The Morning Stream - TMS 2866: Gently Euthenized

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

The old gray mare don't taste like it used to. Black Lotus Shampoo. I'm Pro Crastinating. Yokel Adjacent. A Pet Is For Life, Not For Dinner. More ceiling = less head. Two Ns In My Anus. All Marmaduke all the time. Otaku Flame. Touching The Fuzzy. Hold that lav in your hand like nature intended. Your Hamsters, Your Gerbils, Your Teeming Masses. M stands for mandelbrot? Beast on the streets, brilliant in the heat. Nonsense generators with Wendi and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you placed episodes of TMS end-to-end, they would reach around the world ten times over. Show us how wrong our math is by joining our Patreon at patreon.com slash TMS. Coming up on the morning stream, the old gray mare don't taste like it used to. Black lotus shampoo. I'm pro-crastinating. Yokel adjacent. A pet is for life, not for dinner. More ceiling equals less head.

Two ends in my anus. All marmaduke all the time. Oh, Taku flame. Touching the fuzzy. Hold that lav in your hand like nature intended. Your hamsters, your gerbils, your teeming masses. M stands for Mandelbrot. Beast on the streets.

Brilliant in the heat. Nonsense generators with Wendy and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. I'll bet you see lots of beautiful girls every day. You probably think she'll never talk to me. Well, you're wrong. All you need is the guts. Just call the guts line. You'll learn where to meet girls, how to meet them, and what to say.

The guts line can give me. view confidence, so don't sit back and think about what might have been. Remember, guys, no guts, no glory. Right, girls? Right. Regular poops. The morning stream. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can.

Who gives a damn? Hello, everyone, and welcome to TMS. It's the morning stream for Thursday, August 7th, 2025. I'm Scott Johnson. That's Brian Ibbott. Good day to you. Ding, good day. Good day, sir.

We are hurtling toward another windy segment, so everyone prepare yourselves. That's right. We're doing more. She's going to help one of you. Absolutely one of you. Probably a lot of you because you might have the same problem as the lot of you. And today it fits right in with her kind of almost month-long now happiness science stuff. So kind of continuing down that path, which I think has been a nice healthy path.

Yeah. Oh, my God. We can all use that right now for sure. Agreed. Brian, we're in a brand new day, so it is time for me to talk about a brand new thing. Okay. Good. Tell me.

Couldn't be more pleased about this. King of the Hill has a revival going on, a new season. They're literally just calling it, season 14. so it's yeah makes sense because it's not it's not like it's a reboot or a no uh reimagining or anything some people call it reboot but uh it is definitely not that it is more of a what is it's it's a i guess you could say it's a restart i guess so like how um for because a reboot is considered just to be a sequel after a really really long time is that kind of what the i think it depends like some of reboot sometimes it's like like if you were going to do gilligan's island today

you would call that a reboot but that would be all new people and everything and that would definitely be a reboot because you'd have yeah everybody's dead yeah like a full restart so I like the idea of reviving it's a decent term revival or just yeah we need something that is that that that just says sequel after a really long time yeah yeah yeah we revived the corpse I think right exactly but revival works yeah revival for in lieu of anything else I think revival works nice thing is they dropped all 10 episodes at once which I didn't know they were going to do so the whole thing's just blah

and every you know people are going to have varying degrees of fandom for the show but here in this house massive fans of the King of the Hill series my kids kind of grew up on it and it became sort of a staple in Carter's case in particular she just adores the show

I talked to a guy who's in Japan right now teaching English who says over here it is considered like relationships anime levels of fandom people love it over there which is a weird thing to hear but it's like anime to them it is interesting it is about the only like it it doesn't focus on yokel humor you know it's certainly you know not a not a yokel humor thing like ernest goes to camp or the beverly hillbillies or things like that it's just southern you know it takes place in texas but isn't isn't yokel humor

there's a yokel or two in there but um so it it it worked for me too it doesn't fall into that oh it's not that hillbilly shit you don't like it's not that hillbilly shit that i don't like exactly well it's uh i'm happy to say so we we watched one live for listeners of the monday show last week when it dropped or this week i guess when it first dropped this week uh watched that single episode with them we're very happy with how it went and got excited for the rest of it and then their plan was to watch the seven in between or sorry the eight intervening episodes before the finale

and then save the finale for next Monday and we'll do that again. So you'll do the finale next Monday. That's cool. Ian Carter. Yeah, nice. So last night we binged two through nine last night and watched them all straight through.

And I'm happy to report. It is fantastic. They haven't skipped a beat. They haven't missed a pinch. It's all wonderful. There are a couple of voice changes that maybe at first you're just like, oh well first of all you can tell that everybody's aged those who are coming back i mean what's

it's natural it's what happens yeah and so of the characters so that's it's fine um because this is set later it's not picking up right after you know like futurama when they come back for new season they're just like in the same time frame and you can tell when billy west is in his 70s versus when he was in his 50s or 40s and that can be a little off-putting because you're not jumping in time right but in this case Right Everything in the Simpsons Yeah

Part's been Perpetually 10 or whatever he's been You know For however 27 seasons or whatever it is Right I think 35 now right

Yeah Oh God is it really Yeah I think it is Something like that 1990 Yeah that would be I'd be right Yeah it's a lot

And like if you watch The Simpsons now Marge is sounding A little more raspy Yeah It's hard It's hard It's just our voices

change so Hank sounds a little older Peggy definitely sounds a little older everybody's got these like older voices but in some cases like in Dale's case the actor who played him died mid production passed away so they had to replace him and they replaced him with Toby Huss who already did work on the show

as Cotton Hill and Con and a few other people back in the day and he's doing a killer version of Dale he's really nailing it for me it's different And so when you hear it, you're like, oh, that's different, but only a little different. And once it, you realize the characterization is still pretty damn good. So other than a few things like that, it just gets the point of it. It knows where it's supposed to be. It knows the kinds of stories it's supposed to tell.

It just feels right in every way that I can describe. I absolutely loved this new season. That's cool. Can't recommend it enough. I'm going to, right now a couple episodes into. Eyes of Wakanda. This is the first Marvel series that I was just so busy. I didn't get to it like day and date and start watching it. God, it's so good. It's a good, good. It's really good.

It is, um, um, I mean, it's great. The animation style is totally cool. It's not the animation style that they used for what if, that kind of interesting 3D rotoscopy, but still kind of realisticy kind of look. It's very stylized. It almost looks like, um, kind of stylizations of like a more recent Disney thing like Milana or but not such a polished 3D effect it's very soft and um what I've seen from the trailers it looks really really cool yeah and the story's great like it it takes place you know way back uh not not it's not a continuation of Wakanda forever or black panther iron heart that sort of thing it is 16 no 600 it's um

Greeks versus way earlier than that. Greeks and Romans. Oh, geez. Kind of a play on that. I like that. But not Trojan Wars kind of era. So more recent than that, but still, anyway, really, really good. That sounds great. And you only have to go to one place now because Disney's rolling Hulu things all in together.

So you go watch both of these things over there if you want to watch them. Yeah, you could. You're totally good, right. Watch your King of the Hill and then watch your eyes of Wakanda. Yeah. Speaking of Toby Hess, did you finish Holsey? and catch fire. Oh yeah. I love that show. Yeah. So good. So good. That show, people sleep on it because they just don't know about it or whatever. You have to watch that show. It's so good. It's really,

really good. I mean, what a great. Scoot McNary, McKenzie Davis. I can't remember the name of the actress who played Scoot's wife, but she's great, too. Like, it's a really, oh, and of course, Lee Pace. Lee Pace, yeah. Everybody in there's good. And it turns out Toby Huss didn't miss a step with his king of the hill work he's killing it but funny but the two or the one character or the two characters he mainly played before in the 90s was uh cotton hill who's now dead um i won't say if there's any reason why cotton hill might come around um but then the uh he played con who's an Asian character they have decided now in this in this day and age of maybe that's not so great to have white people doing all these like Asian voices and stuff they have um SNL sit in or not

S&L, Daily Show guy. Oh, help me. Ronnie Chang. There we go. Ronnie Chang, okay. Ronnie Chang plays con. Fan Freakantastic. Really?

Okay. Oh, it's so good. It's different, but it's perfect. He's perfect con. Nails it. Anyway, Carter cried in the ninth episode. That's all I'm saying. Oh, geez.

Okay. Good to know. One quick note before we head to news. You got a text from Canis. Canis? Canis. Canis, probably canis. Two ends. Two ends would be canis, hopefully. Hey, Scott and Brian. Yeah, I prefer having two ends in my anus. You know what I mean? Just two? Just two. Scott and Brian, have either of you thought about what happens after Doomsday? This is kind of in the same vein of Brian was talking about.

I mean, we don't know what Doomsday is, but yes, what happens after all of it? Yeah. Exactly. He says, like, what could the MCU even do after that? I feel like we might be at the bottom of the character barrel as it is. Do you think it will all rest on a solid? reboot of all things X-Men. Love to hear your thoughts. C. Orcanus. Brian, I throw it to you as someone who knows how deep the Pantheon goes, whether or not we can do it. There are, I know what he's saying, right? Like, we've hit all of our A-list characters,

our B-list characters, but there is such a massive well of X-Men characters that haven't been explored. Fantastic four characters that haven't been, or villains, and ancillary characters that haven't been explored. I mean, I feel like we may be,

they may put Avengers on the back burner, kind of what we knew from the 70s, 80s, 90s, as the Avengers kind of on the back burner. And then just dive into the X-Men. But, man, Alpha Flight, we've got a lot of fun stuff that we can see in the MCU. Okay. So no limits.

There's tons. There's way more. I don't think, I don't think we're scraping down to the stilt man or you know some of these kind of really goofy Marvel characters, whatever Marvel's equivalent

of matter eater lad and bouncing boy were but yeah exiles oh my God, X factor I mean just in X men alone there is a massive well of characters that they can dive in to yeah different time frames too so you don't have to

yeah and they you know they did a job with the the new mutants movie so brilliantly cast yeah um if there's a way to incorporate those actors bring them in as the the new mutants into the the new mc u right bring it bring it yeah i'll take it whatever yeah i have faith in it canis i think we're going to be okay so stand by mccu coming your way it's time for the news and it's brought to you by brought to you by coverville today at noon uh mountain time that is twitch dot tv slash coverville. Listen, 60 years ago, the Beatles released an album that had an exclamation point in the title and four letters that if you were to read the title of the album, it would be help. But if you looked at the semaphore that the band was doing on the cover of the album, it's something like NCUF, which doesn't work. The album is Help. The 60 years ago, songs like, Ticket to Ride, you're going to lose that girl. yesterday

title track too in a face title track of course I hate that song but all or everything else you said I really like I do not like that song you're not alone

it's a it feels like just a very two-dimensional song help I need somebody help just anybody but the covers that I found I think bring new life to this album so check it out today 12 p.m. Mountain Time

Twitch.tv slash coverville nice weird stuff going on in Denmark oh no we swing our feisty eyeballs to the denmarkians what's the phrase there's something rotten in denmark is that the is that is that is there a phrase that's the phrase yeah oh i like that yeah um shakespearean i think it's um something rotten in denmark i think it's a hamlet reference or something yeah well no offense to the danes yeah no no of course not they're great we love our great danes oh they're amazing great danes you know big hairy comfortable cuddly dogs yes i'm sure that's all they have in that

country right that's what i assume it's all marmaduke all the time okay well this this article says different denmark zoo there's a there's a there's a whole zoo there's a whole zoo there ask people to donate their small pets as food for captive predators hmm okay over there that's a weird one give us give us your hamsters your gerbils your teeming masses of it is a very strange thing to ask it really is yeah this zoo in denmark is asking for donations of small pets as food for its predators the Elborg Zoo, I think it's how you say it. Okay, sure. Said it is trying to mimic the natural food chain of the animal's house there,

quote, for the sake of both animal welfare and professional integrity, unquote, and offers assurances the pets will be, quote, gently euthanized by trained staff. Well, then that's not really going to mimic the natural food chain, isn't it? Because I think these animals, the predators, might want their food alive. So they might be pulling your chain on that one. Yeah. Hey, bald eagle.

here's a mouse that's totally alive look at it move they're eating the hamsters they're eating the gerbils the zoo in northern Denmark explained on his Facebook post that if you have a healthy animal

that needs to be given away for various reasons feel free to donate it to us so this is like you know people are like oh we thought we could do a guinea pig but the kids just aren't taking good care of it

we got to do something don't take it to the zoo it's so horrible like this guinea pig finds its forever home and it's like well they'll warm up to me you know they're not picking me up and playing with me wait why are we going to the zoo what's going on yeah yeah they don't guinea pigs at zoos something's going on here yeah i would be very i know enough about zoos to knows they don't they don't have guinea pigs there that's right uh the zoo points to guinea pigs rabbits chickens these are all possible donations after being euthanized the animals will go

uh be used as fodder the zoo says that sounds worse than you probably your pets into fodder uh says way nothing goes to waste and we ensure natural behavior nutrition and well-being of our predators again natural behavior is not seeing a corpse and eating it natural behavior is hunting it pouncing on it having it squeal as you kill it and chew it to pieces here's a gently euthanized domesticated guinea pig have that i hate this i absolutely as a i don't like it either i hate it yeah i like animals a lot this is gross listen and i get it you know the the the predators they want to please the predators that are that are in the zoo and be like, hey, you know, we know you like your food a little bit fresher or whatever.

I mean, aren't they feeding it stuff that's been euthanized anyway? Good question. I don't know. Or is it just like a predator chow, peering a predator chow or something. I assume it's buckets of like haunches of meat and stuff. Yeah, like leftover from a butcher or a butcher, but like a meat processing plant. They also ask, they're also interested in horses. Jeez.

Yeah, they want to tear horses up and have those Really? Yeah, really? You know what, Martha? I finally found a way to get rid of old Bessie. That horses. She's really been a problem. Yeah, we can't handle that horse anymore.

Like, I get, okay, there are going to be people out there. I grew up with a couple of kids who did this. They would get a pet in the house. I remember a friend got a ferret and the thing stunk and his parents hated it. And he tried and tried to get his parents to love this ferret. And eventually they were just like, we can't have this ferret anymore. He stinks. So they let the ferret go.

Just let it out and go into the wild. Really, just like free free ferret because, you know, ferret's totally perfect, easy to acclimate to the wild. Yeah, exactly. They're not, this is just terrible thing to do to them, but that was what they would do. So I guess in that scenario, I still don't like it. No, there's nothing about this that feels right. I mean, if you adopt a pet, this is almost like saying, you know, you were thinking about giving up on that. animal and you know not not taking responsibility for it we've gotten out for you i mean the way

i look at this is simple if you want a pet any kind of pet dog cat all the way down to gerbils or whatever know what it takes understand the responsibility exactly and do it with that full knowledge and don't if you can't do it exactly if you can't handle the ferret then don't adopt the ferret that's right when jim jack nicholson yells you can't handle handle the ferret. Exactly, yes. The online call for pet donations is accompanied by a picture of a wildcat bearing its teeth, so that's their whole thing. Click and drag your pet into here to make sure it fits.

Yeah. Your small animal must be this big to ride the wildcat. I love that idea. I hate this whole thing, but I love that. Anyway, so that's a thing going on. We'll see how that turns out for the world. Oh, that's horrible. Yeah. Any zoo, I'm sorry, if any zoo did this in America, they, the people would be all over it, like ripping it to shreds.

There might be there. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe the Danes are up in, up and arm. There is something rotten in the state of Denmark. We have some Denmarkian listeners, Danish listeners, who probably could tell us. Yes, we do. Let us know how you guys feel about this. Maybe you guys don't care. Thomas Elbow Jensen, are you listening? Yeah, get in here. Make your, make your voice heard. quick story here to battle the smell problem of TCG tournaments I love this

Japanese companies trying to crowd fund a specialized shampoo for card gamers I don't know why it's specialized for card gamers Yeah really I mean It's the black lotus flavor Yeah It's super effective to it's

Sure it only works though if you're laying down your mana cards Like I don't know It's a weird thing Yugio by Mennon says the company's blending cosmetics and otoku otaku otaku otaku culture yeah uh which i guess is the card stuff uh has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a new product shampoo for creating card gamers the goal is to fart fart the goal is to

fight the nerdy smell or the smell the smelly nerd stereotype and support a more positive image for card game fans you know maybe just tell people to take shower that's all i think so i think Maybe you have a metal detector to get into the convention center. And then after the metal detector, you just have a bunch of mean girls standing around and they have to walk the gauntlet of mean girls. And if they can pass both the metal detector and the gauntlet of mean girls, then they can come play Yu-Gi-O. Yeah, I feel like that's enough.

But whatever, if you're going to do it, it's fine. The campaign went viral after being featured in Den Famic Co-Gamer. Sure. Sure. Boy, that really rolls off. It's like IGN for us. Just rolls off the tongue for the gamers. Denfemico gamer. Demfaminico gamer. This den Faminico gamer.

Despite the original post going up on April 1st, but it's no joke. Lush Tree, the company behind it, also runs Off Kai. An Otaku Flame, Otaku, Thame, Thamed Flamed, themed beauty salon in Akihabra. staff are fellow anime and game fans and the salons are packed with merch, anime music and even more character or sorry and even original characters.

The shampoo called Okaitzugu no Okite. I'm sure that's right. 100%. It's probably Okite Sugu No Okite. So Okite's Sugu No Okita.

I learned that no is the most. Oh. It was something because we did a food trek this week for trivia that was something no sushi but it's a sushi truck and I'm like well why is it called no sushi if they have sushi but it's something like whatever their name was or or was the first word was um the best or no it was something the name the best sushi oh so if we said it we could do it with

a burger and say no burger but what we really mean is it's really a good burger oh no dictates possession so it's so the name so the sushi place or the sushi food food truck was basically saying we're the best sushi oh gotcha okay so it's like i'm of california so so i what is what does o kite mean then okay i te o kite and what is shu sugu smell like you don't smell that's right smell like a strong odor in a card shop um they say that they're uh it's a morning use all in one formula meant to help card gamers stay their day or sorry start their day fresh especially in light of ongoing concerns in Japan about strong odors in card shops. Big concern over there, I think.

Wow. Well, actually, I guess, I don't know. Yeah, take a shower, dummies. I'm glad, you know, that's the one thing we never have to worry about with TMS Vegas, even with as hot as it is in Vegas. I've never had like a, whew, this, this, the sand dollar smells like, uh, yeah, we don't have that problem, do we? Like, Hall H.

Yeah. You guys all take good carriers. We do. Thank you for being, uh, thank you for being, uh, considered about that. Remember to do that in the Salt Lake City next year right around this time. Uh, all right, that's going to do it for that. It is time for this. Do you want therapy equipment? Therapy equipment I got. Hey, look who it is. It's my sister Wendy. I'm just going to change it up here and there, you know, just mix it up. I like to, I miss it's too early for sandwich. Oh, that'll always, you know, we can rotate it in. Don't

worry. It's good to see you and have you. How are you? How are you? What's going on? Yeah, I'm good. How do I sound? You sound okay. You're in a car? It sounds like for something? But not that. Dang it. I'm in a car. I will attempt to unmuffle. Yeah. Oh, that's way better. It's been a very fun. I'm just holding the mic up on my face. Oh, that's all. Yeah. Closer you hold it, the better you say.

That probably help. You're fine. Yeah. Yeah. We are, Adam and I are just driving back from Abe had his, it's his birthday today, 20 grand years old, and he was doing a very cool thing on his birthday. He had published some research. Oh, yeah. He was presenting it, yeah. He talked about this while he was here. He was trying to explain to John and Mom, which was a useless thing to do, by the way. But he, I was, I was super interested.

It sounds awesome what he's got going on. It's really cool. Publishing research, this must be, I just can't think of anything. my sister Wendy would be more excited about than one of her kids publishing academic research. Yeah, and on like social science stuff. Stuff I think about all the time

and I've never personally done that I'm like, someone's actually done it. Yeah, and he's related to me. That's really awesome. Very cool. It's very cool. Grats to him, I'll send him a text later. I always forget when his birthday is.

Yeah, you should. So that's exciting. But the timing was like, I will do this in the car. So I apologize. Oh, you're all good. It's totally fine. We'll take you out where we get you. Let's get to this week's continuation of the happiness science with another email.

This one came from Chris, and this takes us down a specific road. So we'll go ahead and read this and talk about it. Hey, Scott and Brian and the wise and wonderful Wendy. Geez, buttering you. Wow. This is why I put this one in. I was like, thank you. You're like a guru is what you are.

That's right. Longtime listener, first time emailer here. I've been starting my mornings with the morning stream for years now through job changes, a messy breakup, and even a cross-country move. you three have been one of the consistent things in my routine that makes me laugh out loud and feel a little bit more human before driving into the chaos of the city or the day. I don't know why I said city. I really appreciate your recent conversation about luck and happiness and it got me thinking. I've been feeling kind of blah lately. Life's not terrible. I've got a decent job, good people in my life and I'm not in a crisis. But I'm not exactly buzzing with joy either. It's like I'm running in neutral work errands, dishes, phone scrolling, repeat. I keep wondering, is this just adulthood or am I missing something? so here's my question what actually helps people feel happier especially when life isn't bad or is just sort of gray are there realistic science backed ways to fill a little more joy meaning or spark in the everyday i'd love to hear wendy's thoughts on the psychology side of things and of course any classic scott slash brian wisdom of nonsense or nonsense would be welcome too thanks for being a part of my mornings y'all are the best cheers chris this is bring your nonsense boys yes the imitation Let me start up my nonsense generator. Okay, good.

Mine, I got the new, it's mine's battery, and I think it's out of battery. Oh, yeah, no, I keep mine plugged into USBC all night long. Super smart. Super smart. Well, Wendy, where do you want to start and go with this one? Yeah, okay. So I love this question, because it's, you know, I think. We've all been there.

Yeah, we've all been there. And it's super common. And it is also, ironically, a fairly lucky state to be in, right? If you think about it. Yeah, yeah. could be so much worse. Exactly. Gray is okay compared to doom and gloom.

The dark night of the soul. Yeah. So there's the, not to say it doesn't mean that turns some direction or it's just like the normal part of being an adult, right? So if you think about, I want you to go back in time to when your parents were your age. so kind of give yourself like your time and space when they were your age so you guys were 50 something right yeah just something we'll just say something so how old were you 50 something how old were you and your parents were 50 something oh what was I 30 30 something because basically they're 20 years old than me they had me super young yeah okay

I would think we're closer to that's probably closer to 20 21 something like that. Okay. So Brian, I'm going to have you go to when your parents were 40. Okay. That sort of age where you are developmentally

pretty unaware of the stresses of your parents unless they somehow were showing through, right? But like what it was like to be a middle-aged person for them. And I want you to see if you can conjure what you think it was like

for regular life, for someone 30 to 50 back in the 80s, 90s. This is so many numbers. Sorry, there's a math quiz. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Okay.

Okay. So far, so good. Yep. Okay. So give me just a sense of, do you think they were stressed out? Do you think they were blasé or gray or neutral? Like, what do you think was psychologically or emotionally the deal with them around your stage of life?

they probably I mean they probably had those periods I think I would assume everybody kind of goes through that I mean my mom so this would have been well after my mom remarried and we were living with my stepdad actually she she and my stepdad uh had the house I had moved on to college and then out on my own by that point because I would have been in my twenties when they were in their 40s so um uh I think that it was just kind of a very repetitiveness of the day, right? My stepdad contractor, very consistent work, but pretty much kept him busy the whole day. She was, God, I think still working at the hospital, or she switched to credentialing by that point. I think she was credentialing by that point. And what is credentialing? I don't know what that is. Uh, like, uh, taking doctors, getting, um, doctors credential to work in hospitals and basically saying, all right, um, uh, no big malpractice suits.

Great. You can work, you can come work at Denver Health Center. Ah, gotcha. Okay. Yeah. It's, it's been, yeah. Real quick, you're pointing out, I was having interesting. She had a major job shift. She worked in the hospital and then did something else, even though maybe under the same umbrella, do you remember at the time paying attention and thinking, wow, this is my mom's midlife crisis where she needs to, change your career trajectory or like having any sense i'm not saying that that was true but were you aware of it i was not aware of it i can't i really can't even remember at what point she switched from doing one to to the other um uh because she like me she kind of takes on a bunch of different

things and so like during that transition um she was also working at a travel agency um setting up cruises for people. I mean, it was basically like she, very much like me, had like three jobs that she was doing in various stages of, here's the kind of the big job, then here's this other big job, but then here's all these little jobs that kind of fill in the cracks. From, that's exciting to figure out. And so, yeah, so I don't know exactly when that transition happened, but I don't, I think that they, you weren't in her head. No, and when I was living there, up until late teens, it was, um, It was very much a routine.

Like we were, all of us were in a set routine of like, get up, I go to school, they go do their things, I come home, have to have dishes done, and maybe I'll start, I'll do my own dinner while I wait for them to come home and then I'd go do something. It was very, just a very, very much routine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah, so Scott, similarly, do you have any sense of like any of your parental dynamic And I kind of am referring to sort of like internal worlds, right? I mean, by this, a bit, okay, so that's an interesting question because up until about 15 or 16, I would say I was kind of hyper unaware of it, with one exception, because dad, prior to the big video game crash, he was running arcades and we had the house full of video games and it was this like thing that any kid's going to love being around and I had a bunch of fake friends because of it and it was great. And we would, you know, and I would help him. I'd go drive around and we'd empty quarters and fix machines, and I was a part of it. But I also never really thought much about it being anything other than, well, this is just what he does and that's cool and everything. But then I'm busy with my own life.

Around 14, 15, 16, when the business took a dump and the whole industry took a big dump, then I became very hyper aware of those factors. Right. Because of obvious reasons. We ended up being forced to move, lost the house, lost the boat. We had a motor home. We had all these cool things. And we lost all of it. ended up just kind of in a you know bankruptcy state and uh that's impossible to not notice

especially when at the time we lived in an area where all the kids my age had parents that were you know loaded way more than we ever were like they were they were ridiculously loaded and you know had dad not tried to build half the house himself we wouldn't have been able to live where we lived anyway so which was just kind of his thing so then it became hyper aware of those things and then later, so around this time that you're talking about, I became aware of him feeling like he was at a stage of his life where he was going to stubbornly still figure out a way to get back there, but that he knew that the prime had maybe passed. At least he felt it had, whether that was true or not is not a, you know, that's arguable.

I was hyper aware of him feeling that way. I could tell he felt that way a lot. And there were times where I was just like, I just felt bad for dad because he's just going through this. And, you know, I'm young and just got married and talking about family. You know, we're doing that whole thing

and seeing what appeared to me to be because when you're 20, you think 50's freaking old. Oh, yeah, you think that's the end of the road. And it's, it really isn't, but you think it is. And so you see it. it and you go oh poor dad poor dad poor dad and and he and he did struggle then with what you know how he was going to make it work and whatever and then died way too early in his life but um so he could never really see what he was working on get through but he but i was very aware of all that stuff

kind of from the crash forward just always super hyper aware of it well and you're describing what's really pretty common uh it's common throughout life but yours was maybe a little earlier which is just sort of seeing the crack, you know, like, oh, you're a real person with real stuff. And that's partly why we're all fairly agist is we do have this obliviousness when we're younger. It's a fairly protective naivete, I guess, that you just don't see it all accurately. Thank goodness. And this is where abuse and some early traumatic experience can crack that very early

and make life a lot more difficult for someone. So Chris is probably like, what is any of that? this have to do with my email well let me tie back Chris it's this idea that you may or may not have so if I had Chris in front me had asked this question I'd say so like what that exact question what what were your parents life like at this stage like what were you aware of and it may be interesting because you may find that there was a model that was offered I'm gonna I'm gonna make a guess stab here Scott is that dad's struggle impacted how you have seen your financial life and you know preparing to provide for your family and all of those things like

it has it gets in there right oh yeah that's that's your experience yeah also also avoiding the crash too big of risk i never yeah i never want to see that again it was awful and it was it was mostly awful because i just saw it in his face and i could see the because it wasn't like oh it wasn't like we come home every day and all of us would be sitting around the table going whoa is us the trouble we've seen it wasn't like that it was more like just I could see a change in him that I said to myself, I don't ever want to do that. I don't want to feel that way. To give him a huge amount of credit, he never took any of that stress out on us.

Like we really lucked out. That is not a common, you know, financial strain in a family or economic hardship or ups and downs. That usually comes out sideways at kids. And we really did not have that. Thank goodness. But that can be really common. So I would be asking Chris, like, walk me through.

that and walk me through because why is that even interesting? Well, because he is now in a stage. I don't know how it is, but my guess is if it's this boring, it's somewhere in midlife. And it is rootinized and it is the thing I do. And you know, you find your little joys here and there and you're like, okay. And so what I'm getting at, so I started, when I talked about luck and some other things, I've mentioned this happiness model, the perma model, right? And the M stands from oh no we know you're never going to find out what the m stands for it stands for

I bet you got a call that'll happen oh you're back you're back you cut out for a bit I think you hit like a weird you start with M stands for yeah and go from there okay M stands for meaning okay I was like you guys are so

wrapped because we thought monkey or Medusa we didn't know where to go mountain blocking the cell tower definitely Medusa Here it's a molehill blocking a cell tower, but anyway, so meaning, if you think about how to increase somebody's happiness, you know, we're using this, the positive psychology model. We're trying to increase somebody's happiness from gray and blah to a little more, a little more

sparkle, a more joy, you would look at having, like, where's your meaning? And so the reason I have people maybe look at their parents is you might find they, they they're meaning so let me let's back up like we'll take dad because I know that situation you know he found a lot of meaning and being creative right he found a lot of meaning and not working for the man that's really important to him there was a lot of meaning in his family like you you knew his striving and his efforts were probably based on those things another family it might be you know it's really meaningful for us to give back or to you know serve in our communities or build websites for foster dog families.

Like, that feels really meaningful. And so I would have somebody look at their meaning quotient, like pay attention, how much meaning do you have? And often we have meanings sitting on the sidelines. We're just not engaging in that meaning. And so I would ask Chris that. I'd say, so what was meaningful to your parents and what was modeled? And then what was meaningful?

to you that maybe you are not engaging in. So think about that for a second. When you have something that really matters to you and you're doing nothing about it or not participating in that, it's actually a source of maybe guilt or maybe it's even a source of just like you're not even paying attention to that being a source of some unhappiness. Okay, so let's just throw that, throw out meaning for a second. What works for you guys when you think about increasing meaning or how could we do it? And you can pick a fake thing or pick something in your own life.

But how do you increase daily connection to having more meaning or value because of meaning? That's an interesting question. But meaning can be, see, my initial thing when we were talking about this was is finding sprinkle a hobby or two or something in there, right? like something that that um but i don't know if necessarily a hobby has to have meaning it can just be something silly and fun that the meaning is just the the uh the joy that it brings you other than volunteering at a food bank or something like that that's what i think of when we when we talk meaning but um okay but real quick i like this because it you're you're you're 100% right

and the definition is ultimately kind of what matters not the thing yeah okay for example let's say You really love... Learned a musical instrument or something. Yeah. Well, you really love board games and they're really fun. That's your hobby. You want to spend time doing that and playing that. And the meaning you find in it is what?

Then you ask yourself, why is this meaningful to me or why is this valuable to me? And it may be the relationships I'm developing are part of that. It may be that I'm creative or I get to use my brain in certain ways, et cetera. I get to connect with my wife and my kids in a different way because we're playing games instead of just sitting there watching TV. or we're all off doing our own different things. Yeah. And let's be clear. You do not have to lie about everything you're doing and make it meaningful.

It's not that. But I do because I have to take photos of it and put it on Facebook and make everybody think this is what we do every day. Everything's content, you know, you got to do it. Which is a really great meaning killer in some ways, right? Oh, yes. Then it's like, what do I actually value here? Is it that it's meaningful or do I value the engagement? What everybody thinks I'm doing, yes.

how everybody thinks I am. We have some research on like a diminutive, diminutive effect of happiness or actual enjoyment when you are planning to post, when you are planning to get something else out of it. So your hobby absolutely is going to bring you more joy. It doesn't have to even be meaningful, right? But if there is a way to just up your meeting. So Chris is asking, like, what are small things I can do? One would be to do an inventory of what you're doing in your life that's meaningful or not

and just kind of see where you can up that equation. I would also back you up, Brian, on what hobbies or what little joys or what regular can you plot into your life. So we can use the monotony of you get it done because it's part of your ritual, but that actually sparks like awe or amazement or joy or connection. Relaxation. Calm, relaxation. Yeah, any of those things.

And most of the time, and we could have a whole one on this. If someone wants to write an email about how important socializing is in this. I don't think anyone is in this modern era has quite enough connection because we disconnect so easily and don't have time because of that, if that makes sense. And so like that's another way to increase your joy quotient is to have more time with people that you really like. And I don't mean small talk at a gathering. I mean, and this is where maybe your hobby combined with other people who care about that. You can really increase some of that. And that meaning comes along, right?

I care about my friend. That is meaningful. So that would get, that's some basics. I mean, I could talk for 10 more hours of other things to do. But I think that's a big one. And it can be bigger than you meaning, right? So there's spiritual or religious implications to that word as well. So if that's something you feel like is missing and you want to spend some time there, awesome.

You know, it can also be just, I should be nice to my neighbor meaning and then be nice to your neighbor. But the disconnect between something that is meaningful to me and I do, I'm not doing anything with it is a hallmark of someone not doing well versus a hallmark of someone thriving is there engaging in their meaning. That makes sense. Right. Right. That's a hard thing to define when you're in the middle of it because you're either just doing that. it feels like you don't if you really are just really doing it like you're involved in the thing that gives you meaning and you're fully there you're not thinking about whether you are you aren't you just are and then in the times where you think wonder if you are you probably not yeah yeah right that's you're describing the concept the psychological concept of flow which is like your ability your action the moment it all sort of comes together and time is weird and awesome and it's amazing feeling right so the best part of a game with somebody like the it happens a lot with athletics um it happens with music it happens with you know you you work hard of the thing so your skill set is high enough that there's some effortlessness to being able to do

a thing and then you know people will describe this as one of the most joyous feelings they can have so you just describe that and we can have that in small things all the time time, but we need to be engaged enough with life, which by the way, the E and the Perma model is engagement, which again, a whole other hour on that. I'd love to have anyone, I mean, if you hear this and you're like, want a specific, I don't know, you have more specific questions about some elements of this or like how to find meaning or something. Please write it in because I could talk about this all day. Yeah. No, that's interesting because how often do you find that like,

people like this you said you have some research on this or there is some research on the idea of i want to do this just because i love it or versus i'm making sure i put everything on instagram as i'm doing it i'd love to see some of that yeah that's fascinating to me because i don't i don't know what i understand what motivates it right but how to let's say you're somebody who that's all i know some people this is all they do they're they're everything they do they make content out of it and that means everything they're walking of the mall they make content out of it it's just constant content making without a necessarily without a plan or a purpose it's just doing it um i'd love to know what that is and then how do those

people pull away from that if if that's not healthy what do they do to stop what is their time like with their family when is there a time with their family and friends where they're not doing that yeah and is that hard for them do they feel are they anxious are they like oh shoot i should be posting you know i don't know that seems wild to me the whole the whole concept but yeah so send that to us Wendy who is currently not hearing us because apparently she's I stopped hearing the car so I assume yeah I think that's a sign that yep we've lost her or she probably hit a got a phone call hey sorry oh no that's right I came home and then my oh it's switched probably from yeah switch oh yeah well there you go I was like just rambling too

that'll happen well that's all we really oh that's all we were really doing is rambling so I wouldn't feel bad I was just talking to myself though but ours was a nonsense. Ours was utter. And ours was wonderful. Utter nonsense. Well, I think this is all good. I think that you have anything else you wanted to add to this before we send Chris on his way to think about these things real hard?

I love to hear his thoughts. And if anyone has more specifics, they want to know on it. Some, like, we could take each of the letters. You know, there's options. So keep them rolling in. Keep them coming in, everybody. And go to know better you. dot com today and sign up on their email list so you'll find out when the next big class next week

you will get some emails this is when it begins oh it starts now all right cool uh do that and uh hang out there windy thanks for uh taking time out of your drive to talk to us today and uh grat's again on ab's thing that's pretty rad that's super cool yeah happy birthday yeah happy birthday to him we'll see you soon all right sweet he should see this kid he's so smart with all this academia and everything. How smart is it? But he's a beast. Like if you saw him in the street, you'd go,

oh my gosh, he's going to beat us all up. He's so buff. Oh, good for him. That's great. He's taller than me. He's ripped. And he's the sweetest guy you've ever met. He's just such a nice guy. Yeah, Wendy did get with him.

All right. Let us now partake in a bit of this. I'd like to thank Seth and Philly for sending us the text about big heads. And I'll read that now. In regards to Scott and Bobby's big head talk, because Bobby and I both share the affliction, known as large head. Really, I didn't know that he did as well.

I didn't get far enough in Tuesdays. It must have been Tuesday's episode, or was it Wednesdays last week? I think it was Wednesday, maybe Tuesday. But we definitely had a conversation about it, and we definitely share this thing where our heads are just too big and hats are hard to find. I talk about it all the time. And you don't look at either of us and go, wow, what a big freaking head. It's just.

It just is. It just is. Anyway, he says, I find the adjustable hats are easier to fit for big heads. It's the fitted hats that are hard for us big-headed people. That's true. But even the fitted one, or even the adjustables I struggle with because I can't. You can't adjust them to the widest point. Yeah.

Or if I do, it's the very last notch and it's still tight. And it looks so stupid back there because it bends and looks, you know. So it's not a good, good fit either way. But anyway, says flex-fit. Sorry, flex-fit ones tend to fit my huge head. but most of my hats are adjustable and fit just fine. So Bobby could check out Port and Company for adjustable ones for his man bun. Man bun.

He does make a nice man bun when he wants. Yeah, he does. If you and I had his hair, we should wear wigs one day. Just be Bobby for a day. Just be Bobby for a day. Sure. Let's do man buns, do the whole thing, look all Jesus like and everything. I'm into it.

Sure. He says, I think it has a big cranium too, right? You'd do better than me. Yeah, I feel like I don't have a problem with hats So I don't feel like my My head is big I think just the fact that I don't have hair

Makes my head look big I think Stands out more Just as a Stands out more Exactly, you kind of see the whole Spittical Yeah

Steroid I think if I shaved I bet I would have I think I'm misshaping back here I got like a Planetoid well I know that like at certain angles Like if you look at me straight on

You know Perfect head shape. But when I do this, just because you know, there's like, it kind of comes in, it kind of, it doesn't like the point or anything, but it does have a narrower curve around my forehead. Yeah, which is way hat friendly. Very hat friendly, exactly. Not me though. It says, what do you do for hats? Well, you kind of

just answered it. Does he have the hair issue like Bobby or even Scott does? But still, Brian looks like he has a big smart head. Well, that's a nice compliment. I'm glad he put smart in there. It does look like he just gem that in there at the last second. Yeah, he said, oh, shoot. Can you use this version of the email? Please add the word smart.

It's basically ran through chat, GPT. How do I make this sound not so mean? Oh, the word smart. Okay, good. That's funny. We also got one from Brandon about the Fantastic Four Earth, like which version of Earth they're in. Yeah.

Says, hey, heads up. I like that. Yeah. He didn't mean to do that. No, no, yeah, right. I do like that it'll land it that way. Anyway, the Earth from Final, I almost said Final Fantasy again. Fantastic four first steps is designated as Earth 828 as a tribute to Jack Kirby, who was born August 28th.

Enjoy everything you folks do, thanks, B. I didn't know that when I saw the movie, but after watching, I watched Screen Crush right afterwards. Because they always point out like all the Easter eggs. You even get Jack Kirby and Stan Lee versions of them in one of the buildings. nearby. Oh, I saw that, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be taken away from that. Yeah, it's, it's them, like, they even have Fantastic Four covers, like, that they've drawn and, uh, uh, written on the, the walls or comic book covers. Maybe it's not, maybe it's not fantastic for. Oh, like OG original 60s. Exactly. Yeah. That's great. Love that. Uh,

thank you, Brandon, for that. And then, uh, got a message about left shifting. Okay. Hey, S and B key, listening to TMS 2858, the right shift? Unreal. World breaking. Am I alone in my left shift use? Is this the new pineapples on pizza? I just can't fathom shifting with my right hand. Love the show, though, even with this. You've got it backwards. Right. The family, the Ted Pooley feud category was what's the least used key on your keyboard. And so right shift is one of those. I don't use the shift key on the right side. I only shift on the left. Same. I mean, I once in a while for some special thing, but very rarely. I'm trying to think, yeah, like, even like Shift Delete, which I still use, I still use the left shift. I think I may use it for like a game combo of something. Oh, probably. There are games, yeah, where, uh, yeah, Even for question marks.

It's an interesting point. Let's see. If I'm doing a question mark, no, I still hit the right for that. Or the left, rather. I'm doing it too. So, yeah, you heard us backwards, or the camera was looking at us typing rather than looking away from us typing. Either way, what we meant was the left key gets a ton of use.

The right key is a lonely little bastard. That's right. Yeah. So that is where we were at. So we're with you, dude. don't free whoever this is it was anonymous don't freak out everything's fine you're you're fine don't worry but pineapple does belong on pizza so you're fine there uh brian and i uh this is where we diverge this is a disagree yes exactly we take a different path on the pineapple on pizza

i don't hate hate it i'll say that i'm not one of those people that go that recoils in you know horror sure but i i'm i'm like if hey do you want pineapple on a pizza and say oh well if there's an option not to yeah i'd love not to have it but it's fine it's okay sweet and savory It's a thing. People do it. Sure. Sure. That's going to do it for our emails. Thank you guys for those. Send more in, if you would. You can use our email address, which is the morning stream at gmail.com. You can send us voicemails at voicecast.com slash TMS. If you want to send us just like a web form thing, you can find that at the website, frogpants.com slash TMS. In fact, all those things are linked there. So you'll have no reason not to go there. It's also a great place to request songs and do other cool stuff. So go do that. Reminder today, we have some shows coming up. Brian is doing at noon today, Mountain Time, Coverville. Very excited about that. Coverville. Help 60th anniversary. That's right. Help.

I'm stuck in a whale. Help. That's basically that song. Get Lassie to tell. Yep. That's the song. I hate it. But I bet you have good covers. That's the important part. I do. I do. Core 1 p.m. So an hour after that, I guess about the time you're done, we'll have an episode of Core

start. That thing will go forever. So come join us for that. uh we have a lot plan there including uh speaking of bobby he's going to pop in and do a world warcraft update we're going to start doing these on the regular so that's the new the new thing which is great what a great way to uh to integrate that stuff yeah it's a smart way to do it i think given just we're just living a different time this isn't 2008 anymore having an entire show dedicated to one video game it just doesn't happen anymore yeah so uh come join us for that it'll be fun we are going to excise it out and put it on the instance feed though so for people who just want that you'll Still just get that. Exize it. Excise it. Take it out. It's not a tumor.

TMS Friday, tomorrow, on Friday, as you would expect, 9 a.m. Mountain Time. Join us then. Brian's going to go see the Naked Gun reboot thing. I am. So I'll have thoughts tomorrow to talk about. Now, that's kind of a revival because it's canonically in the time, right? It's in, right? It's a sequel because it does take place after 33 and a third.

they call those legacy sequels right that's what monica says yeah so legacy sequel yeah like a good example of that would have been fury road it would have been yeah yeah anything they'd take forever to do and i'm so glad it's good from all from what we can tell it's from what we hear yep i'll be the final judge of that but yes i'm sure it will be i hope you have a relatively full theater because i think having more people around to laugh at those jokes is i hope so it's been out for a week and uh so i'm hoping that it's still and you know freaky freaky or Friday just came out and so I don't know I'm hoping

you know what I know it will be because when I bought tickets and I had to pick my seats I end up with two in the second to last row of a smaller theater but because you know the rest of the seats were taken so it should be a pretty full theater well that's good I think that's the kind of movie you want a lot of laughter in it

it's no fun on your own in there no or less fun anyway and then this weekend film sack we are doing Black Hawk down. Yes. Can't wait to make fun of that. Yeah. What a hoot. We watched it last night and... It's so good

that movie. It's so good, but man, it's going to be like, great. How do I write a goofy song about this? I've got ideas. Oh, you do? I'm excited to hear how that plays out. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. We had to swap it out for Black Caesar. No. Black Caesar.

We did not intentionally have our next movie have Black in the title. But the Black... We did not. The Blacks play movie Black Caesar got pulled. We're going to catch it again later. I am looking forward to that. That's going to be great. And Black Hawk Down leaves Netflix at the end of August.

So if you're a person who is not cut up with film sack and you like watching the movies, watch Black Hawk Down before the end of the month. Yep, get on it. That's it for us, though. Frogpants.com slash TMS for all your needs except one thing. And that is a song we haven't played yet. So we're going to play it now. A song.

Yes. Amy from Portlandia wrote in and said it's my 40th birthday this Thursday today and I wanted to request a cover of the song 1985 or anything else commemorating the last four decades.

Thank you in advance, signed Amy from Portlandia. My kids, that song was in our house all day every day when it came out. Yeah. It's so funny because your kids would have just barely known some of the references. They would have known the references from you, but

It wasn't their, they wouldn't have known it from their own generation. This speaks to our generation of, you know, way before Nirvana. I think that's why that we, not Weezer, the one. Music's still on MTV. I think that's, talking about the original band? No, I'm thinking, I'm think the reason that the, what's that song called, teenage dirtbag appeals to so many different generations is because it just kind of fits. And I think 1985 was just like a, even though it was referential to that specific year and time,

for whatever reason, they climbed onto it. I don't know. I'm totally, you know, I'm so glad that nobody has tried to update it like they do with Boys of Summer, you know, how they constantly update the kind of car and whatever the bumper sticker is on it when they cover it. I'm glad they do it for that song. I'm happy they don't do it for this. I agree.

Keep it in 1985. Exactly. Well, this is a favorite band of ours. First 2-11. We've played them a few times here on TMS. We love the band, first to 11. They're all 10-year-olds, and they're all waiting for the first one to reach 11. From their volume 9 covers album from 2021, here's their cover of 1985.

Debbie just hit the wall She never had it all One prozacaday Husband's a CBA Her dreams went out the door When she turned 24 Only been with one man What happened to her plan

She was gonna be an actress She was gonna be the star She was gonna shake her eyes On the hood of white snakes guard Her yellow SUV is now the enemy Looks at her average vibe and nothing has been all right Since Bruce Springsteen Madonna Way before Nirvana, there was you two and blondie

And music's still on MTV Her two kids in high school They tell her that she's uncold Because she's still preoccupied In 1919, 1985 She's seen all the classics, she knows every line, practice clubbillion think, you even seen I'm most far She rocked up to whim

Not a big limb biscuit band Thought she'd get her hair On a member of Durantoran Where's the miniskirt Made in stick skin And who's the other girl was singing and then hailing When did reality Become TV?

TV, whatever happened to, sitcoms, game shows on the radio Spring scene Madonna, way before Nirvana, there was you two and Blondie and music still on MTV. Her two kids in high school, they tell her that she's un-cooled, because she's still preoccupied with 19, 19, 19, 1985. She hates time When did Molly crew become Classic Rock

And when did Ozzie become an actor Please make this Stop Stop Springste and Madonna way before Nirvana there was you two and blondie and music still on MTV Her two kids in high school they tell her that she's not cool because she's still preoccupied In 1985 There's Springsteen Madonna maybe for Nirvana there was you two and blondie and music still on MTV

Her two kids in high school they tell her that she's uncle but she's still preoccupied From 19, 19, 1985 Wear them loud and proud, friend, be large and in charge. You're always welcome at frogpants.com. I'm making a car move with the power of my mind.