The Morning Stream - TMS 2938: Duck Vader

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

It's Still A Crispy Pickle! Gettin' hiipoojiggy with it. Just in Time for Christmas with Monica. Old Man Yells At iClouds. Mcfurious johnson! Friggin' Fraggin' Vegas Guy. Her Lady Name. Goo Today, Gone Tommorrow. Van Full Of Swag. Michael Blue Blah Bley. What Cream of Soup is in Your Wallet? I Don't Like Mall Weeeeeeeeed. Simply Hating A Terrible Christmas Song. Take me to McDonald's! Mouth To Mouth With Wendi and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is your chimney ready for the fat guy in seven days? Too slim, don't worry, he's finally on the Ozembic. Oh, oh, oh. Besides, the real gift is the giving of support to patreon.com slash TMS today. Coming up on the morning stream, it's still a crispy pickle. Getting hippo jiggy with it. Just in time for Christmas with Monica. Old man yells at eye clouds.

McFurious Johnson. Friggin' fraggin' Vegas guy. Her lady name. Go today, gone tomorrow. Van full of swag. Michael blue, blah, bla, bla. What cream of soup is in your wallet? I don't like more weed.

Simply hating a terrible Christmas song. Amen. Take me to McDonald's. Mouth to Mouth with Wendy and more on this episode of the morning stream. American women needed to be redirected from opening cans of cream of mushroom soup and pouring it on top of broccoli and boiled chicken. My best qualities? I own a timeshare.

The morning stream. I am a multiverse agent. Hello everybody. Welcome to TMS. This is the morning stream for Thursday, December 18th, 2025. Scott Johnson, here, Brian of it there. good morning to you yeah man listen christmas is but seven days from today that's right one week one earth week from today yeah it's gonna be you know all the merriment and the whatnot i hope we get snow by then but doesn't look like it me too yeah wind certainly didn't blow anything in but uh it's cold enough windy enough just no no way no sky's full of goo yeah yeah i guess is how how a non-weather person would say Guy, well, we've got a 30% chance of goo today with a 40-pinch chance of ooze in the morning. Yeah, I'd like a little anything, really.

Something just to stick. Yesterday it rained for a minute, and I was like, well, just make that snow. But it didn't. Nice. Nice. Anyway. We, with the wind, we had a power outage that lasted about 20 minutes. Oh, shh.

A long one. That's it. Well, I mean. Relative. Not relative, relatively short compared to the rest of the city. Like, we weren't thinking, we were thinking we were in that little bubble. we weren't going to get anything, but it kind of just blipped off and might have even been short of that. It might have been like five, ten minutes.

So was that due to the wind or was it because of the plan? It was precautionary measure because a few years ago we had on New Year's Eve what was called the Marshall Fire and it was super, super high winds and an electrical pole blew over near Boulder near a town called Eldorado springs and caused sparks which lit the really dry grass on fire and because of the wind this thing raged to the point where even though it's 15 miles away from us we were on the bubble for okay time for you guys to evacuate and um a lot of homes got destroyed big neighborhoods got destroyed and then yeah so they're they're a little more cautious with that sort of thing now but um i get it that's good You want that for your municipalities or whatever.

I can live without it. You know, I can tether to my phone, place some Marvel snap up on the couch for a little while. And then, yeah, then fine. I think that's totally fine. I don't, you know, when we got almost evacuated for that fire the night before Nurtacular 2012. Oh, gosh, right. That was a nightmare because the scenario was. Yeah, I remember looking over at Mountain Eagle, Eagle Mountain and seeing the smoke coming from.

Big red line and then smoke coming up and at night. It was like two in the morning and we're getting these calls from the emergency services, whoever they were. And it was like, what are we going to do? And I had a van full of swag. Yeah, yeah. It was, I hate that kind of stuff. But anyway, thoughts go out to those poor semi-drivers in Idaho. Oh, geez.

Who all got their ass knocked over. My gosh, those wins were bad. There was like 50 semis just laying on their side. Just toppled right over. Presence, probably. Trying to deliver presents. And now they're all on their side and they're not get where they need to go. The wilds of the Western United States.

That's right. Exactly. Guys, it's a show. We're going to bring it to you. We're going to bring Monica in in a minute because we don't have a TMS Friday tomorrow. It's a bit of an announcement today. I've got multiple family coming in town, a must-be-at thing with my mom. It's all cramming together to a point where I was like, I'm straight up just not going to be here. I'm not going to be able to make this. So there is no Friday show tomorrow.

that means we'll have a little taste of the monica tomorrow or today today a little taste of the monica and there will be i will do something in place of we'll talk about that but i'll do something in place of the show tomorrow so nice very nice um mostly because i have to it's easier for me yeah no sometimes it makes you make you lock in and go well if i'm streaming it i got to do it so that's right exactly i do that all the time um i'd like to for a moment just be an old man yelling at not just clouds okay But at the I clouds. Yesterday was the biggest cluster F on a million fronts. But the one I'm going to tell, it was so, yesterday was crazy.

And we could do four episodes on all the things that happened yesterday. And most of them had nothing to do with me or weren't directly dealing with me. But I just did a full OS install to clean some stuff up. Wow. I've been transferring the same MacOS build for. Yeah. Oh my gosh, dude. Like a decade.

Yeah. You and I both. We've been, yeah. Because it's easy, right? You just transfer it. You hook up a Thunderbolt cable and you're done and you don't have to think about it. And all the garbage and all the problems and all that stuff just come with it. And sometimes it just feels nice to like stretch out on a newly, on a newly crisp sheet bed of brand new sheets that have never been slept on.

Yeah. Now, why I chose, you know, the week before Christmas to do any of this. Right. When we're totally off next week. Yeah, yeah. Less impact. I know you'll have other shows next week, but less impact. A lot less impact. It's 100%. You're 100% right. I could have gotten up early next Monday with a clear day before I had anything else and really cram it and get it done. No, I had to piecemeal it over a few days and make it all work. So for the most part, been okay. But last night, yesterday, most earlier in the day, I was like, where did all my I cloud storage? Where did all my files go? And I forgot there is a setting that says,

for stuff that you haven't used in a long time, files-wise, we'll just keep those in the cloud and free up your disk space. It's a setting. You can turn it on or off. Okay. So if you turn it on, what happens is it will, the OS will go, oh, he hasn't used that file in six months. So that's going to just stay up in the cloud.

Right. He's got more room to work with. I'll pull it down when he uses it. Exactly, yes. Which is dumb because I have like four terabytes of space. But still, I understand the value of it. Like on a notebook, it totally makes sense to me, right? like you don't want to do you comes in handy for me because i bought a refurb or not refurbished well yeah

refurbished one which only came with i think a two terabyte hard drive and that's you know i have to store a ton of music here on my hard drive oh yeah um so you and me both mp3 files for days i got yes ds for days like it's just sure so much stuff so for me normally though four gigs four terabytes is plenty i'm usually maybe two and a half terabytes of use and the just sort of his working space. Well, the new OS install reset that option.

So the option is now take any files I haven't used for a long time and move them the hell up to the cloud and don't have them on the hard drive. Well, that meant suddenly all my audio files

from forever ago that I just pull up once in a while. I don't modify them. I just pull them up once in a while and use them. They're all suddenly not there. The date doesn't change on them so it doesn't...

It doesn't care. It doesn't care. So I downloaded it all. the first day. I knew this the first day. I made sure it was all synced and downloaded. And then the next day I get up yesterday and then they're all gone again. And I was like, what the F is going on? And then I realized what I did. So after a bunch of rigmarole and I'm keeping the, some of my stuff I keep in there, I shouldn't keep there. I should keep somewhere else. And some stuff I keep, I'll swear I should probably have there. So it's just like a little organization issues going

on with me. Yeah. But I was the, no one wants to be around me yesterday. Nobody. Yeah. No. You You and I have the same kind of thing. When we have tech problems that it's like, it's just, you know, one thing after another, we get grumpy and focused. It's the worst. Oh, can I bring you any? No. Yeah. Yeah, and everybody's like, gosh, are you okay?

And I'm like, no. Exactly. I'm not. I'm the opposite of okay. I need to get this done. I need focus. I need nobody bug me. And meanwhile, I completely forgot.

This is the week that we got there. to, we plan this for six months. There are people tearing out some tile stuff upstairs and putting in the replacement. And that's fine. In fact, you may hear some of it this morning. I don't know. No, they're not here yet. Not hearing any of it.

Yeah, they're finishing up today. Yesterday was demolition day, so it was super loud. And you could hear them breaking the tile. And I was like, if that comes through, but man, the roadcaster, real good at this. Real good at blocking out the noise. It is so good. Yeah, love it. Can't recommend it enough.

Anyway, all that to be said and done. I was a crabby mother effort last night. And I said to Kim, it was about 7.30 days, finally done, kind of. My brain's everywhere. Yeah. And I said, take me to McDonald's. I'm getting a Big Mac. For whatever reason, that sounded like the way to break this brain fart I was in.

You know what? I will say that I went and had a whopper for lunch, which I haven't had a Burger King Wopper, but at a discount deal, Wopper Wednesday discount deal. It's like, you know, spend a dollar get a Wopper for three bucks. I'm like, that is, that sounds great. That sounds like what I want. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you just need it.

Last night it sounded like the solution to all my problems. Yeah. So I went and did that. Came back this morning, by the way, all the stuff's synced, everything's great. No issues. Cool. Here we are. I did have, I did go and have my favorite burger, the $25 burger from Oscar Padilla, who won

Season of Chopped up at the trivia place. Oh, yeah. Took a picture of it. It is so, yeah. It's like the perfect burger. Oh, I want it. Can I see it? Can you put it in there? Yeah, it's an our TMS thing right now. That reminds me.

Grab it. And there's some really good zoomy fingers there for you too. Oh, sweet. I love to, you know how I love that. It's on our Discord, you say? It's kind of hard to tell. Yeah, it's in our Discord. TMS Chat, which just probably moved to the top. Oh, there it is. Got it. Okay, let's take it.

There's, so like the fries there, Chimituri sauce on the fries. Look at that. The pickle, I didn't take it from a good angle. You can't tell it, but there's like a pickle on top of the burger. It's stabbed into the top of the burger with. Oh, right up here, this green thing. Okay.

The green thing. It's kind of been, it's not a, it's still a crispy pickle, surprisingly, but they're able to bend enough to, like, jab the knife through both ends and put it into the burger. It's a bison burger with maple bacon jam, arugula, and there's not a ton of stuff on it. And it is, it is. Sometimes that's all you want, man.

Yeah, it's simple and it's clean and it's, there's, I don't know what the white sauce is on there. But you've also got nice little zoomy fingers of a woman in the top left. Oh yeah, you guys want to see this lady? Check her out. Look at this. isolated her already she's she's dreaming of eating the burger on my she's she's she's she's thinking of you she's she's she's side eyeing somebody else so she doesn't seem

too conspicuous but i think she's i don't think there's anything in her hand that's probably glass but it looks like it's not yeah it looks like there's nothing in her hand she's just mimicking your burger eating she's pretending my burger my burger's doing it her mouth i love that sometimes i love that well we just did that this is a human being that will never know. Yeah. No, exactly. That she was featured in front of a few thousand people in a podcast.

She'll never know. Shout out to TV's Travis. I did a thing yesterday. It's very embarrassing. So part of my fluster yesterday was moving stuff around, making room for these guys to demolish the kitchen stuff. And I found a box and it was unopened. And I was like, what is this box?

And it says from Travis Crawford. And I checked the date. And it was February, like, 12. No way. It's been sitting around for... It's just been sitting that long. I must have set it to the side,

run in between things and went, oh, I got a show, I put it down, I forgot to open it. I didn't notice it was Travis's whatever. Oh, so yesterday I opened it. He made me this awesome

3D printed Vader duck. Oh, look at that. Yeah, look at him. Isn't he cool? And probably hand-painted because he... Oh, no, yeah, he... Yeah, he hand-painted that. Clearly, that's resin

because of the drain holes on the bottom. Yep. And the first... front, that's his, that's his pee hole and that's his bum hole. This poop hole. Actually, they have cloned and fudge is made. Yeah, I think they do. They got the one hole. But anyway, that, isn't that awesome?

Look at that guy. That's really, really cool looking. Dude, that looks great. And the texture-looking paint on there, absolutely amazing, TV's Travis. It looks great. I feel like a chode for not noticing. And then he says, oh, yeah, I forgot I sent you that. And you know what you can do is you can, because of those drain holes, we've done this with a few busts that I've printed, you can take plaster of Paris, mix it down, paper cup, blah, blah, blah, and then spoon it into those little holes, let it dry upside down, and then you've got a nice, solid, like, paperweighty kind of bust as opposed to a little thin.

Oh, okay. I like that. Yeah. That's awesome. Wait, so is this resin or filament? It's resin. Yeah, it's resin. Oh, I love that even more now.

Yeah. I don't know what it is about resin, but I just... No, resin looks great. It just feels like... Yeah, I'd normally show off a thing I printed, but I just put it in a box. to send it away to somebody, but a really cool indigenous people warrior that I've printed twice now, this is the second time, because I took the supports off to ship it, and there are all these feathers coming off of his headdress. And even with all my careful packing and bubble wrapping

and all that stuff, it still broke some feathers off. You know what? I'm going to leave the scaffolding on there so that it ships. And then you can just break the scaffolding off, put in the sun for a little bit, or he has a UV flashlight, and then, um, and cure at the last, uh, last stage himself. Nice. You found a cure. I found a cure. Yes. Oh, gosh. Uh, guys, guess what? Monica's here. Yay. And, uh, I don't hear her though. Oh, no, I know I. Hi, Monica. How are you? Hello. I didn't play your thing, though. Let's play your thing. I'm all over the place here. Let's see. Where's Friday? Here it is. Right here. Well, nope, wrong one. Where's the monica?

A little bit of monica in my life. It's your favorite one that I play. What are you doing? How are you? Fine. Fine. Doing all right. Oh,

she's the king. Look at that. I didn't get one of those with my wopper yesterday. I'm so bummed. Yeah, what the heck, man? I got it with my impossible whopper, so they must be woke at mine, you know? Woke. Woke.

Love it. It's a made-up term, like affordability. Made-up term. Yeah, no such thing is unaffordability. Hey, it's good to see you. We're going to play a game. We have 10 minutes to do it in since when you'll be here in about 10. But I think we can do it.

Brian's got it all prepared because we're not going to see you tomorrow. We figured we'd do it today, which is, you know. Had to get it in the books. Had to get our fix. Our wicked kids. And there's a reason, right? This one couldn't wait until January because this is all Christmas classics for you. So as always, name the singer or the artist, the band, and the song title.

We'll begin with Monica. Okay. just jumping right into it. Hope you're ready for it. Here is song number one. There it is. How's volume on that? Good.

No, you're good. Perfect. Sounds good. Yeah. Rocking around the Christmas tree. That is a point for the title. And it's by Bessie the Heifer who sings that.

Bessie the Heifer. Wait, wait. I'm not done. I'm thinking his name. He was on an episode of like Green Acres or something singing that. And he was, he's Dongashane, uh, friggin' fraggin' vaguen, Vegas. Oh, I know you're saying. Yeah.

It's not him. I don't know if that's him now. Can I go and just tell you, Wayne Newton is not the answer. Okay. All right. Well, then I take it back. Yes. Uh, one point for the title, Scott, do you have a guess on the artist?

Oh, gosh, walking around. Uh, uh, that girl with the short black hair who sings things and her name, her lady name is. Her lady name. It's like Ricky or, uh, Ricky, Ricky, Ricky Padilla. I have no idea. Uh, Brenda Lee is who we're looking for. Oh, shit. I knew it was a lady. I couldn't think of the name.

I knew it. I could not even tell you the color of her hair. So the fact that if you knew that she was a brunette, oh, here's a little clip. That's all we need of that. I just think of home alone when he's controlling the puppets in the window. She has that kind of tight, curly thing. And I only know this from, because I saw that album cover recently on a, maybe in the car. I was like watching it in car play or something.

But I can't remember her name. So well done, Ricky, Ricky Padilla. A very girlish voice when he was young. I'm just saying. Sorry. All right, Scott, this one goes to you. Song number two. Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock.

It is not Jingle Bell rock. Monica, any guesses? Can you Monica that for me real quick? I sure can. It's the, it's also from home alone. It's the running in the airport. Running in the airport. Airport, we're going to run to the plane.

Call it running in the airport. Run, run, run, Rudolph. It is run, run, Rudolph. Well, I'm going to give it to you. I think it's run, run. Rudolf. He's got run Rudolph run, but I think you're right. It is run, run, run, run. I think so, too. Do you remember the artist?

Billy Gene King. Wait, that's a tennis player. Yeah, it is that Billy Gene King. I'm going to say, can I guess? Oh, shoot, I was wrong. I was going to say it was the Brian Setzer Orchestra, but that would be later, wouldn't it? They do a version of it, but that was Chuck Berry. Oh, Chuck Berry. All right.

That's what I was thinking, because I'm thinking of of back to all of a sudden. Yeah. That's right. All right. Let's get to song number three. This one starts with Monica.

And I'm going to be very careful. Oh, did you want to hear that one forward? It's, uh, Run, run, Rudolph. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right.

Number three, here we go. And I'm going to be very careful with this one. What I want to be. My name. I would run out. Yes. I'm going to be. You can't be.

This year I was favorite by tears All right Last Christmas by Wham Very good Dammit Hearing it backwards Does not count

No and Brian will not play it forward either By the way You know what? I play backwards Wham again by the way I try to listen to it as much as possible Because that song is friggin' great Is it?

It is great, it is great Yep Yes Okay Doesn't doesn't count backwards. So if you're playing Wham again, I looked it up, I looked up the answers and it does not count.

Nice. But like Scott said, I'm not going to play it forward. So two points for Monick on that one. Nicely done. All right, Scott, back over to you for number four. Okay, it's have yourself a merry little little Christmas. Okay.

Bye. That might be a newer one. Michael Blue Blubley. It is not Michael Blue Blah Blay. And it's also not have yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Damn it. I thought I got it. I thought I got it.

All right. Play one more time real quick. Sure. One more. Christmas time Christmas time is here Something, something, something, something, la, la, I don't know. Okay, that is also incorrect.

No, the big hint on that one is hearing that the male vocals and female vocals are alternating, that they're not seeing the same thing. And that, of course, is, Baby, it's cold outside by Dean Martin's version is the only version of that song. But baby, it's cold outside. But baby, I'm a creeper, and you shouldn't let me in. What's that?

His voice gets like, you know, gruffer as he gets older. Oh, yeah. He had to smoke and drink himself to a certain level there. Yeah. All right. Right. Number five, back over to Monica. That's very classic.

Frosty, the Stone Man. Very good. And the artist? I'm going to say Bing Crosby, because that's the only name I know. You are going to be correct, then. that has been cool my god i was going to say burl lives but i would have been wrong that's also again because he was the snowman will be saying uh saying in the this the wood off stuff he led them down the streets of town right to the traffic cop the only

the impressive thing by the way is that d crossby is not even featured in that reversed clip, so I'm impressed. Wow. Yeah. He's right here. Frosty. There you go. I got three side piece ladies.

You know his son was in Friday the 13th. Please refill my whiskey. We talked about it on film sack. He was in Friday of 13th. He was in New Jersey. Yeah. I was in the same cabin. I think we did.

Oh, yes. Yes. We did. Yeah. He was one of the from the first marriage or no, second marriage, I think. I have so many marriages. He has like eight kids. So he was busy.

busy putting the bing to the old Crosby if you know what I'm saying all right back over to

Scott for this one this is your number six I'll have to his voice something about his voice I guess yeah

wow wake up dead man or whatever it is yeah shite uh i think that's jingle bell rock jingle bell that is correct okay jingle bell jingle bell jingle bell rocket some kind of dude from then jimmy and the rockets i have no idea it is uh bobby oh i'm sorry i should have give Monica the chance. Do you have a guess mom, Monica? I might begin with the word Bobby. Bobby, uh, Frankenberger.

It is, uh, Bobby Helms. Bobby Helms. I would not have known that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don't know how Jamie thought that he went. Well, here's the deal. He gave this to Hammond.

And because Hammond starts listening to Christmas music in, uh, November, like, uh, beginning of November, uh, it's, he hears all this stuff for like two months and he memorizes names. Um, all right. so point for scott for jingle bell rock let's go back over to monica for number seven i know this really that's all i get that's all you get i know the song i don't know the artist up on the house top reindeer pause that's your answer

sure it's not up on the rooftop Scott do you have a guess for this song that's I don't know if it's the right title but I want to can you play the first part one more time sure sure sure I want a hippopotamus for Christmas

That is the title Very good Okay so it's like a little kid I think Oh really Oh yeah I guess it would be Yeah Or it's a lady trying to sound like one

I don't know I think it's a lady trying to sound like one But I'm going to say I really don't know those things I'm going to say Shirley Temple It is someone named Gayla Peavy Gala Peavy of course

The household name Gayla Peavy I've never heard that song in my life Oh really? No I've been to the I want a hippobott a must for Christmas You haven't heard this? It's one of the worst songs ever

It's terrible is Have you heard Christmas shoes yet? That is the worst song Christmas shoes is horrendous is bad i still i still think having a wonderful christmas time is my least favorite though yeah all right let's get to number eight uh for scott on this one starting with scott yourself a merry little christmas i think we already did that we didn't and uh that is not it either shit uh manica you can take guess of the artist too if you want oh um i forgot i haven't been giving

you guys the option when you get a title wrong to keep guessing burlives it's not burr lives monica any guesses on that one play it one more time real quick you betcha I just thought of it, I think. I want a hip upon it. That is now stuck in my head forever. This is, uh, um, uh, Santa's coming with the presents. That's the one. I like this guy.

It gives you the buzz with that. that is confirmed incorrect scad did you have a i won't give you points but what did you i have no well okay so i think it's uh um uh snow or um the snow one the one that isn't even really a christmas or not white christmas let it snow it is let it snow yep sorry that uh couldn't give you points on that one yeah song written in july in los angeles uh really yep oh wow see this is why i think that holiday road even though it's not in as you were in me the other day I had forgotten completely is not in Christmas vacation

the holiday road should be a holiday song I agree it's the only and they go on the road when they go by it when they go take the cut down the tree so I mean they could have played it when those when they're in the family trucks 100% and then all these I've heard covers where there's like glingling gling and stuff like people

people know I know what it is yeah it's slowly die and my dear we're still goodbye yeah number nine starts with monica no i have no i have no idea

it's one of the beatles i know that's like one of the beetles i know that i'll give you that i'll give you that much. I hate it. I know I hate it. Scott, do you have a guess? Can I hear it running a little taste again? Yeah, sure. Don't they know it's Christmas time at all? Or is that the title? Don't they know it's Christmas? I'll give it to you. It's do they know it's Christmas? no Beatles.

Keep going to what's the artist? Who specifically singing that song? Bob Geldof. You know what? Let's give it to you. The band is called Band-Aid, but Bob Geldof was the guy who organized everything. Yeah, he was head of the whole thing, right? He was head of that whole thing.

He and Mid-year from UltraVox, specifically in that part, you're hearing Paul Young sing. Oh, all right. And I know that because I'm a big nerd. That thing played incessantly when I was a teenager. I think I'm just like, the other one I also don't like and that one was, but I, like, there's two other ones that suck and they're by Beatles and I think I just miss. Oh, I think I know the other, the other one you, you don't like. All right, let's get to this last one. Scott, this one is for you. Okay.

you're all right Monica you're doing all right that is oh my gosh that is um oh my gosh why can't think of this what's wrong with me that's so immediately familiar to me yep okay one more time sure All right, it's the one I hate. It's the Paul McCartney. I can't think of the name all of a sudden. The thing is up. The guy is out. Everyone shut up.

We're about to go out. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time. I think it's really funny that just after talking about how much she hates that song, It is the very next song. I deserve a point for listening to that. I hate that song. You ever hear the theory that they're summoning a demon? Yes.

And someone walks in on them. And someone walks in and they're like, I'll simply have you. Wonderful Christmas time. That's the only thing that makes that song cool right there. It is. Here's the thing. That brings us to six points to six points.

Oh, we have a tiebreaker doing. We have a tiebreaker. But I don't have a tiebreaker song. uh uh all right let's see here normally i'd say what's the most expensive item on the 12 days of christmas let's see how much you remember what is the most expensive item in the 12 days of christmas based on current pricing i think you said oh who goes just whoever gets it first or uh you guys can each take a guess all right i think it's eight maids of milking i think it was the partridge the first one wasn't it or maybe that was just extraordinary

nearly expensive all right i'm going to go by which you talked about is that we did talk about it uh and make it fair because uh scott's partridge in pear tree was only four hundred and twenty dollars and eight maids and milking actually only fifty eight dollars um yeah neither of which were the top price uh the uh the lords leaping i think was 16 yeah 16 000 836 the seven swans were $13,125. Does that mean whoever got the highest number? I'm going to give it to you as the highest.

Yes, so Scott wins it by a... Monica, it's a Christmas miracle. I know nothing about this. It's a Christmas miracle. By $350. You should listen to yesterday's episode. I mean, come on. What kind of listener are you?

I have to work. I work a job. I'm sure Amazon is totally fine with everybody wearing headphones while they work. I do, but I'm also working and I can't always... Anyway, but can I tell you guys. I just finished it. Welcome to Derry and it was fantastic. So there's my little horror recommendation. It's really good. It's finished.

Mine's cute up. Ready to go. It's, yeah, same with us. Now that the finale's out, Tina and our, the finale's out. The thing is up. You can tell me who my favorite character was. The guy named Derry. No? Just kidding. The clown. How can it not be Pennywise? Yeah, I was going to say it has to be, right? Wendy, hear me? Hi, Wendy. She's in there. I don't know if she can hear you because I ever muted. Oh, she probably can. Hi, Wendy. You can. You can say something. Hi. I can hear us. Hi. She says to you.

I'll just go ahead and convey everything she says even though you can hear. See, we can talk about the psychology of horror movies. Yeah, exactly. No, that's great. Well, remind people where they go. They go to Gore. Where's Gore? Tell them about the podcast. You can go to Gorepodcast.com or patron.com slash Gore 13 or find me on a blue sky. Oh, that's great. Wicked Kitten 13 on the blues on the bluesky. And we'll see you on the 31st for play date. Yeah. Come back everybody and play some video games. Take it easy. Happy Merry Christmas. We'll see you next time.

All right. Now it's time for this. Something wrong, Batman. Has anybody seen Wendy? I've seen her for the last five minutes waiting in the chat room or waiting in the hold area thing here. Ever so patiently, just waiting. Yeah, very patient. I was thinking of some fun Christmas songs. Yeah, it was fun. I wonder how you'd do. You'd probably do all right. We were raised with all this. Oh, I'd do terrible, but I have a long list of like really different Christmas songs. Have you guys heard Sufion Stevens' Christmas in the room?

No. It's like my favorite Christmas song. It's about an older couple. The kids are not around. It's just the two of them. And they dance until it feels like Christmas in the room. It's like the cutest Christmas song. Oh, that's adorable.

There's my addition. How old are they? They're old old? I don't know. I don't think it's real. But maybe. It's just a nice little song. You know, I'm going to cue it up.

It's really cute. I got it right here. I'm going to watch this after. They have a video and everything. I'm going to watch this after the show. There you go. So there's that. look at this guy on the front of it oh is that sufion himself i've never seen what sufion

stevens looks like i figure he's just some sort of millennial looking dude i like his i like his come on feel the illinois album but i think that that might be the only thing i've really ever heard from him come on feel the illinois yeah yeah he has a whole christmas album yeah i think that one's about his step he has a wild background like his mom was very mentally ill oh geez and his i think the picture on that is his stepdad and his mom and how I don't know he's written a lot of stuff he's he's he's had a journey let's just say that all right well I'm going to deep dive it later uh all right do it for now though we're going to talk to Wendy about an email we got Wendy's here for therapy Thursday helping real people with real problems she's an actual therapist of course

and is here to help everybody before she flies out here again today yay I love the airport why did you guys choose time of year yeah I don't know why we all we should have done this I don't know two weeks ago or I don't know I don't know do the math why do you think we're doing this I probably the one piece of math nobody wants to think about yeah yeah probably that I mean here's the truth people have a tendency to to let go after holidays right that's a pretty common thing yeah when everyone's kind of gone and quiet and they get through a holiday it's very common so oh it was a darker do the math I was thinking John was the do the math no well that's all their do the math is a little bit of a darker thing that I probably

He is a, he's a factor in our math. Yes. He's, it is not the sum. He's an integer, we wish was, just kidding. No, but truly the, that's a thing. And, you know, stuff is kind of. Yeah, we're at a, we're at a crossroads. He's an improper fraction is what he is.

Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you. But real quick, is everyone keeps asking me the same thing. Like, is there something you need to tell her? And I was like, guys, I've said goodbye to her five times in 20. 2025. I am out of questions. You're all good. I got it. I'm ready. I'm not ready, of course, but I'm also not, I don't know. You're not not ready. That's how, that's how I feel about it. Like, I'm, we're, we're to the point now where we've been at this kind of stage since really the fall.

Yeah. And she's just resilient. Weird. It's weirdly resilient to the point that we've all kind of done this up to this point. And now, and now it's, it sounds, it's not morbid. It's just, we're kind of, in a waiting pattern and this is a nice like all the siblings like this is a kind of a rare cool yeah we don't get to do this very often unless there's a funeral I guess we did that but it's like this the bittersweet of it

but she's still here for a minute for it which I think is lovely I think it's good yeah I'm glad she's around for this bit yeah so yeah you'll be here it'll be great we'll have lunch we're going to hang out it's going to be great there's always food involved just feel bad that you are traveling right the second

Right back to the world's longest walk in an airport. Yep, that train can't come soon enough. Saw it like International 2.0. All right, well, let's get to today's message, and then we're also going to do a little quiz thing. I've got that all set up, and I also made you a better URL for it so we can say it easily, and people can just take it.

Yay! Okay. I didn't know if you wanted them to take it real time while we're on the show. Yeah, but like we could do it at the end. Okay, do it to the end. All right, here we go then. Let's start with this email. This came from Amy, our good friend, Amy.

She said it was fine to use her name on the, the show. She says, hello friends. She says that with everything she ever says. Hello, friends. You can hear her saying it in your head. Yeah, totally. I have what I think is an interesting question for Wendy. It is possible to rewire an unfortunate connection in your brain. For context, when the first Zootopia came out film, my kids and I went to see it. Just before we went to the theater, I'd come across something on Urban Dictionary that is by far the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of. Like so disgusting, I tried really hard to get it out of my head. Of course, all I could think about while watching that movie was this gross thing so now whenever i think about that movie i associate it with the gross thing i'd really like to be able to enjoy that movie and its sequel without the repulsive urban dictionary thing budding in is it possible to disconnect that wiring so that those two things won't fire together anymore thanks so much amy p.s feel free to use my name that's what happens when you look up slothing on the urban dictionary yeah it's slothing never want to look that up urban dictionary rife with horrible terrible things it totally is

barely exist even they're mostly just really quick you both just did a great example of telling everyone to look up slothing and then like kidding and there are people everyone's different and we could all raise our hands and I don't know if it'd be 50 50 but it would be an interesting difference people who are like yeah I will absolutely not look that up and someone who's like I will not go to sleep tonight until I've looked it up right I've totally made it up I don't know really if there there probably is something on their If you thought of it, it's there. But I just picked it because of the character in Zootopia, that's a slum. I have some good news. The definition I found is to spend time, or sorry, to spend your waking hours passively in front of a television, a book, or with nothing to do, productive. Oh, good. It's been a tough week at work, so I want to spend the week slothing. Now, that's a great definition or, you know, a simple one.

The one where I blow it. It's by definition number two. Yeah. Let's not be looking at that one. That one's gnarly. I will not read it. But again, my point is certain people will have to look and others will not look, which leads to Amy's question directly. We all are a little different when it comes to how we will sort of, we have to stare at the horror or we turn away or close her eyes or keep her eyes open, whatever.

Like everyone's a little bit different on how they protect themselves from traumatic things or potential things like that. and others who like it's almost impossible for them not to watch or to see or to read right so we're all different so that's that i wanted to throw that out as just the the starting place of like we're all going to be very different on how we um uh seek out or avoid certain stimuli that has the potential to traumatize us okay so amy's like i'm going to go see zootopia and for a few minutes first i think i'll look at the hermit dictionary whatever and read something she's never seen before thought of before it's the most disgusting thing she has ever heard of and it is now stuck in her head now she goes to the movie we have the current like new neurons around whatever that disgusting thing is she she read about and now it is associating so it's traumatizing with a little

tea maybe a big tea i don't know it's traumatizing to have read that and that means the brain kind of opens up during trauma we we have versions of like brain shutting down when trauma becomes too much, right? There is a safety, like, hatch that gets tripped, whatever the words I'm trying to say. Yeah. And so there's that, but there is also, like, a taken all the senses, like, activate, and it's, like, pay attention to literally everything, so you can know what's dangerous and you're hyper paying attention. So there is, this is like a mini version of that happening. It opened her brain and started creating some wiring around that horrible.

thing that she's sort of mulling over in her head. And then the next thing she adds to the picture while her brain is open and taking pictures is Zootopia. Yeah. Right. It just happens to be the next thing. Yeah. It happens to the next thing. So they wire together because they're associated to that, right? This is why most people at the end of a vacation, whatever happens at the end is the thing we actually remember. It's like kind of a recency bias thing, like it's the most, you know, recent things. So always have your best day, your last day, I guess, right? Or how the flight home is versus how the flight was there, right? Like it colors the rest of it, if something bad, then absorbs the things around it. Okay.

So this is why, you know, and this could have been a smell. She could have gone, oh, by the way, I just, I don't know. I'd go to the mall once every 14 years, I think. And I went into the mall the other day. And Allie wanted something at, what is that called? Bath and Body Works. That's Beth and Body Works. Have you guys been in there? Yeah. It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. My gosh. I had an instant headache. And then someone who had just smoked some serious weed walked in. Same time, I don't know if I've ever, I thought, this is meant to kill people. Yeah. The conflagration of smells is overwhelming in there to the point that it feels without the pot guy. It feels like you're hugging about 15 grandmothers all at the same time.

Oh, yes. And then everyone in there was crowded, right? And I'm looking around like, why has no one else responding? This is not okay. It was very traumatic. Anyway, sorry, that was a side note. But if I had that smell plus reading something gross at the same time, I'd never ever use one of those hand soaps or lotions again. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, we associate smell, visual, any of our senses, it can be even pain. And then this memory, sort of like, you know, clicks in here. This is the core. I know she does not have PTSD that level,

but this is where PTSD sort of is born is when something very traumatic happens. And then all of these senses get associated with it, memories, whatever it is. And those things will activate the actual panic, you know, really high levels of anxiety. And you think you're back in war. Sometimes it can be just, well, so I have this exact thing with another animated film. funny enough another classic um dad died the morning after he watched a chicken run went to the theater and saw chicken run with mom and we love that movie here it's one of our favorites the kids love it we have posters of it in the living room by where we watch movies and stuff like we're big we're big fans

but i can't watch it without thinking this is the last movie dad saw before it's heart attack sure so and it's not like a uh i'm uh full of anxiety it's a oh oh i'll and all some of the other some of of it's kind of nice. It's like, I'm glad this was the last thing he saw. It was a wonderful little movie. It could have been the week before and been gone in 60 seconds, which isn't that great. No. Or I could be Wagons East or something. I do remember he watched Survivor. It was the first season of Survivor. And he was like, this is crazy. I can't believe people are filming themselves doing this. And to think about 25 years later of Survivor, you know, as well. So, okay, so there's a connection that isn't necessarily traumatic, but it's memorable.

So our memories are really interesting. It's permanently connected to it. Yeah. Exactly. We can rewrite memories pretty easily. We can create memories we don't have, depending on, like, I think there's not a person out there who has not seen a picture of themselves as a kid and now thinks that's a memory, even if it wasn't a memory before they saw the picture.

Like we need some of the various sort of human elements to come online, like imagery or a sense of smell or place or touch or whatever for us to learn what something is. And so that association can be positive and negative. And everyone can identify your wiring around two positive things, right? Or in that case, Scott, it's kind of like a bittersweet thing. And in Amy's case, it's a disgusting traumatic thing. And so what she's asking, though, is how do I get them to disconnect? Disassociate them, yeah.

Yeah. So most of the time, we aren't actively trying to. to do that unless you are in therapy trying to do that. Usually you're just like, ooh, gross. And then you're like, I just won't watch Utopia. And you kind of avoid. So that is our natural tendency is to avoid a thing that is connected to something, you know, we don't love, right?

Sure. I have a running theory. I've got a client who's been sober eight or nine years and we've been working on getting off just scrolling and doom scrolling and just, you know, for better mental health generally. And what he's describing is that we're now reading real books as he's going to sleep, right? And as he's reading these books, the few minutes between shutting the book and actually falling asleep, his brain will go, oh, remember all the bad things you used to do when you were drunk? And it will go through like this litany of here's what you've done wrong and you should feel shame. And what's interesting, we've done enough work that he's like, I know what this is.

And it's, we spend so much time avoiding that quiet. it. So we're avoiding the processing. And the processing gets weird. Eight, nine years later, the processing is like, remember that? That was awful. Remember that time you, you know, he almost got an accident and put people's lives at risk. And that's when he became sober, right? And so we're working with the thing and not avoiding. And eventually it stops coming in as you're trying to fall asleep. Like, that's what you do. You eventually work through it and the wires sort of untangle and uncross. So in Amy's case, what you would do, and this is, we've talked about this little bit before,

just kind of the idea of exposure therapy where the thing you are the most afraid of or causes the most anxiety or whatever the reaction is, you have to have good experiences. You have to rewire some of that connection. So you have a new experience that is safe and then a new experience that is positive with, say you're afraid of, you know, pickles. You just slowly, you know, smell the pickle. You be in the same room with the pickle. You eventually get to where you're holding the pickle and then eating the pickle.

And that is this slow exposure. There's some quicker versions of this that we're working on. But this slow exposure, what it does is it decreases this wiring of the traumatic with a basic, you know, kid movie. Right. So what I would recommend, and this is that she might really get sick as you, at this point. But the idea is that you would actively, because what it is, is an actual, she may not feel like she's, you know, panicking or something when she makes this connection. It's just gross, right? It's just like, wow, I just want it out of my head.

So that actual thing of trying to get out of your head is just telling all of your nervous system, oh, hang on to this. This one's really bad. Yeah, because it's protective, right? you're protecting it protecting yourself from the thing that is horrifying you a hundred percent and the more we avoid and the more we try to get away from it or distract ourselves from it the harder it holds because it's like well eventually they'll put their phone down and then i can remind them that this disgusting thing exists you know whatever and our brains can get real cruel this way and relentless and so sometimes people actually need medication to really really help you know start this process um and but in this case, and for many people, when there is an association you do not love, you have to

recreate an association with that thing. So we need something new to happen with Zootopia. And so on purpose, she would create an awesome experience connected to Zootopia. So that's one version is rewriting it, right? Just it's lessening the disgusting other thing, giving it your brain something else to connect Zootopia to. Another version was, is when the repulsive thing, pops in her head to play the whole thing out and to calm her nervous system while she's doing it. Do the opposite of trying to get away from it. And you can even tell stories about it, but you sit with it. So you're like, okay, that's disgusting. Someone's clearly gone through things in their lives that they would create this thing. You know, like you allow it to exist and you like

let it fully process itself and you keep the Zootopia away from it. Okay. Yeah. A third thing is, you know when it happens um i mean i would do this utopia of make it a really pleasant like the movie i guess the movie's out now maybe i mean the first one you mean oh i'd see a train yeah but i would do it with the first one i would watch the movie at home i would have your favorite popcorn and your puppy sitting on your lapids make it into the best possible experience it can be 100% and every time any of the negative thoughts come in you just breathe through them let them come let them go they're like clouds they're just going to show up and you have this new slow replacement of the Zootopia connection with this other, like, lovely experience.

And so that sounds fairly simple and, like, it's not the end of the world. And it's just Zootopia every 15 years, a movie comes out. You know, it's not going to be the end of the world. But it's actually a really fun thing to practice because then you get to see how neural network, your own network works, right? And some of us have stickier networks than others. Some are a little like, eh, right, I'm going to let that go. And others, you know, it really hangs on to it.

And a lot of it depends on the meaning, right? So if I asked Amy, what was so disgusting, tell me, I would have her tell me the entire thing. And that's how you vicariously traumatize other people. But you have permission or you do it with the therapist who lives their lives their lives doing this, right? But it's getting through the whole story without all of the reactivity or the, you know, like you actually make it safer by saying it, which is interesting. And you can kind of put it in its proper place.

because the first utopia was a long time ago, right? It's just kind of sticks. And that thing might always stick. I mean, people can recall a picture they saw when they were nine that they can't get out of their head. But most of the time it's because we are avoiding when it pops in, we fight it. And so sometimes sitting with it and letting it come and go just tells your whole system like, oh, this isn't a threat anymore. Yeah, especially something if you've left it in the past for a long time and then you, like I've talked about this on the show before. there was this movie that freaked me out as a kid so bad

that I had been terrified to see it again. Yeah. And all I knew was it involved somebody getting their head severed in a fish tank. Right. And it just really, I mean, messed with me. And I think I was like seven or eight.

But then I finally see the thing. I wasn't even that long ago. It was maybe pre-pendemic, but I watched it. It was stupid. Yeah. I had one. There was,

I didn't even see the movie. I just saw the trailer. And it freaked me out enough to where, like, I had nightmares about that movie trailer for the, the the air it was something about like you know the um uh someone who gets something when the main person owns a mansion dies but not but not air i can't remember what it was but anyway that that trailer freaked me out once they've had roger adultery in it yeah so you do something this

you do something that that old and then it sits with you forever and it's always got the same weight on you and then you go see it yeah because you were a kid yeah because you Exorbed the horror of a child. Exactly. There's a reason why we don't want kids watching this stuff. Exactly. That was it. The legacy. The legacy.

I'll check that out. You know what? Wendy, you love this one. I have a, I threw away a whole, a whole bottle of hand soap because it smelled like, remember how Dr.

Packer wouldn't wear gloves when he worked on your face? Do you remember that? I do not recall that. Okay. Dr. Packer did all my teeth checking with no gloves. This is back, is my dentist and this is back in high school.

and I don't know if there's just, I don't know what it was, different time, whatever, but his hairy freaking knuckles are all up in my face. And this stuff smelled like his hands did, which means they were clean. Yeah. But that soap smell. Oh, my gosh, dude. I threw it out. I threw the whole thing out.

That's hilarious. Yes, see, there's that. I was going to say, Aunt Susan's basement. Oh, my gosh, dude. I had the same thing. I know, hold on, but watching some movie where someone is getting their fingers cut in a paper cutter. Their fingers are getting put off. Yeah.

I cannot look at a paper cutter without that flashing back, right? What was that? And think of all the paper cutters you have maybe seen in your life. You're like, okay. I use one couple times a week. See, Brian? Imagine all your fingers getting cut off and you're like five years old. It's horrifying.

Oh, geez. So Amy's got the same thing. She's just an adult doing it, right? But the same principle applies is either go back and read that thing again, which maybe you don't want to do but rewrite the memory with Zootopia or disconnect it with a new memory.

That works really well when it's not a huge trauma, right? When it's a huge trauma, you might need to do obviously a little more work than that. Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. I think this is an interesting one because of just

it's one thing to be able to say, oh, I saw this movie when I was a kid to freak me out. Now I can go watch it and I can get that out of my system and I have a more mature brain for it now. Yeah. But in her case, it's a little trickier, I think, because it's this horrible thing someone said. And you can never quite wipe that or go, oh, if I look at it with these eyes, it's much more simple or easy to read or whatever.

No, it's always going to be horrible and awful and disgusting. Yeah, yeah. Well, I've noticed, too, I mean, I'm still no news. No news, Nelly. And people will tell me something, some story. That's how I get my news is mouth to mouth now. Yeah. Mouth to mouth.

Like the old. Mouth to ear, I meant. Anyway, and I am absolutely more horrified. I feel, I can feel my nerves working again of like, oh, I'm not just numb to that insanity. That is, how are you telling me this story? And the person's like, yeah, but like this happens all the time. I'm like, no, I know, but I'm no longer numb. It's really, it's really interesting.

And so some of why we're less, you know, as an adult, you're just number to some things. numbness is actually a sign of depression, guys. So the fact that you can't feel something that you should feel is usually not a great sign that your system is working healthfully. Usually it's shutting down in some form because it can't sort of handle the things happening, right? I just learned this crazy thing today that bison, when they are afraid, like they're going to be devoured by another animal or like they're in danger, they will lay down.

they will lay down and their entire like their eyes will dilate they will shut that everything shuts down they die no one even has to touch them yeah so i'm i have a client who's a bison person and found out that like um that you have to keep them standing and going and know that they're safe that's how you keep them alive because wow why is when they get devoured by another animal or getting attacked they won't feel it it's like the ultimate protection is they oh really essentially stop feeling And, I mean, humans do this to some extent, right? But we have a lot of leeway in between.

We don't just lay down if we get scared. It's like birds. Birds do it. They just go, the trauma of ice, I slammed into a window. They just lay there on the ground sometimes recover, sometimes don't. It's not that they're hurt. It's that they're in shock, basically. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like extreme forms of shock. But anyway, all right. Well, that's great. Amy, let us know how any of that goes. I'm super curious about it. And I'm sure she'll let us know because she'll start that email with hi friends um Wendy we got this quiz to give to people I made a URL that's easy to follow

everybody pull out your phone or your computer or your browser wherever you do this thing you're gonna want to go just gonna do me a little favor because um we there's lots of very fun things coming next year for no better you and I we're gonna do a little free mini class just for fun in January like early as January and so I just want to know I like it's not gonna be associated with much else. It's just going to be a fun little class. And so I just wanted to know what people are thinking about. What's funny is when you get off social media and the news, you're like,

huh, has everyone panicked dying now? Because they were while I was on. And now I'm off and I'm like, I'm not, I feel like I've lost the pulse. So I need people's ideas. Anyway, but I would love to hear, did you just do it real quick. Fill it out. Here's the link. Tiny.c.c.

slash Wendy Quiz Wendy with an eye So it's tiny.cc slash Wendy quiz It'll take you to her quiz And fill it out And for those listeners who are listening later You're not here live or whatever Go ahead and fill it out too

Yeah, you can do it too It will be sometime in January So I have time to look through it And just wanting to see what people Would be interested in learning about And then they can just give me some quick feedback That would be awesome That would be great

I love a little graphic at the top I assume Adam put that in there Right? It's not an Adam thing? Just high-fiving him Did Adam draw that? No. Okay.

Adam's an artist and doesn't ever tell anyone. It's annoying to me. He hides it. Yeah. He really doesn't think he is. That's the problem. That's what's insane to me. I've seen him.

I've seen pencil drawings like sketches and I'm like, one of us thinks they're good and the other one is actually better. What is he doing? And then, yeah. And it's annoying. It is. When I do stuff, I'm like, look at this and me. And he's like, okay.

Yeah. It's not very good. Go to bed. Yeah. Why don't you go talk to people? Nick's the same thing. Nick is this insane. sanely natural. He doesn't practice. He doesn't, he's not really schooled in it. He can draw things. And you're like,

oh my gosh, Nick, what are you doing? And he's like, nah, it's just, I was bored or it. And he doesn't, he doesn't know and he won't like pursue anything around it. It drives me freaking up the wall. He's so good. That's amazing. Just pure talent coming out of his hands. Oh, the turd. I'll talk to him on about it. Fill out my quiz. Fill out the turd. If you are a closeted drawer, get on it. Do it now. I really meant quiz, not turd. Uh, anyway, it is. Once again, tiny.cc slash wendy quiz. That's the letter I and Wendy, all right? That's right.

Wendy with an I. Like my math teacher in ninth grade, when die. When die. When die. And like the strippers that we all know and love on the center stage, Wendy, you get put your hands together. Or the cashiers. They're Wendy with Wies, though.

That's right. Wendy, have a safe trip tomorrow tonight, tonight. You flying? To this afternoon, yeah. This afternoon. I guess Mark got in when he get in today. He's like today. And then we're all getting together tomorrow morning.

and we're all going to go see Mom and it will be fun. Safe travels. We'll talk to you soon. All right. There she goes. Yeah, it's kind of crazy around here. There's a lot going on.

Yeah. If we can just, you know, get through the first, like Wendy says, like, you know, surround her with all the love and attention and stuff and nudge John out the F out of the way once in a while. like it's going to go it's going to go fine so it's all part of life spend in my love and and try not to think about the merle haggard song if we make it through December is that a real song it's a real song yeah oh man hey you might do okay with that uh country quiz that i was thinking about

yeah yeah you know that one seems to come up uh this time of year with uh christmas music like oh this song sucks yeah yeah i don't know i might be wrong about the artist i think it's Merle Haggard. Anybody named Merle Haggard was born to be a country star. Kind of. Just Merle. Hey, Meta, who does the song if we make it through December? I want to hear these glasses reply.

Your roadcaster cuts it out. It is Merle Haggard. It is Merle Haggard. Kristen Bell in my head just confirmed it. Thanks. Thanks, Kristen Bell. No, quit talking. Shut up, Kristen Bell.

Yeah, there we are. haven't been this chatty since that WB show everyone loved since the one life the good life the good thing the good place the good stuff the good get the good stuff uh all right we are going to take our leave uh big thanks to everybody oh you know what i should read this one because it's a kind of a holiday question so we got to kind of answer it yeah uh i like this one he says each of you this is a text by the way says each of you must tell us now your holiday must watch every year or else bad things will happen yours in christ a dude in Kansas City. Now, does he mean what we have to watch or bad things will happen or if we don't tell him bad things will happen?

I assume the latter, but maybe he means the former. I'm not sure. But for me, it's Muppet Christmas Carol every year we watch it. Really? That's cool.

I haven't seen that years and years and years and I need to add that to the list. We've been horrible. We haven't watched a single regular Christmas movie, like a movie that we always watch every Christmas.

And they're usually Elf. Elf's good. Elf National Ampoons Christmas vacation, love actually, and diehard. It's usually any combination of the four of those, and we haven't watched a single one yet this year. So next

week, it'll probably be diehard. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. As funny as it is, it's like, yeah, it's like, or Love Actually, you know, crazy neighbor hasn't seen Love Actually, and so it's weird watching a movie that has porn people, like

porn stand-ins doing stuff with the crazy neighbors, but oh well. Yeah, he'll love But that's the only one on that list that we don't do regularly. We should probably do that this year. Yeah, it's just, you know, all the stories are cute, except for the creepy one where a walking dead dude hones in on his best friend's new wife. That's right. Yeah.

Not the guy who did. No, not the one that did Veep. What am I thinking of? The guy that directed all the Downton Abbey or something? That was the guy who directed Love Actually. Yeah. Hold on. I need to know this now.

All right. Let's see. It's who I'm thinking of. Yeah, Andrew Lincoln. Richard Curtis. Richard Curtis, who looks like what Ken Jennings will look like in 25 years. Yeah. Bridget Jones' diary.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. Yeah, maybe that's it. I can't remember. Boy, he's sure done a lot of Christmas. some shit lately. He has, yeah. That's all he does. Oh, the Little Mermaid. He's doing the script for the live action. Or no,

we already did a live action. I think we already had the live action little mermaid, yeah. Well, love action. Oh, four writings at a funeral is what I'm thinking of. Oh, sure. He did that. Actually, only a few director things. The boat that rocked about time. A lot of writing, a lot of executive

producing, but... I heard about time was good. It's got a lot of same people in it. That's the time travel one with Bridget Mount No, not Bridgett Monaghan. The woman I always get confused. Rachel McAdams. Donnell, Gleason, Domnall, Domnall.

Donald. Donald. Donald. Donald. Donald. Donald. I think that Bill Nye is in that one, you guys, just on call. You know what mannequins can, but I don't say anything shite.

Shite. Vanessa Kirby. I love her. All right. Well, good stuff. Brian, let's get out of here. We got a week of offness next week. We do.

However, tomorrow, even though there won't be a TMS, there will be a coverville because every year I do the coverville countdown. I listen to all the covers that came out over the year, the course of the year released that year and pick the top 40 and then pair it down into two episodes, 40 to 21 and 20 to number one. So part one will be tomorrow. It's taking me a long time. There's 258 covers that came out this year that are in my list, probably even more than that. and I've currently got them paired down to 60, so I need to get those paired down to 40 and get them in order. So tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. mountain time.

So 24 hours from right now, a little bit less than that, 23 hours and 45 minutes, we will start the countdown. So be here live and listen at twitch.tv slash coverville. Very nice. Here are some of the best covers of the year. Something to fill your Friday with a little bit. And today at 4 p.m., sorry, 1 p.m. back to the 1 p.m.

1 p.m. today, core. We got a big core episode, a big follow-up to our, now we're the Jeans episode because it's a 501, so we're the Levi's Jeans name. The Buttonfly Core Edition. That's right. A little harder to get undone when you're in a hurry, but I kind of preferred button flies back in the day.

They don't really do those anymore. But anyway, someone does. I just don't buy them. But anyway, that's going to be today. So make sure you check that out. It's going to be super fun. We're going to talk probably about, they did kind of a wrap-up style thing

on Steam again this year where it tells you all the games you played and what your averages were, kind of like you do with music apps and Spotify and everything. You should check yours out, Brian, see what you played this year on Steam. If, if, you know, you know what it'll be, sadly, it'll be because the pinball machine every morning loads up FX pinball. That probably is going to be the thing it says I play more than anything else. I actually kind of want to see it now. I want to see what it did to your numbers. I'll have to take a look, yeah. Because it's going to look weird. Because it does all the charts and graphs and everything and it's going to be like, you spent the most time.

FX pinball, right, and then Astraneer, and then Blueprints. Blueprints, there you go. Played so much blueprints. For me, the freakiest thing for me was I log in and it says the average number of games played, the median for all steam. Oh, yours is insane. All Steam players everywhere is four. That's the median. That's the median, really.

That seemed low to me. That's probably about what mine is. I'm probably about four games. Yeah, I think you're normal. You're like a normal dude. mine was 3757 or something so you guys wonder when we're talking about giving away game codes why I seem to know every damn game

it's because of that this is a problem because you play every damn game you may not finish every damn game but you play every damn game I treat it like an arcade I walk in there and just put quarters and stuff that's so I'm you know I you do it for cool I mean you do it for fun but also for core I wish I had the time to do it

because I'd love to there's so many there's games I have in my library oh Tanner got me what should we call it? Dispatch. Oh, dispatch coming in for Brian. Yep, so this week. So I'm going to take a break from... I'm going to take a break from Clare Obscure

and play some dispatch too. I loved that game so much. So where do I see? Oh, there is Steam Replay 2025. We'll just do it right now. Yeah, check your numbers. Let's see what you got. This year you spent six games played. That's pretty good. You're higher than the median.

That's right. Does this take four there? What was it say on yours? The median there? The median is It doesn't say. It says six games played. Three games fewer than last year.

Five new games. Five achievements unlocked. Two fewer achievements than last year. Okay. Six days longest streak. Pinball FX3. 99% of my playtime is pinball FX3 with 154 sessions played.

Astronier 1% of playtime. Griftlands is my. third highest play. Oh, Gryflin's a great game. Yeah, I love Gryflans. The other reason I think is because that one plays so well on the steam deck. So I was able to play that sitting up on the couch.

That's awesome. Oh, yeah, here it is. So if you scroll down, you see a, see if I can show the stairway. Oh, yeah, right. Where's the, you guys can see it here. I'm going to do all this again later today, but it's fun. Here you go.

You played 351 games. Steam median, four. yousa. Well, I feel good that at least my, I'm still above average or still above the median. Oh, you're definitely above average. I'm surprised the average is so freaking low. And this is, by the way, that's 10 games less than I played last year. Last year I played 361. Wow. And 230 of these are new games. Okay, for those out there going. It's almost a new game every day. Yeah. If people wonder if I'm horribly in debt or if I'm going to, died penniless. Most of these are codes.

I get tons of codes from people. A developer of writing go, hey, we're releasing this thing this week. We want to send you one. So most of my 2,800 games are free. Anyway. Most.

Mostly. I did a lot of No Man Sky in here. I did a lot of shapes too and a lot of Elder Scrolls online. And I played 69. Nice. Percent with a controller, only 31 with keyboard and mouse.

Nice. I'm a controller guy, I guess. I guess so. Oh, good for you. Lots of fun. Hey. Oh, did you, what did you get on this part? Sorry, everybody.

I know we're kind of going along about it, but I'll pull it back up. Yeah. Just curious what you did on this little chart. This is that thing I was talking about yesterday, by the way. Again, it's going to be really thrown off. Yeah, that, yeah, that. And you'll see this again in dispatch when you play it, but. Oh, that's cool.

I love, I do love visualization of information. I do too. What do you call this? It's like a weighted graph or whatever. A spider graph. Spider graph. Spider-graph. That makes sense.

I don't know why they put dwarf. I still don't understand that. We talked about it last year. I don't get it. Dwarf games. You're a big fan of dwarf games. I guess. Here's mine.

So it's mostly pinball, obviously, but also open world survival craft, arcade simulation, card battler, and multiplayer. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Here it is. I'll bring it up, guys.

Hold on. For Discord to let me pull it out there. But you love your action rogolites. Oh, I really do. My big one, obviously, is pinball and then arcade. It's, you know, again. I love it.

I love where Pimball landed. Very weighted towards. It's weird, though. My weird one is dwarf. I guess I played a lot of dwarf. Whatever that dwarf can. I forgot the name of it. Yeah, but it doesn't, you know, it just,

it figures out, it doesn't, it's not going to be the same six things, six vertices for everybody. No, no. In fact, yours are all different, I think. Yeah, totally all different. Maybe simulation, there might be a simulation. No, not in years.

Okay. My party. game, the heavy weight on party game is from all the jackbox, yeah. Which I am, that's no problem for me. Yeah, it's fine. Look at you with your open world survival craft. Yeah, that was probably

what was that stupid game? I'll bet it's your space one you're playing all the time. Oh, Astronaire. Of course it's Astroenair, yes. Yeah, I'll bet it's that. I love Astroeneer, and they've got a brand new, uh, the new expansion that I want to try out all the things in. There's like a little bit of the last expansion that I have to finish.

It was just so repetitive And I couldn't do the last one Because I was like, all right, I did this five times already Do I want to grind this again? No I know, I know Well, there you go A little preview of court later If you want a preview of a song

Well, sorry, I can't give it to you But Brian can't give it to you Aradau says, Hello, here's hoping that I make it for my birthday On December 18th, you did Or somewhere nearby I'm becoming the legendary 42 answers To all things in life in the universe this year

42 years ago, I lived in the best year ever, 1983, even if I only lived in the last two weeks of it. It still counts for me. This time of year, I mean, depending on who you ask, you live through nine months of it before that. Well, of course you did. Duh. Anyway, nobody's arguing that. This time of year has always been special to me despite how some people with December birthdays may feel. When growing up, I thought that everybody putting out all their Christmas lights and decorations was because my birthday was happening. And for years, I was convinced that I was born on Christmas. I'm a born and raised winter-loving person, so Christmas, my birthday, and winter are my absolute favorite times

of the year. Add to that that I'm born one week before Christmas, two weeks before any years, and about three weeks before my dad's birthday. And it's an extra layer of magic. It's been a rough couple of months after surgery this summer, but it did go well. But I'm still working on running again, hoping my request can make it in and hopefully sometime soon. Thanks for all you do in the shows. and being a welcoming place when things may be tough. Christine or Aredao in Chad. Yay.

Oh, she's in here. I see Areda 18. That's very cool. I love when you guys are here for the stuff at the end. It's great. I have to go listen to the audio show to get the song.

Right, exactly. Yeah, you won't hear it live. That's right. You're going to hear it. And I'm playing one of the songs you specifically chose, which is a cover of bye-bye-bye by the band Our Last Night. This is a single that they released in 2014.

covering in sync. Here is Bye Bye Bye Bye. Are you gonna start a fight? I know this can't be right. Hey, baby, come on. I loved you endlessly when you weren't there for me, so now it's time to leave and make it alone. I know that I can't take no more.

It ain't no lie. I wanna see you out that door, Bipa, bye, bye, bye. Don't want to be a fool for you Just another player in your game for two You may hate me, but it ain't no ride Baby bye bye bye They don't really want to make it tough

I just want to tell you that I had enough In might sound crazy But it ain't no right If you bye bye bye bye bye Bye bye Just hit me with the truth now Girl you're more than well Come to So give me one good reason

Baby come on I live for you and me And I really come to see That life would be much better When you're gone I know that I can't take no more It ain't no life I wanna see you

Walk out the door baby bye bye bye Don't wanna be a fool I don't want to be a fool for you Just another player in your game for two You may hate me but it ain't no lie, baby, bye, bye, bye, bye I don't really want to make it tough I just want to take it ahead enough Might sound crazy, but it ain't no lie, baby, bye, bye, bye

Bye, bye I'm giving up, I know what I'm sure I'm giving up I know if I'm sure I don't want to be the reason I love your love before But I lie I'm chucking out and sign it off I don't want to be the loser and I've had enough

I don't want to be a fool in this game for two So I'm leaving you behind Bye, bye I don't want to make it time Make it done I had enough Bye

Baby Don't want to be a ball for you Just another player And you need for two You may hate me But it ain't no lie Baby, bye, bye

Don't really want to make it talk I just want to tell you that I don't know It might sound crazy But it ain't no lie Baby bye Bye bye This show is part of the Frog Pants Network.

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