Corvid Warning

We explore the peculiar phenomenon of Wi-Fi storms, territorial crow attacks, and the age-old battle against household ant invasions in this wide-ranging conversation about nature's intrusions into daily life.

• Discussing the concept of "Wi-Fi storms" where multiple networks experience issues simultaneously
• Ben recounts being repeatedly attacked by the same territorial crow while walking through Seattle
• Exploring how animals develop unique "idiosyncratic" mating and territorial behaviors
• Analyzing a suspicious door-to-door pest control sales pitch and more environmentally friendly alternatives
• Reflecting on the contrast between open demonstrators and masked individuals at a peaceful protest
• Considering how journaling and reflection can distill complex emotions into meaningful communication

Transcript

Wi-Fi Storm Phenomena

Ben 0:01

recording in progress yeah she didn't tell me pardon really she didn't tell me. She didn't say it this time around it's happening I had to. I had to say it to myself to signal to my brain that it's showtime showtime showtime. Well, I'm back on my old computer here.

Scott 0:28

Oh really.

Ben 0:31

You had a new computer. Yeah, yeah, showtime. No, not a new computer, I'm on my old computer. I had to return my old computer, but we have to start over. We didn't do our whole thing. You know Okay Lights, camera, okay Action.

Scott 0:48

Lights, camera, okay, action Seltzer.

Ben 0:50

Seltzer, is that a hard seltzer?

Scott 0:56

That's a pretty good band. We got huh.

Ben 1:04

Yeah, the music.

Scott 1:05

The music yeah, took you a while to figure out music.

Ben 1:13

Yeah, just made you mean yeah, wow.

Scott 1:20

well, this connection is not so good, but but we'll see how it works out. Right now I'm just switching, okay.

Ben 1:39

All righty. Reporting in progress. It's now official. All righty Reporting in progress. It's now official.

Scott 1:48

All right.

Ben 1:51

Any Wi-Fi storms over there recently.

Scott 1:54

I think we just got through one.

Ben 1:57

Oh good.

Scott 2:00

Does that happen to you when you know just every once in a while none of the Wi-Fi's will work and you just wait until the whatever the collision go. It's like a traffic jam that goes away eventually.

Ben 2:16

None of the Wi-Fi's work. Do you have multiple Wi-Fi's at your disposal? At least Wow, wow your disposal at least to that. Wow, I need, I, I need to hire whoever your tech guy is. Yeah, richie on my end is I don't know. I didn't know, I didn't know that was possible. Yeah, right. No, you could get multiple.

Scott 2:43

Yeah, uh-huh.

Ben 2:45

I'm just kidding. No, I think we just got CenturyLink 1001. My neighbors aren't even showing up on here. Oh, what's the symptom? What are the symptoms of a Wi-Fi storm? How do you know it's not just the? Do you feel it in the air?

Scott 3:10

What is it? Well, yeah, just both the Wi-Fi routers just stop responding quickly and then they start responding fine, and who knows where the problem is, whether it's here or on a wire somewhere in Fresno, or who knows yeah, okay, server, you should be a wifi storm chaser.

Ben 3:43

Doesn't that sound like a fun job? Yeah, yeah, that sounds great.

Scott 3:46

Server, you should be a Wi-Fi storm chaser, doesn't that sound like a fun job? Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. Maybe I can get a tool to visualize it.

Ben 3:57

My new device here. Oh, Father's Day gift.

Scott 4:00

I guess so Father's Day gift for myself.

Ben 4:03

I know you like to let these podcast episodes ferment before you put them out, but this is a post-Father's Day podcast, monday June 16th. You probably won't put this out until October.

Scott 4:20

You're really nailing it down.

Ben 4:23

No, I might put it out next week. Oh, I, I guess I'm sorry you can bleep that out.

Scott 4:26

Yeah.

Ben 4:27

Not supposed to know.

Scott 4:29

Oops, you're not supposed to see how the magic to making this podcast.

Ben 4:35

This is. This show is not like South park.

Scott 4:38

Right, we have to do a lot of behind the scenes work and um get the writer's room involved. You know a couple weeks early for each episode.

Ben 4:56

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot that goes into the production and creation of each episode. Yeah, it has it's. It's a lot more complicated than me, you know, realizing it 1 PM that I still need to get a workout in. So I should really get out the door and, you know, go to the local park and go use the jungle gym and get all sweaty and then on my run back home kind of think of like, hmm, what would be a fun question to ask my dad? Yeah, there's a lot more. There's a lot more that goes into a lot more planning than that?

Ben 5:33

nah, of course, of course, yeah and that's just a purely hypothetical yeah, you know a crow.

Crow Attack Stories

Ben 5:41

There's this crow that's uh's down 20th Avenue that has now tried to attack me twice. Oh, you must have. I guess you could say he has threatened me he or she, I'm not sure but the other last, early last week, I went for a walk and this crow swooped and came just a foot away from my head, put away from my head, and it followed me down like two blocks, yeah, these residential sweet streets in seattle, and it just did the same thing to me as I was walking back this afternoon I.

Scott 6:19

I think it has something to do with your big hair you think so?

Ben 6:24

yeah, I think I had this headband on oh, you had the headband okay so maybe that made my hair even bigger. You see, yeah yeah, describe what you see for the listener? What do you see?

Scott 6:36

you have the purple headband around your head at the height where most people's hair is.

Ben 6:42

I've been around my head. Most people grow hair on their forehead. I didn't know that.

Scott 6:49

And then, above it is a cascade of Beautiful, like a volcanic eruption of dirty blonde hair.

Ben 7:02

And.

Scott 7:03

I could see how that could threaten the crow, you know yeah, what do you think they think?

Ben 7:08

what do you? What do they like? There was a guy that was walking his dog. There's a little dog that almost looked like sophie, little little, almost chihuahua, yeah, like shih tzu mix, and he was. He was, uh, turning the corner at the same time I was leaving this city block and I wanted to see if the crow would attack him, because I started running to be like, okay, just leave me alone, please. And the crow just like didn't do anything. He just like was home free. He walked right under the tree that this crow was in and didn't think anything of it. I don't know why I'm a threat well, you're much taller this guy was taller than me.

Ben 7:51

Maybe it's because he was walking slower terror, oh, oh I thought you could sense my uneasy energy.

Scott 7:57

You were talking. I thought you were talking about the dog, oh no. Well, yeah, I think it's just territorial. It it's like look at the hair on that guy. It's like I got to put him in his place. He thinks he's all big and fancy with his plumage.

Ben 8:14

I got to show my girl that like I've got plumage and balls, this guy's just got plumage. Yeah, the first time it was two crows and I think he was really trying to impress them. I was uh. I was telling someone the other day that I think it's, I, I think crows are really socially uh and um complex yeah I think the more intelligent an animal is, the more like, idiosyncratic their mating rituals become, because for each human you know we have each person has their own way of impressing a potential mate.

Scott 8:57

Can we pause for a second? And I want to have one sec.

Ben 9:01

Let me look for that I want to define idiosyncratic.

Scott 9:05

since it's a word I've heard so many times and I don't think I've ever looked it up, I just kind of like assume I know the definition from all of this.

Ben 9:14

Very well, very well, very well, you know, let's see. Idiosyncratic. Idio means I, uh, let's see, uh. Idiosyncratic video means I, I, the. The technical definition escapes me, as most technical definitions do. Okay, idiosyncratic means that it's like very, very unique, to like a single entity or individual right.

Scott 9:44

Idio is like individual and syncretic is like fingerprints or maybe something that you call us can you google idiosyncratic.

Ben 9:56

Can you put it up on the monitor for us? Sure no wait, was that richie? I didn't know.

Scott 10:04

Richie had a mic on him here I oh, I got my new uh tablet here that I can do that with why the definitions do this?

Ben 10:12

why do this? Why do oxford think it's okay to have a definition be relating to idiosyncrasy? Instead of just giving you the definition it makes sense, a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.

Scott 10:29

Interesting word choice there peculiar okay, so that's exactly what you to you right, you can use particular to you, yeah and then we have to wonder if the crow's partner is going to allow that idiosyncratic behavior or support it just just, just like we got to wonder the same thing with the human really yeah yeah, I thought there was just one way. Humans.

Ben 11:04

One way we're special. We don't care if anyone's we don't have idiosyncratic mating methods.

Scott 11:09

Everyone's just the same. I mean, as far as I knew, Sure, yeah, Because you know. I mean, how many people have you seen mating? Not many.

Ben 11:19

But Wow, well, that's a really good point and of all the people I have seen mating, there's certain things that are pretty similar across. All of them, like you're there, but this is the, this is the mating, this is the mating ritual.

Scott 11:36

This is not the actual act of procreation okay, so it's like going it's like going out to the bar and not talking about the peculiarities of coitus.

Ben 11:44

We can talk about that later on.

Scott 11:46

Okay, we're just talking about like, going out to the bar and having some drinks.

Ben 11:51

Yeah, what do you choose to do? Do you bring a wheelbarrow into the bar and show off all of your different clay pots that you've made? Do you gift someone a full dinner set? Or do you get on the dance floor and do the half splits and then do a handstand? Or do you? Are you funny? Maybe you just make them laugh. Or do you fly from telephone wire to telephone wire, attacking men with colorful headbands and protecting your, protecting?

Scott 12:39

your mate against men with purple headbands.

Ben 12:43

And yeah, big someone, that's kind of not quite gender fluid, but like they're kind of seem like they might want to be gender fluid. They're like a little bit queer, but like not totally there. Yeah, you know, everyone's got their own thing. You know, maybe that's you All. This to say is I think crows do all different sorts of things. But the fact that it attacked me a second time, and it's On a different day. On a different day. How do you know? It wasn't there, I don't. It must just have its nest.

Scott 13:25

How do you know it wasn't there? I don't. It must just have its nest. How do you know it was the same crow? Was it in the same place?

Ben 13:30

It was in the same place. Yeah, it was under the. I walked under the same tree and then it squawked at me aggressively and then swooped by my head one swoop each time. The first time it was two swoops and it followed me a little bit longer.

Scott 13:50

That's a pretty aggressive thing to get from a wild animal.

Ben 13:54

Yeah, it is Not as bad as some owls. During mating season, owls will literally attack people and actually claw their heads. Some people have ended up in the hospital because of it, because the owl like is out to like really do some damage, but this crow didn't even touch me, it just threatened to uh-huh so what is aggressive, isn't it?

Scott 14:18

what? What's your recourse? I mean just, the police aren't going to help you. Recourse with this.

Ben 14:26

You and the crow got an issue oh well, the yeah, the cops drove by. Oh, that was just before actually, so I didn't get my chance. Yeah, I guess it did kind of break the law, didn't it?

Scott 14:40

mm-hmm. An assault with a deadly talon.

Ben 14:47

It was threatening or beak. Okay, it was threatening me, so what?

Scott 14:52

is that it didn't actually touch me. I think that's what assault is. Battery is when you hit. Assault is when you threaten hit.

Ben 15:09

So assault and battery is like oh, you, you, you threatened and then you carried through. Wow, whoa, I'm learning so much so you've been assaulted are you sure? Yeah, no I know, well, I don't think I'm going to press charges, okay, I mean, you can see it from. It's just too much for me right now. It's just too much on my plate. It's very big of you, very big of you. Yeah, I know it's an idiosyncrasy of mine. Was there a question?

Scott 15:42

You said there was a question in there. Did I or did I say I was?

Ben 15:45

thinking of a question. You said there was a question in there, did I?

Scott 15:48

Or did I?

Ben 15:48

say I was thinking of a question.

Scott 15:50

And then you started talking about this crow that. Do you know its name? No, no.

Ben 16:03

When you're assaulted like this, hard to remember the time that perpetrator doesn't.

Scott 16:11

Yeah, yeah.

The Ant Invasion Problem

Ben 16:15

But each oh boy, too many directions. I could go right now. And you know what? Yeah, there is a question here. There is, and the question is do you think we should get rid of the ants in our house? It's the season of ants yes and a pest control agent with active pets, pets, pets, pets, not pet solutions, pest solutions I don't know, I'm making up the subheading for their company. He came by and knocked on the door and said look, we'll cut you a deal, you can spend $40 right now?

Ben 17:04

Yeah, can spend $40 right now and we will initiate the process of preventative measures to keep ants and spiders out of your house indefinitely $40 on any other day. We're just in the neighborhood, so we're going to help you out. You know we're doing your next door neighbor and his house is horrible, so infested. If you hit me up right now and get back to me by the end of the day, it's going to be $40 for us to initiate this process and then it's going to be $79.99 every month thereafter. Or you can hit me up tomorrow or anytime thereafter and then it'll be $100 for this initial and then it will be $79.99 thereafter.

Scott 17:52

Yeah, I heard about five red flags in that pitch.

Ben 17:58

I appreciated you counting those Thanks for keeping them.

Scott 18:02

You know what they are. Number one Number one is we're in the neighborhood. It's like, oh yeah, okay, that's number one. Number two we, we can. The initial process is like they give you some artificially small number to talk about something that just gets you he was a cutco salesman that just showed up right at my door. Yeah Well, I don't know if Cutco does this Tupperware salesman. No, I mean, this is more kind of scam-ish in his choice of things. I mean, yeah, you sound like he's being straightforward.

Scott 18:46

He's saying like you can pay you can pay us 80 bucks a month. I mean, he did come out and say that but um, yeah, and I I forgot what the other things are, but I assume he just promised to, like you know, save the day in a big way against the really evil dangers of. Did he like go into what all the harm the spiders can do to you?

Ben 19:14

no, he just knows that people hate them. And it wasn't until like after he gave me his whole freaking spiel and we walked around the backyard and everything I I, because here's the thing is that my one of my housemates is like really annoyed by the ants and he's like deal with them, ben, they're in your bathroom. And I'm like bruh, well, I, I would not. It's whatever. You know, it's like your cat is the one with all of its cat food. That's like bringing it in, like oh, I don't know what you I also. I also for a second thought, like wow, I wonder if our landlord put this guy up to this, because it seemed like he was like undercover in some way, and I wonder if, like, she like hired him to be like hey, could you get in there and like check out if, like, there's anyone extra, because I don't think our landlord trusts us. Did he have, like we're not supposed to have a cat? Yeah, and then two. When we first moved in, it was this whole thing.

Ben 20:14

We had an extra person living with us that actually wasn't supposed to be living with us, and so part of me was like hmm, maybe this landlord is sending this like 18 year old with a like fancy looking Patagonia and a clipboard to like try and scope out us right now. And it's like maybe he's he's going to get like all he's doing recon for her, but find out how we're breaking all the rules, cause we just let her know that. It's like oh, you're raising rent, we're out, thanks Peace. There was a lot going through my mind and upon second thought, I wish I had just said yeah, no, thanks peace. But because one of my housemates has been on my ass so much to be like deal with the ants and all I've done is like put out little traps and things. So it's like that's dealing with.

Scott 21:06

I don't care.

Ben 21:07

But so this guy showed up at my door and I was like, hmm, maybe, maybe this is a good idea, like I'll, I'll hear him out because, you know, freaking, my housemate wants the ants gone and so maybe this is the solution.

Scott 21:25

And it just showed up right at my doorstep, but clearly not because or maybe it's equally not the solution, but it has the same dramatic pull as Well, like you're saying, because you're it's an issue in the house. So it's like oh, and then look what happens. Ha ha ha, guy shows up with a stick. I assume he had a stick no didn't have an ipad. Okay, he's going around, I was pumping.

Ben 22:05

He was showing me all their reviews on Forbes and Yelp. That's what he was doing with the iPad. And then I was asking him questions about like, well, what's your custom, what's your proprietary anti-pest mixture? How do you like? What do you? And then he's like, yeah, it's all plant-based and everything. And I'm like, well, everything's plant-based. That's how nature does everything. He's like, yeah, and we'll also spray all. And then we'll also put all these capsules out for the rats and it's super safe and it just messes with their vitamin K levels. I'm like, hold up, you're using blood thinners for the rats and what is that going to do to all the owls that live here? And he's like, oh, no, it's. I don't know how it works, but the owls are totally fine.

Scott 22:48

I'm like, oh, Well good, I'm glad they figured that out.

Ben 22:53

Yeah, I was like are you sure I have to do more? This is interesting. Now I know what I got to do. I got to do a little more research, got to find out if really actually figured that one out.

Scott 23:07

I doubt you did. I think you're just bullshitting me. I think you already dealt with it, because you put out the ant traps.

Ben 23:11

That's what you do right, and now there are more ants though it's funny as soon as, because I felt like I've noticed a few here and there. But I think we're, I think we're fine. It isn't just the beginning of the season and I literally sat back down to my computer to keep working on what I was working on before, and there was a trail of ants under my feet that I had just noticed. They're coming out of the fireplace now.

Scott 23:35

It also helps to wash down their trail.

Ben 23:39

Yes, right, because they get some vinegar on it.

Scott 23:44

Oh, that might be, I never researched that.

Ben 23:47

If I've heard that that's a good way to wipe away their scent, I've got to follow them to see where they're going off to.

Scott 23:53

Right, you just want them to go somewhere else. You're not going to get rid of all the ants in the world.

Ben 23:58

No, and they definitely do live on our walls, you know? Oh really, clean up your food in the kitchen. Yeah, clean up your food in the kitchen and do what you can like. Ants are ants. He also kept talking about spiders too. I don't care about the spiders, but I love the ones that do what was his name?

Scott 24:25

Hayden Hayden, hayden Hayden.

Ben 24:28

Hayden, hayden, hayden, hayden. I literally could have guessed. I saw him and I was like you're Hayden, nice to meet you, hayden. He looked like a Hayden. He looked like a Hayden. Every single Hayden I've met has looked like Hayden. Sorry to all the Haydens out there, you don't want to be sure you look.

Scott 24:49

I'm sure you don't want to be a Hayden plenty of idiosyncrasies hater do you?

Ben 24:55

no, I don't. I don't want to, I don't want to poor person with that name.

Scott 25:00

they probably had that joke made to them endlessly, or maybe I just made it up.

Ben 25:10

Aha, are you a Hayden hater? Maybe you were the first one to think of that. Maybe I was I have a feeling you didn't grow up with any Haydens.

Scott 25:21

No.

Ben 25:28

I feel like that is not a name. That was a thing until the year 2013.

Scott 25:32

I don't think that name existed before then.

Ben 25:36

There were a lot of Scotts in my year. There were a lot of Bens in my year.

Scott 25:41

Yeah, and a lot of Bens, I know.

Ben 25:43

Yeah, you know. Okay, so it sounds like I'll let Hayden know that I'm not interested really you owe him a call, no. I told him I would call if I was interested, but I had to talk to my housemates first and apparently he already stopped by and talked to my other housemate. Oh, he said he would talk to you, so now I'm talking like who do? So what gives you know? He is in the neighborhood why am I getting a clear answer here, ben huh, like what's going on?

Scott 26:16

I'm not gonna want your housemates communicating.

Ben 26:18

Why haven't you had a house meeting about this, about your aunt's? Do you even care about protecting your rental? And, quite frankly, no, I don't. I hope the ants eat out the walls. I wish there were termites here, actually, because I'm only here for six more months Less than six months, actually. I hope this place burns to the ground, oh. No, you don't, they could probably press charges.

Scott 26:45

No, I don't actually actually not true, it's not true, you're making.

Ben 26:51

You're making things up and just saying them yeah, and if you are a long-time podcast listener, you would know that I really don't want this place to burn down. And although the dearth of fire alarms might not be evidence to show that this is true, let it be known that I would really appreciate it if this house continued standing. So did you get great? I'm glad we cleared that up. Did you go?

Flag Day Activities

Scott 27:21

um. Did you go see any events on Flag Day?

Ben 27:26

Flag Day. What the fuck is Flag Day? June 14th, june 14th, that was two days ago. Yeah, yeah, let's see what did I do on Flag Day. I woke up on the Hood Canal Cabin, on the Hood Canal.

Ben 27:50

On flag day, we took down a flag. I was actually really disappointed that my girlfriend took the flag down without consulting me first. I was inside sweeping as we were cleaning up the cabin and I was really excited to take the flag down. I thought it would be really great. You know, we just spent a great couple of days at the cabin. It was a crab. There's a crab on the flag and oh, it was yeah, and she took it down and it was like that would have been a good way to celebrate crab day, but crab flag day. But it didn't work out that way.

Ben 28:33

Unfortunately, uh did I go to any events no, you were out of the city I was out of the city so we woke up there. But then we headed back that morning and then we threw a grad party barbecue on the beach for Parker, my housemate. So I threw an event, I hosted an event, a little barbecue on the beach.

Scott 28:56

What beach.

Ben 28:59

It was not in observance of Flag Day.

Scott 29:01

What does that mean? What beach?

Ben 29:05

Golden Gardens, golden Gardens. What does that mean? What, what? What beach? Golden gardens, golden gardens. Some people say it's the nicest beach in seattle and quite frankly, it's kind of just as nice as all the others salt water or fresh water salt salt. Yes, it's on the sound, it's not a lake yeah did you do? Did you go to any events?

Scott 29:30

I went and took. I went and took bart into the city and, um, you know, I was kind of just adding my number to the, to the protest on that day, and I was just like walking around reading people's protest signs, you know reading people's expressions every 10th oh, that's why you're asking, because there were like nationwide protests.

Ben 29:57

Yeah, it just goes to show how politically informed, active and um, okay, yeah, I just doubted myself. I don't give a shit about our future, anyway, continue.

Scott 30:09

Or our past.

Ben 30:12

You're just living in the now.

Scott 30:14

Wow, that's, that's Sure. No, and it was. There was like in front of Civic Center. There was like a dense crowd listening to a speaker speechify and then they're all hey, and it's like, oh, that's interesting, I want to walk around, I just want to see everything on the sidelines, like see, you know, here's the fire department over here and they're sitting around talking and here's the. You know, this is what it was like on the train and, um, I saw three people with masks on and they looked like they were uh like surgical masks like no more, like more, like the they were ready to like

Ben 31:06

the ready to throw a molotov cocktail, kind of militia, militia masks like yeah, they looked like they were.

Scott 31:13

They were uh trying to pretend like they were um on a mission, a reconnaissance mission. I see so like there's one or two or three people among these thousands of people are gonna go. Oh yeah, I can. I see you all. You're out here protesting for your rights and the constitution. Uh as soon as someone started screaming at them no, no, everyone just ignored them and like kept away from them. It's like, oh, you're yeah it's like everyone else is like out here showing their face.

Ben 31:51

You know, dark sunglasses just like yeah kind of like scary, scary. In the same way a clown is scary because you're like what is what's actually going on behind that?

Scott 32:05

like, I mean, they didn't have anything that declared feel really uneasy and yeah yeah yeah, they. They absolutely did not seem like they were there to connect with other people.

Ben 32:20

They seemed like they were there to spy on other people.

Scott 32:22

They seemed like they were. It's closed off there to spy on other people portray, but you know it's like well, but if you're really doing that activity, you're not doing a good job, you're not blending in. So I guess that's not your goal.

Ben 32:42

But who knows? Who knows what their goals are. So you went to an event, though.

Scott 32:49

Yeah, that was the interesting thing about it. That was it, the few lone wolves who were kind of so obvious when everyone else was just like hey, hey, here's my sign, here's your sign, and in the end it's only the count that matters. It's like, oh, there were that many people there. It's like, okay, that's interesting, that hasn't quite happened before On one day to have that many people out. You know doing what the First Amendment protects.

Ben 33:43

Telling people what they think.

Scott 33:48

Peacefully protesting. It was very peaceful.

Ben 33:53

They shut down any streets.

Scott 33:55

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's San Francisco. You know it's. They got all the permits. They needed the park. People looked a little leery. It's like, oh my, they're using our park here. I don't know, civic Center, we're going to have to clean up the trash, yeah they didn't really want to clean up after. That story just does not quite fit as well with your idyllic weekend of crabbing around and I completely avoided downtown.

Ben 34:35

I had no idea what was going on I know again outing myself is apolitical, I guess.

Scott 34:46

Oh God, I don't know, what that means.

Ben 34:48

Oh no, oh no.

Scott 34:50

You still have your values and you can still vote, and those are the. I sure hope so. Those are the primary things, oh God, and I hope you can do your critical thinking. I hope so.

Ben 35:07

I don't have a New York Times subscription, so how am I supposed to know what's going on? No one's inviting me to do these things.

Scott 35:15

How am I supposed to know? You need more than the New York Times. For sure, yeah, you need critical thinking. Even to take what the new york times is telling you, I guess they're they're not going to support us yeah, you do, yeah, you do, yeah, you do, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben 35:36

Well, school's finished for me now, uh- huh, I wonder I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, I wonder what happens next. Today, I feel like was yesterday, and today were like some of my first days of like, hey, I'm done with school, I have like regular, regular time. Now what do I do with my days? It's that familiar feeling of like things. I mean, yeah, it gets filled up one way or another and I need something. I need something to grab on to you going rock climbing?

Ben 36:29

that's like you were maybe, maybe, yeah, maybe, yeah, probably. Do that. Do that on a in a gym tomorrow, tomorrow evening. No, today was a lot of actually processing and thinking about. You know, have you ever had to? I noticed we only have four minutes and 20 seconds left. That's my big thing to bring in, but you ever have like a really big text you're going to send someone.

Ben 37:05

I don't know, I think I'm unique in this particular way, but it's you're going through a hard time with a friend, yeah, and it's like you got to have a big conversation. Yeah, things have been so busy for me and I'm just like journaling and journaling and journaling about it. This is just what I do, idiosyncrasy of mine, and at the end of the day, I always just end up deciding, like you know what? I just need to say two sentences and then call them and like get out of my, out of my head about it.

Scott 37:46

And those two sentences happened after a period of reflection, you know. So, instead of like overwhelming the other subject, with all your thinking out loud. With all your thinking out loud, you, you know, you honored your own feelings as you thought inside your head.

Ben 38:14

I hope so, I hope so. I just feel like it's easy to intellectualize those feelings that I think inside my head.

Scott 38:21

Right. But you come down to like, oh, I'm going to say this because it feels right, and then we'll see how things feel after that.

Ben 38:31

Yeah, right, and then you kind of deal with reality in a more improv way, because that's often what requires that more free play. It's the name of the book I'm reading right now Free Play how to Improv Life. This episode brought to you by Freeplay by Stefan Nakyanovich I don't know If you Google Freeplay Stefan Nakyanovich that's not actually his name, something like that That'll get you to the book. It's great, it's fun.

Scott 39:01

I thought, we were almost going to.

Ben 39:03

I'm like 50 pages. In friend gave it to me, love it. Yeah, we did our. Uh, we did our. Bitter took a while to get that sponsorship in. Sorry about that I would.

Scott 39:15

I was up for breaking our rules and not having a sponsorship. You know, once you got a rule, once you have a rule, you have to talk about that in the writer's room but if we don't break the rule, then you don't even know. It's a rule, right?

Ben 39:31

but uh, if you break the rule, then it's not even a rule no, if you don't break it you don't and then it's like why you don't even know it's a rule.

Scott 39:41

Unless you know, you broke it.

Ben 39:44

And then it's like well, you don't even know, it's a rule unless you know you broke it.

Scott 39:47

You've got to know it's a rule by breaking it. But I wanted to talk about improv. I mean, improv is the after effect of a lot of thought. It is sort of, in a way, the people who like are endlessly thinking about something. So practicing a lot, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's the practice of bringing it out, but I mean you're practicing a craft, but you're not necessarily practice.

Scott 40:18

You're not rehearsing a particular script necessarily, I guess right, right, but you're a person who's like listening and then wants to say something because of hey, I had this thought and this inspired. I'm inspired to say this right here, because it kind of goes with what the I'm I'm, yes, and being the other person yeah, and those beautiful moments come from a lot of like, thought and practice prior to it.

Ben 40:46

Yeah, that makes sense.

Scott 40:47

Yeah.

Ben 40:48

Yeah, yeah. Well, no wonder this podcast is so damn good, because we put in all that work beforehand.

Scott 40:58

That's going to be the best ending ever. You got to wrap it up less than a minute.

Ben 41:05

No, I know that was less than a minute, like a minute ago, so okay, okay, thanks for being here everyone yeah, you don't trust that less than a minute I think that last.