probably like 12 years old, but I mean even at eight years old for a cat, like that's that's old. And yet she was still really skinny. So you would think without looking at her for just her size, you'd think that she's still young, you know, when she was, when she was little, you would have a guest that she's only like still a kitten year old, you know? So it all depends on obviously nourishment and activity.


So you so you made it up to six cats and what was that the upper level you kept? Yeah.


We started with this just 23 and then uh once we had our daughter, I don't know if it was the urge to have a kitten and see them grow up together or what it was, but there was just that urge to have a kitten and and see how the older ones would interact because by that point they were already four years old for the older cats. And uh,


it changes the dynamic I've found.


oh yeah, absolutely. Like the three already have their own personalities very different from each other. And we got the two and they developed, they kind of absorb some of the other personalities from the first three cats and yet develop their own. So one was very, very much energetic and playful and the mischievous cat and the other was timid, like the one, but very much in a different sense. It was, it was like a mirror of the one, but in a different, I don't know how to explain it, but like not quite the same personality.


Yeah. I've seen like the personalities are really unique but some of the behaviors seem like the same. Like he was kid, he's only a year he learned to be afraid of the door being knocked on because two of my other cats were feral before I made friends and got them in and they freak out at the sound of the door so he like runs because they do.


Yeah. And I mean regardless of how long you have them or how much you try to uh, you


Yeah.


know, train them to be okay with certain things, like some of that just never goes away, you know? And a lot of that has to do with how old they are at the time and how long they've had that. It's just like any person who tries to change bad habits, if you've had that bad habit for 10 years versus 50 years, you know, like 10 years, it's going to be easier to break that habit. 50 years. You might just need to let it be like trying to change a bad habit and break out of it after that long. Might not be the easiest or maybe nearly impossible for for a lot of people.


tell me about it. I'm 56 this morning I put in my order for our grocery pickup, I've still got a couple of issues so I am really reluctant to go in. Okay. And they bring it out to the car which is nice and they don't charge us for currently. Kroger's just letting you do it pick up for free anyhow I ordered because it was on sale two boxes of macaroni and cheese, frozen sculptures. It's so good. And I was eating stuff like that when I was 678 but I didn't order hot dogs. I got over that finally. Yeah,


Like I know there's people that don't like that combination, but I don't know everyone to know what like it's not like, oh my God, amazing flavor. It's not like a top tier dish where it's just like so tasty. But every once in a while, like there's that like, it just hits the spot. I don't know how to explain it.


Yeah. I think it's from my childhood my mom would make just hot dogs cut him throwing the macaroni and cheese. It was probably craft but better than what they have now. So I'll go to a restaurant and that's not what I want to eat at a restaurant. But


But every once in a while your steaks, that would taste good. I


no.


typically try to stick to doing that at home and yeah, but everyone's all your slick. Sure why not? And then like before, you know, you're like, yeah, that was actually kind of good. Like that whole little bit of nostalgia, I guess, you know?


I'd be curious. You mentioned home, where about in the country are you?


Oh, uh, Northern Wisconsin, you.


I'm in Arizona, although I was born in michigan and I spent most of my life in Minnesota. I was like trying to kind of see if I could pick an accent for you and I'm like I have no argue with this man is using, you know?


Everyone like, I was, I was born and raised in upper michigan, the upper peninsula, So more remote than lower machine and moved to northern Wisconsin. And the funny thing is like, I feel like do kind of have that local accent from back home on occasion, but it's nowhere near as thick as, as a lot of people. Um, I don't know if I just never picked it up because I'm not hitting 35 soon. So I mean I'm not young anymore by any means, not a kid and uh, a lot of people, especially if you, if you travel like I've been out to California, apparently I have an accent compared to mean, but California, you know, it's very


different regional, it's just like going to the south. Like you get some of those people were just like, okay, yeah, you are definitely southern. Um apparently they must took us a lot for Canadians because we were so close and a lot of that kind of accent comes over that, that you pay for a Canadian like

Yes. Yes. Yes. Mhm. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


I snapped from


emphasis. Yeah. And like, I don't know, I don't have it that thick every once in a while, I guess it comes out in certain things, but


So are you anywhere near a city like all I know of is superior and then way over here like by mountain iron. It just seems like it's all nothing up there but code.


actually that's exactly where I'm at. I'm in Superior. Yeah.


okay.


Yeah. Right right across the water from Duluth


Well


so not a major city like Minneapolis but like any time I fill out surveys or anything in the ask rural, urban or suburban, I feel more suburban because I mean especially compared to where I grew up that was rural by a long shot. Um Not farmland in the middle of Kansas, but you know, pretty remote bite and cut off from a lot of the world. Um You


area.


know, you know those towns when you're on a road trip, people only stop there because they're on their way through somewhere else. Those gas station pounds that


I


was up


except


drove


we didn't have anything on the other end. It was just us.


yeah. Yeah. I drove you know, is it highway to that goes along the bottom of the upper P in Linz about us too or I might be off there. But if you go further up north towards the shore in the upper P. And you're heading over towards the Mackinaw bridge, there's dirt roads up there that go through all the nash or the state or national forests go


Yeah there's


what


one


while?


there's any particular, I can't remember which one it is but yeah there's one that kind of cuts across entire U. P. I mean I don't know if it's the same one the whole way but there's main highways across the hallway and one that leads right into uh from Sue ST Marie michigan to Ontario and transitions from a U. S. Highway like an interstate two. Uh I can't think of the term but it's not an interstate anymore because it's not the U. S. But it's in Canada like it's a across national borders and continues on and yeah it goes through like national parks and stuff I think.


Yeah. I was like just stunned at how remote. I mean if it wasn't for the occasional campground and it being summer I just would have not seen any vehicles. I did a solo road ship. This my mom lived in Detroit and it's 12 hour drive from Minneapolis to Detroit on the freeways. But I always like to take one way I want to do a circle when? Okay.


it's unless you're on a strict schedule like you need to be somewhere at a certain time. It is nice especially on road trips to just kind of take a road trip you know take your time, see this stuff not be in a rush like. Oh I got it you know it's about a 12 hour drive, Let's do it in no more than 14, not like if you don't have to be there, just kind of stopped when you need to see the sights, you know, take a pit stop, do the tourist attractions, even if they're kitschy and cliche, it's still, it's still an experience. I mean that's what we did. We, we did have a time limit, but my ex's brother was in California, graduating college. We went from upper michigan and we decided to do a road trip instead of flying where it's like, okay, we're gonna cut across the entire country and then head up the coast and then cut back. So we hit a fair amount of state and oddly enough, we missed Nevada entirely. Uh, we, we went like we, we planned it that way because we knew we're not gambling, people kids and we knew if we're going to go through Nevada, especially southern, we gotta hit Vegas. We have,

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Did you go through Arizona at all


we


or?


did, yeah, we um, I'm trying to think of the map in my head, but we went through some parts of, we had municipal after, I know we went through Wisconsin and then we went through a little bit of Iowa and Nebraska. And I don't remember us taking any real stops in Nebraska. Pit


The


stops, no attractions or anything. I know we hit Kansas because we saw the center of the U. S. Uh, geographic center. Um and then we went over to wow, I am blinking on my geography here. I know we hit, yeah, we went to colorado.


Yeah. I was thinking colorado or one


remember


of the


colorado because we to save money, we went to K. O. S instead of hotels and even even ko has ended up being moderately expensive, but like a third of the cost of hotels. Um And


Put it


in


didn't.


the summer season when it's Yeah.


oh no this was this was fun, this was early spring because he was graduating in May.


Oh that's a little chilly if you count.


like in California not too bad but for a lot of the other states it was it was chilly. Yeah we we started in the beginning of May and we didn't get home until the beginning of june like we were gone an entire month.


that's the way to do it. Yeah.


I remember colorado specifically because we didn't know it we didn't look into it enough. We just booked you know Kay always that were in areas uh middle of the night. We're driving up to our campground and we're driving literally up to our campground because it's on the top of the mountain in colorado just outside of Denver.


Sorry, But


No no no that was fun. We had a big old conversion van and it was interesting. she didn't care for driving up the mountain, I was pretty okay but I can only imagine driving those big RVs up if you can't, you're


Well


nervous giving a conversion van. I imagine those big things. Um I still, it's one of the best experiences though because our campground was up there, I get up early hours of the morning for a bathroom break and on my walk back like it's brisk up there because early May and top of the mountain, I remember looking at our GPS saying that it was just under 10,000 ft up, that's pretty high by comparison. But no on my on my walk back it was still cold but not like not biting cold, it felt like a welcoming cold temperature. It was weird.

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah,


I call that like crisp. Yeah,


Yeah like those are like that light frost on grass kind of feel like when you first step out in the morning and it doesn't feel harsh cold, but it feels inviting in a


it's


way, I don't know how to explain it. Um But yeah, short short walk like it only took me a couple minutes to get back to the campsite, but


What?


I was welcomed by the sun coming up over the mountains and it was like, yeah, that was probably the most peaceful experience I've ever had. I was indescribable. It really was. Um


I


But


I am alright


Yeah.


but I yeah, I've seen like the moon out in the super dark camping area and it's like, wow, you're like, did you, were you attempted to wake your wife up and pull her out of the


town?


was actually, but I know how quick sunrises can go just like sunsets and just like but it was like and they were already sleeping and I was like, plus I know that she does not like the cold. She likes, she likes the warm, she's the kind of person that can have it 80 degrees in the house and still be covered under comforters. So like to wake her up this early just to see that, but it's also kind of bitter cold. She might appreciate it later. But no, like, like she'll be cranky. She's


You're


also a morning person. So I was like, no.


little like a middle aged kid, you know? Five, 12 maybe I do that too. But yeah, growing up we got Yeah.


Yeah. But no, we we went through Arizona because she had friends in, remember if they were in or just outside of phoenix. So we hit


And


the four corners and then um went through uh phoenix and then what is it? Um The incident? S


uh the Sedona uh yeah. Flags,


down,


what else is there?


It's Scottsdale. That's down


Oh yeah, Scottsdale is right north of phoenix.


Yeah, like I think we went from the corners down and kind of went to phoenix and then I think Scottsdale's more west, right,


no that's right right there on Buffy. No.


there. Ok. Yeah, because I think we went through there, I got to say for that area, like not just custom, but in general, like the highway decorations are incredible, like the floral decorations and like, they put so much time and effort into making those beautiful and


Is some of the


not


road,


land.


they have rocks in these spirals and different color rocks and make


It was, it


the


was that was definitely a site. It was incredible.


it's different the roads here, the new ones at least they just stay nice for so long and it's different than Minnesota, where you have the blitzkrieg of trucks. I've seen a chain in our county when I lived in Minnesota, in the front of this long line of trucks was a grinder, pulling up asphalt, putting it up right into a dumps, another, it was putting it into the dump dump trucks and they were lined up empty. And then if you work your waist back, there was the sweepers, there was everybody in one long line, like a mile long lake pavement at the same time and that's like here. Uh They just


Now


take I'm all your


I think where I grew up, we, we had two seasons, we had winter and we had construction and I thought that was us and and one of the after like b


well


enough trips over to Minnesota um realized. I think that's a midwestern thing, especially the northern areas because of the cold because we, you don't see it out west very much. I mean I haven't been out east too often, so I don't know how it is there


Not


as far as the roads go. But I mean like you get far enough west or south and that's not a thing.


yeah that that just threw me, it's like you just used to it and then oh they have different way of living life down here, do construction all year. I had a lot of friends in the different trades including one who helped build 35 W through ST paul, one of the last productions which was like um summer work due time is that many hours as they could get you to work and

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Right. Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's one downside for sure of this kind of region is if you work in that industry, construction and road work, you might definitely want to consider looking at seasonal work because that is seasonal work. Like you get laid off for the colder, colder months


but


and what you know, what are you gonna do?


that's it I


You


had


know, I know too many people that get laid off because there's no work, everything in that industry shut down because you can't build houses, you can't really work on the road, you can't do that kind of stuff because it's too cold.


and the ones who don't set aside money to enjoy their time off.


Yeah. Well yeah, I mean you have to set aside enough money to even try to make ends meet let alone anything extra. You know, it's


Yeah, it's easy


like


this.


I I admire I admire those that can actually make that work. That that lifestyle because that's that's rough to not always to know where your income is or if you have any


Well


I mean right now we're kind of like that for everybody but it's not we have very little control over it in terms of everything right now when you're talking about like construction work you have the ability essentially to go find other work if if you needed an income. So. Yeah it's.


at times other than this very strange year


Yeah. Exactly. And it's I don't know how to be, how have you been coping with with all the everything?


you know I'm super lucky in that I am on disability Social Security currently. And um and that's been it's like this thing, universal basic income, we're a certain amount of money because they don't, they check up on me every so often get my doctor's records, make sure you know I'm not getting better and and that's it, the check shows up, I do anything I want with it, but all the responsibilities on me, so I'm super grateful I have it and I'm like kind of pissed that the government hasn't been helping all the people


Exactly. Yeah. Like I'm I'm in in a different kind of boat where for for a while now I've been unemployed but not it has nothing to do with everything going on. It was even prior to that and enough health issues that prevent me from working but not enough confirmed yet. Two allow me disability. It's that middle ground where it's like


I heard.


is this enough? Can we prove it? And is it enough to give me that or do I have to, is it not and I have to go back to work? But what what can I do with my health? You know, it's it's just very very small and sometimes very stressful gray area of where do I lie?


Yeah it is. Yeah. And I had when I first took sick I had some friends who were like just work, just work, just work, there is nothing wrong, you know your back's not broken in half. And I'm like uh and then I was so grateful. Then it took just six months or so for Social Security to hear my case and they approved it. Now I hear it's just ridiculous long and they do a lot of denials at first, then you have to go to court and I'm like when you're not doing well and you don't have money for an attorney, what the hell?


Yeah. I mean, and and a like a court costs alone can be ridiculous. You know? Then you have, I mean there's just so many factors in in costs in stress and everything. There's just so much


They just oh gosh we're over 25. Let me tell you real quick. They did it in Canada. It just closed this week, won the more they gave 7500 bucks up front to 50 individuals who were homeless and had been homeless only six months. And then they had a control group of 65 people receiving services from the shelters in the county. This is over in a Vancouver and here they found it costs about $8100 per person served by the shelters to take care of them over the year. Whereas the $7500 granted the people, all of those people were in housing. They had an average of 1000 bucks saved at the end of that time. And then all these other important measures like their stress they're being were their mental health were way better than this group because they didn't have that worry.

Sure. Yeah, wow. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.


Yeah. Exactly. With with all the stimulus that went through, like I didn't qualify for that first round because technically I'm a dependent, even though my age is an adult, like the first round was dependent, 17 and under or college students of a certain age, I'm like, well I'm definitely not under 17 and I'm not a college student. Like I don't qualify. Like uh that little again that little gray area where it's like uh and the possibility of another round coming, they've they've modified some of the criteria that maybe I could be included in this round. And like admittedly I likely won't save it, we'll probably use it for necessities and some for fun things. But even just the knowledge of having that assistance, whether I use it or I blow it on whatever. Just that knowledge just low dramatically lower stress anxiety and just knowing that they're actually doing something to help me to help everybody that's in need. I mean when they first did that first round, like what they say within four weeks most people that received that money was already gone for, a lot of people have barely covered rent, let alone all the other responsibilities they had. It's like really you think $1200 is going to cut it? I understand budgets. I mean the fact that that bill was what like a little over $3 trillion get it. It's a lot of money.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Mhm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah.


But still


What's


if


on?


you got that money, we're paying their fair share of taxes like amazon for instance who made nothing because everybody put that money right into spending on mostly necessities have been taxed. You know the people the companies have been taxed. That money would have flowed through the economy right back into the government.


Well that's just that's the same thing I was just thinking is yeah like yeah it might be quite a bit of money you're giving out but and especially in these times whether it be for necessities, hobbies, entertainment, anything like that that is all getting almost immediately pumped back into the economy. You know I mean if a lot of it's put on necessities for like for bills it helps. I think it helps the economy somewhat. But when you're talking about buying food and other material goods, you know that that boosts the economy even more than just paying your electric bill, you know? And so why my mind goes, why don't they see that if they want the economy to continue and not be in this recession or depression that we're going through realize that if you can manage to pump enough, you know, like give enough out to people, it's coming right back to you, like within a couple of weeks that that's coming right back into the economy.

Yes. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


Yeah. If the covid if it takes 68 to 12 months more to get a vaccine or longer, I sure hope that dems win and and consider that man. I'm like I said I'm doing okay but it's like I'm still right on the edge. If it weren't for the 1200 I got earlier this year, my car wouldn't be working now.


exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of people that got it that it was more of a cushion like, okay, they could put it away a large portion of people. It wasn't, it was a matter of medications, hospital visits, you know, car repairs, utilities, like, like are we going to have food this month? Like for a lot of people, that's what it was. And I mean, even if they didn't need multiple 100 for one month worth of necessities, it was 400 that could help stretch it out. They wouldn't have to worry for at least a couple months you know? But even still it wasn't. Oh yeah I just got an extra 1200 bucks like it was something they needed you know it went so far while only so far for a lot of people and it was still appreciate it because where would they be without it? You know a lot of people without it would have been homeless

Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm mm. Uh huh, yep. Uh huh. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


He


or hard to get to work or what have you.


you know if Wisconsin got some funds from the federal to help people with rentals then losing their mortgages


I don't know. I I think


with


there was a whole put on for mortgage and rental and


yes on evictions like.


Yeah I think I don't know about Wisconsin specifically. I want to say it was nationwide but more of a recommendation and not a requirement. And I think it was up to each state government to determine just like when they did the unemployment extension that trump has a thing for an extra 300 it was 400 300 from the government and then 100 from each individual state government to


Well


approve or deny that. So everybody got 300 extra for unemployment and some would get 400 depending on their government wanted to.


yeah Arizona said nope and then we got several $100 million that's largely still sitting not being distributed to people who need rental assistance because we don't have Arizona's


That


very


is


anti spending.


well


We don't have an agencies and enough employees to figure even figure out how to distribute the money, how to interview people. So it's used.


Yeah. Even though it's been months since all that's been distributed to individual uh municipalities. Um It's like they're still hiccups, you know they're like from the from the stimulus that was approved back in March or april they're still I think that's the last time I checked like last week I think they said they're still like nine million americans that haven't received one that could be eligible. But for various


No.


reasons, you know like whether they just don't have, you know, the non filers and and stuff like that and it's like, that's a lot like yeah, there was a huge number of uh qualifying


people to receive that, but the fact that there's still this many months later, nine roughly, nine million that haven't gotten it, like, that's it. I a


technical standpoint, I can see why there'd be problems, like not everything, especially on this scale is going to go smoothly. There's going to be problems, there's going to be, you know, hiccups and everything, but but it has also been many months, we're not talking, oh, hey, we passed it in april and it's now july we're talking it's been what, half a year going on, like eight months or whatever.


That's it. I kind of wonder if the president I blame too much on him. But it's like I told the CBC seem to put pressure on them not to emphasize masks early on or not to say it spreads by aerosol. So what's not to say he's looking at the I. R. S. Or whoever and saying don't worry about getting all that money out.


Yeah, there's there's a part of me I don't support or oppose trump one way or the other, like, from my standpoint, uh very at the very first, I was like, oh dear God, like like wow, this country really is, wow.


huh.


Um but at this point I've kind of come to terms with the fact that it's only been four years. We've already we were already dealing with some problems to begin with, that. Obama was trying to fix from the previous president and now trump's in office, trying to continue fixing like what well Bush problems were while also trying to fix or correct what happened with Obama. Like it's only been four years realistically, you can only do so much in that amount of time, especially with all this red tape to go through. Um

Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


Oh.


but there is a I actually talked to people the other day about this, There is part of me that wonders with trump and the election being in what a couple of weeks that we've had no real uh, forward momentum on another round of stimulus for individuals businesses? What have you done any kind of relief? Um because they've been in talks for that for, well, what's since july they are talked about another round, um no forward momentum. And yet with the election looming, there's a part of me that wonders if in a fashion trump is going to try to strong arm them into getting something passed.

Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah.


I expected because when he when he momentarily, you know, a few days ago, he may be before the hospital, he said there will be no stimulus. I will not sign any deal. And then a few hours later he changed totally went the other way.


yeah, yeah, because I believe because the democrats in the house passed the bill for like two or something not that long ago, so now the Senate, um, but then the republicans came back with like, uh, they don't want anything over a trillion dollars. Um, So again, like it's a it's a lot closer, but it's still a decent gap. And then so again, it's it's back and forth. But I think I read that trump proposed one point $6 trillion in limited stimulus, you know, for the individual people and for limited business relief, it's kind of like the middle ground between the two proposals. Um I don't know if that's going to pass or anything like that because it was proposed by the president himself, not the republicans, not the democrats, not the all that, not Congress.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Oh.


Which


Um And I mean, not saying it's the best motive, but if his if he attempts to strong arm them into getting something passed,


it


my


does?


thought is because of election that if he can get this past, even if it gets distributed after the election, if something on the table, it might swing votes in his favor because people are like, oh, he's doing something definitely not a great reasoning to get it passed. Like selfish who I'm going to win the election, But there's assignment. It's also like grateful because then it would at least be, it still be help, you know, it's a two sided thing. It's like negative, um motive, but positive outcome.


Yeah. I know. And I'm like worried if he waits and if he does lose the election, will he feel like issuing the stimulus afterward? You know, I I think if you


Yeah, I'm in the same boat there is that if he doesn't win, then he won't be part of Congress, correct? You won't be involved in still


well hell


regions on, on those anymore because he won't be


january 20th. Yeah.


that's true. Yeah. Because he'll still be officially president. That's right. Um, because the thing is like, if nothing, if he truly feels the need to help the average american with all this and he's no longer president, would he in effect be willing to fund stimulus with personal income? Because I mean obviously he's wealthy, nowhere near that wealthy, I thank. But you know what I mean? Like he wouldn't have the government money to work with as far as Congress goes, you know, right now, he's not funding it, if it passes, it's the government, you know, And if he still wanted to supply people with money after he's no longer president, he would have to do it out of pocket.

Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right.


Yeah, I think he


I don't


should.


think, I think he could be selfless, but I don't know about that much. That's that's that's a lot of money. Even like unless I had a large sum of money, even I don't think I'd be that selfless because that's I mean, again, the first round they passed was over $3 trillion. That's a lot of money. You'd have to have an enormous I mean Bill Gates isn't that rich, you know? And like that's that says something. Bill Gates is wealthy, you know?


What?


So no, that's I don't know, it's all


Well, you know what, I I want to propose that we all create a go fund me or something and pitching money needs to be a lot just a few million to build a wall and I want to put it all around mar a Lago in florida and president and all of his friends if they lose, if they lose and


Oh yeah, I kind of just like here here here's you


yeah, because they won't be able to get jobs, you know, all the current heads of the state Department's and stuff, federal level. So um yeah, I'll build a wall to keep them safe in florida. Um


Yeah I mean if you if you think about it I don't know what the current U. S. Population is but if if every single person contributed a dollar to a fund that's a that's a substantial amount of money.


Yeah, it's like three I must say 3 30 million. I could be.


it's pretty high you know I mean admittedly I guess that the bill that passed was three trillion. By comparison. If every person on the planet contributed a dollar


Well


that's still nowhere near three trillion.


no.


We're only in what like eight billion. Yes


pushing.


but I mean that's still a substantial amount of money to give back to do good you know and help out like it's


You


I don't know I definitely know that if I had a decent amount of money like if I won the lottery like I won't lie I'll spend some of it on myself on fun things. Get myself set I guess. But if I had a billion dollars, I'd probably hold on to maybe like 100 million and then here's the other 900. Like here's for this charity to help the homeless to like I don't need that much money.


I'm with you. You know, I don't play the lottery much, but I don't see the difference between a lotto at five million or 20 or 100 because I'm like just one million or so would have me totally set anything above that. I would either do something weird and go nuts so I would just give it away,


Yeah. Yeah. The only reason I, I wonder on my own side, two of no willing I would be to give up enough money is because I have this like innate urge to travel to just go places like I, I want to go visit more of this country. I want to go to europe and Asia and all that. Like I want to see the world having nearly unlimited amount of money. Like, like I mean a billion dollars is a lot. I mean to put it in perspective, I actually did this out of a lot of fun. If I had a billion dollars and I wanted to spend it in my lifetime. All of it. Yeah. So here's the thing, a billion dollars over the course of 100 years spending every single day you still have to spend roughly 30 grand every day the door was closed, right?

wow. Uh huh. Uh huh. Yes. Oh. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Mhm. Yeah. Uh huh.


My car just trans located through space.


I yeah. You


No,


speaking.


it's got a big gap but I thought he was too big to get under there anymore since


I


he was.


guess not.


Hi


He's like I want, he's like, I want to be in here. I'm gonna be in here. Cats, man and cats.


I'm glad they're on our side. Come here honey.


no kidding. It


man.


would be roughly, I think I remember correctly, roughly. 30 grand a day


No


every single day for 100 years if you want a billion dollars and that's no


Good.


no interest accruing over time either.


Right you'd have to really?


Yeah, I mean, admittedly like at the start, okay, here's a car. Cool. You know by a $300,000 house, that's a good chunk of it right there. That's 10 days worth. But I mean you really do that every single like, okay, I got a car. You're going to I'm going to buy a car a brand new car every single day for 100 years. I don't, I don't think though, you know like oh 300 grand for a house and that's roughly two weeks worth of, of money. You're going to buy a new house every two weeks. You know what I mean? Like that's so to me a billion is like unlimited


I wonder you know uh the guy who owns amazon. Yeah I just I just opened the browser real quick network and this is in his the company stock whatever. I'm sure he doesn't cash right now. It's 175 billion. I'm like


I'm


what?


like obstruction of that. Like less than literally less than 1% would be like a billion dollars would be less than 1% billion dollars is.


Someone did the math and said that he could give away to every employee in the order of tens of thousands of dollars of amazon and still.


And still be one of the richest people. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean when you think of amazon employees like that, that's everybody. You mean talking the warehouse employees, the distributors, you're talking uh the online people, you know like the service text and every like you've got lots of people lots


I forget the exact


and


number.


they're slowly expanding.


Yeah they said they could give away so many thousands or tens of thousands to each person. And his stock has risen so much this year that it would be totally


That's good.


absorbed within that rise.


Yeah. That, as I say that it can increase because yeah, I mean as stock prices so does his value. So it is his ability to essentially give back his ex wife got like a ton of money and it's like, like that's alimony. Holy crap. Like wow. Like I know alimony can be expensive, but Uh huh. No, thank you. I I'm not kind of money. I'd be I'd be set like especially with his kind of money, I could do all of it, I could travel indefinitely, see the world do the things and still make a difference. Like you have, like I could

Oh yeah mm. Uh huh. Oh yeah. Right right.


Well actually traveling the world and making differences as you go could help give people a better impression of America and americans.


Yeah. Well, and that she was like, like there's I'm a very I'm very much a loner. I'm an introvert which in contrast to me wanting to travel is very, it's so dynamic. Um look, I've just always had a fascination with other cultures


You sure?


and some of their histories, especially when you compare it to America where what a couple 100 years old countries that are, Oh, like, you know, you look at England and that's centuries old. It's


In


like


the


they


end


have so much history.


India Saudi Arabia Iran Mesopotamia where we have evidence going back tens, 10,000 plus years of civilization and they're still living in the same place.


yeah, exactly. Like not every aspect of history interests when I was in school,


Well,


history was whatever, but as I got older, I was like, I don't know if it felt like there's a switch that went off in me as I got older because suddenly I'm just like the past number of years, history itself, it's just fascinating. Like looking at hold far things have come and looking back at, I mean, just everything. You know, we talked about grand scheme of things, the universe as a whole. Like we're were tadpoles, you know, But just, I think just learning in general cultural, you know, I'm open to races religions. Like I'm not a heavily religious person. I consider myself more agnostic where I don't believe in any one thing, but I think there is something, um,


I was there when I was your age. Yeah.


yeah, and, and to the point where like I'm open to all religions. So what the one stipulation I have is just don't push yours on me and, and so long as you don't harm others in uh, in service to your religion, you know, that like a


I'm


lot,


with


especially americans, common misconception is that all Arabs are suicide bombers and it's


well


like that's, that's them, like that's not all of them and it's not even all of their religion, like that's just a certain sect of them.


we got horrible case in Arizona couple of decades ago like after not quite, it was an indian man a C. I believe and he had a cloth wrapped


The urban. Yeah.


muslim and he got shot by someone hate crime here.


Yeah. And it's like, they're not all that way, and and even and that's not their religion, their religion isn't to harm people. Like that's just these people harm people because that's what they wanted to. It's not anything to do with their religion in Islam were, you know, like it's it's it's completely different.


Yeah. It's about a power structure where somebody is violent and they convince others in part through the religion, you know, they create their own fancy.


exactly. Yeah. They use, like, the original religion itself, if you dig deep enough into it, isn't, there is no basis for harming others. But those particular groups use religion as a vehicle for luring others into doing this. And so then there's that immediate connection of this religion, this outcome.


Yeah. It's really sad. You know here we just get people like jim baker being televangelists and hundreds of millions and then just buying jet planes, they're not really killing people except for the extra pollution. Right?


There's there's there's variations there, uh, you know, and, and liberties that can be taken into account for various, uh, you know, harmful actions. But yeah, I mean, so, yeah, those are my only stipulations when it comes to religion is just as long as your religion isn't based in on harming others and you're not forcing it on me. Cool. Like I'm open to learning just learning, not even necessarily practicing just learning religions, cultures. We're all people.


Hey, if I, I don't know what might be in your area. I for two years now I've been a member of something called a humanist society here in phoenix and it's just people coming together. A lot are atheists, but not all of them. There's people from all religions and walks and we have a center in one of the things we are now doing on zoom is we have these meet ups where we do things like um discuss various aspects of philosophy or different cultures. They have a book club, they have a philosophy night, we're supposed to be drinking while and then we have something called inquiry minds every other saturday for like three hours, you get like up to three minutes to discuss whatever the topic is. And then it rotates around and and I just love these things because it's all about at least my group, it's all about education in really learning stuff and, and not bashing religion, you know, just mm hmm.

Right. Yeah. Uh huh. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.


Being open and just like, like you can have your you can still have your own opinions on it. So if you don't if you still have a negative perception or if it's just not your interest, that's fine. But it's still a matter of just being there and just hearing it at least. And obviously if you are open and willing to learn this stuff, then you're gaining more from it.


yeah, if you, if you are interested, if you look up, Minnesota has a lot of programs that are currently online. It's called just like Minnesota humanists on that meet up dot com. No one I go to is phoenix humanists and we don't know, we have a lot of fun. What every meetings that interesting like they have intersectional book club, that's about this week, the reading Lolita in Iran, I'm just like, oh, I don't quite know what's going on, but


Yeah. Yeah. I mean like


Well,


yeah, I can see how certain certain things might appeal to one person over another. You know, like just because you're interested in the group as a whole doesn't mean you're interested in every aspect of it. You know, it's just like your your favorite author or your favorite movie star, whatever. Like just because you like them as a whole doesn't mean you're going to enjoy everything they put out and yeah, like I again as a bit of a loner like meeting new people isn't always easy, but I'm always open to it and obviously then conversation can get going and you can talk about anything and everything forever. And that's one thing I love is just that natural progression of conversation. I mean I could like realistically like those groups highly appealed to me because I could talk about philosophy and psychology and series of on the universe and and just about anything. Like it's more a matter of finding the right people in the right group.

yeah, Yeah. Right, yep, Okay. Oh mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Yes, that's that's the thing because sometimes some groups will be a little bit more led by people who want to create change in society. That can be a more activist. Some are more about learning, you know, each one is a different and like in the Minnesota one, different leaders have different focuses. I've just been going there because they started doing zooms for everybody. I'm like okay, show you know, there's maybe 15 maybe more people in your little windows and I just sit there and listen at first, you know and let's make music.


And that's likely what I do and unless something came up of a particular note that like really sparked my interest and and really got me to want to engage with this new group I think for the first you know, it's not too completely related to like a or anything but like there's people that go to those meetings and they sit for a while before they open up


I suppose.


and that's kind of what this would feel like I think where like you just joined this group and unless you're already a naturally very outgoing person, you're likely to just sit there and kind of take it all in before you open up and be like and give your input your story.


Right. We do have that. Even when we met in person, we always had people who are quiet at the coffee shop and who would be there for weeks and not so much, but they were happy.


Oh yeah, yeah, it's like a fly on the wall kind of thing where you where you sit there and just kind of experience it before you participate in it, you know?


I think um I think I shall go with those guys. My cats lunch. I'm gonna push it it. But can I ask something? I'm embarrassed we jumped right into because my cat was there. Um


No, that's all right.


I failed to ask your name


Oh, I didn't make it that far with you either. My name's Adam


adam. I'm roger.


Roger. Oh yes. Future.


You do.


After what about an hour?


Yeah. This is a little longer, but I I like I don't you're you're fun to talk to, so.


Yeah, I've had like short conversations have had some long ones, but like these kinds are the ones that I really enjoyed the most because they feel natural, you know? And like I'm not like I said, I'm not opposed to the shorter conversation still getting to know people, but they feel less real.


Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to just do an interview and


Yeah, that's almost what kind of what like some of the shorter ones felt like where there's kind of like not necessarily in a bad way, but forced. And then, and then you get these kinds of conversations where it's, it does, it just flows and you feel like at least from my side like you actually know the person like like really could just meet up in a coffee shop, you know because you're buying the same drink or whatever and you sit down and you're like, oh and then get to talking, you know like those, it's those like chance, natural interactions


Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. Let me just say uh wish you a good rest of the year and a good life if we don't ever bump into each other again. Was


I hope, I hope, I mean for for both our six and population as a whole that things things turn around, you know, can only get better. Right? Yeah. Yeah.


uh


Yeah. Let's cross figure and hope


All right. Bye.


Hello.


Hi, how are you?


I'm doing good, I'm having some guy goes how are you?


good. We're having a bit of a tornado here


A bit of hawaii sorry?


NATO, just like a bit


tornado


of,


are even looking in the midwest


no I'm in the philadelphia area but


belkin. Really wow. You know I am. I used to live in um in Tennessee with the texas now and and we had actually tornadoes quite a lot. I didn't know you had a in philadelphia but yeah


we usually don't, yeah this is very unusual


please.


for us. Um Yeah I think it's like the storm that came up from florida because we're landlocked,


john


it would be a tornado rather than like a hurricane. Yeah


how is how is covid in philadelphia? Okay


uh it is not great


great.


like um pennsylvania I think overall is doing okay but just some parts of failure better than others and um yeah mask wearing is pretty good for the most part. Yeah.


No we are yeah I mean um boston we um we kind of chilled out for a couple months and then what happened was that basically what I think happened as they open stuff up All these people got super bored and they went out, it opens them bars, those bars got filled, bunch of spreading went on and like there was this tiny county park that I used to take my girlfriend I used to go to and


all


and it was always like completely deserted. There's like one or two cars there maybe last time I wouldn't like I went by like the ones who was packed with people. No like like like completely packed and so and so yeah. Um But but yeah, I think I think we're a little more responsible now here in Austin, it's not as bad as at least $1 million dollars in Houston and stuff, they're having a really fun.


Yeah


Yeah.


that's gonna be really scary because I think that it's more concentrated towards the south right now right? I think it's like


I mean yeah it's like um I think it's uh it's Arizona Arizona texas um Louisiana has it very quite bad as well. Um And um yeah I know like all those basically the places that florida florida's basic, all the places that reopened really soon and tend to have a lower proportion of mask wearing. Um How about them so well? Um But uh but yeah, I'm like I'm going to um I'm going to moving out to call for college in like two weeks. Um


okay. Cool.


Once I remember like um like, because I'm moving I'm living in this like housing co op near you Washington. Um And I have no idea what code is going to be like around there. I heard it's not great around the area. Most of my classes are online, it's like a complete mess out here about it.


Yeah that must be a wild time to like be in college right now because


Yeah. I mean it's been a wild time to be a senior. Like we um No problem. Our graduation. I mean, I was not worried about problems, like it's fun. Um But like, like our graduation, we um you know, no, they have like a nice ceremony basically. What they did is they had a football field and you can come in like a specific time, and people


no.


like cycled out on there so they could keep below the limit the amount of people they could have. Just like, it's like I was like, you know, I don't see the point, so I didn't go. But


that's not


and then, I mean, I mean we uh selling my our last day of before spring break. Um I uh basically they were like, it was like a right when Covid was picking up, it was a friday and they said, you know what, we're not counting absences for this day. And so we were doing anything across. So I just, like me and my friends, we just like went out and we're like experiencing our last day of non quarantine. And then when it's pretty great, I just never that was the end of my high school. That was like, that was it. We just never went to high school. Crazy.


that's not, yeah Oh no, that's so, that's got to be wild.


Uh huh. Yeah. No, I've basically just been like quarantining like Loki since like March, like late March, I was been chilling or so. Yeah.


yeah, no saying so weird.


Um Like I've even Ive even picked up like hobbies from like my freshman year. Like


dang,


fucking.


can you do one of those?


Yeah I am I'm I'm don go I'm trying I'm like 18 seconds on average. Um


what?


Yeah so I'm just I'm scrambling but basically this is what I do in my spare time now. I but for college and trying her little money online and like cube I guess. So I guess. Yeah but like I guess but like the first month like I kind of adopted but like the first month or so. I basically just did nothing and like played video games and stuff. Um.


yep. Yeah, I know, I've used my piece for a lot more than I used to because like something to do.


Yeah. No and but like I was


Whoa, oh my gosh, that's a whoa!


this is like many many many hundreds of hours practice basically. Um But yeah I know I was so I was thinking like man, I really wish I was like 11, with all this was going on because like,


have


I remember my brother and I, we just like play Minecraft like the entire summer, like anyway, go out very much so. I would have just gone him like just chilling out. Like I actually want to want an adult, I want to do stuff now like. Yeah. So


Yeah,


yeah.


no it's super weird. Oh man, yeah, I don't know how long it's going to be like this because I have friends and like europe and overseas and like some of them are getting back to their lives and then I have to be like yeah, in America we kind of dropped the ball real bad. Oh


no, I, no, I mean the UK has done actually worse than us in a lot of ways. It's the only country. Um, but now the like, I know, I mean, I know in like new Zealand no cases, they're pretty much normal. It's, I talked to a guy from Australia. He gets taught amazing there, but they don't have a lot of deaths. And then actually surprisingly Vietnam has done really well. They've had no death covid um because


whoa,


they, they have a pretty strong like centralized government. Um And then they also are really used to dealing with infectious diseases. So they like basically they shut off immediately, they like put everyone in when they contained it did a bunch of contact tracing. We just kind of kept it out. So. Yeah.


yeah, that's, I mean I think that this is definitely a time that America's individualistic approach to things, it's shown to not be super effective


No,


like


no, listen. No, I'm like, yeah, it's it's kind of like a great yeah, no, I mean, yeah, I apologize. Get out there these days. But but yeah, like uh like yeah, this is not the time for like individualism really. We need to like we kind of need to kind of need to like build some masks together and make sure we're getting done.


no, for real, yeah, it is and it's wild that people are so mad about wearing masks and it's like it's not even that hard, like


Well, yeah, okay, this is like actually something that really worries me. I'm like why are people like so freaking resistant to masks? Um Because like wait, because like it doesn't it doesn't make any sense. Like


nope.


it's just helpful and I I really do think that people kind of just want like something mundane to be mad about or something like because they're


I


bored.


agree. Yeah, no, I think so, yeah, yeah,


And then like, I don't know like this is the thing is like people like people be like talking like code stuff. I'm like, you know what? I want to listen to the scientists and health experts. I would just do whatever they say. Like they're the people who know itself. Yeah.


absolutely. Um


Much.


I work in a science field and it's like super, super annoying. Yeah,


What do you do?


I do like a neuro biological stuff, but


Oh that's good.


yeah, it's really interesting, I like it but before that I did um cell culture which had an infectious part to it, so like it makes me so low key pissed when people are like, it's it's not a big deal, it's like no, it's like a big deal though, like uh


No, I I saw this thing. Oh my god. Um And it was saying like um it was like uh how do how can how can the cloth and that's proven the virus it's way too small to get through. And I'm like hold up, that's not how it works. Like I'm, I haven't had any biology since my freshman year of high school, but like, I know like, you know, they're pretty sure they're on like the droplets, not like, you know, just like float free floating in the air,


Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if it's like if science education is not spread out because like yeah you don't have to take that much biology to know at least basically how it works.


Yeah. And I do think another issue is like, it kind of, it's really easy once you get like sucked into one conspiracy theory to get sucked into a bunch of other conspiracy theories. And like there's a bunch of boomers on like facebook and stuff like people, oh gosh, People who've gotten like, um I'm having acid reflux people who've


no.


gotten like, like I have like a little bit when I actually like, especially when I eat when I'm hungry and quickly. Um, but


not


no,


fair enough.


like basically like you see like one thing on facebook and you get like algorithm ized into like this weird web of like, like you a mask like Anthony Fauci is a lizard like kind of stuff like that, that kind of thing. And like once


Three.


we get down that rabbit hole that you're bringing is like broken and you're not getting out of it like.


Yeah. I know for real because I don't think


but


since they didn't


the.


really grow up with like technology in the same way, like I think sometimes it all seems like magic and they're like oh well it must be true if it's recommended to me, it's like no it's


No.


it's not true algorithm.


it's like um it's like because I think anyone below like 30 like grew up to some extent around the internet and they kind of developed that native like okay I can I can identify like I cannot, I can see okay that's click bait. I should ignore it or that's something obviously stupid. But if you're like 40 50 60 um you just like, you just like don't know. And then and then like and also it's really like I can tell when something is like being like an algorithm has tracked my data and like through some algorithm and decided to like it. And sometimes I will like like you know what you do well this time but all other times you recommend me something I don't want to listen to. But others they just like there's no self awareness about it. So. Yeah.

Mhm Yeah. Yeah, yep. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah, yep. Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah, no, it's so I hate that. Like I was looking for a couch and then my instagram was nothing but like Wayfair and couch ads and I was like god damn it, No. Mm.


Yeah. That's the thing like it's a little bit disturbing to me. I like like like how how much our data is just like out there like


it is.


like they they tell you like a lot like you try and keep your online profile chill and at this point like I just when I'm online no matter where I am like even if I'm on some like anonymous messaging for like I just don't I say things, I don't say things I wouldn't want people to hear. Like at least things that I could like explain in real life.


Yeah, that's


Because well, because like and I don't I've said some dumb shit online, like I've said a lot of themselves, but it's stuff that I feel is at least defensible. Um


enough.


And so um and so uh like because I'm pretty sure like if someone didn't have thinking like I usually pretty much the same username across the internet, like if someone


boy.


didn't, we could connect all of my various accounts where like talk me really hard and figure out what. So yeah, I'm hoping there's not some algorithm like doing that for me.


Yeah. No, I hope not. I don't, I don't think, I think hopefully back in the day with old user names, the technology wasn't advanced enough and so it's like I'll just


Well, yeah,


stay


I mean I wasn't like, I think I like I think I started really using the Internet in like 20, So I kind of I kind of missed the era where it was a lot more of like anonymous messaging boards. And for me like I like started on Reddit and stuff, um eventually


No,


discord and a little bit of fortune, that's like that.


that's


It's like


place.


it's well, yeah, okay, everything is no fortune. It's truly a dark place. Um Ok, so this is so I'm translating this this war called T T T T or LGBT, and it's basically just really self hating trans people


No.


like on the board, and they're all like shit posting and stuff, and it's a really toxic place. And I go there, I spent with a decent amount of time when they're just like trying to talk to people and like, and like, because there will be like these really desperate people that post there and they just get the worst replies in the world. And


so I feel like it's a little bit of donation is like spending some time on this board, like trying to actually like do people a little bit of decent advice. So


that's that's yeah. Yeah,


like yeah


I am


we're but like yeah it's like the internet has gotten weird like it's like it kind of half anonymous. Half not these days so. Yeah.


Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like I when I first used the internet that was like pre screenshot days so you could like deny


I.


anything. Even like texting people, you couldn't like take a picture of your screen and nowadays it's like you better watch what you say. Yes,


I know. Yeah. No because like um you can hold on a second. Yeah. What's up, yep. I'm okay thank you. I'm on the amount of the usual. I'm doing a thing up. Huh, refrigerator? He's showing okay. I know. I took her out when I was done. I'm okay so sorry about that.


it's all good. No worries.


Listen this is this is our puppy shit she's looking


my


at


gosh. Oh,


would she's


lovely.


our quarantine puppy. We got her um in March. And


Right around then like foreign sometime.


yeah I got it right when we came back home each. I've never raised here. Um


Oh my gosh,


Oh and she's like she started off she was tiny, tiny. Um


that's so cute.


I'm £15 now, she's like 40, she's like three times the size and like a few months.


That's fast man.


Yeah, she she breaks my heart, I'm gonna I'm gonna be like, we've luckily kind of gotten to the point where she kind of like as half and half of me and my parents, so like um


Yeah.


so it won't like have a mental breakdown when I'm not here all the time home, but but yeah, I love that puppy.


Like that dogs are the best love dogs.


Yeah, no, yeah, like we have um we have this like 10 year old like big £90 chocolate lab as well as her and like and so she tries to play with him, but he's like kind of too old and he doesn't like playing very much, he just wants


that's


to sleep,


it.


go on walks, and that's about it, and so and so yeah, she just tries to play with him, but he doesn't even do it and she's also very she likes to nibble, she's very bitey.


Oh, puppy teeth. Yeah, they can be brutal. Like especially in the beginning there so sharp. Why?


She's she's kind of rowdy like hold on, she does come a bug out okay. But anyway. Yeah. Anyways she's not like we haven't trained her very well, she's not the best behaved dog in the world but please


no.


they're like feeds there and stuff so


Yeah. Oh my gosh, she's so cute. Oh my


hey


gosh.


shit.


What a cutie! Oh


fine.


my gosh, So cute, walked


she did


on.


that. No. Yeah she like she's barking at me. She wants my I think she wants that one second. Don't go


Yeah. Oh wait, I can't. I think your audio.


clear it off. Yeah


good.


I know this happened last time basically for some reason if my mic my mic like to stand on it broke a while ago so I just just sits around now and whenever it gets unplugged for some reason I can't you have to come in and out to get it to like fix itself for whatever reason. But But yeah, the I don't know anyways how has your quarantine lifestyle been? It's


Weird. I mean I was kinda, I'm kind of a loner anyway, so I have to admit for the first two months I was like, this is awesome. Like nobody can bother me. But then after that I was like, oh no, like I'm still a person and I still need to see humans because I live alone. So like there's nobody around. Uh

Yes. Yeah. Mhm. Uh huh. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.


Yeah.


so it's like it's been a lot of alone time.


No, the


Pretty


book.


spooky like uh I look forward to getting groceries just to like see other.


I kind of relate to know what actually like um that's when you're like sitting around. Like I'm going to the post like the ups store and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna do my makeup since since


it


I


has,


don't like getting up to like like


Sam.


trying to like, I mean I could because like um because like, I'm so I'm so like um like I I kind of miss like actually going out and like wanting to put effort into my like, appearance and like talking to people and like it's just, I'm like, it's like a it's like a permanent version of like Summers in like middle school for me, right? And so I'm really, I'm really excited to not not be at school and actually doing stuff again.


Yeah, no I do make up like above the mask line, I don't do like the bottom part. Yeah.


Yeah. No, really, I put on the mash like, boom, that's it.


Out


I'm like,


forward.


it's so easy. I'm


because it's it's an event.


like, yeah, I know, I'm like, you know, it takes it takes like a lot, it's a lot less effort now. And and I'm also, I'm like thinking I'm gonna be really weird because I have like a couple of impersonal, I'm just going to know these people with like now it's over their face and then it's like kind of an issue for me because I have like pretty prominent brow bones and so like, um I just have that, like, I don't look that great. And so I had to like, really go ham on the, on the, I have to really go ahead on the like the foundation to like high


The contour


colorado. Yeah, you contoured


I don't know.


to reduce the shadow from the brow bone and like, I don't know, I'll be, I'll be very happy when it ends and I can actually like, like, like because like I think I like past better when I like I can see my whole face like


no that makes sense. Yeah. And it's just it's weird like I don't like how masks fit me, like I look very different with like the mass because they go like too big, so it's like just my little eyes, I think I look kind of scary, a little shady.


Yeah, I would, I would love like as soon as we are clear or like see through masks were like, you mean like wear a mask? Like I would have no problem with them like if people could see your face and you can get pretty stylish with that as well like I think that would be home.


no, I agree that needs to be a thing.


Yeah. Yeah and like, like my, my university there like they have been doing masks obviously like everywhere. Um and so I'm thinking like it's going to become like kind of a fashion statement now. Like you know, I


No,


have like I have like one cross past my mom ordered and then like, I mean I have to get some more mask just like I can sleep more. I want to be the person who wears the same Oscar every day.


Yeah, no etc. Has some really cool ones. Um there's like a ton of them on there and like it's nice because some folks are making them because like they lost sources of income so I feel good. So I have like a collection of masks


Well


that I get from there.


well yeah, no, it's, it's super cool and my, I'm thinking about like when things kind of chill out and like max like a couple years um like um are we just gonna forget about maths isn't going to have an effect on our culture long term. Like what that looks like. I'm curious.


I am too. Like, I wonder if people are ever going to shake hands again because I feel like that's probably a thing that people are not going to be super interested. Yeah.


What the went well I am, I feel like I walk into a room now and just like, you know, you used to like, and now it's just like, just look at you like high and and you're just like hi and then like you both kind of stare at each other and honestly I don't know if it's that bad of a thing cause shaking hands is pretty like unhygienic overall.


Yes, I'm I save.


like I think, you know, I think we should, we should just start bowing like in like asian countries, you know, I think I think that would be a good thing. That's a better greeting and


I'm like,


our standard hole


yeah, I've started doing that by accident like just because I need


should.


a way to like express acknowledgement. So I'll do like a quick bow and I'm like, I don't know where that came from, but people seem to understand the gesture so strange. Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah. And and anyways like I'll just, I'll be really happy when um one late like it's really hard like looking back imagining life when I could just go out and like I don't remember what it's like at this point it's like a distant memory.


It's very weird and like I've definitely gotten less close to some people because they've had some like fringy views and it's like, oh man, I didn't know you were like that, but then other people have got, Yeah,


No, no, no, it has been like a pretty decent filter. And then I actually like basically all of my friends have become online friends. So weird because like my best friend, he um he like both of his parents are, they have asthma and our former smokers. And so like they're really high risk


definitely.


and so they don't like what you didn't like go out at all like so I can't really see him like um my girlfriend broke like in the middle of quarantine. Um


no.


It was like damn completely. We still talk or show but like it wasn't too bad. But and so I, all of my friendships moved online and I'm like okay, go. And then so I'm hoping I can get some more in person interaction what in college because I really need it. Um


absolutely.


I have no idea who my roommate is going to be either and at this place I have, I have no clue. I'm just being very randomly with someone. I think. So. What's that like?


so they're putting two people in a room where you are?


Well, I saved $1,000 by doing it. Yeah.


Okay, That's a big difference, Yeah, that's wild.


Like, um, I am, I have a I have a scholarship. And so I'm like, okay, I have I X amount of money include the doors and have like and use the most of my money for our can stay in the cheapest coop right here. Let's look at him and walk away and have like a bunch of money left over to like say, let's do this moment. So, yeah.


that makes sense. Yeah.


Okay. Well, I think, I think we're 25 minutes so


Thank


I stop.


you. Was so rad talking to you, good


All


luck in college


fine.


and everything,


Thank you. Bye.


improperly. Here I am. Hopefully the, my partner or will arrive in a couple minutes. Come on. Okay, wow. Oh, the way we going, okay, I'm still charging because the last thing I wanted to go, kaput, Okay, it's 4:00, fingers crossed. I get a partner soon.


Hello?


Hello, how are you?


Good.


I'm


How are you?


fine, thank you. My name is a J. Nice to meet you.


Let's meet you enlist.


Hello,


Hey,


where are you calling from?


I'm in phoenix Arizona. What about you?


I'm in sacramento California.


Okay, cool, Cool, Cool. I see. You're a movie fan. We like Zootopia here at my house. My four year old likes it a lot. So


My favorite movie. So good taste. So how's your day been?


Um Okay. Hi, we all have cold here at my house, so


I'm sorry,


10 bucks. Yeah.


lots of vitamin C I think.


Yeah, yep, vitamin C. Have been taken emergency and sleeping and you know everything of course now like you get a cold and you're like, oh my God, do I have covid but mr cold?


Glad it's only a cold. So I feel better soon.


Thank you.


Have you ever done one of these before? These prolific chats?


Yeah. Yeah, this is my 4th one actually. Yeah. Yeah. So have you?


Yes, I think this is like my 7th,


Oh wow. How many are you allowed to do?


uh this time around, they are allowed to do six. So,


Okay, let's see.


um there was actually a set of these beforehand where you can do, I think four, so I did four last time and this may be my six.


cool. Nice. Yeah, I'm hoping to do them all. I like doing them. It's fine. I've got some interesting people and decent money.


Yeah. 10 out of 10. The biggest issues when people don't actually show up.


Yeah. That hasn't happened to me yet though.


Not old man, that's happened to me almost as many times as I've gotten people to talk to. It was really fun when I get scheduled for times at like 7:00 AM until I set my alarm to get up. Because they and they late sleeper and so I get up, get ready and then they don't show up. It was kind of


but


the waste,


yeah, that really sucks. Huh? No, luckily it hasn't happened to me.


fingers crossed. It states that way. Israel. So what sort of things do you do for fun when you don't have a cold?


not much actually. Well I just got a cricket. Have you ever heard of that? Like the


cutter.


thing that, yeah, so I'm like all excited about that. I just started it, started it up today and made some little hair bows for my daughter. So that's, that's my new hobby now I guess is trying to figure that out because I used to buy hair bows there like six or seven bucks each from people, which is fine because it's like stay at home moms who, you know, work and I'm happy to support that. But I was like, I could make these for myself. So that's my hobby right now.


It's really cool. I have a 3D printer. So I try to make printed crafts. No,


Yeah, what can you make with that?


you can make all sorts of things. Let's see. Right within handhold. I have this little plastic kitty where wiggles. Yeah.


wow, that's cool.


Uh But you can make things like lithophanes which are these like three D. Printed pictures where you take a picture and you run it through the software and then you get a three D. Printed version of the picture. So it has like the bumps and ridges where the actual shading would be. And when you hold it up to the light it looks just like the actual picture. It's super cool.


that is really


True. And


it's


I


just


thought


all from plastic, right? Mm.


I used and I used to sell on Etsy little medallions that I made but then my software went to put uh


huh.


That's really cool.


The only drawback is it takes forever because it doesn't one what .12.2 mm at a time. So something


Like layer.


like this. Yes. A printer will print you know, one line at a time. But when you're making something really thick it takes this took like two or three hours to make. But


let's start.


it's pretty cool. Mhm. Yeah.


what are your favorite movies?


I would say Zootopia is probably number one and I bought these when Disney movie rewards. You know with the points where I had to say also have like seven of these. I can literally do the cartoon character thing where you wear the same clothes every single day but they're actually different. Well I


After


think Jurassic Park is another really good one.


I haven't actually ever seen dress at park.


It's really good. Kind of scary for you know kids because big dinosaurs but some love it because big dinosaurs but that was fun. It's really well shot and the special effects are


The


absolutely


first one?


yes. Don't watch this.


Yeah. Well I never watched so I don't like blood. So like when this one came out I was young ish I guess. And I was just like, I can't watch this because it's bloody and then I just never watched it.


It's actually pretty bloodless and retrospect. There's like one scene where the leg of a goat falls onto the car and you see some blood. But it's


No,


not like


that's


or


not better.


maybe Tarantino


Right. Yeah, I can't do that.


now but pretty much everyone gets eaten like off screen or the t rex will just go pum and swallow them. So there not really any.


Right. Maybe I'll have to give it a try.


It's pretty good. The sequel is not so much. So the book is also good.


Uh huh. Yeah. My four year old loves dinosaurs. So maybe that's something we could watch.


You may want to watch it first depending and swords do get kind of scary at times. So there may be four year olds who love it but there may be one to you know suddenly they don't love dinosaurs anymore. I don't earning a childhood.


That's funny. Yeah, she's pretty good with scary things. We um, I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan so we


Overall.


watch a lot. I show her Lord of the Rings. So we started off with like very simple clips you know that didn't have any craziness at all.


And you


Then as she got older I've been showing her a little bit more.


start with the non school


No we didn't start. They're her favorite when she was like 2.5. Her favorite scene was Gandalf fighting the Bell Rog. You know


of


I'm


war.


afraid she would like act it out and like we gave her a PVC pipe that she would like use this Gandalf's staff and go you shall not pass. So


Oh that's so cute.


cute. I know.


Well that is something can also do a 3D printers as you can. Lots of people just make models of movie props and then post them for free. And so you can make fake movie prop models.


That's cool.


And so I've been like I have the uh a remake of the idol from indiana jones, you know in the first movie with Yeah


so if you're a Lord of the Rings fan books movies or both


Both all yes


you're better than I am. I started reading The Hobbit and was like oh I'm not going to get through this.


Yeah that they're a little bit like I don't know, densely written I guess.


Yeah, they're not badly written in any sense, they're incredibly well written. It's just all that for me is kind of


There's a lot of like exposition and lots of like flowery language and


It's


describing forests.


but it's also for me it wasn't my thing and I even like once made a Reddit post where it's like guys what am I missing? I tried reading the books and get really bored in terms of we were like how can you not love it? I tried when, what's his name? Shoot Sean Bean.


Bar owner.


thank you borrow me like you've got to borrow me or I barely made it out of a higher.


Yeah. I read The Lord of the Rings, whole all three of the books every year. Like


Oh that's


the year I read my son's middle name is faded in. Yeah.


They didn't they didn't shoot I should know this. I watched the movies once. Uh Which one stayed in again?


King of Rohan. He dies, the witch king killed him and then a one comes out.


He's the one who got killed by the giant long necked bird. Singing. Okay.


Yes.


Uh


Yeah.


huh. Have


But


you ever played the Shadow of mordor games?


no


Those


and


are Sorry go ahead.


well since I haven't gotten into like gaming much, I played wow once upon a Time before kids, but that's


If you like Lord of the Rings, the games are really fun, they make them for the Playstation Xbox and pc. But you need a really powerful pc to run it. For example. I ran the first one on the laptop I'm using now and burned my leg because it overheated. I read it at the lowest possible graphic setting. It's reheated but they're they're really bloody unfortunately but


Word.


it's all blood. So it depends


Well,


whether or not you're In two or 3 but it's a great concept and I think they the verge is from the movie can in a little bit, but you play a ranger of the Black Gate, that's a thing, right?


Mm Maybe who does, who guards? Because the Black Gate is more door.


Yeah, so it's pray Lord of the Rings, it's a prequel to The Lord of the Rings and you're a ranger from the Black Gate who guards it and then when the orcs invade, I am fuzzy on the history, your that the character is killed as his, his whole family and they're


No.


sacrificed because the, not the Witch King, but like one of the Witch King's frat rose basically uh


Oh


wants to summon a ghost or a spirit and so he uses the main character and his family is sacrifices and it summons the spirit, but instead of the spirit going into the witch king dude or pseudo, which king? It's like,


Our.


oh, it's like the hand of sorrow and I think he's called instead, it goes into the ranger keeping him alive, so he's now banished from death and he can't die.


Oh that's


And


kind


so


of


it basically


thing.


is like a 20 hour revenge plot of trying to kill the hand of Ceron while you're half human and half elf now because it's an elf ghost and it is really fun. I


That's


put


what's really


way too many hours into that thing and


Well


it has a lot lower things where when I, because I played the games before I watched the movies and then when I watch them and be like oh that's why that


no.


was important, fax gollum. I know who that is now.


That's cool though. Yeah. I have to look


that


into


there


that.


was,


My husband has a, he's a big gamer so he has a gaming computer that can handle it I'm sure.


yeah, it goes on sale a lot. It's really fun because


Well.


you get to like take over the minds of orcs using the spirit things and so basically get to create your own orc army to fight guys


No,


or or army. I keep getting the names wrong.


Cool. That sounds really fun Someday when I have time I have a four year old and an 11 month old, so it's like I can't do anything on my own at the moment.


but now you can teach them the stories of Lord of the Rings and the Allegra loving is


I do, yeah.


I I was harry potter, so I have all the harry potter stuff.


Yes, I do. I'm harry potter fan to, we're actually just in, so we're reading a philosopher stone with


my four year old and we're starting the movies, we showed up the movies to her a little while ago and she couldn't follow them. She couldn't understand the accents very well either. She like didn't know that they were speaking english and she had no idea what was going on. So we stopped and now she's almost 4.5 and we watched the first one and she got it. So we're in the middle of the second one, so yeah,


I grew up listening to the audio books, The guy


through


does so many voices, it is insane.


that's cool. That's a good idea that I should get those for her.


I I personally like the Americanized ones narrated by Jim dale, they're slightly different than the philosopher's stone and I just like the voice better, He's in my opinion, the there's a better, you know, set of voices because they had a different narrator for the philosopher's stone and he's really good but maybe I'm biased because that's what I listen to, but to me, jim dale is the best one. Yeah,


I'll look I'll look that one up. Yeah, because my daughter has like this little machine called a junkie. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's


but


like a


I'm intrigued.


It's really cool. So you can set playlists for them and it uses Bluetooth, so there's little figurines and you just set it on top of this, it's like a speaker and it knows what playlists are there through the figurines so they can music and things. So she has a whole audiobook thing and Hamilton. She's big on Hamilton right now, so she listens to that all rest time. But I could put the Lord of the Rings or the harry potter books on that here to listen to.


Uh let's see audible usually, I don't know if you've ever used audible.


I haven't but I know of it.


yeah, that they offer like a free book for the first one in the harry potter can be one of them, or you can find the cds for, you know, pretty cheap, like local thrift stores. I find them occasionally.


Okay. That's good to know. Yeah, we don't even have a cd player though. Like my laptop doesn't even have a cd drive in it.


I feel old because I listened to the first harry potter's on cassette,


Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I'm 36. So I remember having walkmans and discussions and everything, but


Because now I listen to audio books to have a button, like skip back. It's like, Oh, I missed this, let me go back 47 seconds. And before


Yeah, stopping and listening being like, not too far. Yeah, Well, New World. I remember, so I'm a teacher. And one time I said to my class, I was like, oh, you know, I listened to this on a Walkman once. I mentioned Walkman and they were all like, what's a walkman? It's like you guys don't even Yeah,


Uh my parents are like that, they like some of the retro stuff, so we actually have a jukebox that plays 45. So,


we're cool.


so I make references that my friends don't get my dad things. See you on the flip side, which I know is a reference to the flip thing, but I make fun of him endlessly for that because no one says that.


Oh, I didn't know that. That was like to flip like to flip a record or something.


I think according to him, the Entomology of it is where the radio, you know, DJs would say see you on the flip side because they put on the disk and when it has to get turned over, that's when they come back in


Well,


to


that's


give


what,


them a little bit of commentary.


Right. That makes a lot of sense. That's really cool. Actually


It's interesting. No one says it anymore because now it's like you know, see you on the shuffle button. I don't


see


know.


you when the battery dies and I have to charge again. Yeah, that's


So


funny.


who is your favorite Lord of the Rings character? Aragorn. Uh Important one. Aragorn and a win. Or Aragorn and Arwen.


eric Gordon Darwin?


Wait Now I feel badly. Which ones are one is our win? The one.


The L the dark haired liv. Tyler Uh huh


Nothing. But my friend and I have gotten many an argument because I support a Gorgonio in. They just had more, at least


All


in the movies. I


Well


I can't speak for the books because I didn't make it out of the shire in the movies. They had more interactions, so I feel


good.


struck.


But that was played up a little bit well. And in the books actually are win is like pretty much non existent. She only she's not in the books hardly at all


No.


until the very end. There's a little so he wrote all these appendices, which is like all the background stories and linear.


Like Selma Selma rela over there.


Similarly, there's a whole separate book that's going to be so have you heard that the amazon is doing a new Lord of the Rings series? So they're going to be doing it like so merrily in time, which is like thousands of years before Lord of the Rings happens. So


I'm not going to remember a single name.


No, the similarly and I couldn't even get through that was that it's like in the Tolkien world if you've read the summer early and you're like gold star level because it's so hard to get through. Yeah.


I had a question now, I can't remember what it was. Uh What are your thoughts on The Hobbit movies? Mhm.


huh


A porn movies?


They were there.


I think that was the first Lord of the Rings. Anything I ever saw was my friend took me to see The Hobbit Desolation of Smog and


I'm


I said


sorry.


I haven't seen the first cop it or The Lord of the Rings, there's like no, it'll be fine, you don't you'll catch up and so the whole time I'm just staring on I am so confused


yeah and it's


in


just


fact.


so bad. They were just so bad.


I did not see the third one or the first one, so I've only seen the second one.


Yeah, I bought only the first one and then I just recently bought the second one on, on like amazon streaming to show my daughter because she wanted to see because you don't see the dragon and the first one. And so I was like well let's by the second one, we can see him but we haven't even I haven't bought I saw the third one once in the theaters. Haven't bothered to even buy it or watch it or anything.


I know there's a like a love triangle subplot in that movie that wasn't in the book.


Oh yeah, I mean the character, the girl elf is not even in the book, I get why he added it because


Problem


there's literally like no females in talking stuff, you know, there's like a win, that's it, so it makes sense to want to add that, but like the thought that uh dwarf would fall in love with an elf is so wrong. It's so like inter species things did not happen, that would never happen.


and uh the funny part is that the female elf is my favorite character, so


You


I was like oh


don't know.


awesome for like she was the book Oh well shame on the book because this is cool.


he definitely could have added more like kick ass female figures, but I don't think that was like in his mind as an author when he's reading.


it was funny, I went from going oh this is cool, I like her too, then her, you know making google eyes or whatever his name was and I was like, oh no this is going to be a love triangle, isn't it? And then injured. She's like oh say we're like oh boy, here we go.


Yeah, but it was just, it got so corny, so fast, I couldn't even in the theater, I was just like, oh God, and I went to the midnight premiers of all of them,


Or


so it's like one am and I'm just like, what is this shit? Like, why am I here?


into like the 1232 PM premiere at a random uh huh


uh


there's an interesting movie, I don't think I'll watch the sequel. There's I don't know if you watch any Youtube but there's a Youtuber named Lindsay Ellis who she's a film critic or and she is a massive fan of The Lord of the Rings movies and she did like a 30 minute breakdown of why she loves Lord of the Rings and why The Hobbit was so disappointing from a narrative and filmmaking perspective. And it was really funny because like I didn't know this but the big thing was it was apparently supposed to be two movies directed by Guillermo del Toro and then he randomly dropped out for some reason and it's like, oh yeah, I don't know why, I just had to drop out if you know one of the biggest blockbuster franchises and Lindsay Ellis did a two part Youtube video like each of them 30 minutes, One of them discussing, you know the first part, the tumultuous history and the other one giving a detailed breakdown and at the very end of the episode she had a person walking and hand her a piece of paper and she opened it up. It was like we regret to inform you that this series has been extended into three episodes. Sorry, higher

mm uh huh Oh cool. Yes. Right, right, mhm,


that


up.


one?


So then she did the third episode talking about the impact it had on new Zealand tourism culture and it's really interesting. So if you're a fan of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or not a fan of The Hobbit but a fan of Lord of the Rings and just everything behind it, Lindsay, Ellis Hobbit trilogy is so good.


okay, I'll have to look that up to. Yeah that's a good idea. Yeah my friend was just um in New Zealand she actually got stuck there like cause of Covid,


What?


they went for a while and then they got stuck and stayed for until their Visa like expired for almost a year. They were there


No.


but when well they were there they went to like Hobbiton and all this stuff and she's like I've never seen the movies but you know they told me this is a good place to go when I was like oh you shouldn't be there, I should be there


All right. I have actually been to Hobbiton before New Zealand.


So we are


My film class had a uh like you would get school credit to go on the trip and the trip that year was to new Zealand. And so we got to go to ha bitten in a bunch of places where they shot some of the scenes like the scene in Lord of the Rings, where you see the Ali fonts and the mountains that represented Mount Doom or


I don't want


not Mount Doom specifically, but the mountains that represented the mountains near Mount Doom, we act like a day and hiked up there and Mount Doom is the right word for it. It was horrible. They were like, oh, you'll have a day hike, it'll be kind of fun. And then when we got there, I even packed hiking boots and it was a killer on the, you know, wait thing because I got charged extra because my hiking boots put me like a pound over the top. And when we got there they were like, oh yeah, you didn't have to bring your own boots. And so at this point it was already really better than like it's going to be, you know,


No


a light 78 mile trip and


that's


All the students or no, it was actually 14. My apologies. A 14 mile hike. And all of the film students who spend our entire day just sitting behind a computer writing, it's like we're gonna die. And then they go, oh and you want to hear, we'll give you some gloves in the hood because it's the wind show up, there's about negative 20 and it may be raining. You said they hike, you're gonna need these and they hand us all ice axes.

not right. Um Oh yeah. Right. Oh my God. Oh


what? Oh my God


This we ended up having to turn back at the 3.5 mile mark because of how dangerous the wind was getting,


these


But we still went seven miles


oh my God that's crazy.


and they didn't tell us not to bring our backpacks. And my backpack was like a pikachu backpack made of cotton. It was a school backpack that I


What?


literally go to high school because we thought it was gonna be like a couple of miles, but a cotton backpack in the rain suddenly gets really heavy and it's not made for being worn. And so it was agonizing by the end of the thing,


that sounds just like miserable.


it was absolutely miserable. So Mount Doom earned its name that day, Bahamas.


that's a good sport


I think I was the only one because I've actually, I was in boy scouts, so I've done 20 mile hikes before so I technically had an advantage over the rest of my team. So I was the one like, come on guys were


program shut


No.


up, we're gonna throw you off the mountain like it sounds like someone's getting corrupted by the ring. Yeah,


I would have been doing all sorts of quotes and


I, I did more of the quotes like in some of the other places like there is one place where not on the day hike. We actually got a day of touring where we visited in a tour bus a bunch of different places. So we found so we got to stand next to the river where Sam runs and goes I'm coming with you mr Bruno. And one of these big expansive areas that had where Gandalf is writing on shadow facts. And we actually got to go to the place where all of them hide from the program thing to do is angry hooded the non school


And that's uh


and


like


that


the priest something? Oh cool.


that the tree stump the root itself was actually all props so instead of just like a hole in the ground but we still got to take pictures there. So I was doing tons of quotes like in the big expanse. I had one of my friends take my camera. I still need to like cut everything together. It's been over a year and a half


What?


awkward shadow facts and


just ran away humming what I thought was The Lord of the Rings theme song. I was informed afterwards that I was in fact coming back to the Future theme song.


close enough,


Hey my kids, they sound similar. Do do do do do do do and the other ones like doo doo doo doo doo doo. It was they're close.


that's funny, that makes it even funnier,


Yes, somewhere on my phone. But


that's cool.


so I finally watched the movies because that was a requirement to go to new Zealand was to watch all three movies and my friend and I watch or I watched the first one with my friend because she liked them and I was making sarcastic comments throughout the entire thing. She wanted to kill me. And then I watched the other two extended editions by myself and I the part where it ended and then said, please insert disc too.


you


Just I mean


were like


except this too. You couldn't get everything on a single


well


disk.


not three plus hours of movies on one disk, I've marathon all three extended editions in a day before.


I I did too or like 1.5. And afterwards I just walk away like slowly, shell shocked. Mom was like how are you doing? It's like florida. Thanks, doesn't


from


it? I am prepared for new Zealand but I am not prepared for what I just saw.


Uh huh That's funny, you see our timer,


I think we're technically over the 25 minute mark.


Aaron


So this


larry.


was really fun.


Yeah it was fun, it was nice talking movies with you can


I


always


am.


have more things yeah


I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you for doing this.


yeah have a good day,


Thank


bye


you. You're at war by


Yeah. Mhm. Oh, mm. Uh huh. Oh, correct. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm. Honey. Oh, okay. Yeah. Country. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, mm hmm. I can't, yeah, that is more quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Oh yeah. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Mm hmm. Uh huh. What? What? Oh yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Hello?


I can.


I can, I can hear you really well. Can you hear me? All right?


Yes, I can.


Yeah. Good. Do you want to take a moment to get your yeah, camera makes it up or anything or do


I'm


you think you're?


pretty good. How about you?


Mhm. Yeah, I think so. I was here a couple minutes earlier and it took a minute to get everything dialed in. So


So high,


Hi. Hey. Um So I have a pet bird then she's in the room with me. So if you hear something that sounds like somebody laughing maniacally in the background. That's my bird.


No problem. I have a dog and two cats that will probably jump behind me and some Oh,


Mhm. Uh huh. So what's your name?


my name is marisa. What's your


to


name?


meet you. My name is dan.


Nice to meet you dan. And how long have you been doing prolific?


Oh man. Um I think I started maybe two years ago, three years ago or something like that. I've been doing it on and off, I haven't been doing it consistently that whole time. Um but I've got so much time on my hands now and there's not a lot of money, but it helps the people in a little bit of some change down and makes me feel a little less bored, a little less useless. I don't have work from home right now so. Yeah.


I just started doing it because I am working from home and uh, so it's just a perfect way to make a little side and come when I have some time and I used to commute like an hour to work every day so I can just spend that doing prolific and make some extra money now.


Yeah, absolutely. Actually I got started with prolific when I was doing a tutoring job at our local community college and the way that the tutoring center work was, students can drop in any time. You can actually help with writing or math or science or whatever. And you know as you can imagine late in the semester when people had big projects or whatever, we were pretty much always busy but for the first several weeks in the semester people didn't have assignments yet. And a lot of times the tutors would just be sitting there waiting for somebody and we were paid to be ready and on call but nobody would actually come. So I was actually able to use my laptop during those quiet times and do prolific and double dip and everybody was fine with it and I was like okay okay.


That's great. I wish I had known about it sooner because I would I would have been doing this.


great. Hey, it's hard to find legitimate online gig work that doesn't, you know, come with scummy, Uber or similar, you know where you're going to run your car into the ground or whatever or where you're not like secretly paying some horrific price for it, you know? Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah.


So are we supposed to be falling a prompt or we're just talking off the cuff.


You know it, from what I read, it made it sound like we might get prompt at some point, like maybe they'll come up on the screen or something,


Yeah, that's what I thought I read too, but


but


I think,


I guess another


I think


place


it


we're


was


supposed


ok


to win.


to just have a conversation anyway, but I just want to make sure we're doing it correctly.


Yeah, No, I think we're good. Like sometimes from the studies that I've done in the past, um they could be doing any number of things, they could be doing a study about body language and the actual words were saying don't matter much to the research, it's really more about the type of body language that we're using one another. It could be about whether or not we eventually talk about the coronavirus, it could be about a number of different things and it's kind of like not worth it to play mind games to try him. Second. That's been my experience. Anyway,


So are you in the United States?


I am, I'm in Connecticut.


Nice. I'm in California, which


we're in California, I have family there.


I'm in northern California and not too far from san Francisco.


Okay, gotcha. My family is a little further south closer to san Diego.


Oh gotcha. Yeah, it's a really nice area out that way. We're the colder weather over here.


Yeah. Uh huh. Oh yeah, your space looks pretty snazzy.


Well thank you.


Do you do you own your place is an apartment.


Um I rent it but I actually will probably inherit this house one day. I run it from family so


Oh, I mean


I'm kind of lucky.


yeah. Cool. Did they give you a good deal


Yes they do. That's


business?


the only way I can afford to live close to san Francisco,


Sure. Yeah. Yeah, like san Francisco is why we have craig's list. It's


How about you,


getting


do you write or? Um


I rent my rent, I've been living in this space for probably about 12 years now, I managed to find just really nice landlords, this is the only property they own, it used to be where they lived um they charge way below market value and they don't feel like greasy, slimy landlords, they're just like an old italian family, they share their baking with me sometimes, so


Well that's awesome.