. Probably not. But sometimes people are in the middle of a thing and you can't change it. You just need to be there for him. Oh, and it's pretty powerful, right? Like, it might help a little for a minute. And a psychic, I feel like is a placebo effect totally. Like, you got to believe enough, but not like totally. And it's, and it gives you a little shot of dopamine that, like, there is more to life than just suffering in death at and it may help it may help with the grief like i don't doubt it has a place to play for some people like it's a box that has to be checked for them to acknowledge a death you know sure i i think

i i never forgot this i think this made me the skeptic that i am or at least the slightly more critical thinker that i tend to be these days i had a college class psychology college class that I took and in that class you probably heard this a million times I'm sure it's an old trick but she passed out our professor passed out this paper we all had to fill out and it basically was like a a thing that described ourselves and who we are and what we're into and and all the sort of thing and we passed them all back in wasn't sure what it was about and she came out with these papers and she says I'm just going to pull one of these at random and she'd yanks one out of the middle of it like you would a card out of a deck or something and she says all right i'm

going to read this about the person i don't want you want to do anything yet but when i finish these five or six traits i want you to raise your hand if it's you that i'm talking about and she would name off these four or five traits and then say all right raise your hand if i'm if i'm talking about you and like a third or more of the class raises their hand and the whole point of that exercise was to say are they all sagittarius is because that's how you figured but that was kind of of it. It was like, things like, you like to have fun. You don't, you know, things that are, everyone feels, right? Like, it was kind of ridiculous. But the way it was worded was in a tricky way that made you, it made you feel like you were being talked to. And I never forgot that.

I went, I am so glad she did this because it basically described the problem. Not much of life. Right. Hi, Van. Sorry, the little boy just walked in. Hi, buddy. You want to come say something to Aunt Wendy? She's on the phone right now. You want to say something? Say hi. Wendy. Say hi Wendy. Do you want to do that? Say hi Wendy. Say hi Wendy. You don't want to do it? Just giggle. I just want to hear the giggle. You want to say hi Wendy. Say when do you want to see my dinosaurs? I love dinosaurs. You're so cute buddy. He's talking like a freak now so I don't know why he wouldn't he gets now he's finally nervous on a microphone which I think he's kind of hilarious but whatever. It's brain development. Uh, well, good.

Good. He's here today. That'll make my day better. So, all right. So let us know. Give us some feedback. If any of you at home have similar thoughts about this stuff, our emails are always open, the morning stream at gmail.com. I think that's it. Hey, tell us about the party on Monday. So the people who want to go can go. What's that about it? Yes. Okay. This Monday night, we really love our Monday because Monday sucks. So we've picked Mondays is the way to like end the Monday good. And we're going to have a real step's virtual party. and give people just a taste of what Real Steps is about. It'll be very similar to the formats we often use during the sessions and blow your minds just a little, have some fun. So you can sign up to attend that. It's totally free, of course, and that is,

it's going to be 7.30 central time on this Monday, January 31st. And so just go to Real Steps.org, and you can sign up to do that. Also, I think I sent you the link last time if you want to RSVP directly to the party can I text that to you? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, send to me now and I can Yeah, I'll pass it around

and put it in the chat and all that stuff. And then then you can just like get a sense and like if you're, you know, like oh, that's not what I thought it was or wow, that's weird. I don't want to do that. This is so weird. Either way, Bob, we would love for more people to come if you've done it before and you want to invite a family

member to just like see what it's about um it's it's gonna be great yeah if you guys uh truly truly the left the left okay so when our family was established the johnson family uh there were right brains and left brains handed out and when you got the left one uh most of it you took a huge chunk of the left right and uh right i have tons of right way too much right very little left uh so all i'm saying is you're in good hands go over there be a part of the of the my gift is different from Scott's gift. Yes, very different gift. That's what I'm saying.

Here you go, chat. Though we both can fill a conversation. I feel like we share that. We do share that. Neither of us like the quiet and neither of us will sit in a room where it goes silent and not say anything. It's impossible. You should all see Scott, I and Misha, our sister in a Uber in Las Vegas. Oh, my gosh.

It was like the three of us were fighting over getting to know the driver more. It was hilarious. Everybody was fighting over. Who's going to talk to this dude and find out his story fastest? And I think Misha was up front. Yeah, Misha won. And I was like, wait a minute. This is my super power.

Turns out we all redo it. We all share it. I don't know where we got that, but we got it. All right. Well, it's fantastic. I did hear back from Brian as power went out. That's why we have not heard back from him. Oh, Brian, is he in North Korea?

What's happening? I don't know what's going on. I'm watching a K-drama, Scott. Hold on. Hey, K drama. Hold on. Korean dramas. This is not unusual for things for my brother or Oknom, but why are you watching K.

And because I have a sweet client who's part of the community, actually, who convinced me to watch a K-drama. I was like, oh, my gosh, I don't have time for K-dramas. What? And then I started one, and it's about, it's called crashing, crash landing on you, onto you or something, I don't know. And it's about a North Korea and South Korean thing. And it's so dumb and cute and makes you, like, happy and think the world's fine, even though it's not. Anyway, it's just silly. And I'm not, like, a romantic comedy person at all, but, like, it's so cute.

But here's the thing, I recognize so many words. words and the sounds. And I feel like, oh my gosh, I might be able to understand Korean one day, which is, of course, not true. But it's so reminiscent and, like, familiar. Oh, it's been really fun. Yeah. So if you need a little romance, Korean style.

It's really cute. I'm really into Korean sci-fi and horror, but I've not really poked around much in the romantic comedy slash drama stuff. Yeah. I mean, you know, like, when Okinawn's annoyed and she's like, oh, yeah, and her voice goes up high like that like kind of a sound yeah that's what they do all the time and I'm like I just thought that was Okina

and it's part of the language I just didn't I thought she was mad at mad all the time not linguistic what's the word it's uh it's like us with stuff we say yeah tonal yeah and they and she does it all the time it's so fun and like there's a lot of hitting in it like there like a military

like authority will like smack just like you did it wrong and I'm like oh my gosh this feels like watching Matt an Okinawn parent. No, I'm just kidding. They didn't hit anyone. But just like, it's very fun. And so, you know, if anyone needs a good time.

But let me go back to what I should really be pimping. Not K-Dramas is Real Steps and the party. So I sent you the link in the chat, Stant. So please post that in the chat room. Guys, go check that out for everybody that's at home and aren't seeing this. It's realsteps.org slash RSVP dash party dash Jan dash 2022. too. It's not that hard to remember. No. Just to party.

It's a little long. And you can link to it from the website too. Yeah. I think next time Adam does that link, tell them to just make it RSVP and that's it. So just RealStep.org slash RSVP and you're done. Listen, I have to beg that dude to do any of this for me. So I don't know if I should get picky. That dude. No, just kidding. All right. Awesome. Well, have a great week. I'm looking forward to March because I miss seeing you guys.

And we'll talk next week about whatever the heck we got next. See you then. All right. right there she goes all right brian's out of power and his phone's down that must mean they had an outage that hit towers and stuff i got a text on i assume this is tina's phone let's see yeah i got a tina phone thing anyway so yeah he's uh he's he's he's out for the count it looks like so here's what we're going to do i'm going to play uh you know what i want to save it for brian jamie don't be mad at me i'm saving this mashup for me and brian to both be here especially because this

one's called bonus mashup up and down the tip. I mean, who wouldn't want to save that for Brian? So, okay. So while he's experiencing his little power outage, we'll just move forward here and get out of here. I did want to read this email real quick from Jessica who wrote in and said, Hey, Scott and Brian on monkeys. I'm listening to the latest episode. You talked about my nemesis monkeys. After your story, I feel fully justified in my fear of monkeys. They start, they're smart enough to F shit up you just said they're like vermin. Please don't get COVID. Thanks

Jessica. Well, I'm going to do my best, although it feels like the circle's closing. Do you guys feel that way? Have any, are any of you like us where you've been careful and you've done what you can? You've had a few close calls, but you haven't gotten it yet in as far as you know. And, but it feels like that circle

is just going. And it's okay. If you do, if we do, it's okay. We just don't want to part of the problem where we're overwhelming this system, right? And our Utah numbers finally went down a little this last week, so we have a little reason to celebrate. But anyway, to the

point here, I don't hate monkeys. I think a trained monkey is fine. I think a monkey in the wild will eat your face. Okay? Like they're great big, musly monsters that can tear a car

in half. I don't trust monkeys and apes. I guess some little spider monkey probably isn't going to do that. But they'll poo on everything. They'll take everything and poo on it. So, anyway, I hope your circle also stays away from you, Jessica. Don't get COVID. If you'd like to send your emails in like Jessica, you can. The morning stream at gmail.com. The morning stream at gmail.com. A quick note for our patrons. Thank you guys for supporting us. It means a lot. People like Victoria Perry, Jason, Brian Duffy. These are all fine patrons and love them very much. If you'd like to be.

like them and get all the extra benefits and content that you get by being a patron, head on over to patreon.com slash tms. That is going to do it. I have no idea what this song is. So I'm just going to play it because I know what Brian picked is awesome. You know what I'll do instead? He's probably got a dedication. That's what he's got. Somebody's got something cool going on. So I'm not going to blow that cheese just yet. I'm going to play something of my own. I don't know what it'll be. Let's see. What can we choose that it might be fun today? I'll think of something. I don't know yet, but it'll be dumb. I can promise you that. But that'll be right now that I'm going to do that. No PM tomorrow because Brian's in New Orleans. Wish him well over there.

I'm sure following his Twitter account will yield some photos and junk like that. So make sure to check that out at Coverville. I'm of course at Scott Johnson. You can find the show at Morning Stream. That's going to do it for today. Here's the song I promised to play you that I don't know the name of or where it came from, except that it's super rad and you're going to love it. So stay tuned for that. And in the meantime, be good to each other. Stick around for all the content this week. Got Core tonight.

What else? FilmSack this weekend. And there will be dungeons on Sunday. We had to move it a day for a birthday party. And that's everything. Oh, instance tomorrow morning. Lots going on. So don't leave.

Never leave. We'll see you next time. You know, Yeah, yeah. This is part of the This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Frog Pants Network. Get more shows like this.

at frogpants.com. Pissed blood! Oh, geez.