We Tried to Fix Sports. Nobody Asked Us To.

Understanding power dynamics and the trap of perpetual victimization. Learn why adopting a specific social identity can limit personal growth.

This discussion examines the modern obsession with oppressor vs oppressed narratives. Many people find comfort in these frameworks because they provide a sense of identity, even if that identity is rooted in hopelessness. We break down the psychological appeal of viewing life through the lens of power dynamics and why some individuals cling to these theories despite the lack of personal empowerment.

If you find yourself questioning mainstream identity politics, this breakdown offers a clearer perspective. We analyze how society encourages this mindset and the consequences of accepting a perpetual victimization narrative as a default state of being. Whether you are interested in social theory critique or simply want to understand the current cultural climate, this analysis provides food for thought.

It gets weird in the best way: sports as a happiness test, WNBA name riffs, a surprisingly intense alligator story, and a Thanksgiving “dark meat” lesson that ties the whole theme together. We also share a clear example of meaningful partnership through marriage and service, and why building with someone else beats chasing solo wins.

If you like big ideas, sharp jokes, and practical psychology about happiness, anxiety, and personal growth, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a better definition of happiness, and leave us a review with your take: what does happiness mean to you?

Support Robert and Max by purchasing Stair Pits Below!
https://www.unbreakableorigins.com/

0:00 Welcome and Intro.
4:04 Sports Wins As A Happiness Test
10:08 Happiness Versus Relief
15:43 Comfort Or Adventure Choice
19:47 Homeostasis And The Myth Of Normal
26:44 Alligators Fear And Better Boundaries
33:20 Crab Pot Theory And Victim Identity
40:36 Friendship Utility And Building Together
45:22 Marriage Service And Real Purpose
52:42 Dark Meat Lesson And Final Plug

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Everything is about power. Everything is about oppressor oppressed. And that's a theory that a lot of people prescribe, you know, and they just they love that idea because then their hopelessness gives them an identity, I guess, and it gives them a position of perpetual victimization.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

I don't know if what would be stranger, the fact that you're 22 with that fear, or that you're 22 being dropped off by the babysitter. Babysitter was hot.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

I think what people accept as happiness is the absence of pain and the lack of anxiety. Imagine, if you will, a life where your cigarette is more important than your child, where liquor is more loved than anyone else in your life. Welcome to the stereotypes. Okay, great. Generally, we just walk into it very slowly. Very timidly. Yeah, that's it. Good day. Hi, how are you? Today on a special episode of a Stair Pits podcast, I'll pretend that I'm Mr. Rogers. Welcome to my neighborhood. And today I have my friend Max. Max, how are you today?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

You look wonderful in your hat. Thank you, Mr. Rogers. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

I think it's wonderful to be in here.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

Is that a happy hat?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

It is a happy hat, and it is a wonderful day in your neighborhood, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

That's it. Well, I like shapes. What shape do you like? Uh I'm more of an obtuse kind of guy. Mm-hmm. I like the way you say obtuse. Obtuse. You say it better than I do. So I have years of practice. Yes, you do. Right. So that doesn't scare anybody from not watching the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

It's gonna be hard. Like half the audience in the first 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

That's the first three seconds. And anybody that is watching it, my God, please turn yourself in. Hey, congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Have you made it past that?

SPEAKER_04 2:04

You just shouldn't. I mean, the answer is please get a life. Beautiful. That's all I can say. That's it. But no, it is exciting to be here. We just get it over with by the book. It's a great book. By the book. 100%. Blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

On BreakableOrigins.com, stair pits, out now. RA Thompson is the author.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Hey, great show. Thank you. See, that's it. That's it. Perfect. Thanks for being here today. Um, so I was thinking about this the other day. I actually did come up with a mild thought for today. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

Which is frightening. Yes, it is. Because sometimes I come ill prepared. But today, prepared. Yes. That was one of the things. We actually have Mallory running the board and the cameras today. So generally Caleb used to say, Well, what are you guys going to talk about? And I'd say, I don't care. We'll just make something up. And he doesn't even ask. Mallory, I guess it's been beaten down not to even care.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

Um so I was thinking about this. As you know, and as perhaps people that watch the podcast know, um, one of my favorite things is looking at um words and that people don't necessarily know what the words mean, but they like to use them. Yeah. Right. So, like for instance, teleph, you know, telefunken U47. It's a German microphone, but it sounds really fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Wow, it sounds like we've never heard of that word, so that was impressive. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

It was um it was actually in a Frank Zappa song that was rather obscure. That's and it was just a throwaway lyric.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

And this was in the days when you couldn't look it up online. So you actually had it took me like about six months to figure out what it was.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

But after that, got that one squared away. Gotcha. I actually thought about buying one just to have it.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Okay. There you go. Well, I mean, you already you already speak German. Well, yeah, parts of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Vista für Gegner and Vita for those of you that are. I get half dozen words, they're pretty good. But one of the words I thought about the other day, and it's kind of an interesting thing to chat about, and the word is happiness. What do you think? Well, let me ask to you, what is happiness?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Um, anytime the Texans rocket your Astros win a sporting event, win whatever sporting event they are participating in. If any one of my pro teams win oh, excuse my language, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Okay. Anytime any one of my four major sports professional teams wins their sporting event, that's happiness for me.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Does Houston have a WNBA team?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

They are getting one. Did you see this?

SPEAKER_04 4:40

No.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

The Connecticut Sun are getting bought by Tillman Fertita, the guy who owns the Rockets, and he's bringing them back. He's bringing them not back to Houston, but but there were the Houston Comets, apparently back in the day. Back in the mystery, mysterious day when nobody watched WNBA. Wait, was like yesterday? Yeah, about about a month ago. Yeah, right. Um that's awful. Um uh there was the the Houston Comets. Anyways, the Connecticut Suns being bought by the guy who owns the Houston Rockets because he wants to bring them back to Houston and remake the Comets. So starting next WNBA season, there will be a WNBA team in Houston.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

So isn't that a little bit sexist? Back in Houston. Calling them the Comets, isn't that like totally sexist? Probably. Well, I mean it's like a cleaning thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:33

I mean, that'd be a good idea. I don't know how many people use comet anymore, but I I I understand the rev. What would you call them if if you were to if you they said Robert, we need you to to choose the name for the WNBA team coming to Houston?

SPEAKER_04 5:46

The tax dodges, because they're gonna write the loss off. That's what I would use them. That's perfect. Yeah, the tax dodges. Beautiful. They can be called the TDs, and people might think it was football and accidentally watch it.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

100%. Yeah, hey. There you go. Okay. And the NBA team that's coming to Vegas, what do you got for them? I mean, because the aces are already there.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

We already we're getting another one. NBA team, the men. Um well, uh I would call them the Who Cares. Okay. No, that and that's kind of my general feeling. It's just that the Who Cares.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

And just have their logo be a question mark. Yeah, just that's it. Yeah. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Yeah. There is a band, uh, we can put this in potentially in post-production called Question Mark and the Mysterians. Oh, wow. And their single, lone single, 96 tiers. Really? Oh yeah.

unknown 6:40

And you'll start crying. 96 tiers.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

So that would be it. Then you could play 96 tiers at every game. Okay. Yes. Yeah, that's the thing. That's their main theme song. Yeah. Okay. So I kind of, yeah, I view it as a um I just don't see how it's gonna work. I would I would look at it this much. If I was the guy on that the Rockets team, yeah, I would or the Comets team, whatever they're going to be, you know, I would, I mean, just write it off today. I mean, don't even bother to open it up, you know. Fair. Move them to another city. That'd be the first thing I would do.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

They're trying to bring all the major sports back to Houston, right? The WNBA, I know the NHL wants to expand there. Then we got football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, and women's basketball as well. What about jousting? I think that that's still that's still more of an overseas issue. Kind of think so.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Yeah, and maybe a couple centuries ago.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Probably. Yeah, but it still is a fun sport. Absolutely, for sure. Like, I mean, I think I think we'd probably get uh get fencing and um uh cricket over here before jousting. Maybe, but just my take.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

So you're just a hater.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

I am, absolutely. Yeah, of the sports that are predominantly white, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Yeah. Well, jousting, I think, works for everything.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Not a lot of brothers hopping on the back of a horse, spearing each other with sticks.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

So I mean, you're just seems like you're diminishing. Why am I sticking up for your race? I don't know. Yeah, that's it. I mean, you're the one that's that's dude. This is what it is. Any any young black man out there today, think about this. You on top of a horse with a large stick running at a high speed, trying to hit the other person in the chest and knocking them off. That's your dream, brother. Follow it.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

No more drive-by shootings, joustings, joustings, my brother.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Joust out, baby.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

It's what it's gonna be. Okay, yeah. I've completely derailed this podcast. Happiness. Yeah, here's where you were. We're gonna have to cut the last 10 minutes of this. No, no, no. Happy good. No, it's pretty good. Okay, yeah, happiness. Yeah, for me, just watching the sports team win, yeah, eating my favorite food, um, you know, doing simple things in life, happiness, because I believe happiness and joy two separate things. So happiness for me is just like I said, getting to eat a good pizza, getting to eat Italian food at Ferraros, watching my favorite sports. That's me, just happiness.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

So joy is also like a dishwashing cleaner, isn't it? So, like you keep bringing up like all these. That'd be a good name for the Houston team, too, the comets of joy. They could be like the clean plates. The cleanest arena in sports. Made that way, M-A-I-D. Yeah. Hey, built-in sponsors. No, dude, I'm just My gosh. Surprising they haven't hired us to seriously. Jeez. Yeah. Make sure that on whenever doing on post-production, take all these clips and just tag them onto the WNBA. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

See if they can read, see if they'll repost these. Yeah, I'm sure they will.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

Yeah, particularly the part where I said jousting was more viable.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

100%. Yeah. We get a lot of people. Absolutely. Yep. So but no. So what is happiness to you then, Robert?

SPEAKER_04 10:08

I think that way to try to get us back on track. That was actually very good. Um I think that happiness is like many things, it's a spectrum. And I think one of the problems with happiness is the uh the bottom tier of happiness. I think what people accept as happiness is the absence of pain and the lack of anxiety. If you would ask most people, well, how are you? Well, I'm happy. Uh-huh. Why? Oh, well, you know, I'm, you know, I'm not I'm not feeling pressure, I'm not feeling anxiety, you know, I'm not feeling whatever it might be, and I'm not in pain, and that's good enough. And I don't think that that's happiness. I think that's relief. I would agree. You know, but but but the fact that happiness has been dumbed down to um the lack of pain and the lack of anxiety, if that's your threshold for happiness, then by all means we don't need any antidepressants ever. Hundred percent because I mean you can get the same thing by just taking a lot of aspirin. You know, and you can just I mean, you rot a hole in your stomach, but it it seems like it's a good deal. Yes. But I I find that to be kind of a bizarre thing, versus if anybody wanted to re- you know, go back through what we previously just talked about. I would say that when you and I were riffing on whatever it was, I would say we were happy. Yes, I agree. And I think that that happiness comes from interaction with something or someone to achieve something. Happiness comes when a goal has been achieved, and whether the goal is identified or just a random an opportun a goal of opportunity, that I think that's what actually happiness is. And I think that once you have that understanding, maybe of let's say that happiness is a bit of a spectrum, and at the bottom we have um, and we should probably do this for the people at home, because the people at home are gonna read it this way to this way, or I'm gonna read it this way to this way. So at at this side of the the way to cater to your audience. That's it. Or if we were doing it in Hebrew, then we would be reading it this way. But it does seem Oh, okay. Yeah. But assuming that we'll just the one that we send to Israel, we'll just we'll recut it.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah, yeah. So I don't think our reach is quite there yet. So close though. We're working though.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Yeah. Yep. Yep. I tell you, when the comets of joy play there, we'll probably be we'll probably be at the tip off.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Uh huh. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

That's it. Yeah. But the um, but no, if you look at it, if if one level down here is the absence of pain and no anxiety, if that's you know, the the the low end of what or the beginning of happiness, maybe the preamble to happiness. And then actual happiness is the creative expression of being with people, the celebration of a goal or the recognition of creation, I would say would be happiness. Yeah. You know, that if you look at like a child's first step makes everybody happy. Yeah. And that's because it's it's an accomplishment, it's a recognition of an accomplishment that goes into it. And that's a happiness that lasts forever. Yes. If your threshold for happiness is no pain, no anxiety, then you know, is there on the vast plane that might be, you know, in Travis County or Harris County, you know, that there might not be do you know what the highest point in I don't either. 200 feet? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. So in all in all of that, in that county, if you're gonna say, if you're gonna be using, you know, this this idea, this dumbed down version of happiness, there is no high point in there. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, you know, the top of Yao Ming would have been the high point of happiness. Pretty much, yes. Yeah. And if like somebody would have been standing, if Ralph Sampson would have been standing on his shoulders, it'd be really odd.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Ralph Sampson, that's a hell of a poll right there. Well, I was alive when it happened. Hey, number one pick in the 1983 NBA draft.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Out of Virginia.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Yep. Right. See, weird, that's the only thing I bring to the table, just weird sports facts no one cares about. He played with Rudy Tomjanovich. I did not know that one.

SPEAKER_04 14:43

What's Rudy Tomjanovich's claim to fame? I've heard the name, but I don't know why. He was the guy that in a fight with the the Lakers got into a fight, and Kermit Washington was uh a guy from UCLA, big, strong-looking black dude. Okay, comes into this fight, and Tomjanovich just sees him out of the corner of his eye, and Kermit's running at him, real dark black dude. Tom Jonovich just turns up and punches him in the face and blocks him out. Wow. And it was like, you know, this whole concept that, you know, white on black violence is there. And my general thought is you see something big, scary running at you, and you don't know what the hell's happening. Absolutely, I'm not going to figure out what he's doing to me. I'm yes, I'm doing on to him before he does on to me. Absolutely. Yep. You know, so that would have been the answer. Okay. Look at that. Yeah, but but I think in that idea that that that's one concept of happiness. But I think that I think that there's a lot of things that underpin this concept of false happiness. And that's kind of what I'd like to think about a little bit today. Do you think well let me ask you this if people had the opportunity to be happy, and we'll use happy today of using the example of being without anxiety and without pain, okay, that version of happiness, choice A, happiness, choice B, um go on go on some adventure, some amazing adventure that will be unknown, difficult, just shocking. Let's say like bringing a WA and BA team from Connecticut to Houston. Something something greater than that, something truly grand. Okay. Which one do you think they would take? Just the average person? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Probably probably option A. Yeah. Simply because there's a lot less unknown. There's a lot fewer variables to run through, right? Not a not a ton of, I would say less risk takers today than say back in your day, right? Um, just because a lot of people, like you said, want to live in that space of comfort, confinement. I want to kind of stay in my lane, you know, just kind of be in my space and not have anybody disturb it. Again, hearkening back to social media. It's simply just an echo chamber of what we believe, right? You're always going to have to find all the people who agree with you and hate everybody else who doesn't. So basically, it's like you don't want everybody wants to live in their bubble and they don't want to be disturbed. They don't want to face the unknown, they don't want to face tons of trials, choose willingly face trials, tribulations, some possible suffering on an unknown journey. Okay. So I think many people would choose option A over option B, or I would say more than 50% would choose the comfortable version rather than, hey, high-risk adventure with possible high reward and happiness, things of that nature. That's just how I see it.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

What's another thing is you're saying that, brought another thought on it. We can ask Mallory, he's hiding behind the board over there. Ms. Mallory, do you think it's a a male-female thing? Do you think women would pick, you know, lack of pain, lack of anxiety versus adventure? Or do you think it's, you know, do you think how do you think that breaks out speaking, you know, for all women?

unknown 18:20

That's a lot of weight. Um adventure?

SPEAKER_04 18:24

You would pick adventure?

unknown 18:26

Yeah. Most of our life is pain anyway.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

So that's it. Do you feel that if you were a member of the WNBA, you would have the same feelings? Or okay, I was just wondering. That would be it. Okay, good.

unknown 18:41

I would scrub with joy.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

You would scrub. See, now that see, that would be that would be the right answer. See, this is it. That was thank you for adding that. That was a great answer. Way to beat me to it.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

This is going to evolve into a strict W just a WNBA podcast.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

It it really is. I mean, it's like every other one we've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Exactly. We're we're gonna become the guys who debate you know, Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, Asia Wilson.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Well, here's a good question. Why should they bother to shave their legs? Oh my gosh. Okay, well that's that's that's the next one.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

So we found the topic for the next show. That's really gonna be perfect.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Yeah. This one I'll probably get all seven or eight people that have ever watched the show. They're all canceling it down. It's gonna be terrible. Um, but it's yeah, this is really good. Okay, so but no, but I think that I think that there is that sense that I think that you're right. I think a lot of people have been so placated down to doing nothing that they accept a low end of happiness. But I think that also goes into another concept that like are you familiar with the concept of homeostasis? Yes. Okay, good. Just simply because of cells. Right, yes. And that's what it is. It's just some sense of equilibrium.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell. Dude, you sixth grade biology.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

No, dude, dude, no. This is where you talk about snow college or Utah Tech.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Sorry. Sorry, I'm not hyping up Cedar Ridge Middle School. My bad. Okay, yeah. So try that again. Sorry. Um uh mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell. Okay, thank you, Snow College, and thank you, Utah Tech University. If you would like a formidable education, somebody that carries you throughout the world, and eventually you end up in this chair doing a podcast like this, go to Utah Tech or go to Snow College. Go Badgers, go Trailblazers.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

That's it. Good job. No, congratulations. That was really good. That's much better, much better.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yeah, that should be the next their next commercial. You see like the local commercial. Yeah, that should be that should be cut in there.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

That's it. Yeah, that's right. Learn how to host a podcast. 100%. Yeah, experience diversity. Yeah, that's it. Okay, it's all there. But um, but I think that, you know, that idea of you know, do organisms achieve some sense of homeostasis or some sense of let's call it a maximum or a perfect neutrality? You know, is there such a thing as a perfect normal? And is that what people is that what things want? Or do things or should things be on a um on an incline to try to get uh like optimum improvement of constantly trying to improve, trying to do trying to do more than more than safe or more than normal. Yeah. Which I mean, and and I I d I don't know. I mean it's like I You can convince me that in the single-celled animal world, achieving homeostasis is a hell of an idea. Absolutely. Yes. But on the other hand, they can't think.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:10

Right. Much like the person that buys season tickets for the comets of joy. You know, like what were they doing? They just had too much money.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Okay. So But not enough to sit courtside. Yeah, but not enough to sit courts and do anything else.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Yeah. I mean, they know they could have bought like, you know, a KFC superbox and come home, but they didn't. You know, it just bad decision making happens.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

But um well, them, you know, instead of wasting their hard-earned money, instead of putting it into food, right? Your parents, like what happens in Stair Pits, okay, spend it on liquor and alcohol and cigarettes. Right. Right. These people are simply saying, hey, I'd rather buy season tickets for the comets than eat tonight. Okay. So their vice is simply WNBA. Right. Whereas, as you can read here in Stair Pits, the book that you wrote about your life and your parents and things like that. In a time before the WNBA. In a time before the WNBA even existed. People didn't have the option to spend money on season tickets for the WNBA. If they wanted to waste it, it had to be on cigarettes and alcohol and different things.

SPEAKER_04 23:29

There's no such thing as the Memphis Grizzlies at the end of that point.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Nope. They probably were the Vancouver Grizzlies. They probably weren't even in Vancouver at that time. Vancouver wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

Canada hadn't even been discovered yet. It's terrible. Absolutely. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Somebody said, What about Canada?

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Absolutely. We did it. There's your other tie to the books.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Yeah, the other tie. No, that's a good job. Way to bring the book in. Appreciate it. I like that we're bringing the book in more. I mean, since we've talked about since the title of the podcast is about the book. Well, we're going to change it to the WNBA.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Yes, yeah. We are quickly transitioning here to a WNBA podcast.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Yes. I think it's going to be really good. So, but no, but I think that that idea of, you know, successful, happy people, I think, have the capacity to do more than the the perfect normal, you actually have to do more because the fact that life and everything that happens is so unknown. I mean, what happens next is so unknown that if you're living at this level and you think that it's always going to be like this, that is failure. Because the first time that it isn't perfect, and now all of a sudden, you know, you don't have food or you know, you whatever you whatever's going on, you can't deal with it. Well, now you're doomed. Now it's no longer this idea of perfect or you know optimized normal is no longer optimized normal. Now it's pathetic normal.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

And then perhaps going from pathetic normal back up to where normal used to be maybe is this illusion of happiness. But conceivably, if you were doing something, if you were building something out, then you would have had built in enough that you could have made it through the, you know, the the high and the low, you could have made it through the trough. Right? And I think that I think that's the the problem. In addition to that, I think is that if you look at the extra effort to make it to the high point is good, but then it teaches you that you can in fact do more. Then if things go down and you're down here, you know that whatever you did to come up here, that same idea will get you out of the trough, versus now I'm down here, and if all you know how to do is to do this, then you just accept the new bottom. Right? Yes. And I think that what's what's missing from a lot of people is what is their motivation. You know, if their motivation is to live in isolation and to never challenge or test or to try things, then whatever is happening on the inside of their brain is just you're not wired to do that. I mean, you're not wired to sit there quietly and to do nothing forever. Yeah. You know, there there's a huge difference between like have you ever seen like an alligator and a wild alligator, an alligator, and yeah. Okay, and they're they're amazing creatures in that they're large, and at a certain level, you don't initially see them. I mean, it's not like they're bright yellow or something, you know, that that are there. They're just kind of inert. And then all of a sudden, holy shit, there's an alligator.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:14

Right. And then if you're stupid enough to get even closer to the allig, well, so like when I was very young, I would be dropped off at the DeYoung Museum, which is a museum in San Francisco, and they have the California Academy of Sciences right next to it. And sometimes I'd be, I'd go in there. And they had alligators. And the alligators were in this little um like pen that was low and you could look at them from above. And because it was cold, the alligators never moved. Like I'd go in there for about three years, I'd go in there during the rainy time, maybe 40, 50 days a year, I would be in that building. Wow. And I would be staring at the alligators. And one of the reasons that I was in there was that that's where the babysitter would drop me off for the day. And I used to go in and look at the fish, but there was a woman who was a singer named Ella Fitzgerald, and she could break glass with their voice, and it had to be amplified. But all I could think about was like going where the fish were, where the sharks were, all these kids would scream and they would hit high notes. And my thought was they would break the glass, then the broken glass would cut people, then the sharks would go into a frenzy, and I would be like all these fish and sharks would be eating me. Yeah. No, I'm serious. I had a legitimate terror of it. Oh, yeah. And how old were you at this time? 22. But it was, you know. No, I was like kindergarten.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah. I don't know what would be stranger, the fact that you're 22 with that fear, or that you're 22 being dropped off by the babysitter. The babysitter was hot.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

No, the babysitter, the babysitter wasn't hot.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

And I was, and I was like in kindergarten. Nice. Okay, good. So anyway, the um, so I would just sit and would stare at the alligators, right? And I would just stare at them forever trying to determine if they were real or if they were fake. Yeah. Okay. I never saw them move. Yes. So, um, but the alligator is, you know, kind of a uh, you know, an ambush predator in its own way. And I decided that I would out-ambush predator, the ambush predator, by just waiting for it. And sometimes I would just turn my head away and come back thinking that they're seeing me and they're gonna move when I'm not there. Yes. So I'd kind of do one of these, you know. But it never moved. Yeah. Then when I moved to Phoenix, um, when I lived in Phoenix, um, they had an alligator exhibit there and it was warm. So they had a big like lagoon kind of a thing, a big pond, and they had alligators in it. And then they had a little walkway out to a gazebo that was in the middle of it. And so like I'm out there and all of a sudden the alligators are moving, and it's like amazing. And I'd go there and I would just watch the alligators move. And the thing that I noticed was like the alligator would be sitting there like this, right? You know, and little fish would come by, and the fish would be kind of like doing this, you know, kind of a dory thing, you know. And then they would get near the alligator and they would freeze up and they would just go by with the fins like this, because they didn't want, just didn't want any attention from the alligator. You know, so they're going by like this. But occasionally what would happen is there'd be like a less bright fish, and he'd and the next thing the alligator and it just eaten the damn thing. And it was like just spectacular.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

That was spectacular what you just did.

SPEAKER_04 30:53

Well, I've spent years a huge impact on it. Method actor. Method acting, yes, that's exactly what it is. Um, but when that first time I saw that happen, I took like two steps back, just totally freaked out because it was like right beneath me, you know. So I took two steps back, I tripped over a baby carriage, hit the railing on the other side of this thing, and had my arm hanging down, and there was another crocodile right over here. And I'm thinking the damn thing could have written my damn arm off. And so here's an example. I could have found somebody to date that I could have brought there and been holding your hand and looking at the alligators. Instead, I'm doing it by myself. Idiot. Okay. Why in the hell am I looking at alligators?

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Idiot. Okay, why am I leaning this far over to get an even closer look at the alligators? Idiot. Okay. Why did I back up quickly? Natural self-defense. Okay, then I had like a huge bruise here from where I bumped into the thing and my arms over the side. And then I had this incredible amount of sanity that I didn't have to look at alligators as closely anymore.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 32:05

So I learned that.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

An impressive realization of life.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Yeah, at that time I did learn that I was around 20 when I learned. Okay, gotcha. But that was actually I was closer to 19. I was about 19 when I learned that. But um, but I did learn that I didn't have to be obsessed about alligators or crocodiles. I love it. One of the things that you'll find is that if you can lose that obsession right into jousting, young man, that's follow that dream.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Yes. And if you don't die in that, you have the opportunity to get married and become rich and successful like you are. Yeah, or something like that. Or something along those lines. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

Eventually you can own a WNBA team.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Hey, I don't know why you're not trying to invest in the in the comets that are coming to Houston.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Well, the thing is, I was, you know, I was thinking about it. We could also name them Tide or all or cheer. Yeah. You know, I was trying to think of all the other soaps that we can do.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

I'm yeah, I'm sure you the other half of your brain's just been churning through different different cleaning products. Yes. Yeah. Um I want to hearken back to your homeostasis um thesis for a minute. And I I was thinking, us as human beings, are we ever truly in homeostasis? Because in my head, it's like, okay, everybody who's not at the top, whatever you consider the top, is fighting to get to the to the next level above where they are at, right? And the people at the top, right, the richest people in the world, are every single day fighting to stay there. So everybody is in a fight constantly, no matter what. And it harkens me to a family guy quote by Brian Griffin, okay? The talking dog. Okay, I assume you haven't seen Family Guy. Okay. Wow, that was damn good. Harkens me to a quote by Brian Griffin where he says, in life in general, us as people, even though he's not a person, um, we naturally suck up to those above us, crap on those beneath us, and try and kill our equals in order to limit the competition at the level that we are currently at. Okay. So because we are constantly in a fight, no matter what, because when you're at the top, you're simply just fighting to stay there every single day. And then if you're not there, you are beating, trying to beat everyone at your level and rise to the next one to fight that next challenge. Are we ever truly in homeostasis, in your opinion, as human beings? Because no matter where we're at in the druthers of life, we are fighting a battle to either stay at the top or rise to the to the level that is above us.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

I think that that's a really interesting question. It's very good. It's one of the reasons why you're an excellent co-host. Um, I would say that kind of goes into the theory of the crab pot theory. Have you ever heard that before? I've not. I don't know this one. So it you know what a crab is.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Yes. I watched a lot of Spongebob, Mr. Crabs.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

Yeah, right. That's it. But yeah, so crab. Crab pots say this that you have a pot full of crabs, and the crabs will come to the side and they'll try to climb out. And then one will get up near the top, and then the crab behind it will grab it and pull it down, and then take over the position, and then the next crab pulls it up, and they never get out, but they get really, really close, and the next one just pulls it down. And that the the thing is the quote nouveau Marxist today takes the crab pot theory and kind of what you described as this concept that there's never any chance to evolve, there's never any chance to do more, and that everything is about power, everything is about oppressor oppressed. Right. And that's a theory that a lot of people s prescribe, you know, and they just they love that idea, because then their hopelessness gives them an identity, I guess, and it gives them a position of perpetual victimization. Okay. What what I would suggest is that the most successful people rarely do anything by themselves. It's by the capacity to collaborate with others. Right. And it it comes into the idea that, you know, for instance, we're designed to see utility and then we assign names to things. Right. So like if you came, you know, when when you come in here and you see a chair and the microphone, you would recognize, okay, well, you know, there's lights here, so somebody should, you know, somebody is we're gonna do something. The lights are here, we'll sit in the chair, the microphone is gonna be here, we can talk about it, you know. Uh, and it's it's kind of known what to do, right? And if you'd have come in here today and there would have been a llama, you would have thought, well, today, you know, Robert's probably going to talk about llamas, and he probably bought a WNBA team and it's gonna put them in the Duluth llamas, but which would be a great team.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

That would be a hell of a team.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

It really would be. Yes. The only other team name that I would go with would be the Ardvarks, because Ardvarks and Llama are two animals that have double letters in the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Okay. Yeah. I thought you were just thinking of obscure animals. No, no.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

I was trying to go with the double letters to judge in with so but but let's say the llamas, I just I don't think the women would want to be known as the anteaters. For sure. Yes. You know, because you know, if they're llamas, they can spit on the people they don't like. Yes. If they're the anteaters, they're just sticking out their tongue a lot of the same.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

It doesn't work. Spitting makes a little more of an of an effect.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

It it's I think it's you're more fearful of you know, and then we could give like eye patches or something because you want to do absolutely, yes. See, that's why you will never go to my WNBA team. 100%. So late the lady llamas. See, dude, we just that's gonna be on our shirts. No Max Christensen the third this guy is just a picture of you. That's the whole word. But um but the um that idea that you know I would say our relationship, our friendship is based upon the utility that we provide to each other. We have the capacity to create, we have the capacity to explore, we have the capacity to appreciate, and then to share different things that we have. So by you explaining things to me, it gives me a chance to correct you and tell you how you're wrong. And then you have a chance to, you know, I have a chance to to show you that I'm right. So the relationship works just perfectly.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

You threw me a curveball right. I didn't know that's where that was going. Hey, I love that was. No, I shouldn't have said that part out loud.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

But no, but but I think it is that thing, though, that you know, that we can talk about things, we can share things on it, we can drill down, we can find unique, interesting understandings that heighten our capacity to understand other things going forward. Yes. Right. So the utility is um a fellow explorer, you know, a fellow um observer, and a person that can provide a unique or an additional, either contradictory or reinforcing opinion on something. And that the relationship works in a way that we can both be wrong and accept the fact that, you know, we're not going to be belittled, at least to our faces. Yeah. You know, and that's because I know that when you and what's his name talk about me, it's like, God, it's terrible. He sends me the tapes a lot of times. Oh, good. He's trying to wants you out of here. He wants to sit down. Yeah, 100%. We just need a bigger chair.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Bigger chair, yes.

SPEAKER_04 39:56

Yeah. And that's some weights for him to do something.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Do some curls while he's sits here.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Yeah, must get stronger. Yes. Very strong. Yes. But um, but no, uh the I think that, you know, there's a utility of being able to work with people uh to a goal. And I think that when your concept is that, you know, your sense of happiness is lack of pain, lack of anxiety, that there's no necessity in there to cooperate. Right? There's no to to be able to work with somebody or to, you know, to try to build something out with somebody, you know. So as a result, I think that that's where a lot of it comes from. That if you look at, you know, look at the concept of um uh what's the sport where they kick the ball with their feet? Soccer. Yeah, that was it. I mean that one. I thought you were talking about football. Possibly. I don't know. If they have different different names. But so this was the other thing that was funny about that. The other night I was, you know, I was watching it because I have this new theory on the I don't know if I talked about this in the other podcast. But the thing I like to do in watching the World Cup is I look at the relative populations of each country and then figure out how come this country has this many more people that they don't beat the crap out of them.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

USA versus Belgium, just three days 30 to 1. Is that what the ratio was? 30 to one. 30 Americans to one Belgium? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

One and and we could Belgian, so I think they're referred to as fat lazy Belgian bastards, is I think what they're actually known as. But they might have like Sprouts or the Phleg. They have a bunch of different names for them. But generally I would just say fat Belgians is probably what most people refer to them as the waffles, maybe. I don't know. They have different names. It doesn't matter. Whereas we like to refer to them lesser white people.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Yeah, uh oh.

SPEAKER_04 42:00

That's kind of we don't we don't acknowledge them. They're just terrible. Yeah. The nice thing is there's only like 10 million of them, so it doesn't matter. Most of them speak Dutch, so that never even is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. It's really good. But no.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

So yeah, so so I guess so. We need WMBA slash people of the world. Yeah, right. Is what this this podcast needs to be for.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

Yeah, right. Going the bringing the WNBA to Belgium. Yeah, yeah. That's my whole answer to be really good. Sure. We have a lot of time spending a lot of time finding out what cleaning products are making. Windbilled soap is very good, yeah. Jesus. But um but I think that that going back to the but that concept of being able to collaborate with somebody to be able to grow, to be able to make something work, that that's the value of having friends, of being able to work on something. And the most successful people in the world find ways to work with others to accomplish something. You know, and I think that's the that's the secret to it. And people, if they don't understand that, I mean, the only way you do learn to understand that is like think about it in the simplest, like the simplest thing when you started to play sports, you know, with your brothers or something, you know, it was, you know, clear probably in the early days if you were playing tackle football that the answer was give it to MC three and let the guy run straight ahead. And the answer is there wasn't another kid on the block that could tackle you.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 43:34

And so you guys could run a 31 blast all day with just a center and go. And it's not like any kid's going to get in front of your knees as you're moving. Yeah. Right. And that was great. And then later it was, you know, you let, you know, let Max, you know, rush the passer on a two Mississippi count, gets his large condo out there, and you can't pass in the middle, so every has to throw out. Yes. Right. And so you learned the the other variations of how to be able to deal with that. And you learn how to take your strengths, the other person's strengths, and bring them together. And that unity, then I think serves as the foundation for happiness because now that group can create. And if you look at it like in soccer or you look at it in, you know, true football, when somebody scores, there's incredible elation. And the answer is all the time that you spent on the practice field, all the time that you spent in the gym, all the time that you spent in meetings had finally bore fruit. I mean, it was like when we talked about it earlier, watching a kid take its first steps. Oh my God, look, it's walking.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

Isn't that great? You know, and like you always do with all small kids, as soon as they learn to walk, give them a fork, show them what a hundred percent. Show them what an outlet is and just see if they're smart enough to not do it. Yes. And that's a joke. Don't do it. That's wrong.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

For all the young parents and all the young kids watching this, because there's gonna be a ton of them, right? That's right. Oh yeah. Don't be sticking stuff in sockets. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 45:06

So Johnny, little Johnny out there who wants to become the uh jouster, let your brother do it. Okay, and then you can later say in interviews that that fueled you to become great.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

So for you in your life, what do you believe is the is is the your most successful example of working with someone or multiple people to achieve a greatest goal? What do you think has been the most successful example of that in your life? I would say my wife, in that um great answer, by the way. Susan's gonna love that. Yeah, hell, hell yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

We do take two now. Let me give you the real answer. No, yeah. No, I would say it would be my wife because simply that idea that in when I getting married, it allowed me to recognize the value of serving others versus just pursuing whatever thing I wanted to pursue at that time. And one of the problems I had as a as a non-married person was I would come up with obscure things that I wanted to do, and then I just do them. And I was I had enough skill to achieve the simple goals, but the problem was the simple goal never meant anything because it had no intrinsic or lasting value and it had no capacity to radiate any sense of positivity other than the fact that people said I couldn't do it and I could. You know, and other than Neener, Neener, Neener, ha ha ha ha, I could do it. But there's nothing wrong. I mean, God, Neener, Neener, Neener is great.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

You've hit a lot of those in your life.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

If I ever start a women's jousting league, my team is gonna be the Neener Neener Neener's. And um, we're gonna be spectacular.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

And hey, when people are in the stands chanting for your team, Neener, Neener, Neer, Neener, Neener, Neener. I mean, like it's all right. Talk about just built, I mean you make it so easy for everyone, whether it's built-in chants, built-in sponsorships. Oh, yeah. I mean, you you you you allow the infrastructure to just go.

SPEAKER_04 47:22

Yeah, the beat the Belgian neener neener neaners.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Yeah, you know, that's which hey, I think you have a better chance of getting a jousting team in Belgium than a WNBA team, at least for right now.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

Though, you know, the answer is this. You know, once they once Caitlin Clark moves to Europe because she gets tired of getting beaten up here. Yeah, and I get, you know, and when I open my WNBA team in Belgium with her, they'll they'll appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Yes. Here's the problem, too, is after we get done with this podcast, Robert is going to go do some research on what it would take to get a WNBA team andor a women's jousting team in Belgium. Like this might actually have some traction to it.

SPEAKER_04 48:02

Well, you know, actually, I'm just thinking of my lady jousting thing on it. Okay. So what if you like as opposed like the Neener Neener Neaners is obviously a great name. Yes. Right? But what if you want Lady Godiva?

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

Yeah. Semi-nude female jousters.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. It's it's it's it's like the the what the lingerie football league that they got going here.

SPEAKER_04 48:27

Do you know who's the guy behind that? No. Gene Simmons of Kiss. Are you serious? I'm serious.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

I did not know that. Dude. Wow. Yeah, but no, yes. You could be the Gene Simmons of of women's jousting. Have to add some face paint. But besides that. Hey, there you go. Yep. Done. I'm there. Perfect. No, it's perfect.

SPEAKER_04 48:51

No, but I think that, yeah, but I think that that idea of, you know, because the lady Godives or the Nina Nina Niners as they're known among their friends. Yes. Dude, you tell me that women you tell me dudes wouldn't watch the you know semi-clothed female jousting league. Be all over it.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

Just the warm-up. So we the match takes two seconds, the rest was just the girls stretching. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

That would take over the international betting circuit sometimes. Oh no, it'd be wonderful. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 49:16

Yeah. Who won? I don't remember. Exactly. Yeah, no, that no. See, that's just it's horrified. But but I think that that is the piece, though, that ultimately it comes down to, you know, how do you serve, how do you help somebody else? Yeah. And I think that that's so counterintuitive to the crab pot theory that if, you know, your idea is that you'll never get above, you'll never get below, people are the top are always trying to do more. I mean, if anybody thinks that Elon is trying to do more because he wants more money, no. Elon is trying to do more because he sees something that would be interesting and he wants to see if he can make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 49:58

Okay, so it that that doesn't mean anything to him. You know, Bezos, you know, as he's doing things because he wants to do them, it isn't for more money. I mean, that they're they're not doing it. But the problem is people that don't have something think, oh, well, you're just doing it for that. Yes. And if your idea is that, you know, of the 8,000 crabs in the pot, if you're someplace around 7,500 to 8,000, that, you know, you're thinking, well, I'm never even going to get a chance to get pulled down by another crab. So, you know, you've just kind of given up at that point. Well, maybe the answer is, you know, find another crab that isn't doing it and just go over here and be happy and, you know, produce in whatever, you know, intimate act that crabs go through to produce more crabs. Just do that and then you know, eat shrimp or do whatever else the trab does. There was a um there's a chain of stores when I lived in the bay, and they used to have crabs. That's right, learned the crab potential.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

And so they had crabs in one container and they had lobsters in the other one. And um they would try to sell them on a per-pound basis. So what I noticed was they also had like raw they also had like steamed shrimp that you could buy like in a little like refrigerated thing. And like the shrimp were let's say two bucks a pound. The crab was like four bucks a pound, and the lobster was like six bucks a pound. So what I used to do is I used to get pieces of shrimp and feed them into the lobster and into the crab things because I thought that would bump up their weight because you're getting something that costs two pounds and turning it into four or six. So it's like a two or three multiplier on it.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:44

Yeah. One of the people saw me when I was doing that and asked me why. I was making them more money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:53

You've been a businessman for many years. Yeah. You didn't think it was as funny as I did.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

Hey, that's all right. I just wanted to see if they would eat it. Yes. But that was it. I was also trying to convince my brother to put his finger in there to see how much it would hurt.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:06

But no, it was, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

You're the brother putting the other brother, uh brother on the socket thing that we were talking about earlier. So hey, some people are born to supervise. 100%. You probably convinced your brother Billy that that the blue fire was cold, too, right? Things like that happen. Yeah, if there's a blue flame, it's cold.

SPEAKER_04 52:26

Go touch it. It's what it is. Yeah, go look at it. Yeah. I mean, there's all sorts of things. Yeah, it doesn't, you know, you have to kind of teach him onto that part on it. Absolutely. Yeah. I did so just as a last story, because I'm sure we're probably dangerously close to a full episode here. That's a great thing when you have a podcast.

SPEAKER_02 52:45

A lot of great content in this one.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

A lot of great content, so absolutely no value. Hey. That's really what it is. But no. Um, so I uh we would occasionally have Thanksgiving when my middle brother was, you know, there. And so my uncle, who's in the book, eight, you know, who's extremely stairpits. Yeah, stairpits. Great. Yeah. And um so my uncle was there, whose name is Peter. So um in the book he's HHH, but Peter is what his real name is. So Peter was um there and Thanksgiving was coming up. And so David was sitting there, you know, watching something stupid on television. And uh Peter and I were um there, and I told David, I said, uh, you can't have any dark meat at Thanksgiving. I get all the dark meat. And Peter looks at him and goes, Yeah, we get all the dark meat. You can't don't even think about it. So for like the rest of the day, every just everything we're telling him. I mean, during the entire, you know, jousting series that we were watching, all we're telling David is, you can't have any dark meat. Okay. And David is like, Well, I want to try. Well, don't, hey, you don't, you get just you can't do it. So we just keep just running it. So a couple weeks later, it's Thanksgiving. So we're sitting down to Thanksgiving, Peter's there, Auntie's there, my mother, me, David, Billy's very young. And um Peter only had two kids at that point, so two Peter's kids are there. My mother brings out the turkey.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

David says, I dibs all the dark meat.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

And Peter and I kind of look at him like we're mad. And David's, I love dark meat. So David gets the dark meat. Yeah. And you know, it goes on his plate. Okay. I don't like it that much. Peter doesn't like it that much. Yeah, that's I'm not even close to it. Yeah. So Peter and I are eating the white meat. And David just eating the dark meat, and he's happy as hell. So three Thanksgivings go by.

SPEAKER_03 54:54

Every Thanksgiving, David, I dibs the dark meat, I dibs the dark meat, I dibs the dark meat.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

Peter looks at him like on the fourth one and says, You don't have to dibs the dark meat. You're the only person that likes it. He goes, What do you mean everybody else likes the white meat? Well, well, you guys said that. And he goes, Yeah. And now you believe it.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

Uh-huh. Yes. It was. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 55:20

And David tries the dry, it's dry.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

I don't like it.

SPEAKER_04 55:23

And I go, well, be happy. I mean, at Thanksgiving, you never have to argue. You'll always get the dark meat. Yes. You know, and that's really what it is. Yep. And it's like, well, but I don't want it's like, hey, dude, you know, you thought you were so clever, you know, ripping us off on something. And, you know, you wound up being the only guy that'll eat it. Yeah, 100%. But yes, he wasn't happy. No. Which goes back to see, watch this tie it all together. Yep. He had anxiety, he had pain. Yes. He should have been able to equal it out to become happy. And yet, Peter and I created something funny.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

You created anxiety and pain for your brother, led to your happiness. And if you want to hear more stories like what was just told by R.A. Thompson, go buy his book, Stare Pits, out now at unbreakableorigins.com.

SPEAKER_04 56:20

Right. That's it. So that's what we have. Thank you, Mallory, for um, you know, running the board today, giving us feedback on what all women think. I mean, that's the best part. You know, um, I'll see you at uh one of the Joyful Comet games. Or the jousting tournaments. Hey, the Nino Nieners. The Nieners, they're gonna be good. They're on the way. So that's what it is. Buy season tickets now. Thank you very much.