She Got Screamed, You Got Screamed, We All Got Screamed

This week, Chid and Sigh talk about Scream 7 for some reason, plus why spend $1200 when you can spend $2000? And also, if you kid throws themself off a couch, you're not alone. And more!

$RoundingDown on the Cashapp - $20 and we'll make another episode. $20,000 and we'll never do another one again--that's a promise!!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome running down the old outtopers and bad person podcast. Dares to ask what is good and what is bad and shitty allowed to persons and bad person in question. I'm trying to use my co-host, a man who doesn't know how to work a computer. It's Psyfietti.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

What is a computer?

unknown 0:20

Really?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I've been pondering the same question for months upon months.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Computers. How do it do?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Why did why do it do the thing it do?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Um drivers, are they a thing anymore? Do you need to update drivers to get a computer to work? Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I don't know, but as a real golf bro, I'll tell you how I update my driver with the most expensive Calaway they have that's not on discount.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Are you a golf bro now? Yeah, you learn how to play golf.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

I've begun golfing. I've crossed the golf lexicon.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Oh no. You're full on uh full on Philly Dad.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

No, I I don't I'm not golfing. I wouldn't do that to myself or to others. It would be too it would be too much time. I don't think I have that much free time.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Do you think if you spent uh 18 hours a day for uh six months uh learning how to play golf and learning how to drive and putting all that, that you could win an amateur golf tournament?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

It's a good question. I often say that if I played golf for 18 hours a day the first six months, I'd be better than Tiger Woods. Like that's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah. Uh that checks out.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Uh especially better than he is now because he has a broken spine.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Hold on, let me check your work.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yep, yep, that checks out. Oh, thank you for checking it. Yeah. He he's an old man with a broken spine. I'd be better than him, I would eat more club sandwiches than him, and I would not ruin my marriage.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

You I was gonna say you would certainly make better choices than him from a uh romantic standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I think the only bad choice he made was getting married, truthfully.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, I mean I I guess that's true. Um, but you know, I I think that there's probably a little bit of pressure uh that comes along with celebrity where you feel the need to establish establish yourself as a family man.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

You know that Bruno Mars song, Pressure, let me pressure you.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Uh I don't. That's that doesn't sound sound very great contextually. Contextually, I feel like that's bad. Is that is that about coercion?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Like he Bruno Mars has lost, they say, like$500 million in Las Vegas. He's really the person that I most admire and look up to.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Is he so he's lost it gambling, or is he like funding his own uh residency?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

No, no. He's that's why he's had a residency for there for so long, is because he has spent like all of his money gambling. That guy loves gambling.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Well, you know who else is. Yeah, Drake. He's really bad at it. Were you gonna say Drake?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

I'm the I was gonna say me, but I'm I'm often consider myself the Drake of Bruno Mars's.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Well, uh yeah, you are the Drake of Bruno Mars's. That's how I describe you to people.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Your camera's doing a funny thing where it keeps zooming in and zooming out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Zoom has a new feature where it uh it basically uh can autofocus. Let me see if I can shut it off.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Speaking of autofocus, when was the last time you watched that great film?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Uh what? I have no idea what that is. Is that an actual film?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, autofocus is a movie, it's uh it's the true life story of Bob Crane, who is an actor from Hogan's Heroes, who uh was like a sex addict, and uh anyway, it goes in some wild directions. You gotta check that out.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

I prefer the works of his cousin Fraser Crane and his other cousin Niles.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Niles and Fraser. Have you been watching the Fraser Reboot?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

I haven't. I you know what I have been watching is the the Scrubs reboot.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

I don't want no Scrubs. Scrubs is a show that can't get no love from me.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, I know. You you wouldn't like Scrubs. It's it's it's too advanced for you. The thing is touching. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

The thing about Scrubs is I didn't like it when it was on originally, but all these like show reboots, like the Buffy reboot was recently cancelled before it ever came out.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Yeah, checks out. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

But the thing about all these reboots is my question is always like to what end? They're not gonna do nine new seasons of these sh fucking shows.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

I mean, depending on viewership, they they'll certainly try and milk out like two or three seasons out of it. Well, what I'll say about I I'm a big Scrubs guy. I loved Scrubs. It's one of those comfort shows for me where I had like I had the whole series on DVD, and uh throughout my twenties and my thirties when I would go into like a little bit of a bout of depression, I would kind of throw that on and in the background, and it's just like a I don't know if you have this. Uh you have a family and you've been pretty happy for a long time, so I don't imagine you do. Uh, but I I have certain shows that I go to like for depression watching, and uh my wife can always tell when I'm depressed because I'll like start to watch like a show that uh she I've like described this to her or whatever, and Scrubs was one of those for me. And what I'll say about the Scrubs reboot, if you will, uh, is that it's not it doesn't feel too forced. Um and it's the same writer, and I don't know, it's just like a logical progression, so they kind of just like picked up where they left off as opposed to like trying to like reintroduce all the characters and stuff like that. I I don't know. I I it's three episodes so far, and uh it hasn't been too over the top. They they you know, they do the wacky like cutaways where he's like imagining things or whatever, and I don't think that they do that quite as much anymore, and uh I I think that that kind of makes it a little more watchable. But I know you don't care for it, so I'm not gonna describe it any further.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

No, no. I think that uh yeah, that show was on a lot, and it was like it was a funny show because that was the show that got cancelled by its network and then picked up by another network, which was like an unheard of thing, like within the same year.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah. Um And now the reboot's on the network that picked it up. So like it's not it's not like back on NBC, it's it's on ABC still.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I I think that uh yeah, I I guess the Connors or that Roseanne reboot is still on or just wrapped up after four or five seasons.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

She wasn't on it though, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

She was until she got canceled. Cancelled, yeah. But they renamed it the Connors. But I think that the cast just like liked doing it. I I don't know. I saw the Scream movie recently, Scream 7 is what it's called.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

The most recent one that came out.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

The one that was in theaters, yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, so there's uh maybe there's one that's coming out soon. Or like how recently.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Okay, yeah. I saw that Scream, or maybe February. I saw Scream 7, and I I I saw Scream 1 on VHS, and then I saw Scream 2 in theaters, and then I believe I saw Scream 3 at like at a party or something when I was in high school. Scream three, of course, having the greatest soundtrack of all time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Produced by none other than uh what Wes Craven?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

No, the soundtrack was produced by uh what's his name from Creed?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Wes Craven.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Scott Craven. Scott Stapp. Scott Scott Craven.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Uh Wes Craven's son is Scott Stapp. I don't know if you knew that famously.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Wow. So anyway, I like there's been several movies since. Obviously, there were Screams 4, 5, and 6. And Scream 6 only came out like two years ago. Like that was like the initial they've tried to reboot this series many times, yep, and I've never seen any of them. I haven't sought any of them out. I don't really care. I'm not like a huge horror guy, but as you know, I will see any movie.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

And but the sensation I had watching Scream 7 is I was like, oh, it's so nice to see Nev Campbell again. And like I don't I don't know why that was what I was thinking, but I think that that is like 80% of the like benefit of these reboots of things from 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Yeah. Um I I think it this is gonna sound I guess I don't know if it's gonna sound shitty, but like I was my wife sat down and watched like a couple minutes of Scrubs with me, and she she's like seen it a little bit, like the older show, and uh all we could say was like, oh, um the the actor who plays Turk like got old, like you can visible visibly see it in his face, so you can kind of like compare what they used to look like, and she's like, oh, that person looks older now.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Um Yeah, I mean it's especially tough for that's true. Haven't we all gotten older? But also it's especially tough for Turk is the guy who is like their boss type guy.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

No, so Turk is like the black doctor of the of Turk and JD. So JD being uh what's his name? Garden State himself, Zach Braff. Zach Braff. Yeah uh I'm trying I think is it's is it Faison Love? Yeah, no, it's Donald Faison. Donald Faison house close somewhere around there. Yeah. Um but what I'll say real quick about Scream, two thoughts on Scream.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Uh do you want to finish your thought before I Oh yeah, my to conclude that thought, I think you're right that some people do look older, but I think the difference is also to go from looking like 26 to looking forty-six is not that bad. It's harder when a show ends and someone's like 42 and now they're 55. Like that can be a pretty drastic jump. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah. Um so original scream. I was talking to my mom about this recently because I I think the scream that you're talking about is now like on demand. Like so you can just like watch it at your house. Probably. Stuff comes out so quickly now, on demand. It's like in theaters, and then two weeks later it's like on demand.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Well, not if Universal has anything to say about it. They've extended their streaming windows anyway, or their their showcase windows. Continue.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

All right, movie guy. Um so uh I was talking to my mom about this because a Scream commercial came on, and I said, Do you remember seeing that? Because my mom took me to see Scream in 1996, so I was like 11, and she likes took it, it was rated R, so she liked took me to see it in the theaters. And it's it's like pretty gory. Um, you know, and she's like, I'm not taking you to see any of these ever again because it's really gory, and like she it's not that I couldn't see gore, it's that she didn't want to have to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Um, and then she took me to see the next two because I still wasn't of age when Scream Two and Scream Three came out. Um my mom was nice, you know. She took me to movies and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

She took me to see the Some people call that nice, some people call that being a pushover.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I mean, I it's not like I was a spoiled child.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Uh no, no, no. But this this is I'm getting real only child uh pushover parent energy for this.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, I mean whatever. Uh she I am an only child and I I you know I pushed her around like the that song. Um matchbox toy. Um so I I remember seeing Scream and uh I liked the first one. Uh the second one and the third one were fine, and that's where I stopped. Like I didn't see any of the the reboots or anything like that. And I I think that that was adequate for me. Yeah, sure. I heard also that the new Scream got like absolutely torn apart on Rotten Tomatoes, like it was like pretty bad. Uh I I don't know if you looked at the score or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

I don't I Rotten Tomatoes is garbage, as they say. So they like basically that site has been paid for people just pay to get ratings that are good there and stuff. It then the studios do a whole bunch of garbage there. So it's it's kind of useless as a metric. But it was bad. It's not a good movie.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

So the the premise is that it's now Nev Campbell's daughter who's being uh who's being screamed.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, she's being screamed, she's getting screamed. It's the verb, it's the verb of the movie. She's being screamed. She's being screamed all over town, honestly. And she lives in the same small town that Nev Campbell, I think, lived in in the original Scream.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, so they stole one of the reboots of Halloween, and then they they just did that with Scream characters.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, yeah. They're she's getting instead of getting Halloween, she's getting screamed. But but yeah, the movie is like uh the thing about Scream is that the conceit of those movies, as you may recall from the first three, is that they're like kind of whodunits in addition to being horror movies.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So in this one particularly it's like just a completely unsatisfying who-dun, like it's it's so stupid, it doesn't make any fucking sense. It's like it's very Scooby-Doo-esque the way it plays out.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

And so I I know people aren't gonna care. Uh so uh who who screamed her?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Who screamed her?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Who was screaming at her?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Well, so in this movie, uh she she uh Sidney is married to Joel McHale from the The Soup or Talk Soup.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

And he plays a cop.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Has he been in any of the other sequels? Or is this a new thing that she got married? Because I remember she was like defiantly single and she she didn't get a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, now she has a teenage daughter and she has a man, and she like her daughter's getting screamed, and they're trying to scream her. And Joel McHill gets screamed so hard, like that guy gets screamed about 55 times, but then at the end of the movie, he's still alive when an ambulance comes. He gets screamed and wrapped in plastic and left in a garage for like a whole day, and then at the end he's like, Oh, thank God the ambulance is here. Like, it's a movie that doesn't even have the conviction to kill characters that are unimportant anymore, I guess. Yeah. Uh, which is strange.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

But there's like considering how uh everyone in the first three was was I know murdered.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

It's very strange, and but there's all screamed. There's also like it's not that it's I mean, whatever. Horror movies are mostly dumb, uh, and it it's not a it's not that it's good or bad, it's just that like because it is bad, and don't get me wrong, uh but it's like there are things in it that are astoundingly stupid, and um like Nev Campbell's character is like not an interesting character. She like it's it She never has been. Yeah, but she's really not interested in this. She like doesn't do anything, like it's it's just very like uh it's very stupid. It's it's a it's a deeply stupid movie. Also, Courtney Cox shows up in it. Oh good, and uh and like Matthew Lillard's in it, even though he's dead, and uh so is uh Courtney Cox's ex-husband is in it.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Are these flashbacks to Matthew Lillard? How is that?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

No, there's like AI, there's like a AI, there's an AI segment where someone is spoofing these dead characters from the first movie because everyone in the town's obsessed with how people got screamed.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

You lost me. And uh that that now now that there's an AI segment, and I I are you are you joking me? Is this a bit?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

No, there's AI in scream. People are getting screamed left and right, and there's AI everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I uh I uh AI has its its its uses. Uh it's not not necessary in a horror film.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I just and someone's getting screamed. I did see, speaking of horror films, last night I saw the movie Undertone, which is the new horror film about podcasting. I don't know if you've heard about this.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I haven't.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

So this is a movie that was made for like under a million dollars. It was made for like nothing, and A24 bought it, and um there's like no meat on the boat on this. It's a it's a podcast where on the in the movie, the podcast is between a there's the it's a it has a cast of two characters, like there's only two characters who appear on screen. There's a woman whose mom is dying, and she's like taking care of her mom who is dying, and her podcast records at 3 a.m. every morning, and it's like a ghost podcast, and her co-host lives not in her town, yeah, and she's like a skeptic and he's a believer, and they like debate the authenticacy of like uh ghosts, ghosts, and ghost stories and stuff. But it's a movie where uh it has cool audio effects and like cool audio like sound design. Like that's the only thing that's like there's nothing c that compelling about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Do you think they used Audacity?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I hope so. But I just love the idea, like they're recording one podcast episode throughout the whole show, and and they like do like multiple recording sessions to try to record one. And I was like, God, if that was my if I was recording a podcast at 3 a.m. every other day, and we it took us multiple nights to get through one episode, oh boy, that that would be it. That would be it for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Well, what I was also gonna ask is like, do they have a half hour where they try and like make sure they're communicating? Make sure audiobooks work. No, because that sounds like the real horror of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

That is the horror. No, they they they basically it's they'll be like the like in the example where you're like, I don't know if his name is FaZe On Love, and I was like, Donald FaZe On. Like, imagine like if I instantly pull that up on my computer, like they have the fastest, the most RAM that's ever been attributed to any device.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

How many GBs is it?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

It's it's gotta be 600 GBs on these computers so fast, lightning fast.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Um, but yeah, uh a very stupid movie. Uh it has absolutely no payoff.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Um how many um how many buckets of popcorn would you give it out of ten?

SPEAKER_00 18:18

That one I'd give like probably two buckets. It was it was it's good for what it is, for it being a no-budget movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

But it's not a good, it's not like a good movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

A lot of movie theaters are closing. I'm aware. Um how does this make you feel?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Angry. I'm trying to keep movies alive. So as you know, I've been on a real quest since the for the last couple years, I've been on a real quest to to see them all, as they say.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, you gotta see them all.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I gotta see them all.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

So last year I saw 306 films. So many films. I saw 306 films, 130 of them in theaters last year. This year I've seen so far, uh it's March 18th, as we record this, I've seen 75 films. And I think 38 of them or 39 of them in theaters. Um so I'm personally trying to keep the movie going alive. Yeah. Just just me.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Well, I I'd say that you're doing a good job. Um, you probably should have gone to see a few more uh movies up in Randolph, Massachusetts, uh, because that giant movie theater that had like three levels is closing.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

The showcase deluxe, I'm aware. Yeah. I think um it's a tough time for theaters for a variety of reasons, and I think that the answer is not well, I I think two things. I feel like this is true also in 2026 in the restaurant industry, where m my broader concern is not that like restaurants are not going to cease to exist, movie theaters will also not cease to exist. But if things keep going the way that they've been going the last five years, six years, there's a very real possibility that in 10 or 15 years, if you want to go to a restaurant, you're going to the fucking nearest big city near you. And if you want to go see a movie, you're going to a big city. And and that that sucks. Like that sucks so much shit for so many reasons. Um like vis vis-a-vis movies, like movies were meant to be something for mass consumption. It's meant to be an art form for the masses, it's meant to be something that is available for everybody and that is accessible for everybody. And um, I just don't think people it's not the same. You know, like watching movies at home is is great. You can have a great setup, whatever, but like it's not the same experience as going to see a movie in a theater and having it be a communal thing, especially in an increasingly disconnected world. So like I I had the pleasure of doing my annual uh Chid film festival in New York City in uh over President's Day weekend. Um this is my third, the third annual Chid film festival. Uh not a lot of attendees at this festival, I have to say. It's it's uh been just one attendee. We're trying to grow the attendance on this. Yeah. But it has been just one attendee. Well, how the films I saw.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

How do you get invited?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

I mean, anyone's invited. I think I put it on Twitter that anyone can can come come hang out with me.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Yeah, you don't put things on Twitter anymore.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

That's true. I I'm never there anymore. But I did uh the stuff that I saw. So on my train ride into New York City, I watched the movie The Cathedral, which I'm counting as part of the film festival. Enjoyed it a lot. Interesting. I watched that on Movie.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Is that the is that the the Pope movie?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

No, it has nothing to do with the Pope.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

It's a what was the Pope movie that came out in the last year or two?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

The Conclave? Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Was that more than more than the last year or two?

SPEAKER_00 21:51

That was last year. Um but then here are the I'm just gonna give you a quick list. I'm not gonna get into any details about them. You can ask me after I give the list, okay? Here are the movies I saw in Theaters in New York uh over the course of uh between February 13th and February 16th. I saw Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Yeah. It's important that I I know this. Did you go to New York on your own and see movies on your own over over the the course of Valentine's Day and all that?

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Continue.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

I saw The State I Am In, I saw The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Surratt, Nirvana the Band, The Show the Movie, Possession, It Was Just An Accident, Bitter Rice, Lost in America, Irma Vep, Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me, and Sorcerer. Those were the movies I saw. And I saw them at uh I went to the Metrograph, one of my favorite theaters. I went to Film Forum, which I love. I went to the IFC Center. I went to one AMC to see Nirvana the Band, the show the movie, and I went to the Roxy cinema, uh, which is a beautiful cinema where I saw Sorcerer. Um but yeah, I don't I don't know, man. I I had an incredible time uh just taking in films, seeing three movies a day, hanging out, walking all over the place. It it just rules. It was the best.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Where so you saw Firewalk with me in a theater?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yes, I saw that at the Allenwood Draft House in Manhattan. Okay. Um I've seen that before. I still have not watched a minute of Twin Peaks the TV show, but I've seen that movie twice now, and I I think it's like a perfect movie, uh, even though it's an insane movie and it's maybe the most bleak of all films. But I saw that like a sold-out afternoon showing on President's Day. It was it was very funny.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Yeah, I mean it being insane uh compares to what Twin Peaks is like. It's just it's like you're you're on drugs.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah, I mean, it's not even that it's yes, it's not even that it's like the supernatural or subliminal or uh creepy stuff in it that's insane. It's just it's in like it's such an audacious movie to exist. You've seen that movie, right? Yeah. It's like maybe like one of the saddest movies ever made, in some respects. Um it's also crazy to think that David Lynch made that after making Wild Heart, which is like one of the that movie's uh fucking incredible and insane and in a different way, and it's like so fun. Uh and he's like, let me bring mood down by a lot.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

I I think that that's his general general thing. It's like I just want to bring the mood absolutely down, like everything I do.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

So yeah, I mean that it's uh it's an incredible one, but anyway, um yeah, the theater was sold out. I was sitting next to uh I got in like early, like for the pre-show there, and I and they were showing a bunch of like Japanese beer commercials that had the cast of Twin Peaks in them from the 80s. It was cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

And then I was sitting next to a stranger uh who didn't order any food or drink from the Alamo Draft House at all. Uh is that what you're supposed to do? Is it a requirement? I mean it's not a requirement, but it is it's funny to go to a I guess it's he I'm sure he was there because he is a Twin Peaks head or whatever. But like uh it's a funny thing to go to a go to that theater and not take advantage of their wait staff and give them a tip and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I've never been to an Alamo draft house. Um I'm I'm sure it's a cool experience.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

I mean, I think that they're people are complaining about it online because now they're making you order on your phone. Like the the whole point of it used to be that they didn't allow you to take out a phone and now they're just like order on your phone, which seems not great. And I I think that the rub there is that a lot of them have completely degraded the amount of staff they have on and all these things.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

So like I wonder if they've changed their menus around and made like made cuts there too.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

That menu still seemed fucking gigantic, like way too big for its own good. And that that that is a real that is a real problem for all restaurants, honestly, but like especially for a movie theater restaurant. I do think that a dine in cinema is a good idea or and a good concept, especially to try to get people out more, like as a novel thing. The issue is just if you can't do it well, it's not something you should do, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah, I I would think the phone thing would be more advantageous to people who are trying to watch a movie. Um, so they're not like people aren't talking over when you're like talking away staff and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah, the way they used to do it was they just had like a little night light on your table and they'd have like a little pad with a pen, and you'd just write down your order. You'd basically like you press a button, there'd be like a light like up way above your head or whatever, and then they they would come by and uh and grab your piece of paper and then fulfill your order. Um but you know, I I've been to three different Alamo draft houses and which ones? Uh the one in Boston, the one in Manhattan, and one of the two in Austin, Texas. Is there still one in Boston? I think so. I haven't been there in a long ass time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

The movie theater near us is closing. Um not that I've been anytime recently. I think.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

In the province place mall?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

No. Uh there's a a smaller movie theater at a mall relatively close to us. Um I think the last time I went there was we saw the reboot of Twister. Twisters. Twisters. Yeah. Terrible. Uh it was not great, but I don't know when that came out. But that's the last time I went to a movie theater. It was two summers ago, I believe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Um the yeah, I mean there's a drive-in next to us too. Um hopefully it stays open. AMC's announced that they're planning to close some like a quarter of their theaters or something, the underperforming ones. Um and that is of grave concern to me specifically. Uh but also I think that like the I I don't know. Obviously, something's got to change to some degree. I think that if you are so inclined to go to a lot of movies, the AMC A list or like Regal has like a Regal pass also, if you live near Regal Cinema, if you have like a local cinema that's near you, those passes are incredibly value. Like they're it's for AMC, I pay$26 a month, and I can go to four, I can go to four movies a week. It's like it it costs$23 per ticket now. You know what I mean? So it's literally like it's it would if you're the per even if you're a person.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Maybe those passes, maybe this is your fault. Maybe those passes are the reason that they're they're going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

They're not because it doesn't because they have more inventory than they have people, right? So it's like it doesn't it that's it's way more beneficial for them because there are gonna be weeks where I can't go, right? And not many, but some. I was gonna say I don't think there are many weeks. Let's be honest. Uh but there are gonna be some weeks where I can't go to anything. And so, and you know, uh but it's it's like a it's like a gym membership, right? Like it's it basically the concept is if you have uh, you know, at any given AMC, you could have 10,000 subscribers and with the knowledge that only like maybe 200 of them will come in any given week. And and and I like I think that I don't know that they do a good enough job marketing that. I was taking a cab home one night from I I was like uh saw a movie late at night, and I was taking a cab home, and uh I the driver was like, Oh, were you at the movie theater? Because he picked me up in front of the theater, and I was like, Yeah. And he said, What did you see?

SPEAKER_01 29:33

And I said, What a question.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I don't know, I don't forget what I saw that night, but I talked to him about it a little bit, and he's like, I don't go to movies because it's so expensive. And he's like, But I he's like, I love movies, but like my girlfriend and I never go because it's so expensive. And I was like, You ever heard of the the like A-list program they have? And he's like, What's that? And I explained it to him, and he's like, That's so expensive. It costs like a hundred dollars to go. And I was like, Get A-list, you can go, and I explained it to him, I was like, You can go to four movies a week, and it's$26 a price. I was like, So for$52 a month, you and your girlfriend each have like un basically unlimited movie passes. Um, and if you're sneaking in snacks or whatever, all the better for you. And he was like, Really? It's that cheap. And I was like, Yes, it's not that expensive. And he was like, Oh, I I would definitely do that. I had no idea that it existed. And I think there are a lot of people who just have no idea that these programs exist. So um, you know, like I think that there's I I took my kids to see, we saw Hopper's last Friday. My whole family went out. Uh, and uh I spent their tickets are not free, you know. My mine is free, but I have to buy the other three tickets, and then we spent probably$40 on, you know, we got a drink and popcorn and did you flex on them and tell them that you didn't have to pay to get in? Yeah, that's what I said. I was like, hey, my ticket's free. Um but my point just being like it is expensive. It's a it's it's that's a that is a general problem that to take a family of four to a movie if you don't have one any of these passes or anything, yeah, it's gonna cost you like a hundred bucks, depending on what city you're in. Maybe in and if we're not getting any snacks or anything, maybe you can get away with it for it being 60 or something. But 60 bucks is not an insignificant investment for most people.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

But I guess corporably eating out is just as expensive, if not worse. Like even when you're getting like chilies as an example, or like Buffalo Wild Wings. Um my wife and I like she mostly cooks, but like we have a night or two a week where we get takeout just because we're like exhausted all the time. Um but like I Buffalo Wild Wings as an example, um we each get 15 wings and like an appetizer. Uh and I I'll after a tip I end up paying like$75 for that. And like and that's not a lot of food either. Like it's it's uh enough to fill us, but like you know, it's not like we went and had uh you know a three-course meal. Yeah. Not that you get a three-course meal for$75.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

No, no, but I but I your point is well made, which is that for$75 10 years ago, that would be oh, we're going, we're getting two appetizers, we're getting drinks, we're each getting an entree, we're getting a dessert, and it will cost us$75. And now like$75, as you say, it some places just literally gets two entrees, and that's it. Yep. And like that, that's a like that is a real problem that is an existential threat to the restaurant industry. And I and I don't think that there's any um easy solution for that. Because I do think that what ends up happening is like there's a restaurant near our house that was a Mexican restaurant, right? And it's next to a restaurant that has been there for like 50 years, it's a Mexican restaurant. And so the restaurant that's been there for like 50 years is terrible. It's like dusty and gross inside. The the food is bad. It's it's like it's like Americanized Mexican food, but like what people thought Americanized Mexican food was in 1980, basically. So it's really bad. But they have cheap drinks and people love going there, and so it's like there's always people there on like a Friday or Saturday night. Um, but this other Mexican place that was not quite authentic, but like a little bit more like, hey, we actually have tacos, uh, and we actually have like, you know, we have like soft shell tacos and stuff like uh that that style of trying to be a little bit fancier, like more of a date-night spot, open like basically five doors down. And this place, there they like to get each taco was like six dollars there or seven dollars. Yep, and it was fine. The food was fine. We went there a few times. It was you know walking distance from my house, so we we went there a few times, but like it was nothing special and it was not cheap, and so they already changed the concept. Basically, they already did an assessment. The con that's the same owners, but um they've already like rebranded to just be like bar food. Now they have like bar like wings and bar pizza and stuff. And I think part of the reason why they did that is they're taking inventory of like what people in my town will like, right? Yeah, there are five other like bar pizza, bar restaurants like nearby this place, so it's not like they're doing anything unique. But part of it is I also think it's the calculus of hey, if we're just serving wings and bar pizza, like those are things that we can charge 14 or 15 dollars for instead of six dollars per taco, right? Right, and and people will feel like they're not getting ripped off, you know what I mean? Like I think that that so like what that creates is a world where you have like a high and low, right? Where any restaurant that is not doing like you know, like low-level I mean we could talk to Balls about this, I'm sure he would have his own point of view. But any restaurants that's not doing like low-level ingredients, kind of like I don't want to say trashy, but like you know, more like quick service-y type food, like a just just a step above fast food. Like it creates this world where there's like there's stuff like that that's still kind of affordable, and then everything else is like you're spending 28 to 38 dollars for an entree. And like that's it it's not a you know, there's no world where there's very few restaurants that my family of four can go to, and my kids like are you know seven and nine now, like they eat like human beings.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Right, they eat actual entrees and like right.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

So like there's no place that like we can go to where and we don't get appetizers anymore, like we don't we don't do any of that, right? Because it's so expensive. But like there's there's very few places in my immediate community where we can go get dinner that are like sit-down restaurants where we're not spending$120 minimum.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Yeah, I mean even even like pizza as an example. Um there's there's a couple pizza places in our town, but like it's it's went from being able to get a pizza for like$25. It's like almost$40 for for like a pizza and an appetizer now, or a pizza and an entree.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yeah. And like pizza is the like quintessential thing that you know in Italy pizzas are seven euros still. If you go to Italy and you get a pizza, it's like you're spending nine American dollars for a pizza. Um, it's like a what would be the equivalent of like a medium pizza in the United States. Right. But like I I think that that's the you know, I some of it is food costs, a lot of it is inflation.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

But there's I I don't know what you're talking about. There's no inflation problem in this country.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

It's it's just it's just bad. I think that the other thing too, the other existential threat to restaurants is that people are much more used to cooking five or six nights a week now than they were pre-COVID. Like, I think that there was a huge class of people in this country, you know, call them upper class or upper middle class or even middle class people who would like routinely, uh, we do take out one night a week, we go to we go out to eat on Fridays and Saturday nights, like we get lunch on Sunday, like you know what I mean, like that kind of thing. And I just don't think that that exists the same way that it used to at all, because how the fuck could it? Like you you'd have to be making you'd have to be making like half a million dollars a year to live that lifestyle these days. Well, there you go. But I do think that like it's just it's just a different so I think people have like been conditioned to like COVID the lockdowns and all these things, I think force people to cook for themselves uh pretty quickly, or a lot of people, and I think that people are also just like used to that now. Like it's like very normal, like you know, we never ever like there there was never a Saturday night where we weren't like going out. Basically, it was like, oh Saturday night we're gonna go out, and like we cook at home as much or if not more than we go out on Saturday nights these days.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yeah. Um I it's tough because like normally I'd say, oh, you save money that way, but the cost of groceries, I'm feeling like a fridge of the choir. The cost of groceries is insane too.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

That's true, but it's not it's still not comparable. I mean, I think like there's like sticker shock for buying groceries, obviously. Like our grocery bill now is like around$300 a week, which is crazy. But like that$300 is breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's like it's six dinners, seven lunches and seven breakfasts, you know what I mean? Yeah, and so like if you actually price that out per meal, it's like, well, that's still way, way the fuck cheaper than I could ever pay going out to restaurants, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, it's it's funny because like since since we've had the baby, um, you know, we cook a lot for her, and and I've noticed like the things that we eat are like it's the bare minimum. Like uh, you know, when we grocery shop, most of the list is like things that we need to prepare for her, uh, as opposed to like uh for for us, we're just like, oh, make sure there's bagels for the morning. You know what I mean? It's it's not like anything elaborate planned out for a meal for us. We just make sure that we have like a protein for dinner.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Yeah, I mean I think that's like we do a good job of because my kids have strong preferences around food, we have like a meal planner on our fridge where like they'll say, like my daughter might say, like, oh I I want to have like her birthday was yesterday and she wanted to have uh she wanted to have pulled barbecue chicken in pretzel bun sandwiches for dinner that night.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

So that's very specific.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

We made it like once from like when we were doing like blue apron or whatever years ago. Like it was a thing that she's like latched onto as being a like an amazing like uh special treat. Like high quality dinner, yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

So like making pulled chicken in an instant pot, my friend. Oh boy, you just get some chicken thighs, like you know, I get eight dollars worth of chicken thighs, I rub a little barbecue sauce on them, let them be in the fridge for the day. We're in the instant pot for 25 minutes, delicious, very easy, nothing, nothing to it. And then the pretzel buns cost a little bit of money, obviously. We get some pickles, you know, you throw some pickles on there, and then I made some black beans as a side and we had a vegetable as a side. But it's like it's not it's not a hard dinner, but that was like a thing she requested. So like that is a thing that I made, right? But like we'll we'll like make the meal plan on Sunday and and then uh make sure we get everything together. Um but yeah, I don't know, man. Like I I've been we've been doing a lot of I think it's hard this is the kind of thing where it gets easier as your kid gets older. Like there's stuff like that where it's like you'll you'll just be eating the same stuff as your kid as long as you make that the foundation of how you're raising your kid, it's very easy.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

It's kind of how my breakfast is at this point. But like I I eat like a toddler anyway.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

I don't mean I I mean the opposite direction where you're trying to raise the toddler into eating like you eat not the other way.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

I get what you're saying. I'm just saying that like in the in the morning when I make her an egg, I usually have what she doesn't eat.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah, I gotcha. I gotcha. I mean that's you're that's a a fun stage to be at, but also yeah, it doesn't last forever. Like we have done my son, we think has like a mild dairy allergy, and he used to just fucking house milk. He would drink it all the time. And he was eating a lot of cereal for breakfast, cereal's like not the best anyway. Um and so like if you remove milk, you're like, well, I can't have yogurt anymore, and he's not gonna have milk, like what can we do? And he doesn't like he hates eggs, like he's he's a real Guy Fieti type, and then he's grossed out by eggs. Um who? Yeah, I don't know, some random guy. Uh his name is Guy, so who's to say? But he um I started making him breakfast burritos with which like takes like 40 minutes of prep on a Sunday, but I I did it like three weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

And so it has like uh so you're putting putting them in the freezer and he's like heating them up in the morning kind of thing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah. So they're like it's like a tortilla and it has it has black beans, uh ground turkey with like taco seasoning on it, um, and some like Trader Joe's uh hash brown potatoes that are you know obviously pre-cooked already. Um, and I chop up very fine some kale and some uh and roast some pepper or saute, some pepper and onion, and put that in there too. And so it's like got protein, it's got dietary fiber, very high protein.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Sounds delicious and healthy.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Very good for him, like a good way for him to start his day. And then I will I'll put them on uh the flat top and just grill them so that each side is like has a little like texture to it. And then you just wrap them in tinfoil and I throw them in the I put a few in the fridge so that they're ready quickly and a few in the freezer, but it's like you microwave them for you know, you take the tinfoil off first, obviously. If you uh but then you microwave them for two minutes and they're delicious.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

If you could spend an extra 40 minutes on Sunday doing that for me, but also putting egg in mine, that'd be great. That'd go a long way for me.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

This is the kind of thing where like I wish that I could uh you know, I like my job and I like getting paid the way I'm paid for my job, but uh I I if I could just be like a personal chef for people or do like this kind of meal prep stuff, like it would be great. Like I've I've been on a the last year and a half, so I've lost uh 78, 79 pounds as of today. Um so I've been on a crazy I I things have been going, you know, things have been going well for me, I'll say, um, in a lot of respects. But um, you know, a lot of it is just like refocusing on what I'm eating and changing my diet completely, eating smaller portions of things, making sure that I'm eating high protein, high fiber. Like that's that's really it. Um But I love cooking and I always have. It's like that that stuff was never hard for me. It was always the um you know, it was always other like the other things, basically. Like essentially I had to uh the whole like the whole time we were running this podcast. I was working through, you know, a a binge eating uh disorder and and lots of other uh problems that were uh making my life untenable. And I think that like getting that under control and talking to a nutritionist and all that, like that's been a godsend. And that's been like a five-year process. Like it took two solid years to like disentangle myself from terrible habits around binge eating and and whatnot, and then to like build new habits around like the kinds of things I want to be eating and all that. And it's not like it's it's not any great uh there were not a ton of great revelations in working with a nutritionist. It's mostly just like having making the time and having someone to be accountable to and setting aside time to like care for it and and do it and everything. Like, but anyway, like the I I wish I could uh do that kind of meal prep and planning for for other people. Like it it's I enjoy cooking and it's fun and like when you're cooking stuff in batches like that, it's like it's like 40 minutes because it's you're cooking a few different components. Um and I uh but you know have a way that I always cook beans and and a way that I will cook the the ground turkey and all these sorts of things. But like um But yeah, it's not it's not like it's I don't find it like inarduous or I think when there's a way to look at uh like a framework for doing those sorts of things is like instead of seeing it as like oh this is a big pain in the ass that I have to do for my family and it's annoying, you have to see it as like I get the pleasure of feeding my children delicious and nutritious meals, basically. And so like putting a good frame on it helps uh helps it not feel uh arduous and like a pain in the ass.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Well, uh that's all wonderful. And I started seeing a nutritionist um sometime around August. Um but she is uh having a baby, so I won't be seeing her again until like June. So we kind of set set some things in motion, and I'm gonna see how it goes uh for the next couple months uh out out here on my own, and uh we'll see if I can kind of maintain the momentum that I've built. We'll see how we'll see what what's shaking in a couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

Well, if you need a referral, happy to refer you to my lady. She's the best.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Do you see her virtually?

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it it's it's great. I mean, I think that that's the kind of thing where if you're fortunate enough to have a job that will cover that or insurance that covers it, then I think there are people who I've I mean, I've talked to people at my company who don't know that that's a thing that the company has that is covered like by our our health insurance. So I've been like, just do this, it's free. Like at your, you know, I'm not even paying a copay to this woman. Um and and so like uh but nutritionists in general are not it's it's the kind of thing that is uh cheaper than therapy, I guess is what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

I mean, I mean typically a nutritionist, depending on on who you see, uh, is gonna try and focus around it's not necessarily just like telling you what you should eat and what you shouldn't eat. It's it's like CBT basically like cognitive behavioral therapy where you're you're like trying to better uh have better practices around eating and and better um just a better mindset about it. Like what I've been trying to focus on is like I know the things that I'm supposed to eat. You know what I mean? Like I know that things are better for me, but like I need to focus on when I'm binge eating or you know, when I'm doing the things that are unhealthy. Like, what am I thinking about when I'm doing those things? And like what can I do to remove some of the stigma so I don't feel as guilty when I do slip up, you know what I mean? Like, so I I think a lot of it is behavioral versus like, you know, here's a meal plan for you. And of course they can do those things too. Um, but like I I have um I'm lucky enough to have a partner who cooks for me, you know what I mean? So like if I tell her, hey, I'm trying to stay away from red meat, you know, or whatever, like she'll adjust and and like you know, prepare things for me. And I'm I'm very lucky in that regard. It it's the alone time when when I'm driving and I, you know, go to the gas station and get candy or whatever that you know that that's the part that I need help with, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah, yeah. I think that that's like it's also for me the last couple years and taking stock of like literally everything I eat all the time. It's also very funny to see the things that make me gain weight and the things that do not at all. Like candy does not I I'm not eating a lot of candy, but like, you know, we went to the movie on Friday, I had some uh we had some they they have high chews there. They have like uh the like an interesting like it's called like the vacation pack or something. They're selling it AMC now. Very good. But like I split some high chews with my son, and like I worked out the next day, weighed in, I'd lost you know half a pound still. Um like candy has no like sugar has almost no impact on me, weirdly, like weight gain in in small quantities, obviously. I'm sure if I ate a shitload, then it would be different. But the thing that makes me gain weight like instantly is bread. If I eat any bread, it's just like I'm fucked. And so my nutrition is like, you probably are allergic to gluten. It's she's like, if you've done an allergy test and it's not been positive, it might just be like an intolerance or it might be a digestive thing, or it might be something that's just causing inflammation, or but she's like, but very clearly, like I if I eat literally a sandwich, I will gain two pounds. Like there's not a it's it's insane from one day to the next.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

I think it's built in because you're Italian. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

But yeah, I I mean and so that's that's been the bigger change is like to continue losing weight, I had to cut and cut and cut other things. And so it's like I will go, you know, I'm on week whatever, five or six of not eating bread, right? And I'm gonna not eat bread for another month until I go back to the motherland.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 49:57

Are you are you going to Italy soon?

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Yeah, in a month.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Okay. Well, let me give you some advice about Italy. Great food. Live there? Oh. Don't come back. Let me give you some advice. Stay there if you can. Buy a house. Well, there, uh, so I have a friend and co-worker who is um his wife has like citizenship in Italy, and he is trying to get citizenship, and they are changing a lot of their citizenship rules right now, and they're really struggling, and he does not want to be here anymore. And I don't fucking blame him.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I think they don't like they also don't want a bunch of people who are there who don't have jobs and who um and it's hard to in any country if you move anywhere, it's very hard to get a job locally, obviously. Like that's that's true in the United States as well, unless you're willing to do like under the table work. Um so the same is true, obviously, as you can imagine, in Italy, but it's even more uh difficult uh in countries that are like socialists, obviously, because they have social services and they don't want to just pay for you and have no you know what I mean? Like there's um so it it you know I don't think that that's actually a viable path for our family. Um but I don't know, man. I I love it there. I uh we'll see. We're going to uh Tuscany and Umbria on this trip and we'll see how it how it goes and what it's like and um exploring more more regions, uh going to more cities. Um so should be fun. Um getting a private driver yet again. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

I I always forget how how much style you travel in.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Uh I mean I I recommend when you're going to a country that you don't want to drive in, you just pay someone to drive you.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

You've explained it before, and it's it's logical, it's just bougie.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Yeah. Yeah, I mean the alternative was like the the price difference between getting a rental car for the time we're there and getting a driver uh was it was like probably eight hundred dollars more to get a driver. I was like, oh that that seems like a pretty easy decision.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Well maybe an easy decision for you, money bags. What's$800 between you, me, and uh Jermaine Dupree.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

Well, this is this is my point. Is you're talking about like it's uh$1,200 to rent a car or$2,000 to get a driver. It's it you're if you're already spending$1,200 to meet.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

I'm not I'm not spending$1,200.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

Um but yeah, it's expensive. It's uh the nothing is uh nothing is cheap, obviously. But the thing the benefit is when you're in other countries that have agriculture and uh you know and fishing and stuff, like food is cheap. There you're not getting like you're not getting completely reamed anytime you eat anything there. So there is that.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Yeah, we uh we don't have any elaborate vacation plans. The last vacation we went on was was not great. Um so uh if we do anything this summer, because our our daughter is walking now, which is wonderful, um, it'll probably be just the three of us, because we usually vacation with my wife's family, and we'll probably do like a weekend on the cape or something like that, as opposed to anything elaborate. I think that when she gets a little bit older, we'll start to consider different vacation options. But I think that if anything, it'll be like a really small dose. Uh, I don't think she could do more than a couple days outside of her routine in in our home.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

So yeah, that makes sense. I think that it's it's hard when they're little, but also like yeah, we didn't really go anywhere when our kids were like we went, we did one trip with my son when he was six months for like four days that I got for free with uh IHG reward points from all of my business travel.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Um and uh but yeah, we didn't really do a lot of travel with either of them when they were super little. Um we didn't we we didn't really start traveling with them until they were until my daughter was four, maybe, maybe three and a half. I think we went to Aruba when she was like three and a half.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

So we took her we took her away for like ten days with with family um when she was eight months old. And that was that was over the summer, and they the family rented an RV because it would be more convenient for us. Uh RV travel is terrible. I wouldn't I would not recommend it, especially with a small child. We but uh you know her family was kind enough to try and accommodate us because at the time our daughter had some some eating needs that were harder to meet uh had we been taking a plane as an example to get somewhere or or like had a really long drive, whereas at least with the RV you can kind of move around and and you know take care of things uh while you're moving. Easier said than done though. Like theoretically, it sounded great and perfect. Uh, and then when you're driving, it's really hard to move at all in an RV. They're not like they're meant to be like a stationary thing, and you can move around easily when they're stationary. Like theoretically, when you're driving, uh you should kind of be in in one spot sitting there like reading or watching TV or something, as opposed to like trying to function. So uh that being said, uh maybe we'll go to the Cape or Vermont or me or something like but I I even that like thinking about a four-hour drive with my daughter in the car does not sound ideal. So I I think maybe it'll be the Cape where it's like two hours, yeah. Anything like real wild. But you know, by then she'll also be uh you know, running as opposed to like kind of walking around like a drunk, drunk person right now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

It's I mean, it gets that's the sort of thing that also gets easier. There's a particular window from like, you know, really from like a year to three, three and a half, where it's like very hard because they want to do a ton of stuff and they don't understand logic or reasoning. Right. And like, and so it's like travel is especially hard during those years. Like it gets it gets a lot easier when they get a little bit older. Um but yeah, it's it's I don't know. Like I think that uh yeah, I we we love going on our trips when we can. And uh I really feel like if I uh I don't know. I if if we when we don't have anything planned, I feel I get very antsy. Um like I was already looking at planning something for 2020, like for late 2027 the other day. I was like, oh, I should just book this now and put a thousand dollar deposit down and call it a a life and just have something to look forward to next year, the end of the year, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. So um but anyway.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

Uh speaking of lack of logic for children and wanting to move, uh my daughter's thing lately uh is that she wants to dive headfirst off the couch. Yeah, that's really it's a thing that she wants to do, and she tries it a couple times a day. Uh it's funny though, because like we we also have a chair in the living room, like a not a recliner, but just like a big fluffy chair. And when she's on that, she uses logic and pivots her body around so the bottom half of her body comes off the chair so she can start to walk. She like slowly pulls herself off the chair, which is phenomenal. The couch, she does not apply the same logic, and she just she like tries to like dive off the couch, and I'm like, please don't. And then she obviously she doesn't understand that.

SPEAKER_00 57:43

So No, I mean she's like, No, I want a head injury. I gotta get myself ready for the NFL.

SPEAKER_01 57:48

It's it's important. Um it's important to prepare yourself. Yeah. Listen, I don't want to stop her from living out her dreams.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

No, I mean, nor should you, but yes, I I my son was the same way. He would also just fling himself off of things. There it is, funny. There are kids who are like that, and there are kids who are not like that, and you just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

It's weird that she's cautious in some situations, and like literally like two feet from where she's cautious, she's not cautious. Like I just like you would think her brain would tell her, hey, like I'm at around the same height as the couch. Like I need to slowly get off of this this other thing.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

But I mean, you would think, but goes on in those little brains.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

Since since she's been mobile, we've had to kind of like uh we were a little slow to baby proof, and now we've like had to do things very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

I think that's I think that's a pretty common yeah. I think it's a tail as old as time for babyproofing. That's how it tends to go. Like we I remember we had a bunch of um we have like a couple of like our cable wire like runs through our living room, like our it it comes like out one wall and has to run around and like is like tacked into the butt like there weren't enough of the like tack things so you could like lift it and then some of the tacks that come out, so like re-securing all that shit was a huge I remember that being a huge pain in the ass.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

Yeah. Um I mean we we really gotta do the upstairs, like her bedroom. We don't really like let her move around in her bedroom. Like downstairs is safe, like so that our living room and like the kitchen are kind of babyproofed, but like her bedroom and our bedroom are still kind of like off limits, so we're still like carrying her around up there. Um, so we gotta work on that. That's our next step. Did your audio cut out?

SPEAKER_00 59:42

I can hear you now. There we go. Alright, I'm back. Uh my microphone uh just cut out all of a sudden. Cool stuff. Um I'm sorry. I think uh what what other babyproofing have you done?

SPEAKER_01 59:56

Are you apologizing because your microphone cut out? It's okay, Jane. It's thanks. It's alright. Thanks, buddy. Um the the downstairs is safe. The upstairs is is not. And like her bedroom's upstairs in our bedroom. So we really gotta like we carry her around a a lot up there, and like she bathes downstairs, she eats downstairs. The only thing she really does in her bedroom is she sits on the couch when we're giving her a bottle before she naps and goes to bed. And uh we put her in her crib. Um and then we have like a changing table up there that she she goes on when we get her dressed for bed. Um there's a bathroom up there, or we obviously don't let her, you know, walk around in there either, but we brush her teeth in there. Um and our bedroom's completely not baby safe, and the only thing we do in there is read stories to her on our bed every night. So I I think we'll eventually get to it. Um obviously we're gonna have to. But right now we're still at a stage where we can kind of carry her around up there and she doesn't really complain because she's she likes being held.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

So Yeah, it is funny. The babyproofing thing, like there what I will say is it becomes incredible. There's certain things that are like obviously non-negotiable and are incredibly important, but there are other things where you do them and they're really important for like three months or six months or nine months, and then you never think of them again, and it's it's it is no longer a concern because it though like once you have like a three-year-old, it's like a little bit, which doesn't that sounds like it's obviously a ways off since she's only just turned one a few months ago, but like it comes fast. And and once you have like a three-year-old, there's just stuff where it's like, well, they know there's certain things they know not to do, you know what I mean? It's it's weird how like how you're really quick it happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

Yeah, I mean, I'm not I I'm past the point about I'm always gonna worry about her, but like now I'm at the point where like I feel like we have a decent grasp on what she's capable of, and I feel like we're pretty vigilant, which is great. I mean, there are still like moments where we kind of like, oh, like I should have been, you know, on top of that, but like I I think for the most part um we've kept her from danger. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

Yeah, well, that is uh I mean that's the number one goal, right? That's all you can try to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

But uh keeping them keeping them alive and out of out of the ER.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

Yeah, out of the ER is big. Um well, Cy, we come to the end of the show. Is there anything you want to plug this week?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

Oh man, uh I would really love to plug the um the AMC card that you got. AMC A list. Yeah, the A-list. Uh I I would also like to plug the AMC B list, which is what I have, uh, which is where I don't go to movies. And uh I just I ask you to describe what happened in a movie that you saw on a podcast that other people listen to.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

What's the I mean other people listen to debatable? Uh well but yes, uh I'm gonna plug, of course, seeing a nutritionist, traveling, paying$2,000 instead of$1,200. I'm gonna plug that as someone who never will take a discount.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

Yeah. Uh it's important to pay full price. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

It is important to pay full price. I mean, listen, I'm trying to stimulate the economy of Italy.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Yeah, you are very stimulating, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

Um but yeah, I I uh I I'm also gonna plug uh looking out for your fellow podcaster.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:32

Yeah. Um, you know, podcasting is really important, and there's not a lot of podcasts out there, so it's really not enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

Honestly, like after watching that movie Undertone, there's one less podcaster out there, too. So that podcast is probably over.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:47

Wow, wow, spoilers. Spoilers.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:50

So the pod of guessed that the podcast, the movie about the podcaster who gets killed, the podcaster would die at the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

Well, there were two podcasters, so did the did one of the podcasters kill the other podcaster, or was it a ghost?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

No, it was like it was supernatural.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

It's it was a ghost.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

I couldn't believe I saw it at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night and I could not believe how many people were in the theater.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

Oh, I thought that was gonna go a different way. I saw it at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and I could not sleep because I was so scared after I saw it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

I slept like a fucking baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

Do you believe in ghost shit?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Yeah, but I don't care. It's the same way I feel about aliens. Sure, but I don't care about it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Like, I don't care enough to be scared.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

Well, like uh, you know, if there are spirits, if if you accept a world where there are spirits that are all around us, then we've been living in that world for our whole lives. Has it ever impacted you in a negative way? I mean, not yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

There's always a possibility.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:51

Yeah, sure, but there's also always a possibility it'll it'll affect you in a positive way, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Like I I'd like to plug living in fear of every moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

It's the it's the same fundamental thing. It's the same thing as aliens. It's like, well, they're they're probably here, and if they're here, they're either staying disguised or they're not impacting our lives in any meaningful way.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

So, like, you know, yeah, it's it's the I don't know. I I think that uh too much of all of our time is spent worrying about things we can't worry about. And and worrying about things we can't control, honestly. I think that's the big thing. Being a parent is so much of being a parent is like trying to extrapolate, like, oh, my kid's throwing herself off the couch head first. What does this mean? Does this mean she's not gonna do well in school? Does this mean this, that, the other? Like you can spend hours and hours worrying about that, right? But it doesn't most things are fucking meaningless. Mo most stuff there's not. We look for patterns where there are none and and we ascribe meaning to things that are meaningless.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

I've uh I I think the only gravity Or uh sense of purpose that I've gained since I've had a child is is really the only thing that matters is taking care of her. Like all the other things that I used to stress about like just seem less stressful to me because like all I care about is keeping this human alive. Like even even the the work stressors that I had to seek therapy about, like it it doesn't feel as important. It's it's weird how it shifts so quickly.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

Yeah, I think that that is a big and pretty common thing, like where your perspective on a lot of that stuff changes and your uh Yeah, and and for the better, honestly. Like I think it it it is helpful. I think it allows you to be a more peaceful person in a lot of respects.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

Um I'm glad I brought up something like philosophical that would require more conversation when you were trying to end the recording of the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

Uh well, uh as always, for sci fi eddi, uh he's still on Twitter to some degree. You're at Syfietti on Twitter, you're still there sometimes. I'm not really there anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

I'm sci fi on Twitter, and I'm sci-fiary on Blue Sky, and that's that's where I'm sci-fiary.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:06

I'm not using Blue Sky, I refuse, and I'm basically basically never on Twitter. Uh I am making comical comments on on TikTok. Like I'm using TikTok, and when I see a video that I like, I'll make a trolling comment. Or when I get a video that has nothing to do with my algorithm, like I got a video uh from like a pest control guy, and and the thing about TikTok is the comments there are completely you can't like search people's comments, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

Like there's no Wait, so you're plugging that you're on TikTok and you leave comments, but people can't search to find your comments. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:44

There's no you're not gonna find them, you're not gonna see them. But like a guy left a a guy had a video about like pest control, and he was like, if you see carpenter ants in your house, you gotta spray for them like this, blah blah blah. It was like a 30-second video. And the kind of I wrote him a comment that said, I don't see carpenter ants in my house, I only see my beautiful wife and loving children. Please do not spray in my house.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

Um this is kind of like Schrdinger's TikTok comments too, because this could be those comments could exist. You could have made that comment, but you also couldn't have made that comment, and there's no way to find out, you'll never know.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:18

But I think that that's that's I leave comments like that that are just deeply stupid all the time for my own amusement, and I'm having a great time. Well, like I people have recipe comments, and I do the thing where I I say I make this exact same recipe, but then I I detail in rich detail how I make something that's completely different than the recipe in the video. Uh, and some people understand that that is a joke, and some people get really mad about it. It's great. It's like it's just I'm still wasting time on the internet, is my point. I'm just not doing it on Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

I think next episode, maybe we should take you should provide us with your top two comments of the week that you've left on TikTok. I uh and like I I think the setup's important, so you gotta describe the video and then you gotta tell us tell us about the comment.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:01

Yeah, I'd love to. Uh all right. Well, as always, for Sci Fietti for Meach Kid. Fuck you. See you later. Rounding down creating fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

This was a Buzzcast Network production.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:30

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.