0:00

Glory, glory, glory! Hey

0:20

everybody, welcome to another episode of what a

0:23

hell of a way dad. It's Francis and

0:25

this week I have Greg from the Brigham Young

0:27

Money podcast joining me today. Nate is taking

0:29

care of some other stuff, so I'm reaching

0:31

out. I'm finding my fellow dads. Brigham Young is

0:33

always a good one to grab from because

0:35

it has a dad and a veteran, but

0:37

like split so I can always grab one

0:39

or the other. Or both of you. How you

0:41

doing, Greg? I'm doing well. That's always my

0:43

favorite thing is that I get to tell

0:45

people that I co -own a veteran -owned business. That's

0:48

right, you get to park in the special

0:50

parking spots at House. I get

0:52

to steal Valor every Memorial Day.

0:54

I get that pancake breakfast from IHOP.

0:57

Sometimes every now and again I wear the medals. It's

0:59

good time. Yeah, you gotta walk

1:01

around like a North Korean general. Exactly.

1:05

That's how I have always, I think

1:07

one of the care packages I

1:10

sent out was I bought a whole

1:12

bunch of the global wear on

1:14

terror ribbons and sent them to

1:16

everybody who was on the $10 level

1:18

on the Patreon because my figuring

1:20

was, you know, we all fought terrorism

1:22

for that 20 years, right? So everybody, everybody

1:24

deserves one. And I ended up getting like

1:26

a phone call from the... I was ordering

1:28

it from because I was ordering like 150

1:31

of these and like, you're not a military

1:33

base. What's going on here? And, you know,

1:35

I didn't even explain it. I was like,

1:37

no, I know what I ordered. Send it.

1:39

I gave you the money. Send it. If

1:41

you've got 150 of them, send them. That's

1:45

very funny. I like that. Yeah. So Greg,

1:47

you've got like a nine, 10 year

1:49

old boy, right? He's seven.

1:51

Seven. Okay. First grade. We are

1:54

in the throws. I signed

1:56

up for, he's playing the

1:58

Sheen pitch, which is, you

2:00

it's basically just little league, but we don't,

2:02

we don't pitch. We have a machine that

2:04

pitches to them. So I'm doing that like

2:06

three days, three days a week. It's a,

2:08

it's a commitment, but yeah, I'm, I'm having

2:10

a good time and he's a good kid.

2:12

Yeah. The machine pitch is pretty like, when

2:15

I was that age, I think it was

2:17

just like the coaches. Pitched. Yeah. Your own

2:19

coach would pitch. Yeah. We call it a

2:21

coach pitch. And now it's machine pitch. These

2:23

kids, man. One more thing being taken away

2:25

from people to do their jobs, going to

2:27

machine. Which like, honestly, I kind of respect

2:29

and kind of enjoy because if I had

2:31

to pitch batting practice, you know, we have

2:34

two games a week and practice once a

2:36

week, I would not have an arm anymore.

2:38

It would just fall off. That's true. You expect

2:41

like your average little league dad to

2:43

be able to throw 100 balls every

2:45

week. Yeah. I'm

2:47

going to eventually have to just do the Jim

2:49

Abbott thing and just throw and catch with

2:51

the same arm. Yeah. Just kind of do an

2:53

underhand toss. Just kind of lob it away. We

2:56

had a recently, so we

2:58

home school, but we do, my daughter

3:00

does go to various light classes and

3:02

stuff. And she does Irish dance. And

3:04

we finally had our first, we have

3:06

to go talk to the teacher about

3:08

our daughter's behavior kind of thing. Oh,

3:10

that's always fun. Right. And we always

3:12

knew that like, she's always kind of

3:14

towed the line. of

3:16

being a disruption in class because, you know, she

3:18

gets overwhelmed, but she has a lot of things that

3:20

help her out with it. And she's been dancing

3:23

at this school for like six years. So like, I

3:25

figure it's like, I mean, she, yeah, she can

3:27

sometimes be a pain in the butt, but she does

3:29

the work. She shows up. She's always in a

3:31

good mood and everything. So we're, you know, my, and

3:33

my wife and I are just kind of like,

3:35

Oh God, what's going to happen? I'm going to kick

3:37

dad out of this. And it turns out what

3:39

happened is my daughter flipped off one of the teachers.

3:41

Oh no. Now

3:43

my initial thought. Because I know my daughter

3:45

is does she know what that means because

3:47

I feel like she does think because she's

3:50

not a she's not a mean or a

3:52

vindictive person She's not somebody to look at

3:54

somebody in the eye until you go fuck

3:56

yourself like she's just not that she likes

3:58

to curse and I let her curse when

4:00

we play games She curses all the time,

4:02

but you know not in a not in

4:04

a mean directed towards somebody kind of thing

4:06

So but yeah, it turns out that she

4:08

just felt that was a gesture of frustration

4:11

and not a not a directed at you

4:13

fuck you for you know, being there and

4:15

looking at me fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doesn't

4:17

fully understand the nuance quite yet. Right. And

4:19

so I asked my wife, I'm like, so

4:21

where did that come from? Because like she

4:23

always picks up like so much pop culture

4:25

and stuff from books and TV and stuff

4:27

like that. She picks up so much stuff.

4:29

And I'm like, where are you getting this?

4:31

Look at this. You know, Calvin and

4:34

Hobbes was a lot of it for a

4:36

while. And I had to explain to her

4:38

that's not how six year olds actually actually

4:40

act. But yeah, nor should they. Yeah, it

4:42

turns out it was my wife. My wife

4:44

flipped off. not you know did in the

4:46

car kind of waved a middle finger around

4:48

after getting cut off and so my daughter

4:51

picked it up from then I was like

4:53

all right not not my fault This one

4:55

does not fall on my shoulder. So that's,

4:57

uh, that's kind of nice. Reminds me that

4:59

my kid was probably, I don't know, like

5:01

two or three, uh, was walking through the

5:03

kitchen and dropped his bottle of milk. And

5:06

right after he dropped it, he looks up

5:08

kind of like, let's out an exasperated sigh.

5:10

Again, he's like two or three years old

5:12

and then just says, Oh God damn it. Which

5:16

I know exactly who he got that

5:18

from. And my wife had to like sit

5:20

me down. It was like, he hears

5:22

everything you say. And he does everything you

5:24

do. And see, this is the thing.

5:27

My wife and I had to have that

5:29

conversation too. Cause around the same age,

5:31

my daughter was doing the same thing. Like

5:33

she was, or one time she like.

5:35

sat down hard and she's like hit her

5:37

button under her under her breath she's

5:39

like ah fuck and unfortunately that's funny as

5:41

hell it's very funny to hear like

5:43

a toddler there are like videos all over

5:45

instagram of it and i die every

5:47

time i look at like my wife and

5:49

i send them to each other and

5:52

they're so funny but when it's your kid

5:54

it's You know, it raises some red

5:56

flags. Right. Suddenly, suddenly people are asking some

5:58

questions about about what you're doing. So

6:00

right. We had to have that conversation of

6:02

just like, well, we don't believe in

6:04

bad words. That just doesn't make sense. The

6:06

whole concept doesn't make sense to me.

6:08

Like this word is bad, but you can

6:10

say this other word and it's good,

6:12

even though they mean the same things. That

6:14

makes no sense. Yeah. But yeah, like

6:17

somehow fuck is different than Frick. Right. And

6:19

Battlestar Galactica famously changed every fuck to

6:21

Fark every and use it completely interchangeably but

6:23

you know it's like yeah we're using

6:25

it the exact same way but you know

6:27

we're not saying the actual word it

6:29

doesn't matter yeah but but you still have

6:31

to have that that conversation of like

6:33

look I it's okay if you say these

6:35

words in the house You cannot save

6:37

them around anybody else though. Right, right. And,

6:39

and I feel like this is a

6:42

good thing that I'm teaching her because I

6:44

had to learn kind of the same

6:46

thing when I left my house, I left

6:48

home and I joined the army and

6:50

I learned how to curse in the army

6:52

and then I came back home. And,

6:54

you know, you just have to, it's like

6:56

kind of like code switching. Like I don't

6:58

curse in front of my mom, but I

7:01

do in front of my wife, you know,

7:03

that and just, I don't have like any

7:05

conscious thought to it. It's just what happens.

7:07

Yeah. Mine's the same way. Like my whole

7:09

family is like very. die hard Mormon and

7:11

so is my my wife's family and it's

7:13

just become inherent like it's like second nature

7:15

to hold my tongue when I'm around them

7:17

like I don't even think about it and

7:19

I just don't do it but the second

7:22

that I'm you know I'm not around them

7:24

and I just go back to being you

7:26

know like a normal sailor yeah and that's

7:28

you know the kids are gonna be kids

7:30

I like I said I we've told her

7:32

I don't care about the cursing. Just don't

7:34

do it in front of somebody who's going

7:36

to like judge me by it. Uh, don't,

7:38

don't, don't make dad look bad is really

7:40

what is all I'm ever asking here. Don't

7:42

fair. Yeah. Don't make me look like a

7:45

shitty parent. I try to be a good

7:47

parent. I'm very loving and very supporting, but

7:49

you know, uh, an errant God damn it's

7:51

in front of the wrong person throws all

7:53

of that out the window. Yeah, absolutely. Especially

7:55

in school. Like if you're having your your

7:57

your teacher having to stage some sort of

7:59

intervention, that never feels good. No, no. And

8:01

that's, you know, like I said, the having

8:03

to go in and talk to the teacher

8:05

about the behavior, that's just like such a

8:08

knife in the gut of like, oh, God,

8:10

what, what have I done? How have I

8:12

ruined everything? Yeah. Well, I mean,

8:14

I didn't. It was my wife this

8:16

time. But all the other things, all the

8:18

learning how to curse, that all comes

8:20

from me. I know that much. Sure. Yeah.

8:22

And exactly with my kid, too. My

8:24

kid was pretty conscious about it, though. Like

8:27

he even said the other day, like,

8:29

know if I want to be friends with

8:31

so -and -so, because he curses too much,

8:33

which was like very funny coming from him

8:35

being my child, but also like, yeah,

8:37

good on you, kid. You're making good choices,

8:39

and you're making me feel like I'm

8:42

doing my job, I guess. Yeah. So Greg,

8:44

let's answer some questions. I put it

8:46

out into the Discord. We've got some questions

8:48

set up, ready to go. We're here

8:50

to give you some fatherly advice. So bring

8:52

the dads on to give some dad

8:54

advice, because we're all like... I'm 42 now,

8:56

Greg. How old are you? I'm a

8:59

few weeks away from 40. Okay. I'm

9:01

kind of, and it's like, it's

9:03

weird because 40 is so much more

9:05

daunting than 30 ever was. Yeah.

9:07

Like it's, it's, there's some like

9:09

intimidation factor when it comes to

9:11

being 40. Like it does. Firmly entrenched

9:13

in middle age. Right. You are

9:16

no longer like statistically you're closer

9:18

to death and birth at that

9:20

point. Right, exactly. And like there's no

9:22

excuses anymore. Like you're not, you

9:24

can't do the like, oh, he's

9:26

just a young kid thing at all.

9:28

Yeah. I do still have this

9:30

problem because I have always been

9:32

the youngest of the family. My

9:34

parents were both, my father was

9:36

41 and my mother was 39 when I was

9:38

born and I had older brother and sister and all

9:41

my cousins were also older. I've always

9:43

had this like thing about, I'm the

9:45

youngest and I've always been treated the youngest

9:47

and I hate being treated like the

9:49

youngest. And still somehow at the age of

9:51

42, I get that. Like somebody, somebody

9:53

gave me one of those just like, ah,

9:55

well, you know, somebody your age. And

9:57

like, I'm in my forties, I hurt all

9:59

the time. What are you talking about?

10:01

Like, I just, we just, we just moisturize

10:03

better now. You know, like being 40

10:05

years old in 1990 looks so much different

10:07

than being 40 years old now. And

10:09

I can't tell you that it's, you know,

10:11

because we didn't drink and smoke because

10:13

I drank and smoked a lot. A lot.

10:15

Yeah, same. Same, same. Yeah, I don't

10:17

know what it is. You served, I worked

10:19

in restaurants. Yeah, yeah, I spent my

10:21

first three years of working was in a

10:23

restaurant. I don't know how

10:25

this maintains, but also, you know, it's

10:27

one of the, like every time I

10:29

look at myself in the mirror, I

10:31

look at pretty good, and then you

10:33

see a picture of yourself at an

10:35

incorrect angle or an angle you've never

10:37

seen. It's like, okay, it's time to

10:39

fling myself off of a cliff, I

10:41

guess. Of course, always. All right, so

10:43

Greg, are you a guy? Gardener, did

10:45

you do any gardening? Uh, some. My

10:47

wife is much more of a gardener

10:49

than I am. I will say I'm

10:51

a solid weeder. All right, good. Because

10:53

the question here, the question here is,

10:55

which weed is your mortal nemesis? Oh,

10:57

man. You know what we get here?

10:59

They're called goat heads. They are like,

11:01

they're the bane of my existence, and

11:03

they're an invasive species. And

11:05

they have these little thorns all over

11:07

them, which in the fall, when

11:09

it gets a little cooler, they like

11:11

detach and spread. Oh, no,

11:14

these are like little caltrops. Yeah,

11:16

they're like little thorns. And they get

11:18

like, if you ever step on one,

11:20

they're so painful, they will pop your

11:22

bike tires. I can't tell you the

11:24

number of like tires I've had to

11:27

switch out because of goat heads. And

11:29

then like, if they get in your

11:31

dog's foot, It's, it's

11:33

over. And so that, those are the

11:35

bane of my existence. And I've had to like,

11:37

not only do the roundup thing with them, but

11:40

I've had to burn them before. Is this one

11:42

of those things where you have like dandelions, you

11:44

have to dig down and get the root. Otherwise

11:46

it's just going to keep coming back. They'll just,

11:48

they'll just come back. Yeah. You, you can't like,

11:50

I wish you could just take a weedwhacker to

11:52

them, but like, that's just a temporary solution. And

11:54

it's like, you're going to spread them around probably.

11:56

You cut off, you cut off one head and

11:59

three more appear. Yeah, these are these are nasty.

12:01

Like we have sticky one like sticky birds, but

12:03

nothing nothing that looks dangerous like this. I swear

12:05

everything like out in the desert just has to

12:07

be everything. I was just about to say that

12:09

everything in the desert will kill you. I know.

12:11

I remember the first time I was up close

12:13

to a Joshua tree and you're just like, oh,

12:15

look at this, you know, these green trees out

12:18

here in the middle of in the middle of

12:20

the desert. And then like you get close to

12:22

one. You're like, these things will fucking kill me

12:24

if I get too close. Oh, yeah, even like.

12:28

Even the sage brush out here

12:30

have spikes. Yeah, luckily, I think

12:32

the only the worst thing that I have

12:34

to deal with is this one. And that's

12:37

no good. Yeah. The thistle gets everywhere. And

12:39

now that it's springtime, I need to get

12:41

out and deal with the yard. I hate

12:43

dealing with the yard. I hate mowing. I

12:45

don't ever want to mow my lawn ever.

12:47

see, I, and that's where you and I

12:49

are very different. I, that is like, that's

12:51

my happy place. What I can just like

12:53

throw on my headphones and some sunglasses and

12:55

just like vibe out and mow the lawn

12:57

or like. Yeah, I don't have a very

13:00

big one. I don't live in a very

13:02

big house, but even that little bit of

13:04

time, I love it. I have a very

13:06

tiny yard as well, so I can do

13:08

everything with an electric mower, and that's great.

13:10

Yes, same. But the problem is that my

13:12

front yard has a slope and it has

13:14

a real bitch of a slope too. Same

13:16

thing. This is my backyard. My backyard has

13:18

a huge slope as well. It has a

13:20

pain in the ass. So you got to

13:22

go up and down the thing and there's

13:25

like so much. The other problem that we

13:27

run into is that we moved in. So

13:29

we've got the slope and then we've got

13:31

like a flat area that's you know, kind

13:33

of, I don't know, probably about 15 by

13:35

15 feet. And then you've got the house.

13:37

So we put like a bird area in

13:39

there. We put a dwarf cherry tree in.

13:41

We, um, and we put bird feeders all

13:43

over the place. So I don't do anything

13:45

else with this area. I don't plant anything

13:47

else in there. I did one time put

13:50

onions in there, but that was, um, that

13:52

was a waste of time because all the,

13:54

all the seed that doesn't get eaten, like

13:56

all the sunflower seeds just turns all into

13:58

sunflowers. It all comes up. So that is,

14:00

that's really great. And it's this nice area.

14:02

that I don't really have to deal with,

14:04

but then like all this stuff gets flung

14:06

down the... down the hill and then starts

14:08

taking root in my in my hill. And

14:10

now I'm like, God damn it. And I

14:12

just don't I don't want it. It's the

14:15

one thing that I hate because like, I

14:17

know at some point in time, I got

14:19

to deal with it. Right. Like, right. It's

14:21

always eroding. Like it's always going to be

14:23

sliding into the sidewalk. And at some point

14:25

in time, that's going to have to be

14:27

dealt with. And I don't want to be

14:29

the one to do it. Sure. Yeah. I

14:31

can't say that I blame you. All right.

14:33

So, uh, yeah, I do get the dandelions

14:35

out though, too. Yeah. I have those climbing

14:38

vines, too. Those things are really I don't

14:40

know what called. Yeah, those are brutal. Yeah,

14:42

those just come out like those choked out

14:44

a lot of my tomatoes last year because

14:46

I wasn't paying attention and they just kind

14:48

of took over. All right. So what is

14:50

the best gift to bring for someone else's

14:52

toddler or elementary school kids birthday party? Oh

14:54

man. You know what? If it's

14:56

a toddler, dude, get those like magnet

14:58

tiles. Oh, yeah. The magnet. My kid

15:01

is seven and still plays with them.

15:03

Like my kid had got recently got

15:05

really into Hot Wheels. That's like his

15:07

new thing, his new toy that he's

15:09

into. So we bought him a bunch

15:11

of Hot Wheels and he still uses

15:14

this magnet tiles to build all of

15:16

these like little structures and jumps and

15:18

things like that. Like we've gotten a

15:20

good five years out of those magnet

15:22

tiles and every every time his friends.

15:24

come over, like he's still playing with

15:26

those. Yeah. We got, we got a

15:29

set. Every time I go to like,

15:31

or like there's another kid's house or

15:33

birthday party or something, you bust those

15:35

things out. Those kids are fully occupied

15:37

and that's a perfect way to burn

15:39

a few hours. My daughter

15:41

has a couple, has a set of magnet

15:43

tiles too. They're kind of pricey. Yes.

15:46

Yeah. It's an investment, but they're, I feel

15:48

like they pay dividends. Yeah. You can

15:50

get a small, you can get like a

15:52

small starter pack. If you, if you

15:54

particularly like the kid, if not, I mean

15:56

anything that makes noise is really fun

15:58

to give to a different kid that's not

16:00

yours. Also, there's a, I don't know

16:02

if you've ever heard of Kiva blocks. No,

16:04

I have to look them up. Yeah.

16:07

So KIVA, our science center had a big

16:09

like display of them for like a

16:11

temporary display for a couple of months where

16:13

you can go and build everything. And

16:15

they're just like these rectangle blocks. They're probably

16:17

about maybe three inches long by four

16:19

inches long by an inch wide maybe. And

16:21

you just, you just build stuff with

16:23

them. Like it's kind of going back to

16:25

that, not making. complicated toys and just

16:27

saying here's a bunch of like bricks that

16:30

are the same size have at it.

16:32

See what you do go nuts. That's perfect.

16:34

Yeah. So we like, we like those.

16:36

I don't know. I think all the kids

16:38

are into Bluey right now too. Yeah.

16:40

My kid's not so much into Bluey, but

16:42

like that seems to be the big,

16:44

the big hit. The few times we have

16:46

watched it, he's enjoyed it. But like

16:48

my kid recently got really into Ninja Warrior.

16:50

And like, so we take him every

16:53

Thursday, he goes to like a Ninja Warrior

16:55

class. There's, there's like a group of

16:57

kids who were on the original show who

16:59

then built like a big gym out

17:01

in the warehouse district here in Salt Lake.

17:04

And he goes nuts and he watches

17:06

and he loves to watch Ninja

17:08

Warrior. And it's like, I love it

17:10

because it's like super good exercise

17:12

for him. And I think it's pretty

17:14

harmless of a show. Yeah, it's

17:16

not. It's just doing feats of strength.

17:18

Yeah, exactly. And he's he's super

17:20

like he's obsessed with it. And I

17:22

love it. Yeah, my we've been

17:24

trying to get my daughter pushing her

17:26

towards robotics because she really likes

17:28

battle bots and yeah. Sure. So we

17:30

watched the big battle bots, but

17:32

this past week, I was at a

17:34

local, a local convention called QuadCon.

17:36

I was, I was working there. And

17:38

one of the local colleges had a robot

17:40

fighting tournament going on. Oh, fun. Yeah, they're

17:42

all small. So was the whole, it was

17:45

just like battle bots, but much smaller. And

17:47

so they had two, they had two different

17:49

battle boxes that were different sizes. So I

17:51

guess you would have different weight classes that

17:53

you would put into them. And I mean,

17:55

they went all Well, this is the whole

17:57

seven hours they were going and all these

17:59

tables set up and all the robotics teams

18:01

from all over the, all over the country,

18:03

the region really were out there. So that

18:05

was, that was really fun. Unfortunately, they were

18:07

out of towns and not able to go

18:10

check that out. But looking forward to seeing

18:12

it next time. Hell yeah. I'm going to

18:14

be in Las Vegas for, for work and

18:16

I know they do battle bots up there.

18:18

So let me look at some tickets. All

18:20

right. So do you have any tricks for

18:22

keeping stuff put away, especially with kids in

18:24

the house? mean, I do not because all

18:26

my shit is a mess. I don't have any tricks. I,

18:29

I just am severely OCD and have to

18:31

clean up and have to have things in, uh,

18:33

I have to have things organized or I

18:35

go nuts. So I just have my like routine

18:37

every day where I like, I pick things

18:39

up and like, my kid also knows that he's

18:41

got to keep his, like if he wants

18:43

to have certain privileges, he has to do certain

18:45

things. Like he's got to make his bed.

18:47

He's got to put his clothes away. He's got

18:49

to put his toys away and like that.

18:51

usually works pretty well and I'm not going to

18:53

say that we're batting a thousand but I

18:55

think like I don't think there are any hacks

18:57

I think you just got to do it

18:59

if like if that's something that you have to

19:01

do then you just got to take the

19:03

time to put things away and and have some

19:05

sort of... You gotta have a system. Yeah,

19:07

you've got it. I don't even know, but I

19:09

would say, I don't even know if I

19:11

have a system outside of, I just like... My

19:13

brain doesn't... My brain's not happy until this

19:15

is done. Yeah, I that. Yeah, exactly.

19:17

That is 100 % something that I inherited from

19:20

my mom. I like to describe my mom

19:22

as the Mormon Martha Stewart, and that includes

19:24

being the cleanest woman of all time. Her

19:26

house is pristine. Her house looks like a

19:28

temple. constantly and that was like ingrained in

19:30

us very young and I just I have

19:32

to have things very neat and very orderly

19:34

I don't know maybe maybe there's something about

19:37

me that's on the spectrum or something but

19:39

I just I just do it and usually

19:41

like we'll only take five to ten minutes

19:43

and then I feel a lot better So

19:45

for me, it's worth putting in that little

19:47

bit of work. Yeah. If you do in

19:49

it every day, um, just as your mom

19:51

and dad told you, if you do a

19:54

little bit every day, then you don't have

19:56

to do a lot of bit. Um, my

19:58

problem that I run into is that I

20:00

have a house that has three cats and

20:02

a dog in it. It's not very big.

20:04

It's not a very big house and it

20:06

is a very big dog. Yes. That'll make

20:08

things tough. Yeah. It's hard to keep it

20:10

clean that way. And we do, we do

20:13

pay for like a clean service every month.

20:15

It was one of those things that we

20:17

kind of went back and forth with because

20:19

it is a little expensive. The thing is

20:21

that we have somebody come in and do

20:23

things that I will not do. I'm not

20:25

going to regularly mop my floors. I

20:28

wish I could. I wish that would

20:30

enter into my mind to do, but

20:32

it's just not going to happen. So

20:34

having somebody come makes us clean up

20:36

everything else and declutter and put things

20:38

back away on the shelves. With the

20:40

homeschooling, things come out all the time.

20:43

My wife and kid are always at home

20:45

if they're not out. run errands or something.

20:47

I work from home, so I'm always at

20:49

home. So things just get taken out and

20:51

left out. So we don't, you know, I'm

20:53

not going to tell you that my house

20:55

is disgusting, but it is cluttered a lot.

20:57

And that's just, I mean, part of that

20:59

is just like being at the age that

21:01

we are and raising children and having pets.

21:03

Like I think you also have to have

21:05

just like a baseline of knowledge that things

21:07

are just not going to be perfect. And

21:09

you're going to have to just accept that.

21:11

Yeah. Like I go to my parents' house

21:13

and their house is really, mom always keeps

21:15

the house nice and clean. It's an older

21:17

house and needs some updates, but it's always

21:19

very clean. But also they don't have children

21:21

and they don't have animals anymore. It's just

21:23

two people in their 80s living together and

21:25

that's it. And I imagine it is much

21:27

easier to keep that place clean. Yeah, absolutely. Oh,

21:30

right. Here's one. Are you proud

21:32

of the fact that I'm transgender? Of

21:34

course we are. Absolutely. Like,

21:36

everyone is entitled to live their

21:38

life the way that they want to

21:40

live their life. And if that

21:42

makes you happier, then, yeah, I love

21:44

that for you. Yeah. Being openly

21:47

transgender is one of the probably bravest

21:49

things that I think anybody can

21:51

do. Like, I will tell you, braver

21:53

than the troops. Especially, especially right

21:55

now. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. To say

21:57

I have to live my truth

21:59

and And no matter what the rest

22:01

of everybody else is doing or

22:03

what the United States is trying to

22:05

pull, absolutely, 100%. I'm proud of

22:07

anybody that is living how they want,

22:09

living in a way that makes

22:12

them feel comfortable. Yeah. I can't say

22:14

that I can relate. white,

22:17

very straight man, but you will

22:19

always have solidarity, you know, as far

22:21

as me and as far as

22:23

I'm concerned. And I agree. Like

22:25

that has to be, that has to

22:27

be really frightening and incredibly brave to

22:30

be out and proud as a transgender

22:32

person in what is a pretty scary

22:34

time for I think most people. Yeah.

22:36

I mean, to be honest, it's never

22:38

been a great time to be transgender

22:40

in America, but certainly not any better

22:42

today. So for all of you out

22:44

there who are You know, living with

22:46

this fear, you're absolutely, I'm very proud

22:48

of you. Your dads are proud of

22:50

you. Amen. All

22:53

right, here's one for you. How do I

22:55

explain Jar Jar Banks to children? The

22:57

world is a racist place. Okay.

23:01

I don't know what else to say.

23:04

I gotta ask you something, Greg.

23:06

Yeah. Because you now have probably

23:08

watched a lot of kids movies.

23:10

Yes. So, so, so many during the

23:12

pandemic. Right. And there's, and you got a

23:14

kid who's still going to be wanting to watch

23:16

kid movies. And I feel myself, because my

23:19

daughter is finally like, I want to go to

23:21

movie theaters. So, and I, and I

23:23

said, great, I love to go to movie theaters.

23:25

I'll go to movie theaters with you. And she,

23:27

the first one that you wanted me to take

23:29

her to was Madam Web and then we went

23:31

to Sonic 3 and then we went to Dog

23:33

Man and then we went to Minecraft. I haven't,

23:35

I've watched all of the, all of the ones,

23:37

except for Madam Web and we're going to go

23:39

see Minecraft this weekend. But yeah, we're kind of

23:41

in that same state. but at the same time

23:43

I can still like throw on a Disney movie

23:45

and he's fully entranced. Right and but I mean

23:47

for me having to sit and like as I

23:49

watched the Minecraft movie and I didn't go in

23:52

with any expectations and I thought it was a

23:54

perfectly fine movie and yeah a lot of people

23:56

on the internet are angry about it and I'm

23:58

not a hundred percent sure why I think I

24:00

think we don't like Jack Black at the moment

24:02

but either way I will tell you I went

24:04

on opening night and people were erupting children were

24:06

erupting in applause like I was probably one of

24:08

the oldest people in there. by 20 years because

24:10

I had a nine year old with me. Ever

24:12

all the other, you know, a bunch of 13

24:14

and 14 year old boys hooting and hollering and

24:16

having a good time. So I think

24:18

they had a good, like, I don't know.

24:20

I have a lot more grace for movies like

24:22

this because like, I'll watch something and like,

24:24

that kind of sucked, but like everybody else enjoyed

24:26

it. So I don't know, maybe it's just

24:28

not for me. That's fine. And you know what?

24:30

I think that's the key. Just go into

24:32

something like that and realize like, Hey man, this

24:34

isn't for me. But we do things for

24:36

people we love. And you know what? If my

24:38

kid's going to get a kick out of

24:40

it and he's going to love it, then overall

24:42

it's worth it. And at the most, it's

24:44

a couple hours of your time. And if you

24:46

can dedicate a couple of hours of time

24:48

to the people you love, then you might want

24:50

to reassess how selfish you are. Right. If

24:52

you don't go and watch Madam Webb with your

24:54

daughter, you are just being selfish. And

24:57

you have to think these are

24:59

core memories for a lot of things.

25:01

Like, I remember going and seeing

25:03

movies with my family and my friends

25:05

and like, these are movies and

25:08

these are memories I've had now for

25:10

like 30, 35 years. And like,

25:12

you're doing the same thing with them

25:14

now. So try to have

25:16

that in your head and just like, just

25:18

realize that not everything is always going to

25:20

be about you and that's just fine. And

25:23

yeah, there's always a little something, you know,

25:25

Madam Web had Sidney Sweeney. So, you know,

25:27

you got a little something for the dancer.

25:31

Perfect. There's a chase scene in Minecraft. I'm

25:33

not going to spoil anything, but there's

25:35

a chase scene with a B -52 song

25:37

that I have not heard used in a

25:39

movie in a long time. So I

25:41

was very excited about that. Sometimes a

25:43

little sump for the dads in there. Sure, absolutely.

25:46

I think that's one of the reasons

25:48

why families like Bluey so much is

25:50

that there's There tends to be like

25:52

some adult -centric humor, like at least something

25:54

that parents can enjoy. Yeah, and I

25:56

think that that's also part of what

25:59

makes a lot of current movies. You

26:01

know, the kids movies are a lot

26:03

more popular. Like I always remember I've

26:05

watched the movie cars probably about 25

26:07

times because my my daughter had a

26:09

had a time with it. I'm sure

26:11

my wife has watched it even more.

26:13

But one of my favorite one of

26:15

my favorite jokes is when Lightning Queen

26:17

says, you know, Doc has the has

26:19

three piston cups and maters or media

26:21

responses. He did what in his cup

26:23

and like that's great. Yeah. That's a

26:26

good dad joke. Yeah. That's for me.

26:28

That's a joke for me. Not for

26:30

you. not gonna talk about

26:32

pissing in a cup, but we'll

26:34

talk about it for me. It's

26:36

fine. Yeah, I I find that

26:38

the caliber of kids movies is

26:40

Better today like even like dog

26:42

man. I really enjoyed dog man

26:44

dog man was fine. Yeah My

26:46

kid my kid loves my kid

26:48

has literally read every

26:50

dogman book. And I see

26:52

it as like, if this is what gets

26:54

my kid to read books and gets

26:56

excited about reading, then I'm all for it,

26:58

man. And like, yeah, I can take

27:00

a couple hours and take him to a

27:02

movie and like sit around and eat

27:04

some popcorn and hang out. Sure. Yeah. And

27:06

again, dogman, good movie. It's about trauma

27:08

bonding. Yeah. It's yeah, it's really and you

27:10

know what that's the thing kids today

27:12

need movies that are fucked up and dogman

27:14

is pretty fucked up because it is

27:16

a police officer and his dog get into

27:18

a car accident and so they graft

27:20

the dog head to the police body and

27:23

then the guy the dog man's girlfriend

27:25

just like immediately leaves him and takes the

27:27

house and kicks him out onto the

27:29

street and so you know you need that

27:31

thing so like and when the kids

27:33

hit about 2021 they go like that's pretty

27:35

fucked up movie that I watched that's

27:37

yeah, why would they do that? doing

27:39

this to me, Dan Pilkey. There's another,

27:41

there's another kid's author that your kid

27:43

might like, uh, called Max Brailer who

27:45

does the last kids on earth, but

27:48

then there's a spin off of that.

27:50

That's last comics on earth. And, uh,

27:52

I've been trying to get max on

27:54

the, on the podcast cause he also

27:56

wrote like, he wrote an insane horror

27:58

movie called VFW that I absolutely love.

28:00

Oh man. Oh yeah. Zombie, zombie, no

28:02

vampires. I think zombies are vampires. One

28:05

or the other attacking your local VFW

28:07

full of old alcoholic soldiers. So that's fun.

28:09

Yeah, it's, it's fantastic. All right. Uh,

28:11

here's one. Uh, I don't know if this

28:13

counts, but do you have plans for

28:15

your funeral and do you know what you

28:17

want? You think about death a lot?

28:19

You know, I feel real. Yeah.

28:21

You know, it's, it's, I'm going to be

28:23

pretty open and honest about this question

28:26

because this is something that I have been

28:28

battling right now. My dad is 92. and

28:30

is not in the greatest of health

28:32

as most 92 -year -olds are. And

28:35

my stepdad last year was

28:37

diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is now

28:39

stage four, and I am

28:41

watching them slowly deteriorate. And I

28:43

lost my brother about 11

28:45

years ago. He died of a

28:47

brain condition. And so when

28:49

you've witnessed that and you've gone

28:51

through something like that, it's

28:53

always in the back of your

28:55

mind. And so yeah, I

28:57

do think of death sometimes. I

29:00

think that it's a fairly normal

29:02

thing to do. As far as plans,

29:04

I haven't really gotten there yet.

29:06

I don't plan on dying anytime soon.

29:08

I'm a pretty healthy, pretty active

29:10

guy. Last time I went to the

29:12

doctor, he said I was in

29:14

great health. I know anything can happen

29:16

but man as far as I'm

29:18

concerned just like I'm dead just like

29:20

put me in a bag and

29:22

like throw me in a hole like

29:24

yeah I don't know I just

29:27

I'm not I'm not someone for like

29:29

tradition and decorum most of the

29:31

time I I don't care just like

29:33

as long as my wife and

29:35

my kid are taking care of that's

29:37

ultimately what matters Just make sure

29:39

they get my life insurance policy. There's

29:41

a period of time that if

29:43

I had died, my wife would have

29:45

gotten a million dollars to split

29:47

between my military SGLI and then my

29:49

regular. That's how you know she loves

29:51

you. She didn't offer you for that. That's

29:54

a ride or die right there. Exactly.

29:56

My parents though, my parents are in

29:58

their 80s and her parents are in

30:00

their 70s. And I know my parents

30:02

have a death book, which is like a

30:04

birth book. all of the

30:06

things that they want to happen after they pass.

30:08

They're both donating their bodies to science, which...

30:10

thought it was a little strange because my mom

30:12

is very Catholic. I figured she won a

30:14

Catholic. But I guess, I guess, I don't know.

30:16

I guess burial isn't all that important to

30:19

the Catholics. Like you need, you got to have

30:21

a Catholic mass, but other than that, you

30:23

do whatever with the, with the body. Yeah.

30:25

I don't know how my own people

30:27

do these things. I don't know if any

30:29

of the doctors would want my body.

30:31

I'm kind of held together with, you know,

30:33

duct tape and body pins at this

30:35

point. But, uh, have at it, man. You

30:37

should read, uh, Mary Roach wrote a

30:39

book about cadavers. I can't remember what. the

30:41

name of it is, but like she

30:43

writes these really great in -depth books about,

30:45

you know, a specific subject. So she wanted

30:47

to, like, when you donate your body

30:49

to science, she wanted to figure out what

30:51

happens to those bodies and talk about

30:53

it. Yeah. So like some, sometimes,

30:55

you know, talking about going to a facility

30:57

where there's nothing but severed heads because

30:59

that's where they're doing, they're practicing facial reconstructive

31:02

surgery. And so they need faces to

31:04

practice this on or body farms where they,

31:06

you know, they put a body out

31:08

on, you know, just leave it out to

31:10

the elements and people come in, they

31:12

say, okay, this body's been decomposing for 48

31:14

hours because I can see X, Y

31:16

and Z is happening to the body. So

31:18

it's, there's some, there's some interesting things.

31:20

Like, it's not like they're gonna, you know,

31:22

make you, we need his body so

31:24

we're gonna turn into a super soldier. Like,

31:26

no, they're gonna strap to the front

31:28

of a rocket and run into a wall

31:30

or something. Which is how I'm hoping. Yeah.

31:34

Again, I'm dead. Yeah, I don't know.

31:36

I'm not I'm not into all of that

31:38

either. I had the the thing is

31:40

that I could get buried in a military

31:42

cemetery, but I don't know. Those places

31:44

are always like, I'm just not that into

31:46

the army. And I can't imagine totally

31:49

right. Like every time you go, everything, you

31:51

know, all the the headstones look, you

31:53

know, they're all in the same shape. They

31:55

all look the same. They're all correct

31:57

online, you know, forward, backward, diagonal

31:59

and all this stuff is like, I do

32:01

not want to be standing at attention

32:03

through my fucking afterlife, man. Just chuck me

32:05

into the river and let Ben Rouge

32:07

deal with me, you know? Yeah. Okay. I

32:09

have mistakenly gotten my three year old

32:11

addicted to Mario Kart and my mother -in -law

32:14

has allowed him to get a general

32:16

screen addiction. He's at an age where he

32:18

started to pretend to play. If you

32:20

run into this situation and how do you

32:22

get your kids off the easy dopamine

32:24

fix given by low effort content? So

32:26

Greg, what's your screen time

32:28

policy at home? Screen time is

32:30

earned and it's earned in like

32:33

15 minute increments. We're not,

32:35

you know, and we really, we

32:37

try really hard to keep our

32:39

kid active and doing other things.

32:41

Like of course, sometimes like the

32:43

screen is inevitable, we're on

32:45

a road trip, you know, it's

32:47

a rainy day, he's sick, whatever,

32:49

but. I think you kind of

32:52

just have to do your due

32:54

diligence. I'm not passing

32:56

judgment. My kid and I play

32:58

Mario Kart a ton, but I

33:00

think you have to be pretty

33:02

proactive about... how much screen time

33:04

they're getting. And I think especially

33:06

when they're young, less is more. And

33:09

that's why we do the 15 minutes

33:11

thing, but it's like, okay, 15 minutes, but

33:13

not until your homework's done, not until

33:15

your chores are done, whatever it is. He

33:17

understands that this is not something that

33:19

he can just go downstairs and do at

33:21

his leisure. We give our

33:23

daughter a general one hour. in the

33:25

afternoon, you know, as long as dance

33:27

practice is done and school work is

33:29

done and, you know, any chores are

33:31

done. And sometimes that hour bleeds over

33:33

a little bit, but it's like, that's

33:35

her hour to do what she wants.

33:37

So if she wants, if she wants

33:40

to, you know, she's got games that

33:42

she plays, she has friends that she

33:44

talks to, like she's got a kid's

33:46

messenger app and everything. So she's got

33:48

those things. But we also like there

33:50

is that hour that she gets to

33:52

herself, that she gets to do whatever

33:54

she wants. But, you know, later on.

33:56

in the day, you know, I'll get

33:58

off work and we'll say, hey, let's

34:00

go play. We're playing Tiny Tina's Wonderland

34:02

right now. So we'll go play video

34:05

games in the basement. But we are

34:07

hitting a hard point of like no

34:09

screens after seven o 'clock. Yeah, I

34:11

love that. Yeah, anything else will kind

34:13

of fuck her up. And when your

34:15

kids like also like ADHD, the

34:17

more screens they have, the worse it is.

34:19

Like, yeah, absolutely. Imagine your ADHD asked staring

34:21

and doom scrolling all the time, you know,

34:23

it's not great for your brain. So yeah,

34:25

kids don't have the as much regulatory ability

34:27

as an adult supposedly has. Yeah, I mean,

34:29

like every other person my age, I have

34:31

a horrible screen addiction. And there are a

34:34

lot of times where I'll like, I will

34:36

I have to either just turn my phone

34:38

off or like hand my phone to my

34:40

wife and just be like, listen, if I'm

34:42

going to sleep tonight, I need this like

34:44

out of my life or it's going to

34:46

fuck up everything. Yeah, I tell you, getting

34:48

off at Twitter broke me of a lot

34:50

of screen. Yeah. It broke me a lot

34:52

of a lot of useless screen staring, you

34:54

know, like I read, I have a tablet

34:56

that I read books on. So, you know,

34:58

that's technically screen time, but I'm not doing

35:00

anything else. I have a couple of games

35:03

that I play and I'll get on Blue

35:05

Sky for, man, you know, five minutes or

35:07

so. kind of scroll through, but like, it's

35:09

always the same shit. And I don't, you

35:11

know, I don't need to constantly allow the

35:13

horrors of the world to be washing over

35:15

me. So I spend 10 minutes on blue

35:17

sky. And then I turn that off and

35:19

I say, okay, what, what else can I

35:21

do? What else is there for me to

35:23

do? And it is helpful. Yeah,

35:25

it's also helpful that my phone has,

35:27

you know, I'm doing Duolingo. I'm

35:30

learning Spanish on Duolingo, which,

35:32

you know, it's not, am I going

35:34

to be fluent in it? Probably not.

35:36

But like, it's at least a activity

35:38

that's on my phone. that kind of

35:40

gives me that dopamine head, but it's

35:42

also useful, you know, it's not. Yeah,

35:44

absolutely. It's not starting at social media

35:46

or doom scrolling and seeing like the

35:48

latest bomb video. Yeah, so that's that's

35:50

how I and I also try to

35:52

not be looking at my phone. You

35:54

know, again, not doing that useless scrolling

35:56

on the phone anytime after nine o 'clock.

35:58

Like we get in the bed, I'll

36:00

check my phone real quick and then

36:02

I'll read a book. Yeah, I like

36:05

that a lot. That's smart. I need

36:07

to be much, much better at that

36:09

than I am. Yeah. So look, your

36:11

kids getting into screens, you know, but

36:13

three years old, like they don't really

36:15

understand what's going on. Yeah. Sorry, that's

36:17

on you, man. Like you got to,

36:19

you're the parent in that situation. You've

36:21

got to, you've got to regulate. And

36:23

you know, it might be a difficult

36:25

few weeks, but he's, your kids three,

36:27

like. he'll be able to, to reset

36:29

fairly quickly. Yeah. Or find something else.

36:31

Like there are, there's a million educational

36:33

things out there that are great for

36:35

kids. My daughter was really into octanots

36:37

when she was a kid, when she

36:39

was much younger. Like there are, you

36:41

know, I understand not wanting to do

36:44

this low effort stuff. And I'm going

36:46

to tell you again, as we're both

36:48

saying, more screen time is not the

36:50

best idea, but. If you want to

36:52

have, here's screen time, and it's actually

36:54

useful in some way, there are those

36:56

options out there. And that's what I

36:58

would suggest. We did that when

37:00

he was a, when my boy was

37:02

young, was a lot of like educational style

37:04

games, especially during the pandemic, when like

37:06

my wife and I were, we were both

37:09

working from home, but we were still

37:11

working full 40 hour weeks. And sometimes we

37:13

had to just hand him the tablet

37:15

and be like, okay, you're kind of on

37:17

your own right now, entertain yourself. Like

37:19

quiet, but like I guess if there is

37:21

a consolation to doing that at least

37:24

it was like educational games and he wasn't

37:26

just like going willy -nilly on whatever thing.

37:28

My wife had downloaded for him. Yeah.

37:30

We, the big thing is don't let them

37:32

get into Roblox and don't let them

37:34

get into YouTube. Like cause either one of

37:36

those things is going to drag them

37:38

to a bad place. I don't mind like

37:41

there are parts of YouTube that my

37:43

daughter likes that are fine. She really likes

37:45

ambient noise channels. She likes, she likes

37:47

to do these things called brain breaks, which

37:49

are like, you know, little exercise things.

37:51

Yeah. My, my, my boy does brain breaks

37:53

and he likes a crunch labs, the

37:56

Mark Roblo guy, which is great. Do

37:58

you get the boxes? Yeah. We do get the

38:00

boxes. He's really into those. And it's like, man,

38:02

if this kid wants to be into science, he

38:05

keeps telling me that at seven years old, he

38:07

wants to be an engineer, which is like, hey.

38:09

Great. Yeah. Going to STEM, it's going to be

38:11

the one thing that remains in our universities by

38:13

the time you get there. Yeah. I

38:15

highly recommend the Mark Roper box.

38:17

It's a little pricey, but it is

38:19

massively fun though. Yeah. And Mark

38:21

Roper is just a lot of fun

38:23

too. He seems like a genuinely

38:26

good dude. Yeah. He's an R

38:28

.I .K. guy. And we grew up, well,

38:30

not grew up, but I know Mythbusters was

38:32

much bigger when we were younger. And

38:34

Mythbusters was fine. I think Mark Roper is

38:36

a little bit more or, I don't know,

38:38

a little bit more, he's not doing science,

38:40

right? He's doing engineer stuff, so he's not

38:42

trying to, he's trying to engineer something, but

38:45

I don't know, I'm just trying to get

38:47

to, I like Mark Roper better than I

38:49

really like Mythbusters. He's just doing

38:51

so many, so many cool different things. Just

38:53

be like, let's see if I can do

38:55

this, and I'm gonna videotape, and I'm gonna

38:57

train squirrels to do tricks in my backyard,

38:59

and he does it, like that's a level

39:01

of dedication that I wish I had. Yeah,

39:03

absolutely. All right, Greg, so what is your

39:05

current low effort but delicious dinner? We

39:08

do taco Tuesday, man. Every Tuesday,

39:10

I'm making it tonight. Is it

39:12

kind of a build your own

39:14

situation? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do

39:16

either taco salads, but I'll heat up some

39:18

tortillas or make some tortillas or whatever it

39:21

is that we're doing. I

39:23

will usually chop up and serve

39:25

it with some black beans, serve it

39:27

with some fajita veggies, which it

39:29

takes 10 minutes in the air fryer.

39:32

That's like my really easy go to one.

39:34

And then like I do a lot of

39:36

meal prepping. I'm like, I guess I'm fitness

39:38

guy. So I try to be pretty conscious

39:41

about what I eat. So another one we

39:43

do is just like, you know, I'll make

39:45

a big batch of sweet potatoes at the

39:47

beginning of the week, you know, air fry

39:49

a bunch of broccoli or whatever vegetable I

39:51

have on hand. And then I will like

39:53

throw a bunch of meat, whether it's chicken

39:55

or pork loin or something on the trigger

39:57

and then I'll just have it and it

40:00

takes, you know, a few minutes for me

40:02

to warm everything up. And then like my

40:04

wife makes a really. good pasta salad and

40:06

we'll get like the little Mediterranean chicken skewers

40:08

from Costco. And like that's

40:10

another really easy like low effort,

40:12

you know, you just chop up some

40:14

veggies, give them cucumber, some broccoli,

40:16

some onions and peppers, boil some pasta

40:18

and like heat up those chicken

40:21

skewers and it takes like, whole thing

40:23

takes 15 minutes and you've got

40:25

dinner and it's healthy and it's delicious.

40:27

Yeah, I'm a big fan of

40:29

snack dinner. We just keep a variety

40:31

of like little finger foods around.

40:33

and I have many little serving trays.

40:35

My wife and I are addicted

40:37

to going to the secondhand store and

40:39

I love buying new little ways

40:41

to display olives and cheese and crackers

40:44

and grapes and stuff like that.

40:46

So that's how I do a lot

40:48

of my easy dinners. But also

40:50

for my daughter, just like Quesadilla, Costco,

40:52

they had the big pack of

40:54

uncooked tortilla shells and those things are...

40:56

are great. We do. I'll make,

40:58

I make my kid a quesadilla pizzas

41:00

quite a bit. Oh, nice. Yeah.

41:02

those are super, super simple, super easy.

41:04

Also, this doesn't happen a ton,

41:07

but it's always super easy. We'll make,

41:09

we'll do like breakfast for dinner.

41:11

So I'll do like pancakes and waffles

41:13

and like some eggs or something.

41:15

And that's always, that's always a hit.

41:17

The kid likes it. We have

41:19

a, we have a Mickey waffle maker

41:21

at home. So every a while.

41:23

Perfect. Yeah. Every once in a while

41:25

I break that out and I

41:27

make some Mickey waffles. Yeah. I, I'm

41:30

a big fan of just putting protein over

41:32

rice. Yes, big, big fan of the stir

41:34

-fry, dude. Yeah, my Instant Pot mostly gets

41:36

used to make rice, like nine times out

41:38

of ten. I'm just making a cup of

41:40

rice inside of it. And I'm

41:42

a big fan of the

41:44

frozen... Frozen meals meant so many

41:46

different things when we were

41:48

younger. And I'm not buying

41:50

the tray that you... you microwave and you eat

41:53

sadly on a tray in front of the

41:55

TV. But we're at, you know, you can buy

41:57

like, hey, you can buy orange chicken frozen

41:59

and it's all have to is Yes, absolutely. And

42:01

throw it in the air fryer and it

42:03

takes 20 minutes and you've got dinner. Yeah. And

42:05

you just put that over some rice and

42:07

you're good to go. Costco

42:09

also has tofu and the tofu is really

42:11

cheap. You can get four pounds of

42:14

extra firm tofu for like six bucks, I

42:16

think. Yeah, it's nuts. And I've been

42:18

learning how to cook tofu because is just

42:20

a really cheap and easy protein that

42:22

you can throw on top of anything. it's

42:24

good. And the thing that's nice about

42:26

tofu is that if you marinate it or

42:28

put any, it just takes on the

42:30

flavor of whatever you cook it with. Mm

42:33

-hmm. Yeah. So it makes it super malleable.

42:35

Yeah. I like to marinate and fry

42:37

it a little bit of a little bit

42:39

of oil. So you know what you're

42:41

doing. Perfect. The tofu is one

42:43

of the things I like to get

42:45

because even if I fuck it up,

42:47

it's fine because it's tofu. It doesn't

42:49

cost very much. Also, a big fan

42:51

of the rotisserie chicken at Costco. Oh,

42:53

go to, man. Yeah. Yeah, that is

42:56

like, when I'm feeling extra lazy, rotisserie

42:58

chicken, give that, get some cheese, some

43:00

barbecue sauce, and like, sum up. Kings

43:02

Hawaiian rolls. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and just

43:04

do like poor man's barbecue and it's

43:06

the easiest thing in the world I'll

43:08

get the the rotisserie chicken and I'll

43:10

do chicken salad with dill and lemon

43:12

and a little bit of garlic at

43:14

home And then I also like to

43:16

get I like to get the baguettes

43:18

and then slicing little thin little slices

43:20

of baguettes for your little finger foods

43:22

there I do enjoy my my tiny

43:25

little I enjoy anything where I'm making

43:27

a tiny sandwich like this is my

43:29

favorite favorite snack is a tiny sandwich

43:31

that I have to construct from a...

43:33

Yes, a little finger food. Right, from

43:35

an array of options. And I can

43:37

just make tiny sandwiches all day. I

43:39

love it. All right, let's do one

43:41

more. Let's pull one from over here.

43:43

Sure. All right. Oh, here's one for

43:45

you. Hey, Dad, how do I know

43:47

when it's worth quitting a job or

43:49

a career? Since you are currently starting

43:52

something new, I don't know how much

43:54

you want to talk about it, but,

43:56

you know, what was it that got

43:58

you to move on other than, you

44:00

know, not getting paid on time? You

44:03

know what? I've gone

44:05

through quite a number of jobs in

44:07

my life. I work in the

44:09

creative industry and it's pretty transient by

44:11

nature and we tend to be

44:13

mercenaries in that we just, you know,

44:15

we're always the first department

44:17

that gets cut when there isn't

44:19

a budget and we're always the

44:21

first to get hired when there

44:23

is. So naturally we kind of

44:25

go from place to place. For

44:28

me, it sounds cliche, but

44:30

you kind of, you know, it's the accept

44:32

things you can't change and change things just

44:34

you can't accept. And if there are a

44:36

laundry list of things that you can't accept,

44:38

then I think it's time to move on. I

44:41

will say this might be a little crude, but

44:43

I think like your audience will appreciate this. And

44:45

I have like a little bit of analogy and

44:47

something that I always keep in the back of

44:49

my mind when I work. I'm very much like

44:52

a work to live kind of guy. not

44:54

to say that I don't like I'm

44:56

fine working long hours and hitting deadlines and

44:58

like that's part of the job But

45:00

at the end of the day like sometimes

45:02

you got to just clock in at

45:04

the dick sucking factory, right? And you've got

45:06

to spend a few hours sucking some

45:08

dicks and you get paid and then you

45:10

go home and like I my careers

45:13

It's you know something I'm proud of but

45:15

like I'm there are other things I'm

45:17

much more invested in like Being a dad,

45:19

and being a friend, and being a husband, and

45:22

being a podcaster, and my job is

45:24

what allows me to really pursue the

45:26

things that I'm... most passionate about so

45:28

I always keep that in the back

45:30

of my head but when it comes

45:32

to the job itself like you really

45:34

have to do some some reflecting and

45:36

you know kind of do the seesaw

45:38

thing of like put the negatives and

45:40

the positives of your job on that

45:43

seesaw and if the negatives far away

45:45

the positives then start looking like I'm

45:47

at the road. I don't think that

45:49

you can really put a premium on

45:51

your happiness. And you spend

45:53

a third of your, you know, most of

45:55

your adult life at work, at least,

45:57

you know, eight hours or so a day

45:59

and that doesn't account for, you know,

46:01

lunch and commutes and overtime and whatever else.

46:03

So you're spending a lot of time

46:06

there and you have to really like, you

46:08

have to ask yourself, like, is this

46:10

sacrifice, is all of this time actually worth

46:12

it? And like, but also keep in

46:14

mind that it is a job and sometimes

46:16

jobs are just going to suck and

46:18

there is no such thing as a perfect

46:20

job. So balance that. is my advice

46:22

yeah you gotta find something that uh that

46:25

you don't mind doing i have a

46:27

great job that i don't hate and everybody

46:29

that i work with respects me and

46:31

listens to me and i listen to them

46:33

and i know that i couldn't ask

46:35

for anything better and i work it for

46:37

a multinational tax company i i understand

46:39

that i am a cog in a massive

46:41

machine And that's fine. Just like being

46:44

in the army, you know, it was never

46:46

about I'm out here fighting for freedom

46:48

or fighting, you know, I'm going to take

46:50

down America's enemies. When he comes down

46:52

to it, you're fighting for the people on

46:54

your left and your right. And that's

46:56

kind of the position I take at work,

46:58

because I work very closely with our

47:00

service desk. And I want to make sure

47:03

that they have everything they need to

47:05

do, the things that they need to do,

47:07

whether that be training, whether that be

47:09

knowledge articles, whether anything like that. And that's

47:11

what I. strive for at work. Like

47:13

I don't care about, I mean, sure, I

47:15

care that my company continues to exist

47:17

and give me money. Like absolutely. I don't

47:19

think it's going anywhere. A hundred percent.

47:22

Right. But that's the extent of my care

47:24

up there. My real care is everybody

47:26

who I interact with on a day -to -day

47:28

basis, are they good? Are they covered?

47:30

Do they have everything they need? And if

47:32

they don't have it, what can I

47:34

do to get it to them? And

47:36

that's how I know that I can stay

47:39

where I'm at. My wife, on the other

47:41

hand, the last time she worked

47:43

in an office was probably about 10 years

47:45

ago. And she never wants to go back to

47:47

an office. And she made really good money

47:49

as a flooring estimator. And now she

47:51

does not. do that. She is a travel agent. She

47:53

makes a fraction of the amount of money that

47:55

she used to make. And she's never been happier. So,

47:57

you know, just because the thing makes a

47:59

lot of money doesn't mean that it's worth your time.

48:02

And if it's, you know, one of the

48:04

things that we talk about is that

48:06

had she stayed at that job, we would

48:08

not have stayed together. Like she was

48:10

not in a good place while she was

48:12

working there. And she's more than happy

48:14

to let me have the cog corporate job.

48:16

And I'm more than happy to have

48:18

one because I feel comfortable with one. My

48:21

happy place is this stability.

48:23

The idea of being creative and

48:25

bouncing around just fills me

48:27

with so much dread. It's

48:30

hard, man. I

48:32

lost my job in November before I

48:34

got this new job. When I was

48:36

interviewing, that's exactly what I was telling

48:38

people. was like, I've bounced a lot. I

48:40

know it doesn't look good on a resume

48:42

and B, it's not ideal. I'm

48:45

looking for somewhere that I can... put

48:47

my roots down, you know, I'm a 40

48:49

year old man and I've got bills and

48:51

a wife and a kid and like I'm

48:53

with you like that. I am looking for

48:55

that stability at this point. And that

48:57

if that means like as a creative that

48:59

like my work, oh, I may not ever

49:01

get a con lion or whatever other like

49:03

ridiculous creative award there is out there. I

49:06

don't, I don't care. What's important to me

49:08

is like keeping a roof over my

49:10

head and having like being able to go

49:12

see a doctor when I need to see

49:14

a doctor, you know, things like that. And

49:16

and doing the job well, you know, I

49:18

absolutely when you do like your job

49:20

because I do like my job and I

49:22

do my job well. Yes, I do agree

49:24

with that. Yeah, I put in the effort.

49:26

But like, if you don't even want to

49:29

do the job there, like, yeah, you

49:31

got to you got to start looking for

49:33

something else, man. And maybe it's maybe like,

49:35

I think that's one of the reasons why

49:37

I've stayed in the creative field as long

49:39

as I have is because I genuinely enjoy

49:41

doing the work. and it's fun and

49:43

it's very satisfying to me. Coming

49:45

up with an idea that then turns into

49:47

like an actual like tangible asset, like

49:49

a tangible thing and being able to see

49:51

the fruits of your labor to me

49:54

is incredibly satisfying. And I love the teamwork

49:56

part of it. And I love, I

49:58

love that just like creating something out of

50:00

nothing is very satisfying to me, but

50:02

ultimately like you have to balance that with

50:04

also like you got bills to pay,

50:06

man. And like that's just the reality of

50:08

being an American. That it is. And

50:10

speaking of bills to pay, if you like

50:13

this and want to hear more, You

50:15

can catch us on Patreon, $5 a month.

50:17

Greg, tell them about your Patreon too.

50:19

Tell them about your podcast. Sure,

50:21

yeah. I am one -third

50:23

of Brigham Young Money. We

50:25

are a culture and politics and

50:27

current events podcast and have

50:30

a lot of focus locally. We

50:32

all live in Salt Lake

50:34

City, so we cover SLC, we

50:36

cover Utah as a whole,

50:38

and we've kind of carved a

50:40

little bit of a niche

50:42

of explaining Utah and the The

50:44

LDS church to outsiders because

50:46

Utah and the LDS church is

50:48

exceptionally weird and it's nuanced. And

50:51

if you haven't experienced it, then

50:53

it tends to be pretty one of

50:55

a kind. And so we

50:57

try to unclutter the mess of

50:59

our great state and the religion that

51:01

we all grew up in along

51:04

with, you know, whatever the topic du

51:06

jour is of of the week.

51:08

And you know, we'll cover, we'll cover

51:10

sports, we'll cover politics, we'll cover

51:12

current events, kind of whatever it is

51:14

that, you know, we just kind

51:16

of run the gamut. And it's, it's

51:18

always a bit of a free

51:21

flowing conversation. And we do

51:23

a lot of riffing and joking.

51:25

And it's a good time. And

51:27

you can find us at patreon.com

51:29

slash Brigham Young Money. Yeah, you

51:31

guys should be listening. It's great

51:33

stuff. Greg, I appreciate you coming

51:35

on and answering some questions with

51:37

me. Always good to have some

51:39

some friends. dad on the microphone. You

51:41

know, things get stale with me and Neil telling

51:44

the same stories back and forth. Sure. You got to

51:46

get new dad stories in. You got to rotate

51:48

somebody fresh in every once in a while. Yeah. Well,

51:50

it's always an honor and a privilege, and I'm

51:52

happy to come back whenever. All right, everybody. Thank you

51:54

so much, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye. You