Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 18: That Smooth Soup

Episode Date: January 17, 2018

Griffin and Rachel try to shake themselves of a long-running illness funk by rapid-firing through some real good stuff that they're real into right now! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Why do I sound like this? Hold on, let me touch some of the knobs on the microphone. Gotta tweak it. Because obviously the pitch setting has been turned down quite a bit. Let me see.

Let me turn it up to this. Everybody knows you're sick, Griffin. Okay, well, maybe not. Maybe this is the only podcast they listen to. I can't believe that's true. It's gotta be true. Once you get a taste of Griffin McElroy's... Once you taste of the McElroy juice.

Oh. I'm sorry. McElroy's. Once you taste the McElroy juice. Oh. I'm sorry. McElroy. I started that and it's my fault. Is McElroy juice what you get when you sort of grind one of us down in like a mortar and pestle? Like a big giant? Like a big evil giant? Anyway.

I was thinking more like secretions, but that's worse. Yuck. I don't know which one's worse, actually. So, yeah, listen. We are very sorry that we did not put out an episode last week. And to be frank, this episode is probably going to be a little bit short and a little bit strange. Here's the situation. For a little while now, Henry has been sick and he's getting better. He has bronchiolitis. But before that. But before that, uh bronchiolitis which before that but before that i was also sick and before that i was also sick well no i mean he had a stomach bug he had a stomach bug him and i have just sort of been it's like we're playing like a pokemon trading card game and it's like i've got stomach flu oh yeah well i'll see that and i'll raise you the sinus

and it's bad by the way don't google bronchiitis. That's what our doctor told us to do. It can apparently get pretty bad. But he's on the upswing. I'm very slowly on the upswing. But it's been it's been like a while like this. And this is a podcast all about like positivity and talking about things that we are like enthusiastic about and things that make us happy. And to get pretty real for a bit, it's kind of hard to do this show compared to our other podcasts when you're feeling down. Yeah, no, there is a lot about being sick that shifts your focus to just surviving. Well, and having a sick baby is the worst fucking thing in the world. And what I'll say is that this show is kind of, the approach that we're able to take on this show

is one that we are very fortunate to be able to do. We can identify things in our life that make us really, really happy. we are very fortunate to be able to do, you know, we can, we can identify things in our life that make us really, really happy. But when you're going through something difficult, that is challenging. And that's always something that we strive for.

And I think it's something that humans strive for is just like, look, look on the bright side. But last week, I don't know, we probably could have found time to also, he is not sleeping. And we record this most of the time while we're in the room right next to his nursery. And I'll be damned if

we're gonna, you know, break one of his precious, precious few sleep cycles for any reason. But we're doing this today. And we thought with this episode, we had this idea to just sort of talk about things that make us happy literally right now. Things that maybe wouldn't take up like the normal amount of time that a segment might take up on this show. Things that maybe don't justify a full like 15 minute deep dive. But also we just kind of wanted to talk about stuff that we're that we appreciate right now in an effort to kind of like, I don't know, boost our own spirits in a way. So yeah, we're going to just sort of rapid fire through some real good stuff. It's not going to be our usual airtight format that we usually have. But I'm very happy to be

here. I'm excited to be recording Wonderful again. Despite that, I may not be able to create the sound of excitement with my voice right now, but here we are. Do you want to start us off? Yeah, sure, I can do that. This is just off the dome, people. I'm going to unbutton a button because this shirt is too hot for what we're doing right now. Can you hear that? Can you hear the sound of Griffin's chest hair coming out of his shirt? That's all the hair. I mean, I guess my first thing, all the chest hair I've gotten lately, in the last three months or so, I've really been blossoming. And it's such a special and important time in my life.

Oh, Griffin, that was going to be my favorite thing. Well, you can do it, too. What do you love about my thick, bushy crop of chested hair? Yeah. What's your favorite thing about it? The feeling of it against your face every morning? Every morning I rub my chest and torso across Rachel's face. That's how he wakes me up. And I don't want to do it, but she said that it's like an angel's kiss every morning and that she loves it and needs it. So that's the first thing.

What's the second thing? You know what? I'm just going to put this out there. Hit me. Wheel of Fortune. Yeah, all right. Yeah, you've been into this lately? Is it making you feel good right now, Wheel of Fortune?

Or just the idea of the Wheel of Fortune? you feel good right now wheel of fortune or just the idea of the wheel of fortune i watched it the other day while you were cooking dinner and i thought about how comforting it is to me it is comforting it's probably my favorite game show to play along with because i feel like i'm pretty good at it a buddy of mine that i went to church with had a the wheel of fortune game on his computer and i remember being really good there was one day we were over there eating McRibs. Holy shit. What a visceral memory this is. We were eating McRibs and playing this game. And the thing popped up.

And I guessed it before any letters had been added to the thing. Oh, Griffin. And I felt incredible. It never happened again. I love Wheel of Fortune, though. Yeah. No, it's fun to play along with. And I love a good word game.

Yeah. And it has been good word game. Yeah. And it has been the exact same show for decades. They really haven't tweaked it very much. They added the million dollar prize, which I saw somebody win once. You know how they add the million dollar thing onto the wheel and you collect it and then it'll show up in one of the prize envelopes in the end. So it's like a very small chance that you'll get the prize envelope and then a very, very, very small chance that it'll be the envelope that you pick at the end. I saw it. And then I went to get a haircut. And while I was at the haircut, I was like, the craziest shit just happened. I just saw somebody win a Millie on the wheel. And the

woman who cuts my hair was like, holy shit, I saw that too. And we celebrated. I celebrate. You have very specific memories around Wheel of Fortune. I do. It apparently occupies a very specific memories around Wheel of Fortune. I do. It apparently occupies a very important space in my life. That was a good one. I want to talk about one that I apparently have done before.

I talked to Rachel about it, but this last week I consumed countless, countless hours of it and will continue to. And that's Games Done Quick. It's the speed running charity event that they do twice a year. And by they, I mean this organization that puts on these events where a bunch of speedrunners come and play video games as quickly as they possibly can and raise a bunch of money for different charities.

Usually the Doctors Without Borders organization, or this year it was the Prevent Cancer Foundation. They raised $2.2 million. It's like a huge, cool thing. How does it raise money? They just get donations from viewers. and they're really smart about it there's like donation incentives where like you can you know pick a character's name in a video game or something like that there's a lot of stuff like that where they they they sort of boost donations but yeah man i just love video game speedruns i think it's a really, really fascinating practice and an interesting community.

And there's so much like technical stuff that goes into it that I kind of love watching. So this happened all last week. I probably would have done this last week if we had an episode, because they do it in January. And then I think they do it again in July for Summer Games Done Quick. But I think it's just the best stuff. And I love watching all these old games, but seeing them in new ways, seeing things that are wrong with them that can be exploited that I never even knew about, and watching these games that I bashed my head against as a kid

get completely obliterated. It's really, really interesting. Is there a way to figure out what game they're going to do when? Yeah, they have a whole schedule that is up on their website. I think they did, I can't, like a couple hundred runs. I feel like this would only work for me if I were familiar with the games, which is a very rare occurrence. Yeah, if they do a Cool Spot run, Rachel, they've probably done Cool Spot. Would it make you happy

if I learned how to speed run Cool Spot? Because I can guarantee you that branded video game does not have the tightest code. I bet you there's some shit you can get up to. Our listeners at home don't know that I love Cool Spot. That was one of those games that I never owned that I used to rent from Blockbuster repeatedly.

Oh, that's cool. There were a bunch of great runs this year. They're all on demand on the GameStun Quick YouTube channel. The Resident Evil 7 run, that's a game that came out last year. They've already figured out ways to screw with it. And I loved that game, and that run was really cool. They did one run of, and this is probably my biggest recommendation, of Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past,

which was the Super Nintendo Zelda game. It was one of the best games, one of my favorite games ever. And there's a category of running that game where they randomize where everything is. They like get into the code of the game and then like, oh, you know where to find the bow in Zelda, only in this random version, it's going to end up where it's not supposed to be. So you're playing through the game in like a weird order. And they actually did that as a race. So they had two players who started playing the game, trying to find where out where everything was playing this game that is again, like a

classic that I know backwards and forwards, but presented in this really new way. It was really interesting and cool. So I love I love speeds around speed runs. And this was a this was a really cool event. What else you got? So another thing is, this is kind of hard to phrase i feel like the things that have brought me pleasure this week or this past week have been kind of abstract okay um so doing the right thing i guess okay that's it's actually called do the right thing do the right thing is the name of the yeah um so this is embarrassing but um when i was parking the other day i hit somebody's car with my car that is true and i left a note so wait hold on hold on no hold on of course like you left a note are you saying that like are you just trying to like brag right now that you, well, so you had a bumpy and auto bumpy and so embarrassing. I got a bigger car a few months

ago and I don't know how to maneuver it yet. And so I'm like constantly over the line in parking spaces and all this stuff. So yes, of course I left a note, but what I'm saying is that in that situation I had one decision to make and I made it. Yeah, it ain't a hard decision though. Okay, for a good person, I guess it's not a hard decision. You're a good person. Hear me out. I feel like when you're typically in a difficult situation, there are usually like a hundred things to do, like knowing that there is something that has happened. And now I have endless options in front of me. Terrible. And usually it ruins my day. But in this case, I did something. I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. And when it

was done, I like totally forgave myself moved on. I think it helped that the person whose car you hit was apparently a real champ. They were very, very, very nice, which I appreciate a lot. I heard Rachel on the phone with them laughing like she was talking to an old friend whose car she had just maligned. I was really embarrassed and they approached it with a lot of understanding, which was very nice. I'm sure they appreciated it too, because I have definitely been in a situation. I had my window, my side window in my car, like fucked up because somebody hit it in a situation. I had my window, my side window in my car, like, fucked up because somebody hid it in a parking garage. And didn't leave a note or didn't do anything. That was just up to me to solve the mystery. Follow the clues. You could have saved your window. But yeah, I guess

I was... Did I say window? I meant side view mirror. Okay, anyway. I was just surprised. I think, you know, after I probably was the week I had had there, i was just surprised i think you know after i probably was the week i had had there it was just kind of like well this is another thing um but i was surprised at how kind of easy it was to not beat myself up over it yeah because it happened it was an accident and i was able to do something that i was supposed to do about it and then it was over and it was just i think that comes with age. I feel like when I was younger, I've never actually been in an accident. Yeah, I hadn't either.

You hadn't either? You got in an accident on our way to buy this house. Oh, yeah, that's right. I have a thing. It's not exactly this week, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's Lady Bird, the movie. Yeah, I almost a thing. It's not exactly this week, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's Lady Bird, the movie. Yeah, I almost mentioned that. So Rachel and I don't really have opportunities to go see movies.

Really, our only chance to do it is if Rachel is off work and I'm off work and Henry's in daycare, which is a day like today is the only real time that that's true, where we can sneak out and see a movie. I went and saw Star Wars without you, but other than that, I think we've only seen like three movies in the last year. And one of those movies was Get Out, which was my favorite movie of 2017, hands down. But I think Lady Bird clocks in just behind it

because it's such a good movie, man. The praise that has been heaped upon it and the praise that I can heap upon it sounds so simple, but it really stands out when you see a movie and believe every single word that every single character says, and it connects with you as feeling real. And I also think it's kind of profound that the character Lady Bird, her experience in this movie, does not mirror my own experience coming up. I had a very good non-confrontational relationship with my parents and other differences, but I found it so relatable. It taps into something that I think a lot of coming of age movies and stories don't really tap into. There's there's something so universal about it that I found so incredible. Yeah, it's it's it's a really honest movie.

Like it feels like not dramatized particularly. It just feels like this is this is the experience that a lot of people have um and and there's so many relatable characters because everybody is is being played in this very believable way i don't know it's hard you're right it's hard to kind of i've seen it described as like a small story told really well but i actually think like it actually does quite a bit. It tells a lot of different facets that you would see in maybe a few coming-of-age stories. I love that she has relationships with people who occupy these kinds of archetypes that were absolutely relatable to me growing up like oh yeah i also you know dated a person like that um yeah i don't know i think it's such a really such a really great movie and i'm so glad that we went to

that we went to see it yeah it's well and maybe it's because the the character ladybird herself is is so um able to be interpreted like you don't get any kind of inner monologue you're not like reading her diary over her shoulder but you feel like you don't get any kind of inner monologue you're not like reading her diary over her shoulder but you feel like you understand how she feels in every situation yeah it's like you're like really with her the whole time yeah it's it's because she's a very it's interesting how it tells this very it tells a story about like kind of a vulnerable character as she kind of finds her way through the world, right? You cannot have a coming-of-age story without that. But at the same time, she's also really confident and really well-spoken and very charming. The scene where she's flirting with the guy who she just met

in the grocery store shows you this is a character who like knows what she wants and is not like afraid to pursue that while at the same time also being kind of like unsure of every single thing that she's doing. I don't know. I think it's a I think it's such a great movie. Yeah, you got anything else? Okay, this didn't happen to me this week, because I have actually been healthy. I thought you were gonna say I hit two more cars. Just while we've been recording. RC cars.

It's that moment when you have decided that you're better enough to clear off all of your sick person's things. Yeah. sick person's things. So when I am sick, there is a bag of used Kleenex that follows me around the house. It's usually like a grocery bag that I use to put my used Kleenex in. I don't know why I really have to go into that much detail. Yeah, geez, getting anatomical on it. But yeah, so there's that there's cough drops, there's medicine, there's, it's just the number of things that kind of follow you around when you're sick. And when you realize that you're better enough to not need these accessories in your life every minute. Kind of, that's a wonderful. Yeah, I feel like you're really taunting me right now. I feel like this is timely, because I just cleaned up my office before you recorded in here because it was a fucking din of plague.

But yeah, I get that. You fold up the little blanket you've been using on the couch and you say, now this blanket is done. You're making a decision. Is it the cleanness of the zone after that that you like? Or is it the importance of the decision of just like i don't need these things anymore i mean it's both it's both but it's definitely um it's that moment where you're just like i've beaten this and now i don't need all of you weapons yeah on that same note that first shower you take after you're finally like feeling better

i feel like that first shower i mean you take showers when you're sick, probably. Or if you don't, that's fine. I don't know what you've got going on. But that first one where you're starting to feel healthy and you take the shower, a shower is so revitalizing anyway, that when you like finally are over the hump, it's like you feel like you could go and fight Superman or something. like he could go and fight superman or something um i have one it's a little bit esoteric but i've spent a lot of time this past week playing around with a piece of software called game maker studio 2 which is the sequel to game maker studio and it's like game development tools which i know i don't know anything about anything really um i i've messed around with stuff like this kind of in the past, but I started to look into this because a couple of games that I really like, like Undertale and Hyper Light Drift were made with it. And I heard that it has a sort of cool way to do programming, which again, I don't know. I took some Code Academy classes, but I don't know like basically anything. And without going into too much detail, it's just a really accessible, like, cool way to make games if you don't know anything about, like, programming.

Where all the coding is done, I really think it should be taught as, like, STEM classes for kids and stuff like that. Because all the programming is just done through, like, drag and drop, where you just drag little chunks of code into these sequences and then drop them and then it's so like parsable um which i love that word because it means something but it also sounds like you're saying the word possible in like the weirdest way imaginable although on that note it is very parsable to make a game with it because like i've made like two little rough prototypes for games that I think are really neat in the last week that I've been messing around with it. And like, I don't know.

I, I, the way that my brain works, like I love a good like puzzle and I love trying to figure out like, okay, I want it so that when you press this button, the look of the button changes and it opens up this menu that has all your stuff in it. And then figuring out like, okay, well I need to figure opens up this menu that has all your stuff in it.

And then figuring out like, okay, well, I need to figure out how to make this look different when you press it. I need to figure out how to make it send a message to this other thing that opens up the menu. And then I have to figure out how to populate that menu with all the different items or whatever inside of it. And I need to figure out a way to, you know, set quantities for those things. Like each sort of decision you have to make opens up

this tree of, of like branching decisions where you have to figure out the best way to like achieve what you want to do. And in a lot of like places that's just like coding, you do all that through, you know, scripting and writing scripts and have like having to know like the ins and outs of a language or something like that. And that's like way above my pay grade, but this is so like approachable and parsable. And I think it's really neat. Does it work if you don't have a very specific idea of what you want to make? I mean, there are tutorials that it comes with that are actually really helpful. There's one in particular that like walks you through like, okay, we're going to make a shooting game. So

first off, it's great. It actually shows you a little YouTube video in the corner of the software that like literally you could just follow step by step and then you make a game. And if you're at all interested, the trial version is free and that tutorial is free. So you can just hop in and make that thing. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I imagine a lot of people are kind of interested in game design, but don't have a very specific idea of what they want to make. I mean, I've always been. Video games are the art form media type that I have consumed by a huge margin, the most of in my life. But making them has always been inaccessible because it requires you to be proficient in all these different doctrines.

You have to know how to operate game development software, like Game Maker or Unity or Unreal or whatever. You have to know how to program. You have to know the scripting language. You have to know how to make art. And I think what's really cool about this is that you don't really need most of that stuff. So when I started, I did that tutorial and I made this very basic sort of twin-stick shooter game where you're a little UFO flying around shooting things. And I finished that tutorial and had like enough of an understanding of the tools that I was like, okay, I want to add lives to the game. How do I do that? And then I tried to figure out how to add lives to the game. And then I did. And I was like, okay, I want to add like power ups. How do

I how do I make a power up? And I had to think it through. And then I figured out how to add power ups to it. And then and doing that uh like taught me how everything works uh and then i had this super complicated virtually unplayable game but i don't i don't know i i love learning new stuff and i love creating like this is why i like uh garage band and logic pro x where it's like now i know how to make music and i didn't know how to make it before i feel very similarly about this it's like, I did not know how games were. And even if I never make anything, which I probably won't ever make like a full game, like it's really interesting to know how games work or at least appreciate that every single

facet of every single game has, you know, a hundred decisions and a hundred different like solutions for problems that went into it. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you're at all in our set, it's free. You know what's not free, though? Advertisements on our show. Can I see the white? A bonk, a bonk, a bonk, a bonk, a bonk, a bonk, a bonk, a bonk,

a bonk, a bonk, a bonk. Did you? Bonk? Now, I'm imagining, like, you just pointed to a musician in the corner who was playing, I don't know what that sound was supposed to be, like, you just pointed to a musician in the corner who was playing, I don't know what that sound was supposed to be, like a thumb piano or something like that. And they were trying to read the sheet music, but it's pretty dark in here.

So they're like, bonk, bonk. Is that an E flat? I guess so. Bonk. All right, we got a few jumbotrons here. Stick with us. We got one for Blaine, and it's from Nora, who says, Blurn. That's clearly not how his name is spelled

or pronounced. Nice try, Nora. You're the greatest friend a person could ask for and I'm so lucky to have you in my life. Sorkin quote. I guess they want me to add an Aaron Sorkin quote in there, but I will not. I miss you all the time, but I know we will see each other soon. Taz reference. You're wonderful. Get it? I said the thing on the thing. A huge nerd, and you bring joy to all who have the pleasure of knowing you. Love, Nora, and the McElroy. And it might have gotten cut off, but technically it is true. One of the McElroys did say that. I have another Jumbotron for Megan, and it's from Lindsay, who says, Griffin, read please. Okay. Sorry I couldn't take you to Hamilton with me.

Is this me saying this? Anyway, but please accept this birthday message from sweet baby brother 30 under 30 media luminary. They can't take it away. Griffin McElroy. It says that. I've moved on. You are a good, good sister, and I will always associate with you as long as we live. But remember, you snooze, you lose, mumbly.

Happy sweet 16, Meg. Oh, that's a nice one. Our next jumbotron is for graceless.com. Graceless is the world's first anti aspirational brand for women hell bent on changing how we're talked to and about its content and connections for those tired of the supposed to and should have and ready to just be. Media targeted to women aims for perfection regardless of its focus. Graceless throws out the measuring stick saying you don't have to aspire to be anything but yourself, which is already wonderful. Join us at graceless.com. Fuck yeah. I'm going to edit some DJ horns all over that message because it was dope as fuck. Boo, boo, boo, boo.

Yeah, those. Thank you. I'll just paste that over it. This message is for Dee. It is from, you know who this is, and I love you. But I don't know. What a mystery. I bet it's Paula Abdul. Hey there! And that's just

in parentheses. I don't know if they wanted me to say that, but it's in parentheses. So I thought maybe they did. Hey there, your brain's been all fuzzy lately and everyone's been asking you to say a few good words to yourself and they love you. So let's take a baby step and ask someone else to say something you wrote. You're a champ. You're a teacher changing lives, a kick-ass web developer, and you're basically the best at Animal Crossing. You're okay. Now, you're great, but you better watch that Animal Crossing throne. Griffin could challenge you on that. I'm just saying, what you selling those turnips for? That's all I'm saying is, what's your max turnip gains?

If your turnip gains are any less than a mil, you need to go ahead and back off that a little bit. Don't get me wrong. You've got it going on. But the turnips, just keep it in mind. Podcasts. Podcasts. Podcasts. They're audio programs that tell smart stories

in innovative ways using editing techniques like this. Like this. Like this. But let's face it, all that smart stuff can be exhausting. That's where Stop Podcasting Yourself comes in. It's so stupid.

It's just two stupid dinguses being dumb idiot jerks for 90 minutes. Stop Podcasting Yourself. The stupid show that smart people love Find it on iTunes Or MaximumFun.org Do you have another thing for me? I do, yeah And this is actually inspired by watching the show The Good Place

The Good Place was literally my next thing But I'm not going to talk about The Good Place Well, beans! So you can if you want still all right i kind of spoil it uh it made me think of replacement swears okay these are fun uh so the one of the big things you learn early on in the good place is that people are not allowed to swear uh and when they try to uh replacement swears come out of their mouth. Yeah, so fork and shirt. And I can't remember the other ones, but there's a lot.

But I've always really liked these just in general. Did you like Frack on Battlestar Galactica? That's like the big one for me. Yeah, kind of. What are the ones you're thinking of? I mean, I like... I actually do say like D darn and gosh a little bit

are those replacements i guess i guess they are um i like frig a lot oh man that one's tough for me i wouldn't say it personally but when other people do i i find it charming uh shoot is another one as i say sometimes i've gotten really into shoot lately yeah um you say beans sometimes too beans is good beans is sort of a catch-all but shoot i don't know there's something fun about like my sort of cuss heavy brand and sort of going against it with a good shoot from time to time i just i really i've always really enjoyed those yeah they're great let's talk about The Good Place. Because the reason I wanted to do it here,

I could talk endlessly about this show, but I do not want to spoil anything. It's in its second season right now. And it is like, it's probably my favorite show on television right now. And it's sort of new on the throne there. But I

love this show so much. It's so, so smart. And it handles these really heady philosophical concepts. Like, genuinely, they get into the work of, you know, Kierkegaard and Descartes and, like, really, really hit that stuff hard in a way that is, like, really digestible in a 22-minute television show uh that that

really follows along and explains like what the those concepts are uh that's not what i like love about it the things i love about it i literally just can't talk about um because i i think this is a show that you just got to start with episode one and just get going into it we can't say that all the characters are really strong characters Characters are really strong. All the actors are fantastic. Like, there's no kind of throwaway character in the bunch. Like, if you had to pick your favorite, for example, it would be difficult to do.

It's a small cast, and they are so deliberately developed out that they just have so much personality. I will say it is, like, it is a show that is not afraid to, like, blow up its own concept, to change the rules all the time. A lot of shows are kind of afraid to do that. Or they do it once, and sometimes they're successful and sometimes they're not. constantly reinventing itself in a way where it's been so successful every time it's tried it that no matter what they try to do, usually when a show tries to like do something big and new, I get worried like, oh, they're going to do a bad job with this. And it's really fun to watch a show

where I just trust them so completely, no matter what they try to do, because then whatever they throw at you, you get excited. And it's like, oh my God, I can't wait to see them try to dig their way out of this one. It's a brilliant, a it's a brilliant, brilliant show, which, again, you have to start on episode one and really power through because it really takes like, I think I stopped watching it the first time I watched it, like three episodes in. Yeah. And only started watching it once the first season was done because people were like, oh, you have to watch this show. Well, because it starts out with this premise and you kind of think you understand what's going on. And then they just keep complicating it. Yeah. Keep complicating it.

And then suddenly you realize like what a challenging and interesting show it is. Yeah. It is a brilliant, brilliant show. You got another one? I know what I can talk about. Okay. Amazing Race. Yeah.

Amazing Race is a good one too. Amazing Race is back. Yeah. This is one of those shows that's been around forever that people may have seen a season of and then stopped watching kind of like survivor for us too where i think both griffin and i watched maybe a season or two and then didn't for like 10 years and then have watched every episode of it since um but they've started doing some really interesting kind of innovations to it much like survivor uh but the idea and this is kind of innovations to it, much like Survivor.

But the idea, and this is kind of like Griffin's dating show that he came up with on Rosebuddies. Yeah, I think we actually did talk about Amazing Race quite a bit on that one. Yeah, but I will just say that, you know, it's interesting to watch people kind of, there's relationships that fall apart immediately. Like this season, as soon as like the very first legs, I think it's complicated. These two people turn on each other right away. And then you see other people that are just really positive and have a really good attitude. And I can't think of anything more stressful than traveling, especially in a place that you don't speak the language and you don't know

how to get from place to place. And so it's really fascinating to watch these people kind of have these brand new experiences over and over and over again in like a really highly stressful environment. And so you feel really excited for them when they win or when they overcome a challenge or whatever. And I find it like I never watched that show and feel like disappointed when I leave it. Yeah. If you've never watched it before and you want a good season to hop onto, I don't remember which number it is, but there was a season where half the teams were made up of these like long time couples, I think.

And the other half were what they called blind dates. They just took like six people and matched them up with six other people just to see if love could spark while they went out there, which is literally the reality show that Rachel and I pitched. It was a really good one. Can I talk about our new blender? Okay. We got a new blender, and it's the first time I've ever splurged on a blender.

I think it was like $100 or something like that, which is not that Blendtec one that can dissolve a crowbar or whatever. It's much more expensive. But it's so nice to have a good blender because it opens up my jam is smooth soups like if the chunky chunky soups you gotta earn it chunky soup a smooth soup all and just knowing that every bite's going to be the same why are you laughing why are you laughing because you're a 30 year old man i guess i am um but yeah with a blender you can make so much good smooth soup so easily i've made a couple really good smooth soups i made a ground nut bisque uh it was like peanuts with uh sweet sweet potatoes and uh i forget everything that

went into ginger well we also made a sweet potato and ginger bisque but this was like a different one that had like kind of a spicy peanut profile that was like really really good and it took like no time at all to make because this thing is a is a fucking like nas-grade centrifuge. Actually, they do actually sell centrifuges that you can use in the kitchen that you can use to clarify butter. You put it in this compartment, and it spins around real fast until the butter part of it, the liquid part of it, drips out of this hole. Oh, my gosh. It's so expensive and so excessive, but I think that's interesting, too.

But I love this new blender. Yeah, no, it's actually, it's pretty incredible. I've always been discouraged with blenders because they never actually blend. This one blends the hell out of some stuff. Yes. And you get that smooth soup that all 30-year-old men crave. It's good. Listen, a chunky soup, the texture of it usually grosses me out because there's usually some cooked vegetables in there. And the texture of most cooked vegetables bums me out in a major way. But here, you don't get that chaotic jumble of like, there's some celery in this one and there's two beans, but there's no meat. And in a soup no questions asked baby it's all particles and

stuff you're getting it all you know who else i bet would be a huge fan of the smooth soup who our baby son henry you're saying i eat saying he also likes a smooth meal the flavors i make with this incredible blender are too complex for our baby to appreciate. Yeah, smooth soup. I guess it started out being I love blenders, but now it's I love smooth soup. You got another one? This actually kind of goes a little bit along with what you said. About smooth, is it a chunk, a hard soup?

No. Hard soup? No. Hard soup? No. Although, that's something fun to ponder, isn't it? You could take smooth soup and make a smooth soup popsicle with it. Now we're talking. Hello. Could you make a hot popsicle?

Could you make a hot popsicle? This season on Top Chef. If Travis were here, he would say hot-sicle. Why would he... Yeah, he would. He would. I like watching a cooking show while I eat dinner. Yes. This is something Griffin and I do quite often. It elevates

your own meal, I would say. It makes you feel a little bit more artisanal about it. Yeah, you feel a little bit more like artisanal. Yeah, you're like fancier. You really appreciate the flavors that you put together. And I don't know. It's just this quick little one-off thing. Yeah, we watched a whole season of Top Chef in like a week. Yeah, we watched Top Chef.

We watch MasterChef occasionally. Not quite as good. It's really fallen off the wagon for me. No, I know. I wanted to recommend a book that I've been reading. That's right, folks. That's right, folks. I read a book. Like two a year. It's called Several Short Sentences About Writing by an author named Verlin Klinkenborg. Oh, this is the book Justin gave me.

Yeah. So Justin sent me this book and he's like, I've been reading this book and it's really eye-opening. And I don't do a ton of writing. I do some for the Adventure Zone, and I do a little journaling here and there, and have tried to start writing down outlines and concepts for a fiction novel, if I ever had the time to ever do that. But I don't really know how to write well, and that's not me begging for compliments. It's a different thing than the stuff that I do. It reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg bit where he talks about being a comedian and then people coming to ask him if he would write a movie and saying that's like going to a

chef and being like, oh, you know how to cook, huh? And the chef says, yeah. They say, cool. Can you farm? It reminds me of that a lot. But anyway, this book is really cool because it is sort of all about breaking down your style and trying to understand what you learned throughout your life about writing and what is actually helpful about what you've learned and what is kind of harmful. Specifically, like the things that you learned if you went to like college and you took writing classes in college and had to write these like very formal papers, you learned a specific style of writing and a certain way of organizing your thoughts that today might just sort of be more like you trying to emulate a style that you were taught, trying to emulate this very, very formal way of writing rather than actually figuring out what your own thoughts are and then figure out how to sort of transmit those thoughts into sentences, which this whole book is literally made up of very,

very short sentences. And the whole point of it is that's what you need to start writing and you'll get longer. But like before you can do that, you need to like basically kind of start over and, and try to figure out like what your own voice is, which again, like I'm not like a big writer. So it's not like I have a lot of creative writing classes as an undergrad in graduate school. And you're reading constantly, and you're reading other people's work, and you're reading published and unpublished stuff. And that has always really impacted what I was writing at the time. And so it is that you get to a point where you start to figure out like, wait, who, where, like trying to emulate that. And that is, that ain't, that's not good. That's not, that's not how you're supposed to do it. It also talks a lot about revision and what revision is and what it should be. It advises against just writing in this flow and just writing a bunch of shit, writing down the first things that come to your mind, and then going back and revising them later. It tells you that revision is a process that should take place in your brain before you

write a single word down, and that each sentence, like every single word should be thoughtful in the sentence. And if you're writing down stuff that's kind of automatic, then you have fucked up. And this book sounds really intimidating. It is kind of it's kind of intimidating. But it's also like, every single sort of bad practice that it mentioned, I looked at and I said, Yes, and not only yes, these are the reasons why when I start trying to write down things for a novel or try to write down the first chapter of a novel, and then I look at it and I say, this is fucking garbage. This book is a little key that's like, here's why it's garbage. It's because it's literally just the first thing that entered

my mind that I wrote uncritically and then went back. And during the revision process, I was not like bold enough to just say like, okay, well this is gone. This is gone. This is gone. This is gone.

This is gone. This is gone. Yeah. I think it is, I think intimidating, but I also think as somebody who is almost chronically unhappy with the things that I write after I write them. It's sort of an interesting guide on how to be critical of your own work and how to try to streamline your process

a little, not streamline, but like, master your own process so that you're a little bit more confident in what you write. My voice is almost completely done. Maybe we should just wrap up if you're okay with that. I have a couple of submissions here. The first one was sent in by Jessica who says, I want to share one of my favorite things, the charity knitting circle I run. Every other week, a group of volunteers meet up

and I teach them basic knitting techniques and we make squares that we sew into baby blankets to donate to local hospitals. This is my second year running this. And there's something so wonderful about watching my students' eyes light up as they make progress and realize that they can, in fact, finish the project and help out a family in need, all while making friends, sharing about their days, and eating popcorn. Best shit ever. That's so cool. Top tier. Amazing stuff. Thank you so much for sharing,

Jessica, and thanks for doing this really cool thing. It sounds really fun. Here's another one from Beckett, who says, My wonderful thing right now is sleeping with the window open. My fiancé and I live in a densely populated suburb of D.C., and there's always lots of traffic on the street below, and having the window open for sound and breeze

at night is really great. It's been extremely cold lately, so we haven't been able to for like three months, but I'm really looking forward to when it warms back up. This one resonated with me. I have these like weirdly powerful memories of the first like few times I slept over at your house that you were living in in Austin. I used to always have the window open. You used to always have the window open, which I never did.

And we would sleep with the window open. And I remember being so like romanced by, well, everything about that situation. And here's one last one from Monty, who says, Recently, my adoptive older brother got the SNES Mini, and he's been teaching me how to play all the games he grew up with. I'm still on Earthbound right now, but I think spending time playing video games with family is just wonderful. I actually talked about the SNES classic. I think it's called the mini in Europe, maybe.

But I love this. I love this idea of just like, Hey, you haven't played these games before. Let me show them to you. Griffin is so excited about that becoming part of his relationship with Henry. Yes. While also being like entirely cognizant of how weird it would be to just be

like, now sit down. This is Crash Bandicoot. You must love Crash Bandicoot. entirely cognizant of like how weird it would be to just be like now sit down this is crash bandicoot you must love crash bandicoot like your father and you're his father bandicoot house we are a bandicoot household it is our birthright you must love crash and his weird jorts i can do this voice really good right now it's not even hard for me. He eats the wumpa fruit and he throws them away. You two must

feast on the wumpa fruit like your father, Crash Bandicoot. I mean, oops, the secret is revealed. Oh, no. Hand me that wumpa fruit. I think it's called wumpa fruit. Anyway, this has been wonderful. It's a wumpa fruit podcast about Crash Bandicoot.

And thank you so much for listening. Thank you again for bearing with us while we sort of deal with our own stuff over here. We try not to put that on you, but it's a heavy load. Thanks to Maximum Fun for having us on the network. They're really great. What are some great Maximum Fun shows that you're into right now? There's so many new ones. I know.

Inside Pop is a good one. It is a good one. Oh, Heat Rocks is another one. Heat Rocks is fantastic. It's very, very good. And there's shows like Stop Podcasting Yourself

and Jordan, Jesse Go and so many all at MaximumFun.org. And if you want to see more of our stuff, you can go to McElroyShows.com. Is that it?

I think that might be it. That's it. Thank you all so much for listening.com. Is that it? I think that might be it. That's it. Thank you all so much for listening. We will be back next week, and then there will be a new episode. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. All right. Bye. Hey! Workin' on Hey! Money Hey! Workin' on Hey! Money Hey! Workin' on

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